Forgetfulness: Ego's ultimate weapon against self-actualization.

[Maxman]

You talked about the concept of forgetfulness in Islam and how they do the ritual of namaaz 5 times a day to deal with that. Can you elaborate more on how forgetfulness can hinder the process of self-actualization and how it can scratch years of self-actualization progress in ways we don't even realise? Also please suggest ways to deal with it.

Edited December 11, 2019 by Maxman
Could have put the same idea in fewer words

[Virtually]

Agreed

[LordFall]

It's the most simple but cleverest and destructive one. How can you reach your goals if you forget about them?

[bilal]

"forgetfulness is the opposite of consciousness"

we do consciousness work exactly to lower the chances of behaving less forgetfully.

making a video on "forgetfulness" is equivalent to making a video on "duality".

infant leo should make on videos on the opposite topics. by understanding opposite side we will enhance our consciousness further.

[Identity]

@LordFall Thats where the big ass dreamboard comes in ?

[StripedGiraffe]

Would love to see this video. This inspired me to do some contemplation about memory and forgetting.

What does it mean to forget?

Forget means a concept leaves your awareness. We only become conscious of forgetting when we try to recall something, but we cannot remember a specific concept within the frame of the "search". If we do not become conscious that we have forgotten or we never try to recall a concept, it's as if the concept never existed. Perhaps these concepts are still stored subconsciously and affect us from the subconscious but in terms of remembering, if we cannot consciously recall a concept, that memory is erased, we have forgotten. This is what happens to 99.9 % percent of everything we experience and conceptualize over time. We can also say that we have forgotten something even if it is possible to recall. However, we often don't remember to recall the concept without a specific trigger. For example, If you have homework due at midnight, it's possible to totally forget and not do it even though if somebody had asked you if you had homework, you would recall that yes, you do. So we might say that forgetting is simply being unaware of something you were previously aware of. So if you're practicing concentration on your breath with your eyes closed, if you achieve true concentration, by my definition, you will have forgotten everything else you know because the only thing that you are aware of is the feeling of your breath. Of course, you still have access to all of your normal information but until you actually remember it, it is forgotten. Notice that before reading this sentence, you were not aware of what you had for dinner last night. One could say you forgot. Notice that this forgetting extends to the most basic knowledge. For example, before reading this, you were not aware of your age. Of course, you can probably remember it very quickly. The concept of you being a certain age did not exist until you became directly conscious of it in this moment. Here's a thought experiment. Let's say nobody ever asked you your name for the next year. You don't have to write it, say it, or even think of it at any point in the next year. One might say you have forgotten your name. You might be thinking "But StripedGiraffe, just because I didn't directly think of my name, doesn't mean I forgot it." I still know it. But notice that you have to recall it in order to bring it into your conscious awareness. That's what it means to remember. Just like forgetting to do your homework does not mean the assignment was erased from your memory, it just didn't come back into your awareness. 

What determines what we remember and what we forget?

The likelihood that you will remember something is determined by the significance of the concept relative to your egoic survival. The more relevant a concept is to your survival, the more often you will recall it. The more often you recall a concept, the longer that memory will survive. Also, the more often you recall a concept, the easier and faster it will be to recall in the future. This whole process is one of the main forces at the root of how we create thinking patterns. Thoughts are also concepts that we use for survival. To better understand this, I'd like to create two categories of thoughts: memories and creative thoughts. By definition, creative thoughts are new, original, and can never be repeated or habitual. Memories, however, are strictly thoughts that you have previously have had before. They are concepts that you have previously been aware of and have become aware of again. Much, if not most, of your thinking is "memory thinking". We're just rethinking these old thought patterns that are most relevant to our survival over and over again. It's also not necessarily true that these patterns are even currently very relevant to your survival. When a thought is repeated enough times, it becomes our default way of thinking, especially when we experience the same thought cues and triggers every day. That's why switching up your environment and routine would be helpful for changing thinking patterns. Notice that these mechanisms do not work in a way that promotes happiness, peace, growth, and self-actualization. Instead, these mechanisms promote homeostasis. You can use this knowledge, however, take some strategic actions that will support you.

What can we do about forgetfulness?

First of all, it's worth mentioning that we can improve our memories through proper diet, exercise, meditation, brain training, and nootropics. It may be impossible to control what you forget, but it is very possible to influence what you remember, which is actually much more important since remembering is the primary driver behind our thought, and our thoughts create our reality. We can strategically create cues or reminders to trigger thinking patterns and habits that support our higher consciousness aspirations. For example, if you want to be more grateful, you can set reminders to pop up on your phone that ask "What are you grateful for?" or you can write it on your mirror. When you get an important insight, it's important to record it, or else it may be erased into nothing, never to be remembered again. Don't trust your ego when it says, "I don't need to write this down, I'll remember." The tricky part is when you don't recall something that you wanted to remember, you don't even remember that you've forgotten anything! Because of this blind spot, your ego will never be caught when it truly forgets something. Remembering or recalling something is totally outside your control unless you consciously create a cue to remind you of it. 

[Hello from Russia]

Fuck this shit, I suffer from it a lot too.