Reality
What is Reality, really? We don’t know.
Noumena and Phenomena
Phenomena is the reality we see, Noumena is the reality that is. I am one of those that believes there is a reality out there. But it is difficult to know.
What was said, what was meant
Words don’t have meaning: words are pointers. Meaning is in the pointed to. Words point to processes, the always changing Reality. To convey meaning, you point to it, perhaps with words.
If a person hasn’t experienced something, you can’t explain it to him with words. Words can only be pointers to something they already know. They must have the experience.
There are two domains:
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Noumena: Reality, Actual, Verb
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Phenomena: View, Conceptual, Noun
We relate to nomena via phenomena.
Zeno, the confusing Greek, said an arrow cannot move: “It cannot move to where it is not, because no time elapses for it to move there; it cannot move to where it is, because it is already there.”
What he is doing is confusing Noumena with Phenomena. The arrow is constantly moving, it is a verb. It is never “there”. It is us saying that is “there”. That “there” is a snapshot of reality, a concept in our mind.
We can only go from reality to our view, we cannot always go from our view to reality. We can use logic, we can make deductions, we can make inductions. And when we reach a new view, we need to test reality to see if it is valid. Reality is a verb, our view is a noun, our view is frozen, reality is not.
Concepts aren’t a problem. Not being able to see beyond a concept is a problem. The concept helps you see. If you are looking straight ahead of you, you see all kinds of stuff. If you give it a label you focus on it and see what it’s characteristics are.
And the Ego, the self, there is pure awareness in the self. Pure awareness is part of the self, part of the process. And just like everything else that is a process it comes into being, plays around a little, then goes away. It’s just a process.
Let’s go back a bit. Awakening to what has always been there? No. It is a process of awakening. When did it start? Did the process get arrested? I don’t know. But I have these things that I have collected. I can put into words all the stuff: the coffee table with the one, two, three books. “I am now and never was not, insanity now and heaven it hot”. It is, it is full of energy. It’s not perfect. It is good enough, and good enough is perfection in the moment.
Perfection in the moment. There is something about saying it is that makes it true. And the problem isn’t in saying it and making it true, the problem is becoming locked. Setting a goal. I say something about setting a goal, and I make it true.
That’s the way we see: we see in metaphors [embodied simulation]. If there existed a spherical being living in space with eyes all over its surface. How can it know up/down, left/right?
Communication. What is it? You have to be careful in your words. You need to have an agreement on what the words mean. Communication is just passing what you already know to someone who has already experienced it. It points to an experience that they have already had. No matter how hard I try, if you haven’t experienced “red” there is no way I can explain what “red” is. But if you know “red” and I point to it, then you say, “Oh yes, that is red” and we agree on the word “red”.
The Buddha became aware: that was his message. His message was “I am awake”. That’s who he was. And at that time, people were waking up. And because he recognized this, because there was little dust in some people’s eyes, he could point to it. And they would wake up [know they were awake]. Ah! another piece of the puzzle drops: I am awake, an awakening. But you see, we are trying to do what we already are. It isn’t a matter of awakening, because we already are awakened. It is a matter of looking in a new direction [of doing it a different way]. It is a matter of reframing.
The Ego is nothing more that more than all of those patterns. Is that true?
The ultimate truth: we don’t know. Evil is: I am right, you are dead.
Perfection in the moment. The paintings of the floating trail, the floating house. I still have to find the word, it isn’t awakened, because we are already awakened. It isn’t connection because we are already connected. “Direct connection”? Is there another word for connection at the boundary? Awakening, seeking. The universe is fundamentally dual: you are being, and you are becoming. You are open. Is it that simple? Is the word “seeking”: seeking is becoming. Is it necessary? It could be that way, we don’t know. Is the divine setting it up that way? We don’t know. It is fun to say so, but we don’t know: all we can know is what is in front of us.
Nouns and Verbs
I recently read a philosophy book on time. In it he asked why time appeared to be so asymmetric when the laws of physics are so symmetrical. What? This is such a common misconception: the laws of physics reflect reality, however reality does not reflect the laws of physics. The equations are abstractions and don’t capture reality completely. Specifically here, mathematical equations are symmetrical – time isn’t in them. To include time we would need to define an operator that forced the equations to match reality.
Metaphor
Studies show that everything we think is a metaphor. With metaphor the form is the same, the content is different. With duality, the content is the same, the form is different.
Metaphor is two objects with the same view, duality is two views of the same object.
Myth is content, Metaphor is form. Metaphor is what we see, metaphor is what we are: the embodied self.
Be careful of metaphors.
It isn’t survival on the strongest, it is survival of those that fit the environment the best.
It isn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back, it is all the straws together.
A metaphor: a superheterodyne receiver (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superheterodyne_receiver), bandwidth, and filter. The transformation that occurs in the IF and roll-off so that things outside the filter bandwidth can still get through if they are strong enough.
Superheterodyne Mind
Evolved from crystal radio.
Resonance
Amplifiers, oscillators, mixers, and more (filters, feedback, resonance)
The “straw that breaks the camel’s back” isn’t really known. If two straws are removed, the last straw can be added. So it would be helpful to understand existing conditions when thinking about “cause” and “effect”. When we examine existing conditions we get some idea of the changeability of each condition. We can either change or not change a condition. Of the conditions we can change we can either control or not control the change. Of those changes that we can control we can either know or not know the effect of the change.