When We End Toxic Divisiveness

      Some foods we consider nutritious & essential for health & even survival; some safe but not essential; some edible but only in small doses; and then some poisonous & to be avoided at all cost. Except for severe allergies, nobody thinks another person's favorite food is toxic.
     But when it comes to self-concepts & worldviews, one person's vision of perfection is another's road to hell! In fact our identification with ideas about who we are & what we (think we) believe can be so extreme that millions of people have been, and continue to be massacred because of it. And "it" is nothing more than sticky conditioned thought patterns in one group of people, aimed against the demonized "other" group of people.
     Toxic divisiveness is killing us, destroying the earth & poisoning civilized collaboration.
     Though the process feels agonizingly slow, our human race, as a WHOLE, is EVOLVING out of hostile self-centeredness, and into unconditional love for all.

     “The Jesuit scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin claimed that love exists on the fundamental levels of life. Some might think this idea absurd and ask, do quarks fall in love? Teilhard was pointing to the fact that the characteristics of human love such as attraction, irresistibility and union, can be found on the most fundamental levels of physical life. Love is a passionate force at the heart of the universe, according to Teilhard, a core energy of cosmic life, a unitive principle and a cosmological force. He wrote, ‘love is the most universal, the most tremendous and the most mysterious of the cosmic forces.’ By declaring love a cosmological force, Teilhard indicated that love is an energy ‘present from the Big Bang onwards, though indistinguishable from molecular forces.’ In his poem ‘The Eternal Feminine,’ he speaks of cosmic love in the voice of wisdom:

      'I am embedded in the force field that is driving the cosmos towards greater novelty, towards greater integrity, and eventually towards greater consciousness. From within the fragments of matter, I encourage all possible combinations since I know that not every combination will be productive. I am the principle of union, the soul of the world. I am the magnetic and unitive force that brings the disparate matter together and urges each newly created form to multiply, to beautify, and to bear fruit. I nurture and release spirit from among the crude and complex elements. Each step towards union moves my creation towards greater spontaneity and freedom.’

     This irresistible energy of love, present in the universe, led Teilhard to claim that ‘the physical structure of the universe is love.’ The universe is created not only by the interaction of space-time-matter; it is created from the ubiquitous energy of love embedded in the fabric of the universe. All levels of life are governed by principles of attraction and union. Love is a cosmic force before it is a human one.”
     Ilia Delio. “The Primacy of Love.” Fortress Press, 2022.

    Imagine what we will accomplish when we become less self-centered - personally & tribally!

     FAR TOO MANY OF US, FOR FAR TOO LONG have had to “not only get our bearings, but (felt compelled to) know all the details of the world before we ventured out into it.”           Jack Henry Abbott

 

    WE ARE BEGINNING to grasp 'big picture' ideas, nourish them into reality, "BOLDLY going where no human has gone before!"

 
     “To deal with our existential crises, we need to base our disagreements on the same facts, burst out of our bubbles of tribalism, and see our essential unity. We need a blueprint for renewing our individual and collective consciousness, transforming our organizations and institutions, and re-enchanting our societies.
     The good news is that we can create a new narrative for our lives that will be inclusive and transform our worldview as we broaden our understanding of truth, beauty, and goodness. Think of Universal Consciousness as fields of flowing energy in which we transform our human consciousness, engage our neighbors, and build a society.
     David Bohm described a hidden domain of reality that we take for granted. He referred to the vast star-filled emptiness, the vacuum, the infinity of outer space as a Plenum, something that is infinitely full rather than infinitely empty. He saw the emptiness as fullness, as one whole, living organism – an undivided wholeness in flowing movement. I believe this describes the field of Universal Consciousness.
     Our interactions, our choices in this field of Consciousness, affect all of nature and life in the biosphere. We can help nature and life to flourish, or we can continue to break down the natural evolution of nature and manifest catastrophes like COVID-19.”
     Edwin E. Olson. “Become Conscious of Wholeness – Humanity’s Only Future.” Resource Publications, 2021. 

