Finite-Infinite: Where Are You?

In all the years of human history, all the thinking and writing, the relation between the finite and infinite is still rather unclear. To push for clarity, let us start thinking more about it.

Are we in any way infinite? Some people say, “No, you are 100% finite.” Some among this group do not even like the concept of the infinite.

Others might say, “The finite and all its concreteness is just an illusion. Your essential beingness is 100% infinite.”

So, to open the dialogue, can we split the difference?

Could it be that we are all born to be 50% finite and 50% infinite at the same time?

What a thought! Don’t you think that it deserves a  Top Ten  listing?

I do, so here we go.

• Center for Perfection Studies • The Big Board–Little Universe Project • New Orleans • USA • Thursday, 29 December 2016 •

Top Ten Ways To Create A Perfect Balance,
50% Finite And 50% Infinite,
Throughout One’s Life

#10 You are probably about one-third of the way there. You sleep!

Yes, where do you go when you fall asleep? It seems that there is no space and no time. Perhaps this is the most-simple, most-common experience of infinity.

Might we agree as a simple hypothesis,  everything that sleeps experiences infinity?

In an anecdotal defense, we were told growing up that when you sleep, you are “resting in the arms of God.” It is a comforting idea. The Almighty, All-powerful protecting us while restoring and refreshing our bodies, then waking us to engage the new day.

Plus, there is nobody, among those who reject the concept of the infinite, who can tell us anything profoundly about sleep. There observations are no explanations.

So, could that be a working premise?

If there is no space – no time, but there is continuity and symmetry, the experience or the moment is infinite.

Perhaps, then, the next question would be, “How do you make up the other sixteen or so hours while you are awake?

#9 You pray.

Probably most of us think we are just going through the motions. It doesn’t increase the percentage measurably. But, on occasion, we do genuinely feel that we are engaging the infinite. Think of those nuns and monks whose job it is to pray without ceasing. It seems that they easily cross that threshold. Perhaps we all can adopt a favorite walking-talking-thinking prayer that becomes part of our being.

#8 You sing.

Yes, true, but many of us will say, “Not very good.” Yet, when we sing within our minds, not out loud, we have perfect pitch and perfect harmony. So even if we do not sing in a way that anybody can hear us, singing within one’s mind, having those moments of perfection, probably count for some small percentage!

#7 You think.

“Yes, but not the right things!” So, what would a pure thought look like? How can our thinking become perfect? …more perfect?  There are many training programs and seminars to focus and enhance our ability to think.  Perhaps these people are onto something very important. The more perfect our thoughts, the more time we are working within the infinite, not the finite.

#6 You stop to smell the roses.

Though a common expression used by many to suggest that we slow down and appreciate the given moment, there is much to be said about it, even if literally, we stop to smell the roses.  There is something transcendent about entering into that kind of moment of perfection where space and time are lost.

#5 You create.

The great “Ah-ha” is the epitome of this experience when we have a breakthrough, a new idea, a new insight about things.  Yet, even the moments of constructing one’s thoughts and writing them down can be transcendent.

#4 You dream.

Dreaming is quite different than sleeping. We grew up knowing that we were “resting in the arms of God.” It is a comforting idea. The Almighty, All-powerful protecting us while restoring and refreshing our bodies, then waking us to engage the new day.

#3 You grow.

We generally are not aware that we are growing when we are growing. Of course, this is not growing physical, but growing intellectually. This actually could account for a strong percentage of your waking day.

#2 You love.

Of course, we are talking about the selfless love, not the kind of eros that is concerned about sexual things. This kind of love is where the sense of self is totally lost and the relation —  not an object, but the relation — becomes the only real.   For many people at different times within life, this experience could account for a part of one’s waking hours.

#1 You are.

Beingness is perhaps the most difficult but the most common, because when we are awake, we all are aware we are in a physical body, yet most of the time the physicality of that beingness dominates all other senses of being.