From the author: Reflections on the connection between the hierarchy of Western needs and the conarchy of Eastern foundationsWhere do the first steps of a person begin? With a feeling of support under your feet. In order for a person to begin to move and grow, he first needs to rely on something. Support is a necessary condition for personal stability. When there is support, the need and desire for movement appears. One of the most famous representatives of modern humanistic psychology, Abraham Maslow, believed that man is a “desiring being” who is not completely satisfied with the given given. As soon as some desires and needs are satisfied, they are replaced by others. Maslow suggested that there is a hierarchy in the system of needs, and they are recognized and satisfied sequentially - from lower to higher. That is, according to Maslow, human development is moving up the ladder of desires and finding support in increasingly complex needs. I decided to figure out what is the support for upward movement - from the point of view of followers of the teachings of Ancient China. The first attempts to connect humanistic psychology and syncretic Taoist science, in which astronomy, medicine and psychology were one, were unsuccessful. There was no information about desires and needs in ancient Chinese knowledge. But what attracted attention was the fact that Maslow’s pyramid of needs has 5 levels, as many as there are elements in the philosophical picture of the world created by the Chinese thinker Fu Xi, who divided various natural, psychological and physiological phenomena into five groups and established the relationship between all components of the universe. It seemed An interesting idea is to find five Chinese pillars for spiritual growth and movement. Thus began my investigation into the mystery of human desires and the search for their roots. To my surprise, it was discovered that in the Wu-Xing system, that is, the “Five Elements” or “Five Elements,” there is a correlate of Wu-Chan, which is translated as “Five Foundations.” “Foundations” are the supports, the initial, fundamental principles. The fundamental difference between the Western and Eastern ideas is that in the Chinese prototype of psychology there could be no hierarchy, since all elements of the system are equal, interconnected and in unity and struggle, generating each other or opposing each other. The five elements of Taoist philosophy, generating each other, line up in a circle, and the principle of the pyramid is alien to such a worldview. Then I decided to dive into the deep meaning of the two systems in order to, with the help of ancient foundations, increase the stability of modern basic values! In order to understand the intricacies of the Eastern model and still find common ground between the two systems, I turned to my mentor, the heir to the traditions of Ancient China, Master Tao Ji Xiaogang. The first thing the Master noticed was that the hierarchy of values ​​proposed by Maslow is conditional. From Xiaogang’s point of view, if the highest need, self-actualization, begins to be satisfied, then all “lower” needs are satisfied more fully, consciously and efficiently. To give the pyramid a Chinese meaning, the Master suggested adding color to the pyramid. He proposed to designate the highest need, for example, as yellow, and all others as purple. The colors were chosen randomly. The shade of yellow should penetrate all 4 violet levels, gradually decreasing. The lowest level of needs, physiological, should be “the most purple,” with a slight tint of yellow. This emphasizes that the spirituality of higher motives is minimally connected with physiology. The second thought of the Master seemed to me especially important. In contrast to the concept of sequential awareness and acquisition of needs, the heir to ancient Chinese knowledge assumed that all the values ​​identified by Maslow are equal in importance. Moreover, only by realizing the need for self-actualization and realizing personal potential can an individual most fully satisfy all lower-order needs. From point of viewIn Taoist philosophy, the basic and primary thing is precisely the awareness of the unity and equivalence of the spiritual and material - without prioritizing. The pyramid shape, complemented by color symbolism, did not satisfy Master Ji. Then he proposed to draw an analogy between needs and foundations, arranging both in the shape of a cross. This shape is used much less frequently in Taoist philosophy than the circle shape, but was inherited by the followers of Feng Shui. In this form, the Earth element is located in the center, and the other four elements occupy a position in accordance with the cardinal points and sacred animals - North (Water, Turtle), South (Fire, Feng Huang (Phoenix)), East (Wood, Dragon) and West (Metal, Tiger). I began to think about the connection between needs and foundations from the foundation of Maslow’s pyramid, since in the Taoist version the sequence has a conditional meaning. The first step of the pyramid is the need to satisfy physiological needs. Primary needs include factors that are essential for survival: food, drink, oxygen, sleep, sensory contact, physical activity and sex. Master Ji suggested marking these needs in the center of the cross and linking them to the element Earth and the spleen organ. The basic needs that are important for maintaining life are food and drink. Each of the five dense yin organs has a hollow yang pair. The pair of the spleen is the stomach. Therefore, it is quite logical that “stomach” values ​​formed the basis of the Western pyramid and ended up in the center of the Eastern system. The foundation corresponding to the element Earth and the spleen-stomach pair is trust (xin). For the first steps, trust is extremely important: confidence in the strength of the support gives determination. It is quite natural that the Earth is the first support in the literal and metaphorical sense. The second step of the pyramid is the need for security: long-term survival and stability. Maslow believed that when physiological needs are sufficiently satisfied, the needs of safety and protection become important. Satisfaction of these needs is associated with the presence of organization, stability, law and order. If the task of an individual