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Life Arts    H4'ed 8/3/11

The Politics of Being Here Now

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"When Melvin came back, the other guys treated him as though he were trying to get away with something. Darell repeated his comment that if Melvin wanted to see the Shulz documentary he should have to pay. Melvin was crestfallen. It appeared to me that he had only made a friendly suggestion and suddenly he found himself under attack. He simply turned and walked off. As he left Charlie talked about how "they" (a poorly defined group of ne'er-do-wells that at least included Melvin) want favors for free from you but didn't give anything back in return.

This is how life is lived -- not in large dramatic events for the most part, but in very small transactions that are soon forgotten. In the background the majority of people in the unit were watching "Marshals," a movie full of large events -- car wrecks, false accusations of serious crimes, etc. The real events that make up a person's life are hardly noticed in contrast. They are not valued -- are not reflected upon.

My idea is that from almost any Now, even if it is very small and horrible, we have access to the Eternal Totality of All That Is. But in order for that to happen we have to actually Be Here. I would like to say that I believed that we had access to the Totality from any place without exception. In extreme situations this is probably not true. For example if God incarnate were being tortured by professional CIA interrogators, probably he would lose all capacity for agency of any kind. Severe brain damage or unrelenting intense pain might also be places from which the transcendent cannot be reached. I am not sure whether this invalidates my philosophy. But most Nows are not that extreme. Perhaps no map is adequate to every situation. Always there will be those outlying regions where there be dragons.


This Wheel of Suffering

Three roads diverged in a yellow wood. Well, maybe just two, but I think a case can be made for three. I am speaking of Spiritual paths. First there is the path most traveled by. That is the path of organized religion. With few exceptions, organized religion co-ops whatever insights that were valid in the spiritual traditions of a culture and turns these insights into their opposites. It teaches us to worship the status quo -- whatever is the current social structure -- with all the prejudices that uphold it. It is, in short, idolatry. There is no gold at the end of that rainbow, so it doesn't seem worthwhile spending more time on it. That leaves two roads worth considering.

One road invites us to attempt to escape from this world of duality which it sees as a realm of suffering -- as little more than a pain factory. Call this the path of escape.

The other road challenges us not to escape from this world in which we live, but to transform our way of being in it, and to seek the transformation of the world itself. Call this the path of transformation.

In his first foray out into the world the Buddha encountered suffering in the forms of old age, sickness and death. He would have found the same today. We would grant that there are many forms of suffering that are the result of either wrong thinking or unjust and inequitable social and economic structures. By changing our way of seeing things, and by installing more just and equitable social patterns much suffering could be alleviated. Marcause referred to the unnecessary forms of repression as "surplus repression." Yet some control over our impulses is needed if we are to have civilized life. We might broaden this perspective and suggest that we encounter a great deal of "surplus suffering" due to unnecessary degrees of repression, unjust social structures, and inequitable and exploitive economic practices. Still, though, a significant degree of suffering is inherent in duality itself.

The Scandinavian countries during the last century, for example, instituted economic systems that were much more sensible than those either in the US or in Russia. But people still committed suicide in these countries. Enlightened social and economic practices will not eliminate all suffering, nor will technology.

To choose the path of transformation is to accept a significant degree of suffering. But there are also values that can be realized only on a path that seeks to transform our manner of being in the realm of duality -- for example, beauty, learning, adventure, love, creativity, humor, accomplishment and surprise.

The rub is, of course, that all this beauty is written in the water.

Chlamydomonas

Mantled in green --
   twirling like dervishes--
       chlamydomonas

Spin and turn
   in affirmation
       undiminished.

The magic lenses
   open for me
       their universe

Where I watch them
   whirling around
       unmoving centers

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Write for Politics of Health and work with David Werner on issues of health. Worked in the field of "Mental Health" all my life. Am now retired. Jim
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