Please summarize what you read. After summarizing, you can reflect on the following questions to guide the rest of your writing, but you should not just list and answer them. What did you find most interesting? Most confusing? What do you want to learn more about? Is there any information that you find dubious or that you are suspicious of? You do not need to explicitly answer these, rather, I'm interested in your summary, and ultimately your thoughts and insight on these readings.
Please list the main key words you used in your post.
This week’s reading was both semi-interesting and wordy. I enjoyed reading the section of the book where it discusses Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as it is a psychological concept that I am familiar with. The book describes all the steps within the pyramid and how it applies to individuals’ lives. What I found interesting was when it provided information on an additional step that is involved with the satisfaction and motivation to help others. Maslow’s hierarchy is criticized for being so self-oriented. I believe as the authors may, that happiness and self-actualization involves not only helping ourselves but helping others as well. Our book also mentions psychologist Frankl again with his drive for purpose and meaning in life. I think many people including myself find a greater purpose in our lives and meaning through others.
In addition to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, I found this quote derived from Buddhism extremely fascinating, “the freedom from suffering comes from a deep understanding of how our mind creates the experiences of illness, frustration, and harm, and the ability to liberate the roots of their experimental arising.” This quote basically implies that all of our internal and even some external sufferings derive from our mind and if we wish to abolish our sufferings we need not look onto others but within ourselves. Others can affect the way we think, over-think, and perceive however they do not control these things or the way we react. Through meditation we can exercise and train the mind to see things as they are and not to over-think. We can learn that problems that appear so stressful or immense are not as bad as previously perceived and instead of stressing we can learn to find proactive solutions.
I thought the Dzogchen form of Tibetan Buddhism was difficult to comprehend. This section was very wordy with a lot of historical background and information. What I understood from it was its purpose to increase and broaden one’s awareness of the self and the world. There is a lot of training required to master this form of Buddhism and in this training individuals learn the four aspects of well-being: conative, attentional, cognitive, and affective. I thought this section was too wordy and I had a difficult time focusing on what it was attempting to explain.
I think I would like to learn more about the psychologists Maslow and Frankl and their experiences with meditation if any. I would like to learn more about what their research entails and how it portrays to meditation. In addition I would like to research other famous psychologists or even famous people in general who have/do practice meditation and their experiences/results with it. I would also like to learn more about the Dzogchen form of Tibetan Buddhism as I had difficulty following the book’s explanation.
Terms: Dzogchen form of Tibetan Buddhism, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, self-actualization, meditation, life purpose, life meaning, Frankl, suffering, conative, attentional, cognitive, and affective
This chapter focused on intentions related to meditation and the specific teachings of Dzogchen. I found this chapter to be incredibly wordy and honestly full of a lot of unnecessary information. I felt like the author included a lot of claims without much evidence besides ‘this is how Buddhists do it.’ The chapter started out by talking about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and related it to meditation. Maslow initially topped his pyramid with self-actualization which is the idea that we do things because we are intrinsically motivated to do them for ourselves. To me, this seems like the ideal. Doing things simply for our happiness and fulfillment represents a perfect scenario. However, Maslow later revised his pyramid and put self-transcending at the top. I can partially understand the book’s explanation about how this is supposed to be better. To me, self-transcending encompasses altruism which also strikes me as an ideal. However, I don’t think it is necessary to transcend the self to engage in altruism. If doing charitable acts makes me happy then I am still in the self-actualization phase of the pyramid. Overall, I’m having difficulty both with the definition of self-transcending and the utility of it. The book then spends many pages discussing different types of Buddhism and how they relate transcending the self and ending suffering in their practices. I found this very unhelpful because I lacked the base understanding to use this information effectively.
The next part of this chapter that I was able to understand was the Dzogchen pyramid of mind training. This focuses on four levels of mediation: intention, attention, emotional balance, and exploration of consciousness. The first level, intention, state that one must start meditation with the intention to leave behind suffering and a drive to achieve eudemonic happiness. This is a controversial level and I understand why. I think that intention can have an effect on how hard a person works on their meditation but I find it difficult to see how it can lessen the experience. If two people both spend the exact time/effort on meditation and have the same knowledge about it, I would expect them to receive equitable benefits. I don’t believe that if one person’s intentions are considered ‘bad’ for some reason they wouldn’t receive those benefits. The second level, attention, has to do with focusing the mind and practicing attention skills. Attention becomes more selective and can be sustained for longer amounts of time. The third level, emotional balance, strives to end automatic negative reactions/thoughts to events. It also strives to increase compassion, empathy, and overall wellbeing. The last level, exploration of consciousness, can only be achieved if the other levels have all been satisfied. In my opinion, this level wasn’t explained as well as the others had been. Different levels of consciousness can refer to dream yoga, lucid dreaming, and other practices.
