Direction, Purpose, Values - for our Mainstream Organizations ?!?!

     What if mainstream organizations were to be guided by wisdom, purpose and compassion? Visit the Wisdom 2.0 Conference streaming this weekend - at:
http://new.livestream.com/accounts/2635433/events/3845334?origin=stream_live&mixpanel_id=13c72687a227fb-01aeae93db92f7-436f2b42

     The world we have today, is the result of our level of thinking so far. We cannot hope to solve our many problems with the same level of consciousness with which we created them. "We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humankind is to survive."                           Einstein
WisdomAtWork.com

HoranUA   www.dpreview.com

Trauma, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder - AND / OR - Growth

      "Over millennia and across disciplines, some variant of Nietzsche’s (1889) maxim ‘What does not destroy me, makes me stronger’ has resonated with scholars and laypersons alike. It serves as a poignant and compelling reinforcement to Tedeschi & Calhoun’s claim ‘that suffering and distress can be possible sources of positive change’. Emerging findings from the domain of posttraumatic growth (PTG), which involves a belief that one has grown through adversity, offer empirical corroboration of such claims as well as conceptual models that articulate the process and potential outcomes of dealing with life’s exigencies.
      Similarly, coping with very difficult, challenging life events has also been linked with wisdom, an ancient construct currently enjoying an academic renaissance within the field of psychology. Against very positive background characteristics (e.g., experiences of love, support, self-actualization), wisdom is believed to be partly forged in the crucible of difficult life experiences; graduates of the school of ‘hard knocks’ are assumed to manifest particular psychosocial strengths as a consequence of successfully negotiating life’s serious conundrums.
     Recently, these two independent research streams have been conceptually linked but not empirically tested. The types of cognitive-emotional processing of trauma-related information may serve as a catalyst for both posttraumatic growth and wisdom. Trauma, by definition, is a requirement for PTG. In contrast, trauma is not necessary for wisdom, and wisdom is enabled and enhanced by non-traumatic, positive life events as well (e.g., peak experiences, success, loving relationships)."
       Webster J, Deng XC. "Paths From Trauma to Intrapersonal Strength: Worldview, Posttraumatic Growth, and Wisdom." Journal of Loss and Trauma, 1–14, 2014 DOI: 10.1080/15325024.2014.932207

     Not mentioned above is that the world's wisdom traditions have the central raison d'être of intentionally cultivating wisdom, and have been doing so for well over a thousand years. A current, secular, evidence-based derivative of one of these wisdom traditions (Buddhism), is mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR).

     "... veterans who took part in MBSR experienced significant improvements in measures of mental health, including measures of PTSD, depression, experiential avoidance, and behavioral activation as well as mental and physical health-related quality of life over a 6-month period. The MBSR program appeared to be safe for participants with symptoms of PTSD, and improvements in clinical outcome measures were maintained from the point of time when subjects finished MBSR (2 months after enrollment) until the longest follow-up time point 6 months after enrollment. The changes demonstrated for measures of mental health had medium to large standardized effect sizes."
       Kearney DJ, McDermott K, Malte C, Martinez M, Simpson TL. "Association of participation in a mindfulness program with measures of PTSD, depression and quality of life in a veteran sample." Journal of clinical psychology. 2012; 68(1): 101-16. 

Namaste - the Essential Common Language

     The ideals of our wisdom traditions arose from who we fundamentally are and hope to become as human beings. These ideals are allocentric, ecocentric, transcending individual egos. They constitute our only common human bond. Even atheists are beginning to recognize the central importance of embodying the ideals of our wisdom traditions: Sam Harris. "Waking Up. A Guide to Spirituality without Religion." Simon & Schuster, 2014.
     Human beings also share a fully functional reptilian brain stem, which is limited to egocentric, tribal, adversarial reactivity. Operating at this primitive level of consciousness, people commonly hijack wisdom traditions to serve their agenda of domination, plunder & butchery. 
     Indeed, only a small percentage of people are knowledgeable & deeply committed to embody the full depth of any wisdom tradition, even the one with which they identify. Without this deep understanding, mindless, heartless, needless suffering continues.
     But gently nurturing the deepest, common ideals of wisdom traditions should (theoretically) be safe, practical and beneficial - our global society desperately needs wisdom - see: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2015/01/620-what-is-wisdom.html
     Approaching people with the attitude of Namaste – the core perfect consciousness {Buddhanature, the Holy Spirit, the divine within, etc} within me, recognizes the core perfect consciousness within you - should be universally helpful. This approach is the complete opposite of prejudice - of “me” vs “the other”. 
     If I can embody Namaste to the best of my abilities, everything should change. I’ve seen this happen repeatedly with heavily-defended people who were expecting to be treated badly. After 5–10minutes of being treated well, they became strikingly relaxed, open and friendly. Not everyone will quickly exhibit an obvious positive response. But embodying Namaste is, I believe, our natural state, while being adversarial or even defended / guarded / amored is a temporary problem to be resolved.
     Namaste is an attitude, level of consciousness, way of being, and as such, is communicated non-verbally. Most people understand, at a deep level, the embodiment of kindness, empathy, & respect. Even if Namaste were abhorrent to someone on an intellectual level (for whatever reason), I strongly suspect it is welcomed by all as a sincere, non-verbal, embodied approach. Namaste embodies the ideals of ALL our wisdom traditions. It is our essential common language, who we actually are.

