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# 2022-07-02 - World As Lover, World As Self by Joanna Macy | |
# Introduction | |
I am happy to have, in a collection that can be lifted with one hand, | |
so many pieces of my life that reflect the pursuits of my heart and | |
mind. These talks and writings stem from that portion of my life | |
that has been shaped by Buddhist thought and practice. | |
Given the nature of this assortment of pieces, it is not essential | |
that they be read in any particular order. | |
We need to train our minds to these understandings [of the power of | |
our interbeing in the web of life], for our society, relentlessly | |
conditioning us to assume that we are separate, isolated beings, | |
catches us up in competitive games fostered by dysfunctional notions | |
of hierarchical power. | |
Throughout, at each step, it is evident that action on behalf of life | |
transforms. Because the relationship between self and world is | |
reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightenment or | |
saved and THEN acting. As we care enough to take risks, we loosen | |
the grip of ego and begin to come home to our true nature. For, in | |
the co-arising nature of things, the world itself, if we are bold to | |
love it, acts through us. It does not ask us to be pure or perfect, | |
or wait until we are detached from all passions, but only to care, to | |
harness the sweet, pure intention of our deepest passions... | |
# Chapter 1 | |
Our planet is in trouble. It is hard to go anywhere without being | |
confronted by the wounding of our world, the tearing of the very | |
fabric of life. | |
In the face of what is happening, how do we avoid feeling overwhelmed | |
and just giving up, turning to the many diversions and demands of our | |
consumer society? | |
It is essential that we develop our inner resources. We have to | |
learn to look at things as they are, painful and overwhelming as that | |
may be, for no healing can begin until we are fully present to our | |
world, until we learn to sustain the gaze. | |
Among the inner resources that we seek for sustaining our action and | |
our sanity are what the Germans call weltbild, the way we view our | |
world and our relation to it. | |
By "our world," I mean the place we find ourselves, the scene upon | |
which we play our lives. | |
It has always been assumed, as an integral part of human experience, | |
that the work of our hands and heads and hearts would live on through | |
those who came after us, walking the same earth beneath the same sky. | |
Plagues, wars, and personal death have always taken place within | |
that wider context, the assurance of continuity. Now we have lost | |
the certainty that we will have a future. | |
I would like to reflect on four particular ways that people on | |
spiritual paths look at the world. These are not specific to any | |
religion; you can find all of them in most spiritual traditions. | |
These four are: | |
* World as battlefield. | |
* World as trap. | |
* World as lover. | |
* World as self. | |
Many people view the world as a battlefield, where good and evil are | |
pitted against each other, and the forces of light battle the forces | |
of darkness. It can be persuasive, especially when you feel | |
threatened. Such a view is very good for arousing courage... anger, | |
aversion, militancy. It is very good, too, for giving a sense of | |
certainty. | |
A more innocuous version of the battlefield image of the world... is | |
the world as a classroom, a kind of moral gymnasium where you are put | |
through certain tests which would prove your mettle and teach you | |
certain lessons, so you can graduate to other arenas and rewards. | |
[With either image], the world is a proving ground, with little worth | |
other than that. Our... souls, which are being tested... count, and | |
the world doesn't. For the sake of your soul... you are ready to | |
destroy. | |
[Regarding the view of the world as trap:] Wanting to affirm a | |
transcendent reality distinct from a society that appears very | |
materialistic, we place it on a supra-phenomenal level removed from | |
confusion and suffering. The tranquility that spiritual practices | |
can provide, we imagine, belongs to a haven that is aloof from our | |
world and to which we can ascend and be safe and serene. | |
Spiritual bypass | |
[Regarding the view of the world as lover:] For when you see the | |
world as lover, every being, every phenomenon, can become--if you | |
have a clever, appreciative eye--an expression of that ongoing, | |
erotic impulse. It takes form right now in each one of us and in | |
everyone and everything we encounter... | |
The way we define and delimit self is arbitrary. | |
# Chapter 2, Despair Work | |
We are bombarded by signals of distress--ecological destruction, | |
societal breakdown, and uncontrolled nuclear proliferation. Not | |
surprisingly, we are feeling despair... What is surprising is the | |
extent to which we continue to hide this despair from ourselves and | |
each other. As a society we are caught between a sense of impending | |
apocalypse and an inability to acknowledge it. | |
Consensus bias | |
The suppression of despair, like that of any deep recurrent response, | |
produces a partial numbing of the psyche. Expressions of anger or | |
terror are muted, deadened as if a nerve had been cut. | |
The refusal to feel takes a heavy toll. ... this psychic numbing | |
impedes our capacity to process and respond to information. The | |
energy expended in pushing down despair is diverted from more | |
creative uses, depleting the resilience and imagination needed for | |
fresh visions and strategies. Furthermore, the fear of despair can | |
erect an invisible screen, selectively filtering out | |
anxiety-provoking data. In a world where organisms require feedback | |
in order to adapt and survive, this is suicidal. | |
... despair is the loss of the assumption that the species will | |
inevitably pull through. | |
[Losing this assumption would more accurately describe life on this | |
planet. "More than 99% of all species that ever lived on Earth, | |
amounting to over five billion species, are estimated to have died | |
out. A typical species becomes extinct within 10 million years of | |
its first appearance..."] | |
Extinction | |
Until we get in touch with [the true dimensions of our despair], our | |
powers of creative response to planetary crisis will be crippled. | |
To acknowledge our pain for the world and tap its energy, we need | |
symbols and images for its expression. Images, more than arguments, | |
tap the springs of consciousness, the creative powers by which we | |
make meaning of experience. | |
... sharing concerns on an affective level... helped us cut | |
through... the temptations of academic one-upmanship, to the raw | |
nerve in us all... | |
Waiting does not mean inaction, but staying in touch with our pain | |
and confusion AS we act, not banishing them to grab for sedatives, | |
ideologies, or final solutions. In despair, if we digest it, is | |
authenticity and energy to fuel our dreams. | |
Despair work is not a solo adventure, no matter how alone one may | |
feel. It is a process undertaken within the context of community, | |
even if a community of like-minded others is not physically present. | |
Just knowing that one's feelings are shared gives a measure of | |
validation and support. [Perhaps this need for external validation | |
is Joanna Macy's license to speak on behalf of what other people are | |
feeling or ought to be feeling.] | |
# Chapter 3, Faith, Power, and Ecology | |
Faith is an elusive and questionably commodity in these days of a | |
dying culture. Where do you find it? If you've lost a faith, can | |
you invent one? Which faith do you choose? ... But some of us find | |
it hard, even obscene, to believe in an abiding providence in a world | |
of such absurdity as ours where, in the face of unimaginable | |
suffering, most of our wealth and wits are devoted to preparing a | |
final holocaust. And we don't need nuclear bombs for our holocaust, | |
it is going on right now in the demolition of the great rainforests | |
and in the toxic contamination of our seas, soil, and air. | |
Faith, in a world like this? The very notion can appear distasteful, | |
especially when we frequently see faith used as an excuse for denial | |
and inaction. ... The radical uncertainties of our time breed | |
distortions of faith, where fundamentalist beliefs foster | |
self-righteousness and deep divisions, turning patriotism into | |
xenophobia, inciting fear and hatred of dissenters, and feeding the | |
engines of war. If we are allergic to faith, it is with some reason. | |
Another option opens, however, that can lead to a more profound and | |
authentic form of faith. We can turn from the search for personal | |
salvation or some metaphysical haven and look instead to our actual | |
experience. When we simply attend to what we see, feel, and know is | |
happening to our world, we find authenticity. | |
[IOW, if you come from a fundamentalist background, then you are part | |
of the problem. Your faith is less authentic than the author's | |
version of faith. How's that for breeding division and | |
self-righteousness?] | |
# Chapter 4, Taking Heart: Spiritual Exercises for Social Activists | |
According to this apparently simple set of assertions, things do not | |
produce each other or make each other happen, as in linear causality, | |
they HELP each other happen by providing occasion or locus or | |
context, and in so doing, they in turn are affected. There is a | |
