Identity, Attachment and Suffering

Post structuralism and the Personality

The works of Jacques Derrida in the discipline of Post-structuralism and deconstruction are some of the most prominent ones, when it comes to explaining the mechanism of language, the semiotic process of meaning making, and the inherent slipperiness within its working.

Within the process of meaning making, the theorist of semiotics, Ferdinand de Saussure described the concept of a sign, which is a composite whole consisting of two aspects called the signifier and signified. Among these two, the sound or word within language that points towards an object in the physical world, or its essence is referred to as the signifier, while the object or its essence in itself is referred to as the signified. Saussure theorized that meaning making happens when a signifier brings forth the signified associated with it in the mental scape, thereby completing the composite whole of sign, in which process meaning is created.

For instance, the word ‘ball’ calls forth the image of a ball in the mind, along with impressions of touch and other senses associated with it. These impressions, visual, tactile and others, act as the signified and in this association, meaning is formed. At this point, it is clear that most often, any commonly known and used word strikes more than one, and in fact several images at once, in progression.

In the turn of post-structuralism, Derrida took this understanding forward by stating that the fundamental mental faculty being referred to, in the process of signification described above is the ability of the mind to create associations. He stated that the so-called signified, are devoid of any essence of real-world objects and thereby cannot be considered as signified at all. Rather, they are also signifiers in the forms of images, sounds, smells, tastes and tactile ones, pertaining to impressions gathered by the 5 senses. Derrida also pointed out that the association between the signifiers, which is said to create meaning, according to Saussure, is not inherently fixed in any way, and rather is totally arbitrary. This means, that there is no quality in the word or sound ‘ball’ that inherently corresponds to the spherical shaped object it denotes within language.

Derrida proposed that the process of signification works through two main principles. One, the inherent difference between two signifiers, on the basis of which the association is made, and not on the basis of their sameness, the connection being totally arbitrary. Two, the deference postponement of arrival of the signified, by substituting it at every point of signification, with yet another signifier, in the process creating an endless chain. Combining these two processes of difference and deference, Derrida coined the term Différance, which may represent the process of association described above. According to Derrida, language can be perceived as a web, interconnected this way through multiple endless chains of signifiers. In the end, signified is never reached, and the illusion of reaching meaning is only compensated by constant availability of another signifier to add to, in the endless chain.

At this point, it is significant to look at the idea of a personality. It can be described as the composite additive of all the opinions an individual holds, in terms of impressions, likes, dislikes, fear, aversion, infatuation and other such reaction in relation to all the experiences of life they have had so far. Very often, in the process of making oneself known to another individual within the society, people tell others instances from their lives, that may have had a strong impact on their personality, or something about which they have a strong pre-set reaction or opinion.

The Britannica encyclopedia describes personality as:

Personality, a characteristic way of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Personality embraces moods, attitudes, and opinions and is most clearly expressed in interactions with other people. It includes behavioral characteristics, both inherent and acquired, that distinguish one person from another and that can be observed in people’s relations to the environment and to the social group. (Holzman, 2020)

It is visible that, personality is the set of impressions and characteristic responses to them in relation to all the experiences undergone by the individual throughout their life, which is how it is slowly shaped. Also, the primary usage of a personality is to reveal the identity of said individual to other human beings and possibly animals, in any social interaction. All the different tracks an interaction between two human beings can end up taking, is based on the content of the personality of both of them, coupled with the kind of social situation they are in, if it influences the nature of the interaction in some way.

Thus, the primary motive behind the interaction with anybody’s personality is to approach the essence of their self, or to know them in the deepest way possible. In this context, the association between personality and the self is similar to the association between the conceptions of signifier and signified. Derrida stated that behind the very process of signification is the desire to know the essence of the real-world entity or concept that the signifier refers to. However, since the signifier is never reached, thus the desire goes on manifesting itself through the endless chain of significations that language is comprised of. In the same way, personality, being a mixture of impressions and reactions associated with it by the individual, is the embodiment of a signifier, because it circles around the essence of an individual, which is never reached, even though the concept of interaction is aimed towards that knowledge.

The utility of personality and identity

Through this understanding of the process of signification, personality and identity can also be seen as a package of signifiers, the main purpose behind which is to move to the essence of self.

