TOWARDS UNCOMMON SENSE A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

A compilation document by George Clark 25 March 2013

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www.srds.co.uk clark@srds.co.uk 01261 843950 07776 093201

A compilation of seven short essays dealing with aspects of one mans spiritual journey
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The power of whims

(568 words) 18 Jan 2008

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There was a time when I thought I was in control of what went on in my mind. These days I realise that the mind has a mind of its own and that it is (a) deeply conditioned by my particular place in time and space and (b) hard wired for mystical experiences.

Busy doing nothing

(555 words) 27 Jan 2008

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Over the festive season I met many people in what passes for relax mode. We were unhooked from the immediate demands of work and had time on our hands. But what did we DO with it? There was not much enthusiasm for Thich Nhat Hahns recommendation Dont just do something, sit there.

My spiritual journey

(676 words) 20 Oct 2010

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At a recent meeting of my meditation group I was paired with Wendy to share thoughts and feelings about our spiritual journey. We quickly realised that neither of us had ever dealt with our spiritual journey as a story. This article thus offers a brief outline of my yarn.

Language and uncommon sense

(1163 words) 20 Nov 2011

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I have grey hair and am retired from making a living. These days my work involves making the inner journey by turning the mind around. Metaphorically this involves (a) draining the muddy pool and exposing the hidden treasure; (b) letting the mud settle so that clarity returns; and (c) reprogramming what passes for common sense. The end point is to know the peace that passes all understanding.

Nonstop spiritual journeys on the rise

(1658 words) 10 Feb 2013

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After formal sessions of sitting most of our sangha goes to the restaurant for more sharing of thoughts and feelings. This informality allows flesh to be draped over what might otherwise be bare bone viewpoints of each other. There is endless fascination with stories of lives with their highs and lows.

Is that spiritual?

(808 words) 24 Feb 2013

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Some people are more spiritual than others. By making a spiritual journey an individual or group can readjust the personal and group balance. Different human types (eg introvert/ extrovert etc) may be more or less inclined to spirituality and they may have preferred ways of developing and maintaining it. It is an altered state of consciousness although not perhaps very clear cut.

Spoonfeeding unripe cherries

(1132 words) 13 Mar 2013

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My days of formally stimulating and spoon feeding unripe cherries are over. But informally, in retirement, I am still at it. But there are three differences; in subject matter, in writing style and in publication.

THE POWER OF WHIMS

There was a time when I thought I was in control of what went on in my mind. These days I realise that the mind has a mind of its own and that it is (a) deeply conditioned by my particular place in time and space and (b) hard wired for mystical experiences. There was a time when my mental whims seemed to be rational and objective and prompted egoic actions. These days there is a hankering after whims which are intuitive and subjective and which evoke non-egoic, spontaneous non-action (the muse!). There was a time when there was fire in the belly for change brought about by formal education. There was energy for busy-ness which was driven by right belief in a Scottish brand of anarcho presbyterianism. The world needed more free thinking individuals. I worked long contracts in various parts of the world and had some influence. But things changed. It became clear that formal education reproduces rather than changes society. I was thus part of the problem rather than part of the solution. I was trapped in an outmoded paradigm. On a whim I thus became an independent, freelance consultant living part-time in retreat where I stewed in the juices of western philosophy. Intellectual whims drew me to existentialism and post-modernism with their associated crises and malaise. I burned out intellectually and lost the old fire in the belly. The need for mental reprogramming became urgent. There were two options. I kept some distance from the first option - psychotherapy. Engagement with the anti-psychiatry movement made me deeply suspicious of the psyche police. In an insane world it did not make sense to be normal and well adjusted. Crazy times called for crazy solutions. The second option was meditation. As a psychology of perception it has a long and much respected pedigree. There are many variations on the basic theme of realising the illusory nature of ego. No self, no other only manifestations of the Oneness. Dont just notice but notice what is being noticed and stand back from it. Be in charge of what goes on in your head rather than being driven blindly by your parochial conditioning. Step into the space between stimulus and response. I built up a library of wisdom classics which expounded variations on the perennial philosophy. But this meant herding other peoples cows. There is an immense distance between rationally knowing about and experiencing. There were aspirations but there was a falling short. Patiently waiting. I now live mainly in retreat where I embrace stillness and sometimes know the peace that it brings. But the mind has a mind of its own - old habits flare up and die hard. Mindfulness illumines the dark side where demons lurk. Many that used to be hidden can now occupy the foreground of attention. There is the uneasy transition to transcendence where mighty whims contend. It is a common pattern Come to the path as humorously aware as possible of the baggage you will be bringing with you: your lacks, fantasies, failings and projections. Blend with a soaring awareness of what our true nature might be, a down-to-earth and level-headed humility, and a clear appreciation of where you are on your spiritual journey and what still remains to be understood and accomplished. Sogyal Rinpoche (1992) The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying (p131)

