Healing the soul

Self-government

A community is centralized when it has a decision-making center, when decisions are made for the entire community. A community can be centralized without having a leader. Its members only have to make decisions together which must then be respected by everyone.

The human individual is not self-sufficient. They need a community to develop their abilities.

Human beings are generally much stronger and more competent when united than when disunited. This principle of value creation by composition is very general: the compound has more value than the separate components. If the compound has less value than the sum of the values of the separate components, it is better to separate them.

An individual's psychological resources also obey the principle of value creation by composition. We increase our faculties by making them work together.

The will resembles a decision-making center. All psychic resources can contribute to the decision and they must all respect the decisions that have been made.

Perception, imagination, emotions, thought (the imagination of speech) and will result from the cooperation between all our psychic resources. There is a community of resources that thinks, but it has no leader. Since there is no leader of thoughts, we can say 'I think therefore I am not'. But we can also say that the self is precisely this centralized community without a leader. A coherent will creates the unity of the community, and therefore the unity of the self.

The power of speech

We always perceive beings by perceiving their properties and their relations, therefore by perceiving concepts.

Imagination is a simulation of perception. It attributes concepts to absent beings, as if they were present and perceived.

With speech, we can say what we perceive and imagine what we say. We can say what we perceive because we can name the concepts. We can imagine what we say because we can simulate the perception of the concepts we name. The name of a concept is like a note on a sheet of music. Simulating the perception of this concept is like hearing this note. Speeches are like the scores of our dreams.

We use imagination to act. The goals, the paths to achieve them and the consequences are imagined before we decide on them. By giving us control of the imagination, speech at the same time gives us control of action.

The fire of emotions

Our emotions are balanced when they help us make good decisions adapted to reality. Emotional balance is a necessary condition for the proper use of will.

Emotional balance resembles a peaceful society where all psychic resources work together for their common good. Emotional imbalance is like collective madness, or civil war.

When an effect strengthens the cause that produced it, we are in the presence of a positive feedback loop: even a small deviation from the equilibrium position of a pencil placed on its tip imposes a force of gravity on the pencil which removes it further from its position of equilibrium; in a nuclear bomb, the free neutrons break the heavy nuclei which then release more neutrons; a spark in a flammable vapor releases heat which triggers chemical reactions which in turn release more heat ...

We feel an anguish that oppresses us and frightens us because we believe that it will kill us, as if the heart or the chest were going to explode. Believing that we are going to die of it makes us more anxious, we are more oppressed and we are confirmed in our conviction that we are going to die of it. In the panic attack, the anxiety itself is terribly distressing.

We feel sad and we tell ourselves that this sadness deprives us of a good life and will always do. We will never find happiness or peace because we are only able to be sad. In the morning we anticipate a day of sadness and to think in this way makes us disproportionately sad. In depression, sadness itself is saddening.

For once we are in a good mood, we feel good, as if we were cured of depression, as if it was a rebirth. This illusion of healing reinforces the joy that we feel. Elation itself is elating.

After the initial trauma, we feel broken inside, we no longer recognize ourselves, we have lost our previous life. Becoming aware of this inner disaster is in turn traumatic. Being traumatized is traumatic.

An intense and unfulfilled desire causes pain. The more one suffers from frustration, the more the fulfillment of desire is desirable, in order to get rid of suffering. Intense desire is itself a cause of increased desire.

The more a memory arouses emotions, the better and more often it is remembered, because emotions signal what is important. But this can have a perverse effect: it is painful to remember a painful past. The more often we remember it, the more painful it is. The more painful it is, the more often it is remembered.

Hatred prevents people from enjoying life. We are not even able to enjoy a good time anymore. This permanent incapacity is the main harm inflicted by those who attacked us. Even when they are no longer there to provoke us, the hatred is still there and it eats away at us from within. We have more hatred precisely because we have hatred, because we lost our life before we hated. When hatred is persistent, it is itself a cause of increased hatred. What is most infuriating about hatred is that it infuriates us.

