The Sheep Farmers SonPeter Raine (PhD)

21st Century Nomad

Teacher where do you live?

Come and you will see1

Sanctuary

Sanctuary symbolises a sacred place, usually associated with temples,

consecrated grottos, and natural phenomena of various kinds. Sanctuaries are often of

historical importance and can become places of pilgrimage and reverence. Even

secular science posits ecological sanctuaries as places where diversity is offered the

ultimate respect. A sanctuary includes the sacred, the protected, and the important.

A small sleep-out, attached to a garage at the back of a suburban home in a

small rural town, does not readily lead to the image of sanctuary in terms of history,

pilgrimage or diversity. Especially so, when this town is situated on the northern

island of New Zealand: a country well known for its secular principles and rather

conservative values. Perhaps the last place where a sacred sanctuary may be

discovered.

And yet here it is: A sanctuary of knowledge, a dimension of reality born of

language and literacy. The breadth and depth of the books herein is astounding. Each

tome read and annotated in detail by a scholar of immense ability. It reveals a

dimension that encompasses the story of the human endeavour, and in particular the

evolution of the European worldview in all its power and complexity.

There are trees that grow close to the windows: Oak, Walnut and Plum. A

Redwood tree too, growing strong. It is the study of Scott Thomas Eastham. This

sanctuary presents the life of a man who began an inquiry into the character of Being

and proceeded relentlessly as long as he lived to express his insights.

The story is here, in the books, symbols, images, models, art works, seeds,

leaves, masks, feathers, and thousands of computer documents. It is the story of an

immense mind, a noble scholar, weaving together one of the great stories of our time,

who published and spoke his life’s works whenever and wherever possible. He was

also an inspirational teacher.1 John 1:38-39

1

1

Yet from the outside he must have seemed quite ordinary. Going to work, and

all that is entailed in the life of an academic, raising a family and living a seemingly

quiet life in a quiet town. He was, at one level, a very private man.

To those who interacted with him academically, he was both an inspiration and a

demon. The demon was in the details. He was an immovable force that one could not

go around or over the top of. To study with Scott, attitudes had to change. His

insistence on academic excellence meant that students had to learn to express thoughts

clearly and research topics to the nth degree. No shirking or short cuts would be

tolerated. There was no theme he had not already mastered; nothing could be put past

him. It was frightening.

Writing is rewriting, he maintained from the beginning. Rewriting: word-by-

word, sentence-by-sentence. Once you grasped the truth of that, he met you halfway.

Always supporting, at the same time diabolically challenging. His editing could be

brutal, or uplifting when you got it right. Now you’re cooking he would write. His

tutorage was a life changer. Indeed, he transformed many lives with charisma,

wisdom, and intelligence.

Scott came from California. He lived in an era of huge social change. In 1984,

he wrote:

California 1967-76, a strange, beautiful exhilarating enchanting island of the mind.

Call it what you will – fools paradise, fools errand, feast of fools – we’ve all been

there, we’ve all had our ups and downs. And yet something more transpired during

that epoch, too easily forgotten: an intuition born in the maelstrom where opposites

coincide, a hint of altogether fresh beginnings, of plausible pathways out of the briar

patch and into the rose garden – now traces only, vestiges, spoor years cold. A

thunderbolt struck us, and even those who survived that jagged and electrifying

enlightenment will never be quite the same.2

Agreed!

As a teenager, during this period, growing up on a sheep farm on the remote

south island of New Zealand, life was narrow, hard, repressive, and full of violence.

The only light was the astounding beauty of the place itself: an island so magnificent 2 Eastham S. T. Wisdom of the Fool: Stories and Poems. Wyndham Hall Press. Bristol. 1984, p. 1

2

2

that its very existence is astonishing. The lightening arrived with the music of that

period, and the music was a wake up call; some people out there were having a much

more interesting life than I was. I had to find a way to it. Scott was right in the middle

of all this. He took the full bolt. And in Santa Barbara, Scott met his own immoveable

and inspirational teacher: Raimon Panikkar

****

I arrived at Massey University in 1993. In ‘95 I began working on a

postgraduate honours thesis with Scott, and one day he introduced me to a book with

a strange title, authored by someone I had never heard of. Scott had edited and

introduced Raimon Panikkar’s Cosmotheandric Experience,3 which caught my

attention and dominated it for the best part of a decade. Yet the first reading went

right over my head. I returned the book, but came back to it a year later where it

became a cornerstone of a PhD guided by Scott.4 From the outset of his intellectual

life, he was an interdisciplinary scholar. His own academic pursuits and publications

ranged over many aspects of the humanities and social sciences. He covered

philosophy, religious studies, classics, poetry, sociology, English literature, media

studies, and with some of his postgraduate students moved into social sciences of

environmental sociology, biogeography, environmental planning, and environmental

studies in general. As his students learned, he also learned and mastered new topics.

Such was his ability.

The meeting with the scholar Scott Thomas Eastham at Massey University in

late 1993 was a random event that totally changed the direction of my life.

Through him, I entered another world. I have never looked back.

It was a world of many dimensions, where all my previous notions of how

things came to be were overturned. Tools are not the beginning of humankind.

Language is.5 Language makes us what we are, the speaking animal (zoon echon

logon)6, or more specifically, the speaking, thinking monkeys. From language came

3 Panikkar. R. The Cosmotheandric Experience: Emerging Religious Consciousness (edited by S.T. Eastham). Orbis Books. Maryknoll. New York. 19934 Raine. P. A. Who Guards the Guardians: intercultural dialogue on environmental guardianship. University Press of America: Lanham, Boulder, New York, Oxford. 20035 Eastham. S. T. The Media Matrix: Deepening the Context of Communication Studies. University Press of America. Lanham, New York, London. 1990, pp. 5-11. And Mumford. L. The Pentagon of Power: The myth of the Machine. Volume Two. Harcourt Brace Jovanivich New York. 1970, p. 3956 Aristotle Politics. I, 2,1253a sq

3

3

literacy – perhaps our greatest discovery.7 Rational thinking is the foundation of the

modern world and yet rationality may itself be a myth. We have collectively put all

our trust in this one mode of observation: Thought and thinking. There may be others.

Why did evolutionary process give rise to logos?

Panikkar’s trinitarian insight was at the foundation of Scott’s work. A

Cosmotheandric insight. Three dimensions of reality: Cosmos, Andros/Anthropos, and

Theos. The physical universe, mankind, (indeed life itself) and the unknown; called

spirit by most human cultures, is the radical trinity. These dimensions are inseparable

and indicate the wrong turning humankind has made, perhaps from the beginning, to

introduce division and separation as objectification. This separation has resulted in the

chaos that is now so obvious in the human world.

After three intense years working with Scott, it became obvious to me that the

Cosmotheandric intuition needed to be lived, not just approached intellectually.

Intellectual interpretation is a necessary springboard to direct experience. And direct

experience is all we really have. No amount of accumulated knowledge can compare.

The past is not the reality of now. The future, as projection and prediction, is largely

illusion. Reality exists now: Direct spontaneous awareness. From all this intense

intellectual investigation, the question emerges: How to live this? How to make it

real?