who is aware of physiological needs is survival, then with the transition to a new level he realizes the importance of long-term survival, which is possible only if there is a certain order. This value also exists in the Taoist system. Order(s) is a foundation corresponding to the element Fire and the heart-small intestine pair. In this case, too, we can reflect on the non-randomness of the images. If Earth is important for confident walking and stable support, then Fire is important for long-term survival. In primitive times, it was fire that was the factor protecting humans from the dangers of the surrounding world - cold and wild animals that pose a threat to life. Everything is logical! Let’s turn to the third stage of the pyramid of Western values ​​– the need for belonging and love, inclusion and acceptance. At this level of development, the individual tries to establish attachment relationships in the family and in a group of close people. Since different understandings of the word “love” are possible, it is important to clarify that Maslow did not support Freud’s idea of ​​​​the sexual basis of love and interpreted love as mutual understanding and respect, that is, he expanded the meaning of this word from an experience associated with one chosen one to a universal feeling based on spirituality, and not on the attraction of the flesh. The question of correlation between the level of the pyramid and the foundation did not arise in this case, because in the Taoist system there is a value that exactly repeats the need of the third level of the pyramid - love (zhen), and it is connected with the element Wood and the liver-gallbladder pair of organs. Some translations offer the option “mercy,” apparently precisely in order to eliminate ambiguity in understanding. It is symbolic that the element Wood is associated with the love of loved ones, the spiritual attachment of a woman and a man, with family ties. An association arises with the family tree, the historical roots of the individual, which strengthen it in the desire to move upward, intoreaching new spiritual heights. At this stage of the investigation, it began to seem to me that Maslow’s pyramid is nothing more than a Taoist cross, in which each pillar is assigned a special level, in accordance with the views of modern Western society. Too many coincidences were found where not the slightest similarity was initially noticed! The fourth stage of the pyramid is the needs of self-esteem: significance, competence. From Maslow's point of view, this need has two vectors: self-respect and respect from others. The first vector is based on a sense of competence, confidence, independence and freedom. It is important for a person to realize that he is able to cope with the tasks that life puts before him. Respect from others is prestige, recognition, status, high assessment of merit. The combination of both vectors gives the individual self-confidence, cultivates in him a sense of self-worth, awareness of the importance of his existence and the real significance of his activities. At this stage of solving the Chinese puzzle, I had to turn on logic. There are only two primary elements left and two corresponding organs - Water and kidneys, Metal and lungs. Since the kidneys play a special role in the life of the body, the element Water should either be located at the base of the pyramid or crown it. Since the Earth was the foundation, the issue was resolved by itself. The kidneys are the battery of the entire energy system; all internal organs “feed” from them. And if the amount of energy in the kidneys has decreased, then gradually all organs will begin to fail. Therefore, it is quite natural to place Water at the top of the pyramid of values. It remained to figure out which foundation corresponds to Metal and try to discover the similarity of this foundation with the fourth stage of Maslow’s pyramid. But here a surprise awaited me! Once again I was faced with the problem of untranslatability of Chinese concepts. The fact is that the picture of the world of the ancient Chinese is so different from the European picture of the world that in the Chinese language there are many concepts that do not have Russian verbal equivalents. Xiaogang had difficulty translating the hieroglyph corresponding to the fourth foundation into Russian, and moved on to describe the phenomenon: “This quality characterizes a person who does good when there is a need for good. There is no need to ask him, he himself feels what he must do.” I looked for translations in Russian sources: “justice”. Master Ji rejected this option and continued the association: “The principle of “one for all and all for one” corresponds to this foundation.” Another attempt by the Master to explain the meaning of the hieroglyph “and” came down to describing the qualities of an individual who is ready to sacrifice everything, including his life, for the sake of the interests of the group. The concepts of “honor” and “conscience” arose in consciousness. In the end, the criminal image of “life according to concepts” arose. To the master, my feelings seemed close to the truth, if we cut off the criminal component. The unexpected association ceased to seem wild and inappropriate when it dawned on me that the swords of musketeers and the bladed weapons of bandits, as well as the noble weapons of other defenders of justice, are elements of the Metal element! Well, of course! Metal is a symbol of fair retribution, a sign of special strength and power, and special status. Everything fits! Metal is a symbol of significance. Money is a symbol of status and success, and the monetary equivalent is also metal, gold. We have never found an exact translation of the Chinese concept of “i” that corresponds to the Master’s feelings. Perhaps such a word is simply not in the Russian dictionary. Nevertheless, in my opinion, the expressions “internal law” and “code of honor” can be considered relatively close. In fact, both phrases are close to the concepts of “respect” and “self-esteem.” And if we consider respect as fair retribution, then this time everything comes together. Finally, we have climbed to the truth and reached the top of the pyramid! The fifth step in Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs is the need for self-actualization or»