14 Nov
Philosophy

How to Overcome Psychological Suffering: A Guide to Managing Mental Pain

As the Buddhist saying goes, “Being physically hit by an arrow is painful, but being hit by a second emotional arrow is even more painful.”
In other words, we can say that there are two types of suffering: one that arises physically, which can’t be completely controlled, and the second that arises through our reaction to the first one, which we can control.
If we give names to these types of suffering, the first one could be called physical suffering, and the second one could be called psychological suffering, which arises at the level of thought.
In this blog post, we will discuss only psychological suffering as it is the one which haunts us the most. So let’s begin.

If carefully observed, we can see that we only suffer when we think. For instance, when we think about the past (horrible memories) or the future (unknown territory). There is no suffering in the present. The thing that gives birth to past and future is our thoughts. We cannot live in the past or future physically; they exist only in our thoughts. So, clearly, it is our thoughts that give rise to suffering.

Let’s understand this in another way, using the concept of reality and illusion. In the prior example, being physically hit by an arrow is reality. But our reaction to it in our own mind is just an illusion. We see reality when we look at any event without adding meaning, thinking, or interpretation.
For instance, you watched a movie with your friends. All your friends have different opinions about the movie. Some enjoyed it, while others found it boring. So, what’s the reality? Is it boring or interesting?
It is just our thoughts that come into the picture and give opinions based on our desires and fears.
If you want to live in reality, learn to observe or see things without adding anything in your mind about that particular thing. For example, if you are fully involved in any work, you do not feel a sense of time passing. The reason is that you and the work become one. There is no separation between you and your work, so you enjoy it. And if you carefully observe this, you will also see that you were not there. In other words, you can only remember the absence of the doer and the presence of the work.
So, we can also say that our experience of the world is best when the experiencer (self) is absent, and only the experienced (things we are experiencing) is there. Or when the experiencer and the experienced become one. To clarify, there are no thoughts to separate these two.

Let’s take another example to understand how thoughts ruin our experience of reality. Suppose you went out with your family for dinner. Your family is enjoying the dinner while you are thinking about an awful memory of your last dinner when you got into a fight with your friend. Clearly, you are not able to enjoy the same dinner your family is enjoying. You are lost in something that does not even exist—it exists only in your memory. It is only your thinking that is preventing you from experiencing the delicious dinner.

This is not a piece of discouragement towards thinking. Thinking is useful for performing our daily activities. It’s just that we need to understand the impact of thinking and identify when it is necessary to think and when it is not.

And the purpose of this blog is just to understand how our thinking is causing psychological suffering and how our psychological suffering is just an illusion.

21 Nov
Philosophy

How language affects perception?

We all know that language is a means of communication. It is a means of thinking.  We cannot think without language. If we try to think without language say using symbols, our thought process will be very ambiguous and confused.

The fact that language is one of the foundation of thinking lead to the fact that it can affect the way we think, the way we perceive things.

Let’s understand it through different examples

1.  Color Perception – Let’s take one of the most famous example. In Russian, light blue and dark blue have separate words i.e goluboy and siniy. So Russians tend to have cognitive separation between these two colors. They are quicker and more accurate to distinguish light blue and dark blue than English speakers.  

2. Time perception – It is seen that speakers of languages which does not have separate words to distinguish between present and future are more aware about their future. They are less likely to smoke as they are aware about its consequences in future. Also they are more likely to save for future.

3. Memory perception – Language may affect the way in which we remember any event.  Structure of a language determines whether a sentence is subject focused or object focused. The choice of words, especially adjectives also affect what we remember and how we remember.

4. Emotional perception – It is similar to color perception. If a language has separate words for different emotions, speakers would find it easier to perceive and navigate those emotional feelings. And it would be easy to distinguish between different feelings.

In a nutshell we can say that language affect how we perceive things and distinguish between different objects and feelings. If an object have different words to describe itself in a language depending upon its quality, people will find it easy to distinguish between its qualities.

So clearly language is more influential than we think.   We can also conclude that multilinguals ( who know multiple languages) can see a particular thing form different perspectives. It is a good news for you if you are a bilingual or multilingual.

04 Oct
Philosophy

How to get motivated to work? A different perspective.

People think that strength comes from selfish motivation. But reality is that strength and devotion towards any work comes from selflessness.

It is selflessness that makes you an indestructible force. It is selflessness that makes you do your duties with complete devotion.

It is a psychological game. If you increase base of your identity bigger, you become mentally stronger.

For most people, their identity is just their body. But if they extend their identity to their family, they become little stronger. If they identify themselves with their society, they become more stronger.

And when they identify themselves with their country, they become more stronger. And when they identify themselves with this universe, they become strongest.

For instance, a lethargic person may also become active when it comes to feed his family.

Similarly, someone who is working for nation’s military work will have very strong devotion. He can tolerate all wounds and pain he get while fighting for his country.

