The cruelty of nature

[Marblehead]

The way we are parasitic and must live off other forms of life disgusts me.

Looking at Steve's post caused something else to pop into my mind.

 

There are countless billions of parasitic bacteria and other microbes living in our body. Without them we would.

[C T]

Imo, Nature's simply what it is, giving and taking as she does, true to her fundamentally intelligent nature. This self-governance is not indifference, instead, it is essentially compassionate, though not in the manner by which most would define as. As it gives, it takes, without pause, gaps, reason, or preference. This activity, an eternal cycle, is one which we normally associate as 'Change', and what Buddhists would understand as the beginningless union of Mother Wisdom and Father Compassion. In this understanding, compassion in its purest form is simply 'activity that naturally leads to self-arising perfection'. The implication is that we should not over-interfere with the way things are (allowing things to settle on their own merit), and cultivating an alignment to this virtuous way of being is wisdom.

[Anoesjka]

Another view is that we are component parts of a much bigger and beautiful whole interacting with the other parts in a manner of absolute purity and perfection. It's all a matter of perspective.

 

To call something absolute pure is biased too. And does it have absolute meaning? Perfection, yes, but not in our human perspective. From a cosmic standpoint, of course it's perfect.

 

Going through this feeling of suffering nature, I've found that there also is joyous nature, orgasmic nature, beautiful nature, touching nature. Cruelty is but a small facet of it, and I identified too heavily with it.

[Anoesjka]

Looking at Steve's post caused something else to pop into my mind.

 

There are countless billions of parasitic bacteria and other microbes living in our body. Without them we would.

 

Die, you mean?

[Marblehead]

Die, you mean?

You've got it! (I don't know how I failed to include the word in the sentence.)

 

(Maybe it's because I'm an immortal and the word doesn't compute in my brain.)

[Anoesjka]

You've got it! (I don't know how I failed to include the word in the sentence.)

 

(Maybe it's because I'm an immortal and the word doesn't compute in my brain.)

 

Ah, I think you need to face your fears head on, MH. Just "forgetting" a word like that may just be an important pointer!

[soaring crane]

Looking at Steve's post caused something else to pop into my mind.

 

There are countless billions of parasitic bacteria and other microbes living in our body. Without them we would. DIE

 

thinking of them as parasitic does them and the universe a huge injustice, imo.

[Marblehead]

thinking of them as parasitic does them and the universe a huge injustice, imo.

Belly laughs. True, but still ...

[soaring crane]

Belly laughs. True, but still ...

 

 

haha well... I think about the microbiome often. I think it's very possibly the real super-intelligence that many people interpret as 'God' and other variaitons on the theme. Yesterday on the talk radio station (Bayern 2), there was a very interesting piece on muschrooms and the fungal world. One of the things that came up was the absolute dependancy of trees and the plant world on the microbial fungal world

[Marblehead]

haha well... I think about the microbiome often. I think it's very possibly the real super-intelligence that many people interpret as 'God' and other variaitons on the theme. Yesterday on the talk radio station (Bayern 2), there was a very interesting piece on muschrooms and the fungal world. One of the things that came up was the absolute dependancy of trees and the plant world on the microbial fungal world

I saw a documentary a couple weeks ago concerning the functions fungal species have.

 

It is interesting the importance of things we rarely, if ever, think about play regarding life on this planet. Life really is a strange process. So many aspects that just have to be present in order for it to exist.

 

Just like our moon. It has been suggested that if Earth had no moon there likely wouldn't be any life on the planet.

[soaring crane]

The moon causes a tiny shift in the Earth's rotation and that results in tidal movement, and the tidal movement in the ur-soup caused ur-microbes to be regularly washed up on ur-shores, and begin producing oxygen, which combined with hydrogen and slowly turned the chemical stew into water. Three billion years ago? We're very small fish in this big ocean.

[Marblehead]

I'm a fish!?!?!?

[soaring crane]

I'm a fish!?!?!?

 

if you wish :-)

 

further about the moon, if it were not the exact size that it is, and not in the exact orbit that it's in, it would never have affected the planet way it does (the very slight wobble in the Earth's axis), and life would never have developed here.

 

We're a one in a trillion crap shoot. Every little thing that is alive on our planet is close to a miracle, seen in universal scale.

[Marblehead]

I wouldn't be able to disagree with you even if I wanted too.

 

I don't care too much for the word "miracle" but yes, Earth and its billions of life forms is pretty darned amazing.

 

The nature of Earth's life forms is what it is. Nope, not always pretty. But it is what it is.

[PLB]

I always thought the classical passages concerning the cruelty of nature was a polite way to talk about the food chain.

It is lot easier to be polite on one end of it than the other.

[Marblehead]

I always thought the classical passages concerning the cruelty of nature was a polite way to talk about the food chain.

It is lot easier to be polite on one end of it than the other.

Especially while one is eating a hamburger.

[soaring crane]

I don't care too much for the word "miracle" but yes, Earth and its billions of life forms is pretty darned amazing.

 

me neither, but that's why I said close to. I meant, close to what people are talking about when they talk about miracles. But I never talk about miracles haha :-)

[z00se]

I think nature can be cruel, nature is the most nobel force.

 

We all know the rules, if we want to cheat them we get put back in our place. If we live in harmony with nature, there can be a joyious relationship

[Anoesjka]

I'm a fish!?!?!?

You were a fish in one of your developmental stages as an embryo! And the fluids in your body are still as salty as the sea was when life first appeared.

[Marblehead]

You were a fish in one of your developmental stages as an embryo! And the fluids in your body are still as salty as the sea was when life first appeared.

Yeah, I know. And my gills became my ears. That's actually strange. I'm sure I was a game fish like a barracuda and not a bottom feeder like a catfish.

[soaring crane]

You were a fish in one of your developmental stages as an embryo! And the fluids in your body are still as salty as the sea was when life first appeared.

 

and in roughly the same ratio as water to land on planet Earth :-)

[silent thunder]

life feeds on life...

[katsura]

D.H. Lawrence said a bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever feeling sorry for itself.

[Spotless]

As death approaches in animals they move away from their bodies considerably. (we all do) In this there is considerable distance from suffering. this hedgehog was about 4 ft from his body when he came to you.

[Anoesjka]

As death approaches in animals they move away from their bodies considerably. (we all do) In this there is considerable distance from suffering. this hedgehog was about 4 ft from his body when he came to you.

 

Like a dissociation kind of thing? Wouldn't pain prevent that?

Edited October 22, 2014 by Anoesjka