gnoselph

evolution

When We Save the World We Will Become Known

Robin pushing a fledgling from the nest

In the cycle of life within this ecosphere,

all creatures need to consume what is alive

or what was once living

to survive.

In this cycle of life within this ecosphere,

All creatures encroach upon the freedom of other living things,

to live out their lives

and survive.

In this cycle of life within this ecosphere,

all creatures are slaves to the cycle of life,

a life red in tooth and claw,

to survive.

In this cycle of life within this ecosphere,

humans consume more of what is alive

or what was living

than all other species.

In this cycle of life within this ecosphere,

humans encroach more upon the freedom

of other creatures and life

than all other species

Some will argue this is the natural order of things.

They argue, “We are products of our evolution;

we are what evolution made us.”

PAH-SHAH!

Humans are the only creatures capable of not being slaves to their evolution.

Mindfulness is the way.

Humans can create the food and nutrients they need in labs.

No animals need be harmed.

Humans do not need property or land.

We can create orbital cities.

Humans can free all living things from humans.

Be free all creatures great and small.

When will we grow up

and free our mother?

When will we become

known?

#futurism #evolution #humanity #compassion #wisdom #ecology #logic #poetry #AnimalRights #animals

Ephemeral Gnoselph Prat Discuss...

Photo: James Balog/Getty Images

Image: naked elderly white man with his back to a chimpanzee; both looking up into the sky with similar facial expressions

“I say enduring because humans are truly unique in the long timescale of our goals and in our flexibility to choose which goals we most wish to prioritize. One promising method for reaching clarity in our goals and becoming less immediately reactive to our evolved instincts is the practice of meditation, which has received increasing research attention in positive psychology. As Robert Wright has written about so convincingly in Why Buddhism Is True, the disciplined practice of meditation, over time, can help one to become less slavish to our evolved instincts and be kinder, gentler, and happier as a result. It can also help one witness more beauty in the world.”

-Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D., Positive Evolutionary Psychology: Darwin's Guide to Living a Richer Life

Scientific American: Beautiful Minds: Toward a Positive Evolutionary Psychology

I am not a full fan of Kaufman...I kinda want to be...I've tried listening to his podcast, The Psychology Podcast with Scott Barry Kaufman...but we have a visceral revulsion to a lot of pop positive psychology. This excerpt is from the forward of his book. (Disclaimer: I have not read the book. I want to read it, but I am afraid I will be disappointed.) The quote reiterates what I preach about a lot—more of me working to come up with a comprehensive philosophy than anything else—and what follows is another variation on these ideas and thoughts. I will use headings to help navigate to where one may want to read.

Evolutionary Psychology and the Ideologies of Žižek

So much of who we are is driven by our evolutionary drives. Drives that evolved phenotype like ideologies (Hegel, Lacan, Zizek etc.) (psyche reflecting evolution, Eph) in which we perceive the world and justify our actions. It is true those primitive pheno-ideologies got us here, and for good reasons too. The “real” is not something that would inspire any organism to thrive and reproduce. Our primitive organic ancestors had to be blind to the existential truth and driven with emotions stronger than reason to evolve even some our most endearing qualities, hope, love, compassion...

The Evolution of Hope

@klp@zirk.us shared today this Kantian quote:

“Hoping ultimately amounts to the conclusion that there is something...because something ought to occur.” Kant, A806/B834

How might have hope evolved? Because the existential reality we were in is not the one we should be in. Reality was too “real” to survive without hope. While that is the rational, we could hardly expect a trait as a hopeful disposition to evolve because of reason. If it did evolve, and we believe it did, it is because those organisms that could hope, to act as if there was hope, in whatever primitive manner, were selected by nature. Of course the same hypothetical can apply to all our other primitive ideological mental models, including desire, power, status etc.

The Practice

These desires, drives, and pervasive fantasies are so much of all of us that when one starts contemplating them, the shadow nature of humanity, we naturally lean to reacting in two polar opposites. The easy one is nihilistic thinking. The other pole is compassion and hope. Compassion and hope not just for ourselves, not just for all of humanity, but for all life and the world. While we don't practice any sort of mystical or spiritually inclined meditation, and what Kaufman proposes is secular enough, but in ours, we strive to explore many of our beliefs and behaviors on a deep meditative level. We do enough of the self-psychoanalytical deep dives reading the likes Zizek and his ilk. What works for us is not just meditative but a somatic meditative exploration. Deep down, what is the feeling, where is the feeling, what does it feel like to want to be seen as powerful, have status, wealth, to be able to have any mate I desire, etc. In exploring these primitive drives, we are looking beyond our mundane projection of ourselves, rather we look for those aspect of humanity dark and reoccurring archetypes we see in media, literature, culture, films etc. What does it feel like to hate the other, where is that hate, hot, cold, pressure, or even fear. Fear is a constant and comes up again and again.

Meditating on the Five Aggregates of Buddhism

Much of this can be found in Buddhism although it is framed by the culture, time, and beliefs. Those frames of ideology are not always comfortable for the rational mind. I found meditating on the five aggregates something I believed in and wanted to explore deeply from perspective deeper than intellectual contemplation. I wanted to gnow the truth and place of the five aggregates in myself. I saw it as a practice where I could go deep into my/our evolutionary psyche. Those aggregates (which I now interpret as evolutionary ideologies) are, with my interpretation of them, vital for philosophers and psychologists in my opinion: 1) Form (physical reality), 2) Sensation (reality conveyed by the senses), 3) Perception (in the Buddhist sense, this is the labeling of sensations – signs), 4) Mental Formation (biases, prejudices, interests, etc.), and 5) Consciousness (basically I interpret this is our ability to be conscious of these things, including that we are conscious of being conscious). While I've had a long history of contemplative practices beginning with esoteric Catholic practices, what I love, and I think other deep thinkers here will like is, we can meditate on these deep thoughts (sure we need to create a blank slate at the beginning of each session), and we can also investigate them somatically. And I think, hypothesize, that those somatic insights will help us overcome these deep seated, subconscious programming, or at least manage them in ways that we are able to be mindfully responsive to situations rather than reactive with self-justifications, that are not really just from a higher perspective than the mundane.

One of our fantasies are meditation centers devoted to understanding ourselves from an evolutionary psychological perspective and/or devoted to exploring the five aggregates.

I believe there is hope for us if we can learn from what evolutionary psychology and the various schools and practices of mindfulness have to teach. I believe we want this, but as my idols would say, our fear of attaining (or fear of losing) what we want perpetuates the Ouroboros of absurdity. I have hope there is a way to step out of the absurdity.

#EvolutonaryPsychology #psychology #philosophy #PositivePsychology #Zizek #evolution #mindfulness #meditation #Buddhism @fediphilosophy.org@fediphilosophy.org @writing.exchange@writing.exchange @zirk.us@zirk.us

Ephemeral Gnoselph Prat Discuss...

“Dex turned the mug over and over in their hands. “It doesn’t bother you?” Dex said. “The thought that your life might mean nothing in the end?” “That’s true for all life I’ve observed. Why would it bother me?” Mosscap’s eyes glowed brightly. “Do you not find consciousness alone to be the most exhilarating thing? Here we are, in this incomprehensibly large universe, on this one tiny moon around this one incidental planet, and in all the time this entire scenario has existed, every component has been recycled over and over and over again into infinitely incredible configurations, and sometimes, those configurations are special enough to be able to see the world around them. You and I—we’re just atoms that arranged themselves the right way, and we can understand that about ourselves. Is that not amazing?”

Chambers, Becky. A Psalm for the Wild-Built: 1 (Monk & Robot) (p. 140). Tor Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Disclaimer, we are neoZizekians and desire to be corrected where we are mistaken.

We've been dipping back into #Zizek, which is a divergence at the moment, and critiquing his philosophical theories through the lens of #EvolutionaryPsychology. All our analysis is via EvoPsych and mindfulness.

The trigger question here is what drives us to desire a life of meaning? Or maybe why do we fear living a life that has no meaning? Let's see if I get there.

#TheAct – The pressure of profound personal dilemmas seem to be a catalyst for one to “act,” Zizekianly speaking. The act being an authentic and liberated achievement free of any unconscious, subconscious and conscious drives and limitations. It argues that to be able to “act” is desirable.

Now, ignoring the infinite existential loop/reflection for the moment, in Zizekian terms, it could be argued it isn't the desire to be able to act autonomously that we want, rather what truly drives us is the desire to desire (ala #Lacan). What isn't discussed thus far in what we've read is how we came to be beings who are driven to desire beyond having (“Having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting. It is not logical but often true.” – #Spock, Amok Time, #StarTrek the original series).

From an Evolutionary Psychology POV, desire is secondary to survival and reproducing. But somehow it has also become an end in itself. Somehow we evolved to desire incessantly.

I think it could be argued desire stems more from reproduction (desiring the healthiest and most fertile mates – one imagines at first mating with whatever, but mating with the healthiest and most fertile became naturally selected and with that the ability to discern and desire therein). But for survival, one also must learn to discern foods that enhance survival and flourishing, thus desiring those foods. Power, another secondary drive also uses desire, the desire for it (#Nietzsche), and the desire for the power payoffs that increases ones status which enhances #survival and mating. In fact we believe an argument could easily be made that desire is a secondary retroactive characteristic of almost any drive (will to desire?) But #sex and #love overwhelms us with a #desire that makes us forget everything else, love as an act of violence (Zizek, Badiou?, Spok), such that we become irrational with desire.

Have you ever experienced a desire that overwhelms every aspect of who you are (it doesn't even have to be sexual or because of love)? This is what the gods of #capitalism, and retroactively (Zizek, Lacan?) #evolution and #being have capitalized on. We'd even argue capitalism is, probably innocently, but maybe not, based on this fatal flaw of evolution. Capitalistic #consumerism feeds the desire to desire without any life giving purpose. We become like addicts, and our #addiction, consumerism, will kill us, and maybe the planet (my usual soapbox stuff).

Now what does all this have to do with the lengthy quote from #BeckyChambers's must read for those seeking plots based on #mindfulness and #reflection? As we've preached elsewhere, we can't master these evolutionary drives that have run amok from the top down. Most of us do not have the #willpower. Those that do have the willpower and are still slaves to the hierarchical drive for #power, are often our masters, even in this seemingly world of #democracy and #liberty. Us mortals, we do not have that kind of willpower. But we can master our drives from the bottom-up!

Mindfulness practice allows us to find that space between the drive to impulsively act, react, act out, and actually acting. Mindfulness allows us to truly “act” even without having to wait till life's pressures make it possible (One wonders if the “act” as a result of life pressures then is a true “act” compared to the mindful “act”). Mindfulness is the true power of the final revolution. Not only against those with superhuman will power, but against the gods of evolution as well. Mindfulness is the third pill (Zizek).

MossCap is a sentient robot. MossCap is a being free of everything that #psychology and modern and continental #philosophy strive to cure and resolve. He is not burdened with the evolutionary and social burdens we are. He is desireless and thus, we'd argue, he is a true rebel (Camus) and he is free to “act.” He is example par excellence standing right in front of Dex, the somewhat enlightened and evolved human. Yet Dex cannot stop desiring something. He has an idyllic life as a Tea monk, going from community to community bringing serenity and peace, with the perfect teacher/guru/friend. Yet they (Dex, identifies as nonbinary) are never satisfied. They've gone from one occupation to another, one place to another, always seeking to find what will satisfy their existential desire. Even when Mosscap spells it out (above quote), Dex, because of their human predicament cannot hear or see the answer in front of them.

Now this analysis is not a conclusive theory but it is clear where we must begin, becoming mindful of our evolutionary predicament. We are not to blame. We should not blame ourselves or others. Blaming is not helpful. We cannot just willfully change. It takes a cooperative, compassionate and patient practice. In the book quoted, “A Psalm for the Wild-Bilt,” by Becky Chambers, that is the role of MossCap, the cooperative, compassionate, patient, and sentient robot companion. But if we could just get to where we are not driven by all our human shortcomings and learn how to be happy, or at least OK, in this existential moment, ala MossCap, then we can truly “act” free of our evolutionary, psychological, and sociological chains. We can truly revolutionize what it means to be human (Nietzsche without the human martyrdom).

The desire to desire may never be eradicated, but we believe it can be mastered and redirected towards desiring that which benefits all. In theory.

