four classes of question

Thanissaro Bhiku

The Buddha divided all questions into four classes:

• those that deserve a categorical (straight yes or no) answer;
• those that deserve an analytical answer, defining and qualifying the terms of the question;
• those that deserve a counter-question, putting the ball back in the questioner's court; and
• those that deserve to be put aside.

The last class of question consists of those that don't lead to the end of suffering and stress.

The first duty of a teacher, when asked a question, is to figure out which class the question belongs to, and then to respond in the appropriate way. You don't, for example, say yes or no to a question that should be put aside.

If you are the person asking the question and you get an answer, you should then determine how far the answer should be interpreted. The Buddha said that there are two types of people who misrepresent him:

• those who draw inferences from statements that shouldn't have inferences drawn from them, and 
• those who don't draw inferences from those that should.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/notself2.html

No self, no problem

Yesterday I read a book from cover to cover. I got it from a friend who got it from a friend. It is doing the rounds. The book was Eben Alexander (2012) ‘Proof of Heaven – a neurosurgeon’s journey into the afterlife’.

The story is that bacteria attacked his brain and he had a near death experience (NDE) (http://www.near-death.com/) . He wrote about what he thought and felt before researching the topic.

His mind entered a blissful and numinous non-egoic state that was outside space and time and was impossible to describe using words. He wondered if this was a natural property of the brain and its mind or if there was a supernatural dimension?

The literature on the topic is extensive.  It was meticulously recorded at the end of the 19th century by Richard Bucke  (http://archive.org/details/cosmconscious )  and in the early 20th century by William James (http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15865.William_James ). NDE is not the only trigger for the self transcendent experience. Dr Alexander concluded that there was something supernatural going on – that there was a greater truth out there if only at the quantum level. I was not convinced.

The French sociologist Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) had the notion of Homo duplex. There are two natural mind states - the ordinary profane one and the extraordinary sacred one. Many people in many times and places have self-transcended to the sacred state. There is nothing supernatural or magic about it; but it feels extraordinarily good and those who have known it become ‘better’ people.


Amongst other things Jonathan Haidt is a positive psychologist. He gave an inspiring talk at TED2012 – “Climb the staircase to self-transcendence: http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_humanity_s_stairway_to_self_transcendence.html 

His metaphor for entering Durkheim’s sacred state of consciousness was a new door appearing in your mind. Inside the door there is a staircase and at the top of the stairs is a bright light and the experience of cosmic consciousness – an epiphany.

Key question. Is this extraordinary mind state due to a bug ie is it a form of collateral damage resulting from changes to the brain modules during human evolution? OR – is it an adaptation generated by group selection to make in-groups more efficient and effective?

A key issue is ‘no-self’. Zen masters have known for a long time, “no-self no problem.” These days I am often at the beck and call of the ‘muse’. Musicians get in the groove and athletes in the zone. At a more mundane level there can be a numinous washing of the dishes or mowing of the lawn. Actions with grace rather than with a grudge. Go with the ‘flow’. (For more on this see - http://www.scribd.com/doc/132250158/Towards-Uncommon-Sense )

It is a natural and desirable state of mind. If more people could be less selfish then there is the possibility of cutting back on consumerism. We would therefore deal in a more enlightened way with the environment.

Compulsive, medical, page-turner books such as Dr Alexander’s might be used to fuel the revolution. And for those who have not developed the habit of reading there is plenty of audio and video material on the web. By taking thought the mind can be changed to the sacred mode of no-self.

Poke, stroke and hug

In Facebook your can ‘poke’ other people to let them know that you are thinking of them without using words. This is therefore an electronic social network equivalent of what in Transactional Analysis is known as ‘strokes’ – they make you feel good!

Eric Berne

The psychiatrist Eric Berne (1910-1970) was the father of Transactional Analysis and, in 1964, was the author of a best selling book “Games People Play”. He defined a stroke as the “fundamental unit of social action.” A stroke is a unit of recognition, when one person recognizes another person either verbally or non verbally.

