Your Daily Zen Tripout - 01: How do you know what cold is?
Today, as I filled up my small glass of water at a sushi restaurant where my family and I were eating, small puffs of hot air from under the machine reached my hand. This confused me because I thought it was the water coming out of the dispenser, spraying my hand, that was hot. I was worried that I might be at the wrong machine. The label however, said “cold,” so I continued filling up my glass. On the way back to the table I dipped the tip of my index finger into the glass of water to make sure. Yes, it was cold. But then almost immediately the thought struck me: how the hell do I know what “cold” is!?
How would you describe “hot” or “cold” to someone who’s never felt them?
Right now I'm clapping with only one hand. Brilliant post. How do you expect me to sleep now?!
Also, that's why it's impossible to teach a baby about these things. They will need to get burned or freeze their butts off once or twice in order to learn lol. Also, why words have little meaning (school) and why interacting with the physical realm is the best way to stay (literally) in-touch with your self.
Water another name is life. So drink water while drinking water and take care of caution.
haha zen tripout, eh? I think my zen teacher would have slapped me if I had asked this and told me to go meditate more and stop asking pointless questions. :P
My answer, though: Nothing exists without the opposite. Without yin there is no yang. Hot is not cold; cold is not hot. But that doesn't quite get at it, it only hints at it. Objectively there is no way to explain an experience; it has to be experienced to be understood. The tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao and all that. It gives you a hint, puts you on the right path, but you can't know... until you know. haha you know? Ok enlightenment is too big, let's take something closer to home that we can both relate to: swimming. You can read a book on how to swim, you can understand the laws of water, you can know everything there is to know about swimming, but you can't experience what it is to swim until you actually jump in the water and actually do it (or sink—whichever). You don't know it until... you know it.
So how to describe cold? Impossible. We can only give someone hints. Not hot. And those hints can give them an idea. But they can't really know what cold is until they feel it.
Now back to my beer
OK how much did we smoke just before writing this post? Super kidding! I find myself thinking about these things a lot, and this has actually happened to me before (tho not at the sushi spot.) It's funny right? We ALL have the same 'hardware' within us in terms of nerves and such, but each of our systems and experiences within our body system varies so much.
I find that with temperature, extremes actually mirror each other quite well. Hot feels like cold and vice versus at the extreme. I feel like speed is kind of like this as well. When I go really fast it feels out of control to me, but then there are others who simply don't perceive speed the way I do.
Quite amazing really. (And why I don't ride motorcycles)
Thanks for sharing and have a great day.
Depends on the subject matter. It would still be subjective based on preference but I think based off our body temperature we can successfully judge the coldness or hotness of the water ☺️👍🏽
Good experience share with us..i feel better after reading your short article.
That reaffirms that we are masses guided by society, for what they teach us at home.
lol man lol!!.,,,.....
Good point! I have people ask me all the time what snow feels like. They have never experienced it so how do you describe it?
Hot is welding. Cold is everything else. Lol
Guess they're relative to what you're used to based on tolerance.