Ataraxia

Chronos & Kairos: Embracing The Moment

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Image of Ancient Greek mythological figure Kairos in relief
Ancient Greek mythological figure Kairos with his head shaved at the back, long forelock and winged feet

When we think of time, why is it we always think of it as a quantitative process?

How come we immediately think of it as clock time?

That time is only measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years?

Many people spend most of their time thinking and planning for the future and then worrying about the past?

The past has gone, never to return, and the future is yet to come. There is little you can do about any of it.

During my recent foray into Greek culture, I have stumbled upon a concept that the Ancient Greeks use to describe time.

They use two words.

You might recognise the first word: Chronos.

We use it in words like Chronometer, Synchronous, chronological and so on… These are words and concepts that we are very familiar with. We seem to base our very existence on this idea of time.

The other word the Greeks used was Kairos.

This is a qualitative idea of time. It refers to the perfect moment. The right moment in time. It can be difficult to describe it, but when you have had it, you will know. It is something that has probably happened to most of you but you failed to recognise it and when you did you tried to hang onto it. When you did that it slipped from your grasp like water sliding through your fingers.

When you meditate or engage in a task that requires focussed concentration you might have experienced Kairos. You feel like you are standing outside of chronological time, in the space between the in-breath and the out-breath.

Recently I have been using my chronological time to learn more intricate picking on my guitar and when it comes together, I experience a moment I can call Kairos. I am playing in the moment, experiencing that stilling of time. Everything seems… well… just right. There seems to be a balance and I just stay with it. I relax. Not forcing it and not grasping it. If I do it slips away and the moment is lost.

Painting of ancient Greek mythological figure Chronos with his scythe
Ancient Greek mythological figure Chronos with his scythe also known as Saturn in Roman mythology

The Ancient Greeks loved to personify everything. Look at the constellations in the night sky and there are names for them all. The Greeks personified even the heavens above and created a narrative with characters inhabiting the stars. The Great Bear, Mighty Orion with his sword and Taurus the Bull. You might know more if you have ever been into astronomy.

Chronos was a cruel master. A weary, bent-back old man with a long beard holding a scythe in one hand and an hourglass in the other.

To the Romans Time was represented by Saturn, which takes everything away and then consumes you too.

Kairos however has a very different personality and is represented as a young man, supple and athletic in build and statues can be found all across the Greek peninsula. You can see the image in the text here. See how his hair is long at the front and shaved at the back.

There is often an epigram along with the statue and it reads:

“Who are you? Time who subdues all things.

Why do you stand on tiptoes? I am forever running.

Why do you have wings on your feet? I fly with the wind.

Why do you hold a razor in your hand? As a sign to men that I am sharper than any sharp edge.

And why is your hair hang in your face? For him that meets me to take me by the forelock.

And why is your head bald at the back? Because none of whom I have once raced by on my winged feet will now, though he wishes it sore, take hold of me from behind.”

Unlike Chronos, Kairos cannot be planned and it can’t be forced. It’s about paying attention on a daily basis. We call it mindfulness or awareness and when we learn to switch on our senses and experience the world in this moment, there stands Kairos.

When you learn to embrace life in this way, you learn that everything is subject to change and you let go of any idea of past and future. That is Kairos.

It’s about taking a risk. Doing something that may seem foolhardy and maybe it is not working out. I’ve done it a few times and can still recount the moments of balance that this could bring.

I had a motorcycle business that didn’t work out, and yet I remember the experience and the excitement it engendered; the friendships I made and the madness of the four years.

It’s about embracing the possibility of being disappointed. Ask anyone who has set up their own business and they will have experienced Kairos at some point. Many people don’t recognise Kairos and end up having a terrible time, instead of embracing the moment for what it is, just a moment.

The Greeks talk about Ataraxia, which is a state of tranquility often experienced in the middle of the battlefield. In the midst of the madness, the violence and the confusion Kairos appears.

Being open to new experiences means risking boredom, loss, fear and anger. These are just emotions that have been generated by the way you have learned to perceive the world. You attach labels to your experiences, positive or negative, when in fact these are all just relative terms.

