Emotional Power – Restoring Inner

Strength in a Time of Disinformation –

The Path from Survival to
Transcendence.
The shift from materialist science to post-materialist science may be of
vital importance to the evolution of the human civilization. It may be even
more pivotal than the transition from geocentrism to heliocentrism.

The Manifesto for a Post-Material Science

Preface
This work was intended for publication but my usual publisher said it was so far outside my
previous remit that he would not know where to place it. I did not complete the project and turned my
attention elsewhere. The present piece of work is one quarter of my original intention, perhaps I will
return to finish the remaining three quarters at some time. Now in 2024 we find ourselves in unchartered
waters – here is the dark shadow of the internet - the power to abuse and threaten from the safety of
anonymity, this is more than a war of words, it is disembowelling by stealth. Vulnerability is to be found
in youth and inexperience, but it is also rooted quite simply in human psychology and the manipulation
of human nature. Yet iron strength and inviolability from infection is to be found in precisely the same
foundation – human nature. This truth is at the heart of all metaphysical traditions, both eastern and
western.
The book The Magical Battle of Britain is the collected records of the work undertaken by Dion
Fortune and her group throughout the years of World War 11. She wrote that ‘‘The democracies belong
to the New Age; the Axis Powers represent the recrudescence of ebbing forces whose day is past;
therefore their time in any case is short. For the tides of life are against them.’’ This short sentence is rich
with meaning. The word recrudescence means the recurrence of an undesirable condition. Dion
Fortune’s writings make it clear that her vision embraced ages and aeons not simply the events of the
time. In this extended perspective it is the great cosmic tides that carry manifest history. From her
perspective in the twentieth century, she peered across the horizon and saw the incoming tide of
Aquarius carrying democratic principles. The Aquarian Light is the new tide, a small voice as yet but
this tide cannot support dictatorships, the rule of the few over the many. The Axis Powers aligned with a

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Germany inflated by notions of Aryan supremacy were hell-bent on the destruction of democratic
values. Even though Hitler’s military victories were many, his life ended in the rat-hole of an embattled
bunker with a bullet fired from his own hand; short-term appearances can be deceptive.
In the monthly letter number 7 for April 1943, The Work of the Initiate in the World of Today,
she wrote about the dark side of the Secret Wisdom in three manifestation: the appearance of expensive
mind-power training courses, mainly American in origin, the application of psychology to salesmanship
and political propaganda. Incidentally, she may or may not have known that Freuds’ brother-in-law
Edward Bernays was the first to apply psychology to move mass opinion. He is known as ‘The father
of public relations.’ Her assessment was not only accurate in her own time but predictive of our time in
the early twenty-first century. It is significant that she wrote about this in the monthly letter 7 from April
1943 entitled The Work of the Initiate in the World of Today. It has always been said that the single
defining characteristic of the initiate is the power to stand alone. It is through the development of the
powers of Mind and Heart that the Initiate-Spirit is born. It is the unfolding of these immutable powers
of being and becoming that dissolves the games of the mind-saboteurs.
Dion Fortune signalled the appearance of the new cosmic tide, Aquarian in nature, as a light
appearing only faintly over the horizon as yet but it is with tis tide that the power of the future is to be
found. This is a time of long transition. Its joint rulers of Saturn and Uranus speak of conflict as the
opposing forces of the past and the future clash. Coincidentally those who rally to the flag of the past are
the self-styled conservatives – curiously a description always given to Saturnian characteristics.
Additionally these are the republicans - a title with distinctly Roman overtones echoed by recent GOP
glorifications of the idea RED CEASAR – (All Hail, or is that Heil to the emperor) It is worth recalling
that the Ceasar’s often met with a sharp and violent end, from the popular Julius to the deranged and
unhinged Caligula.
Introduction
Human beings have evolved to experience an emotional response, this is entirely different from
thinking being experienced within the body and what arises as a feeling has a physiological and
biological basis. Emotion arises within the brain-mind as is expressed through an accompanying facial
expression as a means of communication. In 1965 Dr. Paul Ekman began to conduct research into the
facial expressions of emotions by asking people to identify the emotion shown in a range of
photographs. His research included the isolated Fore people of Papua New Guinea where he also found
that the facial expressions of anger, fear, disgust, sadness, happiness, surprise and contempt were
universally recognised. These physiological responses have clearly served an evolutionary purpose, fear
is the immediate response to danger, disgust is also a recognition of a danger in a different form – foul
smelling food or a rotting carcass for example, sadness is the response to loss and happiness is the

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response to success, finally contempt perhaps the most subtle of these basic emotions, is a statement of
distrust and deliberate disrespect to another person. These physiological and biological responses
provides the foundation for many more subtly experienced emotions such as the negative emotions of
guilt and shame along with the positive pro social emotions. Emotion has evolved within the context of
social interaction, the combination of facial gesture and body language communicates a message to
others and this still applies to all social situations to the domestic family to the workplace and beyond.
The pioneering work of Daniel Goleman has raised the human emotional response to a new
importance with the term Emotional Intelligence. It is now very clear that that emotions are also related
to physical and mental health, positive emotions create a sense of well-being which is undermined or
even destroyed by sustained negative emotions. Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence has become a
bestseller and a benchmark in understanding how emotional health affects all areas of life from the
ability to learn to recovery and good outcomes in medicine. Contemporary science is now able to
correlate the neural fingerprint of various emotion states and this entirely new area of research will
undoubtedly continue to create positive developments in therapeutic and remedial modalities. It is now
evident that the wisdom accrued through centuries of experience and practice in the tradition body-mind
mind such as Yoga, Vedanta and Buddhism have much to offer a modern audience seeking to create the
best outcome in the family, the workplace and ultimately upon the journey of personal life. Happiness is
a great benefit but research shows that happiness is not related to wealth, except at subsistence level and
this fundamental misconception leads into the labyrinth of competitive modern life where the research
figures show increasingly negative trends for measures of emotional well-being. This is in many ways a
measure of urban life but at a deeper level it is a symptom of The Great Disconnect – a fundamental
philosophical rift between human life, nature and planetary life. The special circumstances of the twenty
-first century are providing a unique opportunity to repair this damage through a reweaving of an ancient
tapestry. Every person who already senses the emptiness of fragmentation is invited to undertake the
journey of recovery and restoration.

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1 - Fight or Flight - The Emotion of
Survival
To better understand mind/body treatments it is best to first understand the
physiology of the stress and the fight-or-flight response.

Herbert Benson,

Hearing Before a Subcommittee to the United States Senate, 1998

Introduction
Imagine for a moment that you are walking across the savannah plain in a small group. You
carry a long stick fashioned from a straight branch. There is no shade here and the sun is fierce. As you
walk your senses are alert, listening for unexpected sounds, scanning the horizon, sniffing the air.
Suddenly you know with certainty that you are being watched, you freeze, your heart begins to race and
your breathing quickens. All your senses becomes sharper, rustling in the grass, animal scent on the
breeze, a sound. Will you run or will you fight? Will you live or will you die this day?
This is the same physiological response that you might have in a modern city faced with a
mugger or any other threat to personal safety; this is the emotion of survival, it is called the fight or flight
response, an automatic physiological reaction to an event that is perceived as stressful or frightening.
The perception of threat instantly activates the sympathetic nervous system and triggers and acute stress
response that prepares the body to fight or flee: the heart rate increases, the dilation of coronary blood
vessels increases, the blood flow and increased availability of oxygen and energy to the heart the blood
vessels serving muscles and digestion also dilate. This gives an increased availability of oxygen to
skeletal muscles and blood is shunted to skeletal muscles and brain. The respiration rate increases giving
more oxygen in the blood. There is an increased conversion of glycogen to glucose to make glucose
more available in skeletal muscle and brain cells. The skin becomes pale or flushed as blood flow is
reduced to increased blood flow to muscles and away from non-essential parts of the body. The pupils
dilate to allow in more light so that visual acuity is improved to scan nearby surroundings. This all
happens at the instant; heart, brain, lungs, liver, skin and eyes undergo an immediate and massive
physiological shift. Additionally there is a mental component, a quickening of thought and a sharply
focussed awareness, all these survival responses were laid down millennia ago and exist in the same
form and for the same purpose.

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 The fight or flight response was originally described by American physiologist Walter Bradford
Cannon in the book Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage of 1915. He noted that when
animals were threatened the hormone adrenaline was immediately released leading to a series of
physiological complex changes in heart rate and respiration all purposed to increase the chances of
survival, to fight or flee. This primal response is clearly related to the evolutionary history of human life;
threats from powerful animals, difficult terrains and violent disputes were once real dangers, these wild
threats to life have diminished but the physiological mechanism is still in place and contemporary life
still has moments of danger through crime and confrontation. More recently the fight-flight model has
been further elaborated in its physiological, psychological and behavioural responses i a series of stages:
freeze, flight, fight, fright, flag and faint. This automatic physiological response has evolved to be rapid
and immediate, it was not intended to be a continuous state of being, in which event the positive short
term benefit becomes a negative health liability.

The Neural Fingerprint of Survival

The fight or flight response is automatic, the brain is hardwired to respond to physical danger
and the centre responsible for this is the amygdalae complex notably the right amygdala. The term
amygdala was first introduced by the German physiologist Karl Friedrich Burdach in 1822. He was a
pioneer in the new field of neuroanatomy and the first to use the word biology. The word amygdala is
derived from the Greek to mean almond since the amygdala is almond shaped. The brain has two
amygdala, located in the temporal lobes above the ears and each of the amygdala portions has a different
function. The amygdala is part of the limbic system along with the hippocampus which stores memory
and maps the physical environment, episodic autobiographical memory is held by the amygdala but
long term memory held by the hippocampus. This is larger in women than in men while the amygdala
is larger in men than in women and the neurons in the hippocampus behave differently in males and
females; women tend to retain stronger emotionally charged memories than men. The limbic circuit
receives and processes incoming sensory information in order to make the appropriate response when
faced with surprising, ambiguous and uncertain situations which may pose a threat and the necessary
information is processed in milliseconds. The fight-flight response is instantaneous and triggers the
hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis to act well ahead of the rationalising neocortex, in other words the
body springs into action without thought and this lightning speed may save life. When a perceived threat
is real, the innate physiological response serves its purpose, namely survival but the amygdala response
is automatic and there is no facility for determining the real level of threat except through the thinking
brain. The primal response to survive, the instinct for self- protection is simultaneously the innate
response to act with physical power which is violence. Human history from the distant ancestral past to

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the present time is characterised by warfare, soldering and the mass organisation for both defence and
attack. The amygdala has a specific and precise function in the recognition of faces and the
interpretation of emotional expressions, true intention is revealed in the face not in the spoken word.
Amygdala dysfunction has now been cited in Aspergers syndrome which is now included
within the Autistic Spectrum, a decrease in neuron size in many regions of the limbic system including
the amygdala will detrimentally affect the development of facial recognition skills in relation to the
emotional relevance of the human face. The amygdala is the brain’s radar for threat and dangerous
situations, without this the individual would fail to understand facial expressions and threatening faces in
particular. The failure of the amygdala to transmit social-emotional information to the cognitive centres
of the brain result in the social and emotional difficulties experienced by neuro-diverse individuals. The
left and right amygdalae have separate memory systems, but they work together to evaluate incoming
information and process an emotional response, encoding, storing and retrieving memories associated
with environmental cues. Memory create associations so that learning does not have to be repeated in
the face of a threatening or dangerous situation, a child soon knows that fire burns for example and
damage to the amygdala has been proven to interfere with this recollection process so that prior learning
does not serve a new event. The right amygdala is more strongly associated with negative emotions
such as fear and sadness whereas the left amygdala is associated with both positive and negative
emotional responses. The right amygdala can be experimentally stimulated to produce feelings of fear
and sadness while the left amygdala produces either emotions of fear, anxiety and sadness or pleasant
feelings of happiness.
The amygdala complex has been frequently studied and is well understood, research has shown
gender differences in the amygdala response. The amygdala is larger in males than females in children
aged 7 to 11 and finally in adults. During the growth period the amygdala limbic structures grow more
rapidly in females and reaches the full growth potential some 1.5 years before the peak of male
development, possibly explaining the earlier emotional development of girls. In boys, the structural
development of the amygdala occurs over a longer period than in women and the grey matter volume of
the amygdala is predicted by testosterone levels which are higher in males. There are observable
developmental differences between the right and left amygdala, the left amygdala reaches its
developmental peak approximately 1.5–2 years before the right amygdala. Despite the early growth of
the left amygdala, the right increases in volume for a longer period of time. The early development of
the left amygdala functions to provide infants the ability to detect danger.
The neuroscientist Larry Cahill investigated how memory is related to the activation of the
amygdala. He used PET brain scanning to measure brain activity to a series of graphically violent
images, a few weeks later the volunteers completed a memory test to see what had been remembered

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and this was compared with the measured activity of the amygdala. The results were unexpected, some
responses involved only the right amygdala and some cases involved only the left hemisphere.
Correlation showed that activation of the right amygdala involved only men and activation of the left
amygdala involved only women leading him to conclude that the left and right amygdala have different
roles in the encoding of emotional memory for events for men and women. Three subsequent studies,
all from Stanford, confirmed this gendered difference. This discovery changed the direction of Cahill’s
work in neuroscience. ‘‘My interest in sex influences on the brain began with this discovery about
amygdala function in emotional memory. For the first half of my career I, like most neuroscientists,
assumed that biological sex does not matter for understanding any brain processes outside those directly
related to reproduction. It turns out that this assumption is completely false. Sex influences of all sizes
exist at all levels of mammalian brain function, necessarily including the human brain, all the way down
to the genetic level. My work the past 20 years focused on understanding sex influences in the specific
domain of emotional memory, and in changing all of research/medicine to start actively understanding,
rather than denying, sex differences, especially since denying them disproportionately harms women.’’1
In a comprehensive 2001 report on sex differences in human health, the prestigious National Academy
of Sciences asserted that “sex matters. Sex, that is, being male or female, is an important basic human
variable that should be considered when designing and analyzing studies in all areas and at all levels of
biomedical and health-related research.”2 Male and female brains differ quite a bit in architecture and
activity. Research into these variations could lead to gender-specific treatments for disorders such as
depression and schizophrenia.
The Amygdala and Emotional Health
The concept of emotional health is easily understood as a sense of personal well-being. This
sense of ease is free from anxiety and stress, it is clearly related to one of the seven basic emotional
states -happiness and this brings a sense of freedom and confidence. The importance of emotional well-
being cannot be overstated, the western lifestyle is frenetic, fast-paced, competitive and overtly
materialistic; stress is inbuilt. The physiological stress response involves the hypothalamus, pituitary
gland and the adrenal cortex to release cortisol which serves the fight-flight function, but if this
emergency response become constant cortisol can damage the hippocampus where memories are
stored. The amygdala has cortisol receptors and excess cortisol can cause brain cells to die, even causing
the amygdala to diminish in volume. Stress destroys well-being and takes lives, yet simple remedies are
close to hand.

1
Larry Cahill profile: https://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=3276
2
His Brain, Her Brain. Scientific American, Special Editions, 2012

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 Modern life is complex, fast-paced and changeable, ease can become dis-ease and happiness
can disappear. Twenty-first century urban life holds many new stresses which ultimately impinge on
emotional health : relationships, family life, career, all carry responsibilities, hopes and often
disappointments. Psychological problems of anxiety, depression and stress related disorders are
common - welcome to the concrete jungle. Bio-behavioural scientists are increasingly recognizing the
importance of emotional well-being for the fundamental tasks of life. Psychological mental and
emotional states are rooted in brain physiology and the workings of the brain are no longer invisible.
The extraordinary capacities of the modern world certainly appear to insulate human life from our far
distant evolutionary origins but appearances can be deceiving. The brain still carries ancient functions
most notably the fight-flight response to fearful possibilities and the two amygdalae are key components
of this early warning system. The amygdalae recognize threat, initiate a physical response to threat and
records such moments into memory to encode a learned response. In 2011 it was shown that the right
amygdala includes a specific recognition of animals, a facility developed in the evolutionary past when
wild animals posed a real threat to human life and the amygdala recognizes faces and facial expressions,
fearful, neutral and happy. This too is an evolutionary development based on the safety of the familiar
and the uncertainty of possible threat. The brain’s emotional system is a complex interaction between
the ‘old-brain’ of the amygdala and the neuroendocrine axis that determines an immediate response, set
against the control system of the of the ‘new-brain’ which determines appropriate deactivation of the
rapid-response system. The recognition of threat still serves an important purpose as an internal alarm
system in the face of danger except when the alarm system becomes activated by fears of the mind and
the alarm system becomes attached to events that do not carry a significant threat to life but do impinge
on emotional well-being; individuals suffering from social anxiety disorder show heightened amygdala
responses.
Functional Magnetic Resonance and Positron Emission Tomography have enabled researchers
to observe the role of the amygdala across a number of widespread psychological problems: anxiety
disorders, panic attack, generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress, obsessive–compulsive
disorder, social phobia and other specific phobias. Anxiety encompasses feelings of apprehension,
dread, unease, accompanied by restlessness, fatigue, sleep disturbances, muscle tension or irritability.
One in three people will develop one of the anxiety disorders and women are more susceptible than
men. It is estimated that anxiety related disorders affect nearly 30% of the population in first world
countries New therapeutic approaches Cognitive Behavioural Therapy commonly known as CBT and
more recently, Mindfulness Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, MCBT, have been developed to manage
these widespread mental disorders. Mindfulness Cognitive Behaviour Therapy involves a combination
of cognitive therapy, meditation and the cultivation of a present-oriented, non-judgmental attitude

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mental attitude. MCBT was originally developed to treat depression but it has now been used across a
wider range of disorders, including anxiety, bipolar disorder, low mood and unhappiness. MBCT
integrates forms of Buddhist mindfulness practice with cognitive therapy. The spread of MCBT
programmes is a mark of its success which has been confirmed in a number of clinical studies. In a large
brain scan study from 2018, researchers discovered that long-term meditators had reduced amygdala
activation when they were shown images designed to invoke negative feelings. The internet is a useful
source of information and there are many accredited online programmes as well as numerous self-help
books.
The American physician Dr Herbert Benson was one of the first western doctors to see the
healing value of spirituality. He was a pioneer in Mind-Body Medicine and throughout his long career
he worked tirelessly to validate eastern meditative practices as practical remedies for many of the mental
disorders appearing in his clinic. He was the Director Emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute and
Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He wrote prodigiously and won numerous awards.
He authored or co-authored more than 190 scientific publications and wrote 12 books on the subject of
mind-body interface. He also gave evidence to the Mind/Body Medicine Hearing before a senate
subcommittee. ‘‘The full integration of mind/body, self-care medicine is completely compatible with
existing health care approaches. The integration is important not only for better health and well-being,
but also for a more economically feasible health care system. Mind/body medicine responsibly fulfils
the needs of our people who want therapies that enhance and complement traditional medicine and that
do so in a scientifically established safe and cost savings fashion. Mind/body medicine holds such
promise that it should be further researched, advocated, and utilized for the health and wellbeing of the
people of our Nation.’’3 He continued, ‘Health and well-being and the incorporation of mind/body
therapies in medical care are best conceptualized in terms of an analogy of a three-legged stool. One leg
is pharmaceuticals, the second is surgery and procedures, and the third leg is self-care. Self-care consists
of health habits and behaviours for which patients themselves can be responsible. Specifically, self-care
includes the relaxation response, beliefs that promote health, stress management, nutrition and exercise.
Health and well-being are balanced and optimal when all three legs of the stool are in place.’’4 He and
his colleagues set out to describe a physiological response to oppose the automatic fight-flight reaction.
Benson called this the relaxation response, it was intended to bring about a decreased metabolism,
decreased heartrate, decreased blood pressure, and decreased rate of breathing, as well as slower brain
waves. His first book The Relaxation Response has been continuously in publication and was updated
and expanded for a 25th anniversary edition in 2000. Research has confirmed that regular us of the

