why I have a brain

Many living things do not have a brain. They get bye without one. Getting bye involves having access to food and oxygen so that you live long enough to reproduce. You reproduce because that is what living things do. And, because you do it, evolution happens.

Plants make their own food by (a) absorbing water and mineral salts through the roots, (b) absorbing carbon dioxide through the leaves and (c) converting the light energy in sunshine into stored, chemical energy. The process is known as photosynthesis and the products (sugar and oxygen) are food. While rooted to a spot plants get bigger and by various means organise for cross pollination and for seed dispersal.

Animals do not make their own food. They have to eat plants or other animals. In most cases this involves (a) using sense organs to find food, (b) using teeth and claws to capture and kill it, and (c) using digestive systems to reduce it to a soup of useable building blocks.

SO - my life is more complicated than that of a brussel sprout. I have to be aware of my environment in terms of dangers (lions and human upstarts), feeding opportunities (hunting and gathering), and the social dynamics (status and hierarchy) within my group. There are other groups that are the competition. The better organised groups survive.

BUT – about 45 years ago I was an idealistic Zoology student. I committed to zero population growth. I am now in my 60s and I have no children in the next generation. Am I thus a biological failure? Did I waste my brain?

It might be argued that my life choices helped shape the survivability of my group. But what group?

I moved around the world and never seriously put down roots. My professional interactions involved reproducing ideas and changing minds. It would be good to think that the world has evolved into a better place as a result – even if only in a very small way. Might that be why I have a brain?

cyber sangha

There is new information and communications technology (ICT). It may not effect what we as a sangha communicate about, but it makes a potentially enormous difference to how and when we communicate with whom.

But there are options.

We can ignore it and carry on with the old ways. Or we can have a relatively low-tech involvement such as being on a rarely used email list. Or we can enter the ICT pool at the shallow end with Facebook and Twitter, the middle with personal or group blogs and websites, or the deep end with all manner of innovative gismos (eg bulletin boards, Skype etc)

Amongst other things a Sangha exists to support members in beginning and maintaining a ‘practice’. Sitting together in silence is a fundamental and powerful means of non-verbal communication. But there are also verbal means. Chief amongst these are dharma talks (or readings), formal sharing and listening from the heart, and informal sessions of chat that are less focussed on our practice.

For a range of different reasons different people are more or less enthusiastic about the potential of ICT to assist sangha members in developing their own practice and encouraging the practice of others. No problems. Enhanced ICT options can be developed and it is optional whether or not members use them.

Two main categories of messages come to mind. There can be pointers to textual, audio and video sources of notable presentations about the dharma on the internet.  There can also be personal stories highlighting the details of member’s individual practice. The first category involves ‘herding another person’s cows’ which can be a valuable service. The second category involves the idiosyncratic  identification and rounding up of member’s own cows – this could develop into a highly original body of work.

As a member of a sangha with a wide geographical spread, what are your feelings about using some ICT to change how and when we communicate with whom?

interactive

I have just sent an email inviting a few people to visit this blog. If you are one of them – hello. 

My aim is to capture a feeling for what it is to have a ‘practice’ - from my idiosyncratic point of view. There are a fair number of essays on this blog and a whole lot more at http://dodclark.blogspot.com . 

Do the stories ring any bells?

One or two

Each morning I receive emails of dharma snippets from respected gurus. There are dualist and monist viewpoints. My response to them is not unbiased!

The dualist believes in an authoritative outsider. The selfish self is contrasted with the selfless other. The Gods step in where parents feared to tread. Benign leaders wish me well. There is a sacred agency that cares about and protects me. Such beliefs lead to existential cop out and to reliance on myth and magic.

The monist appreciates the Oneness and the fact of InterBeing. There is blurring of boundaries between ‘things’. No beginnings or endings, only the eternal ongoing present. All being is just mind stuff. Blow away the clouds. Let the mud settle. Know the peace.

Someday the sun will go out. In the meantime the student is expected to work out his salvation with diligence.

I feel inclined to help. Is it the vocation calling? I could help make the world a better place by sorting out my own head such that I am in a better position to help others sort out theirs.

And then there might be ‘movements’ energised by changed minds. But I have no new insights to offer. There are spiritual and intellectual giants already pumping out new ideas. I could be a fellow traveller. My contribution would be in rephrasing so that more people are inclined to get on board the train.

I have slipped away from plain language. But that is OK. The first task is to understand. Once I am comfortable with the story line there will be thought about how to express it.

Pretentious Worldviews

Is it pretentious to imagine that I am on a spiritual path? I am one of Jock Tamson’s bairns. I was born, will live for a few years, and then die. So it is with all sentient beings – and even with the rocks and stones. If there is a beginning there will also be a middle and an end.

