Evolution of Consciousness (39)- Cause & Effect

Cause and Effect in the Psychological Plane.

 It is long time since I posted.

My apologies to those, who were reading my posts, spite of its short comings.

I will do my best to post as frequently as possible.

Now,

Coming to the topic,

We are familiar with the Cause and Effect chain in the Physical plane.

They are deterministic in nature - ice heated will invariably become water and so on.

Does such a sequence exist in the psychological plane?

For instance,

Does loss of money or job bring about a deterministic effect on a person?

We know through our experience that it is not so, because we do see

Same quantum of loss has different psychological impact on different persons.

For example,

Death of dear ones may produce psychological paralysis in one person and minor

depression on another.

Looking closely, unlike in the Physical plane,

The external causes do not have any deterministic (automatic) effect on the person.

Instead,

It is the ‘ME’ that judges, qualifies and quantifies the causes and produce an effect.

The effects can be positive or negative.

The intensity could be disappointment, depression, Suicidal/Homicidal Tendencies or

Ecstasy, Joy etc.

It all depends on one’s content of Ego-Self.

What we are arriving at is,

The effect entirely depends on one’s Ego-Self and not on external causes.              

As far as psychological plane is concerned,

External causes can be considered only as Triggers or Reasons, similar to the triggers

that create allergic reactions in the body.

Let us take a broader look,

Rain can be beneficial to a farmer and detrimental to a street vendor.

Rain can be source of fun to children and source of worry to the old.

The Rain as such is mute but gains meaning only through the ‘Me’.

This is the idea behind the phrase ‘you are the World, World is you’.

It is not the physical World but the relationship one has with the world through the ‘ME”.

The world that ‘I’ interacts, is essentially the world created by the ‘I’.

Pleasant possibilities or painful realities that one DISCOVERS in the world are actually 

PROJECTIONS made by the ‘ME’.

That is,

In the psychological plane Cause and Effect are internally related (Subjectively),

Where as cause and effect are externally related (Objectively) in the Physical plane.

In other words,

Cause and Effect are two sides of the same coin – The ME or Ego-Self.

Therefore,

Though one is not responsible for the external causes, but entirely

responsible for its influence and impact.

Because, it is the Ego-Self or Me that assigns the meaning and value to the other wise

mute events.

On realization of this ‘responsibility’,

One is able looks inward into the belief-system of desires, ambitions, prejudices etc.

This can bring stability, clarity, focus and energy to handle the situations rationally and

intelligently.

But,

Normal reaction to an adverse situation is panic, confusion and instability, putting the

blame entirely on the external causes.

Therefore,

One has to stop the normal impulsive response and become conscious of reactions

arising out of adverse situations without yielding to it.

The useful tool here is ‘Self Remembering’ by Gurdjieff.

We have discussed its potential, structure and simplicity many times in the earlier posts.

But,

Self-Remembering is not passive empirical knowledge but active ‘Being’.

That is, one has to remember one self even while reading this text.

We will visit it again.