Enlightenment as Self-Actualization
Where One Finds Their True Self
Rho Boo-Ho
Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Business Administration, Sogang University
Buddhism regards enlightenment as the supreme goal. However, enlightenment has been made to seem overly mystical and complex because discussions about it are never carried out in real-life secular situations. As a result, ordinary people tend to feel it is beyond their reach. As an effort to complement Ganhwa Seon—a traditional Seon practice that involves investigating a keyword/hwadu—I want to discuss enlightenment in terms applicable to everyday life. What is important from a practical perspective are questions like: “What is enlightenment?” “How can we attain enlightenment?” and “What changes do we need in our lives to be able to become enlightened?” Unfortunately, it is not easy to get answers to such practical questions in discussions on enlightenment. For example, Theragatha is a collection of “enlightenment poems” written by elder monks that praise the peace and joy of an enlightened mind. These poems, however, do not mention how they attained enlightenment or how their lives changed afterward.
Buddhism defines enlightenment as “finding one’s true self.” There is a dharma talk by Ven. Gyeongbong titled “Find the Master,” and upon reading it we can discern that terms such as “Find the master” “Find your true nature” or “Find your true self” mean the same thing. One sculptor described sculpting as searching for an image he envisioned in his mind. That was his way of creating something. Likewise, finding one’s true self can be said to be creating the self or actualizing the self.
Self-actualization is what existentialist philosophers claim as a way of life.Kierkegaard stressed the importance of self-actualization, saying that life is a journey of self-actualization, and to lose the self is the greatest danger to a human being. Nietzsche proposed Übermensch as the concept of an ideal human being. Übermensch refers to a great man who won’t succumb to any sufferings and tribulations, and makes an effort to realize his dreams with ‘the will to power’ to overcome the self; this Übermensch is a human being who actualizes themselves. Heidegger contended that one should move away from the inauthentic life to pursue money, fame, and power, and live an authentic life to embody the essence of their existence by establishing their own values and visions. A life to embody the essence of existence is a life of self-actualization.
Sartre said, “Existence precedes essence,” and “Life is C (Choice) between B (Birth) and D (Death).” In other words, essence is created by us based on our choices, which means that life is a process of self-actualization. Camus said what is famous: “I rebel, therefore we exist.” To rebel is to overcome absurdity with freedom, passion, and solidarity while asserting oneself freely. In other words, rebellion leads to self-realization because one performs one’s freely chosen role authentically according to one’s values in solidarity with others.
To actualize self, one must know the self. The self consists of one’s character and one’s talents. By developing our character and talents, we can actualize the self. Character here refers to a beautiful mindset or a pure mind. Some representative character traits include passion to be engaged in work and love to willingly cooperate with others.
Since talents are developed when we are engaged in work with passion and cooperate with others based on love, self-actualization depends on the development of character. To actualize self means, therefore, not to pursue a goal like becoming a president of a company, but to pursue a process of life in which one invests 100% of their energy with passion and love.
How can character be developed? Character is developed based on values; values are established based on beliefs, and beliefs are formed through introspection. Introspection involves asking questions about life’s fundamental matters, including: What is life? Why are we here? What is the right way to live? What is work? What is a person?
There are five aspects of life we should have beliefs in, and these are linked to five values and five character traits. When one has a belief through introspection that their work is their own creative expression, one forms business values that tell them to do their best because others will evaluate them based on the results of their work. When one approaches work from the mindset of business values, they work with passion by totally engaging themselves in their work (About explanations of developing character traits including love, righteousness, equanimity, introspection, consult the table below “Consciousness transformation model of belief-values-character”).
<Table> Consciousness transformation model of belief-values-character
These five values and character traits are interconnected and influence each other. Righteousness is the foundation of passion and love. Without righteousness, one’s passion and love are only disguised greed that will harm others. One’s passion, love and righteousness are strengthened through equanimity. Equanimity arises from transcendence when one empties one’s mind, which leads to stronger conviction and determination. These in turn strengthen other character traits. All character traits are developed through introspection.
Passion, love, righteousness, and equanimity are character traits that have a set of subordinate character traits under their category. Passion is a mindset to do their best work. It includes character traits like diligence, sincerity, will, courage, challenge, and tenacity. Love is a mindset to become one with others. It includes character traits like sharing, consideration, gratitude, humility, and cooperation. Righteousness is a mindset to act rightly with principles. It includes character traits like honesty, loyalty, promise, and fairness. Equanimity is a mindset to keep calm and composure under any circumstances. It includes character traits like selflessness, detachment, patience, determination, and conviction.
The whole process—from introspection, to forming beliefs, to establishing values, to developing character—is called “consciousness transformation” because through it one is transformed by finding their true self. The process of consciousness transformation is considered a spiritual cultivation, and leads to self-actualization (For consciousness transformation, Rho, B. H. 2021. How to live? How to manage?: Theory V and Self-realization, A paper presented at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management 29 July-4 August 2021). Although existential philosophy emphasizes self-actualization, it doesn’t say anything about concrete definition of self-actualization in life. This is thought to be one of the reasons why many people are not living a life of self-actualization. The “consciousness transformation model of belief-values-character” defines self-actualization as developing five values and their associated character traits. In this way it presents concrete definition and methodology of self-actualization, which was omitted from the discourses on self-actualization by existential philosophers.
