Numinous Nonsense

Over the past couple weeks I’ve been trying out a new geo-social networking tool called BrightKite. They call themselves a “location based social network” which basically means that they encourage users to check-in (using the web or SMS) to various physical locations, and to then broadcast that location to other users. One of my friends on Twitter (a very interesting micro-blogging community) asked why anyone would care where someone else is, and what the point of these kind of networks are. A good question, but one that is definitely uninformed about the larger purpose of geo-social networking.

Being able to alert people to your location really isn’t all that useful, unless you are nearby to another person, and a social interaction becomes possible. The real purpose of these networks is to actually enable real-world connections by digitally mapping a person’s whereabouts and comparing them to others. Instead of having to call people to tell them where you are (how antiquated!), you instead just have your geo-spatial location tracked, and have your friends become alerted to this location in real-time. In essence, these services will allow us to unify our virtual and meatspace connections, thereby enhancing both!¹

Differentiate…

But why hasn’t this already happened? Most of the social networks you belong to today happen exclusively online. Facebook, Myspace, etc. allow you to connect with people you don’t know, who may share interests with you or even a common background, but they certainly don’t promote—except in rare instances—actual physical connections. ² This has created, what many critics have pointed out as, a disconnected relationship to the physical world, not an enhanced one. But that is really only half the story, the 1st half of differentiation.

Just as a new cell must differentiate itself from an old one while replicating, so too has the internet differentiated itself from normal ways of worldly communication. And just as computers are vastly superior to the human brain at certain types of computation, and are becoming more so each day with the continued development of artificial intelligence, the internet allows world-wide collective communication at far greater speeds and with far greater collaborative potential. What is web 2.0 if not a greater tapping of the internet’s global communication potential?

…then Integrate

The 2nd half of the story is one of integration, of coming together, of unifying at higher and more complex levels. We are seeing the beginnings of internet technologies that are beginning to reach back into our physical lives, to bring the stupendous benefits of lightening-quick, highly collaborative, data-rich systems back into social lives.

The result, eventually, will be geo-social networks that track where we are (instead of us having to do so manually) will notify us not only of pre-existing friends that are close, but also of people we might like to meet based on a set of shared interests, friendships, and passions. We’ll begin to be able to meet people that we didn’t even know we wanted to meet. That’s human relationships 2.0—to extend the 2.0 metaphor farther then I probably should.

All new technologies begin as crude and slightly disconnected from the rest of their environments. We can think back only a couple of decades to massive mainframe computers and big brick-like cellphones that almost no one used. The internet, and the social networks that we find on it today are kind of like that. But with geo-social networking on the rise, and a host of other useful, more fully integrated information technologies, we are going to find out lives more deeply enriched by these things, not less so. In the end their integration will become so tight, as it already has become for many in my generation, that we really won’t be able to distinguish any difference between the virtual world and the real world. It will just be the world that we interact, love, work, and play in.

1. You can of course choose to not have your location broadcast. When the technology becomes more mature the only choice you’ll likely be making is whether to be “on the radar” or “off the grid”. Most everything else will be handled automatically for you. [↩]
2. Online dating services like Match.com are definitely an exception. Just wait until they start harnessing geo-social networking technologies! You’ll be standing at the corner of Pearl and 14th and will suddenly be receiving a date request over your cell phone from the woman across the street—and neither of you may have initiated the date! Blind dating on steroids. [↩]

The company, Falling Fruit tv, that I helped start around 1 year ago, dissolved a couple of weeks ago. While I’d prefer not to get into the specifics, as there is a lot of private and still hurt feelings involved, I will make a couple of observations/thoughts that have come to me in the aftermath of Falling Fruit’s dissolution:

1. Start-up companies are hard work, rarely succeed, and are almost always a labor of love (or of intense greed). Fortunately ours fell on the side of the former.
2. Though it’s not the mere purpose of a start-up, on of the by-products of participating in one is that you’ll learn way more about operating a business then you could ever learn in business school or by working for someone else. The start-up environment demands that you familiarize yourself with pretty much every aspect of the business, and as a result you will know way more then you want to about how to start, fund, and run a business.
3. Conscious business practices, and values motivated from worldcentric and above stages of human development are absolutely critical in the business world. They may not always be successful, but we have an obligation as conscious entrepreneurs to make them so, if we can.
4. The companies values should be aligned at the highest levels of the organization. Without that shared understanding from investors, the decision makers, and ideally throughout the organization it will be nearly impossible to cohere and act quickly enough to respond to market conditions.

In any case, I learned a great deal with helping start Falling Fruit, and was extremely disappointed that we didn’t succeed. It will probably take a long time to integrate all of the different learnings, and deal with the pain of something failing that I cared so deeply about, but in the end I have a feeling that will have been well worth it.

