As It Is ~ GRATITUDE IS THE KEY
WE SPEAK OF the Past
and the Future but, in reality, there is only the
Present, and here, in the Present, we were born, here
we live, and here we will die. There is always only
the NOW!
Most of us marvel, now and then, at Nature
? its beauty, its strength, its persistence and tenacity,
the wonderful variety of its life forms. But can we
perceive a purpose in the producing, evolving, and
sustaining of all these forms? Can we even say that
there is a purpose in it all? Or is it merely a matter
of things coming into being, remaining a while, reproducing,
suffering throughout, and then dying, leaving only
a few bones or a bit of ash? Does Nature have a discernible
purpose?
Well, the fact that this question is being
posed implies doubt, at least, and/or perhaps the
intention to stimulate or irritate others to ask the
same question, not just superficially, or in passing,
but as something that intimately concerns us all.
We are ? are we not? ? one of Nature's countless
life forms, but unlike the myriad other forms, humans
alone can ask this question, and it both ennobles
us, and causes us quite a lot of anguish. The other
forms live by the laws of Nature, follow the promptings
of instinct, and never question their bondage. But
we, to a large extent, have broken away from our Mother
and her laws, and, to that extent, have become unnatural;
this process continues. We still eat, sleep, procreate,
defecate, etc., in much the same way as our primitive
ancestors did, and as other life forms did and still
do; physically, we have not changed very much for
thousands of years, except for getting a little taller
and a bit healthier, perhaps, and these are due to
better nutrition. We still carry vestiges of our primitive
past with us in the form of the hair on our heads,
which would have served to protect the skull and the
delicate brain within from being scorched by the sun;
we retain the nails on our fingers and toes, though
they are no longer needed as weapons; and why men
have nipples, no one knows! It is in the mind ? mentally
? that we have evolved the most, and have graduated
from living solely by instinct to living by discernment
and reason. When this process began and why, whether
it will eventually reach a point where no further
development is possible, and if there is a design
in it all, we cannot say, and no one should be so
bold or brash as to claim to know the purpose of life
(no matter what this or that book might have to say
about it). We may, if we have thought about it somewhat,
declare that "such-and-such is my purpose in
life," and strive to realize it; that is our
prerogative. But at the same time, we must allow other
people the same freedom and right to decide for themselves
what their purpose is or is not, without trying to
force ours onto them, or expecting them to conform
to our ideals.
We are confronted now, moreso than ever
before (because we know much more about it, and cannot
ignore it), by the immensity of the Universe, which
we attempt to measure by 'light years'; but, although
it is easy to talk in terms of millions, or even billions
of light years, it is really incomprehensible to us,
and, of necessity, we feel tiny and unimportant in
relation to it all. It is here, however, where Science
has forced us to see how infinitesimally small we
are, that Mysticism takes over, to save our dignity
and sanity, and we move away from the intellect somewhat,
to the intuition, and feel ? rather than discover
by the process of thought ? that we do have a role
to play (as does everything else, no matter how large
or small), and, as such, we are important.
Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, and all other
famous conquerors and empire builders, did what they
did only because of people behind them, whose names
and deeds were never recorded ? people like their
foot soldiers, water carriers, cooks, grooms, messengers,
and so on. Behind Columbus, Magellan, Neil Armstrong,
and all other pioneers, explorers, and discoverers,
were rank upon rank of other people, supporting and
financing them. The great inventors like William Caxton,
Benjamin Franklin, Louis Pasteur, Alexander Graham
Bell, Thomas Edison, and so on, all relied upon others
to assist, encourage, feed and clothe them. In short,
no one does anything alone; our living, our every
action, even our every breath, somehow involves others,
even if it is not immediately apparent. And not only
does it involve other people, but other things ? all
other things ? in a vast network. To see this is Mysticism:
an intuitive awareness of how things exist interdependently
? so interdependently, it has been said, that if it
were possible to remove a single grain of sand from
the Universe (which it is not, of course, because
where would it be removed to?), the whole Universe
would collapse!
Far from being opposed to Science, this
is really complementary to it, and continues where
Science begins to fumble and stumble among its laboratory
equipment and its theories and hypotheses, for it
leads us into the dimension of Love and Compassion,
which arise from seeing and feeling things ? all things
? as interdependent, and could never lead to the cruelty
and abuse of power that Science sometimes engenders.
It could be called 'The Science [or Art] (Science
and Art are not mutually exclusive, as is sometimes
supposed, but are, seen from one viewpoint two names
for the same thing) ? of Life and Living.' A scientist
might be persuaded ? by others, or by his own base
desires ? to use his knowledge and power for harmful
purposes; it goes on all the time, especially in the
arms industry.
