Awareness of Contrast

Ubani - thank you, kind sir! You've honored me by ferreting out some of my earlier hubs! I truly appreciate that! It demonstrates your own versatility! Your compliment is truly appreciated!

Oh, Petra - what a great comment! Thank you! Some of the earlier hubs seem to become buried in the archives. I'm so pleased that you looked and found this one!

Thanks for dropping by, Suny! Always nice to greet you!

You are right, but perhaps even more contrasting LIFE is not living even though breathing. Because one can be aware of it and the contrast. We don't know what death brings, whether it's just the cessation of life. Of course it must be cessatation of life as we know it; - but it could be another consciousness which might be better or worse. We just don't know. You've made me think! Must one be aware of contrast for it to qualify? Hm . . .

Anyway. Thanks for the visit and comment!!!

Exactly,Dallas! Perhaps the opposite of any feeling is not feeling in the appropriate situations. Opposite of anger could be indifference, for instance. What was that old saying, "I'd rather be hated than ignored!"- how true!

Thanks for the visit and comments. I value them!

Thank you, kaltopsyd! Goad you did too, and that you liked it.

"Castle" is a good one I watch sometimes, though I must admit to watching less and less TV. I can multitask and watch as well as Hubpage - but many things here really deserve full attention. And they're so inexhaustible that they're almost never fully explored or "used up" so that I seldom if ever go "shopping" for a good show on TV these days but just try to remember to tune in to my favorites. Unfortunately - (or fortunately as one may look at it) one of my most favorites seems to be on only in reruns (I didn't get hooked till it was no longer in Prime Time, though) - and when it does come on here is late at night and only on weekends! "Boston Legal" is the one I refer to.

hahahaha!! Oh - to have a little graphic - a laughing jester rolling on the floor, kicking his pointy shoes in the air in mirth! That's so wonderfully funny - and also astute, SilverGenes!

Well it's true. Pornographgy IS a question of geography. Dirty-minded little grade school kids used to get the National Geographic and titter at the pictures of topless natives in faraway places, where everyone went topless! They may still be doing it, in fact! (both going topless there and tittering here)

Absolutely!! :) Thanks for that great comment!!

Very interesting comments, Melinda! I'm inclined to think it is the ego which trips up the spirit the most, though. Of course the body needs the sensations - but they are for the support of this life, which apparently has value and a purpose. Were it not for the sensosry ability to distinquish the sharp from the soft & the burning from the freezing we surely wouldn't last long enough to do whatever we're here to do. That it can also give pleasure is not altogether a bad thing. Pleasure has a sufficiency level, which I'm not sure ego has. One can have enough chocolate but it seems there is never enough praise in the world to fill that need. Whatever we overdo in either realm, we must work to bring into balance and harmony, for sure. Anyway - we shall know at last, we hope. I always respect and admire your thinking!! Thanks for the good food for thought!

Thank you Joshua. I popped over to "meet" you and read a couple of your hubs, so I'm aware that your comment is not trivial. Thank you! I look forward to any and all return visits!

Yes, VS - it's wonderfully unanswerable - keeps us pondering imponderables and perhaps that is what best defines OUR human life. We have to wonder and ponder. Whereas the ants go about their busy lives doing their thing and never wonder about those huge creatures who sometimes come along and wreak havoc on their lifestyle, going out of their way to kill their queen and interfere with their industries or ponder why life is so unfair, sending devastation to their world at times but allowiing it to flourish at other times as though to give false hope - - - we do wonder about the forces which seem to have unlimited control over our lives at times and yet seem to want to give us a chance, as well. We see the contradiction and wonder why, why, why.

I don't doubt that if human life continues long enough, a modicum of answers may even be found in this manifestation of "reality" we call this world and this life.

However - as you say - we also hope that we, individually will, in fact know & understand its mysteries one day when our "eyes" are not limited to their human function, just as ants' eyes & understanding are limited to theirs.

I won't be at all surprised to find that we always knew but for the term of our life here, we were provided an illusion convincing enough to cause us to have to ponder and find our way to an understanding of the truth, if not full knowledge of it. To me, that is the definition of faith - not knowing but understanding and accepting it that way. It surely serves a higher purpose to have this opportunity. Anyway - it's what we do have so may as well give it credence. (with an open mind). ;)

Thank you so much for visiting Violeet. I truly value your thoughts and interest.

Yes - I quite agree. Getting polarized is what I meant to caution against, in fact. Glad you saw that - and you've stirred my interest in going back into Blake. I admit that I've not been a much of a student of his since required in college or stumbled upon since then! I should delve! I like that you got into that - it's not getting off the subject; it ties in well. Thanks for the lovely comments!

Jane - yes - he was so often on target. And so timelessly. Thanks for reading my paltry effort and for seeing art in it! It has always seemed right to me that both the one side and the flip side go-together and that to try to be rid of one inevitably would take the other as well. Attempts to just weaken both and drain the supply of either.

Tony - your comment says it so well too. It seems obvious that everything has its contrast, doesn't it? Yet so many attempt to eliminate it. Yes -understanding such basics is part of enlightenmet. Makes one wonder if it's so complicated or just so simple that it's often missed! Thanks for you kind words as well as the visit!

You know it, Maita! Each now is what life is! Thanks so much for visiting the hub and commenting so kindly!

mwatkins - OH, yes! That is such a great example of this premise! Hate is not the opposite to or contrast with love, just as your friend Cathrine so perceptively realized.

However - & it's likely a typo - the opposite of love is not empathy, but antipathy (dispassionately feeling no compassion) or apathy (dispassionately feeling nothing but indifference which is supremely the opposite of love. On the other hand, empathy is the deep compassion one feels when one has shared or is sharing a very similar experience with another and so, can truly feel what they are feeling. They are such similar words, but have such diverse meanings.

