Self System

Hypotheses about the growing and waking of a spiritual seeker can enable systems thinking about awareness practices and states, using a causal loop diagram as a tool. Joel Funk, for example, sketched a model of consciousness showing the interplay between mystical states, self, and wisdom.¹

Beginning with growth in wisdom, the initial hypotheses are these:

• Growth in wisdom (to postconventional stages) causes a decrease in defense of “me.”
• Defense of “me” inhibits mystical states.
• Mystical states are interpreted according to current wisdom:
  • A preconventional stage will tend to assimilate into an existing mental model or reality, whereas
  • a postconventional stage will tend to accommodate the new information into continued growth in wisdom.

These hypotheses describe the self-system.² How does the self-system interact with the faith tradition, or “spiritual path,” seen as a system?

Photo by United States United States on Scopio

Spiritual Path

Within a faith tradition or spiritual path each set of awareness practices is “enculturated”³ in a linguistic, social, historical, and conceptual context.⁴ One pattern in systems thinking is to describe a system in functional terms.⁵ With this move in thought comes this question about the awareness practice context: What could be the function of this context?

Context Functions

Two aspects of the faith traditions that serve as context for awareness practices may have a function relevant to growing up and waking up:

• sacred literature, and
• a purification process.

Sacred Literature

On its face, sacred literature–sacred knowledge, scriptures, and wisdom literature–appears directed at increasing wisdom. For example, within mystical theism, the Christian Bible says this:⁶

All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work.⁷

However, ideas and methods in books can be appropriate for different levels.⁸ Consequently different topics or approaches could be appropriate at different stages. As an example I can propose developmentally-appropriate topics within the Christian “Sunday school” tradition:

In this way Christian sacred literature (the Bible) could continue to support increasing wisdom beyond intuitive-projective and mythic-literal faith and into synthetic-conventional, individuative-reflective, and conjunctive faith.⁹ Funk suggests that minimally Achiever stage is a prerequisite for meditative paths.¹⁰

Purification

The cultivation of virtuous qualities is a common pursuit in many contemplative and philosophical traditions.¹¹ Most mystical schools include a preparatory phase which addresses thoughts, feelings, actions, moral decisions and daily behaviors.¹⁰ Specifically, a purification process appears in a number of faith traditions:¹²

1. The Desert Fathers, which influenced Christian monasticism, sought out the isolation of the harshest desert. Their emphasis on purity manifested in asceticism, and the prerequisites for success with the Hesychasm are “genuine humility, sincerity, endurance, purity.”
2. Purity is basic to (Hindu) bhakti, especially avoiding indolence and lust. Anger and greed–even praise, prestige, and worldly objects–must be altogether abandoned.
3. The purification process is one of three major divisions in train in the Buddhist schema. A controlled mind is the goal of purity. “Unvirtuous thoughts,” for example, sexual fantasies or anger, lead to distractedness during meditation. Behavior is controlled because it affects the mind.
4. Sufis abandon worldly life and devote themselves to spiritual seeking. Self-purification could include renunciation of material possessions, for example.

An example from the first of these, Christian monasticism, is Brother Lawrence:¹³

Of Means for Attaining unto the Presence of God

1. The first is a great purity of life; in guarding ourselves with care lest we should do or say or think on anything, which might be displeasing to God; and, when any such thing happens, in taking heed to repent thereof, humbly begging His forgiveness.

The humility of this process could have the function of reduced investment in, and defense of, “me.”

Within the Buddhist and Hindu traditions, the teacher or guru could serve the same function: the pupil surrenders to the teacher and thereby surrenders egoism: “If one’s surrender is complete, all sense of self is lost.” Within bhakti, there is surrender to a deity.¹²

Context Summary

In summary, the faith tradition context could serve the following functions:

• Sacred Literature: Increasing wisdom, understanding, and ethical development could be one function of sacred knowledge, scriptures, and wisdom literature.
• Purification Process: Decreasing defense of “me” could be one function of the purification process for awareness practices.

Awareness Practice Functions

What follows then, is to examine the function of various awareness practices themselves:

• constructive,
• attentional, and
• deconstructive.

This post discusses constructive meditation–its cognitive mechanisms and potential function–from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience and psychology.¹⁴

Constructive Practice Mechanisms

Constructive meditation practices nurture prosocial qualities such as kindness and compassion. They also strengthen a couple of psychological patterns:

• perspective-taking, the process of considering how one or another would think or feel in a particular situation; and
• reappraisal, changing how one thinks or feels about situations and events in such a way that one’s response to them is altered.

Some forms of constructive meditation have a relation orientation: for example, regular practice of lovingkindness meditation establishes a deep sense of positive interconnectedness to others, regardless of group membership–even for stigmatized groups.¹⁵ Generic loving-kindness meditation takes the meditator through an ever-widening circle of the kinds of people to hold tender feelings toward: “an hour spent practicing loving-kindness toward a difficult person is equivalent to one hundred hours of the same toward a friend or loved one.”¹⁶

The word translated “lovingkindness” is the Pali metta–unconditional benevolence and goodwill–a quality of love akin to the Greek ἀγάπη / agapē.¹⁶ Within mystical theism, intecessory prayer could serve the same function as lovingkindness meditation, as illustrated by Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which uses various forms of ἀγάπη / agapē:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE [Ἀγαπήσεις / Agapēseis] YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love [ἀγαπᾶτε / agapate] your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love [ἀγαπήσητε / agapēsēte] those who love [ἀγαπῶντας / agapōntas] you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?¹⁷

Constructive Practice Functions

Constructive practices may consequently influence wisdom:

• Perspective-taking is also a way to grow deeper in understanding and wisdom.¹⁸
• Developmental psychology suggests that circles of concern (and center of conscious preoccupations) expand as people mature: preconventional stages are egocentric (self-centric), while conventional stages move from ethnocentric (group-centric, skill-centric) to world-centric (self-determining).¹⁹

In addition, prayer in particular has two characteristics distinct from other meditation types:²⁰

1. an assumption about the existence of a superior reality, and
2. an attitude of submission.

The humility in this assumption and attitude may also reduce investment in “me.” One example is the Jesus Prayer of Hesychasm (the Prayer of the Publican): “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner” or “Lord, have mercy” (Κύριε, ἐλέησον / Kýrie eléēson).¹² Another example is the “gratitude prayer.”²¹

Next Steps

Next, the function of sacred literature, purification and humility, and constructive practices could summarized. What follows after that is to examine the function of the remaining awareness practices, attentional and deconstructive.

Notes