Update

Chapter 1.

 It Takes Intelligence To Recognize Our Ignorance

So what is important and why? What really matters? What is happiness? Do any of these questions have an answer? Do they have real permanent answers? Is what is important, transient? How important is it to make it through an intersection before the light changes? You may say it is really not important at all. On the other hand probably thousands of accidents occur because someone decided not having to wait through a traffic signal was worth the risk. This is evidence that a great many people, very likely the overwhelming majority, at one time or another thought making it through an intersection was worth risking the life and limbs of not only themselves but others as well. Still hardly any rational adult would argue that making it through an intersection despite the traffic signal is really important, really matters, will make them really happy. The difference between adults and children seems to be that adults know getting a toy won’t make them happy while a child might bawl unceasingly and throw a tantrum if denied a toy. Adults know better right?

The truth is adults know better when it comes to so-called childish things. Adults for instance know that if you let go of the ribbon attached to a colorful helium filled balloon it will float away. A child might be devastated by this and go through fits of grief stricken sobbing. On the other hand a child might be reckless and destructive with his toys. She might toss them around, pull them apart and leave them lying around to be lost.  Adults will explain to a child that some things like balloons are disposable while others, like a present the adult gave to them, must be treasured and cared for. Are adults really wiser than children?

Adults understand the temporary nature of a helium filed balloon. However they may cling to an insubstantial lover. Despite knowing they are hanging onto a relationship which is collapsing, which never had any solidity, an adult may pretend forever terrified of letting go the ribbon that was once colorful and shiny but is now dull and tattered. On the other hand an adult might be reckless and destructive with a person who truly loves him. She may disregard them, deliberately hurt them and ultimately lose them. Adults may say they desire a dedicated and earnest lover and yet treat such a person as having little value. Instead they pursue an illusionary idealized lover, something that is not there, something less substantial than a helium balloon. Adults are probably less wise than children; children learn to differentiate the substantial from the insubstantial.

Of course the idea that children have wisdom which adults lack seems ridiculous until you really examine it. Robert Fulghum in his book “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten” identifies the truly important lessons like sharing, waiting your turn, and taking a nap. The wisdom of children is that they accept these lessons from adults who are basically hypocrites. Adults don’t share, don’t wait their turn, and seldom get enough rest. Children know they are not in charge and that is wise. Adults believe they are in charge and that is foolish. In his wonderful book “Incognito: The Secret Lives Of The Brain,” David Eagleman uses up to date scientific knowledge to educate us on how we are not in charge of much if anything. He goes on to admit how little even the experts like him understand about the underlying nature of our brains. He compares the brain to a radio. Unless you understand about radio waves you might assume a radio is a kind of magic box which talks and sings. Eagleman essentially says this is our current understanding of the brain. The brain is where our consciousness seems to be located but maybe we just don’t understand consciousness waves.

This is the point where the mystics get all “woo woo” and start invoking quantum mechanics which is of course something that even particle physicists do not truly understand. Human beings like to believe they are in charge. Even the human beings who believe in a god essentially believe that their god will ultimately pay off for them. Sometime, maybe not now or even soon, maybe they will have to die first but, someday they will get what they want. It does not matter what the religion or philosophy is called. All of them promise that if only you believe hard enough you will achieve your heart’s desire. Some are really tricky suggesting that you must forgo your heart’s desire in order to achieve it. What is really going on here?

Why do people believe in any particular religion? Most folks will probably dodge a truly honest answer and ascribe their particular belief system, their theology, to faith. This is nonsense. The best predictor of a person’s religious beliefs is where they were raised. People raised in predominantly Muslim countries are predominantly Muslim, likewise for Christians, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus. If you had never heard of any religion it is doubtful that you would have one. Actual truths and real facts are not altered by geography. The Pythagorean Theorem is true all over the World and the laws of thermodynamics do not vary by location. There may be a spiritual truth but any truly honest person must admit he does not know what it is.

I believe there is no point in pretending to know that which is unknowable. It is profoundly uncomfortable and perhaps humiliating to recognize our infinite ignorance about reality. Unless we admit how little we know we will have no chance of learning or understanding more, not even the miniscule amount more we might be capable of. 

