CHAPTER – VI : Harmony In Self (“I”) – Understanding Myself

HUMAN VALUES AND PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

LECTURE NOTES

UNIT – II : CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER – VI : Harmony In Self (“I”) – Understanding Myself

Why should I study myself? / Getting to know the activities in the Self(“I”):

            We spend most of our time ‘with’ ourselves, ‘in’ ourselves but we spend most of our time thinking about other things and neglect ourselves.

The Self (I) is the basis of everything we do. All our desires, expectations, thoughts, feelings, understanding etc. come from the “I”. 

            Studying our “Self” helps us to have more clarity about ourselves and makes us confident. It develops our understanding and helps in building good relationships with everyone. It also helps us to understand our program better.

Activities in Self (I):

Analysis of the above diagram:

·         The Self “I” is conscious in nature while the “Body” is physico-chemical in nature. The interaction between ‘I’ and the ‘Body’ is in the form of exchange of information.

·         The diagram shows two categories of attributes of the Self, namely, the powers of the Self (Sakti) and the corresponding Activities (Kriyas) as the manifest outcome of these powers.

POWER: This is the basic capacity in the Self “I”. This includes:

·         Desire (Ichchha)

·         Thought (Vichara / Vichar)

·         Expectation (Asa / Asha)

ACTIVITIES: These are the outcomes of the power of Self. They are-

·         Imaging (Chitrana / Chitran)

·         Analyzing (Vishleshana)

·         Selecting / Tasting ( Chayana / Asvadana)

Following is an example to understand these activities:

• We may have a desire to have respect by being the owner of a big house. This desire exists in the form of imaging i.e. we have an image in us of fulfillment of our need of respect via a house.

• Based on this desire our thoughts start working out on the details (design) of the house like rooms, balcony etc.  This splitting up of the image of “wanting respect from the house” into various parts is called analyzing.

•   After working out the details of the house, we go about choosing the size, colour etc. of the rooms. The power associated with these choices is Expectation and Selecting. Tasting is the activity which leads us to the fulfillment of these expectations.

• Selecting and Tasting keeps going on in us continuously, throughout the day, all the time although many times we may not be aware of it.

Selecting and Tasting are complimentary i.e. Selection changes whenever our Taste changes. 

e.g.: When your taste changes from one company mobile to another mobile, your selection of the shop / showroom also changes according to your new taste.

Inter-relation between the activities in “I” :  All the activities going on in the “I” are inter-related.

The flow of activities in “I” occurs in two ways:

1.      From outside to inside:

Example:

2.    From inside to outside:

       Example:

                 

Imagination: It is the sum total of our Desires + Thoughts + Expectations

The choices which we make with the external world are based on our imagination.

•        All the activities in the “I” are Continuous and keep going on in us irrespective of whether we want them or not.

Present Scenario:

Today, our thoughts and expectations are largely being set by pre-conditionings and sensations which are causing unhappiness, stress and discomfort in our lives. Such expectations can lead to contradictions in us as we cannot be sure of ourselves.

Following are the two scenarios seen today –

Scenario 1: Desires set on the basis of pre-conditioning:

Pre- conditioning means to assume something about anything on the basis of a prevailing notion without self-verification.

For e.g.: While seeing advertisements, we pay attention to it and start thinking about it and associate some greatness with it and slowly the thought becomes our desire. It is a pre-conditioned desire and we don’t know what we are going to get out of the fulfillment of this desire. Sometimes we are not even aware of the existence of such a desire in us.

Scenario 2: Expectations set on the basis of sensation:

Sensation is a feeling resulting from something that comes into contact with the body. 

For e.g.: We may develop a desire for a bike based on the way it looked (sensation) or the taste associated with it.

Effects of the Problem –

•          Wavering Aspirations: When our desires are set by pre-conditionings, our goals keep shifting quite often,  depending on what we read, see, hear from media or friends or society.

     

•          Lack of Confidence: Since our desires are wavering, we don’t have a clarity of what we ultimately want. This affects our self-confidence as we feel confident only as long as our opinion/ taste  is appreciated.

•          Unhappiness / Conflicts or Contradictions in ‘I’ as a result of Pre-conditioned Desire:

Desires thoughts and expectations set by pre-conditionings or sensations make us undecided and create conflicting tendencies within ourselves. These conflicts lead to stress and unhappiness in us.

These conflicts exist at multiple levels –

•   Desires are in conflict
• Thoughts are in conflict

•           Expectations are in conflict

•          Lack of Qualitative improvement in us: when we live based on the pre-conditionings, we focus largely on the needs of the body and ignore the needs of the “I”. As a result, in spite of accumulating a lot, we don’t have a feeling of improvement or betterment. The development is merely Quantitative and not Qualitative.

•          State of Resignation: In spite of accumulating large amounts of wealth, we are unable to understand ourselves properly and have contradictions within. When we are unable to find solutions for these contradictions, we end up in a state of Resignation.

Living with pre-conditionings: This often leads to a lack of clarity and self-confidence and develops a feeling of stress, unhappiness and confusion in us.

Short lived nature of Pleasure from Sensations:  Sensations are the ways of our body’s detection of various things in our environment with the help of the five major sensory organs. Whenever there is a sensation from the Body to “I”, there is a tasting in “I”. These sensations and tasting are temporary in nature while the needs of the “I” are continuous.  Hence, any sensation we have from the Body can’t be a source of our lasting happiness.

Solution to the Problem: The solution is to start verifying our desires, thoughts and expectations on the basis of our Natural Acceptance. As we access our natural acceptance, it becomes possible for us to have the right understanding of the harmony at all the levels of living.

The activities of Realization and Understanding: These are the two activities in the Self.

 Realization: It means to be able to see the reality as it is.

Understanding: It means to be able to understand the self-organization in all entities of Nature/Existence and their inter-connectedness at all the levels of our living.