Only 5 words yet quite a complex topic. A simple interpretation might be ... at some point in the future something more important to us than money will emerge.
Seems to me the ‘seed’ for the above thought germinated several weeks ago … reading an article about Snowden where he was quoted as saying something to the effect “the truth will come out eventually … our conscience demands it."
What was Snowden trying to say with his statement? What did he want to communicate to the world? I don't know! The possible intentions underlying the words 'truth' and 'conscience' have enormous scope. I suppose that’s what linguist specialists mean when they say we must put the use of a particular ‘word’ in context ... the word ‘context’ being another one of those words with enormous scope. It may refer simply to the other words used in the same sentence … it may refer to the circumstances around the use of the words … it may refer to a particular political, religious, environmental circumstance at the time the word(s) are ued or written etc
What are my intentions? What do I want to communicate to the world with the statement “Eventually our conscience will trump money”? At the moment it’s not really clear.
i want to think some more about 'words'. Words are a communication device ... a tool used to transmit thoughts from one mind to another mind(s). Today, experts in the field of human communication tell us that 'words' are less than 50 percent of face to face communication. They tell us body language is more important than the words spoken. This suggests the written word is even less effective when there is no opportunity for body language to 'speak'. Hmm!
Is this analysis and understanding of human communication a modern discovery?
No ... not at all.
More than 2,500 years ago Confucius introduced his "Rectification of Names" doctrine. Initially, I found this particular Confucian thought puzzling … I suppose I simply didn’t understand what he was talking about and he wasn't there to explain it to me ... with appropriate body language :-).
Perhaps my understanding of Confucius' concern with ‘Names’ has improved substantially in the past year … how so?
On first reading, I understood his use of the word "Names" to be limited to the Name of a person ... the Name of a city ... the Name of a peoples etc. How silly eh!
Eventually I came to understand that words are simply sounds ... our minds attach meaning to different sounds. Our minds develop a huge library of 'sounds' where each sound is attached to a particular meaning.
Our personal name ... first name versus family name ... is a good example. I read somewhere that the sound of our name is the sweetest sound in the world. It's probably one of the first sounds in our 'library of sounds' given that it is a sound we hear so often in the weeks and months after our birth ... and the sound is usually attached to pleasant body language. :-) Our name is unique to us as individuals … it is our ‘tag’ ... a vocal expression of who we are … it separates us from the crowd … strengthens our sense of individuality.
ames are restrictive … that is once we name an object ... the object is limited or restricted in physical appearance … all objects with the same general appearance have the same name. For example, a chair is just a chair … it’s not a table … it’s not a horse etc.
Since communication requires a transmitter and a receiver … it seems logical and rational that the efficacy of communication is greatly improved when both the transmitter and the receiver agree on the meaning of individual sounds. Without this consensus there could be no intelligible communication. For example, while I have heard the Chinese language spoken everyday for eight years I still don’t understand a word of Chinese.
Since Confucius dedicated his adult life to the development of a harmonious Chinese Society, his concern for clarity in language now seems self evident. Otherwise social anarchy would be a natural outcome if people attached different meanings to names of actions or objects. Rectification of names is foundational in any language … a cornerstone of language. Yet today as the vocabulary of our language continues to expand it seems we have ignored this principle.
While checking my earlier scribbling for thoughts on the word ‘conscience’ I discovered that I may simply be regurgitating previous thoughts and reflections. Perhaps the ‘seed germinating’ mentioned in the opening sentence is inaccurate … maybe it’s the ‘plant growing’ … suggesting that some of my wayward thoughts are maturing. Perhaps ‘thoughts’ are like red wine … both improve in quality and value with age. Perhaps I am simply bored and having nothing new or worthwhile to think about.
I posted the following comments on a blog eight years ago … these particular thoughts first occurred to me while walking across France in June 2004. Is there some connection to today’s post?
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
From 'Collective Unconscious' to 'Collective Conscious' to 'Collective Will'
Plato and more recently Jung described the notion of Collective Unconscious. We are now seeing more published work on the notion of Collective Conscious ... seems we have moved into 'consciousness' ... we are awakening.
Seems to me the next logical step is the notion of 'Collective Will' ... perhaps we have been functioning for a zillion years under the influence of 'will' derived from our 'Collective Unconscious' ... our will being influenced without us being aware of it ...
Wow! ... this hypothesis is quite exciting ... this theory suggests mankind is moving from a very long period of grandiose 'DECEPTION' ... through unconscious influences ... to a pure 'TRUTH'
... through conscious decisions based on awareness ... from 'darkness' ... to ... 'light'.
Wow!! ... how I hope this is true!!
I still find the above hypothesis appealing … although now … after nine years of ‘aging’ I would change a few of the words ... eliminate the reference to ‘deception’ … strengthen the notion of ‘darkness to light’ … unknowing to knowing … muddy water becoming clear ... the sun burning off the morning fog. ie … a progression or evolution of human consciousness outside the control of man.
Are the circumstances at the time this hypothesis popped into my head important … relevant? While I can’t be certain … here are some notes I wrote at the time.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read a bit of St Augustine's "Confessions' tonight ... figured I am carrying the book ... might as well read some! One sentence struck me as very interesting ... "it is not the discovery but the mere search for wisdom which should be preferred even to the discoveries of treasures and to ruling over nations and to the physical delights available to me at a nod ... footnote suggests this sentence is a quotation or at least a paraphrase of Cicero
Also see page 140 ... 'will' ... sounds like Solomon now that I write out the words
Cuzion ... 1/2 litre of apple juice and 2 croissants ... a delicious breakfast
Seems the couple of pages of Augustine's book "Confessions" that I read last night have rekindled my 'itch' to ponder the mysteries of life ... 'search for wisdom'. Another paragraph that I find appealing and intriguing ...Augustine asks himself such vexing questions ... eg "What causes this monstrous fact? ... and Why is it so?"
The mind commands the body and is instantly obeyed ... the mind commands itself and meets resistance.
The mind commands the hand to move ... and it is so easy that one hardly distinguishes the order from its' execution. Mind is mind and hand is body. The mind orders the mind to will. The recipient of the order is itself... yet it does not perform the command.
I recall pondering this particular mystery on several occasions during the past few years ... no insight arrived ... no answers ... so here we go again ... I'll have another go at it this morning.
Shortly after leaving Gargilesse I passed a spot along the road where several cows had been recently taken out of the pasture and walked up the road ... to a different pasture I suppose ... the evidence of my statement was the several piles of cow dung on the pavement ... I have been in this particular situation on many occasions while walking the Camino Santiago.
This morning my mind went off on a journey. Seems to me the cows when leaving their comfort zone ... the pasture they have been grazing in for who knows how long ... immediately on leaving ... not before and not 50 metres down the road ... seems within a metre or 2 of the exit .. they poop!! ... at least so many of them do ... judging from the number of poop piles. :-)
This morning I ask why? Are they nervous or anxious about what lies ahead ... are they frightened ... do they somehow know that they may be on their way to the slaughter house ... or is it simply a case of 'nervous stomach' resulting from moving from the 'known' ... their familiar pasture and grazing area ... to the 'unknown' ... that 'dark night' ... who knows? ... who cares? ... life is useless ... it's like chasing the wind
Seems my investigation is not done yet ... the above thoughts now on 'centre stage' of my mind invoke another curiosity ... are there parallels between the actions of the cows described above and the actions of the 2 legged animal species referred to as 'humans'.
My 'inner self' smiles and nods in agreement. We too are comfortable with the 'status quo' ... with the familiar ... being penned or fenced in by our culture ... our society ... our government ...
