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.

——————————————

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.”

—————————————

to be continued…