All-Pervasive Unconsciousness, the Cause for Unhappiness

The words “emotional intelligence” have become something of a catch phrase.  More than being a trendy expression, they sum up the center focus of current leading edge exploration into the nature and workings of mind and cognition.  They indeed point to the root of some key fundamental questions: “Why is it that so much of what our minds do, remains below the threshold of conscious awareness?  What does this large degree of non-conscious cognition, thought processing and ensuing action mean for our experience of the world?  Why is our unconscious mind so all-pervasive?  Why do we have recurring experiences of being at the effect of the unconscious mind, to the degree that access to natural states of simple happiness seem to continuously elude us?  

East Meets West to Unveil Age Old Research

The Dalai Lama has co-authored several books on the subject of emotional intelligence and the psychology of cognition, together with leading western psychologists, such as best-selling author Daniel Goleman and the late Francisco Varela, a professor of cognitive science at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. Besides presenting a thorough investigation into the cognitive processes, this ongoing dialogue sheds light on ways that we can successfully deal with destructive emotions and other forms of unconscious behavior patterns. This approach has been a major focus for practitioners of Buddhist meditation ever since the Buddha launched his direct investigation into the workings and nature of the mind, more than 2,500 years ago.

Science Now Agrees: Our Perception Is Ruled by Memory

Currently in several labs in the US, research is uncovering the secrets of cognition.  Through the most advanced western technologies (for example, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation or TMS), scientists now realize that we do not see the world as it actually is, but only in terms of what we already know of the world.  In other words, in states of non-conscious cognition (which is where most people are), memory shapes or dictates all of what we can perceive.  We are thus deprived of free will and free agency.  The moment we find access to being conscious and aware in the present moment, free will and free agency are restored.  Brain scans using the same TMS technology also show how the practice of different forms of meditation, learned through long retreats, in fact influence perception in such a way, that humans can rise above an otherwise unconscious existence.  For all human beings, this step into conscious awareness is of primary importance for it enables us to live a happy, balanced and fulfilled life.

Historically Only Lengthy Periods of Retreat Could Free the Mind

The question now is, how can this be accomplished?  The traditional Buddhist approaches to the restoration of free will and conscious awareness require a long and arduous discipline of meditation over the span of many years.  As the results of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation with experienced meditators suggest, these techniques do indeed work.  The data collected at the E.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior on the Madison Campus of the University of Wisconsin, USA, demonstrate as much.  The draw-back is,  in the past, these techniques were invented, taught and elucidated mainly by monks and other people who were in a position to live a life of seclusion and contemplation.  In other words, in their old approaches these techniques are time-consuming and require years of dedicated effort.     

Short Cuts Bring Awareness into the Present

The question now is, can we accomplish the same?  Can the average person achieve comparable levels of mastership and conscious awareness as Buddhist masters after twenty or more years of meditation practice?  Living in the world, going about his or her business, and taking care of the many obligations that are taken for granted by any ordinary socially active person?  The answer is, "Yes, with the right motivation and commitment, it is possible."  There are approaches to conscious awareness and emotional intelligence that are geared toward direct recognition of what is so in the moment which bypass the mental processing via memory.  One pertinent example is the Core Empowerment Training, developed by Dr. Paula Horan and based on several time-tested meditative techniques.

The Memory Trap Is Released by Clear Perception

In the Core Empowerment Training, destructive emotions and unconscious behavior patterns themselves become the object of our exploration.  They are not judged, and neither are they rejected.  No effort is made to push them away.  Instead, participants are guided to directly feel them, and to cultivate a sense of exploration about every circumstance that arises, whether seemingly “comfortable” or “uncomfortable”, “happy” or “sad”, “good” or “bad”.  This direct feeling and recognition brings about a sudden shift in perception.  We cease to identify with the latest destructive emotion or behavior pattern.  Although we can notice and sense its presence clearly, we also know without a shadow of a doubt that this is not who we are, but only a conditioned response with which we sometimes identify. 

Clear Perception Is Due to Heart Intelligence

Subsequently, once the link of identification is broken through noticing and most of all feeling from the Heart, the same old destructive emotion or behavior pattern can no longer rule us.  In other words, often in the 5 days that the residential training takes, the same depth of balance and lucidity is achieved, which through more traditional approaches may take years to accomplish.  This fast track is made possible through a combination of fine-tuned techniques and extensive meditative experience on the part of the facilitators. Depending on the individual, 15 years of experience on the part of the facilitator has shown that participation in three to five, 5-day seminars over a two to three year period can help to stabilize one’s ability to transcend the filter of memory and live a true present.  Because all emotions are reactions to thoughts, the ability to live in the present without clinging to passing thoughts, automatically gives one the ability to transcend the pull of emotion.  The result is a greater degree of equanimity in all situations, whether “positive” or “negative” and the emotional intelligence of a life lived from Heart.

“I have investigated and tried many different trainings and seminars around the globe for the last five years but have come across nothing that could compare with the astounding success in terms of boosting emotional intelligence and intellectual flexibility that the Core Empowerment Training can facilitate in its participants ”: Irene Speirs-Caskie
Aberdeen based management and human resource consultant .