Meditation for software engineers
Meditation for software engineers |
- Meditation for software engineers
- Meditation for software engineers
- Control Your Anger With These 5 Steps to Effective Anger Management
- Working with the Obstacles in Your Path
- Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/3/2013
- What is higher power?
- Separating numinous from supernatural
- “To believe in the heroic makes heroes” Benjamin Disraeli
- The last temptation: seeking alpha
- Riding the wave of secular meditation
| Meditation for software engineers Posted: 03 Jun 2013 10:02 AM PDT
Although software engineering is a craft – not unlike carpentry or gardening – it's a craft where no manual labour is involved. The raw material is pure thoughtstuff and the end product is invisible. So we are obliged to live most of our working lives in the world of abstract ideas, never laying our hands on our work. Another useful way to describe software development is that it is an editorial process. We are always working on a draft, building it out and then honing it down, over and over until we have something that is fit for purpose. And then we start again for the next release. This is a creative process and for that reason it's intense and personal. We begin to identify with the code we produce. A third characteristic of this kind of work is that we spend a great deal of time trying to solve problems – either by studying an overall solution to a customer's needs, or by debugging our first attempts at that solution. We move from problem to problem and use the same skillset – logic, experience, concentration – to work through each one. Let's look again at this combination of factors: we spend much time in abstractions; the work is intense and creative but requires collaboration with other intensely creative people; and we approach the world as a series of puzzles to solve or problems to fix. This internal regime of mind can lead to problems both inside and outside the office. Abstractions are necessary for navigating a complex world. Without the ability to generalize from particulars and build up a mental model of reality, we could not function as human beings. But for long periods of time this is all software engineers do. We begin to mistake our abstractions for reality (whatever that might be), and in fact we fall in love with those abstractions and identify with them as completely as we identify with our hard-won solutions to complex engineering problems. Meditation can be a process by which we return to direct experience. Some kinds of sit allow us to observe our thoughts and other mental constructs as they come and go, while we guide our attention to simpler sensory experience such as sound or the tactile sensations of the breath. By experiencing this first-hand, we can rediscover the limited nature of our abstractions and so use them better. An abstraction that is no longer fit for purpose – because things have changed over time, or because it was too simplistic – is a liability in code and in life. In code, we know that we must re-shape these structures to deal with new requirements, and we know that even if this can be a painful process, we will get into 'technical debt' if we don't do it. The less identified we are with the old idea, the easier we can change or discard it, the better our code will be, and the happier we can work. Outside the office, we need to let go of old abstractions and make way for new ones all the time. We can do this if we practice agile self-development: discard ideas that have outgrown their use, confront the pain of change as early as possible in the knowledge that if we don't, we will get deeper and deeper into emotional debt. People who don't work in the software trade and only have TV and movies to go by have been taught to believe that nerds are solitary creatures who work alone (in basements) and usually have personal hygiene issues. Many offices have examples of this stereotype and if this is true of your office, you'll know who those people are precisely because of the fact that they stand out as exceptions. Most software developers are of course perfectly normal and sociable – and this is just as well because any software project of any reasonable size needs a team and that team will have to embody communication and emotional skills if it is to deliver. Software development is a high-pressure team sport. When deadlines are looming (that's what deadlines always seem to do – they loom!) tempers can become worn but the need for tight collaboration becomes even more important. It's crucibles like these that demand of us the kind of qualities that a constant meditation practice can help to develop: steadiness, patience, the ability to not take things personally, and the capacity to deal with stress without exploding or imploding. Finally, there is our approach to problem solving. This is a very transferable skill in the sense that we can use it outside of the workplace. There's nothing wrong with this as long as it doesn't become the only tool in our box. Life is not a software project, or if it is, it's the worst-managed project in the history of engineering: The requirements are never clear from the start and in any case they change by the minute; the interfaces to other modules are completely inconsistent and come and go as they please; there are multiple clients, managers and bosses; the team itself changes every other day and nobody ever really agrees on a design. You can apply all the logic, experience and concentration you like, but you're still just firefighting. The kind of problems that life throws at us cannot be traced and debugged. And more often than not, they can't be solved either. They have to be accepted – even loved. Try that approach in the office! There is no issue tracking system that allows a problem resolution status of Accepted and Loved. In the similar but opposite way, what we find in our todo list outside work cannot always be set to Resolved or Reassigned. And yet we very often act on the habit of our working hours, and try to fix everything that comes our way, or pass it along as somebody else's problem. But if our choice of career can bring all these problematic ways of thinking, it also brings with it the basic tools we need to mitigate them, and first among this is concentration. I've recently heard a good metaphor for what goes on when an engineer is mentally working on a solution: we are building a house of cards. Each layer is built upon the one underneath, but in a gentle way so as not to destroy what we have carefully constructed so far. This is why interruptions are so frustrating. When somebody taps you on the shoulder when you are in the middle of house-building, the cards can come crumbling down in an instant. Sometimes it's not another person who taps on our shoulder, but another thought. What will I have for lunch today? Why don't I check the online news? In order to be productive, we have learned to some extent the importance of extended periods of concentration, and how to maintain them. When you walk around the average software house, the reason you see so many headphones and earbuds in place is not because engineers are anti-social. They are just defending themselves against the crazy but widespread policy of open-plan office space, with all the noise and distraction that this entails. Concentration, which is central to meditative practice, is something that we know how to access. Another positive predisposition to Meditation meditation that engineers may have is an openness to certain fundamental concepts that underpin it. One of these concepts is anatta, or no-self. Bodhipaksa has described this beautifully in Living Like a River and in many blog posts. One of the most helpful images he has used is that of the car with hundreds of people inside scrambling for control of the steering wheel. There is no single driver, but a decentralized – even chaotic – process of control-passing from one process to the next. This concept is deeply counter-intuitive to many people who encounter it for the first time through Buddhism. But to anyone familiar with computer architecture, it makes perfect sense. An engineer's tinkering curiosity will serve well when meditating. We've used the system of consciousness for long enough – sooner or later we're going to want to understand how it actually works. I've heard Shinzen Young make an analogy between meditative concentration and the microscope, in the sense that if we learn how to concentrate we can look more deeply and in more detail into our experience. He might just as easily have used the idea of the symbolic debugger. Meditation can be the tool that permits us to understand how our minds work and follow its loops, uncovering problems in the software and allow us to refactor as we go. So we have some factors in our favour, but I think we can take things further. There is a change we can make in our in order to transfer our professional skills onto the meditation cushion. As a group, we need to become emotionally smarter by learning the skill of self-compassion. There is a phenomenon known as the Imposter Syndrome that is quite prevalent in Silicon Valley and other centres of engineering excellence. A lot of people walk into these cathedrals as employees and feel unworthy, less smart than their peers, and expecting to be uncovered as frauds. These are smart people who are carefully selected, but yet feel that they have slipped through by mistake and that sooner or later they will be found out. I don't know to what degree I personally suffer from this syndrome, but I've seen something strange happening when I'm trying to solve a problem: I feel physically and emotionally unwell until the problem is solved. When I examine the source of that stress (using mindfulness meditation as the debugger) I find fear. The fear that I am not smart enough to fix the problem or solve the puzzle. The fear that I will be found out. This fear becomes the overriding motivation to solve the problem, but paradoxically it creates obstacles and only delays the inevitable solution. I wonder how many of my colleagues go through the same thing. This isn't a very smart way to manage one's emotions, inside or outside the office. A more kindly approach would serve better. If we can be more gentle with ourselves then over the long run we will end up being more productive, easier to work with, and happier. The Wildmind Google+ 100 day Community is almost half-way through 100 days of daily meditations on Lovingkindness. If you find the above description of the life of a software engineer to be accurate, or if it at least sparks that engineer's curiosity in you to experiment with meditation, then consider this an invitation to join us. Read More @ Source |
| Meditation for software engineers Posted: 03 Jun 2013 10:00 AM PDT
