There is a feeling of emptiness, a vacuum. It is not a complete emptiness, but rather, one that comes at a time of immense social change, which demands dramatic shifts in how people understand the world mentally and spiritually. It is a feeling that causes confusion and leads people to believe they lack solutions to the problems they face. They conclude that solutions can come only from outside, as inside there is nothing upon which to rely.
This feeling exists throughout much of Asia today. Not so long ago, most people throughout the region were accustomed to spending their lives on farms. The conditions in which they lived were relatively simple. Today, by contrast, people across Asia are faced with very complex conditions. But changes in conditions do not always lead to changes in thinking. A great many people in Asia cling to the simple impressions of their societies from earlier decades and centuries. Confronted by the new complex conditions, the feeling of emptiness grows. There is no continuity between past and present, no longer any means by which to relate to either of them.
The new conditions do not oblige people to adjust inside; only outer, mechanical adjustment is necessary. People change their lives to catch the morning bus, arrive at work on time, and use computers. But they do not necessarily make inner changes. In fact, inner changes are ignored, or treated as irrelevant. People stop trying to deal with new situations inside, and just go about making constant outer adjustments as new situations arise. They stop trying to understand what is happening. One reason for this is because inner adjustment requires much more time than outer changes. Experience is immediate, but understanding often comes much later. The mind must take time to chew on the experience. For someone coming from a simple rural situation to a vastly more complex and differently organised society, daily time is spent dealing with the immediate outer changes. The vast gap inside cannot be so easily filled. It will require many experiences and much time.
But while the feeling of emptiness that comes with this social change is inevitable, eventually there comes the need for a different inner world too. A person’s beliefs and inner responses begin changing, often without them knowing it. The person stops trusting institutions and others whom they once thought were there to protect or help them. For instance, a person who once unquestioningly accepted the role and integrity of doctors may begin to reconsider their earlier experiences. Recalling some event, the person may now find that its meaner qualities emerge. As more and more events from the person’s earlier experiences take on a different colour, the person’s inner world is changing. As distrust of one’s own society grows, more solutions are sought from the outside. New and more complex forms of protection are borrowed to take the place of earlier ones. For example, a person who earlier hid away some gold to use as insurance in the event of sickness or family death now subscribes to a company policy. The person looks to more reliable forms of protection that have evolved with the more complex conditions.
The vacuum is also spoken of as a feeling of powerlessness; the powerlessness of people whose inner and outer ways of dealing with the world were developed for the earlier, simple situations. This feeling is manifest in ideologies that denounce complex modern societies and technologies, and in calls to return to earlier simple forms of existence. Sadly, it is also manifest in a great deal of violence, which arises when the earlier relationships are lost. Through such violence, the past and present are irrevocably torn apart, and the feelings of emptiness, confusion and powerlessness are expressed: “We had such a peaceful and harmonious society. How is it that modernization has brought about only disunity and bloodletting?”
