Practical Practice

    When is the best time to practice? NOW! Every moment of our brief life! 
    Why?
    Because we face a new reality every single moment,  
        EITHER 
with a loving, spacious response which BRINGS heaven
         OR
with a fearful contracted reaction which BRINGS hell 

    "PRACTICE" is very simple & practical:
CONSCIOUSLY CHOOSING,  
more-and-more consistently, 
moment-by-moment-by-moment-by-moment ...
to live in heaven. 
    Important details: http://www.johnlovas.com/2025/12/basic-meditation-practice.html

    Remember the old joke:
"Why do you keep banging your head against the wall?"
"Because it feels SO GOOD when I stop." 

    Each time we react adversely to anyone or anything, we reject, try to avoid, or judge as wrong the reality we face. We create completely unnecessary suffering whenever we prefer something different than "what is, right here, right now." 
    No matter how old we are, how sophisticated, educated, well-read, etc, we tend to behave like a 4-year old who gets a slightly different toy than the one s/he wanted. We may no longer have melt-downs (though most of us still do at times), but even a brief angry thought causes our body to constrict, adding to a lifetime's store of repressed fear, pain, sadness & hostility in our bodies AND conditions us to automatically react faster & stronger, further solidifying "the story of me" the fictional identity of a "self" composed of a list of likes & dislikes - Eckhart Tolle's "pain body."

    "The Great Way is not difficult
     for those who have no preferences..." Seng Ts'an

    “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Viktor E. Frankl

    Frankl had this powerful insight in a Nazi concentration camp while starving, witnessing thousands of people being murdered daily, and anticipating his own death. He saw the wisdom in CHOSING to RESPOND from his spacious loving higher Self RATHER THAN REACT from a fearful, hateful contracted small self. 
    THIS IS OUR PRACTICE MOMENT-TO-MOMENT

    Wise people, for thousands of years have been telling us things that sound alluring yet counterintuitive:

    "Only have no preferences!"    YET we get upset over the slightest diversion from what we assume would make us happy. 

    "All shall be well,
     and all shall be well,
     and all manner of things shall be well."   Right here & now, as soon as we "see rightly" & choose wisely

    "The kingdom of God is at hand"   It's right here & now!

    "Existence is unimaginably paradoxical. It’s absolutely perfect and beautiful AND it’s a total disaster – a bloody mess, at the same time, occupying the exact same space.
    And that’s why, at least historically, at least as far as I see it, the greatest realizers that have ever walked around this place, haven’t taken their realization, hidden in a cave, and gone ‘Well good for me. I’m in heaven and that’s what I’ll do.’ They’ve generally completely dedicated themselves to the well-being of the world that they see as perfect. But I think it’s because their vision is big enough that it can hold this paradoxical vision, that it’s perfect and complete AND it’s a bloody mess, with a lot of potential. 
    Our (dualistic) minds don’t like those kinds of things. They want to know ‘Which is it?’ ‘Is it this or that?’
    Both!"  Adyashanti http://www.johnlovas.com/search?q=everything+is+perfect

Eldred Allen "Epic Sunset" 2019 www.inuitartfoundation.org 

Take is Easy!

    Above and beyond life's inevitable challenges, we give ourselves a hard time. We CAN reduce our suffering by 95% by NOT getting sucked into unnecessary suffering eg wallowing in & trying to change the PAST, and catastrophizing about & micromanaging the FUTURE. 

    A more advanced practice is "self-inquiry" where we ask ourselves, 'WHO is suffering?' If we really go deep with this open question, we eventually come to realize that we are non other than sparks of the Cosmic Intelligence that dreams this Cosmos into being in the eternal now. So, 

        "All shall be well,
        and all shall be well,
        and all manner of things shall be well." Julian of Norwich (1342 – 1416) English Christian mystic 

     “Praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and sorrow come and go like the wind. To be happy, rest like a giant tree in the midst of them all.” The Buddha

    "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff … and it's ALL Small Stuff!" Richard Carlson 

 

Pure Love

 

Resisting What is Most Precious

    “It is a common fate of all knowledge to begin as heresy and end as orthodoxy.” Thomas Huxley

    “We suffer to the exact degree that we resist having our eyes & hearts opened.” Adyashanti

 

