Some things I am grateful for today:

1) A relaxing Sunday of football. Seattle won, but Pittsburgh lost. The only two games Arizona has won this year have been against my two favorite teams. Hmmmm. . . . ?

2) A short week. On Thursday I'm off to Elgin, Illinois for the Internal Family Systems conference.

3) Unsecured wireless networks. I was able to update my laptop tonight using someone else's network. Nice, although I should probably feel bad for "stealing."

What are grateful for today?

The "new atheists" continue to get a lot of press. But there are also some reasonable people arguing alternate points of view. Here are three from just the last two days.

First up, ~C4Chaos is reviewing Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation. While he tends to agree with some of Harris' positions, he goes into an integral defense of faith that I think is very correct:

Since Harris is arguing about faith, let's use James Fowler's stages of faith as reference (so that people of faith would be able to relate). In James Fowler's stages of faith, Harris is doing battle with Stage 2 (“Mythic literal”) and Stage 3 (“Synthetic-Conventional”)–devout religious people–and then wielding his intellectual sword on Stage 4 (“Individuative-Reflective”) and Stage 5 (“Conjunctive Faith”) whenever he turns his attention on religious moderates/liberals. While Harris, in my opinion, is coming mostly from a Stage 5 (with his “faith” anchored on science). It's possible that Harris has had glimpses of Stage 6 with his Dzogchen practice. But that remains to be seen.

(NOTE: I think Harris addresses Stage 6 (“Universalizing Faith”) in his book, “The End of Faith,” in a chapter about consciousness. I'll talk more about that later when I get the chance to review that book. Let me just say at this point that Fowler's use of Mother Teresa as example of a person with Stage 6 faith is highly objectionable it would make Christopher Hitchens puke, especially after the revelation of Mother Teresa's crisis of faith.)

And therein lies the rub. Harris's polemics may be highly reasonable and rational, but people at stage 2 and stage 3 of faith will not hear his reasoning. It would simply fall on their deaf ears. Yes, he will anger them. Yes, he will offend them. In return, they will defend their dogmas to the end. Only people who are ready to step out of stage 3 will hear his plea. In short, Sam Harris will not convert suicide bombers and devout Christian missionaries. And I think he knows that.

Which brings us to the more relevant target audience of Harris's writings: people at stage 4 and stage 5 of faith. These are the stages of faith which bear the qualities of religious tolerance and religious liberalism. This is where I find Harris's approach refreshing and deserving of a higher level of intellectual discourse.

“It accomplishes nothing to merely declare that 'we all worship the same God.' We do not all worship the same God, and nothing attests to this fact more eloquently than our history of religious bloodshed.”

“While religious tolerance is surely better than religious war, tolerance is without its problems. Our fear of provoking religious hatred has rendered us unwilling to criticize ideas that are increasingly maladaptive and patently ridiculous. It has also obliged us to lie to ourselves–repeatedly and at the highest level of discourse–about the compatibility between religious faith and scientific rationality. Our competing religious certainties are impeding the emergence of a viable, global civilization.”

For Harris, religious faith and scientific rationality are not compatible. There's no middle ground. He's not aiming for integration of science and religion. He wants to end religion in favor of science and reason.

Speaking of faith and science being compatible (or not), Freeman Dyson (interviewed in Salon) has no problem with scientists also having faith in some form of transcendent truth. He feels that Richard Dawkins is doing science a great disservice by arguing that scientists must not be religious.

Do you think science and religion are at odds?

No. I think it's only a small fraction of people who think that. Perhaps they have louder voices than the others.

What do you think of what Richard Dawkins is doing.

I think Richard Dawkins is doing a lot of damage. I disagree very strongly with the way he's going about it. I don't deny his right to be an atheist, but I think he does a great deal of harm when he publicly says that in order to be a scientist, you have to be an atheist. That simply turns young people away from science. He's convinced a lot of young people not to be scientists because they don't want to be atheists. I'm strongly against him on that question. It's simply not true what he's saying, and it's not only not true but also harmful. The fact is that many of my friends are much more religious than I am and are first-rate scientists. There's absolutely nothing that stops you from being both.

Dawkins calls religion as a virus.

I disagree totally. He has the arrogance to say that anyone who does not share his views is infected with a virus. No wonder he cannot coexist peacefully with them.

Later he says:

You write that as our understanding of biology advances, so too will our understanding of religion.

It impacts upon our understanding of theology. What I was pointing out is that human theology is based on our own value system -- above all our knowledge of good and evil as we experience it. Take an autistic child. I took the case of Jessica Park, who is a friend of mine who happens to be autistic. If she had a theology, it would be quite different because she cannot understand other people suffering. She has no conception of other people's existence in the way we have. It's a radically different world that she lives in. You can tell by the fact that she can't understand the difference between "I" and "you." She uses the words indiscriminately.

So the idea of a suffering savior would have no meaning for her at all. If she had a theology, it wouldn't involve sin. One thing that is characteristic of autistic people is that they cannot tell a lie. Jessica never tells a lie because to tell a deliberate lie, you have to have the idea of deceiving somebody. That's something she couldn't imagine. Since there is no sin, there can be no fall from grace and no redemption.

The example of Jessica shows us how our own view of the world might be equally skewed. There may be many essential features of the world to which we are blind, just as she is blind to other people's thoughts and feelings. So our theology also reflects our possibly skewed view of the world.

This is an interesting argument, but one that is often lost on scientists who feel that their lens is the only one through which to see the world. But what if science is as narrow and deficient in its vision of subjective experience of transcendence as Dyson's example of Jessica's inability to understand how others feel might be? I think it is. Science is currently no more able to understand subjectivity than Jessica is capable of understanding sin or a lie.

Finally, there was a column in the LA Times on Saturday that references the Burmese monks and their efforts to stand up against oppression as a defense of religious values and why their are needed.

It has become fashionable in certain smart circles to regard atheism as a sign of superior education, of highly evolved civilization, of enlightenment. Recent bestsellers by Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and others suggest that religious faith is a sign of backwardness, the mark of primitives stuck in the Dark Ages who have not caught up with scientific reason. Religion, we are told, is responsible for violence, oppression, poverty and many other ills.

It is not difficult to find examples to back up this assertion. But what about the opposite? Can religion also be a force for good? Are there cases in which religious faith comes to the rescue even of those who don't have it?

I have never personally had either the benefits nor misfortunes of adhering to any religion, but watching Burmese monks on television defying the security forces of one of the world's most oppressive regimes, it is hard not to see some merit in religious belief. Myanmar, also known as Burma, is a deeply religious country, where most men spend some time as Buddhist monks. Even the thuggish Burmese junta hesitated before unleashing lethal force on men dressed in the maroon and saffron robes of their faith.

The monks, and nuns in pink robes, were soon joined by students, actors and others who want to be rid of the junta. But the monks and nuns took the first step; they dared to protest when most others had given up. And they did so with the moral authority of their Buddhist faith. Romantics might say that Buddhism is unlike other religions, more a philosophy than a faith. But this would be untrue. It has been a religion in different parts of Asia for many centuries, and can be used to justify violent acts as much as any other belief. For evidence, one need only look at Sri Lanka, where Buddhism is lashed onto ethnic chauvinism in the civil war between Buddhist Singhalese and Hindu Tamils.

Ian Buruma concludes the column with a hard truth that liberals will scoff at, but which seems pretty on target:

Nevertheless, faith has an important role to play in politics, especially in circumstances in which secular liberals are rendered impotent, as in the case of Nazi occupation, communist rule or military dictatorship.

Liberals are most needed when compromises have to be made, but not as useful when faced with brute force. That is when visionaries, romantics and true believers are driven by their beliefs to take risks that most of us would regard as foolhardy. It is, on the whole, not beneficial to be ruled by such heroes, but it is good to have them around when we need them.

While I tend to agree with this, in the case of the Buddhist monks in Burma, they are the liberals -- they are the voice of a progressive effort toward democracy. And they are not using violence -- they marched with nothing more than upturned alms bowls.

In the tradition of Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr., the Burmese monks join their liberal faith with peaceful resistance. They are marching for the freedom of their nation, not to impose their beliefs upon those who do not share them. They merely seek an open and free nation.

The religion that Harris, et al, oppose seeks to impose its narrow view of the world on ALL others, whether they want it or not. And this is certainly something that must be battled. In this respect, I am with the new atheists.

However, as ~C pointed out above by bringing Fowler's stages of faith (as well as moral development), not all religion and all religious people share the same views. Harris and his pals conflate ALL religions and ALL religious people into one mythic belief system, which is intellectually dishonest and factually incorrect.

Until they can figure this out and revise their position to what some might call a more integral perspective, they will fail to reach anyone other than those who already share their views.
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Some of Vladimir Kush's work is pretty cool, if you like surrealism. Here are some that I liked:

Today's Daily Om is a reminder that we are born of the Earth. The farther removed our lives become from this truth -- and for many of us, we are very far removed -- the more ungrounded and frenetic our lives become. One need not study "Earth religions" to reconnect with nature, but it doesn't hurt. For most, we simply need to spend more time in nature, allowing the energy of the Earth to quiet our minds and bodies.

Our Earthly Origins
Reclaiming Our Roots

Some cultures are more rooted to the earth and connected to their inherent spirituality. But every one of us, even those of us who have been disconnected from our roots for hundreds of years, comes from a place that was once inhabited by people who worshipped and honored the earth on which they lived. In other words, we can all claim this wisdom as an essential part of who we are.

One way we can begin to rediscover our roots is to explore the early earth-based religions practiced in the parts of the world that birthed our ancestors. If we explore the ancient spiritual practices of our ancestors, we will find that their practices and beliefs share many elements with Native American, African, and aboriginal religious traditions. People who are connected to the earth and honor her share a fundamental philosophy that we can claim as our own because we too are of the earth. Many of us have become so disconnected from the earth that it feels foreign and awkward to imagine communing with her or performing a ritual for her. If we are honest, though, we will find within ourselves a yearning to feel more connected, more grounded, and more at home in this world. This yearning can lead us back to our disowned roots, which, of course, leads us right into the heart of the earth.

