IS THE BUDDHA CORRECT?

“The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground.”

 

YOUR ANSWER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MY ANSWER

Yes, the Buddha is correct. Humans do not feel the ground. We feel our feet. The 72,000 or so nerve endings on the bottom of our feet send information through the spinal cord to our brain.

 

The information is processed and we “feel” the ground. Feel is put in quotes because there is a critical difference in the two ways the word is being used.

 

It is true we do not literally feel the ground. We are only aware of the result of the activation of nerve endings on the bottom of our feet, processed by our brain.  But we do “feel” the ground in the sense that whatever is “out there” is deferentially activating those nerve endings. Resulting in our awareness we are “feeling" the ground not a rug.

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We have no direct contact with anything outside the surface of our body. Whatever is “out there” activates the sensory organs and from all that information our brain constructs our marvelous world. Our human version of Reality.

 

The Darwinian process pretty much guarantees there really is something “out there” we label “rug” and “tree” and “ice cream.” Otherwise our ancestors would have died out long ago and you would not be reading this. But we can only be aware of those aspects of whatever is “out there” that activate our human nervous system processed by our human brain.

 

We are curious and creative animals and have developed mechanical devices that provide additional information about the nature of Reality. We must use metaphors to encode such information.   And as always, the metaphors are based on information from our senses and brain structure.

 

The atom used to be pictured as particles circling a central bit of matter---just like planets circling a sun. Some scientists now prefer the wave metaphor---based on natural phenomena such as the back and forth flow of the sea against the coastline.

 

 

 

 

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Timothy Leary

All science is metaphor.

 

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I'm not crazy about reality,

but it's still the only place to get a decent meal.

Groucho Marx

 

 

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We may never understand what’s going on,

and we might be very sorry if we ever did.

Woody Allen

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The version of Reality created by the sensory systems and brain structures of bats, wombats, and bees to ensure their survival is very different from ours.

 

Humans make a fundamental mistake. We assume our version of Reality IS Reality.

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Why is the Buddha laughing at you?

Or is laughing at me?