William Martin's Blog, page 12

Subversive Tranquility

A classic article in the satirical publication, The Onion, is far more than humorous satire. In its humor it strikes a deep chord of truth in this particular aging revolutionary. Building on The Onion’s  humorous article, I can imagine countless hidden “terrorist cells,” small groups of people going about seemingly ordinary American lives but secretly cultivating and enriching the materials necessary for peace, contentment, and tranquility. They may look like the rest of us, but underneath their carefully maintained disguise they are dedicated radicals who will not rest until they have unleashed a kindness conflagration that will engulf the Western world.

These people are stockpiling reserves of composure, calmness, and quiet in preparation for release upon an unsuspecting public. “It will destroy the Western economic system,” confidently predicts the leader of a cell located somewhere in the midst of Silicon Valley. The man is hidden by a screen and his voice is disguised as he feels he is taking a great risk in granting me this short interview. “You can call me Malcolm C,” he says, “The ‘C’ stands for compassion. Remember that word,” he warns, “soon the streets of major cities will be awash in it.”

I asked Malcolm C if his organization has plans for recruitment here in America and he chuckles, “Recruitment happens by itself. The more chaos and suffering continues to broaden its hold on Western culture, the more people will naturally turn to kindness and peace. It is inevitable. People will drop like ripe fruit into our brotherhood and sisterhood.”

I called a contact at the Department of Homeland Security and asked if they were aware of such an organization. He was hesitant to comment but acknowledged that, “there is a very real threat to the fabric of our society from groups like this and I assure you that the Department is taking every measure possible to root them out and render them harmless. Nothing is going to threaten our anxiety, restlessness, and general malaise.”

I asked him what specific steps his department was taking to counter this threat. “I can’t reveal our exact plans but it will involve increasing fearful media stories about people ‘not like us,’ along with accompanying advertisements for firearms, video games, fast food, and new cars.” He chuckled and commented, “These radical terrorists won’t stand a chance.”

I went about my business the rest of the day with a prickly feeling in the nape of my neck. Were there people around me, normal looking people, who were secretly wishing me peace and harmony? How would I know? What could I do about it? Then I felt an urge to sit quietly and enjoy the quiet of my home. Could this be the result of a surreptitious attack? I fought the urge by opening my FaceBook account but couldn’t get the desire for quiet out of my mind. I finally went into the back yard, pulled up a lawn chair and sat to watch the chipmunks, jays, and quail sort through the seeds and nuts that Nancy had scattered.

What might we face next? These people are growing in numbers and influence. Be warned: we are all vulnerable to the presence of contentment and happiness and will need to be vigilant in order to make America Great Again and to Keep it Great.

reference The Onion http://www.theonion.com/article/buddhist-extremist-cell-vows-to-unleash-tranquilit-34623

Seeking Something?

My previous blog post about poverty and renunciation left several questions unanswered. Is renunciation simply the flip side of seeking more? Aren’t the ideas of seeking more and of seeking less both the process of seeking something? And what is that something? Is it unity with the Tao, with God, or something else? The only answers I have are idiosyncratic, applying to me and my life as I experience it and not prescriptive for others.

Many spiritualities advocate a seeking of God, of The One, or of Enlightenment. I have no real quarrel with this, but my experience of Taoism is a bit different. In Taoist thought the idea of unity with God/Tao is not an experience to be sought. It is simply a given in life. Everything is in unity with the Tao by its very nature. So, for me, seeking more or seeking less is about something other than God; something far more ordinary and prosaic.

I’m not looking for an esoteric experience of unity. (though there are times as I walk through the forest that such an experience arises unsought.) I’m not looking for holiness or righteousness. I’m not even looking to be “good” or “nice.” Like all human beings I am seeking, at the core, a satisfactory, authentic, and pleasurable experience of life. Take away the fancy spiritual words and that is what we are all seeking. Taoism admits that as a starting point.

So my seeking of a simpler and therefore, to me, freer life is not a spiritual quest. All of life is spiritual. Taoist thought recommends simplicity, not because it is holy or righteous, but because IT WORKS! If a constantly increasing accumulation of goods and wealth worked we would be the happiest, most contented society in history. If “more” worked better than “less,” we would be halfway to nirvana by now.

