THE GREAT UNLEARNING
On the Path of Wisdom
By George Sranko
(Written as a look
"back" from the Year 2050…)
"In the late part of
the twentieth century, humanity has run up against a fundamental
barrier to its advancement -- itself. We are a more dangerous
animal than we would like to think, but we can also change more
than we might have dreamed, by calling on some of the very many
diverse mental abilities within ourselves. If we learn how we
think, how our mind is structured, and how to overcome the innate
limitations and biases of mind, can we then learn to act on that
knowledge?"
Robert Ornstein and Paul Ehrlich, New World, New Mind,
1989.
"We need not return to
the past; we will not build the values of the learning society
by looking in a rearview mirror. To the contrary, we must have
the courage to boldly define wisdom in terms of the new economic
link between learning and work. Seldom has human society faced
such abrupt, profound changes. Indeed, post-industrial society,
if it is to improve our lot, may be known as not the Information
Age, but as the Age of Wisdom."
Robert Aubrey and Paul Cohen, Working Wisdom, 1995.
***
Philosophers, mystics and spiritual
leaders throughout the ages have made a distinction between the
inner world and the outer (while acknowledging that any such
distinction is merely an illusion!). The 20th century could be
characterized as the century dedicated to "perfecting and
manifesting the outer, material world." At the risk of oversimplification,
the majority worldview could have been stated as; "What
you see is not only what you get -- its all there is!" We
might be tempted to describe this as a century "tall on
innovation and intellect but short on wisdom." It became
painfully obvious during the 1980s and 90s that wisdom had been
relegated to the back of the line, behind fame, fortune, good
looks and a bad attitude (and worse yet, a big gun). An exaggeration?
Perhaps, but only slightly.
At the end of the second millennium
we found ourselves staring through eyes of flesh and blood at
the barren, unyielding wall constructed from a strictly mechanical
world view. We had come about as far as linear, rational scientific
thinking alone could take us without causing irreparable harm
to ourselves and to our natural world.
One might ask, "what was
the determining influence in successfully shifting humanity's
course from impending environmental and social breakdown towards
a sustainable and more harmonious existence with one another
and all life on earth?" There were, of course, inestimable
numbers of influences, however, in a nutshell, the defining shift
took place, not in the outer world, but in human consciousness.
Looking back on this period, many have called this "the
Great Unlearning."
As we all know, people at the
turn of the 20th century were suffocating under the weight of
rapidly accumulating knowledge -- reports, faxes, e-mail correspondence,
websites, newspapers, magazines, radio and TV broadcasts. Increasingly
suffering from the stress of overload, people began to shake
their heads wondering if "info-bingeing" was what life
was really all about. Like T.S. Eliot, they began to wonder,
"Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? Where
is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?"
With heads crammed full -- people
found themselves feeling more empty than ever before. With bittersweet
irony many realized they were living a life best described by
the name of the popular board game, Trivial Pursuit!
More and more people felt like
they were "dancing with an elephant" and powerless
to influence either the music or the dance! The teachings of
the masters and sages -- from Jesus and Buddha to Gandhi and
Mother Teresa -- were inspiring but often paradoxical. They
all seemed to say the same thing: that the way to true inner
peace and understanding -- the way of radical transformation
-- could only begin with the emptying of the mind! To many people
at the time this was simply meaningless "New Age" babble…
they could not conceive of the possibility that there could be
anything beyond the mind.
"To be independent in
this true sense, we have to forget everything which we have in
our mind and discover something quite new and different moment
after moment. This is how we live in this world. So we say true
understanding will come out of emptiness.
When you have something in your consciousness you do not have
perfect composure. The best way towards perfect composure is
to forget everything. Then your mind is calm, and it is wide
and clear enough to see and feel things as they are without any
effort."
-- Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki.
Throughout history, the extraordinary
significance of this understanding had eluded the vast majority
of humanity. However, by the turn of the Millennium, sufficient
numbers were experiencing glimmers of realization to reach a
critical mass and trigger a "quantum leap" in human
consciousness. Catching up with the empirical proof of both mystics
and leading-edge scientists, average people began to understand
that the very act of observing the world around us creates our
reality. Humanity suddenly found itself at a new threshold when
enough people realized that, in fact, separation (I versus the
world) is an impossibility and has always been an illusion created
by our minds to try and bring order and understanding to an infinite,
chaotic universe.
In an article in Scientific American
in 1979 Bernard d'Espagnat wrote, "The doctrine that
the world is made up of objects whose existence is independent
of human consciousness turns out to be in conflict with quantum
mechanics and with facts established by experiment."
What follows is a brief overview
of the common understanding that unfolded and swept the world
during the early years of the new Millenium, leading to "The
Great Unlearning" followed by the "Giant Leap Towards
Humanity" that we are experiencing today, half-way through
the 21st century.
- Like all life forms, human beings
and, therefore, human consciousness is evolving.
- Just as individuals mature in
consciousness, humanity has passed through several phases of
consciousness, each phase incorporating and transcending the
previous phase. Broadly speaking, these could best be described
as the physical, the biological, the mental and the realm of
spirit (or, as Ken Wilber refers to them, physiosphere, biosphere,
noosphere and theosphere).
- Relatively early in our personal
evolutions, we each fabricate a mental shell to protect our individual
identities. This shell -- our ego -- forms a barrier or protective
membrane, with a zone of safety within, against the chaos and
danger of the Great Unknown out there.
- Identifying ourselves entirely
with "our minds and bodies," as an ego-centric viewer
we cannot perceive this barrier or membrane that we've erected
even though it filters and determines our experience of the outside
world. These barriers are built from material of the past, being
based entirely on our own past experiences and those of other
people (through learning from others).
- Having a well-defined ego --
with its protective barrier and sense of separation -- has been
essential to our survival in the past, during previous phases
of human evolution. As usual, however, what was once a self-protective
characteristic essential to our survival as individuals in the
past now threatens our ability to survive as a species unless
we learn how to move forward to integrate higher levels of consciousness.
- As members of society, with
shared cultural norms and languages, we also tend to build a
series of more encompassing barriers around our family, our community,
our region, our nation, our religion, our company, etc., etc.
There are always plenty of barriers to go around and even more
where those came from! We bang these barriers together to form
the social and economic structures that we are familiar with
-- our political and legal systems (e.g., political parties,
national laws, consensus models, republics, federations, monarchies,
etc.), economic systems (corporate laws, tax laws, consumer laws,
etc.), and social systems (work place rules, family structures,
social conventions, etc.).
As on a personal scale, these systems and structures largely
determine our worldviews as a society. They establish our experience
of the landscape we our traveling through, just as surely as
our mode of transportation does, whether it is by bike, bus or
boat. Cultural structures are just as invisible to most of us
as our individual egos are to ourselves.
As with our individual egos, our social structures have allowed
us to reap the many benefits of current technological advancement
and material success. To continue to rely on the old structures,
however, would prove disastrous as we watch our aggressive, consumptive
behaviour overwhelm the planet -- at horrendous environmental
and social costs. We have no choice but to learn to integrate
current structures and to transcend them in developing entirely
new structures.
- Existing social structures can
be fine-tuned and revitalized to a certain extent, however, like
all structures they ultimately have a limited life span. It has
become apparent that we've outgrown some of the fundamental premises
-- the very foundations that our current structures are built
upon – premises such as:
· prosperity is absolutely dependent on continuous economic
growth
· the earth's bounty is unlimited
· natural capital is free and, therefore, does not have
to be factored into economic calculations
· human actions are too localized in scale to have a significant
influence on planetary life support systems, such as climatic
regimes, ocean currents, or stratospheric conditions.
- Only individuals who have arrived
at a certain level of maturity will perceive the need for change…
however, that does not diminish in any way the need for change.
- The very fact that we have been
so successful as a species has brought us to the point where
we have outgrown our structures -- our exoskeletons -- and somewhat
like caterpillars, must go within and begin entirely anew as
butterflies. A caterpillar can never hope to fly, no matter what
contortions it might demand of itself.
Before we can sufficiently transform our social structures, we
must transform ourselves -- raising our individual levels of
awareness -- and thereby increasing global consciousness. When
enough of us have changed the way we view and interact with the
world outside; the world will change. We must "unlearn"
some of our most cherished concepts and pampered premises and
undertake an inner transformation that will manifest in outward
change.
