A Profound Encounter

In 1997 I had a rather profound encounter with an amazing woman. If you have read my book Discover Your Soul Template you will be familiar with the story. It involves a woman who I refer to as Jessica. Here I recount the tale at the 2012 TEDx conference in Hong Kong. This is just three minutes of the talk. The rest will come later!

Marcus

The Mindful Computer

In yesterday’s blog post I argued that IT is here to stay, and that the focus for futurists like me should be upon how to employ the technology optimally, so that it enhances the development of Deep Futures, and does not perpetuate the shallow materialism of Money and Machine Futures.

To use the technology wisely, we have to allow human wisdom to flourish. This may sound obvious, but it seems to me that many educators and futurists do not appreciate that wisdom involves healthy self-reflection and the development of a capacity for equanimity and inner peace. It is certainly possible that IT may assist in this process, but as far as I am aware, the best ways to foster a peaceful mind are through simple, direct first person methods like meditation and mindfulness; and through various forms of embodiment via yoga, mindful walking and even swimming. The key to embodiment is that - regardless of the exercise - attention is brought into the body in relaxed presence.

In my understanding, this development of peace and wisdom should ideally be the foundation of any decent education system.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of understanding of this getting around. I would like to refer to just one recent example which illustrates this perfectly.

In a recent South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) article, Robert J. Bahash wrote a timely column arguing that in today’s education systems teaching is just as vital as the tools of technology we employ. I agree with Bahash, but I do not believe that he goes nearly far enough, nor does he identify the essence of what is wrong with modern public education.       

Bahash writes:

Students must be prepared properly for a digitally connected world. The web and mobile connectivity have been undisputable agents of change across a range of industries, bringing our global economy closer together and providing opportunity for business to thrive where it would previously have been impossible… In the education sector, mobile connectivity, digital capabilities and intelligent software are the catalysts for making quality education available to students who may not have access to it otherwise.

There is not much to dispute here, except for the use of a single term: “quality education”. Bahash makes no attempt to define what such education might be. He seems to be implying that it is already here, merely awaiting some fine tuning. 

He goes on to elaborate the point, writing that online learning and IT tools are vital for young learners because they “build critical thinking through games, encourage collaboration and provide real-time assessment and remediation.” Bahash also argues that online course work, and especially independent study and virtual collaboration, help students to become independent thinkers and enhance self-motivation. Students also learn time management, prioritization and practice important community-building – skills. So far, so good. Not many would argue with all this. These are all very necessary skills in today’s world.

Bahash then quite rightly goes on to state that IT and online learning are not sufficient in themselves if we are to see a genuine improvement in modern education.

The road to universally raising the standards of education starts with the instructor. They are responsible for keeping students properly engaged and challenged throughout their school years. The profession as a whole needs to be held at a higher level of respect and regard in order to develop exceptional teachers.

According to Bahash the key in all this will be in granting teachers more respect. Upgrading teacher respect levels will transform teachers and bring out the best in them. Now, I am not going to argue that respecting educators is not important, nor that it cannot possibly improve the system. I am all for respect.

However there is something missing from Bahash’s arguments, and it is something that is not only important, but vital. It is this ‘something’ which so much of today’s critiques and analyses of education fails to address. The way we are going about trying to ‘fix’ modern education is something akin to gazing upon a dry ocean, looking at the fish floundering and dying upon the dry ocean bed, and deciding that the best way to help the fish is trying to teach them how to swim. In such a scenario, failing to grasp that fish need water would be incomprehensibly dumb. Yet there is a pervasive stupidity in modern schools and society which is equally dopey. We are throwing away billions of dollars trying to teach fish-out-of-water how to swim.

The basis of education – in the broadest sense – must be developing the right relationship with self. For this to happen, both teachers and students need to do self work. They need to develop wisdom, equanimity, and the ability to be fully present wherever they find themselves. The teacher's role is most important here. A teacher with a scattered psyche cannot possibly hope to instil equanimity into young people.

I am a teacher and spend a lot of time in front of students. If there is one quality in a teacher that surpasses all others in its capacity transform the classroom, it is his capacity to be fully present with the students. When I enter a classroom I make sure that I am fully present with the students. It is an act of love that surpasses in value any curriculum objective. Students know when the teacher is present, and they know when the teacher is not really “there.”