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BUSY DOING NOTHING

Over the festive season I met many people in what passes for relax mode. We were unhooked from the immediate demands of work and had time on our hands. But what did we DO with it? There was not much enthusiasm for Thich Nhat Hahns recommendation Dont just do something, sit there. I was aware of how busy-ness allows an escape from stewing in our own juices. It is easy to get lost in work and to one-pointedly move beyond space, time and ego. But it is not a good idea to stay in that state too long. It is all too easy to becomes obsessed with, and addicted to, busy-ness and to become a busy-body and workaholic. It is all too easy to fritter away your life with busy doing and thus reach its end with no experience of peaceful being. How many of us could sing along with Bing Crosby and his crew Were busy doing nothing, working the whole day through, trying to find lots of things not to do. Were busy going nowhere, isnt it just a crime? Wed like to be unhappy but We never do have the time. From "A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur" (Video clip) BUT withdrawal can be tough. When you have made a habit of busy-ness it can be hard to embrace stillness and to face the frantic ego that looms large. A lot of buried mental stuff comes to the surface and has to be dealt with. Spiritual journeymen from times past talk of the dark night of the soul. The road to peaceful bliss involves a roller coaster ride with many ups and downs. There are cases of people having epiphanies and thus being suddenly born again. But those people have usually gone through a long period of mental churn in gradual preparation for the turning moment. I have been going through the mental churn for many years. There have been highs and lows along the way and I still dont have full confidence in a permanent shift to the brighter outlook. Old habits die very hard. The battle for mind control has to be waged thought by thought and minute by minute. It sometimes seems like pushing a boulder up a mountain you cannot afford to stop or it will roll back down again. So why bother? I cannot speak for other people but I seem to have two reasons. (a) I have personal experience of sudden shifts of mood so I know that reality is a mind-made thing and that it can be transformed in an instant (the blues are a state of mind) and (b) I am intellectually enthralled by the world view of the various mystics and by their psychology of perception . I am enamoured with the idea that the sunshine is always there and that the clouds can be blown away. I like to believe that there is a cure for the blues and that it is never too late to change your mind. So what might we have DONE over the festive season? We might have made ourselves busy doing nothing and perhaps tasted the peace that passes all understanding. Sitting quietly doing nothing Spring comes and the grass grows by itself (Zen Proverb)

