nature nurture options

Nature v nurture – the options
George Clark, 16 July 2008

The nature v nurture debate is likely to be around for some time. The following table might help to inform discussion by injecting shades of grey into what is often a polarised, black v white confrontation.

There are causes and conditions for our nature and our nurture and in both cases these can be thought of as good, neutral or bad. By plotting these options on a table we can generate nine viewpoints.

Viewpoint 1 is of rosy optimism while viewpoint 9 is of gloomy pessimism. The other viewpoints take intermediary positions. People choose their ‘facts’ and argue accordingly.

I tend to viewpoint 1 but with reservations. Our natural hard wiring suits as to live harmoniously in tribal society and many patterns of nurturing have evolved to fit us intimately to our particular social and physical environments. But, in our modern globalized world, our natures are having a hard time keeping up with our novel patterns of nurture.

The good news is that there are those among us who begin to understand what is going on in a holistic, multi-disciplinary and systematic way. With a better understanding of our natures we can tweak our nurturing forces so as to better adapt us to the many aspects of the modern world with which we have to deal – Social, Technological, Environmental, Economic, Political, Legal and Spiritual (STEEPLeS).

All seven factors interact but it is perhaps useful to note that the ‘spiritual’ factor has been largely ignored in recent times. This factor can be seen as linked to mindfulness meditation and thus to a new psychology of perception. This takes it out of the shadow of ‘religion’ and, arguably, helps give practitioners the experience of human nature being in essence good – we evolved to live in harmony with each other and with our physical environment.

fuzzy churn

I have a reconditioned mind. I will hang around at the keyboard to see what it turns up. I now have total faith in ‘my’ ability to create something to occupy the attention centre. There is thus no need to fear boredom. The mind’s ability to lock on to issues and activities is totally dependable.

The mind conjures up topics for attention - endlessly. If the external environment (as internally interpreted) does not appear to have much to offer, then the internal environment (as if there was anything else!) is a bottomless pit of images, emotions and story lines.

Daydreaming is like channel hopping on the telly except that (a) there is no telly and (b) there are no channels. The rational brain tries to set up dualities and construct categories and preferences but, in reality, one thing slides into another in that great, fuzzy churn which is the flux as interpreted by my reconditioned mind.

(Clark, Nov 2002)

walk it yourself

The task is to switch off the conditioned automatic pilot that has been guiding you since infancy and to take control of your own life; to live intentionally rather than robotically. The task is to become mind-full rather than mind-less. Doctor heal yourself.

The good news is that all you need is already within. The bad news is that the automatic pilot is rigged so that you rarely glimpse the underlying mechanisms and, when you do, you are conditioned to ignore them.

The further good news is that, through the centuries, there have been heroes and heroines who managed to re-condition themselves and leave guidebooks. These are readily available and, in these uncertain terms, are in increasing demand.

The road has been charted and remains in excellent condition. All you need is an increasing awareness of its existence and a growing urge to travel along it. As Woody Guthrie said, "Nobody here can walk it for you, you gotta walk it by yourself."

(Clark, Nov 2002)

large TV

"The word ‘God’ is a label for a state of mind. There are unusual states of mind – the muse, being in flow, being awestruck and/or entranced etc. In contrast there is the ‘ordinary mind’. 

The ordinary mind is a guest at the inn of the non-ordinary mind which is the host. All human suffering results from the guest having usurped the host and locked him/her in the basement. Peace of mind and the wisdom which results will appear once a seemly balance between host and guest has been re-established.

How to re-establish the balance? 

The guest is like a large television set playing at full volume in the corner of a small room in an infinitely large mansion. The task is to switch off the telly and pay attention to the small room. 

You will soon realise that the walls are illusions and that what at first appears to be a large mansion has no more substance than a passing cloud. The host is the everywhere and always that is the here and now. The Life Force is the ceaseless churn of birth and death. There is only an ongoing stream of creation and destruction as fleeting and fluid manifestations of the Oneness doing what the Oneness does." (Clark, Nov 2002)

passing clouds

"We rarely indulge in bare sensing of reality; we invariably make the raw 'thing' part of a story where it is linked to all manner of other thoughts and feelings." (Clark, 2008)





More on tethering clouds

on whims

"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 - " (Clark, 2008)


"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)

More on the 'power of whims at http://dodclark.blogspot.com/2008/01/power-of-whims.html

true freedom

December 19, 2010; Tricycle Daily Dharma; http://www.tricycle.com/  

What is True Freedom?

"When I look for freedom today I find it not in fantasy or in dreams, but in my sitting practice. What kind of freedom is it that exists in doing nothing? 

It is the freedom not to interfere or react. It is the freedom to merely observe. I don’t have to judge the trauma that arises in mind. I don’t have to get involved with the hundred narratives that might try to occupy my mind during the day. 

In not clinging to thoughts and ideas, wants and desires, hatreds and resentments, the bondages of my most negative thoughts and emotions have faded into a haze that still arises but no longer dominates my life. I have found freedom: it is the freedom of nonattachment, the freedom to not cling and to not resist. It is the freedom to allow myself to be with myself."

- Ananda Baltrunas, "A Prison of Desire"