human be(ing

   

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Human being is a way of being that is held in culture and emerges through individuals.  

We are a collective being.


—Jeff Carreira 
The Soul of a New Self

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The deed is a fact, the doer a mere concept. Your very language shows that while the deed is certain, the doer is dubious; shifting responsibility is a game peculiarly human. 

Considering the endless list of factors required for anything to happen, one can only admit that everything is responsible for everything, however remote. 

Doership is a myth born from the illusion of ‘me’ and 'the mine’.

—Nisargadatta Maharaj

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You are something that the whole universe is doing, 
in the same way that a wave is something that the whole ocean is doing.

Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe. This fact is rarely, if ever, experienced by most individuals. 

Even those who know it to be true in theory do not sense or feel it, but continue to be aware of themselves as isolated “egos” inside bags of skin.

You didn’t come into this world.
You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean, as leaves from a tree.

As the ocean “waves,” the tree "leaves" and the universe “peoples.”  

You are not a stranger here. 


—Alan Watts
from The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

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