This World Is A Communion: Any Other View Is Illusory. © Charles Njue 2010
"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ" If I told that you don't know what a tree is, you'd probably look at me ridiculously. You'd think I was joking right? But seriously, what is a tree? If I gave you just a minute, would you draw what you think a tree is? If there was 10 people in the room, do you think they'd all draw the very same thing? Many people draw only a trunk and branches, and perhaps, some leaves. The roots of the tree, interestingly enough, will usually be missing. Why? Because as visual creatures, we begin to create visual symbolic references in the world around us, and ignore the total picture. Consider what a really complete picture of a tree would look like. Would it include the ground? Rain or sunshine? The insects or animals that help the tree to reproduce? Should we include other trees? The earth herself? Our solar system? Just how do we define a 'thing'? Do we include the things it needs to exist? Or just its basic shape? Finally, if indeed your friends didn't draw roots, what does that mean about our usual psychology? Does it matter if we have a generally incomplete view of the world? What about you? Who are you? If we removed your arm and replaced it with a state-of-the art robotic hand, are you still you? What if both your legs get chopped off? How about when they give you an artificial heart? At what point do you cease to become yourself? Many people will begin having the most trouble when it comes to the head. Replacing the face, for instance, is difficult for some people. And the most difficult part? Usually the brain. If you get brain cancer, and the doctors replace your brain with this computerized one, even after they download your brain contents. . . well, we don't feel so sure that we'd actually be there. But What if only a tiny portion of your brain – say 2% — was diseased, and they were going to replace only that portion with a computerized replacement? Most of us have no trouble saying we'd still be ourselves. Now replace another 2% each year – for the next 50 years. Most of us find it curiously easier to think that we'd retain our 'self' if we do the replacement slowly, rather than quickly. It has been determined that we replace nearly every atom in our bodies within a seven to twelve year cycle. Every part replaced. But we don't think we're our bodies, do we? We think we're something more – that we have a soul, or an inner beingness. We could have long discussions here. It is interesting to note that a person can get into a terrible car accident and have their brain damaged beyond repair so that their heart and breathing is only kept going via life-support machines. And some people will still think that the person still retains their Self. Only when the 'plug is pulled' do we finally feel the person is 'gone'. What is it that left when the plug was pulled? Probably only hope. Hope that somehow, the person could be returned to us. But what is it we want returned? What Are We, Really?  Most of us can become helplessly confused when we try to peg down just what it is that makes up a person. Again, we can create our own arbitrary answer, but there is no 'true' or 'correct' answer apart from our own opinions. In the end, the best most of us can do is to say that we have a 'soul', 'higher self', or 'universal being' who is truly ourselves. We've created an undefined symbol, and since we have this vague feeling that there is something 'more' to ourselves, this gives us a sense of relief, as long as we don't think about the concept too much and begin to discover how weak its foundations are. Start questioning, and accumulating a very personal opinion about 'self', and if we can't find a 'Self', simply acknowledge that as far as you can discover, there is no enduring Self. If we look clearly, we can find perceptions, emotions, memories, and thoughts. And that's all. But how terrifying to think that we have no Self! That's, well . . . that's like we don't even exist! But if we observe, even when we've become convinced that we don't exist, we somehow notice that here we are anyway. How about that? What we fail to see is that it is our creation of the imaginary Self in the first place that causes all our problems! Once we create the imaginary Self, we can fear losing it. And since we fear that our Self will be affected by negative changes, we battle our entire lives to keep the Self preserved. This is why people can get so angry when others disagree with them – your Self must forge its identity out of things like opinions. If your opinion is cut down, a part of you is cut down. Then it is finally time to die – what a horror! The Self we have battled to upkeep all our lives – the meaning of our lives – is about to be swept away. What an emancipation it is to simply die right now – to see the Self as it really is. Not a real thing, not an unreal thing. Just as it is, at this very moment. Then we can get down to the business of actually enjoying life and inspiring others to enjoy theirs. Seeing the Self for 'what it is' is probably the most difficult of realizations. We want so desperately to cling to our notion of beingness that we will find all sorts of subtle ways to hold onto a sense of Self. But letting go of Self is letting go of the fear, of the stress and irritation and all the other burdens of life. And that, some might say, is the definition of Joy. A Study on Identity "  Our mindset depends on line-drawing for its existence. Language draws lines with every word we speak, constantly reinforcing our divisions. We'd never want to abandon language, of course! If only we could see that language isn't 'real', but is actually an invention of the human mind. Words have reality only by mutual agreement. We attach our words to the most obvious representation of that thing, according to our senses. For instance, its said the size of our sun, is about 870,000 miles in diameter. But is it? They are talking about the part we can see – the photosphere. The heliosphere of the sun extends out 150 to 300 times the distance from the earth to the sun. Is this a part of the sun? Scientists actually divide the sun into different layers, many of which would make the sun much larger than the stated 870,000 