Plague Journal, Life !
Our discussion topic last night was a question with three words: “What is life?“
Thoughts have come to mind about this intriguing question that I wish to express. In the course of wrestling with the topic last night one of our members referenced the famous lines of Shakespeare from Macbeth, Act V, Scene V, “life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player/That struts and frets his hour upon the stage/And then is heard no more, It is a tale/told by an idiot, full of sound and fury/signifying nothing.” My friend observed that since life has no inherent meaning, a conclusion of nihilism is thereby justified. Perhaps that is true. I am certain that those lines are so familiar to us, having been read and spoken out loud so often, that they’ve become a default of sorts, and we no longer reason about them. We are comfortable with the surface meaning.
The point that I’d offer about “life” is disclosed by a clue, three words in the lines penned by Shakespeare: “a tale told.” Human life as observed from the inside is about a Subject, male or female who is the leading man or leading woman in the production of the one life, the one opportunity which they will ever have to play center stage. Life is theatrical — a matter of actions and lines delivered, lines which make a difference. Every life, every organism makes a difference, changes its environment.
My friend offered puzzlement as to why anyone would want to say anything at all about life. Why would anyone desire to reflect upon life? Most mammals, and all organisms as far as we know, simply live. They show no evidence of being concerned in the least about “the meaning of life.” Certainly there are those among us human beings that journey through the days allotted by their genetic clock with the same orientation: eat/survive, procreate, and die.
A human being, language enabled, self aware, blessed and afflicted with the ability to categorize their environment, including others, has an option unavailable to other mammals: intellectual reflection. Another shorthand term for this is “doing philosophy.” To ask “What is…” is an order of mental activity made possible by signs, words to which we, together have assigned arbitrary meanings. The minds ability to manipulate these symbols allows us to read layers of significance from experience, not obvious on the surface.
What I wish to say about life is an observation made from the inside. Life is story (words/promises), — a telling comprised of genetic code, and of the relatively fixed resources of nature, and of culture in a particular location, the stage props to our production. The fabulous aspect of the matter, a story telling, social mammal, influences, and is influenced by the spoken and written words of the entire cast of characters presently on stage, as well as those who’ve reached completion of their lines, those who have departed the stage. We play off of one another. It is improv. As was mentioned last night, how great has been the effect of the words penned by Plato and penned by Shakespeare upon us today? We continue to play off of Shakespeare’s words.
Is contemplating this not delightful, a most shocking surprise ?!
How about a song to get us through? This composed by Bono of U2 gets the job done.
4 thoughts on “Plague Journal, Life !”
An interesting discussion indeed.
I thought it ironic that, as one ‘truth seeker’ mentioned, people are concerned about what happens when we die, extrapolating that most are concerned about the ‘afterlife’ and need to feel that the end of our present journey isn’t THE END.
Ironic to me because I have spent the last couple of decades living a manner of which the ultimate goal is Nibbana, liberation from birth/rebirth. A pity that I do such a lousy pursuit of that goal but I live a more fulfilling life then I have prior to this goal.
I have commented previously on the Tathagata’s (a Pali and Sanskrit word meaning beyond all transitory phenomena; beyond coming and going) refusal to comment about what happens when we die, intoning that a better life now is of most import.
In my infancy of this path I spent several evenings in discussion with monks, Abbotts, and even the Chair of Eastern Religion and Studies at Northwestern University about that question and the difference between rebirth and reincarnation. I have concluded that the difference is, put succinctly, ‘ego identification’. Y’all here are a smart bunch, so I leave it to y’all to figure that one out, and besides, it would take me too long to fumble that one down the field.
I’m fairly smart and modestly well-read but over the years I feel less inclined to pursue the intellectualizations of life but will gladly join in the conversation of ‘living’.
I was fond that one seeker broached the idea that we may not be the most significant form of life on this planet. I followed Dr. John Lilly’s work on communication with dolphins in the mid sixties. Lilly, a neurophysiologist, pioneered the ‘isolation tank’ and after ultimately concluding that his dolphin research efforts were stymied by the fact that his consciousness wasn’t ‘expanded’ enough, thought to go into these tanks after massive doses of the clinical LSD manufactured by the Swedish pharmaceutical company, Sandoz. He thought it narcissistic of man to assume he was the most significant of species. He believed that dolphins went to great length to mimic human sounds but the impediment to communication was the differing frequencies they and we communicate on. Lilly had graduated from Cal IT with a degree in biology and physics, and later, a medical degree from the U of Pennsylvania. He believed further that having no need for external attributes in which to build, transport and gather was what kept us apart from them. I concluded early on in my research that humanity (without mechanization) exists on a two dimensional world while dolphins and whales exist in a three dimensional world.
Later I discovered that many scientists consider that the acute angle of frontal lobes in mammals can indicate intelligence. Dolphins come close to ours and whales possess closer frontal lobe angles than ours.
A very entertaining discussion that to me underscored our arrogance. I find life easier if I start at the point that life is dissatisfaction/suffering and work from there. I took many psychological substances in my twenties (including, before criminalized, clinical Sandoz LSD ). While some have thought I had taken too much, I personally believe I didn’t take enough. While I know that Cary Grant (to name but one that we all know), took many hundreds of enriching LSD ‘trips’ trips in later life, I’m concerned that although it may provide the answer to the many questions I still have, I am at present too emotionally damaged for such investigations, so I will continue to stumble along my present path, one step forward, two to the side and repeat, guided by the Tathagata’s Five Remembrances.
Blessings, fellow seekers of truth
Taking LSD or any pharmacological if one is not ill, is a bad idea. Granted the impossibility of knowing reality in itself, — any number of realities are possible. It pays to be careful.
I disagree. Psychoactive substances have been in use for millennia by indigenous peoples the world over to gain spiritual enlightenment and to enhance their cognitive abilities – even the knowledge that ‘any number of realities are possible’. Found in nature, the peyote plant, mescaline, psilocybin (a naturally occurring psychedelic prodrug compound produced by more than 200 species of fungus, and many others, even certain frog secretions, have done more good than harm, if one is so inclined to think of these things in such manner.
Unfortunately all such activities gained a bad rep during the later sixties. Thanks in part, in no small measure, to Dr. Timothy Leary, whose ashes are now floating in space after being carried aboard a space flight. I submit that the yang to your yin that I propose can be evident in what happened then. I will further submit that here in the West, a good time is more often sought than enlightenment. To continue; at the time of Leary’s shenanigan’s, there was very promising scientific research being conducted with LSD, ranging from the rehabilitation of alcoholics to PTSD trauma experienced by returning troops from the Vietnam war. Leary and his associate Richard Alpert were conducting experiments of their own at Harvard. Except Leary’s results (not limited to LSD, but also certain of the above mentioned substances) resulted in the ubiquitous enjoiner, “Tune in, turn on and drop out”.
When booted out of Harvard, Dr. Alpert joined a Buddhist monastery and became a preeminent author of Buddhist Teachings as Ram Dass. Dr. Leary on the other hand joined the circus. While the teachings revealed by Ram Dass exhort to not engage in the practice of ‘Bad Speech’, I contend a better advocate for LSD research could have been found. Of the all the many biographies of Leary that have been printed, I think the one by Robert Greenfield to be the best. It’s an informative and entertaining read, particularly of the time when all these events occurred.
The words of Ram Dass speak for themselves.
Blessings
Will limit myself to moderate amounts of alcohol, and a lot of music.