On another note, Buddhist Geeks will continue on, but in a new form. Ryan and I owned BGeeks, outside of Falling Fruit, and so when FF went down, BGeeks did not go with it! It’s new home is on the Personal Life Media network. The same great dialogues we’ve been having on BGeeks for the past year and a half will continue over there, and we are so thrilled to be able to keep doing it.

As for myself, I’m heading on a much-needed meditation retreat next week. I’m spending 9-days at the Insight Meditation Society w/ my partner Emily, sitting with Jack Kornfield & Co. and then walking through the woods over to the long-term retreat facility, The Forest Refuge, to spend another 2 weeks deepening in the practice.

And if you have any questions/comments about Falling Fruit or Buddhist Geeks, shoot me an e-mail at: vince [at] buddhistgeeks [dot] com

While the quality of the video isn’t fantastic, this is a great performance from my sister and her college acapella group. In this song, she is the primary singer, and she rocks it out! The song is called Fidelity, and is from Regina Spektor.

Hey, if you can’t post YouTube videos of your little sister singing on your blog site, than where can you?

It’s often recognized by meditation teachers that the notion of enlightenment carries with it a whole host of misconceptions and unhelpful interpretations. In Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, Theravada teacher Daniel Ingram writes about this at length in his section on the models of enlightenment. He describes and distinguishes between the many different models we have for what enlightenment bestows on the individual, including things having to do with emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual perfection. He also points out how dangerous some of these models can be, as they do at least two things: First, they make enlightenment appear to be completely impossible as most of the models people have, and especially when you combine several of them, are largely unattainable. Secondly, they take the focus off of what enlightenment is really about, the realization of non-duality, or “those models having to do with eliminating or seeing through the sense that there is a fundamentally separate or continuous center-point, agent, watcher, doer, perceiver, subject, observer or similar entity.” These Non-Duality models, Daniel claims, are the only models that one can trust from the beginning of the path, until the very end. Judith Lief, a Shambhala acharaya, puts it this way:

The idea of enlightenment is tied up with our images of wise men and wise women. We have all sorts of preconceptions about how such wise beings are supposed to look, supposed to talk, and supposed to act [Action Models]. Maybe they have be a certain gender or from a certain class. Maybe they need to wear robes or appear to be very pure [Purity Models]. Perhaps they need to have a halo and radiate light [Radiance Models]. Maybe they are extraordinarily virtuous [Saintly Models] and kind, and smile beneficently at us [Love Models]. Based on our particular preconceived notions, we may try to sort out who among us is enlightened to greater or lesser degrees. We would like to match what we see with whatever standard we have created. But in doing so, not only may we apply inadequate standards but we may also be fooled by trappings and popular acclaim.

What I’d like to explore in this article, aren’t the models themselves, but rather the different ways that individual practitioners, teachers, and communities tend to work with the models. Do they let them run rampant, do they de-emphasize enlightenment altogether as a way of avoiding the whole issue, do the talk about enlightenment as something that is always present, do they have a developmental & technical approach to the path, or do they attack the least helpful of the models head-on?

1. Allow the Models to Run Rampant – The first and most obvious response to the models of enlightenment is to just let them run rampant, or to pick and choose (perhaps unconsciously) which one’s we prefer. This, I would suggest, is the most common relationship most teachers & communities have with the ideals surrounding enlightenment. In fact, it’s nearly impossible not to walk into a dharma center anywhere in the world and not see at least several different, and sometimes wacky, frameworks operating about what the enlightened state is. Why it happens isn’t entirely clear, but it’s not hard to see that people get all sorts of benefits from projecting perfection onto other people and themselves. Having unrealistic models of enlightenment, which makes it largely unattainable also can have a certain relieving effect on practitioner, where they will feel a little less pressured to try and wake up. The irony is that the pressure comes from having unrealistic notions about what one is trying to attain, not from the task itself.

An interesting thing that happens in these sorts of communities is that you find almost no one who is willing to claim full enlightenment, or if they are claiming it then you find all sorts of personality worship, and strange interpersonal issues. You also tend to get beliefs that enlightenment can or will be achieved in some future time, perhaps in the next lifetime.

This can all become extremely confusing, as the techniques and teachings being given oftentimes contain extremely valuable pieces, which if followed will lead to varying degress of awakening. What you then end up with are a bunch of people displaying real, and sometimes eloquent, descriptions of awakening but hopelessly mixing them with other unattainable models concerning human perfection.

Where seen: Theravada 10 fetters model, Tibetan Bhumis, Richard Baker Roshi’s introduction to Zen Mind, Beginners Mind, and almost all the models of Buddhahood.

