We Are The Bad Guys. The Evil Is Already In You E-Book

davide appi

• Herausgeber: Tektime
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 404

Beschreibung

We Are The Bad Guys. The Evil Is Already In You How many times do we promise ourselves not to make the same mistakes again, not to react abruptly, but then at the first opportunity we reproduce the same deleterious behaviour again, which harms the relationship with those around us and the people we interact with every day? How many times in our daily lives do we behave irrationally, getting angry, and frightened in objectively uncompromising situations? How many times do we let our emotional memory, i.e. our past, make us react to the situation of the moment when clearly the circumstance of now has nothing to do with what happened to us a long time ago? We probably all experience these dilemmas, which is why inner work on oneself is fundamental, so that we are truly free to choose according to our real needs of the moment, and stop being victims at the mercy of the 'conditioning chain' formed by the thoughts-past-emotions complex. Making the right choices, without them being dictated solely by reason or conditioned solely by completely unconscious and automatic emotional impulses, is an important part of our journey of awakening. It is difficult to change oneself, one's own debilitating emotional reactions, one's own negativity, and one's own unconscious conflictuality, which constitute the 'bad' side within each of us. Consciously changing oneself is one of the most difficult tasks, yet it is an indispensable stage in our personal transformation; it is an arduous task, but we must not be discouraged by the difficulty of the manoeuvre; on the contrary, it is precisely the difficulties that make us grow. This is why changing ourselves is vital to transforming the world, and true revolution can only start with a profound inner change. We must recognise that in us we have both good and evil, it is up to us to choose which path to take and which side of the coin to pursue. We can decide, in every moment of our lives, whether to be on the right side to uplift ourselves and society, or to give in to our baser instincts, turning our lives and consequently the very world we live in into a perpetual earthly hell. The choice is ours. It is already within us.

Leseprobe

WE ARE THE BAD GUYS

EVIL IS ALREADY IN YOU

DAVIDE APPI

Copyright © 2022 Davide Appi

All rights reserved.

Translated by Alessandra Cervetti

WE ARE THE BAD GUYS

EVIL IS ALREADY IN YOU

'First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win'

MAHATMA GANDHI

'When the rich wage war, it is the poor who die'

JEAN-PAUL SARTRE

'Fear is the poisoned seed from which violence is born.'

DAVIDE APPI

"It is better to be an optimist and be wrong than a pessimist and be right."

ALBERT EINSTEIN

"It is not a sign of good mental health to be well adapted to a sick society."

JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI

DEDICATION

It may sound strange, but I would like to dedicate this book to a billy goat, which for those who do not know is the male of the goat, because this bizarre animal was unwittingly the inspiration for this book. So, I thank this creature whose behaviour was a great inspiration for the writing of this new work of mine. I wish you good reading and to discover the goat in you, because we are all goats as long as we live our existences in ordinary mode and it is up to each of us to transmute the animal within us to transform ourselves into Wise Beings, inclined to personal and collective well-being.

EDITOR’S NOTE

In this text, I discuss consciousness, ego-consciousness, super consciousness, and awakening consciousness. To make the reading clearer I first give an overview of the meaning of these terms.

If we consult a dictionary, we find the following definition of consciousness: 'Awareness that the subject has of themselves and the external world with which they are in connection, of their identity and the totality of their inner activities.' Or: 'Ability to evaluate one's gifts and aptitudes.' In a more general sense, consciousness is associated with the knowledge of one's actions through reflection and analysis; the exact realisation of a given thing, the ability to evaluate one's gifts and aptitudes.'

As far as the Ego is concerned, we find: the term Ego is mainly used in Italian to refer to the inner self of an individual, or alternatively as a derogatory term to indicate a person with excessive determination and arrogance.

Then we have the definition of ego-consciousness: ego-consciousness is a mechanism of the mind by which we identify with it. It is the individualised consciousness that makes us believe we are something separate from everything else. In this book, I use several terms that I consider synonymous with ego consciousness: ego-consciousness, ego-ego, conflictual-ego, thinking-brain.

Whereas under Superconsciousness we find: The definition of Superconsciousness given by Swami Kriyananda, a disciple of the great Indian master Paramhansa Yogananda, is as follows: "Superconsciousness is the higher dimension of our consciousness that allows us to tap into unlimited resources and potential. This is the hidden, magical mechanism of our mind that operates behind intuition, physical and spiritual healing, problem-solving, and deep inner joy.

