devotion,good works,knowledge

Originally posted by Andrew Hamilton
So am [b]I “DIVINE”? (note that I am just a humble atheist)[/b]

In any non-dualist thought (which, I think would include Aldous Huxley*), we are all manifestations of the whole: the “all-in-all without another”, the One, the Tao, the Brahman, the “totality that has no edge”, the cosmos, etc. There is not a “supernatural” entity that is somehow separate (or separable) from that whole. It is all a fluid figure-ground gestalt.

If one assigns some concept of divinity—whatever one means by that word—to the whole, then, of course, you are divine.

So the question becomes: How is [whoever] using that word “divine”?

“The divine reality you seek is your own mind.”
—Wolfgang Kopp, a non-theist Zen roshi. (Maybe he intends ‘divine’ in a tongue-in-cheek way.)

“No holiness, vast emptiness.”
—Bodhidharma

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* Which also raises the question of what the way of “devotion” might mean. I didn’t question that since I am a bit familiar with Huxley, and what it might mean, broadly, in a non-dualistic context.

Originally posted by karoly aczel
So many questions...
I will just say tha our true narure is divine however we are largley IGNORANT of it
IF yo want to call me arrogant well, thats fine, no skin of my back

So are we 'devine' simply by definition ( as seems to be implied by vistesd ) ?
How does doing good works lead us to better knowledge of our 'true nature'? Does doing 'bad works' not lead to better knowledge?

I personally think that it makes far more sense to say that better knowledge of our selves is likely to lead us to do good works.

Originally posted by twhitehead
So are we 'devine' simply by definition ( as seems to be implied by vistesd ) ?
How does doing good works lead us to better knowledge of our 'true nature'? Does doing 'bad works' not lead to better knowledge?

I personally think that it makes far more sense to say that better knowledge of our selves is likely to lead us to do good works.

Vistesd knows that he has gone way out on a limb there that might not hold him. 🙂

Under certain conceptions it would not be illogical to claim that you are “divine”.

If our divinity is not merely by definition, then how do we know of it? If it is a key attribute that tells us much about our 'true nature', then are we as 'largely ignorant' as karoly would have us believe?

Originally posted by twhitehead
If our divinity is not merely by definition, then how do we know of it? If it is a key attribute that tells us much about our 'true nature', then are we as 'largely ignorant' as karoly would have us believe?

one who is aware that they are asleep already has one eye open....

Not physically.

We don't have a Divinity.