2. De-emphasize Enlightenment – One obvious way of dealing with all of people’s misconceptions about enlightenment is to simply de-emphasize it, or in some cases completely ignore the concept altogether. This is the hallmark of the Soto Zen tradition, and can also be seen in many other teachings. Certainly it’s one way of dealing with the problem, and is probably helpful for some people, but one can’t help comparing this approach to someone who wants to get rid of a mess but ends up simply sweeping the dirt under the rug. Judith Lief, from the same article quoted earlier, describes the shadow-side of this approach:

Although we could pretend to be above it all, beyond striving and without ambition, we cannot hide the fact that in the Buddhist tradition the attainment of enlightenment is the central goal. At the same time, it is considered unseemly to talk overly much about one’s own practice experiences, or to advertise one’s own enlightenment. It is felt that if you have to point it out, it isn’t happening. So it is better to be modest about one’s attainments, neither latching on to such experiences nor trying to explain or discuss them with others. The problem with that approach is that, since nobody talks about it, students may begin to wonder if awakening is simply out of reach, if enlightenment is a myth and a hoax.

Where seen: Soto Zen, Suzuki Roshi, Brad Warner, Advaita Vedanta, U.G. Krishnamurti

3. Emphasize Awakening as a Temporary State or As Something that’s Always Present - Another way that enlightenment is dealt with is by pointing out that awakening is a condition which has always been present, and which can be experienced or glimpsed at any moment. This approach is extremely helpful as it brings things back to a direct exploration of the nature of reality, and points out the highest teachings. The problem with this approach is that giving a practice instruction is different from achieving the full fruits of the practice, and while those that have awakened themselves can speak about the “always already” nature of awakening, they can do so only because they have gone through a radical transformative process that left them with a deep and abiding understanding of what they speak about (assuming they are indeed awake). For those that don’t understand, no matter how obvious it is to the teacher, it will take a real transformation in their own experience. If they confuse the practice instruction of exploring freedom here and now, with their own current deluded understanding, then they can easily be fooled into thinking they are done, when in fact they are not.

Where seen: Parts of Dzogchen and Mahamudra teachings, Soto Zen, Eckhart Tolle

4. Adopt a Developmental Perspective w/ More Technical Language - Many teachers will try to be more clear about what enlightenment is about, by adopting technical language that can describe particular experiences and progressions as one practices. The emphasis becomes on the practices and the very specific, mappable, and repeatable results of these practices. This kind of precision doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for many of the perfection models, though it can lend itself to “specific knowledge models” and “thought models” in which one can becomes caught up with certain esoteric knowledge that they have regarding the path. This can lead to the trap of confusing the map with the territory, and thinking that one’s conceptual understanding of the path is directly related to one’s degree of enlightenment, or if someone can’t describe their experience adequately that they aren’t enlightened.

That being said, having an accurate and useful map can be way better than having a map based on some of the other unattainable ideals of perfection.

Where seen: The Buddha’s 3 trainings model, Daniel Ingram, B. Alan Wallace, Mahasi Sayadaw’s progress of insight, & parts of the Tibetan 5-Path Model

5. Attack the Models Head-On

Perfection enlightenment appears in many texts, but amid all the Western masters and teachers I know, such utter perfection is not apparent. Times of great wisdom, deep compassion, and a real knowing of freedom alternate with periods of fear, confusion, neurosis, and struggle. Most teachers will readily admit this truth. – Jack Kornfield

Another approach, which can meld well with some of the other approaches, is to identify, and debunk the “perfection enlightenment” models. This approach does it’s best to demystify enlightenment, make it more accessible, and eminently more attainable. The focus here is on sorting out what’s what in spiritual practice. When we compare the obvious achievements (and shortcomings) of dedicated practitioners with the models that we have, than the unrealistic expectations we have surrounding enlightenment become fairly clear. From here we often see that it is not we the practitioners who are unenlightened and haven’t achieved the fruit of the spiritual path, but rather the ideals, which have shortcomings.

Where seen: Judith Lief’s article, Daniel Ingram, Adyashanti, Jack Kornfield’s After the Ecstasy, The Laundry, Stuart Lachs

Models within Models within Models

I hope what becomes obvious in reading about these different approaches is that in the realm of “right view” we are always trying to make sense of our aims, intentions, and goals. In the Buddhist tradition where “enlightenment” is one of the central goals we will always have ideas about what it is, about what it looks like from the outside, how important it is, etc. We can’t escape adopting some (or even several) of these different approaches. The key is to take the one’s that allow for a more full flourishing of wisdom at the appropriate times and in the appropriate contexts. Put another way, use the approaches consciously and see them as such, as strategies for supporting the development of awakening.

I’m reading through, for the first time, Don Beck and Christopher Cowan’s book Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change. Having worked for Ken Wilber, who helped to popularize their work, and knowing many people who are into their theory (about theories) I’ve been exposed to the ideas before, but am finding it much more nuanced than it first appeared. I’ve been on a kick lately to understand more about developmental theories, and having just finished reading Robert Kegan’s In Over Our Heads I’m finding this a delightful (and closely related) read.

