EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS AND MINDFULNESS [PART 4]

This is the fourth and final blog in a series of blogs discussing the ideas of some of the early Greek philosophers with a view to delineating what there is of value to us today as regards our mindfulness practice.

As previously mentioned, mindfulness is not a philosophy in itself. However, there are a number of philosophical ideas and principles that can be said to underlie the practice of mindfulness in its secular and non-sectarian form, and some of those ideas and principles are of quite ancient provenance.

Let’s look at the ideas and teachings of the nobleman Heraclitus of Ephesus (c535-c475 BCE) [pictured left and below] – my favourite Presocratic philosopher – and examine how those ideas relate to the practice of mindfulness.

Professor John Anderson wrote of Heraclitus’ “wide awake approach to problems”, by which he meant that Heraclitus adopted and advocated a rigorously empirical and logical methodology in the pursuit of truth (reality ... what is).

Heraclitus was known as the “flux and fire” philosopher. He wrote, “All things are flowing”, and “There is nothing permanent except change”. (How very Buddhist!) He also famously said, “Let us not conjecture at random about the greatest things. We must follow the common.”

What that means is that if we would know the conditions of existence we must look for that which is “common” to all things. In addition, we should reject supernatural, occult and all other unobservable explanations of the otherwise observable conditions of existence. “The things that can be seen, heard and learned are what I prize most,” he writes. In other words, naturalism, for Heraclitus eschewed all notions of the occult and the supernatural. He wrote, “"this world [or world-order] did none of the gods or humans make; but it always was and is and shall be: an ever-living fire, kindling in measures and going out in measures." Such is the cosmology of Heraclitus and the other exalted thinkers of his day. How ancient, yet so very modern.

Heraclitus warns us that we need to be prepared to be surprised by our discoveries. He writes, “If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it; for it is hard to be sought out and difficult.” How often life teaches us what we thought we knew was not at all in accord with things as they really are. “The sun is new every day,” writes the anything but world weary Heraclitus.

All things are in a state of flux, says Heraclitus. Everything is in process and no single element is ever predominant for there is a contrary tension of things by means of which there is a resolution (an "attunement", cf "at-one-ment") of conflicting opposites. Nothing is simple, indeed all things are complex, have internal differentiation, and interact with other things ... all on the same level or order of reality and observability. In addition, things are constituent members of wider systems and exchanges of things. The forms of things are constantly being transmuted.

For Heraclitus change is the unity of all things, and there is a single logic that applies to all things and how they are related. (By now readers should be aware that logic is about things, not thought, and how things are related. Sound logical thinking means relating [that is, putting together or distinguishing] different pieces of information about actual or alleged facts. “Reality is propositional,” writes John Anderson, for there is a logical direct relationship between any proposition and the way things actually are.)

The unity underlying all change and opposition is the Logos [λόγος] – a term first used by Heraclitus in around 600 BCE to refer, not to any theological abstraction, but to the organised and co-ordinated way in which, as Heraclitus discovered, all things work and are constituted. That is, the logic (or “formula”) of things. Not surprisingly, Heraclitus also taught that the single logic applying to all things also manifested itself as objective moral law.

Mindfulness is a lifelong inquiry into what it means to be fully present and alert in the present moment. (Heraclitus was right when he said that most people “sleep-walk” their way through life. How very relevant that is to the successful practice of mindfulness!) Each moment of our existence is but a brief occurrence in what is otherwise a state of flux. Life is nothing but the very livingness of all things living out their livingness from one moment to the next. The unity of all things derives, not from all things being one, but simply from the fact that a single logic applies to all things.

In our mindfulness practice thought will follow feeling, feeling will follow thought, and so on. Nothing is predominant even if from time to time some particular thought, feeling or sensation is particularly strong. Mindfulness enables us to look at ourselves thought-less-ly and feeling-less-ly such that in time our minds become free from notions of self (that is, notions of “I” and “me”). Notions of self have the appearance of solidity and continuity, but that is only by reason of habit and memory. The only solidity (if there be any at all) and continuity there is subsists in the seemingly endless process or flow of things and their transmutation.

