Primacy of Dissatisfaction

On September 10, 2020December 14, 2020 By Chris ShuttleworthLeave a comment

Is there anything in biological action that cannot be explained by dissatisfaction? Beneath every action, every intention, every present moment experience, there is a desire, a craving, a will for things to be otherwise, namely, that things should be better, for us. This desire has an underlying sense of dissatisfaction which manifests in the action, the speech, the moment of conscious attention, the concretizing moment of experience. Our orientation towards the world may be temporal, may be characterized by perceived care or concern, and every perception and moment has meaning to us, yet, this meaning is one that is qualified by the suffering inherent in our very nature.

This dissatisfaction expresses itself in every moment. Any present moment experience will serve to be an example of its manifestation. While genetic and biological disposition form the structure of our Being on a material basis, the manner in which our genetic material in accordance with our developed Being expresses itself in our conscious experience of our orientation towards the world, is one in which we can uncover as rooted in dissatisfaction.

Phenomenologically, every conscious experience is the accomplishment of dissatisfaction actualizing an attempt at alleviating itself. In thoughts which appear to us in the form of articulated language we are attempting to place a rational ordering upon the content in our immediate environment, whether that “closeness” is our mental condition, sensory information, or external surroundings. The articulation which actualizes the attempt to represent this content only stems from chaos, and the desire to impose order, that is, an inherent dissatisfaction and an attempt at its alleviation. The imaginative thought, the directive thought, the idealist or abstract thought, are all a multitude of expressions manifesting the core inherent nature of our Being.

Heidegger correctly states that this being is temporalized, that it is inextricably connected with time, that it is itself temporalizing the world through its very existence. The trinitarian union of time, that of the effect of the past, experience of the present, and anticipation of the future, unified within the present, modifies our behavior as our Being “moves” from one moment to the next. This produces the relevant content of thought, in relation to our modified, evolved, socialized, experientially transformed Being. This Being which we find ourselves as expressing in the present was instantiated by genetics, modified by environment, and has a nature of attempting to reduce the dissatisfaction at its core through its alleviation. The nature of the content of the present is an expression of this temporalized nature, that it is predicated on past habitual tendencies in response to the present, and modified by our anticipation of alleviation in the future. The conscious content we have the ability to be aware of in the moment presents itself as doing so through the experience of directed conscious experience, or within a mode of being characterized by intentionality or “directedness”. The content in which our consciousness is directed upon is available within every moment and is an expression of a value system instantiated by dissatisfaction, giving rise to the signification of our perception system to filter content, filtered through our developed Being in its entirety. The content which makes its way to conscious experience, being of whatever nature, we are directed towards with the “intention” of reducing the dissatisfaction which we presently have with our existence within that moment. If we did not have this dissatisfaction, there would be no signification of objective reality, no orientation within the world, no filtration system of our perceptive abilities, and the totality of our Being wouldn’t be directed towards valuable or meaningful content. The meaning of the many systems, many of which are cybernetically related, is grounded upon a biological imperative to alleviate a dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs. This is visible as microscopically as the cellular level in the need to maintain homeostasis, to regulate nutrients, to consume energy, to survive, and reproduce the genetic instructions themselves, in short, this dissatisfaction is a biological necessity to push forward to the next moment, for us in the totality of our material underpinnings, and as far down as we can see.

The manifestation of emotions of a satisfactory conscious nature, if analyzed in the present moment, only serve as the illusory covering up of our fundamental nature, and are better thought of as lesser deviations of suffering than having a positive essence. The reward systems instantiation of positive modes of being, or subjectively “pleasant” experiences, are only a degree of dissatisfaction removed from our “normal”. Our suffering is not a degree of removal from baseline neutrality, but the baseline, and relevant positive emotions, are merely deviations of negativity. Happiness, satisfaction, contentedness, blissfulness, is as transient and conditioned as any other content of consciousness, there is no permanent escape from dissatisfaction, and the experience of satisfaction only serves as an indicator of a manner of acting that biologically leads to a better anticipatory interpretation of the future. If there wasn’t dissatisfaction at the core of satisfaction, it wouldn’t ever be rewarded for subjectively, nor would it condition us towards patterns of behavior that re-instantiate it. When analyzing a mode of being which appears to us as satisfactory, we still find present the desire for that mode of being to extend into the future, we are still temporalized and are living ahead of ourselves, we are never satisfied, not even with the present mode of being characterized by satisfaction. By the nature of times passing, we are more than aware of the impermanence of any present moment’s existence, as time passes, so does the content of consciousness, as we recognize happiness, bliss, and satisfaction, we simultaneously recognize its transience. What these concepts denote as positive emotion, or perceived positive emotion, only go to show modes of being that are a degree of deviation of suffering away from our baseline, which we never can escape.

While Heidegger correctly explained our temporal nature, he failed in his claim as characterizing it by a primacy of care, just as Merleau-Ponty failed in his emphasis of the primacy of perception. While these do serve as useful articulations of characteristics crucial to representing our Being in its manifestation, the root of them remains unarticulated. Care, concern, perception, attention, meaning, merely are products of our essential dissatisfied nature, they are the biological expressions of an attempt to alleviate this suffering through “action” or “movement”, not necessarily in our physical being, but in relation to our unconscious striving.

To escape desire, to escape suffering, is what the world’s religious matriarchs claim to have experienced. At the core of these claims is the belief that one has transcended desire and suffering. In phenomenal experience the thought can surely arise that distinguishes transcendental experiences with a normative claim that they are truly happening. Just because a content of consciousness is truly existing, and appears to represent reality, doesn’t mean that it actually represents the nature of our Being. While one can believe that they are experiencing a separation from the experience of dissatisfaction, one is merely misaligning their vocabulary in its representation of their conscious experience. One cannot experience “pleasure” without simultaneously desiring its continuation, and, if one is wise, one cannot do so without recognizing its impermanence, as time will show, it will not last. Naivety and self-delusionment serve to improve our experience of existence, thus the emergence of the “self” concept to distinguish egotistical intentions, thus the emergence of a belief of temporal transcendence in an afterlife to escape death anxiety, thus the belief in happiness and contentment to persuade ourselves that our essential existential nature isn’t characterized by misfortune and dissatisfaction. The biological correlate to such belief structures proves evolutionarily beneficial, the conscious experience of certainty in regard to these claims works to dissuade us from suicide, complacency, reproductive stagnation, and biological degeneration, in short, they serve to to dissuade us from acting out the revelation of what our basic nature appears to imply, meaninglessness and a lifetime of dissatisfactory experience. This dissuasion reflects a biological advantage in the utility of being-towards-others in our altruistic acts, which, in the manner of kin selection, group selection, or reciprocal altruism, served to promote the wellbeing of the individual, and thus the species as a group, as a whole, towards further development.

The thoughts that appear in our conscious awareness always is directed towards something. This directing is characterized by an attempt to alleviate dissatisfaction. The pragmatic utility of the thought, speech, or action is determined by the success it has as a precursor to actualizing an alleviation of suffering. The degree to which it is deemed pragmatic, to us, is the degree to which it moves us away from or below the baseline of dissatisfaction. This success or failure, and the degree to which we do so, further informs our Being towards repetition or recession from further implementation of the strategy.

Any experience of emotion appearing in conscious awareness is our neurological systems way of informing consciousness towards the utility of external or internal content and its affect upon our being. Our genetic predispositions are the blueprint which allow us to develop a value system centered around the core of biological imperatives, that of the survival, reproduction, and replication of our genetic material, which is nested in the cells of the “survival machine” which we coin “the body”. The manner in which our body is oriented towards the world, and within the world, is based firstly upon pre-conceptual perception which shares the same origin story instruction, it is instantiated by genetic predisposition, and modified by environment which includes our society and cultures role in molding us.

Our society and culture play a role in our modification because how we interact within them will determine the success or failure of the biological imperatives, which is always taken into consideration in thought, actualized in speech, and manifest in our actions, whether that consideration is conscious or unconscious is aside from the matter. The social milieu in which we find ourselves in limits our range of acceptable actions from which to act upon that determine our success within communal life, whether its through legislative means, accepted taboos, or general conceptions about morality. We are modified by this whether we rationally agree or not. This restrictive nature of society, by so hindering our freedom, puts constraints upon our Being and the manner in which we interact with the world, whether we act in alignment with the social and cultural conditioning, or rebel against them, we are acting in a way that takes them into consideration, which doesn’t explicitly have to be conscious. The nature of this Being which interacts within the communal world, as previously described in its instantiation, does the perceiving, the conscious directing, the expression of content within our subjective experience, due to the underpinned suffering hardwired into our genetic material which drives us towards its removal, for its benefit. When biological imperatives are constrained by social factors, we necessarily take into account the effect our actions will have upon others, or how they will be perceived. This kind of reinforcement serves to condition us through the acquisition of desires from the start of life, desires that are desired by the social and cultural environment we find ourselves in, towards the progression of the biological imperatives. Any interest, hobby, job, action, or turn of phrase which is contrary to the socially accepted catalogue of desires, becomes less desirous to us without our explicit approval, prior to conscious consideration. In looking to alleviate our dissatisfied nature, we always do so with an eye to our self-interests and how it aligns with the current society and culture.

Every expression of consciousness is biological in nature, being that we are biological organisms. No matter how distorted the manifestations appear to be from the “state of nature” recorded in our observation of other life, they are nonetheless manifestations of nature. It is due to our attempt at satisfying our natural tendencies that we strive to become socially integrated, and to rise to the top of social and culturally informed hierarchies. Whether the drives are best explained by a biological or social perspective, sexual or individual causes, all these perspectives and aspects of our biological being is entwined with the Being which we find ourselves as, and any motion which flows from it are always a complete combination of these (every momentary subjective experience or action, whether conscious or not). We find ourselves oriented based upon these factors, and it is visible under the metrics of improvement and way of life that result in optimality in finding a mate, and reproducing our genetic material. While this seems to be biologically reductive in expressing the core of all our actions, it is more than an evolutionarily informed position, and can be better expressed under different domains of inquiry, yet in its totality, philosophy enables the delineation of each of the integral structures in relation to the whole, and provides a description of the whole which the natural sciences can merely point to in each of their findings. It is entirely possible to make a case that phenomenological analysis is itself scientific in nature, and the underlying subjective experience which proceeds even specific scientific methodology is always relevant to the scientific endeavor itself. To phenomenologically, experientially, philosophically, conclude upon the dissatisfactory nature of our Being as being integral to all life is itself a scientific claim that can be proved through scientific measures.