****

A few years after my graduation, I went to live in India to learn about

randomness, spontaneity, and to investigate what true human freedom might be.

Living randomly seemed to be a way to actualise the Cosmotheandric insight that

Panikkar had outlined:

The cosmic consciousness one can still discover - indeed live – today is of another

kind altogether. You simply live there with the stars the mountains and the animals

with all the spirits of past and future. You witness all the faces and facets of the

cosmic struggle…8.

I did not see Scott for many years as our ‘woodpaths’9 were situated in

different forests. Scott remained at the academy. He worked hard: reading, writing 7 Eastham S. T. The Biotech Time-Bomb: The Side Effects are the Main Effects. Hampton Press Inc. Cresskill. 2009, pp. 15-188 Panikkar. R. The Cosmotheandric Experience, op. cit., p. 132

4

4

and publishing, travelling to conferences, editing Panikkar’s books, teaching,

supervising students who wished also to enter that world of being alive in the mind.

He was also a ‘householder’ in the true Vedic sense.10

Not long after moving to India I drifted away from the academic world to gain

intellectual independence and find my own voice, so to speak. Lao Tzu’s Tao Te

Ching,11 and the monumental and unique I Ching,12 captured my attention. Later I

became interested in the traces of Vedic tradition still lingering in India, and ended up

looking into the teachings of J. Krishnamurti. Apart from one conference on the

works of Raimon Panikkar, held at Mumbai in 2005,13 I had little contact with Scott’s

world.

Many years passed.

****

“We live in a bright and shining dark age.” He once said to me. Never in

history have people had access to so much information and remained so ignorant of

the real issues facing humankind.14 Even less to take action to clear up the hypocrisies

contained within the modern urge to dominate and control everything.15 Control,

dominance, and efficiency are the hallmarks of modern life, and the single greatest

victim of this urge, is humanity itself.

Panikkar had written many years ago: …the great challenge to man is an

artificial world, which has become independent of its engineer.16 Effectively, we are

building an empire from which there is no exit.17 Later in life, he called this: The

Technocracy.18

We have all but finished with theocracy and monarchy and many other means

to power. We have thrown our lot in with democracy. Democracy, the modern

9 See Heidegger. M. Early Greek Thinking. (Translated and cited by Krell. D. F.) Harper and Row. New York 1975, pp. 3-410 See Panikkar. R. P. The Vedic Experience: Mantramanjari. Motilal Banarsidass. Delhi. 1994, p. 288, 440(v)11 Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching. The Richard Wilhelm Translation. Arkana. Penguin Books 198912 I Ching. The Richard Wilhelm Translation. Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd: London. 197413 See Raine. P. ‘A New Innocence?’ In Raimon Panikkar: His legacy and Vision. Somaiya Publications Pvt. Ltd.: Mumbai, New Delhi. 2008, pp. 371-38714 See Eastham. S. How is Wisdom Communicated: Prologue to Peace Studies. Interculture. Vol XXV, No 2. Spring 1992, p. 815 Eastham. S. T. The Biotech Time-Bomb. Op. cit., pp. 24-2616 Panikkar. R. ‘Foreword’ in S. T. Eastham Nucleus: Reconnecting Science and Religion in the Nuclear Age. Bear &Company. Santa Fe. 1987, p. xviii17 Panikkar. R.P. “The Crisis of history” in The Cosmotheandric Experience op. cit., pp. 108-11918 Panikkar.R.P. The Rhythm of Being: the unbroken trinity. Orbis Books. Maryknoll, New York. 2013, p.10 and Cultural Disarmament: The Way to Peace. Westminster John Knox Press. Louisville. 1995, pp. 47-50

5

5

manifestation of Plato’s ‘people power’, is failing us. Democracy is rapidly being

transformed into technocracy. The human mind appears to be advancing science very

rapidly. Technologically driven economy is becoming the real power moulding the

events of our time. Yet most of the issues that have bothered us for thousands of years

have not been solved. Jiddu Krishnamurti, an uncompromising commentator, wrote:

The mess, the confusion and the misery that human beings have got into are within the

old consciousness, and without changing that profoundly, every human activity,

political, economic and religious will only bring us to the destruction of each other

and the earth. This is so obvious to the sane.19

How do we become sane?

What is consciousness, actually? How can the old consciousness be changed

when we are all conditioned into it, beginning with our first utterance? These are

meta-questions, which can only be solved by living into the answers. The teacher

from Nazareth said to his followers upon questions about the deaths resulting from the

collapse of the tower of Siloam: unless you transform your mind (metanoia) you shall

all likewise perish.20

From what to what, is transformed in metanoia?

We are perishing, not just us humans, but all life on our oikos has been

affected. Just pick up on any mass media generated news broadcast and see! Recourse

to arms has not solved any of the issues.

Scott Eastham, like Raimon Panikkar, was a man of peace. He spent his life

searching for peaceful solutions to the dilemma, a genuine concord brought about

through dialogue. Including inter-cultural dialogue, inter-religious dialogue, and inter-

generational dialogue; above all – dia-logos - speaking together. This requires an

existential risk, a letting go of all attachment to one’s own explanations and dominant

narratives in order to listen to those from different cultures and life-ways. It is a

radical departure from the current evidence-based system that we have all been

19 Krishnamurti. J. Krishnamurti’s Journal. Krishnamurti Foundation Trust: Hampshire. 1982, p. 3720 Luke: 13 1-5 Here the original Greek has been mistranslated as repentance. See Nicol. M. The Mark. Watkins. London. 1954, p. 93. Its original meaning was metanoia. Change of nous, of mind, of direction. Cf Panikkar. R. Myth, Faith and Hermeneutics. Ramsey, NJ (Paulist). 1979, p. 102

6

6

conditioned to accept. Of all the things Scott spoke about from his understanding of

the human condition, this was his ultimate: Speaking with, not speaking to.

This is not to suggest that he did not struggle with unfairness and injustice or

find himself in conflict. Bureaucratic management and hypocrisy profoundly irritated

him. He was always able defend his students who were often bureaucratically

disadvantaged by daring to engage in interdisciplinary inquiry, especially at

postgraduate level. He abhorred sloppy editing and was particularly intolerant of poor

expression. His pen could become a whip when he felt “his blood boiling” over error

and injustice.21 Even though there was a prickly aspect to his persona, he preferred

peace wherever possible.

The last time I visited Scott, his physical health was poor. His body was thin

and suffering written on his face, but his eyes were still full of life. If anything he was

more open than I had ever seen him. The pain of long illness had wiped away the

prickly aspect. It was only one afternoon and evening. He had to rest. I looked

forward to many years of such open discussions and sharing his insights.

Two months later he was gone. His death was tragic.

A year later, a small group of friends and family spread his ashes around the

roots of young redwood trees in a reserve near his home. His physicality would

become part of the trees: Trees that can live more than 3000 years.

And so it was, that the sheep farmer’s son said a tearful goodbye to his friend

and mentor. A man he never imagined that he would ever meet, in the repression that

was his past.

The question that his untimely death raised is fundamentally ontological.