I hope you have enjoyed these blogs on the ideas of some of the more important Presocratic philosophers.

Recommended Reading: John Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, 3rd ed (A & C Black, 1920); John Anderson, Lectures on Greek Philosophy 1928 (Sydney University Press, 2008). 

RELATED POSTS

MINDFULNESS, PROFESSOR JOHN ANDERSON AND THE FACTICITY OF THINGS
EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS AND MINDFULNESS [PART 1]

EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS AND MINDFULNESS [PART 2]

EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS AND MINDFULNESS [PART 3]

EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS AND MINDFULNESS [PART 3]

This is the third in a series of blogs discussing the ideas of some of the early Greek philosophers with a view to delineating what there is of value to us today as regards our mindfulness practice.

As previously mentioned, mindfulness is not a philosophy in itself. However, there are a number of philosophical ideas and principles that can be said to underlie the practice of mindfulness in its secular and non-sectarian form, and some of those ideas and principles are of quite ancient provenance.

Let’s look at the ideas of Anaximenes (585-528 BCE) [pictured right] and examine how those ideas relate to the practice of mindfulness.

Thales thought that the basic “stuff” (material substratum, essence or “first principle”) of things was water. For Anaximander the basic “stuff” and qualities of life were opposites ... and those opposites were in conflict. He postulated a theoretical entity (apeiron) to explain observable phenomena.

Anaximenes was of the view that the basic “stuff” and qualities of the world were not opposed (cf Anaximander) but were simply different stages of a continuum of differences, “air” being the material substratum. Anaximenes spoke in terms of an interconnected and interacting fire-air-cloud-water-earth-stone continuum, with everything that exists having developed out of the original air and now being made of air.

Anaximenes’ naturalistic cosmology may seem odd but it was a bold attempt at an overall theory as well as being a constituent analysis. The important thing is not whether Anaximenes was right or wrong in his conclusion that everything was made of air – although we do know that atoms are mostly empty space (cf air) despite the apparent solidity of objects – but that he analysed one feature in terms of another.

His empirical methodology involved making observations and then forming explanatory theories of successively greater generality with the final theory being tested against a mass of superficially unconnected phenomena. He looked for the broader picture in nature, seeking unifying causes for diversely occurring events rather than treating each one on an ad hoc basis or attributing them to supernatural causes.

Unlike Anaximander, Anaximenes’ theory did not rely on any unobservables. His methodology was entirely experiential as he sought to explain how the process and mechanism of change (transmutation) actually occurs.

What has all this to do with mindfulness? A fair bit. In any session of mindfulness practice, one’s stream of consciousness will consist of numerous superficially unconnected and diversely occurring phenomena (thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, sounds, etc). The important thing is not to dwell or focus on any one or more of these ad hoc occurrences but to fix and keep our mindfulness (that is, attention and awareness) at its “post of observation” whether that point be the tip of the nostrils against which the breathing air strikes or that part of the lower abdomen where one can most noticeably observe its rise and fall. This needs to be done in a unified fashion, allowing the process of transmutation (that is, one occurring phenomenon is quickly replaced by another, and then another, and so on) to unfold naturally, automatically and unselfconsciously.

Although it may seem counter-intuitive, keeping your attention focused on the breath enables you to stay with the broader picture (cf Anaximenes) without getting caught up in the detail of each passing phenomenon.

In my next blog (the final one in this series) we will look at the ideas of Heraclitus (c535-c475 BCE) - a real favourite of mine - and how his distinctive ideas relate to the practice of mindfulness.

Recommended Reading: John Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, 3rd ed (A & C Black, 1920); John Anderson, Lectures on Greek Philosophy 1928 (Sydney University Press, 2008). 

RELATED POSTS

MINDFULNESS, PROFESSOR JOHN ANDERSON AND THE FACTICITY OF THINGS
EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS AND MINDFULNESS [PART 1]

EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS AND MINDFULNESS [PART 2]
EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS AND MINDFULNESS [PART 4]

EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS AND MINDFULNESS [PART 2]

This is the second in a series of blogs discussing the ideas of some of the early Greek philosophers with a view to delineating what there is of value to us today as regards our mindfulness practice.

