Religion and Spirituality have Different Relationships with Sexual Attitudes

December 20, 2015 psyjdc Leave a comment

“Spiritualizing sex is actually a movement of energy—feeling and emotion—that rises within you and moves into your sexual physicality as an alive, tender, erotic, or passionate expression. Your bodies move without inhibition so all the energy can flow out of you and between the two of you. You allow spiritual energy to express its dance through you. Sexuality can be a profound demonstration of your love, and especially your freedom, to express and bond. Spiritual sex, then, combines how you express your love with the intentions or blessings you bring to your partnership.” ― Alexandra Katehakis

Sex is a powerful motivation that is responsible for both very positive and very negative behavior. Its negative potential has resulted in a myriad of laws and regulations not to mention social mores, to control it. This is very evident in traditional religions and their teachings. The control of sexual behavior plays a prominent role in most religions. This ranges from celibacy to polygamy to prohibitions against sex outside of marriage, to its use for procreation only.

Many of these prohibitions result in frustration and repression. In many this can produce negative consequences. But, sometimes sexual motivation can find expression in sublimation, a creative and positive substitution of a socially acceptable outlet for the prohibited behavior. Unfortunately, in others sexual frustrations can result in release of abhorrent behaviors such as forced sex. Hence it is clearly important to understand how religion and spirituality affect sexual behavior.

In today’s Research News article “The Relationship among Sexual Attitudes, Sexual Fantasy, and Religiosity”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1133798173310774/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4419361/

Ahrold and colleagues studied sexual attitudes and sexual fantasies in college students with diverse religious affiliations. They found not surprisingly that those who were not affiliated with a formal religion, agnostics, had the most sexually liberal attitudes of any group. They also found that higher levels of intrinsic religiosity were consistently associated with more conservative sexual attitudes. That is the participants who were more sincere and devout about their religion had the most conservative sexual attitudes. Interestingly they also found a large gender difference in the relationship of spirituality with sexual attitudes. High levels of spirituality were associated with less conservative sexual attitudes in men but more conservative sexual attitudes in women.

It is not surprising that the true believers (intrinsic religiosity) would be more conservative in sexual attitudes. This simply reflects the teachings of most religions. Hence those that are sincere and devout in their religion would be expected to follow those teachings regarding sex. Unlike religiosity, high levels of spirituality had gender specific associations, with men more liberal and women more conservative in their sexual attitudes. But when intrinsic religiosity was considered along with spirituality the results were more straightforward with spirituality associated with more liberal sexual attitudes across all participants.

It’s interesting that spirituality and intrinsic religiosity appeared to act in different directions. “Whereas religiosity refers to importance of an organized belief system” its effects line up with the teachings of the religion. On the other hand, “spirituality refers to the subjective, experiential relationship with or understanding of a divine being or force.” This does not produce clear teachings and dogma; thus allowing for more liberal interpretations as to what behaviors and attitudes are appropriate to be expressed (see Katehakis quote above).

Regardless, it is clear that religion and spirituality play a powerful role in shaping sexual attitudes.

“A man’s eroticism is a woman’s sexuality.” ~ Karl Kraus

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Lower Disordered Eating with Genuine Religion and Spirituality

November 29, 2015November 12, 2019 psyjdc 1 Comment

“Eating disorders are like a gun that’s formed by genetics, loaded by a culture and family ideals, and triggered by unbearable distress.” – Aimee Liu

Around 30 million people in the United States of all ages and genders suffer from an eating disorder; either anorexia nervosa, bulimia, or binge eating disorder. 95% of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 26. Eating disorders are not just troubling psychological problems, they can be deadly, having the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. Indeed, the mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate associated with all causes of death for females 15-24 years old

Anorexia Nervosa is particular troubling as it is often fatal as sufferers literally starve themselves to death. It occurs in about 1% to 4% of women in the U.S. In binge eating disorder (BED), the initiation of eating frequently results in the ingestion of wildly excessive amounts. It is called disinhibited eating as there appears to be no restraints (inhibitions) that stop food intake. Once eating starts it goes on without anything holding it back. “Binge eating disorder is the most common eating disorder in the United States, affecting 3.5% of women, 2% of men, and up to 1.6% of adolescents.” – National Eating Disorders Association. Bulimia Nervosa is characterized by a cycle of binge eating followed by some form of purge, often induced vomiting. It is estimated that up to 4% of females in the United States will have bulimia during their lifetime. Tragically around 4% of the sufferers will die.

