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Nemir Adjina
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used
when we created them.”
Albert Einstein
Copyright Nemir Adjina
Preface ....................................................................................................................... 5
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 7
The background to OrthoMind ................................................................................... 9
The individual and the world .................................................................................... 10
The survival reflex and human activity ..................................................................... 12
How we perceive and act ................................................................................... 13
The OrthoMind Method ........................................................................................... 18
Integration ............................................................................................................ 19
Breath or functional Integration ........................................................................ 19
Mental or psychological integration ................................................................... 20
Body or Kinetic integration ................................................................................ 20
Behaviour or social integration .......................................................................... 21
The Ruler or Sovereign ....................................................................................... 22
The Commander or Authority ............................................................................ 22
The Servant or supplicant.................................................................................. 23
The Diplomat or Politician .................................................................................. 24
The Warrior or Doer ........................................................................................... 25
The Carer or Lover ............................................................................................. 26
Meditation ......................................................................................................... 27
Investigation ......................................................................................................... 28
Experiencing the Outer World............................................................................ 29
The inner world .................................................................................................. 32
Other sources..................................................................................................... 35
Acceptation ........................................................................................................... 37
Realization ............................................................................................................ 37
Weekend Program ................................................................................................... 39
The Perciever ........................................................................................................... 41
Preface
This book is relevant for anyone who is unsatisfied with daily life. There is no doubt
that technical innovation has brought huge improvements in the material conditions
of living for the vast majority of people living today. It is also true that despite the
corresponding increase in our power to cause harm and destruction to each other,
the general trend is towards peace and cooperation, humanity is moving forward
towards increased material prosperity, longevity and security. Technological
innovation and dematerialization means we consistently do more with less and
despite the many cases of environmental destruction and pollution, it is by no
means a given that we will not eventually achieve conditions of universal material
comfort and security for everyone on the planet in harmony with the rest of nature
and the environment. We have the means to do it, and as an optimist I choose to
believe we shall and will do my best to ensure that we do.
However, my work with people who are without exception recipients of such
material wellbeing, well educated, well housed, well employed, with sufficient
means to meet their material needs, has shown me that materialism, although it
may solve the problems of our physical existence , will not and cannot bring lasting
happiness, and it is happiness which we seek above all else.
Inner loneliness, anxiety, depression, and unhappiness are not resolved by material
wealth and progress. In our efforts to reach the shores of paradise, we strive to
acquire more and more money, power, to achieve more, yet the shore recedes like a
mirage, constantly out of reach.
It has been said by many sages throughout history, this promised land lies within,
not without. It is our seeing which is at fault, what is called in Yoga Avidya, non
seeing, is the cause of our misery and un happiness. What is it that we are not
seeing? It is our very own selves. Looking ever outwards we forget to look within,
and so we miss half the story. Seeing is an activity of the mind, not the eyes.
OrthoMind is a way to look within, to turn the mind inwards upon itself and perhaps
even to what is before mind, and by looking to know what we are and what we are
not.
Our task must be to free ourselves from our prison by widening our circle of
compassion to embrace all humanity and the whole of nature in its beauty”
Albert Einstein
Introduction
©
OrthoMind (OM) is a method of psychological and emotional development which
enables the practitioner to attain and maintain clarity and emotional equilibrium in
all situations. This clarity and equanimity leads to enhanced self confidence,
engagement, creativity, tolerance and resilience.
OM training leads to optimism in all situations, a way of viewing and living life that is
ever positive. So called negative situations are viewed as opportunities to growth
and understanding. This is achieved both through an appreciation of the positive
functional role of optimism as a psychological choice and through the understanding
of the actual condition of the personal and transpersonal identity and their role in
experience and life in general.
The final goal of OM is the discovery of the True Self and the realization that the
fundamental drivers of life, the search for happiness, security and freedom can be
realised through correcting the false self view that leads to alienation, separation,
anxiety and dissatisfaction.
It is a truth that has been present at all times and at all times there have been
attempts to convey this truth, using the language and capabilities available.
