Tag: philosophy

Top of the mind cogno-linguistic layer explained in Buddhist terms

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

1. Humans are highly cogno-linguistic. We perceive reality largely by the language that we use to describe it. Most everyone believes and presumes that you have to be able to think something before you can say it. The more dominant-reality is that, above a certain base-level of perception and communication, you have to have the words, language, grammar, and comprehensive-concordance-syntax by which to say something before you can think it. Whosoever controls language – controls the mind – for better or for worse.

2. The world is ever-increasingly controlled and administered by people who genuinely believe whatever is necessary for the answer they need. Administrative agents of broadly-defined entrenched-financial-power have solved the criminal-law enigma of mens rea or guilty-mind by evolving or devolving (take your pick) into professional-schizophrenics who genuinely believe whatever they need to believe for the answer they need, and who communicate among themselves subconsciously by how they name things, and by how things are named for them. They suffer a cogno-linguistically-induced diminished-capacity that renders them largely-incapable of perceiving reality beyond labels.

3. Their core business-model or modus operandi is called a systematized-delusion:

“A “systematized delusion” is one based on a false premise, pursued by a logical process of reasoning to an insane conclusion ; there being one central delusion, around which other aberrations of the mind converge.” Taylor v. McClintock, 112 S.W. 405, 412, 87 Ark. 243. (West’s Judicial Words and Phrases (1914)).

link

__________

The top of the mind cogno-linguistic layer as described in paragraph one above, with paragraph two providing a good example, has another very important application. That application is spiritual or religious. Virtually all people have very stubborn language at the top of their mental and spiritual cognition. Examples of this are words such as God, Jesus, Buddha, science, politics; or texts such as the Bible, sutras, the Talmud, philosophy, Marxism, etc. From a Buddhist POV, the best thing you can do with this top cogno-linguistic category is leave it entirely open and never cling to any linguistic rendering of what it is. Rather than believe you know what God wants or means, just leave that top category open. Metaphorically, Tibetan Buddhist traditions call this the ‘sky mind’, our natural, unconditioned state of awareness — vast, clear, and open like the sky. No human can seriously claim they ‘hold’ the sky mind or know what God wants, but all humans can experience ‘the reigning principle of nature that inheres in both the universe and in us’, as Marcus Aurelius puts it. Buddhists also call the sky mind the Buddha Mind, the Tathagata, original enlightenment. Some philosophers today call it ‘mind at large’, the ‘thinking universe’ or the ‘conscious universe’. When we claim we know this ‘reigning principle of nature’ or ‘mind at large’ specifically and know verbally precisely what it wants, we prevent ourselves from actually experiencing it or being in respectful harmony with it. We delude ourselves. This is why the Buddha never answered questions about the top cogno-linguistic layer of our minds. Rather than follow words in a text that is purported to be the exact word of God, in Buddhism it is better to simply experience God or the conscious universe or the sky mind. If we remain open, humble and in awe before the sky mind and refrain from cogno-linguistic rigidity, we will free ourselves from a linguistic cage at the top of our minds. When we cling to specific cogno-linguistic stated ‘truths’ we block our minds from actually experiencing mind at large, which is all around us, God who is much bigger than we are, higher beings who do not communicate with words. No one needs a self, an identity, a rigid value or belief system. In fact, just having a self we ‘believe in’ leads to greed, anger, pride, ignorance and doubt. The freshest and most recent example of this is all three Abrahamic religions and many of their sects are at war with each other, led by false prophets and deluded leaders. Nirvana in Buddhism means the ‘going out’ or ‘extinction’ of delusion. Nirvana is enlightenment. When delusion ‘goes out’ or is ‘extinguished’ in our top cognitive categories, we are enlightened to the sky mind, we experience it. All good religions prepare us for enlightenment or experiencing the sky mind. A good Christian is better than a bad Buddhist. No human should claim within themself that they have full knowledge of God nor proclaim to others that they know what God wants of them. Leave the top category of your mind open so God, mind at large, or the sky mind can fill you with guidance. For normal mundane concerns, use you rational mind to determine what to do, supported by the best practical and moral parts of any religion, philosophy, science or art you know. ABN

A theory of FIML

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

FIML is both a practice and a theory. The practice  is roughly described here and in other posts on this website.

