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.

Love Is the Only Answer

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Wise individuals argue that circumstances push people to the brink of despair. By implication, that expecting the uncontrolled behavior culminating in looting and destruction of property is normal. Yes, riots stemming from the death of a black man by police have once again pushed people of color, namely African Americans, to the edge. But does this mean that loss of property is the inevitable consequence? Should the rest of the nation just stand aside and see these young avengers vent their anger onto the most obvious symbols of prosperity? Or, should we support what we know is the sensible response: condemn what led to the behavior but likewise denounce the destructive impulses. At what point do we say: we failed the young! Failed not only in having not bent the curve of racism but in not teaching them how to act as enlightened human beings. Should we place greater expectations on our progeny then that they will explode in rage and tear up the community?

My contemporaries, despite the progress, didn’t undo the hundreds of years of institutionalized and innate racism that rebirths each generation. We tried every conventional mean to dampen the history and impulses that give rise to racist behavior. From changes in education, laws, moral teachings, awareness, punishment and other typical efforts. None has worked as expected. The progress has been slow, inadequate, and infuriating. Yet, we know the true and lasting answer to this human condition—and conveniently ignore it! The question is whether we are at the actual edge where radical change is inevitable. Are we courageous enough and ready to take this understanding to heart?

Transformation

The solution to the human condition,

The way to cure the ills,

Is to be and act from love.

To love your neighbor as yourself

Is infinitely difficult

But ultimately the only answer.

To see yourself in the other,

Mitigates violent behavior

And produces empathy.

This love is genuine because it allows.

It is an allowing

Unencumbered by expectations.

The result is transformation and renewal,

The resulting empathy creates cohesion.

It is the only lasting solution.

The Need For Literate Leaders

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We are experiencing a tumultuous moment: A pandemic of coronavirus that threatens our lives and our livelihood; An isolationist president that cuts off our connection to the rest of the world, weakens our faith in science, and stirs our worst impulses; A fraying social fabric inadequate to ward off the forces of anarchy as the demons of racism, xenophobia, unfettered individualism, and nationalism grow unchecked.

In this diverse, globalized, threatening and disconnected life, we clamor for countervailing influences: strong family mores; exemplary role models; our own solid center; an understanding that united we are stronger; and robust institutions in the fields of religion and education.

The need for an effective schooling grounded in 21st century values is needed more than ever. Because many viewpoints exist on what is amiss with our educational system, what I wish to focus on is literacy.  Literacy is more than having an education. It is how we relate this training to the life we lead and the obstacles we confront.  Many “educated” individuals are illiterate, and we need not look further than our present crop of political leaders.

The notion of literacy has been transformed in this new century. Under the contemporary set of expectations, I find most of us wanting.  Therefore, this is a moment for all of us to face the mirror and reflect – what can I do? How do I stack up when measured in terms of these new values? What does it say about the leaders I ought to demand for the future?

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has noted that literacy in the 21st century involves many higher-order skills. We build these more complex skills on top of what most of us consider traditional literacy: the competence to read, write, and do basic mathematics.  A literate person in this century needs to be a critical thinker, someone trained in spotting everything from blatant pseudo-facts to questionable content. They become problem solvers, effective communicators, have basic knowledge regarding science and technology, display scientific reasoning and show multi-cultural awareness.

Literacy does not begin nor end with school. A literate individual is someone willing to learn through personalized, self-directed actions throughout a lifetime, while showing flexibility and adaptability in many areas of life. In today’s world, such a person can handle, test, and synthesize multiple currents of information; They can create, critique, analyze, and test multimedia texts. Such an individual shows digital literacy, the ability to use the tools of technology. This means being able to maneuver and know how to use technology for their advantage but also for the general welfare.

From an individual’s perspective, literacy is showing situational awareness of one’s intellectual mindscape. This implies being conscious of the situation you are in, what you are reacting to, the task you are undertaking, your thought processes and the consequences of those thoughts. It suggests being present-moment centered.  But beyond this individual awareness, a literate person develops relationships with others, at the local and global level. They work collaboratively and cross-culturally to confront and solve problems with different groups. They attend to the ethical responsibilities required by complex environments. They perceive that their own interest must consider the interest of the larger group. All this develops into an unfamiliar empathy: the awareness of human connections and a greater concern for the welfare of others than for one’s own.

Given these new values: Are you a literate person? Are your actions leading you in that direction?

