Cloudscape - philosophy

Perception through Association

noreply@blogspirit.com (Oneiromancer) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:32:00 +0100

In some way or other, we perceive everything through some sort of association with something we already know, even if it is but a very basic aspect of it. If this association is too close, it will be so similar that our mind will label the experience as irrelevant, because it is already used to it. If the association is too distant, it will seem so extraneous that our mind will be unable to understand it, because it has never seen anything the like. If there is almost no association whatsoever, the mind will be completely unable to register it, because if it did register such sort of information, it would go mad.

We limit our consciousness to a relatively narrow range because if we did not, we would be overwhelmed by the overflow of information. Schizophrenics are people who fail to filter information in this way. Much of the information processed in our subconscious mind is hallucinatory, because we need this hallucinatory information to be able to project ourselves into future situations. Because the mind cannot tell hallucinations apart from reality in any other way, it simply excludes whatever information that is most alien to it. If we were aware of all the information that is processed in our mind, we would be completely dissociated from reality.

Because we perceive everything through associations with something else, we will also, at least partly, perceive beauty in something by associating it with beauty we already know. The perception of beauty spreads from an original perception thereof and then spreads onto other perceptions as we learn to appreciate variety.

We do not perceive the beauty of things by themselves, but in their context. Beauty is formed through complexity, and therefore through variety. Something can but contribute to the complexity of the whole if it adds to its variety, that is, if it is original. Everything can be infinitely beautiful, but to be perceived as beautiful to us, it must be neither too mundane nor too alien to us.

Something only becomes beautiful through the combination with something else. The smallest possible element of something we can perceive has no substance by itself because it is but uniformly itself. Everything is relative, and so nothing can have any substance without being compared to something else.

The Self-Destruction of Excesses

noreply@blogspirit.com (Oneiromancer) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 13:41:00 +0100

Either too much yang or too much yin will break down into nothingness, and so nothing can still be gained from them unless they are recombined with their opposite. Until then, their energy is lost.

If all space is filled, it is empty of space. If all space is empty, it is filled with space. If there is too much of either it destroys both its opposite as itself.

The world is like an infinite drawing of black and white ink. Whether you start from a black paper or a white paper, when you begin, the paper is still empty, and if too little or too much of either is used, it will return to this state of emptiness, whether it be black or white. Too little of either, and there is nothing to begin with at all.

Complexity cannot be achieved except through a combination of either, and without complexity, there is but vacuum. Wherever there is complexity in the universe, this pattern is met, because all complexity comes down to this pattern in some way or other, that is, the pattern of opposites combined into one. There cannot be complexity without this pattern because it is synonymous to complexity. By far the most complex structure in the universe we know is the biosphere, and it constantly interchanges emptiness and fullness, down to the very atomic level of our own bodies.

Too much fullness is like an explosion, too much emptiness is like a vacuum. Both can kill you. If you are in a state of either too much fullness or too much emptiness, seek for its opposite, and only for its opposite. At this point, do not focus on protecting what there was in excess, for as long as it is not combined with its opposite, it will inevitably destroy itself no matter what, and no matter how you focus on protecting it, it will not avail anything. If it is not supported through this combination, it will collapse, and so the only way to retain it is to pay no attention to retaining it and concentrate instead entirely on its opposite. The more excesses are fed, the faster they will destroy itself.

Anything will collapse if there is too little of its opposite. If opposites are not combined, the only way that balance can be restored is through disintegration.

The Symbolism behind the Four Classical Elements

noreply@blogspirit.com (Oneiromancer) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:51:09 +0100

The four classical elements, while originally denoting elements from which the world was made, may actually be symbols for the elements of our own mind. Our subconscious may communicate its state of mind in dreams through these four elements. Not only that, but we may also communicate back with our subconscious in the same way, that is, by using the four elements in hypnosis.

Our mind is familiar with the characteristics of each, and so will use these as symbols of its own characteristics, for instance, in dreams. This is why we often describe emotions through comparison with sensations. It is even possible that the philosophers that proposed the four classical elements had actually been influenced by the subconscious awareness of the four elements in their own mind, and projected these onto the world.

For instance, fire will create sensations of warmth, brightness and motion and so arouse impressions thereof, thus whenever it later has the impressions of warmth, brightness and motion, this may elicit the subconscious memory of fire, which may express itself in art, language, dreams and hallucinations or pseudohallucinations. On the other hand, the opposite is also possible. During suggestion or hypnosis, one may arouse the feelings associated with fire through images of fire, causing them to feel more energetic.

For the most part, water symbolizes emotion, air symbolizes cognition, earth symbolizes action, and fire symbolizes volition. However, each element may also symbolize an aspect of another, that is, any of the elements may symbolize feeling, thought, deed or will, but each will do so in their own way, such that their association still hold. For instance, fire may also symbolize emotion, but in this case in the form of desire, that is, emotion that wants something (ie volition).

(A)symmetry

noreply@blogspirit.com (Oneiromancer) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:16:18 +0100

Symmetry is mechanical, imperfection organic.

Horizon of Possibilities

noreply@blogspirit.com (Oneiromancer) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:14:41 +0100

Civilization is a very dangerous place, and at the same time, it at the same time it is also a very auspicious place. It may turn one into a genius or into a ghost, into a saint or into a demon. It offers far more possibilities than nature alone ever could, from the most terrible to the most beautiful.

Substrates

noreply@blogspirit.com (Oneiromancer) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:25:30 +0100

Often, different scientists have come to the same discoveries simultaneously. This shows that these discoveries were not only made by the scientists themselves, but by the scientific community as a whole. Their discoveries were based on discoveries that were already there, and they merely built further on those discoveries. Not long before they were made, and so it is also for most other discoveries, another discovery was made that would prompt them, be that discovery one of scientific or technological nature.

Everything in a system grows from the same substrate that determines that system. This substate will be all the more uniform the more it is connected, and this substrate becomes more and more connected as it grows. Only if one can get far ahead of this substrate can one achieve something of particular significance.

Wisdom is like a landscape that emerges as the seas of ignorance retreat. Where a plateau is reached, the same discoveries will be made several times or nearly so. Only the mountains make a true difference.

Progress

noreply@blogspirit.com (Oneiromancer) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:52:23 +0100

The past is theoretical. Only the future is practical.

Reciprocal Fear

noreply@blogspirit.com (Oneiromancer) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:49:29 +0100

Let not your light fear your darkness, and let not your darkness fear your light.

Opposing Opposites

noreply@blogspirit.com (Oneiromancer) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:31:00 +0100

Apart from the way it is experienced, no experience in itself is of lesser or greater value than any other, and yet some seem to preclude one another, so that one's life seems either to be limited to either of both, or limited to less of both.
It seems that we have to choose between diversity of experiences and depth of experiences, not because there is no time for both, but because some experiences are apparently mutually exclusive.
To experience opposites, one is apparently forced to switch to opposite moods, but as one does, one is closes oneself to any other mood. Only when one can detach from moods and instead feel moment after moment can one apparently experience opposites without having to close yourself to either of both.
Opposite experiences often attenuate one another through their contradiction. The only way one can combine these opposite experiences without a loss in depth of either is by becoming detached from both. Through detachment, one can experience several things at the same time.
To detach from an experience while at the same time not becoming indifferent to it, however, is in itself a combination of opposites, namely, that of nearness and distance: one the one hand, there is intimacy with one's experience, and on the other, there is objectivity from one's experience.
No way of experiencing something is absolute, and in this realization one may achieve the objectivity one needs to experience opposites without having them oppose one another. Ironic that it should be through detachment that things can be combined.
If one is aware of how all things are part of that whole, one may unite all things within oneself.

Root of Evil

noreply@blogspirit.com (Oneiromancer) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:40:00 +0100

Any vice will become a virtue through detachment. Vanity turns into pride, greed turns into ambition, anger into fervor, and so forth. It seems that all vice is caused by attachment. The beauty of this is that through detachment, vice still retains its original energy, but it is counterbalanced by its opposite, so that there detachment. In this realization, there can be no attraction towards vice, as whatever beauty it has, there remains once it is combined with peace, but it is then enabled to grow.

But attachment is also a form of ignorance, or rather, it is caused by it: attachment is caused by the unawareness of its own destruction. One might, however, know that one causes destruction but not actually be aware of it. No one could cause another destruction while being fully aware of it, for in being fully aware of it it would be as though they were doing it to themselves; but neither could they do it to themselves in that case, for to be fully aware of that destruction, they would also have to be fully aware of the creation that could oppose it, and so could not but choose for the latter, for the beauty of creation, if one is fully aware of it, is far more attractive than destruction. Any attraction of destruction falls away in the full awareness of creation.

With the words "creation" and "destruction," I mean to denote "good" and "evil" without the ring of judgment.