Some fundamental questions and analysis on what makes a human a ‘being’

In Buddhism we can say that one’s ethics is the strongest force that connects one to the ‘Truth’ and thereby to ‘Supreme Consciousness’ – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

How does one relate to the word ‘Harmony’? It is a word that is used across spheres; to describe peace within oneself and one’s outer world, fellowship within communities and also to describe anything that is perfect in its alignment. We say perfect harmony of sound, when listening to an orchestra when all the musical instruments are being played in perfect synchronisation. We also admire paintings and we say the colours blend harmoniously on the canvass. All human beings are nothing but paintings in the making in this canvass of planet earth, where our lives are inter connected with fellow inhabitants – humans, plants and animals. Through this new page dedicated to Harmony in all its forms, compiled by Suryamithra Vishwa in coordination with the Daily FT/Weekend FT and the Earth Life Water Knowledge Trails Lanka initiative, we aspire to promote every kind of knowing that is educative, wise, compassionate and contemplative. The objective is to create a  harmonious reality. We wish you happy reading.

By Suryamithra Vishwa 

Does the mere ‘belief’ in a God or gods make a human a ‘humane being’? Does this ‘belief’ alone make a man a compassionate, ethical, happy and peaceful individual? Or is it man’s continued purification of his mind and heart through the careful scrutiny of all his day-to-day actions which may compliment religious ‘belief’, that makes man righteous in the true sense of the word? 

For the deeply contemplative thinking individual who is not satisfied with merely affixing a label called ‘God’ but seeks to delve deeper as to the all-encompassing meaning this term could signify, there could be many ways of describing ‘God’. Such alternatives and secular descriptions as given by those attempting to understand ‘God’ through rational conscious driven and secular, or even scientific lenses include alternative descriptions that are not in conflict or pit one ‘religion’ against another. These descriptions have been used by many thinkers and include those such as ‘Cosmic Intelligence,’ the ‘Source,’ the ‘Oneness’ or the ‘Ultimate Reality’ or the ‘Supreme Truth’ or ‘Supreme/Ultimate Consciousness’.

What could rationally and logically be perceived as a sane alternative to a selfish, frustrated and fragmented life is to inculcate the thinking that we are here to nurture and heal and safeguard. Here again the rational and the logical will tell us that whether there is heaven or hell is not the question but to what extent we create that heaven or hell in our hearts and to what extent we make such a heaven or hell to others we come across in this brief life

Dissecting some of these above mentioned secular descriptions boils down to life as is lived that acts as a magnetic force on the Cosmos Intelligence/Truth or Oneness (God) that connects every living being to another in a seamless tapestry that the world has somehow torn asunder. In Buddhism we can say that one’s ethics is the strongest force that connects one to the ‘Truth’ and thereby to ‘Supreme Consciousness’. One can transcend the theory of this and look at the lives of famous and non-famous people who lived out their Karma and see how some of their lives shine as bright examples of goodwill and happiness. 

What we are focusing on is what many enlightened thinkers across time and cultural tradition have tried to understand. The connection between ideology or belief and actual life as it is lived; the purpose being to help man to live life in the purest terms possible; for his own ultimate benefit and the benefit of others. For this goal, man can be aided or not, as per his mental inclinations or inherited religious/cultural traditions by dogma, rituals or alternatively, by rationality alone. 

The wisdom of the Greek philosophers of the Stoic tradition and the Platonist, Aristotelian wisdom is an example of using rationality to live a purposeful life. Careful reading into this wisdom and juxtaposing it with other ancient teachings such as in the Vedic philosophy of the Rig Vedas and the Upanishads would show startling similarities. 

Where Greek philosophy was concerned the ultimate goal was virtue, and not to please any singular God or diverse gods. The Greek myths were certainly not lacking in many interesting concepts of gods. But these never became representative of religious identity or belief system as did the gods that were conceptualised over time by the ancient people living near the Indus valley/Indus river basin and (thus came to be called Hindus), a term coined primarily by outsiders. 

Ancient cultures and enjoined belief systems have been many throughout time which has witnessed the vicissitudes of the ebb and flow it brings forth on human thinking.

However, while cultures of belief traditions are extremely interesting as well as beautiful, at various levels, the concept of Ultimate Truth or Reality or Oneness could be, without conflict, connected to the hidden core of every current day practiced belief system if a careful intellectual scrutiny is resorted to.

What we are focusing on is what many enlightened thinkers across time and cultural tradition have tried to understand. The connection between ideology or belief and actual life as it is lived; the purpose being to help man to live life in the purest terms possible; for his own ultimate benefit and the benefit of others. For this goal, man can be aided or not, as per his mental inclinations or inherited religious/cultural traditions by dogma, rituals or alternatively, by rationality alone

The concept of Oneness

As such every individual scripture, whatever the tradition, could be linked with the ancient most wisdom such as the concept of Oneness (for example that the aborigines connected with… the Oneness of the universe .. and all of nature. The concept of Oneness sees humans as one part of the whole of creation. Here in this ideology what matters is not so much how we were created but how we live out that creation; whether we live as separate, isolated, fragmented entities, abusing each other and everything around us, using every excuse to use superiority to create conflicts and to destroy rather than heal. 

What could rationally and logically be perceived as a sane alternative to a selfish, frustrated and fragmented life is to inculcate the thinking that we are here to nurture and heal and safeguard. Here again the rational and the logical will tell us that whether there is heaven or hell is not the question but to what extent we create that heaven or hell in our hearts and to what extent we make such a heaven or hell to others we come across in this brief life.

