ONTOS:

A psychology of Being

by Michael DeMaria, Ph.D.

"To late for the Gods, to early for Being, Being's poem just begun is man."

-Martin Heidegger

This article provides the reader with an introduction to the meaning of ONTOS (the title of this journal) - the Greek word for Being. It provides a history of the word in philosophy and psychology and presents it to the reader in terms of Maslow's understanding of 'Being-Level' experience. The author suggests Maslow's term, "peak-experience" is better understood as "root experience," and introduces the term "amness" as a dynamic and helpful concept to understand the intrinsically healing and integrative dimensions of "Being" level experience.

Being. This simple word carries a revolution. The seeds of this revolution have been planted throughout history an have grown into so many sequoia trees dotting the landscape of time. Each who has lived from and through Being stand out: Buddha, Lao Tzu, and Jesus to name just a few. However, for most of us the term remains elusive and hard to grasp. My experience and the experience of those I have worked with have convinced me that Being is something most have an intuitive understanding of, but have a hard time communicating. As a result, the following is offered to help us explore this incredibly rich and vast terrain of Being.

Being and Tao

"Pure Being and pure Nothing are...one and the same." - Hegel

Dualism has haunted Western culture. Human consciousness seems intent on dividing the world into good and bad, black and white, right and wrong. This level of consciousness we call dualism and as such produces in us literally a civil war and alienates us from others. As long as we remain in dualistic thinking there is no peace - inside or outside. However, once we drink of the healing waters of non-dual consciousness duality melts as do wounds and wars. Fortunately, since the beginning of Western culture there has been a thread of non-dual thinking and experience that has woven itself through the spiritual, philosophical and artistic traditions that can inform and offer guidance towards cultivating non-dual consciousness.

What is so powerful about the Eastern concept of Tao is its radical non-dual nature. It denotes how the infinite unfolding creative field, often likened to an ocean is both immanent (in time and space) and transcendent (prior to, beyond and outside of time and space). When one experiences non-dual consciousness one enters the realm of both immanence and transcendence. Of course, this idea alone won't bring healing, but the true experience of it will. Since the word Being is unwieldy I have over the years used the word amness to denote this experience as opposed to the idea (DeMaria, 2001).

What is crucial in understanding the non-dual nature of the word Being and the experience of amness is that any other word besides 'being' moves immediately into classification, distinction and differentiation. Being, in this way, is the one word without limit. The use of any other word divides the world into things of one kind and not of another. The word, 'pencil' for example, suddenly divides the world into phenomena which are pencils and all other phenomena. Being, on the other hand refers to everything and nothing, for even emptiness and nothingness can be expressed and therefore are.

Aquinas put it beautifully when he said, "All other names are....less universal." Every other word in language apply to all things of a given kind, whether 'pencils' or 'cars' or 'black cats'. However, being refers to all things of every kind. That is another reason that many indigenous people who may not have a word for Being - will have a term that variously refers to or is translated into all-that-is. Being is the only word common to all things and nothing. In this way, some have said Being is both the richest and emptiest term. What better expression of Tao - at once full of all things and the very emptiness that makes the awareness of all things possible. This non-dual understanding of Being is often expressed in the terms awareness or consciousness - however, the uniqueness of the word Being - is that it honors the melting of subject and object into a unitive experience of oneness - amness.

It is a strange thing to experience Being. Most people when they first hear the term think about 'things', and forget that the 'air' has being, their 'breath' has being that Being is referring to everything AND the field in which everything floats. Because you can't disagree with anyone, you see the latent truth in absolutely 'everything'. As a result, Being brings with it a deep compassion for all things. Being moves through us in every moment. Being is that which you can not be without, that one is never far from, that one is always bathed in, that one is always with.

The Psychology of Being

It's been 40 years since Maslow wrote, "Towards a Psychology of Being" and we are now closer to genuinely beginning to fulfill his vision of discovering a 'Being' level psychology. As you can see from the above discussion a Psychology of Being is much different than a Psychology of Becoming. Both are critical and important, but most of psychology today focuses far to exclusively on the becoming dimension of life. This has a great deal to do with our Western ideas of progress. We have witnessed in the last 100 years (Ironically about the same age of psychology) more rapid change to the natural landscape of our world through the industrial, technological and information ages on this planet than ever before. There is so much 'doing' and 'becoming' going on, we have lost sight of our roots in Being.

