This conclusion in the song, \u201cThe Hokey Pokey,\u201d addresses the existential and widespread question: What is it all about? What is the purpose of the Cosmos? What is God\u2019s purpose for Humanity? What is the Meaning of my life?<\/p>\n
Happily, I have an answer. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s the right answer, or the final answer, but it\u2019s an<\/em> answer that opens the door to some movement: The answer is simple on one level, and almost infinitely complex at another level: Help the world become a better place.<\/p>\n As an aside, it should be noted that there\u2019s a childish and illusory mentality behind the existential questions like “what is it all about?,”\u00a0 a fantasy that \u201canswers\u201d can be (1) expressed in understandable words and (2) that they will then offer meaningful guidance.\u00a0 But neither assumption is so. It’s more true to say that there are several levels playing off of each other. At one level of seeming “truth” are the trite platitudes and cliches that seem plausible, yet their superficiality makes them difficult to apply to specific situations. Another “postmodernist” perspective questions\u2014no, let\u2019s go further\u2014denies<\/em> the possibility of any non-trivial statement or idea being true, applicable to all situations in all eras, and vivid enough to compel agreement from all people. Another perspective on the ntature of “truth” notes that any possible answer only opens the door to another cascade of questions: If X is so, then what about X + 1, or the implications of X, or the definition of X, or its definition if Y is also so, and so forth.\u00a0 Thus, any deep “truth” statement must then be followed by questions such as,\u00a0 if X is true, then: (1) what shall we do about it; (2) how shall we achieve it; (3) what do we need to know in order to decide whether and to what degree such-and-such is part of the deep truth of X,\u00a0 and so forth.<\/p>\n Oh, yeah, there\u2019s also the not-insignificant likelihood that few people will buy the proposition that what it’s all about is simply the challenge of how can we make this world a better place, for a variety of reasons: My reading of the nature of the most common attitudes in the population is that there\u2019s a hope that \u201cthe answer\u201d won\u2019t require all these things, this maturity of stepping-up to the plate, this willingness to take on a fully adult level of responsibility. But that\u2019s the problem, it does. Another part of this philosophy that also blends into practical psychology is this: You must discipline yourself to avoid innumerable pitfalls, seductions, temptations that would drag you into low-grade neurosis, addiction, and other kinds of folly. The more advanced you are, the more you become sensitive to the ways that more subtle seductions are still operating in your system.<\/p>\n You must keep your greed and grasping at bay, and not let slogans, words, narrow ideals, and the like substitute for a commitment to civility, being pleasant, helping others, practicing diplomacy, expressing gratitude, tact, kindness, and the like. (I\u2019m not requiring \u201clove,\u201d because that term has become over-extended and cheapened by sentimentality. Like \u201cwisdom,\u201d the childish fantasy is that \u201clove\u201d can conquer all\u2014but it cannot! One must also exercise imagination and thoughtfulness in how to apply kindness well. The old saying that \u201cthe road to hell is paved with good intentions\u201d has a fair amount of truth.<\/p>\n One must further relinquish the illusion that any truth by itself will suffice. I agree with the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, who noted that \u201call truths are half-truths.\u201d As knowledge and our scope of what the cosmos is about continues to expand\u2014and it will\u2014all truths then find themselves relativized, applicable within certain contexts, but perhaps not so much in a larger or different context. Also, in my experience, all truths need to be understood and\/or applied within the context of other equally important truths, and that balancing involves not only good judgment, but also a willingness to re-consider any opinions in light of the needs of the present moment.<\/p>\n This is because our world is changing at an ever-accelerating pace, knowledge is being surpassed, and this in turn requires new perspectives and creativity. So, the challenge of helping the world be a better place requires a deep, perhaps even spiritual commitment to developing all your abilities, all your knowledge, all your virtues, and struggling with all your weaknesses. Meanwhile, diversify your interests and pleasures, mix in loving relationships and time to enjoy them, and keep those role engagements prominent. They are your testing fields. I\u2019m not sure I approve of people who stretch thin or abandon their real-life roles in order to pursue the illusion of spirituality. Maybe they\u2019re okay, but maybe they\u2019re copping out and hoping for a short-cut \u2014and for that, I suspect they may be in for a dissapointment. Other-worldly endeavors may be more illusory than this-world\u2019s life involvements. That\u2019s what I think it\u2019s all about so far. (But I may find I need to refine this or revise this further in time!\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42 )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This conclusion in the song, \u201cThe Hokey Pokey,\u201d addresses the existential and widespread question: What is it all about? What is the purpose of the Cosmos? What is God\u2019s purpose for Humanity? What is the Meaning of my life? Happily, I have an answer. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s the right answer, or the final answer, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,11,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-papers","category-literacy","category-spirituality-and-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":612,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions\/612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u2013 it is unfamiliar
\n\u2013 it is complex rather than simple
\n\u2013 it is risky
\n\u2013 it demands a great deal of responsibility, as well as faith and love
\n\u2013 there is little financial or status advantage
\n\u2013 it might well take work, courage, risk, discipline, and other imponderables
\n\u2013 there is no guarantee of immediate or even long-term success at several levels
\n\u2013 it might cost money, or at least work
\n\u2013 it would require my giving up of a wide range of childish desires and excesses, not-quite addictions and other lower consciousness distractions and short-term enjoyments that might undercut true responsibility, faith, wisdom, responsibility, or love.
\n\u2013 and so forth.<\/p>\n
\nThe answer is simple: You must mature, and you must do what you can to help others mature. We must collectively continue to distill and integrate the best insights of all the findings of psychology, sociology, medicine, other types of science; we must cook through and distill out the authentic wisdom in tradition, which takes a lot of work. We can accept nothing just because it is traditional, or with the illusory rationale that it seemed to work for thousands or hundreds of years. 92.5% of those things, it turned out, did not work, but there was nothing else to do, and so enough people survived to supply you and me with ancestors. We conveniently forget the fact that large numbers of people died, often in pain, because the traditional beliefs did not work\u2014but their death was attributable to almost any other reason, or just not thought about.<\/p>\n