Impermanence is easy to realise. Your culture and language will teach you how to feel about it. Or perhaps it is a taboo subject because it is too upsetting to think about. Either way your ‘knowing’ is based on what your language recognises.

But language-based cultural containment can be challenged. If there are existing stories they can be rewritten and if there are gaps they can be filled. There is an ever present option to boldly go where no man has gone before.

As it happens, an illustrious few have boldly gone before and, in so doing, have provided proof of concept. They have shown that it is possible for individuals to realise the unreality of their culture specific worldview and, as a result, to survive and even to flourish.

It is like mud in water. With stillness it settles and there is clarity. As human beings we are hard wired to cope with impermanence. But the relevant genes are covered in monkey mind mud. If the mind is a sports car few people ever get it out of first gear. This is good for rulers.

Most rulers operate so as to “keep the peasants in ignorance”. People who think too much are dangerous. They might have thoughts that challenge the rulers. Thinkers are thus seen as insane revolutionaries and are dealt with accordingly.

But the skill set of the ruler does not of necessity include creative thinking. They employ advisors for that. Advisors are useful when they are innovative and generate new ideas that the rulers can use. In this case the thinkers are seen as sane evolutionaries and they are rewarded.

I was an advisor to government in the South Sudan, Belize and Lesotho. I was fastidious in not pushing my personal agenda. I facilitated national development processes by gathering and processing evidence and by preparing short briefing notes about how similar problems were tackled in different countries. Very few local voices were innovative. Key decision makers were interested in the standard modernisation package for ‘becoming like America’.

I have written elsewhere about my three chronological topics of interest – education development (especially curriculum), social development (plain language to promote participation in policy making) and then personal development (meditation as a radical means of unhooking from narrow cultural straightjackets).

With education development and social development I was a servile facilitator. I was at the cutting edge of official expertise and I promoted official and fashionable blueprints. The goal was to change other people’s minds

… Were these pretentious worldviews?

With personal development I am an active participant. I study the dharma (including modern western contributions) and meditate. The goal is that my mind should change itself and know peace . Interaction with like minds is welcome. I share ideas by blogging

… Is this a pretentious worldview?

Towards uncommon sense

Towards Uncommon Sense by George Clark

Sangha Sharing – heart and head

Sangha sharing involves a member presenting heartfelt ideas to the other members  who obviously listen but who do not respond and who are not expected to.

The process is called sharing and listening from the heart. It is interesting to compare this with what might be involved in sharing and listening from the head.

When the sharing and listening is from the head it begs for a spoken response. It then quickly becomes a discussion or debate and possibly a therapy session. The goal = to promote a robust sense of self. The truth is made by talking. (chat, counselling, psychotherapy, psychiatry.) This dialogical procedure can easily get caught up in the cut and thrust of debate and unhelpful dependencies can be established.

When the sharing and listening is from the heart there is no need of a response. The mental act of stringing words together causes the speaker to be witness to the issue rather than being caught up in it. This ‘distance’ is its own reward and, as a bonus, acts as affirmation of the goal which, in this case, is to appreciate the illusory nature of ‘self’. In the absence of responses from the listeners the speaker will reflect on her reality from her own perspective and come to know that her mind has a mind of its own. It gets progressively easier to drop off body and mind and to know the peace of no self.

Dumb Dharma

Retreat to a cave

I am beginning to realise what sages mean when they say that reality is unspeakable.  Mere words cannot do it justice. Dharma is dumb.

Language evolved to deal with practical matters like relationships, social status and the brainwashing of children. Language did not evolve to deal with those aspects of experience that are meta-cognitive, other-worldly and ‘spiritual’.

But truth/ reality/ the dharma can be known and experienced non-verbally by people who clarify their minds by stilling their mental chatter.

Language began to evolve about 100,000 years ago and it expanded to include an ever increasing range of worldly things - from stone axes to mobile phones.

Then, in the Axial Age (800-200BC), there were dramatic developments. Mystics and shamans became numerous and influential.  New ways of thinking led to new ways of organising people and controlling them. But, in most cases, ‘religion’ chummed up with politics and together they justified exploitation and war. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. But all systems declined and fell and there was competition to take over the empty spaces.

But there were always a few mystics contemplating the infinite. They sat in remote caves and stilled their mental proliferations. They disciplined their minds and liberated themselves from their geo-historical happenstances. By giving up their culturally conditioned viewpoints and worldviews they became free souls in tune with the inbuilt but unspeakable dharma.

Our backyard

No matter where or when they were active they knew the peace that passes all understanding. From their various starting points they climbed the mystic’s singular mountain. At the summit, they invariably advocated for peace and happiness and for the practice of meditation. Meditation is the sure way for people to turn their minds around and thus to be liberated, enlightened and born again.

