Nick Seneca Jankel: Switch On
The world is always changing. Nothing can ever stay the same, as the Eastern traditions make so clear. Rather than fear this, we can learn to embrace it, as long as we are always excited by growth, discovery and adventure. The fittest survive. The fitted – in sync with their environment – thrive. This means the more adaptable we are – as Darwin pointed out – the better we get.
OMTIMES: You address many of the ancient wisdom traditions in your book what if any of the teachings do you think is most relevant to your work and to modern day life?
Nick Seneca Jankel: As a broadly a perennialist, I sense that most of the great wisdom traditions have similar basic concepts. So it becomes a personal choice which, if any, to engage with.
Personally, I love the heart-centered essence of Sufism and the possibility that the universe is our beloved (and we are its). It’s a great healer for our disconnected and alienated times. I love the urge for social change within the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam; to piece together the broken shards of our atomized and unequal society. I love the urge of Mahayana Buddhism to engage in spiritual awakening for the sake of other beings, within the Bodhisattva Vow. That enlightenment is the start not the end of the journey.
I love the cool, still, spacious ways of Taoism, which urge us to align with nature and the natural world, a great insight if we want an Earth that is not devastated by pollution, waste and climate change. I love the simplicity of Zen Buddhism and its instance in instant enlightenment – we don’t have time to sit in monasteries for 20 years before we switch on and start sorting out of lives / communities. I love the communal spirit of African Ubuntu and Native Indian traditions, and their urge to realize we are in this together – that we are the stewards not owners of this world (and the oil, metals and houses within it). I love the radical non-dualism of India’s Advaita Vedanta and the Baghavad Gita, and the genius Thrive Hacks of that tradition (like the concept of devotion) which have emerged over centuries to embrace the paradox of how to live in this world with a sense of unity amidst the evident diversity of real-world experience.
