Monkey See, Monkey Do

in a search today i discovered that Science News put a Buddha on it’s cover for the Feb 17th, 2001 issue and covered a group of researchers who were studying mystical experiences. i found a mention of this in a 2001 zen sangha newsletter. in that they summarize one experience:

The report begins with a description of the experience of neurologist James H. Austin, who, after 8 years of Zen training, spent a sabbatical year at the London Zen Center. One morning, while waiting for a train, he suddenly felt the loss of his “I-me-mine” perspective, and the scene around him seemed to acquire an “absolute reality, intrinsic rightness, and ultimate perfection.” He felt that his experience was impossible to fully describe, that he had nothing to fear, and that he immediately took himself less seriously. In his book Zen and the Brain (1998, MIT Press), Austin described how the experience inspired him to initiate a scientific investigation into the neurology of enlightenment.

i’m quite struck by this theme, and ani pema chodron mentions it in her writing too, that meditation can lead to the cessation of fear. but it doesn’t seem to do so by checking out of our situation particularly. it’s the removal of fear within the messiness of the world. sorry if i sound like i’m selling something. but i hadn’t heard this particular claim when i first started meditating. and i’ve had some small tastes of it personally. but that kind of fruition is very very appealing.

the supreme court is hearing arguments tomorrow for a potentially important patent case. the case will test the idea that one can patent a combination of earlier inventions and call it novel and non-obvious.

patents in silicon valley right now are mostly a joke. the patent office awards pretty much anything. and the test of obviousness is ridiculously lax. i have three awarded patents, and in the process of writing and submitting them it became clear pretty quickly that the patent office just lets the courts decide the relative merit of obviousness. but that leads to an environment of uncertainty and litigation, which i think goes against the goal of encouraging innovation. sure, it’s hard to judge obviousness. that’s a pretty subjective measure. but most of the patents i’ve read really would be fairly obvious to any computer science student. i’d suggest the patent office only award things that are really stellar. the kind that you read and think, “wow, great idea”.

salon published an interview with alan wallace, who is both a student of the dalai lama and former monk as well as a scientist pushing for a new discipline of contemplative science. he does a very interesting job of theorizing how reincarnation might be possible and scientifically tested. very compelling but relatively short four page article.

should be back on the left coast tonight.

this picture was not photoshopped, it was actually taken from the cassini spacecraft of saturn eclipsing the sun. oh if the world could maintain this bigger view of things. click the image for a larger version or to download the really large original.

made my taxi arrangements tonight. will be back in three days. loving it here but also quite ready to head home. though it was so so nice to see friends that i got to know well last fall and winter. they’re wonderful.

meditation seems, at a basic level, to be just about creating contrast in the experience of our mind so that we can see it more clearly. thoughts and emotions that are obviously overblown are never really a problem for us, because we see them and know instantly, “oh i’m overreacting”. it’s like they’re too bloated and they pop on their own.

but the thoughts and emotions that are less bloated, or slightly fuzzy and distant, are the ones that linger and start to rule our world.

so with meditation and other techniques, one can increase the clarity until the stuck emotions in our minds and hearts bloat and pop. the more precisely we see them, the more the blow up. creating contrast is one way of doing that, either by sitting still and quiet (in meditation) or other techniques like exaggerating what we’re feeling on purpose. the more contrast, the more bloated the emotion appears and the more likely it will pop and the energy will start to move again.

for this reason, in the tantric traditions one is encouraged to lean into the painful experiences - the sharp points in life - to feel them more keenly instead of trying to renounce or push away those experiences in some way. pushing them away is what we’ve done our whole life and it has resulted in them being slightly distant, and thereby they have a more lasting hold on us.

so one way to overcome anger, fear, and addiction might be to create more contrast in the experience of those emotions, by meditation but mostly by leaning into the experience of them more directly and getting really curious about how we experience them - in our body, in our mind, in our environment. then “pop”.

this december 22nd, join in on a global protest to bring peace to the planet. this one is easy, and can be joined from the comfort of your home…

what an inspiring conference. about forty leaders and technologists in my buddhist sangha are here to discuss the technology needs for our international organization. we have folks here from england, germany, the netherlands, california, texas, montreal, halifax and british columbia, and from all over north america. what’s inspiring the most to me is to have so many seasoned meditators in discussion, argument, negotiation, and reflection. any group of this size could easily degenerate into stuck opinions or factions or digressions. but we’ve kept it together amazingly well. Is that rude to have such a low expectation for a working group of this size? or is that wisdom? but it’s been wonderful.

the best quote of the weekend about collaboration, by mary whetsell, “i’ve heard that engineers like to solve problems. therefore, they tend to prefer their solutions.”

mostly we’ve been reviewing proposals and completed work to our international web site, membership database, email systems, and how we’re reaching people now and plan to in the future. the basic kung fu is to improve communication in all directions. Not a new problem for any organization of any size. ours has about 10,000 core members and probably 100,000 people regularly participating in meditation programs and buddhism classes internationally. and it’s growing.

i’m now in boston through the weekend, working out of my friend shannon and m.j.’s home. this weekend is a conference for my buddhist group to discuss how best to use technology to improve communication across the organization. then i head up to vermont for a couple weeks.

the sidewalks here are covered in red leaves, i caught the tale end of fall. and i was greeted by that oh so typical boston drizzle. you can sense it’s sort of raining, and you can tell you’re getting wet, and everything else is wet, you just can’t see the rain.

and it looks like my parents are going to move here. mom is considering a job outside of boston. so i may end up back here more and more often. they’re not sure yet if they’re going to keep the house in california and rent it out or what, but dad is now stressin’ trying to fix things and paint just in case.