So, referring to the above definitions, I would like to point out that in this book I refer to consciousness as the knowledge that the subject has of himself, of the outside world, and of our capacity to think and reason, so in practice, I am referring to all the activities that can be ascribed to the thinking dimension of the human being. I make this clarification because often, in spiritual and philosophical circles, consciousness is seen as the highest expression of the human being, that quality that would place it above other living species. I am more than convinced that consciousness plays a significant role in our lives, I do not believe it is possible to live completely excluding the activity of reflecting, reasoning, and thinking, but this faculty does not constitute something that makes the human being special compared to other living organisms. This is because the same consciousness is also present in the plant and animal kingdoms, so we are not as humans superior: consciousness in itself does not make us better than other living beings. Instead, what distinguishes us, making us spiritual beings, is the faculty of becoming aware of the Infinite, of being conscious of being part of a Whole, belonging to what the Sages of antiquity called the unified field of consciousness, and which modern quantum physics has renamed the quantum field. We are a fragment of the Infinite potentially able to become conscious of itself, the wave merging into the ocean, but to reach this supreme realisation ordinary consciousness is not enough; we must go further to reach Superconsciousness which we can also describe as Consciousness of consciousness, or the Supreme Consciousness of ordinary consciousness, the detached observer capable of becoming aware of the I AM.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONSCIOUSNESS AND SUPERCONSCIOUSNESS

Consciousness effectively isolates and disconnects us from the world and our fellow human beings, while Superconsciousness consciously connects us with the whole of creation; to better understand the difference between these two, it is useful to make the analogy of a network. Every part of the whole, hence also us human beings, can be likened to a node that is part of a network, yet has the belief that it is separate from the rest. This is in fact the attitude of most individuals: perceiving themselves as nodes isolated from the general context, from the rest of the network, and this view generates a world in which individuals feel separated from the rest of Humanity. This feeling of separation is the way in which consciousness operates.

Superconsciousness, on the other hand, has the awareness of being both the node and the network itself at the same time, it, therefore, perceives the intimate and profound connection with the rest of creation, with the network as a whole, it feels it is interconnected with every form of life and with other human beings.

Consciousness believes itself to be a separate node separated from the rest of the network, whereas Superconsciousness is aware that it is both the node and the totality of the network at the same time, and because of this, it can connect us to a reality that is larger and more limitless than the existential narrowness of ordinary consciousness.

We express Superconsciousness in those moments when we feel particularly in harmony with everything that exists, we discover what unites us with the rest of creation and we have the feeling that we need absolutely nothing because we perceive that everything is perfect as it is in this instant. In those moments of deep inner joy and boundless peace, the mind becomes quiet, the inner grumbling subsides, and this silence allows us to hear the wonder of the present moment. Generally, these are sensations that can occur while enjoying a sunset, by the sea, observing a spectacle of nature, and in all those situations where we unplug from the daily routine. In those moments that seem eternal, our Superconsciousness is awake, which is why we feel different than we used to, we are immersed in a feeling of Universal Unity, of cosmic brotherhood, and our thinking brain seems to be completely switched off. The lack of thinking activity is a sign that our ordinary consciousness is disengaged, there is no thought, judgement, or analysis of what is happening. I am convinced that each of us may have experienced, at least for a few moments in our lives, this wonderful feeling; so, when I speak in this text of Superconsciousness, Superconscious, or Superconscious mind, terms that I consider synonymous, know that I am referring to that part of us that made us experience those unforgettable moments.

Of course, in most cases, these are fleeting moments, very brief interludes in an ordinary life where consciousness is practically always in command of operations, and it makes it seem impossible for us to believe that we can constantly live in a state of Superconsciousness. But, the purpose of every spiritual path and every process of Awakening is precise to make us rediscover the hidden diamond that dwells within us, and it is this rediscovery that is the key to changing our way of being and rewriting the fate of the planet.

‘Jan had asked her a bitter question: 'What drives a man to destroy others?' And she answered him: "Remember that you are a man too". He had agreed with her. "The rot that is in others is also in us’.

ETTY HILLESUM

We can safely say: in our normal mode of functioning, that is, in the consciousness version, we feel divided, separate, and therefore in conflict with the rest of the Universe. So, following this ordinary 'consciousness-centric' logic, the bad guys are definitely the others, so certainly our wife, our next-door neighbour, our employer, the government, the ruling elites are bad and are ruining our existence. But let us not forget that we too are individuals, normally dominated by a conscience that produces conflict, war, and violence, so we can honestly say: 'The bad guys are also us, evil is outside us but also within us.'

So, the villains are us as well as others, we live on a planet where 99.9% of individuals are evil, except for a few enlightened Buddhas. But we do not have to justify our aggression, our violence, and our evilness, we can embark on a path of personal awakening because if it is true that we are the bad guys, the inner transformation will awaken our Superconsciousness, the part of us capable of transforming ourselves into the good guys who will change the world.

FORENOTE

As long as we are in our ordinary consciousness, we are always at the mercy of our defensive mental structure, which permanently makes us react aggressively. So, it takes very little to trigger negative reactions in us, inappropriate words and behaviour that we may regret in retrospect. Our ego-defensive mental structure is like a computer programme, it reproduces itself automatically, and this can trigger deleterious reactions and behaviour in us.

This is the reality in which we are all immersed, but also our starting point to free ourselves from the chains produced by our own consciousness. Awakening implies first realising that we are in this state of affairs. Normally, we are inside a conditioning that comes from an erroneous perception of reality, the consciousness believing itself to be separate from the rest of the Universe; but it is not only us who are living this illusion because this also applies to others, including those who are called upon to educate us, such as parents, schools, culture, and education. Thus, the perversion of separation is innate in our consciousness and is further fuelled by the entire cultural-educational complex, which ceaselessly reminds us that we are one consciousness in perpetual conflict against the others. And this state of affairs can only produce conflict and war. Our consciousness not only feels separated on the outside, but it also feels fragmented on the inside. We create division on the outside by feeling separated from others, but we do the same process on the inside and so we also feel the separation between different parts of ourselves. Thus, our consciousness finds itself separate from other parts of ourselves, conflicting with certain aspects of us, denying and ignoring certain traits of us, and even forgetting parts of our being. We repress, deny, and ignore parts of ourselves, this inevitably produces battles within ourselves between aspects of us that, feeling divided, end up warring with each other. And of course, on a planet where the vast majority experience such inner conflicts internally, we cannot help but transpose the wars from our inner to our outer selves, transferring the conflicts from the inner battlefield to the outer one, from a personal dispute to one against others, and turning our conflicts into actual wars waged with tanks.

As psychoanalysis teaches us, our consciousness represses and removes certain aspects of us, and disowns certain parts, so all this ends up in what is called the shadow, a part of our unconscious where all those aspects of us that we no longer want to see are removed. We remove in the shadow our violence, our aggressiveness, as well as our original tendencies, and all those aspects of us that clash with the social conformity that induces us to conform to the norm. In short, everything that our ordinary consciousness does not want to see about itself is ignored and removed into the shadows. The fact that the conscience ends up being unaware of its dark side, often we end up not even being aware of it anymore, does not take away the fact that that stuff exists, belongs to us, and is part of us; by forgetting these aspects of ourselves, they become more and more incensed at being constantly repressed, becoming more and more brutal and dangerous should they suddenly emerge uncontrollably. To avoid the impulsive outburst of the shadow, instead of continuing to ignore the parts of us that we do not like, or that we repress because of social conformity, we must recognise their existence, know that they are in us, and look at them in a detached manner. Knowing they are there without ignoring them, but at the same time maturing that detachment from their very presence. We must not make war on our shadow but accept it in a compassionate manner and not identify with it.

So, the first characteristic of our consciousness is separation within and without, and this induces us to belligerency with ourselves and others. This warlike consciousness inevitably pits us against others, putting us inexorably in conflict with them. Our ego-ego is divided into many identities, such as being Italian, Catholic, right-wing, anti-fascist, etc. So, it affirms itself by placing itself in opposition to its opposite, so I define myself as a man insofar as I set myself against women, I declare myself Italian by setting myself against the Germans, I feel myself Catholic by setting myself against the Muslims. This is the mode of expression of our ego-consciousness, which defines itself insofar as it sets itself against others and conflicts to assert its primacy. And it is a completely warlike way of defining itself insofar as the conscience thinks: I am a Catholic because I am against Muslims, atheists, and heretics; I am a man and as such feel superior to women; I am a leftist because I fight against the right; and I am an anti-fascist because I oppose fascism. It is therefore obvious that this 'way of thinking' leads us to conflict with others.

Another aspect of ego-consciousness is that it lives in perpetual pain and suffering; it can have joys, but these do not last long, so it falls back on the search for a new pleasure which by its very nature is ephemeral. The fundamental problem of consciousness is that it does not know how to be truly happy, being a prisoner of the thought-past, and so it resorts to external expedients to experience pleasure which is, however, ephemeral, lasting just as long as they last. The only part of us capable of being truly happy is superconsciousness, which is, however, normally constantly repressed and obscured by consciousness itself. So, the latter simply experiences ephemeral pleasures, such as those related to the senses, to having material goods, to the satisfaction of having fought against an opponent, defeated an enemy, but these enjoyments are short-lived and so the consciousness itself falls back into suffering, into the search for new pleasure and satisfaction that will be just as ephemeral.

The conscience is deeply unhappy and constantly asks itself why it is frustrated, angry, and suffering. And the answer to this question, from its point of view, is simple: "It is the fault of others that we are unhappy." And there goes the 'witch hunt' to identify the enemy, responsible for our unhappiness, so it is the fault of our wife, our children, our parents, society, the government, and the Universal Masters if we are always frustrated and depressed. This is how consciousness produces the enemy to fight, by finding it outside itself. And this process is the antechamber to war ...

INTRODUCTION

Humans, as well as plants and animals, have an instinctual part of themselves that we might call low genetic instincts, which are genetically induced drives, thus inherent at birth and inducing certain behaviours. One of these genetic instincts is violence.

During one of my stays on a Ligurian farm, I personally witnessed the aggressiveness of a billy goat intent on demonstrating his virility in order to conquer the numerous females in the herd. It was an episode that has remained indelibly imprinted in my imagination, as the reckless billy goat in his 'testosterone excitement', having no other competitor in the herd with whom to compete - the other male in the herd was still very small, so he was not yet a potential rival - flaunted all his virility against a cow and several of us humans...

The goat was clearly in the grip of his genetic instincts that induced him to display his physical strength to impress the females of the herd. As already mentioned, plants, animals, and humans share genetic instincts that induce certain instinctual behaviours, because we share a common consciousness, i.e., the thinking brain that, being the part of us that thinks, reflects, and evaluates, does so from three key elements: basic genetics, our experience, and education.

Basic genetics is imprinted from birth in the infant, through neural connections already wired into the brain at the moment of birth, and these are able to define many natural behaviours, including violence, competition, and jealousy.

Then we have our life experiences which can, especially those accrued during childhood, create conditioning capable of influencing our choices even decades after the events that actually occurred. Thus, our past personal experiences programme our consciousness in a certain direction, it is now widely known how our past, especially what happened during childhood, can heavily condition our choices.

Finally, we have education, surely the most important element, capable of conditioning and programming our consciousness, its mode of thought, ideals, values, and behaviour.

So, if we said that we humans share these low genetic instincts with animals and plants, e.g. violence and competition, then it means that we are instinctively inclined to perpetuate these behaviours. But not only that, our traumatic experiences in childhood also create a defensive-aggressive mental structure, which even decades later leads us to react badly and aggressively to situations deemed similar to those we experienced in the past. And education itself is steeped in teachings, conditioning, and ideals that push in the direction of conflictuality.

So, these three factors, genetic instincts, past experiences, and education, are like programmes capable of organising our consciousness, i.e. our thinking brain. These three components are therefore like software that programmes our brain, which ends up living its existence in a confined enclosure, a real cage, whose boundaries are represented by basic genetics, past experiences, and education. If we were to summarise the concept as best, we can, we could say: 'The past constantly keeps our consciousness imprisoned'. In fact, these three conditioning factors are ultimately all elements that can be traced back to our past, so consciousness is inexorably held hostage to it. Thus, there is no room for something truly new and innovative capable of transforming us and society because consciousness is a slave to the past and cannot produce real change.

On the contrary, our Superconsciousness, which very few take seriously, is the key to turning our personal lives and the destiny of the planet. It, being one with the present moment, knows neither past nor future but only the now. This is the part of us that is not a prisoner of time, which is why it can produce real changes, great inventions, great artistic works, and in general what we call strokes of genius.

Learning to use Superconsciousness is the way to initiate true inner change and a Planetary Revolution.

THE GENETICS OF LOW INSTINCTS

Each of us is unique and develops a specific brain with very personal connections, so we are profoundly different from each other, but at the same time, we have connections that are in common because they are coded at birth. Our genetic code means that our brains have a whole series of pre-programmed connections as soon as we are born, so we are born with a whole series of automatisms that we could call animal programming. These are the low genetic instincts present both in us humans and also in animals and plants. Let us take an example of instinctive genetic programming: the cat, after peeing, scratches the ground to bury it. It does so because it is in its genetic programme, it automatically performs that behaviour and asks no questions about it. He just does it. It doesn't ask itself why it does it and even if it is on the concrete, it will continue scratching... Because it is programmed to do that, without asking itself any questions about whether or not it makes sense to scratch the concrete. We humans also have such genetic programmes, which make us do things that we are completely unaware of and which make us react automatically, we are a bit like the cat, but with the difference that we have the ability to change the 'animal programme' and therein lies our beauty. The animal is incapable of questioning its genetic automatisms, whereas man can take note of them and decide to consciously change them, to replace them with others of his choice and thus choose to be what he wants. It is important to become aware of this animal programming of ours, this contains very low aspects such as anger, aggression, fear of losing, jealousy, and violence.

Our genetic code is what determines what we are and this is certainly true. We said above that there are genetic connections that lead us to a whole series of innate behaviours, but it is also true that the same genetic code does what we tell it to do, that is, it produces what the brain asks it to produce. If we let go of our animal system, our low instincts, they will continue to function automatically, a bit like the cat that once it has peed, scratches the ground on which it has done its business. If we allow our low instincts to dominate us, we will be at the mercy of nefarious behaviour, so we will always be unconscious, like a ship in the middle of a storm... genetic instinctual. And we will continue to be like the cat scratching the concrete ... Or the goat venting his virility on cows and humans ...

This is what the vast majority of human beings seem to do, i.e. they let go of their basic impulses and this behavioural primitivism produces the current society steeped in violence at all levels. But we don't necessarily have to be like that, fortunately for us humans we are endowed with a Superconsciousness, and if we learn to use it it can make us aware of these unconscious mechanisms, so that we stop scratching on the concrete recognising the senselessness of such behaviour, unlike the cat which is not endowed with Superconsciousness. We, humans, have the ability to question our genetic programming, animals and plants do not, because they have consciousness but not a Superconscious mind.

