During the perspectives contemplative practice, I was shocked by the extent to which each perspective changed my emotions and physical sensations. The “we have no hope” perspective paralyzed me. The “world is getting better” perspective made me feel relaxed and relieved my sense of responsibility.
The “things are what they are” perspective, however, was both the hardest perspective to take and the most effective. I found it very difficult to remove myself to a place where I felt like an objective observer watching human activity through a giant glass window. This meditation reminded me of the feeling of a favorite melancholy book from childhood, The Dandelion Seed. The book deals with the pain of leaving home and facing the challenges of one’s life. In one scene, the dandelion whispers to the seed, “Don’t be afraid… the wind and the sun and the rain will take care of you. Let go and you will see” (Anthony). During the meditation, I felt fearful of letting go and relinquishing control.
When I finally allowed myself to take the “things are what they are” perspective, however, I found I felt strangely free because I was no longer a participant; I was an outside observer of human activity. I felt relieved to see human existence as if it were a movie separate from me. A series of images flew through my mind: I saw balding mountains with giant swaths of clear-cut forest; I saw murky, polluted rivers with no signs of life; I saw grocery store aisles filled with ripe fruit imported from around the world and imagined a billowing cloud of CO2 trailing from each perfect fruit like ugly black smoke. Then, I saw cars crawling like head lice over Earth’s skin and sparse green hair. Yet, instead of feeling sad or angry or paralyzed, I felt calm and curious. Why us? How can we be powerful enough to take over the Earth, and yet not powerful enough to take control of climate change and our own future?
In Empathic Civilization, Rifkin explains that to be authentic, we must rely on imagination and creativity and have faith in ourselves. We must first face climate change objectively with the “it is what it is” perspective so we can then strive for authenticity and tackle the problem.