The trend in society to homogenize experience, to manufacture everything to a formula, is to ensure that nothing too strange or disappointing ever happens. The way to keep safe is to avoid any risk of a surprise.

When life is like this, you won’t experience the spontaneity that brings forth creativity. Creative people often experience Kairos. That’s how great art is created. It’s about having the perfect moment and going with the flow. That is all one can ask for.

Perfection only exists only in that moment, and that is all we can expect. Just make sure you recognize Kairos in your everyday experience and there will be a balance in your life.

Perfect!

K.I.S.S – Keep It Simple Stupid

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Image of Ryokan the Zen poet sitting in a single windowed hut in a forest
Ryokan the Zen poet epitomized the simple life living as he did in a single windowed hut in a forest of bamboo

Acronyms are useful because they help you remember things. Things that are useful and things that have outlived their usefulness. One acronym I have always found useful is K.I.S.S

Keep it Simple Stupid.

I have applied it to almost every situation I have been in.

It works for Self-Protection, Meditation, Martial arts, Engineering, Weapons Handling and Life itself.

Keeping things simple creates room in your busy brain that will allow you time to think. To re-position yourself in the world. To be aware.

It gives you time to reflect and opens you up to just being in the moment. No matter where you are, you can create space. Space to breathe and embrace life as it happens. The good, the bad and the ugly.

After all these are only your perceptions and what is bad to one person is good to another. It’s all relative, as they say! In the middle of a busy city or in the wilds of Scotland it’s your perception that creates the problem. The way you talk to yourself, the way you see and hear the world and what you feel about it.

Simplicity is a state of mind… nothing more.

There has always been talk of leading a simple life, of having little in the way of possessions and keeping life stripped down to the basics. That’s good, but I don’t think it’s the answer. I know people with nothing and they are inherently miserable. I know people with everything and they too are miserable.

I had one NLP client who said: “I’m financially rich but emotionally poor”

She thought having money was causing the problem. Well, it was her attitude and beliefs about having wealth that caused the problem. Her perception was making her unhappy. I taught her how to reframe her perceptions and now she gets more out of life and has even started sharing some of her wealth with others less fortunate.

The problem arises when these people believe that having things or not having things will bring happiness.

Let’s get rid of our cell phones and computers.

Let’s get rid of our cars and motorcycles.

Let’s dispense of materialistic possessions.

That’s all well and good, but sadly we live in a world where we are bombarded by stuff, material possessions, people, ideas and the desire for happiness. Surrounded on all sides by things, advertising encourages us to upgrade to the latest technology, fashions, cars or subscribe to current ideologies.

To think that you can be happy simply by ridding yourself of these things is a myth. Happiness is a myth. That constant search for the ideal state that exists only in your mind. Once you have “happiness” life events inevitably step in and take it away. Like clouds blown away by the wind of change.

It’s not the objects that are the problem, but our attachment to them that makes you unhappy or feeling out of balance.

I happen to like stuff. I like swords; I love books and I like ideas but over the years I have loosened my attachment to them so that when the objects, the ideas and the people move on or vanish that’s fine. That recognition that the thing you desire will be gone… including yourself… allows you to live your life in a more balanced way. To me, dropping attachment is the key to living the simple life. You can have your cake and eat it but realise that this state is subject to change and embrace it.

Once you have this realisation you begin to exist in a state of unperturbedness. The Greeks called this ataraxia and this is what the soldiers feel in the midst of the confusion of battle. It’s a state of equanimity that allows you to respond in an appropriate manner.

Recently, as many of you aware, I have also been dropping attachments to my long-held beliefs too. The liberation I felt when they vanished was palpable. Using the maxims of Pyrrhonism has helped me on this path.

Reading Robert Anton Wilson and his use of E-Prime has also been instrumental into me leading a simpler approach to life too. I intend writing something on this subject soon.

If I purchase a new book, I cherish it and enjoy it, then put it down. I know that at some point it may be gone and that’s fine too.

I know that some of my most cherished beliefs will change, and that’s OK.

Living simply does not mean clearing out everything you own. It means clearing out your attachment to these things.

For 64 years now I have seen friends adopting new beliefs, amassing large amounts of possessions only to be distraught when they have gone.