Berne reckoned that adults need physical contact just like infants, but have learned to substitute other types of recognition instead of physical stimulation. So while an infant needs cuddling, an adult craves a smile, a wink, a hand gesture, or other form of recognition. Berne defined the term recognition-hunger as this requirement of adults to receive strokes. Knowledge about the biochemistry that underscored the behavior was not available in his day.

http://www.ericberne.com/

Different cultures have different ways of stroking. In my fishing village in the NE of Scotland for example a scarcely noticeable nod is the most that you are likely to receive from senior males when passing in the street. On the other hand, in my Sangha within the spiritual community that is the Findhorn Foundation, full on body hugs are the norm.

The idea that people should hug more has been around since at least the sixties. There is a feel good factor. In recent times the biochemistry has been discovered. Poking, stroking and hugging cause oxytocin (the love chemical) to be released and you feel more generous, moral, happy and trusting as a result.

Paul Zak

The neuroscientist Paul ZaK presents an informative and humorous TED talk on “Trust, morality and oxytocin”. The talk covers the latest findings.

http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_zak_trust_morality_and_oxytocin.html

“A pioneer in a new field of study called neuroeconomics, Zak has demonstrated that oxytocin is responsible for a variety of virtuous behaviors in humans such as empathy, generosity and trust. Amazingly, he has also discovered that social networking triggers the same release of oxytocin in the brain - meaning that e-connections are interpreted by the brain like in-person connections.” (TED Blurb)

Oxytocin has been labeled the ‘cuddle drug’ by the tabloid press. Eight hugs per day should trigger the recommended dose but, failing that, you can use a nasal spray!

Knowing me and you

Today there is nothing urgent and important that must be done. And I can procrastinate about the things that are less urgent and less important. So I am free FROM the immediate call of duty – from the need to be DOING – from busy-ness. So what am I free FOR? Logic suggests BEING – still-ness.

To slightly misquote Matthew 7:16 – “By their actions shall ye know them.” In reckoning what another person values note what they DO rather than what they SAY. The same principle applies to myself. I can tell what I value by noting how I spend my time.

It pleases me to think that I have cut back on ‘doing’ and that I give most of my time to ‘being’. But in fact, most of the time, I am doing being. The ultimate and ancient goal is to “know yourself” and there are many cultural variations on what this might mean.

In the Christian tradition your true self is God within. St Augustine reckoned that, “if you love God enough you may do as you please”. I see this as an existential cop out that has justified the brutal inquisition and the murderous crusades. The metaphor is of an omnipotent and transcendent father figure who works in mysterious ways. Supernatural myth and mumbo jumbo!

In the modern secular West there is the concept of the ‘self’ linked to the psyche or soul which is rooted in the unconscious. Many people have a shaky sense of self because of ineffective parenting. They thus have problems adapting to their socio-cultural environment. Talking about it helps to build a more robust self. The talking cure ranges from chat with your granny, through counseling and psychotherapy to psychiatry. R D Laing was part of the anti psychiatry movement and reckoned that insanity was “a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world”.

In Buddhism there is the concept of no-self. The underlying dynamic is caught in the short slogan, “No self, no problem.” There is suffering because people believe that they have an abiding self. Those who make time for quiet and peaceful sitting become mindful of the illusory nature of the ‘self’ and therefore go beyond suffering. Thich Nhat Hahn recommends ‘being peace’.


Over the last 20 years there have been major discoveries in neuroscience and in evolutionary psychology. Neuroscience has been unpacking the ancient concept of consciousness. Mind and brain are two ways of looking at the same thing. The thoughts and feelings that appear in the conscious attention centre are the tiny tip of the iceberg which is the vast and dynamic unconscious. The brain is modular with complex links between modules. ‘Mind’ is an ongoing process which matches incoming sensory data with what went before and thus generates behavior appropriate for survival. This explains the meditator’s feeling that the mind has a mind of its own.

Evolutionary psychology is rooted in the idea that the brain and its mind modules evolved to cope with physical and socio-cultural survival problems. Many of the adaptations evolved during our 190,000 years as hunters and gatherers. Latterly evolution was via memes rather than genes.

SO – my action has been to write about intellectual themes. This is a familiar activity and was managed in flow as peaceful and effortless action in a state of no-self - there was no awareness of place nor of clock time. I obviously value this writing process as I spend a lot of time at it.

Do other people that I know get into that state?  I will have to pay more attention in future.

