The uniqueness of life… or not?

When you boil it down to the essence of what makes life unique, what do you come up with? In the Cosmos there exist myriad configurations of matter an energy of which life – and us humans in particular – are just a part.

But is there – or what is there – that makes us unique amongst all the other stuff?

I know that one set of answers could be things like our values, our dreams, our love, etc. I accept that, but in this reflection I am thinking about something more distinguishing than immaterial concepts. There is one thing that I can think of which seems to make us, and life, unique: volition.

As an agglomeration of matter an energy, one thing that you or I can do, that as far as we know no other agglomerations of matter and energy in the entire universe are capable of doing is having volition.

Or?

Here is where I really wonder. Is it really true that only life forms have volition?

As life forms, we come from, we emerge out of, we derive our essences from other agglomerations of matter and energy which we perceive to not have volition. But, isn’t that odd? Because, for something to exist – namely volition and us ourselves – how could it have come from nothing?

But if there is volition in the Cosmos, where is it? How is it? In what manner does it manifest?

It really makes one wonder, what really is volition? Right now as I’m here writing this, it is my choice to do so. If I now decide I want to have a sip of tea I can do it.

Even though we have volition, our bodies – the instruments which enact our volition – are finite. So to do we know that all other agglomerations of matter in the universe are. Stars do not last forever. Even the universe will not last forever.

In order for there to be beings like us there must be certain conditions. Our volition is the result of a very specific set of conditions. So, ultimately, our volition is dependent upon something else. That something else seems to us to be non-volitional. A star billions of years ago went supernova. The cloud of debris and gas coalesced to form our solar system and, ultimately our bodies. So here we are. Was there volition in any of that?

We think highly of volition, but one can ask: Is it really that important? We believe in things. We strive for things. We dream about things. The teaching of Buddha says that by practicing we can eliminate suffering. The coupling of volition with skill, with wisdom, with courage, and with love.

But when we look out at the Cosmos, where do we see all that? We just see what appear to be material objects without volition, obeying physical laws.

But I think it must be there. Maybe it is in the Sun, in stars? Maybe it is in some aspects of the Cosmos in a way that a human body and mind cannot perceive (although perhaps we can somehow sense it)?

I would like to believe that it is, that what we are and perceive is only a small part of a vast greatness that is all around us and to which we will return.