Language has very significant utilitarian value as the range of needs it fulfills for a human being is very wide. Based on the three broad classifications made out of the 5 of Maslow’s needs, both survival and belongingness needs are fulfilled within and through language. As discussed in the paper, the primary reason behind the formation of societies is to organize survival better. However, without language, or the fundamental process of signification, which is necessary for communication, this social understanding in between two human beings would be impossible. Furthermore, in comparison to the societies of the past, the multiplication of complexity and sophistication that can be seen in today’s language is also partially aided by the evolution of language in terms of its complexity.

However, in today’s times, not only survival needs, but belongingness needs have also taken major precedence in most of the societies. Need and pursuit of identity has become a major part of the lives of most human beings and is widely encouraged in the society. The popular movement in practice like the awareness about homosexuality, post-colonial modernity, movements like modernism etc. are movements to encourage the upliftment and identity formation of a certain segment of society. This is important for the progress of the society, because the more the gap in terms of the tier of needs in between two segments of the society increase, the less efficiently it will function as a whole.

Since there is no codified or individual direction that the whole society is heading in, the arguments and inferences made on this level are gross generalizations based on what direction the majority of the individuals are heading in. In reference to that, it can be inferred that most of the individuals in today’s society are functioning in the tier of belongingness needs and their actions are expressions to fulfill this need. For this, language is very important, because identity and personality are created within it, consciously or otherwise.

Foucault described the way in which the power hierarchies are created in social systems through the use of different systems. When a structure with strong Ideological and recessive state apparatuses is created and its discourses disseminated into the masses on a large scale through the popular media, (be it digital in nature like the present, or the word of mouth like in the distant past), then it is easy to bind a population where the level of consciousness in individuals is generally low, and the instinct of self-preservation is high. In such a case, a strong sense of collective identity and belongingness can act as a huge empowerment. For instance, the Indian freedom struggle before independence could only be successful because large masses of people came together to confirm to the idea of India as a nation, and act for its freedom as fellow Indians. When Karl Marx talked about inciting a revolution to break the shackles of the Capitalist structure, then he also proposed the same mechanism of collective identity, where taking advantage of their numerical majority, proletariats unite forces against the powerful minority of Bourgeoisie. Thus, belongingness needs are useful in many ways as far as security and stability issues are concerned within the society.

With the amount of intolerance that people have in their minds against each other, because of clashes in belief systems, naturally, a human being would want to hold on to their identity because it very much resembles a war zone. Only consolation being, that it is not the physical body that is hurt, but the psychological balance, as a result of fluctuations in one’s social standing or respect and acceptance in the society. Empowerment of one’s psychological identity is sensible if the individual in question is in a physically, mentally or emotionally impoverished state. For example, the movements against caste in India are justified because there is a set social hierarchy, which can only be subverted if those belonging to the lower caste perform dissent, for which the external support and encouragement to empower their sense of identity is beneficial. However, for a sufficiently empowered and stable citizen of the society, there is no need for empowerment of individual identity. Instead, they must be encouraged to see through the illusion that enlarging their survival process will lead to fulfillment.

Today, when the technological capability of our societies is at its peak, survival process is organized better than ever before. With the level of global connectivity, social awareness and active involvement of individuals in the democratic process, the world is getting ripe to address the needs for self-actualization more than ever before.

Boredom and sloth have never been this high in any time of history, because a huge number of people have nothing significant to do. Now, as more and more people are turning towards intoxicants, existential and nihilistic sentiments are on the rise, because people are not satisfied with the survival process alone. It is true that major segments of society still live in poverty, and malnourishment, and they need to be uplifted from these socio-economic pits. However, when they are empowered, and the number of unsatisfied individuals is even bigger, then the need for avenues which address the need within people for self-actualization will be the most prominent need within human societies.

 I vs. Other: The fundamental binary                   

In the basic tenets of deconstruction, a recurring theme is that of binaries. Derrida stated that the process of decision making is a play between two binaries. In the underlying theme of this text, two binaries of survival instinct and living beyond survival are heavily discussed, to be the only choice that this process boils down to. However, in the day to day social experience of a human being, people get so identified with the humungous number of choices available in the markets today that they complicate this choice and the binary a million fold.

That being said, even without the acquired conditioning that is a result of interactions with social structures, the human experience plays between binaries. The most fundamental binary of I and the other is always present underneath the complex and composite ways people perceive life. More often than not, the higher value is arbitrated to the ‘I’ as opposed to the ‘other’, owing to the instinct of self-preservation. It is in the access to the choice between these two binaries that the human suffering takes place. In the beginning of the text, the instinct of self-preservation is connected to the concept of animal nature, because in the dichotomy of human and animal, the latter is found to be more susceptible to survival needs, and only human beings are conscious enough to transcend these needs.

