Psychology and Metaphysics-3

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Psychology and Metaphysics

 

3. The Natural Nudity and its Avoidance

 

Let us return to the theme of the average person and the various kinds of antics

he indulges in his Praxis, some of which he understands but some he does not.

When we look at this man we can see that he is ALREADY prejudiced in so many

ways so that he is already given over to a pattern of existence that either he

chooses for himself or is already chosen for him by the culture into which he is

born.

 

Normally we see that the average person ,a male or a female, just leading a

happy family life having children and busy raising them up as responsible

individuals and then having done that dying off with the contentment that a good

and meaningful life has been led. For what can be more meaningful than

establishing a family , having children and nurture them with love and care ?

 

Such an average person is not problematic normally except when the whole fabric

of the family breaks down and he is thrown into a lurch and which in turn

precipitates various kinds psychological (and physical) ailments. Before we come

to such individuals and seek to understand why the breaking down of the family

life should result in mental disorders, let us look at the other individuals who

stand out as different from such average individuals.

 

Here belong the priests yogis njanies clergies mullahs maulanahs, brahmanahs

philosophers politicians and even the magicians the psychics the shaman priests

and so forth. They are NO MORE average and such individuals also take a lot of

trouble to ANNOUNCE their difference. They wear special dress -- the saffron,

dull colored gowns that extend to the legs , the long shawls and so forth to

cover completely the anatomy. In contrast to this there are also individuals ,

like the Thikambara Jains of India, completely naked with total disregard to

public opinion. There are also who either shave off clean the hair on the face

and head or in contrast, grow it long leave it uncut and even have a turban to

tie it up. There are others who either carry a special symbol - the cross with

the Christians , the Lingam with the Lingkayatas and so forth. There are others

who wear the ash like the Saivas or a white paste in a certain shape on their

forehead like the VaishNavas.

 

Such people and who has been with us from the primitive times -- the medicine

man who wears masks and tiger skins and paints his face with all kinds weird

patterns are the precursors to such antics that exists throughout the world

today.

 

But the important question is that why they do that , why they behave in this

way? And in fact go out of the way to show their DIFFERENCE in all these weird

ways? What are they trying to accomplish by such weird antiques where they make

themselves stand out as DIFFERENT?

 

This question becomes a central question for Depth Psychology of the type we are

trying forge for such men are there in the world and constitute the essential

source of spirituality as well as bestiality. It is quite peculiar for while all

great achievements that has brought about higher degrees of civilized life are

accomplishments of such people, the most horrendous crimes and beastly acts

where millions have been mercilessly killed have also been committed by such

people. While one kind sees MEANING as LOVE and works for the prosperity of the

whole humanity, the other sees MEANING in killing and eliminating those who are

different and all in

the interest of bringing about a uniformity.

 

Anyone who sees the world situation today can easily see the point being made.

 

Clearly in the personality of such non average individuals there are the

immensely sane as well as the insane. What becomes worrying and hence a problem

for psychology is that there is TYRANNY in the name of an ideology or religion

instead of Pedagogy that would uplift the individuals and make them more humane

and cultured.

 

And we have to UNDERSTAND this before we enter into suggesting solutions by way

overcoming such insanities. But the understanding that we seek -- can it

provided by an array of tests that measures out intelligence aptitude attitude

and so forth? Can an array of questionnaires directed at such persons and

others connected with them provide the necessary insights that would furnish us

an UNDERSTANDING of this phenomena? Can sophisticated laboratory tests that

detail the perceptual processes , the brain anatomy and so forth locate the

origins of such a social phenomena? Can the analysis of the gene structure so

fashionable now

a days furnish us the details that makes a person non average and in that make

him wear various kinds of guises to emphasize that he is different?

 

I doubt very much. The facts of the matter as we have outlined is commonplace

enough and a statistical survey may make the account more detailed with

percentages and some description of the contextual condition. But such an

information is NOT the UNDERSTANDING that we seek

 

But what can provide that which we seek?

 

It is certainly a METAPHYSICAL insight and which may be beyond the individuals

themselves or their neighbors or close associates. All these people are IGNORANT

of the matter and hence it is supremely unproductive to interrogate them through

a questionnaire well constructed in terms being a valid and effective

psychological instrument.

 

The metaphysical understanding that we seek is BEYOND any instruments including

in the extended sense as applied to a questionnaire. What makes a person non

average and hence behave thus is a matter belonging to the UNCONSCIOUS, where we

are using this word in a sense quite different from Freud or even Jung and in

the sense that of being not aware. The recluse who becomes murderous in his

fanatical zeal knows that he is moved by such passions but does not know why he

behaves thus. He is puzzle unto himself only because

he is NOT AWARE of his own depths.

 

We have to contemplate into his behavior and taking such behaviors as TEXTS with

duality of structure, the Surface and the Deep, we have seek out the Deep

Structure that configures the Surface Structure that we have captured as the

typical behavior of the non average.

 

A little contemplation with this methodological issue clarified thus we note

that a man seeks to abandon his averageness and don on GUISES of various kinds

as a way of reaching BEYOND the natural modes of being in the world or living.

He wants to TRANSMUTE his existence so that it ceases to be the average and

becomes in way extraordinary, something that would be respected and even

worshipped by others. In a way we can say that a man sports weird attires and

assumes different guises by way of responding to inner pressures that push him

towards becoming a non average person. Thus we can say that he is RESPONDING to

something metaphysical, something that erupts in his DEPTHS and begins to

channel his worldly behavior

by possessing him so to speak.

 

But why then the different guises and a tenacious clinging to these bordering

insanity?

 

It appears to me that such individuals suffer from a psychopathology arising out

of a metaphysical kind of fear, the fear of NUDITY, of NirvaNa as the Buddhists

would say. Man is in fact NOTHING, in essence he is NOT any of the social

identities in which he finds a social anchorage, sociations of various kinds

that effectively cover up the essence that he is NOTHING of that all. The

average person, because of the thickness of the metaphysical ignorance, is

blissfully unaware of it all. However when it dawns as if spontaneously that he

is in fact NOTHING, all these worldly identities are simply things that will

fall off when the time comes, a fear grips his soul and he builds a defense

against the devastating impact of this

insight by going out of the way to emphasize the outward guises that he

concretizes in terms of attires and symbolic marks - ready even to kill those

who are seen offenders of this that has also become SACRED.

 

The SACRED thus discloses a metaphysical awareness that serves as bulwark

against the devastating NOTHINGNESS of the human essence. We can also see that

like little children who are still attached to the mother and who would become

disturbed and demoralized if this mother figure is removed, there are the non

average adults but children in the metaphysical life who would attach themselves

to the SACRED they are exposed. Any act that would be offensive to this would

be seen as sacrilege against God and deemed punishable even by death but all in

the selfish interest of preserving self from disintegration.

 

Thus there is metaphysical childhood as much as adulthood of man and hence there

are MATURATIONAL processes in nature that would bring about such maturity.

 

 

 

 

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