[Neurons] 2008 Philosopher's Series # 3

[Charles DesJardins]

Charles DesJardins

 

The Philosopher's Series #3

 

June 27, 2008

 

 

BUDDHA 

AND NEURO-SEMANTICS

 

Philosophy is the love of wisdom. Philosophy is not just a Western activity,
but has been the activity of both East and West. This next series will
consider a philosopher from the East, a philosopher that is as well known as
Socrates, in the East, and in the West.

 

Siddhartha Gotama, also known as Buddha, was born in Nepal in 563 BC. Buddha
was born almost 100 years before Socrates. The worlds of these two
philosophers were different places and these two philosophers lived
different lives. Socrates was a foot soldier in the Peloponnesian wars while
Buddha was born into a royal family.  What were the key philosophies and
ideas of Buddha and how do they relate to Neuro-Semantics?

 

Buddha lived to the ripe age of 80, and spent his life, starting at the age
of 29, to seek truth and human happiness. Buddha, being born in wealth,
realized that a life of wealth and a life of luxury did not guarantee a life
of happiness. For six years, from the age of 29 to the age of 35 he
meditated and thought deeply about life, about happiness, about suffering,
and at age of 35 he found 'the middle path' and was enlightened. He spent
the rest of his life teaching others, as well as himself, the enlightened
life.  This enlightened life, known as Buddhism, is called Dhamma, or truth.

 

Buddha taught many different things, but the basic concepts of what he
taught can be summed up in the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold
Path. We will look at these Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path
to see if there is any ancient Neuro-Semantic equivalence. 

 

The Four Noble Truths:

 

Noble Truth # 1

 

1.	 Suffering. "What is the Noble Truth of Suffering? Birth is
suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, dissociation from the
loved is suffering, not to get what one wants is suffering: in short the
five categories affected by clinging are suffering. (Samyutta Nikaya LVI,
11). 

 

We all experience suffering. Every person in the past, every person in the
present, and every person in the future has and will suffer. But what does
suffering and the experience of suffering have to do with Neuro-Semantics?
What is so noble about a noble truth that people suffer? The nobleness of
the noble truth is that there is a reason why people suffer and thus a
reason out of suffering. It is not that 'I suffer' or that 'I am a
sufferer,' which is a nominalization, but rather, 'there is suffering.' That
is a big difference. Dr. Hall mentions in Meta States that Meta-States is an
epistemology. An epistemology is a theory of knowledge; it is how we get to
know things. When I shift from 'there is suffering' to 'I suffer' or 'I am a
sufferer' I claim to be a static person and confuse the map with the
territory. In the world there is suffering, all people experience this
suffering, but my view of 'self' effects and is affected by my knowledge of
suffering as applied to self-reflexivity. The Self Matrix of the Matrix
Model is brought into plain view from an epistemic perspective. A change in
the Self Matrix, through the reflection of the inner games we play in our
meta-programs of Nature (static or systemic), Movie Position (associated or
dissociated), and most of the Semantic Meta-Programs, we can shift from a
position that 'I suffer' to a position that 'there is suffering' and thereby
we reduce or eliminate the clinging that causes suffering.

 

Noble Truth # 2

 

2.	Suffering is caused by craving or aversion. "What is the Noble Truth
of the Origin of Suffering? It is craving which renews being and is
accompanied by relish and lust, relishing this and that: in other words,
craving for sensual desires, craving for non-being. But whereon does this
craving arise and flourish? Wherever there is what seems lovable and
gratifying, thereon it arises and flourishes." (Samyutta Nikaya LVI, 11).

 

There are different kinds of desire, that when not met, are the cause of
suffering. The first is the desire for sense pleasures through the body.
That sounds quite familiar to those who have read Dr. Hall's weekly
Meta-Reflections. 

 

What do we know about sense pleasures as they relate to the growth of man?
Man experiences deficiency needs in his body and in his mind, the need for
food, for safety, for social interaction, and for self-esteem. Is it when
these needs are not met that the person suffers? Buddha called them desires,
Maslow calls them deficiency needs. What about when the needs are met, can
the person still experience suffering? It all depends, can we have toxic
states, or dragon states, that cause us to experience our deficiency needs
from a psycho-logic? Is it possible to psycho-eat, or psycho-drink,
psycho-seek for safety? Of course we can, and we do. In Self-Actualization
Psychology, Dr. Hall discusses the need for the human to meta-state him or
herself into a healthy meeting of the deficiency needs. These deficiency
needs, or as considered in Buddhist psychology as part of the second noble
truth, the desire for pleasure, must be overcome to avoid suffering. Once
avoided, the organism can grow into the being needs. 

