Think about this (precipitated by thoughts about the post and comments from yesterday):
All that we know, all that we can know, all that we experience as "reality," is just these six things:
What we hear.
What we see.
What we smell.
What we taste.
What we touch.
And...
What we think....
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I'm glad you added 'what we think'. It's rare but tragically possible to be stricken with the loss of all 5 senses - but still to have the mental capacity of thought, feeling and emotion, based on one's memories.
ReplyDeleteSW,
ReplyDeleteThe mind is certainly a part of our reality. In fact, it's where we "live" most of the time....
Good to see you here. Thanks.
Just curious…but would you consider emotion as a facet of thinking? Is love thought? If not, does that mean it does not exist?
ReplyDeleteWe take in information via our five senses, whereupon it gets processed in the brain and becomes thought; we then apply these thoughts as our personal reality. The brain part of the chain can be influenced and altered by experience, I.Q., perception, knowledge/skill, mood, and a whole host of chemistry, not to mention electrical fizzes. You and I can view the same scene, have the same experience, and come up with entirely different conclusions; two conflicting realities. Yet we can hie ourselves out to the garden, pluck and smoke some of that funny weed, and switch positions…or discard both realities and come up with others.
I know where you're coming from on this, and agree. The five senses are the "perception collectors" and thought is where this input gets fashioned into "reality."
There's perceptional reality and factual reality. One personal, the other absolute. Trying to figure out which is which has kept me awake a lot of nights over the years. :-)
Wow, I think I need to go fishing!
What about what we feel? In my life I can say that I have made some pretty big decisions based on how I feel (at the gut/intuitive level). My greatest knowing comes from there.
ReplyDeleteWith Much Metta,
Molly
Grizzled,
ReplyDeleteYes, you should definitely go fishing! :)
Since water still flows though we cut it with swords, and sorrow returns though we drown it with wine; Since the world can in no way answer to our craving, I will loosen my hair tomorrow and take to a fishing boat. --Li Po
Grizzled and Molly,
Well, I think the distinction that is made between "heart" and "mind" (or even "soul" and "spirit" for that matter) is a false one. They are really the same thing, though we often make a differentiation. So yes, Grizzled, I guess emotion would be and aspect of thought. Love too. And yes Molly, I would include "feeling" in that as well.
Metta indeed. Much.
Thank you both for being here.
Forest…I'm compelled to respectfully disagree with your all-encompassing assessment of "think." We have different beliefs, or if you prefer, different realities.
ReplyDeleteBecause we are friends, I hope it won't be taken as proselytizing if my reality hopes that one day your reality will find love residing in your heart AND head. I mean that sincerely. :-)
Unfortunately, a reality—perceived and absolute—I suspect we both share is that stream fishing conditions are currently a bit tough. But I loved the quote!
Best to leave thinking out of it. (I think.)
ReplyDeleteGrizzled,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed Li Po. It's a favorite of mine.
I never doubt your sincerity and you have always been/always are respectful in whatever you say. My thanks to you.
That said, I would say that love does reside in my "heart" and "head."
Spoken like a Sensor! ;) I think there's a difference between experiencing and knowing. Experiencing is what we do with our senses and it's over the very moment it happens. Knowing requires memory, which requires abstract thought, imagination, and, in our species, language. Couple that with our (evolutionarily) advanced capability to communicate, and you open up a whole new dimension of knowledge that is no less real than seeing flashing pixels on a computer screen. Obviously that communication can be erroneous, but our senses and our memory can be easily fooled too (do you feel the earth spinning?), so that is no reason to view knowing via communications as any less reliable than knowing by direct experience.
ReplyDeleteI have heard of studies recently that indicate the ESP and deja-vu moments we have may be based on ancestral experiences and networked into our brain wiring..(it was a study on butterflies and ?silk worms)...cannot remember much more but very fascinating.
ReplyDeleteThis post and SW comments remind me of the French movie I must see "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" which explores these concepts of being..the man in it is paralysed and can only communicate via blinking.
Bella
I agree with Barry...leave the thinking out of it...
ReplyDeletethe thinking is all distorted
"don't trust everything you think"
I quietly embrace what I don't know, what is beyond the descriptive words of my senses and my reality.
ReplyDelete