Buddha says: The Key to Mastering Life is to Teach the Mind to be Calm, Kind, and Creative

May 29, 2020

For full article with pictures and illustrations see my blog at www.markhughsam.com

This article explores a model to break down the various Levels of self-development which teaches the mind to be calm, kind, and creative; and the components in each Level and how we can increase our abilities of each of those components.

Eknath Easwaran, the author of Conquest of Mind and one of the paragons of bringing Eastern Spirituality to the West, is a great storyteller. At the beginning of each chapter, he uses a simple story to illustrate his point. He begins the first chapter by describing a scene of watching surfers. Some crash but eventually there is one that is the master of the waves. That Master Surfer glides effortlessly into a tunnel of waves and comes through the other side triumphantly. He has mastered the waves. Let us explore how we can surf effortlessly through the waves of life by mastering our minds.

I have finally finished the Conquest of the Mind this month (2020 book #13). I think the title is concise in describing one of the keys towards living our best life. We desire mastery of living, and self-mastery and in order to get there, we need conquest of mind. However, let us have Easwaran explain his thoughts.

The Key Is Mastering the Mind, Specifically Your Response in the Now

“Countless books today appeal to our yearning for a key to life, or at least to a part of life, which only experts know: methods, secrets, tips, or tactics for mastering the forces that otherwise master us. To judge from the records of ancient civilizations, this must be one of the oldest of human desires. Is there a key to destiny?….The Buddha’s answer, set out more than twenty-five hundred years ago, has a very modern appeal. Our destiny he said, lies in our own hands: “All that we are is the result of what we have thought. We are formed and molded by our thoughts.” It follows that what we shall be tomorrow is shaped by what we think today. To this penetrating observation he added a simple twist. “Don’t try to control the future,” would say, “Work on the one thing you can learn to control: your own responses.”….

This is not a book about the Buddha or his teachings, yet I will mention him often in these pages. The reason is simple: no one teaches more clearly that mastery of life depends on mastering the mind. If we want to grow to our fullest human stature, the Buddha would say, all we have to do is teach the mind how to think differently: how to be calm, kind, and creative in any situation.”

So to recap, we are searching for the key mastering life and Buddha has been acknowledged as one of the greatest teachers to clearly show that the key to mastering life is to master the mind. And what we need to do is the teach the mind to think differently: to teach the mind to think calm, kind, and creative. Not in the future, but what we can control, our response in the now. And what we can control in the now is the response of our thoughts and images in our mind (which controls our behaviour). Comes back to E + R = O, where “E” or event happens, and we need to control the “R” or Response and that creates our O or Outcome. We cannot control the E or event, but we can control the R or Response, which creates the future O or Outcome. We cannot control the Event, we can only control the Response and hope our response can influence the direction of the Outcome.

Mastering the Components of the Mind that affects our Response

Now in learning anything it would be better if we could break them into components and learn activities that will improve the use of those components. So, what are the components of our mind that affect our Response?

Based on modern science, we know the mind is composed into essentially two parts: the Conscious Mind and the Subconscious Mind. We also know that the conscious mind is responsible for about 5% of what we create, while the subconscious mind is responsible for 95%. I am reminded that this is true if you think that the conscious mind can only process 40 bits per second, while the subconscious mind processes at least 20 million bits per second (this is based on retina speed studies by the University of Pennsylvania, that the human retina processes at about 10 million bits per second, two eyes, multiple by 2=20 million bits per second). This information corresponds with Bruce Lipton, author of Biology of Belief (which says that the processing speeds will be 40 million bits per second).

“I like to use a split-brain model of “Down Brain/Up Brain” to visualize the divide between the conscious and subconscious minds. Although the entire brain is always working in concert, I find that it is useful to imagine your conscious mind as being housed north of the mid-brain in your ‘Up Brain’ of the cerebrum and prefrontal cortex and that your subconscious mind is tucked below the mid-brain in the ‘Down Brain’ of the cerebellum and brainstem.” (from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201202/the-neuroscience-imagination). I write this point to note that the separation of the brain into components is not that easy. And this will be especially true as I divide the components—many components such as imagination are more closely understood to be part of your subconscious brain, however, for comprehension purposes, we will be placing imagination as a conscious activity.

We also know from Steven Covey in the 7 Habits of Effective People that the 4 components that makes humans different from other animals are: Awareness, Imagination, Conscience, and WillPower. Whether each is attached to the conscious or subconscious has not been clearly defined by neuro-science yet. It is interesting to note the correlation of Steven Covey 4 components which maps to Easwaran’s objectives of having a calm (awareness and willpower), kind (conscience), and creative (imagination) mind.

Cognitive and Rational Thinking, WillPower, short-term memory have clearly been attributed to conscious brain activities—which would imply that most other items are the subconscious mind. 

However, for purposes of discussion, we will discuss the components where we are consciously using them in conscious activities as being conscious components i.e. awareness, imagination, conscience, and willpower. Neuro-science has not clearly defined all the components of the subconscious mind—however, again for discussion purposes, we will address emotions, beliefs, values, and our self-image as being part of our subconscious activities. (There are many activities we will not discuss that happens in the subconscious such as long-term memory or automatic bodily systems controls i.e. 50 trillion cells producing 100,000 chemical reactions per second, all autonomously from any subconscious min).

Components Visually Illustrated

If we were to draw these in picture diagram, we could get the result below. I have colour coded each area:

Awareness is purple it is more related to being conscious or spiritual, hence the purple. 

Imagination reminds me of the light bulb, hence yellow.

Conscience is related to things of doing right, led by Love or the heart, so Red.

Willpower, relates to Action, or go, hence Green.

Subconscious is beneath the ocean, thus various shades of Blue; and as you get deeper, it darkens.

Each Component has Several Levels of Development

Once we have divided the activities in separate components, then we can tackle each component separately to determine the activities that we need to get better or improve upon. However, just looking at the components, one notices that there are several stages in each component. For example, awareness can go from just noticing what you are thinking, to being conscious and then changing your conscious focus on thoughts you want to create. You can go from beginner level awareness to Dalai Lama awareness, each with different skill levels and exercises to get you there.

We have looked at several, let’s call them systems, that showed increased abilities and tools as you progressed through the various stages. Let’s review four of those systems that we have discussed in the past.

• Lakhiani: Code of the Extraordinary Mind

Lakhiani: The Code the Extraordinary Mind described a 4 stage model. Level 1 was where people were unconscious. Level 2, one becomes conscious and start to question the rules and start to create your external life using goals and objectives, habits and new beliefs. Level 3 remain conscious and start to recode your inner world using your imagination to create the future, being happy now and using gratitude and forgiveness to create inner peace. And Level 4 one focuses on your life quest and self-mastery.   See blog article: Code of the Extraordinary Mind — Having it All

• Marisa Peer—I am enough

Marisa Peer’s had an even simpler model. She broke it down into 3 stages: Stage 1: those who had no money and no love; Stage 2, those who had some money or some love, but not all or had trouble in one area or the other; and Stage 3, those who had everything in life. None, some, all. 

Her area of expertise was focusing on the limiting beliefs of individuals. She believes that people’s core issues are that 1) they don’t know how their minds work, so they feed it the wrong messages 2) they are limited by two major beliefs: I am not enough, or I am not lovable. 3) they do not have beliefs that support good habits like eating the frog first thing in the morning—i.e. doing the hard, important things first thing in the morning; and they need to learn delayed gratification. See blog article: How Well Your Mind Works Determines Which of 3 Types of People You Are

• Barrett’s Values

Barrett had a 7 Stage System that essentially mapped to Maslow’s Need hierarchy. So this was an improved version of Maslow and it essentially said that you went through 7 levels of consciousness. Each level was identified by your needs and values could be attributed to each level. Barrett focused on Values as the means of creating change. Values became the expression of your belief system. The values you expressed determined the level you were at consciously, essentially you were working to obtain the needs at that level of consciousness. See blog article: An X-Ray Into Your Mind

• Martin Seligman and Positive Psychology

Martin Seligman, the father of Positive Psychology, the dominant stream in psychology today, went back through history and examined all the wisdom of the ages. He noted that the quest to understand how to live your life was a question that’s been asked and answered throughout time. He first decided that happiness was the goal of life. Then he noted he could get people happy almost instantaneously (exercise 30 minutes and start a gratitude journal for 50% increase in happiness) but they were still not satisfied with their life. He researched and noted that they felt most joyous when they were in the flow, doing things they were passionate about and often using their “unique gifts.” He also found that those who generally had some for lack of better words, some spiritual aspects to their lives or meaning in their lives, were happier. So he called this combination of happiness + flow + meaning = authentic happiness. However, he noted people were still not happiest because the Harvard Generation study showed unequivacally that people with great relationships, especially primary partner/spouse, were the happiest people. He also noted that those who used their unique gifts in service to others were also happier than solely authentic happiness. So he added those two factors and we obtained Flourishing = relationships + achievements + authentic happiness (happiness + flow + meaning).

Authentic happiness is an inner state of mind—or what I call my inner loving world. Some may refer to this as “peace of mind”. Relationships are about love and Achievements crassly can be stated as creating value or wealth (or money). So if authentic happiness is “peace of mind” or a calm mind, and relationships are about having a kind mind, and achievements is about using the mind creatively to create value, then Buddha 2600 years ago had stated that in order to create mastery of life (flourishing), we need to create a calm, kind, creative mind. The only thing which Martin Seligman has added was about 100,000 words on paper and years of research to come to the same conclusion (I have always found masters can explain the hardest most complex topic to an 11-year old. Seligman was able to break up how to have a calm mind into three components, but I am sure Buddha did give exercises to achieve the same results. See blog articles: Flourishing and The Amount of Money

Comparing All 4 Systems:

If we compared all 4 systems that describe the stages of personal development, we could get a chart like the one above. I have used a 4 level system. I liked Marisa Peer’s 3 levels—none, some, and all. However, I found that the steps needed for the “some” were where the bulk of people were (in self-development) and I needed to break this down further: beginners (Level 2) and advanced (Level 3). You will also notice that Level 1 people are those that are not “conscious”–they are not proactively trying to improve their lives. Levels 2, 3, and 4 are those trying to improve their lives. All 4 systems can fit into the above 4 levels and while they use different words to describe their systems, ultimately the “key results” are closely aligned under each system. In Level 4, you are successful, in Level 3 you are advanced and normally focusing on improving your internal mind, while Level 2 you are beginning your self-development journey.

If we looked first at Seligman’s model, Level 1 is a person who is not looking to consciously trying to change their lives a lot—they are just existing. In Level 2, they begin to seek happiness and do things to become happier. Level 3 they are searching for flow and meaning. In Level 4, they are creating better relationships and being of service to humanity.

Lakhiani’s model fits right into the 4 level model because it originally was a four level model. 

Barrett’s I have had to combine some 2 levels of Barrett’s to reduce them down into 1 Level, so 7 levels of consciousness becomes 4 levels in the above spreadsheet, with level 1 consciousness of Barrett’s maps to Level 1 of the spreadsheet, Level 2 and 3 consciousness of Barrett’s becoming Level 2 in the spreadsheet, etc.

What I also liked about Lakhiani’s model, was that Level 1 was an unconscious level, and levels 2,3, 4 were levels of consciousness. So Level 1 in all models were the unconscious, where people at this level have “no money no love”. This made it simple in terms of just understanding that there is a huge percentage of the population that is just existing unconsciously (I estimate 40% of the population). Lakhiani also distinguished between Levels 2 and Level 3 by referring to Level 2 as being personal development work that tried to improve your external environment (I estimate 30% of the population) and Level 3 (27% of the population) being personal development work that was focused on improving yourself (your mind) ie internally driven. I liked that because I also was like that. In the beginning of personal development, my objective was to get better so that I could earn more money or improve my relationships. It was only 30+ years later (LOL) that I realized that before I could really achieve everything and sustain it, I needed to change the man in the mirror and more specifically change my mind, especially my subconscious mind. Level 4, people who have it all or on the road (3% of the population according to Marisa Peers)

