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10.19
The common failings of any "way"
 
  Most readers would recall at least one story of great men and women who sacrificed the enjoyments and pleasures of life to find inner peace and enlightenment by meditation and discipline. The story of the life of Buddha and St Francis of Assisi are like this.  
  To these men and women we owe a great deal of gratitude. For they are the ones who provided us with fabulous insights of the potential of the human being for compassion, healing and leadership.  
  As beautiful as many of the writings of saints of various religions are, how practical and do-able are their recommended courses to the average person living in a large city somewhere in the world?  
  It may be fine to consider your connection to all things, yet the experience of driving in a large city such as New York or Los Angeles can quickly turn even the most enlightened person a road-rage.  
  It may be beautiful to consider the nature of charity and compassion to fellow human beings but just a walk down through a run-down neighbourhood with street gangs and people hassling for money can quickly turn most people into advocates of tougher laws against crime.  
  So just how pratical is it to consider "ideal" ways of life when real life seems so remote from the ideal?  
10.19.1 The traditional path recommending that it is you that needs to change  
  The first and most common answer to this question by the writers of enlightened ways of life is to suggest that the problem is you rather than the world. Often this is accompanied by an explanation that the worlds problems are essentially created by individuals abdicating responsibility for their lives on the community at large.  
  certainly this kind of argument is difficult to refute. The world is after all what we perceive it to be. If we perceive it to be hell, then it is, if we perceive it to be paradise, so it is. Yet such answers do not change nor alter the fact that for most people the task of dramatic change and alignment to the rules of various recommended ways of life simply do not match the realities of living in the world we do.  
  To give all that we own away, to live simply, without concern for the quality of clothing that we wear is a noble and selfless act, yet to a mother or father with young children it is also a detrimental path for their interests. To follow through with such suggestions would result in many more children growing up in poverty, before they have a chance to make choices and informed judgments of their own.  
  To the person who takes responsibility for providing a means of survival for themselves and any dependents, the practicalities of worklife do not allow for extended periods of meditation and chants. Even the ritual of fasting can be extremely difficult in large cities, with individuals having to perform high activity functions requiring regular intake of food and fluids.  
  As beautiful as insights and understandings developed on mountain tops may sound, they nonetheless are ideas created outside of mainstream society. Unless we can all have our own private mountain tops and means of survival, then saying it is we that need to change is inadequate.  
10.19.2 The practical need to be flexible  
  The challenge to living in most parts of the world is to somehow retain a sense of self, while at the same time addressing the competing needs for different modes of thinking action and life. Inflexibility, in terms of these can quickly lead to breakdowns in the effectiveness of modern life.  
  In business, the need is to be objective, to limit emotion, to be aware and focused. This applies for jobs from driving, packing to the managing of large corporations. In our own personal lives there is the constant need to juggle competing priorities, requiring time and the ability to think outside the square. This requires the skill of critical thinking- problem solving, the ability to distinguish the benefits, costs and priorities of each option against the other, again something we all need to tap into from time time.  
  Then there is the need from time to time to think of creative ideas- to search out new ways of approaching problems.  
  Flexibility of the system, in being able to accomodate the modern day situation and mind of being human is vital to a sustainable method of finding balance in our lives.  
     
 
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