Stardust

“Strangers passing in the street, By chance two separate glances meet. And I am youAnd what I see is me “ Echoes by Pink Floyd

A week has passed. Too quickly. And I am already back onto typing this post. Now, I had decided to keep a goal to organize the content of my next post well. This post is also quite unorganized. It has been more of a spontaneous effort. I feel more excited to be writing this time. Something very profound and interesting happened to me while I was dreaming/ half-awake/ hallucinating.

Are we just advanced lobsters with more things to worry about?

I was spending the past week reading Jordan Peterson’s book – 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. It is a self-help book which has 12 principles to help the reader bring meaning in their lives. The first rule in this book states “Stand up straight, with your shoulders back.” The chapter went on a long course of explaining social hierarchy in nature and how it helps animals evolve, survive and continue their species. There were interesting insights that were obtained from observing male lobsters competing for females during their mating season. The most dominant lobster is the strongest and manages to threaten and ward away the weaker, smaller lobsters. The winning male gets access to mate with any female of his choice. The defeated lobsters tend to slouch, withdraw into itself physically and does not attempt to put up a fight again. Such is the magic of nature, where it makes species play a game within their minds, to ensure the survival of the fittest.

The fact that blew my mind was that Serotonin (yes the same one that makes humans feel good) was the chemical that determined their ability to stay up in their dominance heirarchy. The dominant males tend to have higher serotonin levels in their bodies, coaxing them into pushing their limbs outwards, and increasing their presence. The defeated and rejected lobsters, with their slouched and withdrawn bodies, had lower amounts of serotonin in their bodies. This had a positive feedback-loop effect too. A better posture led the animal to secrete more serotonin and made them feel even more dominant.

What this means is that, lobsters and humans pretty much have very similar fundamental mechansims that determine its own survival. I couldn’t help but sit with wonder at how almost everything that nature keeps its hands on turn out unique, but are connected with the same circuitry. We’re all paintings of nature, blended with the same paint and wonderfully painted on this enormous canvas of existence.

I got to read the chapter after I had read Vaibhavi’s post – Who Do I Want to Meet in Heaven? The same night (15th July), I had experienced something wonderful and inexplicable. I’d rank this as one of my best self-revelations so far.

Stardust

I am not very sure if I experienced a dream or a lone stream of thoughts as I woke up randomly that night. I remember asking myself what would happen to me after I die.

Suddenly, I heard voice in my head say that my body returns back to Earth. It would break down into its constituent molecules and atoms subsequently. They would soon assimilate to form another living organism, and I would take that form. There is no concept of death. My consciousness would regain another form, and it would only be a matter of time for that to happen.

Satisfied with the answer, I went back to sleep. The next morning, the answer kept coming back to my head and I wondered why. I tried to dismiss that as a dream or a random thought. It did not leave me. Instead, I felt a stronger connection to the natural life around me – the birds, the neem tree in my neighbour’s backyard, the snails and every other possible creature that I could possibly see. I felt that a part of me is them and a part of them is me. This feeling became stronger as I meditated.

We are all made of stardust. One and the same. Different from the outside, but the fundamentals are undeniably identical.

James Franco knows what I’m talking about

Pondering over the dream and its message led me to think about Pink Floyd’s 22 min masterpiece “Echoes.” The lyrics mentioned at the beginning of this post kept running in my head. This song deals with similar themes of creation and connection between all living creatures, and also manages to be one of the best progressive rock pieces of all time.

Sooooo…. I haven’t met my goal for the this week’s post. Hope to write a properly organized post next week then.

Skandha