"That said: It’s not even abstraction itself that is the problem, but our stuckness to it. We can reach out and eat the ice cream and the field of experience changes, our feelings change, and our thoughts change. But reaching out to symbols and abstractions disconnected from the field of experience can keep us and future generations locked in strange desires for lifetimes. The abstraction of hell and heaven, religion, ideology, politics, and dogma, do not melt like ice cream on a hot day. So long as humans are there to give them energy in the form of attention, belief, and identification (bottom-up), they remain powerful and capable of driving our feelings, thoughts, and actions (top-down).
This is the force we must somehow contend with. Getting stuck on a dangerous abstraction is what fuels many of humanity’s most notorious moral disasters, from the Spanish Inquisition to the holocaust, from terrorist attacks to school shootings. No one can dissociate so heavily from the compassion within their hearts except through delusional stuckness on a thought or belief."
I very much agree and try hard to root out any hateful feelings. I had a feeling though that a misformed abstraction guides the initial paragraphs of this essay. (I didn't see the video you refer to, maybe that is what colours your perception here.) You laying the ability to find impermanence at the feet of the mind relies on mind-body duality.
"That said: It’s not even abstraction itself that is the problem, but our stuckness to it. We can reach out and eat the ice cream and the field of experience changes, our feelings change, and our thoughts change. But reaching out to symbols and abstractions disconnected from the field of experience can keep us and future generations locked in strange desires for lifetimes. The abstraction of hell and heaven, religion, ideology, politics, and dogma, do not melt like ice cream on a hot day. So long as humans are there to give them energy in the form of attention, belief, and identification (bottom-up), they remain powerful and capable of driving our feelings, thoughts, and actions (top-down).
This is the force we must somehow contend with. Getting stuck on a dangerous abstraction is what fuels many of humanity’s most notorious moral disasters, from the Spanish Inquisition to the holocaust, from terrorist attacks to school shootings. No one can dissociate so heavily from the compassion within their hearts except through delusional stuckness on a thought or belief."
Beautiful words. Thank you.
Thank you Paul 🙏.
Good explanation of abstraction and how it connects to intelligence!
It reminds me of how the map is not the territory.
Abstractions are like maps and people forget that the abstraction can sometimes not match reality!
Thanks Rob!
I very much agree and try hard to root out any hateful feelings. I had a feeling though that a misformed abstraction guides the initial paragraphs of this essay. (I didn't see the video you refer to, maybe that is what colours your perception here.) You laying the ability to find impermanence at the feet of the mind relies on mind-body duality.
https://endicottblackwing.substack.com/p/race-is-not-skin-color
https://endicottblackwing.substack.com/p/preamble-on-race-realism