An urge of bullets

What is the urge? Is there an urge? There is something of a 'should' about producing a story before the end of the year.

There could be comment on recent socialisation and on how it altered the construals in my mindbrain. But that might lead to gossip about particular people.

The tablet is in the sunroom and it is feeding the speaker in the office by bluetooth. No wires. Magic?

The atmosphere is dribbling with electromagnetic signals most of which cannot be captured by our sense organs. For example we can 'see' visible light but not ultraviolet or infra-red.

For example Radio 4 signals swamp Portsoy but they have to be decoded by a radio before I can hear them.

These days in the mornings I watch BBC News and in the afternoon listen to PM on BBC4. This is excessive. I pay heed to the stories as they are told but forget them almost immediately. But presumably they have some influence on the TFMs that are generated in the unconscious. The politics of what is regarded as news is a minefield. If I was to be on an official retreat the media would be outlawed. It is a 'bad' habit. There are 'better' things that could be given attention.

The recent socialisation included people who led lives considerably different from mine. Being a submissive introvert I tended to reckon that they were right and I was wrong. 'Happiness is being normal'. But for many people being 'normal' is uncomfortable.

In life there is suffering. And the cause of suffering is craving. And there is a path of thoughts and behaviours that can put an end to craving and thus suffering. It is the noble eight fold path that can be listed in a group of three:

wisdom

1. right view
2. right intention

moral discipline

3. right speech
4. right action
5. right livelihood

concentration

6. right effort
7. right mindfulness
8. right concentration

The three groups can be thought of as intellect, morality and mind control although not of necessity in that order. And the greatest of these are mind control, and mindfulness in particular.

SO it would seem that there was an urge to re-mind my-self of the catechism that is the dharma.

One urge and eight bullets.

Prospering horizons

Barry Boyce believes that “Our minds are … basically sound and good.” But what does that mean? What are minds for? We can consider this through the lens of evolutionary psychology. Our minds sit between stimuli and responses.

stimulus --- mind --- response

We are social animals whose minds respond to social stimuli. Some of these responses are hard wired as reflexes and instincts and are the source of our intuitions, biases, schema, and rules of thumb. Some of the responses are learned during our cultural programming, education and brainwashing. Consciously and unconsciously we are conditioned by nature and nurture. But surely what was conditioned can be reconditioned.

Being social we are neurologically hard wired to conceptualise in terms of 'me', 'us' and 'them'.

When the concepts of I, me, mine, ego, and self are active, a person's behaviour may be self-ish or self-less.

When being selfless a person supports an expanding horizon of 'us' which includes parents, siblings, family, friends, community, group and tribe. There are intra group rules related to division of labour and power. Evolution favours those groups that deal effectively with social interaction.

When being selfish, 'us' competes with 'them' for resources. There are different rules for interacting in inter group conflicts which often have a territorial base. Emigration, murder and genocide have been common features of human evolution.

The poet Alfred Tennyson gave us the image of, “Nature red in tooth and claw.” Evolution has created animal bodies adapted to eating plants only, eating other animals only, or eating both. Human teeth and guts are adapted for eating both and we spent most of our ancestral time hunting and killing to complement the plant based section of our diet. But the only constant thing is change. And history need not be destiny.

SO? When the champions of modern mindfulness aspire to be vegetarians they are going against their evolved nature. Is this wise?

When people aspire to a bloodless and nicey nicey world as a sound and good thing they are not dealing with the way things truly are as yet.

BUT, on the positive side, there is neural plasticity. Even old people can change their mind. Even murderous meat eaters can expand their horizons to include as part of 'us' all of humanity, all living things and even the non-living environment. (ref Wilber's 'No Boundaries)

All human brains are capable of mindfulness. People have embraced it for thousands of years and it is now vigorously spreading through modern western culture. Unlike the other animals, humanity thinks and the thoughts can be captured, if still imperfectly, in spoken and written words.

SO I can theorise possible futures where there is a compassionate container for 'us' with prospering horizons

Serendipity talks

Sometimes in the evening 'I' give up writing and surrender attention to outputs from the laptop. Late last night and early this morning I was gob smacked by three posts that are in tune with my present pattern of thinking.

