The big secret: to be aware that you are conscious...to be aware of yourself as consciousness.
Eckhart Tolle
Tolle often speaks to the importance of getting beyond our tendency to narrate our way through life; to get past this tendency we have to speak and think about our little problems and dramas, which only gets us more and more entrenched in this illusion that we are that. Most of us are caught up in the story of "me", thinking, thinking, thinking about how we can keep up with the proverbial rat race as we worry incessently about what others might think of us. That is a pretty common 'human thing', isn't it?
Did you know though that it is actually a biological thing? Did you know there is a specific portion of the brain that is responsible for this self preoccupation?
In Aware, Daniel Siegel shares the research findings of neuroscientist Antonio Damasio. Damasio explored the neural pathways of the brain (which is basically the direction and redirection of energy from one neuron to another). When we have a connection- pathway of firing neurons- between the medial prefrontal cortex, in the front of the brain, and the posterior cingulate cortex in the back of the brain...we have this sense of thinking about ourselves and worrying about what others think of us. Though this connection (and the brain is constantly forming new pathways and connections as needed) is an evolutionary response to ensure our surival by making us aware of what we need to do to fit into the pack, it can become quite problematic , as we know, if it goes unchecked, These brain parts belong to something called the "default mode network" of the brain or the DMN....that automatic pilot that goes on without any effort from us. If this DMN activity becomes isolated or cut off from other brain or body functioning...this sense of self preoccupation increases. We will see ourselves as a "seperate self" rather than an integrated being in union with all of humanity, all of Life. Though we may still have an inherent need to fit in to the pack, we develop an even bigger need to defend and protect this "little me". Life becomes "all about me". Isn't that where most of humanity is at?
This "me" focus keeps us caught up in the stories we are creating to support it. Our focus and attention seems to get stuck on "Me and my life; me and my problems." As long as our atention is there the neural energy will continue to go there. The "me" will continue to grow. Siegel's famous line goes like this:
Where attention goes, neural firing flows, and neural connection grows. (page 19)
It is almost like the path ends there....stuck on me. So, how are we going to be aware of consciousness, if the mind is stuck on"me"?
Simple. We redirect our energy. We widen the circuitry. We focus our attention off of "me" .
Where do we put our attention?
Eventually our goal is to put it onto others, onto our connection with everything, but we first must become aware of the consciousness that is observing all of this. That is where a mindfulness or meditation practice comes in. We use the brain activity that is already self focused to make it Self-focused. We begin with pulling the mind's energy away from that part of the brain on which it is stuck, by distracting these pathways away from the mind's preoccupation. We train the mind to focus on the breath, what the senses are picking up, body sensations, and the mental and emotional things we are experiencing...not the content...just noticing the process. (We must be aware of how quickly thoughts, stories, feelings can pull us in if we are not committed to keeping our attention elsewhere.) We then bring our attention to the the absence or pausing of thought streams. We begin to see the consciousness which is embodying this mind and form temporarily, but not confined to it, observing as we make new pathways with our attention.
Remember with every pull away from the pathway that is recircling again and again around "me", the attention is redirected and setting up new healthier neural pathways. When we begin to focus on "others", on our connectedness with the entire world, we have healthier, fuller brains/bodies and healthier, fuller lives.This is what Seigle referrs to as integration.
This self obsession, we can imagine, may come from A DMN excessively linked within its own circuitry, and not connected to the wider neural systems in the brain, the body as a whole, or even the flow from others and the greater world. ...A more integrated DMN would instead involve processes of empathy and compassion, as well as a flexible form of self -awareness, harnessing the power of our social brains to focus beyond the solo-self. Page 138
When we can get past this focus on self, we can fall back into Self...becoming not only the Objective Observer of consciousness but consciouness itself. Maybe doing so would be easier if we realized that self, with the lower case 's', is nothing more than a biological process, a concept stored in a neural circuit. Maybe Antonio Damsio was right?
You still have only one self and one identity. However, self, identity, and personality are not things. they are not objects, and they certainly aren't rigid. Instead they are biological processes built within the brain from numerous interactive components, step by step, over a period of time.
All is well.
Daniel J. Siegel (2020) Aware. tarcher perigee.
Eckhart Tolle (June, 2024) Transcending the Illusion of Time for Spiritual Growth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVuR9ygwRCw
No comments:
Post a Comment