Archive for the ‘ Meditation ’ Category

Being and Doing

These are two different things, but we tend to confuse them. We should consider their differences carefully (there are advantages to both ways) – but we seem to be determined not to think about them at all.

The basics are simple – being is organic, a part of life. Doing is mechanical, a matter of developing a routine, and then following it. This routine is usually unconscious and socially dependent – but it is mechanical – and very difficult to stop.

Being allows us to be emotional and socially interactive. Doing allows us to get things done. This fine balance was permanently disrupted when we got more emotional satisfaction from doing than from being.

The practice of meditation is very useful in helping us tell the difference. Once we get the mind quieted down (no small task) we can feel what is going on in our bodies and our minds (really the same thing).

Why don’t more people meditate? Because they don’t want their being to interfere with their doing – which is what they want to do to the exclusion of everything else. They want to be human doings.

Almost everyone will agree, in theory, that we should be more human – more compassionate and considerate. But in practice they behave entirely differently. And are completely unable to notice this.

This is our problem – not that we don’t have fine ideals – but that we have become so unaware, we cannot tell if we are following them or not.

This is, it seems to me – is a deliberate policy. We are the exact opposite of what we think we are. And this, we think, is very clever of us.

When, in fact, it is very stupid of us – because we have destroyed ourselves.

2013
05/04
CATEGORY
Meditation
Morality
Negative being
Philosophy
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We Cannot Be Good to Ourselves

I had an unusual night last night. All kinds of things were mixing it up in my mind and body. First there was Adrianne Ross’s Dharma talk, which I wrote about on Dharma Seed. I had also finished listening to A Visit From the Goon Squad. Neither one knows what is really going on – and doesn’t want to know.

In a dream I had last night, I was in a large construction tunnel with two huge movable projects underway – both starting from opposite ends of the tunnel and meeting head-on in the middle. I was part of a small group of humans watching them meet. I was even given a video camera to record what was going on. If the dream had lasted longer, I would have seen these two projects destroying each other – with no one at ground level aware that anything was going on at all.

The Goon Squad says a lot – but says it subtly – and from all kinds of directions. In the last analysis, it comes to the same conclusion – but sugar-coats it. We think we are wonderful – do we ever! – but we are not.

I was terrifically impressed with Ms. Ross. This gal has been everywhere and done everything. But she hasn’t seen the big picture at all. I remember Spirit Rock (the finest meditation center in the world) once had a retreat that was supposed to solve this. They put all the top meditators in the world together in an a intensive situation that would guarantee great results – they thought. They even did some advance publicity about this.

When no such thing happened, they said nothing. They were telling the truth (they had no grand answer to the world’s problems) – but not the whole truth (that the world (the human world) was destroying itself). When it came to this, they were as ignorant as everyone else.

Our intellectuals cannot see this either. I am reading Foucault, for example, and was tempted to write about his ideas on normalization - one of the techniques of control that our society uses – without being aware of it. In our schools it is called grading on the curve. Everyone’s progress is compared to all the other students in the class. The teacher (who knows perfectly well what needs to be learned, and whether or not the student has learned it) is pushed out of the picture.

Applied to society as a whole – it means society has no way of detecting its overall trends – since everything is referenced to itself.

One of these trends is what I am writing about – society has become hostile to people. Something that could be easily detected if it referenced its gut feelings. Exactly what meditation is supposed to do. But meditators have the same unconscious instructions as everyone else – and do not do this. And society suffers from all kinds of problems as a result – including self-destruction on every scale.

Amazing!

2013
04/30
CATEGORY
Meditation
Philosophy
Psychology
Sociology
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Dharma Seed

This is a site that has many Dharma talks – all for free.

At first I scrolled through page after page of talks by Buddhist monks – all with their Buddhist names. Yuk!

It is perfectly clear to me that Buddhism has failed – and failed big-time. It could not begin to cope with the stresses of our contemporary world – including of course, the slaughter of many of its adherents in places like China, Tibet – and even Burma.

I would like to say that the future of Buddhism is in the West – where it has taken on a new life. And this is partially true. But I also have to tell you – regretfully – that it has not fared too well here either.

As I keep saying, over and over – our world has ended – and we are living in its remains. Something the Buddha could not possibly have anticipated.

I needed someone who could speak to this condition. And Adrianne Ross is doing just that.

Listen to her talk - Acceptance, Letting Go, Being Enough.