To the Stoicists as it did to the religiously and spiritually guided sages of many traditions from time immemorial, to live a virtuous life meant happiness. In the Buddhist tradition (Buddhism could be described as the science of the mind) one still hears elders in our society say that they have led a non-harmful life and that their Karma will look after them. This could be described in another way to say that the whole of universe collaborates to assist the virtuous man, who has lived out his actions in a clearly thought out dispassionate manner. 

The Greek word ‘sin’ as contemporary writers on spirituality, such as Eckhart Tolle, have reminded, means to ‘miss the point’

Living in a way where we do unto others as we like done unto oneself is associated with the Christian ethic, and the words attributed to Christ Jesus but this has been oft repeated by Greek philosophers. This could be seen as a common sense driven just and correct approach to contentment.  In modern parlance we use the term ‘existing’ to describe our current status in life – often in an offhand way we say ‘existing’ when someone asks us how we are. But what is it to ‘exist’? An inanimate non thinking object also ‘exists’.

Now let us look if there is an alternative to ‘existing.’ To ‘exist’ is to suggest to lie immobile either in apathy or fear. Although our modern life with all its comforts to those who can afford it, could make us go beyond existing by eradicating some of the fears that our ancestors had, say of the wilderness and ferociousness of beasts, our fears have multiplied and we today fear not the beasts of the jungle but so called civilised beasts of the 21st century. We therefore continue to wage wars, ironically using ‘God’ as a reason to do so. Yet at the same time, watching all the bloodshed and injustice around us, we are theologically so obsessed with the word sin without really knowing the original meaning of this word. To it could be said that we are ‘existing’ in a very imbalanced way.

The Greek word ‘sin’ as contemporary writers on spirituality such as Eckhart Tolle have reminded, means to ‘miss the point’. 

The deeper meaning

Unfortunately because we live out life without being encouraged to dissect out the deeper meaning behind whatever we do or don’t do, we ‘exist’ in life largely ‘missing the mark.’ 

Understanding what it is to live by ‘hitting the mark’ (without ‘sinning’) is to mean living a life aligned with the ‘Supreme Reality’ which is the essence of living within the rhythm of nature (within what is naturally right). If we do so we become joyous and carefree beings, with little stress of worry because we know that we have done what is right and therefore we are being taken care of by the Supreme Reality.

This path is to be practiced. It is not found by memorising holy books or by painstaking rituals. Many in this world have sought and are seeking to live a life aligned with what is naturally right and thereby aligned with ‘the conscience’ and the Supreme Oneness and thereby within the realm of ‘Truth’ which equates Supreme Reality. 

The very few in this world who do often see the ‘miracles’ manifest in their life; meaning their basic needs are often taken care of almost magically as long as they do not give into greed know this. Often sages, whatever their spiritual tradition or those who follow spirituality on a secular realm without affiliating to any ‘religion’ have experienced what it is to ‘be’ part of the greater scheme of the Ultimate Truth/Supreme Reality. This Truth serves to us as per what is in the kernel of our mind and thus takes root in our life, to sow what is reaped by us.

Thus, to remove the troubles of the individual and the world what we need is to promote ‘hitting the mark’ and thus not ‘sinning.’ Hegel and the dialectics show us the arduous path of arriving at a path that hits the ‘mark’ and thereby arrive at ‘truth’ to achieve a perfect path for life as it should be lived in authenticity to the individual self and the larger self which is the universe and all that is in it. 

If such thinking is established within our modern education structures, our religious systems and our family systems, where parents and teachers lead by practicing the ethics they preach and if such thinking gets into our political systems we will not have evils such as corruption, poverty and hypocrisy. Change of systems come with the change of the self. One human who changes his heart and mind to truly merit the label ‘humane being’ can change the system and thereby change the world to be peaceful and thereby achieve a ‘heaven on earth.’

(The above article is dedicated to the memory of Ehamparam Vivegananthan, one of Sri Lanka’s most prestigious lawyers of the 1970s who was an active member of the Theosophical Society of Sri Lanka until he passed away on Tuesday (4 August) at the age of 85. This article is based on a series of lengthy discussions this writer had with him towards the end of his life. Gifted with an incisive mind and approaching spirituality from the realm of philosophy, science as well as scriptures and wisdom of diverse traditions, he had transcended the petty boundaries of identity and was a wise human being in the true sense of the word. This writer is grateful to the knowledge of comparative spirituality and Greek and modern philosophy alongside aspects of law gained through the discussions with Vivegananthan.)

Unfortunately because we live out life without being encouraged to dissect the deeper meaning behind whatever we do or don’t do, we ‘exist’ in life largely ‘missing the mark’. 

Understanding what it is to live by ‘hitting the mark’ (without ‘sinning’) is to mean living a life aligned with the ‘Supreme Reality’ which is the essence of living within the rhythm of nature (within what is naturally right). If we do so, we become joyous and carefree beings, with little stress of worry because we know that we have done what is right, and therefore we are being taken care of by the Supreme Reality

(Suryamithra Vishwa is a Sri Lankan who strives to transcend beyond inherited birth identity. She has a keen interest in comparative spirituality and indigenous knowledge. Her academic training has been in sociology and she is a curriculum writer and visiting lecturer in Mass Communication at a national university in Sri Lanka under her inherited family name. She has for over 20 years worked as a writer for local and international publications and has been associated with the peace building/training sector. Her library of 15,000 books, of which a large number is on global literature, science, comparative religions and secular spirituality has been opened up for the public free of charge. Those interested in borrowing any book could contact 0812494285. She cultivates trees using ancient biodiversity centred methods of cultivation and promotes the concept of ‘Integrated Knowledge’ linking diverse aspects of knowledge to create stimulating thinking and innovative practical initiatives that benefit the individual as well as the country.)