←back to thread

What is it like to be a bat?

(en.wikipedia.org)
180 points adityaathalye | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.613s | source
Show context
anon-3988 ◴[] No.45122250[source]
If you are a secular person, it should follow that you are a non-dualist. Yet that is not so common. There's no "whats its like to be a bat". Because that invokes a sense of a "soul" or "spirit" or "self" being transferred from one being to another.

There is only is and its content. That's it. The easiest way to see or get a sense of this is to replace any "I am ..." with "There is a ....". For example, instead of "I am thinking of writing of using stable sort", replace it with "This person have a thought of using stable sort".

This is much closer to the actual reality underneath. Even attachment itself can be put in this term. "There's a feeling that this person own this" or "There's a sense of I".

After doing, perhaps this is mental illness, I already see glimpse of the sense that everything is everything at the same time. As there are no real difference between this rock and the other rock behind the mountain that I can't see. There should be no difference between my thoughts, senses, feelings, emotions etc and that of other people. Now your sense of self captures the entirety of the universe. If you die, the universe dies for all you know. I think this is what the ancient books have been talking about by rising and being a God.

replies(5): >>45122514 #>>45122735 #>>45122998 #>>45123007 #>>45123493 #
1. astrange ◴[] No.45123493[source]
This is a spiritual error called monism. It's taking non-dualism too far.

> As there are no real difference between this rock and the other rock behind the mountain that I can't see.

There is a real difference between the two; there must be because they're in different places. Monism requires you to deny actually existing differences by saying they're not "real".

> There should be no difference between my thoughts, senses, feelings, emotions etc and that of other people.

This is what in therapyspeak you'd call "not having boundaries". You aren't the same thing as other people; you can tell because the other people don't think that, won't let you borrow their car, etc. It opens them or yourself up to abuse if you think this way.

replies(1): >>45124619 #
2. 4gotunameagain ◴[] No.45124619[source]
> There is a real difference between the two; there must be because they're in different places.

That is according to our human perception. For example a single, uniform 4D object could have a projection in 3D that appears as two distinct 3D objects. I am not claiming that a fourth spacial dimension exists, only that we cannot possibly know what exists.