Terms: Dzogchen, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, altruism, pyramid of mind training, intention, attention, emotional balance, exploration of consciousness, eudemonic happiness, dream yoga, lucid dreaming
This chapter focused on intentions related to meditation and the specific teachings of Dzogchen. I found this chapter to be incredibly wordy and honestly full of a lot of unnecessary information. I felt like the author included a lot of claims without much evidence besides ‘this is how Buddhists do it.’ The chapter started out by talking about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and related it to meditation. Maslow initially topped his pyramid with self-actualization which is the idea that we do things because we are intrinsically motivated to do them for ourselves. To me, this seems like the ideal. Doing things simply for our happiness and fulfillment represents a perfect scenario. However, Maslow later revised his pyramid and put self-transcending at the top. I can partially understand the book’s explanation about how this is supposed to be better. To me, self-transcending encompasses altruism which also strikes me as an ideal. However, I don’t think it is necessary to transcend the self to engage in altruism. If doing charitable acts makes me happy then I am still in the self-actualization phase of the pyramid. Overall, I’m having difficulty both with the definition of self-transcending and the utility of it. The book then spends many pages discussing different types of Buddhism and how they relate transcending the self and ending suffering in their practices. I found this very unhelpful because I lacked the base understanding to use this information effectively.
The next part of this chapter that I was able to understand was the Dzogchen pyramid of mind training. This focuses on four levels of mediation: intention, attention, emotional balance, and exploration of consciousness. The first level, intention, state that one must start meditation with the intention to leave behind suffering and a drive to achieve eudemonic happiness. This is a controversial level and I understand why. I think that intention can have an effect on how hard a person works on their meditation but I find it difficult to see how it can lessen the experience. If two people both spend the exact time/effort on meditation and have the same knowledge about it, I would expect them to receive equitable benefits. I don’t believe that if one person’s intentions are considered ‘bad’ for some reason they wouldn’t receive those benefits. The second level, attention, has to do with focusing the mind and practicing attention skills. Attention becomes more selective and can be sustained for longer amounts of time. The third level, emotional balance, strives to end automatic negative reactions/thoughts to events. It also strives to increase compassion, empathy, and overall wellbeing. The last level, exploration of consciousness, can only be achieved if the other levels have all been satisfied. In my opinion, this level wasn’t explained as well as the others had been. Different levels of consciousness can refer to dream yoga, lucid dreaming, and other practices.
Terms: Dzogchen, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, altruism, pyramid of mind training, intention, attention, emotional balance, exploration of consciousness, eudemonic happiness, dream yoga, lucid dreaming
I enjoyed this week’s reading. I used to watch a lot of ninja movies when I was a kid, and loved the culture, at least the way the movies portrayed it, of monks and martial arts and whatnot. Because of this, I address all of these readings involving Buddhism with the same interest I had as a child, although this particular reading was rather wordy in some places. I think the author went out of her way to use a considerable amount of lengthy words to express that this is a topic that’s pretty rich in content, to combat the notion that anything involving meditation is focused on the practice of simply sitting quietly for an allotted period of time. At the beginning of the chapter, the author talked about Maslow’s very familiar hierarchy of needs. They pointed out the hierarchy of the model having basic needs at the bottom progressing to self-actualization at the top. They then included a fact that I had been unaware of. Apparently, in his later writings, Maslow added another level to his hierarchy that represented the pinnacle of human potential. This, to me, seems like something that probably should have been touched on at least one of the many times we have gone over this model in other classes. This level goes beyond the interests of the self, which dominate the lower sections of the pyramid, and was described as being motivated and finding fulfillment in experiences beyond the self-gratification of self-actualization. They discussed self-transcendence, or ‘the will to meaning’, to be the essence of our existence.
The three main groups of Buddhism were presented, as well as their fundamental goals. In Theravada (the practice predominant in Southeast Asia), the emphasis is on self-liberation, while recognizing the interconnected nature of existence. In Mahayana (the practice localized to China, Vietnam, and Japan), the focus is on the liberation of the self and all sentient beings. In Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhism), the focus is that of Mahayana, except the process is intended to be sped up. They then got to the main focus of practice, the path of Dzogchen, a tradition of Tibetan Buddhism that emphasizes the innate pristine nature of awareness. They emphasize the focus of non-duality within the Dzogchen practice, how there should be no distinction between the observer and the observed. The training of Dzogchen was broken down into three fundamental stages, the first of which involves practices of analytical contemplations regarding matters such as what brings us happiness and what results in suffering. The second stage focuses on deepening the basic levels of concentration, and in this stage students generally work closely with a mentor. The third stage involves the dissolution of dualistic perception and the deepening of the understanding of the nature of the mind.
They then talked about the four aspects of well-being, and how Dzogchen works to improve them. The four aspects of well-being are conative, attentional, cognitive, and affective. The conative element involves the intent with which one enters meditation, with more balance being achieved when the focus is on eudaimonic happiness. The attentional aspect has to do with the stability of our attention, which is strengthened through all forms of meditation. The cognitive aspect involves the balance of thinking patterns between apathy and excessive repetitive thinking. Finally, the affective aspect has to do with emotional well-being. The four aspects of well-being seem to do a good job of covering everything that comes to my mind when thinking about well-being. Thus, if Dzogchen is the ideal path to take to enhance the four-aspects of well-being, and in turn your eudaimonic happiness, I can see no reason why one would choose to not pursue this.
Terms: Buddhism, meditation, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, self-transcendence, dualism, Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Dzogchen, the will to meaning, conative, attentional, cognitive, affective, eudaimonic happiness
This chapter discussed fulfillment and human potential. After reading the chapter, it was hard for me to go back and think about what I had just read to write a summary. When the author talks about Dzogchen, I have a hard time understanding what exactly he is trying to explain or discuss. I am also going to have to get used to the pages being single spaced. As of right know, I’m not the biggest fan of this book and I find myself jumping lines and having to reread sentences.
The book started off discussing Maslow and his hierarchy of needs. First and foremost, our survival needs have to be met: food, shelter, clothing, and good health ect. And then Moving to the top where humans strive create a family and further your fulfillment in the work place. The book goes on to discuss Maslow’s self –actualization which from what I understand is doing something you enjoy without expecting recognition. Another psychologist, Victor Frankl found that the highest level of motivation was finding your meaning on life. This focuses more on reaching your full potential and finding your purpose in life. For example, Frankle would say if you were a magnificent artist, it is not your purpose in life to be a librarian.
Buddhist take human potential further. In Buddhism, fulfillment is based on the lack of suffering. Fulfillment is knowing and being at one with the self. Understand who you are and focusing on who you are from within. Though I am all for understanding who you are to your core but the book made Maslow and Frankle seem like their work wasn’t complete in some ways. To quote the book, “Western notions of human potential do not encompass the richness and completeness of the Buddhist approach.” I found this slightly irritating because though Maslow and Frankle do not acknowledge the self, but they have evidence and research to support their findings.
The book goes on and discusses more on Dzogchen, meditation and training the mind. There re four levels in a pyramid of training the mind. The four levels are intention, focus, emotional and stability. There were five or so pages explaining these levels but it was not easy to understand. It seems interesting enough but the concept itself is difficult and I didn’t think the book explained it well. I tried reading the summary in hope that it would sum it up better but that didn’t help. I would like to look more into the pyramid and hopefully be able to understand it.
Terms: Fulfillment, human potential, Dzogchen, Maslow, hierarchy of needs, Frankle, Buddhism, for levels, pyramid, suffering.
Dorjee Chapter 2 proceeds to discuss the human psychology and the need for fulfillment to reach one’s greatest potential. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs describes the motivation behind human action—fulfilling the basic physiological/safety needs and making the way to the top of the hierarchy with self-actualization. At the top of the hierarchy, people do not need others to validate their accomplishments and this motivation lessens the strength of the “I”, “me”, and “mine.” The will and drive to meaning are the self-transcending goals.
For the most part of life, suffering does not occur outside the body, but inside the mind. It is important to understand how the mind works and how it gives rise the experience of suffering in order to have freedom from suffering. Mind training develops positive psychological dimensions, such as optimism and emotional well-being, which helps in challenging life situations. This may also be because of the down-regulation of brain regions associated with fear and anxiety, such as the amygdala.
I found it interesting that the intentions behind the meditation practice either contributes to our suffering or leads to liberation from it—stemming from whether the intentions are virtuous or not. The confused vision of happiness deepens the roots of suffering when meditation practice is used for hedonistic, ego-centered reasons. I would like to see the research behind this claim. I would like to believe it is true but there is no evidence that the person's mind may believe his meditation practice is virtuous. Who is to say what are virtuous reasons and what are not. If it is like the example in the chapter, meditating in order to gain attentional focus and endurance at work may be beneficial for his family who are financially in crisis. Unfortunately, his job is to gain money back from the stock market unethically. I would like to see empirical studies on this and the influence in brain regions. Overall, the highest achievement of enlightenment provides wisdom and compassion for others in order to lead them to the path of liberation.
Key terms: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs; motivation; self-actualization; self-transcending; suffering; amygdala; meditation; liberation; hedonistic; wisdom; compassion
This chapter began by talking about Maslow’s hierarchy of psychological needs humans have including food/shelter, love/belonging, and achievement/recognition. This section made me think of things I see every time I’m at work. I work at Kohl’s and every day little old ladies come in and buy things for their grandchildren while their husbands wait patiently. It seems to be the rule that as humans get older we need to pair up and procreate. It’s a way to fulfill our need of belonging, love, and intimacy. Quite often I think about how even though men and women are so different when it comes to what we want from a relationship when they are my age, we all grow to want the same thing a few years later. I also see the need of achievement and public recognition every day at work. One of the main jobs of Kohl’s employees is to solicit credit and whenever someone opens a credit there is a bell that rings over the intercom so everyone knows who got the credit. We’re often rewarded with tokens, jean day passes, and candy which I think is really childish and superficial. There isn’t much room for self-actualization.
Next the author repeated more information from last chapter about suffering and how the cause of human suffering is often our thoughts, not necessarily anything external happening in the world. That bit made me think about the law of attraction and how the things we think about and the feelings we have influence the things that come into our lives. The chapter also mentioned the three main groups of Buddhism: Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. All forms share the same goal of eliminating suffering. Dzogchen was also discussed along with the four levels of mind and brain and how they relate to training the mind. Dzogchen is, from what I understood, the ultimate path to enlightenment and the first level of the mind training involves determining our purpose and motivation in life. The second level is about directing our attention. The third level is changing negative thoughts and emotions to positive ones. Finally, the fourth level is exploring our mind. As humans, we can train our minds on each of the four levels which can also alter our brains.
