与事物的认同

2023年12月4日发(作者：十里长街送总理)

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与事物的认同

广告业界的人都非常了解，想要人们购买他们并不是真正需要的东西，他们必须要说服人们：这些东西会加强他们看待自己的或是如何被别人看待的良好感觉，换句话说，就是为他们的自我感加分。

比方说，广告会告诉你：如果你用了这个产品你就会出类拔萃，意指你会更能成为自己。或是他们可能在你的脑海中制造一个印象：这个产品是和一位名人，或是一个年轻有魅力，或快乐无比的人有关联，即使已经垂垂老矣或是去世的名人在他们当红时期的照片，都可以达到这样的目的。在这里隐含的假设就是：买了这个产品之后，经由一些神奇的联结行为，你会变得像他们一样，或是表面上的形像会看起来像他们一样。所以很多情况下，你买的不是那个产品，而是买一个“身份认同的强化品”。

名牌的标签的基本上让你买一个集体意识的身份认同。它们非常的名贵，所以也非常的“独特”，如果每一个人都可以买得起的话，它们就会失去其心理上的价值，那么剩下来的就只是物质的价值，那大概只有付的价钱的零头而已。

每个人会认同于什么样的事物因人而异，取决于你的年龄、性别、收入、社会地位、时尚、周边文化等等。你所认同的事物就是内容；而你无意识地、强迫性地去认同，就是结构性的。这是小我心智运作最基本的方式之一。

矛盾的是，使得所谓“消费者社会”得以继续存在的原因，就是我们试图在事物当中寻找自己但却失败的事实：小我的满足是如此的短暂，所以你不断地追寻更多，买得更多，一直不停地消费。

当然，在我们表层自我(surfacelves)所生存的物质向度中，有很多事物是生活中不可或缺的必需品。我们需要房屋、衣服、家具、工具、交通运输等，在生活中，我们也会因为一些事物的美丽或本有的特质而珍视它们。我们需要尊崇物质世界，而不是鄙视它。每一样事物都有它的本体(beingness)，都是从无形的至一生命——所有事物、所有实体、所有形相的源头——所衍生出来的短暂形相。在最古老的文化中，人们相信每一件事物，即使是所谓的无生命的物体，都有一个生存于其中的灵性，而在这方面，这些古老的文化比我们现代人更接近真相。当生活在一个被抽象概念弄得死气沉沉的世界之中，你已经无法感觉这个宇宙的生命力了。大多数人都不住在一个活生生的实相中，而是生活在一个由概念组成的世界里。但我们如果只是把世间的事物当成加强自我的工具，并试图在其中寻找自我的话，我们是无法真正地尊崇它们的。

而小我却正是这么做的：它对事物的认同，创造了我们对事物的执著、迷恋，继而创造了我们的消费社会和经济架构，在其中，唯一衡量进步的标准就是：更多!

无由地“努力要更多”、“无尽地成长”，就是一种功能失调和疾病。它和癌细胞增长所显示的功能失调是一样的，唯一的目的就是不断地倍增，却不知道毁坏了自身所属的器官，因而招致自身的毁灭。很多经济学家非常执著于成长的概念，他们甚至无法放下“成长”这个字眼，所以他们称衰退为“负向成长”。很多人生命的绝大部分，都是消耗在对事物先入为主的迷恋上，这就是为什么我们这个时代的祸害之一就是物质的激增。当你无法感受到自己所是的那个生命时，你很可能就会用物质来填满你的生活。

我建议你：经由自我观察，来研究一下你和这个世界中事物的关系，特别是那些你会称之为“我的”的事物，这可以作为一种灵性的修持。比方说，你必须在很警觉和诚实，才能发现你的自我价值感是否受限于你所拥有的东西。有没有一些东西会触发你一些微妙的重要感或是优越感？缺乏某些东西，是否会让你觉得逊于他人，因为他们有的比你更多？你是否会不经意地提到你所拥有的事物或是炫耀它们，好增加你在他人眼中的自我价值，或是让你的自我感觉比较良好？当别人的东西比你多，或是你失去了贵重财产的时候，你是否会觉得怨恨或愤怒，而且你的自我价值好像有些缩减了？

IDENTIFICATION WITH THINGS

The people in the advertising industry know very well that in

order to ll things that people don’t really need, they must

convince them that tho things will add something to how they

e themlves or are en by others; in other words, add

something to their n of lf. They do this, for example, by

telling you that you will stand out from the crowd by using this

product and so by implication be more fully yourlf. Or they may

create an association in your mind between the product and a

famous person, or a youthful, attractive, or happy-looking person.

Even pictures of old or decead celebrities in their prime work

well for that purpo. The unspoken assumption is that by buying

this product, through some magical act of appropriation, you

become like them, or rather the surface image of them. And so

in many cas you are not buying a product but an “identity

enhancer.” Designer labels are primarily collective identities that

you buy into. They are expensive and therefore “exclusive.” If

everybody could buy them, they would lo their psychological

value and all you would be left with would be their material value,

which likely amounts to a fraction of what you paid.

What kind of things you identify with will vary from person

to person according to age, gender, income, social class, fashion,

the surrounding culture, and so on. What you identify with is all

to do with content; whereas, the unconscious compulsion to identify is structural. It is one of the most basic ways in which the

egoic mind operates.

Paradoxically, what keeps the so-called consumer society

going is the fact that trying to find yourlf through things

doesn’t work: The ego satisfaction is short-lived and so you

keep looking for more, keep buying, keep consuming.

Of cour, in this physical dimension that our surface lves

inhabit, things are a necessary and inescapable part of our lives.

We need housing, clothes, furniture, tools, transportation. There

may also be things in our lives that we value becau of their

beauty or inherent quality. We need to honor the world of things,

not despi it. Each thing has Beingness, is a temporary form that

has its origin within the formless one Life, the source of all things,

all bodies, all forms. In most ancient cultures, people believed

that everything, even so-called inanimate objects, had an

indwelling spirit, and in

this respect they were clor to the truth than we are today.

When you live in a world deadened by mental abstraction, you

don’t n the aliveness of the univer anymore. Most people

don’t inhabit a living reality, but a conceptualized one.

But we cannot really honor things if we u them as a means

to lf- enhancement, that is to say, if we try to find ourlves

through them. This is exactly what the ego does. Ego-identification with things creates attachment to things, obssion

with things, which in turn creates our consumer society and

economic structures where the only measure of progress is

always more. The unchecked striving for more, for endless

growth, is a dysfunction and a dia. It is the same dysfunction

the cancerous cell manifests, who only goal is to multiply itlf,

unaware that it is bringing about its own destruction by destroying the organism of which it is a part. Some economists

are so attached to the notion of growth that they can’t let go of

that word, so they refer to recession as a time of “negative

growth.”

A large part of many people’s lives is consumed by an

obssive preoccupation with things. This is why one of the ills of

our times is object proliferation. When you can no feel the life

that you are, you are likely to fill up your life with things. As a

spiritual practice, I suggest that you investigate your relationship

with the world of things through lf-obrvation, and in

particular, things that are designated with the word “my.” You

need to be alert and honest to find out, for example, whether

your n of lf-worth is bound up with things you posss. Do

certain things induce a subtle feeling of importance or

superiority? Does the lack of them make you feel inferior to

others who have more than you? Do you casually mention things

you own or show them off to increa your n of worth in

someone el’s eyes and through them in your own? Do you

feel rentful or angry and somehow diminished in your n of

lf when someone el has more than you or when you lo a

prized posssion?

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