ACT for Spiritual
Development
Hank Robb, Ph.D., ABPP
Joseph Campbell’s Four
Functions of Mythology
Mystical Function
(Making contact with “the mystery”)
Cosmological Function
(Seeing “the mystery” through all things)
Social Function
(“rationalizing” social action)
Individual Function
(addressing life phases)
“Spiritual” Possibilities
RELATIONSHIPS
I AM Divinity.
(though not the “you” you think you are)
I RELATE to Divinity.
ATTITUDES
Say “yes” to the world as is.
Say “no” to the world as is.
Say “yes” after you “fix up” the world.
Kundalini
“Hierarchy of Spiritual Energy”
Mystery Without a Face (Rapture)
Mystery With a Face (Rapture)
Aggressive Action to Change Self
Compassion
Aggressive Action Directed Outward
Pursuit of Sensual Pleasure
Hanging on to Existence
Assumptions
Your are one being in one
universe.
Assumptions
If you have the usual
body parts, you have
hands and feet. They are
part of your one being.
You also have a spirit.
Assumptions
That, too, is part of your one
being.
Assumptions
Your feet are not your hands
and your hands are not your
spirit and they are all part of
the one being that is you.
Assumptions
Conditions of the universe
arose that brought you into
existence and, one-day,
conditions will change and
you will go out of existence.
Assumptions
There is no spirit that is
separate from the one being
that is you. There is no body
that is separate from the
one being that is you.
Assumptions
The spirit of your one being
will end when the body of
your one being ends
because you are one being.
Assumptions
The actions you take in your
one life will affect the one
universe of which you are
now a part and that was
here before you and will be
here after you.
Assumptions
Those effects may be
characterized as great or
small, good or evil, or in a
variety of other ways. None
of us knows, for sure, what
effects each of us will have.
Assumptions
However, each may know
what effect was intended, if,
indeed, one was intended.
Assumptions
Whatever you are going to do
will have to be done here and
now in this place and in this
moment because there is no
“other place” and no “other
moment.”
Assumptions
If these assumptions fit for
you, and you are looking for
spiritual development,
perhaps this mode of
development will prove
helpful.
Metaphor
The Spiritual Reality
approach, like many other
spiritual approaches, makes
use of metaphor.
Metaphor
When I was in high school, I
learned a poem titled, The
Highwayman. The poem
began, “The road was a
ribbon of moonlight.”
Metaphor
If on hearing this, one were to go outside
with scissors in order to cut up material to
tie bows in one’s hair, then we would say
there and been a misunderstanding of
language because there was never any
literal material made of moonlight for
anyone, including the highwayman, to
interact with.
Metaphor
In this presentation, I will try
diligently to point out
metaphors when they are in
use.
Metaphor
Even so, it may be useful
not to take any talk too
literally, especially when
it is meant to open us to
spiritual dimensions.
Root Metaphor
Diamonds are aspects of the
universe found here on
earth.
Root Metaphor
One aspect of diamonds is
their potential for brilliance.
Root Metaphor
Before the brilliance is
brought forth, it is only a
potential within the
diamond.
Root Metaphor
After it is brought forth, it is
an aspect, or quality, of the
diamond itself. It is not
“added on.”
Root Metaphor
The brilliance is not something
other than the diamond itself.
The brilliance is an aspect, or
quality, of the diamond. It is a
way of being a diamond that
has been brought forth.
Root Metaphor
If the diamond disintegrated,
so would the brilliance.
Brilliance and the diamond
are one rather than two.
Root Metaphor
Bringing forth brilliance from
a diamond includes cutting
and polishing it.
Root Metaphor
And the cutting and polishing
must be done wisely.
Root Metaphor
So, as with diamonds,
spiritual brilliance, that is
potential in each human
being, can be brought forth.
Root Metaphor
We, however, are not
inanimate objects. We don’t
have to wait around. We can
get busy doing the job
ourselves, and we can do it
wisely.
Root Metaphor
That is just the sort of thing
that this mode of spiritual
development intends.
Root Metaphor
Hopefully, no individuals hearing or
reading these words buy that they will
literally become brighter through the
mode of spiritual development
outlined here or that they require
literal cutting or polishing. Believing
such things means there has been a
linguistic error.
Root Metaphor
Yet there is some sense in
which spiritual brightness
does brighten the world
where it is found.
Root Metaphor
And don’t stop paying the
electric bill because of the
previous sentence!
Caution!
From this perspective, many
spiritual traditions contain
metaphors that we may find
useful. Even so, we had better be
careful. Many traditions do not
make the unitary assumption of
Spiritual Reality.
Caution!
They operate on an assumption of
fundamental duality in which there
is literally a second universe.
Body and spirit are not of one
being but alternate entities that
sometimes war and at other time
co-operate with each other.
Caution!
