week thirteen

would i agree "to live is to know":

i would agree that our lives are a mutual creation between what we normally view as our selves and the rest of our environment. when we expand the definition of  "cognition", as maturana and varela did, to include perception, emotion and behavior, then yes, we might say to live is to know. and conversely, to know is to live, as these cognitions shape our reality and life experience. i fully believe we are active participants in our daily reality, even when we may appear to be doing nothing. choosing to do nothing very directly affects our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual bodies.  as does what we do when we're doing nothing, for example, deep meditation versus staring at the wall thinking about everything that's wrong with our lives.

i love the idea that different genes are activated by different experiences in our lives. and that "experience of fascination, mystery, and the tremendous", as found in spiritual events, motivate "gene expression, neurogenesis, and the growth of the human brain." wow, these really are expansive experiences. the body truly is a temple to our experiences with the sacred. what we are drawn to, as bacteria moving toward sweet and away from acid, defines not only our momentary experience but our wider perception of reality and it's expression in our bodies themselves.

memory and magic?:

i like the continual reminders of how limited our perceptions are. especially given how we generally cling to them like truth lifesavers and how they may actually be just the opposite. like a magician's trick, it's fun to realize how we delude ourselves, because that awareness opens up so much possibility for conscious change.