Susan Cain gave a TED talk on the power of introverts. She was plugging her latest book which I read last week. 'Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking'. We are both introverts. We enjoy reading and writing and playing with ideas, especially in a state of 'grace' ie while non-egoic and out of space and time.

Elizabeth Gilbert gave a TED talk about genius. She is a writer and is often in flow and guided by her 'muse'. In her practice the initial creative outpourings are scruffy and need editing. She is aware, however, that there are similarities with the easy non-egoic action of musicians in the groove and athletes in the zone.

Bob Duggan posted an article to BigThink.com reviewing Wendy Ann Greenhalgh’s book 'Mindfulness & the Art of Drawing: A Creative Path to Awareness'. She reckons that it is possible to enter the non egoic state of flow while drawing and doodling. She sees it as an alternative way of entering advanced states of consciousness.

George Clark has recently been blogging short stories based on the idea of grace and grudge. His mind is in a state of grace when it is non-egoic and outwith space and time. There are three states of mind which make this possible – meditation, flow, numinosity.

Doodles appear several times a day and their source and meaning remains a mystery, except that there will be overlaps in their neurological correlates of consciousness (NCC) – probably in the default mode network (DMN). Doodling is an easy way for me to quieten the monkey mind and to be gracefully suffused with peace.

Cain - http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts

Gilbert - http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius

Duggan - http://bit.ly/1Yf6x5l

Clark - http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/marvellously-mundane-mindfulness.html

taming your elephant

Your mindbrain is like a wild elephant
It can be tamed and trained

Click HERE

From the point of view of evolutionary psychology why is the potential so hard to realise?
Thoughts?

short and to the point

The Buddha did not waste words.
He recognised four types of questions

Click HERE

marvellously mundane mindfulness

The mystery is why so many people do not discover the joy of mindfulness as a matter of course. The human brain has evolved the potential of being mindful and it seems silly and wasteful that it is not more commonly realised.

It might be that basic, pre-linguistic consciousness (aka the unconscious) was mindful and that the more recent and talkative self-consciousness is not. As a species we talk a lot and thus develop cultures which have greater survival value than those ancestral systems that had more peace of mind but less chatter. Evolution is a tinkerer. Good enough is good enough – perfection and optimal design are not natural objectives.

Our human ancestors first appeared about 500,000 years ago and had brains much the same as we now have. Language is a new comer and did not appear till about 200,000 years ago. We are now hard wired to learn a language when we are very young – it is in our genes. But the particular language that we learn depends on our culture.

The exponential growth of human culture is closely linked to the evolution of today's 6,500 languages. But they are not perfect, only good enough, which means better than the neighbours. Language makes it relatively easy to be a social animal and to share thoughts, feelings and moods with family and friends and to keep them hidden from the opposition – the neighbouring groups of foreign tongued devils.

The mindbrain exists to monitor the internal and external environments and to react quickly and respond more slowly in appropriate ways. Inputs from the sensory organs are linked and processed by various modules including the short and long term memories. Data is churned in the unconscious, stories are construed, and some of them are channelled to the attention centre of the self-conscious.

This churning and channelling process is subjectively experienced as the monkey mind over which the untrained self-conscious mind has no control. But training and control are possible, desirable and socially useful. The key is more or less formal and time consuming mindfulness meditation.

The goal is a state of extra-ordinary mind that is selfless (non-egoic) and outwith space and time. There is peace of mind which makes it possible to distance yourself from worrisome TFM. The awkward stuff may still be around but it does not cling to attention so tightly. But it is also possible to totally lose your self and the monkey mind.

There are three extra-ordinary states of mind. They overlap:

1. Meditative – drop off body and mind by sitting or walking mindfully for a few seconds or for a lifetime.
2. Flow – engage with a challenging task and operate in the zone, or in the groove – non-egoic and outwith space and time – peaceful and productive.
3. Numinous – open the doors of perception and see infinity in a grain of sand ie experience the Oneness.

Mystery solved. We live in a modern world with a stone age brain. But evolution has not stopped. And we are now able to shape it. But this might be a bad thing rather than a good one.