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MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
At a recent meeting of my meditation group I was paired with Wendy to share thoughts and feelings about our spiritual journey. We quickly realised that neither of us had ever dealt with our spiritual journey as a story. This article thus offers a brief outline of my yarn. I am over 60 and my spiritual journey is ongoing. The causes and conditions that guided it began with conception and will end in the coffin. I no longer remember the earliest steps but for the last 45 years I have kept a journal. I can therefore check for distortions that might appear on memorys faulty mirror. I grew up in a fishing village in the north east of Scotland and was involved with archaeology while at school. This began an ongoing fascination for cultural evolution and thus for change and thus for the possibility of better ways to be human. While at University I studied psychology and zoology and my interests drifted towards primate social behaviour, the social sciences, and the creative works of Jack Kerouac and Herman Hesse. My teaching career began in Edinburgh where I befriended Andy who was an economist and had worked as a volunteer in Africa. We spent many long evenings putting the world to rights: and I began to read the wisdom literature (east and west) and to build my spiritual library. I had the scent of the fearless peace that passes all understanding - but my appreciation remained largely intellectual. Then there was a busy secular period. I served as teacher, curriculum developer, teacher trainer, examiner, inspector, education advisor and plain language editor in six tropical countries. But I also took time out for deep reflection while working towards two Master degrees, and making five lengthy retreats back in the village. Over the last 15 years I have been recording my thoughts about the spiritual path and making them publicly available. This began in Lesotho (95-98) where I wrote words of faith (eastern versions) for a local newspaper. I subsequently put the 16 short pieces online as The Essence of Faiths - Whispers from Everywhere1 The wheel of spiritual writing was then in motion. After Lesotho I web-enabled a set of 68 short pieces under the title Let it begin with me - A rough guide to mind training and meditation2. This includes four sections dealing with classic eastern, recent eastern, western, and home grown. In 2002 I began an ongoing blog called existential soft rock - mental re-construction through just sitting - be still and know3. This is a mix of quotes and links with a sprinkling of more recent, home grown spiritual articles (386 posts at 20 Oct 2010). So what ground has my spiritual journey covered so far? It cannot be cleanly separated from my overall journey as a facilitator of learning. But I now appreciate that there are two distinct modes of learning that should be in balance (a) the rational, objective mode (head) and (b) the intuitive, subjective mode (heart). Spirituality need not involve religion. It is best seen as a psychology of perception. The key task is to make time for stillness and thus to notice what you are thinking and feeling; and thus to be mindful (aware) of mental habits in the present moment; and thus to freely respond, rather than automatically react, to the stuff that enters the attention centre. I am now adjusting to retirement. This includes a dis-eased feeling of world weariness and burn out a downturn on the roller coaster ride through life. But I now appreciate the impermanence of all created things and it is thus possible to go peacefully with the ongoing flow while sitting with the meditation group or increasingly by myself. I draw inspiration from Thich Nhat Hanhs thoughts on being the peace you seek. The key, initial, spiritual recommendation for beginners is Dont just do something - sit there! Thus will be found fearless peace and better ways to be human.

http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/whispers/ http://www.srds.co.uk/begin/ 3 http://dodclark.blogspot.com/

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LANGUAGE AND UNCOMMON SENSE

I have grey hair and am retired from making a living. These days my work involves making the inner journey by turning the mind around. Metaphorically this involves (a) draining the muddy pool and exposing the hidden treasure; (b) letting the mud settle so that clarity returns; and (c) reprogramming what passes for common sense. The end point is to know the peace that passes all understanding. But there is more to this work than merely cracking norms and shifting paradigms. It involves more than just replacing one world view with another in a culturally relativistic manner. All options are not equal. There are many We can imagine (a) a continuum of normal world views, and (b) ways to climb the various independent abnormal world views that are beyond the mountain but continuum. But, when cultural trappings are removed from the there is only one various ab-normal (spiritual) world views, they are the same there summit. is what Aldous Huxley famously called the perennial philosophy. The perennial philosophy recognizes that Reality is other than what appears to our culturally conditioned sense organs and brains. The idea is that IF you disengage from your culturally given normal reality (which is but one of many on the cultural continuum) THEN you will appreciate the nature of the spiritual reality. This is the same for all people who manage to strip away the cultural accumulations by which they have been caught. Language evolved late in human evolution. Arguably it improved communication and the teaching of sophisticated skills amongst competing tribes of hunter/ gatherers. It was so successful that humanity quickly spread across the planet. But this involved evolutionary emergence rather than managerial predetermination. There was no forward plan (at least before there was consciousness of consciousness). Variations of words and concepts arose and some survived better than others. (see Box 1) Box 1: The Beginnings of Language. Thought experiment try to guess what some of the first nouns would have been. Then have a go at the first verbs and then the first sentences (Subject Verb Object)

Language would have helped with Box 2: The Six Questions understanding cause and effect and thus the My six good friends are with me now idea of agency. There would have been Who, why, what, when, where and how practical questions about how and philosophical questions about why. (see Box 2). And the pattern of answers would have evolved through various stages of human evolution (see Box 3) Box 3: Stages of Human Evolution Pre-modern (Traditional) Magic and Myth Priest and King Modern Science and Truth Technocrat & Businessman Post modern Social constructivism (anything goes) Page New age hippie

