Heroes Not Zombies

Light on water. Isn’t it mesmerising? Water has fascinated we humans for centuries. The constantly changing shapes which appear on the surface are an art form, and a metaphor for all of Life. Schelling wrote….

Think of a stream, which is itself pure identity. Where it meets resistance, it fiend an eddy. This eddy has no permanence, but it is constantly disappearing and reappearing. Originally nothing in Nature is differentiated; all that she produces is at that point unseen and dissolved in the general productive potential. Only when there are points of resistance are Nature’s products gradually precipitated out, emerging from the general identity. At every such point, the flow is broken up…but at each moment he swell renews, and fills the sphere afresh.

I’ve been fascinated by both concept and phenomena of flow for a long time. I’ve often explained how it seems to me that we are all like waves which appear on the surface of the ocean of Life, manifesting as unique, different beings for very short periods of time before we are reabsorbed back into the Flow.

I’ve also been convinced for a long time of the idea of a vital force, not as a mysterious invisible entity, but as the very life energy within which we all exist.

But I haven’t really properly considered the issue of resistance. This image, and Schelling’s observation, make me think about it more seriously. The principle is recognition of how resistance occurs within the flow itself. It needn’t involve any obstacles. Isn’t this a fascinating idea?

All that exists emerges from the flow as the flow itself interacts with its own existence.

Life is inseparable from the Universe. Everything is a unique, temporary emergence within the whole. Everything really is inextricably interconnected.