Don’t Try to Save the World!

One can feed bellies without adopting a savior complex

In 2012 Wired magazine published an article claiming that I was one of 50 smart people who were going to change the world. At the time, I thought that was pretty cool. But my mentors warned me not to buy into the hype, or to try and save the world. I was too idealistic & arrogant, at that time, to hear them.

Fast forward a dozen years later, and I totally get what they meant! And it wasn’t awakening that clarified this–although that probably helped–it was just living. As I got older, and watched one idealistic non-sense idea after another flame out, not come to pass as I’d hoped, or back-fire in stupendous ways, I began to realize that the frame of saving the world was the problem. 

In the Zen tradition there’s a koan, called The Goose in the Bottle:

A woman raised a goose in a bottle. When the goose was grown, she wanted to get it out. How can you get it out without breaking the bottle?

The rough answer to the koan is that the goose was never in the bottle, outside of this story. Once you stop believing the frame, you see that there wasn’t a problem to begin with. It’s the same with saving the world. We assume there’s a world that needs saving–a world in a bottle–and think we need to save the world without breaking it.

So, here’s the essential point, for those ready to hear it:

Don’t try to save the world!

In the same way that the Zen student is assuming that there’s a goose that they need to get out of a bottle, in order to solve the koan, you’re assuming that you know what the world is, that it needs saving, how it needs saving, and that you’re the one to do it. This is total and complete grandiose bullshit at every stage of assumption-making!

At the heart of the desire to save the world is our savior complex, our need to feel special, to feel admired & loved–all of which is tied to a bottomless pit of unworthiness & lack. We hope that by saving the world we will prove our worth. Sorry to tell you, but it’s not going to happen friend, it’s a neurotic pipe-dream. When one is comfortable in their own skin, they don’t feel the compulsion to save anyone, least of all themselves. Now that’s freedom!

A common retort to this, from other enlightened assholes, is: “Who is truly there to save? But - ultimate truth isn’t gonna slake the thirst of the thirsty unenlightened worldlings. Explaining emptiness does not fill bellies”, to which I reply, “One can feed bellies without adopting a savior complex.”

See, it’s very easy to confuse the two truths of being human–the personal/relative truth and the universal/ultimate truth. Universal wisdom is recognizing that, strictly speaking, there’s no one to save. Personal wisdom is realizing that despite all my best efforts at saving myself & others, it just hasn’t worked out. This is hard-earned wisdom that comes from living, not from some kind of transcendent spiritual experience.

Prior to being anointed as a world-changing super geek, I had already experienced the great ego death, was already abiding in & as the always-already. But it takes time, dear friends, to wake down. And it’s very much an organic process. So, yes, while it’s true that emptiness does not fill bellies, what I’m trying to convey here is that the world doesn’t need you to save it, not only because there’s no one else to save, but also because the whole idea of being a savior is rooted in a grandiose and inflated sense of self-importance. In reality you have virtually no hope of saving the world, being far more likely to make it worse by buying into such grandiosity.

Someone then asks, “1 person trying to save the world is silly. Is a million?”

“A million times sillier, and more dangerous, yes.”

Let go of the goose,
let go of your savior complex,
let go of the grandiosity,
let go of thinking that your special group can save the world,
and do your best to be kind and decent people. 
This is enough.

Want to Wake Both Up & Down?

Part of how I make a livelihood, while bringing great meaning into this fleeting life, is by working with people one-on-one. I do this as both a meditation coach and a dharma teacher, depending on whichever role people are looking for. If you’re interested in the powerful potential of a transformative relationship, feel free to schedule a short call with me to discuss the potential of working together.