The power of whims

George Clark, 18 January 2008

There was a time when I thought I was in control of what went on in my mind. These days I realise that the mind has a mind of its own and that it is (a) deeply conditioned by my particular place in time and space and (b) hard wired for 'mystical' experiences.

There was a time when my mental whims seemed to be rational and objective and prompted egoic actions. These days there is a hankering after whims which are intuitive and subjective and which evoke non-egoic, spontaneous non-action (the muse!).

There was a time when there was fire in the belly for change brought about by formal education. There was energy for busy-ness which was driven by 'right belief' in a Scottish brand of anarcho-presbyterianism. The world needed more free thinking individuals. I worked long contracts in various parts of the world and had some influence.

But things changed.

It became clear that formal education reproduces rather than changes society. I was thus part of the problem rather than part of the solution. I was trapped in an outmoded paradigm. On a whim I thus became an independent, freelance consultant living part-time in retreat where I stewed in the juices of western philosophy.

Intellectual whims drew me to existentialism and post-modernism with their associated crises and malaise. I burned out intellectually and lost the old fire in the belly. The need for mental reprogramming became urgent. There were two options.

I kept some distance from the first option - psychotherapy. Engagement with the anti-psychiatry movement made me deeply suspicious of the psyche police. In an insane world it did not make sense to be normal and well adjusted. Crazy times called for crazy solutions.

The second option was meditation. As a psychology of perception it has a long and much respected pedigree. There are many variations on the basic theme of realising the illusory nature of ego. No self, no other – only manifestations of the Oneness. Don't just notice but notice what is being noticed and stand back from it. Be in charge of what goes on in your head rather than being driven blindly by your parochial conditioning. Step into the space between stimulus and response.

I built up a library of wisdom classics which expounded variations on the perennial philosophy. But this meant herding other people's cows. There is an immense distance between 'rationally knowing about' and 'experiencing'. There were aspirations but there was a falling short.

Patiently waiting.

I now live mainly in retreat where I embrace stillness and sometimes know the peace that it brings. But the mind has a mind of its own - old habits flare up and die hard. Mindfulness illumines the dark side where demons lurk. Many that used to be hidden can now occupy the  foreground of attention. There is the uneasy transition to transcendence where mighty whims contend. It is a common pattern -

"Come to the path as humorously aware as possible of the baggage you will be bringing with you: your lacks, fantasies, failings and projections. Blend with a soaring awareness of what our true nature might be, a down-to-earth and level-headed humility, and a clear appreciation of where you are on your spiritual journey and what still remains to be understood and accomplished."
Sogyal Rinpoche (1992) The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying (p131)

Paying attention

George Clark, 18 January 2008

Who pays attention to what and why? It is interesting to compare (a) a parent paying attention to the whims of a child and trying to direct attention this way rather than that, and (b) you paying attention to your own whims and trying to direct them this way rather than that.

Anyone who tries to sit at peace for more than a few moments is soon aware of how busy their mind is. A continuous stream of thoughts and feelings appear in the attention centre and it is not clear where they come from or where they go. The stimulus may be from the outside world (through the sense organs) or from the inside (from bodily sensations and memory). The range of thoughts and feelings and the speed at which they change will vary from person to person and from time to time but there is no getting away from the fact of dynamic churn. There is past, present and future. How long is the present moment? Is it more than the life of a particular thought or feeling?

A young child is continuously responding to external and internal stimuli. The parent seeks to encourage good stimuli and responses and to discourage bad ones – this is an essential part of socialising the child. The parent has three ways to deal with the situation (a) prevention: the stimulus/temptation can be removed before the child has a chance to experience it (eg rearrange the furniture and knick knacks so they are child-proof); (b) reaction: during the experiencing the parent can encourage desirable responses to good stimuli and distract the child's attention from undesirable ones; and (c) recommendation: line up desirable stimuli to capture attention as it moves on.

In a similar way you are continuously responding to external and internal stimuli. There is the dynamic churn. 'You' have the option of just going along with it (and thus with your conditioning to date) or of trying to win an element of control over the process and thus of reconditioning your mind along more desirable lines.

Note an interesting philosophical niggle. There has to be an intention to pay attention. What is the source of this intention (motivation). If it is due to past causes and conditions then you are no more than a robot. If it is due to you own free will then where does that come from? Can a robot rewrite its own programme?

Either way there are some useful rules of thumb. As with children there are the before, during and after measures of prevention, reaction and recommendation. You must deal with the process yourself but we are social animals and that makes it possible to arrange suitable environments. The basic principle is to keep company with spiritually wise  people and to avoid the spiritually foolish. You can go into solitary retreat, take up residence in a monastery or stay within the everyday world. The latter option is the toughest but the most common; it might involve (a) avoiding the stimuli pointing to consumerism (adverts and the media) (b), decorating your living and working places with reminders to be mindful ie posters, statues, wisdom books etc, and (c) talking to your immediate companions to win acceptance or at least tolerance for what you are trying to do.

SO – who pays attention to what and why? Various people to various things for various reasons. But there are more or less noble options and the greatest of them involves self watching.

