Community and Freedom 8 – May 14, 2019
(This is the 8th in a series. The first seven parts can be found here – Community and Freedom, Community and Freedom 2, Community and Freedom 3, Community Freedom 4, Community and Freedom 5, Community and Freedom 6, Community and Freedom 7)
Lessons from the Past – for the Future
Good afternoon,
For tens of thousands of years, human beings just like us in physical and mental capacity lived together in small groups. These early peoples were embedded in their communities and in nature, and many had rich and fulfilled lives. Numerous healthy societies flourished, and various members of those cultures experienced the satisfaction of a shared world and a shared life. Not all these groups were healthy, of course, there were dysfunctional cultural groups in the past just as there are today. It varied from place to place. But there is a lot of evidence that many early peoples got along very well with each other within their groups. One piece of evidence for this comes from numerous interactions with isolated tribes who still follow ancient ways. I have read many accounts of those who have entered into the world of ancient peoples, such as the aborigines of Australia, the Saan (or Bushmen) of South Africa, and tribal groups in the jungles of Malaysia, Indonesia, and South America.
One powerful example comes from an account by anthropologist Dr. Richard Sorenson, who found a tribe in New Guinea previously untouched by Western influence. Getting to know them, he experienced first-hand the fabric of connectedness felt by all members of the tribe. As he began to spend time with them, Sorenson noticed that there was constant interaction between members of the tribe, frequent physical contact, and constant joking, laughing, and sharing of small tidbits of information. There seemed to be no dishonestly among tribal members; they were open and honest with each other at all times. Especially intriguing, and unlike frequent fantasies about the “hard life” of traditional peoples, Sorenson found that these people worked only a few hours a day. Overall, they had peaceful, relaxed, and happy lives – a state many long for in the modern world but few ever find. The emotional world Sorenson encountered is especially intriguing:
“There, despite the seemingly incessant rain and the absence of anything resembling modern amenities or comfort, people exuded a remarkable, on-the-mark intuitive helpfulness, and a constant considerate regard – by each for all the others. This extended, not just to friends, but to strangers too. Long before we shared a single word in language, these forest-dwellers had instinctively tuned in to my feelings and made life easier and happier for me.”
Then comes this remarkable sentence: “What mattered was the magnitude of collective joy produced.” In other words, each individual interacted with all others to maximize the collective joy everyone experienced. Stop for a moment and try to imagine what it would be like to live among a group of people who were always seeking to maximize your joy, along with everyone else’s.
Thus, in a remote jungle in the modern world, Sorenson found a community of people who were happy and at peace, who felt at home in the world and with the people around them. They listened attentively to each other and seemed to be able to listen to the voices of nature. They felt they were embedded in a benevolent and harmonious world that was part of an “unseen order.” Importantly, as William James saw, every wisdom tradition holds that there is a benevolent and harmonious order within which we “live, and move, and have our being”: in China, it is called the Tao; in native American traditions it is often called the Great Spirit; it is called God by Christians, Jews, and Muslims; for Plato it was the objective existence of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, toward which every being is drawn; for Aristotle it was the existence of a telos, a final aim toward which all human lives should aim; for Buddhists it is the true reality of who we are, a reality that reveals the harmonious nature of all things, as opposed to the illusion of conflict and competition in which most of us feel we exist.
I do not wish to glorify earlier cultures – they had their problems. Some were not very healthy. But it is important to note the tendency of modernity to highlight the problems while under-appreciating the valuable things many earlier peoples had. And one of the most important, in contrast to so many people in the modern world, is that lots of ancient peoples had a remarkable freedom from anxieties, depression, neuroses, and other modern ills.
But make no mistake, this mental health did not arise because early peoples were free from everyday difficulties. Difficulties came to them often. But because they felt they lived in a benevolent world, when difficulties did arise, they met them together, trusting that things could be worked out. When an un-wished-for result occurred, it was seen as a natural part of life and therefore accepted. Life was shared; problems were faced together. Many early peoples dealt with what arose as best they could, adjusted to the outcome, and moved on with acceptance and peace, returning quickly to the pursuit of “collective joy.”
A vivid personal example comes from the mountain villages of Bali. As many visitors have noted, the ancient culture of Bali has been integrated into the present in a way that brings much of the positive of the past into a working relationship with the modern. As a result, being with the people in Bali is nurturing and uplifting. One dramatic observation when I was there was noticing that children almost never cried, rebelled, or acted out – yet I never saw a child being punished or even reprimanded. Gradually it became clear that this was because an adult was always close by to respond to the needs and moods of each child. An adult (parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, older sibling, cousin) was always paying attention to each child, making sure each felt loved, cared for, valued, and appreciated.
