Last Saturday, we had the privilege of hosting Awakin Call with Paul R. Fleischman.

Dr. Paul R. Fleischman is a writer, retired psychiatrist, and Vipassana meditation teacher, who inhabits the intersection where science, poetry, meditation, and wonder meet -- with an emphasis on wonder. A Yale-trained psychiatrist who was in private practice for more than 30 years and honored in his profession as an “outstanding contributor to the humanistic and spiritual side of psychiatric and medical issues,” Dr. Fleischman has explored the interplay between science, medicine and meditation, and vividly drawn out the contemporary relevance of ancient paths. Over the past decade he has lectured at 150 major American universities. He is the author of 9 books, including the acclaimed Karma and Chaos, a collection of essays that delve into the connections between psychiatry, science, and the Buddha’s teachings.

Below are some of the nuggets from the call that stood out for me ...

• “The most elevating thing I know is that by self observation… [we can have some insight into the nature of the universe.] This isn’t just an anecdote, there is science behind this”
• “The universe is the stage of the vast permissiveness of life.”
• Something is permitting the world to exist, and also limiting the world to exist. Within ourselves we observe the combination of this freedom and constraint.
• The wonder of the universe is permitting wonder within us.
• Wonder is an adaptive organized state within us-- just like a capacity to learn language. It exists so humans can absorb wide-ranging mult-faceted truths without drawing a conclusion. It facilitates happiness and a deep education about something that has been incomprehensible til that moment.
• Paul grew up in a big city in a difficult neighborhood, with little access to natural scenery. Yet it was important for parents to get their kids out into nature. The rural happiness myth was kept alive by sending your kids out to summer camp. Children were released into a lower supervision, high freedom experience inside nature. A long term result of this youthful experience over many summers was intimate familiarity with natural settings in a way that only a growing mammal can have. We were using all our senses and faculties in nature, kindled and alighted to all the experiences available primitively clad in the world.
• What is most striking about Thoreau is his combination of introspection and outward gaze. He's observing the animal sensorium of himself as it observes nature.
• The most common error in human perception is to observe order where there are simply events without causal connection. Perceived patterns where there are no patterns.
• The other common perception is to not perceive connection when it exists. We can oversee patterns and fail to see patterns.
• The mix of nature is one of pattern and no-pattern -- karma and chaos.
• Writing can be like nature. It must balance the order and spontaneity of nature.
• Wonder has two reasons for its having been selected. People who have this trait will be better off. Wonder's two uses are 1. emotional well-being 2. problem solving and asking big questions.
• Both cognitive and emotionally, wonder is an adaptive feature in humanity.
• The sense of wonder is sometimes triggered in him when he thinks of climate change. We have to figure out how to do address it, and deal with all facets of this non-defined big picture problem.
• Colloquially people use awe and wonder interchangeably. Yet wonder is more comfortable than awe. It has to do with the emotional aspect of wonder.
• When you look at the stars, there are two feelings. One is that you are part of something so vast. The other is 'oh my god, what does this mean, I'm so small, finite, mortal'
• Q: What was the connection between wonder and your decision to become a psychiatrist? - A: Yes; states of wonder lead me along within this path through a few key books. Varieties of Religious Experiences by William James -- perhaps the greatest book ever written on this topics. Another key book was Persuasion and Healing by Jerome Frank. His book showed that certain qualities of kindness and attention account for all the healing in all the healing modalities that are not biologically dependent.
• All you have to do know how to be a good human healer is know how to build good human connections.
• Life is awareness and response. You are usually making plans for yourself, about yourself. Then the universe sends a certain shaft of light into your life that pushes you to alter the information state and inner orientation in an almost continuous flow.
• We are constantly cycling-- both inside, and receiving from the outside a constant flood of beauty and terror.
• Meditation is something that gives the spontaneous processes of the mind more alignment and guidance. It is finding the channels that groom the spontaneous processes to give them direction without constraining them.
• Wonder is commonly located in certain places. Many stimuli coming in on many stimuli channels most of which are powerful, delightful, pleasant, and positive.
• Wonder is based on the preparation to feel your mind able to receive through multiple channels at once and take delight in that.
• Wonder can be described as a state of maximum receptivity with positive valence.
• If you had a very difficult life such that you were filled with anger and fear, those modes will block out wonder. Many peoples lives leave them more limited, less child-filled. Yet it is not true that wonder is not just for the lucky. Its difficult to find a child who hasn't been struck by wonder.
• Wonder is something like what literacy was in the 1500s. Growing wonder could be a social goal.
• Music, nature, literature are all gateways to wonder.
• The big question is the meaning of life when you come to the end of it. Can you stay open and react with wonder and not fear at that moment?
• The world is more interactive than causal. All causes are causing other causes, with multiple causes, until you are dealing with webs and nets. Its a group of causal forces clustered in a circle in a conversation. An infinite world with complexity and dialogical-ness or cooperation, like a conversation around a camp fire.

Lots of gratitude to all the behind-the-scenes volunteers that made this call happen!