Reading What Really Matters: Searching for Wisdom in America

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I do not know how it happened that I missed this book! Published in 1995, it is the story of a successful journalist’s (as it says) search for wisdom in America. Tony Schwartz helped Donald Trump write a little book called The Art of the Deal, which made him rich but unsatisfied. He went on a quest that he shares in this book.

It’s Tony’s personal search, and he documents it as if writing in a journal (but with plenty of background info), rather than the “impersonal, keep your personal experience out of it” style of journalism.

He begins with Ram Dass and the influence of Eastern religions on America in the 1960s, covers the early days of Esalen, and moves on to brainwaves and biofeedback in Part I, The Pioneers.

I’m currently in the second part, Mind-Body Potentials, reading about Betty Edwards and drawing on the right side of the brain.

This quote got my attention:

As she stood by my side on that final afternoon [of a 5 day “drawing on the right side of the brain” workshop at Harvard], I suddenly understood the powerful impact of Edwards’s continuing encouragement. She creates a nurturing, nonjudgmental environment in which the expectation of success is high and the possibility of failure never enters the picture…. Put another way, the right hemisphere mode is a fragile and elusive state that can easily be overridden by the left hemisphere’s rush to judgment. At the same time, when the left hemisphere faces a challenge that it is ill equipped to meet, Edwards believes that it often simply gives up instead of turning the job over to the right hemisphere.

“We work very hard to thwart that inclination to quit,” Edward told me…. “I think of the left brain as the gatekeeper of the ego. One of its functions is to protect us from being made a fool of. In order to let the right hemisphere come forward and take over, the left hemisphere needs to be reassured that things will turn out okay. That’s what we try to do with our cheerleading. We’re creating a safe environment in which to let go of conscious control.”

One of the biggest changes I notice in myself that I believe comes from meditation is that my right brain is becoming more active. As I’ve mentioned before, whole body awareness is in the domain of the right brain. And it seems true, that the left verbal brain has to be able to let down its guard to experience wholeness. Even if just for brief periods of time at first, to know that it’s actually safe! And not just safe, but a wonderful, unnameable experience!

This is a rich book for seekers of wisdom. I am looking forward to reading about flow, learned optimism, dreams, Ken Wilber, the Enneagram, and his conclusion, entitled The Point Is to Be Real.

I wonder if he’s written anything that updates this book, which is now 15 years old. It seems like he might have something on American teachers like Byron Katie and Gangaji, who use satsang or inquiry to help people grow.

What else? Oh, I imagine he might add something about deeksha. And perhaps something about the recently discovered neuroplasticity of the brain.

What’s cutting edge in the search for wisdom?

Downsizing, simplifying

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Haven’t posted much lately because I have been getting my house ready to sell. There’s been yard work to do outside — pruning and sifting compost — and weeding through stuff inside that I’ve accumulated over 10 years.

I’m ready to downsize and radically simplify my life.

A few friends came over on Sunday and took art, furniture, and more. Lots of stuff went out to the curb for the city’s bulky item pickup, and most of it got picked over by resourceful scavengers long before the city trucks appeared today.

A big pile by the front door, gathered this evening, is waiting for my daughter to see if there’s anything she wants. The rest will go to Goodwill.

I love Goodwill.

This letting go feels so good! Like the more stuff I give away or sell, the  more space (and freedom) I feel in my life. I feel my energy brightening up.

Funny that I didn’t notice stuff weighing me down, holding me back, keeping me stuck — until all of a sudden I felt compelled to simplify.

A good question to bring into my life when it comes to material goods is, “Do I really, really need this?”

I’ve pared back on possessions a couple of times before. Moving is always a good occasion for it. But this time I will have even less stuff accompanying me into my new life.

Because really, how many teacups — with saucers — does one woman really need?

New restorative yoga class, Unwinding

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My new yoga class, Unwinding, meets on Sundays from 5:30 to 7 pm at Oak Hill Oriental Medicine, 7413 Old Bee Caves Road, near the “Y” in Oak Hill.

  • We’ll start with a few sun salutations to warm our bodies up.
  • We’ll hold some strategic stretches to lengthen tight muscles.
  • We’ll segue into deeply relaxing poses.
  • We’ll serve decaf yogi tea afterwards.

