“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” Rumi
One overriding goal I have as I begin each day is to find a little harmony in my life and maybe help others find a little harmony in their lives and in their organizations. I find meditating, playing the guitar, and drinking coffee with my wife every morning make that goal a little easier.
This week I have been thinking about how religions have approached the challenge of creating the harmony required to cure human discord. I asked Claude (Anthropic’s AI) a question that might lend some insights on the subject: “What would a Sufi, a Gnostic, a Buddhist, a Kabalist, and a Vedic philosopher agree on if they were to discuss the question of how to create more harmony in the world?”
The answer: “They’d get further than you might expect before the table turned cold.” Hmm, why might that be? Probably because they would meet in the open field instead of hiding behind enclosed walls.
To me, mystics, like the ones listed above, are more likely to converge in their beliefs, while traditionalists are more likely to diverge. Thus harmony is more likely to exist at the esoteric level.
To dive a little deeper, I wanted to know how these mystical representatives of the major world religions might agree on the “answer” to this question. My sense has always been that they are more inclined to focus on a core set of esoteric beliefs instead of the differentiating traditions of the exoteric versions. What I found after a little more investigation is that:
- Mystics tend to look beyond the limits of text rather than define a rigid truth.
- Mystics are more likely to see spiritual experiences as ineffable and beyond language whereas traditionalists use words (doctrines/dogmas) to explain their theologies.
- Traditionalists prioritize shared order expressed through creeds, doctrines, sacred texts, and dogma as essential because order and rituals safeguard the integrity of the faith across generations; mystics focus on first-hand, personal encounters.
- Traditionalists emphasize authority, lineage, and communal tradition; mystics focus on experiences and sensations.
Having made all those distinctions, it is also important to acknowledge that traditions rely on the transformative experiences of mystics to keep their doctrines from turning into static intellectual exercises. You get the point.
I was struck by the level of agreement on a few key themes among the more mystical spiritual practices. Kabbalists (Jewish mystics) believe in reabsorption into a divine source. Sufis (Islamic mystics) believe in the annihilation of ego to enable subsistence in God. Vedic philosophers (Hindu mystics) believe we are already at One with Brahman; we just need to realize it. Buddhists believe that emptiness is not a thing that is empty and that Nirvana is no longer needing to reincarnate; Gnostics (Christian mystics) believe that the Divine Spark is trapped inside our human bodies but can merge with the Presence of a personal God.
All of these mystical spiritual practices seem to converge around the ideas of union, absorption, and Presence. All seem to agree that the reason humans can’t seem to find harmony boils down to self-absorption, ego centricity, and clinging to the illusion of a separate ego as true identity. And they all seem to agree that selfless awakening is the path to harmony. In short, we all have one shared symptom: we are mostly wrong about what we are, and that wrongness is the source of the trouble. I guess a little humility may lead to harmony.
While I was pondering all of these esoteric and exoteric convergences and divergences, my wife—always alert to my struggles—suggested I listen to a David Brooks podcast on The Permanent Questions. She specifically suggested I listen to his interview with Ayad Akhtar, who just wrote The Radiance, a brilliant book that essentially deals with all the issues I discussed above in a more accessible way. My wife keeps reminding me that I might want to think a bit more about accessibility.
Brooks and Akhtar explore what happens when an individual suddenly sees the world with new eyes—moving from purely cerebral, analytical thinking toward an experiential, heart-centered awareness and awakening. They discuss how disorienting it can be for a modern intellectual to undergo an authentic spiritual shift. What I found ironic was that both Brooks and Akhtar are classic intellectuals educated in elite institutions and have had teaching roles at Yale and Brown. What I found refreshing, however, was that both of them were authentically struggling with these issues and were willing to make themselves vulnerable around their “awakening” process.
Akhtar describes how The Radiance examines the raw sensation of presence, grace, and warmth toward existence, as well as the fine line between spiritual illumination and psychological madness. In his interview with Brooks, he discusses how spiritual traditions cross boundaries—comparing Islamic mysticism (Sufism), Christian contemplative thought (Gnosticism), and Western philosophy as different attempts to articulate the ineffable.
Hmm, thanks Bobbitt. Good recommendation. (Bobbitt, in case you didn’t know, is my wonderful wife who always has helpful ideas on how I could be less ego-centric and self-absorbed.)
