The Science of Self-Actualization | Professor Scott Barry Kaufman

Professor Scott Barry Kaufman is a cognitive scientist and humanistic psychologist exploring the mind, creativity, and the depths of human potential. He is a professor at Columbia University and founder and director of the Center for Human Potential. Dr. Kaufman has taught at Columbia University, Yale, NYU, the University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. Dr. Kaufman received a B.S. in psychology and human computer interaction from Carnegie Mellon, an M. Phil in experimental psychology from the University of Cambridge under a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, and a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Yale University. He is also an Honorary Principal Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Wellbeing Science.
Learn More: scottbarrykaufman.com
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ABOUT VEDANTA
Vedanta is one of the world’s most ancient religious philosophies and one of its broadest. Based on the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of India, Vedanta affirms the oneness of existence, the divinity of the soul, and the harmony of religions.
ABOUT US
Vedanta Society of New York is affiliated with the Ramakrishna Order of India. In fact, this is the Order's first Center started by Swami Vivekananda, in 1894. It was a historic event, for the seed of the world-wide Ramakrishna Movement was sown here in New York over a century ago. Swami Sarvapriyananda is the present Resident Minister and Spiritual Leader of the Vedanta Society of New York.

[@michaeldillon3113]

Interesting and entertaining lecture . I humbly suggest that people shouldn't conflate and confuse self actualisation with self realization. It took me some years to really understand the difference and like the professor said in his later years Maslow was really firming up his understanding of Transcendence. I would say that in general terms self actualisation really relates to the qualities of your ego . Self Realisation relates to the Supra ego - the universal spiritual Self . Of course the more one is Self Realised the more the ' ego ' ( which is not a thing but a congregation of qualities and characteristics) will reflect the spiritual qualities of the Transcendent ✌️🕉️

[@entropy608]

A brilliant beautiful lecture! I learnt a lot. I couldn't help but notice that "The Boat" model mapped onto Artha, Kama, Dharma which "plateaus" to Moksha. Well done, VSNY for hosting diverse interesting speakers who, if anything, show the unitive experience of one's self.

[@SpiritualPsychotherapyServices]

Brilliant and lacklustre are RELATIVE. 😉 Incidentally, Slave, are you VEGAN? 🌱

[@prayaanshmehta3200]

2:48 start -living well > happiness 3:24 maslow quote hierarchy of needs 4:00 incomplete theory of transcendence 5:30 6:30

[@vasu5224]

Absolutely amazing delivery of a deep topic totally ties in with Vedanta , ..😊 framed in a western context

[@Golgibaby]

Lots of nourishing food for thought.

[@Rishekb]

Scott is funny - very informing, man thank you for speaking!

[@SpiritualPsychotherapyServices]

Indeed - gynocentric simps are HILARIOUS. 😅

[@theelement6255]

@@SpiritualPsychotherapyServices explain

[@stellabandante2727]

What about "light" inclinations, striving to reach more light and overcome dark within the self? Personal evolution? Maturing through growth? Learning from mistakes with a focus on growing out of things like selfishness, unkindness, etc.?

[@ashishpatel350]

awesome

[@sarahhalevi4001]

Grace

[@mokshajetley9244]

Jai Sri Ramakrishna Jai Sri Ramakrishna Jai Sri Ramakrishna Jai Sri Ramakrishna Jai Sri Ramakrishna

[@maricarmoli2047]

Fala o português moro no Rio de gostaria de ouvir em

[@tzadik36]

שלום עליכם

[@bronsonstone725]

