A blip giving it lip

Parental passion in the spring of 1948 gave rise to the fertilised egg that was to be me. Some kind of  unconscious driving force guided cell division and differentiation in the nine months leading to being born. Then there was enculturation where nurture put the final touches on what nature had to offer.

There have now been 66 years of taking in food and water, passing out pee and poop, and being involved with education (in six countries). Main features of my life have included:

• Infancy, childhood and adolescence in small towns in the NE of Scotland
• 14 years of schooling, four years of University (Zoology), one year of Teacher Training
• Teaching – two years in Edinburgh, two years in Jamaica, three years in Zambia
• University – masters degree (Agricultural Extension)
• Retreat, and supply teaching
• Teaching – four years in South Sudan (+ education advisory work)
• University – masters degree (Education)
• Retreat, and supply teaching
• Education Advisor – four and a half years in Belize
• Retreat
• Education Advisor – three years in Lesotho
• Retreat
• Freelance consultant – short contracts in Tanzania, Scotland, and for the ILO in Geneva
• Retreat and private study – five years and ongoing (With Parkinson's Disease)

During all of that the action/reflection cycle has been constantly spiralling upwards. Several times I lived and worked in a foreign country then took time out to consider how my life is spent. Teacher teach yourself. Keep the ends open. Expand the horizons.

My parents had parents who had parents and so on back through primates, mammals, reptiles and fish to the big bang 13.7 billion years ago. I can trace my roots back to my great-grandparents 150 years ago. I never married and have no children. A tiny blip of stupendous inconsequence.

There once was only mindless matter but consciousness evolved and is now, with humans, aware of itself – at least in theory. The emerging insights of Neurology and Evolutionary Psychology have yet to make it big in popular culture. These days I help the process along when  I read, think, feel and blog. Lifelong learning.

66 and going strong - a mindful life.

A blip giving it lip.

murderous machetes

In Bangladesh there is a hit list of secular and atheist bloggers. Several of them have been brutally hacked to death by the machete's of Islamic extremists. Opposing points of view. Death to the unbeliever. There seems to be an effective education system. The propaganda is changing minds. Are there lessons to be learned?

I don't know. When I taught science in the S Sudan I did not pay much attention to what went on in the Madrasas. My impression was that the curriculum was limited and there was a lot of rote learning. And there was some reading of Arabic so they could study the Koran by themselves. The Madrasas produced unthinking robots; the government schools, if they were well managed, produced thoughtful citizens for the globalising world (?)

The British blueprint for education was grafted on to the colonies. It served its purposes well and it has continued to do so after independence. It acts as a sieve which separates out those who are best suited to operate in government and corporate institutions.

Successful education results in changing minds. Schools operate on individuals five days a week for about twelve of their formative years. Other formative influences include parents, community, and the worlds of work, church and the media. These are the nurturing forces that pad out the mindbrain's natural hard wired frameworks.

There is no perfection. I have some idiosyncratic thoughts that I post on a blog. But in this cosy, corner of the cosmos this will not bring machete wielding extremists to my door – inshalla.

Say it again

There is a lot of repetition of ideas in my stories. This is a good thing. When I try to introduce and encourage new thoughts, feelings and moods, it is useful to repeat them over and over. The neurologists, when considering neural plasticity, are fond of noting that what fires together wires together; this is another way of noting that the road is made by walking.

My goal is to find better ways to be human and to make the world a better place. I now feel that mindfulness can contribute but there is a lot of slippage. By accumulating, listing and repeating the key ideas the mindbrain is kept floating above the dark stuff. And practice makes perfect.

Just sit.

Say it again – the only constant thing is change; the only certainty is doubt.

Always alternatives

Some people say that there is no alternative to the way things now are. They thus defend the status quo. But those people are lacking in imagination and creativity. It is self evidently true that the only constant thing is change and that the rate of change is increasing.

For the vast majority of our ancestral time we were foraging communalists. Being speechless we were slow to develop new ways of thinking. But, about 100,000 year ago, language evolved and the creativity and entrepreneurship of human groups flourished by creating and choosing between alternatives.

