[Neurons] The Philosopher's Series #4

[Charles DesJardins]

Charles DesJardins

 

The Philosopher's Series #4

 

July 4, 2008

 

 

BUDDHA AND NEURO-SEMANTICS - PART TWO

 

Last week's article was about Buddha's Four Noble Truths. The fourth truth
was that the way out of suffering required a person walking the Eight Fold
Path. The Eight Fold Path can be broken down into three groups. 

 

The first element in these groups is Wisdom and includes Right Understanding
or Perfect Understanding and then Right Intention or Perfect Intention. The
second element is Moral Commitment and includes Right Speech, Right Action,
and Right Livelihood. The last is Emotional Balance or Concentration and
includes Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. 

 

Wisdom:

 

1.)    Right or Perfect Understanding:

 

In Buddhist philosophy this relates to having a right understanding of the
first three Noble Truths. Understanding the first three noble truths is
Dhamma. Right understanding is Dhamma (truth). Right Understanding or
Perfect Understanding is viewing life as it is. It is not as we want. I
should not be hurt, I should not suffer, you should not say that. According
to the Buddhist, these are not Dhamma, Dhamma, which includes Right
Understanding, is, it is what it is. 

 

I liken this to the idea of meaning. Korzybski stated that, 'the map is not
the territory.' Kant separated the world and the world of perception into
Noumenal and Phenomenal. Noumenal is the world as it is; the world that the
mind and cognitions try to understand. Phenomenal is the experience the
mind-body-emotions have of the world as it is. The phenomenal is not the
noumenal, but is the experience of the noumenal. Right Understanding is
experiencing the world as it is, but if we experience the world through
phenomenal, and not through noumenal, how do we truly experience it? We give
meaning to everything. That is how we experience the phenomenal. We make
contact with the world through our perceptions, through our deletions,
distortions, and generalizations of all that worldly stimuli. 

 

In the process of Self-Actualization the individual becomes alert to this
difference between the world and the experience of the world. It is becoming
clearer that some of the Self-Actualization predicates that have been
defined by people like Maslow, Shostrom, Campbell, and Hall match some of
the insights that are found in this Eight Fold Path. Self-Actualizing people
tend to see the difference between the world as it is, and the world as they
experience it; this engenders them to think synergistically about that
relationship. Self-Actualizing people tend to have a better or more balanced
understanding of reality; they tend to understand the difference between
means and ends. There definitely seems to be a relationship between some of
the characteristics of the expressions of Self-Actualizing individuals and
those who through Buddhist philosophy have Right Understanding.

 

2.)    Right Intention or Aspiration:

 

Right Intention comes from Right Understanding. With wrong understanding one
cannot have Right Intention. Grasping is the cause of suffering and
intention can cause grasping, but with Right Understanding, one has Right
Intention. When one has Right Understanding, one then can develop Right
Intention, intention toward beauty, truth, and goodness. These sound like
common themes when it comes to discussions of Self-Actualization. The Being
Needs, rather than the Deficiency Needs are prevalent in the growth toward
Self-Actualization and those Being Needs include the desire for growth
toward beauty, truth, and goodness.

 

Moral Commitment

 

3.)    Right Speech:

 

Right Speech is taking responsibility for your speech. Throughout
Neuro-Semantic writings and in specific patterns in such trainings as
Accessing Personal Genius the trainee learns and builds frames of
responsibility. The power to speak, to emote, to behave, and the power to
think are all anchored as a resource. 

 

Right Speech requires not just what is said, but also of the Right
Understanding of place and time to speak. One's Matrix to Time can impact
the timing of his or hers speech. The Meta-Model and Mind Lines outline the
'Communication Magic' that is necessary to have Right Speech.

 

4.)    Right Action:

 

Moral commitment requires that one understands how to act. Actions are
thoughts, beliefs, interests, etc. that have found their way into the
neurology and have affected the actions of the organism. Therefore, Right
Action is the result of right thinking. Neurotic thinking creates neurotic
behavior. 

 

Thinking that is intentional and comes from frames of understanding of the
Matrix of the mind and the systemic application that it has to the body is
action that is Right Action. It seems that the Buddhist philosophy may not
have had the Neuro-Semantic language or the models for Self-Actualization,
but, Buddhist philosophy did have the outcome defined, Neuro-Semantics has
the input, Buddhist philosophy has the output.