I know this is asking a lot of you – who are rushing through life as though the Devil was after you – which he (or she) probably is. But make the effort anyway.

This woman is saying a lot – and you, like me – may able to listen to her for only a few minutes at a time. No problem, just leave that window open and come back to it whenever you like.

2013
04/29
CATEGORY
Meditation
1 comment

The Situation is Hopeless, and That is the Good News

It’s good news for people who can go their own way – which admittedly, is not too many of us.

It is clear to me that our world has become impossible – it isn’t working, and cannot be fixed. It is also clear that no one can see this – although this must be an exaggeration. I am sure many can see it – but, for various reasons do not say so.

I am one of the fortunate ones, who can say so and get away with it. This is mainly due to my economic situation. I have a small, but secure income (from my Social Security) and live in a secure, remote area (in Costa Rica).

But I am also emotionally secure. How that happened, I don’t really know – it has been a long struggle that is never over. What made my struggle successful, I do not know – since I am surrounded by people whose struggle has not worked.

I suspect (and it is only a hunch of mine) that they want to fail, and to be destroyed. Living independently is not attractive, because it is just that – being by oneself – a situation that seems to horrify them, even though countless people have found it to be the ultimate satisfaction.

If there is a solution, I think it is that – finding one’s inner wealth in a hopeless situation.

The oldest solution in the book, but the book is no longer being read.

2012
08/17
CATEGORY
Meditation
Philosophy
Psychology
Sociology
2 comments

Mind Control

For me, this is an essential practice; part of being me – which is the process of becoming me,the most important pleasure in life.

Now I have said that, I am not sure how to follow it up, since I have summed things up so nicely. But perhaps I can add a few words anyhow.

Perhaps my mind is not typical, but it tends to go out of control easily, and I have to watch it carefully all the time. I am aware of an implicit division of mind as I say this – part of my mind is watching the rest of my mind. This is a skill one learns in meditation – you watch your mind play tricks on itself.

This is not a difficult technique, as non-meditators seem to think, nothing could be simpler – but as you quickly find out, not-thinking is very difficult. But very beneficial; because releasing the mind from useless chatter allows it to do deep non-verbal thinking that can surface later as insights. It can also be seen as detox – all the garbage floats to the top of the mind where it can be released.

The meditation technique I am referring to here is Vipassana Meditation. From Wikipedia:

Vipassanā (Pāli) or vipaśyanā (विपश्यना, Sanskrit, Tib. ལྷག་མཐོང་, lhaktong; Wyl. lhag mthong) in the Buddhist tradition means insight into the true nature of reality.[citation needed] A regular practitioner of Vipassana is known as a Vipassi (vipaśyin). Vipassana is one of the world’s most ancient techniques of meditation, which was introduced by Gautama Buddha. It is a practice of self-transformation through self-observation and introspection to the extent that sitting with a steadfast mind becomes an active experience of change and impermanence.[citation needed] In English, vipassanā meditation is often referred to simply as “insight meditation”.

I must add a disclaimer. Skill at doing this does not necessary make one a good person or even a wise one. It is just a valuable skill that has to used with other skills. It is not the “magic bullet” that most seem to crave.

For me, its benefits are simple – I get acquainted with myself, the most important person in my life.

2012
06/13
CATEGORY
Meditation
Philosophy
Psychology
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Mind is Mess

If there is one thing we need to know, it is this – and know it well. We are so fond of our minds we practically worship them, and make no attempt to keep them under control. When we should constantly aware of where they are, and what they are doing.

As soon as I say this, however, I realize my words will be disregarded. People are saying “We already know that!” When they don’t know it at all.

To put this another way: our minds are our biggest advantage (they are what makes us human), but they also cause all our problems. I repeat: all our problems.

Still, I am sure, I am not getting through. People cannot imagine controlling their minds, and believe (with all their strength) they cannot be controlled, and they have to follow them wherever they go.

Their minds, they are convinced, are God – or the Devil, or both. Whatever they are, they are in control. And of course they are referring to their collective minds, as well as their individual ones – indeed, in the present state of affairs, they amount to much the same thing. The collective mind rules all.

At this point I need to make a crucial distinction between thinking and feeling. In English, the word feeling can refer to either sensations or emotions – and this makes for all kinds of problems. I am using it here to refer to emotions.