This class will focus on easing low back and neck issues as well as releasing stress and restoring health. Many props — blocks, blankets, bolsters, belts, sandbags, and eye pillows — will help us with asanas. You just need to bring your mat and your water bottle.

The fee is $15.

Esoteric acupuncture: a recommendation

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I’m making a recommendation. If you get acupuncture treatments and you already maintain a yoga and/or meditation practice, ask your acupuncturist about esoteric acupuncture.

I went to the AOMA student clinic last week. It was Acupuncture Week — appointments were free for new patients, half-price for existing patients. (I paid $15. Friend AOMA on Facebook to find out about specials like this.)

I wasn’t feeling badly at all — but that’s no reason not to get acupuncture! It’s highly preventive medicine, balancing the energy body before imbalances show up in the physical body as illness/disease, and I learned, it can also help you on your spiritual path.

I told the students attending me that I was a meditator. They asked about my concentration. I said it could use some work — monkey mind is still a fairly frequent visitor during my meditation sessions.

The students asked me if I’d ever heard of esoteric acupuncture. Nope.

They explained that it was developed by a California acupuncturist named Sankey, and it combines traditional Chinese acupuncture with the yogic/Ayurvedic chakra system, sacred geometry (which I’m not familiar with), and other practices of the energy/spiritual body.

What the heck! I was game. They consulted with their professor, who approved it.

I put on a gown and laid face down on the table. The needles start at the crown and go down the back. I rolled up my pants so the backs of my knees were bare.

The student acupuncturist was consulting his iPhone to see the points in which to insert the needles! They have to be inserted in a certain order, as well. I hardly felt any of them enter. The pattern felt surprisingly symmetrical.

Then he left the room.

For the next 25 minutes, I was in one of the most deeply relaxed states I’ve experienced. My consciousness faded in and out as I slowly wavered along the borderline between awareness and nonawareness. (Part of me wanted to witness the experience and kept coming up into awareness, noting how deep I had gone, and then going back under; otherwise, I might have been completely out the entire time.)

When the treatment was over, I was so relaxed, it took me awhile to “come back up” and be able to interact well and be really present with people. Fortunately, they’re used to this at AOMA!

The next morning, my meditation session was one of the best I’ve experienced. I felt more focused on whole body awareness than I ever have, with much less monkey mind.

Needles(s) to say, I’m planning to do it again!

A note: It may not do much for you unless you have already done some significant “awareness work” through yoga and/or meditation. My regular, long-time acupuncturist says:

it’s a japanese style that works great when you have already “arrived”- so yes, congratulations are definitely in order!

Contemplative neuroscience: how meditation changes your brain

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Today I ran across a link to CNN’s Belief Blog, about how meditation changes the brain, complete with images of brain scans.

The article cites Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin and research on the limbic system and development of concentration and empathy, and also the left anterior region and positive emotions (available after only a few weeks of meditation). He’s the most well-known contemplative neuroscientist, being a friend of the Dalai Lama’s, who has given him access to Tibetan monks who are among the most highly experienced meditators in the world with over 10,000 hours. (At one hour per day, it would take 27 years to accumulate that much time meditating!)

It also cites (new info to me) Andrew Newburg’s study of the prefrontal cortex and attention, and the superior parietal lobe and lack of orientation to time and space. Could this explain the experience of oneness and presence in meditation? Makes sense to me.

The National Institutes of Health is funding more research in contemplative science, an encouraging sign.

Still, the nascent field faces challenges. Scientists have scanned just a few hundred brains on meditation to date, which makes for a pretty small research sample. And some scientists say researchers are over eager to use brain science to prove the that meditation “works.”

“This is a field that has been populated by true believers,” says Emory University scientist Charles Raison, who has studied meditation’s effect on the immune system. “Many of the people doing this research are trying to prove scientifically what they already know from experience, which is a major flaw.”

But Davidson says that other types of scientists also have deep personal interest in what they’re studying. And he argues that that’s a good thing.

“There’s a cadre of grad students and post docs who’ve found personal value in meditation and have been inspired to study it scientifically,” Davidson says. “These are people at the very best universities and they want to do this for a career.

“In ten years,” he says, “we’ll find that meditation research has become mainstream.”

I hope so.

