“It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.” Bertrand Russell
Yesterday, one of my fellow Patheos bloggers, Connor Wood, over at Science on Religion makes some compelling arguments on why a world run on strictly rational grounds is probably doomed. Compelling, yes, although not completely convincing. Particularly as his assumption seems to be that without some outside force, like, say, a religion with its arbitrary codes, our calculus will inevitably be self-centered and short term, an assumption I don’t necessarily get. Or, rather, I find that the poison is not reason. The real deal is that reason isn’t a state of being it is a tool. The problem as I see it, is that as Robert Heinlein once observed, “Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal.”
Let me start with the bad news. As I move into the second half of my seventh decade I fear I’ve come to the conclusion we humans are not actually going to make it. Make it, that is, in the sense that our species will continue to flourish for many thousands of years more, and that we might even reach out to the stars.
I don’t see reason saving us. And, I certainly don’t see religions saving us. Not as a species. Could be wrong. I’d be delighted to be wrong. But, I am increasingly of the opinion that as a species we are too violent, too ready for the short fix, and that we have otherwise been so successful at squeezing all the other animals to the edge while taking up more and more room, that we will in the long or short term kill ourselves off with our own success. Or, Mother Nature will do the job for us, prompted, of course, by our actions. And, frankly, I’m thinking of putting my money on it being sooner than later.
And, then, suppose that’s right. Then so what?
I’m not talking about packing up my bags and retreating to some cave somewhere. Actually, I am not talking about any kind of retreat from this world. Rather I am talking about seeking another way beyond reason and religion to engage the problems of our lives together on this little planet circling that middling star we see during the day, which is itself spinning out in the corner of one mid-sized galaxy somewhere, somewhere in the depths of a very big universe. My offering is something that probably won’t put off our inevitable end, but will make our having lived a little more justifiable, and, maybe, possibly, not likely, but, who knows, could even save us…
I think we need to get over ourselves.
We’re just not that important. History has rubbed our noses in this. First we weren’t the center of this, then it turned out we weren’t the center of that, and now it turns out we are not the center of anything. Even though each of us would like to think otherwise. In the past people were killed for noticing the evidence. In some places people still are. However in my neighborhood, such talk is mostly either ignored or belittled. I guess that’s an improvement. Now, anyone with google (registered trademark) can figure this out. But I don’t see that much of a groundswell of action beyond a little bit here and there. Not enough.
Now, in fact most of us won’t. Won’t even try. Just having access to information seems insufficient. Sufficient, however, I fear to guarantee we’re doomed as a species.
But, what about living as if we’re already dust, already when the memory of every action and achievement has been lost even to the echoes of dead stars? What might our lives today look like? And, how would we act?
The truth is getting over ourselves as a state of being isn’t particularly easy. Certainly just figuring out intellectually our very small place in a very big cosmos isn’t enough. In part it has to do with our biology, I think. We are alive, and through some miracle that evolved into our brains, we notice. We see. We think. And, most of all, we differentiate. We know me-and-you. And, we bring that together with the natural impulse of all animals to survive. And short term seems just fine. Biologically just long enough to procreate seems the deal. So, how do we break out of our narcissism, our fatal love affair with ourselves? Is it possible at all?
Actually the answer is we can. It has to do with another aspect of our peculiar biology as human beings. We can notice.
And, I’ve found the only thing that really helps in breaking the chain of me, me, me is paying attention. Noticing. Watching without judgment, just seeing. And just to be clear, that “just seeing” is a metaphor for noticing with all our senses without putting a story to quickly on to it. And, as an interior practice, bringing that noticing to our own ideas, our own thoughts. We have this bizarre skill where we are able to watch ourselves. Put it to work. It is some kind of magic.
And it can help us to get over ourselves. Probably the only way.
So, let’s say we pull it off. What happens then? Well, in the moment we raise our heads up from ourselves we see we are a part of something rather beautiful. And, in the next moment that we’re fouling it up. We as in you-and-me. Maybe this insight will encourage us, by which I mean you-and-me to do things, like care for one another, and our planet as if we were all one family. It doesn’t always. Sometimes people seem happy enough to go for the cave. Here might be a good place to put reason to work. And, perhaps, religion.
A very long time ago an Indian prince noticed this, and actually according to the story his “last temptation” was to see and then to retire. Instead he turned back to the world. And we can. And, I hope we do. The Buddha preached the secret of seeing. I suggest we can do him one better, and act from seeing how we’re all connected.
Now, it is also my experience that getting over myself is a series of momentary disruptions of my usual self-centeredness. So, this project is ongoing. Probably doesn’t actually end until the little bundle of genes and flesh, of actions, consequences, and memories that I call me is disrupted and the various parts scatter out across the planet.
We are isolated and all about me. We stop and pay attention. And in a moment we see the great connection. Then we forget. But, we recall something wonderful, and so we stop and pay attention. If we add in doing something good for others to the cycle, then, well, then who knows?
Something kind of beautiful. Something kind of wonderful…
Maybe even the great saving.
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