Beck also authored a keen article for Lions Roar magazine in August 2011 called A Sane Life; see https://www.lionsroar.com/a-sane-life/. I love her opening paragraph:
“My dog doesn’t worry about the meaning of life. She may worry if she doesn’t get her breakfast, but she doesn’t sit around worrying about whether she will get fulfilled or liberated or enlightened. As long as she gets some food and a little affection, her life is fine. But we human beings are not like dogs. We have self-centered minds which get us into plenty of trouble. If we do not come to understand the error in the way we think, our self-awareness, which is our greatest blessing, is also our downfall.“
There is an ancient parable very close to my heart, which goes as follows: a Jewish man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers, leaving him half dead. A priest and a Levite saw him yet passed by. But a Samaritan came to where the man was and bandaged his wounds. Then, put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and cared for him until he healed. Today, this beautiful story is the etymology of the phrase “good Samaritan”, a person who is a “neighbor” not just to people of their own group (at the time, there was intense hostility between Samaritans and Jews). We understand it, remember it, and retell it later because the idea of love, compassion, and a man crossing a tremendous social gulf to help a wounded man sticks with us. The story may even change our behavior in some way as we remember to help others in times of distress. Legendary stories like these encapsulate: stories hold a miraculous power.
Made to Stick is a book I read written by two brothers, Chip Heath, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University and Dan Heath, a senior member for Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University. The brothers explain, “stories are told and retold because they contain wisdom. A story’s power is that it provides simulation (knowledge about how to act) and inspiration (motivation to act).” Being a health and fitness freak, the key example highlighted in the book sticks with me: the Jared Campaign for Subway. In the late 1990’s, Subway launched a campaign to tout the healthiness of a new line of sandwiches. This campaign was based on the statistics: seven subs under six grams of fat. Sounds pretty good yeah? But this 7 under 6 idea didn’t stick quite like Subway’s next campaign which focused on the remarkable story of Jared. Jared, a college student, was seriously overweight, ballooning up to 425 pounds. But by spring, Jared decided to slim down. He had his first Turkey sub. He eventually developed his own all-Subway diet: a foot long veggie sub for lunch and a six-inch turkey sub for dinner. After 3 months of this diet, he dropped almost 100 pounds. Coad and Barry, president of the advertising agency Hal Riney, found out about this and thought, “we’ve got a great story on our hands”. They decided to run an advertisement for regional Subway franchisees. The idea blew the internet. Unlike the 7 under 6 idea which only held logos, the tale of Jared holds a simulation value as well as pathos, the emotional resonance which provides inspiration. Perhaps we are not all looking to lose weight. But ‘fighting big odds and prevailing through perseverance’, now that sounds inspirational to any ear. And inspiration drives action.
That being said, not all stories stick. Chip and Dan hence came up with 3 types of plots if our goal is to energize and inspire others through our stories. First, the challenge plot. We all recognize this one, where a protagonist overcomes a formidable challenge yet succeeds in the end, attracting triumph and glory. As someone who is obsessed with Disney princesses, my personal favorite story, much similar to the Jared story, is the one about Princess Mulan. Mulan is a loving and determined daughter. Desperate to prevent her ailing father from being drafted by the army, she disguises herself as a man and enlists in his place. In the army, she must try to hide her true identity while battling the enemies. With determination and bravery, Mulan ends up saving both her father and her country. Seems like the quintessential challenge plot, right?
Second, the connection plot. The story of the good Samaritan fits well into this one. We live in a world where we are constantly surrounded by people. Connection plots are all about the relationships we form with these people.In the business world, connection plots create an emotional connection between a company, its products and its customers. Always is a company that produces period products for women. As a girl, watching the advert from Always titled ‘Like a girl’ made me feel proud being one. It showed a group of teens acting out certain actions such as “Can you throw like a girl?” or “Can you fight like a girl?”. Girls were illustrated as soft, wimpy, and sloppy. The ad then contrasted this by asking the same questions to little girls. These girls this time ran, threw, and fought normally. “When did doing something “like a girl” become an insult?” was the food for thought. All over the nation, this advert empowered women. Our power was unleashed!
