Wisdom of the Deathbed

     “In his recent book, The Five Invitations, (Frank Ostaseski) offers the living what he’s learned at the bedside of thousands of people as they died. He distils the wisdom of the deathbed into five invitations to be fully present in life:

• Don’t wait.
• Welcome everything; push away nothing.
• Bring your whole self to the experience.
• Find the place of rest in the middle of things.
• Cultivate 'don’t know/ mind.

      Ostaseski has learned that the activities of caregiving are quite ordinary. He writes, ‘You make soup, give a back rub, change soiled sheets, help with medications, listen to a lifetime of stories lived and now ending, show up as a calm and loving presence. Nothing special. Just simple human kindness, really.’ ”

https://www.lionsroar.com/how-will-you-die/?utm_source=Lion%27s+Roar+Newsletter&utm_campaign=1777846eb5-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_11_28&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1988ee44b2-1777846eb5-21110717&mc_cid=1777846eb5&mc_eid=9d27166e2a

Shawn O'Hagan "The Moon Suggests" www.fogforestgallery.ca

Phases of Life in Traditional India

     In India during the Buddha’s time, “the so-called retirement years were seen as a time for the eventual fulfillment of one’s life. (There were) four distinct phases of one’s life: 

          1) as a ‘student,’ where one is expected to remain celibate, learn a trade or profession, train in martial arts if one belongs to a warrior class, or train in conducting rites and rituals if one belongs to a priestly class; 

          2) as a householder, fully participating in a family life – copulation, reproduction, civic and family duties, and so on;

          3) as a ‘retiree,’ where husband and wife together leave all familial responsibilities and join other spiritual strivers in a community in the forest; 

          4) the last stage of life where one leaves even the community behind and walks on into the mountains to be alone and look into the face of death with the courage and dignity one has cultivated in the third phase of life."

       Mu Soeng, Gloria Taraniya Ambrosia, Andrew Olendzki. “Older and Wiser. Classical Buddhist Teachings on Aging, Sickness and Death.” Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, 2017.

Who's in Charge? Are you Sure?

     Whether we see basic drives as the will to survive personally & as a family line; survival of the fittest within the human species; or survival as a species among other species; it boils down to surviving personally by whatever means, mating, raising & defending our offspring so that they too can do the same. 
     The sense of "me & mine against the world" dominates. Fear, anxiety, possessiveness, aggression, sex, competitiveness, time-poverty, goal-orientation, etc are inherent. We not only share all these with sea lions, wolves, & other animals, but are driven by these primitive reflexes far more than we tend to realize. This is literally natural, adaptive - a residual evolutionary set of survival skills. The problem however is that most, if not all of these are inappropriate in today's world, and thus cause us a great deal more harm than good.
     Mindfulness training (MBSR) & practice helps us to clearly see our own mind in action, free ourselves from acting out these primitive reflexes, and thus allow us to make much wiser behavior choices: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2017/10/where-do-you-wish-to-stabilize-on.html
     Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a secular derivation of Buddhist Mindfulness- or Insight-Meditation. To gain a clearer, more in-depth, direct understanding of how & why MBSR, and to a large extent all the other Mindfulness-based Interventions (MBIs) work, one needs to become a serious, consistent practitioner of meditation. 
     Furthermore, serious secular meditation practitioners, clinicians & teachers (even famously anti-religious ones like Sam Harris) tend to eventually study the Buddhist roots and regularly sit silent Buddhist meditation retreats. This new book is a very clear, enjoyable, contemporary investigation of Buddhist Mindfulness- or Insight-Meditation: 
     Robert Wright. "Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment." Simon & Schuster, 2017.
    "Wright leads readers on a journey through psychology, philosophy, and a great many silent retreats to show how & why meditation can serve as the foundation for a spiritual life in a secular age. At once excitingly ambitious & wittily accessible, this is the first book to combine evolutionary psychology with cutting-edge neuroscience to defend the radical claims at the heart of Buddhist philosophy. With bracing honesty and fierce wisdom, it will persuade you not just that Buddhism is true—which is to say, a way out of our delusion—but that it can ultimately save us from ourselves, as individuals and as a species."
     NOTE: two or more truth claims, from different psycho-social-spiritual perspectives, can be equally valid. Serious meditation practitioners, whether secular or religious, as well as monks & mystics of any of the world's wisdom traditions tend to transcend apparent paradoxes that others might (mis)perceive as irreconcilable black-and-white dichotomies.