Although software engineering is a craft – not unlike carpentry or gardening – it's a craft where no manual labour is involved. The raw material is pure thoughtstuff and the end product is invisible. So we are obliged to live most of our working lives in the world of abstract ideas, never laying our hands on our work. Another useful way to describe software development is that it is an editorial process. We are always working on a draft, building it out and then honing it down, over and over until we have something that is fit for purpose. And then we start again for the next release. This is a creative process and for that reason it's intense and personal. We begin to identify with the code we produce. A third characteristic of this kind of work is that we spend a great deal of time trying to solve problems – either by studying an overall solution to a customer's needs, or by debugging our first attempts at that solution. We move from problem to problem and use the same skillset – logic, experience, concentration – to work through each one. Let's look again at this combination of factors: we spend much time in abstractions; the work is intense and creative but requires collaboration with other intensely creative people; and we approach the world as a series of puzzles to solve or problems to fix. This internal regime of mind can lead to problems both inside and outside the office. Abstractions are necessary for navigating a complex world. Without the ability to generalize from particulars and build up a mental model of reality, we could not function as human beings. But for long periods of time this is all software engineers do. We begin to mistake our abstractions for reality (whatever that might be), and in fact we fall in love with those abstractions and identify with them as completely as we identify with our hard-won solutions to complex engineering problems. Meditation can be a process by which we return to direct experience. Some kinds of sit allow us to observe our thoughts and other mental constructs as they come and go, while we guide our attention to simpler sensory experience such as sound or the tactile sensations of the breath. By experiencing this first-hand, we can rediscover the limited nature of our abstractions and so use them better. An abstraction that is no longer fit for purpose – because things have changed over time, or because it was too simplistic – is a liability in code and in life. In code, we know that we must re-shape these structures to deal with new requirements, and we know that even if this can be a painful process, we will get into 'technical debt' if we don't do it. The less identified we are with the old idea, the easier we can change or discard it, the better our code will be, and the happier we can work. Outside the office, we need to let go of old abstractions and make way for new ones all the time. We can do this if we practice agile self-development: discard ideas that have outgrown their use, confront the pain of change as early as possible in the knowledge that if we don't, we will get deeper and deeper into emotional debt. People who don't work in the software trade and only have TV and movies to go by have been taught to believe that nerds are solitary creatures who work alone (in basements) and usually have personal hygiene issues. Many offices have examples of this stereotype and if this is true of your office, you'll know who those people are precisely because of the fact that they stand out as exceptions. Most software developers are of course perfectly normal and sociable – and this is just as well because any software project of any reasonable size needs a team and that team will have to embody communication and emotional skills if it is to deliver. Software development is a high-pressure team sport. When deadlines are looming (that's what deadlines always seem to do – they loom!) tempers can become worn but the need for tight collaboration becomes even more important. It's crucibles like these that demand of us the kind of qualities that a constant meditation practice can help to develop: steadiness, patience, the ability to not take things personally, and the capacity to deal with stress without exploding or imploding. Finally, there is our approach to problem solving. This is a very transferable skill in the sense that we can use it outside of the workplace. There's nothing wrong with this as long as it doesn't become the only tool in our box. Life is not a software project, or if it is, it's the worst-managed project in the history of engineering: The requirements are never clear from the start and in any case they change by the minute; the interfaces to other modules are completely inconsistent and come and go as they please; there are multiple clients, managers and bosses; the team itself changes every other day and nobody ever really agrees on a design. You can apply all the logic, experience and concentration you like, but you're still just firefighting. The kind of problems that life throws at us cannot be traced and debugged. And more often than not, they can't be solved either. They have to be accepted – even loved. Try that approach in the office! There is no issue tracking system that allows a problem resolution status of Accepted and Loved. In the similar but opposite way, what we find in our todo list outside work cannot always be set to Resolved or Reassigned. And yet we very often act on the habit of our working hours, and try to fix everything that comes our way, or pass it along as somebody else's problem. But if our choice of career can bring all these problematic ways of thinking, it also brings with it the basic tools we need to mitigate them, and first among this is concentration. I've recently heard a good metaphor for what goes on when an engineer is mentally working on a solution: we are building a house of cards. Each layer is built upon the one underneath, but in a gentle way so as not to destroy what we have carefully constructed so far. This is why interruptions are so frustrating. When somebody taps you on the shoulder when you are in the middle of house-building, the cards can come crumbling down in an