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Thread: Jundo Tackles the 'BIG' Questions - VII (Life After Death?)

  1. #101
    Hi Jundo,

    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    Now, I just have to find out if anyone in the universe will publish it!
    There is always the possibility of publishing via Book on Demand (BOD). AFAIK you can also do this with Amazon and even have the choice of publishing it as an ebook besides the printed version.
    It might even have advantages (or not - it depends) over the whole hassle of telephone calls with the publisher's reader, sending manuscripts, waiting for answers, discussions about layout, title and changes, etc.




    The whole Anthropic thing used to be a very important question for me many years back before I came to our practice. However, it has slightly lost importance for me.
    It's a bit like the question about whether the glass is half empy or half full - nowadays I simply prefer to take the glass and drink it. ;-)

    Coincidence or not? IMHO we will never know.
    A creator/intelligent design is not necessary to explain this universe/our existence (which does not mean he/she/it does not exist!).
    We don't know how many universes without life there were before ours. Maybe there were billions of lifeless universes before ours before finally there was one supporting life. Then the existence of life would be kind of inevitable, nothing special.
    Or there are billions of universes existing next to each other - then the same as above, it would be no big coincidence, that at least one of them supports life.

    However, does it really matter? For looking at the stars we are basically looking in the mirror...

    Gassho,

    Daitetsu

    #sat2day
    no thing needs to be added

  2. #102
    It does not matter. Chop wood, fetch water.

    But I take the question one step further ...

    Coincidence or not? IMHO we will never know.
    A creator/intelligent design is not necessary to explain this universe/our existence (which does not mean he/she/it does not exist!).
    We don't know how many universes without life there were before ours. Maybe there were billions of lifeless universes before ours before finally there was one supporting life. Then the existence of life would be kind of inevitable, nothing special.
    Or there are billions of universes existing next to each other - then the same as above, it would be no big coincidence, that at least one of them supports life.
    I take our personal existences (Daitetsu and Jundo) as so preposterous, with every twist and turn of physics/star development/chemistry/planetary development/biology/evolution and all world and personal history having to be so precisely right for our personal births ... not a single left turn by a turtle or fish in our ancestral tree who needed in that moment to turn right, not one ancestor eaten a day too early by a predator before having a chance to mate, not one pebble or grain of sand or atom out of place if somehow necessary for our births ... that the multiverse would have to include all of that and every other option.

    Nonetheless, there is still no explanation why, even if there is such a multiverse, that Daitetsu and Jundo have to be conscious and self-aware in this universe, right here and now, which appears to be the one where we need to be. In other words, there may be countless universes of Daitetsu or Jundo, and countless universes without, yet those Daitetsus and Jundos are seemingly not you and me here and now, and we need to be us here and now because here we are here and now. Also, why is there even a Daitetsu and Jundo anywhere at all, and why do we happen to be aware of that fact? How amazing that reality should need any Daitetsu or Jundo at all, let alone these two right now where we need to be right now to be chatting about the fact.

    This question is not often addressed, for the Anthropic Coincidences are usually discussed as "what is necessary for life in general" or "what is necessary for intelligent life generally like ours," but rarely if ever "what would be necessary for our lives."

    Anyway, one universe or infinite universes, chop wood and fetch water (or, in some of them, fetch wood and chop water, or nothing at all).

    Gassho, J

    SatTodayLAH

    PS - I think this book is good, really good, if I say so myself (although I am very biased; Kirk's editing has helped a lot). So, I want to talk to the usual Buddhist publishers and see what they say first. In this day and age, publishing oneself is also an option. It is called "Letters from Dogen," turning several of Dogen's writings into letters written to modern people, and an explanation on how to read Dogen, Zazen etc. Dogen is actually not as complicated as people make him out to be.

    I set up and did the ebook Amazon thing for my Uncle Robert's book on Leonard Bernstein (Bob was Bernstein's assistant conductor for a few years), 600+ pages if anyone is a really REALLY serious Leonard Bernstein fan. This is my Uncle Robert Mandell, retired now in the UK Midlands (the musical talent on that side of the family skipped me):

    https://sites.google.com/site/westsidemaestro/
    Last edited by Jundo; 05-18-2018 at 11:59 PM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  3. #103
    Hi Jundo,

    Thanks a lot for your elaborate reply, wonderful!
    I can hardly wait for your book to come out, it sounds interesting indeed.
    I hope you have luck with the publishers, IMHO there is demand for it.

    Chopping wood I chop the universe,
    fetching water I fetch myself

    Gassho,

    Daitetsu

    #sat2day
    no thing needs to be added

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