775
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_88
Chapter 88
Rebirth
88.1 Mortality and Cartography
Samsaric contexts do not obviate the hurdles toward coping with such adversities as
the word “No,” or the predatory mob, or even the annoyed axon. Suffering may be
construed as the clear trigger by which rebirth in some guise is activated. But protracted suffering offers no reliable guide to the facts surrounding, and inherent to all
pain, regardless of the promise, uncertain whether or not it will follow, of release,
before or after those final minutes. Pain is more paradoxical than death in that it invites
every fear and contemplation, without surcease, in the grip of an inevitable death that
will come, sooner or later, and only makes sense from a perspective outside ourselves.
Even for the “immortal” monoclonal grove of aspens, the 50 square miles of
fungus in Oregon, the mystifying mycologies of Bialowieza or Wisconsin’s remote
forest floors, the cell lines of certain jellyfish, all their durability is a matter of precise timing. On its cusp, by all accounts, death is either terrible or quietly resolving
into peace. But the precision, as an ecological fact, lends exquisite closure on that
which we cannot know. A concatenation of elusive truths surrounds it. For those
wolves in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, whose lifespans are approximately
five years, or the adult mayfly, one day, our grasp of their lives is only possible
through the committed effort to emanate kindness with no expectations. To safeguard their freedom, independence, and very presence in mind.
The genesis of rebirth in human consciousness is thus predicated upon a curious
realm of observations throughout Nature. Camus managed to write La mort heureuse
1
. That this cognitive bifurcation exists at all is testimony to some framework
of cohesion. Attributed to the heavens but bound up with all the gravity and somber
ritual surrounding the entombment of mortality. There is no greater paradox than
that we should live, only to die. Then live again. Gauzes, chemicals, waxes, fire,
weeping, relief. No one can fail to have noticed the dead cicada, its eyes locked
1 Éditions Gallimard, Paris, 1971, A Happy Death.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_88
Chapter 88
Rebirth
88.1 Mortality and Cartography
Samsaric contexts do not obviate the hurdles toward coping with such adversities as
the word “No,” or the predatory mob, or even the annoyed axon. Suffering may be
construed as the clear trigger by which rebirth in some guise is activated. But protracted suffering offers no reliable guide to the facts surrounding, and inherent to all
pain, regardless of the promise, uncertain whether or not it will follow, of release,
before or after those final minutes. Pain is more paradoxical than death in that it invites
every fear and contemplation, without surcease, in the grip of an inevitable death that
will come, sooner or later, and only makes sense from a perspective outside ourselves.
Even for the “immortal” monoclonal grove of aspens, the 50 square miles of
fungus in Oregon, the mystifying mycologies of Bialowieza or Wisconsin’s remote
forest floors, the cell lines of certain jellyfish, all their durability is a matter of precise timing. On its cusp, by all accounts, death is either terrible or quietly resolving
into peace. But the precision, as an ecological fact, lends exquisite closure on that
which we cannot know. A concatenation of elusive truths surrounds it. For those
wolves in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, whose lifespans are approximately
five years, or the adult mayfly, one day, our grasp of their lives is only possible
through the committed effort to emanate kindness with no expectations. To safeguard their freedom, independence, and very presence in mind.
The genesis of rebirth in human consciousness is thus predicated upon a curious
realm of observations throughout Nature. Camus managed to write La mort heureuse
1
. That this cognitive bifurcation exists at all is testimony to some framework
of cohesion. Attributed to the heavens but bound up with all the gravity and somber
ritual surrounding the entombment of mortality. There is no greater paradox than
that we should live, only to die. Then live again. Gauzes, chemicals, waxes, fire,
weeping, relief. No one can fail to have noticed the dead cicada, its eyes locked
1 Éditions Gallimard, Paris, 1971, A Happy Death.