OrthoMind has the aim of liberating humanity from the spell of ignorance that hides
the ever present truth from our eyes, and by so doing to bring about improvements
in our own lives and in our dealings with each other and with nature.
Things came to a head when my depression and isolation got so bad that I could not
recognize my own face in the mirror! I sought some professional help and got some
relief and understanding of my situation, stopped my professional career and
embarked on a more reckless life teaching massage and yoga.
However depression and confusion were still my companions, and I struggled to love
or be loved, I was empty and almost resigned to a sad and lonely life. To help my
clients I embarked on a 5 year teacher training in Yoga. I learnt the breath based
personalised daily practice that is the heart of yoga, and gradually things changed.
I also delved into Yoga philosophy as a scientific view of the human being and found
it to be true.
Gradually but certainly I began to get better, a process of clarifying began which
somehow took on a life of its own, and I began to see clearly.
Classical Yoga is an ancient method for understanding, living in freedom and truth.
As many people today believe Yoga is about postures and exercise, or eastern
mysticism, I have called it OrthoMind and sought a new way to present it.
Humans have held many different beliefs about who they are at various times in
history. At present the most common belief could be termed Darwinian proto-
materialism*, which could be defined as follows: The belief that humanity is an
evolved species of ape living in a world which consists of non living matter within a
lifeless space time continuum.
These five fundamental beliefs represent the basic world view of most people in the
modern world. An exception would seem to those with religious views entailing
belief in Divine fiat and the eternal soul, yet the overwhelming prevalence of the
proto-materialistic view means that such spiritual or metaphysical views are
relegated to the subjective domain and are not seriously entertained as containing
objective truths.
1. It does not explain how lifeless matter gives rise to conscious experience
2. It completely ignores the role played by consciousness in the development of
its own beliefs.
In this belief structure, a human being is a kind of conscious object in space, subject
to external and internal forces which they seek to control; life is a struggle for
survival in an indifferent, meaningless and sometimes hostile world.
This world view has led to the alienation of humanity from Nature, a disregard for
long term consequences in the pursuit of progress, and the elevation of personal
wealth and power as the prime objectives in life.
It is also the prime cause of fear and anxiety, loneliness, depression and the other
ills of modern life, both physical and psychological.
Any true understanding of reality must proceed from direct personal experience
rather than second hand sources. The purpose of OrthoMind is to arrive at correct
understanding based on what each person can know about themselves and the
world.
The tools which we use to obtain this understanding are logic and reason, personal
experience and inference, no belief is required, only attention to the true facts of
life.
*Proto materialism is a kind of false materialism because whereas true materialists will accept
that we have no idea what the real world is like, due to the limitations of experience, proto
materialists accept the normal every day appearance of reality as being the truth. This is in fact a
non scientific point of view with no basis in reality, yet most people believe it to be scientific and
rational.
The survival reflex and human
activity
The basic cause of all insecurity, lack of confidence, fear, confusion, and egoism is
the identification of the Self with the mind body complex (mbc). This results in the
perfect and invincible Self “forgetting” its true existence and abdicating identity to
the mbc.
The Self is that part of you that is essential. The Self is whatever is so intimately You
that if it were removed, you would cease to exist. As such the Self is who you are, no
matter whom or what you may think or believe that you are.
The mbc is that gestalt of your thoughts, emotions, experiences that make up your
self identity. Every part of the mbc is changing. Within the mbc is an auto-
preservation reflex that is activated whenever there is the perception of a threat.
This reflex is the also cause of all stress, anxiety, insecurity, fear, anger, envy, greed,
depression and indifference.
But the stomach is not what life is about. The stomach is there to allow the mbc to
survive, but the mbc obeys the stomach, it makes no sense, there must be
something else to being human.
1
A Clinical Guide to the Treatment of the Human Stress Response George S. Everly Jr Jeffrey M. Lating
However, as long as we have fear, we are preoccupied with survival of the mbc and
our true nature escapes us.
