Saturday, June 18, 2016

See the world as your self

See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things are.
Love the world as your self
then you can care for all things.

Lao-Tzu in the Tao Te Ching (translated by Stephen Mitchell)

I love this poem, although the second line is difficult. Thinking about what is wrong with the world, it is not the world that is wrong, but the people in it. Nature is not wrong. And what is the key thing wrong with humans? We are human-centred. OK, you may say that a lion is lion-centred etc. In terms of survival, all species are self-centred. This is the selfish gene thing. But humans are a particular species, a particular being, that value our own importance over all else, to the point of shitting in our own nest (our universal home, the Earth), not feeling the pain of other living beings or even of our own species.

For these reasons, I do not love my species. Or at least, I do not love them above other species. Equanimity is a beautiful thing.

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