The 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal once said that the sole cause of human suffering is that we don't know how to sit quietly in our rooms. At first I thought that this quote was intended as a hyperbole but on further reflection, I have come to think that Pascal was bang on.
We humans seem to have a neurotic tendency to view our world from the paradigm of scarcity. We tend to focus on what we don't have, what we haven't achieved. Perhaps the millions of years of Darwinian struggle that resulted in the human domination of the planet has resulted in a super species that just doesn't know when enough is enough.
I have found it useful to practice stillness whenever I can. Being naturally expressive and hyperactive, I found this tremendously difficult at first. Recently, however, I have been practicing Buddhist Meditation and Hatha Yoga which have helped my mind to settle and be still more often. One of the greatest benefits of these meditative practices has been an increased awareness of my thoughts and for the motivations behind my actions.
Recently I had an epiphany where I realized that I already have everything that I will ever need. We are all perfect and complete and could never be anything but. This realization has caused me to shift from the paradigm of scarcity to one of abundance.
In life there is nothing to achieve that we have not already achieved.
Rather than doing more, achieving more, consuming more, we need to do less and enjoy more, love more, laugh more.
In this way, the true measure of success is the ability to quietly sit in a room (or on a beach or on a mountain) without having to busy ourselves with all that useless frenetic activity, confident in the quiet knowledge that we have everything that we could ever need and If we are missing anything, it will come soon enough as long as we don't chase it away by running after it. Of course, we won't be sitting in our rooms all the time or even most of the time. It is natural for us to be active but we need to have those moments of stillness to guide those moments of action. The proof of this is the absurd, headlong rush towards environmental and social collapse that humanity seems reluctant to disengage from. How could such an intelligent species such as our own engage in such futile and destructive pursuits?
We seem to have this strange notion that what we need is simply better technology, then we could solve the environmental and social disasters that are looming on the horizon. What bullshit! We already have a solution at our finger tips: stop trying so hard to fill a hole that's not there! We don't really need anymore gadgets or technologies or "time saving devices" What the hell are we saving all that time for!? How can you "save" time anyway? We gotta think about these things people. We all gotta slow the shit down man. It's not doing anybody any good the way it is now. The beauty is that it's so easy to do. We don't have to overthrow the government or force others to adopt our view point. all we need to do is walk away from the machines and sit down. Hey, tune in, turn on, and drop out is absolutely right on. Fuckin' A, man - the Silent Revolution is upon us - and, although it certainly won't be televised, it just might be blogged.
Peace
"Behold the birds of the air: for they sow not neither do they reap, nor gather food into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?"
- Jesus (Matt 6:26)
In the pursuit of learning, everyday something is acquired.
In the pursuit of Tao, everyday something is dropped.
Less and less is done
Until non-action is achieved.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.
The world is ruled by letting things take their course.
It cannot be ruled by interfering
-Tao Te Ching (v. 48)
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Being II: Beyond Dualism
I was just sitting here thinking about being. What am I being? Who am I being? Was I the same person that I was yesterday? Am I that person that others see me as? Am I that person that I see myself as? These really are mind-numbing questions but they are worth asking - in fact, they have to be asked. For while we may chose to ingnore ourselves and our own nature, our nature will find ways to assert itself independent of our will and if we do not make a friend of ourselves then we are an enemy to be feared.
What makes us us? Well I could tell you specifics. I could tell you of my tastes in music and literature, my favorite colour, my academic career . . . But what would I really be telling you? Fragments, that's all, just fragments - nothing that really says anything about who I am.
Perhaps It's best to start on the macro level. A good starting point is to ask: what makes us human? Who are we as humans? The famous inscription at the Oracle at Delphi said simply "Know Thyself". This may seem like an easy directive to follow, yet there seems to be so many layers to peel back. One thing that seems to universally human is fear - fear of others and fear of ourselves. This fear seems to be at the root of many of our negative feelings and our destructive actions. Where does this fear come from? What can be done about it?
