6/23/2017
kMoe
"Part of understanding the world comes from learning that the world is undefinable. It is made up of goo and prickles, sometimes one may say that it is made of gooey prickles or prickly goo. It is really dependent on how you look at it." These are the words of a famous philosopher and scholar of the early 70's who goes by the name Alan Watts.
To anyone who is not vaguely interested in philosophy or the arts, will see this or hear the statement and immediately rubbish it as banter worthy of a kindergarten audience, however, this may play a very important role in understanding the human mind in the 21st century and how it as developed or evolved as a result. A more relatable explanation of the statement may be that in life, some experiences may be good and others may be bad, and one may state that life is one bad experience with moments of good experiences; while another may state that life is one good experience with moments of bad experiences. In the end the experience is the same, that is one will have gone through the same motions and emotions as the other individual, but will have two completely different interpretations of the experience which they may have just had. While some may argue this statement, the arguments will always stem from the same place within the mind, and thats the part of the mind which deals with the experience one has, this is a part of the mind which is always present and working, if it was not we would have trouble seeking to function in the modern day existence. To operate a vehicle we need some sort of experience in operating it, to instruct a computer we need some experience in computing to cook we need to have experienced cooked food, this may be extrapolated to many aspects of our life albeit with varying complexity.
The human mind, with its incredible and often infallible complexity cannot be understood using mere text and books, one has to dive into the experience of life fully in order to even have an idea of how the brain may work. This does not, however, stop one from attempting to understand even a small part of how this organ works. So far it has become prevalent that there is a function to the brain which is common to most if not all humans, it is what is passed down from adults to new born babies in the process which we refer to as upbringing and it is the same processes we instill in practices and institutions in which we call culture. It is important for man to cooperate together with himself, nature and animals for his survival, the mechanism which has been developed is called culture, and this cooperative mechanism has changed the way the brain works, but not in its entirety, but rather in the areas which we recognise as being necessary. This means there are certain rules of the operation of mind which most of us are aware of, these rules are complex and varied and they change very little, over the course of our lifetimes, they may be analogous to the laws of physics. The physics we refer to is classical mechanics, which is the description of objects as they interact or move about in free space.
One such law which has been part of the acute awareness of everyday existence is the law of opposites, which simply describes that everything has its opposite which means there only two forms to the experience, nothing more. Just as light is opposite to dark, fast to slow, clean to dirty, good to bad and the list goes on. This is something which many religions of the east, particularly Buddhism, and vedic philosophy have been aware of as one of the common features of the physical mind, and that is what they have termed as duality.
Duality is one of the functions of the mind which overlays what ever it is that one experience to a mechanism of judgment and catergorisation of objects and movements. Depending on what one has learned in their early years right up to the present moment of their life, this categorising mechanism operates to varying degrees and intensity throughout ones experience, while everything in the prevailing reality is fundamentally neutral. All categorisations form the basis for even more experience which allows the mind to form even more categories of experience even if the experience has no direction or motive. One such mechanism of duality which we learn in our early years is that of dividing human beings into one of two categories, which we know as man or woman. This mechanism has been translated down the tree of life and all living organisms can be classified as being male or female, and these classifications relate only to the recreational or reproductive nature of the organism and nothing else; if we wish to understand the organism even further the mind divises even more classifications for which it can use to place several other attributes of the organism, and this is what is referred to as learning. It is easy to see how the early forms of dualistic learning can propagate through the years of the learning mind which is what can form the basis of experience and learning and this is what forms the basis of the conditioning of the mind. This is a very important and beneficial aspect of the mind in the search for intelligence, but intelligence is a very tricky aspect of the human mind which we have not come to understand to this present day, despite the fact that we use our intelligence in our daily existence.
Intelligence like all things in nature has its limitations, and the limits of intelligence are subtle and varied, and only the intelligent human being is able to be aware of these limitations and transcend them, the most obvious limitation to intelligence is to be aware of the problem of clinging to one particular aspect of what the mind knows, because what needs to be known is constantly changing and moulding to the constantly changing reality.
