I would like to update you on the success of the publicity campaign for my new book (Controlling Mental Chaos: Harnessing the Power of the Creative Mind, Rowman & Littlefield, 2023). I have been quite busy doing interviews and disseminating the ideas through blog posts in widely-read websites.
While all of this is wonderful, I am really interested in further promoting the ideas expressed since they are timely, given our unending mental confusion and the current state of the world. To that end, I would like to ask you a big favor. Would you help me promote these ideas by forwarding at least one of these articles to family, friends, or others in your social group?
It is the holiday season so this can be a thoughtful gift and may be helpful to someone in the grips of mental chaos.
My deep appreciation for your help.
May you have a wonderful season and may your mind run between wisdom and love.
A publicity campaign for my new book, Controlling Mental Chaos, started in August. These articles, published in the following magazines, are excerpts or expanded ideas found in the book. I hope you enjoy them. I also invite you to attend any of the local author events planned.
Controlling Mental Chaos:Harnessing the Power of the Creative Mind
Author Talk with Jaime A. Pineda
You are all invited to join me as I discuss the relationship between mind and brain. In my latest book, I show that anxiety and incessant thinking reflect uncontrolled creativity, and how, using time-tested techniques and our own mental “superpowers”, we can begin to recover our innate creative nature.
I will be giving more details, signing books, and answering questions at the following locations:
Mira Mesa Library 8405 New Salem St Sept 30 11 am
Barnes & Noble 810 W. Valley Pkwy Escondido Oct 14 2 pm
Coronado Library 640 Orange Ave Oct 17 7 pm
La Jolla Library 7555 Draper Ave Oct 28 3 pm
Warwick’s bookstore 7812 Girard Ave Nov 12 2:30 pm
Carmel Valley Library 3919 Townsgate Dr Nov 18 1 pm
Just wanted to let you know about the Wise Brain Bulletin which will be going out on August 7 and features my article: Your Amazing Original Mind. You can view a preview of the announcement going out here or if you would like to read and share the article with friends and others in your network, you can use this link: https://www.wisebrain.org/tools/wise-brain-bulletin/volume-17-4#your-amazing-original-mind.
According to polls, most Americans believe there is a mental health crisis afflicting society. They cite many factors for this calamity. Traditionally, the major sources of stress for a majority of adults have been personal finances, current and political events, and work stressors. Combine this with a rising sense of isolation, fear, and paranoia, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid/drug outbreak, the war in Ukraine, political upheavals, etc. These unrelenting social concerns exacerbate stressors such as feelings of disconnection to traditional psychosocial and spiritual sources of support. Politicians and malevolent troublemakers stir this stew of discomfort by manipulating valid emotions to weaponise fear in the name of political expediency. When fear becomes crushing, it adds a sense of no place to turn to for honest and wise counsel, as opposed to politicized rhetoric, something once provided by parents, clergy, and counselors. Homelessness and mental illnesses in children, teenagers, and adults are the inevitable results.
Imagine including in this powder-keg of emotions many guns, increased far right activity and racism, gender biases, brief attention spans, impulsiveness, and lack of emotional control. It isn’t difficult to predict the rapid rise in violence. This explosive stew of individual and social ills leads to despair, being on guard, hypersensitivity — issues typically associated with PTSD-associated disorders. We are, in fact, being traumatized by what seems like an out-of-control life. And unfortunately, only about 20% of us seek and receive mental health services. This reluctance to seek solutions for what is obviously overwhelming chaos is blamed on uncomfortable feelings talking to loved ones about issues and concerns about privacy, plus the stigma that still attaches to mental problems.
If there is an answer, it’s going to take a wholistic approach—and a concerted and common desire to solve the problem. People at the individual, community and societal level have to decide they have had enough, reached bottom, and sincerely desire to address the problem seriously. Social solutions require community and communication, assets currently in short supply. Thus, I want to focus more on what can happen at an individual level and what each of us can do to help.
It might be helpful to get a handle on the root of the crisis to consider what psychologists have known for a long time. In order to feel truly human and live fulfilled lives, we have to meet certain undeniable needs. A good starting point is Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of those needs. Maslow argued for at least three major categories: physiological, socio-psychological, and spiritual. Physiological needs (food, shelter, etc.) make up the basement level of our being and must be met first to provide a stepping stone into higher levels of being. Spiritual needs (what he termed self-actualization) might be considered the apex of human nature. Between the two are the socio-psychological (social connections) needs.