Each person born again as an enlightened being is a manifestation of the Cosmos being conscious of its consciousness.

We live in exciting times. This is the beginning of the 21st century on planet earth. There is a synergistic meeting of Eastern and Western viewpoints and worldviews. Is this a new axial age?

•    We are now potentially capable of guiding the direction of cultural evolution.
•    We are now potentially capable of developing new vocabulary and viewpoints.
•    Ultimate reality might soon be speakable.
•    Are we witnessing the end of dumb dharma?

Meditation appears to produce enduring changes in emotional processing in the brain - Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA

Meditation appears to produce enduring changes in emotional processing in the brain - Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA

Changing viewpoints

Clock Watching

The viewpoint at this moment (VATM) is that quiet sitting happens in response to dis-ease. If  there is peace of mind there is no urge to just sit. I am mindful ‘on demand’ rather than ‘by the clock’. 

The urge to sit was growing before that last paragraph began. But the paragraph prompted ‘flow’and sitting slipped from mind.

This makes an important point about thought moments and viewpoints. Neither has an abiding reality and this raises questions –

• ·         Where does a viewpoint come from?
• ·         How strong is it?
• ·         How long does it last?
• ·         Where does it go to?

‘How long does it last?’ Anything from a fraction of a second to a few minutes under normal circumstances. When in ‘flow’ it might last for a couple of hours. 

Where does it come from and go to?  The viewpoint passes in and out of up-front conscious attention. But it presumably ‘exists’ for long periods in the unconscious. For this to happen it might be stored in ‘memory’ from which it will be recalled from time to time to be involved in an unconscious, multi-module, mind-mapping exercise. 

How strong is it? Some viewpoints are more stable than others. When they are pulled from memory and mixed with contemporary inputs their relevance might still be highly rated.  Good ideas close lazy minds. But then again, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” 

Corridors of Power

So long as the environment is stable the traditional way of doing things can continue. If the viewpoint has survived long enough to become a tradition then it must have something going for it - and it will be socially reified and sanctified. Creative innovators will not be favoured in the corridors of power. 

But it is different when the environment is changing. Viewpoints will have to change to fit the new reality.  There will be initial resistance to change but, if the viewpoint and the social system are to survive, then the creative innovators will have to generate new viewpoints. Cognitive dissonance will enervate the culture for a while. Creative innovators will be favoured in the corridors of power.

>>>>> <<<<<

SO - That is my viewpoint at this moment (VATM). There was no awareness of what might appear when the writing began. 

In retrospect I recognize many of the ideas but there is a touch of creativity in the way they have been put together. 

In retrospect I also notice that I have avoided quiet sitting. There might be some now. I could think of sitting as a reward for being productive. 

Changing viewpoints – Yoh!

Questioning the changing mind

Things are not as they seem. “The reality that can be described is not the real reality.” Our world views constrain us. Sages suggest that we let them go. 

How is it possible for abstract thoughts and feelings (mind stuff) to make changes in the world of matter - and vice versa. 

snake or rope?

What is happening when you jump back terrified by a snake that turns out to be a piece of rope? What was happening when the artist came home drunk and was terrified by the picture of a tiger he painted on the wall before going out? 

 “All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage … If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.” (The Dhammapada)

What is the link between our changing mind and our changing brain? The following replies to the journalist’s six questions point in an interesting direction

Who is changing their mind? Everybody is changing their mind all the time. There are inputs from the sense organs which are continuously compared with memories so as to figure out, from thought moment to thought moment, what actions to take. The filters on the rating process are rooted in nature, nurture and serendipity.

Why should someone change their mind? There is no option. The monkey mind is continuously scanning the external and internal environments with a view to avoiding the undesirable and embracing the desirable.

Brain modules

What is involved in changing minds? In the brain there are many interacting modules whose purpose is to figure appropriate automatic reactions and mindful responses to changes in the internal and external environments. 

When do minds change? A mind is in a constant state of flux even when asleep. The up-front conscious ‘I’ can experience thoughts and feelings which are ‘felt’ to last for seconds through days to lifetimes. But such impressions on the conscious mind are but fleeting shadows linked to the illusion of an abiding ‘self’.

Where do minds change? A ‘mind’ is associated with a brain. Psychological states have neurological correlates. There is no mind change without brain change. But the brain is part of a body that has other parts associated with the stimulus/ response process. For example there is the poetic notion of a change of heart. “The heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing about.” (Blaise Pascal)

How do minds change? A change of mind correlates with a changing pattern of interacting modules in the brain. Recent brain scanning research has shown that, in some cases, decisions to act are made unconsciously up to a second before the conscious ‘I’ gets to know of it. The conscious mind has an unconscious mind of its own!