In these traditions, one
aspect of the duality is
usually to be preferred over
the other, typically the spirit
over the body.
From the Spiritual Reality
Perspective
We are one being with one body
and spirit just as we are one being
with one pair of eyes and and one
pair of ears as well as memories
of the past and hopes for the
future.
Metaphorically
Speaking
The Kingdome of the Father
is spread upon the earth
but men and women do not
see it.
Metaphorically
Speaking
This is the golden lotus world.
Metaphorically
Speaking
I and the Father are one.
Metaphorically
Speaking
I and my beloved are one.
Mind
In addition to our spirit and body,
the one being we are also has a
mind.
Our mind is largely made up of
thoughts, images and
sensations.
Thoughts
Those radio programs inside
your head.
Images
Anything with a picture.
Bodily Sensations
Your heart beating faster or
slower. Your hands feeling
cooler or warmer. Your
stomach feeling more tense
or more relaxed.
Thoughts, Images &
Sensations
Sometimes you can control
your thoughts, images &
sensations.
Thoughts, Images &
Sensations
More often thoughts, images
and sensations just “arrive.”
Jack and Jill went up the …
Little Miss Muffet sat on a …
When was the last time “tuffet”
was in your head?
I didn’t know what a “tuffet”
was until I looked it up
I have a good “story” about how “tuffet”
got in my head and no real memory.
Lot’s of “stuff” that “shows up” is like that.
Thoughts, Images &
Sensations
Thoughts, images and
sensations come from your
personal learning history
and your biological history.
Finding Your Spiritual Self
It is “the possessor of the body.”
Long duration - as far back as you can
remember.
Stable - like the eye of a hurricane.
Certainty of bodily control, if not control of
thoughts, images or sensations, when
you are “there.”
Umpire Perspective
 Thoughts
are divided into true
and untrue.
 Images are divided into
attractive and unattractive.
 Sensations are divided into
pleasant and unpleasant.
Umpire Perspective
With the Umpire Perspective
you sometimes get, “bad
calls,” most typically with
thoughts.
Observer Perspective
You see that a thing is exactly
what it is and nothing more
and nothing less.
Actuality Perspective

There is a difference between “you”
and your thoughts, images and
sensations. “You” are the person who
“has” thoughts, images or sensations.

There is a difference between your
thoughts, images and sensations and
the actual world.
You can make guesses
about the future, but rarely
can you make calls. A call
of “true” for “One day I will
die,” exemplifies an
exception.
“I cannot walk over to
the door and back.”
“I cannot stay seated, I
must stand up.”
The illusion of
“loosing control” is like
other illusions, e.g. the
“sunrise” and “sunset.” It
looks, feels and seems a
way that it isn’t.
“I am a banana.”
You are not a yellow fruit.
And neither are you a bunch of
sounds - “ba-na-na.”
Did you notice the latter?
Formula for Human
Liberation
By making myself do something
unpleasant, and refraining from
doing something pleasant, in the
service of something I make more
important, I will never have to be
a slave to circumstance.
This was the point of high
school.
And most of us missed it!
In high school you do unpleasant
homework, and don’t do things that
would be a lot more pleasant.
Just to annoy yourself?
No.
In the service of actually learning
something or simply making
better grades.
Leading Principles
Leading Principles are like using a compass
to go East or West rather than North.
Follow a compass North and you will reach
magnetic North. The compass will spin
around and every time you walk away it
will point you back to where you came
from.
Leading Principles
Go East or West with your compass and
you will never come to some place like
magnetic North.
Goals verses
Leading Principles
Goals are places at which you can “arrive.”
Have a baby.
Get married.
Graduate high school
Goals verses
Leading Principles
Leading Principles give direction rather than
describe places to “arrive.”
When would you be “arrive” at:
Be the best parent I can be?
Be the best mate I can be?
Be as educated as I can be?
You can always get up the next day and
keep going!
Leading Principles
Give direction rather than
location & do so without regard
to location.
Provide direction through the
wilderness of life rather than a
path through it.
Leading Principles
“The path” is where you’ve been. If
you are “on a path,” it is someone
else’s path because NO ONE has
lived your life before.
You are the only one who can do it!
Leading Principles
Start walking.
At what point are you “unable” to
“change directions?”
That is the experience of “human
freedom.”
The world is filled with
contingent requirements,
and you have a choice as to
how you fulfill them.
To make this slide show, I
had to make it.
And I had a choice of the “banner” under
which I went about the activity.
“I choose to. I choose to. I choose to.”
OR
“I have to. I have to. I have to.”
“I choose to. I choose to. I choose to” is the
banner of human liberation.
“I have to. I have to. I have to” is the banner
of human slavery.
And WATCH OUT for slave revolts!
Under which banner are you
acting?
Heinrich Zimmer
The best things can’t be told.
