my soul in mud
this city reels
no mud in soles
yet stuck it feelsgettin’ good
maskin’ it all
how I long
to leave it all
and return
This is in continuation from the previous post “Dark Ecology” which started laying the spiritual foundation of the material mess we are in. If you haven’t read that yet, I would suggest you to read it first. I also hope to bring this series to a conclusion with this post. I will publish a printable document, and hopefully a presentation sometime in the future to help seed discussions around this topic.
I’ll begin this post with another short detour. In the intervening time between this and the previous post linked above, a few more events have unfolded.
The Caribbean and parts of southern United States have been ravaged by not one, not two, but three major category five hurricanes in a single season, the largest of which was the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic ocean. As these events unfold, there is no mention of the underlying cause and the potential measures that need to be taken beyond the usual reactive fundraisers for first responders and the immediate affected.
Elsewhere, in the journal Nature, recently published research suggests that a 1.5 degree Celsius temperature rise is already locked into the system [1], and there is only a one in twenty chance that the rise will be limited to two degrees Celsius even if measures are taken to cut carbon emissions [2]. 2017 is set to be the warmest non El-Nino year on record [3]. The grand public-facing announcements and celebration of the 2015 Paris Accord have come to naught in only two years, and in 2017’s UN Climate Summit, the American delegation made a presentation to further the use of fossil fuel towards mitigating climate change [4] — a testament to the hopelessly limited abilities of politics to do anything about this.
Its 7am, and I am sitting on the bed with a blanket draped over me looking out the window. A cool playful November breeze tickles the leaves — slowly turning red; the cicadas whistle away, a blue whistling thrush clears its throat for the morning melody, and a rufous sibia makes its presence felt telling me that winter is coming. In the distance are the Himalaya— white, eternal giants, freshly gleaming in the first rays of the sun. They’ve seen this show many times; they see it everyday; they created it. What is a day in a mountain’s life?
Living in the shadow of the mountain can have deep, silent, lasting effects. One of them is the daily dosage of humility you get as these humongous works of nature look you in the eye. The people who live in the midst of these peaks have had a lifetime of pondering. To them, artificial human constructs such as money, capitalism, politics, trade seem to pale in significance to empathy, compassion and love. There is a quiet ephemeral tone to the daily chores of human life, contrasted by the timeless, magical magnificence of nature’s show playing in the forest outside. There is a realization that we humans inhabit one tiny branch, yet have grown poisonous enough to threaten the existence of the entire tree of evolution.
Where then, does our search for meaning lead us?
Letting go of the Ego
Our loyalties are to the species and to the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves but also to that cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring!
— Carl Sagan
We are egoistical as individuals. The reptilian part of our brain makes us constantly aware of the existence of the self, and takes over when it perceives any imminent risk. The mammalian part of our brain makes us aware of the existence of the self through the cumulative weight of our memories, the knowledge we perceive we have obtained over time and the emotions we go through. Beneath the layers are our sense organs — a beautiful evolutionary construct to keep us firmly within the grasp of the ‘I’.
We are egoistical as a culture. We believe in the superiority of our technology — over other species, over the environment, over the planet, over nature. From an early age, our education systems teach us how different parts of nature can be exploited for resources which are apparently of use to the continued existence of our culture. Thus, a sheep becomes a source of wool, a cow the source of milk, a mountain the source of ore, and the land a source of food.
We are egoistical as a civilization. Every civilization in history at its height believed in the timelessness of its existence, and the perfection of its intellectual foundations, yet none were smart enough to see their downfall. We may be the first civilization in history to plot and record ours in painful detail, yet seem powerless to do anything about it.
We are egoistical as a species. We inherently believe that the entire purpose of evolution was to invent homo sapiens and then stop the machine. We believe in the superiority of our species over all other life on the planet. Characteristically, willy-nilly, we put our selves at the center of the world — as the custodians of life’s meaning.
From the DNA inside our cells to the skyscrapers in our metros — ego runs deep through the various threads of our being.
In the previous two blog posts, I spoke about the basis of this through the lens of the story of the cosmos and our evolution as explained by science, and, following that, of the need to shift our ways of thinking from Man to Not-Man. I am not the first to say this. Lets look at this from the perspective of religion and faith.
Most systems of faith tend to move from material to subtle in the path of progression they lay out for individuals. If people followed their faiths to their logical end, they would eventually tend towards spiritual progress. However, some paths, undoubtedly, are quicker, have fewer roadblocks, and fewer diversions. Buddhism, Sufi thought, Yogic philosophy are some examples which come to mind and perhaps some others I don’t know about.