A phenomenological analysis of what the experience of the present moment reveals to us in subjective experience enlightens us towards the mechanism by which our Being pursues these courses of action, from which all other courses of action are integrally related. The suffering which permeates all experience is visible in any present moment which we can concentrate upon. The essentiality and inextricable connection to every arising content of consciousness, to every retrospectively analyzed manifestation of our Being in movement, speech, or subjective experience, can be recognized through practices such as Vipassana meditation or through using the phenomenological method in application to our own experience. While motivation, and causal generalities can be numerous, whether we view things from the lens of genetic influence as an evolutionary biologist might, environmental influence as a sociologist may be predisposed to, or familial upbringing as a psychologist does, all these lens of perception and articulation of causal conditionality can be understood as containing an underlying philosophic tendency of dissatisfaction in the manner they are manifest. If a psychologist views an action we are taking and charts a repetitive overarching pattern of goal accomplishment that links to childhood experience, that perspective holds, yet the motivation as to why that pattern emerges, and from what underlying characteristic of the mode of being which produces it can be described as, both point to the inherent dissatisfactory nature of our Being. The motivation can always be described in terms of dissatisfaction, and its correlates, (albeit these correlates are almost always wrongly attributed as the core of our being) that of craving, and clinging, of desiring and aversion, which merely are conceptualized notions of the products of dissatisfaction. The dissatisfaction isn’t merely an emotion we experience, but a characteristic of the manner of our being-in-the-world.

We can clearly understand how drug and alcohol use are prevalent in humankind from this explanation, they offer an external alleviation of the experience of our natural being, that of dissatisfaction. By so modifying our conscious experience, some can succeed in momentarily covering up our essential nature, they modify our subjective experience away in degrees away from the dissatisfactory baseline which permeates our waking lives. Some substances are desired, work to reduce suffering, and regarded as pleasurable, merely for their short term, controlled, impermanent, yet effective alleviation and deviation from our natural mode of Being. Anything which serves as a crutch towards the alleviation of suffering is prized by our reward system, and the neural pathways that lead to its alleviate are always strengthened by the actions which actualize the desired outcome. Any absence from the possibility of greasing this neural groove that produces alleviation becomes itself the source of further dissatisfaction in our separation from it, thus dependency and over indulgence can result in anything which has such a nature to alleviate this desire, this aversion, this suffering beneath it all. Food, sex, drugs, love, all serve to do this, and we can see how our desire and ability to abuse them is warranted by their very utility in satisfying our essential craving. While the usage of substances to modify neurochemistry and subsequently our subjective experience can provide short term alleviation from our existence in its nascent state, the problems always arise at the extreme end, and a withholding of rational control can form abuse or dependency, solely upon the grounds of that neural groove to alleviate satisfaction going unreinforced. It’s entirely explainable, given our nature, why we would desire to escape ourselves, and the desire to do so all the time, makes perfect sense. The problem is the perceived benefit of such escapism, or navigation of experience through continued substance use, is always temporary, as any experience is, and almost always isn’t reiterable across time as providing a net benefit. In the final analysis the consistent use of any conscious altering substance that results in dependence, daily use, or overuse, will ultimately end in the user experiencing a profound dissatisfaction that is normally described as substantially more detrimental to subjective wellbeing than the original dissatisfaction that led to the substance abuse.

Those that are so biologically gifted, or cursed, to be more attentive and aware of their present experience, are better suited to recognize the essential nature of their Being. The degree to which we have a genetic and environmental disposition in the direction of self-awareness and intellectual ability to articulate it, is the degree towards which we discover that our own Being is a problem for us, and the degree to which it actually is. At a certain point, destruction of Being itself becomes an option of consideration. For many people the revelation of certain truths of our Being, and of our place in the world, are improperly framed and can lead to a pessimistic or even self-proclaimed nihilistic interpretation of life. This holds the potential to lead to an increased attempt to escape the confines of suffering that this specific knowledge appears to point to, and addiction rates increase. The degree to which we suffer, and are aware of our suffering, and the manner in which we frame such revelations, determine the degree to which we have a dissatisfied experience of life. The way we view the world, the way we interpret our knowledge of it, and the manner in which we navigate the world given such knowledge, is of paramount importance to informing our subjective experience. Such truths such as the impermanence of all phenomena, the suffering nature of our existence, and the deterministic foundation for all action pose the threat of being interpreted in a manner that increases our dissatisfaction with life, but they need not do so.

How do we experience the world through this lens? Individual childhood dissatisfactions and the experience of dissatisfaction which permeates all of our lives can become so great so as to produce the thought of suicide as being a resolvent of the problem of the dissatisfaction itself. The introduction to alleviating substances which could remove the cloud of darkness which is the subsequent production to rumination on the negative experience of life, provides us an apparent escape, albeit, an escape in degree alone, from the nature of natural existence. The addiction, thirst for power, accomplishment of social recognition, and the experience of Being so modified by experience, only can work to confirm the utility of the lifestyle which afforded its modification. Once the utility of this lifestyle becomes revealed as un-reiterable, or of providing a net negative in the consequences of pursuing it, subsequent rejection of the lifestyle is considered. In the developed aversion to conscious altering substances, we are pushed to experience the added suffering of craving for what was lost, and we experience the return to the baseline of suffering, the return to our essential Being. In attempting to cope with Being as such, in its nascent, unmodified by substance, yet heavily altered by environment state, we then can find the pursuit of abstract ideals in philosophy, the concentration on family values, or activities such as physical exertion to be of the most prominent forms of alleviating the permanent awareness of dissatisfaction. We can attempt to form meaningful relationships, but when we do so, we may find ourselves in a similar position, of experiencing the dissatisfaction inherent in life, and conclude that it must be due to our relational partners, that the source of the dissatisfaction must be external. Thus we are enticed to drive off the ones who love us, and eventually may conclude that the dissatisfaction which currently manifests itself as directed upon an object (that of our partners) is in fact due to the partner, but not explicitly, it is only by our essential nature that we can direct it in such a manner. The more someone appears as a viable long-term partner, whether in friendship or romance, especially if the person is imagined to be a partner in which we desire to bear children with, the greater our anxiety in them being suited for such a position. The closer we become, the more dissatisfaction is biologically “required” in order to make sure the situation is optimal for the goals which are, again, instantiated biologically and modified in their expression and the manner in which we actualize them by our social milieu and past experiences. Thus we push away those we love out of false yet true attribution of our suffering towards their role in our lives. We cannot escape dissatisfaction, and our attribution of its manifestation to external factors is merely a part of the biological game, to which we were designed to be players. In the essays “Philosophic Interpretational Structures” and “Pragmatism of the Hard-Deterministic Worldview”, I offer solutions of framing from which we can actually benefit from the knowledge which has the potential of producing further dissatisfaction. In the following sections I will give a brief summary of the proper method of which to utilize these “difficult” truths, and the framing I’ve found most pragmatic.

How do we learn to pragmatically cope with this state of affairs? Do we have to be players in the biological game of dissatisfaction alleviation? Whether we like it or not, as awareness of these truths become evident, they will never fade away, they will be ever presented as driving forces behind our experience, whether it be thought, speech or action. Do we heed their call to arms? We cannot do otherwise. We ought not act upon every thought, but we have to think every thought that is presented to us. The answer lies in the correct modification of our Being towards values which are consciously formulated, and proven to be personally experienced as beneficial in the mitigation of dissatisfaction. The presence of dissatisfaction in the natural mode of being (unhindered by chemical substances) isn’t abnormal, it’s the most “normal” thing about us. The wise maneuvering and orientation of ourselves in relation to our values, their explicit defining and the manner in which we actualize them, the way in which we act in the world, the way we spend our time, our worldview, in short, our view, intention, thought, speech, action, job, mindfulness, and concentration all must be optimized towards the alleviation of suffering. We can actually harness this natural ability towards accomplishment of our goals. If we allow our dissatisfied nature to be directed toward areas which we do not consciously value, we will only progress towards activities, aims, skills, and experiences which, while they biologically are significant, and therefore “matter”, don’t consciously matter to us. In a proper value system revelation, explicit revamping, instantiating, and actualizing, we can utilize our core expressions of dissatisfaction towards a purpose which we value, towards aims which are meaningful, albeit, to us and us alone. This can only be achieved by diligent striving to do so, yet, we must be fully cognizant of our inability to fully escape the confines of existential suffering which we are encased in. Pursue meaning, attempt to alleviate suffering, yet do not fall into despair over its impossibility. While this presents itself as paradoxical, in the pursuit of the nonexistent by our absurd striving towards it, it is the striving, the Being-directed-towards-value, the present moment directedness and movement which is all we have. The manner and direction which we do so, will determine our ability to cope with life and the subjective experience we will have in doing so.

The biggest problem in life is suffering, and suffering is inextricably tied to our being, as long as we abstain from mind altering substances. How can we most optimally navigate our experience sober? I have found this is best done by pursing values which provide adequate combat against, and in unison with, the essential core of our being. For many this is abstract contemplation, it is career goals, it is development of skills and ascension in hierarchies which we value, it is familial and interpersonal relationships, it is character development in a certain direction, it is becoming the person we simultaneously desire to be as well as have the potential of being. While any area we direct ourselves towards progressing is a manifestation of the system which we simultaneously which to negate (the suffering nature of our biological system), we succeed in mitigation only through the process of attempting to do so. Mental progression in character development, wisdom optimization, and ability to deal with the set of all problems, mentally, always provides a cognitive relief that we can capitalize on despite abstaining from substance alteration. Present moment awareness of the content of consciousness in practices such as meditation, or introspection, give us a greater degree of understanding our experience of life, and the ability to consciously experience this content provides us with the knowledge towards its causal nature, information which is invaluable towards optimization. Physical exertion in hard training, such as physical combat, exercise, sports, or endurance activities, plays a similar role in fighting our genetic predisposition towards desire rooted in dissatisfaction to master our environment, to rise in the hierarchy of physicality. Working a full time job to provide for oneself, one’s family, is adequate in soothing that biological source of dissatisfaction that stems from the will to power through independence and communal benefit. Having mutual beneficial relationships that foster love, support, and mutual growth and understanding provide an experienced social cohesion that is beneficial to our Being. The combination and unity of the four, is a good start at a holistic method of coping.

Is this optimal? Is this the best philosophy of life, the best way to live? If anything, it’s a start. If we can optimize our lives towards pursuing what we value, if we can gratify the modes of our Being which include the mental, physical, and communal modes of our Being, which all are sources of meaning, then we are best suited to deal with the navigation of experience despite its essential dissatisfactory nature. While these are normative claims, and existential conclusions, I believe the search is never over, the modification of our belief systems, the alteration of knowledge used in directing our Being in the world, the experience both in success and failure in these respects, all seeks to better inform us of a better method of navigation, but for now, this is the best I have.