3
Hearing Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on a Appropriations United States Senate,14
4
Hearing, 12

9
relaxation response results in long-term physiologic changes that counteracted the harmful effects of
stress and were effective in the treatment of hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, chronic pain, insomnia
anxiety and mild and moderate depression and premenstrual syndrome and infertility. Benson’s studies
led him to advocate deep, slow abdominal breathing, focus on a soothing words such as peace or calm,
the visualization of tranquil scenes, prayer and the physical traditions of Yoga and Tai Chi. These
intervention appear so simple - they are simple but not culturally intrinsic to western thought in general
and to the American religious mindset in particular. In his presentation Benson included the statistics of
stress related suffering. He noted that between 60 to 90 percent of physician office visits were related to
stress conditions and estimated that the costs for the 670,000 physicians in the year 1994 was $145.3
billion. He estimated that the incorporation of mind-body therapies would bring an annual savings of
$54.5 billion dollars.
Health care in America is expensive and over recent years has become a political issue,
medication costs dollars, meditation is free. Benson correctly foresaw an incoming trend. ‘‘A
physiological basis for many millennia-old mind/body approaches has been established and has
overcome a great deal of initial professional skepticism.’’ 5 By the second decade of the twenty-first
century this trend movement has contributed to a paradigm shift. Despite this, the mental health of
America remains precarious. In 2020 an estimated 21.0 million adults in the United States had at least
one major depressive episode. This number represented 8.4% of all U.S. adults. The figure was higher
among women (10.5%) compared to men (6.2%) and highest among individuals aged 18-25 (17.0%).
This figure also included , an estimated 2.9 million adolescents aged 12 to 17 representing 12.0% of the
population in that age group. Currently, 3.5 % of adults in the U.S. have PTSD. According to The
American Institute of Stress, 33 percent of people report feeling extreme stress, 77 percent of people
experience stress that affects their physical health, 73 percent of people have stress that impacts mental
health 48 percent of people have trouble sleeping due to stress. The highest rates of stress are found
among ethnic minorities, women, single parents and people responsible for their family’s health care
decisions. The most frequently cited sources of stress include money, work, family responsibilities,
relationships, personal health issues, housing costs, job stability, family health problems and personal
safety. The symptoms of stress include irritability and anger, fatigue or low energy, lack of motivation,
nervousness or worry, headaches, feeling sad or depressed, indigestion, acid reflux or upset stomach,
muscle tension, loss of appetite It is considered that up to 80 percent of workplace accidents arise from
stress related problems. This is not only an American problem, the statistics for Australia and the UK are
equally disturbing – the trends are still rising rather than falling. Treatments for stress reduction include
identifying the signs of stress, getting plenty of sleep and exercise, practicing relaxation skills, setting
5
Hearing, 13

10
goals and establishing priorities spending time with people you love. The statistics tell the story of
present western populations under stress, analysis by country reveals a key correlation between social
organisation and psychological health. Stress and anxiety are found to be lower in the Scandinavian
countries which also rank highly on happiness. There can be no doubt that the psychological health and
emotional well-being of nation has political and economic dimensions yet the solution to the problem of
mental distress cannot solely be found in materialistic markers. Psychologists have founds that although
people strive to acquire high-paying jobs and dream about winning the lottery, income is not strongly
correlated with happiness. Wealthy people are happier than poorer people but the difference is not very
large and the association between money and happiness is strongest only among very poor groups and
among poor countries. Income leads to smaller and smaller gains in happiness as levels rise. The West in
general enjoys a high level of material comfort and ease compared with Asia yet stress levels are higher
in the USA; happiness and emotional well-being is derived from other qualities. 6
The American Dream of the self-made man has in many ways turned toxic, the drive for
worldly success has indeed created tycoons and billionaires but excessive personal wealth does not
necessarily generate happiness. Happiness and well-being are related to personal values and markers of
psychological health; the rich and famous so beloved in the American celebrity culture amply
demonstrate the emptied American dream.
The Amygdala Hijack - and how to avoid it
It was Daniel Goleman who introduced the term the amygdala hijack to describe the moment
when the amygdala response takes over all functions and the frontal lobes are unable to override with a
rational response, instead an intense emotional reaction erupts. The modern idiom ‘going beserk’ well
describes this emotional and even violent state of fury, it is derived from the Norse warriors called
berserkers who were known for their frenzy in battle and the new term ‘road rage’ describes the
amygdala hijack on wheels. The amygdala has evolved to detect threat and the physiological response is
immediate and automatic: shaking, increased blood pressure, racing heart, fast breathing, tense muscles
and feelings of nausea all released in milliseconds leading a person to react irrationally, destructively
and immediately. The countermeasures given by the neocortex lag behind and the light of thought the
emotional outburst will likely appear disproportionate even embarrassing. It is the amygdala which
drives these physiological responses.

6
The psychological components of happiness: build quality relationships with supportive people, count your
blessings, practice gratitude, engage in random acts of kindness, celebrate others good news, attend to others
mindfully, practice compassion and empathy, be kind to yourself, savour experiences, set meaningful goals,
build intrinsic motivation, seek healthy challenges, appreciate what you have, cultivate optimism and practice
positively reframing your circumstances.

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 The study of emotion is a major growth area of research in the fields of neuroscience and
psychology. There is now some controversy over the familiar term limbic system which has most often
been described as the emotional center of the brain while cognition has been assigned to the neocortex.
However, the distinction might not be so hard and fast since cognition depends on acquisition and
retention of memories which takes place in the hippocampus. This more fluid description redefines the
limbic system itself as a component of a larger emotional system. Neuroscience research has shown
cognitive methods are effective at lower levels of stress but it is not low level stress that creates problems
– deficits in processing high-level emotional stress are the problem Advances in neuroscience have led
to a growing awareness that the root cause is in the circuitry of the emotional brain and current
therapeutic methods have lost touch with the body’s physiological roots; the emotional brain is not
served by lengthy cognitive based analysis. Dr. Laurel Mellin, a health psychologist has developed a
simple structured system for processing stressful emotions which she calls, Emotional Brain Training,
Rather than focus on emotional content the system uses a 5-Point measure of personal reactivity. 7

The mental interventions are simple but direct interventions which return control to the neocortex and
train the brain for resilience and the release of healing brain chemicals.
One: See stress as a moment of opportunity.
Two: Check your stress number.
Three: Update your unconscious expectations.
Four: Draw upon the power of compassion and humour.
Emotional Brain Training also includes a mobile app for with peer-to-peer support and this support may
be an social important feature. It is clear that a new paradigm is emerging, that of Brain Based Health.
The American neuroscientist Joseph E. LeDoux is a professor of science at New York
university and director of the Emotional Brain Institute, he must also have a wicked sense of humour as

7
www.ebtgroups.org, and www.ebt.org

12
he is the lead singer and songwriter in the band the Amygdaloids. His work on the impact of fear and
anxiety created by the body’s physiological survival circuit has helped to understand the
disproportionate responses triggered by anxiety disorders in humans. He is positive about the possibility
of learning to control the amygdala’s hair-trigger role, mental intervention teaches the neocortex how to
inhibit the amygdala. The ultimate remedy against the amygdala hijack is in the creation of a life built
upon a quiet mind and its meditative principles and practices formulated in ancient spiritual such as
Yoga or Buddhism. The flight-fight response evolved in the distant past of human history it still serves
an important purpose except when it has become mis-aligned, it is a good servant under the supervision
of the rational part of the brain but a bad master without this oversight.

13
2. Sociability - The Emotion of the
Group
Get quote

source

Introduction
The survival instinct and its physiological mechanism is hard-wired into individual human life,
rarely have human beings lived in isolation one from another, the human being is a social creature and
this too serves the drive to survive; the group is better equipped for survival than the individual.
Communal living provides many advantages in terms of survival from gathering food to protecting the
vulnerable, the young and the old. Survival and sociability were intertwined to serve the most basic
human needs for food and shelter, and meeting these needs called for co-operation and sharing Animals
also possess the instinct for survival but the herd only rarely acts together to protect the vulnerable in the
face of an attack, the highly intelligent elephant is an exception and its most dangerous predator now is
most often a man with a rifle. In humans and most probably in the ancestors of homo-sapiens, the
survival instinct developed into sociability, the ability to live with others. The brain particularly the
amygdalae complex developed to provide two related vital facilities that of memory and that of facial
recognition. Kinship requires facial recognition and also signals unfamiliar faces which may or may not
be connected with threatening behaviour. It is the power of memory that sustains the kin-group and
possibly accepts unfamiliar faces which though not direct kin appear familiar enough to feel safe.
Contemporary life is far removed from its distant origins in caves or small shelters, the hunt
does not except rarely bring men together but the social instinct has never faded. Groups drawn together
by purpose or interest, hobby or leisure time are simply part of being human. Sociability is now
associated with choice and rarely with survival, unless disaster natural or man-made strips away the
progress of time and in an instant sociability is stripped back to its bare essentials. Human sociability
from its first most primitive formulation gradually evolve into the higher emotions of sharing,
compassion and care for others beyond the kinship group. It might even be suggested that the
culmination of human sociability is a global recognition of all faces as kin and all threats as shared in
common by the extended group.

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Sociability
It is the long slow march of history that records the movement from prehistoric survival to
contemporary social media. The fundamental drive for food and shelter created the need to co-operate
with others in shared undertakings. Hunting and gathering food were shared and social experiences.
bison hunting took place at least 400,000 in the north of the Iberian Peninsula near the modern city of
Burgos pushing the date for hunting activities much farther back in time than previously thought;
communal hunting has long been taken by archaeologists as proof of co-operation in social groups.
Hunting is a matter of life and death for the beasts, it plays an important role in the evolution of the
social and mental skills required to conceive and plan as a unified group but it is also a key factor in the
appearance of ideas of religiosity, symbolic representation and ceremony. Prehistoric cave art is an
enigmatic expression of communal life in a landscape filled with awe, wonder and danger. The less
dramatic act of collecting food: eggs, roots, small mammals and plants also created social connectivity
among women but it was in the high drama of the hunt that notions of life and death were made
absolutely real. This was an experience of physiological and psychological intensity, the fight-flight
response aroused to its peak in the face of danger. Sociability began here as an instinctive necessity and
from this imperative the roots of culture in all its many aspects have developed.
Sociability has moved on from the small hunter gathering groups to the tribe, the village, the
town, the city and the urban sprawl; sociability – quite simply the need to get along with the next person
has hardly changed through time. The stages of human life from birth to death are little changed, the
infant is vulnerable and requires close care to survive, the growing child remains vulnerable especially
in a wild environment. The adult reaches the stage of sexual maturation and eventually moves into the
end stage of life. Birth and death are the two markers of human life and from this cycle cultural
distinctions arise creating many ways of observing and moving through the same life processes. The
many varied forms of living from the solitary to the communal, from the religious to the secular are the
human response to the same challenges of maximising survival and well-being while minimising threats
both internal and external to the group. The more closely each person identifies with the group, the
higher the group cohesion and sense of social unity. This sense of identity has often been expressed
through clothing, particular customs and ritual events, as the size of the group increases the sense of
shared identity generally decreases and the power of the individual arises. Contemporary twenty-first
century urban culture has become predominantly secular and individualistic without a structured
sociability. Yet the desire for social connection is insistent, the new arrival of social media in its many
forms is the modern technological response to this deep human need and in this frantic world even the
social rituals of courtship have moved to the internet.

15
 It is the task of anthropologist and sociologists to observe and measure the many forms of social
organisation. The unique appearance of the internet provides new questions of sociability. By 31 July
2022, there were 5.47 billion Internet users in the world out of the 7.93 billion global population. The
rapid taking up of the Internet has profoundly changed human society in multiple aspects. The Internet
has tremendous impacts on daily life changing practically every aspect of it. Excessive addiction can
trigger people’s depression, anxiety, and emotional impulsivity, resulting in a poor psychological state
and even social phobias but there can be no doubt of the positive impact of the internet through new and
unprecedented opportunities for educational interaction. There is some concern that digital
communication is no substitute for real time face to face encounter as Ekman’s work has shown. Daniel
Goleman has also flagged this up as a problem. ‘‘Today’s children are growing up in a new reality, one
where they are attuning more to machines and less to people than has ever been true in human history.
That’s troubling for several reasons. For one, the social and emotional circuitry of a child’s brain learns
from contact and conversation with everyone it encounters over the course of a day. These interactions
mold brain circuitry; the fewer hours spent with people—and the more spent staring at a digitized screen
—portends deficits. Digital engagement comes at a cost in face time with real people—the medium
where we learn to “read” nonverbals. The new crop of natives in this digital world may be adroit at the
keyboard, but they can be all thumbs when it comes to reading behaviour face-to-face, in real time—
particularly in sensing the dismay of others when they stop to read a text in the middle of talking with
them. ’’ 8
In the midst of this technological revolution and all its progeny, there is a discernible movement
of retreat and return to more simple ways of expressing human sociability. This is far more than a
nostalgic longing for a romanticised past, it is expression of the human need to connect simultaneously
with other persons and with the cycles of life in nature. The movement for conscious community
represents the desire to create a chosen tribal family in the place of the nuclear family and the
appearance of permaculture and bio-dynamic agriculture are systems derived from nature. These
organic, holistic and alternative models of sociability represent old values in new forms, the chosen
community is not unlike the shared life of the monastery rooted into the life of the seasons and the return
to nature is a move against the industrialisation of food production. The related issues of sustainability,
growth and survival have become pressing as the twenty-first century moves forwards post-pandemic,
the current challenges are simultaneously spiritual, economic and political; emotional intelligence is
needed.

8
Focus, 10

16
Emotional intelligence
Daniel Goleman is the father to an idea, that of Emotional intelligence. In its historical context
this is a radical departure from the earlier ideas of intelligence as a purely cognitive skill measurable by
testing and used educationally as a predictor of achievement. The book Emotional Intelligence
published in 1995 has been translated into 40 languages and was on the New York times best seller list
for a year and a half. This extraordinary success points to a widespread hunger for a new approach to
life. Goleman argued that non-cognitive skills matter just as much as for success in the workplace and in
all relationships. His expanded view of intelligence was part of a sea-change rising in the 1990’s which
embraced ideas of holism and spirituality. Goleman studied in India and spent time with Neem Karoli
Baba who was guru to Ram Das and Krishna Das. Emotional Intelligence might be described as the
intelligence of sociability, its importance extends into every facet of everyday life from the classroom to
the boardroom and beyond from the physical to the transcendent. Goleman understands these broad
ramifications, he has written on eco-literacy, the current ecological crisis and the Dalai Lama’s vision for
the future. His book, The Varieties of Meditative Experience was published in 1977 and republished in
1988 as The Meditative Mind. It describes almost a dozen different meditation systems. In it he
described the need to retrain the attention whether through concentration or mindfulness, it is the single
invariant ingredient in the recipe for altering consciousness required by every meditation system. It is
clear that developing emotional intelligence builds upon a meditative component at its core. Goleman
co-founded the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning at Yale University's Child
Studies Center which then moved to the University of Illinois at Chicago. Currently he co-directs the
Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations at Rutgers University. He is on the
board of the Mind - Life Institute founded by the Dalai Lama.
Emotional intelligence describes the ability, capacity or skill to identify, assess and manage
personal emotions, the emotions of others and the emotions of groups. EI is indispensable for success in
life, human beings are social and effective sociability increases the likelihood of positive emotional
feedback for an individual and for the group. Successful social organisation whether in the workplace,
the home or in create and chosen communities requires high levels of emotional intelligence to cover the
many situations arising from living in proximity with others. It has been suggested that emotional
intelligence has four skill dimensions: perceiving emotion which is the ability to detect emotions in
faces, pictures, music, etc., to facilitating thought with emotion which is the ability to harness emotional
information in one’s thinking, understanding emotions, the ability to understand emotional information
and finally the ability to manage emotions for personal and interpersonal development. This first skill,
the ability to match emotion with facial expression is a physiological evolutionary development, the
human brain has an area solely devoted to the task, it is the fusiform gyrus (FFA) located in each

17
hemisphere of the brain in the temporal lobe. Brain imaging studies consistently find that this region
becomes active when people look at faces, especially fearful faces supporting an evolutionary
development. Paul Ekman’s studies have developed from facial expressions into the body language of
movements and even hand gestures. He spent eight years creating a tool for objectively measuring facial
movement which he called the Facial Action Coding system. His book Telling Lies led to training
programmes and workshops for law enforcement agencies and online training tools for the public; it is
extraordinary to know that everything is revealed in the face and its micro expressions.
The proliferation of fake news on social media is now a matter of considerable public and
governmental concern. This be understood as an orchestrated lie. Fake news takes several forms,
ranging from instances in which visual or textual information is inserted into an article in order to subtly
bias an argument or to wholly fabricated content often politically or financially motivated with the
intention to deceive. Fake content captures the attention and spreads rapidly since such items most often
employ emotionally charged language. Research suggests that this strong emotional content prevents
proper analysis of the core message. A recent study asked focused whether individuals who showed
high levels of emotional intelligence were less likely to fall for fake news items. Using a sample of UK
participants, and an established measure of EQ the subjects were presented with fake news detection
task resulting in a significant positive relationship between individual differences in measured
Emotional Intelligence and fake news detection ability. Similar effects were also found for higher levels
of educational attainment.
The importance of Emotional Intelligence goes far beyond the ability to detect fake news. In
March 2000 the Dalai Lama met at the Mind - Life Institute in Dharamsala with Buddhist monks,
scholars and behavioural scientists including Paul Ekman to create an accessible secular training to help
people manage emotions. The Cultivating Emotional Balance training was created. Training is based on
‘‘cutting edge psychology and neuroscience with contemplative practices and wisdom to help you to
bring balance into your emotions and support - and not hinder - your happiness and well-being.’’ 9 The
course includes a weekly online meditative component, alternating between mindfulness of breathing,
mindfulness of the body and the Four Immeasurables which are Joy, Loving Kindness, Compassion and
Equanimity. The collaboration with the Mind-Life Institute has continued and developed into a further
project. In January 2012, Paul Ekman and the Dalai Lama spent six hours discussing the importance of
compassion and this was recorded and segmented into the webisodes Developing Global Compassion.
In 2016 The Dalai Lama envisaged ‘a map of our emotions to develop a calm mind.’ Subsequently The
Atlas of Emotion was written by Paul Ekman and his daughter Dr. Eve Ekman. The book is supported

9
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18
 10
by a website. The site includes a presentation from the University of California about the book, a
meditation on emotional awareness led by Eve Ekman, a dialogue between the Dalai Lama and Paul
Ekman and an interview with Eve Ekman. This informative and insightful selection of resources reveals
the importance of emotional awareness for everyone in every facet of daily life. Ekman has been long
retired from university life and now the Paul Ekman Group provides online training tools and
workshops. His numerous books explain the roots of human emotion: anger, fear, contempt, disgust,
sadness, surprise and happiness to show how these primary physiological responses are physically
registered in the face through the forehead, eyebrows, eyelids, cheeks, nose, lips, and chin.
Understanding this code is key to developing Emotional Intelligence as a life-skill in all situations:
personal, domestic, managerial, confrontational, legal and political. Ekman’s work has shown that
positive emotions can be enhanced and negative emotions reduced through cultivating calmness and
balance, his training programs bring a practical wisdom into daily life; Buddhist teachings, neuroscience
and the internet have created an unprecedented opportunity for human improvement. In 2011 a study
examined the outcomes of the CEB training and found that it created, increased recognition of emotions
in others, protected trainees from
some of the psychophysiological
effects of threat-to-self, and
appeared to activate cognitive
networks associated with
compassion. The year-long training
has been delivered in health care,
education, corporate, coaching and
legal systems globally. Paul
Ekman’s work supports the idea
that EI can be taught. The Pyramid
Figure 1 The Pyramid of Emotional Intelligence
of Emotional Intelligence is a useful guide into the stages and processes that of development. The first
level of Emotional Stimuli covers the many events that occur in daily life. these are processed and may
result in an emotionally charged response. Emotional stimuli are generally prioritized in perception, are
detected more quickly, and gain access to conscious awareness. The next level of Emotion Recognition
which is the ability to accurately decode the expressions of others, usually transmitted through non-
verbal channels especially the facial and body language. The first and second levels are automatic
responses and require little cognitive intervention. however the third level of Self-Awareness requires

10
http://atlasofemotions.org

19
conscious engagement. Developing self-awareness is the first step in developing EI. This stage requires
personal introspection and reflection in order to gain a clear and detached view of personal thoughts,
beliefs, motives and feelings. The next level that of Self-Management arises from the desire to create
personal change and improvement. accordingly self-management consists of nine key components:
emotional self-control, integrity, creativity, initiative, resilience, achievement, stress management,
realistic optimism and intentionality. Self-Management is a prerequisite for the next level of Social-
Awareness. Social Awareness takes personal awareness into the social sphere and contains three
competencies: Empathy, Organizational Awareness, Service Orientation. Empathy is the most important
and essential component of social awareness since it creates rapport and understanding of another
person. Success in the social sphere requires specific skills and the development of focussed expertise.
The next level of Social Skill is served by gaining competence in: leadership, developing others,
communication, change catalyst, conflict management, building bonds, teamwork and collaboration.
This ongoing progression and increasingly in-depth understanding of others leads to the next level of
Self-Actualization. according to Maslow this is the realization of personal potential, self-fulfilment,
personal development and peak experiences as part of a continual process of becoming. this broad
understanding brings empathy and kinship towards humanity as a whole. Beyond this the next level of
Transcendence brings a deep desire to assist others. Transcendence can be understood as a higher and
comprehensive holistic level of human conscious relatedness to all others, to other species, to nature and
to the world, this is a global empathy for all life in its many aspects. The final level in this pyramid of
Emotional Intelligence is called Emotional Unity. This is a conscious, intentional, positive dynamic
generated by an internal harmony and sense of joy and peace. This sense of emotional unity
spontaneously flows to all life, in animals, plants, oceans, rocks in a web of interconnectivity and
embraces the imperfections of others with compassion and empathy, It might be said that on the
Pyramid of Emotional Intelligence, the first six levels mirror the western training programs in EI but the
final three levels mirror Buddhist teachings which commence with notions of global empathy,
transcendence and the holistic unity of consciousness. The western mind may aspire to these levels of
being but unsupported by deeper metaphysical teachings the remit of emotional intelligence as it is
currently understood, does not fully provide practical guidance for these states of consciousness.
Leadership and Emotional Intelligence
Daniel Goleman saw that emotional intelligence was a necessary factor in the development of
effective leadership; ineffective leadership is only too common as research has shown. He developed his
ideas in the books Primal Leadership (translated into 28 languages with a readership of over a million)
and most recently in the book Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence. Both books spotlight the central
factor of Focus in determining positive outcomes in life, much like a muscle this strengthens with use

20
and weakens from neglect. The two books relate emotional intelligence with effective leadership.
‘‘Perhaps uniquely among management theories, the primal leadership model builds upon links to
11
neurobiology.’’ In the book Focus Goleman recounts the furore created by his mentor David
McClelland in an article written for the American Psychologist. This reviewed and questioned the data
linking academic success in school as a predictor of career achievement, this idea is taken as a gospel
truth in the American educational system. He noted that that among a pool of equally bright colleagues,
it is not measured cognitive abilities which indicate the star qualities of success but entirely other criteria
such as self-discipline, empathy and persuasiveness .12 When Accenture interviewed one hundred CEOs
about the skills they needed to run a company successfully, a set of fourteen abilities emerged, from
thinking globally and creating an inspiring shared vision to embracing change and being tech savvy.
Among these varied qualities, self-awareness was the most important single underlying capacity and
self-awareness arises from the insight of the meditative mind. Other non-academic competencies
included:
 Listening within, to articulate an authentic vision of overall direction that energizes
others even as it sets clear expectations.
 Coaching, based on listening to what people want from their life, career, and current
job. Paying attention to people’s feelings and needs, and showing concern.
 Listening to advice and expertise; being collaborative and making decisions by
consensus when appropriate.
 Celebrating wins, laughing, knowing that having a good time together is not a waste of
time but a way to build emotional capital.

