Siddhartha and the Gorilla

I was talking to two of my teenage son's the other day and they asked me what I actually believe. My answer, "Not much."  I went on to try to explain why that's a good thing but I felt my answer fell short.  The point I tried to make wasn't coming across.  There are plenty of people who don't have beliefs because they haven't bothered thinking about them.  That's not my case but the words needed to explain that to my sons were failing me that day. 

Thankfully, help was on the way.  I read  Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha many years ago and recently got an audio copy to listen to on my commute to work. Brilliant book. I listened to the whole thing twice and the last CD four times.

More on Siddhartha in a little bit.  First, I would like you to watch the short video and try to do what it says.  It's pretty simple.  You just have to count how many times the team in white passes the ball. See if you can get it right.

Did you get the right number?  And are you one of the fifty percent the missed the gorilla?

Now back to Siddhartha.  The following is an expert from it towards the end of the book where Siddhartha is talking to a long lost friend, Govinda.

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"It's true, I'm old," spoke Govinda, "but I haven't stopped searching. Never I'll stop searching, this seems to be my destiny. You too, so it seems to me, have been searching. Would you like to tell me something, oh honourable one?"

Quoth Siddhartha: "What should I possibly have to tell you, oh venerable one? Perhaps that you're searching far too much? That in all that searching, you don't find the time for finding?" 

"How come?" asked Govinda.

 "When someone is searching," said Siddhartha, "then it might easily happen that the only thing his eyes still see is that what he searches for, that he is unable to find anything, to let anything enter his mind, because he always thinks of nothing but the object of his search, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed by the goal. Searching means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal. You, oh venerable one, are perhaps indeed a searcher, because, striving for your goal, there are many things you don't see, which are directly in front of your eyes."

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I think Hermann Hesse summed up the gorilla experiment perfectly.  

If a person is looking for something they can miss the beauty right in front of them.  If someone has a static and ridged belief system the truth can be held in the book they are reading or the person they are talking to but they will miss it if ideas and concepts don't fit what they are seeking.  

Our beliefs are the container in which our truth is held.  The shape of our beliefs and the size of our beliefs limits or filters truth. We cannot escape that but be can change the shape and size of the container to accommodate a greater Truth.

Recently I heard an old saying twice within a few days.  I hadn't heard it in a long time but as I was getting ready to write this blog the saying conveniently made itself available for me.   "If you're a hammer every problem is a nail."  The meaning is clear.  It's saying you need to open yourself up to look at problems in more than one way.  We're lucky to have a tool box full of extraordinary tools to solve problems and to deepen our understand of the mysteries of life.  These tools have many names, Christianity,  Hinduism, Buddhism,  Republican, Democrat, Atheist, spirituality, skeptic, Socialist, Communist,  naturalist, environmentalist, and on and on.   None of these tools can answer all questions and solve all problems alone.  If a person picks one as their hammer everything is a nail.  If someone seeks the truth solely through one belief system they miss the Truth.  Finding Truth can only be done with a full toolbox.

We have seekers and we have explorers.  Explores set out to find what there is to find but seekers have their eyes set on a target and everything else is irrelevant or an obstacle.  So now I can tell my sons I am an explorer and I don't want my beliefs to stop me from finding. 

Hilltop Mansion

A friend from my early childhood became a minister when he grew up.  We got connected on Facebook and every so often I read his posts. Today he posted the whole hymn/spiritual "Mansion Over the Hilltop."   I love to hear my wife sing that song in church because it is a beautiful, catchy song.  The church sings it with a faster upbeat than other versions I've heard and standing next to my wife, one of the most talented singers I have ever heard, makes it all the better.

I like the song until I think about what it's saying.  For those that don't know the song, here it is with the repeats of the chorus removed.

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I'm satisfied with just a cottage below, a little silver and a little gold. But in that city where the ransomed will shine, I want a gold one that's silver lined.

I've got a mansion just over the hilltop, in that bright land where we'll never grow old. And someday yonder We will never more wander, But walk on streets that are purest gold.

Tho often tempted, tormented and tested, and like the prophet, my pillow a stone. And tho I find here no permanent dwelling, I know He'll give me a mansion my own.

Don't think me poor or deserted or lonely; I'm not discouraged, I'm heaven bound. I'm just a pilgrim in search of that city; I want a mansion, a harp, and a crown.

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The song tells us not to worry about this life because the life after is what is important.  Heaven is where our riches are and if we suffer and endure in this life, our wants for riches will be our reward.

How can a song with that message ever be sung in a Christian church?  Greed is okay in Heaven but not here?  Lusting for material possessions in this life is wrong but lusting for them in Heaven is right?

I am reading Rob Bell's Love Wins right now.   I like his perspective to say the least.   Focus on making the life you are living now right.  Make this life your Heaven.

Imagine what the world be if all the Christians in all the countries quit focusing on the reward of Heaven in an afterlife and started making this their Heaven. What if 'love your neighbor' was more than a catch phrase?  What if "WWJD" was more than a great way to sell T-shirts and wrist bands?  What if the compassion Jesus talked about was the driving force of our life instead of enduring this life until our afterlife reward is granted to us?

