A Gaian Catechism?

 

A catechism is a method of indoctrination that the Catholic (and later, Protestant) Church uses to induct (or brainwash?) its members by having them memorize and recite on demand the "right" answers to questions about the core doctrines of the church. 

However objectionable this method may seem to a freethinker like me who abhors any form of "tyranny over the mind of man" (as Jefferson put it), I must admit that the catechism method has been remarkably effective, over many generations, at gaining converts and training the young to accept, without question, a whole set of extremely question-begging propositions, and to adhere to these beliefs unshakeably throughout the rest of their lives--even if, from the viewpoint of honest critical inquiry, many these statements of belief are nothing more than self-serving balderdash. I have known, for example, some brilliant scholars and intellectuals who, having been life-long members of one or another fundamentalist church, are incapable of abandoning religious ideological claims--however question-begging--in which they have been indoctrinated since childhood.

It is thus with no small measure of irony that I propose the following catechism to train young minds in Gaian consciousness (not belief). In a sense, this could be seen as an anti-catechism, in that the purpose of such a catechism is to train young minds to see through constrictive ideologies and embrace reason, moral clarity, and the scientific method as a guide to deciding what they want to believe, and how they wish to act on those beliefs.  So here goes...a Gaian Catechism in progress: 

PART I: Definition of "Dharma" and "Gaia"

1.  Q: What is the Dharma? A: A Principle, a Precept, and a Practice.
• Q: What is the Principle?  A: This is because that is. As Martin Luther King said, "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.  Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." This is demonstrably true at every level: physical, biological, social, and spiritual.
• Q: What is the Precept?  A: As Lao Tzu said, let us strive to "take care of everyone, and abandon no one; take care of everything, and abandon nothing." This guiding ethical precept derives logically from an understanding of the Principle.
• Q: What is the Practice? A: As the Buddha taught us, Breathe, Observe, and Let Go. Through this essential discipline, we come to realize the truth of both the Principle and the Precept.
2. Q. What is Gaia? A Myth, a Model, a Metaphor, and a Movement.
•  Q: What is Gaia as a Myth?  A: A personification of the living Earth as the Great Mother Goddess; an archetype with deep roots in ancient Greek culture and with close analogues in mythic and religious traditions all over the planet.
• Q: What is Gaia as a Model? A: A scientific theory of the coevolution of life with the atmospheric, hydrological, and geological conditions that in turn sustain life; the recognition, based on evidence, that life sustains and propagates the conditions that sustain and propagate life.
• Q: What is Gaia as a Metaphor? Based on Gaia as a model, it is an evolving cultural reappraisal of humanity's relationship with its biological support system; a way of thinking of ourselves as a part of, not apart from, "nature" or Gaia.
• Q: What is Gaia as a Movement: A general term for the sociocultural manifestations of Gaia as a model and metaphor. It includes but transcends the Environmental Movement, and includes not only Gaian theory, but Gaian praxis (i.e. permaculture or regenerative design) as well.

PART II: The Practice of Being Gaian:

1. Q: What are Axioms for Clearing the Mind of afflictive emotions? A:
• The Present is all there is.
• That that is, is.
• Nothing you've done, suffered or failed to do, has any necessary effect on what you CHOOSE to do in the present moment.
• There are only two states of mind: Mindful and Distracted.
• Therefore, there are only two ways of doing anything: Mindfully or Distractedly.
• Everyone gets distracted, all the time.
• Therefore we all need a workable method for returning from distractedness to mindfulness.
• Here is one such method. Try it if it works; if not, improvise.
2. Q: What is the Method? A: The Dharma Gaia Mantra: Contemplate, Practice, and Vow, on the breath, the following injunctions:
1. Reinhabiting the Present Moment:
• Breathe
• Observe
• Let Go
2. Reclaiming the Day: A Generic Daily Agenda:
• Be Well
• Do Good Work
• Keep in Touch
3. Revisiting our Life Agenda as Gaians:
• Learn Gaia
• Teach Gaia
• Heal Gaia
• Create Gaia
3. Q: What is the Gaian Categorical Imperative? A: In everything we do, we must strive to promote the health, competence, and resilience of ourselves, our community, and our living planet simultaneously.

Part III: The Three Essential Gaian Disciplines

1. Q: What is the first essential discipline for achieving equanimity, even in chaotic circumstances, by internalizing the Principle, the Precept, and the Practice? A: Tonglen meditation: taking in the pain and anguish of other beings, and breathing out healing and joy to them. As an advanced meditation method, this transformative practice requires proficiency in basic meditation practice (shamatha and vipassana) as a prerequisite. 
2. Q: What is the second essential discipline, for healing our society? A: Satyagraha: personal and political conduct based on Ahimsa (doing no harm) Satya (speaking truth to power) and Swaraj (self-discipline and self-reliance)--all conducted mindfully, strategically, and relentlessly.
3. Q: What is the third essential discipline for healing our planet? A: Permaculture: the ethical design of human habitation and human institutions in a manner that is symbiotic with, rather than parasitic upon, Gaia.  Based on the three core ethics of Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share. Permaculture can be encapsulated in the following slogan:

Grow Gardens; Grow Community; Grow Awareness.