The second best are misunderstood.
The third best are what we talk
about.
Why?
Because in talking about things that can’t
be told (only experienced) we use the
language of things we do talk about as
metaphors.
These metaphors are then
concretized.
That is, people try to make hair
ribbons out of the ribbon of
moonlight that “was” the road.
Joseph Campbell said,
“Mythology is other people’s religion,
And religion is misunderstood mythology.”
Why misunderstood?
Same reason!
The metaphors are concretized and
thereby become opaque, rather than
transparent, to transcendence.
Transcendence?
Yes!
You transcended your desire not to do
your homework and do other fun stuff and
did your homework any way!
By following your Leading Principles, you
acted in ways you didn’t feel like acting.
“Midlife Crisis”
Getting to the top of the ladder
and finding it’s against the
wrong wall.
Typically produced by following
someone else’s agenda.
Formula for Human
Serenity in Action
Let me accept (give my permission for) life
as I find it, (as life is, was or may be) even
though I may not approve of what I find,
wisdom to see what would be good to
change, willingness to act and willingness
to follow through, and gratitude for the
opportunity to live my life as best I can.
Giving your permission
IS NOT
giving your approval.
That for which you give your approve is
one thing.
That for which you give your permission is
something else.
My wife approves of pickles in tuna fish.
I don’t!
When you don’t give your
permission for Life to be as it is
was or may be who suffers,
You or Life?
Two Kinds of
Willingness
Willingness with your feet.
Willingness with your heart.
Willingness with your heart is
more metaphorical than
willingness with your feet.
You can see people moving their feet (as
well as their hands, arms and mouth).
When it comes to willingness with your
heart, I’m not talking about that big muscle
in the middle of your chest!
Make A Fist.
All it takes to have an open hand is to stop
holding your hand closed.
Willingness is like that.
Just stop holding your heart closed and it
will open all by itself.
You don’t have to do something.
You have to stop doing something.
Cup Your Hands
Metaphorically speaking, you can “hold
gently” experiences that are themselves
not gentle.
Just let them rest there, held gently,
doing whatever it is that they do,
while you “hold them gently.”
The Buddhists & the
Rolling Stones agree:
“You don’t always get
what you want!”
SO,
Simply being alive
means experiencing
sorrow.
Treat the reality that all life is
sorrowful as problem to be solved
and it won’t be long before you
come up with the answer.
KILL YOURSELF!
Life is best treated as an
experience to be had
not a problem to be solved.
And SOMETIMES you actually
get what you want!
You experience “fulfillment.”
Life is full of sorrow and fulfillment,
And the place in between!
Some fulfillments are like
vegetables,
They nourish you.
Others are like cotton candy.
They taste good in the moment
and have little or no nourishment.
Some fulfillments are cool.
Some fulfillments are very cool.
And some fulfillments are
WAY COOL!
Doc, how will I know which
fulfillments will prove , for me,
WAY COOL?
I have no idea!
And neither does anybody else,
even when they claim they do.
PURSUING WAY COOL
Try different things and listen for
the “echo” inside yourself.
“Way Cool” is like one instrument
playing softly and if you follow it, it
becomes louder and more
orchestrated or it fades because it
was an illusion.
Searching for WAY COOL, like
searching for most things,
means going on an adventure.
Adventures have at least two
aspects.
You can’t know for sure how they
will turn out.
There has to be at least some
danger.
That’s why jumping off a one
story building is an adventure
and jumping off a ten story
building isn’t.
We know how that turns out!
Going into any aspect of life is
like going into a movie.
There’s a price of admission to be
paid with your hands, arms, feet
and mouth as well as your
thoughts, images and sensations.
Will you pay?
Will you pay willingly?
You can’t go if you won’t pay.
And if you won’t pay willingly,
the trip will be bumpier!
“Will I find ice cream
WAY COOL?”
You could ask those who never had any.
You could ask those who have had some.
You could read a book about it.
You could eat some ice cream.
Thriving requires Surviving
and
Surviving isn’t Thriving
While all other beings are living
their lives as best they can,
as far as we know,
only we can TRY to live our lives as
best we can.
We can act WITH purpose, ON
purpose.
“Happy” and “Unhappy” are
names for two relationships we
can have with our lives
containing sorrow, fulfillment and
the in between.
Us
Our Relationship with
Life as Sorrow, Fulfillment and In Between.
HAPPINESS
Us
A Permission Giving Relationship with
Life as Sorrow, Fulfillment and In Between.
UNHAPPINESS
Us
A Permission Withholding Relationship with
Life as Sorrow, Fulfillment and In Between.
HAPPINESS
IS NOT
FULFILLMENT
UNHAPPINESS
IS NOT
SORROW
If you want HAPPINESS and
don’t get it you will feel sad.
And, your sorrow isn’t unhappiness.