In both the novel and the interview, Akhtar highlights that while exoteric religion provides necessary communal forms and guardrails, it is the esoteric thread that provides the actual radiance—the lived, transformative spark that animates spiritual life from within.
After this dive into mystical and traditional approaches for finding a little more harmony in our lives, I had to raise the question: “What might light a pathway from the darkness of competing differences to the illumination of interdependence and harmony?” If you are a reader of this blog, you know that this is not my first dive into these murky waters. I have been struggling with these issues for 50 years or so and even wrote a book on the subject: Being at Home in the Universe. In any event, where I have landed after all these years of wandering and wondering is one possible path forward – the path of Non-Attachment, a key principle of Buddhist practice.
In Buddhism, the four Noble Truths (my simplified version) are:
1) All life is suffering;
2) Suffering is caused by desire and craving
3) Peace and harmony can be realized by letting go of attachments
4) The path forward is illuminated by the 8 Right Ways (not being right)
To me, 10 attachments litter our path to harmony and our true home:
- Being Right Attachment to being right forces us to defend an unyielding stance, treating every difference of opinion as a threat to the ego. This constant need for cognitive victory locks us into self-justification and self-righteousness, blinding us to the perspectives and suffering of others. It is especially dangerous to cling fiercely to the “rightness” of our beliefs and assumptions.
- Idealized Expectations Clinging to idealized expectations creates a rigid mental blueprint of how life, people, and events ought to unfold. When reality inevitably departs from this fantasy, self-absorption manifests as resentment, frustration, and a refusal to meet the present moment as it is. Expecting others to meet all our neurotic or unrealistic expectations is a sure path to discord.
- Affirmation Seeking continuous external validation anchors our sense of self-worth in the opinions and reactions of others. This attachment keeps the mind trapped in a cyclic anxiety, endlessly evaluating how “I” am perceived and valued. By constantly demanding approval to feel complete, we remain blind to the inherent, unshakeable freedom of a selfless presence.
- Affection When affection becomes an attachment rather than a free-flowing expression of compassion, it transforms into possessiveness and fear of loss. We begin to love others not for who they are, but for how they satisfy our internal need for emotional warmth and security. This self-serving desire turns relationships into instruments for ego-soothing, obscuring the unconditioned love central to awakening.
- Impermanence (Clinging to Permanence) Attaching to the illusion that conditions, relationships, or states of being can be made permanent creates a perpetual struggle against the natural flow of life. We turn inward, consumed by grief, fear, and resistance whenever change inevitably arises. Denying the transient nature of existence prevents us from relaxing into the impermanent reality that reveals true selflessness.
- Certainty The craving for certainty drives us to construct rigid beliefs and dogmas to shield ourselves from the unknown. This fixation turns the mind inward, obsessing over predictability and control at the expense of openness, welcoming, and curiosity. By demanding that life fit our fixed frameworks, we shut out the vast, ungraspable nature of pure awareness and the value of differences.
- Security An attachment to absolute security keeps us hyper-focused on self-protection and risk mitigation. This chronic defensiveness reinforces a boundary between “me” and a perceived hostile world, feeding an ongoing current of fear and isolation. Tracing every action back to self-preservation ultimately prevents us from stepping into the courageous openness required for selfless awakening.
- Appearance (Outward Image) Fixating on outward image (look-maxing) forces us to continuously manage and project a curated persona to the world. We spend immense energy monitoring how we are judged, trapped in a superficial cycle of vanity and insecurity. This obsession with external presentation reinforces the false self, keeping us distant from authentic, selfless presence.
- Ego Centricity Ego centricity places the personal “I” at the absolute center of every experience, filtering all of reality through the lens of personal gain or loss. This constant self-referential commentary generates endless friction with the world as it is. By viewing life strictly as a backdrop for the self, we remain blind to the unified, selfless whole.
- Illusions About What and Who We Are Grasping onto fixed identities—such as roles, labels, or stories about who we are—creates a rigid construct of selfhood. We end up defending an imagined narrative rather than experiencing the spacious, unconditioned nature of being. Overcoming these fundamental illusions dissolves the boundary between self and other, opening the door to genuine harmony.
I’m sure you could add your own list of attachments that have littered your path to harmony.
I’m simply hoping we can all find a little more harmony in our lives, in our organizations, and in the crazy world in which we are currently living. I’m hoping we can all break free from our attachments, break out of our walled-in prisons, and break into the open fields where the possibilities for dialogue and harmony can bloom – perhaps even radiate. May it be so.
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