Language appeared a few seconds before midnight on the 24 hour clock of human evolution. Language is new born. As an infant it has served us well. We made stone axes, invented war and agriculture, and put a man on the moon. But language has some serious limitations. But these can be overcome (see below). There are causes and conditions for all the mental formations that appear in consciousness and in the unconscious. The basic scaffolding is genetic (nature) but the filling in is cultural (nurture). We are hard wired to learn a language but culture controls which specific language we learn and thus our world view. Different cultures have different languages. When we have a word for a thing it exists. If there is no word for it then it does not exist. Language does not offer names for things as they really are. Things are cultural creations. Children have to be educated/ indoctrinated to carve up the world in socially acceptable ways. Sexism, ageism, racism etc. But, in this global age, we need to rethink our condition. We need to rise above parochial xenophobia. We need to reconsider the concept of agency and the boundaries of belonging. The good news is that we do not need to begin from scratch. We can put a new spin on the perennial philosophy. Its longevity suggests an element of hard wiring. (Have neurologists really found a God-spot in the brain?) Eskimo language Cultures have shamans, seers and mystics. They go-between the has fourteen people and their Gods. They deal with the cause/effect links words for snow between the natural and the supernatural worlds. Magic and but none for myth abound and sacrifices are made to placate the dangerous butterfly! forces of nature and the Gods. But, as we developed, black magic gave way to institutionalised religion and then to science. In the post-modern era we have the existential nihilists. (Whats it all about Alfie?) (See Box 3). Often the priests are closely linked to the powerful, high status groups in developed cultures. There is then a massive outpouring of mumbo jumbo and mellifluous spin. The King/ Emperor/ Pope/ Parent Figure is in touch with the Divine and passes on His/ Her messages to the lowly and obedient workers. But that is aberration. Some individuals are called to the life of a hermit, recluse, or mystic. Some become sages whose understandings are coopted by the power elites to serve their personal ends. But that is aberration. Mystical loners from various times and places have been to the peak of the spiritual mountain. By sitting quietly doing nothing they clear away their cultural clutter. It becomes apparent that the reality (world view) espoused by a particular culture and language is not the real reality. Round and round and round in the circle game

Language supposes boundaries that limit things. But there is a type of knowing that lies beyond words and things. It appreciates the interconnected Oneness which has no beginning or ending but is nonetheless in a constant dance of creation and destruction. Our infantile language did not evolve to talk of these mystical things but they can be intuited. Those who recover the ability for supracultural intuition talk of freedom, of enlightenment, of a

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release from bondage. They come to know a peace that passes all rational understanding. The best they can do using baby language is to create poetry and paradox. Here are some examples: The reality that can be described is not the real reality. Those who speak do not know Those who know do not speak. Form is Emptiness and Emptiness is Form The impermanence of all created things. Be still and know (Stillness Speaks) When one sees Eternity in things that pass away and Infinity in finite things, then one has pure knowledge. A few men in all times have longed for Eternity and have attained Eternity, but only a few. When the light seen by a few becomes the light of the many, then man will be able to fulfil himself on this earth. What has been a Light for a few shall be in time a Light for All. We are such stuff as dreams are made on: and our little life is rounded with a sleep

SO: IF I am to urgently make the inner journey and turn my mind around to find peace, THEN I had best get on with the work of reprogramming my common sense. OM.