I Am Here

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“I don’t know” is a phrase that has become more and more common and relevant as I try to burrow down into the nature of my psyche, trying to plumb the depths of my being.  Like most individuals, I questioned my identity during my early development: Who am I, if not my opinions? Where did this existence, which appears more substantial, come from? What is the authentic me? I don’t understand why such questioning became so important to me. But my natural predisposition to know led me to a career in science. Specifically, to the study of the brain and mind, which augmented the questions I had. For the last twenty years it has been my continuing effort to understand who I am, really.

Following retirement 18 months ago from an academic position, I wanted to test the notion that my life could be turned over to that greater presence I felt all around. What that meant for me was reducing conceptual thinking, the intellectual millstone of an academic. It meant relaxing into my physical being, as opposed to living in my head. It meant, most of all, letting go of the small and large expectations of what life ought to be. It meant trusting and accepting that my life was less under my control than I realized.

I imagined a process of letting go of my expectations, my wants and ego-based thoughts. And a type of merging with a greater unity-to the point of losing the sense of me. Unfortunately, letting go has been difficult and incomplete. My mind, either unwilling or unable to, creates and recreates me, as if it cannot do otherwise. The thought-generator aspect of my mind can only be still and absolutely quiet for but a few seconds at a time. Nonetheless, it is that stillness experience that keeps me going. For in those moments, I sense something, a presence, a different life, an intelligence. It’s a presence that neither beckons nor rejects. It simply says, “I am here.” But to make the jump into that unknown seems to require letting go of the life I have known. It’s a challenging thing to do.

I have made strides in that direction. But everywhere I look for answers to this more real nature, whether it is the sycamore tree outside the living room window in its fullness of spring, the myriad objects in the condo that I share with my wife, or the feelings that bubble up on the meaning of my life, I am confronted by the one response. “I don’t know”. It is a wall of silence and darkness that seems impenetrable. Despite the persistence of this darkness, I have become more and more comfortable with this not-knowingness. There has been a settling of my anticipation, eagerness, future-oriented desires. I feel a different calmness.

While this has been happening, I have noticed a reduction in the distance between the sensorial phenomena reaching my brain and who I feel I am. Whereas sensory experience was distinct, separate, and somewhat superficial before, it has gained a sense of solidity, of closeness, of vibrancy, of relevancy that it did not have before. The imaginary presence I spoke about earlier is steadily transforming into the sensory experience of this moment. This experience is what now whispers, “I am here.”

In Defense of Science: A Middle Way

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Science is under increasing assault by President Trump and his administration. In his most recent decisions to take the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic for covid-19 and not to wear a mask in enclosed spaces, the President is refuting his own CDC recommendations. This is a pattern of anti-science, anti-medicine, and anti-intellectualism that has characterized this administration from the start. It is a reckless and dangerous stance, and something every scientist and health provider should oppose.


I trained as a scientist. And got a first-hand appreciation for the potential of this discipline to cut through the thicket of opinions, assumptions, hopes, and magical thinking to bring us closer to the truth.  I am convinced that science and the scientific method are humanity’s most sophisticated and impactful responses to the world of uncertainty in which we live. Science serves as an efficient way to resolve many of the questions our minds generate.

It works by verifying informed guesses against evidence and using the results as feedback to improve the guesswork. This scientific method involves systematic observation, experimentation, inductive and deductive reasoning, hypothesis testing, theory construction, reductionist and integrative approaches. These are all intellectual achievements of the highest order. They are the jewels of the human intellect, the right and indispensable tools to penetrate the thicket of the unknown.

Using such means, scientists have cured devastating diseases. Their investigations have increased human longevity. They have advanced farming to feed a growing race. And they have raised the standard of living for practically everyone in the planet. These are a few of the many triumphs brought about by science and its methodical approach. Such successes have provided it with an imprimatur of integrity and established an implied understanding that this is a trustworthy discipline.

If asked, most thoughtful people would agree that science, as a process for approaching truth, should be required teaching to our children. It is worth giving it the consideration it has earned. And it deserves defending as critical for the health and well-being of the world at large.

As a neuroscientist, I also realize there are diverse forms of obtaining knowledge, including faith-based methods, intuition, and other ways that complement the objective, scientific approach. Scientists must be modest enough to recognize the limits of the intellectual approach.  For one, science cannot deal with ultimate questions; It does not make moral or aesthetic judgments; It is not self-directed since it doesn’t tell us how to best use scientific knowledge; And it doesn’t draw inferences concerning paranormal explanations. When scientists dismiss these domains, and even worse belittle them, they place science at variance with other ways of acquiring knowledge.

