The chain of terrible events, beginning with the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, followed by the Ukraine war in 2022 and the Gaza War in 2023, has caused mental health problems among the public.

From there, ethical dilemmas such as mask mandates versus freedom, NATO versus Russia, China versus the US, and Muslims versus Jews have emerged across most of the world.

Most importantly, there is the issue of global warming versus economic growth.

This year has broken temperature records, with Vietnam breaking 110 local heat records last April. In the Philippines, classes were suspended due to unbearable heat. In the Middle East, Dubai was hit by floods unimaginable in its arid desert environment.

The root cause of all this is clearly the selfishness still lurking in the hearts of most people. In the Ukraine war, for example, the selfishness of both NATO and Russia towards Ukraine created problems for all sides, with Ukraine being most affected. The selfishness of Hamas and Israel towards Palestinian land caused a war that affected Palestinians the most. In the issue of global warming, which is essentially an ongoing war against Nature, the selfishness of the oil industry has led to record profits at the expense of the environment.

The Cause of Selfishness

In Hindu-Buddhist philosophy, selfishness arises from the limitations of the five senses.

Upon waking in the morning, we emerge from a state of non-sensory awareness into the five senses, where we are bombarded with sensory perceptions. We feel the bed, see the bedroom, hear the noise from the street, and all feel hungry within a minute. These things constantly bombard our minds, shaping it, reinforcing our sense of self as a conscious entity.

Therefore, the more aware we become, the more rigid our ego, as a sense of self, becomes. This isolates it from other selves or egos, making it self-centered or egocentric.

This is why we see selfish people preferring material goods like cars, phones, clothes, etc., over relationships, friendships, and family. Often, they only keep pets they can dominate and command, rather than fellow humans with whom they can conflict and argue (from a similar self-centered mentality).

Cats and dogs are also attacked by their five senses, but it’s easy to see that they don’t go so far with their selfishness as to want to dominate other species or commit genocide against their own kind. Instead, their ego follows Nature rather than resisting it.

On the other hand, the extent of human selfishness is alarming. Who could have imagined that a species could invent nuclear weapons capable of destroying an entire planet just to defeat its rival? The mentality of “If I can’t win, then we all lose” or “If I can’t have it, then no one else can” emerges in the mind. This reveals a rigid ego or an inflated sense of self.

Asian Solution

India and China are the cradles of advanced spiritual philosophies such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, which help to restrain the ego and train it to harmonize with Nature.

Their solution to the limitations of the five senses is to cultivate the sixth sense, which Patanjali calls the state of “True Wisdom” (rtambhara tatra prajna). Then you can use this True Wisdom to resolve ethical dilemmas or any difficulties in life, or even prevent new problems from arising.

“taj-ja samskaro ‘nya-samskara-pratibandhi” (It prevents samskara from creating new samskara) — Patanjali

In the following articles, I will explain Patanjali’s yoga system for developing the sixth sense by imposing mental discipline (yama niyama) and sensory withdrawal (pratyahara).