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NONSTOP SPIRITUAL JOURNEYS ON THE RISE

After formal sessions of sitting most of our sangha goes to the restaurant for more sharing of thoughts and feelings. This informality allows flesh to be draped over what might otherwise be bare bone viewpoints of each other. There is endless fascination with stories of lives with their highs and lows. And, being a self selected group of meditators, there are often attention grabbing stories of trials and tribulations on our spiritual journeys. Fred is in his 80s. He was an accountant and then a hospital ward orderly until he inherited money and took himself off to India for 9 years. It was there that he developed the meditative practice which he still continues. He comes across as deeply thoughtful with a gentle sense of humour. Most people would judge him to be in his late 60s he is well preserved. We got chatting in the restaurant. I mentioned that I am now retired from paid work and he asked what I do with myself all day. I responded glibly that I contemplate the infinite and he wanted to know what that meant. In essence it involves keeping up with the latest ideas about the merging of eastern and western traditions, thinking through the implications, writing about them, and putting the results online. But it is not solely an intellectual and academic exercise. A considerable amount of time is spent sitting quietly and letting the mud settle. When I asked him about his trade it became apparent that he has been of independent means for some time. I asked what he did all day but he did not answer in detail. He spends time meditating, writes regular short pieces for the communitys newsletter, and otherwise relishes being alive in that supernormal haven for soul searchers that is the Findhorn Foundation. On reflection I may be too purposive. There is still an ego that would change things. The youthful urge to find better ways to be human is still with me. A few days ago I listed 14 things that I would do if I ruled the world. The blue sky items were Taoist and involved letting nature take its course. The more pragmatic and socially engaged items involved establishing a vanguard of cherry picked meditators with a comprehensive range of knowledge and skills. This would include PR and advertising people whose task would be to develop a new cosmopolitan hegemony using elegant power. In other words to facilitate a popular paradigm shift. The need for external mind control would get less as mindfulness became more common and people everywhere became more compassionate regarding themselves, other people, animals and plants, the environment and the planet as a whole. Does this set of notions amount to more than pies in the sky and delusions of grandeur? Maybe yes, maybe no. Some facts about my spiritual journey will help to drape the skeleton. For many years I was a teacher and time was divided into 40 minute periods of systematically changing the heads of the youth watering the seeds of science. (In Scotland, Jamaica, Zambia, South Sudan) I was involved in figuring what should the children learn in school in two countries (South Sudan and Belize) using Multi Stakeholder Processes(MSP). Of the three authors of the definitive UNDP text on MSPs, one is a Bahai and another a Buddhist. In Belize, we merged history and geography with economics and politics to create a new subject called social studies. And this was matched with a curriculum for home room activities that promoted moral and spiritual learning needs in a user friendly fashion. I re-used some of the

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more subjective and affective materials when helping to set up an Educational Management Support Service in Lesotho. Many of the ideas became one-pagers that could be used in a variety of ways in transformational workshops. After Lesotho I gave up work in Institutions and became a short term consultant with a focus on social development and the training of change agents. Many of the Lesotho one-pagers were rehashed for the new cause. Many of the emerging theories were reality tested through (a) involvement with rural community groups in my home area, (b) work with the Caledonia Centre for Social Development in other parts of Scotland, and (c) work with the civil society organisation Hakikazi Catalyst in Tanzania. The main work with Hakikazi involved supporting popularisation of the national development policy-making process by producing user friendly, plain language, illustrated versions of policy documents most notably the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) that formed part of IMF and World Bank conditionality. Following on the Hakikazi outputs I worked for the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva on several documents - the most notable of which was the PRSP for Mali. Once upon a time development policy had a single bottom line Economic. Since the Rio Summit there has been a triple bottom line - Economic, Social, Environmental (ESE). This acronym has grown in various ways in recent times and, since working for Hakikazi, I now have a seven letter version Social, Technical, Environmental, Economic, Political, Legal, Ethical, Spiritual STEEPLES4. Many of the schools in Belize were owned by Churches and managed by Nuns and Priests. It was thus to be expected that there would be concern about ethical, moral and spiritual learning needs. I wrote about the School Ethos5 in 1988 and about Moral and Spiritual Learning Needs6 in 1990. The spiritual dimension was not rated highly by the Ministry of Education in Lesotho but a nun, Sister Nkhala, was one of my official counterparts and also second in command in her nunnery. I wrote a short story based on the visioning workshop she commissioned me to deliver. It is called A Force of Sisters. The workshop made a lasting impression on me in terms of people conceiving of a spiritual path. Again independent of the Ministry of Education, I produced a set of words of faith for Mopheme an independent Lesotho weekly newspaper. They already had a Christian and a Bahai so I did eastern religions. The short articles are now available on the web7. When I left Lesotho in March 1998 I set myself up as a freelance consultant/advisor. But the one-pager, words of faith habits did not die. New materials as they arose went on the Let it begin with me website8 and later on the Existential Soft Rock Blog9. I did not tell such a lengthy story to Fred but it was in telling a shorter version that I felt the need of sorting things out in my head. Nor did I tell Fred about my Parkinsons Disease (PD). I was diagnosed in October 2010 and my head had been messed up for some time before that.
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for details see https://sites.google.com/site/steeplessrds/

