PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

Studstill: Cybernetic Approach to Dzogchen 333structs that define the “objects” of attention, thereby reinforcing thoseconstructs and the dualistic mode of experience they help generate. Directedinternally, it involves attention on the internal narrative (and theforms this narrative may take, such as fantasy) and becomes one of theprimary mechanisms regulating evaluative constructs and the self-imagein particular. 42Integral to all of these various processes is an overriding self-obsession,43 reflecting once again the self-reinforcing dimension of the system:the concept/experience of self creates an inevitable sense of vulnerability,which encourages self-obsession and the need to protect the self throughthe processes described above. This in turn reinforces a “self,” exacerbatingthe sense of vulnerability and therefore strengthening attempts to defendthe self in a continuous and self-perpetuating cycle.Evolution through Positive FeedbackTo the extent that safety/meaning is construed according to a conceptualsystem, disconfirmation is inherently threatening and therefore willtend to be suppressed. However, if disconfirmation (stress) crosses acritical threshold, the cognitive system’s ordinary homeostatic mechanismsmay be inadequate to suppress the threat. System organizationtherefore becomes dysfunctional (felt as some form of emotional discomfort)since it is no longer able to maintain a sense of safety or belonging inrelation to self-image or environmental circumstances. In response, thesystem may take one of two courses. Typically, the system will intensifyefforts “to rigidly adhere to dysfunctional patterns in an attempt to accommodatethe crisis without having to actually change.” 44 To preserve itsconstructs, the system may dissociate and close its boundaries even more,either by intensifying constructive processes to support a sense of “personalgrandiosity” or by intensifying inhibiting processes (such as increased“emotional withdrawal”). 45 This initiates the devolution of thesystem into what may eventually become psychopathological states. Theother option is to change constructs—specifically, to evolve one’s understandingof life toward a less conditional, less dualistic perspective. 46 Thistakes place through positive feedback, which reorganizes “the existingconstruct sets to fit the actual stream of sensory experience.” 47 As ErvinLaszlo explains, “Negative-feedback stabilizing cycles give way to positive-feedbackmotivated learning cycles when the input fails to match theconstructs of the system, or matches then insufficiently.” 48Through positive feedback, constructs are allowed to deviate fromtheir steady state in an attempt to evolve a conceptual model that canaccommodate threatening inputs. This deviation may increase chaos andstress within the cognitive system, yet ultimately it makes it possible for