Education XXV: to be aware of conditioning is the only way out of conditioning

Look at this boy on the right of the picture. He and his family have just survived the bombing of their house in Siria.

He is still suffering the extreme fear produce by extreme violence. This suffering will condition him, possibly to be angry and-or violent.

Is it possible an education that favors an awareness of this conditioning, his homo sapiens conditioning, his genetic conditioning, the conditioning produced by the way his ancestors have lived (epigenetic), his cultural, familiar conditioning.....and the conditioning of suffering produced by the infinite conditioning of his fellow humans.

Is it possible to be completely aware of the WHOLE field of conditioning?

And maybe conditioning need not be something negative. Maybe is a necessary barrier that if we jump over would bring another state of mind, more pure, more fit.

I pray that you have it, little boy.......

recognition-security-good feeling.......the unconcious axis

Yesterday, a friend of mine had to read some of her poems in front of some people. She was preparing it quite thoroughly, and even a bit nervous.

The recognition from those unknown people would produce a sense of security and that was linked to a sense of good feeling.......all unconscious, and working perfectly...

[ The recognition from those unknown people would mean a signal to our brain of acceptance in the group, a neuronal mechanism from the time when we were "group animals", and perfectly kept till today. The acceptance would mean one would be accepted and secure in that group and to promote such behavior the brain was wired to secrete some kind of "pleasure substance", that would reinforce and validate the whole behavioral-neuronal axis]

There is nothing good or bad about it. It is like that in all of us, these long existing reflexes working unconsciously. But perhaps we should be aware of it, specially of the last part, the part that makes us feel good physically.....

.....and of the possible addiction to this good feeling.....

.....and to the rationalization that we do the action (in this case, reading the poem)...for the good of mankind.......

......and one question: is the "awareness" of such mechanism, at the same level as the mechanism itself?

everything is how we look at it

Yesterday one of my twins was crying. I looked at him and he looked really in pain. I asked him what happened. He said his brother had a pencil and he had not one.....!!!!

I told him that that was not so important. Then, as an experiment, I told him that things have the importance that we give to them.....that everything is how we look at them......

And then I realized I am not doing it myself........I do not realize this simple fact in my daily life....(!!!!)

Look, look at these faces, these eyes....there is hope...

Today I read this news in the BBC:

"Surgeons have removed a bullet from the head of a 14-year-old girl, a day after she was shot by Taliban gunmen in north-western Pakistan's Swat Valley, for defending the rights of girls that want to attend school.

The operation on Malala Yousafzai, a campaigner for girls' rights, went well, her father told the BBC.
The attack sparked outrage among many Pakistanis, who gathered in several cities for protests and held prayers for the girl's recovery.
The militants said they targeted her because she "promoted secularism"."

Yes, as humans we are prejudiced, very conditioned, fearful, violent, separated by our conditioning concepts and traditions.....but look at these faces, these eyes, these little hands, this purity......There is hope for all of us, humans....

"Peer pressure"

A recent study shows evidence that 2-year-olds both humans and chimpanzees are more likely to copy actions when they see them repeated by three of their peers than if they see the same action done by one peer three times.

The research team built a box with three holes, each a different color. The box delivered a treat (a sweet) only when a ball was dropped into one of those three, colored holes. Toddlers, and chimpanzees, unfamiliar with the box were then allowed to watch as four of their same-species peers interacted with the box. The majority of those peer demonstrators had been trained to favor one color over the others.

When the 2-year-old humans and chimpanzee observers got their turn, they tended to favor the hole favored by their friends.

The researchers suggest that majority rule probably does have its advantages, evolutionarily speaking. "The tendency to acquire the behaviors of the majority has been posited as key to the transmission of relatively safe, reliable, and productive behavioral strategies,".

(Published in "Current Biology" 22, 1–5, April 24, 2012 by Daniel B.M. Haun, Yvonne Rekers, and Michael Tomasello)

This study gives some evolutionary support to the current observation of how difficult is to think and act outside the accepted behavior and mentality of society, and gives evolutionary support for the solidity, and in some instances advantage, of human conditioning........

conditioning

My now friend M.F. showed us his beautiful and inspiring film "Tropico da Saudade: Levi-Strauss Journey to Amazonia", where he shows the visits of anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss to the Nambikwara indians in the Amazon. M.F. has also lived for years with this amazonian tribe and he can tell many stories of their wisdom and amazing life close to Nature.

He ends his film with a quote from Levi-Strauss' book "Tristes Tropiques":

"Other cultures are perhaps no better than our own; even if we are inclined to believe they are, we have no method at our disposal for proving it. However, by getting to know them better, we are enabled to detach ourselves from our own culture. Not that our own culture is peculiarly or absolutely bad. But it is the only one from which we must free ourselves. We can only be free through others."

Such a powerful sentence. And after reading it on the screen, I thought one could exchange the word "culture" for the word "conditioning", and then the sentence would be something like:

"Other conditionings are perhaps no better (or worse) than our own; even if we are inclined to believe they are, we have no method at our disposal for proving it. However, by getting to know them better, we can detach ourselves from our own conditioning. Not that our own conditioning is peculiarly or absolutely bad. But it is the only one from which we must free ourselves. We can only be free through others."

(pictures from http://www.indiegogo.com/Return-of-the-Captured-Spirits)

denying time

"So can my mind refuse to use time and deny time as a means to mutation? Do you see the beauty of it? Then what takes place?

The thing which I want changed has been put together through time, it is the result of time, and I deny time. Therefore I deny the whole thing and therefore mutation has taken place. I do not know if you see this. It is not a verbal trick.

Have you understood it? If I deny my conditioning as a Hindu, which is the result of time, and I deny time, I deny the whole thing. I am out of it. If I deny ritual - the Christian, Hindu or Buddhist - deny it because it is the product of time, I am out. I do not have to ask how to bring about mutation. The thing itself is the result of time and I deny time - it is finished."

"A mind that functions in time is still a limited mind. But a mind which does not function in time is extraordinarily alert"

"You have to understand the quality of a mind in which mutation has taken place. It has taken place the moment you deny time. You have thrown the whole past out. You are no longer a Hindu, a Christian."

(J. Krishnamurti, "On education", pages 82 and 83)

"Time" is not an abstract concept in physics. Here he is using the term as something very concrete: our conditioning. And that conditioning determines the way we live the present and project the future.

And what is to "deny"? To deny is to be fully aware of that conditioning, without judging it. Are we fully aware, without judging, of the whole field of our conditioning? Are we totally aware/realize that the way our brain works is in this field of time, which is just conditioning moving from past to present to future? Are we fully aware/realize that when we live/see something is with the past, which is completely conditioned?

And to be completely aware of it, is to be out of it, to "deny" it, because this awareness is not conditioned.

And until we see this, we cannot "be in the present".... by just an act of will.....

This is how I took it to mean today, but maybe some other people see it in another way......

Roots in the mind

Yesterday, at work, I had a problem with a person. There was some tension and some things were said.....This morning, the first thing that came to my mind when I woke up was this incident. "I should have said this and that, I should have not said this and that....."

And then I realized how important is to realize how some thoughts want and do take roots in our mind. That thought of yesterday's incident was forming roots and wanted to stay, to condition the mind.

It would be important to realize this phenomenon, and thus not allow it. It seems to me that painful (including fearful) thoughts take roots in our brain, and influence future behaviour, future reactions, that is, conditions our mind.

The extreme situation is when a thought takes roots and comes and comes again, becoming a kind of obsession. This clearly will influence our lives in a negative way.

This is why to realize this phenomenon, from subtle to extreme, would be important. At least that is what seemed to me today. What is your feeling?......

what is seeing?

"The eye, who would believe that so small
an object could contain the images of
all the universe."
Leonardo da Vinci

What is seeing?
Is seeing conditioned?
Is there a seeing which is NOT conditioned?
Or.....is there a seeing which is also aware of its own conditioning?

What is awareness?

what is awareness?

Can awareness be conditioned? Is there an awareness which is not conditioned?

Is this the same question as who are we really? or not?