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Psycological Ecology
— Walking the Rice Paper
Andrew Paterson—04/2002 |
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If we want to save this planet, we need to
learn to live with minimum physical impact. But
minimum physical impact can only come from practicing
minimum psychological impact in every aspect of
our lives. |
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 HERE
WAS AN OLD 70's
television series called Kung Fu which starred David
Caradine as a wondering monk. In one of his flashbacks
to his childhood, his master unravels a large roll
of rice paper along the floor and asks the young monk
to walk along it. He walks the length and turns around.
Behind him he sees his footprints. The master says
that when he can walk the rice paper without leaving
a trace, he will be ready to leave the monastery and
go out into the world. This is a lovely analogy of
harmlessness, for when we leave no trace, we have harmed
nothing. |
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| On the other side of the coin, if we leave a trace,
and we have not been mindful, then we have probably
harmed something or someone. Examples include our damage
to the environment, and our meddling in other countries
affairs (one cause of terrorism). Close to home, mindlessly "leaving
a trace" can hurt our families, destroy communities,
block communication and bring unhappiness. |
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| It is one thing to want to mindfully make the world
a better place, it is quite another to want to leave
our mark in the world for the glorification of ourselves
or our abilities. Leaving our mark for the sake of
our own self-importance has become endemic to modern
society: we puff ourselves up; we raise our voices;
we walk with our nose in the air; we exaggerate our
accomplishments; we wear designer clothes and expensive
watches; we drive ridiculous cars; we flaunt the accoutrements
of success; we try to be interesting, intelligent,
sexy, wise, spiritual, decisive, violent, aggressive,
loving, positive, witty, all in the name of personal
impact. God forbid if anyone should label us as ordinary
or forgettable! |
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| We aspire to those who have made a large impact in
the world, whether good or bad. We admire the powerful
and the confident, not the humble and the sensitive.
The name of the game is self-empowerment, self-expression,
having what we want, making an impact on those around
us. We go to weekend courses, read books, flirt with
and mimic those who have attained it. We want to become
like gods, able to control every aspect of our reality
and our destiny. Imagine a planet of over 6 billion
people trying to have maximum impact, trying to demonstrate
how special and unique they are! Individuality and
self-expression have become the goal of modern society. |
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| And yet, the happiest moments of our lives are usually
when we allow our individuality, our personality to
drop, just for a moment. For in that moment everything
becomes quiet and the pressure to "make our mark" has
been replaced by a pure and simple open awareness.
Bliss! The world can go its own way; people can think
what they like about us; we are free. And in those
moments we might realize just what a burden it is to
always be trying to stamp our identity on life. |
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| The imposition of identity or personality on the
world is of such primary concern because most of us
are terrified of simply being. For in that moment of
being, we become NOTHING: all that we think others
love and support us for; all that we have worked for;
all our personal attributes, our body, physical looks,
our health, our gender, our intelligence; all that
we have done, our past, our parentage, our schooling,
our family; all our tragedies and our successes; all
that we believe makes us special and unique is discarded
to make room for the present moment. And for most of
us, that is completely unacceptable. |
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| Mark Epstein describes in his book, "Going To
Pieces Without Falling Apart", having an interview
when he was a young man with the former psychologist
Ram Dass (who used to be Professor Richard Alpert before
embracing Eastern philosophies). Epstein expounded
on his issues, expecting Ram Dass to give him good
advice and clarity. But what Ram Dass unexpectedly
gave him was pure being: he sat there looking into
Epstein's eyes in silence. He didn't leave his mark.
The result was a very powerful experience for Epstein,
for he realized that the gift of being was the highest
gift that another can give us… pure, uncontaminated
being. Ram Dass was leaving no trace on the rice paper,
and in doing so gave Epstein the room to make the most
profound changes himself. "Leaving no trace" is
what a real master does, for ONLY that can lead to
real healing. |
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| Here is an exercise: try walking into a room of people,
friends or otherwise, with minimum impact. Watch what
you think each moment as you are in that room, and
listen to what you say to others. Chances are that
most of our interaction is an attempt at expressing
ourselves, our opinions and our ideas. What happens
when we stop doing this and rest only in pure awareness?
We are no longer on a social battlefield, involved
in an escalating "aren't I special" race. Suddenly
we have room to embrace the essence of others, and
in that embrace we find our common spirit. It is amazing
how even the most egotistical person will often change,
just for a moment, when confronted with another coming,
as best he or she can, from pure being. |
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| That exercise above is harder than we think. Each
part of our minds is crying out for expression, for
we are not yet practiced in the art of being. We abhor
being a nothing! How boring and uninteresting — a
sure way to be unloved, so we think. And we believe
that expressing nothing is akin to repressing everything,
a recipe of unhappiness and frustration. Isn't it better
out than in? Repression is a mechanism by which we
block feelings and thoughts that are moving through
us. When we are in pure being, we freely acknowledge
feeling and thoughts that come up, but we do not identify
with them. We do not get lost in them. The important
thing is that their existence has been noted by us.
Much of self-expression actually perpetuates a cycle
of psychological dissonance; for example, by freely
expressing our anger to those around us, we identify
with anger and become angrier — the "anger
grove" is just worn deeper. (If the "express
it to let it go" theory really worked, angry people
would by now be peaceful!) |
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| This is what might be called psychological ecology;
we have respected our being by not trying to make our
mark on it. And psychological ecology leads to real
ecology, otherwise, it makes no sense to expect a society
to have less impact on this planet when each member
of that society is positively encouraged to have maximum
impact in that society. We don't know how to tread
lightly, so how can we expect human civilisation to
tread lightly? It has to start with us teaching our
children that they don't need to be special; they don't
need to shine. The paradox is that we shine the most
when we don't try at all. We are most impacting on
those around us when we make a conscious and mindful
effort to be least impacting. We are most interesting,
when we are empty. We do the most good in the world,
when we know how to be without swinging our psychological
baggage around. We are most powerful and impacting
when we try to be least powerful and impacting. |
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Psychological ecology: the ecology and psychology
of the future. Minimum impact is where is has to be
if we to have any chance of bringing ourselves out
of this hole of self-glorification. Walking the rice
paper in our minds, in our relationships, and in the
world, without leaving a trace, can perhaps do more
good then every good intention put together. And that
gift of pure being will surely change leaders, for
only the meek have ever had true lasting impact, for
they speak to the heart and not the mind. Only the
meek are bold enough to live the solution, and teach
by example. Only the meek are simple enough to freely
walk through the old system without fear, for they
carry no weapons either in their minds or their hands.
Maybe that is what Jesus meant, at the Sermon on the
Mount, when he said that the meek shall inherit the
earth. But that humility has to be real — it has
to be grounded in minimum psychological impact. We
have to be able to walk the rice paper and leave no
trace. |
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| "It really
doesn't matter if generations to come remember
your name. You won't be there to see it." |
| Lieh
Tzu |
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| Andrew Paterson is an independent writer currently living in London. He has no affiliation to any religious or political organisation. To contact him, please email . |
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