The Dharma of Microbes

At a Spirit Rock retreat a few years ago, Wes Nisker was giving his talk, "Be In Awe," when he said something that sounded quite amazing. He mentioned that we all have within our bodies, and specifically in our abdominal area, millions of bacterial microbes that live off of the food we eat. He went on to say that without these little fellows down there, we would not be able to digest our food properly. In a classic symbiotic relationship, these microbes also depend upon us to feed them. 

Some scientists have theorized that since these microbes existed for millions of years before the advent of humans, they may have actually evolved us as a kind of "ambulatory feed lot." Then, like artificial intelligence in a science fiction story, the experiment ran amok, and we have come to this. 

So, Wes suggested, the next time you eat, ask yourself, "Just who is feeding whom?" 

Wow! 6:30 already. Time to feed the microbes!

Blessings,
Roger