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http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/whispers/ http://www.srds.co.uk/begin/ 9 http://dodclark.blogspot.co.uk/

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http://www.scribd.com/doc/56967591/School-Ethos http://www.scribd.com/doc/56747762/Moral-and-Spiritual-Learning-Needs-a-discussion-Paper

There was subsequently much lethargy, sloth and torpor. A growing concern about agency resulted. Why was I thinking and feeling the way that I did? Was it: Parkinsons Disease (damage to the structure of my brain) The Medication (I was on anti-depressants for a while) Old Age Mindfulness meditation (I have a regular habit of sitting) Therapy (I had six sessions with a counsellor in Buckie) The books that I was reading evolutionary psychology and neuroscience linking East to West (Also audio and video) Lack of company and exercise Just me with renunciation, retreat and with social and existential anxiety

The good news is that the present pattern of agents is doing good things. Most of the time I feel quite content and the rate of churning out one-pagers has hugely increased. I was effectively silenced during most of 2010, 2011 and 2012. The present line of thinking is that humanity, or at least large parts of it, is close to embracing mindfulness on a massive scale. Altered states of consciousness that were once confined to exceptional people are now available to all via the National Health Service eg using Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) techniques. And much of the mystery can now be rationally explained through the lens of evolutionary psychology backed up by the results of brain scans of advanced meditators. There is even thought to be a God spot in the prefrontal cortex. The capacity for cosmic consciousness is inherent in human beings. It is part of our birthright. It is hard wired into our brains. It is a potential waiting to be realised. There is nothing that needs to be added. The task is to be still and to remove the mental mud that stops us from seeing clearly. Arguably, in the last 50 years or so, more people have been making the case for, and demanding a clearer focus on, human happiness and flourishing. The human potential movement and the promoters of positive psychology have been targeting the peak experiences that allow people to flow and to flourish. There is a growing appreciation of the human potential for calm and for peace in our time. Fred has dedicated much of his time and effort to meditation and I have been regularly engaged with mindfulness. I joined my main sangha nine years ago. In the beginning it was quite small but these days there can be up to 30 at a sitting. But that is a very small sample. Thich Nhat Hahn and the Dalai Lama attract many followers world wide. Insight Meditation is growing fast in America following the initiative of Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg. MBSR is exploding into mainstream medicine following the pioneering work of Jon Kabat-Zinn in the 1970s. There is considerable work being done to ensure deep insights into the linkage of Eastern and Western ways of thinking, feeling, being, doing, and having. More and more people are seeking to make better use of their brains. Non stop spiritual journeys are on the rise. Page