  

Cultivating the Three Essential Values

 

Every living organism on our planet, from any of the five kingdoms (Bacteria, Protists, Fungi, Plants, and Animals) depends, for its survival, on three essential values, or criteria for survival: health, competence, and resilience. These can be briefly defined as follows:

    Health is internal homeostasis, the proper functioning and interrelation of all of the complex elements of the open, autopoietic systems we call "life." For humans (and, to a certain extent, other complex multicellular beings as well), this includes not only physical health, but mental and spiritual health as well. Mental health is often called "emotional intelligence"--the ability to cope effectively with adversity, while spiritual health is, at a deeper level, faith, or acceptance of that that is, whether this is in the context of religious belief systems ("Thy will be done") or simple, unadorned stoicism ( as old Walter Cronkite would put it. "That's the way it is.")  Faith is often confused with belief, but beliefs are simply culturally evolved mental formations for articulating and reinforcing one's faith. Faith unites us all; beliefs divide us.  In its essence, faith is saying "yes" to life--it is what we have in common with sunflowers, butterflies, and whales.

Competence is, as the root verb suggests, the ability to compete; that is, the skills--whether innate or learned or both--necessary to compete effectively and thus survive--and even thrive--within a specific ecological or sociocultural niche. It is, by and large, what people are taught in schools and colleges. But it is context-bound--skills that are adaptive in one context are often either useless or maladaptive in another.

Resilience is adaptive flexibility--the ability to adapt to unpredictable changes in one's niche, or context. Often, in both the nonhuman and human realms, competence and resilience are at odds. The more highly competent and specialized one becomes within a given niche--whether a wetland or a modern corporation--the less resilient one is when circumstances change.  Wolves, for example, are highly competent top predators.  But predation is all they do, so they rely upon very specialized niches in order to survive. Coyotes, conversely, are nowhere near as competent at predation as wolves, but they make up for it by their amazing resilience--their ability to adapt to a wide diversity of niches, and still find enough food to survive. In the human realm, likewise, a highly competent, super-rich stockbroker is likely to be far less resilient than the average small farmer, if the stock market collapses and his wealth vanishes.

So again, these three values--health, competence, and resilience--are essential to the survival of all living organisms, ourselves included.  So how can we best cultivate all three?

There are, of course, a vast number of techniques for cultivating these three values, but seldom, at least in my experience, do these techniques--from physical therapy to job training to psychotherapy--address any more than one at a time.  Many East Asian holistic disciplines, such as yoga, qigong, and tai chi. are far better at nurturing all three values, since--unlike the west--they do not draw a strict conceptual boundary between body, mind, and spirit. 

So I wish to share my own approach, which works well for me. I call it the "Dharma Gaia Mantra," and it consists of ten verb phrases or injunctions, repeated and contemplated on the breath, which can be used, optionally, with a visual diagram--the Pythagorean Tetractys.

Here, in brief, is how it works:

BREATHE: The first injunction--from which all others derive, like a tree growing out of a seed, has multiple benefits for our physical, emotional, and spiritual health. The quiet, steady rhythm of our breath has many therapeutic effects on our metabolism, our anxieties, our ability to concentrate, and our ability to focus our attention on the present moment. In India, for example, a whole branch of yoga--Pranayama--had grown up around cultivating these physical. mental, and spiritual benefits of conscious breathing. And quite naturally, our breath connects us to all other life--to Gaia--by taking in the oxygen provided by trees, and giving back the CO2 that the trees need.

OBSERVE: Facilitated by our breath, the ability to observe--to attend mindfully to what is going on around us (and within us)--is a key to cultivating competence--the ability to focus on, and learn from, what we are doing in any given moment.

LET GO:  Facilitated by observing, the ability to let go of attachments--to ideas, to ways of doing things, to limiting self-concepts--tends to increase our resilience--our ability to stay flexible and adapt when things go wrong, or when circumstances change unexpectedly.

These three cardinal injunctions--breathing, observing, and letting go--in turn constitute the foundation for developing the higher skills we need to get through life:

BE WELL--to cultivate or restore our health, whether physical, mental, or spiritual;

DO GOOD WORK--to observe what we are doing. in order to cultivate our competence;

KEEP IN TOUCH--to take care of everything and everyone, abandoning nothing and no one, in order to cultivate our resilience--our ability to learn new skills, to get along with others, to build social capital.

And finally, as the fruition of all these efforts. to establish and renew four essential life goals:

LEARN to nurture our own health, competence, and resilience;

TEACH to share what we have learned with others, so that they, in turn, can nurture their health, competence, and resilience;

HEAL--to use the knowledge and skills we have acquired to take care of, and nurture, the health, competence, and resilience of other people, of our society, and of our ecosystems;

CREATE--to use our innate and acquired skills to solve problems in a new way, to benefit ourselves and others, and to leave an inspiring legacy for others after we die.

Just repeat this mantra mindfully (not by rote)--whether in formal meditation, during morning exercises, or simply to overcome moments of stress, confusion, or depression, and see how well it works. Feel free to improvise.

Hope this helps!