Education and training

While studying for a Masters degree at a prestigious UK University my tutors were social scientists. After several chats my understanding of their approach to academic writing was:

1. write your story using a number of your ideas
2. review the literature to find what has already been written on the topic
3. gather quotes that can replace your original text 
4. drop any ideas that are not in the department’s recommended reading list

This links to the idea that every clause and sentence needs objective referencing. Emotional and subjective rants were not really appropriate despite the innovative course outline suggesting that a main objective was to have the students express themselves freely. But there was to be no rocking of the establishment boat. Their slogan might well have been “Be reasonable, do it our way”.

This was education as one way bucket filling. The role of the student is not to think originally or to emote but rather to calmly and rationally absorb the conventional wisdom of the dominant group (COWDUNG) and to regurgitate it throughout their post-student life.

Lesser academics repeat their lectures year after year. They resist change. So do most other people. The common desire is for the ends to be tied together so as to reduce uncertainty and doubt.

• “Good ideas close lazy minds.”
• “Keep the peasants in ignorance.”
• “Revere your elders and betters who are the good and great.”
• “That man thinks too much, such men are dangerous.”
• “Neurotic nihilists living in existential vacuums”

I have several degrees and have written many essays and theses; I have also supervised and edited the writing of many other people in six countries.

During my early work years I was an enthusiastic purveyor of the hegemonic discourse that builds on Western humanity’s cumulative tradition. My ‘self’ was put on the back burner while I herded the intellectual cows of the global elite.

Many years ago I participated in a conference in the S Sudan where the concept of “education for all” was being promoted to representatives of various pastoralist cultures in which primary school attendance was very low. The conversation went something like this:

A – You have to send your children to primary school.
B – Why?
A – Because the Universal Declaration of human rights says so.
B – So who made this universal declaration?
A – A group of wise elders representing many nations
B – Were there any pastoralists in the group?
A – No.
B – Were there any Africans in the group?
A – No
B – Were there any women in the group?
A – No
B – So is it acceptable to call it a Universal Declaration?
A – In terms of modern development, universal primary education represents a well nigh universal aspiration
B – It is not an aspiration among pastoralists in the S Sudan
A – Hmm.

I was awe-struck by the pastoralists. They knew that they were God’s chosen people and they laughed themselves silly at the sight of sweat encrusted white men travelling around in noisy metal boxes on pot holed roads.

Real people walk naked through the swamps with their cattle. Primary school could only poison the minds of sons and daughters. Respect.

But time is not standing still for the pastoralists. They are being swamped by modernity (becoming like America).

But, theoretically at least, there are educational options. There is a continuum with subject-centred vocational skills training at one end and student-centred enlightenment at the other. In many places there is a move away from traditional towards experiential learning (see box)

To see six of my one-page articles summarizing recent trends in education follow the link
http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/nutshell/trends1.htm

I am not writing these blog posts in fastidious, academic style. But I am now over 60 and I have a long track record in education and writing. There is thus the possibility of credibility when I say that “I think” without quoting other people or using footnotes and references. If a reader wants to follow through on particular points they can comment on the blog, email me, or consult Google and Wikipedia.

The agency for most of the more recent writing has been the unconscious. It is seemingly well organized. These days I do not rationally plan what I write. I sit at the computer, ideas arrive sentence and paragraph at a time, and I write them down. Then more arrive. Thus the story grows – but I try to keep it to under 700 words.

It is not so much ‘teacher teach yourself’ as ‘teacher facilitate your own learning’.

There is peace, pleasure and arguably wisdom to be had when slow and in ‘flow’ and being outwith self, time and space.

There is experiential learning from a different paradigm. It sits well with my gray hair!

The roots and fruits of Mindfulness

If Mindfulness is a good thing with long evolutionary roots then why do so many people not practice it, and, what is it good for anyway?

Most people do not practice it because they do not know that it exists. It might be that the hard wired framework exists in everybody but our modern culture does not highlight it and fill it in.

In terms of evolutionary psychology we can assume that the capacity for Mindfulness evolved to support more efficient and effective ways of working and relating in our 69 million days of hunting and gathering in small, competitive groups.

The details of what was involved are open to speculation. SO – here goes.

It might have been the case that:

• in the days when the rate of change was glacially slow only the sages had access to Mindfulness and that is why they were the sages
• the non-sages of the in-group were on auto-pilot and were simple minded (ie conscious but not yet conscious of consciousness)
• the sages would have played a key part in generating the creation myths that enabled peace of mind (cognitive consonance and existential closure)
• when change was needed the sages who practiced Mindfulness could think outside the box
• the sage tradition might have run in families; but there might also have been a system of recognizing and co-opting free-thinking youth and institutionalizing them so that they did not prove a threat to the status quo
• a goal of the sages might have been to support peace within the in-groups such that members of the group worked effectively together
• sages might also have promoted war directed towards the out-groups. This would have been about the ownership of local resources – especially territory.

As a process, evolution tinkers. Changes to the brain would have involved new ways of using modules and the links between them. There is a good chance that there will have been unintended collateral changes. But that is not a concern to evolution where all that matters is that this gene, organism or social group leaves more copies of itself than the competition.

Once language had evolved the door was opened to being conscious of consciousness and being able to talk about it. There has been plenty of time to support the process.

Bipedal apes first appeared 7 million years ago. Homo sapiens with language has been around for 200,000 years and agriculture based societies for only 10,000 years. So we spent 190,000 years as hunters and gatherers. Given an average lifespan of 50 years this gives us 3,800 generations during which we slowly complexified our way of being in the world.

Then about 5,000 years ago civilizations began, there was an exponential cultural flourishing and an associated population explosion. The last 250 years has seen the development of modern industrial societies and, in the last 50 years, there have been men on the moon.

BUT - Mindfulness might not have such ancient roots. Mindfulness as a conscious practice might first have appeared in the Axial Age. This is a term coined by German philosopher Karl Jaspers to describe the period from 800 to 200 BC during which similar revolutionary thinking appeared in Persia, India, China and the Occident.

The key thinkers included the authors of the Upanishads, Lao Tzu, Homer, Socrates, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Thucydides, Archimedes, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Deutero-Isaiah. Jaspers held Socrates, Confucius and Siddhartha Gautama in especially high regard, describing each of them as an exemplary human being and paradigmatic personality.

It is tempting to speculate that Mindfulness was the key innovation. It involved a heartfelt realization that ‘the reality which can be described is not the real reality’ (Lao Tzu) and this is because language did not evolve to deal with the Oneness and that therefore ‘he who knows does not speak’ and ‘he who speaks does not know’. (Lao Tzu)

Sages practice stillness and become conscious of consciousness. They also become relaxed about the thoughts and feelings that continually well up from the unconscious. The key liberating insight is well captured in the first two verses of the Buddhist classic the Dhammapada - “All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.”

Once upon a time people were on auto-pilot with monkey minds and they reacted mindlessly to external stimuli. But the spiritual heroes stilled their minds and thus made calm space such that there can be mindful responses to external stimuli. Thus there is liberation, enlightenment, insight, creativity and compassion.

But, in those earlier periods, the practice of Mindfulness remained restricted to an elite. It is tempting to speculate that, with our new information and communication technologies (ICT), it is now time to go global. The program would include intellectual doses of Big History and instruction in Mindfulness Meditation for all.

The physical and ideological roots of Mindfulness are well established in the makeup of the human brain and mind. It might now be time for nurturing the branches and collecting the fruit of holistic peace and harmony in our time.

Two views of mindfulness

Mindfulness came up in conversation several times over the last few days. But there was confusion because some people (eg mature, atheistic, freelance intellectuals) used the word in its ordinary sense while others (eg me) used it in its more specialized sense.

The dictionaries suggest that mindfulness involves being aware, careful and heedful, and being attentive to duties and responsibilities. This suggests a moral component where the opposite of mindful would be unaware, careless, heedless, inattentive, mindless or forgetful.

Some of the intellectuals (I chatted with three of them) had a more nuanced view of the ordinary version.

If mindfulness brings peace of mind then it may be a common mental state as demonstrated by old men at the street corner sucking peacefully on their pipes. They are retired, relaxed and ready to meet their maker. But pipe smoking sages may no longer exist in these modern times. And, whether accurate or not, that view of mindfulness lacks the structure, techniques and rigor of the specialized version.

Jon Kabat-Zinn’s definition of the specialized version is now widely used -

"Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and non judgmentally."

