Month: August 2020

Living Up to the Greatest Commandment

Posted on by japineda

Jews and Christians are under ethical, religious, and spiritual obligations to follow Biblical precepts. The Ten Commandments, known also as “the ten words” or as the Decalogue in Christianity, are principles to guide our behavior. The commandments, detailed in Exodus 20:1-17 from the King James Version, describe a relationship with God, e.g., “Thou shalt have no other gods before me; do not make unto thee any graven image; do not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” The remaining commandments describe specific actions that characterize exemplary behavior, e.g., “Thou shalt remember the sabbath; keep it holy; honor thy father and mother; do not murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness against thy neighbor, or covet thy neighbor’s house, wife, slaves, etc.”

In Christian theology, Jesus freed his followers from the obligation to follow the hundreds of commandments in Jewish religious law. He did not, however, remove the duty to keep the Ten Commandments. In Matthew 22:35–40, Mark 12:28–34, and Luke 10:27, Jesus acknowledges their validity. He then asks his disciples to go further, demanding a righteousness exceeding that in the Old Testament. When asked, “which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus considered these as similar precepts, for if we love God with all our heart, soul and mind, loving our neighbor is the natural consequence. For the Christian faithful, it is the core of their lifestyle and values. But why is it so difficult to live this reality? One cynical reason is that no sanction is associated with their lack of execution. Thus, individuals can call themselves Christian, not follow the commandments, and have no fear of their misbehavior. Even if they believe that punishment can only occur following earthly life, it is easy to ignore. The association is so far removed that it will not weigh very much on their conscience. My intuition is that these are not the “virtuous” people God is hoping to shape.

So, can people call themselves Christian if they cannot live up to these commandments? Yes, but it matters whether they try as opposed to having an uninterested and lackadaisical mindset about it. God gave many hints He wants his followers to make the effort. The most perfect expression of this expectation is Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”  If we assume that those who see themselves as Christian do struggle, then what prevents them from complying? Let’s for now ignore the first part and focus on the latter part of the commandment.

First, God would not command “love your neighbor as yourself” if it were beyond the capacity of humans. Second, God is the source of Life. When the faithful love Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, they grow to recognize that everyone is part of His creation. My intuition is that most of the faithful know and exercise this understanding intentionally as well as unconsciously. They show it in the tithes they give, the charity work they do for their churches, and the individual volunteering seen across the world. But when they do not identify with others, it means there will be moments their actions dissociate from this ideal. What gets in the way? I argue it is the nature of human individuality in relation to unity.

This argument resembles that proposed by Martin Buber, an Austrian-born philosopher, who considered the distinction between I–Thou and I–It relation. In his analysis, Buber attempted to understand how human individuality fits into the universality of God. His reasoning followed that “I either understand myself as God or God as myself.” Neither of those, however, appeared to be correct or satisfactory. And thus, the need for a third alternative. Jesus, who became Christ, is a perfect and symbolic representation of this third relationship. Or what Buber characterized as “I am in God and God is in me” relationship. I keep my individuality as I recognize I am also part of the whole. Jesus as a human being is the embodiment of such an interactivity. Christ is the actuality that such consciousness is a possibility available to everyone.

As long as we see the world from an individual perspective, self-centered actions will prevail. When we perceive ourselves as embedded in the “I am in God and God is in me” relationship, then others become as important. And actions follow that perspective. This relationship thrives when fostered, learned, prayed for, and exercised. When that awareness becomes a natural response, then living up to the greatest commandment develops into a real and effortless life.

What can be done to make this awareness a natural response? Make the following exercises a part of an everyday routine. This will promote learning to “love your neighbor as yourself” and set up an “I am in God and God is in me” relationship:

For more thoughts on this issue, check this blog for future essays.