Why? What does the life and death of such a person mean? It makes no sense. No

sense at all. The world lost an extraordinary man before it even knew he was here.

One can only wonder about what he may have done with another twenty years….

21 See ‘Ghost Story’ in Eastham. S. T. Eye Openers: A Little Something to Think About. Horizon Press. Wellington. 1999, pp. 86-87

7

7

One important theme of this book is to continue Scott’s legacy and perhaps

generate a message for the next generations. What might be important for those who

will live into a very unpredictable future?

And why is it important?

Much of human suffering is a direct consequence of lack of freedom. Indeed,

we are so conditioned that we cannot even begin to question what true freedom might

be. Certainly the freedom touted by modernity is some kind of sophisticated slavery.

Freedom is a necessity for humankind; our inherent and underlying intelligence

demands it.

What follows is an attempt to elucidate some of the issues we may all need to

consider. These are, I believe, my own interpretations and additions to Scott’s broad

interdisciplinary approach, and his insights into the human condition.

I sincerely hope he would have endorsed them.

The Question of Death

In the Mahabharata, one of the great epics of the late Vedantic period,

Yudhisthira, king of dharma, is asked the ultimate question in order to save the life of

himself and his brothers. “What is the greatest wonder of the world?” The god in the

lake asks. Yudhisthira replies instantly: “Each day death strikes and we all live as

though we were immortal. This is the greatest wonder.”22

Death is one of the most powerful and finite manifestations of the unknown.

Death, that irrevocable destiny, which is impervious to human notions of permanence,

is unavoidable. We cannot bargain with death. We cannot ask death to wait just

because we have not yet completed our personal destiny. We cannot know what death

is while we are living; we can only see its effects.

Death, surely, is a dimension that we can only refer to as the unknown. Its

very essence is unknown. We cannot say what it is. We can only say what it is not:

Being alive. We have separated the two and live everlastingly with the fear of

termination.

The irrevocable fact of death leads us to the fact of mortality and limitation. .

The limitation is ‘passing time’. We are acutely aware that the days of our lives are

passing. Yet we desire to be unlimited. The universe appears to be indifferent to our

22 You Tube. Peter Brooks’ Mahabharata: The Lake Questions Yudhisthira. Fabio Marzocca. 1989.

8

8

fate. The thinking, rational mind, cannot - not resist its own ending. Here lies the

ongoing dilemma: the longer we are alive, the closer to non-being we become.23

Death is a great teacher because it points to the limits of rationality. It is a cure

for ambition. It is the demise of permanence and security. And it can be the beginning

of an inquiry into our living. Life contains its own mystery and exists within the realm

of the known. It can be rationalised, made logos and communicated. Death, we can

say nothing about, only its inevitability. It is, and remains, a transcendent dimension

of reality.

Death is everywhere apparent. Life builds its Being on the back of death.

Humus is the dynamic fertility of soil created by dissolution of living things. Even

fossil fuel, the life-blood of the modern economy, is a product of long-dead creatures.

Death provides food for life. Life and death appear to be separate dimensions of

reality.

Is this separation between life and death real?

We remain afraid of nothingness, so we have invented an after-life to give our

self-centred consciousness something to hope for. With death there is no hope. It is an

ultimate law. Life cannot argue with death, but the fear remains.

Death is a fundamental limitation imposed upon all life, for what purpose?

One of the main problems involved with the fear of death is that of

individuality. As long as we can only think from a purely personal point of view, the

death of our own individual-self is our everlasting nightmare. Ecologically speaking,

the individual is unimportant. Species are. And even species are not ultimate, as the

biogeographical history of life on earth clearly reveals. Extinction has been the norm.

And life continues to emerge ceaselessly; filling up the spaces left by the demise of

other life. Humanity in general has put all its faith in individuality. The individual

persona is important, we say. Every human life has value, we repeat endlessly.24 At

the level of the universe, these values have no apparent meaning whatsoever. The

manifestation of the universe continues unaffected by human concerns. It emerges

relentlessly.

This fact becomes ever more obvious as cosmologists continue to explore the

various dimensions of universal scale and discover just how immense the cosmos

really is. Not just the physical dimension but also energetically. The discovery of dark 23 On this, Scott would say: “I am not my body, but without my body I am not.”24 The ‘universal’ value of human rights is discussed and critiqued in: Panikkar. R. P., Sharma. A. Human Rights as a Western Concept. D. K. Printworld Ltd. New Delhi. 2007, pp. 54-67

9

9

energy, which comprises seventy percent of the universe, has expanded horizons ever

further. Human beings may be an important part of reality on our scale, because we

appear so dominant here on this small planet, however, universally we are, and always

have been, physically insignificant.

The concept of the individual and the importance of humans, as beings, has

been built into all aspects of modern ontology. Reasons can be posited as to why

human consciousness is important. Biologically, there are no reasons at all.

Organically, we are just one species among myriads. No matter how earnestly

we deny connection with our monkey and ape cousins - we are related. Our physical

being belongs to the world. It is a kind of monkey. The importance of human life lies

within the evolution of our large brain. It is in this organ that the sense of self resides.

Here we situate worlds of experience, emotion, and thought. Our power and influence

is derived from a brain, which evolved from monkeys. Again the enigma: Why has a

self-conscious entity emerged?

From what has it emerged?

The Vedic tradition says that to ‘know the knower’ and discovering ‘from

what does the mind dart forth’ is the solution to the enigma25 Krishnamurti states

again and again ‘the knower is the known;’ ‘the thinker is the thought; ‘the controller

is the controlled’ and ‘the observer is the observed’.26 These statements appear to be

opaque to our intellect, and at the same time they seem to reveal a possibility. It is not

irrational to consider that the observer and the observed may actually be just one

thing. We generally seem unable to actualise this. The thinking self appears to be

totally separate from its thoughts, which pass through the mind. There is a

conundrum, which on the surface at least seems completely unsolvable.

The common recourse is to rely upon gods of many kinds, reincarnation,

transmigration of souls, ancestor worship, or even evolution. We may believe in any

or all of this. However, time and doubt may eventually erode such certainties: then we

can be left with nothing. Nothingness is not acceptable to the ever-accumulating self.

There is no individuality in it. Therefore we embark on speculation.

Is there another possible approach to the mystery that the fact of death places

before us?

25 Panikkar. R. The Vedic Experience, op. cit., and The Rhythm of Being, op. cit., p.18326 These statements can be found scattered throughout Krishnamurti’s published work and were the pivot upon which all his teaching revolved. See: The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti. Krishnamurti Foundation of America. 1992

10

10

The unknown is not a thing or a being. It is not a person. It is not an

individual, even though it produces and absorbs personas and physicality. And all the

myriad things seem to come out of it and disappear into it, including all we know,

experience and are attached to.27 The fear of death compels us to practice avoidance.

All our lives we are trying to avoid death and the loss of the known.

Perhaps the core of the problem lies with the known!

The existence of death must be accepted. There is an old Hindu tale:

Hanuman, the monkey god, and Yama, lord of death, were taking a walk together in

the mountains. Along the way, Hanuman spotted a beautiful bird sitting high in a tree.

