{"id":1437,"date":"2013-01-05T13:02:59","date_gmt":"2013-01-05T19:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?p=1437"},"modified":"2013-01-06T07:57:10","modified_gmt":"2013-01-06T13:57:10","slug":"the-end-of-history-illusion-and-some-implications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-history-illusion-and-some-implications.html","title":{"rendered":"The End of History Illusion And Some Implications"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>\u201cLife is a process of growing and changing, and what our results suggest is that growth and change really never stops,\u201d says [Daniel] Gilbert, \u201cdespite the fact that at every age from 18 to 68, we think it\u2019s pretty much come to a close.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s Gilbert on new research that you can read more about here: \u201cYou Can\u2019t See It But You\u2019ll Be A Different Person In Ten Years.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a personal version of the \u201cend of history illusion.\u201d I was just reading about the societal version in Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail Or Succeed<\/em> by Jared Diamond.<\/p>\n

In Buddhism<\/a> we call the end of history illusion a \u201cfixed idea of a self\u201d and sometimes try to address it by looking back over the course of our life and how we\u2019ve changed, starting with our baby pictures. The research here suggests that this dharma<\/a> strategy is not likely to be effective.<\/p>\n

You see, we\u2019re good at looking at the past and appreciating we\u2019ve changed. We\u2019re bad at looking at the future and appreciating that \u201cwe\u201d will be somebody else and our choices now will create our future self. What can we do today that our future self would want? This is a hard question because we somehow fool ourselves into thinking we\u2019re at the end of change now.<\/p>\n

The awesome face of emptiness may be just too hard to be \u2013 if we think there\u2019s another choice.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, there are other dharma strategies, like shutting up and paying attention. It takes a calm mind to see that this very sense of non-changing is an object of consciousness. Both the consciousness and the object have also changed. Indeed, they are change.<\/p>\n

And now for why this matters for the US, for Soto Zen, and for me.<\/p>\n

First, the US\u2019s got the end of history illusion in a bad way, at least as bad as the people who cut down the last giant trees on Easter Island, the trees their culture depended upon, cutting off their nose to spite their face, and somehow apparently thought that everything would magically turn out okay.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re just like that. Now maybe we will be saved by the 3D Printer<\/a> \u2013 \u201cDo not think printer. Think magic box that creates any object you can imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Damn, just like Star Trek, \u201cComputer: Earl Grey. Hot.\u201d And there it is. Click the link to imagine the world as it might be. If we could get these 3D suckers to make food and water, now that\u2019d bend the trend lines.<\/p>\n

Anyway, short of a miracle like a food-and-water-creating magic box in every home, it\u2019s looking like we\u2019re screwed, largely due to the end of history illusion.<\/p>\n

Take our massive debt, for example. Here\u2019s David Brooks:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe blame politics, always say Washington is all dysfunctional. They\u2019re responding reasonably efficiently to what the American people want, which is to take the future\u2019s money and spend it on ourselves. And so what we are looking at, the next generation, according to the IMF, is going to have one-third fewer benefits and one-third higher taxes if we act now<\/strong>. If we wait five years, it will be 50 percent more taxes, 50 percent fewer benefits.<\/strong> It is just terrible for the future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

I doubt that everybody will be fine with a 30% or 50% increase in taxes and commensurate decline in benefits. Hold on to the edges of your gowns ladies\u2026.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Soto Zen. Most teachers in the denomination are old as shit and yet when we get together, most of the conversation is about the issues for us<\/em> aging and not so much about the effect on others, like those in the future who might benefit from Soto Zen practice. Granted, I haven\u2019t been to the meetings in a few years so it may have changed but my earlier efforts to start a conversation about this largely fell on deaf ears and the conversation turned to our prostates, lack of retirement funds and succession plans.<\/p>\n

See my post \u201cZen Is Going To Hell And It\u2019s The Boomer\u2019s Fault<\/a>,\u201d for an example of me going on and on about this issue.<\/p>\n

