The Self-observation

In this lesson we will learn about a precious sense that all we have but, unfortunately, is atrophied by disuse.
However, as we start using this sense, it will be developed gradually and opening a “window” in ourselves. A window that has been closed for a long time and now it will allow light to enter and illuminate our inner world.

The more we exercise this sense, the more the window opens and consequently more light comes in. Then we can see more and more the things that were hidden so far.
This sense is called self-observation and understanding this subject is extremely important.
We cannot know ourselves thoroughly without the self-observation.

But in short, what are we going to observe in us?
Through the self-observation we’ll see and feel what is going on in the human machine five centers studied in the previous lesson.
As we’ll see in this lesson, in these centers, at every time something is happening without our knowledge or consent.

How do we do the self-observation?
Simply, knowing which are the human machine centers (intellectual – motor – emotional – instinctive – sexual), we will have to observe them, lead our attention to these centers.
It is not necessary to stop what we are doing when we do the self-observation.
Practicing the self-observation you will see that this sense allows us to see and feel what happens inside us and, at the same time, paying total attention to the external world and to what we are doing.

As we have seen in the previous lesson, the psychological defects acts in the human machine centers feeding themselves with the energy of these centers and causing physical and psychological disturbances.
When we say act means that psychological defects cause, depending on the center and the nature of the psychological defect, specific types of thoughts or feelings, sometimes painful enough to cause a deep distress.

In the following are some examples of what we can observe in each one of the five human machine centers:

• Intellectual Center: morbid and negative thoughts about yourself or other people, like anger, lust, envy, greed, dishonesty, treason, theft, slander, etc.
  Another issue is that in the most of the time we think about the things we did or the things we are going to do, what we have seen in the television, what we should have said or what are we going to say to so-and-so, etc. In short, a succession of thoughts without control and normally related to the past or to the future.
  It is important try focusing on the present moment, in just what we are doing. For this reason in this course we’ll learn how to improve concentration.
  
  
• Motor Center: in this center what we can observe are movements that we make automatically.
  A classic example is when we are driving a car and at the same time we are thinking in many other things, continuing to change gears, accelerating, stopping, etc.
  Again, it is important try focusing in what we are doing.
  
  
• Emotional Center: negative emotions of all kind like anger, fear (it does not matter of what kind), envy, anguish, anxiety, impatience, attachment to the things and persons, exaggerated feelings, etc.
  
  
• Instinctive Center: in this center what we observe is the abuse of some natural instincts.
  The most common kind of abuse is related to the survival instinct that, among other things, tells us that we need food to survive.
  In this case the psychological defects act making the person eating more food than necessary. It is the well known gluttony defect.
  
  
• Sexual Center: abuse of sexual energies, which the ego spends foolishly watching pictures and scenes of pornographic or immoral nature, morbid thoughts, dishonest conversation, etc. The abuse of the sexual energies can quickly lead to impotence.
  
  

More than one psychological defect can acts in a situation. For example when someone says something we don’t like.
We may get angry (emotional centre) and immediately think to react or in a lot of things we should have said, done, etc. (intellectual center).
We may be even more involved with the situation and make gestures or to get into a fight.

Notice in this example that the ego controlled the entire human machine as if it was a puppet, starting by controlling the emotional center, then the intellectual and finally the motor center.
If we are in self-observation we’ll see this sort of thing happening all the time.

When we start practicing the self-observation normally we can do it very little, maybe a few times a day. It varies from person to person and depends on how atrophied the sense of self-observation is.
However, by practicing, the time of self-observation will increase gradually.

And when we are in self-observation and perceive a psychological defect, what do we do to eliminate it?
We’ll apply the psychological death, a technique that allows us to eliminate each psychological defect we perceive through the self-observation.
We’ll learn about this subject in the following lessons.