Internal and External Conflicts
Harmonious Perspective is the perspective that does not create any conflict within or without. Conflict within is the conflict between our emotional impulses (asava) and our sense of good and bad associated with fear and shame (hiri-ottappa). Conflict without is the conflict between our impulses and external reality, physical and social.
These emotional impulses are basically of two kinds: those that seek pleasure (loba) and those that avoid pain (dosa). These two kinds of emotional impulses represent the positive and the negative aspects of pleasure seeking (kama-sukhallikanu-yoga). These emotional impulses are also blind and they make us blind to reality (moha). These three drive us toward the goal of pleasure and seek immediate satisfaction.
If one's pleasure-seeking emotions are powerful, one might become a criminal. If, on the other hand, one's fear and shame become powerful one tends to become inhibited and deny oneself pleasure through an ascetic lifestyle (atta-kilamatanu-yoga). If one cannot resolve the conflict one way or the other, one might become neurotic or psychotic, running away from reality into a fantasy world.
The outer conflict occurs when the search for pleasure comes in conflict with other people or the physical environment itself. We cannot always have pleasure and we cannot always avoid pain. Sometimes our enjoyment of pleasure can hurt other people. Often things don't happen as we want. Our impulses are blind and our reason comes in conflict with our impulses. The conflict between the impulses and the external environment creates frustration, anxiety, and unhappiness.
The search for pleasure also results in possessiveness or personalization; we like to own our pleasures and make them permanent. By owning or personalizing, we build and expand a ‘self’ and ‘personality’ or ‘ego’. This personalization is also accompanied by a desire for the permanent existence of what we call ‘ourselves’ or our ‘own.’ We like what we personalize not to grow old or die. Youthfulness is pleasant to us, while old age is unpleasant. Health is pleasant to us, while disease is unpleasant. Life is pleasant to us, while death is unpleasant. Parting from the pleasant and meeting the unpleasant is frustrating. Not being able to have things as we want is a frustration. The cause of this suffering is undoubtedly unrealistic desire or emotional impulses which lead to personalization.
It is clear that blind impulse is the culprit. It is this blind impulse that clashes with our sense of goodness and with our reason and external reality. It is only by gaining control over this impulse that this conflict can be resolved. Some method had to be found to gain control over this impulse without creating suffering in the process.