instant. Sometimes it's not another person who taps on our shoulder, but another thought. What will I have for lunch today? Why don't I check the online news? In order to be productive, we have learned to some extent the importance of extended periods of concentration, and how to maintain them. When you walk around the average software house, the reason you see so many headphones and earbuds in place is not because engineers are anti-social. They are just defending themselves against the crazy but widespread policy of open-plan office space, with all the noise and distraction that this entails. Concentration, which is central to meditative practice, is something that we know how to access. Another positive predisposition to Meditation meditation that engineers may have is an openness to certain fundamental concepts that underpin it. One of these concepts is anatta, or no-self. Bodhipaksa has described this beautifully in Living Like a River and in many blog posts. One of the most helpful images he has used is that of the car with hundreds of people inside scrambling for control of the steering wheel. There is no single driver, but a decentralized – even chaotic – process of control-passing from one process to the next. This concept is deeply counter-intuitive to many people who encounter it for the first time through Buddhism. But to anyone familiar with computer architecture, it makes perfect sense. An engineer's tinkering curiosity will serve well when meditating. We've used the system of consciousness for long enough – sooner or later we're going to want to understand how it actually works. I've heard Shinzen Young make an analogy between meditative concentration and the microscope, in the sense that if we learn how to concentrate we can look more deeply and in more detail into our experience. He might just as easily have used the idea of the symbolic debugger. Meditation can be the tool that permits us to understand how our minds work and follow its loops, uncovering problems in the software and allow us to refactor as we go. So we have some factors in our favour, but I think we can take things further. There is a change we can make in our in order to transfer our professional skills onto the meditation cushion. As a group, we need to become emotionally smarter by learning the skill of self-compassion. There is a phenomenon known as the Imposter Syndrome that is quite prevalent in Silicon Valley and other centres of engineering excellence. A lot of people walk into these cathedrals as employees and feel unworthy, less smart than their peers, and expecting to be uncovered as frauds. These are smart people who are carefully selected, but yet feel that they have slipped through by mistake and that sooner or later they will be found out. I don't know to what degree I personally suffer from this syndrome, but I've seen something strange happening when I'm trying to solve a problem: I feel physically and emotionally unwell until the problem is solved. When I examine the source of that stress (using mindfulness meditation as the debugger) I find fear. The fear that I am not smart enough to fix the problem or solve the puzzle. The fear that I will be found out. This fear becomes the overriding motivation to solve the problem, but paradoxically it creates obstacles and only delays the inevitable solution. I wonder how many of my colleagues go through the same thing. This isn't a very smart way to manage one's emotions, inside or outside the office. A more kindly approach would serve better. If we can be more gentle with ourselves then over the long run we will end up being more productive, easier to work with, and happier. The Wildmind Google+ 100 day Community is almost half-way through 100 days of daily meditations on Lovingkindness. If you find the above description of the life of a software engineer to be accurate, or if it at least sparks that engineer's curiosity in you to experiment with meditation, then consider this an invitation to join us. Read More @ Source |
| Control Your Anger With These 5 Steps to Effective Anger Management Posted: 03 Jun 2013 09:00 AM PDT  Having spent years as a victim of acute anger problems before finding the courage and strength to cure myself, I can tell you, anger is good. No, that's not a typo. Anger is an instinct which Nature programmed into us so that we can save ourselves from danger, and it's healthy. What's unhealthy however, is what I was – a slave of my anger instead of being its master. No prizes for guessing how it was affecting my life and relationships. If you're struggling with anger management, I know how you feel. You feel helpless. You know you are the victim, not those whom your anger is directed against. There are no words to describe the regret and guilt you feel to be unable to protect people you love the most from yourself. The good news is you can find solutions if you want to. Here are some methods I followed which helped me overcome my anger issues completely.     Read More @ Source |