Phenomenological Analysis of Vipassana Meditation Noema

On March 24, 2020June 30, 2020 By Chris Shuttleworth1 Comment

While mindfulness requires diligent effort towards directing the gaze of conscious awareness towards the content of the present moment arising in consciousness, a phenomenological analysis requires much more psychologically rooted tools to perform at a truth revealing level (optimal/accurate/useful in degrees). While we can acquire the benefits of mindfulness through attention to the present, the requirements for a phenomenological analysis require intellectual clarity, knowledge of various scientific disciplines, non-contradictory logical reasoning, causal intuition, time and diligence directed by the mental gaze towards an authentic unravelling of the structure of the psyche, in short they require the ability to concentrate and pursue abstract correlates in their relation to the manifest contents discovered in mindfulness. This necessarily entails work, time, and discipline if one is to uncover the essential foundations for the noeses from which the noema (Husserl’s Terminology) are correlated and initially perceived as inextricably connected.

I wish to pursue the meaning, the noeses, the mode of Being, and its essential attributes for an experiential noema of, namely: entering into a Vipassana present moment meditation (Basic Vipassana Meditation). Now, first and foremost, I must recognize that the experience is of a specific differentiated nature, meaning, that I recognize my transition into a mode of awareness directed upon the present moment which is distinctly different from the previous mode of being, for which I conceptualize in my phenomenological analysis as an experience of mindfulness meditation. The goal for me, here, is to recognize the essence of the mode of Being which enabled and embodied such a subjective experience, and to uncover why.

First I analyze the situation for what it is, through recollection in memory and reflection upon the experiential content. Once I have clearly in mind the content I was experiencing in conscious awareness at the time of the period of mindfulness, I can circumnavigate the experience to get a clear view of the noema with which we are interested in attaining the correlated noesis. The multiple perspective exploration which ensues is the part of the work we must undergo to get a clear and authentic representation of the content. Here a reliance on clear, judgmental, unbiased memory is a preferred indifferent to us, as certain acts of reflection we may be unable to untangle from the truth of the matter. It is preferred in that it directly relates to an optimal outcome, and indifferent in that we recognize that the ability to do so is inherent in our intellectual capacities, and may…unfortunately…be out of our control in the time being, yet ultimately able to be improved through persistence and experience in performing phenomenological analyses, as well as with the increase of wisdom and knowledge in related mental faculties (logic / reason / intellectual concentration). To be able to perform such an endeavor we must “bracket” the “natural world” as described by Husserl, the degree to which we are able to separate the influence of a natural standpoint, or the unmindful mode of being, is crucial to the accuracy of the conclusion acquired. The amount of clarity in our recollection, and the resistance to any narrating and “Ego” driven defining of the content of the noema enable us to better or worse produce a clear, more accurate phenomenological result.

With the noema defined and held in our conscious gaze, that of the Vipassana mediation experience, we probe into our intuition to disclose what the intentionality of the acts performed in the noema are stemming from, or how the noematic content relates to the noetic content, their connection and formulation. For what purpose did we pursue such activity? From what mode of Being did it stem from? Why would we spend time doing such an act? Obviously the answer to these questions are differentiated in response to the individual, his circumstances, and the specific noema in space and time in which we are analyzing. Thus, my uncovering of the phenomena of mindfulness is related to this singular experience, and the work put in is towards the end in direct regard to that singular experience. The results therefore disclose information related to that mode of being intuited as being preliminary and underlying to the noema, but, also, they disclose a possible mode of being which can generally be stated as being able to manifest across the realm of future experience. While we discover the noesis of that singular noema in the analysis, we recognize it as an integral part of our psyche, and thus as having the potential of emerging again as a correlate to any future experience, and more specifically to acts of similar nature to the one inquired upon.

The intentionality in the case described is personally intuited in conceptualizations (word representations of “real” phenomena) based upon our acquired total synthesis of Being, containing specific knowledge with which the individual utilizes in his description and exploration of the phenomenological correlates to the experience. Language and its epistemology in regards to the individual is therefore an important aspect of any abstraction. Different perspectives and explanations are possible as being uncovered, as all being parts of the whole correlated explanation of the mode of Being relevant. Thus, we can expect always a partial conclusion, as the limit of knowledge and the kind of representation used (definition of words used in conceptualization is varied according to the individual). In my personal case I concluded, after work towards unravelling, a number of intuitions which may partially constitute the nature of the noeses underlying the phenomena of Vipassana meditation, in its manifestation and presentation in memory discovered by myself. The implications of such findings, and their relevancy towards further explanation across multiple disciplines, is later to be expounded upon.

I here wish to expound my personal findings to explore what I found, the implications, again, will later be preliminarily sketched out. In looking towards the intention I intuited that a mode of being of intentionality was prevalent throughout the experience. The conscious thought arose in which directed my being towards actualizing a mindfulness practice, and thus I habitually followed previous attempts at actualizing a Vipassana mediation, as I have up to this point acquired. The sitting still, eyes closed, and directing of the gaze into the present moment followed this consciously directed thought of wishing to perform a Vipassana meditation. Attention was focused upon the fleeting, transient contents of consciousness as it presented an awareness of perceptions of sensations and sensory content such as hearing, bodily pressure upon the chair, thoughts used in describing the present, attention brought to non-conceptually arising observation of the breath, sounds, feeling. I witnessed thoughts appear, I witnessed attention change. In retrospect there was always a content to which I could possibly be attentive to, although for brief moments my initial intention of pursuing a constant awareness of the present moment (a general guideline for Vipassana) was broken by forgetfulness of the practice as a thought or mental formation hindered my remembrance of the practice, but eventually was brought back to the attention upon the task at hand of being mindful. The variation in the content of consciousness in pursuing itself, varied in accuracy as it drifted between the awareness of the present, and non-awareness of its own content. These two poles make up a general description of the noema from start (that of entering into the mode of being) to end (that of exiting the mode of being and transitioning to a phenomenological analysis of the noema which had passed). The noema has been roughly, simply, conceptualized.

As there was a content connected to consciousness, there is a content of the underlying mode of being, the noesis, to that noema. Where consciousness was intent on pursuing Vipassana meditation, why was it pursuing Vipassana meditation? The answer lies in a multitude of phenomenological reasons relating to the nature of the mode of being which so desires such an experience (Phenomenology of Desire). This desire we will later expound upon. Several I will here explore as being uncovered in intuitional analyses. The mode of being is characterized by a will for character development, for becoming a better person, embodying the virtues with which to act upon in an optimal way for said character development. Upon investigation I discovered that from a doxological perspective (of my inherent intellectual belief structure) that I believe the pursuit of mindfulness to be relating and influential towards the goal of the improvement of character. Thus, part of the noetic content making up the whole noesis isn’t only of intentionality constitution, but also of doxic positionality (my Being’s relation to what I believe). I, through whatever reason (a causal chain of connectivity leads to our current belief structure), also hold as high in my meaning structure, or value hierarchy, the pursuit of character development (probably a conceptually acquired content stemming from content such as experiential knowledge and practical evaluation of Aristotle’s Nichomechean Ethics). Thus, the mode of being described as character development has revealed itself as containing noetic content of intentionality, doxic positionality (my relation to my beliefs), and value pursuit (my pursuit of a value which I have personally acquired as something hierarchical more important to me than other experiences). The result of such content in experience being the actualization of the underlying desire for character development manifest in the Vipassana meditation noema which I experienced.

Now we look to analyze why I contain such a doxic, value, and intentional structure. While the noema, the experience itself, is put into the highest position of concreteness, a relation to the recollection in the awareness of the memory of the experience would be in the second order of concreteness (it loses something of the initial concrete experience in the conceptual and mental formation), and in the third dimension of abstraction we have intuited the noetic structure which we believe to underlie the initial 1st dimension experience based upon the 2nd dimension experience (of recollection). The 3rd dimensional conceptual abstraction defines parts of the contents of the noesis available to us through the 2nd dimension and is itself able to be subject to phenomenological analyses, just as much as any other noema. But that’s a side note just to convey two things, namely, that each step in the phenomenological analyses is itself a moment which can be phenomenologically analyzed in its own noematic content, and also from that to conclude that the limit of content available to be phenomenologically analyzed is thus limitless in extension.

Continuing down our analysis we enter a 4th dimension of analysis, as to what purpose the noesis, the mode of being, which contains (in our partial exploration) the content of the underlying mode of being producing the noema, is itself produced by. To this we must enter into much broader and more profound territory, the full exploration of requires much scientific insight, and the space of which is open to further investigation in the fields of sociology, evolutionary biology, formal biology, psychology, and philosophy. As Merleau Ponty points out, there are many senses to which a phenomenon gives, multiple significant attributes that are interrelated and constituting of the phenomenon, many interrelated perspectives from which to gaze upon it, all of which simultaneously constitute the phenomena, yet we can find, that some give a broader defining of its characteristics than others do, although, in actuality, they cannot be separated. On a basic level it is an automatic habitual intuition, for me, to explain the noetic content thus described in evolutionary biological terms. Underlying all intentionality and modes of being, and in their modification, and their discovered content, is a persistent desire on behalf of the organism which I find myself as (Dasein (thrown)), as well as the genetic makeup, to “desire” (in affect) to preserve itself, recreate itself, and accurately recreate itself. By desire here in quotations we are referring to the biological correlate of the anthropomorphic sense of desire and its synonymous connotation of “willing/wanting/striving”, which, in effect, is attempting to achieve something. While we can view acquisition of character traits and thus modes of being underlying them in part to society, culture, past experience, the circumstances, time; I initially look towards the concrete and most fundamental underlying substratum for my personal exploration of this 4th dimension. This biological “desire” evolutionarily is beneficial in its manifestation in the mode of being of character development in that, (I believe), through making myself a better person I can better navigate existence (insight into nature of reality through Vipassana), enabling me to become a stronger, wiser individual (in my reduction of suffering and improving of wellbeing). This biological “desire” underlying the manifestation of the mode of being of character development also simultaneously allows the individual to be better able to avoid death, sickness, injury, in short, that which is contrary to the continuation of my genetic material, and necessarily the individual with which I am. The preservation and safety of the genome is thus satisfied in this explanation. Also, the second characteristic of genetic “purpose”, the procreation and replication of the genetic material, find their explanation in the noema and its coinciding noesis. By embodying what the individual believes to be character enhancing he is simultaneously embarking to become a more viable candidate for procreation, in thus manifesting the mode of being previously described, the individual (in my case unconsciously, yet consciously uncovered) “believes” (proof through action) in the pursuit of such activities which are produced by a character development mode of being, as being themselves tools towards character development and thus to the replication of his genes. This satisfies the second requirement in the biological imperative.

