REFLECTIONS ON NATURAL LAW:

 Traditional Holism Revisited

    How do we live and die well?
    This is the concern of the study of Natural Law: how do we relate to the exigencies of our total environment? It is a long study that is reflected throughout human history and might be described as "traditional holism" (By the way, is it just me or should't this be 'wholism'?). The great works and movements of the human tradition are expressions of this universal and obvious concern. Some high statements of the character of natural law are to be found in The Bible, The Koran, The Mahabharata,1 The Book of History (1942), and the works of Homer, Plato, Ibn Khaldun (1967), Juvaini (1958), Confucius and Chu Hsi (1963).
    A particularly clear exposition of the perspective of traditional holism comes from the Neo-Confucianist, Chu Hsi:

    Traditional holism is concerned with the broader issues of Nature, God, death and civilization and its fundamental unit is not the individual but the community. It seeks to see our proper place in our total environment. This article will consider community in this sense and discuss the nature of civilization as well.
    Communities are natural events. They reflect and record a people's success in finding accord with their natural circumstances. The success of a community is documented by their contentment and happiness in being together. An absolute standard and continuum are inherent in this that gives value to groups that are content in being together and sees unhappy groups as unsuccessful and misdirected in their articulation with their total environment. Some of the things that need clear expression if a community is to be content are respect, justice, love and intimacy. The more alienated a people are from one another and their natural setting, the farther they are separated from their mutual interests and in their angered relationships, they are less able to know themselves in the mirror of the people that surround them.Unhappy people are the key to social problems and challenge the fundamental existence of the community they are a part of.
    The satisfaction that any people find in their way of life reflects how well they fit in with their natural context. This natural context includes their neighbors in the small sense of those who live close to them and the larger sense of the bigger groups that they are a part of and other communities they have relations and mutual concerns with. Thus, Nature includes all that humanity is and has done and is the setting of our united problem as well as being the substance of community. Our expressions of love and hate for one another are the stuff that hold us together or pull us apart from our natural conditions and each other.

    How do we make good decisions?
    Community is founded on decisions. The better the decisions that are made by the members of a group, the more successfully they can respond to the demands of their situation. The broader the perspective, the more complete the knowledge, the clearer and calmer the context of a decision, the more apt it is to reflect an accurate appreciation of circumstances. We affect one another's ability to make decisions in a way we treat each other and this in turn influences the tone of our community that is a kind of united event. Civilizations are gatherings of communities that have found a way to live and work together effectively, treat one another well and provide each other with a good context for making good decisions.
    The concerns and issues that a community considers important reflect how well its members know one another and how close they are to natural harmony in their way of life. The better a community fits in with its environment, the more open and quietly integrated its concern with the basic problems of existence. Death provides a good example of this. In the West, death is an event shrouded in fear, confusion and avoidance. This contrasts sharply with groups in greater harmony where death has a very important role in they way one conducts one's life. A Javanese statement of this orientation holds that one should "Seek provisions for death during life"2 (Golek sanguning pati sajeruning urip). You must live with a constant awareness of your death and you prepare for it by living a life that does not cloud this awareness and acceptance in confusion and fear. When death comes you enter it with calm and grace such that your trip home (perjalanan) to the essence of your being be as smooth and as quick as possible.
    The tone that a community shares in its interaction is connected with both the way people treat one another and the amount of natural accord that their way of life has attained. The united aspect of a group is reflected both subtly in daily events and more obviously in the societal entertainments it practices. For example, the tone of a football or soccer game can be contrasted with the tone of a sacramental community commemoration like the general sleep fast that marks the coming of the Javanese New Year in Solo, Java. During the fast the members of the community, often making a pilgrimage of many kilometers from their homes in the old kingdom surrounding the city, quietly gather and walk the streets all night long to celebrate their common sense by politely greeting and saluting one another.
    The character of a group's entertainments reflects their natural harmony in the amount of emphasis given to escapist expressions of emotional contagion. Another reflection of the presence of a group is the distance between religious practice and secular interaction. Since being calm and open are a large part of the accurate reception of reality, the distortion inherent in escapist emotionality is obvious. Big things become small and small things are blown out of proportion. The value given to selfish behavior and attitudes is also connected to the tone of a group in how close they can afford and bear to be to one another.
    The manners of a group are connected to its tone too and contribute to it as expressed in every interaction. People who treat one another well can know and appreciate each other more deeply and calmly than those who anticipate abuse in each encounter. The more respect and acceptance a people experience in their relations with those around them and have in their expectations of one another, the calmer and more accurate their reception of the situation can be and the better their decisions in relating to it are apt to be.
    The community and environmentally destructive decisions of escapist materialism can be seen in this light. Many poor, short-sighted decisions have been founded on the excited criteria of personal profit and selfish gain. The long term consequences of such behavior have become so obvious with the probable extinction of the species as a result that there is little need to note it further.
    A good example of the broader concerns that inform a tighter community is the Muslim appreciation of knowledge expressed in Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah (1967). The Muqaddimah argues the importance of openness to Allah and community and examines the potential spiritual and community divisive dangers of various subjects, together with the importance of having them studied. The tone and intent of his work are given in Khaldun's concluding remark:

A mature community is not simply interested in small parts of its members' lives but with every aspect of their existence such that they be able to live with satisfaction and die in peace.

    What is Natural Law (Purbâ Wisesâ)?
    The basic character of Natural Law is simply not to cause disturbances in any part of one's total environment for the obvious reason that by doing so you are fouling your own nest. Whether disturbances be individual, social or ecological in nature, they invariably return to disturb the disturber in the form of social relations based on distrust or ecological protest against the offending agent. The Javanese statement of the Golden Rule, "measure it on your own body first" (tepa slira), stresses personally knowing how you are influencing others rather than focusing on intentions, in as much as you will have to live with the real consequences, not your imaginings.
    What traditional holism seeks is to find harmony with nature, the source and realm of our experience. The absolute character of this problem is stated by the early Confucianist, Tzu-ssu (Tsesze), as follows:

True power, i.e., the power to be who, what and where we are and to see and be seen clearly, and a way of life that does not destroy itself arise from harmony with our natural condition.
    Normative Western psychology rarely contemplates spiritual maturation. The high statements of Natural Law invariably do. For example, the paradigm of Javanese psychology is a state called tentrem ing manah which is a condition of inner peace that is based on open receptivity (rasa murni) and the joining of inward and outward acceptance. The Javanese concern with maturation in attaining this state of being is reflected in their depiction of "the levels of understanding."3
    The first level of understanding is understanding in thought (ngerti), a superficial appreciation limited to cognition and not united with any breadth of perspective or deeper receptivity. It is understanding that pulls you away from the actual context and is beset with argument and narrow self-definition. The next understanding is a level that encompasses the ego (ngakoni), reflecting a deeper appreciation that sees with more breadth and acceptance in a context where you are not seeing yourself as coming first. The next level of understanding (ngrumangsani) reflects greater acceptance and the attainment of calm in contemplating your small part in the whole and greater receptivity of the actual state. It is no longer linked to thought but rests in the reception and acceptance of the concern in its natural context. The final level of understanding (nglengganani) is one that is not in any way separated from the full acceptance of the total environment and rests in open receptivity (rasa murni). At this level thought sometimes arises but it is not previous or intermediary or important to the experience itself. As the Javanese describe this phenomenon by talking of "thought arising from the Mind of God." However, the general character of the higher levels of understanding is silent, unconstrued, spontaneous, open receptivity and the acceptance this implies.
    The process of maturation is not at all escapist or euphoric in character: it involves getting your feet on the ground so that you can recognize your responsibilities more clearly and make better decisions as a result. Throughout the process the emphasis is on tenang, which might be translated as "openness," "attentiveness," "sobriety" or "neutrality." Similarly, among the Confucianists, the process of maturation emphasizes ching, which Wing-tsit Chan translates as "seriousness" or "reverence." Chu Hsi comments on this process as follows:

As Chu Hsi notes, the attainment of this accepting, open state is a long practice that must be involved in your way of living.
    This perspective is similarly presented by the Greeks as in the sayings that Zimmern (1931:127) cites, "It is hard to be good," and "Call no man happy till his life be ended." Plato brings out this same appreciation of the value of openness in his scolding letter to Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse:

The problem of maturation is also taken up the Confucianists. They emphasize the difficulty of arriving at natural accord:

The character of this attainment is described much as is tentrem ing manah, an all-embracing peace of the spirit:

The issue of life's relation to death is also considered by the Confucianists:

    Where do mature beings fit into the community?
    We all relate to one another in a plethora of ways with the most superficial level being that of thought and opinion. An individual is a community of relationships with existence in and of himself. The fundamental level of exchange that unites us all rests in awareness of our common plight and mutual interests: we cohabit the present together and the tone and content of our existence largely depends on the participating behavior and experience of others.
    The less open a community is to this obvious fact of living, the less it is attended to and the more attention is given to narrow tactics of experience manipulation. When we cannot trust in the openness of those around us, the deep levels of common purpose, respect and love become clogged with painful memories of violations of trust.
    All relationships reflect and express this. The openness and trust of deep love express clarity of contact between one being and another. The accepting nature of such love also points out the vulnerability inherent in such open relationships. The calm, dedicated, open, respectful faith of clear union is the basic character of natural harmony as you are together with the other without the walls of self-centered discrimination or petty distinctions. The clearer and more accepting the love is, the more concerned it becomes with the basic problems of existence like death, living a good life and what comes after. The clouded love of superficial contacts avoids or ignores these issues and focuses on materialistic concerns, self-gratification and the coercive control of others.
    A love that sees another clearly in his/her real setting has other concerns for their welfare than one that sees less acutely. The expressions and interpretations of purposes possible in a community in natural harmony are not the same as those in an unhappy, closed, confused group. The problem of maturation reflects this as beings work to earn openness and trust in their relationships with others and to see and be seen clearly. As a result, the natural consequences of violating such trust become evident in the disturbance of mutual peace, the sense shared within the community.
    Humanity is deeply and quietly joined in the universal problem of existence. But above this union lie loud and emotional outcries of protest and unsettled levels of interaction.The problem of maturation and seeing clearly is rather like the problem of attending to counsel. One who attends only to narrow, emotional, flattering counsel is taking the easy path of following that which is pleasant and easy to listen to. This behavior remains in violation of the quieter, calmer counsel that rests and is accessible only through humility and receptivity. One who attends to loud, excited counsel remains within the sphere of his own group's pretended superiority. The more this illusory superiority is challenged by the exposure of its deficiencies through expanded contacts with other groups and ways of living, the louder, more ethnocentric and egotistical the counsel is apt to become.
    All communities are united by the common problem of existence and their common humanity but the deep exchanges and growth of mutual trust and love that yield concordant experience and cooperation are violated by transgression and narrow distinctions founded in self-importance and prejudice -- opinion and crude emotion. These opinions and prejudices are mechanisms of avoidance and experience manipulation that limit and define relationships to protect your own sense of worth. The walls that exist between groups reflect conflicting and unreconciled points of view: while the experiences are united in the common experience of being and reality at their base, they are likely to be mutually repulsive in actual expression.
    The mature being transcends the narrow vision of his/her own group and seeks to express natural harmony in their way of life. This can be a difficult path to follow and extrude the mature being of the "normal" sense pretended in their group. In other cases, as in Java, the self-centered individual is the exception and the mature, open-directed being the rule. A visit to Hong Kong in the morning, with the multitudes slowly going through their t'ai ch'i ch'uan exercises and preparing their bodies and spirits for the day, provides another example of this cultural emphasis on being present and approaching existence accurately.