| Working with the Obstacles in Your Path Posted: 03 Jun 2013 08:00 AM PDT By Leo BabautaLet's say you are sitting at your desk, with something to write, and you notice some anxiety, and an urge to go instead to one of your favorite distractions. And let's also say you decided to adopt my approach, the Obstacle is the Path. So the anxiety, and the distraction, are your obstacle … but how do you "work with them" as I advised? First, you don't run from the obstacle. So instead of seeing the anxiety as something to be avoided (with distraction and procrastination), see it as the place you go to. Same with the fear of failure, the worry that things will go wrong, the cold fear that comes when you think of quitting your job and starting something new. Anxiety isn't the worst thing in the world, and is nothing to be feared. It's just a feeling, and we can survive it. So sit with it. Second, you accept the feeling. If it's anxiety, say, "Cool, I'm feeling some anxiety." Not, "No! I don't want to be anxious!" The first actually calms the situation down, and allows you to look at it like an observer. The second makes the situation worse, and makes you see the situation as a scared child. Third, you look at the cause. What is causing your anxiety? Is the writing really such a bad thing? No, actually, it's not that hard. It's simply taking the time to think through some thoughts, and then putting them down in writing, and maybe editing that so that it's clear and makes a bit of sense. The writing itself isn't giving you the anxiety — it's the fantasy you have of wanting to write something excellent that people will think is good and so they will judge you as competent and smart. And the anxiety comes from the worry that you will fail at this and people will instead judge you as dumb. This fantasy, which isn't real, is the source of your anxiety. Fourth, you see that it's hurting you. You can't let go of this fantasy, because you want it so much. But take a moment to see its effects — it is hurting you. It is causing you suffering. It's causing you to not do the things you want to do. Be honest about its effects — the fantasy isn't helping, and is definitely hurting. Fifth, let it go out of compassion. If you're hurting yourself, and not helping, with this fantasy — why hold onto it? What's so great about it? It's not real. It's totally manufactured in your mind. Instead, be compassionate with yourself, and let go of the fantasy. When you let go of this thing you've been holding onto, you can feel a sense of relief. Sixth, then go through the obstacle and be mindful. The obstacle was anxiety. It lessens once you let go of the fantasy. You can now get to writing, and once you do, without fantasies, you can see that it's not that bad. In fact, if you are mindful in your activity, you can see that it's kinda alright. Better than that perhaps — kinda great. And you almost missed out on it because of your obstacle. If you go through this six little steps, which aren't that difficult each step along the way, you'll not only be able to do the writing (or quit your job or start a new project or have a difficult conversation) … you'll be better at dealing with similar obstacles in the future. You'll be stronger, smarter, less afraid. This is why you should work with the obstacles instead of avoiding them — you learn from them. Read More @ Source |
| Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/3/2013 Posted: 03 Jun 2013 06:00 AM PDT  "If we are not happy, if we are not peaceful, we cannot share peace and happiness with others, even those we love, those who live under the same roof. If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace." ~Thich Nhat Hanh      Read More @ Source |
| Posted: 03 Jun 2013 04:00 AM PDT
Step Two. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Many people struggle with this step, because they are looking for some God, some divine external rescuer that will deal with all their issues. And some people just do not want to have anything with religion; and so if that is the case what can they do about higher power? Others deal with this by using nature, or even the 12 step group as their higher power, which is creative and helpful. But higher power does not have to be some almighty thing. If we stop and pause higher power will be with us everywhere we go, if we allow ourselves to be with our direct experience, if we allow ourselves to fully experience all feelings whether pleasant or unpleasant. One of my teachers says: 'Any feeling fully felt is blissful', just imagine that? The writer Joan Tollifson says "being aware" or "being here Now," fully present, paying attention, waking up from the entrancement in thought-stories and being awake to the bare actuality of Here / Now." I believe this is all we need to do if we want to connect to higher power in our lives. Huh! Simple but not easy. Simply, it is higher power in action, restoring us to sanity in a Buddhist frame work by moving from a place of confusion and discontent to a place of calm, content and simplicity.  For a free sample epub chapter of Detox Your Heart and a sample from Vimalasara's online course on working with anger, submit your email address here. * (denotes required field) Name:* E-Mail Address:* So higher power is simply being with all our feelings. When we begin to pay kind attention to ourselves – we naturally soften, open up and change. We become calmer, more relaxed and happier. And meditation is one of the ways to begin to be with all of our experience. When we come to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity we begin to recognize the changes in our lives. For example if we have had a regular meditation practice for a year it is likely the practices of mindfulness and loving kindness have brought about some calm, peace and positive emotion in our lives. Take a rain check:
It is important to mark the changes in our lives, otherwise your life today may just seem normal. And perhaps it is? But was it always this way? So by recognizing change, we see how the higher power of impermanence can also restore our life to sanity. We let go of the old stories of who we are, and recognize how we have changed. We may well have had a lot of change on our road to recovery, and are quite happy with how our life is. Higher Power may be doing wonderful things in our lives.
