This essay focuses attention on the concept and experience
of ‘mindfulness’ as I presently understand it. My inclination is to let the
unconscious part of the mindbrain do the hard work. The conscious and the self
conscious parts can serve as editors. So – ideas will be written, grouped and
labelled as they appear. They can be reordered later.
Conditioned by unconscious moods
The first noble truth suggests that, “In life there is
suffering”. There have been periods when
I was subject to depression and to anxiety and panic attacks. That process is
now visualised as due to ‘the unconscious’ channelling powerful but negative
streams of thoughts, moods and feelings into the attention centre. These days
there tends to be equanimity.
Note: ‘the unconscious’ has been
conditioned (encultured, brainwashed) by nature, nurture and serendipity in
much the same way as ‘consciousness’.
Note: ‘conditioning’ suits
individuals to fit in with family and tribal groups (50-100 people) in a given
socio-economic relationship (hunting and gathering) within a specific physical
environment (African savannah?).
The exact details have varied through history and geography but the foundation
is the distinction between ‘I’ – ‘us’ – and ‘them’. The default is parochial
xenophobia with a virile thread of zealotry.
History has witnessed a never ending stream of small minded dictatorships built
on an imaginative range of myths and magic. Nowadays we have the myth of globalization
and the magic of free market capitalism – to which there are no alternatives?
Beyond parochial xenophobia
When younger I had the option of staying in my rural village
as a parochial xenophobe. But serendipity brought early experiences of other
ways of living and I became committed to searching for ‘better ways to be
human’.
Briefly the experiences included Archaeology, city living,
Zoology, teaching, education management, and plain language editing. And this
was spread across seven countries – mostly tropical. Along the way there were
five year-long retreats for formal and informal study. They were objective
(academic and intellectual) in the early stages but became more subjective
(mystical and spiritual) as time went on…
… An interlude while I attended a PPaP meeting - and I have
lost the thread of the story. But there are at least three ways of re-engaging
the unconscious - (a) by re-reading the above paragraphs, or the email that inspired
them, (b) by sitting quietly for 20 minutes and thus letting the mindbrain
settle and find focus again and (c) by dosing and leaving the energy of the
unconscious to develop and implement its intentions.
Subjective mindfulness
For many years I dealt with meditation as an intellectual
construct. I understood its long history from the outside but I did not
practice it. But slowly, perhaps driven by the dis-ease of cognitive
dissonance, I began to practice and thus had glimpses of what was involved and
what resulted – in particular from Mindfulness Meditation.
There were three variations on the theme of mindfulness when
sitting – (a) focus on the breathing and gently go back to it when attention
strays, (b) count the breaths up to ten and then begin again, and (c) be a non judgemental
witness to the stream of thoughts and feelings. Watch them arrive, hang around
and then go. Know the impermanence of all mind created things.
But, as well as sitting, there was flat-backing, standing,
and walking - on my own or in more or less like minded company. When awake to
the beginnings of a dumping from the unconscious it became possible to remember
to take three deep breaths – and this had a calming effect. The calmness
gradually expanded. It became equanimity and the peace that passes all
understanding.
Beyond ‘truth’
But there were also intellectual results. Wisdom. Mind
expanding views of the environment led to an appreciation of interconnectedness
(Thich Nhat Hahn calls it Interbeing.) The concept is easily appreciated in
terms of the many biogeochemical cycles.
Such insights created an appreciation of deep ecology: an
increasing marriage (consilience) between biology and Buddhism: and a new path towards happiness and
compassion via the neuroscience of meditation.
I take refuge in the dharma
I take refuge in the dharma (aka the ‘truth’). It is an
interconnected Oneness. It can be approached from any direction and once inside
there are billions of pathways that may be trod. But there is ongoing churn and
change. There is no real reality. It (the world – the cosmos) is all mind
stuff. “I am not my mind”.
“The mind has a mind of its own.” Mindbrains are products of
evolution. Their key function is to scan the environment using sense organs
that are limited in range. The sense organs code their outputs which are
decoded in modules of the mindbrain and churned with information in memory so
as to perceive things and events that are good (move towards), neutral (ignore)
or bad (move away from).
Some memory is genetic. It contains information that has
aided the survival of the ancestors and it is passed on from generation to
generation. Some memory is due to nurturing - especially that which is rooted
in early childhood experiences in the family and the community. And some of the
stuff will be serendipitous.
