The Way It Is

There's a thread you follow. It goes among 
things that change. But it doesn't change. 
People wonder about what you are pursuing. 
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can't get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time's unfolding.
You don't ever let go of the thread.

The Way It Is - by William Stafford


      "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. Our true nature is indestructible. No matter whether we are sick or healthy, poor or wealthy, it always remains divine and perfect as it is. When we realize our true nature, our life is transformed in a way we could not have imagined before. We realize the very meaning of our life and it puts an end to all searching right there."

Anam Thubten

 

Courtesy of Buddha Doodles www.buddhadoodles.com

Attention, Values & Interbeing

     Attention is not just another “function” alongside other cognitive functions. Its ontological status is of something prior to functions and even to things. The kind of attention we bring to bear on the world changes the nature of the world we attend to, the very nature of the world in which those “functions” would be carried out and in which those “things” would exist. Attention changes what kind of a thing comes into being for us: in that way it changes the world. If you are my friend, the way in which I attend to you will be different from the way in which I would attend to you if you were my employer, my patient, the suspect in a crime I am investigating, my lover, my aunt, a body waiting to be dissected. In all these circumstances, except the last, you will also have a quite different experience not just of me, but of yourself: you would feel changed if I changed the type of my attention. And yet nothing objectively has changed.

     So it is, not just with the human world, but with everything with which we come into contact. A mountain that is a landmark to a navigator, a source of wealth to a prospector, a many-textured form to a painter, or to another the dwelling place of the gods, is changed by the attention given to it. There is no “real” mountain that can be distinguished from these, no one way of thinking that reveals the true mountain.

     Science, however, purports to be uncovering such a reality. Its apparently value-free descriptions are assumed to deliver the truth about the object, onto which our feelings and desires are later painted. Yet this highly objective stance, this “view from nowhere,” to use the American philosopher Thomas Nagel’s phrase, is itself value-laden. It is just one particular way of looking at things, a way that privileges detachment, a lack of commitment of the viewer to the object viewed. For some purposes this can be undeniably useful. But its use in such causes does not make it truer or more real, closer to the nature of things.

     Attention also changes who we are, we who are doing the attending. Our knowledge of neurobiology and neuropsychology shows that by attending to someone else performing an action, and even by thinking about them doing so—even, in fact, by thinking about certain sorts of people at all—we become objectively, measurably, more like them, in how we behave, think, and feel. Through the direction and nature of our attention, we prove ourselves to be partners in creation, both of the world and of ourselves. In keeping with this, attention is inescapably bound up with value—unlike what we conceive of as “cognitive functions,” which are neutral in this respect. Values enter through the way in which those functions are exercised: they can be used in different ways for different purposes to different ends. Attention, however, intrinsically is a way in which, not a thing: it is intrinsically a relationship, not a brute fact. It is a “howness,” a something between, an aspect of consciousness itself, not a “whatness,” a thing in itself, an object of consciousness. It brings into being a world and, with it, depending on its nature, a set of values. 

     From: Iain McGilchrist. "The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World." Yale University Press, 2009. Reprinted in Tricycle Spring 2017.

Agency, Interoception and Healing from Trauma

     “ ‘Agency’ is the technical term for the feeling of being in charge of your life: knowing where you stand, knowing that you have a say in what happens to you, knowing that you have some ability to shape your circumstances. The veterans who put their fists through the wall at the VA are trying to assert their agency – to make something happen. But they end up feeling even more out of control, and many of these once-confident men are trapped in a cycle between frantic activity and immobility. 
     Agency starts with what scientists call interoception, our awareness of our subtle sensory, body-based feelings: the greater that awareness, the greater our potential to control our lives. Knowing what we feel is the first step to knowing why we feel that way. If we are aware of the constant changes in our inner and outer environment, we can mobilize to manage them. But we can’t do this unless our watchtower, the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), learns to observe what is going on inside of us. This is why mindfulness practice, which strengthens the MPFC, is a cornerstone of recovery from trauma.”

     Bessel Van Der Kolk. “The Body Keeps the Score. Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma.” Penguin Books, 2015.

Avoidance vs Acceptance & Mindfully "Leaning In" with Curiosity

     “A wide range of research reviewed shows that many forms of psychopathology can be conceptualized as unhealthy efforts to escape and avoid emotions, thoughts, memories, and other private experiences.”  
       Hayes SC, Wilson KW, Gifford EV, Follette VM, Strosahl K. “Emotional avoidance and behavioral disorders: A functional dimensional approach to diagnosis and treatment.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 1996; 64(6): 1152–68.

     “Elvin Semrad taught us that most human suffering is related to love and loss and that the job of therapists is to help people ‘acknowledge, experience, and bear’ the reality of life – with all its pleasures and heartbreak. ‘The greatest sources of our suffering are the lies we tell ourselves,’ he’d say, urging us to be honest with ourselves about every facet of our experience. He often said that people can never get better without knowing what they know and feeling what they feel.”
       Bessel Van Der Kolk. “The Body Keeps the Score. Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma.” Penguin Books, 2015.

