It is amazing what does not actually exist in the world.
I am prone to overthink things far too much for my own good. It is a natural inclination to imagine a bad possible consequence of a situation instead of an equally probable good one, but for me this instinct often acts in overdrive: I tend to hop directly to the negative, and spend far too much time ruminating on the worst possible thing that could happen. It has become almost a cliché to say so, but while things often do not go the way that I hoped for, upon further reflection it is rarely the case that the results are ever as catastrophic as I imagine.
In modern life, people are exposed to an unprecedented level of psychological noise. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have been raised in the last generation that was able to experience early life before the Internet became a form of pervasive pseudo-reality that people spend most of their time immersed in, as opposed to being an alternative means of momentary escape and entertainment from the occasional boredom of the everyday. It is absurd that it has now become normal for the average person to spend a considerable amount of his or her conscious time passively staring at a screen, where most of what one sees there is some form of advertisement that one never asked for, hyper-sexualized images (often with an advertisement behind), or some kind of political video clip specifically intended to invoke a response of indignation, rage or upset. It is all meant to capture attention, to disturb and distract, and unfortunately it can be incredibly effective.
The tragedy of this state of affairs is that the vast majority of these images represent a complete distortion of reality, and they have little relation to how life actually is. Most of this time spent staring at screens replaces time that could be spent engaging with something real, which is to say time spent actually living and experiencing life. It is a low-quality existence to sit alone and passively watch reproductions of life on a screen, when one could instead chose to engage with one’s actual circumstances.
Even when considered apart from the recent rise of electronic distraction, it has always been true that most of the components of the social game that humans design for themselves are completely arbitrary and a result of circumstance. There is nothing inherent in nature that forces humans to organize themselves such that adults are expected to spend a significant amount of their waking hours in offices under fluorescent lighting in front of computers. Nothing would change in the material reality that we share if all of the digital numbers of bank balances suddenly went up tomorrow. It is pure convention to consider a week of full-time work to be 40 hours, or for that matter even to make a distinction between work and play or to divide time up into weeks and months. Conventions are obviously very useful and necessary to structure interaction, and one always has to draw the line somewhere. It is though important to remember that none of them actually exist in the world outside of individual minds.
An awareness of what is contingent (and what therefore could be otherwise) and what is an inherent part of nature is an idea that I first encountered many years ago when I finally came around to reading Thoreau’s Walden. The following paragraph has always stuck with me:
«In accumulating property for ourselves or our posterity, in founding a family or a state, or acquiring fame even, we are mortal; but in dealing with truth we are immortal, and need fear no change nor accident. The oldest Egyptian or Hindu philosopher raised a corner of the veil from the statue of the divinity; and still the trembling robe remains raised, and I gaze upon as fresh a glory as he did, since it was I in him that was then so bold, and it is he in me that now reviews the vision. No dust has settled on that robe; no time has elapsed since that divinity was revealed. That time which we really improve, or which is improvable, is neither past, present, nor future.»
-Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)
The «truth» that Thoreau refers to is real life: the air, water, forest, our current emotional state, the cycles of the seasons and the sun. It is human nature, warmth and cold, the taste of blueberries, real moments in conversation face-to-face with a friend. It is our own personal history and system of memories, which are completely unique to us and cannot be compared to anyone else’s. These are the elements of the world that actually exist, and they are completely independent of our distorted thoughts that are increasingly becoming even further distorted through digital means.
The ability to see through the mirage and distinguish between the truth and the arbitrary is an important skill, and it also happens to be one of the central ideas of Zen. Zen priests have always helped those that are interested to see beyond the illusory social world. Zen offers direct insight into the true nature of the world that we experience, and it seeks to strip away all of the layers of illusion that our minds are prone to bury it in so that we can learn to identify and experience what actually matters. A life lived in delusion misses the mark. Monk Yoshida Kenkō (1283-1350) describes beautifully the futility of getting caught up excessively in the social game:
«We long to leave a name for our exceptional wisdom and sensibility - but when you really think about it, desire for a good reputation is merely revelling in the praise of others. Neither those who praise us nor those who denigrate will remain in the world for long, and others who hear their opinions will be gone in short order as well. Just who should we feel ashamed before, then? Whose is the recognition we should crave? Fame in fact attracts abuse and slander. No, there is nothing to be gained from leaving a lasting name. The lust for fame is the third folly.»
-Kenkō, How Will You Spend Your Last Day?
Thoreau expresses much the same sentiment in what is probably one of the most well known paragraphs in Walden:
«I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.»
-Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)
It is easier than ever in the modern world to get caught up in all that which is «not life». Real life consists rather of all that we experience directly, beyond the veil that is raised by distorted internal thoughts, arbitrary ideals and random conditioning. It is a shame that so much potential will be lost as unique and creative human beings allow themselves consciously or unconsciously to be turned into passive consumers of addictive information, without ever realizing that they are not actually living. To become aware and to choose to delve instead into the present state of the world to a fundamentally deep place of reality is to come into contact with the absolute truth.
In zen there is a concept «mushin», which is typically translated as «without mind» or «no mind.» To not have a mind does not mean to have an empty mind or to be absent, but rather to maintain a state of presence where one’s mind is uncluttered, attentive to the present moment and receptive to its qualities. It is the disposition necessary to allow the subconscious mind to flow freely, to reconnect with our inner spirit. It is when the mind is in complete harmony with the principle of life itself. It has perhaps never been harder to attain and maintain this state with all of the social and electronic distractions of modern life, but the ability to do so is going to become increasingly necessary for well-being as the distractions intensify. In the face of it all, it is always valuable to remember that the majority of one’s worries do not actually exist outside of one’s own mind. Life remains in reality as simple as it ever was, and the more one can focus on this direct personal experience, the easier it becomes to ignore the noise and find a moment of peace.
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