I am “Not that”

“There are no sides in this one.  They simply do not exist.  This is not the kind of thing that has a top and bottom, a right and left, a front and back,”…

“Sounds like Zen,” I said.  “Interesting enough in itself as a system of  thought, but not much good for explaining anything.”

from The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

An exercise in zen intentionality is to dig deep to find your core self.  This exercise is done by stepping away from yourself, outside of your ego, and examining  all of the facets of your self-identity.   We cling  onto our self concepts since they help define ourselves to ourselves.   This discipline is based on being able to accept that you are, “Not that.” Keep contemplating who you really are by shedding the contextual construct of what you do/did (or not), what you have achieved (or not), what others think of you, etc.  Keep moving your self identity out of context until you are left with the essence of self.  I think this used to be called the soul but that term is not used much any more.  Maybe a “ghost” inside a shell will be the newest concept.

So then, who are you and where do end up?

Who you think you are is usually based on your role in life. Student. Doctor. Parent. Married. Single.  Winner. Loser.  Important. Irrelevant. etc.  Can you think of yourself without thinking of what you do and where you are in life?

“Centering prayer” is a similar discipline.  The action is emptying your thoughts, shedding all of the things you are thinking of.  Trying it is amazing as all of the things you are thinking about, worrying about, keep coming back to you.  You may be close to the center, pretty close to simply “I am” when the thought comes, “How long have I been doing this?  Isn’t it time to take a shower?”

.. and along comes Data Analytics.

The computer revolution of the 20th Century replaced workers in factories with robots. The Leinenkugel’s Brewery in downtown Milwaukee is manned by a couple of people.
The revolution of data analytics and its growing A.I. will replace white collar information workers next. The day will come when only one of you is needed where once eight were needed.  Data analytics have begun to know you better than you know yourself.  Know what you want and what you will do before you think of it or act.

Mankind is at an existential decision point and will have to redefine itself. What about the billions of people who need to do something to have self-identity, be doing something that is valuable,  important work?  This will take an incomprehensible amount of “job retraining.”  And what will the other 6 billion of us do?

Whole societies have been faced with this before. What environmental disruptions pushed early mankind to leave Africa to migrate to Euroasia.  How about the displacements with true revolutions?  “Three families could live in your comfortable apartment!”  Or the new life called for amidst the rubble of war.

And as individuals, we are faced with this redefining our lives at different points in our lives. Sometimes predictably. We graduate from school.  No longer a student.  Maybe unemployed?   Sometimes the need to redefine occurs unpredictably. We lose someone at the center of our lives. Our health.  Our “job.”  We are forced to ask, “Who are we now?”

It’s actually easier to imagine “I am Not,” the world after you are no longer alive.  It goes on and you can wonder who will remember you.

Oh, I digress.  Back to trying to find the center of “I am, Not that.”  I can keep it up for about thirty seconds before I start thinking about the memo I need to write.  Or the worry of big data making my own insights trivial.  But once in awhile one can get to the wonder of simply, “I am.” It is your own personal Big Bang.  What am I doing here!  Why does this nidus of conscious energy float in this universe?

It is a mystery.  No way you will figure it out.  But it will help you see that you are “Not that” but something more.

This reflection captures a conversation with the author and speaker, Richard Thieme, on October 7, 2016.  It represents notes from and reflections on our discussion of the challenges of our times.