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51. Brain Food 5/10/04

“I am optimistic that the ancient values that have sustained mankind are today reaffirming themselves to prepare us for a kinder, happier twenty-first century.”
His Holiness the Dali Lama

“Mysticism seems to rise during times of intense change and stress. Add the sufficiency of current shadows and the breakdown of all certainties, and we have the ingredients for the current universal pursuit of spiritual realities.”
       from; Mystical Dogs by Jean Houston.

    I came across the concept of brain food while reading Gurdjieff. He felt that the brain like any muscle needs exercise and for that reason he would devise exercises that provide this stimulus for the brain. One that I have played with and found actually produces heat in the brain is counting from 1 to 100 while also counting backwards 100 to one, alternating so that 99 and 1 meet at the end of the exercise. In the enneagram he presented a model of the process of transformation of energy. He suggested the final stage, of a 9 point transformation, was that of the brain producing molecules that feed or give up something to the universe, much like the flowers and trees giving up something useful to the space. So one of our natural tasks may be that we are to consume, digest and transform energy via insight and understanding.

    My current brain food and exercise for the brain is being provided by Ken Wilber, specifically the writings he presents in the excerpt D on the Shambala site. I have read and reread this excerpt to get an understanding of Integral Post-Metaphysics. Being a newcomer to post modern philosophy and Ken’s extraordinary presentation of an all inclusive metaphysics, I have found it necessary to also developed a glossary of many of the terms Ken uses because of new referents to the composition or perspectives that we call I, we, it and its. Learning the language that speaks of stages to states, waves, lines of being, holons, AQAL metatheory and tetra-evolution opens doors for me to a more immediate and compassionate understanding of how we can build a brighter future. As an intro to Ken Wilber I am currently recommending his book, One Taste.

One obvious result I have experienced is in communication with others. The understandings from working with Ken Wilber’s writings provide me with a more embracive ability in listening to others perspectives, which seem to willingly change as we discus different subjects and turn a reductionistic conversation, that adds little to our earthly mix or as Gurdjieff said ‘pouring from the empty into the void’, into a transformative thought provoking idiom that has legs.

A sample of Ken’s language 'Excerpt D pg 46 reads; “One must come up with a coherent explanation of the various types of cultural nexuses with which individuality is enmeshed (or the ways that subjectivity is entrained with intersubjectivity), or reveal oneself as hopelessly pre-postmodern.

(This is especially important in any post-metaphysical approach, in that postmodernism’s contribution to post-metaphysics is an elucidation of the ways that intersubjective networks cocreate or enact worlds, worlds that metaphysics mistook to be pregiven.)”

Reading Ken Wilber for me, is an exercise that requires both persistence and patience, if the pleasures of developing the hermeneutical, brain changing and intuitive side of our physical reality is to be more orderly. Studying and reading is an important part of any investigative inquiry regardless of the field under inspection. This generally will lead one to the creative, intuitive and innovative work that can be done in a field to improve the efficiencies of the field. If love for a subject is to develop, the natural effort we make in enjoying or mastering the subject brings us many rewards. Ken, in a conversation with Saul Williams, quotes Thomas Edison who said, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”

Chess for me provided a similar path, in that I did study the game to be able to play more skillfully. After awhile playing chess games from books became a captivating exercise that revealed the different styles and genius of various masters. Bobby Fisher’s book, My 60 Favorite Games, became an exciting source of pleasure because of Bobby’s commentary and play. Without an understanding of the language of the game this would remain mere surface activity with little depth of understanding.

In reading I enjoy both the content of a book as well as the style of the writing and the thinking that is being used. Similar to viewing a painting that pleases the eye and develops an appreciation for the artist’s skill and gift in rendering the vision on to canvas. In viewing the brilliance of having a vision and then painting that vision on canvas, we witness the process of having a dream and the skill for bringing the dream to completion.