As mentioned in my previous blog on the ideas of Thales, mindfulness is not a philosophy in itself. However, there are a number of philosophical ideas and principles that can be said to underlie the practice of mindfulness in its secular and non-sectarian form, and some of those ideas and principles are of quite ancient provenance.

Let’s look at the ideas of Anaximander (c610-c546 BCE) [pictured above], successor to and pupil of Thales, and how those ideas relate to the practice of mindfulness.

Thales thought that the basic “stuff” (material substratum, essence or “first principle”) of things was water. Anaximander raised a logical objection, namely that how can one take one thing as a description of all things? Clearly, Thales exaggerated the “moist” at the expense of the “dry”. What this means is this ... any theory of reality must account for the existence of opposites, for if there were only water, there could not be anything hot, or any fire.

So, for Anaximander the basic “stuff” and qualities of life are opposites ... and those opposites are in conflict. He postulated a theoretical entity (apeiron) to explain observable phenomena. The word apeiron can mean “infinite” as well as “indefinite” (especially the latter, and in a qualitative as opposed to quantitative sense).

One defect in Anaximander’s otherwise realist methodology is that he attempted to explain the observable in terms of some supposed basic unobservable entity, namely the apeiron. As we saw in our last blog, logic compels us to reject the unobservable as the cause of the observable. Nevertheless, Anaximander is to be otherwise commended for his honest and rigorous insistence on and pursuit of the real.

What do we learn from the empirical naturalist Anaximander? For one thing we learn the importance of demarcation and differentiation, that is, marking off one thing from other things. We also learn that there is a simple unity containing opposites – not a unity in the sense that all things are one but that a single logic applies to all things, there being a continuous process among different things.

So, in our mindfulness practice we learn to focus our attention on whatever comprises the action of the present moment. Our thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations will often be contradictory in nature but they nevertheless constitute the “content” of our experience.

When we stay in the action of the present moment, being mindful (in an immediate and direct way) of whatever we are thinking, feeling and experiencing from one moment to the next, we are able to separate out thoughts and feelings about ourselves and others from the person each one of us really is. We look and see ... and the mind empties itself of its content from one moment to the next ... and what was previously unconscious becomes conscious.

Like Buddha Shakyamuni Anaximander taught that all things were impermanent. In the words of Anaximander, in Simplicius’ commentary on Aristotle’s physics, “Whence things have their origin, thence also their destruction happens, as is the order of things; for they execute the sentence upon one another - the condemnation for the crime - in conformity with the ordinance of time.” However, there is nevertheless a certain regularity and predictability about life by reason of a certain balancing out of all opposites which act on, dominate and otherwise contain each other. Things flow in and out of consciousness, for such is the flux of life.

Anaximander questioned the existence of the gods in the same way that Buddha Shakyamuni was agnostic on the question of God’s existence. Both taught that one could attain “deliverance” independently of any external agency. Good news indeed.

In my next blog we will look at the ideas of Anaximenes (585-528 BCE) and how his distinctive ideas relate to the practice of mindfulness.

Recommended Reading: John Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, 3rd ed (A & C Black, 1920); John Anderson, Lectures on Greek Philosophy 1928 (Sydney University Press, 2008). 

RELATED POSTS

MINDFULNESS, PROFESSOR JOHN ANDERSON AND THE FACTICITY OF THINGS
EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS AND MINDFULNESS [PART 1]

EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS AND MINDFULNESS [PART 3]
EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS AND MINDFULNESS [PART 4]

MINDFULNESS ... TO WHOM AM I MOST GRATEFUL?

There is a saying, oft-heard in Twelve Step group meetings (such as AA and NA), "Always practise the attitude of gratitude." Sure, we have problems, for problems are a sign of life, but there are always things for which we can be grateful. I have learned from my Shinnyo Buddhist practice that without gratitude on my part I cannot show compassion or lovingkindness to others nor ever hope to experience the joys of enlightenment.

Now, mindfulness did not come to me overnight. There are so many people - most of whom I have never met in person -  to whom I will always be grateful for affording me some important guiding principles relating to various aspects of both the philosophy and the more practical side to the daily practice - yes, practice - of Mindfulness.

