Author: japineda

Jaime A. Pineda is Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. He joined the Department of Cognitive Science at UCSD as a founding faculty member in 1989. Here, he remained for the rest of his 33-year academic career, impacting and inspiring generations of undergraduate and graduate students to take on hard questions in the neurobiology of the human mind. He is the author of many widely cited papers in animal and human cognitive and systems neuroscience. He edited one academic book (Mirror Neuron Systems: The Role of Mirroring Processes in Social Cognition). This is a collection of research on the functional significance of mirror neurons that includes Professor Pineda’s work on autism. It is one of the most cited and downloaded books in the field. He is the author of The Social Impulse: The Evolution and Neuroscience of What Brings Us Together. For the last twenty years, he became interested in spiritual matters as a bridge to a fuller understanding of the mind. This led him to explore Zen Buddhism, train with a master teacher, and develop his creative side. He has published two books of poetry (Quieting of a Mind; Dawning of a New Mind) focusing on mind-brain relationships with an emphasis on spirituality, mysticism, environmentalism, and social activism. Most recently, he published his autobiography (Piercing the Cloud: Encountering the Real Me), the story of his journey and bridging of science and spirituality. In his creative endeavors, Professor Pineda explores how true seeing, hearing, feeling, and thinking can quiet the overactive monkey mind and how it allows silence to become the fountain of creative thought. He now shares these insights with others.

The Constancy of Change

Posted on by japineda
NICOLE RAGER FULLER / NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

Cynics say that “the only constant is change.” And there is a certain amount of truth to that. Take for example the ever-changing weather. Summer heat gives way to autumn and changing colors. This then gives way to winter cold and snow, which turns into spring and blooming flowers. All these changes occur within a year, and then the cycle starts all over again. On another front, we are exposed to around 100,000 words a day—equivalent to 20 plus words per second through texting, email, the internet, television and other media. This avalanche of information and noise may be the basis for the turmoil in our politics and the topsy-turvy nature of our personal lives. Because change is everywhere, we are more than willing to accept the characterization that it is the only constant in our lives. However, like the turbulent ocean breakers during a stormy day, the apparent turbulence is only on the surface. Diving into the violent sea, the calmness of the deep waters is surprising. Similarly, if we go deeper into the origin and development of the universe, we realize that there is a level of existence where constancy is the rule. In fact, without the unchanging nature of entities, units, values, and interactions, the universe of change would be impossible.

This is the surprising conclusion arrived at by physicists and cosmologists. They point out that many fundamental factors in this universe do not change – EVER. And such stability provides the basis for the turmoil. Physics tells us that it takes 26 dimensionless constants to describe the Universe simply and completely. The similarity in numbers to the 26 letters of the English alphabet is fascinating, for the analogy is useful. These basic units represent the foundational elements, the cosmological primitives, from which EVERYTHING arises.

In 2018, the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) held a meeting where they agreed on new definitions for the base units of all weights and measures, like the kilogram and the second. The goal was to create standards for measuring things based on fundamental universal constants. This would allow such measures to withstand the test of time and not lose accuracy through contaminations and degradations. These definitions went into effect on May 20, 2019, and most of the world did not take notice of this profound change in our lives.

The newly defined measures include the speed of light in a vacuum (299,792,458 meters/second). It includes Planck’s constant = 6.62607015 x 10 -34 J s, the elementary charge = 1.602176634 x   10-19 C, the Boltzmann constant = 1.380649 x 10 -23 J/K, and Avogadro constant (NA) = 6.02214076 x 1023 mol-1. Not only are these measures more accurate than ever, but as I am describing, they are constant and unchanging.

It is interesting to note that no one really knows why these specific factors are constant in our universe. Nonetheless, constancy is important because it makes the universe possible, predictable and not truly chaotic. Despite how messy and disorganized the world may seem, if we know what forces and factors are involved, we can predict the outcome. Although most of the time we do not know all the forces and factors involved, we can imagine how much wilder and confusing it  would be if one second, for example, would be a changing variable. But in this universe, one second is now defined in terms of a universal constant as “the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom.” Assuming we understand this, we can breathe more easily that this will NEVER change. At least not until we discover a new physics and a new universe.