And, if there really is a mansion waiting for us in Heaven, I think God is more likely to bestow that blessing on the ones who spent their time in this lowly life making a positive difference than the one only doing what they have to to get a reward.

Embrace Doubt

I hear people say, "I'm spiritual but not religious."  It's one of those phrases that let's me know I most likely have little to talk about with that person.  Generally, what I've found is that phrase gives the person a way to avoid the details of religion but not sound like a heathen. It excuses them from an in-depth study of different faiths and allows them to just be a nice person that the grandfatherly, gentle, nice God looking down at them would be pleased with.

On the other hand, when someone claims to be religious, I'm not 'most likely' going to have little to talk about with them,  I'm very likely going to have little to talk about. 

In Karen Armstrong's book, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, she says not to enter into a discussion with someone unless you are willing to truly listen to them and change what you believe if what they are saying makes sense; if it is right. I think it's safe to say that when a religious discussion starts, neither side is interested in changing their own mind based on what the other is saying.  Our lexicon even has changed to define religions as things that people will not change their mind about, such as Windows vs. Linux, Chevy vs. Ford, Republican vs. Democrat.

So, what is the path of religion? Most think it is a path to truth and certainty. I say it is simply opening your mind to the unknown and to seek answers.  It is to accept you have doubts, to accept that you don't know and it is humanly impossible to know the ultimate truth, yet to long for the truth.

When it comes to talking to religious people I always think about a scene in Crossroads (1986) where Willie Brown says to Eugene, "You got your mind made up about how everything works. How you gonna learn anything new when you KNOW everything already?"

Paul Tillich says, "Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith."  I think the truly religious/spiritual people are the ones who realize they don't know the truth, embrace their doubt, actively search to answer questions and all the while push themselves to be a blessing to the people around them.  Those are the people I want to listen to.

The Act of Will

I was walking through Half Price Books one day on lunch break and saw a book sitting there titled, The Act of Will.  I liked the title so, without much thought I added it to my stack of books.  It ended up floating around in my computer bag for a couple of months and I would see it there when I pulled my laptop out but ignored it much like the other papers and stuff I should really clean out of my bag instead of lugging around.   Then, after ignoring it for so long, I decided to take it out and look at, with the plan to shelf it.  It was, after all, a random book I bought for a silly reason.

The introduction let me know that my random act was one of those mysterious events which makes you wonder about coincidence.  I'm in the process of writing a fictional book and the introduction of The Act of Will echoed the main philosophy behind my book. The author, Roberto Assagioli, asks us to imagine an ancient man coming to our time.  He would see us as demigods with all the technology he could only understand as magic or divine power. But now, imagine that person coming to our time is one of the great minds of the past, such as Plato.

Assagioli says, "He would soon notice that, though man has acquired an impressive degree of power over nature, his knowledge of and control over his inner being is very limited. He would perceive that this modern "magician," capable of descending to the bottom of the ocean and projecting himself to the moon, is largely ignorant of what is going on in the depths of his unconscious and is unable to reach up to the luminous superconscious levels, and to become aware of his true Self. This supposed demigod, controlling great electrical forces with a movement of the finger and flooding the air with sound and pictures for the entertainment of millions, would be seen to be incapable of dealing with his own emotions, impulses, and desires."

After I started reading this book I had to go back and revise mine and it influenced the rest of the book moving forward.  My belief is that technology has actually made it easier for us to become less connected, less in tune with who we are.  It is easy to escape thinking the hard thoughts about our purpose and just watch a TV show.  It is easy to find entertainment, find pleasure fixes, and avoid searching ourselves to find fulfillment. We can find ways to live a pointless and meaningless life and never strive to reach our potential.  Before many of the technological advances people didn't have much free time to reflect on who they were.  Their daily lives were filled with getting food and other necessities just to survive.  With each technological advance people were granted more free time.  This spawned some great mind such as Galileo and Da Vinci. But, for the most part, the path much of humanity has taken is to use the technology to avoid any inward look at themselves.


Assagioli started a branch of Psychology called Psychosynthesis.  He seems to carry a lot of Freudian Psychoanalytic theory forward as far as the parts of the personality but then he expands on it. One interesting thing is that he brings the concept of spirituality into his theory which Freud either ignored or rejected. But, Assagioli says he only takes people to the door of spirituality.  Which path they take is for them to search out.

So, when I was thinking about writing a blog and coming up with a name, The Act of Will seemed a logical fit.  In this blog I want to explore some of the concepts that drive me forward.  Many of these concepts are in my book but I think there are many that I won't actually have a solidified idea of what they are until I do the work of organizing them into words.  The public forum gives the chance to do so with the potential for input from others in a civil exploration of concepts.  Please feel free to join me in this exploration.

Here is a link to download a PDF of Roberto Assagioli's The Act of Will You can also find a link to buy it on Amazon on the "Book list" page of this blog.