"To consider that you might play a part in your own difficulties is like a loss of innocence. Loss of innocence comes with some advantages though, the main one being self-knowledge. If you no longer believe that the problem is entirely outside, you can be curious. If you are curious about your thoughts, then your thoughts become hypotheses, which you can test. You don't have to believe your thoughts or the conclusions and fears that go with them. This is thrilling but also deeply disturbing, because you thought you were your thoughts, and now you begin to suspect that you are not. In which case, who are you? Who is thinking? Being curious - about who you are and your part in your life - is a first step. But into what? Probably into a meditation practice."
John Tarrant. "Hidden in Plain Sight. The truth is hidden in the last place we look - the moment that's happening to us right now. That's why we meditate." Shambhala Sun, March 2015
"This is a moment of suffering. The first phrase helps to mindfully open to the sting of emotional pain. (You can also just say "this is really hard right now" or "this hurts.")
Suffering is a part of life. The second phrase normalizes our experience and reminds us that suffering unites all living beings and reduces the tendency to feel ashamed and isolated when things go wrong in our lives.
May I be kind to myself. The third phrase begins the process of responding with self-kindness rather than self criticism.
May I give myself the compassion I need. The final phrase reinforces the idea that you both need and deserve compassion in difficult moments."
Some of our behaviors obviously run contrary to our own long-term interests. And yet we cling tightly to our self-sabotaging behaviour patterns! How many times have you heard someone point out another's repeated self-defeating behaviour, only to be answered immediately with a defensive angry outburst: "but that's who I am!!" Most of us identify with our behaviour patterns, including those that are seriously damaging. Why? Because the pattern of our self-talk, thoughts, & behaviour is perhaps the most stable of all phenomena. Everything changes, but we can pretty well fossilize a rigid personality for life - at a huge cost to our quality of life. So we pretend that our own foolish behaviour patterns are "solid & reliable" in an otherwise mysterious, constantly shifting, evolving universe. We can do much better than that. We can constantly monitor our own self-talk, thoughts, speech & behaviour to see if these are appropriate & beneficial to the present moment and for our own & others' long-term happiness. If not, we can accept it, let it go, and choose to think, speak or act more wisely. If it's not helpful, do less of it; If it's helpful, do more of it. This is mindful practice and it's result: psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility permits steady gradual evolution in consciousness, and thus wiser thoughts, speech & behaviour. One's identity is neither solid, nor unchanging - it can & should evolve, throughout life, and not be held down in dysfunction. Advice during meditation about letting go of words and images, and remaining appropriate to the task in front of us, applies equally to "self-image". Many wise people have advised that we forget "the self" and concentrate on being kind. Of course this does not endorse self-neglect or self-abuse. However, being overly concerned about the 'self' guarantees suffering, while helping others consistently brings happiness & joy.
We're always "hungry" aren't we? And we anxiously race around getting, becoming, doing, consuming - desperately trying to get rid of this "hunger", this "fire in the belly". We experiment constantly, testing the very limits of self-indulgence (intoxication, overeating, hoarding, workaholism, compulsive traveling) and self-denial (abstinence, fasting, homelessness, agoraphobia) trying to "get some satisfaction". But all of these are transient, fundamentally unsatisfying, and not what we're about. Can you recall ever feeling truly, wonderfully satisfied, for any length of time? If you can, it's very useful to recall the direct experience of this event in as much detail as possible. Though powerful, it was probably an otherwise simple event: being on the sea shore; stepping outdoors into a cool, crisp starlit night; as a child, sitting under a rose-apple tree, quietly watching your father working in the fields. The sublime quality of consciousness at such times is a natural part of ourselves that we barely know. Yet this aspect of consciousness is peaceful - hungers for nothing. This is the quality of consciousness & life that we stabilize during mindfulness practices. This, and only this quality of consciousness, while doing anything or nothing at all, brings peace, satisfaction, joy.
