Travels with Duncan

Book 1 – Duncan in the Forest

Chapter 6. On intertwining worlds

As Duncan and Pico search for the meaning of the mandala, a toad tells them some strange
garbled things.

That night proved to be a very restful one and the moon shown down over the land in an exquisite
way, illuminating the campsite and the mandala itself. Duncan and Pico at one point, got up and
went over to see the mandala in the moonlight. So wonderful it looked.

The next morning, they felt fully refreshed. They couldn’t take their minds off the mandala. As
they were sitting there gazing at it one last time before trudging off up the canyon again, a small
toad crept out of a crevice in the base of the cliff and approached them.

- Greetings, dear travelers! You might be wondering what that big picture is all about, right?
- Why, yes indeed - said Duncan.
- It’s been there forever, as far as anyone can tell. It is a map that shows the way to a great pond
where lush weeds and clear water are never lacking. One can pass away the day sunning on a lily
pad and munching on delicate flower buds and passing flies.
- Is that so, my friend?
- Oh yes, indeed. Many of my kind have already left in search of the big pond, and they must have
found it, because none of them has come back. But I’m not sure enough myself to undertake the
journey - nor do I quite make out exactly where to start. One day for sure, I’ll be off and away,
but for now, I’m happy just here.
- My dear toad, said Pico, how do you know the picture is a map? It could be just some fanciful
drawing - although I myself find it must represent something too.
- Indeed it does. I’ve been told so. And look - see how those swiveling lines cutting across the
circular space repeat themselves on the right? There has got to be a meaning behind that! It’s got
to be a map, a representation of some kind.
- Yes, but, you see one thing in it, and we another. Who knows what it really is?

So, while the toad insisted on the representational nature of the picture, he could tell them no
more about its meaning. After biding him farewell, Duncan and Pico regretfully left the mandala,
happy though that it was now firmly engraved in each of their minds. They now knew they had to
reach the mountains and find out what this was all about.

They went forth at an easy pace, chatting as they did.

