Embedded Files
Inspired by Carl Sagan's paean to the iconic "pale blue dot", Maya Angelou wrote a poem as relevant today as when she composed it for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in 1995.
Over the past three decades, a series of conferences have introduced the idea of a convergence between Buddhism and neuroscience. Psychologists, psychotherapists and neuroscientists have noted significant overlaps between their findings and the ancient teachings.
Part I: Compassion (January 24, 2019) ..‘You’ve been using the tools of modern neuroscience to study depression, and anxiety, and fear. Why can’t you use those same tools to study kindness and compassion?’
Part II: Mindfulness (February 5, 2019) - Mindfulness is the process of bringing one's attention to experiences occurring in the present moment..."the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us" health benefits, mindfulness meditation
Past III: The Ego and the "Not-Self" (February 19, 2019) - “Buddhists argue that nothing is constant, everything changes through time, you have a constantly changing stream of consciousness,...And from a neuroscience perspective, the brain and body are constantly in flux. "
Marcus Aurelius, the emperor of Rome from 161 to 180 A.D., was the closest the Western world has seen to Plato's ideal ruler - a philosopher king. Along with Epictetus and Seneca, he is considered one of the most important Stoics. Selections from his personal and philosophical diary, Meditations
Among its many benefits, mindfulness helps us improve our emotional intelligence.. The way it accomplishes this seemingly difficult task is the subject of two posts - at the Psychology Today and Positive Psychology websites.
Maria Popova's "Brain Pickings" newsletter of March 31 [2019] is one of her best. Among its essays are one on the relationship between music and cosmology and one on why we read. I've added some footnotes for "The Jazz of Physics" and "A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader".
Why do some philosophers consider consciousness an illusion? Why have neuroscientists not been able to find its source in the physical human brain? The conversation "Why is Consciousness So Baffling?", between neuroscientist Giulio Tononi and "Closer to Truth" creator and host Robert Lawrence Kuhn proposes some possible answers.
POSTED JUNE 3, 2019
The restorative powers of gardens have long been celebrated. The peaceful beauty, the gentle sounds, the unity with nature provide a perfect setting for contemplation and healing.
The restorative powers of gardens have long been celebrated. The peaceful beauty, the gentle sounds, the unity with nature provide a perfect setting for contemplation and healing.
Huston Smith spent his life exploring the nature and importance of the religious quest and was widely regarded as one of the world's most influential figures in religious studies. Smith once said, “If we are to be true to our own faith, we must attend to others as alertly as we hope they will attend to us.” "The Way Things Are" is a collection of twenty three interviews and essays. Subtitled "Conversations with Huston Smith on the Spiritual Life", it provides insight into both his learnings and his personal journey.
Wonder-full bewilderment
Wonder-full bewilderment
POSTED JUNE 26, 2019
The mystic Sufi poet Rumi (1207-1273) has a beautiful line: "Exchange your cleverness for bewilderment." For Rumi, "bewilderment" here means wonder - rather than random confusion; while "cleverness" means using the rational intellect as the sole means of viewing the world. Seven centuries later, Albert Einstein wrote something similar: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
The mystic Sufi poet Rumi (1207-1273) has a beautiful line: "Exchange your cleverness for bewilderment." For Rumi, "bewilderment" here means wonder - rather than random confusion; while "cleverness" means using the rational intellect as the sole means of viewing the world. Seven centuries later, Albert Einstein wrote something similar: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
In the years between Rumi and Einstein and before and after them, this sentiment - of approaching the world with a sense of wonder - has been verbalized often by poets, philosophers, scientists, and writers. Composers, photographers and painters express it in their very work.
In the years between Rumi and Einstein and before and after them, this sentiment - of approaching the world with a sense of wonder - has been verbalized often by poets, philosophers, scientists, and writers. Composers, photographers and painters express it in their very work.
For us less talented, enjoying these beautiful summer mornings is one way to experience and begin to practice the magic of "bewilderment."
