The author of this website (Richard) is truly experienced and
has deep insights on Anatta.
http://actualfreedom.com.au/introduction/actualfreedom1.htm
A new,
non-spiritual, down-to-earth method of freeing oneself
from the
genetically-encoded animal instinctual passions, enabling
one
to become
actually free from the Human Condition of malice and sorrow
…
to be both
happy and harmless.
The search for freedom has been a search for
freedom from the rigid shackles of one’s instilled social identity
and the search for peace and happiness has been a search for a
means of finally bringing an end to both personal and global malice
and sorrow.
The shamans and priests have commandeered this
innate search with the promise of an ultimate peace and happiness
in a mythical ‘life-after-death’ should one bow down to and worship
a particular God or follow a particular teaching. This seductive
promise of immortality for one’s ‘self’ or soul is a powerful lure
that is passionately fuelled by the basic fear that underlies the
innate survival instinct – the fear of death.
The Eastern religions further add the
possibility of becoming a God-man whilst on earth – a position of
ultimate power and authority over others that is irresistibly
appealing for many – and the resulting enslavery inherent in the
master-disciple system is the antithesis of freedom. The search for
a ‘spiritual’ freedom, peace and happiness, based on ancient
superstition and metaphysical ‘other-worldly’ beliefs has been
on-going for thousands of years and has now had its day.
It’s time for a pragmatic and practical
approach to finding a genuine and actual freedom from the Human
Condition in total. A freedom from ancient belief and
spiritual superstition. A freedom from the necessity of forever
attempting to obey pious morals and follow unliveable ethics in
order to keep one’s instinctual passions under control. And,
finally, a freedom from the instinctual animal instinctual passions
themselves – a freedom from the instinctual passions of fear,
aggression, nurture and desire.
It’s now time to get to the very root of the
real problem on earth –
the ancient, hoary and persistent belief that ‘you can’t change
human nature’.
The modern scientific empirical discoveries of
neuro-biology and genetics, with regard to the human brain and how
it functions, have revealed two very fascinating aspects
–
1.
That the brain is programmable in the same way
a computer is programmable. The program is formed by physical
connections or pathways between neurons, and this program is mostly
formed after birth. These pathways (synapse) are also capable of
being changed at any time. The old connection simply ‘dies’ for
lack of use and a new one is formed.
2.
That the human brain is also pre-programmed,
via a genetic code, with a set of base or instinctual operating
functions, located in the primitive brain system which causes
automatic thoughtless passionate reactions, primarily those of
fear, aggression, nurture and desire, to be transmitted via
chemical messages to various parts of the body including the
neo-cortex. Physiological alterations that could eliminate this
crude programming, as a biological adaptation to changed
circumstances, are well documented within the animal
species.
The first discovery accords with the practical
experience of being able to radically change one’s social identity
– the program instilled since birth that consists of the morals,
ethics, values and psittacisms that make up our social identity. It
stands to reason that a psychological identity that is malleable to
radical change is also susceptible to total elimination.
The
second discovery accords with the practical possibility of
eliminating one’s very ‘being’ – the emotive source of the
instinctual survival passions of fear, aggression, nurture and
desire. This blind and senseless survival program is now well and
truly redundant for many human beings and can now be safely
deleted, for the human species has not only survived … it is now
beginning to flourish.
to recap …
©
OECD.org
©
OECD.org
Human beings are unique amongst
the animal species in that we have a large ‘modern’ brain, the
neo-cortex, capable of thinking, planning and reflecting overlaying
the primitive reptilian brain – the source of the instinctual
passions of fear, aggression, nurture and desire.
Recent studies by LeDoux and
others empirically confirm that the ‘quick and dirty’ instinctual
passionate responses of the primitive brain are primary in
that any instinctual response is so quick and so strong that it
invariably negates the possibility of thoughtful, considered
responses of the neo-cortex.
We are in fact genetically
programmed to be driven, consumed or overwhelmed by the animal
instinctual survival passions. Thus, in spite of all our best and
well-meaning efforts to keep our malice and sorrow under control,
to be ‘civilized beings’, we are but ‘brute animal’, at our very
core.
LeDoux’s studies concern the
relationship between the thalamus (relay centre), the amygdala
(primitive brain) and the neo-cortex (modern brain). The most
significant observation of LeDoux’s experimentation is that the
sensory input to the brain is split at the thalamus into two
streams – one to the amygdala and one to the neo-cortex.
The input stream to the amygdala
is significantly quicker – 12 milliseconds as opposed to 25
milliseconds to the neo-cortex. Also, less information goes to the
amygdala – it operates as a quick primal scan to check for danger,
or opportunity, which is why it is described as the ‘quick and
dirty’ processing pathway.
This quick-scan pathway not only
results in automatic thoughtless instinctual-emotional responses
but the amygdala also has a direct connection to the neo-cortex –
thereby setting off a secondary thoughtful instinctual-emotional
selfish response.
The resultant cocktail of chemicals set off by
these responses serves to make the emotions of fear, aggression,
nurture and desire so palpable as to be compulsive and, very often,
addictive.
.
All humans are instilled with an
instinctual animal ‘self’ that is the very core of the
self-survival program. Although the instinctual survival program is
genetically-encoded in animals so as to ensure the survival of the
species and not the individual, in humans the survival program is
also ‘self’-centred.
Our instinctual-rudimentary ‘self’
is both palpable and potent due to the surge of chemicals arising
from the primitive brain. This ‘self’ is our instinctual ‘being’ at
our very animal core – instinctual, thoughtless and
emotional.
Further, this primitive ‘self’ is made more
complex in human beings by our ability to think and reflect and, as
such, we have a more elaborated ‘self’ consisting of ‘who’ we think
ourselves to be as well as ‘who’ we feel ourselves to be. ‘Who’ we
think and feel ourselves to be is both a psychological ‘self’ and
an instinctual ‘self’ – both mental and emotional – manifest as a
discordant and alien identity that appears to be located as a
thinker in the head and as a feeler in the heart and
gut.
Given that the instinctual
animal ‘self’ in humans has morphed into a sophisticated and
cunning psychological and psychic identity that appears to live
within the flesh and blood body, it is obvious that the instinctual
animal passions can only be eradicated by eliminating both the
psychological ‘self’ and the instinctual ‘self’.
The elimination of one’s ‘self’
needs to be total – both ‘who’ you think you are as a social
identity and ‘who’ blind nature has programmed you to instinctively
feel you are … in spiritual terms, both the ‘ego’ and the
‘soul’.
The good news is that with the
extinction of who you think and feel you are what you are
will emerge – a flesh and blood human being, free of malice and
sorrow and free of any metaphysical delusions
whatsoever.
To deliberately set out on a
course of ‘self’-immolation seems madness in the extreme, but one
only needs to take a clear-eyed look at the Human Condition with
the mayhem of malice and sorrow and the frantic and futile attempts
to rein it in, to see what is fondly regarded as ‘sanity’ in
operation.
Whilst the elimination of the
instinctual passions may appear a worthwhile and sensible
thing to do, the real lure to do so is to be found in the glimpses
of the innate purity and perfection of the physical universe itself
that is evident in temporary experiences of ‘self’-lessness known
as a Pure Consciousness Experience (PCE).
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