mutuality here, a reciprocal dynamic. Power inheres not in any | |
entity, but in the relationship between entities. | |
When his interlocutors could not share his direct perception... and | |
when they remained unpersuaded by his arguments, the Buddha sometimes | |
simply stated as a "bottom line" why he taught it. His reasons were | |
existential and ethical. He said that other views of causality did | |
not allow for novelty and meaningful change; and he had to oppose | |
them because they provided: | |
> neither desire to do, nor effort to do, nor necessity to do this | |
> deed or abstain from that deed. So then, the necessity for action | |
> or inaction [is] not found to exist in truth or verity. | |
After exploring this teaching in the early Buddhist scriptures, I | |
encountered it in general systems theory, in its explanations of the | |
interdependent, self-organizing nature of open systems. | |
# Chapter 6, Knower and Known | |
> If Lake Erie is driven insane, its insanity is incorporated into | |
> the larger system of your thought and experience. --Gregory Bateson | |
Views arrived at and defended in terms of pure reason are suspect in | |
Buddhist views, because knowing is conditioned by habit and vested | |
interests. | |
Open systems, including cognitive systems like our minds, maintain | |
and organize themselves by virtue of feedback--that is, by monitoring | |
their interactions with their environment. "Monitoring" is a key | |
term in systems theory. All open systems self-monitor; it is like a | |
naturally occurring mindfulness. That is how our blood, for | |
example... regulate their levels of salinity. They watch what they | |
are doing and adjust. They do this by a process of | |
matching--matching the observed results of behavior with their inner | |
pre-established goals. Instant by instant, so constantly that it is | |
usually unconscious, we steer--which is the root meaning of | |
cybernetics. | |
We cannot count bats in an inkblot, Gregory Bateson said, because | |
there are none, "and yet a man--if he is 'bat-minded'--may, 'see' | |
several." In other words, we see by interpreting, and each of us | |
lives in our own assumed form-world. | |
The codes and constructs by which we interpret our world are | |
functional equivalents to the Buddhist notion of sankhara, volitional | |
formations or impulses. | |
And when we possess a powerful technology, this incarnational | |
capacity is fearsome. Our imaginations erect Pentagons and | |
Disneylands, and even the land itself mirrors back our fantasies, as, | |
gouged and paved over, it testifies to our search for mastery, and | |
our fear of what we cannot control. In the world we create, we | |
encounter ourselves. | |
Thus do living systems adapt, by transforming themselves, and thus | |
does learning happen. Real learning is not something added, it is a | |
reorganization of the system. New nets and assemblies occur, loops | |
form, alternate pathways develop. The viewed world is different, and | |
so is the viewer. | |
Seen in systems terms, the practice of vipassana, or insight | |
meditation, represents a short-circuiting of the codes and constructs | |
we impose on reality. | |
If knowing s interactive, it becomes difficult to claim and | |
impossible to prove an ultimate truth. For knowing is relative to | |
the perspective of the knower and conditioned by his [or her] past | |
experience. | |
The impossibility of arriving at ultimate formulations of reality | |
does not represent a defeat for the inquiring mind. It is only final | |
assertions that are suspect, not the process of knowing itself. For | |
we each have a valid and important perspective on what is. And to | |
the extent that we can acknowledge the partiality of this | |
perspective, what we say stays clear and true. | |
# Chapter 7, Body and Mind | |
The environmental crisis has deep attitudinal roots. To restore our | |
environment we need to heal our relationship with it, and that means | |
healing the split in the psyche the cuts us off from the material | |
world. | |
# Chapter 8, Karma: The Co-Arising of Doer and Deed | |
When I made statements like "I cannot sit still," or "I am... angry," | |
she would immediately cut me short. "Stop!" she'd say. "Stop saying | |
'I' in that way, when talking about your experience." Such 'I' | |
statements work like cement, anchoring passing feelings into a kind | |
of permanence. Sister Palmo pointed out that it is more accurate and | |
helpful to say, "Anger is happening," or "Fears are arising." | |
[Interesting. Not assuming responsibility for one's feelings.] | |
For action, the word karma is used. Early on, in pre-Buddhist | |
literature, the word denoted ritual acts; then by extension it mean | |
religiously ordained social duties. In the Buddhist texts, it is | |