Seems we have a reluctance to venture outside of the 'familiar' and if we are forced ... physically ... emotionally ... or otherwise ... beyond the frontiers of our 'familiarity' ... we too become nervous or anxious ... intimidated by the 'unknown' ... the uncertainty ... the 'dark night' ... reminds me of St John of the Cross's book ... The Dark Night of the Soul
Of course, not all of us react the same ... just as not all of the cows pooped a few steps outside of the pasture ... some of us are the exact opposite ... we feel stifled by life in the 'familiar' … bound by the borders or fence of our society. We can't wait to 'get out' ... some of us escape with drugs ... alcohol ... work etc … some with 'creativity' ... artists of all kinds ... musicians ... painters ... writers etc
So ... what's the point of all this? ... don't know! After all it was only several piles of cow dung on the road!
Maybe these thoughts are connected to the notion of 'will' described by Augustine. The expression 'will power' has tickled my mind on several occasions ... the word 'power' and all its' intended meanings side by side with the word 'will'.
The expression seems to infer ... determination ... tenacity ... staying power ... stick-to-itiveness ... something like the Cheewawa barking ferociously and biting at the pant leg of a large man. The little dog must know that it is physically inferior to the man ... yet ... with relentless 'will' the little dog continues ... and it is very often quite difficult to shake off this little pest ... without hurting him/her of course!
Is this a worthy example of 'will power' or simply a case of doggy foolishness?
So now I have two questions ... Augustine's question concerning 'will' and the question ... what fuel is used to 'power' the will?
People who seem to naturally possess tons of 'will power' tend to believe all people have access to the same degree of 'will power' ... Is this so?
The body and its' limbs seem to respond to exercise, repetitive actions, nutrition etc ... all athletic people clearly demonstrate the correlation between these activities and the result ... the most obvious example being our Olympic athletes.
What about our mind? ... do the same principles hold? ... suppose the obvious answer is yes ... to a degree!
However, all the 'will power' in the world ... all the mental determination ... cannot help a paraplegic walk ... ???
Seems to me the notion of 'will' has some connection to the notion of 'collective unconscious' and 'herd instinct' ... eg the will to do what most people do ... to conform to 'life' inside the pen ... to follow the 'flock' as in my sheep philosophy ... in these circumstances the requirement of the 'will' seems so 'small' eg Our society conditions us to venerate heroes ... athletic ... political ... creative ... academic ... a resulting 'will' to emulate ... imitate ... or whatever seems a logical conclusion.
What about people like Christopher Columbus and Joan of Arc ... where did their seemingly supernatural 'will' and 'will power' come from? What drove Christopher Columbus to venture out into the 'unknown'? ... voluntarily ... several times ... leaving the pasture of 'familiarity' behind and plunging into a 'night of darkness'.
Seems obvious that the sea/ocean was feared by most people of the day ... Fisterre ... the end of the earth in Spain???
Learned several years ago that Christopher Columbus was scheduled to leave from a certain harbor in Spain. When the time to leave drew near ... he was unable to leave because the Spanish were evicting Jews from Spain in this particular harbour at time ... this was during the period of the inquisition. The writer of the book posed an interesting question ... Columbus's voyages would lead to colonization by several of the European nations ... and this would happen at the same time the Jews were being evicted ... would these new colonies become the new 'homeland' for the Jewish people ???
Back to Joan of Arc ... a young girl ... a young peasant girl ... who would make her way to the leadership of an army ... have an audience with the King of France ... win battles ... lose battles and accept being 'burned at the stake' rather than renounce her source of 'will' and 'will power' ... hmmm.
In the next few thousand steps I started to recite the Lord's prayer ... the Our Father. Remembered that ST Teresa of Avila told her nuns they should take one hour to recite the Lord's Prayer ... once!!
St Teresa obviously believed there is so much hidden mystery in this one prayer ... seems logical since it is the only prayer Jesus taught His disciples ... and He taught it to them after they asked him ... Lord teach us to pray.
Today I thought I would examine the prayer from the perspective "Jesus was the first human being to have a conscious recollection of where He came from ... and likely the only human being with this conscious recollection ... see earlier notes
Paraphrasing ... Jesus said to His disciples ... I come from my Father ... my Father sent Me ... so let's look at the first few words of the prayer .
Our Father
In Heaven ... what is meant by the word 'heaven'? ... that dimension of space or being that cannot be defined or described in human terms. Change this word to 'Spirit' and seems to me we have not lost anything and perhaps can gain much. e.g. we are told in genesis that we are created in God's image and likeness ... with God as 'Spirit' ... the above statement seems much more credible.
Winston Churchill ... "we are spirits wrapped in human flesh"
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Father Charlie who I met in Bracebridge helped me with this notion of 'name'. In conversation one day about the mysterious capabilities of some people in India Father Charlie stated ... they have obviously found a way to tap into a 'higher' source of energy ... we Christians have a 'name' for this 'higher source' of energy ... Jesus ... hmmm.
Also seems I have spent considerable time contemplating the notion of 'our name'. The instructor of a Dale Carnegie course stated several years ago that the sound of our name is the sweetest sound in the world to us. this statement seems to have some merit.
Our 'name' also seems to have a shelf life that is much longer than our physical life ... for some at least ... again let's look at the names Christopher Columbus and Joan of arc ... so much is associated with and recalled simply by vocalizing the letters that construct the name. What a mystery!
Seems our name is often our legacy ... that part of us ... while not a part of our physical being ... that lives on long after we have breathed our last breath.
Thy Kingdom .... a place ... a dimension in space
Come ... future ... not now
Thy Will ... here we go again with the word 'will'. when I got here ... the thoughts of this morning seemed to crystallize ... not sure how or in what way ... perhaps later?
Be Done
On Earth as it is in Heaven
The word heaven again. Change the word earth to flesh and the word heaven to spirit and we get ... "In the flesh as it is in the spirit" ... seems to me this is the crux of all Christian teaching. The persistent and endless struggle between our two natures (vilification) ... written about by so many people for so many years and yet still persists. What role has 'will' in this struggle?
I'm now in the church in Eguzon ... decided to come here while drinking my coffee across the street ... my motivation (more on this word motivation later) was to cool off ... it is so hot today ... my T shirt is drenched ... I put on a dry one.
Asked about internet availability ... at library at 3:30 ... decide to wait around
On entering the church my eyes wander over to the left side of the church where there is a large bulletin board heavily populated with posters. The first one I gaze on is a large picture of Ste Therese with the words ... "Je voudrais parcourir la terre en announcer l'Evangile" ... the same words as in the cover of the booklet I purchased in St Pierre ... moving! The second one titled "Les Equipes du Rosaire
Venez et prions ensemble
Toi qui cherches
Toi qui doutes
Toi qui es seul
Toi qui est malade
Toi qui es bien-portant
Toi qui es jeune ou mois jeune
Toi qui pries ...
Tous
Nous avons besoin de toi
pour trouver, pour parteger
et rayonner
de la Vie de Celui
qui est toujours avec nous
le Christ
En Priant avec Marie, sa Mere
qui a cherche, qui a souffert
qui a cru, qui nous aide
Third one Annee du Rosaire ... Une ecole de priere des Equipes Un Pelerinage avec les Domtricains
My 3 lady friends are in left front alter ... Our Lady of Lourdes Ste Therese and Joan of Arc
Seems this notion of 'will', will power, collective conscience , herd instinct and voila a new term 'collective will' is a 'biggy' a real 'biggy'.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So it seems my hypothesis “Collective Unconsciousness to Collective Consciousness to Collective Will was founded on the observance of a few piles of cow dung … not very scientific eh!
When sharing my ‘cow dung’ experience with a fellow pilgrim from Australia a few days later she mentioned that researchers in Australia found that when they moved sheep from one pasture to another the sheep would not eat the grass in the new pasture. Her comments sounded a lot like people to me … thoughts that defy conventional wisdom … human tradition … are most often completely ignored.
The ‘Star Wars’ movie series was popular entertainment yet if someone was to suggest the story in fact prefigures the future of mankind the individual would be locked away in a sanitarium.
My thoughts … my intentions …. in writing the above statement are still muddy … “Who can make the muddy water clear?” … Lao Tsu
I suppose that’s the advantage of a blog … we … the blogger … are our only censor.
