Lecturer: "So Cancer is a terrible problem. Many people die from
cancer around the ages of 50 and 60".
Alien: "Oh, so humans are normally immortal?"
Lecturer: "No."
Alien (thinking to himself): That was a dumb question. Everybody here
must think I'm an idiot. I guess I don't have the necassary background for this lecture so I should just shut up and not waste everybody's time.
Lecturer: "Here's an example of someone who's built a happy life: A good career, three beatiful kids, a great house".
Alien: Maybe this isn't as complicated as I thought. There's just a threshold
of achievement you have to get to without getting a disease or being killed and after that you've made it.
Alien: "So is this example tight?"
Lecturer: "Well no, some people have made it with just two beatiful kids
and a great appartment in a fancy part of the city"
Alien: "Oh, so is it known what's the exact lower bound of achievement you need to get immunity from disease?"
Lecturer: "What do you mean? There's no immunity from disease!"
Alien: Damn! I was so presumptious to think I was following. I 've made an
idiot of myself again and wasted more time for everybody! There's probably an advanced course I'm missing on how time stops the minute you've made enough kids and enough money. So, maybe he means you're never immortal as time passes but since time stops for you it doesn't matter-or something complicated like that. In anycase, I really shouldn't interrupt again as I don't have the necassary background on methods in popular western cultre for achieving peace and happinness
p.s- Anybody reading this Blog is encouraged to leave comments, I'm getting lonley here:)...
Personal reflections, random thoughts, mostly but not exclusively and unintentionally related to Buddhism and the spiritual path. More specifically, a lot of what is written here is influenced by my practice of Vipassana meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka.
5 comments:
I'm not sure I'm getting this post... But I do sympathize :)
Ye, everybody's to busy reading Scott Arranson's Blog to write comments here:).
To explain the post: I had this idea once that if aliens would come in contact with our society one of the things that would seem to make least sense, would be our approach to death. We make such a tragedy out of death that someone looking from the outside might reach the conclusion that dying is the exception. On the other hand we put material success on such a pedestal as if these things give you some kind of immortaltity or everlasting security.
I want to address the other aspect of this post, i.e., the one regarding feelings and presumptions, rather than the one regarding culture and society.
The problem of the alien -- as was satirically described -- was that he was so preoccupied with the possibility that he doesn't understand, and the wondering what the others must be thinking on that, that he didn't think at all on why the lecturer did not understand him and what was the gap between his conception and the lecturer's point of view.
This is why do not ask questions in a lecture.
Keep up the good work.
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