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Because of our knowledge of the harm done to others by us,
with this view of other in self and self in other,
we should show great mercy in judgement and justice
on those who do harm us.
Let us take for example
“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”,
for, any person upon being stoned, will beg and plead;
but only by realizing the self in the other
can one comprehend their plea beyond empathy, in directness,
as it in fact issues, directly, from themself within.
The mind that comprehends the complex truth on this subject
recognizes themself in the woman who is to be stoned.
Whether parable or record,
this question ingeniously revealed to the members of the crowd
themselves in the position of the woman,
as in fact, they were all along.
Since it is possible to be born as life,
to be the self which is produced by the biology,
it is then possible to be born as a self which is produced by biology.
Since there are many self’s continually produced
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as new bodies are born, it is not only compassionate to
consider ‘The Golden Rule’,
to treat others how one would be treated,
but is also logical and of direct self-interest.
And, it is not only logical and of self-interest,
but is written directly into the fabric of creation
by G-d himself in the very form he appeared to Moses;
in form of ‘Am-ness’, ‘Is-ness’, etc.
That is, G-d said to Moses on Sinai, in answer to giving him his name,
what is often translated as “ I am what I am”
which, in Hebrew one might translate as “I am I am” or “I is what is”,
“I am is” or “I am what it is to exist”. That is to say, a succinct phrase
expressing G-d as all which exists and all which is beyond what exists—
for creation, is exactly that: Is-ness, Am-ness, etc.
And even that which is beyond material creation could be said to exist
by the light of G-d or in its’ union with G-d.
Reviewing the Ten Primary commandments
delivered at Sinai, we see that each and every one
is based on this truth of equal entitlement between two or more beings,
and one can say G-d has made it so in the sense that in the manifestation of this world,
it is also true of natural facts — in the nature of subjectivity,
in the nature of self and other, and their fluidity, which we have explored.
As these laws are written into the very fabric of creation,
manifest in creation as what Is, one can see a clear connection
to G-d’s communication of these commandments to Moses
and his appearance before him as Am-ness or Is-ness on Sinai.
This ancient mandate of Law is in fact written
into the very fabric of creation
by the fact that many self’s are born,
existing simultaneously,
and by the fact that we do certainly experience
a portion of these self’s to be us.
We experience a portion of these self’s to be us, however,
portion by portion, the infinite is made up.
In Xeno’s Paradox, the idea is put forward
that if we divide the distance an arrow travels
and then we divide that half portion again, and that again,
and so on continuously, then
the arrow must travel an infinite distance
to strike the mark.
We should consider a self both as us,
and not us.
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Since we experience a self; in judgement,
we should consider it as us.
Seeing that it is possible to be us,
or that we be it,
and is in fact ourself in form of itself,
just as we are itself in form of ourself.
“When fear and suffering are disliked by me and others
equally, what is so special about me that I protect myself and not the other?
If I give them no protection because their suffering does
not afflict me, why do I protect my body against
future suffering when it does not afflict me?
The notion ‘it is the same me even then’ is a false construction…
If you think that it is for the person who has the pain
to guard against it, a pain in the foot is ot of the hand, so why
is the one protected by the other?”
— Bodhicaryavatara Perfection of Meditative Absorption line 95
These self’s,
each causing an illusion of separation and plurality
out of the substance of the One Unity,
enact the birth, life-story, selfhood,
and absoluteness of their own existence,
and assert
the privacy of their subjectivity to be unmatched,
simultaneously.
We both are and are not,
self is and is not other
other is and is not self,
The best way to comprehend this truth,
rather than imagining ourselves born as someone else,
is to imagine the process of our own birth,
and the absolute reality with which we feel
we are this being, the self
that coincides with this bodies functioning.
Similarly will a given birth feel itself
to be the self which coincides with
its body.
Our life has simply shown it possible to be a given birth.
“Through habituation there is the understanding of ‘I’
regarding the drops of sperm and blood of two other people…
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Why can I not also accept another’s body as my self in the same way,
since the otherness of my own body is so easy to accept?”
— Bodhicaryavatara The Perfection of Meditative Absorption Line 111
Since it is possible to be born anywhere there is organic material
which produces an experience of life
(or anywhere there is self, soul, or being of any kind)
it is possible to be born on distant planets,
if there is life there.
And since it is possible to be born on distant planets,
this benefit of ethical action extends to distant planets,
(or anywhere there is self, soul, or being of any kind).
This may serve as a intimately personal motive for lawful behavior
should we ever encounter life outside of Earth.
And should they be intelligent and logical,
this natural fact, the fact of the potential of arriving at being,
may serve as an impetus for their reciprocation of
mutually beneficial behavior.
Consequences and Law
Jegar-Sahadutha —The Heap of Witness
The Location of The Garden of Eden,
Paradise, and Pure Land
Since it has been shown possible to be born or arrive at
any body or form which can be existed as or which is experienced
Any such Paradise-like states, Pure Lands, and Edens
which do exist, particularly ones which are inhabited
by living beings, must be locations in which
a state of life is arrived at — the same number of times
as living beings which exist there.
While there are some distinctions in the specifics
between Buddhist Pure Land, Eden, and the many other
cultural conceptions of Paradise realms,
and they may even possess varying
psychological associations of some importance,
the point that any such existing, inhabited states are states one can
arrive in, is of more importance than any such distinctions
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or semantics.
Eden, however, refers specifically to such a state
which once existed on Earth
For the metaphysician there are two forms of such an Eden,
the Earthen and the Spiritual.
The Earthen Eden is a theoretical time
in the history of humanity,
existing in the distant past
at the time before men wore animal skins
and fabrics, and before they had knowledge
of the other insofar as knowledge of the other
causes an awareness of their gaze, portrayed
as conscientiousness at ones nudity,
and manifesting in a primal innocence
outside knowledge of right and wrong.
It is also said that this is before
men constructed shelters
or possessed other markers of
complex civic and economic function,
living off the land in a state of nature.