There must have been a day, somewhere in the fourteenth century, when the King of England was actually in touch with everything that concerned his country.
There must be a date somewhere in history, when it actually became too complex for a leader to keep all the moving parts in check.
Since then, the flood of information has only increased and increased to a point where itās not possible for one person to hold everything, and make the decisions whilst being in full control of all the facts..
Thereās a rather course joke that goes.. We had Kingdoms where the rulers were our Kings, then we had Empires where the rules were Emperors, now we just have Countriesā¦
Mismanagement
There are so many examples of the mismanagement of lives, by rulers with big ideas.
The most obvious for me is Chairman Mao, during the āGreat Leap Forwardā where an astonishing policy was dreamt up to stop the birds from eating the rice crops.
Mao declared that on one day, the whole of China was to kill the birds.
People were told to beat drums, pots and pans, all day until the birds dropped dead of exhaustion! That year hundreds of millions of birds died, the insect population thrived with no natural predator, and the rice crop was wiped out. Millions of people died of starvation.
History
Iām not a great believer in History per se, preferring to look forward rather than back.
I understand that things can be cyclical, and by knowing what has been, that we can forecast what might come. Forewarned is forearmed.
I also believe that forecasting the big events is virtually impossible. Who can put their hands up and say they were able to forecast the fall of the USSR?
We live in a world of free-will, and every one of us marches to our own drum from time to time.
We also see that the tiniest crack in the damn can bring the whole edifice down.
Sapiens
I have just completed Yuval Noah Harariās astonishing book āSapiensā
Few books have impressed me as much as this incredible work. The sheer size and sweep of the project is mind-blowing. To be able to hold the vastness of humanity in oneās head, and then offer perspective is a feat of genius.
This is the first time that I have ever felt that I truly understand humanity and what makes it tick.
He moves from the discovery of fire, to the advent of farming. He charts the power of money and the huge influence that science has exerted on the last two hundred years.
We rover through most of the major religions and empires, and finally pass through Buddhism.
Itās interesting to see Harariās wearied eye, as he sorts through human traits..
āGiven the proven human propensity for misusing power, it seems naĆÆve to believe that the more clout people have, the happier they will be.ā
Itās a common theme that carries from section to section.
Why is it that itās so difficult for us to behave well to each other?
Fear
We are told that itās deeply intrenched into our reptilian brains, to fear āThe otherā
Politicians have always known that if they can separate peoples, then they can control them.
Itās playing to our worst fears, and using them against us.
We are prone to ācircle the wagonsā and exclude anybody who is not like usā as soon as the going gets tough. Itās a deep tribal instinct.
That in itself is a false construct.
We see that family was the building block of society, but that the industrial revolution profited from breaking the family bonds, and rebuilding them in different ways.
āCountryā is something that we rally behind, but in reality, even in your own village, there are people who one has nothing in common with.
We can be deeply suspicious of people from the North, when we live in the South, and vice-versa, but then suddenly be galvanised as British as soon as thereās a threat to our country.
Science
Harariās exposition of Science is truly eye-opening, and how it interweaves with politics.
Politics funds Science, which in turn returns new powers to politics.
He talks of the āThe Brave New World Theoryā of Biochemistry ā
One side of his argument has us as Sentient Beings searching for pleasure and meaning
the other side, just looking for another chemical hit to make ourselves feel good.. at any cost.
āwe can stop wasting out time on politics and social reforms, putsches and ideologies, and focus instead on the only thing that can make us truly happy: manipulating our biochemistry!ā
Later, when he examines Buddhism, we see other motivations.
But from the Buddhist perspective ā āLive in the present moment instead of fantasising about what might have been (or might be..) and that True happiness is also independent of our inner feelings ā Stop the pursuit of external achievements, but also the pursuit of inner feelingsā
āHappiness consists in seeing oneās life in its entirety as meaningful and worthwhileā
Human Progression
Every major thoughtform has had a view on how we might best progress as a race.
Be it Christianity, Nazism or Consumerism, thereās an underlying suggestion (or exceptionally overt suggestion) of how we SHOULD lead our lives.
Time, time and again, we have flirted with these ways of being, these schools of thought, and have watched them peak and fail. Inevitably, a huge number of people become convinced that this is the way, the truth and the light. Shortly after the feelings trough, as something new comes along.
We are faddists, we follow like sheep. Itās rare that we ever come up with original thought.
The few who do, normally have a huge impact, as it seems the others are too lazy to bother doing their own thinking!
There is one thing that struck me as I read this engrossing book.
He uses an image of personality type.
He suggests itās like an āair-conditioning unit.ā
Some people have a setting of āsevenā and will sometimes reach 9 and sometimes be down at 5.
