"'...Torrek, a Harpooner of Diupa, adopted to the Bua Clan and an oath-brother in full standing of Sea Bear Lodge, pledged to the King of Dumethdin.'"
-Poul Anderson, "Memory" IN Anderson, Beyond The Beyond (London, 1973), p. 18.
However, when these memories have been removed and his original memories restored, he knows that he is Korul Wannen, a lieutenant in the Astro service and an officer of the scout ship, "Seeker."
Before we gain any spiritual insight or understanding, each of us thinks that he is a separate self. However spiritual teaching and meditation uncover the realization that we are not separate but one. I find an analogy between this realization and Korul Wannen's rediscovery that he is not Torrek on the World Called Maanerek but an interstellar explorer. It is for this reason that I am rereading "Memory."
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I have to disagree, I don't think any amoung of "spiritual insight or understanding" will somehow magically transform me into a mere cell and part of a hive mind. Nor would I want it to!
Frank Herbert's HELLSTROM'S HIVE gives us a very alarming examination of the dangers the human race would face from a group of men and women trying to breed a new kind of humanity having only a hive mind.
Sean
Sean,
Hey, oneness is not a "hive mind"! Oneness is concrete, not abstract. It incorporates differentiation. But we do not exist separately from matter, energy, our environment or each other. Each of us is a temporary wave on the sea. I sum it up as: "Difference without division. Unity without uniformity."
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
With some reservations, I can accept that definition of "oneness." At the same time I think most people would still think that what you meant by that word still boils down to merging the minds of all mankind into a hive brain.
Sean
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