Effortless confabulation

1. Brainstorm 14 jargon words. (Option – use more or less)
2. Arrange them in alphabetic order.
3. Select a few and use them in alphabetic order to make a sentence.
4. Repeat the above process till all the words are used.
5. Reflect on how easy it was to “make sense”

Here is a worked example:

---

attention

brainwashing

change

cortex

culture

education

enlightenment

liberation

mindbrain

mindfulness

neuroscience

propaganda

stillness

witness

The good news is that by paying attention to the process of brainwashing the direction of change can be controlled. The structure and function of the cortex can be shaped by one's culture such that the education system leads to enlightenment. Liberation is possible when the mindbrain is exposed to mindfulness. Neuroscience has shown that the impact of cultural propaganda is less when a person embraces stillness and acts as a witness to what is going on in their mindbrain.

---

For more about this game see http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/seeing-patterns.html

Conscious snacking

This morning there was a feeling to cut back on snacks. This would shrink my belly, and make it easier to apply my surgical stockings. So, there is motivation to make something happen, to change my mindbrain and therefore to change my behaviour. This is an example of thoughts, feelings and moods (TFM) being transferred from the unconscious to the attention centre where they can be witnessed and labelled.

If there is motivation there is energy and intention. Energy makes work possible. Work involves making changes. Intention involves a goal and action plan related to the changes. This is likely to be constructed in the executive modules of the pre-frontal cortex with inputs from other parts of the mindbrain. Most of the hard work will be done before the TFM are passed to the attention centre of the self conscious.

Now consider the lilies of the field. They don't have a mindbrain but they know how to germinate from a seed and how to grow and produce flowers and seeds in the next generation. What is the nature of this kind of knowing. Must there be a knower and a known? Might not there be an unknown knower?

Now consider your 9 months in the womb. Before your father's sperm fused with your mother's egg

you did not exist. But once the egg was fertilised, it divided many times, and went through a set of development stages. Then you were squeezed through your mother's birth canal into the world of breathing, breast feeding and years of reliance on others.

A lot happened during the 9 months in the womb. There was transition from single-celled zygote (fertilised egg) to many celled neonate (new born). The knowledge to manage the process evolved and was handed down from the ancestors in DNA code. But when did you come to your attention? When did consciousness turn into self-consciousness? Was it somewhere between zygote and neonate or was it not till well into childhood?

With one part of my mindbrain my intention is to cut down on snacking but with another part the intention is to carry on as normal. Yet another part witnesses the struggle between the earlier two. When I pass the packet of chocolate digestives on the kitchen counter the urge to reach for one makes me smile. Old habits die eventually if only I can be aware of what is going on more often than not. Familiarity breeds cement. We become whatever we accustom the unconscious to act upon.

My I is mind made from moment to moment. Having experienced the absence of any abiding reality it gets easier to be aware of and to unhook from such TFM as may turn up in the attention centre. And, in the non judgemental stillness that follows, there are thoughts without a thinker¹, peace is found, and the chocolate biscuits remain for visitors.

1ref Mark Epstein

charting the Oneness

Given the interconnectedness of all things there is the Oneness which can be approached from many directions. And, following the introduction, the story can develop in many further directions. I see the story occupying many modules and some of them are listed below. The order of items in the list was largely spontaneous but I have edited it so that a story line is clearer. Given another mood and moment the outcome would be different.

• The story is about changing minds – my own and that of others.
• Thinking changes the mindbrain It is never too late to change your mindbrain. There is neural plasticity.
• The monkey mind is a zombie on automatic pilot. It is fed thoughts, feelings and moods by the unconscious which is 'boss'
• The scanners of the neuroscientists have shown that the modules in the brain have particular functions. The brains of monks and meditators are different from ordinary folk.

