Death: Stepping Outside the Traditional Frameworks and Limitations

Death: Stepping Outside the Traditional Frameworks and Limitations An Analysis of the Sociology of Knowledge and Change of Gergen, Morin, Stewart and Bennett, Bateson, McCarthy, Slater, Sztompka and a Buddhist Perspective Carol Simpson Self, Society & Transformation Professor Phil Slater California Institute of Integral Studies November 18, 2011 2 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS "First study death, then study other matters." Nichiren, 13th c. “Drunk with the pride of youth, people have an aversion to those bent with age. Drunk with the pride of health, people have an aversion to those suffering from illness and disease. And drunk with the pride of life, people have an aversion to the dead” (Shakyamuni, 4th or 5th c.). “‘The symptoms of death and birth…’ ‘merge into one another.’ …This situation is not merely the result of various kinds of crisis superadded to traditional conflicts…it is a whole which feeds upon these conflictual, crisis-ridden, and problematical ingredients and which encompasses, overruns, and feeds them in return. And this whole contains the problem of problems: the inability of humanity to become humanity” (Sean M. Kelly, 1998, Preface to Homeland Earth, pp. xvii-xviii). “Humankind seems finally to be on the verge of realizing the fundamental error of our view of life and death, to understand that death is more than the absence of life, that death, together with active life, is necessary to the formation of a larger more essential whole. The greater whole to which I refer is the deeper continuity of life and death which we experience as individuals and which we express as culture. A central and fundamental challenge for the coming century will be that of establishing a culture--based on an understanding of life and death and of life's essential eternity--that does not disown death, but directly confronts and correctly positions death within a larger living context” (Daisaku Ikeda, 1993) . 3 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Abstract Humanity is on the threshold of recognizing the fundamental error in its view of life and death. Both death as well as active life is necessary to the vital formation of a larger, more essential whole. In this paper, I apply the sociology of knowledge and change as it pertains to death and focus on ways in which we can step outside its traditional frameworks and limitations. I also discuss topics related to death such as birth, aging, sickness, and war, and examine cultural differences in attitudes toward death. I offer varying perspectives including the Buddhist view and from these draw implications and conclusions. I apply the lenses of contemporary social scientists such as Edgar Morin, Kenneth Gergen, Edward Stewart, Milton Bennett, Mary Catherine Bateson, E. Doyle McCarthy, Philip Slater, and Piotr Sztompka. To these I add other relevant passages from the writings and speeches of key thinkers on the topic of death, in particular, Buddhist philosopher, peacebuilder, and educator, Daisaku Ikeda. To construct a more humanistic and sustainable view of life, it is first of all crucial to establish a culture which perceives death in its larger living context as but one cycle in the expansive eternity of life. 4 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Death: Stepping Outside the Traditional Frameworks and Limitations Humanity is on the threshold of recognizing the fundamental error in its view of life and death. Both active life as well as death is necessary to the vital formation of a larger, more essential whole. Death is more than the mere absence of life for it is through the continuity of life and death that we experience as individuals a sense of connection to the universe that we are able to express as culture. With a welcoming curiosity and quest to understand the phenomenon of death that like life alternates according to conditions between emergence and latency, manifestation and withdrawal, just like sleeping and wakefulness, we come to see death and life as equally important parts of one greater totality (Ikeda, 2003). Culture, or our native cultural homeland, is a microcosm of our individual existence which holds all the secrets to the life force of the macrocosm (Heffron, 2004; Makiguchi, 1903, pp. 285-86). Culture connects us to the universe and together shares a creative coexistence in its cycles of birth and death. In Unlocking the Mysteries of Birth and Death, Buddhist philosopher, Daisaku Ikeda asserts, “Our central challenge is to establish a culture based on understanding the relationship of life, death and eternity. Instead of disowning death, we would thereby confront and correctly position it within the larger context of life” (Ikeda, 2003, p. 78). A title I am considering for my doctoral dissertation is “Joy, Jazz and Leadership: Living in the Moment with Mentors.” Yet, how can I approach a topic like “Joy,” not to mention the art and culture that emerged as a result of such unique historical struggle as did “Jazz,” nor to introduce any significant discussion on “Leadership” or “Living in the Moment,” without first examining the ultimate human suffering, that of death. To study about death is to find the substance and meaning with which to talk about life, including its manifestations, be those joy, music, the joy and struggle which creates great music, or how to become more joyous and 5 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS encourage others to do the same. In a 1993 Harvard lecture, Buddhist philosopher, peacebuilder, educator, author and poet, Daisaku Ikeda spoke of the Buddhist ideal of being able to experience both life and death with equal delight; to be equally "happy and at ease" with both (Ikeda, 1993). Is it possible, I asked myself, that through a deeper understanding of death, we as human beings can develop such capacity? There is no joy without suffering. Only to the extent one is willing to undergo great suffering can one deepen one’s sense of appreciation to experience true joy. Through overcoming suffering we then build character, knowledge of self and a connection to others. Moreover, the deeper one’s suffering the greater one’s capacity for empathy, the quality of character most crucial for creating any new cultural construct regarding death. It is only by challenging suffering, transforming suffering into joy and attaining the deepest empathy that we can truly encourage others in matters relating to death. It is perhaps most of all those who courageously struggle and triumph over adversity, and fight against injustice even at the expense of their own lives, who deserve to be called the great leaders of humanity. Their hardship represents a mission driven destiny that seeks the means to happiness and to teach others to do the same. Joan of Arc, Beethoven, Victor Hugo, and Tolstoy come to mind as do, Florence Nightingale, Helen Keller, Ghandi, Martin Luther King and my own mentor, Daisaku Ikeda. Inasmuch as it may be possible to experience life and death with equal joy, I can imagine no deeper sorrow, no greater suffering than experiencing the death of one’s own child. It goes against all we consider to be the natural order of things. A parent will do anything to save their child; gladly willing to give up their own lives. I have heard stories time and again. I have a friend who drowned trying to save his son at a beach in Cabo San Lucas. A large wave hit the shore and as the water retreated it pulled his two boys with it into the ocean. A bystander 6 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS managed to pull one child out, but the other was washed out to sea. My friend dived into the ocean and drowned with his son in the turbulent water (See Lincoln Kibbee). My mother ‘n’ law lost her youngest son, my husband’s brother, at age twenty in a car accident. Her pain felt like my own. Her brother lost his young son last year from a sudden thrombosis. I have several friends whose children died of cancer, some while still very young. I visited one friend daily whose daughter had a brain tumor. I continued my daily visits for months as well as after her daughter’s death. I watched my great grandmother as relatives revived her over and over using smelling salts as she repeatedly fainted from grief at the death of her daughter, my grandmother. I have experienced three miscarriages. My father committed suicide. A close friend and mentor by whom I sat bedside for months died in my presence after a long struggle with debilitating effects from massive stroke. Though not one of my experiences with death comes close to the pain of a parent losing the child to whom they have given life, who for years has nurtured and loved that child, nonetheless, with each death I encountered, I experienced great suffering. Yet the more I struggle to overcome the pain and sadness of death, the more I become aware of the tremendous treasure that is life. Life itself possesses an inherent dignity. This dignity is more fully realized and enhanced as I share and understand another’s sufferings as my own. This leads me to conclude that the purpose of understanding death is to enable a greater and more profound meaning of life. I am confident that the sufferings of life and death are at the foundation of all sufferings of modern society and that within the framework of a correct view of death lay the great lessons on how to live life in the present as well as the primary key to hope for the future of all humanity. One father’s story I read while doing this research was deeply inspiring. His eldest son contracted pneumonia and died suddenly at age four. He was in a daze. It was all he could do to 7 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS contain his grief. However, through the encouragement of many great individuals, he now, twelve years later feels “boundless gratitude” and has come to find fresh meaning in everything in his life. He wrote, “Everything touched me with new impact. I felt as though my life had been cleansed. I keenly feel that without having gone through the ordeal of losing my son, I probably would not have developed the deep conviction I now have in faith. And I’m afraid I would have remained shallow in my ability to understand the profundity of life” (Ikeda, Saito & Endo, 2002, p. 9). He concluded, “I might add that I am personally confident that my child has been reborn.” I too feel that my father and unborn children are reborn and happy. Buddhism teaches the oneness of parent and child. By making the effort to share my perspective on the eternity of life and my personal experiences with death, I hope to encourage others. At the same time I feel I am overcoming the sorrow I feel in the absence and loss of family and friends. When I speak positively about death, I have a keen sense that I am also having a positive effect on the life of my father and unborn children. Buddhism expounds that one’s deceased parents and children share in the benefit and joy of our efforts. For this reason, I made a promise to them in my heart that I would strive to live with deeper appreciation for life and to become happier in my own. This increasing happiness that I am experiencing often finds expression in encouragement to friends and family who are struggling over the death of a loved one. It is my greatest hope that I am doing the same in writing this now. In this paper, I apply the sociology of knowledge and change as it pertains to death. Through the lenses of contemporary social scientists such as Edgar Morin, Kenneth Gergen, Edward Stewart, Milton Bennett, Mary Catherine Bateson, E. Doyle McCarthy, Philip Slater, and Piotr Sztompka, I address cultural and historical factors and to these add relevant passages from the writings and speeches of key thinkers on the topic of death, in particular, Daisaku 8 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Ikeda. Integral to any discourse regarding death are the topics of birth, aging, sickness, and war, which I examine together with the cultural differences in attitudes toward death that can define their unique and varying perspectives. Using the Buddhist view as a central focus I then draw from the sociologists’ literature what I feel are the most important implications and conclusions toward a more integrative and progressive construct on death for the future. Death, Life and Dependent Origination Philip Slater, sociologist and author of the Chrysalis Effect, explains how the role of modern physics shattered the image of the universe as a big clock with removable parts. This gave rise to a new science whose vision is “of an entangled universe where everything is subtly connected to everything else” (Slater, 2010, p. 70). He points out how scientific discovery has now “begun to make sense of mystical experiences people have been describing for millennia” (Slater, p. 71). Buddhism also explains such “mystical experiences” through its many teachings whose origins in India and China date back to well over three thousand years. French philosopher and sociologist, Edgar Morin (1921- ), describes Buddhism as one of “the universal religions, [which] spread outward from India to the Far East addressing itself to all human beings” (Morin, 1999, p. 4). Uniquely, these two mother civilizations of Buddhism survived history. Despite invasions and the toppling of dynasties, India and especially China were the only two stable seats of civilization lasting for millennia while the Roman Empire lasted but a few centuries (Morin, p. 2). This gives pause to the question as to why the two civilizations that gave birth to Buddhism should have endured such a long history and why more importantly has there never been a war fought in the name of Buddhism? 9 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Buddhism is a teaching that has a lot to say about the role of death in human life, as well as its true nature. It views life as the manifest form of the intrinsic nature and death as its withdrawal into latency within the constant flux of dependent origination” (Ikeda, 2011, p. 6) (Italics added). Dependent origination is a Buddhist term similar to the idea of interconnectedness or the symbiotic nature of life (Ikeda, 2003). Morin is one of the key contemporary thinkers and writers on life and death. He proposes a paradigm of complexity, (com- plexere contains both the ideas of to weave together and to encompass) wherein all organizations—“from atoms to galaxies, from cells to societies” – are seen to involve a recursive dialogue between order and disorder (Morin, 1977, 382). Throughout all four volumes of La Méthode (Le Seuil) (1977-1991), as well as Homeland Earth, (1999), Morin speaks of disorder, uncertainty and ambiguity but always incorporates into the idea of chaos "the possibility of transforming vicious circles into virtuous cycles which, in the process, become reflexive and generative of complex thinking” (Morin, 1999, in Pref. by Kelly, pp. xviixviii). His approach to death therefore includes the overall importance of making choices and decisions. “Thus we know, without wanting to know, that we arose from this world, that all our particles were formed 15 billion years ago, that our carbon atoms were constituted in a sun anterior to ours, that our molecules were born on Earth, unless they arrived here by way of meteorites. We know without wanting to know that we are children of this cosmos, the carrier of our birth, of our life, and of our death. That is why we do not know as yet how to stand within it, how to join together our questions about the universe and our physical and earthly destiny. 10 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS We have not yet drawn inferences from the marginal, peripheral situation of our lost planet and from our situation on this planet. Yet it is in the cosmos that we must locate our planet and our destiny, our meditations, ideas, longings, fears, and decisions” (Morin, 1999, p. 30). Buddhism espouses a similar concept of cosmic or universal consciousness to explain what happens in death. Our latent greater self, the ultimate reality of all things, or our universal consciousness free from all delusion is called the 9th or amala-consciousness. “Amala” comes from Sanskrit and means “pure,” stainless,” or “spotless.” The 8th level of consciousness or “ayala” (“vessel”) is the karmic storehouse or the sum total of all experiences accumulated from our present and previous lifetimes. It is this level that is believed to undergo the cycles of birth and death and is transformed as we make mistakes in the course of our lives through reflection on our past attitudes and behavior. In this way, we use our sorrows and mishaps as springboards for development (Ikeda, 2003, pp. 158-160). Morin sees the necessity for what he calls a “multidimensional” and “anthropological history.” This history would consider the very order-disorder-organization that could be likened to the process of death. He provides examples from the various historical tragedies as told by “the Greeks, Elizabethans, and particularly Shakespeare” (Morin, 1999, p. 3). For Buddhists unhappiness and misfortune are part of humanity’s collective karmic tendencies to engage in the three poisons, “greed, anger and stupidity” (Ikeda, 2003, p. 68). Morin similarly refers to these as “excess”, “passion” and “blindness.” He poetically adds how they hold commonalities of both “grandeur and horror,” “sublimities and atrocities,” and such “ambivalent, complex realities of human nature,” such that the key questions “Can we find our way out of this history and is this adventure the only path before us?” must then be raised (Morin, 1999, p. 3). 11 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Buddhism implies one answer through its philosophy of the eternity of life and death. It is within the very eternal condition known as Buddhahood that we can find the means to altar history and destiny. It is only the eighth and ninth levels that are believed to constitute the vessels of eternal life throughout an endless cycle of birth and death. “The amala-consciousness is pure life force, the power to live, and it represents the drive to have a better life. It is the greater self that works for the happiness of all. The power to make all people absolutely happy is the function of the Buddha. Therefore, the ninth consciousness is known as the Buddha consciousness. It is also called the Dharma nature, which denotes the enlightenment potential in every being…Nichiren gave concrete expression to the amala-consciousness – the fundamental reality of life – in Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” (Ikeda, 2003, pp. 157-164). It is by chanting these words that all people can reveal Buddhahood, drawing forth their latent greater self (Ikeda, 2003). Ikeda explains, “The life-state of Buddhahood or absolute happiness means having the capacity to experience joy under any circumstances” (Ikeda, p. 164). A person with such strong life force is happy (Ibid). In this way, although we experience difficulty, “we are never bound by our difficulties” (Ibid, p. 166) including death itself. It is not through elimination of desire but rather of delusion that we can transform the negative effects of our karma (Ibid, p. 86) which is housed in the eighth consciousness. The Buddhist doctrine of dependent origination expresses the interdependence of all things, teaching that no beings or phenomena exist on their own but occur only in relationship to other beings and phenomena. Nothing can exist independent of other things nor arise in isolation. Everything in the world comes into existence in response to causes and conditions. The Japanese term for dependent origination is “engi”, which literally means "arising in relation" (See “Interconnectedness”). 12 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Ikeda explains, “Our karmic energy mutually impacts our loved ones (living and deceased) and indeed all humankind. It even affects animals and plants. A positive change in the karmic energy in the depths of one’s life becomes a cogwheel for change in the lives of others; one person’s internal reformation – or ‘human revolution’ – therefore can change the destiny of that person’s family and society” (Ikeda, 2003, p. 160). Morin calls this potential for change “planetary consciousness” and shares examples of the increasing fragility and global aspect of economic activity stating, “Thus for better or worse, whether rich or poor, every one of us harbors within him-or herself for the most part unknowingly, the entire planet” (Morin, 1999, p. 17). He concludes, “The fact of globalization is at once evident, subconscious and omnipresent” (Ibid). Death as Awareness for Living a Happier Life Influential writer of the French Renaissance, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), once said, “To philosophize is to learn to die” (Ikeda, 2002, p. 155; Montaigne, 1588). Though we abhor the thought of dying and it is impossible to know the exact moment of one’s death, try as we may to preserve our health, we will eventually contract some disease or befall some fate which will lead to our dying. Yet understanding how we are all continuously confronting death can enable us to live more profoundly and meaningfully and becomes an inevitable spiritual awakening. No one can escape death. In an article first published in a Philippine magazine, Daisaku Ikeda poetically wrote, “[Death]… follows life as surely as night follows day, winter follows autumn or old age follows youth. People make preparations so that they won’t suffer when winter comes. They prepare so they won’t have to suffer in their old 13 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS age. Yet how few people prepare for the even greater certainty of death! Modern society has turned its gaze away from this most fundamental issue. For most people, death is something to be feared, to be dreaded, or it is seen as just the absence of life—blankness and void. Death has even come to be considered somehow ‘unnatural’” (Daisaku Ikeda, 1998, para. 1 & 2). In the introduction to An Invitation to Social Construction, Kenneth Gergen suggests, “We must study the world carefully and objectively; with such knowledge we can predict and control what takes place. But what is this objective world? Herein lies the opening chapter of this drama called social construction: what we take to be the world importantly depends on how we approach it, and how we approach it depends on the social relationships of which we are a part” (Gergen, 2009, p. 2). Although few people live in isolation, most are aware that dying is an inevitable fact of life. Yet rarely do they possess the social and cultural networks to support what I will call for now a life-enhancing social construct for the notion of death. “Does this mean that death is not real, or the body, or the sun, or this chair on which I am seated…?” Gergen asks. “The way in which we understand the world is not required by ‘what there is’” but the outcome of relationships according to social utility” (Gergen, pp. 4-9). What matters is to question premises one has “taken-for-granted,” “recognize the legitimacy of other traditions” and “invite the kind of dialogue that might lead to common ground” (Gergen, pp. 12-13). Buddhism’s teachings on life and death assign great value to “social utility” and