OCD Sanctuary
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Practice And Training
People often speak about life being divided into three compartments, the physical, the mental and the spiritual. A lot is said about how the modern world is obssessed with the physical and the mental aspects of living but casts no more than a cursory glance at the spiritual. By the term "spiritual" I do not mean religion per se, though many may use religion as a tool to fulfill this need.
What I mean by spirituality is wisdom or ignorance of things as they truly are. It is the knowledge of one's identity and place in the whole scheme of things. It encompasses our relations with others and allows us to proceed through life causing them the least amount of harm. In understanding the ways that we are connected with the outside world, we learn about the paramount importance of the mind and its views in the creation process of our daily lives.
The Buddha realised that people had these three modes of existence, the spiritual, mental and physical. He also realised that these three modes were fundamentally interconnected with each other. Our wisdom, which can also be thought of as the collection of our spiritual views or principles, is the forerunner of our mental thoughts. In turn our mental thoughts are the forerunners of our actions which will themselves eventually return back to us in the form of happiness or suffering.
The Buddhist practice essentially comprises a training programme to address each of these three areas. We seek to take out those things which hinder us on the path to peace, and to augment those things which remove the thorns of suffering from our sides. For the physical aspect of our lives, there is the training in moral conduct. For the mental side, there is the training in concentration. Finally, for the spiritual part of us, there is the training in wisdom. The aim of this whole training is to bring about the end of suffering and to allow the realisation of Nibbana.
Each part of the training is meant to be done in conjunction with the others. They are like the three legs of a stool. The stool can only be strong when each leg is firmly in place. The training allows us to see through the layers of conditioning which have been built for us throughout our lives. Conditioning from our environment, from other people, from ourselves and from our OCD. The goal of Buddhism is to train ourselves to remove the last vestiges of our conditioning and to enter into the "unconditioned state" which is another name for Nibbana.
Metta,
John
What I mean by spirituality is wisdom or ignorance of things as they truly are. It is the knowledge of one's identity and place in the whole scheme of things. It encompasses our relations with others and allows us to proceed through life causing them the least amount of harm. In understanding the ways that we are connected with the outside world, we learn about the paramount importance of the mind and its views in the creation process of our daily lives.
The Buddha realised that people had these three modes of existence, the spiritual, mental and physical. He also realised that these three modes were fundamentally interconnected with each other. Our wisdom, which can also be thought of as the collection of our spiritual views or principles, is the forerunner of our mental thoughts. In turn our mental thoughts are the forerunners of our actions which will themselves eventually return back to us in the form of happiness or suffering.
The Buddhist practice essentially comprises a training programme to address each of these three areas. We seek to take out those things which hinder us on the path to peace, and to augment those things which remove the thorns of suffering from our sides. For the physical aspect of our lives, there is the training in moral conduct. For the mental side, there is the training in concentration. Finally, for the spiritual part of us, there is the training in wisdom. The aim of this whole training is to bring about the end of suffering and to allow the realisation of Nibbana.
Each part of the training is meant to be done in conjunction with the others. They are like the three legs of a stool. The stool can only be strong when each leg is firmly in place. The training allows us to see through the layers of conditioning which have been built for us throughout our lives. Conditioning from our environment, from other people, from ourselves and from our OCD. The goal of Buddhism is to train ourselves to remove the last vestiges of our conditioning and to enter into the "unconditioned state" which is another name for Nibbana.
Metta,
John
"A moment's insight is sometimes worth a lifetime's experience."¶ 4:39 PM 113 comments
"Most of the things we do, we do for no better reason than that our fathers have done them or our neighbors do them, and the same is true of a larger part than what we suspect of what we think."
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Peaceful Warrior
Beginners to Buddhism may ask what comprises Buddhist practice. They may also ask what the goal of Buddhism is. Most of the other major world religions have a final destination such as Heaven which their followers strive for. The goal of Buddhism is the end of suffering. Some teachers also add that Buddhism is the vehicle which gets us to the goal, and once we reach our destination, we no longer need the vehicle. In this way, Buddhism is the raft which gets us across the river. Once we are on dry land on the other side, we can leave the raft behind. There is a famous saying that life is a journey not a destination. In the same way, Buddhism is the name given to the path and practice which leads to the end of suffering.
There is a word which the Buddha used to describe the end of suffering, that is Nibbana (also sometimes written Nirvana). Nibbana cannot be described by words, it is something to be experienced by each one of us. Words can only tell us what it is not and where not to find it. I suppose some people think of Nibbana like Heaven. It is not quite like Heaven because it is not a place somewhere else. Nibbana is everywhere, even in the space inside the atoms which make up our body. Also Nibbana is something which you can experience in this very life. The Buddha realised Nibbana at the age of 35 and then proceeded to devote the rest of his life to showing other people the way that he did it. The Buddhist teachings say that everything in the universe falls under the law of cause and effect except two things, space and Nibbana. The Buddha encouraged his followers to attain Nibbana quickly to escape from the incessant law of cause and effect which leads to our suffering.
As an analogy, imagine an untidy room cluttered with many useless objects so that we can barely move around without tripping over something. Now we begin to clear up this mess by throwing things out of the window. With every object that gets thrown out, we feel a little better as spaces start to open up inside the room. There will come a time when we won't be able to throw anything else out the window and all we have left is space. No matter how hard we try, we cannot throw space away. The same applies to the room of our minds. Normally, our minds are filled with such useless clutter that we can barely have a moment's peace. The Buddha says that all the content of our minds is fabricated by causes and conditions. So we begin to throw these fabrications out the window, unwholesome things first (especially that OCD!). There will come a time when we will have thrown out everything possible. This is emptiness, this is Nibbana.
