Wisdom Skill

   
Throughout the ages, men and women have tried to answer the great question, ‘Who am I’?   There are many answers to this question.  One group of answers refers to more worldly references, like career, or some other social status.  Examples
of these are ‘I am a stockbroker’, or ‘I am a man’ or ‘I have a college degree’ or ‘I am from Brooklyn’.  They usually follow
the formula, ‘I am’ and next this phrase is something that is linked to some area of social living.
 

The other famous answer to this question is often in religious or spiritual terms, such as ‘I am a child of God’, or’my true nature (or identity) is spiritual’.  In other words, we are not really of this world; our real self or the true identity is something transcendent.  The literal meaning of the word, transcendent, by the way, means ‘beyond knowledge and experience’. So instead of being a businessman or a married woman or someone who loves movies, we are linked to some part or aspect of the Absolute, however we may choose to define or call this transcendent agency.
 

There is a third understanding or ‘answer’ to this great question, and this is the one that I believe is a vital and important one - even if you have a fixed belief in one of the two forms above. This involves the process or skill of observing different aspects one’s mind and behavior.  It is not an answer in the form of a socially constructed identity, nor is it an answer clothed in anything universal or Absolute.  In fact, there is no specific answer as such.  This is the way of Self-knowledge.

It involves the ability to come to terms, notice and realize at last three aspects of the self:
 1) the realization of a transcendent part of the mind

 2) the identification of functional aspects of the identity and behavior

 3) the uncovering of dysfunctional aspects of the mind and behavior
 

After reading this, you may actually realize that you do observe these within yourself, and the reply to this is absolutely true.  Everyone has some degree of self-knowledge in this ‘third form’.  The art of self-knowledge, though, involves - cultivating - the understanding and recognition of these three.  This takes a certian amount of training and dedication.  In ancient Greece, it was considered the art of ‘philosophy’ or the literal, love of wisdom.  To know the self according to the great philosopher Socrates, involves ‘examination’. 

This examination involves the art of observing all aspects of the self: the transcendent, the functional and the dysfunctional.  When one has the capacity to identify and recognize what causes all of these three aspects of the self, one lives ‘the good life’. 

You will find that when the art of self-observation is learned, one will discover deeper spaces of the mind, known as meditation.  These will propel the discovery of deeper Qualities, such as freedom, authenticity, autonomy, order and love which is the cause of the second aspect, which is social functioning and competence. 

Finally, you will be able to look at the more dysfunctional aspects of behavior more clearly, and see it for the way it is, instead of blaming self and world, leading to the typical distortions of everyday life.  All are part of the process of Self-knowledge, the way of discovering who one really is. 

One of the beginning methods to engage the third way of Self-knowledge is to learn to “be in the present”.  This way, one looks at all three of these aspects of experience: the transcendent, the functional and the dysfunctional.   You do this by contacting four sensory zones: sight, sound, touch and balance (of the body in space).  When you contact these four areas, you can easily see your experience clearly, for you are looking more closely.  Secondly, you can begin to observe the mind more clearly, because the engagement of “hearing” - or the listening to sounds - is transferred to thinking.  Thinking is the “hearing” of the thoughts in our head.  When we listen more closely to our thoughts, we can see how the manner in which we classify our experience causes many of the problems in our living.  This is Self-knowledge; you are learning about your self by discovering underlying causes. 

We may not destroy or eliminate all aspects of dysfunctional behavior, but we can learn to look at these patterns more clearly, and with this clarity, not allow them to rule over our behavior.  Secondly, we will still retain cultural wisdom or functioning in the world.  The more we look and slowly transcend much of our inappropriate patterning (from childhood conditioning), we actuall learn to be more functional in the world.  This is what is behind much of our popular personal growth strategy. 

However, without the third form or path, the path of Self-knowlege, we will never uncover our real nature, which is contained within the depth of our being.  This can only be accessed when we not only transcend dysfunctional or inappropriate patterns, but also our functional ego conditions (with their appropriate functioning) and look at what we see when there is no social or personal patterning at all.   If we are too attached to our functioning (feeling good about all the positive aspects of our life), we will not uncover more deeper areas of the mind, which are beyond ego.

The transcendant aspect of our self is utterly transparent, but not literally divorced from human experience.  We transcend in order to include or involve ourself in the world.  We can function better in the world when we can feel a deep “letting go”, because more problems occur through “hyper-involvement”.  But this must be done with the Transcendent aspect of ourself, which can only be accessed through the right form of Self-knowledge.   

    William Edwards 
    Author and trainer
    www.wisdomskill.com
    wisdomskill@gmail.com

Most of us believe we know who we are, but what we really find is a conventional or socially
constructed self.  However, most of us do not understand what is referred to as the Real Self.   What could be the difference between the two?  The ordinary self is based upon our relationship to areas of social living and does not intrinsically relate to the deeper part of who we really are.  On the other hand, the Real Self, although interacting with different areas of social living, is not dependent upon an identity that is a structure or constructed upon the interaction.
 

Let’s give an example of the Real Self and the ordinary or conventional self.  Let us take the conventional self 
first.  If I were a tennis player and won three straight sets, then I would base my identity upon this match or my performance.  I may think to myself, ‘I shot a good game today’, or even ‘I am a good tennis player’.  Notice that it is a constructed self-image. It is an internal construction, based upon a personal conclusion of how I think I played in this particular sport. Now, let us look at an idea of what could be the Real Self.
 

The Real Self is not based upon a personal conclusion or an internally constructed self-image.  It is actually
beyond our normal thinking and feeling processes or functions.  What could this be?  The Real Self depends upon contact with a deeper part of the mind that is beyond our normal thoughts and feelings that are forever processing our relationship to the world, or the various social processes.  It is the depth of the mind that witnesses these things.  However, there must be some aspect of the self that is more worldly, or is contacting specific social areas we are engaging.  Let us explain how this works.
 

This Witness or the Space beyond our thoughts and feelings, along with our essential Existence or what some
philosophers call our essential ‘Being’, will form one or more Qualities that enable us to act appropriately in the world.  There are many of these Qualities: joy, love, dexterity, clarity and purity are some of them.  When a person contacts their Real Self, they not only realize or tune into the transcendent portion of the mind, but with the assistance of their innate Being, they form or ‘produce’ universal Qualities that not only optimize our functioning, but actually ‘feel’ like a part of
 who we really are. 

So, in the example above, the constructed, conventional identity involve the different images, feelings and thoughts around myself winning the tennis game.  The Real Self, however, is experienced as the deeper portion of the mind, together with different Qualities, such as Energy, Joy and Dexterity - held together by Being, or Pure Existence.   In other words, I am not just a tennis player or a winner of a game, but I am the deeper Qualities that involve the higher functioning of the game, itself.   I feel the joy of the tennis game: or I am joy.  I feel or experience the dexterity of the tennis match; therefore, a deeper part of me is dexterity and so on.
 

The conventional self or socially constructed Identity is not, literally, wrong or false, as long as it is does
does not contain emotions or opinions that are not objective.  To realize that I won the tennis game is true and this is how this can be communicated or understood in conventional terms.  It is silly to try to forget this or ignore it.  On a practical level, I won the game.  On the other hand, if I were to think that I am the greatest tennis player in the world, just because I won this game would be a false identity.  However, the ‘Real’ Identity is something that is deeper and valuable because it is not based upon a changeable, self-image or personal conclusion, but upon the realization of a vital aspect of living intelligence. 

The way that we can construct the Real Self is the through different trainings which develop or transform our basic structures of experience, or what the ancients referred to as the “faculties”.  Normally, we use them in ways that are not conductive to higher development, and thus, we contact our conventional identities, which are usually superficial and some times even false.  Throught the exercising of our newly developed structures of experience, such as our instincts, attention, volition and so forth, we can the deeper part of our self, or our Essential Identity. 

When the trainings have been implimented, we can discover more of who we really are, instead of only constructed social identities.  These have practical use, but do not at who we really are.  Our attachment to them is what causes the constant ups and downs of life, that reveal nothing more than emotional instability.  When we have the courage to look with more honesty, we will realize that we hold on to these identities for fear of our own emptiness.

There is nothing to fear when we look at our own minds and emotions; we may temporarily find ‘nothing’, but this is an aspect of who we really are.  Our own pure consciousness reveals an empty nature, which not only is very interesting but full of peace and the originator of many other wonderful qualities, that are not so easily accessed through the conventional ego and personality.
      
     
William Edwards
Author, Trainer

The Skill of Wisdom
www.wisdomskill.com  wisdomskill@gmail.com
     

 We normally believe that through thinking that we understand.  This is only partially true.  Through thought, we can interpret specific areas of life.  Also, we can forecast how decisions will effect circumstances, as well as attempt to come to grips with what has already occurred in our life.

The problem is that thought is often very subjective.  In other words, the way we think is often corrupted or polluted by our personal and subjective agendas.  For example, we can think that we need a new car and then apply our thought process to anticipate the cost and other criteria that not only involve the purchase, but how this would effect our lifestyle. 

However, other subjective factors often enter our thinking process, which have the effect of complicating our minds, rendering the whole process confusing and conflicting.  In the above example, we begin to think about status, worries about what the neighbor thinks and other types of matters that have little to do with what is actually needed to buy a car (on a practical level). 

 What happens when we attempt to suspend thought?  Of course, we need to think constructively; however, we do not normally see that there is a hidden treasure of Wisdom which is beyond thought that truly understands our own experience.  Partially, this inherent belief in thought stems from our prejudice that only conceptualization brings understanding.  We believe that if we stop thought, it would make us dump or stupid.  Just the opposite, actually. 

 Why would the absence of thought bring any understanding?  There are at least two answers to this. 

First of all, finding the Space between thoughts brings us to a deeper area of the mind that is detached.  When we can be detached, be can see things more clearly. 

Secondly, and this may seem hard to fathom, but this deeper area of the mind is Wise.  It is as if there is a wise man or woman underneath all the thinking that we normally do.  It is not that our normal thinking is wrong or impractical.  It is just that we often do not know what to do, how to interpret our experience clearly, or where we are going. This deeper and detached aspect of the mind can not only understand experience better, but work with the functioning intellect to establish clear perception and decision making. 

