NIHILISM AS A SOCIAL CRUTCH
Definition
Nihilism (/ˈnaɪ(h)ɪlɪzəm, ˈniː-/; from Latin
nihil 'nothing') is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that
rejects general or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective
truth, knowledge, morality, values or meaning. Different nihilist positions
hold variously that human values are baseless, that life is meaningless, that
knowledge is impossible, or that some sets of entities do not exist or are
meaningless or pointless.
Dear reader,
October is my month - I was born in October.
This time, I am reflecting on a topic that is as mysterious as it is dark - It
is called NIHILISM. That is a topic that has been debated for many years by
academics and philosophers. The main protagonist of this idea was the
philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche - 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900. A philosopher,
cultural critic, composer, poet, writer, and philologist whose work has exerted
a profound influence on modern intellectual history.
To understand how a purposely empty way of
viewing the world has become filled with such darkness, it pays to spend some
time with Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche hated systems and fixed moral
principles; he saw no objective order to life beyond what we give it. Many
choose to fixate on this rejection of traditional belief systems and understanding
of meaning. Yes, he felt that moral and social conventions stifled individual
thought and reason − but he didn’t say we should destroy them for the sake of
it. Another master of nihilism (although he was not aware of this modern name)
was Buddha.
Nirvana and nihilism
The culmination of the path that the Buddha
taught was nirvana, "a place of nothingness…non possession and non-attachment…[which
is] the total end of death and decay." Ajahn Amaro, an ordained Buddhist
monk of more than 40 years, observes that in English nothingness can sound like
nihilism. However, the word could be emphasized in a different way, so that it
becomes no-thing-ness, indicating that nirvana is not a thing you can find, but
rather a state where you experience the reality of non-grasping.
In the Alagaddupama Sutta, the Buddha describes
how some individuals feared his teaching because they believe that their self
would be destroyed if they followed it. He describes this as an anxiety caused
by the false belief in an unchanging, everlasting self. All things are subject
to change and taking any impermanent phenomena to be a self-causes suffering.
Nonetheless, his critics called him a nihilist who teaches the annihilation and
extermination of an existing being. The Buddha's response was that he only
teaches the cessation of suffering. When an individual has given up craving and
the conceit of 'I am' their mind is liberated, they no longer come into any
state of 'being' and are no longer born again.
Nihilism is one of those terms that everyone
uses very freely, often without fully understanding what it means. It is subbed
in for ‘negative’ or ‘depressing’, a perennial indicator of a bad vibe. So,
before we can examine our changing relationship to the concept, we must reflect
on it carefully:
Nihilism is a nice “crutch” that most modern
people use when they are faced with fear and anxiety. Now we have the global
pandemic called COVID-19 and responses to this crisis has divided the world
into two camps:
a) Those
who promote the need to vaccinate everybody in order to stop this virus and
b) Those who say that Covid is not only the only
problem, but we are experiencing the climate change problems, neo-liberalism
and the failings of capitalism and the demise of democracy.
We, therefore, are experiencing a major loss of
control of our daily lives and consequently, many people cannot find any
meaning in life, and many suffer mental health problems and as well as chronic
loneliness particularly we see this in many youths who are feeling a lack of
adult guidance and are seeking (mainly online) an ideal way out. Enter Syfret,
Wendy the Australian author of “The Sunny Nihilist” She states:
“Sunny nihilism breaks away from the previous
fixation on destruction by viewing pointlessness as a chance to breathe and
think. Ultimately serving as a blank page, a chance to enjoy the moment, the
present, the chaos and luck of being alive at all”
After examining in great detail the philosophy
of Nietzsche that spanned over a century, she offers the possibility to change
our relationship with the term NIHILISM. She calls for a new revision of the
idea and thus creates a shift in using the negative belief into a positive
perception and thus, creates a new paradigm.
My own reflections on the dark side and the
light side of nihilism led me to evolve the third side that comes from the
gestalt therapy work and that is make a dialog with both sides or polarities
and discover the possibility to become aware of a third side. The ideas that
emerged for me, seeking the third side, came from the reading the book THE
URBAN MONK by Shojai, Pedram. He is a master monk and a teacher.
THE WISDOM OF URBAN MONK
We live in a culture of proclamations instead
of self-inquiry. What this means is that, at the ripe age of 17 or 18, we must
decide what we want to be for the rest of our lives and somehow announce that
to the world. “I’m going to be a doctor, lawyer, programmer, teacher . . .” We
end up making a proclamation about who we are based on what our whimsical interests
were in our late teens and are oftentimes stuck with this decision for the rest
of our lives. Suppose we decided to be a lawyer because we wanted job security
and were good at reading; we then find ourselves surrounded by other lawyers
for much of our lives. If we then decide to practice criminal law, we could
then find ourselves with clients who may not be too savoury. Doctors are
surrounded by sick people and other doctors. Teachers are saddled with politics
and crowded classrooms. Essentially, if we are what we eat, the decisions we
make early in life oftentimes surround us with the types of people we’ll engage
with for decades. This isn’t inherently bad, but what it does is serve us with
a worldview that reinforces a fabricated identity. Who we think we are is
compounded by who buys into that role? All of this happens at a time in life
when we should be asking an important question instead: Who am I?
