FROM SELF-REGULATION TO SPIRITUAL TRANSCENDENCE: CONSTRUCTING A NUSANTARA SPIRITUAL MENTAL HEALTH MODEL
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15408/iu.vi.52407Keywords:
Multidimensional Mental Health, Sanghyang Siksa Kandang Karesian, Sewaka Darma, Pierre Hadot, Tazkiyat al-NafsAbstract
Contemporary mental health discourse increasingly recognizes the importance of spiritual, relational, and existential dimensions of human well-being, yet indigenous intellectual traditions remain underrepresented in the construction of culturally grounded mental-health frameworks. This article examines the spiritual conceptions of human well-being found in Sanghyang Siksa Kandang Karesian (SSKK) and Sewaka Darma (SD) and places them in dialogue with Pierre Hadot’s concept of philosophy as a way of life and al-Ghazali’s theory of tazkiyat al-nafs in Ihyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn. Using qualitative library research and philosophical hermeneutics, the study analyzes the concepts of Dasa Kreta, Dasamala, Iyatna-Yatna, and Jatiniskala, and compares their transformative orientations with riyāḍah al-nafs, tazkiyat al-nafs, murāqabah, and ma‘rifatullah in al-Ghazali’s thought. The findings reveal structural similarities, rather than conceptual equivalence, in the way these traditions understand human flourishing as a process of spiritual self-formation. The comparative analysis yields a four-stage Nusantara Spiritual Mental Health Model comprising self-regulation, inner purification, reflective awareness, and spiritual transcendence. The model conceptualizes mental health not merely as the absence of psychological disorder or the achievement of emotional stability, but as an ongoing process of ethical cultivation, spiritual awareness, relational balance, and orientation toward transcendent reality. The study argues that Old Sundanese manuscripts can be approached not only as philological and cultural artifacts but also as epistemic resources for culturally grounded understandings of mental well-being.
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