An Open Letter to My Grandchildren & Yours
Let me thank you, my beloved grandchildren, for bringing light to my life and, like your mother, for being my hearts inspiration. Words simply cannot express the delight that grandchildren bring to one's existence. Who would have guessed - in our ‘young is better’ culture - that being a grandparent would turn out to be life’s greatest joy? Every bit as wonderful as being a parent, though so much less work! lol
You were born, as we all are, with that sparkle of innocence in your eyes, and I’ve written this book (and accompanying blog) to do my part to help you keep it - not for the purpose of changing you, mind you, but in the hope of changing the world for your sakes.
You might think that sounds grandiose, but the truth is, too many people have delusions of insignificance, and delusions of grandeur are much more realistic, since we change the world, one way or another, with every choice we make. So it might as well be for the better! One thing is certain – we cannot do anything we don’t try to do, and we are unlikely to try to do anything we don’t believe is possible. Maybe not everything we believe we can do is equally possible, but then we’ll never know if we don’t do our best to find out.
So, yes, I believe books - and perhaps blogs - can change the world, albeit one person at a time. Indeed, if philosophy proves anything, it's that individual voices are the only thing that ever really has! They start by changing how we see things, which can make all the difference. There may be birds singing, friends laughing, and coffeecake in the oven, but if we’re caught up in conflict in our minds, we’ll miss all the best of it. Not to suggest that some conflict isn’t necessary, or that things should be let go that must be resolved. But it’s the unnecessary conflict that is so poisonous to happiness.
Chief among these is that conflict which is set into motion within each of us when we are asked – beyond sense and reason – to choose between wisdom traditions, as if only one could be true. It might make sense to ask us to choose which is closer and which is further from the mark of truth. At least then we’d be engaged in deliberating and thinking for ourselves. But there are those, too many, who hide behind religion like wolves wear sheep’s clothing, who would rather we not think, and so not have the power to actualize those higher potentials Jesus and others tried to teach us, to create our lives as we think best, or even dream of a more just world.
So this book and its blog aim to help the reader ‘see’ what is possible, at least for those who believe in their higher human potentials. As the ancients would remind us, little happens in human life that does not begin in our imagination. And ancient wisdom can help us imagine, and then create, that refreshing reawakening that is possible in this world, one person at a time, if and when we remember what the ancients knew that we have somehow forgotten.
These voices have often fallen on deaf ears though, as the mustard seed on infertile soil, in part because we’ve warned and even threatened not to listen. In fact, over the centuries many have been, and still are in some parts of the world, put to death for asking the very questions to which ancient wisdom offered profound and useful answers. But rather than being helped to understand them, we have too often been taught to choose between them, not for the sake of understanding what they are saying, but for the sake of believing and following those who say them. So too often we have settled for the mere appearance of truth, that bares little resemblance to the real thing. We have learned to call things true for which there is no real evidence, and in fact, even to deny real evidence rather than question our favorite version of the truth.
The widespread assumption is that any one thing being ‘true’ renders all others ‘false,’ but nothing could be further of the truth of how truth works. For what renders something true is not that some holy man, or book, or powerful tradition insists that it is, but rather that it stays true, regardless of the perspective that we look at it from or the challenges it comes up against. It can answer to all question, and does not deny scrutiny or deflect challenge. It simply stands to reason. Indeed, this is how we know something is true – because it can answer to our questions until ultimately we run out of them and are left with contented understanding because the truth simply makes sense.
So instead of asking, which of the world’s traditions is the right one, as if it follows that all others must be wrong, we would do well to ask instead, what do we have to learn from ALL these great wisdom traditions, and what’s more, from one another. For all our ancient betters offer insights of practical value for all the challenges of living that we individually and collectively share.
Instead, filled with the conceit of false certainty, we ignore all that we don’t want to see, and judge from outside-in what we know little or nothing of from inside-out. And in the process, we prove ourselves to be poor judges, at best, and ignorant fools, at worst. After all, ‘ignorance’ is the noun root of the active verb ‘to ignore.’
By contrast, as Socrates would remind us, we need only discover one true thing to begin to figure out everything else. For only by having something stable to tether all else to can we begin to see how everything is connected.
And for me, as for many, that one thing was the love of my child. As Gandhi said of his own transformation, "Those pearl-drops of love cleansed my heart and washed my sin away." And as gnosis would have it, "Only he who has experienced such love can know what it is…"(Gandhi, p.14)
Having learned how to love from my daughter, your mother, I discovered that Socrates was right – and that when we begin to see the deep beauty in a child - that one true thing will help us see it in everyone else!
