Jake Orthwein recently tweeted about the connection between afterlife conceits and how we experience the world affectively right now; he writes the following:
A strange consequence of taking the “ways of looking” approach to emptiness seriously is that it makes more coherent the idea of heaven, hell, and other “realms” as *places*.
We see MEANING (implications for action) and *infer* object, not the other way around.
That is, if how things appear depends on the way of looking all the way down, then ways of looking can change *where you are* or *what kind of world you inhabit*, at least from the point of view of deep parts of your nervous system.
A strange consequence of taking the “ways of looking” approach to emptiness seriously is that it makes more coherent the idea of heaven, hell, and other “realms” as *places*.
We see MEANING (implications for action) and *infer* object, not the other way around.
That is, if how things appear depends on the way of looking all the way down, then ways of looking can change *where you are* or *what kind of world you inhabit*, at least from the point of view of deep parts of your nervous system.
This makes sense, given that the deepest sense of “place” is not about articulated conceptions of what “things” are out there but about what affective regularities obtain in experience.
"The "domain of the known" and the "domain of the unknown" can reasonably be regarded as permanent constituent elements of human experience even of the human environment.
Regardless of culture, place and time, human individuals are forced to adapt to the fact of culture (the domain of the known, roughly speaking) and the fact of its ultimate insufficiency (as the domain of the unknown necessarily remains extant, regardless of extent of previous "adaptation").
I think the logic of this is that by alternating the two extreme views, you accelerate the process by which you transcend the duality and see the emptiness, which ultimately brings deeper liberation than just holding the pure land view. Makes holding that (or any) view easier too. 
They’re ways of stretching these deep-seated, affect-laden conceptions of place to their positive and negative limits, thereby seeing their emptiness.
A dying Rob Burbea’s 4m whispered lecture is now my favorite Christmas sermon:
“my hands, my body, now just bones really, wasted away, but some kind of perfection … perfection a way of seeing … Christ‘s blessing is there, on everything, in everything, even in the dukkha itself”
NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTION:
THE NATURE OF THE MIND It is reasonable to regard the world, as forum for action, as a "place" —a place made up of the familiar, and the unfamiliar, in eternal juxtaposition. The brain is actually composed, in large part, of two subsystems, adapted for action in that place.
Understanding "Adaptive Imagination: Toward a Mythopoetic Cognitive Science."
Understanding "Adaptive Imagination: Toward a Mythopoetic Cognitive Science" :
**Core Ideas:**
* **Mythopoetic Cognition:** This refers to the innate human tendency to understand the world through stories, attributing agency and intentionality to animate and inanimate objects. It's not just about creating myths; it's a fundamental way of thinking and making sense of our experiences.
* **Evolutionary Basis:** Asma argues that this mythopoetic cognition is not a primitive leftover but an evolved adaptation with significant benefits for survival and social cohesion.
* **Challenges to Contemporary Views:** The paper critiques current trends in cognitive science and philosophy that often focus on logic, rationality, and objective reasoning, neglecting the crucial role of imagination and narrative in human thought.
* **New Cognitive Science of Imagination:** Asma calls for a new approach to studying the mind that acknowledges and investigates the mythopoetic dimension of human cognition.
By recognizing the power of mythopoetic thinking, we can gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and develop more effective ways to learn, communicate, and connect with each other.
*The human brain-and the higher animal brain— appears therefore to have adapted itself to the eternal presence of these two "places"; the brain has one mode of operation when in explored territory, and another when in unexplored territory.
In the unexplored world, caution— expressed in fear and behavioral immobility— initially predominates, but may be superseded by curiosity— expressed in hope, excitement and, above all, in creative exploratory behavior.
Creative exploration of the unknown, and consequent generation of knowledge, is construction or update of patterns of behavior and representation, such that the unknown is transformed from something terrifying and com- pelling into something beneficial (or, at least, something irrelevant).
The presence of capacity for such creative exploration and knowledge generation may be regarded as the third, and final, permanent constituent element of human experience (in addition to the domain of the "known" and "unknown").