 We need thought, but we need the absence of thought to truly understand experience. To encounter this treasure trove of understanding we need to learn how to temporarily side-step our normal ways of thinking, and this takes a specific training.

What we will discover is that through this inherent Space of the mind that transcends thought, we can discover deeper Qualities that are inherently wise and intelligent, such as Automomy, Clarity, Freedom, Order and Love.  These are easily assimilated and realized when we enter the inner Space and temporarily suspend (not eliminate) the many ideas that are often running in our heads in an almost compelling and mechanical manner. 

This internal material will be seen, though this intelligent Space of the mind, as narcissistic, subjective and not real.  Thought can be linked to undersatnding only when it is purged of subjectivity; then thought can be linked to Understanding.  This is the origin of the Greek philosophical notion of ”Reason”.   The opposite of this is “opinion”, which  does not just refer to our common understanding of the word, which implies a kind of non-professional attempt at solving some sort of dilemma, but to the way we normally think, which is highly personal and subjective. 

Most of our thinking is influenced by emotion, and this emotion refers to aspects of our self and mind which relates to our own image and worth.  This often renders our conclusions, assumptions and positions non-objective or without Reason. The manner is which we transform this is not through repression or trying to eliminate emotion through the idealization of Pure Intellect, but through the process of Self-Observation.

Self-observation is the means by which we can look squarely at our feelings and how they not only pertain to narcissistic perceptions and thus, distortions of self-and world, but how they connect and form our normal thinking and conclusions.  By learning to doubt what we think and feel and adopting an “experimental” approach to our mind, we can realize how much we base our conclusions on feelings which are unfounded.   For example, we “think” this person is ridiculous, but when we enquire into our minds, we realize that she just hurt our feelings, which prompted me to label her as such.  

Whenever there is lack of internal objectivity, we tend to distort self and world.  This brings mis-understanding and leads to all the conflicts, confusions and complications of our daily lives. 

   William Edwards

   Author, Trainer
   

   www.wisdomskill.com

   wisdomskill@gmail.com

 We think of illusion as something that we believe we see but is not really there, like a mirage.  Magicians depend upon certain tricks to entertain audiences through mis-leading their perception. Throughout our daily life, we often percieve things incorrectly, until we think or focus our minds in a particular way.  Then we understand what is real.

 The other definition of illusion is philosophical; may people believe that what we see in our life is an illusion; that if reach some spiritual state or condition, we will finally understand that what is out there in the world, is really not there at all.  Then we will discover what is really Real.  Or on the other hand, if we use some metaphysical, religious or spiritual ideal or doctrine and apply it to all of life, we will really understand what is really going on.

 There is a different understanding of the illusion (of Reality) that I wish to identity.  This is the notion that our perception of daily experience becomes illusory, through faulty habits of interpretion and emotional reactivity. 

 For example, if somebody I encounter in the market, let’s say, that I have indeed met before, and he looks over at me but does not respond; I may come up with the following interpretation:  ‘This jerk is trying to act like he does not know me’.  Now, let us assume that the person in the market is nearsighted (because she forgot her contacts lenses) and therefore, cannot not recognize me at all.  If I use my original interpretation, I have actually deluded myself and this is actually an illusion of perception.  I see her as she is in relation to her physical form (that is real); however, I do not see her social characteristics accurately.  Therefore, I have distorted my social perception of her.  That makes my perception distorted, and thus, “unreal”.

 Illusions do not always involve the presence or absence of “things and objects”, like in magic tricks.  It involves the presence or absence of clear perception in our daily life.  What is the difference between looking and perceiving a fruit instead of a base-ball and misperceiving a social situation, like the one above?  There is no difference; only different modes of misperception.  The cognition of the a fruit instead of a baseball is an example of a visual misperception and the other is a cognitive misperception.  They are both misperceptions, and thus, distortions.

 You would be surprised at how often we make these misperceptions and thus render our experience, unreal.  How does this occur?  From the fact that we do not know how to observe our minds, and differentiate the difference between what is real and not.  From this lack of examination, we often believe immediately what is going on in our minds, with out much understanding or scrutiny. 

Our habitual patterns of subjective thinking and feeling are extended - or ‘projected’ - into social perception (thus constructing beliefs and conclusions) and this turns our experience into an illusion of personal and social misunderstanding.

How can anybody get out of this predicament? We can learn to see our self and our life clearly by learning the science of self-observation.  There is a method of training that gives a clear understanding of how the minds works and how this can be can be transfered into actual perception. 

 When perception clears up - thus, ridding itself of illusion - we make better decisions, and act wisely.  Then life becomes more real.  We do not need to do any magic tricks to know how to get out of our delusions.  We just learn to perceive our self and the world in a clear manner. 

 We start with the inner self or our own mind.  When we can perceive what is going on in the mind, then the world will also be clearer and without distortion.  It is like cleaning a window; when it has been wiped, even to a degree, we can see outside.  There is no illusion.

Similarly, when we learn to clean up our minds, we can see external experience clearly, and we do not fall into the faulty habits of emotional and cognitive misperception. 

 To facilitate this, we need to understand how to look at the mind.  An appropriate training and theory can teach you to ‘clean up your mind’ and thus, ‘clean up your act’. 

Everything starts with the mind, because it is here that illusion begins to form.  However, just because the problem rests with the mind, this doesn’t mean that we just work with thought or perception alone.  This can be done, but it is arduous.  We can also use other structures, such as Attention.  Transformation really occurs by “putting together” different structures into a holistic process or matrix. 

When we process experience, we just do not use our minds, but also other structures (or “centers”), such as attention, instinct and emotion. 

However, much of our illusion starts with thought and perception, as shown in the examples above.  One of the best methods of objectifying our misperception is to elist the faculty of Attention to enable us to be more cognizant and aware of what our minds our doing.   Being attentive is a “yoga” in itself, and takes an extroardinary amount of discipline and interest.

Why is this so?  Because just as it is easy to mispercieve our present reality, it is similarly easy to lose our attention and get lost in thought.  In other words, if we learn to bring our attention into the present moment, we can “catch” when our thinking becomes muddled in narcissistic conclusions and perceptions.  Attention is pure and can be counted on to notice things that are impure, such as unobjective conclusions about our self and others. 

Remember, “illusion” actually is the misperception of self and world, which easily comes about through the “transferring” of early, childhood patterns into adult experience.

Another structure that can be utilized in the transformation of illusion or misperception is the faculty of instinct.   In this case, we will use breath.  The breath that is deep and centered is the “belly breath”; the breathing through the diaphram which brings us into our self in a full manner.  When our thoughts and feelings run away from us, our breath will naturally move away from this deeper form of breathing.  Therefore, it we are aware of our breathing and move it into this other position, we can tell when our thoughts and feelings run away from us (which usually implies a misperception),  from the way we are breathing.  The deeper breath feels “wise”. 

We can also access this type of breathing through meditation.  When we sit very still, our breath slows down and moves into this place.  Here, we can then watch our minds and see how it runs away from us and forms all sorts of interesting conclusions about self and world.  We have seen how attention, breath and body stillness all coordinate to transform misperception or illusion into Reality.

  William Edwards

  Author, Trainer

  www.wisdomskill.com

  wisdomskill@gmail.com

How do we transform our self? There are two kinds of transformation, worldly and spiritual. Many people have goals toward specific successes in the world, such as a better relationship, or a rewarding career or more fun and so on. On the other hand, many people are going through transitions, or a personal crisis in their lives, and they may seek out more transcendent or spiritual solutions to problems. Or perhaps, they want to have a spiritual connection or experience as a means to find themselves.

It may be a surprise to the reader that even though these two paths appear different and of course, they are to a certain degree, there is a way in which both of these directions are similar.

The direction towards success in the world and success in the ’spirit’ both do similar things: they attempt to transform our basic structures, or what the ancients referred to as the ‘faculties’. There is common sense to this. If a person is not getting along well in the world, or he or she is troubled, confused or having any negative experience, it is usually because they are using their basic structures, instruments or faculties in an inappropriate manner.

For example, if a person has a gambling problem and they are depressed, because they have a strong compulsivity towards this and it is complicating their life, then he or she can analyze or take a close look at these problems and find that the core structures are in a ‘negative’ position.  Their motivations, thoughts, feelings and actions were in a negative position.

What are these key structures, centers or faculties? There are many lists, and a simple, generic one is mind and body. To be more precise, we can add emotions, movements and instincts. An exact list is not important, but it is vital to understand that both secular and sacred traditions aim, and give precise exercises to transform these basic structures.

What is a true transformation? I believe that a true transformation occurs as a result of bringing both of these well trodden aspects of life together, the transcendent and the immanent. To do this requires that you use different trainings to transform the normal structures that we use in our daily life. When we do this in a certain manner, we will discover that we can achieve both things: a functional and successful entry into into worldly life, and also to realize a deeper part of the mind, which is transcendent.

When we tune into both aspects: being in the world and at the same time, paradoxically, transcending it, through contacting a deeper state of our mind, we “awaken” to our true condition.

We not only know who we are, but through the production of deeper qualities, understand how to act appropriately in the world. We do not just focus on one process: only success in the world, or on the other hand, only success in the spirit or ‘transcending’ our ego or normal, conditioned self. Through this we transform our self, because our normal means for acting in the world have been profoundly altered - through training - and secondly, we feel spiritual, as if there is a greater purpose to our life and journey in this world. This is real transformation.

It does not intrinsically need any specific religious orientation, nor does in involve any specific social status or outcome. It fulfills the great living process of ‘being in the world, but not of the world’.

Being in the world, means that one creatively can navigate those social processes that are appropriate and to apply deeper Qualities to them, thereby rendering them, “meaningful”.  On the other hand, through letting go of many of the intrusive, mechanical and compulsive thoughts and feelings, one can discover or realize our intrinsic internal nature nature, which is both empty and deep.  This also produces peace and understanding, working alongside of the aspect of our self which is “in the world”.

We do not have to push back and forth:  first being wordly and then, through frustration with this, push ourselves into the transcendent. Through one process and training - re-organize our core structures - enter both guadually and completely.

