The Buddhist View on Personality Types

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I've been listening to some Dharma talks from Noah Levine's site, Against The Stream. He's refreshing (even his 4 letter words seem to fit!), he's kind, he's crystal clear,  and he's honest. In a number of cases he adds a twist on the Dharma that I haven't heard before. Last night I listened to a talk on the personality types according to Buddhist thought. If you've ever wondered whether your dominant character was greed, hate or delusion, he makes it pretty clear. " Can't figure out which one you are?" he asks, "probably means you're a delusion type."

And he reminds us not to get down on ourselves (let's face it, none of these are desirable personality characteristics). You've just been waiting for someone to tell you your a greed type, right? But it's just how we came into this world, in one of these 3 little costumes, although we all have healthy doses of our non-dominant characteristics.  But it's about how we relate to our greed, hate or delusion.  We don't need to see them as who we are, they're simply thought patterns, preponderances to seeing things in a certain way. If we are a greed type we're apt to find ourselves "wanting" or "needing" what we see as desirable, that will be our immediate reaction to things. Want to go to every event that's on this weekend? That would be the greed calling. As an aversive (hate) type, I'm the one likely to walk into a room and not like the paint colour or find that the rug isn't what I'd pick. As I listened to Levine's talk I could see where I get into trouble with my painting; always judging, judging, never quite getting it right. Note to self: come back as a delusion type next time round.

Levine thinks we're not changing our dominant personality type in this lifetime  (as a hate type I'm wanting to get rid of mine and I'm doubting his position on this!) But it makes me wonder about the brain research around our ability to build new neural pathways and lessen the pull of old ones.  What do you think and which personality type am I hearing this from??

The Dharma of Swine Flu

If you know me, you will know I'm not a big consumer of news.  So the first I'd heard about swine flu was when a couple of friends visited my art show on Saturday.  And then I saw some news of Sunday (more swine flu) and when I stopped by my mother's on Monday, BBC World News was chewing away on swine flu.  

And there it was the Dharma, oinking in my face.  You see I am booked to do "The Make It Show" in Vancouver this coming weekend.  Which means crowds.  Three days of crowds.  Three days of crowds of mobile young people.  Several cases of swine flu have been identified in the lower mainland.  So I needed to think about this.  Actually it wasn't a case of need.  I woke up this morning and the first thought was, "I don't think I should do the Make It Show."  You see I had cancer surgery just over a year ago and since then my immune system (and shall we say body/mind) has been in a state of shock.  I spent a lot of last year bouncing back and forth between one flu and another.  I became somewhat of a mini version of Howard Hughes, opening doors with my scarf, passing on dinner at my mother's care home.  With the help of some serious mega vitamin treatments and some herbs I am doing much better, but.....  

I had to give some serious thought to going to this event.  Would it be fun?  Would I worry?   The weekend itself would be a tiring 2 1/2 days of show, something I knew but was prepared to do.  Was it worth it?  In monetary terms?  In health terms?  Since being sick I have learned to look at things a little differently.  Some things just seem to matter less.  In the end I decided that it was not worth putting myself in harms way for "some money".  I have pre paid $250ish to be part of the show.  I had to be able to say to myself I am okay with loosing that money.  Though it ouches that thrifty part of me (who likes to watch $250 go for nothing?).  I felt I could let it go.  If I got sick and died for $250 how would I feel then???  Oh, you say I'd be dead and it wouldn't matter.  True enough.  Bad choice.  Do not pass go.  Straight to you next life as a small dog!  I had to say that in the past I might be pretty attached to that cash.  But life threatening diseases have a way of lending perspective, encouraging gratitude and equanimity.

I had to look at whether this was a fear based decision.  Carole, are you just running and hiding under the bed?  And my answer was no, that I was using common sense.  I did have the flu in March.  I am more vulnerable than some.  It is not fear based to admit the truth about yourself.  I feel pretty clear about that.  I am not sitting by the TV quivering in my boots.  I am going to the Theatre, out to dinner, to my mother's care home.  True all this swine hype is pretty revved up by the media for the sake of getting people to tune in to the news all day long.  True the media loves nothing better than a good tragedy.  We are in such early stages of it all.  It may well blow over into nothingness but at this stage so much is unknown.  It's not like I plan to lock myself in the house but to put myself in a potentially harmful environment when I don't have to seems unnecessary.  I don't need to go.  I don't need the money.

So I could feel all the discomfort of having to decide, of going back and forth and second guessing myself.  Really all is unknown.  There are no right or wrong answers.  I could feel a sense of embarrassment  about having to backtrack and tell a bunch of people I have changed my plans.  Maybe they'll think I'm a wimp.  But would pride be any reason to go ahead with this?  