Question: "How do we want to use our brains? What behaviour do we choose to have?"

Do we want to continue indulging in violence, jealousy, attachment, and all these primitive and destructive behaviours? Or do we want to be the best possible version of ourselves, embodying Peace, absolute non-violence, and unconditional Love? The choice is up to each of us!

EVIL IN US AND IN THE WORLD

Why do we want to self-destruct? Why does society continue to perpetuate masochistic behaviour? We question ourselves about the world's problems, but before we even think about them, we should ask ourselves, "Why do we, at our personal level, maintain wholly self-destructive choices?" Why do we have self-destructive thoughts, wholly negative emotional behavioural responses, and deleterious mental processes whether conscious or unconscious? Why do we maintain all this burden over time despite good intentions to change, heedless of the consequences they have, maintaining behaviours and habits with the idea that these are pleasing to us?

Ideally, we would all like Peace, but being in our everyday lives blinded by the illusions of this world, we fall into behaviours that seem geared towards our own self-destruction. I am not talking about metaphysics but about very concrete things. Why, for example, do we smoke when even the walls know how deleterious such a habit is to our organism? One could give so many examples of how we often treat ourselves badly, including bad habits, stressful living, completely irrational demands on us, and much more.

At this time, I am not interested in discussing why people smoke, overeat, do drugs, abuse alcohol, and perpetuate a long list of habits that are completely detrimental to their person. The fact is that many of us make entirely counterproductive and self-defeating choices. All this paraphernalia of bad behaviour, thoughts, words, and actions, which we conduct against ourselves on a daily basis, we then, inevitably, pour them out, consciously or unconsciously, to the outside world. It is inevitable: we project to our outside what we have inside. So, if we have hell inside us, we cannot give the world Peace, even if ideally in front of the TV we condemn Putin on duty who invades a foreign country. As long as we devastate ourselves with negativity, fears, bad habits, aggression, and violence, we are co-responsible for general defeatism and fully complicit in the destruction of our planet.

Therefore, the first step to cure the world of its problems, rampant violence, endless wars, and all the other problems that we know so well, is to cure ourselves, because the world is sick because we ourselves are sick. Humanity will only be cured of its ills when we have resolved our internal problems, and our inner conflicts, and after we have accepted, loved, and transformed the Putin within each one of us. The inner work of each of us depends on the survival of our own civilisation! And this is because Humanity is like an immense community made up of billions of individuals, just as a human being is a community made up of trillions of cells. From this perspective, there is no great difference between a human being and Humanity: they are both communities made up of billions of units. Today, biology explains to us that every function present in us human beings is also in each of our cells; we have a nervous system, a digestive system, a respiratory, excretory, and circulatory function, we have an endocrine, musculoskeletal, immune system, and we are capable of reproducing ourselves; thus these functions are also present in each of our cells, which, just like us human beings, are intelligent beings capable of living autonomously. That is why I find the comparison between a human being and Humanity fitting. Thus, the evil in society is also inevitably within us, just as the good in each of us can become good for the community of which we are a part. This reasoning applies to anything, even the most extreme, so just as there are mentally unbalanced people who go as far as the tragic act of suicide, then by analogy the same thing can also happen to our Humanity: it could self-destruct through what could in fact be a collective suicide. Self-destruction is to Humanity just as suicide is to the individual, so I do not regard the scenario of an atomic Armageddon as totally impossible. We are responsible for our own unconscious suicide when we perpetuate behaviour such as smoking, stressing ourselves out, feeling resentment and hatred towards someone, or taking revenge for a wrong suffered. But this misconduct not only produces our own self-damage, but it also contributes to the self-destruction-suicide of our own Humanity. Therefore, we need more than ever to roll up our sleeves and start working on ourselves!

LIVING IN HARMONY WITH ONE'S PRINCIPLES

Whatever negative things Humanity produces are reflected within us and result in a tendency, a propensity to violence that affects us all. If we accuse a head of state, a criminal, our neighbour, or our wife of their violent or unjust conduct against anyone or towards us, we cannot think we are better off if we, in turn, are unable to forgive the wrongs we suffer or worse still if we live in function of punishing the enemy and thirsting for revenge. In that case, we end up legitimising and reinforcing the dominant socio-mental structure.

If I cannot forgive others, why should others forgive me? If I have a desire for revenge for a wrong suffered, why should others not have the same desire towards me? We must be the change we want to see realised in the world, if I desire Peace and Justice I must live in harmony with these principles, and this implies following the path of absolute non-violence. And this presupposes an inner response that starts from within, to make sure that we do not react outwards, but to make what we are on the outside happen on the inside, to make sure that our inside is reflected in the world, rather than us reacting to this society, and to be the ones to reflect the distortions of society.

