While my reasoning is not likely to have influence on the opinions of those who really believe in altruism, for the aim of the current section, I shall pretend that psychological egoism really exists, meaning that people are always have motives to act for their own best interest.

To be more specific, I shall suppose that the self-interest they are trying to achieve is nothing more then pleasure (avoidance of pain). I suppose that the pleasures that for us, humans, can be found at three levels. This idea was investigated and briefly discussed by Mill. He talks about lower level of pleasure (mostly physical) and higher level (intellectual) of pleasure. And I would like to expand them to involve one more level of pleasure, the third one, which I am going to call the Ultimate Pleasure.

No doubt, people really enjoy physical (carnal) pleasures. Eating, sleeping, touching, sexual activities and so on, are the instances of carnal pleasures. Of course, there exist plenty of physical pains we would like to escape. Some physical pains we agree to bear for a short time promise long-term benefits. All these belong to carnal pleasures, and thus this kind of pleasure is naturally one type of self-interest we all are in search for.

Another type of self-interest appears in the shape of intellectual pleasure. Acquiring knowledge, feeling loved, having a positive self-image and many other falls into the class of intellectual pleasures. The opposite for each of these components are pains that we would like to avoid all the ways possible. One seems to be happier when he can get more of these intellectual pleasures then when he is not able to. It also obvious that a person can be more happy and for a longer time by getting intellectual pleasures more then just by experiencing merely physical ones. To say in other words, physical pleasures are mostly short-lived, while intellectual pleasures can give a person much bigger and over-all pleasure and satisfaction.

Now goes, I believe, the highest level of pleasure than both the carnal and the intellectual pleasures all together can give. In other words, it is a kind of pleasure that when achieved, gives a greater strength, and much longer duration than the other two kinds. I called it the Ultimate Pleasure. This type of pleasure, to my mind, is the happiness one feels in realizing that he has acted in the “right” way. Although I cannot give an explicit definition to the “right” thing. Psychological Egoism clears up why a person chooses to act the way he acts, but makes no try to demarcate the boundaries of morally right or wrong things. So, I would better leave it up to some ethical theorists to define what is “right» in the meaning I used here. I guess for now, it is enough to say that when a person does something «right”, he wins a satisfaction that is nothing compared to all the other satisfactions possible.

.About the Author:

Andrew Bolton is an experienced freelance writer. Having successfully completed a number of academic assignments, he now is willing to share his experience in academic writing including Dissertation Plan and Dissertations proposals providing students Written dissertations.

Posted: December 28th, 2007 under Psychological Egoism, Ego, Intellect, Carnal Pleasure, Intellectual Pleasure, Ultimate Pleasure, Three-level View, Mill.
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Long time before I dared to enter my first philosophy class, I frequently was involved in friendly, but at the same time passionate discussions with friends and colleagues, holding fast to my strong belief that altruism merely does not exist.

All actions we think to be altruistic, I argued, come from some self-interest. Now, of course, I identify this belief as psychological egoism.

Maybe, it could be argued, that my persistent denying of altruism and defending egoism was the outcome of my naivety, my infant ignorance of the deeper layers of the subject which can only be cognized through a scrupulous study of philosophy. Of course, someone may consider my arguments superficial and complete oversimplification of a composite topic. Probably the same can be said regarding my current point of view. After all, I was only paddling in the study of philosophy.

After a survey of the works of philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham, Joel Feinberg, Elliott Sober and Joseph Butler, who wrote just about psychological egoism, and having read some more indirect writings about this matter from J.D. Ross’s, John Stuart Mill’s, and Immanuel Kant’s books, I became even more convinced that every person’s primitive motivation in any action is self-interest. Moreover, I am sure that the only self-interest that all we have is a delight, or avoidance of pain. And realization of all this facts makes me, therefore, a hedonist. So, I made up my mind to write a book where I was going to investigate the matter thoroughly and differentiate between these two notions relying on irrefutable facts got from personal experience, statistics and the observations of the outstanding specialists in this sphere.

