One of the first things everyone should understand is that every creature in the universe that is in any manner of speaking conscious regards itself as a human being. That is to say, if a creature is sensitive, it knows and is aware of a hierarchy of beings above it and a hierarchy of beings below it. Even such a tiny creature as the fruit fly, which lives only a few days, is aware of all sorts of weird little animals and pollens and spores floating in the atmosphere that we don't even notice, unless we happen to be looking through a microscope.The above quote really resonates with me. What about you?
Indeed, the fruit fly may well criticize these spores and think they are inferior to it, and at the same time human beings are incomprehensible, from its perspective, because we are outside its perceptual range as a quasar is outside of ours. And actually, 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.
~ Alan Watts in Taoism: Way Beyond Seeking ~
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
A Word About Flies
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I strongly suspect that fruit flies aren't terribly aware. That said, I'd agree with Chung-tsu's reflections on the limited nature of our perspective, and would even agree that it's inherently limited--all part of situated existence.
ReplyDeleteLove the excerpt. Thank you for posting it.
ReplyDeleteThat right there is my idea of "God." Every time I step on an ant in the backyard I think the ant thinks I am God.
i've often wondered if "god" represents the largest being in existence, or the smallest. most people think of "god" as being the largest and i don't know why we idealize that... if "god" were the space between subatomic particles that make up every thing that exists, he would be way more "connected" with this world than some far-off being who observes us as tiny ants...
ReplyDeleteFrom Zhuang Zi (Chuang Tzu):
ReplyDeleteOne day Zhuangzi and Huizi are strolling on Bridge Hao.
Zhuangzi: "Look how happy the fish are just swimming around in the river."
Huizi: "How do you know they are happy? You are not a fish."
Zhuangzi: "And you are not me. How do you know I don't know the fish are happy?"
Huizi: "Of course I'm not you, and I don't know what you think; But I do know that you're not a fish, and so you couldn't possibly know the fish are happy."
Zhuangzi: "Look, when you asked me how I knew the fish were happy, you already knew that I knew the fish were happy. I knew it from my feelings standing on this bridge."
All I can say is wow! You all are such thinkers and philosophers. That's one of things I like about blogging -- I've "met" such interesting people along the way. You each challenge me day to look at everything anew and that's a really good thing!
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