Third, the creativity plot. As a frequent flyer, I have often observed how on-flight safety instructions are given little attention by most passengers. One of my favorite examples showcasing the creativity plot is hence the one about a flight attendant, Karen Wood. Karen wanted to make people care about the safety instructions on flight. “And as the song goes, there may be fifty ways to leave your lover, but there are only six ways to leave this aircraft:…”, she spoke. It didn’t take long for passengers to tune into her comic spiel. We can’t demand attention, we must attract it. Creativity plots help us achieve this as we do something different, harness creativity, and experiment with new approaches (within certain regulations, of course).
The power of storytelling fascinates me. Thousands of years ago, myths and legends were told through oral cultures. These then developed profound ways of communicating so that cultures were able to transmit themselves through generations. Think also about the way we get lost in fictitious worlds from the books we’re reading or the way we identify with different protagonists from the movies we’re watching. I often marvel over how the horror movies I watch haunt me in my sleep, or how tales of adventure like Princess Moana’s venture into the sea drive me to go set out on my own, how romance novels set expectations in love I’d possibly carry with me throughout my life, and even how comedic pieces make me fondly quote cheesy lines in my day to day life. In the marketing world, too, it is through storytelling that the audience is able to connect, engage, empathize, and most importantly, remember messages. As Steve Jobs exceptionally summarizes, “the most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.”
Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh died last January, 1.22.22, yet his impact on the world continues. Below are a couple of quotes from his book The Art of Communicating for your consideration:
“Every human and every animal communicate. We typically think of communication as the words we use when we speak or write, but our body language, our facial expressions, our tone of voice, our physical actions, and even our thoughts are ways of communicating.
Every time we communicate, we either produce more compassion, love, and harmony or we produce more suffering and violence. Our communication is what we put out into the world and what remains after we have left it. In this way, our communication is our karma. The Sanskrit word karma means ‘action,’ and it refers not just to our bodily action but to what we express with our bodies, our words, and our thoughts and intentions.” The Art of Communicating, Thich Nhat Hanh, Parallax Press (c) 2013, p.139
May our thoughts, words and actions contribute more compassion, love and harmony today.
Humans are competitive, omnivores and violent BUT do we have to be?
COMPETITION in the world is seen as a natural aspect of our “struggle for existence” and a basis for natural selection. See Population Biology: Ecological and Evolutionary Viewpoints https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-642-74474-7
What is the competition between species? Food, shelter and water.
What is the competition within the same species? Food, shelter, water and mates.
And it was Sigmund Freud he reminded us of our sublimation: In psychology, sublimation is a mature type of defense mechanism, in which socially unacceptable impulses or idealizations are transformed into socially acceptable actions or behavior, possibly resulting in a long-term conversion of the initial impulse. Sigmund Freud 1926. Or in other words, we divert or modify our instinctual impulses into more socially acceptable activity. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublimation_(psychology)
Humans, as omnivores, (meaning they eat both plants and meat) may have developed larger brains as a result of meat-eating behavior. “Animals have been part of human diets for more than 3 million years” and “we do know that meat-eating was one of the most pivotal changes in our ancestors’ diets and that it led to many of the physical, behavioral, and ecological changes that make us uniquely human.” (See Briana Pobinar’s article https://www.americanscientist.org/article/meat-eating-among-the-earliest-humans)
VIOLENCE
“Some argue that humans are inherently aggressive, violent, and competitive, cooperating only for personal gain, while others believe that humans are inherently compassionate, peaceful, and loving, acting aggressively and violently only in unnatural circumstances or when they are afraid.
