[This article is based on Chapter 28 of my book, FUTURE.]
It concerns me that some of the writings on meditation seem to imply that there is no past or future; there is only the present, where one is perpetually meditating – being still, dispelling thoughts. My question is, how long do you meditate for, and what do you do before and after that? To keep it simple, do you drink water? Do you eat food? Do you have a shower and change your clothes? Do you walk down the street? Do you say hello to the people who pass you by?
I have also heard that one should not think about the past – it is not real, only the present moment is real. And one should not think about the future – it is something that hasn’t happened yet. Only the present moment is real.
Yes, there is a sense in which these statements are true. When you are walking along a beach at sunset but you are focused on the messages on your mobile phone, there is a lesson to be learned. But we are embedded between the past and the future, and what happens in this moment may make a considerable difference to the future. Moreover, it may be our thinking and intuition, which is grounded in the past, which enables us to act right in the present.
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There is a past, and it has significance. People may disagree about particular facts, and even more about their significance for the present, but it matters. We have to see ourselves as a cosmic conundrum. In one sense we are complete: “It is as if it were so – all of it”. But in another sense, we are undeveloped beings who must learn, who must cultivate our higher qualities. Unless we recognise both aspects of this conundrum, we will get everything wrong.
Everything is in the past. All our knowledge is about things that have happened, and we live in the present equipped with that knowledge. The present is the interface of our knowledge with what has not happened yet. If we do not recognise the past, then we are trapped by it. Jacques Ellul was acutely aware of this; that is why his final message is placed on a knife edge. If we do not recognise the inherent power of the force of technique, we will be drowned by it (see my previous blog post).
However, if we know what is at stake, we may forge our own freedom; we can make a new destiny rather than the one that has been assigned to us by sociological facts. Our family, our social class, our profession, our society – every fact about us has a deterministic force. It creates a momentum to which we are prone. However, it is only a latent force. We have the simple power to see things differently and to act differently, in accordance with the recognition of our universal divine nature, which is available to us in any moment. In fact, that is our responsibility.
It may offend some people to be talking about our divine nature. But I am no defender of atoms. If that is all we are, there is no point in conversation. I am wresting the divine from its church-based, sanctified prison clothing. The divine dances naked on beaches. I want to make room for that, to give it back to people who thought they had to dispense with what churches have sought to keep captured.
Cups of tea
When we embrace all that is possible, we will experience ourselves as divine. And I want to wed that concept to cups of tea on the verandah, the lovely minutiae of ordinary life. Will you join me?
The future is different. I want to start by knowing in my own person that it does not have to be brutal, greedy, domineering, sneering, aloof, dismissive, cruel, lacking in compassion, ignorant. I know the list, and it is long. I say, I will follow the will of Heaven.
And then we have to stop again. We can’t talk about Heaven; that’s an old-fashioned Sunday-School concept. I have brought back the divine. I also want to bring back Heaven. This is what I have to say: the universe is conceptual. It is the wise sphere and in it I have placed my confidence. I know, some people are outraged, but they are protecting empty dreams of a world filtered through the lens of churches. Embodied in that is delusion and deceit intent on the preservation of institutions.
Heaven lies at the heart of every breath. It yearns for the full lives of people, who are living in harmony with each other and with nature. It does not create civilisations of hierarchies and greed. It creates civilisations of plenty, cooperation and harmony. People are allowed to be themselves, but there is wisdom that protects us from the worst implications of our occasional stupidity. And there is time for tea on the verandah. There is mighty living, but there is no despoliation of nature. Who would mistreat nature? And there are songs that make you cry with love and wonder.
The place of completion in our lives
Do you believe in Heaven? Some people will still say it is just a fantasy, so I go back to the beginning. We have to see ourselves as a cosmic conundrum. In one sense we are complete, and in another sense we are a work in progress. I say, everything that comes into being comes from the place of completion. I accept that that sounds a little like Plato. What can I say? He agrees with me.
Heaven is a completeness, and an idea we are bringing to completion. All of us are doing this, in little, inadequate ways. It all helps. When you accept Heaven, you accept what follows. You can find yourself in the place assigned by Heaven, central and correct. You can harmonise the people with Heaven. When you are centred in Heaven, you discover that she responds and seeks to bring situations to their fulfilment. How would you do this otherwise?
We simply have to stay centred, remaining in balance. Avoid the need to force things to a conclusion. That is not your place. Simply abide in the Way. Heaven will play its own part. It contends with the powers. When it enters the stream it absorbs the contradictory currents and accepts that it has no solid base. In this case it will arouse people’s desire to work and serve the whole. There is something greater than all of us. That brings us back to centre. It is as if the clouds have gathered and we must have faith in the rain.
The superior person rectifies him/herself and fulfils the will of Heaven. They nourish wise persons for the growth of a new regime. I am not trying to convince. I am just saying that this is so. “Walk along, talk along, live your lives quite freely, think about the beauty that spreads like morning sunglow. Seagull I don't want your wings, I don't want your freedom in a lie”, as Donovan said.
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Glenn Martin’s book, FUTURE: The Spiritual Story of Humanity (2021). See https://www.glennmartin.com.au/big-picture