My eighty-day practice of praying for my enemies was interrupted at the end of 2018. While in Minnesota visiting relatives, I landed in the hospital suffering from congestive heart failure. This incident reminded me that, even when I am committed to a course of action, I may not be able to follow through. I am not in control of my life.
The simple fact, that we can't control our circumstances, no matter how hard we try, is key to engaging the weird energy that I began exploring in my last post.i
Although I know I won't live forever, I have not really faced the fact of my dying.
I am going to die.
You are going to die.
Even the richest most powerful people in the world are going to die.
My children are going to die.
Your children are going to die.
All of the descendants of all of the people on earth are going to die.
There is something deep in our psyches that resists death. This elemental urge is a necessary condition for the survival of all living things. Without this drive, life would not have emerged and sustained itself on our planet. This elemental urge serves us well in the moment. When we are attacked, we fight or flee from the danger.
With the rise of consciousness, there are complications. We humans are now able to imagine an existence in the future. We are able to envision future dangers We are able to develop strategies in the present to eliminate these anticipated threats.
Unfortunately, humankind is still tribal at its core. The US develops strategies to prevent Russia or China from surpassing us in technology, weapons production and economic growth. At a more parochial level, we develop strategies to prevent immigrants from residing in our country. More parochial still, members of the dominant culture develop policies to maintain their dominance over less dominant groups. These groups are often defined by race, religion, country of origin, or sexual orientation. They are labeled as undesirable and a threat to the society. In addition to the obvious moral shortcomings of such strategies, the threats they identify are transient and short term.
When envisioning the future we need to examine evolving threats on a much broader scale and over much longer timelines. Even now, we seem unable to address long term threats to our existence. These threats include global warming, extinction of animal and plant species and deterioration of religious/moral structures, to name a few.
This tendency to view only our short term future is further exacerbated by people who manipulate our fears of domination and violence for their own ends. These tactics transform our primitive fight or flight response into a collective belief that violence and domination are the only means to preserve ourselves and our tribe.
This worldview is insidious at a deeper level. It tempts us to frame our existence exclusively in terms of physical survival. Corporations and universities are rewarded when they focus their efforts on narrowly defined goals. This stifles endeavors, like space exploration, since such endeavors are motivated purely by curiosity without any obvious benefits.
This worldview also demeans the arts which somehow feed the human spirit without any material benefits.
Bret Stephens wrote an opinion piece in a recent New York Times, titled “Useless Knowledge Begets New Horizons.”iiIn it he expresses concern about current strategies that sacrifice creativity for expedience. He fears that this focus will limit the freedom to create, which will diminish the creative genius of democracy. He writes:
“.. freedom is the license the roving mind requires to go down any path it chooses and go as far as the paths may lead. This is how fundamental discoveries a.k.a., “useless knowledge” — are usually made: not so much by hunting for something specific, but by wandering with an interested eye amid the unknown. It’s also how countries attract and cultivate genius — by protecting a space of unlimited intellectual permission, regardless of outcome.”
Stephens credits Abraham Flexner for having this insight decades ago, writing, “In October 1939, as Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin were plunging the world into war, an American educational reformer named Abraham Flexner published an essay in Harper’s magazine under the marvelous title, “The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge.”iiiHe then quotes Flexner who wrote:
“From a practical point of view, intellectual and spiritual life is, on the surface, a useless form of activity, in which men (sic) indulge because they procure for themselves greater satisfactions than are otherwise obtainable. In this paper I shall concern myself with the question of the extent to which the pursuit of these useless satisfactions proves unexpectedly the source from which un-dreamed-of utility is derived........ I sometimes wonderwhether our conception of what is useful may not have become too narrow to be adequate to the roaming and capricious possibilities of the human spirit.”
Here's where my brush with mortality is important. I was confronted by the fact that life, all life, has an end point. All people, including my enemies, are dealing with this reality.
We can “eat, drink and make merry” as a way of living. But just like Mr. Scrooge in the “Christmas Carol,” the specter of death haunts us in the depths of our psyches. As with Mr. Scrooge, our instinct to protect ourselves and our tribe, carries with it a powerful desire to be in relation with other members of our tribe.
