“In the deeps are the violence and terror of which psychology has warned us. But if you ride these monsters deeper down, if you drop with them farther over the world’s rim, you find what our sciences cannot locate or name…” 1/2
“… the substrate, the ocean or matrix or ether which buoys the rest, which gives goodness its power for good, and evil its power for evil, the unified field: our complex and inexplicable caring for each other, and for our life together here. This is given. It is not learned.” 2/2
@iraantlers The idea of inflicting harm or pain is a curious one, and one that begs the question of what ethics we should consider.
Does discomfort count as hurt?
Should never inflicting any hurt or discomfort truly be our goal?
The farmer must, for instance, echo the ethics of the wild to maintain a truly harmonious ecosystem: this means that the weak are allowed to die. Is this counter to the intention of never causing harm? Sometimes the week are intentionally culled, the taking of a life undoubtedly constituting harm but for the betterment of future generations. And so it is in the wild, cooperation a constant balance between gentleness and brutality, the giving of one for the other, and on and on and on forever and up and through and around the food chain.
In humans, the discomfort we cause could be to harm or to teach, but both could hurt. One leads to the betterment of the one and the whole, the other perhaps the detriment of all.
Can one live a life without hurting any other beings? Likely not. To rip the carrot from the patch may kill the ladybug, and the aphids, and so on and so forth.
But what is the intention, and do we consider the whole? Perhaps these are questions worth considering when considering the ways in which we (usually) inadvertently hurt others.