Due to this lack of conscious control over their tendencies, thought, personality and preferences, animals never question the morality of their ways of life. For example, a dog would not think how to be a good dog, because for it, it is hardwired, and there is very limited scope for conscious action. However, for a human being, there is much struggle as to how to be a good human being. This can be inferred by the constant engagements that intellectuals throughout history have had with disciplines of morality and ethics. Even in relation to such disciplines, the fundamental binary and thus the only matter of choice is the binary of I and the other. It is this freedom that human beings are suffering. This again is symbolic of the tendency of survival and the longing to transcend survival.

The absence of I, the original signified

         Derrida connoted much significance to the signifier, as according to him it alerts the individual about the absence of the signified. Thus, he described language, and the meaning making process as an absent presence, as it makes us alert of that which is absent. However, in the process of association of meaning another important participatory concept is the supplement which Derrida described as that which comes to the aid of the ‘original’ or that which completes. This leads to the inference that the original is incomplete, or absent. In the daily interactions of people with each other, the realization of this absence is absent, since the signifier gives the illusion of completeness and having reached meaning. Thus, the process of différance can be considered as the supplement to the desire behind the signification process, i.e. to access the true essence of an object. However, the supplement can only add to the already pre-existing set of signifiers, as without it, there is no association. For instance, any second language acquisition can only build on the already set base of the mother tongue or the first language, through the process of association and acquisition. Accordingly, if the entirety of the personality, which we take as a substitute for the self, is a package of signifiers, then the self is absent. Accordingly, personality itself is a supplement to the self, which is deemed as incomplete. It is from this incompleteness that the need to make meaning arises, which is addressed in the various ways that it is today. When Derrida refers to the original which the supplement completes, then he refers to the state before the first signification was made, i.e. one that is outside of language.

To put it in other words, in the human constitution, there is a body, a thought process, emotional competence, and a vivid sense of memory and imagination. The survival instinct is firmly set in place, not only for human beings, but for every other organism, which is beneficial for the organism in question. Having fancy belief systems about the kindness and compassion of nature is also detrimental for anyone, because it is quite mechanical when it comes to the sustenance of life.

It is only for the fulfillment of the self that human beings have done all the wanton acts, in the belief that it will fulfill them. This denotes the progression of an individual in Maslow’s needs hierarchy from survival needs to material, belongingness and esteem needs.

However, owing to the need for self-actualization that arises later, human beings are also the only organisms conscious enough to notice that the self is the only thing is absent.

Lacan’s Mirror stage       

In his commentaries on the functioning of language, Derrida posited that since what is referred to as identity in a human being, is a complex web of signifiers that dictates the action of the individual, based on unconsciously picked up reactions to different kinds of expected situations that the individual may be put in. These signifiers are given variable amounts of value, thereby placing them in webs of value systems that keep changing constantly, as the individual goes through life. Depending on the value arbitrated to different signifiers, through external conditioning, the desire for fulfillment is directed towards a certain signifier of most value, which may be an impression of pleasurable sensation or expectation of external outcome. Through these complex processes, identity is concretized within a human being, and preferences are created which aid in making survival within the structure easier. In different situations that a human being falls into, these set preferences are the directing markers for their action to take place, based on the goal i.e. achievement of external outcome that utmost value is arbitrated to.

Lacan takes the understanding of identity formation within language forward by tracing the source of this desire, that leads to the need for signification, and its association with the concept of self.

Similar to Freud, Lacan begins at childhood, to trace the association of the first supplement, that lead to initiation of meaning making. Lacan describes three stages of the process of identity formation.

1.   The Imaginary: In this stage, the child creates the first identification, when it looks at the image of its body in the mirror, and recognizes the coordination of movement between the image and his body. This leads to the creation of a sense of self within the child. This is also the first act of conscious nature that it performs, because now it is self-conscious. This is termed as the mirror stage by Lacan. However, in this stage, the child’s sense of self is directly shaped according to its relationship with the mother. From seeing itself as a part of the mother, after the emergence of this self, the child believes the mother to be a part of itself, along with the image in the mirror. (termed as the desire for the mother by Lacan). According to Lacan, in this stage, the child seeks to remove all distinctions or otherness in its experience, perceiving its experience as a unity and not binary. In other words, it sees everything as a part of its self.

