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

Mood, Self-concepts & Time

"Sometimes I go about with pity for myself
and all the while Great Winds
are carrying me across the sky."

Ojibeway Saying

     Regardless of our situation, be it objectively pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, we can embody EITHER 
         • a pleasant, natural, peaceful, authentic, nurturing mood, intimate with whatever is in the present moment OR 
         • dysphoria, in an adversarial or defensive mood (filled with fear, anger, impatience, distractedness, bitterness, cynicism, etc), escaping from the present moment, to the past & future.
     Such dysphoria is caused primarily by our attempts to create & maintain a solid, permanent "self", despite our deep understanding that the "self" is just an ephemeral concept. 
     'Excessive self-concern' or 'noisy ego' is closely tied to another human idea: time. (For a detailed examination, see: David R. Loy. “Lack & Transcendence. The Problem of Death and Life in Psychotherapy, Existentialism, and Buddhism.” Wisdom Publications, 2018) 'Time-poverty' is a major stressor these days. Paradoxically, the more anxious we are about not having enough time, the more time we squander by dwelling in the past & future.

     We all know what it's like to have an intimate relationship with people, pets, hobbies, projects, etc. Intimacy means being completely open to & engaged with whomever or whatever we're with. We also know the effect that intimacy has on time - instead of 'time-poverty,' we experience timelessness, 'the eternal now.'
     Being in an adversarial relationship with anyone or anything (eg our job, car, computer etc) clearly feels unpleasant, stressful, unhealthy, unnatural - a situation most of us would like to correct as quickly as possible.

     Being intimate with literally everyone & everything - 'life's 10,000 joys & 10,000 sorrows,' 'the good, the bad & the ugly' - is ideal from a Buddhist perspective, and shared by mystics & saints of all the world's wisdom traditions. Avoiding difficulties is an important primitive biological reflex but is inconsistent with human maturation & wisdom. Acceptance, including self-acceptance, self-compassion & 'leaning in' with kind curiosity to deeply examine & understand all that we once feared, are essential to growing up. (See: Kristin Neff. “Self-Compassion. The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself.” HarperCollins, 2011) Intimacy feels 'like home,' authentic, natural, healthy, right.

     "I was born
      when all I once feared
      I could love.”                  Rabia Basri 

     “The whole idea of compassion is based on the keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings which are all part of one another and all involved in one another… 

     The whole purpose of life is to live by love.”            Thomas Merton

 

Core Beliefs and Mental Health

     Our personal core beliefs, no matter how unaware we may be of them, nevertheless powerfully guide & influence our life. And many educated, Westernized people have core beliefs based on scientific materialism. Scientific materialism is entirely appropriate for physical sciences, BUT makes no sense at all as a worldview, particularly when dealing with our identity, the meaning of life, and other existential matters. These most critical aspects of life have been studied by the world's wisdom traditions for thousands of years. Ignoring this depth of knowledge, and assuming by default that science has all the answers is "profoundly alienating, depressing and delusional."

     Wisdom traditions can be compared to politics. Many politicians put self-interest & their own party's success, ahead of the welfare of their country. Such "partisanship" is tearing the US apart. However, politicians who take their job seriously, primarily serve their country's, & ideally the world's, best interests. Wisdom traditions, taken seriously, guide practitioners toward ethical behavior, unconditional love of self & others, and the capacity to gracefully navigate life's most difficult existential challenges. Like politics, religions have a shameful history of incompetence, bad actors & criminals. Nevertheless, both politics and wisdom traditions - when taken seriously - are absolutely vital & irreplaceable for a deeply meaningful life.

     The quote below is from a Buddhist perspective, but those who take any wisdom tradition seriously (are working towards or are at Culliford's or Fowler's 5th or 6th stage: http://www.johnlovas.com/2018/10/nurturing-nonpartisan-human-maturation.html or http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/11/fowlers-six-stages-of-faith.html) tend to have surprisingly similar perspectives. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and other mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are secular practices, based on Buddhist principles.