And finally what about the end of history illusion issue for me personally?<\/p>\n

Briefly put, I\u2019m really committed to working with this illusion as I look forward to my last adventure \u2013 starting a training center, getting sick, old, and dropping dead. Not necessarily in that order.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cLife is a process of growing and changing, and what our results suggest is that growth and change really never stops,\u201d says [Daniel] Gilbert, \u201cdespite the fact that at every age from 18 to 68, we think it\u2019s pretty much come to a close.\u201d That\u2019s Gilbert on new research that you can read more about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[38,34],"class_list":["post-1437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-end-of-history-illusion","tag-soto-zen-buddhism"],"yoast_head":"\nThe End of History Illusion And Some Implications<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Life is a process of growing and changing, and what our results suggest is that growth and change really never stops," says Gilbert, "despite the fact\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-history-illusion-and-some-implications.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The End of History Illusion And Some Implications\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""Life is a process of growing and changing, and what our results suggest is that growth and change really never stops," says Gilbert, "despite the fact\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-history-illusion-and-some-implications.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Wild Fox Zen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dosho.port\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-05T19:02:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-06T13:57:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/files\/2013\/01\/IMG_0640-300x224.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dosho Port\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dosho Port\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-history-illusion-and-some-implications.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-history-illusion-and-some-implications.html\",\"name\":\"The End of History Illusion And Some Implications\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-05T19:02:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-06T13:57:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life is a process of growing and changing, and what our results suggest is that growth and change really never stops,\\\" says Gilbert, \\\"despite the fact\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-history-illusion-and-some-implications.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-history-illusion-and-some-implications.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-history-illusion-and-some-implications.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The End of History Illusion And Some Implications\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/\",\"name\":\"Wild Fox Zen\",\"description\":\"Living the Dream\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd\",\"name\":\"Dosho Port\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dosho Port\"},\"description\":\"Dosho Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teachers with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach, with the Vine of Obstacles Zen. Dosho received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri Roshi and inka shomei from James Myoun Ford Roshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He is the author of \\\"Keep Me In Your Heart Awhile: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri,\\\" \\\"The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,\\\" and \\\"Going Through the Mystery's One Hundred Questions.\\\"\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.vineobstacleszen.com\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dosho.port\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/author\/doshoport\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The End of History Illusion And Some Implications","description":"\"Life is a process of growing and changing, and what our results suggest is that growth and change really never stops,\" says Gilbert, \"despite the fact","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-history-illusion-and-some-implications.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The End of History Illusion And Some Implications","og_description":"\"Life is a process of growing and changing, and what our results suggest is that growth and change really never stops,\" says Gilbert, \"despite the fact","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-history-illusion-and-some-implications.html","og_site_name":"Wild Fox Zen","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dosho.port","article_published_time":"2013-01-05T19:02:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-06T13:57:10+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/files\/2013\/01\/IMG_0640-300x224.jpg"}],"author":"Dosho Port","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dosho Port","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-history-illusion-and-some-implications.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-history-illusion-and-some-implications.html","name":"The End of History Illusion And Some Implications","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-01-05T19:02:59+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-06T13:57:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd"},"description":"\"Life is a process of growing and changing, and what our results suggest is that growth and change really never stops,\" says Gilbert, \"despite the fact","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-history-illusion-and-some-implications.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-history-illusion-and-some-implications.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-history-illusion-and-some-implications.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The End of History Illusion And Some Implications"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/","name":"Wild Fox Zen","description":"Living the Dream","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd","name":"Dosho Port","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dosho Port"},"description":"Dosho Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teachers with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach, with the Vine of Obstacles Zen. Dosho received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri Roshi and inka shomei from James Myoun Ford Roshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He is the author of \"Keep Me In Your Heart Awhile: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri,\" \"The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,\" and \"Going Through the Mystery's One Hundred Questions.\"","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.vineobstacleszen.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dosho.port"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/author\/doshoport"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}