Katie Hoffman      "Over My Head"      www.katiehoffman.com

Where Do You Wish to Stabilize on the Spectrum?

     On one extreme end of a continuum, one feels alone, afraid, anxious - struggling to survive. The environment feels harsh. Relationships feel adversarial, "cut-throat" competitive. Everything feels like "do or die", "every person for themselves." All threats feel life-threatening and evoke equally powerful reactions - "fight, freeze or flight."
     We've all known rough & tumble characters who can't hold back from saying exactly what's on their mind, nor even restrain themselves from physical aggression, regardless of consequences. Such consistent reptilian reactivity puts a huge strain on all relationships, jobs, civilized society, and perhaps most of all on one's own quality of life!
     In this universally common level of consciousness (with a wide range of intensity & consistency), even an innocent remark - a mere slight to one's self-concept (ego) - can feel life-threatening, and therefore provoke disproportionately powerful "fight-freeze-flight" reactions, which to objective observers will seem extremely inappropriate. And yet, most of us have more than one "button", that when pushed, reliably triggers immediate inappropriate reactions which we regret later. 

     Van Der Kolk writes that if your past environment & genetics have trained ("conditioned") you to feel chronically frightened & unwanted, then your brain is specialized to manage feelings of fear & abandonment ie life feels like a chronic struggle to survive, and naturally, you'll tend to be in survival mode which is rarely if ever appropriate in modern times.

      If, on the other hand, you've been conditioned to feel safe & loved, then your brain is specialized to explore, play & cooperate, so you'll naturally spend most of your time near the opposite end of the continuum ie life feels like a pleasant, interesting adventure, and you'll be behaving appropriately, and at times even wisely, regardless of circumstances. Bessel Van Der Kolk. “The Body Keeps the Score. Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma.” Penguin Books, 2015.

     In this qualitatively different, universal but usually fleeting level of consciousness, we experience peace, ease, equanimity, clear awareness, timelessness, stillness, silence, effortlessness, loving-kindness, and joy.

     My first dog had been mistreated before we got him at 2 months of age. For the first few weeks, he was terrified, hid under furniture, and would urinate in fear from almost any stimulus. Gradually he learned to trust us, became very loving towards us, but was aggressively protective. When we once left him in a kennel over a weekend, his feelings were so hurt that on our return, it took about half an hour before he could even look at us.
     My second dog was treated well by the people who gave him to us, again at 2 months of age. He was happy & friendly with everyone, including strangers who came to our door, greeting all with enthusiastic affection. Once he was eating from his dish in the backyard, and a little kid around age 3 accidentally ran right into him - not advisable for a stranger to do to a large dog. All my dog did was lift his head, look at the child, then continued eating. He had no concept of fear, anger or violence. We had to give him away, and did so to a friend who lived about a block from our place. They never tied him up, yet he never tried to return. Not only was he not offended, but was perfectly happy with the new owners.

     Unlike animals, our minds can instantly & effortlessly shift from survival to wisdom mode. The more skillfully we train to perform this shift, the more our mind stabilizes in this far more evolved wisdom mode or level of consciousness. 
     See: http://jglovas.wixsite.com/awarenessnow/single-post/2017/10/14/Two-Ways-of-Being
       and: http://jglovas.wixsite.com/awarenessnow/single-post/2017/10/28/Communication-Basics

 

Katie Hoffman      "Nana’s Garden"      www.katiehoffman.com

Wisdom - Scientific Research Overview

     "Wisdom is an ancient concept that has gained new interest among clinical researchers as a complex trait relevant to general physical and mental health, well-being, happiness, life satisfaction, personal mastery, and resilience. (Referenced) studies suggest that wisdom is a useful construct with important implications for individuals as well as society. 

