From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Sat Jan 24 2004 - 00:43:54 GMT
Hi All:
A concept that has been buzzing around in my mind recently is that of
mental space, that is, the field of pure awareness that our brains either
create or tap into, depending on your understanding of consciousness.
From this empty mental space emerge the patterns we call concepts, or more
plainly, thoughts, each thought created by perceptions we pick up through
our senses that the brain yokes into patterns of meaning (mostly from
memory) so as to preserve and enhance our lives.
The process is aptly described in Chp.9 of Lila:
"If the baby ignores this force of Dynamic Quality it can be speculated
that he will become mentally retarded, but if he is normally attentive to
Dynamic Quality he will soon begin to notice differences and then
correlations between the differences and then repetitive patterns of
correlations. But it is not until the baby is several months old that he
will begin to really understand enough about that enormously complex
correlation of sensations and boundaries and desires called an object to
be able to reach for one. This object will not be a primary experience. It
will be a complex pattern of static values derived from primary
experience."
Key points regarding this passage. The force of Dynamic Quality is the
same as primary experience which may also be referred to as empty mental
space, or as Pirsig says later as he looks out over the ocean, "Vast
emptiness and nothing sacred. If ever there was a visible concrete
metaphor for Dynamic Quality, this was it."
Mental space-vast emptiness? That is not what we normally experience. What
we normally experience are a myriad of static mental patterns, one
following on the heels of another, guided by our constantly shifting
attention which reveals what we value at the moment. At this moment I am
attending to writing these words, but my hungry stomach is also vying for
attention at the same time--a conflict of static values that by invoking
my will I can control.
But, here's a funny thing. By invoking my will I can also directly
experience, if only for a moment, my mental space--that vast emptiness,
that Dynamic Quality--from which emerges all thoughts and succeeding
actions. Here's how, thanks to Ken Wilber:
1. Lie down and close your eyes.
2. Seek out the point where your thoughts emerge by saying, "Speak, I am
listening."
3. When you actively give permission for your thoughts to arise, none
will.
4. Hold on to the silence, the emptiness, as long as you can.
5. The emptiness you experience is pure awareness, your essence, Dynamic
Quality.
As said, your values determine what occupies your mental space. If you
want to know what you value, simply check your present thoughts because
they reveal what you are attending to, and what you attend to is what you
value. At the moment I am valuing writing this more than filling my empty
stomach, although my stomach is vying for my attention. When I sit down to
dinner, I will be paying attention to the food on my plate and perhaps my
dinner companion, both occupying my mental space at that time. This letter
will not occupy my mental space during that time.
Here's another thing. You can pretty much tell what another person values
by what they choose to surround themselves with. Just as there is limited
mental space (you can't attend to everything your senses provide) people
live and move in limited physical space which they fill with what they
value-type of clothes, home furnishings, books, records, paintings-all
visual and auditory records of the person's value choices, again, limited
by space.
Similarly, you can tell what a community and even a culture values by
checking out what subjects occupy space in a local library or bookstore.
For instance, here in South Carolina both the library and local bookstores
devote quite a lot of physical space to books about the state, whereas the
amount of space given to books about South Carolina in, say, London, is
little if any at all. Londoners generally do not attend to what goes on in
the U.S. much less individual U.S. states. And rightly so. There's just so
much mental space available, and there's little reason for a Londoner to
value U.S. or South Carolina's peculiarities.
These concepts--mental space, will, attention, values, physical space,
Dynamic Quality and static thought patterns-seem to me to lend themselves
to be mixed and shuffled around in various proportions, like ingredients
in a soup, to create new insights. Toss in aesthetics, memory and a
working knowledge of the MOQ and who knows what new ideas may emerge from
this brew?
Any thoughts?
Platt
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