As we begin to see more clearly the people we come from, we can begin to alter our perception of who we are now, laying claim to our inherent relatedness to the earth. We might celebrate this by observing the ancient calendar of solstices and equinoxes, celebrating and honoring the cycle of the seasons as our ancestors did, or we might explore any one of the many earth-based practices through reading or participating in ritual. When we do these things, we tap back into our roots, finding nourishment at the wellspring of our earthly origins, the source we share with all of humanity.

Today's Daily Dharma from Tricycle:

The Basic Precepts are not Passive

 

The basic precepts are not passive. They can actively express a compassionate heart in our life. Not killing can grow into a reverence for life, a protective caring for all sentient beings who share life with us. Not stealing can become the basis for a wise ecology, honoring the limited resources of the earth and actively seeking ways to live and work that share our blessings worldwide. From this spirit can come a life of natural and healing simplicity. Out of not lying we can develop our voice to speak for compassion, understanding, and justice. Out of nonharming sexuality, our most intimate relations can also become expressions of love, joy, and tenderness. Out of not abusing intoxicants or becoming heedless, we can develop a spirit that seeks to live in the most awake and conscious manner in all circumstances.

At first, precepts are a practice. Then they become a necessity, and finally they become a joy. When our heart is awakened, they spontaneously illuminate our way in the world.

~ Jack Kornfield, in A Path with Heart; From Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

 

Quote of the day:

"Men live in a fantasy world. I know this because I am one, and I actually receive my mail there."
~ Scott Adams

Image of the day:


BODY
~ Runner’s High Revisited -- "Some scientists claim that endorphins are too large to pass through the blood-brain barrier - and if something can’t get into your brain you can pretty much guarantee it can’t make you high either. So if it’s not endorphins that give you that happy feeling inside after exercise, what is the underlying factor? One possibility is the production of anandamide, a messenger molecule naturally produced in our bodies that plays a role in pain, depression, appetite, memory, and fertility. As reported by CNN, anandamide is known to produce sensations similar to those of THC, which is the psychoactive property in marijuana."
~ Row Right: Get More Bang for Your Back -- "Girls may hate to see you leave, but if you've got a broad back, they'll love to watch you go. (Course it helps if you've got a nice ass, too, but that's a whole 'nother article.) Mike Robertson is here to troubleshoot your rowing."
~ Tapering for Athletes and Ordinary Exercisers -- "Tapering refers to the period just before a major race or game, when an athlete reduces workload to be in peak shape on the day of the competition. Ordinary exercisers can apply this training principle when they plan to enter a local race or charity event."
~ Bad Carbohydrates Are Not The Enemy -- "The latest common wisdom on carbohydrates claims that eating so-called "bad" carbohydrates will make you fat, but University of Virginia professor Glenn Gaesser says, "that's just nonsense." Eating sandwiches with white bread, or an occasional doughnut, isn't going to kill you, or necessarily even lead to obesity, he said." It's 80/20 -- eat right 80% of the time and 20% of the time that you don't isn't a problem.
~ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Symptoms Reduced By Dark Chocolate Consumption -- "If you suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome you may well find that your symptoms are significantly reduced if you regularly consume dark chocolate - that means chocolate with a high cocoa content and without any milk in it. A pilot study carried out on patients with chronic fatigue syndrome found that their symptoms were alleviated when they consumed dark chocolate, much more so than when they consumed milk chocolate that had brown dye added to it."
~ Supersets for strength -- "Supersets are a popular weight lifting technique among many who are looking to kickstart a stalled weight lifting routine and add more variety into their program. They are a slightly more advanced principle to use so it’s going to be best if you have already have a fairly decent weight lifting background behind you." It's also a great way to strip fat and get more work done in less time.
~ Dietary quality of popular diets varies: study -- "There's no shortage of weight-loss plans for Americans to choose from, but some of the most popular ones fall short in dietary quality, according to a new study."
~ The Future Of Male Contraception -- "For decades, pundits have predicted new contraceptives for men within the next 5 to10 years. Are we really getting any closer? Judging from work presented at the second "Future of Male Contraception" conference, the answer may finally be yes. But will men actually use a new method if researchers make one? Elaine Lissner, director of the nonprofit Male Contraception Information Project, says demand is the least of the problems."
~ Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Benefit From Meditation Therapy -- "A revered contemplative practice for centuries, meditation has recently inspired research into its therapeutic value for everything from anxiety disorders to heart attack prevention. A painful, progressive autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with a high risk of depression -- double the risk of the healthy population, by conservative estimates -- and various forms of psychological distress."
~ The Eight Most Fattening Foods of Fall -- "As the temperature drops, we start yearning for comfort foods. But beware of their hefty caloric price. A few of autumn's least healthy offerings."


PSYCHE/SELF
~ Depressed Teens Benefit From Fluoxetine And Psychotherapy Combination -- "Treating depressed teenagers with a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy and fluoxetine, an antidepressant medication, seems to offer better results than either medication alone or cognitive behavioral therapy alone, according to an article in Archives of General Psychiatry (JAMA/Archives).The authors explain that 5% of teenagers are affected by major depressive disorder - this causes great difficulties for the patient and his/her family, explain the authors."
~ Social Anxiety Disorder and Its Cure -- "Social anxiety disorder (technically known as social phobia) is one of those disorders that wasn’t diagnosed very often a decade or so ago. Occasionally you would see a patient with this disorder, but it was very, very rare."
~ Researchers Find Music And Language Are Processed By The Same Brain Systems -- "Researchers have long debated whether or not language and music depend on common processes in the mind. Now, researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center have found evidence that the processing of music and language do indeed depend on some of the same brain systems."
~ Say Won’t Instead Of Can’t -- "It’s funny how one word, a seemingly inconsequential one, can alter a statement’s entire meaning. Can’t and won’t are such words that, when switched, can give off much different intentions."
~ Writing My Way Out of a Corner -- "Writing is a great way to get yourself unstuck. The first thing that comes into your head will do. Just write whatever comes into your head and however it does so. The therapeutic thing in this is freedom from the internal censor, or critic, just bypassing him or her completely, because all you have to do is keep writing, not be good or be bad, just keep going."
~ Aging's Changing Face -- "Science is reshaping the way we think about aging."
~ Men and Women Are Psychologically Very Similar -- "That's it, I've had enough. I'm fed up with endless bogus stories claiming substantial differences between men and women which pass for news in the popular press. With the help of Janet Shibley Hyde of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and literally thousands of psychology studies, this myth can be banished forever (Hyde, 2005)."
~ Getting a Distance -- "As the counselling room is a safe place for all those fears and emotions, including the not so pretty ones, to be, so eventually we learn that we ourselves are a safe place for them to be. We eventually, slowly, gain some experience in being separate from uncomfortable feelings, in being, in fact, bigger than they are."
~ Discover The Art of Breathing -- "In reality however, a person’s breathing changes and becomes restricted in various ways, not just momentarily, but habitually. Unhealthy breathing habits can develop without us even being aware of it. The bad posture and/or slouched positions that we take part in diminish lung capacities and cause us to take shortened breaths."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Varsha Rao: A Feast of a Novel: A Thousand Splendid Suns -- "I've always considered books and literature to be an important part of my life. As a kid, I took stacks of books home from our public library to read and when I was a little older, I spent many summers reading beneath whirling ceiling fans or on the veranda of my grandparents' home during my visits to India. And as an adult, just as I enjoy traveling and a fine meal, reading a great book is still a treat, something to be savored. So, I thought I'd share one of my favorite books I've read in a while with you: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini."
~ Will Durst: Absolute, 100 Percent, Unadulterated Free Speech -- "It doesn't matter which holes free speech is coming out from. Everybody gets to say their piece."
~ The Administration’s plan for Iran -- "In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran."
~ Radiohead Says: Pay What You Want -- "The band's new album is available only on its website; the price is up to you. That has record labels very, very nervous." Cool.
~ Burma's foul regime depends on Beijing -- "Joining the young and passionate demonstrators outside the office of a certain Washington military attaché last week (and there was I, having thought that my "demo" days were over) helped me to settle one trivial question. The crowd was united in chanting "Free, Free, Free Burma." This may seem like a detail, but I think it's right to object to the grotesque renaming of Myanmar and Yangon, and I am glad that the Washington Post, at least, continues to say Burma and Rangoon."
~ Burma: After Protests, Rebels Plot Comeback -- "Burma’s rebel fighters were conspicuously absent when monks and ordinary citizens took to the streets of Rangoon. But guerrilla leaders say the mass protests have helped unite their divided groups." Might have been nice if they helped the monks avoid being slaughtered.
~ Christian Right Considering Supporting 3rd Party if Giuliani Gets GOP Nod -- "It's been well-documented that James Dobson hates most of the Republican field, but he realllly hates Rudy Giuliani."
~ Myopia in a Secular Age -- "America is the most religious society in the West, but faith flourishes in its pluralities and keeps us tolerant of those who believe something different. The robustness of faith gives strength to democracy."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Bringing Wi-Fi to the Skies -- "Up to now it's been mostly all talk, but commercial airlines will soon deliver on their promises to bring web surfing and e-mail to domestic U.S. flights."
~ Arctic Sea Ice Shatters All Previous Record Lows: Diminished Ice Leads To Northwest Passage Opening -- "Arctic sea ice during the 2007 melt season plummeted to the lowest levels since satellite measurements began in 1979, according to researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center."
~ Gamma Ray Delay May Be Sign of 'New Physics' -- "Delayed gamma rays from deep space may provide the first evidence for physics beyond current theories."
~ Physicists Tackle Knotty Puzzle -- "Electrical cables, garden hoses and strands of holiday lights seem to get themselves hopelessly tangled with no help at all. Now research initiated by an undergraduate student at the University of California, San Diego has resulted in the first model of how knots form."
~ Chemical compound found in tree bark stimulates growth, survival of brain cells -- "Researchers have identified a compound in tree bark that mimics the chemical reactions of a naturally occurring molecule in the brain responsible for stimulating neuronal cell signaling. Neuronal cell signaling plays a crucial role in the growth, plasticity and survival of brain cells."
~ Beyond a 'speed limit' on mutations, species risk extinction -- "Harvard University scientists have identified a virtual "speed limit" on the rate of molecular evolution in organisms, and the magic number appears to be 6 mutations per genome per generation -- a level beyond which species run the strong risk of extinction as their genomes lose stability."
~ New particles get a mass boost -- "A sophisticated, new analysis has revealed that the next frontier in particle physics is farther away than once thought. New forms of matter not predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics are most likely twice as massive as theorists had previously calculated, according to a just-published study."
~ Nanotube forests grown on silicon chips for future computers, electronics -- "Engineers have shown how to grow forests of tiny cylinders called carbon nanotubes onto the surfaces of computer chips to enhance the flow of heat at a critical point where the chips connect to cooling devices called heat sinks."
~ Reshaping market economies -- "It's rare for any environmental book to receive the attention garnered by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger's Break Through, particularly outside the usual green circles. Anything that prompts conversation on these issues is, in and of itself, a good thing."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Bad Dog! -- "The following events are as faithful to fact as memory will allow. They span 52 years from my eighth year to my sixtieth. I have written of this particular sequence of three selected events because they show as well as I know how the way in which pain summons its own healing, and the sweet and improbable redemption that sometimes abides in one fortunate and humbling moment. It is a true tale of the arising of the compassionate heart of Avalokitesvara."
~ A Metta Game Board -- "An interesting day, yesterday, at the workshop to which we were invited by our friend from the Laguna Beach sangha, Dr. Barbara Wright, who has devised an ingenious game board based on the metta practice. Most readers will already know that metta is the practice of loving kindness and compassion."
~ Sophia in the Universe -- "I have decided that I will have to examine this Ken Wilber guy more closely. Before today, he was just a name to me, a name of a man that some regard as a spiritual teacher, and a man who has written books. That is all I know of him, before this."
~ Burma: A monk's reflection -- "In the last several days, we have seen reports from Burma showing brutal suppression of peaceful demonstrations led by Buddhist monks and nuns chanting the Metta Sutta, asking for social justice and a fair political system."
~ Buddhist Geeks 39: More on Tibetan Studies at Naropa -- "In this episode, Ryan continues his conversation (Part 1 available here) with Troy Omafray and Cory Leistikow, two of his fellow classmates in Naropa University’s MA Indo-Tibetan Studies program. They discuss requirements of the program including Nitartha Insttitute, dathuns, and Tibetan language."
~ Karma Power: What Makes a Monk Mad -- "As they marched through the streets of Myanmar’s cities last week leading the biggest antigovernment protests in two decades, some barefoot monks held their begging bowls before them. But instead of asking for their daily donations of food, they held the bowls upside down, the black lacquer surfaces reflecting the light."
~ The Radical Spirituality of Generation X, Part 11: In the Arms of the Goddess -- "After eighteen years of strict Catholicism, hearing the words, "God as Female" in my theology class freshman year of college was life-altering. For me, God was synonymous with He, and the possibility of God as She opened the door to a whole new world. At first, it was a struggle to even hold the possibility of a female God in my mind, God as He was so deeply ingrained. Yet, I searched for images of Her, information about Her, and gradually She was revealed."
~ Causal Awareness as a True Pre-Condition to Habermas's Ideal Speech Act -- "Jurgen Habermas has attempted to rescue the prospect of rationality as a meaningful human capability - lately devastated as a subject-oriented illusion of modernity - in a postmodern world by defining the playing fields in which rationality can survive: first, by presupposing a level playing field where objective truth is the possibility for consensus between willing subjects engaged in rational argument and who are not under the influence of any biasing power-structures, and second, an open playing field where subjective truthfulness and intersubjective rightness can co-determine social norms and all actors have open and equal access to the discourse."
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Writing in a journal is a well-known and highly regarded way of getting in touch with our feelings. But an article in the last issue of Scientific American Mind suggests that journaling has great benefits in dealing with negative emotions, but can actually reduce the enjoyment of positive emotions.

