Laura Basha

The Creative Process: A Portal to ‘Not-Knowing’

Laura Basha

The Non-Verbal Language of Transformation

What do artistic expression, personal purpose, and new realities have in common?

This paper explores the parallels between the creative process and the process of transformation, intending to capture non-verbal realms of expression as understandable symbols, both as images as well as words.

One of my ongoing questions is: “What am I not seeing?” Whenever I enter into a dialogue with a client, or put myself in a seminar series or a course for ongoing growth and development, I forget what I know in a sense, so that I can hear newly. I practice “getting amnesia” regarding my intellect and memory and then I do my best to listen from the place of “not-knowing”. From this vantage point I always get a fresh perspective, and I am then open to other’s points of view, am willing to be a neophyte, and so I always “see” something new, often a new way of considering a previously well-rooted and oftentimes well-grounded concept. With high intention to get an insight about one issue or another, I find that pretty much anywhere I look will do if I am listening for what I don’t know.

One of the conversations I have been exploring and reflecting on, is a person’s commitment to global transformation. Global transformation inherently implies a need for listening to the logic of other cultures, a deep respect for the different points of view of others. Given the way each of us views life, given our varied pasts and what we have made them mean, given our years of education and whatever cultural exposures we each uniquely have had, each one of us is in effect, a different culture.

What would happen to communication if we actually listened to one another as if we were each a different culture, replete with our own values and ways of operating that were grounded in a logic perhaps distinct to ourselves, but nevertheless valid and understandable? Communication would have the possibility of effortlessly becoming dialogue: more listening than speaking.

In 1988 I travelled to Egypt with a small group of people with whom I had been studying for the ministry for some time. We hired a boat, a small Egyptian doma, which we sailed down the Nile River with our warm and wonderful guide, Mohammed. We of course approached every conversation with a depth of respect born of the humility that we did not know the culture, the terrain, the language, and we relied upon his expertise not only for cultural information but in reality for our very safety. One particularly beautiful evening as our little boat floated down the river, some of us lay on our backs looking up at the breathtaking night sky of below-the-equator constellations. As Mohammed and I conversed, our conversation turned to our children, and the story unfolded of his recent divorce and the decision of his ex-wife to forbid him to see his 2-year-old son. At the time, I was also divorced and my ex-husband forbade my children to speak with me when they were staying with him. Suddenly, Mohammed and I had no distance between us, no cultural barrier, no problem understanding each other despite his self-conscious English and my non-existent Egyptian. Simply parents, we were bonded through shared heartache and love for our children. It remains a precious moment in my life experience and reminds me of the common thread that runs through our humanity, as well as the transformational impact of listening for that relatedness, rather than being seduced by difference. Compassion, familiarity, empathy, intimacy – all available from listening for and from what we didn’t know.

Now, what if we were to listen to our own intellect and acquired knowledge in the same way? What if we were to listen to the inner silence of what we don’t know, the inner wisdom of “not knowing”, with nothing on our minds but a complete curiosity for what we haven’t been hearing? It is as if we have been listening to the cacophony of our own thinking with such an enamored fascination that the flute music of inspiration has been essentially drowned out. Yet when we can turn our attention away from that educated inner monologue, what can emerge from the stillness is a distinct resonance of wisdom. Implicit in this resonance is an answer to the question that has been raised, an emergence of a solution to the problem, a new realm of possibility that is equally-everywhere-present but which has been obscured by our own attachment to what we know.

This is the walk of the artist, the attentiveness of the creative mind. For purposes of this paper, I am defining “artist” as anyone who taps into the creative Source of all possibility for new insight and even common sense. Life experience becomes the canvas; choice is the brush and paint.

