Vantage points make all the difference in the world. If I stand on the banks of the mighty Mississippi, I may well think I'm staring at a very large waterway. However, looking at the same river high atop a bluff, it most likely won't appear as large as when I stood on the bank. Move back even further, like outer space, and the mighty river looks like nothing more than a teeny weeny trickle.
In human consciousness, we see things as being distinct and isolated; we accept these observations as unmitigated facts. I am here. You are there. The chair and the table are not connected. A rock and a platypus are not one in the same. A rainy day is different than a sunny day.
What we fail to understand is that such facts aren't necessarily true; it all depends on one's vantage point.
When I look at any specific point of my body and/or I look in the mirror, I see a unified thing called skin. But our epidermis is not one thing; it's made up of millions of individual cells. From the vantage point of each cell, it too is distinct and isolated. The same could be said of each blood droplet or intestinal bacterium.
It is when our vantage point moves from the micro to the macro that we no longer distinguish between individual parts and see things as wholes.
So what if we move the vantage point way beyond human comprehension? What if there is a realm far beyond what we could ever imagine? From such a vantage point, the universe, and every singular substance contained therein, would be see in a macro sense, as one unified whole. There would no longer be a you and a me; we would be one.
In a nutshell, this is the common view of Taoists. Tao is and we all are all part of the is. From our vantage point, there is separation. From Tao's vantage point, there is unity. We are each manifestations of the same thing.
In essence, we are Tao is.
In human consciousness, we see things as being distinct and isolated; we accept these observations as unmitigated facts. I am here. You are there. The chair and the table are not connected. A rock and a platypus are not one in the same. A rainy day is different than a sunny day.
What we fail to understand is that such facts aren't necessarily true; it all depends on one's vantage point.
When I look at any specific point of my body and/or I look in the mirror, I see a unified thing called skin. But our epidermis is not one thing; it's made up of millions of individual cells. From the vantage point of each cell, it too is distinct and isolated. The same could be said of each blood droplet or intestinal bacterium.
It is when our vantage point moves from the micro to the macro that we no longer distinguish between individual parts and see things as wholes.
So what if we move the vantage point way beyond human comprehension? What if there is a realm far beyond what we could ever imagine? From such a vantage point, the universe, and every singular substance contained therein, would be see in a macro sense, as one unified whole. There would no longer be a you and a me; we would be one.
In a nutshell, this is the common view of Taoists. Tao is and we all are all part of the is. From our vantage point, there is separation. From Tao's vantage point, there is unity. We are each manifestations of the same thing.
In essence, we are Tao is.
I enjoy playing as a human :)
ReplyDeleteSometime when I play as human I forget I am just playing and I take my role very seriously.
I have been known to kill myself over this mistaken identity.
Hopefully when enough of me realise that I am playing for fun I can remind my-selves who take it too seriously to relax and enjoy the ride.