meditation of the week

[Guest guest]

http://www.interluderetreat.com/med4week.htm

 

 

Living Outside the Box

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" Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human

soul. "

Mark Twain

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Most likely, your parents and school teachers went to considerable

trouble to get you to think like other people. You needed to learn

social norms. If you are going to fit in and succeed, you need to

understand the social order and how to think and behave properly within

it. Looking at the news, you don't need to search too far for stories

of people who behave like they were raised by brutes, and have gotten

themselves in all sorts of trouble. People who cared about you didn't

want that for you, so you got socialized.

 

This is a good thing, but it comes at a price. With socialization comes

restriction on thinking. We are taught to think like other people

think. If we are going to interact well with others we should see

things from their frame of reference. We should adapt to the social

norms that they share; follow the rules. This may make us compatible

with our peers, but it sets us in an intellectual, emotional, and

behavioral box.

 

Adolescents often begin to notice parts of the box their parents and

teachers have raised them in, and will adopt behaviors and styles of

dress that tell the world that " I'm not in the same box as the old

people! " Sadly, their non-conformism usually puts them in another box

occupied by their fellow non-conformists. When you look weird just like

your peers look weird, you aren't out of the cultural box, you are just

in another weirder one.

 

Some spiritual traditions encourage practitioners to get beyond

conventional thinking so that reality can be seen for what it is.

Taoism, Zen, and Sufism, in particular, invite us to look at the other

side of our mental constructions. Often this is done through stories

that tweak convention. The Sufi story of " Nasrudin and the Altar " is

typical of these.

 

So one day Nasrudin was in the mosque praying alone. Eventually he

became distracted in his contemplation and, as his knees were aching,

he put his feet up upon the altar. Just then a cleric came in and saw

Nasrudin with his feet upon the altar. " How dare you! " roared the

cleric righteously, " place your feet on a sacred place! Remove them

immediately! " Perplexed, Nasrudin looked this way and that " Where do I

put them? "

 

 

Jesus was a supremely unconventional thinker. He consorted with people

of low social station or dubious character and forgave them their sins.

He railed at the hypocritical protectors of social and religious law.

He encouraged his followers to give little thought to possessions and

to share what they owned. He attacked family values that kept people

constrained from following the truth. Submission to hierarchy, doctrine

and dogma do not seem to have been part of his teaching. He challenged

his followers to become an entirely new kind of person; bound by love,

but not convention.

 

In the modern world, the edges of science are pushed back by the

original, unconventional thinkers. One cannot understand physics or

astronomy, for instance, without stepping outside the frame of the way

we usually think the world works. New discoveries in science and

technology are mostly the result of someone looking at an old problem

in a new way. When we are constrained by what everybody else thinks

about a problem, we won't find new solutions. If the solution was in

the old paradigm, it would have been found already.

 

The same is true in society. Human rights have always been advanced by

individuals who could stand outside the conventions of prejudice and

see the value of human beings judged less worthy by the powerful. These

individuals have often used unconventional means, such as non-violent

resistance, to advance their causes.

 

Wisdom, it would appear, includes an understanding of social norms and

conventional thinking, and the ability to see through and beyond them.

The wise can live in the general culture without being bound to it.

They can recognize the relativity of " conventional wisdom " and can

recognize truth unobscured by prejudice. As circumstances change, they

adapt.

 

 

Practice:

 

So how does one cultivate this unconventional wisdom that allows us to

live outside the limitations of our culture? A few suggestions:

 

Don't just follow the crowd. Think about your values. Think about your

behavior.

 

Learn about the world. How do people think and behave in other

cultures? How are they different from you? What alternative views does

their culture have to offer?

 

Be alert to situations where your responses are hemmed in by

conventional thinking. When you are doing what you have always done or

what everyone else does, but it just doesn't feel quite right, see if

there is a creative alternative.

 

Become comfortable with paradox. The world of ideas is filled with

contradiction. How is it that " Out of sight, out of mind " and " Absence

makes the heart grow fonder " can both be true? Stay loose.

 

Study the literature of the world. Read the thoughts of the ancients.

Read collections of Taoist, Zen and Sufi stories that are lessons in

paradox. Look beyond the surface of the parables of Jesus. What was he

really saying?

 

Look in your heart for wisdom. When you act out of love and compassion

you may need to overstep convention, but you will rarely be wrong.

 

Keep life simple. Acquire quality rather than quantity. Seek beauty

over fashion trend. Attune to nature more than popular culture. Once

out of the box, keep your feet on the ground.

 

Listen to your body. Become more aware of the messages your body gives

you. They can be as subtle as a chill down your spine or as powerful as

a heart attack, but your body has its wisdom, and the wise will learn

from it.

 

Meditate to calm and clear your mind. With a quiet mind we are more

perceptive and our thinking becomes more expansive. The meditative mind

sees beyond the walls of convention.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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