One of the great benefits of journaling is that we can get some distance from our feelings through seeing the words we have written from the position of a third-person observer, rather than a first-person experiencer. This is how Steve Pavlina described it a couple of months ago:

While your brain is technically capable of processing a great deal of input simultaneously, your conscious thoughts play out in a certain sequence. One thought triggers the next, which triggers the next, and so on. Sometimes these sequences have a few branches, but they’re still subject to linear time, and at any given moment, you’re following one of those branches. These thought sequences have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and it’s nearly impossible to see the big picture overhead view of a sequence while you’re stuck in playback mode.

This is where journaling can provide huge advantages. Journaling allows you to break free of sequential thinking and examine your thoughts from a bird’s-eye view. When you record your sequential thoughts in a tangible medium, you can then go back and review those thoughts from a third-person perspective. While you’re recording the thoughts, you’re in first-person mode. But when you’re reading them, you can remain dissociated instead of associated. This dissociative view, when combined with what you’ve already learned from the associative view, will bring you much closer to seeing the truth of your situation.

This works great, as the research shows, for dealing with negative emotions or experiences. From Mind (subscription required):

Whereas all these findings seem to indicate that picking up the pen is a cure-all for our troubles, it is not quite so simple. It is important to to choose the right topics. Researchers agree that positive effects from writing are achieved only when people deal with a negative situation -- specifically, a situation that has been bothering them and that they have not been willing to discuss with anyone. And Pennebaker warns that the moment of writing itself can be painful. "I often saw our subjects crying," he says. But releasing blocked emotions -- Sigmund Freud called this catharsis -- leads, at least in the long term, to healing.

So, there are two clear benefits to journaling about troubling feelings or situations: 1) to gain much-needed detachment and distance from the painful feelings, and 2) to get the feelings out in the first place so that they do not remain repressed, which drains energy and leads to depression.

The more honest one can be in this type of journaling, the more beneficial it is. One need not look for hidden meanings, or deep insights -- simply getting the feelings out is the key.

Here are a few tips to make the process more successful:

* Write about negative experiences, not positive ones
* Spend at least 15 minutes per session
* Focus on your deepest feelings
* Just write -- don't worry about grammar, spelling, or anything else
* Focus on three questions: 1) What happened? 2) How did I feel about it? 3) Why did I feel that way?

However well this works for negative experiences, journaling can have the opposite effect for positive experiences. Writing about positive events diminishes their satisfaction. The same process that makes journaling about our pain -- creating distance from the feelings -- operates when writing about positive events, which creates more dissatisfaction with those good memories.

On the other hand, thinking about positive memories keeps them fresh in the mind. Similarly, making quick notes about good events -- gratitude posts -- does not diminish the good feelings.

In a 2003 study by Robert Emmons of the University of California, Davis, 65 students jotted down five things each week they were thankful for. The participants blossomed during the experiment, experiencing good moods more often and interacting more with their peers in positive ways.

Journaling is a great tool for maintaining our mental health, as long as we use it correctly.

One last note, I'm not aware of any studies off the top of my head that deal with art journaling, but my guess is that the same principles would apply. Some people might prefer to draw or paint to get out hard feelings, which may lead to writing in some instances. Either way, if drawing works better (art therapy), by all means follow that intuition.
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Some things I am grateful for today:

1) We got some rain today, which is nice during what is usually a dry season. It kept the temperatures down, too, which is an added bonus.

2) While I'm in the Chicago area, I'm going to get together with Matthew Dallman and his newly expanded family. It'll be nice to finally meet one of my cyber friends.

3) I got a new issue of Scientific American Mind today, which makes me happy in a very geeky kind of way.

What are you grateful today?
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I've always liked this poem.

Drunk As Drunk

Drunk as drunk on turpentine
From your open kisses,
Your wet body wedged
Between my wet body and the strake
Of our boat that is made of flowers,
Feasted, we guide it - our fingers
Like tallows adorned with yellow metal -
Over the sky's hot rim,
The day's last breath in our sails.

Pinned by the sun between solstice
And equinox, drowsy and tangled together
We drifted for months and woke
With the bitter taste of land on our lips,
Eyelids all sticky, and we longed for lime
And the sound of a rope
Lowering a bucket down its well. Then,
We came by night to the Fortunate Isles,
And lay like fish
Under the net of our kisses.

Today's Daily Om looks at the ways we can sometimes find ourselves off track in our lives -- and why that might happen.

Moving Through Darkness
The Places We Go

In life, most of us want things to go to the places we have envisioned ourselves going. We have plans and visions, some of them divinely inspired, that we want to see through to completion. We want to be happy, successful, and healthy, all of which are perfectly natural and perfectly human. So when life takes us to places we didn’t consciously want to go, we often feel as if something has gone wrong, or we must have made a mistake somewhere along the line, or any number of other disheartening possibilities. This is just life’s way of taking us to a place we need to go for reasons that go deeper than our own ability to reason. These hard knocks and trials are designed to shed light on our unconscious workings and deepen our experience of reality.

Often it takes something major to wake us up, to shake us loose from our ego’s grip as it struggles to maintain an illusion of control. It is loss of control more than anything else that humbles us and enables us to see the big picture. It reminds us that the key to the universe lies in what we do not know, and what we do know is a small fraction of the great mystery in which we live. This awareness softens and lightens us, as we release our resistance to what is. Another gift gleaned from going to these seemingly undesirable places is that, in our response to difficulty, we can see all the patterns and unresolved emotional baggage that stand in the way of our unconditional joyfulness. Joy exists within us independently of whether things go our way or not. And when we don’t feel it, we can trust that we will find it if we are willing to surrender to the situation, moving through it as we move through our difficult feelings.

We can take our inspiration from any fairy tale that finds its central character lost in a dark wood, frightened and alone. We know that the journey through the wood provides its own kind of beauty and richness. On the other side, we will emerge transformed, lighter and brighter, braver and more confident for having moved through that darkness.

Very often, when we find ourselves far from where we wanted to be, either through mistakes we made or the simple ways that life can confound our expectations, there is a reason for the detour.

Unfortunately, while we are struggling with our ego's loss of control, we seldom can see the big picture. This is when it helps to have friends for support and encouragement, and some form of spiritual practice that can allow us to get separation from the feelings of confusion.

If we allow the ego to have its way, we might choose to ignore the potential for growth that a situation like this can provide. In doing so, we only compound the problem and put off dealing with it. The next time it comes up, it will be bigger and more challenging.