I know someone who went to Sikkim to get away from the world but sadly took their problems with them. The solitude only heightened her sense of panic and she returned with a realisation that wherever you are, you are simply here, wherever you are. With or without attachments.

It’s that simple… Really.

Keep your perceptions in check. Embrace whatever is happening for you… Now.

Loosen your grip on your attachment and the normal reactions you have will cease, to be replaced by a simpler way of looking at the world.

Things become clearer and you don’t have to run away to feel good.

You can feel good for no fucking reason and remember that “Beliefs are the Chains of the Free”.

Even that belief!

You can always find your balance with whatever you have or wherever you are.

In the words of the great Zen Poet Ryokan:

Don’t say my hut has nothing to offer

come and I will share with you

the cool breeze that fills my window

Ryokan (1758-1831)

Ryokan was known as the “Great Fool” and lived very simply in a one window hut surrounded by bamboo. He got his water from a spring and invited people to join him.

My book “Beyond Beliefs” is coming along well, and I may publish some excerpts soon.

How The Philosophy Of Pyrrho Will Make You Happier

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Philosophical meme of man saying I don't always cling to a belief system, but when I do, I don't take myself so seriously

It seems that everyone is into Stoicism at the moment. Greek Philosophy seems to be the order of the day everywhere you look online and in the bookshops.

And yet there is one figure in the world of Greek philosophy that seems to be overlooked. We hear of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, The Meditations, and The Stoics, but no one mentions the King of them all. Pyrrho of Elis.

He developed a system of thought we now know as Ancient Skepticism. His ideas and philosophy were at odds with the systems being preached during that period. He put forward the idea that beliefs were the cause of the problem at a time when other philosopher were taking dogmatic positions and were constantly attempting to disprove others dogmas. Pyrrho didn’t concern himself with finding “Truth”.

He was looking to achieve Ataraxia or tranquillity/unperturbedness.

Pyrrho took a fresh approach and posited the thought that maybe we just don’t know what is true and should suspend judgement and take the world for what it is.

What it appears to be.

The world of the Evident.

The world of Appearances.

What is non-evident (such as beliefs) is not that relevant to leading a balanced life.

For example, we know that gravity (or the phenomenon we call Gravity exists) and we can work with that and utilise it. That is evident.

… but how it works… well that’s non evident, and we can have theories and beliefs about how it works but we still don’t really know.

Other beliefs can be more damaging, however. Dogmatists will fight tooth and nail and even kill to support their beliefs. Not a very balanced approach that will lead to tranquillity!

Getting yourself tied in knots trying to justify your beliefs makes for a life out of balance and attaching yourself to a belief is harmful in many other ways too.

If you want to be happy Pyrrho suggests we suspend our judgement and dogma will fall away like a damp heavy coat that you take off when it’s weighing you down. There’s a genuine sense of relief.

Pyrrhonism is a practical philosophy that will make your life less perturbed and more tranquil, and it’s something I have got to grips with recently. It really has made life so much more balanced, despite the craziness that’s going on in the world at the moment.

There are many facets to Pyrrho’s philosophy, so to begin with I will give you a simple technique to help you start to make a shift in the way you perceive the world.

One of his techniques was to use Maxims: little phrases that would remind you that life is not what you think it is.

That life can be more than what you “believe it to be”.

Maxims serve as a reminder to stop for a moment before you suffer the consequences of a typical knee jerk reaction that we sometimes have to a situation. It helps us suspend judgement and thus prevent the formation of new beliefs.

Here’s a few basic Maxims:

“Perhaps” “Possibly” “Maybe”

These are not meant to be a statement of what you might believe. They are not beliefs at all, but expressions of how to think about situations as they happen. It’s all about helping you change your perception of events.

“Perhaps it is the case”

Perhaps it is not the case”

“It is possibly the case”

“Possibly it is not the case”

“Maybe it is”

“Maybe it is not”

So the next time you generalise and convince yourself that you are right and that your beliefs are “True” …

STOP

… then challenge this assumption by reminding yourself that “Maybe it is… Maybe it’s not”

By challenging your belief with a statement like this it prevents you from being swept away by a non evident idea.

You suspend judgement and remain Skeptical!

