Memory: Everything will be Forgotten. Nothing will be Forgotten

Memory:  Everything will be forgotten. Nothing will be forgotten.

A friend asked me about this comes from and what it means. Actually it is something I cam up with when I was meditating. I realized that we will all be forgotten at some point, even Abraham Lincoln or Gandhi or whoever. 10,000 years from now who will know about us. But, at the same time, nothing is really forgotten–even the littlest, tiny acts. What we do and who we are affects the energy of the world. The energy we have produced and the energy of who we are will always remain. Everything we do affects others and the planet in some way. So, while memory may be fleeting, our legacy, impact, and influence are total and world-changing.

That’s why we also to need to play close, conscious attention to all of what we do and say. Everything enters the world’s energy in some way. For this reason, humans and all sentient beings have tremendous creative capacity and healing power. For me this is what “spirituality” is all about.

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Mystic Scholar

DR. LAURENCE H. KANT (LARRY KANT), MYSTIC SCHOLAR: Engaged Mysticism and Scholarship in the Pursuit of Wisdom; Discovering meaning in every issue and facet of life; Integrating scholarship, spirituality, mysticism, poetry, community, economics, and politics seamlessly. Historian of Religion: Ph.D., Yale University, 1993 (Department of Religious Studies); Exchange Scholar, Harvard University, Rabbinics, 1983-84; M.A., 1982, Yale, 1982 (Department of Religious Studies); M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School, 1981; B.A., Classics (Greek and Latin), Tufts University, 1978; Wayland High School (Wayland, MA), 1974. Served on the faculty of Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), York University (Toronto), and Lexington Theological Seminary (Lexington, KY). Works in many languages: Ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, English, French, Italian, German, Modern Greek (some Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish). Holder of numerous honors and awards, including The Rome Prize in Classics (Prix de Rome) and Fellow of the American Academy of Rome.

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2 Responses to “Memory: Everything will be Forgotten. Nothing will be Forgotten”

1. MT says:

   May 22, 2011 at 11:44 pm

   “What we do and who we are affects the energy of the world”

   Even the ‘world’ will forget & be forgotten, in fact, the whole universe will dissolve away and be forgotten. All ‘energy’ will dissolve and forget. Memory will dissolve …

   Nothing exists independently…or, more accurately: Nothing Exists.

   Appearance (Universes, separation etc) is insubstantial / transitory. There is no permanence

   What we ‘do’ or don’t do has no ultimate significance or effect. This is neither ‘positive’ nor ‘negative’.

   Everything WILL be forgotten, meditation & meditators included.

   Yet everything is going exactly as it should.

   The meanings we construct give us comfort and we guard and nurture them from change.

   Reply
   • Mystic Scholar says:

     May 22, 2011 at 11:59 pm

     Saying “Nothing exists” is different from saying “nothing is permanent.” If we are referring to Buddhist thought, things do exist, but they are dynamic and have no fixed form or status. That’s actually not saying the same thing as “nothing exists.” In some Platonic and Gnostic systems, in fact “nothing exists,” because material reality is illusory. But that’s different from a Buddhist point of view, or a Jewish one for that matter: neither of them denies material existence.

     I use “nothing” as “no” “thing.” From that point of view, “no thing” exists, but energy does in fact exist. Energy is not a thing, but a force. So energy is real and exists, although it does not have a permanent form: It is dynamic and constantly shifting and transforming itself.

     Reply

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