What does a fully enlightened person do? well, they do nothing and everything, but it isn't a case of, what does the body do. Enlightenment is not of the body. A good friend suggested I learn about Maslow's hierarchy, and self actualisation, so I read about them, then felt, no, he doesn't understand, over perhaps a year or two I thought, I will look at it again, maybe I wasn't ready for it, but no, same again, another year goes by, I try again, and this time, I am certain, Maslow doesn't understand. His stuff is ok, but it's wrong, but if I tell you what is true, you won't believe me, but the reason you won't believe me is for the same reason I kept going back and reading about Maslow's ideas, and that is, I didn't think I could have the answer when such an acclaimed person is supposed to. I was allowing the egoic structures to dictate who must know and who must not know. But then after significant time had passed, and time to process my own contemplations and experiences, I concluded, I know, and Maslow doesn't. You see the problem with self actualisation is that the ego thinks it is in charge and can make decisions on what it does. This is a fallacy, everything is predetermined, so where the heck did I get such a crazy idea from, well, it's called samadhi, my first experience of samadhi was aged 11, I experienced myself as being all there is, I knew I wasn't the body, this created changes in thinking and understanding, which was beyond others, but so far beyond that I failed everything at school, teachers couldn't understand me, I would not compete for anything, reason for this is when you have seen you are everything, then what do you compete with. Now, these changes in behaviour and thinking are not intentional, as intentional would be egoic, and the complete opposite. I had numerous small samadhis after that, and then at age 49 while walking to work a much bigger one which lasted almost 3 hours. During this time I observed the body went about without me, "I" was just like a person viewing a monitor and the monitor is displaying a streamed video from a drone, can you contemplate that idea. But then add that everything including empty space was an appearance within me, so I could not move, the body moved, but since I wasn't the body, and since I was everything and beyond then where could I move from and to. So another point I will make since I'm in this far, about free will, the common idea these days by brain specialists is that there is no free will. But again, I will contradict this, there is free will, but it isn't what they say it is. They say free will is the ability to make a choice and carry that choice out by doing something. Well, I'm saying from experience that free will has absolutely nothing to do with "doing", as everything is predetermined there is no freedom of "doing" , free will is only the ability to create feelings and thoughts at "will", now some might claim these are reactionary, or spontaneous, but I am saying that if you are in a bad situation, you can still choose to be happy, however this is too farfetched for 99.999% of people to probably understand, but if you train you mind, and make a point of training yourself to create feeling at "will", this becomes empowering, and it is the only control you ever have, but the ego claims otherwise. Edit: I should add, no, I have never tried drugs, never even smoked a cigarette, I am now 57 and very rational

[@SpiritualPsychotherapyServices]