This rudimentary exploration towards the phenomenological underpinnings of a specific noematic experience is far from conclusive, but has provided information towards which I can use to understand how and why and from what mode of being the content of my experience is possible to be originating in. The conscious pursuit of ever more accurate descriptions of such a nature, indeed the meaning as to why the entire phenomenological investigation can be performed, is found in the insights gleaned by our own self-examination and realization, as well as has its utilization in the various scientific fields; psychology, biology, as well as obviously philosophy. With logic, reason, and intuition as our guides, following a phenomenological methodology, we are able to piece together the underlying characterizations of modes of being from a reduction from the “things themselves” experientially in any given noema. As the intuitions are discovered philosophically, the deeper explorations and explanations of the questions it is able to discover are thus open to pursuance by the various scientific disciplines. The verification of initial insights, the pursuit of answers to novel questions discovered in phenomenological analysis, and the subjective revelation of objective truths intuitive through persistent work in phenomenological analysis is something which can benefit anyone who contains the psychic imperative to seek the truth. The intentionality behind such an imperative leaves itself open to important and necessary research, across various disciplines, of which the answers can be valuable in their usefulness and beneficiality for us all (I believe).

Mindfulness and Phenomenology

On February 12, 2020June 22, 2020 By Chris Shuttleworth3 Comments

Mindfulness and Phenomenology

Here I wish to delineate several related terms to better differentiate their usage and respective attributes. The terms in question are that of mindfulness, philosophical phenomenology, and psychological phenomenology. Edmund Husserl pointed to key differences between psychological phenomenology and philosophical phenomenology, but here, for clarification and ease of understanding, I wish to additionally employ the use of mindfulness or Vipassana in the Buddha’s conception. These terms are used in the study of our own experience, and all are different possible states of Being we may enter into, and can potentially be used towards specific aims once they are unveiled to us within our own experience. They are Hiedeggerian “modes of Being” which can become open options to us (due to deterministic causality) in the exploration and truth seeking in the direction of comprehending and conceptualizing our own experience.

We begin with an analysis of the content of our consciousness, through introspective awareness, this is defined as mindfulness. Through mindfulness we can direct our consciousness to become aware of the contents within its sphere of awareness within the present moment (Basic Vipassana and Samatha Meditation). When we knowingly are aware (meta awareness – aware of our awareness) of what is happening within consciousness within this presentment, we can learn about the nature of consciousness, and gain insights into its fundamental nature (philosophical phenomenology) as well as its development, prior and post causality, what brings certain aspects into awareness and how we act and behave in response to them, and what effect that experience has upon us (psychological phenomenology). Thus we use mindfulness as a groundwork structure to gain insight into the two fields of further application. Mindfulness allows us to be aware of what content enters into our consciousness, and with enough practice in being in this mode of Being, certain insights can become clear to us (recognized as True).

Such insights available to be gleaned and recognized firsthand through the practice and training of mindfulness are broadly grouped into three useful, essential, basic truths about our inner experience. These are delineated by the Buddha, and while they are not comprehensive as to the content which is able to be uncovered, they are immediately intuitable, and beneficial to recognize. Those I speak of are the nature of non-self, impermanence, and the unsatisfactory underpinnings of our existence. The lack of a definite self, or ego, or non-self is to be discovered through the coinciding insight of impermanence, as their being no content or no phenomena to be found as being permanent. We find upon investigation that the content of our consciousness is in constant flux from moment to moment, and is characterized by its transient arising and fading away nature, as objects of consciousness (inner subjective content within the realm of consciousness within each moment) come into view and are replaced by new content. This causally led chain of content is discovered as modal changes to being without an anchor or headmaster, what we find to be its basis is simply Being as Being, rather than as Being as Self. Being becomes conceptualized, or experientially seen as, an active happening, lacking the “self” which we normally attribute as being an agent acting as the contributing subject to the content of our experience. Lack of “free will”, or, lack of control over what is the next content of consciousness, becomes apparent as a negative attribute of our experience. Mindfulness has the ability to allow the mindful practitioner to realize the suffering, or unsatisfactory nature of his being, through the experiencing of a consistently present desire, or craving, or clinging which propels the consciousness to become dissatisfied with its current state, and to be directed towards future states of the present moment. This is what Husserl terms intentionality, or the directedness or pointlessness of consciousness towards something. This intentionality, spurred by desire and dissatisfaction, is acted the content of our perceptual environment, including mental content, under the fundamental concern, importance, value, of what the perceived horizon presents as optimal to the totality of our Being. This directedness towards value is what Heidegger defines as fundamental to our Being, that of “care” (Heideggarian Terminology).

From the findings of mindfulness stems the scientific study of phenomenological psychology, which is a variant upon, and later rediscovery, of the very methodology which Buddha painted the picture of two thousand years prior. In psychological phenomenology, we take the experience of consciousness, and analyze them in a way towards an aim of giving description to the content found within. The describing of such content allows us to classify and arrange experiential content (psychologically phenomenological) in a cohesive and useful manner, in which to recognize and give a conceptual understanding to the causality of such states arising, as well as towards goal-directed states of optimization. This is the role of psychology within the phenomenological subfield, to identify states as falling into discovered groups of classification, and towards the arising of future states with a goal in mind towards the state of Being with which we wish to embody.

As to the nature of the Being which is able to experience mindfulness, we must employ a “science” of objective philosophical phenomenology to analyze and interpret its foundation structures. The role of philosophy is to describe the nature, essence, limit, scope, and characteristics of the Being which is able to experience, the being which we analyze, that which is necessarily most readily available to us, is our own, a “human being”, defined as “Dasien” in Hiedeggerian terms. When we seek to know what is universal about such consciousness, and its ability to experience, its ability to enter into different modes of Being, we seek the use of philosophy in its depiction. We find explanations attempting to attribute essential foundational, objective, universal, consistencies that form the basis of Human Being. Hiedegger finds our being inextricably linked to a tripartite temporality, as existing within a structure of time we didn’t choose to inhabit, the “thrown” of our existence (past creating a present creating a future). We are found within this period of temporality with the primary characteristic of having a foundational “care structure” (comparable to desire in Buddhism) which affects our entire existence. We find ourselves “thrown” into an existence which is unprecedented, and we have an anxiety towards death, a constant anticipation of future inexistence, and we embody the will to escape it (Buddhist dissatisfaction). The answer is to heed the call of conscience and to live authentically while seeking to understand our Being.

In Hegel we find that human consciousness exhibits a form of Being which is able to be in distinctive general modes, or forms of Being, which can progress itself through a dialectical method to higher states of more comprehensive knowledge and understanding of itself and reality. As contradictory truths are discovered in our experience, we seek to transcend them through forming a synthesis which contains opposing facts about our existence, allowing us to supersede our prior mode of consciousness. Subsequent philosophy is able to analyze and depict the Being which we are, Dasien, as containing infinite modes of Being which give rise to the experiences which shape these forms of Being, and which can progress.

Philosophy is able to generalize about the steps taken in the conscious development, or of a hypothetical ideal conscious development as derived from the objective nature of experience which itself is discovered through the use of reason and conceptualization within this consciousness, which is, the objective study of subjectively discovered philosophical phenomenology.

How to Save Buddhism from Fading Away

On December 20, 2019June 19, 2020 By Chris ShuttleworthLeave a comment

It appears as if the Buddhist population, at least that identify is so, is dwindling in proportion to the total population, and I fear the valuable lessons inherent in the religion too are fading away. I believe this is due to the strict adherence to traditional supernatural claims, instead of leniency on the part of these truth-claims and an improved exemplification of the practice and subjectively intuitable aspects of personal growth. Why not allow the religion to evolve in a way that is beneficial while mutually acceptable in modern society? Why throw out the baby with the bathwater? We ought to parse out the valuable from the unverifiable, and in so doing so, show the true message, and the true benefit, to the Buddha’s teaching, namely, those contents which reduce suffering, increase morality, and better align our being with reality. The traditional practices of mindfulness and meditation, and the expounding of immortal truths such as impermanence, suffering, and the removal of suffering and the path and causes all can be noticed within one’s own experience, and thus retain their usefulness and their replication as memetic units of transmission. The parts of the tradition that are no longer useful, or simply stated, not able to be realized within our experience (supernatural metaphysical claims) must be set aside. I think if we set aside certain doctrines, while promoting truthful and useful doctrines, then they will be successful at replication, based solely on their firm foundation and the fact that as fact seeking individuals, and as selfish machines, their beneficially and ability to withstand scrutiny and be directly realized will propagate them. The truth always can prevail in this way, and so can what is important in Buddhism.

The Buddhist religion as it was originally conceived of by the followers, we can be sure of, is not the form in which it is found in any modern society today. Thus constantly attempting to recreate an outdated system with a mind that has modern knowledge is not the path forward. We must share and expound the manners in which the Buddha’s teachings are applicable, useful, and significant in our lives today, and explain scientifically or at the very least phenomenologically, the truthfulness of certain claims that both share the meaning and explanation that Buddha gave, as well as align with our current scientific understanding. I concede that this is cherry picking, but this is not a bad thing, in fact in all times in all units of transmission (Gene’s/memes) the ones that survive, the knowledge that prevails, is that which naturally separates the wheat from the chaff, an endeavor which we, as modern humans, must seek to do if we are interested in promoting the further exposure of the truths within the Buddha’s teachings. I know this is both cherry picking and blasphemy, but the intention is to help spread the knowledge and practices leading to valuable insights that will enable a larger percentage of humans to ultimately understand suffering, reduce it, and improve their lives and comprehension of reality through the teachings. Noble goals must be pursued through noble means, and I believe in this case it is through the utilization of good judgment and properly propagated useful information which is in accordance with the spirit of the Buddha’s teaching, rather than archaic adherence to superficial religious overtones, that will most contribute to an increase in wellbeing in those who learn, preserving the religion and its beneficiality here on Earth. The philosophy is what we need, and what must be carried on, so we must accept if the religion dies as long as its philosophy lives.

I am not claiming that anyone knows all, as I am staunchly in opposition to the mode of being-certain, that no one ever has or will know all. But what we have as society progresses is knowledge and wisdom that can potentially progress, expound, and become more accurate as we uncover unknowns, become more articulate in our explanations, and science and phenomenological evidence, both material and experiential, help us to climb higher than our predecessors. All Buddhists are familiar with the sutra in which the Buddha urges us to test his teachings, and all teaches, within our own experience. It is just this that Buddhists have been doing for centuries. Everything important that Buddha has proclaimed is found within what we are able to experience, and see for ourselves. The impermanence of all conditioned phenomenon, the ability to be aware of consciousness in the present moment, the lack of self and inherent emptiness within all experience and material. The morality and path to a better way of living, the precepts, moral shame, guilt, the advocating of sila and its expounding by the Buddha is all extremely reliable in its practicality and beneficiality to sentient being, and we would be wise to spread the message of these two sides (the truths and morals). Now, what we cannot and have not experienced, what philosophical and phenomenological exploration has not uncovered, to anyone, ever, are the aspects of the religion which we must criticize and move past a literal interpretation, at the most we must use a metaphorical explanation for them, and recognize their resonance with us through archetypal psychological significations. I understand this can be insulting to someone’s beliefs, but from a higher resolution image of it, it can be considered under right view, and may be helpful in the propagating of the knowledge and wisdom within the religion which we agree would be useful to spread and rather than diminish in modern society. Aspects such as declarations of what happens after death, reincarnation, realms of supernatural beings, heavens and hell’s, minor deities, even enlightened beings and the possibility of becoming one, these truly are useful in their pursuing and may provide psychological benefit, but this is not the core of the Buddha’s teaching. The core is, in one aspect, to view the suffering, view the transitoriness, view what is unsettling, and work to overcome it. It is not false beliefs and their pursuing, whether pursuing would be beneficial or not. We must come closer to the real message, and discard the added superfluous unexperiencial aspects. I hope you can see that the intention here is to fix a detrimental problem, which is the contradictory nature of traditional superstitious beliefs and their contradiction to our current understanding. We ought to focus more on the intention to cultivate right view, and in spreading the truth to enable more sentient beings to see the dharma within themselves, and act in accordance with it (the truth, both metaphysically and morally).