A doctor friend recently told me, thought he enjoyed our talks of Wilber’s work, he had difficulty getting through the books of Wilber’s because of time constraints. Recently he went on a car trip and was able to listen to Wilber’s ten tape interview with Terry Simon. He called me and was all excited from listening to the series of tapes. He remarked that he felt a relaxation from the concerns he had for the world in general because of the embracive quality of Ken’s lucid presentation and understanding of the human condition. This relaxation or comfort, I believe, is a sign of the authentic nature and artistry of a work that we participate in

I have had many turns in consciousness as a result of reading Ken Wilber, including very discernable brain changes as a concept like the AQAL presentation, causes a whole synopsis of mental connections or ordering up. The face of reality literally changes along with inner observations as humanity becomes more understandable as an evolving form.

So, reading Ken Wilber to me is both a study and an embrace of the dance of life. Self development in terms of path, to me, relies heavily on becoming acquainted with ‘post-metaphysics and the wave of high philosophy that is being presented by Ken Wilber. The effect this can have on you seems to be liberating as I have observed the day to day brain changes or mental adjustments one makes to most of what is presented by the external and internal environment.

Happy Trails

Posted by Harmon at May 10, 2004

Comments

Harmon,

As best as you can, can you summarize what is meant by "post-metaphysical"? I myself don't really have a grasp on this yet. Maybe it is my undergraduate degree in philosophy that stops me from grokking it....

best, Jordan

Posted by: Jordan Gruber on May 10, 2004

Thanks Jordan for the question.

I will give what I feel is meant by ‘post-metaphysics’ and hope it doesn’t appear anemic. Certainly the treatment of Philosophy past and present in this article Excerpt D. is worth the read. I had a view that philosophy was beyond my grasp which cleared up when I read in some exert of Ken’s that we are all dealing in philosophy as long as we hold an opinion and it is just a question of how good a philosopher one wants to be. Reading and inspecting have, since then become so much more of a joy.

To start, my early metaphysical understanding was one of a descending and ascending path, where one seems to be more focused on ‘how well am I doing or am I there yet?, type of subjectivity, which smacks of a western competitive stance. The loving kindness or compassion that developed for me was an exercise, more in patience then an embrace of the differing, less enlightened, suffering beings that one encounters on the ascending path. By playing in the post-metaphysical waters pouring from Ken’s urn the view tends to shift and also become more inclusive.

By this I mean that another person when presenting their perspectives gives me more of a picture of the varieties inherent in their view along with some cultural flavor that is influencing their thinking. This is a result of the integral model Ken has provided. Rather then slipping in to “this person needs to understand Buddhism, for instance, I am looking at perspectives that have some clarity or genuine heart, and with the help of some integrative ideas they may come away from our meeting with a better feeling about what they think of the whole ‘ball of wax’. This feels better to me and the other I imagine, as opposed to each of us remaining in different thought camps. A functional part of having a post-metaphysical grasp I feel.

On page 46 Ken states; “—it is becoming much clearer what partial truths were embraced, what absolutisms were exalted, and what remedial measures are helpful in rescuing the enduring if partial contributions of postmodernism.” In this sense we are coming closer to living and seeing the truth of composition that we call humanity and recognizing what is truly common ground. Maybe highly complex yet clearer to the eye that is attempting to help in the conscious developmental or evolutionary growth in the physical world.

As you know having an AQAL or post modern tool, with all that it houses, to intermix with metaphysics can change our form of inspection as we contemplate the given. As we work with understanding the inner and outer elements of each quadrant there arises a sounder understanding of what makes up each quadrant. For example in speaking of both the Lower rights influence and make up, on page 124 Ken says; “However, the consciousness that produced those artifacts does show growth, development, and evolution. Therefore, in a special sense, we can speak of growth and development in technology, agriculture, architecture, medicine, transportation, and so on, based on the degree of growth in the intentionality, cognition, or consciousness producing those artifacts.” Change in the outer then becomes one of growth rather then of revolution. The article Ken wrote is extensive in presentation and the subjects became a sort of precise poetry as understandings unfolded for me. The freedoms of respecting both the structuralist and aesthetical makeup involved in the upper left seems to say, how dynamic are thou.

This being only my sense of what ‘post-metaphysical’ is, I must say that I view it from its practicality in application to a problem we all would like to unravel, that is; the mess left before we arrived. Whether we have had a hand in this or not is mute, you know, but, what shall WE leave behind?

Posted by: Harmon on May 10, 2004

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