East West: The Dance of Transformation
A superpower is helping clients make sense of seemingly disconnected ideas, find clarity in ambiguity, and navigate a path through a sea of (im-)possibility.
Lately, I have been challenged to do that for myself.
As I go deeper in my yoga training, I have begun to question the ‘tried & true’ ways of approaching social change, of untangling how systems -- within ourselves and out in the world -- sustainably evolve and regenerate.
The Western* model is anchored in “questioning, analysis, and logical deduction”.** It prioritizes the individual, and aims to find normalcy in a generalized aggregate. It trusts objectivity as truth, focusing on fixing brokenness through diagnosis of problems & symptoms in a mechanical model of doing.
It’s the air so many of us breathe in the American context. We can’t see it. We don’t question it until we feel short of breath. We believe that it is nourishing and life-giving; after all it has sustained our/this culture and project for hundreds of year – why wouldn’t we believe it?
The key to understanding in the Eastern model is “acceptance, observation, and experience”. It prioritizes the collective, and “holds that normality must be evaluated individually”. It emphasizes subjectivity, going so far as to diminish the “division between subjectivity and objectivity”. The intention leans towards healing through holistic approaches that address root causes in a dynamic, complete, and evolving fractal of a system.
It's an approach that in the American context is sometimes recognized as wisdom, inner knowing, intuition. More often, however, as soft, fluffy, even ‘woo woo’ to be used maybe-possibly-only in deference to hard technical skills and best practices that stem from capitalist business models, white supremacy culture, and militarist models of strategic execution.
That binary sets up a pretty clear distinction. So, what’s unclear?
If I/we continue to employ approaches to address social dis-ease that come out of the Western model, will anything sustainably change? What will transform?
Perhaps we will effect incremental changes on the margins of systems … maybe even catalyze seismic shifts in some ecosystems, policies, and practices … but will it be transformative enough to move us into a world & way of being that is rooted in justice, wonder, equity, love, and belonging?
Are we aiming to fix problems (reactively centering the problem & its limiting parameters) or are we ministering to the roots such that we can heal wounds and strengthen towards possibility from within and without?
In the words of the great Audre Lord, can we use the Master’s tools to dismantle the Master’s house?
I don’t think it’s an either/or proposition. More likely a both/ and set of approaches that ask us to slow down and really engage with what is underneath the surface holding systemic conditions in place. Things like inequitable & racialized power structures, zero-sum mentalities, scarcity mindsets, and a hustle culture that prizes productivity over humanity.
Perhaps the Western model is sufficient to effect change -- as it focuses on alterations, recombinations & permutations within the existing status quo. Technical fixes & bandages that clear the way for healing and growth but don’t focus on it.
Transformation, however, is about disrupting the status quo. It’s about welcoming the death of a way of being that no longer serves & actively harms and inviting forth a new way of being. It is about imagining a world into being that does not yet exist.
If so, I believe it requires a magical mix of the two in an iterative dance that addresses barriers externally to cultivate nourishing conditions (i.e. the chrysalis) while tending to the heart & essence internally.
It's starting to make sense to me, but the path forward is not yet lucid, the dance not yet choreographed.
As the East and West coalesce & the path towards transformation comes into focus,
I wonder, would you come dance with me?
*Forgive the usage of Western and Eastern. I recognize that they are holdovers from as far back as the cultural divide between the Catholic and Orthodox Christian Churches that were more about culture & religion than geography. The contemporary understanding continues to privilege a model of knowledge that centers Europe, and perpetuates a sense of nationalism rooted in a fear of the Other. It’s also important to note that the Western model prevails in most of the world, carried to all corners in part through colonialism. So why am I using this binary? Because it is a shortcut to contrast & make sense of these two distinct models of understanding the world and resulting behaviors within those frames. Not the best reason, but…
**This binary really hit home for me when I read the passage in Ayurveda and the Western Mind in Dr. Vasant Lal’s book, Ayurveda: The Science of Self-Healing. Much of the language I use here is drawn directly from that passage.
