Does “anything” have inherent or fundamental identity?!?…..
I think, am fairly sure in fact, that the cat that lives with us now wants me to be more of a cat, more like her, more on her wavelength, than the other cat who lived with us several years ago. The previous cat thought she was a human among humans, not like this one, who thinks we are cats, but slightly bizarre ones, that need much, much teaching.
My question is, which cat was on her first life, and which was on her last?
And what is causation?!?……
A question that I decide to sleep on. You? Anyone? Everyone? @;-)
From interdependent causes, all things arise and fade away.
So teaches the perfectly enlightened one.
I think there are really two parts of this:
(1) nothing has an inherent quality. Everything is made up of other things. Take a piece of bread, e.g. It’s not made of “bread”. It’s made up of wheat, sun, water, heat, yeast, etc. It has no part that is “bread”. And each of the things it’s made up of is not inherent, either, but made up of other things. That’s the interdependent causes part.
(2) the existence of everything depends on the existence of everything else. Nothing that exists can exist without everything else existing. This is the web of interconnectedness and interbeing. Inside each thing is everything else.
I hope it isn’t, but this comment is probably making things worse. Anyway, those are just opinions I have. Some are agreed with by Thich Nhat Hanh if not the Buddha. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that each of us, if we care to, examine reality and reach our own conclusions about what it might be.
Life is affirmed every moment spent nursing, life-giving milk that only a mother and child experience together.
With every first step, smile, bloody fall.
With every crayon-colored smiling stick figure-life is affirmed!?!
Not everyone experiences birth positively, you say!?!
To each her own perception, baby is ‘not’ inherently happy, it’s much warmer/darker/tighter/protected inside mum.
Mum, spiritual/hormonal/exhaustion overload, yet something tugs inside for closeness/protection/warmth/separation.
I’ve read a book called Continuum Concept prior to having children, authored by Jean Liedloff. In this book she describes the continuum as:
…an idea that in order to achieve optimal physical, mental and emotional development, human beings – especially babies – require the kind of experience to which our species adapted during the long process of our evolution.
And
…It is no secret that the “experts” have not discovered how to live satisfactorily, but the more they fail, the more they attempt to bring the problems under the sole influence of reason and disallow what reason cannot understand or control.
We are now fairly brought to heel by the intellect; our inherent sense of what is good for us has been undermined to the point where we are barely aware of its working and cannot tell an original impulse from a distorted one.
…[Determining what is good for us] has for many millions of years been managed by the infinitely more refined and knowledgeable areas of the mind called instinct. … [The] unconscious can make any number of observations, calculations, syntheses, and executions simultaneously and correctly.
What happens when the continuum stops!?! Humans evolve unnaturally?!?
In our western culture, the media will not affirm a positive maternal role, our culture looks down on stay-at-home mothers.
I say the cause of many problems is a broken continuum!?!
Caused by the lack of positive maternal roles in society.
To be cute….are you a particle or a wave? And what’s yer sign?
To attempt to answer….Something has an inherent, fundamental identity, we are part of that and trying to figure out what it is/we are.
Causation was what set this grand quest in motion …long ago and far away. Which doesn’t,of course, prevent localized phenomena being interpreted as causation, since it is the same impulse towards movement.
I think inherit identity depends on the basis or perception of reality. I’ll change my mind about which reality I’m adhering to based on the situation I find myself in. In my apartment I like to think objects have identity when I touch them because it makes me feel grounded and attached. When I meet people or interact in social situations I base identity on my perceptions and observations because at the moment it’s all I have to go on. There are a few socially constructed realities I adhere to just to make life easier but I like to push other people’s buttons about it when at all possible because I think that’s malleable. On the other hand when I’m dreaming I confuse them all. So no. or yes. Depending on your perception 🙂
Causality I’m not as concerned with I guess. I’m sure there is some meaning behind why certain situations or things will cause a variant situation or thing to occur, but in the overall I think there is a constant flowing at some pace I’ll never understand (wave particle duality as it were). Contemplation is fun, but I’m not about to solve the mysteries of the universe by thinking hard enough at it. If that were the case surely someone would have figured it out by now. I just know that I control my own actions and my own reactions, and to a larger extent my own reality. So whatever happens in that construct is a direct result of something I did, but is by no means exclusive or dependent on myself….everyone’s combined realities just bumping into each other.
To a further extent I feel the same way about the picture exercises.