I hope you don't mind my clarifying that. I figured you meant to type one of the other words & would prefer to have it be clarified what you intended! I feel that yours is such a valuable point, it should be clearly understood by others who might also read these comments.

I truly appreciate your bringing up that point! It probably better explains what I was trying to express than I did! Because w all know when we are truly loved and when we're not. We relate to that almost instinctively. Even if people say they love us, if their demonstrations of it don't ring true, we KNOW the difference! It's a great example, Michelle. Thank you so much for coming by and reading my hub - and pausing to comment!

I am still recuperating, Merlin. Thanks for hoping I'm all over it. It's one of those maladies, though, which- I'm told - strikes when one's resistance is already low, so I guess it stands to reason that it doesn't go away in a short while like many "bugs" do. It's 2-part - the external rash & the underlying nerve which has actually been attacked by the virus. Each has its own particular effect & healing process.

As for the questions you raise, I don't really know. That's the basis for leaving it wide open & one reason I barely touched on the belief aspect of how one experiences the things of this present life in this hub. They do arise as part of our earthly experience in a similar way that other curiosities and sensory effects do, so I included them - but it's not about belief vs. non-belief. It was about just what the lead-in said.

I personally avoid entertaining "feelings" about what IS or is not to the point of drawing unsupported conclusions. I only say that it -what's beyond this life - IS something, if only the progression of generations and otherwise what else may be may or may not be tangible. Its IS-ness may be no more than an illusion which is-NOT or at least is not accessible to earth-dwellers. We have a wee bit of evidence that there are some things beyond our scope, though. Whether any of those relates to another dimension we really can't say for certain. And it hardly matters, really - as De Greek said essentially in the preceeding comment - this is IT now. That much we are fairly sure of.

To me it seems futile & presumptuous to conclude that anything either does or does not exist beyond experience (and that is often debateable & doubtful, too!).

The premise of this hub was primarily about here-and-now things that we can and do experience & considering how it is that we are able to consciously notice them. Obviously an ant has a more limited perspective than we do & part of our advantage there is that we have more contrasts to help with our discernment.

I've thought about the tree falling in the jungle/sound classic question & my reply to that has always been it depends on whether the question is asking about the sending of sound waves or the receiving of them. The sound waves are emitted at the time a tree falls, just as a volcano's eruption disturbs the normal atmosphere and sets off a different pattern of sound waves whether or not there are witnesses. But obviously if no one is there to receive them - then that part of the relationship (and it's only a relationship which is important to hearers, not to trees or volcanos) - is obviously missing at that time.

We humans tend to be ego-centric so often that we tend to focus on how WE fit into a situation that we measure whether or not anything exists in its own right only by whether or not we (any of our species) has personally experienced it.

My idea is to try to sometimes suspend that assumption long enough to at least fathom that IT is possibly much bigger (or much smaller) than my own frame of reference can begin to relate to, but that it's OK. I don’t HAVE to know it all – and should not attempt to aver that I do by saying something must or must not be so when I I honestly do not know. Though humans have a wider horizon and better vantage point than ants, we do still have some myopic limitations ourselves.

I'm so glad you dropped by and commented, MF. You know I value your thoughts & I miss seeing you and hearing from you!

(*(*(*(hugs*)*)*) Nellieanna

Thank you, DG, dear friend, for passing by and for your valuable comments. Everything you say is quite valid, though there is no either/or involved as it might suggest.

Pondering imponderables doesn't limit or invalidate other enjoyments of what we do have & do know. It's simply another facet and avenue of enjoying our world, our lives, and being human. Thought is an enriching and satisfying option just as literature, science, humor and camping trips are. None cancels out the others. They are not mutually exclusive nor are they mandatory. It's one's choice.

Thanks again for dropping by.

Oh yes, FP - that's so true of anything subjective - which, at the onset, going in,- everything one experiences is.

So - as you point out - it's possible that what seems a contrast to one person might seem more related & akin to another. However - in a way - that's my point too, that contrasts ARE actually the front and backside of the same things or ideas. The "heads" and "tails" of the coin, so to speak. Still, though, however one views the things someone else may view differently, the premise that it is in cntrasts that one does see that one becomes aware of things would still be applicable, don't you think?

Without knowing what darkeness is, we wouldn't be aware of light as light. it would just be how things are, rather than a specific experience we recognize in its own right.

I'm so glad you brought up that point! Because there are so many degrees and shades of meaning of a thing. They are seldom so clear cut as black & white. When we get into the gray areas or the checkered, striped or polka-dotted, they blend together more. So, yes - depending on different perspectives, yes - of course - each person's is experienced somewhat differently. A very valuable aspect of what we're considering here.

Really good point! Thanks! And thanks for reading my hub so thoughtfully, too!

It's not beyond the realm of possibility, kowality. But then, nothing really is beyond it.

If we believe in an omnipotent creator, then infinite possibility certainly seems to "go-with" that belief.

If not that belief, then if we think that what is known here in this realm (or think we know) is 'real' & happened spontaneously, then surely anything's possible, as well!

It almost seems rhetorical.

To me, what IS, whether I know or comprehend it, still IS, with or without my claim or belief in it, even if what IS - is not! (I know - it stunned me when I first thought of it!)

If 'illusion' as we think of it should be what IT IS, whatever it consists of - or if "nothing" - still IS what IT is & it has to be OK. Not like there would be a choice, huh?

It seems to me that since most of us would agree that it is good to experience THIS reality which we now experience, why wouldn't it be good to experience whatever is to come? Would be nice to consciously experience it - but perhaps this consciouness we know of is a mere preview of what fully knowing would be.

Thanks so much for the thoughtful comments which stir more thought here. Your always-welcome visit to my hubs is much appreciated.