To we, or not to we, that is the question

Steve Pavlina: Cave-Free Spirituality

...Personal relationships can be a tremendous source of spiritual growth. While it’s possible for us to fall out of touch with reality if we spend too much time alone, that’s less likely with abundant social interaction. If we become too impractical in our thinking, the people around us will tell us we’ve gone off the deep end.

My opinion is that the pursuit of spirituality is really the pursuit of accuracy, where our goal is to develop the most accurate model of reality we can. If we fail to include other human beings in this model, we toss away too much potentially valid information, so our model will be doomed to inaccuracy. Spirituality is really understanding. The more accurate your understanding of reality, the more spiritual I would say you’ve become.

If the pursuit of spirituality causes you to lose the ability to function in the modern world, then I’d say you’ve taken a wrong turn. Genuine spirituality should be immensely practical. If your model of reality is accurate, then you shouldn’t have to escape reality to feel whole and complete. You should be able to function even better than the average person, especially when confronted with modern day challenges.

I like his view and its confident comfort and embrace of the unknown. It made me think of some parallels: The above could easily be an extended metaphor to discuss what many call "cocooning" in marketing and ethnography speak. As our choices have multiplied, the pressures on us to make emphatic statements--to be sure and confident--have also expanded. Media pushes experts and analysts and assorted blowhards to the fore on all fronts. That fact implies a zeitgeist or way things should be that we all consciously or subconsciously absorb. That's a lot of pressure by example. Of course, many of the experts have an agenda to sell, a master other than themselves to serve, which only screws up the quality meter inside our subconscious as it's absorbing all this palaver from TV, meetings, industry papers or whatever.

The answer? Shut down, retreat, say "time out." Believe it or not, that's one reason for SUVs' success. They put distance and mass between me and the other guy in a more and more fluid world. The other reason is that in that world which is often bewildering to "seasoned" grown-ups SUVs offer a rare chance to feel "tall" and grown-up and "capable." (Yeah, there's more to it than that, but that's another conversation.)

The odd thing is that as we fill our lives with packing peanuts and air bags and Amber Alerts, we still have a subliminal unmet urge: Danger; exploring the unknown. Planting your flag.

Steve's post references a solitary cave-dwelling kind of spirituality (or awareness). He finds it sort of pointless, and I agree. The ability to focus in an empty room with nothing but yourself and perhaps an empty notepad and pen is not so much a talent as it is a necessity: what else is there to do? But, when the cave is filled with others, jabbering, scribbling, humping, moaning, jumping up and down and telling you how they think things oughta be... well, suddenly a nice little walk-up studio cave with kitchenette starts to look good.

But for most, that's not an option and so the communal cave is it. And after a while, you get used to the sounds and smells of your fellow cave-dwellers. You sublimate your curiosity. You begin to breathe the fumes. And you know what they say about huffing:

Images of Organization

The allegory pictures an underground cave with its mouth open toward the light of a blazing fire. Within the cave are people chained so that they cannot move. They can see only the cave wall directly in front of them. This is illuminated by the light of the fire, which throws shadows of people and objects onto the wall. The cave dwellers equate the shadows with reality, naming them, talking about them, and even linking sounds from outside the cave with the movements on the wall. Truth and reality for the prisoners rest in this shadowy world, because they have no knowledge of any other.

However, as Socrates relates, if one of the inhabitants were allowed to leave the cave, he would realize that the shadows are but dark reflections of a more complex reality, and that the knowledge and perceptions of his fellow cave dwellers are distorted and flawed. If he were then to return to the cave, he would never be able to live in the old way, since for him the world would be a very different place. No doubt he would find difficulty in accepting his confinement, and would pity the plight of his fellows. However, if he were to try and share his new knowledge with them, he would probably be ridiculed for his views.

For the cave prisoners, the familiar images of the cave would be much more meaningful than any story about a world they had never seen. Moreover, since the person espousing this new knowledge would now no longer be able to function in the old way, since he would no longer be able to act with conviction in relation to the shadows, his fellow inmates would no doubt view his knowledge as being extremely dangerous. They would probably regard the world outside the cave as a potential source of danger, to be avoided rather than embraced as a source of wisdom and insight. The experience of the person who left the cave could thus actually lead the cave dwellers to tighten their grip on their familiar way of seeing.

The cave stands for the world of appearances and the journey outside stands for the ascent to knowledge. People in everyday life are trapped by illusions, hence the way they understand reality is limited and flawed. By appreciating this, and by making a determined effort to see beyond the superficial, people have an ability to free themselves from imperfect ways of seeing. However, as the allegory suggests, many of us often resist or ridicule efforts at enlightenment, preferring to remain in the dark rather than to risk exposure to a new world and its threat to the old ways.

Come to think of it, "You really should get out more" is very good advice. I'm off to lunch. Hope it's a busy place.