I do not want to react to an unjust world, because if my response is a function of an unreasonable reaction that I experience from outside, then I myself become wrong, having reacted to the unhealthy world. Being right means not reacting to pressure from the outside and remaining consistent with one's own ideas. This consistency leads us to be the change we want to see realised in the world. But it is not easy to remain aligned with one's own non-violent principles, because we are subject to injustice and wrongs from outside; this negativity resonates within us because within us there is already all the pain and despair that we find in society, and this baggage of inner suffering leads us to react badly when we suffer injustice. But if we no longer want to respond to these and reproduce this sick world system, we must break this vicious circle, and know how to go beyond the aggression inherent in our ordinary consciousness and also beyond the violence of society.

The brutality of our society is clearly visible, but we must understand that it is present in us. And this latent aggression in each of us is produced by basic genetics, our past experiences, and our upbringing. This triad forms the defensive-aggressive mind-scheme that dominates us, the roots of which are in our past. If we do not become aware of it, this mental structure will rule us without us being aware of it, and this will make us react violently to life's circumstances. Our past experiences, of which in most cases we no longer have any memory, have created wounds, pain, and suffering in us that we still unconsciously carry with us, many years later, and we still react emotionally to these stimuli. If we do not understand this inner dynamic, we cannot be able to recognise and eradicate the violence that is already within us, so we will inevitably project it outwards. We are therefore dominated by an aggressive-defensive psychic structure that finds its raison d'être in the illusion of separation, in low genetic instincts, in traumatic past experiences, in education, and all these mechanisms condition our very consciousness, becoming the unconscious autopilot that governs our lives. Thus, consciousness itself is at the mercy of this deeply limiting and destructive mental structure.

But, at the same time, there is also a deeper and higher aspiration within us that drives us towards Unity and Universal Love. A relationship is the way to integration and unification, the way to replace the age-old divisions that still tear the planet apart. We should not really need to strive to feel united with one another: in reality, we are already One without having to think about it. We are all intimately connected, we are one even if it seems counterintuitive as a concept. This is because we are dominated by our thinking brain, we are the society of the triumph of ego-consciousness and we see this at all levels, war, competition, careerism, the superficiality of relationships, the frantic race, the unsustainable pace of existence, with the destruction of relationships not only between us human beings but also with nature and the rest of creation, all these dynamics are well representative of the consciousness in command of the world.

We live within a Whole where we are connected to the Infinite Universe, but the problem is that we are not normally aware of this reality and continue to perceive ourselves as consciousnesses isolated from everything else. And this lack of connection further foments our aggressive-defensive structure, making us easily prone to hatred and violence.

WE HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE OURSELVES

'There are two great forces: fear and Love. Fear pushes us down, Love elevates us.'

DAVIDE APPI

Everything exists within us. We have the greatest dramas, the most heinous violence, a bloodthirsty dictator, and the bloodiest aggression, but we also have unconditional Love, Eternal Peace, and unlimited serenity: we just have to choose which part of us to serve. We can go beyond the hell that is our own egoic consciousness, because the underworld is already within us, as is every possibility in the Universe. Unrest is already within us if we leave the reins of our existence to ego-consciousness, which pushes us towards violence as a response to our personal problems and those of society.

But what drives us to violence? What drives us to destroy others?

We have said that everything is already within us, so within us, there is hatred, resentment, and anger, it is up to us not to let ourselves get caught up in these nefarious emotional states, and resolving this inner barbarism is the only way we can change this society. It is easy to give in to illusions dictated by the thirst for revenge, by the spirit of revenge, by living in accordance with the fulfillment of the desire to take revenge, to punish the guilty, and prosecute the unjust. We are all ideally for Peace, justice, a world of solidarity, but these ideals are often linked to a reductive vision in that they are seen as externalised ideas as if these were things to be sought outside ourselves, goals to be realised and pursued outside ourselves. But this recipe for outward change has never worked, after all, it couldn't be any other way, because if we want to "have" true Peace we must "be" willing to build it within ourselves first, overcoming our inner cruelty, our greed, the hatred buried under the ashes, our unjust tendencies, and the evil we pretend we don't have within. Our path of inner awakening and the change of the world is the same thing, the same movement, and the same path of liberation.

HUMANITY FACING FUTURE CHOICES

'Peace is a path of inner self-healing'.

DAVIDE APPI

We are at a fundamental crossroads in our human history. One path would lead us to the extinction of our own species, while the other would take us to be the first truly evolved civilisation, i.e. a non-violent, peaceful society, capable of living in Universal Harmony. We are faced with a choice, whether we are aware of it or not, and we must decide which path to pursue. Which path will we decide to take? Which side of human nature will we make prevail?

