I wanted to address my personal misgivings against a total collapse of civilization, and in doing so, I will use the context of being an environmental and earth advocate for 10 years, My experience reading mainstream media, and my dealings with Ishmael and the various clans of B.
First of all, I’m familiar with the various opinions and analysis’s of the great philosophers and scryers of our day. Second of all, change is the only inevitability. All opinions and projections are based of one unavoidable fact; oil and to some extent, fiber and flesh(building and clothing materials, as well as food), is in finite supply. Whereas fiber is in less danger of being depleted, we are still as a species using more fiber form the world than we are putting back.
Oil, however, can be used to the last drop with little consequence to the overall survival of the planet. Carbon in the air would be rapidly sequestered and brought back into balance in short order.
However, humans cannot survive without fiber and flesh. The greatest threat to humans and mammalian survival is not pollution; it isn’t even one-right-way thinking; Taking care of the earth is a facet of one-right-way thinking. Surely, you could prove to me cosmically that the health of the earth is relative, but as long as this is y space station, I’m going to take a stand, take the risk of believe that something is right, and somethings are wrong.
The threat to ourselves isn’t the suffering of our societies. All living things are born to feel and die. Why else would any of us living things have the ability to feel if it wasn’t useful to feel the pain of the world?
Collapse is a negative word. It implies explosion, a point of contact. If you don’t already feel engaged in the change that is the world, then perhaps you need to leave whatever monotonous lifestyle that has led you to believe in stagnancy and sameness. You may work with people who are all the same, you may all perform similar tasks, and return to your similar homes in your similar cars in our to watch identical television while you all attempt to fall asleep as similar times in order to regulate your similar lives.
In this simulacrum, your dream of yourself is to be ‘like something’. That is why we want to be like the Haida, and like the Wea, and like the Iroquois(which, as americans, we are already very much alike…). But there is no point of contact that will make unlike American and like a Haidan. No amount of contact will make you like anything, if you are still asleep, dreaming the Dream of the North.
You cannot simply wake up from this dream. Your cannot simply create a point of contact that will collapse this inner dream, and failing this, surely, you cannot become a point of contact to collapse this dream for others.
Of course, you ‘old-timers’ as I would like to call the philosophically experienced, know better don’t you? You have already discovered the true difficult in unmasking yourself. You have realized that a mask was painted on your face when you were young, and have resolved to allow future generations to write more of their own story.
A lesson on killing the killer was aired on the “Avatar” show I downloaded this weekend. The heroes came upon a sick fishing village and after debate, they decided they had to continue their quest. In the middle of the night, Katara give the people food. The next night, Katara poses as the Painted Lady, and heals the sick. The people are jubilant, but their livelihood is still threated by the polluting factory dumping waste into the river. Katara resolves to make one final blow, and Aang joins her. The Fire Nation soldiers that protect the factory came to destroy the village. Katara and crew reprise the role of Painted Lady one more time, and defeat the soldiers. The village is very upset, to have been lied to. Rather than argue over this, Toph quickly suggests they could help clean up the river, and with a little dredging and bending, they get the job done. Once the river is back to health, the spirit of the river visits Katara and gives her her thanks.
My god. Something collapsed for me in that episode, but it wasn’t society. It was my fear. The people were afraid until someone powerful stood up to their problems. Now granted, if any of us could ‘bend’, it would have already been over with, our struggle to keep our home. But there is a deeper message. Without hope, one cannot act, even if it is for our very survival. And without hope, without action, the people have nothing to lead them.
In all this talk of the homogeneity of society, we have created false lessons of deconstruction, of emptiness. These are useful medicines; not ways of being. Because meaning is meaningless, everything is relative, and because of the unstoppable creation of meaning inside of our own minds, there can one be one conclusion; life only has the meaning that we are able to bring to it.
And so, before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.
You may not want to believe it, but I do believe this; you, sitting in that chair, are enlightened. You may have taken one or Ten Thousand steps, but you are now on the road. Enlightenment, as I have found it to be true, is simply letting go of cultural rigidity in favor of self-creation and self-actualization. There are more living Buddhas on this message board than in all of ancient India. Hyperbole? I think not. Enlightenment isn’t godhood; it’s the power of self-creation. All of you out there have at least one thing in common; the desire and power to self-create. Closed societies would be lucky to develop one of these types of thinkers. Open societies foster entire generations of Buddhas. Godhood comes much, much later…
Society is changing. Unfortunately, it doesn’t all change at the same time, and it isn’t always changing for the better. Our hope in the bottom of the box is Reason. It simply is no longer reasonable to a majority of disembodied organizations (also known as that very Orwellian term, corporation) to pollute. And we can all agree individual human rights aside, the threat of not having a home in which to be oppressed is our biggest threat.
Katara knew that she couldn’t simply announce she was the solution to the village’s problems. She needed to appeal to their dream, to their system of beliefs, and give them their solution in the manner they were ready to receive it, through the good works of the Painted Lady. Katara needed to do the right thing, and instead of being a battering ram, she wove herself into the dream of the village. Granted, like the deflating truth of Santa Claus, she was found out. But because she and crew were ready to directly address the needs of the village, and completed the task, she actually opened up and unchained the river spirit she was pretending to be.
I dream about river spirits on a regular basis, chained to the depths, gasping for air. I once thought these were dragons to slay, not masters to serve. Of course, I thought such a thing, but I have been ouched by them, and through their guidance, I have broken many of the spells society has cast upon me.
These are kid shows. These are the new visions replacing the techno-fantasy of Transformers and G.I. Joe. Kids who love Aang and Sokka and Katara and Toph will grow up to have much more respect for things than the children of the 80’s, who grew up on my little pony, strawberry shortcake, and other lessons in how to be ‘nice’ and ‘play by the rules’. If it weren’t for avatar being so poplar, I don’t think it would have such a deep psychological resonance, or is that the other way around? That’s for you to decide.
Many people will ‘reason’ with you to do this or do that. But we must notice when we feel that is something is not right, for ourselves. We must also learn to notice when things are right nor us. Our hearts are in much better communication with the spirit world than an untrained mind. Reason has led us here, but that was with the bulldozer of reason. Reason is best used in small, decisive amounts, like when a facet on a jewel is being cut. Reason sharpens our minds, but it is a strong force that can easily blunt out other voices.
Put simply, I don’t believe the world will allow itself to collapse. The paradigm of ‘everyone doing nothing’ is as absurd as all of us becoming environmental warriors. It’s reflective of the binary thinking needed for the Dream of the North to be successful. However, binary thinking itself is also a core mechanism in the brain. And so, we discover a new ‘wrong’ that must be brought into balance, not simply eliminated.
I hope I have shed some light on my thought process today. I hope you walk away with greater power to understand these opposing forces in your life, and hopefully, you have found power in my words to sustain your own endeavors to bring balance to your life.
Purely deconstructed, constructed purely, are all useful thought fantasies. But now, it is time to bring these into balance, it is time to engage in the work of the world, in the chopping of wood, in the carrying of the water.
This Satsanga will never end, but it will never be, either. We come here to drink from the spring of knowledge and hope, but we cannot become that which sustains us, because we wouldn’t be we, would we? AS much as we are of a thing, we are we and that is that. Separation and oneness are opposite truths that at once cancel each other out and form the whole of the known universe.
In learning to take moderation in moderation, I have found my life to be quite out of balance. Hopefully with practice writing like this again, you’ll find my thoughts more coherent and who I am to be more useful.
In closing, I want to ask some questions to get a conversation going:
How can you embody the Dream of the North to end it?
What tools of self-creation have you discovered?
What have you collapse in your own mind? What remains to be deconstructed? How can you be helped? How do you learn to ask for help?
What cultural appropriations are appropriate for the housework that we face?
What benefits does the healthy body bequeath the mind and heart?
What could be more important than ‘cleaning house’?
Is there a noble lie like the one Katara told that would be useful?