    OK, here's a classic example of "people in positions of power & influence" resisting with all their might something that revolutionized all our lives for the better:
    “In 1847, Ignaz Semmelweis, a doctor at Vienna’s General Hospital, noticed something important about the women and children he treated in the maternity ward. They died. Distressingly often. Semmelweis wondered if all of the autopsies he and his fellow colleagues performed on cadavers were somehow contaminating the next group of children and mothers they attended. So he developed a handwashing solution of chlorine and lime for physicians to rinse with between seeing patients. It worked. Infections dropped to below 1 percent on his ward.
    But, among the other doctors, the reception was less kind. His colleagues mocked him, refusing to believe on principle that a gentleman’s hands could spread disease. Semmelweis himself could only offer up the vague concept of ‘cadaverous contamination’ to justify his protocol (this was several decades before the formal articulation of germ theory). The stress drove Semmelweis to a nervous breakdown. A bitter colleague had him committed to a lunatic asylum, where he was beaten by guards, and died of an infection that his very own handwashing technique would have prevented.
    But Semmelweis’s legacy lives on, and not just in the grudging adoption of surgical hygiene. He’s also shaped the cognitive sciences, where the Semmelweis reflex – the idea that we habitually & often violently reject new evidence or new knowledge because it runs to counter to our preexisting articles of faith – has become a standby on the list of common cognitive biases.
    Our cognitive biases hamper our ability to predict with any degree of certainty what’s going to happen next. That’s because the Semmelweis reflex kicks us out of accepting what is staring us in the face. We can’t wrap our head around it because it runs to counter to everything we hold to be self-evidently true.”
    Jamie Wheal. “Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That’s Lost Its Mind.” Harper Wave, 2021.

 

    Our current infatuation with dogmatic scientism (not legitimate science, but scientism as the latest 'opium of the people') blinds us to our own depth and ability to live a truly meaningful, peaceful life. As soon as we hear words like 'spirituality' or 'religion' or even 'depth' and "the Semmelweis reflex kicks us out of accepting what is staring us in the face."

    “Were one asked to characterize (spirituality) in the broadest & most general terms possible, one might say that it consists of the (direct experience) that there is an unseen order, and our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto.” ​William James, (paraphrased)​ ​“The Varieties of Religious Experience”

    “The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working.
    To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.” William James

    “Too often, our understandings have been limited by culture, religious debate, & the human tendency to put ourselves at the center.” Richard Rohr

    “So much of our precious life force, our prana, our chi, our sacred energy, is spent on the Sisyphean task of pushing feelings away, trying to make them go 'somewhere else'... but where would they go? For even the Underworld is within us! So much creativity is released, so much relief is felt, when we break this age-old pattern of self-abandonment, go beyond our fearful conditioning, and try something totally new: staying close to feelings, not pushing them away, as they emerge in the freshness of the moment, looking for their true home – which is our own hearts. This is meditation: Breaking the cycle of fear.”
 Jeff Foster

    “Everything changes once we identify with being the witness to the story, instead of the actor in it.” Ram Dass 

    “That which is threatening to the ego is liberating for the heart.” Amaro Bhikkhu

"Once we have died to the false self,
we have a hope of getting out of our own way and
meeting the Holy One face to face.”
    Mirabai Starr. “Caravan of No Despair. A Memoir of Loss and Transformation.” Sounds True, 2015.

“When the mortal mind appears, buddhahood disappears.
When the mortal mind disappears, buddhahood appears.
When the mind appears, reality disappears.
When the mind disappears, reality appears.” Bodhidharma

    “May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.”
    John O’Donohue, “Imagination as the Path of the Spirit John O'Donohue” 

 

Estas Tonne - Live in Ulm (2017) stream - 100 min

One Pearl I've Learned

     A precious key pearl I've picked up along the way:

    "The Great Way is not difficult
      for those who have no preferences..." Sengstan

    It's natural, universal & harmless to have mild preferences eg to want chocolate more than vanilla ice cream, or medium-roast more than dark-roast coffee. IF however your world falls apart - even briefly - when you can't get what you prefer, then you are creating UNNECESSARY SUFFERING for yourself & those around you. And most of us take our meaningless preferences way too seriously!

    A MAJOR reason for this is that, in lock-step with our current Western society, we're very left-hemisphere dominant - totally dependent on controlling the external environment. The fact that we have minimal control over the most aspects of life, perfectionism in general, but especially over the most important, most meaningful aspects of life, is frustratingly unattainable.