This “work” is always ongoing.  It is never completely finished; otherwise, there would be no reason for being here on this planet.  It appears that this is some kind of large “growth school”.  Nevertheless, we can always feel that wherever we are in our process, it is “perfect” in its creative potential.  It is always as it should be, even though growth and improvement is required. 

For example, if I get angry because someone who I care about does not notice me in the way that I need, then that anger is “perfect” in its unfolding.  It is not as if it is not suppose to be there.  (Of course, it is always more beneficial or wise, not to not express this anger outwardly, which may in turn cause repercussions).   However, we can use this anger as the precursor of growth and transcendence.  That is also perfect.

William Edwards

Author, Trainer

The Skill of Wisdom
www.wisdomskill.com
wisdomskill@gmail.com

When most people think of the world, “diet”, they think of weight loss or bodily image, or perhaps physical health. However, most people are not aware that the regulation of food can not only transform one’s energy, but lead to an increased Self-knowledge, and spiritual transformation.

Most of our eating habits have been conditioned from youth. These are strict physical habits, such as the love of certain foods, like cake, ice cream or salty foods. Secondly, there are emotional habits that have conditioned our eating patterns, such as eating comfort foods, when we are emotionally down (and not really hungry).

The use of diet as part of one’s personal transformation, involves not only inserting in one’s routine specific aspects of right eating, but also the process of Self-knowledge, which allows us to observe our dysfuctional eating habits. These, as stated, arise out of emotional patterns that are not really resolved.

Therefore, the whole process of transformation through diet involves a gradual understanding of why we eat the way we do, plus the implimentation of right habits, not the immediate acquisition of an ideal pattern.

We start with four major forms of regulation. These do not include a specific regemin, but very generic processes that can adapt to one’s physical size (thin, medium or large) and biochemical (metabolic) individuality. They are very ordinary and are not esoteric or extreme.  In fact, we use most of these daily, at least to some degree.

* Choice - this is a very commone sense notion. When we eat, we “choose” our foods: what foods we think we need or perhaps, want and desire. However, in this process, there are certain general food groups that we work with and observe when and how we veer off course. The major food groups are fruits, vegetable, nuts, seeds, grains, beans and a minimum or moderate use of dairy and meat products. The foods that we - experimentally - avoid, are the common “junk foods” such as cakes, cookies, candy, highly processes foods and so forth. When we do indulge, we are not doing anything wrong, only should look at how one came to the decision to eat this way. When other trainings are used, one will slowly move away from these habits.

* Amount - this also is a very common process that we impliment daily. When we eat we adjust the amount of our intake to what we can comfortable handle. However, we know that we do not always do this. We often “over-eat” and pay little attention to how this affects our mental clarity and energy (typical outcomes in transformation). Also, we tend to hit the extremes of over and undereating. Undereating causes over-eating, because the body will go into “hoarding” mode, when there is hunger, through evolutionary processes.

* Frequency - We not only attend to choice and amount, but we decide when to eat, which implies the choice of how many meals in a day. There is different energy that is produced if we eat two meals in comparison to four. Similarly, there is a different energy produced if we eat most of our food at night or in the first part of the day. Experiment with eating two larger meals a day, and compare it with eating four or five smaller meals.  Also, eat lighter during the beginning of the day and compare this to eating heavier breakfast.   Try to find which is the best time to eat more heavily and which are best to eat light meals.

* Purity - This involves the inclusion of a certain percentage of live or “raw” foods in the diet.  This is the not the cultic lifestyle of attempting to eat 100 percent, or the focus of the whole spiritual transformation into diet.  It is the experimentation of maximizing the diet with the percentage of raw foods into the total intake.  With certain people, it may include 50 %; others, 90%.  This purifies the whole body and leads to the purification of mind and soul.

The transformation of diet involves the re-hauling of the instinctual center or structure, which is often the disrupter of a transformed life.  In other words, we attempt to work on our self, but the body has other things in mind.  This is why, along with other trainings on other centers or structures, we slowly introduce more a more condusive diet towards transformation.  This will slowly bring in a bodily, “alchemy”, which allows a complete transformation of mind, heart and body.

We waste so much energy through wrong eating, because the body uses so much energy in order to digest food.  There are as many neurons in the intestine as there are in the whole brain!  Therefore, it stands to reason, that if we make intelligence choices in our dietary intake, we can preserve so much energy.  This energy is transferred to other aspects of our training and living processes.

William Edwards

Author, Trainer

www.wisdomskill.com

wisdomskill@gmail.com

What is going on inside of a person when they are Awake?  The name, Buddha, literally refers to an awakened one.  When a person is awake, they are very conscious.  When a person is conscious, this implies that they have generated or have “raised” Consciousness.  In other words, the more conscious you are, the more awake you are; which implies that you have raised or can contact your essential Consciousness.

This is the first process of Awakening.  What does this imply in our daily life?  In our ordinary waking state, we are forever processing social experience.  This means that when an incident occurs, we try to figure it out or process it, usually from a person or subjective standpoint.  If we were totally objective, there would be little narcissistic concerns and we would handle it rather quickly.  However, this is not the usual case.  We string together thought, feeling, memory and motivation together in a compelling, mechanical form that - blocks - Consciousness.  We do not, literally, “lose” consciousness; otherwise, we would be in a coma.  However, the light of Awareness (another word for Consciousness) recedes in the background, as it were.  In other words, the more these structures are placed in our Consciousness, the less conscious we are. 

Simply put, if we have a lot of stuff going on in our minds, because we are trying to figure out our experience, the less we can contact our pure Consciousness, in itself.  That will leave us less conscious and awake.  Therefore, the key here is to let go of the material in our minds.  When we let go of unneeded material - the constant, compelling movement of thought, feeling and episodic memory, we can find or realize our inherent original mind or Pure Consciousness.

That is not enough, though.  As much as we need to be awake, through our essential Consciousness, we still have to act in the world.  Pure Consciousness is essentially detached in that it just witnesses activity (inner and outer).  Consciousness is always there, and there is no literal seperation from the world.  It is simply “untouched” by experience.  However, there is always a world that we are contacting from moment to moment, and just as we cannot escape our own Awareness, we cannot escape the world.  We are thrown into the world, as it were, because there is always some social process that we are connecting at all times of the day.

What are these processes of the world?  They are our home life, our careers, our families, social norms, government, entertainment, art, transportation, religion and so on.   We are always contacting at least one of these throughout our day, no matter what our lifestyle is.  Therefore, we are always in the world, as much as we have the capacity to transcend the world. 

We experience this double or dual aspect, even in mundane life.  When we go through an experience, particularly one that is eventful or somewhat intense, we do two things.  First, we detach our self from the experience in order to understand it.  Now matter how much we react, we have to step back and understand it.  Even if this reflection is not as detached as Pure Awareness, the cognitive interpretation is still divorced from outside action; therefore, it it is, officially, detached.

Secondly, we must act in response to this event.  There are few events that have no repercussion, especially if reacted to the event.  We will make some kind of decision to do this, not do this, confront, avoid or whatever.  We are always “in” and we are always, “stepping back”.   This is the most generic, human orientation to the life, the world or the environment.

Awakening involves two processes; the ability to let go of internal material (thoughts, feelings and memory) and realize our pristine Awareness, and secondly to bring different primordial qualities into experience, thus fulfilling Being (living)-in-the-World.  We have to be detached, so we can be clear and wise as to how we think and act, but we also need to act intelligently in the world, as it pertains to how we relate to social process.

The way in which we accomplish these two goals is to enact a training which covers all six of our major structures, centers or “faculties”.  This will immediately help us contact our essential Non-Being, which is Pure Consciousness and our essential Being, which extends into the world of experience.  We are both processes and these are our essential identities.  The more we embrace them, the more we “awaken”. 

*We have a transcendant aspect of our minds or psyche that is Awakened, Spacious, Empty and Objective: the Witness

* We are always engaged as a being-in-the-world, which we cannot transcend, except in sleep or death.  We are always “in the world”, because we are always contacting some social process throughout the day.

*True human development is to engage both fully: to meditate and to realize transcendent areas of the mind (Pure Consciousness or Awareness) and secondly, to realize or develop transformative Qualities - such as Kindness, Autonomy, Compassion, Confidence, Love, Freedom, etc.) that allow us live appropriately in the world.  This is the real Good-Life.

William Edwards

Author, Trainer

The Skill of Wisdom

www.wisdomskill.com

wisdomskill@gmail.com

We all want to increase, what has been referred to, as our “will power”.  What actually is this much talked-about skill?  We know that we often succumb to our desires and do not complete our desired wishes.  But do we have to wait until the beginning of the year (New Years Eve) until we can make resolutions or declarations of various sorts.  Is there a method that we can use to increase this mysterious skill?

First of all, we have to discover what exactly is the will and from there, we can formulate different ways in which we can overcome our resistances in order to recover our will.  What is the Will?  The formal term for the will is Volition.  Volition is the act of carrying our any motivation.  In fact, we do it every day.  Just reading this short article from start to finish is an act of Volition, and thus and act of Will.

Actually, only a person with Frontal Lobe damage can physiologically not complete tasks.  In fact, even activities that are considered “addictive” are acts of Volition, although they disrupt other more appropriate tasks.  For example, smoking takes “Will” simply because of the task of finishing the cigarette.  If a person did not complete a particular task by leaving the scene in order to smoke a cigarette and could not even finish the cigarette: now that is a loss of Will! 

You may say, so what?  I say, it is a big deal.  Why?  Because the same method you use to finish an ordinary act is the same method you use to finish a so-called extraordinary act.  What occurred when you finished a simple activity, such as cleaning up your workspace or your room?   There are three major processes that occurred.

* You made an intention to carry out a particular action program

* You eliminated as much distraction as you could and selected various smaller functional motor sequences which allowed you to carry it through.  

* You then, verified it that it was, indeed, correct and completed.

These are the three process of ”Will”.  You make an intention, you eliminate distraction at the same time, carrying out all the appropriate smaller sequences of actions and you follow it through.  Finally, you verify that you finished the intended action.  We do that all the time; so it is not any kind of new ability. 

