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..:: Alternatives ::..
By
Alan Schneider
What is an alternative? Put
as simply as possible, an alternative is an option for choice in
life, one wherein we can select from a range of available options,
although that range may, on occasion, certainly be quite small. There
are many alternatives evident in existence – lifestyle alternatives,
social alternatives, career alternatives, moral alternatives,
educational alternatives, and so on. In fact, it is quite difficult to
conceive of a condition where no apparent alternatives exist –
even the comatose individual still lives, and is confronted with the
“alternative” of death, however unknowingly. We are surrounded by a
great evolving web of literal and implicit choices as we make our way
through life in the incarnate form here on the Physical Plane!
But our
options are not unlimited, and this is very fortunate. If we were ever
to be confronted with a completely unencumbered mental condition, our
feeble human minds would collapse under the strain! We need the
framework of the body, the sensory network of the nervous
system, and the lifework of the ego to create and sustain a
reality that we can manage to perceive and deliberate upon. We are
integrated biological organisms that must be what they are in
order to be at all. These are the essential limitations of the
human condition that everyone works with as well as they are able.
Within
this essential biological matrix of human affairs, a number of major
circumstantial contingencies exist. I call these factors Karma, although
several other equivalent terms are in common use, including fate,
destiny, predestiny, divine providence, quantum variance, genetic
predisposition, and random accident, to name a few. I prefer the
expression Karma because it allows for the existence of an
intelligent source of higher consciousness that intervenes in human
affairs by structuring lives and life events to achieve certain kinds of
choice-related behavior as the outcome. Otherwise, we live in an
arbitrary universe governed only by essential natural laws floating amid
a mass of primordial chaos. My belief in the doctrine of Karma is the
result of a lifetime of my own suffering, and deep observation of the
consequences of that suffering in my life, and in many, many other’s
lives and sufferings as well. The system of Karmic checks and balances
involved, both overt and subtle, is so intricate and so sublime that it
simply must be the result of an intelligent design – no chaotic
condition could have generated such a profound moral mechanism. And the
suffering that directs our attention to sincere enquiry into the meaning
of existence is not wasted – on the contrary, this is among the most
productive of human learning experiences, another indication of an
implicitly intelligent guiding form present in the background of this
life.
Karma
determines the basic shape of an individual’s life and life
experiences. I have heard this referred to as the quantum envelope
of existence, the phenomenon that defines the total sequence of
possibilities, of choices, present for a given person at a given
time. As we make decisions great and small, this envelope changes and
evolves according to our essential motivation, and layers of
motivations, in making those decisions, coupled with their resultant
moral consequences. Are we fundamentally well or ill intended as human
beings? Do we love more or hate more? Do we desire more or fear more?
How much? Why? Do we seek enlightenment or gratification? What do we
seek, and what do we avoid? These are some of the valences of Karma.
Initial
karma is associated with birth conditions. Was I well born, or severely
impoverished, or somewhere in between? What was my birth order? Was I
afflicted with any birth defects, and, if so, how many and with what
degree of impairment? In a physical world defined by scarcity of
resources, my condition at birth is of the most crucial
importance. Why? Because this condition will tend to determine my
subconscious sense of the overall positivity or negativity of existence,
and that determination, in turn, will have a decisive effect on all
of my life chances and subsequent decisions to follow. This is the
great advantage of the affluent – they literally develop as
consciousness in a well-resourced condition predisposed to a positive
assessment of life. Frequently, what we believe is possible
determines possibility through the conditioning of efforts at
attainment. On the other end of the social scale, the impoverished have
been raised in the conditioned belief that very little positive
transition is possible – therefore they frequently do not recognize
choices for success when they are right in front of them.
Contrast this with the upbeat attitude of the winners of the world who
see every setback as a potential advantage that simply needs to be
reframed for a successful outcome! Nothing succeeds like success, and
long-term, multigenerational families of wealth and power in the world
have defined this condition forever through their persistence in
seeking successful outcomes to life’s challenges. Affluent birth is one
of the most decisive of all Karmas, and this is inexorably linked to
generations of determined problem solvers who did not give up when
confronted with adversity. As overworked as this slogan may be, there is
nonetheless much validity in the observation that a winner never quits,
and a quitter never wins. Persistence is the primary underlying factor
behind affluence when viewed from the historical perspective on life,
and is subsequently acculturated by the affluent as a trait in their
offspring in the closed loop of ongoing achievement in life.
Also
acting within the quantum envelope are several other Karmic factors.
Probably the next most important determinant of success is the genetic
predisposition for an attractive appearance. The beautiful man or woman
is very frequently perceived by others as being gifted in many
additional areas as well – more intelligent, trustworthy, stronger,
kinder, and even wealthier than they may really be. We tend to see the
attractive among us as natural expressions of the Jungian Hero
archetype, and defer to them with gifts and discretionary behavior
accordingly. Unattractive people, on the other hand, experience the
converse reaction of devalued estimates, and have to work
significantly harder in life to attain the benefits that are simply
given to the comely. Nobody ever said that life is fundamentally fair,
and believe me, it isn’t.
Arguably following appearance, the next most decisive character that
is Karmically determined is native intelligence. How effective am
I as a problem solver? How naturally do I learn and internalize new
information and concepts? How resourceful am I? If anything, this
capacity may rival beauty as a factor in personal destiny, particularly
in today’s ultrahightech, ultracompetitive social environment. Very few
things are as crippling to individuals today as intellectual impairment.
