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| ~ ∞ ~ Outdated View of Life (Mechanistic Machine) 1/3 - Awaken the Living Awareness Within ~ ∞ ~ |
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As an opening remark, it should be noted that the ideas, concepts, views and perspectives presented in the following few pages are not new. On the contrary, there have been many people talking and writing about them for a long time. In other words, everything we have ever wanted to know about life, its mysteries, and even the root causes behind many of our problems today have already emerged out of the collective unconscious in one form or another.
In that sense, the old saying: “There is nothing new under the sun,” holds true even today – mainly so because there can only be different angles and points of view in different times to be shared. Fascinatingly, the aforementioned saying also applies to the problems we face in the world. You see, no matter the era, time, season, or place, the same problems seem to recur time and time again. As such, each generation must find new solutions to the same problems – only for them to recur, repeating the vicious cycle all over again.
Isn’t it intriguing that few, if any, of the problems that we face are new, and that none of the solutions that we find is likely to prove timeless? Doesn’t it seem as if these problems follow us like shadows? Now, let me ask you this: Could it be that we ourselves are creating them in the first place – co-creating and sustaining a vicious cycle? Furthermore, if we are the source of our problems, we can also be the solution, can’t we?
But alas, we humans are particularly good at putting off the inevitable, and so it goes that ripples get bigger and bigger each generation, crisis gets ever more severe, struggle gets more intense, and conflict gets more widespread – until such time when either civilization destroys itself or consciously decides to evolve. If history is any indication, every civilization reaches a crisis point eventually, and most of them don’t make it. This goes a long way to demonstrating how deep our willful blindness and ignorance of the obvious really goes.
And so you see, the legacy of history, it seems, is that our human tendency is to repeat our past and do things as we have learned to do them – often starting in our childhood, without questioning or challenging what we do; constantly projecting past into the future without transcending ourselves in the process. This means that collectively we become our past – repeatedly, and so it goes that we face the same issues and fundamental problems as did humans thousands of years ago.
If we look at the state of humanity today, one may say that nothing has changed. Granted, we have developed a formidable intellect, science, and technology, but alas, that is pretty much where it begins and ends – it is premature at best, and the height of hubris at worst, to assume otherwise. You see, there are still wars and conflict, there is a divide between rich and poor, people are still greedy and cruel, and we still have great suffering in the world. From this, the question arises: Does it have to be this way?
On the path toward understanding ourselves better, it is imperative to briefly dip our toes into something that may be immensely helpful in figuring out one’s bearings in this challenging time of convergence – a turning of the tides, if you will. You see, if one lives in a modern world, they cannot separate themselves from the current system we have in place – no matter how hard they try. And this is why in the following few pages, we will take a look at some of the underlying issues that are causing problems in our world today.
Having reached the end of this chapter, a clear picture should have emerged that shows clearly that the society today seems to be like a ship lost at sea that is drifting farther and farther off course. So without a further due, let us explore some of the core issues behind many of our problems today. We can start by briefly exploring the deeply troubled system we currently have.
We live in a system that has been built by privileged men – it promotes inequality, ruthless competition and social injustice among many other things. The first and most significant shortfall of this old-fashioned system is undoubtedly its hierarchical structure: it is based on a top-down approach that by design benefits the few at the expense of the many. In so doing, the system accelerates the degradation of the whole by weakening the structure from inside out.
The second and equally damaging is the way in which these kinds of hierarchical structures are managed – the power is concentrated to the few on top. As a consequence, the few on top make the rules that people on the bottom abide and live by – and this, quite frankly, makes the many on the bottom of the hierarchy slaves to the few on top. And because majority of the people live inside the system, being part of the system – they are very much dependent on the system – so much so that they remain servants to those few on top without even realizing it – see?
Having said that, it is time to move the conversation forward by asking the question: Can we somehow pinpoint the source of these problems? Well, the answer is both yes and no. To be honest, there is no single, straightforward answer to give, since the root of these problems lies deep in our worldview, which is reminiscent of the dualistic Cartesian approach to metaphysics; yet, this much we can say: the nature of our problems is first and foremost – metaphysical.