In same way, A person who see his duty or his work as a service to the ultimate reality will work with a very strong devotion.

I request all the readers to share ways they think that can be applied here. Just a mental activity for you.

17 Sep
Philosophy

What is philosophy of Morality?

What is philosophy of morality?

Philosophy of ethics or morality explores fundamental questions regarding

– what is right or wrong,

– how to determine what is right or wrong ,

– do we need religion to practice ethics or morality and

– Is morality subjective or it exist objectively independent of human beliefs and opinions

Let’s discuss philosophy of morality with different perspectives given by different philosophers.

How to determine what is right or wrong

Immanuel Kant gave following principles and tests to determine what is right or wrong :

1. Universalizability – It means while doing an action, ask yourself whether it would be morally acceptable if everyone (whole world) were to act in same way in similar situation.

For example – If you want to lie, consider picture of a world where everyone would lie easily.

See whether this scenario is logically consistent or it leads to contradiction. You will see that if everyone lie in this world, lying would become ineffective because no one would believe each other. There will be distrust in society everywhere.

So, lying is ineffective as it cannot be consistently applied as universal law.  Hence it is immoral.

2. Principle of ends – Human should not be treated as a means to your end. They should be an end itself. Ask if your action affect dignity of individual for your own benefits. Treat everyone as a human. They all are individual consciousness. They are not means for your personal desires.

3. Rationality – Whether your actions are driven by rationality or your emotions. Moral actions should be done out of duty not for selfish reasons.

Do we need religion to practice morality

Wisdom is more important for morality than religion. Religion have set rules and principles that apply in certain context and circumstances. We cannot use them everywhere.

The problem in religious morality is that people blindly believe in it. People do not follow religion in parts. They follow everything. And that includes both right and wrong. It is ok if people use their judgement and follow good things from religion and discard the bad things. But people generally do not do this.  They believe that everything written in religious scripture is right and unquestionable.  

And that could be called as slave morality. And it becomes dangerous too. We know how many people have been killed in name of religion across the world.

Religious morality is sustainable only if people judge what is written in scriptures before practicing it.

Another problem with religion is that it becomes one’s identity. And that is the reason humans do not want to be free from it. Religion should be means to end but it generally becomes end to means.

A rational religious person should make humans as an end and religion as means not the other way.  

Is morality subjective or objective

Well! It’s a debatable issue. Let’s see what different philosophers said about this.

According to Immanuel Kant, morality is objective which apply universally to all beings. It does not depend on individual emotions or circumstances.

David Hume, who was a Scottish philosopher argued that morality is not result of reason or rationality. It is deeply grounded in human sentiments and emotions and it changes from culture to culture.

No one can reach any conclusion whether morality is subjective or objective.

We can just put our ideas which do not let us anywhere. But at least these ideas help us in developing our intellect.

Share your views in comments

04 Sep
Philosophy

Why humans suffer?

Why humans suffer?

In simple words, humans suffer because humans attach themselves to this material world. It turns into desire for more attachment and fear of loosing existing attachment. And this desire and fear create restlessness.

 

Why we attach ourselves?

Human body is a product of evolution. In past, As hunter gatherers human life used to be continuously in danger. Any animal could make us their food. So we had to run, hide or fight. In such cases, attachment to other humans (fighting in group) and material tools (weapons) were very important. We could not survive on our own. This is the reason we still want to get attached to things and humans.

 

How to end this suffering?

In Bhagavad Gita . three different Yoga are mentioned to end this suffering and detach ourselves. i.e. karma Yog, Gyan Yog and Bhakti Yog.

1. Gyan Yog – It is about knowledge of “Who am I”.  It is a philosophy which helps to attain enlightenment. Enlightenment is not a mystic thing. Someone who is enlightened just knows the truth i.e. who am i. This topic requires an another detailed blog.

But let’s discuss in brief. The answer to Who am I could be found by continuous inquiry through neti neti (i.e. not this not that).

Then whatever remains is “I”.

It could be said that I am not the body, I am not the mind.

Why I am not the body? It is because we can observe and sense the body. we can observe something only if we are not the thing itself. In other words, A can observe B only if B is a different entity from A. So clearly I am not the body. There are other ways also to prove the same.

Why I am not the mind?

It is because we can observe our thoughts and emotions also. We can see what is going in our mind.

So I am not even the mind. And I am not even the things I could observe through my senses. I am beyond everything.

Upanishads says that we are the cause of this universe.

These all things could be verified through questioning and reasoning. But We can not believe anything unless we experience it. So there are meditation practices which can make you realize who you are.

When you realize self, it is called aatmgyan.

How this can end suffering?  As we realize that we are not the body nor the mind but something beyond and we are the cause of this universe, we no longer find any need to attach ourselves with material things. Because we ourselves are the source of everything we want. 

 

2. Karma Yog –  It means to do right thing selflessly. In other words, Do your karma without getting attached to results.