Toward the beginning of the book Beck and Cowan use a metaphorical narrative, where they are traveling around the world asking different people the question, “What is life all about?”. They use the people, their surroundings (i.e. their context), and their answers as ways of highlighting the different vMEMEs, or levels of individual and social development, that exist. I found the last person’s response, who was supposed to represent the “yellow” or Flex-Flow stage particularly interesting. He is a park ranger, in an African game reserve, and when asked the question he responds:

Well, I’ve given that some thought and don’t have anything spectacular to offer—but as I see it, I get a great deal of personal satisfaction out of working here to reclaim and preserve our natural habitat. So I guess my answer should be that I believe we should celebrate and respect life as it is. Even more than that, I think we should seek to understand how everything relates to everything else, and how nature has its own tempo and flow of which we are only a small part.¹

Three things stood out to me when reading his description. One is that the ranger is fairly humble and grounded about what he is doing and why he’s doing it. The why includes both his personal satisfaction and the good generated by the work he does. Secondly, he emphasizes the need to understand the relationships and patterns of all things. The need to understand and see these relationships, from a meta-viewpoint (of everything), is quite interesting and corresponds strongly to Robert Kegan’s descriptions of the 5th order of consciousness. Lastly, and most interestingly at the moment, is his emphasis on respecting “life as it is” and seeing that “we are only a small part” of nature which “has its own tempo and flow”. This seems largely to express what I described as an integrated sense of responsibility or what I’ve been terming cosmic responsibility. Notice the similarities between the fictional character’s description of his place in nature and how I described integrated responsibility at the end of my post on the subject:

When we open fully to the larger context in which life is happening, that isn’t solely reducible to my experience or my desires, then a greater level of surrender & happiness can result. The happiness isn’t one borne from getting what we want, but rather from seeing how things really are.

I feel more convinced now that “integrated responsibility” is how one expresses their individual role in the life—which is one part of the answer to what life is about—from what these authors call the yellow (”integrative”) stage of development.

Also, check out the recent interviews we did on the Conscious Business show with Don Beck on his work and it’s application to business. Listening to him speak is what finally encouraged me to buy his book and go into his work more deeply. I’m glad I did.

1. Spiral Dynamics, pg. 37 [↩]

The Transformation Try-Out is inspired by the notion of the 30-day trial, which Steve Pavlina made so popular. The basic idea is to take a new action, or habit that you want to establish and commit to doing it daily for 30 days (much like a software trial). At the end of the 30 days you can choose to quit, continue, or modify your commitment. Knowing that you can change things after 30 days, the time you spend engaging in the new pattern becomes much easier. Also, you have a chance to get a feel for the results of changing the habit, to see if it’s something worth pursuing.

The transformation try-out however is a slightly different concept, that Duff McDuffee, Ryan Oelke, and myself came up with. It’s different in that we want to constantly evolve the try-out process itself, and because we’ve added these key distinctions and suggestions when performing the 30 day try-out:

1. Keep in mind that changing a habit is often very hard work, and while the benefits are often enormous, doing so can often be massively destabilizing. Often times if you push the edge too far in transformational work, you can end up with a break down of multiple systems, instead of the breakthrough you are looking for. Because human beings are a system of many different tendencies, belief systems, habits, and so on, one major shift to an element of the system can have unforeseen impact on the system-at-large.
2. Know which habit to try and change, at what time, and in what order. Perhaps in order to make other bigger changes you need to start with the simplest one’s of all. For example, say you want to start your own business, but you are in extremely poor health and barely have the energy to maintain your current lifestyle. The 1st thing you may want to change is your energy levels, and to do something related to your health, so that you can have the energy to commit to other larger changes and goals.
3. Clear parameters and the appropriate tracking are invaluable. In order to follow through with a transformation try-out you first have to be very clear about the parameters of the change, and then need to have a reliable way to track your progress. It could be as easy as creating a small calendar on an index card and checking off each day that you perform the new action you are trying to do (or avoid a harmful action). Or it might be more elaborate, require more detailed metrics, happen over a digital medium, or have a collaborative component.
4. While you are participating in a transformation try-out it is also a good idea to keep some sort of record of the process. Keeping a journal with observations about the process, or blogging if you’d like, can help with sticking to it and also learning from the process.
5. Tell people what you are doing, and find others who can understand and support your decision. The more you talk about it, thinking about it, and reference it the easier the try-out will be.

Keep your eyes peeled for transformation try-outs from me and my friends, as we share our successes and failures, and hopefully the larger lessons that we learn along the way. We’ll be posting many of these in a blog format, and hopefully will continue to evolve the “transformation try-out” process itself.