And now for a few words… (Part one)
…on the idea of freedom
I know of but one freedom… and that is freedom of (ones) own mind.
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use
Freedom is a package deal - with it comes responsibilities and consequences
Freedom is that instant between when someone tells you to do something and when you decide how to respond
The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion
Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves
Humanity is free at the moment it wishes to be
Humans fight for freedom, then they begin to accumulate laws to take it away from themselves
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most humans dread it
Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err
Freedom is an illusion. A state of mind that created by a species that has this thing we call reason. As such we automatically think we are better than others, not just the animals, but those around us. Not as good looking, as smart, as successful, as rich. Our freedom has cost us connection. We say we fight for freedom, yes, but we most often mean we fight for our idea of what that means. Is that wrong? Is that right? That is for you to decide.
The moment one thinks about their idea of free… another is repressed…. and the cycle continues.
Realize, Resist, Revolt (Part One)
Advertising and television show happy smiling people decked out in the latest designer fashions driving brand new SUVs to eat out at the latest semi casual chain restaurant. The implied moral is that without the newest and best products you have no hope of living a happy life. Consumerism has reached astonishing proportions, with a product to cure any and all woes and ailments your life may contain. People are encouraged not to think about their problems, but to purchase an item or medication that will fix it for them. Hundreds of thousands of man-hours are spent to allow the purchase of that name brand item over its generic counterpart. Without the hippest newest clothing and accessories one’s social standing is placed in jeopardy. Nowadays more than ever people are convinced they are what they own. This attitude not only cheapens life and free time, but further entrenches multinational corporations and their illegal and inhumane methods of cutting costs for a higher profit margin.
Look into my eyes… tell me what you see (or what you see in you)
Remember the day you were born?
If you could remember back to that day, what do you think were the first words that were uttered as you found your way into this world? I would bet my last dollar (that for most people) it would be three little words.
“It’s a girl”
“It’s a boy”
Just those three little words. Nothing more would need to be stated, for in those three little words lay all that there is of our species. Never once would the first words uttered about your existence be things like “it’s a homosexual”, “ It’s a Christian Fundamentalist Reformist “, “It’s a Liberal/Conservative”, “ It’s a Black/Mexican/Chinese/White/Caucasian /Indigenous person” “It’s an illegal alien with two children and no husband sponging off my hard earned tax dollars wanting free health care and schooling” “It’s a 1 percent-er” “ It’s a ninty-nine percent-er… those (and many, many, MANY more), labels come later.
You know the ones. The ones that we as humans put on each other. The ones that make us all see each other as this or that, allow us to hate, to begin a life of struggles to be “equal” with everyone else. The ones that have created pages upon pages of laws/books of philosophy, ideas of existence and so on to show us we are equal (or not). The ones that we think help us to understand each other (and ourselves) so much better, but more often than not stifle us as a species. The ones that force us to waste our time on such small minded thoughts when we could be exploring the universe, seeking out cures, understanding our inner minds and all we could un-tap within them.
But instead we are worried about whom one is sleeping with, whom one is praying to, whom one is voting for. Instead we are wasting our time in the constant struggle to become, to be recognized as, and to have…equal/equality.
But the strange thing is… we already are, and when you came into this world, the only thing that anyone said was if you were a boy or a girl (sometimes even less.. you just need to know they were born), and for at least those few very first minutes, there was no thought of anything else. There were no judgments. There was not classifying, no burdening of labels and no segregating of thoughts. You just were and that was enough, (and in fact for those first few moments in your small little existence, you made everyone around you very happy).
So why as time goes on do we (all of us) allow this to happen? Why do we set ourselves up to need to struggle in life? Why do we not fight to maintain the euphoria of our births? Why can’t we just remember back to those first few minutes and understand we are all equal, all the same?
Perhaps it is because we can’t remember our birth, as generally humans can’t remember much before their first birthday other than fuzzy bits and pieces of half jumbled up ideas of memories of that time. We can’t remember back to the time when we did not have to worry about such things, because then our minds were really free. We only begin to really remember things when we begin to see things in terms of all the labels that humans put on everything, and in some ways it is understandable we label all things, for how hard would it be for us to understand anything if we did not have a basis to begin an assessment?
Then again, if we could remember back to that time, maybe our understanding (or lack there of) of the labels we now use and how they limit us all would help us to make a change. Maybe we could see we are wasting our time, trying so hard to fight to be equal to others.
Because no matter whom you are, not matter what status you have, what sex your are, what colour, what creed, what political affiliation, what thought you have about existence, whom you choose to have sex with (or not)… ALL of us are less equal (in the labels) of someone else’s eyes…. ALL of us.
So why not remember that the next time you decide to say we are not equal, when you stand up for the legislation to make us so, why not laugh and scoff at the human need to put in writing what was always ours to begin with. The next time a religion, a political idea, a group says that we need to fight for (or against) something? Stand up for real equality, not just equality of labels. Understand we squandered away our equality, sold it down the river. And all for a label to feel we belong.
It’s a boy, It’s a girl.
Equality is so simple, if you really want it to be. It is human thought that makes it complicated.
Photo: Jason Decartes Taylor
What Is In A Word: Part Twenty-Seven
Silence (speaks Volumes).
Imagine one day you decided it was time to get really silent. And so, you sit in silence and you become desperately, utterly and profoundly honest with yourself. To your surprise, you find yourself uttering the real truths, often ones that you would not (in the noise of the rest of your day) perhaps even fathom as being open to you. You find yourself breaking free. You let go of the dogma that has been ground into you, from your culture, your leaders, your politics, your religious ideas and thoughts. You see that in that moment of silence, you feel fear, but it is suddenly and quickly replaced by the happiness of real honesty. Not the honesty that you have been taught, not the ones you have read, but the ones that really resonate with our species, no matter what anyone (or anything) else may say.
We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery to the origins of that. (Where that source came from may still be clouded, but that too is something that we will discover in the silence). We are all part of creation, all kings, poets, musicians, leaders (in our own right). We all have the essence of our species inside us. Whether you want to admit it or not.
You step back for a moment when you think of some of our species as it frightens you a bit to think that they (whatever THEY are) may be part of you. But again, you see truth and understand that seeing them in you is the best way to see anything about them… or yourself… at all.
And all of this comes from the silence (of truth).
Often in this life, it seems those that speak the loudest, that demand the most attention, are the ones that have very little (or nothing) to say at all. They are the ones that are seeking the greatest, the most scared, most misunderstanding… and the ones that still have not found the truth in the silence of real understanding.
Most of the greatest discoveries of our lives have gone on in the silence of the mind. Not in the boisterous regions of the populace crowds, in the rallies and the shouting and the fights. These are the products (for and against) of the actions that came from the silence.
So why, more often than not are we as a species afraid of the silence and try as hard as we might to avoid it? Could it be that in silence we know we will think things we don’t want to, don’t understand or are not ready to really look at? What is it we are afraid of when the noise has ceased all around us? Is the silence we are afraid of the silence of… self? Are we afraid that perhaps if we have this silence we will see how little we actually know and how much we need to learn? Silence seems to equal (for many) … being alone. And being alone is something humans don’t do very well.
People will often say they need … quiet. Just some time to relax and to get away from it all. But then they may turn on some music, the television, surf the net. They grab a book and read, a magazine and the like. All of those things are things that we see as… being quiet. But they are not … silence… they are distractions from it.
Silence is the time when you are just alone with your thoughts. It is the time when you can confide in yourself about your hope, dreams and fears. Silence is a time when you can really open yourself up to thinking and seeing.
It is an activity we as a species don’t really take time for because like so many other things in our existence, we are not really sure how to go about doing that, and we are scared of what we may think or feel in the silence. We are scared it may bring up thoughts we don’t understand.
Human beings seem to have this knack for never confiding (not really) in those that they see as superior/better than themselves. They will (perhaps) hang out, they will laugh, have a drink or two, share some stories about life, but it is only on those rare occasions one whom you see as “better”, an intellectual superior (or superior in some other grandeur way) gets your real confidence. If we cannot do it with others, how can we do it with ourselves?
Our existence is littered with distractions; Things that keep us from having to see or deal with the silence too much. People will go out of their way to avoid it, or in their silence they do things to “deal” with it. They drink, take a substance or they say they will meditate… all in the hopes of “clearing their minds” This clearing too me is more an avoidance of the silence and an admission of being scared. Buddhists often talk of this clearing and while I do understand it, I often wonder what it is they are trying to avoid in their clearing. (Maybe their clearing is the way to true equality in silence, and I am just not at a place to see it yet).
Sometimes I think that people don’t want us to be silent, for if we were silent for too long we may change our thinking about some things, and that would certainly bring about changes in ideas and thoughts that scare some whom are not ready for their own silence, and not ready to admit or see things about our existence that they don’t really understand.
The belief that one’s own view of reality is the only reality is the most dangerous of all delusions. It becomes still more dangerous if it is coupled with the missionary-like zeal to enlighten the rest of the world, whether the rest of the world wishes to be enlightened or not. Now one could say that about what I write here today, and in many ways I could never argue against that because even if I say I am not, expressing my views of things logically shows the opposite. It is a strange predicament we live in as a species. Trying to balance the idea of self and respect for others and understanding that everything is not as we would want it to be.
Even if all possible scientific questions were to be answered, the problems of life have still not been touched at all simply because the ultimate paradox of our existence is that we are the subject AND the object of our quest. This is why I think it is so hard for us to have silence. Our quest for an understanding of the meaning of our existence is an attempt at the formalization of life. Be it science, religion, philosophy, whatever it is. But formalization is just another form of avoidance of the silence. Not a bad thing, but an avoidance all the same.
As with all things in life, order and chaos are not objective, they are determined by the observer. Humans spend so much “time” deluding themselves into believing that time is more than what it really is. Time is merely a dimension of the human mind, a necessary delusion of consciousness, a way to understand the “past” “present”, “future”… another avoidance of silence.
There is this concept we have come up with, it is called the pathogenic secret. Simply stated, it is the term used to describe that deep down memory, that “shameful”, “distressful” festering thought that you (all of us) keeps hidden deep inside. In a moment of true silence, those are the type of thoughts that may (most often will) surface, and those are the ones we fear the most.