     The concept of practical (as opposed to theoretical) wisdom has been discussed since the times of Aristotle, but is used in recent years to refer to knitting together the cognitive, social, and emotional processes involved in everyday decision making i.e., actual decisions and choices one might make rather than the abstraction of a ‘wise’ person. Erikson (1959) proposed the last stage of psychosocial development culminating in wisdom. Beginning in the 1970s, Baltes and others initiated empirical research on wisdom, focusing on cognitive abilities. Subsequently, several investigators drew attention to the importance of emotional regulation, and Vaillant, Cloninger, and Blazer stressed the potential role of wisdom in well-being.

 

Defining wisdom:

     Based on a review of empirically based definitions of wisdom published in peer-reviewed journals, mostly from western countries, we identified six most commonly included components of wisdom: 

(1) general knowledge of life and social decision making - ability to give good advice, life knowledge, and life skills; 

(2) emotional regulation - affect regulation and self-control; 

(3) pro-social behaviors - e.g., empathy, compassion, altruism, and a sense of fairness; 

(4) insight - the ability and desire to understand oneself and one's actions at a deep level; 

(5) value relativism (tolerance for divergent values) - being nonjudgmental and accepting of other value systems; and 

(6) decisiveness - the ability to make quick and effective decisions.

 

     Current thinking in wisdom research considers the entity of wisdom not as a collection of distinct traits, but rather as a higher-order construct that includes various domains such as prosocial behaviors, emotional regulation, and others listed above. Thus, overall wisdom is greater than the sum of its parts in terms of its utility to the self and the society. 

     In a separate survey study using the Delphi method, international researchers in the field agreed that the components mentioned above were key to defining wisdom. Finally, a mixed-methods study of wisdom in the Bhagavad Gita, a scripture written in India several thousand years ago, suggested that most of those components had also characterized the ancient Indian construct of wisdom. The same seems to hold true for the Books of Wisdom in the Bible and documents in most other religions. Whereas the relative emphasis on specific components of wisdom has varied across cultures and times, there have been more similarities than differences among different postulated concepts of wisdom over the centuries and around the world, suggesting that there is an underlying biological substrate of wisdom that influences and is influenced by life experiences.

Putative neurobiological basis:

     By examining the neurobiology of consistently identified components of wisdom, one can begin to hypothesize how such a complex human characteristic may be orchestrated within the human brain. Accordingly, we reviewed studies focusing on neuroimaging / brain localization and neurotransmitters associated with individual components of wisdom. Prefrontal cortex and amygdala seemed to be the main brain regions related to all of these components. The prefrontal cortex figures prominently in emotional regulation, social decision making, and value relativism, primarily via top-down regulation of limbic (amygdala) and striatal regions. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex facilitates calculated, reason-based decision making, whereas the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is implicated in emotional valence and prosocial attitudes / behaviors. Reward neurocircuitry (ventral striatum, nucleus accumbens) also appears important for promoting prosocial attitudes / behaviors. 

     We also approached the putative neurobiology of wisdom by examining behavioral effects of localized brain damage. Severe damage to the above-mentioned areas, especially the prefrontal cortex, either through trauma or disease, results in a loss of personality characteristics associated with wisdom. A number of cases have been described, starting with the well-known case of Phineas Gage, in whom damage to frontostriatal and frontolimbic circuits resulted in loss of behaviors listed as components of wisdom. A noteworthy example is the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia, with brain atrophy restricted to anterior portions of the prefrontal lobes, which is associated with dramatic changes in personality as the patients become impulsive, socially inappropriate, and emotionally inept, with behaviors antithetical to wisdom."

       Thomas, M.L., et al., "A new scale for assessing wisdom based on common domains and a neurobiological model: The San Diego Wisdom Scale (SD-WISE)." Journal of Psychiatric Research (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2017.09.005

 

Katie Hoffman      Boy (Crystal Stare)      www.katiehoffman.com

Mere Respite - OR - Self-Transcendence?