You see, our view of the world profoundly impacts how we live and interact with the world and with each other – this is a key insight to keep in mind since there is an alternative view to consider – more on that in the next chapter. These problems have to a large extent arisen not only from the split between Spirit and nature, but also from the secular belief system that has increasingly separated us from nature and Soul; both as individuals and as a species, we suffer from a sense of self that feels disconnected not only from other people but from the Earth itself.
This is particularly interesting when one considers the fact that in the modern era of laptops, tablets, smartphones, and other gadgets and gizmos of various kinds, the interconnected nature of life has become ever more apparent. And yet, in spite of this, we behave as if we are separate from everything else. Isn’t that precisely the epitome of selfishness, the paradox of individualism?
As a result, we tend to think in terms of opposites and polarities, which goes on to say that collectively, we are running old dualistic programs that are based on linear stories of the past, present, and future; either-or choices; 1 or 0; true versus false; you versus me.
In this mechanistic worldview, life is understood as an incidental and accidental part of the universe, and so it has become easier not only to believe that we are individual beings, but that we are separate beings – separated from each other, from our environment, and the very Earth that sustains us.
And yet, at the very core, we are one people – the people of Earth; one nation – the nation of Earth; one life – the life of Earth. You see, each individuated consciousness contributes to creating the environment that sustains all other existences – all things, mutually supportive and related, form a Living Universe, a single living whole – Living Life.
This image of separation is precisely what initially led to dualism between body and Soul in Western philosophy – it has become the basis of our collective worldview and belief system. Instead of a holistic view – human being as a whole, the human body has been treated like it would be a mechanistic machine of some kind. As a result, instead of a living and vibrating, Intelligent Life, people are used to thinking in terms of machinery and clockworks, you see?
This, in turn, makes it so that people learn more and more about less and less, which results in that our collective worldview in its current form and state is rigid, inflexible, and in many ways – old, outdated and outmoded. As a consequence, we are too quick to judge and discredit those with a differing view. The belief system underlying our collective worldview can be summarized as follows:
1.) Matter is primary and gives rise to mind as a secondary phenomenon; consciousness is therefore a by-product of the brain.
2.) There is no survival of consciousness after death; the death of the brain is the death of the individual.
3.) The idea that there is an independently existing Soul or Spirit is an erroneous fiction.
4.) “God” is an unnecessary hypothesis and the concept of Soul an irrelevance; thus we can impose our will on nature to serve our needs.
5.) There is no transcendent purpose or meaning to our lives.
2.) There is no survival of consciousness after death; the death of the brain is the death of the individual.
3.) The idea that there is an independently existing Soul or Spirit is an erroneous fiction.
4.) “God” is an unnecessary hypothesis and the concept of Soul an irrelevance; thus we can impose our will on nature to serve our needs.
5.) There is no transcendent purpose or meaning to our lives.
From the previous, it becomes clear that philosophy, science, and medicine have done their very best in their combined efforts to peel the layers of the fruit of life. As a result, we are left with a dispirited world, which make us believe in an unliving world. There is not only irony and paradox here, but also an astonishing dichotomy.
You see, scientists talk about the natural world, and yet they base all their claims and evidence on a pathological model of the universe. We have been presented with a view of the world based on a gigantic mechanism composed of “dead matter,” in which lifeless universal mechanism had already been grinding along and running down several billion years since its Big Bang.
As in any good story, exciting things happen, and so it does here. You see, science is a story, a narrative, and as its offshoot, the Big Bang theory – is also a story. And so it goes that somewhere along the way, some of its non-living matter was accidentally converted into living matter, out of which life is supposed to have arisen.
And so it goes that the world we know, or think we know – is a collectively learned perception – an image in the mind. In our minds, the world has become a giant machine – a machine without any intrinsic feeling and without any real meaning or purpose.
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~ ॐ ~ Sambodhi Padmasamadhi ~ ∞ ~
Get the Book: Awaken the Living Awareness Within – Discover the Keys to Happiness, Inner Peace & Harmony
~ ॐ ~ Sambodhi Padmasamadhi ~ ∞ ~
Get the Book: Awaken the Living Awareness Within – Discover the Keys to Happiness, Inner Peace & Harmony
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Extra Material: Video: You're It - Alan Watts. Video description: "An inspiring and profound speech from the late Alan Watts. Speech extract from 'Zen Bones and Tales' by Alan Watts"