Isn’t it more reasonable to perceive humans as capable of horrific cruelty and violence as well as astonishing altruism and peaceful collaboration (and everything in between), and to notice that the great majority of the time? Humans can even be cooperative and competitive simultaneously. Think of team sports, in which we collaborate peacefully with our teammates to compete (sometimes violently) with another team.
But what remains true, no matter where one falls on the “What is humanity’s essential nature?” spectrum, is that we are capable of nurturing, reinforcing, and cultivating our more peaceful natures, and that we can also become violent based on the situations and systems in which we find ourselves.” Zoe Weil, co-founder and president of the Institute of Humane Education
It’s the beginning of a new year so returning to basics, briefly, seems like a worthwhile exercise. I mean, I can spend a lot of time trying to answer questions like Who Am I and What Is My Life’s Purpose, etc. but I shouldn’t forget my biology, should I? After all, we are still dealing with mental and physical health, a pandemic, overpopulation and the Sixth Extinction, right?
So, I’m focused this week on our animal-ness, our basic living status and what that might mean when it comes to how we live our lives.
Here’s a question for you: why do we conveniently deny our animal nature? Below are a couple of thoughts to consider.
Question:Why is it, for some reason, that humans try to separate themselves from the animal kingdom when we ourselves are animals?
All religions hold that humans are special, created at separate times and under different circumstances from other animals. Some are even so arrogant as to say that humans were made in the image of some creator or another.
That is the problem.
Most, if not all, religions try to explain consciousness with the idea of a “soul” or a “spirit” – something other than the body. Those creeds that allow animals to have a soul, also believe that being an animal is but a stage in a human’s climb toward the essence of creation. So, the soul is human, after all, and the animal just a temporary learning stage for the sublime, divine spirit.
All rubbish, of course, but still at the very foundation of religion. After all, if your beliefs don’t make you special, why have them? If placing faith in such utter balderdash does not serve to at least unite you with similarly weak-minded imbeciles, why have faith at all?
This is the single most important difference between religion – any religion – and a scientific, realist view of the world.
See, if you can’t explain animals, or plants, put yourself so far above them that no explanation is required, except to say that they were made to serve you, either as food and clothing, or as faithful tame companions, or as a step up the ladder of enlightenment.
One last post on the excellent book by Cynthia Bourgeault, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, (c) 2004.
Centering Prayer (CP) might better be called the “path to your most interior self” or the “abiding prayer of silence.” The name itself is not important it is the practice of meditation that makes a difference.
CP is the creation of inter-religious and interspiritual dialogue. Based on Hindu, Zen Buddhism, Jain, Christian (Catholic, Protestant, Quaker), 12 Step Program for Recovery to Addiction, Transcendental Meditation and Ken Wilbur’s 9-Level Fallacy.
Ultimately, committed daily sitting in silence will encourage you to:
Renew your own tradition (e.g., Buddhist meditation)
Be of service to others in the community
Engage in and appreciate interspiritual dialogue
I highly recommend reading or listening to the audiobook for Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening and/or watching the 1hr/17-minute YouTube video linked above with special attention on the last 17 minutes.
As Thomas Keating said, the nothingness (of sitting in silence) leads to infinite possibilities.
Today I’m sharing more highlights from Cynthia Bourgeault‘s book Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening with a focus on Divine Therapy.
What is Divine Therapy? How much and how frequently should you engage in it? How helpful and how risky is this form of meditation? Check out the quotes below:
“In the summer of 1983, Keating organized the first Centering Prayer Intensive …. hoping to achieve a more concentrated meditative experience on the model of a Zen sesshin, or deep immersion retreat ….