2.   The Symbolic: This is the stage when the child first acquires language and is introduced to the endless chain of signifiers like ‘Mother’, ‘Father’. In this stage, the first othering happens as the child distinguishes between the ‘I’ and the ‘other’, in the process of signification, there by beginning its exploration of social relations. The realization of I and other binary creates the space for the first act of différance. Owing to this distinction between I and other, the child, still desiring for the oneness with the mother, has to come to terms with the redundancy of this desire, as the I and the other cannot be put back together in his experience, once the division is made. It is from this initial othering, says Lacan, that the desire emerges. He recognizes this as a desire to move back into the state of oneness, or to eliminate the otherness. All the different desires which human beings nurture within themselves are a manifestation of this fundamental desire, coupled with conditioning that provides them with expectations and the belief that it will lead them back into this state of fulfillment. The symbolic is the domain of language and signifiers, which alerts the self of the absence of the mother, i.e. considered as a part of the self before the othering. The self is now incomplete. Thus, language for Lacan, denotes absence.

3.   The Real: This state is defined as the everyday experience of life, where the illusion of oneness with the mother from the imaginary is in conflict with the ideas of otherness gained from the symbolic. In the real, the individual comes across different set of signifiers, in the forms of impression of its sense perception, which it is led to believe will lead to the completion of the self. All the multifarious human pursuits can be recognized as the expression of this longing to experience this completion of self, or oneness.

In the real world, the symbolic is the representation of the tendency of self-preservation, as it leads to the creation and multiplication of othering, as more and more signifiers are added to the web of language. On the contrary, the imaginary is the embodiment of the need for self-actualization or the longing to limitlessly expand. We can connect this to the gratification found within association with a collective identity, like a national identity, as the expanded sense of identity gives the illusion of being part of an entity beyond or larger than the self. However, such identities also always stand in relation to something, like the national identity is important for the recognition of Indians in the world. Here, the binary in function is of India and the other. However, for the other to be completely removed, one requires to have a universal identity, or what was earlier referred to as limitless expansion.

This understanding of the identity and the origin of desire supports the above stated argument that human desire is not ready to settle for finitude, and rather longs for limitless expansion. In terms of the physical world, this is a hopeless errand, because the meaning of physical is that it has a defined boundary. It is also the physical, or the human body that is subject to wear and tear, and thus rooted with the survival instinct. It is out of this understanding that the concepts of transcending the self-preservation instinct are often connected with transcending the body, or the limitations of the physical.

Analysis of the trail of human desire

If one hears the word spirituality, then based on the kind of popular media they have been exposed to, concepts like detachment, giving up the desire for everything, withdrawal from the society, etc. come pouring as part of the created discourse. The teachings of many proponents of eastern spirituality have reached the Western shores and found popular audience there, describing how desire is the basis of all suffering that one goes through in their lives. However, desire is not an easy thing to give up. Many people condition themselves to believe that they do not desire for the material or survival aspects of life, but the basic desire to fulfill themselves still does not go away. Let us analyze the process of desiring with a little more clarity, with its connection to suffering.

The basic binary of I and other, and the value ascribed to one over the other is inherent in every choice that an individual makes throughout the day. Be it the most trivial choices of breakfast and dinner, or the choices which hold significance as the turning point of life, like a different college or job or country to shift to. This simple binary can multiply itself to a very complex and multi-layered structure, to be considered before making a choice, as the ideological conditioning increases, and the context in which decision is to be made, changes. In this context, one most general entity that is a partaker in every interaction that a human being has with the surrounding is the results that one expects from every situation. This means that at the base of every activity, is the expectation for a desired result to happen. These expectations can range from the opening of a door when the knob is pulled, to having the preferred smell around you in your office space, to bigger expectations like the preferences about the behavior of a client, for a certain office going individual. In the daily lifestyle of an individual, in all the spaces that they occupy, like home, office, roads, airports, and every other space that someone performs an activity in, a huge amount of expectations are involved, about how the place was when they left it the last time they were there, and how it is in the present. In other words, there is an image of their home in a said individual’s mind, where everything is in a certain pre-determined way. Because of this expected outcome, be it the ambience of a space, or the response from an individual, they desire to go there, thinking that this what will lead to fulfillment or gratification in the moment. According to the impressions of every place and person and object as they were in the past, these expectations direct us to move in a certain way and perform certain kind of action, to whatever level it is performed consciously. Out of these expectations, some, every individual holds as very important, while others, they deem as trivial.