welcome dialogue while seeking commonalities to enhance mutual understanding. Buddhism is based on reason and practicality. It is a philosophy for basic daily living through which all human beings can discover their highest potential. It examines each culture’s given history, times, location, and capacity while “respecting the uniqueness of each existence, which supports and nourishes all 14 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS within the larger, living whole” (Ikeda, 1996b, p. 366). While “instilling a spirit for positive engagement with those whose very difference and ‘otherness’ can extend and enrich us,” the SGI [Soka Gakkai International, Nichiren Buddhist lay organization] makes continuous efforts to promote cultural exchange and interaction around the world toward a “kind of open-ended empathy” which “enables us to view human diversity as a catalyst for creativity” (Ibid). In Peripheral Visions, Mary Catherine Bateson explains that it is this weaving together of diverse cultural constructs that brings us to an understanding of what we feel we know. She explains, “What we call the familiar is built up in layers to a structure known so deeply that it is taken for granted and virtually impossible to observe without the help of contrast” (Bateson, p. 31). She offers an array of diverse cultural examples of varying traditions surrounding death. “In Pilipino, there is a word for ‘happy’ which also means ‘crowded,’ or ‘populous’; there is comfort in conviviality” (Bateson, (1994), p. 18). She describes how in the Philippines, wakes are important to young people as one of the best available opportunities for courting. Some societies help their bereaved to “regain control and forget,” others “support the expression of grief,” while “Americans treat grief like a disease, embarrassing and possibly infectious” (Bateson, p. 20). There is an increasing majority of Americans, particularly those of the fundamentalist right persuasion who see anyone from another culture as a threat to patriotism and therefore a threat to themselves. This makes me wonder how much such an attitude may likewise be linked to the American tendency to fear and avoid death. Whatever our attitude toward death, be it avoidance, fear, curiosity, celebration, elation or welcoming, without changing our innermost life, we cannot escape the anguish resulting from whatever causes we have made in the past. Therefore, death necessarily encompasses, in the words of Morin, a “source of drama, interrogations, grief and revolt.” He adds, “The anguish of 15 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS death hangs over and leads the human spirit to wonder about the mysteries of existence, man’s destiny, life, the world” (Morin, 1991, Vol. V). By immersing oneself in diverse cultures with a focus on different approaches to death, one is at once struck with the familiarity of human traits while the very confrontation of difference seems to mimic the process of dying itself. This is particularly true when viewed through the five distinguishable stages first proposed by the Swiss-American psychiatrist, Elizabeth Kübler-Ross. These stages described both the person dying and the individuals drawn into the dying person’s experience and are in time sequential order: “denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance” (Ross, 1969, pp. 51-146). I would add to these stages, the idea of experiencing cultural difference often referred to as “culture shock,” in relation to the process of near death survival as might be inferred from the experiences of near death survivors. It is this latter perception with its potential for renewed outlook on life that might offer a more transformative, regenerative and ultimately more joyful acceptance and even welcoming of death where once the source of one’s greatest fear and misery. I would like to propose a five-stage culturally constructed model of viewing death that serves both cultural anthropologists as well as those surviving near death: observation, evaluation, acceptance, assimilation, and adjustment. Beginning with the stage of “observation, “near death survivors have shared at first pronunciation of death, a common sense of floating above their own bodies which they are then able to “observe” from a “dark, black void” (Moody, p. ix), a kind of tunnel at the end of which they often see “white light” (Moody, p. 22) (See also Near Death Floating). Specifics in accounts have been later matched to medical records with what was occurring in reality and these have been found to be accurate (Sabom, 1998, pp. 9, 202). In the second stage of “evaluation” there is a comparing and contrasting of differences, 16 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS where as in foreign cultural interaction, one is inevitably faced with a kind of judging of appearances and an attempt to digest which if any are acceptable familiarities to emulate. This stage is similar to near death claimants’ sense of “being given a life review” or “preview” or even “flash forward” where “in and out of body” type experiences present knowledge about their life and the nature of the universe, in the end offering a decision to be made by themselves and/or others to live rather than die, often accompanied by a reluctance to return to one’s body (See Near Death Experience). The third stage, “assimilation,” might be said to occur when the decision is made to live or come back to life where as in the anthropological explanation of cultural assimilation, one takes on new ideas and beliefs that will enable a new approach to doing something. The fourth stage, “adjustment,” is then a kind of re-creation of culture through a fusion of norms; in this case a merging of death back into life, whereby finally, there is acceptance, the fifth stage. Here is the opportunity for new life or a “new lease on life” and it is this phenomenon, a kind of deep spiritual transformation that is often shared by near death survivors. An inspiring example of this can be gleaned from the experience of retired Australian music teacher, Ken Mullens, who after a heart attack in 1991 was pronounced dead for twenty minutes: “As the thousands of survivor testimonials attest, a near-death experience can have a lifelong impact on the person who comes through it. Many survivors…have dedicated themselves to inspiring others via the messages and experiences they came back with. Mullens says he realized after his NDE [near death experience] that it was his mission to write and speak to people about it to help them conquer their fear of death. He also credits his NDE with helping him live a more open-minded, happier life: “It changed my whole outlook on life, my 17 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS whole outlook on people, and changed me from being a bigoted type of person to being more broad-minded… as a Christian I felt my faith was the only faith, and this experience made that view just ludicrous.” He adds, ‘I think I had to die to learn to live.’ He also said, ‘The happiest moment in my life was when I died” (See Ken Mullens). If we lived forever, would we strive to achieve our innermost desires? Would we work tirelessly to realize our dreams? Would we even be passionate about life? Dr. Norman Cousins, (1915-1990), the American journalist once said, “Death is not the greatest tragedy that befalls us in life. What is far more tragic is for an important part of oneself to die while one is still alive. There is no more terrifying tragedy than this. What is important is to accomplish something in life” (Ikeda, 2003 p. 43). Understanding death can become the greatest expedient to living life to its fullest capacity. It often takes a close call with death for people to awaken to their higher potential. It is often only when reminded of the horror of death and the transience of life that people tend to think about the soul and the existence of things other than mere satiety and comfort (Ikeda (see Gorbachev), 2005). Ikeda’s heartfelt words provide a gentle yet compelling admonition: “An awareness of death enables us to live each day—each moment—filled with appreciation for the unique opportunity we have to create something of our time on Earth. I believe that in order to enjoy true happiness, we should live each moment as if it were our last. Today will never return. We may speak of the past, or of the future, but the only reality we have is that of this present moment. And confronting the reality of death actually enables us to bring unlimited creativity, courage and joy into each instant of our lives” (Daisaku Ikeda, 1998). 18 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS The only obstruction to our awareness and understanding of life is the very subtle but universal human tendency to believe that somehow our lives are an exception to the rule and death is something that has nothing to do with us. Yet the reality is that our life is one of limitations defined by the brevity of time we are given in this present lifetime. As much as evolution would claim we are the determiners of our destiny, the self-imposed beliefs that we are omnipotent, without need of transformation and ultimately beyond destruction loom on one end of the pendulum while at the other extreme is the belief that we are insignificant, here today, gone tomorrow and essentially without purpose. All of this comes from an inability to perceive one’s self as a fragile strand in the web of life yet one whose purpose is highly significant in the formation of that web. The incapacity to understand life’s cyclic and eternal aspect or what might be called the oneness of life and death is likewise what obstructs us from living this present life to its fullest, a life in which we are forever able to expand our potential as individuals toward the realization of a meaningful life for oneself and all. Goethe once said, “Those who have no hope of another life are already dead in this one” (Ikeda, 2003, p.104, Eckermann, 1964, p. 33). Ego that Controls Nature and Human Beings Inability to Expand Consciousness Slater explains that “from a DNA viewpoint, the individual’s only function is to reproduce (‘a hen is just the egg’s way of making another egg’). As individuals, of course, we take a different view of the matter – seeing our personal survival as an end in itself.” “To address this issue,” he posits, “each of us has a department head that deals with threats to our personal survival. This bit of ourselves we call the ego, and most of us identify with it entirely…As the principal instrument of control over oneself and one’s environment, Control Culture valued the ego above all other parts of the psyche” (Slater, 2010, p. 109). 19 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS In Buddhism there is also what Jung referred to as the small ego or lesser self whose line of thinking is based on self-centeredness. The greater ego or greater self allows us to embrace larger meaning and to perceive our wholeness and our capacity to expand our life. This greater self, moreover, encompasses the happiness and survival of others (Ikeda, 2003, p. 20-21). Slater makes the analogy to a computer when describing the simplicity of the smaller ego. “[A]…picture is worth a thousand words (an understatement if you’ve ever seen a picture digitalized on a computer).” He points out that “computers are binary” and “modeled on the ego, all of [whose] “intricate thinking and planning is just an elaboration on one binary distinction – threat vs. no-threat” (Slater, 2010 p. 110). To arrogantly consider oneself exempt from and above the eventuality of death is the working of the lesser ego. The delusion that one’s life is a mere “end-all” to one’s current existence leads to the pursuit of excess and materialism. A common human misconception, it ultimately prevents all understanding of life while impeding any true fulfillment therein. Its foundation is hubris and cowardess. At worst, it leads us to dominate our environment and others; at best it leads to apathy and ambivalence and can but offer a life of mere pointless escapism, all of which are phenomena contiguous with Western culture. In traditional science, as exemplified in Newton’s physics, “Nature becomes an object, something to be observed, conquered, and used” (Slater, 2010, p. 69). He continues, “It helps to imagine that you can control your world if you see it as fragmented, rather than as an indissoluble unity that incorporates yourself” (Slater, p. 70) and “ when someone doesn’t see our existence as all important, we think there’s something very wrong with him” (Slater, p. 109). Ikeda describes the Buddhist view of wisdom and compassion where the two are “intimately linked and mutually reinforcing” (Ikeda, 1996b, p. 145). This does not involve 20 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS suppression of our natural emotions, likes and dislikes or those of anyone else. Even those we dislike have qualities that we can recognize in ourselves and can contribute to our lives, giving us opportunities to grow in our humanity (Ikeda, 1996b). He suggests “it is the compassionate desire to find ways of contributing to the well-being of others that gives rise to limitless wisdom” (Ikeda, 1996b, p. 445). The limitless wisdom in Buddhist philosophy entails intuition and “implies a capacity or energy that operates whether or not we are consciously aware of it” (Ikeda, 2003, pp. 151-2). The misconception or erroneous perception of life and death is seen as the source of all human suffering for it enables the ego to mask what is otherwise a natural process. Life is continuously using each moment as a regenerative for new life. Each present moment gives birth from the death of the previous moment. In this way, there is no discontinuity between past, present and future. Ikeda explains, “Consciousness” (Sanskrit “vijnana” or ability of discernment, comprehension or perception) implies that “each living being assimilates information from its surroundings and adjusts itself accordingly. Beings depend for their survival on the ability to perceive and respond to their environment. Even plants can sense the change of seasons and adjust to the differences in winter and summer weather.” He adds, “Likewise, human beings have the ability to respond to their environment” (Ibid). Slater humorously notes, “Clearly there’s a lot of coordination going on below the level of human consciousness or else we’d die every time we took a nap” (Slater, 2010, p. 109). Even though as Slater points out, there is no required conscious thought to stay alive, when we are sleeping, it can sometimes feel like we are on an ongoing journey with all the drama in real life. This resonates with Buddhism’s and modern psychology’s hypothesis regarding the many levels of consciousness believed to remain active during both life and sleep. 21 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Although conscious thought would seem to be dormant or unconscious in sleep, it persists as dreams giving us a sense of activity while sleeping. These “awakenings” in both active and dormant life are part of a larger consciousness, whose purpose and ramifications are of such an expansive nature that the human mind is incapable of fathoming their profound meaning. The exception to this may be discerned by studying the partial momentary glimpses or experiences described by near death survivors. Consider for example those who describe a sense of infinity along with the awareness of a tunnel, a feeling of forward motion that is both comfortable and usual and through which one moves with acceleration like floating within a vacuum. Some describe having attained the speed of light or faster (See Near-Death Experiences and…; Sawyer, 1978). Such descriptions may be linked to possible future scientific explanations for the nature and meaning of “consciousness.” Indeed, the ambiguous nature of consciousness continues to be a topic of such diverse social construction that it begs future in-depth discussion. Bateson suggests that for now, “With the instruments and findings of science we can refine a given pattern of perception, but the mental imposition of a pattern of meaning is the only way to encounter the world. Without it we are effectively blind.” Often with what seems like little rhyme or reason, we are led as she does to conclude that our purpose may just be to “move through metaphors and analogies, learning through mistakes” (Bateson, 1994, p. 53). It is perhaps only through such corrective feedback spontaneously innovated by individuals, societies and life itself that we are able to recreate the present. Such creative energy is the means by which we can then influence the character and integrity of life itself. From Construction to Deconstruction to Reconstruction In 1975, in Life after Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon, Survival of Bodily Death, American internist Raymond A. Moody, Jr. documented basic patterns commonly experienced 22 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS by near-death subjects. Since then, many physicians, psychologists and psychiatrists have also published data which corroborated his findings. “The most commonly experienced phenomena include the sensation of passing through a long tunnel just when the doctor pronounces the subject dead, followed by sudden consciousness of separation from the physical body, encounters with others recollections of major life events and the appearance of life as light” (Ikeda, 2003, p.81). Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, has sat and observed in particular critically ill children, but also has found the same to be true of thousands of people around the globe, a shared hallucination prior to death; namely the awareness of the presence of some relative or friend who preceded them in death. Most interesting and perhaps lending more credence to the idea is the data which supports their not having been aware of that person’s death. “We have many, many other cases like this where people who were in the process of dying have not been informed or made aware of the death of a family member, yet were greeted by them.” (Elisabeth Kübler- Ross, 1999, p. 89) Yet science continues to criticize such research and views. Subject to much dispute is that NDEs exist as multi-cultural phenomena, although this has been evidenced by recent research into afterlife conceptions across numerous cultures. Religious studies scholar Dr. Gregory Shushan who analyzed the beliefs of five ancient civilizations (Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt, Sumerian and Old Babylonian Mesopotamia, Vedic India, pre-Buddhist China, and preColumbian Mesoamerica) found that despite numerous culture-specific differences, the nine most frequently recurring NDE elements also recur on a general structural level cross-culturally (Shushan, 2009). 23 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS In Knowledge as Culture, E. Doyle McCarthy contends that science as a universal knowledge from which to grasp truths is problematic and has created a "culture of complaint" (Hughes, 1993) even against itself (McCarthy, 1996, p. 88-89.) “In sharp contrast to the claim that scientific methods discover and describe an objective universe” she continues, with the argument that “’reality’ is relational, the quotation marks pointing to the relative and problematic status of what that reality is; what is real is to be grasped through its relationship to specific discourses or to ‘codes’ or ‘conventions’ of thinking and acting.” (McCarthy, p. 87) Conversely, she sees the value of subjectivity and cultural accounts from everyday life, “the grand narratives” (Lyotard, 1984) (McCarthy, p. 88) (language and textuality)” which “hold theoretical and political questions in irresolvable but permanent tension” and which “create a science that is historically variable” (McCarthy, p. 88). Stepping outside the limitations of science and imposed frameworks surrounding issues of death becomes unavoidable when based on experiences that spontaneously present themselves, demanding new perspectives. In 2002, I had occasion to sit for two months by my dear friend and mentor, jazz composer and percussionist, Juno Lewis. He had suffered a stroke and was on life support. Half of his body was paralyzed and many of his vital organs compromised or non-functional. In a coma, ignored by all staff in his ICU bed, I spoke to him continuously, holding his hand. I read inspirational poetry, sang to him and talked about enjoyable things we had done together. I told him I missed him and hoped he’d wake up soon. Nurses told me he couldn’t hear or feel anything and that my efforts were futile. Nonetheless, several days later, he awoke and began to respond, first blinking his eyes, and then squeezing my hand. Over the weeks, as he regained consciousness and some ability to move his left side, we developed our own communication through eye contact, questions answered by hand tapping and later some limited handwriting. 