.About the Author:

Andrew Bolton is an experienced freelance writer. Having successfully completed a number of academic assignments, he now is willing to share his experience in academic writing including Editing a dissertation and Dissertation Proposal providing students dissertation tips.

Posted: December 10th, 2007 under Philosophy, Altruism, Psychological Egoism, Hedonism, Ego.
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Due to new thoughts the old ones change.

If someone understands some aspect in a wrong manner, his error can be warded off by showing him right thinking via logic, proof and examples. If such a person is not extremely vile behaved, indolent, incited or arrogant, it is relatively easy to help him discard wrong thinking. Ordinarily when one realizes the truth, false beliefs disappear from one’s thinking. Of course it is an entirely different story if someone persists in clinging to wrong beliefs due to selfish gains or maintaining one’s false image. Yet in the arena of beliefs and faith, one’s thoughts definitely get transformed. It is not very difficult to destroy ignorance with the aid of true wisdom.

For more scientific e-books visit: http://www.shriramsharma.com/ (GOOGLE PR 4) and http://www.awgp.org/ (Google 5)

On the other hand as far as nature, inclinations, desires, sentiments and character are concerned, they cannot be ordinarily changed. Wherever it sticks it does not move easily. Because man gets a human body, after straying in bodies of innumerable species like animals, birds, bacteria etc. his psyche has intense imprints that are animalistic in nature. His psyche overflows with various thought waves. No doubt changes do take place in these thoughts yet there is no major influence on it. When man hears sacred discourses, when he reads elevating literature and when he seriously studies the nature of the soul, he easily understands what is good or detrimental for him. He deeply realizes his errors, bad habits and weaknesses. On the intellectual front, he thinks and desires that these errors be destroyed. Many a times he criticizes himself. Yet he cannot separate himself from his vile activities gathered from past innumerable births alongwith his bad habits.

After reading the above lines one should not wrongly conclude that contemplation goes in vain and that it does not aid in overcoming vile psychic imprints. Instead we are trying to say that good wishes of an ordinary will power take a relatively longer time to purify one’s psyche. Its speed is very slow and many a times it encounters despair and hopelessness. And yet if good wishes are imbibed continuously, definitely after a certain length of time one overcomes vile psychic imprints. The teachers of Spiritual Science never wish that such a desirable activity is allowed to languish for a long time span. Here all of them via intense seriousness, subtle hindsight and mental focus have clearly analysed the animalistic imprints in man’s psyche. These great teachers have concluded that deeper than the level of the surface of the mind, where there are thought vibrations, lies the sub-conscious mind where the psychic imprints are deeply embedded in an intense manner.

Just as when you start digging a well, layers of different varieties of mud emerge forth, in the same way the human psyche has many layers and their function, characteristic and area varies. The upper 2 layers are 1) mind and 2) intellect. The mind abounds in desires, aspirations, wishes etc. The function of the intellect is to contemplate, find solutions and come to an apt decision. Both these layers are in close contact with mankind and are demarcated as the gross mind. Based on understanding and change of circumstances, it is easy to change the gross mind.

Deeper than this gross mind is the layer of the subtle mind. Its 2 major areas are 1) psyche and 2) ego. The psyche is made up of imprints, habits, likes, character, qualities etc. Ego means the sense of limited “I” and hence also means opinion about oneself. If a person thinks himself to be rich/poor, Brahmin/ Shudra, pure hearted /sinner, good fortuned / ill fated, man/ woman, foolish /wise, lowly /great, living being/ God, bound/ free etc. then he has that type of an Ego. Means to limit the cosmic soul to one’s limited body of name and form called “I”. There are many classes and sub-classes of the mind, intellect, psyche and ego. Its characteristic and area of activities too is varied and will not be described by us in this chapter. Over here a brief description had to be given because it will be useful for the readers of this book to overcome vile psychic imprints.

