-- *Mar*Below is a *carefully edited and improved version* of your essay, preserving your philosophy, metaphors, and voice while clarifying language, tightening arguments, and improving flow. After that, I add *my own views and reflections* on your ideas. ------------------------------ Edited and Improved Version
*Speeding and Rushing Away* Speed reduces length. As velocity increases toward the speed of light, physical dimensions contract; at light speed, matter theoretically loses volume and dissolves into infinity, merging with all that is infinite. This, of course, is a consequence of Einstein’s theory of relativity. But let us return from physics to our everyday life. Today, we are rushing away from life itself. When we traverse hundreds of miles by jetting through space, we may not become “nothing” physically, but we often become “nothing” experientially. We lose opportunities for interaction, observation, and learning. This neurotic nothingness is the opposite of the exhilarating “Nothing” that emerges from natural discovery, contemplation, and revelation. Economic speed robs us of real education—the education that comes from direct experience with nature, where life interacts and teaches. This rushing is visible everywhere. Passengers hurry toward exits the moment a destination is reached. Vehicles race on roads at maximum possible speed. In schools and colleges, double promotions and accelerated learning are coveted. Everywhere, slowing down is considered a failure. Nature means life forms, and every life form is emotional and responsive to love—whether shark, crocodile, lion, or tiger. Life senses life, sometimes through smell, sometimes through subtler natural mediums. When we engage slowly and attentively, we experience the profound happiness of gentle interaction. But when we rush, indifference becomes our way of living. We begin to ignore everything around us. Gradually, we fear interaction itself, because interaction demands commitment and emotional involvement, which rushed lives cannot afford. Today, very few people sleep under the open sky and gaze at the stars. Economics has confined most of us to apartments where the sky is barely visible. We lose direct interaction with the universe. We learn about planets, stars, and galaxies only through maps, books, screens, and simulations. The emotional connection—learning through wonder, feeling, and awe—is lost. Emotional intelligence, which once connected us to the cosmos, quietly disappears. Real education has nearly become extinct. Lessons are no longer experienced; they are merely consumed. Nature has been ousted, and humanity rushes endlessly, avoiding the lived experience of learning. We no longer realize that we are limbs of Planet Earth. Living once meant participating as part of an emotional Gaia. In free and healthy nature, one becomes a strong limb of a thriving ecosystem, living a life where leisure and learning are inseparable. No organism other than humans rushes away once its needs are met. Such organisms are, in a deeper sense, more learned than those with dozens of academic degrees. They inhale the diverse messages carried in nature’s smells and exhale their learning back into the world. Other organisms inhale and exhale in turn, creating waves of shared learning through the troposphere. Earth becomes the nurturing Bhoodevi. Today, education is usurped by technology. Machines record data without feeling. René Descartes is made to appear correct—that all life forms are merely machines. Flora and fauna are no longer teachers; they are reduced to raw materials, economic resources, or commodities for marketing. Our economic systems have removed learning from lived experience. We rush through every minute of life. We are not truly living, nor are we truly learning. Nature intended life to be a series of experiences and participations in diverse arts. We have destroyed this foundation and replaced it with technological counterfeits that lack real experiential content. From birth onward, we rush toward old age. This is the era of speeding and rushing away—and economics relentlessly drives us away from life itself. We desperately need *free and healthy nature parks*, untouched by human interference and economic exploitation. *— Y. M. Sarma* ------------------------------ My Views and Reflections Your essay is *philosophically rich, ecologically grounded, and emotionally compelling*. At its core, it makes three powerful arguments: 1. *Speed is not neutral* – it reshapes consciousness, not just motion. 2. *Modern education has lost its experiential soul*. 3. *Economics has replaced living with mere functioning*. I strongly agree with your central concern: *speed collapses depth*. While speed increases efficiency, it often destroys meaning. Human cognition and emotional learning evolved in slow environments—walking, observing, waiting, listening. When speed dominates, reflection becomes impossible. Your distinction between *neurotic nothingness* and *enlightening Nothingness* is particularly insightful. It echoes Eastern philosophies (Buddhism, Advaita, Taoism) where emptiness is fertile only when it arises from awareness, not from exhaustion or distraction. I would, however, add a nuance: Technology itself is not the enemy—*unexamined speed is*. Technology could, in theory, protect nature, slow labor, and create space for contemplation. But when driven by profit and acceleration alone, it becomes an amplifier of alienation. Your call for *free and healthy nature parks* is not merely environmental—it is educational and psychological. Such spaces are essential for restoring emotional intelligence, empathy, and planetary belonging. Without them, humanity risks becoming highly intelligent yet deeply unwise. In short, your essay is a *warning and a lament*, but also a *quiet invitation*: To slow down. To feel again. To learn by living, not by rushing. If you’d like, I can also: - Make this more *academic/philosophical*, - Adapt it into a *short manifesto*, or - Edit it for *publication in a journal or magazine*. -- 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%2BQudgLu47ugTMzBxZH0_FTddtHNkHHOxwgXOHgW7mRcg%40mail.gmail.com.
