In order for the title of the class to make sense, we must assume there is something called “I” which we can identify, separately from everything around it. If you stop to think about this, this concept of “I” is pretty amazing.

Different people have different beliefs about what we call creation and what we call evolution. I (there I go again) very strongly believe these are two different words for the same thing. Saying “creation” isn’t “evolution”, to me, is like saying circles aren’t round. When one takes this perspective, creation is an iterative process of ever increasing complexity. Life on Earth emerged almost as soon as the Earth came into being. Yet for about four billion years, the most complex life on Earth was single cell algae. Did this single cell algae have a sense of “I”? Was it aware of itself? We think not. However, we know for certain that our species clearly does have this sense.

Does all “simple” life lack this sense while all “complex” life has it? I put the words “simple” and “complex” in quotes because there is nothing “simple” about a single cell. Cells are incredibly complex, but a single cell organism is much less complex than a 50 trillion cell organism (which is you by the way). At what point does life become aware it exists? Become aware that is an “it” and a “not it”? Develop a perception of “self” in contrast to it’s environment? I’m not sure when this occurs or how, but it seems clear this is where the sense of “I” starts to make sense.

Yet, while this sens of “I” appears to occur when life becomes complex enough, there is nothing withing a 50 trillion cell organism that “is” the sense of “self”. There is no “self” organ. There is no “identity” part. If we were to perform a detailed and careful autopsy of a dead body, we would not find anything within the body which we could identify as the “identity” of the person.

Every individual cell has a birth, a life, and a death. The life span of individual cells is shorter than the lifespan of the person within whose body these cells live. The body of a mature person does not contain a single cell that existed when the person was born.

So what is this sense of self and where does it comes from?

This leaves us with, or perhaps in, a linguistic trap.

The use of precise language with which to convey these vaguest of concpets, conveys meanings which are off target and inaccurate. However, the use of vague terms leaves us with very different internal representations of these concepts, without us necessarily realizing we are not in agreement.

There is no right or wrong in this. It is just one of the the many apparent contradictions we perceive as we experience reality.

It just is.

We have a habit of saying “God is ___________” and we fill in the blank with an adjective that makes sense to us. Any adjective used to make a “proper”: sentence is off target. God is everything, so any statement of what God is that encompasses less than everything is incomplete and inaccurate.

God is everything that ever was, is, and will be. I am one specific manifestation of God, with the unique perspective on reality that is the “birthright” (the word right isn’t right but I don’t have a better one) of everything that is born.

A loved one gets really sick, and perhaps almost dies, and going through the process creates a stronger bond between you (especially if you donated a kidney or some such) than would have been had the sickness never occurred, and that bond lasts for the rest of your lives.

A person wins the lottery and then finds themselves surrounded by “friends” who didn’t show up before, but now pay much attention to the lottery winner. The lottery winner finds themselves wondering who they can and can not trust. They start to appear mis-trustful of others even to the point of paranoia.  This had not occurred to the lottery winner prior to becoming a lottery winner.

Why is this?

It is because it is only through contrast that we know what something is.

We know light by its contrast to dark and we know dark by its contrast to light.

When you are standing at the top of the hill, you look down into the valley. When you are at the bottom of the valley, you look up at the hill. The hill and the valley define each other.

We know “stuff” because it’s not the space between stuff, and we know “space” because it’s where there is isn’t “stuff”.

The examples are endless.

So…….. Good and Bad can not exist without each other.

If there isn’t a law of nature that describes this concept, it seems there should be.

The Universe is riddled with contradiction. They are everywhere.

Here is an excellent example:

It is generally agreed the idea “Thou shall not kill” is a good moral statement we should all live by. However, when we have a bacterial infection and the doctor prescribes antibiotics, we gratefully take the medicine without any concern for the millions of bacteria we are killing. Now I’m not saying we should die to let the bacteria live (in fact when we die, any bacteria living off our bodies at that time will also die). I’m merely pointing out that if we include All Living Things within that good moral statement, it is impossible to comply.

It is one of the basic contradictions of the Universe.

How does one “resolve” these basic contradictions? The answer is: We don’t.

Such contradictions are everywhere.

Cause and Effect contains such a contradiction.

When we see two related or associated things separated by space, say two different sides of the same cardboard box, we do not say that one caused the other, we say they are two parts of the same thing. On the other hand, when we see two related or associated things separated by time, say the burning of a piece of paper, we do say that something caused something else.

It seems clear that the two sides of the one cardboard box are two aspects of the same thing. Why is this less true of the  burning paper and the subsequent ashes? Are they not different “sides” of the one “burning”?

It is a matter of perspective.

