One of the great problems of our time is that, collectively, we seem to lack the ability to do precisely what we must do at this time--look deeper! We live in a world of surfaces where going deep, understanding causes of events and states of being seems to be too time-confusing until there is a crisis and we have to go to therapy or AA, NA, or, Church or whatever gets us through the night.
In this time our collective survival depends not on some political agenda, not some new business. not on a humming economy. It depends on our ability to go to the heart of things--to dig deeply and to take the time to do so. And it's not like you have to make much of an effort. There is some kind of force that will plunge you into whatever it is you're into and demand that you look. On the other hand, you can avoid that force and simply make up a story where you are the star, once again maybe tragic, maybe comic, maybe just the way it is.
The new emerging reality is up close and personal. It is in the up close and personal that you must act. How do we act? The answer is simple. Through close observation of who you are and what you are doing. Looking deeply inside your inner life and also your outer life with the understanding that there really is no difference between inner and outer. We often imagine they are different and discrete but that is only because we like to put things in categories as per our cultural tendencies. The actual reality is that it's all connected and part of one continuum--but that's hard to grasp until you begin to observe it. This doesn't have to be about belief. We can "believe" something like "we are all one" but that's just a platitude--it's useful to keep in mind but not really a belief. A belief is an idea with power.
There is no way that we can grasp the "big picture" of what is generally going on because there are clearly dimensions we can't fully see or see at all. I don't "feel" the cell-phone transmissions at least not consciously yet there's all kinds of activity in that spectrum. Science has further explored how much we don't know. Science seems ready soon to move towards the idea that all matter is actually some form of consciousness and is alive. A living universe changes the way we look at things. We, in the West, were trained to think of ourselves as both alive and conscious and that the rest of nature is not. There may be life on earth but it is limited to animals, plants and so on. But all this has been put into doubt with the discovery of ideas surrounding complexity and the emergent intelligence of complex systems. Plus the "data" or information we have about the world around us is filled with contradictions, anomalies and just generally ridiculous--this is generally driving us crazy. We all share a need to have some workable framework to keep things simple and coherent. The problem is that Western civilization is very much focused on certainty, logic, simplicity and clarity. We love all-around simple ideas that make us feel good about ourselves and others around us.
For me, paradox and mystery are essential to understanding this life. We don't have to know exactly what is going on around us or in the world outside to understand "truth." Truth is not about accurate depictions of nature, ourselves, our society, or objects and systems in general. Truth originally meant faithfulness and something like being honorable, trustworthy and so on. Under this model a virtuous person is truthful because he or she is sincere and isn't running some hustle. I remember when I was trying to find some metaphysical foundation for morality I read Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics where he defined a virtuous person as someone with a good reputation. In a world of public relations and easy hypocrisy, a deep menu of platitudes, and a culture that equates wealth with virtue this shocked me. Reputation in our world can be managed and bought--that's what we see in our world. But after thinking about it I knew that in the world of 4th century Athens people all kind of knew each other, had grown up together, known parents and relatives so hustlers and punks could be outed pretty quickly and genuine people, over time, achieved a reputation for honor and virtue. I never spent enough time in one place or any country or small town to have experienced a world where everyone know who I am and who my parents and ancestors were so I could not hide by moving to another neighborhood--and if I moved to another city--then I would always be on probation unless I was taken up by prominent and honorable people in that city who would vouch for me. I had not initially understood that a capitalist culture that featured alienation could not foster virtue and morality without some other addition. In the USA that was usually religion or, in some urban areas, it was culture as in literature, art, theater, music, the humanities, science and so on. But those things have seldom been able to compete with the cash-money society of capitalism.
We must find a new basis for virtue and morality which can only come from a new metaphysical foundation that rejects alienation and capitalism as a dominant ethic--capitalism has a positive role to play but can only play a negative role if we reduce all values to commodity fetishism, i.e., making people, things, nature itself into commodities whose value is determined by markets (which are usually rigged or weighted by those that run the markets).
In this time our collective survival depends not on some political agenda, not some new business. not on a humming economy. It depends on our ability to go to the heart of things--to dig deeply and to take the time to do so. And it's not like you have to make much of an effort. There is some kind of force that will plunge you into whatever it is you're into and demand that you look. On the other hand, you can avoid that force and simply make up a story where you are the star, once again maybe tragic, maybe comic, maybe just the way it is.
The new emerging reality is up close and personal. It is in the up close and personal that you must act. How do we act? The answer is simple. Through close observation of who you are and what you are doing. Looking deeply inside your inner life and also your outer life with the understanding that there really is no difference between inner and outer. We often imagine they are different and discrete but that is only because we like to put things in categories as per our cultural tendencies. The actual reality is that it's all connected and part of one continuum--but that's hard to grasp until you begin to observe it. This doesn't have to be about belief. We can "believe" something like "we are all one" but that's just a platitude--it's useful to keep in mind but not really a belief. A belief is an idea with power.
There is no way that we can grasp the "big picture" of what is generally going on because there are clearly dimensions we can't fully see or see at all. I don't "feel" the cell-phone transmissions at least not consciously yet there's all kinds of activity in that spectrum. Science has further explored how much we don't know. Science seems ready soon to move towards the idea that all matter is actually some form of consciousness and is alive. A living universe changes the way we look at things. We, in the West, were trained to think of ourselves as both alive and conscious and that the rest of nature is not. There may be life on earth but it is limited to animals, plants and so on. But all this has been put into doubt with the discovery of ideas surrounding complexity and the emergent intelligence of complex systems. Plus the "data" or information we have about the world around us is filled with contradictions, anomalies and just generally ridiculous--this is generally driving us crazy. We all share a need to have some workable framework to keep things simple and coherent. The problem is that Western civilization is very much focused on certainty, logic, simplicity and clarity. We love all-around simple ideas that make us feel good about ourselves and others around us.
For me, paradox and mystery are essential to understanding this life. We don't have to know exactly what is going on around us or in the world outside to understand "truth." Truth is not about accurate depictions of nature, ourselves, our society, or objects and systems in general. Truth originally meant faithfulness and something like being honorable, trustworthy and so on. Under this model a virtuous person is truthful because he or she is sincere and isn't running some hustle. I remember when I was trying to find some metaphysical foundation for morality I read Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics where he defined a virtuous person as someone with a good reputation. In a world of public relations and easy hypocrisy, a deep menu of platitudes, and a culture that equates wealth with virtue this shocked me. Reputation in our world can be managed and bought--that's what we see in our world. But after thinking about it I knew that in the world of 4th century Athens people all kind of knew each other, had grown up together, known parents and relatives so hustlers and punks could be outed pretty quickly and genuine people, over time, achieved a reputation for honor and virtue. I never spent enough time in one place or any country or small town to have experienced a world where everyone know who I am and who my parents and ancestors were so I could not hide by moving to another neighborhood--and if I moved to another city--then I would always be on probation unless I was taken up by prominent and honorable people in that city who would vouch for me. I had not initially understood that a capitalist culture that featured alienation could not foster virtue and morality without some other addition. In the USA that was usually religion or, in some urban areas, it was culture as in literature, art, theater, music, the humanities, science and so on. But those things have seldom been able to compete with the cash-money society of capitalism.
We must find a new basis for virtue and morality which can only come from a new metaphysical foundation that rejects alienation and capitalism as a dominant ethic--capitalism has a positive role to play but can only play a negative role if we reduce all values to commodity fetishism, i.e., making people, things, nature itself into commodities whose value is determined by markets (which are usually rigged or weighted by those that run the markets).
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