mindful biology - opening statement

I wrote the text below in 2015, shortly after I chose the name 'Mindful Biology' during a series of conversations with a good friend of mine (Larry Berkelhammer, PhD). I'd been teaching biology in contemplative contexts for at least five years, particularly at a yoga institute (Niroga) but also in a small meditation group in Marin County.  It seemed time to be more intentional about using biology in service of spiritual growth. The new name and a new website were the result. As a sort of mission statement, I wrote the list that follows. I'm posting it here minimal editing. It shows how the project began. Many of these founding principles remained central during the 10+ years that followed, and remain central still.

MindfulBiology enhances familiarity with our own human bodies. It combines guided mindfulness with concise and—when possible—visually compelling explanations of life science, so that inner sensations can be mapped to the body’s processes and structures. Where feasible, MindfulBiology also incorporates movement practices that deepen our felt experience as living beings.

The project has several goals:

• To inform mindfulness practice through anatomy and physiology. MindfulBiology augments the time-honored ‘body scan’ with clear descriptions of the inner workings that are being scanned. The result is a felt appreciation of the body’s organic processes.

• To promote friendlier attitudes toward the human body. Aggressive medical interventions and our culture’s obsession with youth cause us to treat the soma harshly, like an object to be repaired and resurfaced rather than a living organism to be tended and loved. MindfulBiology encourages gentle stewardship of the human organism.

• To remind us of our biological nature and all that implies. As animals we inherit vulnerability, a capacity to heal, sensitivity, interdependence within a vast family of living beings, etc. We can feel reassured by life’s imperative to find solutions, repair injury, and learn from experience.

• To highlight the wonder of the human body. Much like strolling through a virgin forest or along a wave swept shore, exploring our inner landscape in an informed way reveals the peace and beauty of nature resonating within.

• To help those who suffered childhood trauma reconnect with their bodies. Abuse, bereavement, and neglect inflict intense emotional and physical pain during critical periods of development. Children have few coping tools, but they readily learn to dissociate from anguish. Although crucial to survival early on, chronic detachment diminishes an adult’s capacity to enjoy life and relationships. MindfulBiology teaches us to reconnect, using a combination of scientific objectivity, nonjudgmental awareness, and tenderness. Sorrow, fear, and pain can be investigated as ever-changing sensations that affect us but don’t define us. As we find more spaciousness inside, this lovely living body becomes a safe haven, and we return home.

• To encourage feelings of faith, devotion, and awe. MindfulBiology views organic systems as fundamentally alive rather than simply mechanical, which means we can develop relationships with them. Just as we bond with pets, or feel healed by spending time in a garden, we can nourish feelings of love, gratitude, and respect for our bodies and the mystery of Life.

Speaking Metaphorically

MindfulBiology is—in important ways—a program of music appreciation. If we learn about the instruments, rhythm, harmony, and other factors important to the beauty of music, we can listen to performances with richer understanding and respect. Similarly, if we learn about the structures and functions that give the human body life, we can live with greater sensitivity to what's going on inside, while cultivating clarity and admiration.

Through short descriptions of anatomy, physiology, and molecular biology, combined with guided mindfulness exercises, we learn to appreciate how our bodies sustain our lives, while also honoring the ecosphere in which our species evolved and upon which it depends. 

In its fullest expression, MindfulBiology evokes the same sense of devotion and awe that religions help the faithful to feel toward God, only directed toward the mystery we call Living. Perhaps, MindfulBiology suggests, we can sidestep existential questions and simply love all that lives, including our own human bodies, by combining life science with meditations on Life.

Speaking Practically

Mindful Biology helps us counteract the ways modern humans feel disconnected from life. For instance, it highlights how our anxiety motivates us to buy antibacterial soaps and isolate ourselves from other organisms through the use of pesticides. And it helps us look compassionately at how fear of aging pushes us to maintain an image of youth, sometimes at great expense and risky surgical intervention. Our discomfort with the natural processes of living takes a toll; we move through our days fearfully, rejecting the Nature that lives within our bodies.

MindfulBiology views this state of affairs as tragic and dangerous. As long as we feel separate from the sphere of Life, we will continue to harm one another and the ecology upon which we depend. MindfulBiology aims to encourage re-connection with the inward force of Life that is undeniable but often overlooked.

Living systems, although understood in great detail by biologists, still confront us with mystery. We are supported by a vast and ancient biosphere whose origins remain obscure. Our bodies breath air, digest food, and organize perceptions and behaviors, while most of the underlying process work completely beneath awareness. The hidden life within our own bodies offers us an opportunity: we can learn to admire the deep wisdom of organic development as it expresses itself in our own human forms.

Throughout most of human history, people lived with very little understanding of what happens in the body. But now, with modern science, that can change! MindfulBiology encourages us all to appreciate the great power of life to elaborate form, to respond adaptively, and to generate beauty. We can find awe, adoration, love, and mystery in learning about the workings of the human organism. In short, a felt appreciation for life can offer many of the same benefits of religious practice.

MindfulBiology believes these benefits are vital to humanity’s future and to the wellbeing of the planet. Only if we feel a sense of devotion toward life–and the earth from which it arises–can we build a sustainable future that respects the needs of all organisms. MindfulBiology doesn’t demand belief in anything supernatural or beyond the ken of science. It is based on the idea that what we already know is sufficient for us to adore our bodies and the cosmos in which it arose. We exist in a complex and beautiful sea of interactions, from the smallest workings of our cells to the largest cycles of resources moving through the biosphere. We know enough, right now, to feel the same awe and wonder that religions evoke through scripture and ritual. All it takes is settling down and looking inward with an informed eye.

At the same time, MindfulBiology can be used by members of many religions as a support for their love of Creation. MindfulBiology accepts the established facts of modern science, including evolution, but it also recognizes that life holds mystery and beauty that isn’t fully explained by empiricism. It insists we can view life science accurately while still maintaining a mystical sensibility. It rejects dogmatism of all sorts, including the aggressive mechanistic bias of many mainstream biologists.

Although MindfulBiology is built on the suspicion that Life is fundamentally alive rather than mechanical, it accepts verified scientific facts about organic processes, including the role of natural selection. As a result, MindfulBiology can help atheists find—in their own living bodies—the same qualities of awe and wonder that religions promise, but without dependence on scripture, legend, or trans-rational faith. It is, fundamentally, a practical and embodied path to the clarity, wisdom, and compassion that are essential for sustainable thriving.