It has been said you are only as sick as your deepest secrets, so the question may be, Are the secrets we all have keeping us from hearing the silence? Or is it all just about the control?
Control is what we all want in life, in all aspects of our being, but sometimes what we don’t understand (or are scared to see) is that we cannot really control a great deal of what happens. More it seems we need to accept our chaos, cope with it, learn from it and gently seek to moderate the ebb and flow of it in ways to maintain not only our safety and awareness, but that of all our fellow creatures.
Accepting those things that happen around you, maintaining safety, sanity and personal integrity, pausing to examine assumptions of how things “should be” and what we do/are able to do to make them that way and learning from all experiences in life may help us let go of this control, and be more comfortable with the silence (we fear).
In the words of Karl Jung “our hearts glow, our secret unrest gnaws at the root of our being. Dealing with this (unconscious) has become a question of life for us”
The questions continue… unabated… in the silence.
Human Intimacy and the Hedgehog Dilemma:
Why is it human’s desire a closeness to others, but also tend to push them away?
Could it be we are like the Hedgehog (or porcupine)… that is to say, we, like these animals seek to become close to one another to share (whatever the sharing may be, laughter, food, resources, love, and so forth), yet, when we get too close, we often at times cannot avoid hurting one another (like a hedgehog or porcupine would do if they attempted to close an intimate proximity to one another), and so, like these animals, while desiring the intimacy (in all forms, not just a sexual one) of those from our species, despite goodwill, human intimacy cannot occur without some type of mutual harm.
So instead of really trying to understand this behaviour in our species, we often instead develop cautious behaviours that lead to weak relationships, misrepresentation and misunderstandings. We forget to see the person for the quills that are protecting the exterior.
Like the hedgehog moderation may be the key (both out of self interest and consideration of and for others) where human interaction is concerned.
Then again, some just love to dive in, quills and all, as they see that the hurt that may come is worth it in the big picture and the quills of our specie are something we all need to look at more if we ever want to be more than just those two hedgehogs in a tree…. Close (and often yearning), but never able to really reach out and touch each other in a real way.
Basic human contact - the meeting of eyes, the exchanging of words - is to the psyche what oxygen is to the brain. If you’re feeling abandoned by the world, interact with anyone you can.
Humans spend (what seems far too much time) living an oxymoronic existence. Take for example our interaction.
When we are in a place of public domain, surrounded by the throngs that pass by us each day, each of us (be you a women or a man… children are less apt to do so.. until the conditioning of adulthood takes over and out of this conditioning…. or the sheer need to do so as not be labeled an “outcast” of society takes over) we attempt to isolate ourselves in this bubble of existence and desperately strain to not make eye contact with others, speaking to others if only need be. We find it rude if someone’s gaze falls on us longer than a few seconds (unless of course you find the one gazing your way attractive to you, and then a sexual urge may take over, or a feeling of utter embarrassment), and one whom may break the silence barrier and actually speak to you is ignored, deemed strange, or thought to not understand the social etiquette of our species.
Meanwhile, in the sanctity of our own domains, behind the walls that protect our privacy, we practice a voyeuristic existence in so many ways. “Reality” television (peeking into the so-called real lives of the mundane), celebrity gossip, social networking, chat rooms, video services to peek on in the lives of the (uploaded) others. The constant barrage of following, tweeting, pinning, stumbling, digging…(the words of our voyeurism has expanded greatly in this new age of technology)… our ability, (some may say) our new founded need to invade the space of others (and to be invaded… to be known in the world on the online culture), seems to know no bounds. But when it comes to the offline world.. you know, the one that is still the REAL (but eroding fast) space of our species, things are very different. Indeed in the world of the collective, things are not so much a collective, but more-so the Darwan-istic free for all many fear.
Recently, in a ritual I repeat (almost daily), I boarded my local bus to begin the long haul to work, and not unlike any other morning, the bus was packed beyond the ability of the dozens crammed into its steel interior the space to move more than a centimeter in any direction. Trapped (as it were) in such close proximity to one other, one would think that some kind of interaction would occur, even out of necessity; a simple excuse me, sorry for stepping on your toes, pushing against you (and the like), even the faintest acknowledgement of ones fellow participation in this daily routine (farce some may say), of movement to and from a place to make money (ironically for many, a daily ritual done to escape such daily tyranny as the very bus we were on) seemed only natural for such a large group of people sharing in such a basic common endeavor. But alas, like every morning, not a word was spoken as people edged their way through the throng, forging their way on and off the bus, attempting to find a sanctuary of space within, to avoid the contact with/of another in the same space.
As the commute continued and the bus continued to fill, it became harder and harder to avid eye contact with anyone. As I perused the heard of our species, packed into this bus like sardines, I began to notice how some (nay most) people tried everything in their power to avoid eye contact with others, and how concentrated some could be when it came to staring at the same spot (of out the site range of others) for (what seemed) an eternity. As we pulled up to a particularly busy stop and the front bus door opened, the breath of fresh air from the outside was replaced with the crushing blow of new cattle to the heard of the bus. Endless seemed the stream of people that tried in earnest to board, pushing their way on in a vain attempt to find a space aboard, all with the same look of one with the thought that this would be the last bus to ever pass by this stop.
