NLP and MeditationSurely NLP and meditation are incompatible. After all, meditation is for nurturing or uncovering a deep understanding of Life, whereas NLP is a superficial 'slight of mind' trickery...isn't it? I trained at Practitioner and Master Practitioner levels in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I loved its power to change lifelong conditioning QUICKLY, as well as the buzz that crackled in the seminars. Later I became discouraged as the 'stars' did not seem to be any better at living than I was. Some of the top names did not always seem to set the kind of moral and wholesome example I thought appropriate in people with so much ability and power. The bitter dispute between the two cofounders left me reflecting sadly on the difference between 'walk' and 'talk' and I left the scene for some years. Since those days, NLP has exploded in popularity; and rightly so. It has some really effective techniques and an investigative spirit, and organisation of perceptions that is admirable. I still have my reservations about this 'technology', and think - like martial arts - it is all too easy to use this powerful tool to armour ourselves against change, rather than employing the same attitudes, methodologies and techniques to grow in wisdom and insight. However, I am beginning to think that it is possible to avoid the cul de sac of just making something bigger, better and faster, and incorporate certain aspects into spiritual practice. I do not mean by this, attempts to 'model' the Dalai Lama with a view to running , 'instant enlightenment' seminars... In my opinion, spiritual learning consists of two parts. One part is learning to work with the illusion, that is with the mental / physical reality we experience. The other part is to realise and live out the realisation, that it is an illusion, (although 'illusion' is not quite enough of a word to express my meaning here.) Western approaches such as NLP and the Law of Attraction focus on the first of the above aspects; meditation has traditionally emphasised the second. The times they are 'a changing...We live in a time of unequalled ability to communicate and transfer information. By way of example I remember an account told to me by my former martial arts teacher, a Westerner living in Malaysia. He told me that one of his own teachers had made much of being willing to teach him a 'secret' form reserved for only the closest disciples. My former teacher having a thorough understanding of culturally appropriate behaviour, respectfully thanked his teacher and went on to learn the 'secret' form that he knew was freely available on video...One of the implications of such readily available content is that we sometimes become engaged in interpreting that content from one cultural context into another. A traditional Thai Buddhist monk following his path in his own country would make many assumptions that a Western student of meditation, would not. For example, at the end of a meditation retreat, I was given a 'blessing thread' by one of the monks. I suspect that many Thais would have no qualm attributing magical power to the thread, whereas a reflex reaction from many Westerners would be to see the blessing as symbolic. For the purpose of this article, discussion of right and wrong is not useful. The point is that interpretation and possibly change are likely to occur when information crosses cultural contexts. In similar fashion, many Westerners would seek out a psychotherapist to help work through mental and emotional issues in a way I don't think many Asians would, (this is an assumption on my part, and times indeed are changing). The Art of the PossibleIn this process of interpretation there are both possibilities and dangers that were not available and present to those who came before us.One possibility concerns the conditioned nature of the mind. Habitual responses form deep tracks in our (un) consciousness. Meditation takes us to a place where we can hold the energy of a particular feeling (track) without being overwhelmed, or without acting on the energy and creating more problems. Over time this weakens the track itself. Just like a countryside path, the less it gets walked, the less prominent it is. What if ?What if we had mental tools that simply and quickly closed that path and redirected it down a more equitable route?This is, is it not, a point that is worth some consideration. There is a danger here... Meditation and NLP are focused on two different levels. Meditation was not intended to be a form of stress management. It was a way of realising ultimate Enlightenment, which although it includes the mind, is beyond the mind. NLP's area of expertise is the mind and mind / body interrelationship. The two have different spheres of concern, and just as it may be inappropriate to apply meditation as a 'cure' for any particular condition, it is unwise to take NLP as a substitute for meditation and spiritual cultivation. It is unwise for the simple reason that ultimately we are ultimately only reorganising our own delusions... It is also too easy to apply an NLP technique when we are unwilling to bear with uncomfortable emotions... These are responses from aversion rather than insight , and however expert we may become, we have ceased to make any spiritual progress. It may be sense but it ain't commonAlthough I have concerns, as mentioned, there is much in NLP that is really only a codification of what generally takes much longer if left to 'common sense'. I do not mean 'only' in a negative sense. That 'only' has taken years and genius to achieve.Here is a small example of codifying common sense. In this case it is the uncommon sense of the Dalai Lama. Writing about compassion he gives the example of remembering the kindness of his own teachers and how that gives him the feeling of wanting to pass that kindness on. We can turn this 'nice story' into a technique that anyone can use. For any given quality, here it is 'kindness', we can remember a time when someone was kind to us, or we witnessesd kindness or were ourselves kind to someone. If you take the time to do this now, you will notice the feeling of kindness that arises now You can do the same with any feeling. The NLP is in the structure rather than the example. Perhaps there are times when it would be useful to feel more patient or confident... You just follow the same process and evoke the feeling. This is a very simple example and to be efeective application of NLP you would need to do more, (see NLP techniques ), But it should serve as a taster of what is possible. From the perspective of spiritual cultivation, the malleability of our thoughts and feelings and our ability to construct a personality and the results we achieve in the world indicate certain things about the nature of what is or is not 'real'. I will leave you, the reader, to ponder this for yourself. Suffice to say that the trick is to hold enough of a perspective to not get lost in the game... Remember, however useful NLP is, meditation comes first, ethical living comes first, kindness to self and others comes first and NLP comes after!
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