Latest / Gabriel Ellis, PhD | The Curious Mind Podcast / I judge therefore I am - Hegel, Buddha, Existentialism

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I judge therefore I am - Hegel, Buddha, Existentialism · Gabriel Ellis, PhD | The Curious Mind Podcast

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  Hello and welcome to another episode of the Curious Mind
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  podcast. My name is Gabriel Ellis, I'm a
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  psychotherapist Buddhist scholar and a researcher in
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  consciousness. And today I want to expand on a
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  topic that I hear people talking about quite often in self
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  development and also in spirituality, which is a kind of
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  a dogma not to judge and to perceive things as they are.
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  So in personal development, in spiritual circles and even in
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  psychotherapy and couples therapy, people often speak of
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  this non not judging and instead to accept things as they are or
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  to perceive things without making judgements.
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  This approach is meant to promote healthy development, to
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  avoid mental rigidity, to avoid harmful emotions and egocentric
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  triggers. And so it makes quite, quite a
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  lot of sense to try to pursue this goal when you begin
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  personal and therapeutic growth, such as vice.
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  To refrain from judgement can really be helpful.
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  And for many people it is difficult, when they start to
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  observe their own thoughts, to withdraw from, to abstain from
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  judging themselves harshly, for example.
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  So in that sense it is very valid.
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  However, if you try to strictly adhere to it in detail in the
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  everyday life and in moment to moment mind observation, you
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  will notice that it does not work.
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  Time and again we find ourselves evaluating, criticizing, or
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  judging ourselves, other people or society, or the world as a
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  whole. The reason for this is not
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  merely a lack of effort, which often enough is also the case.
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  It lies in the nature of the mind itself.
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  And in this video I describe a deeper understanding of this
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  problem so that hopefully you won't set yourself unrealistic
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  expectations for yourself or see yourself or others as spiritual
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  or psychological failures. My main point, in short, is that
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  the mind must judge. It can do no other.
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  The challenge lies in explaining how psychological and spiritual
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  growth can still occur despite this.
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  To explore why the mind must judge, I will draw primarily on
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  Hegel and Buddhist theory, starting with Hegel to put his
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  program, his understanding, simply.
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  For Hegel, the Spirit does his main entity.
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  The spirit encompasses everything.
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  It encompasses meta consciousness, society, and the
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  divine, and it is in the nature of the Spirit to strive to
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  understand itself, or in other words, to achieve complete unity
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  with itself. To this end, the spirit
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  undergoes a process of development in many stages, and
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  in this development the human consciousness represents only
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  one intermediate stage. So when you come across theories
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  of Hegel and you see the term or concept of the spirit, don't
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  misunderstand it as something like mind or consciousness.
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  For Hegel's spirit is the unifying entity in existence in
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  general. So in the process of becoming
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  self aware, the spirit starts at the level of nature and matter
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  where it is the furthest from itself, and this is evident in
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  the external separatedness of time and space.
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  These time and space are expressions of the separation of
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  the spirit from itself in time. Events arise and fade without
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  leaving a trace, like quantum fluctuations.
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  Everything is bubbling, appears and disappears and it deprives
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  this time separatedness, deprives the spirit of the
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  opportunity to grasp its own essence because the phenomena
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  just disappear so quickly. And spatial separation objects
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  do coexist, but they are not related to each other.
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  So this separatedness that is the main feature of physical,
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  material nature is an expression of how the spirit is still very
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  far from understanding, from being unified with itself.
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  Just because all of these phenomena are so separated in
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  time and space, the spirit begins to relate itself more
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  closely at the levels of life. Living beings relate to
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  themselves by maintaining their physical structures and
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  remembering past events, and at the same time their bodies of
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  the individual. Living beings use reproduction
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  to relate to the species, and so this relation of bodies to
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  themselves, sustaining themselves and the relation of
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  bodies to other bodies of the same species are the first
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  important science of the spirit starting to relate to itself, to
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  develop memory and genes and minds and so forth, so that it
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  develops the capability to relate, to understand, to grasp
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  itself. OK, but even at this primitive
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  level, organisms so lower life beings, mammals, and so on.
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  Organisms make clear value judgments.
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  Living organisms, they use energy to sustain themselves,
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  which inherently involves judgments that prioritize
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  survival and avoid physical disintegration.
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  They avoid pain and suffering. At the species level, there are
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  also judgments. These judgments favor community
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  and high social status while avoiding loneliness and low
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  social standing. And this is the more apparent
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  the higher you go in the development of mammals.
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  So these judgements naturally express the level of the spirit
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  at that particular point. At any point of the every stage
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  of the development of the spirit, there are occurring
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  judgements and values evaluations that are adequate to
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  that particular stage and on that level or stage of simple
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  living beings, judgements and evaluations are instinctive and
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  driven by impulses. At higher levels, where the
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  spirit draws closer to itself, and humans are an example of
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  this, judgements can become more subtle.
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  But one principle again remains. Judgements and evaluations are
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  natural expressions of the stage of the spirit's development.
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  Wherever the spirit is, it will make judgements and evaluations
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  according to that particular stage or level.
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  Coming to Buddhism, the connection between judgement and
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  the level of the mind is even more subtle.
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  The key concept here in Theravada and old historical
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  original Buddhism, the concept is Ayyatana, the translation of
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  which is the home base or the habitat of the mind.
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  Unfortunately, even though this concept is very widely used in
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  the Buddhist texts, the concept is often misunderstood or taken
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  too simply, and so I've written a short article about it which I
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  published and which you'll find LinkedIn the descriptions below.
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  The mind's usual habitat of normal human life is the sensory
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  world, and this is how it's been described in the Buddhist texts.
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  And this includes seeing, hearing all of those senses,
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  including thoughts and concepts. And because the century world is
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  the mind's default home, certain priorities naturally arise, such
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  as the health of the body, the acquisition of power,
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  possessions and influence, and on the other, on the other side,
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  also the fear of losing all of these things.
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  We as human beings are thrown into a life of identification
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  with a body. This is not something that we
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  have chosen. We are coming to this life,
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  we're born into this life. Also the identification with
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  emotions and social status and we automatically develop value
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  judgments based on what is perceived as good or healthy in
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  this normal human life. And from these judgments arise
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  our intentions and our actions. So we are judgmental as human
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  beings as we are born into this normal human life.
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  This mental habitat of the century world naturally gives
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  rise to the human ego and what Nietzsche calls the human all
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  too human, you know, the non idealized, the sober
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  understanding of what drives human life.
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  In Buddhist texts, judgements on this level are said to be based
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  on greed and aversion, and this description may seem overly
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  polemical, but it only emphasizes that people should
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  seek a higher habitat to achieve true balance and true peace.
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  Practically speaking, this means that while also for normal
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  people, a subtle healthy relationship with oneself and
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  others is possible without being too unhealthily judgmental.
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  It requires continuous efforts, self-control, introspection, and
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  a supportive social environment. Which means when stress
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  increases or the favorable favorable conditions disappear,
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  such as income, or when we are left alone, when our partner
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  leaves us, when our health fails us.
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  So when these harsh conditions appear in normal life, the
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  self-control eventually falters and the longing for sensory
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  comfort inevitably gives rise to worry, fear and psychological
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  suffering. And this brings with it all
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  those harsh judgments, all those harsh evaluations that are
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  psychologically and socially unhealthy.
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  So we are born into this world. When we are able to create
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  favorable conditions, then we can have a practice that is
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  based on self-control and those favorable conditions where it
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  seems that we are not overly judgmental.
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  But this is a rather shaky ground.
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  And when the conditions fall away, the favorable conditions,
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  then we fall back to the default of the mental habitat of being
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  in the central world, and we start again to be harshly,
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  unhealthily judgmental towards ourselves and others.
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  And because of this danger, the Buddhist mental development
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  emphasizes the need for the mind for a higher mental home.
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  Now, interestingly, ethical behaviour is seen as necessary
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  but eventually insufficient as a home for the mind.
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  The next secure home base is reached only when one becomes
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  stable in meditation and can reliably enter and remain the
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  state known as jhana. Now this level individuals are
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  no longer attached to the century pleasures and the
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  century well-being the physical well-being, but instead focus on
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  mental purity. So the whole logic changes, the
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  intentions and the evaluations of the mind change, because it
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  has reached and secured a new mental home, the mental home of
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  deep meditation. And in this mental home, what is
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  important is not power and security in all of these
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  criteria of the normal central world, but mental purity.
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  As it should be clear by now, even in these stable meditative
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  states, judgments, evaluations, and intentions do persist, but
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  they are, to repeat, no longer tied to the body, not to the
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  ego, and not to the social world.
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  Instead, they revolve around mental clarity, compassion, and
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  spiritual expansiveness. And this is something that
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  people reliably experience when they're on those higher
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  meditative states. The mind becomes very vast and
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  expansive. Judgements are there, but they
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  become subtler and are guided by understanding the truth about
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  the mind, the truth of the mind and this truth.
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  Another term for this in Buddhist terms is the Dharma is
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  stable by definition. It does not fluctuate with the
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  external circumstances, with socio political circumstances,
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  it remains the same and because of the stability.
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  This is why people who are grounded in truth, they appear
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  calm and steady. Nonetheless they make value
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  judgments. In Buddhism, this judgment
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  seizes only judging at all, seizes only when the mind has no
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  home at all, at any level of consciousness, and this state is
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  achieved only with a complete dissolution of Nirvana or
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  Nirvana. So as long as the mind exists,
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  as long as consciousness exists. Also, from a Buddhist
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  perspective, there must be judgements and value statements,
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  even if they're very subtle on higher stages.
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  So again, from this perspective there is no end of judgements.
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  Judgement is always there, judging is always there.
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  Now Hegel did not anticipate the mental development that occurs
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  and meditation also during his time.
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  His sources of ancient Indian literature were very bad.
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  Many texts have not been discovered yet, or at least we
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  have not reached him at that point.
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  But nonetheless, it fits very well into a system.
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  Deep meditation provides profound insight into the
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  essence of humanity and the essence of the spirit, both
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  within oneself and through empathy with others.
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  If I, in deep meditation, understand my mind in quotes, I
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  understood mind in general, and so I understand the mind and the
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  spirit of other people as well. And in this understanding, the
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  temporal and spatial separations that characterize the mind at
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  the natural state are, in Hegel's terms, sublated or
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  transcended. Because time doesn't matter.
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  If I understood mind, I understood the mind of past
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  people. I understand the mind of people
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  when they emerge in the future. I understood mind or spirit in
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  general. Now this development in Buddhism
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  to reach a new secure home base is very limited.
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  There are very few people who are so advanced in the
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  development of meditation and the mind that they can actually
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  declare a new home base in the higher states of meditation.
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  Most of us who meditate, even when we meditate successfully,
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  we make kind of short trips into this world, but we are not able
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  to be so safe in this that this becomes really the new mental
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  stable, a default place for our mind.
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  So between the century world and the meditation there is
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  fortunately an intermediate stage accessible to many more
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  people. And this is the level of virtues
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  in Western philosophy. These virtues were first
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  articulated by Plato as arete, a better translation as
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  excellence, and later these very virtues were integrated into
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  Christianity as the cardinal virtues.
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  There are four of them, moderation, courage, justice,
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  and wisdom. Christianity added three
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  theological virtues to those. Classic 41 is the faith in God.
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  Second is the hope in the hope for the eternal life after death
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  and selfless love. Now people in virtues Orient
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  themselves towards truth that are as independent as possible
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  from current circumstances. So again, when we ground
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  ourselves in virtues, we are grounding oneself in some aspect
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  of truth, and this truth, when we achieve the stability in
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  that, is independent from external circumstances.
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  You know what is courageous, what is moderate, what is
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  intelligent, is relatively independent from everyday life
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  experiences or how socio political circumstances change.