What is the problem, then?  The answer to this question is profound, and until we recognize what is going on, we will be stuck in our old patterns and habits.  The answer to this is two-fold:

* We do not have confidence that we can escape the conditioning pattern, and

* We do not believe we have the ability to overcome the distraction

In other words, let us say that I have a problem with desserts.  I eat a healthy meal and then I go ahead and wolf down a large dessert which makes me feel lethargic and undisciplined.  When I finished the meal, I could have stopped, but what got in the way?

Those two skills mentioned above: I believed I could not do it and, secondly, I believed that the distractions would overwhelm me.  What we do not realize is that we do have the same ability to carry out these so-called difficult actions, because we use the same processes in our simple actions.  We know how to clean up our workspaces, we believe we can do it, and we know we can eliminate the distractions that would potentially short-circuit our motivations. 

So then how do we “recover” these skills from simpler actions and transfer them to more arduous ones?  The answer is three-fold.

* Keep applying the three processes of Volition mentioned earlier in many areas of life, which will cause you can gain confidence.

* Learn other trainings, such as being in the moment (attention regulation), which assist in your recover of the Will.

* Learn the art of self-observation and watchfulness, so you can ”catch” those particular modes of distraction that lead to the disabling of the Will. 

You will find that the another key to expanding Volition or Will is to train the other important structures, centers or faculties, such as attention, instinct, emotion and thought.  All the structures are connected, so if you work on one, you will have to account for the others.

The key is to not be obsessed with one center or structure, but to work on all the others, to a sufficient degree and then, “put them together”, as it were.  We do this in our daily life, since we intend something, we attend to it and we encounter thoughts and feelings while we are doing the activity.

To integrate all these structures is to integrate the activity.  However, we need to work on each one on their own, and volition is a great place to start, because we are always “doing something”. 

Notice that there is no such thing as a “non-activity”.  We are always, during our waking hours, in some social activity, even though it appears that we are doing “nothing”.  There is no such thing as doing nothing because there is always some social process - externally to our self.  Therefore, we are always functioning, and if we are always functioning, then there is some action that is taking place.

Even if we are sitting in our room and staring out the window, that is still an activity.   Meditators do nothing, but “sit” and that is definitely doing something (engaging spiritual culture).  Therefore, since we are always doing something, we can always apply our volition. 

Know what you are doing; recognize the activity and see if you can ”intend” it.  In other words, pretend as if it is an important activity that needs completion.  Then follow it through.  Finally, check to see if it was correctly done; if not, attempt to correct it. 

If you do not finish it, intend to finish it another time and actually do it.  This actually strengthens the Frontal Lobes, the most evolved area of the central nervous system.  This area is the seat of the Will, because the three processes of Volition are the main processes of the Frontal Lobes.

William Edwards

Author, Trainer

The Skill of Wisdom

www.wisdomskill.com

wisdomskill@gmail.com

The process of Meditation begins through self-observation and when there is the passion to discern what internal material (thoughts, feelings, memory) is appropriate and what is not. We cannot eliminate all thoughts and feelings in our psyche, for a certain portion of our consciousness must be delegated towards processing social experience. In other words, our lives are not that simple that we can just be in the simple present all the time. We have to think about things a little bit.

Having said that, much of what goes on in our minds are not really objective, or if we were to analyze it as such, are really not necessary. Much of our thinking contains material, that if were to be honest with ourselves, are actually narcissistic. We are so use to processing our social experience selfishly, that we would be shocked not only on the amount of time spent, but how these thoughts and feelings cause us to be immature.

The child uses feeling states to interact socially, mainly because it has not developed its frontal lobes to maturity. This is not saying that we can eliminate all feeling from our minds; this is impossible, unless we are isolated. However, we can learn to understand the relationship between thought and feeling and how this can aide our spiritual connection. Spiritual connection is essentially contemplative, and this is accomplished throught the process of Meditation.

When we are children, we need to learn basic social skills and these skills actually never recede. They are present in our adult experience in a modern society. The problem is: the manner in which we experienced these skills are “transferred” into our adult experience: in other words, we still internally feel the “inner child” in many of our adult interactions.

What is the problem with this? A few things. First of all, the state of Meditation, or realizing a quiet mind, or the internal Space is transcendent to reactive emotions, which the reactivity of the inner child will undermine. Secondly, the often mechanical and compelling nature of the mind is fuelled by these early issues. In other words, when we start to contact these unprocessed childhood skills, it will fill up our minds, as it were, by reflecting upon these feelings and block the capacity for Meditation.

What are these issues? They contain major social skills learned during our childhood development: trust, pleasure, closeness, control, attention and trait assesment (and their opposites in duality: distrust, displeasure, distance, etc).

As children, we all need basic Trust, just as we need to feel close to our parents. We also need to feel Comfortable (pleasure) in our bodies and experience. We need Attention from our parents in order to feel special. We need to feel in Control of our minds and bodies.   Furthermore, we need Closeness from our parents and siblings and finally, we need to feel comfortable with certain personality Traits found in our parents. These skills are brought forth in adult living as important fundamental living skills.

Besides these six issues, there is also the opposite form which is also important, so it can be said that these issues occur in a “duality”. Therefore, besides the basic skill of trust, there is Distrust. Alongside of closeness, there is Distance, aloneness or isolation. Alongside of pleasure, there is Displeasure; attention, Neglect. Next to control is Compliance, and alongside of positive assesment of traits, there are traits that we do not care for or need to escape from.

These complementary skills are just as important as their positive counterparts.  We need to distrust as much as we need to trust; otherwise, we would not survive.  We need to be alone, just as much as we need closeness, otherwise, we could not have a “life” outside of a relationship.  We need to comply, just as much as we need to have control or we could not make relationships with other (if we were to bossy), etc.

Because as children, we do not have an adult mind that can process these objectively, we contain memories (imprints) of problematic experiences related to these six skills. Furthermore, these memories are contaminated through the immaturity or our own parents who should be modeling these skills effectively. Therefore, our lives are often guided through unconscious memories of these experiences as they intersect daily adult living.

When we are adults, these issues become intruded into our minds, and then our behavior and then we feel “hijacked” by them.  Through a direct training, we can begin to confront and understand these early childhood intrusions and learn to effectively work with them.  This will produce the inner adult - and eventually the spiritual adult.

This adult is inherently wise and can look at these childhood intrusions objectively and find ways to not only transform them, but find real solutions.

These solutions come in the form of deeper Qualities that are essentially higher intelligences that can always understand what to do in most situations.  These Qualities or intelligences are produced when the inherent structures of our experience (the faculties of thought, identity, emotions, instinct, etc) are regulated and transformed.

We will never totally eradicate these early issues of emotional intrusions, but we can effectively observe them and produce the kind of understanding that can not only prevent unwarranted reactivity and inappropriate behavior, but find “alternative routes” that are inherently transformed and wise.

William Edwards

Author, Trainer

The Skill of Wisdom

www.wisdomskill.com

wisdomskill@gmail.com

When we normally think about things in our life, we often use reflective skills that begin later on in our childhood development, such as beyond the early and middle childhood stages.  In adolescence we begin to learn different cognitive mechanisms that allow us to process technical and social experience with a greater degree of sophistication.

When a person has any degree of interest in understanding the self, or entering the path of Self-knowledge, there will arise a definite discernment between technical and personal reflection.  Functional, or technical reflection is necessary to live in a modern, secular society.  Even if one has an interest in Meditation or any, spiritual technology that assists one in any form of transcendence, one still must activate technical and even personal reflection in a conscious manner.

Examples of these are the many forms of “figuring out” that are used in our daily life, such as determining schedules, the learning of new skills and information or the manner in which certain decisions will affect other people.  This is usually accomplished in an area of the frontal lobes, the dorsolaterial frontal cortex, which operates “working memory”, allowing a person to hold onto one or more pieces of memories while they attempt to discover solutions.

The problems occur through the excessive use of personal, subjective or narcissistic use of reflection which often causes a type of “indigestion” of the mind.  The psyche is filled up with internal material that could be easily eliminated if the person could trace early childhood issues as the major influence to this “build-up” in the mind.  This is usually never done, because some of these earlier issues are not only automatic, but we intrinsically believe in their reality.

For example, if I am invited to a party and a person I really like does not give me the right attention, this may cause me to have my feelings hurt.  I wanted a certain amount and kind of attention from this person, and from here, many of the major problems of human living will extend.  When we Reflect on personal issues, in the manner in which we over-process this imformation, it not only causes us to lose self-understanding, but also allows us to be embroiled in conflicts, complications and confusions of living. 

Unconscious Reflection usually follows earlier childhood issues that are not processed clearly, and thus cause the mind to continually “figure out” what is out there and who one is, in relationship to a social situation or circumstance.  When this happens, the deeper area of the mind, or Internal Space becomes opaque and one becomes lost in thought and feeling.  This promotes the “internal trance” and therefore, the individual becomes lost to the present moment.  When one loses touch with the present, a certain sense of “reality” becomes degrated.  One begins to distort both Self and World.

There are six major forms of Unconscious Reflection.  Again, these become activated following unprocessed earlier childhood issues such as pleasure, trust, attention, closeness, power and so on (with their opposites, such as displeasure and distrust, etc).  When these original feelings emerge, we begin to “reflect” on these original feelings. 

When issues of Power emerge, such as when I decide to not go the romance movie and attempt to steer my girlfriend away from this apparently noxious activity, I begin to reflect on the nature of the self/environmental situation.  I may start to think, “why am I with this woman”? or “woman always want to do this or that”.  Now there are certain reflections that have a certain intellectual integrity or validity.  However, in most cases, when earlier childhood issues are activated, the reflections are usually non-objective and are often not looked at clearly. 

We cannot look at our self if we believe in everything that we think or feel as if they contain absolute objective validity.  The art of self-observation involves the various trainings that allow us to look at our minds carefully.  When we begin to look at the way the mind operates, we can see how much of our internal movement is generated by personal needs, feelings and cognitions which are not real or even functional.

