“Suppose we were to share meaning freely
without the compulsive urge to impose our view
or conform to those of others
and without distortion and self-deception.
Would this not constitute a real revolution in culture?”
~ David Bohm
This article has been working on my mind for weeks. The original title was “Attachment to View,” but changed as I listened to a sermon I gave in October 2017. That sermon, titled “Universal Recovery,” was inspired by I Am Right You Are Wrong: From This to the New Renaissance: From Rock Logic to Water Logic, by Edward de Bono. The universal addiction is to our personal point of view…
NLP helps us recognize patterns of behavior in ourselves and others. Strategies — such as matching and mismatching or toward and away — most often operate without awareness, triggering painful emotions, distorted perceptions, and generating limiting beliefs. In a poetry writing group I belong to, feelings of inadequacy and inferiority recently surfaced again for me. Fortunately, rather than remain attached to a view I have outgrown, I was able to reach out. Relief was palpable. The outcome is that I am able to honor fully my own contribution, even without having “formal” education, and the contribution of the other members of the group.
The title for this article has evolved into: “AWE: Potential in the Mind of God.”
In Dharma Path, a three-year program of spiritual growth and development with Barbara Brodsky, we are currently working with cultivation of our sense of AWE. I came up with this mnemonic device: AWE – awareness without expectation.
Although not part of the formal class, a wonderful partner resource called The Tree of Awe came forth from a precious friend who also has a long history with the teachings. Here are a few powerful excerpts:
All of us live with broken hearts, whether from the great disappointment we feel for our species’ repeated descents into violence and meanness, or from smaller, but no less intense, disappointments we feel for not being loved the way we want, or for not being the person we hoped to be, or for not being understood, or for any of our countless dreams deferred.
What is lost when we let past pain stop us? Our potential. What is gained when we tend our broken hearts skillfully? Potential in the mind of god.
I found this draft of a previous article co-written by Joel and Debra.
-
Posted January 6, 2018 in Monthly NewsAre You Sure Enough to Be Unsure
By Debra and Joel
Look around you at those who say no to war, who say that force is not the only way, and see that many of those spokespersons are using force to try to make their point; not force of violence but a force of confrontation that cannot compassionately hear others. Here is where you have special power, the power to speak to those whose view is close to yours but have not yet learned to overcome their fear-based attachment to opinions. ~ Aaron
“Are you sure enough to be unsure?” is a question asked in NLP to force a collapse of logical levels:
Are you sure?
Are you absolutely sure?
Are you sure enough to be unsure?
There are very few absolutes: Water freezes at 32 F and boils at 212 F most of the time. Most arguments, however, are based on differences in beliefs rather than on physical aspects of the universe that can be measured in accepted ways. While scientists sometimes get into heated exchanges about the correctness of one theory over another, they typically use measurable details from the external environment as proof: they measure and weigh rather than yell and scream. They are more attached to process than they are to outcome.
In Buddhism the practice is to observe our own attachment. “Attachment” in this sense of the word refers to something desired, a “must have” element that robs us of necessary objectivity. It is, however, much easier to see when someone else has lost objectivity than to recognize “attachment” in ourselves. Related terms include frozen evaluation, an assessment that does not change over time, and having a closed mind, unwilling to accept new evidence.
One of the most interesting dynamics is the way two people can consider the other attached without the awareness of his or her own fixed position. And it is not just two people. The same dynamic influences political and national affiliations.
We lay our head under [The Tree of Awe] and stop trying to think our way through this. What is happening is so far beyond what we can know.
Much has changed in these past three years since Joel and I wrote and published that article, not the least of which is a global pandemic. However, attachment to view continues to be one of the most damaging dynamics of our personal and collective process — a sure way to thwart AWE and limit our potential.
The tree of awe isn’t something that is finished. Its branches grow infinitely into the farthest heavens and into the most loving and agonizing moments of our lives. Lying here, looking up at it, there is nothing more we can say, but at least we know we are in good company.
We are always in good company….