It’s not possible to do justice to a philosophy like Pyrrhonism and so I have developed a one-day seminar called “The Pyrrho Protocol. A way of creating a life balance.”

I will hold the seminar online on October 25th at 2pm – 5pm and costs a measly £15

Hope to see you there,

Bob

Buddhism & Pyrrhonism – Liberation Through Skepticism

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Greek Philosopher Pyrrho of Elis poses in a 17th century drawing
Greek Skeptic Philosopher Pyrrho

I’ve just been spending the week putting together a meditation seminar for this weekend, and it suddenly struck me how my attitudes to practice have changed since I first picked up a book on Buddhism and practiced meditation in the early 70’s.

My journey on the path started with three distinctly different schools of Buddhism. The Tibetan tradition, the Japanese tradition and the Thai Tradition.

The Tibetans love elaborate rituals, incense, horns, bells and whistles. Tibetan Monks and Lamas were clad in heavy dark red robes with flashes of yellow in places. Some senior Lamas wore heavy brocade and had amazing hats balanced precariously on their shaved heads. Massive rosaries and artifacts of all kinds were sometimes carried around in their hands. The highly decorative shrine rooms amazed me, festooned in candles and images of gurus and bodhisattvas and enormous images of the Buddha in a variety of styles. The deeply intoned chants of their voices made it other worldly. Not to mention the Guru worship that went along with all this. It sort of reminded me of a catholic mass that I had once attended.

So much of Buddhism appeared to be heavily invested in supporting fixed beliefs about Karma and reincarnation. I am surprised I didn’t pick up on it at as being the opposite of what the Buddha had spoken about in his early words written down later in the Pali Canon. I guess, like many followers, I got swept away by how fantastic it all seemed. It was sensory overload! I didn’t have the head space to think!

In fact, when I questioned beliefs about Karma and the after death plane, I was simply told to meditate. There were never any straightforward answers to my questions. No help with the doubts I harboured.

Then, there was the Soto Zen tradition, with its focus primarily on ‘just sitting.’ I would sit for hours on a black zabuton (mattress) and a zafu (cushion) placed on top. Sitting still and upright like a mountain, immovable and steady.

I would sit facing and staring at a blank wall in a sparsely decorated Zendo (meditation hall), with the slightest hint of ritual and no dependence on any belief systems that I can remember. You were there alone with your thoughts and little else.

It was quite liberating and made more sense. It was honestly much tougher because there were no distractions and the teachers attitude towards my questions were more pragmatic and made more sense.

I remember saying to Roshi (Teacher) at the time, that I was coming up for a weekend retreat and she said we don’t call them a retreat. “We are not here to retreat from the world,” she said, “we are here to face things head on!”

I liked the Zen attitude to life and it’s aftershocks have remained with me long after the Tibetan symbolism, dogmas and guru worship had gone. Having said that, I still admire Tibetan art and the symbolism, but it means little to me philosophically as a westerner.

The system that seemed to straddle both traditions was Theravadin Buddhism. This is the school of Buddhism practiced mainly in Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand. I spent some time practicing Samatha and Vippasana techniques and found them to be very good. In fact, I still use these methods from time to time.

In Thailand the approach I took was from the Forest Tradition and is similar to what the Buddha probably practiced. The idea that you would go off into the forest alone and practice appealed to me, but it still had chanting, relied on beliefs and had a hierarchy which I wasn’t comfortable with. (By the way I do enjoy listening to the chanting and even learned some of them by rote).

As the years rolled by I found myself being drawn towards what the Buddhist academics were writing about with regard to Buddhism, and realised I was becoming more and more secular in my approach. Following the publication of some of Stephen Batchelors early works and those of Robert M Ellis, I drifted away from the more Traditional Schools of Buddhism and spent time researching the historical background in India around the time of the Buddha.

Doors started opening for me.

I read Trevor Ling’s book on The Buddha and it gave me a historical perspective I had never thought about. He discussed the issues of the time, the development of agriculture and the rise of a new type of political structure. Things I had never considered before. I needed more information! He spoke about the Buddha as a man living in a time of great social and political change and it set me on a path.