He was immediately alarmed. If Yama looked at the bird directly it would die

immediately. Because that is what Yama did, he stared at something and its life was

over. Hanuman thought that the bird was far too beautiful to die just yet, so he

created a diversion. While Yama was momentarily distracted, Hanuman grabbed the

bird, and leaped across the mountain range, depositing it under a bush. He

admonished the bird not to move, and leapt back. After a short while, the ever-aware

Yama sensed that something had happened, and questioned Hanuman. Now Hanuman

was the monkey God, but Yama was far more powerful. Hanuman simply could not lie

to Death. So he told him what he had done. Yama laughed, and said that he had seen

the bird and knew that its time was not yet up. He also knew that the bird should be

under a bush on the other side of the mountains and he had wondered how it might

have got there. Hanuman said nothing, merely bowing to his superior. 28

This tale reveals the ultimate power of death. Death regulates and

circumscribes life. Yet its power may not be absolute, even though death does not

allow reflection upon itself.29 Hanuman was able to extend a life through an act of

kindness. Kindness may be one of the only tools people still have to counter the

wrong turning that humanity seems determined to continue. Kindness seems to be a

27 This is related to the understanding of Dao (Tao), which forms the basis of both Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching op cit., and the I Ching op. cit.28 This story has obscure origins. It was related to me by an Indian actor, Adil Hussain in Hampi 200529 Panikkar. R. From the Gifford lectures, 1989: Trinity and the Survival of Being. Transcribed by S. T. Eastham, (unpublished manuscript, p.14)

11

11

human virtue; it can be practiced, or may occur naturally. The outcome is positive

either way.

Raimon Panikkar, when asked about death in his 86th year stated:

…but now I see it more clearly or more profoundly. I see the water as emptiness,

sunyata, nirvana, if you will. And samsara too is real, you know – as the world and

matter and the body. Not so much as reincarnation – I agree with Sankara on that

one. When you are dead you are dead. Only the istadevata30 is reborn. But there is

another dimension. That is why I am not afraid of death.31

A mind that has freed itself from the fear of death must be at the very beginning of

freedom.

Avoiding the reality of death and dying feeds fear. Fear of death is the

dominant reaction that rules our lives. The very word ‘death’ fills most people with

revulsion. We are all conditioned to escape from the reality of death through the

process of on-going denial. Death, the great teacher, releases us from fear only when

we look directly at its meaning.

Understanding the significance of death is closely related to understanding

passing time. There is time as a part of being, however, only we humans measure it.

No other form of life does. All other living creatures live wholly outside measured

time, entirely free of the on-going fear of death. Fear of termination has placed death

as far into the future as we can push it. In between, we struggle to fulfil our lived

experience. There may well be a rational explanation for the existence of time, and its

association with being, but none for psychological time, i.e., passing time.32 Past

becomes future and the dynamic present is lost. In the present we are either alive or

we are not. This limitation we accept, because we will not look at the possibility of

nothingness, of non-Being.

Strangely, time is required to reflect on the meaning of time, space, and

freedom. A busy life, full of accomplishments and ambition, stultifies such inquiry

30 Istadevata is the personalised symbol of the divine dimension according to birth, conversion, culture, history, conviction, personal experience, initiation, or whatever. Panikkar says that Istadevata is a sort of incarnation of the Divine that allows for a personal connection or relationship. When the individual persona ceases, the relationship with the divine symbol does not. See Panikkar. R. The Rhythm of Being, op. cit., pp. 359-36431 Conversation with Raimon Panikkar on November 27, 2004 (with Roger Rapp)32 See Panikkar. R. Christophany: The Fullness of Man. Orbis Books. Maryknoll. New York. 2004, pp. 132-133. Also Heidegger. M. Being and Time. Harper and Row. 1962

12

12

(see below). The commonly conditioned drive to be busy is encompassed in the

modern concept of work.

The Work Epidemic

The concept of ‘work’ has a long history. Work has been crowned king of

modernity: It has become the secular version of divine activity. So much of modern

human identity is associated with work and working. We work for money, for

position, for meaning, for individual distinctiveness. We work for social contact, for

power, for art, and many other reasons. Work is implicated in nearly all aspects of our

lives and it has become an ontological necessity to survive with our technocratic

global society. Panikkar writes:

It looks as if the modern addiction to labour is becoming an epidemic for humankind.

You have to labour because your naked existence has no value; therefore you have to

justify by its usefulness… You have to earn what you consume in addition to your

reputation and privilege, or you will be looked down upon as a worthless parasite…

The realm of quantity required by science has become the realm of money for human

life.33

That work is an epidemic (perhaps pandemic) is not widely accepted -

everyone is too busy working to contemplate such a blasphemous statement. Of

course there are real reasons for people to work. There are responsibilities that should

be fulfilled. This is not a call to encourage laziness or financial dependence on others.

In modern societies work and identity are inextricably linked. It is a question of

psychological dependence. Work binds us to passing time like no other human

activity. The working life is a controlled life, a life of regulation, of limitation and a

certain kind of suffering. Panikkar continues:

The modern technological world has become so complex and demanding that in order

to ‘enjoy its blessings’ one must obey its laws. And the first law (your foremost duty)

is that you offer a total working dedication to society. Work becomes an end and this

end is not the fulfilment of the human being but the satisfaction of its ‘needs’.34

33 Panikkar. R. “The Contemplative Mood” in Invisible Harmony; Essays on Contemplation and Responsibility. Fortress Press. Minneapolis. 1995, p.1034 Panikkar. R. (ibid), p.11

13

13

Working, with its strict schedules and rules, is an absolute barrier to a random life.

What we call randomness is in fact the order of an intelligence that is not limited by

reason or logic. It is beyond mythos.

As we are now, our minds are limited by the very conditioning that we believe

is necessary to function as an individual. For intuitive randomness to operate, we just

need to trust that intelligence, which lies beyond the reach of the conditioned mind.

Living randomly is a possibility for human beings. Randomness means not

conforming to the patterns that we are conditioned to accept from a very young age. A

random life means no security, sometimes little physical comfort; nevertheless, it is a

means of overcoming ‘passing time’. Our rationality, reason, and logic suggest that

there is no pattern of connecting elements in a random process. Yet there may be

associations. Randomness is generally associated with chance, and chance is linked to

spontaneity. A tree’s seed that falls on a rock instead of the soil is a random event, a

product of chance, we say. It is also spontaneous emergence of that seed falling upon

the rock that gives rise to a stunted tree. Had the seed fallen onto soil, a different tree

would emerge. What is spontaneous is also random as well as being the product of

chance. The I Ching provides an insight into spontaneity and randomness:

Yet this life-giving activity, to which all beings owe their existence, is

something purely spontaneous. It is not like the conscious anxiety of man who strives

for the good with inward toil.35

On this topic, Scott added:

The mandate of the spirit is pure spontaneity. A total human spontaneity, therefore,

would constitute a total integral spirituality: it just happens. Yet it happens only in the

present, never elsewhere or at any other time. And when it happens, it comes to pass

as clearly and effortlessly as the wind in the trees, or starlight in winter sky.36