Generally, if we are willing to listen, there is a quiet voice within us that can help us find our way out of the darkness. But we have to listen.
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Quote of the day:

"Red meat is NOT bad for you. Now blue-green meat, THAT'S bad for you!"
~ Tommy Smothers

Image of the day:


BODY
~ Yardwork yields muscle gain -- "As the seasons change, your yardwork does too. If you’re a regular homeowner, you’re probably going to do more raking, shoveling, closing the pool, cleaning gutters and splitting wood. A recent article from Read Express says that what seems like a pain, is actually good for you!" If nothing else, it's good cardio.
~ 50 More Tips for Serious Athletes -- "A grab bag of bad-ass tips for bodybuilders, strength athletes, football players, MMA fighters, hacky sackers, and even Amish rake-fighters. Regardless of your sports calling, you're guaranteed to find something useful in this article."
~ Secrets to Dealing With Comfort-Food Cravings -- "Find out how to cut calories off your favorite comfort foods."
~ Wine and berry pills to aid fight against cancer -- "Pills made from rice, berries and red wine could soon be available to help prevent cancer. British scientists are pioneering the use of food compounds to protect against tumours in the breast, colon and prostate."
~ Your Home Is Your Gym -- "Working out at home may yield better results than you'd get at the gym." True for beginners maybe, but not advanced lifters.
~ Weight issues plague heavy, thin teens alike -- "Many teenagers are dealing with weight issues, from obesity to eating disorder symptoms, and these problems seem to have some causes in common, new research suggests."
~ 5 healthy food trends worth following -- "If you want to know where American food traditions are headed, look back. Many of today's most healthful eating trends bear a strong resemblance to yesterday's: Nearby farms offering nutritious, peak-of-season produce; slow-cooked dinners that foster leisurely family meals; an emphasis on meatless dishes and minimally processed foods."
~ Premature Birth Linked To Low Maternal Cholesterol -- "Pregnant women who have very low cholesterol may face a greater risk of delivering their babies prematurely than women with more moderate cholesterol levels, a team led by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), reported today."
~ Goji berries: What you need to know about this superfood -- "Goji berries, goji juice, and snack bars and other products containing goji berries have become increasing popular over the past two years or so."


PSYCHE/SELF
~ What Is Intelligence? -- "Flynn's research has now provided the strongest answer. The amount by which IQ test performance has improved for whole nations exceeds the IQ difference between blacks and whites in the United States or other groups in other countries."
~ Marital Spats, Taken to Heart -- "A study of nearly 4,000 men and women from Framingham, Mass., asked whether they typically vented their feelings or kept quiet in arguments with their spouse. Notably, 32 percent of the men and 23 percent of the women said they typically bottled up their feelings during a marital spat."
~ Personality Trait Linked to Risk of Developing Alzheimer's -- "A neat orderly mind augmented by a conscientious personality tends to resist Alzheimer's disease, researchers here found."
~ Moved to tears -- "Sometimes exercise may release a surprising slew of pent-up emotions, according to fitness instructors and psychotherapists who have seen or heard about clients crying during yoga, Pilates or other mind/body classes." Yep -- that's why I want to combine talk therapy and exercise.
~ Burning Leaf Therapy -- "Raking a pile of the leaves as they keep falling, bringing some kind of order to them, is an endless task if you are a perfectionist. They can’t all be gathered, because they keep right on falling, and they won’t make neat piles. But they do make big, unruly piles, and then they catch fire, flaring up in a split second like fireworks, a billow of smoke underneath, making you catch your breath. "
~ Attachment Parenting -- "The most important relationship we have in life is probably the first one, with our primary caretaker, usually, although not invariably, the mother. It is in this first relationship that we get our first taste of how to exchange love, care, pleasure, comfort, nourishment, in which we learn whether the world is a safe place that responds to our needs, or not."
~ Just Do It! -- "When I started studying self-improvement I often thought about a few of the little catchphrases I have heard throughout life. I thought about well, how kinda stupid they were."
~ A Deeper Sleep -- "How the brain works by day and sleeps at night."
~ Things to Consider Before Getting Married -- "After 7 years of marriage I can honestly say that I would do it again. I'd marry the same woman without changing a thing. Well, maybe we would have spent our money a little more conservatively but as far as the the decision on marriage - it was a perfect one (no, I am not saying this because she reads Dumb Little Man!)."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ The Targets of Aggression -- "When an individual suffers pain, he most often responds by passing it on to someone else. When possible, that "someone else" is the perpetrator, the original source of the pain. But if this cannot be achieved, then others are liable to be victimized, regardless of innocence."
~ A Revolution is Just Below the Surface -- "Computers, desktop publishing is now much cheaper than big publishing, and of course the internet. So the new technologies are giving opportunities to overcome the effects of capital concentration, which has a severe impact on the nature of media and the nature of schools and everything else. So, there's revival, and actually the major battle that's going on right now is crucial, as to who is going to control the Internet."
~ Yusef Komunyakaa: War and Jazz -- "Komunyakaa is known for infusing his poems with jazzy rhythms and for writing autobiographical pieces which deal with subjects such as his time in Vietnam and to his childhood in Bogalusa, Louisiana."
~ Halo 3, reviewed -- "One of the strangest quirks of video-game reviewing is the emphasis on length. Size matters to video-game players, or at least to video-game reviewers. Games that take a fortnight of work weeks to complete—40, no 60, no 80 hours of gameplay!—get praised for their epic scale, while an overlong film or book might get panned for its self-indulgence."
~ House Moves on Troop Withdrawal Plan -- "The House takes up legislation today that would require President Bush to submit a plan for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq."
~ Carter, Tutu Urge Darfur Peace Deal -- "A group of elder statesmen, including former President Carter and Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu, urged all sides in Darfur's bloodshed to reach a peace deal."
~ Mental Help for Mets Fans -- "The New York Mets just finished the worst collapse in baseball history. How should sports fans deal with disaster?"


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Agency Studies Restoration at Ind. Lake -- "Restoration could begin soon on the ecosystem of a northwestern Indiana lake that has been polluted for decades with sewage and stormwater filled with fertilizer from farm fields."
~ Nanotechnology: not just for geeks -- "Say “nanotechnology,” and geeks imagine iPhones, laptops and flash drives. But more than 60 percent of the 580 products in a newly updated inventory of nanotechnology consumer products are such “un-geeky” items as tennis racquets, clothing, and health products."
~ Top 100 Alt Search Engines, October 2007 -- "AltSearchEngines has just released its latest Top 100 Alternative Search Engines list. ASE tracks over 1,000 "alts" in all, so choosing the top 10% is a pretty big deal."
~ Quakes Sweep Endangered Turtles Overseas -- "Strong currents deliver dozens of Indonesian turtles to Malaysian shores."
~ How To Save 375 Million Gallons Of Gas A Year -- "Amazingly, American cities did it last year. Did the economy collapse? Did the world end? Nope. The way forward just got a little easier to navigate. So reports the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The work was done by Clean Cities, a network of approximately 90 volunteer coalitions developing public/private partnerships to promote alternative and advanced vehicles, fuel blends, fuel economy, hybrid vehicles, and idle reduction."
~ Those greenwashing Chevron ads -- "Those greenwashing ads are really starting to bug me. "It took us 125 years to use the first trillion barrels of oil. We'll use the next trillion in 30." And you're proud of this fact -- proud of your role in bringing about the wholesale destruction of this planet's climate?"


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Chased by our wholeness -- "I read about the hoop snake of North American folklore, which seems to have fascinated generations.The hoop snake bites its own tale, as the ouroboros, to form a circle and then roll down a hill like a wheel towards a hapless victim, who is then skewered on its tail."
~ Entrance ticket: being willing to appear foolish -- "There is a threshold where we must be willing to appear foolish, to others and ourselves."
~ On Haidt -- "So C4 awhile back called out integral thinkers to put their two cents on another round of the New Atheist dustup. This one comes from Jonathan Haidt, himself an atheist in Edge. It’s an excellent article in many ways. Michael Shermer agrees. Shermer at least is honest that even if religion were expunged, human violence would still be rampant. That religion is used as a tool for violence."
~ Thoughts on being a ‘multidisciplinary’ artist -- "As an artist, I’ve always worked in many different media/disciplines (drawing and painting, writing, music, film/video, and recently acting). This, like anything, is a strength as well as a weakness; a strength in the sense of being able to cross-fertilize artistic ideas, and a weakness in the sense of being an artistic jack of all trades, master of none."
~ Theology = Study of Leprechauns -- "Theology is comparable to the study of leprechauns. That is according to the ballsy Richard Dawkins. For Dawkins, Theology has no place in a University."
~ Integralism - Protestant Work Ethic In Effect! -- "Well, our main integral theorist, Kenny Boy, the Kenster, Kenarooni, it's pretty clear this is one thing that permeates the practice arising from his theory - the Work Ethic."
~ Neither Here Nor There: Is Non-Duality the Key to Business Success? -- "The sticky substance that holds this, and other businesses, together? Connection (love?). And recognizing that the person in the “PR Department” is working just as hard as you, wrestling with the same questions and clients. In the case of SW you look across the room and see that this is the case. You see that they’re not so different from you."
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Today I am grateful for this teaching from Pema Chodron in the current Shambhala Sun:

Choosing Peace

If we want to make peace, with ourselves and with the world at large, we have to look closely at the source of all of our wars. So often, it seems, we want to “settle the score,” which means getting our revenge, our payback. We want others to feel what we have felt. It means getting even, but it really doesn’t have anything to do with evenness at all. It is, in fact, a highly charged emotional reaction.

Underlying all of these thoughts and emotions is our basic intelligence, our basic wisdom. We all have it and we can all uncover it. It can grow and expand and become more accessible to us as a tool of peacemaking and a tool of happiness for ourselves and for others. But this intelligence is obscured by emotional reactivity when our experience becomes more about us than about them, more about self than about other. That is war.

I have often spoken of shenpa, the Tibetan term for the hook in our mind that snags us and prevents us from being open and recpetive. When we try to settle the score, we cover over our innate wisdom, our innate intelligence, with rapidly escalating , highly charged, shenpa-oozing emotionality. We produce one hook after another.

What are we to do about that? We could say that this emotionality is bad and we have to get rid of it. But that brings other problems, because it's really the same approach as getting even with other people. In this case we're basically saying that we have to settle the score with ourselves, as it were, by ridding ourselves of emotionality.