    Most of us have no idea how powerfully our usual way of thinking & living is handicapped by the dominant materialist reductionist worldview. We are saturated with, & drowning in it, regardless of whether we consider ourselves spiritual, religious, atheists or undecided. The chronic frustration of desperately wanting 'complete control' manifests as: cynicism, nihilism, impatience, anxiety, depression, angry outbursts, addictions, illness anxiety disorder (hypochondriasis), burnout, thanatophobia (intense fear of death or dying), violence, suicide, etc.

    A major brilliant corrective attempt is Iain McGilchrist's book, “The Matter with Things. Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World.” Perspectiva Press, 2021. It is a detailed, intelligent, wise attempt to free readers from simplistic, meaningless materialist perspective most of us mistake for "science."
    In my & many others' opinion, this is the most interesting & most valuable book you will ever come across. (I bought the relatively-inexpensive Kindle version.)
    McGilchrist's book IS a long, patient read, but as he says, “Wisdom is always going to be relatively rare and involves a lot of things."

    A deeply meaningful, worthwhile spiritual life - is yours, IF YOU'RE READY to immerse yourself in wisdom.

 

"Morning has Broken"

Release, Be and Share!

    OK, here's a major problem alluded to in the Tower of Babel story in the bible. What makes 'perfect sense' to each one of us differs! What constitutes rational thinking, speech & behavior is unique to each individual - we speak different languages, we're 'on different wavelengths.' And THAT is because of our unique personal histories, different traumas experienced, which in turn give rise to an array of different defenses (armoring) & preferences, neuroses etc. So what each of us sees is not the world as it is, but essentially a cartoon of our personal psychological 'baggage' or 'personality.' BUT, because we all do the best we can to survive, each of us is quite certain that WE see perfectly clearly, while others (especially those weird mystics!) need glasses or are blind.

    “We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.” Anais Nin

    THIS is why, on rare occasions, when we briefly drop all our defences & neuroses and are momentarily our true Self, we perceive the world accurately, as it really is, everything, including the most mundane things, so amazingly bright, glowingly beautiful, other-worldly & unforgettable. Perhaps this is how we experience everything - for a while - as newborns.

    “Many people have intimations of their true nature in childhood – the sense of a benevolent presence guiding their life, a radiance that shines forth from all things, or a current of love that unites us all. …
    But we lose touch with this luminosity as we age … we forget who we really are and succumb to the way others see us...
    By adulthood we've more or less forgotten who we truly are, and have passively absorbed the current cultural fad of being frozen in the armor of materialism, meaninglessness & cynicism. Not surprisingly, something in all of us 'continues to weep over the barrenness of modern life.'"
    Stephan Bodian. “Wake Up Now. A Guide to the Journey of Spiritual Awakening.” McGraw-Hill, 2008.

    Humanity now faces crises on multiple fronts: climate, pollution, wars, 'ethnic cleansing,' over-population, economic, addictions, colonialism, many forms of xenophobia (eg patriarchy, misogyny, racism, religious exclusivism, etc), loneliness, meaninglessness & spiritual bankruptcy. Our left-hemisphere-dominant society, 'frozen in the armor of materialism, meaninglessness & cynicism,' created & exacerbates this dystopia. This ancient part of the brain that we share with reptiles is ONLY concerned with personal & tribal survival / supremacy - 'my tribe (color, 'religion' & politics), right or wrong' - the 'partisanship' paralyzing the US. This narrow, primitive level of thinking & behaving, while somewhat useful in emergencies, short-term, is - much like the caveman-like leaders we tend to elect in times of war - NOT capable of nurturing all that is deeply meaningful & valued so human beings can evolve & flourish. http://www.johnlovas.com/2022/02/more-than-one-way-of-knowing.html

    Einstein long ago warned that we cannot get out of this mess using the same level of thinking that got us into it.

