The Jour?zal of Primary Prevention, Vol. 12, No. 3, 1992

Section Four: Dealing with Humiliation, Individually and Collectively Transcending Humiliation: An Ancient Perspective 1 P a t r i c k J. Barrett "~ a n d J a m e s S. B r o o k s ~

Drawing upon Ayurvedic teachings, this tmper raises the possibility oJ transcending the humiliation dynamic througt~ higher s'tates oJ" consciousness. KEY W O R D S : Humiliation; Ayurvedic teachings; transcending humiliation.

In this paper on "The Humiliation Dynamic," with which this issue begins, Klein reports a discussion with a colleague over the emotional portent of the old Charles Atlas comic strip ad. It was debated that anyone placed in the role of the main character would not necessarily be humiliated. The question is, who could be the 90 lb. person who watches his girlfriend walk away after sand is kicked in his face by a bully and not be humiliated? The hypothesis, of course, is someone like a Zen master. This is an acceptable thesis to anyone who is familiar with Eastern thought, but is it relevant to modern life? The intention here is to expand present theories of humiliation to include the possibility of someone like a "Zen experiencer." Ultimately, relevance will be the reader's decision; but we hope, in these few pages, to give some sense of plausibility to the existence of a perfectly integrated individual. Some understanding of how to progress toward this state is revealed by the theoretical and therapeutic concepts derived from the most IThe information on Ayur-Ved in this arliclc appearing withou| cilalion has been compiled from notes taken at several conferences conducted by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and such world renowned experts on Ayur-Vcd as Dr. V. M. Dwivedi, Dr. Balraj Maharishi and D r B. D. Triguna, President of the All-lndia Ayur-Veda Congress. All references to Ayur-Ved, with its unique spelling, are specific to the discipline as it is expounded by the associated experts of Maharishi's tradition. 2Patrick J. Barrett, Ph.D., is in Private Pn,ctice in Austin, TX. Address correspondence and reprint requests to: 7800 Shantivana Trail, Austin, TX 78737. 3James S. Brooks, M.D., is Clinical Director of the Mental Health Institute, Stale of Iowa. 223 9 1992 I luman Sciences Press, Inc.

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ancient science of healing. This perspective may add greater depth to the understanding of personal disenablement through humiliation by illuminating the mechanics of its counterpoint, namely the growth toward perfect inner strength and integration. There are a number of traditions which are worthy of great respect but this discussion will be limited to one which is very familiar to the authors - - Maharishi Ayur-Ved. This is a body of ancient knowledge, considered by some historians to be rooted in a tradition over five thousand years old (Bhagawan Dash, 1978). Since numerous clinical methodologies constitute the practice dimension of Ayur-Ved, more detailed investigations triggered by this theoretical overview may be especially relevant to health care professionals. 4 Most people have heard of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as the founder of the T r a n s c e n d e n t a l Meditation T e c h n i q u e (TM), which, through hundreds of published studies, is well d o c u m e n t e d in the cause of physical, psychological and social health (Wallace, 1986; O r m e - J o h n s o n & F a r r o w , 1977; Epply, A b r a m s & S h e a r , 1989; D i l l b e c k & O r m e Johnson, 1987; O r m e - J o h n s o n et al. 1988). Within the last six years Maharishi has headed an u n p r e c e d e n t e d gathering of pundits, or Vedic scholars, who have devoted themselves to reviving A y u r - V e d - - traditional Indian healing and prevention. Because Ayur-Ved has been held secretly within the family lines of these renowned vaidyas 5 since its public suppression by the Moguls during India's dark ages, much of this knowledge has been fragmented. This effort strives for a consolidated a p p r o a c h within the overall context of Maharishi's Vedic tradition. T h e r e f o r e Maharishi A y u r - V e d is c o n s i d e r e d unique because it reunites the ancient health care techniques to their source in the knowledge of developing higher states of consciousness. What is represented here is a small piece of a comprehensive health care system that relates to the subject of humiliation.

THE TIIREE PRIMARY OFFENSES TO TIlE INDIVIDUAL

It's fascinating to note that the ancient authors of Ayur-Ved delineate the primary psychological offenses in a way which may only now begin to

4Various conlinuing education p r o g r a m s arc available for all h u m a n service organizations and 5Professionals Ihrough Maharishi Inlernatiomd Universily, Fairfield, Iowa. Vaidya is the traditional n a m e of an Ayur-Vcdic practitioner I idcatly, a physician, psychodmrapist and spiritual counselor all in one.

