NOT A SPIRITUAL PERSONAGE, BUT. . . .

every once in awhile, I’ll entertain a spiritual view of the Cosmos just to make sure my mind is not closed to it. I’ve referenced Eckhart Tolle before, and in this post, I’ll mention him again. The following paragraph is from that July 2002,The Sun, pp. 9-10, I mentioned before:

Tolle: “More and more, you realize that you are not your thoughts, because they come and go. They’re all conditioned. . . . Instead of deriving a sense of self from those contents, you realize that you can simply observe the contents. A deeper sense of self arises. That is the aware presence, and it feels very spacious and peaceful, no matter what happens in your mind. You no longer identify with your mind, which is just conditioned thoughts and, instead, identify with the observing presence, which can see the conditioned thoughts and emotions in flux. When your sense of self is no longer tied to thought, is no longer conceptual, there is a depth of feeling, of sensing, of compassion, of loving, that was not there when you were trapped in mental concepts. You are that depth.”

That may sound very mystical and spiritual, but what Tolle describes is exactly the way thoughts “come and go” in perception and is clearly described in many modern psychological viewpoints. Consciousness is momentary and fragmented because that’s the way it’s constructed. It’s always scanning and accepting the information entering the senses, moving from one input to another and on the look out for trouble and for ways to get the human animal’s needs met. One thing after another enters the consciousness, then is driven out by the next thing. Poor, old human consciousness; it’s never at rest. We’re never at rest.

The awareness of awareness which Tolle calls the “aware presence” is, of course, the definition of consciousness which modern psychologists are currently debating as they try to define it and describe it. Consciousness is the “awareness” of awareness under discussion. But let me tell you, after reading “The Origin of Minds”, I’m willing to imagine that consciousness is a very concrete phenomena. Why complicate it? Consciousness is the synaptical presence of words and sentences running and looping through the brain and its inner ear (or any other sensory site). It’s a “hearing” inside of us of the words we know come from outside of us which triggers our awareness of ourselves. I’m sure our consciousness is intimately connected with the world outside our brains. By recognizing those outside of us, their words and presence, and the environment outside of us, we become conscious of the self we are inside the receiving mechanisms in our brains. Consciousness is a group phenomena.

Finally, I have experienced a few times in my life what Tolle describes as being at “depth”. Most recently, when I was taking some drawing classes, I happened to be staring at some trees outside the window of my A.A. meeting, staring intently at their forms, the play of light and shadow. As I stared at the scene, I suddenly filled up with a sense of love for everything around and inside of me. I was at peace. Several times I repeated the experiment just to make sure I could do it. Sometimes I ask myself why I still continue to play these word games when drawing would more often make me happier?


GUNS DON’T KILL PEOPLE. . .

people with guns kill people, 70 percent of the time.


A CHILLING THOUGHT

Am currently readingIn Plato’s Cave by Alvin Kernan. It deals with the intellectual currents which have ripped through the academic community in the last 50 years or so, specially through Yale’s yard where Kernan taught. He’s now retired. He mentions in passing the plight of one of his colleagues who taught French literature and was killed by an icicle which plummeted from a skyscraper in the Big Apple.