     “Cross-cultural psychiatric research shows that the Western understanding of all mental illnesses, such as depression, is profoundly influenced by cultural beliefs and expectations. Mental health care providers, drug companies, and patient-advocacy groups typically regard mental illnesses as ‘brain diseases’ in which the patient has little choice or responsibility. As journalist Ethan Watters comments, ‘The mental-health ideas we export to the world are rarely unadulterated scientific facts and never culturally neutral.’ Derek Summerfield of the Institute of Psychiatry in London writes, ‘Western mental-health discourse introduces core components of Western culture, including a theory of human nature, a definition of personhood, a sense of time and memory, and a secular source of moral authority. None of this is universal.’
     From a Buddhist (& other wisdom traditions') perspective, the materialist view of the human mind – reduced to a composite of electrochemical processes occurring unconsciously in the brain – is profoundly alienating and depressing precisely because it is essentially delusional. Watters writes:
     ‘If our rising need for mental-health services does indeed spring from a breakdown in meaning, our insistence that the rest of the world think like us may be all the more problematic. Offering the latest Western mental-health theories, treatments, and categories in an attempt to ameliorate the psychological stress sparked by modernization and globalization is not a solution; it may be part of the problem. When we undermine local conceptions of the self and modes of healing, we may be speeding along the disorienting changes that are at the very heart of much of the world’s mental distress.’
     The only cure for this culturally induced mental illness is to awaken from our culturally acquired delusion so that we can grapple more effectively with our habitual mental afflictions. The process of adopting a Buddhist (or other wisdom traditions') view of human nature and the world around us is actually designed to induce a profound disillusionment with all mundane concerns. This has served as a motivating force for many Buddhists (& others) to take monastic ordination or devote themselves to a life of solitary contemplative practice. From the perspective of modern clinical psychology, such disillusionment and malaise could easily be diagnosed as clinical depression, calling for therapy, including drugs, to restore the renunciate to the Western ‘norm.’ In the United States, one fourth of the population has a diagnosable mental illness, and from a Buddhist (& others') perspective, even what passes for normal mental health looks more like mental illness – for which the only cure is a radical shift in one’s worldview, values, and way of life.
     William James is not alone in regarding Indian spiritual traditions as promoting a kind of pessimism and nihilism. But Buddhism, unlike modern psychology, proposes that mental afflictions are not innate to the human mind. They are rooted in ignorance and delusion, so they can be irreversibly dispelled through direct insight into the nature of reality. ... the essential purpose of sentient existence is to free ourselves from the fundamental causes of suffering ... by coming to know reality as it is.
     In stark contrast, the modern view of human nature is that we have evolved through natural selection in such a way that all our mental processes have survival value, including egotism, attachment, and hatred, despite the grief they bring us. They are intrinsic, inescapable features of the human mind; any attempt to defeat them could only be a futile and frustrating endeavor. Freud sums up the modern materialistic view by declaring that there is no possibility of achieving the goal of the absence of pain and displeasure and of experiencing lasting pleasure: ‘all the regulations of the universe run counter to it.’ From a Buddhist (or other wisdom traditions') perspective, the view that an individual’s consciousness terminates at death is utterly nihilistic, and the belief that there is no possibility of gaining freedom from suffering, except through personal annihilation, is deeply pessimistic and self-defeating.
     Within the Buddhist context, spiritual practice ... refers to a worldview, meditative practice, and way of life that lead to a lasting state of genuine happiness.”
       B. Alan Wallace. “Meditations of a Buddhist Skeptic. A Manifesto for the Mind Sciences and Contemplative Practice.” Columbia University Press, 2012.

The Imaginary Birth of the Self and the World

     There is no separate entity that experiences and there is no object, person, mind, body, world or other that is experienced. 

     The mind, body, world, people, places, objects and entities are all abstract conceptions that are superimposed by thinking onto experience itself. 

     There is only experiencing from moment to moment and this experiencing is one every-present seamless whole. 

     From time to time this ever-present seamless totality, out of its infinite creativity and freedom, takes the shape of thinking, which goes something like this: ‘I, the seamless totality, am not the seamless totality. I am this little fragment, this little cluster of bodily sensations, and everything else that is not this fragment, is not me.’ 