     “I believe that love that is true and real, creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving or not loving well, which is the same thing. And then the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face, like some rhino-hunters I know or Belmonte, who is truly brave... It is because they love with sufficient passion, to push death out of their minds ... until it returns, as it does, to all men ... and then you must make really good love again. Think about it.”

     Ernest Hemingway's character, in the 2011 movie "Midnight in Paris."


     “With right view we are aware of what is happening in the present moment. We are experiencing nature happening. There is no body, no person.”

     Sayadaw U Tejaniya. “Where Awareness Becomes Natural. A Guide to Cultivating Mindfulness in Daily Life.” Shambhala, 2016.

The Elusive Sense of Being Fully Alive

      “The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity – activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny of man.” Ernest Becker

     "if all of us would make an all-out effort to contemplate our own death, to deal with our anxieties surrounding the concept of death, and to help others familiarize themselves with these thoughts, perhaps there could be less destructiveness around us." Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

     “Facing one’s own death when still alive offers the best preparation for being able to live well the actual moment of death. The potential for such practice is that it enables one to live without the deadening effects of the fear of death. Only once death has become a natural part of life will it be possible to go beyond the influence of existential fear and thereby come fully alive to life as it unfolds in the present moment.”
       Analayo. "Mindfully Facing Disease & Death: Compassionate Advice from Early Buddhist Texts.” Wisdom, 2016. 

     See also: http://jglovas.wixsite.com/awarenessnow/single-post/2017/07/03/Solving-a-Tough-Paradox

                 And: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2017/05/743-existential-loneliness.html

Visitors by Robert Pope   http://robertpopefoundation.com/

Fear of Death - even among Healers

     "Consistent evidence suggests that physicians who treat terminal patients experience many difficulties. The contact with terminal patients reminds them that death is a universal human phenomenon and thereby evokes their own concerns about dying. Because they are unable to keep these patients alive, as is the mission of their profession, they tend to develop feelings of general hopelessness and personal failure. Moreover, it is emotionally wrenching to absorb the loss and separation implicit in the deaths of people one has cared for. These difficulties may lead to psychological exhaustion, impair their professional functioning, and affect the physician’s attitudes toward death in general and their own death in particular.
     Exposure to the death of significant others somehow leads one to a greater acceptance of death, both as a universal phenomenon and as a personal event. This possibility is supported by our finding that increased age was related to less fear of personal death. 
     Fear of death, and not acceptance, is behind the reduced reporting (of death anxiety by some physicians eg surgeons). While such 'repressors' admit to less death anxiety on self-report measures, they produced stronger physiological reactions (assessed by galvanic skin responses) to the threat of shock than 'sensitizers'. Repressors are not 'low anxiety' individuals, but, on the contrary, are highly vulnerable to anxiety-arousing stimuli."
       Hamama-Raz Y, Solomon Z, Ohry A. "Fear of Personal Death among Physicians." Omega 2000; 41(2): 139-149.


     "... death was one of the prominent aspects of dukkha motivating the Buddha-to-be to set out on his own quest for awakening. ... for the Buddha, the decision to 'renounce the world' and undertake the life of a wandering ascetic was, then, an attempt to resolve the existential problem of 'being toward death' ... his goal was to conquer death within life.
     Having reached the deathless through full awakening, one is no longer affected by the mortality of one's own body or that of others'."
       Analayo. "Mindfully Facing Disease & Death: Compassionate Advice from Early Buddhist Texts.” Wisdom, 2016.

 

Visitors by Robert Pope   http://robertpopefoundation.com/

Elephant in the Room

      “I like to behave in an extremely normal, wholesome manner for the most part in my daily life. Even if mentally I’m consumed with sick visions of violence, terror, sex and death.” Courtney Love

      "Death is an inescapable fact of life that, nonetheless, most people avoid contemplating too directly. When mortality is salient, it can arouse experiences varying from distress and anxiety to a sense of urgency and a search for meaning. Although there are various ways to cope with this existential concern, ranging from hopelessness, to denial, to seeking symbolic immortality, it seems clear that the consideration of death affects people intensely, whether or not such contemplation is made consciously. Indeed, work within terror management theory suggests that mortality salience is a potent motivator of human behavior, even when thoughts of death exist outside of focal attention."
       Niemiec CP, et al. "Being Present in the Face of Existential Threat: The Role of Trait Mindfulness in Reducing Defensive Responses to Mortality Salience." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2010; 99 (2): 344–365.