In Buddhism, the Bodhisattva (or the enlightened being) is described as one who is mindful of and works towards the benefit of every living being. The Bodhisattva has moved beyond the pull of personal gain, yet at the same time, is focused inwards — toward one’s own enlightenment. In Hinduism, a similarly enlightened being is described by Krishna in the Gita as the Stithapragya. Krishna says — “What is day for the normal person is night for the Stithapragya, and what is night for the normal person is day for the Stithapragya.” In effect, the enlightened being is not focused on the normal everyday chores (that just being a rite of passage), but of the greater good and the underlying forces and principles. The Gita also calls for one to look inwards and self-enlightenment as the path to the evolution of all beings.
So, we see that if there is one spiritual intersection between what science has made us realize, and what some major systems of faith propound, it is to recognize both the significance and the humility of our place on this planet and in the cosmos and help chart a course for thought and action. It is through the cumulative arrogance of generations of us and our ancestors that we have pushed ourselves and our home planet to the brink of catastrophe. It is time that we realized the mistakes we made along the way, to course-correct and find new purpose.
A call to action…
Meandering through a jungle a couple of years ago, I chanced by the humble hut of a hermit who was in his nineties and had been living there since the past forty years. I decided to spend the night there in the hope for some interesting conversation. When we were parting the following morning, he left me with a line that has stayed with me since —
“To save the world, look inwards”
He said that the current cycle of destruction that is underway will go on to its logical conclusion. Quit trying to fix the world. You should focus on your on karma.
Keeping religious undertones aside for a minute, the underlying thought behind the statement is sound. Once we realize that the fundamental reason behind our state is the state of our thought, then refining that becomes a worthy goal to pursue. Still, one has to live in this world. Living means action. What actions might be a worthwhile expenditure of our time and energy?
Since the purpose of these blog posts is to help spark conversation and debate, I’ll conclude with a few parting thoughts that can serve as useful starting points.
- The material forces that shape our current world cannot be fought and overcome with material forces on the other side. They must be fought with subtle forces — which operate a few meta-levels higher than the plane of these material forces. Tending towards subtle will eventually tend towards influencing, and ultimately, spirituality. That means that everything must be done with larger intent in mind, even if it is something as simple as sweeping the floor, doing the dishes. The question behind each action is — how does this move human morality forward.
- If there is one motto that I subscribe to as a way of living, I would say it would be to “Fail better”. Fail better? Yes! In short, don’t be afraid to take leaps of thought, and leaps in action. Every time I spend some days in a city, I find people almost seem to be caught in a hamster wheel — wake up like a drone every morning, brush your teeth, commute to office, commute back, groceries, dishes, shopping malls. It feels people are caught in this never ending hedonistic loop, and don’t get time to think deeply. All change in action has to begin with change in thought, and for change in thought, adequate time and energy must be set aside for that. If you are somebody, who recognizes that you are stuck in this loop, then try to take some time out. If you are somebody who can help others get out, then work to create such refuges.
- As humans will inhabit an increasingly unequal world with ever increasing natural disasters, and an out of control population with out of control aspirations, while being increasingly clouded from the consequences of their actions, the coming decades, much like the decades past, will be a no-holds-barred assault on what is left of the natural world. If you are somebody living on the edge of a forest, the changes will be most visible. Most likely, the changes will be of no direct lasting benefit to you, but to simply satiate the insatiable hunger of modern urban civilization. Understand and resist these changes wherever you can!
- As the reality outside our smartphone screens becomes increasingly dystopic, so will the efforts to hide that with a virtual veneer of machine generated emotions and facts. This fight will be on two fronts — media, and the machines generating and serving media. If you can do anything about this centralization heavy information imbalance, it will have lasting glocal impacts.
- The way we produce and consume food & energy, and they way we teach and are taught in society are greatest historical influences to our dominant cultural values. The coming decades will see an increasing focus on centralizing these processes of civilization even more as a means of control. Yet, at the same time, the knowledge and resources we already have are sufficient to fundamentally transform how we perform these critical societal functions. All that is needed is the cultural willpower.
- Decentralize all things, empower local communities and shift away from human-centered thought. These should be the themes underlying all reformative or transformative change in society. For too long, we have absent mindedly given away our freedoms bit by bit. For too long we have put the existence of humans above the existence of the natural world. For too long, we have been ignorant about these shifts. Depend as little as you can on industrially (centrally) produced goods, systems, information & ideas. Work to empower the community you live in through some of the ways outlined in the points above.
- Meditate — It helps!
This does not aim to be an exhaustive list, but a very basic set of ideas which I feel strongly about. I’d be most happy if this is only the seed of meaningful discussions and more, broader and better refined ideas and action can crystallize out of this. If you read this far, I thank you from the bottom of my heart!
time, space, stillness, motion
emptiness, nothingness,
it’s all an illusionbad we fear
and yearn the good
lose the present
for a could or a wouldself-made prison
this tyranny of dreams
regret or break-free
simpler than it first seemsfeeling lost or stuck?
just look up, you’ll see
we’re all stardust
both that pebble and me
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