Field Notes
by Dr. Avraham Cohen, PhD, RCC-ACS, CCC

Welcome to my first Field Note for 2023. My very great good wishes to all of you for the coming year. May you discover yourself increasingly and experience ever deepening understanding of life—your life, and life as a whole. And perhaps, just as importantly, increasing discovery as to what you do not know, clues about what you may indeed never know, and how to live fully into the valuable experience of not knowing. Read Field Note

What I am offering you in this Field Note is a way of engaging the world: at least your personal and known world, and your creative and imaginal experience of life—your life. In the example that I am sharing with you here, the content is the dream that I shared with you last month (October Field Note, about eight paragraphs from the beginning, under the heading, “My Dream as I Recall It at This Moment”) in relation to my personal inner work on my own with that dream. Read Field Note

The purpose of this field note is to expand on the possibility of working on your own in your inner world, and hopefully to expand the horizon of generative and creative possibilities for your consciousness and ways of being, and which may imaginatively influence everything in your life. I have chosen to include this Field Note at this time, as I believe it shows a great deal about the philosophy and practices of inner work. While this particular piece of inner work is based on a dream, it is applicable to all life experiences. Read Field Note

I have been reflecting for decades on the role of the unconscious in our experience of being human, namely that which falls outside of our awareness, and my recognition that the unconscious plays an enormous part in our daily life. Indeed, it is a good thing that much of our daily lives is supported to run smoothly by that which is no longer in our awareness. Imagine having to figure out how to open up a tube of toothpaste every time you are about to brush your teeth! Or, even more dramatically, how to walk every time you are about to change locations. Read Field Note

The current Field Note arises out of some thoughts I have had over time and particularly arising from last month’s Field Note. I realized that there was a further conundrum that challenges all of us, and it goes something like the following: “Okay, I have done substantial inner work, and I am aware of and understand many of my egoic selves and their relationships. That is, how these have formed initially as a perceived survival, love-getting effort, which for very young children is an autonomic survival response to challenging situations that are encountered and that over time constitute and grow reified identities. Read Field Note

As most of us have realized, our parents are not very open to being rehabilitated, especially by us, their children. Why am I talking about rehabilitating our parents? Why am I even thinking about such a project? Perhaps you are thinking that I have I run out of juicy topics to address in my Field Note? Not at all! This is entirely for our benefit; us their children. Read Field Note

There is an ancient and well-kept secret to support well-being, which some few seem to know and many do not. The practice itself is quite easy to name and, for most of us, is extremely difficult to practice. In order to truly be a master of this art, the first requirement is that one must be able to see that every statement, action, and reaction of another human being is the sum result of their total life experience to date. That is, the majority of people in our world say and do what they say and do from their own set of wants, perceived needs, longings, hopes, as well as fears, worries, and defenses and attempts to survive. Read Field Note

I will start with a quote from my dad. As you know, I have on previous occasions shared my father’s words that in retrospect have turned out to be small wisdom sayings for me. Of course, I didn’t know when I first heard these utterings as a teenager, or even when I was a young man, that there was a profound value to his humorous expressions. Read Field Note

Perhaps you have heard the not too complementary joke about psychotherapists; that the reason they get into psychotherapy is to solve their own problems. Well, speaking for myself, I can say that this is absolutely 100% true! Furthermore, I think the world would be a better place, if more people would take this approach: namely, seriously taking up studies and practices to resolve their own issues and become more of who they truly and authentically are. We do not have to look very far to see that most of the people we know, and particularly those in leadership positions at all levels, to realize that the way they are dealing with the world and handling (or mishandling or ignoring) problems in the world seems to be an outcome of their own unresolved problems, and is decidedly outwardly focused. Read Field Note

Hello everyone! I am now back from my annual two-month summer retreat/break. This particular break emerged differently for me than most previous ones, and which I will share about in the present Field Note. As well, this Field Note will likely come across as somewhat more philosophical than usual. Read Field Note