I had some hesitation in making my thoughts public. Initially was the desire to share my thoughts what I learned so far with the hope that will help others, or simply to receive some feedback so I can evaluate this perspective I have. Secondly came the fear that I might be misunderstood or worse what I offer it will be misused and make things worse.

First things first, here goes the disclaimer. By nature we have this approach to use anything to our self-benefit, to our personal advantage which is not necessarily a bad thing. After all we have to advance ourselves and that’s the best motivation to prosper individually, better our immediate group where we belong and why not all the way to life as a whole. However sometimes this goes too far when it involves using noble causes, high ideals that which is sacred, even GOD. We convince or better lie to ourselves that we can use these higher things as a personal tool for our profit. Most of the time, without being aware, we appoint ourselves as a representative and beneficiary of these higher ideals, with the purpose to use them to attack others or unduly profit. What I am going to share is mostly common sense, but the results can be very controversial especially if the utility of the ideas depends solely on personal profit as mentioned above. So by continuing to read, you promise that no matter how sure or strongly you will feel to blame, judge or enlighten others; you will NOT do so! If you are reading these lines is not a coincidence. And if it was is your decision from now on. If any idea offered helps you (or not) is a choice you make for yourself and your own understanding of things.

How does life work?  I have had this strong sense of curiosity in my youth and tried to answer in some way, I couldn’t. After that life kind of settled and mundane things were the primary concern, until one day everything I recognized, everything that was my life broke down. So I had this question pop up again. How does life work?  I needed a simple answer with small everyday words.

By profession I am an engineer, more specifically I am an integrator. On day to day I fix things, and sometimes I get the chance to fit separate parts together to make a complete machine. So with my initial curiosity and this expertise recognizing the role and functionality of the internal parts in a system, I took a look to understand life.

So what is life? Is life only the things about me, as a human? Or can it be what happens out there, because sooner or later that will affect me? And the philosophical thought can be expanded or limited to this and that. I had to round up, life is everything. Everything that I know and surrounds me, everything that we know and surrounds us. Also everything that is inside of us, that is life.

Where to start then? Initially this everything can be divided into two main parts. Throughout the time people looked for an answer, and said there is “the material” and “the imaginary”. It is important that I understood this and also note as to where the dividing line might be. “The material” is what a human can experience with the senses, this then is expanded to what we can verify to exist with our senses and our made up sensors. “The imaginary” is what is in our minds, most commonly referred to as mental states or consciousness. And rightfully so this dimensions is expanded and includes the unconsciousness as well.

“The material” and “the imaginary”, do we know how they relate to each other, or if at all? Despite that, which one is more important? Is there something fundamental, to this everything? Is the fundamental found into “the material” or “the imaginary” part.

Most of the early thought is dominated with the idealistic approach. In essence there is an influence outside of “the material” that pulls the strings.

As the knowledge of “the material” grew, the scales tipped. Understanding of various forces being an interaction of “the material” parts led some to the conclusion that, there is nothing else then.

As the progress of discovering “the material” went on, it looked as matter is fundamental to all. For example if we push the couch in the living room it will move, the force is initiated from “the material” parts and the move of the couch is explained. So forces are initiated from the material. Taking this illustration further, if we drop a rock in a bucket of water we get the rock in the bottom and the force is transferred as waves on the water. Even other types of forces, like magnetism which is an invisible force and maybe a bit more complicated as does not need matter to travel. Still there is a magnet or something material causing it. Relation to the material is fundamental.  Gravity as a matter of fact is something that fits well with the material correlation concept, the bigger something is the more force it creates. As the progress continued science looked at the most tiny piece to determine the very nature of it, how “the material” is built. The experiment goes something like this, they took this tiny piece which should be just a “little rock” and in order to check it, they drop it in the empty bucket. Instead of the bang in the bottom, they saw “wavy water” and no rock. The only way to see the “rock”, the only way to get the “little rock” back, is to use (surprise) “the imaginary”!

To say the least, this is confusing and unexpected. So they did the experiment over and over in different ways for many, many years. The result is still the same. You need “the imaginary” to get the “little rock”.

Around the same time the experiment with the “little rock” was going on, two scientists decided is time to take a better look at “the imaginary”.  At least when it comes to the individual level you cannot discard the importance of “the imaginary”. But how important is it? How does it work? First was the acknowledgment of these two parts the conscious and the unconscious. I call it, the imaginary we can control and the imaginary we cannot control. Freud noted that the feminine is fundamental to the conscious unconscious relationship. As we going to see this is the key if we want to understand anything. Jung dug a bit deeper. Jung established the unconscious as a separate functional dimension. This dimension has a meaningful communication with the conscious through universal symbols. Furthermore he noted that masculine and feminine is not separate but it is part of everyone.

Today is widely accepted that “the imaginary” is important on the physical wellbeing and a branch of science is created to work based on these understandings.

What is GOOD? What kind of question is this? The task is to find the meaning of GOOD. The meaning is a collective agreement on the understanding of an object or phenomena given with a word. The way we carry our lives, every law that is written, is dependent on the meaning of “Good”.  To look for the meaning on a broader scope is to find the symbol, the root, the origin of the word.

The symbolic meaning is actually a universal definition across cultures and time; it is the function of the phenomenon in life. We know and use in everyday talk all the secrets of life, albeit not always aware.

I wrote my thought process for this and will not repeat here, but I will present my conclusion. On a functional level every time we use the word GOOD we actually present a benefit correlation with time.  With the higher, absolute GOOD, being a permanent or never ending state. The symbol coming from the depths of time is the picture of uroboros or presently the more modern recycling symbol.

The result, for me, is that GOOD is an external quality not influenced by “the material” or “the imaginary”. But more than just an absolute concept is a functioning and powerful phenomenon. Just like gravity pulls down every material object on earth so choosing or simply being closer to the GOOD has a prolonging effect.

What I mentioned above is more or less common knowledge. Below you will find my answers on what I found, that I am content with, so far.

The challenge on a materialistic or idealistic point of view is how to differentiate what we experience from our senses, consciousness, from what really is out there. There is no need to differentiate between “the material” and “the imaginary” as experienced from a single person because they are one. Each person is a world in itself, literally. So if a person’s consciousness is the world or one copy of it, then what the unconsciousness is supposed to be? Unconsciousness is the same, just one more copy. But this copy is special we cannot mess with it. For every entry submitted to the consciousness an entry to the unconsciousness must be submitted too. The latter is what constitutes the truth. There are some functions here related to what we call absolute and relative. Nevertheless in order to secure the prerequisite for existence on the conscious plane a validation or verification is needed on the other copy.

Freud called this elements work and love and Jung animus and anima. I would like to describe a function to denote these elements, I choose initiation and verification. So in this view “life” is comprised of four elements matter, initiation, meaning and verification. While we are familiar of what it takes to create something in the real world the job does not stop there, verification is needed to start with and validated continuously. Lately in psychology the personal level self-verification is kind of recognized and called grit, largely in society the function of verification is known as fate, and fate is correlated to what we know as the feminine.

Reality is created but there is a distinction when solely on a personal level and the one connected to everyone in the physical, conscious the collective level. Jung also noticed there are two levels of unconsciousness, personal and a collective one. Another realm where there was no people involvement is called matteria prima. Last one has a good verification element, maybe that’s why science is so successful in studying it.

So there are three levels of reality each one created from 4 elements. Everything that exists in life is a combination of these 12 variables.

The personal and the collective must be in good rapport with each other and both in good rapport with the physical world. When this happens along all three levels we have harmony Shiva and when the debt collected in the unconsciousness becomes too big on the first two levels, then lord Rudra with trident.

I took a flight of fancy on the last paragraph above, so here goes some more.