12 states of attention

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Update: This post was originally written in 2010, and it’s now 2023. Some things have changed. I’ve met and taken several trainings with Nelson. He’s a crusty, lovable curmudgeon and very, very smart.

You can find Nelson’s archived Navaching website here.

You can get a new or used copy of his book The Structure of Delight on Amazon.

If you’re a fan of Nelson Zink and in particular his work on peripheral vision and nightwalking, you might be interested in attending a nightwalking training in Taos, New Mexico, with Katie Raver. Details here.

~~~

My most recent post, Refining Awareness, includes some instructions about using your vision to focus down to the pixel level, and then to open your vision and let everything come into your field of vision.

These activities are based on a set of exercises called the 12 states of attention that I learned about and practiced and taught, so that now I seem to have internalized them enough that I don’t consciously think about it.

The three main senses we use are seeing, hearing, and feeling, or visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. NLP 101.

Each of these senses can be experienced externally and internally. For example, I can see the computer in front of me, and I can close my eyes and remember the image or imagine the computer morphing into a piano. That’s Visual External and Visual Internal (remembered and constructed).

You can further expand your sensory acuity by practicing using each sense as broadly and as narrowly as possible. Hence, look at a pixel, then let everything come in. Those states are Visual External Narrow (VEN) and Visual External Broad (VEB).

You can do this with hearing as well. You can focus on one sound in your environment (or in your memory or imagination), and you can focus on all the sounds.

Same with kinesthetic awareness. Internal, external, narrow, broad.

A man I’ve never met but who has been a teacher for me came up with the 12 states of attention. His name is Nelson Zink, and he’s got a pretty amazing website, Navaching. Click here to read about the 12 states of attention. He’s got a lot to say and says it well. (And check out his other pages. It’s pretty fascinating. I also do nightwalking. And read his book, The Structure of Delight.)

The point is that through our conditioning, most of us come to favor some states and neglect others. If you enjoy having more resources, you can practice these states and gain awareness skills. You never have to be bored again, and you will reach more of your potential!

So when I meditate and do a body scan, I may bring to awareness my skin, starting with my head and slowly going down my body to my foot, bringing each area into awareness (Kinesthetic External Narrow).

Or I may attend to how my head, chest, and belly feel (Kinesthetic Internal Somewhere-Between-Narrow-and-Broad).

When I do whole body awareness, I am using the Kinesthetic Internal/External Broad state of attention, including my energy field.

(The convention is that the skin is the boundary between external and internal for the kinesthetic sense. But because my energy body radiates through my skin, my skin is a permeable boundary, and I’m sensing internally and externally at the same time.)

The kinesthetic sense may actually be a lot of senses, including balance, knowing where my foot is in space, temperature, tactile, muscular, and so on. Emotions are usually classified as kinesthetic as well, since we feel them in the body.

Anyway.

Wisdom is a broad state, no matter whether we’re seeing the big picture, hearing the cosmic OM, or feeling connected to Source. Big Mind is a broad state, and that’s a skill gained from meditation.

Check out Zink’s website and practice the exercises given, if you like. It will bring you gifts of knowing yourself and experiencing more of your full potential.

Refining awareness

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What are you aware of right now? The words you’re reading on the screen. Maybe the whole screen. Maybe what’s beyond the screen in your field of vision.

Notice how your eyes can move from a narrow focus on black and white pixels to the space beyond. How do each of these extremes feel?

Your hearing. Traffic. Heating and air conditioning fans. Insects. Voices. Walking. Typing. Water running. The sound inside your head. The sounds your breath makes.

Your body, probably sitting. Your weight against the chair/sofa/floor. Your feet on the floor. Tight places in your body.

Yes, go ahead and adjust.

Your skin, clothed and unclothed. Warmth, coolness. Your breath, coming and going. Feelings in your chest, belly, head.

Pay attention to those feelings. Are any of them emotions? Even very subtle emotions? Anxiety? Joy? Glee?

Discover how much you can refine your awareness about your emotional state and your body.

This is another side effect of meditation. Awareness just gets deeper and deeper, more and more refined.

There now. Better?

Writing a new chapter in my life

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Just finished 6 weeks of cleansing and flushing my body of parasites and toxins and nasty old stuff that needs to go.