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IS THAT SPIRITUAL?
Some people are more spiritual than others. By making a spiritual journey an individual or group can readjust the personal and group balance. Different human types (eg introvert/ extrovert etc) may be more or less inclined to spirituality and they may have preferred ways of developing and maintaining it. It is an altered state of consciousness10 although not perhaps very clear cut. How does the spiritual state relate to the mystical one? Some time ago I gathered a few ideas about stages on the mystical path11. The idea is to encourage cognitive dissonance12 such that things are no longer as they seem. By taking thought, the illusory nature of I becomes apparent and this leads to dropping personal viewpoints and worldviews. The non-dual Oneness is unspeakable. But, fortunately, it can be experienced. Note that the cognitive dissonance can be tough. It is rarely plain sailing. It can trigger a dark night of the soul. Paul Simon had some ideas about it: And so you see Ive come to doubt All that I once held as true I stand alone without beliefs The only truth I know is you. But who is the you? Woody Guthrie had some ideas about it: You gotta walk that lonesome valley You gotta walk it by yourself Nobody here can walk it for you You gotta walk it by yourself But these days I appreciate the company of like minded souls. Were it not for the radicals of Findhorn I might well have given up the quest and dropped back to the default of a parochial and xenophobic country bumpkin. Or perhaps not. I have read many spiritually inspiring books and magazines; and these days there are audio and video programmes, social networks and email. I have contributed to the spiritual reading material in cyberspace. In chronological order: The Essence of Faiths - whispers from everywhere http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/whispers/ Let it begin with me - a rough guide to mind training and meditation http://www.srds.co.uk/begin/ Existential Soft Rock - mental re-construction through just sitting - be still and know http://dodclark.blogspot.com http://www.facebook.com/dodclark https://twitter.com/dodclark http://www.scribd.com/george_clark_25/ Some of my essays and booklets for free download

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Altered-States-Consciousness-TartCharles/dp/0062508571/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361735350&sr=1-5 11 http://www.srds.co.uk/begin/mystical.htm 12 http://www.ithaca.edu/faculty/stephens/cdback.html

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Changing minds - thinking and feeling, and the dis-ease that comes from thinking outside the box - http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/

In promoting spirituality the eastern religions have developed a deep rooted and time tested psychology of perception. Physical quiet and stillness lead to psychological quiet and stillness. The mud of busy-ness settles and clarity and insight improve. The seeker is encouraged to remain awake and to be aware of what enters and leaves the attention centre. Notice what is being noticed and remain aloof. Learn to mindfully and gently respond rather than to mindlessly and vigorously react. BUT - it is rarely plain sailing: In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost. ~ Dante Alighieri The spiritual journey is often portrayed as magical, mystical and Hollywood heroic. Joseph Campbell the historian of myth recognised the multicultural Monomyth13 where "A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man." I feel uneasy with such stories. The hero has power - and power corrupts. In the Tao teh Ching it is reckoned that, of the best leaders, when they are gone, the people all say, We did it ourselves. There is an issue about engaged spirituality and the bestowing of boons. Is an elitist vanguard inevitable? How might we get round the problem that the reality that can be described is not the real reality and that those who speak do not know? We can fall back on the psychology of perception. We are what and how we think and feel. By taking thought we can alter what and how we think and feel. It is now well established that we see with our brains rather than with our eyes. Immediate sensory inputs take part in vital churns with memories of facts and feelings. Thus we adapt to our world and act so as to meet our various actual and idiosyncratic needs in real time. By their words and deeds shall you know them. By being awake, aware and mindful you will be a compassionate and cool dude. That is how you are hard wired at least for most dealings with your limited number of hunting and gathering ancestors. Cultural evolution (nurture) has put enormous strains on our neurological evolution (nature). But there is plenty plasticity. By taking mindful thought we can sort things out. That is spiritual.

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http://www.srds.co.uk/begin/monomyth.htm

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SPOONFEEDING UNRIPE CHERRIES