Be here now. This is the stance of being present in the moment. This creative walk is available to each one of us, and can be applied to any project, situation, crisis, or conundrum. Instead of a beautiful painting or dance or poem or piece of music, perhaps the creative Source emerges as a brilliant concept to expand a business vision, or as the insight of a missing equation for a new scientific breakthrough. Perhaps It emerges as exactly the right words that capture and articulate an individual’s personal purpose. Or for a parent at wit’s end with the situation they find themselves in with their teenager, in the quietness of listening to Source from not-knowing, the humility intrinsic in deep listening arises. From this reflective humility a thought occurs to them: Maybe they could listen for how their teen’s thinking makes sense to the teen? As parents they could then see a whole new world which is their teen’s view, and then compassion born of understanding might enter into the conversation, and a lack of judgment and dialogue could ensue, transforming separateness into communion.

When I finally began to do this with my own teenagers, it was an act of letting go within my own thinking, in which I finally granted greatness to my children instead of insisting they absorb my perceptions like sponges, as if I had the only realistic perspective. I remember one day about 16 years ago, I took my daughter to lunch when she was a junior in high school. She became very frustrated with me and I couldn’t understand what had happened since the beginning of lunch was so pleasant. Humility came to me from being more committed to rapport with her than proving to myself that I was right. So, once home, when she finally let me back in her room and I apologized for whatever I had done but told her that I didn’t know what that was, she turned to me with the sudden visage and wisdom of a mature woman and said, “I used to think that everything you told me was true, but now I am becoming aware that other people have other points of view, and I can’t just take your word for it, I have to figure out for myself what is true for me.” Her frustration instantly made sense to me as impersonal, and the result of my lack of listening to how she saw the world.

In the early 1990’s I was a member of SIETAR, the Society for International Education, Training, and Research, created by the founders of the Peace Corps. The strategy utilized by the most effective interculturalists of the day was the strategy of entering into a culture with no expectations or assumptions, but rather with reverence and a listening for what the culture was speaking not just verbally, but non-verbally. In this way the most effective of the interculturalists were the most malleable, open to assimilating into the culture due to the capacity they had developed within themselves to suspend their own knowledge and ways of behaving. They aligned with the resonance of the new culture much as an instrument allows its own vibrational rate to be catalyzed by a tuning fork.

Being catalyzes Being.

So, listening for what we don’t know could be a universal strategy, a globally transformative strategy, because the very nature of not-knowing calls for one to be present in the moment with no attention paid to one’s personal thinking from the past: beginner’s mind.

In January of 2010 I was asked to design and lead a training for the annual company meeting of an international consulting firm, which delivers its work in 8 languages and whose focus clients are Global Fortune 1000 companies. Their work impacts hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. They are in the process of expanding their company’s purpose as well as supporting each employee in defining his/her own purpose in order to best recognize whether their individual commitment is aligned with the company commitment. What became clear in the presentation of my material was that, much like the inter-culturists mentioned earlier, theirs was no longer a question of designing new technology, but rather that each employee be able to discover their own authentic essence within, catalyze it, and emanate the resulting authenticity as they delivered the already mastered technology. This type of awakening is at the heart of the evolution of leadership, and generates humility as well as a fascinated deep listening for another’s perceptions. This is also at the heart of self-actualization, and generates humility and a deep listening for expansion in one’s own listening of one’s self: a new realm of possibility, an emerging reality. From the feedback, the result of the presentation that day was a renewed sense of inspiration for the employees, coupled with a renewed commitment to the company’s purpose, and a commitment by the organization to support each employee in achieving the goals they set for themselves. It became obvious that this would further the actualization of the company’s purpose.

One thing I have learned is that any enlightenment I have attained is not so much the result of noble pursuit as it is waking up to the fact that my face has been in the dirt for a long time and maybe I don’t really know what I’m doing and it’s time to get up, brush myself off and have the wherewithal to listen for what I don’t know. This was certainly part of the process of creating a personal purpose, which finally resonated into words from the essence of what I am committed to. The purpose is in fact now the articulation of who I say I am as a possibility. It took some courage to keep creating just the right combination of phrasing in the face of wanting to “do it right” or “look good” or “look intelligent”, yet now I have a verbalization that I can truly say is the default against which I can measure what I commit to: “I am committed that people are free from the limitations of the past, profoundly present, generating lives of authentic self-expression and joy.”

This process by the way is not dissimilar to the process of creating a painting. In the words of my dear painting mentor, Larry Robinson: “If you don’t hate this painting at some point in the process, it’s not going to be a good painting!” In the realm of creative self-expression there is an angst with which we must engage, working with it, tolerating its discomfort, until harmony unfolds. In the painter’s case, we engage through the brush; in the case of a remarkable human being, through a purpose, a commitment to something bigger than one’s self. If we allow it, transformation has its way with us.

“Look at any inspired painting. It’s like a gong sounding; it puts you in a state of reverberation.”

– Artist Philip Guston

Become a catalyst for your personal purpose, a catalyst for yourself as well as for others in your world. Becoming a catalyst for your personal purpose is like a gong sounding; it puts you and your world in a state of reverberation, transmuting old worn-out discourses into new realms of possibility.

While I was interning in graduate school, the psychiatrist who was the medical director of our clinic for the county’s most challenging persistently mentally ill, became quite frustrated with me for being so idealistic with my patients. He said I was not reality-based enough to be able to assist them. I replied as respectfully as I could that, perhaps he was right, but my perspective was to see the possible best in every patient in order to elicit the same from them, in spite of their presentation. I can see in retrospect that, essentially, this was my purpose – not yet articulated but already living – for my patients: “Free from the limitations of the past, profoundly present …”. I never read the clinical reports on my patients until after I met with them, because I didn’t want my initial assessment to be contaminated by the previous clinicians’ diagnoses. As a result of allowing myself to “not know”, I was able to perceive possibilities with these patients that very likely wouldn’t have occurred to me had I assumed the reality of accepted clinical diagnoses and reports. Of course I read the reports later, but I had by then been able to bring a fresh perspective to what was assumed, thereby achieving some very unusually positive results with patients diagnosed as people who would never improve. Interestingly enough, my work with them was so effective, that a year later the medical director requested supervision from me on my particular methodology.

So when the going gets tough, in the face of resistance, there is a calling from my personal purpose which has me remember what the commitment is: “People being free, profoundly present, authentically self-expressed, and joyful”. If I am creating myself as a clearing for this intention, this commitment I have for myself, and I am suggesting that others get up from the dirt, I had better be vertical myself, with some visible traces of the sludge remaining.

What Does the Naked Eye See?

Were we to suspend our personal perspective, or at least our attachment to our personal perspective, a good question to ask might be: “What does the naked eye see?” With this question we enter the world of symbolism. As we simply be with what is in our midst, from the stance of the naked eye, we would not bring evaluation or assessment, we would bring curiosity and simple interest, synonyms for “not-knowing”. This would allow for seeing something new. The artist must develop a tolerance for the discomfort of not-knowing, because as she exhausts her known ways of creating and the piece is still not working, she must allow the muse of creativity to educate her as to the next step, the next brushstroke, the next note. She is basically listening for the next choice, the answer to: how to proceed?

Listening from this realm of not-knowing, with mental attention turned away from the noise of the stored data of the intellect, and turned toward listening simply through the silence of the “naked eye”, insight emerges. New possibility is heard and brilliance radiates. There is always a background of harmonious music in Life, but what are we listening to: the cacophony of the noise from the thinking in our intellect, our stored memory, or the melodious harmonics of Life Itself?

Inspiration unfolds, taking the form necessary for the fulfillment of the creation: painting to be expressed, words to be written or spoken, parenting to be done, business plan to be developed, patient to be healed. New realities and new realms emerge from the Source of everything and no thing. Empty and meaningless morph into what is needed, according to the character of the thought of the need. We become the conduit through which the creative Source forms Itself. We allow transformation to express through us into our worlds.

Resistance and the Alchemy of Transformation

“The truth will set you free, but first, it will piss you off”.