 

Art by Jean-Pierre Weill from The Well of Being

Two Main Ways of Seeing and Being

      Have we not all - individually, or as part of a group - said or done things that just boggles our minds? As we privately reflect on our misbehavior, we may be shocked & disturbed, vowing to do better from now on.
     Amazingly, if the very same misbehavior is criticized by another, or from outside our group, we - individually or collectively - tend to quickly 'circle the wagons' in defense mode, & even mount a 'no holds barred' counterattack! We rationalize, loudly justifying our (inappropriate) behavior, and express outrage towards the stupid, evil 'enemies' who dared criticize us. Examples of this happen daily on the news and in our private lives.
      Maybe there's more to this bizarre dichotomy than hypocrisy & lax morality. Maybe our neurobiology has evolved this way.
     In the first instance, we have the luxury of being able to self-reflect - to examine our past behavior in private, without fear of judgement & punishment. We can remember or imagine how our misbehavior negatively impacted ourself & others involved. Our felt safety of unconditional self-acceptance (vs harsh self-judgement) frees our essential spaciousness & wisdom, allowing us to see, connect with & inhabit a far larger context (than the 'normal' immediate egocentric fears & desires). Self-reflection also provides more subtle, more evolved, longer-term positive evolutionary payoffs: more acceptable behavior = better approval by one's group = greater probability of survival, mating & passing on of DNA.
      Self-reflection is temporarily suppressed on rare occasions when we legitimately fear for our life - we may automatically lock into fight-flight-freeze. For many, self-reflection is chronically suppressed when many times each day, relatively-meaningless threats to our ego (personal or group) are misinterpreted as life-threatening. We confuse slights to the ego with threats to our life; personal ego with our group ego; hoarding & overeating with nurturing love. Stress seems to be the new norm. Anxious, fearful 'noisy egos' continue to fuel endless, childish but often lethal conflicts - 'my/our noisy ego is bigger & better than your/your group's noisy ego!' Our materialistic society only offers shopping & antidepressants for our profound dys-ease. But egocentricity & associated fervent accumulation of things & experiences in a meaningless universe is not the cure but the cause of our unhappiness. Remaining at this low level of consciousness, means doing more of the same, with the same results.

     Real life far, far exceeds materialism's dogma of a 'random, meaningless, dead-matter' universe: http://www.johnlovas.com/2021/05/trajectory-of-consciousness.html
 
     Investigate, see for yourself, how letting go of compulsively chasing shiny objects effects your life! Experience what many have - that only fearful egocentricity keeps us from our natural state of peace, silence, stillness, spaciousness, contentedness, equanimity & intimacy with 'the big picture' - everyone, nature, life as a whole.
     Steve Taylor. “The Leap. The Psychology of Spiritual Awakening.” New World Library, 2017.

“As we travel through life, we are all seekers
after something larger than ourselves…”
Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer PhD

 

     Other useful perspectives on our frequently divisive dualism:

http://www.johnlovas.com/2012/11/transcending-duality-of-agency-communion.html

https://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.com/2014/07/551-primary-goal-selects-our-operating.html 

 

WisdomAtWork.com

Freedom

Increasingly we restrict our life to the self-talk swirling in our own head. The more time we spend online, the more we're swept up in the global mind storm. It's as if humanity has unwittingly found itself immersed in one huge hot tub, filled not with healing salts, but neuroses. See: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-highest-service.html

“A mystic sees beyond the illusion of separateness into the intricate web of life in which all things are expressions of a single Whole. You can call this web ‘God, the Tao, the Great Spirit, the Infinite Mystery, Mother or Father,’ but it can be known only as love.” Joan Z. Borysenko 

A seeker once asked a Sufi Master to teach him “What is Heaven?"

The Master replied, “Heaven is Love in your heart.”

The student then asked: “And what is Hell?”

to which the Master responded,

“Hell is the absence of that.”         Sufi story as told to us by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

"Imagine love wants to see
your true face

Imagine that nothing matters
except love

Imagine love as you

Imagine love as everything
you’ve ever given attention to

Imagine love abides in difference

Imagine love as a force
that gives us meaning

Imagine love abhors a vacuum

Imagine love wants to know love

Imagine everything matters
because love is real

Imagine love is a power
uncontainable & inconceivable

Imagine love as language, as selfless action,
as water, as purslane, as voles, as dragonflies, as wind

Try to imagine a love
able to rise whole into thin air,
invisible to our eyes
holding our entire awareness
on the thin new blade
of a brightness soon to come

Imagine the imperfections of love
that love adores

Imagine love imagining
your radical truth &
trusting your courage
your vision
your journey
to recognize
your self
in vastness"                                Poem by Qayyum Johnson


“Inside the chaos, build a temple of love.”           Rune Lazuli

Nurturing Nonpartisan Human Maturation

     Rigidity, expressed through blind partisanship, is seriously damaging the United States. However, every conscious individual, organization, and country is fully capable of psychological flexibility & therefore maturation. A few reasons for hope:

     “for real change to happen, a more humanistic & socially driven logic that embraces deeply rooted universal human capacities & needs for attention, awareness, relationality, & caring has to be legitimated in society at large.”
       Mette Lund Kristensen. “Mindfulness and Resonance in an Era of Acceleration: a Critical Inquiry.” Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion. 2018; 15 (2): 178–195.