    What kind of place is this?
    The myths, legends, stories and art in general of tradition express deeply felt relationships both with a group and with its surroundings. In describing the sense of these relationships, such tales are apt to be more profound and truer than more "scientific" and "analytic" depictions can be. However, when groups interact these precious markers of the nature of existence suffer contradiction and challenge and the profundity they express is lost or becomes foreign to current experience and static -- locked in its own milieu -- as the tone of the group changes and nno longer supports their active creation.
    During a period of transition, this process continues until the depth that these old markers reflected is expressed in the new order and finds new expression in the expanded vocabulary of the times. The problem is akin to finding the greatest common denominator, uniting the variant perspectives around it, reducing them to the new language and expressing them in a common, unified form. This is an unpleasant task for all concerned in that confusion arises about which is the baby and which the bath water.
    Communities in expressive opposition, that is, groups that do not know each other well, are exposed to turmoil by contact in developing into a larger, united group. The web of experiential interdependence suffers rents and tears in being more closely associated with the contradictions and deficiencies exposed in our way of being by those of other groups. A dramatic example of the nature of this problem is the Panará, a Stone Age Brazilian Indian tribe first encountered in the middle of this century that was virtually wiped out by disease and despair after contact. In a period of less than ten years their population dwindled from over five hundred to under seventy.
    Getting to know others and yourself more deeply through contact and comparison involves challenging and re-writing the traditions that had informed our experiences. This process continues until a new accord is arrived at through knowing one another well and the world in a new fashion as a result.
    The role of the mature being in this process comes in establishing levels of exchange, of counsel and relationships of loving trust with other groups in his/her broader perspective based on an awareness of their common problem of being together. Those in this process are often annoyances to their own community (e.g., Socrates, Zoroaster, Muhammed, Jesus, Chu Hsi) as they pierce and expose the obvious inappropriateness of the walls that traditionally defined and limited exchange between their own group and the other peoples united more clearly in their vision than in the narrower perspective of those around them.
    Such mature beings act both in seeing clearly and accurately and reporting on the nature of the world thus seen. Getting to know others with a conflicting perspective on existence is an unpleasant process that excites the mechanisms of experiential manipulation that denies others the right to exist as they do: the process involves seeing others as better or worse than yourself rather than seeing them clearly. These mechanisms try to protect what is most dearly loved in your own tradition but is either not seen or challenged in some way by the other's.
    In addition, the transition from smaller to larger community or civilization also involves a change in social organization and infrastructure as well as mentality. As Juvaini, a Persian who lived during the years of the Mongol's Great Khan Mengu, observed soberly:

    Civilizations arising out of this process reflect a united regard and the ability to live and function together with a common perspective on our part in the whole that is mutually satisfying. However, getting there is not easy and staying there difficult as well.
    In the present era a world of groups is getting to know one another more closely than ever before and the many levels of contact and exchange thus generated tend to degrade the experience of all concerned. All is challenged that superficial attachment and parochial perspective stand between communities and that deny the mutual interests and the common problem of existence that unite them.
    It is easier to admire (or despise) a group from afar. Arriving at a united modus vivendi leading to a tighter expression of common community and the appreciation of common responsibilities is a disturbing task. It is of benefit to a group to see its place in reality clearly but it does not seem so when precious traditional values are being violated and the traditional community that is the source of their treasured way of life is torn and despised. One comfort is that such unsettled periods of confusion and conflict are historically frequent and often previous to high expressions of the human spirit. If we survive the process of getting to know one another, perhaps we will do better.


  REFERENCES

Anderson, Benedict R. O'G.

Book of History

Chu Hsi

Confucius

Howe, David Gordon

Ibn Khaldun, Wali-ad-Din 'Abd-ar-Rahman

Juvaini, 'Ala-ad-Din 'Ata Malik

Plato

Sapir, Edward

Tsesze (Tzu-ssu)

Zimmern, Alfred

NOTES

1. For a discussion of the role of The Mahabharata in Indic civilization see Anderson (1965).
2. For a more thorough depiction of Javanese thought, see Howe (1980:42-66).
3. For a more extensive discussion of the nature of maturation psychology in Javanese thought and practice, see Howe (1980:120-146).
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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