Disordered eating is difficult to deal with in part because it is frequently paired with other disorders. In fact, around 50% of people with eating disorders meet the criteria for clinical depression. Eating disorders are also difficult to treat because eating is necessary and cannot be simply stopped as in smoking cessation or abstaining from drugs or alcohol. One must learn to eat appropriately not stop. So, it is important to find methods that can help prevent and treat eating disorders. Contemplative practices, mindfulness, and mindful eating have shown promise for treating eating disorders (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/eating/).

In today’s Research News article “Religiosity, spirituality in relation to disordered eating and body image concerns: A systematic review”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1123497741007484/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4536728/

Akrawi and colleagues review the literature on the relationship between religiosity and eating disorders. They defined religiosity “as a system of organized beliefs, practices, rituals and symbols designed to facilitate closeness to the transcendent” and spirituality “as the personal quest for understanding answers to ultimate questions about life, meaning, and a relationship with the transcendent.” They found that an extrinsic orientation to religion and spirituality where faith was superficial and religion was “pursued for social reasons, and seen as a way of achieving status, acceptance and security,” was associated with higher levels of disordered eating. Conversely, they found that an intrinsic orientation to religion and spirituality where faith was deep and devout and religion was associated “with deeply internalized beliefs manifested through strong religious observance and commitment,” was associated with lower levels of disordered eating. So sincere spirituality but not superficial spirituality is related to low incidence of eating disorders.

Eating disorders are often driven by social concerns, particularly about how one appears to others. So, it is not surprising that superficial faith that is also pursued for social reasons would be associated with high levels of eating disorders. The individuals’ high reliance on the opinions of others is their downfall. On the other hand a deep and devout religious orientation is associated with the idea that the body is a temple of God and must be treated as a sacred object. So, it is not surprising that devout faith is associated with lower levels of eating disorders. The individual looks to a higher power for solutions to their problems.

It is not known what the causal connections might be. It is possible that the kinds of people who are sincerely religious are also the kinds of people who are resistant to eating disorders rather than spirituality being the cause of lower rates of eating disorders. But the results are promising and suggest that devout engagement in religion and spirituality may be of assistance in resisting the development of an eating disorder.

So, lower disordered eating with genuine religion and spirituality

“Most women in our culture, then, are disordered when it comes to issues of self-worth, self-entitlement, self-nourishment, and comfort with their own bodies; eating disorders, far from being ‘bizarre’ and anomalous, are utterly continuous with a dominant element of the experience of being female in this culture.” – Susan Bordo

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

The Made-up “Real”

November 22, 2015 psyjdc Leave a comment

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” ~ Albert Einstein

“The light of memory, or rather the light that memory lends to things, is the palest light of all. I am not quite sure whether I am dreaming or remembering, whether I have lived my life or dreamed it. Just as dreams do, memory makes me profoundly aware of the unreality, the evanescence of the world, a fleeting image in the moving water.” – Eugene Ionesco
Dreams are purported to be not real. They are thought to be constructions of our nervous system that occur during an altered state of consciousness termed sleep. But, they appear and feel very real. While the dream is in progress we experience it as completely real. Things happen mostly in real time. We visualize people, places, and things in great detail and hear sounds and voices. We even feel emotions. What’s different about a dream in comparison to what we call reality?

In actuality, much of what we experience during so called “reality” is not real, but a construction produced by our nervous systems. We experience color in our visual world, but in fact there is nothing in the physical world that has color. Our eyes take in different wavelengths of light, electromagnetic radiation with different distances between peaks. That is all. There is nothing colored here. But our eyes have three different receptors that respond to different ranges of wavelengths. Our brain then interprets the activity of these receptors as different colors. In fact it is a complete illusion. What we think we see and experience is in fact not there.

Our everyday thoughts, day dreams, and fantasies we recognize as not a reflection of reality. But nevertheless they constitute a constructed experience. Our brain is completely capable of constructing experiences that are similar to those that we label as “reality.” Could it be that this labelled “reality” is in fact just another constructed experience?

The great physiologist and philosopher, Johannes Müller, pointed out that we are not directly aware of the natural world, but rather what we are aware of is the state of our nervous system. In other words, our awareness is simply of what is going on in our nervous system. It is constructed by brain processes. Is this any more real than the dream?

