Posted on Jan 31, 10 at 07:15 PM
I have been reflecting for a while on an article that appeared in the New York Times entitled “Therapists Report Increase in Green Disputes.” Though not documented by any known research, the article asserts that psychologists and other therapists are seeing more couples and families who complain of having serious conflicts over environmental and sustainability issues. I posted a comment on Twitter suggesting that deep mindfulness could alleviate such suffering that is a result of fixations and fear. Here I am using the notion of “Green Arguments” as a vehicle for looking at fixations.
It is important to know, of course, how the word fixation is being used here. Wikipedia defines a psychological fixation as “the state in which an individual becomes obsessed with an attachment to another human… or an inanimate object.” In the archaic world of psychoanalysis, it refers to an arrested stage of psychic development. My use of the term is quite different from either of these, and follows Peter Fenner’s definition, which he draws from the Madhyamaka tradition of Buddhism where the Sanskrit word drshti means “fixed opinion or belief.” And thus he says, “Fixation occurs whenever we take a rigid and inflexible position about any aspect of our experience.”1
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Philosophy & Practice •
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Posted on Dec 09, 09 at 11:57 AM
A recent piece in the New York Times reports on research that suggests children as young as 12 month’s old show an inclination to be helpful in various age appropriate ways (Thank you to MaryAnn Kraus, Psy.D. for pointing out the article). From my reading of it, it is not clear that the data would allow one to say whether our early tendency to help and cooperate with others is learned or innate. Nevertheless, it is striking to see such behavior in children who are pre-verbal or just beginning to learn to talk.
As I read the article, I began to think about how this research might relate to natural wisdom, the idea that when we have a personal problem or issue that we need to solve, or even an opportunity to help one another, we find that we usually know everything that we need to know to do what we need to do. This notion is supported by teachings in many contemporary contemplative traditions, especially those based in Buddhist schools of thought.
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Posted on Nov 04, 09 at 11:53 AM
I recently attended the combined meetings of the Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy Conference and the Science and Nonduality Conference in San Rafael, California in late October. As I have mentioned on Twitter, the conference presenters and attendee’s came from a very broad range of perspectives and disciplines, all seeking a glimpse of the Nondual reality that includes all things.
The Nondual Wisdom program was opened with a Buddhist chant and instrumental music presented by Prema Maja Rode, and closed three days later by her alter non-ego the Premanator, leading the entire conference in Nondual Rap. The Premanator’s Rap “Who Are You?” offered a very clever pointing to the emptiness of self and was arguably one of the easier to grasp presentations of the entire joint conference, as well as a joyful conference highlight.
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Posted on Oct 16, 09 at 11:27 AM
I have been commenting through Twitter the last few days about how everything that we experience in our world is a construction of our mind. I am not going to make the radical argument here that nothing exists but mind. I simply want us to look at how everything we see, think, say and do is almost entirely filtered by our mind. What is at issue here is that for the most part we have little real awareness of that filtering process. And, more importantly, our lives could be calmer, happier and more contented if we could remember to by-pass that filter a good part of the time.
The historical Buddha put it succinctly in the Dhammapada “We are a result of what we think. What we are is controlled by our thoughts. From our thoughts our world is constructed.” And elsewhere he said, in effect, “Release all thoughts of the past, don’t cling to thoughts of the future, hold lightly your thoughts in the present moment and live in total peace.” Lao Tsu, In the Dao Te Ching, adds a touch of the nondual in such verses as “Can you persuade your mind to return from its wandering and be open to the original oneness of all things? The Zen literature abounds with similar wisdom albeit often more obscurely so.
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Posted on Oct 08, 09 at 11:07 PM
Why do we try to understand our minds or travel a spiritual path? People will offer a wide variety of answers but they pretty much can be reduced to a desire to know who we are (i.e., understand ourselves or know our purpose in life) and a wish to find ways to bring greater ease and tranquility into our lives. Fortunately these two typically coexist—knowing who we truly are, our essence so to speak, offers us greater ease and peace.
