4. Negativity, Withdrawal, Inactivity, and Pessimism

The pattern of negativity (short for negativity, withdrawal, inactivity and pessimism) has a very special place among all the patterns: we can say, in a broad sense, that all the ten fundamental patterns as well as all other unhealthy patterns have this quality. Our discussion in this chapter will focus on this particular pattern in a narrow sense.

1) The Evolution and Development of the Human Species

Since the quality of negativity is common to both the pattern of negativity and to all other unhealthy patterns, it shares the same origins and developmental background as the patterns discussed previously. One point worth mentioning is that in ancient times when a person suffered an injury, he would most likely physically withdraw for the purpose of self-protection, healing and recovery. Similarly, on the mental level, withdrawal, fear, suspicion and antagonism could be experienced. Even the desire to attack, retaliate or destroy was possible. These negative responses, after having been reinforced generation after generation, resulted in the gradual development and establishment of the pattern of negativity.

2) Basic Instincts and Needs on the Level of Human Nature

When the basic needs of human nature are not satisfied, they can become driving forces for negative thoughts or behaviour. For example, when a person is extremely hungry, the thought of stealing or robbing food can arise and even be acted upon. When a child is not receiving adequate love and care, the need will drive the child to develop negative emotions or behaviour such as crying or throwing a tantrum to attract the parents’ attention. In extreme cases, a child can even ‘create’ sickness to express this yearning for love and care from a deep level of human nature.

When a person does not exercise adequate awareness and self-control, and unhealthy patterns are activated, needs on the level of human nature can be either suppressed or overly expressed, either of which can cause human nature to become ‘twisted’. When human nature is twisted, it can further impact patterns. Eventually negativity will manifest on activities at both the consciousness and behavioural levels.

3) Social and Cultural Environment

Although human society and culture have been progressing, the forces and influences for the advancement of health and growth have not dominated the many other influences. This can be observed in most areas of society including the fields of economics, culture, politics, religion, armed forces, entertainment and media. Not only do the influences that promote the development of healthy and positive consciousness and patterns not outweigh the opposite influences, they don’t even match them. It is not difficult to see how mass media, including entertainment products and computer games, has provided a large amount of negative information which is highly likely to influence people’s consciousness, shaping values and patterns of the consciousness, especially in young people.

4) Family Environment

The link between family environment and the formation of negative patterns is obvious. The ‘kick the cat effect’ is a good example of such a link. Negative information can be passed on from one person to another. Children are especially susceptible to this type of influence.

The most critical time for the formation and development of the patterns of the consciousness is from early childhood to young adulthood. Family members, especially parents, are most influential in the process of pattern development during this period. An authoritative, oppressive or abusive parenting style could cause problematic patterns in the child on many levels of life, including behavioural, psychological, personality and human nature levels.

For example, if a parent seldom uses affirmative language, but instead, often makes negative judgments of a child such as ‘you are lazy’, ‘you are not smart’, or ‘you are good for nothing’, there is a high chance that the child will develop one of two opposite types of personality. One is having a low level of confidence and self- esteem, being timid, fearful, dependent, eager for approval and pessimistic. The other is being overly confident, arrogant, overly sensitive and suspicious, self- centered and short-tempered.

5) Education

Education has evolved and progressed enormously in the last few decades, in both content and delivery. However, there is still a lot of room for improvement in fulfilling the need to help people gain better understanding of life and the world for the purpose of uplifting them. The focus of education is still on acquiring knowledge and skills needed for a successful professional life, rather than creating a healthy and growing life and fulfilling the purpose of life. It is no wonder that education can actually contribute to the development of unhealthy consciousness and unhealthy patterns. This is inevitable when there is not enough emphasis on helping people understand emotions, especially unhealthy emotions, and how to deal with them.

6) Personal Factor

Although many external factors participate in the formation of the pattern of negativity, we cannot deny that our Shen, consciousness, Xin Ling and human nature are also involved in this process, since each of them has autonomy and initiative. In other words, we are not entirely passive in this process. We aren’t mere victims or products of the work of external factors. After all, there are many opportunities for an individual to use self-awareness, initiative, autonomy and realization to identify and understand negative patterns and make adjustments or changes, instead of allowing them to act and affect one’s own life and the outer world again and again and eventually become stronger and more fixed.

The manifestations of the pattern of negativity include: being attracted to or focusing on negative things, suspicion, being overly worried, fear, lack of a sense of security, being overly self-protective (even rejecting those who sincerely offer help) and strong resistance or rebellion. Common causes of this pattern when formed at a young age are: the separation of parents, lack of proper love and care, lack of proper guidance, lack of a healthy connection and interaction with people (including peers) and rejection by others. This pattern can also contribute to the development of a personality that is suspicious, cynical, critical and pessimistic.

The pattern of negativity can also manifest as self-importance, the belief that no one can understand or help us, no one is trustworthy enough, believing only in oneself, feeling safe only when things are under our control. One characteristic of this pattern is the presence of a strong reason to justify the negativity and the negative emotions. A common example is worrying about the worst-case scenario and justifying it as the need to be prepared because not only could it happen but it could happen at any time. Although the worry seems perfectly justified, the thinking and expectation will configure the consciousness into a negative pattern, and eventually trap the worrier more and more deeply in this pattern.

