61 You become what you eat 28 Jul 2020
Can you become independent of your physical being?
We grow by looking at something bigger than what we are now. Those things are not hard to find. I am small compared to things of which I am aware. That feeling increases as I learn.
Comprehending the complex begins with the simple. Prior articles started with the self and built out to the surroundings. The relationships involve physical materials, people with personalities, and moral distinctions. Expanding beyond the familiar led ultimately to defining god. Looking so far into the future is not so much comprehending as it is thinking about.
Cosmic questions investigate causality and creation, two very closely related terms. Those terms underlie god-language and immediately overflow the bounds of human lifespan. They take us beyond the finite, where moving beyond the familiar leads ultimately to infinite life, which we are defining this week. To get started, we play mental games today (a romp through philosophical madness).
Causality
Focus on the actor--You become what you eat.
Excess consumed sugar becomes fat. Balanced nutrition becomes a healthy body. The differentiating factor is which food is eaten by the body.
Focus on the element--What you eat becomes you.
What snake eats becomes snake. What tiger eats becomes tiger. [proverb] From the perspective of the food, the eating process determines which body is increased. The differentiating factor is which body does the eating.
Summary—You live, the food is eaten regardless of focal perspective.
Choices determine outcomes. Choosing to act produces a result. The care with which we act controls the quality of the outcome.
Creation
Focus on the actor--god made man.
Spiritual creation precedes physical creation. Production is conceptualized before it is realized in material form. We invent things mentally as a precursor to manufacturing them physically. The pattern or form exists before the material object. Indeed, the concept “chair” exists before a physical chair exists. The concept is not extinguished after both the inventor and the physical chair are gone. This viewpoint defines god as the conceptual pattern according to which man attained physical reality.
Focus on the element--man made god.
The manifestation of human reality is a physical and intellectual condition in which we learn. Innate and unconscious qualities become evident through observable evidences. Human thought systematizes the observations to explain them and to use them to build forward. Defining god is a process of enlightenment as we become the power we are comprehending. Being part of a creation does not inhibit our creating. As in the case of the chair, the concept does not depend on a physical example. The individual person and the repetitive cycle are infinite, that is, eternal.
Summary—present humans and the higher order exist infinitely regardless of causal sequence.
I am a “chair” that existed in (spiritual) concept before birth and will exist forever after physical death. I am presently unable to describe in detail all the manifestations of my concept (me) outside the presently visible world, but that does not deter my existing there, as it does not deter tomorrow.
The school lesson opens with my 2004 verse A Poem about Generation followed by an analysis of the stanzas as they relate to causality and creation.
A Poem about Generation
04 December 2004
The house I occupy
Does not shelter the presently homeless.
If I did not have a house either,
How would the homeless come to
Recognize his homelessness?
Except for minerals like salt,
What I eat was once alive.
Did I bring about its death?
Because my food did not spring forth
spontaneously in the wild,
It was cultivated for my consumption.
Did I bring about its life?
Physically I am the top of a food chain.
Intellectually there is not even a
Definition for the top of the chain.
Is my intellectual death (wrongness)
Or my life (rightness)(house)
Merely a prerequisite for
The next element in the chain?
If “home” did not exist, there would be no meaning to “homeless.” The first stanza shows that creating a home also creates the concept of homelessness. Does the existence of a home cause its opposite?
The second stanza relates creation to utility. Something never to be used is not likely to be created. Food consumption is a large factor in the creation of plant and animal life. Does the planned death cause the creation?
The third stanza investigates the significance of spiritual (non-physical) elements. Rightness or wrongness of my first attempt has an outcome that influences creation of the following attempt. Success of the first might be a cause of the second (sine qua non = Latin meaning that without the first progress there would be no second step).
"tiger" by Mathias Appel is licensed under CC0 1.0
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A romp through philosophical madness: After defining god, we move on to define eternal life. As usual, the stories are simple, and the teachings are deep. Enjoy!
Causality: you become what you eat; what you eat becomes you
Creation: god made man, man made god
The article includes my 2004 verse A Poem about Generation followed by an analysis of the stanzas as they relate to causality and creation.
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