Self-Realization

Self-Realization, a progression “where the self to be realized extends further and further beyond the separate ego and includes more and more of the phenomenal world.” (OM, p 271, Joanna Macy)

In this process, notions such as altruism and moral duty are left behind. It is tacitly based on the Latin term “ego” which has as its opposite the “alter.” Altruism implies that the ego sacrifices its interests in favor of the other, the alter. The motivation is primarily that of duty. It is said we ought to love others as strongly as we love our self. There are, however, very limited numbers among humanity capable of loving from mere duty or from moral exhortation.

Unfortunately, the extensive moralizing within the ecological movement has given the public the false impression that they are being asked to make a sacrifice—to show more responsibility, more concern, and a nicer moral standard. But all of that would flow naturally and easily if the self were widened and deepened so that the protection of nature was felt and perceived as protection of our very selves.

~Arne Naess

I believe this small statement is why your average person feels that it is so hard just to help others around them. They say to themselves, I can barely help myself, how should I be able to help others as well. When I can take care of myself then I will take care of others. Unfortunately because of the connection described above this is a failing argument. In fact it is like as if we were playing Tetris and everyday we got up and spent our day jumping from falling tile to falling tile. From an internal perspective we tell ourselves just a few more days of this rat race until I make it to the top and can stop feeling stressed about having to hop tiles. Unfortunately the harder I try to jump tiles, and the faster I jump; the faster the tiles seem to fall. I don’t want to just give up and hit the bottom because I think to myself what would I do without that car, those clothes, that special food, and the bigger house I just bought. And it is because of this philosophy that I feel I have to consider my “time as money” I could be making. Isn’t our most valuable commodity given to us for ourselves? Why don’t we spend it painting or sitting under a great big tree, or doing Tai Chi?

If in fact I become so ambitious that I figure out how to outsmart the Tetris tile system and I make it to the top, I realize that in fact I am no happier than when I started. Eventually I will see that I have enough of everything and that maybe now it is time to give back and help those around me. Maybe I will sell all of my material possessions and finally utilize my time to travel the world, or volunteer, or simply sit and talk with the homeless or elderly, thus paying attention to their perspectives and forgetting about my own. Regardless of how I choose to play the game I can bet that the beginning will lead me to back to the beginning and that esoterically there is in fact no end.

I think that maybe in fact working to help others is not separate from helping myself, because however you look at our connection; whether you see it through money, through speech, through religion, through the senses, through love, it is the same connection among everyone. If I choose to dump my  waste (verbal, physical, mental, emotional) in another person’s backyard, eventually they will notice it and have to find a way to reintegrate it back into our conscious life. That could be transferring it through connection via speech (venting), moving it somewhere else, or simply choosing to find alternative uses for the waste. That old coffee mug becomes my tooth-brush container, etc. Either way we are all participating in a living system and our motivation does not have to be tied to increasing our individuality. In fact if we try to help those around us, they will try to help us because perception is instantaneous. Instead of breaking down the system and looking for order, we can choose to build up the system and accept a little chaos, which might actually turn out to be more exciting than reaching the top of the Tetris tiles.

Capra says, every living organism must live far from equilibrium at the edge of chaos. If we lived in perfect equilibrium we would be physically dead. Cells cannot exist in a perfectly structured environment, they must exist in an autopoietic network which is a network pattern in which the function of each component is to participate in the production or transformation of other components in the network. The network continually makes itself. It is produced by its components and in turn produces those components. This structurally coupled living system is the basic building blocks of life, as far back as living organisms have existed. I choose to help others around me thereby helping myself in the direct process and evolving as a living system together.

Sabina Orozco Lopez

Forty-three-year-old Sabina is a mother who lives with her famly in the district of Pacasmayo, capital of the province of the same name, located in the Libertad region, two hours from Chiclayo, which is the capital of the Lambayeque region.
For the last eight years, she has prepared and sold food in her restaurant. Her customers come to her restaurant because they prefer the good service and delicious food that she is in the habit of providing. She uses the income from the restaurant to help her husband pay household expenses.

Sabina wishes to expand her business by purchasing more supplies so that she can prepare more food; therefore, she believes it is advisable to request a loan of 2000 nuevos soles ($725) from Edpyme Alternativa (local lending institution).
Sabina has borrowed money from Edpyme Alternativa before and has made her payments in a timely manner.

We have loaned her $175

Location:	Pacasmayo – La Libertad, Peru		Repayment Term:	14 months (more info)
Activity:	Restaurant		Repayment Schedule:	Monthly
Loan Use:	Purchase of food to increase sales in her restaurant		Currency Exchange Loss:	Possible