On Coping With Existential Guilt

On April 11, 2019June 13, 2020 By Chris ShuttleworthLeave a comment

How is one to escape from the suffering and consummation of one’s character inflicted by the memory and assimilation of one’s own historical malevolence and shortcomings? This question is not to be posed to those of perfect character, but being that such a thing doesn’t exist, except in the minds of the mentally diminished, we must admit of having been cursed with periods of retrospectively found evil volition, and later discovered inner peace. It need not be discussed as to the causality and manifestation of such periods, as the factors present in any individual’s life range from ignorance to misfortune, what must be addressed is how to deal with our consciousness once it is consumed by the memory of one’s own moral ineptitude, and character traits resulting from historical events which one desires to escape from.

There is an absurd feeling which emerges when one compares who one is today, with the person one was in the past, growing more absurd the bigger the gap in time. New knowledge and wisdom has taken us to this place, recognizing the suffering produced in the present moment, the flaws in our current condition, and through understanding the conditionality of such a state, we choose to rebel against the state of affairs inflicted upon our experience of the present. We wish to escape the historical antecedents causing unrest within our conscious experience. But to escape the web of causality is a logical fallacy, and attempting to do so necessarily creates cognitive dissonance at the expense of the individual’s sanity. To escape the suffering caused as a result of moral shortcomings implies a purging of moral shame and moral dread from one’s experience. This means no longer feeling remorse for one’s malevolence, and no longer fearing the result of repeating or taking part in a future unholy endeavor. This attempt to escape ones suffering from historical causes appears to be an escape from conscience, which is far from the answer to our original question, being how to cope with the inevitable suffering of falling short of one’s present ideals.

It’s clear that any advancement in one’s personal morality, both practically and abstractly, can be seen as being a result of what in Buddhism is regarded as the twin foundation stones of morality, moral shame and dread. Feeling the pangs of one’s past transgressions, recognizing the current repercussions in one’s experience and the conscious experience of suffering due to such actions, forces one into the biologically necessary position of dreading such an experience in one’s future, aiding the development of a character aiming at avoiding said moral infringements to one’s system. Being that we are discussing a system of beliefs in the ethical sphere, it’s worth noting that such a conscience is in no way universal to all, but can be judged according to universal principles. This means we may not share the current conscience, view of good and evil, which doesn’t mean that the validity of such developed systems lies in the relativity of one’s society and culture, ultimately, only apparently does.

Sam Harris’s conceptualization of universal principles which encapsulates all of mankind moving in a positive direction towards a better humanity, and away from universal suffering, gives us a good description on the structure we should be using to judge the state of one’s conscience, or in comparing multiple individuals to one another and their relation to higher shades of meaning and moral recognition. But here I digress only to state that what we are concerned with is the individual, and not the validity of his conscience, which should be analyzed and constructed through the accumulation of experience and wisdom requisite to be a man wishing to rectify his current experience with past malevolence. Thus one is necessarily in the correct state of mind to answer and proceed such inquires if he reaches the point in life where he poses the question, and sees finding its solution necessary, for the good of one’s own experience foremost, with a thought towards its influence on humanity at large.

What the courageous man wishes to embark on, is a rebellion against the constraint on one’s character and psyche imposed by a literally different person, oneself, in one’s past. The difference in the two people need not be noted, separated by time, one creates and destroys, changes, and evolves, in directions only recognized as positive or negative due to comparison in phenomenological data and subjective judgment, and this process of transfiguring is proceeding to be carried out from moment to moment. Thus one rebels against the human condition, against that absurd contradiction not between the outside world and the inside world, but between ones perceived past and ones perceived present, between what was, what is, and what could be, between the contradiction herein, and the immediately illusory belief that the same person is inhabiting all three positions.

The unrelenting drive of the psyche to push one’s consciousness to accept the validity of one’s own ability to volitionally act outside of the bounds of causality, free will, as well as believe in the permanence of a central Being (a self), serves to undermine reality, necessarily creating an absurd view of the state of our being as we perceive it. Those who have struggled to emerge from such illusions here should consider themselves blessed, as one obstacle in our pursuit is no longer an issue. The proof of such phenomena being falsehoods, is expanded upon in “The Causal Tethers Which Bind Us”. Seeing ones past as a series of acts done by another person (a previous version of the current “self”) doesn’t aide the individual upon first glance as we perceive ourselves as constant through time (albeit – an illusory view), but one should rebel against the nature of the mind to see oneself in this way to attempt to cut through the illusion, if not experientially at least abstractly. While it is necessary to experience the moral shame and dread proceeding an unjust act, as it is a necessary place in psychic growth and wisdom in producing a mind better able to act in accordance with itself, we must not allow ourselves to act from the habits formed by someone who lives in a distinctly different time in place. Rather, we should rebel against the strings which move us, and attempt to cut our ties to the character traits we consciously wish to separate ourselves from. Our suffering acts as an indicator of where to approach, where to learn, where to grow, and we should follow it, and when based on misfortune, accept it stoically, when based on our own acts, rebel.

Fight against the tendency to continue in darkness, fight against the stagnation of unrelenting conscious stability, fight for a better experience, a better life, a better humanity. We must accept that we deserve our punishment which we created for ourselves, and in rebelling against the idea that we still are the person we used to be, we become the person we have the potentiality of being. Rebel against any tendency towards a rigid conception of eternal permanence. Whether we find ourselves suffering for the misfortune of a past, or of an act of immortality sparked by the cursed nature which we inherited, whether through ignorance or awareness of rage, the suffering which we currently experience must be fought off with the aim of creating the space for the new to replace the old. The mind is consciously attempting to manifest order to combat the chaos of past experience, we must not hinder it by further pursuing dissonant thoughts, or acting in accordance with our outdated philosophy. We should strive to build upon the biological framework, the universal scaffolding, which we encounter within the present moment. To tear down the edifice, to cause a revolution of the spirit, to attempt to escape the causes which fabricates the present, is a dissociative endeavor, causing only future confusion and voluntary ignorance. Through denial of past events we serve only to fool ourselves into insanity, to accept the occurrence of the past, and work to overcome its negative effect on the present, is the task of the brave.

We must bridge the gap between the unchanging past and the changing present, and see that it is possible to accept the validity of both, while transcending them both to a higher level of conceptualization, and from there incorporate the truths we have thus far encountered. To escape one’s history is never the goal, to overcome misfortune and the evil discovered in one’s own heart is the task at hand. The emergence of the realization of one’s own malevolence is unearthed only through conscious retrospection, and is only conquered through conscious pursuit of a character in accordance with ones developed conscience. Effects of one’s own evil manifestations, such as those upon our character, and those which are experiential, such as memories, are overcome psychologically through rebelling against the principles one once stood upon, through fighting against our nature to habitually indulge in bad intentions, through pursuing a morality based on the lessons one has acquired, which is constituted by a factual interpretation of reality. Historical rebellion is combated by rebelling against the restraints, the universe which holds us attached to it.

We should fight against our biological drive to see ourselves as being the same as our experiences, and rather frame the situation realistically, in us constituting the current production of history. One should strive to extract the gold in the lessons we’ve learned while simultaneously avoiding over encumbrance by the content of memories.

We recognize the outdated version as being us, yet distinctly different, thus in our comparison we conclude the situation is patently absurd. In addition to us never being able to truly know who we are now, or understand the totality of past states of being which make up the foreground of our present experience, there is the fact of other individuals having even more ignorance of our historical being. The separation we feel within, between our old self and new self, our recognition of ignorance, coupled with the isolation we feel in reference to others, undoubtedly creates an absurd mindset. Not to mention, if this line of thought is carried out, we realize our ignorance of others to be incalculably greater than the ignorance of ourselves, which if honestly admitted, is unbearably large as it is. This puts us in a strange place mentally, but not necessarily in a situation without hope, and not within a challenge too great to not be worth rebelling against, and overcoming through wisdom itself, aided by reason, virtue, discipline, and persistence.

We ought to rebel against the constraints of determinism in confining you to a predestined path by conscious effort towards escaping the confines consciously imposed through recollection of your past character, and instead pursue the character, state of being, place in reality, which you desire and claim to be better. Do not let the chains of your past hold you down, even though they literally do, even if we know that we are permanently chained through causality, that does not mean to give up on a path to greater heights than we have experienced, nor to sacrifice our thoughts and actions toward goals we set, but rather we should accept our condition in history, and fight against our inner demons urging us to immorality or to the ruin of our current condition through complacency.

Personal Ideal form of an Integrated Individualized Psyche from Which Further Exploration Would Most Optimally Stem From

On October 18, 2018June 6, 2020 By Chris ShuttleworthLeave a comment

In attempting to describe an integrated psyche, the information given in a description are necessarily subjectively determined, and limited by the use of language. As this ideal form is a construct of language, I believe the description and its characteristics, as seen by me, modified by my experience and biases, will still provide a useful benefit to anyone who strives to integrate their psyche into a coherent, optimal stage. While the psyche progresses in degrees, and no psyche is the same as another, I will give general abstractions of content that I believe to constitute this base foundational psyche. This is both an aim of something to strive to, as well as, if one “believes” to already be in the position, it can serve merely as a description of the place from which further growth stems from. In any form or interpretation of an integrated psyche, the distance it lies from our potentiality always varies, and we should merely seek to be founded upon firm ground, for which to further progress towards new heights, and a more optimal mode of being. This is not an impossible perfection, and doesn’t contain superstition, and is entirely possible. It isn’t becoming God, or being inhuman in any way. While it may be an end goal to many people’s current state of being, it is, merely the starting point, and knowledge required, from which we should strive to achieve before continuing onward.