The Good News and the Bad News
So there is good news, and there is bad news.
The good news is, you needn’t read this whole book or blog, all at once, in any particular order, or even at all. Philos (the search for or love of) sophia (truth or wisdom) can be encouraged by the written word, but it doesn’t require them.
Still, other people’s words can help us make sense of our own experience, and a few well-chosen words can be like medicine for the soul. And for this reason, I trust you’ll find, eventually, that the ancient wisdom all this recalls could enhance your lives in powerful ways, and ultimately make you happier, more fulfilled, and let you live a life you can be proud of.
But philosophy has its own mood, to be sure, and that mood can come and go throughout our lives. So we ought to make the most of it while we're in it, as I have. And so feel free to read only when and if the spirit moves you. The beauty of the written word is that it waits…however long it takes for us to be ready to understand what it brings us.
The bad news is, you may not have the luxury of time, and may truly need to understand all this before you really want to or are ready. Because, sadly, we – those generations that came before you - are leaving you a world we’ve too long neglected, and too little by way of instruction about how you might resolve the problems we’ve created or take better care to avoid creating more.
But then there is more good news, because the ancients cared about and understood all this much more than your more immediate ancestor haves, and they left us their best insights to help you and your children remember. This blog and it's book are a collection of those voices that you and your children’s children are going to need in order to face and rise above with grace and intelligence the myriad challenges that we have left you and generations to come.
Fortunately, the ancients knew how to turn crises into opportunity, and understood that struggle and suffering “enlivens the capacity of goodness in people to connect with each other and collectively to realize a much greater power.”(Parhuli, 2007) Though many of us have been too privileged to learn this, have become calloused, and have even lost our ability to appreciate all that we have and to enjoy the blessings all around us.
But - more good news - the truth stays true! And it can be discovered again and again, with or without the help of another inspired voice!
So if this blog and it's book are about anything in particular, it's about the art of recovering joy, that state of being fully awake and sensitivity which renders some of us more fully alive than others. This joy is what lead the ancients to proclaim that the gods must envy us! Many will try to tell you that it’s only in the next life that we will find this divine happiness, but make no mistake – for only with eyes can we see, and with ears can we hear. It is the living body that brings the taste of food, the scent of flowers, the sound of music, the ecstasy of dance, and the feel of a lovers touch.
This is the meaning of the word gnosis - a word that is itself beyond words - for it is an inner wisdom and gratitude that can only be understood with experience. Native Americans refer to it most eloquently as “thanks that is beyond the ability of words to express.”(Ausubel, 2007) It is the love that Jesus tried to teach us, and the wisdom that so many of the sages of the ages lived, and sometimes died, that we might remember. It is a lesson that cannot easily be taught because, while words are useful tools, they have meaning only for those who share this inner understanding of their deep meaning. It is not a secret knowledge, in the ordinary sense of that word, as if held in keeping by a few, but it is secret in the sense that it is understood only by the worthy, the initiated, the just.
This is how karma works – another word whose meaning is beyond words. It is not in extrinsic rewards that we grow happy, but in the ability to appreciate those intrinsic goods all around us. For “the pleasure of a just person can never be experienced by one who is not just,” as Aristotle put it, and this is how it should be, only fair. Unjust pleasures may be fun for the moment, and even an unjust person can experience these, but they will bring just consequences, in time, and with them, deep unhappiness.
So the sooner we learn to listen to that inner voice that "never tells us what to do, but only what not to do,” as Socrates put it, the sooner we will understand “what’s worth trading for what,” and understand how to achieve the joy of real happiness, true love, and deep gratitude.
So herein lies the really good news, and with it, all hope for humanity – that we might each and all learn how to achieve our own true happiness, not at one anothers' expense, but for one anothers' sake. There is much of great worth to learn in this life, but nothing more important than this – perhaps the single phrase that best captures all that is worthy in ancient wisdom: as Aristotle said that Plato was the first to see and say - “To be good is to be happy!”
Mind you, goodness is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for happiness. There are other factors, some beyond our control, that can make it difficult to rise to meet our challenges. But without goodness, we've little power for that uplift. With it, we at least have self-respect - the essential element.
So if I could leave you only one lesson, it would be the very first that human beings were given: “Two things were told to us" by what Indigenous Peoples call the Original Instructions or First Teachings. They are this: "to be thankful… And the other thing they said was enjoy life. That’s a rule, a law – enjoy life – you’re supposed to.”(OI, Lyons, 25)
According to the ancient Greeks, to understanding this indigenous wisdom, that is, what it truly means “to be grateful…and enjoy life,”(Ausubel, in Nelson, 2007) one must first understand this - as Aristotle put it - "the pleasure of a just person can never be experienced by one who is not just."