24 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Yet, our primary communication came through a language that I can only describe as telepathic. He seemed to only trust me to communicate in this way as evidenced by his inactivity and more passive responses with others, in spite of the hundreds of visitors who came to see him. The doctors didn’t believe me when I would try to express to them his wishes as he was diagnosed “incompetent.” Constantly attempting to remove his respirator and feeding tubes, he remained for almost the entire two months in shackles (it was so obvious to me he knew what he was doing). He even expressed over the temporary “trache” breathing device which can in some cases enable limited speech (temporary because it proved insufficient for his condition) the word “home” and wrote it down in big letters. When I explained he couldn’t have the respirator at his home and that without it he would asphyxiate and die, he adamantly assured me this was his wish. I asked him to reconsider nearly every day for weeks. I knew it was not a viable solution where in the average nursing home there is only a rare presence of doctors and these are concerned primarily with physical complaints. Like so many others, Juno became a victim of the system, confined to life support after a stroke that rendered him without movement or functional breathing and digestion. Without medical durable power of attorney, he was subject to what was for him an interminable period of suffering without any say over the outcome of his own life. For him, this was not life. His condition worsened, some of this due to a brief stay in an intermediary nursing facility where he contracted pneumonia only to be ambulanced back to the hospital ICU with critical organ dysfunction and infection. There is a vast discrepancy between the reality of science and culture in practice and the image of science as truthful, moral, and objective. Yet like many who were committed “modernists,” Gergen began to see how one could move away from traditionalism and 25 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS skepticism, “remaining in the soil of critique” without abandoning the past. Unlike other world views, for Gergen, “social constructionism” is not a belief system or a candidate for truth, but the potential to create new ways of being through speaking together (Gergen, 2009, p. 29). This resonates with Buddhism’s commitment to dialogue and respect for diverse opinions and to developing within oneself a broad and flexible outlook on all things. We grew very close through this experience, a bonding of hearts that is difficult to put into words. There were tears and laughter and deep intellectual reveries; sometimes I would read to him when I saw he was intrigued. It was mutually inspiring. One passage in particular brought smiles to his face: “Since we are human, we will as a matter of course undergo the four sufferings – birth, aging, sickness and death. The important thing is that we withstand the onslaught of these sufferings and overcome them with true nobility.” (Ikeda, 1999, p. 22) Finally, I sat down in private with the doctor, openly listening to his perspective about legalities and practicalities but ultimately imploring him for a solution to my friend’s incessant suffering. He suggested I contact the eldest son who’d been absent most of the time but who agreed to sign and fax a power of attorney that would enable him to authorize the decision for his father to discontinue life support. I asked Juno if he wanted me there and he did. I stood in a corner not far from him and chanted my Buddhist mantra, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo ever so softly. The doctor thought it would take days. Yet no sooner did he withdraw nothing but the blood pressure medication that Juno, still shackled to the hospital bed frame, suddenly smiled. Then his body relaxed and his forehead grew broad as if expanding in wisdom. His eyes began to glisten and within what seemed like seconds, Juno’s life transpired with no evidence of struggle. He overcame modern medicine’s fear of death and refusal to see death as a natural process requiring unsolicited intervention. He realized within his last moments of life a victorious 26 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS liberation within the boundaries of a kind of imposed incarceration. Of royal Moroccan blood of which he’d assured me on numerous occasions, he died like a true noble, with courage and dignity. In his final moments, I observed in Juno’s facial expression an abrupt change in countenance, a sudden, unforeseen enthrallment as if he were seeing something I could not see. I am convinced that I witnessed what was his sense of a presence of others with whom he was familiar. He was very close to his mother and highly affected by her death. He also suffered much over the drowning death of one of his twin sons. I can only surmise who or what he may have seen but it was unmistakably something or someone that brought him deep joy and peace of mind. More than anything, from this experience, I learned that one or two days more of life for someone whose quality of life is near non-existent holds little value especially when it increases the likelihood of suffering that would have otherwise been absent had nature been allowed to take its course. Science, although miraculous in its discoveries of ways to save and enhance life, when affected by the legal system taking precedence over basic human rights, needs to revisit the original intentions that led to these discoveries and take a stand against abuses in practice. Although to constructionists it may sound like a moral platitude, there is one fundamental tenet in Buddhism: that of upholding what is considered to be the inherent dignity and sanctity of life. There is no discussion on death without discussion of life’s inherent value and this includes the notion of quality of life in society, materially, physically and spiritually as well as the right to a dignified death. Life is the most basic right of all beings and forms on the planet. Sustainability of life and its environment is only possible when there is an understanding of this essential 27 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS premise. The question is do scientists hold life in such value that they feel responsible for advocating the upholding of its greatest possible integrity? Importance of Subjectivity: Knowledge as Culture and Giving Voice to Violations against Life In light of questionable legal and scientific practices, and in view of the inherent right to quality of life and dignity in death, like McCarthy, I would declare, “Science is under fire.” She elaborates on its many historically fraudulent and abusive practices. She describes numerous cases of American male privileged (race, class, culture) dominance in which there have been apparent violations of human rights, citing: 1) the “excessive use of drug treatments and therapies for institutionalized populations,” [I would include the excessive use of life support, excessive administering of A.D.D. drugs to school age children, pain medications in nursing homes for the elderly and recent controversy over psychotic medications being freely administered to children in American foster homes come to mind] 2) “experimental use of human subjects and animal subjects,” [One interesting elders abuse case I found in a recently disclosed series of government confidential records was an online report entitled “Population Control Agenda,” which included: On October 5, 1976, just as the so-called "SWINE FLU" inoculation program was getting under way, elderly people began dying of heart attacks shortly after taking swine flu shots. This caused widespread alarm at first until the Government quickly assured us that their deaths didn't really matter at all for they would have died anyway; and the swine flu inoculation program went right back into high gear] (Dr. Peter Beter, See Elderly Experimentation), 3) “abusive medical treatments of women” [this could include medical neglect of women in US prisons, including shackled childbirth, inequities in research for women’s health, and lack of universal public health care and health education] 4) “exposing workers and 28 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS soldiers to life-threatening chemicals and technologies” [American rural farmers still regularly exposed to toxic pesticides] 5) “destructive accidents to nature such as oil spills” [Less than two weeks ago, more than 2,600 barrels of oil spilled into the Atlantic ocean off the coast of Brazil because of a leak at an offshore Chevron drilling site] (See Oil Spills), 6)” hazards that accompany new medical treatments and surgeries,” [medical doctors overprescribe surgery and ignore its long-term health implications], and 7) “polluting environmental chemicals from nuclear and chemical warfare” [which threaten the lives of all, but in particular the young and the old] (McCarthy, 1996, p. 90). McCarthy specifically points out the exclusion of women from science and from leading fields of "knowledge production" as documented by feminist critics in universities. She explains how studies in science have led to androcentric perceptions due to the historical tendency of using only male subjects on which to base conclusions. Overall, McCarthy talks about challenging science's claims to universality and objectivity in view of its exclusion of women and in particular that exclusion when based on "notions of the legitimacy of the subordinate status of women" (McCarthy, p.92). She talks about the “desexing of science” with its impersonal, abstract reflection of male experience and the “dichotomies of Western culture (reason/emotion, objectivity/subjectivity, culture/nature, public/private)” and in particular “women’s perceived incapacities for knowledge and the social sphere (theirs being the natural sphere)” (McCarthy, p. 99). As more and more, we are seeing a female integrative culture rendering obsolete a male dominating or control culture, (Slater, 2010) we are also seeing a transformation in the culture of the elderly. Where media images in the past of senior citizens have tended to be stereotyped with silver-haired men and women in rocking chairs or on park benches, frail and forgetful, constantly 29 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS attended by someone, “The message now is, you’re as old as you feel,” says Ann Marie Quinlan, the outreach coordinator at Braintree’s Council on Aging (Lane Lambert, 2009). I will talk more about the rights of the elderly in forthcoming pages, but just like women, who according to Slater, have grown “better attuned to the demands of modern democratic society than men” and have “an advantage in a shrunken world in which communication and cooperation are again vital to our survival as a species,” so too have the elderly become an increasingly important “society of creators and empathizers, of pattern recognizers and meaning makers” (Slater, 2010, pp. 54-55). In conclusion, and once again, of crucial importance to McCarthy is that science be viewed as a "social construct" that will open a host of cultural inquiries into scientific work. McCarthy's conclusion is that "science would no longer occupy its elevated place above (looking down on) 'society,' but would be deeply implicated in its political history.” It is her view that “the lasting value of the sociology of knowledge is its capacity to draw attention to itself as part of its own inquiry: to scrutinize the ‘turn to culture’ in both science and the social sciences. In calling attention to its own operations, the sociology of knowledge, as with all knowledge, becomes culture (McCarthy, p. 107). An Immortality of Human Spirit gives Birth to a New Humanity In his current annual peace proposal to the United Nations entitled “Toward a World of Dignity for All: the Triumph of the Creative Life,” Daisaku Ikeda states, "To the extent that we become obsessively focused on external factors such as social systems and structures, people will be driven from their rightful role as the shapers and protagonists of history. The twentieth century bears bitter witness to this truth" (Daisaku Ikeda, 2011). 30 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Similar to McCarthy, Gergen posits the material world as one of “social construction” where it is necessary to stimulate the kind of consciousness where we understand that we are “joining in the language games of our cultural traditions.” Gergen offers the examples of Flax (1993) and Deleuze and Guattari (1986) for constructing a “nomadic self,” a more “fluid identity,” as a guard against becoming a stereotype fashioned by the media, for example. This model, others argue, is “not fixed in any category” but moves with times and circumstances – taking political stands but not permanently so” (Gergen, 2009 p. 54). The kind of consciousness Gergen is trying to stimulate is one which can draw truth from “true to life” narrative constructions, or telling a good story, and as French philosopher, Michel Foucoult (1926-1984) explains, where there is a focal concern “with combating the expanding domains of power/knowledge,” urging us “to fight against these forces through resistance, subversion and self-transformation” (Gergen, 2009, p. 54; Foucoult, 1978, 1979). Foucoult was influenced by French philosopher, Henri Bergson’s (1859-1941) theories of multiplicity. He was the author of Archaeology of Knowledge (1969), described by Deleuze to be "the most decisive step yet taken in the theory-practice of multiplicities” (See Multiplicity). Henri Bergson's concept of multiplicity attempts to consistently unify two contradictory features: heterogeneity and continuity. Many philosophers today view this idea as revolutionary through its establishment of a new concept for community (Lawlor, 2011). It was a complex and nearly incomprehensible theory for its time, yet one which sounds as if it has the potential to explain how we are all different but have a recollection of sameness through having experienced a multitude of existences throughout infinite time. Gergen describes some of the skepticism that began in the scholarly world, mentioning another contemporary of Bergson, Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) who in his A Course in General Linguistics, laid out the 31 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS discipline of semiotics where he proposed as ultimately arbitrary, the relationship between the signifier and signified in language. He also said language could be described in terms of various rules, such as grammar and syntax and making sense was a matter of following the rules of language. Where Saussure and Bergson differ is in Bergson’s consideration of the individual. “From this brief contrasting of Bergson and Saussure it becomes clear that the emphasis on individuality that we perceive in Bergson has no equivalent in Saussure. Here existentialism and structuralism decisively go different ways” (Douwe Wessel Fokkema, Elrud Ibsch, 1978, 1995, p. 51). Literary theorist, Jacques Derrida, (1930-2004), and founder of deconstruction, suggested that rational arguments invite suppression and narrow our views, as in the binary of material/spirit where the cosmos cannot be considered material without the absence of the spirit and without the presence of this absence the sense in the phrase “the cosmos is material” is destroyed (Gergen, 2009, p. 19). For Gergen, like McCarthy, the implications of deconstruction are “not to undermine scientific efforts, but to remove their authority and to place them into the orbit of everyday scrutiny” (Gergen, 2009 p. 22). Bergson, like Saussure, Foucoult, Flax, Deleuze, Guattari and Derrida, was wary of “the casual, unthinking faith in words that has caused the devaluation and degradation of language we see today.” (Ikeda, 2011) He wrote in The Creative Mind: "My initiation into the true philosophical method began the moment I threw overboard verbal solutions, having found in the inner life an important field of experiment" (Bergson, 1946, p. 105-106) (Ikeda, 2011). Ikeda explains, “To Bergson, the field of experiment or genuine reality is ‘mobile, or rather movement itself’” (Ikeda, 2011)(Bergson, 1935, p. 208). He continues, “The flow of ceaseless change that 32 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS characterizes the creative life continues without end or pause. To perceive that movement, it is essential to maintain what Japanese literary critic Hideo Kobayashi (1902-83) termed the ‘suppleness of spirit’ (Kobayashi, (2001-02), p. 160) that allows us to ‘exercise caution with regard to applying known words when describing the unknown’” (Kobayashi, p. 158). Ikeda says Kobayashi was deeply versed in Bergson's philosophy and they had a wide-ranging discussion when they met in 1971 (Ikeda, 2011). Daisaku Ikeda, in discussing Bergson, points out as he often does in his dialogues with students, that ideological ways of thinking will always entail a degree of rigid categorization. “In contrast, the Buddhist philosophy of the Soka Gakkai does not require uniformity. Rather, it focuses on understanding the actual conditions of the times and, from there, extrapolating the optimal choices. Rigid categorization is synonymous with stereotyping, a misconception of the mobile as static space” (Ikeda, 2011). Like Gergen, for whom criticism of language is “an invitation to dialogue, as opposed to an attempt to eradicate,” (Gergen, 2009, p. 29), Bergson's philosophy and disposition is “diametrically opposed to any kind of passive acceptance of human weakness or inertia.” "Tension, concentration, these are the words by which I characterized a method which required of the mind, for each new problem, a completely new effort" (Bergson, 1946, p. 105; Ikeda, 2011). Ikeda exclaims citing Bergson, “Eschewing indolence and stagnation, Bergson continues to inspire us to look forward and to live better and stronger lives: ‘Thus I repudiate facility. I recommend a certain manner of thinking which courts difficulty; I value effort above everything’" (Ikeda, 2011; Bergson, 1946, p. 103) Like Bergson, Gergen warns us to consider the value attached to the word “progress” and to continuously ask ourselves: “If progress is about improvement, then for whom is it better? Also, he suggests we replace the word “progress” with sustainability, particularly in relation to 33 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS environmental destruction and “whenever the banner of progress is flown” to look about carefully for the destruction (Gergen, 2009, p. 173). More importantly, he concludes that we move this conversation outward into our lives, giving our relationships vitality in hopes that our dialogues, the remnants of these relationships, will spread beyond (Gergen, 2009). In Bergson’s formulations of “duration,” (Time and Free Will)” “contraction,” (Matter and Memory) and “vital impulse”, (Creative Evolution) he was talking about the biological aspect of evolution, but the fourth, "the impetus of love" clearly represents the plane of genuinely human character. Ikeda further clarifies, “Bergson argues that what is needed is the emergence of an individual who is inspired by a mystic experience that has been fully integrated into the core of his or her being. Such an individual makes it possible for the human spirit to emerge from the confines of a closed and private world and soar into a love of humanity, a sense of community embracing the whole of humankind” (Ikeda, 2011).Unlike a “frenzy of ecstatic possession” however, explains Ikeda, this is an entirely different sort of mystical experience. It is one in which emotions are unleashed when the workings of intellect have run their full course. It is “the emotion which drives the intelligence forward in spite of obstacles,” (Bergson, 1935, p. 34) "an affective stirring of the soul … an upheaval of the depths…. in the realm of ideas” (Bergson, (1935), p. 31). Ikeda concludes with the example of Ghandi (1869-1948) whose arrival, Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) stated, “stripped the ‘black pall of fear’ from the hearts of the Indian people and ‘upset many things but most of all the working of people's minds’” (Ikeda, 2011; Nehru, 1946, p. 361). Throughout history, the heritage of those who through their struggle have moved the hearts and minds of the people and who in life and in death, continue to hold similar power and impact is evidence of an immortality of the human spirit. It is this immortal spirit that becomes a 34 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS model for envisioning the birth of a new humanity. Ikeda often says, "A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and, further, will enable a change in the destiny of all humankind" (Ikeda, 2004, p. viii). The Practicality of Anxiety: A Smudged Mirror Becomes Clear I have come to view anxiety, especially as it relates to discomfort in social relationships, as an experiential phenomenon of tremendous meaning and relevance to my destiny. It often seems like it has little to do with me, yet in hindsight, I can see how it has everything to do with me, although it can conceivably affect others as well. The anxiety seems to be based in my ego, which perceives the presence of hierarchy, of dominating and subservient superiors and inferiors, again what Slater referred to as “threat vs. no-threat” (Slater, 2010 p. 110). For example, when I say something that causes someone to react negatively or with anger (as more often than I’d like to admit may be the case), their reaction causes me discomfort or anxiety, and sometimes makes me doubt myself. Then, my ego takes over and that anxious, ill at ease feeling causes me to wonder what is “wrong” with that person (Ibid, p. 109)? Ultimately, if it bothers me enough, I have come to understand that it is something designed uniquely and specifically for me. It is my life giving me the opportunity to transform a negative experience into one that benefits my own growth and happiness. It is not the person or thing in my environment that is the cause of my anxiety. The cause exists in me and is perfectly tailored to some aspect of my own insecurity that needs adjusting. The anxiety is therefore both my own uniquely created cause and its effect, each the cause and effect of the other in a seemingly endless cycle. The person in my environment is a function of my life, a kind of mirror. It therefore becomes my response-ability to transform the reflection to one that casts a satisfactory and pleasing image back to me. In other words, I and no one else, have the unique 35 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS ability to adjust my perception of reality to one that replaces discomfort with joy. It is ultimately nothing but my own inherent wisdom that enables me to do this. This produces a different effect which likewise supports the wisdom to make different causes in the future. Any and every anxiety I experience, I now view as an opportunity to self-reflect and the foundation from which I can build greater confidence and character. I can use all discomfort and unpleasantness to transform in the moment these “triggers for wisdom” as they appear and even welcome their presence within my environment as something beneficial and valuable. My own life seems to be the cause for seeking regenerative strength and wisdom which achieves the intended inner transformation. It all becomes an enduring lesson that translates into a marked shift visible the next time I speak to that person or find myself in a similar situation. It likewise continues to persist as a kind of eternal wisdom in all relationships in my life. This leads me to the apparent conclusion that something much bigger than just choosing in that moment to have a more compassionate, empathetic or meaningful exchange is at play; something much greater than just finding a way to make for a more comfortable experience. Rather, in a given moment, I have permanently changed some deep, internal tendencies and this growth transcends all aspects of my life. I find myself experiencing happier and more quality relationships everywhere I go and with everyone I meet, be it with my husband, daughter, mother, colleagues, and/or perfect strangers. In Walking on Water, Derrick Johnson poignantly expresses the need for human beings to establish an inner identity based on the deepest recesses of our hearts boldly proposing: “…the most revolutionary thing we can do is follow our hearts, to manifest who we really are. And we are in desperate need of revolution, on all scales and in all ways, from the most personal to the most global, from the most 36 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS serene to the most wrenching. We’re killing the planet, we’re killing each other, and we’re killing ourselves” (Derrick Jenson, 2004, p. 41). There are occasions when I think my anxiety or deep concern for the sake of the world and humanity is somehow distinct and separate from my own personal experience. Yet, in all such instances I have learned this thinking is a camouflage for some aspect of me that needs addressing. Although my actions can affect millions by virtue of evolutionary consciousness if nothing more, I have learned to examine what Buddhism has taught me are the true causes for human tragedies such as famine, war and disease and to use these external phenomena to look within first toward bringing about the larger environmental change. In regards to the phenomena of world hunger, or famine, the caused by greed, the first effect of Buddhism’s “three poisons” (greed, anger and stupidity) it is not enough to merely distribute food and