I wanted to know more about the Buddha as a man, for that was all he was; and how he had learned to be more awake to the world. Not some god-like figure to be worshiped, but a man with a plan. With ideas and techniques to help people flourish, to create a better society.

I realised I was living out a life based on a variety of belief systems that I felt I had to justify. That I was searching for a TRUTH that couldn’t exist. These beliefs were holding me back and I decided to take stand against them; and you know what? For the first time it seems, I was having personal breakthroughs, both on and off the meditation cushion.

It’s not a new idea and I wasn’t the only one having personal breakthroughs.

The Greek Skeptic Pyrrho posited these ideas around the time when the Greeks were expanding their empire and had invaded North Western India. Some academics theorise that Pyrrho may have picked these ideas up when he was in India with Alexander. There are some Academics who think that he was influenced by the local Sramanas (Ascetics) and Gymnosophists (naked yogis)  and that the ideas he brought back to Greece may provide us with important insights into what was being taught in India at that time. (This is the period shortly after the Buddhas death).

Who Knows?

Whatever the practices Pyrrho was following and one of his students wrote about (Sextus Empiricus: Outlines Of Pyrrhonism) made sense to me, and fitted in with my meditation practice. I started reading about the Greeks and their philosophies. Pyrrho stood head and shoulders above the other Greek philosophers in that he talked about suspending judgement on beliefs about non-evident things.

The evident and the non-evident are something I want to explore in another post. Suffice to say his ideas struck a chord with me and I immediately put them into practice. They were unlike anything I had practiced before, and so different to meditation.

Consequently, whenever I sit now I use a simple principle of picking one of my strongly held beliefs and attempt to suspend judgement about whether it’s right or wrong until I find that there is no argument either way. This puts me in a very different state to that which I experienced previously and creates what the Greeks called aphasia (speechlessness). It is not possible to describe the experience, but many of you will have experienced this at some time in your life when you drop all thoughts of past and future whilst meditating. It is quite liberating. At its best it creates a certain tranquillity so thoughts no longer create a disturbance. This Pyrrho calls Ataraxia. It was a condition actually experienced by Greek soldiers in the midst of battle and can be roughly translated as unperturbedness. It is about being in the present moment, wherein you can have an appropriate response and therefore act effectively in the world.

My search continues…

In the next post I will report back on how things are progressing and talk a little more about the techniques I am using in more detail.

In the meantime…

Keep sitting and drop off those ideas!

Buddhism, Pyrrhonism & The Search For Enlightenment

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Photo of seated Gandhara_Buddha sculpture from the Berlin Museum

17th-Century illustration of Greek philosopher PyrrhoMy journey on the path started a long time ago; initially started by an old secondary school teacher who pointed out the differences between the various religions that existed in the modern world. She called it Religious Education and I have a feeling she was just supposed to stick to Christian Dogma.

Over several weeks we explored world religions, and it should come as no surprise that I was attracted to Buddhism. The religion that depended on no external agency to prop you up. I was always fiercely independent, and I guess it just made sense to me.

Since that time I have immersed myself in the various schools of Buddhist thought, but lurking like a shadow behind me was a fascination for the Hellenistic traditions. Greek philosophy had always interested me, but I was unlikely to study the Greek Classics in a secondary modern school in the North East of England.

I first noticed these traditions when I took up a study of astronomy at the age of 11.

I loved looking at the sky at night, and I remember my first book on astronomy vividly. In fact, I still have it. It was the ‘Observers Book of Astronomy’. A small slim volume that was filled with images of constellations and pictures of nebulae, clusters, spiral galaxies and the planets.

I remember learning the Greek alphabet from that book.

“Learning the Greek alphabet?” I hear you ask…

Let me explain.

Stars are of varying brightness and in order to catalogue them, astronomers of ages past used the Greek alphabet as a prefix for the star’s name.

So the constellation of Canis Major (The Great Dog from Greek mythology) is made up of stars of varying brightness. The brightest star in that constellation Sirius is called Alpha Canis Major.

Alpha being the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Beta is the second and so on.

My point is is that I had a fascination for all things Greek but didn’t pursue it as a philosophical subject. I was heavily invested in Buddhism and wouldn’t allow myself to be distracted by all this ‘Western Philosophy’.