For us less talented, enjoying these beautiful summer mornings is one way to experience and begin to practice the magic of "bewilderment."
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. - Aristotle
If I had influence with the good fairy... I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life. - Rachel Carson
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
The first act of awe, when man was struck with the beauty or wonder of Nature, was the first spiritual experience. - Henryk Skolimowski
Caspar David Friedrich - The Monk by the Sea - "a masterpiece of minimalism and pictorial restraint, while still conjuring a felt sensation of awe, wonder, and humility. "
Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 (Eroica) - First Movement
In Slow, Brooke McAlary gives some of the clearest, most practical advice on the subject that I've seen: "If you don't know where to start, begin by noticing, wandering, exploring, and being filled with wonder. Once we start waking up, even the most mundane, everyday things can become miracles."
Lurking in the lyrics of Olivia Newton-John's "Have You Never Been Mellow?" are two gems about relationship. The second stanza ends with: "Now you're not hard to understand...You need someone to take your hand", and the last line of the refrain is "Have you never let someone else feel strong?"
These lyrics resonate with two key points - the importance of touch and the importance of "mattering" - in social psychologist Adam Waytz's "The Power of Human", a well-researched examination of psychological studies...
Once upon a time, the arts, science and philosophy were practiced as a unity to gain insight into the universe. Today, specialization has moved us beyond the point where any one individual can hope to be well versed in everything. Still, cosmologists' findings on the beginning and end of the universe have wonderful philosophical implications. In a similar way, poets can give us insights into the life well-lived. One of these poets is Wendell Berry, "an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer"...selections from Wendell Berry's poems
“A day without laughter is a day wasted” - Nicolas Chamfort
“A day without laughter is a day wasted” - Nicolas Chamfort
Laughter has enormous benefits for our psyche as well as our physical well-being. The concept has been around for nearly 3000 years: the Bible's Book of Proverbs advised that “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” Laughter therapies are becoming more common as the benefits are confirmed by psychological studies...Norman Cousins surviving an incurable illness; Victor Frankl surviving a Nazi concentration camp; Sebastian Maniscalco; and the Italian man who went to Malta.
I can understand how an artist can conceive a painting and a writer develop a plot, but how does someone like Haydn or Beethoven or Brahms compose a symphony? Music is a supremely creative art. And its power to heal is being proved in the increasing use of music therapy. Plus Oliver Sacks, cultural evolution, and some notes on a middle school science fair project.
POSTED OCT 3, 2019
A 1967 study of over 5,000 medical patients found a strong correlation between stressful events and illness. What is notable is that almost all of the top dozen or so stressful life events involved change of some type - even positive change such as marriage or retirement. Since ancient times, philosophers have considered change to be a natural part of life. Consider the writings of the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius (121 - 180) and those of the author of the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu (b. 601 BC). Separated by many centuries and thousands of miles, both advise acceptance of the inevitability of change and warn of the futility and pain that come with resistance. Noting that loss is just another form of change and that life is fleeting, they consider how best to live that life.
Memory is closely connected with the concept of a continuous self: childhood amnesia, the cruelty of Alzheimer's, the fallibility of memory, the role of sleep, brain health and delta waves
Being in and communing with nature brings mental, physical and spiritual benefits. We are part of the natural world and nourished by it. Researchers today are confirming insights from ancient cultures and more recent intellectual movements: Native Americans, komorebi and shinrin-yoku, friluftsliv and allemannsretten, Western European Romanticism, the American wilderness tradition, and ecotherapy.
Scandinavian nations consistently rank among the happiest on the planet - this, in spite of a tough climate and incredibly short winter days. Hygge, a Danish life philosophy, "only requires consciousness, a certain slowness, and the ability to not just be present – but recognize and enjoy the present." It's an art of creating intimacy with yourself, your friends and your home.
Want to be happy? Be grateful. 2019.
Want to be happy? Be grateful. 2019.
POSTED NOVEMBER 28, 2019
This may be the best TED talk I've ever viewed.
This may be the best TED talk I've ever viewed.
