Live Longer!, Suffering (Part 2) and Jon Kabat-Zin
April 28, 2024
8 min read
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Newsletter
{Body}
Breathing less to live longer
Oxygen is a merciless killer.
On our planet it rusts iron, spoils foods, and combusts hydrocarbons in mid-air.
In our bodies oxygen causes genetic degeneration, leading to progressive ageing and eventually cell death.
These facts are shocking given the fact that most people are unable to survive even a few moments without it. But it’s true — oxygen is a double-edged sword.
With this in mind, it’s no surprise that many of the species that breathe the least also live the longest (think about the breath rate of dogs compared to that of tortoises or whales).
To further back this up, a recent study done on mice exposed to 11 percent oxygen levels lived 50 percent longer compared to their counterparts in regular, 21 percent oxygen conditions (all else being equal).
This is good news for us humans who have direct control over how quickly or slowly we breathe, and thus how much oxygen enters and exits our bodies.
{Mind}
How does suffering maintain itself?
This is Part 2 of 4 on a series about suffering. Click to read Part 1
To summarize: suffering is not caused by your circumstances; suffering is caused by craving or hating (aka desiring) the sensations that do or don’t occur in response to your circumstances.
And what are sensations, exactly? Try to feel the inside of your right hand. Without labeling the experience close your eyes, place your attention on the center of your palm, and feel what there is to feel.
How would you describe this part of your body as an observer? Buzzing, maybe? Humming? A feeling of aliveness? Agreed. Sensations — from the first-person point of view — are just a series of vibratory patterns.
And what is vibration, scientifically? It’s a moving wave. One with a crest and a valley. One with a high point and a low point. One with ups and one with downs.
This fact is why desiring the arrival or cessation of a sensation inevitably backfires. Because the nature of a wave is to rise and fall — a vibratory peak must come with a vibratory valley — everything you like will eventually end.
No matter how high you get, or how well Crypto is doing, or how full-body an orgasm becomes, or how sublime a vision, or how optimistically you think, or how magnanimous your character…it won’t last. All of it — all of it — will decay and implode and be dismantled just like the rest of the Universe.
Sure, this fact also technically means that all of life’s unpleasantries will end, too. But I don’t think that fact makes anyone feel better about their short and pointless existence.
Stay tuned next week for Part 3 of 4 where you’ll learn the clever little loophole out of this seeming purgatory.
{Soul}
Life, from one perspective, is absolutely, unequivocally terrifying.
One year from now, the entire world could implode under the weight of corruption and greed, sending the economy into a tailspin unlike any in recorded history.
One month from now, a huge solar flare could take out all of our satellites, deleting most — if not all — of the Internet, and short-circuiting the entire electrical grid.
One hour from now, you could have a piece of fatty plaque break off from the wall of one of your arteries, get clogged in a smaller blood vessel, and cause a fatal heart attack or stroke.
To dwell on these — or any other doomsday potential — could very well be a full-time job. Lifetimes could be spent preparing for the end of the world, or trying to avoid death, or warning others of the impending crises.
You may well be thinking at this point: “true, Ethan, but that’s a terribly stressful way to see the world, isn’t it?”
Exactly!
If life is a battle against the endless riptide of entropy, why not learn to make the most of what you have now? If your mind can view anything as either hopeful or hopeless, exciting or miserable, why not choose the perspective that makes you feel the happiest?
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