It is clear that we can make up experiences and perceive them vividly. The great question then becomes how much is “real” and how much and which ones are mental constructs. This question has had a range of answers from the materialist who suggests that there is objective reality to the Zen master who suggests that there is no reality other than pure being.

If all that we are aware of is the state of our nervous system is that, at least, an objective reality? Dreams are produced by internal brain activity that lacks an external referent. These are apparently very “real’ to the dreamer, but most would agree that they are not “real.” Drugs can produce very “real” experiences but most agree that they are not “real.” But are these experiences not just a construct of altered brain activity produced by sleep systems or altered chemistry, respectively? If our sleep systems or altered brain chemistry can produce an untrue “reality” what does this imply about the “reality” produced by our usual brain chemistry? Does it not imply that the nervous system is at best an unstable platform for the expression of “reality” or that our awareness itself does not present to us the “real?”

The only thing that we conclusively know to be real is our personal awareness of the immediate moment. Everything else is just a memory or a fantasy. That experienced moment is ever changing, mutating, arising and falling away. It cannot be held onto. So, the only thing that we know to be real is ephemeral, a puff of smoke blown in the wind. But, is this phantasm real or is it created in our awareness? Is it a reflection of an objective reality or a compelling hallucination? Does it have substance beyond experience?

We have arrived at the point of concluding that the only “reality” that we can know to be real is an ephemeral experience of a present moment and that even this is perhaps only a continuing experience of the ever changing state of our nervous system that we know is not an accurate depiction of any external physical state of environmental energies. To be sure, this is a very tenuous grasp at something “real.”

Doesn’t it make more sense to admit that awareness is the only “reality?” What enters awareness is simply what we experience regardless of its origin. Does it really matter if it is reflective of an external “reality” or simply all made up? It is simply our “reality” and it may not need to be anything more. Seeing it this way, the question becomes irrelevant.

“I’m more convinced each day of the complete unreality of the material world and the supreme vitality of the invisible world of spirit.”- Paul Russo

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Improve Psychological Well Being with Spirituality

November 15, 2015 psyjdc 2 Comments

“Enlightened leadership is spiritual if we understand spirituality not as some kind of religious dogma or ideology but as the domain of awareness where we experience values like truth, goodness, beauty, love and compassion, and also intuition, creativity, insight and focused attention.” – Deepak Chopra
Psychological well-being is sometimes thought of as a lack of mental illness. But, it is more than just a lack of something. It is a positive set of characteristics that lead to happy, well-adjusted life. These include the ability to be aware of and accept one’s strengths and weaknesses, to have goals that give meaning to life, to truly believe that your potential capabilities are going to be realized, to have close and valuable relations with others, the ability to effectively manage life issues especially daily issues, and the ability to follow personal principles even when opposed to society. These are also all characteristics that the great psychologist Abraham Maslow labelled self-actualization.

These are lofty goals that only few truly accomplish completely. But, we can strive to improve at each. Religion and spirituality encourage such personal growth. Indeed, spirituality appears to be associated with more positive attitudes toward physical and psychological difficulties and toward the end of life (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/spirituality/religiosity/). In today’s Research News article “Predicting Dimensions of Psychological Well Being Based on Religious Orientations and Spirituality: An Investigation into a Causal Model”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1116883255002266/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4434429/

Khashab and colleagues investigated the relationship of spirituality with psychological well-being in college students.

They found significant positive relationships between spirituality overall and the dimensions of psychological well-being including self-acceptance, relations with others, autonomy, goal-directed life, personal growth, and dominance on environment. In addition spirituality was associated with internal, external, and questioning religious orientations which were, in turn, associated with the dimensions of psychological well-being.

Hence, the study found clear, strong, and significant relationships between spirituality, religious orientation, and psychological well-being. But, the results do not establish a causal connection. It cannot be concluded that spirituality caused psychological well-being, or that psychological well-being psychological well-being spirituality, or some third factor such as religious orientation was responsible for both. But, nevertheless, the findings are suggestive of a clear relationship, at least for college students.

How might spirituality promote psychological well-being. Obviously, it provides goals and meaning to life. In addition, virtually all spiritual practices and religious belief systems promote acceptance of one’s strengths and weaknesses, the need to maintain a principled life, having harmonious relationships with others. So, at least some forms of spirituality can directly provide teachings that lead directly to psychological well-being. When this occurs within a religious context there is the added benefit of a like-minded community that can provide social support and help during difficult times.

