Blindspots, Ethics & Evolution of consciousness

     A very self-assured young student had a conflict with an instructor. They were both convinced that the other was unprofessional. The student came to see me shortly after the incident, and was incensed at the instructor. I tried to soften his attitude, to help him behave more professionally at the time as well as in the future. This was part of my follow-up email to him:
     "I was suggesting you consider a softer approach in the future. The direct impact we can have on others' behavior is pretty minimal, while our own attitude sets the tone of our own (and others') lives. The question, 'would you rather be right or happy?' contains a lot. 
     Here's an old story of possible interest:        'A big burly samurai comes to the wise man and says, ‘Tell me the nature of heaven and hell.’ And the roshi looks him in the face and says; ‘Why should I tell a scruffy, disgusting, miserable slob like you?’ The samurai starts to get purple in the face, his hair starts to stand up, but the roshi won't stop, he keeps saying, ‘A miserable worm like you, do you think I should tell you anything?’ Consumed by rage, the samurai draws his sword, and he's just about to cut off the head of the roshi. Then the roshi says, ‘That's hell.’ The samurai, who is in fact a sensitive person, instantly gets it, that he just created his own hell; he was deep in hell. It was black and hot, filled with hatred, self-protection, anger, and resentment, so much so that he was going to kill this man. Tears fill his eyes and he starts to cry and he puts his palms together and the roshi says, ‘That's heaven’."

     And the young man's response? He emailed back that he preferred the following:
     "When somebody hits you, hit'em back harder" - Donald Trump

     Most students studying to become health-care professionals are not adults, but at best "emerging adults". They agree to professional codes of conduct, yet are, for the most part, simply not capable of relating to themselves, others, or ethical codes of conduct the way more mature people can. This is not immorality or amorality, simply an immature set of priorities / capacities, consistent with their immature stage of psychological / consciousness / moral / character development. AND, both dental and medical training have repeatedly been shown to NEGATIVELY impact normal maturation. Don't we need to improve on this?

Garden of Dreams, Kathmandu by Raewyn Bassett PhD   www.raewynbassett.com