| My title this week was inspired by a post on Timothy | | | | centuries. Zen Buddhists in particular are known for |
| Johnson's "Carpe Factum," and of course Timothy | | | | their "out of the box" koans. But I said we haven't |
| lifted his own title from the U.S. Declaration of | | | | made much headway as a culture, and by that I mean |
| Independence. A quick Google search on the exact | | | | the global culture of "modern, civilized" humanity. |
| phrase "We hold these truths to be self-evident" | | | | There may be many different cultures around the |
| turned up roughly 802,000 results. If imitation is the | | | | world--and many different belief systems--but the |
| sincerest form of flattery, the Founding Fathers should | | | | "players" in the global economic game all have one |
| be feeling pretty good about themselves by now. | | | | thing in common: they believe in winning and losing. |
| I'm grateful to Timothy for reminding me this evening of | | | | The "winners" are quite pleased about winning--even if |
| these words, which I have pondered over and again. | | | | they do suffer the stirrings of guilt from time to |
| Framed as a question, they have formed the defining | | | | time--and the "losers" are mad as hell about losing, as |
| inquiry of my life for over a decade: "What are the | | | | witnessed in violent outbreaks throughout the world on |
| truths I hold to be self-evident?" | | | | a daily basis. But they all believe in the dualistic concept. |
| I am not examining the question as one of choice, but | | | | Because the cultures that don't believe in winning and |
| rather as a guide to my unconsciously held beliefs. I | | | | losing don't play the game. |
| have not been attempting to decide what truths I hold | | | | Unfortunately, because they aren't playing the game, |
| to be self-evident. I have been trying to see them. | | | | we don't hear a lot about them, and these cultures |
| While the solution may wax elusive the more we | | | | have a frightening tendency to disappear whenever |
| delve into it, the statement of the problem is simple: the | | | | they are found to be inconvenient by the player |
| truths we hold to be self-evident are truths we hold to | | | | mentality. They are the indigenous peoples around the |
| be beyond question. They are self-evident. They are | | | | world: the aborigines of Australia, the tribal peoples of |
| obvious. They are the simple facts of life--the ideas | | | | North and South America, the hunter-gatherer cultures |
| we take for granted. "The earth is flat," was once | | | | of Africa. And without exception they are being |
| such a truth, as was, "The sun revolves around the | | | | displaced, assimilated, or simply killed off by the day. |
| earth." They are learned as a matter of course, | | | | The worst of the tragedy is that it's so predictable. |
| presented throughout our lives as "fact," not as | | | | When someone seeking to win comes up against |
| hypothesis. | | | | someone who doesn't even understand the game, the |
| But what are our self-evident truths today? What | | | | player gets to win every time. It's like the new guy at |
| revolutionary ideas lie just under the surface of the | | | | the poker table, but on a global scale. |
| thoughts we can't see? | | | | So what we're left with are the cultures that are |
| The real difficulty with self-evident truth is that it | | | | founded upon dualistic thought. With no one around to |
| appears self-evident to everyone else too. After all, if | | | | challenge that thinking, thought transmutes magically |
| a lot of people were questioning it, it wouldn't seem all | | | | into fact, and our ideas about success and failure, |
| that self-evident. | | | | winning and losing, and even good and evil become |
| Great advances have been made in science by | | | | reality. |
| questioning the unquestionable. Galileo questioned the | | | | What I love most profoundly about the Declaration of |
| earth-centered universe. Einstein questioned the | | | | Independence is its bold statement of self-evident truth. |
| immutability of space itself. But I suspect that the | | | | Those who penned the Declaration brought forth their |
| greatest advances we will see over the course of this | | | | truths into the light, where those truths could be |
| new century will be cultural advances, and they will | | | | challenged, questioned, and ultimately accepted as our |
| come from questioning the truths we hold self-evident | | | | most tightly held beliefs. |
| about humanity itself. | | | | What we need today is a new Declaration--a global |
| Or even more accurately, our greatest advances will | | | | Declaration--of self-evident truth. |
| come from questioning the deepest framework of our | | | | "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that in the |
| own thinking. | | | | pursuit of happiness we shall all compete against each |
| We tend to see the world through the concept of | | | | other for the rights of the Victors, and that among |
| opposites. We may question whether a certain act is | | | | these rights are counted the right to rewrite history to |
| good or evil, whether a certain venture will succeed or | | | | favor the Strong, the right to suppress the weak, and |
| fail, whether a certain child is intelligent or, um, not so | | | | the right to withhold the spoils of Victory from even |
| intelligent--some "negatives" are considered too rude to | | | | the most desperate among our own kind, such right |
| voice--but we never question the framework of the | | | | deriving naturally from the Victorious right of |
| analysis. | | | | Possession. |
| Buy what if there is no such thing as either success or | | | | "We hold furthermore that the entire realm of nature, |
| failure, no such thing as either greed or selflessness, | | | | from which Humanity is rightfully excluded and over |
| and no such thing as winners or losers? | | | | which Humanity divinely presides, has no inherent rights |
| We have begun to question certain of these | | | | whatsoever, and that any privileges extended to |
| oppositions independently. For example, psychologists | | | | nature by Humankind shall derive directly from those |
| and educators are turning to theories of "multiple | | | | Human needs which may arise naturally in the direct |
| intelligences" to better understand our individual talents | | | | and immediate interest of Humanity's own survival." |
| and learning styles. And businesses are beginning to | | | | I could go on... |
| recognize a multitude of leadership styles, not just | | | | It's ugly, I know. But until we face up to our own |
| "leaders" and "followers." But as a global culture we | | | | self-evident truths--all of our self-evident truths--we will |
| have made little headway into thinking about this | | | | not begin to question them. The very foundations of |
| dualistic structure of thought itself. | | | | thought itself will remain inviolable, and we will continue |
| For those of you who are familiar with Buddhist | | | | to create the reality to which this thinking inevitably |
| teachings, I know what you're thinking. Buddhists have | | | | leads. |
| been talking about the problems of dualistic thought for | | | | |