conditioned mind

This overlong Easter holiday prompts reflection on the conditioned mind, collective consciousness and the collective unconscious too .... so many layers of delusion and still no firm evidence of where mind is located ... if consensus reality is right, then shared memories and shared stories are maybe outside of brains, in other dimensions, pulled into individual consciousness according to cues, filtered through our uniquely structured receiving apparatus, in the brain and also maybe other parts of the body too ...

The Easter story was strong in my childhood, and whilst the Christian story was lightly held at home, this was more than compensated at school, with daily assemblies and regular religious teaching. Sometimes the whole school decamped to the local church for more intensive brainwashing, from full-time professionals, wearing special robes and often speaking in hypnotic droning voices ... they also turned up at weddings, funerals and christenings .... all in all the story was implanted quite strongly ... the alternative Easter story was less pervasive in early childhood, before advertising really took hold of television, promoting the consumerist message which is eclipsing the Jesus story ....

Meanwhile, on social media, other heroes are investigated, to remind us of human frailty ... Jesus himself quoted as lamenting on the cross: My God, why have you forsaken me? ...allegedly ... sources for this period vary somewhat .... anyway, the momentary doubt is understandable in the extreme circumstances ... after Jung's pasting a few days ago, Gandhi gets the treatment via stories of his less famous contemporary Ambedkar ... the point being that the message is the thing and not the messenger, though, paradoxically, a messenger embodying their message seems more authentic and makes the message more powerful ...

An old friend posts a story illustrating the pitfalls of wealth ... his own experience confirming the dangers ... the pilgrimages perfect opportunities to observe simplicity in action, along with compassion ... the third of the three treasures of the Tao, patience is a work in progress here .... the other two fairly well embedded ...

The work of cleaning up the conditioned mind continues ... mainly by examining the thoughts as they pop up and trying to identify where they came from ... Spring Cleaning for the brain ... or wherever it is they reside ...

Easter

Local Christians rewarded this morning with a clear sky at sunrise for their traditional Easter Sunday service on Middlehope Moor ... weather held for a while, then reverted to rain to dampen the spirits of Bank Holiday tourists, taking advantage of the four day break from slavery ... Stanhope was buzzing yesterday in the sunshine and showers, with an elders' trip over to Edmundbyers Village Hall and a coffee morning ... in Stanhope the first Farmers' Market of the year proves popular and provides organic vegetables as well as lots of other locally produced food ... in the Church Hall, next door to the Retreat House .... which is propitious ... and a reunion with Allison, last seen in Stockton whilst on Mental Health North East business (a wonderful part-time post developing networks in the region for the benefit of the folks needing some improvement in and control over the services for improving their mental health) .... Allison, from being Chief Executive of the voluntary services organisation in Stockton, found a more grounded role making cheese ... award winning cheese at that, though off current limits as dairy produce joins corpses on the list of foodstuff to avoid ... the motives mixed between ethics and health ... though labels declined along with preaching ...

Overpriced chocolate eggs seem more important than the miraculous resurrection of Jesus after his brutal execution ... though that was some time ago and the myth is waning somewhat in the face of consumerism ... some interesting historical detail surfaced in The Holographic Universe, discussing the common phenomenon of stigmata appearing on folks hands ... suggesting that the marks were generated from a mistaken story in the collective unconscious, since crucifixion was actually done with nails through the forearms above the wrist ... the weight of the body otherwise likely to rip the hands off before the suffering was complete .... whatever, things have mostly moved on ... even the gruesome Saudis, allies of the so-called civilised West (and customers of their arms industries) separate heads from necks and hands from wrists swiftly ...

Meanwhile, as mainstream media ratchet up the fear factor, another angle arrives on social media and a positive view .... you can watch it here ... since we seem to live in a participatory universe and our thoughts help create the reality we experience, why wallow in despair, when we have the power to make a better world?

From a wet Weardale, I hope you have enjoyed the holiday, whatever your version of Easter.

Tomorrow looks a little brighter ... at least for the morning walk anyway ....

Stanhope Retreat House

Time for some focus as the house on Front Street reappears on the market with a new agent and a serious price reduction. You can take a look here ...

It is perfect for a small retreat house, with three large bedrooms, two smaller ones and a third smaller again. At first glance it seems fifteen people could be accommodated comfortably and with residential courses planned for an optimal 10 to 12 guests, there is still space for staff.

The two ground floor rooms are light and spacious, for group work, dining and relaxing. And the Library, currently building and intended to offer an eclectic collection of authentic books and videos to enrich the experience of visitors and staff alike.

The garden will be a combination of beauty, fragrance and food.

The cellar offers a wonderful space for meditation, chanting and an installation representing Indra's Net ... an expression of the interconnectedness of all things in the universe and a motif for the House, which is intended to be otherwise devoid of baggage laden forms.

Manifesting the money to buy the building is underway, with £150,000 already pledged. At this stage there are many options for raising the rest, including shared purchase, mortgage, loans and donations.