The main focus of the rest of this article is on how this seemingly esoteric term 'Being' has real and profound application in our daily lives. My main disagreement with Maslow is that he reserved the word Being for what he termed, "peak experiences", this followed closely his theory of the 'hierarchy of needs'. The problem with this perspective is that it makes Being level experience something that only happens occasionally, the rare 'peak' experience. However, in my research, clinical work and own personal experience it is clear to me the experience of "Being" is a 'root experience', not a peak experience. Elsewhere I have called this our 'vital connection' (DeMaria, 2001) However, outside of this Maslow's description of "Being" level experience is tremendously rich and accurate. In what follows, I will describe in more detail the 'Being' level experience and how it is central to healing, integrative work.

Figure/Ground

Most of us are familiar with the terms figure and ground as used in art. The idea is that all of our senses, but most clearly our visual sense is based on constantly viewing 'figures' what are usually known as 'objects' in our perceptual field that are always given against some background. In a painting this is most easily demonstrated. You have a painting of a person on a beach. The person is the 'figure' that stands out against the beach scene which is the 'ground' or background. This is happening all day long, constantly and unceasingly AND it is the source and bedrock of the opportunity to either be attending to Being or living in a trance constructed from one's inner worries and preoccupations. Every moment provides us an opportunity to 'wake up' to Being by simply attending to this moment and what is figural and what is ground. The paradox is that Being of course is the ground of everything one experiences, but to be aware of this ground, one must make Being figural. This is the ontological foundation of how prayer and meditation are so effective - they both are practices that make the 'ground' of life - Being - figural in one's consciousness. When this occurs life takes on its inherently miraculous quality.

Holographic

Maslow discovered what he called "total attention", that when someone is in a Being experience, (what he termed a 'peak experience' - and here we are calling a 'root experience or our 'vital connection'), the person is in complete fascination or absorption in the 'figure' with the 'ground' essentially disappearing, "It is as if the figure were isolated for the time being from all else, as if the world were forgotten, as if the percept had become for the moment the whole of Being." (Maslow, pg. 74). What is beautiful in this passage is that it is also expressive of the holographic model of the universe. That each part of a hologram contains the whole. A holographic 'plate' is one which when light is projected through it a three dimensional image results. If one 'breaks' this 'plate' into pieces and one then shines light through it, it likewise will project the whole image. This continues to be part of scientific truth that has not filtered down into our day to day perception of the world. That is to say, in a holographic universe each 'part' contains the whole. So when one is in a 'Being' level experience - Amness - what one is attending to - whether the branching of a tree, or one's right hand, it is as if the beam of consciousness is lit in such a way to illuminate the entire universe in that moment, within this particular being. Said another way, Being is experienced in this particular being.

There are few better examples than romantic love to demonstrate the depth and profundity of this mystery and reality. While in the throes of romantic love, the world comes alive in the most vivid way. The figure, the beloved, truly takes on all the characteristics of the whole universe. It is as if heaven has been found. What is illustrative in the romantic moment is that it reveals the tremendous paradoxical luminosity of the Being level experience of Amness. The figure contains the ground. The word romantic even refers to the idealism of the romantic period of the 19^th century that conceived the universe as an unbroken unity - in particular, revealed in nature. The Romantic experience reveals the inherent Unity of consciousness, the world and being. Unfortunately the 'ego-mind' desperately tried to 'own and possess' this experience which is like the man in the row boat on the ocean trying to 'own' the ocean.

Non-Judging

The other characteristic of Being level experiencing of the world is that it is radically not comparing, judging or evaluating. This is in stark contrast to 'ego' based perceptions of the world which fundamentally are about comparing, judging and evaluating. To illustrate this, Maslow described how a mother has this experience of loving the absolute uniqueness of her baby. All parents at some level experience that marvelous and captivating beholding of one's own child, truly 'as if' the whole universe was contained in that one being. (DeMaria, 2001) In the true 'amness' experience it is no longer an 'as if', but rather the actual entering of an experience where we are not in an 'altered' state of consciousness but rather experience ourselves in an enlarged and more 'aligned' consciousness with the truth of Being - the universe, the cosmos itself.

Being, Caring and Loving What Is

In the 'Being' experience this 'whole' seeing of what is figural is grounded in the experience of 'care', that is, Maslow noticed 'caring' for this 'figure' sustains this Being level seeing:

The caring minuteness with which a mother will gaze upon her infant again and again, or the lover at his beloved, or the connoisseur at his painting will surely produce a more complete perception than the usual casual rubricizing which passes illegitimately for perception. We may expect richness of detail and a many-sided awareness of the object from this kind of absorbed, fascinated, fully attending cognition. (Maslow, p. 76)

Instead of judging what is important or unimportant - one realizes that when immersed in a loving, beholding gaze of amness, every single detail of a painting, baby or beloved is as important as every other. Every twisting, turning line and shadow is honored, loved and is seen as expressive of wholeness. Even what other's in an ego-based consciousness would deem as ugly and 'out of place' is seen as perfect, just the way it is.

