by Tom
Our ‘core beliefs’ are a central theme of Joko’s posthumous collection of essays.[1] As she explains, they originate in our childhood, they are not true, and they are always negative, i.e. some version of ‘I feel worthless’. The concept evidently originates with the influential psychologist Aaron Beck, who posited that
Beginning in childhood, people develop certain beliefs about themselves, other people and the world. Their most central or core beliefs are understandings that are so fundamental and deep that they often do not articulate them, even to themselves. These ideas are regarded by the person as absolute truths, just the way things ‘are’.
Such beliefs, he maintained, ‘tend to surface during times of psychological distress [and] people will tend to see only the information which supports the core belief.’ They tend to be ‘associated with helplessness and unloveability’. [2]
Joko suggests that the action we take in response to our core belief constitutes our ‘basic strategy’. Using herself as an example, she says,
Someone like me would say I absolutely can’t do it, so therefore I will do everything I can to do it well. It looks much better from the standpoint of the world, but it’s not really any better. So, I was good at everything I did. I made sure of that because that was the only way I could handle the fear underneath.[3]
In my own case, when labelling my thoughts I have always been conscious that my dominant mode is ‘planning mind’. I now see this as being a ‘strategy’ to confront my own perceived shortcomings – If I can plan for all contingencies and not leave anything to chance, then I can compensate for my sense of not being good enough. And when my chosen strategy fails to mould the world to my desires, my perceived sense of inadequacy is only reinforced, and I berate myself, thinking ‘why do you always screw things up?’.
Joko proposes a practice for dealing with this self-inflicted turmoil. It boils to four steps:
- Identify the core belief and become aware of your strategy for dealing with it.
- Avoid jumping to solutions.
- Acknowledge the sensation, ‘experientially staying with the pain that’s at the base of that belief’.[4]
- Surrender: Borrowing a phrase laden with discomfort from the French psychiatrist Hubert Benoit, she advises us to ‘rest on the icy couch’ , not only recognising the sensation but to stay, shivering, with that sensation through our practice of zazen.[5]
Brrrr ….