     “Life (can be seen) as a journey towards wisdom & maturity, where both good or pleasurable and bad or painful experiences can help people learn & develop through six recognizable stages:
     1. Egocentric (immature, self-referenced existence)
     2. Conditioning (learning through insistent and persistent family & social traditions)
     3. Conformist (seeking to belong by following social conventions)
     4. Individual (starting to think, speak & act independently)
     5. Integration (shifting values & behavior towards altruism, through recognizing one’s deep kinship with the entirety of humanity)
     6. Universal (achieving maturity & wisdom, becoming a natural teacher & healer).”

     Research has shown that in western society, the majority of people past their teen years are at or between stages three or four i.e. are still culturally adolescent.
     Larry Culliford. “Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Manifesto.” Univ of Buckingham Pr, 2018. 

     “A healthy organization … is one that enables mature human functioning … being able to care compassionately for oneself and for others without losing sight of either, while moving comfortably between supporting organizational goals and taking initiative to create what is missing.”
       Kathryn Goldman Schuyler, Michelle Olsen Taylor, Orit M. Wolberger. “Bringing Mindfulness and Joy to Work: Action Research on Organizational Change.” Handbook of Personal and Organizational Transformation, 2018, pp1193-1217. 

     The goal of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is to help a wide range of participants discover, befriend, and gradually inhabit, embody & express the deepest domain of their being. Given a lifetime of very different conditioning, the task is not easy, but possible and highly desirable.

     "The human heart is the first home of democracy. It is where we embrace our questions. Can we be equitable? Can we be generous? Can we listen with our whole beings, not just our minds, and offer our attention rather than our opinions? And do we have enough resolve in our hearts to act courageously, relentlessly, without giving up — ever — trusting our fellow citizens to join with us in our determined pursuit of a living democracy?" Terry Tempest Williams 

     “Throughout history, the really fundamental changes in societies have come about not from the dictates of governments and the results of battles, but through vast numbers of people changing their minds, sometimes only a little bit.” Willis Harman

Can We Get Beyond Partisanship?

     Partisanship - my political party, my religion, my personal short-term interests, my possessions, ... feral egocentricity to hell with everyone else, the environment be damned - is what got us into the global mess we're in now. More on partisanship: http://www.johnlovas.com/2017/05/ideology-identity-science.html

     But if we're brave and invest the time to look a bit more deeply at ourself & our life, we may see things differently enough to perhaps work towards improving the quality of life for all. More on bravery: http://jglovas.wixsite.com/awarenessnow/single-post/2017/04/25/Normal-Resistance-to-Maturation

     "Studies of self-affirmation typically ask the experimental group to write about their most important value and the control group to write about a low-ranked value. The consistent superiority of experimental over control groups in beneficial outcomes suggests that thinking about one’s own highly ranked values is important. This finding is consistent with theories of optimal human functioning that emphasize the role of autonomy. Self-determination theory identifies autonomy as one of three basic needs (along with competence and relatedness) that are essential for psychological health and life satisfaction. Ryff’s comprehensive theory of psychological well-being also includes autonomy as a critical element of healthy functioning. Studies of the self-concordance model show that pursuit of goals that reflect authentic personal interests and values is associated with increased goal attainment and higher overall well-being.
     Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) experts note that when clients are encouraged to think autonomously about their deepest aspirations, they almost invariably choose prosocial values, such as meaningful work, loving relationships, and contributions to a community. When this does not happen, e.g., a client says that he values making a lot of money, further discussion about why money is important is likely to reveal prosocial underlying values, such as providing security or opportunities for one’s family. If values appear to conflict (e.g., providing financial security for the family versus spending time with them), discussion focuses on finding patterns of committed action that serve both values and provide greater overall satisfaction with life.  
     The prevailing tendency to identify prosocial values is believed to reflect universal human requirements for biological survival, social interaction, and the welfare of groups. That is, individuals and societies are more likely to thrive if people take care of them- selves, help each other, and work for the benefit of the group. Of course, these universal needs do not invariably prevent harmful behaviors. However, current psychological theories, research, and treatment methods consistently suggest that encouraging people to identify their own most deeply held values may promote adaptive and prosocial behaviors more effectively than adopting a list of values prescribed or suggested by others. 
     A central concern of positive psychology is the understanding and cultivation of human virtues that define good character or the domain of moral excellence."