Thoughts have life … thoughts travel fast and far … thoughts penetrate some peoples minds and not others … some thoughts have a very long shelf life (thousands of years) … other thoughts have a vey short shelf life. We often hear people saying “Oh I was just thinking the same thing” … or … “Oh I’m glad you called I was just thinking about you” … or … “I hear what you are saying but I have no idea what you mean”
Perhaps writing our thoughts somehow amplifies them … and perhaps putting our thoughts in a public place amplifies them more. Maybe it’s not important whether our thoughts are read by others. Maybe responses to our thoughts are delivered to our mind via telepathy. Maybe … maybe … maybe …
“Again and again as I travel around I am stunned by how many citizens in our nation feel lost, feel bereft of a sense of direction, feel as though they cannot see where our journeys lead, that they cannot know where they are going”
Bell Hooks… “Belonging”
Bell’s statement sounds a lot like my ‘sheep philosophy’ … the few paragraphs I wrote in June 2001 while living in Spain. My ‘sheep philosophy’ emerged from personal experiences involving the observation of several flocks of sheep in Bosnia, France and Spain. Here is what I wrote in 2001 …
==========================================================================
Philosophical Fodder
We live in turbulent times … the demands of simply keeping pace with day to day living leave precious little time for anything else. Augustine of Hippo wrote almost 1,600 years ago … “Oh! … You torrent of human custom, who can stand against you?”
Perhaps some members of our medical community have recently provided the answer to the above dilemma posed by Augustine in 400 AD. The medical community has proven the mortality rate amongst newborn babies is higher for those who do not receive cuddling and affection … “the human touch”. Surely this need for connection through touch is an innate and permanent human characteristic. The image of a preemie lying in an incubator comes to mind. While the infant has the warmth and nutrition required for survival, doctors have found that touching the infant, even the simple touch of a finger, improves the chances of survival.
True at birth, seems to me that this need for “the human touch” must hold true throughout our lives … as important at age 80 as at birth. The ‘will’ to live seems predicated on the knowing that we are not alone … we are connected … we belong!
Have you ever asked yourself … What is going on? … Where are we? … Where are we headed? What will we do when we get there?
We often hear the expression ‘the evolution of mankind’. The word evolution infers movement, figuratively speaking, from Point A to Point B. We live in the times referred to as Point A … Where is Point B? … What does life look like at Point B? … and … What is this phenomenon of movement? ( or ‘torrent’ as expressed by Augustine)
For the past several years, the notion of evolution as ‘movement’ tickled my mind. Setting aside recorded history, Darwinian theory and religious dogma, I reflected only on the notion of ‘movement’. The meditations seemed to be inspired by my frequent observations of flocks of sheep, while traveling through the Middle East, Europe and most recently Spain.
The first occurrence was in 1996 … on top of a mountain in Bosnia Herzegovina.
While sitting there, I heard the sound of cow bells … seemed strange … why would there be cow bells ringing on top of this mountain? In a few moments a small flock of sheep and their shepherd arrived on top of the mountain.
How exciting! … especially for someone who grew up in Canada where sheep are raised in barns and fenced enclosures. I had only ever read or watched on television shepherds wandering the countryside and mountains with their sheep.
Here at the dawn of the 21st century was an authentic shepherd with his sheep … wow!
Several years later … after seeing many flocks of sheep in various circumstances always with their shepherds … I found myself thinking … when a large flock of sheep is moving along most of the sheep … almost all of the sheep … can only see the ‘butt’ of the sheep in front of them.
They have no idea where they are going or what the terrain they are passing through looks like.
A few years later it occurred to me … not only can all they see is the ‘butt’ in front of them … worse yet … they have no choice but keep their nose glued to the ‘butt’ of the sheep walking in front of them … they cannot stop … the sheep behind them will trample them …they cannot move forward … or sideways … there are countless sheep pressing them on all sides … hmmm! Seems they are not willing to leave the flock … seems sheep also feel safe and secure through ‘belonging’.
“Woe to you, torrent of human custom! Who can stand against you?”
Are there any parallels with this image and human life?
If so … Who is the shepherd?
Bell Hooks statement and my ‘sheep philosophy’ may shed some light on my use of the word “eventually”. We … mankind … don’t really know where we are going … yet … we are definitely going somewhere. With more than 5,000 years of recorded history we can be certain that life today is quite different than it was 5,000 years ago. We will arrive at that ‘somewhere’ at some point in time … maybe soon and maybe in another million years. Hence … “eventually”.
One day around the time of my ‘cow dung’ experience my wayward mind itched to know the details concerning the discovery of fire. When did mankind first learn how to start a fire. There is no reliable data to answer this question yet something one writer said appeals to me …
“But man did not know how to kindle it. The day he discovered this art, he separated for good from the animal kingdom that roamed the earth. He had discovered the source of light, heat, and energy -- the very basis of civilization. Fire helped man to reduce nomadic lifestyles and develop social and political institutions connected with a fixed abode.”
Man was not given dominion over all the animals in the beginning … man was an animal like all the rest. Man was given dominion over all other animals the day he discovered how to stat a fire. However man remains an animal.
The discovery of ‘fire’ lead to a monumental shift in life on this planet … animal life … plant life and … human life. Who is to say there isn’t such a ‘monumental shift’ right around the corner. Maybe we will jump out of our ‘animal skins’ and become truly enlightened beings … spiritual beings … where spirit and flesh no longer struggle against each other. Maybe the ‘Age of Aquarius points to such a shift.
I thought I was done writing for the day … nope … I’m back again. Seems today is an unusual day … earlier I wrote how my attitude towards Krishnamurti’s statement … "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." … changed dramatically to my new “frame” … they say how you ‘frame’ a question makes a difference … how you ‘frame’ a picture makes a difference etc … seems how you ‘frame’ your world view also makes a difference … my new ‘frame’ being … the world … mankind … is a ‘work in process’ ... don’t pronounce judgment and don’t try to get ahead of the world.
As I continued to ruminate on the notion of conscious and subconscious in the past couple of hours my memory drifted to the analogy of an iceberg which has been used for many years to help us understand the notion of conscience versus sub conscience. The tip of the iceberg … the part we can see symbolizing our conscious … the part of our mind that includes our conscience … the part of our mind where we think, feel, decide, act, hear, see, touch etc.
The submerged part of the iceberg … by far the larger part … about 90 percent … symbolizing our subconscious … that part of our mind we cannot access directly … psychologists tell us the communication between our conscious mind and sub conscious mind happens in dreams … that all people REM dream almost every night.
Today this image seems inappropriate … I’m now moving to the image of an anteroom or antechamber … probably not new … just new to me. The anteroom being the smaller room where people wait for permission to enter the ‘big room’ … the room where all the important stuff happens. There is most always some form of security clearance procedure for people who want to enter the main room.
In the analogy … the anteroom is our conscious … and the big room is our subconscious … the important stuff happens in our subconscious. The anteroom has light … it’s a ‘waiting room’ … the big room is in darkness … one cannot see into the big room from the anteroom. There is a ‘security clearance’ procedure … few people are granted access to the ‘big room’. Seems similar to the experiences of the mystics … I was reading St John of the Cross’s “Dark Night of the Soul and Ascent of Mount Carmel” recently. He describes the effort required and states that so few people get through the antechamber into like the ‘big room’ … union with the Divine.
A few years ago while exchanging emails with my grandson Jonathan I wrote the following … starting with a quote from “Confessions” by St Augustine:
“This power of memory is great, very great, my God. It is a vast and infinite profundity. Who has plumbed its bottom? This power is that of my mind and is a natural endowment, but I myself cannot grasp the totality of what I am. Is the mind, then, too restricted to compass itself, so that we have to ask what is that element of itself which it fails to grasp? Surely that cannot be external to itself; it must be within the mind. How than can it fail to grasp it? This question moves me to great astonishment. Amazement grips me. People are moved to wonder by mountain peaks, by vast waves of the sea, by broad waterfalls on rivers, by the all-embracing extent of the ocean, by the revolutions of the stars. But in themselves they are uninterested.”
