The problem with complexity

Life is really complex today and a high degree of complexity makes it hard to keep the overview, to keep orientation and certainly to find the right solution for a problem. In former times it was different. Life was simple, society was simple, the rules of life were simple, – everything was simple, clear and easy to comprehend.

In fact we have here the polarity of simplicity versus complexity.

Imagine a pyramid. At the top we have the one, unity, the source of complexity, of life and creation, and at the bottom we have the other pole, – complexity, the diversity of life and creation, the result of the unfolding process down from the top to the basis of the pyramid.

In fact you have only two directions – towards a higher degree of complexity or towards a higher degree of simplicity. Up or down the pyramid. Moving up or down you experience the hierarchy of diversity. From the top downwards the one becomes two, becomes three, four, five… ten, hundred, thousand, etc. This hierarchy works like a flower with many branches and countless leaves and blossoms. When you examine one branch then you can see that it differentiates into two further branches and these branches branch out in further branches and so on and at every branch there are leaves and blossoms. Now you can try to catch the complexity of blossoms, leaves which is impossible or you can grab this complexity by taking the one branch where all blossoms and leaves are attached. Do you understand?

Another example: Imagine you have a task for a unit at the army. So you have two major options. You can go to every soldier and tell him about the task or you go to the commander of the unit and tell him the task. Here you can see as well the hierarchy where simplicity triumphs over complexity.

And this principle is true for all problems and all aspects of life and also for the spiritual training and development.

Today we are trained to see only the great complexity of problems and we use the limited intellect to solve them. But when you go to the root of a problem, upwards the pyramid, to simplicity, then you can cope with it in a more efficient, better way.

At the top of the pyramid there is God and God contains all powers, all qualities, all the knowledge and all answers in oneness. The diversity of creation unfolds of his unity. So when you go back to the source then you return to the original simplicity and you are able to find fitting solutions for problems of the lower levels where you can get lost easily because you miss the wood for the trees.

One very simple example to illustrate this: Today we have a very big scientific field of research about our nourishment to understand which ingredients unfold which kind of effects, – good ones, bad ones, etc. Additionally the food industry searches for artificial additions to replace natural things like taste, look, etc. and to make things stable. And nearly every months the latest news about the latest results of research are published “Don´t eat this and eat more of that!” And this changes permanently as the results change too. The whole science of nourishment is so complex today that no one really knows what he says, what is really good or really bad. Opinions change permanently. There are thousands of diets. Countless food products, ingredients, vitamins, minerals, etc. Indeed this is the complex basis of the pyramid about food.

When you go upwards the pyramid, the hierarchy of food/nourishment, you will find at the top the simple slogan “Follow your intuition, eat fresh and in diversity!” That´s it! There is not a single creature that needs a nutrition expert to tell it what to eat and what not. The only exception is the most ignorant being of creation – the human being. If ignorance was painful, mankind would have died already from the super loud screams and the unbearable pains.

When you occupy yourself with analyzing the problems of mankind to find fitting solutions for a better future, then you find no good results working on the basis of the pyramid, on the level of highest complexity. In fact you can do small or bigger changes on this level but all the bad, wrong and evil things on the higher levels still exist – there is only one chance – to cut the bad branch high enough in the hierarchy, so that a new good branch with blossoms and leaves can grow and replace the old bad one. There is a saying in Germany “If you want to get rid of weed, you have to pull out its roots! (Otherwise it comes back and just cutting some branches or leaves off doesn´t help at all.)” So this is pure logic. The evil must be pulled out at its roots and not in the complexity of branches or leaves.

If you want to kill the hydra then it doesn´t help to cut off one of her heads, – you must kill her body.

And when you remember Alexander the Great when he was asked to solve the problem of the Gordian knot – he saw that no one every would be able to solve it as the complexity was too high and so he did the only right thing – he took his sword and cut the knot – and so he has solved this problem. A simple action. In the same way we have to cut the complexity down to the root problems to find fitting solutions.

When we now examine the spiritual path and the spiritual training then it is similar. All spiritual studies belong to the top of the pyramid as they deal with the highest knowledge and with God, the source of life and creation. Here simplicity rules. There is no complexity, – not in the spiritual knowledge and not in the training itself. And this is exactly the problem of many students – the missing of complexity as we are all trained today to see everything in most complex way – we think that everything must be complex and also that only complex answers, complex solutions are good solutions. And due to this unhealthy attitude we have really big problems to understand the great degree of simplicity regarding God and spiritual teachings. Once you have adapted yourself to simplicity you are able to use it as a key to understand the most complex problems in life and everywhere.

With these problems of a complex “materialistic-scientific” attitude the problem of the overstrained intellect comes along. Instead of just taking the spiritual teachings and realizing them in life and in the exercises, the students often just go through them on an intellectual level without any real results at all. The intellectual level is the level of complexity, the basis of the pyramid. Only practice leads to progress and real understanding. Own experience is everything.

Here I want to give a small example. In one group for spiritual research and sharing of experiences the topic of the ego came up. I have made the statement that it is very complex and needs a deep spiritual knowledge to be really understood. This caused a typical discussion with participants of all different opinions and teachings – an intellectual discussion. As these intellectual discussions have often no value than pure entertainment and killing time, I have posted a small meditation about the embracing of the ego in true love for clearing, healing and balance. Not a single participants of this ego discussion tried it to build an own opinion based on real own experience. In the end – what a waste of precious time.

This is the main reason why I do not like to take part in intellectual discussions. In contrary to them – how wonderful and absolutely precious is it to share real experiences, to celebrate them and to inspire one another for further practice.

Everyone has the choice – between living on an intellectual level and real experiences of life.