There is more to be said about rants. I avoid spontaneous verbal outbursts so most of mine are in writing. People who open their mouths and let their bellies rumble may sometimes be educative or entertaining but, on the whole, I prefer to steer clear of them. They can be asked to Please engage your brain before opening your mouth. I used to be a hard line educationist. I felt that no teacher should go to class without a lesson plan which clearly indicated (a) the aims and objectives stated in behavioural terms, (b) the content and method designed with scope, sequence and pace in mind and (c) the monitoring and evaluation processes that were to be used. That was a high ideal but it guided my many years as a teacher and as an education advisor. For example, we made explicit use of the lesson planning model in developing materials for Social Studies in Belize. The thinking was that most teachers fall short in the amount and quality of their lesson plans. Our task, therefore, was to cherry pick the best teachers in the different subjects and have them convert the curriculum into national lesson plans which could be spoon fed to the unripe cherries. The project was about improving the quality of education by teacher proofing what happened in schools and classrooms. Many of those at the chalk front saw the need for such a system. This was pessimistic but was it also realistic? The topic generates endless hours of discussion and debate with heartfelt but controversial arguments, polemics and rants. I was brainwashed into being an enthusiastic and conscientious lesson planner and control freak. I was thus delighted when I began working on social development. The new big thing at the time was Project Logical Frameworks. These were lesson plans for development workers complete with Objectively Verifiable Indicators (OVI) and Means of Verification (MOV). They also embraced the concept of Management by Objectives. This obviously begged the question of, What went before? Did development workers not make plans? How many unripe cherries were in the aid and development business? Who am I to sit in judgement? What evidence do I have for the preponderance of unripe cherries in the teaching and aid games? Not a lot! Mainly personal experiences from seven countries, and anecdotes from experienced practitioners whose opinions I respect and these include a fair sprinkling of nuns and priests. A groupthink of like minds? Perhaps! For reasons that I will not go into here, I think of education as my calling. The Latin word educare means to lead out and this presumably means from the darkness of parochial ignorance into the light of cosmopolitan wisdom. There are two sides to this teaching and the facilitation of learning. Teaching involves (a) studying a particular area of knowledge (eg science and biology) and then (b) making lesson plans to put it across in a way that informs and entertains the learners. In practice this can reduce to spoon feeding students to pass exams. In the facilitation of learning the focus is on process rather than content. There is discussion and debate between individuals with differing viewpoints. Formal debate is a win/lose game whereas discussion allows for win/win. The facilitator ensures that questions are asked and answered and that this stimulates critical thinking and illuminates ideas. The method goes back to ancient Greece where Socrates used it on the youth and died for his efforts. That man thinks

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too much; such men are dangerous. These days there is a movement towards holistic, multidisciplinary and consilient methods Google for Multi-stakeholder Processes! My days of formally stimulating and spoon feeding unripe cherries are over. But informally, in retirement, I am still at it. But there are three differences; in subject matter, in writing style and in publication. Subject Matter: The subject matter varied through the years and moved from curriculum development through social development and on to the present focus on personal development. Curriculum development included science and biology lesson notes, teacher training materials, national examinations, school inspection procedures, and think pieces on educational leadership, management and administration. Social development included think pieces about the functions and training of change agents in Scotland and overseas. A higher profile aspect of facilitating social development included the preparation of plain language versions of policy documents notably those focussed on Poverty Reduction. Some of the work done in Tanzania gained worldwide recognition. Personal Development includes keeping up with the literature and current thinking related to the merging of scientific, philosophical and religious viewpoints from both East and West. This is balanced with quiet sitting in mindfulness which leads to even tempered peace and to numinous appreciation of everyday things. Writing Style: I was impressed with Ken Wilbers concept map - AQAL (all quadrants, all levels). He convinced me of the need to change my writing style from the early objective scientific mode to the later subjective creative mode. I am still working on the details. The new way involves, amongst other things, using the I word and presenting thoughts that are not supported by reputable evidence. I think of the subjective writing as rant it is self indulgent. And what I think has no statistical relevance. I used to have lots of footnotes pointing to references but I have given that up. These days I am happy to leave the unconscious to generate stuff. It has been got at by the same nature, nurture and serendipity as the conscious bit, but it is capable of parallel processing and thus of generating a much richer set of viewpoints. The mind has a mind of its own and it is well motivated for the spiritual journey. Publication: over the years I have prepared hundreds of documents with relatively short print runs. Most of them were photocopied rather than published. Curricular materials in Belize were distributed nationally. The one-pagers produced in Lesotho were popular but had very limited prints runs. Some of them were adapted for use in the training of change agents in Scotland and Tanzania and they are now available online. Most of the plain language documents produced in Tanzania were published and had considerable print runs. Most of them are still available online. I have been methodical in the online publishing of personal development materials written in the Lesotho days and since. There are several web sites and blogs and they attract a fair bit of traffic. I am relaxed about online publishing. There is always the possibility of an article going viral but I am not holding my breath. Go with the flow.

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And here ends todays mildly polemical rant. It will soon be online and available to such unripe cherries as may find it interesting.