It takes tremendous honesty and understanding to have the courage to look at ourselves with clarity.  It is not easy to see the difficult aspects of our mind and self.  But the good news is that when we begin to look closely at this material, they slowly begin to change and then we can discover a deeper and richer internal self or nature.

Through this Real Nature that is discovered through letting go and transforming many of these earlier dynamics (which occurred through the relationship to our parents) we can discovered solutions to our everyday challenges.  These solutions are not harnessed through unconscious reflection involving emotional preferences and cognitive solutions, but are deeper Qualities that emerge through these primal conditions of the mind. 

When these Qualities emerge, we can learn to consciously reflect, instead of being conditioned and stuck in our minds resigning ourselves with inadequate solutions emerging through unconscious reflection.

William Edwards

Author, Trainer

www.wisdomskill.com

wisdomskill@gmail.com

Many of us go through life not really understanding who we are.  We have certain social identities, as in reference to a career or in a relationship or marriage.  We may know our self also as single or dating someone.  There are ethnic identies, our political affiliation and sexual orientation.  We also may know our self through hobbies, friends, economic status and education.  These are essentially social identities.

Furthermore, there are many personal identities such as knowing our self as being shy, or confident; a party goer or studious and so on.  But, when we think of it, we cannot discern any stable sense of Identity or who are.  As we grow older, our brain prunes earlier emotional identities from our limbic system to an extent, and we can become a bit wiser.  However, we still do not know who we really are.

There are, of course, religious identies that give us “consolation”, such as that we are a child of God, and that we have a particular destiny in this life and the next.  This gives us solace but also demands upon us faith.  We have to apply other teachings to our own consciousness, but this still leaves us with a sort of existential confusion.  In other words, we carry around theological knowledge, but we are still stymied by ordinary existence.

How, then can we find any stable sense of who we are?  We can do this by means of what can be referred to as “phenomological reduction”.   This is a complicated term that simply means that when we watch our self very closely, especially if we do not apply any metaphysical notions to our experience, we can realize more permanent aspects of our self.

There are of course, other trainings that can assist in this process, because we utilize many other faculties besides our identity.  (We are not only our identity, but we act and we feel and we think and so on).  For example, we need to train our instincts, attention and volition, among others, because if these are not regulated at all, our identities will not be stable enough to look at.  They will be “all over the place” in line with our unregulated structures, centers or “faculties”.

Nevertheless, we can experimentally isolate this important aspect of our experience and find three important trainings which can assist in located or realizing more substantial aspects of who we are, besides the conventional social and personal identities. 

They can be referred to as 1) letting go, 2) tracing back and 3) dissolving.  Now when these three are put into operation (along with other trainings), we will find two aspects of our “Real Self”: Nothingness and Being.  We will cover the first one in this article.

Nothingness refers to the depth of the mind that contains no thing, category, substance or quality.  It is our essential “nobodiness”.  We are essentially an empty Space, or as certain wise people have put, we have an empty nature.  However, this is not all; otherwise, we could not live in the world.

We also have an essential “Being”, which allows us to tune into our essential “somebodiness”.  This allows us to act in the world and find purpose, meaning or joy in ordinary living conditions. 

Now, the three trainings mentioned above, can assist us in realizing these two aspects of our essential nature or “who we are”.  They accomplish this, because they transform or regulate our conventional identities.  They transform them, because we can transcend them in order to find our real nature.  

Secondly, we regulate them, because we do not literally eliminate them, for they have a functional purpose.  However, we “regulate” their use and see them in their appropriate light, as it were.  We can functionally operate on them, but we can let them go, when we need to and rest in our real or essential nature.

The first training is referred to as “letting go”.  This is simply the act of observing our many identities, particularly as they are wrapped up or consist of many thoughts and feelings.  When they emerge in our minds, we simply let them go, as distractions, just as we would if we were doing some activity we enjoy and we let go of distractions that would get in the way.  Here, though, we do this only to observe our mind and not in any particualar activity that we like to do.  We look at our thoughts, feelings, memories and identities, and let them go. 

What do we find?  An empty space (Nothingness) and sense of our existence (Being).  We can still preserve other functional identities, such as social roles and personality characteristics; however, we do not let these consume us or mistakenly mispercieve our essental recognition of our deeper nature.  Functional identies will appear to “fit into” the two primal conditions of Pure Awareness and Being. 

When the internal reflective aspect of the mind take over these two essences, we can learn to look at them and let them go, realizing that they are not who we really are.  We can trace them to more “egoic” aspects of our mind that may assert themselves in our mind from time to time, but do not, through necessity, need to “take over” or predominate Consciousness.

William Edwards

Author, Trainer

The Skill of Wisdom

www.wisdomskill.com

wisdomskill@gmail.com

Much of our conditioning is caused by our emotional reactions to experience and circumstance.  Although it would be biologically impossible to eliminate all feelings (responsivity), we are still at the mercy of our emotional reactivity.  This causes the pervasiveness of our incessant immaturity and psychological conditioning.

How is it possible to transform this important structure, center or faculty?  There are actually two major trainings to this process.  Before we go into this, we can talk a bit about the history of our use of emotions.

We mainly learned our feeling reactions in childhood, because at that early part of our development, we mainly used our emotional midbrain (limbic system) and not the frontal lobes, which can perceive, analyze and act clearly.  These emotions are not intrinsically “immature”; for they outline the perceptual fields of important early social skills, such as pleasure, trust, getting attention from others, closeness, basic control and trait assessment.  However, since are nervous systems are not developed at this point, and from the further indignity of having immature models (parents) who have their own issues, we retain this early developmental reactivity from experience.

Since we learned our reactions very early, it is the first which “arrives at the scene”, as it were, when experience occurs and we find it very hard to overcome their compelling and mechanical insistence.  It appears it takes extraordinary “will power” to overcome them; but this is not really the case.  Although many emotions are unavoidable and even functional, many are not only inappropriate - but can be re-channelled or transformed completely.

There are other trainings, of course, which can assist in this, because we use other structures or faculties; however, there are two simple things we can do, which can develop or feeling nature, in their own right.  To develop these more fully or to ensure their success, we need to train the other structures, such as identity, thought, attention, instinct and volition.  Nevertheless, we can work with our feeling nature in their own sphere.

The first and most important is referred to as “Acceptance” or allowing (or resignation; the old stoic expression).  This is simply the act or process of allowing circumstance to be as it is, without attempting to change it.  One can even posit a metaphysical belief in the sense that this circumstance (whatever it is; whether rain, or a late appointment) is what was “meant to be”.

One can say that this is easier said than done.  But this is not really true.  One can do anything one puts one’s mind to.  As an exercise, just take an hour out of the day and say that whatever happens, one will allow it, as if it were “meant to be”.  Try not to react.  Let it be.  If a person interrupts you during a conversation, perceive it as if that is part of the configuration of experience, or part of the whole process of your life, or even “a test, or learning process” and see if you can just accept it as it is.

This will be seen as difficult for the obvious reason that we are habitually wired to react to experience.  And everybody has their unique patterns as they pertain to the six major early developmental skills (mentioned above as pleasure, trust, power, attention, etc.).  Nevertheless, with enough practice (and alongside of other trainings) we can slowly learn to live this way: allowing things to be as they are.

This does not mean that we allow abuse or can never change things, events or decisions.  I am just saying the emotional structure is different than the volitional structure and each can operate within their own domain.  For example, in the above situation of the conversational interruption, I can refuse to react to my colleague interrupting my phone conversation, but at another time, I can tactfully ask him to not do that again in the future.

The second training involves actually “opening up” the feeling nature.  By refusing to let in negative reactivity, we are not literally blocking feeling, but letting in the type of feeling that is transformative.  After all, there is right and wrong feeling.  The inappropriate type is the mechanical reacting to experience, that is mostly narcissistic.  The positive kind is the positive, opening up of the heart in daily living.

Many spiritual practices emphasize worshipping God and other forms of emotional transformation.  This helps only temporarily.  When immature, emotional reactions occur from childhood perceptions, the emotional work (one attempted) often goes away.  This is why we always start with acceptance.  When we let things be as they are, it is easier to open up the heart.  If not, then there will always be this “tug of war” between the kind of feelings one would like to maintain and on the other hand, daily life which seems to distort and degrage these pure emotions.

In fact, the second one leads from the former.  The more one accepts, the more one - naturally -opens up the heart.  In fact, this is the definition of opening: continued acceptance of things as they are.

William Edwards

Author, Trainer

The Skill of Wisdom

www.wisdomskill.com

wisdomskill@gmail.com

What do we mean when we think of personal transformation?  We generally believe that if we change some aspect of our self, we can transform who we were to something better or greater.  Actually, there are two kinds of transformation: personal and transpersonal.

Personal transformation is associated with cultural success.  If a person has a mediocre job and then discovers their best talent and then actualized this in their career, we say that this person has transformed themselves.  They have changed, or transformed, their relationship to the cultural area of Career.  However, what is spiritual or transpersonal transformation?

When we think of spiritual transformation, we either think it has to do with some kind of “state” that emerges when one lets go of the ego, or othewise, using some kind of technique that catapults them into some kind of higher understanding. 

There are problems with both (letting go of the ego, and using techinques) .  The ego is very complex and subtle and difficult to just transcend, even though the expression has enterred the popular culture in a superficial manner.  Secondly, one has to know what to do when the ego, with all its complexity, emerges in one’s daily life. 

Furthermore, when a person attempt to do certain types of spiritual techniques, especially if they emerge from ancient cultures, such as India and China, they often provide a temporary transformation, but are otherwise, difficult to “transfer” into daily situations, at least with some degree of efficiency. 

In other words, a person does a breathing exercise, meditation or yoga posture in a seculed environment, such as their room or group setting.  For a while, they feel great, whole and complete.  But after a time, the old personality returns and the condition does not transfer in their daily life.  And this person does not know what to do to get back to their original condition (especially if they do not have access to their seculed environment). 

This condition also occurs after getting initially excited about the newest book or teacher who emerges on the scene with a new theory or understanding of the human condition.  After awhile, after the excitement wears down, they are still stuck in their own problems and dilemmas.  And then they go to another book or teacher to get excited.  I have seen this a thousand times.

