Hello everyone, I am Anthony
Welcome to my channel

In last week's video
We have finally concluded this series on Yangming's philosophy of mind

In April this year
We also used 4 videos
Discussed "The Courage to Be Disliked"
The philosophy of this bestseller

I believe many friends can see it.
What I want to discuss
Not just Yangming's philosophy of mind
Or the book itself: The Courage to Be Disliked
But with the help of them
Let's analyze a fairly common way of thinking.

This way of thinking
May appear in various forms of Eastern and Western thought
Let us feel dazzled
Extremely complex
But its core is often simple

This is like a function expression is very long
Looks complicated at first glance
But when we simplify and restore
You will see its essence

So today I plan to start a new topic
I want to discuss this with you all.
A philosophy of mind that is very popular all over the world
Just live in the present moment
Or the power of the present moment.
Follow your heart, etc.

Before the video starts, let me say
If you have anything you want to discuss with me
Or consulting topic
You can contact my email to make an appointment

So let's get back to today's topic.

We say that in the past two or three decades,
Like living in the present
Follow your heart, etc.
It can be said that it is everywhere

These words
It also appears widely in various film and television works.
Psychology bestsellers, spiritual classes, meditation classes
Chinese studies classes, etc.

This trend originated from Eastern philosophy
It also swept the West

For example, I saw a report
The title is this
Meditation helps speed-driven Silicon Valley types
to slow down, accomplish more
that is
Meditation helps speed-conscious Silicon Valley people slow down
Get more done

This report talks about:
Executives from Google, Apple, Twitter, and other large companies
Meditation enthusiasts
They also offer meditation courses in the company
We also provide meditation services for employees.
A community for mindfulness practice and meditation
Have employees practice “focused breathing”
“Live in the present moment”

It seems that as long as I return to the level of feeling
Get rid of thinking
Get rid of anxiety and fear
But these methods can really ease inner conflict
To make people grow and liberate?

Someone once said
My channel rarely criticizes Western society.
That today
We will focus on analyzing a best-selling book in the West.
Eckhart Tolle
在1997年出版的著作
The Power of Now

Of course, we are just taking this book as an example.
I hope
We should pay more attention to the ideological essence of this book
Not the book itself

Need to explain
I am not against meditation or similar practices

I also know
Many people do meditate or practice Zen.
Become more relaxed
Or feel healed

I just think
The real therapeutic factor may have another reason
We are only analyzing its theory here.

Now let’s go back to the book The Power of Now.

first
The author in the first chapter "You are not equal to your brain"
A basic direction
People want to pursue enlightenment
Enlightenment means the end of suffering
Means a natural state of unity with the essence

When a person reaches this natural state
People are free from inner fears, conflicts and contradictions.
You can feel the body

So what is ontology?

The author explains it this way:
The Self is beyond those things that are limited by life and death.
Various life forms
The invisible, indestructible essence

You can access it in every moment.
But don't try to grasp its meaning
Don't try to understand it

Only when your mind is still
You will understand its true meaning

When your mind is still
When your attention is fully focused on the present moment
You will feel the body

But we can't understand it mentally.

Here we can summarize
Although we don't quite understand from this passage
What is the ontology?
But we can be sure
This ontology is incompatible with thinking.

then
The author discusses the most important points of this book
It is the human mind that causes suffering.

The author says
Not being able to stop thinking is a terrible annoyance
This constant activity of thought
It prevents you from achieving inner peace
Enlightenment means the end of thinking

Why does thinking cause pain?

Because thinking creates a series of concepts,
Labels, images, words, judgments and definitions
It hinders all your real relationships.

It is these thoughts that create an illusion of isolation
An illusion that you are separate from other people
But in fact
You are one with everything

Of course the author also said
Thinking is certainly useful.
It is a powerful tool
But it's just a tool

In fact, in many cases
“Thinking has become a disease”
It will think endlessly
Judge, speculate, compare, and select the outside world
This is the source of your pain

The author reiterated
Your brain is just a tool
It is used to handle special tasks
When the task is completed
You just let it rest.

80%-90% of people’s thinking is not only repetitive
And it's useless
Even harmful

If you observe your thoughts
You will find
Thinking causes a serious loss of your life energy
But the real power lies deep within you
And now you can actually have it

The author said that when a thought is extinguished
You will be in the flow of your heart
Experiencing a kind of interruption in thinking and a blank mind
This gap is short-lived.
Maybe just a few seconds
But gradually
This gap will get longer and longer

When this gap appears
You will feel a state of stillness and peace within yourself
So you start to feel
The natural state of being one with the body
generally
This state is blurred by the mind.

After more practice
This feeling of peace and tranquility will deepen
You will feel joy from deep inside

You will feel
All thoughts, emotions, body
and the whole outside world
Compared with the original, it is not important.

This is a state of selflessness.

Get here
The author has already stated the most important point of this book.

We say
The author's way of thinking is indeed anti-linguistic

He means
It's language, concepts, labels, etc.
Separating each of us
This creates loneliness
It causes us to fall into obsessive thinking
And feel endless pain

Although
Human suffering does come from many concepts and labels.
But the author seems to emphasize that
Thoughts and concepts are fundamentally harmful
They have only instrumental value at best.

If we are not careful, we will fall into pain
So we have to learn to get rid of our brains
Practice removing thoughts
Follow your inner strength
To experience moments of peace and happiness

The author paints a picture of the opposition between the brain and the heart
He put the brain and its language ability
Described as the source of pain
The heart is mysterious and gentle,
Possessing all wisdom,
A romantic existence of spirituality and tranquility

As the author's title says
“You are not your brain”

However, this opposition is logically confusing.

When we talk about following our hearts
This heart
Obviously not the heart in the anatomical sense.

No matter how we understand this inner strength
It is first and foremost a mysterious experience
Or intuition

However
Isn’t this feeling itself a product of the brain?

We can't discuss feelings without thinking about them.

Whether it is human reason or emotion
It's essentially a function of the brain.

Human intuition
It also depends on the processing of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex of the brain

The so-called awareness of oneself, return to the present
Be aware of your current emotions
These are not the work of the heart.
And it is precisely necessary to mobilize the brain's advanced thinking ability
Metacognitive function

Including the author said not to judge
Don't think
This view itself
Isn’t that just a kind of judgment?

More importantly
Why judgements, concepts, labels and language
Will it definitely cause a person pain?

The author says in Chapter 2
We must learn to observe
How the brain labels the present moment
And the process of labeling
How did it create pain and misery?

Once you no longer identify with your thinking
Your urgency to outweigh the other person's desire
And the deep hope that I am right
Will disappear

You will let go of all aggressive and defensive thoughts
You don't need to defend your image.
That's just a fictional identity.
It is just an image created by the mind.

But the defensive psychology mentioned by the author
Those who want to overwhelm the other party
Not an inevitable product of thought
It is the product of a mindset driven by paranoia, scarcity and insecurity.

Rational thinking and open judgment
It can make us reflect on the feeling of being persecuted.
Freedom from control, shame and anxiety

The problem is not thinking
It's about how we think

Ask people to give up thinking
It's like telling people not to breathe.
Seemingly detached
It's actually a step backwards

and
It is impossible for us not to label things.
Make a judgment

We usually say don't judge others
It doesn't mean we shouldn't think about anything.

Don't judge others
It means not to use malicious, stereotyped,
Demeaning and objectifying labels
To hurt the other party

But we can be gentle, prudent,
Constructive and open-minded judgment
This is also a judgment

This kind of judgment is also a respect for others.

For example, a child has recently suffered a setback.
But parents trust their children
Believe that children have problem-solving abilities
So they encouraged their children
The child successfully overcame the problem.

This kind of judgment of parents is helpful

So
Judging and labeling is not a problem at all
This is actually what humans do when they face a complex world.
To save cognitive costs
A basic ability developed

People judge, classify, and interpret
Because the world is full of complexity and unknowns

The author has been hinting
The kind without judgment, without thinking
Purely feel the flow of emotions in the present moment
Is the most natural, the most authentic,
The most original and natural

However, if we really let go of all judgment
Give up summarizing, generalizing, and organizing experiences and information
Let yourself fall into a purely accidental
Unpredictable experience
We may feel very anxious and panicky.

As Existential Psychotherapy says
We cannot accept pure chance.