– The EST Training

In every creation of or for something bigger than the way we have previously perceived, is there not the experience of resistance? We begin with what we know, and what we think the creation, purpose, or commitment is. And then as we deepen our alignment with our authentic self, the identity raises its seductive and irresistible head of invalidating reason in equal ratio to the authenticity. All sorts of logical explanation expresses. “If you need a reason, any reason will do” reverberates from transformation days of old. The practice of listening with nothing on your mind, the practice of being fascinated with what you don’t know, allows for a relaxing of the resistance just long enough to hear a new word to express more deeply, more authentically, the promise for the world that is yours. Without focus on the intellect, listening deeply to the intangible resonance of the authentic commitment informs you of its articulation in words.

I am currently in the midst of painting a new painting: “The Alchemist”. The alchemist has accessible to herself all the elements of the universe. Certain combinations of certain elements will result in the transformation of the elements into gold. The creatively self-expressed human being, in this case the artist (and I include myself here, in the midst of creating this painting) has available to herself all the elements of the creative process and has the privileged opportunity of choosing the exact combination which will create the artistic piece or the particular desired result. Sometimes the right elements are unknown, just as oftentimes the right solutions are unknown. Allowing the process of not-knowing through the practice of quieting one’s thinking and becoming present to the sound of silence has one enter into the creative realms of all possibility. This, coupled with expertise of one’s craft, has one able to express those creative realms.

“By dropping your inner resistance to the noise, by allowing it to be as it is, this acceptance also takes you into that realm of inner peace that is stillness … True intelligence operates silently. Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found.”

– Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks, pp. 6-7

We are so afraid of the unknown. Such trepidation is understandable, when we consider the internal alchemical process in which we are engaged as we put our foot on the path of transformation. Henceforth, we are all alchemists in the laboratory of our lives. We must generate courage born of commitment in order to create a commitment to possibility for the world that flies in the face of entrenched discourses, discourses which have survived the assaults of history and the weathering of time.

Our authentically articulated purpose expressions are projections into form, individually emerging from the collective vision that humanity could create a world where every human being is fulfilled, with no one left out.

The identity has created itself in reaction to known circumstances, so it dupes us into re-creating those circumstances with the myopic grid we have nurtured as an overlay draping our eyeballs. Life doesn’t really have a chance to be authentically seen in this case, as we interpret our experience through this grid, resulting in everything occurring to us as being personally related. The grid is of our making, so seeing things through the grid would automatically contaminate them with the logic of the grid, i.e., our own personally constructed story. Consequently, everything that occurs, everything that is said or done, every comment or opinion, seems personally related to us, which inspires the seed of reactivity. It occurs as obvious from the perspective of this grid, that we are justified in our righteous indignation.

Perhaps the resistance we experience in causing ourselves to self-actualize, is actually the fear of an identity, a self-created though limiting persona, not knowing how to be present in a circumstance that bears no relation to the originating circumstance around which it constructed itself.

But who did the constructing? It couldn’t be the identity, as the identity, the persona if you will, is itself the resulting construct. Perhaps in listening for what we don’t know, we are allowing ourselves to stand in the clearing of all possibility, the alchemist’s realm of choice with all the elements of the universe available to us, and we then have the charge of interpreting the symbols, the life experiences, that lay in front of us.

The process of creating an authentic purpose is tantamount to delving deep into the silt to find the gold of the authentic self-expression of one’s essence, that which assimilated the identity in the first place. Alchemy takes place first through the alchemist.

“The difficulties of our … work teach us to take truth, goodness, and beauty where we find them. They are not always found where we look for them: often they are hidden in the dirt or are in the keeping of the dragon. ”

– Carl Jung, The Psychology of the Transference, p. 25

This is the power inherent in accessing the creative realm of authentic self-expression. This creative realm can be accessed anywhere needed in life experience, as Life Itself emanates from this realm. One’s life and one’s authentic self-expression becomes the art form.

“Life is greater than all art. I would go even further and declare that the man whose life comes nearest to perfection is the greatest artist; for what is art without the sure foundation and framework of a noble life?”

– Gandhi

The more we understand the important role of resistance and the workings of the identity as it creates resistance that appears so real, the more we can tolerate the breakdowns that must occur in order to be dissolved and transmuted into breakthroughs.

