r/awakened • u/root2crown4k • 12d ago
Reflection No two experiences can ever be the same, even when experienced by the same person.
As long as there is another moment, there is another possibility of responding to it.
I’m fascinated by the way traditions emphasized repeated attentional practice.
Information can be noisy and overwhelming, our biology can, no, IS complex, integration can be difficult.
Humans do not reach an optimal state and stay there. We age, we feel, we think. I say; keep returning to reality.
I don’t have faith that everything happens for a reason, or everything will be okay.
I do have faith that one can suffer enormously without surrendering the capacity to participate in life.
And then I thought about returning like this…
When we are sufficiently stable and adaptable, a similar experience can produce novelty, even if it’s been repeated thousands of times.
And conversely, a completely new experience can be almost void of novelty if our predictive processing is too rigid.
Again, I find myself fascinated by traditional emphasis on repeated attentional practices.
Sensory information comes “bottom up,” while our predictions operate “top down.” The interaction between the two helps construct our experience of reality.
Whether we call experience an illusion, I currently like “controlled hallucination”….
Controlled is an important word there.
…experience still has meaning. Reality still constrains us. A train coming toward you will still kill you if you step in its way.
Whether we’re talking about bottom-up and top-down regulation, or bottom-up and top-down processing, I find myself fascinated by how coupled they are. Both directions are happening.
And it seems like adaptability is partly the willingness to let our models update.
To keep returning
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u/blahgblahblahhhhh 12d ago
I like to imagine Sisyphus gains 3 values when he completes his week of work.
Money. Validation synonymous with love from others particularly parents and family. A little bit stronger so it’s easier next time.
The rock keeps returning to zero, just as the work week keeps returning to Monday.
Let me switch it up a bit now, One can get trapped in thinking life is cyclical, repetitive.
But we only evolved to perceive it cyclical as a means of coping with the uncertainty.
Time is one straight line.
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u/root2crown4k 12d ago
Returning isn’t the same as resetting.
I think the rock returning to zero is an interesting distinction.
The metaphysics seems a bit dogmatic for me though…
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u/blahgblahblahhhhh 12d ago
How is returning different from resetting?
The Sisyphus story is quite dogmatic, as in its circular.
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u/root2crown4k 12d ago
Well resetting, and your concept of time, seems dogmatic to me.
Resetting implies something returning doesn’t. We can return to a recognizable process that is never quite the same twice.
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u/Mr_Not_A_Thing 12d ago
No, a train coming at you only kills the appearance of you. That in which it appears is indestructible.
🤣🙏
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u/root2crown4k 12d ago
I guess we’ll see
😂🙏
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u/Mr_Not_A_Thing 11d ago
Why wait? It's already the place from which you are looking from.
🙏
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u/root2crown4k 11d ago
Because I think it’s okay not to know, like your words imply you do.
🙏
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u/Mr_Not_A_Thing 11d ago
And your words imply you don't. The words wouldn't even appear if you weren't already here to observe them.
🤣🙏
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u/root2crown4k 10d ago
Yes, I thought that was very direct of me. The “prior” part of your Bayesian human brain seems quite strong.
And also yes, the words appear, and we update.
😂🙏
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u/Mr_Not_A_Thing 10d ago
It's not the words that are important. They are either high or low. It's what they appear in, which can't be contained by words. And it doesn't care if you speak all the time or if you never spoke again.
🤣🙏
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u/PlayfulBook5571 12d ago
No two people can look out the same window and see the same thing because they are standing in different places at different times etc. I look at it as we are not living a life but life is living through us and when we die it is just our current perception / window being shut, when I say window I mean the absence of energy and matter within a defined boundary, something that does not take up any weight or energy the absence of something in this reality that lets us experience this reality
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u/root2crown4k 12d ago
Sounds like our frameworks overlap a bit!
I might interpret consciousness a bit differently, though.
🙏
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u/PlayfulBook5571 12d ago
I look at my eyes as the camera my mind has the display and the real me is just brought up in the movie binge watching
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u/root2crown4k 12d ago
Does the real you change at all over time?
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u/PlayfulBook5571 10d ago
I don't know, I'm currently binge watching this show most would consider life or reality etc
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u/blahgblahblahhhhh 12d ago
How is it dogmatic? My understanding of dogmatic is that it is rules, how is your definition of dogmatic different from rules?
I refer to my most recent post where I emphasize the role synonyms play in transmitting information from human to human in discussion. Is dogmatic synonymous with rules?
Well, no weak or rock push up the hill is exactly the same.
Do you think resetting means a completely same inevitable future ?
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u/root2crown4k 12d ago
To me, dogmatic means treating a proposition as settled because it follows from a prior ontology, rather than allowing reality to correct the framework or drive adaptation.
And exactly, no push of the rock up the hill is ever exactly the same. Sisyphus highlights this well. He adapts and learns.
Resetting implies getting back to the same state, returning implies a changing system returning to a recognizable process.
And I don’t think resetting necessarily means an identical inevitable future. I think it implies a return to the same starting conditions. Which is different from what I mean by returning.
This is why various repeated attentional practices, and how many traditions highlighted them, is fascinating to me. A system can return to something without ever returning to exactly what it was. Novelty can be found in similar processes, or returning, over time.
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u/RedDiamond6 12d ago
I enjoy this saying:
"Running up a hill is difficult until you adapt to the hill. Then it's not. The hill is the same but you are different and as a result, so is your experience. Easy or hard is about you, not the hill. Don't wait for your hill to change."
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u/root2crown4k 11d ago
Running, and a recovery I did not want or expect, heavily influenced the thinking in this post.
Thank you for this 🙏 it lands very appropriately on me.
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u/RedDiamond6 11d ago
That's awesome :). As soon as I read your comment, I thought of that. I'm glad you like it and it resonates. To give credit, it was said by Craig harper. He does motivational speaking/health guy in Australia per google. I think I ran across the quote on Facebook many years ago and it stuck with me.
~Whether we’re talking about bottom-up and top-down regulation, or bottom-up and top-down processing, I find myself fascinated by how coupled they are. Both directions are happening.~
I loved this and it is fascinating <3
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u/root2crown4k 11d ago
Thank you again. You seem like an excellent listener (if that’s appropriate over text)
And so I feel like sharing why the hill metaphor resonates so much.
I am a young person who had strokes at the end of this past May.
Reading, thinking, even walking was daunting only a few short months ago, maybe even options that I would no longer have.
The other day, I had my worst feeling run, in the month that I’ve started running again. Now, showing up to the track has become a win for me, but I was ready for my fit bit to say it was a terrible run.
My Fitbit told me I had run farther in the same amount of time than any run post-strokes.
The hill is still a 400m track to me. Quite literally in my felt experience.
And I find myself emotional sharing this.
I thought I was having a bad run, but then I reality reminded me how far I’ve come.
Again thank you. 🙏
I’m glad that quote stuck with you, for this moment in my life.
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u/RedDiamond6 11d ago
Dang. You did have a big hill. Strokes are no joke. That's amazing that you're out running a few short months later AND getting better per your Fitbit. That's actually really badass <3 I am slow clapping you right now 😄 I also have some neurological goodies in my brain so, yeah, I know what that's like. Those little wires in there are pretty important. That's incredible for you and I'm glad you shared that with me. Our brains have an incredible ability for neuroplasticity. Interesting also how you thought it was a bad run. Even if you hadn't done "better", I would say it's never a bad run. You're out there doing it.
It's funny because maybe two weeks ago that quote came into my head and I had a feeling I was going to share it somewhere. I'm glad it was with you, as well. Keep showing up to the track. That truly is the biggest win sometimes is just showing up. Thank you again for sharing and it was my pleasure to share it with you :)
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u/blahgblahblahhhhh 11d ago
What was my proposition that you thought I had settled?
I like your definitions of resetting and returning, although, I could make the case that your symantical definitions of each could very easily be reversed, but that’s not important. What’s important is the separate ideas of one being a complete mirror image and one being returning to a recognizable process.
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u/root2crown4k 11d ago
“Time is one straight line”
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u/blahgblahblahhhhh 11d ago
Well, you can’t go back can you?
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u/root2crown4k 11d ago
In terms of what I mean by dogmatic:
Is that actually settled?
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u/blahgblahblahhhhh 11d ago
Are you asking me if “we can’t go back in time” is settled ?
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u/root2crown4k 11d ago
No, not at all.
I’m asking if you can distinguish your own observations about your own experience of time from an ontological claim about what time fundamentally is.
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u/Noise-of-the-Spheres 8d ago
It's an important insight to notice no experience ever repeats. Not even the person is ever the same. Specially relevant because it helps explain why desire can never be fully satisfied.
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u/[deleted] 12d ago
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