From this humanistic perspective, we can imagine the number of factors mentioned previously, which underlie the mental health crisis we are experiencing, working to disconnect us from sources that nourish and promote well-being. Homelessness, malnourishment, alienation, loneliness, and lack of moral structure are conditions that exacerbate the decline in mental health because they produce severe disconnection and do not promote and provide our human needs. From an economic and socio-political perspective these problems appear solvable yet have proven to be intractable.
There is a different way of seeing this calamity and to ask, is there more to life than this? For those lost in the chaos, what I am about to say makes absolutely no sense. Because to appreciate this perspective, one must move outside of the storm. Imagine a raging thunderstorm, tornado, or hurricane. If you are inside, nothing else matters—it is all-encompassing, pervasive, unending. Yet, outside of the region or by taking a plane and flying above the clouds, you can see something different. Likewise, it is paradoxical yet possible to know that underneath the apparent madness of life there is a subtle presence, grace and stillness that can be quite beautiful. We all yearn to touch that. Its grace is available to anyone who dares and cares. And it begins by taming our uncontrolled mind.
This poem comes from the Hua Hu Ching of Lao Tzu, who 2500 years ago knew this truth/solution to our modern problems. He provides the answer (discover the harmony in your own being) in a clear and direct way, or at the very least, points you in the right direction.
Why scurry about looking for the truth?
It vibrates in every thing and every not-thing, right off the tip of your nose.
Can you be still and see it in the mountain? The pine tree? Yourself?
Don't imagine that you'll discover it by accumulating more knowledge.
Knowledge creates doubt, and doubt makes you ravenous for more knowledge.
You can't get full eating this way.
The wise person dines on something more subtle:
He eats the understanding that the named was born from the unnamed,
That all being flows from non-being,
That the describable world emanates from an indescribable source.
He finds this subtle truth inside his own self and becomes completely content.
So who can be still and watch the chess game of the world?
The foolish are always making impulsive moves,
but the wise know that victory and defeat are decided by something more subtle.
They see that something perfect exists before any move is made.
This subtle perfection deteriorates when artificial actions are taken,
So be content not to disturb the peace. Remain quiet.
Discover the harmony in your own being. Embrace it.
If you can do this, you will gain everything,
And the world will become healthy again.
If you can't, you will be lost in the shadows forever.
At 3:00 p.m. on Thursday April 20, 2023 the Works in Progress group of the San Diego Independent Scholars (SDIS) will feature a manuscript by Jaime A. Pineda and reactions by Julia Stroud.
Jaime will first describe his new book out in July Controlling Mental Chaos: Harnessing the Power of the Creative Mind (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023). He is now working on a play related to that book and would like suggestions concerning the play’s current draft (M3: Monkey Mind Madness, attached).
In Julia’s part of the session, she will use Jaime’s play as an example of her approach as a “book doctor,” especially noting whether each character’s personality and reactions make sense to her as a psychotherapist.
Suggestions from the rest of us would also be greatly appreciated (send emails to jpineda@ucsd.edu). Since the play has an unusual, imaginative approach that Jaime says he is still polishing, our comments can be based on our experiences as readers and playgoers, not necessarily on details of the text.
We hope that you will attend to discuss this fascinating idea.
I heard the word Anthropocene for the first time recently in terms of the human impact on Earth systems and the way human presence is changing the planet. The perspective comes mainly from geologists and paleobiologists, but also anthropologists, archeologists, historians and social scientists. Basically, the argument is that human activity is now the dominant influence on climate and the environment. Indeed, “this has led to dynamic conditions in which Earth is operating under different boundary conditions than the epoch spanning the prior 11,700 years, which served as the cradle for advanced human societies under relatively stable environmental conditions.”
The implications are far-reaching for it suggests a change in Darwinian evolution, from one driven by “natural selection” to one driven by “anthropoid selection” or conscious evolution. Our presence on this planet has brought us to a clear tipping point in which environmental dynamics can change from those in which nature is the controlling principle to one in which humans are the driving force. The standard narrative at this critical junction is that we will tip over to a period of destruction, chaos, and the potential end to the human species. It is, I would argue, probably time for us to consider these dynamics from a religious and spiritual perspective to provide a more hopeful and balanced view.