broadened to include all volitional behavior--bodily, verbal, and | |
mental. This is what we are. | |
Our present psycho-physical structure is not that of a continuing | |
self-identical entity, nor is it discontinuous from our past selves. | |
... the Buddha said | |
> This body (kaya), brethren, is not your own, neither is it that | |
> of any others. It should be regarded as brought about by actions | |
> of the past, by plans, by volitions, by feelings. | |
The effect of our behavior is inescapable... our acts co-determine | |
what we become. | |
They do so by means of the sankharas, or "volitional formations." | |
These subconscious drives and tendencies condition the ways in which | |
we interpret and react to phenomena. The terms means "put together," | |
"compounded," "organized." Sankharas accrue from previous volitional | |
acts and represent the reflexive or recoil effects of these | |
actions--the tendencies they create, the habits they form and | |
perpetuate. [Samskara] | |
Because the character of a person's experience is affected by these | |
formations, his [or her] identity is indistinct from what he [or she] | |
does and thinks, has done and thought. | |
Deterministic views were so strong in his day that the Buddha did not | |
leave this implicit. He repeatedly and specifically countered | |
fatalistic views with his own arguments. The effect of actions | |
cannot be traced in linear causal chains. Their interweavings, he | |
said, are too complex to be so easily comprehended. ... Among these | |
many factors, karma is just one. In other words, behavior is not the | |
sole determiner of experience; other events condition it also. | |
Because the open system is self-organizing, its behavior cannot be | |
dictated or directly modified from without. External pressures or | |
circumstances can only operate in interaction with the system's | |
internal organization. | |
Here then is the answer to our question, "does it matter what we do?" | |
It matters to the extent that WE matter. Indeed, our acts | |
matter--incarnate--in us, for they make us what we are. | |
# Chapter 17, The Greening of the Self | |
Something important is happening in our world that you are not going | |
to read about in the newspapers. I consider it the most fascinating | |
and hopeful development of our time, and it is on of the reasons I am | |
so glad to be alive today. It has to do with that is occurring to | |
the notion of the SELF. | |
The self is the metaphoric construct of identity and agency, the | |
hypothetical piece of turn on which we construct our strategies for | |
survival, the notion around which we focus our instincts for | |
self-preservation, our needs for self-approval, and the boundaries of | |
our self-interest. Something is shifting there. | |
The conventional notion of the self with which we have been raised | |
and to which we have been conditioned by mainstream culture is being | |
undermined. ... It is being replaced by wider constructs of identity | |
and self-interest--by what you might call the ecological self or the | |
eco-self, co-extensive with other beings and the life of our planet. | |
It is what I will call "the greening of the self." | |
This is hardly new for our species. In the past poets and mystics | |
have been speaking and writing about these ideas, but not people of | |
the barricades agitating for social change. ... This expanded sense | |
of self serves to empower effective action. | |
I am convinced that this loss of certainty that there will be a | |
future is the pivotal psychological reality of our time. The fact | |
that it is not talked about very much makes it all the more pivotal, | |
because nothing is more preoccupying or energy-draining than that | |
which we repress. | |
From the systems perspective this interaction, creating larger wholes | |
and patterns, allows for and even requires diversity. You become | |
more yourself. Integration and differentiation go hand in hand. | |
One of the things I like best about the green self, the ecological | |
self that is arising in our time, is that it is making moral | |
exhortation irrelevant. Sermonizing is both boring and ineffective. | |
This ecological self, like any notion of selfhood, is a metaphoric | |
construct and a dynamic one. It involves choice; choices can be made | |
to identify at different moments, with different dimensions or | |
aspects of our systemically interrelated existence... In doing this | |
the extended self brings into play wider resources--courage, | |
endurance, ingenuity--like a nerve cell in a neural net opening to | |
the charge of other neurons. | |
author: Macy, Joanna, 1929- | |
detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Joanna_Macy | |
LOC: BQ4570.S6 M33 | |
tags: book,spirit | |
title: World As Lover, World As Self | |
# Tags | |
book | |
spirit |