These are the focused and refined qualities of sociability in the specialised environment of the
workplace where effective relationships make sound business sense. Leadership training itself is an
entire industry in today’s world of the giant companies, Emotional Intelligence, is the ability to form
effective relationships with colleagues and it is a key component to hard-nosed success.
The Servant-Leader
Robert K. Greenleaf has developed a particular style of leadership based on the concept of
servant-leadership. He first coined the phrase in an essay titled The Servant as Leader published in
1970. He was inspired by the book Journey to the East written by Herman Hesse in 1932. In the story
the main character, Leo was a servant among a group of servants but one day he disappeared and then
the servants realized that Leo was far more than a servant – he was their leader. “The servant-leader is

11
Primal Leadership, Preface, 14
12
Focus, 222

21
servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious
choice brings one to aspire to lead.’’13 This philosophy reverses the usual ideas associated with
leadership and strikes at the historical role of leader which has almost without exception been one of
control and the exercise of power. ‘‘A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of
people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the
accumulation and exercise of power by one at the ‘top of the pyramid,’ servant leadership is different.
The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as
highly as possible.’’ It is difficult not to hear the echo of Christ’s life in this philosophy but Greenleaf
applied his ideas of servant-leadership in the competitive world of business at AT &T where he was
working as an executive. His second major essay, The Institution as Servant, formulated what is often
called the credo. “This is my thesis: caring for persons, the more able and the less able serving each
other, is the rock upon which a good society is built. Whereas, until recently, caring was largely person
to person, now most of it is mediated through institutions – often large, complex, powerful, impersonal;
not always competent; sometimes corrupt. If a better society is to be built, one that is more just and more
loving, one that provides greater creative opportunity for its people, then the most open course is to raise
both the capacity to serve and the very performance as servant of existing major institutions by new
regenerative forces operating within them.” The effectiveness of the servant-leader model has been
researched beginning in 1998 with the publication of the first peer-reviewed servant leadership scale.
There have been over 270 peer reviewed articles across 122 academic journals. Greenleaf believes the
betterment of others to be the true motivation of the servant-leader as the practical application of
altruism, the selfless concern for the well-being of others. He believes that the desire to serve others is
natural within the human being, even though history clearly demonstrates that this is a rare quality.
Social reformers and visionaries of many kinds have without doubt changed the conditions and
expectations of generations but these historical figures most often defied the norm to rise above the
commonly held perspective. The evident lack of altruism as a norm clearly reveals the social impact of
self-centred motivation and monetary gain. Buddhism considers that valuing others is difficult and
requires the philosophical reorientation of meditative mental intervention to affirm that the Buddha
nature is the natural and highest expression for the human being. Buddhism directly seeks to create
happiness and well-being for all sentient beings and this includes the vast range of life not merely
human life and Buddhism might be described as the practice of altruistic motivation. The Dalai lama has
said, ‘‘My religion is kindness.’’ Greenleaf believes that this altruistic desire might be placed within the
social institution as a means of transforming the workplace and the greater environment of society and
this intention also requires a training curriculum.
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 The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership is a non-profit organization whose mission is “to
advance the awareness, understanding and practice of servant leadership by individuals and
organizations.” Accordingly, the center provides a variety of training programs and most recently
launched in January 2021, the Coffee With Webinars programme to showcase the stories of invited
guests. In partnership with Seton Hall University’s Upward Bound Program the Next Generation
Initiative is designed to bring the philosophy of servant-leadership to high school and campus leaders
across the country. The servant-leader philosophy is built upon the belief that human behaviour can
become a positive agent within society and this emphasises the centrality of personal motivation within
a healthy moral and psychological framework built upon the three principle of self-determination, moral
cognitive development and cognitive complexity. Self-determination theory suggests that all humans
have three basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. Autonomy arises from
choices, competence refers to the experience of mastery and relatedness refers to the need to feel
connected. A self-determined person will use personal resources to build strong and positive
relationships to help others. The role of the servant-leader also demands cognitive complexity which is
deemed to be the third key principle. This term describes the ability to perceive social behaviour as
differentiated and nuanced, this is based on an large number of internalise mental abstracted structures
and models. In other words cognitive complexity provides the means of interpreting behaviour and
situations from a broad perspective and understanding. These three principles can be developed over
time through a holistic educational program. The large modern organisation is highly complex, Larry
Spears, the president and CEO of the centre between 1990 and 2007 was the Managing Director of the
Greater Philadelphia Philosophy Consortium, a cooperative association of 12 colleges and universities
in the Philadelphia area He understood the demands of the workplace first-hand and defined ten
characteristics of the Servant-Leader: empathy, listening, healing, awareness, persuasion,
conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people and commitment to
building community. These ten characteristics are both intellectual and emotional qualities - in a nutshell
these are the workplace developments of sociability, emotional intelligence applied and also the skills
needed to steer global leadership in the upcoming generation.

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3. Creativity - The Emotion of the
Individual
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful
servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has
forgotten the gift.

Albert Einstein

Introduction
Creativity is a uniquely human characteristic, instinct reinforces repeating patterns of behaviour
but creativity introduces a new pattern and this dynamic of forward momentum propels thought and
behaviour into a different mode. The arts, the work of the few in so in many forms: the written word, the
spoken word, the visual artistry of image and the created sound all have the power to shift the paradigm
of the many. Innovation and creativity also apply to the sciences, to technology and to breakthroughs in
medicine. Creativity also belongs to the everyday and the ordinary, otherwise daily life would be merely
be a series of repetitions. Arthur Koestler was a journalist, novelist and essayist with broad interests
across the field of history, autobiography, politics, philosophy, psychology, parapsychology, mysticism
and science. The book The Act of Creation opens - ‘‘All creative activities the conscious and the
unconscious processes underlying artistic inspiration, scientific discovery and comic inspiration - have a
basic pattern in common. ’’ Koestler called this biosociative thinking, a word coined to distinguish the
various routines of associative thinking from the creative leap which connects previously unconnected
frames of reference. He further described creativity as a bisociation of previously unrelated information
matrices or experience as ‘‘an act of liberation - the defeat of habit by originality.’’ His definition places
habit and originality in opposition to one another and moreover states that originality arises from
previously unrelated, information or experience. The habituated mind is attuned to conformity and
familiarity, it is the mind unaccustomed to ask difficult questions or solve difficult problems; the power
of creativity is to be found in the mind. The world class celloist Stephan Hauser in an interview said that
nothing original was achieved by obedience and there are many sources of obedience, political, cultural
even domestic. Creativity provides the cultural stepping stones witnessed in the development and
advancement of human civilization. Is creativity simply a matter of personality? Researchers across
various disciplines, armed with findings from neuroscience have become interested in the potential for

24
fostering creativity through specific interventions of mind which might rightfully be classed as
meditative techniques.
At the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Roy Horan has been researching the
neuropsychology of creativity and has developed coursers in Mindful Creativity as the area of
attentiveness where new ideas may spontaneously arise. His interest in the creativity of the mind began
in his earlier career acting in martial arts films. it was in during this 25 years immersion in the body-
mind that he experienced several peak experiences of illumination which took him deeper into
meditation, yoga and psychology. He was a speaker on TED talks, listed in Who’s Who in the World,
and the founder and CEO of Innovea Ltd, a company offering training and consultancy in higher-order
thinking for creativity and well-being. He formulated the Ocean Model which combines empirical
studies of creativity and intelligence with Eastern philosophical concepts on the same. He designed the
Creative Momentum Model, a tool for assessing all forms of creative achievement and developed new
psychometric instruments for measuring core competencies, creative potential, social-emotional
competence in children and stress/resilience. He worked with design students and brought his extensive
understanding of the meditative mind to the challenge of originating creative design. He wrote that,
‘‘The practice of meditation, as an attentional mechanism, supports creativity.’’14 The actual moment of
creative illumination appears as a leap across the logical gap but is it the sustained focussed of intention-
attention that supplies the necessary psychophysiological energy, it is indeed the eureka moment of
transcendence across informational boundaries.
Children are generally creative, enjoy play, and are open to new ideas and explanations.
However through conditioning and cognitive processing, we construct and identify with a reality of our
own that is consistent with the world view imposed us by the environment and generally shared by
those around us. Conditioning creates the sense of self and of the world and formal education plays a
large role in this mental construction. The process of meditation might be seen as a process of de-
conditioning this overlay. In many ways the child’s mind, pre-conceptual and open shares qualities and
characteristics with the illumined enlightened mind, it is aware on a moment by moment basis without
the ingrained projections and prejudices that skews openness into a restrictive lens, Returning to the
natural creativity of the childlike mind is not easily accomplished once the stranglehold of habituated
thought has been established; meditation makes this possible by developing awareness in the place of
thought patterns.
The Creative Mind
In the book The Art of Thought from 1926, Graham Wallas proposed one of the first complete
models of the creative process. He described four-stages: preparation, or saturation, incubation,
14
The Neuropsychological Connection Between Creativity and Meditation,1

25
illumination and verification or implementation. This 1920s’ theory continues to be highly cited among
professional design teams and in scholarly works on creativity. The first stage of preparation is
concerned with gathering information in order to equip the mental operations of subconscious thought.
The second stage is quite different and completely without any intellectual rigour. It is a phase of mental
openness without a set time-frame. “We do not voluntarily or consciously think on a particular
problem.’’ During this incubation stage he urged a “relaxation from all mental work” so that ‘‘a series of
unconscious and involuntary (or foreconscious and forevoluntary) mental events may take place.” He
suggested ‘distraction’ as an effective mode of incubation for less difficult forms of creative thought but
more difficult forms of creative thought were best suited to a period of total mental relaxation so that
“nothing should interfere with the free working of the unconscious or partially conscious processes of
the mind.” During the period of incubation the problem in conscious was presented to the deeper
consciousness within the mind. The third stage of illumination arises from the intense mental effort of
information gathering combined with the period of open mindedness and reflective contemplation. The
moment of illumination is often quite sudden and even dramatic from Kekulé’s daydream of whirling
snakes forming a benzene ring to Coleridge’s poem Kublai Khan which appeared complete to his mind.
The French mathematician Henri Poincaré recounts his own story of sudden illumination.. “Disgusted
with my failure, I went to spend a few days at the seaside.” He walked on a bluff above the ocean one
morning and the much needed insight appeared in his mind with “brevity, suddenness, and immediate
certainty.” 15 Such flashes of insights are the very cliché of creative genius. The final stage of verification
or implementation by comparison is one of intellectual review and analysis often laborious and
painstaking. The German physicist, physician and philosopher Hermann Helmholtz gave a 70th
birthday banquet in 1891 when he delivered a speech describing how his most important new thoughts
came to him. “Following previous investigation of the problem in all directions…happy ideas come
unexpectedly without effort, like an inspiration. So far as I am concerned, they have never come to me
when my mind was fatigued, or when I was at my working table…they came particularly readily during
the slow ascent of wooded hills on a sunny day.” Helmholtz continued, “An investigator, or an artist,
who is continually having a great number of happy ideas, is undoubtedly a privileged being…I have
often been in the unpleasant position of having to wait for lucky ideas…They often steal into the line of
thought without their importance being at first understood; then afterward some accidental circumstance
shows how and under what conditions they have originated… But to reach that stage was not usually
possible without long preliminary work.” It was mainly from this anecdotal explanation that Wallas
derived his theoretical model and in a supporting footnote he quoted the French symbolist poet Remy de
Gourmont. “My conceptions rise into the field of consciousness like a flash of lightning or the flight of a
15
Focus, 27

26
bird.” Graham Wallas became a lecturer at the London School of Economics in 1895 and became their
first Professor of Political Science in 1914. He wrote several other books including The Great Society in
1914 and Human Nature in Politics in 1924. His interests still appear remarkably fresh and relevant. He
was a member of the Fabian Society along with George Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells. His model has
stood the test of time and its four stages are based on a model of consciousness. Wallis would have been
familiar with Freud’s theory of mind and its distinction between the conscious and unconscious
components. The essential stage of incubation rests entirely on the notion that the unconscious mind has
the capacity to solve a problem consciously generated and without interference from intellectual thought
and the moment of illumination is suggestive of an entirely ‘other’ realm of mind. These concepts are
familiar in the twenty-first century but Wallis, a man ahead of his time, saw the practical importance of a
theory of mind; he was seeking the betterment of the human condition.
The lives of outstanding creative figures in history offer unique examples of the creative life and
there is a great deal to be gained by emulating the patterns that permit creativity to arise. The
inspirational book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey continues to be a
bestseller for over 25 years by clearly offering practical guidelines. The later book The 7 Habits of
Highly Creative People likewise outlined simple practical guidelines for building a life primed for
creativity. Creative people, make creativity a ritual, don't take themselves too seriously are curious about
everything, can live with discomfort for longer, are good at switching off from work, are interested in
people and can get excited about anything. It’s been said that at the age of 5, children ask 120 questions
a day, at age 6 they ask only 60 questions a day, of 40, adults ask 4 questions a day. The creative life is
based on an intense curiosity which is the insistent drive to ask questions and questions call for answers.
 Prepare the ground.
 Creativity requires an absorbed mind but also a relaxed state of defocussed attention
 Plant the seeds for creativity.
 Put your intention- attention on what you want to create - thoughts become things
 Live in the question.
 Feed your brain with images, quotations, inspired words
 Be curious.
 Experiment and explore.
 Recapture the openness of a child’s perspective.

The Brain Waves of Creativity

Creativity arises from a new combination of possibilities, but the field of possibilities has to be
first present. This might be likened to the phase described by Wallas as preparation or the idea of feeding
the brain with multiple associations and interests. This is the conscious process of developing interests,
hobbies and passions which covers every possibility. beekeeping, gardening. bookbinding, cooking
model trains; the list is endless and everyone naturally and automatically knows this. As an essentially

27
conscious process, this is created through waking consciousness but it is also open to insightful
moments which create that personal take; creativity happens daily and should not be thought of as the
special prerogative of the genius,
People with hobbies and passions not only spend time doing but also thinking about how to
improve or streamline what they are interested in, this focussed engagement of mind is a looser
perspective, not quite of thinking directly about the topic which is related to knowledge but more a
wondering how to ways to improve and deepen interaction and this is an act of imagination. The
difference between the direct thought of the conscious mind and the indirect open wondering of the
imagination reveals the different quality between the conscious beta rhythm and the less conscious alpha
rhythm. This matches the stage that Walls described as incubation. It is a relaxed, open-ended and
imaginative wondering, a defocused, softly focussed attention. this state of mind most easily reached
by closing the eyes and inwardly imagining the many possibilities already present within the perimeter
of the subject. This is the moment of day dreaming that we all know so well. It is in day-dream that
hopes, and goals, aspirations and ideas tumble and jostle with no particular aim in sight and it this
aimlessness is of great value. This inner mental pondering and passive calmness is similar to a light state
of hypnosis or meditative awareness. We are all familiar with this state of mind, it is what we naturally
seek when stuck on a problem, when we reach a mental brick wall, we retreat from the problem and
change tactic by most often going for a walk or perhaps a swim. This is a total release of conscious
thinking and entry into the intuitive and imaginative mind. ‘‘Imagine coming into direct, working
contact with an all-pervading higher intelligence and learning in a moment of numinous joy that it is on
your side. Imagine too that you made this contact in such simple ways that for the rest of your life you
need never again feel helplessly out of touch with something you always suspected was there but could
never quite reach—a helpful wisdom, a flash of insight when you need it, the feeling of a loving,
powerful presence. How would it feel? It would be a peak experience not too different— perhaps not
different at all—from spiritual awe. ’’ 16 These are the opening words from the book Mind Control by
Joe Silva.
José Silvadoros grew up in Laredo, Texas. At the age of fifteen, began to repair radios and over
the years his business flourished. He was also developed an interest in the new fields of psychology. His
original moment of creativity arose when he applied ideas from one field to another. He knew from his
work in electronics that the ideal circuit is the one with the least resistance and he knew that the mind
generated electricity, he wondered if the brain work more effectively if its impedance were lowered?
And how might this be lowered? He was by nature an experimenter so he began using hypnosis with his
children and came to believe that paradoxically the brain was more energetic when it was less active. He
16
Mind control, 14

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was demonstrating that relaxed mental visualization of the alpha mind-state was more effective for
learning than the beta state as proven by his children's sharply improved grades and even more
unexpectedly the high level mind state that he developed began to produce results that resembled ESP
then being investigated by Dr. J. B. Rhine at Duke University. Over the next ten years he trained 39
children from the town and their success led him to refine and formulate a specific method. Today the
Mind Control organization has centres in all fifty states and in thirty-four foreign nations. The system
offers a secularised and straightforward practice of mind, meditation. ‘‘Something beautiful happens in
meditation, and the beauty you find is calming. The more you meditate, the deeper you go within
yourself, the firmer the grasp you will have of a kind of inner peace so strong that nothing in life will be
able to shatter it. Your body will benefit, too. At first you will find that worries and guilt feelings are
absent while you are meditating. One of the beauties of meditation at the Alpha level is that you cannot
bring your feelings of guilt and anger with you. intrude you will simply pop out of the meditative level.
As time goes on, they will stay away longer, until one day they are gone for good. Meditation is the first
step in Mind Control; by itself it will go a long way toward setting free the body's healing powers and
giving it back the energy once squandered on tension. Here is all you have to do to reach the Alpha, or
meditative, level of mind.’’ 17 He provided simple and practical instructions. ‘‘When you awaken in the
morning, go to the bathroom if necessary, then return to bed. Set your alarm for fifteen minutes later in
case you drift off to sleep during the exercise. Close your eyes and look upward, behind your eyelids, at
a 20-degree angle. For reasons not fully understood, this position of the eyes alone will trigger the brain
to produce Alpha. Now, slowly, at about two-second intervals, count backward from one hundred to
one. As you do this, keep your mind on it, and you will be in Alpha the very first time. ’’ 18 The Alpha
brainwave forms a bridge between the consciousness of the Beta state and the deeper mind of the Theta
mind-state. This state of mind is well known to highly creative people. The chemist Kekule who
famously received the answer to his scientific problem in a dream said, ‘‘Let us learn to dream
gentlemen.’’ The scientist Varendenck in the 1920s noted that ‘‘The few original ideas I imagine myself
to have conceived as my original contribution to science have come just before sleep.’’ Jean Cocteau,
the French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic clearly knew this from
experience. He wrote, ‘‘The poet is at the disposal of his night. He must clean his house and await its
visitation.’’
The border between waking and sleeping is known as hypnogogia, it is the drowsy interval
between waking and sleeping marked by spontaneously appearing visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic
images; qualitatively unusual thought processes and verbal constructions, tendencies toward extreme

17
Mind control, 29
18
Mind control, 27

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suggestibility, symbolic representation of ongoing mental and physiological processes. It is characterised
by a slowing of frequency and depression of amplitude of the electroencephalogram (EEG) and the
appearance of slow eye movements, a low rate of frontalis muscle activity and changes in respiratory
patterns. This twilight realm is of interest to researchers since it forms a bridge between waking
consciousness and full sleep, it has also been noted that noted that theta EEG rhythms is often
accompanied by reports of hypnagogic phenomena. In 1977 researchers explored the hypnogogic state
in a 10-week programme of five daily sessions consisting of breathing relaxation exercises followed
first by 15 minutes of directed by EEG Alpha and Theta feedback. The subjects were asked to describe
mental content at that moment. They found that all participants could increase Alpha and Theta. One
participant reported ‘‘In the alpha state I am still making thoughts occur…in the theta state thoughts are
quite detached.’’ The researchers introduced a way of prolonging the hypnagogic state using a timer to
break into the hynogogic state so that the immediate contents could be recorded. Thomas Edison the
intention of also breaking into the twilight realm to recover its contents. It became his practice to go to
sleep clutching a handful of bullets which clattered to the floor as he entered deeper sleep and released
his grip. His intention was to break into that early stage of hynogogia characterised by the fast flowing
stream of barely conscious material. His entire life by and even by night was an incubation for creative
inspiration which he tested and perfected through laborious trial and error. He set a quota for his workers
and himself. His own quota for a creative solution was one minor invention every 10 days and a major
invention every six months. During his life he was granted 1,093 patents most famously for the
lightbulb but also for the typewriter, the electric pen, the phonograph, the motion picture camera, an
alkaline storage battery, and even a talking doll and a concrete house that could be built in one day from
a cast-iron mold. He left 3500 notebooks filled with ideas. He once said ‘‘I do not believe in the God of
the theologians; but that there is a Supreme Intelligence I do not doubt.’’ The American inventor, without
formal education and partially deaf was the most prodigious and successful creator of modern times –
he knew the creative power of the unconscious mind.
The Theta mind-state is believed to be associated with activity from the emotional response of
the limbic system and the memories of the hippocampal regions. Theta and Low Alpha characterise
states of internal focus, meditation, prayer and spiritual awareness and healing. Researchers have found
the Theta signature to be associated with a deeply internalised state and with a quieting of the body,
emotions, and thoughts, allowing usually ‘unheard of things’ to come to consciousness in the form of
hypnogogic imagery. The relaxed hypnogogic state permits new cognitive associations to arise through
slow wave activity distributed across neural networks. Theta and low Alpha have been shown to be
carriers of memory across long distance neural connections and this function is an essential quality for
neural and psychological integration. The Theta state is associated with Original, creative inspiration,

30
problem solving and visualization, meditative forms spiritual insights and imaginative vision. The
deepest part of sleep known as REM, Rapid Eye Movement, may also be characterised by Theta and its
positive benefits, access to insights, vivid imagery, deep memory and the free flow of ideas. This is the
realm of shamanic trance and the higher altered states of mind underpinning all spiritual action such as
chanting, ritual and meditation. Would it not be amazing to observe the brain rhythms of these non-usual
states of mind?
In 1976 Maxwell Cade together with of electronics engineer Geoffrey Blundell invented the
Mind Mirror EEG, a unique, composite frequency analyzer that monitors both hemispheres of the brain
across an interrelated array of frequencies. In his life Cade mapped the brainwave patterns of more than
four thousand people and this deep understanding led to the book The Awakened Mind. 19 The Maxwell
Cade Foundation continues his pioneering work. The Vilistus Mind Mirror 6 consists of a real-time,
dual-hemisphere display that interrelates the full array of brainwave frequencies and categories. This
instant biofeedback displays the power of thought to create brain-body-mind harmony in relaxation and
in the full range of meditative states. Cade said that ‘‘ The awakening of awareness is like gradually
awakening from sleep and becoming more and more vividly aware of everyday reality - only it's
everyday reality from which we are awakening.’’ Cade was ahead of his time, the Mind Mirror confirms
research from neuroscience into the transformative power of mind as transmitted via the spiritual
traditions of the world.
The Meditative Mind
The meditative mind is the creative mind regardless of its tradition or particular practice, all
forms of meditation share a commonality of approach, principle of practice and purpose which is to
transform the waking conscious state into to a new level of mind stripped of ego. This progression and
transformation from the small mind governed by ego towards a greater immersion in and identification
with a universalised sense of being, is a movement of increasing expansion and openness, it is a
movement from the beginner’s mind to the enlightened mind. This progression simultaneously
integrates levels of mind that might be understood in western terminology as the unconscious or
subconscious and the realm of higher consciousness. The practice of meditation might be understood to
have this vertical dimension of integration combined with a horizontal dimension of expansion, together
integrated openness and universalised expansion create a mind readied for creativity which is the
reception of an original solution. systems such as Buddhism have relied on repetition and the tradition of
age-old protocols, nevertheless since the diaspora caused by the Chinese invasion, Tibetan Buddhism in
particular has demonstrated tremendous creativity and vitality in the process of renewal. The West by
contrast has become home to dynamic change, often technological and western achievements are now
19
https://www.themindmirror.com

31
driving global change both economic and social. The closed mind like a closed window admits no fresh
air, the opened window is no longer a barrier between the outside and the inside but a place where flow
may take place.
The lives of creative people, whether past or present, whether artists or engineers, demonstrably
reveal that creative solutions to problems arise unexpectedly and seemingly instantly. There is a sense
that the conscious mind does not create the much needed solution but rather receives or registers it from
another mental compartment, an essential part of the creative process is the steady focus of mental
incubation. Roy Horan taught a seminar to his first year students and he said that after just three and a
half hours these studies were producing design work equivalent to that produced by final year students.
He did not engage his students in the rudiments of design but in the rudiments of awareness; awareness
is transcendent thought is linear. Meditation is often described as the process of waking up and this
simpler definition applies to the many different forms of meditation. However it is clear that different
kinds of meditation train a variety of mental habits and impact mental skills in varying ways. The
practice of mindfulness has entered the western mainstream practice spearheaded largely by Jon Kabat-
Zinn who describes mindfulness as ‘‘The awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose,
20
in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience.” The practice of
mindfulness therefore includes the all important element of focussed attention.
Research literature suggests that the relationship between mindfulness meditation and creativity
is positive and promising. Daniel Goleman asked Richard Davidson, to summarize the benefits of
attention of mindfulness practice. Richard Davidson is a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison and the founder and chair of the Center for Healthy Minds and the
affiliated non-profit Healthy Minds Innovations. He answered the question by saying that “Mindfulness,
boosts the classic attention network in the brain’s frontal-parietal system that works together to allocate
attention. These circuits are fundamental in the basic movement of attention: disengaging your focus
from one thing, moving it to another, and staying with that new object of attention.’’21 It has to be said
that some experimental attempts to investigate this are confined by the pre-existing western
understanding of both mindfulness meditation and the creative process. 22 The commonly used western
educational test for creativity, the Torrance Test is a series of figural exercises and verbal activities. It is
used in both businesses and school settings and the public availability of this test clearly encourages
aspirational parents to indulge in some prepared priming. ‘‘While it’s harder to prepare for creative tests
than it is for tests that measure aptitude and knowledge, there are a number of ways to get your child
20
Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future, 145 - Google Scholar also
https://www.mindful.org/everyday-mindfulness-with-jon-kabat-zinn
21
Focus, 187
22
Mindfulness and creativity – Implications for Thinking and Learning

32
thinking more creatively.’’23 Since the test is applied in competitive situations coaching in prepared
measures of creativity denies the true nature of the creative mind.
It might even be said that the widespread use of this test for educational and business selection
is a measure of the narrow and shallow perception of creativity prevalent in western society generally.
Moreover that the Torrance Test was used as a measure of creativity in a serious research study likewise
suggests an impoverished conception of creativity. The website The Testing Mom.com states - ‘‘While it
isn’t the perfect creativity test, it has proved to be highly reliable over the years as a predictor of
successful, creative individuals of all ages.’’ Compared with the design output of Horan’s students for
example, these tests provide very little insight into the relationship between mindfulness meditation and
creativity. The real problem is that many aspects of human life are not suited to the analysis and
categorisation of the western empirical method. Moreover mindfulness meditation is a holistic practice
not a technique for watching the breath and noting sensations in a non-judgmental way. Attempts to
discover and evaluate its component parts are equivalent to butchering an animal and laying out its
labelled parts on a slab; the parts may be named but the living animal no longer exists.
Buddhist meditation has become popular in the West and this has eclipsed knowledge about the
existing esoteric tradition. This historical development was based not on mainstream acceptance as in
the east but on an unorthodox lineage outside the commonly held western perimeters. These constraints
led to a complex system of transmission invested in symbols which are simultaneously a means of
revelation and concealment. The prime religious-spiritual western impetus has been Christianity and its
historical rise served to marginalise alternative and non-orthodox streams of philosophical thought. It
was C.G. Jung who reformulated the hidden tradition of alchemy and its veiled symbolic language. Jung
also reinstated the creative imagination as a means of engaging with these many symbols of the western
tradition. Unlike Buddhism which offers a clear method of observing the mind, western teachings
instead fill the mind with ideas and images preserved in symbolic form and this inner language of
associations commences the process of transformation almost subliminally. Mindfulness and
Creativity: Implications for Thinking and Learning recognises that ‘‘Meditation engages the mind in
non-verbal ways……………..Meditation may offer an experience of the mind that is not purely
linguistic, expanding learners’ creativity by tapping into subconscious and intuitive thought.’’ Although
this is a statement of psychological perspective it nevertheless confirms the importance of non-verbal
awareness. The western esoteric tradition is rooted in a deep psychological foundation before moving
forwards to transcendent and mystical heights, the metier of western meditation is primarily though not
exclusively visual. Unlike Buddhist meditation which can successfully be extracted from the teacher-
pupil relationship or even secularised as a therapeutic tool, Qabalistic meditation is not easily separated
23
https://www.testingmom.com/tests/torrance-test

33
into meditative capsules, however in common with mindfulness meditation which increases the
interhemispheric communication typical of creative states of mind, immersion in The Tree of Life
likewise connects the two hemispheres of emotional and intellectual understanding by its own unique
methods. A modern accessible Qabalistic curriculum is presented in the book The Aquarian Qabalah.
The experienced meditators Peter Russell and Roy Horan both described the long term results of
meditative practice as the opening the heart. Roy Horan's final book was called Vigilance of the Heart, it
draws upon science, the evolutionary process, cosmology, quantum mechanics and neuropsychology to
provides a map and compass for the reader to convey the transformative impact of meditation as a
passage of rebirth creating a holistic system shift, mentally, emotionally and physically. expressed via
the imagery of the heart. Creativity is not limited to originality and invention but to life itself, Roy Horan
died unexpectedly on a hiking trip in 2021. His life was an adventure into creativity and his journey
paved the way for others to follow in his footsteps.

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4. Compassion - The Emotion Without
Borders.
Compassion is the most wonderful and precious thing. When we talk about
compassion, it is encouraging to note that basic human nature is, I believe,
compassionate and gentle. For example, one scientist has told me that the
first few weeks after birth is the most important period, for during that time
the child’s brain is enlarging. During that period, the mother’s touch or
that of someone who is acting like a mother is crucial. This shows that even
though the child may not realize who is who, it somehow physically needs
someone else’s affection. Without that, it is very damaging for the healthy
development of the brain.

The Dalai Lama’s Book of Wisdom

Introduction
The seven basic emotions have been identified as evolutionary physiological responses by Paul
Ekman but it is very clear that human sociability is not confined to these alone. The majority of people
would describe love as an emotion but this is not among the primary emotional drivers. History also
shows that on occasion an individual may place the well-being of the group above personal well-being
even at the risk of safety. This less common response especially in the face of threat and danger, is
invariably noteworthy and becomes the stuff of myth, legend and news reportage, the hero fighting even
dying for the sake of others is a remarkable reversal of the survival instinct; altruism is not among the
seven basic emotions. Altruism is not a physiologically based response. It is described in a research
study as being ‘‘often non-economic and even maladaptive to survival because the altruistic performer
needs to share his/her own resources and energy with others without receiving explicit return.’’ 24
Moreover altruistic behaviour may even involve some level of self-sacrifice by incurring sanctions from
the prevailing group mind while benefit may extend beyond immediate kinship groups. The explanation
of altruistic behaviour requires an expanded view of the human experience. Researchers have found
positive psychological consequences of altruistic behaviour in the brain’s reward system. Natural
disasters, the effect of war, emergencies and all experiences of suffering evoke a human response, this
recognition has been organised into institutions, societies and groups large and small, charitable and

24
Helping Others, Warming Yourself: Altruistic Behaviors Increase Warmth Feelings of the Ambient
Environment.

35
governmental; the relief of suffering human and animal is a caring response to an everyday world wide
occurrence.
The Evolution of Caring
The fight-flight response is rooted in the evolutionary history of humanity, sociability too arises
from the shared need to survive through co-operation and creativity speaks of the individual and unique
identity. Yet it is very clear that this does not cover the wide range of human experience. The response to
stand on behalf of another, not linked by personal family perhaps also serves an evolutionary purpose
but if so this is a sensibility of a different quality far removed from all concerns of personal well-being
and survival; the universal has become the personal.
The word compassion comes from the Latin compati, meaning to suffer with, it is rooted in
caring for others and this is another form of behaviour linked with survival. This is born from firstly
noticing and recognize kin and behaving to increase their chances of survival by attending to distress
calls, soothing and comforting, holding and feeding. Small groups of people were always vulnerable to
the vagaries of a harsh environment, care and co-operation were adaptive mechanisms for group
survival. These basic neurophysiological mechanisms and behaviours continued and evolved to serve
more general kin and alliance-based relationships, protecting the newest and most vulnerable members,
minimising threats and dangers, all strengthened the life of the group. The archaeological record
suggests that humans with injuries such as broken bones increasingly survived with help while most
primates are frightened of animals who show signs of disease or deformity and directly avoid contact.
The practicalities of care-giving maintain and develop sociability among humans, compassion for the
weak, wounded, aged or otherwise vulnerable requires adaptive behaviour and the development of
cognitive processes of mind which in turn establish social and cultural practices. Care-giving requires
both thought and action to succeed, it requires mental attention, judgement, observation problem
solving, emotional soothing and skilful intervention. These qualities remain largely unchanged over time
and can be found in any caring encounter including modern nursing. The social mentality of
compassion involves a caring motivation plus a range of practical competencies. It is from the close
contact required by care, the holding of an infant, the care of the weak, that emotional attachment
develops. This intimacy might be described generally as happiness since it precludes fear, anger,
contempt, surprise, sadness and disgust. It was the child psychiatrist John Bowlby who demonstrated the
central importance of the quality of mothering in the successful development of the child. In the book
The Compassionate Mind, Paul Gilbert states that ‘‘Our brains are biologically designed to respond to
the care and kindness of others.’’25 Prosocial behaviour including caring and compassion is now
considered to be one of the main drivers of human evolution including human intelligence. Research
25
Introduction , xiv

36
suggests that oxytocin is associated with a range of prosocial behaviours that underpin human sociality
and caring, including parent-infant recognition and caring, pair bonding, friendship formation, trust and
social memory, although oxytocin is linked to greater hostility to outsiders as potential threats to infants.
The evolutionary roots and functions of care as a means of securing the survival of the group represent
an advanced social understanding rather than a utilitarian response, helping a wounded person recover is
not just a recognition that members of the group are more useful alive than dead, it is a more subtle
recognition of an innate human value as a unique person. Kinship and familial relationships took on
deep significance and when this was disturbed through the natural process of death and disappearance,
the group experienced this keenly as a loss to be marked in some way; care for the dead became an
important element in the increasingly socialised culture of human beings.
The instinct for survival and all its supporting behaviours become modified when life is not so
perilous and small nomadic groups have settled into communities. Care-giving is still needed at times of
special vulnerability such as childbirth, accident or sickness and ways of treating these events become
part of a cultural transmission often passed through family or otherwise constructed lineages. Elders or
chosen authority figures take on specialised roles perhaps as midwives or shamanic mediators. Disease
and sickness, the visible aberration from the norm is regarded not as a medical problem but as a socio-
religious issue, care and recovery may depend on the assistance of divine invisible beings called on
through ceremony but nonetheless the human motive for full recovery remains the same, it is care,
caritas.
The word caritas means love in Latin. It dates back to the Ancient Greek word kara meaning
head, which was a favourite endearment used to express love, affection, admiration much as the use of
the modern word sweetheart. The Latin root has created a great number of words: carita, caridad, cher,
chérie, caro, caresse, care, cara (face) and charity. It is one of the three Christian theological virtues as
stated in 1 Corinthians 13:13, ‘‘So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.’’
The modern world is overflowing with charities each designed to alleviate suffering, suffering may be
ameliorated yet it is never vanished.
Sickness, old age and death are inevitable parts of life’s experience, it was the first sight of these
common experiences that so startled prince Gautama when he walked outside the protected walls of the
palace. This momentous event led him to abandon his privileged life of wealth and begin his long quest
to understanding the human condition. Just as the young prince was moved by the sight of sickness, old
age and death so through time others too have been called to act in the care of those unable to care for
themselves; every society includes the sick, the old and the dying. A compassionate society provides for
these, in a society without the values of compassion the poor and the weak must manage alone. In
Medieval Europe the church took on much of this responsibility through the concept of Christian

37
ministry. The twelfth and thirteenth centuries witnessed a sea-change in attitude and practical assistance
for the poor and needy. Francis of Assisi and his disciples preached the message of compassion from
portable outdoor pulpits and within chapels whose walls were often covered with life-sized Passion
scenes. In countless meditations, sermons and devotional guides the listener was urged to imagine being
present at the crucifixion or experiencing Christ’s pain, hearing this graphic and emotionally charged
language the listener became identified with this suffering; this call to compassion did not go
unanswered. Bishops and monks founded many new hospitals sustained with funds and labour.
Laypeople including the lordly and the knighted class, and ordinary townsfolk also began shouldering
the charitable load. Hundreds of new leper houses and hospitals for the sick and poor were built along
with hospitaller and military orders. Lay confraternities, organizations dedicated to charity, mutual
support, and religious devotion, monasteries, and penitential groups became focussed on charitable
work. This new concern with the plight of the sick and poor specifically appeared in wills of the period.
Among in Flanders, during the thirteenth-century 85 percent included charitable bequests to aid lepers,
hospitals, widows and the ransoming of captives, 44 percent included a bequest to at least one hospital
and in east-central France two-thirds of all wills from 1300 included distributions of coin and or food to
the poor. These kindly bequests were made, “in consideration of piety and mercy,” - “in order to sustain
the poor compassionately,” or having “been moved by the zeal of compassion.” During this period
theologians insisted that the best way to love God was to act lovingly toward others and those who lived
by this teaching were praised by the church. Many of the saints canonized during the later twelfth and
thirteenth centuries were laywomen who devoted themselves to working in hospitals for the poor and
lepers. Many of those from the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries were venerated for founding
hospitals and other social welfare institutions. The French king St. Louis IX, was known for his frequent
illnesses, his ascetic lifestyle, his crusading failures, and the loss of his family members. His biographer
Guillaume de Saint-Pathus detailed the king’s many acts of charity including founding and patronizing
hospitals. Louis, he said, showed “marvelous tender compassion for people who were in a bad way.”
The thirteenth century saint Elizabeth of Hungary distributing food to the poor, washed their feet each
year on Holy Thursday, made clothes and habits for burying the dead and founded a hospital at Marburg
in Thuringia where she assisted in a nursing capacity experiencing the misery of the poor by taking on
Christ role as the suffering servant. In today’s busy and competitive modern world, compassion may
seem to be in short supply, yet it always exists in every happy relationship and in every happy family.
Compassion in Buddhism
Compassion is central to Buddhist philosophy and practice, it is one of the Four Immeasurable
Attitudes taught by the Buddha. The Noble Eightfold Path of Right View, Right Resolve, Right Speech,
Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration provides a

