Saturday, April 30, 2022

Life without hope

 

"We all sit here stranded, though we're all doing our best to deny it." --Bob Dylan

This is a difficult post to write. Despite everything, I have always been a congenital optimist, even though I have prided myself on my ability to look unblinkingly into the vortex and still find a reason to hope. My habitual metaphor has been my ardent hope for some viral, self-replicating "butterfly effect" that would trigger the "spontaneous remission of the Cancer of the Earth." But there comes a time...and for me, that time has come. Let me begin with a quote from a writer I follow on Medium named Richard Crim, who is very proficient in climate science:

The last time CO2 levels like this were seen on Earth, was three million years ago, according to the most detailed reconstruction of the Earth’s climate by researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in Science Advances.

At that time, there were no ice sheets covering either Greenland or West Antarctica, and much of the East Antarctic ice sheet was gone. Beech forests were growing in Antarctica and temperatures were up to 7 degrees Fahrenheit (4.℃) warmer globally, at least double that at the poles, with sea levels some 20 meters (65 feet) higher than today.

This quote says it all. By raising CO2 levels to their current level, closing in on 450 ppm, we have initiated a host of irreversible, interlocking feedback loops that will dramatically accelerate the heating of the Earth, regardless of what we do to stop carbon emissions. But unlike the last time (3 million years ago), this heating will not be gradual, and hence will not enable the biota to adapt over hundreds of thousands--or millions--of years. Crim has coined the apt term "bomb time" to describe our current predicament.

Think of it this way: human time scales, compared to geological time scales, are infinitesimal--like the blink of an eye. Yet in the last 70 years--my lifetime--the CO2 level in our atmosphere has risen from roughly 300 ppm--slightly higher than the average high of 280 ppm over the previous 800,000 years (as measured in the bubbles of antarctic ice cores)--to the current, utterly unprecedented level of 420 ppm and rising steadily. When you graph my lifetime onto a geological time scale, it is the merest blip.  Yet within this blip of time, the atmospheric CO2 level has shot up, almost vertically, as seen on this graph:


In short, the fossil fuel age of the last 150-200 years looks, on a geological time scale, like a brief spike in energy release that could be compared to a volcano or a meteor impact--or a bomb. This means that this explosion of energy released into the atmosphere from the global proliferation of fossil fuels will play out inexorably in the next few decades, as the convergent feedback effects of loss of albedo from melting ice at both poles and all mountain ranges, methane release from melting permafrost, carbon release from wildfires and logging, ocean heating and acidification (and carbon release the calcium carbonate that builds dying coral reefs and shellfish), sea level rise, loss of (carbon-sequestering) vegetation due to prolonged drought, violent storms and floods, wildfires and so on. All of these destructive trends are strongly predicted to accelerate in the coming years, until the global climate reaches a new homeostasis, a new, higher set point, that is well beyond the tolerance of most of today's biota--at least large multicellular organisms like ourselves, or the food we eat. (Bacteria and fungi will do fine, no doubt, since they reproduce and evolve far faster than we do, and can already withstand temperature extremes far beyond our own tolerance.)

When you put all these (fully validated) climate data together, the conclusion is inescapable: we are fucked, and any effort to reduce climate emissions, convert to electicity, stop eating meat, or launch vastly expensive (and energy-intensive) geoengineering schemes--will be like arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Or to cite another, perhaps more apt cliche, our goose is cooked, regardless of what we do.

So how do we live without hope? That is the question for this generation--which may well be the very last generation of humans--ever. I don't pretend to have a satisfactory answer to this conundrum, but these thoughts may help somewhat.

First, remember that the present is all there is. The future is just a mental formation, enabled by the unique gift of human language, which enables us to imagine such a thing. It does not actually exist, however, except in our minds. 

I learned this lesson from a hummingbird I saw hovering and feeding on a hanging fuchsia on the shady side of our house, during the utterly unprecedented heat wave of last summer, when the temperature here in the (normally cool and pleasant) Willamette Valley rose to an ungodly 114 degrees.  The hummingbird, like me, was suffering from the heat--and like me, he is doomed.  But he needed to eat, to sip the lifegiving nectar of that fuchsia, and the sight of him sipping from the flowers despite the torrid heat gave me a transport of grace, a moment of pure joy, that has stayed in my memory ever since. Having no concept of "the future," the hummingbird was enthusiastically embracing the present moment--the delicious, life-sustaining nectar--despite the appalling temperature. So should we all embrace such moments of grace as they arise: the laughter of children, the eyes of our beloved, a delightful symphony or string quartet,  the rising sun over a misty lake... they are truly all that matter, impermanent though they may be.

So here are a few humble suggestions for coping with a world without hope, with no future at all.