Many of us drawn to the religious-spiritual sphere have felt a rising energetic change during the last several decades that we attribute to more and more people realizing their true nature as part of larger relational networks that include others, life, nature, and the cosmos. Until now, our disconnection from this great web of life has been the source of most of life’s pain, suffering, and struggles. As more people reach this new understanding and remember what we once knew, there is an increase in consciousness and in our responsibility to the planet. We notice the side benefits, including the larger numbers of people who try to do their part in recycling and cleaning up the environment, in helping others, and in turning the other cheek. The violence we see may obscure this gradual positive change, but this positivity is part of the predicted spiritual revolution that is to follow the Industrial and Information Age. Such a change coincides with a revolution in the science and understanding of the human mind. Indeed, many of us describe this period of change in spiritual terms as life becoming aware of itself. And like a toddler at this stage of development, we are making many mistakes, but we are learning quickly as well.
We find ourselves at a unique tipping point, the Anthropocene as increased awareness, in which we can either learn quickly to guide the dynamics in a positive direction or else usher in the catastrophe many predict. As I get ready to join a class of 2000 folks from all around the world, who for the next two years will focus their energies on being helpful to others by learning to be meditation teachers, I feel optimistic. My entire life, like those of many of my cohorts, has been about discovering the unity of being, the inherent divinity that we are, surrendering to the intelligence inherent in this unity, and wanting to help and inspire others. I am convinced that this small sample of the spiritual evolution is part of a larger conscious effort representing the gathering of life forces in the struggle to tip the balance in becoming conscious without destroying ourselves.
Some of you may react skeptically to this interpretation. Yet, this is not dissimilar to the message Jesus taught over 2,000 years ago. In John 14:10-12 of the New International Version of the Bible, he says, “The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.” In 1 Corinthians 3:16, Jesus goes further, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”
Richard Rohr, a Catholic priest for the past 50 years and bestselling author has commented that humanity was not ready for this revolutionary message 2,000 years ago, but maybe the time is now. The beauty of rediscovering that we are all part of something larger and wiser is that one can see this force at work in everything around, guiding us toward a unique moment of singularity. This is the conscious Anthropocene revolution.
“The essential message of life has been copied and recopied for more than three billion years, but where did that message come from?”
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.
Research and discussions about origins, whether about the universe, life, or our own ancestry, have a sense of convergence to them. They help narrow down the infinite number of potential explanations to a select few or maybe even one. Along the way, however, assumptions are made, any of which could lead to a different conclusion.
Geologists estimate the Earth formed around 4.54 billion years ago. Yet, the origin of when and how life came to be on this planet is still unknown. Indeed, the earliest evidence of terrestrial life comes from fossils, known as stromatolites. These fossils are layers of single-celled microbes, known as cyanobacteria, discovered in Western Australia dating back to about 3.53 billion years. Since these bacteria were already complex organisms, the actual origin of life occurred much earlier. This is a “limit of horizon” problem and makes the scientific study of origins prior to single-cell microbes quite difficult (see Overcoming the Limits of Science). It also makes the natural chemical origin of life highly improbable.
As we explore the universe, its galaxies, stars, and exoplanets, we assume, given our limited understanding, that life requires unique circumstances to arise. One basic assumption is that the propitious location has to be within the habitable zone of a star. This means a location with a source of light, energy, liquid water, and biogenic elements such as carbon and other elements at the right temperature. The Earth certainly met those criteria.
From a basic thermodynamics perspective, life requires a constant source of power. Interestingly, life on Earth developed a single source of metabolic drive—that associated with transferring electrons by chemical reactions. Although living things can detect and generate other potential sources including magnetic, kinetic, gravitational, thermal gradient, and electrostatic, life used none of these for metabolic energy.
Second, carbon molecules gained the dominant role as the backbone of biochemistry for life. This is true not only on earth but, according to astrophysicists, the entire Solar System. Carbon is not only abundant, but the variety of chemical bonds it can form make it the basis of complex chains of different molecules. It is the LEGO brick of the chemical world. While carbon is necessary, it is not sufficient for life. An entire array of additional elements is needed for that, including water (H2O), nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorous, calcium, and potassium. There is no definitive list since it would depend on the organism considered (e.g., methanogens require high levels of nickel).
