Conscious Effects of Non-conscious Causes

Carl

127 omb

does that help my situation? as far as any more ideas what to do next?

i got friends all over th world working on this problem-LOL-so many working so hard just so i can see monkeys flinging poo...

Carl

Cause and effect are complimentary
Newtonian physics' cause and effect view of reality parallels karma's cause and effect. Both are 'true' only in the 'gross' human scale point of view. Quantum physics puts a wrench in these world views, and see reality more akin to the Taoist view.

Cause and effect are complimentary and as such produce each other. To paraphrase chapter two, "the whole world sees cause and cause, yet this is only effect...". Of course, when pressed, most of us can see each cause we identify is simply an effect of some deeper cause. But, we don't tend to live life from that point of view. We bounce from issue to issue, jumping to conclusions which mirror our emotions. We don't realize that the judgements we make are little more than conscious effects of non-conscious causes.

The Sur-reality of Imagination
Our ideals and beliefs dominate our outlook. The implied free will inherent in our ideals evokes a sense of 'should' and dooms us to continue to see life as we wish it to be, and not as a reflection of ourselves. This sets up a state of inevitable contention between ideals based in our emotions - needs and fears - and how Nature's true 'suchness' as the Zen guys say. Not seeing life as it is prevents us from dealing with life as it is. Instead, we end up dealing with an illusionary reality - the sur-reality of our imagination.

Nothing will change until we cease comparing our ideals with our observations. We can only begin to know ourselves once we realized that ourselves are our observations. It is a closed system. When you look out at the world all you really see is a mirror image of yourself. If you take that mirror image seriously and meditate upon it, you will begin to know your original self - who you naturally are as opposed to who you think you are or should be.

The Tao Te Ching's Taoist viewpoint is less about 'should' and more about 'what is'. The Tao Te Ching describes the consequences of the ways we approach life. The deeper we know these consequences, the more our actions reflect the 'way' naturally. No force is needed. No work. Simply understanding one's self deeply does the trick. The only way to know oneself deeply is by embracing the judgements we make (our take on life generally) as being mirrors of who we are, not as being an objective reality.

Reflections Mysteriously Mirrored
Our observations of the world - life - are not actually about the world, but are really only a reflection of our biology. Even harder to comprehend, perhaps, is that what we see and do is often (always?) a reflection of ourselves - mirrored. If we are 'right' within, we perceive 'left' in our observations. Counterbalance is the process that determines what we 'think' we see and the nature of our subsequent reactions to those perceptions.

This mirror image that we perceive is driven by need. Need is driven by the void. Lacking water, I feel thirsty. Feeling thirsty, water looks beautiful. The same principle applies to all perception, though not as obvious in the telling. [chref=56]One who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know[/chref]. Speaking reflects the opposite and so it can't convey knowing, i.e., when the knowing is neutral, the reflection vanishes... moment to moment. Knowing is not a permanent state, but dynamic, just as quenching thirst is not permanent. It ebbs and flows in the complementary process; Knowing and ignorance [chref=2]produce [/chref] each other. It is dynamic, although, we wish it was static, i.e., we want to know! That's why many words [chref=5]lead inevitably to silence[/chref] In the end, reality is only subjective. Thus, the more self honest we are, the deeper we can know reality.