Video Creator’s Channel Jordan B Peterson

So Let

s take a look at the structure of paradise as it s presented in Genesis. SO. The first aspect of the initial Paradaisal state is un-selfconsciousness.

Now.

If you look and factor analytic studies of human personality. You note that self–consciousness although it is arguably our greatest gift also loads almost entirely on the factor that defines negative affect. And. You might also notice that when you say, I became self–conscious.

You Generally Put A Negative Cast On

that in that I was talking before a group of people and suddenly I was seized by self–consciousness.. And as a consequence of that I was flooded by negative emotion and was fundamentally immobilized. . So.

It

s a very paradoxical, a very paradoxical state of being, our highest rational gift say, and the only on that clearly distinguishes us from animals. Is also that which, when manifested, makes us almost unbearable anxious The. First walked in the Garden of Eden is characterized by an animal-like unselfconsciousness. Adam and Eve, whatever they are, are not clearly segregated from the rest of the world.

.

They have no idea,, for example,, of their own nakedness. And. If you think about what nakedness means, you immediately understand that that s also a very profound, dramatic representation.

You Know With Children Around The Age

of 3 or 4, many of them regardless of their mode of upbringing., start to become very concerned about privacy, say with regard to bodily functions and also very concerned about ever showing themselves without clothing and it s perfectly reasonable to presume that that s a consequence of their emergent self–consciousness, an event that takes place somewhere between the ages of 2 and 5 and that s a defining moment that makes them segregatable, say from their mother.

And.

So you also have images of Paradise that flow through Western history that are characterized by the image of the unconscious union between the mother and child, which is an imagistic representation that eradicates the tension of self–consciousness both for the mother and for the child. SO. The notion that the child is living in a paradaisal condition that is somehow lost as he or she approaches adulthood Gives another sort of symbolic layer to the notion of the pre-selfconscious paradise. It

S Also A Place Where Order And

chaos are in perfect balance and you know that because what paradise means is para around, Daisa a wall, while Eden means delight or a place of delight. Paradaisa, paradise is a walled garden, a walled place of delight and a garden is precisely that place where the forces of nature or chaos and the forces of culture are held in perfect balance,. A garden is.

It

s nature given form by culture and it s a place that s archetypically pleasant a place where the intervention of human activity has produced a kind of stability that transcends that of nature because it s a cultural construct, but also that transcends that of culture because all of the plants and the other growing things that constitute a garden are somehow transcendent, even though they

Re Under The Cultivating Hand Of Culture And

the individual. If you look at the manner in which the fall story is represented, you can also see that the place of craziest stability can be regarded as a kind of paradise. . So. If you remember the story of Moses leading his people through the desert, it

S Clearly The Case That When The Israelites Were

in the desert, even though they got away from the tyranny, it was easy to look back and say well. You know, tough as it was, the place that we were before was much better than the place we are now. SO. It s perfectly reasonable and expectable for people who are caught in a crisis to look back to the time prior to the dawn of that crisis with longing even if the crisis that they

Re Presently Experiencing Is A Necessary Precondition

for further development of personality. SO. The story that s laid out in Genesis has its structure. Something like this.

Before We Became Self–Conscious The World Was

perfect. As a consequence of the rise of self–consciousness. We were thrown out of the Garden of Eden, out of paradise and destined to live the profane existence that characterizes our present mode of being where we re subject to knowledge of mortality and the possibility of Illness and alienation from God. And wouldn

T It Be Ever So Great If We Could

only. of unself-consciousness and make all our problems go away. And you see this kind of pathological Paradaisal reminiscence, manifesting itself in the most banal forms of conservatism, which are always projecting the ideal the ideal path somewhere back into the unattainable reaches of time. .

And Also In Those Situations That Obtain Psychologically

when people are absolutely possessed by depression and anxiety and wish for their consciousness to come to an end if not metaphorically so they desire to sleep, then actually so that suicide is viewed as a kind of unconsciousness whose paradaisal nature, the absence of all opposition, is viewed as clearly preferable to the difficulties of actually maintaining being. Eliade says, the idea of Paradise once and then paradise lost is not something unique to Western or Great Eastern Societies. It s a widespread motif, just as wide as the flood motif. Regardless of where you go in.

World You Find This Notion.

UK Heaven had been abruptly separated from the Earth, that is when it had become remote as in our days, when the tree or vine connecting Earth to heaven had been cut, or the mountain which used to touch the sky had been flattened out then the paradaisal stage was over and man entered into his present fallen condition. In effect all myths of Paradise show us primordial man enjoying a beatitude, a spontaneity and freedom which he has unfortunately lost in consequence of the fall. That is of what followed upon a mythical event that caused the rupture between heaven and Earth.

As I Said, Eden Is Delight, A

place of delight, by terminological definition, whereas Paradise is a walled garden. I want to show you what knowing that does for analysis of the relationship between Eastern and Western thought. So let me tell. you quickly the story of the Buddha and I m going to represent it fundamentally like this.

Buddha Starts His Life In What

s essentially a walled garden by all by all reasonable comparative analysis. . And as a consequence of his emergent self–consciousness, the unself-conscious child-like perfection of that early state is permanently disrupted.