Like physical beauty, intellectual prowess can carry one away from the
most severely disadvantaged birth circumstances, with the caveat that
persistence is still the necessary additional ingredient needed for
success in either case. Without a sustained, determined approach to
overcoming adversity, even the bright and beautiful will tend to
languish indefinitely in torpor, depression, and self pity.
Linked
to the concept of native intelligence is native creativity, our
next Karmic factor. This pertains to the question asked above “How
resourceful am I?” Creativity implies the combination of existing
resources into new and more effective solution paradigms. Creativity
ranks with beauty and intellect as a decisive factor in success, and,
like these other two, can singly extract one from cultural adversity
through its power. Nothing is more correct than the ancient adage “The
world will beat a path to the door of one who can build a better mouse
trap!” Of course, this must again be accompanied by persistence and
determination in the formula of success – there are many pitfalls and
setbacks to be overcome, even in the design of rodent control measures!
The affluent are the affluent ultimately because they didn’t give up
the quest for achievement. Creativity is the ultimate measure of a
society’s success in history – as it waxes, so does the culture
supporting it, and as it wanes, cultures and social systems follow suit.
As much
as this disturbs me, I must also observe that simple luck, or the
lack of it, is a factor in overall Karmic manifestation. Even a
wildly affluent person who is dogged through all of life by misfortune
will be hard-pressed to succeed. Now, many things could be seen as
simply unlucky – the now understood to be genetically inherited
predisposition toward substance abuse, the propensity to experience
accidents (at least in some cases), the tendency to be a psychologically
ungrounded and unresponsive nonentity, and simply the tendency to be
in the wrong place at the wrong time, are all linked to an
inherent Karmic background of misfortune. Persons afflicted with this
insidious form of negative Karma, will frequently find themselves
confronted with the persistence paradox, where this normally key
factor in success actually produces failure as the consequence of its
application! Any effort applied in a fundamentally negative envelope
will tend to produce a fundamentally negative outcome, just as effort
applied in a fundamentally positive envelope will tend to produce a
fundamentally positive outcome. As a consequence of the Dao of Light and
Darkness that serves as the balance of existence, there must be
consistent amounts of success, mediocrity, and failure in life. Anything
deducted from one condition must be compensated for elsewhere to
maintain the overall balance in the expression of the normal curve of
life as we know it. As the statistician knows so well, everything
normalizes eventually. Those burdened by lifelong misfortune learn to
act cautiously in any attempt to change their circumstances, lest they
provoke a paradoxical result. Yes, dumb luck is also a factor in
success!
Once the
quantum birth envelope has been set by Karma, the extended matrix of
interaction during maturation becomes manifest. What will we do with the
hand we have been dealt? Although this is certainly affected by the
factors already enumerated here, there is a series of developmental
milestones during the maturational process that comes into play as key
decisions are made. At each developmental stage, a global opportunity
exists to change the envelope in some definitive way, either for good or
ill. Maslow, Erickson, and Fromm have defined these gradients very well,
and I will not attempt to reiterate their work here. Suffice it to say
that decisive changes can be made in the envelope at the critical points
represented by these stages through the input of relational
factors. Here we have the emergence of the single most decisive
influence during maturation, and in life thereafter, communication
with others. It is the quality of our communication processes that
determines all else of nurture that follows the Karma of inherited
nature. And this communication process is also governed by Karma
in the form of the individuals who become present in our lives as we
mature. The key initial players in this rite of passage are (of course)
mother, father, and siblings, expanding to the kinship group and clan as
development continues, but the interjection of random outside influences
is more often than not decisive. It is the novel occurrence that tends
to capture our attention in youth and adulthood. This is how we all
impact each other – we participate in the great chain of human
interaction that communicates all things on all levels – our culture.
As the human carriers of culture enter and leave the life of the
individual in the form of friends, enemies, companions, and
functionaries, the personal quantum envelope is changed accordingly.
The
individual who has been sufficiently fortunate will find the evolving
personal self surrounded by meaningful, positive alternatives that
foster ongoing growth, as the quantum envelope continues to expand,
carrying consciousness with it. Even those who have been dogged by “the
slings and arrows of outrageous fate” and still been even slightly
graced by the good fortune of insight will identify and seek to
entertain the positives in their lives, developing an enhanced selection
of alternatives thereby. The development of insight is the core process
of enlightenment, and enlightenment is the gateway to the ultimate
extent of freedom attainable for our flesh-bound, appetite distracted
species.
The
choice to seek Enlightenment is perhaps the ultimate alternative of
existence. In a condition that is so inherently unfree in so many
aspects, we still have the option of pursuing the Truth of Consciousness
and, thus, liberation from worldly suffering. Humorously, this
might be called the Unalternative, because it entails rejecting
all the other lesser, object oriented choices in favor of the supreme
choice of no longer being fettered to the petty worldly decisions that
obstruct our awareness of higher conscious states of Being, culminating
in the awareness of the Logos at the apex of the Supreme Absolute Truth
of Consciousness. It is paradoxical that wealth is so often perceived as
being the key to happiness, when the real key is the wisdom so
often born of austerity and suffering. Who looks without, slumbers. Who
looks within, awakens! Namaste!
- With Love, Alan -
(CR2008, Alan Schneider)
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