Sunday, September 11, 2005

I’ll never remember where this is and I’m afraid I’ll never write all this, I’ll never get it done electronically. My home machine seems to be toast and I don’t know if that is because I left the window open and it rained or because I have a virus.
Who knows what else is on there.
Secession story Part I needs to be totally rewritten and I don’t know if I can do it on the hard copy. So not into work right now – must leave ferry.
Another thought, now off the boat.
The concept of Maya coming from the Texan radio guy in AZ. “This is all an illusion, we – the concepts of Hinduism have been confirmed by modern science. What we see is different light and our eyes collect it and then flip it upside down which is how our brain perceives it.”
This all sounded like an awfully simple, or one might say distorted, perception of the science.
“So, it’s like we’re all walking through a movie that our brain watches upside down. This world is all illusion”
“What about physicality,” I said. “If I were to touch you that would be more than watching.”
“It’s just different nerve endings that are being affected. It’s a feeling yes, but that feeling is registered by the brain. Someone who is paralyzed would not feel you touching them, but they would see you touching them.”
“OK, what if someone would do more than touch, what if they were to strangle you and you died?”
“You walked right into the ultimate answer which is the ultimate question. We have no idea. This is what we humans have been asking ourselves for thousands of years, what happens when that light goes out of our eyes, or conversely, the light stops coming in.”
Silence.
“Think of the man hours, the incalculable effort that has gone into figuring this out. The complex scenarios, the stories, structure, societies that have arisen out of our struggle to figure this out. Think about the devotion people feel to their version of the answer to that question.”
“It’s caused a lot of trouble.”
“You have an endearingly naïve way of stating the obvious.”
“Thanks.”
“The truth, well my version of the truth, is that we have no way of knowing, and it disturbs me to hear people claim so confidently that they know without doubt. Indeed, they take pride in their faith, which is another way of saying their dismissal of doubt.”

Where do I go with this? Back to aural nerves, listening to his music. Back to the US and war and funding it and causing suffering in this world when we have it within our capacity to end or at least alleviate and limit it.
“Why should I do anything to help you?”
“Because you can,” I simply said.

No comments: