Of Apples and People

The ego tells us we are separated, that we are detached from the rest of the world. And this makes sense. We experience the world only through our limited perspective, as if everything IS separate from ourselves. Our societal and political structures bear this out. Most of us blindly go about our day without a thought of how we are connected to the environment, let alone each other.

In the West we are taught that we are a special creation of God, and are supposed to "rule over" creation. I've given little thought to the ecological system that I am a part of. I don't think it's just me either, Western society doesn't do much better as we blindly consume any resources we can find.

But like the ego itself, this separateness is an illusion. We cannot have any sense of "I" without seeing the background of the "I". We cannot know ourselves without knowing our family, our neighborhood, our culture, our planet, our universe...

We use language that portrays our feeling of separateness too. We are "born into" this world aren't we? No, not really. In truth, we are "born out" of the world. We are made of the same stardust that the ants, and trees, and grass are made of. Without the warmth and light of the sun, without the atmosphere, without gravity...we would cease to exist.

Alan Watts says that we call apple trees, "apple trees", because they "apple"(verb). If a flying saucer came to visit our planet they might say, "Oh, look. The earth is "peopling"(verb). "Peopling" is just what the earth does, and we are all beautiful, ripening "fruit" (in the vegetative sense of course).

Jesus said, we should die to the old and live in the new. Take on a new identity. A new Self. Perhaps part of that new identity is understanding that we really aren't separate from the world...from the universe...from God. We are simply an extension of the world, the universe, and God. We are an appendage of something much bigger, and more beautiful than our skin encapsulated egos. And looked at in the right way, perhaps, we are the universe.

So here is to all you ripening apples out there. Peace!