     With this thought the apparently separate inside self and the apparently outside world, including all ‘others’, are simultaneously born. 

     From this moment onwards the world becomes the known, the experienced, and ‘I’, which has apparently contracted into a tiny location somewhere behind the eyes or in the chest area, becomes the knower, the experiencer, the thinker, the feeler, the chooser, the doer. 

     The ever-present seamless intimacy of pure experiencing gives birth to two apparent things, a subject and an object. Experiencing seems to become the experiencer and the experienced. However, this separation never actually takes place. It is a virtual birth. 

     If, as a result of this imaginary separation, objects are considered to be real, aware presence will be conceived as their witness. However, if we take our stand as this witness and go deeply into the experience of the apparent object, other or world, we do not find anything subjective there. We find only knowing, only aware presence. That is, aware presence finds or knows itself. 

     As objects lose their apparent object-ness in clear seeing, so aware presence loses its apparent witness-ness and stands revealed as pure awareness alone, pure presence.

      Rupert Spira. “Presence, Volume II: The Intimacy of All Experience.” Non-duality Press, Salisbury, UK, 2011.

 

Desire, Craving, Clinging & Suffering

     "Our minds are governed by a cycle of craving what we don't have, finding it, using it up or losing it, and then being driven by loss, need, desire, or insecurity to crave it all the more. This cycle is at the root of all addictions: addictions to drugs, drink, cigarettes, sex, love, soap operas, wealth, and wisdom itself. But why should this be so? Why are we so driven, often at great cost to ourselves?"
       Marc Lewis. "Memoirs of an Addicted Brain: A Neuroscientist Examines his Former Life on Drugs." Anchor Canada, 2012.

     In 500BCE, the Buddha, through meditative contemplation, learned and taught what neuroscientists are starting to discover: the basic cause of human suffering is the "self" that "clings", craves, desires, etc. See: http://www.johnlovas.com/2014/09/unentangling-from-me-myself-i.html

     "If you get something that is quite nice, you simply want to keep it, or repeat it, or get something similar to it. Like being in debt, we must continually work to satisfy our desire for sensual pleasures, our wanting. There is no fulfillment to be found by obtaining what you want. Okay, you get some fulfillment for a bit, but no ultimate fulfillment. We usually assume that when we want something and we get it and that feels great, that feeling is due to the fact that we got what we wanted. But have you ever stopped to consider that it might be due to the fact that you stopped wanting? The relief from the wanting produces quite a bit of pleasure. So perhaps a more effective strategy would be to let go of the wanting."
       Leigh Brasington http://rc.leighb.com/more/Abandoning_the_Five_Hindrances.htm

     "Many people are not aware of this, but strictly speaking, the statues we see of the Buddha, as well as other Buddhist art objects, serve as representations of states of mind rather than of a divinity." 
       Jon Kabat-Zinn. "Mindfulness for Beginners. Reclaiming the Present Moment - and Your Life." Sounds True, 2012.

Dale Johnson   www.dpreview.com

My Identity? Really?

"Melancholy is the happiness of being sad."         Victor Hugo

     What? How could sadness possibly bring about happiness? Why would an abused person remain with their abuser? Why do people continue self-destructive behaviours over long periods of time, or for life?
     Lack of imagination? Lack of initiative? Yes, probably both. But the key reason might be that they IDENTIFY with their role - "the sad one" or "the abused one" or "the self-destructive one"? They fear change, so they pretend that at least one thing in the world doesn't change - their "self"! So they cling to this pretense like a drowning person clings to a piece of flimsy driftwood.
     Yet, even here they appear to have missed the boat. Identity, from certainly a Buddhist, but also increasingly from Western secular perspectives, is ephemeral, shifting, constantly changing, like all phenomena. And clinging to any phenomena, particularly to "the self", is considered the chief cause of suffering. To the extent that our identity is fused with self-concept ie "I am my self-concept", we suffer.
       Leary MR, Guadagno J. "The role of hypo-egoic self-processes in optimal functioning and subjective well-being." (Chapter 9) in: Sheldon KM, Kashdan TB, Steger MF. eds. "Designing positive psychology: Taking stock and moving forward." Oxford University Press, NY, 2011.  