- The most important question
becomes: "How do we learn to integrate body, mind and spirit
and move beyond the world of duality (not through exclusion,
but by inclusion) and learn to directly experience realms that
transcend the rational mind?" Not, how do we discard the
body and mind and move to the level of spirit? -- but rather
how do we integrate all aspects of ourselves and move to an entirely
new level?
- The answer is to let go of our
assuredness and certainty about the world -- our world-ego and
our knowledge -- and to develop the sensitivity to simply observe
as openly as possible. To let go of our knowledge and our egos
and open ourselves to direct experience of ultimate reality --
pure essence, unadulterated by culture, creed or mental construct
-- through contemplation.
In this way we can develop the inner space we need to absorb
new realities and perceive new possibilities. Only through a
conscious decision to set out on our own personal evolutionary
path can we bring true wisdom to bear upon our personal and worldly
affairs. Those who realize this and act accordingly are on the
path of wisdom. (We could also say that those who realize this
but do not act, have much to unlearn!)
***
"The time has now arrived
when man has sufficiently matured to experience a reality which
has hitherto belonged solely to the realm of faith.
….Our generation is witness to a decisive turning point
in man's development -- the opening of the initiatory Way, formerly
the exclusive province of the mystics, to all those who have
arrived at this level of maturity."
-- Karlfried G. Durckheim, The Way of Transformation.
"Working on the Way breaks
down into three essential tasks:
1. Developing the sensitivity needed for contact with Being.
2. Gaining the insight into the conditions on which the experience
of Being depends.
3. Practicing to eliminate everything that separates us from
Being and develop everything that connects us with it. The purpose
of this is to achieve an overall state (including the body) that
enables us to stay in touch with Being and manifest it in the
world."
-- Karlfried G. Durckheim, Absolute Living
Catch-22: It takes wisdom to
see the need for wisdom
Not only does each individual
go through developmental stages of self-consciousness but human
consciousness, like any biological or organizational system,
is in a constant state of evolution. We need only consider the
social and technological achievements of the past century to
see how rapidly our knowledge and abilities have evolved. Ken
Wilber describes this well;
"In any developmental
or growth sequence, as a more encompassing stage or holon emerges,
it includes the capacities and patterns and functions of the
previous stage, and then adds its own unique (and more encompassing)
capacities.
Thus, whatever the important
value of the previous stage, the new stage has that enfolded
in its own makeup, plus something extra (more integrative capacity,
for example), and that "something extra" means "extra
value" relative to the previous (and less encompassing)
stage. This crucial definition of a "higher stage"
was first introduced in the West by Aristotle and in the East
by Shankara and Lieh-tzu; it has been central to developmental
studies ever since." (Ken
Wilber, 1995)
One of the keys to understanding
the value of wisdom in human endeavour is this idea of a constantly
evolving "higher stage." Once we accept the notion
that human consciousness is evolving, we must continually ask
ourselves, "what does the next stage in evolution look like?"
Following this line of thought we can see that each higher level
of consciousness should, in turn, prove more valuable (to humanity
as a whole) than the preceding stage. As Wilber points out; "Conventional
thought is more valuable than preconventional thought in establishing
a balanced moral response (and postconventional is even more
valuable, and so on)."
At first glance this notion of
a hierarchy of consciousness was difficult for many people to
accept. After all, wasn't modern society built on a foundation
of fundamental "equality for all?" However it soon
became evident that attainment of higher levels of consciousness
was not all that different from achievement in education. Education
-- which promotes a hierarchy of learning and knowledge -- is
fundamental to the capacity and functioning of most modern societies.
Individuals who have attained higher levels of education are
usually highly valued and respected by society. Indeed, the success
of any democratic society ultimately rests on having a relatively
high percentage of educated, informed and participative citizens.
In the late 1990s, however, there
was a great gulf between the recognition and acceptance of a
hierarchy of consciousness and actually having the systems in
place to capitalize on wisdom in our political, social and educational
circles.
The state of the fish populations
and forests in Canada during this time are perfect examples of
the lack of wisdom all around. On the east coast, the cod had
largely been wiped out after years of over-fishing and mismanagement.
Only a few short years later the west coast faced a similar situation
when coho salmon stocks faced extinction. In exemplary short-sighted
fashion almost everyone involved -- many consumers, commercial
fishers, sport fishers, and fisheries managers -- wanted to continue
fishing for coho! Who could fathom taking the last coho and then
wondering what to do about salmon stocks in the future?!
The same saga of shortsightedness
plagued the forest industry for most of the century. On Vancouver
Island, for example, thirteen per cent of the island had been
protected from logging… (after bitter protests and years
of confrontation), but only about four per cent of the forests
were included in the protected areas. The rest of the island
was basically slated for clearcutting. Forest companies, shareholders
and loggers were demanding access to virtually the last stick
of wood without thinking about what they would do when the wood
was gone. People with varying levels of education -- including
some very "bright" individuals -- and various backgrounds
and interests all managed to demonstrate a remarkable lack of
wisdom.
The stage was set for the emergence
of philosophies and disciplines such as integral studies, systems
theory, holistic management, etc.
***
One area of human endeavour soon
came to stand out above the others in terms of integrating wisdom
into the functioning of society. With an aging population, the
area of greatest concern for many people became one of the most
important catalysts for valuing wisdom in society (to complement
linear, rational thinking)… and that was human health and
aging. A large majority of the population found themselves entering
the fall and winter of their lives at the turn of the Millennium.
Health and aging took on greater significance for everyone --
both the elder folk facing their twilight years and the younger
generations looking after them.
In the 1980s and 90s many medical
professionals began to realize that the age-old challenges of
health, aging and death demanded that the musty curtains held
aloft by western medical science, screening the deepest mysteries
of the universe, had to be flung aside. A few doctors began to
write books that crossed the boundary of time and space to enter
into the territory of boundless wisdom. Perhaps one of the most
popular writers at the time was Deepak Chopra. In his book Ageless
Body, Timeless Mind he wrote, "Spirit is healing energy,
the flow of life and intelligence in every cell. When we are
once more attuned to the innate joy and delight of our bodies,
the signals of deep wisdom will reappear, creating healing from
within."
***
Wisdom is a familiar word, yet
a definitive meaning is difficult to pin down. It carries with
it a sense of "knowing" – intuiting or perceiving
-- the right path or choice, often without the benefit of time
and under very difficult circumstances. An Indian adage holds,
"This is not the kind of knowledge you acquire but the kind
you must become."
This much is certain; wisdom
is much more than a mere collection of facts… of information.
We all recognize a hierarchical organization when it comes to
the "stuff of mind," increasing in usefulness; going
from mere information, or straight data, to knowledge and then
wisdom. Take nitroglycerin for example; the chemical formula
is information; the process of combining the ingredients in exactly
the right manner requires knowledge; however, the use of nitroglycerin
for good rather than evil takes a certain amount of wisdom. (It
seems appropriate that the Nobel prize – quite likely the
most respected recognition of wisdom – is named after Alfred
Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.)
Where does this ability to know
the truth or perceive the right path come from? Are we born with
innate wisdom? Do we slowly hew wisdom out of the tangled experiences
that we collect during the course of our lives? Are we suddenly
blessed with wisdom when the first grey hairs appear unbidden?
(Or is it simply a survival mechanism for parents in response
to the clever manipulations of our children?)
Yes, no doubt. But, of course,
there is more.
What is the difference between
being smart, or intelligent, and being wise? In commonly accepted
terms, intelligence is a measure of the ability of the intellect.
Wisdom, however, is a measure of some capacity that transcends
the intellect. It is a powerful mix of intelligence, humour,
personal experience, common sense, insight, and intuition. All
of these characteristics contribute to wisdom. This is why the
exact nature of wisdom is so difficult to describe. It takes
a certain amount of wisdom to appreciate the true power of wisdom!
"The ignorant man is not
the unlearned, but he who does not know himself, and the learned
man is stupid when he relies on books, on knowledge and on authority
to give him understanding. Understanding comes only through self
knowledge, which is awareness of one's total psychological process.
Thus education, in the true sense, is the understanding of oneself,
for it is within each one of us that the whole of existence is gathered."
-- J. Krishnamurti
Perhaps wisdom could be defined
as the innate human ability that allows us to see beyond the
separation and duality of the time/space world we inhabit with
our physical bodies, to realize the indivisible, absolute truth.
Through wisdom we become directly aware of the infinite universe
– both empty and immensely full -- and we comprehend that
it is more glorious than we could have ever imagined.
The salient point is the fact
that wisdom signifies a level of insight or appreciation of context
that can only be grasped once a new level of consciousness has
been achieved. To put it into physical terms; we can't see the
next ridge until we ascend to the top of the ridge we're currently
climbing. This simple truth explains many of the difficulties
that faced humanity at the close of the 20th Century. No matter
how much evidence accumulated to show that the majority of ecosystems
on earth were under extreme stress… individuals required
a sufficient level of awareness to perceive the interconnected
and complex nature of the "multi-layered web of life"
that was threatened. For decades large numbers of people simply
denied that there were any real threats to the environment --
because from their vantage point there were none to be seen!
It soon became evident that the
those espousing a "laissez faire" approach to free
market economies and unrestrained resource exploitation without
factoring in the environmental or social costs were demonstrating
a woeful lack of wisdom! They were either unable to perceive
the overall impacts and both social and environmental consequences
or they "refused" to perceive them for the sake of
short-term convenience and opportunity. The integrative wisdom
that was beginning to arise was based on an understanding that
any separation between humanity and the environment was merely
an illusion.
In the late twentieth century,
and early twenty-first, those fixated on measuring success through
strictly economic terms -- the accepted worldview of the time
-- were tremendously challenged by this notion and lashed out
vociferously against its proponents.
However, once it began, the shift
was rapid. For example John Dalla Costa, a Canadian management
consultant wrote in his book Working Wisdom, "…we
tend to see bottom line as something different from culture,
potential, or human values. Even those who acknowledge a relationship
between wisdom factors and profit often still separate these
two concepts. They are, in fact, increasingly symbiotic. Hamel
and Prahalad note that 'when the pace of genetic evolution falls
behind the pace of environmental change, a species, like the
dinosaurs, can get wiped out. The corporate equivalent is wholesale
layoffs and massive restructuring. Only with anticipatory unlearning
can one hope for a bloodless revolution.' The unlearning most
needed is that of regarding wisdom and profit as divergent."
In the end, it was this shift
in perception -- from wisdom as a threat to the bottom line,
to a recognition that, in fact, it was essential to a truly sustainable
marketplace -- that represented a fundamental revolution in thinking.
"If business systems
and ecosystems have something fundamental in common, there is
disconcerting news for bosses. 'The first rule of complex systems
is that it is almost impossible to predict who is a friend and
who is an enemy,' says Pimm [Stuart Pimm, Ecologist, University
of Tennessee]. He describes field experiments in which a predator
is removed from a community. You might expect its prey, species
A, to thrive. But about half the time species A suffers because
the predator has another prey, species B, competing with species
A. With the population of species B no longer kept in check by
the predator, it may even push species A to local extinction.
Business ecosystems face the same problem of deciding who is
a friend and who is an enemy. And the bad news doesn't stop here.
'When everything is connected directly or indirectly to everything
else, changes in one part of the system may be propagated throughout,'
says Pimm. 'Sometimes species may go extinct through no fault
of their own.'
To executives who are used to at least the illusion of predictability
and control, this is all unnerving. 'We know from studying complex
systems that prediction in any conventional sense is not possible,'
author Moore [The Death of Competition: Leadership and Strategy
in the Age of Business Ecosystems, James F. Moore] warns. 'The
effective leaders I meet are the ones who are prepared to let
go of the illusion of control,' he says. 'And that's a good thing,
because in reality they have no choice.'"
— Roger Lewin, New Scientist, London, Nov. 29,1997.
Those who possess wisdom have
the ability to see clearly beyond what might be immediately obvious
to the greater, more inclusive truth (and the more consequential
context in influencing the unfolding of events) and to act accordingly
in the present moment. The recognition and valuing of this perspective
essentially changed humanity's ability to deal with incredibly
complex natural and social processes, often occurring on a global
scale. For with wisdom, as we have seen, came the worldview that
everything was interconnected and people needed to develop the
ability to think and act from this deeply held understanding.
This was the ultimate challenge
for humanity: …to stop living in the short term, reacting
to relatively localized, short-lived phenomenon and to learn to
act in harmony with global events and processes with significant
long-term consequences. Each person was being called upon to
learn to perceive "the greater whole" and to consciously
consider the big picture as well as the common good before each
and every action.
The contemplative traditions
paved the way for humanity as a whole to stop merely talking
about wisdom and to actually experience the absolute directly.
By the 2020s certain characteristics had become more and more
common in people around the world. People began to experience:
