It is astonishing to compare the ancient eastern texts with modern psychology, noting the gap of more than twenty centuries and the diffuse notion that the latter has revolutionized the understanding of man. Modern psychology—scientific, materialistic—limits itself to analyzing a reduced dimension of man, and if we summarize its achievements, we will say that it was responsible for creating and disseminating the idea of an inferior human model. In the Eastern texts, so ancient—and who knows when the tradition dates back to?—the human psychology is presented in a complexity that escapes to modern psychology: man is painted with a much larger dimension. All this for a very simple reason: the ancient Eastern texts were written by wise men who took their masters as a model; modern psychology is written by psychologists and psychiatrists who take their patients as a model. This is why we find in the former a vocabulary full of purification techniques, and in the latter, full of mental diseases.
Tag: philosophy
Nothing Clutters the Mind Like a Fit of Rage
Nothing clutters the mind like a fit of rage. A single and brief angry impulse and the spirit, transformed, completely loses control and concentration. Let it disconnect, cool down, shortcut the action… Buddhists say that a single moment of anger destroys everything that has been accumulated of virtue by a being throughout his multiple existences. In any case, what is certain is that full mental functioning requires calmness and the cold blood of a snake.
There Is No Higher Perception Than That of Impermanence
As it is said in the Mahaparinirvana sutra, there is no higher perception than that of impermanence. By contemplating death,—and near death,—the being drives the lowly dimension out of himself, isolates himself from worldly desires, and precludes the manifestation of pride. Becoming aware of the impermanence of everything on this earth, the ignorance characteristic of the lower human model becomes impossible. Death does not surprise the one who prepares for it and considers each day as the possible last. The perception of impermanence makes the futile unmistakable and prevents the being from moving away from the essential.
Eastern Tradition Emphasizes the Need for a Spiritual Master
The Eastern tradition emphasizes the need for a spiritual master. As if there were a lot of them… But it is remarkable in the Orientals the living notion that there is a component of knowledge that cannot be transmitted through books, that is, something apprehensible only through the very rare direct experience or through revelation from master to disciple. What impresses is the true veneration for the ancestors, for the wise, and furthermore for the maintenance of the tradition of, through a few individuals, establishing a link between very distant generations through knowledge passed on individually to handpicked disciples. Not even the mighty time seems strong enough to break the solid chain that the Orientals have established to transmit the enlightenment of dozens of centuries ago.