#773 "Normal" Mood Swings?

    Most of us "have good days and bad days" - right? Not only that, but an increasing number of us can feel trapped for months in the lows of these so-called "mood swings." Often accompanying depression is anxiety, from chronic low-grade to all-out panic attacks. Unless these completely destabilize our daily life, we soldier on, and assume life's rough but "we can handle it!" Increasingly people see their family doctor and get antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds prescribed for some relief from the symptoms, but relatively few have psychotherapy. Increasing numbers of us are delving deeper into the spiritual roots of this global human dys-ease.

    Some rigidly assert that meditation is just a trick or mind-game to "take the edge off." Anything spiritual is too quickly & easily written off as "too deep," woo-woo, another Eastern "heresy," unscientific mumbo jumbo, "not really my thing," etc. Especially after we get into our 60s & 70s, a profoundly rigid, narrow thinking can grab hold, sometimes coupled with a heroic posturing in never changing one's mind. A sad, public display of such a petrified mind was the famous actor, Charlton Heston, then president of the National Rifle Association (NRA), declaring he would give up his rifle only when it was pried from his "cold, dead hands."

    I don't think I'm in the minority in that I've been learning, maturing & evolving a great deal over my 77 years of life, and have come a long way even in the past few months. When friends who've not seen me for a while sometimes tell me how good I look, I smile knowing that they're being kind. What I don't tend to mention is that I feel better than ever & that this profound sense of well-being has continued to increase over the decades, despite my creaky old body. So, vowing never to change one's thinking is as admirable as a grumpy toddler refusing to have their diaper changed. 

    Most of us, at least intellectually, concede that an open mind & open heart are essential to wise maturation. However life, particularly major trauma in early life, but really all forms & degrees of trauma condition us to armour our minds & hearts. And yet, the path forward is always, eventually, into & straight through all of our defences. With major trauma, trauma therapists provide expert guidance through this minefield. For more of us than we realize, psychotherapists can save us years of needless suffering.  
    Spirituality is not a substitute for psychotherapy - look up "spiritual bypassing." NEITHER are antidepressants & psychotherapy substitutes for spirituality.

    As is pretty clear by now, the people I admire most in the realm of life-long learning, maturing & evolving are the mystics - past & present. Their omega experience and perennial philosophy have a very long, inspiring history: https://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.com/2026/09/772-perennial-philosophy.html 
and https://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.com/2026/09/771-basics-of-waking-up.html 

    I've been very inspired by living mystics Helen Hamilton https://www.helenhamilton.org/ and Angelo Dilullo https://simplyalwaysawake.com/ and most recently David Bingham https://davidbingham.org/ 

    In a particularly valuable video Bingham speaks with a female seeker who was suffering from anxiety & depression, and helps her - like he has many others - greatly improve the quality of her life. This video is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - VERY WELL WORTH watching in its ENTIRETY: David Bingham's first conversation with Jessica Woods - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp9NU0fngjA&t=15s 

    Jessica shares that she fears surrendering & realization might cause her to not care anymore about being a Mom to her young child. Bingham assures her that realizing one's true self is fortunately not like that, that she’ll actually be a better Mom. The mind is closely aligned with fears, most of which are irrational. Equanimity is not synonymous with indifference nor lack of empathy. However, equanimity is a state of calm & emotional balance, especially noticeable when facing stress, or difficult situations. So your emotions no longer need to wildly oscillate up & down with life's natural ups & downs. So mood swings may be very common, BUT NOT normal, NOR desirable.

    In subsequent blogs, I'll comment on details from this video, which for me - a slow learner - took over 28 years of serious practice to really "get" experientially. BUT it is VERY WORTHWHILE to directly experience. AND it does NOT need to take nearly that long. You can do this!!

 Brandon Flowers singing "Does It Ever Cross Your Mind?" 

 

#772 Perennial Philosophy

      “The perennial philosophy states that the omega experience (not the description, but the actual experience of union with the Divine) is identical in all the mystical branches of all the world’s religions. This has implications for how we should live our lives, which Aldous Huxley succinctly laid out in his Minimum Working Hypothesis:
           · That there is a Godhead, Divine Ground of Being, or Brahman that our reality depends upon for its existence.
           · That this Ground both transcends the world and is imminent as the world.
           · That it is possible for human beings to love, know and, virtually, to become actually identical with the Divine Ground.
           · That to achieve this unitive knowledge is the ultimate end and purpose of human existence.
           · That there is a Way or Dharma that must be obeyed if people are to achieve their final end, and this Way is a way of peace, love, humility and compassion.”

       Dana Sawyer “Huston Smith: Wisdomkeeper. Living the World’s Religions. The Authorized Biography of a 21st Century Spiritual Giant.” Fons Vitae, 2014. 

 

The above was initially posted on my blog: johnlovas.com on Monday, June 8, 2015, where it had 192 visits. This johnlovas.com blog comes up as "not secure" due to a technicality which I'm currently unable to fix, but which AI tells me is harmless. 

#771 Basics of Waking Up

     MANY have to "hit rock bottom" as a result addictions or other types of major shocks to the system ("shipwrecks") which completely shatter worldviews & self-concepts, forcing them to construct far wiser, shock-proof worldviews & self-concepts from scratch. 
     SOME of us continuously observe our internal dialogue, and realize how self-talk keeps us sleepwalking through life, & then we feel the urge WAKE UP and start LIVING deliberately. 

