Sunday, February 19, 2012

Transactional Being by Louis Evan Palmer


The Buddhist masters say that there is a chain of interdependence and no one solid being, only the illusion of one. That the person we think we are is what we see and recall of sets or series of transactions that occur between other dependent processes. An illusory being that seems enduring and distinct but, in fact, springs into and out of existence with each transaction that occurs - a thought,a word, a movement; each a little stitch but not in a single garment of our self; rather, in the fabric of it all. The consciousness like a flashlight in a dark room, illuminating the small spot of the moment then a necklace of moments.

If a computer program or robot did all those things we wouldn't think it was a bona fide person. But we do for ourselves. We think that partly because we have a body, and thus, we seem to have a "being". Yet science keeps discovering more about our bodies and minds and what it indicates is more complexity and other things besides "ourselves" proper. Like non-human bacteria and viruses in our bodies; that our brain is seemingly not needed as seen in functioning persons with little or no brain; that we can induce thoughts and feelings through electromagnetic waves or fields.

Are you your voice? Your listening? Are you your thoughts? Who would know? Memories? Are you whatever scribblings you might make? Words? Pictures? Musical notes? Is it merely a reaction? All your actions a reaction to something or things? Reactions to reactions to other reactions throughout the present and past? Interactions of one thing with another; there, not there; active, not-active. States and interactions. No real being. Actions and transactions, on and off; strung together by memory; itself another transaction. Nothing. No-one.

Transactional Being, The Way It Can Be, Louis Evan Palmer, http://twicb.blogspot.com

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Support his art, ideas and worldview, Order books by Louis Evan Palmer: the novel "Oaklane Woods"; short stories "Tales Told to a Tree"; poems "40 Poem Fragments". Order via Kindle link below or at right of screen


Copyright 2012 Louis Evan Palmer lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications.


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