Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
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Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
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Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
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If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
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Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evoloving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
Hmmm...
I would tweak that myself (unless we are simply using different expressions and concepts). I'd say that God is the original consciousness, the creator, and God's fundamental key nature is heart, the impulse to love. The universe is the manifestation of God's nature and an expression of God's desire to create an object of love so that he can express that love and experience joy together with that object (the cosmos with his children at the center).
Thus, the cosmos is comprised of a spiritual world and the material world (physical universe), engaging as complementary partners, all direct expressions of God's energetic nature. (If heart (impulse to love) and consciousness are God's 'mind', then his energetic nature is God's 'body', and that energetic nature manifests in time and space ia all those 'vortices of conscious energy').
Every element in the universe is a quadra-dynamic interaction of four key elements; God (source) (1) + the manifestation of God's nature in dual aspects (2, 3) + the unification of those two dual aspects (4).
For example, an atom. The dynamic that we call an atom is essentially:
(1) God, the source +
(2) an inherent directive nature, aka the 'laws' of physics, etc, that determine the nature and function of that particular atom +
(3) the energetic component or 'form', aka the energy that comprises the electrons, neutrons and protons in the atom and which respond to the inherent directive nature (2) +
(4) the union created via the interactive relationship between (2) + (3).
These four components form the existence of all things, whether its an atom, a molecule, a rock, a bird, a hedgehog, or an individual human being.
There are essentially two forms of this quadra-dynamic structure: one is where 2 and 3 are comprised of internal, invisible directive nature and an external visible manifesting form. The other is where 2 and 3 are comprised of a masculine (or yang) element and a feminine (or yin) element.
An example of the former is an individual, where we have mind and body, or individual animal that has an instinct and a body, etc.
Example of the second is a dynamic accomplished between a man and a woman, or a male fox and a female fox.
Why I mention this is because as far as I can see, it is (2) that is what you might call the 'consciousness' in all those spinning vortices and (3) is the energy that spins due to that consciousness.
However, an interesting point is that (2) is a manifestation of God's nature and consciousness, and thus this aspect of God's nature - consciousness - manifests on myriad levels. An atom for example, can be understood to have consciousness at the level of an atom. An atom doesn't directly think like we do, or love like we do, or isn't aware of the stars like we are, etc. It is an 'atom-level' expression of God's consciousness.
A fox, likewise, is a manifestation of God's consciousness on an animal level, in the particular form we call 'fox'. A fox runs on and is guided by its instinct which is consciousness operating on the 'fox 'level. A fox doesn't think about why the moon was created, or think about why someone building a house near his den is building that house. A fox doesn't experience emotions as we do, or have a desire to learn about how to build better dens, for example.
From this view, human beings are the highest manifestation of God's consciousness. We have a capacity to feel emotions, to think, to desire, and to love, just as God has emotions, thoughts and desires.
God's emotions and thoughts and desires however, are absolute and are perfectly unified and perfectly harmonious. Sadly, even though we are created to be the highest manifestation of God's nature both in consciousness and in form (human brain is pretty darn complex, basically like a universe unto itself), this is why it was such a tragedy when somewhere along the line, the first human ancestors 'fell', as recounted by many faiths and particularly in the Book of Genesis.
We got derailed, came to embody an inherent contradiction, so even though we are created to manifest the highest level of consciousness (aka capacity to love) even the most simply fox or dolphin or eggplant for that matter is in more perfect resonance with the Creator than we ourselves currently are.
Anyway, because God's consciousness manifests in all these created levels, that's why (I believe) that all created beings whether a fox, or tree, or rock, or atoms, are capable of responding to our consciousness - our emotions, thoughts, and intentions. But to the extent that our emotions thoughts and intentions are disconnected from God, likewise, our ability to stimulate and cause the response of all created beings is limited.