Since this approach will not work, what we need to do is to neither reject nor indulge in our own emotional energy, but instead come to know it. Then, as Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche taught, we can transmute the confusion of emotions into wisdom. In simple terms, we must gain the capacity to slowly, over time, become one with our energy instead of splitting off. We must learn to use the tools we have available to transform this moment of splitting in two. Splitting in two is the moment when peace turns into war, and it is a very common experience.

Let's say you're having a conversation with someone. You're one with the whole situation. You're open and receptive and there and interested. Then there is a little shenpa pulling-away, a kind of uneasy feeling in the stomach -- which we usually don't notice -- and then comes our big thought. We are suddenly verbalizing to ourselves, "How am I looking here? Did I  just say something stupid? Am I too fat? That was a stupid thing to say, wasn't it, and I am too fat. . . ."

Some thought or other causes us to split off, and before we know it we're completely self-absorbed. We're probably not even hearing the words of the person we're conversing with, because we have retreated into a bubble of self-absorption. That's splitting off. That's dividing in two.

The Buddha taught about this basic split as the birth of dualism, the birth of self versus other, of me versus you. It happens moment after moment. When we start out, we are "one-with." We have a sense of our interconnectedness, though we might not that fancy word. We're simply listening and there. And then, split! We pull back into our own worry or concern or even our own elation. Somehow we're no longer together. Now it's more about me and self, rather than them and other. By contrast, being "one-with" is neither about other nor about self. It's just totally open, present, there.

What are you grateful for today?

Philip Zimbardo is the Standford psychologist who conducted the infamous "Stanford Prison Experiment." He released a new book this year called The Lucifer Effect, and this is from the website promoting the book.

Seems like pretty good advice in general.

Dr. Z’s 20 Hints About Resisting Unwanted Influences On You

(Here is a set of general advice that I typically offer to students at the end of my courses at Stanford University, whether the course is Introduction to Psychology, Mind Control, or Exploring Human Nature. They cut across the different varieties of influence and are really generic recommendations of how to become more influence savvy.)

1. Do not maintain an illusion of “personal invulnerability” – If it can happen to them, then it can happen to you too.

    

2. Be modest in self-estimates – it is better to perceive yourself as vulnerable and take necessary precautions than to go “where angels fear to tread.”

    

3. Engage in life as fully as possible, yet be mindful and aware, attuned to the moment, and prepared to disengage and think critically when necessary – people are generally good and trustworthy, but others make their careers as “influence professionals” who try to get you to do what they want.

    

4. Be aware of Cialdini’s contexts and principles of compliance; when you sense you are operating on one of the principles, look to the relevant context being manipulated on you and pull back; where the context is obvious, expect the principle to be activated.

    

5. Be ready to say the three most difficult phrases in the world: “I was wrong”, “I made a mistake”, and “I’ve changed my mind.” Cut bait, accept immediate loss of money, face, etc. that could lead to bigger long term losses – Dissonance and consistency then go limp in the face of such self-honesty.

    

6. Separate your ego from your actions; maintain a sense of positive self-esteem, that is independent form the occasional failure and your stupid actions at times (Laugh at yourself once a day. This is especially true for shy folks.)

    

7. Separate messenger from message in your mind, process each systematically not heuristically, be aware of being tired, a “cognitive miser,” wanting simple short cuts, giving in to non-verbal tricks. There are no free lunches and no quick and dirty paths to anything worthwhile – sloth and greed breed gullibility.

    

8. Insist on a second opinion, a delay in signing contract while thinking about it away from the situation; never immediately sign on the dotted line.

    

9. Develop ‘Discrepancy Detectors,’ alerting mental and intuition systems that stem from vague feelings of something wrong, something in the situation or the story you are being handed that does not fit to analysis to counteraction -> dissent -> disobedience.

    

10. Try playing devil’s advocate, be the deviant, to assess the reactions against you and that position, when the influence agent says he/she is only doing X for your good.

     

11. Avoid ‘Total Situations’ where you lose contact with your social support and informational networks (cults and the most powerful forces of social influence thrive there), you do not want all your reinforcers to come from these new sources.

     

12. In all authority confrontations: be polite, individuate yourself and the other, make it clear it is not “your problem” in the process, or situation; describe the problem objectively, do not get emotional, state clearly the remedy sought, and the positive consequences expected – hold off on the threats and costs to them or their agency as last resort.

     

13. When in some situation of authority encounter, you are being challenged – ask for identification, demand to see it, get person’s name (write it down) and all details about the encounter.

     

14. Never allow yourself to be cut off emotionally from your familiar and trusted reference groups of family, friends, neighbors, co-workers – do not accept putdowns against them.

     

15. Remember all ideologies are just words, abstractions used for particular political, social, economic purposes; be wary taking actions proposed as necessary to sustain that ideology – always question if the means justify the ends, and suggest alternatives.

     

16. Think hard before putting abstract principles before real people in following other’s advice to act in specific ways against what they represent.

     

17. Trust your intuition, gut feelings when you sense you are becoming a target of influence, put up your counter-arguing mentality, and dig down for sources for resistance.

     

18. Rules are abstractions for controlling behavior and eliciting compliance and conformity – challenge them when necessary: ask, who made the rule? What purpose does it serve? Who maintains it? Does it make sense in this specific situation? What happens if you violate it? Insist that the rule be made explicit, so it cannot be modified and altered over time to suit the influence agent.

     

19. When developing causal attributions for unusual behavior – yours or others – never rush to the dispositional, always start by considering possible situational forces and variables that are the true causal agent, and seek to highlight them and to change them where possible.

     

20. Imagine Dr. Z as your conscience, your personal Jiminy Cricket (from Pinocchio) sitting on your shoulder and saying be cool, be confident, be collected—to avoid becoming a Jack Ass.

So now it seems plants communicate with each other and form "communities," possibly even demonstrating "family values." Does this mean vegetarians will have to stop eating altogether?

From The Daily Galaxy:

Plant "IM"—Scientists Begin to Unravel the Secret Communication of the Green Kingdom

For most of history scientists and mankind in general considered plants to be passive organisms just with no reason or means of communicating with one another. But new research has revealed that many plants actually ‘chat’ quite a bit over their own networks, which may also indicate that your aunt isn’t quite as crazy as you thought. You know, the one that talks to her petunias and expects an answer.

Researcher Josef Stuefer at the Radboud University Nijmegen found that one purpose for plants having their own “chat systems” is to warn each other, leading scientists to conclude that plants are not quite as boring as once supposed. In fact, many plants form internal communications networks and are able to exchange information efficiently. Herbal plants such as strawberry, clover, reed and ground elder naturally form networks. Individual plants remain connected with each other for a certain period of time by means of runners. These connections enable the plants to share information via internal channels in a manner very similar to computer networks. So what kind of things do plants tell each other?

Stuefer and his colleagues were the first to demonstrate that clover plants do indeed warn each other via these network links if enemies are nearby. For example, if one of the plants is attacked by caterpillars, it will warn the other members of the network via an internal signal. After receiving a warning, the other intact plants will strengthen their protective chemical and mechanical resistance so that they are less attractive for advancing caterpillars. This early warning system allows the plants to stay one step ahead of their enemies. Experimental research has revealed that this communication significantly limits the damage to the plants.

It is also known that plants have “family values”, with new research revealing they have the ability to recognize close relatives in order to help each other survive. The ability to tell family from strangers is well known in the animal kingdom, which allows us to cooperate and share resources. However, it is a relatively new concept that plants also possess the social skills of being able to recognize and communicate with relatives. Even plants that are not connected seem to have the ability.

Earlier this year, Susan Dudley and Amanda File of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, demonstrated for the first time that plants can recognize their kin. Their research showed that though lacking cognition and memory, plants are nonetheless capable of complex social interactions.

"Plants have this kind of hidden but complicated social life," Dudley said.

Their study found plants from the same species of beach-dwelling wildflower, for example, grew aggressively alongside unrelated neighbors but were less competitive when they shared soil with their siblings. Some researchers speculate that plants must communicate through their roots, identifying themselves using tiny chemical signatures specific to each plant's family. But just how the plants determine which of their neighbors are siblings remains a mystery, Dudley said. While learning and memory are important factors for kin recognition in animals, there has to be an alternative explanation for plant recognition, she noted.

This research, along with other emerging plant studies, is revealing that our current concept of plants is probably a poor reflection of reality. Scientists are eager to discover in what ways, and to what extent, plants communicate with each other.

Links:
http://www.physorg.com/news109944832.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/06/070614-plants

 

Today's Daily Dharma from Tricycle comes from the Dalai Lama:

The True Nature of Happiness

 

Lack of understanding of the true nature of happiness, it seems to me, is the principal reason why people inflict sufferings on others. They think either that the other's pain may somehow be a cause of happiness for themselves or that their own happiness is more important, regardless of what pain it may cause. But this is shortsighted: no one truly benefits from causing harm to another sentient being. Whatever immediate advantage is gained at the expense of someone else is shortlived. In the long run, causing others misery and infringing their rights to peace and happiness result in anxiety, fear, and suspicion within oneself. Such feelings undermine the peace of mind and contentment which are the marks of happiness.

True happiness comes not from a limited concern for one's own well-being, or that of those one feels close to, but from developing love and compassion for all sentient beings. Here, love means wishing that all sentient beings should find happiness, and compassion means wishing that they should all be free of suffering. The development of this attitude gives rise to a sense of openness and trust that provides the basis for peace.

~ The Dalai Lama, from The Dalai Lama: A Policy of Kindness, edited by Sidney Piburn;From Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

 

[An abbreviated speedlinks today -- and the last one this week.]

