The most annoying problem that holds us back from perceiving truth is the uncultivated mind.
First and foremost, let me say this: I do not claim ownership of any special truth, nor do I claim that I have realized anything amazing or awesome. I am not talking about truth. I’m talking about our ability to perceive truth.
The term “cultivating” is chosen because that’s exactly what needs to be done. You cultivate land to prepare it to grow crops. Uncultivated land has overgrown weeds everywhere. In order to make it useful, you must remove the weeds, ripping them out by their roots, and tend to the land to ensure it has rich soil.
The exact same is true of the mind. Self-deception and ego are the weeds of an uncultivated mind. It takes a lot of effort in order to remove the roots of these illusions, but in the end, you are better prepared to perceive truth.
A lot people don’t see their mind as something that needs that sort of investment. A lot of times we are distracted from our internal world by the shiny external world. It’s a shame that our society doesn’t put more emphasis on developing healthy thought patterns, and investigating the ways our egos fool us. Instead, sometimes it seems as though society rewards inflated egos, and encourages self-deception.
Society isn’t reality though.
I would like to think that those reading this blog entry are here for the same reason I am: through pursuit of truth. My number one priority is not to be rich, nor create a family, nor be a rock star. Not that those things wouldn’t be great :-). But my number one priority is to perceive truth.
The ego of one person can destroy a nation. The ego of a handful of men and women can destroy the world. That’s pretty powerful stuff. I feel bad for the race that has auctioned it’s future off to the ego of man… oh wait :-P.
There are two struggles I constantly fight. One is against my own ego and self-delusion, which I passionately fight my hardest to overcome. The second is the egos and self-delusions of others, which I am slowly becoming more and more tired of fighting against.
I don’t have any divine truth to convey. I can’t give you any answers. The best I can do is point you in - what I feel is - the correct direction. Cultivate your mind. Value truth over existance.
Twenty-five years on this earth. So far so good :-).
May 7th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Happy Birthday buddy? You sly dog.
The one thing I treasure above all else is Truth, yet it eludes me time and again. At times I think I have it, but then quickly realize how far off I really am.
We should discuss the ideas of Self-Deception and Ego more often.
May 7th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Eh, scratch the birthday thing.
May 7th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
It is my birthday, you were correct the first time :-P.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Oh dang dude. Well. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAN!!!!!
May 7th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Hah, happy birthday Sean!
May 7th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Then again, (Happy B Day here too…) as television is an istrument build solely for presenting programs and as lamps are made to provide light, are our physical bodies and minds that come with them really “made” to actually perceive anything?
If our ape ancestors did well with their.
1) Eat
2) Sleep
3) Mate
4) Fight
algorithm, then perhaps our brains have an extremely strong bias towards traits and beahaviors that make achieving those goals easier.
Greed for food.
Laziness for rest.
Agression for mating opportunities and perhaps for gaining resources and food.
Pondering this stuff seems like trying to build a 3d engine for Amiga (it has been done btw.), Result will run poorly and look like crap, but it still is the best model of 3d environment possible to produce with the hardware in hand.
I have come to believe that it is not the society or X thing to blame for our current state. It is our hardware that sucks.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:29 am
“I have come to believe that it is not the society or X thing to blame for our current state. It is our hardware that sucks.”
Agreed. It seems the human mind can be easily fooled to believe just about anything whether proof is provided or not. But then again, as with the analogy of the 3d engine for amiga, its the best we have at the moment.
I think a better question is, do humans need truth? I know many people that are happy with their delusions.
May 8th, 2008 at 2:05 am
“…do humans need truth?”
IMO if all truth is let out into society, it will collapse into chaos. Our society is built upon delusion.
For example, many people want to find out the truth about death. There are many delusions as to what will really happens and I am not going to say one is more true then the other. Though if we were to find out the truth, who knows what would happen…
Its just another of life’s many mysteries; if there was a giant circle of all the knowledge possible then what we know now as a civilization that is correct would be smaller then this period.
May 8th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Playing the blame game does not get us very far. However, I can see the benefit of being able to recognize that maybe our hardware does suck. And maybe it does cause a lot of problems.
But it has been shown that individuals can make adapt to situations and that we are capable of overcoming our limitations and being more open minded, more loving, more nurturing of ourselves, our environment, and other things.
Do we need truth?
I do.
May 8th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Cultivating the human mind is like trying to convert rock into fertile soil. There’ll always be weeds. Our society is pretty hedonistic, I mean, truth be told, most people couldn’t care less about the truth. All that matters to us primitive humans is sex, food, and sleep.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Cmon people. The truth is this: sex feels good and food tastes good. Overly simplistic? Yes, but true nonetheless. Reality is a system that we have to work inside of, whether we understand it fully or not at all. How else can we attempt to perceive reality if we don’t use the “hardware” or senses we have? These things release endorphines that make us feel good, but also influence how we think and perceive, so the hardware can’t be completely separate from the software, can it?
We probably won’t have enough time on this earth to conquer our own instincts. We’d better learn to live with them.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:39 am
But we necessarily need to know that although sex, food and sleep are “good”, they are not what is important in life.
And if you call them “reality”, they are just as we perceive reality when we do not question it. There are reasons why religions value asceticism so much.
What does sex, food and sleep give you, if you know that you are dying tomorrow? If you lived life only to acquire food, sex and sleep, I think you might feel pretty lousy in the end.
July 9th, 2008 at 3:06 am
Sean: I wanted to give some good props to this article, although a little late huh?
Everyone else: You know what makes human beings so amazing? We humans have the ability to choose over our innate desires. They don’t control us.
We have the amazing ability look past the pleasures and delusion to seek the truth if necessariy, we even have the choice to remain blind to the truth. That’s how amazing human beings are. We might not all agree with our species’ decision, however that’s not for us to decide, is it?
I like the truth, unlike delusions and lies, it doesn’t change. It is like a firm ground to stand on.