If we blush in public, we feel ridiculous and we blush more, to the point that we think of running away. Shame itself can be a cause of increased shame.

Detachment

The Buddha (the awakened one):

"He insulted me, he beat me, he defeated me, he stole me". Do they attach themselves to these reproaches: there is no appeasement for their hatred.

"He insulted me, he beat me, he defeated me, he stole me". Do they not attach themselves to these reproaches: appeasement for their hatred.

Certainly, in this world never hatred appeases hatred, but absence of hatred does : eternal law.

(Dhammapada 3-5)

We can be trapped by an obsessive emotion, we are as if caught, but we are caught because we allowed ourselves to be caught. Emotions hold us because we hold on to them. They let us go when we let them go. To free ourselves from the grip of an emotion, we have to let it pass and go away, we have to detach ourselves.

Let it come, let it pass, let it go.

The mind can be inflamed by an emotion. The detachment makes it refractory, capable of withstanding very high temperatures.

Should we remove all attachments? If we had to detach ourselves from everything, we would have to not even worry about our own life. Even the Buddha took care of his health.

Attaching ourselves to detachment is paradoxical. Should we get angry because we are not detached? Should we detach ourselves from our attachment to detachment? There are good and bad attachments. Detaching ourselves from bad attachments is a good principle to hold on to.

How do we tell the difference between good and bad attachments? When we realize that we live very well with the former, and that we do very well without the latter.

Anger is the natural reaction to injustice, and sometimes we become enraged. Should we renounce our attachment to justice? Is wisdom to be detached in the face of all the injustices and horrors of the world?

It is good to be commited to justice. When indignation is legitimate, we must be indignant, but we must not be enraged. When we are enraged, it is not only because of injustice, it is also and above all because of our attachments to vanities. We must detach ourselves from vanities, but not from justice. And if legitimate indignation leaves no room for forgiveness, it in turn becomes an injustice.

Healing by thought

Interpretation is part of perception. The perception of reality therefore depends on our decisions. As reality exists for us only from its perception, we make our own reality when we choose our interpretations.

The Buddha awakened when he understood that he was the creator of his perception of reality, like a dreamer who wakes up realizing that he has dreamed.

The perception of reality does not depend only on our decisions. We are not free to invent perceived reality in the same way that we are free to invent any fantasy. We must take into account the testimony of the senses and introspection. The perception of reality can be more or less adapted to what is not dependent on us, to the external or internal reality that we have not decided.

When we suffer from psychic disorders, it is not reality alone but the perception of reality that causes pain. Since we choose our perception, we ourselves are one of the causes of our own suffering. But that does not mean that we are doomed to inflict perpetual torment on ourselves. By replacing a perception which destabilizes by one which gives balance, we can hope to cure the majority of the psychic disorders.

Emotional troubles make us feel overwhelmed by our emotions. As we do not control their triggering we feel invaded by internal forces against which we believe we can do nothing. But it is an illusion. Emotions depend on our interpretations. By voluntarily controlling our interpretations, we can gain mastery over our emotions. Through thought, self-consciousness is powerful enough to appease or extinguish the fire of emotions.

Sickness by thought

The world is nothing but a game for the powers of evil. Either it is random, it is senseless and leads nowhere except horror.

Everything that claims to be beautiful and honorable is just hypocrisy and lies.

There is no hope. The just are crushed, the unjust triumph, always.

Hunger drives us crazy, then it kills. God doesn't care about the hungry. We have to fight not to die.

He humiliated me. I will never accept it. He will pay. Rather die than not take revenge.

We are here to serve evil. Any resistance is useless.

Healing by prayer

Our Father,
who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come.

Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
 as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.

Amen

The master of being is like a good parent, our father, who wants the good of his children, all beings. He is in heaven, because his power is eternal, because he is not corruptible.

He teaches us how to love him, because there is nothing better than loving him. Hallowed be his name.

