Inner world

    Your body is a part of the material world that you get to experience from the inside. From sensations of soft tingling to tightness to pain… that’s your direct experience of the condition of the matter of your body at any given moment.

    And you don’t just get to experience the state of the matter in your body (the “just” in this sentence verging on satire, as if to say “not just a veritable miracle”): your body is a living part of the material world.

    One could perhaps say that the matter within a rock changes in rather small, simple and slow ways. Or that the matter within a glass of water moves faster compared to a rock and changes states by freezing and thawing, but is still comparatively inert. The matter within a living body, however… that’s innumerable movements, an unfathomable number or chemical reactions, incredibly complex changes in activity and form in each and every instant, the complexity of which is no smaller than the complexity of the physical world at large. In fact, it is an expression of the laws of physics, as intricate and as majestic as any other part of the cosmos.

    We get to directly experience a living part of the universe from the inside. Our ever-changing sensations, the inexpressible subtlety of our ever-transforming emotional states, all of our thoughts, phantasies and dreams… the manifestations in our internal world are expressions of the universe as real, as glorious and as meaningful as anything we might ever hope to observe outside of us (even our amazement at the wonders of the outside world could perhaps be viewed as stemming from our desire to ultimately understand ourselves). And, them being expressions of the inner workings of nature herself, I think one would be well justified to say that they are also a direct personal portal to the wisdom of the universe. All we need to do is direct our attention, curiosity and adventurous spirit for exploration on these marvels.