• Brains evolved to improve the interactions of organisms with their physical and social environments – attraction, neutral and aversion
• Nervous systems – cephalization (forming a head) advanced in phases from reptilian through mammals and primates (cortex) to humans (pre-frontal cortex).
• The brain modules are interactive for balance (homeostasis) eg fight or flight
• Sensory inputs about the present situation are compared with similar situations in the past (learning)
• Man is a social animal – and much of the hard wiring is for group work – heuristics, schema, rule of thumb, negative bias, reflex, intuition, hunch, nudge, instinct etc

DISCIPLINES that come to mind

evolutionary psychology, social psychology, positive psychology, behavioural economics, developmental biology, neurology – consilience

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Kahneman thinking – fast and slow

Csikszentmihalyi - flow

Wilber no boundary

Haidt morality

Kabat- Zinn mindfulness

Wilson E O consilience

politics/economics

social psychology

mindfulness

Myers/Briggs

Kiersey Temperament Sorter

Learning type

dharma talking

A few years back my practice included listening to dharma talks. They are available from many sites. I can highly recommend the following three.

http://www.dharmastream.org/ many teachers

http://www.audiodharma.org/ Gil Fronsdal

http://seattleinsight.org/ Rodney Smith

witnessing the zombie

The idea of an abiding self or ego is a mind-made illusion. Mature meditators see through the illusion and experience the non-egoic bliss of being out of time and space. But the experience is also available to newcomers to the ancestral art of sitting still.

I am a student of mindfulness who, over the years, has followed a range of teachings. Common to them all is the major challenge of dispelling the illusion of self which is infamously more easily said than done.

The technique for changing your mind is to sit quietly doing nothing but, when 'I' try, 'I' find that 'my' mind is inclined to occupation by uninvited thoughts, feelings and moods (TFM). So 'I' decide to watch the TFM as they come and go. The intention is that 'I' should be just a witness But 'I' find 'myself' standing in judgement using one of the many moral codes that 'I' acquired from the various groups to which 'I' belong.

So there seems to be an 'I', 'me' and 'mine', associated with an 'ego' or sense of 'self'. But these are not clear cut. Many variations on the basic theme emerge, presumably from the unconscious; they hang around in attention for a while; then they disappear - presumably back into the unconscious.

But do not take my word for it. Try the following experiment.

---

EXPERIMENT:

Find a comfortable seat in a quiet place

Sit down

Shut your eyes

Commit yourself to stay there for 60 seconds

Intend to observe the thoughts, feelings and moods (TFM) that arise

If no TFM arise, then point your attention to your breathing

OPTION: - when the 60 seconds are up -

Label and write the names of the TFM that you remember

Think of your 'self'' as (a) the carrier of the TFM and (b) as the witness

---

I have played with the idea of there being at least two ways in which the structure and functions of 'my''self' are construed. I have given the different constructions names. (a) Zorba the zombie who experiences the background and foreground TFM. Zorba is also known as the monkey mind and (b) Walter the witness who engages in non judgemental observation of what Zorba get up to. I think of Walter as the cool dude.

So who am I? Sometimes excitable Zorba the Zombie, and sometimes cool dude Walter the witness. Do you recognise those two characters? Repeat the experiment and see what other illusions of 'self' turn up.

Good enough

There is no intention that the products of evolution should be 'perfect'. All that matters is that they should be 'good enough' which means better than the competition. The sexual reproduction system generates variations which compete for places in the next generation. Those with the most offspring win. So there is survival of the fittest by natural selection.

It is easiest to figure out what is going on by considering the domestication of plants and animals during the development of settled agriculture.

Think of dogs. Once upon time and not so long ago, there were only wolves. But people befriended them and began programmes of selective breeding for useful features – size, temperament, sense of smell, length and thickness of their coat etc. And this early form of Genetic Modification (GM) gave us the canine cornucopia of today.

Now think of sheep, pigs and horses, of rice, potatoes, and brocolli, and of hundreds of other species that have undergone un-natural selection at the hands of farmers who determined which of the offspring were allowed to breed. Farmers playing God.

Now think of Hitler and the blond haired, blue eyed Aryan master race. And the Holocaust. Politicians playing God.

Now take the farmers and politicians out of the picture. Un-natural selection reverts to natural selection. But, language dictates that if there is selection then there must be a selector, who will have a forward plan and a sense of direction for evolution. God playing God.

But the supernatural agent notion is a linguistic and existential cop out. An omniscient and inscrutable being belongs in the archives of myth and magic. But there is a suggestion that the notion is now hard wired as a god spot in the human mindbrain - perhaps next to the my grandmother spot in that part of the pre-frontal cortex that deals with executive functions.