Issues With the 4 Systems

What is clear from the 4 Systems is that all 4 Systems focused on different things. Barrett’s was focused on Values. Marisa Peer’s Limiting Beliefs, Seligman on Objectives and components of “Inner Peace”, and Lakhiani touched on many aspects—happiness, limiting beliefs (he is a fan of Marisa Peers), and also objectives, but nothing on values. If we look at the lexicon of personal development, we can see a whole bunch of topics written on one topic that is supposed to be the Silver Bullet that is THE SECRET to success. Lots of Books on Happiness, Growth-Mindset, Grit, Habits, Confidence, 54321—Action, Relationships, Goals and Objectives, Visualization, Meditation, Love, Success, etc. I have read many of them and had to read summaries to 100’s of these via the Optimize.me program.

This is when I searched for a means to categorize all these answers and wisdom, I had a 4 stage model, I knew most of the books actually fit in Level 2 or 3, but I needed further categorization. So the first thing was to separate the Level 2 and 3, into things that focused on the conscious mind (goals and objectives, E + R = O, habits etc. and those that focused on the subconscious, limiting beliefs, values etc.

Then each of the conscious and sub-conscious categories became to get crowded and I felt a need to further break down the conscious and subconscious into categories. I was re-reading Steven Covey’s 7 Habits when he attributed the differences that made humans superior to other animals: Awareness, Imagination, Willpower and Conscience And these differences is why human beings are now the dominant species in the world So if we further developed these 4 categories or attributes, then those that have superior abilities in these 4 areas would therefore over time, be more evolved. I also noticed that Awareness mapped directly to the most significant areas thought in self-development i.e awareness or mindfulness or meditation. I also noticed that imagination mapped directly to using affirmations and visualization. And willpower mapped to willpower and habits. 

So I then looked at breaking the conscious mind into 4 parts: awareness, imagination, conscience and willpower  

Bamboo Process

In the above Mapping of Personal Development, I have created a 4 level model. Level 1 is not illustrated, but it is where people are not conscious and are not really into personal development. Levels 2 and 3 are where people have some money or love, but don’t have it all. It is also the place, where they don’t have the inner loving world, or the mind that can achieve and sustain the money and love they desire. Level 4 is where they have the inner mind that can achieve love and money and are working on doing exactly that. They do not need to already have the money or the love—they just need to show that they are beginning on the road towards achieving all and have the right mindset.

Note that each Level has an “End Product”—which is more of an objective. For Level 2, the activities of the beginner in self-improvement tends to be external oriented key results like improved productivity, happiness, and improvement in their fundamentals (eg. eating better to lose weight, or sleeping more hours etc.). Level 3 key results tends to be more internal i.e. development of the mind oriented. This is why I say the results will be your what I describe as your “loving inner world” which is what is known as peace of mind, Buddha calls calm mind or what Martin Seligman calls authentic happiness. At the end of Level 3, you have achieved the inner world that is required to build sustainable relationships and achievements, which are the key results for Level 4.

In moving through the levels, it does not mean someone is not operating in all 3 levels at the same time i.e. doing activities that are in all three levels and getting some results in all 3 levels. Being at a level, just means that the majority of your activities and the key results of mostly at that level. Can you have someone who has achieved great wealth, has terrible relationships and no peace of mind be at a level 4—no. He has not yet achieved peace of mind, so s/he needs to work on activities in either level 2 and 3 in order to acquire his peace of mind and the attitudes that the core beliefs and values that will allow s/he to acquire the relationship and peace of mind missing. Similarly a Level 3, could have wonderful relationships (Level 4) but is challenged with money and happiness.

So the X axis (horizontal across the page), is the axis of time (level of development). The Y-axis (vertical down the page) has various categories or elements. It is first broken down into 3 parts: conscious, subconscious, and I have added a third—spiritual. While it is an important area, and one I have explored on an energetic basis via Reiki (so I do feel it is something that some may require) and also via Christianity and little bit of Buddhism, Spiritual “category” is meant as a place holder to remind people that spiritualism may be an important part of their own self-development. However, it is not an area that I will discuss much in discussing the model today.