Keating produced a tape-video series then a series of books …. in an innovative synthesis, Keating interweaves the traditional wisdom of Thomas Acquinas, Teresa of Avila, and John of the Cross with the contemporary insights of Ken Wilbur, Michael Washburn, Jean Piaget, and even the Twelve Step Method of Alcoholics Anonymous. The result is a comprehensive psycho-spiritual paradigm that begins in woundedness and ends, if a person is willing to take it that far, in transforming union. He calls it the Divine Therapy.” Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, (c) 2004 Cynthia Bourgeault, The Psychology of Centering Prayer, pp. 91 – 93
Keating explains in his own book, Intimacy with God, (c) 1994, the real meaning of the term transforming union is “we can bring the false self to (church), but we cannot bring the false self forever to contemplative prayer because it is the nature of contemplative prayer to dissolve it.” p.98
Bourgeault goes on to explain that “a period of committed sitting is often the emergence of a patch of pain long buried and several days of emotional turmoil …. and quotes Keating once again with his explanation that (committed sitting) ‘will reduce anxiety for perhaps the first three months. But once the unconscious starts to unload, it will give you more anxiety than you ever had in your life.’ For individual practitioners he recommends a limited dosage – twenty to thirty minutes twice a day is the normal prescription – to prevent the premature emergence of material into the conscious … by repositioning meditation as a tool for the purification of the unconscious … the ‘Divine Therapy’ is gentle and it always holds paramount the need for integration of psyche and spirit.” p.98-99.
So, as always, “buyer beware” and be gentle with yourself with whatever form of contemplation, meditation or mindfulness you choose to practice. Remember, healing in any dimension (i.e., physical, psychological or spiritual) takes longer than we expect and sometimes we feel worse before we feel better.
“In one of his most colorful teachings Thomas Keating describes (the Centering Prayer contemplation) process using the metaphor of boats on a river. The river, as he depicts it, is your consciousness – which is in fact a constantly moving “stream.” Down it floats boats, i.e., your thoughts …. on and on they float, down the river of your consciousness.” Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, (c) 2004 Cynthia Bourgeault, p.36
The metaphor continues by describing 5 types of boats or thoughts that will traverse your mind as you seek to reach deeper levels of awareness in your meditation practice. Thoughts will come and go “like clouds on a windy day”, Thich Nhat Hanh would say. That’s okay, just let them gently go.
Bourgeault continues, “The Art of Letting Go – the goal in Centering Prayer is not to stop the thoughts, but simply to develop a detached attitude toward them. As long as they are coming and going of their own accord …. this gentle, laissez-faire attitude toward the thoughts is reinforced through a simple formula called “The Four Rs“:
Resist no thought
Retain no thought
React to no thought
Return to (your) sacred word
Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, (c) 2004 Cynthia Bourgeault, p.39-40
Ultimately, contemplation, meditation, mindfulness is more about going with the flow of “stream of consciousness” rather than fighting with our ordinary awareness level.
This week I am focusing on mindfulness aka contemplation or meditation. Today, I focus on Richard Rohr‘s 90-minute video offering a Christian perspective of contemplation. Here are the top 10 key highlights for me:
the quicker we let go of ego and move beyond a positive self-image, the quicker we realize that we are spiritual beings learning how to be fully human
religion is both the best and worst thing in the world if we never transform beyond our ego
Christianity is simply learning how to lose graciously; a Christian is someone who has met one
We shouldn’t say prayers; rather we should be one
it’s right relationship over correct performance
move beyond limousine liberal imaging
how you do anything (in the present moment) is how you do everything
the first half of any contemplative sit is seeing our own “garbage” and hopefully the second half is letting it go to reconnect with present moment awareness
to observe is far more effective than attacking
the most radical thing we can do is contemplation
Finally, I especially appreciated Rohr’s summation that we should not confuse meeting attendance or group membership with transformation. The bigger picture of contemplation is not to get hung up on posture, process or programs. Contemplation is about reconnecting with our higher power and recognizing our relationship with everyone and everything.
If you’re looking for something new to help you focus and feel more peaceful this year, then consider mindfulness meditation. You don’t have to adopt a new religion to do this. Contemplation is something found across religions and secular psychological traditions and there are many simple ways to learn about this calming practice.
For example, check out the free daily teaching from Tricycle Magazine this month; find more information below.
Life Matters 