So You Have A Situation Where The Greatest

redemption story of the East follows precisely the same dramatical tract as the greatest creation story of the West. So. This is the story. Buddha s father is visited by an angel who tells him that his son is going to grow up to be the greatest temporal profane ruler the world has ever seen or a great spiritual leader.

.

And. His father, being a pragmatic and conservative man, decides that there s no possible way. I

M Going To Allow My Son To

take the ambivalent road of spiritual enlightenment. I m. to fall completely in love with the world, so that he will remain attached to this domain. So Prior to Buddha

S Birth, His Father Constructed A Great City With

walls around it and inside that city. He removes all signs of pain, frustration and disappointment, any sign of ugliness and age, the only people who are allowed to exist within this city. , are those who are in perfect mental and physical health, who are paragons of beauty and virtue. . And.

The Idea That Lurks Behind That

archetypal story is that when a father has a child his moral obligation is to shield the developing consciousness of that child from contact with any of the horrors of life that could provide the child with an experience too traumatic for that developing consciousness to apprehend. SO because it s an archetypal story. It relates to the development of all people, not just the redemptive saviour and that s the motif that the Buddhist story initially follows.

A Good Father Makes His Father Fall

in love with life by enticing that child into a direct relationship with all that life has to offer. So Buddha grows up within this walled garden, this unselfconscious paradise. But precisely because he s being shielded to this degree and allowed to mature, his consciousness continues to expand and the world outside the boundaries that his parents have established for him starts to attract his attention. Now we know already that the forbidden fruit, right, the lure of what

S Outside The Walls Is Something That

human beings just cant keep their mangy little paws off, right We are absolutely uncontrollably curious and the best way to make sure that we investigate something is to lay down a structure that says,. Whatever you do under whatever circumstances never look there, right And then the automatic systems that underlie our orienting and that motivate our seeking experience are constantly pulling our attention precisely to that forbidden spot, compelling us to investigate exactly that which has been forbidden. So. Because Buddha is a consciousness developing in a healthy manner.

He Immediately Becomes Curious About What

lies beyond the limits that have been established with him and he makes a decision to go outside of paradise. right, which seems a particularly ridiculous thing to do. , given that in principle he had everything he could possibly want inside the walls. But. Then again we have the troublesome notion of the original sin of Adam, right, which is that if any of you were offered a forbidden fruit again under circumstances mythologically equivalent to those that obtained.

In The Beginning, You

d immediately reach your hand out. and take it because what we haven t got for human beings is always far more compelling than what we have got So. Buddha goes outside the walls.

But, His Father, Who

s a good father. Although somewhat conservative, decides he s going to rig the game a little bit. So he gets rid of everybody that

S Diseased Or Unhappy Or Uncomfortable Or Ugly Or

old or anything that could possibly disturb the Buddha. and he lines the streets with flower waving women and puts petals on the road and sends his son out in a gilded chariot. But. The gods who are lurking around, right, the trouble making gods who represent chaos and disorder and the unknown decide to send in front of Buddha. A sick man who hobbles unsteadily into view.

And Buddha Asks His Retainer Precisely What This

phenomena represents and his retainer says, well you know, human beings like. you since you re human are subject to the deterioration of these mere physical powers in an arbitrary way. And. This man is one person who

S Been So Afflicted.

And. So Buddha is completely disenchanted by his exploratory. Move out into the terrible unknown and runs back into the castle walls and shuts the door and is perfectly happy to think of nothing for months. .

• unselfconsciousness
• selfconsciousness
• consciousness
• unselfconscious
• conscious

But Then As His Anxiety Habituates

and his curiosity grows, he cant stand the notion of never going outside the walls again and outside he goes again. And this time after his father prepares the route ever so carefully. The gods send inside an old man who hobbles into view. And.

Buddha Look At Him In Shock And Horror

and says to his retainer, just precisely whats going on here. And his retainer says, well that s an old man. Everybody gets old and you

Re Going To.

get old too and that s the way of all humanity. .

• negative emotion fundamentally immobilized paradoxical
• characterized animal like unselfconsciousness adam
• consciousness consequence flooded negative emotion
• notion pre selfconscious paradise
• genesis structure like self conscious

And That

s the point at which Buddha s self–consciousness. Expands not to only include the possibility of degeneration, but to include the temporal horizon that

S Characteristic Of Life.

And. He finds that so terribly shocking that he runs.

Summary

First walked in the Garden of Eden is characterized by an animal-like unselfconsciousness . Adam and Eve, whatever they are, are not clearly segregated from the rest of the world. They have no idea,, for example,. of their own nakedness.& If you think about what nakedness means, you immediately understand that that&s also a very profound, dramatic representation.& So you also have images of Paradise that flow through Western history that are characterized by the image of the unconscious union between the mother and child, which is an imagiative image of an image that is an imaginationi of the mother-and-child union.& And And. So let&s take a look at the structure of paradise as it&s presented in Genesis. It&s a very paradoxical, a very . paradoxical state of being, our highest rational gift say, and the only on that clearly distinguishes us from animals.& Is also that which, when manifested, makes us almost…. Click here to read more and watch the full video