38
complete guideline for living and developing the Four Immeasurables of Loving Kindness,
Compassion, Sympathetic Joy and Equanimity. These are also called the Four Divine Abodes, the
foundational mind states of being. These basic principles were taught by Siddhartha Gautama, once a
prince who became the Buddha, the Enlightened One. After many years of search and struggle to
understand the nature of existence he sat in deep meditation in the shade of the Bodhi tree and finally his
mind became illuminated. He formulated The Four Noble Truths to explain that all existence is filled
with suffering caused by craving but liberation from this is possible by following the Noble Eightfold
Path. The Right View concerning suffering and liberation shows the virtue of compassion and kindness
which direct the mind away personal craving. right thought stresses the importance of mindful
awareness especially of others. Right Speech places this understanding in the social context of other
people. Right Action puts Buddhist principles into practice and this is developed into Right Livelihood
which ensures that a chosen career not causes others to suffer. Right Effort recognizes that well-being is
created through personal effort. The principles of Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration give
importance to the development of mind through the practice of meditation while the principles of Right
Resolve and Right Effort ensure that intentions and choices are aligned to the Eightfold Path.
The 5th-century Indian Theravada Buddhist monk Buddhaghosa wrote the Vishuddhimagga,
Path of Purification. a comprehensive summary of teachings and practices principally that of meditation
on the Four Noble Immeasurables. Buddhaghosa established a meditative practice for developing the
quality of compassion in the following way : first imagine someone experiencing intense misery, this
will naturally evoke a compassionate response. Next direct this empathetic feeling in turn towards a
friend, a neutral person and then a hostile person until finally this compassionate empathy is extended to
all beings everywhere. Anyone who has tried to extend compassion towards a hostile person will
understand the challenge involved in this. Buddhaghosa applied the same principles to each of the Four
Immeasurables. ‘‘In order to generate genuine compassion, first of all one must go through the training
of equanimity. This becomes very important because without a sense of equanimity towards all, one’s
feelings towards others will be biased. So now I will give you a brief example of a Buddhist meditative
training on developing equanimity. You should think about, first, a small group of people whom you
know, such as your friends and relatives, towards whom you have attachment. Second, you should think
about some people to whom you feel totally indifferent. And third, think about some people whom you
dislike.’’26 Here is a challenge for us all.
The development of compassion is central to Buddhism and in today’s complex world this is a
much needed quality for keystone professions serving the public good under challenging circumstances.
In recognition of this special case, Thupten Jinpa the Dalai Lama’s translator and a team of
26
The Dalai Lama’s Book of Wisdom, 93

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psychologists and neuroscientists established Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) at the Stanford
School of Medicine. The 8-week program of weekly 2-hour classes consists of lectures and group
discussion interactive exercises and a structured sequence of evidence based guided meditations
designed to support professionals to gain stress resilience and cultivate a sustainable sense of
compassion to protect against empathic distress and burnout while maintaining a warm-hearted and
robust responsiveness. Geshe Thupten Jinpa defined compassion as a multidimensional process
comprised of four key components: an awareness of suffering, an emotional sympathetic response
moved by suffering, the wish to relieve suffering and a responsiveness to relieve suffering, compassion
therefore includes cognition, sympathy, intention and motivation.
At the Harvard Medical School Dr. Helen Riess director of the Empathy and Relational Science
has designed an educational program to enhance empathy for medical residents and interns. The older
standard model of medical school training was almost entirely academic and paid little attention to the
quality of the doctor- patient interaction. In the program a series of videos showed the physiological
changes (as revealed by their sweat response) in doctors and their patients during difficult encounters.
When the doctors tuned in to their patients with empathy doctor and patient became more relaxed and in
sync biologically, this significantly improved the patient’s perception of the physician’s empathy. A
2010 study in Health Services Research showed that patients who received compassionate care after a
heart attack were at lower risk of dying within a year and even a brief 40 seconds delivered
compassionately lowered patient anxiety. The programme taught the physicians to monitor themselves
with mindful awareness of the interaction: maintaining focus using deep, diaphragmatic breathing and
paying attention to nonverbal cues from the patient such as tone of voice, posture and primarily facial
expression. This part of the program is based upon Paul Ekman’s work with emotion and facial
expression. He has suggested four dimensions of compassion: empathic compassion, being in touch
with the feelings of suffering of others, action compassion, taking actions to alleviate suffering,
concerned compassion, motivation for helping and aspirational compassion which is linked to a more
cognitive desire to develop compassion.
Compassion is central to all the schools of Buddhism, Hinayana, Mahayana and Varjrayana.
The Mahayana tradition means the Great Vehicle and this might be likened to a great ship in which all
are welcomed to travel towards the light of liberation. In this school, the systematic cultivation of
compassion and wisdom is explained in a group of texts called The Stages of Meditation written by the
eighth century Indian Mahayana teacher Kamalasila. His instruction on cultivating compassion for dear,
neutral, and hostile persons is similar to the Theravada teachings given by Buddhagosha. However in
the Mahayana tradition compassion is directed towards creating bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment
supported by the Bodhisattva Vow on the path of the Six Perfections to Buddhahood.

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 Through these actions now performed and all the virtues I have gained,
May all the pain of every living being be completely scattered and dissolved!
For all those ailing in the world, Until their every sickness has been healed, May I myself
become for them The doctor, nurse, the medicine itself.
Raining down a flood of food and drink, May I dispel the ills of thirst and famine. And in the
aeons marked by scarcity and want, May I myself appear as drink and sustenance.
For sentient beings, poor and destitute, May I become a treasure ever-plentiful, And lie
before them closely in their reach, a varied source of all that they might need.
My body, thus, and all my goods besides, and all my merits gained and to be gained, I give
them all and do not count the cost, To bring about the benefit of beings.
May I be a guard for those who are protectorless, a guide for those who journey on the road.
For those who wish to cross the water, May I be a boat, a raft, a bridge.
May I be an isle for those who yearn for land, a lamp for those who long for light; For all
who need a resting place, may I be a bed.
May I be the wishing jewel, the vase of wealth, a word of power and the supreme healing,
May I be the tree of miracles, For every being the wish-fulfilling cow.
27

The Tibetan practice of Tonglen is also known as taking and sending, this description
summarises the exchange that takes place in the meditative practice. Tonglen is entirely built upon
compassion since the intention is to breath-in the pain and suffering of another person and breathe-out
healing and compassionate clarity. This is the exchanger of poison for as medicine. The formal
meditation practice has four stages and includes connecting with the Bodhicitta mind to practice
Tonglen on behalf of people you consider to be your enemies, those who hurt you or others by their
actions. This is the challenge of taking and sending to those afflicted by mental suffering and in the
process of opening the compassionate heart, the benefit is shared.
In the later emergence of Vajrayana Buddhism which spread to Tibet and Himalayan regions of
Asia, teachings on the generation of compassion and wisdom were further refined. Accordingly in the
teachings of the Diamond Vehicle the capacity for compassion and wisdom is innate to all persons but
overlaid and masked by individual and socially conditioned habits of mind. Vajrayana asserts that our
basic awareness is a limitless expanse of emptiness and cognizance like boundless space pervaded by
sunlight, already endowed with all-encompassing wisdom and compassion. The cultivation of
compassion and wisdom is not the generation of new states of mind but rather the recognition and

27
The Way of the Bodhisattva, Section 3.7-34

41
release of the mind-obstacles such as fear and possessiveness which reinforce a permanent ego-identity.
Compassion is understood to be an intrinsic capacity of fundamental awareness, an innate quality of
primordial mind that is revealed when the mind is freed from its habitual patterns of self-centred
conceptualization and reactive thinking; the unlimited presence of wisdom and compassion, the emotion
without borders are the intrinsic qualities of the Buddha nature.
In1969 a young American woman named Sharon Salzberg took a course in Asian Philosophy at
the State University of New York, Buffalo, she did not know but this was to become the seed for the rest
of her life. In 1970 she travelled to India and began to seriously immerse herself in meditation studies. In
1974 she returned to the us and established the Insight Meditation Society with Joseph Goldstein and
Jack Kornfield in Barre, Massachusetts and this now ranks as one of the most prominent and active
meditation centres in the Western. She is now the author of eleven books, including Real Happiness and
Real Change. Sharon hosts the podcast, The Metta Hour, which has included interviews with more than
100 of the key practitioners in the meditation and mindfulness movement. It was Sharon Salzberg
introduced metta meditation to the West. The word metta in Pali is best translated as lovingkindness - an
unconditional benevolence and goodwill - a quality of love akin to the Greek agape. In 1989, Sharon
was a panellist in a dialogue with the Dalai Lama when she raised the point that many westerners felt
loathing toward themselves. His Holiness was quite astonished and responded by saying that in English
the word compassion refers to others but it does not include oneself. He continued by saying that in
Tibetan and also Pali and Sanskrit the word compassion includes feeling this for oneself as well as
others. He said that the new word, self-compassion was needed to convey this.
Loving-kindness meditation is practiced by resting attention on the repetition of phrases which
carry the energy of kindness towards the self and to others. She says ‘‘there are many phases and stages
of the practice, but we begin with the offering of loving-kindness to ourselves. Next we offer loving-
kindness to a neutral party, and we end with the offering of loving-kindness to all people everywhere.’’

May I be safe.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I live my life with ease.
May I be free from danger.
May I know safety.
May I have mental happiness.
May I have physical happiness.
May I have ease of well-being

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 These kindly phrases importantly express the intention for well-being in daily life and include
feeling of forgiveness for errors and personal shortcomings. This gentle attitude brings healing to harsh
judgements and self-criticism often generated by a western ‘black or white’ mentality. an Israeli group
found that teaching loving-kindness to people particularly prone to self-criticism both lessened those
harsh thoughts and increased their self-compassion.
Kristin Neff from the university of Texas, Austin and co-author of The Mindful Self-
Compassion Workbook has been studying the topic for more than a decade and developed the Self-
Compassion Scale. This is now commonly used in clinical studies. She says, “There is a ton of research
showing that whether you’re in combat or raising a special-needs child, dealing with cancer or going
through a divorce, self-compassion gives you the strength to get through it. That’s because it has an
effect on your physiology.’’ The effect of the fight-flight response is well documented but the body also
provides the antidote to this through the parasympathetic system which is designed to comfort and
soothe. “The sympathetic nervous system was designed to deal with physical threats, but now most of
our threats are created in our minds,” and many of these are self-induced created by pressure to work
hard, aim high, build success and establish material wealth; stress and its chemical messenger cortisol
can kill. ‘‘By accepting and comforting ourselves, and tapping into the power of self-compassion - we
can hold our pain and our brokenness in a kind and loving way, which de-activates the sympathetic
nervous system and helps us heal. Increasing self-compassion creates a more compassionate attitude
toward others. The engaged parasympathetic nervous system brings calmness, relaxation and a sense of
well-being. The vagus nerve activates both the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic
nervous system. Compassion practices help you more readily turn on your parasympathetic nervous
system. You become more calm and relaxed, and your brain functions at its best. Your blood pressure
and heart rate go down, and your immune system gets more robust. “When you practice compassion,
such as through meditation, you stimulate your vagus nerve - which you can think of like a highway that
sends messages to and from your brainstem and major organs, especially your heart.”
Buddhism stresses the value of a compassionate mind not only for others but also for oneself
and this is perhaps difficult when shame and guilt have come to dominate the mind. Paul Gilbert
developed compassion focused therapy during his long years dealing with psychopathology with a
special focus on shame and treatment of shame based issues. In 2006, he established the Compassionate
Mind Foundation charity with the mission statement, ‘‘to promote wellbeing through the scientific
understanding and application of compassion.’’ He was awarded an OBE in March 2011. The
foundation offers training courses for lay persons and professionals involved. Compassion Focused
Therapy is rooted in an evolutionary model of human development notably the brain, its physiology and
resulting psychology. The old motivations of threat awareness, rewarding and resource, contentment
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and soothing are still present and interact with newly evolved cognitive competencies, at times creating
conflict. The training course covers the deeply imbedded resistances to the openness of the
compassionate mind and explores practices that stimulate compassionate mental states and build a sense
of a compassionate identity.
Compassion and wisdom are interrelated in varying ways within all Buddhist traditions. In
Theravada Buddhism, the development of compassion is the source of the mental purification,
protection, and healing that supports inner freedom. In Mahayana Buddhism, the awakening of
compassion is the primary means recognizing the undivided nature shared by and common to all beings.
In Vajrayana Buddhism, unconditional compassion is regarded as the spontaneous expression of the
mind’s deepest nature. Each tradition has created its own ways and means of cultivating wisdom and
compassion through meditative and ritual practices. Western clinicians have incorporated many of these
principles into psychotherapeutic practice and western neuroscience has observed the result of mind
upon matter.
Healing and compassion
The motivation to help the weak and vulnerable may have evolved from the evolutionary
instinct for survival but it has become a hallmark of the human mind and human culture. There are
many forms of healing; mental, physical, emotional and even political but they are all driven by the
same motive which is to alleviate suffering. There can be no doubt that some individuals, invariably the
few among the many have been primarily moved to alleviate suffering both animal and human. These
are the founders of charitable institutions, hospitals, and schools. These are the social reformers and
dissident voices in many generations, the reformers Dr. Barnado, Florence Nightingale, Elizabeth Fry,
Thomas Guy, who established Guy’s hospital in London in 1721, Wilbur Wilberforce the prime mover
in the abolition of slavery, Emily Pankhurst and the suffragettes who created the possibility of women’s
emancipation, all changed history and the social climate of their day. Those committed to act on behalf
of others unable to act on their own behalf is invariably a small role call of honour; the majority are
indeed most often silent in the face of monstrous and institutionalised injustice as the historical record
clearly shows: compassion is mere sentiment until it becomes action.
The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education is an important and
inspirational resource providing training courses, events and podcasts. Registration for the Applied
Compassion Training for the year 2023 is already full in February and applicants are advise to register
28
on the 2024 waiting list - such is the demand for this training. Research studies suggest that
compassion plays a significant role in reducing physiological stress and promoting physical and
emotional well-being. Modern technology, heart monitors, brain scans and blood tests beside
28
http://ccare.stanford.edu

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psychological surveys are now providing a fuller picture of what happens in the human body and mind
when suffering is approached in a caring and loving way. Self - compassion stabiles heart rate
variability, the fluctuations in the timing between heartbeats which is linked to an improved ability to
self-soothe in the face of stress. A 2015 study published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress found that
veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan who scored higher on a self-compassion scale were less
likely to develop PTSD or commit suicide. Another study published in 2016 by the American Diabetes
Association found that an eight-week self-compassion training for people with diabetes helped them
stabilize their glucose levels. Countless other research has linked self-compassion to lower rates of
depression, anxiety, stress and higher rates of happiness and improved immune function. Prosocial
behaviour has been proven to benefit physiological processes and psychological processes and social
relationships. Compassionate motives benefit social relationships and well-being whereas ego self-
focused motives do not. Compassion has also become the focus for psychotherapeutic interventions
with increasing evidence for their effectiveness. Taken together, research has revealed that the
sympathetic–parasympathetic balance, immune and cardiovascular functioning, frontal cortical
competencies, genetic expression, and a range of psychological processes all appear to operate more
optimally in conditions of safeness and caring, when humans feel cared for and are themselves caring
and supportive they function optimally.
The book Advances in Contemplative Psychotherapy is an excellent guide to the healing and
compassion in contemporary psychotherapy and in modern life. The introduction to the book by Roshi
Joan Halifax from the Upaya Zen Buddhist centre in New Mexico, is a powerful testimony to the
healing capacity of the compassionate mind. 29 ‘‘Since my work in the 1970’s with the pioneering Stan
Grof and my ongoing work with the contemplative neuroscience community of the Mind-Life Institute,
I have been deeply involved in the field of building around contemplative neuroscience………………
My work with clinicians and others prompted me to develop a heuristic map of compassion based on
social psychology and neuroscience, and the development of a process called GRACE that is way to
cultivate compassion in the process of interacting with others. G.R.A.C.E. is a simple mnemonic that is
easy to remember - an important quality when we are in the midst of a stressful interaction or situation.
The G.R.A.C.E. model has five elements:
1. Gathering attention: focus, grounding, balance
2. Recalling intention: the resource of motivation
3. Attuning to self/other: affective resonance
4. Considering: what will serve
5. Engaging: ethical enactment, then ending.

29
https://www.upaya.org

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 This template is the heart of Upaya’s programmes in the community, working directly in the
areas of death and dying, prison work, the environment, women’s rights and peacework; spiritual
teachings serve human needs and the challenges of everyday life.

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5. Wisdom – The Emotion of the
Universal
The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it. If a mountain is a
deity, not a pile of ore; if a river is one of the veins of the land, not
potential irrigation water; if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber; if other
species are biological kin, not resources; or if the planet is our mother, not
an opportunity — then we will treat each other with greater respect. This is
the challenge; to look at the world from a different perspective.

David Suzuki

Introduction
The philosopher Aristotle spoke of two realms of wisdom, the first he called theoretical wisdom
which is the understanding of the deep nature of reality and the human place in it, this is a metaphysical
wisdom. the second realm of practical wisdom relates to daily life and decision making within it- doing
the right thing at the right time for the right reasons. The two levels are connected, notions of daily
wisdom are derived from a broader perspective on life.
In Buddhism this theoretical wisdom is called Prajna, the ultimate understanding of the true
nature of existence and reality. It is derived from the sankrit roots pra, meaning beginning or premium,
and jna, meaning consciousness or understanding. This state of pure consciousness transcends all
worldly concepts and belief systems, it is considered to be a direct insight into the nature of reality the
apprehension of prajna is part of the enlightened mind. Buddhism teaches that wisdom should be
developed with compassion. The study of wisdom as a psychological construct has increased greatly
with more recent interest in the investigation of its neurobiological underpinnings. the psychological and
neurobiological accounts of wisdom show the components of wisdom may be cultivated by certain
practices and experience The neuroscience of wisdom has largely been approached from understanding
the neurobiology of the components of wisdom. wisdom as a unique construct that may be cultivated
over time for increased positive personal and societal well-being, basing this unification in the overlap of
neural networks that underlie the individual components of The first is a matter for philosophers, those
who love wisdom while the second is a matter for the social scientists. The highest wisdom is seeing
that in reality, all phenomena are incomplete, impermanent and do not constitute a fixed entity.
Compassion includes qualities of sharing, readiness to give comfort, sympathy, concern, caring.

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Prajna
Prajna is a Buddhist term often translated as wisdom, intelligence or understanding. It is
described in Buddhist texts as the understanding of the true nature of phenomena, as an intuitive
experience of ultimate reality attained in a state of samadhi. The Sanskrit word is derived from pra
meaning before and janat meaning he knows. Prajna is represented by the deities Prajnaparamita and
Manjushri. The female deity Prajnaparamita is known as Great Mother Prajnaparamita, she is said to be
the mother of all the Buddhas since all Buddhas are born from the transcendental wisdom which is the
Perfection of Wisdom. She is most often depicted yellow in colour and seated cross-legged. She has
four arms, in her upper left hand she holds a text and her upper right hand raises a flaming sword, her
lower hands give the gesture of meditation. Manjusri is a male bodhisattva. He also wields a flaming
sword in his right hand. He is also depicted with a sacred text, a lotus, a vase filled with the elixir of
knowledge and a book. He is often depicted as riding on a blue lion or sitting on the skin of a lion. His
name means Gentle Glory in Sanskrit.
The Varjrayana tradition might be described as a form of Deity Yoga in which divine images are
used as symbolic and sacred icons for meditative contemplation. These are not figures of worship which
signifies a subject-object relationship but representations of Buddhahood which is always internally
present. Meditations upon the deity including the related mantras and prayerful recitation of the sutras is
intended to awaken the Buddha nature within each person. The flaming sword held by both
Prajnaparamita and Manjusri represents the spiritual weapon of purgation and purification which is
required to burn away the obstacles in the path of pure perception. It combines the cutting power of the
sword with the transforming nature of fire, it is the Vajra Sword of Discriminating Light. Manjushri
extends a sacred text or sutra resting upon a lotus. In Tibetan Buddhism the most important
Prajnaparamita sutras are called the Seventeen Mothers and Sons, consisting of Six texts called Mothers
and eleven texts called Sons, this is a considerably body of teaching literature. The shortest and best-
known Prajnaparamita Sutra is the Heart Sutra which is said to present the essential meaning of the
Prajnaparamita literature in condensed form.
So know that the Bodhisattva
Holding to nothing whatever,
But dwelling in Prajna wisdom,
Is freed of delusive hindrance,
Rid of the fear bred by it,
And reaches clearest Nirvana.
All Buddhas of past and present,
Buddhas of future time,

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 Using this Prajna wisdom,
Come to full and perfect vision.
Hear then the great dharani,
The radiant peerless mantra,
The Prajnaparamita Whose words allay all pain;
Hear and believe its truth!

