Should I Just Conform?

If we do not know, then we have to conform to a common standard of confusion. Conform: comply with rules or standards. Antonym: rebel, differ from. In Buddhism, such rebellion is a way of cognising, of seeing outside the conventional view of reality.

When we modify pure cognisance, pure awareness, pure perception, we come out of purity and return to a more limited experience of the conformity of a common reference. This is not pure, as it has conventional and cultural bias. We move from the light of pure awareness of being, into the shadowland of saturated awareness, full of do’s and don’ts. It might feel safer, but it’s the rebel who sticks their head out into the light!

Recognition, in a spiritual sense, is of utmost importance, and is a rare state. Most spiritual organisations adhere to a conformity that is unaware, when the whole point is to be free of such restrictions. This does, however, take discipline!

In pure cognisance, there are no problems, no judgments, no right or wrong. When we re-cognise, we fall into a bias or reference of some sort. From a relative point of view, this may help us ‘sort things out’, but it is limiting, and we may be complying with “who” knows “what”.

I sometimes have a problem with doing pujas, chanting mantras, visualisations, even meditation; it feels like conforming. This is what happens when the practice becomes mechanical. Part of my mind thinks, “Well, if I do all these practices, I must be a good guy.” No…just a silly boy 😉 ! Having said that, it is beneficial just to get on with it, as it builds a firm foundation, but if we don’t understand what we are reading and saying, we wind up in confusion.

This is what happens when we just conform and join in. It may feel good, but we become lap dogs, eager to please. It is then that subtle abuse can take place, and we get treated as lap dogs.

I truly think that teachers should bow to the students. It would show respect for their efforts; they have strived through negative conditions to seek out the teaching.

When we talk to others, it feels like mere conformity. During a public concert, at the end of a piece of music there’s a wonderful silence – and then we conform to making a noise by clapping… it’s the claptrap! Claptrap: absurd or nonsensical talk or ideas: ‘Such sentiments are just pious claptrap’. When we listen to music at home, alone, we don’t clap…we just melt.

So should I just conform or not?

Yes, to start with, even if it’s mechanical, as we will get a flavour, a scent, a feel, see the effects, hear about clarity in a form we hadn’t heard before. This builds our reference point, something we can recognise.

It’s then that we upgrade to personal cognition. Pure cognition, where there is no right and wrong, and no judgements and no problems. We may appear to be a rebel as we now differ from the collective conformity, and are free from sentimentality.

The hallmarks/questions are; Are we happier? Do we have compassionate confidence? Do we know our true nature? Do we know our own true self?

“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Polonius, from Hamlet

From a Buddhist perspective, our “own true self” is
our Buddha nature.

We may be very clever in our conformity. We may be experts but it is only referential knowledge, and kind of smug. There is, however, a knowledge or wisdom that is tentative, where we suck it and see. Wisdom is the return to the source of inspiration; empty awareness.

Tentative: not certain or fixed; provisional: ‘a tentative conclusion’.

Being a rebel is not merely doing what we want without any regard for consequences. There is a discomfort about it, as it entails going against the grain of our programming; it’s the hero facing their own path, neither accepting nor rejecting their karma, both good and bad, and remaining in the sense of one taste.