    “We have created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. We thrash about. We are terribly confused by the mere fact of our existence, and a danger to ourselves and to the rest of life.” Edward O. Wilson

    "Wisdom comes when we live from the heart. It’s the recognition that love is the only power that is moving any of this." Jac O’Keeffe

        “There are only two ways to live your life.
         One is as though nothing is a miracle.
         The other is as though
         everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein

    Michael Singer does a wonderful job illustrating how the evolution of the cosmos is equally miraculously wonderful from a scientific and spiritual perspective: Michael A. Singer “Living Untethered: Beyond the Human Predicament” Sounds True, 2022. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

        "The Great Way is not difficult
         for those who have no preferences..." Sengstan

    Much of our 'self-talk' is repeatedly telling ourselves, 'I like this - I have to have it' or 'I don't like this - I don't want it.' This unconscious brainwashing creates a false small self made up for meaningless likes & dislikes ie 'preferences.' Most of us are so used to the burden of our 'psychological baggage' - a big part of which are 'preferences,'  that we actually mistake it for who we are. No wonder low self-esteem is rampant! Psychotherapy helps us let go of 'psychological baggage.' 

    In his book, Singer recommends practicing intentionally letting go of our 'preferences.' Instead, he advises that we accept*** everything we encounter, and do our best to nurture ourselves & others helping us to flourish, with no personal gain in mind. Again, it's a very wise, helpful book.
    ***Acceptance – “open to seeing & acknowledging things as they are in the present moment; acceptance does not mean passivity nor resignation, rather a clearer understanding of the present so one can more effectively respond.”
    Shapiro SL, Schwartz GE. “Intentional Systemic Mindfulness: an Integrative Model for Self-regulation and Health.” Adv Mind Body Med 2000; 16(2): 128-34.
    Everything, even things that terrify us, such as death – our own & that of our loved ones – is best dealt with in a friendly, open mind & hearted way. If we “lean into” (rather than keep avoiding) even such scary things with curiosity, self-compassion & acceptance, at our own pace & possibly with expert guidance, we benefit greatly in the long run!

    "The light within you, when resolutely recognized in all circumstances, has the capacity to embrace everything. This uncompromising acceptance is, in fact, your true nature." Amoda Maa

    Mystics & saints operate from a qualitatively higher level of consciousness, able to directly experience ultimate reality. Such wise elders repeatedly tell us something that drives many 'bat-shit-crazy' angry: "Everything is perfect just the way it is." Of course our reptilian level of mind cannot cope with paradox & helplessness in the face of our own (& everyone) suffering, that we (& everyone) age, get sick & die, AND that we can't fix it. After all, the small self is exclusively about controlling so as to survive!
    We're dealing with TWO qualitatively different LEVELS of reality - consensual, every-day, shallow, relative reality of the small self, AND ultimate reality of the true Self.
    Our usual level of thinking cannot make any sense of ultimate reality because our psychological baggage and energies are focused almost exclusively on survival & thriving on the material plane of existence, the noisy, stressful busyness of which veils or hides the much more subtle, peaceful ultimate reality.

    “So long as one is merely on the surface of things, they are always imperfect, unsatisfactory, incomplete.
    Penetrate into the substance and everything is perfect, complete, whole.”
    Philip Kapleau “The Zen of Living and Dying. A Practical and Spiritual Guide.” Shambhala, 1998.

     HOWEVER, when we learn to accept the laws of Nature (which like gravity, are impersonal ie have nothing to do with our individual preferences), and learn to be curious & grateful about EVERYTHING, we eliminate all unnecessary suffering and discover that life is filled with joy rather than 'ordinary unhappiness.'

     "There’s only one happiness and it’s who you are. There’s only one place to find lasting happiness, and that is to know who you are and to be who you are.” Francis Lucille

    "I would’ve claimed to be pretty awake prior to the cancer diagnosis. I’m much more awake now. There’s no reason that we can’t all wake up. That’s the overarching message that I want to broadcast is ‘Join me in the celebration, the appreciation of this miracle that we all find ourselves in.’ ” Roland Griffiths PhD

“To me, every hour of the light
and dark is a miracle. Every
cubic inch of space is a miracle.” Walt Whitman

    “The whole point of spiritual practice is to discover that we’re already good enough. That we don’t have to prove a thing. That’s the fundamental purpose of all spiritual practice." Henry Shukman

    “By giving up our attachments (preferences) in life, we open ourselves up to more opportunities, more spontaneity, and more chances to cultivate deeper connections with others.” Lama Tsomo

    “If you abide in this state of acceptance, you create no more negativity, no more suffering, no more unhappiness. You then live in a state of nonresistance, a state of grace and lightness, free of struggle.” Eckhart Tolle “The Power of Now”

