Concretely Abstract

topic posted Sun, May 14, 2006 - 2:08 PM by  offlinenothingnu
The drone of our lives is a self-creation born out of a lack which creates a need and then a necessity into which senses, thoughts, emotions, experiences, memories, knowledge flow to create a reality so concrete that subtle rhythms of nature (let's call it actuality) appears abstract in the background whenever there is a breakthrough within our reality. In general, actuality seems absent in the midst of a forceful presence of reality continually trying to assert itself. We look around in human history and are amazed at so few individuals having had contact with this subtlety and hence, we deem its presence impossible and separate from us. However, more shocking is how much energy is expended in each moment through each individual's life to maintain the facade of the necessity.

Every strong emotion, action, etc. is created with the rationale that it is necessarily so. Everything we do or feel, we cannot do otherwise. That is what our mind and bodies tell us in the moment. Interestingly if that is truly so, why do we then justify or condemn every such movement? Perhaps, because deep down we are aware of the artificialness of the need created by the thought/knowledge/emotion/experience/memory complex, and hence, as human beings and societies we have created norms with boundaries of how artificial we can be. How far can we deviate from actuality. We thus justify or condemn ourselves to either illustrate that we are within the bounds or accept that we extended them.

If we take a look at why we are hurt, angry, needy, desirous, obsessed, we see that all such emotions have a built-in urgency within that is self-created and unreal and takes us away on an illusory road. What is the urgency born out of? Usually the only time in the actual world, anything is urgent is when there is a threat to the physical survival of the organism. Protection from an actual physical threat is immensely life-affirming - a joyous denial of death. Is this what one is hooked on? Notice that if an organism learns how to cry "wolf" all the time to seek protection, whether there is an actual threat or not, it would soon become insensitive to threats of all kind not knowing when it is actual or not. So, to continue the illusion of threat and hence, feign the joy of survival, strong emotions are accompanied with the created urgency which gives an individual, a concrete feeling of reality and solidity. So even though realistically, if we look at our lives retrospectively, we see so many of those urgencies as false, the urgencies of now - 'I must have this sexual encounter or car or drink', ' I must show this person his place', 'why does she hurt me?', etc. , seem all too real again for they are either accompanied by a solid pleasure or pain and hence, we easily forget that the urgency was merely a creation.

Pride, honor, trust and their counterparts are totally abstract self-created values to perhaps, make communal living easy. However, those abstract values have taken a concreteness so solid that we rarely perceive the emotions they generate as fluid. We feel "betrayed when trust is violated". We are "hurt " because we "expect fairness". The feelings generate such a strong response that sometimes lifetimes are destined and directed on such events. Somehow not only do we not question the existence of such abstraction, but we also expect the existence of such solid concreteness in our children. We teach them to respect the egos of others. We teach them lessons that are completely abstract such as 'treat people fairly', 'don't hurt others', etc. In actuality, life by such humanly devised measures appears completely unfair but they are asked to be fair. They are told not to hurt others, what goes around comes around, etc. completely authenticating the existence of ego unrelated to life's other dimensions.

We cannot have it both ways, we cannot teach our children a number of commandments and expect them to have a relationship with nature. The commandments whether followed or rebelled would create a world of its own - a world of thought and knowledge which will create its illusory reality in which man is given a role to play rather than be a play in nature.

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