As the ancient Vedic Hindus viewed it, there is nothing wrong with seeking pleasure - indeed, it's the very purpose of life! But one must "seek pleasure... intelligently!" as Huston Smith says, and this entails learning the difference between good and bad pleasures. The ancients across cultures understood that what makes one pleasure good and another bad is the consequences that each brings, and true pleasure comes only with good consequences. Whereas being fooled by bad pleasures will bring bad consequences, which are anything but pleasurable.
So by all means, seek pleasure in this life... but do so intelligently! "Every body wants what's good for then," as Socrates says, "but not everybody knows what that is." Learn the difference, as they say, in the appearance of good and the real thing, for appearances can deceive. And knowing the difference in what's worth trading for what, the difference in intrinsic and extrinsic goods, in what holds true value vs. what is only a misguided desire. As Buddha put it, "It is possible in s single life to reach the utmost heights of enlightenment, but one must be willing to learn!"
I love you! Even those of you, my great-grandchildren, who I'll never know face to face, but have known in my heart long before your time.
But beware of thinking you know what you only yet believe. For while words can make us think we ‘know’ something…in fact, words must be put it into practice before we understand them. This is why the ancients emphasized 'practical wisdom' - for only when we practice and experience their meaning will any words begin to make sense to us.
As Alan Watts put it, “Words can be communicative only between those who share similar experiences.”[1] Until then, they are only a kind of verbal pointing. “And as Polonyi said, "A finger is used to point at the moon, but let us not confuse the finger with the moon.”
In this blog (and the books it draws on), I hope to be able to leave you as much of the inner wealth I've gathered in life as can be put into words. Indeed, it may be your only inheritance (sorry, but I've never cared enough about money to let it accumulate - there is too much good that it can do in the here and now.) Anyway, these intrinsic goods are only meant to to be tools for your backpack as you travel your own journey, and that is where you will find true understanding and inner riches of your own. So enjoy the journey, my sweet beloveds. Take Buddha's advice advice along the way: "Be lamps unto yourselves!" And don't forget to enjoy yourselves, and be grateful for all the good along the way. :-)
(Continue this thread here... On the Golden Rule & the Golden Mean, On Belief vs. Understanding, and On the Powers and Limits of Words.)
[1] (Watts 1957, 4)
You were born, as we all are, with that sparkle of innocence in your eyes, and I’ve written this book (and accompanying blog) to do my part to help you keep it - not for the purpose of changing you, mind you, but in the hope of changing the world for your sakes.
You might think that sounds grandiose, but the truth is, too many people have delusions of insignificance, and delusions of grandeur are much more realistic, since we change the world, one way or another, with every choice we make. So it might as well be for the better! One thing is certain – we cannot do anything we don’t try to do, and we are unlikely to try to do anything we don’t believe is possible. Maybe not everything we believe we can do is equally possible, but then we’ll never know if we don’t do our best to find out.
So, yes, I believe books - and perhaps blogs - can change the world, albeit one person at a time. Indeed, if philosophy proves anything, it's that individual voices are the only thing that ever really has! They start by changing how we see things, which can make all the difference. There may be birds singing, friends laughing, and coffeecake in the oven, but if we’re caught up in conflict in our minds, we’ll miss all the best of it. Not to suggest that some conflict isn’t necessary, or that things should be let go that must be resolved. But it’s the unnecessary conflict that is so poisonous to happiness.
Chief among these is that conflict which is set into motion within each of us when we are asked – beyond sense and reason – to choose between wisdom traditions, as if only one could be true. It might make sense to ask us to choose which is closer and which is further from the mark of truth. At least then we’d be engaged in deliberating and thinking for ourselves. But there are those, too many, who hide behind religion like wolves wear sheep’s clothing, who would rather we not think, and so not have the power to actualize those higher potentials Jesus and others tried to teach us, to create our lives as we think best, or even dream of a more just world.
So this book and its blog aim to help the reader ‘see’ what is possible, at least for those who believe in their higher human potentials. As the ancients would remind us, little happens in human life that does not begin in our imagination. And ancient wisdom can help us imagine, and then create, that refreshing reawakening that is possible in this world, one person at a time, if and when we remember what the ancients knew that we have somehow forgotten.