     “We all have lessons to learn during this time called life; this is especially apparent when working with the dying. The dying learn a great deal at the end of life, usually when it is too late to apply.” Elisabeth Kubler-Ross      
       Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, David Kessler. “Life Lessons. Two Experts on Death and Dying Teach Us About the Mysteries of Life and Living.” Scribner, 2000.

 

     “Buddhist psychology offers models of the process and structures of the mind. It shows how flight from the existential inevitability of loss, pain, and death leads to delusion, which is a subtle and pervasive refusal to face reality. Instead, we attempt to find and hold on to something that is concrete and substantial. This common mentality is one of grasping, which leads to attachment and creates an accumulation of habit-energies, preferences, and behavior patterns that support the illusion of an enduring self that can escape impermanence. Buddhist psychology sees this self as a defensive structure that lacks foundation yet dominates the ordinary mind.”
       Caroline Brazier. “Buddhism on the Couch. From Analysis to Awakening Using Buddhist Psychology.” Ulysses Press, 2003.

     “There is no one ‘treatment of choice’ for trauma [or IMHO, existential terror], and any therapist [or IMHO, religious / spiritual guide] who believes that his or her particular method is the only answer to your problems is suspect of being an ideologue rather than somebody who is interested in making sure that you get well.”
       Bessel Van Der Kolk. “The Body Keeps the Score. Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma.” Penguin Books, 2015.

     ideologue: an adherent of an ideology, especially one who is uncompromising and dogmatic; an impractical idealist; an often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology.
     religious exclusivism: the doctrine or belief that only one particular religion or belief system is true.

 

Bad Behavior, Self-acceptance & Interoception

     There's often far more to disturbingly "inappropriate" or "bad" behavior than immorality or poor parenting. Significant trauma enters the equation much more often than we think. "Knowing the difference between right & wrong" and "trying one's best" have very little influence when a posttraumatic reaction is triggered.
     We may suspect, but usually have no idea about peoples' past history, even of those we've known for a long time. Trauma is not something most of us want to revisit, much less share with others.

     “Paradoxically, the more we try to change ourselves, the more we prevent change from occurring. On the other hand, the more we allow ourselves to fully experience who we are, the greater the possibility of change."
       Laurence Heller, Aline LaPierre. "Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship.” North Atlantic Books, 2012.


     “…trauma is much more than a story about something that happened long ago. The emotions and physical sensations that were imprinted during the trauma are experienced not as memories but as disruptive physical reactions in the present. 
     … the engines of posttraumatic reactions are located in the emotional brain. In contrast with the rational brain, which expresses itself in thoughts, the emotional brain manifests itself in physical reactions: gut-wrenching sensations, heart pounding, breathing becoming fast and shallow, feelings of heartbreak, speaking with an uptight and reedy voice, and the characteristic body movements that signify collapse, rigidity, rage, or defensiveness.
     …the rational brain cannot abolish emotions, sensations, or thoughts (such as living with a low-level sense of threat or feeling that you are fundamentally a terrible person, even though you rationally know that you are not to blame for having been raped). Understanding why you feel a certain way does not change how you feel. But it can keep you from surrendering to intense reactions (for example, assaulting a boss who reminds you of a perpetrator, breaking up with a lover at your first disagreement, or jumping into the arms of a stranger.) However, the more frazzled we are, the more our rational brains take a backseat to our emotions.
     The fundamental issue in resolving traumatic stress is to restore the proper balance between the rational and the emotional brains, so that you can feel in charge of how you respond and how you conduct your life. … 
     Recovery from trauma involves the restoration of executive functioning and, with it, self-confidence and the capacity for playfulness and creativity. 
     If we want to change posttraumatic reactions, we have to access the emotional brain and do ‘limbic system therapy’: repairing faulty alarm systems and restoring the emotional brain to its ordinary job of being a quiet background presence that takes care of the housekeeping of the body, ensuring that you eat, sleep, connect with intimate partners, protect your children, and defend against danger. 
     The neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux and his colleagues have shown that the only way we can consciously access the emotional brain is through self-awareness, ie by activating the medial prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that notices what is going on inside us and thus allows us to feel what we’re feeling. (The technical term for this is ‘interoception’ – Latin for ‘looking inside.’) Most of our conscious brain is dedicated to focusing on the outside world: getting along with others and making plans for the future. However, that does not help us manage ourselves. Neuroscience research shows that the only way we can change the way we feel is by becoming aware of our inner experience and learning to befriend what is going on inside ourselves.”
       Bessel Van Der Kolk. “The Body Keeps the Score. Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma.” Penguin Books, 2015.

