The Conscious Mind Is Limited - Be Aware And Be Prepared


limited-thought.png

The Conscious Mind Is Limited In So Many Ways

The conscious mind is limited in so many ways. There are some who would argue that there is no such thing as conscious thought and that it is represents little more than an internal multi-modal display of thoughts arising from processes that are hidden to us.

The conventional perception is that conscious thought directly guides and controls our actions. However there is growing body of research that suggests that conscious thought does not guide moment-to-moment actions but serves social and cultural functions.

But for our current purpose, let's continue with conventional understanding of the conscious mind as that part of us where we are aware of our thoughts as they take place.

Let's temporarily park the idea that the content of the conscious mind is an illusion and take a practical look at some of the many ways in which the conscious mind is limited.

Being aware is the first stage of being prepared.






[1] The Linear Scanning System Of Conscious Attention

scanner.png

Human intelligence has a serious limitation. It is a scanning system of conscious attention, and that scanning system is linear. It examines the world in lines, as you would pass a flashlight beam across a darkened room, focusing on one thing at a time, sequentially.

For example, to gain an education, we scan millions of lines of information.

We do it that way because that’s the best our attention can do, scanning and taking in one or at least just a few bits of information at a time, one after another.

But the kicker is that the real world doesn’t happen one thing at a time, one thing after another.

The real world is multidimensional, with a lot happening all at once, and it comes at us so fast and all at once in such a way that we could never scan it in the narrow focused linear way humans typically think.






[2] Thought vs Experience


map_and_territory_2.jpg


The conscious mind is limited by the abstractions, concepts, beliefs and maps we make to try to make sense of the complex world we live in.

Because in so doing we confuse 'the world as-it-is' with 'the world as-it-is-thought-about-and-described'. This is often expressed as confusing the map and the territory.

We confuse our thoughts and more importantly our emotional associations with an experience – with the experience. Reality is the territory – the unfiltered, uncategorized, direct experience now in the present moment.

The direct experience of eating tasty food – the unconditional love of a parent or child – the energy and abandonment of a good sexual experience - cannot be confused with our inner representations of them or the words we may use to attempt to describe these powerful experiences.

Imagine how many words you would need to describe the taste of freshly ground coffee to someone who has never heard of nor seen yet alone tasted coffee, compared with the directness of brewing them a cup and letting them taste it for themselves.

And the difference between 'the world as-it-is' with 'the world as-it-is-thought-about-and-described' is vast.

One is the map, and the other is the actual territory. And when you’re not aware of yourself except in a symbolic way, when you’re only aware of the map you’ve made of yourself, the "you" that consists of consciously reviewed words and symbols, the concept you have of who you are, you’re not really aware of yourself at all.



    We’re like a person eating the menu instead of the meal.

    This confusion over who we are is why we feel chronically frustrated with life and keep seeking the "missing" piece.








[3] The Limitations Of Language


language-limits.jpg


The conscious mind is limited by the torrent of inner noise pouring from our thought stream. We are in a profound sense lost for words.

A lot of what causes us to identify with this image we have, of ourselves and the world is built into our language. Notice that in our language, every sentence has a verb, an action of some sort, and a noun that does the action. But is this really the way it is?

So if there are no separate things, how can we have a noun, a separate thing, doing something? Isn’t this, too, just a social convention, but one that doesn’t describe reality accurately.

The structure of our language just reinforces that our concept of what is real (that there are separate things, that acts on other separate things) is real, when it isn’t.

Your image of yourself is deficient. It has to be. It’s just a map, an image, a concept you have of "you." It’s the menu, but you are the meal itself.

You really are all the connections, all the processes of the universe, a centre of awareness smack in the middle of everything, and that everything is you.



    The image of you is no more you than an idol is God.

    Your mental image of yourself, your ego, your map of reality, keeps you from directly seeing and feeling who you are.



The concepts we employ, the categorizations we apply and the words we choose and use to articulate a direct experience put us in a double bind, and it is this:

For everything we gain by being able to verbalize and articulate an experience we lose an equal if not greater amount of the full meaning of that experience by the very process of articulation.








[4] The Limitations Of Context & Framing


framing.jpg


The conscious mind is limited by the lost meaning in our words and this becomes exacerbated as the words we use to describe something are always heard or read within a context and a framing.

To illustrate and personalize this right now, the words that I am writing to you here in this article - and that I can hear in my head as I type this - have a meaning to me that is created and shaped by my inner map of reality.

However you, as you read this will be receiving, filtering and interpreting these words with your own inner map of reality.

What I mean to say and what you hear may not be the same thing!