We must hope, because in despair we can only find unhappiness. But without God we can do nothing, because everything we can comes from him. We must hope that his kingdom come, that his will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven, because there is nothing better to hope for.

The fruits of the Earth are for everyone. God gave us bread, milk, honey and dates for us all to enjoy, to share together in gratitude. Thank him for giving us this day our daily bread.

Hatred enslaves. Forgiveness delivers. The obsession with revenge makes one incapable of enjoying the present moment, of welcoming happiness when it comes, of loving, of living peacefully. Without the strength to forgive, we would be condemned to unhappiness and madness. We must thank God for giving us this strength. And forgiveness also frees us from the feeling of guilt, because by forgiving, we deserve to be forgiven in our turn. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

The powers of evil want us to believe that there is no point in resisting their temptations, that refusing to serve them fatally condemns us and that beliefs about good or justice are only illusions. The voice of evil: there is no other power than me. But it's a deception. The power of evil rests on this lie. We only give up resisting if we allow ourselves to be fooled. Prayer reveals that there is a higher power, because evil cannot destroy the strength to pray while one is still alive. By saying “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" we reveal a power greater than that of evil.

Those who do not know what is a prayer believe that it is based on superstition: as if there was a good God who would grant our wishes, as if we believed in Santa Claus. Those who know it know that it can be very effective, because it is a way of acting on oneself. By praying we can bear what would otherwise be unbearable. A rationalist believer does not renounce reason when he prays because he does not ask for the impossible. Thinking “Lord, help me not to sink” helps to not sink. Prayer restores inner balance.

Ethics

Emotions and decisions work together. Balanced emotions lead to balanced decisions that protect emotional balance.

Emotions and decisions tumble together. Unbalanced emotions lead to unbalanced decisions which worsen the emotional imbalance.

All our decisions are evaluated using ethical rules. Is it good or bad? Is it essential, desirable, bearable, intolerable?

Ethical rules are among the most fundamental because we use them to evaluate all rules. If we approve an ethical rule, we make a decision that binds all future decisions.

A computer is a programmable machine, a machine built to obey, blindly, down to the comma, programs. A program is a speech written by a programmer, who is generally a human mind, but who can also be a machine. A properly programmed machine is capable of writing itself programs that it can obey.

An operating system is the fundamental program that operates a computer's resources (microprocessor, memory and peripherals). It is fundamental because it controls the execution of all other programs, the applications. Its function is to run all applications while preserving the integrity of the machine. If an application is poorly made, a good operating system should protect the machine from any harm it could cause. If an application crashes, and if the operating system is bad, the machine crashes too, but we generally just need to restart it, and there is no damage, except wasted time. A truly good operating system never lets any application crash the machine. But a really bad operating system can let an application destroy the machine, let it burn, through overpowering, or other forms of self-destruction.

A good operating system protects the integrity of the machine while giving it the means to run all applications. Good ethics protect the integrity of all minds while giving them the means to fully exercise their freedoms.

An ethic can be bad because it recommends bad ends, dangerous for minds, or because it is not adapted to reality and leads to desiring the impossible.

Good ethics are a necessary condition for emotional balance. No ethics, no healing of the soul.

The good society

An individual always benefits from having good rules. With good principles, he governs himself well and protects his inner balance. With bad principles he makes himself sick.

Individuals always benefit from having good rules to make a good community together. With good principles, they work to live well together. With bad principles, they make each other sick.

In working for the good of others, a mind at the same time works for his own good. A mind who never works for others is like a stowaway that condemns himself to a miserable life, because he never learns to develop his intelligence and skills.

The good of one mind is to live for the good of all minds. But we cannot do good to minds against their will. Without a good society, without a community of minds who together want the good of all minds, there cannot be self-fulfillment, because a mind is deprived of the means to do good. No good society, little or no good, no real accomplishment.

What should we do to give our children a good education? Let's give them a good society. Because a bad society makes them sick and deprives them of the means to do good.