miles. So what really is the sun, and how large is it? Of all our senses, we rely most on our eyes, yet they see the tiniest sliver of possible kinds of light. Because we are most dependent on sight, we place the boundary of most 'things' at the point where our vision tells us their 'edge' is. Our lines and boundaries can be useful, but we too often confuse them with reality. This really is 'The Identity Crisis'. Let's look at an object common to us all – a car – and see if we really know what a car is. If anyone finds out what a car actually is, please let me know. Say you have just bought a red Merc. You have named it Risasi, and gotten yourself a personalized license plate with the name 'Risasi' in bold letters. She is beautiful and drives like a charm. a friend who owns a junkyard also got an identical make, model, year and color Merc. Which of these two cars is Risasi? It may seem like a silly question, and most of us will have a clear answer. But as we'll see, it's a very important question. You drive Risasi for a year, then Things Begin to Get Confusing; the starter goes out. Bummer! But you call your friend and he takes the starter from the car in the garage and puts it in Risasi. Is Risasi still Risasi? Of course! As time goes on, the tires lose their tread, and you replace them too. Is Risasi still Risasi? Of course! Then you get in a minor accident, and a door is banged. You just replace it with a door from the car in the garage! Then you replace the muffler and the tie rods. Is Risasi still Risasi? What about when you replace the engine and the transmission? The interior seats? And what about when the chassis is so rusted that your friend just takes the nice chassis from the warehouse and replaces that? At some point in this replacement process, does Risasi become the car in the warehouse? Or does Risasi retain her identity? Eventually, the entire car in the warehouse is gone and every single part of Risasi has been replaced with the parts from the car which is now gone. Some of us would still consider the car to be Risasi. Especially if we still have the license plate which says 'Risasi' in big, bold letters. For some reason, if the car's parts are swapped out over ten years, we feel that Risasi retains her identity. But in the beginning, we wouldn't acknowledge that the other car was Risasi. Even though, ten years later, we have that very car from our friend's warehouse, in all its material components, right before us. What Does This Tell Us? The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there. – Yasutani Roshi It gives us an interesting perspective of how much importance time plays in our sense of identity. And it shows us that we are a bit confused about just what makes up 'Risasi'. We find it doesn't really have anything to do with material components. It has a lot more to do with a label that we fix on an apparent, solid object. Taking that object apart and replacing it with another therefore confuses us, leaving us with no choice but to make an arbitrary decision. What specific parts contain the 'essence' of Risasi? Is there a percentage of replacement – say 50% or 70%, where Risasi ceases to be Risasi and becomes the car from the warehouse? Or will we posit a 'soul' – a mysterious essence which is the true 'Risasi', and isn't dependent on how many replacement parts are used? Whatever we choose, we've made an arbitrary decision, no more right or wrong than any other. Indeed, if we think back to the first time we parked Risasi side-by-side next to the car in the warehouse, we might find it a bit more difficult to support our conviction that the car in the warehouse was not Risasi. So What Then Is Truth? If We Only Have This Incomplete View, What Is Truth? What Really Then, Is A Tree? "You are a child of the universe, nor less than a tree or the stars…." Desiderata by Max Ehrmann Science attempts to distill truth using the methods of observation and model-making. A scientist observes a piece of reality (e.g. the Earth orbits the Sun) and then creates a story to explain these observations. Scientific stories are called 'conceptual models'. Early on in the study of a system, the observations made are mostly qualitative and the conceptual models are expressed using a natural language, such as English (e.g. the Earth orbits the Sun due to gravitational forces). Later, as the system becomes better understood, the observations become quantitative and the models are expressed using the 'language' of mathematics. The most important scientific models are mathematical and can predict observations that have not yet been made. The scientific process is really not much different from what non-scientists do on a daily basis when we navigate our environment. We collect observations about reality (e.g. Njue is in such a good mood) and make models to explain them (e.g. Njue must have gotten that raise). We then go out and collect further observations and, hopefully, refine our models using this new information (e.g. Njue just got engaged!). In other words, our conceptual models of reality are never true in any absolute sense; they simply reflect reality more and more accurately as they are refined through additional observation; mathematically speaking, we could say that our conceptual models asymptote to absolute truth. The most we can claim about any model is that it has not yet been proven wrong. And even when a model describes one aspect of reality very well it can often fail to describe another aspect at all. For instance,
