I have the great honor of teaching across the socio-economic spectrum — from the very rich to the more economically humble. To this end, I have been inside many, many homes. People are, in the main, tidy and well organized in their domestic life. Some individuals have great style having traveled to the far corners of the globe and others are more modest. Everyone wants decency and warmth in their private life. What I remarked on the other day, however, gave me pause?
I want to live an ethical life and be true to my aspirations.
Our society is awash with moral judgments. The media is rife with pronouncements, both good and bad (though usually bad), of this political event, that celebrity or movie star and a further distant occurrence. We, fortunately, don’t have to think because we are being given the thought — though think we must, if we truly want to be free: but, wait, I am free. I am told, in virtually all democratic countries, that I am free because I live in a democracy: I am free, aren’t I? “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. … In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy. … And when memory failed and written records were falsified—when that happened, the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist, any standard against which it could be tested.” (1) These oft-used quotes from George Orwell are there to remind us that deep thinking itself is not innate. Critical thinking is a skill that must be nurtured and enhanced. It does not come to us naturally. We have to, therefore, make our own moral assessment of how we want to live our life.
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Failure and forgiveness: can we truly forgive?
We live in a world that lauds action but seems unwilling to truly accept its consequences. “Action and inaction are both actions” is an unacceptable mantra in the post-Millennial age. (1) Are we prepared to be responsible, accept failure in ourselves and others, and then forgive or ask for forgiveness? “You are the people of God; He loved you and chose you for His own. So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another whenever any of you has a complaint against someone else. You must forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you.” Colossians 3:12-13. (2) I believe that basic morality is innate and should, therefore, give us the tools that are necessary to answer the aforementioned question in the affirmative. Error and failure certainly produce a certain level of guilt. But, many seemingly refuse to accept responsibility for life: why? That said, few people would fail to take umbrage at the notion of stealing or more serious social transgressions. We all understand the concept of the Ten Commandments. There is, however, an elasticity associated with certain forms of behavior: I am speaking of being responsible for one’s actions. To truly forgive yourself, you must first accept your own mistakes: my life is my fault.
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Rejection and failure are my best friends.
Have you ever truly anticipated an upcoming event and “lo and behold,” you are going to be the main performer? You are ready – poised — you couldn’t be better prepared. You can’t sleep the night before and you play the presentation, or concert, or paper out in your mind, again and again: all has reached a crescendo. Just to reinforce: you contemplate all the nuances, all the potential minefields. Much like the Battle of the Somme in 1916, (1) you have bombarded your fears for a protracted period of time. There are no fears left: are there? You are confident: congratulations! But, as you stand in the hall, the “sparkle” does not come to you. You are not afraid, nor even nervous, but no spark, no “ah” moment, no nirvana. This produces its own angst but, more importantly, it takes your eyes off the task at hand; you lose focus.
My imagination is always bigger than me.
One look at the reality that you find yourself in and you realize that we, as a society, are being assailed by forces that are hidden and dangerous. Am I just this piece of flesh that carries around my mind or am I transcendent– more unique than my limited form? Life itself tells us that something bigger is at hand, something more sui generis. Whether that is true or not is directly related to your imagination. If you imagine that your life is filled with an endless stream of possibilities, it is. Conversely, if you feel that consciousness is but drudgery and await its termination, it also is. Your reality exists behind your eyes (my words), to paraphrase Sadhguru.
What unanticipated joy: I am being given one more day.
We often hear about strife and conflict, or at least I do. There is an endless stream of events and occurrences: a bombing here, a shooting there, a catastrophe in the foreground and an angst-driven confession in the distance. Violence, which is not innate (is it?) is our constant bedfellow. We are not in the Digital Age, but in the Age of Destruction: we must simply wait for the demise of civilization and, eventually of Earth. The great difficulty we all face, I am sure, is that we do not naturally or environmentally experience this kind of suffering: life is “pretty good,’” especially on a bright and sunny day! To comprehend my conceptual world, the world that is being constantly “streamed” to me, the world presented by my device(s), I have to make a leap into the chaos: all is dark, all is pain– I simply await the end. We know, however, that this is one big lie. This termed was first coined by Adolf Hitler in his hugely successful book, Mein Kampf. Our big lie, however, is not a people; it is a concept: the world is a dangerous and violent place.
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Passion is life’s elixir: why do so many lack it?
I just can’t shake the image of silent groups of automata playing with their cell phones at virtually every public venue: streetcar, bus, subway, airport, train station, etc. — surely life is not “this” boring! I assume that the phenomenon extends into the private sphere, as well. Just to confirm that my perception is not flawed, I constantly look over people’s shoulders to see what they are doing. In my observation, they are either playing games or chatting with their friends or texting messages. There is nothing more profound occurring. There is no great search for enlightenment, no inquiry to the mysteries of life: there is a complete void. You want to scream: “Come on! Give it a rest and get to work!” Get to work on what, you are asked? The answer, quite simply, is the development of you. No one will put “you” together, but you. “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a big fall. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men, couldn’t be Humpty together again.” Are we surprised? I think not: Was he pushed off the wall? No, he fell. He was 100% responsible for his actions. It is the same with every individual.
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Life: the allusion to the illusion of time.
The greatest gift of human consciousness, I would maintain, is time — in other words: life itself. It has more value and stunning cachet than all the baubles and fame in the world. Few, if any, would trade less time on this Earth for more material wellbeing on a shortened daily basis. Even Dr. Faustus was greatly remorseful when the Devil came to claim his soul. (1) Our temporal reality is so misunderstood, unfortunately, and is covered in confusing romantic trappings. At its “quick,” at its most elemental, it is very simple. It is “potential” in its purest form and is awarded at birth, and is thus unique to me and to only me. What I do with it is one of the greatest conundrums facing man. Some opt to remove themselves into ethereal worlds of solitude, isolation, and prayer while others seek vast empires and historical glory. In either extreme example, the net result is the same: death and transcendence. The Egyptian pharaohs sought physical immortality through mummification, but this too proved elusive. Tutankhamen has not reappeared to lecture on the 18th Dynasty. (2) Time is dynamic and stationary at the same moment. There is always a future until we die that is, and yet the present is the only reality that we can really know, for it is now.
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Seek and ye shall find!
The oft-quoted passage I am referring to is: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. This is from Matthew 7:7–8, the seventh and eighth verses of the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, (1) in the New Testament. This is part of the iconic Sermon on the Mount. (2) These verses denote an important Christian theme: the power of prayer. I would suggest, however, that this metaphor can be used in a much wider context. By our very definition as human beings, we are seekers. We are searching for our mission in life. I would like to draw a distinction between the mission and its meaning. The mission must result in an intended arrival: You want to become a more educated person, for example. The meaning will be how your intellectual growth will benefit those around you. In other words, there must be a symbiotic connection between your life journey and its value.
Can I find my true mentor?
I suspect that vast amounts of professional teachers, unfortunately, are vainglorious – they think they are actually teaching a spiritually vapid and intellectually wanting audience and therefore hold the moral high ground: “We know everything and you know nothing,” the so-called negative teaching approach. (1) This is now rapidly changing, due to the advent of the cell phone and the Internet. In fact, over the centuries, we were exposed to the concept that “the only real teacher is the self,” though we didn’t believe it. After World War Two, this began to alter. The saying, “If you don’t have a job, you don’t want one,” was quite literally true. (2) Our present post-Millennial population has adopted these values, though the economic reality is now quite different.