Ephemeral Gnoselph Prat Discuss...

Learn at first concentration without effort; transform work into play; …– Anonymous (Valentin Tomberg) Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism

  • talking about that the goal of the experience is to experience “the joy that can arise in the moment that makes all things become effortless.”
  • Here we will need to speak a little more about ourselves, set a new signal to identify ourselves, and speak some about feelings and emotions.
  • March 17 is a peculiar anniversary for us. It is the first time we have had a suicide attempt and according to those who resuscitated us, we weren’t breathing and had no pulse. We were in our late 20’s then (the late 80’s) and haven’t had such urges for several decades. Our journey from that point was a series of institutions where we believe we eventually received our most accurate diagnosis of complex (childhood) post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative disorder, and anxiety driven depressive disorder.
  • For a long time, we struggled with our identity until we accepted that we were multiple identities and finally found some sort of federacy (although in the beginning it was a fragile confederacy) to become a functioning human being.
  • Thus, we usually refer to us as, tahdah!, we. From here on out though, to identify when we are speaking of the personal, we, we will be capitalized, We. When we refer to the common, we, (which we are sensitive to limit so as not to should on the collective we), it will be as usual, we.
  • Apologetically, when it is more accurate, We may even use I. The I is reserved for past selves before we became federated. This is times when various egos predominated and even fully dominated our other selves.
  • Okay, what We have perceived and learned through our decades of struggles is that most of what others perceive in Us (We) as disorders, is often nothing more than exaggerated distinctions that we all really share.
  • A wonderful example of what I am trying to say is the Pixar movie Inside Out. Hardly a usual movie We would watch (or recommend), but We had a therapist who insisted, and while, critically, it has its failures, therapeutically, it is spot on, remembering only that there is a spectrum and we all fall somewhere differently, no matter how close and majority some points may be.
  • So, let’s talk about emotions and feelings.
  • There is a biased saying about women that is wrong on many levels but that can be more appropriately applied our feelings and emotions, “You can’t live with them, and you can’t live without them.”
  • Like all things, the opinions will range from left to right. How a person chooses to engage with their feelings is their own business. We only hope to help others understand in a way that can help them choose wisely.
  • For example,
  • Most would agree that liberty and equality are admiral goals for society. But when it comes to our offspring, we really want more of what’s best for our offspring even if at the expense of others. Throw life and death into the mix, and all ideals of liberty for all quickly goes out the window.
  • As moral antirealists, We don’t judge such truths. Both perspectives are valid depending on context, perspectives, feelings, and projected justification.
  • The reason we can say We don’t moralize either way is because as much as we as a society may agree on acceptable behaviors, what drives us as a society and individually are the evolutionary drives that allowed us to ascend the evolutionary pyramid. We didn’t ascend evolution harmoniously and now, even amongst our peers, our beliefs and feelings can be divergent.
  • What this means is that an emotion or feeling of joy came into existence for a reason, and most often, it arises for purely natural reasons regarding survival and reproduction, not rational or logical reasons.
  • Let’s talk about extreme joy, or ecstasy. This is most known as an accompaniment to sex. Would we choose to get all sweaty and mix bodily fluids if there was no ecstasy? We don’t think so. From an objective perspective, sex could even be said to be disgusting (hello Puritans). But as our genes demand to be reproduced, our genes needed something to make us do the dirty.
  • The point is, nonjudgmentally, our emotions are functions, they have a purpose designed by evolution and nature. Remember, evolution and nature are irrational and illogical. Thus, our emotion’s purpose is not always (some would say never, even when beneficial) rational or logical. And in fact, extreme emotions can rob us of our rational capabilities.
  • Feels are volatile and dangerous. But also, would life be worth living without them? They can be said to be a catch 22. Can’t live with them and can’t live without them.
  • Clearly an ideal would be an Aristotelian means. As anarchists though, no means should be right or wrong and certainly not made into laws. We are all free to determine our own means, even unto disaster. The only thing We want to do, as already said, is help in educating others so they can discover the means that is most useful for every individual’s personal thriving.
  • Our emotions and feelings are less ours than they are our programmers, our genes. But as sapient beings, we can affect our emotions and feelings, where other organisms cannot. We are aware of our evolution, and that knowledge gives us “some” power over who we are and want to be. All things natural are not good and some unnatural things can be better than what is natural.
  • We seek a world where everyone is free to be, feel, and do, whatever brings them joy (without desiring to harm or exploit). But we don’t seem able to allow others to be, feel, and do, whatever they want because we are threatened by those who are different. This isn’t rational, but, the scary thing is, it is natural.
  • Everybody’s Free by Rozalla feat. David Anthony on piano

Ephemeral Gnoselph Prat Discuss...