 

The next kind of desire is the desire to become something. It is not a
pursuit of being, but the pursuit of something. It is not the desire of
beauty, truth, and justice; but of power, of wealth, of fame.  How does this
relate to Neuro-Semantics? Does Neuro-Semantics add to the suffering
experienced by the desire to become something? Does Self-Actualization
Psychology press the idea of the individual becoming something? It depends
on the Meta-State that you bring to the experience. Self-Actualization takes
place when we perform our highest meanings and add rich meanings to our
performance. The procedures through these quadrants are through personal
mastery. The Secret of Personal Mastery is multi-dimensional, but is
predicated on the key self-reflexive insight and mastery of our inner
executive. We suffer when our meanings and performance do not 'flow,' we
live and overcome these seeming suffering by accessing our personal genius,
that is right, our genius, the inner executive to being, not to becoming
something. Obviously, much more could be said about desire.

 

Noble Truth # 3

 

3.	Suffering can be overcome and happiness can be attained. "What is
the Noble Truth of Cessation of Suffering? It is the remainder less fading
and cessation of that same craving; the rejecting, relinquishing, leaving
and renouncing of it. But whereon is this craving abandoned and made to
cease? Wherever there is what seems lovable and gratifying, thereon it is
abandoned and made to cease." (Samyutta Nikaya LVI, 11)

 

This noble truth is very akin to Neuro-Semantics and the methods, theories,
and applications of models that are used to bring about the transformation
of the whole being. The third noble truth is that one can overcome suffering
and experience happiness by contemplation and living one day at a time (what
Matrix of Time does that involve?). Now, contemplation is thought, it is
reflection, it is the intentional self-reflexivity driven by meta-questions.
Meta-States, Meta-Questions, Meta-Model, Meta-Programs, going meta,
contemplating the meanings and states in which drive our behavior. The NLP
communication model, running your own brain, only happens as one
contemplates the movies in the mind, and the thoughts about those movies,
and the thoughts about the thought about those movies, ad infinite. 

 

Noble Truth # 4

 

4.	The fourth truth is the Noble Eight-fold Path which leads to the end
of suffering. "What is the Noble Truth of the Way Leading to the Cessation
of Suffering? It is the Noble Eightfold Path, that is to say: Right View,
Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort,
Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration." (Samyutta Nikaya LVI, 11)

 

The Noble Eightfold Path will require a new article and will be discussed in
the next series. But, before we leave, let me sum up what I believe to be
the relationship between the Four Noble Truths of Buddhist Philosophy and
Neuro-Semantics.

 

Who likes to suffer? Who wants to suffer? Do we believe that Buddha was
right when he said that the whole world suffers, that all experience is
suffering? Do you ever experience suffering? Do those who you love
experience suffering? Nirvana is the state of being free from suffering. If
Nirvana is the state of being free from suffering and if Buddha and some of
his followers claim to have reached Nirvana, then clearly they learned how
to manage their state. If the things that cause suffering did not end and if
others experienced a state of suffering as induced by the diamond of
consciousness: ideas, emotions, meanings, realizations, insights,
contemplations, identity,  intentions, outcomes, permissions, feelings,
appreciations, expectations, causations, culture, history, referent, memory,
epistemology, rules, modal operators, demands, judgments, injunctions,
paradigms, models, maps, hypothesis, metaphor, story, narrative, myth,
archetype, generalizations, summary, conclusions, decisions, choices, will,
computation, construction, values, importance, beliefs, and convictions,
then surely, through state-management, winning the inner game, accessing
personal genius, updating toxic meta-programs, updating our VAK sub
modalities, and thus achieving peak performance in the inner and outer game
of life, we too can experience Nirvana. 

 

Can we? Can we help the rest of the world experience the state of the
cessation of suffering? Surely, why else do we seek for self-actualization
if it is not for a better world, through better people, creating a better
culture, resulting in Nirvana for all. It sounds like a grand theory, almost
like Plato's Republic. But, in this case, we really do have a new science,
an old philosophy wed with a new science, what will we do with it? Will we
wait for another two thousand years for someone to write about us? Will they
write about an old science of Neuro-Semantics as I today write about an old
philosophy with the hope that their new wording for an old science will
change their world? Or, will we be the foundation of that new world? I guess
it is up to us, not them.  

 

 

 

 

charles.desjardins at sbcglobal.net   If you would like to meet Charles, he
will be at the Meta-Coach Training in Colorado, July 5-12

 

 

 

 

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