Stress Academy Presents:

Web Series – The Story of Stress

Part 1 – Understanding Stress

Episode 11 – Natural & Unnatural State of Consciousness

In the last video, we learned about the evidence which proves that Consciousness is a separate substance from the physical body. 

We now have answers to two out of three questions we raised in the first video

1. Where does Stress Originate? – Our stress is linked to our emotions and our emotions originate in our consciousness; thus, stress arises within our consciousness.
2. Who is accountable for Stress? –  As we explained in videos 7 to 9, our consciousness is responsible for stress due to its capabilities of being able to regulate changes in its attributes of awareness, beliefs, emotions and intentions due to its inherent freewill.  

However, the question about the definition of stress is still unanswered. So, let us first understand “normal” and “abnormal” behaviors. 

In psychology, abnormality is defined using criteria such as deviation from social & statistical norms as well as deviation from ideal mental health and failure to function adequately.1,2,3 T

7hese criteria serve well in identifying serious psychological disorders; however, they are neither sufficient nor comprehensive to identify all of the transient, acute and even many chronic stressful emotions and behaviors. Since the primary focus has been on defining mental illness and abnormal behavior, the definition of ideal mental health and normal behavior has remained vague.  Let’s try to understand this point using the following examples: 

1. Someone might really enjoy the mental state derived from alcohol and drug use, even if it is at the expense of his physical, mental and social health. So, does the pleasurable feeling make it “normal” behavior? Feeling of enjoyment is also quite subjective.
2. Many regions have legalized marijuana consumption. Those societies at large have considered marijuana consumption as socially acceptable. So, does this make consumption of psychotropic addictive substances normal or less stressful?
3. Compulsive lying is defined as a disorder in psychology but can the occasional lying be considered as normal behavior? Occasional lying is not called a disorder, but it deserves to be labeled as abnormal behavior because it is a potential precursor to compulsive lying.

Therefore, making an objective and consistent definition for “normal behavior” will enable us to define “stress” clearly.  

Let us delve into the definition of natural and unnatural states of a substance from Jain philosophy standpoint. Changing states within the substance can be of two types: Unnatural and Natural.

1. Unnatural state (known as Vibhav Paryay) –  is a state or mode expressed by the substance while interacting with external instrumental factors (known as Nimitt).
2. Natural state (known as Swabhav Paryay) – is an inherent state or mode expressed by the substance that occurs without any interaction with external instrumental factors.

For example, in the absence of Oxygen and spark, to remain unignited and not burn is the intrinsic natural state of pure Hydrogen. Now, in the presence of external instrumental factors such as Oxygen and spark, the Hydrogen is combustible. Therefore, burning is an unnatural state of Hydrogen.

In video 4, we had discussed some of the attributes of consciousness. The ‘ability to form emotions’ or ‘stay neutral’ is referred to as the “Conduct” (Charitra) attribute according to Jain philosophy. All of these attributes including the Conduct attribute can have natural and unnatural states.

Now, let’s identify the unnatural states of the Conduct attribute. When forming emotions, in addition to our own free will, there are many instrumental factors at play.  They are triggered by our past karmic bondage. When we get angry or frustrated, we do it in the presence of instrumental factors such as current external situations, recalling of previous incidents or thinking about possible future events. For example, you may perhaps feel frustrated with stock market volatility  (instrumental factor) especially when your own investments are involved. In this case, emotion of frustration is an unnatural state of conduct. Similarly, all emotions such as anger (Krodh), ego (Maan), deceit (Maya), greed (Lobh), sorrow (Shok), fear (Bhay), affection (Rati), disaffection (Arati), laughter (Hasya), Disgust (jugupsa) and sex passions (Stri-Purush-Napunsak Ved) are unnatural states of conduct.

Most of these emotions are very much intertwined with our day to day life. So, you may wonder if all emotions are unnatural states, then how do we sustain our worldly lives? That is indeed a valid question and therefore, in the future videos, we will learn to manage those emotions by classifying them further in categories of (a) Benevolent emotions (Shubh bhav) and (b) Non-benevolent emotions (Ashubh bhav). 

Everyone relates the feeling of unpleasant emotions as stress. The idea behind considering even seemingly pleasant emotions as unnatural states is to empower ourselves to identify the true nature of our own transient emotions and not to be misled by seemingly pleasant emotions as a stress-free state.

Regarding our emotions, we should remain aware of the following facts:

1. Even seemingly pleasant emotions carry a baggage of external dependencies such as good food, health, wealth, leisure and entertainment and we could end up feeling miserable the moment we lose them. 
2. Material pleasure or displeasure very much require the presence of material objects and it cannot be sustained even if the objects remain present. For example, if you receive bad news while your favorite food is in your mouth, would it still bring the same joy to you?

So our notion of normality and feeling stress-free based on our likings or fulfillment of material well being needs complete makeover.

Now, the next question would be, what is our natural state then? The “neutral state” of consciousness (known as Veetaragata) would be considered our natural state. Because this “neutral state” does not carry any external dependency for us to feel peace and pleasure. According to Jain philosophy, every individual in this “neutral state” would experience tremendous non-material joy and inner peace proportional to the degree of purity of their “neutral state”. This is an objective, consistent and universal phenomenon.

Acharya KundKund described the concept of natural and unnatural state in his treatise Panchastikay Sangrah and Pravachansar during 1st century C.E based on Tirthankar Mahavir’s teachings. 

Our definition of stress shall refer to a mental state which includes positive and negative emotions as well as the causes of emotions. To understand this further, we ought to understand natural and unnatural states of our knowledge and beliefs in the next video.

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References:

1. Jahoda, M. (1958). Joint commission on mental health and illness monograph series: Vol. 1. Current concepts of positive mental health. Basic Books.
2. Rosenhan, D. L., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1989). Abnormal Psychology Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton
3. McLeod, S. A. (2018). Abnormal psychology. Retrieved. www.simplypsychology.org/abnormal-psychology.html
4. Acharya Kundkund. Pravachansar. India. ~100 C.E.

English translation and explanation by Vijay K. Jain, inspired by Acharya Vishuddha Sagar.  2018 C.E.

Available at: https://jainelibrary.org/book-detail/?srno=034445