Other relevant fundamental universal constants in our universe:

  1. The fine-structure constant (Aα)
  2. Electric constant (ε0)
  3. Mass of six quarks, six leptons, the W, Z, and the Higgs boson
  4. The mass of the electron (me)
  5. Ratio of proton to electron mass (mu)
  6. Gravitational constant (G)
  7. The ideal gas constant (R)
  8. Absolute zero
  9. The Schwarzschild radius (Sch. R)
  10. The Chandrasekhar limit
  11. The Hubble constant (H0)
  12. Omega (Ωω)
  13. Strong interaction
  14. Weak interaction
  15. Electromagnetic interaction
  16. The cosmological constant (Λ)

The Good Monkey Mind-Chapter 3

Posted on by japineda

Attached is Chapter 3 of my new book. I am sincerely looking for your feedback to improve it. Anything from typos to whether more should be explained or something removed that doesn’t make sense would be appreciated. I am trying to have each chapter stand alone, so if you find yourself saying, “I wish I had read the previous chapter” please let me know what explanation is missing. If it’s too academic, esoteric, or worse do let me know that as well.

The best way to provide feedback is to download the Word file, edit it directly with tracking on, and return to me via email (jpineda@ucsd.edu). Thank you for your time and effort. Know that any and all your comments are highly appreciated.

One positive bit of news. Academic Press has expressed interest in publishing the book, although no contract yet. Wish me luck.

Also, I have added a place on my webpage (https://the-unencumbered-mind.com/book-in-progress/) where you can go and easily download all the chapters I have written.

THE-GOOD-MONKEY-MIND-Chapter-3Download

The Good Monkey Mind-Chapter 2

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THE-GOOD-MONKEY-MIND-chapter-2Download

I am attaching Chapter 2 of my new book, The Good Monkey Mind, so that you can read and provide feedback. Whether it is finding typos or other grammatical errors, commenting on the graphics, or on the readability, it is all appreciated.

This is a particularly critical chapter since it develops the idea of how the monkey mind comes about. Please let me know if the argument is convincing or needs work.

Thanks to all those who have provided feedback on previous parts of the book. Remember that if your feedback is incorporated, you will be cited in the acknowledgment.

Touching Stillness and Responding Creatively

Posted on by japineda
THE-GOOD-MONKEY-MIND-chapter-1Download

I am attaching Chapter 1 of my new book, The Good Monkey Mind, so that you can respond creatively and provide whatever feedback you deem appropriate.

I truly appreciate it.

In a previous commentary, I encouraged everyone to practice stillness during this new year and assured you that touching such stillness, even for the briefest moment, would help you gain a feeling of contentment. It would also likely lead you to want to continue practicing. Today, I want to describe how touching stillness affected me in a positive and creative way.

Stillness is the attitude I adopted that “life is perfect as it is” or more prosaically that “life is what it is.” Not perfect in an ideal or Platonic sense, but as the only outcome out of a set of possibilities given the history and circumstances of each moment. I accept this reality in a willing, loving manner, and doing so from moment to moment gives way to a stillness of mind. Accepting the reality of the moment does not mean I am resigned to what life brings. The mystery is that within this acceptance lies the enormous creativity of the universe to engage and provide solutions that lead to wise change.

Like any skill, practicing mind stillness requires effort. This means keeping the “perfection of life” top of mind, especially when negative things occur. As I continued the effort, it became less conscious and more automatic – until the openness and acceptance remained without conceptual mentation. One of the first things I noticed as my practice grew was how less emotionally reactive I became to the surrounding turmoil. My emotions did not disappear or become muted—I actually felt more. The difference consisted in my response to those feelings. I did not immediately become anxious, fearful, or lash out in anger. I had the space and time to consider the unfairness or sadness of the circumstances, to feel them, but then consider how I could do something about it.