Third, any life based on molecules requires some kind of solvent to move around. Liquid is more ideal than gas or solid since water has unique physical and chemical properties making it well suited to support the complex chemistry required for life. For instance, water is the second most common molecule in the universe after hydrogen. Its ability to expand when it freezes keeps bodies of water from freezing into a solid. It can dissolve many substances easily and has a high heat capacity, which means it takes a lot of energy to change temperature. This is one major reason for the relatively moderate Earth climate.
Once these fundamental parts were in place, the next stage in the chemical origin of life likely involved the creation of complex molecules for a variety of functions. The most basic function being to convert energies into “food” and to organize, code, and sustain life. A variety of experiments have argued that life arose gradually from inorganic molecules, with “building blocks” called monomers, like amino acids and nucleotides, forming first. Monomers combined to polymerize or make more complex molecules called polymers, like proteins and nucleic acids. The last step required the creation of self-sustaining DNA and RNA polymers. This stepwise, spontaneous formation of simple, then more complex, then self-sustaining biological molecules—is still at the core of most origins-of-life hypotheses today.
Important questions remain. For instance, in living cells, enzymes put together polymers. Yet, enzymes are themselves polymers, so which came first is a kind of chicken-and-egg problem! One postulated solution is that monomers may have “spontaneously” formed polymers through some sort of catalytic accident. Experiments in the 1990s showed that RNA nucleotides link when exposed to clay, which acts as a template and catalyst to form an RNA polymer. However, another major roadblock is that polymerization is difficult in a watery environment. In fact, it requires the removal of water or dehydration. But, an even more troublesome issue is how polymers became functional and self-replicating. One possibility for replication is template-assisted ligation. However, one must also account for the ordering of amino acids in proteins and nucleotide bases in the RNA and DNA allowing them to function as sources of “information.” This ordering is what proponents of intelligent design call the “information sequence problem.”
Besides organizing, coding, and sustaining life, another major aim of these early complex molecules was to convert light into a food source or metabolic energy. Nature solved this problem with the appearance of light-activated enzymes. Light activated proteins are common, but light-activated enzymes are rare, with only three known, making this development one of the more tenuous points in the history of life’s origin. Protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase or ‘POR’, is the enzyme responsible for making the pigment vital for chlorophyll in plants. Without chlorophyll, there is no photosynthesis; without photosynthesis there is no plant life; and without plant life there is no us. Photosynthesis is the process that uses light energy to produce sugars from water and carbon dioxide, while emitting oxygen, which became so vital to human life.
Chlorophyll’s basic structure is a porphyrin ring with a magnesium atom at its center. This structure is, perhaps not unexpectedly, very similar to that of the heme molecule, which is found in the hemoglobin in our red blood cells, with an iron atom at its center, and which carries oxygen to every part of our bodies. Because of its structure, chlorophyll absorbs light in the blue and red parts of the visible spectrum, and reflects the green light back to our eyes. It is why plants appear green.
Hence, as we peer back in time to understand where we came from, our analyses lenses blur as events become indistinguishable, making scientific explanations of life origins extremely difficult. Even the distinguished materialist scientist, Francis Crick, who along with James Watson identified the structure of the DNA, said, “The origin of life appears to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to be satisfied to get it going.”
Perhaps because of such difficulties, another idea called “panspermia” has gained credibility. Organisms from one world get a ride to another to spread the organic seeds of life. Launched into space aboard discharged bits of planetary debris, these building blocks of life could, upon arrival at another planet, survive and thrive—perhaps evolving into the diversity of life we see on Earth. Recent analyses of Martian meteorites show several organic compounds including key building blocks of life, i.e., amino acids, nucleobases, and phosphate.
We all have ideas about what meditation is. It means many things to different people—a tool, a religious path, a lifestyle. At its root, there is a sense of gathering, of bringing together and focusing the resources of attention on the present moment. Meditation practice brings this awareness to a narrow or broad focus, along with a certain gentleness and care, to reduce our reactivity to life events. As we become proficient in the skill, the spotlight of attention falls on either simple or complex targets. A major focus is our own mind and its helter-skelter motifs, replete with uncertainty, randomness, and emotional pain. At some point, we attend to that which holds all objects of attention—awareness itself.
