Muse Flows in The Zone - Below The Tip of The Iceberg

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Muse flows in the zone - below the tip of the iceberg

An SRDS compilation document
George G Clark June 2011 http://ww.srds.co.uk
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Preface
The articles in this compilation form part of a stream of material produced during the authors interaction with education over many years in many countries1. The central themes build on early materials concerned with The School Ethos2 (Scotland, 1986) and Moral and Spiritual Learning Needs3 (Belize, 1990). The articles in this compilation were selected by searching for key words in a folder of over 600 one-pagers4 on a hard drive. The key words were muse, zone and flow. Concern is with the influence of the unconscious on patterns of creative thinking and feeling. The introduction offers a brief overview of the main ideas and the annotated contents list (on pages 6-8) offers tasters of the individual articles. Thinking evolved over the four years covered in this compilation: and given that most of the articles were written partly in flow there are some themes that appear more than once, and they are sometimes recombined in various, hopefully useful, ways. The compilation consists of 22 articles. They have been grouped more or less chronologically with most of them being from 2007-2010. There are just short of one hundred footnotes that might help the eager reader to dig deeper although - given the internet (especially Google and Wikipedia) - not so much help is needed these days. This is true even at the various cutting edges where words take on new meanings and have to be put inside quotation marks. Enjoy
George G Clark B.Sc. (Hons), Cert. Ed., M.Sc., M,A. 09 June 2011 Email Twitter Facebook clark@srds.co.uk http://twitter.com/dodclark http://www.facebook.com/dodclark
1 2
Scotland, Jamaica, Zambia, Sudan, Belize, Lesotho, Tanzania, Zanzibar http://www.scribd.com/doc/56967591/School-Ethos 3 http://www.scribd.com/doc/56747762/Moral-and-Spiritual-Learning-Needs-a-discussion-Paper 4 one-pager is the term used to apply to the articles although they sometimes take up two or three pages in the present layout.
Contents
Preface............................................................................................................................2 Contents..........................................................................................................................3 Introduction....................................................................................................................4 Contents Annotated........................................................................................................6 01 Intentional Sources....................................................................................................9 02 Time and the flexible brain.....................................................................................11 03 Caring in a complex world......................................................................................14 04 The unconscious is not magic................................................................................17 05 Many passing thoughts............................................................................................19 06 How to capture passing thoughts............................................................................20 07 Pattern of study........................................................................................................22 08 Right frame of mind................................................................................................24 09 Asleep or awake?....................................................................................................27 10 The power of whims................................................................................................29 11 Is this the light?.......................................................................................................31 12 In the Mood.............................................................................................................32 13 The unconscious iceberg intention and the muse................................................34 14 No end to flux..........................................................................................................36 15 Push button people (for peace?)..............................................................................38 16 Dealing with distraction..........................................................................................40 17 The aware space......................................................................................................41 18 Grist to the mill of mindfulness...............................................................................42 19 Unofficial writing....................................................................................................44 20 What makes your heart sing?..................................................................................45 21 Ranting - and editing the word of God....................................................................46 22 Irregular flow from blue to pink..............................................................................47
Introduction
The articles in this collection are partly products of the Muse (unconscious) operating in Flow. They are thus living examples of the process they describe. Think of them as so many raindrops falling on the ocean of your mind and raising a few ripples. Food for thought! The main ideas in this compilation are listed here: It is never too late to change your mind. It can be turned around such that you are in a more effective relationship with your unconscious. Changing your mind involves stilling it and then seeing reality in a more real way. This requires developing an ability for one-pointed concentration. This leads inevitably to an awareness of the illusory nature of all things (especially the concept of ego) and thus an end to enthrallment by them. You are no longer motivated to tether clouds! The brain is more flexible and adaptable than most people think. Imagine a horizontal continuum: at the right end there is tight, hard nosed, rational thinking (by objective scientists); at the left end there is a looser, warm hearted, creative feeling (by subjective artists). This can be crossed with a vertical continuum: at the bottom end is the meanspirited, phenomenal, darkness of those who are asleep to their true nature; at the top end is the open hearted, numinous sunshine of those who are awake to their true nature. Some have the blues while others are in the pink. Neuroscience and evolutionary psychology are now pointing to things that have been known to mystics for thousands of years. The mind is like a huge iceberg and consciousness is limited to the tiny bit that sticks above the surface. The unconscious is a mind within a mind and it is in permanent flux stirred by causes and conditions that are in part due to nature (instinct), nurture (learning) and sheer chance. If the brain is a hotel then the unconscious is the host shut in the basement while the guests are manifestations of consciousness making whoopee in the straitjacket of their limited mental horizons. The unconscious is the main source of intention, motivation, whim and oomph. It contains seeds that can be watered. It is helpful to water some but not others. By thinking about thinking and noticing what you are noticing it gets easier to control 4
the watering. The detached witness can engage in mindfulness and existential jujitsu. The process involves monitoring and stilling the monkey mind so that distractions do not prevent the emergence of the everpresent peace that is our human birthright. The endpoint is happiness! Some of the articles consider the practical details of dealing with the vast numbers of passing thoughts and feelings. By taking thought grudging actions can be performed with grace. The place of peace is being in flow with the muse in the zone. No ego, and existence in the present moment - it is forever a wonderful moment. Along the way there are some thoughts about engaged Buddhism. What good does all this mental stuff do? Are we at a global tipping point? If we (and the good and great who are our elders and betters?) are push button people - to what extent might the buttons be rewired? And whence cometh the agent of this change? Let it begin with me?
Contents Annotated
1. Intentional Sources - flailing about
The phase I am going through represents my illusory ego struggling to avoid its dissolution. So there is inner turmoil as self-esteem comes to terms with there being no abiding self. Let it drop. Go with the flow. It kicked in after supper as the dishes got washed!
2. Time and the flexible brain

All people are conscious of time but in different ways. Some people need more precision than others. If you ask What time is it? answers can range from Early Spring to 10:36 and 25 seconds exactly. There is also a difference between clock time and felt time. Time passes quickly when you are enjoying yourself and slowly when you are bored. It can even disappear when, like an absent minded professor, you are totally absorbed in what you are doing.
3. Caring in a complex world

Given the new communications technology we are now arguably close to a tipping point for caring consciousness at the global level. Knowledge is power to the people, especially when it is knowledge of how to tune in to the innate wisdom of the unconscious. We have the technology - all that is now needed is the will to spin it.
4. The Unconscious is not magic

The emerging understanding of the nature and functions of the human unconscious allows for a wider range of causes and conditions. As in so many other spheres of human understanding, magic evaporates when science lights up the situation.
5. Many Passing Thoughts

Many thoughts pass through your mind each day. But how many, what kinds, and what good does it do to think about them?
6. How to capture passing thoughts

Most of the thoughts and feelings that pass through your mind are barely worth paying attention to. They are like the gossip of a compulsive chatterbox. Sometimes, however, there are interesting thoughts that link together to make a story worth recording. Most often, however, these pass like clouds in the sky and disappear back into the void from which they came. So how might they be captured and made available to other people?
7. Pattern of Study
I am presently in an extended period of reflection. This is both intellectual and transpersonal and deals with both consciousness and the unconscious. The idea is to swing the pendulum more towards the numinous muse, flow, zone etc through the non-action of wu-wei.
8. Right frame of mind

The text for todays sermon is - "In the right frame of mind, to walk from one room in a house to another can be exploration of the highest order."
9. Asleep or awake?
You can be either asleep or awake to the illusory nature of the self concept. Most people, including myself, spend most of their time asleep to it. So it is quite normal. But this is regrettable given the good things that come from being awake.
10. The Power of Whims

There was a time when my mental whims seemed to be rational and objective and prompted egoic actions. These days there is a hankering after whims which are intuitive and subjective and which evoke non-egoic, spontaneous non-action (the muse!).
11. Is this the light?

After the meditation session we were wondering about different states of mind and about whether or not they are enlightened. We noted different conditions while at work, during meditation and in between the two. There follows a tentative sketch of the various places our minds might go during our waking hours. There is reference to no awareness of self nor of space and time. Is this the light?
12. In the Mood?

When I am in the mood for something I do it effortlessly and with good grace. This contrasts with doing things with a grudge because I have to. So what might it take to avoid the drudge of grudge and be more often in the mood?
13. The unconscious iceberg intention and the muse

The mind is a iceberg with consciousness as the little bit poking above the surface and the unconscious as the massive underwater bit. Both bits are programmed by similar causes and conditions and some of these are hard wired (nature) while other are programmed by culture (nurture).
14. No end to flux

Your mind creates mental formations as a result of causes and conditions. The causes and conditions are rooted in instinct, culture or chance; the mental formations have conscious and unconscious components. There is an ongoing internal flux as these littler bits interact (a) with each other and (b) with the external environment.
15. Push Button People (for peace?)

