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Tidied Text with Original Language and Formatting
I want to come back to rafts. I think we’ve covered domains and maps quite a bit, and we’ve alluded to rafts, but I think we need to say more about them, particularly in relation to ontogenesis, ontological change, and inner development.
In general, significant shifts happen in development. We move from one equilibrium to another quite substantially—it’s not a smooth, continuous change. Ontologically, we are in one place, and then we undergo a shift.
A useful metaphor is a child learning to walk. A baby under one year old cannot walk or even stand up, then at some point, it starts trying—maybe succeeds for a moment, falls down, keeps trying, and does this for a period of time. However, for that whole period, it is not walking. Then, at some point, it walks. There’s often a relatively short phase where it shifts from not walking to walking, and this change happens like a step function rather than a gradual progression. The practice is continuous, but the transition itself is sudden.
Another example is phase transitions in physical systems, such as water freezing or boiling. Temperature may be continuously changing (from 10°C to -10°C), but at 0°C, something fundamental happens—there is a structural reorganization of the substance. Even though the conditions change continuously, the transformation occurs in a nonlinear, discrete way.
This pattern appears to be a fundamental feature of development. While practice might be continuous (like the child attempting to stand or a person engaging in developmental work), the actual transformation happens in a sudden shift.
There’s a strong evidence base for this in cognitive complexity and other developmental domains. Neo-Piagetian literature has explored these kinds of stage-like shifts, and there are good theoretical reasons to expect this based on dynamical systems theory.
If we consider our being as a complex dynamical system with many interdependent parts, then sudden transitions from one equilibrium to another are natural. This is especially true for self-organizing complex systems.
For example, Boas and Isabella had a study group last autumn where they reviewed a paper on self-organizing robotic systems that showed these emergent stages naturally appearing. This reinforces the idea that these shifts are not just psychological artifacts but rather intrinsic to developmental processes.
Assimilation, Accommodation, and the Role of Crisis in Growth
This brings up an important Piagetian point: assimilation and accommodation.
- Assimilation means incorporating new experiences into an existing framework.
- Accommodation means fundamentally restructuring one’s cognitive framework to integrate something new.
Shocks, crises, and challenges often catalyze transformation because they create disequilibrium—a moment where our existing framework no longer works, requiring us to accommodate and shift into a new equilibrium.
This also relates to the delicate nature of transformation—crises must be navigated skillfully to avoid breakdown while still allowing growth.
Buddhist Training: Cleaning Up and Waking Up
Looking at Buddhist training, particularly the master-disciple relationship, we see that the teacher’s role is not just about facilitating waking up (spiritual realization), but also cleaning up (psychological integration).
Many traditions involve less pure contemplation and more ego-deconstruction, addressing attachments, delusions, and emotional distortions. This work is essential for deeper development.
Bullet Point Summary
Rafts and Ontological Development
- Development involves significant shifts rather than smooth, linear progress.
- We move from one equilibrium to another, often suddenly, rather than through gradual, incremental change.
- Example: A child learning to walk—long practice, then a sudden shift to being able to walk.
- Example: Phase transitions in water—gradual temperature change leads to sudden structural transformation at a threshold.
Dynamical Systems and Self-Organizing Change
- Developmental change follows patterns seen in complex dynamical systems.
- Sudden transitions between equilibria naturally emerge in self-organizing systems.
- Boas and Isabella’s study group reviewed a paper on robotic systems showing emergent developmental stages, reinforcing that these shifts are intrinsic to growth.
The Role of Crises in Growth (Piagetian Perspective)
- Assimilation: Integrating new experiences within an existing structure.
- Accommodation: Restructuring one’s cognitive framework to accommodate new information.
- Shocks and crises catalyze transformation by destabilizing existing patterns, creating the necessary disequilibrium for accommodation.
- Growth requires navigating these challenges skillfully, ensuring that shocks lead to transformation rather than collapse.
Buddhist Training and the Role of a Teacher
- The guru-disciple relationship plays a crucial role in both waking up and cleaning up.
- Many traditions emphasize ego-deconstruction and working through attachments, not just contemplative realization.
- This psychological aspect of spiritual training is often overlooked but is critical for integrated development.