BUT – reality is a distributed network rather than a centralised bureaucracy. I had a numinous and non-egoic feeling for what that meant the other day while driving through the manicured countryside.

A cow is the grass's way of becoming milk

Milk is the farmer's way of making cheese

Cheese is the hotel's way of feeding guests

Guests are the tourism industry's way of enabling purchasers

Purchasers are industry's way of making a profit

Profit is the capitalist's way of justifying existence

Existence has been around since the big bang

Progress since the big bang has been good enough

Unveiling the unconscious

I am retired without wife or kids and have cut back on busy-ness. So I have lots of time to call my own. What do I do with it? The bare necessities involve domestic chores in the house and garden. And there is some media distraction and social interaction. Other than that, I read, write, doodle and dose by way of unveiling the unconscious.

The reading is non-fiction and focuses on the process of changing minds – mine and other people's. I also listen to key thinkers promoting their ideas online. Themes covered include evolution, neurology, the various social sciences, linguistics and mindfulness. I spend many hours one-pointedly assimilating ideas. Absorption. A multitude of stimuli come knocking at the sense doors. Conscious inputs are few while unconscious ones are many.

The writing is about what I have been reading and experiencing. I no longer feel obliged to write objectively in the passive voice. Herds of tenured academics do that much better than me. And there is Wikipedia! The self appointed task is to tell my subjective stories stylishly, and to blog them. The prose emerges in flow and usually needs to be consciously edited. The muse is not perfect but she is good enough.

There are now several hundred doodles and there are two or three new ones each day. They are produced in about thirty minutes of flow. I am not aware of their meaning. It is as if they draw themselves. They are evidence of the unconscious churn. The products remain mysterious but I greatly appreciate the non-egoic mind state which controls the process.

The dosing includes slivering and sometimes sleep. I am late to bed and early to rise. I presumably have dreams but I don't remember them. Sometimes I settle for a dose which might become a sleep. At other times what looks like a dose from the outside is in fact a session of mindfulness.

It is difficult to talk about mindfulness because sentences demand a subject, verb and object. An agent. A personal pronoun. Language perverts 'reality'. (The reality that can be described is not the real reality – Lao Tzu)

In an earlier blogpost I named my mental states. (see below). Two of them are relevant at the moment.

Zorba the Zombie says “I want xxx.”

William the witness asks “who is the 'I' that wants?” and then

“Who is the 'I' that asks who is the 'I' that wants?”

Zorba the Zombie (aka Monkey Mind) is drip fed from the unconscious with a never ending stream of thoughts, feelings and moods. These cause Zorba (aka the self) to believe in a real reality when, in fact, they are only mind-made re-presentations based on hard wiring and sensory inputs.

William the witness comes and goes. He gives the impression of calmly witnessing the emotional cavalcade that is Zorba. He is a cool dude. He can be called upon at any time to help still the storms created by the Zombie on auto-pilot.

These days more of my time is spent as even keel William than as roller coaster Zorba. There is procrastination about washing the dishes till the mood is right and then the work gets done with grace rather than with a grudge.

Richard Nisbett is a respected Social Psychologist who thinks about thinking and is gradually classifying the types of thought and feeling used by the conscious and unconscious aspects of human mentation. He offers these words of wisdom for unveiling the unconscious:

• Don't assume that you know why you think what you think or do what you do.
• Don't assume that other people's accounts of their reasons or motives are any more likely to be right than are your accounts of your own reasons or motives.
• You have to let the unconscious help you.
• You should never fail to take advantage of the free labour of the unconscious mind.
• If you're not making progress on a problem, drop it and turn to something else.

Yoh!

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/head-voices.html

Big Think on minding

“Most of what goes on in our heads we have no access to – we have no idea of what is going on ...
Unconscious influences, peer-pressure foremost among them, guide many of our most important decisions. Think you're thinking for yourself? Think again.” So says Richard Nisbett a cutting edge social psychologist. (see below)

I appreciate that my sense organs provide a continuous flow of inputs which are interpreted by marrying them to memories. This guides the design of a relevant reaction. The process creates a lot of churn and many possible stories could be told. But, in the African savannah, and in the local supermarket, there may not be time to methodically review all the options; so evolution has made it possible to operate with automatic biases and intuitions some of which are hard wired into my brain by nature and some of which are learned from my culture by nurture.