So, improve psychological well-being with spirituality

“There is one thing that, when cultivated and regularly practiced, leads to deep spiritual intention, to peace, to mindfulness and clear comprehension, to vision and knowledge, to a happy life here and now, and to the culmination of wisdom and awakening. And what is that one thing? It is mindfulness centred on the body” – Buddha

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Permanent Impermanence

November 14, 2015 psyjdc Leave a comment

It is a very human tendency when a pleasant state of affairs is attained that we strive to maintain it. But, much to our chagrin and frustration, try as we may, it never lasts. The new car we loved so much loses its’ luster, the fun party must end and everyone go home, the infatuation and excitement of new love fades, good health is interrupted with illness, our happiness at winning at a game of chance is short lived, the new exciting job becomes drudgery, etc.

But, the other side of the coin is also true. We try to get rid of those states that we find unsatisfactory, painful, or intolerable, but in this case impermanence works in our favor and these unpleasant things also fade away. Unfortunately, we don’t give much credit to impermanence here; instead we focus on the frustration produced by the elimination of the pleasant things we want to keep.

The truth is that impermanence is permanent. Nothing can or will ever stay the same. Constant change is the rule of nature. If we try to prevent change we’re effectively trying to prevent the tide from rolling in and out, the fall from turning to winter and then to spring, or the flowers from budding, blooming, and decaying. The human condition is one of continuous unending change. If we strive to stop it we will inevitably be unhappy and frustrated.

Our words and concepts help to trap us in a belief that there is permanence in the world. When we use the word apple we tend to see it as a fixed and permanent entity rather than something that is in a process of continuous dynamic change, from seed, to seedling, to tree, to bud, to green apple, to ripe apple, to decaying apple, to seed. The same goes for a good friend whom we name and see as a permanent entity, whereas this individual like the apple is just at a single point in their continuous changing lives. Everything is impermanent and ever changing. To see anything as otherwise is a delusion.

In fact, the permanence that we think we want is not all that it’s cracked up to be. When everything stays the same we get very bored. In other words we really don’t like permanence. The learning that we relish is itself a form of impermanence altering what we know and believe. Without that form of impermanence we would never be able to improve or adapt. In fact happiness itself is a change in state, without impermanence we could not have either happiness or sadness. We certainly would not like permanent sadness or panic. We certainly wouldn’t enjoy having to watch the same movie over and over and over again, or for that matter hearing the same note continuously.

So, we should be thankful for impermanence. It is responsible for what we label the spice of life. It’s what allows us to adapt and grow. It’s what keeps us interested in life and the environment and people that surround us. It’s what makes a rainbow wondrous. It’s what makes music and art beautiful. It is actually even responsible for keeping us healthy by constantly replacing worn out cells, eliminating dying or diseased tissues, or eliminating an invasive virus. Change is, in fact, a very good thing.

We should actually revel in impermanence. Not only stop trying to counteract it or even just accept it, but rather to be ecstatic about it. We can observe with awe the wonder of the ever present evolution of all experiences and things. We can enjoy the forever changing symphony of feeling and sensations we experience. We can rest peacefully in the knowledge that tomorrow will be a new adventure, completely different from today.

We can truly enjoy the good feelings we experience and focus on them knowing that they won’t last. We can be elated that we’re having this wonderful experience and not ignore how good it is in the futile attempt to maintain it. Better yet, we can know that the things that are not to our liking will also change and look forward to better experiences. Impermanence is permanent and also wonderful when accepted. Don’t fight it, join it.

So, mindfully experience every delicious impermanent moment. It will never be repeated or happen again. So, treat as the one time treasure that it is.

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Looking for What’s Looking

November 8, 2015 psyjdc Leave a comment

“Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.” ― Voltaire

Introspection is looking inside and viewing our own mental processes. In essence it’s the individual mind looking at and investigating itself. This is an intentional process of thought and analysis, with the mind, memory, and cognitive processes actively engaged. When engaged in introspection the mind is asked to monitor itself, watch the processes of thought, images, and feelings in order to better understand the self.

This is in contrast to contemplative practices which for the most part attempt to reduce thought and mental activity and quiet the mind. This is a process of attempting to disengage the mind, to reduce active thought and internal speech, and to lose the self. Both contemplative practices and introspection look deeply within but differ greatly in how they’re experiencing the internal state.

