It is often said that animals do not suffer in the same way that humans do. They experience pain and can suffer from it, but they seem to not be tortured by all of the mental suffering that we go through in our lives. The major differences are first, the ability of the mind to observe itself and thus, become aware of issues that cause us discomfort or suffering, and the various ways that we do not stay focused purely on the present, but build forms of potential problems into our future through various flights of imagination or inferential views of the future, and relive issues that we faced in the past through memory. We also tend to try to see patterns that cause us anxiety, either in the coincidences of life, or through experiences in the dream state. We attribute causality to the stars and suffer from the influence they are going to have upon our lives. We get worried if a black cat crosses our path, or if the 13th day of the month falls on a friday,because of some purported meaning this has for the future. We may call this ‘superstition’, but superstition is a codified form of anxiety-inducing mental play, based partially on received information potentially related to some event from the past, and extrapolated as a reality for our future.
We also tend to read into interactions and events far more than may be intended, once again, an ‘interpretation’ unwarranted by actual perceived facts, in other words, ‘imagination’. It is this factor which also opens us up to manipulation such as through media, advertising or religious or political demagoguery. These forces rely heavily on creating artificial forms of fear or anticipated rewards to influence our minds and cause us to act in ways they find most suitable to achieve their own ends. Eventually, this causes suffering as the mind experiences the mismatch between the imagined event and the actual result.
The disparity between mental ideas we formulate and our experience in life is yet another example of psychological suffering that we recognise through the mind’s ability to observe and compare internal states with the external reality.
Dr. Dalal writes: “From one viewpoint, the root cause of all psychological disturbances lies in the nature of the mind. The peculiar characteristic of mental consciousness is that it is self-reflective, that is, it can objectivise itself. One part of the mind can separate itself and watch the rest as an object. The part that stands back serves as a mirror which reflects to the mind its own state. The objectivising nature of the mind accounts for the very awareness of psychological disturbances. Secondly, the agony of any disturbance is magnified by several other factors related to the mind, such as memory, anticipation, imagination and the mind’s inherent need — in the face of its essential incapacity — to understand and find a solution to the problems causing the disturbances.”
“Whereas simple awareness through objectivisation belongs to the mind proper, the fearful imaginations and anticipations, resulting in anxiety, come from the part of the mind intermixed with the vital, called the vital mind.”
Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, Living Within: The Yoga Approach to Psychological Health and Growth, Introduction, Disturbances Associated with the Mind, pp. xiv-xix
Santosh has been studying Sri Aurobindo's writings since 1971 and has a daily blog at http://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com and podcast at https://anchor.fm/santosh-krinsky He is author of 16 books and is editor-in-chief at Lotus Press. He is president of Institute for Wholistic Education, a non-profit focused on integrating spirituality into daily life.