To illustrate how aspects of our self can remain unused and unnoticed throughout
life, consider how emotions effect our behaviour. Generally emotions are provoked
by outside stimuli and can be either pleasant or unpleasant. Instinctively we seek to
retain pleasant emotions and avoid unpleasant ones. We express this by our
behaviour.
The column on the left shows what appears to be the mechanism of perception and
reaction: First the threat is perceived, then it arouses an emotion, and then we act
on the basis of emotion. This is almost a mechanical relationship and is that of most
animals. However scientific studies have shown that perception is always mediated
by the cognitive faculty, in other words we always interpret events as being either
threatening or not. This involves choice , we choose to perceive events as
threatening based on many factors , the most essential being our view of ourselves.
The column on the right shows what is actually happening according to science:
Perception is immediately followed by cognition or interpretation, which leads to
emotion, this is followed by an evaluation which then leads to action.
What is important is that both our perception of reality and our manner of dealing
with reality are in fact products of our cognitive faculty or our understanding. This
means that our emotional life and our activity depend on our understanding, and
understanding depends on having factual data.
Perception Perception
"A dog"
"A fierce
dog!"
Understanding
" A fierce dog!"
Emotion Emotion
Fear! Fear!
Decision
"I'd better act!"
Action
Action
"Run!!"
"Run!!"
The most accessible and immediate source for data is the mbc, we obviously have a
body and a mind. However, believing that that is all we are is the cause of all
problems. If we look at the language we use, then we can get a clue. We say “ I
HAVE a body”, not “ I AM a body”. So, right there we disidentify with being the
body, it is something we have, not something we are.
It is also possible to immagine that I-ness exists largely independantly to the mbc, in
the sense that as long as we are conscious then I-ness exists, no matter what the
condition of the body or the emotions or other mental states. This is still a
materialistic view, one can imagine a brain in a container of cerebrospinal fluid
being perfectly conscious of itself, similar to clinical cases of locked in syndrome,
where the patient remains fully conscious in a paralysed body showing no outward
signs of life, the identity of the patient being in no way diminished through the
incapacity to act, speak or express his or herself.
Clear analysis of the facts of experience will show that each of us inhabits our body
rather like we inhabit a car when we are driving, and we interact with our minds in
the same way we interact with the car’s onboard computer and navigation console.
Body Perception
"A dog"
Mind
Understanding
" A fierce dog!"
Remote
Body Emotion
operator
Fear!
Mind Decision
"I'd better act!"
Body Action
"Run!!"
Proto materialism says that the images and information transmitted from Mars by
the robot are true and that the operator is in fact the robot , not remote in any way.
True materialism admits it has no idea what Mars is really like, only what the robot
is able to sense and transmit, and has no idea how it is the Robot decides what to
do, what it is doing there and how the onboard computer got built. Basically
Materialsm is convinced that everything is a product of matter, even consciousness,
although it hasn’t figured out how yet. However, the Robot-operator (RobOp)
complex is able to investigate itself and come to understanding. If this scenario is
true, and we are convinced it is, then you will appreciate that the Remote Operator
is always safe. Howver if the Remote operator forgets his/her true nature, due to
habitual exposure, then s/he can come to believe that s/he is actually the robot, and
that s/he is is living and acting on Mars, an inhospitable and dangerous
environment!
This is our situation today, the only difference is that the planet the robot is
exploring and perhaps detroying is Earth, and the forgetful Remote operator is
actually to be found in that ancient mythical condition called Paradise. This
paradisical condition is our actual Self and it is somehow mixed up with our
terrestrial existance yet “walled off”* by a state of amnesia which prevents it from
being seen. OrthoMind training is to breach the wall separating our true paradisical
state from our apparent terrestrial state and so complete our understanding of who
we are.
*The word Paradise derives from the ancient Iranian paridayda which means walled
enclosure. We can speculate that the term may have been metaphorical and refered
to a condition of timeless harmony that is somehow walled off from everyday
awareness.
