Neuroscience
How Do We Approach Reality? Focus vs Awareness
Nothing is as it seems
Did you know that we have a psychosomatic structure? Body 🧘♀️ and mind 🧠 are constantly interacting with each other. They are like the two sides of the same coin.
The body🧘♀️ is the mind 🧠 that is visible and the mind 🧠 is the body🧘♀️ that is invisible. Whether or not these two are aligned will determine how comfortably we can operate on the physical and psychological planes.
The problem is most of us have not yet figured out the basics. Once we do that then we can worry about the metaphysical aspect of it. The first thing we need to do is be aware of how this whole thing works.
We need to dig deep and find out the origin of thoughts 🤔 . When we see 👀 an object 🌷 or a person 🙋♀️ we feel a sensation then it keeps replaying on our mental screen and finally a desire is born and a series of thoughts 🤔 begins.
We might want to know the reality of things. But according to neuroscience 🧠, the world 🌏 we perceive with our senses 👀 👃 👅 👂 🖐 is an illusion 🧙♂️ . It is a show put on for us by our brains🧠.
The sensory experiences are taking place within the dark silent chamber of our skull 🧠
Outside our brain there only exists matter and energy which we have transformed into a sensory experience as we humans are living on this planet 🌏 for over a million years.
So our experience of reality deceives us in making us believe that we have direct access via our senses with the external world. When we touch🖐 or see 👀 a physical object we don’t experience it directly. The sensory experiences are taking place within the dark silent chamber of our skull 🧠.
The brain 🧠 neither has nor will have a direct experience with the external world. So when we attempt 🤔 to understand the reality of an object or a person by sharply focused investigation we might not be able to discover the reality.
The least we can have is our own perception of reality which when we share with our fellow human beings 👯 becomes a collective culture and we can co-exist peacefully. 🕊
Focus is like a torchlight 🔦 which lights the only specific area where it is directed whereas awareness is like a lamp 🪔 that lights up every corner.
We develop our identity within the culture we live in. This identity we create is functional and remains a moving target because our experiences and our patterns in the neural network 🧠 are constantly changing.
So the question remains how do we approach reality❓ My perspective is that the only doorway is through the cultivation of our awareness not focus.
Focus is like a torchlight 🔦 which lights the only specific area where it is directed whereas awareness is like a lamp 🪔 that lights up every corner.
If we attempt to discover reality by using focus then the revealed reality will be partial but if we deploy awareness there are greater chances that we might come across the ultimate reality (maybe I should say complete reality or more than partial).
One more challenge is to confine our experiences, observations, and perceptions of reality in words 🔠. Language has its own limitation. But we still try to communicate on some level where it makes sense.
Author’s Note: This piece is inspired by the book; “The Brain: The Story Of You” authored by Dr. David Eagleman, a neuroscientist, technologist and entrepreneur.”
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