THREE THINGS.... Our Lizard, Monkey, and Thinking brains

At their root, all long-standing religious traditions are concerned, first and foremost, with the "awakening" of its adherents. What does this mean for Christians? I refer to Franciscan Richard Rohr:

In our regular contemplative “sit” (time of silent prayer) we are actually practicing being awake. Religious teachers, including Jesus, the Buddha, as well as many Hindu sages, are always telling us to wake up—to be alert, alive, awake, attentive, or aware. You might call it the AAAAA recovery program! But how can you do that? What does being awake actually mean?

Being conscious or aware means:

• I drop to a level deeper than the passing show.
• I become the calm seer of my dramas.
• I watch myself compassionately from a little distance, almost as if “myself” is someone else.
• I dis-identify with my own emotional noise and no longer let it pull me here and there, up and down.
• I stop thinking about this or that and collapse into pure or “objectless awareness” of nothing in particular. I don’t get there; I fall

At first, it does not feel like “me.” It is unfamiliar territory because up to now I thought that my thinking was “me,” yet now my thinking has ceased. I believe this is the meaning of Jesus’ teaching on “losing oneself to find oneself” (see Luke 9:24).

This new and broader sense of “me” gradually, over time, begins to feel like my deepest and truest self; it seems solid and unchanging. At this point, God, consciousness, I, silent emptiness, and fullness all start to feel like the same wonderful thing! This is what spiritual teachers mean by growth in holiness.*

Another way of understanding "awakening" is the gradually increasing realization of "thy Kingdom come." We say this familiar phrase in the Lord's Prayer time and time again, glossing over the odd use of the present-tense "come." It means that the Kingdom is now, here in this moment. How can we know this? We know it, when we are aroused from our sleep-state; when then we have eyes to see and ears to hear, as Jesus quips. The process begins with awareness, of which Rohr refers. If there was an Awareness 101 class it would begin with an understanding of the three "brains" of the human experience: Lizard, Monkey and Thinking. We are not awake in the Lizard and Monkey states, which are the places from which we operate, most of the time. Cultivating a practice of constant awareness moves us from reacting continuously to responding. Within our responses lie our freedom and our awakening. (There happens to be such a class! See below.)

Heidi Hanna explains the three brains:

When we find ourselves slipping into survival mode, it can feel pretty chaotic. Consider what happens when you’ve gone too long without eating, haven’t had a good night sleep in a while, or haven’t seen the sun in days – you might not feel quite like yourself. This is when I like to remind myself that my “monkey brain” has taken over. The first reason it’s helpful for me personally, is I happen to be a huge monkey fan, so I instantly get big smile on my face. Monkeys always seem to be in a pretty good mood, and are usually playing around, acting silly. So the initial reaction to thinking about something called our “monkey brain” just makes me laugh (and we’ll talk about how important laughter is to staying healthy in an upcoming chapter). But there is another reason to consider how the monkey brain responds differently than other parts of our brain, and when it can be detrimental to us.

Our brain can be separated into three sections – our lizard brain, our monkey brain, and our human brain. The “lizard brain” is found at the base of the brain, and contains the cerebellum and brain stem. Lizards only have these elements of the brain, which controls our most basic instincts. The next part of the brain, the “monkey brain” includes the majority of our tissue, and controls more complex tasks as well as emotions. Most mammals lead with their “monkey brain”, which is fueled by our most basic responses to fear and desire.

The most advanced part of the brain is the “human brain”, which consists of the outer layer, surrounding the “monkey brain”. This area allows for logical, emotionless thought, as well as delayed gratification. It is by using our “human brain” that we are able to think through our responses, rather than just reacting. But, when we are faced with threats to our system, we don’t have time to stop and analyze what’s going on. During these times we are glad to have our “lizard” and “monkey” brains to get us to safety, through our fight or flight response.

Because we have so many things going on at one time, when we multitask we can easily find ourselves using our “monkey brain”, making mindless decisions that may end up causing serious problems with important tasks, or even worse, with important relationships.  Next time you find yourself trying to do a million things at once and getting irritable or grumpy with someone you care about, remind yourself that you’re using your “monkey brain”, and work on acting more like a human. 

Please consider joining my upcoming class, Awakening! 40 days of Self-care and Self-knowledge, a weekly offering held on Zoom at 7pm every Wednesday night during Lent: March 9, 16, 23, 30 and April 6. During this class you will be exposed to a variety of authors and encouraged in choosing and being supported in Lenten disciplines that encourage your awakening. Learning to move from the Lizard or Monkey brain into conscious awareness will be included in this offering. Email revrmacgregor02@gmail.com for the Zoom link. Drop in when you can or take the whole series. There is no charge for this class.

*Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See (The Crossroad Publishing Company: 2009), 134-136.

THREE THINGS..... Diversity, Adaptation, and Ojas

In parish life, there is a myth that persists that money determines the success or failure of a church. I have know several parishes that were either spiritually or physically dead with lots of money stored up in investments or endowments. Money is a tool. It is a resource. It should never be understood in terms of the lifeblood of congregational life. It is true that congregations who run out of money are in peril of closure. But it is equally true that there are hundreds of very poor parishes who thrive:  They live within their means, conduct weekly worship, do the work of mission in their communities and care for one another's pastoral concerns. Resources don't determine viability. There are two things that do determine viability: A parish's ability to diversify in all parts of its system, and, adapt to changing internal and external conditions. The energy that is required to both diversify and to adapt is called Ojas. Let's look at these three things more closely.

1. Diversity.  When we hear this word, we might first think of cultural diversity. It is a part of diversity, an important part, but only one part. Diverse systems are those in which nearly all members of the body are actively participating in the life of the parish, apart from attending worship. It also means that committees and lay ministries are diverse; that is, the same people are not doing most of the work. It means that there are ecumenical relationships that encourage dialogue and shared projects - adding diversity to the work of mission and to worship - not as a special occasion but as a part of the congregational culture. Another area of diversity is in Christian education: instead of one educational offering but a menu of ways in which people can continue to learn and grow spiritually - and in a variety of ways as are done currently at St. Mark's: a weekly a blog encouraging independent study and a variety of resources; art work relating to the gospel lesson on the cover of each week's bulletin that provokes curiosity and reflection; sermons that include an element of biblical teaching; encouragement to look up the lessons during the week with the next week's lessons listing in the bulletin; a book study shared with another parish; and educational material about the Lesser Feast and Fast of the day in each week's bulletin. Diversity includes not leaving pastoral concerns solely to the priest or a prayer chain of a handful of the faithful, but encouraging the whole parish to pray together for those in need. Outreach projects require diversity - diversity of ideas, and theological, cultural and social experiences, as well as diversity among volunteers - cross generational, cross gender, cross cultural, cross neighborhoods, cross economic and social standings.  A diverse outreach program understand that the parish (a word that means "community") includes the entire neighborhood and not just the members of the parish. There is a theological aspect to diversity as well. Richard Rohr explains: https://cac.org/divine-diversity-and-oneness-2022-02-10/

2. Adaptation. Evolution is always in play. Nothing stays the same. The only constant is change. Adapt or die. These are the familiar cliches. Adaptation supposes change, intentional change; an intentional response to an internal or external source(s) of pressure. It is why evolution occurs. Evolution is always occurring in nature; it is the way of things. But for the church, generally speaking, change is very difficult. The church's traditions and culture are experienced as a safe and familiar harbor for those wearied by the rapid changes beyond the walls of the parish. The irony is that all the changes occurring in society and in culture and in business and industry around the church, are themselves,  adaptations enabling long-term survival and profitability (in the case of industry) in direct response to shifts in culture and social environments. The biggest adaptation the church has made in the last two years has been the move to hybrid worship. This would not have happened without the outside pressure of a pandemic forcing change. Although, admittedly, some evangelical churches were way ahead of the curve on this one because technology has for some time been key to their ability to connect with the masses.  Technology is a large budget item for those churches. Now, however, the playing field is a bit more leveled as everyone is wondering how to utilize the technology that most everyone is practicing in order to be a hybrid church in a sustained way and move from surviving to thriving. Adaptation continues. Creativity flows. Curiosity is peaked as many wonder, what can we do next? What can we do better?  But there are other areas of adaptation that need attention. Music. Liturgy. In the discussion on diversity I named the example of moving away from a single educational offering to a menu of smaller offerings requiring various levels of energy and effort - something for everyone. That is also an example of adaptation because it recognizes that the energy and attention span of most people today is very short. Why? First, we are hammered and peppered every minute with small bits of information on the internet or in TV, Radio and Youtube commercials that can be easily assimilated. Advertisers know that they have the first two seconds to grab our attention and get their message across. Nobody does 30 min informercials anymore. Even the 30 second radio spot has moved to 10 seconds. Most of us have moved from emails to text messages as a primary way of communicating. Facebook and Snapchat use photos, memes, and video clips to tell a story, TikTok and Twitter have limits of three minutes and 280 characters, respectfully. We have the attention span of a gnat. We have adapted. Second, our ojas is depleted. Many people simply don't have the energy or bandwidth to participate in things that take a great deal of time or commitment. We suffer not just from a bit of fatigue, but rather a deep sense of exhaustion, depletion.

3. Ojas. Ojas (OH-JUS) is the sanskrit word for "vigor." It is one of the three subtle forces in the body. It influences everything from our immunity, digestion, physical strength, and the health of our skin to our spiritual inclination, sleep, and mood. It is the ultimate energy reserve of the body and mind; the force that enables us to sustain change over time. Think of it as your psychophysical container or shield. The more ojas we have, the more impervious we are to the negativity of others and the day to day stresses of life, as our own spirit has a good, strong container. Ojas gives us an overall sense of satisfaction with life. Western culture is chronically low in Ojas. In the West most have never heard of ojas and those who have often don’t value it highly enough. Being an ultrafine, subtle essence, ojas is affected by almost every aspect of our lives and can become diminished and dried up when we are overly effortful, stressed, or contracted. On the other hand, when tended to mindfully, our ojas becomes a reserve of robust vitality and the key to resilience, creativity, and vitality.*  Ojas is intricately linked to rejuvenation. In our stressed-out, overly busy modern world, we often don’t give ourselves ample time for rest, nourishment, and self-care. The practice of rejuvenation, the building up of ojas, is all about bringing our body, mind, and spirit back into a state of harmonious balance. Think about the qualities of a person who is healthy. They are strong yet supple, easy to smile, generous with their time and energy, resilient and most of all, they glow. Ojas describes this glow. It is our vitality, which is often described as radiance similar to the light of the moon. Abundant ojas is the vital essence that promotes health, immunity, happiness and spiritual strength.**  Communities of individuals with depleted ojas simply don't have the energetic reserves or creativity to do the intentional work of diversification and adaptation. The good news is that it doesn't take heroic measures to build ojas. It does take some discipline and a willingness to make life-style changes.

When I'm asked if I think a parish can survive, I don't necessarily look first at the bottom line, I look for ojas: depleted or robust? There is a lot of depletion now in most every parish after two years of pandemic stress. This Lenten season I will be offering a class on building up ojas. There will be things to give up and things to add to move toward rejuvenation. We will lean on each other for encouragement and support and celebrate the little changes in energy and vitality that begin to flow back into our bodies and minds over time. While the benefits to the individual are life-changing, the benefits to the church could be prove immeasurable. 

*Adapted from: https://www.banyanbotanicals.com/info/blog-the-banyan-insight/details/all-about-ojas-meaning-sustainable-energy/

**https://seattleyoganews.com/5-simple-acts-self-love-nourish-ojas/