Limitations of the mind may lie in the way it functions. One of the most compelling attributes of this philosophy may be able to be used to observe the mind itself; which is a supple and often steady organ which moulds itself according to its experiences and will mould its function according the experiences it has had. One of the most common features of this function is memory, which while it may be useful in most instances, sometimes functioning through memory may have its effect on limiting the way it functions. One such instance is in how it defines the reality in which it exists, in that the world is either one thing or another, good or bad, fast or slow. It separates variable character from the dynamic world into understandable categories, based on what it has experienced, which gives rise to what we have called learning.
Learning itself is a very complex activity which cannot be described simply by the ability to store memories, as that categorisation itself has limitations. The reason for this assertion may be derived from the observation of a computer, which is an instrument with tremendous capabilities of memory, but we do not say that a computer is intelligent. It may be intelligent in one area of operation such as mathematical computation, but it cannot learn to play Beethoven's 5th symphony, it can only recall the human recording. So by this logic we may extrapolate to the mind that such learning by intense categories is limited, it is so because of the overuse of memory, which dulls the mind into thinking in terms of memory, and operating in that way leaves no room for something new, something never before experienced or catergorised. The world is not black and white, rather it is made up of many shades and colours which in themselves may transcend the limits of category. Just like the human brain, reality is vastly complex and often un-understandable by the same method of operation, and to say there is only one way of operating, is like saying there is only one law of physics, but when we observe the open reality we often see many laws of physics operating on objects some we know and others we do not understand.
Just as to your organism, which the mind has tried to understand is often operating under many laws and patterns, some we know others we do not even know whether they exist or not, and are often subjects of intense debate. The brain has tried to understand our organism through this same dualistic method, by separating is as body and mind; that is to say, the body is different from the mind and that is the limiting operation of this idea. This is because one may think that the body operates separately from the mind and vice versa, in this way there will always be conflicts in the way one tries to understand their self. Some religions, particularly of the far east, or the Asiatic reigions have been able to transcend this paradigm, they have always known other rules of conciousness, and have communicated them using various symbols and teachings, and one of the most famous symbols is that of the yin-yang.
The symbol has many interpretations depending on the direction from which we are observing, one could look at the black dot in the white space, or the white dot in the black space and infer that there is a mind in a body, just like there is the body in a mind. The two cannot be separate, therefore the conflict can be resolved and new learning can take place, through further questioning.
To anyone who is not vaguely interested in philosophy or the arts, will see this or hear the statement and immediately rubbish it as banter worthy of a kindergarten audience, however, this may play a very important role in understanding the human mind in the 21st century and how it as developed or evolved as a result. A more relatable explanation of the statement may be that in life, some experiences may be good and others may be bad, and one may state that life is one bad experience with moments of good experiences; while another may state that life is one good experience with moments of bad experiences. In the end the experience is the same, that is one will have gone through the same motions and emotions as the other individual, but will have two completely different interpretations of the experience which they may have just had. While some may argue this statement, the arguments will always stem from the same place within the mind, and thats the part of the mind which deals with the experience one has, this is a part of the mind which is always present and working, if it was not we would have trouble seeking to function in the modern day existence. To operate a vehicle we need some sort of experience in operating it, to instruct a computer we need some experience in computing to cook we need to have experienced cooked food, this may be extrapolated to many aspects of our life albeit with varying complexity.
The human mind, with its incredible and often infallible complexity cannot be understood using mere text and books, one has to dive into the experience of life fully in order to even have an idea of how the brain may work. This does not, however, stop one from attempting to understand even a small part of how this organ works. So far it has become prevalent that there is a function to the brain which is common to most if not all humans, it is what is passed down from adults to new born babies in the process which we refer to as upbringing and it is the same processes we instill in practices and institutions in which we call culture. It is important for man to cooperate together with himself, nature and animals for his survival, the mechanism which has been developed is called culture, and this cooperative mechanism has changed the way the brain works, but not in its entirety, but rather in the areas which we recognise as being necessary. This means there are certain rules of the operation of mind which most of us are aware of, these rules are complex and varied and they change very little, over the course of our lifetimes, they may be analogous to the laws of physics. The physics we refer to is classical mechanics, which is the description of objects as they interact or move about in free space.
