What is happening?

They say something like 90% of the human brain isn't utilized, but I don't think that's true, or it wouldn't be there. No, I think that other 90% is actively engaged in limiting and filtering out reality, lest we walk around in awe all the time, a silly smirk on our face, not doing much of anything. It helps us to function in the face of an ineffible mystery. However, once we open ourselves up to the space of unknowing and of uncertainty, we can gain access to that 90% in such a way that it enhances our awareness instead of diminishing it, and the other 10% which comprised what we thought we knew as a pretense, which is a diminishing return anyway since we were most likely wrong/fake, is reintegrated within a larger field of knowledge and understanding. So with increasing awareness in the space of unknowing, while we don't know with certainty any more than we did before, at least we are present, aware, and alive, and real or authentic ie: honest.

inner circle of ignorance, and of ignorant ignorance ie presuming to know but not even knowing what we don't know, relative to the domain of all knowledge and intelligence.


to pearl (of wisdom and knowledge or gnosis) in formation, as a work in progress ie: growing and evolving into reality as it is, or truth and life, as it was intended aka "The Great Work" or Magnum Opus.



What's really happening, I think, is an occurance of life within the frame of an eternal cosmic evolutionary process who's aim or purpose it is, to know thyself AND other through relationship, even if that other is everything and life itself in eternity, already, born from above if you will. It is the knowledge of self as child of God, as a sacred being made in the image and reflection of God as cosmic consciousness. The kingdom of heaven, is to be differentiated from the false earthly kingdom of stupid men, and it comes when it begins to occur through us, in whatever way, however big or small, however fast or slowly, as the Magnum Opus of the ages. Some among us, even believe that it, or he, has come, is now, and will be, and I thank God for that, because if it was up to me alone, or you alone I'm sure, we'd all be in big trouble, so I give thanks to God (of my understanding) for the righteousness and the goodness and lovingkindness and mirth and charm of the person of Jesus (no matter how mythologized or religified). I am greatful that in human form, we are bracketed and enveloped by his righteousness, truth, beauty and justice, no matter what we may believe or feel towards Christianity or what I call "Chuchianity". There is great peace and rest there in that faith as gnosis, and best of all a restoration of our own sense of humor and charm.

Some among us believe, and are absolutely certain that "what's happening" is that we live in an imprisoned world enveloped by malevolent powers and principalities and that it's eat or be eaten all the way up presumably to a very hungry God with we ourselves at the very bottom of an extremely large pyramidal hiearchy (but don't even believe in the goodness of Jesus Christ!). They assume a principal of absolute predation, from the highest height, to the lowest low, where we are presently in hell, literally. In their ignorance and blindness and presumptuousness, they (like the high priests of old) don't have the wisdom to recognize the capstone of the whole mess as a universal principal ie: it was the stone that was rejected that became the capstone, which would both liberate us in eternity, while protecting and preserving us from predation by "higher powers".

The very best of the best that is in us, as it grows, that's what's happening. Heck for all we know the human being is himself perched at the apex where it is the last who are first, and the first, last.

God after all, if there is one, has a very very kind and considerate and almost (but not quite) wicked sense of humor! He'd have to if our spiritual evolution as a species "matters" in the grand scheme of things, which I am convinced that it does, or we wouldn't be here and THIS would not be happening for us, would not be shared with us from the time before time, now that we're here today, this day. So perhaps the statement "behold the kingdom of heaven is at hand" still applies. It must, by any sane and rational evaluation, once the inquiry is made. Anything less is unreasonable, and not even helpful to any sort of evolutionary cause or causation.


Best Regards,

NAM

It's a question WHAT IS HAPPENING? that brings even the so-called "Gods" (plural) to the point of having to at some point reexamine all their original drivers and motivations, surely.

So I don't think the cosmic joke is told entirely at our expense solely..

But that the joke might originate here, of all places, would not surprise me in the least. I'm serious. We're that absurd and ridiculous in our assumptions and judgements, and in our prior ignorance and separation once rocgnized in the light of the humor of understanding.