It is an axiom that any asset taken to an extreme turns into a liability. We humans are great at recognizing patterns. We are superb model makers. We formulate conceptions instinctively. This ability has helped us survive as a species. We have perfected this asset to the point where it has turned into a liability. People believe their conceptions are reality. All the “great” religions (maybe even the “not so great” religions) believe they possess the one and only truth. Capitalists believe they understand exactly how the world works, so do communists and socialists. Then there are those who adopt the absurd philosophy that all these mutually exclusive belief systems are true but only on an individual level. This is of course just another concept to be held onto as the one and only reality. What if we admitted that we know nothing about the fundamental reality? Would that be too horrible to accept?

I say this admission of absolute ignorance is necessary. I do not believe it is possible to learn anything that you believe you already know. Think of the times you were confronted with a problem which you believed you could solve only to learn you could not. Until you confronted and admitted your ignorance you could not learn the actual solution. This is true for being lost, solving financial difficulties, repairing things, and having relationships with others. We might want to know all the answers but, we know we don’t. Yet we think we understand reality.

The truth is we do not even understand what or who we are. We have a self-concept an idea about who we are but it is wrong. Our self-concept fails to change as we change, whether or not the change is for good or ill. Our self-concept cannot adequately include how everyone we encounter whether for an instant or a lifetime perceives us. Our self-concept largely excludes our impact on others we may never meet, nor our impact on nature. Our self-concept largely excludes how we have been shaped and molded physically, psychologically and spiritually by our environment. And our self-conception probably completely ignores the overwhelming numbers of other life-forms which make up “our bodies.” Our self is a myth, a willow-the-wisp, a transient pattern which will soon fade away. Pretending anything else is a futile and desperate act. Is this a horrible and harsh reality? It may seem so at first.

The truth is we do not know reality. We don’t see reality. We don’t hear reality. We cannot taste it or feel it or even smell it. All our senses are illusory. As David Eagleman points out in his book vision does not happen in the eyes. Instead it happens in various areas of the brain. Something similar is true for all our other senses. Other creatures on this planet have senses different from our own. On an overcast day humans are unable to see the sun but a honeybee can. Many insects can see ultraviolet light a part of spectrum invisible to us. Snakes have infrared receptors which allow them to see warm-blooded animals at night, we fail to call these receptors eyes for some reason. Other creatures on this planet have entirely different sensory experiences from us. Flowers look completely different to a bee or butterfly than they do to us. Other creatures may see, feel, smell and taste more reality than we ever will. So our senses fail to yield us anything close to actual reality. We may believe we perceive the real world but we don’t. We have no direct perception of what is really going on!

Fortunately for us we have developed the ability to look at and see those things invisible to our unaided eyes. Still these invisible things must be translated into images comprehensible to us. It seems likely that we lose a lot in this translation process. In fact we are constantly working to improve our ability to see just what is going on out there, in there, up there, down there, back then, someday when.

What have we learned? We have learned that 68% of the “known universe” is made up of “Dark Energy” and 27% is made of “Dark Matter.” What makes it “dark?” We humans call it “dark” because even with our best instruments we cannot really identify it. Basically calling it “dark” is just a way of saying we are in the dark.

We humans live in a “known universe” where 95% of everything is currently unknown and the rest is at best poorly perceived. Our best theories of how things work at nearly infinitely large scales and close to infinitely small scales are fundamentally incompatible. The truth however much we would like to deny it is that we have no idea what is going on.

So it turns out that we know next to nothing about anything. We do not even see most of what exists. What we do see, we see only poorly. Any spiritual concepts we cling to are likely to be false gods. We do not even have an accurate conception of ourselves. Everything we think will make us happy will wind up leaving us disappointed. And we spend most of our time pursuing trivial matters. So what’s the point? Why not just commit suicide? Typically we humans do not handle being disillusioned very well. We find it depressing or aggravating.  We tend to cling to our illusions. This is unfortunate.

We cling to our illusions because we believe we cannot face life without them. The truth of course is that our illusions prevent us from truly facing life. Our false beliefs and pretense at wisdom block us from acquiring any truth and even a modicum of real wisdom. Being disillusioned is a good thing. It is also a prerequisite for enlightenment. 