In order to reach Nibbana, we have to overcome what the Buddha called our defilements. These defilements are like large armies arrayed against us in our minds. They block the way to peace and the end of suffering. We have seen how two of these armies are those of craving and aversion. Another defilement that we have to be aware of is the army of delusion. It is through the mask of delusion that we see our cravings as our "necessities" and our anger and aversion as our "justification". Thus our enemies are disguised as our friends. OCD is like a gifted general in this army of delusion. It is a supreme tactician and seems to know where our weak points are at every moment. It marshals its forces in such remarkable ways that we always seem to be in reaction mode. The untrained mind is weak. With such vast armies in front of us, how are we going to prevail?
A long while ago, I asked in this blog why people today honour a man who lived 2,500 years ago in a remote corner of the world. It is because this man spent the majority of his life establishing a training method that enables ordinary people like you and me to face and conquer these enemies within us. He is our trusted advisor in the matters of our spiritual well-being. Nibbana, or the end of suffering, is not something which is given to us as a gift by some higher power. It is through our own diligent efforts to defeat our defilements that we attain Nibbana, nothing else. We will gradually begin to understand that we have no true enemies out there, whether people or conditions. The only true enemies are the ones which are inside our minds. In the next few weeks, we shall explore the path that the Buddha taught to enable us to experience Nibbana in the here and now. So we arrive at the third of the Four Noble Truths:
"Suffering has an end (Nibbana)"
The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Dukkha (Skillful Effect)
This Buddha statue shows the peaceful smile of the Buddha who had attained the bliss of Nibbana. The Buddha statues around the world serve to remind us that we too can attain Nibbana by practicing according to the Buddha's instructions. ¶ 11:02 AM 29 comments
There is a word which the Buddha used to describe the end of suffering, that is Nibbana (also sometimes written Nirvana). Nibbana cannot be described by words, it is something to be experienced by each one of us. Words can only tell us what it is not and where not to find it. I suppose some people think of Nibbana like Heaven. It is not quite like Heaven because it is not a place somewhere else. Nibbana is everywhere, even in the space inside the atoms which make up our body. Also Nibbana is something which you can experience in this very life. The Buddha realised Nibbana at the age of 35 and then proceeded to devote the rest of his life to showing other people the way that he did it. The Buddhist teachings say that everything in the universe falls under the law of cause and effect except two things, space and Nibbana. The Buddha encouraged his followers to attain Nibbana quickly to escape from the incessant law of cause and effect which leads to our suffering.
As an analogy, imagine an untidy room cluttered with many useless objects so that we can barely move around without tripping over something. Now we begin to clear up this mess by throwing things out of the window. With every object that gets thrown out, we feel a little better as spaces start to open up inside the room. There will come a time when we won't be able to throw anything else out the window and all we have left is space. No matter how hard we try, we cannot throw space away. The same applies to the room of our minds. Normally, our minds are filled with such useless clutter that we can barely have a moment's peace. The Buddha says that all the content of our minds is fabricated by causes and conditions. So we begin to throw these fabrications out the window, unwholesome things first (especially that OCD!). There will come a time when we will have thrown out everything possible. This is emptiness, this is Nibbana.
In order to reach Nibbana, we have to overcome what the Buddha called our defilements. These defilements are like large armies arrayed against us in our minds. They block the way to peace and the end of suffering. We have seen how two of these armies are those of craving and aversion. Another defilement that we have to be aware of is the army of delusion. It is through the mask of delusion that we see our cravings as our "necessities" and our anger and aversion as our "justification". Thus our enemies are disguised as our friends. OCD is like a gifted general in this army of delusion. It is a supreme tactician and seems to know where our weak points are at every moment. It marshals its forces in such remarkable ways that we always seem to be in reaction mode. The untrained mind is weak. With such vast armies in front of us, how are we going to prevail?
A long while ago, I asked in this blog why people today honour a man who lived 2,500 years ago in a remote corner of the world. It is because this man spent the majority of his life establishing a training method that enables ordinary people like you and me to face and conquer these enemies within us. He is our trusted advisor in the matters of our spiritual well-being. Nibbana, or the end of suffering, is not something which is given to us as a gift by some higher power. It is through our own diligent efforts to defeat our defilements that we attain Nibbana, nothing else. We will gradually begin to understand that we have no true enemies out there, whether people or conditions. The only true enemies are the ones which are inside our minds. In the next few weeks, we shall explore the path that the Buddha taught to enable us to experience Nibbana in the here and now. So we arrive at the third of the Four Noble Truths:
"Suffering has an end (Nibbana)"
The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Dukkha (Skillful Effect)
If a man should conquer in battle a thousand and a thousand more, and another man should conquer himself, his would be the greater victory, because the greatest of victories is the victory over oneself; and neither the gods in heaven above nor the demons down below can turn into defeat the victory of such a man.
The Buddha
This Buddha statue shows the peaceful smile of the Buddha who had attained the bliss of Nibbana. The Buddha statues around the world serve to remind us that we too can attain Nibbana by practicing according to the Buddha's instructions. ¶ 11:02 AM 29 comments
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Keep The Peace
I have been in the company of OCD these past few weeks. I have made a little progress in my struggle with it. Hopefully others here have done the same. A step in the right direction, no matter how small, has to be a good thing. Even standing still against the force of OCD trying to push us back is an accomplishment. I have noticed that for me, there are two quite distinct components to my OCD. First, there is the uncomfortable feeling that something is not quite right and needs addressing. Second, there are the ruminating thoughts about how and what I should do to alleviate the uncomfortable feeling.
I find that if I sit calmly and try to clear my mind by meditation, the ruminating thoughts gradually decrease and disappear. Then I am left with just the uncomfortable feeling on its own which is then easier to withstand. The thing to do is to just observe without getting in the way of the feeling. We ask ourselves questions about it like what does it do to our body? How long does it last for? Does it keep the same intensity or does it vary? Which part of the body exactly does the feeling originate from?