Mistaken Sacrifices

     I thoroughly enjoy reading W. Somerset Maugham. In the preface to his “Collected Short Stories Vol 4.” (Penguin Books, 1973) he says that these “were written long before the Second World War and I should tell the reader that the sort of life with which they deal no longer exists.” Later he describes a hotel that “should have been a depressing place, but somehow it wasn’t; its quaintness saved it. It had a faint aroma of something strange and half-forgotten.”
     From detailed loving attention alone, Maugham is able to rebuild the irretrievable past, even for readers not yet born, nor ever having visited the places he describes. This brings to mind two of my favorite quotes: 
     "Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough."     George Washington Carver

      "You learn about a thing ... by opening yourself wholeheartedly to it. You learn about a thing by loving it." Barbara McClintock - Nobel prize-winning geneticist

     How radically different than the life of today's health-care providers and first responders: police, firefighters, paramedics & prison guards. It's shocking how much these fine people knowingly, but especially unknowingly, sacrifice. By maximizing their external actions ('doing'), they almost totally neglect their inner life ('being'), all because of a collective, unexamined ethos of 'traditional masculinity.' Anything 'soft', like self-reflection, self-compassion & appropriate self-care, is rigidly excluded to avoid any suggestion of weakness or lack of competence. This bravado continues despite a high incidence of primary & secondary traumatization, burnout, PTSD & suicide. 
     Socrates knew 2,500 years ago that the unexamined life is not worth living. Why do so many of us have to crash & burn to find this out for ourselves? How long will it take these professional cultures to intentionally evolve toward a wiser worldview?

     Traditional masculinity: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2017/05/traditional-masculinity-in-health.html 
     Sanity: http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/02/sanity-diligent-introspection-in.html

Traditional Masculinity in the Health Professions?

     What is the role of 'traditional masculinity' in medical & dental schools? How does 'traditional masculinity' relate to power, privilege & entitlement - vs those who consider health professions as their life calling?

     “In most western settings, including prisons, it’s ‘traditional’ masculinity that is dominant. Aggression, hardness, physical power and emotional reticence – not love and compassion – are the qualities most highly valued. These values are intimately connected to, and manifest in, power and systems of domination – governmental, financial, military and domestic – by which a small number of men secure the natural and economic resources of the planet for themselves, and protect their privilege by any and all means, including imprisonment, slavery and force of arms. 
     Many men who are raised to believe in these values, but who are denied access to the rewards such values supposedly offer – and who live without encountering alternative narratives – are angry, depressed, violent and destructive. 
     These are the young men who fill our prisons, who fight in the streets and in pubs, who beat their partners and their children, who fill the internet with misogynistic hate. Historically, they are also the men who are enlisted to fight for other men’s power. When we talk about finding new heroes and new models of masculinity, we have to talk about dismantling these systems of domination. 
     Power knows this, which is why voices calling for different models – valuing peaceful coexistence, mutual tolerance, caretaking of each other and of the planet – are most often marginalised and ridiculed, and sometimes exiled, imprisoned or killed.”