So, sure I’m seeking something. I’m seeking happiness. I have been all my life. And I’ve been successful. Not in finding the giddy Pollyanna kind of happiness, but in refining my work and my life to be more and more in tune with what seems authentic and satisfying. I can give a personal testimony that, for me, less is better than more.

With the basics of food, shelter, and community in place, a life of joyful freedom is possible. Work can be chosen for its helpfulness and creativity. Location can be chosen for its health and beauty. Company can be chosen for companionship and love. If you want something more, that’s fine with me. I have lots of very nice “things.” But my happiness arises from the freedom to enjoy my life. The reason religions have recommended renunciation, even though they couch it in spiritual terms, is because, in the “pursuit of happiness” it is the only thing that works. It may even increase a sense of the Presence of the Mystery. But that is really beside the point.

Taoist thought is, above all, ordinary and practical; no temples, no beliefs, no rules. Simply the encouragement to look carefully at life with clarity and honesty and discern what seems to be its natural way of flowing. What I have seen is this: simplicity is more gratifying than complexity; compassion is more satisfactory than hate; and generosity is more pleasurable than greed. It’s that simple.

A Different Kind of Freedom

It is said that to grow old in poverty is the worst of all fates. Certainly a kind of abject poverty with no food, shelter, or care whatsoever is appalling and offensive to humanity. But there is another kind of poverty that might actually be a step into an eldership of freedom and service. My father-in-law, Robert Elliott, once said, “Real security comes from knowing how to be poor.” I find myself facing that particular path at this stage of my life, partly out of choice, partly due to circumstance.

My conditioned mind has been at war with my essential nature for fifty years. Early in my twenties I was attracted to the simple life as exemplified in Zen and Catholic monasteries. I was not a fan of Catholic dogma but the simplicity and dedication of the lifestyle of a monk such as Thomas Merton was appealing to a deep part of me. Zen was even more attractive due to the absence of dogma while living the same sort of discipline.

However this simple, unassuming, and natural quality that was stirred by such images had no chance for fruition when faced with a conditioned mind that was firmly in place by my twenties. I graduated university as an engineer and went directly to career, marriage, and the start of a family. A natural step you say? Perhaps. But it was a step taken, not as a conscious choice, but as the path of least resistance; the road most traveled; the easiest way.

Even at that age, however, the inner Self was not without influence. Within four years I left my career and went to graduate school in Theology. Immediately the conditioned mind counter-attacked by leading me into a middle-class position as a clergyman with the American Dream very much alive and in control. Back came the essential Self and I was miserable until I quit ministry and went into private practice as a Therapist. Back and forth the battle raged, never letting me completely out of the rat race nor completely settled into a career and earning power. I kept trying to live a middle-class life while avoiding the career and income necessary for such a life. It’s been an amazing life and I have no complaints, but there are consequences.

Now I reach my seventies and am forced to acknowledge that the remainder of my life will be lived in what my society calls poverty, an arbitrary designation that fits almost half of all elder citizens in this country. My social security income is minimal. The royalties on my books are modest. Together the two average about just below the so-called poverty level for a family of two. To what point am I sharing such personal information? Here’s the point:

I find myself finally able to respond in a different manner to the message of teachers such as Jesus. (Not the Jesus of the church but the archetypal Jesus as the True Self) Remember the story of the Rich Young Man? The young man asked Jesus, “What must I do to be saved?” (saved: live an authentic, whole, integrated, and natural life) Jesus responded, “Sell all you own and give it to the poor. Then, come, follow me.” The young man went away sad because he owned a great many things.

I have owned, and still own, a great many things. For fifty years I have compromised, accommodated, clung, and avoided the truth of my life. Now, as a result of the lifetime of choices that have brought me to this point, I am left with no remaining choice but to follow, for I am at the end of my ability to cling. I can finally take a “vow” of poverty and, without the ability to back out, move into a simple and unfettered life.

I am very grateful for the presence of my beloved Nancy who, instead of giving the natural spousal response of, “Well, screw that!” has actually taken the lead in helping us see the liberation and joy that lie ahead. A new, smaller place to live. A schedule of work, meditation, qigong, and rest. The absence of a multitude of choices. And the freedom of  “…just another word for nothing left to lose.”