Extract from the Heart Sutra

Manjusri is the oldest and most significant Bodhisattva in Mahayana literature. He holds a lotus
bloom which is a traditional depiction of awakening from rootedness in the hidden depths and the
gradual movement upwards called by the light of the sun until finally the lotus blooms on the surface.
This symbolism of the lotus is also to be found in teachings of Sat Cakra Nirupana – Knowledge of the
Chakras which is yet another map of spiritual awakening. He is often depicted as riding on a blue lion or
sitting on the skin of a lion. The power of the untamed lion represents the untamed mind much like the
elephant depicted in the sequence known as The Nine Stages of Mental Quiesence. Blue is a celestial
colour representing the unlimited spaciousness of mind, the blue lion is the awakened mind. Manjushri,
the Gentle Glory holds a vase filled with the elixir of knowledge. These symbols together reveal the
ways of unfolding the true unobstructed nature of reality. Perhaps the most difficult teaching in the realm
of prajna is that of emptiness and non-self. This understanding contradicts the evidence of the senses
which provide information about a seemingly external world. Yet the world as understood by modern
physics is not the world of the senses but the strange subatomic world of particles and empty space. It is
perhaps through the revelations from the physicists that the understanding of Emptiness can best be
grasped. ‘‘Contemplate the five skandhas as originally empty and quiescent, non-arising, non-perishing,
equal, without differentiation.’’ This emptiness, quiescence, non-arising and non-perishing describe the
fundamental state of reality, it cannot be perceived through the senses or understood intellectually but
only through ‘‘Constantly thus practicing, day or night, whether sitting, walking, standing or lying
down, finally one reaches an inconceivable state without any obstruction or form.’’ It is clear that this
profound realisation of transcendent wisdom cannot be achieved without the direction of the bodhisattva
path. These teachings are no longer confined to the monastic environment since the conditions of the
twenty first century offer unique and unprecedented technological opportunities for world-wide
communication. Prajna is cultivated through the three levels: hearing, contemplating, and meditating.
The first is based on being open to new information through gathering knowledge, listening, reading and
hearing the principles of the dharma perhaps for the first time. This naturally leads to the second prajna,
that of contemplating whereby all that has been heard becomes the subject of reflection and the third

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prajna is that of meditation. Hearing can be likened to putting food in the mouth, contemplation is the
process of swallowing that food and allowing it to digest, meditation commences when the new diet
provides the constant source of nutrition and has become a way of life. This third stage and its new
processes bring about the personal realization of enlightenment which is the pure perception of reality –
the unobstructed view. these three stages of prana are now being met in radically new ways.
The Manjushri Kadampa Meditation Centre is part of the New Kadampa Tradition and an
international charitable organisation registered in England. the site was first founded by Lama Yeshe and
his students who in 1976 bought a neglected Victorian a mansion, Cornishead Priory in Ulverston
England and the Manjushri Institute was born. Lama Yeshe was driven by a desire to bring Buddhist
teachings to the West, his brief life and his subsequent incarnation as Osel Ling is told in the book,
Reborn in the West. In1992 the Manjushri Institute was renamed the Manjushri Mahayana Buddhist
Centre and a new constitution established the formal foundation of the NKT, the New Kadampa
Tradition. The modern Manjushri Kadampa Meditation Centre is the fruit of the seed planted by Lama
Yeshe’s aspiration in the early 1970’s. Today the centre is in the care of the Venerable Geshe Kelsang
Gyatsby Gyatso Rinpoche who shares the same mission to bring Buddhist teachings accessible in the
West for twenty-first century living. Now the foundation centre lists more than 200 centres and around
900 branch study groups in 40 countries. The centre offers teaching, residential courses, free e-books
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and using modern technology podcasts reach out across the globe. This centre represents a new
transmission protected and preserved in the West all but fragmented in its indigenous context.
Find yourself standing before the shrine of Manjusri in an ancient temple. You are quite alone
but you know that others have stood here too; the remains of incense sticks make small piles before his
statue and the air is perfumed with scent. He sits seated cross legged on the blue skin of a lion. He
wields a flaming sword in his right hand and a lotus blossom in his left. You recall that his name means
Gentle Glory and you begin to repeat the name like a private mantra.
Your attention is dawn to the flaming sword held aloft as if to strike and you begin to wonder
what obstacles demand to be destroyed in your own mind? But you also see the beautiful lotus extended
upon his left hand. You recall that the lotus commences its journey in the depths rooted in the mud and
hidden from view but it blooms on the surface in the light of the sun. Perhaps your journey is like the
lotus that Manjushri offers ? The journey towards wisdom is long and requires guidance. Manjushri
knows the way, you only need ask for his help.

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Manjushri Kadampa Meditation Centre https://manjushri.org

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Wisdom for Living Well
The transcendent wisdom of Prajna is quite unlike the matter of wise decision making in daily
life although the two levels of understanding are connected where the spiritual intention to live
harmoniously has taken root. In recent years, neuroscientists and social scientists have become
interested in wisdom as a demonstrable human capacity. The empirical work of social scientists
employs measurement tools such as The Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale developed by Ardelt in
2004. The scale is a self-administered measure of wisdom developed for use in large, standardized
surveys of older adults. The Berlin Wisdom Paradigm is a performance-based approach which
characterizes wisdom as ‘expertise in the fundamental pragmatics of life’ and participants are asked to
respond to vignettes about ambiguous moral dilemmas. A Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale developed by
Webster in 2003 reflects five dimensions of wisdom: Humour, Emotional regulation,
Reminiscence/Reflectiveness, Openness to experience, and Critical life experiences. The San Diego
Wisdom Scale includes six commonly identified components of wisdom: and markers of prosocial
behaviours - Social decision making, Self-reflection, Emotional regulation, Decisiveness, and
Acceptance of uncertainty.
Wisdom arises from understanding and understanding arises from a depth and breadth of
experience. Wisdom is rarely if ever associated with youth but instead with age and a long experience of
life, however it is not the count of years that creates wisdom but rather the way in which those years
have been lived. Understanding can be viewed as a distillation gathered from life experience and in the
recognition of repeated patterns of behaviour across generations. The progression of life can be viewed
as a series of choices and since change most often follows upon choice, life-decisions are best served by
a matured insight since a wise choice leads to desired outcomes but a foolish choice creates further
difficulties still seeking resolution. In recent years, wisdom science has begun to focus on the biological
processes that are intrinsically part of any psychological capacity. Researchers are tackling new
questions such as ‘What is happening in the brain when we make wise decisions?’ Decision making in
all its forms, personal, social, economic, political and even religious is determined by information,
knowledge and finally wisdom. information may seem to provide an overview but this may prove to be
superficial gloss rather than an in-depth understanding, knowledge subsumes the information required
and offers a broader perspective, wisdom includes both information and knowledge but in addition
brings insight as a distillation of life experience.
Decision making, most especially political decision making affects the lives of citizens and
shapes societies. Solon the Athenian statesmen and reformer was included in the Seven Wise Men of
Greece, a title given by the classical Greek tradition to seven philosophers, statesmen and lawgivers in
6th century BC who were renowned for their wisdom. It is unlikely that few if any current world leaders

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might also be called a wise-man except for the Dalai Lama who leads a tradition where wisdom is a
guiding principle in all matters. Decisions taken in the light of wisdom and neither special interest nor
self-interest are intended to be pro-social, that is to be of benefit to the many. The notion of shared
benefit includes abstract qualities such as justice, truth and those qualities and behaviours that value
others equally such as empathy and compassion. the word compassion means ‘suffering with’ and
empathy comes from the Greek empatheria meaning ‘to feel into’ or ‘to enter into the experience of
another. Compassion and empathy are both derived through the developed sensitivity of the imagination
which permits identification to move beyond the purely personal. Practical wisdom is displayed in wise
decision making and this requires the ability to shift perspective to embrace the other/others and this in
turn rests upon emotional intelligence, reflection, and calmness in the face of uncertainty and ambiguity.
These qualities of being named by modern social scientists are also those to be found in the spiritual,
religious and philosophical traditions of both east and west. The evolutionary success of the human
species is in many ways derived from care and co-operation as survival mechanisms, it might be said
that moving away from these most basic drives has in turn created the many threats to shared survival
now seen in the modern world. Modern neuroscientific advances have improved our ability to study
brain systems important for these traits in humans. It has been suggested that humans find meaning in
life when they connect to something larger than themselves, a process known as ‘self-transcendence.’
Connecting to something larger than ourselves seems critical both in developing wisdom in life and to
finding meaning in life itself.
Wisdom for our Time
We live in unprecedented times; unprecedented times call for unprecedented responses. The
central issues of this early phase of the twenty-first century are global: the pandemic of 2020-2022, the
extreme variability in weather conditions including the melting of permafrost regions and the observed
rising of sea levels, all have like disclosing fluid revealed the intrinsic social and cultural underpinning of
our varied nation states. There can be no doubt that deep cultural change is called for. Nor can there be
any doubt that we have entered a new mindset of human evolution. Some might call this entry into
Aquarian consciousness or describe this new awareness as a paradigm shift – the labels are unimportant
but the human response to this is absolutely vital. It is very easy to feel fearful and helpless in the face of
the overwhelming but great change begins in small ways as history always demonstrates.
Every age poses its own unique challenges. ‘‘What a remarkable moment in time we are in, and
being in it as global citizens, we are called to meet the future in a new and radical way, and from what
we discover, to foster culture change, one that touches the wider world.’’ 31 We are surely called upon to

31
Meeting the Boundless Horizon through Wise Hope and Not Knowing, Sep 25 2022 see the Upaya Centre

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act with wisdom, it is the antidote to folly. The Dalai Lama has created a vitalising dialogue between
Buddhism and Western sciences. The book Consciousness at the Crossroads is s a record of the second
Mind and Life Conference held in 1989 which focused on the study of mind, brain and cognition
through the different cultural lens of the East and West. The opening speech by Robert Livingstone set
the tone for the conference with the words: ‘‘We pay our respects to two cultural traditions which have
been separated for so very long and now have the opportunity for exchange.’’ The book was republished
in 2018 as Where Buddhism Meets Neuroscience and this new title fully recognises the special and
important contribution being made at that date and into the future. Now several key universities have
well established neuroscience research departments. The lab at Princeton headed by Molly Crockett
investigates how people learn and make decisions in social situations using a wide variety of methods
including behavioural experiments in the lab and online, field studies, computational modelling, brain
imaging, machine learning, and natural language processing in conjunction with scholarship across a
variety of disciplines; philosophy, anthropology, economics, psychology and neuroscience. Decision
making is where wisdom or lack of it, is to be seen. The processes of decision making is usually hidden
deep in cultural norms but culture itself is being radically transformed in the digital age and the new
phenomena of social media. Insight into group decision making, whether to help or harm, punish or
forgive, trust or condemn, is central to understanding the dynamics currently at work in the group
psyche and it might be said that the group psyche is now global. ‘‘Wisdom is probably not so well
understood by many. I want to share briefly interesting research in neuroscience., we learn that humans
are also capable of an approach to morality that is not self-centred. Research studies during the
pandemic demonstrated that overwhelmingly people preferred leaders who took a nonbiased approach
to solving pandemic dilemmas by sharing resources around the world rather than hoarding resources for
the home country. This recognition of altruistic political behaviour and motivation suggests and innate
bias towards care, generosity and the motivation of helping others. She call this impartial beneficence,
the motivation to benefit the collective welfare without prioritizing oneself or one’s immediate identity
group.’’ The lab has also studied the effect of mass gatherings, Burning Man in particular. Burning Man
is unique: tens of thousands of people gather in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert to create Black Rock City,
a temporary metropolis dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance where almost
everything that happens is created entirely by its citizens, the active participants in the experience.
“Observations at six field studies and 22 online follow-up studies spanning five years showed that self-
reported transformative experiences at mass gatherings were common, increased over time, and were
characterized by feelings of universal connectedness and new perceptions of others. These findings
highlight the prosocial qualities of transformative experience at secular mass gatherings and suggest

53
such experiences may be associated with lasting changes in moral orientation.” 32 She concluded that,
‘‘This social, psychological and moral transformation arises from epistemic transformation, meaning
that something quite new appears that could not have been imagined or anticipated before the actual
experience and personal transformation, the shift in values arising from the encounter with entirely new
experiences.’’ In layman’s terms this simply means that in a new and unprecedented situation stripped of
existing rules, something new and unexpected arises to meet the challenge. This is a note of optimism
since humanity is facing a new and unprecedented situation where existing rules have run their course.
The internet in all its manifestations of social media, podcasting, webinars, you-tube and much
more besides, is a revolution happening in our midst. It is a revolution of technology and mind together
epitomised by East-West dialogue set in motion by His Holiness but also demonstrated in a myriad of
small ways from personal websites to zoom meetings and on-line conferencing. The connectivity of
humanity has never been more apparent yet the old demons of separation are still present. In the Mind-
Life conference Robert Livingstone said that ‘‘One of the fundamentals underlying these dialogues is
our mutual concern for world peace.’’ He could not have known that in 2022 a new war would be
started for old goals long given up by civilised nations.
The new phenomena of East-West dialogue is an exciting thread in this new tapestry of global
becoming. One of these cultural nodes is the Zen Upaya Centre which shares much in common with the
intentions of Tibetan Buddhism but in its own unique tradition. The centre utilises all the modern digital
capabilities with online lectures, podcasts, teachings and an archive of inspirational resources. In the talk
Meeting the Boundless Horizon Through Wise Hope and Not Knowing (Sep 25, 2022) given by Roshi
Joan Halifax she said: ‘‘We learn that the research in fact focuses on wisdom’s components, including
wisdom being primed by attitudes and behaviours that are fundamentally pro-social, enhancing the
capacity for good and fair social decision making and a pragmatic approach to situatedness; the studies
also focus on the neural correlates related to wisdom of emotional balance, reflection, and self-
understanding; and the neuro-research has shown that people who are deemed wise, value tolerance and
deal skilfully, without stress, with uncertainty, and are high in adaptivity and resilience. All these
qualities are associated with wellbeing, competence, respect, integrity, and esteem.’’ This understanding
is entirely in accord with the idea that the Buddha nature exists in all persons and is a presence for the
highest good at all times. The talk directly addressed the crises of the present times. ‘‘The pandemic, the
ravages of the climate catastrophe, the sixth mass extinction felt in so many quarters, the war in Ukraine,
and the social, racial, and political churn we have been witness to, have given us a vivid chance to look
at how we live as individuals, and also as a society and what makes us human and how we might

32
https://burningman.org/podcast/the-science-of-generosity/

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choose to lean into the light. We are truly called to lean into the light at this time. And I believe we do
this through our experience of wise hope. ’’She defined this in the following way: ‘‘This is not the
ordinary hope of just wanting something to happen or optimistically imagining that everything will turn
out positively as if by some sort of magic. Wise hope is informed by wisdom and sourced in “Not
Knowing” or Beginners mind. It is unprescribed and spontaneous not directed to any stated outcome.
Wise hope is not the belief that everything will turn out well but rather that we find ourselves responding
from the groundlessness of possibility, from Beginner’s Mind or ‘Not Knowing’ wise hope can enhance
our capacity to work with uncertainty, to innovate, to build culture, and to model courage for others.
Wise hope means that we open ourselves to what we do not know, what we cannot know. It appears
through our courage to be in the field of radical uncertainty, and in a space of groundless adaptivity to
things as they are facing and addressing. ………….This is a sacred time we are in, yes, I feel it is
important to see that our work on transforming ourselves and the culture of our institutions on behalf of
others is sacred work. And truly the work that we are doing is hard work. It means our hands are in the
dirt, the dirt of our lives, the dirt of our institutions, the dirt of our society. That is the only way to plant a
new life, a new ethos, an ethos of care, an ethos of wisdom, an ethos of generativity. I believe that the
mindset of wise hope, infused with Beginner’s Mind, is a medicine that will keep us, as leaders,
showing up for this sacred work of meeting reality, moment after moment with wisdom, courage, and
care. Roshi Joan quoted from a contemporary Buddhist teacher Barry Lopez, who said we must not be
curtailed by a boundary, we must not be stopped by fear. The call we are hearing is to stand at the edge,
so the boundless horizon becomes visible. He wrote that “The effort of the imagination is to turn the
boundary into a horizon, because there is no end for you.” The boundary says: Here and no further! The
horizon says: Welcome! So, Horizon, welcome…! With this boundless horizon more visible to us, may
we continue to discover, envision, and integrate the light of wise hope into our lives and into the wider
world. ’’

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6. Transcendence - The Emotion of
Unity
A wider or more altruistic attitude is very relevant in today’s world. If we
look at the situation from various angles, such as the complexity and
interconnectedness of the nature of modern existence, then we will
gradually notice a change in our outlook, so that when we say ‘others’ and
when we think of others, we will no longer dismiss them as something that
is irrelevant to us. We will no longer feel indifferent.

The Dalai Lama’s Book of Wisdom

Introduction
The word transcendence is derived from the Latin prefix trans meaning beyond and the word
scandare, meaning to climb – climbing is an activity requiring effort and engagement, the mind-state of
transcendence is active rather than passive. Clearly the term refers to an unusual or rarified state of mind
since the concept of ‘beyond’ suggests something above or outside the norm. This being so, in what way
is transcendence of benefit and value? The norm is a familiar territory whether personal or social, it is
here that we spend most time, effort and energy, this is most often the realm of career making, family
and achievement but beyond this common area of human endeavour – where else is motivation to be
found ?
The American psychologist Abraham Maslow wanted to know what constituted positive
mental health and accordingly he studied the lives of on self-actualizing people figures such as Albert
Einstein, Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Baruch Spinoza and the healthiest 1% of the college
student population. He created the concept of humanistic psychology which was based on the view that
individuals innately possess the inner resources for growth and healing. This positive view of human
nature influenced the emergence of new therapeutic models of his time, notably client centred therapy
developed by carl rogers. Maslow much like Jung believed that every person is motivated by an innate
drive for individuation, the process of self-becoming. as part of this lifelong expansion of being, Maslow
described breakthrough moments which he called Peak experiences, profound personal awakenings into
love, understanding, and happiness. He expanded this idea to describe the natural shift from episodic
peak experiences to plateau experiences which characterised successful aging. Maslow summarised his
psychological- philosophical view in a hierarchical model of five levels now known as Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs. He described the highest level as that of Transcendence which he considered to be

56
the most inclusive and holistic level of human consciousness embracing relating to others, to human
beings in general, to other species, to nature and even to the cosmos.