 

       Ruth Baer. "Ethics, Values, Virtues, and Character Strengths in Mindfulness-Based Interventions: a Psychological Science Perspective." Mindfulness 2015; 6: 956–969.

 

This morning, at the Canada Games Center, Halifax, NS

Ideology, Identity & Science

     From outside the US, it's hard to understand how a majority of American politicians, and those who elected them, could care more about partisanship (group egoism) than the welfare of their fellow human beings & the environment. 

     Katharine Hayhoe (KH): “We as people have become increasingly polarized over the past two decades - not as much in Canada as in the United States... We’re becoming increasingly polarized, and climate change is one of the biggest casualties of that political polarization because one party has decided – and these are in the words of Senator Inhofe from Oklahoma, who is famous for writing a book about how climate change is the greatest hoax ever perpetuated on mankind, in his own words in 2012 he said, ‘I used to agree with you that this was real when I headed the Senate Environment Committee, until I found out how much it would cost to fix it.’ 

     … arguing over the science (only) deepens the divide between people who are convinced that this isn’t real, not because of any scientific arguments they’ve been presented with, nor even because of any pseudo-scientific arguments they’re bringing to the table. They’ve been convinced because they can’t be who they are and agree that climate change is real. It’s an identity issue. 
     Social science has actually shown that arguing the science like that does end up with people who are more firmly convinced. In ‘The Years of Living Dangerously’, an excellent series on Netflix or Amazon, one of the episodes is about my friend Anna-Jean, whose father is a conservative pastor in the South-East United States, who is quite convinced that climate change isn’t real. The episode was about Anna-Jean trying to convince her father, marshalling all the evidence to convince him that yes, this is real and that as Christians we should care about it even more because it effects the poor and the vulnerable. That episode is a fantastic example of ‘the backfire effect,’ because he ended up more convinced that he was right at the end, than he was at the beginning. It’s a textbook case."
     Michael Enright (ME): "Then we’re all doomed aren’t we? I mean, if you can’t present empirical data and facts and so on to someone and get them to change their minds, where do you go from there? What’s the endpoint of that?" 
     KH: "We’re not doomed. And that’s what I’ve spent the last ten years trying to figure out. … What I’ve learned is, talking science, science, science, isn’t what changes peoples’ minds. But what does is, first of all genuinely connecting and bonding over shared values, or shared concerns, or shared loves. So understanding whomever it is we’re talking to enough to where we can say ‘Yah, let’s talk about this thing that we both really care about, whether it’s our family, our faith, fishing, water, farming, the economy, national security, skiing … And then, sharing from the heart here’s why I’m concerned about climate change is because it effects this thing that we both agree on. 
     And it’s really fascinating because my friend Anna-Jean who I mentioned before with the father who’s very convinced that this isn’t real, she recently told me that they actually had a great conversation the other day where they got to the level where they were talking about their genuine fears and concerns. And she realized that on their fears and concerns, she and her Dad weren’t hardly that far apart at all. In fact they were very close. It was just where they went from those fears and concerns that ended up in completely different places. 
     So if we can connect on that level, which is hard to do to be honest, then at that point we can share from the heart why we are concerned, but then always, always, always bring that to solutions.
     Because if we feel that there’s nothing we can do, to fix this massive global problem, our defense mechanisms psychologically is just to shut down, dissociate, disengage and deny. 
     Whereas if we feel like ‘Hey, did you know that in Texas so far this year we already got almost a quarter of our energy from wind? Isn’t that amazing?’ Next time I turn on my lights, I realize that’s a quarter wind, we’re doing great, let’s do more. 
     So there are different ways we can engage. And by talking solutions that are already in place, solutions that we can be part of, solutions that we can engage in in our daily lives ourselves – one of those big solutions just being simply talking about this issue – because hardly anybody ever does, we feel like we’re part of the solution. And that actually changes our perspective on the issue too."

       The Sunday Edition with Michael Enright “Donald Trump versus the climate: a conversation with Katharine Hayhoe.” Sunday April 30, 2017

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/april-30-2017-the-sunday-edition-with-michael-enright-1.4087030/donald-trump-versus-the-climate-a-conversation-with-katharine-hayhoe-1.4087037