My mind is an iceberg of staggering complexity. Most of its activities are below the surface in the unconscious. Above the surface the conscious activities (including self consciousness) are severely limited. They are much less in control than they think they are. If you make time to sit quietly you will know that the mind has a mind of its own – a monkey mind ceaselessly swinging from one thought, feeling and mood to another.

In the past 20 years or so the academic world has embraced multi disciplinary teamwork, and new disciplines have developed. For example cognitive neuroscience, social psychology, and behavioural economics operate under the umbrella of evolutionary psychology. This puts pressure on the 'experts' for whom knowing more and more about less and less is no longer a viable option - especially for those who would be at the cutting edge of radical thinking.

I like the idea of being a lifelong learner at the cutting edge. It links to my quest to find better ways to be human and thus to make the world a better place. This of course begs the questions, “What constitutes 'better'?” ie “Why do I like this rather than that?” and, on the ineffable slow burner, “Who is the 'I' that likes?” I have three high level aspirations:

“To make the world a better place”	promote left of centre social democracy and tackle environmental issues
“To find better ways to be human”	promote mindfulness meditation and thus encourage peace loving individuals; encourage east/west dialogue and working in multidisciplinary teams
“To be a lifelong learner at the cutting edge”	spin the action/ reflection cycle with lots of time for (a) academic study so as to expand horizons and (b) stillness so as to avoid zealotry

Most of the minding processes take place under the radar of self consciousness and 'I' am not aware of them. But a new balance can be set. It is never too late to change your mind.

• Neuroscience is showing that by taking thought the mind can change the brain. 
• Social psychology is systematically listing the short cuts and rules of thumb that make fast thinking possible. 
• Behavioural economics is demonstrating that the notion of the rational economic agent is a myth. 
• Mindfulness based courses are proving effective in reducing stress and improving peace of mind in a wide range of social settings.

There is a lot of churn in my unconscious as it processes incoming data to generate appropriate fast reactions and slow responses. Life is an ongoing learning experience. The only constant thing is change. How I see 'reality' depends on the situation that I am in. But forewarned is forearmed. There is the possibility of leaving the unconscious to pull the zombie strings. That is the default mode but it is not cast in stone. By taking thought the process can be tweaked. There are other options:

Take the experimental findings of social and cognitive psychology to heart. Study the thinking about bias, intuition, stereotyping etc and therefore take account of non rational thought processes at the stages before, during and after an interaction.

Keep up to speed with the findings of the neuroscientists about the neural correlates of consciousness and the possibilities of harnessing the potential of neural plasticity. The brain changes the mind changes the brain.

Bathe in the intellectual sunshine that is evolutionary psychology. Re-construct the story of the evolution of nervous systems, their cephalisation in vertebrates, the emergence of the frontal cortex in primates, the appearance of language in humans about 100,000 years ago, and the exponential growth of culture in the last 5000 years.

Bathe in the spiritual sunshine that is mindfulness meditation. Make time to sit quietly doing nothing and know the peace that passes rational and language-based understanding. Experience the blissful mind state that is non-egoic and outside space and time. Practise everyday Zen when operating in flow.

It's never too late to change your mind.

BigThink:

http://bigthink.com/videos/richard-nisbett-on-the-influence-of-other-people

who – me?

who wants what?

what does who want?

why does who want what?

I am who

I want enough stuff and peace of mind

do I need what I want?

who is the I that needs and wants?

I am minded by deep mind

deep mind is minded

by genes and experience

by the fittest ancestors

by the unspeakable force

how to get what I need and want

where and when?

Subjectively spiritual

“The word 'spirituality' has become unusably embarrassing for many people, either because it's so imprecise or because it carries cultural baggage.” Sam Harris is trying to rehabilitate it. https://www.facebook.com/BigThinkdotcom/videos/10153232398983527/

Here is my contribution to the rescue bid.

Spirituality is a way of thinking and feeling which is sometimes realised spontaneously but is more often reached through taming and training the mind. It's names include in flow, in the zone, in the groove, and being attended by the muse. There is also the notion of release or liberation from bondage, and of enlightenment. Common to them all is a delightful, non-egoic state that is out of space and time.