We have good healthy food, shelter, work to do, and people who care for us, so our “poverty” is relatively rich compared to the majority of the world’s population. But for people who have lived according to the myths of society for most of their lives, it is indeed a revolutionary self-understanding. One wonders, “Where are we going next?” And it also brings up the question: Just what does “preparing for old age” actually mean? Another ten or twenty years of the same old clinging, or a radical freedom that both Buddha and Jesus affirmed, that comes only from renunciation?

Daily Choices

Each day I face many moments which confront me with the question: “Will I choose freedom or bondage in this moment?” Each choice is either an act of revolution that contributes to the overturning of the systems that limit and oppress humanity; or it is an act of complicity that weaves another strand in the web that keeps such systems intact. The only step I can hope to see with any clarity is the small step in front of me at this moment, and even that is often blurred by my mental conditioning and ambiguity. But, when I do allow myself to see clearly, I cannot avoid the dilemma these daily choices present.

The fundamental acts of courage that will be required of me to live out my convictions will not be grabbing a rifle or stepping up to the barricades. They will be small unnoticed acts of stepping away from a medical monopoly that masquerades as health care; from an insurance complex that pretends to grant security; from agribusiness that purports to provide nutrition; from a government whose constituency is corporations; from the media which sells gladiator games, bread, and circuses and calls them information and entertainment; and from the military-industrial complex that sells death around the world and calls it freedom.

I don’t know the precise forms these acts of courage will take. They will be idiosyncratic and responsive to the particular situations in which I find myself. I already find myself in at-risk situations and my conditioning is pulling out all the stops to convince me that I am crazy, irresponsible, and foolhardy. “What will you do if…?” I am being asked by my entrenched mental pathways as they try to convince me that I cannot really give up the habits, beliefs, and so-called securities upon which I have come to depend.

Here is the tipping point which all would-be revolutionaries face: will I step into an unknown future in which I might be destroyed by the forces I oppose; or will I step back into an uneasy compliance, hoping someone or something will someday set me free?

No one (at the moment) is aiming a gun at me to force me into line. The forces I must encounter are far more powerful than loaded rifles. I face the conditioned stories of a lifetime that I have internalized as truth about the way I should live, eat, work, and entertain myself; about the meaning of success and failure; about my relationship with planet from which I was emerged and on which I live; about my country and its myth of democracy; about my life and about my death. You see my difficulty. I want to eat the cake of my life, yet still have it available to me in all the forms upon which I have become dependent.

I cannot tell another person what they should do next. I cannot make rules for myself or others to replace the rules that no longer serve.  I can only share the things I see within myself as I move into what seems to be a “Grey Panther” stage of my life. One thing I know for sure, this is damn hard work. I would rather sink back into the comfortable illusion that what I have been told is actually what is: that I can spend my way to happiness, work my way to satisfaction, and kill my way to safety and security. But once a lie is known, it can’t become the truth again. I have to keep on going, one step at a time, and learn to trust again the power of the Tao within me.

At the present time I am exploring my relationship with diet, economic security, health care, technology, and vocation. I have added a new page to this website to share the resources I have found helpful along the way. I will keep you posted as I continue to explore this Path, this “Tao,” that is leading me into lands I never dreamed I would encounter in my lifetime. It’s nice to have company along the way, isn’t it?

Memorial Day – 2016

Weapons are the tools of violence; all decent men detest them.

Weapons are the tools of fear; a decent man will avoid them except in the direst necessity

and, if compelled, will use them only with the utmost restraint.

Peace is his highest value.

If the peace has been shattered, how can he be content?

His enemies are not demons,

but human beings like himself.

He doesn’t wish them personal harm.

Nor does he rejoice in victory.

How could he rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men?

He enters a battle gravely,

with sorrow and with great compassion, as if he were attending a funeral.

            The Tao Te Ching, Chapter 31 – trans. Stephen Mitchell

On this memorial day I think of my son, a wonderful man who is nearing retirement from a 20 year career in the Army. He has been deployed to combat zones three times during his enlistment and has, thankfully, never been injured. He has, however, suffered the loss of many comrades — brothers and sisters in arms — and feels the poignancy and sorrow of this day in a deep and powerful manner. I see the vignettes on the internet of young children being given their father’s folded flag, the spouses touching the gravestones of lost loves, and the martial grandeur of uniforms, ribbons, and rifles. I am moved. Who could not but choke back tears at some of the images of extraordinary sacrifice and courage?

