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"If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present."

  • Ludwig Wittgenstein
skado 9 Jan 16
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5 comments

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1

It has been my contention for sometime that living in the present is as close as mortals can come to eternity. But, it seems to be very difficult to do on a persistent basis.

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Fun Fact: "Jai Guru Deva Om" is a mantra intended to lull the mind into a higher consciousness (including timelessness). The words are in Sanskrit, and they mean "I give thanks to Guru Dev," who was the teacher of the Maharishi. A Maharishi is anyone who achieves the highest state of awareness in the path of evolution.

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Wittgenstein explains his propositions as follows:
A Wittgenstein's ladder is a simplified explanation of a technical or complex subject that is used as a teaching tool, despite being technically wrong.
The term stems from proposition number 6.54 in Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's 1921 philosophical work Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, in which he states that although his propositions are at some level incorrect, they can be used like steps on a ladder to help one reach an understanding of higher level concepts.[1]
6.54
My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them—as steps—to climb beyond them. (He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it.) He must transcend these propositions, and then he will see the world aright.

I wonder is the implication in the last paragraph above that even though his propositions are wrong, we can use them to arrive at the correct ones or is it a case of leaping into the void? It seems somewhat like zen to me.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing that. It does seem to bear resemblance to zen.

1

Intense

4

I don't have a problem with that, I don't believe in time as such and if today is your last day, it is still the rest of your life.

That is why I say... there is no last call... until the last breath fills your lungs.

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