 

 

5.)    Right Livelihood:

 

Right Livelihood is akin to Right Action. In Buddhism, Right Livelihood
includes the monastic living, the idea of never hurting or killing any
living organism. Some in the Buddhist tradition strain their water so as not
to drink and kill any living thing. Right Livelihood for this century,
outside of Buddhist tradition, would be things like not hurting others by
our actions. Not stealing, not lying, not cheating, etc. Self-Actualizing
individuals typically have characteristics that extend to Right Livelihood.
They live a life of responsibility and truth, human kinship, humility and
respect, ethics, values, and sees man as essentially good. 

 

It seems evident that as individuals move through life and experience
Self-Actualizing growth, especially as they intentionally navigate through
the Matrix and Quadrants of Self-Actualization, they lead lives of right
living.

 

Emotional Balance or Concentration

 

6.)    Right Effort

 

Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration all refer to your
spirit or your heart. If you were paying attention you would notice that the
Eight Fold Path starts with the mind, then the body, and now the spirit.
Right Effort is not about doing the right things, or even thinking the right
things, it is having the serenity that comes from right thinking and right
doing. 

 

Emotional Balance and Concentration come from mindfulness and concentration
that is developed through meditation. Meditation is the intention to
concentrate the mind on an object of the mediator's choice. That object can
be a physical object, it can be focused on the object of breathing, it can
be focused on the object of compassion; it is a training of the mind to
concentrate. It is state management on steroids. To win at the frame games a
person must know his or her frames. To know ones frames one must pay
attention to the frames as they come and go, pay attention to the anchors
and triggers that engender and heighten and weaken the states.

 

A person does not have to meditate to come to know his or her states or to
manage the states, but the intention of mediations, is the intention of
state management. Meditation is one way to learn about and manage states.
Neuro-Semantics offers patterns and models for managing one's states. This
can be done separately, just meditation, just Neuro-Semantics, or both.

 

7.)    Right Mindfulness

 

Mindfulness is to direct the mind. Mediation is one method that is used to
train the mind to become mindful. It is awareness. One of the seven Matrices
of the Matrix-Model is the Intention Matrix. The Intention Matrix is a
Matrix of Purpose. To have intention is to have purpose. It is the opposite
of being without purpose or intention. Mindfulness, that is, right
mindfulness, is having the right purpose, the right intention. In
Self-Actualization Psychology right intention would be following the purpose
of the being that is living in the growth needs and not the deficiency
needs. 

 

8.)    Right Concentration:

 

Right Concentration seems akin to 'flow' and or the movement of the
individual, by intention and purpose, up and over, through the Quadrants of
Self-Actualization. Full concentration, Right Concentration, as it is
balanced and empowered by the other seven paths, is the mind set deeply on
the gestalt experience of living fully in your full potential, with deep
rich meanings to match your competencies and to have highly developed
competencies to meet your deep rich meanings. 

 

To Unleash your potentials, to Unleash your-self for your highest best, you
must have an "Attitude of the Willingness to Become Completely Engaged."

 

I have only touched on the depth of the Eight Fold Path and the relationship
between Neuro-Semantics and Self-Actualization Psychology's philosophical
relationship. As I have written about this, the close relationship between
the two has jumped off the pages for me. 

 

Buddhist philosophy has offered a way for a person to grow into an
experience of what is called Nirvana. This Nirvana, as proffered through the
Four Noble Truths, is akin to the Self-Actualization of the individual.
Mankind has been, for many millennia, recognizing and grappling with a way
or the way to bring peace of mind to their fellow creatures, and peace to
their fellow creatures. Buddhist Philosophy says that we suffer because we
see the world not as it is, but as we think it should be. We suffer because
we extend suffering to our fellow creatures as we perpetuate wrong thinking,
which leads to wrong doing, which leads to further suffering.

 

Neuro-Semantics, and the Self-Actualizing Psychology that is an outgrowth
from it, recognizes these same things, only with a different language. I
find this a challenge to me. I have to ask myself, what responsibility do I
have to my culture? First, according to Dr. Hall, "Culture is you and me,"
if I want to change culture, reduce its suffering, I have to change me! I
have at my disposal all the models, books, techniques, time, and frame
changing patterns; now I need to enter my Construct, my Crucible, and my
Zone. What about you? 

 

charles.desjardins at sbcglobal.net   

 

 

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