     “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”  Henry David Thoreau

      “The only real purpose of being here on this earth is to learn or to re-remember our original nature state of no limitations.” Lester Levenson   

     “The only service you can do for anyone (including yourself) is to remind them of their true nature.” Stephen Levine 

     When we relax, when we really let go of every conceivable mental & physical contracted armoring; let go of every anxious urge to do something, go somewhere, be someone, etc; when we allow ourselves to become as silent & still as possible; and IF this peaceful state doesn't frighten us, & we now deeplylisten to the most delicately subtle sense of aliveness within, THAT ephemeral, untouchable, undefinable, spark of vitality is - imho - who / what we actually are. One wisdom tradition advises: "Rest in 'I am' before 'I am' becomes anything."
      Imho, this spark of life has LITTLE to do with our personal fears, neuroses, preferences, "must haves" & "must avoids" - superficial, transient nonsense we typically (wrongly) assume is who we are. Imho, our ultimate identity has EVERYTHING to do with our transpersonal Buddha-nature, Great Spirit, Brahman, Tao, Yahweh, God, Allah, Primordial Source, The Light, Love, Loving Intelligence, Self, Unified Field, "The Force" (Star Wars), etc.

      “The term 'perennial philosophy' was coined by Agostino Steuco (1497-1548) and refers to a fourfold realization: 
      (1) there is only one Reality (call it, among other names, God, Mother, Tao, Allah, Dharmakaya, Brahman, or Great Spirit) that is the source & substance of all creation; 
      (2) that while each of us is a manifestation of this Reality, most of us identify with something much smaller, that is, our culturally conditioned individual ego; 
      (3) that this identification with the smaller self gives rise to needless anxiety, unnecessary suffering, and cross-cultural competition and violence; and 
      (4) that peace, compassion, & justice naturally replace anxiety, needless suffering, competition, and violence when we realize our true nature as a manifestation of this singular Reality. 
      The great sages & mystics of every civilization throughout human history have taught these truths in the language of their time and culture. It is the universality and timelessness of this wisdom that makes it the perfect focus for the spiritually independent seeker."
      Rami Shapiro. “Perennial Wisdom for the Spiritually Independent.” SkyLight Paths, 2013. 

      “The two extreme worldviews are probably represented by materialism and the perennial philosophy, the central core of understanding common to the great religions. The materialistic perspective suggests that life and consciousness are accidental byproducts of matter, and that their evolution is driven by the interplay of random events and the instinct for survival. The purpose of human life and evolution is solely what humanity decides it is.
      The perennial philosophy, which lies at the heart of the great wisdom traditions & religions and is increasingly said to represent their deepest thinking, suggests that consciousness is central and its development is the primary goal of existence. This development will culminate in the condition variously known in different traditions as enlightenment, liberation, salvation, moksha, or satori.
      The descriptions of this condition show remarkable similarities across cultures & centuries. Its essence is the recognition that the distortions of our usual state of mind are such that we have been suffering from a case of mistaken identity. Our true nature is something much greater, an aspect of a universal consciousness, Self, Being, Mind, or God. The awakening to this true nature, claimed a Zen master, is ‘the direct awarenesss that you are more than this puny body or limited mind. Stated negatively, it is the realization that the universe is not external to you. Positively, it is experiencing the universe as yourself.’ … Typical is the claim by an Englishman that to realize our true identity is to ‘find that the I, one’s real, most intimate self, pervades the universe and all other beings. That the mountains, and the sea, and the stars are a part of one’s body, and that one’s soul is in touch with the souls of all creatures.’ Nor are such descriptions the exclusive province of mystics. They have been echoed by philosophers, psychologists, & physicists. ‘Out of my experience … one final conclusion dogmatically emerges,’ said the great American philosopher William James (1960). ‘There is a continuum of cosmic consciousness against which our individuality builds but accidental forces, and into which our several minds plunge as into a mother sea.’
      From this perspective, evolution is a vast journey of growing self-awareness and a return to our true identity. Our current crises are seen as expressions that arise from our mistaken identity. But they can also be seen as self-created challenges that may speed us on our evolutionary journey toward ultimate self-recognition.”
      Roger Walsh. "Human survival: A psychoevolutionary analysis." ReVision 1985; 8: 7-10. (free on the web)

     “… there is one, indivisible, unborn, ultimate reality beyond time & space, name & form. The discovery of this reality as our own true nature is the real opportunity, possibility and purpose of human existence. … suffering & delusion (is) caused by ignorance of the real Self.” Mooji

     “Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our being as humans, and the catastrophe towards which this world is headed - be it ecological, social, demographic or a general breakdown of civilization - will be unavoidable. . . 
     The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and in human responsibility.”
       Vaclav Havel, address to the U.S. congress, when he was President of the Czech Republic (1993-2003)

     “Survival and fully being alive & fully living are not the same thing.” 
      Gabor Mate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2cJb1QeMIQ  a truly EXCEPTIONAL interview!

 

The above was initially posted on my blog: johnlovas.com on Sunday, April 10, 2022, where it had 168 visits. This johnlovas.com blog comes up as "not secure" due to a technicality which I'm currently unable to fix, but which AI tells me is harmless.