For instance, during an all-day ceremony, we watched as children ranging up to the age of about ten would start to move toward actions that would have been disruptive, but before they had time to act, an adult would engage their attention. Not with a correction, but by engaging them in some activity that guided the child away from getting into trouble. To us it was clear this was a central reason that families and communities in Bali were close and cohesive, with a connectedness lasting through all the stages of life – the final result being that most everyone seemed to have peaceful and happy lives, more so that most of us in the modern world have managed to find.
I have had similar experiences in several other places during short visits, such as Bhutan, but here is an example from someone who spent years interacting with the people of Ladakh. Helena Norberg-Hodge said she had trouble letting go of her preconceived notions of what she would find there, but as she did, she began to discover a world of human interaction rich beyond all initial ideas and images:
“Only after … peeling away layers of preconceptions did I begin to see the joy and laughter of the Ladakhis for what it really was: a genuine and unhindered appreciation of life itself. In Ladakh I have known a people who regard peace of mind and joie de vivre as their unquestioned birthright. I have seen that community and a close relationship with the land can enrich human life beyond all comparison to material wealth or technological sophistication.”
Norberg-Hodge observed that, although the Ladakhis lacked the material resources we take for granted, they had a strong sense of self-acceptance, were seldom affected by self-doubt, and had “a profound sense of security.” They seldom had feelings of “guilt or rejection.” The more she observed, the more she came to feel she had never encountered people who were “so healthy emotionally, so secure.” “Their sense of joy seems so firmly anchored within them that circumstances cannot shake it loose. You cannot spend any time at all in Ladakh without being won over by their contagious laughter.” How did the Ladakhis arrive at this outcome? They felt themselves “to be part of the flow of life, relaxing and moving with it.”
The key point is that many people in pre-modern times, and some groups of their descendants today, feel good about their lives because they live in healthy relationship with the world, with the people around them, and with the broader reality in which they are embedded. And, since these ancient people and their modern heirs are no different from us in physical and mental capacities, there is no reason we cannot have what they had, or have today. The differences lie with the cultures we create and the beliefs we choose. Of course, cultures and beliefs are not easy to change. But they can change – they have been changing continuously for thousands of years.
Needless to say, the world today is much too crowded to go back to living in separate tribes like ancient peoples – which takes us back to the crucial contribution of the great Axial Age teachers. They all gave us versions of the Universal Golden Rule, teaching us to treat all others with respect, to be just to all, even – at the most extreme – to have compassion and love for all. These teachings were grounded in the experience and understanding that all of us are connected within one harmonious order that includes all and everything. As Albert Einstein stated it, there is “the feeling of rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.” Einstein went on to say that his religion was the knowledge and feeling “that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms.” In other words, Einstein’s mind and heart led him to affirm the existence of a harmonious order.
There is a glaring problem, however, with how we sometimes learn about this larger reality. Too often the institutional religions organized to carry forward the wisdom traditions have fallen into the hands of men and women who have had very human flaws: Power, greed, and ambition have too often become their controlling motivations. Yet this does not diminish the importance of the wisdom teachings, nor does it diminish the lives of millions of good women and men who tried their best to live up to the teachings.
Also important to note is that the existence of a harmonious order does not mean that “bad” things will not happen – “bad” from the point of view of our ego lives, that is. What it does mean is that the more we come into alignment with the underlying harmony, the more we will feel our lives to be fulfilled, and the more we will experience the peace, joy, and freedom all the wisdom traditions suggest are possible – no matter the circumstances of our ego lives.
It also means that, when difficulties arise, there is something effective we can do – we can make an effort to find our way back into harmony with the larger reality in which we exist. Fortunately, those who went before us left a rich variety of well-developed paths leading to this harmony. Some of the most powerful and profound: We can listen for the guidance of the Great Spirit. We can surrender to or seek a deeper connection with God. We can open into alignment with the Tao or the Way. We can move toward the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. We can search for our telos. We can recognize with the Hindus that our real aim and true nature is sat chit ananda – being, consciousness, bliss. We can awaken to the larger reality the Buddha proclaimed each of us to actually be.
These are all paths that have worked for many; all are time-tested ways to move toward fulfillment. You have the right and the power to follow one or more – until the time you encounter the mystery directly for yourself. At that point you will have entered the wilderness, where you must find the way for yourself. This is the time of true individuality and freedom, including, if you find the treasure, how you will share it with others.
The final goal, then, is not to slavishly follow the ways of the ancients, but to learn the lessons they have to teach and then use everything you have learned, everything you are, in a creative act of integrating the past with the present – including all the good in modernity you have absorbed. This blending of the best of the past with the best of the present is always and ever the task of every culture, community, and person.
Reflection: For a moment, imagine the freedom from fear, depression, and anxiety many earlier people had. What would it be like to live in such an emotional space all the time? Most of us have the human capacity to live this way. How might we move toward this possibility in our lives today?
Take care,
David