SO, are we doomed to be robots; push button people? The simple answer is NO! We have the option of being mindful and aware. We can bring the push buttons into the light of conscious awareness and thus be free to break the link between the stimulus and the response.
16. Dealing with Distraction

Most peoples attention dives about all over the place. Their focus does not stay the same for more than a few moments. They are easily distracted by sights, sounds, tastes, smells or touches from the outside and by all manner of thoughts, feelings and emotions that emerge in a constant stream from the inside. Such people experience a lot of mental chatter over which they do not feel they have any control.
17. The Aware Space

This morning the mind was busy in a skittery and confusing way. There was a long list of themes each of which was one frame in its own movie reel; and several of them were running at the same time; and there was much channel hopping.
18. Grist to the Mill of Mindfulness

This morning I noted that the phrase middle class wanker was lurking in consciousness and that it linked to the phrases elders and betters and the good and great. I also noted an associated feeling of dis-ease that seemed to have roots in anger, shame and disappointment concerning recent shocking revelations about MPs expense claims in the UK. Then I realized that these thoughts and feelings would make excellent grist to the mill of mindfulness.
19. Unofficial Writing

Another aim of the unofficial writing is to encourage one-pointed concentration that is non egoic and outwith time and space. This is a delightful state of grace where I am in flow and where the muse speaks through me. The mundane self is out of mind and this leaves nonaction (wu-wei) to run its course.
20. What makes your heart sing?

When your heart is singing you enjoy what you are doing and willingly go the extra mile. You are kindly disposed towards everybody and everything. You act with grace rather than with a grudge. You are happy and smile a lot. So what is the root of that hallowed state of coronary operatics?
21. Ranting - and editing the word of God

In rational written rant mode you begin with a brainstorm from which you develop an outline and then flesh it out. In emotional written rant mode you just write the story as it flows from the unconscious: it is as if there is an independent inner author, as if you are just channelling the outputs from the muse, as if you are taking dictation from the word of God (or the devil!)
22. Irregular flow from blue to pink

I am blessed in having a choice of mental modes. This means that I need not react automatically from habit to whatever happens to turn up in the attention centre. I am thus, to some extent, free to choose how I respond to external and internal stimuli.
01 Intentional Sources
I am going through a phase of being easily distracted by thoughts that flail in second hand time. I thus have difficulty stilling and stopping the mind other than when wuwei kicks in and I go selflessly one-pointed. Those ideas need unpacking Thoughts that this is when attention is with the past and the future rather than with flail in second the present moment.6 There is dis-ease and a feeling that I should be hand time5 somewhere else doing something else. Stilling and stopping7 the mind when wu-wei kicks in this results in the mind being in the present moment. I have some experience of this while just sitting. There is no sense of space, time or self. It is similar to being selflessly one-pointed except that there is no focus for attention when attention finds a focus independent of rational intention8. This is when the mind has a mind of its own9 and acts on it. It is as if the muse10 takes over consciousness. It leads to being selflessly onepointed. I cook meals in this state. I often work in this state most of the more recent books were written by wu-wei. I am at the stage of not wanting to do anything. Leave everything to wu-wei. If it is the right time it will happen. where there is focus on a particular task or topic. The sense of space, time and self drops away. The doer, the doing and the done merge into a seamless11 whole. The state can last for hours. Work gets done, there are no distractions, and there is no sense of an I that does it. Note that little is recorded in memory about what has been going on12. It just happens. It is like getting something for nothing13.
selflessly onepointed
Is this the essence of being born again and of letting Thy14 will be done? The total antithesis of being a control freak. Aha that could be a HUGE personal breakthrough - the intellectual ideas have been mapped to an experience.
5 6
a long standing personal image the tentacles that flail in second hand time As the wheel of a cart rests on the ground at one point, so does the being live only for one thought-moment. It is always in the present, and is ever slipping into the irrevocable past. What we shall become is determined by this present thought-moment. http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/nshell09.htm 7 the shamantha that comes before vipassana (insight or seeing) 8 . Some intentions are not rationally based they are from me but not from up-front consciousness. http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/intentio.htm 9 shades of Blaise Pascal "The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing about." 10 ( pron. myooz): in Greek mythology, a goddess of artistic inspiration; any of the nine nymphs who supervised and inspired the arts, including history, poetry, comedy, music, dancing, rhetoric, sacred hymns, and harmony 11 image from dressmaking no edges or boundaries just the oneness 12 several of the more recent books went through several drafts but I have no recall of producing them. I was on a timetable. Once I sat at desk and began there was one-pointed work till break time. 13 I used to drive from Brighton to Portsoy in this state. After 10 hours I would be fresh as a daisy. It was not I that was driving. 14 This is the Christian dualistic way of putting it but it goes monistic with Meister Eckhart who could say I am God
The phase I am going through represents my illusory ego struggling to avoid its dissolution. So there is inner turmoil as self-esteem comes to terms with there being no abiding self. Let it drop. Go with the flow. It kicked in after supper as the dishes got washed! There is a message coming in about the tightness of my waistband. I eat more than I need to. It is one way of relieving boredom. BUT I do not have to bother about it let it simmer and wu-wei will take care of it. If only you love God enough you may do as you please. (St Augustine)
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02 Time and the flexible brain

All people are conscious of time but in different ways. Some people need more precision than others. If you ask What time is it? answers can range from Early Spring to 10:36 and 25 seconds exactly. There is also a difference between clock time and felt time. Time passes quickly when you are enjoying yourself and slowly when you are bored. It can even disappear when, like an absent minded professor, you are totally absorbed in what you are doing. These different approaches to time can be thought of as tools that have their different strengths and weaknesses. A flexible brain will use the appropriate tool for the job in hand. The box offers a continuum of options based on the military concepts of strategy, tactics and operations which are dealt with in turn by leaders, managers, and by administrators and implementers. Strategy Leaders Doing the Right Thing Creative Emergent Open ended Subconscious input Early spring Tactics Managers Operations Administrators and implementers Doing it right Rational Pre-determined Timetabled Conscious input 10:36 am
When leaders devise strategy they are concerned about doing the right thing. This is a highly political task involving values that may differ among stakeholders. It is not a process that should be rushed. Ideally the approach should be open-ended to allow for the emergence of creative solutions based on subconscious inputs. Administrators and implementers are concerned about doing it right. This is in essence a technical task that involves rational, conscious input to achieving predetermined targets according to a strict timetable. Managers are concerned about tactics which is a subtle area that calls for a combination of the looser touchy feely aspects and the more hardnosed programmed ones. Given the way that most modern people think it might be useful here to say a few words in support of timeless subconscious inputs into the grander scheme of things; of those time tools that have a touchy feely air about them.
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Let us paint a couple of crude stereotypes. 10:36am Rational, conscious DOING happens in clock time according to predetermined schedules set on inflexible timetables structured as systematic to-do lists. This is useful if you are stocking supermarkets or building bridges but it tends to treat people as numbers in equations and as cogs in grand machines. It promotes alienation and social exclusion. Early spring Creative, subconscious BEING happens in felt time according to principles known only to those who embrace stillness and the deep interconnectedness of all things. This is useful for thinking outside the box and for creating innovative solutions based on deep systems theory and thus infused with holistic thinking. It promotes decent work and social inclusion.
Theories about the role of the subconscious have come a long way since Freud first brought it to the attention of the Western world15. At its best it is the driving force behind genius. It is the muse of the creative artist, it is the force that drives the author when in flow and the star athlete when in the zone. At its worst it is the force that drives tyrants and despots on their murderous rampages. It seems desirable therefore to harness it for the good. This is possible but is easier said than done. An easy introduction to the process comes from Dorothea Brandes 1934 classic bestseller Becoming a Writer16. This is about how to harness flow as this is the key to great writing. She suggests thinking of yourself in two forms as conscious and unconscious. Both aspects of the self have to be trained and made to work in harmony. She is very hard nosed about the touch feely bits. As a starter she recommends waking half an hour before normal and writing whatever comes into your head. Keep this up for a month and then use rational consciousness to analyse the outputs and see what themes are in your unconscious mind. Another early technique is to set a time each day when you will write and then write at that time without fail again for a month. This helps rob the unconscious of its pretensions to having moods and thus not being able to perform as the need demands. She suggests that if you cannot stick with these routines then you may as well give up the quest to be an author of note. Those who do stick with it, however, are likely to develop an endless source of effortless, imaginative and good quality prose. In more recent times it has been recognised that sportspeople have to be in the zone if they are to have peak performances. This involves switching off rational consciousness at key moments such that the infinitely more powerful and wise subconscious can guide performance. Jon Kabat-Zinn17 amongst others has developed courses in mindfulness training that allow athletes to switch themselves into the zone. Mindfulness training techniques are drawn from eastern meditative traditions and have a history that goes back at least 2500 years18. The idea is that in most normal people the conscious chatterbox part of the brain is like a noisy guest who has
15 16
Most other parts of the world had been well aware of it for at least 2500 years! Dorothea Brande (1934) Becoming a Writer; ISBN 0333653777 17 Jon Kabat-Zinn (1994) Wherever you go, there you are Mindfulness Meditation for Everyday Life; ISBN 0749925485 18 see the Insight Meditation Society for modern adaptations of the technique - http://www.dharma.org/ims/
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drowned out the underlying host. Mindfulness is a process of stilling the body and the mind such that the surface chatterbox quietens and there is access to the wiser host aspect of the brain. The host is rooted in those deeper aspects of mind with which the surface brain has only very limited contact. The host is the muse who speaks to the artist, directs the authors flow and which guides the athlete in the zone. Those who are familiar with religious traditions, both eastern and western, will recognise this as a secular appreciation and application of those mental forces which have long been familiar to witch doctors, shamans, and mystics. What was once thought of as magic, sacred and surreal has now been domesticated, scientifically verified, and is increasingly being made available to all. The flexible brain is one which can switch itself as required between its unconscious and conscious parts so as to best harness its rational and creative aspects in a disciplined and complementary way. This calls for those who are more inclined to early spring thinking to work more timeously with their rational aspects and for those inclined to the 10:36am thinking to embrace stillness and be more aware of their timeless, inner drives. Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgementally. This kind of attention nurtures greater awareness, clarity and acceptance of phenomenal reality. Kabat-Zinn p4 Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink, I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. Thoreau, Walden Make good use of time Dont just do something sit there
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03 Caring in a complex world

