Man or Ape?

A scientific view holds that humans are just merely more intelligent apes and no different in their essential nature than any other species of animal.  Richard Dawkins points out that if it weren't for species extinction, we would not be able to identify a "dividing line" between humans and apes, or between any two species of animal for that matter.  That is to say, if every creature that had ever lived still walked the earth and never went extinct, there would be a complete continuum in the shape, form, and nature of every living thing, and the concept of separate "species" wouldn't even occur to us.  It's the gaps due to extinction that define where one species ends and another species begins.  

On the other hand, most religious views hold that humans are very different from the other animals.  Judeo-Christian traditions hold that humans and only humans have souls that are separate from their physical forms and that have an eternal life.  Buddhist cosmology holds that although all sentient beings share buddha-nature, humans occupy a separate realm of existence above the animal realm but below the realm of gods, and notes that escape from rebirth, that is nirvana, can only be achieved in the human realm.  

So, are we the same or are we different?  Do we only think we're different due to anthropocentric concepts, or are we indeed different due to the very fact that we can conceive of anthropocentric concepts?

George Gaylord Simpson (1902-1984) was perhaps the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century, and a major participant in modern evolutionary synthesis.  He was an expert on extinct mammals and their intercontinental migrations, and anticipated such concepts as punctuated equilibrium.  Concerning the apparent difference between human nature and animal nature, in The Meaning of Evolution (1949), he wrote:

It is important to realize that man is an animal, but it is even more important to realize that the essence of his unique nature lies precisely in those  characteristics that are not shared with any other animal.  His place in nature and its supreme significance are not defined by his animality, but by his humanity.

Humans, it seems, are the only animal on this planet who's brains have evolved to the point where virtually all knowledge is from learning, and none is from instinct.  In The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973), Erich Fromm sought to arrive at an understanding of human nature on the basis of two fundamental biological conditions that mark the emergence of man. One condition is "the ever-decreasing determination of behavior by instincts," and the other is the growth of the brain, "particularly of the neocortex." 

The process of ever-decreasing determination of behavior by instincts could be plotted on a continuum, at the zero end of which are the simplest forms of animal evolution, which have the highest degree of instinctive determination.  Everything they need to know to survive is hard-wired into their DNA, and no learning is necessary.  The degree of instinctive determination decreases with increasing evolutionary complexity, and reaches a certain level with mammals.  It decreases further in the development going up to the primates, and even here there is a significant gap between monkeys and apes.  In humans, Fromm holds, instinctive determination has reached its maximum decrease, and virtually all information necessary for survival must be learned, either by teaching or by figuring it out for ourselves.

The growth of the brain can also be plotted as a continuum.  The simplest animals with the least complex nervous structures and relatively small number of neurons are again at the zero end.  At the other end, we find humans, with our larger and more complex brain structure, especially a neocortex three times as large as even our hominid ancestors, and a truly fantastic number of interneuronal connecetions. 

To get an approximate idea of the number of potential neuronal connections in the human brain, consider that if a million neurons were each connected to only two other neurons in all possible configurations, the number of different patterns of inter-neuron connections would be 10 raised to the 2,783,000, and humans have not a million neurons, but between 19 and 23 billion neurons in the cerebral cortex.  For comparative purposes, the number of atoms in the observable universe is estimated to be about 10 to the 80.

Given all this, humans can be defined as the primate that emerged at the point of evolution where instinctive determination had reached a minimum, and development of the brain had reached a maximum.  "This combination of minimal instinctive determination and maximal brain development," Fromm notes, "has never occurred before in animal evolution and constitutes, biologically speaking, a completely new phenomenon."

So, to synthesize the scientific and the spiritual viewpoints, humans are indeed animals - apes with particularly large brains and a complex cerebral cortex, but animals that are unique on this planet not just due to anatomy, but to the loss of instinctive behavior and a self-consciousness that comes from each of us figuring everything out on our own.  This self-consciousness then makes us feel separate from other animals, from nature, from the Earth, and from each other, and leads, according to the Buddha, to suffering, and to Erich Fromm, to human destructiveness.  

Tongue Stuck to Doorknob

One of the side effects of studying Zen for long enough is that eventually you find that you have amassed a collection of pictures of Japanese girls licking doorknobs.

Like the rest of the country, it's been cold down here in Atlanta.  With the wind-chill factor, single-digit temperatures this morning made it feel like 14 to 25 below.  This was the coldest January 7th ever in Georgia, and the single digit temps broke the old record of 10 set way back in 1970. 

My poor furnace can't keep up with the cold weather, and even though it's been running non-stop all night last night and all day today, the temperature inside the house has been steadily dropping from the 68-degree setting down to 62.

Still, I appreciated not having to go back out today and finish the groundwater sampling project that I had started yesterday, and was able to use the time snuggled up inside to write a proposal for my next project. But the forecast is for temperatures to rise back up above freezing again by Thursday, so I should be able to finish the project before the end of the week. It's amazing how warm a couple of 15-degree days can make 45 degrees sound.

Tongue Stuck to Doorknob

For those of you keeping score at home, I survived the first day of outdoor field work in this arctic blast of cold weather (I refuse to call it "Arctic Vortex" like every other news report on line). Six and a half hours outdoors, with temperatures starting at 28 F and dropping all day from there.  Morning temp tomorrow is forecast to be 6 degrees.

But here's the funny (as in mildly ironic) part - it was so cold that even though I was willing to tough it out, my electronic testing equipment failed.  The LED readouts turned to gibberish in the cold.  I called the manufacturer and was told that the "climate range" of the equipment I was using is between 32  and 99 F, and that I'd have to wait for things to warm up until I could resume my testing.  So I don't have to go out again tomorrow after all.

Income Inequality

Tomorrow and Tuesday are forecast to be the coldest days here in the South in over a decade, with wind-chill temperatures well below zero, and I have to work outside both days.  A Facebook acquaintance of mine keeps saying that she's going to spend the day in bed under covers while hubby goes to work, and seems oblivious to the privilege her wealth and lifestyle provides.  It would certainly be nice if I could afford to lie in bed all day tomorrow, and have someone go to work for me. 

According to psychologist Jonathan Haidt, an important and distinguishing moral value of conservatives is loyalty and allegiance to one's own group.  This certainly explains a lot of their over-the-top flag waving and love-it-or-leave-it brand of patriotism.  But increasingly, I've come to wonder whom they consider to be "their own." All their talk about the "real Americans" and "true patriots" (in other words, people who vote like them) suggests that their sense of allegiance might be to a fairly small demographic, and not the whole of the country they claim to so love. Even beyond Mitt Romney's obvious contempt for the "47 percent" of Americans, they seem more than willing to disenfranchise and place economic burdens on those Americans not in their immediate cultural-racial, socio-economic stratum.

There's nothing like working in sub-freezing temperatures to turn this old proletariat into a raging Bolshevik, is there?  I'll be out there tomorrow out of economic necessity to be sure, but in solidarity with all of the utility workers, toll-booth attendants, traffic cops, farmers, surface miners, and other working-class heroes who have to brave the cold.  

Of course, if things go well for me, I should be able to spend all day Thursday in bed.    

On the Other Hand

Meditation On the Material

As I stay cooped up indoors watching football on television during this cold Georgia week that starts the new year, I've come to a realization that everything I have, every stick of furniture, every item of clothes, all my electronics and foodstuffs and books and music and kitchenware and what-have-you, are all things that I had once wanted and now have.

That takes a minute to sink in.  We spend most of our waking lives focused on what we don't have, what we want, and either succumb to depression and longing if we don't get it, envy and jealousy if we perceive that others got it, or greed and possessiveness if we get to much of it.  But rarely do we look around and think, "I once wanted these socks, so much so that I picked them out at the store, spent some of my hard-earned money for them, and now they're mine." Or "I wanted light bulbs to put in my lamps so I could see better at night, and now I have them."  Or "Of all the myriad food choices at the supermarket, these are what I wanted to take home and eat, and now they're here for my nourishment and enjoyment."  I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

Every material thing that you own represents the fulfillment of a desire that you once had, no matter how small or insignificant.  Like most people, you probably spent a lifetime accumulating stuff and satisfying your desires, but how often do we step back and realize how fortunate we are, even if our material possessions are modest or few?  The glass is at least half full, but we're focused on the empty portion.

Everything I have is something I once wanted but now no longer crave. 

All I have to do it seems, is go the month of January 2014 without getting sick or injured until my new ObamaCare policy kicks in, and then I see this in the local news:

The CDC is reporting a 23 percent increase in H1N1 cases in the Southeast.  Epidemiologist Dr. Michael Jhung with the CDC Flu Division said, “It’s affecting a different age group this year.” Dr. Jhung added, “Georgia’s Department of Health reports 4 deaths so far from the flu, including a child who had underlying medical conditions. The latest report from week 51 shows there were 53 hospitalizations.”

So there's that.  Twenty-nine more days to go.

Meanwhile, alert reader Worriedparent from Australia noted the high insurance rates that I'm paying and wrote, "I'm amazed at the cost of your premiums! I'm assuming you don't get free care at hospital emergency rooms or bulk billing by G.P's."  Well, there's more Worriedparent, and you won't believe this: after I had been told that my $350/month policy had been cancelled because I didn't renew at $420/month within the five days that they had granted me, I got a bill in the mail anyway from the insurer saying that January 2014 would cost me not $420, but $587.50!  Almost twice what I originally enrolled for in 2012, and I've yet make my first claim!  I refuse to re-enroll at that rate, but it does make me feel a little bit better about the $450/month ObamaCare policy that starts February 1.

Yes, Worriedparent, our rates are exorbitant, and no, there's no free care here.  While hospitals are required to treat those who need emergency care regardless of whether they're insured or not, they still try and recoup their costs from those they treat, and illnesses and injuries are the Number 1 cause of personal bankruptcies in the United States.  If they can't recover the cost, the hospitals add it to their "overhead" and increase the billings to everyone else, driving up the cost of health care (and insurance premiums).  This results in many of the unemployed and poor using the Emergency Room as their primary care vehicle, and not treating an illness until it become life-threatening or critical and qualifies for emergency care.

