Sta Hungry Stay Foolish

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

A blog by Leon Oudejans

Nature and God are two sides of the same coin (Spinoza)

The phrase above is from Baruch Spinoza‘s book Ethics (1677). In the Latin language, it was: “Deus sive Natura”. Wiki: “For Spinoza the whole of the natural universe is made of one substance, God, or, what’s the same, Nature, and its modifications (modes).” I suppose, this comes close to my views.

Big Think, The Well, newsletter 25 April 2023

The Spinoza quote in my blog title came from a recent email newsletter by The Well and its multimedia portal Big Think.

That same newsletter also included this quote; see left image:

“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.”

Carl Sagan (1934-1996), astrophysicist

I suppose both were struck by the balance and symmetry of life, nature and the Universe. The notion of a (eg, divine) blueprint comes next. At least, that might have been my sequence of events. Spirituality and/or inspiration are natural to me. I cannot even recall when both were not present.

I suppose it all relates to the ancient concept of Body, Mind and Soul. Despite several references to contemporary music (eg, Joss Stone album), that ancient concept is not even included. Wikipedia does refer to Mind – Body dualism. The ancient Sumerian beliefs in the afterlife are found elsewhere.

In my view, the Soul is the linking pin between individual and universal consciousness (eg, panpsychism, Wiki). In the ancient Sumerian beliefs, the Soul could travel during our sleep and in the afterlife. The even more ancient Australian Aboriginal beliefs refer to the Dreamtime.

Although any coin suggests dualism, both sides are connected through the coin edge. Hence, a coin is also an example of trialism. Actually, many (of my) concepts are rooted in trialism, like Love, Knowledge & Power. “Triangles are the strongest shape there is.” (source, source-2)

“Everything is dual (two) in the world: high-low, good-bad, hot-cold, question-answer. A seeker who has found the answers of his questions is still stuck in the duality or two-ness. He has still not experienced oneness which is beyond questions and answers.”

A quote by Shunya

Mind Body & Soul (1996) by Dina Carroll
artist, lyrics, video, Wiki-artist, Wiki-album+song

Note: all markings (bolditalicunderlining) by LO unless in quotes or stated otherwise.

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