I feel your spirit in me:
Vibrant, playful–earnest!
All of the world’s Goodness?
It’s in both of us…
Spiritmates
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Scott Pilgrim and Kumar
What do these characters and their stories–Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World and Harold & Kumar–have in common?
Scott Pilgrim fights for love and self-respect (and, ultimately–arguably…self-actualization!). Kumar, played by Kal Penn, fights for love, too. But what about self-respect?
Kumar doesn’t take himself or mundane aspects of his life that seriously. He’s a romantic genius who prefers a magical, spontaneous sort of life rather than one more ordinary or structured (best friend Harold is more of this flavor).
Scott and Kumar would both do anything for their respective, romantic loves. Scott gets caught up in what everyone around him wants until he happens upon Ramona Flowers at a party. Once he and she meet, he gives his life to them.
Kumar does the same once his love interest Vanessa proclaims her pregnancy (in the less-watched, but nonetheless fun and enjoyable A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas).
Ultimately, Scott and Kumar are both open enough to what life brings that they each meet the love of their lives. Through their adventures, the two realize that self-respect follows from love; and at least for Abraham Maslow, self-actualization would need to follow soon thereafter.
Harry Potter’s hero’s journey
Harry died for the greater good. When he realized that part of Voldemort existed within him, he had to risk his own life to eradicate it.
The hero must vanquish evil his own evil before conquering capital-E Evil! He must come to understand that the worst virus of all lives within himself.
Once the hero sacrifices his life for all others–Others–he will return willingly (if not, at first, reluctantly) . He returns to save the world and defeat the enemy of the world~
Mind & body
Mind creates body–
Body becomes whole!
Mind emerges from body?
Everybody matters.
Consciousness and experience
Experiencing is necessarily conscious!
Culture and subjectivity
A central commonality between culture and subjectivity is that each owes a considerable extent of its definition to the existence of mere differences between preference or taste—however arbitrary or meaningful these may turn out to be.
Leap of risk
What is the relation between risk and meaning?
Faith and meaning are perhaps more obviously related. Look no further than to religion to see the interplay between these: the faithful life is inherently meaningful.
Leaps of faith involve risk. In life, we are not always 100% certain. These situations especially call for faith–“going for it”, even though we might fail.
Operating under uncertainty is what risk is all about!
Eupsychia and self-actualization
Maslow defined Eupsychia as both a psychologically healthy culture and society.
Would a world of self-actualizers be like this utopia?
In Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, main character Raskolnikov dreams of a hyper-individualistic culture. In this socioculture (or “culturiety”), each figure pursues their own morality. The dream ends with the collapse of society: it can’t be that everyone is their own ubermensch!
However, Eupsychia would presumably be more collaborative than Raskolnikov’s nightmare. People forge social contracts, defining a common ethics (law) based on intersubjective morality.
Perhaps Eupsychia consists in a kind of self-and-other-actualization. Self-actualization consists in becoming part of something greater than oneself, so perhaps it is sufficient. Still–in considering Nietzsche’s ubermensch who has overcome herd morality, along with Raskolnikov’s transgression–we must be mindful that the self actualizes for another.
Free truth
If you debate to set truth free, ask: who imprisoned her to begin with?
Psychology’s ideal person
The psychologically-ideal person is assertive, authoritative, moral, secure, self-actualizing, extraverted, conscientious, open to experience, agreeable, and emotionally stable.
सूरज् ਸੂਦ: ਸੂਸत्त् ᐲᓯᒼ ਸੂर्य्ੲन्द्र 