The essence of who we are, in different contemplative traditions is variously referred to as original mind, natural mind, true nature, true self and even Buddha-nature. Giving our true nature a name is one way of pointing to it, but that is the easy part. Actually explaining what we mean by any of those terms and giving them a conceptual description is quite difficult and many would say it is even impossible.
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Posted on Sep 09, 09 at 06:11 PM
I was recently speaking to my friend Bill Raineri about what it is like to communicate with our children now that they are in college or beyond. Bill has three daughters and I have two sons, so we were eager to compare notes on talking with our kids face-to-face, over the phone and through texting. The latter, texting through instant messaging, is especially interesting because it maintains some of the qualities of talking while excluding others. And it was here that Bill and I found we had had strikingly similar experiences. I’ll get to those in a minute, but first I want to build a larger context regarding interpersonal communication.
Much of the pleasure of being with others comes from our ability to verbally communicate with them. The pull of our desire to communicate has become all the more obvious over the past few decades as devices that support our doing so have proliferated. This pull can be witnessed most dramatically in the widespread deployment of cell phones in almost every conceivable place and at almost any possible time. And, of course, we are beginning to see this with texting as well.
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Living In The Moment •
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Posted on Aug 28, 09 at 12:04 PM
The following verse comes from Dzogchen Master Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s beautiful and illuminating book Carefree Dignity: Discourses on Training in the Nature of Mind. Through straightforward language and down-to-earth examples he makes the freeing of our minds seem almost as easy as it really is.
Sometimes go outside and sit
In the evening at sunset,
When there’s a slight breeze that touches your body,
And makes the leaves and the trees move gently.
You’re not trying to do anything really.
You’re simply allowing yourself to be,
Very open from deep within,
Without holding onto anything whatsoever.
Don’t bring something back from the past, from a memory.
Don’t plan that something should happen.
Don’t hold onto anything in the present.
Nothing you perceive needs to be nailed down.
Simply let experience take place, very freely,
So that your empty, open heart
Is suffused with the tenderness of true compassion.
from: Carefree Dignity, 2004, p.160.
Every time I read this verse I feel like I am gently tumbling down a rabbit hole of unconditioned awareness. Just allowing myself to be in this moment, unencumbered by thoughts of past or future and open to all, just as it is.
Just Noticing •
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Posted on Aug 17, 09 at 01:51 PM
In last Sunday’s New York Times there was an article in the “Happy Days” blog section by a Zen practitioner that caught my eye. What really stood out for me was his portrayal of Zen practice. The experience was described as grueling and the practice as intense and relentless, not to mention that it requires long hours and can be physically and emotionally uncomfortable. Those were his words and only part of what he had to say. Typically I would let this go as another example of Macho Zen1. But as I thought about it, it occurred to me that for many people who are looking for a contemplative practice to help them deal more effectively with life’s issues, Zen is frequently the practice they have heard about. And essays like the foregoing don’t offer much insight, hope or encouragement.
For the various teachers and scholars I have learned from or whose work I have studied, grueling, intense and relentless struggle is antithetical to the various practices they teach. And personally, I deeply value the ideal that my practice should be consistent with the end point I am seeking. Even if what I am seeking, as some might point out, is something I already possess!
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Posted on Aug 12, 09 at 08:44 PM
These days, I tend to hold my thoughts pretty loosely and most of the time I don’t even take them very seriously. And if I am in the mood for a little humor I can just sit back and watch some of my thoughts float by. It’s like Comedy Central sometimes, each thought trying to be sillier, funnier and more outrageous than the one just before it. If my thoughts were “real” beings with personalities and ego’s they would likely be offended by my seeming disdain and lack of caring about them.
But every now and then, in the right circumstances, a thought will grab me, and try as I might it will take some effort to shake it loose. This past weekend, for example, Susan and I were going away for an overnight to be with some relatives. We are always careful to make certain our cat, Tiger, is not tucked away in one of his favorite hiding (i.e., napping) spots where he might be locked in by a closed door while we are away. So the search began, only a half dozen favorite spots and another dozen and a half if the first ones didn’t pan out. Zip, nothing, he was nowhere to be found. So, we do it again and still no sign of him. Now what.
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Living In The Moment •
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