One of my fondest childhood memories was gathering together with aunts and uncles and cousins on Thanksgiving Day and - after dinner - settling in front of the TV, with a piece of my Aunt Carol's poppy-seed torte, to watch "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory." What a great movie!
Do you remember the Everlasting Gobstopper? This was foremost among Mr. Wonka's many treasures: a hard candy (pictured above) that could be sucked forever without ever dissolving or losing its flavor. So while Aunt Carol's poppy-seed torte, after a couple dozen bites, was distinctly gone (or at least well on its way to transforming into something completely unrecognizable as "poppy-seed torte") -- if instead I had been feasting on an Everlasting Gobstopper, that sweetness would never have come to an end.
Well, now that I've been through college, and have been transformed into a (mostly) rational being, I have to wonder: is such a thing really possible? Can any compounded phenomenon (a hard candy or any other sensory/cognitive experience) really be "ever-lasting" -- something that maintains a single shape, a single flavor, a single size (fitting nicely into a human pocket), in perpetuity? Seems unlikely, yes?
So ... if Immortality is not an Everlasting Gobstopper, then what the heck is it?!
(A free one-year subscription to my Free Newsletter, for anyone who can help me out with this one ...)
Understandably, the recipe for the Everlasting Gobstopper was something that rival candy-makers were keen to secure, and were willing to pay handsomely for. Though as you may recall, what sealed Charlie's ascension as heir to Mr. Wonka's kingdom was his willingness to leave the Everlasting Gobstopper behind (instead of keeping it in his pocket, to later sell to the bad guys).
Whew! Though Immortality seems like a very noble aspiration, there are days when I feel tempted to just be satisfied with poppy-seed torte.
"Buddhas never remain in any one placed locked in a particular form, because they do not have karmic bodies, but only the unobscured light body of enlightenment, which is unable to be limited to a certain, conceptual, ordinary life history. This inspires us to practice to attain that same state."
~ Thinley Norbu, from White Sail
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Almost as good as a Gobstopper: EarthCalm's Scalar Resonator -- a futuristic but very real EMF protection device based on state-of-the-art scalar resonance technology.
So … if Immortality is not an Everlasting Gobstopper, then what the heck is it?!
Whew! Though Immortality seems like a very noble aspiration, there are days when I feel tempted to just be satisfied with poppy-seed torte.
To me, you defined what immortality is – an aspiration. The Everlasting Gobstopper is an immediate and everlasting sweetness. And – since none of us really can know what immortality will be till we get there it is a mysterious aspiration. Being satisfied in the now with the yummy poppy-seed torte is on the path of immortality whereas wanting the sweetness forever is living in the future, an inability to release and immaturity concerned life. Life is suffering, it is what defines who we are. A life of continual sweetness would in itself be a sort of suffering, how superficial it would be.
Hey there! Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Thanksgiving is 1 of my favorite holidays, and every year I like to get into the mood-extend the holiday, as it were-by reading “Thanksgiving novels.” Of course, most of these stories are mostly about family and friends, about coming together to heal old hurts and giving them thanks for the gift of love. . . “”
Hi Krysta ~ Happy Thanksgiving to you also. I hope it was an excellent one