Yet despite all the money we spend on health care (more per capita than any other nation), Americans can still expect to die sooner and experience higher rates of disease and injury.  When compared with other affluent nations, the U.S. is at or near the bottom in infant mortality, low birth weight, injuries, homicides, teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted disease, HIV and AIDS, drug-related deaths, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and chronic lung disease.  

The system clearly is not working.  We're getting sick and dying young, and paying more that we can afford for the privilege of being chronically ill.    

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.  Specialization is for insects."

- Robert Heinlein

Happy Birthday and RIP

In so many way, 2013 has been one of the best years of my long life but like all things, it too is coming to a close.  However, I can't let it pass without giving a birthday shout-out to my little sister over in California.  Here's to 2014, Jackie!

Sadly, we lost a couple of great ones in the closing days of 2013.  Let us observe a moment of silence to commemorate former San Francisco Zen Center Abbott Myogen Steve Stucky, who left us early this morning after a battle with cancer.

Proving that like impermanence itself, cancer does not discriminate between the young and the old or the clergy and the layman, we also lost musician Curtis Benjamin of the fine Brooklyn band School of Seven Bells to cancer on December 30.  Mr. Benjamin was 35 years old.  Let us observe a moment of joyful noise in commemoration of the life of Curtis Benjamin.

So the great cycle of life and death continues, mine in it's own quirky way, Jackie's with a celebration of its origins, and Myogen's and Curtis Benjamin's with the bookend events marking the end of this existence. 

Here's to 2014, my friends - may you all live long and prosper!

Monday Night Zazen

The Main Case

Every day, Zen Master Zuigan used to call out to himself, “Zuigan!” and he would answer “Yes,  Master?” “Are you awake?" he would ask, and “Yes!" he would reply. “Do not be deceived by others, at any time, at any place!,” he would say, and “I will not!,” he would answer.

The Commentary

The Master, Zuigan, sells himself and buys himself. He plays with puppets of gods and with devils masks. For what reason? Look and see! One mask calls, and one mask answers, one puppet asks, “Are you awake?,” and one will not be deceived.  But do not stick to these appearances. And imitating Zuigan is only the understanding of a fox.

The Closing Verse
Those is search of the Way do not realize the existence and true nature of the self;
This is because they recognize only the discriminating mind,
Which is the origin of life and death;
Foolish people take it for the true self.

Obamacare, Here I Come

Much to my surprise (I didn't see this one coming), it turns out that I am one of those people I've been hearing about on the news who've had their health-care insurance cancelled by their carrier.  

For the past two years, while I've been self-employed, I've had a private insurance policy from Blue Cross/Blue Shield.  It wasn't a great policy, but it was affordable ($300/month for the first year, then raised to $350/month for the second year) and protected me from catastrophic expenses.  

I never got a cancellation letter, but I did notice that I didn't get my monthly payment bill in the mail.  I went on line and didn't see anything suggesting that my account was expiring, but it wouldn't accept my attempts to pay on line.  After a long series of follow-up phone calls and frustrating touch-tone menus, I finally got hold of someone who told me that I had been sent a renewal offer, but since I hadn't responded in time, my policy was cancelled.  I told her that I never saw a renewal offer, but then realized that I was going to get nowhere arguing with someone working the information desk on a Sunday afternoon.

I went through my stack of old mail, and found something from Blue Cross that I had thought was just another one of their frequent promotional mailings, and in fact it did say that if I wanted to continue my coverage into 2014, my rates would be going up by $70 a month, and I had to respond by November 25th. The letter was dated November 15th, and probably didn't arrive here until the 20th.  No reminders, emails, or follow-up warnings.  It's almost like they didn't want me to renew, but didn't want to be the ones to say "We're dropping you."  I can understand - I've used roughly the same strategy to get out of romantic relationships in the past.

So that left me with the one obvious option - I went on line to healthcare.gov and signed up for an Obamacare policy.  Despite what you may have heard in the news, the web site worked fine and it probably took me less than 15 minutes to log in, set up an account, select a policy, and sign up, and I've already heard back from the provider, Humana, so the information successfully got to the back end as well.  With dental insurance included, it will cost me $100/month more than my old policy, or $450/month, but it is a better policy, with lower deductibles and out-of-pockets expenses.  However, it comes at a time when I can least afford another $100/month expense.  Even as much as I'm struggling right now financially, I still don't qualify for any assistance or subsidies, so that should make me feel a little better about myself (hey, I'm not as bad off as all those people who have qualified!).

Here's the real catch, though - coverage doesn't start until February 1, so I'm not covered for the month of January, right in time for cold and flu season.  I'll have to manage to go through an entire month without an injury or major disease, which hasn't been a problem for at least four years now, but you know Murphy's Law.  No car accidents or heart attacks until February 1, please.

In retrospect, this probably wasn't the best month to have signed up for that chain-saw juggling course.

This Is Water