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Ideology run amok

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A mind run amok is dangerous.  If life is reduced to reason, life is impoverished.  There is more to life than ideas.  There is more to ideas than ideas.  Ideas without that “more” are very limiting.  I guess I’m talking about ideologues here.  And they are scary as hell.  These people…in many cultures… will kill if you don’t believe their ideas.

Goethe had this in mind when he noted, “They call it reason, using light celestial, just to outdo the beasts in being beastial.”  And, Rabindranath Tagore wrote, “A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it. “

conflict habituated relationships

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Mobi Ho, in his introduction to  book, Thich Nhat Hanh’s, The Miracle of Mindfulness, describes how the disciples of Hanh attempted to facilitate reconciliation in Viet Nam after the war ended in 1973.  He noted that these disciples “persistently refused to support either armed party and believed that both sides were but the reflection of one reality, (my emphasis) and that the true enemies were not people, but ideology, hatred, and ignorance. (my emphasis)

How can opposing sides of any issue be merely “the reflection of one reality”?  Even more so, how can this be the case when both sides are armed to the teeth?  Ho believed that the answer is because both sides of the conflict were slaves to “ideology, hatred, and ignorance.”  T. S. Eliot described these peoples as “united by the strife which divided them.”

This is also relevant to the field of mental health.  In my trade, we have a term for couples who are joined at the hip in intense conflict and would never leave each other for any amount of money:  conflict habituated relationships.  I once knew a couple who spent the last 35 years of their life, living at opposite ends of the same house.  They hated each other intently and ravaged the lives of their children.  But they could not do without each other.

I believe that Ho was very astute in his observation that the real issue in conflicts like these is “ideology, hatred, and ignorance.”   It is as if the people are “the toy of some great pain”.  (I think that quote comes from Ranier Rilke).

And, to conclude, I can’t help but apply this phenomena to our current Congress.  I fear that the real issue is that many of them are mere ideologues, filled with “hatred and ignorance” and are willing to “ravage the lives of their children”, i.e. the American citizenry.

And one further point.  Ideology is ideology.  Be it conservative or be it liberal, ideology is ideology.  The point is to have ideas, of course, but not be so blind as to bludgeon other people with those ideas.

The peril of attachment

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There is a well-known story of Jesus encountering a rich man who wanted to enter the kingdom of heaven. And Jesus told him to sell all his possessions and give them to the poor. (See Mark ch. 10). Now I don’t think Jesus was telling us that we need to sell all of our “stuff” and give to the poor. He merely recognized the attachment of that man to his riches and knew that it was an impediment to his spiritual welfare. I have known of people who have taken a vow of poverty and given everything away. I’m not inclined myself! I like my stuff. However, I am more conscientious about non-attachment to my “stuff” and have made an effort to be more generous in my day to day life.

I heard someone point out one time that anyone who is miserly with his money (and stuff) is also going to be miserly with his heart.

Internal differences where the meanings are

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“The man who can articulate the movements of his inner life need no longer be a victim of himself, but is able slowly and consistently to remove the obstacles that prevent the spirit from entering.”  Henri Nouwen recognized that the Spirit of God is a Presence that makes one aware of his/her inner life which, of course, parallels an awakening awareness to the outer world.  Some see this “Presence” as “coming down from on high” and intruding or violating.  They see it in terms of time and space.  I see it as interior process beginning to unfold and making one aware of his/her heart’s machinations and subtleties.  There is a verse from the New Testament (Hebrews 4:12) which recognizes this discriminating work of the Spirit, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

 To be “mindful” of “the thoughts and intents of the heart” is simple awareness.  It is to pay attention.  It is to turn off the “automatic pilot” that we’re accustomed to operating by.

Emily Dickinson put it this way:

There’s a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons,
That oppresses, like the heft
Of cathedral tunes.

Heavenly hurt it gives us;
We can find no scar,
But internal difference
Where the meanings are

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Power of Now

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I refer often to Eckhart Tolle, especially his best-selling book, The Power of Now.  The central emphasis of this book is that our culture is captivated by our orientation to past and future.  (T.S. Eliot in The Four Quartets notes, “Time past and time future” and then claims that we “cling to that dimension.”)  And Tolle is only one of numerous gifted souls, men and women, who are aware of the shallowness of our particular culture and the unwillingness of organized religion to address the ensuing spiritual malaise.

Tolle emphasizes “the Now”.  Though he recognizes the importance of past and future and the imperative that we pay proper respect to “that dimension”, he encourages us to look below the surface, beyond the pale of the normal hum-drum of day to day life, and recognize the present moment.

