{"id":2693,"date":"2019-06-17T15:28:27","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T15:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intrinsicspace.me\/?p=2693"},"modified":"2019-06-17T15:28:27","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T15:28:27","slug":"all-thought-is-conjecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intrinsicspace.me\/2019\/06\/17\/all-thought-is-conjecture\/","title":{"rendered":"All Thought Is Conjecture"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The most basic \u2018error’ that we make in life is to our base our sense of well-being on our thoughts. We allow ourselves to feel good on the basis of our thoughts, and we also allow ourselves to feel bad<\/em> on account of them – we can’t really have the one without the other! So – just to give a simple example – suppose I am about to sit an exam: I can think to myself that the exam is \u2018in the bag’ that I’m going to ace<\/em> it, in which case I will of course feel great, or I can think that I am definitely going to flunk it and fail miserably, in which case I will of course feel correspondingly bad.<\/p>\n

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This is such a commonplace example that we will in all probability think nothing of it. Of course some thoughts make us feel good whilst others make us feel bad \u2013 what of it? The point is however that this is completely ridiculous; thoughts are conjectures, they are guesses about what is going to happen, or what is<\/em> happening, so how can we possibly feel good or bad on this basis? <\/em>We’re actually being very lazy here \u2013 we\u2019re jumping to the conclusion the thought is the very same thing as the reality and we’re not even bothering to notice that we have <\/em>made this assumption! We\u2019re jumping to conclusions without noticing that we\u2019re making the jump. What we’ve done is that we have flagrantly ignored the uncertainty that is inherently involved in everything, and at the same time we have ignored the fact that we are ignoring it.<\/p>\n

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The uncertainty that we are ignoring so happily as the difference between \u2018reality’ and \u2018the thought about reality’ and this is a very big difference indeed. What bigger difference could there be than the difference between \u2018the description of the thing’ and \u2018the thing itself’? To assume that there is nothing in the thing that is not in the description of it our description of it is very lazy indeed; to be completely and uncritically accepting at the veracity of our own conceptualization of the world is what we might call \u2018a terminal lack of curiosity in life itself’, and this is, of course, what \u2018laziness’ (that innocent sounding word) ultimately comes down to.<\/p>\n

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The ultimate form of laziness is \u2013 we might say \u2013 where we fail to differentiate between the formal description and the thing that is being described, where we fail to look beyond the conventional labels that we have for things and what these conventional labels actually refer to.<\/em> We fail to look beyond our thoughts, in other words, and \u2013 by default \u2013 take our thoughts to be synonymous with what is being thought about.<\/em> This is like a deep dark hole that we fall into<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, and what happens <\/em>when we do fall into this hole is that all the intrinsic uncertainty goes out of our life, and all that we are going to be left with are various dull shades of \u2018certainty\u2019, various shades of grey.<\/p>\n

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The black-and-white nature of this grey world (which is the conjectural world<\/em> that thought has created for us) gives rise to various corresponding states of feeling. The type of concrete conjectures we make about the world (without realising that we have made a conjecture) conditions us<\/em><\/strong> to feel a particular way \u2013 either \u2018good’ to a lesser or greater extent or \u2018bad’ to a lesser or greater extent. The important point to note here is therefore that we wouldn’t feel \u2018automatically good’ or \u2018automatically bad’ in this way if we did <\/em><\/strong>know that we are reacting to pure conjecture. If there is some \u2018reflex reaction’ of either feeling good or bad about the concrete reality that is been identified by thought then what this means is that (on some level) we have lost sight<\/em> of the fact that \u2018thought\u2019s conjecture is only conjecture\u2019. Our reactivity shows that we have \u2018gotten lazy’, in other words!<\/p>\n

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When we fall into this hole of \u2018forgetting about intrinsic or irreducible uncertainty’ (which is the same as \u2018forgetting that our thoughts are only conjectures’) then we have to get everything out of the conceptual\/concrete world that thought produces for us. There is nowhere else to look and so of course everything has to be bought in this one shop. The only ingredients are the ingredients that can be found in this pantry and if the pantry is limited then there\u2019s nothing we can do about it! We just have to cook up a meal with limited ingredients\u2026 As far as we\u2019re concerned the concrete, thought-created world is the only world there is<\/em> and this necessarily makes us<\/em> very concrete too. Our emotional reaction to the world becomes \u2018jerky’ in nature \u2013 we are constantly either \u2018going up\u2019 or \u2018going down\u2019 depending on whether the situation we are in is deemed by thought \u2018favourable’ or \u2018unfavourable’, \u2018advantageous’ or \u2018disadvantage us’. Thought pulls the strings and we jump this way or that accordingly.<\/p>\n

