Psychology

The Ecosystem And Greater Development

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I’ve been reading “McMindfulness,” a book on how a kind of stripped-down Buddhism became a big fad by promoting “mindfulness.” Basically you learn to be aware of stress and decisions, while of course doing crap-all to make the world a less stressful place. It’s a few techniques used as a kind of though-stopping cliche. Also it’s written rather angrily by a Buddhist, and angry Buddhist writing is an experience.

One thing the author notes, repeatedly is that such “Mindfulness” techniques are bereft of things like ethical teachings, the importance of community, etc. The famous “Eightfold Path” which is sort of integral to leading an effective lifestyle for a Buddhist is missing. Its just awareness exercises otherwise, and you’re not that aware without them.

This struck my own experiences in what I call “the ecosystem.” My meditative work, Taoist-derived, is far far more effective, insightful, and useful combined with a “big picture” set of efforts. Ethical and social considerations, reading the Tao Te Ching, use of symbolic systems like the I Ching to interpret states, and so on. Meditation without a larger structure is just different ways to sit there but not “sit there” if you know what I mean.

It dawned on me that having an ecosystem is necessary to spiritual practice and without it you’ll develop little if at all. In fact you might just be self-centered and more withdrawn, being really aware of how you’re not doing anything with your spiritual awareness.

The ecosystem provides a way to support your growth – and often that involves supporting others. To deal with ethical considerations, choices, and operate among people is vital for spiritual development. You often need people for that development anyway, even if some of us really wonder about being hermits now and then. To exist in society and pursue spiritual growth requires a framework.

The ecosystem also primes you for real growth. To ask about moral considerations, one’s role in society, and so on is to prepare you to use those insights. Your spiritual growth is not trapped inside a bubble of self- it helps you become a much larger person.

Finally, the ecosystem is a form of meditation. What does the Eightfold Path really mean to a Buddhist? What do Taoists mean when they say that sounds can “deafen the ear?” To have an ecosystem of ethics and social practices is to ask why they exist and give you more to contemplate.

Meditative practices, mindfulness practices, do not end at just being a bit more aware. That’s the beginning, and to remove the larger ecosystem of ethics, social principles, etc. is to strip down meditative practices to nearly nothing. Certainly enough nothing to be marketed in endless seminars where people are taught to put up with all the crap in the world.

I’m not yet done with this book, but I’m getting why the Buddhist writer is pissed off.

–Xenofact

They Believe Differently

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“Do they believe it or not?”

We ask that question of many a grifter, politician, preacher, media personality, and probably more people close to us than we’d like. Is the bullshit and paranoia coming out of their mouths real, or are they basically making it up and lying? We’d like to know so we can be upset with them properly, and in a few cases get the hell away or alert people.

It’s easy to see this as a binary. People believe or they don’t, with some but not significant wiggle room. It’s more or less truth or lying, right? However I’d like to suggest we’re missing a larger scale – maybe some people we deal with (the grifters and conspiracy theorists and the like) believe differently than a simple binary that probably applies to the majority of people.

Some people don’t have beliefs, but a narrative they’re eternally juggling to keep up, often for reasons that are, well, grifty and self-serving. We all have narratives, but these people are the narrative with far less person in there.

. . . I’d better explain.

I’m a fan of the podcast Knowledge Fight, where two sort-of-former comedians analyze infamous conspiracy theorist/grifter/harasser Alex Jones. As the two hosts, Dan and Jordan, are performers they bring a unique understanding to people like Jones. Being a kind of whatever-works bottom feeder who rose to the top, Jones is an excellent case study of people like him.

In one episode, Dan realized that Jones’ various interviews, comments, etc. were not really engaging people. They were self-soothing internal narratives that were externalized, ever seeking to deal with the chaotic mess inside his head. Jones is clearly an insecure person raised on conspiracy theories, eternally in a media bubble since his youth. His “human” interactions were just him constantly stating, validating, and reinforcing the juggling act that was inside his brain – that of a tale where he was the hero.

The comment by Dan stuck with me, and I brought that “is this internal narrative” to listening to Jones and other people of his ilk. Though I’m sure I brought my own biases, many sounded like that. Self-aggrandizing stories, weird insertions of extra data to keep up their mental frameworks, constant pushing for viewpoints to be confirmed. People who constantly sought a kind of self-validation writ as a grander narrative of conspiracy and religion and technology or whatever.

They did not believe anything. They were just trying to keep their story straight, the story where they were always right and good – and made a lot of money and were famous and sold merch. It wasn’t a belief or a lack of belief, it was juggling the tale.

Also I noticed how painful these people seemed inside. There was something to their narratives that were empty, no one was really home, they just had the tales. There was neediness, emptiness, craving, and below that a weird raging anger that didn’t have a point. It was like they were angry for all the bad things they might feel.

(And yes, this recalls a kind of Hungry Ghost).

So no, some people don’t believe or disbelieve. They’re just weaving a story because that’s all they have. They don’t even have the solidity of lying to count on.

-Xenofact

The World Behind It All

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“Fairy tales are more than moral lessons and time capsules for cultural commentary; they are natural law. The child raised on folklore will quickly learn the rules of crossroads and lakes, mirrors and mushroom rings. They’ll never eat or drink of a strange harvest or insult an old woman or fritter away their name as though there’s no power in it. They’ll never underestimate the youngest son or touch anyone’s hairpin or rosebush or bed without asking, and their steps through the woods will be light and unpresumptuous. Little ones who seek out fairy tales are taught to be shrewd and courteous citizens of the seen world, just in case the unseen one ever bleeds over.”

― S.T. Gibson

This quote is one I see come up again and again in pagan and occult circles I run in and it always strikes a chord in me.

It is a reminder that the world we see is only part of something much larger, much more connected. Forests echo with life in the present and over time, culled by forest fires and rergrowing in a rhythm as sure as breathing. Old homes bear the weight of history, tears and laughter echoing down hallways for as long as it stands. Every person is a tale extending back untold generations.

And all of this rhythm and history and lineages comes together in something so much larger. We’ve all had those moments where we realize how big and live the world is. We feel that pulse behind everything, something we might call supernatural, but it’s actually very natural, but nature is really big and complex and everywhere. We’re just doing our best to understand it.

When you get to things that are traditionally supernatural it’s not hard to understand why people might believe them. In this big world we understand a slice of it really well but there’s that bigness to it all, and maybe it’s really big if you get my drift. As I’ve said in various forms, believing in gods, spirits, etc. may be necessary just to apprehend something much larger.

To deal with this bigness, we really do need things like folklore, myth, and more. These are ways to remind us of connectivity of the world. To know there are things outside of our everyday life, and to walk carefully lest we step disrespectfully.

Folklore and myths might not correspond 1:1 to reality – or even the bigger reality – but they are good reminders of that bigger reality. It’s hard to boil down that bigness into guides and the like, but tales and correspondence tables and legends are a good try. At least you keep thinking, at least you take some caution when you tread in the world.

People who aren’t mystically or occult-inclined, even the most materialist, still have their folklore and myths. The sports fan who has their rituals so their team wins. The people who talk to their beloved cars. The cup of coffee you have to have in the morning in just the right cup to get going. Everyone has their folklore and sense of the bigness of the world.

We need folklore to see the bigger world. We might as well admit it – and who knows what we can find when we do?

-Xenofact