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
Tell me, does anybody know what's really going on?

Do we (can we?) even begin to know the first thing about objective reality?

So what it is (what is happening) we can't really say, but that we get to be included in it, even if only for the time being, and get to share it, with one another and at any and every level no matter how big or small, well that's really something special I do believe, if we only we had but the first clue as to what it really is and what's actually going on, and 'round 'round we go, like an involving spiral, into increasing domains of potential growth and increased awareness, of that which we know we don't know..

Right now, you and every one of us are in our 2nd stage of physical gestation. That's it. That's what's going on. Human beings that come from this planet aren't "finished" until the Homo Sapien body and brain die. Corporeal life and the corporeal realm exists, and it exists because it exists, and for no other reason. Human beings exist because (on this planet, anyway) the Homo Sapien brain is capable of sentience, and that sentience persists as self-aware dynamic information. If the Homo Sapien brain hadn't achieved that capacity, there'd be no human beings entering the informational realm from this planet, and it's as simple as that.

You're looking for some deep and majestic narrative drama within the nuts and bolts mechanics of a literal placenta, but it's not there. If you need your own gestational development to "mean something" then go ahead and invent a meaning for it. But, don't demand that it be anything other than what it is. You can complicate it, and mystify it, and make it holy, and stick a bearded face on it, but in the end it'll just be a gestational process, and nothing more than that. Hell, write a poem about it and invent new meanings for old words in honor of how convoluted you imagine it all to be, but you can't make it be anything more than the way that a human being is brought into existence by the year-to-year, day-to-day, instant-to-instant survival effort of the brain sitting behind the eyes you're using to read this sentence.

When your body and brain finally fail for good, you'll leave it behind like the afterbirth they took from you when your corporeal body was finally finished with your 1st stage of gestation, and from then on, you'll be a human being forever. And there'll be no real requirement for you then either. That said, there'll be plenty of other human beings lining up to find a slot for you in whatever heaven or hell or whatever it is they've cobbled together to address their own need to install greater significance to what's a perfectly natural and unavoidable result of progressive development once it's been initiated.

There. You asked what this is all about, and that's what this is all about. You can paint it up and toss a dress on it if you need to. I don't care. I'm okay with it as it is but you're in charge of your own gestation. Pretend it's magical. Why not? Have a ball.

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
They say something like 90% of the human brain isn't utilized, but I don't think that's true, or it wouldn't be there. No, I think that other 90% is actively engaged in limiting and filtering out reality, lest we walk around in awe all the time, a silly smirk on our face, not doing much of anything. It helps us to function in the face of an ineffible mystery. However, once we open ourselves up to the space of unknowing and of uncertainty, we can gain access to that 90% in such a way that it enhances our awareness instead of diminishing it, and the other 10% which comprised what we thought we knew as a pretense, which is a diminishing return anyway since we were most likely wrong/fake, is reintegrated within a larger field of knowledge and understanding. So with increasing awareness in the space of unknowing, while we don't know with certainty any more than we did before, at least we are present, aware, and alive, and real or authentic ie: honest.

What I consider a good explanation from an ATS member.

It confirms that humans use brain at just 10%


That's a misleading statistic. It's true that at any time only a fraction of neurons and neural pathways are actively firing, but that's because if they all went off at once (i.e. 100% of the brain is "used") you wouldn't be able to function. The thing that separates brain state A from brain state B (and thought A from thought B or action A from action B) is the firing pattern. You can't have different firing patterns if everything fires together.

Consider the LED signs in Time Square that tell stock prices or even one on a clock in someone's office. At any moment, only a fraction of the lights are on. This doesn't mean that the sign isn't realizing its full potential. On the contrary, it can represent much more information in a much more efficient way by only activating some of the lights and not others. This allows for detailed and meaningful patterns, as opposed to "all on" or "all off" which would restrict the transmition of information to something like Morse code or binary. Our brains are like that. Complexity and subtle differences are a function of patterns of activity, and we wouldn't benefit by having a single brain state in which all of our neurons were "on" at once.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by NorEaster


Really I was just posing the question, as an inquiry, seeing where it goes, I wasn't suggesting I KNEW with certainty anything about it.

You've framed it as a 2nd gestation, ok.. and maybe there's some sort of informational matrix hiearchy of progression or some such thing I don't really know, maybe there's a whole spectrum of possibility where some now who think they are first, are last and the last first. Maybe the innocent, the simple and pure who don't complicate it, have it, and those who contruct elaborate frameworks, don't. Maybe it's a heart thing, something pure and real and authentic, right now and nothing more. Maybe it's already present, deep within, and there's nothing magical or "bearded" about that!

reply to post by juveous

That's a good description, but I would imagine that a large portion of our brain's activity is still deeply and actively involved in building "reality filters" most of which (probably) do not in the least accurately correspond with reality as it is, as a defence against it (whatever it is), so that we can operate with confidence that we've got it figured out and thus know who and what we are and "what's happening". We make the world small, and in our small world, identify ourselves with a largely inauthentic personality which isn't even all that charming to begin with.

We fear the absurdity of absolute uncertainty, and devote much brainpower and energy to avoiding it at almost any cost (even at the cost of reality itself), but when we open up to it, to the mystery of "it all" lo and behold we are informed to a degree, and there is gnosis there (awareness or felt presence/experience), and even a freshly restored sense of humor, mirth and charm, along with the possibility of being true, real and authentic or fully and freely self expressed, as we are (not as we try to be). Then, like little children, we play and create, without constraint or hindrance. I think there's a truth there in the very midst of the meaningless absurdity of absolute uncertainty, a reassurance if you will, it's hard to describe, but it's not nothing, and therefore imho, it must be and IS something very special, however mysterious. In fact I KNOW it to be so because it is the knowledge of experience.

I find it odd and unusual that everyone is approaching this as a concept, and are not sincerely making the inquiry themselves and reporting their findings/discoveries..

When I go into it - what's happening?... oh, I don't know, and I know I don't know, etc etc. - joy is what wells up for me in the space of nothing, joy, love, and much laughter at the expense of what I thought I knew, what I arrogantly presumed to think I knew with certainty. It's nice not to have to maintain that facade anymore. Now there's room again for beingness, for isness.

Best Regards,

NAM

reply to post by NewAgeMan


I've thought about that for thousands of hours, then decided it's best to just try and do the right thing to maybe make the world a better place if I can. No matter how perplexing the true nature of reality is, the fact is we make it so and we need to warp and change that reality to be for the better for everyone. What you are saying that nobody can really understand the nature of reality is true, but I think we actively change it to be what it is through our thoughts and actions. With that intent, reality will change and no longer will it feel like we are not in control or cannot understand what is. It is a philosophical question that is also its own answer.

Reality IS what we make it to be, we are only perceiving it through our senses. Whatever we understand about reality is just through someone's eyes, unless we break ground ourselves thus changing the nature of reality. So = change the nature of it for the better if you can, there are too many people changing it for the worse without realizing it.

reply to post by RSF77

I think when we work to get present to it, to the ineffible mystery, by opening our mind and heart and letting go of all opinions, judgements and biases that stand in the way, what's left isn't void or vacuuous at all, but heart warming. In that space of "nothing" that isn't nothing, when all is said and done, there is a motive force, a first last cause as a catalyst to creative action that is driven by love, and then we come to know ourselves as we are know where to be is to be percieved. It's like being lost and then found again in eternity. Gratitude then and the joy of recieving, and giving, is the only natural response to the free gift of life, having been included. Recognizing now that it's a participatory, co-creative process causes us to be ever more responsible while exploring ever expanding spheres of freedom and new possibility.

reply to post by NewAgeMan


Yea, the problem with the world is that the motive force of love (or should I say empathy) isn't nearly as strong as self interest, especially in a capitalist society. That's not to say that such a system of accountability is a bad thing, just problematic when not considering basic human nature.