The working life, the secure and measured life, leads directly to anxiety,

control and conflict. Human beings require a very real sense of physical safety in

order to live freely without anxiety. The inborn instinct for safety has been subverted 35Ta Chuan: The Great Treatise. I Ching, op. cit., p. 29936 Eastham. S. T. Nucleus: Reconnection Science and Religion in the Nuclear Age. Bear and Company. Santa Fe. 1987, p.191

14

14

by the concept of security. Security is of a different order, based on certainty and

predictability, which do not actually exist outside the mind. The contradiction

between the desire for security and the fundamentally insecure unfoldment of reality

creates on-going conflict. Generally, conflict appears all too often in human affairs,

from the micro community, family, to the macro, nation. Then there is the suffering

one feels within one’s self in the hopeless and continuous struggle to create an

outward permanence that does not exist. We try to resist such conflict, which is itself

a conflict. Krishnamurti’s insight into the depths of human relationships began with

an inquiry into the nature and origin of conflict.37

To approach a non-working, random life, the power and purpose of money

must be investigated. Ask any salaried employee if they would continue work

indefinitely without pay, and the reply is invariably: No!

Money is symbol; it presents a reality. Like language, once the power of

money is learned, it can be translocated into any culture. Paper money - becoming

plastic and digital - is simply a variety of symbols cleverly crafted. These printed

symbols have enormous power in the human world. Each unit calibrated to be able to

purchase a set amount of actual goods: such as food.

There is no intrinsic value to money, only what is agreed. Agreement is the

only rule. Once you have money, you can exchange it for actual things. Wasting

money is wasting actual things, including the time that the ‘worker’ loses to gather

such coin. This is not an intelligent action. The time of our life is precious. The key to

money is to know what are real needs, not what mass-conditioned desire demands or

wants.38

The relationship between power and politics, science and technology, are

linked with working and money. This is the basis of the current human domination of

the world and the emergence of pan-economic technocracy. The way in which the

young are induced to join in and contribute to society (any society) today occurs via

37 Krishnamurti. J. and Bohm. D. The Ending of Time. Krishnamurti Foundation India. Chennai. 2008, pp. 9-1138 21st century life is not possible without money. To live, we must have an adequate amount of money and we need to carefully consider how we might ensure a regular income of some sort. This may require working for certain periods, or part time income generation. There are many ways, but working beyond needs is the problem. It becomes habit and so the real living gets lost. It is up to each person to figure their own requirements in a way that allows for plenty of time for rest, contemplation, and to truly live ones life.

15

15

the conditioning power of education. The evolution of a work ethic from childhood is

essential to ensure the contributions and on-going support of following generations.39

Refusal to accept the yoke of the working life without recourse to dependence,

or sheer laziness, is a radical act. Yet it is an act that not only opens a door to another

kind of life, it is also a silent protest against the hypocrisy of our times. The global

armaments industry is tax supported, as are a number of other cruel and ingenious

means of creating suffering. People who sincerely wish to practice peace do not want

to pay taxes to support the economic system that leads to war. Simple tax avoidance is

not enough. Total refusal to contribute to the whole system requires strength, and does

not necessarily result in powerlessness.

Current forms of protest seem ineffective: working against injustice these

days, is the same as working for it. So-called democracy not only allows for dissent, it

encourages it as part of its means to control. We think we are free to oppose, yet in

fifty years little has been achieved in real terms. Injustice, inequality, and repression

remain widespread. The power of centralised ‘systems’ throughout the world has only

exponentially increased. A new way of living needs to emerge which contributes

nothing towards the potential for malevolence that the status quo is constantly leading

us all into.

Reducing consumption not only erodes the pan-economic octopus that is

strangling human potential, it also reduces the ecological footprint. Here, we are not

talking of poverty or penury. Rather, needs and not wants - leading to simplicity and

spontaneity. There is a way of life that allows randomness to operate. It is a life

devoid of struggle, which leads only to open doors. Obviously one or two people

choosing such a life make no real difference to the mainstream. Making a difference

is not entirely the point. Freedom means more than changing a system, it means

looking directly at the situation in which we are all immersed.

As Masanobu Fukuoka observes:

Alienated from nature, human existence becomes a void. The well-spring of life and

spiritual growth gone utterly dry, man grows ever more ill and weary in amidst of his

curious civilisation, that is but a struggle over a tiny bit of time and space. 40

39 See Beder. S. Selling the Work Ethic: From Puritan Pulpit to Corporate PR. Zed Books. London and New York. 200040 Fukuoka. M., The Natural Way of Farming: The Theory and Practice of Green Philosophy: Japan Publications Inc. Tokyo. 1985, p. 27

16

16

All of the above requires a sustained inquiry into the origins and current status

of the human story. The question is, why have human beings ended up in the current

situation? Is this really the paradise that science, religion, politics, and economics

have been promising for more than a century? Or is it really only a possibility for the

elite, the ‘one percent,’ or the privileged few? Economic equality appears to be an

ever more distant dream.

What has happened to natural intelligence and common sense?

To undertake such an inquiry we need space and freedom. This necessitates a

freedom from the culture of work, accumulation; and an understanding of the power

of money in the contemporary context. Another life is possible within the current

milieu. It is not a return to the past, and such a life is not ideological. It is profoundly

practical. But there is no path, no explainable way to live such a life. There is nothing

that should or should not be done. There are no rules, Krishnamurti steadfastly

maintained.41

The effect of technology on the human mind

Martin Heidegger began his questioning of technology in the 1950s, well

before it became fashionable.42 His contention was that viewing technology as neutral

was a great mistake. The human brain is not a machine even though it can construct

machines. There is a feedback loop. The more we interact with machines, the more

machine-like our thinking, and indeed our lives become. The rising power and

influence of technology is obvious. It is ubiquitous. Technology crosses all cultural

barriers and appears to have no limits. Yet there are side effects.

I do not wish to enter into the current intergenerational arguments about social

media and the like. I am not interested in the discussions about whether we

collectively should or should not develop, or allow, certain new technologies. These

technologies are an actual and evolving part of our reality. Neither the debate on

military technology, nor the issue of the effects of technology on the environment,

such as the possibility of climate change, is the topic here. While all these

41 Krishnamurti. J and Bohm. D. The Ending of Time, op. cit., p. 139. Currently we are constrained by the ‘rule of law’, which is imposed grid-like across all aspects of society. These rules determine our judgements, behaviour, and can even control what we think. Rules of conduct and integrity, mutually agreed in relations between individuals, are of a different order. 42 See Heidegger. M. “The Question Concerning Technology” in The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. (W. Lovitt. Translation) Harper Colophon Books. New York, London. 1977

17

17

technologies are important, I am more interested in what the effect of technology will

be on the human brain and indeed the human mind in general. It is our minds that

make our societies. Culture is not a given, it has its own life, so to speak.