donate money to feed starving children without examining and addressing the underlying cause of famine, human greed. Unless we look inside at our own capacity to be consumed by a life dominated by a sense of insatiability, one that directs all energy toward objects of desire, be they wealth, food, fame, a life of constant ease or some other escape from reality, then we are in essence draining ourselves of our full life potential to find satiability in noble acts of substance and character. When I fight hard to encourage another person, I find there is little time to think about what I am lacking, yet this I also realized is possible because I do have enough to eat. However, even when times were hard, I always found the sustenance to maintain my life once I became dedicated to a life devoted to sharing Buddhism with others. Understanding my own internal potential for war (anger) enables me to look at my own inner undetonated bomb awaiting explosion. When I work to transform the ego that created those feelings into one of the greater self which is outraged and incensed by social injustice and all 37 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS violent acts (both passive and active) against life, I feel I am able to develop compassion for and thereby affect through example the behavior of others. Disease, including pathology is best understood in light of the human tendency toward foolishness and ignorance, like the kind of “insensitiveness, or imaginative dullness” (Hook, 1974, p. 30 as cited in Bernstein, 2005, p. 60) so aptly described in Hanna Arendt’s 1971, “Thinking and Moral Considerations” where she observed that the perpetrators of “evil deeds” of Auschwitz did not appear to come from “pathology” but rather from “extraordinary shallowness” (Arendt, 1971, as cited in Bernstein, p. 8). Ignorance in Buddhism is the true cause of pestilence, and this includes the epidemic proportions of criminal pathology indicative of our times. In fact, in Buddhism there is no separation between mind and body and therefore one cannot talk about illnesses of the body without accounting for those of the mind and spirit. Having anxiety about world and local events, as I am prone to have, although perhaps a somewhat either/or approach dependent on what’s going on or what I choose to make myself aware of, is a way of seeing a clear mirror image of cause and effect as it exists in the environment (the world). At the same time, I am acknowledging its presence and self-reflecting and challenging these commonalities in my own life as though polishing my own smudged mirror. When I strive to transform my own internal tendencies toward greed, anger, and stupidity, this process in itself becomes a struggle of great magnitude, exacerbated by my determination to experience greater depth in life. When I overcome that struggle, the benefit manifests in a clear reflection of abundance, peace and excellent physical and mental well being in my life and in turn reflects in my environment, the external world. This human revolution becomes a foundation for self-empowerment, empathy, leadership and positive change that clearly reflects in the mirror that is my family, community, and society. Like a powerful ripple in 38 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS what can be an otherwise sedentary, muddy and apathetic pond, my tremendous human revolution cannot help but flow outwards influencing everything with which it is connected. It has the inherent power like the very powerful cosmos itself to regenerate and extend itself fluidly and infinitely throughout the entire universe. Overcoming Illusion of Self as Separate: Using Life and Death in the Same Sentence For Morin, the principles of complex thinking allow for the reintegration of hitherto constructed separate disciplines and a new understanding of anthropology as a multidimensional field of study, where biology, sociology, economics, history, and psychology come together and seek to disclose the complex unity within humanity’s diversity. He elaborates: “the differences caused by the diversity of language, myths, and ethnocentric cultures have concealed our common bioanthropological identity” which can be recovered “…not by a bulldozing homogenization of cultures, but rather by a full recognition and a full flowering of cultural diversity that would not prevent processes of unification and diversification from operating on broader levels” (Morin, 1999, P. 44). One might say “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose,” while through inclusivity and an integral approach, there is nothing lost and everything to be gained. In American Cultural Patterns, Stewart and Bennett contend, “Americans resist systems of thought that lose sight of the individual” (Stewart, Bennett, 1991, p. 141). In addition to being pragmatic, ignoring values that aren’t assigned to specific applications this may also be why “coherent personal philosophies and systematic ideologies are both rare in American culture” (Stewart, Bennett, p. 140). Such American cultural tendencies along with the tendency to rationalize contradictions, or what Slater has called the “toilet assumption,” -- the belief that 39 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS social unpleasantness, once flushed out of sight, ceases to exist -- remains centra1 to American culture (Slater, 1990, p. xii). I include these American cultural stereotypes as a means of understanding our tendency that Mary Catherine Bateson has described as a “euphemistic,” “indirect” and emotionally detached approach to death and all matters related (Bateson, 1994, p.19). I see it as a reluctance to look at the bigger picture, namely our interconnectedness to all life. “What distinguishes the Buddhist view of interdependence is that it is based on a direct, intuitive apprehension of the cosmic life immanent in all phenomena,” posits Ikeda (Ikeda, 2010c, p. 236). It is this same tendency that also enables us to disconnect from life and ultimately leads to acts of violence. Ikeda likewise concludes, “Buddhism unequivocally rejects all forms of violence as an assault on the harmony that underlies and binds the web of being” (Ikeda, 1995). Gergen, strong opponent of transformative dialogue in forms such as psychotherapy, organizational management, education and scholarly communication, believes that through criticism and varying points of view, we create a social construction based on relationships versus the self in isolation. The relevant message of the constructionist is “the moment we begin to speak together, we have the potential to create new ways of being” (Gergen, 2009, p. 29). What I’d like to add to this multi-dimensional and dialogical perspective is the question: If social scientists and psychologists become too wrapped up in the mental phenomena of life, is it possible they will fail to see the true aspects of its existence. Mind and matter and body appear as two in dichotomous thinking. Relegating everything to an authoritative “good or bad” “either/or” description, leads to perceiving death merely as the absence of life. Stewart and Bennett’s analysis of American thinking as “forced into both dichotomizing and selecting one extreme as the subject of the question,” (Stewart, Bennett,1991,p. 53) explains why Americans 40 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS have such difficulty looking at death and often at life in terms of ideology. It points to why perhaps we have difficulty even using life and death in the same sentence. On the other hand, Mary Catherine Bateson describes feeling herself “drawn to the poetry of a genuine return to the earth,” recalling how she was warned before attending a friend’s funeral in Israel that the body would be laid in the ground without a coffin (Bateson, 1994, pp. 21-22). She offers the model of mother and children’s habits of patterned relationship as a means for understanding “how separate organisms can interact in harmony,” through her observation that children appear to act as if they were of one body with their mothers and have a tendency in some cultures to stay by them, dozing and waking, until the mother is ready to sleep herself (Bateson, p. 61). Slater, a unique voice in social science says it simply: “Now that we know the earth is round, surrounded by space, that life is constantly evolving, that the universe is indivisible, that we are all stardust, composed of the stuff of the primeval fireball, we are evolving toward religious ideas that reflect this grander and more complex vision. We know now that it isn’t necessary to posit a führer-god in order to understand creation. Life has steadily and spontaneously evolved by means of ‘self-creating coherence.’ Congruently we are slowly moving toward religious ideas that are compatible with scientific knowledge and reflect the grandeur of its visions” (Slater, 2010, pp. 159-60). The “self-creating coherence” might also be described as the interdependent nature of life and death, which as one thought in the same sentence forms the creative, interdependent web of life interacting harmoniously to enable new forms of being. It is only the illusion of Self as separate that keeps us from seeing life’s true existence. 41 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS The Oneness of all Life with the Universe: a Way of Knowing and Caring In Buddhist philosophy, life and death are seen as part of the same entity, one which endures throughout eternity. Again, it is only our illusion that the two are separate. There is cultural relevance to be found in viewing neither as superior nor inferior. Moreover, no separation exists in Buddhism between human beings or any life form for that matter. They can be viewed then as two but not two as in the Buddhist doctrine of the oneness of body and mind, the oneness of life and its environment, or the oneness of mentor and disciple. Speaking through Faust, Goethe wrote: “…into the whole, how all things blend, each in the other working, living” (Ikeda, 2003, p. 19). Buddhism presumes nothing and no one exists in isolation and that as individuals we each possess the ability to shape our environment which in turn affects all other existences (Ibid). Ikeda explains it as “All things are mutually supportive and interrelated, forming a living cosmos, what modern philosophy might call a semantic whole” (Ibid). He describes the likening of birth and death in ourselves as in the universe: “We now know that stars and galaxies are born, live out their natural span, and die. What applies to the vast realities of the universe applies equally to the miniature realms of our bodies. From a purely physical perspective, our bodies are composed of the same materials and chemical compounds as the distant galaxies. In this sense we are quite literally children of the stars” (Ikeda, see Words of wisdom). He continues: “The human body consists of some 60 trillion individual cells, and life is the vital force that harmonizes the infinitely complex functioning of this mind-boggling number of individual cells. Each moment, untold numbers of cells are dying and being replaced by the birth of new cells. At this level, we experience daily the cycles of birth and death” (Ibid). In similar fashion, Edgar Morin muses on the cosmos, where we look for the answers to our destiny: 42 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS “Thus we know, without wanting to know, that we arose from this world, that all our particles were formed 15 billion years ago, that our carbon atoms were constituted in a sun anterior to ours, that our molecules were born on Earth, unless they arrived here by way of meteorites. We know without wanting to know that we are children of this cosmos, the carrier of our birth, of our life, and of our death. That is why we do not know as yet how to stand within it, how to join together our questions about the universe and our physical and earthly destiny. We have not yet drawn inferences from the marginal, peripheral situation of our lost planet and from our situation on this planet. Yet it is in the cosmos that we must locate our planet and our destiny, our meditations, ideas, longings, fears, and decisions” (Edgar Morin, 1999, p. 30). In like manner, Bateson talks about the Gaia hypothesis, which implies “the hint that the behavior and characteristics of this planet are best grasped by an analogy with the living organism we know best, a human being” (Bateson, 1994 p. 136). She proposes that “the belief that patients are whole persons is not easily acquired in medical classes that emphasize the mechanical characteristics of bodies, so physicians must find other ways to maintain it. Although the belief in an immortal soul brings a lot of baggage that may be troublesome, it probably helps some physicians to remember. The anthropomorphic dimension of the Gaia hypothesis proposes empathy as a way of knowing – and caring” (Ibid). Bateson sees human individuals as “shaped and succored by the reality of interdependence” (Bateson, 1994, p. 63). She suggests, “Those who see personhood as coming into being at a single point in time, whether through a divine act or through the biological events of conception or birth, uphold a lonely vision of the self rather than the self in relationship. Such 43 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS an absolute vision is likely also to be static, playing down (and subverting) ongoing development and learning” (Ibid). In Search of a Universal, more Progressive Construct on Death: Slater, Bateson, Sztompka and Stewart Bennett, Americans as Role Models and a Buddhist Lens for Hope One metaphor that offers a common comforting construct for all human beings in matters relating to death found recent expression in a pure, non-judgmental question posed by my six year old daughter. Viewing our deceased cat of 17 years from whose physical appearance died so peacefully I had to put my head to his body to see if his heart was in fact still beating, she inquired: “Is Nigel sleeping, Mommy?” Indeed, Buddhism views the cycles of birth and death as likened to the alternating periods of sleep and wakefulness. “Just as sleep prepares us the day’s activity, death can be seen as a state in which we rest and replenish ourselves for new life…In this light, death should be acknowledged, along with life as a blessing to be appreciated” (Ikeda, 2003, p. 78). Slater reminds us that all of life comes from "Mother Earth" and every human being and animal knows what it means to live inside a woman. There is poignant meaning behind the very simplistic statement: "...everyone has been part of a mother's body." (Slater, 2010, p. 157) Through this concept referred to by Slater as “integrative spirituality” a compelling lens for understanding the world as change and discovering how we can change the world is readily available. It encompasses the view of mothers as symbols of empathy whose life-giving and sustaining entity should be nothing less than revered. A less universal construct is the idea that mothers should be protected. Bateson argues the obscurity of the metaphor “Mother Earth: “I hate to expose the planet further to the danger of 44 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS rape or evoke the ambivalence that people feel about mothers.” To her, the most important aspect of the metaphor is that “we are immersed in, brought into being by, a living reality, not a mechanical one.” With this comes an understanding that we “cannot treat the earth as inert, just as we cannot treat a tree as an iron pylon or a meadow as a piece of wall-to-wall carpeting” (Bateson, 1994, pp. 137-38). This again accords with Buddhism’s view of the inseparability of all forms of life and their manifestations, including that we are all born of the same mother Earth. Looking through Sztompka’s sociological analysis of progress, I will interpret what he categorizes as three distinct, changing social processes, the linear, the cyclical and the progressive in light of how they might affect a more progressive view of death. The linear describes a process “unfolding some potentiality inherent in the system” and one that “runs independently of human actions, somewhat above human heads, towards a predetermined ultimate finale.” This would be viewing death as inevitable, without any ability to affect its outcome or its form, a kind of fatalistic and final perception. The second, cyclical, seems to have acceptability in most religions and even in the realm of social sciences. Following a circular pattern, “each state of the system is apt to reappear at some moment in the future and itself is a replica of what had already occurred at some moment in the past…” “a repetition…due to some immanent tendency in the system…” People die and float around as ghosts, they die and go to heaven or hell, people die and are reborn, and other such ideas. The third and as Sztompka points out, the most debatable is the progressive or “a directional process that steadily brings the system closer to the preferred beneficial state…ethical values such as “happiness, freedom, prosperity, justice, dignity, knowledge, etc.” or one that achieves “an ideal society” (Sztompka, 1991, p. 8). Although many of the examples in religion profess to do just that, it is Buddhism’s view that perhaps most totally encompasses this notion and can be explained very simply. Yet this by 45 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS no means it is altogether as easy to accept and therefore, more difficult to put into practice. It includes the more objective linear process, as well as the obvious cyclic processes (birth, death, and rebirth) but most of all the progressive or transformational and realizational process. The linear in Buddhism’s view of death is no different than the obvious, we are born, we experience sickness, we grow old, and we die. These in fact are referred to as “the four sufferings” and are always mentioned in that order. However, because they continuously repeat themselves in lifetime after lifetime they are seen as cyclic processes. The progressive process or what Sztompka might refer to as a happy ending Vis à vis Buddhism’s view of death is that although everything is brought back to its fundamental reality, or homeostatic state, the chanting of “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo,” creates a kind of transformative progression. The latent state of unchanging “purity,” (a kind of subjective term it might appear) is a life which in turn is in a “static, original, fixed or immutable” form (in the objective scientific sense) and is called Buddhahood. Buddhahood is another name for “life” whose essence underlies everything in the universe and was identified by Nichiren as “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” (See Secret to Happiness). It is through repeating or chanting these words which were the title of the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni’s highest teaching, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, also known as the practice for oneself, (See “About Buddhism”) that one can “reveal the state of Buddhahood in one's life,” experienced as the natural [emphasis added] development of joy, increased vitality, courage, wisdom and compassion” (See “Practicing Buddhism”). The word “natural” implies that in nature, everything duplicates or exemplifies this same process. The words “development” and “increased” imply growth and transformation, a kind of measurable progress. This is the most difficult concept for human beings in general to grasp, particularly in societies such as ours where people are used to viewing things one way. To see that every form of life is already in its 46 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS “purest” form, while simultaneously in some stage of latency is a complex hypothesis and hardly perceptible from the eyes of mere common mortals as we commonly perceive ourselves. The progressive process in Buddhism is the struggle for enlightenment over delusion, a continuous and eternal cycle with neither sudden nor finite ending (See “On Shakyamuni”). With its triptych-like, three dimensional construct of death (and linear, cyclic and progressive attributes) Buddhism contains both subjective, ever-changing properties while also encompassing the static, non-variable objective or constant notion of the inherent dignity or integrity of all forms of life. One of the most central teachings of the Lotus Sutra is the absolute equality of all beings. The Lotus Sutra unlike many other Buddhist teachings “affirms that all people, regardless of station, gender or background, are potentially Buddhas” (See “What Is The Real Difference”). It teaches an entirely non-discriminative view, based on the absolute respect for the individual. This brings me to what I hope will becomes the central focus on the topic of death. Instead of disowning death and viewing it as something that separates us from others, we should correctly position it within the larger context of life. This I believe will enable humanity’s greatest future progress. For who is to say we don’t exit the way we came in and that immediately or hopefully not too long thereafter, reenter in some alternate but consistent form with less than conscious memory and that this “memory” or “consciousness” includes our capacity to understand on some level that we are inherently “Buddhas” or “perfectly-endowed” just as we are? This indeed is a philosophy of death that accords with great hope. Stewart and Bennett conclude Americans can better understand and alleviate crosscultural obstacles by: 1. Exploring cross cultural bridges 47 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS 2. Fostering an attitude of cultural relevance where each culture is seen as possessing cultural integrity 3. Working toward self-understanding 4. Identifying facilitating and interfering factors 5. Developing cultural judgment and using cultural differences as resources for mutual benefit (Stewart and Bennett, 1994, pp.174-5). Examining some of Stewart and Bennett’s assessments of American cultural stereotypes, I would offer the hypothesis that Americans whose melting pot offers the greatest training ground are potential role models for achieving such objectives of cross-cultural understanding in the future. This understanding will likewise broaden our potential to more correctly posit death and may further contribute to the acceptance in the future of many traditional Buddhist notions as both scientifically sound and measurable. With the desire on the part of Americans to explore new frontiers, the “rugged” selfreliant individual (Steward and Bennett, p. 137) to make new friends or American tendency toward “friendly optimism” (Stewart and Bennett, p. 150), to understand ourselves, (the “selfrealization” and “self-actualization” (Stewart and Bennett, p. 130), as exemplified by Americans’ rising acceptance of New Age philosophies), Americans, perhaps more than others, have an inherent motivation to seek differences and find benefit therein. Stewart and Bennett’s observation that as Americans, we tend to look at what interferes with our views and then use this to ascertain what works for us, (Stewart and Bennett, pp. x, 130,) a kind of pursuit of happiness plus individualism plus practicality is the very characteristic which may facilitate our inclination to discover how to utilize