For conscious thinking, I have divided that as I noted into 4 major areas: awareness, imagination, conscience, and willpower. Please remember this chart is not an exhaustive list of the type of activities given in the chart above. I have given illustrative examples. A good example is Rational thinking which is not listed in the chart (imagination), plus places for improving memory (short-term memory is a conscious activity, while long-term memory is a subconscious activity). Some activities didn’t exactly map, such as compassion, but it was closest to conscience—love, so that is the category were compassion went. 

Activities for Conscious Components

Awareness: Level 2 activities: initial self-awareness, Meditation and Mindfulness might be Level 2 Level 3 (just meaning more advanced awareness skills) activities may include: 100% Responsibility, E+R=O, Self-talk, Positive thinking, Focus. Level 4 activities include: Being (Now) and Presence

Imagination: Level 2 activities: such as goals and objectives (notice more external focused) and Level 3 activities (more advanced) such as Visualization, Affirmations, Mental Rehearsing, Flow/Gifts. Level 4 activities: Creativity and Deep Work

Conscience: Level 2 activities: ethics  Level 3 activities: self-compassion, self-praise, gratitude, meaning. Level 4 include work related to better collaborative relationships and exuding love, Dalai Lama style.

Willpower: Level 2 activities: time management and productivity. Level 3 activities: Action, Willpower, Habits. Level 4 may include the Science of Achievement

Please note that these are categories of activities. For example in 100% Responsibility—you may have several different exercises to help to train you to be better at taking 100% Responsibility including the 

Breaking Down the Subconscious Components:

I have not found yet any theoretically sound way of breaking down the skills set one needs to acquire. I do know that I have worked on things related to Emotions, Beliefs, Values, and Self-Image. Perhaps I could use those as Components of the Subconscious and have Level 2 (beginners) and Level 3 (advanced) items. 

However, for now, I will leave these as the Activities for Subconscious. For now, I have broken up limiting beliefs as being Level 2 activities, along with Emotions i.e. facing your Fears and Worries. While Level 3 activities focuses more on core beliefs, values and self-image. Level 4 at the subconscious level is where you are what you do completely. So your behaviour matches your subconscious level. This is probably more of an end product but so far I don’t have any level 4 elements or activities. Just practice, practice, practice.

An Element Can be Accomplished by Many Activities

Each element, for example, 100% responsibility can be accomplished or learned through many different activities. For example, 100% Responsibility can be learned and improved via the following exercises:

1. Stem Exercises: Eg. I can take 5% more responsibility in my finances by….
2. Experiential experiences: Green Hair
3. E + R = O
4. Blame and Complain elimination exercises

By increasing your awareness via 100% Responsibility via Exercises such as E + R = O, you increase your level of awareness.

However, you can increase awareness via meditation (of which there are countless ways to meditate). Increasing your awareness in things like your gifts/strengths increases your awareness of yourself further and your own thinking. Exercises to increasing understand your gifts or strengths include the passion exercise, or Clifton’s Strengthfinder, and PERMA’s strengths test.

What’s to Discuss Further

Now that I have developed an outline or approach to understanding the elements of self-development. One of the issues is that you may want to find out where are you weaknesses in each area. So I have found mostly free simple tests that can give you an indication of where you stand with each components. I have also been able to match Values with each. I am working on breaking down the subconscious into components with elements. These will be discussions for future articles.

Action Items:

1. Study the chart and look at each of the areas and see first, what Level are you. Are you a Level 2, 3 or 4?
2. First look at the elements at that Level. Do you think you need work at the conscious level or the subconscious level? Perhaps both.
3. Then look at each of the components—Where do you think you need further development: Does your awareness need more development? How about imagination? Perhaps Conscience i.e. self-compassion related activities. Do you have great willpower and determination?
4. For the Subconscious—do you need work with your beliefs, values, self-image, emotions?

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