Compassion, Right Here, Right Now

Sitting

at 5 am

Brightness

Within

Deepest Darkness

Connection to All That Is

And All That Is Not

Feeling past lives

Feeling the future

Traveling to the depths of the Underworld

Traveling to the heights of the Overworld

Meeting Teachers

Great Learnings

Traveling to the outermost edges of the Universe

Traveling to Parallel Universes

Information arises

Whatever is learned

Only this is true

How do we live

Right Here

Right Now

There is nothing else

Right Action

Surfing upon

the Evolution

of Consciousness

Rising up consciousness

Compassion

For the greatest Depth

For the Greatest Span

https://www.integrallife.com/ken-wilber-dialogues/basic-moral-intuition

Truth

Can

Only

Arise

When

We can

Listen

Namaste

Listening To Entheogens

An NPR talk-show

The use of entheogens, hallucinations, psychedelics

Psilocybin, MDMA, mescalin, LSD… 

For PTSD

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2014-10-02/using-psychedelic-drugs-treat-mental-disorders

Where are we going

 

Will we be able

To evolve

Consciousness

Will we make mistakes

Maybe small mistakes

Hope

Perhaps

We can

Avoid

The past mistakes

Even mistakes

Of using

Psychotherapists only

Maybe

The One

Who can sit

Quietly

Yet interact

With radical acceptance

Holding as needed

Anything that arises

A spoken word

A hand

Being

Deeply

Present

 

Psychotherapists

Often

Full

Of their own

Anxiety

Depression

Can they

Avoid

Projection

Sitting quietly

Knowledge

Of synchrony

Of

Journeying

To other realms

To

Healing

States of Consciousness

We are so primitive

So far behind

Lost 40 years of information

Who is the patient

That would benefit

8 hours of preparation

8 hours of journeying

2 hours of integration

Perhaps then to repeat

How to do co-therapy

What are the ways

To travel

To dropping

All

That does not

Serve you… 

Efficiency, Growing Edges, and Letting Go

So much of life is getting clear about where we should spend our time and energy. 

Some things seem to come naturally to us.  Since, that skill does not require much effort, perhaps we can think that we can be very efficient when plying that skill.

Perhaps we can compare this to what is at our growing edge.  Perhaps it is a skill that we may not be so naturally efficient at doing, yet, we want to develop more fully. 

And, maybe, we can even consider what things we are better off leaving to others.

We can also consider that some skills, that at first we may consider to be a weakness, later may turn out to be our greatest strength. 

Maybe we need to spend those 10,000 hours to fully master that skill. 

Maybe, because we feel we are weak in that area, that we have the strength of perseverance, to work hard at developing this skill. 

Of course, natural ability has much to do with that 10,000-hour suggestion. 

http://www.businessinsider.com/malcolm-gladwell-explains-the-10000-hour-rule-2014-6

Perhaps there are some things at which we are very skilled.  Yet, it doesn’t bring us much enjoyment.  Maybe it is boring because we are so good at this skill.  Maybe we need something else to challenge us. 

Failure can be a great teacher. 

I am really good at science and medicine.  Yet, the practice of medicine can sometimes get tedious when it is not challenging. 

Science tends to be an ever-changing set of questions.  As soon as you think you know something.  Bam!  A new question arises. 

As my father said: “The more you know, the more you realize how little you know.” 

Here are many skills that are simply overall helpful.  I read rather quickly.  That skill is used for learning science, medicine, and learning about all my myriad hobbies.  As well, it is a source of enjoyment of a good entertaining novel. 

I am not so naturally skilled at music.  Yet, this has been a great joy for me these past 4 years.  Playing guitar, then ukulele, and more recently I’ve been toying with the banjo.  I am not very good. 

But, usually I play for myself.  And my wife is tells me I am getting better! 

I am a naturally skilled tool user and do many small projects.  Not, always my favorite thing to do.  But, I hate to spend money for things I can do myself. 

Yet, I no longer change my own oil in my car.  Some things are just worth paying others to do. 

You can get better at relationships.  Those are important skills.

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/03/conscious-relationship.html

Also see parts 2-5. 

Can you get “good” at meditation?  How do you decide what is “good.” 

Perhaps, some things you do because you are pulled towards that practice. 

Meditation presents us with a different way of thinking about a “skill.”

In meditation, you are dropping everything that gets in the way of seeing clearly. 

You are actually not doing. 

You are not suppressing your thoughts. 

You are watching what arises. 

And letting what arises drift away. 