1. I am grateful to my late parents Harry and Phyl (both pictured below), who believed in me and taught me to be honest and always to strive for the best. Without honesty there can be no acknowledgment of what is, and without determination there can be no enlightenment.

2. I am grateful to my dear wife Elspeth and my three children (all pictured below, along with myself), all of whom have stood by me even when I let them down, thus teaching me the power of suffering love and that I am the owner of my actions.

3. I am grateful to the Buddha Shakyamuni (pictured below) whose teachings bring the mind back to its natural state, who taught that "the mind is everything" and "With our thoughts, we make our world", and who, when asked about himself, simply said, "I am awake". Buddha's teaching is very practical ... a way of life, as opposed to a way of belief. He was very empirical and very practical.

4. I am grateful to Jesus (pictured below) who said, "The kingdom of God is within you" (Lk 17:21) and "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you" (Jn 14:2). I believe in the religion of Jesus, not some supposed religion about Jesus. Like Buddha, Jesus' simple teachings have been horribly distorted and corrupted by his so-called followers.

5.I am grateful to J. Krishnamurti (pictured below) who opposed all gurus, and who said, "There is only one revolution, psychological, inward revolution", and "In the acknowledgement of what is there is the cessation of all conflict." Like Buddha, Krishnamurti taught that the "I" of us is simply a habit, a series of words, memories and knowledge ... the past. The "I" cannot change anything. "I" cannot change "me". With choiceless awareness, let things come and go, without effort, pursuit or recall.

6. I am grateful to Dr Norman Vincent Peale (pictured below), whom I had the privilege of meeting on two separate occasions, who taught me how to put the attitude of positive thinking into action in my life, and who said, "Stay alive all your life" (also the title of one of his many best-selling books). Dr Peale not only said that problems are a sign of life, he even went so far as to say that "the more problems you have, the more alive you are ... and if you don't have any problems, watch out ... you're on the way out, and you don't know it!" (NOTE. For those who are interested in the writings and ideas of Dr Peale, I have compiled and edited a book entitled The Norman Vincent Peale Book of Quotations.)

7. I am grateful to the French humanist writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (pictured below) who wrote in The Little Prince (<Le Petit Prince>), one of my all-time favourite books, "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

8. I am grateful to the Scottish-born Australian philosopher John Anderson (pictured below) who taught, "There are only facts, i.e., occurrences in space and time." Professor Anderson was Australia's greatest philosopher and one of this country's best academics. He lived just a few doors down in my street at Turramurra, where he wrote so many of his scholarly writings. He was a radical empiricist and a realist in his philosophy and although he had no time for organised religion I think he would have supported Mindfulness because it is entirely empirically based ... no dogma, no metaphysics, no theology, no idelogy ... just being alert and aware of each moment, in each moment, moment by moment.

9. I am grateful to the metaphysician Emmet Fox (pictured below) who wrote, "We are all sparks from the Great Fire." Like Dr Peale, Dr Emmet Fox taught that we all have great power within us ... the one Power and Presence that animates and sustains all things and all people, in which we all live and move and have our being.

10. I am grateful to Plato (pictured below) who wrote, "Nothing in the affairs of man is worthy of great anxiety." According to Plato, there is a world of being, in which everything exists, “always is”, “has no becoming” and “does not change” (the world of forms), and there is a world of becoming, which “comes to be and passes away, but never really is” (the physical world or cosmos).

11. I am grateful to the Japanese meditation master and artist Shinjo Ito (pictured below) who wrote, "Enlightenment is the result of the daily practice of mindfulness." Shinnyo Buddhism teaches that all of us have goodness in our heart ... the buddha nature. I much prefer that view to the Christian doctrine of the innate "total depravity" of human nature.



12. I am grateful to L. Frank Baum (pictured below), author of The Wizard of Oz, who told us that the Wizard is nothing but a "humbug", that all that we are seeking can be found within us, and that we can go home to "Kansas" at any time we want to.

To all of the above, and many others not mentioned, I say ... thank you.