More than anything, the practice of stillness produced a joy that was totally unexpected. This joy is a fullness, closer to contentment than to happiness, even as the world seems to be more and more chaotic. Again, it isn’t a defeatist or resigned attitude but a perspective that says, “ok, this is how it is, now, what can I do about it?” This viewpoint leads me to not only follow the masking and distancing recommendations but also to volunteer to take part in the Moderna vaccine trials or be a volunteer to vaccinate people. The outcome of the vaccine trials has proven it was the correct decision. Hence, the more I practice stillness, the stronger my confidence grows about the intuitions that arise, and the more faith I place on those intuitions. It is a positive feedforward, self-fulfilling, and satisfying process.

I have asked myself about this “faith,” which has echoes of an early religious upbringing. It is a kind of faith my skepticism as a neuroscientist had displaced. My increased openness to it is something that developed as I continued my stillness practice. I struggle with it, in the sense that I  resist it, something I relate in my autobiography, Piercing the Cloud. In the end, however, I see using the scientific method and intuition as complementary strategies to know and engage the world. Both are powerful yet distinct ways to approach and know truth. At our best, our brain-mind accommodates and uses both strategies to respond to life creatively.

Enlightenment: The Spiritual Liminal State

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“… It is when you have left the tried and true, but have not yet been able to replace it with anything else.  It is when you are between your old comfort zone and any possible new answer. If you are not trained in how to hold anxiety, how to live with ambiguity, how to entrust and wait, you will run…anything to flee this terrible cloud of unknowing.”

                                                                                                            Richard Rohr

In the above quote, Richard Rohr, American author, spiritual writer, and Franciscan friar, defines the psychological liminal state, a transitional state that can be potentially terrifying. Such a state has many similarities to the state of enlightenment. Enlightenment is defined in infinite ways. In some spiritual circles, enlightenment is the state of attaining spiritual knowledge or insight, in particular awareness of your true nature as part of the unity of life.

Joko Beck, an American Zen teacher, captured the unique nature of the enlightenment experience by describing it as walking on a knife’s edge. It’s a terrifying image, and as a spiritual liminal condition, one of potentiality, not the old nor yet the new, but a “cloud of unknowing.” A liminal condition, whether psychological or spiritual, is temporary and can terrify or be satisfying, depending on whether you learn to live with it. This recalls a quote from Dogen, founder of the Soto school of Zen in Japan: “Before one studies Zen, mountains are mountains and waters are waters; after a first glimpse into the truth of Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and waters are no longer waters; after enlightenment, mountains are once again mountains and waters once again waters.”

The implication is that life is lived normally following an encounter with this spiritual liminal state-but with a difference. The answer is to learn to live with the cloud of unknowing, to love and trust it. When you wake up to such a reality, it becomes the only way to live a truly normal, satisfying and full life. Craig Hamilton, a contemporary American spiritual teacher, captures the difference in the before and after in this realization. 

Hamilton has written that enlightenment is not a state of consciousness. It is not a thought. It is the intuitive realization of your true nature, that who you are is not this limited, separate self; or any of the thoughts and feelings that you previously identified as yourself. Awakening occurs as you realize that who you are at the deepest level is something much bigger and more profound than who you thought you were. It is the recognition of a kind of super consciousness, intelligence, love, being, and presence that is the foundation of reality itself.

This presence is already free, whole, and perfect. Who you are is this sacred dimension of reality that is beyond intellectual comprehension, yet somehow, you “know” it. It’s missing nothing, lacking nothing, and overflows with love, wisdom, power, and clarity. Enlightenment is not just the realization that God exists. It’s the realization that That is what you are. The thing you were always seeking and putting outside yourself is actually your true nature. This intuitive knowledge shatters every conscious and unconscious belief you’ve had in your own limitation. It destroys every sense of lack, of not being enough, of feeling there is somewhere else you need to get to. You realize that the whole thing is already here. This life is the spiritual liminal state of enlightenment that can terrify and be glorious at the same time. Enlightenment is the realization that I am That. Awakening to the essence that you and everything else is sacred is beyond measure and glorious beyond comprehension.

