Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Is the World Perfect as It Is?

by Miki Kashtan


A week ago I finished leading a 6-day intensive training for people who are sharing NVC in the world. One morning I brought to the group my perspective and passion about using NVC to support creating change in the world. In particular, I shared the essential points I wrote about on this blog in a 9-part mini-series earlier this year.

As luck would have it, I was soon invited to practice what I preach – to make myself available to dialogue even when I feel passionately about something. The occasion: a comment/question from one woman in the group about why we would even want to seek change rather than seeing the world as perfect already.

I imagine that some of the people who are reading this would resonate with this comment, and others would resonate with the wave of anguish that arose in me as I heard it and thought of the billions of people on this planet whose plight is such that I can barely understand how they get through one day of their lives, or of the many thousands of children who die daily of preventable food-related causes.

Over the course of this conversation I felt many waves of that anguish, and the related fear about having so many people do nothing to alleviate this suffering and transform the conditions that I believe create it. Each time I experienced such a wave I took an inner breath and just let the wave pass, so I could be present for the dialogue, so that the connection could continue. I also noted the judgment that arose, and my joy at seeing that it didn’t stop me, as judgments had in the past, before I immersed myself in the practice of NVC. The thought kept coming up - “This kind of belief can only emerge from a place of privilege.” – And I kept putting it aside and showing up for the dialogue.

Not only was this tough emotionally because of the intensity. It was also tough because for that whole time I was letting go of specific pieces of teaching that I was hoping to share with the people in the room. I was able to do that, in part, because I was confident that we were right in the thick of a key piece of what I wanted to teach and want all of us all to learn: how to maintain connection, respect, and engagement in the face of intense and potentially irreconcilable differences.

And so I focused on understanding her, which became easier the more I did it. I was able to see that underneath her particular belief about the world she was speaking for values I also have. Primary among them is acceptance of what is, and celebration of and trust in life. The gap was closing already just from understanding her.

And yet dialogue goes both ways; it’s not only about listening. Full dialogue is ultimately an invitation for both parties to hear each other. And so I asked for the group’s support in finding what was under the judgment. I was particularly moved by the participation of the very woman I was judging. With everyone’s help I found a way to open my heart wider, and to have the full passion of what I wanted without the experience of separation and distance that the judgment generates.

What was important to me at bottom is that I am longing for companionship in a kind of courage that I treasure: the willingness to look at what is happening with openness to being touched, affected, moved, and possibly changed in the process. I am also longing for care in action, including the willingness to pay a personal cost and to give up comfort and convenience in standing up for the things we care about.

I was also able to see the difference between accepting what is and believing that everything is perfect. The difference, as I see it now after that conversation, is that accepting what is does not imply liking what is, or evaluating what is in any particular way. It’s simply a recognition that what is happening just is. It’s neither OK nor not OK, it just is. Saying that the world is perfect as it is, on the other hand, evaluates the world, and finds it “good” in some way. Meeting Rumi in the field that’s beyond “thoughts of right and wrongdoing” means letting go of thoughts of right doing, or of perfection, in addition to letting go of thoughts of wrongdoing. Understanding this increases my ability to live in the paradox of accepting what is at the same time of wanting things to be different.

I was able to communicate all of this to the woman who had initially challenged me about creating change in the world, and I trust completely that she was able to hear me. Did we reach an agreement? No. Am I disappointed about that? Not at all. Although I am, still, quite habituated to seeing agreement as a sweet accomplishment, and although disagreement continues to frighten me at times, I am more and more aware that disagreements, even major differences, are here to stay. History is too full of people killing each other because of not tolerating disagreements and differences. How can we, instead, live with disagreements without trying to make them go away? I want to continue to learn, with others, about finding enough curiosity and openness so that even when the going is tough we can hold jointly the gaps between us, because we remember, respect, and love our common humanity.

6 comments:

  1. -"Saying that the world is perfect as it is, on the other hand, evaluates the world, and finds it “good” in some way. -

    I think this depends on how you understand the word "perfect". When I think of perfect as "complete" or "whole" (relating to the Sanskrit word purna) then there is no judgment about it - it is simply all of whatever it is. I think seeing from that perspective - not shutting anything out - gives us a better shot at understanding and taking action for everyone's well being.

    Maybe it's just semantics - yet isn't meaning, well, everything?

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  2. Miki,
    Thank you for this post. It helps me to see how much learning can be derived from moment to moment transparency. I related to this issue and have struggled with it for many years. How can the world be perfect just the way it is when there is so much desperation in it? I have come to this answer from Buddhism: our original mind is perfect just the way it is. It has innate wisdom, compassion, it is open, and ready to learn. It has opportunity and possibility. When the mind is clear and stable, it gives rise to peace which is free of delusions. This is the internal world in its original state. The external world, on the other hand, is full of trouble. It fills us with delusions and then we fill ourselves with delusions. Your description showed how to stand with one foot in each world. You were touching the world of agony and meeting it with the world of compassion, the perfect world met the imperfect one.

    Bob

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  3. I'm really appreciating how this post opened me up. More and more for me trusting in life means trusting in the life energy arising in me all the time. In this context, trusting the the life energy that longs for caring, peace, support, and sharing. Trusting that by being connected to that longing, action manifests in ways that help others and myself. Another way of talking about "creating change" might be about being in touch with the heart impulses that move in us day to day.

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  4. Miki,
    If you haven't seen this, thought you would enjoy.
    Randy

    http://davidbornstein.wordpress.com/books/how-to-change-the-world/

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  5. I don't understand Rumi's field as a place without evaluation. I imagine it as a place without certain kinds of evaluation. Perhaps it's the place without evaluations that separate us. But as long as I care, as long as I want, need, love, like, dislike, I am evaluating, I am valuing. For me, Rumi's field is filled with value.

    When I hear the question "Is the world perfect as it is?" one of my reactions is to reframe it as a question about the value of reality as a whole. And for me a crucial point in this discussion is the way in which everything is connected, inseparable. My model of reality is that everything, agony and beauty, arises from the same source, whether one calls that source God, or Tao, or the laws of physics.

    If the whole is inseparable, the question of the value of the whole becomes: Would I choose to have this world, or have nothing? And I would choose this world. For me it nets out to something valuable. Indeed, value beyond words, even given all the suffering in the world.

    So although "perfect" isn't how I would say it, I can relate that expression to something that is true for me, a recognition of the inestimable worth of what is. The love of life.

    So for me acceptance of what is isn't about a valueless relationship to reality. It's about valuing, and a recognition of the inseparability of the wonders and the horrors.

    Since it's grounded in valuing, there's no contradiction with trying to change things - with acting to create more of what I love.

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  6. I have been touched and impressed with the responses to my most recent post. What I am most getting from these responses is how much vaster the exploration of these questions can be than what I was able to address in the entry. i have learned from each person who wrote back, and i treasure the exchange.

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