Summary : The piece endeavours to make the reader question their perception of reality. It attempts to connect facets of our existence — from the mundane to the ‘sacred’, to our need seek familiar patterns everywhere. How this needs occupies our cognition and may be creating a self-consuming cycle within us as an individual and a species. It touches at the origin of purpose and whether it is essential to the human experience. Finally a question is posed, which tries push the reader out of this pattern.
There seems to be such tremendous “awareness” out there in the world. The concept (of awareness) itself has ceased to make sense to me. I find myself in a place questioning my most basic assumptions — and the reality built on them.
Why do we assume so much ? Why do we have a seemingly unlimited tendency to project patterns onto everything — to fit it all into a ‘known’ framework?
Possibly, the field of existence is so vast, that to coherently perceive it from our minuscule frame of reference we must weave it around a finite set of known patterns in order to “work with it”.
One thing which distinguishes us human beings is the ability to understand phenomena and replicate/ manipulate it to our advantage. Surely the way we perceive is ‘more advanced’ than any other species.
However as a fallout, we seem to have lost our ability to appreciate existence in its entirety. What we encounter, no matter how novel or beautiful — we seek to ‘categorise’ it with the greatest alacrity. We first try to fit it into an old pattern of knowledge before attempting to understand what it might be for itself. We try to perceive it from our narrowest window of ‘intellect’.
Do we not see how we set ourselves up for failure here? If we constantly try to fit everything into ‘the old’ (almost dismissively), we will constantly be seeking ‘the new’.
This manifests itself immediately in the material sense. We constantly look for the novel, the exciting — a new phone, new fashion. We look at these as a source of pleasure, but in no time we turn ‘the new’ into ‘the old’ and now they mean nothing to us.
Our essential question then becomes “what else?”. Indicating that at some level we assume that we know all that we need to know about “what is” — or at-least of that which we encounter in our daily lives. Our striving then is no longer to learn or understand, but rather to make sure we “know” everything, and everything that we know fits an old pattern.
This discussion can be extended as an explanation of man’s search for meaning and belief in “the unknowable” (also called God).
Our mind is constantly bombarded with new information (which it has been for millions of years, albeit at different rates of awareness/ absorption). Consequently, it is constantly engaged in fitting it all into existing patterns of knowledge.
Where then is the mind to find a reprieve from this incessant engagement? One solution to this is to create a ‘concept’ — a pursuit, which by definition has no answer — no end.
I believe that this ‘concept’ is the search for the why of existence, of the universe , of humankind, of a “grand design”.
It has existed for thousands of years. Perhaps more so today, this question is utterly beyond our comprehension. 12,000 years ago, we might have been ‘sure’ that there was a higher power controlling the rain, the thunder and the plague. We found refuge in this ‘concept’ then, and we continue to today. We willingly submit to a power beyond us.
Our ever expanding knowledge has seemingly contracted this space of the unknowable while making it more confounding . We know so much more, so the unknowable becomes that much more fearsome. (In the sense — now that we have science, understanding, what indeed is God?) To the extent that some of us now pretend to not believe in it anymore.
Man’s search for meaning continues. Why though? Are we not ‘satisfied’ with the vast knowledge that we have?
I believe that as a species we must have a certain ‘space’ which we cannot “know”. It is like a sacred boundary which we dare not cross, because we cannot cross it .
We create this space out of questions we cannot get the answer to. This ‘space’ , among other things, provides us with something that no other species has — purpose.
Our collective purpose stems from the unknowable. Purpose enables us to endeavour into the unknown with an expectation of finding something new.
In ancient times our purpose was to ease existence, in this life and the next through various rituals. Our purpose today is to know more, control more, grow more — know that which we do not understand. What is common to both? They are driven by the engine of the unknown.
We must question this concept of purpose too. It exists entirely within our minds and is scarcely “out there”, outside of it. It is a pattern of human existence, which while it allows us to function, to achieve , also colours our perspective of reality to a great extent. Like any other label, or system, purpose too, especially its intellectualisation obfuscates out ability to clearly perceive reality — what is.
One might argue at this stage, that it is this entire system that has allowed us to grow and prosper. Without ‘purpose’, there would be no progress. Without our ability to pattern existence, to categorise and organise all of it into the known, society would not be able to function.
We look at modern creations like Artificial intelligence and algorithms which predict exactly what we want. We are to soon reach a stage where we will have ‘complete mastery’ over the universe. A complete understanding from the smallest particles to the largest cosmic entities. A theory of everything. All we seek now is more power. A few more variables, more computational ability, more powerful light-speed engines, a home on mars, a furnace powered by our friendly neighbourhood star.
We are forced to assume that reality must operate on a pattern — since we are able to ‘operate it’ as such.
With this one daren’t to disagree, lest one be categorised as some kind of a social heretic living under an ignorant rock. However, a question that can be posed at this stage is —
Is it your mind directing the patterns or are the patterns directing your mind?
Note: The entire article is at great risk to fall prey to the exact ‘fallacy’ it is talking about. In case that happens, don’t worry, this whole discussion is a well known pattern of thought, which has occurred many times and will continue to in the future. *wink*
Further there is to be no ‘prescription’ or ‘way out of this’, this is left entirely to the reader, whether one is “needed” at all or if it is “unknowable”.
The patterns are watching you, more-so than you are watching them.
