Revolutionary human viewpoint
I was thinking about metaphysics whilst drifting off to sleep the other night when I suddenly had a thought that, at the time, seemed like a bit of a revelation.
In hindsight I was on the boundary of sleep so I was probably thinking rather too abstractly. The best way to look at the following is in a metaphorical sense and then consider how you would act based upon it, rather than a metaphysical truth, so to speak; I wouldn't want those of you who know me to think I've gone all soft and New Agey. I haven't.
I think I'll do this in a stream of consciousness style:
We can think of the universe as a grand totality of things that exist, everywhere, everytime.
I'm part of the universe.
I'm observing the universe.
I'm essentially the universe observing itself.
Then what of other sentient beings? They're also just the universe observing the universe.
So what is the distinction between me and them?
Is it not just an assumption that I am a distinct being? Maybe we're all really just the same thing. The same consciousness.
Then why are we all so different? Could it be that our differences are all just sculpted by our genetics and our chaotic environments?
So what of interactions between us?
It would be the ultimate irony: every time we have hurt another, we were, quite literally, just hurting ourselves, in a different life. Every war, every dispute; we all want the same thing. We're just caught up in the chaos of the world, in random place and time we find ourself in, conditioned by our surroundings to think and to act in various ways.
So how to act? Just consider, with this axiom, how you would act when you next meet somebody. How you would act throughout your life. Would would your life be like? What would the world be like?