In the Bible we hear of the story of Adam and Eve who lived in a blissfully ignorant state of nature until they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and, dicovering their nakedness, became fearful, covering themselves up before being expelled from the garden to live a life of pain and toil that is the human condition. Here we see that fear is the inevitable product of knowledge of ousselves, of our "nakedness".
A deeper reading of this story raises the idea that this fear is result of the tendency of the mind to percieve the world in terms of binary opposition. This dualistic thinking separates everything into good/bad, friend/foe, and us/not us dichotomies. When we see the world thus, there is always something to fear: In the dualistic world "evil" and "enemies" are constantly lurking, trying to destroy us because, of course, we are "good" and "our people" are the "good guys". In this worldview the enemy is externalized, projected if you will, onto others. Life then becomes an ongoing battle to conquer and destroy external threats while we, anxious, separated, alienated, and alone, shiver behind our massive stone walls, stalking the ramparts, waiting for the inevitable onslaught of the forces of evil. It is no wonder then, that fear becomes central to who we are.
I am holding out hope that fear does not have to be an inevitable feature of our mental landscape. It may be that fear is only a product of binary thinking, that if we can find a way to relenquish our insistence on dualism in our thoughts and in our world, we may be able to create a new garden of eden for ourselves. That of course would take a quantum leap in human consciousness but, in a way, this has already been done. 2500 years ago an Indian prince turned ascetic sat down under a tree and "woke up", becoming the Buddha or "elightened one". He was one of many mystics and seerers who sought the way to paridise and found it. Much to think about, and much more to be said.
-Chris
"Beyond the land of ideas of right doing and wrong doing there is a field. I will meet you there." (Rumi 1275)
What makes us us? Well I could tell you specifics. I could tell you of my tastes in music and literature, my favorite colour, my academic career . . . But what would I really be telling you? Fragments, that's all, just fragments - nothing that really says anything about who I am.
Perhaps It's best to start on the macro level. A good starting point is to ask: what makes us human? Who are we as humans? The famous inscription at the Oracle at Delphi said simply "Know Thyself". This may seem like an easy directive to follow, yet there seems to be so many layers to peel back. One thing that seems to universally human is fear - fear of others and fear of ourselves. This fear seems to be at the root of many of our negative feelings and our destructive actions. Where does this fear come from? What can be done about it?
In the Bible we hear of the story of Adam and Eve who lived in a blissfully ignorant state of nature until they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and, dicovering their nakedness, became fearful, covering themselves up before being expelled from the garden to live a life of pain and toil that is the human condition. Here we see that fear is the inevitable product of knowledge of ousselves, of our "nakedness".
A deeper reading of this story raises the idea that this fear is result of the tendency of the mind to percieve the world in terms of binary opposition. This dualistic thinking separates everything into good/bad, friend/foe, and us/not us dichotomies. When we see the world thus, there is always something to fear: In the dualistic world "evil" and "enemies" are constantly lurking, trying to destroy us because, of course, we are "good" and "our people" are the "good guys". In this worldview the enemy is externalized, projected if you will, onto others. Life then becomes an ongoing battle to conquer and destroy external threats while we, anxious, separated, alienated, and alone, shiver behind our massive stone walls, stalking the ramparts, waiting for the inevitable onslaught of the forces of evil. It is no wonder then, that fear becomes central to who we are.
I am holding out hope that fear does not have to be an inevitable feature of our mental landscape. It may be that fear is only a product of binary thinking, that if we can find a way to relenquish our insistence on dualism in our thoughts and in our world, we may be able to create a new garden of eden for ourselves. That of course would take a quantum leap in human consciousness but, in a way, this has already been done. 2500 years ago an Indian prince turned ascetic sat down under a tree and "woke up", becoming the Buddha or "elightened one". He was one of many mystics and seerers who sought the way to paridise and found it. Much to think about, and much more to be said.
-Chris
"Beyond the land of ideas of right doing and wrong doing there is a field. I will meet you there." (Rumi 1275)
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Being
A student once said "When I was a Buddhist, it drove my family and friends crazy, but when I am Buddha, nobody is upset at all." (thanks Chad for this quote)
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