This insight has serious and dramatic ramifications because families and societies have been divided and many wars have been fought over the meaning and interpretation of words.







[5] The limitations Of Dogmas And Beliefs


beyond-belief-and-words.jpg


The conscious mind is limited by the beliefs it holds and the dogmas that it adheres to.

In the field of religious beliefs there is so much argument, conflict and suffering over “correct” beliefs – or orthodoxy – declarations and adherence to propositional statements of faith.

As Eckhart Tolle put it:

"Dogmas – religious, political, scientific – arise out of the erroneous belief that thought can encapsulate reality or the truth.

Dogmas are collective conceptual prisons. And the strange things is that people love their prison cells because they give them a sense of security and a false sense of 'I know'.

Nothing has inflicted more suffering on humanity than its dogmas. It is true that every dogma crumbles sooner or later, because reality will eventually disclose its falseness; however, unless the basic delusion of it is seen for what it is, it will be replaced by others." 







[6] The conscious mind is also limited in other ways it:


So where does this leave us?

In my experience there are 2 basic ways of dealing with all this:

  1. Be aware, understand and accept the considerable limitations of your conscious mind and don't take it too seriously!
  2. Learn how to stop thinking and turn it off and how to gain a greater level of control over your conscious mind.








    What is basic delusion? Identification with thought.

    [Eckhart Tolle]







Next Article: Duality & Life Beyond Your Thinking Mind

Return to: Keeping It Real - Self Improvement Articles


Contact me




English Chinese (Traditional) Russian French German Italian Spanish Vietnamese



LATEST ARTICLES

  1. Like A Prayer - Life Is A Mystery

    It Isn't The Process Of Prayer That’s The Problem, It’s The Way It’s Framed. Regardless of what we feel about Madonna or her song the topic of prayer often arouses strong reactions. Usually, it is som…

    Read More

  2. How Things Really Are - The Inbuilt Design Flaws

    Chaos, Disorder And Decay Is The Natural Order Of Things. Nobody has the perfect life. We all struggle and strive to attain health, wealth and personal happiness. Yet these three big areas: our health…

    Read More

  3. Intuition Or Anxiety - Are There Angels Or Devils Crawling Here?

    How To Tell The Difference Between Intuition and Anxiety. How do you know whether the voice of your intuition is real or just the product of your inner anxiety? Several months ago I was having a drink…

    Read More

  4. What Is Truth - How To Tell A Partial Truth From The Whole Truth?

    How the truth and nothing but the truth is often not the whole truth. My great aunty Flo broke her arm and died. It is true that she broke her arm in 1923. It is also true that she died in 1949. But t…

    Read More

  5. Duality And Life Beyond Your Thinking Mind

    Duality and life beyond your thinking mind focuses on the limitations of time, foreground and background, duality and "stuckness". The first aspect of duality and life beyond your thinking mind focuse…

    Read More

  6. The Conscious Mind Is Limited - Be Aware And Be Prepared

    Being aware is the first stage of being prepared. The conscious mind is limited in so many ways. There are some who would argue that there is no such thing as conscious thought and that it is represen…

    Read More

  7. Your Inner Map Of Reality - Here's Why You Think The Way You Do

    The big picture of how your inner map of reality creates your feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. Your inner map of reality is based on the filters of your own ethnic, national, social, family and rel…

    Read More

  8. The Failure Of Cancel Culture - Suppression Not Engagement

    Why we need to wear our beliefs lightly and develop negative capability. Throughout history people have campaigned to fight beliefs, ideologies, and injustices that they perceived to be oppressive, di…

    Read More

  9. 4 Big Reasons Why We Get Stuck In Our Attempts At Personal Change

    Most People Spend Their Entire Life Imprisoned Within The Confines Of Their Own Thoughts. This first of the 4 big reasons why we get stuck is, in my view, the most important. The "self-help industry…

    Read More

  10. How Do I Change And Why Is It So Hard?

    We Would Rather Die Than Change, And We Usually Do In my experience, the vast majority of people who say they want to change don’t change. Most people reading this won’t change because they don’t real…

    Read More

  11. The Illusion Of A Separate Self - Windows 11 With Self Awareness!

    Beyond the content of your mind you are so much more than you think you are. When we talk of "myself" this is the conventional way of referring to our self image which is in fact the ego's constructio…

    Read More

  12. Finite And Infinite Games - Dazed, Confused & Ultimately Transcendent

    This is not an instruction manual, it is a wake up call! Over this past week I have read Professor James Carse's highly regarded "Finite And Infinite Games - A Vision Of Life As Play And Possibility"

