Orienting Towards X-Risk with Wisdom

Being at peace with the state of affairs of the world

I’m writing this during a 6am MST collective journaling hosted by from . I plan to make this a regular practice if my body doesn’t reject waking up this early every morning.

This is my declaration. My resolve.

I resolve to put the love of wisdom at the center of my life.

I’m not sure what the love of wisdom entails in it’s many facets, and that’s why I’m starting with a declaration and not a strategic plan.

I have a sense that it will entail:

  • Reading more dense philosophical books

  • Doing more meditation

  • Learning how to love more deeply

  • Increasing maturity and becoming less selfish

  • Saying No to more things

Yesterday I had the beautiful opportunity to watch Building Our Regenerative Future with a group of friends and dialogue about what resonated and where we’re at with the whole ecological and planetary crisis that humanity is in.

A few pieces stuck out to me as exuding A Love of Wisdom more than others and it was spoken from .

The essence of the share was that:

Even if shit is fucked in the long run — feeling decapacitated never does us well. The biggest trap of of the UNFCCC (UN Climate Change Conference) is that every year the conclusion is that the world is absolutely going to ruin and our situation is more bleak than we thought — which leaves everyone feeling apathetic, depressed and as Jamie bluntly put it, “suicidal.”

But apathetic is not a place to orient from. If we’re going to have a fighting chance we need more activation energy, more 300 spartan fighting energy, because even if the state of the world looks bleak, so did it in 1940 and yet we’re still here.

“Criticize by creating” - Michael Angelou

In navigating how to orient to the world’s crises I’ve stumbled on these principles:

#1: I have to be okay if humanity goes extinct

This is by far the biggest frame shift I’ve experienced.

This is not the same as apathy (see principle #2).

I must not come from a place of not-okayness and fear — of needing humanity to survive because then I’m always in rejection of the possibility of collapse. All of my energy becomes resistance energy. I’m resisting and constricting myself against the possibility that humanity doesn’t make it.

First of all, this is no way to live. I don’t want to be in constant rejection of the possibility of collapse. I want to cultivate such a deep acceptance that I’m come to terms with the possibility that humanity doesn’t make it. Then, and only then, I can show up for the crises of the world from a place of more freedom — of wholeness.

This ~4 minute youtube video from Adyashanti conveys the first principle perfectly.

Spending the entirety of my existence in a state of fear of collapse, while telling myself that this is virtuous and that I’m being a martyr for the good reeks of self-deception and virtue signaling.

A different relationship may be something like:

I love humanity, and I will show up for the fullness of my love, and if humanity still goes extinct, well then so be it.

#2: I must get over my own apathy and wallowing

Having spent so much of my life absolutely capture by apathy and shut-down, I realize that I must choose to relate differently with the world in all of it’s chaotic complexity.

To wallow and feel sorry for myself feels like an utterly immature response to reality. Disrespectful even. It’s disrespecting the situation by making it about “me”. It’s not about me. It’s painful and there is grief and despair, but sitting with that depth of pain and choosing to be animated, energized and to never get dispirited is at the core of my principles for how to orient towards life as of present.

#3: I must not shut out grief, despair or pain

In his book The Path with Heart Jack Kornfield writes:

As we take, the one seat, we discover our capacity to be unafraid and awake in the midst of all life. We may fear that our heart is not capable of weathering the storms of anger or grief or tear that I’ve been stored up for so long. But to take the one seat is to discover that we are unshakable. We discovered that we can face life fully, with all its suffering and joy, that our heart is great enough to encompass at all.

The basic principle of spiritual life is that our problems become the very place to discover wisdom in love

But grief arises in waves and cycles, and it’s done on its own time. It is over when we have so deeply accepted it, that it doesn’t matter if it arises again or not.

Spiritual practice will not save us from suffering and confusion. It only allows us to understand that avoidance of pain does not help.

The tricky part is threading the needle of principle 2 and 3. This is what I’m curious about these days. How do I feel activated towards the problems of the world without shutting out my own despair and deep pain?

I believe this is what is required to orient towards wisdom in the age of existential risk.

#4: I must orient from a place of love and towards love

Speaking of orienting from wisdom, this also entails orienting from a place of deep love.

I want to fall in love with reality to such a deep level that the fact that something exists at all is enough. Where there’s a full understanding that life is finite and I will someday end, and for that realization to continually deepen the love that I feel for what is right here, right now.

In other words, orienting our ethics towards beauty. Rob Burbea wrote: