the escape to stillness

The mindbrain has many moods – some up, some neutral, some down. For the past few months, as far as I remember, the mood has been on the upside – calm, contented, happy and relaxed. Today, however, there have been flashes of the downside – anxiety, fear, low self esteem and depression. But no new issues have appeared. What has changed is how things are perceived. And that is controlled by the churn in the unconscious.

There is a feeling to be rid of the downside blues = and there are ways of doing it. For example,

notice that the mood is rising and point attention to an activity that encourages non-egoic flow. My list of activities is long and includes reading, writing, doodling, radio, TV, various household and garden chores done with grace, and, above all, various styles of mindful sitting.

These activities make up Everyday Zen. You inhabit the present moment and focus on the task with a quiet mind. You operate in flow. In the 13^th century Dogen instructed his full time monastics to just sit and drop off body and mind. In the 21^st century neurologists can measure physical changes in the brain of participants after an eight week MBSR course.

I have been meditating off and on for 40 years. It has pulled me out of the downside more often than I care to remember. The trick is to be awake to my 'reality' being mind-made and linked to language. And most of the words come 'from other people dead and gone whose preaching makes the world go on - or off.'

When attention is in the present moment it is possible to be awake to the non abiding nature of worldviews – mine, our's and their's. There can then be an end to zealotry and war. So escape to the non-egoic stillness and give peace a chance.

two mindfullness trainings

The 14 mindfulness trainings are used at Thich Nhat Hahn's Plum Village Retreat in France. The first two trainings are presented below and each is followed by my comments. 

For more information on the 14 trainings go here http://toonloon.bizland.com/compilations/fourteen-mindfulness-trainings .

The First Mindfulness Training: Openness

Aware of the suffering created by fanaticism and intolerance,

we are determined not to be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones.

We are committed to seeing the Buddhist teachings as a guiding means that help us learn to look deeply and develop understanding and compassion. They are not doctrines to fight, kill, or die for.

We understand that fanaticism in its many forms is the result of perceiving things in a dualistic or discriminative manner.

We will train ourselves to look at everything with openness and the insight of interbeing in order to transform dogmatism and violence in ourselves and the world.

Comment on “mindfulness training 1”

Individual human beings are conditioned in parts by nature, nurture and serendipity. Both the conscious and the unconscious mindbrain are conditioned. The conditioning fits the individual to operate in a hunting and gathering group of 50-100 in the African savanna. The conditioning process creates a world view rooted in myth and magic and normally includes a distinction between ‘me, us and them’.

The conditioning process has resulted in a wide variety of forms throughout history and geography. At the positive end of the spectrum the conditioning can be thought of as broad-minded and open-ended education and training; while at the negative end it can be viewed as narrow-minded and limiting indoctrination and brainwashing, they are parochial xenophobes. Note – there is a lot of this about. In evolutionary terms it is fit enough to survive.


THEY are war-mongering, intolerant, idolatrous, dogmatic, fanatics and zealots irrationally bound to theories, doctrines and ideologies that are rooted in dualistic myth and magic. In short, they are parochial xenophobes. Note – there is a lot of this about. In evolutionary terms it is fit enough to survive.

 

WE are peace-loving, tolerant, flexible, reasonable and rational. Our world view is rooted in the experiential monistic concept of interbeing. Along with the rocks and stones and plants and animals, we are all citizens of planet earth. In short we are global co-operators and environmentalists. Note: this way of understanding things is catching on (eg green politics and MBSR). How might we work towards making this viewpoint fitter?

At the personal level there is the bad news and the good news. The bad news is that often while on the cushion, the darker side of my nature and nurture enter the attention centre. The good news is the fact of neural plasticity – it is never too late to change your mindbrain. Notice what arises, label it and let it go. More good news – having experienced and understood the bad stuff in myself I am more inclined to be compassionate towards other people who have still to get on top of their bad stuff.

The Second Mindfulness Training: Non-Attachment to Views

Aware of the suffering created by attachment to views and wrong perceptions,

we are determined to avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views.

We are committed to learning and practicing nonattachment from views and being open to other’s insights and experiences in order to benefit from the collective wisdom. Insight is revealed through the practice of compassionate listening, deep looking, and letting go of notions rather than through the accumulation of intellectual knowledge.

We are aware that the knowledge we presently possess is not changeless, absolute truth. Truth is found in life, and we will observe life within and around us in every moment, ready to learn throughout our lives.

Comment on “mindfulness training 2”

In the late 1960s I was conditioned into thinking and writing like a scientist (Zoologist) and later (1980 and 1986) as an academic. My worldview was a creation of those times.

I read Thomas Kuhn’s 1962 book -“The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” and thus knew that we were not dealing with ‘truth’ but rather with ‘the best working hypothesises in the light of evidence presently available’.

I also absorbed the scientific spirit of evidence-based, critical thinking where it was my duty to try and discredit the findings of fellow scientists. If the findings were insecure then it was for the greater good that this should be demonstrated. If the findings could withstand attack by the fiercest of adversaries then so much the better.

It sounds like a cool rational process but emotions could run very high in opposing camps – scientists are also human beings and prone to cognitive biases. Groupthink is another ever present danger. Older and influential scientific brains often find it hard to shift with the paradigm and they come to be surrounded by careerist sycophants. “Max Planck … sadly remarked that ‘a new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.’” Passions can get the better of reason!

But the non-attachment to views brought about by mindfulness is a guiding star in the methodology of both meditators and scientists. And the methodologies lead to very similar insights and understandings related to (a) the workings of the mindbrain, (b) the psychology of perception, (c) the politics of environmental stewardship and (d) the commitment to life-long learning.

hobo mind

Ten years ago, before there was the monkey mind, there was the hobo mind riding thought trains loaded with emotional baggage. There was the roller coaster ride to peace of mind in three phases as shown in the diagram. 

For the details, check out my old web site - “Let it begin with me” http://www.srds.co.uk/begin/coaster.htm

 

hurray for happiness

These days progress and development are measured in terms of Gross National Product (GNP). But, when this increases, the level of happiness stays the same. Note that people in extreme poverty get happier as they get richer but only up to the level where basic needs are met. Wealth above that level does not bring more happiness. This is known as the Happiness Paradox. Many hardnosed books have been written on the topic in the last 20 years. Of these I have read and greatly enjoyed:

• Abraham Maslow (1962) “Towards a psychology of being”
• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1992, 2002) “Flow - the classic work on how to achieve happiness”.
• Martin Seligman (2001) Flourish – a new understanding of happiness and well-being – and how to achieve them”.
• Jonathan Haidt (2006) “The Happiness Hypothesis – putting ancient wisdom and philosophy to the test of modern science”.
• Daniel Kahneman (2011) “Thinking, Fast and Slow”.
• Richard Layard (2005, 2011) “Happiness – Lessons from a new science”.
• Leo Bormans (Ed) (2012) “The World Book of Happiness”.
• Thaler, Richard H; Sunstein, Cass R (2012). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness”.

Maslow identified a hierarchy of needs ranging from the basics of food, clothing and shelter, through belongingness and security, and onwards to peak experiences and self actualisation.

Seligman noted that traditional psychology aimed to help its clients move from subnormal to normal. He thus invented positive psychology which aims to help its clients move from normal to supernormal. He wrote an influential book about how to flourish and promote well being. It is a multidimensional process that is best approached on a multidisciplinary basis

The feeling of happiness has its biochemical and electrical correlates. Large gaggles of Neurologists are working on the details. The good news is neuroplasticity – by taking thought we can change our brains.

Human beings are social animals. We evolved to belong to a family, group, nation state, planet. Happiness is other people – at work, rest and play. Existing circumstances might not be all that good and there might be need for changes; cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) now has oodles of tricks up its sleeves that can help out.

But we should not bite off more than we can chew. The serenity prayer offers a rule of thumb:

O God, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed,

The courage to change what can be changed,

and the wisdom to know the one from the other

Note for the hardnosed: the poetic notion of “O God, give us ...” suggests an anthropomorphic and metaphorical view of agency. A less poetic rendering of the notion would be, “May the unconscious churn in my mindbrain, with support from CBT (and/or mindfulness meditation) (and/or psychotropic medication), generate ...”.

There are two types of changes - in mind (internal) and in material circumstances (external). The latter include socio-cultural aspects of politics and economics including religion and the environment. And they scale along a continuum ranging from self, through family, community, nation and globe.

There is now an emerging alternative to the simplistic GNP. It is called Gross National Happiness (GNH) and is the basis of national planning in Bhutan and Nepal. It is also a topic of increasingly serious academic concern. For example the New Economics Foundation (NEF) has been developing a Measure of Domestic Progress (MDP).

Richard Layard's 2011 book (see above) covers most of the issues and was part inspiration for the website www.actionforhappiness.org which contains a lot of useful materials.

My subjective take on the topic is that happiness is a means to the end of achieving peace of mind which manifests as unattachment and serenity. A more holistic,intellectual and multidisciplinary approach will help with this but the real engine is direct experience of being non-egoic and mindful - of flowing and flourishing

Hurry for happiness.

Training your monkey mind

Before mental training a person is likely to be asleep to, and unaware of, what goes on in their monkey mind. After mental training a person is calmly awake to and aware of what goes on.

Everyone has a monkey mind. Evolution made it that way. Its function is to monitor and react to the continuous flow of inputs from the sense organs. The goal in real time is to rate the inputs as good, neutral or bad. When snakes and lions were about the rating had to be done not philosophically but fast; and, if that involved using biased intuitions and rough rules of thumb, then so be it. For at least 100,000 years, as individuals, families, groups and cultures, we survived and prospered on diets of exotic myths and magic.

When a person's bias box is well stocked their mood can be peaceful. And old people can be respected because they have seen it all before. So - if it aint broke don't fix it? The rules and regulations of the conservative status quo will create the winning herd mentality. Let it be?

No! - physical and cultural environments change and myths and magic lose their relevance. Cognitive dissonance motivates radical revolution. Paradigms shift; and creative people inspire new rounds of myth and magic.

There are those who reckon that science is nothing but the latest round of myth and magic and there are those who reckon that it is a uniquely more insightful, evidence-based and rationally controlled process. The issue can be best discussed by people that have undergone two types of mental training aimed at taming the monkey mind – scientific method and mindfulness meditation.

Personal note: I learnt and taught about science and its methods for more than 10 years and I have practised mindfulness on and off for more than 40 years. I am now retired. But I maintain a blog that records my subjective impressions of what my monkey mind gets up to when exposed to recent thinking about changing minds.

It is never too late to train your monkey mind.

The ever active unconscious

The title says it all. The mindbrain is like the heart. They are both evolutionary products that serve as organs with particular, non stop functions. The heart beats and keeps the blood circulating. The mindbrain thinks, feels and has moods, and causes reactions to the external and internal stimuli that activate the sensory organs (eyes, ears etc).

Why bother? A simple question. But, in trying to answer, the story line gets complicated because we use language to ask and answer the question.

Language began to evolve about 100,000 years ago. It made sophisticated thinking possible and it passed through the generations. Man became the toolmaker and cultural evolution quickly moved people from foraging to settled agriculture; from the stone age through the bronze and iron ages; and from villages to cities and to the creation of empires with elaborate divisions of labour.

Language evolved. It's underlying structure involved sentences with subject, verb and object. And there was a tendency to see patterns and agents (ref Shermer) that gave rise to an abundance of myths and magic.

Truth is culturally relative. Different cultures have different truths which people die defending. But absolute 'truth' is not the issue. From the evolutionary point of view what matters is that the pattern of thinking in group A is implanted in more minds in the next generations than the patterns of group B. Natural selection with survival of the fittest.

Scientific thinking at its best does not deal with truth but rather with best working hypotheses. These are evidence based and groups of them hang together as a world view or paradigm. Once enough countervailing evidence accumulates the paradigm shifts.

The recent accumulating evidence in the fields of neurology, evolutionary psychology, behavioural economics and mindfulness meditation suggest that a paradigm shift is happening in our understanding of the structure and functions of the human mindbrain.

Carl Sagan noted that we are animated and dynamic stardust. That which was once inanimate and unconscious evolved as living and conscious beings.

Some of these beings developed the illusion of themselves as self conscious and invented cultural forms that reinforced the illusion and justified dying for the cause (aka resources).

A marginal few sat in mindfulness and overcame the limitations of language. They thus became awake to and aware of the illusory nature of views generally and of an abiding self. Lao Tzu spoke for the mystical community when he noted that “the reality that can be described is not the real reality”. There is an ineffable Oneness in the unconscious which predates language.

In retirement 'I' practice stillness and mindfulness so that a blissful, non-egoic state of flow captures attention. In the flow state the not-I lets the unconscious produce doodles and stories. 'It' is ever active and very rarely fails to deliver 'stuff'.

About time

I am falling short of the aspiration to produce a story every two days. This is because ICT glitches have captured attention. I could write about the glitches but that would be nerdy and boring.

My preference is to witness and subjectively write about interesting insights from the unconscious. Some recent ones include:

A feeling of anxiety, fear and anger when I am faced with an ICT glitch. From my writer's point of view the technology and its tools should be invisible means to an end. I have no desire to stick my head into the workings of the tools; that is the job of nerds and geeks who generate the idiot-simple, user-friendly packages. There is division of labour and, from my point of view, a suspension of disbelief in coding magicians.