In contemplative practices there’s an attempt to observe experience while disengaging the mind. This then raises the issue that if the mind is disengaged then what is observing experience? If it’s not the mind, then what is? It is sometimes termed awareness, but that only labels it and doesn’t help us to grasp any better what it actually is.

There’s an internal presence or spirit that seems to be aware of experience. It’s easy to miss as it’s always there and always has been there. So, it’s easy to take it for granted and ignore it. But, when engaged in contemplative practice its presence is revealed by the removal of the mental process that normally obscure it. We seem to become aware of awareness itself. But, how? How does a watcher watch a watcher? We feel its presence but how does presence reveal itself?

In a sense when engaged in deep contemplative practice we appear to be trying to engage the same thing that’s perceiving experience at perceiving itself. We’re attempting to look with what is looking. It’s like trying to turn the eyeball around to look at itself or trying to have the ear hear itself.

Experience itself reveals the experiencer. We see things rising up and falling away constantly changing. But, you can’t see change when you’re the thing that is changing. The earth moves through the universe, changing position constantly with respect of other celestial bodies. But, we are unaware of its movement since we’re moving with it. To see the earth moving we need to be standing on a different platform. Similarly, in order to experience that experience is changing we need to be on a different platform. That different platform for our ongoing ever changing experience is the presence, the spirit, the awareness.

Like not seeing the movement of the moving earth that we’re on it, we can’t see the platform of awareness that we are on. It is where we’re seeing from and so can’t be seen. As a result, it seems a complete mystery. But, we know it’s there because we are aware of experiences. Like becoming aware of the earths movements by seeing other celestial bodies seeming to be moving, we can become aware of awareness itself by viewing the ever changing experiences that it is aware of.

When we look deeply at our experiences they appear to be rising and falling away from nothing into nothing. A sound arises from nothing. A sight arises from darkness. An odor arises from emptiness. This is why many seers use the expression that it’s a void, that awareness is a void with infinite potential; a potential to have anything appear or disappear. Could it be that it only seems that way because we can’t see what’s seeing, after all to the ear, the ear is invisible and to the eye, the eye is invisible.

Once we have experienced what’s experiencing and we accept the mystery of it, we can experience awe at the miracle of being, at the amazing gift of our presence, and at our truest deepest nature.

So, be aware of the awareness and revel in its mystery.

“Truth is not something outside to be discovered, it is something inside to be realized.” ― Osho

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Psychedelic Drugs and Spirituality

November 1, 2015January 25, 2021 psyjdc 18 Comments

“In history, psychedelic plants were used by priests and shamans with a desire to discover the interior.” – Alejandro Jodorowsky

Psychedelic substances have been used almost since the beginning of recorded history to alter consciousness and produce spiritually meaningful experiences. Psychedelics produce effects that are similar to those that are reported in spiritual awakenings. They report a loss of the personal self. They experience what they used to refer to as the self as just a part of an integrated whole. They report feeling interconnected with everything else in a sense of oneness with all things. They experience a feeling of timelessness where time seems to stop and everything is taking place in a single present moment. They experience ineffability, being unable to express in words what they are experiencing and as a result sometimes producing paradoxical statements. And they experience a positive mood, with renewed energy and enthusiasm.

It is easy to see why people find these experiences so pleasant and eye opening. They often report that the experiences changed them forever. Even though the effects of psychedelic substances have been experienced and reported on for centuries, only very recently have these effects come under rigorous scientific scrutiny. One deterrent to the research is the legal prohibitions for the possession and use of these substances. One way around this problem is to take advantage of natural groupings of individuals who regularly use psychedelic substances.

In today’s Research News article “Long-term use of psychedelic drugs is associated with differences in brain structure and personality in humans.”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1110584015632190/?type=3&theater

Bouso and colleagues took advantage of the fact that a substantial number of Brazilian religious groups ingest the natural psychedelic substance ayahuasca on a regular basis for ritual purposes. These groups, like many users of psychedelic substances, employ them to develop spirituality and self-transcendence. The investigators used neuroimaging to investigate the differences in brain structure between long-term (at least 50 uses) users of ayahuasca and matched control participants.

