The skeleton of the self (03)
Self-awareness, self-knowledge and self-management gets an easier understanding by using “the skeleton of the self” as a conceptual framework and map. Additionally, it also builds some comfort around the two important questions of life: “who am I?” and “what am I here for?”.
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A complete meditation practice trains five elements: attention, intention, attitude, action, and impact. It helps to understand attention, intention, and attitude (the first three) as the upper triangle which easily represents the mind, the dedicated practice, or the being. On the other hand, attitude, action, and impact (the last three) conform the lower triangle and represent the body, the integrated practice, or the doing. Attitude connects both triangles.
The following drawing illustrates how these five elements relate: attention, intention, attitude, action, and impact. If you want to know better and deeper, please refer to these previous publications: “Training in attention, intention, and attitude” and “Training in attitude, action, and impact”.
Any deep mindfulness practice includes integrating the two levels that the drawing clearly identifies:
1. First, we practice seated in stillness (either on the floor on a cushion or in a chair) bringing attention to an object (for example, breathing or any other part of the body), with a specific intention (for example, gratitude) and from a freely chosen attitude (for example, curiosity and benevolence). This is how we train the upper triangle, the triangle we recognize as our “being.” We often refer to this type of training as “dedicated practice”.
2. Then, we practice by doing “movement”, any movement however picturesque it may be, to train the three elements of the lower triangle: a freely chosen attitude (e.g., curiosity and care), an action that occupies movement (e.g., eating or walking, but also listening, talking, parenting, or making love), and impact (e.g., the impact in ourselves; the impact in the small others, those who participate in the situation; and the impact on the big others, everything that makes up the unity of life and that is not present). By training the lower triangle, we train the “doing”. This training is often referred to as “integrated practice”.
When we start with training, especially if our challenge is to calm the mind and find an emotional balance, we focus on the upper triangle and we engage ourselves in practicing the stillness of being by training attention, intention and attitude. However, as we progress through practice, it is very important to extend it towards any “doing” by embedding action and impact.
This is the only way that will take us to a deeper and more complete practice so as we can enter into an improved state of being and doing, more conscious, mindful some would say, where we “notice” everything that intervenes and everything that surrounds the self, the others with whom I interact, and any other life which participates even if it is not present in the situation.
I have been in search of a name for this drawing which helps me to understand my practice and to share what it means to meditate during workshops. The name that I felt the most adequate is “the skeleton of consciousness”. However, I also felt that “the skeleton of energy” makes the work. But at this specific moment, I choose to name it “the skeleton of the self” even if it is too narrow to convey everything behind.
The skeleton of the self is a conceptual framework that helps to navigate with some comfort around the two important questions of life: “who am I?” and “what am I here for?”. These two questions can also have different wordings, like the one used by Otto Scharmer in his Theory-U: “what is my Self?” and “what is my Work?”.
The reason-why behind my choice of “the skeleton of the self” is because it facilitates, by definition, the very first level of understanding: it is a skeleton, something hidden but omnipresent in all beings which is key to explain any experience or movement. Also, because it moves “the self”.
Next chapter: The map of the self (04)