It can bring you to your knees.

May you experience enlightenment in 2021.

Is Trump Stockholm Syndrome Real?

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Although Stockholm Syndrome occurs with kidnappings and hostage situations, we know that regular people can develop this condition in response to trauma. I posit that we have witnessed the syndrome in our political life. The press has often described President Donald Trump as psychologically and verbally abusive (see David Horsey’s cartoon above). During the last four years, we have witnessed this behavior in the open as he has wielded his outrage and tweets to denigrate and verbally abuse those who cross and fear him. That number includes at least 74 million U.S. citizens who voted for him.

Yet many had it much harder. Think of the relationship between President Trump and Senator Ted Cruz. As intelligent a man as Senator Cruz is, the only probable explanation for his behavior over the past four years is being in the grip of Trump Stockholm Syndrome.

It’s important to understand several very important characteristics of the behavioral paradoxes that develop with this syndrome. Stockholm Syndrome is a psychological response that develops over time but can occur very quickly. Second, the recipient of the abuse will develop positive feelings toward his abuser and even share common goals and causes. The victim may resent anyone trying to help him see the light from the condition they are in. Finally, there is a general lack of awareness of how radical the change in behavior is.

Senator Cruz has received the brunt of Trump’s bullish, berating, and brow-beating behavior since they both ran for President in 2015.  In the intervening years since Trump’s election as President, Cruz’s behavior toward his rival has shifted from angry and derogatory to fawning and defensive of Trump’s most recent coup attempt. The only explanation possible is a mental deterioration in Cruz’s capacity to assess reality, as he gets ready to object to Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Trump Stockholm Syndrome may explain the odd behavior of Senator Cruz and the many Republicans, including Senator Lindsey Graham and others. They tenaciously support someone who berates and mistreats them and yet show very little awareness of how abnormal their change in behavior is. 

These are very interesting times!

A New Year Resolution: To Be or To Do?

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“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” — Lao Tzu

This is the perfect question for anyone interested in spiritual growth as you begin a new year, especially after what the past year has brought: Should I learn to be and sit in stillness till something happens or should I beckon my creativity and do? It is the perfect question for new beginnings. No doubt that the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has brought much pain and suffering to the entire world. It has created an underlying anxiety prompting us to want what we had before the pandemic, namely, normalcy. You hanker for what you took for granted: the ability to be with family, friends, even strangers. You want to exercise your creative nature, which seems stagnant after a year of waiting. So, you ask, should I be or should I do as 2021 begins? As Lao Tzu, philosopher, author of the Tao Te Ching, and founder of philosophical Taoism noted many years ago, painful endings often disguise the opportunities for new starts and new growth.

To begin, although one cannot beckon the muse of creativity at will, you can certainly try.  More often than not creativity and our ability to do shows up only when the ground of the mind is tilled and ready. The question, then, is really how you prepare this ground to allow for new, meaningful growth? Paradoxically, it requires stillness. Thus, the question is not a choice between doing and being but to first understand beingness and practice that and out of that practice arises the right doing. So, what does it mean to be still?

The stillness I am referring to is not related to physical action. It is not stopping of motor movement and motion. Instead, it is a psychological, and even more, a spiritual disposition. For those who meditate, it is a common experience to sit in meditation, a physical stillness, without really being still. It is the stillness of the mind that is important. So, you must really understand what a still mind means in order to practice it.

Mind stillness does not require stopping thought or thinking by suppressing or masking it. Were that even possible, it is certainly not recommended.

The stillness you are aiming for is an attitude, a perspective that you take. It is a way of evaluating information and circumstances that you experience. The perspective is that life is “perfect” as it is at every moment, and to accept that in a loving manner. Not perfect in an ideal or Platonic sense but as the only possibility given the history and circumstances of that moment. Accepting reality in this way is the basis for mind stillness. Life is what it is and cannot be otherwise. Thus, you need not lean right or left (meaning that if you accept that things could not possibly be anything else at that moment you don’t worry about alternatives). You are simply present to that reality and accept it fully. That is stillness.