You could be sad and happy by maintaining
a permission giving relationship with life as
sorrow, fulfillment and in between.
You could be sad and unhappy by
maintaining a permission withholding
relationship with life as sorrow, fulfillment
and in between.
If you want HAPPINESS and
get it, you will feel fulfillment.
And, your fulfillment isn’t happiness.
You will experience fulfillment because you
wanted
a certain relationship with life as sorrow,
fulfillment and in between
and you got that relationship.
At least for the moment!
And You can walk and chew gum at the same
time!
You don’t HAVE TO spend your whole life
pursuing HAPPINESS.
Pursue whatever your WAY COOL(S) is/are
and maintain a relationship of HAPPINESS
while doing it.
This mode of spiritual
development does not aim at
either fulfillment or happiness.
It aims at fulfillment and
happiness!
And that aim requires
developing psychological
flexibility!
Spiritual Love
Looking out for someone’s, or
something’s, long-term best
interests.
It is a choice.
A choice not necessarily related
to affection, affiliation, or sexual
attraction.
You can love yourself, as well as
others, but maybe not at the
same time.
The price of being a sensitive
human being is that you will feel
the pain of others.
The price of living YOUR life will
be bringing pain, in the form of
sorrow, into the lives of others.
Why?
Because in living YOUR life, you will not
always be giving others what they want.
And sorrow is what happens when people
don’t get what they want.
And, if you are a sensitive human being,
you will feel the sorrow you are giving
them!
And what the hell
kind of world is that?!
The one we appear
to be living in!
Forgiveness
Forgiveness means you stop
holding the facts against
someone (e.g. your mate) or
something (e.g. the world in
general).
Forgiveness does not mean
forgetting the facts,
excusing the facts,
or anything other than not
holding the facts against
someone or something.
If you stop holding the facts
against someone or something,
that doesn’t mean you couldn’t
start doing it again.
And the fact that you started
doing it again doesn’t mean you
couldn’t stop doing it,
AGAIN!
Forgiveness is like pushing your
finger hard against someone, or
something, and then
“letting go.”
If you are pushing hard against
someone else, then
you have to release their pain
in order to release yours.
That’s the price of admission to
letting go of the pain of
unforgiveness.
And how often are you pushing
against something other than an
actual living being?
There’s no one “there” and yet
you keep pushing, pushing,
pushing.
The only pain being generated is
YOURS!
Of course, if you want to keep
pushing, a good story can help.
That bitch or bastard!
He, she or it WRONGED me!
I’m not going to let them get away with
that!
They deserve a good smashing and
bashing!
And I’m just the person to give it to them!
Did you ever
hear
a story like that?
Did you ever
tell
a story like that?
And by the way,
YOU are one of the “someones”
you could stop holding the
facts against.
YOU could forgive yourself.
AGAIN!
And you could
WILLINGLY
stop holding the facts against
someone or something!
NOW WE’RE TALKING
SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT!
Reconciliation
Reconciliation means giving them,
or it, a chance to do it again!
It means going on an adventure
where at least some of the danger
is being hurt in the same way you
were hurt the last time.
And what would be the point of
doing that?
I have no idea!
What would be the point of
YOU doing that?
What Leading Principle would
you be instantiating by
reconciling?
Or by refusing to reconcile?
And you could do that
WILLINGLY!
NOW WE’RE TALKING
SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT!
Order of Action
First, willingly head in your chosen
direction.
This is not the same as just trying
to get away from where you
currently are.
You can’t go without leaving.
You can’t leave without going.
To which one are you giving the
emphasis?
Going or leaving?
Order of Action
Then, make yourself as
comfortable as possible while
you keep on going.
There’s nothing wrong with
“smelling the roses
along the way”
as long as it doesn’t make
you late for
LIFE!
Competence & Confidence
You gain competence about anything
the same way you gained it about
riding a bicycle.
First, get on and start riding.
When you fall off, you don’t buy either,
“This means I can’t ride,”
or
“It hurts so much to fall off, I won’t try
any more.”
Competence & Confidence
You gain confidence when you perform
successfully over time and give the credit for
your performance to yourself.
Not to it was Tuesday.
Not to the bike was red.
Not to the audience was friendly.
And not to, “I just got lucky.”
The Parable of the Skydiver
Skydiver dove out of an airplane.
Neither the regular chute nor the
emergency chute opened.
Skydiver realized there were at
least four possibilities:
The Parable of the Skydiver
Face the ground and enjoy the ride down.
Start worrying about what would happen when
s/he hit the ground.
Review in exquisite detail exactly how s/he got
into this situation.
Work as diligently as possible to get the
emergency chute open.
ACT for Spiritual Development
Accept the world as it is, was or
may be.
Choose, and willingly follow,
your Leading Principles.
Teach others to do the same.