Planes
I remember a story that my late friend Rubin Carter told me long ago. This is from what we called Rubin's “Buddha phase,” when he was isolated in prison for a crime he did not commit. At the time, I was one of the two people that he communicated with, besides his attorney.
Members of a tribe of hunter-gatherers came across an airplane on the savannah, at the edge of the jungle. At first, they approached the plane with great suspicion. Eventually, the leader climbed inside the plane, and found the seats to be a comfortable place to sit and watch the world go round. In time, a young man found that he could drive the plane around the open fields. But they never learned that the plane could fly.
That airplane, of course, is us. Human beings. Groups and individuals. Modern human beings are the highest level of consciousness on the living Earth. While all life on Earth and in the universe is mechanical, the energy force behind and within all of life offers human beings the opportunity to evolve. And that does not involve the paths of physical evolution that we all are aware of – or, of course, the superstitious interpretations of ancient stories that hold the Earth is 6,000 years old.
The evolution of humanity, Rubin wrote, is the evolution of our consciousness. And that due to the organic structure of our brains, it cannot evolve unconsciously. We must make the conscious effort to learn how to “fly” our airplane. That is the only alternative to humanity avoiding the mechanical path towards self-destruction – think of the United States today – and eventual extinction.
Now, Rubin had always been well-read. He studied Aristotle, Freud, Plato, Twain, and the Bible, among others. But his first flying lesson came when he read Viktor Frankl's 1946, “Man's Search for Meaning.” Frankl describes his experiences in a nazi concentration camp, and his intense journey to find meaning in those circumstances.
Those familiar with Frankl may have noted that the three methods he identified as paths to inner – or conscious – evolution are similar to those identified by the prophet Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew) and Sermon on the Plain (Luke). This is, of course, because around the globe and throughout history, the “awakened ones” have taught the same basic lessons. (Fromm; The Sane Society; Fawcett; 1955; page 69)
There tends to be two ways to start taking this conscious route. One is as an individual, like a monk. The other is in a group. Eventually, the two overlap. Rubin used to say it requires the same degree of patience that the smallest creature needs to start on the plain and climb to the top of the highest mountain. Some may need a leader while on that plain, but on the mountain, everyone is both a student and a teacher.
Gandhi noted that his devotion to religion required him to become active in the political process. An atheist can, of course, be just as actively involved in those political issues, on the exact same side. And be just as “awake” as intended by Rubin's use of the word fifty years ago.
I think about groups engaging in the political process, and about airplanes. Many of us are no doubt active at various levels in politics, with other groups large and small. At the same time, I think of this forum as that airplane. At a time when this country is confronted with an extreme domestic threat to democracy, we have the potential to organize to target any/all elected representatives in DC for messages of encouragement or to voice our strong opposition to their actions. If we picked one each week day, I will speculate that would open the plane's door.
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