If you are really careful (and pay careful attention when you first wake up, for example) you will note that the two are independent of each other. All kinds of feelings (including some very strong ones) come and go without having any effect at all. They are just feelings.

But, if you watch carefully, you will start thinking – and this is when the mind become dangerous. Thinking, with all its strength, will insist on taking over. With practice, and it does take practice, you can remain in control, and get your mind to calm down, and not become hysterical.

But people will not do this – because being out-of-control is so pleasurable. The thinking process has a direct input to our pleasure centers and uses this connection continually to get what it wants.

The good news is that we are bigger than our thinking. If we weren’t, we would not still be here as a species. To put this another way, we still have our bodies, and they are wise: they know how to take care of themselves.

All we have to do is let them take over. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But in reality it is extremely difficult – and for most people just flat-out impossible.

Why? The answer will not surprise you: because their minds have become dysfunctional. Their internal wiring has been re-wired so that it doesn’t work. And in a way that cannot be fixed.

This last statement is a shocker. I would like nothing better than for it to be wrong. But as I continue watch what is going on, I continue to see that we are stuck. Our minds are a mess, and they have become us.

2012
04/23
CATEGORY
Meditation
Philosophy
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Enlightenment is Not Enough

When I speak of Enlightenment, I mean in the Buddhist sense – where you are able to understand how things are in their most basic sense, and be free from delusion. The practitioner achieves this completely on her own – or as she might say: by merging with Buddha nature.

It is important not to get stuck in words at this point, because this is not a verbal process, and part of the practice is staying away from words. After the fact, different people will use different words to explain what happened. But the smart ones will refrain from doing so.

In my experience, most people who profess enthusiasm for Buddhism know practically nothing about it, and don’t really want to – since it is a way of life, not a way of thinking about life. And living is something they avoid.

Which brings me to my point – we have to acknowledge, intellectually, that we have been hit by a new force we were not prepared for. And include this knowledge in our personal practice, whatever it is.

What is this new force? To answer this we have to work backward from where we are, and take careful stock of our present situation. Something no one wants to do, because the present situation is to horrible to contemplate. It requires going back and forth between the meditative (non-thinking) state and the thinking state. Something we have never done before.

We have to realize how destructive our dominant activity, business, has become. This is something no one is willing to recognize. Even meditators, who have been hard at work at perfecting their craft, refuse to look at this, or take it into account.

Business, in itself, is not the problem. It is a natural human activity. But this new kind of business is very much a problem. It probably started with the Industrial Revolution, where large, powerful machines (starting with the sailing ship) made their appearance.

They (and all their service industries, such as banking) could be used to obtain immense wealth (for a few). But more importantly, they provided employment for vast numbers of ignorant people, who were content to live mediocre lives. The era of mass man had arrived.

This is the new force I was talking about. But these new people are incapable of (and unwilling to) understand it – or anything else. They are very much part of it, cannot separate themselves from it, and are afraid of living.

There is an aware minority, as always, but they do not seem to understand the basic problem. Which means we are in a very serious situation indeed.

2012
03/18
CATEGORY
Meditation
Philosophy
Technology
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Calculative Thinking and Meditative Thinking

This is from Martin Heidegger’s Discourse on Thinking, in the book Existentialism, pages 151-152.

This so easy to understand that anyone could benefit from reading it. Why isn’t everyone doing so? There are lots of reasons, but the one Heidegger gives is the flight from thinking - something I have noticed myself. One of the commandments of our time seems to be: thou shalt not think. He says:

This flight-from-thought is the ground of thoughtlessness. But part of the flight is that man will neither see nor admit it. Man today will even flatly deny this flight from reasoning. He will assert he opposite. He will say – and quite rightly – that there were at no time such far-reaching plans, so many inquiries in so many areas, research carried on as passionately as today. Of course. And this display of ingenuity and deliberation has its own great usefulness. Such thought remains indispensable. But – it also reamains true that it is thinking of a special kind.

Its peculiarity consists in the fact that whenever we plan, research, and organize, we always reckon with conditions that are given. We take them into account with the calculated intention of their serving specific purposes. This we can count on definite results. This calculation is the mark of all thinking that plans and investigates. Such thinking remains calculation even if it neither works with numbers nor uses an adding machine or computer. Calculative thinking never stops, never collects itself. Calculative thinking is not meditative thinking, not thinking which contemplates the meaning which reigns in everything that is.

