Dialogue ~ 5

Given growing tensions and evidence of dissatisfaction around the world with the way things are, not only at an individual level, but with where we are as a collective, does it follow that diversity is unsustainable or that familiarity breeds contempt? Has provision of special status being attributed to minority groups worked to create a multicultural and tolerant community, or does it drive any sense of division and resentment underground?

Which cultural story is responsible for causing so much dis-ease and how is this decision arrived at? If two tribes are at war and tribe A is the aggressor, would removal of tribe A eradicate the problem? The saying “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” has been associated with the financier and political consultant Bernard Baruch and as the concept of the law of the instrument (Maslow’s hammer (or gavel) or the golden hammer), a cognitive bias that involves an over-reliance on a familiar tool.

In the Conduct of Inquiry: Methodology for Behavioral Science (1964), the philosopher Abraham Kaplan wrote, “It comes as no surprise to discover that a scientist formulates problems in a way which requires for their solution just those techniques in which he himself is especially skilled.” In another article of that year he wrote, “We tend to formulate our problems in such a way as to make it seem that the solutions to those problems demand precisely what we already happen to have at hand.”

Consider this cognitive bias alongside the phrase (which has often been attributed to Einstein but it is unclear as to its origin), “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” An image of ‘spinning your wheels’ is coming to mind.

It is not what we do so much as the way in which we have viewed a problem that is at cause of many failed or floundering attempts to improve conditions, to do the right thing or to bring about harmony.

Just as with the ‘hidden image’ diagrams, if all you can perceive, that is to say, if the only image that your brain is interpreting is an absolute for you, then you will be reluctant or even defiant to consider that anything is missing from your snapshot, or that what you are seeing could be interpreted in multiple ways. Any set of beliefs, particularly those which have been transmitted through the ages or a particular cultural story which has become woven into how a person identifies their origin and purpose in the world, can hinder a person from being willing to re-examine what they have been taught and what they know about life.

Is the way that human beings are behaving towards one another and to the planet healthy? Yes and no. Yes, in that what is present is valid as a path of perception (and no matter how it shows up, it is still one pathway) and no, in that there is toxicity, damage to the biosphere and suffering.

Isn’t this something of a ‘catch-22’ situation, in that you’re ‘damned if you do and damned if you don’t’? Consider: if it is an error to identify with any given tribe or cultural story, or an error to study and absorb existing teaching and knowledge and to give meaning to and apply that to the world, or an error to try to create a world that is at peace with itself and without suffering ~ then why do I exist at all? Do I have any purpose if my hands are metaphorically tied behind my back and I’m not to navigate at all?

Perhaps it is pertinent to explore what Buddhism has to say about suffering. The Four Noble Truths make up the core of Buddha’s teachings. They are: the truth of suffering (suffering happens); the truth of the cause of suffering (it has a cause); the truth of the end of suffering (it has an end); the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering (there is a way to bring about its end). Human experience contains suffering and there is happiness; as happiness feels good and is fleeting, it sets up a need to experience it and to create the conditions for its presence (we have all encountered an attitude of ‘I’ll be happy when I leave home, have my own place, have a loving partner, get that promotion, get that car, have done what I came here to do, stop feeling ill…’).

It is a natural human tendency to desire things and to experience (the world is full of contrast) and yet desire is a way of perceiving the world which brings about suffering ~ unless we are able to accept that attachment is like a door which swings two ways: it both obscures and invites us into enlightenment; and then life simply is.  

Escaping to a mountain top, dwelling in a monastery, attending seminars or reading books written by masters is no more valid a pathway to experiencing our true nature than is being a single mother who is trying to learn a second language whilst giving up smoking. The difference rests only in the conditions that are being chosen in which awakening can occur; attachment has many faces.

Renouncing the world cannot eradicate discomfort with impermanence; rather, it is through an intention of jumping headfirst into life, into the fire that comes with participating fully in life and its many manifestations can an experience of unity be found; the irony is that this can be accomplished equally as well from sitting in one place on a cushion as it can from participating in activities all day. It is not the sound or the silence that one is listening to, so much as becoming aware of who is doing the listening.

In the complexities of our modern world and the problems that are facing us, is there any validity in exploring such questions as ‘Do I have any purpose if my hands are metaphorically tied behind my back and I’m not to navigate at all?’ or pointers such as what is meant by ‘thinking the true’, ‘locating the beginning’ or of “Images are visible to people, but the light within them is hidden in the image of the Father’s light. He will be disclosed, but his image is hidden by his light”? If we are looking to find answers on a page, then there probably won’t be – and yet, it is only by asking the questions in the first place that we can begin to explore what is before us and to locate their origin.