“To put it bluntly, in the moral
calculus of today's capitalism, a bigger bonus tomorrow outweighs the
fate of one's grandchildren.”
I can't help but wonder if this modern
time-bound carelessness is a result of the Western reappropriation of
mystic Eastern philosophies into orthodox, hollow self-help guruism.
Albeit, 'living in the now' is an important virtue to practice if one
can read the statement between it's every line; but could it be that
humanity is using the New Age interpretation of 'nowism' in a
Freudian sense, giving an innocent thought and intuition dangerous
creedence and affirmation in the morally degraded limelight of
advert-culture (better known as 'public relations')?
How shallowly and carelessly this
cultural 'nowism' is flaunted does not bode well for the salvation of
the human race as anything more than a fad. I have studied Eastern
mysticism and religion long enough to know that 'living in the now'
implies a non-denial of fear, worries for the future, and the
occasional flood of bleak hopelessness throughout every extremity of
the body. It implies an unconditional acceptance in such a way as to
make one a blatant hypocrite in the field of theory and rational
interpretation, and yet in proper flow with the 'Tao' from its
highest pole of absolute delight and calm acceptance, into its depths
of burnt-bone despair and coinciding fear of human pettiness. It is
the acceptance of one and all as both an angel and a demon. To keep
blind faith in the goodness of humanity is to deny the possibility
for evil and to be defeated by it once witnessed. To stay blindly
angry and bitter over the human race and deny its level of implied
goodness and purity as a cynic is to deny omnipotent love and the
largely well-intentioned actions of most of the race. The cynic, more
than anything, hopes to be proven wrong. But will always deny what is
right in front of them when being 'proven wrong' seems imminent.
Ignorance is bliss, and to trap yourself within the limited confines
of optimism or pessimism is to remain intrinsically tied to ideology.
Western Zen, or, as I prefer to call it: 'nowism,' is an ideology.
And ideology is the reason humanity is
about to perish. It has always been our number one threat as a race.
“Instead of simply telling students
of Zen that they cannot control the mind, the Master must show them.
So he tells them all to eliminate desire through different
denunciatory practices. They go about doing so in different ways,
whether it is simple self-denial or full-on retreats into hermitage
deep within a forest or mountain range, bringing only the bare
necessities to the point of very much starving themselves. And then,
after months of practice, they return to the Master and he says,
“Have you discovered the truth yet?”
Some of the students may rant on about
transcendental experiences and having realized a ‘great truth,’
but then the Master laughs and says, “It was all in vain. You still
desired not to desire.”
And, in annoyance, one student asks,
“Master, how is it that we cease our desire not to desire?” And
all the Master has to say in response is, “Ah, well, now you get
it.”"