"The moment you realise you are not present, you are present. Whenever you are able to observe your mind, you are no longer trapped in it. Another factor has come in, something that is not of the mind: the witnessing presence."
Eckhart Tolle (1999) The Power of Now (p45)

On being normal

George Clark, 16 January 2008

Normality is a political idea. It makes it possible to label people as sub-normal (bad), normal (good) or supra-normal (excellent). So how do we recognise a normal person? There are many possible ways but they boil down to the idea that, "me and us are normal, 'they' are not". In what follows we will look briefly at two broad views of 'enlightened' normality and at a possible merging at the level of supra-normals.

Reasonably enlightened normality

In Europe there has been the Age of Reason and the Age of Enlightenment. These created a view of normality that favours rationality and materialism in a clockwork, Newtonian universe. The 'scientific method' rules the modern world.

Sub-normal people are hangovers from pre-modern times. They are traditionalists who are superstitious and believe in magic. Normal people are thoroughly 'modern' and look for evidence to guide their rational, systematic and selfish thought processes. Supra-normal people are the lions of philosophy, science and economics who embrace post-modernism with its deep-rooted, radical doubt and its existential uncertainty - anything goes.

In this view the social paradigm involves dualism and debate. There are winners and losers. Competition. Humanity is seen as having dominion over creation.

Integrally enlightened normality

In the east there have been thoughts of enlightenment and thus of liberation and release for more than 2000 years.

Sub-normal people believe in the abiding reality of self and things. This is the root of their suffering. They are in the majority. Normal people appreciate (a) the impermanence of all created things and (b) the wisdom of renunciation and stillness. This leads to the end of suffering. Supra-normal people are the transcendent sages and gurus who fully embody the highest ideals and act as a role model for others.

In this view the social paradigm involves monism, discussion and silent meditation. We are enmeshed in a web of multiple, complex and intertwining causes and conditions. Viewpoints are held lightly. Partnership. Everybody can win release from suffering by changing how they think.

The merging of the supra-normals

The above sketch is brutally over simple. It serves to polarise world views and to point to the possibility of a merging - at least at the level of the supra-normals. This might lead to a more systematic and compassionate stewardship of ourselves and the planet. Anderson (1996) noted the potential for humanity to wake up -

"... we have not one Enlightenment project but three: a Western one based on rational thought, an Eastern one based on seeing through the illusion of the Self, and a Postmodern one based on the concept of socially constructed reality. And despite their many differences, they share the common goal of liberation.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau made the famous revolutionary pronouncement that "Men are born free, and everywhere are in chains." A couple of centuries later that still holds truth for us, but now we see that the strongest chains are symbolic ones, mind forged manacles." (p219)

Source: Walter Truett Anderson (ed) (1996) The Fontana Post-Modernism Reader; Fontana; ISBN 0006863701 see http://www.srds.co.uk/begin/third_light.htm

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Asleep or awake?

George Clark , 13 January 2008

You can be either asleep or awake to the illusory nature of the self concept. Most people, including myself, spend most of their time asleep to it. So it is quite normal. But this is regrettable given the good things that come from being awake. In what follows I have tried to map my present understanding of the process of waking up.

Asleep

There is sleeping sleep and waking sleep. Sleeping sleep can be either with or without dreams and we will not say anything more about it here. Waking sleep is a poetic concept that covers both daydreaming and more focussed patterns of thought.

During daydreaming thoughts and feelings appear, hang around for a while, and then vanish. The source can be internal or external. Internal stuff links to an imagined past and future and external stuff arrives when you expose yourself to gossip, telly, books etc. The day dreams often lead to action so as to get what you want and to avoid what you don’t want. Day dreams tend to have limited creativity. They are populated by stereotypes and habits and, in responding to them, you are like a robot.

Sometimes you are able to focus your thoughts and to concentrate on a particular idea or task for an extended period of time. During such times you tend to be unaware of ‘self’ with its likes and dislikes. This can be very comfortable. You can even have flashes of the numinous and feel that the ‘muse’ is speaking through you. This can be exceedingly comfortable. It is therefore understandable that many people are workaholics addicted to busy-ness so that they lose themselves in their work. But few people really know what is going on. They do not have insight. They are still asleep.

Awake

Those who are awake are more in control of what goes on in their mind. They are less robotic and more authentic. They notice what is being noticed and think about thinking. There are the possibilities of being the witness and also of being one-pointed. It is then possible to have insight into our ‘true’ nature.

There is the Hindu image of a bird on a branch eating fruit and of a second bird watching the first. You can be like that. You can be witness to what you are thinking and feeling. And this can be with or without labelling the stuff that appears. The idea is just to notice, label and let go. Remain aloof and unattached to the stuff of dreams.

With practice, witnessing leads to easy one-pointedness and stillness of mind. This can be with or without insight. When the mind has been rushing, the ‘without insight’ version is handy as it brings calm (ie give attention totally to the breathing). Once calm you can move on to the ‘with insight’ version where you allow attention to linger with a particular thought or feeling. There is then an intuitive, concentrated and self-less appreciation of the interpenetrating Oneness and thus of the peace that passes all understanding.

For most people the peace comes while sitting on the meditation cushion. The goal, however, is to take the peace into the everyday world. Mindfulness provides the key. Be awake to the possibility of being asleep. When you notice that you have gone to sleep in the imagined past and future then wake up to the here and now. When washing the dishes just selflessly wash the dishes – reality is no more or less.

“The beginning of freedom is the realisation that you are not the possessing entity – the thinker. Knowing this enables you to be the entity. The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness become activated.”
(Eckhart Tolle (1999) The Power of Now)

Don’t just do something
Sit there

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