Such an attitude can occur whether meditating or living the bustle and tussle of daily life. Spiritual teachers, such as Eckhart Tolle call it being present, in the moment, or in the now. I would agree and add that it means having situational awareness in every moment. It also means becoming aware of the stillness inherent in nature, from which you can learn. When you practice stillness, your actions flow in concert with your life, with nature, and that flow is the muse or creativity itself. Being and doing at this point are the same thing.

Having accepted the reality of the moment does not mean you are resigned to what life brings. It does not mean you do not try to change negative moments or circumstances. The mystery is that having accepted reality as it is, lovingly, causes the enormous creativity of the universe to engage and provide you solutions to wisely change what is negative, damaging, hurtful, inappropriate, and corrosive. It is a supremely intelligent, self-correcting system.

I encourage you to practice mind stillness in 2021. Adopt this new perspective, practice it, and if after a few weeks of dedicated practice, it does not feel positive or right then stop. I guarantee, however, that if you truly touch stillness, even briefly, you will not want to stop.

Please be safe.

Happy Holidays!

Posted on by japineda 
 Greetings
  
 May you be attuned to life
 During this holiday season!
 May you find it
 In the silence and stillness
 of your being.
 There is no need to move,
 For you are already there,
 There is no need to create,
 For it already exists,
 There is no need to do,
 Except for the joy of being.
 
 Merry Christmas,
 Happy Hanukkah,
 Happy Holidays,
  
 and
 
 A Happy New Year!

Election 2020: An Enormous Sigh of Relief!

Posted on by japineda

Since it became an independent nation on July 4, 1776, the U.S. has grown into a serious country. Deep down, however, many of us think we know better and have harbored the fantasy that it is, in fact, a light-hearted, funny and humorous society. It turns out this might be where the real political schism in our country lies. Half of us believing that being the United States is serious business and that we should lead and take care of the world. The other half thinking such grandiosity is a joke and we should worry only about ourselves. And that we should enjoy what we have without sharing it with anyone else. Unfortunately, the “anyone else” usually means people of color. And since there are growing numbers of us here, that would exclude an awful lot of folks.

The U.S. earned much of the esteem and respect it received when it led on issues facing the world over the last few centuries. That respect sometimes flowed because of the country’s richness and power. On the positive side, during the 20th century the U.S. overcame the Great Depression; it led the world in turning back the Nazi war machine; and, it defeated the spread of communism. Throughout the course of that century, its citizens were succeeding as space explorers, medical pioneers, and cultural leaders. The path to superpower prominence reflected the strength and optimism of those citizens. Curiously, in the beginning of the 21st century, U.S. society seems to have lost its way. It lost a culture war; it decided that the Presidency and its institutions were a joke; and it ignored the worst pandemic in history by ignoring science. As a result, more than a quarter million citizens were lost. This abbreviated history of the last two centuries reflects the split-mind version of America: a serious country vs. a joke. It is no wonder that we are, at this moment, feeling uncertain, anxious, lost, and depressed!

The choice of Donald Trump as President in 2016 was a repudiation of the seriousness, respect, and leadership the country had developed over its history. His victory reflected the idea that ordinary citizens were choosing disruption of the status quo; having the desire to administer an electroconvulsive shock to the political system; giving the metaphorical middle finger to competent bureaucrats; and a longing to “clean up the swamp” of those who made the system work. Trump’s mission, incompetently carried out, only created more turmoil. The chaos that ensued unmasked the fact that while governing can make everyone frustrated, it does require experience and expertise.

More voters recognized that truism in 2020, and following Biden’s victory, there is a sense of lightness, of a weight being lifted, and of a new optimism about the future. This despite still being in the middle of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. The country literally experienced an enormous sigh of relief! Along with several promising vaccines, there is the birth of a new tone in the presidency, one that values science and the well-being of others. It is a hopeful beginning. This may be an unfounded expectation since there are still leftover issues and unforeseen impediments as we say goodbye to 2020. Yet, I sense that the serious part of America is now ascendant. But we won’t really know that until the new year is fully underway. In the meantime, I’ll take whatever joy I feel.

