Patrick
Fullan's
Yoga
|
Readings |
Patrick's favorite book is unquestionably 'The Bhagavad Gita,' by Annie Besant. 2nd favorite book is, 'The Yoga Sutras of Pantajali,' by Swami Venkatesananda. After these, Carl Jung and Desmond Morris are Patrick's biggest influences of perception and judgment.
Here are two readings, the first about understanding human behavior, and the later about fanaticism.
From "Bodywatching," By Desmond Morris p.13, 15:
"Some of our disasters could be avoided if the leaders of modern
societies better understood a little better the kind of species to which they
and their follows belong. Unfortunately they study far too little the very
beings-the human beings-whom they claim to serve. If one were to design the
ideal citizen, as seen by any given ruling faction, he or she would almost
certainly be a far cry from the real thing. For example, some cultures have
failed to recognize the need for personal territory; others have underestimated
the urge to form loving family units; still others have ignored the
constructively rebellious nature of human curiosity and creativity. Sooner or
later such errors cause social disquiet and the leaders in question suffer the
consequences. At the heart of their ignorance lies a lack of knowledge about the
way the human body operates as a social being. This is not a medical problem,
concerned with internal organs or health. It is a matter of how we use our
bodies when we encounter one another in everyday life. For this use reflects our
innermost needs and desires-signaling these needs to our companions and, if we
look closely enough, telling us a great deal that we need to know about the true
nature of mankind. To ignore such knowledge today, when we have learned so much
about human behavior, is wanton. The statement that 'knowledge is sinful,' has
always been a desperate lie. Ignorance has always led to agony - to cruel
superstitions, to needless anxiety, to religious bigotry and mental repression.
At the center of all this, the human body has suffered endless unnecessary
insults. Some of these have been willfully imposed, others have been
thoughtlessly self-inflicted. Part of the problem, as I said earlier, is that
familiarity has bred complacency. Because we each own a human body we think we
know all we need to know about it."
From Carl Jung's 'Psychological Types,' p.351, #591, explains the
mental process. "The dogmatism of the intellectual formula sometimes
undergoes further alterations, due not so much to the unconscious admixture of
repressed personal feelings as to a contamination with other unconscious factors
that have become fused with them. Although reason itself tells us that every
intellectual formula can never be anything more than a partial truth and can
never claim general validity, in practice the formula gains in ascendancy that
all other standpoints are thrust into the background. It usurps the more
general, less definite, more modest and therefore more truthful views of life.
It even supplants the general view of life we call religion. Thus the formula
becomes a religion, although in essentials it has not the least connection with
anything religious. At the same time, it assumes the essential religious quality
of absoluteness. It becomes an intellectual superstition. But now all the
psychological tendencies it has suppressed build up a counter position in the
unconscious and give rise to paroxysms of doubt. The more it tries to fend off
the doubt, the more fanatical the conscious attitude becomes, for fanaticism is
nothing but over compensated doubt. This development naturally leads to an
exaggerated defense in the conscious position…"
Patrick subjugating, 'I have never seen a fanatic on anything that can be
proved. No one is fanatical about gravity, the earth being round, or how many
days for the earth to rotate around the sun. Fanatics are only found on subjects
that cannot be proven, so now we know they are just doubtful of their views, in
all cases!'