We practice these skills to relax, for health reasons, or to explore spiritual matters. How we meditate varies, either sitting, lying down, walking, chanting, dancing, or carrying on with our life. Each mode and approach offer valuable experiences and important insights. Mindfulness, qi jong, yoga, mantras, TM, prayer, progressive relaxation, Dzogchen, Zen, Sufi dancing are all part of what one imagines when the word is mentioned. Because there are so many styles and variations, the practice of meditation, and what might be its outcome, seems complex, confusing, and unnecessarily complicated.
As a psychological and health improvement practice, the consistent routine of meditation reduces stress, anxiety, memory loss, negative emotions, and pain, while improving heart rate, concentration, sleep, emotional health, patience, tolerance, imagination and creativity. These positive outcomes fuel the growing interest. As it assumes a spiritual orientation and lifestyle, meditation becomes especially intricate. An aspiration in this approach is to reconcile with an initial unity we experienced as children. Limitless paths exist to such unity, involving concepts of God, Buddha-nature, the Source, enlightenment, kensho, satori, wakefulness, realization, etc. and innumerable methods and techniques to help us get there. Just like the act of driving remains the same regardless of the vehicle you use, despite the hundreds of variations, styles, and gadgets associated with driving, meditation from a spiritual perspective remains straightforward. At its most basic, it concerns mental and spiritual health, and the rediscovery of the real you.
I would argue there are only three absolutely necessary actions needed to practice meditation, everything else is optional.
Be present-moment centered and focused on: “Who is present?”
Stop identifying with mind and body
Trust and surrender to the non-conceptual awareness that arises.
Regardless of your particular method and technique, consistently practicing meditation as an act of love towards yourself and others, whether as a secular or spiritual intention, will help you develop and fine-tune the following unique traits:
Stillness: More than the absence of movement, stillness is an attitude that “life is perfect as it is” or more prosaically that “life is what it is.” It is the reality which is in front of us — a single outcome out of a set of infinite possibilities given the history and circumstances of each moment — and which we accept and have no need to change.
No-mind: This comes from a Buddhist martial arts term, Mushin, that translates literally as no-mind.It refers to a mind that is not fixed or occupied by thought or emotion and open to everything. An unencumbered mind that lacks self-centeredness and flows unimpeded from moment to moment. Also associated with the term “beginner’s mind” and “compassionate mind.”
Flow: Overlaps with the idea of “no-mind.” It is the sense of being completely immersed and absorbed in an activity or task, in which we lose a sense of space and time. The psychologist Mihály Csikszentmihályi described it as when “The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”
Clarity: A comprehensive way of viewing life, with a clearness of perception, thinking, and intentionality. This is seeing ourselves, the context of our life, our goals and intentions holistically. It is opening our mind to the Infinite and recognizing that like a wave on the ocean we express that ultimate Reality.
Situational Awareness: Right Mindfulness (from Buddha’s Eightfold Path). It means being aware of our thoughts, actions, and intentions in that moment with a gentle and caring attitude. Or as David Brooks has described it: a feel for the unique contours of the situation. An intuitive awareness of when to follow and when to break the rules. A feel for the flow of events, a special sensitivity, not necessarily conscious, for how fast to move and what decisions to take that will prevent a bad outcome. A sensitivity that flows from experience, historical knowledge, humility in the face of uncertainty, and having led a reflective and interesting life.
Joy: More than an emotion of delight, joy is a state of being and cherishing of the moment, feeling fulfilled, lacking nothing, and being content. A feeling that pervades your entire body, mind, and spirit.
Empathy, love, and compassion: This is our sense of responsibility for others. We feel what they feel and are moved to help relieve their suffering. These are the motivators and bonds that form a true intimacy with others.
Trust and lack of fear: As fears subside, the reality of something greater than ourselves increases and trust in its benevolence grows. It is a non-conceptual awareness that carries a sense of vitality, intelligence, and love.
Openness, curiosity and creativity: As fears subside, the innate nature of our original mind comes to the foreground: An inner and outer boundless field of awareness that is open, active, adaptable, dynamic, inquisitive, and creative.
Wisdom: The wisdom of our open and creative mind is available to respond intuitively, spontaneously, and appropriately in any circumstance that we encounter, without the need to conceptualize and rationalize. It transcends intellectual/conceptual knowing.