The Thanksgiving Gift

Posted on by japineda 
Live in the here and now.
For in that space God lives,
And life is real and flows as it is meant to do.
No problems, no questions, no answers.
Just life being a dancer
Beautifully moving and interbeing.
Creative and all-seeing,
In-and-of-itself.

It was Saturday, November 28, 2020 and “another beautiful day in paradise,” as my wife and I often describe San Diego weather. Only a couple of days before, we had celebrated Thanksgiving Day, while still isolating because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I had cooked the usual brined turkey, and we had feasted on the leftovers for two days. Now I wanted to take a long walk to help me lose the pounds I had gained during the celebration. As I stepped out the door of our condo at 8 am, the icy wind hit me and I knew I needed a sweater. I drove the few miles to Torrey Pines beach to walk up the “mountain,” to the preserve trails, and there commune with nature.

Halfway up the hill to the top of the Torrey Pines preserve, the idea struck me that I could do a longer trek. UCSD, the university campus where I had worked for 28 years until my retirement in 2018, was a six-mile walk. As I crested the hill of the preserve, I felt I was up to the long walk. The air was crisp, but the walk had warmed my body and so I took the sweater off, knowing it would only get warmer. A bright sun illuminated the morning. Clear blue skies framed the Pacific Ocean to my right, shimmering a dark blue-green shade. I had anticipated that the noise of those walking the trail and of the cars off in the distance would fade as I reached the plateau of the preserve. I wanted to listen to the sound of silence. But it was not to be. Too many cars and a few more folks than I had expected were walking the trails this morning. Silence didn’t have a chance. The siren song of the university called me. I continued past the Torrey Pines Golf Course, Scripps Clinic, the Hilton hotel, and a variety of other places before reaching the campus.

I had not visited the university in over a year. From the road, I had seen new structures slowly but inexorably grow in the space that had been a parking lot during my time there. A group of new buildings now overlooked the familiar grounds. As I approached the campus, my body signaled it needed a brief rest. I found a bench on Torrey Pines Road that served as a bus stop and collapsed into the hard metal seat. The walk had been refreshing as the light and translucent leaves and grass along the way called my attention to the beauty of nature. I felt tired but grateful and enjoying the moment.

As I looked down from the bench, I spied two pennies on the ground. I picked them up and felt there had to be one additional penny somewhere to complete the trilogy. I scanned the ground but could not see any, so after a period of rest, I continued my walk into campus. On my return, 15 minutes later, I stopped by the same bench and the same strong feeling of a third penny flooded my brain. This time I looked down and saw it, near where I had found the other two. Strange, I thought, that I hadn’t seen it previously. I have come across money before on the street, from coins to dollar bills, and don’t remember ever being concerned about the year it was made. This time, the thought occurred naturally, spontaneously, and insistently. I looked and noticed the years: 1995, 2009, and 2012. The dates vaguely reminded me of something.

As I continued my return home, it surprised me to realize that in 1995 I had received tenure from the university; In 2009, I had edited my first and only academic book on Mirror Neurons; and in 2012, I received promotion to Full Professor. If anyone had asked me what the three most significant experiences in my career at UCSD were, I would have said it was those three things. The more I considered it, I realized that other events, such as publication of one of my most widely read papers in 2005, would only be fourth on the list. How intriguing, I thought? Am I creating a story around these dates or is there a deeper significance in my finding these coins with these specific dates?

I have a creative mind and may have “conjured” significant events for whatever years might have appeared. Yet, the moment felt special. The feeling was that in some unexpected and special way, I was communing with something greater than myself. The message these three pennies seemed to be delivering was, “I know you well.” A wave of gratefulness overwhelmed and pervaded my senses. The walk home was quiet and humbling the more I contemplated what had transpired.