Life’s impulse is to grow and preserve itself. It is that very impulse that has brought our own species into existence. On a basic physical level, nothing separates us from our environment; the body must be related to it in order to live, and nothing is won or lost in that relationship. However, a major and more complex question has to do with the responsibility for the amazing power that human beings have acquired during their evolution. This power is derived from the capacity to perceive, combine and memorize events that happen around us and, in a further development of this ability, to play with those memories, thus creating, by and for the brain itself, a new and at the same time non-existent reality which is self-enclosed, i.e. only related to its own remembered experiences. This imaginative ability (i.e. a playing with images born out of sensory perceptions which have been memorized) has developed to such an extent that it takes its own productions to be real. The proof of this is found in each one of us; we only need to sit in a silent place and close our eyes, and a whole new world will start inside.

This amazing capacity has made possible the initially slow and now explosive growth of human skills, inventions and development. The outcome of this is an easier, healthier and more comfortable life, which we are not in a position to criticize, as it has been instrumental in bringing about our own physical existence.

This activity that enables us to change the outward conditions has obviously brought about innumerable benefits for mankind, through the understanding of nature by observation. But it has also created a parallel reality that, by its own nature, has to be subjective, separate, because it is born out of individual sensory experiences. This inward activity is self-enclosed because it depends for its understanding of reality on what has been previously experienced. And it is only with these experiences that it can create a future. This is, apparently, the origin of the sense of a separate consciousness in each human being. When this cycle is completed, i.e. classifying present or past events according to other past experiences and then, from those experiences, imagining a future,a tremendously powerful world of illusion is created. In addition to this (and now the dangerous part becomes evident), this imaginary world, because it can only be self-enclosed, will deal exclusively with the memories of two types of experience:

–the first type, which turns out to be necessary for the survival of the body ,is the product of outward events, which tend to follow certain patterns;

–the second type,the inward or psychological one, is the product of subjective pains and pleasures, rewards and punishments.

This second type of thinking is the one that is creating chaos for mankind, not only in the physical world (for human beings purely a projection of the psycho- logical world), with its alarming environmental problems but, more importantly, inside each one of us.

Such thinking is making us ignore the damage that our uncontrolled activities are inflicting on the very life conditions on this planet that have made our own development possible. We ignore it because it is more comfortable to drive our own cars; to waste electricity without caring about it; to have holidays with all kinds of materialistic demands on the other side of the planet; to eat bananas in winter that come from over-exploited land and workers in poor countries; to send amazingly expensive toys to explore the surface of Mars; and to buy the fashionable sport shoes made in Malaysia by a mother who works for 12 hours a day just to survive. Each one of us is supporting several or even many such materialistic activities, which are but a few in an unending list.

And there is another list that we usually take for granted: our list of personal desires, fears and attachments. These three cannot but isolate us and our activities, because in itself our inner stream of thoughts is just the memory of past fears, desires and other experiences, the hope for improvement in the future and the continuity of security or comfort, which makes for attachment, though very often the latter is not conscious due to the lack of serious threats to it. This activity keeps us blindfolded, so we don ’t see the suffering of other people or other creatures; because, due to the social structure that we have created and that we value and maintain, questioning the causes of that suffering would invariably lead to doubting the importance of our pleasures, attachments and fears. That is the reason why we say we love animals and keep eating meat and supporting the destruction of natural habitats to get gold, oil and wood or promoting more extensive and destructive farming systems. That is why we love our children, our family,and do nothing to stop the exploitation of workers, sometimes younger than seven years old, in developing countries so we can have a nice cup of tea, coffee or chocolate. That is why we say we are serious people and refuse to help another because it is time for my meditation, my yoga exercises or my favourite TV programme. It would be an endless task to go over all these contradictions. This is what each one of us is doing: we go on talking and trying to convince others but we never actually change. We never question our attachments, our activities, our pleasures; life is so easy this way. And, because of our deep selfishness, we do not dare to look in a direction other than the one now prevalent in the world. We have the ideas to improve our projects, our commitments, but we do not see that actually we are doing nothing to change this corrupt human mind. We find it much easier to tell another to change than to stop and change ourselves. It is often rather hard and sad to look at this hypocrisy.

If one feels deeply all the suffering and destruction we see every day, with the wars, the individual enmities, environmental problems, social differences, futile fashions and traditions, one should ask whether this can actually be changed, completely swept away. And if one starts to look into oneself, one can see that at least it is possible to perceive and understand our particular hatreds, fears and desires, which are the causes of all the problems that we, as human beings, are currently facing. It is really possible to see why a terrorist kills people, why a worker accepts to be exploited, why my son wants a video game, why my friend is jealous. It is possible because we all share the same qualities; we are not so different. If only we were practical and honest with ourselves, we would see that we must begin with ourselves and stop postponing the questioning until our never-ending hopes are fulfilled.

It is obvious that each one of us is a cause of conflict, for out of conflicts is our consciousness built. Our inner world is always the ruler, the most powerful. We can hardly stand to be quiet, to observe ourselves, because we are endlessly planning for tonight, tomorrow or next year. We do not accept ourselves either, because we have adopted many of the ideas expounded by the authorities that we ourselves have created. We do not stop talking to ourselves, which is proof of our inner division and violence: if we are convinced about something, why should we keep trying to talk ourselves into it? But we are utterly confused because we have accepted innumerable ideas, techniques, theories, etc., which we take to be true; if they are true, what are we waiting for to put them into action? They are only nice ideas and we feel comfortable looking exclusively after what concerns our ideas and ourselves, our pleasures and fears. So we shut ourselves in a cage of our own which we consider safe. And we seem quite happy to pay for this safety with our freedom.

Apparently, not the partial and superficial but only the complete perception of facts, reasons and effects of our inner world of conflicts can put an end to this double-edged activity of our minds. One inquires into the human condition because our life was not meant to be something separate from the universe. So why are we so self-concerned? The answer, as always, is longing to be released inside each one of us.

J. Pablo Vega Rodríguez
February 2002