Chapter 2.
 Disillusionment The Prerequisite To Enlightenment

My first recollection of disillusionment is from age six, not too long after my birthday that year. I recall walking home from school with a classmate on fall afternoon. I was in the first grade. Like most six-year-olds who have just had a birthday I was anticipating the next big event of my life, Christmas! As we were walking home from school I was telling my buddy (a Jewish boy) all about all the great stuff I was petitioning Santa Claus to deliver unto me. For reasons unclear to me at the time, my friend put forward the preposterous proposition that Santa Claus did not in fact exist! I argued he must be mistaken because I had it from unassailable authority my Dad that, Santa Claus would indeed visit our house and leave behind lots and lots of presents just like he did every year. My buddy replied that I had been subjected to a sort of ongoing fraud perpetrated upon me by my parents. His arguments regarding aerodynamics, the relative slowness of reindeer and sheer volume of swag involved in providing presents not only to me (my main concern) but to every single child in the world were cogent. We agreed that I should address the matter with my parents. I was certain they could clear all this up to my satisfaction. Well, first they asked me if I wanted to know the truth. That seemed odd! Certainly I wanted to know the truth I said. They suggested I think about it for a while, alone in my room. I went and lied down on my bed and commenced to think about whether I wanted the truth or not. All these years Santa had been so real to me that I actually could not conceive that he was some fantastic creation of a worldwide conspiracy perpetrated by all adults upon all children. It just seemed too crazy to be true. I marched back into the living room and demanded an honest answer to this Santa brew-ha-ha. Well I got it! And I was nonplussed to the max. I felt like what happened had happened. Namely that the single best thing in the entire world had turned out to be hoax! I was devastated and disillusioned.

The spring of the next year I was looking forward to the annual visit from the Easter Bunny when sudden doubt welled up in me. If Santa was claptrap what about this magic rabbit? I had been playing with Tinker Toys making a model of the Easter Bunny and arranging tiny Tinker Toy carrots along a model rabbit trail. My parents were not home but I had a babysitter. I demanded that she fess up and tell me the real deal. I knew Santa Claus was BS but what about the Bunny? Was he a fake too? She delivered the unwelcome news and I expressed my disappointment vociferously! She was probably more traumatized than me by this exchange.

I had never really thought much about God back then. I was bored by church services. We had some bible stories at home. Some of the illustrations in these books were pretty fascinating. I liked Samson, and Daniel hanging around with a bunch of ferocious lions seemed fairly amazing too. The girls who lived across the street from us talked a lot about Jesus and God and Hell. They were Catholics. Maybe their behavior was typical of Catholic youth at that time, I don’t know. Their talking provoked me to think about Jesus, God and Hell also. You may have guessed it already. I thought; “Santa Claus isn’t real.  The Easter Bunny isn’t real. Why should I believe that Jesus is real? Why should I believe God is real?” The only reason I could see or had heard to believe in Jesus or God was because; “If you don’t believe in Jesus you will go to Hell!” and “If you don’t believe in God you will go to Hell!” Well I thought; “What if Hell isn’t real either?” God was similar to Santa Claus in that supposedly, he was always watching and listening to you and like the elf he could even read your mind. The big difference was that Santa at worst would just short change you on toys at Christmas if you had been bad whereas, God would send you to Hell and burn you alive forever! That made doubting God an extremely dangerous idea. Nevertheless I still had my doubts. I devised a set of experiments which would establish whether or not God did in fact exist. Looking back I think I was fairly precocious. I would start small and go on to bigger and more risky (as in risking going to Hell!) proofs of Gods existence or nonexistence.

The first night of my experiments I waited until after my parents had tucked me in bed then, I merely requested God and/or Jesus to give me a sign, to show that they or at least one of them was real. Nothing happened. I was both disappointed and relieved. The next night I repeated this experiment with the same results. I frankly doubted that anyone was listening. I decided on a more drastic experiment was called for. I challenged the Lord of the Universe to show himself if he was real. Again nothing happened. I was scared because I was just a six-year-old kid and here I was daring God to show himself to me. Finally months later I took my experiment to the extreme! I dared God to zap me, strike me down, kill me, to hit me with a lightning bolt! My previous experiments had steeled me for this. I was afraid but I challenged God. I said something like; “If you’re real, kill me! Kill me right now! If you’re really there!” I repeated this experiment over and over night after night and nothing ever happened. I was seven and I was thinking that God was just a big fat lie. I knew though that there was another possibility. Sure the God I heard the kids on the block talking about should have killed me but, what if God wasn’t like that? Maybe God wasn’t as jealous as the Preacher at my parents church said he was. I thought perhaps God was too nice to kill me but, then why hadn’t this nice God revealed himself to me when I had asked him to? A nice God would have been nice and reassuring to me and a mean God would have zapped me. What kind of God would do neither of those things? A pretend God of course! I decided to ask an authority.