When I am present in front of a class I can ‘read’ the energy of the students. I can see beyond the faces they put forward as part of social discourse. I am able to connect with a stream of consciousness which grants spontaneous ‘intuitions’ about what is needed in the moment. Most importantly, it allows me to have unconditional love for the students. In true presence, judgment ceases (but not critical discernment), and  love is spontaneous.

When I first began teaching I was barely present at all. My mind was so scattered and uncentered that virtually any disturbance in the classroom was enough for me to lose any sense of self-esteem or equanimity. In short, fear dominated my teaching. It dominated my teaching because I had not done the inner work required to understand why I was afraid. I did not understand why at a deep level I felt inadequate as a teacher and human being; why I was terrified of losing control; and why I believed that the young human beings before me were untrustworthy and hostile. In fact, I didn’t even fully realise that I carried these attitudes and thought processes into the classroom, because I was largely unconscious of what lay within my psyche.

The only way for a teacher to be fully present is for her to engage in an inner journey. A healing journey. There is no genuine wisdom while fear dominates the personality. A frightened, mentally scattered sage is a contradiction in terms.

Is this what we are hearing from most educators and curriculum developers? No. Robert Bahash exemplifies a typical analysis.

Changing classroom teaching techniques will also improve student learning. The development of hi-tech learning applications and digital content delivery has transformed the learning platform. For successful 21st-century learning, classrooms need to embrace the power of data to create learning paths that will help shape students and prepare them for the digitally driven world… (my bold type).

What concerns me about so much of what appears as ‘critique’ of modern education is that it is in fact not critique at all. It permits no vertical expansion of the human experience, merely horizontal shifts in foci. Regardless of whether we are using a text book or a computer, unless we emphasise it, there will be no genuine inner journey. There is no silence and there is no reflection.

Computers, IT, and mobile devices contain no intrinsic qualities which necessitate the facilitation of wisdom, equanimity and presence.  If employed with the same industrial age mentality as, say, a text book, they merely exacerbate the dominance of what mystics like to call ‘the monkey mind’. They merely become another medium via which the mind becomes distracted and disembodied, and dissociated from the psyche – and from the human spirit and its innate intuitive wisdom. Saying that classrooms need to “embrace the power of data” without any reference to grounding the individual in the body, is to fundamentally invert what is required to permit a psychologically and spiritually healthy human learning to develop.

Perhaps it is true that we live in a “digitally driven world,” as Bahash states. Yet this development is an extension of the same neurosis. What he is describing is a world where information increasingly comes first, and wisdom and self-reflection are given little or no value.

Connection to the body and psyche must come first. In a sane and truly rational world the capacity for equanimity and presence must take precedence over running data through minds. This foundation must take precedence over technical training, including IT instruction. Note I am not advocating abolition of information technology and career development. IT and mobile technology are exciting and powerful developments which will be essential aspects of almost all probable human futures, as I argued in yesterday's post. These things simply have to be taught in schools as well. I am simply suggesting beginning with embodied wisdom first, then exploring the other domains thereafter.

To be given value, these things must be assigned curriculum time. ‘Spiritual’ education must be permitted a space in modern education systems, and developed syllabi must allow self-exploration and quiet time. Yet for this to happen we need teachers who embody quiet equanimity. Teachers who are vitally present in the classroom.

This is not happening.

How can we make it happen?

First we have to admit that there is a problem, and that the monkey mind is not going to deliver us from the problems we are facing, regardless of how many gigabytes of data we strap to it. It will simply create more of the same problems we are seeing in today's school and in today's society.

Information Technology must be recognised for what it is: an exciting and powerful medium, but not the goal.

Marcus

What I Found Up There

Just a short post tonight, and something a little humbling to contemplate. On Tuesday of the previous week was the Ching Ming Festival here in Hong Kong. This is also known as Tomb Sweeping Day. It's the day when Hong Kongers head to the family burial spot of their family members who have passed away. 

It's a day for contemplation about mortality and life's meaning.

Well, I don't have any dead people to talk to in Hong Kong, so I headed out the back of my apartment block here in Discovery Bay, Lantau Island, and hiked up into the hills. I have found a nice little meditation spot there to contemplate things. It takes about half an hour to get up there, and it is quite a steep hike (in fact a little dangerous in places). You can see it in the video below.

You may not have thought of Hong Kong as having such a place of solitude. Now you know better. In fact there are many fantastic hikes all around Hong Kong. Lantau Island is quite big, and there are several peaks one can ascend here.

It was while sitting on my little rock that something dawned upon me. The very rocks that I was seeing and experiencing connectedness with would out"live" me by many tens of thousands of years. In fact thy might even out-exist the entire human race. And as I sat there my focus fell upon a small plant rising from the grass. As I allowed my own consciousness to relax and connect with the plant, another thought entered my mind. This little plant was millions of years in the making in evolutionary terms (as is my physical form, and much of the way I experience consciousness). I wonder if you too can feel that connectedness, by watching that little plant in the video below? Even if you can't, try this little process soon. Sit down with a plant somewhere in nature (or you can even do it with a pot plant or in the garden), and allow yourself to connect with it. Relax, bring yourself into presence by focusing upon your breath for a few moments, then feel yourself collapsing into the plant. Jut feel whatever comes to you. It's good practice for activating what I call the Feeling Sense. The exercise will take you out out of the head, and into the heart. If nothing else, I guarantee you will find it very peaceful.

Now, one final thought for the day. What if human futures were not mostly about connecting with machine interfaces, the glass screens of the gadgets in our palms, or soon (probably) embedded in our brains? What if we learned to value connection with nature, with the body, and with the spirit? Are these things not just as important as going online? Perhaps they are even more important.

You will find my little plant friend at about 30 seconds into the video. It's rather windy up there, as you will note...

now now now

 Be mindful. But how?

To be present in whatever you are doing. It's something we often read about, especially in relation to being mindful, or regarding certain psychological and spiritual practices. There are not too many people who do not find the idea of being fully absorbed in what you are doing attractive. One of the problems with having a mind is that it all too easily gets distracted, flipping into the past or future, and leaving us feeling anxious, worried, or just plain stressed. 

Unfortunately you are biologically wired to be anxious because that's how people stay alert and conscious of possible threats from the environment. A certain degree of anxious tension was an absolute necessity for our ancestors because they lived in more rural and natural settings, where physical threats were a constant problem. Anxiety was necessary for survival. Yet nowadays this is not the case for most people in developed societies. So it is perfectly possible, and quite desirable to bring the mind into peaceful presence regularly.

Many years ago I was taught the importance of presence by mystic Leonard Jacobson. But I found it difficult to pull off. I discovered that the ego - which also arises from the biological organism and its attempts to ensure physical survival - just would not allow me to be. It would constantly drag me back into the world of the mind, and its chattering monkey madness. I began to ask how I could possibly overcome this problem.

Then one morning the answer came to me in a vision, as I lay in bed upon waking. The first few moments after you wake up are a great time to invite intuitive messages (you should try it too). That day a simple image came into my mind. It was a sheet of paper with some writing typed upon it. There were a whole heap of words, but there was one word repeated over and over again, in bold type.  The image looked something like this.

now this why now he goes now do this all now besides that day now he sits there now here is now since that now eats the now Miss lam went now it depends upon why now  keyboard now the tenth number now housing problem now at world now she does not want to now because that is so now it all depends upon now yes now no how much now the paper wars now my computer seems slow now upon arrival at now see me later now it could be that now however now do not do this now when it is time now I have not seen one now please see me now how is it so now the mouse now the hammer falls now take that up with now saying small now happiness is a now the doubt now you are not now does it matter now how about now she doesn't seem to know now is not the time for now perhaps he should know now am confused now necessarily now quiet down now when now hopeless now the president now when will it happen now it does not matter now stay here now

I immediately knew what it meant. A great way to instill the habit of mindfulness is to regularly bring the mind into presence throughout the day. Fortunately I already had some great tools for doing this. I suggest you use them too. The habit of presence is a learned one. You have to be disciplined and make the time for it. As you plant the seeds of presence throughout the day, the mind will gradually learn to use presence as its guide to what is normal, and return to that state automatically.

Here's a re-cap of two useful tools I have written about before.