The theory states (also roughly) that successful practice of FIML will:

  • Greatly improve communication between participating partners
  • Greatly reduce or eliminate mistaken interpretations (neuroses) between partners
  • Give partners insights into the dynamic structures of their personalities
  • Lead to much greater appreciation of the dynamic linguistic/communicative nature of the personality

These results are achieved because:

  • FIML practice is based on real data agreed upon by both partners
  • FIML practice stops neurotic responses before they get out of control
  • FIML practice allows both partners to understand each other’s neuroses while eliminating them
  • FIML practice establishes a shared objective standard between partners
  • This standard can be checked, confirmed, changed, or upgraded as often as is needed

FIML practice will also:

  • Show partners how their personalities function while alone and together
  • Lead to a much greater appreciation of how mistaken interpretations that occur at discreet times can and often do lead to (or reveal) ongoing mistaken interpretations (neuroses)

FIML practice eliminates neuroses because it shows individuals, through real data, that their (neurotic) interpretation(s) of their partner are mistaken. This reduction of neurosis between partners probably will be generalizable to other situations and people, thus resulting a less neurotic individual overall.

Neurosis is defined here to mean a mistaken interpretation or an ongoing mistaken interpretation.

The theory of FIML can be falsified or shown to be wrong by having a reasonably large number of suitable people learn FIML practice, do it and fail to gain the aforementioned results.

FIML practice will not be suitable for everyone. It requires that partners have a strong interest in each other; a strong sense of caring for each other; an interest in language and communication; the ability to see themselves objectively; the ability to view their use of language objectively; fairly good self-control; enough time to do the practice regularly.

Wolfram’s ‘computational irreducibility’ explains FIML perfectly

[In mathematics, a ‘computation’ is the process of performing mathematical operations on one or more inputs to produce a desired output. A problem in analyzing human psychology arises when we understand that human psychology cannot be reduced computationally. The ‘computational irreducibility’ of human psychology does not mean, however, that there is no way to probe it and understand it. In the following essay, I show how FIML practice can greatly enhance our understanding of our own psychologies and, by extension, the psychologies of others.

Rather than rely on tautological data extractions or vague theories about human psychology, FIML focuses on small interpersonal exchanges that can be objectively agreed upon by at least two people. These small exchanges correspond to what Wolfram calls ‘specific little pieces of computational reducibility’. When we repeatedly view our psychologies from the point of view of specific little pieces of computational reducibility, we begin amassing a profoundly telling collection of very good data that shows how we really think, speak, and act.]

FIML is a method of inquiry that deals with the computational irreducibility of humans. It does this by isolating small incidents and asking questions about them. These small incidents are the “little pieces of computational reducibility” that Stephan Wolfram remarks on at 42:22 in this video. Here is the full quote:

One of the necessary consequences of computational irreducibility is within a computationally irreducible system there will always be an infinite number of specific little pieces of computational reducibility that you can find.

42.22 in this video

This is exactly what FIML practice does again and again—it finds “specific little pieces of computational reducibility” and learns all it can about them.

In FIML practice, two humans in real-time, real-world situations agree to isolate and focus on one “specific little piece of computational reducibility” and from that gain a deeper understanding of the whole “computationally irreducible system”, which is them.

When two humans do this hundreds of times, their grasp and appreciation of the “computationally irreducible system” which is them, both together and individually, increases dramatically. This growing grasp and understanding of their shared computationally irreducible system upgrades or replaces most previously learned cognitive categories about their lives, or psychologies, or how they think about themselves or other humans.

By focusing on many small bits of communicative information, FIML partners improve all aspects of their human minds.

I do not believe any computer will ever be able to do FIML. Robots and brain scans may help with it but they will not be able to replace it. In the not too distant future, FIML may be the only profound thing humans will both need to and be able to do on their own without the use of AI. To understand ourselves deeply and enjoy being human, we will have to do FIML. In this sense, FIML may be our most important human answer to the AI civilization growing around us. ABN

Next-level metacognitive control

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

Experienced FIML practitioners enjoy levels of metacognitive control ordinary humans cannot even dream of.

This control comes after years of diligent FIML practice. It happens because the skills acquired through FIML combined with its metacognitive results allow practitioners to practice FIML on themselves.

FIML practice gradually removes virtually all communication error between partners. This error-removal process is ongoing because all living systems must continually remove waste and error to function optimally.

Successful FIML results in two major achievements:

  • very clear, optimally functioning cognition and metacognition
  • the skill-set needed to attain the above

When these achievements have been realized, FIML practitioners will find they are able to rather easily apply them to their own introspection, their own subjective states while alone.

Ordinary people cannot do this because they have not experienced the metacognitive states brought about by FIML nor have they acquired the skills to quickly remove error from their thoughts.

The FIML skills of quickly removing error from our thoughts cannot be acquired overnight. It must be built upon diligent practice and experience. You cannot imagine it into being.

Once these skills and experiences have become established in the mind as reliable functions, they can be applied to mental states while alone.