Einstein famously said: "I think the most important question facing humanity is, ‘Is the universe a friendly place?’ This is the first and most basic question all people must answer for themselves. For if we decide that the universe is an unfriendly place, then we will use our technology, our scientific discoveries and our natural resources to achieve safety and power by creating bigger walls to keep out the unfriendliness and bigger weapons to destroy all that which is unfriendly and I believe that we are getting to a place where technology is powerful enough that we may either completely isolate or destroy ourselves as well in this process.”
Those of us who feel that the universe IS a friendly place likely do so, because we’ve intentionally looked within, via meditation / contemplation, and have repeatedly found at the very least, a measure of sanity, self-compassion, kindness, peace and joy. Too many, however, are of the opposite opinion - that the universe is hostile. These folks avoid introspection due to fear. They then project the evil that (they mistakenly presume) lies within, outward, onto the universe. Their unexamined 'shadow' is incorrectly conflated with the universe, resulting in adversarial (instead of nurturing) relationships. Can we help decrease such wide-scale, needless suffering by facilitating introspection?
"The great unwashed", a disparaging term referring to the common, lower classes, was coined in 1830 by novelist and
playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Regardless of socio-economic, educational, cultural, ethnic or religious background, people self-select into two distinct "classes" or groups: • the majority, who sleep-walk through life on autopilot, and • a small minority, who are actively engaged, do their best to evolve as individuals, and try their best to help the rest of humanity do the same.
Popular culture is one of constant mind-numbing distraction, keeping the majority in the trance of "ordinary unhappiness" - shop till you drop, keep busy, eat fast food, mindless fun, etc etc. Group-hypnosis, in general, has negative connotations: mob violence at soccer games; people trampled to death entering stores to buy sale items; entire nations obeying the whims of sociopaths like Lenin, Hitler, Pol Pot etc etc etc.
Yet even highly-educated people become visibly uncomfortable at the mere mention of "wisdom" - it's way past their comfort zone. Knowledge and practice of wisdom is stunningly low. The few who are intentionally awake and engaged, regardless of their individual wisdom tradition, must join forces, if they are to help wake-up, help evolve, help civilize - help rescue from self-destruction - the sleep-walking masses. Each individual's meaningful personal life-long evolution of consciousness - "hero's journey" - must replace the pandemic spirituo-degenerative diseases of distraction, apathy and cynicism.
We're surprisingly often caught in the momentum of a trance. Something triggers the memory of an old, meaningful event (pleasant or unpleasant), and we suddenly: • Overreact (our "button was pushed"); • Freeze, become incapacitated by anxiety / fear; • Simply zone out, off in an imaginary world. Too often we don't engage appropriately with life, in real time. This seriously compromises our character, quality of life, and efficacy. Mindfulness practice helps us quickly recognize when we're "off" ie inappropriate to our present situation. We strengthen "the muscle" that efficiently, seamlessly brings our attention back to right here, right now, thus stabilizing concentration. Continuous awareness of, and appropriately responding to one's current circumstances, is the very basis of sanity.
We work towards becoming continuously aware of our thoughts, words and actions. As clay turns into a sculpture, the quality of our awareness, intention & love becomes the quality of our life. How we are, moment-by-moment, is who we are.
“She who works with her hands is a laborer. She who works with her hands and her head is a craftsman. She who works with her hands and her head and her heart is an artist." Francis of Assisi
Interim report of the Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group (MAPPG)
Executive Summary:
The Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group has carried out an eight-month inquiry into the potential for mindfulness training in key areas of public life - health, education, workplaces and the criminal justice system. We find that mindfulness is a transformative practice, leading to a deeper understanding of how to respond to situations wisely. We believe that government should widen access to mindfulness training in key public services, where it has the potential to be an effective low-cost intervention with a wide range of benefits. We urge all political parties to consider our recommendations for inclusion in their manifestos for the 2015 General Election, as part of the pressing task of tackling the country's mental health crisis.
Key Recommendations:
Health
We recommend that access to Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is substantially widened for adults with a history of depression, because it significantly reduces risk of depressive relapse and can reduce healthcare use.
Workplace
We recommend that public sector employers such as the NHS and civil service pioneer good practice and set up mindfulness pilot projects, which can be evaluated as part of their responsibility to combat stress.