God created Adam in his likeness, with creation powers. Adam got the first job, it was to fix himself. What better way to become independent. Based on the function he was divided in two, job was each part to recognize own function and realize they are one. Everything must check out and be verified to exist. Eve’s job was to verify so naturally she cannot allow the apple to exist without checking. So Eve made a job for Adam, clearly now is in his scope so he complied. So far all is good they did the job together and just need to acknowledge, the job is complete. Well almost, Adam considered himself apart and could not verify himself pointing at Eve he lost himself, acknowledged what he did was not okay with him, he actually said I am not complete. With the power vested in him created cowardice. Eve picked up on Adam’s new creation, I am not complete. On one hand everything must check out, but if something that is not complete can exist? Well then, the first lie was born. Some animal was guilty.

In the place of GOOD and permanent, all must be complete. So the incomplete shifted and was materialized in the temporary. Cowardice and lie took this shape with the shiny scales and the breathing fire.  Adam was going to kill the dragon made from his fear and complete himself to step up into forever, ever after. He knew that no matter if he was a toad or a beast now. Eve will make him whole, if he found the courage. 

All is magic, and truth is the highest form of magic as it erases any difference with the unconscious version. Life is created from principles not things.

The Animus and The Anima

Power of the CROSS

Warning: With more knowledge there is more power and inadvertently more risk. My hope is that the information shared will be used first, foremost and only for one to understand and develop the self. The use for blame and undue profit will ultimately fail!

We know that the construct we inhabit is devised into Reality and the Imaginary, all that exists is here. We concluded in my other post to call it The Conscious and The Unconscious. Both exist, humanity has separate fields and has been studying them for a long time. One would be covered by science and the other by spirituality. Jung’s theory of the psyche is in the forefront of the second.

Jung found that the basic element (the person) has a duality at the center of it. He called them The Animus and The Anima. Defining these features and the interaction between them reveals the very nature of life. Duality is at the center. Mostly this is understood as the union of the opposites, but this is not the case. Functionally they are complementary. Rather than going into long descriptions of abstract concepts this will be better understood if we complete a functional analysis of the roles they play.  The common understanding of the role and some help from the age old (approved) symbolism will be sufficient to get the idea.

The Animus a Latin word originally used to describe life, mind, mental powers, courage and desire, Jung used it to define the masculine part in all people.  Traditionally the action is here, hunting, gathering, fighting, working, building and turning matter into things. Sometimes is described as the primary function, not based on importance but order. This function will happen first; this is the start, the trigger. The action of beginning something, this is “Initiation”. This is easy to grasp as it happens in The Conscious part of the construct. What happens with the result or fruit of the “Initiation”? On my previous post we determined The Unconscious at the very least as a placeholder were we place and retrieve information. By virtue of existing the result of initiation exists now on The Unconscious.

The Anima a Latin word originally used to describe breath, soul, spirit or vital force, Jung used it to describe the feminine part in all people. Traditionally this role is passive described as gentleness, empathy, sensitivity, caring, sweetness, compassion, tolerance, nurturance and caring. The action in here is that of receiving, accepting, examining or concluding of something, a secondary role in order to that that now exists. Symbolically the Anima is represented by the Moon, only the light captured by the Moon will be reflected back and exist to be seen. Similarly the “Initiation” will get a feedback from The Unconscious on the validity of the existence. The action of validating the state of being, this is “Verification”. Both parts are needed for anything to exist.

All that exists in the Conscious must have valid verification in the Unconscious.  Seems like experience and recent studies correlate with this model with many practical applications.

With this model we can define:

Self – as the verified part of the Person in the Unconscious

Ego – as the part seeking to maximize all that could be verified

More to come on the next post, other variables that need to be considered.

Reality!.. , is it magic?

What is our surrounding? How does it work? This is one of the quests philosophy has gone after for centuries. What do we have so far? Wikipedia:

“Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent, as opposed to that which is merely imaginary.”

What is meant by real and existent are the ground, the trees, the water, the goods made, buildings, roads, cars, this computer you get the idea. These are things that we can touch or in a broader sense experience through our conscience. Not only we can experience these things and be aware of them we can also build this powerful entity called science to investigate all this (Wikipedia’s Reality) in detail, design and build with assurance of the outcome.