Impact of Self-concepts

     “Ordinarily, we assume that our feelings of having a self mean that the self is utterly real: unbreakable, enduring, permanent, and absolute. ‘Really real,’ as Professor Robert Thurman likes to say. 

     But the Buddhist understanding is that, although the self appears to be real, it is only the appearance that is real. The self is not a lasting entity in its own right. It is not separate and distinct from the circumstances that give rise to its appearance.

     Understanding this crucial distinction enables one to enjoy the self’s manifestations without trying to make them more than they really are. 

     The glass can be valued, even treated as precious, while knowing that it is already broken.”

 

       Epstein M. "Psychotherapy without the Self. A Buddhist Perspective." Yale University Press, New Haven CT, 2007. 

Exclusivism & Growing Up

     We have a huge proclivity to think - to be certain - that our current perspective is correct, true & accurate. This is so, even though most of us can recall how we felt the same certainty earlier in life, but now with 20:20 hindsight, realize how immature & silly we were.
     Personal pride & certainty is usually misguided at best. But when pride & certainty join forces with the momentum of "group think", all hell often breaks loose - mob violence against "competing religions", cult suicides, genocides, ... world wars. If my group is right, others must be wrong AND must be corrected, if not eliminated - this is 'mob mentality'.
     Mercifully, (some) people can & do outgrow this adolescent, rigid, black-and-white phase, realizing that they have many, many higher levels of self-concepts & worldviews to evolve through.
     Sadly, fear of leaving the group, fear of being shunned, fear of leaving behind the comfortable pretense of certainty, keep many otherwise intelligent, educated people stuck in such groups - even if it means having to park their minds & hearts at the door.
     Aging, especially wisely, isn't for sissies. See: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2012/03/aging-wisely.html

 

Brian Castellanos, National Geographic   http://photography.nationalgeographic.com

Four Principal States of "Self"

     "The ancient Indian texts called the Upanishads contain the world’s first recorded map of consciousness. The earliest texts — dating from the sixth or seventh century BCE — delineate three principal states of the self — the waking state, the dream state, and the state of deep and dreamless sleep. Later texts add a fourth state — the state of pure awareness. Waking consciousness relates to the outer world and apprehends the physical body as the self. Dream consciousness relates to mental images constructed from memories and apprehends the dream body as the self. In deep & dreamless sleep, consciousness rests in a dormant state not differentiated into subject and object. Pure awareness witnesses these changing states of waking, dreaming, and dreamless sleep without identifying with them or with the self that appears in them."

       Thompson E. "Waking, Dreaming, Being: New Light on the Self and Consciousness from Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy." Columbia University Press, 2014. http://evanthompson.me/waking-dreaming-being/ 

Three Aspects of Consciousness

     "According to the Indian yogic traditions, which broadly construed include Buddhism, we can distinguish three aspects of consciousness. The first aspect is awareness, which is often likened to a light that reveals whatever it shines upon. The second aspect is whatever the light illuminates, that is, whatever we happen to be aware of from moment to moment. The third aspect is how we experience some of these contents of awareness as “I” or “Me” or “Mine.” To understand how we enact a self, therefore, we need to understand three things— the nature of awareness as distinct from its sensory and mental contents, the mind-body processes that produce these contents, and how some of these contents come to be experienced as the self."

 

       Thompson E. "Waking, Dreaming, Being: New Light on the Self and Consciousness from Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy." Columbia University Press, 2014. http://evanthompson.me/waking-dreaming-being/ 

 

Le Bouddha by Odilon Redon

 

Attachment to People, Memories, Concepts, Theories, Dogmas ...

      "One of the basic tenets of Bowlby's attachment theory is interactions with significant others who are available & supportive in times of stress facilitate the formation of a sense of a "secure base," or ... felt security. This sense can be viewed as the cognitive-affective aspect of an interpersonal prototype or script. 

     Theoretically, the script includes something like the following if-then propositions: If I encounter an obstacle or become distressed, I can approach a significant other for help; he or she is likely to be available and supportive; I will experience relief and comfort as a result of proximity to this person; I can then return to other activities. 

