We cannot escape the creativity of the mind, and why would we?
THE DREAM OF OUR REALITY
Our experience of the world is like dream in two ways.
It’s created by the mind. And it happens within and as consciousness.
OUR WORLD IS CREATED BY THE MIND
At a story level, we can say that our biological system takes in information about the wider world, and the brain puts it all together into a more or less coherent experience.
And in our immediate experience, we can explore our sense fields and see how this seems to happen. We can notice what’s here in sight, sound, smell, taste, physical sensations, and so on. And how the mental field comes as an overlay to interpret and make sense of it all, and also create a sense of past, future, and a separate self.
Our experience of the world is not how the world is. It’s created. It’s an expression of the creativity of the mind. It’s dreamt up.
Most of the time, it’s accurate enough so we can navigate and function in the world relatively well.
And sometimes, it’s off enough so we are shown that our experience is created. It’s not how the world itself is.
OUR WORLD HAPPENS WITHIN AND AS CONSCIOUSNESS
Logically, we see that to ourselves, we have to be consciousness, and any experience we have – of ourselves, the wider world, and anything else – happens within and as consciousness. It cannot be any other way.
We are consciousness and this consciousness forms itself into all our experiences.
Even if – in a possible more objective and external reality – we are most fundamentally a biological being in the world, to ourselves, we are most fundamentally consciousness, and the world to us happens within and as this consciousness. It happens within and as what we are.
We can also find this in our immediate first-person experience. We can see that our nature, most fundamentally, is capacity for any and all of our experiences – of this human self, the wider world, and anything at all. To us, the world happens within and as what we are.
Night dreams clearly happen within and as consciousness. And our waking life is no different. That too happens within and as consciousness. To us, the world happens within and as what we are.
RECOGNIZING THE CREATED AND DREAM-LIKE NATURE OF OUR WORLD
To the extent we assume our perception of the world is accurate, and our stories about the world are true, we are out of alignment with reality and this creates suffering.
We can see through this in a general way, and specifically for each story, and this helps us recognize it all as created by the mind. To the extent we see through the dream, we can hold it all more lightly. We can use our stories as guides and questions about the world and know they are not any full, final, or absolute truth. And this helps us be more aligned with reality and live more in peace.
FINDING WHAT WE ARE AND APPRECIATING THE DREAM
Through this, we may find what we more fundamentally are in our first-person experience. We may notice our nature as capacity for any and all experiences. We may notice we are what the world, to us, happens within and as.
We may notice that the world, to us, is like a dream. It’s created by the mind. It happens within and as consciousness. It’s created by what we are and happens within and as what we are.
This helps us hold it more lightly. We know it’s not any full, final, or absolute truth.
And this also helps us find a deeper appreciation for it all. We can find a deeper appreciation for the creativity of the mind and the dreamlike nature of the world as it appears to us.
We don’t need to get rid of the dream. Why would we? Especially when it would mean that we wouldn’t be able to function in the world anymore. To me, it makes more sense to find a deeper appreciation for the dream.
Image: Created by an AI called Huxley and described as the dreaming up of images. From the “Invisible” video by Duran Duran.
INITIAL NOTES
Initial notes November 9, 2022. I often start articles and don’t finish them. And sometimes, I go back and finish it later.
We cannot escape the dream, but we can learn to recognize it and relate to it more intentionally
We cannot escape the creativity of our mind
- we cannot escape the dream
- will always need our imagination to function in the world, overlay of mental images and words
- are not absolutely true, don’t accurately reflect reality, but have a pragmatic function
- cannot get rid of, and no need to
- just notice what’s happening is enough
- ….
DRAFT FRAGMENTS
…..
What we are, which we can call the mind, dreams up our reality.
In a conventional sense, we can say that our biological system takes in information about the wider world, and the brain puts it all together into a more or less coherent experience.
Our experience of the world is not how the world is. It’s created. It’s an expression of the creativity of the mind. It’s dreamt up.
Most of the time, it’s accurate enough so we can navigate and function in the world relatively well.
And sometimes, it’s off enough so we are shown that our experience is created. It’s not how the world itself is.
Our experience of the world is like a dream in two different ways.