OrthoMind
clarity of mind
power of concentration
self confidence
energy
emotional regulation
self direction
inner harmony and ease
natural authority
optimism and enthusiasm
Joy in life
*Transpersonal refers to that which is beyond the limits and conditions of the mind
body complex.
Integration
Personal Integration means to bring into harmony the most important aspects of
who we are: Mind, Body, Breath, Emotions. It involves a short daily practice of
breath centred dynamic meditation. The focusing on the breath clears the mind, the
breath itself moves the body and regulates the emotions. With practice mind,
breath, body and emotions act together as a seamless whole. Personal integration
has four parts:
Step 1: Breathe in slowly, hold for a moment, breath out slowly, hold for a moment,
and so on. Keep your attention fixed on the breath, let your mind sink into your
breath. Let your breath carry your mind with it. Choose a breathing rhythm that is
comfortable and that you can maintain easily yet is also slower and deeper than
your habitual breath. Do this exercise for a few minutes a day, whenever you feel
like it. Practice until you are able to focus on your breath without difficulty.
Step 2: You can now start to alter the breath in important ways to increase the
power of the practice. First, create a gentle constriction in your throat so that you
can feel the air entering and exiting, and you can also hear your breath. Second,
think of your body as having 2 energy centres, one in the heart, and the other just
below the navel towards the spine. As you breathe in, try to expand the heart centre
in all directions, opening the chest. Hold the abdominal muscles stable so that the
abdomen does not protrude outwards as you breathe in. As you breathe out, bring
your attention to the lower centre and try to flatten or contract your abdomen
towards that point, in effect squeezing your inner organs. The effect of this kind of
breathing is to open the chest and create a feeling of freedom and flexibility around
the heart, and to create a state of stability in the lower abdomen. Freedom and
stability, expansion and contraction, heaven and earth. The heart and the abdomen
influence our mental states to a great extent and breathing in this manner clears our
mind in ways we are not immediately aware of. Of course there are many secondary
benefits in our day to day life as we increase our freedom and our security. This type
of breathing can be used at any time during the day, on the bus, whilst walking, at
work etc.
Step 1: Sit quietly in a quiet place. Close your eyes and turn your attention to your
breath. Make sure your breathing is even and relaxed, in such a way that you can
concentrate on it. Focus your mind on your breath. If and when your mind wanders,
gently bring it back to the breath.
Step 2: Gradually decrease the intensity of your breath, until it becomes almost
undetectable. In this way your train your mind to remain stable on ever more subtle
and minimal objects, refining your power of concentration.
Step 3: Pay attention to the moments between breaths. Try to be aware of your own
awareness.
After you have developed the ability to concentrate on your breath in a stable and
sustained manner, you can begin kinetic integration. This means that the union of
mind and breath that you have achieved is extended to include the movements of
your body. This means allowing the breath to move the body.
Generally speaking breathing in involves a process of expansion and upwards
motion, breathing out involves contraction and downwards movement. This
expansion and contraction can be extended to our body, first to the hands, then the
arms, then the spine and so on. The effect of this is to harmonize mind, breath and
body into a functional unity, this is very important as it brings efficiency and clarity,
and liberates energy for other uses.
Step 1: With a long and even and mindful breath, practice opening and closing the
hands as an expression of the breath. Repeat for 6 breaths
Step 2: In the same way allow the consciously controlled breath to raise and lower
the arms. The movement of the arms should be relaxed and harmonized with the.
Imagine that the arms are being literally inflated and deflated. Repeat for 6 breaths
Here we introduce the daily practice which will be your entry into mastery and
perfection. These exercises have the purpose of structural, functional and
psychological integration, as well as presenting modes of being in the world that
lead to Social Integration and Transpersonal Integration (Realization).
All the postures are coordinated with a special way of breathing that is in itself
highly therapeutic and acts as the motor for all movement. Each posture is to be
repeated for 5 or 6 breaths. Breathing should be even and continuous even during
the transitions. Mental focus on the breath is essential.
