MINDFULNESS-BASED HEROISM
Patrick Jones
INTRODUCTION & OUTLINE
Psychology - Traditional emphasis on
pathology
Heroism science - human potential
Bridge between mindfulness and heroism
Theory practices findings of mindfulness
Can it build enlightened heroes?
Some type of
quest
Sacrifice or risk
Passive or active
THE HERO PROFILE
FOUR DIMENSIONS
One-off or
continuous
CAUSES & CONDITIONS
Ordinary people
activated by situations?
Moral exemplars?
Moral people activated
by situations?
STATE VS TRAIT HEROES
Diversity of heroes and variation of virtue
Is there a continuum of heroism?
Are there developmental stages that can be measured?
Are these the highest levels of human development?
STATE VS TRAIT HEROES
Transcendent experiences
Temporary and persistent states
Occur across developmental levels
Can individuals be trained to integrate each stage?
Would they consistently think and behave heroically?
The theory and methods
of mindfulness
Training in enlightenment
and altruism practices.
MINDFULNESS
The potential to deliver
an enlightened hero?
MINDFULNESS TRADITIONAL & MODERN
Both develop meta-awareness (self/other awareness)
Moderation of behavior (self-regulation)
Transcend own needs and increases prosocial actions
Observe objectively automatic patterns
View thoughts as “passing mental events”
MODERN MINDFULNESS
Clinically based 35-year old model (Kabat-Zinn)
No authoritative version
Taken from enlightenment tradition in service of
clinical goals
Some methodological issues
TRADITIONAL MINDFULNESS
Traditional 2500-year old model (Buddhism)
In service of the goal of enlightenment
Foundation - the non-existence of an abiding self
Ego-less state spontaneous service of all beings
Can this build a predictable “trait-like” hero
MINDFULNESS GOALS & THEORY
Goal - ego-less service
Regulates all practices and behaviors
Uses a range of attentional strategies to achieve this
THE THEORY AND METHODS OF
MINDFULNESS
Training in enlightenment and
altruism practices
The potential to deliver an
enlightened hero?
MINDFULNESS GOALS & THEORY
Emptiness and No Self
Unnecessary subject–object
dualism
All phenomena are devoid
or “empty” of inherent
existence
MINDFULNESS GOALS & THEORY
Practitioner goal: become aware of the present
Perceive the essential emptiness of that moment
Practices train the mind to attain a nondual cognitive state
Self-less way of relating to the world emerges - enlightenment
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
STUDY
CONTEMPLATION
MEDITATION
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
STUDY
Study explores how the cognitive processes occur
Dismantling of tendencies to separate subject and object
Exploration of the activation of survival tendencies
Goal - to deliver the enlightened experience
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
STUDY
Desire to possess and maintain things (attachment)
To separate from and destroy them (aversion)
Feel apathy towards them (indifference)
Uncover underlying space of awareness in which conscious process
occurs
Awareness is experienced as empty or unaffected by phenomena
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
CONTEMPLATION
Review past
Evaluate present
Plan more skillful future
Overcome habitual ways of relating to the world
Re-train maladaptive tendencies and generate new behaviours
Four codes of conduct – equanimity / empathetic joy / compassion /
loving-kindness
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
MEDITATION
Neutralize negative patterns of thought
and behaviour
Sustain unbiased, non-judgmental
attention on passing mental phenomena
Gain access to non-dual (no subjectobject) enlightenment
Watching becomes increasingly
effortless - “choice less awareness”
MEDITATION PRACTICES
Focused attention (FA)
Sustained attention on a mental or sensory object
Goal to decrease distraction develop single pointed
concentration
Open monitoring (OM) meditation
No object of focus - receptive to physical and mental
phenomena
Simultaneously seeing its relative form and essential
emptiness
“
MINDFULNESS TRAINING RESULTS
TRADITIONAL MINDFULNESS RESULTS
Mindfulness” stage : can observe impartially mental phenomena
“Calm abiding” stage : can see phenomena without a sense of a “self”
“Insight” stage: direct experience of no self or separation from
phenomena – enlightenment
Nondual experiences start as temporary and progress to enduring
NEUROSCIENCE
Default mode network (DMN)
Responsible for a passive default mode of mindwandering
Increased levels of DMN activity:
Attentional lapses and ADHD / Negative affect / Anxiety
/ Depression
Decreased activity in DMN neural structures
Reductions in sensory and perceptual processing
NEUROSCIENCE RESULTS
Meditators relatively less DMN activation
Reductions in mind-wandering and reactivity to distractions
A reduction of redundant cognitive processing
NEUROSCIENCE RESULTS
Improved attentional regulation
Better executive monitoring
Improved conflict monitoring
Enhancement of primary sensory awareness
Increases in auditory receptivity visual shape and size discriminations
NEUROIMAGING RESULTS
Neural structures for sensory and perceptual processing - larger in meditators
Structures underlying ruminating cognitive processing – smaller
Attaining a thoughtless state - observable reduction in overall brain activity
Reduced activity in emotion areas during acute pain
Lower pain sensitivity and higher thresholds for pain
Fear response reduction and rapid decreases in skin conductance after
aversive stimuli
DISCUSSION
DISCUSSION
Can the attributes of a hero be built?
Does mindfulness offer evidence it can achieve this?
DISCUSSION
Traditional mindfulness provides evidence it can
contribute to building heroically relevant attributes
Increased attentional functioning and enhanced primary
sensory awareness
Greater conflict monitoring, increased cognitive control
and reduced fear / startle response
Increased loving kindness and self-sacrificing behaviours
DISCUSSION
Improvements in heroically-relevant capabilities
Gives encouragement this capacity is trainable
by mindfulness
Traditional model trains to enlightenment - may
address the problem of the intermittent hero
The enlightened hero – ego-less altruism
The superhero?
Patrick Jones:
[email protected]