     “The theoretical framework of mindfulness holds that the continual practice of bringing one’s attention to the present moment, and allowing what is in that moment simply to be, eventually leads to a shift in perception in which thoughts and feelings may be observed as arising events. With increased ability to become witness to thoughts, rather than immersed in their valence and content, there follows increased psychological flexibility, enhanced emotion regulation, and reduced rumination.
     An interesting observation in this study was that participation in MBSR was associated with reductions in PTSD symptoms, most strongly among them avoidance. Recent thinking in the field of trauma asserts that avoidance, the effort to escape or hide from traumatic thoughts, feelings, or memories, is the core psychological process underlying the development and continuation of PTSD. Avoidant coping strategies include attempts to suppress intrusive thoughts, to take oneself away from negatively evocative situations, engage in substance use, or through emotional numbing. Therapeutic approaches that prescribe the opposite of avoidance, i.e., acceptance, can serve as a form of exposure and work to alleviate avoidant tendencies. In offering acceptance of the present moment, MBSR may be such a therapy. The mindfulness approach is that through openness, curiosity, and acceptance of the present moment, one’s relationship with negative thoughts is altered. By fostering a greater comfort level with thoughts previously avoided, mindfulness practice allows them to surface and, as such, mindfulness may serve as a form of exposure in its impact on PTSD symptoms. 
     In addition to contributing to a survivor’s ability to be present to his or her own painful emotional experience, mindfulness skills also may enhance one’s capacity to be present in psychological therapy. In this way, mindfulness may potentiate therapeutic work. The exploration of this synergy should be a topic of future empirical investigation. Thus, MBSR may serve as a widely available, potentially cost-effective way for clients to gain a foundation in mindfulness skills.”  
       Kimbrough E, Magyari T, Langenberg P, Chesney M, Berman B. “Mindfulness intervention for child abuse survivors.” Journal of Clinical Psychology 2010; 66(1): 17–33.


 

Courtesy of Buddha Doodles www.buddhadoodles.com

Twelvefold Lower-Belly Breathing

     “Twelvefold Lower-Belly Breathing is the quickest and most effective way for our awareness to enter and inhabit our empty, open, primordial ‘core.’ It is this use that makes it so helpful for any kind of Pure Awareness practice and to address physical and emotional ill-health of all kinds. … in traditional Tibet, this practice was considered the only doctor you needed with you in long, solitary retreats.”

       Reginald A. Ray. "The Awakening Body. Somatic Meditation for Discovering Our Deepest Life." Shambhala, 2016.
       I recommend first reading this exceptionally valuable book, and then practicing the author's guided meditations: www.shambhala.com/theawakeningbody

Courtesy of Buddha Doodles www.buddhadoodles.com

Many Causes of Trauma & PTSD

     Individuals vary in their sensitivity (vs resilience) to trauma. There's a much wider variety of possible sources of trauma than most of us suspect.

     “While some people are able to recover from trauma on their own, many individuals do not. 
     Tens of thousands of soldiers are experiencing the extreme stress and horror of war. Then too, there are the devastating occurrences of rape, sexual abuse and assault. 
     Many of us, however, have been overwhelmed by much more ‘ordinary’ events such as surgeries or invasive medical procedures. Orthopedic patients in a recent study, for example, showed a 52% occurrence of being diagnosed with full-on PTSD following surgery. 
     Other traumas include falls, serious illnesses, abandonment, receiving shocking or tragic news, witnessing violence and getting into an auto accident; all can lead to PTSD. 
     These and many other fairly common experiences are all potentially traumatizing. The inability to rebound from such events, or to be helped adequately to recover by professionals, can subject us to PTSD – along with a myriad of physical and emotional symptoms.”

       Levine PA. "In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness." North Atlantic Books, 2010. 

The Scream by Edvard Munch

"Pendulation" - the Core of Somatic Practices

     “As you release tension in (successive parts of your body during somatic meditation), you are softening the boundary between the darkness of your body and the brightness of your conscious mind, between the limitless unconscious and the bounded conscious mind; in so doing, in a most gentle and natural way, you are also softening the barrier against feelings and experiences you may have been avoiding, denying, or repressing. 
     So it is that you may find various feelings, images, or memories coming up – if so, just welcome them. If they become a little too much, then relax and let the practice go for a while or for today; there is no rush. Assimilate what you need to and then, when you feel ready, return to the practice. 
     In Ten Points practice it is quite rare to run into anything that feels overwhelming, but it can happen. Accessing our larger, as-yet-undiscovered feeling life through the body is the safest of all ways to do it, but you do have to go gently and follow the guidance of your body; it will let you know how much is enough and how much is too much. 
     In fact, much trauma therapy is based on this very principle (Peter Levine's "pendulation"), of helping folks access difficult feeling through the body but in a gentle, step-by-step, gradual manner, moving a little forward into sensation, stepping a little back as needed, giving their conscious awareness plenty of time to become familiar with, assimilate, and integrate unconscious material.”

       Reginald A. Ray. "The Awakening Body. Somatic Meditation for Discovering Our Deepest Life." Shambhala, 2016.

What was once rigidly frozen can thaw, soften & ...

Mindfulness Practice, Emotions & Recovery from Trauma

     "... while the biological flight or fight response is natural and instinctual, when this response is blocked—as happens in trauma—the organism constricts. ... if the constriction from the trauma continues, rage, terror, and helplessness can build up, 'triggering immobility and inward collapse' and 'emotional numbing, and other forms of psychological disassociation'. ... mindfulness practices are well-suited to the process of mind–body healing, especially in relation to trauma.      

     The human cortex comprises six layers:

          Layers 1–3, referred to as 'top-down', are responsible for the matching of current experience with prior learning. 

          Layers 6–4, termed 'bottom-up', are responsible for the awareness of sensory input from our experiences. 

     Mindfulness practice attempts to dissolve the top-down constraints (layers 1–3) and strengthen the input from the bottom layers (layers 6–4), allowing awareness to be shaped by the flow of information merged from the two layers. 
     '... when this bottom-up input is strengthened, it has the capacity to stand up to prior learning that so often constrains us. We are not imprisoned by our prior judgments and come to experience the world with fresh eyes.' "

       Belinda Siew Luan Khong. "Mindfulness: A Way of Cultivating Deep Respect for Emotions." Mindfulness 2011; 2: 27–32.

Marc Chagall