My ideal form of an integrated psyche is characterized by certain experiential and rational revelations into the nature of consciousness, and reality, which must be conclusively understood as “knowledge” in order to properly orient the individual towards a non-contradicting cohesive view of “the world”. The first of these descriptive axioms of knowledge that are necessary to a cohesive integrated psyche is the uncovering of “non-self doctrine”, or non-identification with conscious awareness and conscious direction as being the totality of who you are, it is realizing there is no permanent “you” or unchanging soul. By no longer identifying solely as consciousness, we open up the ability to properly see our Being in its totality, which includes subconscious distinctions such as the collective unconscious, subconscious internalizations, and the embodied perception which runs through the whole of our Being. In opening up the view of our totality, we become open to the integration of all parts of the psyche and no longer have a limited identification with a sole aspect of the psyche.

Stemming from an nonrestrictive identification, and broadening our knowledge of ourselves, necessarily comes insight into the causal nature of the production of current modes of being, and the causal determinacy that preconditions the present moment subjective experience. The more information of causal determinacy we have come to understand, whether it be biological, cultural, societal, in reference to our upbringing, friends, family, and in general, influences, the better equipped we are to understand ourselves as we find ourselves in the present moment. This can be reinforced through the realization of our own impermanence in regards to any aspect of our Being and its deterministic roots (impossible to understand every chain in this web of determinism, so to anyone that claims to do so is claiming to be conscious of every factor every existing in the universe since its conception, which would literally take eternity) and its collective parts becoming known as all being aspects of who you are.

In understanding causality and impermanence, we ought to be aware of some version of the 5 aggregates, or the different parts of the psyche, yet all integrated into conscious awareness, and understood as being parts of the whole totality of being. Different articulations of categorizations of the psyche have been developed, and we must have some form of conceptualization of the different aspects, or understand the framework of other’s categorizations, to better delineate different parts of our Being in a way that is useful to us in understanding ourselves. From a Jungian perspective these different aspects of the psyche are categorized as the unconscious, the persona, animus, shadow, collective unconscious, consciousness, ego. In Buddhist terms the aggregates that comprise experience are form, perception, mental formations, sensations, consciousness. Scientifically the mind is a product of genetically inherited traits, neurophysiology, and the nervous system of the embodied organism.

It is beneficial in developing an integrated psyche to have an acceptance of natural human restrictions, and the general fallibilist illusory perception of reality within which our experience is tempered by.

The range of details of each concept included within this stage varies from individual to individual, of course, and as they spend more time moving past this hypothetical stage of wholeness within the psyche, the individual will independently be better equipped to navigate the troubles of life, as they have a well-integrated psyche, producing a strong conscious awareness and control, able to lead the individual to greater heights in novel endeavor. A stronger base always enables a higher building. The ability for humans to create hierarchies and continually develop knowledge, wisdom, and competence into different aspects of reality after the formulation of this stage will necessary produce a beneficial springboard. This base mature stage solely represents the unity and integration of all the components in a being’s conceptualization of “himself”. While each individual aspect can’t be fully explored, or conclusively depicted linguistically, due to the vastness of historical and individual information to which it is constituted, a general understanding and acceptance, as well as knowledge to its interrelatedness, on a basic level, is necessary to a suitably integrated psyche.

We all possess the capacity to reach a basic comprehension of who we are, to understanding the fundamental parts of the totality of our Being, and the processes making up our conscious experience. Only the individual who has reached this conscious knowledge, both conceptually and experientially, proven by actions stemming from the psyche that are optimal or sufficient to deal with the varied circumstances of existence, has actually integrated the experiential wisdom of understanding of all the aspects to the necessary degree to integrate them into his world view and has done so in his or her own conscious. This stage still has levels in heights, to unknown heights, in which we can strive to create a new base layer at a higher starting place for mature humans to start from. This novel place of what might constitute the “higher ideal integrated psyche” has undoubtedly been formulated already.

If we can grasp a low resolution image of the totality of our psyche, we can understand to a sufficiently necessary degree the mode of being which is capable of confronting any situation life may throw at us. It is in the manifestations of the mode of being that is capable of solving the set of all problems, that better or worse differentiates the integrated psyche. A higher resolution conception of every aspect of this moment is available upon additional investigation into the many components outlined above which make up the totality of your subjective experience. Such as, greater meditation practice enables greater mindfulness of what is passing through consciousness, greater neuroscience training enables a better understanding of how your brain is currently firing to produce your current conscious state, a greater psychological knowledge enables greater understanding on how you are currently affected by your unconscious, shadow, anima, persona, ego, a greater evolutionary biology training enables a greater understanding of your inherited traits, etc. Thus you can always progress, in a finite quantity of directions, to move to greater heights of understanding yourself. Yet this stage which I described, and its characteristics, are what is necessary, from my personal perspective, in which I believe we ought to inhabit in order to further explore the different domains of knowledge and morality, and understanding the psyche, in the many ways that we can. Before achieving this unified understanding, exploration in said directions is still profitable yet not integratable to the wholeness of your view of your own subjective experience to the degree that it would be useful if your psyche was integrated, and had the experiential knowledge to pursue that goal after the achievement of this stage of consciousness. None of this matters if you are not interested in your conscious state, your subjective experience, or in seeking the truth.

Benefits of Mindfulness

On April 6, 2018June 4, 2020 By Chris Shuttleworth1 Comment

Spiritual progress and expertise in meditation is a skill that can only be developed and cultivated with practice. Practice takes time, repetition, effort, concentration. It is of utmost importance to have this skill, as the development of the mind organizes the chaos of all we experience. The understanding of reality, and the fusion of your consciousness to the present moment, without being led away by delusion, destroys ignorance, destroys suffering, and its causes. To improve in the development of your mind, arguably called “spirituality”, enables experiences of ever increasing insight into the nature of your psychology, reality, “yourself”, that increases in profundity and clarity as you work on the skill.

To work in developing mindfulness in a Theravadan Buddhist sense, or in developing a non-dual state of mind as outline in the Hindu Advaita Vedanta tradition, increasingly enables experiencing the present moment, experiencing every shift in consciousness as its contents arise and fall, as it shifts from object of awareness to awareness itself. It is possible to become so mindfully located in the present moment that you are aware of even the slightest change in consciousness as it moves from one phenomena to another. To do this much practice, much time, effort is needed to cultivate the skill. Certain defilements must be uprooted; distractions must be eliminated. Any form of desire, craving, attachment, to anything – even a state of mind, yourself, peace – must be uprooted. Any type of aversion, blocking, avoidance must also be uprooted. This is the middle path, a pure acceptance of the present moment, with no will to be found. No will as in want, and no will as ability to control, as both are illusions made of the brain by the organism to produce effects.

The ability to experience Being, to experience pure experiencing, is to simply Be. To fully be mindful, is to be mindful of being mindful. It is to be aware of the exact content of consciousness as it constantly is changing, and to see it, watch it, free of motive, free of will, free of denial of will, unbiased, as it is. The effects of such insights lead to a greater understanding of causality as it relates to your psychological state. This includes the causality leading to the un-satisfactory nature of life, and thus to others, and how you and them can be aided. This cause is from the very desire or craving or attachment to anything, even happiness, and from seeing things as permanent, and as something to “hold on to”. Every phenomenon is merely occurring within the present moment, and it is all impermanent, these are truths we should make peace with by letting go of the notions otherwise. From a mode of being characterized by peaceful equanimity, in which the mind is not disturbed by any normally perturbing stimuli, such as those that go against our desire, by anger in others, by misfortune or by aversion, springs all the greatest things we would normally want, truth, happiness, morality. We often find in life that when we are not looking for something, we happen to find it, and in this case, when we are not searching after happiness, or satisfactoriness, but rather pursuing what is right morally, and by maintain a state of mind which is characterized by understanding and virtue, that it naturally follows in its wake.

If you understand how your wellbeing is diminished by the desire that moves us along in the present moment, you can understand how your wellbeing is possible in the present moment, by redirecting those desires towards something that truly has meaning to you, and by eliminating the desires that aren’t in alignment with consciously calculated goals. From this you can use that understanding to move your experience to that of well being, more and more so with more practice, more and more so you move to do what is in your best interest. Then extrapolate outward with the effects of such an undertaking and it becomes clear that you can improve the wellbeing of your family, your coworkers, friends, community, and onward. The key is to developing your mind, and the implications lead to a better present moment, better in every form of the term, not only for you. The more you develop and train and practice in this manner, the better your life can become, the more you can understand yourself, and your lack of self, the more you can acknowledge phenomena as they arise, and then remove defilements such as anger, hatred, jealousy, ill will, laziness, boredom, dissatisfaction, suffering, and so on.

It is natural when an unsatisfactory mode of being arises to not want it to proceed as dominating the psyche, but that very desire often confines us to stay within it. It is by the calm recognition of the arising, and the ability to let go of wishing to be otherwise, while simultaneously not acting in a way which satisfies the unwholesome state of mind, that we are able to overcome it. What skill could be more useful than that which enables you to be better equipped to the misfortune and negative modes of being inherent in every life? What would be a better way of becoming a better person, than developing knowledge of wellbeing, and how to attain it, and then improving the lives of others, by improving yourself? The skill cannot be bought, or shared, or worked on by anyone but you, and you can only develop it, it isn’t quick, and instantaneous, your improving in it is yours alone, and you can not share that. But you can help point others in the right direction so they too can develop it. Spiritual progress is yours alone, and thus shouldn’t be talked about lightheartedly, but to those with true willingness to learn, to improve, with “little dust on their eyes”, we should seek to aid them or answer their cries for help as Buddha was encouraged to do upon attaining enlightenment. Wisdom dictates our ability to decipher who it would be beneficial to share certain ideas with, and we should use our best judgment in discerning the ideas we share with others. Enlightenment is the most important thing in the world, the most valuable, and it is within you, hidden underneath biological impediments, culture, conditioning, and unwholesomeness, clean up your mind, remove impediments, develop wholesomeness, and become able to be experiencing right here, right now, in this present moment, and every present moment, the potential you contain – actualized.

Basic Vipassana and Samatha Meditation

On March 26, 2018July 29, 2020 By Chris Shuttleworth2 Comments

Here I want to give a quick differentiation of two basic types of traditional methods of meditation, Vipassana and Samatha. Samatha meditation is concentration meditation, and it was the first “formal” type of mediation. It was developed by the Hindus far before the birth of Buddha, and was common practice by contemplatives and spiritual gurus up until his time. Samatha meditation is the focusing of your concentration on a single phenomenon, this is most commonly practiced as breath meditation, where you focus on the breath exclusively, attempting to bring the attention to it, and back to it any time it strays. Any object can be the object of attention in Samatha meditation, whether it be a deity, a word, or a phrase. The important aspect is that any time your awareness drifts from the object of intentioned perception, you recognize its shift, and bring it back into the contemplation of the object. It is an attempt at minimalizing the distractions, and maintaining a steady awareness. As far as the effects of Samatha mediation, it can bring you into state of jhana (Four Jhanas of Buddhism), which are meditative states of increasingly different conscious states. The jhanas are marked by many aspects, as you move into the higher rungs throughout mediation. While many people state they are reserved for spiritual contemplatives, I believe they are attainable by anyone who is able to practice the mediation sufficiently. Some aspects of the different jhanas experienced during Samatha Meditation are; intense pleasure in concentration, seclusion and removal of distractions, one pointedness of thought, removal of desire and aversion, peace in the present moment, peace in seclusion, and as you get into further states – the abolition of thought, and the fetters of existence. The experience of non self, and equanimity regardless of the minds movement is most valuable here. Through dedicated concentration, and awareness of the minds ability to change from the object, you are cultivating character traits of equanimity, or undisturbedness in the face of misfortune, or fortune. It is cultivating a peaceful mind that is calm and unable to be perturbed, thus the benefits last longer than the actual mediation.

