The Real Measure of Our Progress
We all want progress in life, often without even knowing the true meaning or concept of progress. There are different ideas/definitions and most of them are stereotypical in the sense that they are rendered in the context of achieving a specific objective/goal, such as moving towards a perceived or more desirable state; the process of gradually improving or getting nearer to achieving or completing something like obtaining a degree, winning a contest, getting a job etc.
However, some wise and prudent sages define it as simultaneously moving toward something and away from something else.
Here is a C.S. Lewis quote that defines the term “progress” very concisely and judiciously:
“We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man. There is nothing progressive about being pig-headed and refusing to admit a mistake. And I think if you look at the present state of the world it’s pretty plain that humanity has been making some big mistake. We’re on the wrong road. And if that is so we must go back. Going back is the quickest way on.”
In the light of above, we can say that one should measure progress not so much in terms of what one claims to have gained than what has been lost. Buddha and some Buddhists too seem to have vehemently favoured and supported the idea in their own way:
Although this quote (as is always the case with most of the quotes and their origins) is also said to have been misattributed to Buddha with the claim that original idea too has been distorted, even then it makes a little difference. The other proponent of the idea of progress in terms of losing something is believed to be Douglas M. Burns and he is said to have made the following statement in 1972 in the appendix to an essay called “Buddhist Meditation and Depth Psychology,” published in “Collected Wheel Publications Vol VI,” :
“It may be stating the case too strongly to say that in meditation one seeks to gain nothing. For there is an increase in happiness and peace of mind. But when asked, “What have you gained from meditation?”, the answer would be: “It is not what I have gained that is important but rather what I have diminished, namely, greed, hatred, and delusion.”
Similarly, famous American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century, is believed to have said:
For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.
It is like a barter system. When you go to a shop and want something of your choice then you must loose something in exchange, be it money or some other thing of value. If you are not willing to pay, you can’t buy anything. Thus if you don’t loose your bad traits like anger, greed, jealousy, selfishness etc., you can’t gain positive traits like calmness, generosity, selflessness to be content and happy.
An other example is that of wearing new clothes. If you don’t remove old and dirty clothes from your body that you are already wearing, you can’t wear new clothes.
Young Buddha or Siddhartha Gautama Buddha also had to renounce all worldly things to find the ultimate truth and enlightenment.
However, while the advocates of modern civilization also claim to have achieved much in terms of enlightenment and prosperity which everybody who has seen it remarks upon as being one of the finest efforts of modern civilization, they forget that humanity has lost much than it has gained.
And if our stubborn attitude doesn’t change for the better, the problem of environmental pollution will not be solved and situation can get even worse. Debates about globalization have also raised issues related to the role of civilization in global warming that can force us to go back to stone ages.
In a nutshell, learning and unlearning go hand in had.
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References:
i) Pinterest
ii) https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/404306-we-all-want-progress-but-progress-means-getting-nearer-to
