Breath Of One Existence

I don’t look at a man and think: man

Not, for that matter,

Do I think him ox or pig.

He is I. And as meaningless.

Shinkichi Takahashi’s poem Man lets us peak around the corner of consciousness. Around that corner is a world void of rational rhetoric and guilt-filled beliefs. In the open fields around that corner is another aspect of our conscious mind, and it beckons us to comprehend the fact that we physically form what we think and believe.

Takahashi poignantly points out that we are not just human; humanity is our vehicle of choice. We ride it using multiple existences. Our beliefs, thoughts and feelings in those realities instantly materialize in this reality, but our concept of time creates lapses between them so we can feel what we think. Takahashi meaningless comment is well placed. In the scheme of being consciousness, we experience events and meet other forms of consciousness, which we cannot perceive in this level of awareness.

The rhythm of birth and death can be looked at as air inhaled and then exhaled. We feel our breath as it enters and leaves us. We are not breath, but without it we would not physically exist. Our lives go in and out of us. They are us, but they are not us. So the life we live is part of us, but not all of us. We are the I that has meaning in all the meaningless time related experiences. So we don't have to look at man and say man; we could say man is the breath of one existence.