Bouso and colleagues found that the ayahuasca users had a thinning of a number of midline structures of the brain especially the posterior cingulate cortex.in addition, the amount of this thinning was positively related to the length of time that the individual had been using ayahuasca. The thinning suggests that there is a eduction in the use and importance of the structures. Importantly, the ayahuasca users did not differ from controls in the incidence of psychological problems or neuropsychological function. This suggests that the use of ayahuasca does not produce psychological or cognitive harm.

One of the most interesting findings was a significant increase in self-transcendence in the ayahuasca users. This included and increase in self-forgetfulness, which represents a decrease in self-conscious experience, transpersonal identification, which is seeing oneself as not isolated but merely a part of an integrated whole, and spiritual acceptance, which is an increase in viewing life as beyond the physical. Hence this self-transcendence is an indicator of increased spirituality and loss of the personal ego.

It is interesting that the midline structures including posterior cingulate cortex that are thinned with ayahuasca use are considered key elements of what’s termed the default mode network. This is an interconnected set of neural structures that becomes most active when the individual is lost in thought, day dreaming, and involved in self-referential thinking. In other words this system becomes active when the individual has lost touch with the present moment and his/her thoughts are referenced to a separate self.

So, the anatomical findings correlate nicely with the psychological findings for the ayahuasca users and suggest that the use of this psychedelic appears to be psychologically relatively harmless and appear to accentuate experiences that are virtually identical to those occurring in spiritual awakenings. This may suggest that spiritual awakening and psychedelic substance effects work through the same neural mechanisms.

“Through all of history mankind has ingested psychedelic substances. Those substances exist to put you in touch with spirits beyond yourself, with the creator, with the creative impulse of the planet.” – Ray Manzarek
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

A Mindful Halloween and Day of the Dead

October 31, 2015June 21, 2016 psyjdc Leave a comment

For death,
Now I know, is that first breath
Which our souls draw when we enter
Life, which is of all life center.
~Edwin Arnold

The beginning of the month of November is marked by a variety of celebrations throughout the world including the Day of the Dead and Halloween, the night before All Souls Day. Halloween was actually a pagan holiday called Samhain that was coopted by the Christians. But, they are all celebrations of those who have passed away, a celebration of our ancestors, a celebration of the dead. This might seem a bit macabre to be celebrating death. And, indeed, the macabre is an integral part of the celebration.

It does seem to be strange, however, that death is celebrated when it is in fact the second most frequent fear. So why do we celebrate? Perhaps Mark Twain put his finger on it “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” The celebration is not really about death. It’s actually a celebration of life. Death reminds us that our lives are limited. We celebrate to help us experience life while we still have it. As pointed out by Angelina Jolie “There’s something about death that is comforting. The thought that you could die tomorrow frees you to appreciate your life now.”

These ideas are well stated in the Zen Evening Gatha that is recited every evening in Buddhist monasteries.

Let me respectfully remind you,
life and death are of supreme importance.
Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost.
Each of us should strive to awaken.
Awaken. Take heed.
Do not squander your life.

Rather than not squandering our lives, many of us live in a state of unaware numbness, going through the motions of life, but not really living. Focusing on an anticipated happiness in the future or ruminating about past issues. We seem to not comprehend that the essence of life is the present moment. That is all life is, a long-lasting present moment. It is the only time that we can actually live. So, if we do not relish what is in the present moment, we might as well already be dead. This is where contemplative practice and mindfulness comes in. These practices help us to learn to live fully in the present, experiencing what life has to offer.

Somehow, in our everyday lives we see the present as unsatisfactory or boring. But, nothing could be further from the truth. If we truly do focus on the present we are often surprised by its richness. Even focusing on something simple like our breathing, really paying attention to it in all its exquisite detail, we can see that this simple experience is replete with beauty and nuance. We can feel the delicious sensations of our body in action. We can see how remarkable this simple process really is. We can see how essential it is to our very existence, yet we take it for granted. And that is only breathing. There is so much in the present moment that when we carefully look at it we’re amazed as to how we could ever have missed it. Life is a miracle. Life is special. Only by being mindful can we deeply immerse in the wonder of life.

But what about death itself, should we be as afraid of it as we are? It is helpful to remember that life is bounded by birth and death. Do we fear the state we were in prior to birth? In fact, many psychologists think of birth, the entry into life, as a traumatic event. It involves leaving a very peaceful state for the chaos of life, what William James called the “blooming, buzzing confusion”. So, maybe we should fear birth and not fear death which may simply return us to the peaceful prebirth state. Perhaps we should look forward to it.

