Principle 1: Wish thinking and promises of easy gains do not lead to the correct path. They lead to traps.
1.
One of the most important themes of ancient and classic literature is How to Be. We can transform ourselves through our behavior, by what we do, how we do it, how we proceed in our daily life.
We cannot, however, transform ourselves through wishing, or find prosperity by following advertisements of easy gains.
Although the news tells us that the past several years have been boom times, it does not appear to me that they were. Indeed, judging from the popularity of videos on YouTube that claim wish-thinking work, I would say that we were in a period of intense deception. Perhaps we had easy to come by jobs, but nobody had gainful employment. Perhaps we had followers online, but nobody had friends.
Seneca, La Rochefoucauld, Descartes, Steinbeck, Plato, Kabir... None of these writers marshal the argument that if we think certain thoughts we can alter particles in the air in such a manner that they align and attract gold bars, as if we are magnets. Instead, nearly all of them--nearly all writers on the side of good throughout history--warn of the dangers of wrong thinking.
Over the next several weeks this newsletter will introduce topics that get repeated over and over in classical literature. These are so common that one could convincingly claim they are universal principles of life. The key theme is How to Be.
2.
The Simple State
by Kabir, roughly 1400s India.
Listen,
you saints--
I see that the world
is crazy.
When I tell the truth,
people run
to beat me up--
when I tell lies,
they believe me.
I've seen
the pious ones,
the ritual-mongers--
they bathe at dawn.
They kill the true Self
and worship rocks--
they know nothing.
I've seen
many masters and teachers--
they read their Book,
their Qur'an.
They teach many students
their business tricks--
that's all they know.
They sit at home
in pretentious poses--
their minds are full
of vanity.
They begin to worship
brass and stone--
they're so proud
of their pilgrimages,
they forget the real thing.
They wear caps and beads,
they paint their brows
with the cosmetics
of holiness.
They forget the true words
and the songs of witness
the moment they've sung them--
they haven't heard
the news of the Self.
The Hindu says
Rama's dear to him,
the Muslim says it's Rahim.
They go to war
and kill each other--
no one knows
the secret of things.
They do their rounds
from door to door,
selling their magical formulas--
they're in vain
about their reputations.
All the students
will drown with their teachers--
at the last moment
they'll repent.
Kabir says,
listen,
you saintly men,
forget all this vanity.
I've said it so many times
but nobody listens--
you must merge intro
the simple state
simply.
3.
Kabir was an ancient Hindu poet who lived in northern India and wrote sometime in the 1400s. It's unclear when he actually lived.
He wrote a lot about what he calls the Simple State. The ancient Chinese would call it the Tao, the Way. American writers at the dawn of the Civil War would explain it as liberty with a conscience, and without ostentation, prejudice, and social superstitions.
This way of being in life has been a preeminent occupation of literature and philosophy for thousands of years. As have been the warnings against false paths.
In The Simple State Kabir is trying to tell his compatriots not to fall for the pseudo-religions, the mumbo jumbo of the day.
One can sit in the popular poses, worship the accepted things, take the modern classes that promise wealth, drink the advertised potions that promise life. But these are delusions. Today we have YouTube videos that argue that God is a type of genie, and charlatans hovering up cash from unsuspecting people on the Robin Hood app.
A parrot trap works like this. There is a large bowl-like apparatus, like a cage but beautiful. It is propped up on a stick. Attached to the stick is a string that can be pulled to close the cage. Inside, under the beautiful bowl that offers protection from the outside, protection from enemies and competitors, there are seeds, fruits, materials for a nest. The parrot enters and sees this richness, this glory, and thinks it has met heaven. It eats, collects materials for its children, and then the bird catcher pulls the stick from under the basket, trapping the bird, killing it's hope.
As Kabir writes:
"Kabir says, listen, O creatures,
those who fall into
the well of death
ensnare themselves
in make-believe Maya,
like parrots who delude themselves
and fall into a bird-catcher's trap.
Maya is a complicated concept in Hinduism, but in this case roughly means illusion. We can delude ourselves, we can be tricked by promises of wealth and prosperity and liberty and fall into a trap.
But why is this a problem?
In many ways we have two collective subconsciousnesses. A) A path of good, let's say, which is characterized by what the ancient Greeks called agape, a force of universal love. And B) a path of force, deception, hate, social division, war. When we fall into these bird traps we either live wasted lives, or become accidental foot soldiers in somebody else's manipulative plans.
In either case we do not tap into the beautiful elements of humanity, the things that make us unique, the things that become our contributions, no matter how small, to the greater good.
Principle 1: Wish thinking and promises of easy gains do not lead to the correct path. They lead to traps.
Very best wishes from
your friend,
William