ACT for Spiritual Development Hank Robb, Ph. D. , ABPP, Reno, NV 2010 Accept the world as it is, was or may be. Choose, and willingly follow, your Values & Leading Principles. Teach others to do the same.
Assumptions Your are one being in one universe.
Joseph Campbell’s Four Functions of Mythology Mystical Function (Making contact with “the mystery”) Cosmological Function (Seeing “the mystery” through all things) Social Function (“rationalizing” social action) Individual Function (addressing life phases)
“Spiritual” Possibilities RELATIONSHIPS I AM Divinity. (though not the “you” you think you are) I RELATE to Divinity. ATTITUDES Say “yes” to the world as is. Say “no” to the world as is. Say “yes” after you “fix up” the world.
Kundalini “Hierarchy of Spiritual Energy” Mystery Without a Face (Rapture) Mystery With a Face (Rapture) Aggressive Action to Change Self Compassion Aggressive Action Directed Outward Pursuit of Sensual Pleasure Hanging on to Existence
Assumptions If you have the usual body parts, you have hands and feet. They are part of your one being. You also have a spirit.
Assumptions That, too, is part of your one being.
Assumptions Your feet are not your hands and your hands are not your spirit and they are all part of the one being that is you.
Assumptions Conditions of the universe arose that brought you into existence and, one-day, conditions will change and you will go out of existence.
Assumptions There is no spirit that is separate from the one being that is you. There is no body that is separate from the one being that is you.
Assumptions The spirit of your one being will end when the body of your one being ends because you are one being.
Assumptions The actions you take in your one life will affect the one universe of which you are now a part and that was here before you and will be here after you.
Assumptions Those effects may be characterized as great or small, good or evil, or in a variety of other ways. None of us knows, for sure, what effects each of us will have.
Assumptions However, each may know what effect was intended, if, indeed, one was intended.
Assumptions Whatever you are going to do will have to be done here and now in this place and in this moment because there is no “other place” and no “other moment. ”
Assumptions If these assumptions fit for you, and you are looking for spiritual development, perhaps this mode of development will prove helpful.
Metaphor This approach, like many other spiritual approaches, makes use of metaphor.
Metaphor When I was in high school, I learned a poem titled, The Highwayman. The poem began, “The road was a ribbon of moonlight. ”
Metaphor If on hearing this, one were to go outside with scissors in order to cut up material to tie bows in one’s hair, then we would say there and been a misunderstanding of language because there was never any literal material made of moonlight for anyone, including the highwayman, to interact with.
Metaphor In this presentation, I will try diligently to point out when metaphors are in use.
Metaphor Even so, it may be useful not to take any talk too literally, especially when it is meant to open us to spiritual dimensions.
Root Metaphor Diamonds are aspects of the universe found here on earth.
Root Metaphor One aspect of diamonds is their potential for brilliance.
Root Metaphor Before the brilliance is brought forth, it is only a potential within the diamond.
Root Metaphor After it is brought forth, it is an aspect, or quality, of the diamond itself. It is not “added on. ”
Root Metaphor The brilliance is not something other than the diamond itself. The brilliance is an aspect, or quality, of the diamond. It is a way of being a diamond that has been brought forth.
Root Metaphor If the diamond disintegrated, so would the brilliance. Brilliance and the diamond are one rather than two.
Root Metaphor Bringing forth brilliance from a diamond includes cutting and polishing it.
Root Metaphor And the cutting and polishing must be done wisely.
Root Metaphor So, as with diamonds, spiritual brilliance, that is potential in each human being, can be brought forth.
Root Metaphor We, however, are not inanimate objects. We don’t have to wait around. We can get busy doing the job ourselves, and we can do it wisely.
Root Metaphor That is just the sort of thing that this mode of spiritual development intends.
Root Metaphor Hopefully, no individuals hearing or reading these words buy that they will literally become brighter through the mode of spiritual development outlined here or that they require literal cutting or polishing. Believing such things means there has been a linguistic error.
Root Metaphor Yet there is some sense in which spiritual brightness does brighten the world where it is found.
Root Metaphor And don’t stop paying the electric bill because of the previous sentence!
Caution! Many spiritual traditions contain metaphors that this approach, ACT for Spiritual Development, may find useful. Even so, we had better be careful. Many traditions do not make the unitary assumption of this approach.
Caution! They operate on an assumption of fundamental duality in which there is literally a second universe. Body and spirit are not of one being but alternate entities that sometimes war and at other time co-operate with each other.
Caution! In these traditions, one aspect of the duality is usually to be preferred over the other, typically the spirit over the body.
From this Perspective (ACT for Spiritual Development) We are one being with one body and spirit just as we are one being with one pair of eyes and one pair of ears as well as memories of the past and hopes for the future.
Metaphorically Speaking The Kingdome of the Father is spread upon the earth but men and women do not see it.
Metaphorically Speaking This is the golden lotus world.
Metaphorically Speaking I and the Father are one.
Metaphorically Speaking I and my beloved are one.
Mind In addition to our spirit, and the sensations of our body, the one being we are also has a mind. Our mind is largely made up of thoughts and images.
Thoughts Those radio programs inside your head.
Images Anything with a picture.
Bodily Sensations Your heart beating faster or slower. Your hands feeling cooler or warmer. Your stomach feeling more tense or more relaxed.
Thoughts, Images & Sensations Sometimes you can control your thoughts, images & sensations.
Thoughts, Images & Sensations More often thoughts, images and sensations just “arrive. ” Jack and Jill went up the …
Little Miss Muffet sat on a … When was the last time “tuffet” was in your head? I didn’t know what a “tuffet” was until I looked it up I have a good “story” about how “tuffet” got in my head and no real memory. Lot’s of “stuff” that “shows up” is like that.
Thoughts, Images & Sensations Thoughts, images and sensations come from your personal learning history and your biological history.
Finding Your Spiritual Self It is “the possessor of a body and mind. ” Long duration - as far back as you can remember. Stable - like the eye of a hurricane.
Finding Your Spiritual Self Certainty of bodily control, if not control of thoughts, images or sensations, when you are “there. ” A sense of “is-ness, ” “being-ness” or “aliveness” and not “goodness” or “badness, ” when you are “there. ”
Umpire Perspective n Thoughts are divided into true and untrue. n Images are divided into attractive and unattractive. n Sensations are divided into pleasant and unpleasant.
Umpire Perspective With the Umpire Perspective you sometimes get, “bad calls, ” most typically with thoughts.
Observer Perspective You see that a thing is exactly what it is and nothing more and nothing less.
Actuality Perspective n There is a difference between “you” and your thoughts, images and sensations. “You” are the person who “has” thoughts, images or sensations. n There is a difference between your thoughts, images and sensations and the actual world.
You can make guesses about the future, but rarely can you make calls. A call of “true” for “One day I will die, ” exemplifies an exception.
“I cannot walk over to the door and back. ”
“I cannot stay seated, I must stand up. ”
The illusion of “loosing control” is like other illusions, e. g. the “sunrise” and “sunset. ” It looks, feels and seems a way that it isn’t.
“I am a banana. ” You are not a yellow fruit. And neither are you a bunch of sounds - “ba-na-na. ” Did you notice the latter?
Formula for Human Liberation By making myself do something unpleasant, and refraining from doing something pleasant, in the service of something I make more important, I will never have to be a slave to circumstance.
This was the point of high school. And most of us missed it!
In high school you do unpleasant homework, and don’t do things that would be a lot more pleasant. Just to annoy yourself? No. In the service of actually learning something or simply making better grades.
And some didn’t learn to act for something positive. They learned to act to avoid something negative such as keeping parents or teachers “off their back. ” That was the “wrong” lesson!
Leading Principles are like using a compass to go East or West rather than North. Follow a compass North and you will reach magnetic North. The compass will spin around and every time you walk away it will point you back to where you came from.
Leading Principles Go East or West with your compass and you will never come to some place like magnetic North.
Goals verses Leading Principles Goals are places at which you can “arrive. ” Have a baby. Get married. Graduate high school
Goals verses Leading Principles give direction rather than describe places to “arrive. ” When would you be “arrive” at: Be the best parent I can be? Be the best mate I can be? Be as educated as I can be? You can always get up the next day and keep going!
Leading Principles Give direction rather than location & do so without regard to location. Provide direction through the wilderness of life rather than a path through it.
Leading Principles “The path” is where you’ve been. If you are “on a path, ” it is someone else’s path because NO ONE has lived your life before. You are the only one who can do it!
Leading Principles Start walking. At what point are you “unable” to “change directions? ” That is the experience of “human freedom. ”
Values are ways of performing regardless of which Leading Principle you are following, e. g. honestly, considerately, kindly, thoughtfully, etc. Not many value deceitfully, inconsiderately, meanly or thoughtlessly; though they could.
The world is filled with contingent requirements, and you have a choice as to how you fulfill them.