These voices have often fallen on deaf ears though, as the mustard seed on infertile soil, in part because we’ve warned and even threatened not to listen. In fact, over the centuries many have been, and still are in some parts of the world, put to death for asking the very questions to which ancient wisdom offered profound and useful answers. But rather than being helped to understand them, we have too often been taught to choose between them, not for the sake of understanding what they are saying, but for the sake of believing and following those who say them. So too often we have settled for the mere appearance of truth, that bares little resemblance to the real thing. We have learned to call things true for which there is no real evidence, and in fact, even to deny real evidence rather than question our favorite version of the truth.
The widespread assumption is that any one thing being ‘true’ renders all others ‘false,’ but nothing could be further of the truth of how truth works. For what renders something true is not that some holy man, or book, or powerful tradition insists that it is, but rather that it stays true, regardless of the perspective that we look at it from or the challenges it comes up against. It can answer to all question, and does not deny scrutiny or deflect challenge. It simply stands to reason. Indeed, this is how we know something is true – because it can answer to our questions until ultimately we run out of them and are left with contented understanding because the truth simply makes sense.
So instead of asking, which of the world’s traditions is the right one, as if it follows that all others must be wrong, we would do well to ask instead, what do we have to learn from ALL these great wisdom traditions, and what’s more, from one another. For all our ancient betters offer insights of practical value for all the challenges of living that we individually and collectively share.
Instead, filled with the conceit of false certainty, we ignore all that we don’t want to see, and judge from outside-in what we know little or nothing of from inside-out. And in the process, we prove ourselves to be poor judges, at best, and ignorant fools, at worst. After all, ‘ignorance’ is the noun root of the active verb ‘to ignore.’
By contrast, as Socrates would remind us, we need only discover one true thing to begin to figure out everything else. For only by having something stable to tether all else to can we begin to see how everything is connected.
And for me, as for many, that one thing was the love of my child. As Gandhi said of his own transformation, "Those pearl-drops of love cleansed my heart and washed my sin away." And as gnosis would have it, "Only he who has experienced such love can know what it is…"(Gandhi, p.14)
Having learned how to love from my daughter, your mother, I discovered that Socrates was right – and that when we begin to see the deep beauty in a child - that one true thing will help us see it in everyone else!
The Good News and the Bad News
So there is good news, and there is bad news.
The good news is, you needn’t read this whole book or blog, all at once, in any particular order, or even at all. Philos (the search for or love of) sophia (truth or wisdom) can be encouraged by the written word, but it doesn’t require them.
Still, other people’s words can help us make sense of our own experience, and a few well-chosen words can be like medicine for the soul. And for this reason, I trust you’ll find, eventually, that the ancient wisdom all this recalls could enhance your lives in powerful ways, and ultimately make you happier, more fulfilled, and let you live a life you can be proud of.
But philosophy has its own mood, to be sure, and that mood can come and go throughout our lives. So we ought to make the most of it while we're in it, as I have. And so feel free to read only when and if the spirit moves you. The beauty of the written word is that it waits…however long it takes for us to be ready to understand what it brings us.
The bad news is, you may not have the luxury of time, and may truly need to understand all this before you really want to or are ready. Because, sadly, we – those generations that came before you - are leaving you a world we’ve too long neglected, and too little by way of instruction about how you might resolve the problems we’ve created or take better care to avoid creating more.
But then there is more good news, because the ancients cared about and understood all this much more than your more immediate ancestor haves, and they left us their best insights to help you and your children remember. This blog and it's book are a collection of those voices that you and your children’s children are going to need in order to face and rise above with grace and intelligence the myriad challenges that we have left you and generations to come.
Fortunately, the ancients knew how to turn crises into opportunity, and understood that struggle and suffering “enlivens the capacity of goodness in people to connect with each other and collectively to realize a much greater power.”(Parhuli, 2007) Though many of us have been too privileged to learn this, have become calloused, and have even lost our ability to appreciate all that we have and to enjoy the blessings all around us.
But - more good news - the truth stays true! And it can be discovered again and again, with or without the help of another inspired voice!
So if this blog and it's book are about anything in particular, it's about the art of recovering joy, that state of being fully awake and sensitivity which renders some of us more fully alive than others. This joy is what lead the ancients to proclaim that the gods must envy us! Many will try to tell you that it’s only in the next life that we will find this divine happiness, but make no mistake – for only with eyes can we see, and with ears can we hear. It is the living body that brings the taste of food, the scent of flowers, the sound of music, the ecstasy of dance, and the feel of a lovers touch.