Flexibility In Thinking Is Crucial For Survival

Posted on by japineda

Considering the billions of life forms present on planet Earth, there are several reasons why eusocial species, notably humans, have progressed to be a dominant force. Big brained, eminently social, collaborative in nature, able to communicate complex thoughts—these are just some explanations undergirding our achievement. From a cognitive science perspective, one significant outcome of these various factors, and a big reason for our success, is cognitive flexibility.  At its most essential, this refers to the ability to control the how, when, where, and why of thought. The human brain allows control, either automatically or deliberately, of what we think, how we think about it, when we think it, and why we are thinking of it. In an ever-changing world where circumstances vary dynamically from moment to moment, a thought-generating process that can adapt and respond equally fast is a decided advantage.

This type of mental flexibility incorporates the rapid analysis of circumstances, assessing of multiple channels of information, determining alternative solutions, eliminating those that do not work, recognizing errors, etc. More than anything, cognitive flexibility requires the “ability to resist the impulse to persevere and keep thinking in a previously active but no longer appropriate way.” Most times this requires the ability to assess the larger context in which such actions are pertinent.  Hundreds of years of neuroscience research have shown that our frontal lobes are the cortical regions critically necessary for this amazing flexibility.

What brought clarity to the role frontal lobes play in higher cognitive functions was the famous case of Phineas Gage. On September 13, 1848, the 25-year-old Gage was preparing a railroad bed using an iron tamping rod to pack explosive powder into a hole. He hit the powder to pack it in but the powder detonated, sending the long rod hurtling upward. The rod peneestrated Gage’s left cheek, tore through his brain, and exited his skull. Amazingly, Gage not only survived the horrific accident but could speak. He walked to a nearby cart, following the disaster so they could take him to a doctor. The injury destroyed an extensive part of Gage’s left frontal lobe. Or what we now consider the central executive region. In doing so, the injury changed Gage’s personality completely.

The chief functions performed by the frontal lobe include intellectual skills responsible for the planning, initiation, sequencing, monitoring, and overall cognitive control of complex goal-directed behavior. Friends of Gage did not recognize him following the accident, for he could no longer perform these skills. Professor of neuroscience Patricia Goldman-Rakic (1937-2003) advocated for the role of a special part of the frontal lobes called the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in the building blocks necessary for abstract understanding. Abstraction is the unique human ability to uncouple thinking from environmental stimuli – the basis for symbolic deliberation. She showed that impairments in a subdivision of the PFC, the dorsolateral part or DLPFC, contributes to thought disorders, such as those observed in schizophrenia. 

Goldman-Rakic’s work, along with others, further showed that the frontal lobes are an important site for inhibitory control. It appears that executive control operates, at one level, in a top-down manner, with the PFC having a leading, controlling role over many lower-level structures. This control over other brain regions is exercised through response inhibition which involves circuits that use chemicals such as gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), an inhibitory neurotransmitter.

Another remarkable discovery by Goldman-Rakic and others was that the brain matures in an organized way, starting in the back and moving to the front. And these maturational changes do not stop with puberty. It means that the frontal lobes, home to key executive functions like planning, working memory, and impulse control, are among the last areas to mature in the brain. Full maturity of these circuits extends well into the late 20s or 30s.  Thus, for the first two to three decades of development, the human mind is in a state of reduced efficiency. During this time, cognitive control is susceptible to impulsiveness (or lack of inhibition) and reduced flexibility. The personality has a high likelihood of developing antisocial tendencies, delinquency, spoiled mind syndrome and other early criminal conduct. What all this suggests is the undeniable importance of flexibility in thinking, as orchestrated by frontal lobe circuits, and how critical it is for our survival.

The Relevancy of Being

Posted on by japineda 
I wish to be relevant.
I do not want my ashes
In the dustbin of history.
It is a terrifying thought.


To be invisible,
To be irrelevant,
Unable to add
To the human enterprise.


In the midst of a pandemic,
This consuming hunger
And accompanying fear
Is exposed.


As I shelter at home
And avoid the world,
I feel less able to add
To the human existence.


The existential crisis grows.
My insignificance is clear.
I have no ground to stand on
And I disappear.


Then, out of the ashes
Something new is reborn.
With a new relevancy
The relevancy of being.


Nothing to do,
Nothing to be,
No more,
No less.