The Good Life

"Peace is not something you can force on anything or anyone... much less upon one's own mind. It is like trying to quiet the ocean by pressing upon the waves. Sanity lies in somehow opening to the chaos, allowing anxiety, moving deeply into the tumult, diving into the waves, where underneath, within, peace simply is."
— Gerald G. May (Simply Sane: The Spirituality of Metal Health)


The Good Life
Buddhism, psychology, and the art of being human.

goodimpulses@blogspot.com

"The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Applied psychology is my business and my livelihood. It is also my passion.
Years of working with people and following our advancements in the field of psychology, neuroscience, and social science have left me both concerned and very hopeful.

I am concerned because we have reached the point in our evolution where the single greatest threat to our continued existence is...us.

We have eliminated our natural predators, reduced disease to incredible levels, created vast sources of food. We have however been unable to conquer war, poverty, greed, and hatred.

I am very hopeful because we have, for the first time in human history, the tools to understand who we are and how we operate. Like any client going into therapy, this self knowledge is the key to making the fundamental changes that could save us.

Therapy is a good analogy because therapy is what we need, on a mass scale. Old habits and instincts that served our ancestors well are no longer helping us and, unexamined could lead to our destruction.

On the flip-side, with self knowledge comes an amazing opportunity for growth and the realization of some of human kinds most noble longings for peace, and happiness.

All of my life I have heard people refer to " the human factor."
Whenever we are talking about why systems, goals and ideals can't work we always follow it with "then there's the human factor."

What strikes me the most about this statement is the unspoken acceptance that this "human factor" is inevitable, and unchangeable. Things could work but human nature will just muck it up and there is nothing that we can do about it.

This is an interesting assumption. If I were to go around saying "Well I could have a job and be a nice person but there's my 'personality factor.'" we would never accept it. The obvious answer is of course "work on your personality, change your habits, get some therapy."

We have a decent grasp of individual pathology or mental illness. We have very little understanding of mass pathology, and even less of species specific pathology.
My argument is simply this;
Many of the habits designed to help us in the natural world are no longer helpful in a global civilization. Many of the cultural and spiritual beliefs that served the human race in the past, can no longer serve the human race in the present.

Finally, it is time to go to therapy.
We have mastered physical science to the point of science fiction, but physical sciences can no longer serve us without wisdom to guide them. It is time to use science, social science, to take a hard look at ourselves and reshape both our values and our means of achieving them.

"If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Food and clothes sustain
Body and life;
I advise you to learn
Being as is.
When it's time,
I move my hermitage and go,
And there's nothing
To be left behind."

-Layman P'ang

"Just stop your wandering,
Look penetratingly into your inherent nature,
And, concentrating your spiritual energy,
Sit in zazen
And break through."- Bassui

"May I be a protector to those without protection,
A guide for those who journey,
And a boat, a bridge, a passage
For those desiring the further shore.
May the pain of every living creature
Be completely cleared away.
May I be the doctor and the medicine
And may I be the nurse
For all sick beings in the world
Until everyone is healed.
Just like space
And the great elements such as earth,
May I always support the life
Of all the boundless creatures.
And until they pass away from pain
May I also be the source of life
For all the realms of varied beings
That reach unto the ends of space."

-Shantideva

"But I'll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything."- Alan Watts

Alan Watts, one of the great pioneers of western meditation practice taught realization of the natural state of pure awareness and the deep sensation of interconnection with all life.

In the early sutras they called this state Dhyana which is a state of full-body awareness in which the meditator is fully open to experiencing the changing flow of experience in the present moment.

Though this state of open awareness is our birthright and probably the true nature of lived experience, the demands of survival and social pressure have made us focus and train other priorities that can get in the way of this experience.This is especially true in the modern day world of speed, future orientation, and multitasking.

The difficulty of open awareness for a modern meditator is partly that our social conditions demand both constant consideration of the future, and rumination on the past. This is of course why people become monks, or hermits, or go on retreat in forests.

For the rest of us though, we have the challenge of participating in a way of living that is antithetical to living in the present moment, while attempting to do so ourselves.

This problem of managing an engaged practice has been a long interest of mine.
Watching a video last night on Alan Watts was very helpful because by getting another clear perspective on the end state I was able to consider it's relationship to the conditions that prevent us from being free to experience it...much less live it.

There are three snares of the mind that prevent us from being free to experience the present moment; anticipation, rumination, and ideation.

Anticipation is the particular vice of our high paced, forward-looking society. It is also based on ( and triggers) an anxiety/preparedness response in the the body. This places our minds and energy in a constant future orientation, thinking about, planning, and feeling future events.
Diffusing this pattern requires that we first practice Mindfulness of our thoughts, and feelings/physical sensations.
Whenever a thought of future anticipation arises (if it is not relevant to planning) we return our minds to the physical experience of the present moment. (this is pretty much what the Buddha recommended)

Similarly, the feeling/sensation of anticipation can be noticed arising in the body. For me this is a feeling of tightening, hyper alert rigidity and sometimes a sensation of leaning forward.

As with thoughts we can turn our minds to the living experience of the moment and we can also physically let go by releasing our muscles and deepening our breath.

When we get proficient at this we will be able to plan without anticipation. Whereas planning is the act of considering future options and actions, anticipation is the sensation of constricting the awareness energy and projecting it forward.
Instead of living now, we live as if the event were already occurring. Instead of experiencing relaxed alertness we experience anxiety.

Rumination is a similar experience where our thoughts and feeling/sensations replay past events over and over at the expense of the present moment.
There is a strong physical sensation in the body when we ruminate as well as when we anticipate. Research has actually shown that people lean slightly forward when thinking about the future, and back when they think about the past.

