NINTH WAY OF WISDOM Arthur M. Jackson
Copyright 2001, 2003, 2006
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NINTH WAY OF WISDOM: Work to increase knowledge and all creative and artistic endeavors. Adopt an inspiring life goal.
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An inspiring life goal is taken to be a critical part of achieving a sustainable belief that one's life has meaning. Such a purpose might help to provide the center around which all the other Ways could be organized to fit into one's life. This kind of goal would seldom be far from one's mind. It would energize their life and sustain them in their darkest hours. It would move them into ever new realms as they pursued the twists and turns required in their on-going effort to move ever closer toward their goal. However, ideally this goal would be of such a nature that it could never be reached, but should have multiple preliminary goals to be mastered and achieved on the path toward it.
People are always wondering what is on the other side of the hill, and just going and learning brings pleasure. The search itself brings individual rewards to the searcher. The new fruits discovered over the hill bring something to everyone and this can be infinitely more rewarding.
A person takes a brush and some paints, or a hammer, chisel, and stone, or a myriad of other things and with them, perseverance and creativity produces an exciting and pleasing result that brings a great feeling of accomplishment. What has been created can inspire, excite, and in general produce positive benefits for the rest of humanity.
For this Way of Wisdom, however, it is the feeling within the individual that is being focused on. To the degree that it gives humanity something, it also fulfills the Second Way of Wisdom. (Seek to maintain and develop humanity.) The spice of a Sustainable Belief that one's Life Has Meaning is the discovery and creation of new things. This is the Way of Wisdom that makes all the other Ways of Wisdom possible. The prospect of the continued discovery and creation of new things makes life challenging and interesting. Everyone who in any way can enjoy these pursuits should have the opportunity. Those who lack an obvious focus for their interests should be helped so they will be able to find the joy of discovering and creating.
Whether this Way of Wisdom is achieved by the creation of paintings, poetry, music, writing novels; the discovery of a new biological species, sub-atomic particle, comet; or better way to clean a sewer is to a certain extent unimportant. The important thing is that it is enjoyable and pleases the person involved, and is not hurtful to anyone else. When this situation exists, humanity cannot help but benefit. If every person adds but one pebble to a pile, how rapidly would a mountain rise.
But it is essential that the person revel in their activity. They need to feel good as a result of what they have produced. Some of our greatest geniuses never achieved more than a fleeting moment of joy from the inspired, seminal creations they produced, or that they work on. Sometimes this was due to an over developed sense of self-criticism. Other prodigies could not revel in their creations because these works were seen only as tools to achieve power over others. Whenever faulty thinking prevents the person from enjoying and sharing their creations they need to work harder on the Sixth Way of Wisdom (Work to be psychologically healthy).
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The "Knowledge Bank," the universal computer information reservoir, mentioned under the Eighth Way of Wisdom (Help and be helped by other people) would be useful in achieving this Way of Wisdom. It would aid one in gathering new data in order to pursue their interest and achieve a positive result. The individual would be helped in the preceding way to find everything known including aesthetic material in its most useful form in order to increase the person's opportunities and fulfillment. See VOLUME II, Chapter 31, "Art and a Science of Ethics." [1] And, the "Organization to Enhance the Quality of Human Life" discussed in "Organizing for an Enlightened Community -- Other Support Organizations," and the Second Way of Wisdom (Seek to advance humanity) would also be useful here. The Second Way of Wisdom and Ninth Way of Wisdom are actually opposite sides of the same coin. An Organization to Enhance the Quality of Human Life would help in the achievement of this Way of Wisdom by providing a structure that any interested person could utilize to fulfill this Way of Wisdom.
Creative endeavors must lead to expanding human learning.
A key question that comes up when one considers increasing knowledge and understanding of the Universe is whether or not humanity should avoid exploring areas thought to be harmful -- "Forbidden Knowledge." The answer would seem to be an emphatic, no! Human beings can never be sure what knowledge or research is going to pay off the most. Therefore, humanity should never brand certain paths as off limits in the absence of overwhelming evidence. If such an area is found the conclusion that it embodies overwhelming danger needs to be always open for reconsideration. However, one must of course travel dangerous paths with care. At the same time it appears to be obvious that the highest priority should be to take routes that appear likely to be most rewarding. But it seems necessary to assume that humanity will be able to use all knowledge in some way. It is up to society to find the usefulness of each discovery/creation. Discoveries are just as useful, which allow humanity to advance to further knowledge as data which itself is used to help one predict, or improve human well being. Also, discoveries that clarify a threat to humanity are of vital importance.
Up to this point human activity has not been guided by the realization that Human Beings Are the Ultimate Reference System, that the goal of an individual's life is to maintain and develop the species, and that this can best be done when each person achieves a Sustainable Belief that their Life Has Meaning. Therefore, the process of searching for knowledge and dealing with new discoveries and applications of that knowledge has tended to neglect individual and social long-term satisfaction. At the same time legitimate concerns such as environmental and ecological problems have been pursued irrationally and in a mis-focused way on occasion.
Examples of the foregoing in my mind include the fevered discussion about the use of fission reactors to produce electricity carried out since the late '40s. Many people have been deeply concerned about any use of radioactive materials. Yet, radioactivity is a powerful tool that has benefited almost all areas of research and knowledge. As a result society should be supporting tremendous study into all aspects of radioactivity. A prime area of research should include the total understanding of all things involved in causing harm to the human body and the discovery of prevention and treatment procedures. Advance in one area has always demanded advance in many other fields. And this goes back at least to the time when tools allowed over-hunting which may have been a primary factor in making agriculture necessary.