At the moment, aggression, inhumanity, and selfishness seem to have the upper hand over good feelings, with the triumph of the most brutal and greedy human nature leading us to unquenchable conflict with ourselves, to the fight against our fellow human beings, to the systematic plundering of the planet's resources, and to the inexorable destruction of our living environment. This devastating drift is the consequence of a destructive worldview, where competition seems to prevail over cooperation, where scarcity of resources is knowingly maintained in order to justify the perennial conflict for control over them, and where exaggerated careerism is praised in order to create and satisfy a false need to excel over one's fellow human beings. In such a context, fear, hatred, and scarcity are the unconscious driving force of a society that sails towards its own self-destruction.

But history might surprise us, some unforeseen events might change the current not-very-encouraging picture and turn the planet's destiny around. That is why we can still maintain a positive outlook on the situation, also because despairing is of no use, rather it is better to see our current global crisis as a great opportunity for change, while too much everything seems to be going wrong.

'Like a phoenix, I will rise from my ashes, everything that affects me will one day fortify me'...

The phoenix is the symbol of death and resurrection, in fact, it is said 'like the phoenix rising from its own ashes', this metaphor fits like a glove given the current situation that can presage a spiritual rebirth, a profound change, and the triumph of new vitality. After all, the history of each of us is made up of small and great successes and failures, of small or great achievements and losses. But we are still here and from the ashes, we can at any time re-emerge and this is more true than ever for our Humanity.

We currently live in a world dominated by a small self-referential, selfish, and greedy elite, but the social metamorphosis to which we can all contribute will be able to transform our planet into a new promised land. The current myopic society can lead us to a new horizon if people start changing themselves. We can altogether bring out our wisest, most loving, and creative side, capable of solving all current problems despite all catastrophic predictions about our future.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1: EMOTIONS

CHAPTER 2: EMOTION AND REASON

CHAPTER 3: PERSONALITY

CHAPTER 4: THE SICK HUMAN MIND

CHAPTER 5: STRESS AND VIOLENCE

CHAPTER 6: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF VIOLENCE

CHAPTER 7: THE WORLD DOMINATED BY FEAR

CHAPTER 8: THE WORLD DOMINATED BY VIOLENCE

CHAPTER 9: THE SOCIETY OF VILLAINS

CHAPTER 10: WAR CONSCIOUSNESS

CHAPTER 11: WAR A FAILURE

CHAPTER 12: WE ARE THE GOOD GUYS

CHAPTER 13: NON-DEFENCE AND PEACE

CHAPTER 14: IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE PREPARE YOURSELF

CHAPTER 15: WHAT WE CAN DO

CHAPTER 16: MEDITATION

CONCLUSION

EPILOGUE

OTHER TITLES PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR DAVIDE APPI:

INFORMATION ON THE AUTHOR

AUTHOR'S NOTES AND CONTACTS

CHAPTER 1: EMOTIONS

WHAT ARE EMOTIONS

What are they, what are they for, and why do we feel emotions? Etymologically, the word emotion derives from the verb 'to move' i.e., 'to set in motion', which is why we can say: emotions are what set us in action, they are therefore the basis of our actions and the driving force behind our behaviour. Emotions play a crucial role in our survival, in fact they act as a guide to guide us in our choices, identify dangers and defend ourselves. The problem arises when their intensity becomes excessive or we fail, at a time when we are overwhelmed by them, to identify them, recognise them, and then in those situations we risk them turning against us.

But back to the initial question, emotions are certainly a boundless world, an extremely complex phenomenon, we all experience them, but it is not easy to give a precise answer to the question of what they are. They are simultaneously both thoughts and physiological and even behavioural reflexes. Sometimes we tend to confuse them with moods or feelings but, for most modern theories, they are a multi-componential process and not a static state, so they have several components and an evolving time course. Emotions, as we said, act as a guide, determining our behaviour, our actions, with innate responses composed of involuntary, automatic and simultaneous phenomena; in their process they involve both the body and the mind. We can give banal examples that have happened to us all: when faced with danger we react by running away, or following a wrong suffered we frown. And already in these simple cases, it is evident how different factors come into play, and can help us understand what emotions are like. They are responses to stimuli whose origin can be either external or also internal. As far as internal stimuli are concerned, they can be thoughts or bodily sensations. External ones, on the other hand, can be a long wait at an appointment, a criticism received at work, and these initiate a whole series of modifications at the level of the nervous system, which give rise to emotional reactions, which are characterised by physiological aspects that result in the following changes: heart rate, body temperature, facial expressions, muscle activation, and blood oxygen. But not only the changes can also involve cognitive aspects such as: verbal changes, analysis of the nature of the stimulus, propensity for action, specific behavioural reaction, which can be an aggressive attitude if we are angry, or fleeing if we are frightened.

The emotional chain, i.e., the different components of the 'emotion system', can influence each other, which means that each element can influence the other components. Acting on one aspect of the emotional system consequently influences the response as a whole. This allows a kind of emotional regulation capacity, that is, it allows us to consciously go about modulating the reaction itself. For example, if we are under stress and feel we need to relax, taking deep breaths will certainly help us, or we could act on our thoughts to calm ourselves down.