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find concordance with mainstream Western psychological thought. The reader will no doubt find similarities between other discussions of humiliation in this journal and the three-fold Ayur-Vedic description of disappointment, rejection and doubt.

Disappointment and Rejection These first two elements are considered in sequence because it is difficult to imagine an event that would produce either exclusively. One may attempt to conceive, for example, of a gambling loss, that no one else is aware of, as a pure disappointment with no trace of rejection, or one may receive the condemning babble of a schizophrenic patient as pure rejection without disappointment. But, for many people, even these events could bring forth both conditions. Therefore, it is presumed that these two are inextricably bound. Emotional trauma is seen by Ayur-Ved as a continuum where those situations producing a greater disappointment are gene,-ally less traumatic than those more heavily dominated by the human component of rejection. D i s a p p o i n t m e n t and rejection occur when a person expects and longs for the happiness provided by two outside c o n d i t i o n e r s - - e v e n t s and people. We spend our lives attempting to control them but the inevitabilities of growth and change often seem to keep one step ahead of our efforts. This dynamic begins in childhood, when the enigmatic nature of life events and social situations starts to confound our attempts to experience happiness. Behaviorists have demonstrated that we are all somewhat like those unfortunate lab rats, habituated to a food reward from the lever press, only to have it one day produce a shock without w a r n i n g - - s o m e times a smile gets a smile, sometimes it doesn't (or worse). Disappointment and rejection build up in our life and, like the rats, we are conditioned to adjust our behavior. Some of us have been required to try to adjust more than others and have become more o v e r l o a d e d - more vigilant to cues of disappointment and rejection. However, although there is no simple relationship between the environment and the organism, we can easily observe a continuum whereby stress is gauged by the way people perceive situations, not by the situation itself. A particular stress can pass relatively unnoticed by some and devastate others. Excessive shyness offers a perfect example, considered in the AyurVedic texts to be a powerful precursor to psychiatric disorder (Charaka Samhita, Tr. 1983). The same situation that humiliates a shy person could

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be laughed off by another. Thus the situation itself is meaningful only as it is uniquely reflected by the person involved. Shyness appears when a person has been largely debilitated by the enigma of events and social situations. Conversely, the ability to laugh with one's would-be persecutors demonstrates the capacity to join with life and affords one option for turning the situation a r o u n d - reversing the behavior of the humiliators from ridicule to shared mirth. People who are resilient to humiliation have to some extent resolved the enigma. They have greater balance, appreciating, but not depending on, reinforcement from the outside because self-reinforcement is strong from within. U n d e r conditions of extreme shyness this isn't possible. One can't allow the full enjoyment of life because the part of the system which would be used for social enjoyment is shut down - - traumatized. People who are preoccupied with any form of coping mechanism - compulsions, addictions, shyness, e t c . - are on hold from the flow of life. From the Ayur-Vedic perspective, in order to be so cut off from people and/or life-events, one more ingredient is necessary.

Doubt

Any one of us could be humiliated by almost any disappointment as long as there is someone to reject us for it and as long as we were dependent on the events and people for our sense of self. According to Ayur-Ved, to doubt is to doubt one's self. Doubt arises when one cannot be reinforced from within and therefore protected by what Maslow describes, in so many ways, as tile self of self-actualization. The cognition of self described in his peak experience is blissful in itself, providing its own pure happiness. Within Maslow's being-cognition one is both self-sufficient and infinitely connected to the world (Maslow, 1968). This would be the antithesis of doubt. This is a kind of self-confidence which transcends situational control over persons and events and is not derived therefrom. With the cognition of self, no matter how situations change the self is not in doubt. It's easy to say that doubting oneself is the source of humiliation but the Ayur-Vedic concept of self offers some very sophisticated insight into how this comes about and how it is wholisticaly ameliorated. Maslow's research, though phenomenologically comprehensive for our present society, was left with the conclusion that such peak human realities were s p o n t a n e o u s events which could not be cultured. But Maharishi Ayur-Ved as well as other ancient traditions of self actualization

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such as Cabalic Judaism, Christian Monasticism, or various lines of Buddhism are not believed to have survived to the present day by the chance association of p e a k experiencers. Rather, they exist as systematic contexts by which fully self-actualized people of one g e n e r a t i o n teach their posterity to intentionally resolve the paradoxes of the self and to dispel doubt. In the following sections we hope to describe some of the details of Ayur-Vedic theory which may lend credibility to the existence of a fully self-actualized world v i e w - - a lived consciousness that immunizes against humiliation through alliance with natural law.

SELF AS UNIVERSAL I N T E L L I G E N C E Self Without/Self Within

At the finest level of current scientific investigation, both linear reasoning and phenomenology fail to explain natural law completely. By the finest level we refer to the Planck scale of quantum physics: 1(1.33 cubic centimeters - - the most microscopic view of the universe beyond which size does not exist. Here phenomena can only be metaphorically connected to our sense of the world by the reasoning of science and phenomenology. This is why most of the great quantum physicists have ultimately resorted to philosophical expressions to translate their mathematics into human understanding (MacKinnon, 1982). For example, anything in our most obvious level of perception which is moving must have mass and trajectory; both exist for either to exist. However, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle tells us that at the Planck scale elementary particles and wave functions can never be located at the same t i m e - this is the uncertainty. Because of the incredible sizes, speeds and wave properties at the Planck scale, when one is observed the other must mathematically be defined as infinite (MacKinnon, 1982). It's a fantastic feat of combined engineering, mathematics and reasoning which allows a scientist to experimentally isolate either trajectory or mass and yet these efforts never completely agree. Therefore, it is postulated that the observer actually presents what is being observed. Despite the strictest attention to the canons of science, at the finest level of creation the observer changes the observation. Here, although both object (matter) and process (wave) can be described mathematically, the equations indicate that they do not function in a fixed and linear way but rather in a way which is infinitely correlated with the act of observation. The observer acts as the mediator between

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realities which one would expect to be automatic. By virtue of human observation alone, things change. Ayur-Ved would hold that the self can never be completely one with or separate from any and all identification. The observer both manipulates and becomes one with the processes which give rise to the physical universe --simultaneously. In the same way, at the Planck scale, as with individual life, science and phenomenology are both right, yet neither alone will fully explain what is happening. The portent of this discovery in physics does not speak metaphorically to human life but rather, quite literally. In the example where a non-shy person was capable of turning a potentially humiliating situation around, we observed the same internal-external connection seen by Heinsenberg. This person, having self-integrity, free of doubt, by virtue of the ability to in some way touch that most infinite reality of self, was able to transform the environment - - all paradoxes between knower, process and object were resolved simultaneously. When humiliation is turned to laughter, all present simultaneously find what is known to be one of the most universal human experiences. Just as on the one hand, external life events can find traumatic reflection in the self-image, the undisturbed self finds joyous reflection in the whole environment.

T H E SOURCE OF I N T E L L I G E N C E There is an orchestration to the whole of life. Each individual part is linked in itself to the self of the whole - - who I am. There is individuality and autonomy at every level but most important to Ayur-Ved, every level of life is pervaded by a single synthesizing intelligence. Physicist Gerald Feinberg, writes: ' ~ . . . puzzles for c o n t e m p o r a r y biology require the understanding of a complex sequence of events, involving many processes going on simultaneously and almost certainly contain elaborate feedback loops. Future biology and indeed future science, will need to develop . . . universal features that describe all such parallel p r o c e s s e s . . . " (Feinberg, 1985, pp. 135-136). Ayur-Ved identifies such universal features around which to build a comprehensive science, possibly because it has never been limited or puzzled by the kind of specialization which is not built upon a c o m m o n field of life. Ayus (life) and Veda (pure knowledge) is the study of the orchestrating intelligence as it manifests in life science, but not in a way which is at all separate from the universal principles at the basis of all science and h u m a n experience.

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Beyond the Planck scale of physics, all matter and process are now believed to originate from what is called the unified field (Hagelin, 1987). Although this field is without material attributes, physicists have determined that it possesses a dynamic predictable quality of order which directs the manifestation of nature's most elementary particles. It is as if within the unified field there is an unmanifest blueprint of the way everything works. When infinity appears on one side of a quantum mechanical equation, this is because at every point on a timeless infinite continuum, each subatomic particle, each building block of more complex phenomena, is simultaneously present and unmanifest - - giving rise to the world and all its detail while at the same time subsumed in an unmanifest field of pure order. This unmanifest field is where the blueprint of life is born, the source of the intelligence that guides the cells of our body, the rotation of galaxies, and the formulation of a dew drop. Two worlds, two sides of life coexist - - m a n i f e s t and unmanifest. In the same way, the unified field of consciousness is described in the ancient Ayur-Vedic texts. There is no one word in English to convey the meaning of this simultaneous manifest/unmanifest condition, but in Sanskrit it is called Brahman, "which signifies all things mental, physical and their uncreated source" (Chopra, 1989, p. 215). The two, Brahman and the unified field, are really one and the same. But where physics only describes the effects of the unified field in the arena of matter, Maharishi Ayur-Ved ascribes no such limitation to it. Maharishi calls it "the unified field of consciousness," defining consciousness as the pure potentiality - - the field upon which a conscious thought or perception arises. The same quantum field which gives rise to matter, simultaneously gives rise to thought and gives rise to life. According to Ayur-Ved this field is the s e l f - - the thinker behind the thought and something more. The thinker behind the thought is pure cons c i o u s n e s s - - t h e c o n t i n u u m or b a c k d r o p upon which the variety of thoughts and experience are played out. The something more is the synchronous connection between one's own individuality and everything else in the universe. When we know the self as something specific we create a cognitive triad consisting of: 1) an external object (life events and other people), 2) processes of perception (cognition or motivation etc., as mediators between object and me) and 3) knower (some sense of who "I a m " in that relationship). But the ultimate level of the self is simultaneously joined to everything and does not want to recognize division. Time, space, and causation are all p h e n o m e n a l divisions of the unified field. This is the cognition of the p e a k e x p e r i e n c e which the A y u r - V e d i c

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tradition calls B r a h m a n - our g r e a t e r Self, with a Capital "S. ''6 Even when o n e ' s life is p e r v a d e d with only a sense of this, one cannot be caught in paradox. In this light H e i n s e n b e r g ' s observation was not uncertainty but the simultaneity of three and o n e - - n a m e l y that knower, the process of knowing, and that which is known, are both s e p a r a b l e and unified. W h e n h u m a n consciousness is innocently projected toward the observation of nature on such a subtle level, the h u m a n o b s e r v e r cannot help but participate in the creation. Likewise, if it's so that the field from which m a t t e r arises is the same as the field from which the Self arises, looking for an event that is completely outside o n e ' s own doing at the Planck scale would be like expecting a sense of c o m p e t i t i o n while playing tic-tac-toe alone. The observer who is in touch with the Self sees the entire creation as if following the point of attention, like the m o o n seems to follow us on an evening walk. This is because all processes and objects actually spring from a source which is the same as the h u m a n Self. The observer looks for nature only to find nature looking back. N e a r the source, as with a mirror, o b s e r v e r and object are one and the same.

SELF AND T H E MECHANICS OF TRAUMA It's important to note that the Ayur-Vedic view of pathology makes no rigid distinctions between processes which are psychological or physical, but holds that any traumatic condition originates and perpetuates itself in both ways simultaneously. Likewise Ayur-Ved does not adhere to the same strict anatomical localization of psychological and physiological functions considered in Western medicine. Rather than identifying one central organizer (the brain) Ayur-Ved locates three major centers in the body where the natural organizing power of the system begins to create and coordinate interaction and gives rise to l i f e - - t h e brain, the heart, and a point in the center of the lower abdomen. In further refinement of this theory, each tissue group, each organ system and every cell of the body is considered to be organized under the same intelligence 6 G e n e r a l l y , in W e s t e r n p s y c h o l o g y , C. G. J u n g is c r c d i l c d with /his n o t i o n o f capitol " S " Self, but M a h a r i s h i ' s t r a d i t i o n a l V e d i c view clarifies the c o n n c c l i t m b e t w e e n Sell a n d life: " T h e l o w e r self . . . c o m p r i s e s the m i n d t h a t thinks, the intellect /hal decides, the e g o that e x p e r i e n c e s . . . . T h e h i g h e r Self is t h a t a s p e c t o f | h e p e r s o n a l i t y w h i c h n e v e r c h a n g e s . . . w h i c h is the very basis o f the e n t i r e field o f relativity . . . . W h e n individuality . . . a n d the t r a n s c e n d e n t Self . . . a r e f o u n d t o g e t h e r o n o n e Icvel o f life, t h e n t h e r e is B r a h m a n , the all e m b r a c i n g c o s m i c life" ( M a h a r i s h i , 1983, pp. 339 & 98).

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network as the entire person. Down to the finest detail, each part is an epitome of the whole. Western science sees all human realities as physical, organizing themselves in some inexplicable way as lawful processes. The key to understanding the epitomatic relationship between a part and the whole-Self is in the way Maharishi Ayur-Ved emphasizes the a-priori universal function of intelligence. What we do, what we think and who we are as people are not functions which progress in any separate way from the body, the mind or the environment, nor is the understanding of their interaction to be found by a search which looks exclusively to linear interaction. The pervasiveness of the same intelligence, in all spheres, creates who we are and life as a whole and this intelligence is only realized in it's pure form on the level of consciousness.

lnterrelatedness The three central organizers are known as the mahamannas. In AyurVed they are as much considered locations in the body as they are considered concentrated i n t e l l i g e n c e - focal points through which and from which both psychology and physiology fluidly direct and support the entire system. Like the DNA, they are infinitely correlated with every other cell and process in the body but they function in a more global way than does an individual cell. On the physical level these juncture points are located in the brain (called shim); the area of the heart (called hridaya); and a point below the navel (the basti). Since the mahamarmas are central loci of the most basic processes of the individual, Ayur-Ved holds that the most basic psychological traumas of disappointment, rejection, and doubt find their physical seats here. However, just as there is a relationship of emphasis between different situational/social experiences with regard to what a trauma could be called (disappointment, rejection, or doubt), so too, there is a relative relationship regarding where it finds its seat. The organism never relates exclusively from one l o c a t i o n - there is an interrelatedness. Whether it's a psychological condition manifesting as thought or emotion, a physical injury or a change in body chemistry from food, sickness, or poison, each can initiate happiness or suffering on the other levels and when one is involved, the others are necessarily involved as well. The physicalness of the descriptions of humiliation, brought out by Dr. Klein's interviews and how they validated Ayur-Vedic theory is striking. T h r e e separate portrayals pointed to distinctive functions associated

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with the rnahamarrnas: "Sick in the Gut" - - basti; "stabbed in the heart 9 . . hit in the solar p l e x u s " - - h r i d a y a ; and "flushed" or "paralyzed" (both processes governed by the pituitary and h y p o t h a l a m u s ) - - s h i r a (Klein, 1991, p. 96). Mind-Body This connection between the psychological and the physical has long been recognized in the healing professions (Selye, 1956; Feldenkrais, 1985). Most recently, Deepak Chopra (1989), an endocrinologist considered to be the foremost translator of the principles of Maharishi Ayur-Ved into the Western world view, has offered some profound new insight into this area. He points out that since the first attempts to unravel the neurochemical processes behind thought and feeling yielded the discovery of two basic neurotransmitters in 1973, the picture has continued to become prodigiously complex. The simple computer-like binomial theory of the nervous system is no longer acceptable. Presently there are over a hundred known neuromodulators, some of these (the class of neuropeptides) have receptor sites and are produced not just in nervous tissue but in organs and tissues all over the body. Current medical research describes the body like a pharmaceutical production plant. Chopra theorizes that there is a unique chemical message for each experience, each emotion, and each thought. Negative experiences create negative thoughts, emotions and chemicals to which the body responds in kind with suffering and disease. Positive experience produces the o p p o s i t e - - a n integrated physiology, health and happiness (Chopra, 1989). What happens, according to Ayur-Ved, is that each subtie vibration of intelligence emanating from the unified field carries forth and manifests itself not just as thoughts and feelings but all the way to the grossest field of matter. Balance and growth in life occurs when we can continually reconnect with the source of intelligence in the unified field. Interfering with the Self as Wholistic Intelligence Like any drug, the negative intraphysiological chemicals, produced in excess through stress, are associated with addiction and habituation processes; Chopra calls it "the ghost of memory" (Chopra, 1989, p. 77). This may be why those interviewed about humiliation said that "no matter how many years had passed, the experience remains vivid and fresh in their minds" (Klein, 1991, p. 96). The physiology has not forgotten! A thought,

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the sound of a person's voice or a certain smell, could trigger the whole psychophysiological replay. The physiology rallies its obsolete performance, .just as the proverbial "punch-drunk" boxer springs to sparring position at the sound of any bell. In Ayur-Ved this traumatizing process is called para~a aparadhaliterally translated as "the mistake of the intellect." Again the Sanskrit meaning of intellect is not limited to what we attempt to measure as IQ. Rather, intelligence is that which functions on every level of detail in the entire system. This paragg,a at)arada can, at any point, create its own systemic short circuit based on some original trauma. The intelligence of the part takes c h a r g e to defend or mobilize itself with respect to stress and thereby reformulates its purpose. This can occur because each part has a kind of a u t o n o m y - - a self of its own. Even down to tile tiniest cell in the body there is uniqueness and individuality of functioning, the complexity of which modern science is only beginning to understand. Each manifestation ofparag3~a aparada is unique - - the combinations and permutations are unfathomable and bound to confound any viable solution based on the details of known chemical ingredients. W h e n we say in psychoanalytic theory that there is cathexis, a p o i n t w h e r e e n e r g y is being wasted to d e f e n d the c o n s c i o u s mind against pain, what has h a p p e n e d is that the usual duty of part of the organism has been forestalled in lieu of redefined needs. It has lost track of its original n a t u r e - - i t s smooth and efficient purpose within the entire scheme of functioning. Likewise the mind, reflected in this chemistry, takes on a somewhat altered identity in collusion with the physiology, an identity which is essentially incorrect and therefore subject to doubt.

The Humiliation T r a p Following this theory we can assume that our systems are dedicating a tremendous amount of energy to remembering the chemical details of traumatic e v e n t s - weighing us down with mistakes. But there are equally important ramifications of this theory which relate to understanding the processes that take place when we allow ourselves to participate in someone else's humiliation. By committing ourselves to the proposition that someone is anything less than good, that any self is not ultimately perfect in its purpose, we structure that limited reality chemically in our own physiologies along with the corresponding rationale and emotion.

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We engage in these behaviors because at the time they make us feel good (better than the next guy) but this feeling is contextual and limited it does not allow for a truer cognition of Self. No doubt there is some logic in it, perhaps this "short circuit" temporarily relieves the overload created by our own humiliations in the past. But the insidious part is that by engaging the mechanics ofparagya aparadha we have set up a chemicalemotional-thought-pattern which tells us we are OK for reasons which have little connection to the S e l f - - t h e Self which is free from disappointment, rejection and doubt. The Self, which resonates in consciousness as the result of perfect integration of the physiology, is ultimately the same unified-field-Self of the person being humiliated. Not being aware of this, we make a mistake. The c o n t i n u a l buildup of paragya aparada- this c a l c i f i c a t i o n establishes a condition where we can actually be more easily humiliated. This is because humiliation is not structured in the situation but in the way we have repeatedly required ourselves to perceive it. The extreme vulnerability to humiliation which manifests when we are caught at something we have repeatedly put others down for or when we are duly chastised by someone we have considered inferior, results from the rigid networks we have perpetuated in our own m i n d - b o d y - - s e t t i n g our self-reference on mistakes rather than on pure intelligence. In Ayur-Ved this is known as the loss of Self-referral. W i t h o u t Self-referral, when a potentially humiliating condition arises, we have effectively cut off the route of escape to the Self. We are caught in a web of limitations created by our own definition. When, at the time of our own humiliation, we turn in haste to our mind-body notebook, we find that the pages are full of mistakes and only a limited sense of self can be found. The physical structures of para~o,a aparadha have weighed us down so that we cannot find sanctuary in the Self of the unified field. Ayur-Ved would hold that the mechanics of all vulnerability and injury structure themselves in the same way. What is produced in every case is not only emotional weakness but the predisposition for physical disease. Another curious point of interrelatedness is that whether humiliation affects us as a victim or through voluntary participation, both situations poison with intraphysiologically generated chemistry, structured as an epitome of the thoughts which define weakness. The weakness of the humiliated becomes the weakness of the humiliator. The true Universal-Self is obscured, and the chemistry of some ephemeral facsimile is taken like poison which makes us all sick. -

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C O G N I T I V E AMELIORATION In Ayur-Ved, who "I am" depends on the condition of the whole m i n d - b o d y - - w h e t h e r it is p r e d o m i n a t e d b y p a r a g y a aparada o r t h e actualized Self. But a choice can always be made cognitively which allows the mind to move closer to a real connection with Self. In order to break faith in the established sense of contingency with humiliating events and the experience of suffering, we would like to offer to the reader a simple experimental exercise. It's designed to illustrate the Ayur-Vedic perspective on the relationship between all external realities (including humiliating ones), the processes of perception, and one's internal identity or self. Consider this incomplete sentence: "I a m " Try for a moment to fill in the blank with an expression that is most personally satisfying .............................. Off the top of your head you may have simply come up with your name. But your name actually has one quality that fills in the blank very well in that it has been with you for a long time. From the time your body was only a few feet high, before, during and after your education, before and after marriage and parenthood and at the time of meeting every new person in your life, your name has been there. It holds a quality of consistency which survives c h a n g e - - b u t obviously it's not enough to satisfy the full definition of who "I am " Simply then, without resorting to an autobiography, try for your most ideal capsule to complete the sentence. Hold a few most descriptive virtues, vices, accomplishments or goals in your mind and see if it does the job Chances are it won't feel complete. What we experience is that "I am" something more than these various processes and objects, no matter how intimate they may be. Even if we strike upon something which seems complete today, eventually it wouldn't work because things always change. The thinker behind the thought is a kind of linking point or continuum in c h a n g e - and something more which resists description. Let's look at it the other way. We will assume that you are sitting down, so try closing the eyes and directing your attention to the sensations of your body ............................... Now, you may have included the body in the above attempt to fill in the blank, but you probably didn't include the chair. In fact, however, the chair is intimately connected to your sense of self through the sensations of the body. In this way the planet's gravity, the room temperature, the weather, global meteorology, the tides and the moon are all

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connected to the self. T h e r e is a o n e n e s s - - a and everything.

continuity between you

The Paradox of Science vs. Phenomenology

As stated, according to Ayur-Ved the Self is one and three simultaneously: knower, processes of knowing and object of knowledge, as well as a lived continuum of all three. The resolution to tile paradox is in the simultaneity. This is what Ayur-Ved refers to as the samhita. Western science perserveres with a belief in objectivity; phenonmnology contends that oneness is indivisible but the above experience was intended to show that both are true. A simple acceptance of tile simultaneity allows one to focus on either, trusting that the option for the other is always available. With simultaneity we don't have to shove the whole universe into one package or even two. By allowing our minds to be in possession of this option, we break the accepted contingencies of humiliating experience. Dealing with urgent conditions of human striving, cognitive/behavioral therapists have demonstrated effectiveness which is unprecedented in modern psychotherapy (Shapiro and Shapiro, 1982; Dush, Hirt and Schroeder, 1983; Miller and Berman, 1983). By negating, with reason, a client's tendency to give boundless dimension to limited self definition - - "I am ahvays depressed" or "never any good . . ." e t c . - this approach creates habits of cognition which rebalance the self image (Beck, Rush, Shaw & Emery, 1978). It reframes perception using both the outlook of objectivity to discriminate the mechanics of cognition from affect and the outlook of phenomenology that permits tile self image tile option to join with healthier views. The Ayur-Vedic map of cognition follows a similar line but allows for a greater dimension of balance, one which can eventually incorporate an infinite view of Self which is liberating. Just as these cognitive/behavioral methods have been well documented in tile reversal of clinical conditions known to have physiological components (Rush, Beck, Kovacs & Hollon, 1977; McLean & Hakstian, 1979), this ancient cognitive a p p r o a c h - the quintessence of which is seen in the dialectic in Plato's dialogues and in the dialogues of the Upanishads - - can effect a reconstruction of physiology and reverse parawa at)arada. It's a cognitive psychohygenic, a way of allowing the enigma of events and social encounters to have less of a hold on self. It's a way of training the mind to define our peak experiences so that when they wane, a small wedge is left in the door to u n b o u n d e d n e s s - - t h i s is not the light but it allows the light to shine through. It's a language for embracing tile paradox

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of Self by r e f r a m i n g o n e ' s p e r c e p t i o n s in the light of o n e ' s highest experience.

Dispelling Doubt Normally we consider a blissful experience to result from external realities but the Ayur-Vedic concept of bliss is not localized in that way. The bliss of Self is the full human experience of the s a m t ~ i t a - the objective, the subjective, and the process of their interaction simultaneously without conflict. An elevated level of bliss is the singular constant behind tile nineteen cognitions of being in the peak experiences observed by Maslow (1968, Chap. 6). Bliss appears in the experience of tile healing and growing person as a wholeness which is not blissful per se, but rather like a background or underlying comfort. In this way, bliss reshapes the continuum of coilsciousness itself, a growing platform of security in the body and mind which does not entertain doubt. The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad says, "Assuredly it is from tile second (duality) that fear arises" (Principal Upanishads, 1974, p. 164). The sense of doubt and fear are really the same thing, they are born of separation. Experiencing samhita precludes the possibility of feeling separate because it does not recognize a "second," only three in one. Tile absence of duality in samhita is first recognized on the level of underlying pervasive bliss and later cognized as the Self. Bliss is revealed when we trust ourselves without f e a r - - in family relations, career decisions, or the simple joys of l i f e - - w e know that self is at one with life because it innocently feels right. The Ayur-Vedic behavioral and cognitive orientations create the possibility for maximizing our potential. If we guide our behavior toward others with the notion of unity and seek those things for ourselves that minimize disturbance of the continuum of consciousness, we can facilitate a stepping back from the enigmatic and stressful effects of life. In ancient, perhaps more simple times, this orientation was a priority for society. People were not thrust upon so competitive a life - - one could strive for excellence without the fear of utter failure because the control of people and events was seen as being of only relative importance when compared to well defined self-actualizing values. Surely this was fostered, in part, by a slower pace of life. Simply slowing down a bit could help these cognitive behavioral goals tremendously, opening up a little more space for appreciation. According to Ayur-Ved, rushing destroys bliss. If we recall a weekday morning when we wake feeling refreshed and joyful we may also recall that this feeling departs at the time

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when we first begin to rush. We respond to domestic duties, traffic, etc. in a way which drives the bliss from the heart and places the unbounded self in subjugation to a cognitive fabrication of time and l i m i t a t i o n - - " I am required to . . ." or "I am going to be late." In slowing a little, at least subjectively, we may find the self to be less lost to its unbounded nature. Then, we may begin to cherish nothing more on the outside than our deeper connection with life and, supported by that, find more of our inner continuum of bliss. In this way the light of Self is kindled.

Quickening the Pace of Evolution It should be mentioned that according to Ayur-Ved, the physiology can o f f e r g r e a t inertia on the path of Self realization. T h e paragya aparada that compels us to humiliate and accept humiliation is the same psycho-physical construct which may confound our c o m m i t m e n t s to behavioral and cognitive growth. Any complete remedy must reunite all the parts of the circuit with their correct f u n c t i o n i n g - - mind, body, and consciousness. The richness of the therapeutic approaches of Maharishi-Ayur-Ved can only be touched on here, more elaborate understanding is facilitated in lengthier works (Chopra, 1990). The basic principle is that the intelligence of the body can be restored by re-establishing a connection to the whole of natural law. Just as cognition and behavior can create physiology, physiology can be directly influenced to assist in reconstructing cognition. A simple example is the food we eat. According to Ayur-Ved, hot-spicy food eaten during the summer will have the effect of increasing passionate emotion possibly leading to anger. Likewise cold food/drink in the winter can exacerbate nervousness, leading to anxiety. Knowing something of how our experience of self is related to natural laws working in tile body and environment can be a great tool for personal evolution. As mentioned earlier, the basic promoter of life is bliss or a principle of harmony and reunification. Bliss is the experience of rightness or returning to order. For example, if an Ayur-Vedic herb is used to correct the condition of sinusitis, its healing effect will be experienced by tile body as bliss in those specific tissues while, at the same time, increasing the overall bliss of the system. Ayur-Vedic herbal treatments function as an epitome of the details of intelligence that originally structured the organ system. With sinusitis, herbs, oils or vapors from natural sources could be used to reinstate the

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correct balance of qualities that are universally found in all living systems: warm, unctuous, stable, dry, etc. The use of herbs in Ayur-Ved is not built upon the notion that one thing (a bacteria, a hormone, an enzyme, etc.) is at fault. These preparations are not refined to tease out the "active ingredient." Rather, in its whole and natural condition, an herb is believed to be a reflection of the same manifestations of intelligence that functions in specific organs of the body. One biological system is essentially matched to another. It's the intelligence common to both that aids the one which is in para,wa aparada. A number of research studies have been performed indicating positive effects of these Maharishi Ayurvedic herbal preparations (Glaser, 1988) including one very e n c o u r a g i n g observation of twelve AIDS patients (Bauhofer, Davies, VAN DEN Berg, & Janssen, 1988).

Consciousness: the Direct Approach

The foundation approaches of Maharishi Ayur-Ved are the techniques of consciousness. The TM technique and, more recently introduced, the psychophysiological and primordial sound techniques are mental practices from the ancient tradition which have the effect of restoring the intelligence of the system using its most central o p e r a t o r - - t h e mind. In Ayur-Ved the mind is that which attends to i n t e l l i g e n c e - that which attends to bliss. These meditation techniques are effortless, non-cognitive methods of allowing the mind to habituate itself to the experience of the continuum of consciousness, innocently developing the habit of Self-referral (Maharishi, 1966 & 1983). The curative and preventative ability of these techniques is cumulative through regular daily practice. In a recent retrospective study of medical insurance utilization, 200(I regular practitioners of the TM program made 87% fewer claims for hospitalization and for psychiatric and nervous system disorders than matched populations, over a five year period. This group also showed 73% less nose, throat and lung problems and 55% fewer incidents of cancer. The most significant differences were seen when comparing those meditating and non-meditating individuals over 40. It seems that when people normally start to need more health care, meditators need less (Orme-Johnson, 1987. The Self is most directly experienced in meditation. Regularly experiencing Self is to regularly expose the entire organism to its pure organizing i n t e l l i g e n c e - its unified field.

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CONCLUSION Within the space of this article we have attempted to lend some credibility to the idea that a person could live free from vulnerability to humilitation. A l t h o u g h the effort here was p r e d o m i n a n t l y theoretical, the references cited will lead the interested reader into numerous detailed scientific examples of the principles and practices discussed. It is hoped that the above reasoning has given the reader some confidence that the goal of freedom from humiliation through Self is worthy of pursuit. However, personal experience is ultimately the best evidence of practical benefit.

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