There are a number of technologies now being investigated and developed

which will have long-term consequences for social organization and the way of life

we are familiar with. Technology as it is now, allows for the status quo to remain

pretty much unchallenged. We can use motor vehicles, be online, take medicines, and

generally interact in a similar way to the past. Cities and towns are now bigger, but

urban and suburban life remains much the same as last century. Generally, there is

still widespread employment; there are farms, factories, medical facilities and human

experts. The daily life of citizens changes little in real terms. We are born, we go to

school, get trained for working life, raise families, deal with middle age, then, if we

are lucky become elderly, and pass away. It is a kind of stagnant security that has long

been the dream of the middle classes. The daily lot of humanity is enhanced by

technology, but not transformed - at least not yet.

Communication technologies, such as the Internet, allow us to feel in control.

It is an inner shift, and people seem quite capable of incorporating such changes

without losing social cohesion – to some extent at least (evolving mass-surveillance

may change that).

Outer changes that effectively alter the established order seem much more

revolutionary. There are several large-scale projects that will lead to massive changes

in human life. Some have the ability to bring about major social transformation. One

such project is related to the development of super computers.43 Tianhe 2, is the leader

right now, its ability is bigger than a rat’s brain.44 A rat is quite a clever animal, but far

short of human capabilities. Still, it’s a lot of progress.

Neuro-scientist Henry Markram, has received €1.2 billion, plus a Swiss

supercomputer, to build a digital human brain.45 He is aiming for 2023, to have a

computer big enough to simulate the workings of the brain. Replicating each human

neuron requires about the same computing power as a standard laptop computer and

we have 80 billion neurons in our brain! There are a possible 100 trillion possible

neural connections in each fully functioning human brain. It requires a lot of

43 The best source of easily accessible information and explanation for the non-specialist about this topic is You Tube. See Henry Markram The Human Brain Project. The Wellcome Collection. 201444 You Tube: Tianhe 2, Worlds Fastest Supercomputer. Toplist10. 201445 You Tube: Henry Markram’s talk at TED. Begalis. 2013

18

18

computing power. The exponential rise in mental illness throughout the world

demands a serious attempt to understand how the brain functions. For medical

reasons, neuroscience is working with computer science.

Markram also wonders if this digital brain will attain consciousness.46 And this

is where it gets really interesting. If it does attain consciousness, then what is

consciousness? If it does not, then what are we? Beyond any doubt, such a brain will

be a form of intelligence, and we always give respect to intelligence. What will be our

relationship with a digital brain? Will it have a persona? Will it have rights?

Then there are the side effects: intelligent machines. With the rise in use of

intelligent machines, what need would the economy have for our labour? Even with

robotic science developing rapidly it will take some time. The current work culture

must fade, because the computers and the machines would be able to do most things

that people do now. No more need to train people to fly planes or learn surgery.

Markram may not succeed within his timeframe, but the development of a digital

brain is on its way. China, the US, Japan, and the Euro-zone are all committed to

developing the ultimate computer, and this will usher in a new age.

What will happen to our current way of life?

Another multi-billion euro mega-project is the construction of a fusion reactor

in the south of France.47 Twenty years ago fusion was a distant dream. Deniers said it

couldn’t be done because engineers would never be able to control the massive energy

release. This is a prototype, and again, it will take time. The implications of fusion are

unlimited cheap energy and no pollution issues.48 The climate change fear would

diminish. Unlimited cheap energy will then further experimentation, and technology

will take another quantum leap. Human life will change, whether we like it or not.

There is very little debate, or even awareness of, the exponential rise of

technology as a dimension of human consciousness. One of the big losers will be the

relationship between humans and the natural world - the world that the mind did not

create. Already nature has become an ideology, a series of images on a screen,

something other than everyday life. Mankind, the greatest and most important Being

ever imagined, is soon to be eclipsed by an artificial intelligence that the human mind

itself has created!

46 You Tube: Henry Markram. A Brain in a Supercomputer. By TED 200947 You Tube: ITER Fusion Power Plant Assembly in France. Heimo Limanen. 201348 Some commentators maintain that we will then have heat pollution from overuse of raw energy. The effect of which is currently unknown.

19

19

There are other technologies in the pipeline. Aubrey de Grey argues that soon

biotech will allow extension of the living body for many hundreds of years.49 What

effect will this have on resource consumption and over-population? And there is that

Hadron Collider.50 It is not yet clear what the long-term outcome of this €15 billion-

project will be.51 The Higgs Boson discovery may lead to creating matter directly

from energy. What will this mean? Then there is the beef hamburger patty created in

the lab.52 Now too expensive to consider viable, however, as the history of

technological development reveals, small expensive beginnings quickly become mass

productions. What then for farmers and fishers? These are just some of the ‘external’

tsunamis that will crash upon human reality before the end of this century.

It is no longer a matter of battling against technological progress. We will

have to adapt. This adaptation requires a new way of looking at the world of mankind,

the technological world, and the world of nature. It is a new trinity. Panikkar

comments:

It is easy to see that the dynamics of the three worlds are today no longer feasible;

our innocence is lost. The gods have externally withdrawn, Nature is acting out an

ecological vendetta, and history has become a tool in the hands of technocrats and

financial tycoons free to operate within an increasingly irrelevant political system. All

this is a lopsided and rather negative description of the human predicament, but it

may help to trigger a healthy reaction which has to strike at the root of the problem

and not be satisfied with merely moral or political reforms – needed as they also

are.53

What would be a healthy reaction to the looming disaster that so many

commentators have long recognized?

In the modern world, no new ‘things’ emerge, except within the realm of

technology. As time passes, all the new changes end up becoming the same as the old

‘things’. By this means, culture becomes stagnant. That stagnation is called ‘progress’

49 You tube: Aubrey de Grey Undoing Aging TED Talk. Danubia. 201350 The Large Hadron Collider is the world’s largest particle accelerator, situated underground on the border between Switzerland and France.51 You tube: The Hunt for Higgs Documentary. DOC film. 201452 You tube: How the First Test Tube Burger Was Grown. The Telegraph. 201353 Panikkar. R. The Rhythm of Being, op. cit., p. 292

20

20

and we are all called to worship at the altar of scientific enlightenment by sacrificing

our authentic lives to the shadow world of individuality and personal becoming.

A much more radical shift is required. We have lived within the boundaries of

the old consciousness for millennia, and life for most people remains within the arena

of conflict, contradiction and stagnation. We are conditioned into this state by

following the pathways set out long ago, by people who are now deceased.

There are too many rules.

An inquiry into how we have gotten to this point is the beginning of

understanding the human condition. No need for new age religions, or ideologies of

any sort, or any kind of political reactions. Forget about social change, political

revolutions and violent reactions; to free ourselves from limitations we must first see

what is. What is, that which is actual; is a matter of fact. Panikkar says:

The truly extraordinary situation is to realise that there is no given pattern, no

previous solution, no model of salvation, no guarantee of survival, except…ourselves.

It is not human self-reliance, or trust in god, or confidence in reason. It is the sober

and clear acceptance of reality as it is, because this is, is not a previous or static

Being. We ourselves constitute that is and form reality. Man is this extraordinary

creature that flares up amidst the real, and ever searching for it co-works to forge it.54

If we can see what is, without all the conditioned filters, then we may be able

to act in a meaningful way. We need to look at the briar patch and the rose garden.