It also makes sense of experiences that seem to suggest that ordinary existence is like “wandering a desiccated landscape, trying to find one’s way home.”
You can imagine, as an intuition pump, that if you didn’t have a prefrontal cortex and your capacities for action were more limited, the world would be filled with something like angels and demons — that is, with much more obviously and exaggeratedly affect-laden appearances."
Pure Land and Charnel Ground practices making more sense.
You can imagine, as an intuition pump, that if you didn’t have a prefrontal cortex and your capacities for action were more limited, the world would be filled with something like angels and demons — that is, with much more obviously and exaggeratedly affect-laden appearances."
Pure Land and Charnel Ground practices making more sense.
There’s a suhrawardi quote I can’t find along the lines of “only by standing at the border between two worlds can you transcend both”
They’re ways of stretching these deep-seated, affect-laden conceptions of place to their positive and negative limits, thereby seeing their emptiness.
A dying Rob Burbea’s 4m whispered lecture is now my favorite Christmas sermon:
“my hands, my body, now just bones really, wasted away, but some kind of perfection … perfection a way of seeing … Christ‘s blessing is there, on everything, in everything, even in the dukkha itself”
NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTION:
THE NATURE OF THE MIND It is reasonable to regard the world, as forum for action, as a "place" —a place made up of the familiar, and the unfamiliar, in eternal juxtaposition. The brain is actually composed, in large part, of two subsystems, adapted for action in that place.
The right hemisphere, broadly speaking, responds to novelty with caution, and rapid, global hypothesis formation. The left hemisphere, by contrast, tends to remain in charge when things-that is, explicitly categorized things-are unfolding according to plan.
The right hemisphere draws rapid, globalvalence-based, metaphorical pictures of novel things; the left, with its greater capacity for detail, makes such pictures explicit and verbal. Thus the exploratory capacity of the brain "builds" the world of the familiar (the known), from the world of the unfamiliar (the unknown).
When the world remains known and familiar-that is, when our beliefs maintain their validity-our emotions remain under control. When the world suddenly transforms itself into something new, however, our emotions are dysregulated, in keeping with the relative novelty of that transformation, and we are forced to retreat or to explore once again.
What we call objects are actually *internalized patterns of interaction* — perceptual, motor, affective..."
That's the end of what Jake has to say, and he's right, this has tremendous benefits on psychology, resilience, and well being.
Check out the story HERE story about two Tibetan peasants who stumble into WWII and survive astonishing odds - all the while thinking they're in the netherworld !
This paper by Stephen Asma proposes a shift in how we understand human cognition, particularly imagination. It argues for a "mythopoetic" perspective, viewing the world through narratives and personal intentions rather than purely objective laws :
Understanding "Adaptive Imagination: Toward a Mythopoetic Cognitive Science."
I sum up his core ideas below.
This paper by Stephen Asma proposes a shift in how we understand human cognition, particularly imagination. It argues for a "mythopoetic" perspective, viewing the world through narratives and personal intentions rather than purely objective laws.
Understanding "Adaptive Imagination: Toward a Mythopoetic Cognitive Science" :
**Core Ideas:**
* **Mythopoetic Cognition:** This refers to the innate human tendency to understand the world through stories, attributing agency and intentionality to animate and inanimate objects. It's not just about creating myths; it's a fundamental way of thinking and making sense of our experiences.
* **Evolutionary Basis:** Asma argues that this mythopoetic cognition is not a primitive leftover but an evolved adaptation with significant benefits for survival and social cohesion.
* **Challenges to Contemporary Views:** The paper critiques current trends in cognitive science and philosophy that often focus on logic, rationality, and objective reasoning, neglecting the crucial role of imagination and narrative in human thought.
* **New Cognitive Science of Imagination:** Asma calls for a new approach to studying the mind that acknowledges and investigates the mythopoetic dimension of human cognition.
By recognizing the power of mythopoetic thinking, we can gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and develop more effective ways to learn, communicate, and connect with each other.
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