Why do we seek for what is permanent, for what is true?

Question

Is it basic survival instincts,

curiosity, or something more?

Answer 1

We would all like to live forever and never die, which is of course not possible, as everything everyone dies one day or another.  But since we have no idea of what happens to us after this we are all afraid of the unknowthereforere would like to remain in a world that is known to us, that does not hold surprises for us.  We are all afraid of death, which if all of us accept it as natural part of a cycle, as with plants and animals, we would not be so afraid of it.  It is this that makes us seek permanent, forgetting that nothing is permanent but change itself.

If one realizes that no matter how much one tries that the ego self and world cannot be improved and cannot be permanent, one is tempted to believe that there is an opposite self and world that is permanent, a spiritual world.      In fact, much of folk’s belief in God and their practices of religion is predicated on the awareness of the temporariness of the earthly self and world and desire for its opposite, a permanent, changeless self and world, a world they call spirit.

      

       The problem with belief in spirit, the assumed permanent self and world is that there is no proof that it exists.  Spirit, God and other such ideas are exactly those, ideas in our minds. We do not know that they exist or do not exist.  

      Clearly, we wish for permanency hence wish for spirit to be real but wish is not the same thing as reality.

Answer 2

As we realize truth, fear, anger, guilt, attack, and our false identity slip away.

Answer 3

We know for certain that everything is changing in every moment that passes so what we are seeing is untrue.The change may become visible after some time but the fact remains that it is changing every moment.

Truth is permanent which in other words means that it does not change with time.The only truth in the world is the Self or God.

Answer 4

I really wanted that last sandwich to last. It was an exceptionally good one! Of course I had inadvertently skipped breakfast, and nearly choked on that amazingly scrumptious sandwich! I hide from myself the knowledge that everything I eat turns to "guano". At 61, I look back and wonder where the time has gone. Wherever that is, I bet there's a big pile of it! All of life's lessons seem to boil down to that the only permanent thing around here is impermanence. That and I was either a nice guy or I wasn't, in any given test. As soon as I caught onto that, I modified my style to be a nice guy, even if I didn't feel like it, which probably cost me points for fudging on honesty. Morals are mathematically describable, and therefore true, being of a higher reality, like God. Kicking around in the ashcan of the Cozmos, the material reality, it's the lesser of evils every time we turn around. Life goes on, until it doesn't. We do the best we can, or we don't. We reach into the darkness, and cling to the light, if we are smart. Or if we are stupid we just become shadow creatures. That seems like some kind of test. Regards, Larry.

Answer 5

You are asking as an individual who is viewing from below and looking up to inquire. You need to look at it from above.

Your true self is Spirit which is eternal, beyond time and space, and your presence upon this Earth is only temporary. You are "soul" inhabiting the body and experiencing life on the physical plane which is the slowest in vibration. When it is time to set aside the physical form you'll go on to continue your existence in a much finer plane, some call it the astral.

As a centre of consciousness you have transcended the dense physical realm and now function at a higher rate of vibration in a more expanded realm which is Spirit's natural state, your real home!

Answer 6

You are correct it is basic to our creation, the instinct to survive.

P.772 - §6 1. The institutions of self-maintenance. These institutions embrace those practices growing out of food hunger and its associated instincts of self-preservation.

The highest evidence of reality, the power or capacity to produce a desired effect of religion, consists in the fact of human experience; namely, that we are, naturally fearful and suspicious, innately endowed with a strong instinct of self-preservation and craving survival after death,we are willing fully to trust the deepest interests of our present and future to the keeping and direction of that power and person designated by our faith as God. That is the one central truth of all religion. As to what that power or person requires of us in return for this watchcare and final salvation, no two religions agree; in fact, they all more or less disagree.

Answer 7

Because we know we are NOT permanent and that truth is something to aspire to rather than to own.

Answer 8

Survival instinct. If you know you can rely on something, you can forget about it. Eg the sun always rises so we don't need to go out and check on it. However something we can't rely on, we do need to check, which takes up our resources.