Introspection involves asking oneself questions like what kind of person one wants to be or what kind of life one wants to live. Thus, while character is developed as a result of consciousness transformation, dreams are formed at the same time. Dreams are a concrete form of the self, and therefore, the realization of dreams becomes self-actualization. In order to realize one’s dreams, one should pursue opportunities autonomously and initiate changes to get recognition. In terms of recognition, others’ recognition is needed, but one’s own self-recognition is more important.
As dreams, autonomy and recognition are three fundamental human needs that inspire passion and love, we strengthen our character when we go through a life of dream, autonomy, and recognition; in other words, our degree of self-actualization is deepened. We need both consciousness transformation and the life of dreams, autonomy and recognition for self-actualization (For the life of dream, autonomy, and recognition, Rho Boo-Ho, 2022. “‘Self-realization Community Management’: An Antidote to Capitalism”, Buddhism & Culture, Vol. 257 )
If enlightenment is interpreted as self-actualization, enlightenment requires development of character based on consciousness transformation. Self-actualization is the most important human need in the hierarchy of Maslow. As satisfying our basic needs brings happiness, self-actualization brings the greatest happiness. Thus, enlightenment leads to individual happiness.
The Deluded Mind and the True Mind
The concept of “interdependent arising” is considered the most important concept in Buddhism. It says that all things that exist in the world spontaneously arise, change, and cease to exist according to interdependent conditions. In other words, nothing has a permanent, substantial existence; instead, everything is simply phenomena in the process of change. From the concept of interdependent arising come the three dharma seals: impermanence, suffering, and no-self. Because all things have no independent substance and are impermanent, any attachment to them naturally brings suffering. What is important is how we live with this situation.
Awakening of Mahayana Faith says the human mind can take two forms: “the deluded mind” and “the true mind.” The deluded mind is the mind of greed, hatred and delusion; the true mind is pure. I suggest that the five character traits for self-actualization as the true mind. A life controlled by the deluded mind is ruled by covetous greed in the pursuit of money, power and fame. In this kind of life, one constantly compares themselves to others, and ultimately, winds up not living their own life but the life of others. Furthermore, it is a life of confrontation, conflict, and distress, which is fruitless and meaningless. A life lived with the true mind is based on character development. One pursues altruistic dreams based on values and purpose to make the world more beautiful; one lives one’s own life. The true mind begins with having a noble sense of purpose. When this noble sense of purpose becomes one’s mission to dedicate their life, the true mind blooms. This kind of life has harmony, cooperation, and joy, filled with fruitfulness. A life controlled by the deluded mind is well known to us because it is the mundane life. But life centered on the true mind still eludes most people. Here, I propose the life of self-actualization as the life based on the true mind; self-actualization is based on character development which is possible through both consciousness transformation and the life of dreams, autonomy, and recognition. The life of the true mind is a life directed toward enlightenment.
Enlightenment and Nirvana
I stated that character development is essential for enlightenment, and I think one concrete criteria to judge if one is enlightened or not depends on whether one’s dreams are formed. This is because establishing dreams gives one’s life direction. Furthermore, dreams represent a concrete form of the self, and when one has dreams, one can live the life of dreams, autonomy, and recognition that can strengthen one’s character.
One doctor, after contemplating the life she truly wanted, began harboring a dream of voluntary service. She hoped to embody the values of sharing with the best skills she had. Eventually, she decided to join Doctors without Borders. This decision could be considered her enlightenment. From the perspective of self-actualization, what is nirvana? When character is perfected, that can be seen as nirvana. However, when character is strengthened while living the life of dreams, autonomy, and recognition, there’s no such thing as perfection; one approaches perfection asymptotically. In the process of enlightenment, all of us have room for improvement. But in reality, when one reaches a point where there is almost no more room for improvement, it can be considered they have achieved nirvana.
Enlightenment: Individual Effort, Collective Endeavor
I stated that enlightenment is self-actualization and self-actualization cannot be achieved alone. Character development, a part of self-actualization, is based on individual effort, but it is achieved through interaction with others. When we associate more with people of good character than bad character, our character is more likely to improve. In other words, self-actualization and enlightenment are based on individual effort, but must be carried out in concert with others. Most of us in contemporary society belong to certain organizations, and enlightenment might be easier to pursue within an organization. Each organization has a leader, its own vision and culture, which are instrumental to motivate people to improve and strengthen their character. Leaders perform crucial roles in the pursuit of enlightenment. When all members of an organization cultivate good character and pursue enlightenment together, the organization becomes a community and a harmonious organization where all grow and develop in a cooperative atmosphere.
When enlightenment is considered self-actualization, pursuing enlightenment is pursuing highest happiness for oneself, and it enables an organization to become a community where all members grow together in harmony without conflict. From the perspective that enlightenment is to pursue an ideal society where individuals are happy and organization and society grow in social harmony, I make the argument that enlightenment is the same as self-actualization in this article.
Rho Boo-Ho
graduated from the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, and received his Ph.D. in Business Administration from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Currently he is Professor Emeritus of Business Administration at Sogang University and co-president at 21st Century Business Forum. His Korean writings include The Third Management based on Theory V, The End of Control Management.
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