Buddhism And was first published in 2019; an eBook followed in 2022. At the time I wrote a blog about ‘the importance of that little and so often neglected word “AND” which stitches a Buddhist approach to each and every subject – the brief conjunction which reveals the rich, complex interdependence and the impermanence of everything. Five years later, and another blog feels timely, for in the intervening period I have been increasingly struck by resonances with the three main themes of the book: interdependence, emptiness and non-duality.
Perhaps the most stimulating works I have read in this context are those of the philosopher and neuropsychologist Iain McGilchrist. His research is concerned with the differentiation of the two hemispheres of the brain. He characterises this difference in The Master and his Emissary in terms of their distinct modes of paying attention (a subject which is of course central to the Buddhist project).
McGilchrist believes profoundly that the right hemisphere, which is concerned with wider, more expansive perspectives, should be the Master, whilst the left, which is better at analysis and closer focus, should be the Emissary. In his 2022 sequel The Matter with Things he goes on to expand his neurological exploration to considerations of time, space, consciousness, value, and our sense of the sacred. I find a wonderful resonance here with Buddhist emphasis on process rather than essence, and its concern with non-duality, paradox and the ultimate emptiness of identity: in a word interdependence.
The implication of McGilchrist’s work is that the time is long overdue for a thorough reappraisal of the habits of thought that shape us – the filters through which we see the world. We need to liberate ourselves from the fundamental delusion that is Dualism: the splitting of everything into black and white, right and wrong, us and them. We need to challenge the predominance of scientism over imagination, the literal over the metaphorical, analysis over synthesis, hard matter over subtle spirit. Such are the pillars of our modern-world outlook and they seem to be taken for granted – dangerously so.
Today, as we see and sense deep problems with our way of life, and witness the cracks starting to appear in the surface of these pillars, we seem unable to confront the possibility that the problem may lie in the structures themselves. Our image, our identity, our ego all seem to be in thrall to a philosophy of individualism and consumerism.
Take the current concern with mental and physical health. Every day, newspaper articles encourage us to embrace ways to take care of the overburdened self; but so often these recommendations are in fact more burdensome, more expensive, and more guilt-inducing than the problem they claim to address. Far from helping, they reinforce what Buddhism would see as the deluded notion of an isolated, fixed and permanent self.
It will take a large shift to overturn our desire to cling to ideas of permanence, of mind and body, the parameters of ‘success’ and our seeming addiction to consumerism, but that is just what we need to do. In the words of Carlo Rovelli: ‘It is precisely on account of life’s impermanence, the absence from it of every absolute, that life has meaning.’
Now, as never before, it seems to me that we need to restate, reaffirm and reinforce the vital importance of that little word, that three-letter conjunction, which connects so much.
So – Merry Xmas AND a Happy New Year!