  1. Breathe, Observe, and Let Go. Cultivate a spiritual practice every day. It does not matter which brand you choose, or what you "believe;" they all have useful  practices for facing and enduring the traumas and vicissitudes of life. The main benefit of all such practices is that they help you accept that that is, to let go of wishing things were other than they are (such longing is the source of all human vices and all human suffering). If you are a "believer," try "Thy Will be done" as a good mantra; if you are not, try the old Walter Cronkite sign-off, "That's the way it is." Whatever works best for you. 
  2. Be well, Do Good Work, Keep in Touch. Take care of everyone and everything, and abandon no one and nothing.  Starting with yourself, take good care of your body, feelings, and mental state; then turn to your livelihood and daily tasks, and attend to them mindfully; finally (and most importantly) be there for those closest to you--spouse, family, friends--expanding your circle of care to include everyone you encounter, and ultimately, all living beings, including even your enemies. My own favorite mantra for this is a line from William Blake: "Everything that lives is holy"--however impermanent.
  3. Learn, Teach, Heal, and Create. No matter what happens as the momentum builds in the ongoing and accelerating collapse of our civilization and biological support system, organize your life around these four standing goals: to cultivate resilience through the constant learning of new knowledge and skills; to teach what you know to others; to heal, as best you can, your own and others' physical and emotional distress, and to take care of the portions of our living planet entrusted to us--our own gardens, farms, and communities; and finally, to use your creative gifts in whatever ways nourish your own life and that of others. Hence the slogan I have put on my own self-designed bumper-sticker that sums up all of the above, a succinct recipe for cultivating resilience in a time of growing chaos and catastrophe:  Grow Gardens, Grow Community, Grow Awareness.

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Tetrads

 



The above two symbols, the tetrahedron and the solar cross, are both sacred images based on the number four--the Tetrad--associated with the Earth, or Gaia, and symbolizing manifest stability and totality; hence we have the four seasons; the four classical elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) which are also the four basic requirements for life; the four limbs of vertebrates; the four corners of most buildings; and the four dimensions of space-time (length,width, depth, and time).

 In Buddhism, the number four also has many foundational uses, including the Four Noble Truths, the Four Brahmaviharas ("Abodes of God" or adaptive mental attitudes), the fourfold mantra (Om Mani Padme Hum) representing the totality of the Dharma. For today's Dharma Talk, I would like to map these Buddhist tetrads onto one another, and onto my favorite mantra, or core injunctions of meditation (Breathe, Observe, Let Go, Abide) in order to investigate the insights that arise from this superposition. The correlations are as follows:

OM--Breathe--First Noble Truth (Suffering)--Benevolence

MANI--Observe--Second Noble Truth (The Causes of Suffering)--Compassion

PADME--Let Go--the Third Noble Truth (Realization or liberation)--Sympathetic Joy

HUM--Abide--the Fourth Noble Truth (The Path of awakening)--Equanimity.




 
OM, the seed syllable of the Cosmos.



Om (sometimes rendered "AUM") is the sacred seed syllable in all Dharmic religions--Hindu, Buddhist, and all others.  It is often described as both the name and the voice of God, or the Sacred itself, and reciting it with full attention is said to achieve ineffable communion with the Divine--with all that is. Therefore, it can aptly be correlated with the first injunction: BREATHE, since "breath" and "spirit" share the same root meaning (Latin spiritu from spiro, spirare--to breathe) and are synonyms in most other languages (e.g. ruach (Hebrew), prana (Sanskrit), and Qi (Chinese) or Ki (Japanese). 

Hence, both OM and BREATHE correlate with the first of the Brahmaviharas, Maitri (Pali Metta), whose meanings combine gratitude and benevolence--the default attitude we should take toward everyone and every other living being when we encounter them, and more deeply,  gratitude for the sacred miracle of life itself, as we take each breath.


MANI, the Sanskrit word for the Jewel of Karuna or compassion. 




Whereas Maitri is the default attitude we should cultivate toward everyone, Karuna or compassion is the attitude we assume toward all who suffer. It is not, simply "pity," however. It refers to active identification with all who suffer (including ourselves), coupled with an authentic determination to help alleviate their suffering in any ways we can. Hence it is correlated with the second injunction, OBSERVE, to look deeply into the suffering of ourselves and all other beings.


Padme, the Lotus of full awakening.



Padma (or Padme) refers to the Lotus--a sacred symbol throughout the Far East--as a symbol of full awakening or enlightenment--rising pristine above the muck, like a magnificent flower in a wetland. Hence it is correlated with the third injunction--LET GO, or to free oneself from all afflictive attachments, all "wishing things were other than they are."



HUM, the "Peace that passeth all understanding."




The Fourth seed syllable wraps up all the others, and hence symbolizes the fourth Brahmavihara: Equanimity. It also can be correlated with the Fourth Noble Truth--the Path of Awakening, which the Buddha outlined, in his inaugural Sermon at Benares, as the Eightfold Path: Right Understanding, Right Aspiration, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.  And it can be invoked nicely by the injunction "Abide."

There are many meditative practices that can be derived from this superposition of Buddhist tetrads. For example, one could start by inwardly reciting, on four consecutive breaths, the following mantras or injunctions in any sequence you wish:

1. Breathe with gratitude, Observe with compassion, Let Go with selfless joy, Abide in equanimity;

2. Suffering, the Roots of Suffering, the Release from Suffering, the Path of Cultivation;

3. Benevolence, Compassion, Joy, Equanimity

4. Om Mani Padme Hum

Improvise as you wish, but also remember that Mantras are simply training wheels, which you can let go of when you no longer need them...