WHAT ARE EMOTIONS FOR?

They are like our internal guide, a kind of compass that is called upon during decision-making processes, in our reasoning and in our judgements. They also provide information about our physiological state, our well-being, enable us to manage vital decisions and understand our needs. Emotions are said to be a crucial factor in evolution, being an indispensable phenomenon for survival, the result of a long process of adaptation to one's environment that has enabled human beings to develop increasingly effective responses. Emotions are response mechanisms that allow us, for example, to stop at red lights out of fear of the consequences; if we did not feel anger, we would not be induced to fight for injustice and abuse, while sadness would allow us to deal with situations of loss and bereavement.

THE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS OF EMOTIONS

They predispose us to action by activating us on a neurophysiological level. In particular, by bypassing the intermediary of the cognitive process and reasoning, they allow a rapid response to a stimulus and this factor makes them absolutely essential to ensuring our survival. The rapidity of emotion allows us not to waste time in a dangerous or emergency situation. Furthermore, emotions allow us to express to others our state of mind and how we feel; this communication can take place through facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use of space. These elements constitute significant signals about our inner state and how we feel.

PRIMARY EMOTIONS

Primary, i.e., innate, emotions are genetically programmed into us from birth. The psychologist Martin Seligman puts forward the hypothesis that there are stimuli, called 'phobogens', which would genetically predispose us to react to potentially dangerous stimuli. Also according to Antonio Damasio, a Portuguese neurologist, neuroscientist, psychologist and essayist, it is possible that we are programmed to respond with an emotional reaction to the perception of certain traits regarding stimuli from the environment or the body. Examples of stimuli that induce an emotional reaction can be certain sizes, think of a large animal, certain types of movement, such as that of a reptile or snake, or certain types of noise such as a roar.Possiamo elencare sei emozioni primarie, le quali risultano essere universalmente riconoscibili e innate a prescindere dal tempo, luogo e cultura. Esse sono: paura, tristezza, rabbia, disgusto, sorpresa e gioia.

Fear acts as an alarm bell, signalling danger, and eventually enabling us to save ourselves by flight, attack, or immobility. Let us think of a situation in which we find ourselves in the presence of a large animal, in which case fear is the stimulus that induces us to flee from danger. Sadness, generally related to a loss, allows us to take time to reflect and process what has been lost. In a newborn baby, sadness leads him to cry, and this can let the mother know that he is hungry. Anger signals an injustice or abuse suffered, so this spurs us to defend and claim our rights; or it can save us if we are attacked by an aggressor. Disgust turns us away from something physically or morally uncongenial to us, it signals for example a food that is spoiled and therefore potentially dangerous to our health. Surprise in the face of an adverse situation can make us flee from danger, for example if a branch of a tree falls it gives us the impetus to avoid the worst. Finally, joy expresses our optimal state of contentment, and this encourages us to cultivate this contentment.

These primary emotions are basic to ensuring our survival, imagine our ancestors living in a hostile and dangerous environment; but even in the present, they have their usefulness, for example when we must cross the road, drive, carry out certain dangerous jobs, in fact in these situations there are actually risks to our person, so even today the primary emotions play an important role. But in addition to these reactions justified by the situation of the moment, we have a whole series of emotional reactions unrelated to survival, which often turn out to be not only useless, but even harmful and deleterious in our relationship with ourselves and others.

SECONDARY EMOTIONS

We have said that primary emotions are genetically programmed, whereas secondary emotions are not innate but rather learnt during our lives and experiences. Thus, a secondary emotion is an association between an event or experience and a primary emotional reaction. We can explain this better with an example: let us take the fear of losing one's job. If we are subjected to this fear we will create a stream of thoughts, of mental representations, about the possible scenarios and consequences if this becomes reality. Thus, every thought about this fear will have the power to generate a negative emotion of fear, rather than anxiety or insecurity. This concern is certainly different from the one we might feel if we were to find ourselves in a forest, with suddenly a ferocious beast ready to attack us. The fear of losing one's job is a secondary emotion, as it presupposes a cognitive process in relation to the evaluation of the circumstance, so it is something learned and not innate.

COMBINED EMOTIONS

The primary and secondary emotions discussed above are mostly elementary, but there are also more complex emotions that are formed by the mixing of several simple emotions, so for example fear seems to be a mixture of surprise and fear, while love seems to be a mixture of acceptance and joy. These are the combined emotions.

Ultimately, primary emotions are necessary for our survival and therefore have their uses, whereas secondary and combined emotions are often useless, if not harmful. Fear may make sense in the case of suddenly finding a bear when you are in the middle of a forest, but stressing over the risk of losing your job or waiting for an exam is something that is absolutely detrimental to our health.

‘Every emotion seems necessarily linked to a process of affective memorisation of a past experience’.Laborit

HOW ARE EMOTIONS LEARNT?