With regards to lifetime, I have a question regarding World Tree biology/theology. One of the standard causes of natural death is "longing for one's creator god." Is this more likely to happen, and more likely to happen sooner, if a person is in a miserable situation from which there is no feasible escape? That is, do miserable trapped persons and/or prisoners tend to die younger of this cause? As contrasted with more preventable causes such as, say, abuse or malnutrition.
While I remain unskilled in the biology, xenobiology I suppose, of world tree denizens, it sounds to me to resemble the classic desire to leave the world and go west of the elves based on Tolkien's works. Life is worth living, if you will, and even a bad life is often better then death, so says the logic; eventually, however, one's soul feels a call to go back. Remember, the Soul is not the Mind; the soul has no real cognition, no real way to tell if a life is bad or not, and its desire to return to its creator would be all motivation and instinct and no thought, or so I postulate; I guess they're separate.
I'd be tempted to compare the soul/mind duality to what is taught by Sanskrit tradition terrestrially (yogic and to an extent Buddhist): in yogic belief, the ordinary mind doesn't grasp the universal mind, and fears it; on the tree, the mind parishes without the soul and body. Perhaps, then, ones mind fights against the soul's desire to return, fearing oblivion...
Luckily, we have a healer, skilled in Spiridor, Corporador, and Mentador on hand; am I close, O Wise and Ancient Zi Ri?
Yes, broadly accurate. I generally hear it described as a triality, not a duality: the body is as important as the mind and the spirit. In a healthy person, the body's and mind's desire to remain alive overbalance the spirit's desire to return to the creator god.
No, they don't generally die of longing more often -- or such is my impression based on the medical literature. But they do commit suicide more often and more readily than people in better situations.
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Hmm...
Date: 2010-06-10 03:58 pm (UTC)Re: Hmm...
Date: 2010-06-10 06:42 pm (UTC)I'd be tempted to compare the soul/mind duality to what is taught by Sanskrit tradition terrestrially (yogic and to an extent Buddhist): in yogic belief, the ordinary mind doesn't grasp the universal mind, and fears it; on the tree, the mind parishes without the soul and body. Perhaps, then, ones mind fights against the soul's desire to return, fearing oblivion...
Luckily, we have a healer, skilled in Spiridor, Corporador, and Mentador on hand; am I close, O Wise and Ancient Zi Ri?
Re: Hmm...
Date: 2010-06-11 11:36 am (UTC)I generally hear it described as a triality, not a duality: the body is as important as the mind and the spirit. In a healthy person, the body's and mind's desire to remain alive overbalance the spirit's desire to return to the creator god.
Re: Hmm...
Date: 2010-06-11 11:53 am (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2010-06-11 04:23 pm (UTC)