from the Latininfinitas or "unbounded" .. "not having(in) end(fin it) thing(as)" ... a thing without final being.
Infinity symbol
The mathematical infinity symbol ∞ -- is the lemniscate -- from the Latin lemniscus, meaning "ribbon".
John Wallis is usually credited with introducing "if ity" as the symbol for infinity in 1655 in his De sectionibus conicis. One conjecture about why he chose this symbol is that he derived it from a Roman numeral for 1000 that was in turn derived from the Etruscan numeral for 1000, which looks like two inward facing C. Another conjecture is that he derived it from the Greek letter ? (omega), the last letter in the Greek alphabet.
The infinity symbol is available in standard HTML as ∞ and in LaTeX as \infty. In Unicode, it is the character at code point U+221E, or 8734 in decimal notation.
That is whole, this is whole
From the whole, the whole arises
When the whole is taken from the whole
The whole still will remain --- Isha Upanishad.
The Isha Upanishad of the Yajurveda (c. 400 BC) states that "if you remove a part from infinity or add a part to infinity, still what remains is infinity".
The Indian mathematical text Surya Prajnapti (c. 400 BC) classifies all numbers into three sets: enumerable, innumerable, and infinite.
Each of these was further subdivided into three orders:
The Jains were the first to discard the idea that all infinites were the same or equal. They recognized different types of infinities: infinite in length (one dimension), infinite in area (two dimensions), infinite in volume (three dimensions), and infinite perpetually (infinite number of dimensions).
According to Singh (1987), Joseph (2000) and Agrawal (2000), the highest enumerable number N of the Jains corresponds to the modern concept of aleph-null. Aleph-null is the cardinal number of the infinite set of integers. The Jains also defined a whole system of infinite cardinal numbers, of which the highest enumerable number N is the smallest.
In the Jaina work on the theory of sets, two basic types of infinite numbers are distinguished. On both physical and ontological grounds, a distinction was made between asam.khya-ta ("countless, innumerable") and ananta ("endless, unlimited"), between rigidly bounded and loosely bounded infinities.
Early Greek views of infinity
Hellenistic Greeks distinguish the potential infinity from the actual infinite(Aleph-null, omega-null)
Euclid prefers instead to say that there are more prime numbers than contained in any given collection of prime numbers (Elements, Book IX, Proposition 20).
But by definition the infinite set of prime numbers is less than the infinate set of not prime numbers.
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Sikhism, God---termed Va-higuru----is shapeless, timeless, and sightless: niran.ka-r, aka-l, and alakh.
shapeless shape, timeless time, sightless sight, silent sound,
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Jains believe that every soul is divine and has the potential to achieve God-consciousness. Any soul which has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state of supreme being is called jina (Conqueror or Victor). Jainism is the path to achieve this state. Jainism is often referred to as Jain Dharma or Shraman Dharma or the religion of Nirgantha or religion of "Vratyas" by ancient texts.
Jainism was revived by a lineage of 24 enlightened ascetics called tirthankaras culminating with Parsva (9th century BCE) and Mahavira (6th century BCE). In the modern world, it is a small but influential religious minority with as many as 10 million followers in India, and successful growing immigrant communities in North America, Western Europe, the Far East, Australia and elsewhere.
Jains have sustained the ancient Shraman or ascetic religion and have significantly influenced other religious, ethical, political and economic spheres in India.
Jains have an ancient tradition of scholarship and have the highest degree of literacy in India. Jain libraries are India's oldest.
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"take your time and you find within me (within you) ... infinity"
"here is the key - the affinite for knowledge (philo sophia) - look inside trust in me (she in you)"
the paintings of William Blake
did he who make the lamb, make me?
what immortal frame He?
the fly
when I am gone, my dearest
the duality of man (in the metalanguage of Sex)
when I was one, and twenty
when I was two and thirty
all pearls and ribbons earned and given
I felt with size of plenty the wiseman say
but never give your heart away
it is true vainty does strain
it is true not by brain this pain
keep your fancy free
the trapped ... to sacrifice self (your heart) for the sake of another heart