cultural diversity and create mutual benefit for humanity. American ethnocentrism, (although as Stewart and Benefit point out is “characteristic not only of 48 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Americans but of most peoples of the world” (Stewart and Bennett, p. 3) tamed to include an appreciation for one’s own culture together with a sense of gratitude and obligation for the contributions of those of others can when coupled with Americans’ desire to create more “joy” for ourselves and our surroundings (the “pursuit of happiness” (Stewart and Bennett, p. 135) provide a viable framework for approaching both cultural diversity and new ideas about the oneness of life and death and all phenomena as posited by Buddhism. Skepticism is a virtue in Nichiren Buddhism. Acceptance of any teaching is dependent upon observable, actual proof in one’s environment and independent of any belief, a notion which appeals to Americans’ sense of pragmatism (Stewart and Bennett, p. 32, 140). Moreover, it is Stewart and Bennett’s acknowledgement of Americans’ recent “willingness to immerse themselves in groups” (Stewart and Bennett, pp. 144-45) that together with the American phenomenon of being a nation with the largest population of cultural diversity can encourage the quest for solutions to the challenge of creating respect and harmony amidst cultural variance and disparity. This richness of American experience can bring hope toward a new consciousness that would include positive transformational consequences for all of humanity, a kind of progress which has been hitherto unseen. The Buddhist philosophy known as Nichiren Buddhism as practiced by S.G.I. (Soka Gakkai International (Soka Gakkai standing for Value Creation Society) is dedicated to a common vision of a better world through the empowerment of the individual and the promotion of peace, culture and education. Its worldview embraces the teachings of the 13th-century Japanese priest Nichiren and his interpretation of the Lotus Sutra (See “About Us”) and is a dynamic philosophy grounded in the realities of daily life. Unlike many other newer religions, it has flourished in particular in the United States. Its history dates back to 1960, “With 12 million 49 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS members in 192 countries, SGI is the world’s largest Buddhist lay group and the largest, most ethnically diverse Buddhist school in America, where its members gather in 2,600 neighborhood discussion groups and nearly 100 community centers nationwide” (Strand, 2008). By examining some of the diverse traditions and social constructs surrounding death, while engaging in personal reflection and self-transformative activity, with a scrutinizing discern for that which supports and sustains life and all its manifestations, we can develop a cultural judgment that utilizes cultural diversity to encompass empathy, respect for others and hope for the future, enhancing our view of both life and death. SGI President Ikeda explains, “All people are equally endowed with the inherent capacity to respect others, and this capacity is a source of inexhaustible hope because it embodies a universal truth that transcends the specifics of religious creeds. The respect offered by Buddhists to other people is offered in virtue of their humanity, without regard to their religious belief or creed. Nichiren described this with a poetic metaphor, saying that when we bow to a mirror, the figure in the mirror bows back reverentially at us. This is the true spirit of Buddhism, and yes, it is reason for great hope” (Strand, 2008). The Death of Control Culture Gives Birth to Integrative Culture and the Creative Life Tyrannical authority leads people to darkness (Ikeda, 2010a, p. 169). Intimidation and arrogance kill culture (Ikeda, 2010a, p. 164). Control Culture, according to Slater, is concerned with “mastery” that leads to “rigid mental and physical compartments, a static version of the universe, a deep dependence on authoritarian rule, a conviction that order [is] something that [has] to be imposed, and a preoccupation with combat (Slater, 2010, p.10). It is the antithesis of all that is beauty and hope in life. It is the people who nurture and spread an appreciation for art and culture who play the most significant role in the creation of a culture of life and peace. 50 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Artists and those who appreciate art and culture, as well as people engaged in creative inquiry, are the influential and indispensible thinkers and leaders of the twenty-first century. It is often against a backdrop of arrogance and authoritarianism, however, that the greatest art flourishes, for it is born of the expressive and relentless cry for liberation by humanity that parallels the very struggle of death (self-renewal) and birth or (the descent of life into self). In Discussions on Youth, Ikeda writes, “It is through the flowering of culture and art that each individual’s true humanity transcends national boundaries, time periods and all other distinctions.” (Ikeda, 2010a, pp. 170-172) It is diversity that symbolizes and enables the uniqueness and creativity that inspire art and culture. Slater cites Alfonso Montuori, pointing out, “there is a strong tendency for people to seek a pretended homogeneity and a totalitarian structure, while attacking diversity at every turn…Ironically, this seems to be the worst possible way to deal with a crisis” (Slater, 2010, p. 18). It is the struggle to create often in the midst of domination and tyranny that can give rise to humanity’s greatest transformation in consciousness. At the conclusion of Homeland Earth, Morin makes several conclusions based on what little we know of our existence and how it might have come into being: We are lost in the cosmos. Life is alone in the solar system and possibly in the galaxy. Earth, life, humanity, and consciousness are the outcome of a peculiar adventure, whose progress has been marked by amazing fits and starts. Humanity is a member of the community of life, even though human consciousness stands alone; 51 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Humanity's common destiny, which is typical of the Planetary Era, is inseparable from the common destiny of the Earth (Morin, 1999, p. 45). It is this new knowledge, Morin explains, that enlightens us about our earthly destiny while at the same time leading us to a new ignorance, and “although a part of this ignorance will be lifted,” yet another, will forever elude us due to the limitations of the human mind (Morin, 1992). He proposes that “similarly, new certainties lead us to a new uncertainty” (Morin, 1999, p. 45). We know where we come from but not what we come from and the universe seems neither simple, nor normal or obvious (Ibid). Like Slater’s “drowning in trash” analogy which admonishes us to understand its true cause, “our economic systems’ demands [for] perpetual growth” (Slater, 2010, p. 20), Morin likens earth to “a small cosmic garbage can, “reminding us that although [ours is] a complex planet, nonetheless, “a garden – our garden.” “It is fragile, rare, precious, because rare and fragile.” Because Morin’s view is that overall, “all that exists has come into being within chaos and turbulence and must hold out against huge destructive forces…” and has, like the cosmos, “organized itself through disintegration,” so too, he concludes “has our consciousness.” Hence, each human being is seen as a “cosmos of dreams, yearnings, and desires” who are communicating in “societies scattered throughout the globe.” It holds true therefore that we are in an evolution in human consciousness and that “the destiny of humanity has become a collective concern” where human beings are beginning to “make sense and help us recognize our Homeland Earth” (Morin, 1999, p. 45). Although everywhere I look, there is evidence of death and destruction, in that same dynamic I find the perpetual energy for self-renewal and creativity. Creativity is innovative; it is not imitation. It is produced by a mind that seeks originality and has an understanding of history. 52 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS History appears to be guided by crisis, yet it is also guided by creative forces that can transform crisis into opportunity. This creativity comes from the depths of the heart. It comes from life and life’s inherent struggle to transform itself. It steps out of the logical and rational and into the realms of spontaneity and intuition. It requires courage and tenacity. An eternally spiraling process, it belongs to no one yet it is born of everyone. It is creativity that enriches, affirms and gives meaning to the terms life and death. Tolstoy states, “Bodily death destroys the body that is limited in space, and the consciousness that is limited in time, but it cannot destroy the special relation of each being to the world, which is the basis of life” (Tolstoy, 1934, p. 116). If creativity is born of struggle and transformation, then likewise, wouldn’t any significant creative inquiry? How then can I open the door to such creativity? By opening the door to my own life, that is more difficult than opening the doors to all the mysteries of the universe. Alfonso Montuori explains creativity, by not explaining. “The new paradigm is not of a static nor of a decaying universe, but of a creative universe…The interconnected, dynamic, changing phenomena science is exploring requires a different way of thinking, and cannot be addressed solely by analysis” (Alfonso Montuori, 2011 p.417). Elementary school teacher and Buddhist philosopher, Josei Toda’s “thesis on the philosophy of life states that the universe is life itself, and that life, together with the universe, is eternal and everlasting. He also explained that if we liken the universe to an ocean, our lives are like the waves that appear and disappear on the surface of that ocean — the waves and the ocean are not separate entities. In other words, the waves are but part of the ocean’s ongoing activity.” (Ikeda, 2003, p. 32) If we can see our lives in this way, nothing can stifle our birthright to live as creative beings. There is no death or destruction; there are no tsunamis. There is only a 53 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS continuum of ebb and flow…a free flowing exchange between intake and outpour of creative energy and expression. Death and War, Learning to Value the Inner-Universality of Life from Mothers The previously mentioned concept of “integrative spirituality” introduced by Slater that we’ve all been part of a mother’s body is preceded by the very clever analogy that "No one except a Siamese twin has ever been part of another male body, but everyone has been part of a mother's body" (Slater, 2010. p. 157). This suggests a kind of internal universality that offers profound meaning to the notion of war. Ikeda wrote five years prior to turn of the century, The nineteenth-century “cult of progress,” brought a feverish devotion to enhancing the structures of society and the state, the delusion that this alone is the path to human happiness. It is to the extent that we have skirted the fundamental issue of how to reform and revitalize individual human beings that our most conscientious efforts for peace and happiness have produced the opposite result. This, according to many spiritual thinkers is the central lesson of the twentieth century (Ikeda, 1995, para. 14). It has been estimated that over one hundred million people died violent deaths the first half of the 20th century most of these due to advances in science and technology which produced a dramatic increase in the lethality of weapons (Ikeda, 1995). In the “Vicissitudes of the Idea of Progress,” chapter two of Piotr Sztompka’s The Sociology of Change, talks about the demise of the idea of progress after the twentieth century with observers repeatedly calling it “the dreadful century” (Sztompka, 1993, p. 33). Later, in Chapter 5, Modernity and Beyond, he mentions the “indisputable fact that the number, scale, viciousness and destructiveness of wars in the modern 54 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS era is beyond anything known in the past” and illustrates its causes as the profit-making emphasis on advanced warfare technology, the divisive consequences that lead to nation-state conflicts, and a focus on “rational efficiency” which “degrades people into dispensable objects” and “suspends moral considerations that could otherwise have prevented mass carnage” (Sztompka, p. 81). Seminal in the thinking of Buddhism is the determination to devote one’s life to helping others overcome suffering and terror and through dynamic action create an indestructible realm of security and comfort amid the stark realities of society (Ikeda, 1995). This determination is based on a deep sense of compassion compatible with that of a mother for her child and at the most primordial root of experience of all life. There is perhaps no greater comfort or sense of security as that which can be experienced by a child with its mother. American political scientist and noted authority on security issues, former senior member of the National Security Council, Michel Charles Oksenberg (1938 – 2001) said: If people live in a spiritual void, they will experience insecurity. They will not know stability. They will not feel at ease. The nations and states in which they live will therefore not be offering their people true security. Real security requires that we consider more than just the security of the state but that we also include in our considerations the security of cultures and individual human beings (Ikeda, 1995, para. 16). "Human revolution," (term coined by Josei Toda, second president of the Soka Gakkai, literally value-creation society, and organization of lay Buddhists founded in 1930 Japan) is the foundation for this endeavor and means “the inner reformation of the individual and the resultant renewal and invigoration of life and daily living” (Ikeda, 1995). 55 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS “To end the human institution of war, [as an]…inevitable, ‘part of human nature’--we must establish respect for the inviolable dignity of human life as the core value of our age. Rather than turning away from the staggering scale and depth of misery caused by war, we must strive to develop our capacity to empathize and feel the sufferings of others” (Ikeda, 1995). At the anniversary of the 60th year of the end of WWII, Daisaku Ikeda wrote an article about war and the power of empathy, and in particular of this capacity in mothers. In it, he said: “… [I]t is ordinary people--it is especially mothers and children guilty of no crime whatsoever--who bear the brunt of the appalling physical and mental suffering wrought by war. So many of the young men of my generation were incited by the militarist government to march proudly into battle and give their lives. The families left behind were praised for their sacrifices to protect the home front and as "military mothers"--a term deemed to carry high honor. But, in reality, what a devastating tumult of pain, grief and misery swirled in the depths of their hearts! A mother's love, a mother's wisdom, is too great to be fooled by such empty phrases as ‘for the sake of the nation.’ One incident from that time is still vivid in my mind. It happened one early morning in the spring of 1945, after a sleepless night taking cover from the air raids that were by that point a regular occurrence. Around dawn, about a hundred B-29s flew away, heading into the eastern horizon. Though they were the planes of the enemy, they were a magnificent sight, and I watched them until they were tiny dots in the sky. Just then someone shouted, "Hey! What's that?" Something was falling from the sky. It was a parachute. A plane must have been hit, and now an enemy 56 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS soldier was dropping towards us. The soldier landed in a field some 200 or 300 meters away. From what I heard later, as soon as he landed, a group of people ran up to him and began beating him with sticks. Someone also dashed up with a Japanese sword, threatening to kill him. Beaten nearly senseless, he was eventually led away by the military police, with his arms tied behind his back and his eyes blindfolded. When I got back and told my mother what had happened, she said, ‘How awful! His mother must be so worried about him.’ My mother was a very ordinary woman, in many ways the product of the era in which she was born and raised. But looking back, I am struck by her ability, as a mother, to empathize with the sufferings of a fellow mother--an ‘enemy’ mother separated by thousands of kilometers of physical distance and by the high walls of political ideology” (Ikeda, 2005). McCarthy calls attention to the fact that women have been active as leaders of the peace movements, and in ecology and environmental movements as well maintaining the focus on "imperialistic" practices in the U.S. and other Western scientific establishments (McCarthy, 1996, p. 90-91). Like Slater and McCarthy, Ikeda acknowledges women’s inherent capacity as models for peace: “Women are, in my view, natural peacemakers. As givers and nurturers of life, through their focus on human relationships and their engagement with the demanding work of raising children and protecting family life, they develop a deep sense of empathy that cuts through to underlying human realities” (Ikeda, 2005). A desire for peace is deep-rooted and inborn in mothers who make for powerful protagonists in the effort to end war and violence. It is 57 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS mother’s voices, concerns and wisdom that must be brought to the forefront in all spheres of society (Ibid). Mothers more than anyone else possess the great responsibility for leading others toward extending and deepening the solidarity that grows from empathetic recognition of our shared humanity. It is out of a desire to protect ourselves and those we love from harm, so imbedded in the hearts of mothers that we can transform the twenty-first century of war into a century of life (Ikeda, 2005). Jason Goulah, DePaul University Director of World Language Education wrote in an article for Peace Studies Journal last year, “…dialogic interaction among humans, culture and the environment prohibits us from abstracting the Other, whether it be other human beings, other cultures, or the natural environment. When we seek to value the subjectivities of the Other through dialogue, we thereby “concretize” them, which is the first step in humanitarian competition” (Goulah, 2010, p. 8). “Humanitarian competition” is an idea set out by the founding president of the Soka Gakkai, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944) in 1903 that ensures competition be conducted firmly on the basis of humane values bringing forth a synergistic reaction between humanitarian concerns and competitive energies (Ikeda, 2009, p. 20). From this place, through the concept of esho funi, [Buddhist concept of oneness of self and environment] when we engage in a win-win humanitarian competition, we foster self-betterment by working for the betterment of the Other—what Ikeda calls “creative coexistence” (Goulah, 2010, p. 8 citing Ikeda, 2002, xxxiii). Ikeda argues, “A truer, fuller sense of self is found in the totality of the psyche that is inextricably linked to ‘other’” (2001, p. 41, Goulah, 2010), p. 7). Slater also talks about the “decaying glory of warfare” as implied by an understanding of life’s sustainable network. “Irrelevant to a woven world and useless against terrorism (as Russia, 58 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Israel and the United States have all been learning the hard way), war has become obsolete” (Slater, 2010, p. 125). He points to the correlation between women gaining power in the world and a prevailing opposition to war and clarifies that democracy spreading over the globe has meant “people are having more and more say over whether they want to be killed or not.” Indicating that “war only persists where women are still oppressed and authoritarian governments prevail” he does however note the United States as an exception to this rule (Slater, 2010, p. 132). One might also argue that the United States with its emphasis on prisons and harsh immigration laws represents a kind of authoritarian, economically based war against young minorities, in particular black youth and Latinos and other minority groups respectively. “Today most people in the world view war the way we view crime,” states Slater. “They don’t think it’s going to disappear, any more than we think crime will disappear, but when fighting breaks out people expect someone to do something about it” (Slater, 2010, p. 132). In other words, war is increasingly being viewed as unacceptable. He cites English novelist, Rose Tremain from The Way I Found Her: “It means the rage went on when the war ended, does it?” “Yes. Of course the rage went on. We’re not just in a war we don’t understand. We’re in a life we don’t understand.” Slater appears to be pointing to the not so obvious correlation between anger that causes war and a misinterpretation of the self as disconnected from others. Citing American biologist, Lynn Margulis, best known for her theory on the origin of eukaryotic organelles as well contributions to endosymbiotic theory and son and science writer, Dorian (also son of astronomer, Carl Sagan): “Life did not take over the globe by combat, but by networking.” (Slater citing Margulis and Sagan, 2010, p. 125) 59 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS As I am writing this, and learning about Margulis for the first time, a more than mystical symbiotic synchronicity is taking place for I am informed that she passed away today just three hours ago (See Lynn Margulis). There can be no coincidence as I feel she would confer. Morin offers a thought-provoking statement in the prologue of Homeland Earth: “The founders of the cultures and societies of homo sapiens are the victims of a systematic genocide on the part of humanity, which has, in this way, made progress in parricide” (Morin, 1999, p. 2). War, as seen as a means of making progress, in obvious ways, economically for both sides and not so obviously nor realistically, in the “winning,” is perhaps the greatest error in human behavior and a form of killing not only oneself but one’s own parents. Ikeda posits that the human fallacy behind committing acts of violence against one’s fellow beings is the inability to see one’s own humanity in another. This also has roots in a more basic misconception of life as finite and confusing the abstractions and differences of ideology with an opportunity to reunite with people whom we may suddenly find are our enemies. In fact, Buddhism postulates that those we meet and even in war zones could have once been close family members. The Buddhist law of causality makes such notions not only possible but part of the more complex symbiotic “karmic nature” of relationships (Aitmatov & Ikeda, 2009). According to Ikeda, ideological abstractions can even overwhelm the ties of love that exist between parent and child. In his dialogue with Chingiz Aitmatov, Aitmatov shares the infamous episode from the Stalinist era of Pavlik Morozov, a young boy who denounced his father to the Soviet authorities for his sympathies with kulaks (rich peasants resisting collectivization). His father was arrested and died in prison, and Pavlik himself was murdered by his outraged relatives. Yet, authorities venerated the son as a socialist youth hero and model, raising statues in his honor (Ikeda, 2009). 