Traversing The Bardo
Mankind’s Search For The Timeless
--
And on the pedestal these words appear: ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare. The lone and level sands stretch far away — Percy Bysshe Shelley
As profound technological changes sweep the globe, this article searches for the philosophical side of technology by looking at Eastern and Western philosophy for answers. It tries to capture different thoughts. Metaphorically, it appears we are all blind men trying to figure out the proverbial elephant.
The word ‘antarabhāva’ is a Sanskrit word that means a transitional or intermediate state between death and rebirth. In Buddhist schools of thought, the word Bardo means a stage where life is suspended between an end and rebirth. A state of suspended animation. If the world operates in cycles, life is traversing the Bardo and our attempts at recreating everything we know from atoms to bits is a timeless search for universal truths. Only the methods differ.
Traditionally, Eastern philosophy has focused on rebirth while Western philosophy focuses on union with a higher power. However, I see different approaches of seeing the same truth. Eastern and Western thinkers believe humans are alike everywhere, only customs and traditions differ.
The transient nature of our existence means that our education is not yet complete. The search for THE answer continues. Science and technology provide light while crossing the Bardo.
The Ache
We are constantly tearing away at the fabric of life as if to unravel a mystery that is as old as our origin or perhaps time itself. When I look at advances in genetics, Artificial Intelligence, robotics or prosthetics, I cannot help but question: are these an attempt to recreate the world that was created by science or a higher power? Men and women of science may look to the Big Bang for the beginning of the cosmos while others may feel there is a different story.