Life is so tenacious that, even when people
are starving to death, as in such places as Ethiopia,
Somalia, or in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, and
can barely stagger around, they somehow find the energy
to procreate. One sometimes wonders: If mothers really
love their children, as it seems they do, how can
they bring them into such hellish conditions, to suffer
and die? There seems to be no reason in it at all.
We cannot suppose that there is nothing more in it
than just a few minutes of sexual pleasure, when all
other pleasures are denied to them. Then what? We
must not forget Mother Nature's urge to ensure the
survival of the species; She is prepared to sacrifice
millions of individuals, and not care at all, it seems,
or if the species becomes extinct, as so many species
have and will. Does Mother Nature really care, when
She can produce others to take their places, or none
at all? We might think we are highly intelligent and
sophisticated, and that we are really in control of
our lives, but it is a delusion, and we have not gone
so far away from our basic instinctive roots that
Nature cannot recall and humble us, and use us as
pawns in Her callous chess game.
In its attempts to ensure the survival of
the species, Nature makes allowances for failures
and a high attrition rate, and reproduces prolifically,
prepared to sacrifice many so that a few might live
and carry on their line. Compared with the fecundity
of insects, or fish, for example, Man is really quite
puny, for it takes some years before a human is able
to take care of itself, and humans rarely give birth
to more than one baby at a time. Man is not armed
with fangs or claws with which to protect himself,
he has no body armor, and it was only his superior
intelligence and cunning that enabled him to become
the dominant species on the planet. Most insects lay
dozens or even hundreds of eggs at a time, and are
capable of multiplying at an alarming rate, but because
of predators that live off them and keep them in check,
they have not increased to overwhelming proportions,
even though they've been around much longer than Man.
Even if there is no purpose to Life ? and
I'm not saying there isn't, mind ? and even if death
is the end of our lives ? which again, I'm not saying
is so, but many people believe it is ? Life, as it
is, enables us to work towards, and achieve, many
things, not just for ourselves personally, but for
our whole race. Just think: we have inherited most
of what we have and are from those who went before
us, including our theories and beliefs about life
and death; are we going to pass on to our descendants
just what we have inherited, no more and no less,
or are we going to add something to it ? some interest,
as it were ? so that those who come after us will
be the beneficiaries of our living, with its discoveries,
achievements, progress, sufferings, and mistakes?
I write, not because I think that my ideas are unique
or have never been told before, but because, by so
doing, I might add my voice to all those who have
ever tried to indicate to others that life is a precious
commodity, and must be used for the common good; I
have little else to offer except words, but words
can and do change the world, and so, I try.
There is room for improvement in the world,
as most people would agree ? on the socio-political
level, on the economic level, the scientific and technological
levels, and most of all, on the mental spiritual level,
for this is the level from which all the other changes
must come. We can, and should, work for enlightenment
of the mind, to overcome ignorance, and understand
that it is not your life, or mine, but ours that we
are talking about.
Concern is now spreading, and even alarm,
that our planet, which has been abused, exploited,
polluted, and husbanded unwisely and profligately
for so long by an ever increasing number of bipeds,
is reaching a crisis point, with noticeable changes
in weather patterns, greater frequency of storms,
hurricanes, floods, droughts, ozone depletion, deforestation,
salination, rising temperatures and the predicted
rise in sea levels that will follow as a result as
the ice caps melt, and so on. You and I might not
be able to do much about it, but it would be a step
in the right direction if we could see something positive
in it all: it is forcing us to see beyond our national
frontiers, and our narrow, insular ways of looking
at the world, and recognize it as an undivided whole,
instead of as a collection of separate nations. Pollution
knows no frontiers, and needs no passport, visa, or
ticket to ride; there is no point in complaining about
the winds blowing sulphurous factory emissions from
one country to another, for the winds are not to blame.
We are now able to appreciate that what people do
in the Amazon jungle, for example, affects people
all over the world, but are we also aware that what
we are doing ? each one of us ? is also having an
effect on the planet? We should not just blame unscrupulous
loggers and mine owners, but must accept responsibility
for our involvement in the condition of the planet,
for we are surely involved; think about this every
time you flush a toilet, or discard a plastic bag,
for instance. It does not mean that we should cease
using our toilets, and dig holes in the back garden,
as in the old days, but that we must be aware of how
we are involved, and how we contribute to the overall
state of things, and then follow this up by trying
to reduce our contribution to the amount of waste
and pollution.
It is hard to awaken people, but we must
try, and if we are reasonably mature, mentally, we
will not mind making some adjustments to our lives,
and won’t feel offended when/if someone reminds
us of our responsibilities. We are living in a time
when we cannot always afford to 'pussyfoot around'
and consider everyone's personal petty sensitivities;
our very existence is at stake ? maybe not immediately,
but in the future ? and not merely a few bruised egos,
or some 'loss of face.'