Possible Prompt Questions for Participants
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Reflecting on Your Own Development:
- Can you recall a time when you experienced a sudden developmental shift after a long period of practice or struggle?
- What factors contributed to that shift?
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Understanding Rafts and Phase Transitions:
- Think of a skill you learned that followed a step-function pattern (e.g., riding a bike, swimming, public speaking).
- How did the process of practicing versus suddenly “getting it” unfold for you?
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Navigating Challenges and Transformation:
- Have you ever faced a challenge or crisis that forced you to change your perspective or way of being?
- How did you assimilate and accommodate that experience?
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Spiritual and Psychological Growth:
- In what ways do you see waking up and cleaning up as distinct but interrelated processes?
- If you’ve had a teacher, mentor, or guide, how have they supported your inner development beyond just intellectual learning?
Raw
Okay, another point I want to come back to actually is rafts. So I think we covered domains and maps quite a bit, and we alluded to rafts, but I think we want to say something about rafts, and about the process of ontogenesis, or the process of ontological change, or inner development. So I have alluded to it already, which is that in general there are these kind of significant shifts. We move from one equilibrium to another quite substantially, you know, it's not like a smooth change. We're maybe in one place ontologically. So the metaphor here is to think of a child. There's a child who is very small, under one year old, can't walk, can't even stand up. Some point it starts trying to stand up, maybe it succeeds a bit, falls down, starts maybe trying to walk, and this may go on for quite a period, but for that period it is not walking, and at some point it will walk, and often that won't happen, like one day it might walk a little bit and fail, but over quite a short period of time it will shift from not walking to walking, and it's kind of like a bit of a step function there. It's not like that it's a continuous process. I mean the practice is, but the change, and the other example that's the physical example that's very obvious is freezing, is a phase change or boiling with water. So the temperature is continuously dropping there, but there is a sudden significant structural change when you hit the freezing point. So even though the temperature condition is changing continuously from 10 to minus 10, something happens around zero that's very significant in the alteration of the structural organization and behavior of that substance. So this is something to realize about development, that while there might be a continuous external practicing, for example trying to stand up, there's a sudden moment when you go from not really being able to stand up and walk to being able to stand up and walk. And this is true seemingly in these other areas, and so one point about inner development is that this kind of like phase shift or stages is likely to be present. There's a lot of evidence I could cite here from literature that, at least in cognitive complexity and other areas, that seems to be the case. In the kind of Neo-Piagetian literature at least, there's quite a bit on this. And there are also good theoretical reasons from dynamical systems. If you think of our being as a complex dynamical system with many interdependent parts interacting, dynamical systems would have a tendency to have these changes, kind of rapid changes from one equilibria to another in the system, and particularly if they're self-organizing complex systems. For example, there's actually a paper that Boas and Isabella had in their study group last autumn that covered exactly this point, showing the emergence simply of these kind of stages naturally in actually robots that are able to self-organize their system. Okay, so this is the point about rafts. So first of all, what's the other point? That's more about kind of maybe ontogenesis generally. And then there's… Yeah, I don't know what she wanted to say about rafts. So maybe it's just a point about ontogenesis generally and how ontological development would happen there. Oh, it's also about crises and checks, so assimilation and accommodation. So maybe we should reference the Piagetian point as well, that and the reason that shocks or challenges will often therefore be a catalyst to transformation and the delicate nature of that. And finally, I've got… Okay, a final point, which is just something to note, which should just be at the end. It's about the fact that you look at many Buddhist training, and particularly the relationship with the master or the guru, the main traditions, is part of contributing, I think, to cleaning up as well as waking up, that often that work is maybe less about the pure contemplation, but about dealing with the ego and the other attachments and cleaning up work that's going on. So yeah, we've got assimilation and accommodation, and we've got the fact that growth, particularly a shift from one equilibrium to another, and this is related to sustained growth, requires a shock or a challenge. So can you please take what I just said? First of all, just take the transcription, keep my original language, just format it, tidy it a little bit, remove filler words, but don't add anything. Then create a bullet point summary of what I've said into relevant sections, and then add any kind of prompt questions or suggestions that you might have at the end.