Another characteristic of the Amness experience is that what is seen is seen as an 'end' in itself. Not as a means to an end, not as utility or how it can serve me, but in it's inalienable selfness. Seeing nature in this way is the true awareness that it exists with or without me, with or without humanity, that it is an end in itself; Seeing something in it's own being, is to see it as whole and complete. This is to see Being at the core of its being. This is the joy and wisdom in seeing the beauty of the darkness, of a mosquito, a snake or spider. To see it is there for a reason, has it's contribution to 'what is', to Being. And by the sheer fact it exists, it has something to teach, share and learn from - not solely as something for me to use, judge or get rid of. This is a deeply ecological perspective and reveals that the Amness experience far from being a 'peak experience' that happens only occasionally, is truly the 'root' experience found in abundance in indigenous cultures. A clear indication of its 'root' nature is that infants start out in this radical Being experience and they themselves are an incredible reminder of this experience. The difference, of course is that the child does not have a well defined 'ego' to maneuver in our social world and therefore no ability to differentiate. The goal is not abandoning the 'ego' but rather 'grow it' in as much alignment with its roots - Being as possible. This will help produce individuals that are both socially responsible and grounded in compassion and care.

Being and the Heart

Amness experiences also have the quality of intra-object richness. What this means simply is that as one continues to 'behold' and 'tend' the face of the beloved, the painting, or child, it opens the eyes of the heart to where we see more and more richness the more we gaze. Every detail opens us, as opposed to the kind of boredom that occurs after repeated exposure. A painting, for instance, that one has a particular Being connection to becomes more beautiful each time you go to it. This is what I like to call a 'heart perception' and is at the core of what usually has been known as 'sacred art.' On repeated exposures one not only does not tire of the picture, but one notices more and more beauty. This is truly seeing with the heart. This makes perfect sense when we keep in mind that what is happening is that the luminosity of Being is fully opened in this one particular 'being.' This is both a miracle and grace. This truly is what Native Americans meant by the 'Beauty Path', or the 'Old Beloved Path.'

Being and Belonging

Amness also is noted by being anxiety free and the usual classifications of dangerous or not dangerous is no where present. One feels 'at home.' In fact, the world at large suddenly feels 'like home.' That is why the amness experience is infused with a loving, caring, tending and beholding. This truly creates a more profound perception of the intrinsic qualities of what one is beholding. To see with such intent and 'care' is to notice every small detail with kindness, curiosity and intrigue. This has so much to do with moving from judgement to curiosity, which fosters a lighter more open and effective way to move through the world.

Amness experience also shares with what Maslow found in Peak experiences to be a way of perceiving/living that is ego-transcending, self-forgetting, and egoless. It is a self-effacing, deeply humble mode of being - the person is 'not needing'; this is critical to differentiate loving/beholding where the 'ego' is attached vs. from a soul perception where the independence and sense of the center is also honored as independent from the beholder. "It is possible in the aesthetic experience of the love experience to become so absorbed and 'poured into' the object that the self, in a very real sense, disappears."

This end-experience is critical in the love experiences, mystic experiences, aesthetic experiences and creative experiences. This is also similar to a crucial 'insight' experience in therapy which although the 'breaking' into consciousness is initially painful, is seen as worthwhile.

Being, Time and Space

Maslow also saw the being level experience to have a characteristic disorientation of space and time - that is as outside of time and space. Lovers report this as do poets and artists in the depth of creativity. However, the other side is true as well, "Not only does time pass in their ecstasies with frightening rapidity so that a day may pass as if it were a minute, but also a minute so intensely lived may feel like a day or a year." Maslow hints at this unknowingly that it is something that indigenous people knew all about and just had a different word for, "It is as if they had, in a way, some place in another world in which time simultaneously stood still and moved with great rapidity." I have always thought in reading this passage that somehow we each enter the 'speed' of light in these moments. For at the speed of light one is going as fast as anything in the universe, and at that moment one reaches the speed of light, time does stop. A true paradox which is now a scientific fact and another reason, my hypothesis is, that the Amness experience is being in alignment with the Unified field, and therefore being in alignment with what the mystics of called God - the very fabric of Being and a consciousness/awareness of Being - again, the ground becoming figural. This 'light' example also makes sense when we realize the similarities between a photon of light and the reality of the soul. A photon is dimension less, weightless and cannot be put in a box, measured and weighed although it lights up all we see - the soul shares these characteristics.