Trying not to react to the uncomfortable feelings in this way can provide some interesting insights. We can think of the feelings as being similar to unwanted noises. Once a group of monks couldn't get any rest or meditation because the villagers nearby were throwing a loud noisy party well into the night. So they went to their senior monk who was called Ajahn Chah to ask him to tell the villagers to be quiet. Ajahn Chah, who was a great Buddhist master and teacher, asked them if the party noises were disturbing them, or whether it was the monks who were disturbing the party noises. This great gem of wisdom can be a useful tool for us in our situation. Does the uncomfortable OCD feeling disturb us, or are we disturbing the OCD feeling? This is something to bear in mind as we sit with the feeling to see where it leads us.
For those of us who are afflicted by compulsive behaviours, it can seem that we are like slaves to the mean OCD master. Our bodies are chained to the post and we must do whatever the master bids us. Most times we do the compulsive rituals just to make the whippings stop. We spend such a large part of the day worrying or doing these rituals until we end up exhausted. We spend all of our energy bending our will and our backs to accomodate the wishes of a master who really has no authority over us. If only we could see this clearly. The following quote I really like and I think is extremely helpful in our case.
If we have struggled against OCD but in the end are forced to do a ritual in order to make it stop, then let us do the actions with as much mindfulness and clear comprehension as possible. In this way, we put our dignity or human nobility inbetween the OCD and our resultant actions. Even though we are performing a slave's work, we need not be slaves in our minds. OCD can take many things away from us, but it cannot take away our dignity without our consent.
How do we develop mindfulness and clear comprehension? We practice using skillful means such as meditation. We also do it by trying to live in the present moment as much as possible. The past is gone and we can do nothing to change things. The future is uncertain and we should not expend energy on trying to control it because however we expect things to turn out, it will be different somehow. Until the next time, take good care of yourselves, and may you have the strength to see through the tough times.
Metta,
John ¶ 11:56 AM 5 comments
I find that if I sit calmly and try to clear my mind by meditation, the ruminating thoughts gradually decrease and disappear. Then I am left with just the uncomfortable feeling on its own which is then easier to withstand. The thing to do is to just observe without getting in the way of the feeling. We ask ourselves questions about it like what does it do to our body? How long does it last for? Does it keep the same intensity or does it vary? Which part of the body exactly does the feeling originate from?
Trying not to react to the uncomfortable feelings in this way can provide some interesting insights. We can think of the feelings as being similar to unwanted noises. Once a group of monks couldn't get any rest or meditation because the villagers nearby were throwing a loud noisy party well into the night. So they went to their senior monk who was called Ajahn Chah to ask him to tell the villagers to be quiet. Ajahn Chah, who was a great Buddhist master and teacher, asked them if the party noises were disturbing them, or whether it was the monks who were disturbing the party noises. This great gem of wisdom can be a useful tool for us in our situation. Does the uncomfortable OCD feeling disturb us, or are we disturbing the OCD feeling? This is something to bear in mind as we sit with the feeling to see where it leads us.
For those of us who are afflicted by compulsive behaviours, it can seem that we are like slaves to the mean OCD master. Our bodies are chained to the post and we must do whatever the master bids us. Most times we do the compulsive rituals just to make the whippings stop. We spend such a large part of the day worrying or doing these rituals until we end up exhausted. We spend all of our energy bending our will and our backs to accomodate the wishes of a master who really has no authority over us. If only we could see this clearly. The following quote I really like and I think is extremely helpful in our case.
Whatever action is done without mindfulness and clear comprehension is ritual.
- Bhikkhu Pesala
If we have struggled against OCD but in the end are forced to do a ritual in order to make it stop, then let us do the actions with as much mindfulness and clear comprehension as possible. In this way, we put our dignity or human nobility inbetween the OCD and our resultant actions. Even though we are performing a slave's work, we need not be slaves in our minds. OCD can take many things away from us, but it cannot take away our dignity without our consent.
How do we develop mindfulness and clear comprehension? We practice using skillful means such as meditation. We also do it by trying to live in the present moment as much as possible. The past is gone and we can do nothing to change things. The future is uncertain and we should not expend energy on trying to control it because however we expect things to turn out, it will be different somehow. Until the next time, take good care of yourselves, and may you have the strength to see through the tough times.
Metta,
John ¶ 11:56 AM 5 comments
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Less Is More
Last time we saw that craving and its close twin of aversion are the main actors on the stage of suffering called life. These are the automatic reaction patterns that we have to pleasant and unpleasant feelings caused by coming into contact with objects in the world. We also saw how craving is a root cause of so much of the suffering which we have. Today I want to discuss more strategies that we can use to cope with OCD by tackling the problem of craving.
Sometimes, when we are immersed in something for long enough, we do not realise what we are in. For example, we could walk into a musty smelling room and it hits us straight away. If we spend a few hours in the room, we gradually notice the smell less and less. After a few days, we are totally accustomed to it and we do not notice it at all. It is the same with us craving and desiring things, we do it so often that we do not even notice that we are doing it. From the moment we wake up, we think how we are going to satisfy our craving for food, warmth, love, respect and so on.
Craving is what the Buddha called a mental defilement. I would say that OCD is another type of mental defilement. The Buddhist view of the mind is that it is inherently pure but for defilements or taints like these. The goal of the Buddhist path is the removal of these taints so that we are left with the mind in its pure state, filled with peace and compassion. These defilements live below the surface of the conscious mind and have to be rooted out. They normally lie dormant until an opportunity arises for them to come out of hiding. The Buddha noticed, as can anybody who practices meditation, that the more active our minds and bodies are, the more chances these defilements have to express themselves.