The definition is explained in the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme of “the Mindful consultancy”. The idea is that most of us, most of the time, operate on auto-pilot which is “a condition in which somebody is not fully aware of what he or she is doing but is acting in a habitual and unthinking way”. Thus we mindlessly react from habit rather than mindfully respond from wisdom. We therefore behave like unenlightened robots.

The tasks in MBSR are (a) to slow down and calm the monkey mind and (b) to withdraw the tentacles that flail in the past and future - on autopilot. We can then locate ourselves in the present moment and thus be awake to and aware of what is actually happening NOW.

This suggests that the ‘self’ has two aspects – the auto-pilot and the witness.

The auto-pilot has both routine and creative aspects. The routine activities include (a) walking, eating and other basic physiological functions and (b) the customs, habits and taboos of social and cultural interactions.

Note that there can also be remarkable creativity while on autopilot. The ‘self’ can be switched off such that the musician is in the groove, the athlete is in the zone, the unconscious muse dictates to the conscious poet - and generally there is ‘flow’.

And then it is ‘as if’ there was a witness to what goes on in the mind. One meditation technique for beginners is to patiently and gently bear non-judgmental witness to the thoughts and feelings that drift through the attention centre. Another technique is to tame the churning mind by focusing attention on the breathing. When other thoughts and feelings capture attention just notice, let go, and return to the breathing.

Once you have tamed the mind you can concentrate and thus be more awake to, and aware of, what is going on in the world and in your mind. ‘You’ begin to have the freedom to choose where your mind goes. Mindless reaction is replaced by mindful response. Numinous appreciation becomes a regular mind state. There is increased creativity. There is less anxiety and panic.

The MBSR approach is based on Buddhist theory and practice but links to Positive Psychology and to Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). In these troubled times, this emergent Western interpretation of the Eastern system aims to develop a more robust self. The Eastern view is that the self is an illusion. This crucial difference is rooted in cultural belief patterns which are linked to problems of translation from the original Pali and Sanskrit.

>>>>>

• The Buddhist term translated into English as "mindfulness" comes from the Pali term sati and its Sanskrit counterpart smṛti. Translators rendered the Sanskrit word as trenpa in Tibetan and as nian in Chinese.
• Mindfulness is an attentive awareness of the reality of things (especially of the present moment) and is an antidote to delusion.
• In the Satipatthana Sutra the Buddha advocated that you should establish mindfulness in your day-to-day life and maintain, as much as possible, a calm awareness of your body, sensations (or feelings), mind (or consciousness) and mental contents.
• The practice of mindfulness supports analysis that results in the arising of wisdom.
• "Correct" or "right" mindfulness is the seventh element of the noble eightfold path.

>>>>> Various sources.

SO – there are two views of mindfulness. The root problem in both cases is the uncontrolled self and the tendency to run on auto-pilot and thus to mindlessly react rather than to mindfully respond.

The western solution is to make the self stronger by more or less formal talking about it.

The eastern solution uses stillness to realize the non existence of self as an abiding entity.

Quagmire Brains

Time is a slippery beast. Clock time may seem regular and constant but sometimes you feel it dragging and at others times it flashes past. Felt time is our subjective reality.

For most modern, civilized people time is linear. We feel that it moves from a beginning through a middle to an end: from before through during to after. This is particularly true of our life’s journey –

copulation, birth, marriage, copulation, death. 

From womb to tomb. From cradle to grave. (And from left to right – or is that just a personal quirk?)

For many other people time is cyclical. There is movement but, like the seasons, there is also eternal return. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.

The yin/yang symbol of Taoism offers an image of intertwined opposites containing each other’s seeds. The scientific concept of biogeochemical cycles mirrors the yin/yang cycle. The mass of atoms on planet earth stays the same but there is ongoing churn as they join together and fall apart.

If we view time as linear then we have the problem of figuring what came before the big bang. A beginningless beginning? Something comes from nothing? Did God come before the big bang? What came before God? What grounds are there for supposing an unmoved mover?

If we view time as cyclical then we can suppose an eternal return. Since the big bang, the universe has been expanding. It may eventually reach its full extent and begin contracting again till it reforms a singularity that gives rise to another big bang. Night follows day follows night. Singularity follows universe follows singularity.

