ABSTRACT
A set of tools and methods are presented that are motivated by the need for the architectural or urban designer to start on the path of self-knowledge. This chapter presents methods and techniques aimed at achieving a deep understanding of others through self-knowledge and to capture the meaning or spirit present in the nature of the place where you will work. This chapter recognizes that the designer needs to learn to know and understand himself in order to fully understand the processes of perception, cognition and evaluation of the environment, placing himself in the perspective of the users of the spaces that he will design. This chapter presents methods that are a great help to develop skills in the designer, such as creativity, perceptual clarity, intuition, sensitivity to understand and evaluate the behavior of others, knowing in depth the relationships that people build with objects and places and learn to know and interpret the spirit of the place.
For any architect, it is very important to have the possibility of deeply understanding the imaginary, because it is through this structure of being that a fuller knowledge of the people for whom we will work, the problem and the conditions that surround it; knowing these conditions well provides an important help when we seek to design good places to be inhabited, places that are full of meaning and that can “complete” the person, providing lasting support in their process of physical, social, and spiritual growth. Up to this point, we have exposed notes, data, information, and interpretations about the nature of being in place as a complex phenomenal unit, what is stated in the previous chapter serves as the basis for what will be exposed in this one, 268by making it clear that the imaginary can be revealed as the deep substrate of the real, which seems to be involved not only in the psychic but also in the physical, forming an indissoluble unity.
This chapter exposes information that is radically different from what most architects have faced, seen, heard, read or felt, it is about exposing the bases of a phenomenology that starts from a deep exploration of reality understood as a complex unit; for those traditionalist or rigid spirits, this is the time to abandon the reading of this chapter, in fact if you skip reading this will not affect much to the organicity of the book; if the reader decides to continue reading, we warn you that this chapter provides the necessary information to carry out a workshop on what we call “full attention”; the content is organized through exercises and each of these, in the order that they are exposed should not only be read, they have to be put into practice according to the instructions that are explained in each case to be able to understand from a different point of view from the ordinary to what we mean when we say that we must start from a deep knowledge of the real to make architecture; they are exercises that provide skills and knowledge that are cumulative, that is, no step can be suppressed to access the next one. We warn that there is no danger in practice, neither does it conflict with any religious or spiritual belief, the reader must assume from here if he continues to read this chapter, the responsibility for his practice, his learning, and growth. The practice of the exercises set forth in this chapter is not recommended to be carried out by people who have a diagnosed mental disorder or to consume freely or by prescription of a therapist, medications to treat mental health conditions.
This chapter aims to expose a methodology for the investigation of the imaginary through a series of full-attention exercises that we have developed from various teachings of teachers and the interpretation of texts, as well as our own experience and the work we have developed in the workshops we teach at the university as part of the seminars of urban imaginaries and architecture at least from 20 years ago. Through these exercises, we intend to get people to develop various areas of their lives and also different capacities that are useful to work in the field of the subjective and that help a lot to solve research problems that we face, it is about developing a vision of phenomenology that starts from practice; Also, as additional results of these workshops, we have noticed important vital changes in people who have given themselves to a continuous, sincere practice focused on personal growth goals.
In fact, most of the full-attention exercises that we perform consistently and constantly tend to favor us, there is an improvement in physical and mental 269health that has been documented by a large number of researchers (Hjelle, 1974; Ospina et al., 2007; Vieten et al., 2018; Flett et al., 2019), the most widespread benefits of these exercises include a decrease in blood pressure, improvements in memory, decreased physical and emotional stress, relief of anxiety and depression, an improvement in brain functions, increased levels of neurotransmitters, positive changes in brain plasticity, improvement and regularization of sleep cycles, healing of various diseases, development of empathy, among many others. Many areas of life are improved, and over time, people become more assertive, tend much less to self-sabotage or pro-stench and undertake more seriously the challenge of their personal development. These effects have generated very abundant literature on these topics, especially from the introduction of Eastern religious visions and their practices in the West through the work of Asian thinkers who ventured into Europe and America, some even gestating important organizations of dissemination of these ideas (Yogananda, 1946), or who have developed schools of thought with an extensive influence on what is known generically as mindfulness (Thích Nhất, 1991) or have engaged in deep philosophical discussions with Western scientists and thinkers (Krishnamurti, 1996). Other paths by which the visions of the East were taken by Western thinkers who were trained in Eastern disciplines have contributed to a movement of fusion of these ideas with those of Christian mysticism (Jäger, 1986, 2000, 2006); years later, the reflections on these visions of reality arising from the East are still fertile and good adaptations of these thoughts were made for the Western sphere turned into bestsellers (Tolle, 2004; Kabat-Zinn, 2006). This literature has been decanted toward issues of self-improvement and human development due to its great potential to combat the problems that afflict people today, and although a generalization that is not unfair cannot be made, questions about the nature of the transformations that the person experiences when focusing on these practices have been left mostly to the biomedical literature. Especially, the scientific literature specialized in neurosciences has led the answers toward the inquiry into the brain and neurological changes that are experienced.