🐟 17. THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN SPIRITUAL AWAKENING, LIBERATION, & ENLIGHTENMENT: AWAKENING: Any person who has experienced a state of cosmic awareness can rightly be called a “buddha” (a Sanskrit/Pali term for “an awakened being”). During such TEMPORAL experiences (that is, they begin at some point in time and then end at a subsequent point in time, even if at the time of death), there is usually an apparent dissolution of the subject-object dichotomy, or at least a radical shift in one’s perception of life. In the most profound awakening experience, the perceiver, the perceived, and the perceiving, mystically unify (“advaita anubhava”, in Sanskrit). Awakening means to clearly see that one’s persona is but a character in a dream of The Absolute, and that one is essentially that Flawless Awareness. Therefore, it is not to be taken literally - that the person wakes from the “Cosmic Dream” in the same way that a human wakes from a night dream. It simply implies that the person realizes that he/she is one of the multitude of dream CHARACTERS, and that individual free-will was purely an illusion. When one experiences a night dream, one usually identifies with only one particular character (for example, “last night, I dreamed that I played chess with the prince”). However, all the characters in one's dream originate in the very same mind. Similarly, the living creatures in this universe are naught but characters in the “Mind of God”, to put it in theistic terms. During such awakenings, one experiences the non-conceptual state, which is somewhat akin to the state of equanimous mind or "steady-mind" (“samādhi”, in Sanskrit). However, samādhi is usually a far longer-term state of being, normally arising after lengthy periods of practice. Spiritual awakening is a relatively common phenomenon. In fact, there are most probably MILLIONS of persons currently on earth who have experienced some kind of awakening, where they directly perceive themselves to be more than a mere body-mind complex. The experience can be either totally spontaneous, or it can follow many decades of intense spiritual practice (“sādhanā”, in Sanskrit). However, there is no direct causal link between religious practices and awakening experiences, despite what most religionists (“sādhaka”, in Sanskrit) believe. It is common for newly-awakened persons to CONFUSE and conflate relative and absolute truth. That is to say, when neophyte buddhas speak of relative concepts, they invariably use absolute terms. This is colloquially known as the “spiritual side-step” or as “spiritual bypassing”. For instance, they may make such statements as: “You don't exist”; “Nothing ever happened”; “There is no right or wrong”; “Everything and/or everyone is equal”; “I am not my body”; “We are One”; and “I am you, and you are me”. Hopefully, such persons will come to see that there is no need to speak about everything from the Absolute perspective. Verily, it is unbeneficial to the persons with whom they are conversing (unless, of course, those third persons are thoroughly deluded materialists, who are unable to see beyond the physical realm). Awakening to one’s true nature does NOT automatically promote one to being a saint, since one’s unique characteristics, flaws and obsessions may perdure. There is an abundance of evidence that awakening experiences can be induced simply by the administration of certain hallucinogenic drugs, so to claim that one is exceptionally remarkable just for being a buddha, is rather conceited. Unfortunately (for spiritual-seekers), there is a multitude of awakened or partially-awakened persons who mistakenly believe that they are somehow enlightened masters, and proceed to embark on a teaching career. The fact is, practically every one of these BOGUS “gurus” are afflicted with a narcissistic, demonic mentality, bereft of morality, and ought to be exposed and denounced for the fraudsters that they are. As will be very succinctly explained in forthcoming chapters of this Holy Scripture, it is the sacred duty of members of the Priesthood ALONE to disseminate religious/spiritual knowledge throughout society (or to be more accurate, teach seminarians and the leader of the government, who in turn teach other men, who in turn teach their own subordinates). Simply attaining a “spiritual state”, even with the benefit of a vast body of knowledge, does not automatically confer authority on a person to become a spiritual master (“guru”, in Sanskrit). There is, in fact, an enormous gulf between the two (that is, between an awakened non-priest working as a spiritual teacher, and an enlightened spiritual master). Most persons would undoubtedly disapprove of a person stealing the property of another, yet think nothing of a working-class chap or a mere woman performing the function of a priest (“brāhmaṇa”, in Sanskrit). The fact is, when any person (other than a priest/guru) assumes the role of a spiritual leader, he or she is quite LITERALLY stealing the occupation of a priest. The phrase “The blind leading the blind” is pertinent here. By understanding the entirety of this “Final Instruction Sheet for Humanity”, it shall assist one in the discernment necessary to distinguish an actual spiritual master from a person who may superficially seem to be a wise and holy teacher by the masses, yet is, in fact, a charlatan. Unfortunately, only a wise sage can identify his peers, so it requires a genuine prophet to recognize which spiritual teachers are ACTUAL masters. Nevertheless, as a general rule, at least ninety-nine per cent of those giving spiritual precepts to society, are unqualified to do so (see Chapter 20 to know the prerequisites for a member of the Holy Priesthood. Despite what many believe, priests are not at all ordinary men). LIBERATION: “Liberation” means “freedom”. Thus, a liberated soul is a person who has become emancipated from the five kinds of suffering (blame, shame, pride, regrets/expectations, and anxiety), all of which are based on the belief in personal AGENCY. Read Chapter 15 to understand the nature of suffering, and Chapter 11 to understand that humans are not independent agents with freedom of volition. Awakening experiences are not a prerequisite to being liberated from suffering. LIKEWISE, not all liberated persons are automatically enlightened (at least not to the degree necessary in order to be labelled as such), but there is a strong correlation between the two states of being. It's possible to be liberated, whilst not possessing a deep understanding of life. A liberated person is scarce, because very few understand the true nature of suffering, and of those who do understand the distinction between psycho-physical pain and ACTUAL (psychological) suffering, it is difficult to surrender to one's circumstances, free of obsessive thinking and judging. Liberated souls are usually those who have diligently practiced one of the four systems of yoga described in Chapter 16. Cont...