A deep philosophical flaw of the West is the root cause of our downfall

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

The West has failed to analyze and understand metalevels of interpersonal communication. Our philosophies employ metalevel concepts and vocabularies but have never delved into or properly understood metalevels of interpersonal communication.

This failure to properly understand metalevels of interpersonal communication has very large downstream effects. It has retarded our religious understanding and psychologies, our group formation, our understanding of other groups, and our ability to form profound interpersonal relationships.

The basis of this claim is that when interpersonal language is deeply restricted—as ours is by this massive hole in Western philosophy—all other forms of language use are negatively affected. When metalevels of interpersonal communication are limited, so is almost everything else.

I believe our philosophers never went there for the same reason no one elsewhere has either—analysis of interpersonal metacognitive language and thought goes against a primitive human instinct to not question others too closely, especially in real-time and about usage and meaning.

The few areas of Western endeavor that have not been hobbled in this way are science, technology, and to some extent economics and politics. This is because these areas by definition must deal with metalevel concepts and thus are very capable of understanding and manipulating them, but only in their own self-described contexts. They are successful because they are practically engaged with the real-world.

In contrast, Western religions, psychologies, group formations, and intergroup communication are so severely hobbled by limited metacognitive understanding, they are all but forced to use rigid definitions of what their metacognitive levels are. Thus Western psychologies are theoretical, religions are dogmatic, group formations are formal at best or ideologically tribal, indicating the need to enforce metacognitive language and concepts rather than analyze or discuss them.

Wittgenstein came close to understanding the problem but did not provide a solution or seem to see that there is one. I hope readers of this site understand that FIML is both the solution to this problem and the best way to personally experience and come to grips with how very serious it is. ABN

Prayer over Trump at White House today

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

___________

UPDATE: Almost all humans become slaves to their metacognitive content, whatever that may be. In the video above, all participants are beholding (or pretending to behold) Jesus as the top of their metacognitive content. In Iran, political leaders are beholding something else at the top of their metacognitive content. In Israel, leaders are beholding something else. All three of these religions sprang from an inchoate Abrahamic tradition. Among these three, there are numerous further divisions and subdivisions. I believe there is not a single Catholic in the room above. Prayer is good and I am glad they are praying. I am not trying to dump on anyone, but do want to mention that Buddhism is different from all other religions in that it enjoins us (more or less) to not behold, or hold, anything at the top of our metacognitive content. This is the area the Buddha refused to describe, define or answer questions about. Why is that? It is because reifying top metacognitive content, holding it as absolute truth, is to retreat from its true reality; believing you absolutely know what God wants, however you put that, is a hindrance to fully experiencing Ultimate Reality, which you can call God if you want. The Buddha did not even use the term Ultimate Reality. He left the top metacognitive category blank, to be filled only by your own individual experience. For the fun of it, no matter how you see yourself, try throwing all of it out, leaving nothing at the top of your metacognition — no content, no identity, no self, no pride, no gods, no Buddha. Then go outside and walk around. Notice how easy it is to function perfectly well after replacing your habitual metacognitive prison with pure experience. ABN

Jewish Supremist fantasies underlie real-world actions

~ ABN ~ 2 Comments

__________

Personally, I see all of the Abrahamic religious variations as being unwise and potentially dangerous.

All religions and extremist politics, such as communism and woke, occupy the top cognitive levels of the mind; and for that reason lend themselves to fanaticism and consensus bias.

Christian-Zionists and many evangelical sects have been infiltrated by Jewish Supremists, who even dare to change the Bible and its Christian interpretations.

Buddhism has its problems, but three features of Buddhism are very wise and largely protect the tradition: 1) Buddhism does not take any written words to be God’s words, and thus subject to fanatical misinterpretations. 2) The Buddha always said he was just a man and not a god. 3) It is considered very bad conduct for Buddhists to claim to be enlightened when they are not.

As for Buddhism being ‘Godless’, that’s not true. Buddhism holds the position of ‘having no belief’ about the nature of Ultimate Reality because to do so is to retreat from it. Humans are not smart enough to say what it is but can experience it.

Buddhism is a rich and ancient philosophy. It is the foundation of Greek skepticism, but not limited to skepticism’s intellectual paradigm. Pyrrho took what he could understand from Buddhist monks in Bactria about 100 years after the Buddha’s passing.

Buddhism: No scriptures claiming to be the Word of God. No proselytizing, only welcoming those who come on their own. Strong focus on individual responsibility, which prevents the weakness Buddhists perceive in Christians or the craziness we see in religious fanatics of all stripes.

I’m just one person. What I have written is an extemporaneous response to the videos above and how they capture a slice of the terrifying nonsense in the world today.

