How to Become Aware of Our Way of Being in the World

"The wisdom of Buddhist psychology describes how we, not unlike all living creatures, seek a sense of safety and certainty in our lives. In the human experience, safety and certainty translate into familiarity and control. In our unique way, we each construct an understanding of ourselves in the world through a particular mode or mood that brings us a sense of familiarity and control. When this mode is challenged or disrupted, we can feel a severe sense of threat to our existence,"

"Emotions are the lived experience of thoughts and beliefs, and when a belief that brings us a sense of control and security is challenged, the emotional experience is often intense. In human experience, a threat to how we view who we are is indistinguishable from a threat to our lives. We experience the vulnerability of our notions of who we are (ego) as severely as we experience our physical vulnerability."

"In his book of lectures on Buddhist psychology, The Sanity We Are Born With, Chogyam Trungpa explains how we can understand the doctrine of the Six Realms as a way of understanding six general tendencies that humans fall into, which provide a sense of familiarity and control. These can be understood as styles of life through which we engage with the world and gain a sense of security in knowing who we are."

Buddhist psychology explains that humans, like other creatures, seek safety and certainty through familiarity and control. Each person constructs an identity through a particular mode or mood that provides predictability and self-definition. When that mode is disrupted, the resulting challenge feels like a threat to existence and provokes intense emotions because emotions are the lived experience of underlying beliefs. Existential threats are primarily threats to the mortality of the story one holds about oneself. The doctrine of the Six Realms maps six general tendencies that supply familiarity and security. Recognizing these tendencies supports greater self-awareness and understanding of others.

Read at Psychology Today