BUT – in what extent of space and time does the singularity operate – how is the universe contained? If you go to the edge of the universe and take a step beyond – where would you be?

“You’ll find plenty question masters
Making quagmires of their brain;
The man said, “There is no answer”
They said “You are insane.” (Clark)

Language is a slippery beast. It is quite new in evolutionary terms. It has been growing and is still expanding. It dictates the patterns and agencies that we invent and label to create our reality. We explain the new and unknown in terms of metaphors, similes and analogies relating to what is already familiar.

Early language would have dealt with the practicalities of work and relationships within and between small groups of hunters and gatherers. There would not have been much call in those days for words dealing with space/time, infinity, eternity and unmoved movers.

So how much progress has there been? Are we now asking the right questions or are we linguistically constrained by language more suited to the days of parochial magic and myth?

This morning I feel inspired to believe that we are arriving at radically new patterns of understanding and vocabulary linked to mindfulness meditation, neuroscience, evolutionary psychology and possibly Big History.

Stepping stones across the quagmire of my brain.

Analogy.

Peaceful smile.

Big History

Bill Gates and David Christian

Big History is an emerging and rapidly growing academic discipline which examines history scientifically from the Big Bang to the present.

It examines long time frames using a multidisciplinary approach based on combining numerous disciplines from science and the humanities, and explores human existence in the context of this bigger picture.

It integrates studies of the cosmos, Earth, life and humanity using empirical evidence to explore cause-and-effect relations.

While some academic historians are skeptical about its value or originality, the 20-year-old discipline appears to be poised for further growth, including an effort to make the discipline available worldwide via a project from philanthropist Bill Gates and David Christian called the Big History Project.


Phases: physical evolution → biological evolution → cultural evolution
Epochs: particulate → galactic → stellar → planetary → chemical → biological → cultural.


Christian explains Big History in terms of eight thresholds of increasing complexity:

1. The Big Bang and the creation of the Universe about 13 billion years ago
2. The creation of the first complex objects, stars, about 12 billion years ago
3. The creation of chemical elements inside dying stars required for chemically-complex objects, including plants and animals
4. The formation of planets, such as our Earth, which are more chemically complex than the Sun
5. The creation and evolution of life from about 3.8 billion years ago, including the evolution of our hominine ancestors
6. The development of our species, Homo sapiens, about 250,000 years ago, covering the Paleolithic era of human history
7. The appearance of agriculture about 11,000 years ago in the Neolithic era, allowing for larger, more complex societies
8. The "Modern revolution", or the vast social, economic, and cultural transformations that brought the world into the Modern era

Wikipedia on Big History
The Big History Project - David Christian at Macquarie University - video

Metanexus

Metanexus - BIG History, BIG Problems, BIG Questions http://www.metanexus.net/

 

“Metanexus fosters a growing international network of individuals and groups exploring the dynamic interface between cosmos, nature and culture. Membership is open to all.”

“At the present moment, despite the increase in the quantity and diversity of our knowledge, our understanding of the world is becoming ever more fragmented. We believe this fragmentation lies at the root of many of the current threats to our wellbeing and the wellbeing of the planet. Therefore, Metanexus proposes a new approach to the way we pursue knowledge about our universe, our lives, and ourselves. Our mandate is to Think Big.

The mission of the Metanexus Institute is to facilitate a global conversation that uses insights from Big History—our common scientific origin story—to discuss solutions to Big Problems and productively debate Big Questions.

Features:

Around the web - http://www.metanexus.net/around-the-web - a large categorized set of articles

PESTLE analysis - Factsheets - CIPD

PESTLE analysis - Factsheets - CIPD

And now there is STEEPLES at https://sites.google.com/site/steeplessrds/

Social
Technological
Environmental
Economic
Political
Legal
Ethical
Spiritual

TED - Technology, Entertainment, Design

TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

Along with two annual conferences TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.

The two annual TED conferences, on the North American West Coast and in Edinburgh, Scotland, bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less).

On TED.com, we make the best talks and performances from TED and partners available to the world, for free. More than 1400 TED Talks are now available, with more added each week. These videos are released under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.




http://www.ted.com

Brights and Supers

The ‘Bright’ world view seems to me to be sensible and reasonable. It accords with my present mode of thinking and being. There are now many self confessed Brights and they include Daniel Dennett, Steven Pinker and Michael Shermer.

