PERSPECTIVE is largely a matter of everyday conditioning

by Terry 37 Replies latest jw friends

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  trevor

  Caedes

  Our brain is our evolutionary advantage, it is why we are the dominant species on this planet.

  Our brains may appear to be an evolutionary advantage until we stand back and contemplate the millions of years that passed before humans became the dominant species. In the blink of an eye we have started destroying this beautiful planet that we live on. From a realistic perspective we are, at present, a destructive cancer on the planet.

  Our mistake is to view ourselves as just thinking machines. I believe that we are far more that thinking machines and a part of nature. Because we think with words we assume we are thinking in a rational way.

  We are a part of nature and come from the earth. Unless we start to treat this planet with the same care that we treat our bodies we will destroy ourselves. Then again we are not as rational as we think because many people are abusing their bodies as well as the planet.

  Nature rules us. We have made the mistake if thinking we are in the image of a god and can control nature through our though process. We have a lot to learn.
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  Terry

  Until your mind stops analysing and correcting every fault in the world. Concentrating until your mind is empty of words and fully at one with this experience.

  After twenty minutes of silent wordless observation you start to walk back down the mountain.

  Twenty wasted minutes that could have been employed by the chatter of the rational Mind? Or a wonderful moment of reality away from the mad world that we have fashioned into shape and then mistaken for reality?

  I'll tell you what seems to work for me that comes about as close to your meditation as I've encountered.

  I use to listen to the radio (or music) in the car. Now, I don't. I think. Here is what I think.

  I think of what I'm experiencing while I drive. This includes everything I can take in. I let it all in.

  I like to go twice a week to the local Botanic Gardens. I park my car and walk through every part of the gardens. I'm not looking for anything in particular except the experience. I don't hum or whistle. I just soak it in.

  When I get home at night from work, I don't turn on the TV. I turn on a small night light. I make supper and take a long, hot bath in semi-darkness. I listen to the sound of silence and I exist.

  I find this recharges my batteries.

  I recall how long a day could seem when I was a small boy. I finally figured out why. When you are a child you exist utterly in a particular moment of time without looking ahead to where you have to be and worrying over what you must do. As a child, your job is to be a child.

  So, I've tried to stop racing ahead in my thoughts or jumping to the next moment or event. I find I'm able to relax in hectic situations by doing this.

  I often murmur to myself (when things are going badly) "This too shall pass." And it does.

  You are right, I do want to avoid any ritual that takes me from here to there. I tend to vary the way I do things. I might not even drive the same route to or from work. I sometimes dress up and sometimes go casual just on a whim.

  I take life much less seriously than ever before.

  It is all a grand experiment. I'll be really really smart and then, I'll be dead and nobody will know the difference. Least of all myself :)
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  BurnTheShips

  Our brains may appear to be an evolutionary advantage until we stand back and contemplate the millions of years that passed before humans became the dominant species. In the blink of an eye we have started destroying this beautiful planet that we live on. From a realistic perspective we are, at present, a destructive cancer on the planet.

  Our mistake is to view ourselves as just thinking machines. I believe that we are far more that thinking machines and a part of nature. Because we think with words we assume we are thinking in a rational way.

  We are a part of nature and come from the earth. Unless we start to treat this planet with the same care that we treat our bodies we will destroy ourselves. Then again we are not as rational as we think because many people are abusing their bodies as well as the planet.

  Nature rules us. We have made the mistake if thinking we are in the image of a god and can control nature through our though process. We have a lot to learn.

  If as you say we are purely derived from nature and are a part of it like all the other plants and animals, anything we do is ipso facto natural. We are therefore not above nature in any way shape or form. We're just really clever animals. This means then that human activity is not destroying the planet, natural activity is as expressed in one of its species is. Life has reformed the planet many times. The atmosphere contained much less free oxygen when the first CO2 breathers began to photosynthesize. We can imagine the cursing of the first oxygen breathers millions and millions of years ago. "How dare you change our atmospheric composition"? All life, by the mere fact of living, controls nature to a greater or lesser degree because its living affects the environment as a whole. If we are purely natural and as much a part of the natural order as any other living thing, the moral outrage expressed in your comment above is as meaningless as calling a lion enjoying a rare species of antelope for dinner morally fallen.