While meditating on the above words my mind drifted to the image of a LAN … Large Area Network … comprised of a server that holds all the data etc and many individual workstations that have some local processing capability and restricted access to the repository of data on the server ... i.e. those with higher security clearance get access to more data.
Here’s my theory … the human mind is the analogous to the workstation on the LAN … each pre-programmed with individual processing capabilities and each provided with a unique security clearance for communication with the ‘server’..
The “Collective Unconscious” is the equivalent of the server on the LAN … the repository of all information … from all time … past present and future.
While day dreaming, meditating etc … a part of our mind is simply swimming around in this vast repository of information … sometimes bringing worthwhile ‘stuff’ back into our conscious.
This metaphor seems to fit with Augustine’s comments, he was simply way ahead of his time. The mind, in fact, cannot ‘compass itself’ because it is connected to the Collective Unconscious … it is an integral part of it.
Those of us with a strong propensity to daydream, meditate etc are simply exercising a particular gift ... an activity as natural as people with unique athletic abilities who engage in sports.
The ‘workstation’ on a ‘network’ seems to fit with my anteroom imagery. Hmmm
August 5, 2013
If you are reading my posts you are probably lost … probably asking yourself … where is he going with all this gobble gook. Don’t feel bad … I don’t know myself!
Maybe that’s a good thing … if my posts were well ordered and coherent that would suggest I have a mastery of the subject … nothing could be further from the truth. I only know enough to be dangerous … to confuse a serious student of the subject.
On the other hand … in not attempting to control the ‘how’ or the ‘what thoughts’ get written I am free falling … maybe at some point it will all come together and make sense.
In writing about the word ‘conscience’ I started from the perspective of individual conscience and somehow drifted into this notion of “collective conscious”. Begs the question … if there is a collective conscious … can there be an individual conscience? Hmmm Suppose one could use the analogy of the ocean … the ocean of humanity. The ocean is a single monstrously large body of water … yet it is also a monstrously large collection of individual drops of water. Hmmm
What is this notion of “collective conscious”? Dan from Seattle referred to it as a ‘big cloud up there somewhere” Pierre Chardin referred to it as the “noosphere”. St Augustine didn’t name it but perhaps referred to it in his comments:
Is the mind, then, too restricted to compass itself, so that we have to ask what is that element of itself which it fails to grasp? Surely that cannot be external to itself; it must be within the mind. How than can it fail to grasp it? This question moves me to great astonishment. Amazement grips me. People are moved to wonder by mountain peaks, by vast waves of the sea, by broad waterfalls on rivers, by the all-embracing extent of the ocean, by the revolutions of the stars. But in themselves they are uninterested.”
Plato’s cave metaphor?
Carl Jung’s Collective Unconscious?
In the East we have Lao Tsu … who used allegory, metaphor and symbolism extensively in his very brief writings … perhaps explaining why still today … 2,500 yeas later … Chinese scholars still can’t seem to grasp his full intentions. Lao Tsu wrote that one could enter a house … close all the doors and windows … and subsequently learn all the mysteries of the universe.
This morning I wonder if Lao Tsu was trying to explain the same phenomena as the mystic St John of the Cross … claims it is necessary to suspend all of our faculties … eradicate all of our desires … suspend all of our sense preceptors … including understanding, will and memory … in our journey to Union with the Divine.
Entering a house and closing all the doors and windows could be paraphrased … enter your mind and suspend all your faculties … empty your mind … and in this way you will be receptive to the mysteries of life. Hmmm
Seems this ‘cloud’ has existed forever and over a long period of time a few individuals have attempted to identify it … to describe it … to name it … to define it etc The above examples span 2,500 years.
This morning it reminds me of ‘gravity’ … which has always existed and always behaved according to some universal laws … science. However, mankind only became ‘conscious’ of the laws of gravity rather recently … after Newton’s research. Yet even more recently … with Einstein’s research … the laws of gravity mankind has subscribed to since Newton are being challenged. Hmmm
Seems rational that this notion of collective conscious has principles … rules … universal laws … science underlying it’s activities. We are simply not aware of how it operates … we have to wait for the next ‘Newton’ or ‘Einstein’.
In the meantime ‘hints’ will continue to be provided to mankind via selected individuals … the vast majority of mankind will continue to resist the theories put forward by these pioneers … and in time the notion will be accepted as ‘common sense’ … hmmm
Final
Feels like I’m spent with my thoughts on the word conscience. Perhaps I will close with something my oldest daughter Tanya shared with me a year or so ago in response to some personal philosophy I shared with her.
At the time she said she was too young to understand my philosophy … that her personal philosophy could be described as follows: The tiger and the rabbit wake up each morning feeling hungry … so they start running … looking for food.
Perhaps because she used the animals ‘tiger’ and ‘rabbit’ … I find the philosophy primordial … we … mankind … are still too young … we are still dominated by our animal instincts to do anything different.
I agree that most people today still subscribe to her philosophy … they wake up each morning feeling hungry and they start running … the hunger is not for food … the hunger is an urge to satisfy the cravings of their minds … most of us are always chasing the things we think will make us happy. The appetite of the eyes can never be satisfied … so our hunger is never satisfied … we never find lasting happiness … we are forever restless.
St Augustine wrote … “Our hearts are made for you Lord … and will remain forever restless until we find rest in you.” Perhaps by ‘heart’ he means ‘conscience’.
August 6, 2013
Seems not only am I still feeling spent … I’m feeling melancholy. Seems I have ‘sobered up’ so to speak … I am compelled to face the futility of writing my thoughts … and I was so looking forward to today.
Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration … another significant milestone on my spiritual journey … involving Mount Sinai … Moses and Elijah … St Catherine Monastery in the Sinai … which I learned is also called the Monastery of the Transfiguration. My two visits to the summit of Mount Sinai and the Monastery … including the privilege of entering the sanctuary and observing the mosaic of the transfiguration and the ‘burning bush’. My visit to Mount Carmel the site of Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets.
Vanity … vain glory … all of the above experiences only served to increase my expectations for today … with result being … splat! … making another face print in the cement.
Oh well … I should complete my exposition of the thought “Eventually conscience will trump money” I’m half done … two words complete and two words to go … the words ‘trump’ and ‘money’.
The choice of the word ‘trump’ is intriguing … Can’t remember the last time I used it in conversation or writing. It reminds me of card games … like the game of bridge … where the one suit trumps all other suits.
Somehow the words ‘anteroom’ and ‘trump’ seem connected … the word ‘ante’ is also used in card games … something to do with the stake each individual places on the outcome of the game.
I checked out the definitions on Yahoo …
To trump is to outrank or defeat someone or something, often in a highly public way. Safety might trump appearance when you're buying a car, or your desires may trump your brother's when it comes to making weekend plans.
Origin of TRUMP … alteration of triumph ante- — prefix
before in time or position; previous to; in front of: antedate ; antechamber
I really like the “alteration of triumph’ …
Suppose I was suggesting conscience will triumph over money …
Now what about the word money … symbolic for everything money can buy … and money can buy a lot … perhaps anything and everything … except … LOVE. Most people likely agree that money can not buy love.
Paraphrasing my original statement … eventually LOVE will triumph over everything else. Hmmm! I like that.
I should make some closing marks on my use of the ‘Snowden’ story as a catalyst for these posts.
I have no interest in the political … geopolitical … social factors etc in the Snowden story. I have always maintained a mild curiosity about what is happening in the world and in quenching that mild curiosity I ran into the Snowden story.
On the other hand … while writing these posts it occurred to me that the Snowden story , all the chatter in recent years about the notion of ‘Big Brother’ etc may point to … may prefigure … may foreshadow what will eventually evolve as a normal characteristic of mankind … we will have nothing to hide … each of us will know our neighbour’s thoughts … a scary thought eh!