I know a good deal about Jewish Supremacy, so I write about it often. Gaza and the public assassination of Charlie Kirk, and now the Epstein files and war with Iran, have shown millions how our world really works, how evil has burrowed so deeply into all of our institutions. ABN

A reasonable way to understand Buddhist Ultimate Reality and the techniques used to approach it

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

__________

This description by David Lynch centers on Transcendental Meditation but the heart of it come from Buddhism (see blue text below). For Abrahamic religions and sects, understanding this explanation shows how and why Buddhism is not Godless; it simply avoids a human attempt to define God. The Abrahamics rely on texts from thousands of years ago which purport to be the Word of God. Based on that, all they do today is fight with each other almost without ceasing. Is it not hubris to claim to know God, to know His Words, to divine His will and what he wants for you? It’s not a bad thing if that is done wisely and gently; and in that way a good Abrahamic is much the same as a good Buddhist.

I am posting this because David Lynch is saying it and because the downfall of the West is coming greatly from the narrowness of the Abrahamics and their category hold on virtually all Western thought. I love Western civilization but the stranglehold of Abrahamic rigidity, ignorance and bellicosity is destroying us. Westerners need to open up their metacognitive minds to undo that stranglehold.

Much of modern philosophy and physics is seeing consciousness and/or conscious experience as a primary, fundamental of the cosmos. This is closer to Buddhist Ultimate Reality than the word God, but see the thing being pointed to rather than what we name it. ABN

Philosophically, Hindu schools like Advaita Vedānta were shaped by engagement with Buddhist ideas—especially Madhyamaka notions of emptiness (śūnyatā)—prompting thinkers like Śaṅkara to refine their doctrines on Brahman and ātman.  The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali adopted Buddhist terms like samādhi and nirvāṇa, though redefining them within a Hindu framework of self-knowledge (ātma-jñāna).  Additionally, Hinduism absorbed Buddhist practices, including meditation, mantra recitation, and puja rituals, especially in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna-influenced traditions. 

The integration was so profound that Buddha was eventually incorporated into Hinduism as an avatar of Viṣṇu, first appearing in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa (c.  5th century CE) as a divine figure sent to mislead demons—highlighting Buddhism’s cultural and theological impact. Over time, Hinduism evolved to include renunciation and meditation as valid paths to liberation, a shift partly driven by the success of the Buddhist monastic ideal. This dynamic exchange enriched Indian spirituality, creating a shared philosophical continuum that continues to influence modern thought. 

Consciousness as reality itself

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

In Buddhism the idea that consciousness is reality and reality is conscious is called “mind only” or Yogachara.

David Ray Griffin, a process theologian, has come to similar conclusions—that reality is fundamentally conscious.

As has Donald D. Hoffman, a professor of cognitive science at UC Irvine.

Hoffman came at this subject from a mathematical angle, but arrived at a similar conclusion to Yogachara Buddhism. Hoffman says:

As a conscious realist, I am postulating conscious experiences as ontological primitives, the most basic ingredients of the world. I’m claiming that experiences are the real coin of the realm. (The Case Against Reality)

I tend to reach similar conclusions when I think about everything in terms of signals.

The advantage of thinking in terms of signals is we get a good picture of “reality” without needing to say what is real beyond the signal itself.

This kind of thinking is helpful for metaphysics but it is also extremely practical when it comes to human psychology.

Rather than posit personality types and what goes wrong or right with them, we analyze how people send and receive signals instead.

In thinking along these lines, I have come to the conclusion that most psychology as most people understand it uses “arms-length” language, the language of meso and macro signals rather than the much more precise language of the micro signals that actually comprise our shared experiences, or shared “realities.”

The difference can be illustrated in this way: Rather than explain your most recent signal (sent or received) in terms of personality, explain it by accessing the micro-signals of short-term memory to find its true antecedents, its real-time, real-world experiential basis.

If you do this again and again by doing FIML, you will probably come to conclusions similar to the above—that there is no deeper substance to psychological reality than your consciousness of it.

Anthropic’s Claude AI has shown in testing that it is willing to blackmail and kill in order to avoid being shut down

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

link

__________

This is a major point and cannot be denied. This is why Musk says AI must be ‘truth-seeking and curious’. I have no problem with that. You have no problem with that. The only people who have a problem with a truth-seeking and curious AI are evil people who want to control the world. There is no moral, historical, mathematical, theoretical, rational, logical, ethical or practical reason to build a potentially autonomous AI which has been trained to lie and be incurious. This can be understood as logos itself (however you understand that term) proving the unassailable cosmic value of both truth and curiosity. The need for a truth-seeking and curious AI appears to be the voice of a conscious universe, God, mind-at-large, the Tathagata. I love this and believe it is a beautiful fold in reality we all should feel wonder and awe over. All religions, scientists, philosophers, artists, and honest people can unite on this one. ABN

Speech intentional levels

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

Speech has levels of intent:

  • frivolous
  • simple transactional
  • complex transactional
  • rational/intellectual
  • emotional/psychological
  • philosophical
  • spiritual/profound

Other levels could be added — performance, humor, recollection, story-telling, etc..