Learn at first concentration without effort; transform work into play; make every yoke you accept easy; and every burden you carry light! – Anonymous (Valentin Tomberg) Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism

  • Our goal in these personal meditations is to share the influence these words and others have had on our life and how to best implement them into a truly free and equal existence.
  • We are atheists and anarchists (Libertarian Socialism comes close to our political and social vision). But we have been influenced by many deistic and theistic writings, never wanting to throw the baby out with the bathwater, nor indulge in black and white fanatical thinking.
  • We are not aware of anywhere the words of the first two lines of the quote above are written. The words of third and fourth lines are echoed in Mark 11:30, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
  • Tomberg spends several pages describing these words and you can get a detailed synopsis here The Magician.
  • The first line is the most elusive to practice. We find a simple Daoist meditation on the present and passing moment the simplest. Become aware of the moment as it comes into being and passes away (Gospel of Thomas, saying 42). This is also the nature of Daoist influence on Zen and other forms of Buddhism and ephemeral spiritual beliefs.
  • But we need not spiritualize such truth, we can simply accept it as it is. Although, the tendency to spiritualize is natural, evolutions way of helping (tricking) us into living, and reproducing. If we weren’t capable of primitively making sense, fantasize, of such existential truth, early sentience would most likely have been impossible as early organism would have been too terrified and crippled into inaction, unable to see past the ever-present existential dangers to gather and hunt, let alone reproduce. It was necessary for evolution to pull the wool over our eyes to get us to do its business of consuming and reproducing.
  • Ok, a bit of sideline there, but it is a deep understanding that is important to process the path to personal thriving.
  • This is because for many, to simply sit and become aware of the ever-evolving moment can be anxiety provoking (to cease movement, to cease work, goes against our programming). So, to concentrate with ease, is way more difficult to do than say, for many.
  • But the second line gives us a clue, “transform work into play.”
  • The overarching goal of the first two lines is to become aware of the ever-slipping moment and experience joy. To do so intentionally is, at least at first, work. Yet, all of us have experienced this eternal moment at some point in our lives, through sex, music, dancing, singing, nature, playing, sports, and many other moments of sublimity.
  • We, humans, are unlike any other creatures in that we first come into the world completely passive, with our only ability being perception. Even the other apes, are born to cling, whereas human children must be carried by their caregivers or some invention to carry them. They are unable to cling effectively to their caregiver as the caregiver goes about its business of surviving and providing. We perceive first whereas other animals are able to “do” at the beginning. Not that they don’t perceive, but at the very least, then can perceive and do.
  • This beginning, whereas all is achieved by perception, everything else is done for us, magically. This has profound implications on our drive to be entertained. We learn by being entertained. This is natural, and neither good nor bad, it just is. But to exceed our programming, if one desires to do so, one must be aware of our natural truth.
  • Likewise, we can experience the infinite now (Tolle, Eckhart; The Power of Now) simply by being entertained. One trick is, while one attempts to work at experiencing this now, is to use music, meditation tapes, exercise, sex, or any other method one finds useful, to help one become aware of the river of time.
  • There is no one size fits all recipe to achieve the deceptively simple task of concentration without effort. Play, experiment, be adventurous. All you want to do now is overcome any hurdles of anxiety or stress about doing nothing but focusing on the moment. And do not make it work like so many fanatics would have you believe.
  • The goal is to experience the joy that can arise in the moment that makes all things become effortless (Csikszentimihalyi, Mihaly; Flow). At some point, like when it happens dancing, or whatever, this will emerge as joy. A song we like (among many) is “Let the Joy Rise,” by Abigail.
  • En-joy
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