What does it really feel like to be creating an accelerated life of possibility? Of course the identity is confronted because possibility unfolds by being present in the Now, and identity is the resultant expression of aligning with memory. Standing in the Now is really what is required for engaging the creative process. What happens to us when we are confronted and experience resistance could be seen as symbolic that we are on the right path. Transformation takes something.

Life is full of metaphors. In fact, one might even venture to say that in each person’s individual life experience, every occurrence is a metaphor of whatever needs to be seen next for one’s own evolutionary process.

We can utilize the arts of theatre or writing, painting or music or dance to gain access to deeper understanding and insight of life’s symbols and metaphors through the feelings they are eliciting; as images, they can trigger certain resonances that lie deep within the memory. These feelings then later coalesce into cognitive form as words which occur as insight. What does the naked eye see? This way of looking from the naked eye is a stance that could be utilized cross-culturally, cross-gender, cross-generationally. And isn’t this the unspoken commitment inherent in our articulated personal purposes: global transformation.

The most powerful way to actualize a personal purpose is to BE the purpose. This is the non-verbal language that is invisible and silent, yet so loud that it radiates and penetrates the environment with its resonance as soon as we simply show up. The work takes place within us.

Universal Application

The concept of a universal application of considering non-verbal symbols as the language of transformation makes sense from the perspective that you would see any symbol within the context of your own culture. The symbols of your own culture would be for the most part known to or available to you to explore. You would interpret the experience as symbolically and metaphorically meaningful within the context of your own cultural perspective, thus informing you of your answer or insight or revelation.

Certain symbols have universal meaning, regardless of education, social standing, culture, gender or generational stance. A “dwelling” can be communicated in a number of different symbols and universally perceived, e.g., a house or a hut or a tent. A bird in flight has a universal symbolic meaning of “transcendence”. Research shows that certain symbols express certain meaning and can resonate on very deep levels which the cognitive functions do not identify but to which the common thread of humanity resonates. The circle, for example, the mandala, is one of the oldest symbols in human history and communicates cross-culturally wholeness, completeness, infinity.

Being present in the listening of stillness, of the silence, of not-knowing, brings the truth of our common humanity to the fore. Listening from the “naked eye” has us resonate with the realms of compassion, humility, generosity, and contribution. Thus we emanate grace. Our very presence then has us sought after and in demand for being a remarkable human being. This is at the heart of every authentic personal purpose for the world.

What if being a “remarkable human being” was no longer remarkable? What if we were sought after and in demand for the very ordinary magnificence that is the hallmark of the authentically expressed human being?

What if by our very presence born of alignment with our own personal purpose, inside the clearing space of the unknown, we were the catalysts for the other, resonating to the commonality of remarkable, the commonality of magnificent? Choices would then be made for the benefit of all concerned.

What if by our very ordinary and remarkable presence we emanated the common thread hidden within great inspirational art? What if by our very ordinary and remarkable presence we radiated the possibility of human life experience being the acme of the fine arts? Standing in the clearing of accumulated personal purposes, we could very well radiate for humanity a new realm of masterful living, with no one and nothing left out.

From the white paper by Laura Basha, Ph.D.
Conference for Global Transformation, May 2010
“Best Paper” Award/span>

Bibliography

Basha, L., (Speaker). (1993). Humor, gratitude and grace. (Cassette Recording). Oakland, CA: Center for Conscious Living.

Basha, L., (2001). Implications of the health realization paradigm experienced as transformational humor for individuals and organizations. Doctoral Dissertation, Center for Psychological Studies, Berkeley, CA.

Basha, L., & Neuhausel, N., (2009). Joy is serious business. Unpublished manuscript.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: the psychology of optimal experience. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

Jung, C.G., (1954) The psychology of the transference, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.

Jung, C.G., & Jaffe, A., (Ed.). (1961). Memories, dreams, reflections. New York: Random House, Inc.