Becoming attached to our new life is of course inevitable, especially if we are someone who has had an addiction that has overwhelmed us, and now that we are on the road of recovery, Higher Power is working more in our life. Our life going well is not the issue, or indeed having pleasurable experience is not the issue. In fact we need to fully embrace and lean into pleasurable experience. The issue is when we begin to cling on to our good life, when we begin to fear losing what we have, when we begin to push away the difficult things that arise in our life. When this happens, higher power is no longer working in our lives. We will be floundering in confusion and insanity. Here is a short exercise to begin sitting with direct experience.
Can you just sit and enjoy the experience that is happening right now? And once the experience has passed away can you sit contentedly with the new experience? Read More @ Source |
| Separating numinous from supernatural Posted: 02 Jun 2013 11:00 PM PDT Occasionally "cc," a regular commenter on this blog, sends me email messages. They're as cogent, interesting, and well-written as his comments. Below is a recently-received message that deserves sharing. One of the things I like most about cc's style is the open-endedness of his thoughts. Usually what he says leaves me with more questions, rather than answers. Or questions about answers. Reading the following message, I was struck by the words numinous and numinosity. "Numinous" usually is considered to belong in the realm of religion, referring to some sort of divine experience. But the Wikipedia article notes that numinous can be separated from religion and the supernatural. For example, when one experiences awe and fascination with natural phenomenon such as majestic landscapes, night sky or deep appreciation of fellow human creations such as art and engineering marvels. At times like these a feeling of the numinous can overwhelm the mind and body, yet in no way is this interpreted to be supernatural or of divine origin. The very fact that one feels inspired by such encounters extends the depth of feeling of the numinous and makes accessible a real sense of humane solidarity with ourselves and with our natural world. A You Tube video is referenced that consists of a discussion between Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens. I'll embed it after cc's message. Well worth watching. We can have a non-supernatural sense of the "divine," for sure. Here's what "cc" had to say: The more you know about mistakes, the less likely you are to make them. Sometimes it's reasonable to assume that someone knows better than you, and sometimes it's foolish. It's best to find out what someone claims to know before believing them, and if what they know is too abstruse or recondite for you to verify or deny, it's best to be skeptical. Some people know a lot about some things and a lot of people just think they know things, and this is because most people can't really think. If they could, they would see the error of accepting anything that can't be tested for veracity or be logically explained without allowing for the numinous. Pascal's wager was that it's better to assume the existence of God than to doubt or deny it because, should it turn out that God does exist, the doubter/disbeliever is worse off. But what about the self? Do I, me, you, as persons really exist, or are we as fictitious as God? If you found out that you are no more than an improvised character constantly adapting or constantly justifying its intransigence, would that have a liberating and innoculating effect, or would it compel you to launch a new religion? You might do the latter if you'd lived a hundred years ago when the realization of what self is/isn't was big news to people who hadn't made a religion of it yet. The truth is that most people are dreadfully confused about the self because, as much as they want themselves to be found non-existent, they don't want to lose the numinous. They want it both ways, and they go about having it by using magic words - words for which the meanings can't be pinned down. The words "love" and "self" are so uncertain in their meanings that they can mean what you want them to mean. Religion is built on what can't be grasped, and science, on what can. The scientist looks down on the religionist because all he really does is play with words, and the religionist looks down on the scientist because he views the numinous skeptically. How can we talk meaningfully about love if we can't live lovingly on this planet? How can we talk meaningfully about the self if we can't acknowledge its appointed numinosity?
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| “To believe in the heroic makes heroes” Benjamin Disraeli Posted: 02 Jun 2013 10:00 PM PDT
So this brings up the question of who we know (or know of) who is like that. And it also brings up the question of whether we actually want there to be people like that. But let's deal with those one at a time… Upatissa, the author of the Path to Freedom, doesn't say that we have to personally know this exemplary person. In fact it's clear that we might only know them from reputation. But it may also be someone we are fortunate enough to know personally. So who do we know (personally or at a remove) who has qualities that are esteemed by others, and who is at peace and joyful? I'm fortunate to have personal experience of a number of people who fit the bill, some of whom I have lived with and who I therefore know quite well. These are people who are scrupulously ethical, and very careful in how they talk about others. I would often find myself complaining about someone, and one of my more skillful friends would respond by saying something that, for example, put the other person's actions into a broader context and made those actions seem more forgivable. I can think of a couple of people who I have never known to do or say anything unkind. Whenever they have problems they always approach them from the perspective of the Stress Reduction teachings. And these are people who are often joyful, dignified, and at peace. Perhaps I'm fortunate in this — I just don't know. Or perhaps you know many such people. What about those we know only by reputation? I think of people like the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Eleanor Roosevelt, Paul Robeson, and Maya Angelou. These people are giants in their own ways, and demonstrated personality traits that are highly "esteemed." The Dalai Lama is the most obviously joyful, while the others seem to exhibit more of a sense of peace and dignity. I feel ennobled simply by calling them to mind. Psychologists call this feeling of emotional uplift "elevation." Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California-Berkeley, studies elevation, which stimulates the vagus nerve (also involved in compassion) and leads to "a feeling of spreading, liquid warmth in the chest and a lump in the throat." Moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who coined the term elevation, has written, "Powerful moments of elevation sometimes seem to push a mental 'reset button,' wiping out feelings of cynicism and replacing them with feelings of hope, love, and optimism, and a sense of moral inspiration."
Feelings of inspiration also lead to the release of the hormone oxytocin, which is associated with love and bonding. Now there's the second question. Do you want there to be heroes? Some people don't. What's your reaction when you hear that someone is admired and is joyful and at peace? Does your cynicism kick in and start doubting? Do you imagine the Dalai Lama's smile leaving his face as soon as he leaves the stage, and him yelling at his attendants? Do you cast around for some negative fact from the life of Eleanor Roosevelt that "balances" or negates the inspiring role she played in the civil rights movement? If you do this kind of thing, you're not alone. We've got used to heroes being exposed as having feet of clay. It's still common to hear Mother Theresa held up as a paragon of compassion, but it's also more common to hear that she was actually a very unkind person who seemed to take joy in watching people suffer. I'm not arguing that people shouldn't investigate such things and write honest biographies. If the truth is that Mother Theresa was a monster, then let that come out. But I do suggest that you don't immediately jump to the conclusion that there must be some dark undercurrent to the lives of heroic people. Because I think one of the reasons we sometimes don't want there to be heroes is pride. One of the ways we seek a sense of security and wellbeing is through the "worldly wind" of status, which often involves thinking that we're better than others, or at least thinking that others are not better than us. And so it can be tempting to find fault in order to drag others down to our level. However, I suggest that it's unwise to expect perfection in anyone. Everyone makes mistakes, and causes others harm. It's always possible to find fault. I can know that Nelson Mandela had an affair and hurt his family, but still regard him as someone to admire. I can know that Maya Angelou worked as a prostitute and pimp, and still have immense respect for the person she evolved into. These flaws and mistakes actually help me to have greater respect for my heroes, not less. Their humanness, as shown by their difficulties and vulnerability, makes them easier to relate to — if I respond with compassion rather than judgement. And they don't have to be perfect examples of joy or peace. I'm sure Roosevelt's life was troubled. I don't have personal insight into Nelson Mandela or Maya Angelou's day-to-day states of mind, but I doubt that they're happy or at peace all the time. But they're still admirable. So let's think about heroes. Let's allow ourself to have heroes, without either being cynical or denying their flaws. It'll help make us better people, and will help us help others. As Disraeli said, "To believe in the heroic makes heroes." PS. You can see all of the 100 Days of Lovingkindness posts here. Read More @ Source |