Interestingly, our brains use these contrasting styles of thinking, of intelligence, and original ways of knowing. Linear and nonlinear, intellectual and intuitive approaches integrate seamlessly in our mind according to the needs and demands confronted. It’s a lesson that should instruct us when assessing whether to accept science over faith-based evidence or vice versa.  President Trump and his allies promote the use of faith-based, magical thinking, and intuition as the primary basis for decision making. They oppose science and intellectual thinking and by doing so create a conflict that isn’t real. The key is to know when, where and under what circumstances to apply such contrasting modes of thinking. That is the sign of a wiser mind.

The Mind’s “Thin Blue Line”

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“The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude.”

William James

The thinnest of mental boundaries separates the darkest from the brightest thoughts. Our mind, it appears, can travel enormous moral distances in the blink of an eye within its imaginary space. From imagining murder or suicide to planning a wedding or feeding the baby. It’s a dizzying crisscrossing of thoughts that can occur nearly instantaneously without any impediment or remorse. Only when contemplating action or the outcome of these imaginary ideas do we encounter a moral universe. Within this thought-action universe where right and wrong exists, there is a metaphorical “thin blue line” separating order from disorder. It’s a mental safeguard that keeps us safe and sane in a dangerous and insane world.

One sign of sanity in crazy times is when the world becomes too wonderful to ignore. When the gauzy filter of bad, depressing, and sad news lifts and we see spread before us the bare awareness of what life really is. In those moments, life appears beautiful. What we need to realize is that life, through the filter of our mind, creates innumerable experiences we can tune into. But we have a choice of which experiences to attend.  We can, for example, overdose on CNN or FOX news. This creates a sense of doom and gloom given the constant barrage of current disasters taking place in the world or the political shenanigans of our leaders. Or we can change the sensory channel and walk outside to observe the variety of flowers, the blue radiant sky, and our smiling neighbors. We can indulge our appetite for porn to exhaustion, or pick up a Bible, the Tao Te Ching, and Bhagavad Gita and marvel at human wisdom. We can feel sorry for ourselves and fuel our anxiety and depression or reach out our hand to help those in greater need. These choices need not be black or white, there are shades. The amazing thing is that we have choices and each one produces a different mental experience.

Choice becomes harder to exercise when pleasure, pain, or other emotions overwhelm the rational self. We can even reach a point of no apparent alternative and no escape. In such a place, we feel closed off to other avenues and the only path seems to be to end our life. But even then, we have a choice. The choice is to let go of our sense of control and let something else, something greater than ourselves, take over. This is the ultimate choice, the thin blue line of the mind, and its greatest safeguard.

While the pressures of life can exacerbate our difficulties, the root of the problem is our anxious, fear-based, and uncontrollable mind, one centered on ego-based rumination.

When the mind dwells on problems through the viewpoint of past and future, it can get snagged in that mode. It then behaves as what the Buddha called the “monkey mind.” This mind causes confusion and helplessness when unmanaged. The solution, however, is not to get rid of it but to place its operation in the proper context. For the monkey mind is also the creative mind. Training and guiding the monkey mind back to a more natural and original state ignites creativity, allowing us to deal with the challenges of living in-the-moment. But this return to an original mind does not mean you gain something new, rather you lose something old. You lose the obsession with past and future. And when you lose this obsession, you experience flowing, problem-solving, present-moment creative living. And this realization, the crossing of this boundary, is the best indicator that whatever or whoever created us did so lovingly. For it wanted us to choose life over death. While many discover this thin blue line by accident or in desperation, it is always available, at any moment we choose.

The Confusion Of Being

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Whether I know it or not, I AM
Whether I see It or not, It Is.
 
 
I hear the clarion call,
To something greater than myself.
The mental structures I have built,
That give solidity to my being,
Are slowly crumbling and disappearing.
 
I don't know left from right,
I don't know right from wrong,
I don't know whether I am strong.
I see no future,
I see no past,
I don't know how long the present lasts.
 
I am confused, unsure, unclear.
The quiet mind has brought me here,
Clear answers are hard to find.
Yet, in the midst of this uncertainty,
I hear the call.
Is it the product of a sick mind?
One facing death?
Or, a true answer I am meant to hear?        
 