As time passed (in what seemed like an eternity), the din of music, YouTube “look at me now” streams, video games and other such distractions seeping from the earphones of the many around me was interrupted by the driver’s plea asking for everyone aboard to move to the back of the bus to make room for those trying to get on.
Obediently (and without ever catching the gaze of another), people shuffled into the hallows of the bus as best they could. Seconds passed and again the plea was delivered from the driver. Again everyone heaved millimeters back, and as we did I began to wonder just how many people this bus could take on before it could take no more. For a third time came the same announcement as the feeling of frustration could be felt raising throughout the claustrophobic space.
As (what seemed) minutes went by, the driver came on the loud speaker several more time, each announcement becoming more pleading and more (what seemed) angry in tone than the one before. The driver’s pleas became so comical that the people around me started to laugh and make sarcastic comments about the entire situation.The entire bus it seemed was becoming united in anguish and amusement towards the situation that was at hand.
Then suddenly, and without warning, the bus lurched forward with a jump, sending people crushing into each other with abandonment…and we were off.
A cheer erupted from what sounded to be every orpheus of the bus, and surprisingly, for the rest of the duration of the route the bus had to go before reaching the metro station, people interacted with each other, laughing and commenting each time the bus stopped and even more people tried to edge their way on, For a brief moment in time, everyone on that bus acknowledged the true presence of those around them and understood the state we were all in.
As silly as it sounds, that feeling of community was nothing short of fantastic. People of varied backgrounds, cultural upbringings, ages, beliefs and levels of conscious state (it was still very early in the morning), hummed at the same frequency. The common enemy (the incredibly close quarters that we all found ourselves) completely broke the usual self-inflicted isolation of each person riding the bus each morning, and the feeling it awoke in me was nothing short of enlightening and empowering. It was almost like we had worked together to achieve something great, even though it was just getting an almost meaningless task of shifting our bodies in the necessity to get a simple bus moving again and get us to the metro station so we could disembark and get on with our daily routines.
While to many, this story may seem frivolous and without much meaning, it was, fundamentally and in its essence, so much more than just the simple act of moving back. It was, a (all-be-it brief) moment of understanding from everyone on that bus of the connection we shared (be it trivial as it was) and how we all needed to work together, interact, get along… and truly recognize the presence of each other in the process.
Why can’t all social interactions be more like that?
Let’s pretend for a moment you are not of this world. You are a traveller sent out to explore the cosmos and you come across our small, insignificant little planet by happenstance as you are traversing the galaxies. Upon closer inspection you find a species on this planet that has a higher function in many ways than the others you encountered here, and their quirks and ways of thinking stem your curiosity, so you decide to stay awhile and study this creature that calls itself human.
… And so, you begin to look at our species under a microscope and observe our behaviours, action, reactions and outcomes to the thousands of situations we find ourselves in on a daily basis, and you come to the conclusion that our species is and was meant to be a social animal.
We thrive at building connections between ourselves and others. It begins with the connection of a child to their parents, then grows with interactions at school. Later, our species drives itself (although less and less) to find that “perfect one”, to be married, to have a life partner, to create a family of ones own. WE create connections through our work experiences, through our likes (and our dislikes), through our tastes in music, food, books…even specific food products (like bacon) bring people together in a form of “community” sharing like minded thoughts (ideas, pictures, words, laughter, cooperation, friendship), and so on.
You observe, in your study of our species that like air, food, and water, interaction seems to be something that humans need to survive, or at the very least to thrive… It is a necessary component in the construction of everything we now know.
Communities, cities, nations, were not built by one person but by many working together, forging trust and familiarity. Commerce, Politics, Science, The Arts… the list of communally fashioned ideas, thoughts, creations and evolutionary progressions are endless.
So as a traveller, you marvel at how well we can work together as a social creature, and you begin to think what an advanced (thinking) entity we must be.
But as your studies continue, you begin to see the darker side to this human creature. The oxymoronic nature of our species begins to shine through. As much as we are a communal species and as much as we need each other for our very survival, a gnawing question begins to grow in your thoughts and, try as you might, you don’t seem to have (or be able to find), an answer for this ironic nature.
Why is it that humans, whom need each other in so many ways, continually strive to remain strangers to one another?
Let’s take an example, the simplest of ones. In your studies you noticed the human species in an elevator. As they get on the elevator a strange thing happens to this communal species. They begin to recoil, to retract back into themselves, staring at the walls, their shoes, the ceiling, or the floor numbers all too slowly creeping by. They find ways to avoid eye contact for fear of …..? (now that is the question).
They stand motionless and statue-esk, almost willing the elevator to get them to their designated floor in the quickest time fathomable, all in the hopes they can escape the confines of the communal hell box they have found themselves in. Upon exiting the elevator, you can sense a weight has been lifted from their thoughts… one of … relief to not have to be sharing such a close space with others of their own species.
And so from that simple observation, your interest is peeked and you begin to look for other oxymoronic traits in our communal nature, and soon you discover that the lives of this species you once held in such high regard and saw as such a clear minded and focused/inclusion-ist species is riddled with the exact opposite in behaviour and thought. From the very smallest interactions (like the elevator), on through to the biggest of issues, (like avoidance of others due to difference in socially acceptable behaviours, politics, religious ideas and even avoidance due to a persons skin colour, race, cultural background, sexual identity or gender).