There are, then, two kinds of thinking, each justified and needed in its own way: calculative thinking and meditative thinking.

Meditative thinking is what we have in mind when we say that contemporary man is in flight from thinking.

I agree wholeheartedly. When I try to explain the difference between the two, I say ordinary thinking cannot arrive at the basics of experience (which makes no sense if you do not meditate yourself). Which is precisely why people don’t want to do it – they don’t want to know what is really going on.

This fits in with McGilchrist’s left-hemisphere mode of thinking and right-hemisphere mode of thinking – my basic text.

Understanding this difference, in my opinion, is the most important task of our time. We have no end of solutions for everything under the sun, but unless we understand how we are thinking about our problems, we are wasting our time – and our precious lives.

2011
09/23
CATEGORY
Meditation
Philosophy
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The Mind is a Mess

Of all the things we ought to keep firmly in mind, this is the most important – but our minds want us to forget this. They want us to think they are competent beings, firmly in control. People may go crazy once in a while, but outside of that they are our constant friend.

This is the biggest lie ever. Our brains are the worst ever. Instead of representing the pinnacle of achievement, they are an evolutionary dead end. If our kidneys works a badly as our brains, we would all be dead.

Using the mind to think about the mind is one of the most useless exercises possible. Fortunately, this is not necessary, or even desirable. Like the smallest insect, we can just concentrate on our sensations, and learn from them. And some of these sensations come from the mind itself – that is constantly going off in many directions at once.

If we can calm down enough, we can watch this happening – and become aware of the most important thing we can become aware of: that we are crazy. And hopefully, develop some personal strategies for dealing with this.

I knew a therapist once who kept saying “Mind your mind!” This is what she meant: don’t think about your mind, just pay attention to it.

Nothing you can possibly do could be more beneficial. Instead of going forty directions at once, and spinning your wheels all over the place – back off and just pay attention to the most important part of you: your consciousness.

You will be well rewarded.

2011
07/27
CATEGORY
Meditation
Philosophy
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Meditation Involves Suffering

It is a common misconception that meditation should produce a state of bliss – and that is why people want to do it. Pain is not something they want, they avoid it as much as possible. This is the calculus of their logic: more happiness and less pain. Accepting pain to them seems ridiculous, avoiding it is the only thing to do – and they will do anything to avoid it.

They are dead wrong: pain is an normal part of life, it cannot be avoided, and this avoidance is a common component of mental illness. The ability to deal effectively with pain is, by contrast, an important part of mental health – and an important theme of the arts and religion.

The most serious of our human problems, and we certainly have many of them, is our addiction to thinking – adults have to be thinking all the time. The kind of meditation I do involves calming down this compulsive activity. Which is nearly impossible. But no matter, you do it anyway, the best you possibly can.

The immediate effects are not noticeable, but only become apparent later in the quality of your thinking – strangely enough. To think well, you have to stop thinking completely on a regular basis. This gives the mind a chance to rest, reset itself, start over on a fresh basis, and really get something done. Otherwise, it gets stale.

This process always involves some suffering – or maybe discomfort would be a better word. We are unaccustomed to making this distinction – and assume pain always leads to more pain. Usually, it doesn’t at all, we just feel some vague discomfort, and this makes us uneasy.

What we have to do is just sit with those feelings and get better acquainted with them – precisely what we ordinarily don’t want to do. When I say “get better acquainted with them” I mean with their physical sensations. Thinking about them is not what you want to do – because you will only get stuck in them more.

After reading The Master and his Emissary, I can understand better what is going on. Compulsive thinking is what the left hemisphere does. It has to give up and return control to the right hemisphere – for it to sort things out. Something it is very reluctant to do. And which, as a culture, we have become reluctant to do.

The ultimate left-hemisphere technology is the computer/software/internet. Which we have become completely enraptured of. This is natural enough, there is no clear dividing line between ourselves and our technologies. But the result has been a disaster. We have forgotten what it is like to be human – and the computer does not want us to. It only wants us to become more firmly addicted to it.

“But,” you may say, “You are using this technology now, in writing this blog.” True, and that is am important observation: technology can be used to break our addiction to technology.

It can happen, but it is unlikely – because too few people are aware of what is going on. And this is the objective of meditation – and Buddhism in general.

Buddhism, however, has been a failure.

2011
07/12
CATEGORY
Medical
Meditation
Technology
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