Content vs Structure

[Anderz]

Leo has a new video about content vs structure:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq3htbsa5rk

After only listening for a few minutes it hit a nerve in me when Leo said that we focus more on content than on structure. That's a very interesting observation. Usually I mix up the two I think.

[Anderz]

Another thing that just hit me is that content is particular whereas structure can be general. For example the structure of a chess game is general, it describes all kinds of games that can be played. A real chess game being played on the other hand is content, it's always a particular game, such as Kasparov vs Deep Blue,  New York City, 1997. 

[Zigzag Idiot]

I like a similar frame of reference.

Content and Context.

Context for me means abiding with attention in peripheral vision.

Edited November 11, 2019 by Zigzag Idiot
Added "for me"

[Identity]

Amazing video. Some contemplation questions to leverage the video into our lives:

What is structure? What is content? What is their relationship?

What are the main structures that are dictating my life? What structures am I not aware or? Which would I like to change and how?

Where am I lost in content, when structure is the true cause?

Another excercise I think could be interesting:

take one problem in your life, and try to analyse it not at the cause-effect small picture content level, but try to go meta on it:

- Where have I encountered a similar problem before?

- What are the hidden assumptions and rules dictating that situation?

- Could it be the way that the structure is set up that is causing the problem, instead of an isolated action or incidence within it?

- What structures are even in play in this scenario?

For example, let me try to analyse an argument I had with my girlfriend:

Small picture:

My girlfriend asked me a few things in a row whilst I was giving her a massage. I got annoyed, and told her in bolt manner that I don’t like it when she takes over control when I give a massage. She got silent, I felt something was up. I asked her multiple times if she was oke, she insisted yes. After some more questioning, we got into a debate. I tried to reason with her for a long time, just trying to “talk it out”. After a lot of tha we hugged, she cried and released emotion, problem resolved.

Structure analysis:

We have had similar arguments that have the same structure:

- I get annoyed by something she does multiple times, I dont say anything until I am frustrated.

- Than I do say something, but in an angry manner.

- She gets hurt.

- I notice she gets hurt and try to talk about it with her.

- We talk for a long time without resolution. (Often I am no longer mad or hurt, she is and I try to “fix it”).

- After the long talking we stop talking and she releases her emotions through hugging and crying

- Conflict resolved.

So, by looking at it bigger picture, it becomes clear that our conflicts often have the same structure. This type of structure had played itself out at least 5-10 times in the last 6 months.

Further structural analysis:

I have this structure where I have certain expectations about a situation that I do not communicate. My girlfriend is not aware of them, and can “violate” my expectations. Instead of mentioning it when I first notice it, I try to play it cool and try to be nice. This builds up resentment in me until I react to it in a unconscious mean way, which hurts her.

now we are in the situation that she is hurt. She also tries to play it cool and suppress her emotions, trying to not make a big deal out of it. This counter-intuitively makes a bigger deal out of it, because it more tension is build up as I try to bring it to the surface.

When it comes to the surface, I try to resolve the situation by logically debating. Assuming this will solve it, because I as a guy would like to resolve it that way. This actually does not work, because its at the level of emotion for her, and reasoning will not help it. Instead (we talked about this), when she is hurt I should try to penatrate that hurt by loving her and hugging her, making her feel safe. This is actually what happends at the end of the structure, but in between there is an hour of unnecessary discussion.

So we see how my assumptions and structural reactions create a disfunctional pattern in our relationship. By staying in the content of the debate this cannot be solved. We have to go meta and see the bigger structure at play.

(ps. Ladies let me know how much of my analysis makes sense here ?)

 

[Leo Gura]

@Identity Very good analysis.

Zoom out further and your girlfriend is revealed to be a projection of your own mind. But let's not get ahead of our skiis

[Anderz]

Another thing in the video is about evil (from about 1 hour and 45 minutes). The root cause of evil is structure! That's a huge insight. So simple yet I need to ponder it for a while because the ramifications penetrate into the core of our being,

[Identity]

@Leo Gura Thanks  step by step..  

[Leo Gura]

@Identity Survival is the structure you're looking for in that GF situation.

How are you using her for your survival? How is she using you for her survival? What is the "you" that is being survived? What is her "you" that is being survived?

Manipulation is another sub-structure that will be important to understand in the context of relationships. Notice how you too manipulate each other constantly to meet each others needs. This manipulation creates a dysfunctional dynamic. Successful relationship requires becomes conscious of your manipulations and letting them go. That's a lot of work since you manipulate so much and you do it so seamlessly and habitually.

[Zigzag Idiot]

Could evil be considered coming from the conditioning of acquired Conscience from the Collective ego as opposed to inner truth from Awakened Conscience?

[Leo Gura]

@Zigzag Idiot It's deeper than that. Evil doesn't just come from culture (if that's what you meant). How did culture become evil in the first place? What is the source of all corruption?

[CreamCat]

So, if I want to improve my life, I should improve the structure of my life rather than the contents of my life.

Once structure improves, contents naturally improve. Here is my current life structure.

• My daily schedule
  • When I should wake up and go to bed
  • My morning routine
  • ...
• Personal development rather than skill development
  • Developing life purpose
  • Letting go
  • Balancing things out
  • Strategy
  • Slowing down
  • ...
• ...

Edited November 11, 2019 by CreamCat

[mandyjw]

@Leo Gura You know the red queen effect with survival? That the more survival plays out the more other things catch up to it? 

What is the relationship to survival and love? 

For example from a woman's/mother's point of view, how much of her love for her partner and children is survival and how much of it transcends that. Does she logically have to know there's a difference to transcend it? Or does love transcend it in itself. 

Is love itself the structure? Can love not also be the content? 

[Leo Gura]

@CreamCat That's on the right track.

Although, notice, "I want to improve my life" is itself a high-level structure which runs the whole show of how you go about doing this.

It might turn out that the structure "I want to improve my life" itself needs to be questioned and gone meta on. Maybe striving to improve my life is a big part of the problem here? Maybe the very notion of "my life" is the problem?

[Zigzag Idiot]

3 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

@Zigzag Idiot It's deeper than that. Evil doesn't just come from culture (if that's what you meant). How did culture become evil in the first place?

I was thinking evil manifests in Culture deriving from mechanicalness,,,,,,? Appeasing the herd,,,

[Leo Gura]

2 minutes ago, Zigzag Idiot said:

I was thinking evil manifests in Culture deriving from mechanicalness,,,,,,? Appeasing the herd,,,

Well... I would just encourage you to contemplate What is evil? It's a deep question -- if you're interested. Try to avoid speculation and focus on observing what it is.

[CreamCat]

4 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Maybe striving to improve my life is a big part of the problem here?

What about letting go of my life and improving it simultaneously? I want to see how far I can go in my field. I want to see what is possible.

Edited November 11, 2019 by CreamCat

[Aeris]

2 hours ago, Anderz said:

Leo has a new video about content vs structure:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq3htbsa5rk

After only listening for a few minutes it hit a nerve in me when Leo said that we focus more on content than on structure. That's a very interesting observation. Usually I mix up the two I think.

For me that's the contrary.

I struggled with learning content. Especially cause when system are deconstructed. You Can predict everything and loose the 'fun'

Or having the New fun of a creator'.

Trying to make aswell my own vidéo game at 13 ( with frog creator' / rpg maker though haha ). It open up the mind to Matrix thinking

 

[Zigzag Idiot]

3 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Well... I would just encourage you to contemplate What is evil? It's a deep question -- if you're interested. Try to avoid speculation and focus on observing what it is.

 Part speculation part observation,,,, ?‍♂️

If your orientation is that you love truth so that it will change you and make you a happier person, your orientation is out of sync with how things objectively are; if you see reality as it is, you can’t help but love it. It follows, then, that objectively there is no evil. We see evil only when we perceive reality through a filter. A person who behaves in what we consider evil ways is a person acting through a distortion. In spiritual work, concepts of a devil, of dark forces, of some evil that exists on its own outside of the goodness of reality are considered manifestations of ignorance, both in terms of believing in such concepts and in terms of the manifestations attributed to such forces. All spiritual work would be pointless if there were such a thing as ultimate evil.

There is No Evil Person

Seeing things from this perspective, we see that there is no one who is really bad. No one is evil in an absolute way. Everyone does what he thinks is good. There is no bad person, there is no evil person; there is only the ignorant person. 

From https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/evil

 

[Aeris]

5 minutes ago, CreamCat said:

What about letting go of my life and improving it simultaneously?

Let go of wanting to improve.

Let go of life purpose

Imagine you're going on a rollercoaster. In fact you are in one right now.

Psychedelics and you become aware that It's spinning by itself

[Anderz]

The sense of a personal self, often called the ego, is basically all about content. Being stuck on that level is I guess to be non-actualized in the sense of only being limited to having actualized content.