Education
We recommend making mindfulness in schools a priority for development and research. Mindfulness programmes are popular with children and teachers, and research has shown promising potential, with an impact on a wide range of measures including wellbeing, executive function (attention, focus), emotional self-regulation and improved relationships.
Criminal Justice System
We recommend those in the criminal justice sector develop and evaluate pilot projects to identify appropriate forms of mindfulness teaching and establish their acceptability and effectiveness.
Wisdom is far more profound than intelligence or long-term practicality. However, wisdom in it's deepest sense, is seldom considered or discussed these days. Though there are many exceptions, overall we tend to stumble a bit closer to wisdom with age. Many consider themselves wiser than their behavior would suggest. Wisdom is complex - perhaps the most profound, critical concept we have. Wisdom is the highest human goal, the most evolved way of being. The major religions have been called "wisdom traditions", though the vast majority of both clergy and their followers have minimal knowledge or interest in wisdom. Only a small minority of monks and mystics devote their lives to a disciplined practice of intentional self-transformation towards "sainthood", "enlightenment" ie wisdom. Wisdom is “a developmental process involving self-transcendence. Self-transcendence refers to the ability to move beyond self-centered consciousness, and to see things as they are with clear awareness of human nature and human problems, and with a considerable measure of freedom from biological and social conditioning. This ability to move beyond a self-centered perspective is certainly an important component of wisdom. Consistent with this idea, … transcending the self is needed to move beyond ingrained, automatic ways of thinking, feeling, and acting, and to connect empathetically with the experiences of others.” Le TN, Levenson MR. Wisdom as self-transcendence: What's love (& individualism) got to do with it? Journal of Research in Personality 2005; 39(4): 443-457.
According to Buddhism, all of us can and should do our best to become wise. The clearest description and explanation from this perspective that I’ve found: Smith R. “Awakening. A Paradigm Shift of the Heart.” Shambhala, Boston, 2014.
There are many other wisdom paths - one to suit every individual: Aboriginal, Hindu, Kabbalah, Christian, Sufi, & many other fine authors eg Joseph Campbell, Laurence Freeman, Thomas Keating, and Huston Smith. Atheists also recognize the critical role of wisdom: Sam Harris. "Waking Up. A Guide to Spirituality without Religion." Simon & Schuster, 2014.
Intentional
pursuit of wisdom - by whatever path best suits the individual - is the most effective way to minimize causing suffering to oneself & others, and maximize
one’s own & others’ quality of life.
No path toward wisdom is quick or easy. All require: • mindfulness • ethical conduct; • progressive letting go of
self-centeredness, materialism & other forms of
distraction; • increasing empathic engagement with others and the environment. So why bother to even consider taking such a challenging, life-long journey? Because at some point, everything else will disappoint with respect to feeling: real, authentic, meaningful, valuable, satisfying, joyful, peaceful. One would reasonably assume that wisdom occupies a central place in our education system. Sadly, it's virtually absent. Why?
“For me there was a pivotal moment after
experiencing the war and massacre in Lebanon in 1982. This was a time when hope
for humanity seemed almost extinguished. And in the middle of the bombed out
ruins of a refugee camp, an old Palestinian man offered me coffee in the midst
of the rubble. I saw in his being the indomitable nature of the human spirit
shining through. I saw the light that shines in the darkness. I saw the part of
us that can never be extinguished. I’ve encountered this light in kindred
spirits, amplified in spiritual masters, and in the lives of those beloved
beings who have been raped, abused and tortured and yet who choose to forgive
and show us all the path to transformative healing.