     In Bowlby's terms, the sense of having a secure base provides an individual with a framework for maintaining well-being, formulating effective emotion-regulation devices, developing positive models of the self & others, and engaging in exploration & risk-taking activities.

     Although the sense of having a secure base may be formed during early interactions with primary caregivers, Bowlby contended that every meaningful interaction with significant others throughout life may affect a person's beliefs about others' availability & supportiveness. Moreover, although the sense of having a secure base may be quite general, it is also common for people to develop relationship-specific beliefs organized around actual experiences with a specific partner. These beliefs do not necessarily fit with the more general, chronic sense of having (or not having) a secure base. In fact, like every cognitive-affective representation, the sense of having a secure base can be contextually activated by actual or imagined encounters with available & responsive others, even among persons who have chronic doubts about their secure base." 
       Mikulincer M, Shaver PR. Attachment theory and intergroup bias: Evidence that priming the secure base schema attenuates negative reactions to out-groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2001; 81(1): 97–115.

     "There are two remarkable things about the empirical findings summarized (in the paper above). One is that meaningful benefits emerge not only from actual secure attachments in real-life relationships, but also from the mere activation of attachment-connoting concepts into working memory. The second remarkable finding is that these beneficial effects are found across such a diverse range of meaningful outcomes. The cognitive priming of attachment security makes people healthier. It leads them to be more compassionate and helpful to others. It reduces prejudice. Future research will, no doubt, discover yet more benefits that emerge from the simple priming of attachment security. I’m tempted to believe that a sense of secure attachment may be the psychological equivalent of a broad-spectrum antibiotic — a sort of universal antidote to everything that ails us." 
       Schaller M. Is secure attachment the antidote to everything that ails us? Psychological Inquiry 2007; 18(3): 191-193.

       There's a problem with this "universal antidote." Wisdom traditions agree that serious evolution of consciousness begins with LETTING GO of ATTACHMENT - to everything, without exception.

 

Who is suffering?

     "The level of cognitive macro-construction - where ideas of self and other, success and failure, worth and worthlessness all occur - is a minefield of triggers and snares. Below this threshold - where thoughts and feelings and emotions flow in and out of the mind without definition and without a chance to become established - a person can find some freedom to not be the one who suffers."

       Olendzki A. "Unlimiting Mind. The Radically Experiential Psychology of Buddhism." Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2010.

     Watch Olendzki's interview: http://www.tricycle.com/p/1762

Dismantling Boundaries & Worldviews through Mysticism vs Mental Illness

     “The mystic, endowed with native talents … and following … the instruction of a master, enters the waters and finds he can swim; whereas the schizophrenic, unprepared, unguided, and ungifted, has fallen or has intentionally plunged and is drowning.”           Joseph Campbell

 

rok urankar   www.dpreview.com

Trusting Emergence over our Ephemeral Ideas & Worldviews

     "I have experienced doubt ... as a place where things have broken apart. It feels physically, viscerally, like something whole has shattered, like a glass dropped on the ground. Through my practice and through feedback from guides, I have come to realize that this signals a new stage in my practice, a place of crossing a threshold into the unknown. The ability to be with the unknown is such an important part of practice. When we don't know what's going on, it's so important to open up to it and just be with it - be with the mind and heart and body coming together in different ways."
       Kamala Masters, Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly, Summer 2013 - an exceptionally useful issue

     See also: http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/06/doubt-path.html
     and: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2012/05/self-concept-worldview.html

Elizabeth Jameson   http://www.jamesonfineart.com

Faith involves not Clinging but Letting Go

     Maturation, growth in wisdom or awakening involves repeatedly letting go of, transcending limiting worldviews, self-concepts, etc, for progressively more accurate, more expansive, more inclusive understandings of the nature of reality.

      "having faith is not a question of clinging to a particular set of beliefs, a particular set of Buddhist practices or psychotherapeutic techniques. Having faith involves the opposite: it requires we let go of what we are clinging to."

        Rosenbaum R. "Zen and the Heart of Psychotherapy." Brunner/Mazel, 1998. http://www.zenqigong.com/Psych/ 

 

Anne Bastedo   http://www.serenityimages.ca