Reflection #3:
Your Mind creates your Worldview based on “its” Conditioning.
“Once you realize that the world is your own projection, you are free of it. You need not free yourself of a world that does not exist, except in your own imagination! However the picture, whether beautiful or ugly, you are painting it and you are not bound by it. Realize that there is nobody to force it on you, that it is due to the habit of taking the imaginary to be real. See the imaginary as imaginary and be free of fear.” Nisargadatta, nonduality.com
The mind’s conditioning reflects “Habituated Unconsciousness”, NOT your Essence. The mind creates everything in its image… and its image is based upon its conditioning. Who you think you are has actually been created
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It makes up who you THINK you are! That is, it makes believe that your true nature is the “body/ego/mind unit” rather than the eternal spirit in the form of the witnessing soul. In other words, it makes up the personalized, separate sense of self, (i.e. the ego) and you falsely assume it to be your essence.
With that being said, it also makes up the identities and identifications that you “identify” with. It makes up the roles and the role players in your drama, in your waking life and in your dreams. It creates your play and the endless stories you tell yourself and
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That is, you have been conditioned to believe it. If you ask it who or what you are, it will certainly give you an assortment of ideas, thoughts, opinions and options you can be. If you reject one it will find another and another and another until you, as it, are satisfied. But how could any thought or set of thoughts know who or what you are? How can a thought or set of thoughts possibly know?
Does your existence, your very beingness itself require a thought to tell you? How could it? It’s just a thought. How does that recognize “being”? How can anyone else know who or what you are when they don’t know who or what they are? Instead, you inherit and adopt a bunch of beliefs based more on fantasy than actuality. If you believe you are your conditioning, you are living a lie.
If you think you are the body/ego/mind unit which is finite and temporal, that too is just another form of conditioning and ultimately that conditioning will die along with the body/ego/mind unit’s physical death. Everything in mind has been conditioned, that’s what is in it. It is a bio-computer. It has been programmed…
as free will and that all things in life are predestined. That no matter what we chose to do
Sigmund Freud’s theories on the construction of the mind are simple, but fundamentally changed the field of psychology. He proposed, among other things, that the human mind is composed of three parts: the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The preconscious consists of information, such as a telephone number, that is “accessible to consciousness without emotional resistance” (Schellenberg 21). In Freud’s estimation, the unconscious is the most important area of the mind. The information stored within it has “very strong resistances” to becoming conscious (Freud 32). Residing in the unconscious is the id, which “contains everything…that is present at birth… – above all, therefore, the instincts which originate from somatic organization” (14). From birth, all action is instinctual, from the id. The id recognizes and entertains no desires but its own and is impatient to have its needs met. This phase lasts until a part of the id changes “under the influence of the real external world” (14). This changed portion b...
It is one of those questions that will most likely never be answered. I mean, the mind itself is so perplexing that we are still learning stuff about it daily. One question that Descartes proposed was “how do we know?” we still are pondering this one today. We ask it almost every day, maybe not in that way but in some form or another. So honestly, how do we know?
However, despite all of the analysis and vast literature on the topic of selfhood there are still no completely agreed upon definitions of the self. Several scholars argue that it can never be given one simple, consistent description. The majority of authors are inclined to avoid the ‘unanswerable’ question of what self is and their constructions are based more on implicit understandings than clear-cut descriptions. As with the idea of consciousness, the self is catalogued amid those notions that are
Is Consciousness something automatic, rooted in our selves, something inseparable in a being with abilities of
If the idea of the self is somehow able to exists in a potentially altered version of Hume’s epistemology that accounts for what is known, now, about the subconscious synthetization of ideas, It could function in the deflection of such claims as the soul and god but could hold an idea of identity that could not be conflated with the two because it still must rely on experience. If Hume’s epistemology included the subconscious and it and be argued that from the subconscious ideas can form behaviorally from our impressions, our illusion of self could stand as an idea within Hume’s vision of the mind. This would circumvent many problems that are created when there is no justification for the self. Ideas such as guilt, punishment, and whether or not your life can have meaning are not necessarily uprooted by Hume’s analysis of how the mind
I have a habit of noticing redundancies in other people. Their personalities and their thoughts just seem so similar: daughters trying to be like mothers, or sons trying to be like fathers, or friends trying to be like each other. In my mind the sense of "self" that we as human beings have is more of a delusion than a reality, where we are nothing but the products of a multitude of influences throughout our lives. Did I ever have an original thought in my life? Or is it always someone else's idea that I am only repeating? What does it mean to be a human being without original thought and creativity? I talk like my friends do. I learned body language from my parents, stories from movies and books, perspectives on life from parents or philosophers or friends or teachers. Despite the myriad of thoughts that make up my personality, I feel as if I only absorbed my surroundings with no real personal creation. My parents keep asking me: "Who have you been hanging out with? Why do you act like this?" as if they already know that the comments I make, or the movies I enjoy or any of my other sudden preferences and mannerisms are not my own. When we are young, the adults tell us that "everyone is `special,' but how could I believe in this idea of personal creativity and uniqueness when there are so many influences that I copy in my life?
A person’s identity is shaped by many different aspects. Family, culture, friends, personal interests and surrounding environments are all factors that tend to help shape a person’s identity. Some factors may have more of an influence than others and some may not have any influence at all. As a person grows up in a family, they are influenced by many aspects of their life. Family and culture may influence a person’s sense of responsibilities, ethics and morals, tastes in music, humor and sports, and many other aspects of life. Friends and surrounding environments may influence a person’s taste in clothing, music, speech, and social activities. Personal interests are what truly set individuals apart. An individual is not a puppet on the string of their puppet-master, nor a chess piece on their master’s game board, individuals choose their own paths in life. They accomplish, or strive to accomplish, goals that they have set for themselves throughout their lifetime. Individuals are different from any other individual in the world because they live their own life rather than following a crowd of puppets. A person’s identity is defined by what shaped it in the first place, why they chose to be who they are, and what makes them different from everybody else in the world. I feel that I have developed most of my identity from my own dreams, fantasies, friends, and idols.
These mental sensations of the soul cannot be explained by any simplistic illustration, as can be readily evidenced through modern technology. Machinery can be programmed to perform several of the basic physical tasks that humans can perform (Nagel). A baby doll, for instance, can respond to stimuli and cry or perhaps verbalize a simple phrase. Yet, while this baby doll behaves similarly to a human, it is not truly responding to a complex environment; instead, it is restricted by its programming (Nagel). The baby doll will never learn a new phrase to say, and it will not always cry when the same event occurs. In fact, it may cry for no real reason at all. This distinguishes humans from such technology. People have “conscious [experiences]” (Nagel) that are unique to each individual’s soul, reinforcing the division between mind and
One knows that one causes some of one 's own ideas read in Principles of Human knowledge page 28. Since the mind is passive in perception, there are ideas which one 's own mind does not
Many people believe that a person’s decisions are a reflection of his soul and personality. However, it is more likely that the conclusion a person reaches is due to the influence of different ideas, as well as the circumstances surrounding the choices. One does not have an innate "essence", but instead, the choices that a person makes constantly shape his character, which in turn creates his essence.
Psychology deals with the study of mental processes and a variety of behaviors. In order to fully comprehend ourselves, we need to understand the causes of our behaviors and our outlook on life. Habits and behaviors have positive and negative effects in our life. When we know ourselves and learn about our unique personality, we can develop and pursue goals. Psychology also helps us to understand other people and the differences of people. Gaining this knowledge can improve the relationships and enhance our communication skills. Throughout the psychology course I gained knowledge in various areas, and the topics that impacted me the most included: the introvert, anxiety disorders, stress management, self discipline and how to develop strong relationships.
The expression of a sentient being is manifested by their thoughts, interactions, and beliefs. A person does not have just one distinctive method of how they portray themselves. Human beings are made up of thousands of atoms that when combined in a unique way, will make up one’s original existence. Although this may seem obvious, many people do not think about who they really are. Subconsciously, everyone has an idea of who they are and who they want to be. On the other hand, consciously, many people have low levels of self awareness. A person’s identity can be difficult to determine and frequently many will search extensively for their true self. In the age of millennials, identity is not a singular entity, it is a multi faceted prism.
To me, the simplest understanding of Barry’s unthinkable mind is entering a mindset free of judgment, free of bias, free of all negativity, and one free to create anything. At first, this seemed almost impossible to me, as the mind is always thinking. However, when I took a moment to digest what Barry was saying and what she wanted us to experience, I realized I have been reaching what I can now call my unthinkable mind for years. To me, it is a select state right in the middle of thinking about what “nothingness” means, and the state right after I lose track of a calm and relaxing memory that simply fades away. So now that I have described the state of my unthinkable mind, how exactly do I reach it?