All the things you saw and perceived as a driving force that brought this species called human together in a communal way are also, subsequently, the ones that drive them apart.
And so you begin to wonder… how is it this species gets anything done as a collective, if they are always passively-agressivly trying to avoid each other?
Are the communal interactions that first attracted you to the human species only done so for personal gains of each being, and if so does that actually mean that communal interaction of humans is done less out of a desire/want and need for the feeling of the act and the greater good of the all, and more for the self preservation/protection and evolution of the individual (or selective group that shares the like-minded objectives)?
Can humans really be all that self ego-centric?
Sadness and doubt sets in and you begin to wonder why it is many of the human species actually, (in many ways) fear social interaction and abhor the idea of getting to know someone that isn’t familiar to them. Take the elevator for example. What is it in humans that makes them not want to just smile or say hello to people on the elevator as they enter? Are they really that conditioned to be isolated, or are they scared of someone thinking they are “strange”, “weird”, “a pervert” or one of the hundred, thousand, one hundred thousand other words humans have created to describe someone whom is not like them?
And what of those on the opposite end of the spectrum. The ones that try as they may to bring the most enjoyment and the most meaning to our lives? Why is it they are often seen as the “outcast”? The “liberal”, the ” free thinker”? (and sometimes even the conservative). The one that we all love to think about and love to see (in ideology), but would probably not want to spend much of our time with.
Why (you begin to wonder) does the human species spend so much of its time seeing the differences in itself?
It has been said ” A man with all of the power and riches in the world is nothing without other people to share it with”, so why is it we try so hard so often to be alone and to strive for success over everyone else? Why is it we can only see what we want to see and what all things are like for us…and only us?
Nobody (no matter whom them my be… myself included), wants complete isolation, so why do we insist maintaining it on a day to day basis?
Uniqueness is an inherently human trait; one that we pride ourselves in having but (more often than not) segregate and bastardize others for exhibiting.
The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can’t be any large-scale revolution until there’s a personal revolution, on an individual level. It’s got to happen inside first.
Because some of us can break free of the cages that bind (or choose to do so)….. and some of us can’t
To Learn Something New (Why Not Take the Path You Took Yesterday)
New:
1. Of recent origin, production, purchase, etc.; having but lately come or been brought into being: a new book.
2. Of a kind now existing or appearing for the first time; novel: a new concept of the universe.
3. Having but lately or but now come into knowledge: a new chemical element.
4. Unfamiliar or strange (often followed by to): ideas new to us; to visit new lands.
5. Having but lately come to a place, position, status, etc.: a reception for our new head of state.
What if one has come to an “understanding” that nothing we have ever seen, know (and so forth) actually exists at all? Nothing can ever be added (for how can one add to what does not actually exist)? If one were to forward this as a viable idea of existence, how would you react to such a thought?
What about this idea we have of the end? Is this not also the/a beginning? Every action in life (and it could be said even in our death) is preceded by another, so if one looked at existence in such a way, how could anyone actually ever see “an end” or “a beginning” to/of anything?
In terms of understanding our existence, we, the human species have come up with this notion of having a beginning. We call it the time of the first of all things (usually referred to as the Big Bang). We also have very well defined ends in all ways; to a job, to a song, to a meal…. to our lives… but this end we speak of (the final)…I often sit and wonder…
When does it ever REALLY come? (Even in death you begin … your time of whatever it is you believe, be it another plane, a rebirth or nothingness… all these ideas are still the beginning of something)
What if endings (as we have defined them) are not ending at all, not the beginning of something else but only just…connection?
Let’s say the answer is yes. There is no beginning or end. If it is yes, what would that do too many of our ideas/theories and thoughts about ends we have all the time? Probably not much of anything really, as we use this idea of time to gauge our own understanding. If we disengaged from the use of time it would hamper greatly (in essence disallow) us to see, feel or express much of our understanding.
Questions beget questions, thoughts beget thoughts, ideas are a never ending spool, unwound through our science, our religions (thought this one is most often never changing), our technology, our philosophies and so on. They are our insight, our continuing quests (these studies and explorations), and our vessels to (self and total) understanding. They are the things that make us think of ….”the new”
But how much is “new” in history? To look at such an idea, perhaps one needs to break down, to categorize things to better define this idea. Technology, from the wheel to the steam engine to nuclear fusion, the computer, the internet, micro biotics and beyond, is an area in our evolution (as well as others, like ideas of the universe, and understanding our own inner workings) that have vastly expanded in our scope of such understandings. But if one were to look closer and really think about all our new discoveries, are any of them actually… new?
Humans imply newness to come from something not of before, but indeed all things in order to be “discovered” must come from something else. Even if one were to look closely and really think about the definitions of new themselves one could see that there is that idea of the “new” having been there already. So in essence they are (in some way be it in physical form or abstract idea) always there, and so, logically are not actually really… new.