But this is a very subversive notion.  It flies in the face of our most basic assumptions about life and suggests that there is more to life than meets the eye.  This “subversive function” is paid lip-service to in theological and ecclesiastical circles as the “prophetic function” of the gospel.  But most churches and spiritual teachings are unwilling to take on this “subversive function”, preferring to amuse themselves with the gospel-eze version of those “well-worn words and ready phrases that build comfortable walls against the wilderness.”  (Conrad Aiken)

It is astounding that a book of this sort has been so well-received.  It speaks of the hunger of the modern human heart, a hunger that is rarely addressed with traditional religion.   However, I do believe that this heart-hunger could be addressed with many world religions…and certainly the Christian tradition…but it would require a clergy that was willing to follow Jesus (and other Holy men and women throughout the ages) into a desert experience.

W. H. Auden summarized it so beautifully:

ll those who follow me are led

Onto that glassy mountain where are no

Footholds for logic, to that Bridge of Dread

Where knowledge but increases vertigo:

Those who pursue me take a twisting lane

To find themselves immediately alone

With savage water or unfeeling stone,

In labyrinths where they must entertain

Confusion, cripples, tigers, thunder, pain.

Lives of a Cell

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In 1974, Lewis Thomas wrote a little book entitled, Lives of a Cell:  Notes of a Biology Watcher.  In this book Thomas discoursed about the intricacies of cell development and reproduction and noted how this process had its parallel on the human social level.  He explained how that cells had not evolved membranes they would not have been able to “communicate” with each other and organs and tissues would not have evolved.

He then explained social interaction in terms of boundary-setting and communication.  Without boundaries, there would be no communication and the social body would lack the dynamic quality necessary to thrive.  But just as with the cellular level, these boundaries must be permeable as, again, no communication could take place.

The dance of boundaries is an essential part of the human drama.  When we are born, we quickly discover the basic boundaries that our social body has constructed and which are being proffered us.  In our day, our “social body” is under a lot of flux and so young people…and old people…have more freedom to play with boundaries without drawing the scorn of “The Boundary Setters”, i.e. the local patriarchy.  But there are certainly many, especially die-hard conservatives,  who do not approve of this “flux” and seek to repress it.  They are sure of “the way things are.”

 

 

 

Lewis Thomas (November 25, 1913–December 3, 1993) was a physician, poet, etymologist, essayist, administrator, educator, policy advisor, and researcher.

Thomas was born in Flushing, New York and attended Princeton University and Harvard Medical School. He became Dean of Yale Medical School and New York University School of Medicine, and President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute. His formative years as an independent medical researcher were at Tulane University School of Medicine.

Political version of “us vs. them”

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The same tendency to bifurcate reality discussed yesterday can be seen in our political process.  We are currently watching our government stew in its own juices basically because each party is locked into a battle of wills, each locked tightly into “Democrat” or “Republican” loyalties.  AND, I am a Democrat and I will continue to be.  The Democrats best articulate my perspective on the world, not just politically but also culturally.  But, Democrats are not “right”.   They merely offer one perspective in the world and I happen to subscribe to it.  That does not make the Republicans “wrong.”  We must have, to use different terms for a moment, liberals and conservatives.  Without these two philosophies working in tandem, we will get into a lot of trouble.

The core issue here is identity.  Our task is to put our “reality” on hold for a moment here and there, to pause briefly, and to recognize that that there are people who look at things differently.  We must not be trapped in our various categories—-spiritually, politically, or even sexually.  Our task is to recognize once again, that we see “only the small bright circle of our consciousness beyond which lies the darkness.” (Conrad Aiken).  For, those that lie in “darkness” have a reality of their own and that reality deserves a modicum of respect.  What is “darkness” to us, is “light” to them.

And, I could easily trash Republicans here.  But I’m saving that for another day.  Yes, they have their issue with nut-jobs on the far right.  I’m sure Republicans would respond with, “Well, yes, but what about your own party’s nut jobs?”  Well, I’m sure there are extremists on my side of the political aisle but naturally I have a more difficult problem in identifying who they are.

Ultimately, I must remember, to borrow a refrain from an earlier post, and recognize that each day I awaken and announce to the world, “Wind me up and watch me be Democrat today.”  BUT, having this belief does give me pause and in that pause I can try to give other perspectives that “modicum of respect” mentioned earlier.   I do believe that Democrats are more likely to be willing to enter that “pause”.  It is not unrelated to what Deepak Chopra describes as “the gap”