Whatever Comes to Mind

I just read Ishmael: An Adventure of Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn. Actually, I didn't really read it, I listened to it. Audio books are dangerous, but I won't get into that right now. The concepts in Ishmael are fairly easy to follow. Basically, the web of life theory is expanded and explained as a history of Earth not of human evolution. Ishmael is a gorilla that has learned to communicate with humans. This gorilla seeks a pupil to teach the concepts of life and laws of nature. The narrator shows up to learn how to save the world, and gets a lesson in integral psychology. Basically, human history began with the agriculture revolution, when a human being decided to make his own food and life cycle and not depend on the cycle of life to provide for him/her by nature and natural laws. The human's life is now in his hands of his decisions not at the whims of the gods. Ishmael describes that every being on the Earth follows simple laws to survive and procreate. These laws of nature let them live in their space for their life duration and every other being can be in their space. This isn't to say that animals don't kill each other, but it is saying that they eat what they need and no more. This way creatures can survive for their duration and support the beings that need them. What they don't do is take more than they need.

Excess is the bane of human existence, at least that is what the theory tell us. When humans decided to kill more or wipe out a species to have more and save more, the decision led to the break down of the nature life cycle. We invade others' space to have more and feel in control, but each progressive advantage on any community(natural and social) brings us closer to destroying everything. Ishmael is telling us we're breaking down the life cycle that keeps everything healthy on Earth. This theory shows the habits and ideologies we have formed and are comfortable with. But this has to change or we will destroy ourselves.

I'll continue with these thoughts in the next couple entries, and get into other books I'm reading that focus on integral and holistic ideologies.