But now, what do I do with the feelings that arise alongside these tears of solidarity and support? What do I do with the anger at the handful of old men (and a few old women) who have decided when and where my son and his comrades will serve and die? Where do I turn with my outrage at this socially agreed upon fiction called “my nation” that goes to war? There is no such thing as, “nation.” Show it to me. Get it on the phone and let me speak with it. In fact wars are not declared by nations. They are declared by the powerful and hidden interests of a very few. Nor are wars fought by nations. They are fought by young men and women who are told where to go and at whom to point their weapons.

It is appropriate for these young men and women to deeply feel the sacrifice of their comrades. They naturally form bonds of courage and honor with their brothers and sisters. But who do I talk to about the reasons for their sacrifices? Where do I go with my questions about the how and why of war? Must I shut my mouth in the face of the courage of these young people? Must I be silent in the face of their loss? Must I repress the anger that wants to confront those who start, maintain, and profit from these wars, push them to the front lines, force a weapon into their hands and say, “You wanted this. Have at it!”

On this Memorial Day people nod their heads empathetically at my tears for fallen friends whose names are on that Low Black Wall. They sagely talk of honor, duty, and courage. But they quickly turn aside when I ask my questions. They are embarrassed, as if I had farted loudly in the middle of a prayer meeting. Everyone listens to my feelings of sorrow. All chime in agreement at my pride in my son’s bravery. But who will attend my outrage? Who will answer my questions? Who will honor the sacrifice of so many by saying, “No! No more!”

If the social/psychological fiction called a nation must go to war, let every citizen vote “yea” or “nay” before a rifle is lifted or a missile launched. And let there be on the ballot, attached to every “yea,” an enlistment form to be notarized that very day. And should the “yeas” carry, let all these forms, regardless of age or gender, be put in force at once, without exception. Then my outrage might be assuaged. Then Memorial Day may finally be a day of true sorrow, pure and clean and sharp, with no shadows of disenchantment lurking in my mind. In the meantime, I await the chance to speak with someone about the truth of how and why we really go to war.

Small Steps

The only step necessary in the journey of a thousand miles

is the next one – a single small step.

Lao-Tzu

Argument will not save the world, though persuasive argument my help a person clarify what is arising from their own experience. Preaching will surely not save the world, so I have to be careful in my writing not to revert to my younger days when, dressed in vestments and standing high above attentive rows of listeners, I would tell it like it is, calling it (please forgive me) the “Word of God.”

So I have to write along a path that winds between argument and preaching on one side, and passive pablum on the other. Certain understandings and convictions are gaining intensity and power within me and I want to express just how they are changing my actions and my experience. Telling you what you should do or trying to convince you to believe something, however, is not my intention. Goodness knows, I don’t really know exactly what to do myself. What I want to do is to express what is happening to me, inside and out, as I continue to walk along this marvelous, terrifying, wondrous Way of Tao.

One of the shifts that has occurred in my life is a new understanding of my relationship with the food I eat. Nancy and I are now committed to a plant-based diet. I’m not going to argue the merits of a particular diet. That is one of the many arenas where each of us will have to make personal choices based on what we see and understand of our relationship to the Tao and to the infinite ways it expresses itself. For Nancy and me, the effects of our diet on our health, on the economy, on the environment, and on broader issues of justice and compassion, has become one more step in our journey.

What we eat, how we obtain what we eat, and how these processes affect other lives is an important area of personal revolutionary activism.. The process by which we feed ourselves is intricately intertwined with political and economic systems, with health care systems, and with environmental systems around the world. It relates to how our desires are stimulated by media, how our addictions are fueled, and how we are distracted from clear thinking by emotional arguments.

If you are at the point where you would like to examine this particular area of culture, there are some basic questions you might ask yourself. Try to answer them from as much clear and valid information as you can gather. Don’t assume you know ahead of time, and don’t assume that there is a “right” answer. You’ll find conflicting claims and you’ll need to ask yourself which make the most sense, and why.

Why do you eat what you do?
Where does the food you eat originate?
What makes a food “taste good” to you?
How is it processed?
How does it reach your kitchen?
Who benefits from the way you eat? Who suffers?
What and who are you supporting with your food dollars?
What criteria do you use when choosing which foods to purchase and where to purchase them?

