Adjacent Opportunities: Engaged Emergence - Part 2
2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 11; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1532-7000
Autores Tópico(s)Violence, Religion, and Philosophy
ResumoA couple of issues ago I wrote a column called Engaged Emergence, about the presence required to witness emergence as it was happening. In that piece, I defined emergence as cause, condition, and effect. For those familiar with my particular Buddhist affliction - they say it should only last a lifetime or two - it might have been evident that the definition I used was also the common definition in Buddhist circles for Karma. Karma is simply the effect that our actions create in the world we encounter. There is actually not too much here on the woowoo-ometer that anyone would disagree with. What we do in the world, what we bring to each interaction, within a given environment, allows new things to emerge. What makes this connection between emergence and Karma interesting is that Karma isn't an event that just happens, it is a causal chain. Within Karma, all our previous actions build on one another. Every actualization within our individual possibility spaces is carried with us into our next interaction, and they all influence the possibilities that make themselves known to us and their next iteration. We tend to think of emergent interactions as singular events - two or more agents interact and what can emerge is greater than the sum ofthe parts - rather than seeing it as two fully- developed causal chains interacting, with the history of both influencing what emerges. When looking at the process of the emergent event, we have to take into account that both agents bring all of this into each encounter. That's complexity. Now for those long-time complexity arhats who have toiled and dallied in the world as it appears to show up, you may have thought in the back of your mind that delving into this soup of complex interactions would one day lead to enlightenment. Well, you just might be right. In order to see emergence, as it emerges, requires presence. And to be present means that we aren't distracted by iPods, twitter, text messages, Netflix, the baseball playoffs or the looming deadline that is rapidly pressing down on us because we have been watching the baseball playoffs. It is about being mindful. Now mindfulness is not a spiritual or religious term, it is simply our ability to focus our mind on the landscape in front of us. Whenever we find ourselves distracted by the pheromones arising next to us, the blue, cloud-spotted skies out the window, or the piece of tape stuck to the top ofthe table, it is our ability to bring our minds back to our focus that we call mindfulness. When the alluring scent catches us and pulls us away from the landscape before us, we immediately become mind-filled and our original focus is lost. Now I can hear the call arising, well sometimes distraction is needed, and must be paid its due attention, especially when the olfactory nerve is so stimulated. And at that moment, it is our causal chain of experience that will ultimately determine if we follow that distraction, and then attempt to reapply our presence so that we might recognize what could be truly emerging from this new landscape, or return to our original focus. It is at this instant, when the possible and actual are about to meet, that our ability to either recognize, or miss, the signposts telling us that something new and emergent is about to happen takes place. If we are present we see what is happening. If not, we miss it. Neither experience could have occurred independently of our causal chain of experience. However, we should be clear that Karma, like emergence, is not fate. …
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