CLASS NOTES: The Exterior Version of the Non-Self (Buddhism and Modern Psychology )

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Notes on video lecture:

The Exterior Version of the Non-Self

Buddhism and Modern Psychology

Robert Wright, Princeton University

Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on September 14, 2017 (go to class or lectures)

Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:

tingling, arbitrary, impinged, sound, solid, harm, world, dissolving, mind, cryptic, appreciated, relationships, not, logical, disaggregates, meditate, permeable, brain, identifying, presence, input, identifying, moral

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the interior version of the -self

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looking inside your

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observing feelings and ideas

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not with them

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the exterior version of the not-self

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getting the sense that the bounds of your body are more and porous than you might have thought

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the boundaries are not so

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there's more of an interaction with the out there

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it's a more fluid interaction than you might have

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our realities are a confluence of connections, interactions and

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we normally think of ourselves as acting on the world

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but actually the world acts on us quite a bit

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much of our behavior and thoughts are a consequences of things that have upon us

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in this sense our behavior if a form of output in response to all this

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there's less room for an autonomous self which is generating and initiating thought

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a feeling that you have in your body is no more a part of your self than a you hear outside, since depending on what they rae, they both can influence you in a variety of ways with on wide spectrum of intensity

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both send signals to your

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that one is inside your body and one outside

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more of an difference than a fundamental difference when you consider how much impact each can have on how your self responds and what it becomes

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becoming conscious of these boundaries can be a peaceful and freeing experience

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your sensory apparatus no longer seems like such a fine dividing point

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one can identify with others as one identifies with oneself

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one need not even identify with any of them

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there is just an empty, slow here

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if you're nothing, you are everything

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it sounds

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a bird's song that you hear can be just as much a part of you as the in your foot

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and the tingling in your foot does not have to be a part of you to begin with

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one the self internally

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one sees things outside the body as much a part of you as those experiences coming from inside the body

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implications

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not so much waves of empathy for other human beings, but more with them

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since you identify more often with the world outside you, there is less reason to that part of reality

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if everyone were to regularly and identify themselves as being the inseparable from the world

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can give people the feeling that not harming things is just the thing to do

Spelling Corrections:

porrous ⇒ porous

deliniation ⇒ delineation

Ideas and Concepts:

On the two versions of the not-self, via tonight's Buddhism and Modern Psychology class:

"Normally in Buddhism we talk about the interior version of the not-self, which is the process of looking inside your mind, observing your feelings and ideas, and not identifying with them.

But there is another version called the exterior version of the not-self, in which you get the sense that the bounds of your self in the world are more permeable and porous than you might have imagined.

The boundaries where your self ends and the world begins are actually not very well-defined. There's much more interaction with the world then we tend to realize, and it's a more fluid interaction than we might have previously appreciated.

We normally think of ourselves as an agent acting in the world, but in fact, our realities are a constant confluence of connections, interactions and relationships with everything we hear, see, touch, smell, taste and experience. The world acts on us incessantly, our behavior and thoughts being a consequence of these things that impinge on us.

In this sense, our self is more a form of output in response to all this input. Our self depends on it, is a product of it, and is defined by it. As you consider how influential the world is as it constantly impinges upon you, there's less and less room for a concept of an autonomous self which is generating or initiating thought, but rather, your self simply becomes a product of the world.

For instance, you might have a feeling in your foot and at the same time hear a sound outside, yet depending on what these experiences are, they both can influence you in a variety of ways and with a range of intensity, both simply sending signals to your brain and arising in your mind in much the same way.

That one experience originates from inside your body and the other from outside your body, is more of an arbitrary difference than a fundamental difference when you consider how much impact each can have in forming how your self responds to them and what it becomes because of this response.

Becoming conscious of these dissolving boundaries can be a peaceful and freeing experience."

On the moral implications of Buddhism, via this morning's Buddhism and Modern Psychology class:

"Through the process of meditation, conscientious living, and focusing the mind, as your sense of self begins to increasingly disaggregate and dissipate, the line of delineation of what happens outside your body becomes less clear and less relevant, and this brings with it natural ethical consequences which begin to be apparent.

It's not so much that you begin to experience waves of empathy for other human beings or for the environment, but it is more that who you are expands as you become more than that which you previously identified as.

And so as you identify more often with the world outside you and make less differentiation between it and the world inside you, there is increasingly less reason to harm the part of reality that you previously identified as being other people and your external world, and so you naturally become more motivated and assume a demeanor of increased care for others and stewardship for your environment.

Nothing has changed really, you still take care of yourself as you always have, it's just that the concept of who you are has expanded in scope."