Inner Peace & Harmony based on Paul MacLean's "Triune Brain"

In the hectic world we live in, it is not unusual to have a yearning for inner peace and harmony. But, while wishing for it, we can also be weary about it. The image many of us have of inner peace is of distancing ourselves from "the world", giving up on striving and going ahead to just be contented with what we have. Moralists would say that the solution is to become a better person, and many of us would answer: “Sure, I will one day, but not today; I'm not quite ready yet to renounce being engaged in the world.”

I would like to suggest a different definition of inner peace, one that is not based on stopping to strive, but is based on finding harmony within ourselves. Before I get to that, I need to make a little detour, and describe how our brains work.

A widely accepted model is that our brains consist of three "layers", so to speak. The first one is often called the "reptilian brain" because it is the one we share with our least advanced ancestors: it accounts for the basic functions of life. The second layer is one that evolved with mammals; it provides, among other things, for affect and relatedness. The third layer is one that is much more developed in humans than in any other animal, and it is the one that, among other things, gives us our ability to think.

The scientist who first developed this theory of the "triune brain", Paul MacLean, recently died. In his obituary, I saw a quote from an article he had written about violence and conflict in the world.

Dr. MacLean wrote that “language barriers among nations present great obstacles…. But the greatest language barrier lies between man and his animal brains; the neural machinery does not exist for intercommunication in verbal terms.”

In other words, within our own brain, we have different systems that each have their own way of perceiving and understanding the world outside. Most important, these systems use different "languages", which makes communication between them that much more difficult.

We experience a sense of conflict when we try to make sense of one "system" with the language of another. For instance, if we try to fit the "gut feelings" and “felt senses” of our mammalian brain within the rigid mold of logic of our neo-cortical brain, we come to a dead end. These tend to be processed in an "implicit" (as opposed to "explicit") mode.

What I'd call harmony is our ability to flow from one mode to another. To accept these as different sources of information, without trying to shoehorn them into one mold. Then, we can experience a sense of integration without having to come to a standstill in order to find peace.

How do we cultivate such harmony? In a paradoxical way, the crises in our lives, in our work, and in our relationships are wonderful gateways. Dealing with difficult issues or difficult decisions is an opportunity to pay more attention to the information we get from our emotional and rational sides, and this is a skill that stays with us the rest of our lives.

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