My Spirituality Is Nothing More Than Trash

There is a wonderful documentary that has recently received much fanfare and aplomb. It is about a whole society that has arisen on the outskirts of a large dump. These are families whose whole subsistence is based on going through the trash that others have thrown out. Perhaps you have seen this movie.... or heard abut it from a friend.

Recycled Life

Seeing passages of this film recently lead to me pondering how my own life has come to be based in part on the reality of finding value in what others have discarded. No. I don't live on the outskirts of a massive dump. Not yet anyways. I do, though, find a lot of value in what others have discarded and want to be rid of. In fact, I could easily suggest that my own personal heaven, and the wealth I have discovered, is completely contingent upon looking at and examining what others have considered trash---i.e., of no value to them, worthless.... mere refuse to be left out to rot.

In terms of contemporary spirituality and modern psychology there is the popular habit of attempting to only cultivate what are considered "positive" or "beneficial" attributes and states of mind. Generally, this means if it feels good then keep it. If not, throw it away.

Keep the joy and the peace and throw out the anxiety and the conflict. Keep the love and throw the anger in the trash. Keep the shiny attributes of the mind and psyche and even place them on display atop the mantle in your home. Or maybe you construct an altar loaded with the gems of spirituality. Then you can show it off to others and reveal to them what a "with it" person you are.

Yet God is in the trash, too, no? I would even suggest there is more God in the trash than in our curio cabinets and safe deposit boxes. In fact, I am going to be arrogant and say that I know this is so. Just the sheer volume of what is thrown away in the name of the "good" and "positive" suggests to us that there is more of God in the refuse than upon our altars.

This is where my own spirituality has been discovered more and more. Yes, I had my own fancy with the fanciful. I did my best to only cultivate and keep that which was deemed culturally acceptable as having value and worth. I tried to keep up with the "spiritual Jones's" by only "jonesing" for what may give others the impression that I had done well for myself with my spiritual practice. So I displayed my peace as best I could and did the love-vibe until I felt like I was holding my breath all my days with the pressure of attempting to live up to an ideal that forced me to throw away so much of my own God-given experience.

The truth is that trying to appear spiritually correct left me with this full-time job of throwing away most of me in the name of presenting to others what I was led to believe was the best of me. I was creating a lot of waste. I was throwing away jealousy and envy and anger and selfishness and when I was not throwing them away I was busy going through my psyche looking for refuse to be tossed out so I could be pure and righteous before God. Or just popular and looked at as someone who knew what the fuck he was doing.  :-)

.......... to be continued. 

Musings On The Unseen In Positive Psychology

(Some thoughts on Martin Seligman and Positive Psychology.)

He has come under increased scrutiny in the past few years by some critics of his work and the whole "Positive Psychology" movement, Duff. Sounds like he is trying to answer those critiques with such comments and statements. Maybe even putting an.... ahem, "positive" spin on those events. Irony?

I have noticed how the whole "Positive Psychology" movement has progressed along with his recent Presidency of the APA (and how that status allows him to push his agenda (and their underlying assumptions which informs his work/theses). It is as if "positive psychology" has become a new catechism and dogma within psychology as a whole. People are not looking for the holes and the blindspots in it. They are just jumping on board and Seligman has knowingly used his influence and weight to push his "baby."

For instance, the Corporate influence is huge in his work---both the money granted for studies to "prove" his theses and how Seligman then uses "positive psychology" to empower the individual (supposedly) within the Corporate structure.

My main beef is this: that Seligman derived from his studies on "learned helplessness" the exact opposite of what I personally would have.... or what I feel a sane person would. He did not look to environment. He looked to the individual and reinforced a sort of pathological individuality that I feel plagues Western Civilization and Culture as a whole. In his view it is about learning optimism in unhealthy contexts and holding to the optimism in spite of what is taking place environmentally or contextually.

Maybe this is going to far for some. Be that as it may, my view is that Seligman and the Positive Psychology movement, in general, have this faulty assumption at their CORE which makes a destructive and unhealthy environment an individual dilemma. Just learn optimism. Just gain some personal empowerment and learn optimism in a culture and civilization that randomly shocks you, that electro-convusively disempowers individuals in order to see who it is that can learn optimism and those who can't.

He did not seem to notice that it was and is the environment (it's health or toxicity) that was and is the larger and more glaring issue. It was not the monkeys that were the problem/solution.... it was the larger nexus created by the culture of the military-industrial-corporate complex. That a few random monkeys could learn a few tricks to seemingly thrive in a hellacious situation is meaningless. The fact that we perpetuate such climates and conditions and that we would think learning optimism would be the "solution" smacks of the worst kind of insanity I can imagine, Duff. It is an upside-down view of the world with an upside-down solution provided. That it works for a few random individuals, to me, is pointless and beside-the-point.