I had recently turned eight years old. One of the smartest people I have ever known was my father. When I was eight my dad held more authority than anyone else in the world. As far as I was concerned whatever my father had to say about this God stuff would settle my inner turmoil once and for all. I went to my dad and I asked him, “How do we know if there’s a God?” My father paused then explained that we live in a beautiful world that I had a wonderful older sister and a cute baby sister, and a mother and father who loved me and that this was how we know there is a God. I could tell that my dad, the wisest man in the world was just making this up as he went along, in essence he was bullshitting me (although it would be a year or two before that word entered my vocabulary). I went back to bed a confirmed atheist. I decided religious and spiritual matters were a waste of time and resolved never to consider such nonsense ever again. I got a good night’s sleep without worrying about either heaven or hell and deliberately didn’t say my prayers.

Living in a common sense world without mysticism and devoid of religious ritual was liberating. I was interested in facts. Mythology was kind fun because you didn’t have to take it seriously. Religion was an entirely different matter, those fools demanded to be taken seriously no matter how ludicrous their beliefs were. I resolved to only deal with empirical truths, the tangible stuff that can be shown to exist. I would only put my faith in objective reality. This stance served me well for about the next ten years.

Due to my childhood innocence my naiveté I utterly failed to recognize that so-called objective reality is a wholly subjective experience and also, a concept which cannot be empirically tested. There is no objective position from which to examine reality. No one can stand apart from reality and take a look at it. Does this subjectivism mean that all philosophies are equally valid and invalid?

Some people might want to believe so. They could say to their selves something like, “If ultimate truth is unknowable then I should keep on believing what I have always believed.” This is like saying that because we do not what “dark matter” is, I should keep on making lists for Santa Claus. This is more or less the stance of those modern day “New Age” shamans professing the power of visualization and intention. This is not to say that having a vision is not useful nor that having an intention is positive (assuming your intention is a good one). It is to say that, believing that merely visualizing something, merely having an intention will lead to tangible results is mumbo jumbo. Coincidences exist they are in fact extremely likely to happen periodically throughout a person’s life. Just like the child filling out an exhaustive list for Santa Claus the yearning mystic visualizing his or her desires is sooner or later bound to have one of them fulfilled. This is statistical proof that coincidences happen and that parents like to buy their children the things they want. Similar to the above described falderal people cling to the traditional religions because they prefer the false security of these untestable doctrines over the insecurity of facing their own utter ignorance about reality. Facing this ignorance is absolutely necessary. Disillusionment is a prerequisite for enlightenment.

We must abandon false beliefs. We must recognize our overwhelming ignorance. And then and only then will we be open to enlightenment.

Chapter 3.
 Intuition, Enlightenment & Genius

It seems likely that most people have had an experience of intuition. Could these experiences be evidence of some sort of enlightenment? Intuition is defined as:

1. Direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process; immediate apprehension.

2. A fact, truth etc., perceived in this way.

3. A keen and quick insight.

4. The quality or ability of having such direct perception or quick insight.

Examples of intuition might be even more helpful. Have you ever experienced (or heard of others experiencing) any of the following; Knowing the truth is I should pause before entering this intersection without any apparent objective evidence supporting this truth. Knowing this person I just met is a dangerous person despite his or her innocuous appearance. Knowing I should go to this function I have never heard of and not knowing why. These are all examples of intuition. If pausing before entering the intersection prevented an accident the intuition was correct. Similarly if the harmless looking person turns out to be some sort of predator the intuition was correct. And if going to the function leads to a lifelong friendship or wonderful romantic experience then the intuition was correct. The problem of course is that intuitions can also be wrong. Then it is called false intuition. So I suppose that intuition is always correct and false intuition is always wrong. I am not trying to be pedantic here. The point is as a human it is probably impossible to distinguish between intuitions and false intuitions without first relying on them and then examining the results. If the results are good then your intuition was correct, or rather then you had an intuition. If the results are bad you had a false intuition. It seems that any true enlightenment could hardly be so capricious. Another problem with identifying this sort of intuition with enlightenment is that there is no consensus on the true source of intuition. Some people attribute intuition to some so-called “sixth sense” or ESP (extra-sensory-perception) or even subconscious recollections from past lives which sounds, a whole lot like the sort of enlightenment so often hawked by psychics, mystics, new-age prophets and various other assorted shamans and gurus. On the other hand some more pragmatic individuals attribute intuition to subconscious pattern recognition. In other words the experience of intuition is a sudden hunch brought to consciousness by the accumulation of data on a subconscious level which presents a pattern the conscious mind needs to be aware of. The subconscious and unconscious monitoring systems accumulate information and only forward it to the conscious mind when it seems to form a significant pattern which the conscious mind needs to be aware of. Sometimes these predictions from the subconscious are correct and sometimes they are not. According to the pragmatists these predictions are based on experiences which are not being consciously recollected. This seems plausible. Current brain research such as that being conducted by David Eagleman evidences that subconscious and unconscious brain activity makes many more decisions for us than our conscious minds might like to believe. So intuition in the ordinary sense of the word probably is not evidence however fleeting of enlightenment. On the contrary it is more likely evidence of unconscious or at best subconscious control mechanisms. Our so-called conscious mind may literally be asleep at the wheel quite a bit of the time. There is another sort of intuition to consider though.

Philosophical intuition is different from day to day intuition. This type of intuition is defined as:

1. The immediate cognition of an object not inferred or determined by a previous cognition of the same object.

2. Any object or truth so discerned.

3. Pure, untaught, non-inferential knowledge.

Wow! That sounds impressive! I wonder, what does it mean? What it means is having knowledge despite the lack of any basis for that knowledge. A philosophical intuition is something a person knows even though they have no evidence for what they know. It does not mean knowledge of a supreme being since almost everyone has some preexisting information regarding a supreme being. A philosophical intuition requires knowledge which appears without any previous inkling. It is like a revelation which seemingly comes out of nowhere. Do such things really happen? Seemingly they do. There are references to such occurrences in various religious literatures. Even though none of these are verifiable it is clear that many people have purported to have experienced philosophical intuition going back for eons. Maybe where there is smoke there is a fire or at least a flame. One thing more recent geniuses seem to have in common with ancient prophets is the sudden occurrence of new knowledge. Is this really the case? Do great ideas and fantastic visions happen to people out of thin air? This seems doubtful. It is true that Nikola Tesla envisioned something like cell phone technology over a century ago. It is also true that Moses did not. The story is that Moses saw a burning bush that was not consumed by fire. Now that is pretty impressive, seeing as how the dry vegetation Moses was familiar with would probably burn as fast as a dried out Christmas tree. These visions are probably different for many reasons but at least one of the reasons is because of the different times in which Moses and Tesla lived. To Moses the non-burning burning bush was a miracle. Tesla would have conducted some sort of scientific investigation in order to understand how the bush managed to resist being burned to ashes. Tesla’s visionary science would get him labeled as a sorcerer in the time of Moses. The time must be right for a particular type of philosophic intuition to be possible. The late Neolithic was a good time to conjure up the wheel and animism, now is a good time to conjure up subatomic particles and extra dimensions of space and time. In other words it is doubtful that there actually are true philosophic intuitions, spontaneous non-inferential knowledge. Instead insights occur to people who want them but, who also live in a time, place and culture conducive to particular sorts of intuition. Genius may be something which is producible under the correct conditions. Is genius the same as enlightenment? I think that if all the false prophets and shamans were cast aside we might find that enlightenment and genius have very many intersections. As it stands now most geniuses seem averse to associating themselves with mysticism of any sort. I don’t blame them.

Chapter 4.
 Pursuing Enlightenment

  
Before pursuing the concept of nurturing genius further it would be best to examine some fundamental day to day realities which most people either do not know or maybe choose to ignore. It is a fact that only about 10% of the cells present in a person are human cells. The overwhelming numbers of cells which make up a physical person are other organisms, virus, bacteria, fungi, parasites etc. And the fact is that probably most of these other creatures are a necessity. There is no such thing as purely human person. A person is an amalgamation of organisms most noticeably a human organism which in concert with all the others functions as what we like to call a human being. This is an accurate description. Is it important? The answer is yes if we are seeking enlightenment. Otherwise it might be no. Why is it important to enlightenment? One fairly obvious answer is it would be impossible to become an enlightened person without first comprehending what a person is. That would be like trying to understand auto-mechanics without any knowledge of how an engine works, or perhaps more pointedly using quantum mechanics to justify esoteric speculations without any actual understanding of quantum mechanics. So it is important to understand what a human being is before striving to become an enlightened one. And why would we want to seek enlightenment anyway?

