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Hegel and Buddhism in dialogue: Meditation · Gabriel Ellis, PhD | The Curious Mind Podcast

0:03
Hello everyone, my name is Gabriel Ellis, I'm a
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psychologist, A psychotherapist and a Buddhist scholar, and in
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this podcast I usually take a deeper look at psychological
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topics, sometimes spiritual matters of self development.
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And I try to show the obstacles and the problems that come
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inevitably with a simple look at these topics and try to give a
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more realistic perspective on the difficulties that we
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encounter when we want to go deeper.
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Today I want to go deep indeed with a mapping of the philosophy
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of Hegel against the Buddhist concept of meditation and
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especially Vipassana or inside meditation.
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Now in order to take this look, I cannot start completely at the
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beginning, neither with Hegel nor with Vipassana meditation.
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So I encourage you to look at articles, YouTube videos, books
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that give you a proper introduction both about the idea
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and the teachings and the practice and the matter of
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Hegel. You can consult both Wikipedia
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and also more thorough treatments online by scholars
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who are desperately needed in order to get a clearer view.
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Because the philosophy of Hegel is even though I'm a big fan,
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but it's more difficult to penetrate.
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He had his own his own language and some of the concepts are
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also unfamiliar, so and it needs good translators in order to get
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a good idea of them. Now let's start with the
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Vipassana meditation. Again, I'm simplifying both, so
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forgive me if it doesn't cover all the details and nuances.
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Vipassana meditation is called insight meditation because
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ideally as a result of this practice we gain insight both
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into ourselves, our biography, our life and personality, but
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also into more unpersonal or transpersonal abstract insights
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into the mind and the world as a whole, hopefully leading to some
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sort of liberation. Or if you are among the lucky
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few, then we pass on. I supposed to lead to a full
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Buddhist liberation as well. Now how does it look like?
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Usually we sit on our cushion and we get the instruction to
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look at the phenomena just as the arise and pass away and
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inside. Meditation usually emphasizes
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two of the major Buddhist concepts.
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One is impermanence and the other one is the so-called not
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self. The impermanence aspect in
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Inside Meditation appears in the extreme short life of the
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appearances as they occur, which is usually called the arising
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and falling, the arising and disappearing of experiences,
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sense impressions and so on. It can be sensory information,
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like before the inner eye, something that comes up, a
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visual, a visual stimulus. It can be a sound that we hear.
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It can be a thought, it can be a short feeling, the awareness of
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the mood. So anything basically that is in
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the repertoire of the mind can come up, can come up.
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But the nature of impermanence creates a very short duration in
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the mind. Now how does that occur?
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Because usually yes, we are quite used to things changing
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also rapidly in the mind. But this is not what the
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principle of impermanence in the context of Vipassana meditation
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is. This extreme short duration of
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sense impressions in the mind and a successful Vipassana
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meditation comes from a highly developed skill of non
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attachment. What that means is that whenever
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we perceive something in our mind, be it a memory feeling,
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some thought that we develop according to the Buddhist
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practice, whenever they remain more than a few split seconds,
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let's say anything that is beyond the duration of a tenth
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second or something like that is artificially alive in our mind.
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Artificially means it's not due its own nature, that it persists
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due its own nature. All those sense impressions, all
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those experiences come up very quickly and fall away or fall
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apart very quickly. What keeps them alive?
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And what gives us, in normal life, the impression of the
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continuum where one idea, thought, memory, anything of
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that sort basically leads to another, another in in a flow of
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exchanging events in the mind. What let's this arise is an
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attachment, or to put it in more everyday language, an interest,
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a motivation, an investment in some sort of some sort, in this
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particular content. Something that annoyed me,
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something that I'm interested in to pursue.
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Something that I want to plan for, something that I want to
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avoid. Anything like that.
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Joy, displeasure. Anything that catches my
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interests or keeps me obsessed or keeps me invested for
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whatever psychological reason, is an artificial increase of the
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lifetime of the duration of a certain content in my mind.
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So, for example, I went to the city the bus was as the bus
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stop. The bus driver saw me.
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I was running to get the bus. They the bus.
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Bus travel still closed. The door drives off.
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This is something that occupies my mind and it pops up during
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the day, fuels revenge fantasies, fuels anger,
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frustration, all those sorts of reflections of memory.
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My preparation of what I would do next.
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My thought about should I write a letter?
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And of course all those different events in daily life,
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beat, work, beat, relationship, family, children, hobbies,
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everything is A to do, everything has an emotional
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impact. And this, Simply put, guarantees
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my interest, my investment. And this investment is, in
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Buddhist terms, an expression of my attachment with this topic
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with a certain outcome, and that keeps, keeps it longer than
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necessary in the mind. When we practice Vipassana and
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we become more proficient with that, we see that the duration,
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especially when it goes well so to speak, that the duration of
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those events in the mind become shorter and shorter.
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We catch ourselves entertaining thoughts, being interested, even
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though we sat on the cushion, wanting to switch off, wanting
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to let go. But this is our unconscious.
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We are not fully in control of our faculties, our mental
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faculties. So the unconscious comes in,
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assumes that we're still interested, rightly so, and
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keeps the expression in the mind, the experience, the
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thought alive longer. OK, but again, Buddhist theory?
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Practice theory. If we're successful in Vipassana
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meditation, we experience it as a very short duration of the
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sense impressions in our mind. The 2nd aspect is not self.
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The non attachment that I already mentioned directly goes
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into that concept of not self. From the Buddhist perspective,
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we are invited by our unconscious tendencies to stay
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interested, attached, to identify ourselves with certain
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aspects of our life, but that we are actually not that.
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It's a it's an illusion, it's a lie that has psychological
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reasons. But in fact, when we again
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successfully practice Buddhism or we pass in our meditation
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specifically, then things do appear in our mind, but they are
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like clouds in the sky. We are unattached.
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They have the lifetime, their duration, the go away.
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I don't cling and so they come and go because I'm not attached,
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because I see them at not as not self.
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Both consciously and also unconsciously they disappear
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just as quickly as they came. So we pass on a meditation very
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directly connects to those fundamental both Buddhist
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aspects of impermanence and not self.
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Now I talked about what successful bipassana meditation
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looks like. If I'm not successful, and most
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people are not, how does that look like?
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Anyone of you who has the experience of doing meditation
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on a cushion will be familiar with this small exception.
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If people are used to guided meditations, they more often
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have the feeling of a success, but this is mostly due to trans
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effects, by being kept basically invested emotionally through the
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voice that is guiding me. So there is a bias in the
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experience. But when people practice on
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their own, without a guide, without a voice that keeps them
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going, then they quickly come to the limitations of their
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everyday approach to their mind. So they're frustrated quickly
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whether we pass in our practice. Why?
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Because they simply are unable to achieve this ideal of being
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unattached and letting things go quickly, again and again.
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I find myself trapped in daydreams and cultivating
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thoughts and developing them. And only after a while, after
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sometimes 10 minutes, people wake up, kind of, and realize
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that they were not there, that they were gone, that they were
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absorbed in this thought or fantasy.
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Another problem is that people have some sort of a an emotional
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journey that keeps them glued to their experience.
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People can be very tired, and it might not be a succession of
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ideas, thoughts, fantasies, emotions, and so on, but it
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feels like a blank. But it's not.
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It's more heavy. It's lethargic, so it's kind of
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a dreamless, almost sleep kind of state connected with mental
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tiredness or physical tiredness. So we encounter all kinds of
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problems when we sit on a cushion.
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And it needs diligence, interest, time, motivation,
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skill, sometimes also intellectual skill to develop
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the practice of the past. Meditation.
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Now if it works there are certain effects that come
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benefits. So not only the immediate effect
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of experiencing the impermanence and the non self, but it comes
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along with a sense of purification and lightness.
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The mind becomes pliable, fresh and light.
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As I mentioned, insights may occur.
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Insights into who I am and why I act as I act maybe sometimes
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regret or wanting to develop to become a better person for the
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people around me. And sometimes it can be more
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impersonal. Insights, for example, into the
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Buddhist framework, into the Buddhist teaching, into the
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mind. All of these are direct benefits
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of the meditation practice, of the Vipassana practice,
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particularly if we don't do anything of that sort, any way
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of being meditation or through other tools, purification and
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emptying, becoming light in the mind.
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What happens with in our lifetime with as a direct result
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of experiencing and living with the years?
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The mind becomes heavier. It becomes heavier because it
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has no it is acquiring experiences again and again.
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It is trying to figure out life, which means how to increase
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pleasure, satisfaction, calmness, how to decrease
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challenges, problems, emotional problems, pain, mental pain,
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socio, economic stress, and so on.
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The mind is constantly trying to figure these things out.
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This is directly connected to the programming that we have
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that is basically baked into our mind and our consciousness.
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And because we none of the experiences basically goes to
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waste in our mind, we always imply it in the next
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contemplation. So if I ended the relationship
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for example, I want to make sure that the next relationship is
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better than the last one. So I am invested.
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I am encouraged to keep everything in mind that happened
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in the last relationship so that the next one is better.
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And this is just a very simple example.
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This happens, this carrying the luggage.
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The heaviness of the past, of the past experiences is not only
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in key moments, not only in life events, but basically happens at
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every moment, again and again and again.
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So with time the burden of the experiences of the learned
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lessons becomes heavier and heavier.
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So we have an archive that we carry around and that archive
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that is trying the balance balancing act again and again
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becomes heavier. Hence the need to become light,
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switch off, distract ourselves either in an unhealthy way,
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drugs, alcohol is something that many people use on a daily basis
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to alleviate themselves, or we do it in a more healthy way, in
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a structured way, starting from simple things like the physical
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body with sports with bodily awareness and two more advanced
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things like philosophy, practice, meditation practice,
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be Buddhist, be another advanced practice that we can do.
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So there is a direct positive effect of a successfully applied
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meditation practice in our life. Good.
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So that was my roundup of Vipassana meditation.
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Let's come to the other part that I want to relate it to,
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which is the philosophy of the German philosopher Eagle.
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Eagle died in 19, I'm sorry, in 1831.
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So it's he. His main work has been done at
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the beginning of the 90th century.
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He was a philosopher of many fields, but in our in our case,
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most importantly, he was a philosopher of psychology.
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What is important about him, He built a system of philosophy.
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He built a system of the mind which is allows us to basically
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create a map, a map of detailed steps, how the mind develops and
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so we can position ourselves and our experience within this map.
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And this is what I want to do today, to relate the Buddhist
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vipassana experience to the map of Hegel and to derive some more
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understanding from that. Hegel's main point was to
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develop an understanding of the spirit.
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The Spirit for him is the foundational substance for the
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lack of a better word of everything.
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So the Spirit is not only something mental, the Spirit
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underlies also nature. In fact, for Hegel, the spirit
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is the essence of the world that wants to reveal itself to
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itself. What does it mean?
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It means that, for example, before consciousness, when
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there's just nature, the spirit exists in the form of nature,
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for example, but it doesn't know itself.
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And the reason why Hegel thinks there is a tendency in nature to
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develop life and develop consciousness and higher
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consciousness is precisely because there is an innate
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innate need in the Spirit to become aware of itself, so that
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it goes full circle, so that it can in the end be itself for
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itself, but also know itself as itself, so that it becomes a
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grand fulfillment, basically of its own nature.
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This is the idealism there. It's also called monism because
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it tries to derive all of existence from one principle,
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which is the principle of the Spirit.
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And this was popular for a relatively short time around the
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time of Hegel. There were some other
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philosophers before him. Fichter basically started with
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that approach. A friend of Hegel, Schelling was
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another philosopher who developed this way of thinking.
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What is special about Hegel is the precision and the detail in
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which he dedicated his philosophy to the development of
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mind. So this is what attracts me as a
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philosophical psychologist, and I think that it has been
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underused both in philosophy, in psychology, in the development
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of artificial intelligence, and I hope to contribute at least a
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little bit to make Hegel's ideas more interesting to a
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contemporary audience. So spirituality as we understand
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it is baked into Hegel's system, and in that sense it's quite
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revolutionary at our time, at sorry at his time, but also for
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our times as well. What I want to focus on today is
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to focus on the first four steps of the development of
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consciousness. Again, the spirit for Hegel is
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something entirely different. There are many, many more stages
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in the development of the Spirit, but at some point when
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in nature it starts to develop and then develops life, then we
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have the the four stages in which the mind and consciousness
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develop. And this is where I want to set
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in. The first stage in the
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development of the mind for Hegel is.
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What he calls natural consciousness.
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The natural consciousness includes a concept of the soul,
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which I would mainly translate as the unconscious.
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Of course, not the unconscious in the Freudian sense, but in
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the unconscious in the sense that consciousness has not
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developed yet. Natural consciousness is a stage
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where all the mental activity is clumped together into a
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distinctionless, unseparated, undifferentiated mass held
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together by impressions, emotions, moods.
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And at this stage, the mind is still overwhelmed with the
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quality and the fabric of emotions.
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There is no distinction yet everything is a mess.
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It's like a field where everything exists at the same
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time. There is no capacity, basically,
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to do anything for a subject. There is no distinction.
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Yet what is important here, and also foundational for the
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understanding of Hegel's spirit. The spirit strives for freedom,
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one of the essential qualities of the spirit.
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When it more and more realizes itself, it more and more
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realizes the principle of freedom.
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So for Hegel, spirit is intrinsically connected with
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freedom and in this stage of natural consciousness where
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everything is clumped together, there is a very essential non
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freedom. What is the non freedom on the
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stage? At this stage, the non freedom
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is that 2 phenomena are clumped together.
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One is the ability to perceive, the ability to sense, the
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ability to experience, and the experience itself.
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They are clumped together and there's no distinction between
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them. So to move a little bit forward,
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but we're staying in the field of natural consciousness.
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When I hear a dog bark, what comes together is the ability,
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my capability, of experiencing any kind of sound.
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This is, if you want to call it this way, This is more me
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because it is part of my mechanism, the human mechanism,
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right? It's part of my hardware, the
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ability to hear, to have sensory perceptions.
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But then the dog barking is something very specific.
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The dog barking is not me. This is something outside of me.
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It's circumstantial, it's random.
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If it happens or not lies completely outside of my
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purview. So in the stage where the those
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two are clumped together, compare it to a dream if you
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like, which is quite close to the experience of the
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unconscious. When those are clumped together,
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I the this phenomenon is unfree because it doesn't separate
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between what is me, my capability, and what is outside
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of me. This experience depends very
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much still on the circumstances, on random factors, and this
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leads to the second stage. The second stage is calling
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German Anshaung. In English it's sometimes
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translated as intuition. I don't think this is a good
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translation. Sometimes it's translated as
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sensuous, sensuous perception, which is more fitting.
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Now here there is a first distinction between the
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capability to perceive and the sense impression, the sensory
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experience. The main characteristic here is
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that it's a bare awareness, a bare consciousness.
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There is not yet the experience of the barking of a dog.
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There are. It's auditory.
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But there is no recognition of anything yet, because at this
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stage we have no memory. There's just a thing happening,
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and immediately after it happens, there is nothing that
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keeps it. There is no memory function.
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There is no interest. Yet all of these later phenomena
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are complications of the mind and of the human mind, where
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consciousness is folded upon itself.
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And at this stage of sensuous perception there is only bare,
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naked, instantaneous events happening.
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And here you're already, I think you you smell the fish there
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because this is is the direct connection to the Vipassana
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state that we aim for in Buddhist practice.
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So what is happening here, what is happening is that a
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differentiation and a separation takes place, driven by the
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spirit's motivation to be free and to experience itself.
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What is happening is that it retains as itself the capability
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aspect of the experience. So the ability to perceive is
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more itself always in quote itself, and it throws out the
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random aspect, the circumstantial aspect, the
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sound. It throws it out.
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Where does it throw it? Out?
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Into time and space. So for the first time in the
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stage, on the stage of bear awareness, we have the
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possibility to experience time. It is created on the stage and
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is created specifically for the purpose to separate something
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that is more me from something that is random, random and
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circumstantial. Now.
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It is not thrown out and then forgotten.
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It is thrown out and then bound by attention or awareness.
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So it's something that was clumped together.
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Now we take apart the experience part, the momentary part, the
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random aspect of the moment it is thrown out.
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But it is bound by almost like a rope, and that rope is a tension
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or awareness. Clearly, on this stage the
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events are very impermanent. They arise just as quickly as
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they fall away, and attention is created by the way, so to speak,
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in order to connect those two formerly clumped together
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aspects. Like I said, there is no
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recognition yet, it's just bear awareness.
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What is important at this stage is that if you remember in
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natural consciousness, the aspect of feeling and mood was
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quite strong. It was the glue that kept this
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clump together. It is still very recognizable.
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It is still strong here because natural consciousness is the
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direct neighbor, so to speak, of the stage of sensuous
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perception. So there is always the
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possibility to slip back and to fall back into the unconscious
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mode where feeling takes over. So this is what we keep in mind,
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some sort of risk at this stage, that we fall back onto emotions.
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So to sum it up, this stage of sensuous perception, the second
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stage, is the stage where consciousness properly appears,
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the consciousness of something, of objects.
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Those objects have been before on the stage of natural
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consciousness being clumped together.
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Now it is thrown out by the way and on the fly.
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Attention is created as a rope, as binding the random experience
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to something that is more fundamentally the subject.
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Some characteristic of the stage is that whatever happens always
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is and feels new. And it must be so because the
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memory function has not been developed yet on the stage.
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And with this newness and the emotional capability that is in
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the mind already, the experience on the stage is of awe and
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wonder. So things happen new in rapid
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succession. They feel fresh, they feel
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always new. And there is a sense of one
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demand of awe to this fresh consciousness.
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Which experience experiences new things all the time in rapid
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succession. The next stage is called in
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German Foster Long. In English.
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I found the translation of conceptual awareness and I think
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this is a pretty good translation because here memory
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comes in and memory allows us. And think of children, for
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example, who develop the faculties with time, allows us
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to recognize things. And with this recognition comes
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the ability to form concepts and to retain those concepts.
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The perception is not fragmented, fragmented anymore.
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There is a glue, the glue of the objects that we perceive.
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On this stage of conceptual awareness is the recognition,
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the recognition of concepts, or the recognition of objects, or
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recognition of ideas. This is the glue that keeps them
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together now. So it's more intellectual, it's
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more cognitive and it's less the glue of emotionality as it was
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in the unconscious and the natural consciousness.
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So these experience are fused and now finally I can hear the
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dog bark. It's not just audio noise that
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comes and goes quickly. There is an audio signal that
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enters my mind, but then what it triggers is the recognition that
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I have heard that before. I might combine it with a visual
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impression of a dog that I've seen or documentaries or that
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I've petted or whatever. So I have developed a concept
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where the capability of developing complex concepts, I
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retain those, and then I just need a fragment from the outside
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to trigger that concept. And it can be.
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It doesn't even have to be barking a barking dog.
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I can see food, then I think of dog food and then the concept of
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the dog is already triggered. So here all the complexity of
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that comes into the mind with the introduction of memory gets
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established. Obviously there are many sub
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stages here because memory brings the very complex
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possibility for self reference self referencing system.
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But we keep it kind of connected.
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We keep it simple and calling it the stage of conceptual
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awareness. Beyond that, there is one other
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big stage which Hegel calls thinking.
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And here we can interpret it psychologically at the stage
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where not only concepts are triggered, but conglomerates of
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concepts. Something like a world view,
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something like a self view. So it's not only small,
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basically chunks. They are connected now in super
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clusters so to speak and they give the subject the possibility
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to relate to itself and to the world.
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Now let's introduce to this. So that was basically Eagle's
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perspective on the development of the mind.
32:28
Before that we have the passing up practice.
32:30
Now let's bring in the mental health perspective.
32:34
When we look at where problems can arise in the individual
32:39
development, it is not on the stage of the natural
32:44
consciousness. This is where basically the raw
32:47
data it is processed in a field without the ability of
32:52
distinction. It is also not on the level of
32:56
sensuous perception, because there we have no memory yet.
33:00
This is again the 1st experience of raw bear awareness.
33:05
It's the first appearance of consciousness.
33:08
Where problems can come in is when the memory function kicks
33:13
in. So on the stage of conceptual
33:16
awareness, this is where people, children, teenagers, adults
33:21
start the to have the possibility of developing in an
33:27
unhealthy way. When, for example, I am told by
33:32
my parents not to do certain things, there is the
33:35
possibility, there is the risk. That I develop a concept of
33:41
danger. That I develop the concept of
33:45
anxiety. That when I touch something on
33:48
the table, I might get scolded, looked at, angrily, shouted at,
33:53
yelled, beaten, you know, whatever the spectrum is on
33:56
which negative consequences occur.
33:58
Or of course, also on the positive sides.
34:01
When when I scream as a baby, then nutrition follows.
34:08
So that is connection, conditioning and conceptualizing
34:14
that happens that leads to good things.
34:16
But again, focusing on mental health, the building stones of
34:21
concepts where I learn that things are in a certain way and
34:27
it matches my experience. This is where unhealthy concepts
34:31
can get into the mind and from here on basically distort or
34:38
influence my unconscious from the level of conceptual
34:42
awareness. And since the concepts come
34:46
together in those super clusters on the more kind of developed
34:54
level of thinking, the world view and self view.
34:57
Obviously, once unhealthy aspects are established on that
35:01
level, that not only I have separate concepts of unhealthy
35:08
reactions, but I they become more generalized as a view that
35:13
I'm not good, I'm not healthy, I'm not worthy of love, I have
35:19
to constantly perform in order to be successful, in order to be
35:22
worthy, or I have unhealthy thoughts about the world.
35:26
The world is bad. The world is frightening.
35:29
People just are out there to take advantage of you, to abuse
35:34
you, and so on. So then I have developed a
35:37
conglomerate of concepts on the level of world view, of self
35:41
view that are unhealthy. And at the latest then we get
35:47
into the trouble of perpetuating those.
35:51
Because once I have formed a concept, once I have formed
35:54
chunks of concepts, self use world views that are unhealthy
35:58
and problematic, they are somewhat sturdy.
36:01
What we have to do now and here we directly apply the Hegelian
36:08
system and the somewhat cruder Buddhist perspective is a
36:15
restart. We have to clean our mind from
36:19
these views and from the concepts, right?
36:23
Stage 3 and four in the Aguilian system, What we ideally start
36:27
with is the big picture. I look at my life, I look at the
36:32
world and I recognize I don't want to go on like this.
36:36
I don't want to treat myself like this.
36:39
I don't like how I think about myself.
36:42
So here I start to form the motivation, with the motivation
36:46
to adjust my general view on my life, on myself, on the world
36:52
and in practice. Here is where I get interested.
36:54
I look at YouTube videos, I go to some.
36:58
I buy a Buddhist book, maybe I see some YouTube lecture.
37:05
In whatever way I get interested in a vision, I want something
37:08
new. So I start with a latest stage
37:13
and the thinking level. I take a correction on that
37:19
level. I want to become someone else on
37:22
that big level. Of course this is not enough,
37:26
except for the lucky few. There are a few people who work
37:29
for whatever reason. This brings in a major shift.
37:32
When they just read a book on Stoicism, on Buddhism, on Hegel,
37:36
on whatever other spiritual tradition or psychology, it just
37:41
rings a bell and things go automatically.
37:44
Usually this is not the case. What we need to do is to break
37:48
it down to the level of concepts.
37:52
To give you an example, I am also a couple of therapists, so
37:56
sometimes when I have couples they want to learn to
38:00
communicate differently. What stands in their way is the
38:04
rigid concepts that they have made off the other the concept
38:10
that I have of my girlfriend, or of women in general, or of
38:14
people in general. And then I go to a psychologist
38:18
or a counselor and they teach me, for example, the
38:21
communication method of nonviolent communication.
38:24
And here I have a change on a conceptual level, right?
38:28
It's not worldview. It can be worldview, but it's
38:30
more defined as this is how you communicate in a way so that the
38:34
other doesn't perceive you as a threat and is invited to
38:37
communicate in a gentle way as well.
38:39
This is basically what nonviolent communication and
38:43
related communication systems do.
38:47
And then I want to practice it. And then I come to the very
38:51
practical level of changing my conceptual awareness, which
38:57
means my partner enters the room, says something, I am
39:03
triggered. And because I've learned
39:06
intellectually nonviolent communication, my challenge is
39:10
now to stop the automatic process from going on, which
39:13
means I get upset and yell something because I perceive
39:18
what you said as a threat. So I use my memory function to
39:24
stop myself, to induce the new way of thinking and
39:29
communicating, to put myself in her shoes, to speak with I
39:33
messages, to distinguish my impression of what she said from
39:38
what she actually said, and go through the process of
39:40
nonviolent communication, hoping that it has a positive effect.
39:44
But nonetheless, I intervene on the conceptual level.
39:48
I intervene at the memory level. This is where I introduce the
39:51
new. So we started with a big topic.
39:55
I'm dissatisfied with my relationship, with relationships
39:58
in general with myself. I break it down to concepts, and
40:02
then I work on the implementation of concepts on in
40:07
those specific moments. Sometimes this is not enough.
40:13
Sometimes people are so overwhelmed by the unconscious
40:17
automatic responses, or they cannot simply convince
40:21
themselves to feel differently, even though intellectually they
40:26
have seen that there are more healthier ways to deal with
40:30
themselves and the world. And what people need to do then
40:34
is to go even one step further. They have to go to the next
40:40
crude, undifferentiated level, which is the level of sensuous
40:44
perception. Bear awareness.
40:47
And we could do this specifically with the meditation
40:52
method of we pass an hour inside meditation because here we have
40:55
established tools and ways to get to the level where the
41:02
programming of the concepts is done, of course is it is also
41:07
done on the level of the unconscious.
41:08
But we don't have direct access to the unconscious.
41:11
We never do. We have representations of the
41:14
unconscious when we work with dreams, with diagnosis and so
41:17
on. We never have a direct access to
41:20
the unconscious. What we do have is we have
41:22
direct access to the level of centrist perception if we are
41:27
motivated because in order to lock ourselves in to that level
41:32
we have to practice a lot of detachment and non self already
41:37
because I want to establish myself in bare awareness to let
41:41
thing perceptions come and go right.
41:44
This is the practice of the pasana.
41:46
What is interfering? What is interfering is my old
41:49
me. It comes in and directly
41:52
competes with my experience. It wants to bring in the plans,
41:56
my emotions, the stories, the problems, the narratives.
42:01
This is what it wants to bring in.
42:02
Because this is me now. I as a distinguished meditator,
42:08
someone who has practiced this view, I have learned to perceive
42:13
those things as random and as not me.
42:15
So I throw them out, I throw them out, I perceive them, I let
42:20
them go, and hence the quick succession again of experiences
42:25
that has, as I said in the beginning, hopefully the
42:29
beneficial aspects of purification and of lightness.
42:34
Now the problem is when people meditate in this way that they
42:38
often don't know where they are, they get lost.
42:41
And here we can use Hegel's map to understand and to lock
42:46
ourselves in to where we are. The proper stage of the past and
42:52
meditation in order to purify and make ourselves lighter is a
42:57
not emotional, because the more emotional we get, the more we
43:02
get in the power under the power of the unconscious, and we slip
43:07
into daydreaming and to unconscious processes.
43:10
This is not it. We are precisely at the level
43:13
where we throw out the random aspects that are not us.
43:19
And by throwing this out and binding it with attention, we
43:23
are also limiting the hold of emotions on ourselves.
43:27
So when you catch yourself practicing the persona, becoming
43:32
or being emotional, then you immediately recognize that you
43:34
have lost the sweet spot of the persona.
43:38
Second thing duration. When you see that states of mind
43:45
that moods, thoughts, and so on have a longer duration lifespan,
43:52
again, you realize that you're either conceptualizing or
43:55
emoting. You're falling either on the
43:58
conceptual level or you're falling into the unconscious
44:01
processing. So again, we stop that.
44:04
We recalibrate 3rd when you perceive yourself experiencing
44:10
in concepts, you hear a sound, but it's a dog barking.
44:13
If that idea of a dog barking again endures too long and
44:17
doesn't fall apart, you are too much on the conceptual side,
44:21
ideally on the stage of the persona you have bear not yet
44:27
conceptualized perceptions. 4th We are in a state of
44:32
experiencing new. So when you think that you watch
44:37
the breath, but the breath is something very known to you at
44:41
that moment, you are not at the stage of the person.
44:44
Now you're not at the stage of sensuous perception.
44:47
Because again, we have not developed yet at this stage or
44:51
we are forgetting the memory function.
44:54
It has to be fresh. It's a fresh experience all the
44:56
time. And the freshness comes with awe
45:00
and wonder. So these are the criteria that
45:03
help us to locate ourselves in our meditation practice.
45:08
And I hope that I could show how a mapping of Hegel's
45:13
philosophical perspective on the development of mind, how we can
45:17
use that to harvest more precision in our meditation
45:21
practice so that hopefully we can harness and harvest those
45:28
beneficial results from our practice.
45:30
I will continue to do content on Hegel and Buddhism, Hegel and
45:35
psychology because I think that there are many treasures that
45:39
have not been recovered yet and not utilized yet for our
45:43
understanding of the mind. So I hope to see you again in
45:47
the next video. Feel free to leave comments and
45:49
questions. I totally understand it's a
45:52
complex topic so that I can have the opportunity to answer those
45:57
in the following video. See you soon.
46:00
Goodbye.