ZEN FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF QUANTUM MECHANICS - 9

The Matrix - 1

As a Zen practitioner, I discovered an astounding fact that I've been trying to explain to myself ever since. Freeing yourself from your mental problems doesn't work the way Freud and other pillars of psychoanalysis think it does; in fact, it works in the exact opposite way. You break the bonds, and this gives you the understanding of what's been hidden behind them. Not the other way round, as psychoanalysis claims.

Let me remind you that, according to psychoanalysis, you're supposed to bring your fears and complexes from the unconscious into the conscious mind, more precisely, to recall what initially triggered and gave life to these issues, so that you realise what's been hidden behind them. In theory, this should dissolve the associations -- or ties, or bonds, as I prefer to call them -- that have caused the neurotic reactions. (And let me also remind you that complexes are just clusters of emotionally charged associations.) Sounds plausible.

But I found that it works exactly the opposite way: you mentally destroy, for example, your idea of a person you wish to work out what is hidden behind their exterior and why they make you feel uneasy, and this leads to the understanding of their true intentions and why they've evoked this feeling within you.* Since our ideas, internal representations of objects are just clusters of associations, or bonds, one can put it this way: severing bonds is the cause of the understanding of what's been behind them. (I prefer to think of states of mind in terms of being either unentangled** or entangled*** in the quantum sense, that is, as free or bound by bonds.)

Mind you, this is not far from what psychoanalysis itself claims: destroy the roadblocks, and your new self will unfold naturally -- it already potentially exists. The only difference is that psychoanalysts don't dare to assume that new knowledge can arise as if out of nowhere. I suspect they simply don't understand why their methods actually work sometimes.****

The Technique

The technique in question is simple at first glance, but I can't recommend it to everyone. You must already be a more or less advanced Zen practitioner; to perform it correctly, you must be impartial, i.e., unentangled.** In a nutshell: if you want to know what a person hides behind their exterior, their hidden intentions,***** or why they evoke certain feelings within you, you need to imagine this person as a woman (regardless of whether they're a man or a woman), that is, imagine the female part of their personality and then tear this image apart. (I suppose I'll need to write a separate post explaining why I'm not a misogynist, and I'll also explain further why it must always be only your idea of a person that you destroy, not the real person.) By destroying it, you'll realise what's been hidden behind their exterior and even what Nothingness is.

(Actually, to understand reality, sometimes it's enough to simply deny it -- that's why the practice of zazen as complete denial is so important****** -- but if you already have bonds with the object of your interest, you'll need to break them.)

By 'the female part of the personality' I mean that part which tends to merge (i.e., to become entangled**), to gain something; in other words, the pure form of what we usually mean by the ego. I don't know why, but I usually get the best results by imagining it as a woman -- hence the terminology.

At the same time, you yourself must remain impartial, that is, unentangled. Impartiality in this situation is the result of you either trying to remain independent (unentangled), or trying to break the bonds that have already been formed -- you're not proving to yourself that your ego is stronger, but simply studying what this person really is from the point of view that we humbly called the perspective from the centre of the Universe.** Also, bear in mind that this technique won't work if applied to your loved ones due to the force of merging that you need to overcome.

This way, you can explore your unconscious further in much the same way as psychoanalysis does. In one of the following posts, I'll describe this technique in more detail: there's a simple rule that can help anyone get rid of their mental problems easily.

Moreover, this isn't the whole story. I then began to suspect that this is how understanding works in general: by destroying established concepts and ideas. We just usually don't notice it.

This is one of the reasons I brought quantum mechanics into this blog: I reckon that what I've found can't be explained without assuming that Possibles are real in the sense that they don't simply exist in our minds. Fundamentally, through Zen practice you realise that the Universe works not as we usually think.

So, what do we destroy every time we have a light bulb moment? Can you say it in one word?

To be continued.

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*The Walking Zen - Zen without a Teacher: One Wonderful Technique
https://0zen1.blogspot.com/2017/06/one-wonderful-technique.html

**ZEN FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF QUANTUM MECHANICS - 2
https://0zen1.blogspot.com/2024/06/zen-from-perspective-of-quantum.html

***ZEN FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF QUANTUM MECHANICS - 3
https://0zen1.blogspot.com/2024/06/zen-from-perspective-of-quantum_27.html

****I suppose the historical reason for that is Freud's early adherence to determinism, which was a trap for him; indeed, if neuroses are attractors that channel energy and thoughts in a certain way, then you'll achieve nothing by simply following the flow of cause-and-effect interactions. You have to break the very vicious circle to change things.

*****Or perhaps the intentions they aren't even aware of themselves: their Shadow, in Jungian terms.

******ZEN FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF QUANTUM MECHANICS -- 7
https://0zen1.blogspot.com/2025/02/zen-from-perspective-of-quantum.html