I didn’t find much of the chapter very interesting except for the beginning about psychological needs. The chapter was very wordy and it bothers me that the author doesn't use commas before "and" when she is listing things. One common theme that came up a lot in this reading and in other ones this semester was the power of positive thoughts. I read the book The Secret a few years ago and I found it very interesting. It is very similar to everything the books have mentioned with positivity and a happy life. The Secret mentioned the law of attraction which is something I would like to research for next class.
Terms: Maslow’s hierarchy of psychological needs, suffering, Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Dzogchen, four levels of the mind
I found this chapter to a bit difficult to read all in one sitting and when I came back from my break it was hard to remember all the details that I had previously read. There were many points from the chapter that I found interesting but there was also a bunch of extra info that just ended up making me more confused. The chapter started off talking about Maslow and his concept of a hierarchy of needs. They went through the model and how it related to meditation, but they also explained that Maslow added another level called self-transcendence that moved beyond the self into experiences such as justice, truth, and beauty. I had never heard about this extra level until reading the book. This concept of self-transcendence and its ability to push back the personal and individual needs or goals into the mind is a bit heartening to me. There were a lot of terms and names that I got mixed up in this chapter but I did enjoy learning the connection between Buddhism and psychology. The section titled Buddhism and human potential was one of my favorites. When the booked talked about how Buddha explained how we build notions of ourselves and that these notions are not permanent was a key part of the chapter that I liked. Another part of the chapter that I enjoyed was learning about the Dzogchen pyramid and the different levels of mind training that were part of it. These levels were intention, attention, emotional balance, and exploration of the deep levels of consciousness. The book talked about the parts of the brain that were used in mediation and how we can rewire our brain to function more positively which reminded me of parts of the last book but much of the chapter used terms that were not easy for me to understand. The further into the chapter I read the further I got lost. I would like to read more into some of the citations that were use in this chapter because there were points that interested me or I was skeptical of.
Key Terms: Maslow, hierarchy of needs, self-transcendence, Buddhism, Dzogchen, mind training, attention, intention, emotional balance, consciousness
In Chapter 2 Dorjee spoke about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and how it plays into Dzogchen. The book talks about the main four levels: basic physiological needs, safety, belonging, achievement and self-actualization. In the United States we focus mainly on the need of belonging because the majority of us feel safe and are well fed and clothed. Furthermore, the need to dominate and achieve are extremely important in our culture. Our reality shows now show us this idea of having quick success. And our youth make a connection between quick success and happiness. We get this hedonistic happiness point of view and believe that material things are going to make our lives better. The final level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, self-actualization, which is the satisfaction you get from recognizing that you have reached your potential and used your talents and skills to get there. Sometimes this can be finding a job that you are truly passionate about and you enjoy going to. It means that we are able to understand and engage in something we enjoy without expecting to receive anything in return.
Viktor Frankl had a different view of human motivation. He believes that self-transcendence, or self-actualization, are the basis of human behavior. Frankl describes self-transcendence as the “will to meaning” or to “find and fulfill meaning and purpose.” He believes that self-transcendence is at the very core of our lives. If we are unable to recognize the meaning and strive for a specific purpose in our lives, it can end in leading a somewhat meaningless life that could lead to a mental illness like depression.
The book talks a lot about Buddha and his views on the human behavior and potential. Buddha did always say that no one should believe his teachings unless they had a personal experience that backed it up. He wanted everyone that he taught to test what he was saying in their daily lives and see if it worked and was valid. The Buddhist approach to human potential differs with Frankl’s views in that the Buddhist approach is empirical and Frankl’s is analytical. Buddhism doesn’t contain any notion of God or a higher being. Buddhism focuses solely on ourselves and how we can control our own happiness and suffering through our minds.
This chapter goes into more detail about Dzogchen itself and its focus on direct understanding of the nature of awareness. Within Buddhism, Dzogchen is considered the highest of all of the teachings. This chapter also covers the pyramid of mind training found in the Dzogchen teachings. The first level involves developing wholesome motivation for meditation. The second level is focusing on stabilization and refinement of attention. On the third level it involves a “radical emotional remake of the practitioner’s mind.” The final level is an exploration of deeper levels of consciousness even beyond the ordinary mind. These four levels are an important part of Dzogchen and they build on each other.
This chapter talked about a lot of interesting things but I still feel like it is harder to read than our last text. It seems to get into more technical meditation terms and ideas that I don’t fully understand.
Terminology: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Dzogchen, safety, belonging, self-actualization, self-transcendence, achievement, Viktor Frankl, Buddha, depression, happiness, suffering, understanding, awareness, stabilization, exploration, consciousness
Today we read chapter 2 in Dorjee. I did not like today’s chapter as much as I have previous chapters. I thought the chapter was rather long and kind of full of information that wasn’t very important. I did enjoy the section on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs because that is a theory that I have studied several times, and before reading this chapter, I have actually thought about how the top tier of self-actualization fits in quite nicely with meditation. The essential theme of Maslow’s Hierarchy is that humans are motivated to act by certain drives or desires. The first actions are driven by the most basic of desires – physical needs like food and water. Before a human can seek social needs, they need to know they’ll survive until tomorrow. After physical needs are met, then humans can focus on social desires – things like acceptance, comfort, and love. Finally, when a person is cared for both physically and emotionally, they can focus on becoming a better person. This is what I always interpreted self-actualization as – becoming the best version of you that you can be. That sounds like an after school special again, but I digress. In the revised version of Maslow’s Hierarchy, the top tier is not self-actualization, but self-transcendence. This concept is easily comparable to the Buddhist concept of extinction. It is going beyond the physical self, encompassing the world around you as a part of your being and leaving your petty human needs behind. This in Buddhist religious leads to enlightenment and nirvana. It’s kind of an extreme thing to strive for, something I think you would need to spend a lifetime trying to achieve. Tibetan monks for example spend their entire lives meditating, but only a few I think would say they have transcended the self.
