Bulldozer00's Blog

As usual, BD00 is delusional and frustratingly confused. Just about every spiritual book I’ve ever read says that one has to turn inward and leap into “the abyss” to experience lasting peace. The implication is that no matter how valiantly hard one tries, an individual can’t find peace, joy, and gratitude “out there“. Thus, frequent calls to “stop the search!” can be found in many spiritual teachings.

On the flip side, several “soft” business and psychology books that I’ve read proffer that turning inward too often may not be such a good idea. Here’s a confirming snippet from Theresa Amabile’s (wonderfully written  and highly recommended) “The Progress Principle“:

A 1995 study out of the University of British Columbia showed how research participants who encountered problems in their quest to achieve goals that were personally important to them focused more attention on themselves and spent more time ruminating on those events. Since self-focused attention has often been linked to depression, such findings suggest that people’s emotional well-being can be damaged in the short run when they face discrepancies between goals that are important to their identity or sense of self-worth and what they actually achieved.

“A First-Rate Madness” author Nassir Ghaemi also touches on the downside of turning inward by describing the “depressive realism” hypothesis that can be attributed to tortured leaders like Churchill, Lincoln, and King:

This theory argues that depressed people aren’t depressed because they distort reality; they’re depressed because they see reality more clearly than other people do.

Zen Buddhism is loaded with paradoxical teachings and koans. Ironically, the “logic” is that when the mind can’t resolve two opposing concepts being held in the mind at the same time, at some point the mind eventually gives up on “logic” – providing an opening for peace, joy and gratitude to rush in and fill the void.

So, what do you think? Does turning inward facilitate depression, or peace/joy/gratitude? Is there a half-way point?