To make this slide show, I had to make it. And I had a choice of the “banner” under which I went about the activity. “I choose to. ” OR “I have to. ”
“I choose to” is the banner of human liberation. “I have to” is the banner of human slavery. And WATCH OUT for slave revolts!
Under which banner are you acting?
Heinrich Zimmer The best things can’t be told. The second best are misunderstood. The third best are what we talk about. Why?
Because in talking about things that can’t be told (only experienced) we use the language of things we do talk about as metaphors. These metaphors are then concretized. That is, people try to make hair ribbons out of the ribbon of moonlight that “was” the road.
Joseph Campbell said, “Mythology is other people’s religion, And religion is misunderstood mythology. ” Why misunderstood? Same reason! The metaphors are concretized and thereby become opaque, rather than transparent, to transcendence.
Transcendence? Yes! You transcended your desire not to do your homework and do other fun stuff and did your homework any way! By following your Leading Principles, you acted in ways you didn’t feel like acting.
“Midlife Crisis” Getting to the top of the ladder and finding it’s against the wrong wall. Typically produced by following someone else’s agenda.
Formula for Human Serenity in Action Let me accept (give my permission for) life as I find it, (as life is, was or may be) even though I may not approve of what I find, wisdom to see what would be good to change, willingness to act and willingness to follow through, and gratitude for the opportunity to live my life as best I can.
Giving your permission IS NOT giving your approval. That for which you give your approve is one thing. That for which you give your permission is something else. My wife approves of pickles in tuna fish. I don’t!
When you don’t give your permission for Life to be as it is was or may be who suffers, You or Life?
Two Kinds of Willingness with your feet. Willingness with your heart.
Willingness with your heart is more metaphorical than willingness with your feet. You can see people moving their feet (as well as their hands, arms and mouth). When it comes to willingness with your heart, I’m not talking about that big muscle in the middle of your chest!
Make A Fist. All it takes to have an open hand is to stop holding your hand closed. Willingness is like that. Just stop holding your heart closed and it will open all by itself. You don’t have to do something. You have to stop doing something.
Cup Your Hands Metaphorically speaking, you can “hold gently” experiences that are themselves not gentle. Just let them rest there, held gently, doing whatever it is that they do, while you “hold them gently. ”
The Buddhists & the Rolling Stones agree: “You don’t always get what you want!”
SO, Simply being alive means experiencing sorrow.
Treat the reality that all life is sorrowful as problem to be solved and it won’t be long before you come up with the answer. KILL YOURSELF!
Life is best treated as an experience to be had not a problem to be solved.
And SOMETIMES you actually get what you want! You experience “fulfillment. ” Life is full of sorrow and fulfillment, And the place in between!
Some fulfillments are like vegetables, They nourish you. Others are like cotton candy. They taste good in the moment and have little or no nourishment.
Some fulfillments are cool. Some fulfillments are very cool. And some fulfillments are WAY COOL!
Doc, how will I know which fulfillments will prove , for me, WAY COOL? I have no idea! And neither does anybody else, even when they claim they do.
PURSUING WAY COOL Try different things and listen for the “echo” inside yourself. “Way Cool” is like one instrument playing softly and if you follow it, it becomes louder and more orchestrated or it fades because it was an illusion.
Searching for WAY COOL, like searching for most things, means going on an adventure. Adventures have at least two aspects. You can’t know for sure how they will turn out. You have to have a sense of, at least, some danger.
That’s why jumping off a one story building is an adventure and jumping off a ten story building isn’t. We know how that turns out!
Going into any aspect of life is like going into a movie. There’s a price of admission to be paid with your hands, arms, feet and mouth as well as your thoughts, images and sensations. Will you pay? Will you pay willingly?
You can’t go if you won’t pay. And if you won’t pay willingly, the trip will be bumpier!
“Will I find ice cream WAY COOL? ” You could ask those who never had any. You could ask those who have had some. You could read a book about it. You could eat some ice cream.
Thriving requires Surviving and Surviving isn’t Thriving
While all other beings are living their lives as best they can, as far as we know, only we can TRY to live our lives as best we can. We can act WITH purpose, ON purpose.
“Happy” and “Unhappy” are names for two relationships we can have with our lives containing sorrow, fulfillment and the in between.
Us Our Relationship with Life as Sorrow, Fulfillment and In Between.
HAPPINESS Us A Permission Giving Relationship with Life as Sorrow, Fulfillment and In Between.
UNHAPPINESS Us A Permission Withholding Relationship with Life as Sorrow, Fulfillment and In Between.
