“Every Last Tool”, etc. (336-340)
Welcome to Fragmentarium! Each issue contains five fragments of text that can be read independently of one another. However, all of the fragments are connected (from #1 onward), so the more of them you read, the more whole they will become.
336. Every Last Tool
Being aware is not without its challenges. Greater awareness necessarily means greater compassion, and compassion demands action. Compassion is not content with merely seeing how the world already is and allowing it to carry on producing suffering without end. It will not allow us to hide and enjoy our own safety and security while others suffer in need.
But the enormity of the task before us can be overwhelming. That so many are struggling with unmet needs means that significant changes are required. Changes not just to individuals but also to the systems we have constructed that actively work against compassion. It can sometimes feel like we need to go to war with the whole world just to be able to fix it.
And there is some truth to this, for we often will have to fight on behalf of need. We will have to fight using every possible means available to us. Compassion does not abandon its demands simply because the means are unsavoury or laws will be broken. To act from compassion is to use every last tool in whatever ways it must be used to meet needs and reduce suffering.
This means that sometimes there will be dangerous jobs that must be undertaken. It means that sometimes we will have to take enormous risks. It means that we might even have to risk our own lives. But make no mistake: lives have always been on the line. A world so lacking in compassion as this one kills millions without blinking an eye. This too is something we must see, and our response to it must recognize this brutal reality.
At the same time, compassion does not utilize means that are unnecessary. It does not waste resources — human or otherwise — on quests that serve no purpose but to satisfy desires for revenge or punishment. Our actions must be oriented towards meeting needs and creating awareness, which does not usually happen through conflict but through care and cooperation.
Compassion expands its reach when we learn how to end our suffering and create joy, and when we show others how to do the same. But we must keep in mind that what needs to be seen cannot always be shown by means that are all too quiet and peaceful.
337. How We Treat Others
We want to be treated well by others. We feel we deserve to be treated well and that others should be obliged to treat us this way. We don’t care what they might think about us, as long as they always fulfill this basic obligation.
We obligate others through social pressure, through appeals to rights, and through the application of laws. While we are also obligated in the same way, we see the trade-off as worthwhile, since we generally have no problem with treating others well. After all, the obligation is not usually binding. We see others as similar to ourselves, so we automatically treat them well out of compassion and not because of any obligation.
But a problem arises when we encounter someone for whom we do not feel compassion. Now we are obligated to act in way that goes again our intuitive sense of right and wrong. We are forced to treat this person well when we do not believe they deserve it. Having to do this repeatedly can lead to resentment. Even worse, the constant requirement to act against our intuitions means imposing the kind of control over ourselves that tends to limit the growth of our awareness and perpetuate suffering.
The problem is that we cannot see why the other ought to receive compassion. We are unable to see them as one of us, so they remain an other, an outsider not entitled to anything. It is this missing awareness that produces our resentment and possibly even hatred towards the other. We need to be able to see their humanity and we presently cannot.
The solution to this problem is not to enforce our obligations more rigidly or to impose penalties that do nothing to help us reflect on our lack of compassion. We need to allow our awareness to expand, and help others do the same, so that compassion arises from all of us towards all of us. In the end, it is never pressure, nor rights, nor laws that will make us treat others well, but our own awareness of the necessity of doing so.
338. Tired Of Choosing
She is always forced to choose. Between this job and that job. Between this love and that love. Between this project and that project. Between this life and that life. But she doesn’t want only this or that. She wants both. And she is tired of choosing.
She knows she can’t do everything. She isn’t asking for supernatural powers. What bothers her is the imposed requirement to exclude. She doesn’t want to abandon things or people. She wants to stay open to everything that might be possible for her. But no one will allow her to make such a choice.
The people around her want her to commit to one option, to one life. The structure of the world itself seems to force this choice, it seems to demand that she apply all of her efforts in a single direction. This endless narrowing down is a tragedy, she feels. She doesn’t want to be boxed in. She wants just as much possibility to grow tomorrow as she has today. But she cannot see how that can happen if she is always forced to limit herself.
Everyone tells her that she must value one option more than the others. But her concern is not the things or people she is choosing between. It’s the loss of freedom that bothers her. She wants to be free to do what she wants, when she wants. She wants to move fluidly through the world, following her attention wherever it leads her. She wants to have a wide variety of experiences, taking as many or as few adventures as she feels compelled to take.
The strangest part, she thinks, is that this narrowed-down life is so easily accepted by others. Why does everyone want this when there’s a chance for something more free and joyful? Safety and certainty are the only reasons she can come up with. She knows they are important reasons, but what’s the point of being safe or certain if you’re forced to live in a tiny box?
She wants uncertainty and risk even though they scare her. She wants them even though she knows they will sometimes bring her harm. She wants them because the demand to surrender her freedom and the possibilities it offers is simply too much to accept.
339. Despising Attachment
The power of joy can be astonishing. Everything that was once dark and depressing is suddenly transformed into light and purpose, and I feel more capable than ever before. I can easily start to think that all that is wrong and bad has been permanently defeated and that this victory couldn’t possibly leave me.
But then suffering returns in some form, and it becomes all too clear that this was only a fantasy. It can be shocking to be so rapidly engulfed in suffering when joy has been with me for so long. But really there should be no surprise. I know that my awareness is not perfect and there are things I still have not seen or understood. This means I will still form attachments, so suffering is always just around the corner.
Where there is still room for awareness to grow, there is also room for suffering to arise again from attachment. For joy to stay with me always, I would need to be completely empty of attachment. This naturally leads me to despise attachment — I want it permanently gone so that I can live with endless joy.
But an aversion to attachment can be dangerous. It’s no different from any other aversion, which means I can also become attached to it. Then I will suffer doubly when I happen to become attached to some further intention. I will suffer from both the new attachment and my existing attachment to my aversion to attachment.
The only way out of this cycle of attachment and suffering is greater awareness. I must do everything I can to keep my attention open and free so that I can see more broadly and deeply. I must regularly remind myself that I am not yet free of attachment and that my awareness is not complete. By doing these things, I create the possibility for joy to arise again and again.
340. Criticism Is Creative
A successful artwork shows us something we haven’t seen before. It does this by drawing our attention to an aspect of our experience through a representation of that experience in a particular medium. As such, all art attains its power through metaphor.
In seeing the connection between the artistic representation and our experience, we encounter the beauty and truth of the artwork, and it is this encounter that helps us become more aware of the world and ourselves. We often feel intensely the value of such an encounter, and we are moved to share it with others. Through the practice of criticism, we show others the parts of the work we’ve noticed, and in doing so, we offer our own perspective for consideration.
Of course, not all criticism is positive. Sometimes we notice elements of the artwork that are not as strong as we think they could be, and we draw attention to these deficits as well. This tells us something about the possibility of art beyond this particular work, and thus criticism also expands our sense of possibility.
But even the most negative review of an artwork cannot harm it. Criticism cannot lessen the force of an artwork’s metaphors any more than it can physically alter the work itself. Its metaphors will function just as well they did before the critique was made, and the work will continue to succeed or fail on its own strength. What negative criticism might do is to undermine our desire to see the work for ourselves. But this is no failure of the artwork or the artist. It is rather our own failure in outsourcing the essential task of seeing.
Criticism always adds and never subtracts. It is itself a kind of creative practice, and every critique is also its own creation. The artist might think that talking about their work could limit its power, but the opposite is true. Criticism is always expansive, and by talking about their own work, the artist can add to the experience of their audience. The result is that the original creative effort is multiplied rather than reduced.