Being and Wholeness

The experience itself of amness is intrinsically valuable and 'whole' making; again in Maslow's words:

The experience is intrinsically valid; the experience is perfect, complete and needs nothing else. It is sufficient to itself. It is felt as being intrinsically necessary and inevitable....It is reacted to with awe, wonder, amazement, humility and even reverence, exaltation and piety. The word sacred is occasionally used to describe the person's reaction to it. It is delightful and "amusing" in a Being sense. (Maslow, Pg. 81)

Maslow knew what he was on to, for him he realized in what he called, 'the peak experience' the nature of reality was actually seen 'more clearly' literally through to its essence. (Is it any wonder that the root word of 'essence' is esse meaning 'Being'). For him it also followed that evil is the product of "not seeing the world whole and unified."

This ability to see the world as unified is also related to how much one experiences oneself as unified. The world and oneself are truly an inter-contextual network of relationships - the world will appear as the mirror of one's inner state. We do not see the world the way it is, but the way we are. The qualities of wholeness, uniqueness and aliveness when experienced within will allow one more readily to see the wholeness of the world and respond and respect the uniqueness found there in.

The crucial part of this is what we call healing wounded innocence. Most of us get along in the world through repressing the primary process of unconscious wishes, desires and fears and move into the secondary processes of logic, science, common sense, good adjustment, enculturation, responsibility and rationalism. All fine and good, but at the expense of this more vital and alive dimension of human life so characteristic of childhood.

We loose our 'vital connection' to Being. The critical goal here is finding this twice born person - Maslow realized that the self-actualizer's had a certain what he called, 'healthy childishness', and what I prefer to call childlike quality. He saw it as a fusion of ego, id, super-ego and ego-ideal, an integration of primary and secondary processes, of the pleasure principle and reality principle, a true integration. This is no less than the Eastern version of the 'chakra's being open and flowing in alignment with Creation. It is also what Native American's word term walking the Path of Heart - which integrates the instincts, feeling and thoughts on the path of beauty and wholeness with all-my-relations.

Summary

The person living with their 'vital connection' to Amness intact - in, through and from Being - are living with: (adapted and elaboratted from Maslow)

1) wholeness

2) accepting what is

3) without judgment

4) aliveness - process/spontaneity

5) richness (differentiation, complexity and intricacy)

6) simplicity (honesty, nakedness - bare bones - the essence)

8) beauty (form, richness, uniqueness, honesty)

9) goodness (benevolence)

10) uniqueness (individuality, novelty)

11) effortlessness; (ease, flow, lack of strain, grace)

12) playfulness (fun, joy)

13) truth; honesty; reality

14) self-sufficiency (autonomy, independence, not-needing-other-than-itself-in-order-to-be-itself; self-determining, separateness; living by and from its own truth).

What we see then is to be facilitating Being-Level experiences - 'amness' we are:

1) helping the individual align with both the deepest groundedness and one's highest aspirations. One could imagine a magnetic pole that is created when the positive and negative poles - the inner/outer, self/other, personality/shadow, being/Being poles are in alignment. The person in amness experiences this 'centering' of one's being with Being.

2) In this state the body is congruent with consciousness. In fact, the felt body is experienced as emanating from this awareness. Every cell virtually relaxes and can trust the more organic self-ordering mechanisms of being which naturally puts body, mind, heart and soul into alignment - and promotes healing.

3) More receptivity to what one is to do and why - this is how Being is always the ground for one's becoming and doing in the world to emerge.

4) The person then has access to the wisdom within themselves and their truth and direction becomes apparent.

What is unique and different about a Being-Level approach to life and psychology is that it is radically holistic, integral and integrative.

It is also easy to see how many of the following integrative and complementary medical approaches and treatments facilitate Amness/Being-Level experience and thus aid in this larger 'alignment' of one's being with Being:

1) Massage Therapy

2) Acupuncture

3) Hypnotherapy

4) Visualization/Relaxation

5) Chiropractic Care

6) Drumming

7) Music/Sound based Therapy

8) Art, Poetry and Expressive Therapy

9) Meditation

10) Spiritual based guidance and direction

11) Contemplative Prayer

Of course, we each could add our own ways in which Amness finds us. Because in truth Amness is everywhere and in everything. The natural luminosity of reality itself. As such Being is never captured in words....it can't possibly be. It gives birth to all words and none....Being of course will always, and rightly remain out of reach of any definition - these squiggly symbols we call words. Being is a field which extends out into infinity, and whose home is in eternity. AND, it is right, appropriate and healthy to find our own individual, unique and one of a kind relationship to the great Story and unfolding of Being. The miracle of course is not Being, but that each of our fragile beings, contain of all Being.

References:

DeMaria, Michael B. Ever Flowing On: On being and becoming oneself, Terra Nova, 2001

Heidegger, Martin Being and Time, Harper and Row, 1962

Maslow, Abraham H. Towards A Psychology of Being Van Nostrand Company, New York, 1968.