HAPPINESS IS NOT FULFILLMENT UNHAPPINESS IS NOT SORROW
If you want HAPPINESS and don’t get it you will feel sad. And, your sorrow isn’t unhappiness. You could be sad and happy by maintaining a permission giving relationship with life as sorrow, fulfillment and in between. You could be sad and unhappy by maintaining a permission withholding relationship with life as sorrow, fulfillment and in between.
If you want HAPPINESS and get it, you will feel fulfillment. And, your fulfillment isn’t happiness. You will experience fulfillment because you wanted a certain relationship with life as sorrow, fulfillment and in between and you got that relationship. At least for the moment!
And You can walk and chew gum at the same time! You don’t HAVE TO spend your whole life pursuing HAPPINESS. Pursue whatever your WAY COOL(S) is/are and maintain a relationship of HAPPINESS while doing it.
This mode of spiritual development does not aim at either fulfillment or happiness. It aims at fulfillment AND happiness! That aim requires developing psychological flexibility!
Spiritual Love Looking out for someone’s, or something’s, long-term best interests. It is a choice. A choice not necessarily related to affection, affiliation, or sexual attraction.
You can love yourself, as well as others, but maybe not at the same time.
The price of being a sensitive human being is that you will feel the pain of others.
The price of living YOUR life will be bringing pain, in the form of sorrow, into the lives of others.
Why? Because in living YOUR life, you will not always be giving others what they want. And sorrow is what happens when people don’t get what they want. And, if you are a sensitive human being, you will feel the sorrow you are giving them!
And what the hell kind of world is that? ! The one we appear to be living in!
Forgiveness means you stop holding the facts against someone (e. g. your mate) or something (e. g. the world in general).
Forgiveness does not mean forgetting the facts, excusing the facts, explaining the facts, understanding the facts or anything other than not holding the facts against someone or something.
If you stop holding the facts against someone or something, that doesn’t mean you couldn’t start doing it again.
And the fact that you started doing it again doesn’t mean you couldn’t stop doing it, AGAIN!
Forgiveness is like pushing your finger hard against someone, or something, and then “letting go. ”
If you are pushing hard against someone else, then you have to release their pain in order to release yours. That’s the “price of admission” to letting go of the pain of unforgiveness.
And how often are you pushing against something other than an actual living being? There’s no one “there” and yet you keep pushing, pushing.
The only pain being generated is YOURS!
Of course, if you want to keep pushing, a good story can help. That bitch or bastard! He, she or it WRONGED me! I’m not going to let them get away with that! They deserve a good smashing and bashing! And I’m just the person to give it to them!
Did you ever hear a story like that?
Did you ever tell a story like that?
And by the way, YOU are one of the “someones” you could stop holding the facts against. YOU could forgive yourself. AGAIN!
And you could WILLINGLY stop holding the facts against someone or something!
NOW WE’RE TALKING SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT!
Reconciliation means giving them, or it, a chance to do it again! It means going on an adventure where at least some of the danger is being hurt in the same way you were hurt the last time.
And what would be the point of doing that? I have no idea! What would be the point of YOU doing that?
What Leading Principle would you be instantiating by reconciling? Or by refusing to reconcile?
And you could do that WILLINGLY!
NOW WE’RE TALKING SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT!
Order of Action First, willingly head in your chosen direction. This is not the same as just trying to get away from where you currently are.
You can’t go without leaving. You can’t leave without going. To which one are you giving the emphasis? Going or leaving?
Order of Action Then, make yourself as comfortable as possible while you keep on going.
There’s nothing wrong with “smelling the roses along the way” as long as it doesn’t make you late for LIFE!
Competence & Confidence You gain competence about anything the same way you gained it about riding a bicycle. First, get on and start riding. When you fall off, you don’t buy either, “This means I can’t ride, ” or “It hurts so much to fall off, I won’t try any more. ”
Competence & Confidence You gain confidence when you perform successfully over time and give the credit for your performance to YOU. Not to, “it was Tuesday. ” Not to, “the bike was red. ” Not to, “the audience was friendly. ” And not to, “I just got lucky. ”
The Parable of the Skydiver dove out of an airplane. Neither the regular chute nor the emergency chute opened. Skydiver realized there were at least four possibilities:
The Parable of the Skydiver Face the ground and enjoy the ride down. Start worrying about what would happen when s/he hit the ground. Review in exquisite detail exactly how s/he got into this situation. Work as diligently as possible to get the emergency chute open.
ACT for Spiritual Development Accept the world as it is, was or may be. Choose, and willingly follow, your Values & Leading Principles. Teach others to do the same.
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