The first and simplest way to become present is the Five Breaths method. Whatever you are doing, stop, and allow your attention to focus upon the breath as it moves in and out of your nose. Close your eyes if you like. After as few as five focused breaths your mind will become silent, and you are in presence. Like I said,  simple.

The second method is The Oneness Technique. The spiritual teacher Leonard Jacobson taught this to me. Here presence is permitted by allowing yourself to become present “with that which is already present.” Virtually every non-human form on this planet is present. The simpler the object the better – best not to use a surrealist painting! Plants, books (close them first!), coffee cups, chairs, pencils and so on are great. Just stop and allow yourself to feel the presence of a tree, flower or pot plant. Animals and birds likewise exist in a state of presence. You can bring the mind to attention by observing them. As far as we humans go, children tend to be the most present. Without judgment, observe a child playing for a moment, and just allow the mind to become silent.

Marcus

How can I heal?

Marcus T Anthony's new web site and blog can be found at: www.mind-futures.com.

How can you heal deep psychological trauma – what I would call soul scars? Here I am talking about deep-seated emotional pain: the hurt, anger, rage, fear and blame that emerge from being abused and beaten by others, or by life itself. These are the scars of betrayal.

Examples include being badly neglected by a parent, physical abuse, sexual abuse, or just failing badly at something that you deemed very important. Another kind of less obvious form of pain emerges from psychological manipulation by irresponsible and spiritually immature parents and caregivers. For example, a mother who has severe abandonment issues may be unable to establish the appropriate psycho-social distance/boundaries from her child. The child may then grow up unable to establish healthy, intimate relationships with others. At a spiritual level there arises the strong possibility of “possession”, where the parent’s psychic energy swamps the child, typically right throughout the lifespan. There is no escape even after the parent has died, as the spirit of the parent will continue to interact with the child’s consciousness field in precisely the same way from its afterlife. (For those who believe that life ends with the death of the physical body, you will be disappointed. There is no escape from consciousness).

Many people will give you a different answer to the question of what appropriate healing to seek. They will come from the biases of particular field of expertise and preferred methodological approach, and I am no different. I have worked much in alternative healing, and especially using inner child work and emotional depth healing.

The healing method used needs to match the problem that is experienced. There is no point going to the butcher if you want a loaf of bread, and there is no point going to the wrong kind of healer for psychological and spiritual problems.    

Here I am going to employ an intuitive reading of differing approaches to healing and mental health. I shall give each approach a percentage reading in terms of effectiveness. Afterward, I am going to outline what I believe is a very powerful approach which can facilitate the deep healing of psychological/spiritual trauma.

Drug-based psychiatry. 0%. Although this may alleviate the symptoms of emotional problems, and may establish a working state of consciousness which permits the individual to at least manage their own behaviours, it cannot “heal” in itself. In severe cases of emotional disorders, drug therapy may establish the base from which other and more genuine healing can be explored.

Psychological counseling (talk therapy). 1%. This approach may enable the personal to better manage their emotional states, and learn appropriate strategies for dealing with their pain, but it will in no way heal that pain. The problem is that conventional talk therapy remains intellectualised and ‘in the head’. It does not connect with the emotional body to the necessary degree.      

Affirmation and creative visualisation. 1%. In themselves, these are highly ineffective as tools for healing, as they do not connect one with the emotional body. In fact, many applications of these methods, as with NLP, are unconscious attempts to avoid the confrontation with the psyche. Visualisation and affirmation can, however, be very useful when applied with deeper emotional healing.

Hypnosis. 1%. Suffers from the same limitations as above. The consciousness field of the hypnotist is crucial. The unconscious transference of psychic projections during the session may be extremely damaging to the spiritual well-being of the person being hypnotised.

Meditation. 1%. Standard meditation practices do not deal with the emotional body, and merely quiet the mind.  In fact, meditation can retard healing, as it may ‘freeze’ the psyche if the person uses it to shut out the unconscious. However, meditation can help facilitate healing where the person relaxes, brings the mind to presence, and allows the deeper emotions to bubble to the surface and find expression. Note that this is rarely the case with most popular meditation practices. Meditation can therefore be spiritually regressive.

