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Guidelines to Living Deeply In my July column, I had you participate in some of the perception exercises that were part of the workshop I attended called Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life (www.livingdeeply.org) sponsored by the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). The workshop, the Living Deeply book, and the accompanying Living Deeply Elearning Program and Living Deeply: Transformational Practices from the Worlds Wisdom Traditions DVD are the result of ten years of research on the transformation of human consciousness. The Living Deeply experience includes experiential exercises and insights from wisdom keepers from the world’s greatest spiritual traditions, both ancient and modern. Here are some examples and insights into this experience, which you can use in your own life. Research suggests ... The Living Deeply material is filled with findings based on the ten years of research conducted by IONS researchers Marilyn Mondala Schlitz, Cassandra Vieten, and Tina Amorok—and on the findings of other researchers that influenced the IONS research. Here is one example: Aha! Moments: Aha! moments are defined as those moments of clarity when the solution to a vexing problem falls into place through sudden insight. The book, Living Deeply (page 82), summarizes a series of experiments by J. Kounios and his colleagues that have begun to identify what leads to theses aha! moments. Here is what this research suggests: Aha! solutions to vexing problems are often actually preceded by brain patterns that begin much prior to the act of solving the problem—sometimes even before a problem is presented. This suggests that how a person is thinking before problem solving begins may be just as important as the kind of thinking involved in reaching the solution. Therefore: Having your mind in a receptive state primes it for insights and integrations. As people approach an aha! solution, brain activity suggests that attention focuses inwardly—irrelevant thoughts must first be actively silenced. The mental preparation that leads to aha! solutions are characterized by increased brain activity. Increased activity was seen in the temporal lobe areas (associated with conceptual processing) and the frontal lobe areas (associated with cognitive control or “top-down” processing. Research like this underpins and gives credence to the Living Deeply research method that involved interviewing teachers and masters of transformation in order to focus on the common elements of transformation across a variety of traditions. The Living Deeply researchers point out: Learning to focus attention inwardly, to reduce visual and auditory inputs, and to silence irrelevant thought temporarily can all set the stage for moving into a different kind of cognitive processing—one that includes increasing insight-based knowledge along with the traditional “figuring it out” knowledge. It’s amazing that so many transformative practices, like the vision quest, already foster qualities like introspection and internal silence that scientists are only now discovering as key factors in growth, learning, and transformation. Practice ... Based on insights from research like this plus the insights gleaned from interviews with their research participants, a key finding of the Living Deeply project was the fact that practice is extremely important. Based on this finding, the Living Deeply book, Elearning site, and DVD include many examples and exercises that can be used by those seeking to transform their lives. In the book, for example, each chapter is followed by an in-depth exercise. Here is the exercise at the end of the chapter entitled “Paths and Practices”: Experiencing Transformation: A Path to Practice We asked the teachers, masters, and scholars in our studies, “What are the essential commitments of your path or your practice, both internal and external?” Take a moment to discover your own answer to this question. First of all, what is your practice? Write down exactly what your transformative practice includes. Be broad—include both your formal and informal practices ... List all the elements of your practice and how often you engage in them. Next, look at your personal practice with respect to the three qualities we’ve identified in this chapter. How do you bring intention to your practice? Do you have ways of reminding yourself of your intention? Which activities in your life do you bring attention to, and which do you complete essentially on autopilot? Are you engaging in enough repetition? ... Are there activities essential to your practice that it’s hard to make time for? Can you find even just a few minutes of each day to make these a priority? Are you asking for guidance around your practice, checking in with trusted elders from time to time? Are you paying attention to guidance that may come your way in the form of symbols, metaphors, dreams, or synchronicities? Is there enough time for silence and solitude in your life to allow for that quiet wisdom from within to be heard? On the other hand, have