What to write about?

Flat back meditation

This morning there is energy to write. What about? About one of the topics that appeared in the attention centre while flat backing. There were many topics rolling past in thought trains so why did the focus land on this one rather than on another? In other words what caused the decision?

There is no awareness of an answer in consciousness. Presumably the answer lies in the unconscious.  But, to ‘my’ ‘I’, that is forbidden territory – by definition. If ‘I’ knew the answer then it would no longer be in the unconscious.

BUT – an approach to finding the answer can be made by the act of writing. While sitting at the computer there are so many ideas passing through the attention centre than there is no time to record them all. Most will get away; but a few can be captured.  So what was the question again?

What caused the decision to write about deciding what to write about?

The unconscious might deliver some answers into up-front consciousness, especially if the mental mud in the up-front areas is allowed to settle. So sit up straight with eyes closed and put attention on the breathing. The unconscious will divert attention from the breath to all manner of other things, often with feelings attached. The more ‘interesting’ ones can be mentally labelled and the label words can be typed to give something to refer to when the sitting ends and the writing begins.

Four themes emerged while the above paragraphs were being written. A few words can be put together on each of these and on other robust themes that appear.

It was a conscious decision to use the passive voice and to avoid the use of personal pronouns in this article. This makes sentences seem more powerful and authoritative. There is the impression that dealings are with ‘the’ truth rather than with ‘my’ truth. (Skill in editing out the active voice was developed while tutoring more than twenty Lesotho counterparts on their Master dissertations.)

The passive voice can be used to hide or at least fudge the matter of agency. Frank Sinatra famously noted that “I did it my way” rather than “it was done according to a personal code of ethics.” 

All effects have causes and, especially in the human realm, these can be thought of as behaviours having intentions: and these take the form of automatic reactions (due to hard wired instincts) or thoughtful responses (due to flexible learning)

brainstorming

Most people know something about brainstorming but they don't always appreciate how it can fit systematically into a larger concept of ‘interactive mind mapping’ which can be managed through communicating in groups. The mind mapping is a three stage process that involves helping people to better understand what they already know by brainstorming, categorising , and linking. (for details see http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/tot/brainsto.htm) The process is also suited to individualised mind mapping.

There has been writing for many years. There are many recurrent themes, and considerable repetition of words, phrases and even sentences. The conscious brain is hopeless at keeping track.

For a time there was a feeling that the unconscious brain had an understanding of what was going on and that it was guiding the overall process of generating integrated viewpoints and world views. So work was being done behind the scenes. Something from nothing? Is this Magic? Perhaps not. A three page paper on “Language and Uncommon sense” is dated 20 November 2011 and it reads as if it had been written yesterday. See at http://www.scribd.com/doc/73564521/Language-and-Uncommon-Sense

 

So is there now an indication of how it was decided what to write about? Not really. There is some more writing about the writing process. But this is not original and stand alone. Three compilations of articles were put together in 2011. There is a hypothesis that nothing fundamentally new has been written since then. But there is presently no appetite for gathering the evidence to test the hypothesis.

The compilations are available at http://www.scribd.com/george_clark_25/

 

May 2011: With agency in mind – on the road to easy peace
June 2011: Witnessing the attention centre – switching on the light
June 2011: Muse flows in the zone – below the tip of the iceberg.

An angst ridden and despairing lecturer at the University of Sussex once suggested that, while it may be theoretically impossible to know of, or to speak of, ‘the truth’, there is still the possibility of being convincing. At least 80% of communication is non-verbal.  What matters is not so much what is said as how it is said. 

Viewpoints and world views are mind made and therefore illusory and unreal –but this does not stop people being willing to die defending them. Thich Nhat Hahn’s Order of Interbeing invites people to climb the mystic’s mountain. The Order has fourteen precepts the first of which is: “Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory or ideology, even Buddhist ones. All systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth.”

Everybody lives with ongoing mental churn. Some people pay attention to the churn and think, speak and act accordingly.

The ongoing mental churn is the source of both conscious and unconscious  common ‘sense’. It is also potentially the source of that form of uncommon sense that has been known to mystics through the ages.

The case can be made that the ‘spiritual’ frame of mind is nothing special. It is hard wired into all our brains but in most cases it is buried beneath potent layers of cultural indoctrination which serve to keep most people in ignorance so that they do not get fancy ideas above their servile social stations.

So what is to be done? Be still and let the mental mud settle. There will then be the clarity that is our birthright. Nothing is missing. And words are the weapons of choice in the struggle for freedom, compassion and the peace that passes all understanding. 

That seems like a wholesome and noble topic to decide to write about.