Lila

[taoistscholar]

This is probably a question my limited, finite self should not be asking but...

If this dualistic reality is the manifestation or "play"/"dance" of brahman, why did he/she/it begin this "play" or "dance" in the first place?

[kris]

I think you will know the answer to your question once you stop distancing yourself from brahman.

[taoistscholar]

Could you supply me with anymore aid here? haha

[mahakali]

we are doing this living thing on the beautiful canvas but we are the gods who continue to create/compose this beautiful symphony. there are probably many reasons for this. maybe for the simple experiance to learn about life, or maybe it is a place for leftover souls in confusion to enlighten.

''We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.'' - Buddha

[kris]

To understand what he/she/it does, we must understand what he/she/it is. By the way brahman, in Sanskrit,is a noun of neuter gender. I think we all like to play and dance. In this respect, brahman is quite like us. (I regret the unfortunate typo in my previous post - hope you noticed it.)

[taoistscholar]

But where does this striving to learn about life come from? From where does this need to play or dance arise? How does duality arise from emptiness? It is said that brahman is unknowing because knowledge requires duality...

[Miss Hepburn]

If this dualistic reality is the manifestation or "play"/"dance" of Brahman, why did he/she/it begin this "play" or "dance" in the first place?

This is why:

Because God is Love. And Love must love.And to love
there must be a Beloved. But since God is Existence infinite
and eternal there is no one for Him to love but Himself.
as the Beloved whom He as the Lover imagines He
loves.
Beloved and Lover implies separation. And separation
creates longing; and longing causes search. And the
wider and the more intense the search the greater the
separation and the more terrible the longing.
When longing is most intense separation is complete,
and the purpose of separation, which was that Love
might experience Itself as Lover and Beloved is fulfilled;
and union follows. And when union is attained, the Lover
knows that he himself was all along the Beloved whom he
loved and desired union with; and that all the impossible
situations that he overcame were obstacles which he
himself had placed in the path to himself.
To attain union is so impossibly difficult because it is
impossible to become what you already are! Union is
nothing other than knowledge of oneself as the Only One.

MeherBaba

[yes]

This is probably a question my limited, finite self should not be asking but...

If this dualistic reality is the manifestation or "play"/"dance" of brahman, why did he/she/it begin this "play" or "dance" in the first place?

Why does a child begin to play or begin to dance?