reply to post by RSF77

True, the modern "reality" is so much more materialist than spiritual, and yet, if we are to evolve, it will be spiritually/psychologically. I think we're at the stage where materialism is breaking down, causing some people to open up to life as a spiritual reality where love and compassion is at cause. Religion hasn't helped much I have to say, however, causing many people in rebellion against it, to flee into a materialist monist position (matter alone is primary) further imprisoning humanity within the confines of a purely materialist perception of the world and of themselves, as an "it". The absurd, referenced in the OP, becomes increasingly absurd in the absence of faith, enough so to drive many people into a state of apathy and outright pessimism, and the reason I think is because there is a yearning deep within us all, largely unrealized, to experience a sense of unity with source (the divine) with is ever present as the living spirit of truth and life. It has been said "seek and you shall find" but these days much of the seeking is in the wrong direction or begins with a faulty premise born of an unhealthy dose of extreme contemptuous bais towards anything of a "religious" nature, and thus many people will discard the whole thing out of hand prior to any open and honest investigation, forever shutting the door to the possibility of absolute liberation/freedom, which is the freedom to freely love as we are loved.

Even my very best attempts are met with cynicism and ill will on the part of ATS'rs. I've even taken some flak right here in this thread for inviting people into this inquiry - seems no one's up for the challenge, nor even has the inkling to delve into the unfathomable mystery and see what, if anything is there. It's either a total communication breakdown, or a steadfast unwillingness to explore the domain of uncertainty at risk of the dissolution of self &/or already strongly held opinions and beliefs.

Here is what I feel
Reality is coming apart. It is damaged somehow or it is just showing its age. The real question is how long until it fails. It could be a few days or a few million years. There is noting we can do about it so there is little reason to worry about it.
All I can say is it is going to get very interesting.

reply to post by fixer1967

I agree with you except to say that it's non-reality that's falling apart, human conceptualized reality, which wasn't real to begin with.

Sages and mystics down through the ages, from Christ to Buddha to Krishna, they understood the nature of deep reality, and even went so far as to say that it's our true nature deep within, and that it is therefore immediately available to us, provided we are willing to give up all our cherished notions as to what we THINK it is. It's beyond thought, beyond form, and yet somehow accessible when we cultivate a beginners mind/heart, which is what this thread was really all about, getting to that point by posing the ultimate unanswerable question, like a koan capable of boggling the intellectual mind and rendering it's constructs as nothing more than mental models at best, and outright delusion and ignorance at worst.

In short I am suggesting that there are other levels of thought-being that we can consult when everything we thought we knew or presumed to know, falls apart, but to get there, to that place/space, we must have the courage to be honest in the face of absolute uncertainty, which is only "scary" to the self until you go there, and then the first reaction is relief that the self can be rediscovered or re-born and in the process rendered eternal, without any fear whatsoever, and thus, charming and humorous and joyful, not unlike a child's POV, which is timeless and filled with the possibility of new discovery and creative play.

In short, when the unknown unknown (what we don't know we don't know) becomes a known unknown, our whole outlook on, and experience of life and reality can change in the twinkling of an eye, but it requires an open mind and heart, which for some of us might mean that we'll have to turn inside out to begin to realize the new domain of possibility.

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by NorEaster

 

Really I was just posing the question, as an inquiry, seeing where it goes, I wasn't suggesting I KNEW with certainty anything about it.

You've framed it as a 2nd gestation, ok.. and maybe there's some sort of informational matrix hiearchy of progression or some such thing I don't really know, maybe there's a whole spectrum of possibility where some now who think they are first, are last and the last first. Maybe the innocent, the simple and pure who don't complicate it, have it, and those who contruct elaborate frameworks, don't. Maybe it's a heart thing, something pure and real and authentic, right now and nothing more. Maybe it's already present, deep within, and there's nothing magical or "bearded" about that!

edit on 28-5-2012 by NewAgeMan because: typo fixed

What your suggestions lack is an existential imperative pulling it all forward. The whole first versus last, innocent versus corrupt, or pure versus whatever, doesn't exist at the primordial level, and what IS is pulled forward by primordial imperative expressions regardless of how we perceive what we perceive of it. I didn't frame the whole of reality as a 2nd stage gestation. I explained that your own personal "what's happening" is your own 2nd stage of gestational development. The whole of reality is the natural result of the initiation of physical existence and the ramification of progressive development that's been left alone to do what it does.