- Duncan, you make it appear as if there is nothing solid in this world of ours, as if everything is
relative.
- Yes, Pico, quite so. Thinkers argue perpetually over what is, and yet, those are just arguments.
That is, they are but viewpoints, perspectives on things.
- You mean, seeing something from different angles?
- Yes, or seeing things with a different level of magnification. Scale does it beautifully. Looking at
something very close up really changes our perception of what we are looking at. And looking at
it from atop a mountain, the world is rather different than our usual way of seeing it.
- And it’s the same world!
- Yes, that’s exactly it, Pico, the same world. It’s not that one view is more real than the other,
rather they are both very real, just seen from a different perspective.
- Yes, ok Duncan, I see that well. But then, does that generalize across the board? Is everything
but ‘from a perspective’? Is everything an abstraction, a representation, a piece of information?
- And so where would lie reality under all that, eh?
- Precisely.
- Well, my own view Pico - my own current perspective - leads me to think that perspective is
most of it. Whatever reality underlies it all is somehow there, but comprehensible only through
some perspective.
- Sure, we see the world through our own personal thought patterns.
- Yes, but even more so than generally thought. The common view is that we have a fair idea of
how reality operates - that is what objective knowing is all about, after all - even though our
views may be somewhat colored. Say to the tune of 10 %.
- Yes, I would think that is the general assessment of what we know.
- But I am suggesting a reversal of that: perspective is 90% of what we know. Perspective is
nearly everything - the missing part being that underlying reality, which is unknowable, really.
- Except through a perspective, uh huh.
- Right.
- Well where does that lead us now, Duncan?
- Well, back to deep thought, for one thing. A process view of the world is no more real than a
substantive one is - it is just another perspective. Both are valid.
- Both are accurate in their own way, but is one perhaps a better view of the world than the other?
- Well now, you’re getting into normative issues, Pico. And I don’t want to deal with those here.
What is good and bad and best all depend on ‘for whom’ and that is a whole other ball of wax.
- Yes, I suppose so.
- But you are right in thinking that both views are accurate in their own way. Which leads us to
the silliness of much of thinking in seeking to describe reality as this or that. All these views are
appropriate views except those that are extreme and exclusionary. Idealism and realism are both
true from a certain perspective - they are simply chosen ways of viewing the world at a given
time. Only a choice of viewpoint.
- So the search for the real true world is off, I take it.
- Definitely. We have advantage in accustoming ourselves to the idea that reality and truth are
variable, that they are in process, just like everything else.
- That being a perspective itself, of course.
- Of course, you rascal. The big distinction between process and substance need not lead to
categorical views. These views are two sides of the same coin.
- Ha, there seems to be something foul here. Maybe the idea that our making up these distinctions
is rather unhealthy in itself. That’s very much a relativist view, isn’t it?
- Yes, indeed. The idea that bad only appears in relation to good, long in relation to short, and so
on. Nothing is long per se, only relatively so.
- Yep, and that’s another blow to fixity and permanence.
- Indeed, all distinctions are artificial in that way, as are all concepts, as is all abstraction.
- All thought too?
- Yes. Thought, both abstraction and reason, are construed. They are artifactual tools, in the same
way language is, just like the axes and hammers the bipeds use.
- Nothing natural about them, then?
- Oh yes, tools are natural too, you know. They are artifactual, but all fabricated stuff is just as
much part of the great unfolding as anything else.
- Right, of course, I tend to forget that. Another habit of distinction - I mean of making
distinctions. This is a pretty big one, eh? - between artifactual and natural.
- Oh, yes. So where were we? Ah, yes... so abstraction and all distinctions and perspectives it
brings about are tools. And relative too, of course, being artifactual. We don’t generally discover,
we construe.
- There are no laws of nature then? We make them up?
- We make up the general scheme within which the laws appear to us. We construe the system and
then the laws are discovered within it. The system itself is changing all along as discoveries orient
our thinking. Coherence is the kingpin here.
- It has to all fit together, right?
- Yep. And yet rationality itself is relative too, we mustn’t forget.
- It’s just a sea of relativity out there!
- And that’s why dogmatism of all sorts, philosophical and spiritual, needs to be shunned.
- But yet, Duncan, here we are dogmatizing ourselves, aren’t we?
- Ha, dogmatizing indeed, my friend! So what do we learn from that?
- I’m not sure, really.
- Nor I. I think the lesson might well be that we do speculate with force, expressing a point of
view, but remaining open nevertheless to modification given new perspectives. We cannot but not
act - take a position really - but yet we need to remain flexible. It’s that same old interplay
between permanence and change, isn’t it?
- Yes, I suppose so. Oy, this has worn me out somewhat, my big fellow. Nap time!
- Aye, aye, comrade in arms.

A short while later, they found a nice protected and snug place in the crook of some big trees and
they settled in for a rest.

The sun had already passed its zenith when Duncan awoke. He strolled off to find some water and
when he got back, Pico was stretching and yawing while regaining his senses. He too had a drink
and they were preparing to leave, but Duncan was deep back in thought.

- So, Pico, what do you think of this world creation business? Making any sense?
- Yes, I guess... I can see how our experience of illusions, appearances and so on - the fact that
they can seem so real - can certainly lead us to doubt what we take to be our hard, real world.
And that doubt, that possibility of illusion - even if just a possibility - inevitably pushes into a
correspondence framework, a ‘real behind the appearance’ kind of thinking.
- Right. You are seeing out of the box there.
- Ok, Master Duncan, where does that leave us? We create our world, that being our only true
world, the only true world. But then what?
- Oh, I think there is a big implication arising out of this, one to do with different versions of
reality, and hence once again, the very notion of reality. But then, there is also the problem of
history, of our evolution...
- Yes, I have been thinking of that - that is a problem, isn’t it? I mean, we create the world, but
then, before we could do that, the world had to create us, right?
Duncan couldn't quite see how that could be resolved, so he let it hang there. He told Pico to
jump on up on his shoulders and they would be off. They traveled through the early evening and
came to a beautiful spot to spend the night. They had eaten earlier, so they just settled down in a
grassy area and watched the stars come to light.

