Live Now Die Later: A Book for the Sensitive Mind and Rugged IndividualistThe sensitive mind and the rugged individualist are portrayed in the literature of antiquity by two brothers, the first-born and the second-born. The mind is the father of two sons. One side of us is conservative, cautious; the other side is radical and adventurous. A part of us is content with the status quo; another part of us seeks change and improvement. The mind perceives first with the outer five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell. Those perceptions are recorded and processed for future use, and thus the mind has five inner senses, the second-born son. In the Old and New Testaments this concept is expressed through several pairs of brothers. Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, Joseph and Benjamin, Aaron and Moses, John and Jesus are all characters created to illustrate the mind's journey. The eastern Mediterranean became a marketplace for the exchange of ideas that had their provenance not just in Athens or Alexandria, but made their way westward from India and China well over 2,000 years ago. The lunar calendar and the appearance of the full moon was not just vital to agriculture in Mesopotamia; it spawned metaphors that illustrated the mind at its brightest. Abraham, for example, Hebrew for "father is high," was a moon god who symbolized the full moon, i. e., the moon straight up or high. "Father" is high because the mind is the father of two sons. Obviously, many concepts evolved independently, but migration and commerce exported and imported more than just figs and wine. Adam and Eve, the male and female of Genesis, are reflected in the yang and the yin of Taoism in ancient China. Elizabeth, Mary and Jesus are a variation of Demeter, Persephone and Dionysus. Thinkers over the ages have struggled to come to terms with the rough and tumble of daily life. Some have even suggested that life begins in some faraway place after death. Others have tried to find the way to live now and die later. |
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... born represented by Cain and Abel , Ishmael and Isaac , Esau and Jacob , Joseph and Benjamin , Manasseh and Ephraim , Aaron and Moses , Elijah and Elisa , John and Jesus . They all illustrate , in different anecdotes , the journey life ...
... born is Joseph ; her second - born is Benjamin , whose late appearance or " hard labour " 98 underscores the point that at the end of a long journey in search of ourselves , we discover that the journey only continues from one land of ...
... born between Zebulun and Joseph and represents the thirteenth month . The calendar has gone through a number of transitions since early time - keeping . It was a challenge to reconcile the solar year of 365 days with the twelve 30 day ...
... born of Rachel . They are the eleventh and twelfth of the set , not including Dinah . In other words , Jacob spends ten months on his sojourn , so to speak , before his true love , Rachel , conceives . Benjamin was first named Ben - oni ...
... born of Abram and symbolizes the outer five senses or that part of the mind that lives in the land of first impressions . This is yet another way of saying that the mind must travel to a place where it learns to deal with external ...
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Live Now Die Later: A Book for the Sensitive Mind and Rugged Individualist David Alan Kraul No preview available - 2004 |