Back to “Thou shall not kill”. Thou shall not kill who? Perspective on this question matters greatly. If we could not kill, bacteria, we would have to let them kill us. If we could not kill fruits and vegetables, what would we eat? If we could not kill other animals, we could eat only vegetables and fruits (assuming that killing fruits and vegetables is OK).

So… Our perspective on “who is us” and “who is them” come into play with “Thou shall not kill”. On one extreme we have rules in Buddhist monastaries where no animals (even fleas and cockroaches) are killed within the walls of the monastery and on the other extreme we have the Third Reich where large groups of people were killed the way many of us kill fleas and cockroaches.

Did the burning of the paper cause the ashes or are the burning paper and the ashes different aspects of the same thing? The answer is both, because it depends on your perspective.

The Universe is expanding. Is the stuff in the Universe moving away from each other and thereby causing the spaces between the stuff to get larger and larger, or is the space expanding and thereby pushing the stuff in the space farther and farther apart. The answer is both, because it depends on your perspective.

Is evolution correct or is creationism correct? They’re both correct, because it depends on your perspective.

So… The next time you simply can not see eye to eye with someone else, ask yourself if it is possible for two different people to view the same event and have two completely different experiences of what happened? Is it possible for two opposing views or ideas to both be “right”? The answer is yes, because what something looks like to anyone depends on their perspective.

What is the best way to “resolve” the basic contradictions of the Universe? The best way to resolve them is not to bother trying. The best way to “resolve” them is to embrace them.

K

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

When one thing implies another, such questions are meaningless.

One side of a coin does not cause the other. Day does not cause night. The chicken does sort of cause the egg, but the egg also sort of causes the chicken.

When things exist because of each other, there is no cause and effect.

We like cause and effect because it help divide the Universe up into smaller and smaller bits and this seems to make it easier to understand, but every time we define a cause and effect relationship, we obscure the fact they are two different parts of the same thing.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The action and the reaction are two different parts of the same thing, and the “fact” that the action “causes” the reaction is a mental convenience that at it’s core creates the illusion that there is such a thing as cause and effect.

It’s all in how you look at it.

So….. Did matter somehow develop greater and greater complexity over time until eventually it became aware of it’s own existence? Or did consciousness exist first and need to create the physical Universe in order to have the experience of self awareness?

The answer is yes.

The key to a successful and happy life is an attitude of gratitude.

If you have not stopped recently to express your gratitude for the things in your life, please get in the habit of doing so.

When you buy a cup of coffee at any coffee shop, think for a moment how many people were involved in bringing that coffee to you. Someone cultivated and grew the beans. Someone picked the beans. Someone packed the beans. Someone moved the beans to the roaster. Someone built the roaster. Someone maintains the roaster. The roaster uses energy. The energy was brought to the roaster by others. The form of energy (electricity, natural gas, wood, whatever) was developed and refined by still others. After the beans are roasted, someone packs them again. Someone ships them to distribution facilities. Someone distributes them to retails outlets. Someone invented the trucks they moved on. Someone maintains the trucks. Someone pumped the gas. Etc, etc, etc, etc. At the end of this incredible complex web of events and interactions, that cup of coffee only costs you $2.

Give this a try. Of course, take sips of your coffee while you are pondering all the people and events that brought it to you. We don’t want it to get cold.

The purpose of life is easier to contemplate (for me at least). The purpose of life is the experience of life. No more (for what more can there be?) and no less (as what could be less?). We arrive in this world with nothing but some sense of our connection to the universe as well as a sense of our individuality. When we leave, those are the only “things” we take with us.  What happens between the entry and the exit is less important than something that is interesting happens. The purpose of life is the experience of life.

There is a Taoist story I love. It goes….

=== start

There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit.

“Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.

“We’ll see,” the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses.

“How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.

“We’ll see,” replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.

“We’ll see,” answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.

“We’ll see” said the farmer.

=== end

The concepts “good” and “bad” are relative and arbitrary. What might be good for someone might be bad for someone else. Somethings are good for you in some ways and bad for you in others.  Bad habits can be positive in certain contexts. It is often considered that procrastination is bad. At the same time America is in the midst of an obesity epidemic. Maybe we could learn to use proscrastination to avoid fatty snack food (“I might get around to having that donut later”).  We generally think of phobias as bad things. Yet people with phobias, at some point in their lives, learned in a single experience, something so deeply that it changed their lives from that point forward. If in a single experience someone learns to be afraid of spiders, we call that a phobia. If tin a single experience someone learns they have an amazing gift for business or tennis or drawing or writing or anything, we don’t have a word for that.

Every unpleasant situation has within it the seeds of something good, even if in the moment, we can not see what the good is. It’s there.

The most important thing is that although we may not like every situation we’re in, but it’s critically important to like yourself in your situations.

K