Mindful Happiness

Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

  • Home
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
    • About
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Contact

January 24, 2016 By Admin

How We Make Habits – From 2,500 Years Ago

How We Make Habits – An Understanding

Twenty-five hundred years ago the Buddha reportedly taught how humans make habits.  The insights of this earliest Buddhist Psychology sheds shame on the West, with its almost-the-same version of this view in the 20th century. One must wonder if B. F. Skinner or N. Chomsky knew about Buddhist Psychology. Whereas the Buddha presented the psychology of habit formation, Skinner presented the science for it. So the ancient teaching goes, we make habits by being conscious of the concretely noticed consequences of sense-door perceptions, leading to actions of mind and body.  In other words when we use senses to perceive (make contact with) something we want, we activate thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to obtain it. The subject of “I” makes contact with the object of thing/experience; if consequences are pleasant, we repeat the same sequence over and over again. Consequences, however, can be pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.  We make habits chasing pleasant consequences

(reinforcement – positive in nature), and also by avoiding unpleasant consequences (negative reinforcement). Humans, therefore, learn by experience what to approach (pleasant consequences) and what to avoid (unpleasant consequences).  Neutral consequences do not motivate us to repeat behaviors of mind, body, thought, speech and action. Thus we make our habits by repeated behaviors aimed at achieving desired (attached to) pleasant consequences as well as avoiding the unpleasant ones.  This is a mind-body process, and it is registered internally by emotions in the body – feeling sensations.  The ultimate catch, however, remains that since the positive/pleasant outcomes of our repeated behaviors are impermanent – we cannot hold on to the desired, attached positive behavioral outcomes. Nothing lasts for ever. Nothing!  So, no matter what we do to continue the cycles of chasing pleasant outcomes, we end up with dissatisfaction – suffering. Think alcoholism or drug addiction – any addiction for that matter.  Humans will self-medicate for short-term gains, almost always leading to long-term problems (suffering).

This does NOT mean that we cannot be happy. In fact when joy and happiness are experienced BEST we fully encounter them with deep gratitude and by using all our sensory organs (including thought according to Buddhism).  We just cannot make the happiness last as long as we wish it to last.  So, nothing is ever enough to fully satisfy us for long.  Not even great wealth related to great greed.  We always want more, or we fear we may lose what we now have. This is the true story of samsara. It is also support for the statement that intrinsic, long-lasting happiness is an inside job.  It depends on how we respond to conditioning in life.

The Alaya Treatise noted that humans possess a very strong sense of self – the subjective “I/Me/My” self that registers the pleasant or unpleasant consequences noted above.  If we like the outcomes of intentional contact with sense-objects and experiences, we feel GOOD and repeat the behaviors over and over again. We cling to the desired outcome; this is true even though we have no control over what the future will bring. The past is over -let it go. The future has not yet happened – you cannot control it. Humans, however, fail to learn these most basic lessons of life. In situations where our self-cherishing subjective SELF sees either a threat to survival or a loss of the desired sense-object pleasant consequence of behavior, we react quite strongly.  Some believe that the dependent arising of human experience rests in the connection of causes and conditions related to making sense contact with objects and experiences leading to pleasant consequences. We get attached; we desire; we grasp; and, we cling to what we WANT. What we like!

In worse-case scenarios, human attachment to being attached to desired consequences of behavior can lead to deadly violence.  We sometimes act as if we are simply wild animals seeking what we want when we want it. We will fight or oppose anything in our way.  The tendencies of such learned – possibly genetic – behaviors is transferred via familial, group, racial, ethnic and mindfulhappiness-eightfoldpathnational identifications.  The culture of imperialism – taking what you want from others – may be deeply ingrained in the human psyche or even in our genes regarding survival. When such tendencies are related to wealth and sacred belief systems, we may even kill others to protect our desired processes and beliefs.  This is a cultural reality. To a lesser degree the levels of self-centered entitlement today suggest the extreme egoism of the “I/Me”My” realities of life in samsara – searching for happiness in all the same ways and wrong places without really finding it OUT THERE.  So, if you understand the early Buddhist teaching about causes and conditions associated with attachment desire, you may be able to achieve more lasting happiness via the Four Noble Truths and The Eight Fold Path.  We on the Path are approaching Nirvana, Enlightenment – one small step at one small time. The Path is experienced well only if we use dharma wisdom, strong compassion, and the foundations of Buddhist Psychology.