The philosophical or mystical interrogation has been hidden in a veritable sea of self-help-oriented manuals. What we are looking for when introducing full-attention practices in this book is not exactly to promote this kind of application, there will certainly be effects on each practitioner such as those described in the literature, but what we are looking for above all is that those who perform the exercises can first enter into a deep and sincere contact with themselves that can then lead them toward several paths. For the purposes, 270we pursue in this book, one of the most useful paths to which these practices lead us to do with developing capacities, skills, and sensitivity to deeply understand the behavior, cognitive processes, motivations, and emotions of the people with whom we work; but what we consider a central path is that this practice can be transformed into an authentic laboratory for the study of the imaginary, which allows us to understand the deeper nature of our activity, attitudes, values, and capacities when we face the world; it could ultimately lead us to reflect seriously on the profound nature of reality and the observer. On the other hand and linked to these ends, these practices can have important contributions to developing our personal power and our state of neutrality, key aspects to raise the capacities to actively intervene in the transformation of places, since they provide us with tools that facilitate us to move through states of consciousness different from the usual ones. Investigating other forms of access to reality, different from those we usually use, can be important if our goal is to broaden our perception of things. The goals we pursue with this, first is that of knowledge itself, since opening alternate doors for our perception can allow us to turn our point of view by incorporating other ways of understanding phenomena; with this, we can get to have information that modifies our way of approaching the practice of architecture. Secondly, an expanded perception will allow us to appreciate the other with other elements and tools, which is a good start to begin understanding their experiences deeply.
Although gaining access to other states of consciousness is something that is commonly associated with the consumption of psychoactive substances, many that are provided by power plants, that is, entheogens that have been used for thousands of years by various cultures, in this book, we do not encourage or discuss their use; the techniques that are presented completely dispense with these substances, these are exercises of attention and intention that in effect manage to lead the person toward phenomenological experiences that to a certain extent, are similar to some experiences described by users of power plants. The effectiveness of the exercises that will be described in this chapter has to do with the regularity, sincerity, and depth of the practice. To get this achievement through the use of the full-attention exercises described here implies a strong self-discipline, it is a huge help to have a guide or a teacher to perform the practices, we have excellent teachers, especially, the psychologist Ramiro Figueroa Sánchez has been a powerful guide, to him much of the knowledge and techniques that are described here are owed, of course, with adaptations made to fulfill the specific purposes we pursue; we ourselves, as commented, are in charge of university seminars 271in which we train students in the handling of these techniques and we have achieved remarkable results through sincere and constant practitioners; but in the absence of a guide, what we recommend is that you carefully read the instructions of each practice so that it is about memorizing, this is relatively simple in the first practices but in some the help of a guide is necessary, someone who reads the instructions while the practice is being carried out can be of great support; the reader can alternatively record with his own voice, in a slow and neutral rhythm the instructions to serve as a guide during the exercises. It is not necessary or advisable to accompany the exercises with soft music, you should look for a calm environment, relatively silent, clean, and orderly, with a level of lighting that does not allow you to read a normal text, it is also necessary to have a comfortable chair without armrests preferably. Exercises can be done on everyday clothing, as long as there are no excessive pressures on the skin that can distract during the exercises.
There are several things that must be done in all practices. The position adopted is described as “the position of the pharaoh” in reference to the position held by the colossal seated statue of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel; the person sits in the chair with his back straight and resting on the backrest, places his hands on the legs with his palms down; preferably the exercises should be done without shoes, but if the floor is cold a small carpet can be used, preferably made from a fabric of vegetable fibers; most practices are done with your eyes closed, unless otherwise stated; the breath we use is the so-called “abdominal breathing” is the one that begins with the expansion of the abdomen and then goes toward the rib cage. Breathing is always done by taking and expelling air through the nose, the tip of the tongue should be touching the palate in the area closest to the incisor teeth. At the end of the exercises there is a “closure” in which the person reclines forward until his chest is close to his legs, in that position, the arms are dropped that must try to touch the floor even with the tips of the fingers, and it is better that the whole palm of the hand touches the floor, but you do not have to force the position, it should be done in complete relaxation; in the same position, the head is left to hang downwards, ensuring that there is no tension in the neck; this position is called “balance,” it is important because the change in the state of consciousness implies a change in biophysical energy that must be compensated by “landing” to return to the normal state of consciousness; this position is preserved for a prudent time (between 5 and 20 s) and even after it has been thrown away, you can open your eyes. There are people who due to their age or physical impediments cannot balance in the usual position, in those cases, the return to the normal state of consciousness is done by 272reclining the head forward without effort and without pain, as if letting it only hang for about 10 s while shaking the hands outwards (with a slight turn in pronation) without exaggerating the effort on about four or five occasions; after this, you can open your eyes.
