 19 Feb 2010 @ 14:38
INTERACTION
We make life real
By the thoughts we project.
The panorama of the objective world is meaningless until we interact
with it. For example, if there is a rock that we pass day after day but
we do not notice, then that rock has no significance for us. If we
decide to make that rock a votive object and pray to it for decades,
then that rock becomes quite important. To an outsider who does not
subscribe to the rock's assigned meaning, it will continue to be just a
rock. In all cases, the rock was just a rock. It was only human
interaction that created its meaning.
It is a mistake to assume that the meaning we give to something is
as concrete and tangible as the object itself. We should not confuse the
two. For example, our house may be precious to us, but our sense of
preciousness has nothing to do with the building -- it comes from the
values and memories we associate with it. If we lose our house, we must
remember that it is the feeling we have for it, not just the building
itself, that determines our loss.
If all perception of reality is subjective, some schools of thought
suggest that we should therefore see everything as unreal. By contrast,
followers of Tao maintain that we must still interact with the world. If
we do not take initiative and work with this phenomena of projecting
meaning and receiving its echoes, we fall into a state of dormancy, and
the world will not exist for us at all. As long as we remember that
meanings we attribute to objects are subjective, we will avoid mistakes.
365 Tao: Daily Meditations
Deng Ming-Dao
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