A few analogies will make this clear. Imagine that your mind is a glass of water. The water is clean and pure, like your true mind. Next imagine dropping a small pellet of dye into the glass. If we keep the water as still as possible, that pellet will drop to the bottom and will remain undisturbed. However if we start to vigorously stir the water, before long, that pellet will have completely discoloured the water. That pellet is like a defilement in our minds such as craving or OCD. If we keep our minds as still as possible, then those defilements do not have the chance to develop and pollute our thoughts.
Or let's imagine that we are in a quicksand. Thrashing about will only make our predicament worse. In order to get out of this, we have to keep as still as possible so that we stop sinking. Only then will we be ready to look for ways to pull ourselves out. The best way to keep our minds still is to practice the various forms of meditation such as mindfulness of breathing. However, the novice would not be spending much of his or her time in meditative states during the day. What can we do to maintain the spirit of stillness even when off the cushion?
One answer is to live as simply as possible. Over the last few years there has been a "voluntary simplicity" movement. This is a choice of lifestyle that we can make. It encourages us to make do with fewer wants in our lives. It doesn't mean that we give away all our material possessions and go live on a mountain or anything like that. What it does do is to make us question whether the latest car model or the newest HDTV screen will really brings us lasting happiness. Or whether once we acquire these things, our craving moves onto other objects of desire and we are back on square one. Our craving is an unquenchable force that seeks ever receding horizons if we let it.
I think that if we simple our lives up a little, we give less material for our OCD to sink its hooks into. The height of simplicity is where everything in the world including our own possessions are "ownerless" to us. In Buddhism, this is called anatta, which is one of the three characteristics. Let's say that we have an OCD event such as we see some dirt on our carpet. Before we start obsessing about it, anatta tells us that we don't really own that carpet anyway, so who cares? Or we have an OCD thought that we didn't close our front door properly when we left our home this morning. Anatta tells us that our house and its contents don't really belong to us anyway, so who cares? Sorry, OCD, you're out of luck this time!
Let us finish with an extract out of one of the books of the AA organisation which states the same message. In order for us to work more effectively on our mental defects and unwanted behaviour patterns, which in our case includes OCD, we have to work at reducing the mental and physical clutter caused by our craving. Thus by choosing calm and contentment over our base cravings and desires, we create for ourselves a positive feedback loop which will spiral us onwards and upwards towards the peace of mind that we all seek.
Metta,
John
The message of Buddhism is that our happiness lies not in seeking to satisfy our many cravings, but that happiness lies in cultivating contentment which brings real peace to our lives. ¶ 6:21 PM 6 comments
Sometimes, when we are immersed in something for long enough, we do not realise what we are in. For example, we could walk into a musty smelling room and it hits us straight away. If we spend a few hours in the room, we gradually notice the smell less and less. After a few days, we are totally accustomed to it and we do not notice it at all. It is the same with us craving and desiring things, we do it so often that we do not even notice that we are doing it. From the moment we wake up, we think how we are going to satisfy our craving for food, warmth, love, respect and so on.
Craving is what the Buddha called a mental defilement. I would say that OCD is another type of mental defilement. The Buddhist view of the mind is that it is inherently pure but for defilements or taints like these. The goal of the Buddhist path is the removal of these taints so that we are left with the mind in its pure state, filled with peace and compassion. These defilements live below the surface of the conscious mind and have to be rooted out. They normally lie dormant until an opportunity arises for them to come out of hiding. The Buddha noticed, as can anybody who practices meditation, that the more active our minds and bodies are, the more chances these defilements have to express themselves.
A few analogies will make this clear. Imagine that your mind is a glass of water. The water is clean and pure, like your true mind. Next imagine dropping a small pellet of dye into the glass. If we keep the water as still as possible, that pellet will drop to the bottom and will remain undisturbed. However if we start to vigorously stir the water, before long, that pellet will have completely discoloured the water. That pellet is like a defilement in our minds such as craving or OCD. If we keep our minds as still as possible, then those defilements do not have the chance to develop and pollute our thoughts.
Or let's imagine that we are in a quicksand. Thrashing about will only make our predicament worse. In order to get out of this, we have to keep as still as possible so that we stop sinking. Only then will we be ready to look for ways to pull ourselves out. The best way to keep our minds still is to practice the various forms of meditation such as mindfulness of breathing. However, the novice would not be spending much of his or her time in meditative states during the day. What can we do to maintain the spirit of stillness even when off the cushion?
One answer is to live as simply as possible. Over the last few years there has been a "voluntary simplicity" movement. This is a choice of lifestyle that we can make. It encourages us to make do with fewer wants in our lives. It doesn't mean that we give away all our material possessions and go live on a mountain or anything like that. What it does do is to make us question whether the latest car model or the newest HDTV screen will really brings us lasting happiness. Or whether once we acquire these things, our craving moves onto other objects of desire and we are back on square one. Our craving is an unquenchable force that seeks ever receding horizons if we let it.
I think that if we simple our lives up a little, we give less material for our OCD to sink its hooks into. The height of simplicity is where everything in the world including our own possessions are "ownerless" to us. In Buddhism, this is called anatta, which is one of the three characteristics. Let's say that we have an OCD event such as we see some dirt on our carpet. Before we start obsessing about it, anatta tells us that we don't really own that carpet anyway, so who cares? Or we have an OCD thought that we didn't close our front door properly when we left our home this morning. Anatta tells us that our house and its contents don't really belong to us anyway, so who cares? Sorry, OCD, you're out of luck this time!
Let us finish with an extract out of one of the books of the AA organisation which states the same message. In order for us to work more effectively on our mental defects and unwanted behaviour patterns, which in our case includes OCD, we have to work at reducing the mental and physical clutter caused by our craving. Thus by choosing calm and contentment over our base cravings and desires, we create for ourselves a positive feedback loop which will spiral us onwards and upwards towards the peace of mind that we all seek.