"The one thing all humans have in common is that each of us wants to be happy, says Brother David Steindl-Rast, a monk and interfaith scholar. And happiness, he suggests, is born from gratitude. An inspiring lesson in slowing down, looking where you're going, and above all, being grateful." (TED)
"The one thing all humans have in common is that each of us wants to be happy, says Brother David Steindl-Rast, a monk and interfaith scholar. And happiness, he suggests, is born from gratitude. An inspiring lesson in slowing down, looking where you're going, and above all, being grateful." (TED)
"[Gratefulness] can change our world in immensely important ways. Because if you are grateful, you are not fearful and if you are not fearful, you are not violent. If you are grateful, you act out of a sense of enough and not of a sense of scarcity, and you are willing to share. If you are grateful, you are enjoying the differences between people, and you are respectful to everybody, and that changes this power pyramid under which we live." -Brother David Steindl-Rast
"[Gratefulness] can change our world in immensely important ways. Because if you are grateful, you are not fearful and if you are not fearful, you are not violent. If you are grateful, you act out of a sense of enough and not of a sense of scarcity, and you are willing to share. If you are grateful, you are enjoying the differences between people, and you are respectful to everybody, and that changes this power pyramid under which we live." -Brother David Steindl-Rast
Book One of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations is an exercise in gratitude. In it, Marcus gives us ten pages worth of gratitude to his family, teachers, mentors, friends and the gods. The first few lines read
Book One of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations is an exercise in gratitude. In it, Marcus gives us ten pages worth of gratitude to his family, teachers, mentors, friends and the gods. The first few lines read
From my grandfather decency and a mild temper
From my natural father: integrity and manliness
From my mother: piety, generosity, the avoidance of wrongdoing and even the thought of it; also simplicity of living, well clear of the habits of the rich
If we believe Brother David's suggestion that happiness is born from gratitude, we can imagine that Marcus Aurelius must have been a very happy man.
If we believe Brother David's suggestion that happiness is born from gratitude, we can imagine that Marcus Aurelius must have been a very happy man.
Here, on Thanksgiving Day 2019, are a few quotes and expressions of gratitude from the "philosopher-king" and others:
Here, on Thanksgiving Day 2019, are a few quotes and expressions of gratitude from the "philosopher-king" and others:
"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love." — Marcus Aurelius
"To me every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle." - Walt Whitman
"My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me." - Jim Valvano
"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” ― Marcel Proust
"Adapt yourself to the life you have been given; and truly love the people with whom destiny has surrounded you." - Marcus Aurelius
Maria Popova encourages us to make our resolutions "the most meaningful ones, aiming at a deeper kind of health through the refinement of our mental, spiritual, and emotional habits." She provides fifteen "higher-order resolutions for personal refinement" based on the writings of thinkers from Seneca to Rebecca Solnit.
Humanity's Search for Meaning
Humanity's Search for Meaning
POSTED DECEMBER 26, 2019
Two recent science news items got me thinking about why humans, once their basic needs are fulfilled, search for meaning in their lives.
Two recent science news items got me thinking about why humans, once their basic needs are fulfilled, search for meaning in their lives.
An ancient relative of modern humans survived into comparatively recent times in South East Asia, a new study has revealed. Homo erectus evolved around two million years ago, and was the first known human species to walk fully upright. New dating evidence shows that it survived until just over 100,000 years ago on the Indonesian island of Java - long after it had vanished elsewhere. This means it was still around when our own species was walking the Earth.
"Our own species", homo sapiens, evolved about 180,000 years ago. We gave ourselves the title "wise man," and I wonder if our ancestors like homo erectus considered themselves wise also. They certainly had self-awareness, a quality of mind attributed by most scientists to other species with mental complexity. But had this self-awareness reached the point where they wondered why they were here? Indeed when did homo sapiens begin to think on the "meaning of life"? The peer-reviewed Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy contends that, although writers only began to write of the meaning of life in the 19th century, we "may read our ancestors in such a way that warrants the claim that the meaning of life has been a human concern from the beginning."
