Much has been made of Abraham Maslow's "self-actualizing" person. But my curiosity was drawn to his notion of "innocent cognition" which seemed more profound. Added emphasis appears in red, and my reactions are enclosed in a box: (Note 72)

B-cognition (B for Being) always comes when one has a peak experience, but it may come without a peak experience, and it may come even from a tragic experience. . . . we have to make a differentiation between the two kinds of peak experience and the two kinds of B-cognition. In the first place, there is the cosmic consciousness of Bucke, or of various mystics, in which the whole of the cosmos is perceived and everything in it is seen in relationship with everything else, including the perceiver. . . .

This is one kind of peak experience, one kind of B-cognition, and must be sharply differentiated from the other kind in which fascination occurs, and in which there is an extreme narrowing of consciousness down to the particular percept, for example, the face or the painting, the child or the tree, etc., and in which the rest of the world is totally forgotten and in which the ego itself is also totally forgotten. . . .

This cut-down and narrowed fascination is very much like the Japanese concept of muga. This is the state in which you are doing whatever you are doing with a total wholeheartedness, without thinking of anything else, without any hesitation, without any criticism or doubt or inhibition of any kind whatsoever. It is a pure and perfect and total spontaneous acting without any blocks of any kind. This is possible only when the self is transcended or forgotten. . . .

Cosmic consciousness arises with epiphanies when I am engulfed by "the presence" of the larger realm beyond. An extreme narrowing of consciousness characterized by spontaneous action describes the state of being that flows from The Intuitive Self. Spending time with my granddaughter would elicit this experience. She was so naturally there, it was difficult not to fall in with her rhythm.

From such considerations, it's clear that we psychologists cannot accept the concrete perception as the only truth, or the only good, and that we cannot accept abstraction as only a danger. We must remember the description of the self-actualizing person as able to concrete and also as able to abstract, as the situation calls for; and also we must remember that he is able to enjoy both. . . .

What I call the "Tai Chi Dancer" expresses this ability. He stands with one foot firmly planted in the rational realm and the other as firmly settled in the intuitive. From this stance, he gracefully moves with corresponding emphasis on one foot or the other appropriate to the situation.

. . . the concrete perception of the child and his ability to perceive suchness is definitely not the same as the concrete perception and the suchness perception of the self-actualizing adult. . . . He is innocent because he is ignorant. This is very, very different from the "second innocence" or the "second naiveté" as I have called it, of the wise, self-actualizing, old adult who knows the whole of the D-realm, . . . he is able to see the B-realm, to see the beauty of the whole cosmos, in the midst of all the vices, contentions, tears, and quarrels. Through defects, or in defects, he is able to see perfection. . . .

To experience a pile of garbage with the same sense of wonder as a dew-glistened rose would testify to my understanding that all is a manifestation of the implicate order in the explicate order of my senses. Such knowledge is native to The Intuitive Self which knows that the Tao embraces all without judgement.

This adult innocence or "self-actualizing innocence" probably overlaps with, or maybe even is synonymous with, the unitive consciousness in which "B" (the realm of Being) is fused and integrated with "D" (the realm of deficiencies). . . . This is quite different from the B-cognition of the child who yet knows nothing of the world and had better be said to have ignorant-innocence. . . .

The only possible alternative for the human being is to understand the possibility of going on ahead, growing older, going on ahead to the second naiveté, to the sophisticated innocence, to the unitive consciousness, to an understanding of B-cognition so that it is possible in the midst of the D-world. Only in this way can the D-world be transcended, only by real knowledge and only by growth. . . .

My adult innocence returns as I recover my connection with The Intuitive Self in full light of the knowledge of the world with all its flaws, betrayals, trials and tribulations. Truth lies in the moment not in my analysis of the past or prognostications about the future.

The B-realm must be seen through the D-realm. I would add that it can be seen in no other way since there isn't any B-realm in the geographical sense of being on the other shore someplace, or being quite different from the world, being something other than it, something not-world in the Aristotelian sense. There is only the world, only one world, and the business of fusing "B" and "D" is really a matter of being able to retain both the "D" and "B" attitudes toward the one world. . . .

This directly evokes the metaphor of the Tai Chi Dancer with one foot firmly planted in both the "B" and "D" realms. The swaying motions of the dancer follow the cosmic song of The Intuitive Self. The Meditator in the World learns to be in the world but not of the world.

If one expects nothing, if one has no anticipations or apprehensions, if in a certain sense there is no future, because the child is moving totally "here-now," there can be no surprise, no disappointment. One thing is as likely as another to happen. This is "perfect waiting," and spectatorship without any demands that one thing happen rather than another. There is no prognosis. And no prediction means no worry, no anxiety, no apprehension or foreboding.

This is all related to my conception of the creative personality as one who is totally here-now, one who lives without the future or past. Another way of saying this is: "The creative person is an innocent." An innocent could be defined as a grown person who can still perceive, or think, or react like a child. It is this innocence that is recovered in the "second naiveté," or perhaps I will call it the "second innocence" of the wise old man who has managed to recover the ability to be childlike.

Innocence on the behavioral side, is unselfconscious spontaneity when absorbed or fascinated; i.e., lack of self-awareness, which means loss of self or transcendence of it. Then behavior is totally organized by fascination with the interesting world outside the self, which then means "not trying to have an effect on the onlooker," without guile or design, without even being aware that one is an object of scrutiny. The behavior is purely experience and not a means to some interpersonal end.

Being around my granddaughter's spontaneous relationship with the world nourished my still burning flame that once connected with experience in that same way. Her presence reminded me of the undemanding witness who responds to the world as pure experience. What now lived in her had once lived in me. Being around her kindled hope that way of being was once again possible. But it meant I must trans-integrate the B- and D-realms through the auspices of The Intuitive Self.

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