Have you ever asked yourself questions like: “Why does this always happen to me?” I’m successful but why am I not happy? Why is life so stressful? Why do certain things make me so angry? What causes rage? This book will help you to answer these questions and others, as it takes you on a step-by-step journey exploring ideas about how the human mind works and how listening, learning and sharing can resolve these issues.
Listen Learn Share is a story inspired by a question. “If you had to choose just one of the things you do, would you choose teaching, making films and documentaries, or writing?” My answer to the question surprised me. I realized they were all the same experience so there was no need to choose. My life was listening, learning and sharing. It did not matter what form it took, it was all the same practice. How did this happen? Was listening the key to learning? What role did sharing play? I found that listening is a state of mind rather than a tool by itself. I discovered that listening is more than what is heard via sound waves entering the ears.
“It seems that there should be one word that exemplifies the concept of listening, learning and sharing. This word should describe a state of mind with a sense that embodies the combined spirit of all three words. I believe the word is “mindfulness.”
“Twenty-six centuries after Buddha taught his philosophy science has begun to recognize that much of what he taught supports their research. Psychologists are now confirming the concept of “No Self” and the fact that “I” and “Me” are just constructs of the mind.”
This story draws from the authors forty-six years of teaching, making documentaries, fiction work, and writing. The book explains how the practice of listening, learning and sharing works and how it is tied in with meditation and mindfulness.
Listen Learn Share: How & Why Listening, Learning and Sharing can Transform Your Life Experience In Practical Ways
Actuality Interviewing and Listening: How to conduct successful interviews for nonfiction storytelling, actuality documentaries and other disciplines by … and Nonfiction Storytelling Book 1)
After some dinner nearby, my son and I headed into the Dr. Phillips, Disney Theater in Orlando to see a live performance with Steve Martin and Martin Short. There in the busy lobby I felt consciously present, in the moment aware of the environment, absorbed by the people and ambiance of this place and time. Anticipating the two-hour performance I headed into the restroom, which appeared to be a long room with facilities on either side. As I walked along looking for an open place, I noticed an older man walking toward me, almost like he knew me, he smiled, as he grew closer I noticed that he had a baseball cap on just like mine, and I started to say, “we have the same cap,” but as I reached up, pointing to my hat, my arm came into contact with the wall-to-wall, floor to ceiling mirror at the end of the room. I realized that the stranger coming toward me was my reflection in this mirror.
I’ve seen my photograph and reflections in the mirror a million times, but this was always from my subjective perspective. It seemed this time, for a moment, perhaps for the first time; I saw this body that I call me, as a stranger, in what could only be a mindful, “not self,” reflection.
One of the tenants of Buddhist philosophy is the “No Self” concept. Whoever was there a moment ago is no longer you. The notion of “I” or “Me” or “I Am” does not exist. There is no “mini me” in the body’s mind, head or heart, making decisions. There may be memories of the past but those are thoughts stored in the archives of the mind’s modules that render a subjective point-of-view to what is experienced. The feeling of joy or pain is also not you; it’s an impermanent, passing thought or state.
Insight Meditation and the resulting Mindfulness facilitate mind and body living in the present moment, bare attention, non judgmental awareness of what is being experienced now, not thinking about past or future events and conversations.
Is the Buddhist notion of “not self” a philosophy of life supported by modern psychological practice and scientific research? Does self exist? The Buddhist interpretation of no self may sound nihilistic, but according to Buddhist thinking it is not.
The Buddha’s argument that there is no self has merit. There are only passing, sometimes random, feelings and thoughts. Any notion of self is rooted in past thoughts. Clinging to self is living in the past, like trying to drive a car forward by only looking in the rear view mirror. If there is no self, past, present and future are the products of conscious thinking.
According to Buddhist thought there is a construct of five aggregates that make up human existence, each area constantly changing, but together they appear to have continuity that is mistaken for a self. The five aggregates or “skandhas” are Consciousness (subjective awareness), Form (body), Feeling, Perception and Mental Formations.
In The Foundations of Buddhism, Rupert Gethin writes about considering self as “causal connectedness.” There are twelve progressing links in the chain of “dependent arising,” each “conditions” the next link,” bringing about the whole of suffering. Each link “conditions” the rising of the next link. “…the concern is to show that physical and mental events occur in various relationships to each other.” – Gethin pg. 140-1
According to Buddha, there are only two things in life; there is only suffering (duhkha), or the cessation of suffering. He asks is suffering the self? This would seem to be the same as asking is “life” the self? In an exchange with the monks, who were his disciples, the Buddha challenges them, saying that you will not find self in the five aggregates of physical or mental events that define human existence. Looking at each of the five aggregates (skandhas), he submits that, everything happening in these five areas is temporary or impermanent. Things that are impermanent are considered as suffering (duhkha). Therefore they cannot be self.
Examining the five aggregates the Buddha, in his first discourse, asks the monks if the happenings in these areas are permanent or impermanent? He asks is pain the self? They reply, “no it is not.” Pain is impermanent. The Buddha asks, is it correct to consider something that will change as “this is mine, I am this, this my self?” The monks agree it is not. The Buddha concludes then, that we must say, “This is not mine, I am not this, this is not myself.” There is no self because it cannot be found anywhere within the five aggregates that define human life.
The underlying message here to the monks in a modern context is that they should stop “clinging or “grasping” these experiences in the five aggregates, as they do not need to own these experiences. This is not their identity. The Buddha was a teacher, and in a possibly therapeutic way, counseling the monks, who were obsessing or clinging to all their experiences as their identity, in fear that they would not attain enlightenment.
A modern therapist might ask a patient questions that actually parallel the five aggregates. For example:
“Is the feeling of pain you suffered as a child at the hands of other children, who you are?”
“No that pain isn’t who I am. Not me.”
“Is the resentment you feel toward your friend who you are?”
“I might feel resentful, but that’s not me.”
“What then is the point of clinging or holding on to these things?”
Using different language, not holding on to things that are impermanent because they are basis for suffering is a concept that seems to be a major part of modern psychological therapy. Buddhist teaching of no self allows the individual to summarily divorce traumatic experience, to stop “clinging” to pain and “grasping” suffering, leading to a cessation of suffering.
To Buddhists the five aggregates are all of existence. Experiences that happen in the aggregates are not you therefore there is no self. It should be noted however, since the Buddha apparently only said that the self was not found in the five aggregates, that he might not have been saying that it did not exist at all. There is a movement around the Buddha’s thinking that acknowledges no self, but at the same time, recognizes universal consciousness. Meditation brings us into contact with our true collective self.
Have you ever asked yourself questions like: “Why does this always happen to me?” I’m successful but why am I not happy? Why is life so stressful? Why do certain things make me so angry? What causes rage? This book will help you to answer these questions and others, as it takes you on a step-by-step journey exploring ideas about how the human mind works and how listening, learning and sharing can resolve these issues.