For more information refer to  Nanamoli, B. and Bodhi, B. (Trans.). (1997). The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha. Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications.  See also Waldron, W.S. Indian Thought and Social Science on the Travails of Self-Identity. Middlebury, VT: Middleburg College.  For a more complex interpretation refer to the Alaya Treatise.

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, VermontChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

CLICK HERE  or any image below to Order 

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

MindfulHappiness_Amazon           mindful-happiness_barnes_and_noble

 

Filed Under: ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, Featured, Habits Tagged With: DR ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, HABITS, MINDFULNESS

Twitter

Mindful Happiness -Currently in Production

Mindful Happiness Posts

  The Tao of Nature I have two interesting stories about nesting robins.  These stories tell of the bonds of birds and their young, and how intelligent these birds can be. The first story happened to me abut 15 years ago. The second story happened today, July 27, 2017. Story 1 I was working in […]

Helper Burnout in Today’s Healthcare System Helper burnout is a very common problem in all healthcare services and at all levels of professional training and experience. Helpers from recovery-oriented peer counselors, state employed case managers, and licensed counselors/therapists all the way to physicians are reporting record high levels of reactive stress and compassion fatigue. Psychiatrists are […]

Forgiveness Meditation Practice – Mindful Happiness – Dr Anthony Quintiliani Sit comfortably in a meditation posture. Allow your breath to remain natural without any intentional modification.  Allow your body to relax, and allow your mind to be open to and to expect forgiveness.  Focus attention on your heart area deep within your soul, and allow […]

Meditation on the Feeling of Letting Go – Pacification! Pacifying the mind is a desired outcome of regular, stable meditation practice.  Pacification may be done via meditating on the breath, general mindfulness awareness, vipassana, and various other forms of  meditation.  However, the wise mind skill of “letting go” of unhelpful, negative, and harmful thoughts and […]

Concentration, Contentment, and Loving Kindness I have written various entries on concentration meditations in prior posts.  Yes, concentration meditation is beyond pure mindfulness meditation.  Here I will present briefly two other forms of meditation that are quite intentional and also beyond mindfulness: contentment and loving kindness meditations. Let’s begin with intentional meditation of contentment. Contentment […]

Calming Your Self-Critical Self with Mindfulness A core problem for many people is their incessant self (or other) criticism. This is a major part of our psychological mind suffering today. In the past life for most people was more difficult, so human basic needs were the energized priorities; today so many of us have been […]

Subtle and Direct Experiences of Happiness Khenpo Sherab Zangpo’s 2017 publication The Path: A Guide to Happiness, Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications has much to offer about how to become a happier person.  Read over the listing below and see what you may be missing. Try this mantra: “I am happy the way I am.” “I am happy […]

Behaviors People Display When in Groups After more than 35 years of facilitating hundreds of classes, workshops, family therapy sessions, group therapy sessions, and work project groups it has become clear that we do some strange things when we participate in groups. It appears to me that many of these in-group functions serve both ego […]

Mindful Ways to  Help a person Change Unhelpful Behaviors Brought to you by The Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont Although behavior therapy and contingency management remain the most effective means to initiate changes in unhelpful behaviors, more generic approaches offer some promise.  See the steps noted below to change an […]

Winnicott’s Ideas – Best Possible Clinical Alliance To develop and maintain a strong clinical alliance it is best to follow some of the well-known clinical advice on this topic.  Rogers, Kohut, Winnicott and many others have suggested just how to do so.  Here are some general clinical recommendations for enhancing the clinical alliance. Develop authentic […]

The Needs of Traumatized Children – Learning Activity As a means to hone in on your helping behaviors, complete this learning activity. NEEDS     List a Concrete Example for Each Unmet Need. Biological  _______________________________________________ Psychological   ____________________________________________ Social  __________________________________________________ Emotional  _______________________________________________ Educational  ______________________________________________ Spiritual  ________________________________________________ Attachment  ______________________________________________ What can YOU do to help meet […]