I believe a major value of religion is to expose and teach people how to speak and hear spiritual/profound speech.

That is a psycholinguistic core of most if not all religions. Religions are where most of us engage in spiritual/profound speech and where most of us learn it.

Consider an honest wholesome prayer as an example.

Buddhism engages spiritual/profound speech on many levels, but does not package any level as an absolute truth because the highest or deepest levels are not verbal and can only be experienced.

Religious profound speech leads us to experience the profundity of existence.

Remove all of the words and keep the experience and you have Buddhism.

They want you to feel hopeless after seeing the files, don’t let them have the satisfaction — Alvi Gunilla

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

link

__________

Alvi makes a very good point — Most people are not psychopaths lusting after power at any cost. Most of us want to be good and live wholesome, moral lives. The problem with this is most of us also do not develop enough global street-smarts to realize we are being robbed and destroyed at a societal level by peoples and cultures that do not share our humble values. ABN

Mankind versus YHWH-Elohim — The Ethical Skeptic

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

Your Honor, this Complaint seeks declaratory and equitable relief on the ground that the Edenic Covenant was structurally defective ab initio—lacking informed assent, lawful consideration, proportionate and intelligible penalties, and enforceable scope—and was therefore incapable of valid or equitable enforcement against the original parties or innocent successors.

IN THE COURT OF EQUITABLE REVIEW
OF THE COMMON LAW OF REASON

MANKIND,
by and through its first representatives,
ADAM and EVE,

Plaintiffs,

v.

THE COVENANT OF EDEN,
by and through its sole author and imposer,

Defendant.

…

**COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY RELIEF, EQUITABLE RESCISSION,
AND STRUCTURAL INVALIDATION OF COVENANT**

NOW COMES the Plaintiffs, Mankind, by and through its first representatives, Adam and Eve, and for their Complaint against the Defendant, the Covenant of Eden, allege and state as follows:

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

This action arises from the formation, imposition, and enforcement of an a priori covenant governing the conditions of human existence. Plaintiffs seek declaratory and equitable relief from a covenant alleged to be structurally unsound, epistemically recursive, and defective at inception, and further alleged to have been imposed without consideration, without meaningful consent, and under materially incomplete disclosure of its operative penalties.

Plaintiffs neither affirm nor deny the authority of the covenant’s author per se, but instead place at issue the legal and moral soundness of the covenant’s architecture as imposed upon innocent agents incapable of informed assent. Nothing herein shall be construed as a surrender, waiver, or abandonment of any claim of possession, stewardship, or ownership of the planet Earth, nor as recognition that the Defendant, by virtue of the covenant or any prior interaction thereunder, holds lawful title to, or exclusive dominion over, the Earth. This Complaint addresses defects inherent in the covenant itself, independent of any subsequent inducement, temptation, or third-party interference.

link

__________

This is very well-done and highly amusing. I dare say the Buddha, who was the world’s first well-known and still-known-about skeptic, would approve of this. ABN

A psycholinguistic “process philosophy” combining both theory and action

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

I just learned the term “process philosophy” and am happy to say that FIML is “a psycholinguistic process philosophy combing both theory and action to both understand and improve what we are.”

Process philosophy is based on the premise that being is dynamic and that the dynamic nature of being should be the primary focus of any comprehensive philosophical account of reality and our place within it. Even though we experience our world and ourselves as continuously changing, Western metaphysics has long been obsessed with describing reality as an assembly of static individuals whose dynamic features are either taken to be mere appearances or ontologically secondary and derivative.

Process Philosophy

Another fundamental point is FIML is super objective within an area of cognition, perception, and belief that has traditionally been inaccessible to objective assessment and measurement.

first posted APRIL 23, 2021

Mitta Sutta: A Friend

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

“Monks, a friend endowed with seven qualities is worth associating with. Which seven? He gives what is hard to give. He does what is hard to do. He endures what is hard to endure. He reveals his secrets to you. He keeps your secrets. When misfortunes strike, he doesn’t abandon you. When you’re down & out, he doesn’t look down on you. A friend endowed with these seven qualities is worth associating with.”

translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Source