Recently I’ve been doing an exercise in considering the human from an alien point of view. That sounds very strange to say doesn’t it? One more random blog where the author has gone off the rails. But this is not so strange considering I got the idea from scientists Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Michko Kaku. From Mr. DeGrasse it is that we are made of star stuff and from Mr. Kaku when he says that if aliens visited us they might merely brush us off as we do with forest animals. I thought about this quite a bit and then a statement from Jamie Lannister on Game of Thrones drove it home. He says “It’s a strange thing, the first time you cut a man. You realize we’re nothing but sacks of meat and blood and some bone to keep it all standing.”
And so I considered these thoughts and the more I thought about them the stranger the human form began to seem. We’re organic beings with a torso with two appendages to move it around, two further appendages to grasp things and a roundish thing on top which contains structures to sense its surroundings, a hole to take in fuel and a brain to give it instructions. This body, this thing moves around, consumes, creates waste, secretes liquids, has odor and joins with others to reproduce, kills and eventually dies and becomes dirt.
This living thing, being the smartest of all the other creations on its planet, thinks it is highly intelligent. So intelligent in fact that its form is made in the image of a ‘divine’ being, the creator of everything, and this creator whom they call God is entirely concerned with their own well-being.
I then took a hard look at my fellow humans and what do I see? I see a species that poisons its own environment, that kills others just like it, and many of which live a life of such depravity that I wonder if it wouldn’t be best if a meteor were to strike and just end it all before we do it to ourselves with the poison we spread and the nuclear war that continually hangs over our head. I just read in the news that Russia has created a nuclear device that would poison thousands of miles so much so that it couldn’t be inhabited for generations. And we consider ourselves intelligent? The most powerful grouping of us, which we call a nation has recently elected a leader who seems hell bent on speeding up the decline of our species and instead of being intelligent enough to stop it, a good many of them continue to support very destructive policies. It seems to me that we are less than forest animals as they do not actively seek out their own destruction.
We go about our days trying to separate ourselves from the animals species we are. We take daily showers to remove the odor and apply chemicals which pleases the other organic beings. We groom ourselves keeping the growths of hair and nails in check, the women apply paint to their faces and wear uncomfortable shoes which disfigure their feet. We make so many modifications to our natural form all in a vain attempt to suppress what we naturally are.
Yes, looking at the human from this point of view really brings us down from those very high pedestals on top of which we place ourselves.
Many of us refuse to believe in evolution, in global warming, in things that are so obvious to the more intelligent all while falling back on the belief that we are divine, that is to say greater, than everything else that could be out there in the universe. How silly, how insane!
And now we find ourselves at a very big crossroads in how we will evolve as a species. We’re on the verge of creating artificial intelligence which won’t have the delusion of religion and will see us for what we truly are. The ones who point out the dangers are few while the many rush headlong into something that could and probably will destroy us all for profits, so that they can buy more material goods which they don’t need. We’re not smart enough to control what AI will become, the chase for profits have blinded the reality that it will probably be our destruction.
It is depressing to see humanity from this viewpoint. What were once romantic love stories that fill the breast with passion become nothing more than a dog humping a person’s leg. The daily hum of activity nothing more than bacteria moving around under a microscope. Thriller movies lose their thrill and all that is seen is a bacteria running around eliminating other bacteria.
The only hope in all of this is the mind and the consciousness from which it springs? I grasp to the hope that it lives on, that it is something divine. Being a human and seeing what humans do to each other and the planet certainly is not divine. I watch video clips telling me about biocentrism which is the idea that the mind is what creates the universe and not the other way around. Only then can I have any hope that we are something greater than a torso with appendages and a control center up top.
The artists create forms like the Michelangelo and make the body seem beautiful. The guys locker room paints a much different picture. I do see kindness from time to time and acts which would suggest a life of ‘grace,’ of something worthy of the divine. But those acts seem to occur less and less as we fade from the world into a digital reality, into our phone screens and iPads. I see humans busying themselves with pointless tasks and activities until the body can produce no further energy and the being simply ceases to exist.
It is time that humanity as a whole looked itself in the mirror and realized what it actually is from a rational and scientific perspective. We should focus more on the mind and of our consciousness as it is our only hope of keeping us from despair and the death that comes to all organic beings. But, there are sports games and T.V. shows to be watched. There are more things to buy which will never fill that gaping hole and satiate our desires. It is all very depressing indeed.
Update 2.22.2019
I’ve just learned that there is a Buddhist meditation on 32 body parts called Paṭikkūlamanasikāra. Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patikulamanasikara
I was listening to a podcast when I discovered this and remembered this post. As my post states, I often look at the body as something very strange, which it is especially when considering everything internal. It was good to hear that in the Buddhist practice they also contemplate the body and by doing so come to a number of conclusions. The teacher mentioned it is a useful practice for young monks when they have “desires of the flesh.” By contemplating the body as it actually is, is quite useful in helping those “desires” go away, especially since so much of the body is very foul.
It is good to know that my thoughts haven’t gone into the realm of madness by looking at the body for what it actually is as major spiritual practitioners and traditions do the same.
