Listening to Alan Watts "Out of Your Mind" Lecture Series, CD 1.
He makes an interesting point about what we are. We believe, and society posits, that we are individuals, that we are separate. He has an interesting argument for the opposite,
If we subscribe to the big bang theory, where all of space originated from the explosion of some matter, then we too, were a part of the big bang. The matter that is in us, that makes us up, was a part of the big bang. Furthermore, not only are we a part of the big bang, who decided the big bang was over? Who decided the creation of what's beyond us is over? It's not. So, not only were we a part of the big bang, or the creation, the creation is still going on, and we are apart of that.
Let's use an egg hitting a wall as a metaphor for the big bang. If you were to throw an egg on the wall- it spreads out. As humans we're on the edge of the splatter. We're a little egg drobuel*. In our pursuit of science and in pursuit of defining our experiences we've had to break the whole story (the whole egg splatter) into smaller parts... and since these parts are what we interact with on a daily basis, the broken, or non-whole-picture definitions find their way into culture and we start seeing ourselves as a distinct part rather than the whole. Though this we lose the bigger picture of what we are: matter in ongoing creation.
He continues to explain that as humans we need to start connecting with that fundamental truth- that we are creation, we are all one- not only with each other as a species, or with other animals and plants, or with the world, but with the distant star, with everything. I imagine if we start looking upon the world with this lens, we'll change. How do you think we'd change?
*Drobuel: DRo-bú-El, Nown. A goopy droplet.
If we identified as the continuing arc of existence itself, as integral to the whole scheme of things, we would not be chronically insecure, which would make a big difference indeed. We would know we are home, that we belong where we are. There wouldn't be this general inner vacuum crying for fulfillment, desperate for fulfillment. We wouldn't be impelled to consume endlessly; we would be satiable. We would be enough. That isn't to say everything would be "ideal", just that we would be much more stable, less worried and confused. Less fearful. Less consumptive. More willing to trust ourselves, our instincts. Perhaps more reverent. We would know who we are, which is connected, which goes a long way.
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