We are all complicit
(originally published on Medium)
A friend of mine recently spent a good month in Nepal, where life is simple and sunshine urges the awakened mind to embrace what is freely given
For me, coming back to the States is always a depressing experience, but one that I quickly re-adapt to, for it is as familiar as it is comfortable. It is easy to be comfortable and give no thought to the problems of the world
But doing so makes us complicit
Every human being carries the obligation of facing the problems of the world and making some effort to solve them. We are nothing if not active components in the large, continuing transformation that is the awakening of the universe. Being comfortable is simply the avoidance of this sacred responsibility, which makes us complicit in the unsolved problems
Vox Nihil
But are there problems in the world?
As a nihilist, a person who rejects morality and the jejune notion that good and evil are meaningful ways to divide the world, I would say no
The cruelty of men to living creatures
It is not a problem that African poachers are working assiduously towards the extinction of the rhinoceros, or of elephants¹ and lions
It is not a problem that paedophilia has become so widespread that an entire industry of human traffickers has sprung into existence, nor that prisoners in America are treated worse than slaves for the benefit of private profiteers, nor that an epidemic of methamphetamine use has turned entire populations into zombies
It is not a problem that, as Mark Bittman — the famous food critic — points out,² each year we kill enough cows, pigs, chickens and lamb that were they strung together head to tail they would stretch to the moon and back five times; that we consume voraciously, in obscene amounts, the flesh of sentient beings; nor that we kill, execute, and murder each other
More carbon has been released into the atmosphere since the final day of the Noordwijk conference, Nov. 7, 1989, than in the entire history of civilization preceding it — The New York Times , Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change
Chemical factory. Hefei, China. March 2010
It is not a problem that since 1979 — the year the Jasons³ were commissioned to study carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere — our world has belched enough CO2 to guarantee the destruction of the Great Coral Reef, the melting of the polar caps, and the sinking of entire nations and all major coastal cities
It its not a problem that we have, through our deliberate thoughtlessness, our calculated greed, our carelessness and cruelty, guaranteed our own extinction, and likely that of all life on the planet
For, surely, the universe is unfolding exactly as it should, and our existence is ultimately inconsequential in the great mists of time
The Doctrine of Two Truths
Though nihilism represents a valid position as an epistemological truth, Buddhist philosophy dissects the universal satya (Sankrit word for truth) into two levels: one provisional, the other ultimate
Within the saṁvṛti (the provisional sense), the previous section in this anthem represents existential problems that demand a solution, that matter deeply to the life continuum, and that should keep us all awake at night
That we sleep like babies makes us complicit in, culpable of, an unspeakable death march. That we go about our lives pretending a state of normalcy where none actually exists makes us complicit in the great suffering of today. That we argue mindlessly about trivialities like president Trump’s latest tweet, bending the knee, burning the flag, which public toilet transgenders should be allowed to use, or a laundry list of red herrings designed to lead us astray from real issues, makes us complicit
Our picayune squabbling makes us guilty of wasting precious resources that should be devoted to the one subject that alone matters: the survival of life on Earth
We run around worried about our jobs, our kids’ grades in school, the quality of produce at the supermarket. We fight over parking spaces and budgets and points of law. We sit resigned in wretched traffic every day, burning fossil fuel, and distract ourselves with radio chatter
We avoid our responsibility to act in our best interests. Of this, we are all complicit
The Parable of the Burning House
A story within the Lotus Sutra⁴ speaks of a father who, upon returning home, discovers his house on fire. Inside, his children play blythely unaware of the danger to their lives. In his love for them, the father contrives to trick them into running out, saving their lives
We are the children within the burning house; the burning house is the trick
The parable illustrates the notion of “expedient means”, the idea that in aiding others on their path to enlightenment, a Buddha (the father) can utilise any necessary means, a trick, a stratagem, a ruse
Ex Vice President Al Gore points out atmospheric CO2 concentration levels
Given the incontrovertible relationship between carbon dioxide and planetary temperature, it is a foregone conclusion that we are going to burn
No one knows how long we have left — there is a lag, a short window of time during which heat builds up — nor whether we have already crossed the point of no return, that threshold at which the oceans boil off and planet Earth becomes sterile, like Venus, devoid of life forever
What we do know is that we can still act in the interest of our self-preservation. That we must. We owe it to ourselves and our gods
The big question is: what can we do?
The Path Forward
The great scientist Albert Einstein once stated that no problem can be solved at the level of consciousness that created it
If we are to survive, we must therefore change our state of mind, our perceptions of the world and our relationship to it, our approach to the business of living, our reliance on the existing infrastructure, on tradition and accepted wisdom
We must overturn. Everything
For clearly, what we’ve been doing is all wrong; in case the inference isn’t clear, it has led us to this point. Therefore where we currently say no, we need say yes. The things we accept we must now reject. The things we take for granted we must question. The things we rely upon we must abandon. What we’re afraid of, we must face
The Greek letter “delta” — symbol of difference
There is no right or wrong
There is only different, and we must change, or we won’t make it
And in our new path, we must seek company, for we cannot make it alone — there is no power in isolation. We need to seek a united worldview, truly a Weltanschauung
To create a new collective we must all become something else. If you’re a social justice warrior, go learn math. If you’re an economist, plant carrots in the ground. And lawyers should read anarchist literature, anarchists should get government jobs, librarians should burn books, monks become prostitutes and prostitutes teach school children
Go buy a gun and start a war
Leave your country. Burn your childhood photographs. Stop wearing shoes. Demand that people call you “your honour”. Do something, anything you haven’t done, anything but continuing what you’re doing now
And for God’s sake, pull your money out of the bank and buy bitcoin
Conclusion
Life is suffering (meant as both gerund and verb)
And suffering is the path to spiritual growth; this is the First Noble Truth in Buddhist philosophy, or as Americans colloquially say: “No pain, no gain”
Water lillies, blossoming in my garden ponds, survive the summer of 2018
This summer was intense. Much of my garden perished — regardless of how much I watered. I even built coverings for things, but they still died
As the years pass, summers will become more brutal and winters recede
We’ll see more natural catastrophes, entire schools of fish will float up dead, whales will beach, birds will fall out of the skies
We will witness death, the only possible outcome for life as temperatures rise
One day massive slabs of ice will slide off their stony bases, plunging into the oceans, as Larsen B once did. And the oceans will rise, threatening the dikes in Amsterdam, the embankments of New York City, the nation of Anguilla
At some point Men will awaken to what they’ve done and cry for help. They will then realise they’re on their own and did this to themselves. It is at that point that they will become ready for change
There are many of us working on changing the world, shifting the paradigms. Bitcoin represents the most fundamental change in civilisational structure, probably ever. It is the redefinition of money, the sine qua non of civilisation
The mechanisms underlying this currency also empower us to design, from scratch, brand new economic models — possible only via decentralised technologies — and consensus mechanisms, systems by which men can organise and come to terms with each other
As blockchain matures, humanity will increasingly have access to the tools needed to redesign and transform itself
It is my sincere hope that we still have a chance, that it is not too late, and in that spirit I invite you to join me. Let’s hold hands, sing a Kumbaya, and get started on a path together
tweet me: @ekkis
Your comments, insights, suggestion and critique are most welcome and you can leave them at the bottom of this page. If you want to reach out more directly, free free to tweet me: @ekkis
footnotes
[1] BBC News — Dozens of elephants killed in Botswana
[2] TED — Mark Bittman On What’s Wrong With What we Eat
[3] Wikipedia — The JASON Advisory Group
[4] Taisho Volume 9, Number 262, The Lotus Sutra