    Many of us spend a large portion of our short & precious life, bitterly unaware that we're all honeybees swimming in a cosmos of honey.
    The bitter distraction is wanting some experiences & wanting to avoid others. We take our preferences dead seriously, actually believing that a cocktail of neuroses is our actual identity. And because of this common delusion, we forget who we truly are.
    By not taking preferences seriously, and instead, engaging intimately with all that we're presented with, a QUALITATIVE SHIFT occurs: the veil lifts, and we embody our true self - Self, the One Source of honey AND see that every One is swimming in honey. At this level, we DO see things as they are, AND as WE are!

    RELEASE more & more unnecessary suffering, BE your Self, and SHARE your nurturing presence!

 

24 Brand New Hours! - by Molly Hahn www.BuddhaDoodles.com

Accepting, Forgiving & Embracing

    Acceptance is “being open to seeing & acknowledging things as they are in the present moment; acceptance does not mean passivity or resignation, rather a clearer understanding of the present so one can more effectively respond.” Shapiro SL, Schwartz GE. “Intentional Systemic Mindfulness: An Integrative Model for Self-regulation and Health.” Adv Mind Body Med 2000; 16(2): 128-34.

MANY situations call for our acceptance – now!
    Thoughts & emotions of sadness etc about past events, and fear etc of future imagined events need acceptance now.
    The thought of death – our own & that of our loved ones – though frightening, is best dealt with a friendly, open mind & heart. These existential fears take time to fully accept, but there’s no wise alternative. If we “lean into” (rather than keep avoiding) even the hardest things with curiosity, self-compassion & acceptance, at our own pace & possibly with expert guidance, we benefit greatly in the long run!
    Anger over just having broken something or some other current mistake, needs acceptance now. Our repeated outbursts of anger - held within or vented - actually cause unnecessary suffering. This is completely avoidable by gradually learning to accept that we cannot control the world to keep us consistently safe & happy.
    Each bout of anger = non-acceptance, which we ALSO learn to gently accept, knowing that anger will gradually diminish, replaced gradually by equanimity (imperturbable peacefulness, despite a constantly changing environment).
    Even while participating in a meditation course, there are many things we’re called to gently accept. A great example is feeling the warmth radiating from our heart area!

     The first few times I practiced Loving-Kindness meditation, especially directed towards myself, my heart area felt nothing (remember the wrestler 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin?). That was some twenty-five years ago. Since then, I've practiced & guided others in this profound meditation hundreds of times. Over the years, my chest very easily radiates warmth with little or no coaxing.
    However, like myself originally, I find almost all those taking meditation (MBSR) courses have solidly armored hearts. This armoring process is a natural, background event akin to acquiring calluses - "growing a thick skin" - from prolonged hard manual labor. For us to survive life's many & varied hardships (war, homelessness, poverty, racism, physical / emotional / sexual violence, etc, etc, etc) many of us toughen-up to an extent that even we ourselves are shocked. As an extreme example, what (armoring-up) changes must take place for a soldier to survive a year of combat in a war zone? For civilians, it's not possible to comprehend the extremely difficult de-armoring such soldiers (should ideally) undergo before they could safely re-enter their home & civilian society.
    We have millions displaced from their homes due to war, famine & poverty in refugee camps all over the world; millions who've suffered early childhood trauma (ACE studies); and millions who continue to suffer from poverty & racism. A much larger proportion of our population than we realize are heavily-armored. Armoring usually includes a strong aversion to accepting, embracing & gradually shedding one's own armoring! Once armored, we have great difficulty realizing that armor is not only unnecessary now, but that is actually blocks our ability to live a happy, wholesome life.
    If YOU were now told, "You are armored", would you angrily deny it? And how would you interpret that response? OR would you reflect on it, "Well, I suppose I could be" with gentle, relaxed curiosity?

    WHEN repeatedly practicing Loving-Kindness meditation is not able to set the heart free, there is a "Forgiveness Meditation" to help initiate this de-armoring process.
    Bhante Vimalaraṁsi “Guide to Forgiveness Meditation: An Effective Method to Dissolve the Blocks to Loving-Kindness, and Living Life Fully.” CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015.
    Of course consulting a trauma therapist may also be wise.

KINDNESS
Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.