What are other common manifestations of the pattern of negativity? Only seeing the negative, ‘depressing’ side or quality of everything; cynicism and anger about people and the world in general; seeing human nature as negative and ugly; being unwilling to cooperate or collaborate; being overly cautious and defensive; doubting everything, including oneself; being indecisive; tending to avoid one’s own problems or blame others; fear of failure; fear of ‘losing face’; fear of challenges; easily feeling frustrated; lacking motivation or driving force; lacking perseverance and self- discipline; tending to find excuses and avoid responsibility; low self-esteem; lack of courage; weak will power; lack of trust in one’s ability and potential; lack of confidence in one’s own wisdom; lack of confidence in one’s future; feeling hopeless.

Negativity and positivity shouldn’t be taken in absolute terms. From the perspective of Ren Xue, nothing in the universe is absolute. In other words, everything is a totality and has at least two sides, including negativity itself. Let’s use a story to illustrate the point here. Three kids were playing by a river. All of a sudden, they saw a cat fall from a tree into the river. They got extremely worried and anxious but unfortunately none of them could swim. Two of the kids jumped into the river to save the cat and the other one was too afraid, so he stayed on the riverbank. He saw the other two kids struggling in the rapids and got extremely scared. At this time people happened to walk by so the kid asked them to help. One of the kids was saved but the other one unfortunately drowned. The cat swam to the other side of the river safely.

So what happened in this story? If we look at the two kids who jumped into the river to save the cat, we can say their action showed they were positive, loving and courageous. The other kid appeared to be cowardly and somewhat selfish, which are normally seen as negative qualities. Looked at from the perspective of social morality, the two kids’ deed deserved praise. However, if we look deeper, we could say that the way the kid who didn’t jump dealt with the matter was even more reasonable and sensible for the following reasons:

1. He couldn’t swim and was unfamiliar with the river environment so it was sensible to not jump into the river to save the cat.

2. It was also a sensible decision that he didn’t jump in to try to save the other two kids because he would face the same dangers that they did.

3. He asked the adults for help and that saved one of the two kids. What he did not only protected himself but also made a positive influence on the outcome.

4. From the perspective of development, what happened on that day was not the end of the story. What could be learned from that experience would continue to have its influence. For example, learning the fact that cats can swim and therefore it isn’t necessary to jump into the river to save a cat. What is the right thing to do for a child who cannot swim under these circumstances? Many useful lessons can be extracted from this experience and they will have an ongoing positive influence into the future.

The point to highlight here is that it is not always straightforward when it comes to knowing what is positive and negative, especially when we expand our scope of view. From a wide perspective, hardly anything is absolutely positive or negative; they often co-exist as two different aspects of one thing. It is therefore advisable to avoid a ‘black and white’ view when judging something.

Although it is advisable to avoid absolute judgments, it is still necessary to know the nature of things in relative terms. We just need to always bear in mind that even a seemingly simple and straightforward thing can be more complex than we think, especially considering the constant change and development it undergoes. A seemingly negative thing could lead to a positive outcome as a result of change and development. The story of ‘The Man Who Lost his Horse’ best exemplifies this point.

When we judge whether something is positive or negative, it is necessary to take the perspective of totality, seeing how it changes and develops and what outcomes it brings about, rather than just the superficial manifestations. This perspective is also important for us to know how to direct or transform development into a positive direction.

Human consciousness is always doing something; there are always activities on the consciousness level. Every activity has a ‘value’ on the positive–negative continuum. In other words, it is either relatively positive or relatively negative. A negative activity can lead to an unhealthy change in individuals, society and nature. If activities have developed into a pattern, their effect will be continual and lasting. When a person is dominated by a pattern of negativity, it is hard to expect life to be characterized by health, happiness, wellbeing and growth. Such a person would have difficulty feeling hopeful for the future.

Although our discussion here is about the pattern of negativity, this pattern can be seen as a strong representation of all unhealthy patterns. Therefore the ‘12345 Model’ as the overall approach to changing patterns can apply.

When following the 12345 Model, using better, healthier patterns to replace unhealthy patterns is the core strategy for changing a pattern. As simple as it may seem, it is real work when changing all unhealthy patterns. In reality anyone who attempts it knows that application of this method is neither simple nor easy.

Let’s look at the ‘5’ of the model – Five Xin cultivation. All of the five Xin qualities are important for changing the pattern of negativity, especially trust, openness and love. In fact, the strong presence of any of these three qualities can have a huge or even dramatic impact on this pattern.

Another Xin quality that can be very helpful for changing the pattern of negativity is ‘acceptance’. The cultivation of this quality can address one of the roots of the pattern – Shen or consciousness being unable to accept reality, whether in the past or the present, whether internal or external. Learning to accept things that we find difficult to face can be a turning point – the first step in changing the pattern and also our perception of reality. From there, we can progress to the next step, which is doing things that can help transform the situation for the better. This way we turn the momentum of the pattern into a driving force to move life forward.

Since the 12345 Model was previously presented as the best overall approach for changing patterns, why is it being reintroduced for this particular pattern? There are two considerations:

1) Although the model has been available for some time, it hasn’t been actively promoted as the method for changing patterns. It is highlighted here with the hope that it can be better known and utilized.

2) Through applying this model on this particular pattern, one can gain a true understanding of the model and its meaning and value. Hopefully this will lay the foundation and path for working on other patterns.