What is Life For?

When I was a teen my family went to a local farmer's co-op because it was having an event where the famous fiddler Al Cherney was the special guest. At the time I was more interested in listening to Pink Floyd than country and Western, but I understood when I was listening to a real musician. So I was glad to attend with mom and dad. (Here's a short taste of the man's music.)

Before he got into the music he gave a short story about a man who'd died. He went before Saint Peter and was told that'd he'd "made the grade" and was welcome in Heaven. He replied that he intended no offense, but he was a cautious sort of person and that he'd like to check out both places before he made a commitment. The Saint said that that was fine with him and he was welcome to check out Hell, then Heaven, before he made his final decision. 

Poof! He was in Hell. There was a large cafeteria and people were very hungry. The devils had provided what smelled like a wonderful soup, and the sub demons were handing out bowls to all and sundry. Unfortunately, the only spoons provided were a yard long and no one could get any of the soup from the bowl to the mouth---leaving everyone hungry and angry. 

This didn't look so good. 

Poof! He was in Heaven. The fellow was surprised to see the same scenario. But everyone was happy. That was because they were using their long spoons to feed the person across the table from them---and everyone had their fill. 

The point that was being made was that people's well-being comes from the help that they receive from others; and their happiness comes from offering it. 

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The other day I was listening to a CBC podcast about How to Change Your Mind, Michael Pollan's new book . The book, and the interview, was about hallucinogenic drugs (ie: LSD, peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, etc)---and how they affect the human mind. Among other things Pollan was talking about how these drugs give the part of the brain that creates the illusion of the self a "time out", which allows it to perceive the world in a new way. 

Michael Pollan, from a talk at Yale University.
Original picture by Ragesoss, modified by Gobonobo.
Image c/o Wiki Commons.

Both Pollan and I use the phrase "the illusion of the self" advisedly. That's because thoughtful, introspective people in different cultures at different times have independently come to the conclusion that when you carefully parse out the experience of being a human being, you come to the inescapable conclusion that the idea of an individual, concrete, persistent, "self", "soul", or, "personality" is an illusion or cultural artifact.  

Here's an example of the sort of discussion you will find in ancient texts, it comes from a conversation between a Greek king in Afghanistan (a left-over from Alexander the Great's expedition to India) and a Buddhist monk.

The Chariot Simile 

One of the King's first questions is on the nature of the self and personal identity. Nagasena greeted the King by acknowledging that Nagasena was his name, but that "Nagasena" was only a designation; no permanent individual "Nagasena" could be found. 

This amused the King. Who is it that wears robes and takes food? he asked. If there is no Nagasena, who earns merit or demerit? Who causes karma? If what you say is true, a man could kill you and there would be no murder. "Nagasena" would be nothing but a sound. 

Nagasena asked the King how he had come to his hermitage, on foot or by horseback? I came in a chariot, the King said. 

But what is a chariot? Nagasena asked. Is it the wheels, or the axles, or the reigns, or the frame, or the seat, or the draught pole? Is it a combination of those elements? Or is it found outside those elements? 

The King answered no to each question. Then there is no chariot! Nagasena said.

Now the King acknowledged the designation "chariot" depended on these constituent parts, but that "chariot" itself is a concept, or a mere name. 

Just so, Nagasena said, "Nagasena" is a designation for something conceptual. It is a mere name. When the constituent parts are present we call it a chariot; When the Five Skandhas [this is a technical term from Buddhist psychology that describes the different parts of human consciousness---sight, emotions, thoughts, etc] are present, we call it a being.

The Buddhists aren't the only people who question the existence of "the self", the enlightenment Scottish philosopher, David Hume came to the same conclusion in his A Treatise of Human Nature:

“For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure.  I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe anything but the perception.” – (Section VI, "Of Personal Identity") 

David Hume, portrait by Alan Ramsay,
from the Scottish National Gallery. Photo by the Google Art Project.
Image c/o Wiki Commons. 