Let’s take a look at it in another way. Something that is very basic and simple. As a child I would sit and marvel at the Saturday matinees at the local cinema. My pockets laden with the freshly liberated funds from my mother’s purse (I never professed to being the best child), I would sit for hours in the dark, marveling at all I saw before me on the screen. Time travel, space travel, computers that talked to us, assisting us in everyway, weapons of untold capabilities (and destruction), flying cars, fuels beyond the oils that we use today… the list went on and on. Even then, even before the computers, we saw them in movies. We powered things with an energy other than oil (and still do in movies to this day), so many things that have come to pass (not only in movies but in books, scientific theory and so on). These all have come from the past…not the new.
They have all come from… our imagination.
In the scope of our (self) understanding, I often find the idea of imagination is lost, or dismissed, and I am never really sure why that is, as I think that imagination is something that plays a significant role in our understanding. It seems to me that imagination is the motion that is used as we move along the road to (our perceived) understanding. All that has come to be originated in the imagination (in some way) so often I ask myself…
Why do we underestimate the implementation of the imagination and the practical implications of such an action?
Where do these “imaginary” thoughts come from? What triggers, releases and allows them to foster and grow within us?
Human beings (for better or worse) are one of the best (I tend to think that cockroaches are better at it… but I digress) at adapting to and changing their surrounds for personal needs and use, and so if this is the case, how is this furthering our understanding or creating new? Are we not just adapting (or using tools like the aforementioned technology that have been got from a technology before it and a technology before it…and so on) to further what we already know? Why do we take such great pains and/or pride in proclaiming something to be … new?
Does this proclamation of new further our understanding of whom and what we are? Perhaps that is the key to this whole merry-go-round we ride everyday. Our desire to find the key to it all, and our connection (in thought) to this ideas that more understanding, (that is), more of this new, implies wiser, stronger, more advanced and greater than that that was before..
It would be nice if we knew where we came from, where we are going, what it all means and why. But we don’t know these things, and no matter how much we say we believe in (be it religion, science, aliens, or nothing) something it is hard to image anyone that at one time or another does not question what we (the human species) are doing here, what is our purpose and if there is any higher thing (no matter what that thing may be… it does not necessarily have to allude to a god) that created us.
It is this fundamental thought that I think drives this idea of what we deem new.
Call yourself an atheist or an agnostic if you want. (atheists seem to talk about the describing of something with no real meaning.. which seems more agnostic in its definition to me, but then agnostic is a belief in something as well so I won’t really say either is flawed in their thoughts, for I am not a religious person, but I am not atheist of agnostic either). The point is, anyone whom ever says they have never questioned themselves and their existence… is lying, or in denial of their self. Everyone at one time or another falls into the thought of finding out; of attempting to discover the new.
I am speaking a great deal in generalities about a great many things, so you will excuse me (and give me leeway) if I do so. I am speaking in this way as this is also how I see our species looks at many of the ways in which we search to understand ourselves, and indeed what we see as this new.
We are at a point in our evolution where the amount of “new” that is … advances in things such as disease control/detection and cures, uncovering more about our minds, and understanding more about the universe and it origins will increase at a rate never seen before. These are all directly related to the increases in technology we have acquired (and continue to do), and so we will begin to have more and more trouble assimilating all of this “new” understanding into what it is we already have learned and understood about ourselves.
Perhaps this will lead to (and indeed it has if we look at the world), a backlash of sorts, a lashing out by the old traditions, thoughts and ways (as they struggle to find where they fit in this world of the “new” we are creating).
Perhaps for those whom cannot see through this idea of new, or are scared of it, don’t understand it, or outright reject it, perhaps understanding it is not new at all… just a continuation and a product of what has come from before it, may help one to see that understanding is never easy, even for the most open minded, wanting and forward thinking of our species. No matter what one understands, or think one understands, questions will always remain, and problems of understanding another’s position will always permeate through our species and bring about opposition, anger, even the desire to lash out, hurt and kill.
Humans seem to become neurotic (in a way) when they content themselves with inadequate or (what they see as) wrong answers in life. They feel (where it is a conscious thought or not) that their lives are too confided, to narrow and lack sufficient meaning. And so they search for the new….Developing an idea of a more spacious personality or way to look at things may help, but it seems with our advancements comes more and more this feeling of selflessness and a general emptiness of life (directly related to science and technology helping us to more and more gain the understanding that we are here through the ideas of science more than the ideas of other thoughts… particularly those of a religious nature)
Perhaps humans need to feel a purpose beyond that of just being here in order to really feel they are… alive. Perhaps that is why we always strive for this new, because if we did not there would not (for many) really be much of a point. Humans need attachments to something (be in religion, a philosophy, a way of being and the like) to feel an ease and peace of mind (in themselves and the world around them), and with the increasing pace of our change, and indeed our way of life, all of this comes into question more than ever before.
Humans are very good at tricking themselves into thinking (whatever it is they) want to think. We do it all the time in life; we call it things like denial, avoidance, immaturity, lack of knowledge and so on. But we also call it things like happiness, a need, a yearning and…. Destiny.
An idea is something, such as a thought or conception, which potentially or actually exists in the mind as a product of mental activity. New is one of those ideas that we seem to forget is a product of something that comes from something that is already there.