I think seeking enlightenment is important because without being enlightened we will never be able to answer the opening questions; so what is important and why? What really matters? What is happiness? With enlightenment maybe we will know the answers.

The significance of knowing what a human being is, of knowing what you are, is to dispel your illusions about yourself (to disillusion you). As we know disillusionment is a prerequisite for enlightenment. Now consider yourself as you actually are; you are an entire collection of organisms which seems to have an overall structure, kind of like a galaxy of stars or maybe an ocean filled with creatures, similarly you actually have no permanent shape, in fact your shape is far more transient than the outline of an ocean or the spiral arms of the Milky-Way, neither are you as lasting as an ocean or galaxy, you last almost no time at all. You might object and point out; that a galaxy is made up mostly of empty space and that you are solid, that an ocean is a shapeless liquid and you are solid, that both galaxies and oceans are controlled by forces outside themselves while you are an independent actor. You would be wrong about all these things. Galaxies are not mostly empty space. Actually there is no such thing as empty space. The space in galaxies is the space in between things. Ever since Einstein’s theory of relatively we have known that space plays a dynamic role in shaping the universe and everything in it. Besides all this our view of galaxies is limited just like our view of ourselves. If we could look at ourselves at an atomic level we would appear to be made up of mostly “empty” space too. As far as an ocean being a shapeless liquid and we being solid this may seem to be an observable fact. However if you observed a human being long enough you would notice that we flow just like a liquid. I am not talking about our abilities to move about or adopt various postures. I am talking about the flowing organic processes that alter us in physical ways over time. These processes are fluidic. We just normally lack the attention span to observe them. One day we look in a mirror and seem someone older than our self-image. Our self-image may be static but we are constantly changing. We may fail to see the alterations happen as they occur but no one can deny the evidence for very long. We have previously described just how negligible our so-called conscious control is in our lives but let’s examine how so-called “outside” forces shape us on a physical level. If you don’t know you should, that while astronauts are out in space away from earths gravitational pull some very significant changes start to happen to them. One of these is their muscles begin to deteriorate. Another is their bones become less dense. Their hearts are affected too. The pull of gravity shapes us physically. We cannot survive well without gravity. If gravity pulled much harder than it does here on earth we collapse due to the weight of it we would be unable survive. We are shaped to our environment here on this planet. We are dependent on, not independent from our environment here. The illusion is that, we are independent agents who live on a planet. The reality is, we are an orchestra composed of multitudinous organisms which cohabitate with their chief soloist in an environment which conducts them all. Our perceptions of reality are misperceptions. Fundamentally we are mostly blind, deaf and numb to what is really going on. Recognizing this is an initial step toward enlightenment. This is not esoteric gobbledygook it is not feigning mastery of the complexities of theoretical physics. It is paying attention to the facts and recognizing that in general we have been paying no attention to them at all.

Chapter 5.

The Cosmic Dance

I want to take a more poetic approach to things for a while. Most of us have at one time or another been mesmerized by the sight and sound of wind gusting through the trees or perhaps the waves lapping on shore of a lake. Nature has certain rhythms which at times syncopate with our own internal rhythms. When we notice this syncopation we get a sense of peace and harmony. It is one of the reasons people go to the ocean or the mountains, forest or even the high desert for some. Despite all our civilized ways we at times long for connection to nature. We do our best to disconnect from the natural world then long to return to it.

Our very breathing is a natural phenomenon. The very first thing you did subsequent to leaving the womb was take a breath. It will also be the very last thing you ever do. In between every minute of every day for your entire life you will be constantly breathing. This will always be true except for the rare times when you deliberately hold your breath. Breathing is the rhythm of living. Paying attention to breathing as in many forms of meditation is getting in touch with the rhythm of life.

