In a previous article I mentioned that your present day economic problems are not due to the housing market, banks or any part in particular, but what you have is a system failure. I now wish to show that physical system failures such as your health is really not the cause of some biochemical imbalance in the brain which psychiatry often refers to as the cause of, for instance, heavy depressions and real physical problems.
The great amount of antidepressants being prescribed nowadays that should make you feel better really make you forget the great potential of your mind. Studies done with placebos have shown to be as effective as antidepressants, which proves that it is your believe in the illness and in a pill that makes you feel better, believing a lie and get you addicted to medication. At the very best you suppress the real problems and the fear remains for problems without medication. Not only that but even when unconscious of it, share these fears with people around you. When psychotherapy would honestly wish to help you and teach you how to use the potential of your mind to heal yourself, then you would be stronger than ever before, and like sharing your fears with others on the one hand, you would have a positive influence on human development in a wide range of areas.

In one of the articles I have explained the environmental influences that cause for instance cells turning cancerous, and that they seek to find the genes that cause certain mental of physical diseases. The truth is, the reasons of their failure can not be found in genes because they are not the cause, but are a system through which the mental state can express itself physiologically, some people end up in wheelchairs, become blind and have symptoms similar to brain tumours, multiple scleroses and eventually even the real thing, there is a name for this, it is called Conversion syndrome (look it up).
They think, in the United Kingdom alone, there are 150.000 such cases. This number is only based on research that shows the cause to be un-dealt with emotions, be it anger, fear or any other. But this link and number is based on those that can recall, but there are many buried within the subconscious which are even blocked for those who experienced them and have no conscious memory of what cause real illnesses.

You will all have heard it said, “as a man thinketh, so is he”, some will think that it is simply a matter of altering the thoughts such as those that are negative to positive when they come up.

Let’s have a look at the 8-fold path and mindfulness.
Right mindfulness is the controlled and perfected faculty of cognition. It is the mental ability to see things as they are, with clear consciousness. Usually, the cognitive process begins with an impression induced by perception, or by a thought, but then it does not stay with the mere impression. Instead, we almost Always conceptualize sense impressions and thoughts immediately. We interpret them and set them in relation to other thoughts and experiences, which naturally go beyond the factuality of the original impression. The mind then posits concepts, joins concepts into constructs and weaves those constructs into complex interpretative schemes. All this happens only half consciously and as a result we often see things obscured. Right mindfulness is anchored in clear perception and it penetrates impressions without getting carried away. Right mindfulness enables us to be aware of the process of conceptualisation in a way that we actively observe and control the way our thoughts go. Buddha accounted for this as the four foundations of mindfulness: 1. contemplation of the body, 2. contemplation of feeling (repulsive, attractive, or neutral), 3. contemplation of the state of mind, and 4. contemplation of the phenomena.

But this cannot be done without right concentration, which refers to the development of a mental force that occurs in natural consciousness, although at a relatively low level of intensity, namely concentration. Concentration in this context is described as one-pointedness of mind, meaning a state where all mental faculties are unified and directed onto one particular object. Right concentration for the purpose of the eightfold path means wholesome concentration, i.e. concentration on wholesome thoughts and actions. The Buddhist method of choice to develop right concentration is through the practice of meditation. The meditating mind focuses on a selected object. It first directs itself onto it, then sustains concentration and finally intensifies concentration step by step. Through this practice it becomes natural to apply elevated levels concentration also in everyday situations.

But this cannot be done without Right effort, which can be seen as a prerequisite for the other principles of the path. Without effort, which is in itself an act of will, nothing can be achieved, whereas misguided effort distracts the mind from its task, and confusion will be the consequence. Mental energy is the force behind right effort; it can occur in either wholesome or unwholesome states. The same type of energy that fuels desire, envy, aggression and violence can on the other side fuel self-discipline, honesty, benevolence, and kindness. Right effort is detailed in four types of endeavours that rank in ascending order of perfection: 1. to prevent the arising of un-arisen unwholesome states, 2. to abandon unwholesome states that have already arisen, 3. to arouse wholesome states that have not yet arisen and 4. to maintain and perfect wholesome states already arisen.

But this cannot be done unless we obtain right view. Right view is the beginning and the end of the path, it simply means to see and to understand things as they really are and to realize the Four Noble Truth. As such, right view is the cognitive aspect of wisdom. It means to see things through, to grasp the impermanent and imperfect nature of worldly objects and ideas and to understand the law of karma and karmic conditioning. Right view is not necessarily an intellectual capacity, just as wisdom is not just a matter of intelligence. Instead, right view is attained, sustained and enhanced through all capacities of mind. It begins with the intuitive insight that all beings are subject to suffering and it ends with complete understanding of the true nature of all things. Since our view of the world forms our thoughts and our actions, right view yields right thoughts and right actions.

But one pointedness of mind practised through meditation is not the goal, just a way by which one passes the point of the knowable and pure stillness is obtained from where the single point explodes into the whole.

All the steps as a whole, The Noble Eightfold Path, describes the way to the end of suffering, as it was laid out by Siddhartha Gautama. It is a practical guideline to ethical and mental development with the goal of freeing the individual from attachments and delusions and it finally leads to understanding the truth about all things. Together with the 4 noble truths it constitutes the gist of Buddhism. Great emphasis is put on the practical aspect, because it is only through practice that one can attain a higher level of existence and finally reach Nirvana. The eight aspects of the path are not to be understood as a sequence of single steps, instead they are highly interdependent principles that have to be seen in relationship with each other.

But there is another point, the 9, the IN-sight into mind itself, both the cause and way to end suffering, there is no further need for mental development but an offering it to its creator so it becomes its tool instead of being a slave of attachment, right insight, a short-cut which would otherwise take lifetimes to gather. Yet even with this gift of gifts, right action and right livelihood will be the only way to avoid suffering. He who knows will be holding his own destiny and cause and effect will be more direct, instantaneous, yes Godlike qualities . But a fire so hot, a light so
strong it had to be protected, kept in a safe place, for he who was not pure died instantaneously. Are you ready for it? Are you sure? Many thought they were but all they found was fool’s gold and death hunting them.

Most will have built big walls, little empires of personalized believes by which they measure right and wrong, so busy pushing them, closing their eyes for a greater truth. It, “he” could walk among men unseen and does again. Real seeing, real hearing, real feeling was only for the very few and at the close of the great cycle, unlike many think, there are again only the very few. The rest will hold on to their personalized beliefs until the flesh falls of their bones.

But the choice is yours.

10-10-2009

Moshiya van den Broek