- So, now, Pico, let’s talk about different versions of reality. We all concoct our own reality, and
we do so through our experiences and in particular, through our interactions with others.
- Right, so in the end, your reality and my reality are pretty much alike. We build a common
reality.
- Indeed, that’s what we agree as the true reality, the Reality with a big R - the real thing, what!
- But, it’s still a build reality, isn’t it Duncan?
- Yep. Now here is the interesting part. Since we are different, since our experiences are different,
our realities will never be exactly alike. Oh, they may be very, very nearly alike, but never truly
fully alike, never really identical.
- You mean a single reality for everyone is impossible?
- Pretty much, yes.
- Well, of course, our views are different - I will have different beliefs than you. But those are just
our thoughts. So naturally, they will be different.
- Yes, yes, our opinions will always be different of course. But let’s go beyond mere opinions,
here. We are talking about hard-core reality! You see, our opinions play a part in shaping that
reality...
- Yes, so our individual realities are different. You know, an interesting issue is that very diversity.
It’s that same and different continuum, isn’t it? We are the same in some respects and different in
others, right? Another dimension issue. Oh, well, I’m getting used to that, slowly though.
- Yes, I guess so. But that is another issue - let’s keep it for another time. Back to reality!
- Back to reality!
- Ok, so even though our realities will be nearly identical - we both see that tree over there and
know not to run into it if we don’t want a bump, right? - well, our realities will be slightly
different too. And the more we are different in our environments, the more our realities will differ.
A bird’s reality will be rather more different than ours, and a fish’s even more different...
- And a tree’s reality will be very different indeed, as we were supposing the other day, eh?
- If there be a reality for the tree! You’re right, Pico, whatever that reality is... because the tree
does exist in some reality of its own, outside of my reality. Or does it, now?
- Sure, it must. Remember, the trees have existed long before we did. But Duncan, how do all
these realities fit together?
- Yes, that seems to be the crucial question just here.
- It is easy enough to see how our two realities - yours and mine - come to concord, since we
build them together through dialogue and sharing in the same culture. So naturally, they concord.
Mostly they do, at least.
- Yes, but the others? How do all realities fit together? That is the big question.
- Insoluble?
- Perhaps. We can only imagine what a fish’s reality is like, not being a fish ourselves, you know.
We have no way of truly experiencing that reality, of truly feeling it.
- So what are we saying here, Duncan? That each of us is locked into our own reality, incapable
of escaping it into another?
- Yes, I guess so. We agree there are multiple realities and that we each only experience our own.
- And?
- Well, then, I suppose that leads us to never being able to trust our own reality. For one thing, we
are never sure how much our mind transforms reality to suit us - I mean, we are never sure of the
distinction between appearance and reality, even in our own personal reality. Look at madness and
all its variants!
- Yes, that’s true. We can never jump out of our own minds to somehow perceive reality ‘in the
raw’ so to speak. Since there is no reality in the raw, right?
- Uh, huh. But even beyond our inability to clearly distinguish appearance and reality, we seem to
be concluding here that all realities are relative.
- And so, untrustworthy.
- Not fully trustable. I guess what we are saying is that it is not stable. It may change. My reality
may change. Oh boy!
- But yet, you know, Duncan, it is the only one each of us has. We have to live by something! So
we must trust it!
- Yes, you’re right. We can’t just stop the world because we are unsure of reality.
- And in any case, within the confines of our reality, everything works just fine. When I bump into
a tree, it does hurt and I do get a bruise, just as it should happen.
- Yes that internal consistency is central to any reality. Oh, but Pico, I am very troubled just now.
At a loss to explain this.
- Don’t worry, big fellow! I’ll keep you out of trouble.
- Ha you rascal, you! Very true, why worry over these imponderables? These perplexities...
- Ok, I’ll race you down to the stream for a splash.

And so it was that life went on, with our two rascals enjoying themselves in the great forest of the
time.