It is very likely that an important step forward for humanity involving generation of power through fission reactors has been stopped by persons acting under the banner of ecological concerns. They focus on the harmful effects of nuclear reactors, but fail to put it in the context that every mode of producing electricity (coal, hydro, natural gas) has an ecological price -- just like every other behavior (performed, or not performed). They claim to be working for a world fit for humans to live on. But whether through ignorance or stealth have an agenda that does not in fact have human well being as its concern. The environmental movement grew out of recognition by many thoughtful people over the past 200 years that unregulated technology can cause wide-spread destruction to this wondrous planet that is our only home and has the potential to make it uninhabitable. However, as this movement has grown in power and prestige it has attracted persons whose goals are actually to return the earth to a period of "primitive beauty" when less than 10,000,000 humans occupied it and lived much like gorillas and chimpanzees do today.
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More recently the human intervention altering plant and animal genomes in order to increase their value to humanity has been attacked. This area of research has the potential to end hunger and create abundance, not only of food, but for medicine, building material, manufacturing, and an unlimited number of other things. Legitimate questions need to be raised about many of these procedures. But blanket opposition is reminiscent of Luddite mentality.
It seems to me that human beings must begin to take cautious, but responsible steps to guide earth's evolution so this planet will continue to be our home and to maintain a wide diversity of species because that is necessary to our well-being.
These neo-environmentalists are in opposition to any such effort. They act as though they are intent on keeping the Earth the "way God made it." They are ready not only to oppose pollution, but to also oppose any effort by scientists that they interpret as "manipulating nature."
The below article discusses an example of this phenomena where an experiment in which a minor quantity of tiny particles of iron were released into a small area of the Pacific ocean to test its effects on increasing the growth of plants in an otherwise barren area was opposed as "manipulating nature": [2]
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MANIPULATING ENVIRONMENT FOR SCIENCE GOES TOO FAR, SOME SAY By Chris Woolston, 18 July 1995
For better or worse, the recent iron experiment in the Pacific could represent the future of ocean science.
"In the past, ocean scientists went out to pick up the clues Mother Nature gave us," said participant Eden Rue, an analytical chemistry graduate student from the University of California, Santa Cruz. "Now we're actually manipulating environments and making predictions."
But this vision of the future concerns environmentalists and even a few scientists.
"Where do you draw the line between a major experiment and an insult on the environment?" asked Sallie Chisholm, a professor of marine sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chisholm said she supports the iron experiments -- she had students on the cruise -- but she sees a clear need for caution.
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For others, the iron experiments clearly cross the line. "You can't have scientists running around manipulating nature," said Kelly Quirke, a spokesperson for Greenpeace. "That lack of humility is only going to get us into deep trouble."
Researchers maintain that the iron experiments are harmless to the ocean environment. The effects on nature are short-lived, but the improvement in scientific knowledge could be permanent, they say.
Kenneth Coale, the chief scientist on the research cruise, stressed that the experiment was far from a large-scale disturbance. "Globally, it was inconsequential," he said. "It was nothing compared to what's produced at the Santa Cruz waste treatment plant every day."
Kenneth Bruland, a chemical oceanographer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, agrees.
"It's really still a small scale experiment," he said. "This experiment bridges the gap between the scale and complexity of a bottle experiment and the scale and complexity of the whole ocean."
"Such bridges," he maintains, "may be the only access scientists have to the inner workings of life in the ocean."
Environmentalists like Kelly Quirke of Greenpeace talk about the need for others to demonstrate more humility. However, he expresses the neo-environmentalist's own total lack of humility. They have the "Truth" and they are willing to go to any lengths to impose it on others. They should rightfully be concerned about all the things people have done/are doing that degrade our environment. But when they express the view that we must leave the earth alone and it will take care of us, they are spouting erroneous dogma. Any serious study of Earth's history makes it clear that random events favor species randomly. If we think nature will favor our species selectively we are expressing dogma, not evolutionary history. Human beings have a special ecological niche because we have the power to control evolution within the limits of our constantly expanding knowledge.
I believe that an ever increasing amount of human planning and behavior needs to reflect an acknowledgement that evolution, like national economies, must be guided by human intelligence if we are to develop and maintain conditions such that increasing numbers of persons will achieve a Sustainable Belief that their Life Has Meaning. All such decisions need to incorporate a prudent humility based on the recognition that no matter how much we know, it is always less than what we don't know. Therefore, the potential for disaster is very real if we act too fast and in too many directions simultaneously. We should not fail in our responsibility to study so we can better avoid disaster. We need to keep the channels of communication open so every voice can be heard and all wisdom utilized. And we must work to maintain a balance in the world. This balance needs to sustain the conditions for human life -- and not just to live, but to live well. (For more on this topic see VOLUME II, Chapter 28, "Managing Change in an Enlightened Community.")[3]
However, if the goal of helping all other individuals to become Enlightened Persons is kept clearly in mind then every step taken in increasing knowledge will always consider how this knowledge can be used to help people, not to harm them. And, we must constantly consider that failure to act has moral implications in terms of maintenance of our species in such a way that each person can achieve a Sustainable Belief that their Live Has Meaning.
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GO ON TO TENTH WAY OF WISDOM .
1. VOLUME II, Chapter 31, "Art and a Science of Ethics."
2. SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, Chris Woolston, p. 1F, San Jose, CA, 18 July 1995.
This article deals with an experiment in which several tons of very small iron particles were spread over hundreds of square miles of ocean to examine its effects on increasing plant life in the oceans which some believe is limited by the amount of iron available.
3. VOLUME II, Chapter 28, "Managing Change in an Enlightened Community."
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