The second part of the chapter went into detail about the different schools of Buddhism, including Tibetan Dzogchen, meditation and training the mind. There are four levels in a pyramid of training the mind. The four levels are intention, attention, emotional balance, and exploration of consciousness. This section was a little wordy but these topics were familiar from the other book. Meditation involves a motivation for happiness, focusing the mind, regulation of our inner emotions as well as conscious efforts to control how we express them, and mindfulness about the world and ourselves. The exploration of consciousness also includes exploring the possibilities of the human mind, like lucid dreaming.
Overall, I wasn’t a huge fan about this chapter, although I really do like Maslow’s theory. I’ve studied it many times before, but I always learn something new about it each time. I’m hoping the next chapters will pick up a bit.
Terms: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, motivation, drive, desire, physical and social needs, self-actualization, extinction, enlightenment, nirvana, self-transcendence, self, meditation, intention, attention, emotional balance, exploration of consciousness, emotion
The chapter by Dorjee focused on intention, motivation, and the path that people take as they gain experience in meditation. It begins by describing Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which coincidentally my counseling class has been covering, and Dorjee interestingly writes about the sixth level that Maslow adds later in life to his theory. This sixth level is transcendence. In all my previous encounters with the hierarchy, I’d never been introduced with a level past self-actualization. This sixth level deals with ‘being cognition’, which momentarily parts with the sense of self, is in the moment, centers on emotions like compassion, and is non-judgemental. To sum concisely, transcendence goes beyond self-actualization because it goes beyond the self. Dorjee goes on to explain that there are theorists with conflicting ideas to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. For instance, Viktor Frankl believed that in order to find the will to meaning (our motivating purpose in life) people must travel through the hierarchy in more of a top-down approach, with transcendence being necessary for self-actualization.
The chapter then goes on to explain that Dzogchen Buddhism/meditation differs from Theravada and Mahayana because it focuses on directly understanding concentration and the concept of non-duality. I found this concept in particular hard to understand, but from my take on the reading it seems to go along with the idea of letting go of the concept of ‘self’ and ‘I’ to limit suffering since it’s describes as knocking down the distinctions of ‘observers’ and ‘the observed’. The progression of the meditator’s mind is also examined. Three stages cover the changes and include 1) developing attention and motivation to build a foundational base for the practice, 2) increasing levels of concentration and beginning to understand the concept on non-duality as it relates to the mind, and 3) enlightenment. There’s also the pyramid of mind training in Dzogchen. The steps include 1) looking critically at your life, observing what brings you contentment, and developing motivation, 2) increasing the ability to hold attention and to redirect thoughts, 3) rewiring what emotions are automatic; changing the emotions that are recalled without effort from negative ones to more positive ones, 4) exploring deeper levels of consciousness that are without limit.
Personally, I found the many lists that were presented in the chapter confusing because of their philosophical nature and due to the overlap between many of them. My favorite part about the chapter was the section on intention. Dorjee described intention as being key and if intention is rooted in hedonistic happiness, then the meditation practice will be useless. I found this stressed importance interesting because the other books we have read didn’t seem to have this same emphasis. I like the intention in Dzogchen of attaining enlightenment in order to help other achieve the same thing. Being in a counseling class currently, I’ve been learning how important it is to know yourself and be in a healthy emotional place in order to help others achieve this balanced state of mind. It reminds me of the oxygen mask metaphor on planes; how people have to help themselves first before they can help others. Having these two classes at the same time, I’ve seen a surprising amount crossover in material and see that meditation has the potential to have an incredible positive influence on the work that counselors do. Lastly, I found the guided meditation at the end to be enjoyable and that it helped shed light on how my own priorities in my life connect to my motivations and how being more self-aware of this connection can better my intention for my meditation practice.
Terms: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, transcendence, self-actualization, being cognition, Dzogchen Buddhism, Theravada, Mahayana, concentration, non-duality, suffering, motivation, enlightenment, contentment, consciousness, intention, hedonistic happiness
Well, originally, I read the Chapter 2 from Nataraja because I got the authors of the books mixed up, but, to my relief, I noticed I was mistaken (I found that particular chapter really boring). There were a few really interesting concepts I took from this chapter.
The first was how the intention of meditation can affect the experience of the meditation. The example given in the book discussed how those who wanted to develop some of the characteristics caused by meditation, but only for purposes to gain power. According to Buddhism, this only INCREASES suffering, as opposed to decreasing it, which is where meditation gets started. I found this particularly interesting because I’ve noticed that when I meditate because I want to, as opposed to doing it because I have to for class, my experience is tenfold greater. When I meditate because I want to, which is frequent, I experience all of the symptoms that meditation is supposed to cause. I’m calmer, more focused, more aware, more relaxed. When I meditate because I remind myself I have to for class, I do experience some of those symptoms, but on a much lesser extent. Also, the process is much more difficult. This is a little different from the meditating to make myself better so as to receive more power, but it’s relevant. However, I am curious as to how that works. Sure, the mind/brain is a curious thing, but how would it change its reaction to meditation based on the reason for said meditation? I’m just sure I understand how that’s even possible.
I’m not so sure I agree with Frankl’s idea of self-transcendence being at the top of the pyramid of hierarchies. Perhaps it’s my individualistic upbringing, but I just don’t see that as being entirely beneficial. Sure, there are moments here and there were I have transcendental moments: when walking through a forest or on a large body of water, for example. But I don’t think I’ve reached a point of self-actualization quiet yet, close but not quite, so, according to his theory, I don’t see how I could have reached that point. Even if he is suggesting a more permanent, continual feeling of self-transcendence, I still don’t buy it. When I experienced those moments, I was certainly acknowledging the fact that I am a very small piece of a much larger picture, but I didn’t feel motivated to do anything. I felt I could simply waste away my day in the forest walking through the trees. That is fine and dandy, perhaps even immensely beneficial sometimes, but not all the time. I didn’t want to go to work, talk to friends or work on improving others’ lives. So while I feel self-transcendence can be entirely beneficial, I have yet to be convinced a permanent feeling of transcendence is the way to go.
That being said, I particularly liked the discussion on the interaction between the four different levels of meditation and intention. You certainly can’t be dealing with developing emotionally (affective), when your intention is off.
Terms: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, self-transcendence, meditation, intention, affective
Intention, human potential and Dzogchen (chapter 2) was a chapter of mixed emotions for me, there were periods of great interest, and periods of complete misunderstanding. I realize that Dzogchen is form of Tibetan Buddhism, but it seems like they really went into depth of this religion with little to no background information. I vaguely remember terms like Theravãda, Mahãyãna, and Vajrayãna, but I found that overall the “Buddhist traditions of the path of Dzogchen” section of this chapter left me completely confused. After reading this section I just kept thinking that I was missing something, but I read it twice, and received the same results. The main concept I gained from this section of chapter two is that we as humans need to relinquish suffering by letting go of craving (for worldly possessions), anger, and ignorance. The following subsection “Dzogchen” gave me some great information on the psychological perspective of meditation. This section really started peaking my interest (not including the opening remarks about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which I was very impressed to see) and added some great science to get me all excited about the reading; a welcome change from the first section of the chapter. An interesting perspective brought out in this chapter was the difficulty in validating the meditation research. Everyone meditates differently, and even those using the same sect of meditation may use different methods; making it difficult to measure in a social setting. To ascertain a valid outcome to any meditation research, the type of meditation (including what the individuals focus on) should be controlled. In the large scheme of meditation research I don’t see this as a debilitating problem to the already published works, but I think it is something that others following suit should consider. Dorjee points out that activation within different brain areas while focusing on different things during meditation may produce invalid information. After this section in the book, Dorjee jumps to more information on meditation, specifically the structural aspect of Dzogchen meditation.
There are four levels in Dzogchen meditation (referred to as the pyramid of mind), the first level consists of “developing wholesome motivation for meditation” (Dorjee 2014 pg 49-50). To me this means developing a desire to meditate, this is definitely a step I need to take more seriously. I’m well aware of the benefits of meditation, but I find it difficult to force myself to do it. The second level “focuses on stabilization and refinement of attention” (Dorjee 2014 pg 5!). In other words this step is increasing your ability to see things from other perspectives, and increase your focus. This step has many different effects, including lucid dreaming, more regulated emotional processing. The third level is reshaping towards mindfulness, by the time you reach this step you should be more eudaimonic in life. The fourth and final step produces more transcendental experiences, including lucid dreaming, and transitions of consciousness. These four steps are a gradual process, that are not set in stone, it is more of a map to guide you than a law of meditation. After reaching the fourth step you should be at a sense of enlightenment, where you can successfully move beyond the world of possessions.
Terms: Maslow's Hierarchy, Dzogchen, Theravãda, Mahãyãna, and Vajrayãna, anger, ignorance, eudaimonic, enlightenment, transitions of consciousness, stabilization
I’m not even sure where to start with Chapter two. Majority of it was hard to read and keep organized, probably because I couldn’t pronounce half the words. However, the one thing I found familiar and know a little bit about is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Although, as the book mentioned, in today’s era a lot of these needs are easy and common to come by and achieve. Yet, it is still one of the most common and well known theories within our culture today as when it had first been thought of. However, learning about this before it had to do with the beginning of time and evolution. Another view point covered in the book was Frankl’s Self-Transcendence which related to the drive behind what motivates (if I understood this correctly). Then, the book attempted to describe the three main schools of Buddhism. From then on it lost me. Within this area the term Dozgchen was repeated. Dozgchen is part of Tibetan Buddhism that focuses on the nature of awareness and considered the highest of all Buddhist teachings.
Another thing I found interesting in the way I understood it, while also very confusing even after reading it several times was how specific a researcher studying the effects of meditation needs to be. What I understood from the complexity of meditation research and mind training was that meditation practice is not the only factor as to the results that have been found. Meaning that other aspects play crucial roles, such as a lesson or lecture over the intended thought, feeling, emotion or whatever the main focus is, yoga, and other subdivisions of the main goal of the meditation.
Another topic explained and term that is also repeated is well-being. Buddhist mind training is linked to changes of an individual’s well being, four changes specifically. They are conative, incorporating the focus of eudaimonic happiness within our meditation practice. Another is attentional, being able to recognize with clarity. The third one listed was cognitive, explained as repetitive expressive thinking which involves apathy. And the last one being affective, emotional well-being.
I enjoyed the paragraph over intention. The book explained that the will for life comes from human intention, and that it is central to all human behavior. The Buddhist believe that if ones intention to meditate is to gain power in a selfish way such as to become overpowering or rich, that individual will not reach the full potential of what mediation practice has to offer and will also feel worse than he had before. However, if one’s intentions are for the good of others and sincere he will get many positive aspects in return. This is a neat way to look at how to go about practicing meditation. If you do it to enhance the quality of yourself, others around you will gain from it too.
Terms: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Frankl’s Self-Transcendence, Dozgchen, Tibetan Buddhism, conative, attentional, cognitive, affective, intention
In chapter 2 Dorjee discusses Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and self-transcendence or self-actualization. Maslow’s hierarchy of psychological needs begins with the basic survival necessities of food, water, and shelter. After these needs have been met we then become concerned with safety for both ourselves and our family. Focus will then shift to finding love and finally to achievement and recognition which we will strive for for the remainder of our lives. If someone finally does reach a level of achievement they find suitable they will begin to reach the final stage of Maslow’s hierarchy, self-actualization. Maslow’s self-actualization is a stage of need where we no longer are concerned with the opinion of others and focus to find and be the person that we have always envisioned or wanted to be.
Another psychologist, Viktor Frankl views self-actualization, or as he would call it self-transcendence, in a different manner. Frankl believes that self-transcendence is not the end stage, rather it is the driving force behind our actions because it is the process of finding meaning in life. If we cannot achieve a sense of worth or purpose in life then the result will be existential crisis and depression according to Frankl.
Dorjee then moves from these Western psychological views to Buddhist traditions and Dzogchen. This section was not the easiest to follow. After a few attempts I was able to take away what I hope was the meaning of this chapter. Dzogchen deals with the concept of non-duality. Between this reading and the H & M book I believe that this has to do with the separation of self from thought. By removing the element of “I” or “self” we are able to minimize suffering and then achieve a state of enlightenment and focus. It also provides us with the chance to truly examine our lives from a perspective other than our egocentric self.
Dorjee also discusses how the focus of meditation can drastically change the experience itself. I found this to make sense and be extremely interesting. Buddhist tradition would utilize meditation to reach self-actualization to achieve a greater sense of awareness and compassion. However, meditation can be used for other purposes. Dorjee briefly mentions meditation being used to achieve greater status and power which would be contradictory to its intended purpose.
Terms: Maslow hierarchy of need, love, achievement, self-transcendence, existential crisis, depression, non-duality, suffering, compassion
One again, I am enjoying the Dorjee readings a little more than our previous book, just because it feels so much more scientific. Not only does it feel more scientific, but there is just more body to the chapters. In our previous book, there was a lot of guffy talk and self-help material. I don’t see this same material in the Dorjee book, but rather it provokes deep thought. The chapters are a little dense and it takes longer to read, but I’m enjoying it more. The only big problem that I am having is pronouncing and keeping track of the different kinds of Tibetan meditation.
I like the comparison between eastern and western ideals and ideas. This chapters starts off with the explanation of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a pretty western idea of the levels of fulfillment. The hierarchy of needs was created to be the levels at which we tried to accomplish things. We have the baseline of needs, which are our basic physiological needs. These include our very biological needs of sleep, eating/drinking, sex, and of course breathing. The idea behind the hierarchy is that once a lower level is met, we can focus on the next level, but we must have the levels below in order to move up in the hierarchy. Many people disagree with the rigidness of the hierarchy, especially the Tibetan Buddhists. The final part of the hierarchy is self-actualization. Because of the setup of the hierarchy, this means that every other human need must be met before someone can work towards self-actualization. The Buddhist thinking behind this idea is that anyone can work towards self-actualization at any time. It is a little bit different because the Buddhist way of thinking doesn’t really concern itself with the self-part of self-actualization; rather it focuses on finding a deeper meaning in life. The self becomes less important and the journey is more of what matters.
I remember the book talking about different levels of contentment and it really sparked my interest. Within my recent years of life (college) I have really honed in on the want for contentedness. In reality, happiness is great but it is fleeting. Happiness is what it is because we also have sadness and other things at the opposite end of the spectrum. The book talks about how the contentment allows us more time to focus on looking past the ordinary mind. I think this portion is very similar to Maslow’s hierarchy in the sense that self-actualization seems to be a reward for previous tasks being met. In Maslow’s Hierarchy, different rigorous levels must be met, while the Buddhist teachings allow self-actualization to be attempted at any time. However, a level of actualization becomes more achievable with more well-being and better control of the mind. This exploration behind the basic mind has shown to have an affect (growth) on the prefrontal cortex, which is the higher power thinking within the brain.
Terms: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, physiological needs, psychological needs, self-actualization, contentedness, well-being.
