"Our world" is a dystopian, increasingly dangerous place, arguably a result of our outdated Operating System (OS) and some evolutionarily-useful programs installed when our numbers were increasing rapidly and competition was fierce, about 75,000 years ago.
The creation of symbolic logic and subject/doing/object languaging with hierarchical, structure-enhancing programs made possible complex multi-tasking for large groups which allowed us to dominate the planet. However, they are ill-designed for today's massively-interconnected, hyper-complex world with billions of us.
"Uninstall your outdated OS 1, upload your new OS 2" and the videos "Upgrading Your Mental Operating System" and "Are 'we' just outdated, buggy programs?" discuss this.
"Aleppo, Trump, Berlin, Orlandos, Nice...what can you do?" highlighted how our outdated programs drive our political, ecological, religious, etc. crises. Without a significant change, the future appears bleak for our species unless some folk warp-drive to a "better place". However, without a new OS, they would recreate the same dystopia.
What would an "upgrade" that improved our functional competency, lowered our anxiety, stress, fear, aggressiveness, etc., and saved our species look like:
a) Use software removal tools on the ego/I program and its subroutine "I am this body."
As Ramana Maharshi said re the world's problems in the 1940s:
Devotee: There are great men, public workers, who cannot solve the problem of the misery of the world.
Ramana: They are ego-centered; hence their inability. If they remained in the Self, they would be different.
Right-sizing/de-energizing the ego/I program is just asking "Where am I?", "Who hears?", "When am I?", "What has this thought?", etc. With continued practice, the ego/I construct's problematic nature and questionable value is revealed and the program removed or moved to "the cloud" for decreasing usage.
This removal tool was popularized by Ramana Maharshi and the Japanese Zen monk, Bassui. The blogpost "What is the 'Direct Path' to Nondual Awakening? What is self-inquiry?" and the book "Happiness Beyond Thought" detail the practice as does the video playlist "Guided Meditation".
b) Discontinue using and supporting the confirmation bias program.
Confirmation bias is "to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities."
Information is gathered, remembered and interpreted in a biased way, particularly with emotionally-charged issues and closely-held beliefs. "Unbiased" evidence is skewed to align with existing biases...evidence contrary to our biases is heavily discounted or "massaged" to fit our biases.
In one fMRI study, when participants were shown contradictory statements by their favored candidate, emotional centers were activated as they actively reduced the cognitive dissonance that arose as they read about irrational or hypocritical behavior. (Westen, et al., Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2006)
Confirmation bias also exists in meditation research as discussed in "mindfulness meditation - religious vs secular - does it work? - new research". The Johns Hopkins research by Goyal, et al. in "Meditation programs for psychological stress and well being..." found that only 10 of the best 47 mindfulness meditation studies were unbiased.
Also, despite strong claims for significant improvements in key wellness factors, the Johns Hopkins meta-study found they were exaggerated or no better than other alternatives. (Goyal, et al., JAMA, 2012).
"Fake news" works because of our confirmation bias program. The CEO of Disinfomedia, Jestin Coler, said that he employed "from 20 to 25 writers at a time and made $10,000 to $30,000 monthly from advertisements". Recently, teenagers in Veles, Macedonia were found to be getting rich on making "fake news".
c) Discontinue using the reciprocal altruism program and replace with an open source version.
Religions expropriated this evolutionarily-developed, dopamine-reinforced, "i'll give you something, if you pay me back" program by making us believe we need to be taught to be "compassionate". Actually, we are naturally "compassionate" because we experience pleasure when we give something to another, expecting to be repaid.
HH Dalai Lama acknowledged this as discussed in "Is your compassion all about 'you'?" when he stated "Human beings may naturally be selfish, but they are also naturally compassionate, science shows. Helping someone else does make a person feel good – but that is a wise kind of selfish."
If you watch the "market-based" operation of reciprocal altruism, you can see how it compromises our actions. we offer what we imagine, from our own conditioning and biases, the other folk "should have", which is almost certainly not what the other folk really needs.
Only by meeting them with open, unbiased, presence w/o expectation of reward can we be truly useful for them. The video "Upgrading Your Mental Operating System" discusses this.
d) Use malware removal tools on the "attachments" programs.
"Attachments" are not often directly addressed, but removing them is key to unwinding the ego/I which is their root. Two simple, amazingly effective psychologically-based protocols - Byron Katie and Sedona, work with stories, fears, anxieties, beliefs, etc. to dis-empower/remove them. "Letting go of your attachments to awaken...why/how/when" and the video "Letting go of suffering and attachments" describe their usage.
e) Discontinue using the "free will, I'm in control" program.
As this is "evolutionarily-encoded", "free will/control" must have been "a good idea at the time", but it isn't true, scientifically or pragmatically. However, it is strongly-supported by the religions who rely on it. It is deeply-held, and strongly-defended, and we've even evolved a "feel" of having it, but it isn't any more true than "the earth is flat", or "the earth is the center of the Universe". Feels like it, looks like it, but it isn't true.
The blogpost "There's no 'free will'...accept it, attack it, hide it or ignore it?" gives the recent neuroscience and desperate approaches to "save it". The video playlist "Free Will, Control, Predetermination" is also useful.
Watch any day, and see if anything comes out exactly as you expected. Yes, you get to the Starbucks, but did you know what would happen in getting there, or what happened when you got there?
Look at what's happened "in the world" in the last 6 months...were you in control of any of that?
So, let's clean up our OS and programs and save our species, and our happiness and well-being.
The creation of symbolic logic and subject/doing/object languaging with hierarchical, structure-enhancing programs made possible complex multi-tasking for large groups which allowed us to dominate the planet. However, they are ill-designed for today's massively-interconnected, hyper-complex world with billions of us.
"Uninstall your outdated OS 1, upload your new OS 2" and the videos "Upgrading Your Mental Operating System" and "Are 'we' just outdated, buggy programs?" discuss this.
"Aleppo, Trump, Berlin, Orlandos, Nice...what can you do?" highlighted how our outdated programs drive our political, ecological, religious, etc. crises. Without a significant change, the future appears bleak for our species unless some folk warp-drive to a "better place". However, without a new OS, they would recreate the same dystopia.
What would an "upgrade" that improved our functional competency, lowered our anxiety, stress, fear, aggressiveness, etc., and saved our species look like:
 |
| Ramana Maharshi Developer, Software Removal Tools |
As Ramana Maharshi said re the world's problems in the 1940s:
Devotee: There are great men, public workers, who cannot solve the problem of the misery of the world.
Ramana: They are ego-centered; hence their inability. If they remained in the Self, they would be different.
Right-sizing/de-energizing the ego/I program is just asking "Where am I?", "Who hears?", "When am I?", "What has this thought?", etc. With continued practice, the ego/I construct's problematic nature and questionable value is revealed and the program removed or moved to "the cloud" for decreasing usage.
This removal tool was popularized by Ramana Maharshi and the Japanese Zen monk, Bassui. The blogpost "What is the 'Direct Path' to Nondual Awakening? What is self-inquiry?" and the book "Happiness Beyond Thought" detail the practice as does the video playlist "Guided Meditation".
b) Discontinue using and supporting the confirmation bias program.
Confirmation bias is "to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities."
 |
| fMRI used in confirmation bias study |
In one fMRI study, when participants were shown contradictory statements by their favored candidate, emotional centers were activated as they actively reduced the cognitive dissonance that arose as they read about irrational or hypocritical behavior. (Westen, et al., Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2006)
Confirmation bias also exists in meditation research as discussed in "mindfulness meditation - religious vs secular - does it work? - new research". The Johns Hopkins research by Goyal, et al. in "Meditation programs for psychological stress and well being..." found that only 10 of the best 47 mindfulness meditation studies were unbiased.
 |
| Madhav Goyal Johns Hopkins Bias Finder |
Also, despite strong claims for significant improvements in key wellness factors, the Johns Hopkins meta-study found they were exaggerated or no better than other alternatives. (Goyal, et al., JAMA, 2012).
"Fake news" works because of our confirmation bias program. The CEO of Disinfomedia, Jestin Coler, said that he employed "from 20 to 25 writers at a time and made $10,000 to $30,000 monthly from advertisements". Recently, teenagers in Veles, Macedonia were found to be getting rich on making "fake news".
c) Discontinue using the reciprocal altruism program and replace with an open source version.
Religions expropriated this evolutionarily-developed, dopamine-reinforced, "i'll give you something, if you pay me back" program by making us believe we need to be taught to be "compassionate". Actually, we are naturally "compassionate" because we experience pleasure when we give something to another, expecting to be repaid.
 |
| HH Dalai Lama Open Source Developer |
HH Dalai Lama acknowledged this as discussed in "Is your compassion all about 'you'?" when he stated "Human beings may naturally be selfish, but they are also naturally compassionate, science shows. Helping someone else does make a person feel good – but that is a wise kind of selfish."
If you watch the "market-based" operation of reciprocal altruism, you can see how it compromises our actions. we offer what we imagine, from our own conditioning and biases, the other folk "should have", which is almost certainly not what the other folk really needs.
Only by meeting them with open, unbiased, presence w/o expectation of reward can we be truly useful for them. The video "Upgrading Your Mental Operating System" discusses this.
d) Use malware removal tools on the "attachments" programs.
 |
| Hale Dwoskin Developer, Malware Removal Tool |
 |
| Byron Katie Creator, Malware Removal Tool |
"Attachments" are not often directly addressed, but removing them is key to unwinding the ego/I which is their root. Two simple, amazingly effective psychologically-based protocols - Byron Katie and Sedona, work with stories, fears, anxieties, beliefs, etc. to dis-empower/remove them. "Letting go of your attachments to awaken...why/how/when" and the video "Letting go of suffering and attachments" describe their usage.
e) Discontinue using the "free will, I'm in control" program.
As this is "evolutionarily-encoded", "free will/control" must have been "a good idea at the time", but it isn't true, scientifically or pragmatically. However, it is strongly-supported by the religions who rely on it. It is deeply-held, and strongly-defended, and we've even evolved a "feel" of having it, but it isn't any more true than "the earth is flat", or "the earth is the center of the Universe". Feels like it, looks like it, but it isn't true.
 |
| Steven Cave University of Cambridge Malware Identification Provider |
The blogpost "There's no 'free will'...accept it, attack it, hide it or ignore it?" gives the recent neuroscience and desperate approaches to "save it". The video playlist "Free Will, Control, Predetermination" is also useful.
Watch any day, and see if anything comes out exactly as you expected. Yes, you get to the Starbucks, but did you know what would happen in getting there, or what happened when you got there?
Look at what's happened "in the world" in the last 6 months...were you in control of any of that?
So, let's clean up our OS and programs and save our species, and our happiness and well-being.
Hey Gary,
ReplyDeleteWas beginning to worry from the lack of posts!!
Glad to see you back at it with such a clear summary of where we should be applying pressure in our practice.
You've spoken briefly in the past about dopamine. Do you know about the neurological basis for dopamine links with desires/objects/situations etc When we say attachment are we talking about a block in a dopamine chain where stuggling to activate?
What is the difference between a dopamine high and stillness/joy/peace at a neural level?
Hi Beau,
DeleteCoincidentally, three weeks ago, "The Brain Prize", the Nobel prize for neuroscience research (1 MM Euros), was awarded for the research into how dopamine works to a 3-member team from Cambridge (Schultz) and University College London (Dayan and Dolan). Some excerpts from the article @ (https://www.cam.ac.uk/news/cambridge-scientist-shares-worlds-largest-neuroscience-prize-for-research-on-the-brains-reward).
The capacity to link reward to events and actions is the foundation of human and animal survival, and problems with the processing of reward lie at the heart of many neurological and psychiatric disorders, with far-reaching implications for understanding human behavior, including decision-making, gambling, drug addiction, compulsive behavior and schizophrenia.
Reward is essential to survival because humans and other animals need to learn to direct their decisions and their actions towards outcomes that will satisfy their needs, and away from danger…to learn which events in the environment predict future rewards and punishments.
Reward is influenced and determined by…taste and smell, as well as…hunger or thirst. It influences choices, decisions and even attention…one central linchpin for learning and performance is dopamine.
“This is the biological process that makes us want to buy a bigger car or house, or be promoted at work. Every time we get the reward, our dopamine neurons affect our behavior. They are like little devils in our brain that drive us towards more rewards".
“Addictive drugs generate, hijack and amplify the reward signal and induce exaggerated and uncontrolled effects of dopamine on the brain,” Schultz explained.
Dayan realized that the pattern of activity of dopamine neurons…corresponds to…’reward prediction error’…the difference between the reward that is actually delivered and the reward that is predicted to be delivered. Prediction errors sculpt our expectations and experience of the world.
“For example, imagine that you choose between restaurants based on predicting how good they are...if the one you chose is better than expected, the positive prediction error allows you to update your prediction. Next time...you are more likely to pick the one that was better,” said Dayan.
This link between dopamine and prediction error was one of the spurs for an explosion of work using theoretical ideas and computational models to link artificial intelligence, economics, mathematics, engineering and statistics to ... results in psychology and neuroscience.
If you put "dopamine" in the blog search box, you'll see 24 posts on it the latest of which is "How the changing brain turns our pleasures into addictions" which has links to many of them. Dopamine makes the world go round...
Trust this is useful.
stillness
Awesome synthesis. Practical! Doable!
ReplyDeleteAs always, i didn't write it, but the "process" was interesting. A lot of energy was moving into writing a book on the Ribhu Gita and on Wed and Thur it was flowing easily and so fast i could hardly get it down. Blocked out Friday for it, but it "just wasn't happening".
ReplyDeleteAmazingly, a strong energy arose to do a blogpost on software and programs. i had a rough outline that had been untouched for weeks, but suddenly it was a "mission". It flowed on Friday, but it just wasn't "there" yet. During Sat morning sitting, it manifested perfectly, and i just wrote it down as it came out.
i know you know the experience, but it never ceases to amaze how all of this comes from Universal Consciousness/the Self, but only when its "time is ripe", and in such amazing synthetic ways.
Hi Gary,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post.
I'm happy to hear you're working on the Ribhu Gita, looking forward to see that when/if it manifests.
One take away for me in this post is regarding confirmation bias. It's easy for me to say I see it in others, but to practice it myself is another challenge entirely. It seems the key is to remain open, as much as possible. Hot topics today like "Trump vs. Hillary", "Global warming man caused or not", "Increase or lower taxes?" It seems very challenging to diligently and carefully looks at the pros and cons of both sides, and remain open, not necessarily taking a fixed position. I'll try and practice feeling the sensation that's experienced when hearing reasonable ideas that work against a bias I may have.
Kind regards,
Guillaume
Hi Guillaume,
DeleteThat seems to be a good approach to use with confirmation basis...just watch it in operation and really "feel" the sensation when the bias is triggered.
It can also be helpful to get more "active" with it, and bring in an inquiry question like "What feels this bias?", and perhaps try to feel into the energy and see if there is a story there that the "letting go" practices could be applied to.
These biased feelings obviously have someone who has the bias, and some reason, story, fear, etc. that can generate that strong feeling.
Yes, the Ribhu Gita is a great text with many strong and clear messages on "I am not this body, thoughts, mind, etc." in a way that can be read and chanted with great results. It was arguably Ramana Maharshi's favorite text and the one he used with his few early followers to chant every night together.
stillness
gary
Hi Gary, I was particularly interested by your introduction to this article and calling the world we live in a dystopia. It is often something I've thought myself, particularly after seeing correlations between our world and dystopian novels e.g. 1984, Brave New World...
ReplyDeleteMy question for you is if, as you say, we live in a dystopia then yes we can update our own programs but how do we go about living and dealing with the external world in which we see as a dystopia e.g society; how does one live "in" the world but not "of" it?
On another level, if everything (including this dystopian world we live in) is absolute, and we view 'altruism' as akin to human ethics (which are manmade), can somthing like ethics ever be compatible with nonduality when coming from a limited, myopic human perspective?
Would be fascinated to hear your views on this. Great article.
Hi Michael, One of the most surprising things, IME, was that i functioned much more effectively in the "dystopian" society after the ego/I/Gary fell away. i was not caught up in the stories, fears and anxiety of "the world" and was the only one who was fully present in situations, whether it was a business meeting or a casual conversation.
DeleteIf you are totally surrendered into "what is", and are living "now, now, now" and recognize that "everything is One thing", it really does all unfold "all by itself", perfectly..."my life" goes along so much better w/o "me" in it in astonishingly serendipitous ways.
i really have no "ethics", nor any sense of "good deeds and bad deeds or sin and karma, etc.", as it is clear that i have no "free will" or control, since there is no one to have it. How could "ethics" apply, and who would it apply to?
The usual fear that manifests for folk is that if they have no ethical code, they won't know how to behave and so will immediately behave "badly". IME, that doesn't happen.
my good friend from Princeton, Robert Wright w/whom i spent a lot of time and spoke in his seminars and Corsera course, wrote a classic book on "The Moral Animal", which shows just how much of our behaviors are evolutionarily-encoded and are "natural". Those encoded programs exist in virtually every culture's and religion's "dos and don'ts", demonstrating how universal they are.
It is amazing just how wonderful living in nonduality is. i was only trying to stop my endless, problematic self-referential narrative...i had no concept it could be so still, blissful, deep and profound.
stillness
Hi Gary, does the "natural" include violence ? And does it include the systemic violence which, many would say, we are all part of just by virtue of being in our society ? For example the military endeavors for which you pay taxes, and which you can't opt out of without serious consequences, or the unnecessary brutality of the legal system, or any other of the tax supported social ills which we all have to pay for ?
ReplyDeleteCan you say that you are exempt from being a part of this or just that you are liberated from unhappiness about it, or that there is simply nothing wrong with it in the first place ?
Spiritual awakening is often touted as the answer to war, greed, oppression etc., but is this a mistaken proposition ? If we assume a point in the future in which everyone is liberated from self, does this mean no conflict, or just no problem with "apparent" conflict ?
We know that even if we retreat to a monastery and spend our time tending the gardens, that even if we feel at one and at peace, even if we are the most enlightened being, the soil which we tend is a battlefield of various organisms doing amazingly violent things to one another. Is there a lesson there, or is it different for human civilizations ? How far do we look on our fellows as inevitably violent animals ?
In short, are utopian ideas predicated on the prospect of global enlightenment false ideas ?
What do you say ?
Thanks.
Hi Anonymous,
DeleteThe question was already answered above in response to Michael's question.
"One of the most surprising things, IME, was that i functioned much more effectively in the "dystopian" society after the ego/I/Gary fell away. i was not caught up in the stories, fears and anxiety of "the world" and was the only one who was fully present in situations, whether it was a business meeting or a casual conversation.
If you are totally surrendered into "what is", and are living "now, now, now" and recognize that "everything is One thing", it really does all unfold "all by itself", perfectly..."my life" goes along so much better w/o "me" in it in astonishingly serendipitous ways.
i really have no "ethics", nor any sense of "good deeds and bad deeds or sin and karma, etc.", as it is clear that i have no "free will" or control, since there is no one to have it. How could "ethics" apply, and who would it apply to?
The usual fear that manifests for folk is that if they have no ethical code, they won't know how to behave and so will immediately behave "badly". IME, that doesn't happen.
my good friend from Princeton, Robert Wright w/whom i spent a lot of time and spoke in his seminars and Corsera course, wrote a classic book on "The Moral Animal", which shows just how much of our behaviors are evolutionarily-encoded and are "natural". Those encoded programs exist in virtually every culture's and religion's "dos and don'ts", demonstrating how universal they are.
It is amazing just how wonderful living in nonduality is. i was only trying to stop my endless, problematic self-referential narrative...i had no concept it could be so still, blissful, deep and profound."
As an update, Robert Wright has recently published "Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment" @ https://www.amazon.com/Why-Buddhism-True-Philosophy-Enlightenment/dp/1439195455/, in which "i" am featured in the later sections on "enlightenment". i am not a Buddhist, as my focus is on a scientific and secular perspective, but this demonstrates that nondual awakening really is "THE" answer.
stillness
Hi Gary thanks for your reply. I'm not sure if it really answered my question, but your perspective is so different from the usual that it's maybe not so easy to see the answer. In any case you are giving a remarkable insight in what living in a very different way from the usual entails, minus a lot of the oft encountered platitudes, assumptions and obscurantism, which is very cool so thanks.
DeleteBut I don't see the need to be enlightened just to live a progressive life style. Most of the peace bringing or planet saving measures people employ don't require a loss of sense of self. Recycling and running organic farms isn't the sole preserve of buddhas. So why does the human OS upgrade have to mean a complete format and reinstallation ?
DeleteHi Anonymous,
Deletewe have different perspectives on how urgent and widespread the problem is and what might make a meaningful difference.
Recycling and organic farms aren't going to bring world peace or save the planet, well-intentioned as they are.
If you spend some time in India or China, as i have, you will quickly realize how silly a concept like "organic" farming is as a way to "save the planet". When there is little arable land and a huge and growing population that is already seriously undernourished, with many starving, it looks like a fetish of the rich countries.
Similarly with recycling. While i am an ardent recycler, if you look at what is happening with the recycled materials, there are not enough uses for the growing stream of recycled materials even in the U.S. Consequently, much of it is shipped to places like China, at great environmental cost, where it is increasingly overwhelming their uses for it.
The existing "peace bringing or planet saving measures" just aren't working. Many serious "futurists" and well-informed folk don't believe we will last another 100 years as a species. Unless we have a fundamental change in how we function "egoically" with our resources, relationships, healthcare, institutions, etc., there is nothing else that is significant and widespread enough that could make meaningful impact and change the outcome.
Even without a complete change in our OS, if we could just bring the egoic software into question and "dial it down", say 50 or 60 %, the situation could change dramatically. The situation is more critical than folk want to admit.
my soon to be released book, "Evolving Beyond Thought: Updating Your Brain's Software" outlines the solution, but i'm not sanguine on it's widespread acceptance or adoption.
stillness
Thank you I just caught up with your reply. I take your points about what you have seen around the world. And there are some very urgent signals like the slowing of the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic. So things could go bad very quickly, nobody seems to know exactly. I'm used to thinking about the burgeoning environmental and economic crises as a resource use problem, and when I do I see that many people around the world in less developed places, who have plenty of ego, use a fraction of the resources of an awakened person in an industrialised country like USA or UK, whether by intention or just by virtue of circumstance. And the people doing all the thinking about resource use and the acquisitive egos of humankind generally are not awakened, I think. But what really is going on in the psyche of people who have an interest in preserving humanity and averting global disaster - I don't know, maybe they do tend to have less ego. It could be approached empirically, I suppose, by surveying a population's spiritual life and comparing with political outlook and resource use. But I think the most egotistical person in a remote New Guinea village, whose greatest possession is a pig, is going to score better on carbon footprint than the most virtuous and enlightened Western guru. Personally, I think I was more bothered about the state of the world before my ego took a few hits via meditation and wotnot, than after. Dialling down the global ego sounds like a great idea if it's in our destiny.
DeleteI found your story of how you turned the page and found that you could work even more efficiently and creatively really interesting, but I'm thinking also - what if that happens to someone working in a major oil company, would a clear and unburdened mind on the board of Exxon lead to even more CO2 released ? What if it happens to a military general ? What if it happens to someone intent on leaving Earth to it's fate and living on Mars instead - if that hasn't already ? Maybe I'm narrow in my thinking and don't really understand the fundamentals of awakening or human nature, but those are the sorts of doubts I have on this. I appreciate the reply. John.