Vakaheim

The mind is a simulation; A parallel universe where everything is organised, categorised and «safe.» It’s an amazing tool for creating order out of chaos, and it does a wonderful job of eliciting the sense of things being comprehensible. And this mechanism is «safe» because it shelters us from the very unpleasant feeling of not knowing what is happening and of not having things under a semblance of control.

We all live our lives lost in our own private universes where both the self, the world and the beyond are neatly wrapped and presentable. All sensory input, from infant until now, has passed through the meaning-machine of the intellect and turned into stories, interpretations and truths. «This is what happened to me (or told to me by an authority) and therefore this is how it is! (If not I get very upset!)»

All our beliefs and convictions, and disbeliefs and distrusts, are there ready to be presented and elaborated upon to anyone willing to listen – usually they’re not, but we do it anyway. This is what we learn from very early on: to talk to one another about things we know nothing about and have no experience with. And sure, why not? Go with the flow and have fun. Or go all in: get really justified and stab someone for having a universe too different from your own.

But to know what lies beyond the mind? All knowledge fails.

All we encounter is the simulation. We can search all we want, but all that tool can produce is more subjective safety. It’s a product of itself and it only leads back to itself. In religion it’s called hubris. The more stories and truths one’s life or path contains, the more cluttered the illusion.

So, «I know nothing,» the mind says, and this it knows and loops around itself yet again. Same stuffing, different wrapping.

–

The unknown can only be known by not knowing.

So how does one go about getting there?

Ah, finally, a real question! A crack in the certainty! Now we’re onto something!

~Torstein (21.08.2019)