Basic Structures of Consciousness and Odes to Cow Seeker on the Transpersonal Context

Cheung, Seung Douk; Kim, Luke I C

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
Several decades ago Sutich, Walsh and Wilber said, "Transpersonal psychology has taken a position of the fourth emerging force", after the first three of psychoanalytic, behavioristic and humanistic psychology. There is a basis to confirm that transpersonal psychology and transpersonal psychotherapy are the new power of psychology. Namely they pursue entire spectrums of consciousness including the spiritual domain of human consciousness which the school of psychoanalysis, behaviorism and humanistic psychology did not emphasize. Transpersonal psychology is concerned with the study of optimum psychological health and well being, including traditional areas and techniques of therapeutic concern. Added to these it an interest in facilitating growth and awareness beyond traditionally recognized levels of health and, in so doing, it emphasized the importance of modifying consciousness. In addition to optimum psychological health and well-being, these areas included subjects such as altered states of consciousness, peak experience, self-realization, transcendent of personal levels and effects of meditation and other consciousness altering techniques. The representative theory of this is the basic structures of consciousness by Wilber. His basic structures of consciousness explain the essence of human beings and contain various lines of human development. He has limited his presentation to nine of the most basic and central levels, three of which are prepersonal, personal and transpersonal realms. There are several cases with the similar standpoint of consciousness of Wilber in Zen Buddhism of the Orient. One of them is the ode to the cow seeker and the picture to the cow seeker by Zen master, Kwak-am. Kwak-am explained the process of seeking the essence of a human being with 10 pictures trying to seek lost cow which is called "ten ox herding pictures". The odes to the cow seeker are added explanation of those pictures of the cow seeker Here, this paper introduces you the metaphor of odes to the cow seeker which was compared with basic structures of consciousness and discussed with some scholar's theories of personality development. Therefore, both metaphorical meanings of odes to the cow seeker and Wilber's basic structures of consciousness are an inquiry into the nature of human beings and this inquiry also links the process of the development of transpersonal consciousness Lastly, I tried to prove that transpersonal psychology draws on the contribution of both Eastern wisdom and Western science. METHOD: In order to discuss for correlation between odes to the cow seeker and basic structures of consciousness, a method was chosen for interpreting books which are related with these subjects. Among these books, the principal books for odes to the cow seeker were "Buddhistic words seeking himself" by Sunglim, "ox herding pictures", "ten series reaching enlightenment" by Hyee-ik Lee and the manual of zen Buddhism by D. T. Suzuki. The three books were compared with "ontogenic development", "two fundamental patterns" and the spectrum of development by Wilber.
RESULTS
The results of the discussion were as follows. The 1st stanza, ode of searching for the cow is corresponded to the sensory physical mind, the 2nd stanza, ode of finding cow's footprints is corresponded to the phantasmic emotional mind, the 3rd stanza, ode of seeing the cow is corresponded to the representational mind, the 4th stanza, ode of catching the cow is corresponded to the rule/role mind, the 5th stanza, ode of taming the cow is corresponded to the formal reflexive mind, the 6th stanza, ode of coming home on the cow's back is corresponded to the vision-logic mind, the 7th stanza, ode of cow gone(the seeker remains alone), is corresponded to the psychic and subtle mind which consciousness belongs to the transpersonal level. The 8th stanza, ode of the cow and the seeker disappeared is corresponded to the causal level, and the 9th stanza, ode of returning to the source is corresponded to the ultimate mind which is connected to the eighth ode and abided as the absolute spirit. Strictly speaking, the ultimate state is not one level among others, but the reality, condition or suchness of all levels. Then, the 10th stanza, ode of entering a house in the market with help-bestowing hands is a scene which the transpersonal deity is not staying in contemplative life state but illuminating toward market people naturally as the flower blooms on an old tree in Spring.
CONCLUSION
Human psychology tends to change to transpersonal psychology in order to understand the essence of human nature like abnormal behavior is destructive while sound is constructive with nature. The 'transpersonal' combined with the term of 'trans' and 'personal' is a new psychology field which pursues the existence of spirituality. All creation with human beings has its spirituality moving immanently horizontally and it goes transcendentally vertically. Ode to the cow seeker tells the process how the consciousness of a person reachs out to be transpersonal beyond his boundary. The attitude of seeker after spirituality would be compared with the attitude of today's teacher. Therefore I would like to remark that psychotherapists and seekers of the essence of human-beings have to access the point of self-transcendence and also have to try to develop their self-introspection at the level of biopsychosocial-spiritual dimension in the base of psychodynamism. From birth to death, it is very hard to find a real Guru who guides us to find out the right ways of life. There's only ways to seek his own spirituality by relieving himself in the base of transpersonal movement and only a few seekers say that's the only way to find it. Besides this way, whether the way of life we take is repeated or comes to a deadlock.