I've been thinking a lot about the Alan Watts' quote I featured in Tuesday's post, A Word About Flies. To refresh your memory, the last part of what he said was "our universe may be inside an atom in somebody else's world, and all our galaxies may be part of the same speck of dust sitting on a giant piano."
When it gets right down to it, Alan may be correct!! Since we don't really know HOW our world was created or if there is a specific being responsible, almost ANY explanation is as plausible as any other.
Conventional wisdom in the western world is that a god or gods (the religious explanation) created the world and all its various life forms. Some believe this entity created existence, then left the rest up to us (deists, for one). Others believe this entity created existence and sort of hangs around rewarding and punishing us as we go our merry ways (Christians & Muslims, for two).
But who among us can say, with any degree of certainty, that existence even exists at all? Instead of being a speck of dust on a grand piano, we may each be unwitting participants in a dream! At some point, whatever it might be that's dreaming this dream will wake up and everything we know to be substantive and tangible will simply go poof.
Who knows? Maybe we're all pawns on a giant chess-like board. We think we have free will, but all of our thoughts and actions are orchestrated by the various players competing at this game.
For all we know, maybe all the other life forms on this planet got together to create a play for their own amusement. Each of us is nothing more than a drawn out character.
I'm sure the real explanation is something that no human could ever fathom. None of our religions, philosophies or speculations will ever come close to defining what is, is. So, we each create a methodology that works for us and helps us move from moment to moment without going stark raving mad.
Without these myths, stories and explanations, it would be next too impossible to function. How could a person go to work, make love or peck out blog posts if you know that some of your most elemental questions regarding life, truth and existence can never be answered in a way that makes any sense?
When it gets right down to it, Alan may be correct!! Since we don't really know HOW our world was created or if there is a specific being responsible, almost ANY explanation is as plausible as any other.
Conventional wisdom in the western world is that a god or gods (the religious explanation) created the world and all its various life forms. Some believe this entity created existence, then left the rest up to us (deists, for one). Others believe this entity created existence and sort of hangs around rewarding and punishing us as we go our merry ways (Christians & Muslims, for two).
But who among us can say, with any degree of certainty, that existence even exists at all? Instead of being a speck of dust on a grand piano, we may each be unwitting participants in a dream! At some point, whatever it might be that's dreaming this dream will wake up and everything we know to be substantive and tangible will simply go poof.
Who knows? Maybe we're all pawns on a giant chess-like board. We think we have free will, but all of our thoughts and actions are orchestrated by the various players competing at this game.
For all we know, maybe all the other life forms on this planet got together to create a play for their own amusement. Each of us is nothing more than a drawn out character.
I'm sure the real explanation is something that no human could ever fathom. None of our religions, philosophies or speculations will ever come close to defining what is, is. So, we each create a methodology that works for us and helps us move from moment to moment without going stark raving mad.
Without these myths, stories and explanations, it would be next too impossible to function. How could a person go to work, make love or peck out blog posts if you know that some of your most elemental questions regarding life, truth and existence can never be answered in a way that makes any sense?
"How could a person go to work, make love or peck out blog posts if you know that some of your most elemental questions regarding life, truth and existence can never be answered in a way that makes any sense?"
ReplyDeleteHow?
You just do.
From http://Classical-Chinese.blogspot.com, a translation from The Inner Chapters of Zhuang Zi (Chuang Tsu):
ReplyDeleteButterfly dream
昔者莊周夢為胡蝶，栩栩然胡蝶也。自喻適志與！不知周也。俄然覺，則蘧蘧然周也。不知周之夢為胡蝶與，胡蝶之夢為周與？周與胡蝶，則必有分矣。此之謂物化
Long ago, Zhuang Zhou dreamt he was a butterfly. He fluttered gaily, in a butterfly way, all to his pleasure, following his whims ! He did not know Zhou. Suddenly he woke up, and at once was Zhou again. But he did not know whether he was Zhou dreaming he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming it was Zhou. Yet, between Zhou and the butterfly, a distinction must be made. This is called the transformation of things.
Posted by François Charton à 22:54
Labels: zhuangzi
http://classical-chinese.blogspot.com/2008/02/butterfly-dream.html
Val,
ReplyDeleteWe each have stories we tell ourselves to explain the world around us. Some are religious. Some are philosophical. Some are metaphysical and some are based on pragmatism. But regardless of a person's perspective, all of us have a mental framework that brackets the world before us. That was my point, I think. ; )
Rick,
I love that story!! It's a very welcome addition to this post.