The Path to Hell: Symbols

[StephenK]

I'm slowly starting to realize that most of my suffering is because my mind is trapped in a specific symbolic framework/network. When we as a society look at things, we try to create grotesque symbolic representations of what is truly a miraculous non-symbolic reality. We look at a truly complex system of cells, fluids, electrical currents, responses and call it 'human' or 'mother' or 'daughter', 'bad man', 'good man'. Symbols are there to hide the truly miraculous nature of things, and in doing so, hell within the mind is created since we divorce ourselves from what is.

I have also been having flashbacks to when I was 2-3 years old, where reality was a continuous, amorphous, dynamic system of inputs and outputs, without labels and abstractions. There was no 'me' nor was there 'other' -- there was just manifest reality.  I'm am starting to realize I saw reality more clearly as a toddler than I do as an adult.

wtf? how does this make any sense?  

 

[cetus]

3 minutes ago, StephenK said:

There was no 'me' nor was there 'other' -- there was just manifest reality.  I'm am starting to realize I saw reality more clearly as a toddler than I do as an adult.

wtf? how does this make any sense?  

@StephenK That answers it and it makes perfect sense. I too had the same realization of toddler vs. adult.

[Misagh]

When one is asked to take out the trash, one doesn't sift through the bag, looking at each individual piece. He throws out the trash. So it is with the ego's antics. 

[Misagh]

<3

[Basegodmike]

As a toddler there no programming, so your more in tune with reality. Raw reality coming at you infinite directions . That innocence of just being is why toddlers are mostly Happy.  

I know this story where a 2 year old ask a baby "what is heaven like I'm  starting to forget "

[Shin]

!

[StephenK]

@cetus56  I feel as if I am learning the same lessons over and over again, then forgetting them, then remembering. Life is a wheel.

4 hours ago, Outer said:

I really want to tell you that this is a distraction.

Oh, I don't doubt it. Everything (cognitive) seems like a distraction at this point. The more I deconstruct the symbols within my mind, they're replaced with finer grain symbols, but symbols non the less. Does this deconstructing process go on forever? I don't know. Am I going somewhere? Probably not...

@Misagh What if you don't know what trash is?

2 hours ago, Shin said:

!

Nice

[Forestluv]

5 hours ago, StephenK said:

I'm slowly starting to realize that most of my suffering is because my mind is trapped in a specific symbolic framework/network. When we as a society look at things, we try to create grotesque symbolic representations of what is truly a miraculous non-symbolic reality. We look at a truly complex system of cells, fluids, electrical currents, responses and call it 'human' or 'mother' or 'daughter', 'bad man', 'good man'. Symbols are there to hide the truly miraculous nature of things, and in doing so, hell within the mind is created since we divorce ourselves from what is.

I have also been having flashbacks to when I was 2-3 years old, where reality was a continuous, amorphous, dynamic system of inputs and outputs, without labels and abstractions. There was no 'me' nor was there 'other' -- there was just manifest reality.  I'm am starting to realize I saw reality more clearly as a toddler than I do as an adult.

wtf? how does this make any sense?  

 

I'd be careful about giving *meaning* to insights. It looks like you are gaining some insight into symbols, relativity and nonduality. 

Yet, it seems like your mind is adding a lot of extra stuff: "Symbols are there to hide the truly miraculous nature of things, and in doing so, hell within the mind is created since we divorce ourselves from what is."

"Hellish" is just one interpretation. I find what you described to be sooo fascinating. I want learn more and more about it!! It's exciting!!

[StephenK]

@Serotoninluv Fair enough. I guess I'm just realizing that the symbolic framework with which I view the world has/is tying me in knots. Some symbolic frameworks can cause tremendous distress. I guess we each have our own unique biology and genetics that respond in very different ways.  

[Forestluv]

3 minutes ago, StephenK said:

@Serotoninluv Fair enough. I guess I'm just realizing that the symbolic framework with which I view the world has/is tying me in knots. Some symbolic frameworks can cause tremendous distress. I guess we each have our own unique biology and genetics that respond in very different ways.  

I like the old saying "Uncover, discover and discard".

I like learning about the personality - yet if I start a new mantra about how some new insight is tormenting me, I will get a lot more of it.

Perhaps detach and de-identify and contemplate how symbolic frameworks could cause stress to a person. I would also consider how symbolic frameworks can also enrich the human experience.