The value of ritual is in its expression, rather than its content.

Life is a succession of often unconnected, disparate encounters, interactions and relationships, managed, more or less, through habituated patterns of conscious and unconscious behaviour.Ritual represented a break from the everyday and an entry into a different realm of ritual space. It gave us the freedom to respond differently in everyday life.

Ritual as a Break

Puett and Gross-Loh argue that ritual is a kind of make believe, a form of play, or an art form that people tend to forget as they grow out of childhood.When children play, they consciously pretend and lose themselves in alternate realities, exploring imagined and different sides of themselves, and finding new and creative ways of being in the world.Confucian ritual was a cultivated form of play or performance art that could have the same effect on adults as play does on children.

Ritual as a playground

Puett and Gros-Loh say: “Our patterned behaviours and rote habits – not rituals – are what really dictate our lives and get in the way of our caring for other people. But through life spent doing as-if rituals that break these patterns, we gain the ability to sense how to be good to those around us.”To deliberately engage in ritual is not to behave like an automaton. On the contrary, it can bring about a recognition of how many of our everyday, unexamined patterns of behaviour truly are the places where we act like automatons.

Habits vs Rituals

If we’re to perform ritual as if it’s true then we will need to do it wholeheartedly, which is to say, with body, speech and thought. When the whole self is engaged in activity, we participate selflessly, because no part of us is left out from the activity. Body, speech and mind are ambivalent agents. They are gateways to both enlightened and deluded activity.To put things simply, we could say that the role of the body, is to bring the hands together or to adopt the posture of meditation; understood as speech it is remain silent; and understood as thought, it is to concentrate.

Practicing Rituals - Body, Speech and Thought

Rituals from a Zen peerspective - Some reflections and ideas 

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Philosophy

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Religion & Spirituality

mindfulness

Mindfulness

health

Health

meditation

Meditation

Body, Speech and Thought - The Transformative Power of Ritual

…is a theoretical paradox of time travel.It occurs when an object or piece of information sent back in time becomes trapped within an infinite cause-effect loop. The item no longer has a discernible point of origin, and is said to be “uncaused” or “self-created”

The Bootstrap Paradox

In the Terminator movies, Skynet is an example of a bootstrap paradox involving an object. Skynet, the conscious AI system and mankind’s nemesis, could not have been invented without the leftover components of the T-800 cybernetic organism it sent back in time to stop John Connor. The technology was analyzed and Skynet and cyborgs were subsequently created through reverse engineering.

Terminator movies

Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity tells us that we have got almost complete freedom of movement into the future.Time travel to the past, on the other hand, throws up a number of paradoxes.Any time travel paradoxes that do arise are therefore of particular concern to theoretical physicists. Their line of reasoning has subsequently led many of them to conclude that time travel to the past must be impossible.

Time Travel In To The Past?

While a bootstrap paradox may produce a consistent account of the timeline’s history, one problem associated with this ontological conundrum is an apparent violation of the Law of Causality.As a result, scientists are presented with an obvious problem in that they are no longer able to say that a past ’cause’ leads to a future ‘event’. The event may equally have been created in the future before leading to its cause in the past. Instead of time moving from a dead past to an undetermined future, the past, present, and future are, in fact, all equally real at the same time.

Problem #1 - Law of Causality

Another problem is an apparent violation of the second law of thermodynamics, which states that systems always flow from a state of order to a state of disorder.An object or information trapped within a time loop would continue to age and eventually disintegrate.The movie “Somewhere in Time”provides an example of a bootstrap paradox involving an object, in this case a pocket watch.An inconsistency that arises is how the pocket watch survives countless time cycles while remaining unaffected by time.One solution may be to assume that entropy is somehow reversed by time travel

Problem #2 - Law of Entropy

When mind go wild and you wonder about time traveling

The Bootstrap Paradox is a theoretical paradox of time travel that occurs when an object or piece of information sent back in time becomes trapped within an infinite cause-effect loop in which the item no longer has a discernible point of origin, and is said to be “uncaused” or “self-created”.

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Science Fiction

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Technology & The Future

Time Travel & the Bootstrap Paradox Explained

Alfred Adler was a part of the psychoanalytic movement of the early 1900s that focused on the causes of personality.Adler targeted the role of the family system, including sibling influences, as central in personality.A key construct in Adler’s theory was the inferiority complex.

Adler’s theory of individual psychology

From Adler’s perspective, social comparisons and power dynamics in families were central in the individuals’ sense of self. Adler’s insights led him to advocate the importance of egalitarianism—including equal treatment of siblings—as an important preventive measure in promoting self-esteem.Adler’s interest was the birth-order effects on individual development and the impact on sibling relationship process.

Sense of self & Feeling Of Inferiority

According to Adler, rivalry between siblings is grounded in each child’s need to overcome potential feelings of inferiority.Sibling differentiation is a key dynamic in families.Parental favoritism of one sibling over the other is linked to poorer sibling relationships. Cultural factors also may be at play, such that differential treatment has more negative implications in individualistic than in collectivistic cultures.

Siblings Rivalry

Sibling differentiation serves to minimize sibling competition.

Understand yourself and those around you.

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Psychology

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Parenting

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Mental Health

problemsolving

Problem Solving

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Communication

Sibling Relationships

In lucid dreams, you are aware of dreaming and can control the dream.
- Lucid dreaming is a learnable skill.
- There are many techniques to help you have lucid dreams.
- You are aware that you are dreaming without waking up.
- Lucid dreaming has been linked to thinking about thinking.
- The most active parts of the brain while lucid dreaming are the frontolateral and frontal areas.
- It can be helpful for recurrent nightmares.

6 Inroductive Ideas about Lucid Dreaming

Some ideas extracted from sample records for lucid dream induction

Lucid dreaming - awareness while sleeping 

Wilfred Bion was an Indian-born British psychoanalyst and president of the British Psychoanalytical Society during the 1960s. A pioneer in group dynamics, he worked closely with traumatised soldiers during the Second World War and became well-known for his studies of patients in psychotic states.

WILFRED BION

“0" is perhaps Bion's most far-reaching conception.He refers to it by different terms:• "Absolute Truth,"•"Ultimate Reality," or•"reverence and awe."A transformation in "0" is attainable only by the disciplined abandonment of memory, desire, understanding, sense impressions -- and perhaps also the abandonment of ego itself.The concept of "O," beginning with "thoughts without a thinker," the "things-in-themselves," "beta elements," "memoirs of the future," and "inherent preconceptions" transcended both Freud's Unconscious and its constant conjunction with infantile sexuality.

“0" Concept

Bion revealed the ineffable matrix - the container transcending existence, undermining certainties with mocking doubts.
<ol> 
	<li>Uncountable Void</li>
	<li>Undeterminable certainty</li>
	<li>Endless Existence</li>
</ol>

Ineffable matrix

In simpler terms, epistemology is the study of how we gain knowledge and understanding. Bion observed that infants communicate their fears to their mothers, who "translate" them into meaning. This process starts the process of normal thinking and shapes our understanding.

The Field of Epistemology

The Importance of Truth in Mental Growth:
<ul>
<li>Bion believed that truth is essential for mental growth, just like food is for physical growth.</li>
<li>He described the lie as a negative validation of the truth that needs to be rejected.</li>
<li>In his view, truth does not require a thinker to be validated as it speaks for itself.</li>
<li>Bion also introduced the mystical concept of "O" in relation to the truth.</li>
</ul>

The Importance of Truth

Ultimate Reality is a concept beyond our senses and imagination, including Plato's Theory of Eternal Forms and Bion's "thoughts without a thinker."
<ul>
 <li>Thoughts without a thinker" derive from "O."</li>
 <li>They are the "unborns," the "intimations of immortality."</li>
 <li>These thoughts cannot be found because they can never be an object, only enhancing our sense of subjectivity.</li>
</ul>

Understanding Ultimate Reality

Bion's concept of "0" seems to be circular. It is within us, around us, and beyond us - as well as before us and after us; we temporally proceed from it, through it, and toward it.
"0" as our mystically directed trajectory fulfills Plato's conception, "That which is always becoming" - but never really attained.

The End is Where We Start From...

Bion believed that through a mystical realization, we become "0." This transformation is completely internal and meditative, urging us to let go of sensory objects such as memories, desires, and understanding.In order to reach this state, we must contemplate without an object to contemplate. This allows us to surrender to the vastness of the unknown and experience a profound, transformative awakening. Key concepts:<ul><li>"0" as a state of being</li><li>Importance of letting go of external objects</li><li>Contemplation without an object as a path to self-discovery.</li></ul>

The Power of Transubjective Mystical Realization

“Truth spoke for itself and therefore required no thinker.”

BIONS TRANSFORMATION IN O AND THE CONCEPT OF THE TRANSCENDENT POSITION by James S. GrotsteinINTRODUCTION Bion, who was to become the awesome explorer of the deep and formless infinite of t  威尔弗雷德·鲁普莱希特·比昂（（Wilfred Ruprecht Bion，1897年9月8日－1979年11月8日）/拜昂英国精神分析学家，群体动力学研究的先驱。曾经跟从梅兰妮·克莱因进行分析,曾经加入塔维斯托克小组。关键著作有“群体中的经验”。毕昂1897年生于印度，八岁始至英国接受学校教育。第一次世界大战期间，他于法国服役，担任战车指挥官，并获颁卓越服务勋章以及荣誉勋位。在牛津的皇后学院攻读历史之后，他转往伦敦的大学学院研习医学。因为对精神分析的兴趣日益增加，他开始接受瑞克曼的训练分析，之后则由克莱因接手。在1940-1950年期间，他专注于团体过程的研究。后来他放弃这个领域而转向精神分析的实务工作，之后担任伦敦精神分析诊所主任（1956-1962）以及英国精神分析学会会长（1962-1965）。1968年起，他到洛杉矶工作，1979年回到英国，两个月后过世。

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Society, Arts & Culture

BION'S EPISTEMOLOGICAL ODYSSEY INTO THE "DEEP AND FORMLESS INFINITE”

Born in Ohio in 1925, James S Grotstein was an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.He was a key figure in the introduction of Kleinian ideas to Californian psychoanalysis, and a passionate follower of Bion’s work. He possessed great enthusiasm for life, as well as a lively sense of humour, a keen habit of punning and playing with language, and a love of tennis.

James Grotstein

Grotstein’s defining characteristics was a passionate, sustained desire to link what, to others, might appear very different – even irreconcilable – conceptual strains.“I myself am basically Kleinian – with a Bionian accent. I speak Winnicott and Fairbairn fluently, and Lacan less fluently. But I would never want to undertake an analysis without Kohut looking over my shoulder – as one of my highly treasured guides.”

Psychoanalytic multilingualism

From his first encounter with Bion’s ideas, Grotstein was a committed advocate of his work. He went on to be both supervised and analysed by him for 6 years. Grotstein himself was sometimes perplexed, though always enthralled, by Bion’s extensions of Kleinian and Freudian concepts. He was fascinated by Bion’s quite philosophical – indeed, spiritual – concept of ‘O’.

Klein and Bion Influence

Wilfred Bion's concept of O is his most mysterious idea, representing absolute truth and the mind necessary to apprehend it. It is also his most controversial idea, for it reflects infinite, unknowable, ultimate reality – all ideas that, like O, cannot be defined in logical terms.In a way O is a more transcendent version of the Unconscious.

Bion’s Concept of “O”

In his book, “Who Is the Dreamer Who Dreams the Dream? A Study of Psychic Presences”, James Grotstein integrates some of his most important work of recent years in addressing fundamental questions of human psychology and spirituality. He explores two quintessential and interrelated psychoanalytic problems:〰️ the nature of the unconscious mind and 〰️ the meaning and inner structure of human subjectivity.

Who Is the Dreamer, Who Dreams the Dream?

James Grotstein truly had, and never lost, the beginner’s attitude: he felt fascinated by what he was privileged to hear, see and think in relation to others.

The Beginner’s Mindset

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

history

History

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Videos

James Grotstein – Psychoanalytic ‘multilingualism’

“Awaken from this illusion and understand that black implies white, self implies other, life implies death (or shall I say death implies life?), you can feel yourself – not as a stranger in the world, not as something here on probation, not as something that has arrived here by fluke – but you can begin to feel your own existence as absolutely fundamental.”

Let’s suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream you wanted to dream and that you could, for example, have the power within one night to dream 75 years of time or any length of time you wanted to have.As you began on this adventure of dreams, you would fulfill all your wishes. You would have every kind of pleasure during your sleep. And after several nights of 75 years of total pleasure each, you would say:“Well, that was pretty great. But now let’s have a surprise. “

“Let’s suppose” game

“Let’s have a dream which isn’t under control, where something is gonna happen to me that I don’t know what it’s gonna be”.

You would get more and more adventurous and you would make further- and further out gambles to what you would dream. Finally, you would dream where you are now. You would dream the dream of living the life that you are actually living today. That would be within the infinite multiplicity of choices you would have.Of playing that you weren’t God.

More and more adventurous dreams

Everybody is fundamentally the ultimate reality Not God in a politically kingly sense, but god in the sense of being the self, the deep-down basic whatever there is. And you are all that, only you are pretending you are not.

Alan Watts had a pretty inspiring philosophy on life.

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Motivation & Inspiration

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Creativity

The Dream Of Life - Alan Watts (Speech) 

🚻 Women have a contra sexuality which is masculine in nature and this is called the Animus.🚻 Men have a contra sexuality which is feminine in nature and this is called the Anima.

The Contra Sexuality

The Animus is the woman’s rational function and the Anima is the man’s irrational function.

In a woman her contra sexuality is masculine and governs her rational thinking function and we call this the Animus.In a man his contra sexuality is feminine and governs his irrational feeling function and we call this the Anima.The archetype of the Anima/Animus forms a bridge between our personal unconscious and what Jung refers to as the Collective Unconscious.

How It Works

Under normal circumstances the masculine and feminine will be modelled on the first imprint in the child’s life of the masculine and feminine – the father and mother.

Archetypes: Father and Mother, King and Queen

One of the differentiating qualities which Jung identified between the animus and anima is that the animus has a multiplicity to it whereas the anima appears more in the singular.A good example of this is the fairytale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs– who are all animus manifestations, psychologically speaking.

The Animus

>Tarzan , the unconscious primitive but physically vital masculine.>James Bond , suave man of the world.>Steve Jobs or Richard Branson , integrated masculine, strong, creative, attractive but more androgynous.>Barak Obama ,integrated evolved masculine epitomising secular values in their most evolved form.>Mahatma Ghandi or Nelson Mandela , the masculine which now brings the spiritual component into the world, transcending the mundane and secular but without denying it.>Christ , Mohammed , Buddha, the conscious spiritual incarnation of the masculine, the unconscious masculine.

Archetypal examples of Animus

The animus when it is integrated in a healthy female psyche would typically imbue the following qualities:🪄Good rational and logical ability.🪄Ability for clear non attached thought.🪄Ability to construct by sustained effort and application.🪄A strong centre.🪄Good external strength in the persona.🪄Bridge to knowledge and creative thought.🪄Problem solving.

The Integrated Animus

When the animus is displaced or overwhelms the female psyche it may exhibit some of the following symptoms:❌Know it all behaviour.❌Bullying.❌Sadism.❌Controlling.❌Loud.❌Inability to effectively and meaningfully relate.

The Displaced Animus

The Anima, naturally, is originally based on the boy’s image of his mother and this later evolves with his relatedness to more mature romantic relationships.

The Anima

A man will generally project his anima onto only a single woman at any one time, whereas a woman would frequently have more than one animus projection in her life.

>Brooke Shields in her original virginal role as a teenage star, pre sexual feminine>Marilyn Monroe, the fully developed sexual diva>Jackie Kennedy or Eleanor Roosevelt , the mature feminine supportive wife, mother, nurturer>Margret Thatcher , strong, intuitive leadership with some sacrifice of the feminine>Evita Pero, the feminine in a strong leadership role but still feminine on bearing and orientation>The Virgin Mary , the true transcendent iconic female, no longer of this world

Archetypal examples of the Anima

🪄Self soothing, self nurturing and self loving.🪄Access to creative inspiration.🪄Strong centre and contained inner life.🪄Capable of empathy.🪄Able to make value judgements beyond the realm of pure rationality.🪄Access to feeling life.🪄Good relatedness.🪄Happy.

The Integrated Anima

❌Uncontained, constantly seeking external affirmation.❌Lack of creativity.❌Moody.❌Bitchy.❌Poor relatedness, behaviour in relationships designed to isolate the person from others.❌Masochistic.❌Greedy, grasping.❌Self centred.

The Displaced Anima

The Archetypes of the Anima and Animus in Jungian Psychology.

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

The Archetypes of the Anima and Animus

“When was the last time you felt grateful because nothing happened?”You don’t live in a war zone, like many others. You are not starving and suffering from famine, like many others. You didn’t have a heart attack. Nobody shot at you or robbed your home while you were gone.

1. BE GRATEFUL FOR NOTHING.

“Every circumstance, no matter how complex, challenging, and frustrating, contains a positive seed that should be nurtured.”Practice simply to give thanks for what we have received.

2. MAKE GRATITUDE YOUR CENTRAL SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

Be especially grateful for having to deal with annoying people and difficult situations, because without them ... how could we practice patience, exertion, mindfulness, loving-kindness, or compassion? It is by dealing with such challenges that we grow and develop.

3. APPRECIATE IRRITATING PEOPLE.

“These two people are hard to find in the world. Which two? The one who is first to do a kindness, and the one who is grateful and thankful for a kindness done.”

4. BECOME HIGHLY RESPONSIVE TO KINDNESS RECEIVED.

Train yourself to see a positive in the presence of many negatives.Every circumstance, no matter how complex, challenging, and frustrating, contains a positive seed that should be nurtured.

5. LOOK FOR THE SILVER LINING.

Take a few minutes at the end of each day to mentally note the many people who have invisibly served you by providing medicine, shelter, safety, food, and education.”

6. EXPAND YOUR MINDFULNESS.

Many Buddhist monks begin each day with this chant of gratitude: “With gratitude I remember the people, animals, plants, insects, creatures of the sky and sea, air and water, fire and earth, all whose joyful exertion blesses my life every day. With gratitude I remember the care and labor of a thousand generations of elders and ancestors who came before me…..

7. Start each day like a Buddhist monk.

Building your sense of thankfulness the Buddhist way. Not because you have to be grateful.

Gratitude is powerful. Building your sense of thankfulness the Buddhist way.

Seven Buddhist Lessons in Gratitude 

Spiritual awakening is often seen as a light and pleasant experience, but that is not always the case. There are phases of the awakening process that will feel like you are losing your mind, losing your friends and family, losing your sense of stability in the world or all three at once!

The “Dark Side”

The hermit phase could be seen as an in-between state after the dark night of the soul and before opening back up to the world. It’s a phase of deep solitude, introspection, and redirection.

The Hermit Phase

We feel lost, depressed, constantly tired – it’s a lot to deal with.The hermit phase can be extremely isolating and disorienting, however it can also be a beautiful period of self-discovery.

Common Feelings In The Hermit Phase

At the start of the spiritual awakening you had to come to grips with how your old life was in contradiction with your new awareness.You learn to let go and surrender, accepting what you experiencing rather than avoiding. You have to let go of the metaphysical chase and be with yourself (and all the emotions that arose) in the moment.

Why the hermit phase happens

“Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being more or less happy. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the facade of pretense. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true—from ourselves to the world.”

<ul><li>You lose passion & motivation</li><li>You feel extra sensitive</li><li>You crave solitude</li><li>You’re looking for answers</li><li>You feel intuitively guided</li></ul>

5 signs you are in ‘hermit mode’

This phase can last for many months or years . The most important thing to remember when you are going through this phase is that you are not alone. Building community after this phase is so important.

Alone Vs Community

<ul><li>Acceptance of self</li><li>Deeper relationships</li><li>Integration</li><li>Finding purpose</li></ul>The hermit phase is extremely common when we are in a transitional phase of our lives, when we are moving homes or on a break from work. It’s during these times that we have the space to really examine who and what we are, and where we want to go.

What comes after the hermit phase?

Learn all about the hermit phase of spiritual awakening, what it entails and how to get through it practically.

Body, Speech and Thought - The Transformative Power of Ritual

Time Travel & the Bootstrap Paradox Explained

Sibling Relationships

Lucid dreaming - awareness while sleeping

BION'S EPISTEMOLOGICAL ODYSSEY INTO THE "DEEP AND FORMLESS INFINITE”

Ade Oane