I cringe about saying in these pages that I have had cancer.  I have hinted at my "health opportunity" as a friend calls it.  It is strange and if you've never been there, there is something mildly (or perhaps not so mildly) shameful about having to say you've had cancer.  Somehow it seems like some admission of failure, some inadequacy, something for the marked and pitiful few.  But there it is.  It just is.  Is it like coming out of the closet if you're gay???  Or telling people you're bi-polar or schizophrenic?  Maybe I understand the feelings that course through those souls a little better now.

So here I am.  I am fine.  I am good with my choice.  I am disappointed that the young woman who runs the "Make It" Show could not find anything exceptional about my situation to offer me more than routine cancellation policy (1/2 off her fall show).  And yet I am willing to let that one go.  Everyone does what seems good to them.  Ironically she is doing a silent auction for "The Cancer Foundation".

So there it is the Dharma of contemplating our choices a little more deeply, not being so attached to all the things that are out there: our plans, our money, our pride.  It is an opportunity to let go.  It is an opportunity to work with the three poisons of greed (wanting money & outcomes), hate (wanting the show organizer to offer some compensation), delusion (thinking I am healthier than I really am).

I am sitting with that sense of unrest that arises when we have to change our plans, the disappointment of looking at the things that are ready and waiting to go to the show.  And I can be good with my decision.  As Ajhan Chah says,  "let go a little, have a little peace, let go a lot, get a lot of peace, let go completely, have complete peace."

The Dharma and Addiction

A friend of mine asked me to come and say a few words at an ear acupuncture course she is teaching.  Ear acupuncture is supposed to be extremely helpful for people wrestling with addiction issues.  So how does the Dharma tie in to addiction?  That is what I am thinking about this morning.

I am not going to take the cheap and easy way out and grab a dictionary.  I will give this clump of squishy grey stuff I carry around on my shoulders a little exercise.  When I think about addiction in the usual sense I think of alcohol, drugs and maybe food and sex.  When I look at this little list I think pleasures of the physical world.  And that somehow in cases of addiction our connection to these pleasures has gotten a bit (or vastly) confused.  

Next I think of comfort, that in instances of addiction we are seeking comfort or solace in the pleasure giving substance or activity.  And why are we seeking that comfort?  If  life is chugging along quite nicely we are not in comfort seeking mode, we are just doing our thing.  But then inevitably, it happens to us all, something troubling comes up.  It may be mildly troubling or deeply problematic.  But rather than deal directly with the problem, maybe because we find it too painful or are caught in inertia, or we have always done it this way, we go to our comfort of choice.  The warm fuzziness of whatever consoles us and makes us feel better. 

 The more we engage in the addictive (or any) behaviour, the stronger the habitual tendencies become, if we think in Buddhist terms.  Brain research tells us that the more we do something, the stronger the neural pathways and the more likely we are to repeat this behaviour.  And the double kicker, I think, with substance abuse, is that a physiological response adds weight to all these other things.  Not only do we have our habitual tendency, our neural pathways and our comfort seeking behaviour we have a strong chemical reaction in the body associated with all this.  Man, we're in a pretty deep hole by then!

All the elements of greed, hate and delusion are at work in addiction, and the deeper the person is in the hole the stronger the grasp is, I suspect.  Our hate puts us in the position that makes us seek the comfort.  We hate what has happened, ourselves, our circumstances, other people, whatever our particular poison.  And the greed for our particular pleasure becomes like a siren, strong and impossible to resist.  And wrapping around that ball is the delusion that this substance, this comfort will make us feel better.  It is a complex interaction, a working backward and forward of all these elements that makes addiction such a tough nut to crack.

So far I have been thinking about classic addiction issues but we all have comfort seeking behaviour.   Do we like a little piece of cheesecake after a stressful incident, a nice glass of wine, a night in front of the telly?  But I think what separates our comfort seeking behaviour from addiction is the intensity.  A glass of wine, a piece of cake doesn't generally cause suffering (perhaps some minor angst if we are trying to abstain).   In and of themselves there is nothing wrong with cheesecake, wine or TV.    It is when our attachment and dependence on them becomes extreme that I suspect it flips over into addiction, when the substance becomes the misplaced solution to a problem.  It somehow replaces energy and activity that needs to be devoted to meeting and working with the source of our discomfort.

And in the end I think we are all victims of some addiction, in Buddhist terms, because we all experience suffering.  Somehow we get mixed up somewhere along the way and get caught up in certain unwholesome  mind habits (greed, hate and delusion) and we get stuck there, until our practice helps us find our way out of the labyrinth.  We get attached to stuff, to our cherished opinions, to our ways of being in the world that cause us suffering.  So maybe we all can benefit from a little poke in the ear every now and then, as we grapple with our particular addictions.  If you work with people with addictions or are just interested in this course, leave a comment here or email me at my profile and I will forward it along to Carolyn Mandrusiak of Spirit Gate Consulting and she will give you more info. on the course. (Sheesh I think I might be addicted to words!)