you made your practice itself more important than integrating transformative insights into your everyday life? ... Spend ten to twenty minutes journaling on these questions… There are also many exercises on Living Deeply’s Elearning site (www.livingdeeply.org, go to the home page and click on “Join the eLearning course”). For example, toward the end of Lesson One, “Seeing with New Eyes,” you are asked to do this one: Reflect Before continuing, take a moment to go deeper into the insights just shared by the teachers and reflect on the following questions. Question 1. Think of an example of a “quick fix” transformation experience you’ve had and then of one that has been more enduring. Was there anything about the quality of each experience that was different from the very beginning, or did they both feel similar at first? Question 2. Adyashanti suggests it is often difficult to be true to what has been realized, to what you have perceived with new eyes. Review the last 24 hours of your life and identify two examples of your being what you know to be true and two examples of not being faithful to what you know to be true. Question 3. What is the most persistent floating cloud or insight that you haven’t been able to integrate and sustain? Now think of a floating cloud that you have manifested in your life. What can you learn from that experience and begin using today to integrate your most persistent floating cloud? A host of hands-on exercises are also featured on the Living Deeply DVD. Living Deeply: Practices from the World’s Transformative Traditions is a digital video disc containing nine experiential practices guided by master teachers of transformative traditions including Catholicism, Religious Science, Buddhism, Himalayan Yoga, Cross-Cultural Shamanism, Sufism, Expressive Arts, Kabbalism, and African Yoruban Spirituality. Wisdom All of these exercises and practices are built upon the foundation of wisdom gleaned from the teachers and masters who were interviewed during the Living Deeply project. Here are some of these pearls of wisdom (from the ELearning lessons) that nourish our souls and inspire us to continue our own journey of transformation: David Steindl-Rast Have you ever been surprised at anything? It’s nice to be surprised. Allow yourself to be surprised at whatever. When you open your eyes in the morning, allow yourself to be surprised that there is anything rather than nothing. How come there is anything? Finding meaning starts with surprise. When you start being surprised, you begin to be grateful for the things you had taken for granted. So surprise would be the first baby step. Brother David Steindl-Rast, Ph.D., is a Benedictine monk, an author, and a teacher. He currently serves on the board of directors for the worldwide Network for Grateful Living. Swami Nityananda I think the moment we have a realization or “ah-ha” is the outcome of the dedicated effort that the individual has put in over lifetimes. Swami Nityananda is a disciple of Baba Muktananda; in July 1981 he was chosen to succeed Baba and carry on the work of educating people to practice meditation and the yoga of self-knowledge. He is the founder of Shanti Mandir. Frances Vaughan Transformation implies a change in the sense of self. There’s both an inner and an outer dimension to it. Transformation involves multiple dimensions of a person: our self-concept, the way in which we relate to other people, how we see the world, and what we feel is worth doing. Frances Vaughan, Ph.D., is a pioneer of transpersonal psychology, a psychologist, a teacher, an author, and a trustee of the Fetzer Institute. Starhawk If you follow a practice of spending time in nature, sitting and listening, opening, then what happens over time is you begin to notice and see and hear and sense more. You become aware of the patterns. You become aware that the pattern of sound changes through the day and throughout the year, and through the weather. And you start to receive information by those patterns so that the world really comes alive and starts speaking to you. Starhawk is a co-founder of Reclaiming, an activist branch of modern Pagan religion, as well as a cofounder of Root Activist Network of Trainers (RANT). The site also includes a Quote of the Day. Here is the quote from August 14, 2008: “If I listen to my ego voice, if I choose to do that, I experience more pain no matter how it’s disguised. If I listen to the voice of love, voice of God, I experience joy and peace beyond my experience, beyond my understanding. It’s learning how to tame our ego, not see our ego as our enemy but let it fall down and feel the heart by spirit.” — Gerald Jampolsky My advice: Many of us are already involved in our own transformational journey. The emphasis should be on journey, for transformation is truly a journey and not a destination. The Living Deeply project contains valuable tools and advice that we can use on that journey. It is a treasure trove that we all should use.
Mary Montgomery is a certified web author and developer. Her company, |
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