"The chief activator of our defects has been a self-centered fear-primarily that we would lose something we already possessed or would fail to get something we demanded. Living upon a basis of unsatisfied demands, we were in a state of continual disturbance and frustrations. Therefore, no peace was to be had unless we could find a means of reducing these demands."
From page 76 of the 12 & 12 of Alcoholics Anonymous
Metta,
John
The message of Buddhism is that our happiness lies not in seeking to satisfy our many cravings, but that happiness lies in cultivating contentment which brings real peace to our lives. ¶ 6:21 PM 6 comments
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Roots Of Suffering
What a drama is acted out on the stage of life! If we aren't worrying about what happened yesterday, then we worry about what we are going to do tomorrow. We suffer like this, from one personal crisis to another. I can't think of a single play, film or book that doesn't involve one of the characters going through suffering of some description. In the media, suffering sells. No wonder modern society has so much suffering, we seem to crave for the stuff whether consciously or subconsciously.
There are two types of suffering in life. The first type arises because of our existence in this world and is natural suffering. This includes physical pain when we have accidents, pains in our bodies as we grow older and death when it eventually comes to us. There is only so much that we can do to try to avoid this kind of suffering. Suffering exists because we are alive. It's in the house rules of the party called life which we have gatecrashed.
However, natural suffering like this only has a limited scope of effect on us. We can only have so many accidents in our lifetime. We only grow old once and we all experience death just the once. In contrast to this, there is the second type of suffering which is self-created suffering. The relative size of this second type absolutely dwarfs the first type. The Buddha said that the origin of this second type was to be found within us and not in the outside world. What a challenging concept this is to our ego. How can our sufferings in some way be due to our own making? How does that sound fair?
The Buddha was not a moralist. He never said that you should do this or you should do that. He never created the Universe and the laws which govern it. He simply said that if you do this, then that happens according to natural law. The Buddha said that it was a thing called "desire" or "craving" (the Pali word for craving is tanha) which was the internal cause of much of our suffering. In expanding on this, he said that there were three kinds of craving which could cause suffering; the craving for sensual pleasures, the craving to become something and the craving to get rid of something.
All three kinds of desire are like young weeds in our mental garden, which the law of cause and effect will nurture into an epidemic of suffering to overrun our peace of mind. Desire in these forms is like a cancer in that it grows unabated until it blocks out the good within us. The danger lies in desire growing into attachment which means we desperately try to cling onto things, wishing them to be eternal when they are impermanent, to be ours when they are ownerless and to give us satisfaction where only suffering is to be found. To deny these three characteristics of nature is to invite suffering to come home to roost. The Buddha said not to take his word on faith alone on these matters, but to see for yourself if this is true in your own life.
What can OCD sufferers take from this. We have OCD because of a malfunction in our brains, in one of our three brains to be exact. This causes us to experience intense unpleasant feelings when certain triggers happen. Thus far, there is not a lot of difference between this and normal physical pain that we regularly experience. If we bang our knee, then we experience intense feelings for a while, then they pass. If we have a mental OCD accident, we experience intense feelings as well but they hang around for a lot longer. Up to this point, we are in the first category of suffering defined above which stops at the level of feeling.
If we are not mindful enough, then we pass over to the second larger category of suffering which is that caused by desire or craving. In our case, it is the desire to be rid of something (Pali: vibhava tanha), which are the intense unpleasant sensations which we are experiencing. What is wrong with that desire one may ask. Nothing, except that any action that is motivated by this desire, for example doing compulsions, causes us further suffering down the line. It may be wise for us to treat this desire to get rid of OCD as the true cause for our suffering and not the OCD itself. During an OCD attack, we should try to reduce this desire to get rid of it, rather than trying to make the unpleasant feelings go away which they won't do by power of will alone.
Practically speaking, this means that we should try to resist doing compulsions for as long as possible and not give in to the craving. This all sounds easy in theory but I know how hard this can be. Take heart though, you are not alone. There comes a time in life when we stand up and exclaim that enough is enough. We are no longer going to be slaves to our mental defilements such as OCD. Buddhists are grateful to the Buddha for pointing out the way to achieve the end of defilements. Let us contemplate then the second of the Noble Truths.
"Suffering has a cause (tanha)"
The Noble Truth of the Cause of Dukkha (Unskillful Cause)
But whoever in the world
routs wretched craving hard to quell,
from such a one do sorrows fall
like water drops from lotus leaf.
Verse 337: Dhammapada
Explanation: Craving is a lowly urge. It is difficult to escape craving. But, in this world, if someone were to conquer craving, sorrow will slip off from him like water off a lotus leaf. ¶ 8:35 PM 1 comments
There are two types of suffering in life. The first type arises because of our existence in this world and is natural suffering. This includes physical pain when we have accidents, pains in our bodies as we grow older and death when it eventually comes to us. There is only so much that we can do to try to avoid this kind of suffering. Suffering exists because we are alive. It's in the house rules of the party called life which we have gatecrashed.
However, natural suffering like this only has a limited scope of effect on us. We can only have so many accidents in our lifetime. We only grow old once and we all experience death just the once. In contrast to this, there is the second type of suffering which is self-created suffering. The relative size of this second type absolutely dwarfs the first type. The Buddha said that the origin of this second type was to be found within us and not in the outside world. What a challenging concept this is to our ego. How can our sufferings in some way be due to our own making? How does that sound fair?
The Buddha was not a moralist. He never said that you should do this or you should do that. He never created the Universe and the laws which govern it. He simply said that if you do this, then that happens according to natural law. The Buddha said that it was a thing called "desire" or "craving" (the Pali word for craving is tanha) which was the internal cause of much of our suffering. In expanding on this, he said that there were three kinds of craving which could cause suffering; the craving for sensual pleasures, the craving to become something and the craving to get rid of something.
