Dharma Notes
What is alive? What is life? Is it merely consciousness as we homo sapiens have decreed? And what is consciousness? Sentience?
These questions matter, especially in the face of a continued global unwillingness of our species to see sentience in the majority of beings that interact with us.
We assume that a stone is not sentient simply because it doesn't normally communicate anything to us that is useful to our socio-cultural outlook...an outlook that is vicious
in its assumptions that it alone can dictate the parameters of sentience and life.
What do you think is alive?
In Mahayana Buddhism, the recitation of the Diamond Sutra is used to break down our preconceptions about life, what is life, and even the idea of a 'lifespan'. We recite that we will liberate countless beings, whether it can be said that they are sentient...people, animals, plants, minerals, clouds, etc.
We are told that we can, in fact, liberate all existence from suffering only if we are not caught up in any views about existence or non-existence. Many people shy away from the Diamond Sutra precisely because of this. Most people resist any notion that their deep-seated and cherished
views, opinions, or experiences of life could be very limited. The Diamond Sutra's better name is "the Diamond that Cuts through Illusion".
It is useless to try to answer the question "What is life?" while adhering to preconceptions. Just like living with your loved ones, if you are living with your environment, you will not hold on to your biases. The mark of someone who is really sensitive is being empty of preconceptions. The immediate reality around them
is more important and vital than the mental/emotional chatter that is often commonly mistaken as personality. We assume that being sensitive means that we are self-conscious, or that we are too empathic, or something like that. But the art of sensitivity is really the art of not getting caught up in either understanding
or misunderstanding. Life is not here for you to understand nor misunderstand. Stop trying to take everything so melodramatically. Life is here because we are all here. And that's that. Whatever meaning you want to agree to or make is your own choice. Life is intrinsically valuable in its own right, regardless of human ideas of usefulness, meaning, or meaninglessness.
Everything is alive...or none of it can be. Think about that for a moment.
How do you define the boundary between living and non-living? How much of your boundary is simply imposed by choice? While someone who has died is dead, that tells us nothing about the nature of life, except that the person is no longer alive in any socially or physically functioning way, as far as we can tell. If a lifespan is to be the measure of one's life, so much will be missed. Instead of holding to the socially accepted views, why not rest in the silence of the idea that you
just don't know?
How can you breath air to survive and yet think of air as not alive? Of course air is animate. Of course, you can say that air is animate only due to meteorological causes, like the sun heating the sky, etc. And of course, I can point to causes behind your own animation. Depending on the view, I can reduce you to a mere machine...a group of functions and causes. Everything is alive or nothing is alive. Or maybe life is beyond that idea altogether. But I will tell you with
confidence that the air is alive, and her children, the various winds, are also alive. The sky is alive. The sun, the ground, even the human made structures of the cities are alive. In my relationship to my environment, expressed through the 'lifespan' I am now experiencing, I have called the winds and they have come. I have made strange faces to the thunderclouds and lightning above me, and the downpours
have been held off until I reached shelter. I have even respectfully held up my hand so that the winds would think about slowing so I could light a cigarette, and they usually do so as soon as I strike the match, blowing again once the cigarette is lit. Of course, if you imagine that the wind, etc. is not alive, you may find that hard to believe, or you may depending on your magical path, think that I am simply practicing some sort of Chaos. But both of those
ideas are only ideas.
Many environmentalists want to stop the abuse of the planet simply because that abuse threatens humans and the plants and furry critters that humans find valuable. Some others go further to say that the Earth and its systems are valuable in their own right. Life is a lot more than you or I can ever think or feel it is. Rattle that around your skull for a moment. Let it sink in.
Do you want to experience a relationship to existence in all of its polymorphous, polycentric, and omnisentient forms?
The practice of any spiritual tradition such as the dharma practice of Buddhism or the Second Attention of occult training, is really about that relationship, more so than anything else. Stop taking yourself, and your ideas, and your cognocentric habits, so seriously. Relax into life. Tension and laziness are both stumbling blocks to being aware. And life is so much more. I hope this little essay has stimulated you into more questions of your own. Investigate
them.
-written sometime between Bealtaine and Lúnasa, 2004,
by Irreverend Hugh, KSC
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