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Overview
The idea of self-fulfillment is the central theme of our time. People believe that if they can fulfill their own needs, they will be successful and happy. However, this concept is flawed because people do not know what the true meaning of “self” is.
Indeed, nowadays in the Western world, mental illness is endemic and psychoanalysts trace our mental suffering to a false conception of the self. But it wasn’t Freud who first uncovered the meaning of the self; we have to go back even further in time to ancient India – and Buddha’s teachings – for that.
The following are key points in this article:
The Buddhist teachings remind us of Freud’s theories.
Westerners can learn from the Buddhist ideas about enlightenment, which will make them happier and lead to selflessness.
You must focus on your taste buds when you brush your teeth if you ever want to achieve the wisdom of “no-self” (a concept similar to enlightenment).
By realizing that there is no true self, we may reach a state where our mind is free and liberated from attachment—this leads to happiness by reducing stress in our lives.
Big Idea #1: Buddhism and psychoanalysis have a shared emphasis on common feelings.
In Buddhism, there is a famous image known as the Wheel of Life that represents existence. This wheel places desire, anger and delusion right at its center. The snake is biting the rooster’s tail while the rooster bites the hog’s tail.
The three animals on the wheel represent desire, anger and delusion. They are also known as the “three poisons” because they keep us bound to the world of suffering.
Buddhism is not the only religion that has these ideas. The snake and rooster represent desire and anger in Buddhism, but they are also present in Freud’s psychoanalysis.
Sigmund Freud said that we are born with two innate forces—Eros (love) and Thanatos (death). When these forces are repressed, they cause psychological suffering.
Eros is the Greek god of love. He’s also known as the “life drive” that compels people to procreate. Because of this, some people see it as having sexual undertones, even though Freud wasn’t interested in sex. For Buddhists, desire is what keeps us striving for pleasant experiences and rejecting unpleasant ones like suffering.
Meanwhile, Thanatos is defined as the personification of death in Greek mythology and Freud’s interpretation of it. It’s a part of us that produces anger deep within us.
The author says that being yelled at by others makes us think of death, which is why we try to avoid such confrontations.
Next, the author will talk about the last animal in his book, and how it represents a delusion.
Big Idea #2: We delude ourselves into believing such a thing as “the self” exists.
The third wheel of the Buddhist life cycle is delusion, which is represented by a black hog. In Buddhism, delusion prevents us from perceiving ourselves accurately and leads to various behavioral disorders in which we experience a split personality. The same concept applies in psychoanalysis; however, people with these disorders have an incorrect understanding of themselves. To be enlightened means that you realize there is no self or ego.
For instance, the self is different from the ego. The ego makes decisions to help mediate between our natural drives and societal expectations. Buddhists believe that we can use the ego as a tool in meditation to find enlightenment through its absence of self.
The Buddhist view is that, unless you have actually attained enlightenment, you’re likely suffering from the black hog of delusion.