Vipassana Meditation was brought into existence by the Buddha himself, and entailed a further extension of Samatha meditation. Formally, it is translated as “insight” meditation, where the practitioner is developing insight into dharma (Basic Dharma Explanation), or the true nature of things. Rather than singular focus upon a single mental phenomenon, the practitioner here seeks to be mindfully aware of any content entering into conscious awareness, without an attempt to hold on to anything, or revert back to anything, nor to be averse to any unpleasant phenomena. This method of mediation is much more difficult, as many phenomena can distract us from the awareness of their arising. The goal is to be aware of the content of consciousness without judgment or desire for it to be otherwise, yet to remain aware on the present moment. The distraction here isn’t a content that is other than the object of awareness, as in Samatha, but rather a distraction is anything that takes us out of the mindfulness of the contents of consciousness in the present moment. So anytime our awareness breaks and we follow a thought stream without being explicitly aware that it is happening, the practitioner must bring his awareness back to the present moment and maintain that awareness of whatever content is arising. This form of meditation opens us up to some fundamental truths of our psychological state, namely, the inability to alter the contents of consciousness, as there is no controller, there merely is content arising and fading away, outside of any “self” controlling it. This is known as the doctrine of nonself. There merely are phenomena arising, there is no “free will” in determining what content appears next. We merely are motivated to the next thought or content, through desire. We don’t choose the desire. Therefore, whatever happens, is out of “our” control. There are the perceptions, emotions, sensations, thoughts, and mental formations, or habits of the mind, such as language and reactions, these things are the 5 aggregates that make up our experience, and they are arising and fading away.

The next insight to be gleamed from Vipassana is the realization of impermanence, that any phenomena that arises is not lasting, its transitory, subject to change, it is not permanent. This can be extrapolated from mental occurrences to all phenomena, and just like non-self, or any other Vipassana insights, it can be directly experienced and known by the practitioner as a foundational truth of our psychological existence. In addition to impermanence and nonself- we can realize that any phenomena that does appear, is appearing in the present moment. Whether it be a thought about the future, or the past, or any other phenomena, everything that occurs, is only occurring now, in this moment, and it will always be so.

The basic formula for performing Vipassana meditation is; present moment awareness, recognition of impermanence, and then letting go. If this is done sufficiently, these insights will come to the practitioner, and can be directly realized. This provides wisdom into the truth of reality, and allows us to align ourselves with the truth through the destruction of false beliefs previously held, such as the existence of a self and free will, or the existence of something “permanent”. The benefit in these realizations in providing a better equipped psyche in reference to mental phenomena as they arise, in not clinging to the pleasurable, or avoidance of the unpleasurable, but rather excepting them for what they are, phenomena out of our control. We can gain insight into the causal nature of what causes positive, wholesome states, as well as what produces unwholesome, suffering, states. This is through the mindful awareness of the causal chain of dependent origination (Dependent Origination (Buddhist Conditionality)), another insight to be gleamed. This chain is characterized by initial ignorance, and leads us through several successive steps which eventually leads to suffering. If we are able to recognize the processes occurring, in their causal determinacy in leading to unwholesome states, we are better able to navigate and destroy the chain before it propagates into destructive mental states and speech and actions. The ability to gain insight into these chains, allows us to handle ourselves in a wise, calm, equanimous manner, and better enables us to navigate the throes of existence, as well as provides us with insight into how others minds work, so we can aide them, or at least not hinder them, in the destruction of the suffering within their lives. The benefits of this type of insight mediation are honestly exhaustive, and the sill can be constantly improved upon. While Samatha necessarily requires one-pointed concentration on an object in the present moment, and thus, normally, requires quiet, sitting, eyes closed (traditional meditation stereotype), Vipassana, on the other hand, can be practiced in any situation in life, it merely requires a concentration on the content of the present moment, and thus is useful in many situations. It is advocated that a mindful existence, always, is beneficial, but I disagree, which is basically a blasphemous statement in Buddhist circles, but I have my reasons, as explained in the essay “Conscious employment of the Unconscious”.

As with all meditation, I don’t believe they are to be utilized in response to a negative situation, they are not a “fix it” tool for resolving life’s problems. I tend to see them as anticipatory tools. They are the cultivating of character traits, and in Vipassana, realization of truths, which better prepare us for when difficulties do arise in our lives. We shouldn’t perform meditation when life is going horrible for us, in these cases, we should attempt to actively rectify and set our lives in order. When life is going good is when we should meditate, to remind ourselves of the transitoriness of this pleasure and fortune, and to prepare us for when things fall apart, for when bad times do come it is better to be strong and calm minded in order to better deal with them. Vipassana improves our understanding of consciousness and reality, thus providing insight into the true nature of things. Samatha can change our conscious state more directly and dramatically to one of peace, non desire, equanimity, as well as improve our concentration.

Both types of mediation can change our conscious awareness of the present moment to an improved experience, and improve morality by acting/experiencing in a mindful, careful, wise way. Meditation is cultivation, expanding the mind, improving our understanding, morals, actions, speech, thought, beliefs, wisdom, purity, compassion. Say we feel angry or annoyed by something someone says. The effect lingers, we contemplate why they said it, the person’s horrible character, how they are wrong, we’re right, and the general situation that caused our anger/annoyance. To be mindful of the feeling, in the present moment, opens us up to its impermanence, allows us to let it go, and is the best tool to understanding/fixing negative emotions which in turn effects thoughts/speech/actions in effect changing our lives and others. We can become aware in such a way “I feel annoyed at this person, this annoyance sprung up into my Being after he said something. I didn’t choose for the person to say something, neither did I choose to feel this way in response, it just came into my conscious experience, and there is something mysterious yet amazing about its arising. So there was a cause, what the person said, then the feeling, then negative thinking, now I’m aware, I feel the emotion, it’s not me, it’s non-self, it’s causing suffering, and it’s impermanent. Viewing it merely as it is, I won’t crave my previous state of happiness, or be in a state of aversion towards it. I will accept it for what it is.” Merely by knowing our aware of its presence, and that there is no self that created it, it becomes merely part of experience, realizing it’s okay, just part of reality, of a life with an inherit conscious nature to experience suffering like this, we can accept the emergence of the emotion, and let it go, liberating ourselves from its influence, dispassionately, we can be mindful of the whole stream of events and it might occur to us that the whole situation was almost magic like. It’s astonishing in seeing how emotions happen, and we might even laugh/be happy on how we were able to see the emotion as just an emotion, to mindfully witness life happen, understand it, and fix the problem. The most important part of reciprocity is to not manifest those emotions into actions or speech that harbors ill-will, or isn’t useful or beneficial to the other person. This type of reaction to unwholesome, or negative influences, is all too natural for us, but only leads to further suffering for ourselves and the other person. By mindfully being aware of unwholesome states, we can reign back our automatic response in being defensive or going on the attack to the other person, and work to respond in a way that is wise, meaning, beneficial to all parties involved.

In addition to these two types of mediation, there is Advaita Vedanta meditation, and Buddho Mediation, as well as a whole variety of other traditional practices. Advaita Vedanta (Basic Advaita Vedanta Meditation) is a slightly different spin off of Vipassana, where the insight and methodology is slightly different in its focus upon non-duality, but certain insights are gleamed that are unique to it. Buddho meditation is a specific form of Samatha meditation, where the object of concentration is the word, which has significant meaning, and thus inspires us to gain the character traits associated with that meaning.

Basic Dharma Explanation

On March 10, 2018June 4, 2020 By Chris Shuttleworth2 Comments

Everything in existence is preconditioned. Everything that exists in the present moment, exists only in that present moment, in the next moment it is not the same. It has changed. It is impermanent, not lasting, not permanent. All thoughts, emotions, perceptions, all of consciousness, its contents, the sense data, awareness, all is not permeating experience as concrete entities as it moves from moment to moment. It arises, and it fades away. There is no soul that controls them, or dictates what is next, or experiences the experience. There only is experience itself. There is awareness of what is happening in any of these realms. Awareness of the present moment, of seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, thinking, and there is the knowledge of being aware. Seeing is being known. Thinking is being known. Anger is being known. In the moment of recognition of what is happening, there is no anger, no hatred, no delusion, no desire, no aversion, there is clarity, peace, and equanimity. This is the essence of Buddhist dharma, it is essentially made up of psychologically beneficial tools, to improve the welfare of your life.

What is most beneficial in your life is beneficial in the present moment, in the long term, and benefits your family, your society, and all sentient beings. If you are mindfully aware of reality, then you are able to recognize any unsatisfactoriness, or suffering which is inherit in your life. Anger, depression, anxiety, sickness, pain, aging, dying, family members dying, etc.; all is inherent in life. All the suffering caused by these things is because we crave for them to not happen, and we crave for good, beneficial things to happen, so much so that to the point when things don’t go our way, the suffering ensues. An understanding of the impermanence of life, enables you to be dispassionate about these things, accepting their inevitability, and helps you to be strong and supporting for others as they too go through the suffering in life. In addition to the craving that causes unsatisfactoriness, there is an attachment to the state of things when life goes our way. When all is good, your fame and fortune, career, family, all is in the state you desire, you become attached to that feeling, to that moment, to those material things, and mental feelings. The problem with becoming attached to anything in this world is that when it changes, you become unhappy, non-content, stressed, angry, and crave for it to be the way it was. You actually will suffer trying to maintain what you have, and in attempting to maintain it as “permanent”, your grip becomes tight upon the life you thought was perfect, and in that tight grip you lose the feeling of peace you thought everything you wanted was supposed to give you. This creates suffering. In not remembering that all these things are impermanent then the suffering will stretch beyond where it can potentially be modified, as it is in its nature to be modified. Not only are the things you become attached to likely to change, but it is inevitable they will.