Now it feels ripe to do the same for my worldly goods.

I’m downsizing. Selling my East Austin house where I’ve lived for the past 10 years, making some big changes.

I’m hoping to buy a used vintage trailer in good shape and wanting to find a nice place to put it — on someone’s big lot or country acreage not too far out.

The trailer parks on Barton Springs Road would also be a good location, if I can get in there.

Or perhaps I’ll rent a trailer first and see how I like it.

Releasing, shedding, letting go, removing, reducing, downsizing, lightening up… I have too much stuff. I’m so ready for clean, spare, minimal. I could have so much more free time to do things I love.

So much to do… Prune the branch that hangs too low in front of the house, obscuring the view. Clear the entry path. Clean the house and make it ready for prospective buyers. Take stuff to Habitat and Goodwill and Half Price Books. Sell stuff on Craigslist. Maybe even sell the house on Craigslist!

I’m feeling my way through this, flying by the seat of my pants. Wanting to find a good neighbor for Bruce, someone who will honor the house and remodel, not tear it down and build ugly.

This house has been good to me, and it’s time to move on. I’m preparing for finishing my work at my current job sometime mid-2011. I’ve committed to stay through the session. Hopefully the last day of May will be my last day there.

And… I’ve been accepted into AOMA (acupuncture school). I deferred my entrance until next July, so I can do all this stuff at a pace I can handle.

I’m not 100% sure it’s right for me, but it sure feels like I’m moving in the right direction, and nothing else I’ve found resonates so much with me. Oriental medicine feels right, and it’s daunting. Three and a half years of eastern and western medicine is pretty intense, and it’s been years since I’ve been in school. But how fascinating, exotic, and practical. It will definitely keep my left and right brain hemispheres working!

In many ways, these changes are a side effect of meditation. Questions arise: How am I not living my right life? What is my right life? What do I love to do so much that I would do it for free (and making a living at it is icing on the cake)?

Words, images, dreams, realizations arise. The answers I’ve found so far are: doing/teaching/learning yoga, learning about the subtle body’s energies, learning to think like a Daoist, helping others and myself on the path toward health and enlightenment, being of joyous service. And writing.

I hope you’ll wish me good luck and lend me your support.

Is yoga exercise and/or is it holistic?

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Ramesh Bjonnes argues in Elephant Journal that yoga is holistic, in his review of Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Yoga, by Mark Singleton.

I haven’t read the book. I am still working on a long post about T. Krishnamacharya, who was instrumental in collecting and teaching asana as part of yoga practice in 20th century India. He taught those who brought yoga to the west — Jois, Iyengar, and Devi. Apparently Singleton wrote quite a bit about that, and his book is definitely on my reading list.

If you’re not a yogi, you may not know that what we call yoga in the West is actually one of six schools of Hindu philosophy in India. What we call yoga here is actually asana, one of the eight limbs of yoga, which is a holistic practice with ethical, social, physical, mental, and spiritual dimensions.

My opinion at this time about whether yoga is physical or spiritual: Most of us in the west first encounter yoga as physical exercises that relieve stress and build strength and flexibility. That’s okay. That may be the only way into our culture.

The physical body is but one layer of our beings. A regular asana practice brings changes to the physical body as well as the other layers. Once your body has gotten accustomed to doing yoga, doing yoga feels good. You miss a few days or a couple of weeks, and you notice the loss of well-being. It is meant to be a practice, and it affects more than just the physical body.

Whether you ever study yoga philosophy or not, a regular asana practice eventually opens you to notice your chakras and understand that you are much more than matter.

And after awhile, you may become fascinated with your subtle bodies, and you will want to meditate.

My yoga page on this blog

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Just letting y’all know… If you’re curious about my yoga classes, look under the banner photo, and you’ll see a row of links to pages. Click “Private yoga classes” to go there. Or just click here.

I just noticed yesterday in my blog stats that it had only been clicked three times.

I’ve finished the class part of my yoga teacher training and have a humongous test to do on my own time, as well as lesson plans for my 12-class series, Beginner’s Yoga, Beginner’s Mind, currently getting ready for the 9th week, to turn in.

I’ll post more about the Oak Hill restorative yoga class when it’s all worked out. Right now I’m focusing on the test and lesson plans.

I’ll let you know when I officially finish my training, and we’ll celebrate!