The interconnected self
The traditional Buddhist teachings of Karma and rebirth
express how our actions of body, speech, and mind have implications
not only for ourselves but also for others, and even the world in
general. Moment by moment we create and recreate ourselves through
what we think, say, and do. Over time, we develop distinctive habits:
a recognizable 'self' that makes us more likely to perpetuate
those habits rather than adopt others. We get stuck in a rut. This
is how most of us experience our lives most of the time: trapped in
patterns of thought and behaviour that we can neither break out of
nor see beyond. Our habits become the limit of our world and our range
of choices becomes very narrow. Like blinkered cart-horses ploughing
the same old furrow, we cut deeper and deeper gashes into the earth
of life.
But our lives are also intimately connected to others. We are not
detached selves isolated from everything and everyone but interconnected
selves whose actions influence, and are influenced by, those around
us. To be human is to relate to other human beings. Not only do
our actions have implications for others in the present but they can
also affect people who have not yet been born. Recognizing this helps
us to understand that how we conduct our lives is a serious matter.
Our conduct can add to the sum total of goodness in the world or it
can eat away at that goodness by adding to what is base. It may often
seem as though our lives have no lasting value, and this can encourage
us to cling to some consolatory hope of a life yet to come, but it
is difficult to see our own life in perspective, difficult to recognize
exactly the impact we have had - for better or worse. It is difficult
to see what our life might have been like if we hadn't performed
good deeds (or bad). It might be a useful thought experiment to imagine
what life would have been like had we never been born: would the world
be a better or a worse place?
This device underlies the film It's
a Wonderful Life (directed by Frank Capra, 1947). The film tells the story of George
Bailey. In many ways, George is very ordinary;
he lives in the same small town all his life (though he has aspirations
to travel and do something 'big'), works in a finance company,
has a wife and children. In many ways his life is quite humdrum. Towards
the end of the film, owing to his uncle misplacing a large sum of
money, George stands to lose his whole business and might even end
up in jail. He becomes so desperate that he wishes he had never been
born and decides to kill himself; a somewhat sad end to an unremarkable
life, perhaps.
But George's life is really rather remarkable. He cherishes personal
ambitions but situations arise that seem to demand that he renounce
his own desires in order to respond to the needs of those around him.
His whole life is a continual struggle between personal desire and
objective need, and he always chooses to respond to the need. But
where has this got him? George thinks it has got him nowhere and he
becomes a poor, wretched man on the brink of ruin and suicide.
Just as George is about to throw himself from a bridge, an angel
arrives and throws himself into the icy water. George dives into the
river to save him. Later, unconsoled, George still wishes he had never
been born. The angel grants his wish by showing him how life in the
town would have progressed without him. For example, George's
brother is dead (since George would not have saved him from drowning
as a child), so he never grew up to be a war hero who saved many people's
lives. The town as a whole is dramatically different. It is characterized
by harsh, selfish behaviour and is in the grip of a heartless property
tycoon who keeps many of the residents in poverty by charging exorbitant
rents.
George begins to realize that, while thwarting his personal ambition,
the many sacrifices he made throughout his life have benefited the
town immeasurably, adding to the quantum of decency, kindness, and
solidarity of its citizens. While caught up in the whirl of daily
life, George is unable to recognize his positive impact on the lives
of others. Through stepping back and contemplating a world in which
none of his little acts of kindness had happened he sees the true
value of his contribution. He sees how seemingly small kindnesses
snowball into the future to set up dramatically positive chains of
events. He appreciates how rich he has become as an individual through
his compassionate action and is finally able to lay to rest his regret
at his unfulfilled ambitions.
It is easy to underestimate the impact of everyday kindnesses and
cruelties. It is often only with time that the true character and
influence of such actions can be seen. While the traditional Buddhist
doctrines of Karma and rebirth may present themselves in a somewhat
archaic, even naive, guise, they nevertheless communicate timeless
truths about what it means to be human. We bear a responsibility
to our future self and to other human beings through what we do. We
have the power to transform the world for good or ill. It is through
the compassionate exercise of this power that we fulfil our responsibility
to life and transcend the confines of our ordinary mind. We place
a feather on the scales of life that tips them towards goodness.
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