Keeler, W.F., & Morse, A. (Ed.). (1987). Lessons in applied metaphysics, Vol.I. Oakland, CA: The Publishing Department of Lakeside Temple of Practical Christianity.

Tharp, T. (2003). The creative habit: learn it and use it for life. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks

Tolle, E., (2003). Stillness speaks, Namaste Publishing, Vancouver, Canada.

An Unfillable Emptiness

Laura Basha

Photo By: Tommy Shellberg

It was 1:00pm on February 27th, 2001.

I was in the kitchen talking on the phone with my friend Helene who had recently relocated to Palm Springs. Call waiting interrupted the conversation, and I excused myself from Helene for a moment to take the call.

It was Alicia. “Laura?”. “Yes, Hi Alicia.” She said, “Are you sitting down?”

Concerned, I sat down and said, “What is it?” Alicia said, “It’s Bert. He has committed suicide. He has hung himself.”

Bert was the father of my children.

Numbness infused me as she told me more details. In shock, I said goodbye, got off the phone with Helene, and I basically lost the next hour. I have a memory as if in a foggy nightmare, snippets of seeing myself instinctively keening, renting my clothes, stumbling and falling into the hallway walls.

As disbelief prickled back into reality, I realized that our 17 year old son was coming home from school, and I would have to pull myself together in some fashion and tell him. And then I would have to call and tell his 20 year old sister, in London and almost at midnight, away on a college art seminar semester …

How does one do that?!

What does a mother say …

Loving an Old Warrior on Father’s Day

Bert

1951- 2001

Father of my children, old warrior, mystic.
We love you still, and thank you for
Your brilliance,
Your music,
Your way with water and stars,
Your gift of humor.
Thinking of you always,
Thinking of you on
Father’s Day.

Paradise

by Bruce Springsteen

Where the river runs to black
I take the schoolbooks from your pack
Plastics, wire and your kiss
The breath of eternity on your lips

In the crowded marketplace
I drift from face to face
I hold my breath and close my eyes
I hold my breath and close my eyes
And I wait for paradise
And I wait for paradise

The Virginia hills have gone to brown
Another day, another sun goin’ down
I visit you in another dream
I visit you in another dream

I reach and feel your hair
Your smell lingers in the air
I brush your cheek with my fingertips
I taste the void upon your lips
And I wait for paradise
And I wait for paradise

I search for you on the other side
Where the river runs clean and wide
Up to my heart the waters rise
Up to my heart the waters rise

I sink ‘neath the river cool and clear
Drifting down I disappear
I see you on the other side
I search for the peace in your eyes
But they’re as empty as paradise
They’re as empty as paradise

I break above the waves
I feel the sun upon my face

Love Lives On

Settling back in after moving houses at the end of the year.
Some things in order, others not so much.

Odds and ends of sacred things that used to have a reliable placement in the previous home pop up to be noticed, wanting to find their perfect setting in this new abode.

Above is one. Tomorrow marks another year gone by without him, without my old-shoes-friend and comrade, my great and terrible love, my irreplaceable children’s Dad. We walked through centuries together and no doubt will walk some more before the whole journey is complete.

Wishing you well.
Wishing you Joy and Freedom.

Thinking of you, with Love, old friend.

The Water of Realization

Laura Basha

Photo By: Yulia Sobol

I wrote in June of our trip to Florida, four sisters, united in our commitment to move Mom to a more comfortable and secure residence, nearer to family, grandchildren and all.

It was a success! She loves her new place while still missing her home in the South.

We were the four great women that we truly are.

Love’s transmutation capacity elevates all other concerns.

Again from Rumi:

“Love says: You can deny me. Try.
I say, Yes, you appear out of nowhere
like the bubbles in wine, here and then not.

… The water of realization is the wine we mean …
Grace floods in. The wine’s power breaks the jar. …”

The Deep Sweet Sorry of the Passing of a Pet

Laura Basha

Photo By: Laura Basha

Jake

1995 – 2012

He had a way of looking at you until you understood what he was saying. I loved how he would reach up his paws onto the couch to be picked up as I sat quietly writing in my journal. His soft purring soothing, leaning his pristine white self against my leg, while he looked over the space of the room as if holding court.