The answer says:
Confusion leads to clarity,
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.

The Pause

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Nature has given humans a reprieve. The Covid-19 pandemic, as ravaging as it has been, is a warning shot across the bow. It declares, “You cannot maintain the unthinking, callous, insensitivity to your ecology or there will be serious repercussions.” To drive the point, Nature has released the puniest of creatures, a coronavirus. And in the blink of an eye, this slightest of avenging angels has crippled the world, brought economic powerhouses to their knees, and forced us to pause.

For the preceding thousands of years our relationship nature, to other creatures, and to the natural environment developed from a collaborative to a dominant relationship. As we became more successful in establishing a way of life beneficial solely to ourselves, we built up a sense of ownership over this ecology. Today, our efforts give less and less thought to the greater ecosystem in which we live. We live in ignorant bliss, assuming a separation from the environment that is delusional. Instead of engaging in synchrony with it, what we have done is to pollute, spoil, and eradicate other species. We have run roughshod over the sole home we have. The coronavirus is an admonition that we are part of this ecosystem and our activities can boomerang to dismantle the castles-in-the-air we have formed.

Nature, in its wisdom, has offered a gift, a moment to pause, to reflect, to reassess, to turn around before it is too late. If we reconsider, we understand that our old ways lead to destruction. Nature has presented us with a prescient vision. We have seen the toxic pollution in large sectors of India and China withdrawn. It has allowed those with eyes to see that the radiant sky is blue and not gray. Is this warning too late? How do we reverse the protracted periods of unthinking, callous apathy to our ecology? What is the alternative pathway? At what cost?

The pessimism is that we don’t learn the lesson. I deduce this from the actions of a minority who contend that this pause must end and we must return to our normal life. This is a reflective instinct, the same blissfully ignorant drive to maintain what is beneficial only to us and which has contributed to all the troubles. There is no recognition what an aberration such a “normal” life has been.  The optimism is that another group of people will take the warning to heart, change behavior, and live more in synchrony with nature. Perhaps that will be enough to spare us. As Robert Frost wrote in The Road Not Taken, it is a turning point for everyone-to take the road less traveled. If we succeed, we will all sing along with the poet:

“I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

An Unencumbered Original Mind

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LdV was illegitimate, gay, left-handed, a bit of a heretic, and a misfit. Fortunately, he lived in Florence, Italy, which in the late 1400s was a very tolerant and wealthy city.  As a boy, he had no formal education but received instruction at home in reading, writing, Latin, geometry and mathematics, although spending most of his childhood outdoors. Because of his lack of formal schooling, many of his contemporaries overlooked or ignored his scientific contributions. From childhood everyone recognized his astounding powers of observation; his unusual talent for making connections between unique areas of interest; a skeptical mind with a readiness to challenge dogma and contemporary beliefs; and a preternal ability to imagine the future. Today, we know him as the epitome of the creative Renaissance man. We consider him a painter and artist, an engineer, architect, scientist, inventor, cartographer, anatomist, botanist and writer. His active imagination conceptualized the tank, the helicopter, the flying machine, the parachute, and the self-powered vehicle. He was a “man ahead of his time” and many of his visionary inventions became real only centuries later.

Walter Isaacson, author of “Leonardo da Vinci,” describes the following about his unique subject: “Leonardo spent many pages in his notebook dissecting the human face to figure out every muscle and nerve that touched the lips. On one of those pages you see a faint sketch at the top of the beginning of the smile of the Mona Lisa. Leonardo kept that painting from 1503, when he started it, to his deathbed in 1519, trying to get every aspect exactly right in layer after layer. During that period, he dissected the human eye on cadavers and was able to understand that the center of the retina sees detail, but the edges see shadows and shapes better. If you look directly at the Mona Lisa smile, the corners of the lips turn downward slightly, but shadows and light make it seem like it’s turning upwards. As you move your eyes across her face, the smile flickers on and off.”

Much of this reality is mixed with mythology. For in life, Leonardo da Vinci created an endless succession of untested contraptions, unpublished studies and unfinished artworks. His uncontested genius rests on several foundations. Foremost, everything interested him. Curiosity was his defining trait. As an engineer, he foresaw more than most about how the design of machines informed by the mathematical laws of physics are better than those relying on practice.  He was the first to design separate interchangeable components deployed in a variety of devices. And no-one drew machines with more attention to detail and reality. His insatiable curiosity about nature drove his efforts to devise flying machines. He didn’t seek to imitate flying birds, but to apply the principles of bird flight to endow man with the ability to fly on his own. His genius lay in his mastery of engineering principles, design, and natural law.

