Thoughts without a thinker - Mark Epstein

In Buddhism, there is a famous image known as the Wheel of Life that represents the universe, or more precisely, existence itself. This wheel places desire, anger, and delusion right at its center, represented by a snake, a rooster, and a pig, respectively. The snake and rooster are shown as arising from the mouth of a pig, which indicates that the destructive nature of desire and anger arises due to delusion (ignorance).
They're known as the three poisons and are considered the root of all suffering. But these ideas aren't unique to Buddhism. In Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis, Eros and Thanatos represent the same concepts as the snake and rooster in Buddhism. In fact, desire, symbolized by the snake, and anger, symbolized by the rooster, were among the first forces recognized by psychoanalysis.

Freud said that while Eros and Thanatos are innate to all humans, we repress them. He argued that it was this repression that formed the primary source of psychological suffering. In Greek mythology, Eros is the god of love . For Buddhists, however, desire is what keeps us striving for pleasant experiences, like love, and rejecting unpleasant ones, like suffering.

Meanwhile, Thanatos is defined in Greek mythology as the personification of death, and in Freud's interpretation, it's the death drive that explains the human penchant for anger. Freud argued that death is involved in every aspect of our psyches, producing anger deep within us. He even said that the anger of others conjures thoughts of death, and that simply being yelled at by another person will cause us to think of death, which is why many of us so commonly think of death as a death. This is why many of us so carefully avoid such confrontations.  

We delude ourselves into believing such a thing as the self exists. The third core of the Buddhist wheel of life is delusion, represented by the black hog. In Buddhism, delusion is said to prevent us from perceiving ourselves accurately. In psychoanalysis, it is the underlying cause of a variety of behavioral disorders, such as dissociative disorder, in which the subject experiences a split in his personality. Psychoanalysis says that when a child gradually comes to realize that his mother is separate from him, he needs something else to hold on to. After all, as babies, our mothers care for us extremely attentively, and we feel a part of a unified whole. Then, as we slowly come to realize the truth and comprehend our limitations, we are unconsciously driven to yield to the temptation of satisfying our every desire. In the end, this can result in the conception of a false self that denies how terribly helpless and small we truly are.

Many common yet painful psychological disorders are caused by an inflated or deflated sense of self. Because of the tension between one's true nature and social self, a person's sense of self can become entirely warped. For instance, we often have to be quiet when all we want to do is scream, and are at times forced to say what others expect, regardless of what we think. In this way, we learn that being accepted means appearing to be someone we're not, someone who is better, smarter, stronger, or more confident. In the process, we suppress our true thoughts and feelings. The result can be deep-seated psychological trauma due to years of inflating and deflating our sense of self. This disorder expresses itself through pathological self-centeredness and an overpowering need for admiration. This disorder expresses itself through pathological self-centeredness and an overpowering need for admiration.

Buddhism can offer relief from mental illness by freeing you from the self. We've seen that the cause of many mental illnesses is a disproportionate sense of self, whether it's inflated or deflated. But Buddhism might have a cure for both of these ailments. Breaking free from these deluded ideas of the self that foster psychological issues is accomplished through meditation and compassion. When in a meditative state, you can experience your thoughts and the sensations of your body without feeling attached to them. In other words, meditation offers you a bird's eye view of your experience. By practicing meditation for long enough, you can come to understand how the self is truly empty by nature.

Another essential aspect of Buddhist practice is compassion. The Dalai Lama even believes it to be the central facet of Buddhism and the key to real happiness. After all, when you behave with compassion, you instinctively put the needs of others before your own. That necessarily means keeping your ego from taking over and avoiding narcissistic behavior. So while psychoanalysis works to root out the true self, Buddhism is primarily concerned with unearthing the delusion that such a thing exists. Its end goal is the unmasking of this truth and the understanding that the true nature of the self is simply emptiness.

Hungry ghosts are the powerful metaphors originating in that Buddhist image of existence, the wheel of life. These ghostly creatures are depicted as having huge stomachs and narrow necks. Because of this, they constantly crave never-reaching satisfaction.

According to Freud, humans are all happy as babies, since a parent or caregiver tends to our every need. When babies cry, their mothers are sympathetic without judgment. Then, as we grow up, stuffed animals become our transitional objects, taking over the role that our mothers played in our imagination. In this way, Freud believed that teddy bears and mothers help babies cope with their emotions.

But what he didn't realize was that Buddhists had already discovered a way to reconnect with this blissful state of bare attention to our needs, by observing their emotions non-judgmentally. This approach is powerful, and if you can learn to accept your emotions, you'll handle them easily. Just consider one of the author's patients, Sid. Sid had grown obsessed with a girl named Rachel, and was calling her so often that it had virtually become harassment. The author asked Sid to work with the Buddhist technique of bare attention, allowing himself to feel the pain and let his emotions wash over him like rain, without attempting to fix them or scratch the itch, which in Sid's case meant calling Rachel. One night, Sid was lying in bed and decided to feel his pain without dialing Rachel's number. He lay in bed all night with his sensation, and by doing so, took the first step toward recovery. By harnessing the meditative power of bare attention, Sid learned to live with his pain.

Mindfulness is about training yourself to exist in the present moment by focusing your attention on your body and breath, rather than the thoughts that constantly threaten to pull you into the depths of your own head. Mindfulness is a great tool to stop excessive worrying about the future, or to avoid replaying painful experiences in your mind. To successfully practice mindfulness, the key is to feel grounded by remaining in your body. The Buddha found that humans feel alienated when our minds and bodies are in conflict, which is why it's so important to stay in the moment. For example, when brushing your teeth in the morning, you could let your mind focus on the sensation of the brush and the flavor of the toothpaste, rather than racing ahead to all the things you have to do at work that day. By doing so, your mind and body will function as a single entity, which will make things feel more real and less alien.

You can also practice mindfulness through your breathing. In fact, most meditative practices, regardless of the tradition they come from, involve the breath in one way or another. A focus on breathing is an excellent way to stay present. And presence of mind isn't the only benefit. In addition to bringing you into your body, focusing on your breath will enable you to experience time and the world in a more real way. This is essential since mindfulness is all about remaining grounded in the present and not over-worrying about the future.