I stand on my back deck overlooking the canyon and there is a hawk soaring elegantly on the breeze of this beautiful summery afternoon. It seems to me that Jake’s spirit is soaring onward just like that.

Thank you for being in our lives, for all of your love, and for being such a great good joy and solace these 17 years.

Peaceful ongoing to you, dear, beautiful, loving old friend.

The Role of Thought

Laura Basha

Photo By: Jeremy Bishop

Commitment to the empowerment of people can directly express in a myriad of ways through various leadership roles. These roles are to be found in the home, in the community, in the business or corporate setting, and frankly in any environment in which one is called upon to make decisions and interact with others. Understanding the role thought plays in creating our experience of life is critical in laying the foundation for healthy leadership.

Since it is our thinking which determines how we view a situation, come to an evaluation, handle ourselves, respond to others, or make a decision, clarity about the source of these choices brings with it a respectful and open certainty. This quality subsequently inspires trust in others and lends credibility to the leader.

As human beings, basically, we think all the time. We have within us a storehouse of memory, an intellect which is in one form or another educated and experienced and has expertise. We also have Wisdom and common sense and intuition. We access all of this as and through thought.

We have thoughts about our thoughts. We have thoughts about other people’s thoughts. One of the keys to actualizing leadership and self-empowerment is to understand the role which thought plays, and how it literally creates our – and other’s – experience of reality. For purposes of clarification, thought has been delineated into two “modes,” and so a brief discussion of these modes is included here in this article.

There are two modes of thought common to every human being. One we can refer to as personal thought, or memory, and the other is a mode of thinking available to us from being present in the moment, or simply stated: Being. The distinction between the two modes of thought can be seen through defining them and understanding the particular attributes of each.

Understanding the role of thought enables people to better sustain hopefulness and a sense of humor in the face of personal and organizational pressures and changes. To cultivate a deeper understanding of the power of thought allows for ongoing expansion of creative thinking in problem solving, improving productivity, and inspiring intrinsic motivation. This capacity to sustain hopefulness is achieved through the maintenance of a lighthearted attitude in spite of circumstances.

Personal thought or memory describes a mode or way of thinking that is limited, as it is based in the past. Personal thought is entirely made up of memory. The use of memory is appropriate when accessed through being, or being present in the moment. Without memory most of our day-to-day tasks would have to be relearned each time there was a need for them. Imagine having to relearn how to use the radio every morning or relearn how to operate the car or balance the checkbook. Clearly, personal thought is a very useful and necessary tool, and memory is what allows us to navigate much of the logistical necessities of everyday living.

However, the intellect can become problematic when used solely as the way of thinking, as it is entirely process-oriented. This mode of thinking can allow for continuous repetition or re-organization of previously held ideas. It can also be limiting when an individual’s thinking is relegated to memory only, as there can be a lack of freshness and insight. Exhaustion and depletion can result due to the arduous nature of having to remember and retrieve the past for any purpose. There can be a sense of boredom because when thinking from memory alone, one is not in the present moment, but rather distracted with thinking based in the past. Your intellect is then racing faster than your life, resulting in the experience of boredom, so there is no experience of insight or creativity.

A heaviness, or lack of joy or presence, can occur when a person focuses from the intellect alone. As one reviews the past over and over, there is a tendency to worry. The thought of needing to make things happen can create a feeling of hopelessness and burden.

Memory can be judgmental, since it compares and contrasts one recollection to another; it can feel weighted with responsibility and importance, as it has no recognition of itself as thought. Therefore everything can appear to have evaluative meaning and can be personalized. Reaction and doing something can make sense to the personal thought mode.

The mode of Being describes a free-flowing mode of thought, a natural state of consciousness inherent within each individual that arises when one is present. It is the vantage point from which we have access to ever-present Quiet Mind, Wisdom, Creativity and Insight. This free-flowing mode of thinking allows for more and more insight into the nature of the role of thought, ever deepening one’s level of understanding thought. It is natural, effortless, and exceedingly practical, as it also delivers common sense input particular to any given situation at hand.

