| MC |
A
file footage is on screen now. What
does the saying mean? |
| RHEE |
Suppose
I'm treating a teenager patient. At
first he'd say that his parents love
him most, that they are the best parents
in the whole world, and so forth. Then
I'd say, "Pull out whatever feeling
you have in your mind, whether good
or bad, of your parents." After
a while, he may express extreme hostility
against his mother. The hostility may
be so intense that he may have had a
hidden wish to kill his mother. Mother,
who has been taken as the symbol of
love, is now the object of extreme hatred.
This kind of complete reverse of value
or absolute negation is called the 180
degree state. But once he has poured
out all those negative feelings, memories
of all the love his mother gave him
comes back so that positive feelings
of mother once again prevail. It's so-called
the 360 degree state, as expressed the
Buddhist saying, "The mountain
is a mountain, the stream is a stream."
It may appear to be identical with the
original state before all the processes
of treatment so far described. But there
is a fundamental difference between
the zero degree state and the 360 degree
state: Having made a complete 360 degree
turn, he is now in his true Self that
embraces both negation and affirmation.
In the zero degree state, negation was
oppressed and therefore positive feelings
were not grounded in full affirmation.
It was not a true Self. The goal of
Buddhist Zen practice is also to make
that kind of complete 360 degree turn
and find so-called the True Self or
the Original Mind. But the Western psychoanalysis,
as I said earlier, never go beyond the
idea of Self as the undeniable subject
of mental activities. That's the fundamental
difference of psychoanalysis from the
Eastern tradition of the Tao. The latter
goes further, and aims at going beyond
subjective ideas and self-attachment
to the state where there is no subject/object
dichotomy. |
| MC |
Then
the idea of the Tao is that we can find
our true selves by embracing both affirmation
and negation.
They say all modern men, without exception, have mental disorder to some degrees. Would you please explain the significance of the Tao regarding the problems of modern civilization?
|
| RHEE |
When
we say "modern civilization,"
we used to refer to the Western civilization―as
if there were no other civilization.
Anyhow, Lewis Mumford, an American philosopher,
said in his book Human Condition that
the history of the Western civilization
since Renaissance has been that of destructive
desire. Many of us are misled to think
that Renaissance was a liberation of
Self. But seen from psychoanalytical
point of view, Renaissance was indeed
a liberation of human instinctual desires
and thus diminution of the true Self.
It was a liberation of the selfish desire
for conquest―conquest of other nations,
nature, and other people. |
| MC |
You
mean predominance of collective selfishness. |
| RHEE |
Yes.
But the exploitation of the selfish
desire for conquest is sure to end up
with being conquered. For example, we
have been exploiting nature to fulfill
our selfish desires. But now nature
has begun to revenge us for it. We are
about to be conquered by nature. |
| MC |
By
nature! |
| RHEE |
Yes.
by nature! And it means an overall destruction
of mankind. How can we solve this problem?
Lewis Mumford suggests that the solution
be in self- examination or self-control
of mankind.
This is not different from
emphasis on self-control and negation
of desire in the Eastern tradition.
And it is same as saying that realization
of the Tao is the sole and final solution
of all the problems of modern Western
civilization. Psychoanalysis or counselling
also aims at attaining the ability of
self-control. Of course, Mumford didn't
know the Eastern tradition of the Tao.
But self-examination or self-control
he advocated is actually the practice
of the Tao. In Confucian terminology,
it is "To Overcome Self";
and in Buddhist terminology, "To
Be the Master of Self." To be the
master of Self―that's the Tao. On the
contrary, to be swayed by personal feelings
and emotions―that's what we call neurosis. |
| MC |
Isn't
it true that one of the most fundamental
fear we have is that of death? |
| RHEE |
Yes. |
