Can we define 'existence'?

Answer 1

We can define anything in any way we choose, and we do. So finding universal agreement is tricky. I see existence as the Infinite, Eternal, All That Is...this is Existence. Within and out of this all-pervading creation we "exist." Existence is the ocean of being; to exist is to be a drop or a wave in the ocean of Existence. When we are no longer in form or manifestation we return to Existence. I am Sirius

Answer 2

We can define it. Whether existence care about our definition is another question entirely.

Answer 3

Not without existing.

Answer 4

NO...... you can not define the existence..you can live in it,..you can experience it,....you can be one with it..if you meditate..and..you can dissolve yourself in it,if you become enlighten..or..thoughtless...as...Krisna...Mahaveer..Budhaa.....Jesus...Osho...J.Krisnamurthy...But you can not define or understand it...Our mind is part of existence...and part can not define the whole..

Answer 5

Since there are no real boundaries, there is no non-existence.
Therefore, there is no point in a definition.

Answer 6

Maybe

Answer 7

Presence, in ACTUALITY, SCIENTIFIC THEOLOGY or in WIDELY ACCEPTABLE SYMBOLISM.

Answer 8

Existence is everything, absolutely everything without exception - existence is what all things have in common - existence is the common point of everything - existence is both sides of all polarities - god man, beautiful ugly, life death, yin yang, up down, good bad, knowledge ignorance, truth illusion, true false, heaven earth, nirvana sangsara, many one, love hate, creator creation, light dark, part whole, etc - all these divisions distinctions opposites must fall away, be ignored when we experience existence - being in finite bodies, our experience is limited - everything that comes into us through the senses, and consequently everything thought by the mind, every concept we have, is part not whole - because we are in the mind, we want to go from part to whole, but the way is going from part to part-and-whole, for the parts are part of the whole - the one in the many, the many in the one, when this is realised, no more worry about not being perfect - the most general definition of beauty is multeity in unity [many in one] - we want to go from bad to good, but the way is going from good and bad to good-and-bad - existence is the blend of all opposites - existence is neither-this-nor-that and both-this-and-that - like white or black, which are all colours and no colours - parmenides: it is good [useful, beneficial] to let lie before one, and thus take to heart, what is, the being of beings. the bible is saying the same thing when it says: be still and know I am god. this means: be inattentive to the senses and to the gabble of the mind about the stuff coming in the senses, and totally stop doing, dont think, dont look, not even mentally, dont keep a mental ear out, dont seek, dont peer, be like a block of wood, and you will start being, you will be free from doing to begin to notice being - it will start to grow over you, through you, as you - thus tilopa: do not think, do not meditate, do not reflect, do not analyse, do not imagine, leave the mind in its natural state [he is defining the purest meditation] - this is what is meant by: know thyself - this means: experience your self, know by experience your self - not the things you are conscious of through the senses and thoughts, but that thing, you, which is conscious, which is energy, which is existence, which is god, which is the beginning and root and ground and creator of all things out there - like switching off the projector and being conscious of you, the watcher of the film - there is a knack to it, because we are so used to subject-object experience, and experience of existence is a subject-subject experience, or better, simply a subject experience - symbolised by the eye-sun on the dollar, that is, the identity of eye and sun, of subject and object, self 'seeing' self, self being self, self bathing in self [being on top of the pyramid signifies peak experience] - and as you know, your consciousness is positionless, sizeless, timeless, spaceless - your consciousness seems to be located vaguely in the body, but that is just an illusion from interference of body-information overlaying self-information - when one is quite switched off to body information, one can 'see' [feel] that the self [the atman, brahma, god, existence, consciousness, energy as energy, creator-self] is quite unlocatable, positionless, free of limit, of name, of form - it is a bit like that ball of mysterious substance that huey, dewey and louie discovered could flavour 4 tonnes of icecream per atom - every atom a different flavour - the self is the universe compacted into a nothingness, an indescribable [how can you describe the flavour of all the flavours?] - the universe is the self 'expanded' [not really expanded, because at the level of self, there is no space, size, position, there are no divisions or marks to measure by] the self is every size simultaneously - the bible defines god as I AM - ie, god is existence - god is everything, creator and creation, nature naturing and nature natured, and that is what the self 'inside' you is, existence, everthing at once - existence, also known as life [in the larger sense of containing death, good [in the larger sense of containing bad] creator [in the larger sense of containing creation] energy [in the larger sense of containing matter=form] consciousness [in the larger sense of containing unconsciousness] knowledge [in the larger sense of containing ignorance] etc