ju_ju   www.dpreview.com

Real-time Monitoring of our own Energy Levels

     Except for pretty major "ups" or "downs", I suspect most of us remain remarkably unaware of our own energy levels - we have no moment-to-moment readout on our own vitality. Yet it's practical as well as intriguing.
     It's useful for maintaining physical health. Over the past year or so, I've become able to feel a sudden, remarkable drop in energy - like an electric appliance being unplugged - at the earliest onset of a common cold or flu. When this happens, I immediately make sure I take it easy, get extra sleep, and take vitamin C. Presumably due to this unusually early response, I often feel fine again within 24hrs. Sadly, many people allow themselves to become "run down" irreversibly, probably with little or no awareness as it's happening.
     On a deeper, mindfulness practice level, it's fascinating to observe how I assign a value or judgment to a person or event, instantly followed by feeling a corresponding increase or decrease in energy. I clearly see how preferences are arbitrary, yet significantly impact my quality of life. I'm thus learning, more or less while it's happening, to hold my preferences and other aspects of conditioning much more lightly. Sadly, most people incorrectly assume that external factors directly determine the quality of their lives, while they themselves are powerless victims.
     Closely monitoring and deeply understanding the causes of energy fluctuations has mundane to illuminating dimensions. Becoming increasingly mindful - nonjudgmentally aware - of our physical, emotional and energetic dimensions is a profoundly healthy practice.

     Basic Energy Choices: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2015/02/643-choosing-our-energy.html

Srimanta Ray, National Geographic   http://photography.nationalgeographic.com

Oceans of Choices

     We live in strange times: all manner of ideas & images, from all manner of people, are instantly available to even our youngest children. We are awash in choices, ethical dilemmas, global moral ambiguity, with eruptions of irrational violence - the swagger of the simple-minded.
     The web provides endless possibilities for causing ourselves and others suffering: violent porn, slick enticements to join violent extremist groups, instructions to make bombs, enticements to 'invest' life savings in crazy schemes, 'TV evangelists', online gambling, zealous testimonials for bizarre 'therapies', hair-raising testimonials against standard therapies, and every other form of psychopathology one can imagine. Opportunities to wallow in self-inflicted misery and to inflict horrific suffering on others seem endless.
     Mercifully, the web also provides access to decent, intelligent, evolved, well-meaning human beings, as well as the literature of the world's wisdom traditions. Should we choose to do so, we can find inspiration to grow in wisdom, instead of wallowing in self-inflicted misery.

               CHOICE ! http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/08/381-each-moment-new-beginning.html

The Wise Caring Clinician

     When a phenomenon, no matter how perverse, diffusely affects an entire culture, it can progressively come to feel "normal". When a phenomenon has spread across the globe, it can become entirely invisible - like water to fish who live completely immersed in it.
     Today's invisible global phenomenon is profound distraction. Obsessive distraction (busyness, workaholism, multitasking, smartphones, materialism, etc) is almost obliterating humanity's evolution towards wisdom. We increasingly favor quantity over quality, speed over care, cheap labor over employing people in our own communities. The vast majority of people have no training, ability, time or interest in living according to timeless wisdom traditions. 
     Humanity struggles, having abandoned en mass timeless profound human technologies for living meaningful lives - "ordinary unhappiness" is pandemic. Even health care is sadly forgetting the ideal of the wise, kind physician in a mindless rush toward big pharma and high-tech gadgetry. The "physician as the therapeutic agent" and "excellent bedside manner" sound strangely antiquated, despite their pivotal importance to healing.
     Mercifully mental health professionals are paying renewed attention to "common therapeutic factors": empathy, warmth, congruence, and the therapeutic alliance. These are “helpful to extremely helpful with virtually all clients” and "may, in fact, be at the core of therapeutic change.
     Many researchers and critics of counselor education suggest that training programs do not do enough to develop the person of the counselor or the requisite cognitive skills for establishing a strong working alliance. Together, this suggests that new training approaches may be needed. Mindfulness meditation practice may fill this gap."

        Bentley Greason P, Welfare LE. "The Impact of Mindfulness and Meditation Practice on Client Perceptions of Common Therapeutic Factors." Journal of Humanistic Counseling 2013; 52: 235-53.

     Therapeutic Presence: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2013/11/therapeutic-presence.html

Robert Pope   robertpopefoundation.com

Transcending Outgrown Paradigms, Persistently

     "The exploration of the highest reaches of human nature and of its ultimate possibilities and aspirations ... has involved for me the continuous destruction of cherished axioms, the perpetual coping with seeming paradoxes, contradictions and vagueness, and the occasional collapse around my ears of long established, firmly believed in, and seemingly unassailable laws of psychology."                               Abraham Maslow


       Maslow A. "Toward a Psychology of Being" ed2. Van Nostrand, Princeton, 1968.
       quoted in: Roger Walsh. “The World of Shamanism. New Views of an Ancient Tradition.” Llewellyn Publications, Woodbury, Minnesota, 2007.

     Getting there: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2012/05/self-concept-worldview.html

      Resulting in: http://www.johnlovas.com/2014/02/direct-intimacy-with-daily-life.html
                   and: http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/06/wisdom-is-as-wisdom-does-walking-talk.html

One Way of Facing Death

     "When Master Tozan was dying a monk said to him, 'Master, your four elements are out of harmony, but is there anyone who is never ill?'
     'There is,' said Tozan.
     'Does this one look at you?' asked the monk.
     'It is my function to look at him,' answered Tozan.
     'How about when you yourself look at him?' asked the monk.
     'At that moment I see no illness,' replied Tozan."

       Sushila Blackman ed. "Graceful Exits. How Great Beings Die. Death Stories of Tibetan, Hindu & Zen Masters." Weatherhill, NY, 1997.

       Awareness Shines: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2015/02/632-awareness-shines.html

Mark Littlejohn   www.dpreview.com

"War to End Wars"

"We prayed these wars would end all wars
In war we know is no romance

And I pray our child will never see
A little Corporal again
Point toward a foreign shore
Captivate the hearts of men"

Mark Knopfler "Done with Bonaparte"