Quote of the day:

"If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time."
~ Edith Wharton

Image of the day:


BODY
~ At what intensity should endurance athletes train? -- "One question that some endurance runners ask themselves is how much of their training they should be dedicating towards higher intensity runs and how much of their training is better off at low intensity."
~ 5 Things That Drive Me Nuts -- "Speedskater Eric Heiden had 28-inch thighs, yet he only squatted 205 pounds. Of course, he squatted it for 300 reps! Maybe lifting heavy isn't always necessary, but that's just one of the things that drives Scott Abel nuts."
~ Know Five to Stay Alive -- "Learn the top 5 ways to help prevent 5 common health conditions such as breast cancer, colon cancer and heart disease."
~ Creatine Combined With Resistance Exercise Boosts Strength In Older Adults -- "If you are an 'older adult' and take creatine as well as doing exercise you may well enjoy greater benefits than just doing the exercise, say researchers from McMaster University, Canada. One of the common consequences of growing older is an increase in body fat and lowering of muscle mass, say the researchers. You can slow down the loss of muscle mass by doing exercise, say the scientists." This is true for ALL adults. In fact, men over 60 need creatine to support weight training.
~ Dietary Calcium Could Possibly Prevent The Spread Of Breast Cancer To Bone -- "A strong skeleton is less likely to be penetrated by metastasizing cancer cells, so a fortified glass of milk might be the way to block cancer's spread, according to researchers at the ANZAC Research Institute in Concord, Australia. Using a mouse model of breast cancer metastasis, the researchers found that a calcium deficiency may increase the tendency of advanced breast cancer to target bone."


PSYCHE/SELF
~ Chocolate Craving When Depressed: A Personality Marker -- "People who crave chocolate when they are depressed are more likely to have a 'neurotic' than an 'introverted' type of personality, a new study from Australia has found. Over half of the depressed people surveyed reported food cravings, nearly all of them specifically craving chocolate. More women than men craved chocolate when depressed."
~ What is Wrong with the Psychology of Decision-Making? -- "In psychology textbooks, decision-making figures most of the time in the last chapters. These chapters usually acknowledge the failure of the Homo economicus model and propose to understand human irrationality as the product of heuristics and biases, that may be rational under certain environmental conditions."
~ Feeling Fat Thinking Thin -- "Stop comparing your body to the next person."
~ All-Day Vitality: How to Fight Fatigue Morning, Noon, and Night -- "You’re so predictable. Every day, you run out of steam, lose juice, or otherwise hit the wall at nearly the exact same times. And it happens to everyone. In fact, it’s like clockwork, which actually makes sense, because your body clock is part of the problem — when your internal chronometer is out of whack, you feel wiped out."
~ 7 Ways to Overcome the Fear of Failure -- "The fear of failure is perhaps the strongest force holding people below their potential. In a world full of uncertainty, a delicate economy, and countless misfortunes that could happen to anyone, it’s easy to see why most people are inclined to play it safe."
~ 5 Things I learned about Personal Growth by Moving -- "Did you ever have a learning experience after a major change in your life that made you realize you could have learned that same lesson without having gone through the major change?"


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ New contender for world's worst poem -- "William McGonagall is under the direst threat today in his apparently unassailable position as author of the world's worst poem."
~ War on Iraq: Blackwater: The U.S.'s Trigger-Happy Guardians -- "Why did the U.S. State Department tolerate -- and pay to conceal -- the wanton murder of Iraqis committed by Blackwater?"
~ Soldiers Hunt Dissidents in Burma -- "Soldiers announced that they were hunting pro-democracy protesters in Burma's largest city Wednesday, and the top U.S. diplomat in the country said military police were pulling people out of their homes during the night."
~ Inuit Culture on the Brink -- "While their land melts underfoot, Arctic natives look to save their traditions and make their voices heard."
~ The Notion: The Moral Dangers of Adventure Tourism -- "One travel writer weighs the ethics of peddling faux thrills in "exotic" destinations to his affluent American readers."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Is a 'naked singularity' lurking in our galaxy? -- "Could a naked singularity, the bare core of a black hole, be sitting at the centre of our galaxy? A new study shows how astronomers could detect such a brazen object – which is so dense it would shred the known laws of physics."
~ Tobacco: An Environmental and Occupational Drag -- "Before smokers ever light up, tobacco has already wreaked havoc on the environment and damaged workers' health."
~ Tasmanian devils face extinction -- "Australian scientists say the ongoing fight to save Tasmanian devils from extinction may be doomed."
~ U.S. urges using compact fluorescent bulbs -- "The U.S. Department of Energy launched its "Change a Light, Change the World" 2007 campaign Wednesday during a Salt Lake City ceremony."
~ Black holes, galaxies young and old visible in massive mapping of the night sky -- "Color images documenting the past 10 billion years of galactic evolution were distributed online this week as part of the first public release of data from a massive project to map a distant region of the universe that combines the efforts of nearly 100 researchers from around the world, including the University of Pittsburgh."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ No Expectation & No Arrival -- "Lately, the practice of meditation (and really in every activity) has become quite subtle. There is a sense of an empty watcher or witness simply observing the birth and death of identity. The watcher turns back in on itself at times, but mostly it is simply resting in the empty flow of reality, which isn’t so much a flow."
~ Experience a New, Integral and (R)evolutionary Form of Relationship Meditation in Just Minutes! -- "There really is something (r)evolutionary under the meditation sun. It is called Integrative Relationship Meditation (IRM.) It can be used in same denomination or mixed denomination groups of meditators. Because some things are just “too good not to share” and our organization forwards an open source version of an integral spirituality please find below our first release of 'How to do Integrative Relationship Meditation.'"
~ Expectations and Disillusionment -- "If we have a job, we expect to have a job tomorrow. If we have a relationship, we expect that relationship will continue as it has been going (whether good or bad and usually somewhere in between) and that our significant other will act the same way tomorrow as he or she did yesterday. But life has a way of throwing curve balls."
~ Abandon any Hope of Fruition -- "I thought I'd just share this teaching from Pema Chodron on one of the slogans of the 7 Point Mind Training. This one cuts really deep for me, and has had a profound influence on my practice."
~ Announcing the Integral Life Award scholarship program! -- "The Integral Institute is very proud to offer the Integral Life Award, an annual merit-based award of $10,000 for new students in either the Integral Theory Certificate or Master's programs at John F. Kennedy University or Fielding Graduate University."

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On vacation for the next few days, for which I am infinitely grateful. Will blog as time allows.

Things will probably be quiet for the next few days.

I'm here in the burbs of Chicago for the annual Internal Family Systems conference. On the way here, I was rereading the book on the plane. It's been a while since I've read the book, so I thought a refresher was a good idea.

One thing that struck me, and I'm not sure why, is Schwartz idea of the Self. Here is a section titled "Particle and Wave" that interests me from an integral perspective.

By now, the reader may have noticed that I have described the Self in two different ways: as an active, compassionate inner leader, and as an expansive, boundaryless state of mind. How is it possible for the Self to be both? Some models reconcile this dilemma by differentiating between a "higher Self" and a more mundane, executive Self, or ego. My clinical experience argues against this dichotomy -- the Selves of my clients that interact with their parts are the same ones who, when leaving the parts and going up on the mountain, gradually stop thinking and enter a transcendental state. Thus, I believe that the Self is both an individual and a state of consciousness, in the same way that quantum physics has demonstrated that light is both a particle and a wave. That is, photons that make up light sometimes act like particles -- like little billiard balls -- and other times like waves in a pool of water. They have both qualities (Zohar, 1990). Likewise, the Self can at one time be in its expansive, wavelike state when a person is meditating (fully differentiated from his or her parts) and then shift to being an individual with boundaries (a particle) when that person is trying to help the parts or deal with other people. It is the same Self but in different states.

When in the wave state, a person feels more connection not only to the universe, but also to other people. It is as if, at that level, people's waves can overlap, creating a sense of ultimate commonality and compassion. Thus, helping people differentiate the Self not only helps them harmonize their inner worlds, but also decreases the feeling of difference or isolation among people and builds connectedness. (pg. 38)

This sounds nice, and I am big fan of the project to get people differentiated from their "parts" so that they can be Self-led in their inner life. But, this passage seems to me to be talking about one Self in two different states -- not wave and particle (although those are nice descriptive words), but centaur and subtle. Maybe?

As quoted, on the Centaur, at Kheper:

As consciousness begins to transcend the verbal ego-mind it can… integrate the ego mind with all the lower levels. That is, because consciousness is no longer identified with any of these elements to the exclusion of any others, all of them can be integrated: the body, the persona, the shadow, the ego- all can be brought into a higher- order integration. (The Atman Project)

Then many years later, here is Wilber on higher states of consciousness:

Briefly, the psychic state is a type of nature mysticism (where individuals report a phenomenological experience of being one with the entire natural-sensory world; e.g., Thoreau, Whitman. It is called "psychic," not because paranormal events occur--although evidence suggests that they sometimes do--but because it seems to be increasingly understood that what appeared to be a merely physical world is actually a psychophysical world, with conscious, psychic, or noetic capacities being an intrinsic part of the fabric of the universe, and this often results in an actual phenomenological experience of oneness with the natural world [Fox, 1990]). The subtle state is a type of deity mysticism (where individuals report an experience of being one with the source or ground of the sensory-natural world; e.g. St. Teresa of Avila, Hildegard of Bingen). The causal state is a type of formless mysticism (where individuals experience cessation, or immersion in unmanifest, formless consciousness; e.g., The Cloud of Unknowing, Patanjali, pseudo-Dionysus; see Forman, 1990). And the nondual is a type of integral mysticism (which is experienced as the union of the manifest and the unmanifest, or the union of Form and Emptiness; e.g., Lady Tsogyal, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Hui Neng [Forman, 1998b]).

My sense is that Schwartz conflated various states of Self into a single entity. An easy error to make. If Wilber is correct -- and based on the available reading, I'd have to lean that way -- then IFS can be greatly enriched by bringing an integral understanding of Self to the table.

Either way, I like the idea of greater distinctions. The Self is a complex thing, capable of many states of consciousness.
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My body is still on Tucson time and I need to go to bed soon so I can workout early, but other than that, there is much to be grateful for:

1) That my life allows me to go to cool conferences like this one. I don't take that for granted because I lived a long time without these options.

2) Exit row seating. Love the leg-room.

3) Free Wi-Fi at Tucson International Airport -- makes early flights a little less rough if I can log on for free in the airport.

4) Room service. I could get really spoiled. Fortunately, I only do this once a year.

5) Luck. I got lost coming out of the airport, but managed to find my way to the right freeway without much wasted time. Maybe I'm not as navigationally challenged as I thought.

What are you grateful for today?