BIG PICTURE EXERCISE
A powerful way to frame a transformation in
your life is to change your current circumstances in a hypothetical scenario
and play it out. Ask yourself: If time, money, and place were not a
consideration, what would I love to do with my time? Then ask yourself the
following questions:
Why?
What can I do to go there?
What stands in my way?
Is it a
real or a perceived limitation?
How can I transform these obstacles?
How can I change my current lifestyle to
accommodate this and move toward the goal I planned?
HERE ARE SOME WAYS TO DO THIS:
Stress
Being saddled by too much stress impacts the
immune system and the nervous system, and it messes with our metabolism. It
cuts flow to the frontal part of the brain, which is the part associated with
higher moral reasoning and the critical thinking capacity that makes us human.
Time
Time
connects us to all the power in the Universe. Our better understanding of what
it is and how we can exist within the flow of it will liberate us in ways we
can’t even imagine. Time is one of our greatest teachers and an ally in life.
It is the anchor of our being; when we squander time, we waste our life force.
Because we are disconnected from our essential selves, we spend it frivolously
and speak of being bored.
Energy
This is
the currency of life. As you may recall from martial arts, qi energy can be
cultivated into Shen (or Spirit). This becomes the juicy stuff that helps us
connect with the life all around us. It is the fabric of consciousness that we
share with all the life around us, and it is something we can enhance and
refine with our practice. The baseline is having a robust, healthy system that
flows with qi. Getting out of our own way and then refining our energy into
spirit is the way of alchemy and one of the missing pieces to the “lack of
purpose” dilemma we face in the West.
Sleep
What goes up must come down, and sleep is where
we heal on the soul level. It’s where our subconscious minds connect with the
collective unconscious and where we derive meaning from our day’s events. Most
of us are so far behind in sleep debt that we always feel like something’s
missing. Correcting this and connecting with our daily “small death” helps us
tap into the web of life. When we have adequately slept, our baseline anxiety
starts to go away, and we regain the focus and perspective to find answers for
ourselves.
Stagnant lifestyle
Now is the first time in human history that we’ve become so stagnant, sitting around most of the day. Many of us are lost and disconnected from our primal roots. Getting moving is essential to unlocking our vital energy and activating key genes that code for growth and longevity. When the body doesn’t move, it signals a shutdown and makes the mind dull, leading to a sense of disconnection and unease. Purpose doesn’t always hit you over the head. It comes naturally once we’ve turned our lights back on by getting back in the flow of movement.
Diet
Good food powers the brain and activates higher
spiritual centres to wake us up. Bad food does the opposite; it lulls us to
dull sleep and messes with our energy flow. Getting on the right side of this
equation is critical. You can’t eat junk and expect to find some higher purpose
in life.
Nature
As the shamanic teacher Alberto Villoldo says,
in the West, we are the only people who see ourselves outside of the Garden.
The perception that we were evicted from a natural paradise has cut us off from
the profound respect for the natural world that is bred into so many cultures. We
tear through forests, mine through mountains, pollute rivers, and fill the
earth with plastic shit we didn’t really need. Disconnecting from nature pulls
us from the umbilical cord of the universe and separates us from all the other
life to which we are bound.
Loneliness
There is no such thing as loneliness when we
find God, Truth, or whatever you need to call It. When we’re disconnected from
our essential selves, we feel isolated and confused. Tapping into our childhood
passions and understanding that we’ve all got bullshit we are carrying around
is the first stop. We can then find meaning in each other. We can understand
our common plight and see ourselves in others. As we take care of ourselves and
vitalize our own lives, we can support others and tap into the energy of
service.
Money
There
are lots of wealthy people who lack meaning in life. They go on expensive
retreats, wear the nicest yoga clothes, buy lots of massages, and are still
miserable. Money doesn’t buy meaning if you’ve bought into the false promise of
conspicuous consumption. Use money to fuel your dreams and lead you on a life
of adventure and inquiry. Use it to help others and make the world a better
place. Meaning isn’t bought. It is home grown.
It is easy to forget how at the beginning of
the pandemic, things felt briefly surmountable. When the numbers were low − and
for those of us living on an island at the edge of the world, the crisis far
away − people liked to talk about what this unparalleled break in normality
‘meant’. We told ourselves it was nature hitting back after centuries of abuse,
a call from the universe to slow down, some cosmic reminder to get to know our
neighbours better or finally tidy up the balcony. Clearing out cupboards,
archiving family documents and calling old friends, so many marvelled, ‘I never
would have gotten to this without a pandemic.’ We looked for reason within the
blooming chaos because reason and meaning are the superstructure, we’ve been
taught to build our lives within.
Your comments will be greatly appreciated.
No comments:
Post a Comment