Hands-on healing (Reiki, Quantum Healing, etc.). 1%. While these processes can be useful in dealing with certain physical and energetic imbalances in the human consciousness field, they generally do not permit connection with the inner child or emotional energies which have split off from the conscious mind. Of course, some practitioners do go into the emotional level, making the process far more effective for deep healing purposes.

Intercessory Prayer (praying for a third party). 3%. Intention can assist shifts in the consciousness field, and may also invoke help from spiritual sources. The problem is that there is a general ‘law’ of spirit which states that each person is responsible for his own life, consciousness and healing. Spirit will not normally step in to heal you. There are, however, exceptions, where Spirit deems the healing to be for the highest good of all parties.

Regression therapy. 4%. This involves regressing to the point where the emotional pain was created, thus allowing the emotions to surface. This can be useful in initiating shifts. The problem is that it often offers no way to maintain the connection – the wounded child tends to split off again.

Inner Child work (e.g. John Bradshaw). 5%. This emotional work can be powerful, and may connect with the energetic splits within the psyche. However, it suffers from the same problems as the previous category. Still, there is generally a stronger understanding of the need for gentle ongoing connection.

There are many other kinds of healing processes of course. I cannot list them all.

What then is the best way to heal? Well, I’m not sure if my way is the best, but it is the best that I am aware of at this time. It involves the following processes. All of them are vital, as the process works at many levels. They will probably go in an order something like this, but there are no hard and fast rules.

-->

1.       Develop an intention to heal.

2.      Bring the mind into presence (This is simple, but not necessarily easy, as I explain here).

3.      Allow the emotional energy to emerge. (this requires a facilitator for those not familiar with such processes)

4.      Connect with the voice of the wounded “child”, and identify what it is saying, and what it believes. It will tell you this, or maybe scream it, if you just let it!

5.      Re-parent the child. Address the wounded child’s limiting beliefs. Identify the life story which it is acting out, but do not believe it. Speak to the child, reassure it.

6.      Use affirmation and creative visualisation to implant positive ideas into the mind while it is in the fluid and vulnerable emotional state. These ideas should be specifically addressed towards the limiting beliefs identified in step 5.

7.      Bring the mind into the real world of the present moment, connect with the body, and keep your attention there via a commitment to presence as the key value in your life.

8.     Take action in the real world which helps correct the false beliefs of the wounded child. This last step is vital, and often overlooked. You can actually get an intuitive sense of the right actions to take after reconnecting with a lost and hurt part of yourself, by asking Spirit for guidance at the end of a connection session. You should identify at least one action, and then follow through and do it. By taking the right actions, you demonstrate to the wounded child that you have the courage and the beliefs to move forward.

9.      Make an ongoing commitment to honestly see the ego and the games it is playing. Let the ego know who is boss (your spirit).

10.  Let go, and let God. The relaxing of the ego is essential for final healing. The final say is not yours alone.
11. Celebrate! Enjoy the moment. Laugh, dance, sing! There is nothing so healing as to laugh and celebrate the gift of existence.

My reading is that this process resonates at about 60% in terms of effectiveness (I’ll come back and check this last reading at a later date, for confirmation). As you can see, many of the processes which have minimal impact on their own, become far more powerful when combined with other healing processes. 

Finally, there are a lot of skills required before anyone can hope to employ this process effectively. It also requires help. You cannot help to learn all these skills by yourself. You need to find the right teachers.       

Marcus

 

Is Your City a Spiritual Desert?

 

The bright lights of Hong Kong

(For those living in other big cities, you can ask the same question of your urban centre. This comes from a booklet I have written called "Urban Enlightenment: Reactivating the Spirit in Hong Kong").

Is Hong Kong a spiritual desert?

When the Buddha wanted to reach enlightenment, he sat under the banyan tree. If he were alive today, would he come to a place like Hong Kong for some shopping therapy?  Probably not. Shopping in Central is less likely to lead to satori, as drive a man half crazy (although there are rumours that some women actually like it). Most of us would agree that we need peace and quiet to find serenity.

I am here to tell you that this is not correct. The more urbanised and chaotic a city, the greater the opportunity for psychological and spiritual growth. You just have to think and act a little smarter than the average guy.

