A mirror of our inner world

A good friend once told me in a casual conversation that our exterior world (world around us) is actually a mirror of our inner world. What that is saying is that the way we perceive the world around us is a reflection of the way we think, or the way we are, internally (our inner self). I have been reminded by this little morsel of truth not once but definitely more than twice. Reverend Jing Kung when he was explaining the meaning of the Surangama Sutra, and the Lotus Sutra has said it more than once in both of the recordings. Before some readers cry religious connotations here, let me reassure you it is not. Just think back about how you are feeling and look around you. I can give some example of my personal experiences. When I feel stressed, for example when mugging for the final exams, my room is a reflection of how I am feeling inside. I have stacks of papers, and textbooks, and reference books stacked hastily in all corners of my room. My desk is a mess, like a mini hurricane Katrina just visited. When I am enjoying my term breaks, my room is neat and tidy. When I feel depressed, the whole world is against me. When I feel betrayed, I prefer to sit in a darkened room (the world is dark), and I feel alone.

To expand this a little further, I cannot help but bring up the father of Psychoanalysis – Sigmund Freud. Freudian psychology talks a lot about the Id, Ego, and the Superego. The Id is our portion of the mind that operates on the “pleasure principle”. The Superego is the moralistic component of the psyche. And the Ego is the component that tries to balance the drives of the Id and the moralistic principals of the Superego. When the Ego is either overburdened, or threatened by its tasks, it employs defensive mechanisms such as Repression, Reaction Formation, Projection, Sublimation, Rationalisation, and Conversion. Below is an explanation of provided in the textbook for my psychology course (Buskist, William., Carlson, Neil R. & Martin G Neil. (2007) Psychology (3^rd ed) Massachusetts, USA : Peason Education Limited)

Repression is responsible for actively keeping threatening or anxiety-provoking memories from our conscious awareness. For example, a person may have witnessed a brutal murder but cannot recall it later because of the uncomfortable emotions it would arouse.

Reaction Formation involves replacing an anxiety-provoking idea with its opposite. For example, a person who is aroused and fascinated by pornographic material becomes a crusader against pornography. The crusader will often study the salacious material to see just how vile it is so that they can better educate other about its harmful nature.

Projection involves denial of one’s own unacceptable desires and the discovery of evidence of these desires in the behavior of other people. For example, a man who is experiencing a great deal of hostility may perceive the world as being full of people who are hostile to him.

Sublimation is the diversion of psychic energy from an unacceptable drive to an acceptable one. For example, a person may feel strong sexual desire but find its outlet unacceptable because of internalized prohibitions. As a result, finds another outlet such as artistic or other creative activities.

Rationalization is the process of inventing an acceptable reason for a behavior that is really being performed for another, less acceptable reason. For example, a man who feels guilty about his real reason for purchasing a pornographic magazine may say, “I don’t buy the magazine for the pictures. I buy it to read the interesting and enlightening articles it contains.”

Conversion is the provision of an outlet for intrapsychic conflict in the form of a physical symptom. The conflict is transformed into blindness, deafness, paralysis, or numbness. For example, a person might develop blindness so that they will no longer be able to see a situation that arouses a strong, painful intrapsychic conflict. (This is also known as somatoform disorder)

When we see someone exhibiting a behavior that irks us, it is quite possibly a behavior that we ourselves have which we are trying to exorcise; or it could be also be a trigger for one of our denials.

A denial is something that causes us anxiety which we have not given ourselves enough time to deal with it (Repression in my opinion). For example, maybe your favorite aunt passed away 5 years ago which you did not get to see her at her death bed, you heard that she was asking for you before she left this world. You just could not get a flight out to her in time. One fine day, a friend brings you some delicious strawberry cheesecake for you and you start sobbing uncontrollably. Your favorite aunt makes the best strawberry cheesecake you have ever tasted. As a result, you might hate your friend for it, or love her to pieces for it, depending on the situation.

These are what Freud terms as transference. We transfer our negative/positive feelings about a behavior which we have, or might have, in ourselves onto someone else. Counter-transference happens when the person whom those feelings are transferred onto reacted to that feeling. So the next time you experience something like this, remember to thank that person for bringing that into light, so that you may now be able to set aside some time to reflect on it.

A darkness within

I had the wonderful opportunity to listen to Reverend Jing Kung talking about The Lotus Sutra via VCDs. This volume was 100 CDs long and contains many little bits of wisdom which The Great Sakyamuni Buddha delivered onto earth for all those willing to listen. Unfortunately, I am not finished with all of it but will share what I have learned as go through them slowly.

In one of the sessions, Rev Jing Kung mentioned about how the internal organs of highly practiced monks would look as transparent as glass to those who have the 2nd sight or the 3rd sight. Not only will their internal organ looks as clear as crystal, but will also glow with an inner light. He said that this was the result of years of practice in cleansing one's self of all things sinful to the human soul (not his exact words as I had to translate it from Mandarin). He also mentioned that for those gifted with the sight, he/she would be able to see the internal organs of us normal, or unpracticed people as being tainted black, the darker the more taint. (Things sinful to our souls include the 7 sins mentioned in the bible, those mentioned in the precepts of Buddhism, as well as selfishness, or acts that mainly serve the self but ignore others.)

This probably explains why most monks have this certain glow and calmness about them. I have always assumed that the glow was a representation or their practice, a gift of being pure, and bringing light to humanity. Probably the same reason why we always picture saints, and holy beings bathed in this pure white light (God, Angels, Buddha, Boddhisattvas, Arhats, Brahma, etc).

This little piece of information got me wondering about some other stuff. For example, like for those people who can see ailments on parts of the human body, they see it as a mass of blackness congregating in that area. I am wondering if this means that the blackness is a manifestation of the negativity within us. When all this negative energy congregate at a certain spot on our bodies, we ail ?

According to a reliable source of information (sorry I am unable to reveal this source at the moment), cancer is caused by our repression of negative emotions, feelings, etc. For example, a father that repressed his hate for his daughter and like wise the daughter repressed her hate for her father, both resulted in having cancer after many years (its a true story). In light of the above information, does this also mean cancer can also manifest itself from all the negativity that is already within all of us ? Additionally, although not empirically proven, Freud had the right idea that repressed emotions can lead to psychological disturbances.

Til this day, even though no one could neither prove nor disprove his theory, many psychological treatments exists today that utilized his theory to help client achieve catharsis. Most counselors can employ techniques that usually traces a client's present problem back to a time before the present. Once that happens the client is assisted to properly deal with the issue then in order to achieve catharsis. If you have ever felt the tremendous relieve that comes over you after having a nice long heart-to-heart talk with a friend about things that have been bothering you; that is catharsis. You would feel as if a very heavy weight has been lifted off you, and your soul feeling so light that it could fly.

I am off the opinion that repressed negative emotions can lead to manifestations of both psychological, and physiological disorders. There is a class of psychological disorder known as Somatization Disorder. In layman's language it is psychological disturbances that has physical manifestation/s. In that same line of thinking, I reckon that any negativity that we retain within ourselves will ultimately find a way of expressing itself outwardly. It can be as mild as facial breakouts (pimples), excess wrinkles, more gray hairs; as serious as having a psychotic breakdown, or even cancer.