Within the Zen tradition there is a story about two fish. One fish starts telling the other of a strange experience it had.
“I was swimming along and noticed a tasty morsel. I grabbed it, but a sharp, shiny, hard thing got stuck in my mouth. Suddenly, I was pulled from the water and the next thing I knew, I was in a whole new world. A great big thing grabbed me and pulled the sharp, shiny, hard thing from my mouth and threw me back into the water.”
The other fish looks shocked and asks, “Water? What water?”
The last animal to discover water would be a fish, and we would be the last ones to discover our assumptions about reality because we are so immersed in them.
The same is true of other assumptions we might have about ‘reality’ (a much over rated concept) especially about the importance of competition. Many people consider life to be a struggle in which the things we want or need in life must be fought for. Upon closer examination nature is based on cooperation, a part of which is competition. The deeper structures of nature however consist of finely balanced synergies not turf wars for resources. Something to consider as we look around at how nation states are conducting themselves. This is part of the reason I am slightly obsessed with ‘Collaborative Intelligence’ as a principle that will serve all of humanity at this point in time.
2 users commented in " Assumptions and enlightened fish "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackSo true.
That which we cannot see, we will not see.
What we want to see, we will only see.
For you can take a fish out of water but you can’t make him see dry land. The fish only sees what it knows. This is true of humans as well.
That which is within our grasp is everything and nothing at the same time. It is hard to accept that the best things happen to and with us naturally.
The hardest thing to accept is that this has already happened before. There is nothing new here. It is just how we decide to perceive it.
The blindness is directly related to isolation. With walls around us, we fail to see any links and any connections. Nature is more like a flow whereas humans tend to want to build dams.
I really just wanted to share a comment with you. Obviously you are on the path best meant for you.
There is one last thing… there is evidence that the state of the world is truly in your mind alone.
The last comment was a bit unclear.
Perhaps it would be easier to say competition and cooperation are both a strong part of how the world works.
One aspect that is often unnoticed is that we are moving from nations based on military power to a world with more blurred boundaries.
Another point is that nations often form around languages. This is especially true in Europe in the past. If you speak the same language, you cooperate. If you speak a different language, you compete (or fight). It’s simplistic but seems to work.
The goal of any peace loving person should be first to find peace within. After that, it is all about removing barriers to the outside world.
I hope this comment is a bit less over the top.
Leave A Reply