Monday, October 27, 2014

The practical applications of a non-dualistic epistemology

Yes, we're going to do this thing, and it might not even hurt!
So, going back to Bateson and his definition of mind as a complex series of interactions between living creatures and their environment in which there is self-regulation (feedback-loops)  - how does this make a difference in everyday life?  
Well, for most of us farmer/rancher types living the non-dualistic lifestyle is as natural as breathing and losing money. As natural as trying to figure out the interactions of rainfall, topography, plant succession patterns under grazing pressure, the social patterns of cattle, wind direction, cash-flow and how all of that will affect the fence you are thinking of building. Except maybe you're not so much figuring it out as much as making some proposals for consideration in the form of the wisest fence you can imagine. 
Or, when looking at a piece of art, it's not that you are looking at a thing, so much as an interaction between material, human hand, human mind, and the particular entire ecosystem that cradles all of those.  And then you, looking at the "art" are now inside of that interaction, and how does it change you?
Or, standing next to someone in line at the supermarket...well, you can fill in the whole social part of that however you like... but the supermarket itself, convenient and necessary as it is, might be a problematic kind of mind for us to be taking part in as it so completely alienates consumers and producers, making one unconscious and the other over-burdened. 

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