Once the place is bought, the activities commence. The focus is intended to be meditation and group work, with spiritual inquiry the key theme. The surrounding countryside is perfect for walking .. or running and cycling if you are in a hurry ...

Outside groups will be able to use the facilities for relevant courses.

A core team is being formed with a residential option.

Skills required include: cooking, housekeeping and gardening.

Shared values are: Compassion, Simplicity, Patience ...

These are not jobs, but vocations and a real opportunity for folks to help birth the vision of A Place to Be in Stanhope, in the beautiful North Pennines of England.

Interested?    email steve.placetobe@gmail.com and come over for a chat, in person or via skype.

Exciting times!

weird and dao ...

Reading material gets weirder, with The Holographic Universe opening up so many possibilities and evoking memories of sources studied decades ago, now revisited and creating cohesive narratives ... clearly, reading is one thing, experiencing another .... and building compelling tales from this fascinating process ... praxis  .... whilst staying aware of the trap of confirmatory bias .... the latest news is that we may be living in only one of an infinite number of parallel universes ... with the possibility of choosing another .... time and space being absent from this process ... and since thought helps create these realities, and deeply embedded consensus thinking has created stories no longer serving our best interests ... well, we had better tell more helpful tales to each other .... weaving this blog into an evolving universe around the New Story Summit, Charles Eisentein's "The Beautiful New World Our Hearts Know is Possible ... another escaped book from the last version of the library ... and many other souls buzzing on this frequency right now ....

Meanwhile, as Easter approaches, the near death experience in the sea at Zambujeira do Mar on Easter Sunday 2011, which happened to be April 24th that year, coincided with the passing of Sai Baba, cited in The Holographic Universe as having convincing abilities to manifest all sorts of objects from thin air ... a fact that was mentioned by one of the German therapists on the trip to the beach when the rather unusual feature of  floating in zone zero was reported ... the sky turned from blue to orange .... a colour identified with the conjuring guru ...

For balance and grounding from these fantastic speculations, today's trip with the elders was rewarded not only with the usual warm appreciation but also with the discovery of the bread from heaven at the farm shop ... Alex, master baker from Rise, supplies them, though a public transport trip may prove tricky ... let's see, two buses and a decent walk should do the trick ...

Of course, sharing these weird ideas can alienate some .... and following the ideas without grounding has led folks into severe cognitive dissonance and mental anguish .... holding it all lightly maybe the key ....

tangents, loops ...

The question of authenticity pops up again and again as the inquiry takes off at random tangents, only to loop round in apparent synchronicities ... this morning's information arriving via the early browse of the selection of social media FB and me select from all the versions of reality available (and for grammarians apologies for rhyming "FB" with "me" .... for the sake of poetry .... and apologies to poets who know better than to force a rhyme egregiously  ... ) ... Jung, credited with promoting the concept of synchronicity along with other fascinating ideas including, shadows dreamwork and more ...  is scrutinised severely in The Cult of Jung by Richard Noll .... the link arriving via the Human Givens folks, who offer an authentic contemporary framework for psychotherapy ... with local practitioners available .... to maybe play into the Retreat House offer ...

Saturday's expedition to the city produced more books for the library and another conversation with Andreas, who is very keen to introduce the Greek philosophers to a local audience, many of whom are more interested in the Eastern sages ... or the various forms of Christianity still hanging on in the face of widespread apathy if not downright animosity ... being the religion deeply embedded in the national psyche, with concomitant emotional reaction as the narrative dissipates and horror stories emerge about depraved priests ... though on another loop, a book arrives from Dominic, a Dominican monk and friend from Newcastle, sometime enthusiast for A Place to Be and heretic by some standards ... this latest addition to the library is called The Lost Knowledge of Christ and will be reviewed when read ... after The Holographic Universe, previously in the library and revisited after a loop via David Bohm, whose Wholeness and the Implicate Order offers an alternative and compelling version of quantum theory, though even the lay version is hard going for this unscientifically wired brain .... Bohm, to loop again. was great friends with Jiddu Krishnamurti and co-authored The Limits of Thought, another stray from the previous version of the library ... hopefully being read and circulated as all the best books deserve .... and looping again, Dominic's book describes The Enneagram, taught some years ago at the base for APtB by interfaith minister and APtB founder member, Janette ... also regular at Findhorn, an early inspiration for the Retreat House ...

Sunday dawning bright demanded an extended wander, the daily routes being usually under two hours and mostly the same way ... so after a steep climb South it was a heavenly hike West along the high ridge, descending through peat bogs and East along the back road home after four hours more or less non-stop ... such guided expeditions clearly part of the Retreat House offer .... possibly with the peat bogs circumnavigated ....

So to yesterday's assisted shopping trip to Hexham ... a real boon to folks unable to get about without help as well as able bodied people without cars, since the bus route from Stanhope involves two or three changes and around three and a half hours ... hmm, maybe time for the much discussed lift-share scheme ....