  Burn
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  Satanus

  I have to agree w burn. We evolved as the highest form on this planet. We are a totally natural, most likely random evolvement. But, we are still a baby, as far as a species goes. And so, we are exploring our powers. Some mistakes are to be expected. Heck, in the long term, if we blew ourselves up a couple of times, it wouldn't be such a big thing. A few of us would always survive to start over. I believe that we are very good at surviving, although roaches may do better.
  
  Terry
  
  While you have a fairly good understanding of basic meditation, there are some misconceptions in it. Meditation isn't about sorting and classifying information. It's about observing. Simply observing the mind, the thoughts, the feelings. No action, except keeping the focus is needed. In order to do that, it seems to be a necessity to step out of the machinery of the mind. In breath meditation, a person is sometimes able to this, at least for short periods. It's very simple, but a very hard to do.
  
  S
• 

  trevor

  Thanks for that Terry - A moving and insightful post.

  It seems we share a common ground but so much gets lost in the labels we attach to what is just normal human experience.
• 

  trevor

  Burn the ships - I can see you have been thinking.and I hope you are right.

  It has to be remembered that cancer is natural and exists in all of us. It only when our white cells fail to control the cancer cells that they become dominant, take over and kill us. Hence my comment on humans.

  The moral outrage expressed in your comment above is as meaningless as calling a lion enjoying a rare species of antelope for dinner morally fallen.

  You misunderstand me. I have no moral outrage towards humans. I am one.

  I drive a car with a big engine and catch airplanes purely for pleasure. I consume as much as the next person and would happily eat a rare antelope myself.

  I will be long gone before the effects of my selfishness are shown. I don't claim to be a moral person. Just an observer who realizes that every party has to end and someone has to clean up the mess.

  Trevor
• 

  VoidEater

  Terry: "Is it possible--ever--to escape our perspective?"

  Yes, but only by dropping the habitual subjective perspective we have grown tino (via meditation, wandering in the desert, walking the arboretum, driving in silence - that's how Werner Erhardt says he had his "breakthrough" - whatever mechanism works for you). Talk therapy can help, too - eventually the mind might get tired of expounding and come to rest.

  Tuning between the stations is not lack of content - it's getting out of the room where your own voice keeps other perspectives at bay.

  Perspective is habit. Some habits are useful - always knowing where your car keys is handy. Other habits may be harmful, and when you gain additional perspective you may make different choices - maybe you see an x-ray of your lungs, add the content that the dark areas are life-threatening and that they come from smoking, and choose to alter the habit of smoking. I'm old enough to remember a different context - smoking isn't bad for you, isn't addictive - and this perspective was so firmly in place that no other belief was possible for many.

  Since perspective is just habit, you may want to alter that habit. But it's difficult to do because changing the habit of perspective is threatening to the ego - and it takes effort to kick the habit.

  I haven't noticed Trevor or Satanus or even myself staring blank-faced in a puddle of drool yet. As for myself, meditation has allowed me to live more functionally as I recuperate from the JW perspective. I've had to learn new beliefs about the world, about how things can work, and that I know actually very little.

  Perspective is subjective. If it is desireable to be less habitual and less subjective, it may be worthwhile to explore ways of changing perspective.

  So, yes, you can kick the habit of your own point of view; but this is often very threatening to the ego, challenges our core beliefs about The Way Things Are, and leads to a sense of insecurity. When that happens, I remind myself that, “Security is an illusion. Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing at all.”
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  R.Crusoe

  Voideater where do you go from zero ego?

  To where if not death?