| The last temptation: seeking alpha Posted: 02 Jun 2013 09:00 PM PDT We shouldn't have to be reminded (but we often do) that Buddhism is trying to get us to give up our tenacious belief that the reality of our phenomenal world is not the only reality. I am sure that we don't want to hear that this dear world of ours is dream-like, or something akin to a mirage or a magical city. This is the imagery of illusion! Surely, the world that we all struggle in and feel the pain of, can't be an illusion. Yet, this is what the Buddha is saying. In fact, the only thing that's real is the substance of Mind from which this illusory world is derived. Have no doubts, our illusory world is only an expression of the substance from which it is derived (or if you like, a dependent origination). This expression is not without clues as to how to come into the direct presence of Mind. It is also not without clues that tell us how not to have gnosis of Mind, thus failing to experience it directly, again and again. In this regard, Buddhism is the first science—all else is secondary. But it is so only if we realize the primary substance. Short of this—at best—we doom ourselves to intelligent misunderstandings of what is going on in the world (our illusory world). These intelligent misunderstandings then become the stuff from which the fiction of progress is made. Now we can rest in the easy chair of our delusions. None of this, however, can hide or hinder the absolute truth (the substance or essence of Mind) that resonates with more sensitive minds to overturn the hegemony of the illusory world that is somewhat reminiscent of Plato's allegory of the cave in the seventh chapter of the Republic. Everywhere there is a so-called paradigm war going on, often silently, between sensitive minds seeking the real and coarse minds who bow before the altar of delusion. Buddhism is not without such a war. Turning to Zen Buddhism, there is such a war. On one side there are those who meditate in Zen centers seeking the tranquility of the alpha wave, while on the other side, there are those who understand that Zen is not about achieving some relaxed state but, instead, points to direct cognition of pure Mind—demanding that Zen adepts attain it. All throughout Zen's long history—even going back to Gautama the Buddha, achieving direct cognition of Mind has been at the center. Still, despite the literature supporting this, today there are legions of Zennists who are content to sit on a zafu and seek alpha. But this Zen will never last. In fact, it is only capable of destroying itself and those who have coarse minds; who are content to sit, earnestly. |
| Riding the wave of secular meditation Posted: 02 Jun 2013 07:00 PM PDT
Washington's strivers were striving to chill out. Hundreds of people were rushing to the weekly class of Buddhist meditation teacher Tara Brach, a therapist who has become a must-listen for many urban professionals. Inside, her calm voice fills the silence. "What does it matter for us to be in touch with our deepest aspiration?" she says into a headset. "Was today a trance? How much was I here today?"… Read the original article » Read More @ Source |
I've noticed that there are a lot of technologists and software developers on the Wildmind G+ Community and among Meditations generally. I don't think it's just by chance. Coders tend to have life habits that make us susceptible to certain problems of mind, but yet may predispose us to the skill that can address these problems: meditation. I'd like to outline those problems, highlight why we might be predisposed to meditation, and make a suggestion as to how we can improve our practice.
Often people who are in recovery can wrestle with the twelve-steps in the various programs of recovery. So before I outline the steps in Buddhism that my co-author and I have coined for my book Eight Step Recovery: Using the Buddha's Teachings to Overcome Addiction, published in 2014. I want to reflect over the next few months how many of the concepts in the twelve steps tradition can be of great use in our lives. 
In the Path of Freedom, a 1st century meditation manual that I've mentioned a few times because it's the earliest source I know of for the cultivation of lovingkindness etc. in stages, we're asked first of all to connect with mudita (appreciation) in the following way:
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Michelle Boorstein, Washington Times: As they are every Wednesday night, the little residential roads around the River Road Unitarian Church in Bethesda, Md., were gridlocked with traffic.| You are subscribed to email updates from BuddhaRocks ☸ To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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