Yesterday we talked about how it is that you are life itself. What you are is life itself… and that life is amazing and wonderful.
Today I want to talk about being an individual.
(Most of the scientific material in this talk is from Wikipedia. Also, I used to volunteer in the Invertebrate and Vertebrate Paleontology departments at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.)
In the history of life on earth, scientists have discovered five mass extinction events:
440-450 million years ago, around the time of the transition from the Ordovician period to the Silurian period, two events together formed the second largest mass extinction known. 24% of all taxonomic families, and 57% of all genera went extinct. It appears that these extinction events were both caused when the Gondwana continent drifted over the South Pole. The ensuing glaciation lowered sea levels and destroyed marine habitats.
360-375 million years ago, during the late Devonian period, a series of extinction pulses eliminated 19% of all taxonomic families, 50% of all genera, and 70% of all species.
It appears that this extinction event was related to the development of tall trees, a time when plants rose from a maximum height of 30 cm to a maximum height of 30 m. These tall plants broke up bedrock, created deep soil, and released large amounts of nutrients. The nutrients washing into the ocean probably destroyed marine life just as phosphates do today (as witnessed in the Great Barrier reef).
Also the tall trees pulled CO2 out of the atmosphere causing major and prolonged global cooling. The earth transitioned from what is known as greenhouse earth (no ice anywhere on the planet) to icehouse earth (more like current conditions).
251 million years ago, around the transition from the Permian period to the Triassic period, was the greatest extinction event of all time, often referred to as "The Great Dying." 57% of all taxonomic families, 83% of all genera, 70% of all land species, and 96% of all marine species went extinct. It appears that high CO2 levels poisoned the oceans.
205 million years ago, during the transition from the Triassic period to the Jurassic period, 23% of all families and 48% of all genera were eliminated. This happened in less than 10,000 years. Current thinking as to the cause: massive volcanic events released CO2, and warming temperatures released gas hydrates, potent greenhouse gasses, from the oceans.
65 million years ago, during the transition from the Cretaceous period to the Tertiary period, was the extinction event that we all know about: the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. 17% of all families, 50% of all genera, and 75% of all species went extinct. This extinction event was most likely due to a comet hitting the earth.
Here is a question for you: are extinction events bad or good?
From the point of view of life in general: every one of these extinction events opened the door for a next round of evolution. As almost everyone knows, we would not be here, but for the demise of the dinosaurs.
How about from the point of view of individuals? In events that generally wiped 70 or more percent of species, I don’t think that individuals made out all that well.
Would you agree that life transcends individuals? Individuals have come and gone, but:
life continues
life even thrives in the face of crises
Would there be any individuals without this life, this spark, this energy, that transcends them?
no
Would there be life itself, without the individuals that manifest it?
no
At any one time, is life more than the sum total of individuals?
yes
Life is bound together as an unbelievably complex whole, and this whole is amazingly resilient.
Here is the million dollar question: are you life itself, or are you an individual? Perhaps this is only, or mostly, a human question, as humans excel at individuality. The answer of course, as a human, is that you are both. Most people probably only are aware of themselves as individuals. However, there is a choice.
We see ourselves as individuals. We see ourselves as separate. We see ourselves as special. We feel separate because we see ourselves as special. "I am unique… I am the one who… I have this angle on the game of life…"
One time I was in an airport on a business trip. I had a big job to do. I was flying across the country to meet important people and to do important work. Then I looked around: here was me and my laptop, and there were hundreds and hundreds of people just like me… all looking like they felt important just like me.
When I used to sit at a Zen center I used to feel so important. I was the one there that was really putting myself into it! I was the one really on the path to enlightenment!
Then, one day, in the middle of a long sesshin, I looked around. It looked to me like everybody else thought that they were the special one on the path to enlightenment.
Now, if everyone is going around thinking that they are special… well, …if that doesn’t take the specialness out of thinking you are special then what does?
When I look around, everyone is pretty much just like me.
In case you haven’t noticed, I’m doing what I can to jar you out of your identification with being a separate individual.
There is a choice here: identify with your (very human) individuality… or identify with life itself.
You are both.
Right now, you are no other than life, and life is no other than you. Right now, YOU (life itself) are wearing the mask of individuality… take it off!
You don’t have to do anything… you already are life itself.
Look around… look inside… feel it!
Sam Gabriel, San Diego, CA
http://home.roadrunner.com/~clothespin
sam_gabriel@yahoo.com