Just as the mind and intellect constitute a pair, so does the psyche and ego form a pair. Various hopes and desires dwell in the mind but it is the intellect that decides which desire should be pursued and which one should be suppressed. The intellect is well aware of this and hence keeping in mind culture, social ethics, social norms, righteousness, duty etc it suppresses lowly desires. The intellect pursues only those desires that result in activities that are pure in nature. In this manner both the mind and intellect work in tandem in our brain.

In the subtle mind it is the pair of the ego and psyche that functions in tandem. Depending on what class and level, a living being believes him self/ her self to be accordingly that class and level of past imprints get activated and nourished in the psyche. When a person believes himself to be a drunkard, sinner, butcher, a member of the downtrodden class of society, his ego forces the psyche to abound with those very types of desires. All the qualities, actions, nature etc. of these type of people get rooted in their psyche. If their ego renounces the attitude of “I am a drunkard or I am a sinner” and instead works for world welfare with the characteristics of a true saint, very soon his past habits, desires, hopes get transformed and can become just what he hopes to become.

Apart from intense spiritual practices there is no other way to contact our limited/ illusory ego. The aim of spiritual practise is to contact the ego by rendering the mind and intellect in a state of quietitude, unconsciousness and sleep-like. It directly influences the ego. The belief “I am the substratum of Brahman energy, Gayatri – the manifestation of divinity is pervading every pore of my being, I am becoming Brahman (God) by imbibing it in the greatest measure”, helps our limited ego go beyond animalistic tendencies and enter realms of divinity. Beliefs are not something ordinary. The Bhagwad Geeta says – if one thinks (has faith) that he is some particular thing, he becomes that thing. Gayatri worship helps spiritual aspirants imbibe a divine ego. His thought vibrations are of the level of his self-belief. One will obviously see those very types of habits, desires, inclinations, activities etc. in him. Definitely one will perceive those very desires, habits and activities in a person who abounds with divinity. This spiritual practise transforms man’s psyche. That spiritual discourse heard by an individual alongwith reading spiritual literature which did not give much success, can be easily be attained via spiritual practices. This is the prime secret of spiritual practices.

Most definitely it is the Super Mental area of our psyche which is apt for Divine Powers to manifest. An airplane lands only on an aerodrame. Hence Divine Powers of God manifest only in the Super-Mental area of the psyche of living beings. If via spiritual practices it is not sanctified, these very subtle Divine Powers cannot manifest over there. Hence spiritual practices (Sadhana) convert the high Super Mental area into an apt aerodrome where Divine Powers manifest.

.About the Author:

AUTHOR: Shriram Sharma Acharya founder of the International Gayatri Family was a great Yogi seer and incarnation of God who wrote volumes of scientific literature mainly on spiritual subjects for world welfare and peace. For more scientific e-books visit: http://www.shriramsharma.com/ (GOOGLE PR 4) and http://www.awgp.org/ (Google 5) KEYWORDS: Kundalini Yoga Gayatri e-books biography Guru world peace mind psyche god nerve subtle consciousness soul divine trance endocrine glands ESP Chakras plexus meditation concentration intellect prophecy thought thinking Cheiro Nostradamus Aurobindo bliss brain Vedas solar sun energy sacred pure sense organs Prana Avatar Upanishad light cell hypothalamus pituitary transformation futurist prediction serpent power life human ethics integrity character vagus Tantra Mooladhar atom neutron proton DESCRIPTION: Free e-books on Future Scientific Religion, Gayatri Science & Kundalini Yoga correlated to Neurosciences-ESP, Endocrinology, Anatomy, Psychology & Sociology for 1) material & spiritual prosperity & 2) uniting the world peacefully as a family. Ours is a strictly non-commercial website which aims at realizing the age old dream of great leaders and thinkers of the world: A beautiful borderless world.

Posted: November 18th, 2007 under Mind, Decision, Science, Bacteria, Ego, Belief, Solution, New, Spiritual, Desire, Thought, Logic, Proof, Arrogant, False, Transform, Ignorance, Wisdom, Sentiment, Character, Psyche, Imprints, Animals, Vile, Activities, Subconscious, Purify, Intellect, Contemplate, Subtle, Cosmic, Soul.
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