I am grateful today for a stimulating experience at the IFS conference, and for a wonderful dinner with Matthew and Hannah Dallman and their family and Dan Allison. It was especially nice to meet these people I have known for years online and get to know them in person. That alone was worth the trip here.

Tomorrow should be another wonderful day of sessions at the conference.

What are you grateful for today?

From Snow Lion Publications:

Dharma Quote of the Week

(Each day before breakfast the founder and abbess of Sravasti Abbey, Thubten Chodron, gives a morning motivation for residents and guests. We were moved by these inspiring words, and hope you will be, too.)

Morning Motivation

Let's recall our motivation in the morning and think that today, the most important thing I have to do is to guard my body, speech and mind so that I don't harm anybody through what I do with my body, through what I say, or even through what I think. That's the most important thing, more important than anything else today.

The second most important thing is, as much as possible, to be of benefit to others. Thoroughly cultivate that as your motivation simply for being alive today. Our purpose for being alive isn't just to keep this body alive, to eat and sleep, and have pleasure. We have a higher purpose, a higher meaning: to really work for the benefit of living beings. If the purpose of our life is simply to keep the body alive and have pleasure, then at the end of life, we have nothing to show for it. The body dies and all the pleasures, like last night's dream, have gone. But if we work for a higher motivation, a higher purpose, to really do what's beneficial for all living beings, then there's happiness and benefit now.

At the end of the life, the benefit that we've given to others continues, as do all the imprints of the attitude of kindness, the attitude of care towards others. All the imprints of having generated that positive mind go on with us into the next life. So even at the time of death, that kind heart brings incredible benefit and carries through into the next life.

And then let's also generate a third motivation--a really long-term motivation--to become fully enlightened. In other words, to have the wisdom, compassion, and skill so that in the long term, we'll be able to be of the greatest benefit to all living beings, even being able to lead them on the path to enlightenment. That's our really long-term purpose.

As we change and develop a kind heart, that influences every single living being we encounter in a positive way. Then, through the influence on them, it spreads out to all the people they know. So, just spending one day with a positive, long-term motivation may seem like a small thing, but when we think of the ripple effect it has now, and the benefit it has in future lives and for progressing along the path to liberation and enlightenment, we see that even one day spent with this motivation of kindness, directly and indirectly benefiting sentient beings, has tremendous outcomes--many, many good results.

~ Thubten Chodron is the author of many books, including her latest work, Guided Meditations on the Stages of the Path, published by Snow Lion Publications

Daily Dharma from Tricycle:

Knowing What to Do

I like that the point of convergence of liberation theology, Islamic
mysticism, and engaged Buddhism is the sense of love that leads to
commitment and involvement with the world, and not a turning-away from
the world. A form of wisdom that I strive for is the ability to know
what is needed at a given moment in time. When do I need to reside in
that location of stillness and contemplation, and when do I need to get
up off my ass and do whatever is needed to be done in terms of physical
work, or engagement with others, or confrontation with others? I'm not
interested in ranking one type of action over the other.

~ bell hooks, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review Fall 1992 (Vol. II, #1); From Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

 

Last fall I blogged a bit about my inner mud creature (here and here), but I haven't updated the work I have been doing.

As a reminder, when I discovered this exile last year, he looked a bit like Trent Reznor at Woodstock 94:



The mud demon was angry, dirty, and loved to create chaos. He came out in disruptive ways in my life, and was usually stuffed right back down again.

Over the last year, however, I have been working with this part from time to time. Rather than a mud demon, it turns out that once he was unburdened he was just a curious, creative little kid.

Unburdening is what IFS does to free a part from the weight it carries. Most exiled parts carry some form of burden, as do managers and firefighters. If they can be freed from their burdens, they often transform into nearly 180 degree opposites of their original form from when we discovered them.

So in working with my mud creature over the last year, the burden that he carried was my anger -- much of it from childhood -- anger that was never allowed to be expressed in my family. A lot of it also came from the period around my father's death, when I was angry with my dad for dying, and just plain angry, but was never able to express it because I had to be the responsible one.

As a teenager, I acted out a lot -- and some of that was the mud creature. But it was never allowed to say what it needed. As part of the unburdening process, it got to say what it needed. And in doing so, it released its anger.

What was left was a creative, curious little kid. The transformation alone was great, but it was incomplete. This morning, in a session on embodying transformed parts, Apollo, my primary manager, agreed to allow The Kid to come present more often. They made a contract to contribute to each other energetically. In addition, one of my firefighters agreed not to get freaked out if The Kid comes out. In the past, the firefighter would shut down the system any time The Kid was near because he was seen as too vulnerable to allow to be present.

This all may sound pretty woo woo, but it works. The difference in my body energy is amazing. The difference many of the therapists have seen in their clients is almost miraculous. Schwartz's work with bulimics has been more successful than any other form of therapy. I trust this stuff, not matter how much my cynic says it's a load of shit.

Some things I am grateful for today:

1) An amazing and transformative weekend. I am so glad I did this trip, and even more glad I decided to do the Sunday sessions, both of which turned out to be very cool.

2) I'm glad to be home and to be able to sleep in my own bed. I like traveling, but I also like coming home.

3) My first client for tomorrow had to cancel, so I get to sleep in. That will certainly help with the jet lag.

4) I get to workout tomorrow. My plans to work out while in Chicago didn't pan out -- too many late nights. Probably a good thing, though, a chance for my body to rest.

What are you grateful for today?

I found this funny -- probably because so many of them apply to me. I guess, when I wasn't looking, I became an adult. [shiver]

From Divine Caroline:

Twenty-five Signs You Have Grown Up

By: Salma Rumman

1. Your houseplants are alive, and you can’t smoke any of them.

2. Having sex in a twin bed is out of the question.

3. You keep more food than beer in the fridge.

4. 6:00 AM is when you get up, not when you go to bed.

5. You hear your favorite song in an elevator.

6. You watch the Weather Channel.

7. Your friends marry and divorce instead of “hook up” and “breakup.”

8. You go from 130 days of vacation time to 14.

9. Jeans and a sweater no longer qualify as “dressed up.”

10. You’re the one calling the police because those %&@# kids next door won’t turn down the stereo.

11. Older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you.

12. You don’t know what time Taco Bell closes anymore.

13. Your car insurance goes down and your car payments go up.

14. You feed your dog “Science Diet” instead of McDonald’s leftovers.

15. Sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt.

16. You take naps.

17. Dinner and a movie is the whole date instead of the beginning of one.

18. Eating a basket of chicken wings at three in the morning would severely upset, rather than settle, your stomach.

19. You go to the drug store for ibuprofen and antacid, not condoms and pregnancy tests.

20. A four dollar bottle of wine is no longer “pretty good shit.”

21. You actually eat breakfast food at breakfast time.

22. “I just can’t drink the way I used to” replaces “I’m never going to drink that much again.”

23. Ninety percent of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work.

24. You drink at home to save money before going to a bar.

25. When you find out your friend is pregnant you congratulate them instead of asking “Oh shit what the hell happened?”

Bonus:

26: You read this entire list looking desperately for one sign that it doesn’t apply to you and can’t find one to save your sorry old ass.

Today's Daily Dharma from Tricycle:

Luminosity and Knowing

 

With persistent practice, consciousness may eventually be perceived or felt as an entity of mere luminosity and knowing, to which anything is capable of appearing and which, when appropriate conditions arise, can be generated in the image of whatsoever object. As long as the mind does not encounter the external circumstance of conceptuality, it will abide empty without anything appearing in it, like clear water. Its very entity is that of mere experience. Let the mind flow of its own accord without conceptual overlay. Let the mind rest in its natural state, and observe it. In the beginning, when you are not used to this practice, it is quite difficult, but in time the mind appears like clear water.

~ The Dalai Lama, in The Dalai Lama: A Policy of Kindness, edited by Sidney Piburn; From Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

 

Today's Daily Om:

Opening A Closed Connection
Consciously Reconnecting

There may be times when we feel like our connection to the universe is closed. Maybe things don’t seem to be going well in our day, or our lives, or we may feel out of our element. The truth is, the universe is always there for us. We know that we create our experience with our thoughts, and this is another way we need to make a conscious decision about how we want to experience life. It is up to us to do the work of making the connection, because nobody can do it for us, though sometimes the universe may send us wake-up calls.

You can think of it as getting some fresh air. We are always breathing and the air is always around us, surrounding us, moving through us. But we may need to step outside of where we are in the moment—physically, mentally, or emotionally—and make the conscious choice to take a deep breath in order to feel the air coming in and going out. Whether this means stepping outside physically or merely shifting our thoughts, it is only our perception that changes; the air remains the same.

It is just as easy to reconnect with the universe. Using the same technique as a breath of fresh air, a deep breath can bring us back to our center. As we inhale, we fill our bodies with the oxygen needed to replenish our most basic physical needs, allowing the air to circulate within us. Exhaling, we release the stale, the used, the potentially toxic air, removing any blocks that may keep us from going deeper into the stillness that lies at our center where we connect to the universe. Feeling closed off does not need to be a negative experience. When we become conscious of it, we can think of the wholeness of a closed circuit, which allows electricity to connect and flow properly. Our bodies work the same way, and when we make that connection in our minds, it can help bring us back to the connection we seek.

Cool video mixing animation and live performer -- beautiful, actually.

Quote of the day:

"Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death."
~ James F. Byrnes

Image of the day:


BODY
~ The effects of over exercising -- "While exercise has obvious benefits for health and mind, some of us can overdo ourselves. In fact, a recent psychological study of gym rats found that 23 % of people who regularly exercised did so at excessive levels. It is important to keep in mind proportion when incorporating intensity into your exercise routine."
~ Questions -- "When was the last time you reviewed your personal training goals? Do you have your goals written down? Have you selected a date of accomplishment for your goals? Are you keeping a written journal of your daily tasks required to achieve your goals? If you aren’t, how will you know when you get there?"
~ Question of Strength: October -- "The true Master Blaster pontificates on shoulder training, adding muscle without putting on fat, BCAA's, whole eggs vs. egg whites, hot Asian chicks, recruiting more motor units, dumb exercises, bar speed, and his inability to love. (We made up that last one.)"
~ Muscles Can Be Strengthened at Any Age -- "You are never too old to enlarge and strengthen your muscles."
~ Nobel Prize For Medicine Goes To Scientists Working In UK And US -- "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2007 this year has gone to three scientists working in the US and the UK for their work on the genetic modification of embryonic stem cells. Their discoveries led to the creation of powerful "gene targeting" technologies that are now used extensively in research and therapy."
~ Classtime: reading, writing, downward dog -- "In-class yoga helps elementary students in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, get re-energized in the middle of the school day, the teacher says. She hopes it will help them better retain the material they're working on and fight pre-test jitters."
~ How to break bad eating habits -- "Bad habits are made to be broken. Learn these easy tricks to help you eat better every day."
~ How Do Cannabinoids Make Us Feel That Way? -- "Marijuana and its main psychoactive component, THC, exert a plethora of behavioral and autonomic effects on humans and animals. Some of these effects are the cause of the widespread illicit use of marijuana, while others might be involved in the potential therapeutic use of this drug for the treatment of several neuronal disorders."