One such law which has been part of the acute awareness of everyday existence is the law of opposites, which simply describes that everything has its opposite which means there only two forms to the experience, nothing more. Just as light is opposite to dark, fast to slow, clean to dirty, good to bad and the list goes on. This is something which many religions of the east, particularly Buddhism, and vedic philosophy have been aware of as one of the common features of the physical mind, and that is what they have termed as duality.
Duality is one of the functions of the mind which overlays what ever it is that one experience to a mechanism of judgment and catergorisation of objects and movements. Depending on what one has learned in their early years right up to the present moment of their life, this categorising mechanism operates to varying degrees and intensity throughout ones experience, while everything in the prevailing reality is fundamentally neutral. All categorisations form the basis for even more experience which allows the mind to form even more categories of experience even if the experience has no direction or motive. One such mechanism of duality which we learn in our early years is that of dividing human beings into one of two categories, which we know as man or woman. This mechanism has been translated down the tree of life and all living organisms can be classified as being male or female, and these classifications relate only to the recreational or reproductive nature of the organism and nothing else; if we wish to understand the organism even further the mind divises even more classifications for which it can use to place several other attributes of the organism, and this is what is referred to as learning. It is easy to see how the early forms of dualistic learning can propagate through the years of the learning mind which is what can form the basis of experience and learning and this is what forms the basis of the conditioning of the mind. This is a very important and beneficial aspect of the mind in the search for intelligence, but intelligence is a very tricky aspect of the human mind which we have not come to understand to this present day, despite the fact that we use our intelligence in our daily existence.
Intelligence like all things in nature has its limitations, and the limits of intelligence are subtle and varied, and only the intelligent human being is able to be aware of these limitations and transcend them, the most obvious limitation to intelligence is to be aware of the problem of clinging to one particular aspect of what the mind knows, because what needs to be known is constantly changing and moulding to the constantly changing reality.
Limitations of the mind may lie in the way it functions. One of the most compelling attributes of this philosophy may be able to be used to observe the mind itself; which is a supple and often steady organ which moulds itself according to its experiences and will mould its function according the experiences it has had. One of the most common features of this function is memory, which while it may be useful in most instances, sometimes functioning through memory may have its effect on limiting the way it functions. One such instance is in how it defines the reality in which it exists, in that the world is either one thing or another, good or bad, fast or slow. It separates variable character from the dynamic world into understandable categories, based on what it has experienced, which gives rise to what we have called learning.
Learning itself is a very complex activity which cannot be described simply by the ability to store memories, as that categorisation itself has limitations. The reason for this assertion may be derived from the observation of a computer, which is an instrument with tremendous capabilities of memory, but we do not say that a computer is intelligent. It may be intelligent in one area of operation such as mathematical computation, but it cannot learn to play Beethoven's 5th symphony, it can only recall the human recording. So by this logic we may extrapolate to the mind that such learning by intense categories is limited, it is so because of the overuse of memory, which dulls the mind into thinking in terms of memory, and operating in that way leaves no room for something new, something never before experienced or catergorised. The world is not black and white, rather it is made up of many shades and colours which in themselves may transcend the limits of category. Just like the human brain, reality is vastly complex and often un-understandable by the same method of operation, and to say there is only one way of operating, is like saying there is only one law of physics, but when we observe the open reality we often see many laws of physics operating on objects some we know and others we do not understand.
Just as to your organism, which the mind has tried to understand is often operating under many laws and patterns, some we know others we do not even know whether they exist or not, and are often subjects of intense debate. The brain has tried to understand our organism through this same dualistic method, by separating is as body and mind; that is to say, the body is different from the mind and that is the limiting operation of this idea. This is because one may think that the body operates separately from the mind and vice versa, in this way there will always be conflicts in the way one tries to understand their self. Some religions, particularly of the far east, or the Asiatic reigions have been able to transcend this paradigm, they have always known other rules of conciousness, and have communicated them using various symbols and teachings, and one of the most famous symbols is that of the yin-yang.