What is the solution to this dilemma?   There are no simple solutions to the lifelong process of Awakening and spiritual transformation.  It cannot be solved with one meeting with a wise person, or an isolated technique or getting excited about a new book that has come out.  This is all superficial and does not really last long.

The solution is to engage a life-long program that attempts to transform all of the major Structures of living and apply them in daily life and not just in isolation.  It is not just about reading books and attempting esoteric exercises in isolation.  One has to know what to do in daily living over the course of time.

To do this, requires learning many processes that cover the major structures of living, centers or “faculties” that we utilize in our daily lives.  There are many of these: instinct, volition, thought, feeling, attention and identity to name a few.  When we learn ways to transform them - since we use these in our daily lives - we can slowly begin to transform our selves.  Not only for a weekend or for a few hours. 

Normally, our basic living structures are pulled around, or “conditioned”, in an up and down, or too much or too little fashion that leaves us bereft of a deeper connection to our self.  For example, attention is an important structure.  We are either externally pulled into various social processes (looking at things that remind us of sex, money, ego, etc) or we are internally preocupied with personal issues, thus hijacking our attention.  Regulated or transformed attention is being in the moment, which is a training that invovles key sensory processes. 

Similarly, our other five structures are also de-regulated from the emotional ego, which reacts to living processes, instead of applying deeper Qualities to living situations.  This is remedied by the right training and the transformation of all six of our major structures of living. 

It is not just finding one particular exercise and hoping that it transfers into daily living.   It often does not, and if it does, only erratically.  Doing yoga and chanting is great, but one needs to find other forms of training to apply to living in the world without depending upon an exercise that usually only attempts to transform one or two structures, centers or faculties.  Chanting transforms feelings, but does not transform attention, volition, instinct and so on.

I have read stories in magazines where religious people who regularly worship, have different forms of addiction.  Again, the reason for this is not that worship is unpractical, it just has to be included in work on all the major structures.  This is why many of the ancient paths (Taoist, Buddhist, Yoga, Sufi) were a “complete” path.   They gave instructions on all the many structures with trainings on the instincts (diet, exercise), contemplation, study service and so on.   All the facets of the complete lifestyle - according to that specific path - transforms all the necessary structures and centers of experience, and not just one (consciousness, emotions, the body).

Of course, the problem with these ancient paths is that they were discovered in a past time, very different from our modern world.  We need modern explorers to find modern explanations for self-discovery, utilizing some of the ancient understanding, but integrating them in a new format.

William Edwards

Author, Trainer

The Skill of Wisdom

www.wisdomskill.com

wisdomskill@gmail.com

Most people believe that intelligence is measured by I.Q. or other cognitive evaluations. Since the western enlightenment, we have come to believe that intelligence is captured through intellectual analysis and logic.

This is only partially true. Although one needs to learn to free one’s self from confusion and emotional reasoning, true intelligence is “measured” through the way a person - lives -intelligently. In that sense, a person can achieve a “living intelligence” and only have an I.Q of 100 or perhaps, even a 90.

We must also cover the other intelligences that have been described in the literature, such as musical intelligence, mechanical intelligence and so forth. Although one can describe these as intelligences, they are intrinsically, technical. In other words, they pertain to practical techniques and do not necessarily result in any living intelligence. A person can be a master musician (and composer), but have been through five divorces, is depressed and addicted to alcohol. This, I would not consider a Living Intelligence, although this person has a specific technical, artistic intelligence.

What are the nature of these Intelligences and can I describe some of them? These are questions I would presume you would be interested in having answered. These intelligences are what would be considered “emotional and social” intelligences that transcend conventional I.Q and also specific technical intelligences.

To answer: they are harnessed, contacted or realized through deeper aspects of the mind, when there is true self-observation and an appropriate training. This may seem strange to the reader, for we believe that intelligence or knowledge is gained through our conventional educational system. Again, as in the other intelligences mentioned, they do not necessarily lead to or cause any living intelligence. 

Just think of a typical college student: she can get fantastic grades, and be popular, but have no idea of how to act in the world. Once can think of these deeper Intelligences as forms of “wisdom”; one certain does not learn how to be wise through a conventional education, even at a highly prestigious intitution, such as our Ivy League schools.  We learn knowledge, and cultural indoctrination, but not really any type of living intelligence, unless we find a teacher-mentor that can initiate us into this intelligence.

Where can one get this “education”, in order to realize these Intelligences? Through the art of Self-Observation, which also involves many sub-trainings that are utilized to transform many of our basic structures of experience. And these structures, or what the ancients called the “faculties” also contain processes that are beyond the intellect, or even knowledge.

In other words, one can realize a deeper form of Intelligence and not even think at all! This does not imply that one will stop thought altogether; it just points to the truth that many of our potential styles of living wisdom occurs, through the transcendence of our normal personal forms of knowledge.

We are usually engrossed in a compelling manner, by all sorts of thoughts, feelings and memories that are literally bombarding our minds, in such a way, that we often do not know how to act or truly live in the world intelligently. The best we can do is “learn from experience” and maybe by the time we are 60 or 70, we can finally achieve some form of social and emotional insight.

However, one can be trained at an even younger age, how to directly access these intelligences without waiting for decades. We begin by observing our own minds, feelings, attitudes, motivations and actions. We learn to watch without pre-determined judgements and then apply various trainings that cover all the important structures of our experience, such as Identity, thought, feeling, volition, attention and instinct.

Many of these intelligences we have already contacted in our daily life, but do not know how to continue them or to contact them at needed moments.  The reason is that we not only are vulnerable to our predetermined and conditioned habits of mind, emotion and body, but we do not have the training to reach them.  They often occur on their own, and we do not know why they arrived or why they went away.  With the appropriate understanding and training, one will directly realize why they arrive and why they went away - and bring them back, consciously.

What are some of these Qualities?  There is no official list, but here is a good general outline: Autonomy, Authenticity, Stability, Alertness, Objectivity, Gratefulness, Abundance, Simplicity, Rootedness, Trust, Care, Joy, Confidence, Regality, Purity, Humility, Resourcefulness, Resiliency, Service, Cooperation, Gracefulness, Depth, Order, Discipline, Brilliance, Freedom, Surrender, Peace, Enthusiasm, Order, Love, Patience, Generosity and Compassion.

We experience some of these, from time to time, but they seem to go away of their own accord, outside of our own will.  They appear to bring some form of meaning, but they often go away and we are left with only conflict, confusion and complications in our lives. 

How do we access these intelligences in a conscious way? When we train correctly and transform our ordinary structures of living, the “centers” or “faculties”, then these intelligences will arise.  When we contact the unregulated aspects of these structures, usually when the ego is involved with the conventional, conditioned personality, these Qualities will distort into their excess or deficiency.

A Quality is in excess when it is “too much” or in wrong mode.  For example, too much Confidence is Arrogance.

A Quality that is in deficiency mode is “too little”, or not sufficiently utilized.  For example, not enough Confidence is Self-deprecation.  Not enough Autonomy is Co-dependence, and so forth.

Qualities are what make life “feel” meaningful.  It is often the case, where it is not the activity or success of that activity that is important, but what Quality is expressed.  We often need unsuccessful circumstances to bring out needed Qualities.

These Qualities, or primordial Patterns are what not only make life meaningful, but allow us to feel a deeper intelligence, also known as “Wisdom”, an ancient term.  We find this not when we hold external beliefs, but the ability to search the mind completely and have the honesty and fearlessness to look directly at who we are.

William Edwards

Author, Trainer

The Skill of Wisdom

www.wisdomskill.com

wisdomskill@gmail.com

We normally think that all forms of spiritual awakening occur in the mind, emotions or in the “spirit”.  Most religious belief systems start with specific theological doctrines, which are reflected upon and believed in, through faith.

Furthermore, there is an emotional transformation that is attempted though devotional attitudes and practices, such as prayer and worship.  However, we do not realize the importance of the body’s contribution to transpersonal (spiritual) development.

Various forms of well-being, which can be perceived as contributing to higher consciousness are actually generated first in the body.  Spirituality is often experienced bodily.  We now know that these conditions begin through the production of neuro-chemicals which originate in the hypothalumus and sent over to the pituitary gland, which transfers it to various nerves and cells in the body.

How do we produce these different state of bodily-being?  Through a complete training that involves all the necessary structures of experience: instinct, volition, emotion and thought, among others.  It is not that we need to do specific exercises: we just need to take care of our mind, feelings and body in an intelligent manner.

With regard to our instincts, it is imperative that we watch what we eat.  This involves the four-fold process of regulated choice, amount, frequency and purity (the amount of foods that are uncooked or raw).  Besides this, our breathing rate and lack of stress also are prominent.

In a very direct way, our thoughts and feelings have a profound effect on the state of the body, for the body is the recipient of many neurons from the brain, itself.  The body actually experiences the many thoughts, feelings and memories that we generate throughout the day. So, it stands to reason that we need to watch how we think, feel and what we remember.

When there is the right functioning of Self-observation as a path of Wisdom, we will come to realize how we daily injure our bodies, through the foods we choose, and the actions that we take.  We also injure them through the kinds of worries, thoughts and feelings that are habitual and conditioned.

These damage the deeper homeostatic regulatory mechanism that can prompt the individual to actually, bodily, feel more connected to one’s Source, or what we refer to as spiritual.  It is a deeper form of Consciousness that can also be traced to what one is doing to one’s body.

When the mind observes itself, it can learn to let go of the many thoughts and feelings that are not needed and ultimately narcissistic.  With closer observation, we see how the body feels after these “thought, memory and emotional” attacks in comparison to when they are not present.

Through this process, we learn a type of physiological “alchemy”, which produces a more tighter homeostatic set point, which allows the aspirant to center one’s ongoing transpersonal development, in the body.  The body is the repository of one’s mind, feelings, memory and actions.

Of course, Consciousness is important in the inner work since it is our true inner nature and we can say that this transcends the body; however, the body is still important as the “assistant” of Consciousness.

Through right thinking, feeling and behavior, we can produce the necessary chemicals to generate a new physiological state of Well-being that can be felt as spiritual.  This is the true regulator of experience, alongside of Consciousness, which also determines and provides the necessary intelligence to understand what we are doing with our bodies (through our thoughts, motivations and feelings).