The important thing and the message of Halloween and the Day of the Dead is to experience this precious time of life that we’ve been given. Indeed, many have suggested that the entire purpose of life is simply to experience it. So celebrate life and don’t worry about death. Enjoy Halloween and the Day of the Dead in the present moment. Stay in the present moment and be truly alive, celebrate every experience, and when death comes welcome it having experienced life to its fullest.

“On no subject are our ideas more warped and pitiable than on death. Instead of the sympathy, the friendly union, of life and death so apparent in Nature, we are taught that death is an accident, a deplorable punishment for the oldest sin, the arch-enemy of life, etc…. But let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life, and that the grave has no victory for, for it never fights. All is divine harmony.” ~John Muir

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Desire Nothing

October 25, 2015 psyjdc Leave a comment

Desire Nothing

To reach satisfaction in all
desire its possession in nothing,
To come to the knowledge of all
desire the knowledge of nothing.
To come to possess all
desire the possession of nothing.
To arrive at being all
desire to be nothing.
— St. John of the Cross

The instruction to desire nothing is very common in spiritual teachings. But, it is very difficult to actually do. For one thing, desiring nothing in and of itself is a desire. So, to actually successfully follow the instruction you have to completely stop wanting anything including the desire to completely stop wanting anything.

If we desire anything it indicates that we want something other than what we have right now. It indicates unhappiness with the present moment. In other words, it suggests that we are not accepting things as they are. So, one way to begin to “desire nothing” is to simply accept everything as it is. Easier said than done! We are designed to constantly strive to change control and improve ourselves and our environment.

To “desire nothing” does not mean that we don’t seek things. Our bodies seek air, water, and food in order to survive. But, we don’t have to desire air in order to breathe. The body will take care of breathing without our paying any attention to it or feeling any desire. The difference is one of simply allowing it to be as it is and not trying to control or interfere in it. Just let nature take its’ course, without interference.

To the mind the instruction to “desire nothing” is an anathema. But, the instruction is not to the mind, it is to the awareness that underlies all. It is basically telling the mind to cease and desist and let our basic underlying nature take over. Just be! Just let everything be as it is, without thought, judgment, or control.

We can’t control the mind. It is going to attempt to control our experience regardless of our attempts to stop it. So how do we “desire nothing?” We simply let the mind do its thing and not latch onto it and believe in it. We simply let it go. We watch it but we don’t feed it. We let thoughts flow through awareness like clouds through the sky. Just experiencing them but giving them no attention. This will result in the mind slowly, slowly, slowly quieting down. It will never completely stop. It will just provide more and longer gaps between its actions. In these gaps between thoughts we can “desire nothing.”

What St. John was driving at was that in order to attain an awakening, an enlightenment, we must stop chasing after things. We must stop attaching to things. We must stop desiring them. This would suggest that “desiring nothing” is a prerequisite for enlightenment. But, could St. John have cause and effect confused. Perhaps “desiring nothing” is actually results from awakening rather than the other way around. Regardless, if “desiring nothing” is a component of enlightenment then by practicing “desiring nothing” we can move closer to an awakening.

Contemplative practices are techniques to help quiet the mind and bring about a state of “desiring nothing.” Each practice moves us towards non-judgmental awareness, towards accepting things as they are, in other words, towards “desiring nothing.” For St. John the practice was contemplative prayer, for the Buddha, it was meditation, for the yogis it’s yoga. There are many paths to the same goal. But, all involve practicing being in the present moment and accepting it just as it is.

So, engage in contemplative practice and learn to “desire nothing”

“The root of suffering is attachment.” – Buddha

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Do Spiritual Experiences Reveal Ultimate Truth or Merely Brain Activity?

October 18, 2015 psyjdc 2 Comments

Spiritual experiences, be they called awakenings, mystical experiences, or enlightenments, involve a shift in how the individual perceives reality. This could be viewed as a spiritual revelation. But it could also be viewed as a change in the neural systems integrating and interpreting experiences. So, are spiritual awakenings revelations of a reality beyond physical reality or are they simply hallucinatory experience evoked by changes in the nervous system?