All three kinds of desire are like young weeds in our mental garden, which the law of cause and effect will nurture into an epidemic of suffering to overrun our peace of mind. Desire in these forms is like a cancer in that it grows unabated until it blocks out the good within us. The danger lies in desire growing into attachment which means we desperately try to cling onto things, wishing them to be eternal when they are impermanent, to be ours when they are ownerless and to give us satisfaction where only suffering is to be found. To deny these three characteristics of nature is to invite suffering to come home to roost. The Buddha said not to take his word on faith alone on these matters, but to see for yourself if this is true in your own life.
What can OCD sufferers take from this. We have OCD because of a malfunction in our brains, in one of our three brains to be exact. This causes us to experience intense unpleasant feelings when certain triggers happen. Thus far, there is not a lot of difference between this and normal physical pain that we regularly experience. If we bang our knee, then we experience intense feelings for a while, then they pass. If we have a mental OCD accident, we experience intense feelings as well but they hang around for a lot longer. Up to this point, we are in the first category of suffering defined above which stops at the level of feeling.
If we are not mindful enough, then we pass over to the second larger category of suffering which is that caused by desire or craving. In our case, it is the desire to be rid of something (Pali: vibhava tanha), which are the intense unpleasant sensations which we are experiencing. What is wrong with that desire one may ask. Nothing, except that any action that is motivated by this desire, for example doing compulsions, causes us further suffering down the line. It may be wise for us to treat this desire to get rid of OCD as the true cause for our suffering and not the OCD itself. During an OCD attack, we should try to reduce this desire to get rid of it, rather than trying to make the unpleasant feelings go away which they won't do by power of will alone.
Practically speaking, this means that we should try to resist doing compulsions for as long as possible and not give in to the craving. This all sounds easy in theory but I know how hard this can be. Take heart though, you are not alone. There comes a time in life when we stand up and exclaim that enough is enough. We are no longer going to be slaves to our mental defilements such as OCD. Buddhists are grateful to the Buddha for pointing out the way to achieve the end of defilements. Let us contemplate then the second of the Noble Truths.
"Suffering has a cause (tanha)"
The Noble Truth of the Cause of Dukkha (Unskillful Cause)
But whoever in the world
routs wretched craving hard to quell,
from such a one do sorrows fall
like water drops from lotus leaf.
Verse 337: Dhammapada
Explanation: Craving is a lowly urge. It is difficult to escape craving. But, in this world, if someone were to conquer craving, sorrow will slip off from him like water off a lotus leaf. ¶ 8:35 PM 1 comments
Sunday, April 02, 2006
What A Feeling!
Humans are such complicated creatures! We are walking, talking bundles of feeling and emotion. How many times do our feelings and emotions win over our reasoning at the end of the day? Last time, we discussed what Buddhists call the five aggregates. One of these, the feelings aggregate, is given special attention. To recall from last time, feelings are categorised by the Buddha into three types; pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. Here, we do not use the word "feeling" in the sense of higher order emotions such as love, but just the tonal quality of those thoughts and emotions. I will use the word feeling in the Buddhist context from now on.
We saw that neuroscientists have discovered that there is a part of the brain called the R complex at the core which governs raw emotions like pleasure, pain and fear. When we have a gut feeling of fear or an intense pleasurable sensation, these do not come from the cerebral cortex, but deep down in the subconscious from the core structures. This is why we find it hard to directly control feelings because another part of the brain, independent of consciousness, is in command of them. Buddhists say that the key to unlocking ourselves from the prison of Dukkha is to let go of these learned reactions to feelings, which are produced by the core of the brain.
It is interesting to note that one of the current theories for why we have OCD is that structures in the R complex such as the caudate nucleus are in chemical imbalance. When OCD rears its head, our feelings become intensely unpleasant. Our learned reaction patterns are to perform compulsions or ruminations until we get a neutral or pleasant feeling instead. It is not just when OCD comes calling, our whole lives are governed by our reactions to our feelings. Our brains seem to be programmed to move towards those things which give us pleasure and to move away from those things which cause us displeasure. We do it automatically and without thinking. Where did this programming originally come from?
These reaction patterns are part of our inherent survival instincts from when we were babies. When we were newborn or even when we were in our mother's womb, the overriding concern in our lives was the principle of pain and pleasure. Our higher brain structures were still very undeveloped, while our R complex had the important task of keeping us alive. When we felt hungry, the unpleasant feeling in our stomachs was immediately acted upon and we start wailing for our parents to feed us. When we were given warmth or attention, the pleasant feeling caused us to display our pleasure by giving the baby noises which our parents sought. The neural circuits responsible for our reactions to pleasant and unpleasant feelings were etched into our brains before we could even walk.
For sufferers of OCD like us, these automatic reaction patterns have their work cut out for them. When OCD hits us, the unpleasant feelings are so strong that our brain circuits deep down work overtime to move us away from the situation causing the OCD. The compulsions which we perform to alleviate the unpleasant feelings often have very weak or no connections to the obsession. We might have an obsession about something which happened years ago and by washing our hands now, the pain of the obsession goes away as if by magic. In the same way, a baby moving its arms and legs and crying out produces the result of a full stomach and the feeling of hunger goes away as if by magic. The baby doesn't have to think about the whys and wherefores of how this happens, it just knows that it works. What is common in both cases is the automatic reaction pattern to move away from unpleasant feelings by doing whatever is necessary.
What I have found useful is that during an OCD attack, try to focus on the feelings and sensations in your body. Move your conscious attention from inside your head to outside onto your body. How does OCD feel to your body? Where are the unpleasant feelings located? I sometimes feel it as a tightness in the chest area. Once you have identified which area of the body the feeling of unpleasantness is coming from, try to relax that part of the body as well as you can. Keep focusing on that part of the body and stay out of your head! After a little while, the feeling will start to pass away from your body and when you come back to inside your head, you will hopefully find that your obsession is much reduced.