What is a bright?

• A bright is a person who has a naturalistic worldview
• A bright's worldview is free of supernatural and mystical elements
• The ethics and actions of a bright are based on a naturalistic worldview

The Bright website (http://www.the-brights.net/ ) contains a lot of well digested material including power point presentations and videos.

What is a super?

• A super is a person whose world view includes supernatural and mystical elements – myths and magic.

Cool HOTS

Daniel Dennett

“Thinking is hard - yet barely a waking moment passes when we're not labouring away at it. A few of us may be natural geniuses, able to work through the toughest tangles in an instant; others, blessed with reserves of willpower, stay the course in the dogged pursuit of truth. Then there's the rest of us. Not prodigies and a little bit lazy, but still aspiring to understand the world and our place in it. What can we do?” (Amazon blurb regarding Daniel Dennett’s latest book “Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking”)

I have several feet of bookshelves dealing with the mind and thinking . I could make one-pagers of them. But that is yesterday’s party trick. When I grew up I put away childish things. I used to objectively herd other people’s thinking animals. These days I try to get to holistic grips with the thinking/ feeling animal that is/ is not the non-egoic me.

Today’s news - an 80 year old Japanese gentleman has climbed Everest. My goals are more humble – I seek to climb only the Himalayas of the Soul (HOTS). This can be done from a cushion or an armchair – with occasional transplants to an office chair facing an online laptop.

My map to the HOTS has plenty detail about the foothills but not so much about the heights. In retrospect there has been a sequence:

1. Cultural roots – 20th century, rural Scottish Presbyterian
2. Archaeology, Psychology and Zoology
3. Teaching general science and biology
4. Sociology, anthropology and western philosophy (Development)
5. Eastern philosophy – Taoism and Buddhism - Zen and Vipassana.
6. Mindfulness meditation.
7. Neuroscience and Evolutionary Psychology.

Group (1) was serendipitous in terms of family, community and sub culture. Nature and nurture together set me up as a serious minded, green, scientific, intellectual.

Groups (2) to (4) saw me scratching around the western scientific foothills ; but this did not deliver what I intuitively sought.

Group (5) marked my initial academic review of the Eastern ways of thought. It became clear that there was more to understanding than just knowing.

Group (6) marked the beginnings of a Buddhist practice and the experience of being beyond space, time and ego. Interest in Groups (1) to (5) waned. ‘Being peace’ became the aspiration. And there was interest in extracting the essence of Buddhist practice and of eliminating the exotic ritual and vocabulary. I appreciated the MBSR line of thinking.

And now there is Group (7). The evolution of the modular mind/brain. Structure and function. Past, present and possible future. Consciousness of consciousness.

Neural plasticity. Think different, be different.
Peace is the Way. The HOTS are cool.

Whose news?

Nothing in the online news grabbed my attention. This is surely a good thing. Why should I fill attention with topics prioritized by the media? Habit.

I scan the Google News and then the Guardian online. I made a web page with links to all the other UK papers but I rarely open it.

I could ignore the media. Attention will be filled anyway. There will be reruns of recent sensory inputs and these will be loosely and briefly attached to various long-term memory topics; this can bolster experiential learning.

For example, yesterday I attended a Parkinson’s UK road show in the Boat of Garten. Big yins from Edinburgh and London made presentations. I was more interested in how things were said rather than in what they were saying. The biggest of the big yins were silver tongued devils making the same presentation for the fiftieth time. Smooth but not inspiring.

The Scottish parliamentary liaison wifie was a fiery character and offered many real-politic insights. Much more than a bean counter. The local PD nurse was a last minute stand in who was well informed, committed and charming. Genuine fire and passion are inspiring.

They were touting their various topic specific hand outs. They make a thing about plain language - and they seem to have figured it out for both printed and online materials.

More attention filling. I readjusted the bolts that support the new toilet seat. I have been procrastinating about that for many days. The mechanism is counterintuitive and it seems that I did not keep the installation instructions.

There have been many other attention grabbers in the three hours since I got out of bed. But none of them seemed worthy of being committed to writing. Time passes. What reality counts? Whose news merits attention?