Our world is not the objective world, but the subjective world; we have no direct knowledge, only perceived knowledge. We have subjective knowledge in two forms, conscious and unconscious. Think of an alarm clock that wakes us from an unconscious state to a conscious one; we hear the alarm before we are conscious enough to know that we hear it. Moreover, we do not have infinite attention; we must focus our limited conscious attention for it to have any utility. This is likely a limitation caused by what our brain is physically capable of, and focusing our attention has the practical advantage of allowing us to discern that which we think matters from that which we think does not although this is commonly not a conscious choice.
Unfortunately, this also has the effect of limiting our world; we discern because we eliminate. If the world is conceived of as an infinite flowing river, then we choose what to see, hear, smell and touch. That choice eliminates those things we don’t care about, or should care about but don’t, from those things or the thing we do care about; in short, we go through life ignoring most of it as I’ve noted in previous blogs. Our motive for discernment is a question that we need answered for some reason. The things we don’t perceive are the things we think unimportant or already known and hence don’t question. I answer the door and focus on who knocked, not the doorjamb because I already know it and in this context it is unimportant. Thus, our world is the world we are aware of, but we are aware of it because we have asked a question, even if only subconsciously: Who is it? What is it? Where am I? In a real sense, our reality comes into being because we ask it to.
Therefore, it is critical that we ask good questions because asking the wrong questions can lead to a poorer reality. The only way to ask good questions, and thereby lead a good life, is to approach the world with love, which is to say an open heart and mind. This is not to say that the reality we end up with will be wonderful necessarily, but it will be most certainly be awesome. This then becomes the starting place for more questions, which will hopefully lead to good answers about living a good life.
Blog No. 63: Our reality comes into being because we ask it to
Our world is not the objective world, but the subjective world; we have no direct knowledge, only perceived knowledge. We have subjective knowledge in two forms, conscious and unconscious. Think of an alarm clock that wakes us from an unconscious state to a conscious one; we hear the alarm before we are conscious enough to know that we hear it. Moreover, we do not have infinite attention; we must focus our limited conscious attention for it to have any utility. This is likely a limitation caused by what our brain is physically capable of, and focusing our attention has the practical advantage of allowing us to discern that which we think matters from that which we think does not although this is commonly not a conscious choice.
Unfortunately, this also has the effect of limiting our world; we discern because we eliminate. If the world is conceived of as an infinite flowing river, then we choose what to see, hear, smell and touch. That choice eliminates those things we don’t care about, or should care about but don’t, from those things or the thing we do care about; in short, we go through life ignoring most of it as I’ve noted in previous blogs. Our motive for discernment is a question that we need answered for some reason. The things we don’t perceive are the things we think unimportant or already known and hence don’t question. I answer the door and focus on who knocked, not the doorjamb because I already know it and in this context it is unimportant. Thus, our world is the world we are aware of, but we are aware of it because we have asked a question, even if only subconsciously: Who is it? What is it? Where am I? In a real sense, our reality comes into being because we ask it to.
Therefore, it is critical that we ask good questions because asking the wrong questions can lead to a poorer reality. The only way to ask good questions, and thereby lead a good life, is to approach the world with love, which is to say an open heart and mind. This is not to say that the reality we end up with will be wonderful necessarily, but it will be most certainly be awesome. This then becomes the starting place for more questions, which will hopefully lead to good answers about living a good life.