All posts by Robert M Ellis

About Robert M Ellis

Robert M Ellis is the founder of the Middle Way Society, and author of a number of books on Middle Way Philosophy, including the introductory 'Migglism' and the new Middle Way Philosophy series published by Equinox. A former teacher, he now runs a retreat centre in Wales, Tirylan House, and is in the process of creating a forest garden there.

Network Stimulus 12: Practice – Integration of Belief

Middle Way Philosophy, Network Stimulus, Objectivity training, Wisdom

The next main meeting of the Middle Way Network will be on Sun 25th October 2020 at 7pm UK time on Zoom. This is the last of a series of three talks and discussions focusing on the nature of Middle Way practice: that is, how we can create the conditions for better judgement overcoming conflict in the long-term. We will be looking in turn at the integration of desire, meaning and belief as interdependent aspects of practice, linked to a potentially wide range of specific practices including meditation, the arts, and critical thinking.

There’ll be a short talk on practice as integration of belief, followed by questions, then discussion in regionalised breakout groups. Some other regionalised groups will meet at other times. If you’re interested in joining us but are not already part of the Network, please see the general Network page to sign up. To catch up on the previous session, on integration of meaning, please see this post.

Integration of Belief

Integration of belief is the most important and most lasting form of integration, and the basis of wisdom and compassion. To develop these qualities we need to be able to avoid absolute beliefs but engage with provisional ones. We need to sift absolute beliefs from provisional ones in areas such as religion and politics, but there are also many other everyday ways of practising integration of belief in relation to cognitive biases. A range of practices can help us to develop integration of belief, but especially those that cultivate wider awareness of our beliefs specifically – such as individual reflection, or study and discussion in which critical thinking is applied.

Other resources

There is already an introductory video (21 mins) on integration of belief as part of Middle Way Philosophy, which is embedded below. You might like to watch this for an initial orientation before the session. This is relatively long and detailed in comparison to some of the other introductory videos we have used. A somewhat different approach will be taken in the session.

Here is the video from the actual Network talk:

Some suggested reflection questions:

1. Think of an example of an absolute belief that you have found difficult to integrate (it has caused conflict for you).

2. How can you apply the five principles of Middle Way Philosophy to this belief and its opposite (scepticism, agnosticism, provisionality, incrementality, integration)?

3. When you have avoided absolute beliefs in this example, what are the associated provisional beliefs and meaning, and how might they be used to develop a more integrated belief?

Suggested further reading

Migglism section 4 (5 in the e-book): ‘Critical Thinking’

Middle Way Philosophy 4: The Integration of Belief (especially section 2). See this page for a summary of the sections, and Researchgate for the full text on pdf as part of the Omnibus. From the end of this book you may also find the glossary of biases, fallacies and metaphysical beliefs useful.

Other video resources

The ‘mistakes we make in thinking’ video series goes into 6 key areas of bias where we might develop absolute beliefs, and how we could respond to them.

Network Stimulus 11: Practice – Integration of Meaning

Meaning, Middle Way Philosophy, Network Stimulus

The next main meeting of the Middle Way Network will be on Sun 11th October 2020 at 7pm UK time on Zoom. This is the second of a series of three talks and discussions focusing on the nature of Middle Way practice: that is, how we can create the conditions for better judgement overcoming conflict in the long-term. We will be looking in turn at the integration of desire, meaning and belief as interdependent aspects of practice, linked to a potentially wide range of specific practices including meditation, the arts, and critical thinking.

There’ll be a short talk on practice as integration of meaning, followed by questions, then discussion in regionalised breakout groups. Some other regionalised groups will meet at other times. If you’re interested in joining us but are not already part of the Network, please see the general Network page to sign up. To catch up on the previous session, on integration of desire, please see this post.

Practice and the Integration of Meaning

Integration of meaning is important to Middle Way practice, because it provides us with the resources we need to draw on (in the development of synaptic links in our brains or associative awareness in our minds, to consider new alternative beliefs. To be able to think differently from the absolute assumptions we may have fallen into, we need to develop the capacity to think differently by understanding and relating to alternative symbols.