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There is no peace or stillness to be had in the concrete\/conceptual world therefore \u2013 we are always<\/em><\/strong> either \u2018heading in a positive direction\u2019 or \u2018heading in a negative direction\u2019 and there is no possibility of us ever finding ourselves in a situation where we don’t<\/em><\/strong> have to be either constantly \u2018seeking the advantage’ or \u2018avoiding the disadvantage’. That just isn\u2019t going to happen. The rational mind always <\/em><\/strong>has to be on duty, in other words; everything always has to be controlled, everything always has to be regulated. \u2018Controlling\u2019 is a job that never comes to an end; there is no question of us \u2018controlling so successfully that we never have to control again’ \u2013 we think<\/em> that there is this possibility, but there just isn’t!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The one thing we will never find in the mind-created world is peace<\/em>, therefore. There simply is no peace, no stillness to find there and to be searching for peace<\/em> (as we are, whether we know it or not) with no chance of ever finding it is a fundamentally unhappy sort of an existence, no matter which way you look at it! Not only is it unhappy because we are always (whether we know it or not) looking for the one thing we can never have, it is also \u2018an unhappy existence’ because how we feel about ourselves and the world is always being determined by our thoughts, by the thinking mind, which we have very unwisely put in charge of our (perceived) well-being.<\/em><\/p>\n

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If thought sees us as \u2018gaining the advantage’ then we automatically get a feel good, and if it sees us as \u2018incurring a disadvantage\u2019 (or \u2018being at risk<\/em> of incurring a disadvantage\u2019) then we feel we automatically get to feel bad. What kind of a ridiculous situation is this<\/em> however? How on earth can life be reduced to a matter of always seeking the advantage in everything we do? How can life be reduced to just a game in this way? The full gamut of neurotic pain arises from this grimly mechanical orientation of ours; as we have just said, what we are essentially doing here is putting ourselves at the mercy of the thinking mind and asking that very unforgiving mind what it wants us to do so that it will be pleased <\/em>with us and reward us with a good feeling. We are assuming that there is a way of \u2018pleasing the thinking mind’ however, and there isn’t! The mechanical mind is a complete and utter tyrant<\/em><\/strong>, and what’s more \u2013 it is a tyrant that (in the long run) is never going to be pleased<\/em>. In this respect, the everyday mechanical mind is more like a bully <\/em><\/strong>than a straightforward tyrant \u2013 the more we give in to it and try to please it the more cruelly and ruthlessly it will bully us. <\/em>Anyone who has ever had any experience of neurotic suffering knows this.<\/p>\n

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The \u2018cure’ for neurotic pain (which is the meaningless pain of always trying to please the machine-mind which is in charge of us) is simply to stop believing in everything it tells us.<\/em> The default situation is for thought to tell us something and for \u2018the way we feel about things’ to change according to what it has told us. We are emotionally coupled<\/em> to our thoughts, in other words. We bob up or sink down, we perk up brightly when a \u2018positive thought\u2019 comes along and then we get knocked back down again by a \u2018negative one\u2019. Our strings are pulled and we respond obediently, we respond automatically. Nothing we think<\/em> can change this and this is something that’s very hard for us to understand (naturally enough, since we are so habituated to using the thinking mind to solve everything); we see thought causing us to feel bad when there is no need for us to be feeling bad, and so we try to use thought to correct <\/em><\/strong>this error, in a nice logical way, and we don\u2019t see any problem with this. But in doing this we are of course handing over responsibility to thought even more<\/em> and this is the very last <\/em><\/strong>thing we should be doing! We\u2019re still trying to please the bully \u2013 we\u2019re still trying to please the machine-mind. We haven\u2019t \u2018got it’ yet\u2026.<\/p>\n

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There is only one<\/em> helpful thing that we can do and it’s a lot simpler than falling into the treacherous morass of \u2018using thought to correct thought’. There is only one<\/em> helpful thing we can ever do and that is create some space the between us and our thoughts\u2019 so that we have some degree of independence from them. This is the space between stimulus and response that Viktor E. Frankl speaks of in this well-known passage –<\/p>\n

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is the gap that gives us back our autonomy and peace of mind \u2013 without <\/em>it there can be no possibility of either! Cognitive restructuring is no good to us because every time we use thinking we \u2018close the gap’, obviously! The only thing that brings about this gap, this life-giving discontinuity between consciousness and thought, is paying attention.<\/em> Not \u2018paying attention with a view to fixing anything\u2019 (which would mean that our \u2018noticing\u2019 is serving the master of the rational mind) but \u2018noticing for no reason’, or as we could also put it \u2013 simply being aware<\/em>. Actually, simply being aware<\/em> (or \u2018noticing without an agenda\u2019) is the very same thing as the space between stimulus and response that Viktor Frankl is talking about. That space is consciousness<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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To simply be aware means not being pulled in<\/em> by the urge to fix (the urge to correct) all the time, and this is at root nothing more than fear.<\/em> We are afraid to let things be. This is also the reason we always are always so quick to make guesses about the nature of reality and instantaneously forget that our guesses are only guesses. This is the concrete manifestation of fear<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 fear makes us want to fill up all the available space and when it comes right down to we don’t really care what<\/em> type of nonsense it is that we are filling it up with! This is what fear is <\/em><\/strong>\u2013 it’s the overwhelming desire to fill up all the available space.<\/em> Fear is the overwhelming need to \u2018run away from space\u2019<\/em>. We’re driven by the urge to ‘shut down space<\/a><\/strong><\/span>‘; we\u2019re afraid of space because space equals irreducible uncertainty<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 ‘space’ is another word for the intrinsic uncertainty which allows for the unfolding of all things. Intrinsic uncertainty is (we might say) like a blank page<\/em> \u2013 a blank page is \u2018uncertain’ because it hasn’t been written on yet! We like the thinking mind\u2019s concrete conjectures because then we can just get on with the \u2018matter-of-fact\u2019 task of accommodating ourselves to the script that has been given to us. The script that the mind gives us is \u2018already finished’ \u2013 everything has already been decided and so all we have to do is \u2018get on with it’. We don’t have to relate to the Bigger Picture (which is always uncertain), we don’t have to \u2018ask any of the big questions\u2019. All we need to do is \u2018act out’ the script; all we need to do is \u2018follow the stage directions\u2019. All that is required is for us to \u2018do what the script tells us to do, say what it tells us to say, and feel what it tells us to feel\u2019. <\/em>That’s all we know of life, all we need<\/em> to know!
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\u2018Ignorance is bliss,’ in other words, although it isn’t really any sort of \u2018bliss\u2019 at all but simply \u2018ongoing drudgery’ \u2013 the ongoing drudgery of believing that the thinking mind\u2019s unexamined conjectures are a \u2018concrete reality’ that we have to adapt ourselves to.<\/em><\/strong> Who doesn\u2019t know this drudgery? We are promised great things at the end of it all of course but that’s merely a cheap trick that is being used to incentivise us. What \u2018great things\u2019 could ever come about as a result of us forgetting that the rational mind\u2019s conjectures are only conjectures? The \u2018Great Thing\u2019 that we\u2019re looking for is to be found in the intrinsic uncertainty of life itself<\/em> (which is synonymous with what we have called the \u2018Big Picture\u2019) not in what the dogmatic old \u2018machine-mind\u2019 has to say on the subject\u2026<\/p>\n

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Art: Graffiti by Achilles<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

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The most basic \u2018error’ that we make in life is to our base our sense of well-being on our thoughts. We allow ourselves to feel good on the basis of our thoughts, and we also allow ourselves to feel bad on account of them – we can’t really have the one without the other! So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[150,176,238],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intrinsicspace.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intrinsicspace.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intrinsicspace.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intrinsicspace.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intrinsicspace.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/intrinsicspace.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intrinsicspace.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intrinsicspace.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intrinsicspace.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}