Q

I was watching the last episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, and I was reminded of something that I remembered hearing, but wasn't sure where it had come from. The quote is now in my signature, but here it is anyway:

For that one fraction of a second, you were open to options you'd never considered. That's the exploration that awaits you... not mapping stars and studying nebulae... but charting the unknowable possibilities of existence.

—Q

I can't help but agree with this philosophy, but I'm curious what you guys think of it.

sometimes a vision
sometimes a new thought
what if?
perhaps?
maybe?
pure creative potential

I like it. Makes me wish I could open my mind more often and see what there is to see.

Was Q the trouble maker?

Q as portrayed by John de Lancie. I guess you could say he was a type of demi God and a troublemaker.

Q was a bad-ass, his philosophy was more the cherry on top, I didn't really tune in for that I really tuned in to see him pick on bald men. lol.

reminds me of a video I saw a few months ago through TED, I think... If I'll find it, I'll post it.

hmmmmm . . .lots of thought of about Q . . but what about the philosophy?

:dry:

Mareeka wrote: hmmmmm . . .lots of thought of about Q . . but what about the philosophy?

:dry:

Well, Q is a philosophy in himself, so he deserves some discussion. To me he's kind of enigmatic. He generally causes trouble, but the results of his actions always end up being positive.

Anyway, the quote makes me wonder about many things. Star Trek is based on the current mentality that we as human beings need to look out and explore, land on the moon, go to Mars, chart unknown parts of the galaxy. Instead we could be looking within, exploring the power of the mind, learning to understand the spirit, expanding the body's potential. I know that a lot of people are doing that, but it's not the general mentality.

Thanks Streen . . .

I understood the philosphy itself without knowing who Q as a character is . . .

As we step step step in linear time . . more and more individuals are coming to it. . . .and countless others are asking for the understanding and the ways and means to do so . .I am speaking to the inner journey . .

I ask lots of people that question if they know that experience . . about the fraction of a second . . they all say yes. . .

Star Trek: The Next Generation has a lot of deep moral lessons when you watch it. It talks all about the definition of life, friendship and respecting other living things and other cultures.

This sounds a bit like what Don Juan talks about in Carlos Castaneda's books. He calls it "stopping the world." The world in this case is our constant inward murmur, our brain talking to itself about everything it's processing. The older we get and the more we know, the more routine this murmur becomes, locking us into a set path of habits and preconceptions. "Stopping" that world is like reaching the state of meditation when one has forgotten everything, including one's self, except it can be brought about by many things. People have stopped their world by being hit or being in an accident, athletes stop thinking and let their bodies do what they know, and even psychoactive substances hit our brains with a totally new set of stimuli, so the murmur ceases. Rinzai (inspirer of the zen school of the same name) would physically strike any of his students who looked to him for enlightenment, hoping that would stop their world long enough for them to see that enlightenment cannot come from outside. Once your world has been stopped, all possibilities are open to you. It doesn't last long, the murmur is rather tenacious, but for just a few seconds, all is quiet and all is let in. Q was a master of stopping worlds. He would periodically come into the world of the Enterprise and turn it on its head, just so people have to change their thinking.

yes coyote . . . there is also the experience of purposefully stopping for an instant (or letting go completely) and allowing
a shift to occur from non-attachment to allowing a broader awareness

the OP seems to be speaking to the instantaneous experience of all having been shifting in a flash . .and your post is speaking to purposefully activating it . .by purposefully choosing to be still an instant . . .like what is available in doing so by going within

Right. I guess I left out part of my point, haha. I feel like, especially in the beginning, the world-stopping happens by accident. People getting hit, by Rinzai or another source, getting startled or shocked, things like that. Unconscious things, to start. Then we find ways of achieving that state on purpose.
Possibly not relevant, just my first reaction to the quote.

Also, in rereading the rest of the discussion, I guess this is how humanity rolls. I mean, we developed the telescope before the microscope.

I think what Q is reminding us, is that while we go "out there" in other places to evolve our understanding in ourselves and the universe, we will, in fact, discover the same thing and unimaginably more if we explored the nature of our own subjective consciousness, aspects of existence within us that we are not usually aware exist, because it cannot be found by looking outward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5kBqrHphjo

Thanks Proteus . . another example of the purposeful

To talk about the sudden experiential shift in awareness AND the deliberate practice of going within has value . .
Both occur within . . each in a different way . . .

Here is a poem from my book "The Bells of Avalon" that I think reflects Q's words:



I follow the stars at night.
I follow the stars inside.
Tomorrow will come to nothing
without the stars that shine.

How I wish to be in the sky,
shooting through the black of night.
But I know it is safer here
to feel the warmth of earth so near.

I follow the stars inside,
shooting through the black of mind.
I follow stars that hide
far beyond the known divide.

Sometimes I wish to fly at night,
shooting through the blackest sky.
But I choose the inner eye
that leads me to a truer sky.

Stars at night, stars inside.
Take you on a different flight.

That's a beautiful poem, Brian No offense to anyone here, but Q would most likely respond to all this talk like, "Stop blathering like an idiot". So it doesn't exactly "reflect" Q's words. He tends to be egocentric and highly critical, with a disgust toward how fascinatingly primitive the human race is. But he never gives up on us. That's probably his only endearing quality.

The context of the quote was that Q was causing Captain Picard to travel back and forth through time in order to understand the subtleties and paradoxes of time itself.

oh . . i thought i commented on that poem . . .it is really great. . . ty for sharing . .

lol Streen . . no matter what . . Q's line is a great line . . . multi-layered ..

yes . . . going back to go forward . . . .

Streen wrote: I was watching the last episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, and I was reminded of something that I remembered hearing, but wasn't sure where it had come from. The quote is now in my signature, but here it is anyway:

For that one fraction of a second, you were open to options you'd never considered. That's the exploration that awaits you... not mapping stars and studying nebulae... but charting the unknowable possibilities of existence.

—Q

I can't help but agree with this philosophy, but I'm curious what you guys think of it.

Q is one of my favorite characters in Next Generation! He makes me laugh like a hyena every time he shows up, lol. That kind of mischief and trickery always intrigues me. Everything he does to the Enterprise and its crew is just for fun, it seems to me.

Another example as to why Q rocks... :laugh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96jPvL85MjM