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THOUGHT AS A SYSTEM, David Bohm
172 "Now, maybe mind is another 'side' of that same thing
-- that which we call energy on one side is
mind on the other side. That is, energy is pervaded with
a kind of intelligence, out of which perhaps insight comes,
or deeper perceptions of truth. That's the suggestion."
172-173 "Then what about ourselves? We can say
that our ground is in all that. But we have all sorts of
representations of ourselves which are really rather superficial.
And we try to identify with them. But then once we do that,
we have this quality of thought which infuses it into perception.
We apparently perceive the thing we are representing -- it seems
to be there. It's like the rainbow; we see a rainbow, but what
we have is drops of rain and light -- a process. Similarly, what
we 'see' is a self; but what we actually have is a whole lot of
thoughts going on in consciousness. Against the backdrop of
consciousness we are projecting a self, rather than a rainbow."
If you walk toward a rainbow you will never get there. The
image of the table is produced in the same way, but if you
walk toward the table you will get there and touch it.
173 "I'm suggesting that if you try to touch the self, it
will be the same difficulty as trying to touch the rainbow.
We have a representation of the self, which is really arising
in a process. We don't know this process very well; but
the attempt to treat the self as an object is just not going
to mean anything. So instead, suppose we say that this
self is unknown. Its origin, its ground is unknown. And
it is constantly revealing itself, through each person or
through nature or through various other ways."
173 "Q: The self is revealed?
"BOHM: Whatever you mean by 'yourself'.
The basic meaning of the word 'self', according to the
dictionary, is the 'quintessence' -- the essence of the
essence. The fifth essence, it was called. There were
four essences in ancient times and then they added a
fifth one, which was the essence of the whole thing.
The idea is that the thing 'itself' means the very essence
of it. Thus what you mean by the 'self' is your very essence.
You say 'I' and 'me' and 'myself' -- 'self' being the
essence from which the 'I' and 'me' have their ground.
But that use of language will give rise to representations,
which we are liable to mistake for actuality.
"That's all I'm saying: whatever the self is, its essence
is unknown but constantly revealing itself."
173-174 "One point is to clear up the thought
that we are something limited and known. I'm
saying we cannot be that which is limited and
known. Nothing can be what is limited and known;
that can at best be an abstraction or a representation.
This actuality cannot be that."
174 "So the suggestion is that there is a vast unknown.
It is revealing itself. We are learning, if you like;
and even if we're not learning it is revealing itself."
"That's the general notion. That's the creative view
of being, rather than the idea of an identity of being.
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