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i think a stone is distinct from a leaf.
a dog is not a cat.
and i need to stand on my own. speak for myself. because, and i don’t know why, i am distinct from you.
fundamental identity? or our nature.
and perhaps the most elemental thing of all is the relationship of one to another… it’s how gravity works and weather and how we work…
one thing to another.
so glad to see you write an essay!
thurs nites pony: https://www.docudharma.com/show…
came about because i was on this path, i think.
i’m not sure~ it’s late, i have imbibed…
i was thinking how i once heard that what separates us from ‘the animals’ is that we can think of self…
hmmmm… do we know that say an ant does not?
what about a dolphin? do they have a sense of self? i think so… i wonder if we have it wrong…
dolphins and whales are what we evolve into?
and what about the herd thing? herd instinct. herd mentality.
you can see it orange in action…
can we not change that so everyone goes somewhere good?
i’m sorry…i’m prolly completely off topic by now 🙁
Does “anything” have inherent or fundamental identity?!?…..
I think, am fairly sure in fact, that the cat that lives with us now wants me to be more of a cat, more like her, more on her wavelength, than the other cat who lived with us several years ago. The previous cat thought she was a human among humans, not like this one, who thinks we are cats, but slightly bizarre ones, that need much, much teaching.
My question is, which cat was on her first life, and which was on her last?
And what is causation?!?……
A question that I decide to sleep on. You? Anyone? Everyone? @;-)
I think there are really two parts of this:
(1) nothing has an inherent quality. Everything is made up of other things. Take a piece of bread, e.g. It’s not made of “bread”. It’s made up of wheat, sun, water, heat, yeast, etc. It has no part that is “bread”. And each of the things it’s made up of is not inherent, either, but made up of other things. That’s the interdependent causes part.
(2) the existence of everything depends on the existence of everything else. Nothing that exists can exist without everything else existing. This is the web of interconnectedness and interbeing. Inside each thing is everything else.
I hope it isn’t, but this comment is probably making things worse. Anyway, those are just opinions I have. Some are agreed with by Thich Nhat Hanh if not the Buddha. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that each of us, if we care to, examine reality and reach our own conclusions about what it might be.
at every birth.
With every first breath, heartbeat, tear.
Life is affirmed every moment spent nursing, life-giving milk that only a mother and child experience together.
With every first step, smile, bloody fall.
With every crayon-colored smiling stick figure-life is affirmed!?!
Not everyone experiences birth positively, you say!?!
To each her own perception, baby is ‘not’ inherently happy, it’s much warmer/darker/tighter/protected inside mum.
Mum, spiritual/hormonal/exhaustion overload, yet something tugs inside for closeness/protection/warmth/separation.
I’ve read a book called Continuum Concept prior to having children, authored by Jean Liedloff. In this book she describes the continuum as:
And
What happens when the continuum stops!?! Humans evolve unnaturally?!?
In our western culture, the media will not affirm a positive maternal role, our culture looks down on stay-at-home mothers.
I say the cause of many problems is a broken continuum!?!
Caused by the lack of positive maternal roles in society.
Who IS asking?
To be cute….are you a particle or a wave? And what’s yer sign?
To attempt to answer….Something has an inherent, fundamental identity, we are part of that and trying to figure out what it is/we are.
Causation was what set this grand quest in motion …long ago and far away. Which doesn’t,of course, prevent localized phenomena being interpreted as causation, since it is the same impulse towards movement.
Plus….tequila is tasty.
because i know nobody sees me how i see me. and a more egotistical me might posit that people dont see me for what i am..
but i know that, to them, i am what they see me as.
and i cant speak to anyone/thing’s identity but my own.
causation may be egocentric as well….ill have to think on it. mostly its interpretive…or at least subject to perspective…
Author
I will return tomorrow….
your beauty and your light are always so sweet and warm….
thanx for the dialogue, you have given me much to reflet upon….
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I think inherit identity depends on the basis or perception of reality. I’ll change my mind about which reality I’m adhering to based on the situation I find myself in. In my apartment I like to think objects have identity when I touch them because it makes me feel grounded and attached. When I meet people or interact in social situations I base identity on my perceptions and observations because at the moment it’s all I have to go on. There are a few socially constructed realities I adhere to just to make life easier but I like to push other people’s buttons about it when at all possible because I think that’s malleable. On the other hand when I’m dreaming I confuse them all. So no. or yes. Depending on your perception 🙂
Causality I’m not as concerned with I guess. I’m sure there is some meaning behind why certain situations or things will cause a variant situation or thing to occur, but in the overall I think there is a constant flowing at some pace I’ll never understand (wave particle duality as it were). Contemplation is fun, but I’m not about to solve the mysteries of the universe by thinking hard enough at it. If that were the case surely someone would have figured it out by now. I just know that I control my own actions and my own reactions, and to a larger extent my own reality. So whatever happens in that construct is a direct result of something I did, but is by no means exclusive or dependent on myself….everyone’s combined realities just bumping into each other.
To a further extent I feel the same way about the picture exercises.