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I'll admit that this is a bit different from my other posts, but it is a key part of my personal understanding of politics, activism, economics, and, environmentalism. It's certainly not something I'd have ever been able to sell to a newspaper when I was free-lancing Op Eds. If you think it's useful, why not support the "Back-Grounder"? It's not that hard (thanks for being so awesome, Dustin), Patreon and Pay Pal make it easy. And by doing so you'll be making it a little more easy for me to find the time and resources I need to put out these articles. You'll also be encouraging younger people to follow in my footsteps.  

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What is important for the purposes of this Op Ed is something else that Pollan talked about. He said that when people give up the idea that they are these concrete, discrete entities and instead are a diffuse collection of experiences and ideas---their lives totally change. For example, some people dying of cancer develop such a level of equanimity and joy that they start helping the people visiting them deal with their grief. Another example, some addicts give up their drug of choice overnight because they realize how inherently gobsmackingly beautiful the world can be and how being addicted screws that all up.

The point is that once one stops fixating on the illusion of the self, the enormity of life breaks through. And once you are part of the tremendous, amazing, beautiful world of both nature and human society, the only thing that can make any sense is to live your life for the entirety of it all.

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I don't just pay attention to olde tyme fiddlers, ancient Buddhist monks, and, Scottish philosophers. I also watch cheesy science fiction shows. Here's another take on the same theme from Babylon Five. 

Pollan also talked about the social implications of psychedelics. He says that if enough people have this experience of "taking a break from the ego", it has a macro effect on pop culture. If this is true, then the war on drugs that started in the 1970s and which is only starting to loosen up now might have had a tremendous impact on society. And as we loosen up opposition to them, we are at least finding that hallucinogens can be tremendously helpful in a wide variety of psychological problems---to cite one particular example.

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Meister Eckhart.
I couldn't find an attribution. Used
under the Fair Use Copyright provision

Hallucinogenic drugs are only a short cut to wisdom. A more tried-and-true gate to it comes from meditation. And as such it too has been under the thumb of another "war". One of the people that "church folks" like to quote a lot who certainly sounds like he was cut from the same cloth as the Buddhists, Polan, Al Cherney, and, the folks in Babylon Five,  is Meister Eckhart. Here're some quotes from "Good Reads":

“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”
― Meister Eckhart, Sermons of Meister Eckhart 

“Wisdom consists in doing the next thing you have to do, doing it with your whole heart, and finding delight in doing it.”
― Meister Eckhart 

“Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love a cow - for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. They do not rightly love God, when they love Him for their own advantage. ”
― Meister Eckhart 

“If I had a friend and loved him because of the benefits which this brought me and because of getting my own way, then it would not be my friend that I loved but myself. I should love my friend on account of his own goodness and virtues and account of all that he is in himself. Only if I love my friend in this way do I love him properly.”
― Meister Eckhart, Selected Writings 

“If anyone went on for a thousand years asking of life: 'Why are you living?' life, if it could answer, would only say, 'I live so that I may live.' That is because life lives out of its own ground and springs from its own source, and so it lives without asking why it is itself living. ”
― Meister Eckhart

The thing that "churchy" people who like to quote Eckhart don't tell you, however, is that he died in a cell waiting to be tried for heresy. Just like there is a war on drugs, so there was a war on mystics---and they both stem from the same place. Our present society doesn't want people to really walk away from the ego, it wants people to bind themselves to it. That's pretty much what our entire economy is based upon, the base enslavement of our private and social being to a false understanding of what it means to be a human being. 

But it's all a lie. It makes people unhappy, and, it's also destroying the world. It tells us that we can destroy nature because nature isn't part of our self. It also tells us that we can treat "the Other"---be it refugees, the mentally ill, the poor, whatever---shamefully, because they are not part of our self. But if you take hallucinogenic drugs or meditate, there is a very good chance that you will experience life in a different way, one where the self isn't all that important anymore. And when you do that, then you will be willing to do things like putting opposition to climate change, or fighting for the rights of others ahead of your own investment portfolio or the size of your house or the quality of your "ride" or the latest vacation trip or whatever. It just won't be important.

That's the macro effect that Polan is talking about. It's also why there have been wars on drugs and wars on mysticism. Personally, I think that part of creating a sane, fair, and, sustainable society involves bringing the wisdom of the mystics back into our society.

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Furthermore, I say to you---the climate emergency must be dealt with!