It is likely that we already engage in some practices that help to integrate meaning – for instance the arts, education, reading. However, recognising their role helps us to value these practices sufficiently, and see how they inter-relate to other aspects of the process of integration.



Other resources

There is already an introductory video (22 mins) on integration of meaning as part of Middle Way Philosophy, which is embedded below. You might like to watch this for an initial orientation before the session. This is relatively long and detailed in comparison to some of the other introductory videos we have used. A somewhat different approach will be taken in the session.

Here is the video from the actual Network meeting stimulus:

Suggested discussion questions

1. Give your own examples of integration of meaning that you have developed in the past: these could be internal or external, predominantly cognitive or predominantly emotive.

2. Have you ever experienced temporary integration of meaning? How did you benefit from it?

3. In what ways do you increase your stock of symbols?

4. In what sorts of situation in your experience would it be helpful to clarify, and how would this add to integration of meaning?

5. In what ways could tolerance of ambiguity help you to integrate meaning, and in what sorts of circumstances do you most need to practise it?

Suggested further reading

Migglism section 4, ‘The Arts’

Middle Way Philosophy 3: The Integration of Meaning. (See this link for a summary, this link for full text as part of the Omnibus edition)

The Meaning of the Body by Mark Johnson (University of Chicago Press, 2007) on the embodied meaning approach

Network Stimulus 10: Practice – The Integration of Desire

Health and well-being, Middle Way Philosophy, Practice

The next main meeting of the Middle Way Network will be on Sun 27th September at 7pm UK time on Zoom. This is the first of a series of three talks and discussions focusing on the nature of Middle Way practice: that is, how we can create the conditions for better judgement overcoming conflict in the long-term. We will be looking in turn at the integration of desire, meaning and belief as interdependent aspects of practice, linked to a potentially wide range of specific practices including meditation, the arts, and critical thinking.

There’ll be a short talk on practice as integration of belief, followed by questions, then discussion in regionalised breakout groups. Some other regionalised groups will meet at other times. If you’re interested in joining us but are not already part of the Network, please see the general Network page to sign up. To catch up on the previous session, on integration in general, please see this post.

There is already an introductory video (18 mins) on integration of desire as part of Middle Way Philosophy, which is embedded below. You might like to watch this for an initial orientation before the session. This is slightly longer than the other introductory videos we’ve had so far, but it goes through some key ideas carefully in a way that there probably won’t be time for in the stimulus talk. It is mainly about cake!

Here is the video from the actual talk on 27th Sept 2020:

Practice and the Integration of Desire

The integration of desire is a way of thinking about practice that can help us to bridge the gap that is too often assumed between our “biological urges” and our “values” or “better natures”. Too often, “ethics” has consisted in telling people to repress their desires in the service of a “higher”, sometimes socially-sanctioned, sometimes “rational” rule. In the longer term, this doesn’t work, because repressed desires have a habit of coming back and re-asserting themselves. That seems to happen just as much at the socio-political level (repressing other groups) as it does at individual level (repressing basic desires). We need a better model of moral practice than merely one of rule-following, and the integration model offers one. Such an alternative model can also be symbolically inspired in the stories of the Buddha by his recognition that asceticism (denying and repressing desire) does not work, and him turning instead to the Middle Way.

Meditation is probably also a basic practice in which we can directly experience how integration of desire is possible, at least on a temporary basis. Simply by relaxing our bodies sufficiently, we can sometimes put what at first seemed overwhelming conflicts in a bigger perspective. Other embodied disciplines, such as yoga or tai chi, may have a similar effect. However, to overcome conflicts of desire in the longer-term we need to also address fragmentation of meaning and conflict of belief, which are the subjects of the following two sessions.

Some suggested reflection questions:

1. Which kinds of desires do you most often experience as conflicting?

2. How could those desires be integrated?

Suggested further reading

Migglism section 4: ‘Integrating Theory and Practice’ and ‘Meditation’

Middle Way Philosophy 2: The Integration of Desire
For a summary of this book by section see this webpage. For full text see Researchgate.

For discussion of the issues in relation to Buddhism, see The Buddha’s Middle Way 1.e (on the Buddha’s renunciation of asceticism) and 6.c (on craving).