[@bronsonstone725]

@@SpiritualPsychotherapyServices very nice read, thank you

[@prakashpatil7262]

@@SpiritualPsychotherapyServices nice lengthy post

[@SpiritualPsychotherapyServices]

@@prakashpatil7262 😇अहिंसा परमो धर्म 😇 ahiṃsā paramo dharma (“non-harm is the HIGHEST religious principle” or “non-violence is the GREATEST law”). Therefore, only a strict VEGAN can claim to be an adherent of the eternal religion (sanātana dharma).🌱

[@SpiritualPsychotherapyServices]

@@bronsonstone725 ENLIGHTENMENT: Of those who have experienced a state of “oneness” and are free from mental suffering, there are EXTREMELY rare souls who are spiritually-enlightened (at least enlightened to such an extent to be worthy of the label). If the term was to be taken literally, a person may be permeated or imbued in light to varying degrees, just as the ocean is more illumined by direct sunlight than it is by the reflected light of the moon. So, when a layman thinks of an enlightened being, he or she typically imagines a person who knows what life is “all about”, or has “seen the light of God” (metaphorically-speaking). Simply having an awakening experience is quite far-removed from being an enlightened sage! If one was to approach a rocket scientist (that is, an aerospace engineer), one would expect him to fully understand his field of expertise. He would necessarily be fully conversant with advanced physics and chemistry, and know precisely how to design and launch spacecraft into outer-space. Similarly, an enlightened sage is one who understands LIFE. He knows how this phenomenal world came to be (at least from the perspective of a philosopher, rather than a theoretical physicist), how the law of action and reaction actually works (as opposed to blindly following various beliefs regarding causation, such as the fallacious notion of universal retributive justice), how to become liberated from all forms of temporal suffering, and should be able to logically answer any question posed to him by a spiritual seeker (what to speak of highly-intelligent members of the scientific and philosophical communities). Therefore, the essential quality of enlightenment,, is a holistic knowledge and understanding of LIFE. Furthermore, that is how the term is normally used in common parlance (e.g. “Let me enlighten you about ethics”). Every person who has ever lived can be RANKED according to their level of enlightenment. Even if one understands that there is more to existence than gross matter and localized consciousness, one could claim to be more enlightened than a gross materialist. Therefore, somewhere in the world resides a person who is the most ignorant fool on earth, and at a different location one may find the most enlightened sage extant. Like practically everything in life, enlightenment is relative. Even “complete” enlightenment is not an absolute state. Even the most educated person alive has the capacity to increase his knowledge. Evidentially, not even Divine Incarnations are all-knowing. An enlightened person has eschewed all belief systems and relies solely on objective, VERIFIABLE concepts, knowing that even the most accurate concepts are relative, and that the ultimate reality is Absolute. Read Chapter 03 to appreciate this philosophical foundation. A laconic way to describe how it feels to be a fully-enlightened (and awakened) person is thus: imagine yourself (that is, your waking-state persona) entering a dream and interacting with the dream characters, giving no regard to any uncomfortable situation, including possible death, for you know that you cannot die. That is similar to how a genuine sage relates to this seemingly-real creation - continuously at peace with what is. A fully-enlightened person is almost invariably a member of the Holy Priesthood (a prophet, to be more precise), and NECESSARILY possesses a genius or near-genius level of intelligence. “Necessarily”, because, as previously stated, he is required to competently respond to even the most difficult questions and conundrums posed to him by others (otherwise, he can hardly claim to be a fully-enlightened individual). Imagine approaching a so-called “enlightened sage”, and after asking him the most profound questions imaginable, he responds with such silly, bizarre concepts that would make any college philosophy student grimace, or even more embarrassingly, say, for example, “Ummm...I don’t know!” On the other hand, even the village idiot can receive awakening experiences. However, to be liberated from suffering, one normally requires at least an average level of intelligence, because understanding the nature of suffering (as opposed to mere pain) is a rather