60 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS In a review of Daisaku Ikeda’s 2009 peace proposal, Jason Goulah discusses how Ikeda, drawing on the work of existentialist philosopher, Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973), explains that “an individual and societal ‘spirit of abstraction,’ the act of reducing the Other’s humanity and character into abstract concepts such as Communist, fascist, Zionist, fundamentalist and so on has wrought war, mammonism and, thereby, environmental degradation, climate change and the recent global economic meltdown” and “people wage war or otherwise denigrate individuals only after abstracting them to the point of neglecting their humanity” (Goulah, 2010, p. 3). In the same peace proposal, Ikeda writes, “…to the peasants of Siberia, whose love for humanity is so powerfully portrayed by Dostoyevsky in The House of the Dead, the political exiles in their midst were not bad people to be avoided and disdained, but neighbors. These peasants refused to treat the exiles as criminals, referring to them instead as ‘unfortunates’” (Ikeda, 2009 p. 6). Shortly after World War II, the French philosopher Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973) wrote an essay entitled "The Spirit of Abstraction, as a Factor Making for War." The abstractions made as a result of war are “ultimately without substance” even though the ability to develop and manipulate abstract concepts is indispensable to human intellectual activity. When compared to “the idea of the ‘human being,’ they are in some sense a form of fiction (Ikeda, 2009, p.2). Per Ikeda, “Marcel uses the term "the spirit of abstraction" to define the essentially destructive process by which our conceptions of things are alienated from concrete realities.” The “world of concrete reality” is that whether we are women or men, Japanese or American, older or younger, born here or there, the more we take care to really observe people, the more we can recognize them as distinct and unique (Ikeda, 1992, 2009, p. 2). Without taking these distinctions fully into account, “any discussion of ‘human beings’ or "humanity" enables abstract concepts that begin 61 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS to take on a life of their own (Ibid). It likewise becomes only possible to participate in war if we reduce the individual character and humanity of the opponent to an abstract concept such as fascist, communist, Zionist, Islamic fundamentalist, etc. As Marcel puts it: [A]s soon as people ... claim of me that I commit myself to a warlike action against other human beings whom I must, as a consequence of my commitment, be ready to destroy, it is very necessary from the point of view of those who are influencing me that I lose all awareness of the individual reality of the being whom I may be led to destroy. In order to transform him into a mere impersonal target, it is absolutely necessary to convert him into an abstraction’ (Marcel, 1952, 117 as cited by Ikeda, 2009, p. 2). The spirit of abstraction is not “value-neutral” and is required to justify war (Ikeda, 2009, p.2) and per Marcel is invariably accompanied by a "passional character" of rejection and resentment (ressentiment) that brings about "depreciatory reduction” rationalizing the consideration of people as valueless and inferior, and even something harmful to be eliminated. (Marcel, 1952, 116 referenced by Ikeda) Ikeda concludes, “People, in the fullness of their humanity, no longer exist” (Ikeda, 2009, p.2). Citing Marcel, Ikeda writes “‘the spirit of abstraction is essentially of the order of the passions, and ... on the other hand, it is passion, not intelligence, which forges the most dangerous abstractions’” (Marcel, 1952, 3). It was for this reason Ikeda explains, “that Marcel considered the entirety of his work as a philosopher to be ‘an obstinate and untiring battle against the spirit of abstraction’" (Marcel, 1952, 1) (Ikeda, 2009, p. 2). In conclusion, there are deeply meaningful implications to be gathered from a new understanding of life’s “inner universalism” that have everything to do with our being able to 62 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS view war as entirely obsolete. A human-based commonality shared by virtue of the simple fact that we are all born of mothers, when coupled with a “sensitivity” to the “concrete realities” of “where we are now… a deep love for “our own patch of land” that enables a bigger leap of empathy to the vast and complex phenomena of life…” can together lead to understandings that render passé and worthless the “reductionist” kind of thinking that promotes acts of violence against one’s fellow beings. Adding to Marcel’s “abstraction of the Other” the notion one may be killing one’s own parents of the remote past as implied by the Buddhist doctrine of eternal life and dependent causality, rendered increasingly plausible by research and findings of scientists like Lynn Margulis, we end up with a new empathy stemming from a “keen sensitivity to one’s daily life and life itself,” whereby connection, “through a scrap of fabric, with the lives of farmers working in mulberry fields in distant China…” becomes entirely possible (Ikeda, 2009, p. 8). For a person who has developed these capacities, war is abhorrent and the only battlefield is the one where one fights from within over one’s own inability to comprehend life (Ikeda, 1992, 1995, 2005). In Josef Derbolav and Daisaku Ikeda’s 1992 dialogue published in the book entitled, Search for a New Humanity, Ikeda offers a remedy for the war besetting our age: To set out from immediate and concrete realities, creating with every step new neighbors in an expanding network of human solidarity--this is the true path to peace. Without the steady accumulation of such efforts, the ideal of a perpetual peace will remain forever out of reach. To share with others this kind of awareness and sensitivity--unpoisoned by what Marcel calls the spirit of abstraction--is to nurture and cultivate inner universality. This is the most effective antidote to the pathologies of our age. It is our most certain guarantee 63 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS against the kinds of inversion in which people are sacrificed to ideology, all means being justified in the achievement of ends and the tangible present forgotten in the quest for a utopian future. I am confident that the key to bringing about an enduring era overflowing with humanity lies in the pursuit of such inner universality (Ikeda, 1992, p. 8). Death and Materialism A life-enhancing view of death requires a strong concept of self. As Bateson explains, “…a concept of self is pivotal in organizing experience, useful as an idea as long as it is not mistaken as a thing…The Western insistence on a separate self carries its own blindness, its own nonrecognition of necessary connection, its own inconsistencies. The very self we set out to affirm can become a hostage to fortune” (Bateson, 1994, p. 66). Viewing the value of “material things” in the face of death enables a deeper understanding and respect for life. In Education for Creative Living, philosopher and educator, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi wrote, “The less people recognize the value of their own lives, the more they overestimate material things…Should they fall seriously ill and have to spend their entire savings on medical treatment, they would likely become more acutely conscious of the preciousness of life” (Makiguchi, 1989, p.41). Makiguchi talks about the senseless pursuit of money one’s entire life rationalized by the idea that one is leaving it all eventually to one’s children and the illusion one’s children will then be happy and secure. “… [A]t present most people seem to operate on the premise that if you can’t take it with you, then at least your children can take it on. The rich continue to amass wealth as though happiness could indeed be endowed along with status 64 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS and property. Yet the more people stash away, the more it seems not enough, all because they have convinced themselves that their holding will magically translate into happiness for their children. This is an illusion. It is more often the case that leaving great wealth for one’s children results in their inheriting unhappiness rather than happiness. And the greatest irony of all is that the rich do not even enjoy what they do. Careful consideration beforehand would have brought the realization that the sheer meanness required to amass a fortune would just as surely get passed down to very unhappy children…What a waste of one’s possibilities” (Makiguchi, 1989, p.25). McCarthy sees the profound relationship between the material, the self and the social construction of things as a means of communication. “Material life, as we understand it today, has become inescapably semiotic; we consume products that serve as signs of things and, more importantly of ourselves. Our world of things exists more to communicate, to ‘say something,’ than to serve a practical need or function.” (McCarthy, (1996), p. 108) On that note, Slater points out that many foreigners “find it strange that Americans have elevated selfishness, discontent, and greed into our highest virtues, and that we seem pleased when we convert previously generous , considerate, and contented people to lives of competitive striving, status-seeking, and material accumulation” (Slater, 2010, p. 29). Stewart and Bennett explain how Americans tend to believe that the basic problems of the world are economic and that solutions are to be found in technology. With such ideology, “Subjective descriptions of experience, such as inspirations, dreams, and other products of altered consciousness, carry little weight” (Stewart and Bennett, 1991, pp. 120-21). 65 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Yet, with a correctly positioned understanding of life, particularly when faced with the moment of death, all becomes vain. No matter how much we accumulate, the fact is not a penny goes with us when we die. Death does not discriminate. All fame, power and riches are useless when confronting death. What is left is nothing but our “raw humanity, the actual record of what we have done, how we have chosen to live our lives” (Ikeda, see Words of Wisdom). I have often heard people who sit hospice will confer that it is not how much people recalled having accomplished or accumulated in their lives that seemed to affect whether or not they died peacefully but rather how much they felt they’d maintained quality relationships with others. It was only those who felt their relationships were left unresolved, where emotions remained unsettled, who because of such regrets, seemed to fear death and have anxieties about dying. I would conclude that for American culture to achieve an evolution toward a more meaningful consciousness, an historical awakening whose function entails a defying reevaluation of death is altogether necessary. Humanitarian Competition and Empathy Instead of the more often than not jungle-like dog-eat-dog competition so often typical of capitalistic free-enterprise, Bateson proposes a kind of egalitarian competition, (similar to the “humanitarian competition” proposed by Makiguchi) whereby a life devoted to taking “action to permit diversity” or which encompasses “the human capacity for cooperation” redefines the notion of achievement. “It would be interesting to review a range of celebrated achievement and value activities,” proposes Bateson, “asking which ones consist in competition for a share in a finite pie and which involve enlarging that pie – enriching the earth.” To this she adds the dilemma that we continue to be unable to provide adequate care for the elderly, our parents not to 66 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS mention, the young, “our children to whom we must entrust the future, so it is no wonder we mistake the planet that represents both source and destiny for a shopping mall” (Bateson, p. 140). Empathy has been proven to be one of the characteristics of successful learners. According to one researcher (B.F. Jones, 1990,) "successful students often recognize that much of their success involves their ability to communicate with others … they are also able to view themselves and the world through the eyes of others. This means … examining beliefs and circumstances of others, keeping in mind the goal of enhanced understanding and appreciation. Successful students value sharing experiences with persons of different backgrounds as enriching their lives" I am currently looking into a program for my seven year old daughter’s school called “Roots of Empathy” for Kindergarten through eighth grade, which began in 1996 as a pilot, reaching 150 children in the Toronto District School Board. Delivered in English and French in urban, rural, and Aboriginal and remote communities, it currently has 58,000 children participating across Canada, in approximately 2,350 classrooms. In 2007, it was launched in Seattle and this month in Edinburgh, Scotland. Noteworthy in recalling the power of parents in matters of peace, at the heart of the program is a volunteer local infant and parent who visit the classroom every three weeks over the school year. A trained Roots of Empathy instructor coaches students to observe the baby's development and to label the baby's feelings. The objective is for children to develop “emotional literacy” and once they are more competent in understanding their own feelings and the feelings of others, are therefore less likely to physically, psychologically and emotionally hurt each other through bullying and other cruelties. Consensus building and social inclusion activities teach children how to challenge cruelty and injustice. Founder, Mary Gordon, says “it is through our children that we can go beyond the frontiers of 67 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS science and technology to explore the recesses of the human heart. We have managed to harness the power of the wind, the sun and the water, but have yet to appreciate the power of our children to effect social change" (See “Roots of Empathy”). Slater says women tend to be more future-oriented than men. “They are more concerned with issues that will affect their children as they grow – education, health care, the environment, equal opportunity” (Slater, 2010, p. 201). Bateson prescribes “admitting empathy” as an “acceptable form of learning” not only for poets and therapists but as a “legitimate, conscious discipline” for manufacturers and politicians. “We will not arrive at the point of treating the planet with respect until we are able to treat all the members of our own species with respect. In the same way, we will not be able to treat the natural world with respect as long as we lie to ourselves about ourselves, so it will be important to become accustomed to the reality of death” (Bateson, p. 141). Peripheral Vision to see the Multiple Worlds of Others Bateson sees understanding and construction in meaning as the web of shared ideas of many minds. This enables what she calls “peripheral vision” where “…clusters of human beings have constructed alternative visions to be passed on, often reshaping them in the passing” (Bateson, 1994, pp. 52-53). She proposes a compelling question: We live, more than any previous generation, in an era where these visions meet, each potentially compensating for the blind spots of the other. If we can find ways of responding as individuals to multiple patterns of meaning, enriching rather than displacing those traditional to any one group, this can make a momentous difference to the well-being of individuals and the fate of the earth. 68 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS What would it be like to have not only color vision but culture vision, the ability to see the multiple worlds of others (Ibid)? To understand death it will be necessary to look at both scientific and cultural constructs from multiple perspectives and thereby render transparent the more integrative views of life and death to discerning those which lead to higher planes of perception, thought and communication. Death Education If as McCarthy affirms, “knowledge is culture” and it is desirable to seek "the objective and impersonal character of science," then in relation to the subject of death, can there exist "a general science of humankind with its rationalist assumptions” with an application of science that serves for human betterment? Is there a universal understanding to be ascertained regarding death? Are all the various possible theories and perspectives merely approximating universal ideas? Is there a greater "truth" amongst the many "competing models for disciplinary knowledge and practice?" How might one add to the unfinal "situated knowledges" by "being in the culture while scrutinizing it" (McCarthy, 1999, pp. 86, 108, 111)? If communication is the object and dialogue its highest art, then the conclusions drawn from this process must ultimately come from the expansiveness of the people's lives who are engaged in that communication; lives free of all dogma, prejudice and ego, sensitive to differences and capable of fully penetrating and transforming even such cultural distinctions. A philosopher from Harvard University, Josiah Royce, (1855-1916) declared that reform in matters such as attachments to distinctions, ethnic, national and other "must come, if at all, from within..."(Daisaku Ikeda, 1996b, p. 341). Through inner transformation and a desire to open one's heart to another, language will ultimately expand its potential for cultural universality in the future. Out of a deep desire to respect human life and one another, human beings will 69 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS ultimately uncover and realize more and more our commonalities and therein discover a more global and universal means of expressing those through verbal as well as non-verbal communication. Bateson would undoubtedly concur. She points out how “Preoccupied with schooling, most research on human learning is focused on learning that depends on teaching or is completed in a specified context rather than on the learning that takes place spontaneously because it fits directly into life.” She proposes an approach to pedagogue where teachers appreciate how much their pupils already know and help “bring the structure of that informal knowledge into consciousness. Students would then have the feeling of being on familiar ground, already knowing much about how to know, how knowledge is organized and integrated. This might be one way for schooling to assume the flavor of learning as homecoming: learning to learn, knowing what you know, cognition recognized, knowledge acknowledged” (Bateson, 1994, pp. 205-6). Knowing What vs. How (Steward/Bennett & Bateson) and Cultural Variants on the Ill, the Aged, the Convalescing, and on Birth, Coma and Personhood (Bateson) Stewart and Bennett look first at the deep culture, or assumptions and values in cultural patterns, particularly as they relate to Americans. They explain that deep culture is the “knowing what” (or “about”) whereas the procedural culture is the “knowing how,” which according to them “incessantly impinges upon the constellation of American assumptions and values” (Stewart and Bennett, 1991, 149). It is perhaps difficult enough for any culture to know the how of death not to mention the what. Yet, Bateson finds words to express it so beautifully: “The body’s truths are often concealed, so it is not always easy to learn about birth or sex or death, or the curious and paradoxical relationships between 70 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS them. We keep them separate and learn about them on different tracks, just as we learn separately about economics and medicine and art, and only peripheral vision brings them back together. Experience is structure in advance by stereotypes and idealizations, blurred by caricatures and diagrams” (Bateson, 1994, p. 5). This becomes particularly significant when considering the language and communication surrounding death where actions and behavior are approached with masked emotions, thoughts and fantasies because Americans believe such feelings might be considered unseemly. Americans also abide by strong conventions to preserve a superficial friendliness in social interactions (Ibid) This same surface cordiality together with a tendency to be impervious to the environment, along with an ethnocentrism that views only self as process and considers one’s values, assumptions, and behavioral norms as central to all reality, can easily translate into American’s tendency to ennoble their own culture while degrading that of others (Ibid). The ramifications of this ignoring, diminishing and/or discriminating against others likewise extend to the sick, the elderly and the dying. Moreover, linked to the values of individualism and control, American culture lacks a social role for the sufferer and “Americans perceive aging as a progressive loss of function” resulting in the narrowing with age of available social roles based on functionality (Stewart and Bennett, 1991, p. 112). Stewart and Bennett explain how this loose application of Darwinism with only the fittest individual commanding a place in society, viewing all others as unfit for functional roles has affected American’s concept and treatment of the convalescing, the aged and those in hospice (Stewart and Bennett, 1991). The American spirit of self-reliance as advocated by Ralph Waldo Emerson has caused many “to search for autonomy, self-actualization and personal growth in the mythic desire to 71 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS save frontier towns single-handedly from outlaw bands” but more commonly as an avoidance of dependence (Stewart and Bennett, p. 137). Conversely, Latin Americans, Chinese and Japanese have strong attachments to family and dependence on others not only strengthens relationships but broadens the definition of self. Dependence is seen by the Japanese as a virtue and Chinese parents take pride in being supported by their children (Stewart and Bennett, p. 138). Additionally, Stewart and Bennett describe the social role of illness in the Colombian mestizo Aritama culture where sick people enjoy a valued status, their disease standing for a neighbor's ill will (Stewart/Bennett, 1991, pp. 109-110). Bateson moreover tells of many societies which “provide niches for visionaries and schizophrenics, the ill and the handicapped” (Bateson, 1994, p. 165). I have personally witnessed this phenomenon in the traditional voodoo society in the village of Allada in the West African country of Dohomey (a.k.a. Bénin). The person who is ill becomes the concern of the entire village to be collectively "exorcized" or expelled of social ills in the form of spirits by means of ritual dance, a kind of cathartic release. Illness becomes a vehicle for community building and not social outcast as in Western society. By contrast, in modern Western society, more than anywhere else, we have therapeutic advanced technology that seems to far outshine medical ethics. Herein lies the increasing tendency to ignore the examination of all possible issues surrounding a dignified death for people in vegetative states. Moreover, greater value is often placed on a comatose individual than on large numbers of living children and the life of an unborn fetus can be deemed priority over an endangered mother. Bateson compares such “a willingness to offer full participation to all its people” as “criterion of a good society”, and though perhaps “trivial compared to life and death… emphasizing birth rather than participation leads to a society that supports the life of 72 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS patients in irreversible coma yet denies adequate education and health care to vast numbers of children.” (Bateson, 1994, pp. 62-63) She offers a thought-provoking skepticism about the notion of personhood: “As I write, debates about the rights of the unborn and of those impaired beyond all capacity for participation are ebbing and flowing in different places in the world. The recognition that personhood is socially constructed means that there is no single, self-evident answer to these debates” (Bateson, 1994, p. 62). Attitudes on Death, Aging, Illness and Birth (Hospice, Near-Death, Coma, and Conception) Buddhism holds the view that life reenters at conception but that it possesses its own will and karma to choose its particular parents. Collectively with its mother, it can further choose whether to live or die. There is no morality or judgment implied; this is simply dependent upon interdependent causality or dependent origination. If life is lacking in confidence or understands this is not the optimal time for it to manifest, then both mother and child through a kind of symbiotic interconnection will concurrently agree. In Buddhism, there is no concept of guilt as in dualistic Judeo-Christian belief systems. There is only the impartial law of cause and effect which is strictly governed by one’s thoughts (including one’s subconscious or unconscious thoughts) which then affect one’s words and deeds (Ikeda, 2003a). In terms of the elderly, beyond what medical science can do to prevent illness and preserve health, social customs and institutions are in need of reexamination, particularly in Western society, and these must come from a transformation in attitudes. “[B]y looking away from the realities of aging, sickness and death, we deny our own future; we reject our inevitable fate” (Ikeda, 2003, p. 39). 