PSYCHE/SELF
~ Researchers are unearthing the roots of religious feeling in the neural commotion that accompanies the spiritual epiphanies of nuns, Buddhists and other people of faith -- "The spiritual quest may be as old as humankind itself, but now there is a new place to look: inside our heads. Using fMRI and other tools of modern neuroscience, researchers are attempting to pin down what happens in the brain when people experience mystical awakenings during prayer and meditation or during spontaneous utterances inspired by religious fervor."
~ Study Ties Marital Strife, Heart Disease -- "A lousy marriage might literally make you sick. Marital strife and other bad personal relationships can raise your risk for heart disease, researchers reported Monday...."
~ Are You Feeding Your Inner Rebel Candy, or Kryptonite? -- "Your rebel — the part of you that resists and fights direction (even when you’re choosing it) — loves to hear the word “should.” It’s the rallying cry of all rebellion: 'I should do this? No way!'"
~ Radical Thinking: What You Can Learn From the Timeless Philosophy of Socrates -- "During his lifetime Socrates wrote nothing down. Yet his wisdom has formed the bedrock of western philosophy. Socrates was viewed as a great teacher. But he did not claim to be a teacher. In fact, he frequently said ‘all I know is that I know nothing’. By all accounts Socrates was both poor and ugly. Yet in a society that placed tremendous value on beauty and wealth, people of all classes were magnetically drawn to his teachings and enigmatic personality."
~ Instant Calmer: 11 Easy Answers to On-the-Job Stress -- "The problem is that stress does not help the situation; it actually prevents you from being productive and getting on with the rest of your day successfully. While there are techniques to make you a more peaceful person overall, it’s still easy to fall into stress traps. So arm yourself with these easy tips and calm the stress that creeps up on you, especially at work."
~ 10 Tips for Marriage After Divorce -- "In a marriage after divorce, one or both partners may bring painful past experiences into the relationship. Here's 10 tips to make remarriage successful."
~ The Self By Ahmed Parvez -- "Personality or self is no doubt centered in the physical organism. But there are valid grounds for believing that it is not identical with the body."
~ Emotionally Charged Events Leave Their Mark On Memory -- "Researchers have uncovered new evidence in mice that may explain how emotionally charged situations can leave such a powerful mark on our memories. Surges of the stress hormone norepinephrine (also known as noradrenaline) that often accompany strong emotions spark a series of molecular events that ultimately strengthen the connections between neurons, the team reports in the October 5, 2007, issue of the journal Cell, a publication of Cell Press."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Biography of ‘Peanuts’ Creator Stirs Family -- "A biography of Charles M. Schulz, the creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip, has some of his family members shocked and upset."
~ From the Homicidal to the Ecstatic -- "God's Silence by Franz Wright, a review from New York Review of Books by Helen Vendler." Wright is an under-appreciated poet -- and a good review from Vendler can fix that.
~ Sarah Schorno: Sports Sponsorship: When is it Too Much? -- "Recently the New York Yankees paid tribute to the late baseball great Phil Rizzuto in a touching ceremony before a home game. There were words of remembrance in front of tens of thousands of fans and the playing of Taps to honor the passing of Rizzuto. There was also a large MasterCard logo on the ceremonial podium. As corporate sponsorship becomes a larger part of major league sports, it raises the question of what can't be bought. Or better yet, what shouldn't be bought?"
~ Brian Palmer: We Can Help Burma -- "The word "issue" - the Darfur issue, the Iraq issue, the homelessness issue - is kind of irksome, but it hints at a vital fact: As Americans of a certain economic status and social class, our "issues" are other people's lives. As a journalist and as an American, I struggle to use my privilege, accorded me by birth and by experience, to unearth information and eyewitness testimony about such issues." The article offers links to organizations that can help the situation.
~ Who's afraid of socialized medicine? -- "In Washington, President Bush has just vetoed a Democratic bill to extend the State Children's Health Insurance Program for low-income children. On the campaign trail, Democratic candidates are unveiling plans to fix the health-care system, only to be denounced by their Republican rivals. In both cases, enemies of change are wheeling out an old slayer of reform proposals past."
~ Bonehead U -- "Forget about raising money for actual teaching or research. Institutions of higher learning would rather troll for money for their sports teams."
~ America must stand behind Ayaan Hirsi Ali -- "Especially disgraceful is the Dutch government's irresponsible decision to announce to these death squads, without even notifying Hirsi Ali, that after a given date she would be unprotected and easy game. (Lest I inadvertently strengthen this deplorable impression, let me swiftly add that at present she is under close guard in the United States.)"


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Study shows genetically engineered corn could affect aquatic ecosystems -- "A study by an Indiana University environmental science professor and several colleagues suggests a widely planted variety of genetically engineered corn has the potential to harm aquatic ecosystems. The study is being published online this week by the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences."
~ Newfound ancient African megadroughts may have driven the evolution of humans and fishes -- "From 135,000 to 90,000 years ago tropical Africa had megadroughts more extreme and widespread than any previously known for that region, according to new research."
~ Plant viruses from past provide ecological clues -- "Taking the medical history of a grassland may seem a bit esoteric - after all, how sick can grass be? However, scientists have discovered plant viruses from as early as 1917 containing information crucial not only for plant scientists, but for those in ecology, human health and bioterrorism."
~ UW undergrads discover more than 1,300 asteroids -- "Undergraduate astronomy students at the University of Washington combing through images from a specialized telescope have discovered more than 1,300 asteroids that had never before been observed. That is about one out of every 250 known objects in the solar system."
~ Scientists developing clean energy systems from micro-algae -- "An international consortium established by an Australian scientist is developing a clean source of energy that could see some of our future fuel and possibly water needs being generated by solar-powered bio-reactors and micro-algae while absorbing CO2."
~ Relativity Derived Without Calculus -- Possibly Centuries Ago -- "After Einstein developed his theories of special and general relativity, in 1905 and 1916, respectively, the world of physics changed dramatically. The theories, with their groundbreaking ideas on space and time, helped lead 20th century scientists to unlock the secrets of the atom and unleash the power of nuclear energy."
~ Amber Is Forever: The Making of a Death Trap -- "How do aquatic creatures wind up trapped for millennia in tree resin?"
~ Time travel may be possible but won't be economical -- "Marty McFly sped his souped up DeLoren into his parent`s past in Back to the Future, but whether we will ever make the journey to our ancestors time is as much an economic issue as one of science, according to a physics expert at The Australian National University."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Women, Buddhism and the Internet -- "Though the Internet offers us an arena of egalitarian play, and Buddhism is a fount of compassion -- a quality closely associated with women -- Western Buddhism is dominated by the galumphing presence of men, as much in the virtual world as in flesh-bone-bricks-and-morter sanghas. Why is this?"
~ The Short Shelf Life of Information (and the Long Life of Memes) -- "Most bloggers (and those in other media like radio, TV and print) have figured this out. It's not just that we have short attention spans that causes us to forget what was printed or broadcast last week -- we lose the context, so if it's important, we need to be re-briefed anew anyway."
~ BLOG: Alex Grey on Integral Naked - Integral Art: Anchoring the Seed of Liberation -- "Alex Grey and Ken Wilber explore an integral approach to art, how visionary and spiritual art can plant a seed of liberation in the mind of the viewer, and how one can recognize and anchor that realization in one's own life." Includes free sample.
~ Happy Lost Italian Explorer's Day! -- "Serendipity is described as searching for something, and in the process discovering something totally different, but which is a far greater discovery. In a nutshell, that's what Columbus did."
~ Faith in America: Buddhism in the Heartland -- "In America we have the NBC Nightly News organization with journalist Brian Williams. This past week they've been running a series titled, "Faith in America" and this past Friday the segment was on Buddhism in the heartland of America." Includes link to the video.
~ Spark: inner and outer transformations -- "Since I have been getting into photography again over the last few weeks, I notice that what I am doing is not about photography. It is about the spark I find through photography. And that is how it is with much of what I do or have a dream about doing. It is not about whatever it looks like to the world, but about the spark I find in it."
~ Buddhist Geeks 40: How Do You Sell the Dharma? -- "In our final segment with meditation instructor Ethan Nichtern, he shares his perspective on selling the dharma, transforming culture, the Shambhala tradition, and the need for more dharma teachers who aren’t necessarily enlightened."
~ Are More People Waking Up? -- "A friend of mine recently posed the question, “Is it just me, or are there a lot of people waking up these days?” It’s a really interesting question, one that I’ve thought about from time to time. And so talking it over with my partner I came up with at least six different possibilities (I’m sure there are more) that one might consider with regards to the question."
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Genpo Roshi's Big Mind process is a very useful tool for gaining access to a vaster awareness. I wouldn't call it enlightenment, but it definitely can open the mind and heart.

As useful as it is, I think it falls short in some ways. It can never replace devoted meditation. It can only offer a glimpse of what might be possible for us in following a meditation practice over a long period of time.

Big Mind is popular in the integral community. And as an integral practice, it can certainly be useful. But I am a big fan of Voice Dialogue (the source of Big Mind) and shadow work with subpersonalities. As part of an integral psychology practice, I think Big Mind can be expanded to be much more useful.

What I am proposing is shadow work with "parts" within the open compassion of Big Mind.

Watch and read the rest at Integral Options Cafe.