Figure 2. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

The Transcendence of Nature

The work or domestic schedule is that of a regulated timetable, putting this to one side for a
short while always creates a sense of freedom, this might be as simple as taking a walk, visiting
somewhere new or possibly undertaking something more adventurous. Beyond the regulated life of
home and work is the unregulated realm of nature and it here that existence touches upon the
transcendent. The unregulated landscapes of nature; deserts, jungles, mountains, forests and rivers all
have played a role in the evolutionary development of the human species. The modern person no longer
has to face the challenges of living wholly dependent upon the natural world or of facing the real
dangers of co-existence with powerful creatures. The story of this stage of human evolution is told in the
historical and archaeological record and possibly even in the collective consciousness of the human
mind through symbols and stories. It should be no surprise to discover that nature is the most common
trigger for peak and transcendent experiences characterized by a deep feeling of connection and unity.
Being in nature, especially in wild and places brings a sense of wonder, humility, and connectedness.
These boundless and beautiful landscapes, the immensity of horizons without measure, the elemental
powers of storm and sky, all convey an interconnectedness beyond human control. A body of research
shows that making time to step out from everyday routine provides the time and space to re-connect
with the greater creation. These moments of reflection and contemplation offer the seeds of a sanctified
breakthrough into the realm of the sacred which includes a sense of deep connection and

57
interrelationship with all life and its cycles of birth and death. This deep understanding helps people to
heal, develop, and thrive, physically, psychologically, and spiritually. Restoring a prime connection with
nature has been used in various therapeutic ways; wilderness therapy often with troubled youth,
adventure therapy such as rock climbing or canoeing, or more simple retreats set in nature. Many studies
have documented the positive effects of nature based interventions in enhancing, for example, self-
concept and social attitudes, physical health reducing emotional problems and anxiety. This immediate
spiritualising response to nature even suggests as some researchers have argued that human beings have
an innate capacity and need for a felt relationship with the transcendent. The direct relationship with
nature requires no special exercises or instruction, it is simply the authentic human response of
wonderment.
Eco-spirituality is a new term in modern vocabulary which directly connects nature with an
opening into spirituality. This connection needs no religious dogma it is simply a human awareness that
arises from being with nature, flowing water, watching the tides, marking the seasons and sleeping
under the stars. This is the true human heritage and losing touch with these primal evolutionary roots
may prove to deeply damaging to the human psyche. According to academia, spiritual ecology was
initiated by a historian of medieval Europe, Lynn White Jr. with the book The Historical Roots of Our
Ecological Crisis published in 1967. He argued that Christianity based on the predominant
interpretation of the Bible were the main causes of the environmental crisis. White believed that it was
necessary to rethink, re-feel, and revision the place of humans in nature; the passage of time has proved
his insight to be correct.
Nature has inspired many creative minds throughout the ages with its endless beauty and
continuous becoming. the profound and direct experience of being immersed in the transcendent have
been rendered in image and word, a moment captured in time and handed on into the future like a
precious jewel. The English poet William Wordsworth described nature as ‘the mighty Being,’ A
teacher of wisdom - without which any human life is vain and incomplete. The closing lines of the Ode
to Immortality expresses a feeling shared by many:

Thanks to the human heart by which we live,

Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

His most well-known poem …………..is an evocation of a moment in time

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

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 When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Participation Mystique
The way that the human mind interprets data from the five senses creates and preserves a
separation and distinction between the thinker and the object of the thought. All sensory information
upholds this differentiation, the human mind thinks directly about the things seen, heard, touched, tasted
and smelled and indirectly through a vast series of mental concepts and categories that permit abstract
and symbolic thought. Nevertheless this mental manipulation remains distanced from the object of
thought and this is mainly how we perceive the world, but there are and have been other modes of
representing conceptual and sensory data. It was the anthropologist Lévy-Bruhl who introduced the
term participation mystique to describe a mode of mind best described as an identification with and
immersion in the natural external world. the blurring of boundaries between human life, animal life and
the elemental life of nature defined a world of mystery and wonder infused with super-natural presence
and power. Lévy-Bruhl and Jung both regarded this mode of mind as primitive and pre-logical, while
the term primitive carries a certain pejorative tone, participation mystique is undeniably a pre-logical
mode of mind. The nineteenth century psychologist William James famously said that ‘‘Our normal

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waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness,
whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness
entirely different.’’ The author and Jungian analyst Mark Winborn described a personal experience,
unexpected and entirely different in his book Shared Realities. It occurred while he was out running one
cool spring morning. ‘‘The sun was low still making its slow ascent into the dawn sky. About a mile into
the run I was beginning to settle into my stride, my body awakening to the pulse of its internal rhythm.
As I entered a familiar stretch of road completely covered by its dense canopy of rich green trees, I
noticed in the distance a single leaf had discharged itself from the vibrant awning. The leaf seemed
completely singular: vibrant green on the top and a bold yellow on the underside. I watched as it
descended, spiralling down like a helicopter rotor. Time and space seemed to collapse inwards – ceasing
to have meaning or weight in the moment. It was as if I had entered a visual/cognitive tunnel in which
time was arrested and only I and the leaf existed in some unseen communion. After a few moments,
which seemed to exist as an eternity, the enchantment slowly dissolved. The leaf once again became just
another leaf. However, the feeling of communion I shared with that singular leaf has now persisted over
a number of years and I continue to experience the sensation that the leaf “spoke” to me in that moment
and invited me to participate in its journey.’’ 33
Winborn’s account is remarkably descriptive and rich in imagery as if every detail had been
etched into his memory and this quality of mental attentiveness is reminiscent of a drug induced
moment when the veil of appearances unexpectedly seems to drop away and though his moment was
brief its impact was long lasting both intellectually and emotionally. It was even in its brief way a
moment of mystical transcendence. Such experiences permeate human experience and raise key
questions about the nature of consciousness. Winborn’s objective account of his subjective experience
draws the reader in but the reader can never fully share that moment of communion or fully understand
what passed through Winborn’s mind. The breakdown of the subject - object distinction is characteristic
of a mystical experience and this creates a transcendent feeling of unity with the greater world. These
mystical experiences never render well in the telling, conceptual language is not suited to convey the
ineffable, mystical experience deconstructs conceptual language. Mystical texts confound the rational
mind just as the Zen koan is intended to break the mind asunder, evocation, paradox, metaphor and
34
allegory open the mind to the expanses of symbolic realisation. This is the imaginative realm of the
poetic with all its available symbolism, metaphor, allegory and abstraction; this is doubtless the realm of
the right hemisphere of the brain-mind.

33
Shared Realities, 1
34
The Zen Koan is like a riddle, often as just a single word, it is given as a meditation subject without rational
solution.

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 At the University of Exeter Professor Adam Zeman and his team used Functional Magnetic
Resonance imaging to observe how the brain responded to hearing various forms of text: literal prose
(an extract from a heating installation manual), evocative passages from novels, easy and difficult
sonnets and favourite poetry. Favourite passages of poetry activated areas of the brain associated with
memory and emotionally charged writing aroused several of the regions in the brain which are known
to respond to music, these are predominantly on the right side of the brain which creates that familiar
physical sensation of ‘shivers down the spine.’ Hearing poetry activated the posterior cingulate cortex
and medial temporal lobes, brain areas linked to introspection. Both poetry and music elicit emotional
and physiological responses including chills and ‘goosebumps’ that engage the primary reward circuitry
but the neural underpinnings differ with regard to the role of the nucleus accumbens. The Japanese
haiku-form captures a brief visual vignette but also evoke a powerful emotional response. The two
verses by Matsuo Bashō clearly demonstrate this unique quality:

in Kyoto,
hearing the cuckoo,
I long for Kyoto.

A caterpillar,
this deep in fall
still not a butterfly.

The haiku form of 17 syllables arranged in three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables almost magically
translates image into an emotional response, it is a formula that does not fail and can be applied to
ordinary moments of life with fascinating results. 35

Cut grass scents the air

A dog barks hoping for food
I am lost in dream.

Poetry frees the mind as all poets understand. It is perhaps the least familiar of all the arts and
this cultural resource is possibly fading in the glare of all things digital yet it remains a deep reservoir of
human experience which much to give to the reflective mind. In 2002 William Blake was placed at
number 38 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Hindsight has accorded him a place in history
as a poet, painter visionary, philosopher and mystic, during life his contribution was largely
unrecognized. Blake’s poem ‘Auguries of Innocence’ uses the poetic form set the perfect divine world
against the fallen social order and its opening stanza expresses the vision of the mystic - the eternal

35
See the book :Three Simple Lines

61
moment embodied in nature. It is only the poetic form that permits the paradoxical and the metaphysical
to become companions.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
Blake expressed his transcendent understanding in these four brief lines in poetic form, these
words also invite the reader or hearer to share in his mystical vision. The Indian poet Rabindranath
Tagore. Nobel Poet Laureate, philosopher and mystic also expressed his transcendental vision in the
freedom of the poetic form.
My life when young was like a flower
A flower that loosens a petal or two from her abundance and never feels the loss when the
spring breeze comes to beg at her door.
Now at the end of youth my life is like a fruit, having nothing to spare, and waiting to offer
herself completely with her full burden of sweetness.
Is summer's festival only for fresh blossoms and not also for withered leaves and faded flowers?
Is the song of the sea in tune only with the rising waves?
Does it not also sing with the waves that fall?
Jewels are woven into the carpet where stands my king, but there are patient clods waiting to be
touched by his feet.
Few are the wise and the great who sit by my Master, but he has taken the foolish in his arms
and made me his servant for ever. A handful of dust could hide your signal when I did not know its
meaning.
Now that I am wiser I read it in all that hid it before.
It is painted in petals of flowers; waves flash it from their foam; hills hold it high on their
summits.
I had my face turned from you,
therefore I read the letters awry and knew not their meaning.
You took my hand and drew me to your side,
made me sit on the high seat before all men,
till I became timid, unable to stir and walk my own way; doubting and debating at every step
lest I should tread upon any thorn of their disfavour.
I am freed at last!
The blow has come, the drum of insult sounded, my seat is laid low in the dust.
My paths are open before me.
My wings are full of the desire of the sky.
I go to join the shooting stars of midnight, to plunge into the profound shadow.
I am like the storm-driven cloud of summer that, having cast off its crown of gold, hangs as a
sword the thunderbolt upon a chain of lightning.
In desperate joy I run upon the dusty path of the despised; I draw near to your final welcome.
The child finds its mother when it leaves her womb.
When I am parted from you, thrown out from your household, I am free to see your face.

Fruit Gathering, verses 1-X

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Pathways to Transcendence
Transcendence was described by Maslow as the highest expression of human experience,
understood first in a fleeting but potent peak moment but then matured into a more stable and lasting
perspective on life as the transcendent plateau. This revelation might be understood as a distillation of
life experience or an understanding of a principle. It could be said that the revelation understood by
Siddhartha Gautama was an experience of transcendence; he saw the principles that generated a life well
lived, he no longer needed to continue the quest to understand life through its experience, he now
understood its essence and was utterly changed by this revelation; Siddhartha Gautama had become the
Buddha, the Enlightened One. After this experience, now known as enlightenment he began to share
these principles so that others might benefit. It might be said that the spiritual teachings of the major
world traditions are likewise the doctrines of transcendence, the essential principles of life gained by the
few and given to the many. It is this quality of transcendence that lifts human understanding beyond
everyday appearance and the many paradoxes presented by life. Without this overview life is lived in the
immediate and mainly from sensory input, moral and ethical values arise from a philosophical
perspective, utilitarian values and behaviours arise from a materialistic perspective; the clash between
these two value systems has always been present in society but it is now being played out on a global
environmental stage.
Spiritual teachings cannot exist in a vacuum but must be applicable to life and the twenty-first
century is posing unique and unprecedented questions to all faith traditions. In the report Global 2000
commissioned by the Millennium Institute the authors envisage the challenge facing the world. ‘‘The
task before us is fundamentally spiritual in nature to discover who we as humans are, how we are to
relate to each other and the whole community of life, and what are we to do individually and
collectively, here on earth.’’ These questions seek answers of transcendence, spirituality must engage
with the issues of our time, especially the fundamental question of the relationship between human
beings and the natural world. consumerism has nothing of value to add to this conversation, the Catholic
priest Father Thomas Berry has a great deal to say on this matter. At the age of eleven he experienced a
profound moment of revelation that was to shape his entire life. This too might be regarded as a peak
moment, despite his young age since its impact became the basis for his entire view of life expressed as
the Twelve Principles for Understanding the Universe which he first stated in 1984:
 The Universe, the solar system, and the planet Earth in themselves and in their evolutionary
emergence constitute for the human community the primary revelation of that ultimate mystery
whence all things emerge into being.
 The Universe is a unity, an interacting and genetically-related community of beings bound together
in an inseparable relationship in space and time. The unity of the planet Earth is especially clear:

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 each being of the planet is profoundly implicated in the existence and functioning of every other
being of the planet.
 From its beginning the Universe is a psychic-spiritual as well as physical reality.
 The three basic laws of the Universe at all levels of reality are differentiation, subjectivity and
communion. These laws identify the reality, the values and the directions in which the Universe is
proceeding.
 The human is that being in whom the Universe activates, reflects upon and celebrates itself in
conscious self-awareness.
 Earth, within the solar system, is a self-emergent, self-propagating, self-nourishing, self-educating,
self-governing, self-healing, self-fulfilling community. All particular life systems in their being, their
sexuality, their nourishment, their education, their governing, their healing, their fulfilment, must
integrate their functioning within this larger complex of mutually dependent Earth systems.
 The genetic coding process is the process through which the world of the living articulates itself in
its being and its activities. The great wonder is the creative interaction of the multiple codings
among themselves.
 At the human level, genetic coding mandates a further trans-genetic cultural coding by which
specifically human qualities find expression. Cultural coding is carried on by educational
processes.
 The emergent process of the Universe is irreversible and non-repeatable in the existing world order.
The movement from non-life to life on Earth is a one-time event. So too, the movement from life to
human form of consciousness. So also, the transition from the earlier to the later forms of human
culture.
 The historical sequence of cultural periods can be identified as the tribal-shamanic period, the
Neolithic village period, the classical civilization period, the scientific-technological period and the
emerging ecological period.
 The main human task of the immediate future is to assist in activating the inter- communion of all
the living and non-living components of Earth’s community in what can be considered the emerging
ecological period of Earth’s development.
 Functionally, the great art of achieving this historical goal is the art of intimacy and distance.
36

This is a doctrine of transcendence and its message is that of unity that places all life on earth
into the greater setting of the cosmos. This is not an entirely unique notion, however Berry took this
context as the foundation for the entirely new concept of Earth Jurisprudence, the legal formulation of
rights for the rights of mother earth, a call to cast off the dominating anthropocentric paradigm and
create a new relationship with nature based on the philosophy of Deep Ecology promoted by
Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss which calls for ‘re-earthing’ an identification with trees, animals and
plants, indeed the whole ecosphere. Berry’s concept of Earth Jurisprudence echoes the Andean
understanding of Pachamama, the Great Mother and it is in the South American countries of Bolivia

36
The Twelve Principles for Understanding the Universe were subsequently revised by Thomas Berry and
published in Evening Thoughts 2006; reprinted by Counterpoint Press

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and Ecuador that legal history has been made. The Constitution of Ecuador, 2008. Includes the Rights of
Nature in Articles 71,72 and 73. ‘‘The State shall apply preventive and restrictive measures on activities
that might lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of ecosystems and the permanent alteration of
natural cycles. The introduction of organisms and organic and inorganic material that might definitively
alter the nation’s genetic assets is forbidden.’’
In 2010 The World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth
was held in Bolivia. The event was attended by around 30,000 people from over 100 countries,[1] and the
proceedings were transmitted live online. The conference produced The People’s Agreement which
opened with the statement: ‘‘Our Mother Earth is wounded and the future of humanity is in danger.’’
The conference drew up proposals recognizing the reality of climate change. To face climate change, we
must recognize Mother Earth as the source of life and forge a new system based on the principles of:
 Harmony and balance among all and with all things.
 Complementarity, solidarity, and equality.
 Collective well-being and the satisfaction of the basic necessities of all people in
harmony with nature.
 Recognition of human beings for what they are, not what they own.
 Elimination of all forms of colonialism, imperialism and interventionism.
 Peace among the peoples and with Mother Earth.

The conference also produced The Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth and
called on the General Assembly of the United Nation to adopt it, as a common standard of achievement
for all peoples and all nations of the world. it opened with the powerful words - ‘‘We, the peoples and
nations of Earth: considering that we are all part of Mother Earth, an indivisible, living community of
interrelated and interdependent beings with a common destiny; gratefully acknowledging that Mother
Earth is the source of life, nourishment and learning and provides everything we need to live well.’’ The
declaration stated its basic principles :
 Mother Earth is a unique, indivisible, self-regulating community of interrelated beings
that sustains, contains and reproduces all beings.
 Each being is defined by its relationships as an integral part of Mother Earth.
 The inherent rights of Mother Earth are inalienable in that they arise from the same
source as existence.
 Mother Earth and all beings are entitled to all the inherent rights recognized in this
Declaration without distinction of any kind, such as may be made between organic and
inorganic beings, species, origin, use to human beings, or any other status.
 Just as human beings have human rights, all other beings also have rights which are
specific to their species or kind and appropriate for their role and function within the
communities within which they exist.
 The rights of each being are limited by the rights of other beings and any conflict
between their rights must be resolved in a way that maintains the integrity, balance and
health of Mother Earth.

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 37

These words might be compared with those spoken by leaders who still deny the reality of
climate change and still espouse values long proved to be outdated.
Siddhartha Gautama was changed by his experience and became the Buddha, the young boy
born William Nathan took the name Thomas after Thomas Aquinas when he entered the monastery of
the Passionist order in 1933. Father Thomas Berry became a non-traditional catholic priest, cultural
historian and scholar of the world’s religions, especially its Asian traditions. He studied Chinese
language and culture, learned Sanskrit, studied and taught classes in native American cultures and
shamanism. this world view became but part of a greater cosmic view as the foundation for a new and
necessary earth story. His views are completely in accord with those of Buddhism summarised in an
interview with the 14th Dalai Lama: ‘‘First, it is important to realize we are part of nature. Among the
thousands of species of mammals on earth, we humans have the greatest capacity to alter nature. As
such, we have a twofold responsibility. Morally, as beings of higher intelligence, we must care for this
world. The other inhabitants of the planet - insects and so on - do not have the means to save or protect
this world. Our other responsibility is to undo the serious environmental degradation that is the result of
incorrect human behaviour. We have recklessly polluted the world with chemicals and nuclear waste,
selfishly consuming many of its resources. Humanity must take the initiative to repair and protect the
world.’’ 38

37
https://unfccc.int/files/meetings/ad_hoc_working_groups/lca/application/pdf/bolivia_awglca10.pdf
38
Politics and Environment: An Interview with the Dalai Lama:
http://www.dalailama.com/messages/environment/politics-and-environment

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 7. Enlightenment – The Emotion of
Fearlessness
What is it that draws a person to spiritual life/ from as far back as we can
remember , we can each senses a mystery in being alive. When we are
present with an infant in the first moments of birth, or when the death of a
loved on brushes close to us, the mystery becomes tangible. It is then
when we see a radiant sunset or find a moment’s silent stillness in the
flowing seasons of our days. Connecting to the sacred is perhaps our
deepest longing.

Jack Kornfield, After the Ecstasy, The Laundry

Introduction
The human mind is plagued by many fears: loss of status, loss of health, loss of independent life
and silently behind all fears there is an unspoken fear of death. Yet humanity carries on generation after
generation seemingly undaunted and mostly living in a state of denial and delusion; modern life
especially in the West offers many compensations: holidays, endless digital entertainment, fast food,
social media and all the trimmings of instant gratification. This delightful utopia provides abundant
distraction from the fundamental questions of life which remain those of meaning. While the question
remains unasked, the instinctive drives of youth fill the mind and the years with passionate fervour but
this too will pass and its achievement may prove to be hollow in the face of damaged relationships,
career dissatisfaction and the relentless pursuit of More. The plateau of middle age brings a different
perspective and the unasked question of meaning may surface as a gentled mellowing with life or the
classic mid-life crisis in its many forms from the philosophical to the frantic. Middle age whether
contented or otherwise like the double face of Janus looks back into the past and forwards into the
future, perhaps this is the time to ponder the unasked questions of life. Siddhartha Gautama was
prompted to ask questions of life when he witnessed old age, sickness and death for the first time. His
questions were answered by the long period of meditation at the foot of the bodhi tree. After a quest
lasting for six years Siddhartha Gautama was reborn as the Buddha the Enlightened One; the quest for
meaning always begins with a question. Socrates famously said, “The unexamined life is not worth
living,” and this notion is at the heart of philosophy. The word philosophy is derived from the two words
philo meaning love and sophia meaning wisdom – philosophy is the love of wisdom, the quest for
wisdom is the quest to understand life.

