Take it or leave it

George Clark, 05-feb-2013

meditators

There were some different thought/feelings while at the Buddhist weekend retreat at Newbold House in Forres.

Some of the thought/ feeling related to my longstanding scepticism. There is a lot of wholesome stuff in Buddhism but sometimes the concept gets sucked into mushy new age posturing. 

There is general agreement that there is a force that causes things to happen. It’s manifestations are everywhere. But many people do not feel part of it. They think of themselves as separate individuals. There is self and other. This is dualism. If you are having problems you call for the force to sort things out in the manner of a dutiful and kindly parent. Magic and irresponsibility.

And there is the issue of free-will. ‘I’ have my likes and dislikes. But (a) who am ‘I’, (b) where do the likes and dislikes come from and, (c) must I pay attention to them? You may dislike asparagus tips but you can eat them anyway. Who or what is in charge inside your head?

Some mothers prepare different meals for different members of the family because of its idiosyncratic pattern of likes and dislikes. And the family members go to their own rooms and eat mindlessly while watching different TV programmes. The individuated household! There is the option of the whole family at table together eating mindfully from the same pots. Options. Free will. Who might decide which pattern is best?

Story. In the mid 1970s there was a restaurant on the main street in Highgate Jamaica. On the pavement was a large sign painted with a menu of seven items. One for each day of the week. If it is Tuesday it will be ackee and saltfish – nothing else. No need to worry your pretty, little head with choosing. One item, take it or leave it. There were many loyal customers and very few left overs to be thrown away.

ackee

Story. Danny Griffith was a lecturer in managerial psychology at the Agricultural Extension and Rural Development Centre at the University of Reading. In the late 1970s he defined social development as “increasing the number of choices available to people”.

At first glance this seems reasonable. But think of a busy supermarket in a developed country. All you want is a loaf of bread but there is 40 metres of shelving in the bread section which hosts 45 different types of loaf not to mention a vast range of buns and scones. The retailer is forcing the customer to waste time and attention on figuring the pros and cons of different purchasing options. And there is a vast range of items going past their sell by date and being dumped. There is no single and optimal level of choice.

The food at Newbold House was vegetarian, bountiful and beautifully presented. Before eating we made a large circle holding hands while the cooks and kitchen staff explained the ingredients of the various dishes and the organisers of the retreat recited a Buddhist grace.

The first 20 minutes of the meal were in noble silence and we were thus more able to appreciate interbeing and the impermanence of all created things. Soil, seeds, fertiliser, rain, pesticides, harvesting, packaging, transporting to shops and to the kitchen. Then it is prepared, cooked and presented for eating. Then there is ingestion, digestion, assimilation, and egestion into the toilet and a flushing into the sewerage works. Round and round and round in the circle game.

So there we have some thought/ feelings with their causes and conditions and a healthy pinch of scepticism.