Contradiction

[scameter]

Did the Buddha ever talk about apparent contradictions in existence and in human behavior? For instance, why can one feel sympathy and hatred for someone at the same time, or feel anger about an event and yet desire to not feel the emotion which his anger tells him is correct to feel?

[Ryker]

You know, I tried looking for anything on Google & I came up with little to nothing to work with. I hate it when Google fails me. :(

However, I think perhaps the ideas of psychoanalysis may give a good hint as to these seemingly conflicting emotions. I'm not sure if you're familiar with psychodynamics, but in the theory Sigmund Freud divides the human mind into the Id, the Ego, & the Super-Ego.

The Id is the first state & it is also called the "Pleasure Principle". It's the primitive mindset that is concerned only with impulse & immediate gratification without taking into consideration logical positions of moral obligations.

The Ego is the second state & it's also called the "Reality Principle". It's the logical mindset that sees a need to compromise between the Id & the Super-Ego in order to obtain wants & needs.

The Super-Ego is the last state & it is also called the "Prefection Principle". It is the moral mindset that is driven by parental & societal values & is concerned only with complete perfection & ideals of perfection regardless of how rational these ideas are.

Now, take into account that we operate in them simultaneously & I'm sure you can see that eventually the "shit will hit the fans". The Id & the Super-Ego are in constant struggle with what each wants respectively & the Ego is left to mediate between the two.


Now, I decided to dig a little deeper (mainly by digging through books in my library) because I had remembered a similar concept stated by Osho.

In Osho's The Buddha Said..., Osho's concept is this: Instead of Id, Ego, & Super-Ego Osho calls it Parent, Adult, & Child. But the idea is still the same - the Child is impulsive, the Adult is logical, & the Parent is moral. But here's where the ideas differ. Osho says that we are made up of the Parent, the Adult, & the Child, but "we" are none of these. None of these pieces represent the center & as such the center is nothing. We are to recognize each piece, yet remain in our center & operate from the center instead of doing as we would normally do & operate from one of the three pieces.


Hope that helps. :)

[Taeguk]

Did the Buddha ever talk about apparent contradictions in existence and in human behavior? For instance, why can one feel sympathy and hatred for someone at the same time, or feel anger about an event and yet desire to not feel the emotion which his anger tells him is correct to feel?

-scameter-


As psyche suggests, from a Buddhist point of view, there is nothing worth getting angry over. I think Buddha would have simply asked: "Who is angry here? What is there to be angry about?" :)

When there is living from the (illusory) ego, emotional and mental contradictions are bound to occur and to be suffocating.

Anger of course, may occur, but when there is no attachment to it, the emotion eventually subsides. It's like a disturbance in an otherwise placid lake; allow it to dissipate without grasping, and the lake returns to its original state.

[Michael]

We rise impelled
Out of the sea of love
To lift our heads
Into the space
We call life,
Free for a moment
To be for a moment
Forever lonely.

[bito]

We rise impelled
Out of the sea of love
To lift our heads
Into the space
We call life,
Free for a moment
To be for a moment
Forever lonely.













:)

[scameter]

Cool.

[paulhaze]

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

[scameter]

The hand pop...

[Taeguk]

what is the sound of one hand clapping?
-paulhaze-

From:


The body is the Bodhi Tree,
The mind, a mirror bright
We strive and strive to polish it
May not a grain of dust alight!

To:



Originally there is no Bodhi Tree,
Nor a stand with mirror bright
If from the start nothing exists;
Where could a grain of dust alight?

[Thomas Knierim]

Taeguk: I think Buddha would have simply asked: "Who is angry here? What is there to be angry about?"

Yes perhaps, but that would already require a fairly good understanding of anatta as well as anger itself. Possibly a person who has studied the dharma can be reminded in such way. To a person who has not studied the dharma, this would perhaps sound a little lapidary, and I wonder if they would understand it at all.

In Buddhism, anger (and ill-will) is one of the "three poisons", which constitute major roadblocks in Buddhist practice. The Buddha apparently lectured extensively on anger, as there is lots of material in the Sutras about it. For example, you can find a very concise exposition is here in the Dhamapada. (http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/dhammapada-17.html) If you have a little more time, you also might want to look at this video of Ajahn Brahmali giving a dharma talk about dealing with anger (http://www.bswa.org/modules/mydownloads/viewcat.php?cid=30).

As for why you can feel sympathy and hatred for the same person at the same time: once you understand how these emotions arise in the mind, there isn't any real mystery. The mind is sort of multi-tasking. Positive and negative identification can occur at the same time, even about the same object or subject. Either that, or there can be habitual identification being questioned by immediate experience. At any rate, there is nothing paradoxical about it.

Cheers, Thomas