The river of human sorrow flows ever on. To look at what is, requires an open mind, a

mind that will look at every aspect of reality that it possibly can. We must overcome

the conditioned response of reaction, and just look.

Nature – the actual origin of human beings – always re-establishes a pattern,

but the configuration of that pattern is random and a product of chance. Where the

seed falls…. Stability is in what we often refer to as chaos, and not the order of

human cognition. The order of nature is order. Krishnamurti said.55 It is the natural

world that is absorbing our madness to its own cost. There remain many wild places

on the earth, as if to spite the industrialisation of life. But there will be a limit.

54 Panikkar. R. The Survival of Being. Unpublished transcription of the 1989 Gifford lectures (p.79)55 Krishnamurti. J. The Ending of Time, op. cit., p. 204

21

21

The next generations will live into this techno-dominated era, and I think it is

important to continue to create and sustain natural sanctuaries wherever possible to

facilitate regeneration. And protect and enhance diversity. Provided we do not

collapse our monetary system, succumb to pandemics, or destroy the biosphere with

catastrophic war we may find that the new technologies can also provide some

benefits. These benefits may not be obvious now.

The effects of technology on the way the brain works, and how the mind

reacts, is important when we try to look into the fate of mankind. The question is

again one of why? Why have Homo sapiens allowed themselves to be transformed

into Homo faber?56

****

At the end of his life, Scott had worked through a book titled ‘The Master and

his Emissary’.57 It is a very wide-ranging and complex book, and he was preparing

something based on what he learned. In an abstract entitled ‘Flight From the

Antipodes’,58 he was suggesting that a non-dual vision might be emerging in

contemporary neuroscience, a vision that neatly corresponds with Panikkar’s

trintarian vision.

McGilchrist argues that the history of the European branch of humanity rests

on whether a particular cultural expression was left-brain or right-brain orientated.

There is a huge difference between the two, as his metaphoric title alludes to. In his

concluding chapter ‘the Master Betrayed’ McGilchrist writes:

Consciousness changes its nature in a world geared to technological production. It

adopts a number of qualities which again are clearly manifestations of the world

according to the left hemisphere and therefore in such a world technology could be

expected to flourish and in turn further to entrench the left hemisphere’s view of the

world - just as bureaucracy would be both a product of the left hemisphere and a

reinforcement of it in the external world. 59

56 Panikkar. R. The Contemplative Mood in Invisible Harmony: Essays on Contemplation & Responsibility. Fortress Press. Minneapolis. 1995, pp. 12-1357 McGilchrist. I. The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. Yale University Press. New Haven, London. 201058 Eastham. S .T. Flight From the Antipodes: The pneumatics of text in context. Abstract prepared for ‘Symposium on the Dialogical Dialogue and Raimon Panikkar’. Baltimore. Nov 22, 201359 McGilchrist. I. The Master and His Emissary op. cit., p, 4

22

22

Consciousness is affected by technology! Technology is a product of the left

hemisphere of the brain! There is a link; Heidegger was correct, technology is not

neutral. This is where we need to be careful. Our brains naturally evolved in size, and

physical changes allowed for language. Language, lived experience, and memory

gave rise to the mind, as we know it. Do we want our consciousness to leave the

cradle of nature and mature? Or will we allow mechanistic left-brain thinking to derail

that maturation?

The issues surrounding discovery of left-brain right-brain division go a long

way to explain the current ‘global’ culture. McGilchrist, in a final chapter, outlines

what the left hemisphere’s world would look like:

The body would come to be viewed as a machine and the natural world as a

heap of resources to be exploited. Wild and unre-presented nature, nature not

managed and submitted to rational exploitation for science or the leisure industry

would be seen as a threat and consequently brought under bureaucratic control as

soon a possible. …… Technical language, or the language of bureaucratic systems,

devoid of any richness of meaning, and suggesting a mechanistic world would

increasingly be applied across the board and might even seem unremarkable when

applied to descriptions of the human world, and human beings, even the human mind

itself.60

Sound familiar?

McGilchrist reveals the different world of the right hemisphere as manifested

in the early Greek period, arising again during the Renaissance. Undoubtedly the

Vedic era of India and the culture that gave rise to the I Ching in China, as well as

many others, were right-brain orientated. More creative indeed, and stable for long

periods, the right-brain dominated cultures left a legacy of art, religious

understanding, and development of more free and equal societies, at least at their

outset. However, we cannot go back to that pre-technological age. In our kairos,

technology will continue to evolve. With the help of supercomputers, the speed of

such development is now exponential. The left-brain urge that has created

technocracy can only be tempered by reinvestigating the power and influence of the

right-brain. One thing that is achievable, as a response to the current left-brain 60 McGilchrist. I. The Master and His Emissary, op. cit., p. 434

23

23

domination, is an investigation into the purpose and power of the right-brain, and

perhaps, there, discover equilibrium. The left and the right are connected by the

corpus callosum for the purpose of balance.

Once again time will be needed; a busy life will not suffice. And here is the

challenge: Access to the right-brain will not necessarily occur because people choose

more art, music, or religion. There must be freedom to look into all aspects of the

human condition, without inner voices speaking what is right or wrong, distorting

what is good and bad, or defining relationship through obligation and guilt.

If we do not begin a serious investigation then it is likely that the human mind

will begin to degenerate. McGilchrist again:

Exploitation rather than co-operation would be, explicitly or not, the default

relationship between human individuals, and between humanity and the rest of the

world. Resentment would lead to an emphasis on uniformity….Paranoia and lack of

trust would become the pervading stance within society both between individuals and

between such groups, and would be the stance of government towards its people. Such

a government would seek total control. Talk of liberty, which is an abstract ideal of

the left hemisphere, would increase, but individual liberty would be curtailed.61

It is all too obvious that such curtailment is the aim of current trends in

surveillance. Yet this is only the beginning. Technocratic systems are developing at

break-neck speed, seeking to control human behaviour at every level. It is now much

more sophisticated than mere propaganda.

Abstraction is becoming the main activity of the human mind. We have

created an abstract reality while the brain suffers continuous assaults on balance

within its hemispheres. Internal war will not lead to any kind of stability or peace. We

are collectively following the ‘emissary’, blindly and into betrayal. The loser? All the

things we value about being human. The ‘master’ represents all the qualities that we

have always been led to accept as intelligence. The technocratic urge is a product of

information and not wisdom. It is a manifestation of our desire for order.

There is now an urgent need for balance.

A deep and sustained inquiry into all this does not begin with separation,

which becomes yet another division. We have to live within the human world, this is a 61 McGilchrist. I. The Master and his Emissary, op. cit., p. 431

24

24

fact: there are no escapes. How to develop a new relationship with our complex

world, where there are many choices to be made? How to be in it, but not of it?

This cannot be communicated; it can only be lived. The ‘new’ has no heroes,

no gurus, no experts, no patterns, no followers, and no past. The ‘new’ appears in the

actual present. Passing time is always the enemy of Mankind.