Generally our tendencies (lust, anger, greed, attachment, envy) decide what work we do. And if our tendencies decide the work, we just become slave of our tendencies. We do not remain free. We easily get desperate if we see that our tendencies are not materializing. For example- Arjun put down weapons seeing his relatives in war against him. It was his attachment towards his brothers, gurus. Krishna therefore gave him knowledge of self realization to make him free from these different tendencies including attachment. We can see that these tendencies become hindrances to our work.

And once we go beyond these tendencies, we work with more intensity.

We can be selfless only when we attain self realization i.e. realization of who we are. Then we can do what is right, not what we want.

Believe me, doing something selflessly makes you so powerful that you can never become by working just for your desires

Definitely you will get money and it is necessary too to sustain yourself. But it should never be your driving force. Driving force should be your work. Therefore choose the work you are passionate about. Choose the work that is good for everyone. You can make this choice only if you have wisdom.

Another way to do selfless karma is to think karma as a service to god.

So there are three ways you can be selfless-

(i) Understanding of self and free from self

(ii) Controlling your mind through practice and regular meditation.

(iii) Surrendering to god i.e. Bhakti yog and doing work as a service.

Follow any two of the three ways.

I am sure that karma yog need another blog. So will discuss this in detail in another blog.

3. Bhakti Yog – Bhakti means to surrender everything to God. You do your work as a service to god. You do what is right. You chant mantra and you are ready to do whatever is needed as a service to god. This is a very simple thing. You just have to do your work as service and surrender everything to god. And you accept the result.

Atheist may face problem in bhakti but they can surrender themselves to the work itself. i.e. they can do karma yog.

I hope you got answer of Why humans suffer.

Refer what is philosophy here-  What is Philosophy? Why should we learn philosophy?

 

You can put your questions in comment or mail us.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

26 Aug
Philosophy

What is Philosophy? Why should we learn philosophy?

Philosophy is understanding of life and its meaning. It helps to bring out many truths and realities of life.

It covers many topics such as nature of time, life, death, ethics, morality, purpose of life, thoughts , logic, language etc.   

Philosophy helps us to understand this world, its hidden realities and our relationship with this world. This makes us wiser and improves our rational thinking. These understandings make our life easier.

It enhances our problem solving capacity and logical reasoning.

The most important thing in philosophy is questioning. And when you question everything and challenge every pre conceived notion, it is the beginning of your philosophical journey. Asking right questions help you in getting right answers.

Socrates once said “ The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing”.  And this quote is like a gem for learning anything.

Eastern and Western parts of the world have different philosophical thoughts developed over thousands of years. Western philosophy talks more about ideas, principles, logic, rights while eastern philosophies talk more about eternal nature of reality, existence and freedom from everything.

Both philosophies are important in their own ways.

Our goal is to learn philosophy from greatest of philosophers as well as to learn from our own personal experiences.

Thanks for reading

Refer Why humans suffer here – Why humans suffer?

17 Jul
Philosophy

Impact of foreign language imposition in a country

Language is a very effective means to spread mental colonization. Most people are not aware about this.

Let’s understand the power of language. Let’s view this from Indian perspective.

In India, English which is a foreign language is more respected than local languages. People who speak English are seen as intellectual. Its funny but people see a foreign language as status symbol. No doubt, people should learn English as it is one of the business language. It helps to connect people from different culture. But it never means that you forget other local languages. In the end, language is just a means of communication. It does not tell anything about your intellect.

When you forget your local language, you only consume content having foreign language. You read foreign books, you watch foreign TV series, you read foreign newspapers. You have very little connection with your local environment. Now foreign country can easily influence your opinion. You can be easily feeded things with foreign propaganda. You will be taught foreigner’s version of history. The same foreign country will influence your culture as culture has lot to do with culture you see daily on your screen. You have given your control to a foreign country.

The same things applies with products you consume. Globalisation is best. But your country should also have stakes in production systems. Your country should also own atleast one social media.

This blog post is not to interrupt your integration with culture of foreign country but just to make you aware that you should not forget your own roots. Just maintain balance between two. Reason is that you may be accepting other people around the globe but you do not know how other people see you. And we should learn this lesson from history atleast.

I hope you understood the importance of understanding local language too.

link to why humans are unhappy

14 Jul
Philosophy

Why humans are unhappy?

Humans have a problem. They need something to be happy. In other words, happiness is dependent on something.

We know that nothing in this world is permanent. Everything is temporary. So the thing on which happiness of any person is dependent will also be temporary.

So happiness comes and go. 

But there is a secret to remain happy permanently. And that is making your happiness dependent on something permanent. I will not tell you what is permanent. You have to find that! And yes there is something permanent in this universe.

There is another way to remain happy. Do not depend on anything for happiness. I mean do not take things seriously. You are just a drop in the ocean. You are nothing. Just accept this fact and have no expectations from anyone or anything.

We will talk about this thing in detail later.