Archaeology recognises three stone ages – palaeolithic, mesolithic and neolithic. Then there was the bronze and  iron ages where a wide range of metal tools increased agricultural productivity and allowed for increasingly sophisticated division of labour (eg them v us within and between groups).

Foraging communalism was the human way for most of our time on the planet. Then came the domestication of plants and animals and settled agriculture. Then it was villages, towns, city states, and empires And in these modern times we have transnational corporations (TNC), the United Nations, and a wide range of nation states interacting and giving rise to globalisation.

Different human groups have different world views and associated points of view. They have concocted a fascinating collection of myths and magic. But now, since the European Enlightenment, there has been a gradual shift to a science-based set of facts and logic which, at its best, reckons that it does not deal with 'truth' but rather with the best working hypotheses given the evidence presently available.

Politics and economics are soft social sciences rather than hard physical ones like physics and chemistry. The soft stuff is dramatically more subjective than the hard stuff. The soft crew tries to present itself as hard but this is illusion. So there is bluster and spin. For example:

The present (2015) status quo view is that the collapse of communism marked the end of history because it is now obvious (?) that fundamentalist, free-market, invisible-hand capitalism is the only 'reasonable' way of running a corporation, a country or the planet. The single bottom line is profit. And the rich get richer because they are worth it.

In the early 1970s those who touted such right-wing free market thinking were dismissed as nutters.  The status quo at the time was for that brand of socialism called social democracy which had the triple bottom line of environment, society, and economics sitting on the foundation of justice and caring for the vulnerable. At present, 45 years later, it is the left wing supporters who are viewed as dangerous nutters because they challenge the right wing line of theoretical thought.

The only constant thing is change. There are always alternatives!

doodle origins

'I' am growing more aware that there are many more thoughts, feelings and moods (TFM) in the unconscious parts of the mindbrain than there are in the conscious and self-conscious parts.

Fair enough, this is a subjective impression; but there is hard evidence in terms of a continuous stream of TFM passing through the attention centre.

The TFMs come from the unconscious, capture attention for a while, and then they are gone. Where do they go? Do they go back into the unconscious in a modified form or are they like flames when a fire goes out? … I have not figured that out yet.

There are 'Aha' moments when the answer to a question suddenly appears - eureka. And, at their best, musicians are in the groove, athletes are in the zone and poets take dictation from their muse. This is normally linked to a non-egoic (self-less) state of mind which is expansive, awe-some and creative. It is called flow.

My mindbrain seems hard wired to make sense of random noise (patternicity eg to see constellations in the night sky) and to reckon that every action has an agent (agenticity eg to believe that droughts are punishments from the Gods).

These days I get my jollies through leaving the unconscious agent to 'see' patterns. And the patterns

manifest as short stories (text) and doodles (graphics). My technique involves avoiding distraction and busy-ness so that the mindbrain becomes peaceful in the non-egoic way - and text and graphics emerge.

My blog is testament to unconscious activity – text and graphics. This blogpost exists to demonstrate that of which it 'speaks' graphically. A good picture is worth a thousand words. Do they say anything to you? They are divided into five main categories:

• Faces single

• Faces groups

• Faces abstract

• Abstract

• Scenes

 

 

 

 

Intending to attend

Attention has been got at by ICT these last few weeks. There has been an upgrading of the technology first to a Samsung 8 inch tablet running on Android and with a touch screen, then an Asus X555L laptop running on Windows 8 and without a touch screen. Also I have moved from MS Office to Open Office.

I find it difficult to hold focus on a given topic – there are so many attention grabbing options at the touch of a button (astonishing apps). And my organic short term memory is not effective these days. I therefore need to muster the discipline for figuring how to make things happen and then repeating the procedure until it sticks.

Most programmes have a built in help system and this sometimes includes tutorials on how to get started and how to use the more sophisticated options. Failing that you can search for them on Google or Youtube. The quality of these vary but I usually find something useful from keen nerds.

I feel an intention coming to attention. The idea is simple . Print out a to-do-list and set a kitchen timer to limit the amount of time you spend with this aspect of CPD. Here is a generic list for the basics of using a new programme.