One way of investigating this question is to study the brain-spirituality connection. Research along these lines has revealed that there is a clear association between spirituality and the brain. Modern neuroscience has developed methods, such as neuroimaging, to investigate the relationship. Applying these techniques it has been demonstrated that spirituality is associated with changes in the size, activity, and connectivity of the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/19/spirituality-mindfulness-and-the-brain/). So spirituality and changes in neural systems co-occur. But, this does not demonstrate a causal connection, whether spirituality alters the brain or brain alteration causes spirituality, or some third factor is responsible for both.

A better way to demonstrate if brain activity cause spiritual experiences is to investigate what happens to spirituality when the brain changes. One place to look at this is with accidental brain injuries incurred by humans that afford an opportunity to glimpses associations between brain change and spirituality. In general people who have incurred damage to the right inferior parietal area show an increase in spirituality. So, brain alteration affects spirituality. But, increased spiritual beliefs and spiritual seeking is not the same thing as spiritual experiences. So, we cannot conclude that these changes in the brain are responsible for awakening experiences.

Another manipulation of the brain occurs with drugs. Indeed, various hallucinogenic drugs such as mescaline, LSD, psilocybin, etc. have been shown to produce experiences that are extremely similar to spiritual experiences. These drugs have been shown to alter the activity in specific neurochemical systems in the brain and when that happens, experiences that are very similar to spiritual awakenings are evoked. Many people who have used these drugs are altered spiritually but vast numbers of people find hallucinatory drugs as fun recreation but are not affected spiritually.

Spiritual seekers who have used psychedelic substances report that they experience something like but not the same as spiritual awakening experiences. The following quote from Alan Watts is illustrative.

“Psychedelic experience is only a glimpse of genuine mystical insight, but a glimpse which can be matured and deepened by the various ways of meditation in which drugs are no longer necessary or useful. If you get the message, hang up the phone. For psychedelic drugs are simply instruments, like microscopes, telescopes, and telephones. The biologist does not sit with eye permanently glued to the microscope, he goes away and works on what he has seen…”

Also a quote from Ralph Metzner

“While psychedelic use is all about altered states, Buddhism is all about altered traits, and one does not necessarily lead to the other.”

Hence, it appears that although there are great similarities between manipulation of brain chemistry with drugs and the experiences occurring with spiritual awakenings, they are in fact quite different.

So, what should we conclude regarding the clear relationship between the brain and spiritual experiences? It has been established that spirituality changes the brain and that changes in the brain are associated with spiritual experiences. Does this indicate that spirituality is nothing but a brain function? This would suggest that spirituality and spiritual experiences are nothing but physical events and don’t represent experience of true transcendence or an indication of a god. If this were true then it would suggest that there is nothing beyond the physical, that spiritual awakenings are nothing other than evoked changes in the nervous system.

It should be noted that reported spiritual experiences most frequently involve changes in sensory experiences. We know that sensory experiences are produced by the nervous system. So, it would be expected that if a spiritual experience occurs then there would be changes in the nervous system. As a result it is not surprising that nervous system changes would accompany spiritual experiences.

Neural changes may represent the effects of spiritual experiences on the physical body. After all, when we become aware of any kind of remarkable occurrence we react emotionally, physically, and thoughtfully. This would imply that the neural changes occur after the spiritual experience and not before it as a causal relationship would demand. In addition, changing the brain with drugs may simply induce the same effects as the sequela of spiritual experience and not the spiritual experiences themselves.

The most common report of spiritual experience is that everything is perceived as one. This oneness experience is not reported to be a change in the actual sensory information, but rather as a perception of the interconnectedness of all things such that they are seen as all a part of a singular entity, like seeing individual waves as all being part of one ocean. The more modern science studies events and their interconnections the more that the truth of oneness is revealed. The entire science of ecology has developed to study the interconnectedness among biological entities, meteorology has determined that atmospheric conditions over the entire planet are interconnected, and geology has revealed the interconnectedness of all movement of the planet’s surface and interior. Just think how interconnected everything is with sunlight. Without this energy, life could not exist and even the weather would not be changing. Everything about us and our planet is interconnected to the sun’s energy.

So, perhaps the oneness revealed in spiritual experiences may actually be a more accurate glimpse of the truth of existence. Perhaps, the changes observed in the brain may simply be the effect of this revelation rather than the cause. At this point we cannot reach a clear conclusion as to whether spiritual experiences are material and physical or true revelation of a non-physical reality. But the research is exciting and will continue to explore these ultimate questions regarding existence.

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies