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T H E P R O B L E M O F L I F E A Thought Experiment
"...to succeed at last,
Article assembled by Talk about it:
One way of saying it is this: Wealth, all, in a way, are "solutions" to "The Problem of Life." Depression, anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, eating disorders, general neurosis and so on are all reactions to "The Problem of Life."
First of all, "the problem of life" rarely comes up in conversation. What comes up in conversations are the problems - emphasis on the "s" - of life. There's not just one problem, there are many.
After all, on the surface, there actually does seem to be thousands of different problems in life. Paying bills is a problem. Working a job involves lots of problems. Making good grades in school is nothing but a series of solving problems. Being popular, respected, having a good social life is a problem. Dating involves massive avalanches of problems. Getting married, raising kids, growing up, finding happiness, and just making it through the day . . . we seem to be constantly struggling against a constant, unending tide of problems. Actually, though, in reality, beneath the surface, behind the appearance . . .
- perhaps there aren't really a million problems. There's only one. One Big One. Picture a tree. Every branch, every leaf, every flower . . . one tree has thousands of them - way too many for us to even think about keeping track of. Every leaf is a problem - and so, there are thousands of different problems. But if we look at it another way, all those thousands of leaves are connected to branches . . . and if you trace them all back far enough . . . they eventually all connect back together, and unite into the trunk of the tree. All the separate forms of leaves and branches unite into one single, complete, unity of the trunk. And maybe problems work the same way. After all, this is what most spiritual traditions (which are presumably the best wisdom us human have available to us) say in different ways.
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam say in various ways that "the basic problem" is that we dropped into a fallen/sinful state, far away from heaven/God, and so we need to find our way back (salvation). Buddhists and Hindus say that we've been seduced into a state of ignorance or illusion, and so we need to pursue enlightenment. Even Taoism, the most apparently easygoing and non-dogmatic of the major religions, offers advice on getting back in tune with the "Tao" - presuming, then, that we've lost touch with it, and that getting "back in tune" with it is worth doing.
Even non-religious folks seem to agree that there's at least a problem, even if they disagree about the form it takes. Some insist, for example, that the basic problem is environmental destruction (fall from Eden), and our most important mission is to restore it (environmental salvation). Some believe that the biggest problem is the discrepancies between the rich and the poor (fall from grace), and we need to create equality (one version of heaven). Some folks believe the basic problem lies in various world conditions - hunger, poverty, disease, famine, etc - and the basic solution lies in eradicating these. Some believe that the other team, the other political party, the other opponent within the same political party - is the problem, and the solution lies in beating them. So, folks might disagree on what form of suffering the problem takes, but one basic axiom that almost everyone seems to agree on is that, in some way, there is a problem. Every story - every movie, film, sitcom, television drama, play - starts with a problem - a "fall from grace" or some kind of exile from happiness - and then tells the story of characters struggling to find a solution.
And, if there actually is only one problem instead of many . . . then perhaps if you solve that core problem -"The Problem" - then all the other problems take care of themselves. If you chop down the tree, then all the leaves naturally come with it. Again, many traditions claim that this is the case: in Christianity, the single most important, most significant problem is salvation, or "finding your way to heaven." Nothing else really matters. In Hinduism and Buddhism, finding enlightenment is truly the only thing that matters. Or as Einstein said, "I want to know God's thoughts. The rest are details." The idea can be seductive. After all, if we are living in "The Matrix", it might seem as though we have many different problems - our jobs, our relationships, our health, etc. But actually, the only real problem is . . . we're in The Matrix. All the other problems are actually illusions. Or, imagine having a dream where you're being chased by zombies, and you're almost out of ammunition, and there's no food or water, and your best friend is close to being discovered . . . there seem to be many, many serious problems. But in fact, there is only one real problem: you are asleep, and dreaming. As soon as you wake up, all the other problems - the zombies, the ammunition, the food and water, your friend - all vanish. That is what traditions describe as real salvation or "enlightenment".
Many folks say there is a solution to "The Problem of Life": call it "enlightenment," call it "salvation," call it "moksha," "nirvikalpa samadhi," "waking up from the dream of life" or "escaping from The Matrix" - many folks say that such a thing exists, is real, is attainable, and is worth striving for. In fact, many folks say that it's not just what we should be striving for, it's what we all already are striving for, whether we're aware of it or not. We're all searching for "IT" - and typically, all we find are substitutes. We aren't satisfied with these substitutes, so we keep searching. And we'll keep searching until we actually do find "IT" - or become "enlightened.". So if there is such a thing as "enlightenment," and it does mean "solving the problem of life" - does that mean that, literally, all the mundane errands, tasks, and difficulties of life magically vanish? No. If enlightenment is real, then by all accounts, the mundane day-to-day issues of life still continue: enlightened folks still have to eat, drink, wash, and if they're living in an apartment, pay bills. (In some cases, some mundane problems are taken care of by students, devotees, fans, and groupies . . . but the problems are still there.) In fact, it's a tempting error - called the "spiritual bypass" school of thought - to believe that achieving spiritual enlightenment will automatically erase the mundane problems of the world - finding friends, paying bills, and so on. It won't. The difference is that the day-to-day problems lose their urgency and significance. Once the Big Picture is taken care of, these more minor problems lose their life-or-death importance. They become minor details, tiny brush-strokes to paint as polish on a fully completed canvas. The Big Stuff is accomplished, over, fixed, completed . . . and the rest is small stuff. This is a total contrast to our normal way of doing things. Typically, paying bills is a life-or-death matter. Getting rich is a life-or-death matter. Becoming famous, finding love, becoming successful all becomes a life-or-death matter. In this sense, we lose perspective, and endow insignificant things with an undeserved importance, infuse unimportant things with a life-or-death urgency, and all too often, treat truly significant matters as if they're insignificant. We get things upside-down and inside-out. We get ourselves all worked up and stressed out about things that ultimate don't matter. But when we take care of, and resolve, the things that ultimately do matter . . . then the rest we can just really enjoy. So fame is one solution to the problem of life. Alcohol is another solution to the problem of life. Drugs are another solution. So is sports. And drama. And "love" - they can all be understood as various solutions to "The Problem of Life." Why are we drawn so irresistibly towards sports, drama, fame, alcohol, drugs, and love? Because they are small, bite-sized versions of "solutions" to the problem of life. These "solutions" all look different on the surface, but they are all the same underneath: they all involve a state of discontent, a certain amount of tension and opposition, and a release - an "ahhhh" of miniature release. But of course, these "solutions" are, as we often discover the hard way, temporary, short-lasting, miniature, and only "imitation" solutions. In a way, they're phonies. After we watch the sports and drama, after we imbibe the alcohol and drugs, after we find the love and eventually find it wanting . . . we still hunger for more. That wasn't "IT". So, is there a real solution? If the above answers are stand-ins, imposter, phony solutions . . . is there a real, permanent, longer-lasting one? Is there really an answer to "the problem of life"? Is "spiritual enlightenment" something real, or is it just another fable? And if we do get "spiritually enlightened," would that help the famine, poverty, hunger, disease, famine in the world? Would that help the environment? Would that ease other folks' real suffering? Would that mean I don't have to pay my bills, work a crummy job, sit in traffic? If we're all enlightened and just sit around playing harps all day . . . wouldn't that be boring? What would we do then? And then, of course, how does a person become enlightened? It seems like plenty of people talk about enlightenment, a few people actually seek it, and very few claim to find it . . . so, if the concept of this is interesting to us . . . what are we supposed to do? How?
This
is what we, We think these are all pretty groovy questions to explore, to say the least. And we plan on continuing our explorations. Because of course, like you know, and like most folks like to remind us about . . . it's not really as neat as this. The concept of "Spiritual Enlightenment" sounds great, "getting free of suffering" sounds great, and it all might works as a nice, neat, tidy concept wrapped in a nice, neat package. But it's not - life is pretty messy, and doesn't fit into tidy packages. At the same time, we need these tidy packages, we need models we can use, and maps we can use to travel safely . . . and perhaps even reach our destination. After all, even finding and making halfway accurate models and maps is quite a challenge nowadays, and quite an adventure.
And actually traveling, actually
using the map So stay tuned . . .
Appendix "To be, or not to be:
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