"Our own species", homo sapiens, evolved about 180,000 years ago. We gave ourselves the title "wise man," and I wonder if our ancestors like homo erectus considered themselves wise also. They certainly had self-awareness, a quality of mind attributed by most scientists to other species with mental complexity. But had this self-awareness reached the point where they wondered why they were here? Indeed when did homo sapiens begin to think on the "meaning of life"? The peer-reviewed Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy contends that, although writers only began to write of the meaning of life in the 19th century, we "may read our ancestors in such a way that warrants the claim that the meaning of life has been a human concern from the beginning."
A recent study by researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine found that the presence of and search for meaning in life are important for health and well-being. A news release from the UC San Diego News Center summarizes the work:
A recent study by researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine found that the presence of and search for meaning in life are important for health and well-being. A news release from the UC San Diego News Center summarizes the work:
“Many think about the meaning and purpose in life from a philosophical perspective, but meaning in life is associated with better health, wellness and perhaps longevity,” said senior author Dilip V. Jeste, MD, senior associate dean for the Center of Healthy Aging and Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “Those with meaning in life are happier and healthier than those without it.” The study, published online in the December 10, 2019 edition of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, found the presence of meaning in life is associated with better physical and mental well-being, while the search for meaning in life may be associated with worse mental well-being and cognitive functioning. “When you find more meaning in life, you become more contented, whereas if you don’t have purpose in life and are searching for it unsuccessfully, you will feel much more stressed out,” said Jeste.
If the meaning of life has been a human concern "from the beginning", then perhaps this search for meaning has an evolutionary purpose resulting in improved health and well-being when we eventually find it.
If the meaning of life has been a human concern "from the beginning", then perhaps this search for meaning has an evolutionary purpose resulting in improved health and well-being when we eventually find it.
The classic text on this is Viktor Frankl's autobiographical "Man's Search for Meaning". An Austrian psychotherapist, Frankl relates his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and describes how he survived it. His method involved identifying a purpose in life to feel positive about and then "immersively imagining that outcome." [1]
The classic text on this is Viktor Frankl's autobiographical "Man's Search for Meaning". An Austrian psychotherapist, Frankl relates his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and describes how he survived it. His method involved identifying a purpose in life to feel positive about and then "immersively imagining that outcome." [1]
The second half of "Man’s Search For Meaning" is an explanation of Frankl's therapeutic theory and methodology. The theory is founded on the belief that “human nature is motivated by the search for a life purpose" and is fundamentally a positive mode of therapy. "It is about achieving one’s potentialities at different stages of life and going to a happy death, satisfied that it has been a good life lived. At the core of the theory lies hope, that life has a meaning, and one would be able to know that meaning if one looked for it in the right manner." [2]
The second half of "Man’s Search For Meaning" is an explanation of Frankl's therapeutic theory and methodology. The theory is founded on the belief that “human nature is motivated by the search for a life purpose" and is fundamentally a positive mode of therapy. "It is about achieving one’s potentialities at different stages of life and going to a happy death, satisfied that it has been a good life lived. At the core of the theory lies hope, that life has a meaning, and one would be able to know that meaning if one looked for it in the right manner." [2]
Another practitioner of "positive psychology" was Abraham Maslow - who is most known for his hierarchy of needs. Victor Frankl added another level to Maslow's pyramid – that of self-transcendence. Maslow himself added this new apex to the pyramid in his later years, although he had not finished his work on it when he died in 1970.
Another practitioner of "positive psychology" was Abraham Maslow - who is most known for his hierarchy of needs. Victor Frankl added another level to Maslow's pyramid – that of self-transcendence. Maslow himself added this new apex to the pyramid in his later years, although he had not finished his work on it when he died in 1970.
I've put a few links in the sidebar that may be helpful if you want to pursue this more.
I've put a few links in the sidebar that may be helpful if you want to pursue this more.
[1] Wikipedia
[2] livemint website
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