As my interest in Buddhism developed and my thinking matured, I took an interest in the historical aspects of Buddhism, but information back then was scarce and there were lots of gaps in my knowledge. Gaps that were being gradually filled by the work of Trevor Ling in his book ‘The Buddha’.

At last someone was putting Buddhism into context, using hard data and evidence rather than repeating hearsay.

None of my Buddhist teachers could answer the questions I threw at them, and they kept the party line, parroting what their teachers had taught them with little recourse for independent thinking.

A very dogmatic approach to Buddhism.

I was shocked they hadn’t looked at what the academics were doing, and I was simply admonished and told to concentrate on practicing Buddhism.

Whatever that meant!

No one for example challenged the ideas of karma and rebirth. Concepts that seemed to contradict many of the ideas that early Buddhism talked about.

But even the so-called primary sources (The Pali Canon) were full of contradictions, and I needed more. I was hungry for information that would help me come to terms with the human condition. I was having an existential crisis!

I read as much as I could on what we knew of early Buddhism and reconciled myself to the fact that I needed to follow my own path (as the Buddha always recommended), when I came across a kindred spirit in the form of Stephen Batchelor. He had the same doubts as me, and I guess many others, and was writing about the subject using Pali texts and referenced Western philosophers too.

I noticed he often referred to the Greek philosopher Pyrrho, and this intrigued me. I had heard of Pyrrho the Skeptic and had not been lucky enough to read the ‘Works of Sextus Empiricus’. I just didn’t see it being relevant at that time.

It was, it turns out, the missing link.

The piece of the puzzle and the key to a new door.

It was just what I needed.

Before I turned into a dogmatist!

I instantly began to study the Greek philosophers, and I soaked up their ideas like a sponge. Just when I thought I was getting my head around Skepticism along came Adrian Kuzminski and Christopher Beckwith.

They suggested that the Indians had influenced The Greeks (although some academics say it may have been the other way round) and cited specifically Pyrrho and his ideas.

I was onto something.

Suddenly everything became clear. Many of the problems I had been having with traditional Buddhist thought started to evolve and to change. I meditated on these ideas and the old accretions of Buddhism I had been clinging onto dropped away. Even Zen started making sense and I was able to reread Nagarjuna and make sense of it for the first time.

So where does that leave me?

I am constantly going on about maps and how we can expand our maps. Before these events happened, I thought my map was pretty good. It turns out I only had the one!

Now I have an atlas!

One of the maps in my new atlas concerns meditation.

This has always been an important chapter for me and has guided me through many hard times.

I thought I knew all about it but then…

I also learned that the Greeks never had a tradition of practicing meditation in the sense that the Indian traditions followed.

Although Pyrrho evidently spent 5 years with Alexander the Great on his campaigns in India, where he met Sramanas (Holy Men) and gymnosophists who undoubtedly practiced yogas of some kind, he never brought back to Greece the idea that meditation was a useful tool.

It didn’t seem to be important to ones journey to achieve tranquility.

The Buddhists call this Nirvana, and Pyrrho called it Ataraxia.

When I read this, it reminded me of some early discourses of the Buddha, when it was said that people became “awakened” just by hearing the Buddha talk.

This idea that you needed to meditate for years to achieve tranquility was therefore probably not necessary. My teachers had taught me that meditation was a prerequisite to enlightenment.

That enlightenment (whatever that means) could only be achieved by certain people, and that it was revelatory and almost otherworldly. It was inevitably linked to other ‘truths’ such as karma and rebirth!

Dogmatic nonsense…

In fact, it was said that many people understood his teachings just by listening. I’m also sure that the Buddha just didn’t sit in meditation (which is the usual image associated with the Buddha) but that he entered into discourse and argument with many other learned teachers of his time. Just as Pyrrho and other philosophers had done in Ancient Greece.

So why am I going on about this then?

Because it has changed the way I meditate and it may help you if you have reached a sticking point.

Sometimes I do just sit and at other times I think of a belief I have and pull it apart. I dissect it and put counter arguments together until the belief itself has no meaning and I ‘suspend judgement’ and it has been revelatory.

I will explore this method in much more detail in my next post and this will be the subject of my forthcoming book:

Beyond Beliefs