73 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Looking at Slater’s Chrysalis Effect, the conclusions are that if we can outgrow some of the rigidities of “Controller system,” and the technical skills we already possess, a spontaneous enhancement makes evolution possible. Then as we integrate “ever more dissimilar elements” we can create a new, more complex unity. "Evolution is a continuous breaking and forming to make new, richer wholes" states Slater (Slater, 2010, pp. 202-203). In place of viewing as separate, unrelated occurrences the phenomena of death, aging, illness and birth, we can perceive them all as part of a spiral process that continuously works to create higher forms of life. Contrary to common understanding of Buddhism’s view of transmigration as a “closed circuit within a single place” or a fixed cycle where man is always reborn as a man, and a dog as a dog, without ever being able to change their fundamental form, the Buddhist theory of cause and effect refutes such thinking. Rather, transmigration can be thought of as a “threedimensional, open cycle – a spiral that may lead upward or downward. As life undergoes the eternal repetitions of birth and death, it expands freely and dynamically, always charged with limitless potential for self-improvement” (Ikeda, 2003, p. 102). As we see ourselves in process, creating new patterns, fine-tuning for relevance and irrelevance, transforming to assimilate and recreate anew, we can perhaps better perceive everyone else’s similar processes as part of our own. I see a means for providing a practical application for the model of birth and death in Slater’s “becoming a verb” (Slater, 2010, p.68). Where together, we are continuously being born, and gradually succumbing to illness, aging, and dying, we can discover our symbiotic participation in life’s processes toward the regeneration and sustainability of life. Birth, Illness, Aging and Death as processes appearing to occur in chronological linear progression, are mandatory for all human beings and are routines over which it might seem we 74 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS have little or no control. Certainly, it makes sense that having a view of life as eternal enhances the quality of our existence and choices that affect all of life’s processes. Slater offers ideas which help posit the notion of life as infinite and connected to the universe. He also sees these as means for new self-concepts that can “change how we change” (Slater, 2010, pp. 82, 183). “The whole universe could be thought of as unfolding or expressing itself in its individual occurrences. This is perhaps what Blake [William Blake, 1757-1827] meant when he said: ‘If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite’” (Slater, 2010, p. 82). He offers Karl Pribram’s suggestion for children’s education to include studying about paradox and learning how to “keep several mental balls in the air at once” (Slater, pp. 73, 82-83). He also cites global capitalist and philanthropist, George Soros’ view of energy which has no basic “building blocks,” “only energy and this energy is always changing” (Slater, pp. 8283). This notion is similar to the Buddhist philosophy of Nichiren who depicted the ultimate, unchanging reality of ever-changing phenomena in the scroll and object of worship, the outward manifestation of our highest inner life, known as the Gohonzon (Ikeda, 2003, pp. 170-172). Bateson observes the natural tendency of viewing the recurrence of mothers giving birth to children even after having lost them at birth and implies a kind of analogy to Buddhist eternal interdependent causality. Filipina nurses, as observed by Bateson, whose baby had died within just a few hours of her giving birth, had a sympathy that was “firmly mixed with a cheerful certainty that [she] would be back next year with another one – as are so many women in the Philippines, whether the infant lives or dies” (Bateson, 1994, p. 18). Implicit in this reaction is the underlying rationale for the Buddhist teaching of interdependent causality as relates to mother and child. I have come to understand, in the realm of our three existences, past, present 75 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS and future, that mother and child are never separated, and even in death, a child who is meant to be with that mother will continuously come back to her, even if not in this lifetime. When in the past, I conceived and miscarried (at least three times and probably more if I were to include the many attempted and failed fertility procedures), I was told repeatedly as I recall being told during my eleventh week of one pregnancy, that there was no detectable heartbeat and therefore, no “viable” pregnancy. Yet, I still remained unconvinced that life did not exist inside of me. I remember watching the ultrasound screen with determination even though there had been no visible heartbeat for days. Suddenly some vibration-related little sparks appeared in some kind of regular rhythmic pattern in the form designated as the fetus that even the technician could not explain. I felt it had everything to do with a powerful desire to be reunited with my previously lost children. Whether or not this was an explainable phenomena or the technician’s desire to encourage me, I will never know. However, it is this same strength of determination, rooted in pure life force, a kind of willful energy that I believe propelled me later to hold fast to my desire to have a child. A stubborn refusal to have the prescribed D&C (dilation and curettage, the surgical procedure often performed after a first trimester miscarriage) caused me weeks later to hemorrhage and almost die, but I now see this struggle later served to further strengthen my determination in the future. Although, I was then forty-seven and this was yet another possible sign of future failure meaning that in this lifetime, it just wasn’t “meant to be,” I decided if I were eighty years old, I would never give up, no matter what, my dream to one day become pregnant and deliver a healthy child. Unrealistic as it sounds, it was this stubborn attachment to an impossible dream that I now see was the same will and energy that enabled my daughter to 76 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS stick with me, return and be conceived, birthed and the daughter of a then fifty-one year old mother. Aging and the Aged through the Lens of Integrative and Inclusive Culture Although this birth served as a foundation for the greatest gratitude I have yet to experience in my life, and remains an eternal source of encouragement to me about the ability to turn “poison into medicine,” (crisis into opportunity), there is still much more to be said about a society that continuously honors birth but ignores its aged. Where in many other societies, the elderly are considered wise and honored, in American society they are typically sent to nursing homes. Children are not willing to sacrifice their lives for their parents, although this would seem natural since that is in fact what they did for us. In some cultures, it is said that children are so devoted that when their aging parents lose their teeth the children will pre-chew their food (Lin, 2010). In cultures lacking written records of history, song and other forms of culture, older people are invaluable sources of information. “The repositories of knowledge are the memories of old people,” says UCLA professor of geography and physiology, Jared Diamond. “If you don’t have old people to remember what happened 50 years ago, you’ve lost a lot of experience for that society, from communal history to advice on how to survive a cyclone or other natural disaster. “ “Modern literacy means that we look up things in books or on the Internet — we don’t go ask an old person,” suggests Diamond. “Formal educational systems, such as UCLA, replace old people with highly trained professors for transmitting specialized knowledge” and lightningspeed technological advances “mean that the things that old people do understand got technologically outdated” (Diamond as cited by Lin, 2010). 77 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Viewing McCarthy and Slater’s assessments of discrimination of women in science and in general domination by Controller Culture, coupled with an understanding of “knowledge as power” sheds light on possible improvements to be made for the elderly. It follows that greater inclusion of elderly with recognition of their important contributions would lead to their being increasingly socially empowered and to their establishing a self-determined construct based on social opportunity and meaningful social function. As McCarthy shares an overview of science in the latter half of the 20th century challenging both its lack of definition and objectivity, she describes the feminist movement’s role against a backdrop of misuse and abuse by the scientific world. This active role has allowed for redefining knowledge and culture. She explains it simply: “…Those of us who engage in knowledge-production ... are, in fact, producers of culture" (McCarthy, 1994, p. 110). Culture for McCarthy is fluid. “Globally formed but locally grounded terrain of collective practices, particularly the prevailing forms of representation (images, symbols, ideas, discourses, meaning and signification, and to the prevailing metaphors in use in social science today – those of language and textuality. All of this is what ‘culture’ and cultural studies represent or represent – a kind of permanently ‘displace’ enterprise, like many of our world’s peoples experience” (McCarthy, 1994, p. 88). It is the aged, particularly in American culture who are often displaced and excluded from participation in society, denying their rights and destiny as producers of culture. Like Slater, who says, "For controllers knowledge is power, and it's important to them only the right people get access to that power," (Slater, 2010, p.102), McCarthy describes the difficulty of women entering into the science profession. Slater asserts that the “demotion of women is the foundation of the entire system. Controlling women is fundamental to Control 78 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS culture, and women have the lowest possible status where the control culture is dominant,” (Slater, p.11) adding: “Integrative culture is about embracing and integrating diversity, control culture…about eliminating it” (Slater, p.13). Eliminating diversity is an economic expedient determining much of the “who and what” in policies’ creation and implementation. What’s more, as Diamond points out, there's America’s Protestant work ethic, “which holds that if you’re no longer working, you’ve lost the main value that society places on you.” “Retirement also means losing social relationships, which, coupled with America’s high mobility, leaves many old people hundreds or even thousands of miles away from longtime friends and family” (Lin, 2010). The ideal of gerontology as a science should be to create a society where the elderly are able to live out their lives as they desire. It is a terrible thing when the aged feel cut off from their families and societies and often close their minds in response feeling compelled to isolate themselves. Like women (and children), the elderly have been marginalized throughout history (Ikeda, 2003, p. 40). Although the biological, psychological and social symptoms of aging appear separate, there is interaction which necessitates the cooperation of scientists from multi-disciplines. The calendar is not necessarily the best gage by which to measure a person’s age as a wide variety of physiological, psychological and spiritual factors play their parts. The shining eyes of an elderly person indicate a spiritual strength that enhances their physical vitality. Even atrophying organs and joints can be repaired in old age with exercise of one’s body as well as one’s mind not to mention a replenishing of one’s overall inherent life force. What is required is wisdom in old age to ensure well-being. This includes an awareness of how to prevent illness before it occurs and how to preserve health. 79 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS But it is not enough to merely look at how we can positively and actively face old age without accounting for two significant factors in the aging process: biological changes of the brain, autonomic nervous system, endocrine system and circulatory system; and the social customs and institutions (for example mandatory retirement age) that may result in changing lifestyles and the mindsets of the elderly. There is a brighter side for many however and although “fluid intelligence” (abstract problem solving) diminishes, “crystallized intelligence” (wisdom) increases (Ikeda, (2003) p. 41). Bateson suggests “learning through the life cycle” where ‘common sense’ is often assumed to be truly common and to precede specialization. This common sense, or more aptly put, revered wisdom is mastered only in old age. (Bateson, (1994) p. 175) Noted American gerontologist Dr. Belle Boone Beard, spent two years studying centenarians and concluded that mental abilities do not decline where people continually make use of their powers of memory and concentration (Pruner, 1975; Ikeda, 2003). Bateson moreover sees the aged, especially in the field of education, as a potential source of diversity that enhances the notion of lifelong learning, where more and more adults are returning throughout their lives to study. In this way, education is “less a preparation for life and more and more a part of it. Except in a few privileged colleges, diversity of age and experience has become the most important resource of the teacher, balanced and supplemented by diversity of ethnic background, so that classrooms can increasingly be orchestrated in ways that allow students to benefit from collaboration and teach one another, mining difference for insight” (Bateson, 1994, p. 176). She even suggests diversity can offer resilience to systems just as in ecology combining multiple crops has been used to reduce toxicity (Bateson, p. 176-177). She also proposes that senility 80 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS may be an artifact of a misdefinition, positioning a view of growth only in terms of plateaus without “milestones” over multi-dimensional growth (Bateson, p. 87). What to some appears as a loss of short-term memory or folly, to others is docile, charming and rich in wisdom. My great aunt now deceased often spoke from memory of past events with wondrous reverie and awe, but the unpleasant ones seemed to allude her as did any other unnecessary facts. Yet if you sought her advice, she had answers that only age and experience could reveal. Denial of Death and Aging We are all in a state of denial that we are somehow above dying and will live on forever. My mother an eighty-five year old perpetually youthful optimist, often jokingly remarks, “None of us are getting out of here alive, you know.” Bateson views every chapter of human experience as a different interpretation according to season and purpose, time and place and with a “minimum level of commonality for cultural viability” where “each has differences that can stimulate creativity although many aspects of life are still ‘excluded or denied’ namely, ‘Sex. Birth. Dying’” (Bateson, 1994, p. 172). She boldly emphasizes the necessity of becoming “more self-conscious and articulate” and finding “acceptable ways of talking about insights gained through such friction-producing situations” as “migration and travel” both of which are phenomena rapidly increasing at this juncture in history (Bateson, p. 23). Says Ikeda: “We refuse to recognize that we are in a state of physical decline and could die at any moment. It sounds terrible – no wonder we resist the thought” (Ikeda, (2003), p. 47). Yet, he concludes, a culture that treasures its elderly treasures humanity. 81 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS How then can we create a construct which prepares us for its inevitability and even contributes to our viewing it as future welcome event, giving it the greatest respect and reverence as we would hope to give life itself? Deconstructing the traditional view of “Death” Understanding Death through Understanding Life There are ways of looking at death that can not only give us greater direction in life, but best prepare us for that final moment. Just as though after a long well spent day, we can happily and with dignity and nobility, say to ourselves, “This has been a truly great life. I have no regrets. I am so glad to be able to rest and rejuvenate myself.” Moreover we can choose our greatest dream as though welcoming the happy dreams in our sleep: I think I would like to come back as a ____ and live in ____. Ikeda explains, “Death is inevitable, and so it makes sense to view death positively, as the point of departure for a new life. The first step in acquiring a positive view is to fully realize that life is eternal…eternity is an endless series of moments, and each individual moment contains eternity. Both eternity and the moment exist in our lives. Buddhism’s purpose is to enable us to realize this eternity within our present lifetime and live to the fullest” (Ikeda, 2003, p. 45). “If we do not fully understand the nature of our lives – the fleeting aspect as well as the eternal—we can neither live meaningfully nor die in peace” (Ikeda, p. 47). Being able to reframe “life” as a cycle composed of equally important parts (birth, aging, sickness, and death), and as possessing an integrity by virtue of its “self-creating coherence” (Slater, 2010, p. 79) is necessary if we are to move from the notion of birth as a superior function and death as its inferior. As Slater explains, “People are fond of saying we’re at the ‘top’ of the 82 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS food chain…The food chain is just that, a chain, with no top, no bottom, just a circle of life” (Slater, p. 78). Ikeda puts forth a very simple logic: “On a very practical level, death is necessary. If people lived forever, they would eventually start to long for death. Without death, we would face a whole new array of problems—from overpopulation to people having to live forever in aged bodies. Death makes room for renewal and regeneration” (Ikeda, see Words of Wisdom). Life “evolves spontaneously” in “formative causation” as Rupert Sheldrake suggests, where a process of “evolving habits” versus “laws of some godly authority” are at work and where all form organizes and regenerates itself in “morphic fields” that grow stronger with repetition. To apply this understanding to social behavior in everyday life, Slater explains “process-thinking” whereby “integrators” (who make “the ends the means and visa versa”) versus “controllers” (who see their environment as a thing to be shaped or molded) “are an interacting part of a moving, proactive environment – more like sailors or surfers than sculptors” (Slater, 2010, p. 80) (Sheldrake, 1981, passim). The rare and fragile aspect of life is what makes it precious. Humanity’s common destiny is linked to Earth’s destiny. Although we are alone in the galaxy, (at least in our present knowledge), this aloneness is a source of both enlightenment and uncertainty, an uncertainty that is never entirely lifted due to “the limitations of the human mind” (Morin, 1999, p. 42, Morin, 1992). All that exists has come about by a kind of death or disintegration and rebirth or regeneration of life. Morin’s is a philosophy of optimism viewing global communication as key to making sense and helping us recognize our common humanity as collective participants of “Homeland Earth” (Morin, 1999). 