Given that we understand what thoughts are in our previous post, we are also interested in how we use thought to our advantage and who are interested in diving deeper into the human psyche. Obviously, I’m interested in this topic because I wanted to learn about myself.
The thoughts generated in our minds have been captivating our interest for many millennia now. Therein, rise a handful of interested parties that devote themselves to this endeavor in an attempt of understanding its totality.
They bear various names, come from different disciplines, and periods in history but their sole interest is to understand the inner workings of the mind. It’s either to further understand themselves or find out why human beings function the way they do.
By doing so, the knowledge can be used to either help or exploit themselves or others.
They are Buddhists, philosophers, psychologists, psychiatrists, politicians, marketers, PR specialists, journalists, economists, influencers, YouTubers, etc. Basically. anyone who is interested in how a human thinks and makes decisions.
Physical Existence
Looking from the perspective of our physical existence, once the body is gone then the mind be no more as it needs a healthy and living brain to function. The “I”, “Ego”, or “Soul” are concern about itself to the dangers of the world.
We evolve from surviving wild beasts and mother nature to modern-day office politics. Survival is the key to every living beings. After all, the smartest and most cunning animals can survive the longest to produce offspring.
We’ve been quite successfully become the dominant species on earth by using technologies to further our continuous domination on nature (Not good as we’re now feeling its effects due to climate change). However, we still feel vulnerable not just physically but psychologically.
Our minds is always incessantly searching for potential danger (real or imagined), furiously avoiding the unknowns, and constantly making sure everything is secured. It constantly seeks permenancy, order, and stability within ourselves and outside of us.
Psychological
We start to look at ourselves seriously when we felt like there is inconsistency. Like thoughts in our head does not match reality. A sudden shock to our reality is enough to begin questioning. It could be being fired, sudden death of a loved one, an unexpected event happen, financial meltdown, or war.
Any stressful event can cause internal conflicts and the mind will begin to seek answers through rationalization or inventing ways to explain what had happened away. After all, we all want consistency in our story and something convenient to tell others.
These stressor events causes altered mental states as listed below. Trying in haste to resolve the internal conflicts in order to restore stability. As it question itself, “Surely, there is a reason able explanation to all these misery and suffering that I go through.”.
- depression
- distress
- stress
- cognitive dissonance
- sorrow
- sadness
- shock
- fear
It’s the same thing when a person suddenly want to seek God and join a religion in hope to understand what is the meaning of life.
After coming out on the other end, some may found God or Truth. The thing is are these real or do they just found another human construct then repurposing them as their own? One should go deep to find out.
Looking Inward
In order to go far, we should start near. Most of us know very little of ourselves and do not venture beyond what is known. We might know our name, work, and family tradition but are usually very hesitant to ask what are we afraid of, find pleasure in, pain points, and desires. From there, to dig even deeper into the source.
There exist a bunch of authors to ask us to go within like Alan Watts, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Buddha, Dogen, Lao Tzu, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Carl Jung.
Through their works, it enables us to peer into our minds and society as a whole. So, we could find out the truth of the matter. To bring us nearer to the ground of reality and put things in their rightful place.
So to speak, to remove the wool from our mind’s eyes. Thus, seeing things for what they are rather than what we thought they are or what others say they are. Through using our intelligence to see the world for what it is and discern things thoroughly.
Thus, the path to gaining self-knowledge is paramount if we are serious about understanding ourselves.
Were Anything Worthwhile Shown?
Alan Watts weaves a very entertaining story through the lens of eastern religions and philosophies with his Christian background on how human thoughts expanded and change through time.
Carl Jung derives his works through his practice as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst that gives us analytical psychology which we know as collective unconscious, anima & animus, the shadows, archetypes, etc to help us understand ourselves and society at large.
Guatama Buddha a Buddhist who reformed Hinduism and gave us psychotherapy 1.0 in a dialectic way of question and answer from a student asking the master. Buddhism is great but it sounds very cryptic and ambiguous to a modern audience.
Jiddu Krishnamurti’s (Krishnaji) ways are similar to Buddha’s method. It’s more easily relatable to modern humans with the contexts and references he uses for personal inquiry.
Ultimately, he asks us to dig within ourselves without using any religion or philosophy as a guide to finding what is the truth of the matter. It can be a hard thing to do if we do not unlearn some of the bad habits, thought patterns, values that we grown to attached since our childhood.
Take Away
In the next post, I explore the other side of the coin of influence, exploitation and manipulation of the mind.