Every one of us, unconsciously, works out a personal philosophy of life, by which we are guided, inspired, and corrected, as time goes on. It is this philosophy by which we measure out our days, and by which we advertise to all about us person, that we are… .
It takes but a moment (in most) of time to “sense” the life philosophy of anyone. It is defined in our conversations, in the look of our eyes, and in the general presence of each one of us. It has no hiding place. It’s like the aroma of the flower — unseen to the naked eye, but known (the smell perhaps not the name of the flower itself) almost instantly. It is the possession of the successful, and the happy. And it can be greatly embellished by the absorption of ideas and experiences of the useful of this earth…
…Whether they are perceived as new or not.
Put on Your Thinking Caps…..It’s Time to Make up Your Own Mind
What is Consciousness?
-What are the levels of Consciousness? Seven, four, three?
-Does psychology of consciousness differ in its ideas and approach to the subject?
-How does awareness connect to this idea of consciousness (if indeed at all?)
-Is a certain level of complexity needed for such a thing to even occur in the first place?
-Will computers have the ability in the future to reach a conscious state?
Can consciousness be scientifically reduced to chemical and mechanical processes? If so, where do morality, love, unhappiness, and joy fit?
-Is there such a thing at all?
Consciousness is notoriously difficult to explain. On one hand, there are facts about conscious experience - the way a trumpet sound, the way wasabi tastes - which we know subjectively, from the inside. On the other hand, such facts are not readily accommodated in the objective world described by science. How, after all, could the readiness of trumpets or the hot/spicy taste of the wasabi be predicted in advance? How can we know that one will react in a “morally” right way in the millions of different situations we find ourselves in everyday, or exhibit any type of emotion towards something/anything at all?
Scientist, Physics, Sociologist, Psychologist and thinkers the world over have gone to great lengths to decipher this puzzle of our existence, and so far it seems they have come up with ideas like the following:
Substance Dualism: A field that exists in its own parallel “realm” of existence outside reality (so it can’t be seen)
Identity Theory: Simply stated, this theory forwards that mental states are physical events that we can see in brain scans… in essence we can measure and track our consciousness.
Functionalism: This is the idea that consciousness and all its states (defined as things like belief, desire, pain, love, hunger etc) are simply…. functions the brain performs..
Emergent Dualism: Think of this idea of consciousness as a … sensation…of sorts that “grows” out of complicated brain states.
Cognitivism: This idea of consciousness would say that it is so (your conscious state), because the sensation of your most significant thoughts are being highlighted.
Higher Order Theory: The nuts and bolts of this one would say that consciousness is just higher order thoughts. Thoughts about other thoughts
Behaviourism: Literally this is…. the way we behave. When we behave (do) things in a certain way… we appear conscious.
Property Dualism: This theory would have it be that consciousness is a physical property of matter (like electromagnetism), but just not one that we know about.
Pan Psychism: In this school of consciousness all matter has a psychic part. Consciousness is just the psychic part of our brain.
Epiphenomenalism: Besides being hard to pronounce, this idea of our consciousness states that it is actually an accidental side-effect of the complex physical processes in the brain.
Buddhism: Buddhists have their own idea of the conscious state of our being. They believe that consciousness is a continuous stream of over-recurring phenomena, and that they are “pinched” like eddies (think wind, currents, a breeze) into isolated minds within our being.
Quantum Consciousness: Using ideas of quantum entanglement and superposition….(!!!), in other words? It basically states that our classical ideas of physics cannot explain it, but these aforementioned ideas (among other things) can.
Confused yet? Don’t know what to think?
Relax… your not alone.
One of the best (or subsequently most frustrating and annoying) things about the state of being a human is that we do (for whatever the reasons may be)…think.
Not just in the sense of…
Me hungry…eat.
Me tired… sleep.
Me cold…. Want warm (although in actuality we do that thousands of times a day in a very rudimentary way). More than just in a reactionary way to things, we actually really … THINK
We ponder the beginnings of our existence, all that has come to pass, the ending of it and beyond.
And therein (at least in my thoughts about this consciousness thing) lies part of the problem (and also all of the solution)
For you see our thoughts (our conscious state) take us to great heights of discoveries and propels our technologies forward. It creates the books we read, the movies we watch, the memories we share and cherish. It gives us a greater appreciation of food, of the beauty around us…of sex. Our consciousness (whatever we perceive it to be) gives us everything that we are….
It also brings about war, hatred, oppression and an obsession with things that seem to deter our species from really reaching its full potential. Our consciousness acts as a mask. While giving us purpose and meaning, it is also something we use to hide the fact we don’t really know much about much at all. It harbours our scared, our insecure and our fearful. Our consciousness lets us down in the sense that it is something we really often don’t give much thought to and often forget we ALL have (and exhibit). Subsequently because of that we end up on a destructive path, not only of ourselves but of others as well.
More often than not we forget our conscious state and we go back to just the rudimentary state…that being…. thinking
So again I ask you… what is consciousness?
Not the easiest of things to answer. Like many of the great riddles of our existence, there can be (depending on your own ideas of such things) a long or short answer… or perhaps no answer at all. As the definitions I have laid out before here showcase, even all the thinkers, scientists, philosophers and the like in the world can’t agree.
So how can we?