       Howard Cunnell. “Traditional ideas of masculinity are poisoning our society. There is another way.” 
         https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/15/power-violence-define-men-peace-masculinity

       See: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2012/10/is-it-time-for-healing-can-we-let-war.html

We're All Building Walls!

     It's obvious that tying off an arm or a leg with a tight tourniquet causes the tied-off portion to rapidly wither & die. Normal circulation of blood, carrying oxygen & other nutrients ie vital energy to, and carbon dioxide & other wastes away from all parts of the body, is a basic necessity of life.
     Not so obvious, but one can see for oneself, is that focusing attention on a part of the body during meditation, for example by visualizing breathing directly into the area, will increase circulation in that area. The area will soon feel warmer, look redder, & may swell slightly (eg hands during standing meditation). This is a healthy, parasympathetic "relaxation response."

     These next two are more advanced, but make sense and are definitely worth experimenting with.

     • Immediately after an acute physical injury (that doesn't require medical or first aid treatment), drop all anger, worry or concern, and know that the injured area will heal perfectly fine on its own, and carry on as if nothing happened. Remember, for millions of years, our ancestors would have behaved precisely this way, even for more severe injuries! It will surprise you how much less pain, swelling, redness, stiffness & loss of function you will experience.
     Nowadays, we typically do the opposite - we get mad at ourself or whoever we blame for the accident; get all worried that it will hurt; anxious that it will take a long time - if ever - to heal properly, etc. Such emotional overreactions markedly ramp up the acute inflammatory response: pain, swelling, redness, stiffness, and delay healing - all for a very minor injury that is best simply left alone.

     • During an otherwise pleasant musical performance, the couple sitting beside you compulsively text in the dark theater, despite you repeatedly looking at them with disapproval. Your anger steadily mounts with unpleasant fantasies of what you'd like to say / do to them. You feel physically tight & know your blood pressure is elevated. Suddenly you decide to drop all anger, worry & concern, and simply enjoy the show. The tightness & pressure you felt is immediately replaced by looseness, relaxation & gentle tingling throughout your body (felt flow of energy - qi or prana). 
     It takes practice to suddenly intentionally shift the flow of your energy from fight / freeze / flight (sympathetic nervous system) to relaxation (parasympathetic nervous system), but it's remarkably gratifying & wholesome, and will prevent all manner of short- & long-term problems in your life.

     It's disconcerting to realize how many times per hour we mentally, emotionally - & therefore physiologically & in other physical ways - isolate parts of our self from the rest of ourself, or our entire self from other people or the rest of the universe. Unthinkingly, we erect all sorts of these needless conceptual walls, causing us & everyone else endless problems. A classic book on this: Wilber K. "No boundary. Eastern and Western approaches to personal growth." Shambhala, 1979.

     But with dedicated, intentional practice we can & will gradually break down all the "walls" (boundaries, armor, ego defences, etc) on which we once depended for survival (or thought we did), but which now are heavy burdens. 
     During qi gong breathing, we open up all the pores in our body welcoming in fresh air & energy as we breath in. During the out-breath, we release all the stale air, stress & fatigue. We learn to be increasingly porous & open, allowing vital energy to circulate freely, re-establishing normal healthy circulation between ourselves, parts of ourselves, and the universe. 

Green Tree by Alice Mason   https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/AliceMasonArtist?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Multistate View of Consciousness in 1993

     “Roberts identifies below a number of beliefs fundamental to an emergent multistate view of consciousness:

      All persons have the capacity to experience multiple states of consciousness (SOCs) and it is a natural, healthy, human trait to achieve, explore and develop many SOCs.

     The experience of reality and the sense of time, space and matter are functions of the SOC in which they are experienced. Knowledge can change as reason and perception also differ from one SOC to another. And finally self identity and social relationships also change with shifts to different SOCs. 

     Many people learn best in different SOCs (such as focused awareness, guided imagery or relaxation/meditation). Intelligence is the optimal use of each SOC and the more general ability to select appropriate SOC for the task at hand. As different states are realized, individuals attain higher levels of experientially grounded knowledge.