Most people do not realise why they sometimes act the way they do. They do not know that they are compelled from behaviours deep inside their minds, conditioned a long time ago. The Buddha said that our conditions can be overcome by following his advice. He said that we could strive to gain deliverance from suffering in this very life, which is tantamount to us rewiring our brain at the deepest level. This seems like an impossible task, but the Buddha and his followers, both past and present, all over the world achieved this goal. The way they did it has been documented in the Buddhist teachings which we have been making our way through on our journey. Next time, we will see how all this relates to the second of the Four Noble Truths.
Metta,
John
Our automatic reaction patterns to pleasant and unpleasant feelings were conditioned into our young minds in our infancy. As adults, if we have not developed enough mindfulness, these reaction patterns still hold sway over our daily lives uncontested. A Buddhist Master may gently tease us by asking how many of us in adulthood still operate as if from a cradle. ¶ 5:39 PM 3 comments
We saw that neuroscientists have discovered that there is a part of the brain called the R complex at the core which governs raw emotions like pleasure, pain and fear. When we have a gut feeling of fear or an intense pleasurable sensation, these do not come from the cerebral cortex, but deep down in the subconscious from the core structures. This is why we find it hard to directly control feelings because another part of the brain, independent of consciousness, is in command of them. Buddhists say that the key to unlocking ourselves from the prison of Dukkha is to let go of these learned reactions to feelings, which are produced by the core of the brain.
It is interesting to note that one of the current theories for why we have OCD is that structures in the R complex such as the caudate nucleus are in chemical imbalance. When OCD rears its head, our feelings become intensely unpleasant. Our learned reaction patterns are to perform compulsions or ruminations until we get a neutral or pleasant feeling instead. It is not just when OCD comes calling, our whole lives are governed by our reactions to our feelings. Our brains seem to be programmed to move towards those things which give us pleasure and to move away from those things which cause us displeasure. We do it automatically and without thinking. Where did this programming originally come from?
These reaction patterns are part of our inherent survival instincts from when we were babies. When we were newborn or even when we were in our mother's womb, the overriding concern in our lives was the principle of pain and pleasure. Our higher brain structures were still very undeveloped, while our R complex had the important task of keeping us alive. When we felt hungry, the unpleasant feeling in our stomachs was immediately acted upon and we start wailing for our parents to feed us. When we were given warmth or attention, the pleasant feeling caused us to display our pleasure by giving the baby noises which our parents sought. The neural circuits responsible for our reactions to pleasant and unpleasant feelings were etched into our brains before we could even walk.
For sufferers of OCD like us, these automatic reaction patterns have their work cut out for them. When OCD hits us, the unpleasant feelings are so strong that our brain circuits deep down work overtime to move us away from the situation causing the OCD. The compulsions which we perform to alleviate the unpleasant feelings often have very weak or no connections to the obsession. We might have an obsession about something which happened years ago and by washing our hands now, the pain of the obsession goes away as if by magic. In the same way, a baby moving its arms and legs and crying out produces the result of a full stomach and the feeling of hunger goes away as if by magic. The baby doesn't have to think about the whys and wherefores of how this happens, it just knows that it works. What is common in both cases is the automatic reaction pattern to move away from unpleasant feelings by doing whatever is necessary.
What I have found useful is that during an OCD attack, try to focus on the feelings and sensations in your body. Move your conscious attention from inside your head to outside onto your body. How does OCD feel to your body? Where are the unpleasant feelings located? I sometimes feel it as a tightness in the chest area. Once you have identified which area of the body the feeling of unpleasantness is coming from, try to relax that part of the body as well as you can. Keep focusing on that part of the body and stay out of your head! After a little while, the feeling will start to pass away from your body and when you come back to inside your head, you will hopefully find that your obsession is much reduced.
Most people do not realise why they sometimes act the way they do. They do not know that they are compelled from behaviours deep inside their minds, conditioned a long time ago. The Buddha said that our conditions can be overcome by following his advice. He said that we could strive to gain deliverance from suffering in this very life, which is tantamount to us rewiring our brain at the deepest level. This seems like an impossible task, but the Buddha and his followers, both past and present, all over the world achieved this goal. The way they did it has been documented in the Buddhist teachings which we have been making our way through on our journey. Next time, we will see how all this relates to the second of the Four Noble Truths.
Metta,
John
Our automatic reaction patterns to pleasant and unpleasant feelings were conditioned into our young minds in our infancy. As adults, if we have not developed enough mindfulness, these reaction patterns still hold sway over our daily lives uncontested. A Buddhist Master may gently tease us by asking how many of us in adulthood still operate as if from a cradle. ¶ 5:39 PM 3 comments
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Our Three Brains
One of the topics which appears again and again in the Buddhist teachings is that of the five aggregates. I briefly wrote about these in a blog last year here. Since then I have been looking for other ways to analyse them. The five aggregates are very important in the understanding of Buddhism judging by their frequency and also the meticulous way that the Buddha describes the way which they operate. To recap, the five aggregates are as follows:
1. bodies (our physical manifestation)
2. feelings (our pleasant, unpleasant or neutral sensations)
3. perceptions (our memory and our ability to identify objects)
4. mental formations (our ability to form complex ideas and mental objects)
5. consciousness (our ability to note things as they occur)
I think that one of the best ways of relating to the five aggregates is by comparing them against the different areas of the human brain. It is generally accepted in the scientific community that the human brain has evolved in stages and thus there are very clearly defined areas in the brain which come from different ages in evolution.
At the centre of the human brain there is what scientists call the reptilian brain, brain stem or R complex. This core of the brain has the job of keeping vital internal organs functioning but it is also responsible for generating feelings and urges like pleasure, pain and fear. This corresponds to what the Buddha calls the feeling aggregate which consists of the basic notions of pleasant, unpleasant and neutral feelings.
