The quest for “Who are you” in the form of a “survey into our existence” is a contemporary Odyssey with 17 stages. At the end, we will look back on our journey. We will notice that everything is fulfilled in one sigh.
Before we resume our Odyssey by entering the world of everyday life, we will give a brief summary of the journey so far.
At the first stage you and I have experienced the perfect oneness from where we travelled via “Solipsism”, “The universe is but a dream”, “Pantheism” and “Indra’s net” to the second stage.
[1]
At the second stage the perfect oneness is disintegrated after the initial division of air and earth [2] in innumerable particles. Also you and I were completely disintegrated in an awful lot minimal particles. After a first organisation within these particles we – the main characters Carla Drift, Man Leben and Narrator – returned in human form on our earth after an immense long time.
[3]
At the third stage, we saw how mutual trust and reciprocal connectedness between people was realised and perpetuated by placing “people, objects, offerings and the word in the middle” between people and/or between the mutual uncertainty and people.
[4]
As preparation for the continuation of our Odyssey – in which we will enter everyday life – there followed an interlude and afterwards the three main characters described each other’s biography. The report of the first part of our Odyssey and the three biographies are available on the website of the Publisher.
During the second part of our Odyssey we will visit the following five common realities as stages for everyday life, because these points of view provide a good impression of human daily experience:
o Facts and logic
o Intensities and associations
o Void
o Change
o Interconnectedness
Do these five common realities offer everything we need on our quest for “Who are you?” [5]. We once read that:
“If you use the five common realities in a correct way, then you are completely included in the perfect universe. Do you use this accesses in a wrong way, then you will stay a mortal being.” [6]
At the end of these common realities we will look back to see if we still are normal mortals and/or if we are included in the perfect universe.
[1] Source image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra’s_net
[2] According to Genesis 1:1 – the first book of Old Testament – God created/separated the sky and earth at the beginning of time. The Hebrew verb core “bara” in the Hebrew version of Genesis 1:1 has four meanings: “creation”, “cleave”, “selection” and “feed”. Source: http://www.qbible.com/hebrew-old-testament/genesis/1.html
In the Western translations of the Hebrew version of the Old Testament, the word “shamayim” is translated as “Heaven”. Probably “sky” or “firmament” is a better translation for the Hebrew word “shamayim”. See also: http://www.qbible.com/hebrew-old-testament/genesis/1.html and http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/35_home.html and Benner, Jeff A.A Mechanical Translation of the Book of Genesis – The Hebrew text literally translated word for word. 2007
[3] Source image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom
[4] Source image: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne
[5] According Buddhism, the five skandhas provide everything that we need for our spiritual development. See also: Origo, Jan van, Who are you – a survey into our existence –part 1. Amsterdam: Omnia – Amsterdam Publisher, 2012 p. 172 – 183
[6] Source: The Sixth Patriarch’s Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra. San Francisco: Buddhist Text Translation Society, 2002, p. 381 – 382. Remark: “Buddha–use” and “Store enveloping consciousness” are rendered by your Narrator as “perfect universe”.
Section 2.3 is an exploration of “emptiness” during a four-day sailing trip with the tidal flow on the Wadden Sea, where Carla Drift, Man Leben and Narrator first survey “emptiness” in the form of “empty from” and “empty to”, then consider “emptiness” as “being whole” (or “ursprünglichen Ganz Heit” in “Being and Time” by Martin Heidegger) and thereafter perceive “emptiness” as uniqueness – in unity and unicity – of everyday life superimposed within “being whole” as answer to the question “One, what is that?”. This exploration of “emptiness” provides an introduction and commentary on the Buddhist Heart Sūtra.
Who are you 