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  And so people rooted in virtues Orient towards themselves,
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  towards these truths. In this value, in this virtue
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  orientation, judgments do still occur, but the focus less on
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  superficialities like appearance, wealth or power, and
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  more on qualities such as bravery or justice or wisdom.
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  However, without deep insight into the mind's purity as it is
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  achieved in experience, in meditation, even when we Orient
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  ourselves towards virtues, there's always a risk of
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  slipping into the shadow side of worldly truths.
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  And this shadow side is dogmatic extremism.
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  And no matter which form it takes, this extremism can be
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  religious extremism, can be conspiracy theories, or it can
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  be a condescending Western materialism.
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  In all of these cases, because it is superficially taken,
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  because it's not founded on deep inside into the mind, people
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  think that their truths are the real truths.
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  And so they start to protect and defend and try to convince
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  others of their truths. And when other people come with
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  their truths, then they are dangerous and have to be
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  disarmed. And so again, the whole you know
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  what what the purpose was of basing oneself's on the
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  stability of virtues. Can slip into its shadow side
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  and then become again a game of egos.
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  So even though it is, it has many healthy aspects.
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  It is important to keep in mind that the orientation towards
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  virtues has a shadow side, and I have described the shadow sides
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  and some other details about the virtue and value orientation in
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  my videos, which you can find linked below.
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  Now, until the mind achieves unity with itself according to
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  Hegel or ultimate dissolution of Nirvana and Buddhism, we must
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  continue to judge and strive. There's no way around it.
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  We just have to try to not let our judgements become overly
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  egocentric or harmful to ourselves or others.
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  Now, existentialists like Nietzsche, Heidig, and Sartre
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  emphasize that if we are to Orient ourselves by values and
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  virtues, we must develop our own understanding of them, at least
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  our own worldview, our own personality, and our
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  understanding. And this seems to be a truth
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  that has stood the test of time. Virtue orientation has been
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  recommended since antiquity and the Middle Ages.
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  But in order to make them really work for us, in order to get far
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  away from the shadow sides of the extremism of dogmas and, you
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  know, our own personal truths, we have to make them our own.
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  And by making them our own, we understand that virtue
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  orientation is something precious, is something that I
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  cannot convince others of. What I can do is I can support
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  others to find their own way in the labyrinths of virtues, of
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  what courage means to them, of what moderation means to them,
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  of what intelligence means to them.
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  And so I become less thematic about it because I understand
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  that in order for it to be truly meaningful, people have
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  developed to develop them on their own.
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  And this does align with Hegel's descriptions and experiences
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  from meditation, where old challenges to mental clarity
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  must repeatedly be approached anew, so that those truths of
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  the development of the Spirit or the depth of meditation becomes
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  fresh and new again and again. Now keeping in mind those
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  principles, in my own psychotherapeutic work, I often
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  re examine seemingly psychological principles with my
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  clients. I mean our kind of the spirit of
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  the time. The zeitgeist is full of
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  psychological ideas, full of ideas of ideas of what healthy
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  life a handle mental healthy mental life is.
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  You know what red flags are self love, mindfulness, non
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  judgmental attitudes. All of these are permeating the
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  common understanding of what healthy mental development is,
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  but unless we really investigate it in detail, we fail to grasp
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  the meaning of it to ourselves, and then it remains superficial.
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  So this is what I do very often in my psychotherapeutic work.
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  I go through these concepts that people understand, have values,
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  but they don't know how to apply it to themselves.
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  How do I say no at work? How do I maintain healthy
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  boundaries? At the beginning these are just
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  slogans and it has to be filled with life.
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  Not by an authority, a therapist or a book or you know, self help
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  guide. But this is something that
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  people have to find and re examine by themselves so that it
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  makes sense for them. If you are interested in such a
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  work, if you would like to pick up that work with me, you will
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  find a link in the description below for a free discovery call.
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  And maybe beyond that, you would like to continue to work with me
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  at least for a while, in order to get an understanding of these
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  processes that you can then develop for yourself.
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  I hope you liked this content. If you're interested, then stay
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  tuned for the next episode. I tried to post them every two
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  weeks. And until then, I wish you all
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  the best and see you next time.