1 Corinthians 12:13 So, if our thoughts about reality aren't absolutely true, then where does that leave us? Are we forever bound to live in a fantasy land? Not at all. We have access to another form of truth, absolute truth, at all times through the simple act of observation. Before the mind starts analyzing, deconstructing and conceptualizing our experience, there is just pure, unadulterated reality right at our fingertips. Reality is happening all the time; we just need to stop thinking about it and simply observe it. For some of us, the need to experience absolute truth is ingrained in our being. It feels as if we cannot live without it. For others, it seems less important. But there are good reasons for everyone to experience reality directly, at least from time to time. One reason is that our conceptual models of the world often limit our lives in unhelpful ways. For instance, I might have a model of reality that says I am not a very good tennis player. Now, it is true that I wouldn't score very well against Roger Federer, but having this conceptual model might just prevent me from playing tennis at all, and thus prevent me from having a really great time on the tennis court. Instead of letting my model dictate my experience, I can directly observe my experience on the tennis court and realize that I really enjoy playing tennis, no matter the outcome. Our conceptual models can also be very unhelpful if they express ideals that diverge significantly from reality. For instance, if my conceptual model says that I should be as attractive as Brad Pitt and as good at tennis as Roger Federer then this might make it very difficult for me to accept my life just as it is. I might even fall into a depression because I am unable to live up to the ideals expressed in my model. However, if I simply observe the reality of my life without using a conceptual model to judge whether it is good or bad then I can still aspire to look good and play tennis well, but I can also accept my experience no matter what happens. The reason that all language ultimately fails in describing reality is that it arbitrarily dissects reality into different pieces and then assumes that these pieces have an inherent, objective existence. For instance, we can use a conceptual model to clearly distinguish between two different waves at sea. However, in reality there is just the ocean doing its thing. The waves do not, and never did, have an objective existence; they are simply artifacts of our minds. Think also about a whirlpool at a certain site along a river; people come from very far to see the water whirling round and round. The whirlpool even has a name, like we also name waterfalls, like the 'Thompson falls', but is this really conceptual or absolute; we look closely, we find that the whirlpool has no inherent identity, there never is really the same water in that spot, its just the river doing its thing – water continually passing endlessly. Similarly, the very concepts of 'you' and 'I', and 'good' and 'bad' express only relative truths, not absolute truth; we are just the universe doing its thing. This points out the futility of attempting to experience only the 'good' aspects of reality without experiencing the 'bad'. Reality includes everything without distinction; as soon as we label one aspect of our experience as 'good' we automatically create another aspect that is 'bad'. In the end it is just reality doing its thing and we can either accept it or not. And that's really the problem with our world; we rely on conceptual models, which are just descriptions of reality based upon language and since language, concepts, words and thoughts tend to draw this lines and illusory divisions of reality they are only capable of expressing relative truth. Children are born with the ability to see the connections, but adults lose the ability to see the magic because they've been taught how to divide the world into pieces. But these pieces don't really exist! They are only in our minds. As an example, let's imagine that we're looking out two great Mountains. In the distance we see two craggy peaks. Now, watch carefully, and you'll see how this fantasy-creation works. Standing there, you can easily point to the two mountains in the distance. Because we 'know' what a mountain is (even though we've never really thought about it), we simply point to each mountain and call one But what happens if a helicopter picks us up and deposits us on the top of When we begin to understand that the two mountains aren't really two mountains, but are only two mountains in our imaginary fantasy world, then we get a clearer understanding of what the two mountains are. They are both one thing, and they are also two mountains (in the human mind), and if we start to think about how animals and rain and geologic forces and sunlight and the whole universe help to make the mountains what they are, then we start to see that the mountains are really indescribable – any description we put onto them is only a way of making the 'reality' of the mountains into a 'fantasy' in our minds. To see the mountains as they really are, we have to see them without putting any of our labels on them. This is why Zen folks sometimes describe reality as 'nothingness'. Because if we call reality something, we start to divide it from the rest of the world. And the world isn't really divided except in our minds. This is what non dualism refers to. This doesn't apply just to mountains, either. Take two people – say, you and a friend of yours. We think it's obvious that we're two different people, but how much does your friend affect who you are? Would you be the same person if they weren't in your life, or have they taught you things or helped to shape your interests and behavior? What about your parents, or television, or the food you eat? What is 'you' and what isn't? These are important questions to answer for ourselves. If we don't, we end up merely following everyone else's opinion, and never discover for ourselves what the world really is, and who we really are. This is it! Conceptual models, language and thoughts in general are extremely useful and necessary when navigating our lives. However, they can also be unhelpful when they prevent us from living life to the fullest. Discernment is necessary to see when our models and thoughts are helpful and when they are keeping us enslaved. Interestingly, directly observing reality without a conceptual filter for significant periods of time, also known as contemplation or meditation, can help us to see clearly when our models are working well and when they are making our lives more difficult, and can help us identify new models and strategies to deal more effectively with our life. Strong, consistent observation can even provide deep insight into reality and the nature of consciousness itself. In the end, though, this is it. Absolute truth is right here, right now. We need look no further. References: 1st Corinthians 12:12 – 27 NIV Max Ehrmann © 1927 The desiderata Share 
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