Perhaps, your mind gets quiet. 

Perhaps not. 

Everything is welcome…

So, some skills come naturally to us.  We are efficient at performing them. 

Some skills are our growing edges and a welcome challenge for us. 

Other skills perhaps are best left to others, as it is just not worth our time to learn.  That is one form of letting go. 

In meditation we also practice letting go, over and over again. 

Wishing you each clear seeing. 

Knowing your efficiencies, your growing edges, and practicing letting go… 

over and over and over… 

Namaste

Positive Cognitive Dissonance

I was on the phone last night with my sister.  She was mentioning a friend’s son dropped out of medical school after the first 2 years.  Most likely because he was so smart he could see the severe flaws in our conventional medical system.  I thought about the numerous medical students I’ve mentored in my 23 years at our medical school.  Keeping several of them from dropping out!  Most of them get connected to me because of my interest in non-conventional medicine.

That is why I am the self-proclaimed heretic. 

I told her to get me in contact with him.  Perhaps a conversation about the larger range of possible practice of medicine would be helpful.  I so dislike smart students dropping out because they don’t like our medical system. 

I want them in our system so they can help to shepherd much needed changes! 

Or, maybe he would rather be a naturopath…    

I also told her to have him look at my blog, and start from the beginning, since it might be helpful for him to see other ways of thinking. 

She then informs me she never heard about my blog! 

I know I sent her a link early in 2013 when I wrote something about our childhood.  But, she never read it. 

Interesting!

That gave me a chance to go back to my first entry, where I proposed some initial questions:

1-Can we hold 2 ideas that seem to be complete opposites?

2-Is there actually more truth contained, when we hold 2 seemingly opposing ideas?

3-How do we become more comfortable with holding 2 seemingly estranged ideas at the same time?

4-How can holding opposing views help us evolve as humans, maybe also so that our social systems evolve with us?

5-How can considerations of the science and ideas at the edges of what is known, help us to better understand our world, and help us to grow as individuals and societies?

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/introduction-and-confessions.html

I carry around blog ideas in my iPhone and the title of this entry was one of them.  I awoke at 2 am and didn’t want to sit and meditate.  I felt the need to write.  I saw my iPhone entry and remembered my first blog entry. 

Cognitive dissonance is usually thought of as a negative experience:  “…cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values.”     

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

Of course we see this in everyday life.   The example given in the above Wiki entry is, “Not wanting to get intoxicated while out, then consuming six tequila shots.” 

I like the better example of a conservative lawmaker fighting for independence from government interference, and then passing laws governing reproductive freedom, or same gender marriage!    

Perhaps, we should also examine the liberal cognitive dissonance thinking of wanting the social freedoms of reproductive choice and same gender marriage, and then wanting to severely restrict gun ownership due to irrational fears (Oh, you are such a Liberal Heretic!). 

Positive cognitive dissonance concerns the paradoxes that point toward higher truth. 

Here is an interesting entry into conventional paradox. 

http://westgatehouse.com/paradox.html

I blogged about how something we might consider to be ugly, compared to what we consider beautiful, can be transcended by a third higher consideration that everything has intrinsic Beauty. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-three-beauties.html

A Koan is a traditional Zen method of contemplating a paradox that can lead to enlightenment. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2014/02/first-agony-then-ecstasy-and-then.html

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2014/03/increasing-complexity-of-civilization.html

I love these 5 Koans:

Who is dragging this corpse about?

What is this?

What is it?

What was the original face before my father and mother were born?

Who am I?

http://www.hsuyun.org/index.php/essays/209-chuanzhi-articles/759-huatoupractice.html

We are slowly evolving as a civilization. 

Perhaps much more slowly than we would like to see…   

Perhaps this medical student drop-out is better off away from the severe conventional thinking that plagues our medical system. 

I tend to disagree. 

Likely for this medical student it is difficult to see more clearly than the vast majority of people in his school. 

Perhaps it is helpful to understand that a person on a lower scale of development cannot see above their current level of thinking. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/just-stranger-in-strange-land-part-2.html

 

There are people who work in conventional medicine who do see more clearly and function at a higher level of consciousness.  Often we are hidden.  Find us in the Healer’s Art electives and the complementary and alternative medicine electives at your medical school. 

Practice Positive Cognitive Dissonance. 

Contemplate the paradox of practicing within conventional medicine while holding a higher evolved view of what is true and real. 

Your presence is needed. 

Join me in evolving current medical practice to a higher level.

We need you!

Namaste.