date created:: 2024-12-09 11:47
date modified:: 2024-12-09 12:06
Status:: 🌿budding

7.1 the universe peoples in the same way an apple tree apples

Because, you see, a human being is a symptom of the universe in exactly the same way that an apple is a symptom of an apple tree. When an apple tree produces apples we might say: “This tree apples”—using “apples” as a verb. And so in precisely the same way that an apple tree “apples,” we are living in a universe which “peoples.” We are symptoms of the kind of system in which we are living, and our appearance in the system tells us about the system.
- Alan Watts

Watts is using the analogy of an apple tree to point out that people (ie, you and me) are simply a natural consequence of the universe we live in. Indeed, as the whole point of an apple tree is to produce apples, so too the whole point of the universe is to produce people.

The existence of people is not an accident, or simply a byproduct of a chaotic, uncaring universe. We are the culmination of every process, and those processes inevitably lead to people. And the fact that the universe "peoples" provides us with information about the kind of universe we live in.

The use of "peoples" as a verb shows us that it is something the universe is actively doing, rather than us being a random byproduct.

Source: Zen for Beginners

See 7.1a if people are the fruit of the universe then we have the potential to become our own universe for more thoughts on the consequences of this analogy.

See 7.1b saying the universe peoples is human-centric view for criticism of the idea that the universe "peoples"