The Ordinary Life of Trees

A rhapsodic exploration

The world in itself is not known.

The basis for actions in the world are predictions about the consequences of actions, which may be called beliefs.

Humans have beliefs. Animals have beliefs. Trees have beliefs. Fungi have beliefs.

An emotion is a general physical orientation toward the world, as it is believed to be.

Humans have emotions. Animals have emotions. Trees have emotions. Fungi have emotions.

Emotional feelings are the perceptual experience of emotions.

All organisms that can perceive their general physical orientation have feelings.

Humans have feelings. Animals have feelings. Trees have feelings. Fungi have feelings.

Every organism is most fundamentally oriented toward its own well-being, which it determines for itself, and can never determine incorrectly.  

Organisms evaluate events (as they are perceived), and actions (as their consequences are predicted) as being good or bad for the organisms future well-being.  

What every organism wants most is to be moving toward its own greatest well-being.

Emotions are the general physical orientation and preparation to move toward more well-being.  

Emotions are known by how they feel.

What every organism wants to feel most are the emotions that it believes will move it toward its greatest well-being.

Everything is either wanted directly for well-being, or wanted as an intermediate step toward well-being.

Beliefs, as predictions of the consequences of actions, create emotions, or the general physical orientation for action or non-action.

There are no constraints on actions beyond physical constraints.  What can be done, can be done.

The experience of unhappiness is the experience of believing that we must feel or are feeling a way that indicates that we are not oriented toward our greatest well-being.

Unhappiness can only occur if we believe that to move toward our greatest well-being would be against our greatest well-being.

Unhappiness is the belief in an inherently contradictory impossibility.

Happiness is what is experienced in the absence of the experience of unhappiness.

Nothing is necessary for happiness.  

No beliefs are necessary for happiness, only the absence of the belief in unhappiness.

Getting what is wanted is not necessary for happiness, only the absence of the belief that we will have to feel a way we don’t want to feel if we don’t get what we want.

Knowing what is wanted is not necessary for happiness, only the absence of the belief that we must know something in order to be happy.

No knowledge is necessary for happiness. Every organism knows all that it knows, including if it wants to take action, find out more, or wait.

In the absence of unhappiness, what happens as a person is perceptual experience.

In the absence of unhappiness, what happens as a person is wanting to change, or wanting to avoid change, or wanting to not change, or wanting to avoid not changing.

In the absence of unhappiness, what happens as a person is actively moving towards, actively moving away from, or being at rest.

What is happening as you? Happiness, and doing.

Be happy and do what you want.

This is the ordinary life of trees.