1. how to enter the programme
2. how to create a new file (or open one that already exists)
3. how to enter data (ref types – text, clips, links, audio, video, photo etc)
4. how to save or export the file (ref types)
5. how to exit the programme

Passing feelings

I am falling behind with blogposts. This one is made up of extracts from a letter to a pal. I have cut out the bits that mention various pals by name. No gossip.

There are so many people in the world and so few that I know. But then what is meant by 'knowing'. It has to do with 'communication' linked to predictability. When someone thinks, speaks and acts in a foreseeable manner there is 'familiarity'. This can be comforting but it can also be mind-bendingly boring.

My mind is culturally conditioned and is thus to some extent parochial despite my having lived and worked in five countries. But there is neural plasticity and by taking mindful thought most aspects of the mind can be changed. Some aspects of the mindbrain are hardwired by nature and these are tougher to transform than the more flexible nurtured bits.

Words, sentences, and paragraphs. The ever-active mindbrain churns them out. An agenda can be imputed to the unconscious but 'I' am not in charge of it. The same pattern holds true for the doodles. 'I' have no advance plan. Just begin and then let the muse do her thing.

Patterns of thought, feeling and mood (TFM) about TFM have changed rapidly in the last 20 years. The key to the new understanding is to view the human brain as an organ which evolved to enable small groups of people to be effective hunters and gatherers. Neurological advances linked to evolutionary psychology provided a platform for consilience (multidisciplinary approaches).

Note that Rick Hanson pulls lots of stuff together and writes about it well http://www.rickhanson.net/mind/ ) And, off the top of my head, three of my inspirational fellow travellers are Jon Kabat Zinn, Jonathan Haidt, and Daniel Kahneman. They all write and speak well. Google them or search for them on my blog http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/ .

I have been semi retired since 1988 and fully retired for more than five years. I love it.

In the old days I thought I was doing something useful when I was teaching science and biology. However, my expectations for the higher level work (government advisor) were ill founded as were those about social development. My quest was to find better ways to be human. This transcended the worldly stuff - and it is ongoing. I have retired from the institutions but not from life. Every day is fresh and new. I invariably find interesting stuff welling up from the unconscious and knowing that it is not 'real'.

“Kunst, vas is das?” While cruising the social networks I came across a talk by Alain de Botton “Art as Therapy” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFnNgTSkHPM - “Art can be a source of help with our problems — our innermost problems — the problems of the soul.”

I now have well over 200 'doodles'. Works of art? They vary enormously in subject matter and have been described as 'scary'. Examples are available at the top of my most recent blogposts. (http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/ ) They are produced by non-action. 'I' let them happen. The unconscious is given a free hand. The muse? What is it trying to communicate?

good and great

I was born in 1949 to an upper working class family in rural NE Scotland. I was brought up to respect my elders and betters whether or not they deserved it. The various authority figures may have had faults but these were to be overlooked so as not to rock the boat and disturb the status quo. I was in the church choir and sat through two services on every Sunday. I was interacting with what I thought of as hypocrites in hats.

Especially at the local level, several of the authority figures had a vocation rather than a job. They got their existential jollies from taking pride in their work and serving their communities. The bottom line was about more than profit and wages. Salt of the earth.

But, then as now, there was tension and ill feeling in the interactions between the rich and the poor and between the bosses and the workers. The class struggle – upstairs and downstairs.

The lethal non-sense of the two world wars raised a lot of questions about the validity of the class system. I was born shortly after the end of the second war. Those who were my elders and betters had lived through it. The status quo got a serious shake up. But many of the old ways survived.

I was encultured into subservience in my early years. (Little children should be seen but not heard). Some of the authority figures before whom I would bow and doff my cap are listed below – local and national examples. Note in passing that I have problems with authority. I feel antipathy towards anyone who tells me what to think and how to act.

Local Respectables:

the family

the doctor, the district nurse,

the schoolmasters,

the minister, the church elders,

the policeman

the landowners,

the business people,

the provost and local councillors,

the solicitor

the workers – farmers, fishermen, and townspeople

National Respectables:

the MP, the prime minister and the cabinet ministers,

the queen and the royal family,

the experts and intellectuals,

the media celebrities - print and broadcast

Cognitive scope

I could work on topic xxx but there is probably somebody or some group that has already thought about it or done it. So, if I was to be rational and systematic, I would approach the existing literature and the main shakers and movers and list the main claims, concerns and issues of the various stakeholders.