When the action does not lead to the result that is expected, according to the importance of the expectation, suffering happens within an individual. The magnitude of suffering is in proportion to the attachment to the expectation and the importance arbitrated to it.

So, it can be said that when desires get fulfilled, they cause gratification, while if they do not get fulfilled, they cause sorrow.

However, giving up the desire is impossibility, because it is inherent in literally every activity that a human being performs from their birth to death. In fact, it can be said that if there was no desire, there would be no need for any activity. Furthermore, in terms of the fundamental choice of I vs. the other, desire is the source of the tendency for self-preservation, but it is also manifest in the need to go beyond survival. To put it in simple terms, desire is the source of suffering, but it is also the source of life. Without the fundamental desire manifesting itself in a million different ways, there can be no life.

In the process of growing up, children arbitrate their need for fulfillment to various things, which they want to acquire, identifying it as the be all and end all of their life, until they acquire it, and get bored of it after some time. This process of arbitrating ultimate value to objects, situations and people continues to manifest in all age groups of people, and one could say that the variety of things that people are doing in the world are a manifestation of this arbitration of value to that result that they expect will be the end of their desire. However, the desiring process is elusive and keeps the individual running on the treadmill of instant gratification and long-term dissatisfaction. Every expectation, when fulfilled, grants satisfaction to the individuals for a certain period of time, maybe even happiness, but in the long run, they tend to get dissatisfied with it. Or, in other words, it eventually becomes clear to them that this particular expectation will not satisfy their insatiable needs fully. These desires or needs, if they be termed so, go in line with the idea of the deficit needs by Maslow.

Different individuals invest variable percentages of their time and effort into such desires, which we refer to as likes and dislikes, preferences etc. in common parlance. Based on that, and the orientation of external situations (which can aid and oppose the realization of these goals in different ways) people achieve the results desired by them in various capacities. For instance, if a married woman, set in the context of Indian middle class culture, chooses to fulfill the needs of her husband and children by deciding to be a housewife, then the possibility of her achieving the goals and expectations that she had set for herself in the professional sphere of her life become remote in opposition to the hypothetical reality in which she chooses to be a working mother and wife. In this way, people empower their goals and expectations in different capacities, balancing them with the effort to fulfill the needs of their loved ones. However, in that scenario, more often than not, their desires find expression in the slow and steady, often unconscious development of expectations of respect and gratitude from the family members. Seeing none of these expectations fulfilled, many women of modern times tend to get frustrated with their lifestyle and life choices. However, the desire for something bigger does not cease to manifest in one way or another.

For the big business tycoons, who prescribe to the ideology of accumulation as being the ultimate desire, they may have enough wealth and resources to afford them any kind of luxury for several lifetimes, but their act of accumulation is still continued, because the desire to expand is not yet fulfilled. And it does not seem that it can be fulfilled by physical means, because whatever an individual does is not enough, giving them gratification for limited time, but leading to the same dissatisfaction in the long run. If the process of identity formation be seen as accumulation, then the desiring process that is the basis of it is looking for limitless expansion. This is because it is not ready to settle for anything finite.

Physical expressions of desire for fulfillment

Every individual, through their own understanding of life and the value systems they believe in, choose which ways they can find fulfillment. Due to certain shortsightedness, and compulsive mechanisms of likes and dislikes, they tend to get fixated somewhere in the tier of deficit needs, as described by Maslow. The social structures and ideologies in popular circulations also play a big role in their confirmation to the belief that it will fulfill the. The present trends of consumerism are a testament to this. A huge chunk of humanity is either the beneficiary or the victim of the capitalist economy, if the workings of the victims of an ideological state apparatus can be considered that.

These efforts to find fulfillment can be characterized by the faculties empowered towards this purpose.

1.   Physical body: It is not uncommon to find individuals in today’s societies who adhere to the beliefs of Hedonism or pleasure seeking as the highest goal of life. The followers of this system pursue physical pleasure through frequent engagements in sexual acts. The intension of sex is also to break the boundaries of individualities, and find deeper intimacy by losing the sense of self at the heights of orgasmic pleasure. However, as long as the physical is concerned, there is no scope of any sort of union, because the very definition of physical means an inherent boundary.