Consciousness and the body work hand in hand.  The more conscious we feel, the more we tune into our body in a fuller and deeper manner.  The less conscious we are, the more our psychological and emotional patterns hold us into patterns, the more we lose our bodily integrity and alchemy.

Two of the means to generate energy in our bodies is to work with two tried and true instinctual processes: breath and diet.  Although there are various breathing exercises, particularly in yoga books, we will focus on a regulatory method that extends from meditation.  When sitting still, just let the breath go in and out of its own accord and observe it.

This not only relaxes the body but there is scientific evidence which shows that it reduces the firing of the amydala, an area in the emotional brain that generates strong negative reactions.   One becomes calm, and settled in the body, producing a heightened awareness of the energy that moves in and through the organism.

Secondly, the regulation of the food intake is profound method for producing a strong energy and has a powerful effect in the body, thus transferring to a clarity of mind.  This is accomplished by working with four aspects of food intake: choice, amount, purity and frequency.

We start out with choice by only allowing whole and natural foods, particularly concentrated with fruits, vegetables, grains and beans.  Secondly, we watch the amount we eat to ensure we do not over or undereat, thus enervating the system or making it too weak.

Then we include a good percentage of our intake with raw foods.  This purifies the system and causes a clear, spacious mind.  One can start with 40 to 50 percent of the diet and move up to higher percentages, if it is comfortable.   Finally, we can work with the frequency.  If one is constantly eating, or snacking six or seven times a day (even though this may be good for dieting), it does not give the digestive system a change to rest.  The more energy is gained when the digestive system works less.  If one eats three, or with practice two meals a day, one can easily generate a powerful energy that can promote awakening of the body and mind.

William Edwards

Author, Trainer

The Skill of Wisdom

www.wisdomskill.com

wisdomskill@gmail.com

As much as it is important to “be-in-the-present”, this should not deny the importance of appropriate goal setting. Present-centered experience is vital if one is to let go of the mechanical and compelling motion of the mind, which dictates inappropriate mental states and problematic behavior.

However, if one does not know where one is going with one’s life, one will still be confused. When one is lost in their thoughts and feelings, due to the over-processing of social experience, there is the tendency to be confused, conflicted and with the prediction to cause complications in one’s life. This occurs, because the internal saturation of internal material (narcissistic thoughts and feelings) prevents deeper aspects with the mind (eventuall seeping into social behavior).

When one achieves a connection to deeper internal conditions of the Self - Pure Awareness, Being and deeper Qualities - then one’s life becomes more clear. Part of this is the important training of present moment attention. We do this by contacting the four important sensory zones of sight, hearing, touch and balance of the body in space. This allows us to be more in the moment.

However, part of the inner work of self-discovery and self knowledge is to look at all aspects of human behavior such as the Will, or technically, Volition. We can be always “in the moment”, but we are always, “doing something”. Consider any moment in time. Even though we can transcend our thought, feeling, memory and motivation, temporarily, in order to be in the moment, we are always involved in some activity.

This cannot be transcended. For example, if I am walking down the street, I can be in the moment, by watching the movement of life in front of me: the trees, the cars, the people walking by and so on. We can do this better if can observe our mind, and let go of unneeded distractions. Thus, we are in the present. However, what we do not normally realize is that we are always “in the world”, and in order to do this with any degree of efficacy (functioning), we need to actuall complete our activities.  So, even though I am in the moment through looking at things around me (in the example above), I as still -doing- a social activity: a walk (as an aspect of free time, or through transportation - to the store or to a neighbor’s house).

We cannot be in the present at the same time that our actions do not make sense. We are always in some activity, so if we do not look at that activity with some sense of importance, meaning or functioning, being in the present will not really help. We have to look at the action, itself, and not just the sensory aspects of its functioning. If we did not do this, our life would totally deconstruct.

Consider what would happen if we did not actually finish activities, or accomplish appropriate goal setting. If we did not attend to ordinary volition, we would have too many things to worry about, and thus, would intrude upon our “being in the present”. In order to be in the present, we have to take care of our volitionary living. We have to finish projects and make functional goals. If not, we would not know what to do. We can “be”, but if there is confusion about how and what action to take, our “being” will be confused and meaningful. 

Therefore, we have to “be” and we have to “do”.

It is great to enjoy sensual living, and let go of all our worries of the mind and heart, but we need to act in the world. This outlines the great existential (and spiritual) skill of living in the world, but not of it. Being in the present is really a transcendent skill, because it allows us to just rest in our primal Awareness (or pure Beingness) and not concern our self with outcomes or positions. It can help us to transcend our narcissistic need to evaluate and monitor our lives, relative to others or our self.

However, we still have to be in the world. We have to act. All this present moment centering has to occur in the domain of an activity, otherwise, we would be randomly walking around in a strange condition, like forever being in a sensory awareness workshop. We cannot aimlessly walk around touching objects and looking around. This is why right volition is just as important as right attention. We need to be in the moment, but we need to look at our actions and make appropriate goals.

Even spiritual people make goals: it is an important part of our development. Even the act of meditating is a goal. We attempt to do some activity for a certain amount of time. We can only be truly present, if we actually find our actions meaningful. And to do this, requires that we not only choose appropriate actions, but to follow them through completion.

This is right volition: it goes hand in hand with being in the present (or right Attention). We set a goal and then we carry it through with attention (eliminating distraction, or being in the present).

There are two kinds of goal setting: short term and long term.

We understand this in our daily lives. We finish short term activities, such as paying bills, making telephone calls and cleaning our rooms. These are challenging enough. We often are conflicted over whether we should complete many functional duties, or whether we should be with friends, watch television or play games.  This is a work in itself.

Secondly, we also need long term goals. Our lives not only move in the direction of the - day - but in the direction of our - life. We also need to look at our long term goals, because our being in the present also takes place in our life. The movement of our life includes these longer plans, which usually outline broader action plans. We cannot have a full life, if we do not take into account our long term investments. Where is our life going?

Of course, most of our problems of internal confusion stem from the fact that we are over concerned with our long term goals.  This is why “being in the present” is such a healthy psychological remedy.  However, if we over simplify our lives, we cannot construct a full life, which implies more complexity in social living.

Evolution involves the complexity of culture, just as it does the individual.  The ideal is not just to do simple activities and not think about the future at all.  This is the simplicity of the child.   It is healthy to generate simplicity for order’s sake; however, to refrain from complexity does not involve one in the world, or at least our complex modern world.  Self-knowledge involves the understanding of how to transcend the world and also how to be in the world.  And the modern world, through evolution, is complex

Therefore, besides looking closely at our own minds, feelings, motivations and memories, which can allow us to transcend the unneeded and narcissistic elements of our psyche, we can realize more transcendent aspects of our nature.  However, to truly be in the world, we need to make constructive goals and intentions, which not only strengthens the will (our Volition), but also assists us in bring enlightened qualities in the complex world. 

This will also evolve the world in which we live.

William Edwards

Author, Trainer

The Skill of Wisdom

www.wisdomskill.com

wisdomskill@gmail.com

We often hear the saying that we have to get “beyond the ego”. Even in our popular expressions, regardless if someone is not doing any specific self-exploration, the phrase implies some deficiency of character (that we are naturally egotistical).

Actually, there is a functional meaning of the ego that is not bombastic, nor any intrinsic impediment towards deeper understanding. This is the ordinary sense of the self-image that orients itself positively or negatively towards some area of living.

This area refers to one of the many social components of our life. There are many of these: home, career, relationship, art, laws, recreation and so forth. We often have to think about our relationship to these social processes, and to do this appropriately, we have to set up, internally, a self-image of ourself. This enables us to “operate” upon this process from our own minds.

We need to operate upon the many areas of our life, using our self-image as a fulcrum, in our own psyche. This is the functional ego. It has two main aspects or is in two major modes: superior and inferior.

The words superior and inferior does not imply that our self worth is high or low; only that our position in relationship to any area of life is working or not. This is not intrinsically good or bad, only functional.

For example: if I have the skills necessary to fix cars, then this is a superior identity. This does not mean that I believe that I am a superior human being, only that the skills that are learned are working. I know that I can do this skill, so when it is asked of me, I can know that I can do this skill and can communicate it to the person who has just asked me.

Now, let’s say I do not have the skills necessary to fix cars. If a person asks me to do this for him, I need to know that I cannot do this, otherwise, I will disappoint him when I attempt it, and I fail. I need to know that there are certain skills that I do not have: whether technical, emotional or intellectual, and this requires an inferior identity. This is not intrinsically bad, just as the superior identity is not intrinsically, good. It just implies that I am able to orient myself to some social area.

It is just as “good” to not know something as it is to know something. One cannot be skillful in everything; other people can handle that skill for you. Having said all this: what is the problem with the ego?

The problem of the ego is not just the simplistic notion of arrogance or always needing the attention in a certain manner. It is the global sense of assigning personal self-worth with either of these two modes mentioned above.

In other words, the superior identity becomes problematic, when one actually believes one is a better person, or who has done something great as a result of functional skillfulness. The worth of the self has been attached to the superior identity, and here is where all the behavioral (and living) problems occur.  Similarly, the worth of the person can also be attached to the inferior identity, as if one perceives one’s self as “not good” or flawed in some way; when all that has happened is a lapse of functioning

Many of the problems of ego occur from our childhood development that continue or “transfer” into daily living.  It is not just about arrogance or showing off.  That is just one-sixth of the problem, actually.  They also involve five other major issues.  And these issues are not intrinsically bad, they become problematic when the self-worth is tied in to their functioning.

The six major “ego issues” are pleasure, attention (specialness), trust, closeness, power and trait assessment.  These are actually functional skills, when used in practical settings.  However, since the child’s nervous system has not developed and secondly from the inappropriate skills of the parents (bad modeling), the child will automatically assign emotional signs of self worth to these essentially functional skills.

To illustrate: If I am sitting in the bus with a stranger and all he talks about is himself, I can interrupt to mention something about my own life (especially if it poses as an example to his story line).  This is not “ego” but shows appropriate social skills.  A conversation should not be just about one person, unless the person is going through something very difficult (and let’s say that this is not the case here).

