Defining Reentry?!?!?!
The punctuation “!?” used in the title is an “interesting move” in the game of chess. This move cannot be classified either as a good move that will win the game or a bad move that will lead to defeat. A paradox that can not be explained.
Reentry, as a word, needs to be understood before writing a post on the topic. I will try to give context to this word with respect to my life. I am sure this word ‘reentry’ can mean many other things in different contexts which are not included in this article for obvious reasons.
I, as a sentient being, have the intellect to imagine and act upon my imagination to turn it into reality. This ability defines the whole journey of my existence on this planet. Making this journey fulfilling is my purpose. Being grateful towards nature, and all its wonders that help me coexist, is the starting point of the journey. And, I should enrich it as I go along in life with one interaction at a time. All entities that exist help me to play my role. Enriching the environment during my lifetime is the small task at hand.
Linear vs. Circular are the two important concepts of growth that have confused humankind for ages. Nature is cyclic which humanity has understood only in parts. Scientists have pronounced that matter or energy can never be created nor destroyed but can only be transformed. But economists keep talking of linear growth. While our knowledge has increased in the quest for economic growth, the truth remains evasive.
In the past, the earth was considered flat but when the horizon of our imagination expanded many observers could understand that the earth was not flat. There were innumerable intellectuals who were labelled idiots and fools when they first proposed this idea (by using their imagination) that the earth was round. And yet humanity discovered that the earth was round in a few years’ time.
Similarly, there is no linearity in existence and the whole existence is circular. The concepts of Entry, Exit, and Reentry are just limitations of our vision, from the situation or the position we look from. In reality there are no exit points but seamless morphing of one phase of existence into another.
Whatever is there will always be and what is not there will never be. Sentient human beings have an infinite power of imagination [N (Thoughts available) — N (Thoughts consumed) = N (Thoughts available)].
I can therefore think and then believe, believe and then understand and finally work towards viewing my beliefs in light of reality. In existence there is neither an entry nor an exit. With no exit and no entry, we cannot have a reentry.
So, the change in form is not an exit from the earlier stage, but a new stage in which the previous state is included. From a bar of gold, if we have made a ring then the gold continues to exist in the form of a ring rather than a bar. Now if we add a diamond to the ring that turns it into a diamond ring where the gold and diamond coexist. There is no exit from being gold.
In light of this knowledge of existential reality, I look around and I can see within the seed the potential of a full tree exists. The right atmosphere, nutrition and lo! The seed sprouts and grows into a tree. The entry of the tree into this world doesn’t mean the exit of the seed. The growth, nourishment, and subsequent decay of the tree is the process of nature, which I as a human being can understand and adapt to experience abundance in existence. Being benevolent and sharing the fruit is fulfilling and makes life good for me.
Moving forward, in the evolution cycle I see an antelope being chased by a Cheetah. Out of the full herd that particular antelope happens to be closest to the bush where the cheetah was ambushing. It gets caught and satiates the hunger of the cheetah. During this chase the whole herd has ploughed the land and helped thousands of organisms thrive and made the soil fertile. The antelope that got killed has saved the full herd. The Cheetah satiates the hunger pangs and helps control the population of the antelopes. Everything is precise and complete with no scope for wastage.
I, as a human being, can expand my vision to see this whole activity unfold in existence and I do not see an entry of the antelope or its exit. To me, it is nothing but nature in full majesty, playing out like a well-orchestrated, musical and harmonious cacophony.
Instead of the theory of the survival of the fittest that human tradition teaches me, I see coexistence and cooperation all around and do not see competition. This helps me see beyond the concepts of entry and exit.
Similarly, in human beings, the zygote becoming a baby and then a teenager and then an adult is a circular journey with no exit or entry. Every child that becomes a teenager does not exit, and nor does anyone who dies exit.
Entry and reentry are concepts which can help us break the existence into parts and then study them in isolation. But, in reality they are always one with the whole and can never be dissected. As Alan Watts puts it, “every moment in which you are is the only moment.”
There is no past or future in existence but I can imagine about both with the objective to be organised and in order.
The Synopsis
We understand reentry as a term which is used to describe a rekindling or continuing some activity which we had stopped doing earlier. That would be a very small context and I have looked at the bigger picture as an observer who can expand his vision as well as narrow it down as explained in this beautiful video, The power of 10 made by IBM a few decades ago.
Reentry is just a word in the vast majority of words that we have in the English language. Language itself is an invention of the human race that helps share knowledge of things that are there in existence. We cannot use language to explain non-existent things.
As long as humanity is existing in delusion it will have different interpretations and only fight till they drop dead. That as a possibility cannot be ruled out in the present day world of divided humanity.
There is, however, a ray of hope in the form of the philosophy of coexistence. I am trying to present it for evaluation, validation, and for practice in daily life to bring resolution. Starting from a person, then for a family and then for the whole community, leading to bigger and larger groups on the way to global adoption, I am sure human resolution is achievable.
Reentry exists as long as the vision is limited to a certain boundary. If we can understand and see ourselves existing beyond the boundary, then we are always there and need not exit or reenter. We are always there.
Hope the readers enjoyed this journey of entering, exiting and reentering with me. Death, Space, and Work are the other topics in this writing challenge that I have explained with context to the coexistence philosophy and would invite everyone to read them as well.
