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Change In Behavior
“Change your thinking, and your behavior will change.” How many times have you heard or seen that sentence? Of course, it’s true, but as ever, the devil’s in the details. In my case, I’ve often fooled myself into thinking that my thinking has changed when it really hasn’t. So, the question is, who are “I” and “myself” in the previous sentence?
Loving All That Is
Because it’s very different from any other “religious” book that I’ve ever read, I really like “The Most Rapid and Direct Means to Eternal Bliss” (free pdf download here). In the book, mysterious Michael Langford lays down step by step instructions for five spiritual practices:
- THE AWARENESS WATCHING AWARENESS METHOD
- THE ABANDON RELEASE METHOD
- THE ETERNAL METHOD
- THE INFINITE SPACE METHOD
- THE LOVING-ALL METHOD
To give you a taste of the book’s style and content, here is the procedure for THE LOVING-ALL METHOD:
Love your thoughts, your feelings, your body, your actions, the objects you see, the people you see, every input from each of your senses, every word you utter, every word spoken to you. Piece of cake, no?
The other night, I went to bed with a strong resolve to start practicing THE LOVING-ALL METHOD “tomorrow“. When I woke up the next morning, within seconds I deviated from the plan. My shoulder ached from a touch of arthritis and I automatically thought and said “Ow – damn shoulder!“. Upon discovering my transgression a few milliseconds later, I thought “D’oh!” and gave up. Maybe I’ll give it another spirited try in the future.
It’s weird. When I read a spiritual book that “clicks” (and not many of them do), I experience a sense of peace and serenity during the read. But as soon as I close the cover, the feeling dissolves and IT takes over once again – and it’s hard to love IT; very hard.
Hijacked By Thought
In “The Most Direct Means To Eternal Bliss“, Michael Langford nails BD00 personally with a bullet to the forehead:
Confusing “knowing-insight-awareness” with “conceptual knowing“. That’s exactly the rut I’m in. What rut are you in?
Finite Experience
I’ve just dropped in for a visit. How about you?
Turning Inward
As usual, BD00 is delusional and frustratingly confused. Just about every spiritual book I’ve ever read says that one has to turn inward and leap into “the abyss” to experience lasting peace. The implication is that no matter how valiantly hard one tries, an individual can’t find peace, joy, and gratitude “out there“. Thus, frequent calls to “stop the search!” can be found in many spiritual teachings.
On the flip side, several “soft” business and psychology books that I’ve read proffer that turning inward too often may not be such a good idea. Here’s a confirming snippet from Theresa Amabile’s (wonderfully written and highly recommended) “The Progress Principle“:
A 1995 study out of the University of British Columbia showed how research participants who encountered problems in their quest to achieve goals that were personally important to them focused more attention on themselves and spent more time ruminating on those events. Since self-focused attention has often been linked to depression, such findings suggest that people’s emotional well-being can be damaged in the short run when they face discrepancies between goals that are important to their identity or sense of self-worth and what they actually achieved.
“A First-Rate Madness” author Nassir Ghaemi also touches on the downside of turning inward by describing the “depressive realism” hypothesis that can be attributed to tortured leaders like Churchill, Lincoln, and King:
This theory argues that depressed people aren’t depressed because they distort reality; they’re depressed because they see reality more clearly than other people do.
Zen Buddhism is loaded with paradoxical teachings and koans. Ironically, the “logic” is that when the mind can’t resolve two opposing concepts being held in the mind at the same time, at some point the mind eventually gives up on “logic” – providing an opening for peace, joy and gratitude to rush in and fill the void.
So, what do you think? Does turning inward facilitate depression, or peace/joy/gratitude? Is there a half-way point?
The Universal Process Of Personal Experience
Yesterday’s post revealed to the world the static structure of the system in our head that brings personal experience to life. In the scoop of a lifetime (Geraldo Rivera eat your heart out), the system elements (mind, ego, thoughts, feelings) and the relationships between them were unmasked and exposed for all to marvel at. Woot!
Today, on the day we camp out at the feed trough and give thanks, we’ll explore the mysterious dynamics involved in this system design from the divine. Lo and behold… the universal process that creates personal experience from nothingness:
Via a yet undiscovered secret global WiMax communication system that uses quantum tunneling for zero latency source-to-sink transmission, impersonal thoughts (conjured up in the sole Thought Factory located in China) are manufactured and coupled to the ether. The mechanistic brain then serves as a receiver of thoughts and the source of fuel for the personal Ego.
Next up in the zero latency pipeline is the Ego (a.k.a the “little” me). The Ego analyzes, interprets, gives meaning to, and binds feelings to each received thought that it decides to accept. These “I” thoughts are then injected into the Mind and, voila, personal experience is manifest!
So that’s it folks. Rejoice! You don’t have to go to church anymore and you can call off the search for enlightenment . By using BD00 as a conduit from the unknown to the known, the universe has revealed all.
Spiritual UML
Because he is the chosen one, the universe spaketh to BD00 last night: “Go forth my son, and employ the UML to teach the masses the true nature of the mind!“. Fearful of being annihilated if he didn’t comply, BD00 sat down and waited for an infusion of cosmic power to infiltrate his being (to catalyze the process, BD00 primed the pump with a three olive dirty ‘tini and hoped the universe didn’t notice).
With mouse in trembling hand and an empty Visio canvas in front of him, BD00 waited…. and waited… and waited. Then suddenly, in mysterious Ouja board fashion, the mouse started moving and clicking away. Click, click, click, click.
After exactly 666 seconds, “revision 0” was 90% done. The secrets of the metaphysical that have eluded the best and brightest over the ages were captured and revealed in the realm of the physical! Lo and behold….. the ultimate UML class diagram:
Of course, the “Thought Factory” class is located in China. It efficiently and continuously creates (at rock bottom labor costs) every thought that comes/stays/goes through each of the 7 billion living brains on earth.
Monkey Mind
For ego-dominated people like me, “I-thoughts” run rampant through the mind. Buddhists call this malady the “monkey mind“, with thoughts jumping randomly to and fro in chaotic happenstance.
Psychological discord arises because, as one wise man has said, “we can’t bear to sit still with ourselves for one minute“.
Childlike Humility
This quote from Amazon Kindle: Most Highlighted Passages of All Time really socked me in the jaw. Does it do anything for you?
No Going Back
So, what does Steve Taylor mean by “pathological over development of the ego“? I think he means the obsessive desire for power, status, and material wealth regardless of its cost to other people and nature. What do you think he means? Do you even agree with his assessment that the world’s collective psyche needs to transition to a new, enlightened state?
Steve recommends practicing meditation and it’s sibling, mindfulness, as the best means of quieting the mind and loosening the iron grip of the ego. Too bad I suck at both of them and, for some strange reason, I choose not to make the time to practice them. I’m too occupied with searching for, and hoarding, intellectual knowledge to complete myself – even though I know that the effort won’t pay off.
Why am I here?
WTF?
Meh!
D'oh!
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