This short article has three roots. An insight regarding the individualist, and thus insufficient, hegemonic underpinning of existentialist thought; Bill Gatess 2007 address to the Harvard Commencement19 suggesting that there is plenty caring in our complex world; and a quote about the practice of mindfulness from Jon Kabat-Zinn (see below). Existentialism as a philosophical movement argues that "existence precedes essence," that individuals must choose, decide their "essential" nature rather than having it given from some transcendent source. Existentialist theology places emphases on the value of the individual person, the primacy of conscience, and the importance of freedom and authenticity in decision-making.
Most definitions of existentialism20 assume rampant individualism ie they treat individuals as if they were free to Source = Google [define: ] choose when in fact they will always be immersed in a culture with the attendant reflex values and beliefs that implies.
We are all captured in a hegemonic net21. This is as true for the most cosmopolitan and freethinking individual as it is for the most culturally embedded one. Those who get lost can have psychotherapy to make them normal ie to be re-netted. But there is a way to escape the net that involves something more positive than neurotic nihilists in existential vacuums22. Q - So what is this way? It involves using the mind to look at itself. To notice what is being noticed and to think about thinking. But not in the psychotherapeutic way. What matters is not so much the content of the thoughts as the process of thinking. The idea is to set aside time for stillness of body and mind. This inevitably leads to (a) an increased awareness of how the mind really works and thus (b) a realisation of the illusory nature of the idea of me, mine and thus of individuality. Q - So how does the mind really work? It has a mind of its own. I do not decide which thoughts and feelings are going to appear next. The control centre is beyond the reach of my consciousness. I am in fact driven by habits that have multiple and complex causes and conditions most of which are known only at the unconscious level.
Q - So what can be done about it?

19 20
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/06.14/99-gates.html The concept is attributed to Soren Kierkegarrd 1813-1855) 21 http://www.caledonia.org.uk/hegemony.htm 22 a memorable phrase from a Sunday Newspaper Magazine in the 1960s
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During periods of stillness this habitual process can be witnessed by the conscious mind. By witnessing the thought/emotion habits there can be detachment from them and thus freedom to mindfully respond rather than mindlessly react ie to be more of a free agent and less of a conditioned robot. Q - So the detached witness is the new me? In a manner of speaking yes, but in reality no. It is a useful concept during the early stages of practicing to turn the mind around. But in time it transcends its self nature. When this happens patterns of egoic having and doing are replaced by patterns of non-egoic being. Q - Huh? When the ego-habit is shut down the body does not stop acting in the world. All action is in fact rooted in the unconscious but often it is filtered through the conscious mind (ie the ego). When the conscious element is eliminated then the vastly superior wisdom of the unconscious mind has freedom to act. Examples are everywhere. Common examples are riding a bicycle and driving a car having once mastered the techniques they happen without thinking. Less common examples are when an artist is inspired by the muse, when an author writes in flow and when an athlete is in the zone. It is AS IF there was an agent other than I. Many of the skills of parenting are hard wired into the unconscious and can be liberated when you shake free from the many cultural shoulds and oughts of the rational experts. Much the same might be true of peak performing academics, businessmen and politicians. Q - But is that not dangerous would it not lead to exposing us to nature red in tooth and claw? Seemingly not. There is good news from research amongst those who have turned their minds around (ie experienced meditators). The bad stuff (greed, anger, jealousy, lust etc) results only from egoic and encultured thinking . Minds which have transcended the illusion of ego and cultural conditioning, and can thus be in touch with the unconscious, are inclined to the good stuff (generosity, compassion, morality, equanimity etc). Q - So, despite appearances, human nature is essentially good? So it would seem. The Dalai Lama reckons that we all want to be happy. Bill Gates is on record as feeling that the appalling inequity and poverty in the world is not due to a lack of caring people but rather to the complexity of the issues. Given viable and well publicised solutions to the problems he reckons that most people would demand that they be applied.
Q - Hmm!
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Given the new communications technology we are now arguably close to a tipping point for caring consciousness at the global level. Knowledge is power to the people, especially when it is knowledge of how to tune in to the innate wisdom of the unconscious. We have the technology - all that is now needed is the will to spin it. Q Hmm! Sounds like yet another hegemonic net But perhaps a paradigm shifted one Q - Perhaps
Just To Be We tend to be particularly unaware that we are thinking virtually all the time. The incessant stream of thoughts flowing through our minds leaves us very little respite for inner quiet. And we leave precious little room for ourselves anyway just to be, without having to run around doing things all the time. Our actions are all too frequently driven rather than undertaken in awareness, driven by those perfectly ordinary thoughts and impulses that run through the mind like a coursing river, if not a waterfall. We get caught up in the torrent and it winds up submerging our lives as it carries us to places we may not wish to go and may not even realize we are headed for. Meditation means learning how to get out of this current, sit by its bank and listen to it, learn from it, and then use its energies to guide us rather than to tyrannize us. This process doesn't magically happen by itself. It takes energy. We call the effort to cultivate our ability to be in the present moment "practice" or "meditation practice." Jon Kabat- Zinn23
23
http://www.umassmed.edu/behavmed/faculty/kabat-zinn.cfm
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04 The unconscious is not magic

An event seems magical when you (the ego in up front consciousness) are unaware of its causes and conditions. Mysterious (non-rational) forces seem to be in operation and something seems to come from nothing. But reality is other than what seems to be the case. The emerging understanding of the nature and functions of the human unconscious allows for a wider range of causes and conditions. As in so many other spheres of human understanding, magic evaporates when science lights up the situation. There are different types of magic. At the trivial level we have the conjurer sawing the lady in half. This is deliberate trickery on the part of the conjurer and he is doing it to amuse and entertain people. Black magic and witchcraft are less trivial and have been with us for a long time. They deal with physical, psychological and social issues using chemical potions and psychological procedures. The experts are schooled in the relevant, cumulative, cultural traditions that are held secret from the population at large. Much of the knowledge is based on trial and error and lacks theoretical links between inputs and outputs. Note that this lack does not always preclude effective treatments eg many herbal medicines. There are parallels between black magic and its modern day equivalents eg psychiatry, psychotherapy, counselling and so on. There is a kind of magic in the way that pills change moods and that talking changes minds. The wide range of practices in these areas suggests that the theoretical underpinnings still need firming up. There are also less institutionalised forms of mental magic. The most famous is when an artist is possessed by the muse (ie unconscious forces take over from the conscious ones24) and this results in inspired creative outputs (art, music, poetry etc). There is something particularly amazing about Aha! or Eureka moments when the solution to long standing problems just suddenly come to mind
The trick is to get out of the way so that deeper, inner forces can be in control. It is the same with athletes who are in the zone, and with a wide variety of professional people while having peak experiences25. The mystical, Western, religious variation on the theme is when the worshipper denies their personal agenda so as to Let Thy will be done26. There is also a magical aura to most altered states of consciousness which can be induced using27 drugs, hypnosis, sleep, dreams and so on. There is something particularly amazing about Aha! or Eureka moments when the solution to long standing problems just suddenly come to mind - even to the minds of famous scientists28.
24 25
Ref Julian Jaynes Ref Abraham Maslow 26 Ref St Augustine 27 Ref Charles Tart 28 Ref Thomas Kuhn
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The unconscious is populated by the How might the unconscious be genes, cultural influences and personal experiences (especially early childhood deliberately fed, harnessed and managed? ones). So how might the unconscious be deliberately fed, harnessed and managed? One answer lies in mindfulness meditation which is at least 2500 years old. Take time out to be still in body and in mind. You can then be awake to, and aware of, what is really going on in your head. Be still and know. Mindfulness meditation is increasingly popular in the West where it is merging with progressive trends in psychotherapy29. Mainstream Western medicine has now embraced the ancient techniques through formal programmes of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)30. When advances in neuro-science31 and in evolutionary psychology32 are added to the explanatory mix they ring the death bell the unconscious is awesome but not magic.
29 30
Ref Mark Epstein Ref Jon Kabat-Zinn 31 Ref V S Ramachandran 32 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_psychology
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05 Many passing thoughts

Many thoughts pass through your mind each day. But how many, what kinds, and what good does it do to think about them?
How many thoughts do you have each day?

Dharma teachers toy with the figure of 65,000 thoughts per day. On average this would be 45 each minute or one every 1.3 seconds. It is a rough estimate that accepts that it is often difficult to tell when one thought stops and a next one begins. If that seems excessive we can work it out for ourselves from the bottom up. If we allow for an average of one thought each minute during 16 waking hours there would be 960 of them. Note that some would be short and fleeting while others might hang around for several minutes. So, either way, whether the figure is 1000 or 60,000, there are a lot of thoughts passing through your mind each day. This begs the next question:
What kinds of thoughts do you have?

Different people will have different kinds of thoughts but it is perhaps useful to think in terms of categories. Are they about people, events or ideas; are they rooted in the past, the present or the future; do the same thoughts keep repeating or do new ones turn up? Are the thoughts about your work or your hobbies; are they about practical affairs or more abstract issues? And, at a deeper level, are they rooted in personal experiences or on stories from the media; and can you tell if they are rooted in things happening inside your head, on things that are happening in the outside world, or on some mix of the two?
What good does it do to think about your thoughts?

If you make the time to sit still for a few minutes you will notice how busy your brain is. You can take the position of witness to the channel hopping movie show that is your mind. This will lead to many insights about your self. One of the main insights will be that you are not in control of what goes on in your mind. As Blaise Pascal once noted, The heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing about. Another insight will be that you do not have to act like a programmed robot all the time. You are free to choose how you think, speak and act. And the deep you will choose wisely and with compassion. As Eckhart Tolle has noted, The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realise that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. So it is good to notice what you notice. The ancient Greeks reckoned that, The unexamined life is not worth living. So why not opt for a worthy life, think about thinking, and be mindful of your passing thoughts?
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06 How to capture passing thoughts

Most of the thoughts and feelings that pass through your mind are barely worth paying attention to. They are like the gossip of a compulsive chatterbox. Sometimes, however, there are interesting thoughts that link together to make a story worth recording. Most often, however, these pass like clouds in the sky and disappear back into the void from which they came. So how might they be captured and made available to other people? The following three stage and eight point plan shows the way
A. Noticing and listing - 15 minutes

1 2 Notice that the thought train is worth recording and decide to capture it. This will involve setting time aside from other things33. Sit with a paper and pencil (or at a computer) and list such thoughts and feelings as come to mind. Dont judge whether or not they are useful that comes later. At this stage be as creative as possible. After a while you may run out of things to add to the list but sit for a while longer anyway more ideas are likely to come out of the stillness34.
B. Sorting and Sequencing - 40 minutes

3 4 You will now have a random list of points and your next task is to sort them into groups 35 and make a logical sequence for the points in each group36. Now you can convert the sequences of points into a set of sentences and paragraphs. You can add or subtract from the lists at this stage and perhaps move points between groups. You can now rearrange the sets of paragraphs so that they make an easy to follow sequence. You may have to add some words to make the connections more obvious.
33 34
The times mentioned offer a very rough guide it can be a faster or slower process This is a process called brainstorming or mind mapping and there are many variations. A simple version is to make a list with a new line for every new idea. See more about this at http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/tot/brainsto.htm 35 If you are working with paper and pencil you can use a scissors to separate the different items and then sort them. If you are working with a word processor you can convert the list from text to table, add a new column, put label words in the same row as your items and then use sort to rearrange them. 36 If you are using a table in your word processor you can split the table so as to separate the different groups, number the items in the sequence you want, and sort again.
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C. Editing and polishing - 5 minutes

6 7 8 The bulk of the work is now done so you can edit for overall style (for example by making sure that you have not broken the rules of plain language writing37) You can add footnotes if this seems helpful and relevant Now think up a catchy title and note the author and date.
The process of capturing a passing thought clarifies it and makes its linkages more apparent. This might encourage you to capture and link to other passing thoughts. This process might well lead to the emergence38 of a whole new way of thinking and working.
37 38
See http://www.hakikazi.org/links.htm#About-Plain-Language for useful links Emergence = the arising of novel and coherent structures, patterns and properties during the process of selforganization in complex systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence
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07 Pattern of study
In terms of the action/reflection cycle39 I am presently40 in an extended period of reflection. This is both intellectual and transpersonal and deals with both consciousness and the unconscious. The idea is to swing the pendulum more towards the numinous muse, flow, zone etc through the non-action of wu-wei. Study for this involves tending to my own agenda41 - both intellectual and intuitive. It includes elements of input, mulling and output.
Inputs:
Read clever and wise texts hard copy or online; and gather quotes) Read email, mail from friends Reflect on meetings with other people especially like minded souls in the sangha Listen to audio dharma talks (eg on mp3 player in the car) Watch both clever and wise programmmes on internet video
Mulling:
Critical and creative thinking about ideas/topics and also about the process of thinking/reflecting. Holistic brainstorming. Harnessing the unconscious42. Exercise mindfulness so as to enter the peaceful state of no-mind. Leave it to wuwei to chart action Note less inclination towards meta narrative and more inclination to having insights into details of the lived life.
Outputs:
Mind states being rather than constant doing43. Letting go of thinking, and being with the deeper peace (root mind just ticking over). Journal/diary and Brande flows (spontaneous) One-pagers (web pages) structured collections (Grouped in retrospect?44) New topics of chat and emails with friends45
39 40
See one-pagers linked to Kolb 10 September 2007 41 Rather than the alien agenda that comes with paid and voluntary work 42 See one-pager, How to capture passing thoughts 43 Has this swung too far Make the world go away? 44 These compilations in mid 2011 are examples. The technique of rearranging one-pagers to form workshops handouts was developed in Lesotho. 45 This eventually became part of social networking.
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BUT:
I am burned out, world weary, and with low self esteem46. Chicken or egg with mindfulness? Disaffected from, and dissatisfied with, the insane status quo. Got at by post-structuralist, post-modern thinking. In reaching 10 perspectives why not accept the flow?47 indeed? Doubt the dark night and not yet the light48, the fire, the lived experience of cosmic consciousness. Stance seen from a down curve in the roller coaster49. (With atrophied social skills) But it is all grist to the mill50. Wherever you go there you are.51 Figure how to come to terms with the ever-present now and the ever-absent past and future. Relax a bit and get a grip on what it is to be?52
46 47
Sort of! - The basic pattern lasted through till my diagnosis of having Parkinsons disease in late 2011. http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/cureblues/track-06.htm - one of my lyrics from 1973 48 See one-pager - Is this the light? 49 See one-pager - The roller Coaster ride to peace of mind. 50 See one-pager - Grist to the mill of mindfulness 51 as noted by Jon Kabat-Zinn 52 Lyrics from one of my early songs
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08 Right frame of mind

The text for todays sermon53 is as follows: "In the right frame of mind, to walk from one room in a house to another can be exploration of the highest order." 54 To unpack and elaborate on the theme we will deal with each of the key concepts in turn. This will lead us into the mountains of the mind into the Himalayas of the soul. Your mind is rooted in your brain. These enable sentience55 and thus consciousness. As a human being you are sometimes conscious of your consciousness. You thus have a sense of self and the illusion of boundaries56 between self and other. Your frame of mind allows you to make sense of the world in this way rather than that. You look through a window on the world and thus generate a world view which is limited by what can be seen from the window; from inside your frame of reference. You look through a window on the world and thus generate a world view which is limited by what can be seen from the window; from inside your frame of reference.
To some extent you are hard wired to frame the world in a particular way (you can see only a limited part of the electromagnetic spectrum, you can hear only a limited range of possible sounds etc). To some extent you are taught to frame the world according to the understandings prevailing in your culture, subculture, community and family settings. The nature/nurture57 debate still rages as to how much of each applies to modern humans living in democratic states. It can be contentious to claim that you If there is a right frame of mind then there have the right frame of mind. If there must also be a wrong frame of mind. is a right frame of mind then there must Relative to what? And who is competent also be a wrong frame of mind. to judge, and based on which criteria? Relative to what? And who is competent to judge, and based on which criteria? For the purposes of this sermon we will reckon the right frame of mind to be that which accords with the understandings that emerged in several different parts of the world during the axial age58 in human spiritual evolution circa 800-200 BCE. This was when the limitations of common sense and intuition were first transcended and when the legendary founders of the major religions first developed their uncommon sense and their counterintuitive frames of mind.
53 54
Thanks to Graham Boyd for sending the quote from Dar es Salaam Robert Macfarlane, Mountains of the Mind: A History of Fascination, Granta Books, 2003, p196 55 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentience Ref Pinker, Dennett etc 56 Ref Ken Wilber (2001) No Boundaries; ISBN 1570627436 57 See one-pager - Nature v nurture - the options 58 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_Age
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By achieving stillness and taking thought these spiritual heroes moved their modes of thinking and being from dependence through independence to interdependence, from pre-personal, through personal to transpersonal. The doors to perception were wiped clean and the luminaries had their epiphanies and came to know the world numinously59. The concepts of mysticism and spirituality became available. Exploration of these lofty frames of thought is not for the fainthearted. It involves seeing through the illusion of a separate I and of renouncing the craving for the material goodies of our consumer age. But mythology is full of tales of heroes and heroines who have made the journey60 and arguably we now live in an age when spiritual heroes might become two a penny61. Human evolution has not stopped. Exploration of the highest order means exploring your own frame of mind with a view to transcending from animal brutishness to angelic numinousness. Some brief hints as to what this might involve come from Humanistic Psychology62 which seeks to meet a hierarchy of human needs. Having met your basic needs of food, clothing and shelter you move on to security needs then the social ones and finally to meeting your spiritual needs and thus having peak experiences63. So how does this apply when you walk from one room in a house to another? It is possible to be so lost in thought that you do not notice where you are. You may be physically present in the house but be absent minded. This means that your mind is attending to the past or future rather than to the here and now. Your thoughts can range from inconsequential chat about mundane trivia through gossip about other people, idle chatter about events, rumination about ideas, and on to mega-thinking about meta-narratives. But it is also possible to switch off the mental chatter and to bring the mind back from the past and future so that you inhabit the immediate present and are mindful of the immediate here and now. When your mind stops its mindless ramblings you are automatically back with the numinous Oneness and the peace that passes all understanding. William Blake caught the essence with his immortal lines To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour. This is the experience of InterBeing as expounded by the Vietnamese Zen Master and peace activist Thich Nhat Hahn64. Consciousness can move beyond the mundane, common sense, culture-bound limits of illusory space, time and ego. This is the frame of mind first articulated by the sages of the axial age. It is a frame of mind that we are all capable of achieving. It is our birthright and hopefully the evolutionary future of our species.
59
The term may be viewed as "the intense feeling of unknowingly knowing that there is something which cannot be seen." And this knowing can "befall" or overcome a person at any time and in any place - in a cathedral; next to a silent stream; on a lonely road; early in the morning or in the face of a beautiful sunset. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numinous 60 ref Joseph Campbell and the Monomyth http://www.srds.co.uk/begin/monomyth.htm 61 Mindfulness meditation is catching on in the West ref Kabat-Zinn 62 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow 63 Note that the stages need not of necessity be sequential. 64 "Interbeing" is a word coined by Thich Nhat Hanh to represent the Buddhist principles of impermanence and the not-self characteristic which reveal the inter-connected-ness of all things. http://orderofinterbeing.org/
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By taking thought we can change our minds. We can tame the gossiping impulse and enter the dynamic stillness from whence we came and to which we will return. We can have our epiphany65 and be born again. And there is no need of exotic locations and elaborate rituals. This exploration of the higher order can happen while we walk from one room in a house to another if we are in the right frame of mind!
65
A sudden revelation of truth inspired by a seemingly trivial incident. The term was widely used by James Joyce in his critical writings, and the stories in Joyce's Dubliners are commonly called "epiphanies."
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09 Asleep or awake?
You can be either asleep or awake to the illusory nature of the self concept. Most people, including myself, spend most of their time asleep to it. So it is quite normal. But this is regrettable given the good things that come from being awake. In what follows I have tried to map my present understanding of the process of waking up.
Asleep
There is sleeping sleep and waking sleep. Sleeping sleep can be either with or without dreams and we will not say anything more about it here. Waking sleep is a poetic concept that covers both daydreaming and more focussed patterns of thought. During daydreaming thoughts and feelings appear, hang around for a while, and then vanish again. The source can be internal or external. Internal stuff links to an imagined past and future and external stuff arrives when you expose yourself to gossip, telly, books etc. The day dreams often lead to action so as to get what you want and to avoid what you dont want. Day dreams tend to have limited creativity. They are populated by stereotypes and habits and, in responding to them, you are like a robot. Sometimes you are able to focus your thoughts and to concentrate on a particular idea or task for an extended period of time. During such times you tend to be unaware of self with its likes and dislikes. This can be very comfortable. You can even have flashes of the numinous and feel that the muse is speaking through you. This can be exceedingly comfortable. It is therefore understandable that many people are workaholics addicted to busy-ness so that they lose themselves in their work. But few people really know what is going on. They do not have insight. They are still asleep.
Awake
Those who are awake are more in control of what goes on in their mind. They are less robotic and more authentic. They notice what is being noticed and think about thinking. There are the possibilities of being the witness and also of being onepointed. It is then possible to have insight into our true nature. There is the Hindu image of a bird on a branch eating fruit and of a second bird watching the first. You can be like that. You can be witness to what you are thinking and feeling. And this can be with or without labelling the stuff that appears. The idea is just to notice, label and let it go. Remain aloof and unattached to the stuff of dreams. With practice, witnessing leads to easy one-pointedness and stillness of mind. This can be with or without insight. When the mind has been rushing, the without insight version is handy as it brings calm (ie give attention totally to the breathing). Once calm you can move on to the with insight version where you allow attention to linger with a particular thought or feeling. There is then an intuitive, concentrated and self-less appreciation of the interpenetrating Oneness and thus of the peace that passes all understanding. For most people the peace comes while sitting on the meditation cushion. The goal, however, is to take the peace into the everyday world. Mindfulness provides the key.
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Be awake to the possibility of being asleep. When you notice that you have gone to sleep in the imagined past and future then wake up to the here and now. When washing the dishes just selflessly wash the dishes reality is no more or less. "The beginning of freedom is the realisation that you are not the possessing entity - the thinker. Knowing this enables you to be the entity. The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated." (Eckhart Tolle (1999) The Power of Now) Dont just do something Sit there
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10 The power of whims

There was a time when I thought I was in control of what went on in my mind. These days I realise that the mind has a mind of its own and that it is (a) deeply conditioned by my particular place in time and space and (b) hard wired for mystical experiences. There was a time when my mental whims seemed to be rational and objective and prompted egoic actions. These days there is a hankering after whims which are intuitive and subjective and which evoke non-egoic, spontaneous non-action (the muse!). There was a time when there was fire in the belly for change brought about by formal education. There was energy for busy-ness which was driven by right belief in a Scottish brand of anarcho-presbyterianism. The world needed more free thinking individuals. I worked long contracts in various parts of the world and had some influence. But things changed. It became clear that formal education reproduces rather than changes society. I was thus part of the problem rather than part of the solution. I was trapped in an outmoded paradigm. On a whim I thus became an independent, freelance consultant living parttime in retreat where I stewed in the juices of western philosophy. Intellectual whims drew me to existentialism and post-modernism with their associated crises and malaise. I burned out intellectually and lost the old fire in the belly. The need for mental reprogramming became urgent. There were two options. It became clear that formal education reproduces rather than changes society. I was thus part of the problem rather than part of the solution. I was trapped in an outmoded paradigm.
I kept some distance from the first option - psychotherapy. Engagement with the antipsychiatry movement made me deeply suspicious of the psyche police. In an insane world it did not make sense to be normal and well adjusted. Crazy times called for crazy solutions. The second option was meditation. As a psychology of perception it has a long and much respected pedigree. There are many variations on the basic theme of realising the illusory nature of ego. No self, no other only manifestations of the Oneness. Dont just notice but notice what is being noticed and stand back from it. Be in charge of what goes on in your head rather than being driven blindly by your parochial conditioning. Step into the space between stimulus and response. I built up a library of wisdom classics that expounded variations on the perennial philosophy. But this meant herding other peoples cows. There is an immense distance between rationally knowing about and experiencing. There were aspirations but there was a falling short. Patiently waiting. 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.
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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 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-toearth 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) ISBN 0712671390
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11 Is this the light?

After the meditation session on Saturday we were wondering about different states of mind and about whether or not they are enlightened. We noted different conditions while at work, during meditation and in between the two. There follows a tentative sketch of the various places our minds might go during our waking hours. There is reference to no awareness of self nor of space and time. Is this the light? There are at least two options while at paid or voluntary work. On the bleak side you may be half hearted and unable to focus. You are dithering, unwilling and awkwardly self conscious. The work will eventually get done but it is a chore. On the bright side you may be one-pointed and focussed. If you are an athlete you are in the zone, if you are a creative writer you are in flow. The muse will have taken control and it will be as if the work does itself. There is no awareness of self nor of space and time. Effortless action. When in between jobs there is slack time. The tone might be elated, depressed or neutral: and the motivation might be to hold on to, avoid, or to seek distraction from, the present situation. The goal is to maximise pleasure and minimise pain. There are two ways of dealing with this. The bad way promotes anxiety and selfishness while the good way promotes peace and compassion. A mind conditioned by cravings will water bad seeds while a mind that is beyond craving will water good seeds. A craving mind will inhabit the phenomenal world. A mind that has gone beyond craving will experience the numinous where there is no awareness of self nor of space and time. Infinity in a grain of sand. There are also different mental states during formal meditation. Sometimes the waterfall of thoughts and feelings is robust and noisy and completely captures attention. At other times the witness appears to observe the waterfall and create distance from it. Letting go becomes a viable option. Attention can be pointed to the breathing and it will stay there. There will be no awareness of self nor of space and time. Only breathing. But there can be more. Once stillness has been achieved the anchor that is the breathing can itself be let go. There is then the oceanic feeling, the experience of being co-extensive with the Oneness. There will be no awareness of self nor of space and time. InterBeing. But there can be more. After the stilling (Shamantha) comes the insight (Vipassana). With a clear mind you will know the real reality and thus be able to engage with the world in a beneficial way. We are back with the effortless action that is flow where there is no awareness of self nor of space and time. Is this the light?
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12 In the Mood
When I am in the mood for something I do it effortlessly and with good grace. This contrasts with doing things with a grudge because I have to. So what might it take to avoid the drudge of grudge and be more often in the mood? There is work and leisure. Work can be paid or voluntary. In either case I sometimes feel put upon by the agenda of other people (the boss). To use philosophical terms I am alienated66 from my labour and acting inauthentically67 with false consciousness68. But I bite the bullet and get on with it because, for various social and cultural reasons, I feel that I should. Some of those feelings cross over into leisure where I have pursuits. There are options for doing and thus for avoiding the beast which is boredom. There are also options for being but this is a tough call because the devil finds work for idle hands to do. Given my cultural conditioning I am something of a workaholic and thus tend towards being a slave driver and control freak. But I sometimes rise above those things. "When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt." : Henry J. Kaiser (1882 - 1967) There are work and leisure times when the muse69 is in the zone70 and there is effortless flow71. There are times when there is no self awareness and it is as if time and space had vanished. At such times normal waking consciousness is shut down and the unconscious is in the driving seat. Rational, linear thinking is replaced by intuitive, parallel thinking and feeling. There are times of being lost into the Oneness of it all72. But the experience is rarely that clean cut for long. There is often a jumping from one mind state to the other. Mind Mapping73 offers an example. This begins with a free flowing, unconscious stream of ideas that are then rationally categorised and linked: with many mini iterations along the way. (This post was written using this mind mapping process: the hand written draft is very rough!) So how might it be arranged that the muse is in the zone and I am in the mood? Intellectually and consciously there has to be an acceptance that these different mind states exist and that there is nothing (or at least not much) to fear from the unconscious. So reading and thinking about it will help to fill in the concept map. But the map is not the territory. There is a need for down time and for stillness. Time to let the mud of the intellect settle so the clarity of the unconscious is exposed. I have two main obstacles in making this transition that is not yet complete! There is the fear that the demons of the unconscious will be unleashed (reference Freud74 and most of the psychiatric movement75). But it turns out that, for me at least, the demons
66 67
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_alienation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authenticity_%28philosophy%29 68 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_consciousness 69 http://www.thefreedictionary.com/muse 70 http://www.fitness-programs-for-life.com/running_in_the_zone.html 71 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%29 72 http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/cureblues/track-10.htm lyrics from one of my songs (1995) 73 http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/tot/brainsto.htm 74 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freud 75 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoanalysis
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bark is far worse than their bite. Nature has programmed me as a social animal and my nurture in the NE of Scotland has laid a foundation of working class Puritanism. These mental formations can be observed, smiled at and dismissed. They are not the bogeymen they are cracked up to be. Their dictates can be overridden. The other main obstacle is seemingly getting something for nothing. I find it hard to get my head around new poems, songs or blog posts arriving thanks to the muse. This still has a ring of magic76. But I am getting easier with the notion that my nature and nurture provide the causes and conditions for whatever turns up. The unconscious thus has much the same dynamics as consciousness except that the illusory and constraining I concept is not as noticeably involved. So: all that is needed to avoid the drudge of grudge is to sporadically exit the conscious, egoic state and leave things to unconsciousness. Harness the muse and you will automatically be in the mood. It does not seem to be true that work necessarily needs to be unpleasant. It may always have to be hard, or at least harder than doing nothing at all. But there is ample evidence that work can be enjoyable, and that indeed, it is often the most enjoyable part of life.: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi77, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, 1990
76 77
See one-pager The unconscious is not magic pronounced chick-sent-me-hall-yee
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13 The unconscious iceberg intention and the muse

The mind is a iceberg with consciousness as the little bit poking above the surface and the unconscious as the massive underwater bit. Both bits are programmed by similar causes and conditions and some of these are hard wired (nature) while other are programmed by culture (nurture).
These days I am inclined to re-consider how my light is spent78. I arrange for timeout from busy-ness and I sit quietly for extended periods. I get in the small boat (see diagram) where (a) I can be witness to what is happening in consciousness and (b) I can be aware of what is going into and coming out of the unconscious. It becomes obvious that I am in at least two minds. I find that I am no longer willing to engage with many of the old shoulds and oughts. There are habits, stereotypes and viewpoints that no longer correspond to reality. I now grudge stuff for which I once had a healthy appetite. There is conflict between conscious and unconscious promptings. Patterns of attraction and aversion are now for different topics of thought and ways of thinking. Where once I was content to pay rational and objective attention to externals there is now a strong intention to pay heed to internal and subjective intuitions. Note that the latter have always been present and influential; but, in the days before I became mindful, their influence was rarely apparent and acknowledged. Given the iceberg, this was obviously less than ideal. In reconsidering how my life is spent I Flow often begins as an Aha moment. now pay particular attention to my There is then effortless, non-egoic action. motivation ie to what enthuses me and Control is self-less. Stuff just happens. to what I grudge doing. I play down the The mind has a mind of its own or so it promptings to busy-ness which are the seems in retrospect when ego habitual shoulds. The new pattern is consciousness has kicked back in. to wait till the mood captures attention and then to spontaneously go with the flow. Flow often begins as an Aha moment. There is then effortless, non-egoic action. Control is self-less. Stuff just happens. The mind has a mind of its own or so it seems in retrospect when ego consciousness has kicked back in. Note that the conscious mind can usually see ways to edit the outpourings of the unconscious! (Aha: if the muse is speaking then why is it not word perfect? Beware magical thinking and reification!)
78
http://www.poetry-online.org/milton_when_i_consider_how_my_light_is
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For me, at the present time79, the muse is mainly attending to meta issues such as thinking about thinking (and feeling) and noticing what is being noticed. There is a heightened awareness of the multiple and subtle causes and conditions which drive the flow of thoughts and feelings, and also of the many subtle interactions between mind and body. If we begin to listen to the stream of thought as thought, to attend to thoughts as events in the field of awareness, and if we develop a certain calmness and quiet outwardly, we come to see our thinking much more clearly. We are able to listen to it and see exactly what is on our minds, and how much of it is just mental noise. (p405) Jon Kabat-Zinn (2005) Coming to our senses healing ourselves and the world through mindfulness; ISBN 0749925884
79
23 March 2008
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14 No end to flux
There may have been times and places where people felt that God's in his Heaven, All's right with the world80!. The general worldview was robust and reinforced through routines, rituals and stereotypes. There would have been certainty and cognitive closure. No doubt: stick with tradition. But, for many people, me included, our post-modern times are not like that. Contemporary free-thinkers are inclined to the view that the only certainty is doubt and that the only constant thing is change. Science no longer deals with the truth but rather with the best working hypothesis81 in the light of evidence presently available. Ongoing doubt: go with the flow. But, for many people, me included, the open, emergent, mode of thinking is tough to deal with. The average human brain seems to need certainty and cognitive closure. One way of managing this is to make a virtue of necessity and to have no doubt about the constancy of change. Some thoughts from holistic systems theory can help with this. The essential idea is that any thing is made up of littler things and is simultaneously part of some bigger thing(s). Consider the thing that is your human mind. It generates meaning and action. What are the littler things that make it up and what is the greater thing of which it is part? Your mind creates mental formations as a result of causes and conditions. The causes and conditions are rooted in instinct, culture or chance; the mental formations have conscious and unconscious components. There is an ongoing internal flux as these littler bits interact (a) with each other and (b) with the external environment. And your mind is a small part of that bigger thing which is the external (to you) environment. This has at least two components: the social and the physical. We are social animals so each individual mind will have causes and conditions that are rooted in its cultural context that has many dimensions: political, economic, spiritual etc. Note that the interactions are two-way: we change the world by our presence while it is changing us. And we also exist in a physical environment that supplies us with food, clothing and shelter. The interactions are again two-way. We are components of the planets living system which interacts constantly with the soil and the climate. We feed on plants and animals and end up as fertiliser! Note that the things of systems theory go all the way up and all the way down. We can think in terms of a cosmic zoom82. Going up we have the planet, solar system, universe and the mind blowing concept of an infinite and eternal multiverse which is in an endless state of flux.
80 81
http://www.wrathofgrapes.com/pippa.html http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/nutshell/systems.htm 82 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMV_zDQaq9o
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Going down we have organs, tissues, cells, molecules, atoms, and then we enter the counter-intuitive quantum world where matter and energy are interchangeable and in endless flux (thingness slips through our fingers). SO does this help with certainty and cognitive closure on your worldview in the post-modern age? Does it help to solidify the flux: if only for a short time? We can leave the last word to the awe-full Albert Einstein: The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. You cannot help but be in awe when you contemplate the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality. It is enough if you try merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.
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15 Push button people (for peace?)

We all have buttons that are easily pushed. We have become programmed to think, feel and act this way rather than that. We have fixed viewpoints about many things and we tend to impose our stereotypes and habits on the world. This means that in many ways we are robots not much more conscious of what is going on than Pavlovs83 salivating puppies84. The buttons come in a range of sizes and cover all aspects of life. At the top end we have preferences for political party, religious persuasion, and supermarket ambience. At the bottom end we have preferences for ways of taking tea, for which pocket to keep the car keys in, and for which shoe we put on first85. The buttons have their causes and conditions. Some are due to our hard wired nature while others are nurtured by our culture and chance personal experiences. Some are of the head while others are of the heart although it is not always easy to split the two. Some appear to the conscious mind but most come from the unconscious such that you do not normally notice them kicking in. SO, are we doomed to be robots; push button people? The simple answer is NO! We have the option of being mindful and aware. We can bring the push buttons into the light of conscious awareness and thus be free to break the link between the stimulus and the response. This may be a tough road to travel but it leads to freedom, authenticity and peace. To practice this kind of freedom you have to make time to notice what is going on in your mind. It is as if there are two yous. One reacts like a conditioned robot while the other watches as a free witness. When the witness is in the forefront of consciousness there is space where you can consider other viewpoints and possibilities, and where you have the freedom to choose between them. Freedom means not reacting automatically when a button is pushed. There are two main options for consciously responding. The first is to notice that the button has been pushed, smile at the situation, and let it go. The second option, if you have the time, is to coolly reflect on the causes and conditions that link the button to its response; in this way you develop deeper insight into your patterns of conditioning. This is not an easy road to travel. Your comfort zone will be dis-eased when you upset your routines and habits: at least at first. But the worlds mystical traditions all report that those who push through come to know what Christians call the peace that passes all understanding86. This might be what John Lennon meant when he suggested that we give peace a chance87. It is clearly what the Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hahn means when he talks of creating true peace88: Peace is not simply the absence of violence; it is the cultivation of understanding, insight and compassion,
83 84
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Pavlov http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/medicine/pavlov/ 85 You might like to watch yourself doing ordinary things and noting the habits that are involved eg the pattern of movements as you brush your teeth 86 http://bible.cc/philippians/4-7.htm 87 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_Peace_a_Chance 88 http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1844132250/letitbeginwit-21
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combined with action. Peace is the practice of mindfulness, the practice of being aware of our thoughts, our actions, and the consequences of our actions. Mindfulness is at once simple and profound. When we are mindful and cultivate compassion in our daily lives, we diminish violence each day. We have a positive effect on our family, friends and society. (p5) This suggests that by taking thought and making an effort we can reprogramme ourselves and become push button people for peace rather than for consumerism and war. How about you, are you going to give peace a chance?
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16 Dealing with distraction

Most peoples attention dives about all over the place. Their focus does not stay the same for more than a few moments. They are easily distracted by sights, sounds, tastes, smells or touches from the outside and by all manner of thoughts, feelings and emotions that emerge in a constant stream from the inside. Such people experience a lot of mental chatter over which they do not feel they have any control. Some people can focus their attention. Artists can be in flow, athletes can be in the zone and ordinary people can be absorbed in washing the dishes. The key to this state of one-pointed attention is to be non-egoic and outside of space and time - to be absent-minded. The experience is of a kind of effortless action the poem wrote itself. There is little mental chatter, and control seems to rest with something deeper than the everyday self. At a deeper level everybody can, but few people do, experience the fearless peace that passes all understanding. There can be flashes of deeper understanding when faced with a glorious sunset. Such moments, for most people, are short-lived and relatively rare. But they can become a much more substantial and soul enhancing part of the living experience. The undisciplined mind is easily distracted but the disciplined mind is not. The ultimate goal is to shut down conscious, egoic thinking and thus to allow the wisdom of the inner self to make its presence felt. Discipline involves making time for peaceful stillness, time to just sit, time to be still and know. With enough practice the mental mud settles and nothing remains but a mild awareness of stuff on the margins of the attention centre. With even more practice even these faint traces pass away and there is a state of being awake and aware but without content. This is your true home where you are fresh like a flower and solid like a mountain. To take up residence all that is required is dealing with distraction.
Easily distracted
Mental proliferation (unguarded and undisciplined mind) Driven by craving and aversion regarding distractions Results in pleasure, boredom or pain
Undistracted
One-pointed concentration on task (non-egoic flow out of space and time) Mechanical housework, paid work, hobbies Intellectual ideas Peaceful stillness (the easy expansiveness that comes with just sitting) With mild awareness of stuff on the margins of attention Generically awake and aware but without content (like a mountain)
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17 The aware space

This morning the mind was busy in a skittery and confusing way. There was a long list of themes each of which was one frame in its own movie reel; and several of them were running at the same time; and there was much channel hopping. But then suddenly there was a noticing of the thought streams and, by that action, (ie noticing) an extra mental space was created. A witness had appeared as if in a room with the various movies projected as dynamic wallpaper. Attention was withdrawn from the movies themselves and rested instead with the witness. And there was then a single focus; a one-pointedness. And it was peaceful. The movies had been stirring up emotions and thoughts of the past and future. Now attention rested in the present moment and there were no distracting emotions: only an easy peace.
Can you feel the difference between the experience of I am angry and the experience of This is anger? Through that little distinction flows a whole world of freedom mind states or emotions are like clouds in the sky, without roots, without home. Identifying with an emotion as being self is like trying to tether a cloud. Can we learn to liberate all emotions, all phenomena, letting them pass through the open sky of the heart and mind? Joseph Goldstein (1993) Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom p71. ISBN 0717122557
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18 Grist to the mill of mindfulness

This morning I noted that the phrase middle class wanker was lurking in consciousness and that it linked to the phrases elders and betters and the good and great. I also noted an associated feeling of dis-ease that seemed to have roots in anger, shame and disappointment concerning recent shocking revelations about MPs expense claims in the UK. Then I realized that these thoughts and feelings would make excellent grist to the mill of mindfulness. There could be a bout of existential jujitsu (see box). Existential Jujitsu Whatever turns up in mind whether good, bad or indifferent can be used as fuel for mind training. For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, the more powerful the thought and the stronger the emotion then the greater its potential as an aid to turning your mind around.
Then I felt moved to dive beneath the shallow, intellectual understanding of things. This called for a matrix dealing with two main issues: (a) it is easy to be seduced by head stuff (thoughts) and http://www.srds.co.uk/begin/jujitsu.htm thus to ignore the heart stuff (feelings) or vice-versa. But subjectively there cannot be one without the other - it is all mind stuff; and (b) there are causes and conditions for both conscious and unconscious aspects of mind stuff. But the dividing line between the two is sometimes misty and there is ongoing movement to and from the attention centre. The following matrix charts thought and feeling against degree of attention. Grist to the mill of mindfulness Conscious in the attention centre Thought Head stuff Feeling Heart stuff Thought/ feeling Mind stuff 1 2 3A & 3B Margin on the misty edges of attention 4 5 6 Unconscious not available for attention 7 8 9
It would be tedious and not very enlightening to detail my ongoing story about hegemony and elegant power in terms of the nine boxes in the matrix. Some generalisations might, however, offer food for thought. Those who are not involved with mindfulness and meditation are largely confined to the tip of the iceberg that is consciousness (1, 2 and 3). The concept of conditioned robot springs to mind. Those who are relatively new to mindfulness and meditation become increasingly aware of stuff at the misty margins of consciousness and of the influence it has on the conscious material. It soon becomes apparent that pure head and heart stuff do not
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exist and categories 4 and 5 enfold into mind stuff (6). The mind has a mind of its own! Those who are well practiced in mindfulness and meditation intuitively grasp that 7 and 8 are non-categories and that there is an enormous amount of mind stuff that is not commonly available for attention (9). The goal of mindfulness and meditation is to still the mind such that the chatter of 3 and 6 is reduced and the promptings of 9 might be intuited. We can think of mind stuff in the attention centre as having two forms - 3A and 3B. The former is the conditioned robot and the latter is what bears quiet witness to it. 3B can thus enable creativity and originality by heeding the intuitions from 9 - from your muse. SO - Will the greedy good and great (1 & 2) take up existential jujitsu? Will they shift to wise and compassionate generosity by moving from 9 through 6 to 3B? Heres grist to their mill!
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19 Unofficial writing
I now have grey hair so it is not surprising that a major aim of my unofficial writing is to help clarify thoughts and feelings about truth seeking on the spiritual path. The writing includes notes about (a) what others have written or said and also (b) the subjective and fleeting impressions that appear while being mindful and aware of what is going on in my head. Another aim of the unofficial writing is to encourage one-pointed concentration that is non egoic and outwith time and space. This is a delightful state of grace where I am in flow and where the muse speaks through me. The mundane self is out of mind and this leaves non-action (wu-wei) to run its course. As yet this happy state is outwith conscious control; but it is worth waiting for. [Note that the agent in this case is the unconscious that has its own causes and conditions in terms of both nature and nurture.] When a written product has merit I send it to friends and publish it to a blog where, in theory at least, it is available to inform and possibly inspire other truth seekers. More prosaic motivations for the unofficial writing include (a) to improve my writing skills (if you want to be a writer then write), (b) to generate product (and thereby gain Presbyterian justification by works and thus freedom from the shame of idleness), and, (c) as something of an afterthought, to generate a modest income stream (but there is as yet no business plan!) An aim of the unofficial writing is to encourage one-pointed concentration that is non egoic and outwith time and space. This is a delightful state of grace where I am in flow and where the muse speaks through me. The mundane self is out of mind and this leaves non-action (wu-wei) to run its course.
Most of the writing is directly entered at the keyboard. It takes several forms that include a daily diary/ journal, the occasional flow of consciousness against the clock and, now and again, a carefully crafted one-pager that captures a passing thought or emotion. Topics these days relate to truth seeking on the various spiritual paths and they centre around a blend of cherry picked psychotherapy and mindfulness based meditation (on and off the couch/ cushion). The writing is rooted in subjective experiences based on increasing awareness of the processes that underlie and construct perceptions and viewpoints at both conscious and unconscious levels. These subjective experiences arise as a result of enacting the battle cry - Be still and know your self.
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20 What makes your heart sing?

When your heart is singing you enjoy what you are doing and willingly go the extra mile. You are kindly disposed towards everybody and everything. You act with grace rather than with a grudge. You are happy and smile a lot. So what is the root of that hallowed state of coronary operatics? It varies from person to person but there are some underlying principles. Your personality and general attitude to life will have their causes and conditions. These are rooted in (a) nature (your genes), (b) nurture (your culture, sub culture, community and family), and (c) chance (whether the lightning strikes you or your neighbour). You cannot do much about nature and chance but the nurture door is wide open. Like most people you will be driven by habitual shoulds and oughts. By taking thought you can recognise and transform these and be born again. You can unleash the muse that lies waiting in us all and then move effortlessly with the natural flow of things in your new world. The key is to set aside some quiet time to be a witness to what goes on in your head. You notice what you are noticing and feeling and you think about what you are thinking. This allows you to respond thoughtfully rather than react automatically. Such freedom and control is enough to bring a smile to anyones face. But there is more. Mystics of all times and places tell us that witnessing leads to appreciation of (a) the illusory nature of the self, and (b) the churning vital force that is the Oneness. From this point of view we are each integral parts of an immense, timeless and benign universal process. Is it any wonder that such realisations set the mind free and make the heart sing.
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21 Ranting - and editing the word of God

For our present purpose rants can be thought of as high energy linguistic outbursts. These can be rational or emotional, and they can be written or spoken. In rational written rant mode you begin with a brainstorm from which you develop an outline and then flesh it out. In emotional written rant mode you just write the story as it flows from the unconscious: it is as if there is an independent inner author, as if you are just channelling the outputs from the muse, as if you are taking dictation from the word of God (or the devil!) Ideally the output from the muse would be flawless but, at least in my case, this rarely happens. Most often there is interplay between the rational and the emotional. When being rational there can be Aha moments that greatly enliven the basic story. And, when being creative, the emotional outbursts can normally benefit from pruning and rearranging by a cool-headed editor. Spoken ranting is similar to written ranting but is more immediate and is less susceptible to editing after the event. Gifted spoken ranters are in essence high energy story tellers who have learned to marry the rational and the emotional. At the other end of the spectrum are those uncontrolled ranters of whom it might be said that they open their mouths and let their bellies rumble. And in the middle position are those more balanced conversationalists who heed the request to please engage brain before opening mouth. Daily life offers an endless stream of more or less engaging rants from family and friends. And, if that is not enough to meet your need for animated communication, you can always top up on outputs from the media, and increasingly from ICT assisted social networks. Humanity is not short of ranters who are prone to high energy linguistic outbursts and to expressing the word of their God This is a living example!
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22 Irregular flow from blue to pink

It is November 2010 and I am a bit blue89. I could therefore take steps towards the pink by calling up mindfulness, or failing that, the scientific mode of thought. I am fascinated by the idea of spontaneous utterances from the muse while in a state of grace - being in flow while in the zone.
Harnessing the submerged parts of the I am blessed in having a choice of unconsciousness iceberg. Unlocking the mental modes. This means that I need creativity storehouse. not react automatically from habit to It is as if you get something from nothing. whatever happens to turn up in the attention centre. I am thus, to some extent, free to choose how I respond to external and internal stimuli. But there can still be contention about action (eg whether or not to fill my tax return I know it makes sense but I cannot bring myself to do it). So, when it comes to control, which I wins out and why? Presumably there are unconscious patterns of thought and feeling that have command of the situation, and they hide from conscious attention. Freedom will thus involve uncovering what is hidden so that it can be rationally factored into the equations. Aha - I am aware that I no longer recall what is written above. I paid some kind of attention for a while - then the focus shifted. It was like that with the recent official documents that I converted to plain language. I find it hard to realise that I edited them and that every word, sentence and paragraph was carefully honed. And now it is all gone from memory. And this is not a problem. There is no need to remember - so I dont. Aha - I am fascinated by the idea of spontaneous utterances from the muse while in a state of grace - being in flow while in the zone. Harnessing the submerged parts of the unconsciousness iceberg. Unlocking the creativity storehouse. It is as if you get something from nothing. The mystics and creatives reckon that it is possible. Something from no-thing, from the Oneness. Absolute truth - the way things really are. But, sad to report, such understanding has not as yet managed to create a heaven on earth. Are we at a turning point90? Are the mystics and creatives entering the mainstream? What do you think? And what are the causes and conditions that make you think this rather than that? So - I am still a bit blue but there is also a faint flush of pink after the irregular flow.
89 90
this article was written shortly before I was diagnosed as suffering from Parkinsons Disease Ref Fritjof Capra (1982) The Turning Point - Science, Society and the Rising Culture; ISBN 0006540171
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Muse Flows in The Zone - Below The Tip of The Iceberg

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Muse flows in the zone - below the tip of the iceberg

George G Clark June 2011 http://ww.srds.co.uk

2. Time and the flexible brain

3. Caring in a complex world

4. The Unconscious is not magic

5. Many Passing Thoughts

6. How to capture passing thoughts

8. Right frame of mind

10. The Power of Whims

11. Is this the light?

12. In the Mood?

13. The unconscious iceberg intention and the muse

14. No end to flux

15. Push Button People (for peace?)

16. Dealing with Distraction

17. The Aware Space

18. Grist to the Mill of Mindfulness

19. Unofficial Writing

20. What makes your heart sing?

21. Ranting - and editing the word of God

22. Irregular flow from blue to pink

02 Time and the flexible brain

03 Caring in a complex world

Q - So what can be done about it?

04 The unconscious is not magic

Ref Mark Epstein Ref Jon Kabat-Zinn 31 Ref V S Ramachandran 32 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_psychology

05 Many passing thoughts

How many thoughts do you have each day?

What kinds of thoughts do you have?

What good does it do to think about your thoughts?

06 How to capture passing thoughts

A. Noticing and listing - 15 minutes

B. Sorting and Sequencing - 40 minutes

C. Editing and polishing - 5 minutes

08 Right frame of mind

10 The power of whims

11 Is this the light?

See one-pager The unconscious is not magic pronounced chick-sent-me-hall-yee

13 The unconscious iceberg intention and the muse

http://www.wrathofgrapes.com/pippa.html http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/nutshell/systems.htm 82 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMV_zDQaq9o

15 Push button people (for peace?)

16 Dealing with distraction

17 The aware space

18 Grist to the mill of mindfulness

20 What makes your heart sing?

21 Ranting - and editing the word of God

22 Irregular flow from blue to pink

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