Shower Thoughts about mind and body

8th August 2022

I took a 5-minute shower, here are some shower thoughts

When we say independent, we mean we don’t need the help of foreign forces, but are we really “we” without the bacteria and cells inside of us? If they are separate life forms, why can’t we live without them? If they are part of a “human” then why do they have separate definitions? I took a shower just now, and here are some shower thoughts about humans’ bodies and minds.

If a human is one thing, one body, one mind, then what makes you “you”?

If blood cells and muscles are part of you that makes “you” functional, then the bacterias and germs are part of you too.

If we define “you” to be the elements of a system that keeps you functional and existing, then the atmosphere that keeps oxygen from leaving earth is a part of you. The planet with gravity that keeps you from leaving earth and suffocating in the space vacuum is a part of you. The sun that provides you energy and keeps the world spinning is a part of you all because you rely on them to exist and survive.

To go as far as the universe all the way back to us, we are all one person, one thing, just like how the Daoists have always said, yet we are……. not the sun, not the earth, not the milky way, we are independent…….right?

If so, the things that keep you alive might not be part of you. Is your hand part of “you”? If you cut off your right hand, does that forbid you from…