Aummmmmmmmmm............

Thinking about the concept of universal oneness- first, I have to admit that I'm far from averse to the idea. In my opinion, there are plenty of solid, logical arguments which point that way, including scientific ones. Even Carl Sagan, at the beginning of his 'Cosmos' series, says something to the fact that 'we are the universe looking at itself'....admittedly, not sure to what degree he was trying to sound poetic. Plus, I cut my Eastern philosophical teeth on Alan Watts, so I have a certain...bias.

I suppose this puts the antinatalist argument in a different context; but after just a little consideration, it's pretty obvious that things don't really change that much. Indeed, boundaries between material entities and personalities may lose their integrity upon minute examination. We are more whirlpools in the stream than rocks, and even rocks eventually re-join the flow. But does this philosophy negate the reality of suffering, like some suggest?
Here's the Buddhist take on it...

"Mere suffering exists, no sufferer is found.
The deeds are, but no doer of the deeds is there.
Nibbana [Nirvana] is, but not the man that enters it.
The path is, but no traveller on it is seen,"

From the text, Visuddhimagga IVI, verse 90

So, instead of an actual, autonomous entity bearing the suffering, the suffering is simply a detail bound up in the universe, and manifested in the illusory 'world of appearances'. One of the necessary consequences of flux, perhaps. There are lots of ways to frame it, actually...Eastern religious/philosophical thought is rich and varied.

Let's go with the idea...what are we left with? A world with suffering as one of its basic components. But surely, at least as far as we can see, the suffering isn't spread out evenly throughout the universal matrix. No one would equate the suffering of a horse with that of a piece of granite. It seems that complexity has a lot to do with the depth of suffering experienced in any particular...what? Clump in the existential fabric? Node in the universal thought complex? Knot in the gut of the Atman? Whatever. Nevertheless, suffering still exists, and seems to manifest itself more acutely in fish than rocks, in dogs than fish, and in humans most of all. There's some speculation in this view, admittedly, but I don't think it's overly unreasonable speculation.

According to this view, then, my suffering is actually the universe's suffering. When I hurt, it's creation itself that pays the price. In this vein, some have argued that life is still worthwhile, because if it wasn't, the universe would surely end it all...tie a superstring to a tree made of virtual particles, and hang itself. Suicide on a cosmic scale.

Well...consider the evidence: personal suicides on the increase. Rampant depression. War. Aids. Ebola. And how many times has the human race itself been cast in the role of a cancer on the skin of the world? What if the emergence of advanced intelligence was the beginning of the fashioning of a weapon designed for self destruction...if not universal, at least on a planetary scale?

Of course, all this is just a bit of mind-fucking. Who the hell knows what the ultimate state of things really is? We move within our limits. We think within the grooves evolution has carved out for us, and try to be consistent inside that framework. But, in the end, all the re-defining and paradigm shifting still doesn't change the fact that life sucks (at least for many, many people), and then you die (and that applies to ALL of us!). And while I feel very sorry for the terrible lives that some folks endure, I've never felt a tad of regret for anybody who never existed.


Atman Project

I saw a shadow, and I named it.
I challenged chaos, and I tamed it.
I built a kingdom, and I claimed it.
It fell to ruin, and I blamed it.