Thought Unbound:
Habitual Reality
(Reality Rhombus No. 1)
by Chardo Blue Plains

The Idea Man, No. 26

One.

I know you feel trapped. Don’t we all? How else can you account for the fact that the dominant religious image for half the world for 2,000 years has been that of a god (a god!) NAILED to a cross, immobilized, helpless, exposed?

But, and this is a very large but, isn’t it possible (more than possible: likely) that the trap is largely of our own devising? Think back and try to remember your best day in childhood. Really remember.

It's difficult, because we tend to see our present self in our memories. If you can remember the child you were, perhaps you recall a sense of unity. I’m not talking the of millennial psychobabble about the child within. I'm talking about the (small) human creature who moved with the world rather than against it, who listened to the world and sang back.

Who also was hurt in the world and cried. Pain, God knows, teaches us enough judgment. But we have constructed a culture that assumes the world is mostly pain and which teaches us to, above all else, judge. Is that not the real trap? This chattering, acculturated mind which has learned so well to judge.

What's up today, mind? "Nothing new. This is good. That is bad."

Two.

Can you bear with me long enough to read a few sentences from a recent report on the nature of drug addiction? Trust me, this is NOT yet another pro- or con-drug harangue. We're going to use these sentences in a rather unusual way.

Dr. Alan I. Leshner is director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. On June 24, 2000, the New York Times published a summary of Dr. Leshner's current views on the physiological nature of drug addiction:

Initially, when a person uses hard drugs... the chemistry of the brain is not much affected, and the decision to take the drugs remains voluntary. But at a certain point, [Dr. Leshner] says, a "metaphorical switch in the brain" gets thrown, and the individual moves into a state of addiction characterized by compulsive drug use. These brain changes, Dr. Leshner says, persist long after addicts stop using drugs, which is why, he continues, relapse is so common. Addiction, Dr. Leshner declares, should be approached more like other chronic illnesses, like diabetes and hypertension. Going further, he says that drugs so alter the brain that addiction can be compared to mental disorders like Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. It is, he says, a "brain disease."

In promoting this concept, Dr. Leshner has stepped forthrightly into a debate that has smoldered for decades: are drug addicts responsible for their behavior? Should they be treated as sick people in need of help, or as bad people in need of punishment?*

Once upon a time there was a short-lived race of humans known as hippies, who, among other things, took delight in cosmic one-liners, which were often printed on colorful large metal buttons to be worn as an outward and visible sign of one's hipness. Among the hundreds of pithy slogans popular at the time was this one:

Reality Is a Bad Habit.

Once upon another time in another place (China) occasional weirdos appeared who sat on misty mountaintops and either said nothing or spoke in cosmic one-liners. Among these was a person known as Sengtsan who, around 600 CE, wrote:

"To set up what you like against what you dislike
is the disease of the mind."

Hmmmm.

This same Sengtsan also wrote:

"When thought is in bondage, the truth is hidden; everything seems murky and unclear, and the burdensome practice of judging brings weariness and annoyance."**

Double hmmmm.

Suspend disbelief for a moment, if you can, and let's go back to the newspaper story and change the drug terminology to reality terminology. The piece then reads like this:

Initially, when a person accepts "reality"... the chemistry of the brain is not much affected, and the decision to accept "reality" remains voluntary. But at a certain point... a "metaphorical switch in the brain" gets thrown, and the individual moves into a state of addiction characterized by compulsive acceptance of "reality." These brain changes... persist long after addicts stop accepting "reality," which is why... relapse is so common. "Reality"... should be approached more like other chronic illnesses, like diabetes and hypertension. Going further... that "reality" so alters the brain that acceptance of "reality" can be compared to mental disorders like Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. It is... a "brain disease."

In promoting this concept, Dr. Leshner has stepped forthrightly into a debate that has smoldered for decades: are "reality" addicts responsible for their behavior? Should they be treated as sick people in need of help, or as bad people in need of punishment?

Three.

Triple hmmmm. Is it possible that Sengtsan et al. are right? That reality is not just a bad habit but in fact a severe addiction? One so severe that only a handful of people in every generation become aware of it, and of that handful, only a few now and then manage to break the addiction?

More Sengtsan on reality as an addiction: "It is due to our choosing to accept or reject that we do not see the true nature of things. Live neither in the entanglements of outer things, nor in inner feelings of emptiness. Be serene in the oneness of things and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves."

Or: "Distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant."

Or: "All dualities come from ignorant inference. They are like dreams or flowers in air: foolish to try to grasp them."

What if he's right, yet you dismiss his ideas as so much abstract, philosophical bullshit? Where does that leave you? Only with a house, a life of complete illusion, substanceless, of less duration than a billionth of a nanosecond.

That of course is the bad news. The good news is that the addiction can be broken. Not easily, of course. But it can be broken.****

END

*From "Seeing Drugs as a Choice or as a Brain Anomaly," by Michael Massing, New York Times, June 24, 2000, p. A17, National Edition.

**Yes, yes, I know, you're saying, "Mystics we shall always have with us." Hundreds of other weirdos of a similar ilk have left behind equally cryptic pronouncements. If this were a book, I would include numerous other examples. This is not a book. This is a tiny Internet essaylette for the entertainment of an entire generation suffering from ADD.***

***Attention Deficit Disorder. In children, commonly treated with Ritalin. In adults, with alcohol, psychoactive drugs, or, mostly commonly, with "careers."

****Click here for the complete Sengtsan text.

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