83 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Slater understands the limitations of people’s misperception of a finite world where contradictions surrounding the notions of “unlimited growth” have also led to our “drowning in trash.” Moreover, he points out, the implicit irony of unlimited growth whose words are symbolic “after all, of cancer.” However, he offers hope saying “the only thing that can be expanded more or less infinitely is communication – relationships, linkages. And that’s what Integrative Culture* is all about” (Slater, 2010, p. 20). (*term coined by Slater for valuing the synthesizing properties of the right brain such as perceiving the universe as whole and undivided, the world as energy and process and as democratic, egalitarian, cooperative and communicative; a world where women are valued and empowered and where there is spontaneous evolution (Slater, p. 15). In Integrated Culture, evolution is a process of “integrating ever more dissimilar elements,” breaking down as they attempt to “incorporate new, discordant components” then struggling to create a new unity; in other words, a continuous breaking and forming toward better wholes. In our current stage of evolution, he continues, “we’re like the child musician or artist trying to integrate her formal training with the spontaneity and feeling she once had. Integrators are trying to create a more complex unity out of the rich and dissonant elements introduced by the exuberant clashes of Controller Age” (Slater, pp. 202203). Death as a Means toward “Self-Transcendence:” A Return to the Grand Narratives of the Common People, Process as Progress (Slater, Sztompka, Bateson, Morin, & Buddhism) Gergen, as a traditional social scientist accustomed to “observing and reporting” “’facts of the matter,’ constructionist dialogues” but who finds himself increasingly working with therapists, organizational consultants, community change specialists, religious groups, and peace 84 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS builders, reminds us of the importance of taking action in the world. He explains that “one result of this sea-change for me has been to join in the creation of the Taos Institute, a community of scholars and practitioners working at the intersection between social constructionist theory and a range of societal practices” (Gergen, 2009 p. 156). Ikeda admonishes us in this year’s peace proposal: "To the extent that we become obsessively focused on external factors such as social systems and structures, people will be driven from their rightful role as the shapers and protagonists of history. The twentieth century bears bitter witness to this truth" (Ikeda, 2011, p. 7). Arguing like Philip Abrams (1982), for the complete integration of sociology and history, Sztompka concludes: “The ultimate moving force of history is therefore the dialectics of human agency, and the course of history is set by the dialectics of structuring” (Sztompka, 1993, p. 207209) Like Ikeda and the organization of SGI of which he is president, Sztompka sees the importance of individual actions not taken alone or structurally determined, but rather taken through collective organizations and movements who have a “‘self-transcending’ quality: they express human agency yet, by virtue of their active character, are quite often able to achieve unpredictable outcomes” (Ibid). Sztompka’s analysis of social movements and revolutions in history emphasizes the dynamics of spontaneous social change generated from below—(grass roots), as evidenced in the fundamental social change in Eastern Europe in recent history. In Society in Action: the Theory of Social Becoming, in the midst of postmodernist malaise, boredom, and disenchantment, Sztompka’s theory of social becoming expresses a hope for emancipation, a transformation which can lead to positive gains. His work registers a belief in progress, not easily gained, but whose attainment is entirely dependent upon the creativity and optimism of an active citizenry (See Sztompka, 1991, book description). 85 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS Slater equally emphasizes the importance of hands-on experience stating: "Experimental learning bypasses the ego and imbeds itself in the tissues of the body. We don't forget how to walk, swim, or ride a bike” (Slater, 2010, p. 102). One of my colleagues recently wrote, "I think there is a place we all meet beyond cultural differences. The more I get to know myself, to connect at a deep level with myself, the more I have learned to connect with others – Culture melts down, personality melts down… this is where two souls meet and touch each other...When one knows the circumstances and the culture she is in, it is easier for that person to express and be herself. I see culture as a layer to unfold in the search for who we really are” (Baba, 2011). I love the purity and spontaneity of such ideas that are expressed so poetically and full of heart. "Culture" and "cultivate" share the same linguistic root. We can cultivate the garden which is our own inner life and spirit while cultivating gardens of friendship in diversity. Yet, these are really all part of the same garden. What’s more, when “souls meet and touch one another” the ego is bypassed and the experience takes root in the soil of our second nature where relationships grow symbiotically, mutually supportive as in plant life. McCarthy describes women as belonging to a group of representatives of the new "feminist science,” one "grounded in the sociopolitical positions and experiences of women" who have vested interest in the understanding of politics from the "position of subjugated or marginalized peoples.” In our struggle to “articulate a history,” women find a voice in the collective experiences uncovering scientific accomplishments “lost” or “devalued” due to “subordination and oppression (McCarthy, (1996), p. 101).” The significance of botanical science and its implications for human beings or the patient and tedious scientific observation of slugs (Shepherd, 2007, p. 79), require thought processes beyond the traditional “prod, push, 86 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS dissect and extract” type of dominative science that has sought to control nature and people, in particular women. The metaphor in Slater’s Chrysalis Effect, the chrysalis itself, so visually and poignantly expresses the concept of transformation in crisis, but Slater also provides concrete examples in his chapter "On Warfare: The Decaying Glory" for the reintegration as equals those people who had been excluded but have emerged due to the post Civil Rights Movement when "walls came down" and "hate crimes became a legal concept." He explains it as a phenomenon to "tell old stories from the point of view of someone other than the traditional hero" or "the monster's point of view." He continues, "This trend may seem trivial, but it's symptomatic of a conceptual change -- a mental broadening -- that has taken other more dramatic forms” (Slater, p. 133-134). In the future, I would hope that the kind of education our children will receive will include more and more the kind of history which portrays the “unsung heroes and heroines,” the common people who overcome life’s greatest adversities and thereby serve as models for a new form of leadership in a world which is increasingly seeking a common model citizenry unbound by national, political and economic agendas. To face death, one’s own or that of another, is often to become a kind of “hero” or “heroine” particularly if one challenges and overcomes the monster of death with courage and noble purpose and takes actions one might otherwise put off. Death can bring a compelling awareness that this may be our last chance to express gratitude, resolve conflicting feelings in a relationship or to take some kind of action we were previously reluctant to take. In Talking about Death Won’t Kill You, Virginia Morris, speaks of the difficulty, particularly when sitting besides loved ones who are critically ill, of knowing the amount of time we have to do something: “Obviously we cannot wait to be ‘there’ at some neat boundary between ‘living’ and ‘dying.’ We 87 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS have to accept that we are already ‘there’ throughout an illness, focusing on life but also preparing for the possibility of death. We are there making choices and taking actions that affect how we will live and how we or our loved ones will ultimately die. Even with a person seeking a cure, and certainly when no cure is possible, we need to have our visits, write our notes, open our hearts, and be with him. We need to be aware always, that we simply don’t know what’s going to happen or when. And therefore we can’t wait. Certain things must not be put off, for there may be no second chances” (Morris, 2001, p. 222). Voicing our hearts as we confront the silent monster, Death, provides a means to unfold greater depths of meaning as we often discover when observing the similarity of processes between life and death. One of my favorite artists of all time is the creator of modern dance, Isadora Duncan (1877- 1927). She became a key influence for me, growing up as an artist and student of dance in the sixties when I first read her autobiography. I have long felt a deep affinity with her and her life story. Like her, I lived and danced in San Francisco and Oakland and even took a master class from her adopted daughters in Berkeley. My mother lived in Oakland and San Francisco and was born a year after her death. Besides my love for freedom, rebellion, and non-conformity and my passion for dance, modern and all forms of dance, I share with Isadora a common bond of the heart related to our loss of children. Throughout her career Duncan held the commercial aspects of public performance in disdain, “regarding touring, contracts and other practicalities as distractions from her real mission: the creation of beauty and the education of the young.” Both in her professional and private lives, Duncan flouted traditional mores and morality. She was bisexual and alluded to her Communist sentiments during her last United States tour, in 1922-23, waving a red scarf and 88 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS baring her breast on stage in Boston, as she proclaimed, "This is red! So am I” (Duncan, I. 1927) (See Isadora)! In her autobiography, My Life by Isadora Duncan, she wrote: “It is difficult to understand my strange state of mind. Was it that I was really in a state of clairvoyance, and that I knew that death does not exist – that those two little cold images of wax were not my children but merely their cast-off garments? That the souls of my children lived on in radiance, but always lived? Only twice comes that cry of the mother which one hears as without one’s self – at Birth and at Death – for when I felt in mine those little cold hands that would never again pres mine in return, I heard my cries – the same cries as I had heard at their births. Why the same – since one is the cry of supreme Joy and the other of Sorrow? I do not know why, but I know they are the same. Is it that in all the Universe there is but one Great Cry containing Sorrow, Joy, Ecstasy, Agony, the Mother Cry of Creation (Duncan, 1927 as cited in Barron, A., Barron, F., Montuori, 1997, p. 207?” In her ability to associate the cry of birth with the sorrow of death; the joy of life with its deepest sorrow is the ultimate example of a human being’s inherent capacity for transcendence, using the most painful processes toward progress via gradual but continuous evolving patterns, giving voice to a consciousness toward a higher and more endurable integration. Whether Slater, Sztompka, Bateson, or Morin, all likewise approach progress as an evolution of the highest order whose underlying implications are for a greater, more harmonious future. Slater’s Integrative Culture encourages viewing oneself and everyone else as a process in “a self-organizing universe of constant invention” “whose energy is always changing” and whose goal is “to sustain a perpetual disequilibrium” (Slater, (2010), pp. 79, 83). Sztompka discovers an alternative concept of progress as process, the marks and core meaning of which are “not what actually becomes but the potentiality for becoming,” “not the achievement but the achieving, not 89 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS the attainment but striving, not the finding but the quest” (Sztompka, 1993, p. 36). Bateson finds it is mindful, attentive, patterning that makes for a gradual process of change, where “rituals” serve as “repetition to create the experience of walking the same path again and again with the possibility of discovering new meaning that would otherwise be invisible” (Bateson, 1994, pp.114-15). Morin tells us how, “The adventure of hominization took place in want and pain. Homo is the child of Poros and Penia. All that lives must regenerate itself incessantly: the sun, the biosphere, society, culture, and love. It often means misfortune for us as well as grace and privilege” (Morin, 1999, p. 45). Then there is Buddhism’s optimistic view of the human spirit as embodied in the common people, where everyone and everything has the inherent equal potential for Buddhahood, a state of genuine independence that is indestructible and ultimately enables us to harmonize with the stormy seas of life and death and thereby positively transform our environment (Ikeda, 2003, p. 150). As I see it, all four authors, Slater, Sztompka, Bateson and Morin resonate with the Buddhist notion of progress as a kind of self-transcendence in the midst of instability. Buddhism’s optimism is that in the very oppressive atmosphere of the contemporary world, the human spirit has the infinite potential to raise itself above itself. It is this model of progress that enables individuals to open their potential to become spiritual giants, refusing to succumb to society’s pessimism. I predict this growing trend will lay the foundation for a new construct for life and death, a new humanism drawing support from the common people who working together with a deep sense of responsibility and good will can alter the tides of civilization. Conclusion In May, 1975, a dialogue between French writer André Malraux (1901-1976) and Daisaku Ikeda took place in Malraux’s home outside Paris. When asked by Ikeda if he was 90 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS optimistic or pessimistic about the 21st century, Malraux replied, “From the perspective of present circumstances, I am not able to tell.” Then he added, “I think the 21st century will bring something very different – something incomprehensible from the parameters of our past experience. It will bring a kind of spiritual revolution” (Malraux; Ikeda, 1976 p. B). Then Malraux asked Ikeda, “What do you see as the essential qualities of being human?” Ikeda replied: “In a world such as ours, when the problems facing one region or country quickly become global problems, we cannot afford to remain self-centered. In order to develop the kind of character that enables us to empathize with the sufferings of others and take appropriate action, we need to strive tirelessly to transform ourselves from within. This, I believe, is the only way out of the morass of problems confronting us today” (Malraux; Ikeda, 1976 p. B). Education needs to focus today more than ever on the teaching of empathy and to find creative ways to encourage individual transformation through providing a forum for deep self-reflective thought within the most ideal settings of human interaction. Community-based learning or the concept of creating a community experience within the classroom is a beginning for such “character building” endeavors but only where the community exists for the purpose of education and not to serve some political or economic agenda. “Learning is the purpose of human life,” says Ikeda, “and that which makes humans truly human” (Ikeda, 2010b, p.83-86). Yet, as long as education is assigned as something for “society’s sake” rather than building a society to serve the essential needs of education, there will be no end to human suffering (Ibid). As long as modern 91 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS civilization continues to regard human beings as what Kant calls a “means to an end” where education is anything less than a fundamental and primary activity, there will be no decrease in war and violence against life and all its forms. An educational system that favors political, military, and economic ideology becomes a mechanism to serve national objectives. Continuing to treat education as a means rather than an end along with the 21st century’s reliance on Information and Communication Technology will only continue to lead to the loss of human bonds and the tendency toward materialism, with monopolies produced by ‘casino capitalism,’ a crisis which strikes at the very roots of life itself. These trends in society can be likened to a slow death where gradually succumbing to sickness and old age, everyone has forgotten what it is to be human and how to live (Ikeda, 2010b). I can offer a million complaints about the current state of life, death and the world, but this leads to nothing but passive evasions and apathy and ends up as cowardess and indulgence. Instead, I must ask myself: “How can I empower my life and acquire the wisdom to establish a sense of human dignity in myself and others? How can I reexamine knowledge and the significant themes of life and death, while keeping sight of the whole, our crisis in civilization and the planet itself? How can I put forth the sweat and tears required to deeply improve my thoughts and actions and open the door to my own life, a door more difficult to open than all of the doors to the mysteries of the universe, including the great mystery of death, perhaps because it is the very same door. As I persevere in the eternal re-creation and re-enactment of life, both for this lifetime and the future, how can I maintain the spirit to live fully and deeply, never ceasing to remind myself that to do so, I must live as if it were the last moment of my life? How can I encourage 92 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS myself and others to allow their light of intuition to shine, a light that can lead to our deepest mutual understanding of the universe? How can I establish deep compassion and empathy for others and develop a strong will for justice with a determination to challenge authoritarianism in all its forms. Most importantly, how can I courageously challenge the inevitable adversity and struggle all of this will entail thereby creating a pulsating rhythm of ever flowing life force, an undercurrent outpouring from me into the lives of all human beings? What will be required to construct a new perception of death whose wisdom can enable humanity to accomplish the ultimate quest, a human revolution of the highest order of life and one that can succeed us throughout all existences of the past, present and future? Epilogue: Life and Death: The Ultimate Struggle toward Transformation Similar to Morin, Slater proposes four reasons why transformation, in terms of peace and the institutions created to preserve it, is possible at this venture in time: 1) a sharp increase in the pace of technological change; 2) a sharp increases in the speed and breadth of global communication; 3) Increasing ecological danger and awareness of our common dependence on the health of the planet we inhabit together; and 4) The decreasing utility of war (Slater, 2010, p. 16). In constructing a more humanistic and sustainable view of life and death, it is important to remember as Slater mentions, “Science is supposed to be above cultural differences, but scientific theories and assumptions are deeply influenced by the times and culture that gave them birth” (Slater, 2010, p. 69). We are in a time when many cultures increasingly acknowledge the validity of so many of the concepts put forth by Buddhism. With a history of over 3000 years, it is no mere coincidence that Buddhist sutras (or teachings), continuously document Buddhism as 93 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS an eternal philosophy that has existed “since time without beginning” and even “in other worlds.” Buddhist philosopher, Josei Toda often said, "The more science advances, the more it proves the validity of the teachings of Buddhism" (Toda as cited by Ikeda, 2011, p. 6). At this advent in time, Morin notes there has been a gradual declining or death in egocentrism based on our understanding that the earth no longer stands at the center of the universe and that we are as a result, in the process of giving birth to a new planetary consciousness (Morin, 1999 pp. 19, 24, 37). Bateson describes this consciousness in her conclusion to Peripheral Visions as alive in our global “hotel” where in “the dawning recognitions of collegiality” we join in the dance finding “styles of perception, attention, and grace” in the act of participation, constructing patterns of both “self and world.” “We have that too,” she echoes from a conversation she once heard. “We call it bodhisattva” (Bateson, 1994, p. 235). “Bodhisattva”, central to the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, is a living being (sattva) who aspires to enlightenment (bodhi) and carries out the altruistic practice of seeking enlightenment both for him or herself and for others (See Bodhisattva). This state of life or world as it is called in Buddhism (See The Ten Worlds), is often characterized by one’s dauntless spirit to show respect even to those who may be hostile as in the case of Bodhisattva Never Disparaging who through his sincere behavior ultimately led others to aspire toward their highest human potential, or Buddhahood, in the process of establishing the same supreme condition of life for himself (see Bodhisattva Never Disparaging). This brings me to an important conclusion that came to me in my research to analyze the sociology of knowledge and change as presented by Gergen, Morin, Stewart and Bennett, Bateson, McCarthy, Slater and Sztompka. I discovered one common element, although some gave it more prominence than others. It was the idea that struggle, the actual metamorphosis or 94 DEATH: STEPPING OUTSIDE TRADITIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND LIMITATIONS process of life is a universal, common construct for life and death. I believe the reason why human beings hold on to “ancient dogmas” “amid the chaos” (Slater, 2010 p.7) is because of the inability to appreciate the great inherent human potential that exists in the model of transformative struggle. Like the chrysalis whose inner turmoil is the very substance of its regeneration and transcendence, life is constantly using stress and distress to improve itself. I find the metaphor of the chrysalis both encouraging and compelling. This is where an understanding of the importance of the “imaginal cells” which break up and regenerate in the chrysalis to form the wings first and then ultimately the butterfly becomes most meaningful. (Interestingly, the network of the wings is the first to take form, the symbol of emancipation, as in the Buddhist notion of “freeing oneself from the sufferings of birth and death”). The emergent butterfly provides the perfect symbol of “pure life force itself, the power to live” and “the drive to a better life” (Ikeda, 2003, p. 162) I see it as an essential model for understanding transformation in both the individual and society whereby a breaking up or explosion of cells, the imaginal cells then form an invisible network and becomes stronger as a result of this struggle or transformative process. Like individuals and life, it already possesses an inherent integrity when its own immune system attacks it, a process that mimics the cycle of birth/death/rebirth in life and of form/transform/reform in social change. At Daniel Pearl’s memorial last month, his father, Judea Pearl remarked in closing, “Icons of peace are born out of tragedy.” If we can grasp the eternal, unchanging reality of life, we can understand that death and its synonym, struggle, is the ultimate process of life and the foundation for all cultural and sociological transformation. 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