    Read More

  13. The Gap And The Gain - How Your Brain Sabotages Your Happiness

    How Your Lizard Brain Sabotages Your Happiness We are hardwired to measure our progress in any and all areas of life where we have goals and aspirations. We can't not do it. But what we measure and ho…

    Read More

  14. How To Wake Up - 4 Simple Practices To Help You Wake Up Now

    So What Exactly Does It Mean to Wake Up - What Is "Enlightenment"? There is nothing magical, mystical or mysterious about waking up we’re actually having glimpses of enlightenment all the time. Enligh…

    Read More

  15. Situational Communication - Different Strokes For Different Folks

    Situational communication is about taking account of 3 often ignored factors about the other person. You are a situational communicator when you recognise that effective communication is not an event…

    Read More

  16. How To Influence Without Authority - 6 Key Tips

    The secret to how to influence without authority is that you get what you really want by giving other people what they really want. We live in an interconnected world and knowing how to influence with…

    Read More

  17. Change Questions To Change Your Outcomes

    Asking The Right Questions Is Critical For A Successful Change. Every time we initiate a significant change - whether in our personal life or in an organisation - we will most likely over-estimate our…

    Read More

  18. Group Culture - The Invisible Software That Rules Your Life

    Group culture is: "How we do things round here". We like to see ourselves as free agents making our own choices and living authentically but the reality is that The Matrix has many layers and we are u…

    Read More

  19. Why Getting From A to B Is Not Aways A Straight Line

    In circumstances of significant change, the progress from A to B will not be in a straight line. We run our lives largely on auto-pilot. In most circumstances your experience of getting from A to B is…

    Read More

  20. The Art Of Persuasion Planning For Success - Here's How To Do It!

    To be successful in the art of persuasion you must ensure that certain things happen. To be successful in the art of persuasion you must establish a framework of what has to happen to get you to that…

    Read More

  21. The Art Of Persuasion Advanced Communication Skills - Gaining Buyin

    Create The Environment Where They Want To Buyin to Your Proposal In order to build the win-win you have to uncover what it is that the other person really wants or needs, and to do that you have to as…

    Read More

  22. The Art Of Persuasion The One Fundamental Principle - Create A Win-Win

    The art of persuasion is based on the simple idea that you get what you want by enabling the other party to get what they want. Being a nice friendly person with good inter-personal skills may be a go…

    Read More

  23. Communication Persuasion And Change - Key Skills To Survive & Succeed

    It's not the strongest that survive, nor the most intelligent, but those who are most responsive to change, the most persuasive, and the best communicators. We are living in an age of unprecedented ch…

    Read More

  24. The Eisenhower Box - What Is Important Is Seldom Urgent

    What Is Important Is Seldom Urgent And What Is Urgent Is Seldom Important. The Eisenhower Box is a time management and decision-making model devised by President Dwight Eisenhower to help him prioriti…

    Read More

  25. Zen Enlightenment [Satori] - The Stink Of Zen

    Lost In Our Delusions About Enlightenment. There is something in human nature - a desire to glamorise, sanctify, objectify and idolise – that elevates people who have offered deep insights to the huma…

    Read More

  26. 5 Zen Mindsets For Mastery - In Any Area Of Your Life

    The Wisdom Of A Person Who Masters In Any Art Is Reflected In Their Every Attitude. The state and quality of your mind has a very large bearing on the quality of your performance in any area of life t…

    Read More

  27. Dealing With The Toxicity Of Online Dating - 6 Key Tips From A Clinical Psychologist

    Toxicity Is The Price Tag Of Accessibility. In the early days of online dating, users were vetted and had to go through a registration process and agree to comply with a code of conduct designed to en…

    Read More

  28. Why Understanding Ergodicity Is Critical To Your Long Term Survival

    How Not To Be Fooled By Randomness. Ergodicity is an ugly word from the world of mathematics. It is an umbrella term for two sets of conditions of probability and outcome. These two conditions form th…

    Read More

  29. Dealing With Imposter Syndrome - Ego Is The Enemy

    How You Frame A Situation Has A Profound Impact On How You Respond To It Emotionally. Imposter syndrome is a psycho-emotional experience of a fear of being found out as incompetent despite ongoing evi…

    Read More

  30. The Challenges Of The Road Less Traveled

    Issues You'll Face When Playing The Long Game. The challenges of the road less traveled is loosely based around the phrase popularised by M.Scott Peck with his book "The Road Less Traveled". This arti…

    Read More



Get new posts by email:









Zen-Tools.Net





Support This Site