From iconic paintings, such as the “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper,” designs for flying machines, and ground-breaking studies on optics and perspective, Leonardo da Vinci fused science and art. He created works that have become part of our human story. He is the ultimate expression of an unencumbered, original mind.

Morning Delicacies

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It is a new day.
I sense the vibrancy and lightness,
Of whispered sounds from little birds
Prancing playfully outside.
Of bright and warm sunlight,
Filtering through the open window.
It is a joyful recognition of a different life,
A carefree and unencumbered one.
It is a joy to celebrate 
These morning delicacies.

Beyond Narcissistic Perfectionism

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Many experts in human behavior have sought to interpret President Trump’s actions to understand his sometimes odd conduct. A recurring theme describing his personality is a prevalent narcissism. But a more authentic portrait is a blend of narcissism with a perfectionist attitude. The concept of narcissistic perfectionism is new. Researchers define a narcissistic perfectionist as someone who is grandiose, has an acute sense of entitlement and holds unrealistic expectations of those around them. Narcissistic perfectionists see themselves as special and as unique, and these individuals demand perfection of those around them in a very demanding way. This may or may not explain all of Trump’s actions. For one, a perfectionist demands perfection. What one encounters in Trump is someone who assumes perfection.

That is a specific feature of Trump’s personality that is intriguing. His self-assuredness that all he, and by extension his administration does, is invariably “perfect.” It’s conceivable that while having such a view, his internal compass may point in the opposite direction. The perception Trump projects, though, is that he is mistake-proof. He vigorously asserts that view, and in the face of incontrovertible evidence to the contrary does not back down but doubles down. Further, his conviction is so strong that it warps the weaker convictions of those around him to the point of imposing his alternative version of events on them.

As far as I know, no healthy human being believes all their actions are perfect. More so if, like Trump, one grows up in a Judeo-Christian tradition where man’s nature is assumed to be sinful.  By default, Judeo-Christians think they are imperfect creatures and need saving grace. Other traditions such as Buddhism which do not accept the notion of a sinful nature do posit that individual action can be “perfect.” Perfection in this perspective, however, is not the idealized perfection we imagine, but perfection in the sense that an action is the only outcome or path available at that moment. There is a term in computer science that makes this understandable for me. This is the concept of “constraint satisfaction.” Complex systems will try to satisfy all the constraints placed on them and reach optimal solutions as the only, and therefore perfect, course of action.

But Trump is a self-professed Christian and paradoxically, at least in his view, perfect. Others have granted him that iconic status, but as an impartial, reflecting person’s assessment, it is concerning. Trump is not the risen Christ. It is useful to put oneself in the shoes of someone who thinks this way to understand them. But, although others might do this, I cannot adopt such a delusional viewpoint.  No wonder then that Trump considers anything contrary to his views as “fake news.”  Fake news, fake beliefs, phony people all around him is the only way to sustain such a belief. But it would make a person suspicious, on edge, and incapable of empathy. Empathy meaning the ability to identify with others and say “I am you, and you are me.” A narcissistic perfectionist cannot conceive of that state. This makes it obvious why such a person trusts no one or anything and chooses to go at life alone, to do it themselves. It is, thus, a natural extension of Trump’s personality to exhort an America first attitude-to go at it alone, for the rest of the world matters little!

This set of behaviors and personality attracted many Americans when Trump first ran for President. His energetic expression of this attitude appeared as something that could repair and renew the broken political system. What we have observed in subsequent years is nothing shy of chaotic, distressing, isolating, and sad. It is not the path we foresaw; and instead of being revived, we feel depleted, and in a somewhat learned helplessness state. Faced with the covid-19 pandemic, those feelings are now heightened.

The answer to the problems created by a narcissistic perfectionist President is not another politician. The November election and Joe Biden as the Democratic alternative may reverse things for the better. But it will not undo the ennui and the dangerous beliefs that have descended and settled on the US population. The only answer to such troubles can only come from within ourselves. It starts by letting go of the political divisiveness, the personal animosities, the racial divisions, and the culture of blaming others for our problems. It is time to take responsibility and recognize ourselves in others. And realize that their actions affect ours, that their dreams are our dreams, and that only collectively can we renew the hope of a better life.