Note that what matters is not what is ‘true’ but rather what
works. Tales of ancient myth and magic may seem silly to modern people but most
of today’s individuals are as messed up as most of the ancestors. But the
ancestors created the descendants so their beliefs systems worked. Proof of
concept. Is our new globalised and computerised system fit for purpose?
I like to believe that humanity is at a turning point.
During the last 3000 to 4000 years there have been a few enlightened
individuals who have known the peace that passes all understanding. But they
were too few to make a huge difference.
Note: the trick of enlightenment
is not to gather anything from outside but rather to expose that which is
already within. Our ‘true’ nature is the same thing as Buddha nature. We
presently suffer because our true nature has been buried by the stuff of
modernity. So we must blow the dust off the mirror, draw back the veils, and
make sure that the witness is awake.
There is the notion of negative streams of thoughts and
feelings being pumped into the attention centre. Might this not be viewed as a
positive thing? Could it not be viewed as a form of feedback indicating that
all is not right about the mindbrain’s relationship with its body and its
external environment? Insanity is the only sane response to an insane world!
You’ll find plenty question masters
making quagmires of their brain
the man said, ‘there is no answer’
they said, ‘you are insane’.
(Clark)
In a recent post I quoted the first three of the 14 precepts
of Thich Nhat Hahn. He proposes the countervailing thought of not taking our
points of view too seriously. It is ‘my’ point of view but there is no ‘I’. It
is a vain attempt to describe reality with dualisms when there is only the
Onenesss.
SO what is to be done? Listen to the stories of the other
with non judgemental openness and compassion. Be a living expression of
equanimity and peace.
I take refuge in the Sangha
I take refuge in the Sangha of like minded souls, of those
who think differently, of the plants and animals, of the rocks and stones.
Everything can be a call to mindfulness and the numinous.
Note: we need many calls to
mindfulness because it is easy to be busy and to forget about it.
A psychology of perception
It is now the morning of yet another day. I have read and
edited what is written above. It is based on my latest view of ‘common sense’.
I like to think that it is built on (a) my understanding of the discoveries of
those at the cutting edges of evolutionary science, and forms of meditation
that are Buddhism lite and (b) my interactions with the various members of the
Sangha.
A sound bite that has been around for a long time is that,
“Buddhism is a psychology of perception rather than a religion”. I have been
thinking of comparing the five skandhas (form, sensation, perception, impulse,
feeling) with Francis Crick’s description of visual consciousness as set out in
his 1994 book, “The astonishing hypothesis”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astonishing_hypothesis
BUT – I notice that I am drifting into intellectual and
academic mode. And that is an existential cop out. “Of making many books there
is no end; and much study is weariness of the flesh.” Ecclesiastes 12:12.
The slavery of doing
It is now the morning of another day. And there is another set
of thought trains.
When I got
out of bed there was busyness. Activity. The drive to DO things. For example, amongst other things, ‘I’:
- ·
Washed
the grass clippings off the boiler suit and put it out to dry
- ·
Cleaned
the grey basin that lies beside the outdoor tap
-
Corrected
the phone numbers in my hacked email signature
·
The ‘agency’
for the doing is the ‘vital churn’. The ‘intention’ is in the unconscious. It
is not ‘I’ that makes the decisions. The source of the decision making process
is hidden from ‘my’ view. But ‘thinking’ goes on all the time. The churn of facts
and feelings never stops. Fixed patterns are developed but do not last long,
and only a small number of them are passed into the attention centre that feeds
consciousness.
A social animal
I keep aspects
of the thinking/feeling process to myself. But this happens in a social
context. Other aspects are introduced by family and friends, and even others by
the culture in general and the 9-to-5 job in particular. The individual mind is
a social mind.
When I was
a teacher my workday was divided into 40 minute chunks with a bell to ring the
changes. In the evening there were lessons to prepare and student’s written work
to mark. No time to stand and stare.
The concept
of slavery, perhaps wage slavery, passes through mind at this point. Civilized
people are programmed automata till retirement when they experience boredom, depression
and an early death. But it need not be like that. There is neural plasticity.
By taking thought the mind can change the brain which can change the mind –
within and between individuals.
In Monty
Python’s ‘Life of Brian’ the crowd is chanting ‘We are all different’ but a
lonely soul at the back of the crowd mutters to himself, ‘I’m not’.
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