The other side of the journey

I've written a lot about the physical side of the journey i've been on. The sights, sounds and smells, the people, the culture, the differences that are apparent between Eastern and Western living, but I haven't really written much about the philosophical and psychological aspects of the journey for me.

I've always had an interest in Eastern philosophy and religion - the optimism in the face of adversity that is throughout Eastern culture is fascinating. I find it interesting to note that westerners, with all their luxuries that are taken for granted tend to wallow in their somewhat inconsequential misery. "I can't afford this widescreen TV", "My dishwasher's broken I'll have to wash up by hand", "I can't afford to go to the pub tonight" are all grave causes of concern and misery in Western culture, but this is starkly contrasted by the much lower standard of living in the East, where beggars in the street with no legs will still greet you with a smiley disposition. These are not people who can't afford satellite TV, or don't want to work because they can live on handouts from the state - these are people who have no way of earning any money to survive at all. There are no state sanctioned benefits in place for people in Hong Kong. If you can't earn enough money to survive, then quite simply, you starve to death on the street. People work hard to survive, and those who resort to begging do so because there is no other way. Through poor education and disability the only hope for these people are the religious foundations that provide the little help that they can, and the people passing them on the street.

I have to say witnessing this first hand it detracts from the sense of self. I was approached by a man today who had no hands and was begging with a cap balanced on his forearms as I got off the ferry from Discovery bay. At a guess I would say he was about 75 years old, although with the truly impoverished out here its very difficult to age someone acurately. Maybe i've not had enough experience of witnessing this level of suffering to become immune to it like the 50 or so people who must have walked past him in the preceeding 10 minutes - to be honest I hope i never do, but the one thing that was visible in his eyes was a sense of hope. I think that man did more for me than i did for him when i emptied my pockets. To see someone in real need, with his life hanging by a thread with a smile on his face and hope in his eyes helped to balance everything out for me put everything in perspective. There is no suffering or misery that I have suffered that can even begin to compare to what that man has endured. There is no grief or sense of loss that can hold a candle to what that man must have felt. I am as guilty as the next man of letting ego and sense of self affect my emotion and mood, but surely if that man can deal with the adversity of life with a smile and keep hope in what the future holds for him, then what excuse do I have not to?

This is not news to me - this is all something that I knew already, but once in a while you need to re-affirm what you already know to make that real again. It's easy to become self-involved, to see things from a single perspective, but broadening the angle of your view is the only way to see the whole truth. This takes me back to the conversation had last week with Jeff, in Starbucks. He said that the way he perceives things is this (not a direct quote but a paraphrase):

"To see the absolute truth you need to observe events as an outsider, viewing things from all participants sides. Imagine four people each at different sides of a crossroads all witnessing an accident. They all see different things and in their own perspective what they see is correct, however details will differ greatly in each individual account of events - there will be contradictions and differences entirely based on each view even though to each individual their account is the truth. There is only one true version of events however, and that is the version of events viewed from above. There is no need to look at each account if that perspective is available with all standpoints visible."

Interestingly, this is at complete odds with the Buddhist theory of dependant origination, which is one of the key theories within Buddhism. The theory states that by observing events then you cannot truly be independant of them - the process of observation is actually resultant in you becoming a participant. This lies at the core of understanding of the reality of the external and internal selves, which is a concept i am not fully able to grasp, and am not going to prove my ignorance by writing my basic understanding of here, but it is something that have a better grip of as a result of being here and having the time to read and observe the world in motion without distraction.

That is ultimately what has happened here for me. A much greater understanding even though I still know nothing in the greater scheme of things. The Tao Te Ching teaches that it is not about knowledge or understanding though, but about acceptance and following a path that you know to be right.
Anyone reading this could argue that I'm mixing doctrines of faith between Taoism and Buddhism but there are so many consistencies between Taosim, Buddhism and Confucianism that I could argue that Lao Tzu, Buddha and Confucius were 3 of the people stood at the metaphorical crossroads mentioned earlier witnessing that "accident". The more I learn and "feel", the more i believe that this is the case and to get a full understanding of how things are the only way to do this is to look from the elevated perpective that allows all three views to be taken into account.

It's interesting that in a culture so commercial - consumer goods shops are so commonplace here and the despite the desire for the latest and greatest MP3 player, TV, computer, etc, that there is still a higher degree of happiness, which surprsied me. Consumerism always makes me think of the KMFDM song, Dogma

You have nothing so say and no way to say it,
But you can say it in 3 languages
You are more than the sum of what you consume
Desire is not an occupation.

I believed that it was the desire for unattainable goods that made people in the west so miserable, so self involved, and i think I was partially right. To people here nothing is unattainable; rather than be unhappy and focus their energies on wallowing in self-pity over what they cannot have, they find a way to achieve whatever it is they want. They work harder, don't sleep so they can get a second and 3rd job (you see people asleep on their feet on the MTR), live with families in cramped apartments until they can afford the standard of living that they desire and so on. They dare to hope. That indomitable spirit is lost in the west and i think that is one of the greatest tragedies of our society. Our laziness is the key to our misery.

I'm going to be sad to leave Hong Kong, and I'm going to be insufferably intollerant in the UK I suspect after seeing life here. The ups and downs of existence in this part of the world are real and not in the minds of those who experience them. I even have a stronger dislike of myself as I was. Being here has definitely changed me, and i think for the better.