Note: Throughout this essay, & in Ven. Nigel's writings generally,
words such as Existence, Karma, Desire, Ignorance & so on, are more
often than not capitalised. The reason for this is that these words
indicate signal concepts in Buddhist psychology, & are not simply
employed as adjectives per se. Additionally, all spellings are in
UK English.
I don't think our progress into middle-age HAS to bring despair
& disillusion with it, but in order NOT to, I believe we have to be
ready & willing to be increasingly realistic as the years go by. The
paradigms not only have to change, but THEY HAVE CHANGED. The end
of the Cold War & the impact of globalisation have seen to that, not
to mention the profound impacts that await us through environmental
change. Spiritual paradigms also will be unable to resist such transformations.
It would be simplistic in the extreme to attempt to assess the conflicts
between Muslims, Jews, Christians & Hindus purely in terms of present
socio-political crises; the issue runs far deeper than that, & has
its roots in what I perceive to be the "New Death of God".
What I am calling the "New Death of God" is a situation in the spiritual
field where the Western & Eastern worlds are equally isolated. Each
bloc perceives itself to be divided from the other, & yet each bloc
is also divided within; between its developing sense of modernity
& the ancient theological ideas each society struggles to maintain.
However "advanced" we believe our scientific thinking to be, when
it comes to our inner spiritual experience, we're still working with
stone hammers & flintstone knives. However much we scorn low-tech
countries for being "backward", & they us for being too "modern" when
it comes to spiritual issues, both blocs are working with the same
tools. Spiritual world-harmony rests in recognising this fact. That
we are currently both incapable of this recognition means that for
both East & West, God remains dead. What we are both calling "God"
is no more than an opposing orthodoxy maintained on a life-support
machine.
I don't believe that this situation is in itself "new". Neither
do I believe that any of the great masters of the ancient world preached
a "new" message. Buddha, Christ, Mohammed, Moses, Krisna - all these
figures were born into worlds riven in orthodromic conflict. In Christ's
lifetime, the Roman world was advancing more rapidly technologically
than it was spiritually, & although the Jews & other captive nations
were in that time as far behind the Romans in technology as say Palestine
is behind Israel today, or Iraq is behind the US - the Roman & Jewish
belief systems were equally ancient, equally as orthodox-ridden, &
their conflicts were made all the more bitter & bloody because of
it. The Romans & Jews didn't fight over technological supremacy, they
fought over religious influence. The Jews didn't have the weaponry
to compete with the Romans on military terms, so they fought them
with religious ideology, punctuated with outbreaks of religiously-inspired
guerrilla warfare - sound familiar?
Into this milieu steps the young Jesus. He starts to preach. He
doesn't preach orthodoxy, he doesn't make political statements. He
doesn't preach surrender, nor does he preach revolt. It is said that
he preached "peace". What did that really mean? What I feel all the
great religious masters of the past had in common was that they emerged
at a time when people needed a massive focusing experience. It's said
that Buddha's teaching of Dependent Arising wasn't "invented" by him,
but that he RE-REALISED what those teachings were really pointing
at, & in that way made them his own, he embodied them. He brought
to life once more teachings that had been long-buried in the verses
of The Vedas & that up to his time had simply been chanted by rote,
with very little internal understanding of their implications.
It seems to me that some sort of worldwide focusing experience is
needed again; that through some means we must all re-awaken. People
have to be READY to wake up, & I don't believe we can go on expecting
some new Buddha or Christ to turn up on the doorstep; it's time to
realise we must make this journey FOR OURSELVES. It might even be
that the "great age of masters" is over; that our re-awakening will
have to occur through some other means. From the way things are going
with the environment, it could well be that THE EARTH HERSELF will
be the next great teacher. As climatographical change continues, so
we will see more floods, more droughts, more economic refugees, more
disease, & so on. We will be COMPELLED to learn these lessons - we
have proved incapable of learning them through a basic "good husbandry"
of the planet. We might well be in for the greatest experience of
suffering that world humanity has ever experienced, & just expressing
a wish to end it will not be enough. Our past actions have set in
motion global re-actions that must run their course, whether we are
able to modify the effects or not, survive them or not.
Suffering is The First Noble Truth. Humanity MIGHT survive to realise
that Truth; to build a more enlightened society, albeit on a much
smaller landmass, with fewer people, & far less natural resources
to hand. If not, then we will all fade & die, taking the world as
we knew it with us. The world will not "end" - it will simply re-enter
another phase of existence, perhaps more closely resembling the world
as it was in earlier periods, prior to the emergence of Homo Sapiens.
It's my conviction that if I am to increase in wisdom with any of
the years I have left on Earth, then these are the matters & dynamics
I must consider. Not to dwell endlessly on the doom & gloom of it
all, but to observe & examine all that is unfolding. I believe these
times to be unlike any other insofar as the world itself is now, tangibly,
running out of time & materials. This process began long ago, of course,
but these are the times in which past exploitation & waste is crystallising,
& more rapidly than we ever previously believed.
I was born in 1946. The Earth & its riches have been plundered mercilessly
in the years I have been alive, far more extensively & more rapidly
than at any other time in humanity's history, & the pace is increasing.
If I live another 20 or 25 years, I will witness further & probably
even more alarming destruction. I cannot prevent that happening, &
it's futile to descend into despair. It's equally futile to believe
that retreating into a spiritual isolation of my own making will meet
the situation adequately either. So much of society's spiritual outlook
is based on earlier times, when the world was a place of wonder in
a way that it isn't now, when parts of it were utterly unknown to
any but those who lived in them, where to meet peoples from different
lands was an awe-inspiring, even deeply spiritual experience. Those
times have passed. Much of the relevance of the spiritual models built
upon those times has passed too. The dictionary informs me that "nihilism"
is:
"A belief in nothing - a denial of all reality, a denial of an objective
growth of truth, extreme scepticism, nothingness".
This would NOT describe my position. My studies of Nagarjuna have
led me to conclude that whilst we might harbour many false ideas about
reality, to deny ALL reality is an error. I also believe that "truth"
is an acceptable principle, although by its very nature it remains
illusive & unpredictable. As for extreme scepticism, I believe that
all forms of extremism are dangerous & fallacious, but to retain a
healthy scepticism is to exercise a healthy mind. I look outwards
more now. Things are happening, & I must learn what that means.
The quest for meaning is still with me.