intellectual concept. Chapter 20 describes the innate nature and the kind of duties expected of a genuine member of the Holy Priesthood (“brāhmaṇa”, in Sanskrit). Needless to say (although in the corrupt, decadent society in which we find ourselves, it is indeed required to say), an enlightened person adheres to a strict code of morals and ethics, such as the avoidance of illicit sexual activity, gambling, intoxicants, and animal products. To be fair, there are many examples of persons who seem to be very awakened and/or enlightened, yet engage in base pursuits such as those mentioned above, due to their genetic make-up and their conditioning. However, this category is devoted to highly-evolved beings who LITERALLY radiate holiness - those who even the vilest of souls can recognize to be elevated far above ordinary, animalistic humanity. Sometimes, those vile souls far more easily recognize enlightened saints than do persons who are supposedly spiritually-advanced, as when the demoniacs, called “Legion”, instantly identified the Divine Avatar, Lord Jesus Christ, as the Son of the Most High God, whilst the Jewish high-priest at the time considered The Perfect Person Himself to be naught but a ominous rabble-rouser and a blasphemous sinner. It seems logical to assume that any person who purports to be a fully-enlightened soul must be morally-upright. Therefore, those who profess to be enlightened individuals, yet who actively support objectively-evil ideologies and practices, such as socialism, communism, democracy, feminism, homosexuality, and carnism, are of no practical benefit to society (quite the contrary, in fact - they are a DETRIMENT to society). The devilish character, known as “Satan” in the Judeo-Christian tradition, seems to have been quite enlightened about spiritual reality, yet I’m not sure if anyone would refer to him an “enlightened being”. To be rather forthright, a fully-enlightened sage will accept the conceptual framework of this Holy Scripture, “A Final Instruction Sheet for Humanity”, as being an accurate description of life as it is (or as it could be or should be). It is far preferable for a guru to teach impeccable moral precepts, yet have a flawed understanding of metaphysics, than vice versa. Out of billions of persons, there may be one or two fully-enlightened masters. These self-realized world-teachers are almost TOTALLY shunned by society, for, as Lord Jesus Christ once proclaimed: “I am the enemy of the world because I am telling the world that it is evil” (paraphrased). It is extremely easy to identify a truly-enlightened spiritual master, because as Lord Jesus also so rightly asserted: “you will know them by their fruits”. An actual spiritual master (“brāhmaṇa” or “guru”, in Sanskrit) will fully-uphold the perennial principles of holiness and righteousness (“sanātana dharma”, in Sanskrit), especially the supremely-important dictum of non-harm, or non-violence (“ahiṃsā”, in Sanskrit). Perhaps the very first question one should ask a prospective guru is “What is the ideal form of government?”. If he acknowledges monarchy to be the only legitimate form of governance, then ask: “Does free-will exist for any living creature?”. If he responds in the negative, then the chances are that he is an authentic guru, assuming, of course, that he is a strict vegan, and is DESPISED by most all of humanity. If he has more than a couple of dedicated disciples, he is most probably teaching something less than the full truth, for the truth is very difficult to bear. In the considered opinion of this author, there have only ever lived a TINY handful of human beings who could be described as being “fully-enlightened”. Therefore, if you, the reader, consider yourself to be a dedicated spiritual seeker, earnestly searching for one such master, it is suggested that you temper your expectations. Possibly the closest that you will ever get to studying under a fully-enlightened sage is to diligently scrutinize this “Final Instruction Sheet for Humanity”, from start to finish, in a systematic and repeated fashion. For example, you may read one chapter per day in monthly cycles, without, of course, neglecting the all-important Appendix of this Holiest of Holy Scriptures.

[@user-he9ll7ts6i]

Vivekanand is overrated person he was so confused......

[@ChinmayAcharjee]

And you are the most underrated person right ? Coming here and commenting over great leaders is a very easy thing to do. Do something in life before you bark 😏

[@castelessaastik4655]

O bhai, he is from advaita vedanta. Most logical philosophy of hinduism

[@beethovensg]

Pork chop eating has actualized a happy presenter. Have a good life blonde.