The “ego” in this example, would involve my psychological and emotional reaction to the fact that he is not trying to “see me” at all.  Noticing attention is functional; we are predisposed to notice whether we are expressing our self or listening to another person express her self.  However, to react and feel that he is getting all the attention is what can be referred to as “ego” in the pejorative sense.

The same when the other five are in operation.  All six core issues are encased in a duality, and therefore, can move over to the other side, as the inverse “ego” issue.  For instance, in the same (prominent) issue of Attention, we can fear attention just as much as we hunger after it.  Both are “ego” issues, for the self-image is intertwined with the thought, feeling, memory, motivation complex. 

Using the same example above, if after the bus patron decides to stop talking about himself for awhile and use appropriate social skills and say: “but enough about me; tell me a little bit about yourself.  I have been quiet the whole conversation; then if I have trouble expressing myself at all (or functionally receiving attention), then that is also an “ego” issue.

So, we now have a more complete definition of ego.   The functional aspect can express all six early developmental skills (pleasure, attention, closeness, trust, power and trait assessment) without reactivity or emotional and psychological (mental) processing.  In other words, I just use power or control to get something functional.  However, when the self-worth is tied into this skill, then “ego” in the pejorative sense emerges.

And this is where the inner work must begin.  We can never become a complete, mature or transformed person without addressing these issues as they transfer into our daily lives.  We can have fun, and be competent in our careers, or even have a spiritual experience once in a while, but if we do not work on these ego issues (all eight), then they will show their ugly heads in our daily lives.

William Edwards

Author, Trainer

The Skill of Wisdom

www.wisdomskill.com

wisdomskill@gmail.com

One hears nowadays the phrase, “to be in the present”.  It is now in the popular vernacular and that is a good thing and a bad thing.  It is good, because it is a great teaching.  It is bad (or unfortunate) because it trivializes a very deep teaching.

In order to really be in the present, you really have to know what you are doing.  It takes tremendous discipline and passion.  It is not just a pop growth tool that can be used alongside a narcissistic orientation or an excuse to act with immaturity.  

What does “to be in the present” really mean? It refers to the fact that the mind is highly conditioned and often acts mechanically.  Secondly, it implies what life is really about.  One enjoys life and finds life much more meaningful when one is very present and focused. 

We tend to set up a hierarchy based upon what actions are perceived as valuable and then to go asleep to activities which are percieved as either unimportant or mundane.  However, the mundane actions are just as valuable as the so-called important ones.  Why is this?

This is what is enquired into when one learns to be in the present.  In order to do this, one has to get to know one’s self more deeply, because the self is what is in the way to being in the present.  We have to look at our self, honestly and squarely in order to understand why our mind moves around so much.  Why are we obsessed with this experience or that person?

When these things can be let go of, we can begin to look closely at all our activities and realize that all have the potential to bring some satisfaction and meaning.   Every aspect of our lives can be meaningful because all actions in a day outline some important social component.  There is no such thing as a literal “meaningless” activity, for every action implies some kind of social utility.

We can do something that is inappropriate and that is part of the learning experience.  However, when one is really present, it is impossible for it to be meaninless.  The more present you are, the more meaning you find.  In the ancient art of Astrology, all social contexts are inundated or ”ruled by” cosmic forces (astrological signs).  One finds the same thing without resorting to ancient cosmological forces or interpretations.  The more you get into something, the more you discover meaning or some kind of satisfaction.

However, to do this requires various trainings.   To be in the present is only a work of the Attention, a very important structure of experience.  However, we use other structures or centers of experience.  So, if we only train Attention, it will often disengage if the others are not trained also.

For example, we not only are attentive to the present, but we ”act” in the present, also.  If we cannot decide upon appropriate actions, or if we do not know what to do, or cannot complete important actions, then our life will feel the effect.  We cannot literally just flow around in the present.  We have to act.  We are always in some “action” at all times. And Attention cannot automatically help us do that.

We need the “wisdom” of the other centers or structures (”faculties”) to steer us in the path of wisdom, which being in the present definitely implies.   We have to understand how to act, how to feel, how to be and how to use our instincts appropriately.  Then, when these are in place, to a sufficient degree, we can learn to be in the present more efficiently and with joy.

As a start, we can talk briefly about the technical aspects of being in the present, as Attention (without the other structures).   In order to be present, we learn how to engage the four major sensory zones of Sight, Sound, Touch and Balance.   We can exclude the senses of taste and smell, because we do not use them often (only in certain situations).  However, we always use those four zones.  They can be applied moment to moment. 

Look at an object and then listen at the same time. When that is accomplished, then one can then “feel” one’s body against the chair or moving along the street if one is walking.   Then one can put these three together.

 Finally, learn to gauge the balance of the body in space.  Realize your own dependence upon your posture.  When this can be put together along with the other three, one is really in the present at least from the angle of Attention.  Again, one has to learn to use the other centers, because these will have to engaged in our social experience at some point.  We feel, we act and we use our instincts (among others). 

But we can begin with Attention, and this will lead to the work on the other centers.  The most important of the four is really, “touch”.  The more we sense our surroundings with our skin, the closer or connected we are to experience, and this is vital if we want to be in the “now”. 

We actually “touch” the now.  We become intimate, as it were, to the present moment, and that often involves our ability to sense our experience.  This begins with our mindful sense of using our skin to engage experience; to feel where we are.  When this zone is engaged, the other sensory zones follow, instinctively.  

Transformed Attention will naturally lead us to seek out to transform our other centers of experience, such as emotion, thought, identity, volition and instinct.  We will naturally begin to eat better foods, watch or check or engagemnent of negavite emotions and think clearly and appropriately. 

Attention is the easiest and most natural of the trainings, because it is so easy to be in our senses.  We did it when we were children. The trick is to learn to do it more consciously, and find ways to eliminate the distraction of the ego, negative emotions and mechanical thinking.  

William Edwards

Author, Trainer

The Skill of Wisdom

www.wisdomskill.com

wisdomskill@gmail.com

We normally think of Meditation as a physical and technical exercise.  In other words, we go to a corner of the room and sit and engage in some kind of mental exercise.  This is only a part of the actual process of Meditation. 

The real aspect of Meditation is the quieting of the mind.  The actual sitting still part actually primes the mind into this condition, is dependent upon it, but there are other processes that are involved. 

The art of Meditation mainly involves the art of observing the mind.  It is not sitting a certain amount of time in a sitting position and then letting the ego run away all over the place for the rest of the day.  It is better to sit very little and to watch the mind a lot, than to feel that one can sit still in a lotus position for a long period and not look at the mind at all during the day.

However, we can start with the sitting position.  It is better to make one’s self comfortable by sitting in a chair, with the back as erect as possible and then time your self for a very short period, but more than once a day.  Start out with fifteen mintutes twice a day. 

What do you do during this period?  You start to watch your mind.  Do not worry about techniques; they focus on having experiences and condition the mind to look for pleasure.   Be Aware and wait and see what the mind brings up.  You can keep your eyes closed or lids half closed; experiment in what is best for you. 

Secondly, attempt to keep the body still as best as you can.  Play it like a game; for the fifteen minutes, see if you can not move at all during the entire time.  You will find that you are very alert and mentally strong.  These are the two most important aspects of “meditation”: sitting very still and being very mentally alert.  Of course, consistency and devotion are also important.  It will do not good to do this a few days and then go on vacation.  One of the great benefits of sitting still is that is the most powerful means to observe the mind.

Since you are sitting still and doing nothing, you have to choice but to watch what is going on.  Besides sitting still, the only things that you can “see” are what is going on in your mind, at the time.  That is who you are, at the moment.  Therefore, it is a powerful aide to self-observation.  And when self-observation is continued, it will lead to Meditation, because the more you watch, the more you find “spaces” between the thoughts.  These Spaces are the quiet Awareness, which is meditation.

Now, here is the test and true skill.  When one has gone for a couple of months, sitting twice a day with the body very still, begin to use this mental alertness at certain times of the day.  This will usually be employed at times when one is not engaging in complex activities.  So, instead of brushing your teeth and letting the mind wander, be present and very alert to the process.  Watch how the wants to reflect on things, that really do not matter at all.  They are often repetitive and narcissistic. 

The sitting process and the mental alertness which accompanies this act always integrates with how one thinks throughout the day.  The ability to watch the mind during sitting practice always integrates with the manner in which one watchs in daily life.  Notice that the same issues will emerge in both areas.

The more that one’s Awareness or Pure Consciousness “strengthens” or is persistent, then the more it is likely that mental and emotional material will deconstruct.  This is because this Awareness is inherently intelligent and wise, and brings to you the necessary objectivity to notice how long trains of thought and feeling are ego-producing and a waste of time.

 It is not that mental and emotional material will forever leave; this will never happen, because the mind needs to process experience.  Secondly, there will always be some kind of emotional material that will be a part of one’s individual repertoire, from childhood conditioning.

However, when Awareness is strengthened, through continued watching, during waking and sitting periods, these ego-driven processes will slow down.  This will prompt one’s inherent Wisdom to emerge and therefore, will generate the needed Qualities which will apply in daily life.

We will discover that Meditation is the accessing of this deeper area of the mind that is quiet and aware.  It will also be discovered that this is an essential part of who we really are.  This is the real instruction of Meditation.   It isn’t just a way of being peaceful or helping us will stress, but the discovery of who we really are. 

There will still be the emergence of conventional identities; we need these in order to navigate social experience.  Even though Meditation reveals to us that there is something that is beyond ego, this does not mean that we can literally walk around all day without a functional ego.  We would not be able to live in the world if this was the case.

Therefore, can use Meditation to “switch off” between a functional identity, which does not inherently apply self-worth into functioning, and the transcendent identity, which is the quiet Awareness which is beyond the ego.  We need both: we are both.  We are the transcendant, meditative nature and we are a functional being in the world (with a social identity).

Watching our minds throughout the day, as best as we can, and the act of sitting still (which enables us to watch very closely, because we are sitting so still and doing nothing) are the twin t