Whether you believe in God or not, I think
it would be impossible to sustain your activism without making contact with
that light. Einstein realized that we had to discover whether or not it is a
hostile universe. The mystic earns the privilege of experiencing love at the
core of the universe. It is my wish that every activist would come to
experience this reality also.” James O’Dea
Quietly, diligently, skillfully working over a lifetime, for the love
of one's profession, craft or trade and the overall benefit of humanity,
without interest in glory, riches or other material payoff, is
prosocial, civilized, and a sign of wisdom. It nurtures a life of deep meaning and value - it is how one cultivates one's own character, as a sculptor creates a sculpture. Such a refined quality of life could, and should be accessible to all human beings. However, too often, too many of us are in such a frenzied, egocentric hurry to achieve goals, that we fail to consider the actual value of the goals, or the consequences. Quick results are hyped in our shallow, materialist culture as sexy, and are richly rewarded with cash and glory. Far too many of us live naively spellbound by "lifestyles of the rich & famous". Shortcuts trample other people and the environment, and sooner than later, even the "perps" suffer. We ignorantly keep adding to humanity's heavy burden of needless suffering. Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. William Butler Yeats All intelligent, decent human beings are surely fed up with the escalating global deluge of uncivilized, antisocial, foolish, unwise behavior. Human foolishness is literally tearing our world apart. Philosophers and psychologists have long advocated the urgent necessity ofteaching wisdom (not only knowledge) in our universities: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2014/01/teaching-for-wisdom-urgently-needed-now.html and http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/16142/#sthash.hYxQPbDk.dpuf
Why is wisdom completely absent from our educational system when humanity so desperately needs it? Progressive, relevant universities will surely offer not just courses, but undergraduate and graduate degrees in wisdom studies.
A popular 1970s poster showed a cave-man-like brute wielding a huge club, with the caption: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil, because I'm the meanest son-of-a-bitch in the valley." Each of us, as individuals, might carefully reflect on what it would take to make us use deadly force to get our way. How would belonging to a group of like-minded individuals change "what it would take"? We recoil in horror when an individual does precisely what people in uniforms do daily around the world. Is killing more polite, legal, civilized or healthy while wearing a uniform? If so, there'd be far fewer cases of PTSD among veterans. It's primarily psychosocialspiritual immaturity that can turn our beloved sons and daughters into killers - be they official terrorists, military, or elected officials who give the orders. And they areoursons and daughters. All of us have the primary responsibility to intentionally mature into wise elders. Why me first? Because without wisdom, all I do is add to the world's confusion and suffering. Wisdom is the evolved, mature side of all major religions - without the childish, egocentric, xenophobic, violent posturing. Adversarial posturing - with weapons, religions, energy, water, food, etc - must end. Humanity can't tolerate any more selfish ugliness. Our world is one family. A healthy, functional family does not "wage war" on some of its members. Those made to feel excluded are more likely to behave insanely. We can and must
improve conditions at home and abroad, to approximate the
quality of life we want for ourselves and our own children. First as individuals - yes, it has to start with me - we need to embody, teach each other by example, the quality of life that only a loving, mature, civilized family can enjoy.
"What moves us to serve humanity, to achieve meaningful change, is genuine empathy; the capacity to feel the pain of others, to experience an intimate shared humanity, to accept discomfort and sacrifice in the path of a greater cause. In entering an authentic communion with others, we also discover a profound expression of our own dignity."
It takes maturity, courage, self-reflection, self-compassion and honesty to admit and clearly see our own limitations - our "shadow" - and work with these consciously, constructively. This is rare in today's society. Instead, we tend to 'act out' our shadow - foolish behavior is frighteningly common. It's spawned an endless stream of situation comedies and reality shows about hoarders, morbidly obese, terrible home repairs, an endless array of stunts that end badly, etc etc.
Haven't we beaten our puer aeternus phase to death? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puer_aeternusIsn't it time to celebrate & promote the noble process of intentional maturation?
"shame is ... the fear of disconnection: Is there something about me that, if other people know it or see it, that I won't be worthy of connection? Shame is universal; we all have it. The only people who don't experience shame have no capacity for human empathy or connection. No one wants to talk about it, and the less you talk about it the more you have it. What underpins this shame, this "I'm not good enough, ... not thin enough, rich enough, beautiful enough, smart enough, promoted enough"? The thing that underpins this is excruciating vulnerability, this idea of, in order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen, really seen." Brene Brown PhD
Gradually each of us learns to clearly distinguish direct perception of what is real from habitual, self-centered mind-noise. Releasing the superfluous, and open heart-mindedly following what is true is inevitable. May we not waste precious time.