****

“The way in is the way out.” Scott once said. The deeper understanding one

has of the human world, the clearer the way out becomes. It seems vitally important to

do this. Our brain and mind is a product of a long process of evolution. The brain has

immense capacity. And the mind will never stop looking for freedom. The intellect is

a highly qualified arbiter indeed, since it will not blink for a moment in its vigilance

over Being. Says Raimon Panikkar.62 Escapes are temporary; they are diversions

rather than solutions. The solution lies in looking at the facts that are undisputable,

and proceeding from there.

What to do?

Human beings themselves are not simple creatures. Human life is complex.

Education systems ensure that we have innocence only in childhood. The process of

induction into society, any society, requires conditioning, which results in loss of

innocence and the evolution of a coping mechanism that we call our persona, or self.

This persona is both necessary and a great hindrance. It is necessary in order to deal

with pragmatic daily living. And at the same time, this sense of individuality is a

barrier to the unknown. The reason I experience great evil is that I have a persona. If

I have no persona: What evil could I experience. Says Lao Tzu.63 Persona is part of

human will, which is entirely involved in the origination of a sustained inquiry into

life, and is, at the same instance, the greatest barrier. No effort of will can penetrate

the unknown.64

That there is an unknowable aspect to human life has been widely questioned

and largely dismissed by rational science. Logically there seems to be only the

known. Reasonable people no longer accept the miraculous and always destroy the

meaning of such happenings by searching for evidence. However, we cannot always

62 Panikkar. R. P. The Rhythm of Being op. cit., p. 21863 Tao Te Ching op. cit., (section 13) p. 3164 Panikkar. R. Rhythm of Being op. cit., pp. 334-337

25

25

explain ourselves, and our existence, as living, breathing, thinking and loving beings.

The loving is the most unexplainable; rationality cannot approach it.65

Love is not a product of evolution.

When our digital human brain arrives on the scene, it may have emotions and

feelings, as they are linked to thought and thinking, but will it love? If not, as is likely,

then what is love? What is silence, emptiness, spontaneity, creativity and intelligence?

These are all aspects of humanity, which are common to us. It is not our individual

love, intelligence or creativity that is important. It is the fact that they are possible for

all functioning human brains. Why is this?

Why are we so uncanny: capable of such grossness and greatness on a random

basis? What is behind the urge that essentially drives humanity, which makes us so

frightening and unpredictable to all other living things? There is an aspect or

characteristic of the human being, which is powerful and not definable.

There is another dimension to reality, while not hidden, appears only when the

mind is passively receptive. It cannot be commanded, the will cannot force it; the

mind needs silence to receive. Life, the I Ching reminds us, is the result of the

creative light-giving power.66

Yet if the creative is not received, then there is no life.

Today it is fashionable to undertake religious retreats, to go on spiritual quests,

and the like, in an attempt to force oneself into the unknown, as if that were possible.

A passive and receptive attitude ends such questing. Life happens to you - no choices.

Receiving means listening, the message is already existent. It has its own way of

expression. It is random, spontaneous, and loving.

There is an ebb and flow to life, just as the tide comes in and goes out.

Relentlessly. Who can question the motive of an ocean?

Insight into the depths of reality may be directed by the will; however, neither

desire nor thinking always gives rise to clarity. Insight is not to be forced. It must

happen. The current lived experience, with all its complications and diversions plainly

does not yield insight. If it did, we would all be a lot wiser and there would be a lot

less suffering. This means that the only action that any person can take is to live a life

65 Panikkar notes: “Modern science has to exclude love from its approach to things. The scientific world is a loveless universe.” Panikkar. R. ‘A self critical Dialogue’ in The Intercultural Challenge of Raimon Panikkar. Edited by J. Prabhu. Orbis Books. Maryknoll, New York. 1996, p. 27166 Hexagram 1: Ch’ien/The Creative and hexagram 2: K’un/ The Receptive. I Ching op. cit., pp. 3-15

26

26

where such insight may be a possibility. This means doing something about the way

we are currently living. It means living an authentic and spontaneous life.

It is not going to be possible for a few, or even many individuals to change the

global ‘system’ any time soon. Another way to live must be found. It may be

necessary to protect oneself from the worst of the excesses rampant in today’s world.

Not just poor diet and pollution, overcrowding and violence and the like, but also may

entail protection from some of the excessive assaults of technology upon sensitive

awareness. It is all too easy to live in a bubble (or perhaps a cradle) allowing life to

drift. We each have this one opportunity to discover what our amazing brain is for, as

well as what it is capable of, before we have to leave. The awareness of death’s

limitation ought to be a cure for that type of paralysis, which keeps us in the mould of

social conditioning.

Total insight into the human condition is something else.67 Such insight is

transformational by its very totality: It is metanoia. A new awareness is one that is

unconditioned by the old consciousness with all its limitations. Such awareness is also

a possibility for all who enter into that dangerous realm of asking big questions and

taking the existential risks. The beginning of freedom is the ending of the conditioned

life; a return to ‘normality’ is simply not possible. Then our bodies are but the

vehicles for our experience of being in existence as the unfoldment of eternity.

No ‘thing’ can survive eternally. Perhaps it is only what we quaintly call the

unknown that can and does. Machine-like minds always fail to perceive the eternal

pattern. When mankind reduces beings to mere things, beauty conceals itself, eternity

is obscured, and the web of Being is ruptured.

Insatiable curiosity is something that we mostly attribute to children. Yet a

mature curiosity is what leads to authenticity, because it allows us to discard the

inauthentic, the fake, and the chimeras that may block insight. Insight is not possible

for a distracted mind. Insight is always unexpected.

Random!

Scott Eastham was a man who had a mature and insatiable curiosity. He was

interested in everything and everybody - to the end. During his life, he unwaveringly

67 Total insight is the theme of many of J. Krishnamurti’s writings and talks. He admitted it as a possibility for human beings. Total insight into the human condition, he maintained, was the goal of all those who sought freedom from a conditioned life. See Krishnamurti. J. ‘The fragmentation of Consciousness’ in The Awakening of Intelligence. Harper and Row. New York, San Francisco. 1973 pp.383-400. See also The Ending of Time, op. cit., pp. 158-176

27

27

walked down the road of insight. Stitching together those insights, through literate

expression of all that he perceived was his ‘work’. He wrote:

There is only one proof of mystical experience: it transforms your life. Nothing

can ever be quite the same. There is something more…68

That something more, accepted without evidence or proof simply because it is

so, is what sparks the inquiry into the parameters of the unknown. The unknown does

manifest, because it has many means. When it touches you, or by pure chance you

touch it, freedom from the known begins. Freedom from the known is not the end of

the mind, or the end of thought, or many other aspects of the human situation. But it

does cause a revolution. From that moment onwards, conditioning loses its ultimate

grip. The binding power of passing time begins to dissolve.

The first step towards the unknown is also the last step.

Take the first step.

Ask the big questions, now.

The way in is the way out!

68 Eastham. S. T. The Blast and Bless Balancing Act – A Way Into the Mystical Dimension of Ezra Pound’s Poetry. (Paper prepared for an Ezra Pound conference, Amor Roma. Rome 2009.) p. 2

28

28