#681 Enlightened Self-Interest?

     We waste an inordinate amount of our time, energy, and far more than our share of the world's resources, in a desperate, futile attempt to make ourselves happy. Being self-centered at the expense of others & the environment is primitive, simple-minded self-interest. It's very easy to see how foolish this is within a small family, but it takes some wisdom to see its global impact - hence our present-day global meltdown.
     As we progress in our mindfulness practice we gradually become wiser. It becomes progressively more clear that self-concern is not only addictive, but like all other addictions, fails miserably to bring about our happiness. On the contrary, selfishness brings us, and all those around us, suffering. 
     Self-centeredness is a miserable burden, yet, like any addiction, difficult to let go of when it becomes our identity. And self-centeredness is our human default, brain-stem-based, way of dealing with life! Mercifully, a part of our makeup also holds unimaginable potential. One can think of enlightenment as our life journey or path from being a spoiled-rotten kid to a wise loving grandparent.
     The path is rocky, with ups, downs, detours, but with patient, intelligent, persistent mindfulness practice, we absolutely will prevail. And as we pay more & more attention to doing what's right & best for the common good, we realize that we ourselves naturally become more deeply happy, peaceful & content in the process. This is sometimes referred to as "enlightened self-interest" - dropping self-centeredness is, paradoxically, key to one's own happiness.

Montseratt Cemetery, Paris

     

#583 Sticky Stories are Just Stories, NOT Who I Am

     Stories we continuously tell ourselves differ from what happened in our past, what's happening now, and what will happen. They're not true. The "story of my life" is a mental fabrication, like a recurrent nightmare, NOT a direct readout on reality.
     Direct perception IS a direct readout on reality. This can only happen when we're engaged in real time - perceiving reality, being real, AS actual life rapidly unfolds microsecond-by-microsecond. There's no self-talk, no "thinking about" when we're fully engaged with life.
     We have more in common with heroin junkies than we care to admit. Our "monkey mind" incessantly drops out of reality to spin a story, then, instead of "being real" we literally live in - are cognitively fused with - our story. For the vast majority of our life we live in the trance of our story. Were this story always, or even usually a "good trip", then escaping reality might be understandable, but our stories are usually depressing or riddled with anxiety!
     So why on earth hang onto a miserable story as if my life depended on it? Because we actually believe that my story IS me, who I am, my core identity as a person! No wonder we have self-esteem issues!
     A basic aim in psychotherapy is to effect cognitive defusion - help people let go of this common pathological identification with the nightmarish stories they trap themselves in AND get back to reality. There's a whole movement in psychology studying the problems caused by the "noisy ego", and benefits of the "hypo-egoic state", and ultimately, of transcending the ego.
     Downsizing the ego from its dictatorial stranglehold is an absolute necessity if one wishes to be truly happy in a wise, mature way. See: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/search?q=Wayment

savolio   www.dpreview.com

#576 Practicality of Prioritizing Quality

     When we compare a homeless alcoholic guzzling the handiest liquid intoxicant (including mouthwash, hair tonic, etc), with a sophisticated wine connoisseur, we tend to identify with the latter. 
     For one, it's all about becoming intoxicated as quickly as possible - mindlessly escaping reality.
     For the other, it's all about quality, with little or no intoxication - consciously savouring reality.

     All of us can be connoisseurs of our own life! We can carefully monitor the quality of our current thoughts, speech, and behaviours for lasting, timeless quality by asking:
          • Do these lead to stress and suffering, or to the end of stress and suffering?
          • If these lead to stress, are they necessary?
          • If not necessary, why do these again?
          • If these lead to the end of stress, how can I master these as skills?                                           Thanissaro Bhikkhu

#542 Do We Know What We Need?

     In a recent excellent 2-part CBC radio documentary "Re-wiring Our Kids", host Pauline Dakin presents evidence suggesting that we're becoming so engrossed in & distracted by digital media, that our awareness of our own emotions is markedly dampened. Digital distraction may well be today's "opiate of the masses."
https://www.cbc.ca/atlanticvoice/2014/02/20/re-wiring-our-kids/

     Yet isn't it our emotions that warn us that we're suffering, and our emotions that energize us to make changes in order to improve the quality of our lives? 
     Mindfulness practices serve as a potent, vital antidote to the mind-numbing effects of digital distraction, materialism, cynicism, etc.

Resident of Tuscany

 

#487 Mindfulness, Science & Reductionism

     The latest mindfulness-based intervention, "Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE), is designed to train people to respond differently to pain, stress & opioid-related cues."

     The definitions provided in the paper (below) of mindfulness, reappraisal & savoring are so brief as to be misleading. Clearly there's MUCH more to mindfulness than awareness for the purpose of self-regulation. Reappraisal / reframing, at least as it pertains to mindfulness, is also MUCH more complex, including acceptance and seeing things clearly as part of the overall big picture. Similarly, savoring as defined below sounds simplistic - FAR less nuanced & balanced than one experiences through mindfulness meditation practice. But such is the nature of reductionism, an inherent part of science.

