In the prior article we were speaking of the equation, t = T- Fi, and its specific applications to a variety of situations, including music and the Direct Perception of Reality. We suggested that it is necessary to 'Be Here Now' to appreciate any or everything from a good meal, to a sunset, to enjoying Life to the Fullest. Attachment to our Person's imaginary world distracts us – pulling us away from the present. Today we are going to discuss what happens when the imaginary world takes over.
Let us review the algebra and the geometric representation of our typical pollution equation as a contrast to the distortion that follows. They both represent the same metaphor - one abstractly and the other in a more concrete fashion.
t2 = T 2 - F2 -2TFi
Remembering from before - Both of these models exhibit the same concept, which is that the False detracts from the True in two ways - i.e. diminishing the direct impact or the probability of the True and distracting from the True Direction, i.e. the Practice.
When Truth is replaced by Falsehood
The implication here is that the True is diminished and led on a wild goose chase. For instance, the Musical Performance is inhibited and the Practice time diminished. This is the situation when the True is just diminished. There is an even more extreme scenario, which is quite common. This is when the True is overwhelmed. This is the case when the probability of False behavior is greater than True behavior, F>T.
When the probability of true behavior is greater than the False, T>F, the Truth, T, is just diminished. However alternately when the False is greater than the True, F>T, the Truth, T, is overwhelmed. Let us look at our Probability equation under these conditions.
People living primarily in the Imaginary World
This is when the real component of the Polluted is less than zero, t2R < 0. This means that t2R is negative. This occurs when the probability of false behavior is greater than true, F>T. This is when the real component of the polluted, tR, enters the imaginary world. We will represent that symbolically as f2.
Hence if the event, entity, level of involvement, probability of true behavior, whatever it is we’re talking about, is less than the probability of false behavior, then we replace t with f because the false is more likely.
If tR < 0 Then t=f
If tR > 0 Then t=t
This algebraic representation is only for those of you who are mathematically minded.
For those of you who are not - we will restate this in words. Referring to the polluted: if the False is greater than the True, then we will refer to the polluted Person, as false, f. Conversely, if there is more truth, we will refer to the Person as true, t. In both of these cases, t & f, each are polluted by the other. Neither is pure. Simply speaking we will refer to someone who resides primarily in the fantasy world as f, while we will refer to those who reside primarily in the True world as t.
Now let’s look at representations geometrically.
In the case on the left, the probability of true behavior is
greater than false behavior,
t2R > F2. In the other
case, when t2R < F2, the t Person is transformed into an f Person. For ease of reference we will refer to this as the
Diagram of the f Person.
Each of us are both Guru and Victim
Our t Person participates primarily in the True, while our f Person participates primarily in the False. Note that the Absolutely True Person is mythical, as is our absolutely False Person. As mentioned in our primary axiom - every verbal statement has both a true and false component. Applying this axiom to this situation -> Every True Person has a False component, while every False Person has a True component. Again this is because of the inherently ambiguous nature of communication, verbal and non-verbal. Remember that this has nothing to do with value judgments and only to do with inherency.
So under our definitions: Everyone, both t & f People, have both true and false components. On the idealized level the Guru, the realized human, in any tradition, is True, while the helpless Victim is False. However each of us contain some of the Guru and some of the Victim, albeit in different proportions. Now that we’ve said Nothing, let’s attempt to turn it into Something.
Proactive Guru vs. Reactive Victim
The Guru has differentiated Being and Mind via Self-Reflection. This differentiation purifies his Will of cultural corruption. He employs this purified Will to catch and ride the Universal Wave. He does not create waves by splashing around in his Personal Bathtub. In contrast, the Victim has turned off the Self-Reflective Nature of the Mind. Accordingly, he reacts to the nearly instinctual Reactive Directions of the Body and Brain.
Note that we use the words, Guru and Victim, as idealized symbols, not as words with cultural connotations.
These states could be shown like this:
For the Guru just the Dot is the Person = Brain + Body, while the rest is the Self Reflective Mind. For the Victim just the Perimeter is the Self-Reflective Mind, while the rest is the Reactive Person. The Reactor does not exert Will, but is in Reflex mode. Just as the knee jerks reflexively when a hammer is applied, the Reactor respondes automatically to the demands of the Group. Between the Guru and the Victim are the rest of us.
Probabilities of Action, not states of Being
However, not really. For these equations, we’ve been writing, actually represent probabilities of Action rather than states of Being. There is no such thing, in my experience, as someone who always behaves impeccably or someone else who always behaves falsely. However. there are those who tend to behave impeccably, while there those who tend to act Falsely.
Therefore our true and false People are those who have a greater or lesser possibility of acting with conscious awareness, t, or reacting automatically, f, in any given situation. The idealized Guru always acts with Will/Intentionality to catch the Wave. The idealized Victim is akin to the non-human animals, who tend to respond instinctually to the Group demands. Nobody is always a Guru or a Victim. However everyone, in one circumstance or another, behaves as a Guru or a Victim.
Aside: There might be a tendency to interpret these many words as an ultimate statement of passive relativism. This is far from the truth. Instead these words/sentences/paragraphs/sections are an urgent call to action and investigation to avoid being victimized by automatic responses that we have been trained to perform from birth. These are encouraging, rather than discouraging, words.
All of us are more or less culturally corrupted
Now that we’ve discovered that these equations merely represent probabilities of behavior and now that we’ve defined true and false behavior a little more tightly, we can make more sense of our equations and diagrams.
Our fat self, t, polluted as he is, has a greater chance of participating in true behavior than false: t2R> F2. In other words he is less likely to behave like a Victim than a Guru – more likely to be proactive than reactive. However, note that the behavior of our fat self is only a fat t rather than a lean T. This means that any behavior no matter how pure is polluted by some amount of falsehood. How much falsehood is dependent upon the size of F.
Even Proactive component polluted
No matter how small the reactive component, F2 , of the above chart, it continues to exist. Not only does it continue to exist, but it pollutes the proactive component, t2, as well.
Let us see why. First we will define the Human as the combination of Person and Being.
Human = Person + Being
Human = f(Person, Being)
This is parallel to our Pollution equation.
t = iF - T
t = f(T, Fi)
The Human corresponds to the Polluted, t, the Person to the Imaginary, F, and Being to the Real, T.
Due to inherent pollution, the proactive component, t, i.e. the fat self, always contains some of the reactive, F. This means that any action taken by our Human Being is flawed by a reactive component. This is why the Taoists bid us to take the road of Non-Action - i.e. because any action taken from the standpoint of the polluted Human is doomed to be polluted by cultural conditioning. So where does that leave us? The Reactive Victim? or the Proactive Guru, doomed to failure? How do we resolve this problem? How do we achieve the state of Non-Action implied by the polluted nature of Action.
In the next section we will deal with the other part of our Box Diagram to see how we purify the polluted with a dirty rag. This has a most interesting aspect.
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