A small piece from a book I'm working on:
All ideas and thoughts are merely mental constructs laid over the actual world as experienced. In that sense, anything put into words is a lie. Many people have fooled themselves, though, into thinking that only our ideas are real, and the world is an illusion. Isn't that backwards? Then again, the ideas of "real" and "illusion" are just mental constructs as well, and therefore may as well be interchangeable.
We are a piece of life that developed these brains, which were originally a very practical tool for survival, to the point of self-consciousness, and then began the long and horrible, beautiful, journey to where we are now. Our mental constructs, this "civilization," this world of mind that we have built over the centuries, is both our glory and our idiocy, sublime and cruel, ridiculous and ravishing--the best and the worst of us.
As we grow from infancy, we gradually lose the ability to experience the world as pure being, and live more and more in our minds, in the world we have constructed for ourselves, our idea of self, our ideas of everything, rather than the the things themselves. The best thing for us as adults, is to get out of our minds for a while, in order to regain our perspective, in order to perhaps glimpse, even if we don't understand, how things might actually be.
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Have you researched Quantum Physics and The Holographic Universe etc? They might give you more insight into what you're writing about.
Piece2YourPuzzle
Level 8
Apr 27, 2018
2
A little bit about quantum physics, but not the holographic universe.
Philosophy 101: phenomenology, try Husserl.
WileEQuixote
Level 7
Apr 27, 2018
2
I'll try this again as my original comment seems to have disappeared for some reason.
You have written yourself out of a book in the first paragraph. Whatever else you may have to say after that is negated by the original statements.
evidentialist
Level 8
Apr 27, 2018
2
Maybe so. It's very late in the book, and it's just a collection of thoughts and ideas expressed in different forms, so that's okay.
@tnorman1236 -- Let's see the opening two paragraphs.
@evidentialist It's not really like that. The chapters are arranged loosely by subject matter, and the beginning is mostly memoir, and about my childhood. This piece came from a later chapter of philosophical reflections.
The problem with big statements like "anything put into words is a lie" is that the statement itself, if true, is a lie. Philosophies built on any such premises are infinitely regressive or self-contradictory and you simply end up with the position that your mind exhausts itself in. If you are only writing poetry and like the paradox, that's fine.
Gareth
Level 7
Apr 27, 2018
2
It's a book of my thinking. I'm not saying it's all correct. It's thoughts and ideas that I have had.
This is precisely why I find meditation to be beneficial. Meditation allows me to separate myself from the thoughts and ideas passing through my mind. I do enjoy reading what you write and would encourage you to carry on....
kenbur12
Level 5
Apr 27, 2018
1
Thank you.
I understand what you are saying, but strongly disagree with how you are saying it. When, as biological organisms, interact with your environment and we form cognitive structures to help us make sense of and respond effectively to the environment. Are our cognitive structures perfect replicas of the actual world. Of course not. Yes those structures both help us to respond effectively, and limit us to our current understanding -- which may be very wrong. But, that is how we operate, and that is reality.
In your writing, I perceive that you are trying to sensationalize the facts and issues -- and in so doing, you do an injustice to the matter. You seem to be saying that our imperfect perception is nothing more than a lie' ergo our whole existence is a lie.I perceive that you need to redo the whole piece. .
wordywalt
Level 9
Apr 27, 2018
3
Like I said earlier, it's a record of thoughts and ideas that I have had. I don't make any claim to truth or profundity.
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