     Thoughts, values, beliefs and other conscious or mental phenomena exert emergent or downward influence on human behavior and as for creativity and problem solving the most insightful and valuable ideas often occur during non-ordinary SOCs. Higher consciousness is a state periodically glimpsed rather than constantly realized.

      Personal existence extends beyond the usual limits of the body-based identity, time and space. The physical, biological, chemical and electrical state of the body and the brain can be voluntarily controlled to an unknown extent; thus a SOC is a controllable variable. It is possible to control the autonomic nervous system voluntarily by biofeedback, meditation, yogic postures, imagery and other noninvasive practices. Mental and physical healing are associated with access to certain SOCs.”

        Chipley D. “Unity Consciousness and Educational Change: Beyond Knowledge to Wisdom.” International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 1993; 12(1): 23–34.    http://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/ijts-transpersonalstudies/vol12/iss1/3

 

The Seed by Alice Mason  https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/AliceMasonArtist?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Job, Work, Calling?

     "No one else can tell you what your life's work is, but it's import­ant that you find it. 
     There is a part of you that knows - affirm that part. " Willis Harman

     "An important distinction for finding balance in your work-life is to remember that your 'job' is fundamentally different from your 'Work':
     Your 'job' is the set of roles and responsibilities that you need to fulfill in order to satisfy the terms of your employment.
     Your 'Work' is the mission or purpose you feel most deeply called or guided to fulfill in the course of your life.
     True life-work balance can be realized when you learn how to get your Work done while you are doing your job!"

       Joel Levey, Michelle Levey. “Living in Balance: A Mindful Guide for Thriving in a Complex World.” Divine Arts, Revised & Expanded edition, 2014. www.wisdomatwork.com

 

Flower Girl by Alice Mason    https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/AliceMasonArtist?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Motivation to Change - Self-determination Theory

     "Self-determination theory (SDT) provides empirically informed guidelines & principles for motivating people to explore experiences & events, and from that reflective basis, to make adaptive changes in goals, behaviors, & relationships.  

     ... a central task of psychotherapy is to support the client to autonomously explore, identify, initiate, and sustain a process of change 
 

     ... when more autonomously engaged in the therapeutic process — that is, when they have a more internal perceived locus of causality for treatment — people will be more likely to integrate learning & behavior change, resulting in more positive outcomes. 

      (Listed below are the) varied types of motives that bring people to therapy, along with their correlates & consequences. These motives, with corresponding regulatory processes, vary along a continuum of relative autonomy, and people typically have varied degrees of each type of motive. 

          • First, persons can be pressured or coerced by external factors, a process referred to as external regulation. This is especially apparent in the treatment of children, & in therapies connected with the legal system such as substance abuse. 

          • Second, introjection is evident when people initiate treatment because of 'shoulds,' guilt, or seeking social approval & thus pressure themselves to change. 

          • Third, clients may have the more autonomous experience of identifying with the goals of therapy & volitionally pursuing change. 

          • This volitional identification will be transformed into integrated regulation when it is brought into congruence with all of the person’s values & perceptions. 

          • Finally, clients may even come to treatment with considerable intrinsic motivation, reflected in an open curiosity and interest in what can occur. 

     ... the less autonomous the motive the more SDT predicts poor engagement in therapy & lowered long-term, or maintained, success. 

     Testing ... the degree to which individuals enter treatment for more controlled (i.e., external or introjected motivation) or autonomous reasons (i.e., identified, integrated, or intrinsic motivation) ... revealed that the more autonomous individuals were in their motivation for therapy, the more important they believed the therapy to be, the less distracted they were during therapy, the less tension they experienced about therapy, the more satisfied they were with the therapy, the greater their intention to persist, the higher their self-esteem, the lower their level of depressive symptoms, and the greater their life satisfaction. People’s controlled motivation, in contrast, positively predicted tension, and negatively predicted the importance of therapy, the intention to persist, and self-esteem."

       Ryan RM, Deci EL. "A Self-Determination Theory Approach to Psychotherapy: The Motivational Basis for Effective Change." Canadian Psychology 2008; 49(3): 186–193.

Blomidon Estate Winery, Nova Scotia

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