Surrounding this R complex is a brain which is very similar to an ordinary mammal's brain. This part of the brain is the seat of higher order functions such as long term memory and perception. A dog or a cat would recognise objects such as toys for example and play with them much in the same way that an infant human would. This part of the brain is called the old mammalian brain or the limbic system and corresponds to what the Buddha calls the perception aggregate.
Surrounding this mammalian brain is the cerebral cortex or neocortex which is the most developed in humans. It is where our singular intelligence, imagination and creativity spring from. This is where complex mental objects are formed. The Buddha describes this process as mental formations. The most complex mental object is the self object or the illusion of self. One of the goals in Buddhism is to dispel this illusion of a self. It is the self-centred world which is the world of suffering.
I suggest that 2500 years ago, the Buddha discovered something that neuroscientists have only recently discovered in the last century, that there are different centres of our brains which act and behave somewhat independently of each other and give rise to different classes of mental phenomena. No matter how much I study Buddhism, it never ceases to amaze me.
How does the last aggregate of consciousness relate to the other ones? When an external object and one of our senses makes contact (e.g. we see a dog), consciousness arises due to this contact and the first area of the brain to be activated by this consciousness is the R complex (feeling: we have a pleasant feeling maybe). Then the consciousness flows outwards and the limbic system ponders over the object (perception: we recognise it is as our dog who is happy to see us). Finally, the neocortex gets involved and investigates the consciousness arisen (mental formations: we think about what food we are going to feed our dog today).
Thus we could list the three aggregates of feeling, perception and mental formations in both the Buddha's language and also as the part of the brain which corresponds to that aggregate. The other two aggregates are also listed for completeness.
1. bodies (pali: rupa), physical body
2. feelings (pali: vedana), R complex, reptilian brain
3. perceptions (pali: sañña), limbic system, mammalian brain
4. mental formations (pali: sankhara), neocortex, higher brain
5. consciousness (pali: viññana), unknown location, phenomenon of quantum physics
Metta,
John
The brain of a Buddhist monk at rest (left image) and during mediation (right image). One can observe increased prefrontal activity in the left cortex compared to the right one during meditation. Newberg A, Alavi A, Baime M, Pourdehnad M, Santanna J, d’Aquili E. (2001). The measurement of regional cerebral blood flow during the complex cognitive task of meditation: a preliminary SPECT study. In Psychiatry Res, vol. 106(2), p. 113-22. ¶ 11:33 AM 7 comments
1. bodies (our physical manifestation)
2. feelings (our pleasant, unpleasant or neutral sensations)
3. perceptions (our memory and our ability to identify objects)
4. mental formations (our ability to form complex ideas and mental objects)
5. consciousness (our ability to note things as they occur)
I think that one of the best ways of relating to the five aggregates is by comparing them against the different areas of the human brain. It is generally accepted in the scientific community that the human brain has evolved in stages and thus there are very clearly defined areas in the brain which come from different ages in evolution.
At the centre of the human brain there is what scientists call the reptilian brain, brain stem or R complex. This core of the brain has the job of keeping vital internal organs functioning but it is also responsible for generating feelings and urges like pleasure, pain and fear. This corresponds to what the Buddha calls the feeling aggregate which consists of the basic notions of pleasant, unpleasant and neutral feelings.
Surrounding this R complex is a brain which is very similar to an ordinary mammal's brain. This part of the brain is the seat of higher order functions such as long term memory and perception. A dog or a cat would recognise objects such as toys for example and play with them much in the same way that an infant human would. This part of the brain is called the old mammalian brain or the limbic system and corresponds to what the Buddha calls the perception aggregate.
Surrounding this mammalian brain is the cerebral cortex or neocortex which is the most developed in humans. It is where our singular intelligence, imagination and creativity spring from. This is where complex mental objects are formed. The Buddha describes this process as mental formations. The most complex mental object is the self object or the illusion of self. One of the goals in Buddhism is to dispel this illusion of a self. It is the self-centred world which is the world of suffering.
I suggest that 2500 years ago, the Buddha discovered something that neuroscientists have only recently discovered in the last century, that there are different centres of our brains which act and behave somewhat independently of each other and give rise to different classes of mental phenomena. No matter how much I study Buddhism, it never ceases to amaze me.
How does the last aggregate of consciousness relate to the other ones? When an external object and one of our senses makes contact (e.g. we see a dog), consciousness arises due to this contact and the first area of the brain to be activated by this consciousness is the R complex (feeling: we have a pleasant feeling maybe). Then the consciousness flows outwards and the limbic system ponders over the object (perception: we recognise it is as our dog who is happy to see us). Finally, the neocortex gets involved and investigates the consciousness arisen (mental formations: we think about what food we are going to feed our dog today).
Thus we could list the three aggregates of feeling, perception and mental formations in both the Buddha's language and also as the part of the brain which corresponds to that aggregate. The other two aggregates are also listed for completeness.
1. bodies (pali: rupa), physical body
2. feelings (pali: vedana), R complex, reptilian brain
3. perceptions (pali: sañña), limbic system, mammalian brain
4. mental formations (pali: sankhara), neocortex, higher brain
5. consciousness (pali: viññana), unknown location, phenomenon of quantum physics
Metta,
John
The brain of a Buddhist monk at rest (left image) and during mediation (right image). One can observe increased prefrontal activity in the left cortex compared to the right one during meditation. Newberg A, Alavi A, Baime M, Pourdehnad M, Santanna J, d’Aquili E. (2001). The measurement of regional cerebral blood flow during the complex cognitive task of meditation: a preliminary SPECT study. In Psychiatry Res, vol. 106(2), p. 113-22. ¶ 11:33 AM 7 comments