I obviously have reached some of my own conclusions. If you are interested in the people and books who have influenced me, please check the resources below. Whatever your conclusions about the best “next step” on your own “thousand-mile journey,” please arrive at them mindfully with the knowledge that you are part of a revolution that will eventually determine the fate of humanity on Planet Earth. These steps are the only possible route to the revolution we want. They’ll be different for each of us at particular times in our lives, but they are essential.

Liberte′

Bill

The Happy Herbivore, by Lindsay Nixon, published by BenBella Books

Food Inc. award winning  documentary video by Robert Kenner

Forks over Knives, documentary by Lee Fulkerson

The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, published by BenBella Books

My Year of Meats – a novel by Ruth Ozeki, published by Penguin, (one of my favorite writers)

The Acceptance Paradox

Acceptance of what is is the only path to change.

We must accept, with clear and calm awareness,

that our world is gravely wounded,

dysfunctional, and deluded.

We must not turn our eyes away,

pretending not to notice.

We must not believe that if we grit our teeth,

and try a little harder to make things work,

that all will turn out fine.

We must empty ourselves of hope

that the road our world is traveling

will lead to peace and freedom.

We must abandon all the things

that we’ve been told will lead to satisfaction.

We must give up trying to be right,

and let the Tao begin to live our life.

Only then will space appear,

an empty womb in which

a new world might be born.

From The Activist’s Tao Te Ching, Chapter 22, by William Martin

Why don’t people who live in abusive situations get out of them? Why do abused spouses remain with the abuser? Why do people stay with jobs that are literally killing them, robbing their lives of all joy? What stops us from making the changes that we know, at some level, are necessary to our health and survival?

I remember my days of working as a psychotherapist. I would sometimes sit with a person who was living with a abusive mate. Month after month, year after year, this person would continue to stay in an abusive situation because, circling endlessly in their mind, just under the radar of consciousness, ran the message, “This is your responsibility. It is your duty, obligation, and moral imperative to find a way to behave that stops this person from abusing you. If you were patient enough, compassionate enough, smart enough, and good enough you would be able to fix this problem. Until you find that way, you just have to do the best you can and try to survive.”

Until this client somehow found the ability to wake up with a loud, “ENOUGH!” screaming from their lips, nothing would ever change. Until they accepted, deep within their bones, the reality of the situation they would continue to allow the abuse and continue to believe that there should be something they could do to change the abuser into someone other than who they were.

As the mother of all dysfunctional electoral seasons continues to unfold before our bewildered and astonished eyes, I find myself with an uncomfortable realization: This . is . abusive!  I hear the familiar tape being played in my head that has been playing all of my life. The message runs; “This is your responsibility. It is your duty, obligation, and moral imperative to find a way to campaign, support, vote, and be active in politics until you find a way to stop this system from abusing you. If you were active enough and informed enough; if you marched enough and shouted enough; if you were eloquent enough and persuasive enough; if you gave enough and worked enough, you would be able to make this system work. Until you are able to do that, you will have to keep on trying because it is the best system available. Trust us, it will work out.”

Voting for a “third party” won’t help. The electoral system will not allow a third party to be heard or represented on an equitable basis. Apathetic withdrawal won’t help. Apathy is just another way of giving the abusive party in a relationship permission to continue the abuse. “Oh, well. He’s just who he is. Nothing I can do.” The only thing that will allow for true change will be for the abused party to fully accept the reality of the situation and walk away from the relationship; totally, cleanly, with no compromises or promises to return.

We must have a revolution. From a Taoist perspective, it must be a peaceful and non-violent revolution that begins with the willingness to walk away from the abuse. But it is important to note that when an abused spouse finds the willingness to leave the relationship, they enter a period of terrifying emptiness and darkness. Everything they had learned to count on, no matter how dysfunctional, is now gone and a long period of fear and groundlessness ensues. If we find the courage to walk away from the abuse we collectively have been enduring, we will need to build systems of support, encouragement, creative thinking, experimental approaches, and compassion for each other at a local, sustainable, and appropriate level.