2.   Thought process: The thought process is a tool for discernment and dissection. It is useful for survival. The aspiration of natural sciences to decode the fundamental forces of nature is an attempt to know life beyond survival. The intellectual practice of critical thinking, frequently applied to philosophical pursuits of truth, in various forms like Ethics, Metaphysics, epistemology is another effort towards the fulfillment of an individual. However, it is not in the nature of thought process to know anything new. This is because it can only recycle the pre-existing information in the human system in the form of memory. Thus, thought plays between the two faculties of memory and imagination. However, because of the fantasy element that imagination can take on to, it can still be a source of an overwhelming experience, but not fulfilling enough in the long run.

3.   Emotion: Human beings experience a variety of emotions like fear, anger, regret, love, compassion, etc. Though they seem completely different from each other in experience, they all seem to stem from the combination of the survival instinct and the need for selfless action, i.e. being beyond survival in various proportions. Below is stated the common types of human emotion, from the most survival oriented to the ones exercising maximum agency, or will to be beyond survival.

i)         Fear

ii)        Disgust

iii)       Anger

iv)       Peace

v)         Joy

vi)       Aesthetics

vii)      Courage

viii)     Wonder

ix)       Love

x)         Compassion

Most people use their emotions coupled with their survival and reproductive instinct to form romantic relationships, which is a way of enlarging the personal identity to include another person in it, which is known as intimacy in common terms. These relationships comprise of both the safe space for the fulfillment of deficit needs of belongingness and self-esteem, and the avenue for going beyond survival by increasing the intensity of one’s emotion, using the spouse as a stimulus for it. Compassion, which is the most agential of all the emotions (as it offers the most scope for selflessness) offers the possibility for self-actualization, however as long as the being is rooted in the body, the survival instinct can catch up if deficit needs are threatened for a certain length of time, as described by Maslow. This also goes in line with the idea that the need for going beyond survival can only be handled consciously.

Attachment theory and Suffering

At this point we can infer that the masked behind any kind of goal that a human being is pursuing, the only movement that can be ascribed to growth is one from a survival-oriented way of living to functioning beyond survival. In terms of identity and personality, it means moving from identifications with the self, to expansion of identity.

In today’s world, childhood is a time that many people desire to revert back to. If looked at, the state of childhood symbolizes compulsiveness for a human being, and as an individual grows up, they gain more conscious control of their lives, by learning to use their faculties, namely the body, thought process and emotion in most human beings. This also aligns itself with the longing to go beyond survival, as the more conscious we are as an individual, the less compulsions we hold with regard to our body, mind and emotion.

Regardless of this, the sentiment of wanting to become a child again is huge among many human beings simply because they fill up their lives with suffering. In the effort to fulfill same aspiration, i.e. eradication of suffering, intoxication is being used as a way of life. The nature of intoxication is that it reduces consciousness in the human system, so that all sensations are dulled down, including suffering. This is a counterproductive way of handling life, as in basic terms, life is trying to move from compulsiveness to consciousness.

Thus, we must look into what leads to suffering. Up until now, we have regarded the enlargement of individual identity as beneficial to a human being, as it reduces the sense of self, thereby enabling individuals to function beyond survival. However, this is still a kind of conditioning.

As discussed earlier, the basis of identity and personality can be related to the process of signification, because identity itself is a web of deep-seated signifiers. As a signifier points towards the absence of signified, so does the personality points towards the absence of self.

In this context, instead of enlarging the identity of self, a better method to move from belief to truth is to dismantle the personality and identity. The human experience comprises of the input of the five senses, which is ongoing, and is recorded in the form of memory. This memory is used by the intellectual process to create thought, which is a recycling of the data gathered in the form of memory. There is also emotion, which can be described as pleasant or unpleasant, and based on the spectrum of compulsiveness and consciousness, we recognize many different kinds of emotions. The experience of the body is partially rooted in the five senses, but not limited to it. Based on the extent of consciousness in an individual, much more can be experienced. These are the faculties present in the human experience.

Now, emerges the question of identity. There can be many different tendencies and preferences that one identifies with, which may find expression in the form of compulsive action, however as far as the identity is concerned, there is only one self. That is why human beings are referred to as individuals, because even alongside the presence of ideological conditioning, the complete agency of action is held by the self, or the one performing the activity. In this regard, one may enquire for the source of this individualistic identity.

