I really must advocate a transcendental philosophy. It is hard to talk about, because it does not encourage joining hands. Still, hand joining is possible, with much practice. The philosophy of Edmund Husserl is a scientific explanation of transcendentalism. It is equivalent to Eastern meditational practices, but written in the terms of Western science (there is no Eastern Science).
The idea is that being is measured on the x axis. The particles are measured in terms of seconds. If you monitor yourself, or someone else for a few seconds, the description of your state, or their state, would be quite simple. It might be "i was thinking about my feet." or "I was walking and wondering about God."
the point of this exercise is to demonstrate that the mind points in one direction. the mind does one thing at a time. they may be sequenced, but consciousness runs on the time scale.
With this fact we can take an ethical leap.
From here we decide to live in the present moment.
To see an object might bring memories of similar objects.
A transcendental philosophy advocates an understanding.
the present is the present. This is consciousness in the body. The body includes the head.
There is the past. The past is the former present. While important, it is illogical or the past to take precedent over the present. This problem is the source of many dysfunctional minds.
There is the future, which is a mystical force. This is what is meant by spirit. There is a sort of consciousness in desire. Science hasn't reached the shores of the consciousness of desire yet.
To understand the consciousness of desire, one only has to focus clearly on the present, completely shutting out the past. The future then will arrive clearly.
As far as methodologies of shutting out the past:
Husserl was a philosopher and was able to use his philosophical conditioning to reach a transcendental state through thought experiments which are the manna of the field.
I sense that part of the reason he didn't so much catch on was that he didn't have an abstract enough approach to transcendentalism. He certainly laid out the evidence for why it would enhance western society, in particular the field of science. However, he may not have taken into consideration that everyone has a different set of experiences that can help them in the transcendental path, and a different past they run away from.
What I mean is, some people think while sitting in peace, some while walking the streets.
What is important is to ignore everything you know. Do this occasionally.
this explanation is getting too complicated, so I take that as a sign to cut it off here. Concision is a blessing bestowed by transcendentalism.
The problem is, most people are looking for "peace," i.e. waiting for desire to be relieved. This of course is, upon actual examination, a ridiculous notion. Waiting to be free of desire, even working to be free of desire, is in fact embedding desire within desire. Using the broom to sweep itself. The solution is not to meditate and be frustrated that you cannot meditate. It may not even be to meditate at all. The solution is simply to notice that you cannot meditate. Noticing and accepting this is meditation in itself. Some might say that I am undermining the notion that spiritual growth and transcendental experience requires great effort, great work. I may be, because I am not sure that I agree with that idea. However, I also think that, with the proper preparation of the mind and body, (i.e. lengths must be gone to to prevent instinctive physical overriding of the innate spiritual reaching, something we CAN thank modern society for), that "work" will come naturally, like a job doing something one enjoys.
ReplyDeleteI speak of course from the experience of being plagued by desire. I am still so strongly plagued by desire, jealousy and anger. I like the idea that the future is the spirit. Both are unknowable and mutually influential. In mathematics, we might construct an isomorphism (or homeo- or diffeomorphism) between the two. I.e. there are arrows going from one to the other, and from the other to one in a complete and consistent fashion. Different manifestations, different shadows, of the same object.
Without the "spirit," the "reaching" or the "potential" for greater being, there is no future, at least not in the metaphysical sense. We actively create the future, and the next second, year, whatever, is in fact a mirror of my spirit (idea of karma, retribution, etc.?). Yet the future concurrently creates the spirit. The unknowing, the lack of knowledge and the potential for explosive change is what ignites human nature and innate human curiosity.
Maybe?
by meditation you mean the empty void, which I believe is possible, it is felt through the rhythms. But transcendentalism is about the multiplicity. There are at least two levels of active conciousness that are often blocked from one another. It takes getting used to the time delay in order to unite them, and it helps to relax. it is a way to be. just one. it ignores all the knowledge you have learned through experience. if you find yourself back in that desirous part of the woods again, you know the way out, or the way deeper in. There is no enemy, there is nothing. my kidneys are sore.
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