Must we Choose?

http://www.realitysandwich.com/human_being_or_human_going

Must we Choose?
Submitted by LionKimbro on Mon, 10/19/2009

"Perhaps in tending to the world -- through our own conscious being as opposed to our unconscious goings -- we can effect a healing in which we will discover the reality of the anima mundi, the soul of the world that, like us, is also alive. Through this deeper connection based on spiritual recognition, we can initiate more sensitive, aware and unifying interactions within ourselves, with one another and with the planet, whose being is also part of ours."

My caution is this: In a social climate (like the one we find ourselves in) in which proposals of action are consistently met with "now hang on there just a moment -- on the authority of Buddhism, I know that any proposal of action is wrong, and should be met (annihilated) through conscious observation, being, and non-goal attainment, non-attachment," -- I would put more emphasis on a pragmatic connection of spirit in action.

That is, we hipster hallucinogenic paradigm-comperehending retreat-attending party-going people have come to be a society that is anti-[meaningful]-action, argued from an ethic of being and beingness in which the wholeness of the world means that nothing substantial should be done. Perhaps we should move our hands (in all the familiar ways,) and our tongues, (in all the familiar tongues,) but we are instructed to let "consciousness" (or "being" or "spirit") replace the use of our minds, which are cast as fatal enemies, full of evil, wicked demons, malevolent spirits.

Where beingness would connect us with our consciousness, conscience, hearts, dreams, divinities, animals, and re-establish a connection from the highest spirit to the motion of our hands and feet upon this sacred Earth, -- The effect instead has been to enforce a crude dictum: "do nothing (different/unusual/meaningful,) and be weary of any and all proposed action." It effectively destroys all capacity to act in meaningful ways.

Hands are confined to turning knobs and pulling levers of our day jobs and hobbies, and tongues to repeating the familiar computer protocol: HELO, STATUS: OK, UPDATE, BYE.

"Beingness" has ceased to mean anything other than "Get comfortable with how things are." Not only are we learning to meditate and find peace within ourselves, but we're also learning how to shut down any proposals of change in the outer manifest order -- they are all critiqued as "goings," "becomings," or "ephemera."

We can speak "initiate more sensitive, aware and unifying interactions within ourselves, with one another and with the planet," but only at the end of our articles as a side thought, -- and I think you will find that, in practice, it sets a very high bar of perfection: "You are proposing an act-- but are you initiating it from a place of perfect beingness, calm, tranquility, and utmost balance?" Instead, we should be speaking the language of making peace with matter, and the language of working with the imperfect.

I would put that restful meditative floating ghost of the passive "being" Buddha behind us, and mine for the golden language of the soul. Being's only goal may only be "to be," but the divine child is a larger thing, and his dreams run forever towards others and the world.

The language of the heart tells a story of both being and going, and I wouldn't have one without the other.