The Holy Year of Mercy Like the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet, Pope Francis in The Church of Rome, is sharing his opinion on compassion and mercy in life.  Although Pope Francis distinguishes compassion (a human action) from mercy (a divine action), the two positive conditions are quite similar in values, attitudes, and behaviors.  Pope […]

Trauma Informed Care – The Absolute Basics This post aims at providing a very basic introduction to Trauma Informed Care.  Advanced versions of this information are available from the author.  So what is Trauma Informed Care (hereafter TIC)?  Below I have listed rationales of need and core characteristics of TIC in organizations. Why We Need […]

My third posting on self-medication- Comes from the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont. Now we will turn our attention to how people become habituated to self-medication to obtain brief moments of joy and/or to avoid emotional suffering.  Recall that self-medication becomes a habit (dopamine released in reward centers of the […]

Tantric Meditation on Emptiness of Self Mind training on emptiness of self requires single-pointed attention and concentration on space, empty space. Emptiness awareness in equipoise of meditation appears as the empty of space. When we practice this repeatedly with calm abiding we can attain direct experience of non-conceptual realization – true emptiness. Awareness of emptiness […]

Mindful Happiness Book Review The Awakened Introvert: Practical Mindfulness skills…  By Arnie, Kozak, Ph.D. Dr. Kozak begins his book noting the processes of mind that often cause people to suffer.  Critical judging, unhelpful story telling, over-attending to past suffering or losses and angst about possible future realities (the brain’s default mode), and auto-pilot inattention to important […]

Zen Buddhist Emptiness and Christian Centering Prayer Recently Ken McLeod presented “Freedom of Choice” as a way to differentiate forms of spiritual materialism and emotional escapism from serious Buddhist practice.  He noted The Heart Sutra negations. There is no attainment for bodhisattvas as they pursue the perfection of wisdom. Ultimately, everything is empty. He refers […]

Mindful Walking Meditation: How to Walk by Thich Nhat Hanh – A Powerful Short Book of Wisdom In my opinion, Thich Nhat Hanh and The 14th Dalai Lama are the two most important and wise teachers of mindfulness, meditation, compassion, and Buddhism in the 21st century.  Below I will offer my interpretation of Thich Nhat Hanh’s […]

What The Buddha Taught About Metta In the Metta Sutta (Anguttara Nikaya, 11:16) The Buddha said that we should seek the following characteristics in how we live our lives: Wholesome goodness; Gentle speech; Human Humility; Personal contentment; Personal calmness; and, Pure-heartedness in all we think, say, and do. By living this way we would be […]

Basic Self-Compassion Process Practice: To practice self-compassion as needed, follow these specific self-compassion steps. Sensitize your mindfulness skills to become aware of your immediate experience of suffering. Hold a strong intention to respond with self-kindness. Use self-talk to be kind to yourself. Begin by softening your body. Relax your muscles, tendons, joints. Hold a natural […]

Mindful Happiness Tags

JOURNALING VERMONT MINDFUL MBSR EMPTINESS MINDFUL MEDITATION PSYCHOTHERAPY BRAIN SELF ESTEEM SUFFERING PRACTICE EXERCISES TRAUMA MINDFULNESS TRAINING VIPASSANA COVID-19 BREATHING THERAPY. SELF CLINICAL SUPERVISION SELF COMPASSION WALKING MEDITATION VIPASSANA MEDITATION MEDITATION PRACTICE ACTIVITY ADDICTION MEDITATION ANTHONY QUINTILIANI PRACTICES TRAINING SELF MEDICATION MINDFUL HAPPINESS ELEANOR R LIEBMAN CENTER MINDFUL TRAINING ENLIGHTENMENT COMPASSION ACTIVITIES CONSCIOUSNESS DR ANTHONY QUINTILIANI THICH NHAT HANH MINDFULNESS WISE MIND HAPPINESS SELF CARE BUDDHISM

Mindful Categories

Mindful Happiness Pages

  • About
  • Contact
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Site Map

Copyright © 2023 · Mindful Happiness