What it is to be alive (#483)

For me there is a duality of necessity. One is having thought perception. Rene Descartes statement of "I think, therefore I am." illuminates the concept that I exist. Along with thought is sensory perception. If I feel, taste, smell, hear and see in any combination or alone, then I am, along with thought, alive. Now, of course, I am only speaking of the human experience. Other forms of life exist without me knowing whether thought and sensory perception exist within them. From the smallest single cell organism, plant or animal, on up the evolutionary or creative chain. Having only thought and sensory perception is the minimal acceptable example, to me, of what it is to be alive. I maintain that curiosity and compassion are the two expressions of instinct we carry within all of us. Born from the need to survive. It is in the practice of curiosity and compassion that we begin to experience the gift of living the human experiment with a fullness greater than just existing. A scale can be devised to measure one's fullness in life directly proportional to how one utilizes the concept of curiosity and compassion as a rule. Within all of us is emotion, and through experiencing emotion, our own emotion, by our own actions, we are given a clue as to how we are living our lives. My sense of inner satisfaction based upon actions I think and allow myself to experience, help me understand, gauge and measure my personal utility of compassion and curiosity. That is what determines the fullness of life I have.