The free-flow thinking inherent in Being gives us the best possible thinking we have access to at any given time. Herein lies the source of lightheartedness and a sense of humor because, due to the inherent Wisdom and creativity of the thought mode of being present, one is able to trust one’s own ability to navigate any circumstance regardless of familiarity with the conditions. Since the attributes of common sense, insight, and well being infuse thinking while beinging present, one simply allows the appropriate thought and/or solution to occur. When not wrestling or arguing with one’s own reasoning processes, but allowing thought to occur as insight, the best way to advance is unrestricted – and is often coupled with the feeling of delight or lightheartedness experienced as gratitude.

Thus, the free flow thinking in being present is the most efficient thought mode to utilize, as it takes the least emotional toll due to its stress-free nature. It is nonjudgmental and impersonal in that it assigns no motive, but recognizes anything unlike itself as thought relegated to memory.

As stated above, thinking from being present allows for the use of memory in an appropriate way, because it allows us to make use of the things learned in the past from a mode of ease and effortlessness. Memory is necessary; without it we would have to relearn very common, everyday tasks. However, use of memory – or known data alone – keeps us boxed in; the best we can do is travel in circles with the illusion of change because, essentially, our experience of life can become a continual review of the past.

This easy and diffuse way of thinking, i.e., Being, is like a river that is always moving, always bringing fresh and refreshing ways in which to interact with our life experience. Because it does not judge, it does not personalize experience, which allows for compassion and understanding, even for those people and circumstances which appear harsh and demanding.

The psychological stance of being present in the moment, knows that anything other than health and well-being is born of personal thought and is therefore illusory. Personal thought is born of the past, and the past does not exist in the now.

Living from this effortless moment-to-moment way of perceiving allows for helpful and stress-free use of memory, resilience, and good humor. What arises is a tenderness towards oneself and one’s fellows that doubles as a buffer towards difficulties and misunderstandings.

One maintains one’s equilibrium and makes choices that are best for all concerned, staying open to an ever-continuing influx of fresh insights and feelings of ease. It becomes clear – obvious – that the direction of health is toward the Quiet Stillness of Wisdom, which meets every need orderly, harmoniously, and effortlessly.

Within this Quiet Stillness, this Silence, all adjustments take place. Being is directly connected to the Formless, the reverberation of Truth before personal thought. It is in the Silence, the nonverbal Knowing, where personal thought is transmuted into Wisdom, Health, and Joy.

As leaders, parents, teachers, managers, citizens, it behooves us to learn how to recognize the characteristics of our own memory, our stories about life experience, stories about ourselves, stories about others. As soon as we recognize we are operating from personal thought or memory, we are in free-flow thinking, and present, and pointed in the direction of health. This is due to the fact that it is the impersonal thinking of being present which recognizes personal thinking from the past. Personal thinking or memory cannot recognize itself. It has no outside vantage point from which to view itself.

How many people do we come in contact with throughout our experience? How many people are influenced by the inspired commitment to empowerment and health exemplified by one person’s leadership? There is an old saying, “Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but who can count the apples in a seed?” Can we count the lives influenced from the one we inspired? First knowing that there are two modes of thought, then recognizing the difference, is all that is required to return to the natural and effortless state of Being, and one’s own inner buoyancy, health, and innate leadership characteristics.

Leadership born of understanding the role of thought taps into a foundation of inherent stability. As you choose to embrace your own leadership and align with these innate leadership characteristics, you will impact adults, children, organizations and communities with previously unrecognized hopefulness and possibility. Such recognition catalyzes the expression of one’s own inherent authenticity, aspiration and contribution, for the benefit of all concerned.

* Based on the Dissertation: Implications of the Health Realization Model Experienced as Transformational Humor for Individuals and Organizations Dissertation Manuscript by Laura Basha, Ph.D.