#741 Clear, Accurate, Unbiased Perception?

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

     “Every one of us has a different set of unconscious beliefs and assumptions about how things are, and the thing is that they’re not real. They’re constructed. 
     But because they’re unconscious, we don’t realize their conditioned nature. So when we encounter situations, we don’t encounter them freshly. We encounter them through the veil of what in psychology is called implicit memory, which means I’m looking at you, and I think I’m seeing you, but actually what I’m seeing is all the memories of my past, memories that come from the beginning of my life. It’s a memory, but I think it’s really happening now. 
     In trauma theory, they make a big point about how a war veteran is having a flashback and thinks he’s back in Iraq, and responds according to how he did or should have responded in Iraq. And he doesn’t realize that this isn’t Iraq. But the thing is this happens to all of us, all of the time. We’re always responding to situations based on memory, and we think we’re talking to our mother, we think we’re talking to our father, we think we’re talking to some important impactful person in our life, but we don’t know that we think that. And we think the person that we’re talking to is the person we’re talking to, but we’re not. We’re talking to our memory. Our whole life is consisting of one flashback after another. We’re not here. We’re gone. 
     And there’s a fundamental social consensus of normalcy, so that we all kind of get by as human people. And then when one of us steps out of the normal range, then we become noticed, and then somebody says ‘Oh that person is having a trauma response,’ or ‘that person is in a trauma field’ or ‘that person’s implicit memory is activated.’ But the thing is it’s going on with all of us, all of the time. So we’re never responding to the situation at hand."

Reggie Ray - Journey of Embodiment - January 1, 2016

#740 Goals, Failures & Paradox

"Nothing to do,

Nowhere to go,

No one to be."

     What a perplexing koan, riddle - or - statement of fact? It sure sounds like a corrective for us goal-oriented workaholics, anxiously struggling with time-poverty, low self-esteem, etc. Below Jon Kabat-Zinn clearly expands on this theme:

     “The goal of mindfulness practice, if there can be said to be a goal at all (since the practice emphasizes non-duality and therefore non-striving) is simply to experience what is present from moment to moment. Thus, emotional reactivity, and the full range of emotional states available to human beings are as much a valid domain of meditative experience as experiences of calm or relaxation. 
     The cultivation of mindfulness is an arduous challenge, in which one learns to face and work with the full range of emotions and mind states. Frequently, relaxation in the way it is usually formulated, would be an entirely inappropriate response to human situations and problems. If it is offered as the ‘solution’ or the heart of a meditative approach to stress reduction, it will introduce inevitable conflict because of its emphasis on a desirable endstate to be achieved. If one one fails to experience or ‘achieve’ relaxation, then one has failed, and the practitioner has either to conclude that she herself is somehow inadequate, or that the technique is lacking. In either case, there has been a thwarting of one’s goals and expectations which can lead to a sense of inadequacy and an arrested trajectory of development. 

     In contrast, it is impossible to ‘fail’ at mindfulness if one is willing to bring whatever it is that one is experiencing into the field of awareness. One does not have to do anything at all, or achieve a particular state in mindfulness practice. We sometimes tell our patients, in the spirit of the paradoxical nature of the non-dualistic approach, that ‘we will teach you how to be so relaxed that it is OK to be tense.’ ”  
       Jon Kabat-Zinn. “Mindfulness Meditation. What It Is, What It Isn’t, and Its Role in Health Care and Medicine.” Chapter 12 in: Ishii Y, Suzuki M, Haruki Y, eds. “Comparative and Psychological Study on Meditation.” Eburon, 2007.

Courtesy of Buddha Doodles www.buddhadoodles.com

#739 Changing States - in Meditation & Psychotherapy

     During formal sitting meditation practice, we become aware of the many different states of mind that we encounter - like the endless parade of cloud formations floating by in the vast blue sky. Some of these states may be discontinuous with the ones that preceded and follow it. It is not just that we feel more or less, or better or worse: the way we go about feeling may be qualitatively different.
     Of course meditation doesn't cause such changes directly, we are simply able to observe our mind more clearly in the laboratory-like conditions of meditation practice. The statement, "Awareness in and of itself is healing" by psychiatrist Fritz Perls is intriguing.

     I strongly suspect that the state changes meditators experience are similar to what patients experience during accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP), the major difference being the manner in which therapists and meditation teachers recognize & deal with these changes.

     In AEDP, "State 1 functioning" is described as being "dominated by defenses and inhibiting affects, such as shame and fear, which block the person’s direct contact with his or her own emotional experience. ... Aloneness in the face of overwhelming emotions is seen in AEDP as being at the root of psychopathology."
Meditators readily recognize this very common state as restlessness, distractedness, "monkey mind." Why do we compulsively try to escape the present moment? Safety issues? Is some history of trauma almost universal? The harder we push against all these forms of 'resistance' to meditation, the more struggles we create for ourselves - "What we resist, persists!" Gradually we discover that acceptance, and gentle perseverance are the keys.
     In AEDP "State 2, with defenses and inhibiting affects (minimized), the patient is viscerally in touch with bodily-rooted emotional experience. ... patient and therapist ... working together to help the patient access, deepen, regulate, and work through emotional experiences until their adaptive action tendencies can be released. Instead of feeling disrupted and overwhelmed by emotions, the patient, aliveness enhanced, feels stronger and more resilient."  
Meditators intentionally accept the physical feel of emotions, either generating curiosity & leaning in towards it and using it as the object of meditation ('physical processing'); or if its too aversive, letting the physical feel be for now, returning to the primary object of meditation ('touch-and-go').
     In AEDP "State 3 - core state, the patient has a subjective sense of 'truth' and a heightened sense of authenticity and vitality; very often, so does the therapist. As in state 2, defenses or anxiety are absent in the core state. But whereas the turbulence of intense emotions defines state 2, calm, clarity, and centeredness prevail in state 3. Work with core state phenomena culminates in the assertion of personal truth and strengthening of the individual’s core identity and sense of (true) self. In core state, AEDP joins with spiritual traditions and traditions of mindfulness."  
Meditators mercifully do encounter periods of effortlessness & joy during practice. This is usually temporary, though the trajectory is toward a state that is progressively less dependent on the constantly changing, & largely uncontrollable, external circumstances. "When all the layers of false identity have been stripped off, there is no longer any version of that old self. What is left behind is pure consciousness (rigpa). That is our original being. That is our true identity."  Anam Thubten


       Diana Fosha. "Quantum Transformation in Trauma and Treatment: Traversing the Crisis of Healing Change." J Clin Psychol: In Session 2006; 62: 569–583. 
       AEDP overview with Diana Fosha: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HasX4sW3mRw

Courtesy of Buddha Doodles www.BuddhaDoodles.shop