I could then draw on my experience as a curriculum developer to sketch out the topic's cognitive scope (what breadth and depth), sequence (where to begin, progress and end) and pace (how quickly to move through the material).

I could, along the way, refer to a set of frameworks that help to avoid parochiality – for example:

Expanding horizons: (think Cosmic zoom) ie Portsoy, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK, EU, global, planetary (ref Ken Wilber and 'no boundaries')

Level of Enterprises: micro, small, medium, large (national corporations), trans national corporations (TNC), UN system esp IMF and World Bank (eg Davos, Bilderberg)

Organisational Structure: Voluntary, NGOs, CSO, CBO (community based organisations), mutuals, cooperatives, trade unions, political parties, QUANGO, PPI, employers organisation – local to global

ISSUES: climate, environment, nuclear, vulnerability, facism, sexism, ageism, migration, politics and economics (right, centre, left), financial sector, race to the bottom, religions, ETC

Stakeholders: top down, middle in, bottom up – special interest groups (activists)

My long term quest has been to find better ways to be human (see below). But that is a huge topic. After I have sketched the big picture (eg ref the bighistory project) I could focus on some details. However, the devil will tempt me with simple slogans and soundbites. And I will carelessly adopt those that match items of my nurturing as a pre-mature human being in a given time and place. But forewarned is forearmed.

Noam Chomsky is one of my sources of inspiration and forewarning. He reckons that there are two sets of principles - the principles of power and privilege (roughly right wing eg politicians) and the principles of truth and justice (roughly left wing eg intellectuals). They oppose each other. Chomsky exposes the pretences of those who claim to be the bearers of truth and justice. He shows that in fact these intellectuals are the bearers of power and privilege and all the evil that attends it.

It is now clear to me that, however wide and deep, cognitive scope is not enough. The affective dimension has to be acknowledged and allowed for, especially by the global shakers and movers. But that line of thinking can be a topic for another day.

http://dodclark.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/better-ways-to-be-human.html

Saft in the heed

It is easy to get saft in the heed about meditation. For me this happens mainly when I fall back into assuming that meditation has to do with religion as I came to think about it in my late teens.
For example, with the Church of Scotland's religion, I have the notion of a heavenly father (God) who has intentions and a purpose. From the believer’s point of view he is an externally sourced Will that must be done on earth as it is in heaven.

God has representatives here on earth – the infallible Popes and the Kings with Divine Rights. There is also holy scripture. All myth and magic. For many years the miraculous world view helped some people to avoid cognitive dissonance while it drove others further into it. No matter how bad it gets, God will provide even though he normally works in mysterious ways. Since the European enlightenment this has been called the existential cop out.

The elites that make up the church and state manage to fool most of the people most of the time. They can even justify the crusades. Holy wars to end all wars. These days the church is a marginal social force. Corporations in league with the state and its media channels are the modern pedlars of selfish dreams about using credit to consume fashionable commodities. To 'save' myself and possibly others there is need for renunciation. This involves a change of mind. Mindfulness meditation makes release more likely. But it took me some time to have experience of the grand sounding notions. This involved figuring the meaning of two key words.

Meditation is a form of prayer?

I was in the church choir in the late 60s and sat through two services each week; and I was an active member of the church Youth Club. But no one ever explained what is involved in praying. I eventually came to feel that prayer involves communication with a supernatural being (either directly or through his representatives). In essence you have needs and God will arrange that they are met ie he will answer your prayers. All you need is faith. If he does not meet your needs it is because you do not have enough faith - which by definition is blind. Non-sense.

Meditation is a form of religion?

Meditation is associated with various eastern belief systems – eg Taoism, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism. They ask that you ‘emancipate yourself from mental slavery’ and as such the systems can be usefully thought of as a psychology of perception. Blind faith is not required. If you take time to be still you will experience peace through release from your culturally conditioned monkey mind. Renunciation is then easy – in fact it is inevitable for who, having experienced the peace of mindfulness, would yearn after “the noise that men call fame, the dross that men call gold”.