Awareness of the mind, (returning it to living experience when it wanders) and awareness of the body ( relaxing the tension from past events and opening to the sensation of the present.) anchor us in the living flow of experience.

Finally, avoiding ideation means preventing the mind from wandering into abstract thoughts "about" our experience. The same technique of Mindfulness applies; relaxing the physical sensation of striving and returning to raw perception of experience.

. First, we have to learn to physically and emotionally rest in the present moment which requires us to spend considerable time being attentive to the sensations of anticipation, rumination and speculation.

. Second we have to develope an increasing non-attachment to outcome which allows us to act without expectation.
This frees up our psychological energy to be where it is and experience the moment.
Easier said than done, especially under these challenging conditions.

There area few core beliefs that can be helpful protective factors:
. Learning to accept uncertainty and be fine with whatever life brings is a protective factor that can help this development. (serenity prayer)

. Faith in a higher power, or a universal purpose or pattern is also a protective factor.

. Ongoing practice of lovingkindness is another protective factor because it naturally creates a state of present centered awareness, generates relaxation, and activates the parts of the brain associated with bonding and empathy. This creates the ongoing sense of other and self being connected.

Finally, in this practice, our body is our best friend. Sensation can only happen in the present moment, so experiencing full embodiment serves as an anchor for our awareness.
The great Theravada master Buddhasa said "Do not do anything that takes you out of your body."

I think that ultimately the integration of awareness into full
embodiment in the present moment is the basis of the dharma,.
This can be done in the midst of the crush of modern civilization but will take both dedication and patience.

I conceptualize Buddhist psychology in a variety of ways. I think one helpful way of looking at Buddhist psychology is to see it as psychology of coping and addiction. In the Buddha’s philosophy of the Four Noble Truths we see that our reactions to the difficulties of life and the discomfort that they represent, lead us to cope in ways that cause us difficulty./

When we experience pain or uncertainty, rather than accepting it, we try to push it away, distract ourselves with something else that is pleasurable, or make our lives seem more solid by creating an identity for ourselves.

All of these reactions to difficulties and uncertainties are means of coping. Sometimes they can be helpful means of coping. However, it is important to be aware that different coping skills have different consequences. For example, if we cope with stress and confusion by drinking alcohol, this can work by making us feel good for a time. After that, it is clear that improperly used, this coping strategy will have long-term consequences and create a new problem on top of the discomfort that we were already experiencing. We begin to associate stress was a need to drink, we then need to drink more to relieve the same amount of stress, we experience interpersonal and health consequences that create more stress…… and on and on and on.

Less obviously, trying to protect ourselves from the big uncertainty of life by forming a hard identity can be just as damaging and have just as many detrimental effects. One of the best examples of this that I can think of is a street gang.

It has been my experience that one of the main reasons that young people join gangs is for the security that they find in having a sense of identity. Having an identity makes us feel more solid, it gives our life meaning, and that helps take away that empty floaty feeling that I think most of us fear.

These young men often do not have strong family or cultural systems to provide a grounding for their identity, and as a result, the gang supplements this natural human need. We've talked about it in great detail and they( often grudgingly) realize that gangs do not promote prosocial values which even they believe in. They realize that their involvement in gangs have encouraged activities that get them in jail and hurt their families. When we talk about all of this they become very uncomfortable. As we talk about this it becomes very apparent that the single biggest factor in their decision to remain in a gang is their sense that it is their identity, and their fear of losing the identity.

There is nothing wrong with having a healthy identity. The problem from a Buddhist perspective comes when we cling to that identity even when the consequences become harmful to ourselves and others, violate some of our values, or prevent us from growing and changing in ways that might be healthier for us. It is in this sense that identity becomes a form of addiction.

I think that in Buddhist psychology the very first line of coping is a deep and profound acceptance of life, including uncertainty and discomfort. By accepting the world the way it is, we can more clearly see it the way it is, and can make effective choices based on real experience as opposed to our reactions to real experience.

Buddhist psychology goes quite a bit further than standard Western counseling in that it seems to conceive of ego identity itself as something unreal and maybe unnecessary. As a person who tries to practice Buddhism effectively I am more concerned with the development of a healthy permeable ego that is flexible and tends towards qualities that are helpful rather than harmful.

For me, this kind of sums up my understanding of the first part of Buddhist philosophy which revolves around understanding the inherent difficulties of the human condition and developing a deep acceptance towards those difficulties. Most therapists hold to the idea that acceptance is the first stage of change and I think that if this is true in the small sense it is probably true in the larger sense as well.

The second part of Buddhist psychology is built around the cultivation of qualities and habits that support the main values Buddhism which I would roughly categorized as wisdom, Virtue (non-harming and loving kindness) and concentration or expanded awareness. It is important to note that Buddhism asserts itself in relation to the values that it prioritizes, rather than perceiving those values as absolute or natural law.

By this I mean, Buddhism values wisdom, non-harming, and loving kindness, and as a result it prescribes actions, habits, and methods that will specifically increase these, while reducing traits that Buddhist philosophy perceives as harmful, anger, fear, greed etc.

Basically Buddhist psychology says that actions and emotions have consequences. Rather than evaluating things as good or bad, Buddhism starts with a basis of what it values and moves to cultivate those qualities.

The central idea to the cultivation of these qualities revolves around effectiveness or skillfulness rather than rightness or wrongness. Effective or skillful means increase the qualities that are valued, and effective or unskillful means reduce the qualities that are valued and increase qualities that are not valued.