Seems to me the ‘seed’ for the above thought germinated several weeks ago … reading an article about Snowden where he was quoted as saying something to the effect “the truth will come out eventually … our conscience demands it."
What was Snowden trying to say with his statement? What did he want to communicate to the world? I don't know! The possible intentions underlying the words 'truth' and 'conscience' have enormous scope. I suppose that’s what linguist specialists mean when they say we must put the use of a particular ‘word’ in context ... the word ‘context’ being another one of those words with enormous scope. It may refer simply to the other words used in the same sentence … it may refer to the circumstances around the use of the words … it may refer to a particular political, religious, environmental circumstance at the time the word(s) are ued or written etc
What are my intentions? What do I want to communicate to the world with the statement “Eventually our conscience will trump money”? At the moment it’s not really clear.
i want to think some more about 'words'. Words are a communication device ... a tool used to transmit thoughts from one mind to another mind(s). Today, experts in the field of human communication tell us that 'words' are less than 50 percent of face to face communication. They tell us body language is more important than the words spoken. This suggests the written word is even less effective when there is no opportunity for body language to 'speak'. Hmm!
Is this analysis and understanding of human communication a modern discovery?
No ... not at all.
More than 2,500 years ago Confucius introduced his "Rectification of Names" doctrine. Initially, I found this particular Confucian thought puzzling … I suppose I simply didn’t understand what he was talking about and he wasn't there to explain it to me ... with appropriate body language :-).
Perhaps my understanding of Confucius' concern with ‘Names’ has improved substantially in the past year … how so?
On first reading, I understood his use of the word "Names" to be limited to the Name of a person ... the Name of a city ... the Name of a peoples etc. How silly eh!
Eventually I came to understand that words are simply sounds ... our minds attach meaning to different sounds. Our minds develop a huge library of 'sounds' where each sound is attached to a particular meaning.
Our personal name ... first name versus family name ... is a good example. I read somewhere that the sound of our name is the sweetest sound in the world. It's probably one of the first sounds in our 'library of sounds' given that it is a sound we hear so often in the weeks and months after our birth ... and the sound is usually attached to pleasant body language. :-) Our name is unique to us as individuals … it is our ‘tag’ ... a vocal expression of who we are … it separates us from the crowd … strengthens our sense of individuality.
ames are restrictive … that is once we name an object ... the object is limited or restricted in physical appearance … all objects with the same general appearance have the same name. For example, a chair is just a chair … it’s not a table … it’s not a horse etc.
Since communication requires a transmitter and a receiver … it seems logical and rational that the efficacy of communication is greatly improved when both the transmitter and the receiver agree on the meaning of individual sounds. Without this consensus there could be no intelligible communication. For example, while I have heard the Chinese language spoken everyday for eight years I still don’t understand a word of Chinese.
Since Confucius dedicated his adult life to the development of a harmonious Chinese Society, his concern for clarity in language now seems self evident. Otherwise social anarchy would be a natural outcome if people attached different meanings to names of actions or objects. Rectification of names is foundational in any language … a cornerstone of language. Yet today as the vocabulary of our language continues to expand it seems we have ignored this principle.
While checking my earlier scribbling for thoughts on the word ‘conscience’ I discovered that I may simply be regurgitating previous thoughts and reflections. Perhaps the ‘seed germinating’ mentioned in the opening sentence is inaccurate … maybe it’s the ‘plant growing’ … suggesting that some of my wayward thoughts are maturing. Perhaps ‘thoughts’ are like red wine … both improve in quality and value with age. Perhaps I am simply bored and having nothing new or worthwhile to think about.
I posted the following comments on a blog eight years ago … these particular thoughts first occurred to me while walking across France in June 2004. Is there some connection to today’s post?
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
From 'Collective Unconscious' to 'Collective Conscious' to 'Collective Will'
Plato and more recently Jung described the notion of Collective Unconscious. We are now seeing more published work on the notion of Collective Conscious ... seems we have moved into 'consciousness' ... we are awakening.
Seems to me the next logical step is the notion of 'Collective Will' ... perhaps we have been functioning for a zillion years under the influence of 'will' derived from our 'Collective Unconscious' ... our will being influenced without us being aware of it ...
Wow! ... this hypothesis is quite exciting ... this theory suggests mankind is moving from a very long period of grandiose 'DECEPTION' ... through unconscious influences ... to a pure 'TRUTH'
... through conscious decisions based on awareness ... from 'darkness' ... to ... 'light'.
Wow!! ... how I hope this is true!!
I still find the above hypothesis appealing … although now … after nine years of ‘aging’ I would change a few of the words ... eliminate the reference to ‘deception’ … strengthen the notion of ‘darkness to light’ … unknowing to knowing … muddy water becoming clear ... the sun burning off the morning fog. ie … a progression or evolution of human consciousness outside the control of man.
Are the circumstances at the time this hypothesis popped into my head important … relevant? While I can’t be certain … here are some notes I wrote at the time.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read a bit of St Augustine's "Confessions' tonight ... figured I am carrying the book ... might as well read some! One sentence struck me as very interesting ... "it is not the discovery but the mere search for wisdom which should be preferred even to the discoveries of treasures and to ruling over nations and to the physical delights available to me at a nod ... footnote suggests this sentence is a quotation or at least a paraphrase of Cicero
Also see page 140 ... 'will' ... sounds like Solomon now that I write out the words
Cuzion ... 1/2 litre of apple juice and 2 croissants ... a delicious breakfast
Seems the couple of pages of Augustine's book "Confessions" that I read last night have rekindled my 'itch' to ponder the mysteries of life ... 'search for wisdom'. Another paragraph that I find appealing and intriguing ...Augustine asks himself such vexing questions ... eg "What causes this monstrous fact? ... and Why is it so?"
The mind commands the body and is instantly obeyed ... the mind commands itself and meets resistance.
The mind commands the hand to move ... and it is so easy that one hardly distinguishes the order from its' execution. Mind is mind and hand is body. The mind orders the mind to will. The recipient of the order is itself... yet it does not perform the command.
I recall pondering this particular mystery on several occasions during the past few years ... no insight arrived ... no answers ... so here we go again ... I'll have another go at it this morning.
Shortly after leaving Gargilesse I passed a spot along the road where several cows had been recently taken out of the pasture and walked up the road ... to a different pasture I suppose ... the evidence of my statement was the several piles of cow dung on the pavement ... I have been in this particular situation on many occasions while walking the Camino Santiago.
This morning my mind went off on a journey. Seems to me the cows when leaving their comfort zone ... the pasture they have been grazing in for who knows how long ... immediately on leaving ... not before and not 50 metres down the road ... seems within a metre or 2 of the exit .. they poop!! ... at least so many of them do ... judging from the number of poop piles. :-)
This morning I ask why? Are they nervous or anxious about what lies ahead ... are they frightened ... do they somehow know that they may be on their way to the slaughter house ... or is it simply a case of 'nervous stomach' resulting from moving from the 'known' ... their familiar pasture and grazing area ... to the 'unknown' ... that 'dark night' ... who knows? ... who cares? ... life is useless ... it's like chasing the wind
Seems my investigation is not done yet ... the above thoughts now on 'centre stage' of my mind invoke another curiosity ... are there parallels between the actions of the cows described above and the actions of the 2 legged animal species referred to as 'humans'.
My 'inner self' smiles and nods in agreement. We too are comfortable with the 'status quo' ... with the familiar ... being penned or fenced in by our culture ... our society ... our government ...
Seems we have a reluctance to venture outside of the 'familiar' and if we are forced ... physically ... emotionally ... or otherwise ... beyond the frontiers of our 'familiarity' ... we too become nervous or anxious ... intimidated by the 'unknown' ... the uncertainty ... the 'dark night' ... reminds me of St John of the Cross's book ... The Dark Night of the Soul
Of course, not all of us react the same ... just as not all of the cows pooped a few steps outside of the pasture ... some of us are the exact opposite ... we feel stifled by life in the 'familiar' … bound by the borders or fence of our society. We can't wait to 'get out' ... some of us escape with drugs ... alcohol ... work etc … some with 'creativity' ... artists of all kinds ... musicians ... painters ... writers etc
So ... what's the point of all this? ... don't know! After all it was only several piles of cow dung on the road!
Maybe these thoughts are connected to the notion of 'will' described by Augustine. The expression 'will power' has tickled my mind on several occasions ... the word 'power' and all its' intended meanings side by side with the word 'will'.
The expression seems to infer ... determination ... tenacity ... staying power ... stick-to-itiveness ... something like the Cheewawa barking ferociously and biting at the pant leg of a large man. The little dog must know that it is physically inferior to the man ... yet ... with relentless 'will' the little dog continues ... and it is very often quite difficult to shake off this little pest ... without hurting him/her of course!
Is this a worthy example of 'will power' or simply a case of doggy foolishness?
So now I have two questions ... Augustine's question concerning 'will' and the question ... what fuel is used to 'power' the will?
People who seem to naturally possess tons of 'will power' tend to believe all people have access to the same degree of 'will power' ... Is this so?
The body and its' limbs seem to respond to exercise, repetitive actions, nutrition etc ... all athletic people clearly demonstrate the correlation between these activities and the result ... the most obvious example being our Olympic athletes.
What about our mind? ... do the same principles hold? ... suppose the obvious answer is yes ... to a degree!
However, all the 'will power' in the world ... all the mental determination ... cannot help a paraplegic walk ... ???
Seems to me the notion of 'will' has some connection to the notion of 'collective unconscious' and 'herd instinct' ... eg the will to do what most people do ... to conform to 'life' inside the pen ... to follow the 'flock' as in my sheep philosophy ... in these circumstances the requirement of the 'will' seems so 'small' eg Our society conditions us to venerate heroes ... athletic ... political ... creative ... academic ... a resulting 'will' to emulate ... imitate ... or whatever seems a logical conclusion.
What about people like Christopher Columbus and Joan of Arc ... where did their seemingly supernatural 'will' and 'will power' come from? What drove Christopher Columbus to venture out into the 'unknown'? ... voluntarily ... several times ... leaving the pasture of 'familiarity' behind and plunging into a 'night of darkness'.
Seems obvious that the sea/ocean was feared by most people of the day ... Fisterre ... the end of the earth in Spain???
Learned several years ago that Christopher Columbus was scheduled to leave from a certain harbor in Spain. When the time to leave drew near ... he was unable to leave because the Spanish were evicting Jews from Spain in this particular harbour at time ... this was during the period of the inquisition. The writer of the book posed an interesting question ... Columbus's voyages would lead to colonization by several of the European nations ... and this would happen at the same time the Jews were being evicted ... would these new colonies become the new 'homeland' for the Jewish people ???
Back to Joan of Arc ... a young girl ... a young peasant girl ... who would make her way to the leadership of an army ... have an audience with the King of France ... win battles ... lose battles and accept being 'burned at the stake' rather than renounce her source of 'will' and 'will power' ... hmmm.
In the next few thousand steps I started to recite the Lord's prayer ... the Our Father. Remembered that ST Teresa of Avila told her nuns they should take one hour to recite the Lord's Prayer ... once!!
St Teresa obviously believed there is so much hidden mystery in this one prayer ... seems logical since it is the only prayer Jesus taught His disciples ... and He taught it to them after they asked him ... Lord teach us to pray.
Today I thought I would examine the prayer from the perspective "Jesus was the first human being to have a conscious recollection of where He came from ... and likely the only human being with this conscious recollection ... see earlier notes
Paraphrasing ... Jesus said to His disciples ... I come from my Father ... my Father sent Me ... so let's look at the first few words of the prayer .
Our Father
In Heaven ... what is meant by the word 'heaven'? ... that dimension of space or being that cannot be defined or described in human terms. Change this word to 'Spirit' and seems to me we have not lost anything and perhaps can gain much. e.g. we are told in genesis that we are created in God's image and likeness ... with God as 'Spirit' ... the above statement seems much more credible.
Winston Churchill ... "we are spirits wrapped in human flesh"
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Father Charlie who I met in Bracebridge helped me with this notion of 'name'. In conversation one day about the mysterious capabilities of some people in India Father Charlie stated ... they have obviously found a way to tap into a 'higher' source of energy ... we Christians have a 'name' for this 'higher source' of energy ... Jesus ... hmmm.
Also seems I have spent considerable time contemplating the notion of 'our name'. The instructor of a Dale Carnegie course stated several years ago that the sound of our name is the sweetest sound in the world to us. this statement seems to have some merit.
Our 'name' also seems to have a shelf life that is much longer than our physical life ... for some at least ... again let's look at the names Christopher Columbus and Joan of arc ... so much is associated with and recalled simply by vocalizing the letters that construct the name. What a mystery!
Seems our name is often our legacy ... that part of us ... while not a part of our physical being ... that lives on long after we have breathed our last breath.
Thy Kingdom .... a place ... a dimension in space
Come ... future ... not now
Thy Will ... here we go again with the word 'will'. when I got here ... the thoughts of this morning seemed to crystallize ... not sure how or in what way ... perhaps later?
Be Done
On Earth as it is in Heaven
The word heaven again. Change the word earth to flesh and the word heaven to spirit and we get ... "In the flesh as it is in the spirit" ... seems to me this is the crux of all Christian teaching. The persistent and endless struggle between our two natures (vilification) ... written about by so many people for so many years and yet still persists. What role has 'will' in this struggle?
I'm now in the church in Eguzon ... decided to come here while drinking my coffee across the street ... my motivation (more on this word motivation later) was to cool off ... it is so hot today ... my T shirt is drenched ... I put on a dry one.
Asked about internet availability ... at library at 3:30 ... decide to wait around
On entering the church my eyes wander over to the left side of the church where there is a large bulletin board heavily populated with posters. The first one I gaze on is a large picture of Ste Therese with the words ... "Je voudrais parcourir la terre en announcer l'Evangile" ... the same words as in the cover of the booklet I purchased in St Pierre ... moving! The second one titled "Les Equipes du Rosaire
Venez et prions ensemble
Toi qui cherches
Toi qui doutes
Toi qui es seul
Toi qui est malade
Toi qui es bien-portant
Toi qui es jeune ou mois jeune
Toi qui pries ...
Tous
Nous avons besoin de toi
pour trouver, pour parteger
et rayonner
de la Vie de Celui
qui est toujours avec nous
le Christ
En Priant avec Marie, sa Mere
qui a cherche, qui a souffert
qui a cru, qui nous aide
Third one Annee du Rosaire ... Une ecole de priere des Equipes Un Pelerinage avec les Domtricains
My 3 lady friends are in left front alter ... Our Lady of Lourdes Ste Therese and Joan of Arc
Seems this notion of 'will', will power, collective conscience , herd instinct and voila a new term 'collective will' is a 'biggy' a real 'biggy'.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So it seems my hypothesis “Collective Unconsciousness to Collective Consciousness to Collective Will was founded on the observance of a few piles of cow dung … not very scientific eh!
When sharing my ‘cow dung’ experience with a fellow pilgrim from Australia a few days later she mentioned that researchers in Australia found that when they moved sheep from one pasture to another the sheep would not eat the grass in the new pasture. Her comments sounded a lot like people to me … thoughts that defy conventional wisdom … human tradition … are most often completely ignored.
The ‘Star Wars’ movie series was popular entertainment yet if someone was to suggest the story in fact prefigures the future of mankind the individual would be locked away in a sanitarium.
My thoughts … my intentions …. in writing the above statement are still muddy … “Who can make the muddy water clear?” … Lao Tsu
I suppose that’s the advantage of a blog … we … the blogger … are our only censor.
