Each person is an embodied mind. The mind is like a bottomless pit. We walk around with it. It drives us. We sometimes drive it. It sometimes overflows, connects, and engages with other minds. In such instances, we talk about the meeting of minds. Nonetheless, this meeting of minds is never complete and total.
We interact with the world in a way that suits us. It is very easy to come to the view that the only world we know is the one we see and feel. As such, there is no reality outside our consciousness. In other words, nothing exists if it is not perceived by a mind; but to what extent is this true?
This is a perennial question, which philosophers of different shades and schools of thought have battled with over time. Our world is in our head. Without trying to rehearse centuries of philosophical endeavours in this line of thought, the reality of the world in our heads is as contemporaneous as it is ancient.
If the world is as we see it, then whose view of the world is correct? One way to avoid the complexities of this question is to think of our perceptions of the world as those of the allegorical seven blind men and their understanding of what an elephant is, based on their different perceptions and experiences of the different parts of an elephant.
However, as true as this may be, the parts can never be greater than the whole. At least, this is not logically possible. This logical impossibility is true but at the same time endangers the truth of reality. It is true in the sense that it is impossible. It endangers the truth of reality in the sense that it relegates truth to the exigencies and excesses of relativism and subjectivism. But is there an objective and absolute truth? Is there a reality outside the mind that perceives it?
Perhaps, there is an objective and absolute truth as long as it can be imagined. Some people have found solace in deifying this view of truth. For some, it is God as truth. For others, it is nature as truth. Despite the possibility of an absolute truth and a reality outside our consciousness, the only reality we are capable of knowing is the one presented in our consciousness. Any reality outside our consciousness remains unknown and unknowable to us. One of such unknown and unknowable realities is the mind of others.
Each person is an embodied mind. The mind is like a bottomless pit. We walk around with it. It drives us. We sometimes drive it. It sometimes overflows, connects, and engages with other minds. In such instances, we talk about the meeting of minds. Nonetheless, this meeting of minds is never complete and total. Like a river, it flows, rises, ebbs, and even dries up. This dynamism makes the mind an ever-changing entity.
However, drawing from the analogy of the mind as a flowing river, one wonders if the mind is ours, and in us, or is it external to us, and do we interface with it as a stream of awareness and consciousness, which does not necessarily belong to us? In that regard, it takes one back to the view that we cannot step into the same body of water twice. At each point in time, we meet a “new” wave; a different part of the body of water.
Ultimately, we are the cause of our sorrows. We can only be as happy as we desire. Be happy and always strive to be happier by making others happy! That is the essence of our shared humanity.
As such, each encounter with the mind becomes an encounter with a new and different stream of consciousness. If the mind is external to us, where then does it originate from and reside in? To what extent can we ridicule and castigate the minds of others without necessarily ridiculing and castigating our own minds, since we draw from the same stream of consciousness? In other words, what is the difference between us and others, if we all share the same stream of consciousness?
These are not easy to address questions. However, they leave room for some explorations and extrapolations. For instance, the view of the mind and consciousness as something external to us, and therefore do not necessarily belong to us, may provide a lens through which we can appreciate the human craving for unity and quest for diversity. Arguably, the unity of humanity, in this instance, draws from the common consciousness we share, and the incessant quest for diversity becomes a reflection and an acceptance of the common source of our consciousness, which manifests through people in different ways. This diversity, therefore, makes our experiences true, as aspects of our collective consciousness. In other words, to negate these fundamental human cravings is to be out of our mind – i.e. a disconnection from our collective consciousness, which fundamentally connects us with others. This may be the absolute truth, which often eludes us and presents as series of relativist perceptions and experiences of subjective truths.
Subjectivism is often ego-centric. Egoism is often at the centre of disharmony. As such, it is not difficult to appreciate that conflicts and confrontations are usually borne out of our “out of our mind” situations. In such situations, collective consciousness is lost. The individual begins to see more of self-in-isolation than self-with-and-in-others. In such instance, hell is the other person. In other words, hell comes across as a permanent out of our mind experience – i.e. a form of lifelessness – where we are disconnected from our collective consciousness; and this isolation torments forever.
On the contrary, peace and harmony is to be in contact with our mind. In such situations, we find joy and tranquillity of being with others. This view may not be far from the Ubuntu worldview – i.e. I am because you are. We see ourselves in others; and others become the extension and completeness of the truth of our beings.
Perhaps, before your next outburst, suspicion of others, and all the negative energies we often exhibit, ask if you are out of your mind literally. It may help reconnect you with the pervasive mind stream we all draw from for peace, harmony and joy, but we often take for granted and assume away.
Ultimately, we are the cause of our sorrows. We can only be as happy as we desire. Be happy and always strive to be happier by making others happy! That is the essence of our shared humanity.
Kenneth Amaeshi is a policy analyst and professor at the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. He tweets @kenamaeshi_
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