We cannot solve problems with the same thinking we use to create them.
—Albert Einstein
I have lost track of how many conversations I’ve had over the last few months about polarization in today’s world, despair about the future of this country, of Western society, or the environment, or the interregnum we seem to have entered with the crumbling of institutions and the order on which they were based.
Here are a few thoughts.
It doesn’t exist: even buddhas do not see it.
It doesn’t not exist: it is the basis of samsara and nirvana.
No contradiction: the middle way is union.
May I know the pure being of mind, free of extremes.
Implicit in this verse is some very important meditation instruction.
The first two lines are two opposing views, each supported by an incontrovertible argument.
Mind does not exist. Why? Even buddhas do not see it.
We are not talking about belief here. If you tell me something exists, it has to be sensible, able to be perceived, in some way. I cannot sense mind, and if even the most capable people in the world, i.e., buddhas, cannot sense mind, then what does it mean to say it exists?
On the other hand, to say mind does not exist is also wrong. Why? Mind is the basis of all experience—samsara and nirvana being an elegant way of saying all experience.
These are not abstract philosophical propositions. On the one hand, when I look at mind, I do not see anything. There isn’t anything there. On the other, because I experience sights, sounds, thoughts, and emotions, something is going on. I must have a mind.
The next line says that this is not a contradiction. How does that work? This is where the vertical comes in. They come together, not in the sense of merging with each other, but in the sense of no longer being contradictory.
A basic principle of Buddhist practice is that when you have two apparently contradictory positions, hold them both at the same time. Do not go in the direction of one or the other. Hold them both.
That is, essentially, the definition of the Middle Way. The Middle Way is not about balance. It is about avoiding falling into an extreme position—order or chaos, eternalism or nihilism, monism or pluralism, etc. To avoid falling into an extreme position, hold both poles in mind at the same time. Don’t try to reconcile them. Don’t try to balance them. Just hold them, both of them. This is not an intellectual exploration. It has to go deeper than that.
It may take a while. It may take days, months, or even years. Eventually, you see that both views come from a common source, a source you may not be able to put into words, but a source that you can sense, intuit, or feel deep in your being.
It is as if these two conflicting views are two sides of the same coin. You could not see the coin before. You could only see one side or the other, so heads and tails were in conflict. But when you see the coin itself, everything shifts. The seeming contradiction disappears, not because heads and tails merge, but because heads and tails are seen to be two facets of something that you can now see.
In the case of mind, you come to a knowing that is totally different from the knowing that you are used to. I’ve translated the word for that knowing as the pure being of mind. Others have translated it as mind nature. It is empty, clear, and unrestricted.
This is a movement into the vertical because this knowing is a higher knowing. It is not a rational knowing. It is not a conceptual knowing. But it is a knowing, and when you are able to touch it, apparent contradictions disappear—form and emptiness, for instance, or movement and stillness, or sound and silence.
What is important here is the move to the vertical, a move that comes about through holding apparently contradictory positions at the same time for a long enough period of time for a higher knowing to form.
When you move to the vertical, you are able to experience divergent views, but the move comes at a cost: you cannot hold onto either of the earlier positions as absolute. Long cherished beliefs may have to be let go. Some people find that too difficult. They prefer to hold on to those cherished beliefs, even it it means they stay in turmoil and conflict.
As for applying this principle in your life, make it part of your practice. Hold opposing views in your meditation until the move to the vertical takes place, until there is a shift in how you see and understand. It is impossible to say how long this may take, anywhere from a few minutes to a few years. You cannot manufacture higher orders of knowing with a wave of the hand.
When you discover how powerful and how wonderful this method can be, you may want to share it with others. That is much trickier. In doing so, you are essentially moving into a teacher role. You must be capable of holding a field of attention in which the movement to the vertical can take place. I did so, both with students and in my business consulting. In both situations, I was in a position to hold the field of attention and address the emotional material that inevitably arises when people see they have to let go of cherished beliefs.
Better, I think, is to plant seeds, and let the seeds sprout and grow at their own rate. To plant a seed, introduce a different perspective, but don’t argue for it or defend it. Just introduce it and trust that if the ground is fertile, it will sprout when the time is right.
1 comment:
Thank you - profound, sensitive, instructive.
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