The lack of fine motor control of my fingers remains a problem for writing, typing and using the mouse. Handwriting is very small and often illegible. I have to type it while it is still fresh in my brain. The problem using the keyboard and mouse is that my fingers freeze and twitch and this causes typos. Luckily I graciously accept the condition and word process with equanimity.

My submissions to the Portsoy Past and Present columns in the local newspaper are edited stories from Findlay's research notes. My bits are about the past. Paulina and Colin do the present. But when does the present end and the past begin? There are different ways to look at this. My present thoughts and feelings move to the past when the next present ones appear. The time scale is from a fraction of a second to several minutes. OR – “give me the child till he is five and I will give you the man” – or at least a unit of stuff upon which to allow confirmation bias. OR time and thus the past began with the big bang 13.8 billion years ago.

And here ends a wandering story – about time!

Missing Targets

There are too many cute bits to play with in computers and the internet. They easily grab my attention and send it wandering. SO I could make a to-do-list, write it down, and stick to it. Focus.

The problem is that when I have a target it can feel bad to miss it. Alternatively – when there is no target it cannot be missed - and new ideas often turn up anyway. “If you don't know where you are going any road will take you there”.

Evolution works like that. It(?) has no forward plan and there is no planner. Stuff happens and some stuff survives better than other stuff. Survival of the fittest results because of natural selection.

These days there is scary talk about genetic modification (GM). But the principle is as old as agriculture. Farmers have been selecting particular types of plants and animals for thousands of years – and think of the varieties of potatoes, maize and rice, and of dogs, horses and pigeons that now exist.

And, as with plants and animals, so with ideas and cultures. Endless stories have been told since the advent of language about 100,000 years ago. Most of them quickly faded away while a few have been longer lasting.

Among the longer lasting stories are those that grew in the European renaissance and enlightenment. They gradually gave us the scientific worldview and method which have replaced the myth and magic of times past with the best working hypotheses given the evidence presently available.

I have just finished reading Steven Johnson (2010) Where good ideas come from - a natural history of innovation. He reckons that these days the majority of good ideas come from non-market oriented, multidisciplinary networks where individuals operate in flow. I have known such work eg developing a social science curriculum in Belize, and popularising policy documents in Tanzania.

Evolution doesn't' rule OK. nor does it make plans and to-do-lists.

sitting quietly doing nothing

Spring comes

and the grass grows by itself

Kinds of Kindness

In the new UK politics there is talk of kindness. It is not a well defined concept. In this short article I begin to map its many meanings.

At one end of the continuum is 'kind' and at the other end is 'cruel'. The motivation to act one way or the other is rooted in your nature, nurture or in chance. The kind/cruel reaction lies on an expanding horizon from 'me', through 'us' and 'them' to 'it'. The following table helps to think systematically about kinds of kind and cruel. Note that there are those who do kind and cruel things and there are those who have kindness and cruelty thrust upon them.

Some generalisations:

 

• There is a tendency towards kindness when dealing with me and us.
• There is a tendency towards cruelty when dealing with them.
• Parenting is tough eg the terrible twos; adolescence
• Mechanised agriculture is cruel to the environment.
• Trans National Corporations exploit their workers and pollute the environment.
• Genocide has been and still is quite common.
• War propaganda demonises the enemy.
• Those who know only Me and Us are naïve and easily exploited.
• The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
• Instituted religion tends to produce zealots and suicide bombers.
• Power corrupts so there is need of checks and balances.
• 'It' includes climate change.
• Human nature includes a territorial imperative.
• Man is a social animal - “No man is an island unto himself”

Padding out the continuum

 

 

 

Kind people are good Samaritans who do not look away from suffering. Cruel people treat 'them' as inhuman and therefore fair game for exploitation – poor working conditions; rape, pillage, and enslavement; torture, murder and genocide.

The present refugee situation in the EU offers many examples of kindness and cruelty. Some host nations have crowds of volunteers freely donating resources and offering to help with the logistics of processing such large numbers of people. For many of the people traffickers the refugees are just commodities that are bulk processed so as to generate maximum profit.

It would be 'nice' if more people were kind and less people were cruel. This is possible. Preceding a kind or cruel action is a kind or cruel thought or feeling. If people develop a mindfulness practice they will be aware of the arising of thoughts and feelings and they will be able to choose between kind and cruel.

Kind and cruel are mind states associated with chemical and electrical signals in the mindbrain. By taking thought the signals can be changed. 'What fires together wires together'. It is never too late to change your mind.