What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken will stare out the
window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness, you must travel where the
Indian in a white poncho lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans and the simple
breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you
must know sorrow
as the other deepest thing. You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day
to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.

 

"Quiet Reflection" ... by Mollycules www.BuddhaDoodles.com

In Stormy Times, Remember ...

“When you become uncomfortable or frightened, remember that difficult emotions are your most profound teachers.” Ruth King

“Doing tasks fully and thoroughly can help ground us while also providing a sense of accomplishment and, by extension, an enhanced sense of agency.” Christopher Ives

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” Lao Tzu

"We lie in the lap of immense intelligence,
which makes us receivers of its truth
and organs of its activities." R.W. Emerson

“When water is still it is like a mirror…
And if water thus derives lucidity from stillness
how much more the faculties of mind?
The mind of the sage in repose
becomes the mirror
of the universe." Chuang Tzu

“Kindness and compassion is the fundamental truth.” The Dalai Lama

Light the World... by Mollycules www.BuddhaDoodles.com

We're All Doing Our Best, and Yet ...

     We're all just trying to do our best to be happy, no matter how our behaviors may appear to outside observers. In the process, we unintentionally create, or at least maintain, a lot of needless suffering for ourselves & others.
     Meditation, first & foremost, allows us see clearly, with a far deeper intelligence (than the conditioned, fear-based, self-talk-filled, superficial level with which we're usually identified).
 
     In his fascinating paper, Roger Walsh MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry, philosophy, anthropology & religion, describes his remarkable insights & discoveries during meditation, despite his strong initial skepticism & fears. 
     These same fears keep many away from meditation. And even those of us who choose to meditate, only disengage from our momentum of distracted self-talk ("the story of me") very, very gradually, at our own pace. The shift from noisy psychological defenses to the sublime silence & stillness of our deeper intelligence tends to be slow & delicate.


     “Whereas initially I had believed that the inner world must of necessity harbor unwholesome collections of monsters, which I had avoided confronting all my life, I now came to think of this inner world as a very attractive, pleasant source of positive information.
 
     I was beginning to agree with the statements such as those of Willis Harman (1962): ‘We are all hypnotized from infancy … We do not perceive ourselves and the world about us as they are but as we have been persuaded to perceive them.’
     … it was becoming clear that from the perspective of this hypnotized, illusory world view, my symptoms and defenses appeared not only logical but optimal. It would have seemed stupid to act in any other way. And here was the key to a new understanding of the nature of defenses and resistance. If from our perceived world view we are already acting optimally, then of course we would resist change of any type and would seek to strengthen our defenses rather than relinquish them. To relinquish them would feel like sacrificing those very strategies which we believe to be essential for our well-being. Now I could begin to make sense out of the old adage that neurotics don’t come into psychotherapy to get better; they come in to learn how to be better neurotics. A corollary of this is that the really important growth choices involve changes in the beliefs, perspectives, and viewpoints from which we are perceiving rather than attempting to change that which we are looking at. That is, the changes are process, second order, contextual, or perspective changes.
     These insights gave me a very new perspective on the nature of personality, neurosis, neurotic symptoms, self-actualization, authenticity, and courage. Now I could look at people and see that each and everyone of them, each and everyone of us, was courageously coping with reality and themselves as he or she believed, and hence perceived, them to be. Furthermore, they acted and perceived with total commitment in ways that seemed to them absolutely necessary and appropriate. Moreover, each person daily created and endured an extraordinary amount of well-intended suffering in a continuous battle which was fought day in and day out with total but almost totally unappreciated commitment and courage. For each of them, for each of us, every response appeared to represent the optimal self-actualizing strategy, and I could now understand the humanistic psychology position as enunciated by Carl Rogers (1959) that the ‘basic actualizing tendency is the only motive which is postulated in this theoretical system.’
     Thus it became apparent that many of the beliefs and fears I encountered were not unique to me but rather were widespread in our culture. This raises the interesting question as to what extent they are transmitted and taught to us as part of the cultural hypnosis mentioned above.” 
       Roger Walsh. “Journey Beyond Belief.” Journal of Humanistic Psychology 24(2); 30-65, 1984. https://drrogerwalsh.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Journey-Beyond-Belief-1984-J.-Humanistic-Psychology-24-2-30-651.pdf