Rational Thinking and how it consumes Awareness | The Subjective Nature of Reality
What is human rationality? Do we live within a matrix of subjective patterns? Are we trapped in the first Attention.
Hello, and welcome to the Ancient wisdom modern mind Blog and today I want to share with you my understanding of the mind from the prospective of rational awareness.
The rational side of humanity can be divided into two categories of perception, preference awareness and concept construction, preference awareness is humanities ordinary awareness whereas concept construction is the highest state that the rational side of the mind can achieve. And it is this preference awareness that also imprisons the mind by consuming its attention and compelling the mind to become absorbed by its preferences and this process occurs because of the minds innate ability to recognize patterns.
Pattern recognition is an unconscious state where the brain identifies patterns that it can use to predict and expect what is coming, the brain by making the connection between memories and information perceived, identifies familiar patterns and from this the individual is able to construct a mental representations of their situation. But more importantly it also allows the individual to build a theoretical idea about what is real or relevant and this develops an archetype for our preferred realism.
Since Pattern recognition is unavoidable and is the main or majority state of consciousness that most humans exist within, you could say that it is man’s natural state or that it is the comfort zone for the mind. Pattern recognition gives the mind an internal comfort that reassures the mind that its thoughts are the correct ones, this vindicates the minds assumptions through perceived repetition of the pattern and perceived reoccurrence of the same patterns, this confirmation bias is then held as evidence that the mind or self is right.
And although this pattern recognition is unconscious, it is also recognized at the subconscious and conscious levels and this awareness of patterns allows us to read words, understand language, recognize friends, and even appreciate music. It also enables us to build an understanding of the world.
Examples of pattern recognition from a broad perspective are the sciences such as classical physics, the evolution hypothesis, religion and even atheism. On the more personal level such as why we like this type of food, or this fashion style or why that type of person is annoying or why you fall in love are all a consequence of pattern recognition and developing a preference awareness for a particular set of patterns.
Polytheistic and Modalistic religious ideas, dualism and the idea of karma and even science are all constructs that have evolved out of pattern recognition and also the experience of cause and effect is an example of dualistic preference awareness and so is Nihilism, Existentialism, Absurdism and Minimalism vs Consumerism. These are all variants of pattern recognition or preference awareness.
It is not possible to ignore preference awareness, as these patterns give order to our lives, they give us meaning and purpose, but they also consume us, compel us and drive us to obsession. Forcing us to make elaborate databases with an inventory of all the patterns that the mind has a preference for.
But the fact that there are a multitude of preferences also shows that we can choose whether to accept our preferences or to discard them, if we accept our preferences then we will take them to their logical conclusions, and this then becomes our core reality, our specialty, our ideology, our religion.
Ironically Preference awareness is ultimately an illusion, a subjective choice. But that doesn't mean we don't function within a matrix of subjective patterns and nor do we reject this matrix simply because of its subjective nature.
And this is probably also the most common error made in the understanding of what is reality, since most simply assume that the idea of reality is objective in the context of being physical and having a cause and effect on our lives; for example in the context that gravity is a universal law, basic science right. What goes up must come down, this is the dualists understanding of reality, for the dualist perception is from the perspective of separation, the mind and physical reality are distinct and separable.
Yet mind and reality is a paradox, reality is objective, bound by immutable laws, but it is subjectively altered by the minds perception of reality. This is the paradox, two realities existing simultaneously.
Now I am not saying that we should reject preference or that patterns do not exist, but what I am saying is that preferences are all-consuming to the point that they affect how the mind perceives reality. The mind is compelled to see only the patterns that it has a preference for, and it is this excluding of unrelated patterns that creates and forcibly applies a subjective preference on the mind. “You can choose this pattern or this pattern or this pattern, but you must choose”.
And this is the important differentiation that concept construction teaches us; the art is not to reject our pattern preference or to be un-attached from “things” or even to reject our objective world, but to see that “things” are simply patterns which we apply subjectively to an objective matrix. And this unnoticed influence happens because of pattern recognition which then absorbs the self within a web of relevant but often trivial complexity.
Preference awareness is overcome by concept construction, and this is the state where the minds comprehension of the unity of reality is as one interconnectedness, or more simply expressed as a reasoned interconnectedness between the subjective and the objective.
Concept construction has its roots in a Monotheistic idea of reality. This Monotheistic view focuses on the philosophical idea that there is one God or one interconnected multi- dimensional reality, a singular Divine, which manifests itself in many ways, including as the Christian Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but equally so are concepts such as Mindfulness.
Philosophy is also an outgrowth of this Monotheistic view of reality, which uses reason to form concepts, engage in problem solving, and then form reasonable hypotheses, and likewise so is Quantum Field Theory a development of concept construction.
The act of Mindfulness is a final development of the monotheistic view and concept construction, since mindfulness is the psychological process of bringing one's attention to experiences occurring in the present moment. And this has the effect of stepping the mind outside of its natural preferences and into a moment-by-moment awareness of the subjective nature of reality.
If you have the time when let me know in the comments about your experiences and understanding of mind.
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