However the very definition above becomes mute because, the imaginary is real and is existent. I don’t want to play word games I understand what is meant, the imaginary does not exist in a solid form or identified separately one’s conscience.  We cannot identify the imaginary takes place unless the person’s conscience (imaginary holder) gets involved to tell us about it. We note on the above definition of Reality is that of exclusion, reality is not all that exist but all minus a part of it. According to the very rules that science uses to operate this is wrong. We cannot exclude (especially when we don’t understand) the need is to observe everything to achieve some result.

As the science progresses the definition used above and science itself, hits a wall. The double slit experiment proves over and over that the imaginary, one person’s presence affects the real world. It is not my intent to make this complicated.  So I will skip it for now.

One scientist named Carl Gustav Jung made the right decision to not discard anything. He studied dreams. Dreams must take place somewhere; let’s consider that it is only someone’s mind. As loose and broad as it is, it is a better example as everyone will relate. In contrast to the conscious in the dream we are kind of out, can’t measure, predict or control beforehand. To note this we can call it the unconscious. Using the dream example is easy to illustrate that from the unconscious we can take information back to the conscious. We can speak, write or draw about the dream. Also there is information in the unconscious about the real world that surrounds us. Whether was there or we placed it is not important now. We can all agree that:

The Unconscious is part of the construct that surrounds us where we can place and retrieve information from the Conscious.

Spirituality from the beginning makes the case that unconscious is part of reality and has a correlation with the physical world. Jung made meticulous observation’s on this direction, now there is a full branch on the medical field based on the understanding that at least there is a correlation between unconscious and personal well being.

Is there any correlation between the Unconscious and Reality as defined above? That will answer many of the questions on this group. On the next two posts I will show with simple words this correlation and how life works. I understand the previous phrase J

The GOOD

To discuss, anything really, you need words. And the definition that the word carries to each person is very important to complete that task. Even more so, on a philosophical discussion where words used are broad or generic and often very abstract.

The concept of “Good” is of particular importance to be defined. Furthermore in a Jung-ian fashion the symbolic meaning or power that the word carries needs to be discovered. The symbolic meaning is actually a universal definition across cultures and time.

So with the task clear ahead, is time to see what resources we have to do this job. The first thing will be the dictionary; some have very lengthy picks like the Merriam-Webster. I am picking the one from dictionary.com more concise. More of the same

adjective, bet·ter, best.

morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious:a good man.

satisfactory in quality, quantity, or degree:a good teacher; good health.

of high quality; excellent.

SEE MORE

noun

profit or advantage; worth; benefit:

What good will that do? We shall work for the common good.

excellence or merit; kindness: to do good.

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interjection

(used as an expression of approval or satisfaction):Good! Now we can all go home.

As an adjective we don’t get much, as the synonyms given suggest; better, best. Good denotes a classification without any base reference. All we can do is move down to the noun. Here the common understanding is actually given, it is: benefit, profit or advantage. Also the use as an adjective clears up, as the classification attribute belongs to a more beneficial or profitable option. The interjection is another illustration of the beneficial, advantage e.t.c.

And while this is all “Good”, here is where our philosophical problem starts. To keep it short, if the definition for “Good” is profit and advantage how can we explain greed, theft or cheating (and other things) as being bad? After all they will fit well the definition for profit and advantage. So trying to define where the benefit, profit or advantage goes and including that in the definition might be an option. The benefit can be personal or communal, where the communal can be family, group, team, city, country or fully global. The first option personal benefit brings us back to the same problem, grid and such. The common good does not fare any better, all the totalitarian regimes claim this very definition of “Good” when; well kill a lot of people.

So what is “Good” then? It is time to maybe look at the word in a spiritual way. What if the benefit goes to God? Without a definition for God, we can’t have a definition for Good. Also if the Good is a benefit for God it will contradict many of the uses of the word “Good”. Nevertheless the early use of “Good” might be helpful. The story starts with God calling the light, the earth (land and seas) and all that lives in there as GOOD.

What are the features of these things? The light is inextinguishable; we see the light of the stars that originated even millions years ago. The land and the water recycle in itself. And life on earth is as vibrant as the day that it started. Maybe we can look at the meaning of Good in terms of purpose. If Good is beneficial and advantageous for what purpose?