As for Wear and Dao, google says around 400 folks around the world see it, though how many read it is unknown .... the first and only potential publishers are tardy in their response, though it is already published here anyway and if a few folks enjoy it, that's fine for me ... to be honest, I write for myself .... to clarify thoughts and hopefully find handy to prompt the unreliable memory ... though Easter is a helpful hook, even with its wandering dates ... two years ago the blog was in Santiago, six years ago floating in the sea at Zambujeira do Mar ...

Well, dear readers, I hope you are enjoying the blog, tangents and loops and all ... maybe the meaning will become clear sometime .... meanwhile there does seem a centre to the chaos .... visible through the upstairs back window of the cottage and current base ... the energy is gathering ... the art to find the collaborators with authenticity and the heart for the vision ...

Cleverness

The sophy part of philosophy is sometimes translated as wisdom, sometimes knowledge ... the difference is critical and cleverness is often a barrier to wisdom ... the big thinkers and repositories of knowledge seem sometimes less wise than a simple ignoramus ... anyway, the flirtation with the clever philosopher and bestselling-author of Sapiens and Homo Deus is over and the over-excited brain can relax again ... pondering whether publication was purposely post S.M Goenka's passing ... or maybe the dystopian vision of Artificial Intelligence enhanced Human species is right .... or just one of many possibilities according to choices made by Sapiens ... evolutionary branching of homo-sapiens is almost discernible .... though at what stage mechanicallly "improved" people cease to be seen as sentient beings is a question ... the bigger question historically is how the currently dominant species rampaging around the earth ever earned the name sapiens or wise ...

Interbeing, and evolution of humans as conscious and aware superorganisms ... proposed by Thich Nhat Hahn has more appeal somehow and much as the implantation of chips in the brain may improve memory and intellect, like television (and its latest version which watches the watcher watching it), microwave cookers, nanobots in the bloodstream, cocktails of pharmaceuticals and so on, are not yet compulsory and may be best resisted ...

Bringing us back to free will, another big question ... yesterday's conversation with a cognitive psychologist friend suggested that my contention that the Libet experiments, supposedly showing action preceding the associated thought and therefore denying free will, could be explained by the thought identified by brain imaging being a post action rationale and the trigger being intuition, was wrong, since intuition would also be seen in the brain imaging ... possibly right ... if intuition was located in the brain ... anyway Libet himself refuted the conclusion that his experiments demonstrated that free will did not exist and you can read about it in the link above ... the bigger question from my friend was why I was at all interested to spend so much time on such questions ... to which there is no answer just now, but it is a question worth considering ... anyway, apologies for the lengthy and rather clumsy sentence above .... good luck following it!

My current view on free will is "don't know, but I find life sweeter if I act as if I have it" ... to be amended according to evidence arriving via the brain or wherever else this stuff is processed ...

Ken Wilber is the antidote to over-cleverness for now ... revisiting him after finding his persona rather guru-ish, seeing the spiritual aspect and the insistence on integrating it with the other essential parts of being human as most refreshing and instructive for programmes on the Art of Living ...

Who Are I ?

More diversion from the serious business planning ...after "Who Am I And If So How Many?" another philosopher examines the Self and finds it absent ... this time Yuval Harari in the sequel to "Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind" sets off another fireworks display of cleverness in "Homo Deus, A Brief History of Tomorrow" ... both borrowing from the very clever Stephen Hawking of the much purchased, little read and even less understoood "A Brief History of Time" ... Harari is more accessible, being a popularising polymath ... and quite compelling with his storytelling, though some of his propositions are less than persuasive and his use of statistics perhaps underlining Disraeli's observation that there are "lies, damned lies and statistics".

Harari's dedication in Homo Deus, "To my teacher, S.M. Goenka (1924-2013), who lovingly taught me important things," intrigues and keeps the reader going through unfamiliar territory ... since Goenka is the founder of  a contemporary version of Vipassanna, the main object of which is to still the mind, penetrate layers of delusion and discover the Truth ... thereby bringing peace to the world one person at a time ... a diversion from the diversion with fascinating information on the internet ... taking a nice loop back to the Retreat House Business Plan ... the techniques not much different from the Living Mindfully programmes described in Gary Heads' recent book ... except the residential component, which seem to enrich the experience ... meanwhile the challenge to the mind of Harari, whilst not comfortable, is embraced anyway ... too easy to follow familiar stories and build new castles in the air ...

Reports from the various schools for "The Art of Living" are helpful, though league tables on success are unlikely and probably unwise ... the balance between regulation and intuition as always key and if it was a car we might best keep intuition in the driver's seat .... from personal experience, the initial Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction programme was vital, Findhorn was enriching, walking the pilgrim trails deepening, embedding it all in daily practise grounding ... second hand experience from Vipassana suggests (from a small sample of two!) that ongoing practise is essential if the transformative experience is to be maintained ...

Daily routine ... sitting, walking, studying ... thinking and not thinking keeps things mostly grounded here in Stanhope ... thoughts wander occasionally to the camino ... and Nicola proposes a "Silent Walk Day" for A Place to Be at its new temporary base and the beautiful woods and fells around ... perhaps reviving the previously popular regular gatherings ... building the energy again for the Retreat House ....