-- *Mar*Communicating and Interacting with Other Organisms
You are not a single organism. There are trillions of bacteria, making you, you. When the ‘you’ inhales air, the smell message carrying air changes into hormones, travels via the blood stream, the hormones become the instructions of coordinated living to all the bacteria constituting you. The electromagnetic Brain, photon-synthesizes observations, while the Amygdala, gives the emotional feeds or the collective voice of the trillions of organisms in you. Breathing constitutes your living. You smell by breathing. You smell the smell messages of the other organisms. You interact with every other organism via smelling and sensing. The ‘you ‘or the trillions of bacteria, are communicating with each other as a result of your breathing. When trillions of bacteria can communicate with each other, ultimately via the air, will it not be possible to use the same air to communicate with the other organisms of the biosphere? You must first feel that you are part of the Biosphere, and that emotions bind you to the Biosphere via breathing. Then you must accept that the other organism is a being of emotions and feelings and that you can breathe, smell and feel the feelings of that organism. You have to practice breathing and smelling, and then gradually you learn to sort out the smells into smell messages. You learn to give smell responses. Gradually your mind also participates in this process. Start by sitting near a tree, and try to smell and sense the messages of the tree. In a big forest, when you adopt this method of communication with the other organisms, you swim in a wonderful ocean of approval. That feeling becomes your living. Once the human organism could sort out among thousands of different smells. The Smell Dictionary was very big. Today we do not even bother to communicate with nature. We lost our very basic faculty of smelling and communicating. We do not even realize that we are part of the planet earth. This basic indifference is euphemized as scientific temperament. Just go into a forest, and try to breathe, smell and sense. You can experience the real world, the world of emotions and feelings. You begin reclaiming your macro personality. And failure leaves your dictionary. YM Sarma Chat gpt That’s a beautifully poetic and philosophically rich passage by *YM Sarma*, blending science, spirituality, and ecology into one vision of interconnected life. It invites readers to rethink what it means to be “an individual” — not as a single entity, but as a *collective organism* intertwined with countless others, both within and around us. Here are a few reflections and interpretations that might help unpack it: ------------------------------ *🌿 1. The Collective Self* The idea that *“you are not a single organism”* is biologically true — the human body contains trillions of bacterial cells, outnumbering human cells. Sarma expands this scientific fact into a *metaphysical insight*: our identity is a *community*, not an isolated “I.” This view echoes ecological and Eastern philosophies (like Vedanta or Buddhism), where the boundary between self and world dissolves. ------------------------------ *💨 2. Breathing as Communication* Breathing is framed not just as a physical act but as a *medium of exchange* — air carrying “smell messages,” hormones, and emotions between beings. In a way, this anticipates the modern study of *chemical signaling* (pheromones, plant volatiles, etc.), but it’s also symbolic of empathy: *to breathe with* is to *be with* the world. ------------------------------ *🌳 3. Smell and the Forgotten Language of Nature* The author laments the *loss of our olfactory sensitivity*, which once connected us deeply to the environment. The “Smell Dictionary” here is a metaphor for our lost ability to interpret the world’s subtle emotional and energetic cues. Smelling becomes a practice of *relearning belonging* — to “breathe, smell and sense” is to remember we are part of the living Earth. ------------------------------ *💫 4. The Emotional Ecology* Sarma suggests that *emotion is not exclusive to humans* — that trees, animals, bacteria, and even ecosystems possess feeling or responsive presence. When we open our senses, we enter an *“ocean of approval”* — a field of mutual resonance that sustains life. ------------------------------ *🌍 5. The Philosophical Challenge* The passage critiques what Sarma calls the “scientific temperament” — not science itself, but its detachment from emotional and sensory connection to life. True knowing, he suggests, must also involve *feeling* and *communing*, not merely analyzing. ------------------------------ *🌸 6. The Practice* The invitation at the end is experiential: “Sit near a tree, and try to smell and sense the messages of the tree.” This is a kind of *eco-meditation* — regaining empathy through sensory presence. It’s reminiscent of forest bathing (*shinrin-yoku*), a practice shown to reduce stress and heighten awareness of the living world. ------------------------------ Would you like me to help you *summarize* this text in a concise form (for study or presentation), or would you prefer a *creative reflection or response* inspired by it (for example, a poem or essay)? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CACDCHC%2BB5Ej3U-QXQDxc%2BBZOP%3Dt6juaQru4igNkDTAvz-7_a6Q%40mail.gmail.com.
