Cuz it's LIFE!

Week 13 - Bringing Forth Worlds

1. Would I agree that "to live is to know"?
2. Memory & Magic - how might I view things differently in the light of this article?

1.
"To live is to know" - define what is means to be alive and then define what it means to know...

I am able to find these agreeable definitions - to live is to exist and to know is to be aware.
In the context of autopoiesis, which is to 'self create', I would like to explain a little into why it is I believe that all of reality is 'self-creating' and simultaneously interrelating.

Here we have an attempt at explaining what it means to be 'living', to be 'cognitive' and to simply 'be' as put forth by Capra: "In the emerging theory of living systems mind is not a thing, but a process. It is cognition, the process of knowing [awareness], and it is identified with the process of life [existence] itself."

In his definitions of life, knowing and being, Capra describes a process of constant transformation, detailing, "A living system [existing system] is a multiply-interconnected network whose components are constantly changing, being transformed and replaced by other components." I read this statement as saying that any existing identifiable entity/system/living organism is a collection of distinct processes, interrelated with other similar systems of processes. At certain scales of observation we begin to identify the system of these systems and such an fractal-nature of reality can be observed to infinity into the very small to the very large... as seen in this elegant illustration -



With the logic of this mathematically-derived visualization, it is clear to me that if we find ourselves in the process of cognition/knowledge/awareness as a living being/self-existing, everything beyond and everything within to the infinite levels will carry the same basic structure and organizational nature, that is 'to exist' and 'to be aware'.

Fritjof illustrates the puzzle of 'things' and the seeming separateness of things, saying:

There is no fixed world out there or fixed objects. This is a difficult subject because it does not mean there is nothing there. It means that there are no "things" there with fixed outlines. So, for instance, when we look at a tree we see a certain outline of the tree and we say, "this is a tree"...we draw a picture of the tree and if we did a little test we would find that most of us wouldn't draw the roots...The part above the ground would be larger than the part showing the roots. But in nature, that's not so. The part below the earth is just as large. In fact, in the forest all the trees are interlinked so there is really only one system, only one network, and the trees nourish each other through this network of roots.

So who is to say where one tree begins and another tree ends? Then if you take a cat or a deer looking at a tree, they will see different outlines because their sensory apparatus is different. So what's the correct outline of the tree? Is it mine or is it the deer's or the rabbit's?

This shows you that what we call an object really depends on how we look at it and how we look at it depends on who we are.

But the important thing to recognize is that we don't need to go through this analysis all the time. This is important to understand.... this process of cognition and to understand how cognition is part of all levels of life. Once you have understood that, you can revert back to seeing external objects. You know in the back of your mind there are no really fixed objects but for us, as humans, we all see more or less the same objects. This is important so that we can say, "let's meet at such and such a place at such and such a time." We don't say there really is no such place; we bring it forth together. (1)

This brings to mind the Zen saying, which, of course, Fritjof shares -

Before you study Zen,
rivers are rivers and mountains are mountains.
While you study Zen rivers are no longer rivers
and mountains are no longer mountains.
But when you have reached enlightenment
rivers are again rivers and mountains are again mountains.

Separateness is only an illusion, perhaps useful, perhaps not. It is ultimately our choice to decide at which level(s) we wish to participate. I believe that by becoming aware of the universality of our nature, we take conscious part in more or all levels of Being and thus begin to participate in cooperation rather than in conflict...

Let's reconsider this position -

"When part of a dandelion is eaten by a rabbit, or when an animal is injured in an accident, those structural changes are not specified and directed by the organism; they are not changes of choice and are thus not acts of cognition. However, these imposed physical changes are accompanied by other structural changes (perception, response of the immune system, etc.) that are acts of cognition." (2)

What if this experience of being 'acted upon' is simply a limited cognition and therefore it appears as though the dandelion is 'not making a choice'? If we shift our understanding, we can understand that perhaps no one thing is making the decision or perhaps the ONLY thing is making decision - hence the conception and remembering of what is called 'Tao' or GOD or ALOHA...

Here is a description of how to experience this unity through conscious awareness or aware consciousness:

"The question may arise, why is it necessary to make contactwith the universal life energy? Are we not in direct and constant communication with it at all times? Yes, but we are not concious of it. On the contrary, we conciously beleive we are independant of it, that we have a life force of our own. We think we are seperate from all power. Therefore we need to reestblish on the mental plane that which was lost there, though we never lost that contact on the spiritual plane."

" There are different methods of contacting Primal energy. The easiest and the simplest way is through mental contact. In order to do it, we must relax completely as we can, physically, mentally, emotionally. And when we feel harmony within us then we must say to ourslves " I am one with the universal life energy it is flowing through me now, I feel it"


"In order to overcome that difficulty and enable everybody, even the most skeptical and timid, to make successful that conciouss contact with the universal life energy, there is another method of pure physical contact, based on pure physical laws. That second method has this advantage over the mental one, that it does not require any faith in it. It works for the reason that the physical laws are put into operation, and the physical contact with the universal energy is made, not because we think it or want it, but because we cannot help it." (3)

The prime-moving force of ALL THAT IS...

you can choose to be aware of yourself in it or choose to be (un)aware of your separate and unique qualities... either way you are taking part in greater and smaller processes...

so is "to live to know"? - surely, seeing as how it is that all we can know is that we exist [live], how could I assume anything else?


2.
This article on magic reminds me of some of the consciousness training that is described in the Dune series - in the distant future, human beings hone their mental faculties to be able to manipulate and alter perceptions through thought and intention. Some people are genetically and socially developed/trained to have extremely sensitive and focussed intellects/minds that can hold multiple layers of thought-emotion and control the bodily expression of such inner experiences.

I do not view things differently because I have already allowed my understanding of mind to incorporate so much more than is generally accepted.

Enjoy this...