Until a massive collective shout of, “ENOUGH!” echoes through society, we will continue to vote and pretend that we are doing something good, civic, and constructive. We will continue to expend enormous amounts of physical and psychological energy in a wasted effort that simply gives permission for an oligarchy of a small number of very wealthy and powerful people to pretend it is a democracy, after all, they let us vote. Instead of compliance with this charade, let us take the energy we would expend on this futile abusive relationship and dedicate it to stepping away into an unknown, frightening, yet ultimately hopeful and creative future. Let’s build a new way of being with each other that is authentic and consistent with our deepest longings.

(Do I know how to do this? Not really. I’m figuring it out as I go along. So are we all. Let’s figure it out together. I’ll continue writing my thoughts, life-style experiments, and occasional rants as part of my own contribution.)

Liberte′

Bill

Active Quietism

Sitting still allows us to notice the subtle stirrings of the mind.

Small thoughts that lead to suffering are seen early and easily set aside.

Since trouble begins in the mind,we watch the mind with care and trouble is stopped before it begins.

This practice seems so passive and still.

Yet it is the seedling

from which the great tree grows.

It is the single step

that begins the journey of a thousand miles.

If we hurry or force our practice, it slips away from us.

We release ideas

of success and failure.

We patiently take the next necessary step

and everything unfolds as it should.

We lay down our wanting

and pick up our contentment.

We lay down our conditioning

and pick up our true nature.

We gently help all beings everywhere return to their true nature.

The Tao Te Ching, Chapter 64 – trans. William Martin

The Tao Te Ching, with its deep understanding of the energy of Yin and Yang together, presents a revolutionary message — a culture changing message —  in the subtle form of “active quietism.” Its author, the legendary Chinese sage, Lao-Tzu, is often called the “father of quietism” for his emphasis on cooperation with the flow of the Tao rather than imposition of our own agendas upon it. However, each poetic chapter of his classic little book contains a seed, which if germinated, would transform society.

A quietist accepts the world as he finds it, understanding that the complex dynamics of life are not under his control. He does not seek to fix it according to his own agendas not impose upon it his own standards. The activist sees certain aspects of society to be unacceptable and seeks to make changes in these aspects through direct or indirect action. His actions may arise from compassion or simply from anger and frustration. The Tao Te Ching combines the two stances; accepting the world as it is in the moment without seeking to lay blame, argue, or instill hate; and at the same time letting a natural willingness arise to take energetic and focused action at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner in order to be a part of the natural flow, change, and balance of the Tao.

The quiet activist acts, but does not argue, does not blame, and does not hate; neither does he stop trying to make his actions congruent with his inner convictions and growing understandings of the way life flows. He seeks first of all to align his own life with his convictions before he seeks to impose any change upon the outer world. This is the very heart of Taoist activism and requires courage, sacrifice, and soul-searching honesty. Perhaps I am misquoting this anecdote, but once a mother asked Gandhi to tell her young son to stop eating so much sugar. Gandhi told the mother, “come back in two weeks.” The mother was puzzled, but did as the Mahatma instructed. Two weeks later the mother arrived with her son and Gandhi sat with the boy and told him that it would be best if he stopped eating so much sugar; that it was bad for his health. The mother asked him, “Why didn’t you just say that two weeks ago?” Gandhi replied, “Two weeks ago I was eating too much sugar.” Gandhi embodied the active quietist.

I’m not interested in being a Gandhi. I am very interested in making the Tao a more vital and transformative part of my life. I believe a cultural revolution is necessary and inevitable, and that it will gather its energy from the transformation of individual lives. This leads me to the uncomfortable realization that my many opinions about the ills of society remain separated from the moment-by-moment ways I go about my life. In turn, this leads me to the question of, “What action can I take today, in this moment, to nudge my living more and more into alignment with my deepest understandings?”

“Non-cooperation” is a term Gandhi used to describe a complete boycott of British rule by the Indian people – British goods, British jobs, British schools, British courts, and British honors. It required discipline, sacrifice, and renunciation. I am drawn to the concept of non-cooperation, but in my culture it is a terrifyingly complex subject. I am caught in a spider web of interconnected habits, artificial needs, real needs, and an economy that is dominated by large and powerful institutions. How do I go about not cooperating? First, I must realize that I cannot completely withdraw my cooperation. I drive an automobile. I heat my house with kerosene. I pay taxes to support a government whose policies bring me dismay and embarrassment.

