The Ultimate Parasite

      On one of my daily walks I found a caterpillar furiously trekking toward the other side of the driveway. As most children do, I bent down and used a small stick to alter his journey and before long he had turned completely around and was headed off the driveway into the grass. I continued my daily Medicare stroll, and as is often the case, a thought whispered that I might have saved a life by this little redirection; perhaps to metamorphose into a beautiful butterfly, or become food for another in the cycle of life. And before long, just as if it were a dream, my train of thought switched to human existence and the delusional webs we weave as explanations for life.
      Mankind is the only animal we know of with the ability to imagine a past and a future. This ability has served us well and has great benefit in the present. However, it brings with it a dark side in the form of anxiety, fear, and greed which gives birth to anger, wars, and all forms of myopic behavior. For instance, we have behind us centuries of religious texts that posit man as the “ultimate animal” anointed by god or gods, as the rightful heir to the thrown of the almighty. Few are willing to recognize that we are actually just another parasite here on our "third rock from the sun.”
      I’m not suggesting that this isn’t rational for us. It seems quite logical given the brain we have to work with; the one which is responsible for everything we imagine or experience. It’s miraculous in its own right; but seriously compromised as well. In the words of Alexander Pope we are the animal “created half to rise, and half to fall; great lord of all things, yet prey to all.” And it is my belief that we, as a species are continually “falling” short on using what would seem to be our greatest asset: reason. Century after century we seem unable to look inside our own attitudes, fears, and greed, in order to recognize our true nature; parasites in a world wherein we truly are the “intellectual" lords over all. Yet we seem unable to act in accord with our position.
      There is the concept of Contingent (or Mutual) Arising which informs a real and in my mind, accurate description of existence. Simply stated it posits that all things arise only in conjunction with conditions that precede it. Nothing appears on its own or unconnected. No thing arises from nothing. All of existence is contingent upon conditions that form the ground out of which all things arise. It is a statement of process, not miraculous appearance. It eliminates any rational argument regarding First Cause for those who find the whole issue beyond an ability to conceive of without falling back on anthropomorphic rhetoric.
      So let’s examine the connection between this idea that all things are connected in a “continual web of creation” in which each contingency is further connected to other causes or conditions, and the idea that the human being is a parasitic entity. But first let’s be clear about what I mean by the term parasite. Normally the term brings to mind all sorts of frightening creatures. But I want to let go of these characterizations and ask to what the term really refers. What does the term parasite mean?
      One such definition is an organism that lives on or in an organism of another species, known as the host, from the body of which it obtains nutriment. And just so we don’t get sidetracked at the beginning, allow me to identify the human being as an organism, and further defined as “a form of life composed of mutually interdependent parts that maintain various vital processes.” I hope there is no confusion in stating that we are a form of life so composed. I would suggest that as this human organism we:

1) Live on and within the mutually interdependent parts/species of our physical world.

2) That it would be accurate to refer to our physical world as our “host.”

3) And that all the nutrients that sustain human life come from this host.

So as an organism we have met the criteria for being parasites. That is, we exist by and through the very process that defines parasitic activity.
       There is another definition for parasite that I believe is worth noting. It states: a person who receives support, advantage, or the like, from another or others without giving any useful or proper return, as one who lives on the hospitality of others.
       I call attention to the part of this definition which states that after receiving support or advantage they do so without giving any useful or proper return. This is an interesting distinction that can be made concerning the human being and sets us apart from all other forms of life that flourish.
      We tend to believe ourselves to be the “great lord of all things” and in our taking, we have convinced ourselves that we needn’t be part of the symbiotic relationships in life. We take and use until there is depletion, extinction, or destruction; and our minds are so deluded by myth that we believe it our right to do so.
      I think it would behoove us to recognize that life will survive without us. And it occurs to me that it may have to eliminate us in order to do so. The parasite that doesn’t give back to the process that supports it, will be eliminated……that seems to be the real “great lord of all things.”
      Or in the words of Stephen Batchelor, "In dissolving this view through a vision of the world as a dynamic and interrelated whole of which we are an integral part, we are likewise freed to engage with the world afresh.” ---Buddhism Without Beliefs.