as the buddha said: just stop preferring - ie, give up all concepts, all categories for a moment, let all the categories fall together in confusion, in mixture - god is infinite, therefore there is nothing outside god, god includes everything, or else god would not be infinite - people fall into making god an exclusive thing, excluding things, but if there were the slightest thing outside god, god would not be infinite [=unending], would not be complete, would not be allpowerful - god is existence, all inclusive - there is no nonexistence, it is all existence - the existence of nonexistence is impossible, selfcontradictory, therefore it can never happen - so it is all existence - so existence is infinite, sizeless - 'it fills the universe and there is not enough to fill your hand' - and you and everything that exists is each the all - existence is hologrammatic, each part is the whole - words of course arise from concepts which arise from world [=existence through the limited senses] which is limited, measurable, characterful, each thing being one thing and not another - so words are poor things to talk about the unbound, the unlimited, the everything, creator and creation, energy and matter, good and bad, the utter ultimate and all-includer - Isaiah 45,7: I make peace and I make trouble - Here god admits to being a troublemaker [other translations give evil, calamity, etc] - the taoist symbol sums it up: the yin yang are constantly eternally swimming round each other, creating trouble, conflict, opposition, the dance of things, the battle of the sexes, life, movement, energy as movement, and the still circle of perfection, the sum of yin and yang, is identified with the round of life and death, good and bad, and all the other opposites - the still circle cannot convey the energy the excitement the dance of life - the yinyang part cannot convey the perfect peace - together they say it all - the dance of good and bad, right and wrong, angry and gentle is perfect and eternal - existence - so buddha says that when he learned the incomparable consummation of enlightenment, he learned absolutely nothing at all [Diamond sutra] because what he learned is that everything is perfect the way it is - the marriage of perfection and imperfection, knowledge and ignorance, good and bad, angry and gentle, ego and merging, is perfect - all that exists is necessary to portray reality, existence, the self -
fable: god had a lot of stuff milling around his head and it was giving him a hard time, so he chopped up his brain into little bits and those bits became humans, and then god sat there with an empty head, and humans duked it out - and that is what 'we are made in the image of god' means - god is confused, and so are we - there is disorder and there is order - and we like it all - we swing eternally between the poles, sometimes we want more of one than the other, but overall we like it all - because we are the childen of existence, so we have the same omnivorous tastes - the fall was by getting the 'knowledge' of good and evil, so enlightenment, paradise, is by 'ungetting' the 'knowledge' of good and evil - putting humpty dumpty together again - opening up to the all, the everything, existence - eg, li po: why do I live among the green mountains? [ie, why has he left the world of the court of the city of ambition of striving] I laugh and answer not [he is amused by his lifestyle being upsetting to the others still striving, and he is detached from teaching, he has no attachment to bringing the others to where he is, to explaining, because their lifestyle is also part of truth] my soul is serene, i live in another heaven and earth from other people [he is transformed] the peach tree blossoms and the river flows on [he has got eyes to see existence in the world, his vision of existence is no longer obscured by right wrong rich poor good bad god man heaven earth male female - all the categories all the polarities all the divisions all the thoughts] - buddha: ultimately heaven and earth are not to be thought of as different [penultimately they are to be thought of as different, and that is the yin yang play-strife-dance-whirl, but ultimately the perfect circle behind within the yin yang is to be seen also - [not only but also] - death is de-forming - existence is eternal energy swinging back and forth between form and unform, matter and energy - creation is eternal, destruction is eternal [brahma, creator and destroyer] - we [existence] eternally swing between form and unform [energy] - and e=mc2, ie energy and matter are ultimately the same - we can't make up our minds up which we prefer, being pure perfect indestructible energy [energy cannot be created or destroyed] or matter-form [where all the excitement and movement is, but also the part-consciousness, the illusion of separation [loneliness], danger, nonexistence, death, everwanting more] - the swinging back and forth is the fulfillment of energy, which is a wave [eg, mexican wave, rollercoaster - we enjoy the mexican wave, the rollercoaster because they harmonise with our souls [self truth existence] ]

Answer 9

I am.