So, I do the best I can. I observe “no driving” days as often as I can. I pay the extra expense to heat with local forest wood as much as I can. I buy from local health food stores as much as possible and I buy brands that are as healthy and sustainable as possible. Nancy and I have shifted our eating habits to a plant-based diet that ends our participation in the meat industry; an industry I consider to be one of the most environmentally destructive and unhealthy industries in existence. I do not have a television nor an internet connection in my home. This enables me to greatly lessen my participation in the cultural myths and illusions that fill the ether. Each day I consider the question: “Has it come time to take another small step away from my comfortable complicity with my culture?”

I am stuck with what feel like imperfect responses. I value my comfort and convenience and undoubtedly rationalize dozens of habits that perpetuate a system I know is destroying the world. Still, I am going to do the best I can in the present moment, and remain open to more radical actions and changes as they arise. That is all that I can do. That is all any of us can do. And these efforts will be our best contribution to the growing momentum of revolution that will heal our world.

Interview With William Martin

This interview was made by New World Library to promote my latest book: The Activist’s Tao Te Ching, Ancient Advice for a Modern Revolution. It should be available soon, certainly by mid-May. It is available now on pre-order at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Indiepress.

 

Choices

A knower of the Truth does what is called for, then stops.

He uses his strength but does not force things.

In the same way,

complete your task,

seek no reward,

make no claims,

Without faltering fully choose to do what you must do.

This is to live without forcing, to overcome without conquering.

From The Tao Te Ching, Chapter 30 – trans. Jonathan Star

As the national election cycle heats up, I am reminded of the time-honored parental strategy for keeping a child under control in the midst of a toy store. As the child’s eyes widen over the array of colorful toys spread before him, the parent intervenes with, “Look, Jimmy, here are some balloons. You can choose. Do you want a red one or a blue one? It’s your choice.”

Actually, Jimmy wants a toy truck and he states, “I want that truck.” But that option is not on the table and the parent smiles and returns to, “You can’t have a truck, but you get to choose which balloon you want. Go on, pick one.”

“I want the truck,” comes the reply.

“Well you can’t have the truck and if you don’t pick either of these balloons you won’t get anything at all!”

I suppose it’s an effective strategy for teaching a five-year-old certain limits, but you and I are not young children.

National elections could be made to more closely resemble democracy. Candidates could come from all walks of life and represent a wide range of party affiliations – Republican, Democrat, Green, Libertarian, Socialist, Communist – each with equal access to media. Campaign finances could be reformed to insure that every candidate could spend only a set amount of money for all campaign expenses and that amount would be the same for every candidate, from Republican to Green. Media outlets could return to their original charter which required them to provide public information at no charge. Each candidate and party would receive the same amount of air time. Debates could include all issues with a format that would allow lengthy and considered answers rather than uncivil dogfights. If one candidate did not receive more than 50% of the vote, a runoff election could be held. Major parties might still dominate, but the concerns of all would be discussed on an even playing field.

However, culture has conspired to keep us young and under control. It’s not just in elections. Our choices of where and how to live, how to earn money, what to buy, how to entertain ourselves, and how to relate to other nations, are presented as choices as if to a child. “You can do this or this. You can have this or this, but there are no other choices, not if you want to be a good and productive citizen. Other choices are dangerous. Only malcontents, rebels, anarchists and terrorists want other choices.”

Goodness gracious, people may begin to choose simpler lifestyles, independent careers, and alternate family structures. They may step off of the rat race and live, to some degree, off the grid of consumerism. They may see past the billions spent on advertising worthless products and begin to spend less money but spend it on better purchases. This would be economically unacceptable so we, like the five-year-old, are presented with a manufactured illusion of choice everywhere we turn.

The good news is that we don’t have to believe this illusion. There are choices available to us far beyond what we are led to believe. We can have something other than A or B. There are choices C, D, E, F…. waiting for us everywhere we turn. These other choices require courage, patience, creativity, and confidence but choosing them will begin to set a new course for our lives and for our society.

Pay attention. Are the choices you make actually free choices? Or are they limited by the voices of conditioned thinking that are only interested in keeping things as they are, for the benefit of a few? I want the truck! A truck can carry all sorts of useful things without complaining. It can be a tool for building a new world.  Balloons are full of air and can’t carry much of anything. Besides, if I buy them they’ll undoubtedly deflate or burst by the time I get them home.