When dealing with the real possibility of dying, we realize that money and power are not the highest priority. This is why people are willing to spend a fortune to delay death. When the prospect of death is imminent, we realize that the love and support of friends is of highest value. Unfortunately, many of us arrive at the moment without having engaged this reality adequately.
This is where my experiment in praying for enemies is so helpful. It allows me to engage these people in all their complexity.At their core, most of my enemies are no different from myself. The major difference is that they wield power. The old statement that power corrupts is very apt in this context. Most of us, if placed in positions of power, would be tempted to behave in a similar way. On a smaller scale, we often behave this way in our relations with others.
What is true of us personally is equally true of humankind.For the first time in recorded history, our species has the technological capability of affecting the basic dynamics of our global environment.
Our species is a bit like a precocious teenager who has exceptional scientific knowledge and skill but little wisdom. S/he can use her/his resources to dominate and control others, or s/he can teach others so they too will possess this knowledge and skill. We, like the hypothetical teenager, must choose how we will proceed which road we will travel.
The first road is wide and easy. This is the road of domination and violence. It is conditioned by our primitive flight or flight response and is generally assumed to be the only effective way to proceed. This road offers some short term benefits but, ultimately leads to destruction. It is destructive within families; particularly in times of distress, like divorce or death of a parent. One only has to look at our national political environment to see how destructive this dynamic is within nations. On a global scale, this dynamic is degrading the ecosystem of our planet. This road also degrades characteristics we value as humans – curiosity, creativity, humor, artistic sensitivity and compassion.
The second road is narrow and difficult. Few travel this road as it runs counter to the generally accepted wisdom of our culture. It runs counter to our primitive fight or flight response. It feels risky and vulnerable. This is the road ofdeveloping compassion for all sentient beings – friends, enemies, plants and animals. This is the road of expanded consciousness.
The motivation to follow this road may begin with the rational knowledge that the old ways aren't working. This knowledge will not sustain the journey. My eighty days of praying for my enemies put me in touch with a weird energy that engages something deeper than my survival instincts. It put me in touch with a powerful yearning for wholeness. This yearning reaches toward the future with hope rather than fearfully reacting to enemies and dangers of the past.
I continue to participate in a supportive faith community. I do so, not because of the moral mandates of my religious tradition. I participate because this community helps me engage a deep yearning to become my authentic self, less conditioned by what others think of me. As I proceed on this journey toward authentic selfhood, I am increasingly aware that I am intimately connected to all other human beings. This allows me to
grow in the ability to love others, including my enemies. I feel less isolated and alone, less controlled by my fears and anxieties. This road helps me realize that I am an integral part of the ever expanding flow of the cosmos.
I need to reiterate here what I said in my last reflection.ivThe love of enemies to which I am referring is a tough love. I continue to hold my adversaries accountable for their actions even while recognizing that we are part of a larger cosmic flow. This tough love ironically gives rise to a kind of objectivity that is free of the desire to seek revenge. This is a love that serves a higher purpose than my own immediate wants and needs. This is what was meant when civil rights leaders in the 1960's urged non-violent protestors to “keep their eyes on the prize.”
I don't know how you resist the primitive urge to control and dominate others, but I do know that resistance alone is not enough. It is necessary for each of us to grow in consciousness of our authentic humanity.
I urge you to pursue “useless knowledge.”Let your curiosity lead you into new ways of experiencing life. Take time for silence. Listen to beautiful music. Immerse yourself in beauty of all kinds. Share stories with others of your past, your hopes and your dreams. Listen to children. Pray for your enemies. Participate in communities that fill you with hope and joy.
Each of us is much more than we think we are. We just need to open ourselves to the cosmic invitation to fulfill our potential.
“To love another human in all of her splendor and imperfect perfection,
it is a magnificent task…tremendous and foolish and human.”
-Louise Erdrich, The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
ihttps://drchuckpfeifer.blogspot.com/2018/12/weird-energy.html
iiihttps://library.ias.edu/files/UsefulnessHarpers.pdf
ivSee reference (i) above.