     "MORE targets the underlying processes involved in chronic pain & opioid misuse by combining three therapeutic components: mindfulness training, reappraisal & savoring.
     • Mindfulness involves training the mind to increase awareness, gain control over one's attention & regulate automatic habits.
     • Reappraisal is the process of reframing the meaning of a stressful or adverse event in such a way as to see it as purposeful or growth promoting.
     • Savoring is the process of learning to focus attention on positive events to increase one's sensitivity to naturally rewarding experiences, such as enjoying a beautiful nature scene or experiencing a sense of connection with a loved one."

       Garland EL, Manusov EG, Froeliger B, Kelly A, Williams JM, Howard MO. Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement for Chronic Pain and Prescription Opioid Misuse: Results From an Early-Stage Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2014; DOI: 10.1037/a0035798

 

Elena Shumilova  http://www.flickr.com/photos/75571860@N06/11874722676/

#400 Do I Have a Choice? - the Jar of Soil & Water Metaphor - Part 3

     Experience tells us that our attention habitually focuses & "clings to" whatever we find most attractive or aversive. This is a subjective, emotion-driven, survival-based reflex. Psychologists talk about "approach-avoidance dichotomy" - see: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2013/04/fear-avoidance-ineffective-existential.html 
      The vast majority of potential "objects of consciousness" (tiny particles of soil) never reach our conscious awareness because they simply aren't interesting enough, positively or negatively. Extremes (larger particles of soil) grab our attention, while the infinite shades of gray in between don't.
     The power of attraction or repulsiveness of an object can be likened to magnetic pull or push between poles of two separate magnets. It's as if this power were inherent to, was within, the object. Wild tigers - avoid; ripe berry - grab & eat; attractive potential mate - capture & drag back to cave. This primitive binary reflex was appropriate, yet remains functional (brain stem) so we continue to feel jolts of attraction or aversion. These jolts can feel so powerful, that we can feel overpowered by objects of desire or aversion - "I couldn't help myself!"
     Yet, none of these jolts are absolute imperatives to approach or avoid - there are infinite shades of gray even withing each object, as well as the context of each object. In this light, each object approaches zero charge, opening up many nuanced appropriate choices & behaviors. None of these "objects of consciousness" (soil particles) are inherently, by nature irresistible nor horrific - the felt "power" is from within - our selective focus of attention (eg "love is blind" or "blinded by hatred") creates the apparent attractiveness or aversiveness we have towards the object. Most importantly, from a practical standpoint we CAN up- or down-regulate this entire process.
     If we spend a lot of time (selectively) focused only on how wonderful it would be to own a particular luxury item (ignoring all negative & neutral aspects of the object itself, as well as the context of how our life would differ if we owned it), the power of attraction of this item will progressively grow more surely than if we had spent an equivalent amount of time watching the best professionally-produced ads for this item. For the power of aversion, the exact same holds true for time invested selectively focusing on the aversive aspect of an object (eg catastrophizing). Habits of mind are made powerful through our own powerful, predictable mental training. If we don't like the resultant power over us, we clearly can & should stop building it up - let the object-specific process (eg craving a BMW) undergo disuse atrophy ("what you don't use, you lose") and change the focus of our mental training towards different, healthier preferred goals. The power is literally in us (clear water) not in the objects of consciousness (soil particles). Specifically, awareness (clear water) is inherently equanimous, balanced ie does NOT have to STICK to the soil particles, which can freely sink to the bottom of the jar.
     Smoking-cessation is logical, healthy & beneficial for all concerned, YET to free themselves, most smokers need to participate in effective smoking cessation programs. We are so bound to our habits, the "momentum" & direction of our lives is so challenging to alter, that most of us need to participate in effective, systematic training programs - like mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) - to achieve this evolutionary change in our consciousness & behavior.

Fence and Silo by John England     http://www.fogforestgallery.ca/bios/bio_england.html

#334 Odd Statements, Self-knowledge & Addiction

     Many suggestions and statements in the mindfulness literature may - initially - sound odd, intriguing, puzzling or just plain irritating. We measure all information based on our current worldview and self-concept. If new information does not fit with our current worldview and self-concept, there's cognitive dissonance, which is uncomfortable. 
     We don't like being uncomfortable. So instead of creatively approaching novel information, we try to avoid new data that threatens the status quo: ignore it or reinterpret (distort) it to fit our preconceptions. Only as a last resort, do we elect to grow as a person, mature - upgrade, remodel & expand our worldview & self-concept to better fit reality. 
     There's an addictive quality to our opinions, concepts - including self-concept, and worldview. They have a magical spell quality to them - like a "lucky coin" we feel we have to carry in our pockets at all times - or else!!! We identify with these - we think that we are literally composed of these ephemeral "things". We fear ego-death when we contemplate upgrading our self-concept or worldview. But of course we don't disappear or become diminished in any way when we change our minds about any or all of these. In fact, we become more at home in the universe, the more we open up to reality as it truly is. It's a progressive unburdening to drop old superstitions and evolve as an intelligent mature human being.

Dale Chihuly   http://www.chihulygardenandglass.com/