Each of the postures contains an external and an internal significance. The external
significance relates to our self expression and manner, physical posture, social
interactions, how we present ourselves to society and the world. The internal
significance relates to our inner condition, how we feel psychologically and
emotionally, as such the posture can also function as metaphors for our inner states.
The Ruler or Sovereign
This is your basic mode of being in the world, your Standing. It represents your
innate essential dignity and bearing as a human being. When you are standing, you
are not doing anything, you just ARE. Standing is your basic starting point for all
other activities.
Each of the postures activates certain qualities which we can draw on in life. For
example, if we have to stand in line, we can stand in our posture of nobility,
conserving energy and maintaining our dignity, time is never wasted. If we have to
take decisive action then the qualities are present through the Warrior pose we
enacted in the morning. In this way the gradual re-enforcement of positive inner
values and action becomes habitual.
*I am indebted to A G Mohan and his book Yoga for personal integration for
this explanation of yoga.
The daily practice of these 6 postures, in the correct manner and with the correct
attitude, will gradually bring harmony, clarity and integration. This in itself is of great
value, as we see that our suffering is reduced, confidence and tolerance increased
and our efficiency and performance in all endeavours is improved.
Meditation
Meditation in its various forms has always been an essential aspect of arriving at the
truth. It is important to first achieve personal integration before starting meditation,
as only when we are integrated do we have the opportunity to relax and be still
without distractions. There are different methods of meditation arising out different
traditions. Here I propose four methods which I have found useful.
This meditation involves sitting comfortably and observing the rising and
falling of the breath. It is similar to the breathing in the 6 Immortals, but the effort is
more on observation rather than control and coordination. Simply observe your
breathing, when the mind wanders, bring it gently back to the breath. This
meditation creates a steady and relaxed mind.
Sitting comfortably with the eyes closed. Tune in your attention to whatever
your eyes are seeing, usually the inner part of the eyelid, a dull reddish brown colour
or darkness. This is seeing with the eyes closed. In this condition try to be aware of
the point from which you are observing. Someone is looking into that dark space, try
to feel the nature of that someone. Try to be aware of that which is looking. One
way to do this is to bring your mental focus ever closer to the point from which it is
originating.
Silent meditation
Investigation
OrthoMind investigation is to inquire into the nature of who we are and what is life.
It is carried out through a series of exercises designed to reveal existing false beliefs
and replace them with truth.
OrthoMind aims to replace belief with knowledge. The following exercises are
designed to introduce you to some basic facts of life. Using your own sense
experience, reason and inference, we hope to guide you to a revolution in your self
understanding. We start by examining the nature of everyday experience:
Experiencing the Outer World
As we have mentioned earlier, the current paradigm view of reality is what I call
Darwinian proto-materialism, the human has evolved through chance mutation and
natural selection into a uniquely intelligent and conscious monkey, consisting of a
mind and a body, and inhabiting an indifferent and meaningless space-time
continuum. This is more or less what we are taught to believe at school, and it is also
what our senses and daily experience confirm. However any really good theory
should be able to withstand the test of scrutiny and reason, is it true?
A Rose is a Rose.
Most of us instinctively believe in the truth of what our senses inform us of the
world beyond our body. Let us examine closely at what happens when we look at
say, a rose.
Light is reflected off the petals of the rose, scattering in all directions. Some of it, a
very small percentage of that reflected light, enters your eyes through the small
aperture called the pupil. Light enters your eyes and activates nerves in your retina,
which then send an electrical impulse along the optic nerve to the vision centre in
your brain, at which point you “see” the rose, its shape and its red colour.
Now, we know from the physicists and biologists that it is not red light that is carried
along your optic nerve, the light from the rose does not go further than your eye.
There is no red light inside your brain, no electromagnetic waves travelling though
tubes. It is all electrochemical impulses, like signals in a copper wire. But until that
electrochemical impulse arrives at the vision centre of your brain, you do not see
the rose at all. The vision of the rose is somehow created by your brain as a
response of the signal arriving from the nerve.
So, my question to you is, where does that red colour come from and what is it
made of?
What is light?
We have seen that the only explanation of the redness of the rose, or its enchanting
smell, is that it is somehow imagined by the brain as a result of being stimulated by
electro chemical signals, it is in other words a stimulated imagination.
But lets us take a step further, let us go to the window and look at the sun. You turn
your face to the sun, if it is too bright, please close your eyes. All is light, your mind
is full of bright sunlight.
However, just as it is true for the rose, it is true for the sun. Your mind is full of light,
yet if I look into your ears it is pitch black. Your mind is full of light yet there is no
light in your brain!
Much as it might appear to be that the sun is out there shining, the whole
experience that you are having is in fact imaginal, rather like sitting in a dark room
and watching a film of the sun outside.
Like it or not, accept it or not, the facts as evidenced by experience mean we must
accept that all the light we have ever seen, and all the other experiences we have
had of life, are nothing other than the stimulations of the imaginative faculty of the
brain by the nerve signals in the body. Moreover we have no way of knowing if our
imagined experience bears any resemblance to the “real” world which we
experience.
As a matter of fact, the sun is completely dark, there is no such thing as “light”, only
electromagnetic radiation, a kind of energy. “Light” is created by the brain and the
eye when they come into contact with that energy, always was and always will be.
This strange scenario is actually what modern science and true materialism amount
to. It is just like living life through a screen or interface, that interface is your mind.
Of course we all live our lives as if the world we see on the screen is the same as the
world out there, and it does correspond convincingly.
We have shown that our experience of the “world out there” is in fact an internal
mental projection, which may or may not resemble “reality”. This in itself should be
enough to give one pause for thought about the assumptions that govern our lives
and that we take for granted.
But, we must go further in our scientific investigation of the nature of reality and
experience. We must apply the same scrutiny to our experience of our own bodies,
the context for the experience of “in here “and “out there”, and crucially me and
you.
Remember the red rose? Well now look at your pink finger nails, is it not true that
the only reason you know you have finger nails is because of the sense information
(sight, touch, feeling) that is mediated to your brain by your nervous system?
Our relationship to our finger nails is also a creation of our imagination.
Can we extend this understanding to our skin? Skin contains many nerves, it is itself
an organ of sense perception, and it is intimately part of what we call ourselves and
forms the boundary between the inner and outer realities.
We are aware of our skin because we see it, feel it. Yet however intimately it is
connected to our sense of self, all our understanding, and its very qualities and
properties are a result of our imaginative capacity in the brain acting on nerve
impulses.
So far we have talked about the brain creating images and experience out of nerve
impulses. Creating an inner world on the basis of information from an unknowable
outer world. This is the basic understanding of materialism which is the dominant
understanding of science, although not what most people would recognize as their
everyday experience. This view has led to what is called the hard problem of
philosophy, how consciousness or the inner world arises out of the interactions of
neurons in the brain.
According to this view, the brain is the locus of mind, brain somehow creates
consciousness as a result of its complexity, mind is an epiphenomenon of matter.
This view reinforces the dualistic view of a material world and an imagined one,
mind and body. Yet a closer look is needed.
The brain is merely the most complex “flower” that we have encountered, yet all we
know about it is a product of our imagination, of our consciousness.
There is only one conclusion open to us, that nature, body and brain, are all part of a
vast play of consciousness.
We must drop the idea of an unknown reality “out there” which is experienced by
our nervous system, as even our nervous system is part of that same reality. So
there is no in here or out here, all is mind.
The inner world consists of our thoughts, imaginations, feelings and emotions.
Typically we take for granted that we are that very mix of mental activities that
constitute our personality or identity. Yet a clear inspection reveals that it is far from
being the case.
Thought
Thought is the manipulation of language in our minds. When we think, it is almost as
if we are writing in the space of our minds, we think using language, words,
sentences, even paragraphs.
The most basic and essential thought we can have is the assertion of our own
existence, in English this would be the thought “I AM”. This “I AM” thought is the
simplest meaningful sentence, which contains within in it a subject “I” and an
adjective “AM”. As such it is complete and able to express a complexity that is life,
much more than say just “I” alone, which without the adjective loses its identity and
meaning, and just becomes an empty letter.
From I AM we build the whole edifice of our thought structure and self identity,
adding more and more as time passes.
Yet, although it is true that I am, true that each of us have identity and being, it is
quite a mistake to assume that the sentence “I AM” has any real correlation to who
we are, any more than the word “Tree” is in fact a tree.
Now pay attention to the space between I and AM, what is there? What is above,
below, either side, in front of and behind I AM?
Is it not also true that that space is the same whether you think I AM or any other
thought in any other language?
Emotion
Emotions are mysterious, they are both physical and mental. Emotions have their
reality in our lives rather like the weather, storms, winds, heat and cold. Emotions
seem to come from beyond us and can take control of us if we are not attentive.
Greed: Our greed is basically also a result of our fear. We fear the future and so we
seek to acquire more and more power or wealth to ensure our future comfort and
survival. Over time this greed becomes culturally ingrained and habitual, causing us
to continue to accumulate beyond our personal needs. Its long term effects are
superiority, aggression, pride, indifference.
The more at risk we perceive ourselves to be, the more we shall be prone to these
negative emotions.
What is essential to realize is that emotions are borne out of perception and
understanding. How we perceive ourselves is essential to the kind of emotional
activity we will experience. They have their basis in our understanding of our
situation, and have no other reason for existing that to ensure our survival.
Please consider a recent example of when you felt Fear, Anger and Greed.
Imagination
We have seen that the world is a figment of our imagination, we literally imagine
reality. But who or what is doing the imagining?
If I ask you to imagine the green apple, you do so, perhaps relying on your memory
of having seen a green apple. But if I ask you to imagine a blue apple, you can also
do so, even though you have never seen a blue apple in real life. You are quite able
to change the colour of the apple in your mind at will, just as if you where painting it
on a canvas.
My question is, who is it that is painting, be it the apple or the sunset or any other
thing? What is the nature of the creative imagination and how is it achieved?
This is important because it goes to the heart of what it is to be alive.
Other sources
The ancient teachings tell us to study authoritative sources for clues as to the nature
of reality.
As we have seen, the findings of modern science show a reality very different from
how it appears to most people. Here are a few examples which are worth
considering:
What is matter?
According to some estimates* Solid matter is 99.999999% empty space. What holds
the solid stuff together and makes it feel solid is electro-magnetic or electro-
chemical force, like the force between two magnets, or like gravity. These forces are
very mysterious, and seem to be connected to consciousness in some way.
What is life?
“Life is the aspect of existence that processes, acts, reacts, evaluates, and evolves
through growth (reproduction and metabolism). The crucial difference between life
and non-life (or non-living things) is that life uses energy for physical and conscious
development.” https://philosophynow.org/issues/101/What_Is_Life
OR
Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
A third fundamental fact follows from the first two: Our knowing and our aliveness
are the one and the same: To Know is to Be!
Acceptation
Acceptation is a condition of the heart. It is an inner posture of peaceful relaxation
and acceptance of whatever occurs. It does not mean fatalism or passivity, but an
understanding of reality in each given moment, seeing things as they are, and then
acting appropriately. It is similar to faith and optimism, the belief that whatever
happens contains a lesson and that nothing is either completely good or completely
bad. Acceptance is similar to the Buddhist concept of upekkhá or equanimity and
involves calmness, self control, presence of mind and optimism. Acceptance is a skill
that arises naturally from Integration and Investigation, as a product of strength and
wisdom. It can also be understood as the ability to concentrate on the quality of our
action, without being influenced or distracted about its outcome. Apart from its
advantages in day to day activity, Acceptance is important to open the heart to
accept Realization which is the final part of OrthoMind.
Step 1: Practice the acceptance of reality just as it is. We never know how things will
turn out, or whether an experience is good or bad for us in the long run. Even if your
situation appears difficult, try to practice a neutral inner acceptance of what is
occurring.
Step 2: Consider how your body grows and changes all by itself, consider how so
much of your body is automatic, happening just by itself. Consider how trees grow,
and the sun shines. It seems there is an implicit order and intelligence operating
throughout the universe, perhaps everything is occurring according to a universal
principle, if so, we would be wise to accept everything internally even as we try to
improve our situation.
Step 3: If you examine how you are able to move your body, you will come to a
point of mystery: How you will your body to move. This unknowable power is part of
you but you cannot understand it or deconstruct it, it is completely mysterious.
Accepting that even how we move is a mystery, allows us to accept that we do not
know and cannot know, it is beyond us.
Realization
Realization can also be called Royalization. It is a dawning of awareness of our true
identity as Royal Sovereigns over our own lives. More than anything else it is a
Knowing, a direct perception of truth which is personal and direct. Sovereignty is
bestowed from the transpersonal realm, a gift that is given.
Sovereignty is the certain knowledge of something that is innate and can never be
taken or acquired. Each of us are born Kings, born Queens, along the way we forget
our true nature, investing authority in others. Yet this sovereignty is always there,
the cause of all identity and knowing. However this sovereignty is not of our own
doing, it is given to us as life is given to us, it entails responsibilities and duties, and
humility to the giver of the gift, however we may conceive of it.
Weekend Program
10:00 – 12:00 Introduction The background to OrthoMind. Setting the scene,
identifying the problem.
14:00 – 15:00 Exercise of personal integration: Kinetic integration and the four
postures
Day 2
End of Day 2
After the weekend training, participants are expected to continue with the practical
aspects and to work through the various exercises in the workbook. Each participant
will be able to call the course facilitator to discuss issues that relate to the course or
the handbook
The Perciever
OrthoMind derives its view of humanity from the ancient spiritual traditions.
Broadly speaking, each human was concieved a consisting of two seperate aspects,
one spiritual and the other material. The material aspect is all that changes and
includes the material world and the world of our thoughts and emotions, it is in
constant state of flux or change, we shall call it Nature. The spiritual aspect has the
role of being aware of Nature, of seeing and knowing. It does not change and
remains unaffected, we shall call it the Perciever.
The true Self is beyond change, immutable and invincible, it does not have the same
qualities as Nature and is not subject to the laws of nature. Each human being is a
combination of True Self and Nature, but in our most intimate essence we are True
Self. When we understand this we have no fear and the self limiting and self
centered and self preserving behaviour cease. When our energy is no longer tied up
in self prservation, then it is used for creativity and problem solving and the good of
the whole.
True Self
Perciever
Mind
I-ness
Thought
"I AM"
Senses
"I FEEL"
Experience
"IT"
Activity
"I DO"
Exercises
Matrix Busters
Albert Einstein
“Some days, you might feel like a pretty substantial person. Maybe you have a lot of
friends, or an important job, or a really big car. But it might humble you to know
that all of those things – your friends, your office, your really big car, you yourself,
and even everything in this incredible, vast Universe – are almost entirely,
99.9999999 percent empty space. Nuclei are around 100,000 times smaller than the
atoms they’re housed in. If the nucleus were the size of a peanut, the atom would
be about the size of a baseball stadium. If we lost all the dead space inside our
atoms, we would each be able to fit into a particle of dust, and the entire human
species would fit into the volume of a sugar cube.”
“As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the
study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much:
There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force
which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar
system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a
conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.”
“The diaphragm muscle not only plays a role in respiration but also has many roles
affecting the health of the body. It is important for posture, for proper organ
function, and for the pelvis and floor of the mouth. It is important for the cervical
spine and trigeminal system, as well as for the thoracic outlet. It is also of vital
importance in the vascular and lymphatic systems.” - Anatomic connections of the
diaphragm: influence of respiration on the body system Bruno Bordoni and Emiliano
Zanier (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3731110/)
References: