{"id":9859,"date":"2020-12-02T13:02:30","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T21:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/?p=9859"},"modified":"2020-12-21T11:06:41","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T19:06:41","slug":"at-the-edge-of-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/?p=9859","title":{"rendered":"AT THE EDGE OF EXPERIENCE…"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo: ‘At the Edge of Experience’ by Ralf Kunze – Pixabay
https:\/\/pixabay.com\/photos\/flower-poppy-field-red-flower-100263\/
<\/p><\/div>\n

Been studying Richard Dixey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new book, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Searcher Reaches Land\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Limits<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, in which he provides a running, penetrating commentary on the book, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Revelations of Mind<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, by Tarthang Tulku. Dixey discusses in intricate detail, among other things, what transpires in the process of perception, from the subconscious initial sense impressions to conscious information processing. Paraphrasing here\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 In terms of micro-seconds, the perception process begins well before we are even self-aware or conscious of what is happening. Perception begins with sense inputs that we process subconsciously or subliminally, at levels before \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, as an identified and positioned ‘self’, is even established. When we look back and remember what happened, [a key point] we only recall from the point at which the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 appeared, when the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcself\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 arrived on the scene and assumed ownership of the experience by naming and judging events.<\/p>\n

Dixey writes: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All knowledge we have is mediated through our mind\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the transparent mediator of experience itself. Objects are perceived through differences, the edges they make with their background\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 mind is so clear we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even see it\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 from our sense inputs, the display that results could be understood as a readout\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 All this [subliminal] processing is hidden from us. Layer upon layer of unnoticed processing goes on in every aspect of our experience.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d p. 2-4<\/p>\n

Dixey explains, in order to understand what is happening:<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A fundamental consideration is the role language plays in formulating expressions of, and insights about, the nature of our experience. Grammatical construction requires a knower and a known: in this case, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcmind\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 A key point is that the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is the grammatical subject in the sentence, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI did this\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 or \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI was there.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 In describing any aspect of experience, the grammatical subject must always be present. The mind organizes information around the narrator or actor \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122; it is inevitably going to be utilized any time information is displayed, remembered, organized, or communicated.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d p.13<\/p>\n

So the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 or subject plays a key role in organizing experience: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153One could use the adjective heroic to point out this important element of our mental structure. We live our lives with this hero who is called \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcme\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. Somehow, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcme\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 against the world. Here a second feature of the ego structure becomes apparent. The ego \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is embedded within a story of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcme\u00e2\u20ac\u2122; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the story of our life.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d p. 16 And because the ego \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is clothed in meaning, it is also cast within a story line as the central actor\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 called the heroic ego\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the figure at the center of being who is what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like to be me\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 This structure is always operating\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the hero is the person around which everything else revolves. The person who is making sense of it all.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d p.19<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The mind itself is like a thin consomm\u00c3\u00a9, shimmering in the background; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just the beginnings of a soup. But gradually, as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcme\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcmine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 appear, the conceptual categories added to this shimmering consomm\u00c3\u00a9 begin to thicken it. Then it is enriched by language and associations, the soup thickening and thickening and thickening, until eventually we have a really dense experience, which we call \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcreality\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We only get to experience the soup as a completed event, as a readout. We only get the thick soup; we never get to see how the soup was made. We are like the customers in a restaurant who are served the soup, but we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see what was going on in the kitchen. Nevertheless, our mission is to understand how that soup is made. We need to know that because when we are happy or sad, when we are satisfied or dissatisfied, when we feel free or trapped\u00e2\u20ac\u201dall of that is part of the soup, the readout in which we live our lives. If we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand how that readout is made, we are just going to have to live with the results, whether we like them or not.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d p.52-3<\/p>\n

Reactivity has a lot to do with the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthickening\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsoup of mind\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. Anger for instance, Dixey uses an example of driving along and suddenly being cut off by another driver as you instantly jam on the brakes. An emotional reaction is instantly triggered\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 like all negative emotions, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153triggered by the ASSOCIATIONS triggered by an arising event, not the arising event itself\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and once that happens we lose our freedom.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And at levels we aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even aware of associations are made. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Those actions leave residues that get recorded in memory as impressions waiting to be associated with a future event.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d p. 61 [emphasis added] An unconscious predisposition is created waiting to be activated.<\/p>\n

In light of the preceding, in the following Dixey interestingly describes how people, often triggered by subliminal associations<\/em> and ‘predispositions<\/em>‘, get caught in a bubble of their own opinions\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We should consider this and realize that our much-vaunted freedom is in fact quite constrained. We are tethered as if by a peg in the ground: we can only graze in a circle. We can graze to the edge of the circle, but we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go any farther because that peg in the ground limits our responses. Everything is stuck there.<\/p>\n

\n

PAGE 29, PARAGRAPH 1 [of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcRevelations\u00e2\u20ac\u2122]: At some point, individuals identify themselves with particular products of mind, in much the same way that people are drawn to certain brands of products that support their self-image. They may shape their fantasies and desires accordingly, or identify with certain kinds of music, or take up concepts or forms of language that enhance characteristics they admire. Doing this can provide a sense of personal empowerment. Accepting the products of minds as their own, they become strongly convinced of the reality of whatever it is they identify with. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThis is the way it is, this is the way I am, this is the way I should be.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153One of the most common ways you see this kind of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbranding\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is in political affiliation. People have very strongly held views about matters that are not really their own, views they have adopted and then made personal. ‘This is the way it is, and this is the way I am, so this is the way it should be.’<\/p>\n

When you meet people who hold these sorts of positions, they are very hard to argue with, because their affiliation is completely tied up with their sense of self. This is why people go to war over beliefs, more than over anything else. What one side thinks is the case is different from the other, and they both get locked together in a temple of righteousness. You get this absurd situation in which two sides are clashing, and both are praying to God. They may even be praying to the same God!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d p.65-6<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Imagine you are in [a political] argument. Whatever you say, your partner hears it as something else. We have all had this experience\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 You quickly realize that communication is really, really difficult. This is because the other person is receiving an echo of what you are saying, lensed through his or her own conceptual apparatus.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is happening all the time to a greater or lesser extent. [Not only with political positions.] That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where confusions and misinterpretations are rooted. And often it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really, really difficult to break through to actually communicate anything at all. The phenomenon is just a symptom of a far more general issue, which is that we live in a bubble, a casket of concepts, a box made up of concepts which we call the world. This box is both temporally and experientially behind the curve of events. Experientially it limits our capacity to react in a spontaneous way. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s colored, conditioned, and limited by preconceptions, judgments, memories\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe entire retinue. The efficiency of this kind of automation has limited our range of responses.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d p. 86<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Been studying Richard Dixey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new book, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Searcher Reaches Land\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Limits\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, in which he provides a running, penetrating commentary on the book, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Revelations of Mind\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, by Tarthang Tulku. Dixey discusses in intricate detail, among other things, what transpires in the process … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136,77,42,195,51,72,120,107,80],"tags":[169,120,144,78,205],"class_list":["post-9859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-01-general-tsk-discussions","category-experience","category-inquiry","category-intimacy","category-knowledge","category-language","category-levels","category-process","category-zeroless","tag-higher-knowing","tag-levels","tag-stories-2","tag-thought","tag-zero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}