This is the meaning of the word gnosis - a word that is itself beyond words - for it is an inner wisdom and gratitude that can only be understood with experience. Native Americans refer to it most eloquently as “thanks that is beyond the ability of words to express.”(Ausubel, 2007) It is the love that Jesus tried to teach us, and the wisdom that so many of the sages of the ages lived, and sometimes died, that we might remember. It is a lesson that cannot easily be taught because, while words are useful tools, they have meaning only for those who share this inner understanding of their deep meaning. It is not a secret knowledge, in the ordinary sense of that word, as if held in keeping by a few, but it is secret in the sense that it is understood only by the worthy, the initiated, the just.
This is how karma works – another word whose meaning is beyond words. It is not in extrinsic rewards that we grow happy, but in the ability to appreciate those intrinsic goods all around us. For “the pleasure of a just person can never be experienced by one who is not just,” as Aristotle put it, and this is how it should be, only fair. Unjust pleasures may be fun for the moment, and even an unjust person can experience these, but they will bring just consequences, in time, and with them, deep unhappiness.
So the sooner we learn to listen to that inner voice that "never tells us what to do, but only what not to do,” as Socrates put it, the sooner we will understand “what’s worth trading for what,” and understand how to achieve the joy of real happiness, true love, and deep gratitude.
So herein lies the really good news, and with it, all hope for humanity – that we might each and all learn how to achieve our own true happiness, not at one anothers' expense, but for one anothers' sake. There is much of great worth to learn in this life, but nothing more important than this – perhaps the single phrase that best captures all that is worthy in ancient wisdom: as Aristotle said that Plato was the first to see and say - “To be good is to be happy!”
Mind you, goodness is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for happiness. There are other factors, some beyond our control, that can make it difficult to rise to meet our challenges. But without goodness, we've little power for that uplift. With it, we at least have self-respect - the essential element.
So if I could leave you only one lesson, it would be the very first that human beings were given: “Two things were told to us" by what Indigenous Peoples call the Original Instructions or First Teachings. They are this: "to be thankful… And the other thing they said was enjoy life. That’s a rule, a law – enjoy life – you’re supposed to.”(OI, Lyons, 25)
According to the ancient Greeks, to understanding this indigenous wisdom, that is, what it truly means “to be grateful…and enjoy life,”(Ausubel, in Nelson, 2007) one must first understand this - as Aristotle put it - "the pleasure of a just person can never be experienced by one who is not just."
As the ancient Vedic Hindus viewed it, there is nothing wrong with seeking pleasure - indeed, it's the very purpose of life! But one must "seek pleasure... intelligently!" as Huston Smith says, and this entails learning the difference between good and bad pleasures. The ancients across cultures understood that what makes one pleasure good and another bad is the consequences that each brings, and true pleasure comes only with good consequences. Whereas being fooled by bad pleasures will bring bad consequences, which are anything but pleasurable.
So by all means, seek pleasure in this life... but do so intelligently! "Every body wants what's good for then," as Socrates says, "but not everybody knows what that is." Learn the difference, as they say, in the appearance of good and the real thing, for appearances can deceive. And knowing the difference in what's worth trading for what, the difference in intrinsic and extrinsic goods, in what holds true value vs. what is only a misguided desire. As Buddha put it, "It is possible in s single life to reach the utmost heights of enlightenment, but one must be willing to learn!"
I love you! Even those of you, my great-grandchildren, who I'll never know face to face, but have known in my heart long before your time.
But beware of thinking you know what you only yet believe. For while words can make us think we ‘know’ something…in fact, words must be put it into practice before we understand them. This is why the ancients emphasized 'practical wisdom' - for only when we practice and experience their meaning will any words begin to make sense to us.
As Alan Watts put it, “Words can be communicative only between those who share similar experiences.”[1] Until then, they are only a kind of verbal pointing. “And as Polonyi said, "A finger is used to point at the moon, but let us not confuse the finger with the moon.”
In this blog (and the books it draws on), I hope to be able to leave you as much of the inner wealth I've gathered in life as can be put into words. Indeed, it may be your only inheritance (sorry, but I've never cared enough about money to let it accumulate - there is too much good that it can do in the here and now.) Anyway, these intrinsic goods are only meant to to be tools for your backpack as you travel your own journey, and that is where you will find true understanding and inner riches of your own. So enjoy the journey, my sweet beloveds. Take Buddha's advice advice along the way: "Be lamps unto yourselves!" And don't forget to enjoy yourselves, and be grateful for all the good along the way. :-)
(Continue this thread here... On the Golden Rule & the Golden Mean, On Belief vs. Understanding, and On the Powers and Limits of Words.)
[1] (Watts 1957, 4)