If sufficient attention be paid to all the above stated faculties, i.e. body, thought and emotion, in the human experience, it is certain that even if they are all driven by the sense of self, as per the level of conscious control, they are not the self. This argument is very hard to believe for most individuals, because in their experience, they cannot extricate themselves from the constant production of thought that they call as the mind. If looked at from the lens of survival instinct and going beyond, the mind is a survival mechanism because it is discriminatory in nature. The sharper the intellect is, the better it functions. For most people it has become a constant ongoing process, or in other words, a compulsive process. Furthermore, compulsiveness of action can be associated to accidental nature of outcome, because it is managed out of tendencies rather than out of consciousness. Now, if a dull or blunt instrument is compulsively held, then it may lead to small accidents, because of the lessened capability of the instrument to cause damage. However, if a sharp instrument is held compulsively, then it will lead to big accidents. Here, the intellect can be compared to a knife. If the hand that holds the knife is not steady, then it will end up cutting itself instead of the object it is aimed to use at.

In the present generations, the numbers of people who undergo suffering at the hands of their mind is enormous when compared to the past generations. This is not because of any sudden decrease in the mental capacity of today’s generations. In fact, the sharpness of most people’s minds has only increased, owing to widespread education. However, without establishing conscious control over the thought process, if it is empowered with the amount if information available to a common human being today, owing to the advent of the internet, then naturally the amount of mental activity will be huge, and unstoppable in nature. If this takes place inside the head of a person, which it is, on a large scale, then naturally it will lead to suffering.

Pain in the body is another leading cause of suffering. However, pain is not necessarily a bad thing. Like the mind, pain is also a survival mechanism. It happens when something within the body goes wrong.

Today, with the help of disciplines like ecological sciences it is established within academia that any human being is not an individual existence by themselves. The physical body, which is the basis of survival, functions in conjunction with the whole eco-system and without it, it cannot sustain itself. From this perspective, it can be clearly inferred that whatever is the best thing for the entire eco-system is also best for the functioning of the human system, because it can only coexist with the larger eco-system. However, most people do not have the necessary sense to not harm and change things that they have no knowledge about. Here, I would like to point out that whatever does not cause pain in the system has been dominated by the human beings of the past. One example of this is the large-scale deforestation, the consequence of which is the ecological-crisis that we are facing today. Another example is the social disparities in terms of accumulation of power and domination of the ‘other’. We, as a global civilization are still recovering from that, and because of this the societies have not been able to come into a progress mode, as some segment of people are always excluded from the fold of beneficiaries. Not to mention the violence against animals that goes unnoticed.

The point being driven is that most people do not have the sense to not do the things that are detrimental for the progress of the larger eco-system, and thus pain is an important mechanism that holds people in place.

However, the fundamental basis of suffering is not pain, but identification. Because of this identification of the body, most people firmly believe that they are the body. In doing that, a whole lot of expectations are created for the body. The most basic one being that it should not be pained and should not die. This conditioning is what is referred to as survival instinct in the previous pages. We have established that in the physical world, change is the only dominant factor, the major proponent of which in our lives is death, when the body is no more suitable for sustaining life. However. Because of the said conditioning, instead of accepting the change, which is a sensible thing to do as nothing can be done about it, people try to resist it in every way that is possible, thereby creating phenomenal suffering. It is because their sense of identity is created around the body, that most people cannot see their body perish, and in terms of pain, whatever happens to the body, in their experience it happens to their selves. Undeniably, the fundamental human longing is to be in one with everything, and to be immortal. However, it is hopeless to try to achieve this with the body, because the body can, by no means, be forever.

Not only are most human beings heavily identified with their mind and body, but as a multiplication of this identification, they have identified with a variety of external things, like the likes and dislikes, and expectations that people hold towards other objects, people, institutions and concepts. Naturally, when these expectations are not fulfilled, it causes suffering, not because it is inherently so, but only because of false identification.

Thus, what is referred to as consciousness is one’s ability to pay attention to the human system, so that the distinction between the body, mind, emotion and the self becomes clear in their experience. That is the only reliable way to end suffering.

If we connect this stream of arguments to the process of evolution, then by no means can people be less evolved today than they were in the past. The presence of suffering and compulsive behavior may be more in the past than it is today, but in the present times, the need for going beyond survival is empowered more than it had been in any other time in history, and the survival mechanism has not gone down in proportion.