When you breathe air enters your nasal passages where specialized cells detect its various contents. The brain determines whether or not these contents are good for you. If they are harmful they will likely have a foul odor (unless of course some human being has manipulated the contents of the air) and cause you to suspend breathing and hold your breath until some good air is available or until you can no longer hold your breath. Assuming the air is good you first notice it entering your nose. From there it goes into the nasal passages where various methods of filtering prevent particulate matter from going any further. Once the air has been gauged and filtered it winds up entering the lungs. At a submicroscopic level inside the lungs some very wonderful things occur. The lungs, in a way, work like a sponge. Just like a sponge can absorb liquid so the lungs at a submicroscopic level absorb tiny submicroscopic bits of the air. The air is full of submicroscopic bits which because we are mostly blind are invisible to us. Nevertheless we can prove to ourselves that they are there simply by blowing up a balloon. When we inflate a balloon we fill up the elastic envelope of the balloon with so many submicroscopic bits of air that is stretched out of its original shape. The lungs suck up some of these bits which we have decided to call oxygen. Then the lungs spit the bits of oxygen into red blood cells which come to the lungs directly from the heart but, the lungs don’t spit the bits of oxygen into the blood cells right away. First the lungs suck out some other submicroscopic bits we humans have decided to call carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is poisonous to us so it has to go. Oxygen is the main bit of matter needed in order to generate all the various processes which when conducted exactly right we call being alive.

So in the lungs this fundamental process of life occurs. Fresh air comes in and used up air goes out. So why doesn’t the air outside of us wind up going bad? After all there are a bunch of us air breathing animals around. As you likely already know it is the plants which prevent us from suffocating to death on our own exhalations. The plants do just the opposite of us animals. They suck in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. We could not live without them and they could not live without us, at least not in the extravagant forms life takes on this planet.

Many readers are getting the picture but, I will try to make it clearer for those who are still unfocused on it. First imagine the entire planet. Picture it in your mind. You have likely seen pictures of the planet we call earth taken from what we call outer space. It is mostly blue with white clouds and green and tan lands. Imagine the clouds circling about the earth. They are constantly moving. They appear to stream through the sky but we know they don’t actually do that. The clouds are carried about by the air which they are mixed with. The clouds are the visible evidence of the air we are blind from seeing. But we know the air is there moving all over the world. We see its power in the movement of the seas as it creates swells and waves which circle our globe. Over the land the air whooshes through a forest. As it does so it moves the leaves on tree about each leaf dancing with seemingly wild abandon. On some submicroscopic level within a particular leaf a tiny miracle occurs. A bit of carbon dioxide is absorbed and a bit of oxygen is expelled. Somewhere else on the planet a human being is reading and as that person reads a tiny bit of oxygen is absorbed into the person’s blood stream and a tiny bit of carbon dioxide is expelled and then exhaled into the surrounding air. These processes are happening constantly. Every living entity is intertwined with them. They are unceasing. The little blue planet spins on its axis. At any time half of it is in the light and half in the dark. This spinning sets up a rhythm of light and dark. Every living creature (except perhaps for some of those in the eternal darkness of the deepest seas) on the tiny blue planet lives in syncopation with dark and light rhythm created by the spinning of the planet. The spinning creates rhythms in the sky, rhythms in the sea and these create rhythms on the lands. Sometimes the rhythms are long drawn out dirges. Others are short little soloes. Some are gentle and some very violent. They are all part of one grand symphony and a vital contribution the symphony is supplied by all the life of the world breathing in and out. In and out, in and out, with every breath you take you play a part in the symphony that has been going on for billions of years and will last billions more.

Human beings seem especially self-aware. This probably has some advantage for individual survival which is likely why self-awareness has evolved in the first place. On the downside our extreme self-awareness has led to a sense of disconnection. We seem to have a hard time recognizing just how we fit into the grand scheme or recognizing if there is one. The rhythms of the world keep playing out but we are out of step we don’t get it. When humans do decide there must be some overall organizing principle to reality they tend to get all big-headed about it. All our religions revolve around ourselves. We may say they are about God but then it turns out that all God cares about is us. Far from helping us get in step with reality all our religions do is throw us further off track. We get tired of being isolated from and disconnected with reality and compensate by making up religions which completely reject reality insisting that a better reality is in store for us if only we believe hard enough. Meanwhile the world keeps spinning the rhythmic dance continues and human beings wrapped up in their self-consciousness cannot get the swing of it.