This question comes to my mind every time I think I’m getting crazy. Literature, thinking and hard work are ways to reach an idealized mind in good shape. Singaporeans are pushed into high-level competition to have a strong mind and get success. By the other hand Buddhist meditation teach how to perceive the world without mind filters and reduce suffering by stop thinking meaning that the good health is in a relaxed mind more than in a strong one.From a philosophical discussion in Europe I discovered that the definition of mind in good health is complicated. The first group of ideas converges on the following: most of the time people prefers to value moral aspects to recognize the good health of mind: good or evil, happy or unhappy, altruist or avaricious then healthy or unhealthy in mind. I don’t like this perception because the moral aspects or values are concepts that vary from case to case. But considering the quantity of people who have this opinion it’s important to analyse it. In the case that this is true, then working on developing a good health by reading and studding doesn’t guaranty a good health because we can get bad or good depending on our moral issues. So, what is the point of working hard and study hard in this society? The meditation would then be a better way to get a mind in good health, avoiding the development of a strong mind that could increase evil on us.
The second group of ideas concerns the functionality of the mind. A person who can work and live in a society is supposed to have a healthy mind. This concept is the most interesting because is the base idea for mental health where people gets medicated to be functional; that explains part of the Singaporean Void, where people functions in automatic. Walking on the shops, buying with no real interest in the acquisition but completing a functional task. Some philosophers talk about societies like Singapore like mentally ill. That’s why I disagree totally with the principle of functionality to define a mind in good health; for me it’s the opposite, people are reduced to objects. Anyway, the meditation could also be the best way to have a mind in good health because the society won’t have a pre-programmed social functionality. But with meditation another problem rises: the value of freedom. The idea of freedom and desire is stopped in a non-thinking mind. Freedom is also annihilated by functionality in Singaporean society.
The search for a mind in good health is complex and this is only a start to try to understand part of the reasons of the void. Occidental philosophy tells that you can have a good health in mind with the exercise of thinking but this exercise can be dangerous for the well being of the society. The Singaporean void can be considered as a clear evidence of the lack of health in Singaporean minds.
The understanding of the void can help to recover a bit of mind health. Develop a strong mind or to stop thinking; that is the paradox to understand the void.
2 comments:
It is only a mind that is 'good health' that is able to recognise a mind in 'good health'. Inquiry is only most fruitful when the tool via which we inquire is sharpened. It is a lifelong quest. But at least when we die, we can say we have truly lived.
A 'mind in good health' is seen to be one that is adaptive and makes the most out of particular circumstances. However, such a mind does not make the most out of the human ability to imagine. Or rather, it restricts the human imagination to dwell within the confines of a particular system. This is how the distinction between human and non-human animal is rendered tenuous. It is the human potential to imagine beyond what it is thought to think as true and right that makes one truly human. When one abjures this potential by a myopic attempt to adapt to any particular system, one inevitably becomes a reflexive and instinctual creature, not unlike animals, attempting to bring about a goodness-of-fit between the environment and oneself.
It is the ability to free oneself from such reflexive tendencies and explore the potentials of the human imagination that argues for our humanity.
Thanks for writing this.
Post a Comment