Seeking Spirit - Upside Down, Inside and Out
by Sami Grover and Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC
SG: Hei Tao, I’ve been ruminating on our respective Burning Man posts, and I keep coming back to one thing. In your post you state “that change within (and therefore without) depends on our ability to go beyond our earthly day-to-day responsibilities and find ways to come together and take a deeper look within.”
Now, while I applaud the sentiment, I wonder if there is not a flip-side to this. I know a lot of people who spend a great deal of time ‘looking within’, and while many of them are truly lovely folks, they don’t always act that way - especially when it comes to sustainability. Many “enlightened” Buddhists live in big houses and drive large cars. Lot’s of compassionate-minded hippies fly off to India on a whim to find themselves. I just think there is a danger when personal growth and transformation becomes a distraction from, not a tool for, the real and urgent change we need - i.e. a MASSIVE cut in carbon emissions asap. Ultimately, these changes are likely to be achieved through political action, not meditation and good intentions.
To this end, I applaud all the good stuff Burning Man is doing, in terms of reducing its footprint and raising awareness, but I still question the importance it is given as a true agent for change. I also think it smacks of a wider trend in the green movement, including in myself, to focus on the self (yes, even when that focus is about recognizing the interconnectedness of the self to, errm, all the other selfs) , rather than on the concrete, societal changes that we need to bring about. I’m sure it doesn’t have to be an either/or situation, but I would hope that Burning Man talks as much about writing to your senator as it does about personal responsibility and hooping yourself to a higher level of consciousness.
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TAO: You make many good points about the highs and lows of the spiritual quest, Sami. In my yogic work, I’ve come to understand that no matter what growth tools we choose, it is the ability to find balance - in Buddhist terms, to walk the “middle path” - that allows us to realize and manifest truth and purpose inside and outside the self. Fittingly, the middle place is the most difficult to manifest in everything we do - eating, sleeping, working, exercising, celebrating, even meditating or doing yoga. An interesting truth, if you ask me and most of us can relate to this example: It is easier to eat a lot or not at all, while, without some conscious effort, eating a balanced amount becomes difficult.
While spiritual seekers (that includes all of us, whether we are conscious of it or not) use different methods for growth, all of them can become excessive or deficient, rendering them useless or even harmful. This makes me think of a quote attributed to Ashtanga Yoga luminary, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, “Yoga will cure everything except problems caused by yoga.”
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to be continued…
September 5th, 2007 at 6:48 am
Sami & Tao,
I think you make some great points. For me, its very similar to the thoughts we shared over Live Earth. My question for burning man is this, by joining a collective group of 50,000 like minded people who advocate radical self expression…how do you keep from becoming one of the herd? Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think Burning Man is a bad thing. I don’t think banding together with like minded individuals is a bad thing. It can promote unity, growth and awareness as well as spawn new friendships. I just question the philosophy behind self-expression by doing what everyone else is doing. Maybe I’m dancing too close to the line of semantics.
One of the things that I enjoy most about this blog is the perspective of the people who participate. After all, the point of Burning Man and the point of this blog is join like minded people together in their effort right? I mean, we advocate responsible living and being good stewards of our resources and for some reason making that effort in conjunction with friends or even other bloggers somehow makes the journey more palatable. Even though we are working in common goals together, there is still a vast sea of diversity amongst us.
I think its important to remember that. Tracy mentioned in “It’s an energy thing” that she has a 75 minute daily routine and morning walks in the woods. Sadly, most people don’t make their physical, mental or spiritual health a priority. People likely say, there is no way I could free up that much time in my day for that! To me, that’s a very sad thing. It’s sad because for most people it really has nothing to do with available time in the day. It has everything to do with priorities. If you decide to make it happen, it will happen. If you make the decision not to prioritize your health and well-being, then understand you’re making that choice by free will rather than such a thing being dictated to you by the availability of fleeting minutes in your day.
People will be people. Some will choose to learn and foster growth while others are content with simply passing days. Some people will travel to Burning Man. Others will wake up in the morning and read this blog. Some people look at life and see opportunity. Others see a mountain of frustration and life-load of obstacles. Some people are scared off by things like, self empowerment, yoga, or even earthy overtones. If its not something they’ve experienced, they’re likely to rule it out for the simple reason that its different. And then there’s people who embrace the diversity and different experiences.
The goal is to be transparent. The goal is to be accepting and understanding. Embrace the idea that people come from all walks of life. Some people are into yoga. Some people are not. Some are for daily exercise routines. Others don’t see it as important. Some people get up and live life everyday. For others they might find that somewhere along the way living became dying.
Success to me is circumventing alienation by way of building a bridge to connect with people. Yoga, no yoga, exercise, no exercise…just come and learn and share experiences and be open to the idea that even though people may act and have different habits than you, doesn’t mean you can’t learn from their experiences. Success is heightening the awareness in people that personal responsibility is the only cure to problems like climate change and rapidly depleting resources. I think it’s easier to tell a story about personal responsibility with an audience you’ve made a connection with. So how do you make that connection? How do you make that connection with someone who feels alienated? If they don’t understand where you’re coming from, or what you’re doing, or why you’re doing it…you’ll have a much more difficult time trying to convince them of your agenda (in this context, agenda = change).
September 5th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
[...] (For part one of this post, go here.) [...]