Thoughts have life … thoughts travel fast and far … thoughts penetrate some peoples minds and not others … some thoughts have a very long shelf life (thousands of years) … other thoughts have a vey short shelf life. We often hear people saying “Oh I was just thinking the same thing” … or … “Oh I’m glad you called I was just thinking about you” … or … “I hear what you are saying but I have no idea what you mean”
Perhaps writing our thoughts somehow amplifies them … and perhaps putting our thoughts in a public place amplifies them more. Maybe it’s not important whether our thoughts are read by others. Maybe responses to our thoughts are delivered to our mind via telepathy. Maybe … maybe … maybe …
“Again and again as I travel around I am stunned by how many citizens in our nation feel lost, feel bereft of a sense of direction, feel as though they cannot see where our journeys lead, that they cannot know where they are going”
Bell Hooks… “Belonging”
Bell’s statement sounds a lot like my ‘sheep philosophy’ … the few paragraphs I wrote in June 2001 while living in Spain. My ‘sheep philosophy’ emerged from personal experiences involving the observation of several flocks of sheep in Bosnia, France and Spain. Here is what I wrote in 2001 …
==========================================================================
Philosophical Fodder
We live in turbulent times … the demands of simply keeping pace with day to day living leave precious little time for anything else. Augustine of Hippo wrote almost 1,600 years ago … “Oh! … You torrent of human custom, who can stand against you?”
Perhaps some members of our medical community have recently provided the answer to the above dilemma posed by Augustine in 400 AD. The medical community has proven the mortality rate amongst newborn babies is higher for those who do not receive cuddling and affection … “the human touch”. Surely this need for connection through touch is an innate and permanent human characteristic. The image of a preemie lying in an incubator comes to mind. While the infant has the warmth and nutrition required for survival, doctors have found that touching the infant, even the simple touch of a finger, improves the chances of survival.
True at birth, seems to me that this need for “the human touch” must hold true throughout our lives … as important at age 80 as at birth. The ‘will’ to live seems predicated on the knowing that we are not alone … we are connected … we belong!
Have you ever asked yourself … What is going on? … Where are we? … Where are we headed? What will we do when we get there?
We often hear the expression ‘the evolution of mankind’. The word evolution infers movement, figuratively speaking, from Point A to Point B. We live in the times referred to as Point A … Where is Point B? … What does life look like at Point B? … and … What is this phenomenon of movement? ( or ‘torrent’ as expressed by Augustine)
For the past several years, the notion of evolution as ‘movement’ tickled my mind. Setting aside recorded history, Darwinian theory and religious dogma, I reflected only on the notion of ‘movement’. The meditations seemed to be inspired by my frequent observations of flocks of sheep, while traveling through the Middle East, Europe and most recently Spain.
The first occurrence was in 1996 … on top of a mountain in Bosnia Herzegovina.
While sitting there, I heard the sound of cow bells … seemed strange … why would there be cow bells ringing on top of this mountain? In a few moments a small flock of sheep and their shepherd arrived on top of the mountain.
How exciting! … especially for someone who grew up in Canada where sheep are raised in barns and fenced enclosures. I had only ever read or watched on television shepherds wandering the countryside and mountains with their sheep.
Here at the dawn of the 21st century was an authentic shepherd with his sheep … wow!
Several years later … after seeing many flocks of sheep in various circumstances always with their shepherds … I found myself thinking … when a large flock of sheep is moving along most of the sheep … almost all of the sheep … can only see the ‘butt’ of the sheep in front of them.
They have no idea where they are going or what the terrain they are passing through looks like.
A few years later it occurred to me … not only can all they see is the ‘butt’ in front of them … worse yet … they have no choice but keep their nose glued to the ‘butt’ of the sheep walking in front of them … they cannot stop … the sheep behind them will trample them …they cannot move forward … or sideways … there are countless sheep pressing them on all sides … hmmm! Seems they are not willing to leave the flock … seems sheep also feel safe and secure through ‘belonging’.
“Woe to you, torrent of human custom! Who can stand against you?”
Are there any parallels with this image and human life?
If so … Who is the shepherd?
Bell Hooks statement and my ‘sheep philosophy’ may shed some light on my use of the word “eventually”. We … mankind … don’t really know where we are going … yet … we are definitely going somewhere. With more than 5,000 years of recorded history we can be certain that life today is quite different than it was 5,000 years ago. We will arrive at that ‘somewhere’ at some point in time … maybe soon and maybe in another million years. Hence … “eventually”.
One day around the time of my ‘cow dung’ experience my wayward mind itched to know the details concerning the discovery of fire. When did mankind first learn how to start a fire. There is no reliable data to answer this question yet something one writer said appeals to me …
“But man did not know how to kindle it. The day he discovered this art, he separated for good from the animal kingdom that roamed the earth. He had discovered the source of light, heat, and energy -- the very basis of civilization. Fire helped man to reduce nomadic lifestyles and develop social and political institutions connected with a fixed abode.”
Man was not given dominion over all the animals in the beginning … man was an animal like all the rest. Man was given dominion over all other animals the day he discovered how to stat a fire. However man remains an animal.
The discovery of ‘fire’ lead to a monumental shift in life on this planet … animal life … plant life and … human life. Who is to say there isn’t such a ‘monumental shift’ right around the corner. Maybe we will jump out of our ‘animal skins’ and become truly enlightened beings … spiritual beings … where spirit and flesh no longer struggle against each other. Maybe the ‘Age of Aquarius points to such a shift.
I thought I was done writing for the day … nope … I’m back again. Seems today is an unusual day … earlier I wrote how my attitude towards Krishnamurti’s statement … "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." … changed dramatically to my new “frame” … they say how you ‘frame’ a question makes a difference … how you ‘frame’ a picture makes a difference etc … seems how you ‘frame’ your world view also makes a difference … my new ‘frame’ being … the world … mankind … is a ‘work in process’ ... don’t pronounce judgment and don’t try to get ahead of the world.
As I continued to ruminate on the notion of conscious and subconscious in the past couple of hours my memory drifted to the analogy of an iceberg which has been used for many years to help us understand the notion of conscience versus sub conscience. The tip of the iceberg … the part we can see symbolizing our conscious … the part of our mind that includes our conscience … the part of our mind where we think, feel, decide, act, hear, see, touch etc.
The submerged part of the iceberg … by far the larger part … about 90 percent … symbolizing our subconscious … that part of our mind we cannot access directly … psychologists tell us the communication between our conscious mind and sub conscious mind happens in dreams … that all people REM dream almost every night.
Today this image seems inappropriate … I’m now moving to the image of an anteroom or antechamber … probably not new … just new to me. The anteroom being the smaller room where people wait for permission to enter the ‘big room’ … the room where all the important stuff happens. There is most always some form of security clearance procedure for people who want to enter the main room.
In the analogy … the anteroom is our conscious … and the big room is our subconscious … the important stuff happens in our subconscious. The anteroom has light … it’s a ‘waiting room’ … the big room is in darkness … one cannot see into the big room from the anteroom. There is a ‘security clearance’ procedure … few people are granted access to the ‘big room’. Seems similar to the experiences of the mystics … I was reading St John of the Cross’s “Dark Night of the Soul and Ascent of Mount Carmel” recently. He describes the effort required and states that so few people get through the antechamber into like the ‘big room’ … union with the Divine.
A few years ago while exchanging emails with my grandson Jonathan I wrote the following … starting with a quote from “Confessions” by St Augustine:
“This power of memory is great, very great, my God. It is a vast and infinite profundity. Who has plumbed its bottom? This power is that of my mind and is a natural endowment, but I myself cannot grasp the totality of what I am. Is the mind, then, too restricted to compass itself, so that we have to ask what is that element of itself which it fails to grasp? Surely that cannot be external to itself; it must be within the mind. How than can it fail to grasp it? This question moves me to great astonishment. Amazement grips me. People are moved to wonder by mountain peaks, by vast waves of the sea, by broad waterfalls on rivers, by the all-embracing extent of the ocean, by the revolutions of the stars. But in themselves they are uninterested.”
While meditating on the above words my mind drifted to the image of a LAN … Large Area Network … comprised of a server that holds all the data etc and many individual workstations that have some local processing capability and restricted access to the repository of data on the server ... i.e. those with higher security clearance get access to more data.
Here’s my theory … the human mind is the analogous to the workstation on the LAN … each pre-programmed with individual processing capabilities and each provided with a unique security clearance for communication with the ‘server’..
The “Collective Unconscious” is the equivalent of the server on the LAN … the repository of all information … from all time … past present and future.
While day dreaming, meditating etc … a part of our mind is simply swimming around in this vast repository of information … sometimes bringing worthwhile ‘stuff’ back into our conscious.
This metaphor seems to fit with Augustine’s comments, he was simply way ahead of his time. The mind, in fact, cannot ‘compass itself’ because it is connected to the Collective Unconscious … it is an integral part of it.
Those of us with a strong propensity to daydream, meditate etc are simply exercising a particular gift ... an activity as natural as people with unique athletic abilities who engage in sports.
The ‘workstation’ on a ‘network’ seems to fit with my anteroom imagery. Hmmm
August 5, 2013
If you are reading my posts you are probably lost … probably asking yourself … where is he going with all this gobble gook. Don’t feel bad … I don’t know myself!
Maybe that’s a good thing … if my posts were well ordered and coherent that would suggest I have a mastery of the subject … nothing could be further from the truth. I only know enough to be dangerous … to confuse a serious student of the subject.
On the other hand … in not attempting to control the ‘how’ or the ‘what thoughts’ get written I am free falling … maybe at some point it will all come together and make sense.
In writing about the word ‘conscience’ I started from the perspective of individual conscience and somehow drifted into this notion of “collective conscious”. Begs the question … if there is a collective conscious … can there be an individual conscience? Hmmm Suppose one could use the analogy of the ocean … the ocean of humanity. The ocean is a single monstrously large body of water … yet it is also a monstrously large collection of individual drops of water. Hmmm
What is this notion of “collective conscious”? Dan from Seattle referred to it as a ‘big cloud up there somewhere” Pierre Chardin referred to it as the “noosphere”. St Augustine didn’t name it but perhaps referred to it in his comments:
Is the mind, then, too restricted to compass itself, so that we have to ask what is that element of itself which it fails to grasp? Surely that cannot be external to itself; it must be within the mind. How than can it fail to grasp it? This question moves me to great astonishment. Amazement grips me. People are moved to wonder by mountain peaks, by vast waves of the sea, by broad waterfalls on rivers, by the all-embracing extent of the ocean, by the revolutions of the stars. But in themselves they are uninterested.”
Plato’s cave metaphor?
Carl Jung’s Collective Unconscious?
In the East we have Lao Tsu … who used allegory, metaphor and symbolism extensively in his very brief writings … perhaps explaining why still today … 2,500 yeas later … Chinese scholars still can’t seem to grasp his full intentions. Lao Tsu wrote that one could enter a house … close all the doors and windows … and subsequently learn all the mysteries of the universe.
This morning I wonder if Lao Tsu was trying to explain the same phenomena as the mystic St John of the Cross … claims it is necessary to suspend all of our faculties … eradicate all of our desires … suspend all of our sense preceptors … including understanding, will and memory … in our journey to Union with the Divine.
Entering a house and closing all the doors and windows could be paraphrased … enter your mind and suspend all your faculties … empty your mind … and in this way you will be receptive to the mysteries of life. Hmmm
Seems this ‘cloud’ has existed forever and over a long period of time a few individuals have attempted to identify it … to describe it … to name it … to define it etc The above examples span 2,500 years.
This morning it reminds me of ‘gravity’ … which has always existed and always behaved according to some universal laws … science. However, mankind only became ‘conscious’ of the laws of gravity rather recently … after Newton’s research. Yet even more recently … with Einstein’s research … the laws of gravity mankind has subscribed to since Newton are being challenged. Hmmm
Seems rational that this notion of collective conscious has principles … rules … universal laws … science underlying it’s activities. We are simply not aware of how it operates … we have to wait for the next ‘Newton’ or ‘Einstein’.
In the meantime ‘hints’ will continue to be provided to mankind via selected individuals … the vast majority of mankind will continue to resist the theories put forward by these pioneers … and in time the notion will be accepted as ‘common sense’ … hmmm
Final
Feels like I’m spent with my thoughts on the word conscience. Perhaps I will close with something my oldest daughter Tanya shared with me a year or so ago in response to some personal philosophy I shared with her.
At the time she said she was too young to understand my philosophy … that her personal philosophy could be described as follows: The tiger and the rabbit wake up each morning feeling hungry … so they start running … looking for food.
Perhaps because she used the animals ‘tiger’ and ‘rabbit’ … I find the philosophy primordial … we … mankind … are still too young … we are still dominated by our animal instincts to do anything different.
I agree that most people today still subscribe to her philosophy … they wake up each morning feeling hungry and they start running … the hunger is not for food … the hunger is an urge to satisfy the cravings of their minds … most of us are always chasing the things we think will make us happy. The appetite of the eyes can never be satisfied … so our hunger is never satisfied … we never find lasting happiness … we are forever restless.
St Augustine wrote … “Our hearts are made for you Lord … and will remain forever restless until we find rest in you.” Perhaps by ‘heart’ he means ‘conscience’.
August 6, 2013
Seems not only am I still feeling spent … I’m feeling melancholy. Seems I have ‘sobered up’ so to speak … I am compelled to face the futility of writing my thoughts … and I was so looking forward to today.
Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration … another significant milestone on my spiritual journey … involving Mount Sinai … Moses and Elijah … St Catherine Monastery in the Sinai … which I learned is also called the Monastery of the Transfiguration. My two visits to the summit of Mount Sinai and the Monastery … including the privilege of entering the sanctuary and observing the mosaic of the transfiguration and the ‘burning bush’. My visit to Mount Carmel the site of Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets.
Vanity … vain glory … all of the above experiences only served to increase my expectations for today … with result being … splat! … making another face print in the cement.
Oh well … I should complete my exposition of the thought “Eventually conscience will trump money” I’m half done … two words complete and two words to go … the words ‘trump’ and ‘money’.
The choice of the word ‘trump’ is intriguing … Can’t remember the last time I used it in conversation or writing. It reminds me of card games … like the game of bridge … where the one suit trumps all other suits.
Somehow the words ‘anteroom’ and ‘trump’ seem connected … the word ‘ante’ is also used in card games … something to do with the stake each individual places on the outcome of the game.
I checked out the definitions on Yahoo …
To trump is to outrank or defeat someone or something, often in a highly public way. Safety might trump appearance when you're buying a car, or your desires may trump your brother's when it comes to making weekend plans.
Origin of TRUMP … alteration of triumph ante- — prefix
before in time or position; previous to; in front of: antedate ; antechamber
I really like the “alteration of triumph’ …
Suppose I was suggesting conscience will triumph over money …
Now what about the word money … symbolic for everything money can buy … and money can buy a lot … perhaps anything and everything … except … LOVE. Most people likely agree that money can not buy love.
Paraphrasing my original statement … eventually LOVE will triumph over everything else. Hmmm! I like that.
I should make some closing marks on my use of the ‘Snowden’ story as a catalyst for these posts.
I have no interest in the political … geopolitical … social factors etc in the Snowden story. I have always maintained a mild curiosity about what is happening in the world and in quenching that mild curiosity I ran into the Snowden story.
On the other hand … while writing these posts it occurred to me that the Snowden story , all the chatter in recent years about the notion of ‘Big Brother’ etc may point to … may prefigure … may foreshadow what will eventually evolve as a normal characteristic of mankind … we will have nothing to hide … each of us will know our neighbour’s thoughts … a scary thought eh!