Perhaps instead of worrying so much about where this consciousness came from and why we have it in the first place, we could see where it is (and is not) taking us and how our misunderstanding (or lack of acknowledging its existence) hurts us.
Understanding we have such a thing (even at a rudimentary level) would help us when we look at things like pain/hurt/deceit and other fracturing emotions. After all consciousness is what (apparently) makes us aware these things (and so much more)… so what if were to understood that the pain is in all of us, that feeling of hurt, deceit, not being accepted, is something that is a conscious thought/idea within EVERY living person (no matter what you may think of them or what they may have done).. How would this greater understanding of the TOTAL consciousness change us as a species?
Or maybe it REALLY boils down to this:
Consciousness - pure, ever-present, expansive awareness - is not a thing, not an object, not an experience, not a phenomenon capable of being observed. Rather, it is the infinite context in which all things, all phenomena, or all experiences arise, stay a bit, and pass away.
In truth, there is only one consciousness, one awareness, and it is the same in all beings, in all places and times. It is the infinite clearing, the vast emptiness, the unmoving space within which all people, places, and things come and go. But the emptiness itself never comes or goes, or even changes or moves at all. It is beyond time, beyond change, beyond spatio-temporal phenomena altogether, and it is what we truly are.
Aware of time, you are timeless.
Aware of space, you are spaceless.
Aware of forms, you are formless.
And when you discover the truth of this the immediately, undeniably verifiable fact of this, (and that is probably something few… if any of us… will ever be able to do), you will know what this world really is, and you will know exactly what you are doing here.
But for the rest of us, those ( I would say all) of us who are still trying to find our way, remembering the collective consciousness (of us all), not just the ones that tell you about yours…. Is probably the healthiest place (for us all) to begin.
At a Loss for words….
A Dose of Sanity: Part Eleven
Humans selfish ideas of their “rights”
There are no natural rights, because in Nature’s state rights don’t exist, only power does. Rights is a human concept afforded by (a) civilized way of living. And the first thing to be given up to become civilised is “freedom to act as one pleases”. Therefore, individual freedom can not be a right. It’s a delusion which has to be enjoyed within certain boundaries.
“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”
The Paradox of Human Thought….The building blocks of existence.
Good intention photos that make me think…. Well wait a minute (and in this case it makes me think…. Holy Crap….YIKES!!)
Part Eleven:
Back in the early parts of the 1900’s this was seen as “entertainment”, accepted and the norm. It is not just the picture that gives me pause for thought, but the song that this picture is the advert for. Here we have, what was billed at the time as “the most successful hit song of 1901”.
How times have changed… or have they? With our climate of political correctness and ability to “know the right language”, one can still get away with such ideas… just not in such a blantenly overt manner of hatred. Like him or not, the manner in which people interact with the President of the United States if they are opposed to him is more disrespectful (in terms of the way people speak to/about and with him) than from what I have seen or heard of any president of that country in my lifetime.. and I am sure longer. Generalizations of certain groups of people are strong in many cultures today.
Today we subvertly do it through such things as “profiling” of certain cultural backgrounds. Plastic surgery (to make eyes wider, change noses to look more like others etc) marks another way that internalized ideas of these things rear their ugly head. Whitening products (especially in Eastern countries) for ones skin and other such advertising notions still navigate society as a whole.
We are a long way from true equality… but at the same time (I would like to think and hope) we are a long way from where we were in the time of this song….
For your interest (of the thinking of many at that time… and I am sure still this time as well for some) the lyrics to this song….
They are as follows: (seriously makes me stop to think about ideas of human thinking and what fear one has inside oneself that would drive them to think in this manner)
Although it’s not my color,
I’m feeling mighty blue;
I’ve got a lot of trouble,
I’ll tell it all to you:
I’m cert’nly clean disgusted
With life, and that’s a fact
Because my hair is wooly
And because my color’s black.
My gal, she took a notion
Against the colored race.
She said if I would win her
I’d have to change my face;
She said if she should wed me,
That she’d regret it soon,
And now I’m shook, yes, good and hard,
Because I am a coon.
CHORUS:
Coon! Coon! Coon!
I wish my color would fade.
Coon! Coon! Coon!
I’d like a different shade.
Coon! Coon! Coon!
Morning, night and noon.
I wish I was a white man
‘Stead of a Coon! Coon! Coon!
I had my face enameled,
I had my hair made straight.
I dressed up like a white man,
And cert’nly did look great.
Then started out to see her,
Just shortly after dark,
But on the way to meet my babe
I had to cross a park;
Just as I was a-thinking
I had things fixed up right,
I passed a tree where two doves
Sat making love at night;
They stopped and looked me over,
I saw my finish soon.
When both those birds said good and loud,
“Coo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oon.”
Breakfast of Champions?
As part of his series on albatros chicks taken in the isolated Pacific Ocean Islands of Midway, Chris Jordan shows us that on a diet of human trash, tens of thousands of these chicks die on Midway every year from starvation, toxicity and choking.
When one finds bottle caps, plastic bags, toothbrushes and syringes in the stomachs of baby birds on one of the most remote islands on Earth, does it not begin to raise serious questions about the harm we (the human species) are doing to this Earth?