You cannot control the culture of a city. People in any large city have certain restrictions, and these might include their exact mode of work, their working environment, the style of accommodation, the habits of the locals etc. Perhaps, like many people in Hong Kong, you live in a relatively small space in a high rise, far away from the serenity of nature. Maybe the only “greenery” you ever see on your way to work is the contents of a drunk’s stomach on the sidewalk, left over from the previous night's drinking binge. 

But you can control your personal “culture”. Most importantly, you have the potential to control the relationship that you have with yourself. In spiritual terms, you can develop the right relationship with ego.

Connecting with your spirit is not complicated. It is simple. That is why this book (Urban Enlightenment) is simple. I’ve got a PhD, and for my doctoral thesis I studied a lot of this kind of stuff. But let me tell you that head stuff is mostly useless as far as the practical process of living spiritually every day goes. Too much cleverness is the death knell of the spiritual.

Many Hong Kong expats, whether from the West, Asia or elsewhere (including myself), had well developed spiritual lives before they came to Hong Kong. We swam in the oceans, walked in nature, attended meditation workshops, and chatted with friends and acquaintances about spiritual matters. Many of us had spiritual routines such as meditation, prayer, yoga and so on.

Then we came to Hong Kong. As we all know, Hong Kong is a centre of finance. It is what I call a real “money and machines” society. It seems that most people are focused on work and money, and a lot of free time is spent fiddling with gadgets and computers. On the weekends, many locals like to peruse the shopping malls. As for expats, many work hard during the week, and then hit the bars on the weekend. They develop a lifestyle of working hard and partying hard.

The lifestyles of many expats and local Hong Kongers leave little room for the spirit.

Yet that culture is not compulsory. There are choices.

The truth is that Hong Kong, and virtually any big city, is actually a great place to develop your spiritual life. It may not be easy, but you can think of it as a test for the ego. It might well be easier to live the spiritual life if you are, say, a surfer living by the sea in a small town in Eastern Australia. You would have slow days, clear skies, unspoiled nature, a clean ocean, and far less hustle and bustle.

But the very full-on nature of a big city provides multiple opportunities to observe the workings of the human ego, especially your own. You just need to be more self-disciplined than that surfer on Oz.

Of course there is the reality that there are indeed many serene and tranquil places in Hong Kong to chill out and be with nature. It’s just that it is not in the local culture to use them! Trust me, relative to some other megacities in mainland China (such as Beijing and Shanghai), Hong Kong has numerous “getaways”, and many of them are much less than an hour from downtown! Check out this great view, above Discovery Bay – 23 minutes in ferry from Central. In how many cities in the world can you do that!

 

Yet you do not need to flee the urban areas to reactivate the spirit in Hong Kong. You can actually use everyday life processes as a means to connect with Spirit. Just one process I have developed is called “Subway Satori”. You can do it on the MTR (subway), a bus, tram or on any other form of public transport.

But you do need to make time with spirit a priority. There’s no way around that. You have to be committed and self-disciplined. If there is a sure way to bring your spirit down and invite depression, it is to reject your world and the people in it. It is pointless living the Hong Kong or expat lifestyle and then blaming Hong Kong for being “unspiritual”.

The key principles of urban enlightenment are these.

·         Develop intention. That means that you have made a decision within yourself to commit to the process. Only you can bring this to the table.

·         Prioritise. You will need to make your spiritual life important, and honour the spirit within yourself.

·         Practice presence. You will need to bring your mind into the here and now.

·         Practice non-judgment. Allow people, places and events to be what they are. You cannot experience peace while you are in judgment. Period.

·         Develop the right relationship with ego. When you/your ego slips up, a gentle correction will bring you back on your spiritual track. Be like a parent to a naughty child: firm but loving.

·         Responsibility. Your level of personal responsibility needs to be higher than that of most people in today’s world. You need to stop giving your power away to people and life circumstances by blaming and judging. You must start to assume responsibility for your reactions and your perceptions.

·         Letting Go. Surrender all thoughts and judgments to a higher power. You are not here to be perfect, so don’t even try. Give it to God.

It is true that the culture of Hong Kong is not focused upon spiritual concerns. They are not a priority for most people and institutions. However, that is no reason to fret. Like in all cities, opportunities to connect with Spirit abound.