The whole dynamic between craving and clinging really define our existence day to day, moment to moment, and it is the root of suffering in our lives. Once removed, the basis for anger, hatred, and delusion also will be removed, rendering our lives, and anyone we come into contact with, better, in that it promotes welfare. For this the Buddha laid out a plan that if followed, leads to the destruction of these negative emotions, to the destruction of the origin of suffering, this very craving and clinging. It’s worth noting that meditation becomes extremely useful here, you can experience subjectively the knowledge of awareness of phenomena as it arises and fades away, thoughts, emotions, the nature of consciousness, the impermanent nature of it all, and in practicing and cultivating this view, you can take it into possibly every moment of your life. So when anger arises, you know it’s based on causes, you know that it is based upon the desire for things to be different, you know acting on it will only increase its duration, you’re aware of angers presence, and in that moment of recognition, it goes away, possibly to return, but in every moment of conscious awareness of it, it is not there. You know anger is impermanent, unhelpful, that it’s not going to last forever. You became wise in considering the suffering inherit in yourself and in others if you continue being angry, or act on it towards someone else, thus the knowledge and mindfulness of angers presence allows you to eliminate the effective reaction it produces from your experience. The more practice in insight meditation, the more mindful – the more aware, and the more aware – the more you are able to cultivate good qualities, and eliminate negative ones, providing yourself and others a better life. So insight meditation, used in this way, enables the individual to improve his own understanding of his psyche, and thus become better equipped to integrate it and use it in an optimal fashion. In doing so, we improve the experience of life, as well as develop the ability to better conduct ourselves in a mindful way that is beneficial to others. This practice of mindfulness and the expansion of the mind in reference to the inherent dissatisfaction in life is a tool the Buddha articulated and shared with the world after he himself thought out the situation and its solution.

A more conclusive answer to the solution of suffering, which covers all aspects of human experience is the noble eight-fold path, the fourth noble truth in the Buddhist tradition. Like all religions, Buddhism is aimed at the individual aligning himself with the greatest possible good, and in that aligning, becoming better, and more like that object. For some religions it’s God, or Gods, who emulate ultimate wisdom, and ultimate goodness. In Buddhism you seek refuge in the Buddha and his teachings, he who has great wisdom, compassion, and purity, but you align yourself on the middle path, the eight-fold path, and it is not necessary to do this on faith. Once we can see the evidence for the things he laid out in our own lives, we find that he is not only teaching a different perspective, but that that perspective actually is in line with our actual experience of life. We find the truth of the teachings within us, not in the sense of “finding the holy spirit”, but that we see how desire and attachment lead to suffering, we see how it dominates life, in brief occurrences we see how virtuous conduct and proper behavior leads to temporary relief, we see the truth of the removal of suffering. The middle path outlines the things we can do to improve our situation, the correct conceptualization of eight areas of our lives that are directly intertwined with all of experience, and if we follow the teaching on them, will lead us to see reality more clearly, improve our moral character, and act in a way which promotes wellbeing. This necessarily will produce a more peaceful experience as we move throughout life.

The middle path lies in equanimity, in neither aversion nor in craving, in not emerging in sensual pleasures, nor in self mortification. It lies mindfully between any two extremes. It is a framework for which we can develop our minds, our actions, our lives, and in so doing so make the world a better place. It is comprised of eight subjects, at which the goal is to strive for rightness, wholesomeness, and perfection. The eight-fold path is right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. To sum up briefly, the first two in the chain are characterized as “wisdom steps”, the next three “practical steps”, and the last three “meditative steps”. Right view is a correct understanding of reality, of philosophical, scientific and psychological knowledge, most importantly an understanding of the three marks of existence (non self, impermanence, suffering), the four noble truths, and this path itself to the elimination of suffering. All the following areas on the path lead from this one, and if developed strongly as the primary step, we will see that the proceeding factors are better able to be developed strongly. The same goes for the following steps, developing them with an importance on the antecedent step, better allows the improvement of the successive one.

Right intention is having the best intentions for others, and yourself. This means not harboring ill-will towards anyone, why would you ever want something bad for someone else? It only makes sense to want what is best for them and society. Sometimes what is best isn’t always what is nice, or leads to short term gratification, sometimes it is punishment, or harshness, with a silver lining, but this is all about intentions. This implies the illumination of intention based on anger, hatred, or lies, to be replaced with intention based on truth, compassion, and good will. This step also includes right thought, as intentions are located on that realm of perceptions and conscious contemplation, which we conceptualize as thought.

From these intentions springs the next rung in the ladder, right speech, the first of the three “Practical Steps”. This means, first of all, speech that is true, and not false. Speech that is helpful and not harmful. Speech that is unifying, and not divisive, or backfiring, or gossip. And for ultimately perfect speech, this means only speech that is truly beneficial, not idle gossip, or discussion of unimportant topics. Next is right action. This is characterized by similar standards as right speech, but includes, in the Buddhist tradition, not killing, not using drugs or alcohol, not intending for the harm of any beings, for acting out of compassion. With the right intentions which were previously cultivated, we are better able to act with virtuosity in our interactions. Next is right livelihood. In performing the right occupation, we necessarily are taking action in a manner that supports ourselves and our families, and the job we take, the way we spend our time in providing for ourselves, must be conducted along the same moral imperatives as right action and right speech. This excludes any type of labor that deals with the harm of sentient beings, any job that has to do with deception, manipulation, gambling, drug dealing, hustling, fortune telling, illusions, is advised against pursuing, for its effect on our moral character and on other sentient beings. Right livelihood is providing for yourself in a way that is beneficial to yourself, and to others without encompassing dishonesty, cheating, or harm to others.

Next is the three “meditative steps”, which become easier to develop the more we cultivate the previous steps. Defilements in any of the previous steps, or immorality, or ignorance, causes an diminishment of our ability to “meditate” or arouse effort, mindfulness, and concentration, as we are impaired. This is why the development of previous steps is important towards the maximizing of our potential in cultivating the later steps. Any moral wrongdoing, which produces shame or dread, will impede upon meditative practice, producing difficulty in their development. The first of the three meditative steps is right effort. This is effort in the sense of striving to eliminate negative qualities/defilements, and putting in effort to keep them away for a long time. On the flip side, right effort includes cultivating positive qualities/states of mind, and in keeping those states present for longer periods of time. After proper effort is cultivated, comes right mindfulness. Right mindfulness, in a nutshell, is correctly being aware of what is happening in the present moment, and knowing that you are aware. It means awareness without motives, without trying to change or manipulate, without distraction, without aversion or craving or attachment. It means being the observer with equanimity and ultimate clarity, to provide for a greater understanding of the phenomena of one’s own mind, and thus reality. From right mindfulness is the last step in the chain, right concentration. This means one-pointedness of mind. Being able to concentrate on what is important, and discarding distractions, or unworthy activities that aren’t useful or beneficial. If you are able to actively practice the improvement of yourself in these eight areas, you will notice a change in your psychological state to one of less suffering, greater understanding, and increased wellbeing, that is, to the extent of which you progress. The great thing is, these areas are constantly able to be improved upon. As we increase in experience, and increase in practice, we can move towards greater and greater heights of understanding and morality. In the Buddhist tradition the pinnacle is perfection in all eight categories, producing enlightenment, in which case the practitioner either will become an Arahant, which is an enlightened one who has ended the cycle of birth and rebirth, and attained Nirvana, or, the state of Bodhisattva, who isn’t excluded from renewed existence, but rather will remain in the cyclic existence of Samsara to be able to aide others in enlightening them. As I don’t believe perfection in the Buddhist sense is possible, I do think the striving and intention of either of these two goals is noble and a good goal in which we can attempt to move closer to. Having an ideal conceptualization of a noble direction in which to grow, and keeping in mind the ways to do so, and practicing along the path, is something I believe to be truly worthy of our attention and time, as our own personal wellbeing, as well as expanding to our circle of influence, is all effected positively by forward progress in this direction. This is the ultimate goal, development of the mind, so that knowledge of the truth can be seen, and that virtuous qualities can be exemplified and implemented.

The Self, Non Self, Illusion of Free Will, Objectivity of Morality

On February 3, 2018June 4, 2020 By Chris ShuttleworthLeave a comment

If there is a soul/self then these are its properties – it is the accumulation of every aspect of human experience, it is that which has the possibility of being aware of some of the brain/bodies thoughts, speech, actions, feelings, perceptions, sensations, but the awareness is constantly changing, and every aspect of what is within its focus in the present moment is not in its control, and it never has controlled anything directly of “it’s own volition”. It’s the product of evolution, genetics, upbringing, society, influences and drives, molded through neural plasticity and eons of evolutionary construction, it’s the expression of the current state of neural circuitry affected by millions of factors expressing itself in what we intuit as being subjective experience, all of this acting upon the laws of the natural universe, cause and effect, and none of it is spooky, magical, or was chosen by any independent entity. It is an accumulation of nature molding stardust over millions of years, constantly changing matter until it develops enough to be able to produce what we experience as conscious human experience.

We all act in ways which proceed from a desire to do so. Every moment we are pursuing our will, whether it be unconscious or conscious. This will springs from our beliefs, not only conscious beliefs, but the things which we have adapted through our perceptions to be better or worse course of actions, this is dependent on our experiential knowledge, prior reasoning, genetic and other biological connections which deem what is better are worse for the organism, and his genes. In a word, we do not control these desires. Since we do not control these desires, we do not control the acts which stem from them. We do what we desire to do but we do not choose what we desire. We cannot alter a belief or a desire without evidence or some type of temporal or experiential stimuli. Since we cannot change our desire (albeit – it can be changed in the ways above described), and everything we do, every experience we have stems from this desire, we have no free will, and there is no permanent, or controlling “self” that exists, other than the illusion that we control our acts, which, if the premises above are accepted, is a mere fallacy of belief. Due to the goal of human’s desire to maximize pleasure, or wellbeing, or welfare, of its own genetic material and thus its survival machine, there inevitably exists better or worse methods of doing this. To move in the direction of ultimate suffering, not only for the individual in his own conscious experience, but to those in his expanded circle towards all sentient beings, would be to make a wrong decision. This wrongness is predicated on the standard of life which we perceive to be “better” for sentient life, in the sense of moving it away from that most possible suffering for everyone, which, if we are speaking of morality, is the standard and axiomatic fundamental truth which we must make, otherwise we are no longer talking about morality. As a side note- morality has to have life as its precursor, as the experience of pleasure and pain is what determines the rightness or wrongness of an action, to degrees, in reference to novel circumstances. The answers that are more “right” are more in line with that goal of fulfilling desire in a way that produces less suffering, and more pleasure, for the individual and his expanded circle of influence. In this way we can use the subjective basis of biological life’s ability to experience pleasure and pain, wellbeing and suffering, to make objective claims about the rightness or wrongness (perhaps wrongfully conceived as “good” and “bad”) of actions. Basically, from an objective standpoint, we acknowledge that the experience of life can be better or worse for all sentient beings, depending upon the amount of wellbeing and suffering they experience. Therefore, the answers to circumstantial actions, speech, thought, any form of being, is to be framed in morality in its relation to this objective ability to experience pain and pleasure, and its benefit, or rightness, or goodness, is determined in relation to other options effect upon sentient being’s wellbeing.

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Tag: buddhism

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