You asked what's happening, and for you, what's happening is that you're becoming a human being. One instant at a time.

reply to post by NorEaster


Perhaps we're talking about the same thing that is if we're talking about a growth oriented, evolutionary seed of transformation, so that yes, we can be and become, and even freely choose to be, most fully human, and out of the absurd meaninglessness, make of the most mundane, sacred, simply because we are in relation to it, whatever "it" may be and in whatever way however big or small. It's a re-cognition of a primordial relationship, yes, who's imperative hasn't changed ie: it's evolving and progressing.

The problem I think is where we get cut off from it, as a domain of unfolding possibility and as something made fresh and new at each moment, and that is in our judgement of "it", at any level, that is the domain of our subjective imprisonment by comparison (to reality as it is), but to freely open up to it, as a known unknown, changes the whole orientation, such that a defence against life and truth and reality as it is, is discarded and rendered obsolete, then there's a gateway access point, into a new domain of increased freedom, possibility and awareness, or beingness as we truly are, or at least more truly, and thus more honestly, and authentically (to be real).

In other words the mystery when approached openly and accepted for what it is, re-envelopes us, and baptises us into a new life, a life of spirit and truth and reality, where the distinction of me/you me/this and of then, now, tomorrow, forever, even of life and death no longer has any real meaning or significance, because it's a timeless, spaceless domain, and a universal principal of inclusion, re-integration and evolutionary growth, like being re-incorporated into the" informational matrix contrinuum", but with awareness, and even our sanity (after we first go in sane), still intact. It is our true condition, and it's not without a very keen sense of humor, mirth and charm and joy. It's the opportunity, to be a truly happy man/woman or a fully and freely self expressed human being, set free for freedom's sake to freely love (there's no other kind).

There's something to this inquiry - which, although it doesn't provide an ANSWER in the form of an equation, nevertheless produces marvelous feedback, in my experience, providing increased awareness, wisdom, even intelligence!

Being Human it would seem, has many levels and much in the way of possibility, and access to domains of freedom and joy some of which we can't at present even imagine, but which we might have intuited automatically as small children..

It's good every now and again, however, to allow ourselves to dissolve and be reintegrated in the living water of life, to be plunged, full body, although perhaps momentarily set off-balance, only to emerge from the depths of the unconscioous, a new man in the light of life (awareness).

So for those who will, then, consider yourself, if you "grok" this, to be at this moment and henceforth baptised in the living water of an eternal cosmic evolutionary process, which would much rather include you, as yourself, than be forced to leave you (outmoded, inauthentic you) behind, cut off and discarded in all your preconceptions and various opinions, baises and ignorant judgements based on little more than delusion and lies.

There was nothing there worth protecting to being with!

It's funny and amuzing, in my experience, this realization!

Sadly, however, I seem to be the only one laughing, who gets it!

Oh well, what can I do about that?


Best Regards,

NAM

accidental double post deleted.

reply to post by NewAgeMan


You are not wrong, it's just that the overly complex way that you explain yourself makes people embarrassed to acknowledge that you aren't bull#ting them.

Play to politics, its unfortunate that humans are strange creatures in groups and you have to play to their ups and downs. If you have an interest in making the world a better place, conform to it and infiltrate it.

As long as you believe in good will, reality will become exactly that for you and everyone around you. Make it your personal responsibility to take care of each and every person around you.

reply to post by RSF77

I and in of myself am full of it, and so I'm addressing my higher self in these stream of consciousness ramblings as much as I am anyone in particular. No one should take my word for anything, just test it out for themselves, and follow the line of reasoning.

At the very least I myself have had a bit of a spiritual experience in the process, and that's good enough for me!

But it would be nice to share something of value with another, even if it's just one person.

People are smart, I have faith in them to put ideas to the test and weight them in light of their own experience. They "grok", some do, I have no doubt.