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 The term enlightenment has become familiar to a western audience with the appearance of
Buddhism in the West but this eastern terminology has an equivalent in the western esoteric tradition
where it is known as illumination. However this stream has for historical reasons flowed as an
underground current and its terminology and teachings have been mainly hidden and only found by the
few. Nevertheless the two terms – enlightenment and illumination share a commonality which is the
image of bringing light into the darkness. It might seem inconceivable that the human mind should be
described in terms of darkness but a moment’s reflection on human history immediately discloses the
result of ignorance : deliberate cruelty, ruthless exploitation and mass murder. Where is a remedy to be
found ? All action follows upon thought. The noble Eightfold Path established by the Buddha prescribed
a way of life built upon realigning thought with conduct in all matters: right view, right resolve, right
speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right meditation. These are the
roots of enlightenment and illumination and in Buddhism the Lam Rim is the graduated path towards
the goal of enlightenment.
Cosmic Consciousness
The notion of cosmic consciousness originated in the writings of a Edward Carpenter a
progressive thinker and scientist who travelled to India and Sri Lanka in 1890 where he listened to the
teachings of Ramaswami, an Indian sage and disciple of Tilleinathan Swami. He invented the phrase to
capture the concept of an all-encompassing consciousness accessible to the human mind that he was
hearing for the first time. Interest in oriental philosophy had arrived in late Victorian England with
Theosophy and the ideas of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky known to history as Madame Blavatsky. This
infusion of these utterly non-Christian ideas coincided with the widespread popularity of Victorian
spiritualism and the emergence of magical and occult ideas most particularly through the Hermetic
Order of the Golden Dawn. British imperialism in India had opened a door into Hindu philosophy,
Tantra and Vedanta and the gentile façade of Victoriana began to look shallow in the face of such ancient
traditions; the time was ripe for change; political, economic, social and spiritual.
On March 18th, 1837 in the small village of Methwold in Norfolk England, Richard Maurice
Bucke was born as the youngest addition to six brothers. In the following year the Bucke family
emigrated to Canada with their seven young children where they settled in a homesteading life in
Ontario. His youth was spent in adventuring in America where he nearly lost his life in a snowstorm
which took the life of his companion. Bucke made his way back to Canada and became a medical
student at McGill University where he became a brilliant student and won two of the nine prizes
awarded in 1862 when he graduated. His interests were broad including history, science, literature,
particularly poetry and biography. In 1864 he began to practise medicine and in 1876, he was appointed
Superintendent at the newly-opened mental hospital in Hamilton. It was here that he saw a connection

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between the mind and the body and came to believe that this relationship could only be understood in
the perspective of the evolution of consciousness and a psycho-physical interrelationships with the
Cosmos perhaps influenced by Carpenter with whom he had a correspondence. He described his own
life as ‘‘one passionate note of interrogation and unappeasable hunger for enlightenment.’’
Bucke was a founder of the Medical School in London and its first Professor of Nervous and
Mental Diseases. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, President of the Psychological
Section of the British Medical Association and finally, a distinguished President of the American
Medico-Psychological but he is most remembered for his ground breaking book Cosmic
Consciousness: a Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind, published in 1901 just a year before his
untimely death caused by a fall on ice. The book has exceeded 22 editions and has never been out of
print. Not only was Bucke interested in cosmic consciousness as a theoretical model of mind but his
own life was touched by a profound experience and his magnum opus was doubtless rooted in personal
experience. The incident is included in this book. In 1872 Bucke had spent the evening with friends
reading poetry. It was midnight when he left them to drive home in a hansom cab and described himself
as being in a state of quiet, almost passive enjoyment. ‘‘All at once, without warning of any kind, he
found himself wrapped around as it were by a flame-coloured cloud. For an instant he thought of fire,
some sudden conflagration in the great city; the next, he knew that the light was within himself. Directly
afterwards came upon him a sense of exultation, of immense joyousness accompanied or immediately
followed by an intellectual illumination quite impossible to describe. Into his brain streamed one
momentary lightning-flash of the Brahmic Splendour which has ever since lightened his life; upon his
heart fell one drop of Brahmic Bliss, leaving thenceforward for always an aftertaste of heaven. Among
other things he did not come to believe, he saw and knew that the Cosmos is not dead matter but a living
Presence, that the soul of man is immortal, that the universe is so built and ordered that without any
peradventure all things work together for the good of each and all, that the foundation principle of the
world is what we call love and that the happiness of every one is in the long run absolutely certain. He
claims that he learned more within the few seconds during which the illumination lasted than in
previous months or even years of study, and that he learned much that no study could ever have taught.
The illumination itself continued not more than a few moments, but its effects proved ineffaceable; it
was impossible for him ever to forget what he at that time saw and knew; neither did he, or could he,
ever doubt the truth of what was then presented to his mind.” 39 The rest of his life was spent exploring
this brief moment. His experience bears some similarity with those of the French mathematician and
scientist Blaise Pascal and the German mystic Jacob Boehme.

39
Cosmic Consciousness, 10

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 In 1894, Dr. Bucke read a paper on Cosmic Consciousness to the American Medico-
Psychological Association Meeting in Philadelphia in May of that year. He introduced his theory about
the development of consciousness and saw the presence of a higher and non-ordinary form of
consciousness in the towering figures of history. In 1899 the manuscript was complete. He explored
fourteen instances of illumination: Buddha, Christ, Mohammed, St. Paul, Dante, Frances Bacon, Jacob
Boehme, William Blake, Walt Whitman and Edward Carpenter and also a collection of testimonials
gained from unknown figures. The contemporary commentators Edward F Kelly and Michael Grosso
also perceive a connection between the genius non-usual perception of life and the personal experience
of this higher state of consciousness. ‘‘There are profound and inescapable interconnections, both
historical and psychological between mysticism and genius.’’40 Moreover, ‘‘Indeed it is no exaggeration
to say with Bucke that mystical consciousness pervades the foundation of all civilisation.’’41
Bucke’s study led him to describe consciousness in three forms: Simple Consciousness
possessed by the upper half of the animal kingdom, the distinctively human attribute of Self-
Consciousness and the personal experience of immersion into the life of the cosmos. He saw that this
higher form of consciousness occurred only to a few but he believed that its incidence was increasing.
He concluded that this non-usual experience brought a significant changes in the quality of life, a range
of new qualities, a sense of re-birth, a joy , an enhanced moral nature and heightened intellectual powers.
He was optimistic about the future and believed that structural changes in society would assist the
emergence of cosmic consciousness more widely. Accordingly, he described three impending
revolutions: the material, economic and social revolution resulting from the establishment of aerial
navigation, the economic and social revolution to abolish individual ownership and rid the earth of two
immense evils; riches and poverty and finally the psychical revolution in which all religions will be
‘melted down’ and superseded by the direct experience of the divine.
He dedicated his monumental work to his son Maurice who died in tragic circumstances aged
only 32. He addressed himself to his beloved son. ‘‘I desire to speak here of my confident hope, not of
my pain. I will say that through the experiences which underlie this volume I have been taught, that in
spite of death and the grave, although you are beyond the range of our sight and hearing,
notwithstanding that the universe of sense testifies to your absence, you are not dead and not really
absent, but alive and well and not far from me this moment. I have been permitted-no, not to enter, but-
through the narrow aperture of a scarcely opened door, to glance one instant into that other divine world,
it was surely that I might thereby be enabled to live through the receipt of those lightning-flashed words

40
Irreducible Mind, 521
41
Irreducible Mind, 522

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from Montana which time burns only deeper and deeper into my brain. Only a little while now and we
shall be again together and with us those other noble and well-beloved souls gone before. I am sure I
shall meet you and them; that you and I shall talk of a thousand things and of that unforgettable day and
of all that followed it; and that we shall clearly see that all were parts of an infinite plan which was
wholly wise and good. Do you see and approve as I write these words? It may well be. Do you read
from within what I am now thinking and feeling? If you do you know how dear to me you were while
you yet lived what we call life here and how much more dear you have become to me since. Because of
the insoluble links of birth and death wrought by nature and fate between us; because of my love and
because of my grief; above all because of the infinite and inextinguishable confidence there is in my
heart, I inscribe to you this book, which, full as it is of imperfections which render it unworthy of your
acceptance, has nevertheless sprung from the divine assurance born of the deepest insight of the noblest
men.’’ Bucke’s moving testament is a statement of fearlessness born from his own enlightenment, even
death the greatest of human fears was conquered by the light of illumination.
Mystical Consciousness
Mysticism remains a challenging subject for mainstream psychology. Yet reports of mystical
across time and culture pose many important questions about the nature of human consciousness and
what it means to be fully human. The British philosopher H.H. Price noted for his study of perception
and thinking wrote that ‘‘No philosophy of human personality is worth much unless it takes full account
of the data of mystical experience.’’42 Despite the perceived challenges for empirical research, the
considerable data of mystical experience cannot be ignored as an inconvenient anomaly. The authors of
the book Irreducible Mind cite significant current developmental resources previously unavailable to
earlier researchers. This includes the range of functional neuro imaging methods and the serious interest
in the dissemination of traditional mind-brain transformative practices arising notably from an East-
West dialogue between research scientist and experienced practitioners. The phenomena of mystical
consciousness demands to be recognized and understood as an essential component of the human mind.
‘‘It is an incontrovertible and empirically grounded fact that the mystical domain comprises large
numbers of real human experiences, moreover, which are often uniquely powerful and transformative
And that experiences of this sort lie at or near the foundations of religions generally and thus even of
civilization itself.’’43 If mystical experience is connected with the genius mind, with the foundations of
religion and civilization is it not important to understand its place in human consciousness? The
Christian mystic Evelyn Underhill wrote the widely acclaimed book Mysticism: A Study in Nature and
Development of Spiritual Consciousness. Her work has become a classic text. in the book she described

42
Review of The Imprisoned Splendour by H.H Price, 52- 53
43
Irreducible Mind, 573

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mysticism as the highest form of human consciousness. ‘‘Broadly speaking, I understand it to be the
expression of the innate tendency of the human spirit towards complete harmony with the
transcendental order; whatever be the theological formula under which that order is understood. This
tendency, in great mystics, gradually captures the whole field of consciousness; it dominates their life
and, in the experience called “mystic union,” attains its end. Whether that end be called the God of
Christianity, the World-soul of Pantheism, the Absolute of Philosophy, the desire to attain it and the
movement towards it—so long as this is a genuine life process and not an intellectual speculation—is
the proper subject of mysticism. I believe this movement to represent the true line of development of the
highest form of human consciousness.’’44 Religions most often divide but mystical experience is to be
found in all religions transcending all dogma and doctrine. The many testimonies across all religious
traditions share a commonality and these shared features have been described by seven characteristics:
 A Noetic Quality
 The experiences brings direct knowledge.
 Ineffability
 The experience is difficult perhaps even impossible to express in words.
 Transiency
 The experience is most often brief according to clock time yet it conveys a sense of
timelessness.
 Passivity
 The experience feels as if it is not generated by the person but rather received.
 Oneness
 The experience brings a sense of wholeness and immersion in the Oneness of all life.
 Transcendence
 The experience brings a sense of ultimate reality and authenticity- the experience of the
personality is by comparison a pale projection.

This is the message of saints and sages, gurus and philosophers, poets and yogi’s – visionaries
one and all, it is a non-usual perception of existence given to the few for the benefit of the many.
Accounts of mystical experiences can be found across all tradition, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic,
and in all metaphysical philosophies Tantric, Hermetic and Gnostic. ‘‘Those mystics, properly speaking,
can only be studied in their works: works which are for the most part left unread by those who now talk
much about mysticism. Certainly the general reader has this excuse, that the masterpieces of mystical
literature, full of strange beauties though they be, offer considerable difficulties to those who come to
them unprepared.’’45 Most often testimonies are written in the language of allegory, poetry and symbol
since metaphor alone touches the ineffability of the moment. Allegory speaks to the image making
centre of the brain which is predominantly the right hemisphere. Plato, mystical philosopher and ancient

44
Mysticism, 13
45
Mysticism, 11

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Egyptian initiate created an enduring allegory, now often called Plato’s Cave. Accordingly a group of
people live chained to the wall of a cave all their lives, facing a blank wall and watch shadows projected
on the wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them and give names to these shadows. If one
prisoner could escape and discover the greater world beyond the cave, doubtless he would return to free
the others but without avail. This allegory has been used to convey philosophical ideas, to compare the
human conditions of living without enlightenment or escaping from the herd mind to see the light of
day.
The exit from the group mind is never easily achieved since conformity and compliance are
powerful social and psychological forces. Jung described this desire for personal authenticity as the
innate drive for individuation and Evelynn Underhill also understood the small ways in which the mind
might begin its journey from the imprisonment of the cave. She advise, ‘‘To let oneself go, be quiet,
receptive, appears to be the condition under which such contact with the Cosmic Life may be
obtained.’’46 This would also be in accord with Buddhist teachings. ‘‘Certain processes, of which
contemplation has been taken as a type, can so alter the state of consciousness as to permit the
emergence of this deeper self; which, according as it enters more or less into the conscious life, makes
man more or less a mystic. The mystic life, therefore, involves the emergence from deep levels of man’s
transcendental self; its capture of the field of consciousness; and the “conversion” or rearrangement of
his feeling, thought, and will—his character—about this new centre of life.’’ 47 Her advice is simple yet
profound. ‘‘Look for a little time, in a special and undivided manner, at some simple, concrete, and
external thing. This object of our contemplation may be almost anything we please: a picture, a statue, a
tree, a distant hillside, a growing plant, running water, little living things. ……………..Look, then, at
this thing which you have chosen. Wilfully yet tranquilly refuse the messages which countless other
aspects of the world are sending; and so concentrate your whole attention on this one act of loving sight
that all other objects are excluded from the conscious field…………………… Almost at once, this
new method of perception will reveal unsuspected qualities in the external world. First, you will
perceive about you a strange and deepening quietness; a slowing down of our feverish mental time.
Next, you will become aware of a heightened significance, an intensified existence in the thing at which
you look. As you, with all your consciousness, lean out towards it, an answering current will meet yours.
It seems as though the barrier between its life and your own, between subject and object, had melted
away.’’48 It is through the transformation of mind that the processes of individuation commence and
may culminate in enlightenment or illumination. It is from this perspective that fearlessness arises in

46
Mysticism,35
47
Mysticism, 71
48
Mysticism, 273

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the place of fearfulness which is the nature of human life watching the flickering shadows cast upon the
wall of delusion.
Global Consciousness
There can be no doubt that beginning of the twenty-first century has ushered in the entirely new
phenomena of global consciousness primarily as a result of an unprecedented technological revolution.
Bucke foresaw the coming of a psychical revolution and although all religions have not been ‘melted
down’ many of the barriers between religions have certainly softened. material, economic and social
change has most certainly resulted ‘from the establishment of aerial navigation.’ The divide between
riches and poverty still stands but all these changes have been overshadowed by the coming of the
internet.
It was in the 1970s, that James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis proposed the Gaia hypothesis,
which likened the biosphere to a self-regulating organism. Since then many have noted the ways in
which the internet resembles a giant brain and the analogy is difficult to dislodge; the world wide web
clearly resembles the organization of a brain where its pages play a role similar to neurons connected by
hyperlinks which play a role similar to synapses. This concept highlights a direct relationship between
humanity and the planet. This relationship was the subject of the 1982 book The Global Brain Awakes
by Peter Russell. The cover blub praises the author’s masterful tapestry in weaving together ‘‘The
physical and social sciences, modern technology and ancient mysticism to demonstrate that the
possibility of global illumination is now and real- as immanent as the threat of mass annihilation.’’
Throughout the book Russell described the opportunity of the present time as the next evolutionary step
and posed the question ‘‘What then might be our function in relationship to Gaia?’’ 49 He suggested
that humanity could be likened to a vast nervous system, a global brain in which each person acts like a
cell in the body. In the Forward to the book by Marilyin Ferguson, author of The Aquarian Conspiracy
asks, ‘‘What difference does it make to you and me if we are the cells of a global brain rather than the
isolated inhabitants of a planet?’’ Of course the cells in a body may be healthy or malignant growth. The
passage of time since the book was published sadly suggest that humanity’s self-aggrandising behaviour
is closer to that of a malignancy upon the planet supported by an entrenched mindset now passed its sell-
by date. Russell’s thought provoking analysis included an optimistic appraisal of emergent and positive
trends. ‘‘ In order to develop a new caring attitude towards the world, we need to develop a new caring
model of ourselves.’’50 In contrast to the disconnected social organisation of western society called low
synergy by Russell, he envisaged a new ‘high-synergy’ society in which the individual components
harmonise with the goals of the system as a whole, this vision of possibility requires a fundamental shift

49
The Global Brain, 61
50
The Global Brain, 22

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of mind on a grand scale. He found optimism in a growing sense of spiritual awareness in the West
through an influx of spiritual masters and gurus teaching different meditation techniques and paths to
enlightenment. Russell understood the importance of meditation as the only means of creating
awareness from the tangle of thought. He taught meditation in the 1980’s and continues to teach
meditation in 2023 as an online course - How to Meditate Without Even Trying. His website says ‘‘Peter
believes that the critical challenge today is to free human thinking from the limited beliefs and attitudes
that lie behind so many of our problems—personal, social, and global. His mission is to distil the
essential wisdom on human consciousness found in the world’s various spiritual traditions, and to
disseminate their teachings on self-liberation in contemporary and compelling ways.’’ 51 His mission has
changed little over the decades. He wrote about this in the preface to the second edition of the book.
‘‘The basic wisdom already exists. It is there in all the spiritual traditions of all cultures. It has been
articulated by the saints and wise people of all times, it is there inside everyone of us. It is the truth we
each know deep within. The question is how do we tap this wisdom. Can we live it rather than just talk
about it. Can it penetrate our minds and hearts enabling us to put this wisdom into practice. This is the
real challenge facing us as we move into the new millennium.’’ 52 In the book he called many times for a
spiritual renewal, a widespread shift in consciousness, a radical change in other words a complete
paradigm shift as part of an evolutionary progression. The prevailing paradigm is always implicit within
the social, scientific, economic, political and educational perspectives and institutions of its time;
breaking out from the meta narrative is difficult. The western paradigm is predominantly that of the
individual and separated self, whereas the Buddhist paradigm does not accept the intrinsic reality of the
self. Russell was optimistic about the new trends already appearing in the 1980’s and 90’s: therapeutic
and training programmes, teachings on meditation, a non-western spiritual philosophy and the
beginnings a of a serious and scholarly East-West dialogue. He correctly anticipated the application of
techniques to improve the functioning of the mind, to increase the quality of mental experience and raise
the level of consciousness. He named this interface psychotechnology, it has become neuroscience.
The East-West dialogue is now firmly established through the Mind-Life institute and other
teaching institutions such as Naropa University. This world famous university blends academic
programs with contemplative practices to ignite the spark of spiritual presence throughout the
educational journey to bring intellectual knowledge and intuitive wisdom together for a clearer sense of
purpose, moral clarity and compassionate service. The Mind-Life Institute Life emerged in 1987 from a
meeting between the Dalai Lama, Francisco Varela, a scientist and philosopher and Adam Engle, a
lawyer and entrepreneur. They understood that science was the dominant western framework for

51
https://www.peterrussell.com
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The Global Brain, 26

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investigating the nature of reality and asked what could be achieved through combining scientific
inquiry with the transformative power of contemplative wisdom? While science relies on empiricism,
technology, objective observation, and analysis, the Dalai Lama, Varela and Engle knew that
contemplative and introspective methods of mind were also equal instruments of investigation. The
Mind-Life Institute was formed to bridge the divide between the scientific and the spiritual to advance
human well-being. The collaboration with scientists, scholars and contemplatives is expressed in the
mission statement of the Mind -Life Institute. ‘‘At the heart of today’s global challenges is a profound
crisis of disconnection. From loneliness and isolation to racism and tribalism, our disconnection from
one another is causing tremendous suffering for people and the planet. Building on our 30-year legacy,
we seek to better understand the role of the human mind in creating these problems—and its potential to
solve them. Through grantmaking, convenings, and strategic partnerships, we seek to foster healthy
human connections. We recognize that Mind & Life is part of a growing global movement for social
change. In this spirit, we welcome new partners—as together—we strive to create a world that truly
embraces our shared humanity. ’’53
Naropa University is also an important part of this cultural dialogue. In 2016 a new EBS
English for Buddhist Scholars program was launched with the aim of enhancing the language skills of
Buddhist teachers holding Khenpo and Lopon qualifications, advanced degrees in Tibetan Buddhism in
order to translate and teach the Dharma in the West. In January 2020, Khenpo Phurbu Tsering and
Khenpo Jigme Lodoe studied at Naropa. The programme commenced with an intensive language
course in India followed by intellectual and social immersion at Naropa. This informal interaction
included hiking, biking and cooking curries for new friends as an introduction to life in the West. Tsering
explained: “My experiences abroad expanded my understanding of real human suffering, including
modern mental health issues such as the turmoil of emotional unbalance, sorrow, loneliness, and
depression, and how a presentation of Dharma could be based on these. ’’ In July 2021 the two monks
returned to India, looking forward to implementing the new teaching methods they learned at Naropa
University. So far, four scholars have received the scholarships. This positive cultural and spiritual
exchange has brought a new metaphysical understanding to the West, that of the pathway towards the
enlightened mind, supported by the twin pillars of compassion and wisdom, enriched by the joy of
practical service, not just service to humanity but to the whole world and fearless in its understanding of
life. Russell’s ground breaking and prophetic work closed with the call for participation in the
opportunity for radical realignment. ‘‘As long as the door is open to us and as long as the evolutionary
impulse shines through us, let us follow that inner urge. This is the cosmic imperative.’’ 54 Russell rightly

53
https://www.mindandlife.org
54
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placed his hopes in the appearance of a spirituality founded through an alliance between traditional
meditation and neuroscience. His original question still stands – ‘‘What then might be Our function in
relationship to Gaia ?’’ Without the radical paradigm shift humanity will still have its face to the gutter
instead of to the stars.

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