Neuroplasticity and Spirituality

I wrote this note to a new acquaintance, this morning. She is an oncologist, but also believes that neuropsychology and spirituality have important roles to play in cancer treatment. That was what we discussed when we met. I thought others might be interested in the topic and references as well.

Dear .........,

For some time I have been wanting to share references on neuroplasticity with you, but have not done so. I first learned about this from listening to podcasts of one of my favorite American Public Media radio programs, Speaking of Faith. I have been interested in the relationship between neuroscience and spirituality ever since I read the Dalai Lama’s book, The Universe in a Single Atom and learned about the Mind and Life Conferences, with which you are no doubt familiar. The interview I listened to some time ago, and again this morning, was with Matthieu Rickard. Ricard is the son of the French philosopher Jean-Francois Revel and before becoming a Buddhist monk in his twenties, earned a Ph.D. degree in molecular genetics at the Institut Pasteur. He is a board member of the Mind and Life Institute. A particular passage in his discussion of neuroplasticity is one that I still remember. “A virtuoso violinist practices for years to gain his virtuosity. We can measure the changes in his (or her) brain. A chess master studies for years to gain mastery and we can measure those changes. Why should we think it would be any different with compassion....”

Anyhow, when listening to Ricard earlier this morning, I thought of you once again and have finally gotten around to writing this note. Here is the link to his interview. I prefer the uncut version, which I listen to while cooking, cleaning or taking a meal. However the produced version takes less time and covers the essential points.

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/ricard/

http://download.publicradio.org/podcast/speakingoffaith/unheard_cuts/2009/11/12/20091112_ricard_uc_ricard_64.mp3?_kip_ipx=165231802-1268701213

With best wishes,

Dormgrandpop

Parenting as a spritual practice

The following ‘advice’ appeared in this month’s newsletter from Friends Meeting of Washington.  It was excerpted from Pendle Hill Pamphlet #396, by Eileen Flanigan, entitled  God Raising Us:  Parenting as a Spritual Practice.

God has continually used my two children to raise me out of selfishness and make more self aware.  Through them, God has taught me patience, surrender, and self control as well as testimonies of peace simplicity and integrity.  They have helped me find God, not just in silence and solitude, but in the midst of chaos and crying.  While I still have much to learn I have found that naming parenting as a spiritual practice helps me follow this path more consciously so I can pay attention to the lessons God continues to send my way.

I could say much the same thing about ‘professing as a spiritual practice,’ especially when it is combined with living on campus in a an undergraduate residence hall.

Two commandments may be enough

Regular dormgrandpop readers (if any) will have heard me mention the “Speaking of Faith” public radio program and podcasts. I listen to one or more podcasts each morning while I am folding laundry, preparing breakfast and performing other mundane functions that are part of daily living.

Yesterday morning’s podcast was “The personal faith of Jimmy Carter.” According to most appraisals, Jimmy Carter was not one of America’s most successful Presidents, but, in more than twenty years since leaving the While House, he may have become our most successful ex-President.

President Carter’s administration marked the zenith of my modest ‘political’ role in Washington. He cared about issues of sustainability long before they were popular. My global modeling friends and I were called upon to advise the administration, including President Carter’s senior staff. President Carter commissioned the “Global 2000 Report to the President," directed by my Friend Gerry Barney. I was hired as a consultant to prepare follow up recommendations that might shape the President’s second term. I was even a finalist for a senior position on President Carter’s staff, “Director of White House Information Systems.” Fortuitously, in retrospect, I was not offered the job.

President Reagan’s election in 1980 ended that era in my life. In the ensuing five years, I collaborated on three books of which I am particularly proud: “Making it Happen: A Positive Guide to the Future,” “Groping in the Dark: The First Decade of Global Modeling” and “Ending Hunger: An Idea Whose Time Has Come.”

It is hard to think about the Carter years without these personal reflections, but President Carter’s interview was not about politics. I it was, as the title implies, a rich probing into his personal faith. He was America’s first evangelical Christian President. He taught sunday school regularly throughout his term and continues to do so. He and his wife end each day, whether together or apart, by reading the same Bible passage and discussing it.

The remarkable technology of Podcasting, along with my iPod, will allow me to give President Carter’s interview the attention it deserves, by listening to it more than once. But only one listening was needed to come away with the former President’s most memorable observation. He heard it, President Carter said, from a missionary priest in a poor Latin American community, “Father Cruz.” (I had not known, before yesterday morning, that “Cruz” means “Cross” in Spanish.) Father Cruz told him the essence of Christianity could be reduced to only two commandments:

“Love God and love the person who is standing right in front of you.”

Who is my mother and who are my brothers?

Yesterday morning, I was reading from the 12th chapter of the book of Matthew in the Christian Bible. (Matthew was a tax collector who became one of the Lord Jesus’ first disciples). According to Matthew, Jesus was speaking to a crowd when someone told him, “your mother and brothers are waiting outside.” The passage continues:

“He replied to him, ‘Who is my mother and who are my brothers?’ Pointing to his disciples he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

My ‘Life Application Study Bible’ explains that “Jesus was not denying his responsibility to is earthy family [but only] pointing out that spiritual relationships are as binding as physical ones.” I have long pondered this passage, and I am not convinced.

Wives and children, mothers and fathers play ambivalent roles in the lives of great religious teachers. We hear little about Jesus’ relationship with his mother, father and brothers in the Holy Bible, though his mother is venerated by Roman Catholics. The Lord Buddha abandoned his wife and young son in his late twenties, to seek enlightenment. Gandhi took a vow of celibacy at about the same age. He remained married but his mission clearly took priority over wife and children. The wife of the Quaker scholar and organizer Rufus Jones died while Jones was traveling, lecturing and organizing. The founder of the Society of Friends, George Fox, married Margaret Fell who, herself, became a great Quaker leader, but there is little evidence that they spent much time together. The rules of monastic orders and the Roman Catholic Priesthood are predicated on the belief that the highest form of religious life can not include a wife and children. I need to devote more time to studying the family life of the Prophet Mohammed, in whose life wives and children do seem to have played more major role.

“Who is my father?”
“Who is my mother?”
“Who are my sisters and brothers?”
“Who are my children and grandchildren.”
“What are my obligations to them, especially when those obligations conflict with other life callings and obligations?”

For one seeking to live a committed life these are questions to ponder. The answers do not seem simple, or easy.

When should “the rules" be followed? When should they be broken?

The skeleton of complex organizations and societies comprises laws, rules and regulations. There are rules for the creation of rules - in political life we call them constitutions. American University’s new President, Neil Kerwin’s scholarly career has focused, in part, on the study of rule-making. Rules are human artifacts, but they often assume a life of their own, somehow independent of human creation.

In post World War II Japan, General Douglas MacArthur and his staff faced the daunting challenge of creating an entirely new system of rule making and rules to replace a discredited one. Political leaders in the nations of Post Cold-War Europe faced similar challenges. So did leaders of post colonial “new nations.”

University students, too, face the challenge of choosing when to follow rules and when to break them. Grappling with this challenge, they learn, is one of life’s dilemmas. The functioning of institutions, including universities themselves, requires that most human beings follow most of the rules, most of the time. But rule breakers are sources of energy, creativity and change. Founding fathers of the United States of America, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington and their colleagues were rule breakers. The U.S. Declaration of Independence offers a compelling discussion of when it is appropriate to follow the rules and when to break them.

These reflections have been motivated by readings and reflection during my morning quiet time, over the last two or three days. My reading has been the middle chapters of the Book of Matthew in my Life Study Bible, a gift from my daughter in law. The chapters describe, in part, debates between Jesus and Jewish religious leaders about how religious laws should be applied to daily life.

The religious leaders seem to be giving priority to a literal interpretation of the laws. Jesus, too, views religious laws as important. But he seems to be saying that it is also important to keep in mind the purposes of those religious laws, manifesting God’s intentions in human’s lives, societies, institutions and nations. Thus Jesus, like America’s founding fathers, is saying that choosing when rules are to be followed and when they are to be broken is part of what it means to be human.

An alternative Lord's Prayer from the youth of Leeds Church

Today we celebrated Trinity Sunday at Leeds Church and it was also the Sunday service that was given over to the Church’s youth group. The service’s focus was the youth group’s interpretation of the Trinity, complete with a ghost-like Holy Sprit intervening on earth and a representation of Jesus Christ to liked Arrowsmith.

Here is the alternative Lords Prayer, in common (hip) language that the Leeds youth drafted.

God, you are our Dad in heaven
You are cool and really holy
We want Markham to be like heaven
Everything that happens in Markham to be like you want
We ask that you give us all that we need
Please forget the things that we’ve done wrong
Keep us away from bad stuff
Keep bad stuff away from us
Everything fantastic is yours and from you.
Amen.