In chapter 2, Dorjee discussed the hierarchy of human needs, along with Buddhist traditions and the path of Dzogchen. At various times in the human’s life, happiness shapes into specific goals. The book provides the reader with examples which illustrates how one’s ideas of happiness differ from another individual’s view of happiness. For example, for a university undergraduate student it may be acceptance into a graduate school; for somebody starting their first job a wish for independence and economic stability; at some milestones in our career it may be job promotion; and with maturity also comes the need to find a soul mate and a wish to begin a family. With this said, human being have an innate need to belong as well as other humans need. Abraham Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of needs is one of the most widely accepted theories of human motivation. Maslow describes that at the foundational level of motivation we all strive for basic physiological needs such as food, water, and shelter. Once these needs are satisfied we are more concerned about safety, including personal safety, economic stability and family safety. When these basic survival conditions are sufficiently stable, people primarily focus on the needs of belonging and love nurtured in our relationships with friends and loved ones. After this stage, the needs for achievement and recognition dominate our life.
The different views of self-transcendence was very intriguing. According to Abraham Maslow, self-transcendence represents the pinnacle of human motivation. Self-transcendence arises when a person is motivated by and finds satisfaction in striving and experiences beyond the self-gratification of self-actualization. For other psychologists, like Victor Frankl, self-transcendence is a much more fundamental force, even the primary drive of human behavior. Rather than focusing on self-transcending experiences, Frankl described self-transcendence as the “willing to meaning”, the drive to “find and fulfill meaning and purpose in life. Self-transcendence has gained a lot of recognition in the several research experiments that have attempted to capture the human tendency towards self-transcendence. For example, Robert Cloninger states that self-transcendence is an important aspect of personality which markedly shapes our tendencies, thoughts, feelings and behavior. In order to measure the effects of self-transcendence, Cloninger and his colleagues (1994) developed a questionnaire, Temperament and Character Inventory, which includes a self-transcendence as one of its dimensions. Research using the Temperament and Character Inventory indicates that self-transcendence serves as a mediator in the development of positive psychological dimensions such as optimism and emotional well-being in challenging life situations, for example when one is faced with a life-changing diagnosis such as cancer (Matthews and Cook, 2009).
I thought that the most interesting part of the book was the section about Buddhism on human potential. Although, Buddhist also believe that the self-transcending element of motivation is the highest level of human motivation, Buddhist have a completely different perception of self-transcendence. The four noble truths’ explain that the central motivation of all beings is the wish to be free from suffering. The truths are: (a). The truth of suffering (dukkha), (b). The truth of the cause of suffering (samudaya), (c). The truth of the end of suffering (nirhodha) and (d). The truth of the path that frees us from suffering (magga). Buddha’s teachings suggest that the deep roots of suffering are not found in the external world but in the mind. Buddha also describes a way to reach freedom from suffering which involves understanding how our mind works. The freedom from suffering comes from a deep understanding of how our mind creates the experiences of illness, frustration and harm, and the ability to liberate the roots of their experiential arising. All in all, out of the three theories presented about human potential I believe that the Buddhist approach is the better theory compared to Maslow’s and Frankl’s theory. I believe this because the unique aspect of the Buddhist approach to human potential describes human motivation and needs but it also outlines a clear path of mind training which leads to accomplishment of the potential. I really enjoy learning about Buddhism. While attending community college, Palo Alto, in San Antonio, Texas, I learned about many religious views and how they were different from the Westernized views, including Confucius, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. and out of all the views I found Buddhism the most interesting because the belief in things like the wheel of samsara, Nirvana and four noble truths.
Terms: hierarchy of human needs, Buddhist traditions, the path of Dzogchen, Buddhism, happiness, need to belong, human motivation, Abraham Maslow, need for achievement, need for recognition, self-transcendence, Victor Frankl, willing to meaning, Robert Cloninger, four noble truths’
In this chapter we begin to understand more about the Dzogchen teachings of meditation. It also compares the western view of development compared to the Buddhist view. With western culture we described person progression of the human needs on the path to fulfillment of one’s potential. The hierarchy of human need begins with the basic psychical need of food, water, and shelter. It then goes up to reach self-actualization which is when our skills are fully developed. This goes along with the self-centered purpose of happiness and gives deeper meaning to ones’ self. In Buddhism the fulfillment of human potential means earning the highest level of mental balance which goes along with levels of non-self-centered happiness.
The rebuilding of the human mind is the main focus of Dzogchen. There are four main levels that it must change in the mind and brain. The first is to think about what our motivation is in life, and see what makes us actually happy. The second trains our mind attention. By training our attention you can then redirect the mind toward well-being and better mental activity. The third is to train our mind to not always go toward the negative thoughts and feelings, but instead use emotions such as compassion and kindness. Finally the fourth can only be activated once the previous ones are met. We can then focus more what is behind the mind. What I interpret from this is they are trying to say we have to see the bigger picture and all around us to find genuine happiness. All of these combined will help a person realize true happiness.
By using all of these level people can start to see a change in the way they think. The mind and brain have a more focused cognitive control. This help to extinguish areas of depression and anxiety.
Terms: Dzogchen, meditation, Buddhism, western view, self-actualization, happiness, mental balance, attention, depression, anxiety, emotions, cognitive control