Mindfulness, Nature and Manipulation.

I think it's important to note that intellect, when not complimented by mindfulness, can be easily misguided. What is meant by mindfulness? Critical self-reflection? Partially. It also means a passive awareness of our thinking, a meditative state in which we observe thoughts, and don't become over-identified with them. Not prone to sway in one direction or another. This is equal to "cleaning the lens" of our conscious experience, so as not to further distort insight.

Mindfulness, then, might be seen as a way to help keep our assumptions in check. This is what the Zen koans mean when they speak of emptying one's cup, so that it may be filled. Insight is only possible when we release the idea we must control our minds in order to understand; to grow a mind rather than build it. But by releasing control, we more resemble nature's way: things arising and emerging by simply letting them be. An "organic" phenomenology of the world might assist us in a century where we are faced with impending ecological disasters.

The open minded scientist might then recognize another insight: perhaps manipulation and control are not the true signposts of an advanced civilization. Rather, a civilization that understands "The Way," and is able to see itself as a part of nature, not separate from it. This can only be done if the individuals themselves can attain such a perspective.

A cultural paradigm shift, complimenting the physical science of sustainability, might be the seeds of a new civilization, one which can support billions, explore the cosmos and live as beings within the world, rather than alienated without it. What would happen if even a few million people began to cultivate mindfulness in themselves, and apply that to their professions? This, in a sense, is a calling for an organic-worldview. Rekindling our connection with life, the cosmos, and healing the dissociative rifts, in which, like aliens in a strange land, we feel the need to defend and control in order to gain some sense of security.

But the secret of life, as many have noted, is that there is no security, not ultimately (see Watts, the Wisdom of Insecurity, also, a great video talking about it).

Everything is in flux, and the only way to grow is to take a chance, to be vulnerable, to challenge assumptions and cultivate a sensitivity with the world, not build psychological-fortresses in which we manipulate the environment in fear and terror for our survival. Isolation is the road to extinction. Cut off from life, we whither. As a species, it seems we have some growing up to do. Many of our actions manifest as collective fear, while life is actually more like art: mastery is the release of control. Knowledge is the learning of technique, with which we may then more naturally create. Like a sailor who moves with the wind to get where he is going, rather than trying to bend the wind to his will! Mindfulness, then, is the release of this primal psychological fear, and the expansion of sensitivity to the world around us, like a seedling reaching out to the world with its first roots and branches.

So the question is, can civilization learn to abandon its shell, and embrace true growth? Here's some food for thought from Alan Watts:

What if the same realization--that science can be the work of nature, and that the individual is one body with his environment--could become the informing spirit of Western technology?" - Alan Watts, Does it Matter?