No-one likes criticism, that's for sure,
but only mentally immature people resent honest and
fair criticism, and deliberately go against it, just
to prove that they are 'their own man' and 'don't
take orders from anyone.' As we mature mentally, we
are better able to consider things, and if we find
something right ? whether we are helped to see it
through advice, instruction, criticism, or whatever
? we are more likely to accept it and incorporate
it into our lives.
Mental maturity, however, doesn't always
coincide with physical maturity, and cannot be measured
by how many years a person has lived; a young person
might be more mentally mature than an old person;
age is not the criterion in this.
Years ago, during my stay in the Bataan
Refugee Camp ? and I keep talking about this, as it
contained many interesting experiences from which
useful lessons may be drawn ? the Camp administration
(Filipino, of course, though the Camp was funded by
the UNHCR), provided each billet (and there were some
3,000 billets in the Camp, ten to a building, each
accommodating about six refugees), with a plywood-topped
table and two benches, not very strong or durable,
but quite serviceable. Before long, however, many
of these tables and benches were spoiled and useless
from being left outside in the rain. This was just
one of numerous examples of how many of the refugees
neglected to take care of things in the Camp, and
so great sums of money had to be spent to repair or
replace them.
And where did the money come from? From
the not-unlimited funds of the UNHCR. And so, what
could and should have been spent on other refugees
had to be spent on replacing things that had been
broken or wasted by careless people. There was an
obvious "It's-not-ours, and-so-there's-no-need-to-take-care-of-it"
attitude among the refugees. Because of this, the
Camp administration found it necessary to institute
a 'Work Credit System,' whereby each adult refugee
was required to work two hours per day, at various
tasks, and if, by the time they came to leave the
Camp, they had not fulfilled their work quota, they
were 'put on hold,' and not allowed to depart (in
theory it was like this, but it seldom happened; the
Filipinos were very good at making lists of rules,
not good at enforcing them, but good at breaking them,
and the refugees soon came to see the truth of the
old saying that "a barking dog doesn't bite").
The Work Credit System was a shameful comment on the
refugees, for it implied that, without such a system,
they would not have kept their Camp clean; and in
spite of the System, it was dirty. This is how they
demonstrated their gratitude for being hospitably
taken in and accepted for resettlement. It was also
quite common for refugees to go into the nearby beautiful
forest and start fires, which would often burn out
of control, destroying many trees; they also did this
on the hills surrounding the Camp, and the seedlings
that had been planted and replanted several times
in an attempt at reforestation there never had a chance
to grow; those who did this obviously enjoyed seeing
everything going up in smoke!
Yes, I'm complaining, and some people won't
like it. Many people expect a monk to always use nice
and kind words, but they never consider their own
actions. If they put aside their antiquated concepts
about how a monk should be, and stopped to think a
little bit about why I am complaining, they might
understand that I am not doing it just for the sake
of complaining ? I only wish it were not necessary!
? but for the sake of everyone, including the people
who do crazy things! We are all in the same boat,
whether we like each other or not! It appalled me
to see the forest and the hills on fire; it wasn't
my country ? I wasn't born in the Philippines ? but
it was/is part of my world, and I cared about it,
and still do.
Of course, I am aware that anyone who points
out things like this, and complains, will not be very
popular. Now, I won't say that I don't care about
people's opinion of me, because I do, but not so much
that I will keep quiet about things that are more
important to me; I will not let people's opinion of
me immobilize and silence me. It's not a matter of
who is right or wrong, but of what. I have a responsibility,
both to the world as a whole, and to myself, to express
my disapproval of such carelessness and stupidity;
if I were to see it, and keep quiet, I would be giving
my tacit consent to the continuation of the destruction,
and that I will not do. I am not afraid to stand alone
in this, if necessary. Moreover, if enough people
complain loudly enough, it will eventually have an
effect; somebody will listen.
Are you one of those who prays when you
are in trouble or you want something ? "Help
me! Give me! Save me!" ? but who do nothing positive
for the good planet that supports you (your life support
system)? if so, it would be better not to pray at
all, for if you do not know how to take care of what
you've got already, it would only be detrimental for
you to get more, because the more you have, the more
responsibilities you will have. Think carefully before
you pray, therefore; your prayers might be answered!
(But then again, they might not be).
"It is those who are
not learned that are saved rather than those whose
egos have not yet subsided in spite of their learning.
The unlearned ones are saved from the relentless grip
of the devil of self-infatuation; they are saved from
the malady of a myriad whirling thoughts and words;
they are saved from running after wealth. It is from
more than one evil that they are saved."
(Ramana Maharishi)
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