A Delusional Species

From Bangkok Tattoo by John Burdett:

"You see dear reader (speaking frankly, without any intention to offend), you are a ramshackle collection of coincidences held together by a desperate and irrational clinging, there is no center at all, everything depends on everything else, your body depends on the environment, your thoughts depend on whatever junk floats in from the media, your emotions are largely from the reptilian end of your DNA, your intellect is a chemical computer that can't add up a zillionth as fast as a pocket calculator, and even your best side is a superficial piece of social programming that will fall apart just as soon as your spouse leaves with the kids and the money in the joint account, or the economy starts to fail and you get the sack, or you get conscripted into some idiot's war, or they give you the news about your brain tumor.

To name this amorphous morass of self-pity, vanity, and despair self is not only the height of hubris, it is also proof (if any were needed) that we are above all a delusional species.

(We are in a trance from birth to death.)

Prick the balloon, and what do you get?

Emptiness.

It's not only us—this radical doctrine applies to the whole of the sentient world.

In a bumper sticker: The fear of letting go prevents you from letting go of the fear of letting go."

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Header image: Martin Klimas