Based on the identification of human beings with different faculties present in their conscious experience, at various times in history, the needs corresponding to those faculties and their tendencies have been empowered. For example, based on self-preservation being the primary need of the body, at one point of time accumulation of food and material wealth was the main concern of the populations of the world. These correspond to the survival needs as put by Maslow.

Corresponding to the thought process and emotion, which can produce pleasant or unpleasant experiences, the achievement of stability, belongingness and self-esteem needs may be the primary objective of the societies in question. This is the case of the present, where thought and emotion is largely empowered as the way to achieve human wellbeing.

However, it is time that human consciousness is empowered on a large scale in the societies, because the need for self-actualization in today’s societies is emerging strongly. Along with that, the survival mode in which many segments of the societies are, must be extinguished by giving them the necessary helping hand, to create a the much-needed balance in the collective social systems, before making an upward climb.

 Suffering of ignorance: an eco-critical argument

We have inferred that the basis of human suffering is identification of the self with something that it is not, i.e. body, mind and emotion. Because of that expectations are created around the body and mind, which if not fulfilled, lead to suffering. Furthermore, because the intellectual process has been empowered with loads of information that it can chew upon, without establishing conscious control over it, the mind has become a compulsive process, of high intensity, the ability to stop which, the individual has not. This is another reason as to why the faculties of the individual human beings have turned against themselves, creating vast amounts of instability and uncontrollable psychological suffering.

In this regard, because the expectations are already set in place, owing to the survival instinct, the only sensible process to empower by an individual is acceptance of conditions as they are, in the body, mind and in the space outside of it. Another aspect of moving towards truth is to undo the conditioning cemented in the human psyche, that does not let us see reality for what it is. Let us try to see things for what they are.

In the grand scheme of things, with relation to the process of evolution that has taken place on Earth, human beings may be the latest of the lot, but the amount of time that we have been here as a humanity (which is also a collective identity), is minuscule compared to the planet itself. In the everyday experience of an average human being, an individual does not pay attention to their mortality. Most people are conditioned to believe that death is an alien concept, and only other people die, not them. Due to this, when most people die, the emotion visible on their faces is bewilderment, as they had not believed such a thing to ever take place. However, mortality is a fact for every individual, and if a human being becomes conscious of it in their everyday experience, then they will not live in such wanton and self-centered ways. To put it differently, many intelligent and strong people came into the world before us, and now they are all part of top soil. So, the sense of security and immortality that is present in the psyche of most individuals, is a lie. There is no security in life, because the physical body is fragile. Accepting death as a process is a possibility for every human being to transcend the sense of individuality and survival instinct that is hardwired into them.

We have also explored that personality is an abstraction created out of memory. This memory forms the basis of the human experience, in which the ideas of past and future are significantly at play. However, in reality, there is no such thing as past and future as they only exist due to the faculties of memory and imagination. There is only the ongoing present in this reality, which is a happening.

From that perspective, all the matters of past and future can be attributed to conditioning, because we are not able to distinguish between memory, imagination and reality. In other words, whatever is not in the experience of an individual, is imagined. With regards to this, the experience of life, rooted in the momentous present is the most important and valuable aspect of human life. Accordingly, if memory can be equated to another conditioning, and not a part of truth, then everything that human beings think they know something about is a lie. In reality, we do not know anything about anything.

For every human being, them being alive is the most significant thing that ever happened to them. All the other pursuits where human beings invest their effort in, are just accessories to life. To be alive, the whole eco-system being structured exactly the way it is structured is a fundamental requirement, because the body only transpired in conjunction to everything. Now, at least all the other organisms participate in the workings of the larger eco-system, which is the closest thing to our ideas of creator and the creation. However, human beings cannot say the same, in fact more often than not, we disrupt the flow of eco-systems rather than act in its favor.

Also, to keep us alive, phenomenal activity is happening without a stop, without which we cannot exist. Our only choice is to be conscious of it. If we look at life from this perspective, which is arguably closer to truth than what we see as life today, then gratitude towards everything is the natural expression of every human being. Because of our different levels of conditioning, we set impossible standards for our happiness, like fulfillment of big life goals, achievements and aspirations. However, to function in an efficient manner, pleasantness of experience is a primary requirement.

Human beings have the most evolved neurological system on the planet, compared to all the other organisms, however, because of our wanton handling of social processes, the sensitivity of most human beings is lower than dogs and cats. With the needs of self-actualization and fulfillment taking major precedence in the society, it should be firmly understood that the only way to live well is to be conscious of as much of activity happening within the human system, and around it.

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