There are others who are normally at āfiveā and who will never get above 7, but may go down to 3 also.
Throughout time we have had Optimists and Pessimists.
Optimist
I put myself firmly in the āCan Do!ā camp.
As a Petanque player (the French game, also known as Boules) Iām often teamed up with partners who act as my ābreakā ā I understand that I judge the situation with a positive potential outcome, but very often that needs to be tempered by some grounding too!
I say āif we hit this one, thatāll leave us with four points!ā my colleague will say āif you hit our boule by mistake, thatāll give the opponents three points!ā
If one thing is true about life, itās that we will always have Optimists, Pessimists and the Middle of the Road club! Itās the Yin and Yang theory of everything.
There will always be kind people helping, there will always be bad people taking advantage.
Greed seems to be the order of the day currently, but in recent memory we lived in a very fugal way.
The world has been exceptionally violent, but recently has had massive bouts of peace.
(Itās interesting that a small war, can occupy the whole worldās attention, when wars used to be between the whole world itself!)
Large corporations are encouraged to rape the land, and pocket the cash, whilst organisations like the United Nations supports and feeds many millions!
We tend to look at life through a very short lens; of course our lens is measured by our life.
We are only here for three-score years and ten, or four-score years, itās difficult to see or feel the depth of history. (Which is why Iām indebted to Yuval Noah Harari..)
However, I do have one criticism to level at Mr Harariās work.
My Opinion
Perhaps not a criticism, but rather an addendum.
I have written many times, of the work, of Dr Pang Ming, he of The Medicineless hospital outside Beijing.
His first work was to show people how to heal themselves using Qigong.
Itās a slow process, but fortunately a scholar like Dr Pang was there to observe and analyse.
He developed his understandings and his therapy around the power of our minds, rightly understanding that if we can bring our minds into the healing process that it becomes much more powerful, permanent and quick
It always brings to mind the stories of American Indians seeing a āsignā and knowing that it was time for them to move to the next āhappy hunting groundā ā they would say their goodbyes, and then go out into the wilderness, and lie down and die, just as itās said Elephants chose to do.
We hear stories of āwitchesā putting curses on people, and those people dying ā just because of the power of the āWitchāsā word.
Dr Pang realised that if we can change the voices in our heads, that we can then turn the power of our minds to HEAL ourselves, rather than kill ourselves.
With this type of experimental thought, came a deep dive into Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. (and, I have no doubt lots of other thought schools)
I believe that ultimately Dr Pang has found his own personal path to Enlightenment.
Enlightenment.
His work now has, and really has only ever had one purpose, and that is to help people to experience their Trueselves.
His chosen tool was initially Qigong, but branched into other paths such as Meditation, Contemplation and Philosophy. Itās not important how you get there, only that you try.
Whatever tool you choose to use, I always come back to Socrates āa life unexamined is a life unlivedā
What is Trueself?
I think you have to find out for yourself.
I have seen glimpses of what I think may be Trueself moments. Itās now my lifeās focus too.
I have āretiredā from active teacher training to dedicate myself to this. (I still run classes, because they are my joy, I still write nonsense because I find it fun, and it keeps the grey matter ticking over. Iām still writing and filming little teaching courses, because it causes no stress!)
My Teacher, Teacher Lu explains the following with a diagram ā he draws two circles beside each other. One is full of squiggles and dots and lines, the other serene and empty. He then takes a different colour pen, and puts a dot in the middle of the ābusyā circle.
āThis dot is YOU he says, and the lines and squiggles are the chaos you face every day!ā
He points out that you canāt actually see all of the dots and squiggles because everything is so chaotic.
āIn order to gain perspective, you have to find a way to put yourself in the other circleā and he duly puts a lone dot in the serene circle..
This is what meditation helps us to do. It brings us to a quiet mind-state.
I think we need to go beyond Mediation. (.. where most practitioners stop) and find Contemplation.
Consciousness
We spend time as Consciousness, we find a way to take ourselves beyond the duality of daily life, and step back into the singularity of Universal Consciousness.
This is where Iām headed, and what Iām teaching these days.
This is the only evolution of Sapiens that can possibly take us above the daily selfishness and greed that we seem to be hard-wired for.
I have long mentioned about becoming an āIntronautā and eventually changing the path of our Species.
Just as we moved from Neandertal to Homo Sapiens, now itās time to move to āHomo Spiritualisā – as I have named our new evolution.
This as I see it is the ONLY way that Hominids can survive the coming years.
More of the same, will only see us destroy ourselves.
A new way of being is required.
To my mind, Dr Pang is pointing the way, and Iām following the bread-crumb trails..