The following table sets out some features of the frame of mind before and after spiritual awakening. The content is partly based on my subjective experience and understanding.

BEFORE - normal people (religious or atheist)	AFTER - abnormal people (spiritual)
are captured by a cultural world view which provides them with intuitions and common sense	are released from their natal, cultural world view. This allows them to be counter intuitive and to display uncommon sense
have world views which are parochial, xenophobic, superficial and unenlightened (myth and magic)	have world views that are global (cosmic), open-ended, deep and enlightened (evidence-based science)
are nurtured, using words, to be egoic and self-conscious	are wordlessly aware of being hard wired to operate non-egoically in unconscious flow

Points to ponder

• Evolutionary psychology has shown how we have a stone age brain in the computer age.
• Neuroscience shows the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) and has identified many specialist modules.
• Experimental psychology has demonstrated many subtle quirks in the way that decisions are made in the mindbrain – we are not as clever and rational as we like to think we are.
• There is no need for all the unconscious activity to be available to the self-conscious.
• The unconscious has been around for a long time; self-consciousness is recent.
• The idea of an abiding self is an illusion. It is constantly being re-created.
• We have evolved rules of thumb to react fast and respond more slowly – using reflex, instinct, bias, intuition.
• Once separated from its historical, eastern roots mindfulness meditation is seen to be a psychology of perception.

Be still and know the peace that passes all understanding

Just sit, dropping off body and mind – stillness speaks

a new take on awareness

Recent work in experimental psychology and neurology has added to our understanding of the mindbrain's purpose, and of its modular structure and function.

The modules are conditioned by nature (hard wired biases, reflexes and instincts), by nurture (learning and enculturation linked to myths and magic) and by serendipity (chance acts of god (?) (thunder, lightning, droughts and floods)). The conditioning operates at the conscious and unconscious levels.

Living things include single celled and many celled plants and animals. They all have to interact with their physical, biological and cultural environments. In many celled animals this involves a sequence of events:

sensory stimulus	sense organ	sensory nerve	sensory module	integrative module	evaluative module (good, neutral, bad)
light	eye	sensory nerve	visual area	light, sound, smell = lion	fight or flight REACTION
1	2	3	4	5	6

Inputs from the sense organs make up a huge amount of new data which has to be assimilated so as to reconfigure 'reality' (including 'self') on a continuous basis. This happens when the hard wired data and some of the earlier data is retrieved from short and long term memory and churned with the new data.

This data sorting happens in the default mode network (DMN). The DMN is less active when the mindbrain is task oriented. The DMN is most active when it is 'resting' ie cut off from externally sourced stimulus/ response reactions. This is presumably what I think of as the kaleidoscopic, unconscious churn.

Outputs from the churn include thoughts, feelings and moods (TFM). Some of these totally commandeer the attention centre while others rarely amount to more than vague impressions. My subjective experience is that the assimilated mini stories are rooted in TFM from times past. But most of them are fleeting and ephemeral although that is enough to let them influence the pattern of reality in any given moment.

For example when shopping in the supermarket I seek out the daily specials, the two for the price of one, the cheap own-brand options, flesh and cheese at less than £8/kg, and wine at less than £4/bottle. The TFM is that those who buy the more expensive options have more money than sense; shame on them. But my sensibilities have been shaped by Dad going bankrupt when I was about 12. So the TFM carries reflections of the old folks shame and embarrassment.

Another example – authority figures. I do not trust my elders and betters - the good and great. Dad punished me for something that my little sister did. My English teacher did not believe that I wrote my appreciation of Wordsworth. The Minister accused me of plagiarism when I argued the case for evolution in Bible Class. The expectation of omniscience is ill founded.

There are two ways of understanding awareness. While sitting quietly being mindful you can be aware that the monkey mind is busy and let the TFM go. While lying on the therapist's couch you can be aware of the TFM – especially the fleeting stuff – and talk about it.

There are many types of meditation and of talking therapy. East v West. Following on the work of Jon Kabat Zinn there is a merging of approaches sometimes called Buddhism Lite. The roots lie in the psychology of perception. Reality is mind-made using language. “He who speaks does not know.” Enough said.

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'.