Decades of empirical research have confirmed
Our sensory nervous system
It will make us immediately respond to disordered external stimuli
Organize

From the Gestalt movement founded by Kohler, Witmer and Koffka
This has led to a large number of studies on perception and motivation

These studies have shown
We will combine disordered stimuli, behavior and psychological data
Forming complete forms, structures and patterns

When we see random black dots on white paper
We will use these black dots to form shapes and backgrounds.

When you see discontinuous circles
It will automatically be considered as a continuous and complete

If you can't fit a stimulus or situation into a pattern
People will feel nervous, troubled, dissatisfied

This uneasiness will continue.
Until people feel
This situation fits into a more inclusive,
Recognizable patterns
To gain a more complete understanding of it

If our world is cold and lawless
We will feel uneasy
So we look for patterns, explanations, and the meaning of existence.

If people believe they can find meaning
It brings a sense of control

Even if the meaning framework we find considers humans to be insignificant and helpless
Or it is dispensable
It's better than not finding meaning.

That is to say
"Judgment", "Concept", "Label"
It's not a shackle that binds us.
It helps us reduce our cognitive burden.
It's innate to us.

The most natural and instinctive means of self-regulation
To free a person from judgment and thinking
Purely facing the present
This is truly twisted, unnatural and inhumane.

If a person
Really stop all labels, judgments,
Language and concepts
He lost his self-awareness.
and a basic understanding of the world

This state is more like dissociation.
Even a state of schizophrenia

Moreover, various things in modern society
Almost all need a clearer sense of self
Rapid learning and language skills of individuals
It also puts forward increasingly higher requirements

For example, the workplace requires you to have clear logic and clear planning.
Social media reinforces identity,
Self-image construction and language expression ability

If you really let go of judgment in your life,
Stop conceptualizing and live fully in the present moment
Then your social function will gradually decline.

This is also why many people practice
I always feel like I'm not making any progress
I always feel like my heart just can't calm down

They are saddened by their lack of wisdom and practice.
Feeling anxious and internalized
Because this is extremely unrealistic.

The more peaceful and selfless
No mood swings
It may indeed exist
But that is often based on a
In an isolated environment
Like deep forests
Or on the Tibetan plateau
That kind of place

No media, no social
No new information
Every day, every year, it repeats itself
No changes

We mentioned a Korean Buddhist film.
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring
This reflects this state

In that movie
You will feel that there is no difference between a hundred years and one year
Everything is so quiet and peaceful

But are you willing to live this kind of life?

Even if you can get rid of all the worldly worries
Experience pure tranquility, joy and peace
But what is the meaning of this tranquility?

More importantly
Our emotional anxiety and pain
It itself originates from
We may be in a toxic environment.

To get rid of the toxic environment
First of all, we need our thinking
To know, judge and reflect

We must first judge
To be able to deal with and protect yourself

Many times
There is no judgment
It caused you to suffer greater harm

For example, PUA in a relationship is not recognized
Failure to judge whether the environment is dangerous
Failure to recognize the oppression of social structures

This kind of judgment must be applied to thinking

If we were really like the author
"No matter what the current situation is
Accept it willingly
Just like you chose it"
This seems so easy.
In fact, it teaches people to unconditionally obey the status quo.
Accept the status quo
Don't fight and reflect

At this point
We say
The Power of Now is indeed a product of Eastern philosophy
It does exist in Western culture.
A profound critique of the rationality of linguistic symbols

In French philosophy,
for example
Lacan believes that language is an alienation of the subject.
Even a trauma
Because the gap between language and reality
There is an unbridgeable gap
This is a traumatic experience in itself.

Foucault pointed out
Knowledge and discourse are not purely rational and neutral
There is always a hidden disciplinary power
So he thought the subject was dead.

Bourdieu analyzes symbolic violence
Pointed out
How symbols are expressed through education and cultural taste
To distinguish between classes and produce inequality

However, no matter how they criticize language,
Symbols, discourse and knowledge
They never advocated abandoning these
Or return to tranquility
It is to expose, confront and fight

Their philosophy
Always maintain a confrontational tension
A sense of tragedy
A wariness of power and a desire for freedom

From The Power of Now
Not only can we not see any
The tragedy and sadness of letting go of oneself
Instead, I saw a sense of relief and happiness.

This may be the most secret of Eastern and Western philosophy.
The most profound difference

Let’s stop here for today

We will continue discussing this topic in the next video

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