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BOHM
And PROCESS, MEANING, etc.
BOHM on KRISHNAMURTI
. . . we went on
to consider the general disorder and confusion that pervades the consciousness
of mankind. It is here that I encountered what I feel to be Krishnamurti's
major discovery. What he was seriously proposing is that all this disorder,
which is the root cause of such widespread sorrow and misery, and which
prevents human beings from properly working together, has its root in the fact
that we are ignorant of the general nature of our own processes of thought. Or
to put it differently it may be said that we do not see what is actually
happening, when we are engaged in the activity of thinking. Through close
attention to and observation of this activity of thought, Krishnamurti feels
that he directly perceives that thought is a material process, which is going
on inside of the human being in the brain and nervous system as a whole.
David Bohm
(1917-1992)
***
The programs are
not intelligent, and they will always, eventually, miss the mark. No machine
can be programmed to anticipate everything. And the attempt to correct it makes
it worse, because it will be working under the assumption that it is due to an
external cause. Evil multiplies if you assume evil.
***
To deal with
nature we need a certain kind of intelligence, but to deal with thought we need
a much higher sort of intelligence. We tend to think that thought IS this sort
of intelligence, but it isn't.
***
We need the
quality of subtle intelligence, a finely woven net, unlike the fixed and broad
weave of memory, because reality is always changing. And memory is based on
abstraction, you remember the certain point that attracted your attention.
Memory leaves out a lot.
***
But we urgently
need to have a sustained intelligence not just an occasionally active
intelligence. A sustained intelligence would allow creativity to operate.
***
However there is
an intelligence that doesn't divide falsely into rigidly fixed categories. When
it is awakened the system works as a whole, and the thought process can be
freed from these irrelevant and destructive programs.
***
The whole
process of memory, including thought, the memory based feelings, and the
instincts, could be put more or less together, and the intelligence goes beyond
all of them.
***
Genuine meaning
can be produced and sustained only through the action of subtle intelligence.
The crude kind of thoughts and feelings that we now generally have are of very
little significance and will not give us much sense of value or purpose.
***
The perception
of whether or not any particular thoughts are relevant or fitting requires the
operation of an energy that is not mechanical, which we will call intelligence.
***
Thought is
capable of responding, not only from memory, but also to the unconditioned
perception of intelligence that can see, in each case, whether or not a
particular line of thought is relevant and fitting.
***
It is thought
responding to intelligent perception which is capable of bringing about an
overall harmony or fitting between mind and matter.
***
It becomes
possible for the dialogue to begin to play a part that is analogous to that
played by the immune system of the body, in "recognizing" destructive
misinformation and in clearing it up. And this is indeed how intelligence works
to dissolve misinformation while leaving useful information intact, rather than
wiping out all the information.
***
In the free play
of thought, creative intelligence responds to opposition and contradiction with
new proposals. These are "put forth" for testing, in further thought
and action. Every aspect of experience, physical, mental, emotional, intellectual,
can be profoundly affected by creative intelligence, wherever this is able to
act. Through its action everything may take on a new meaning.
***
Intelligence
means to gather in between, and thus create new categories. Intellect is what
has been gathered. The name is communicable, so can be used to symbolize the
category and elevate it into a concept. It becomes then a part of the tacit
infrastructure and is a contribution to the intellect.
***
Intelligence
(which is not mechanical) determines whether a thought is relevant or fitting.
It is an act of perception through the mind, of abstract orders and
relationships such as identity and difference, separation and connection,
necessity and contingency, cause and effect, etc.
***
The whole process
of memory, including thought, the memory based feelings, and the instincts,
could be put more or less together, and the intelligence goes beyond all of
them.
***
In our society,
people are not generally in the right state to respond to intelligence, except
perhaps occasionally when they are either very quiet or very deeply interested
for the moment, so that all of this other content is set aside.
***
Awareness,
attention, and some thinking are needed. Clearly passion is also needed,
energy. However the intelligence will liberate energy, because we are wasting
it now in all this chaotic movement of thought.
***
AN EMAIL FROM PAT ON THE
BOHM DIALOG LIST
***
The quote from
Ruth describes perfect "suspension" well:
"If you
wish to see the truth then hold no opinions for or against anything. To set up
what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind."
Next best thing
is awareness of inability to suspend, i.e., awareness of the many forms of
defense, as they arise. It is an awareness of feelings (felts), sensations.
These will have been preceded by an (often implicit) thought that feels
threatened. This thought, made explicit (to one's self), is the eureka moment
of dialogue. We 'swim' so constantly in these defense forms that they appear as
normal, necessary, and even signals of truth.
What makes this
dialogue form different from ordinary group conversation is that here,
attention is directed primarily, not to content, but to process. There is no
agenda. Content can be anything at all. There is nobody or nothing here to tell
us what to talk about; the thoughts of this group mind just move, and speak as
they will, and, given enough participants, they move exactly like the
[uninhibited*] mind of a single person.
Content refers
to "what the meaning of the words is."
Process refers
to "what the meaning of the words does."
In ordinary
conversation we give all of our attention to what the words mean to us, to what
the meaning is..
In a dialogue of
this form, while speaking and listening, we are [well] advised to give
attention, primarily, to what the meaning of the words does to the whole system
of thought. And the way that this is done is by being aware of the feeling (as
in felts) and sensation aspects of the system of thought, as we speak and
listen to the meanings.
Without this
quality of attention, this attention to how the meanings are affecting the
system (in terms of felts and sensations), I wouldn't know how to get the deep
assumptions to the surface. I wouldn't know where to begin to look. They are so
deeply buried and so unexpected, and their content is so surprising [once
discovered]. When I first started dialogue I had NO CLUE about the nature of
some of the assumptions driving me. I was very reluctant to believe that any of
my behavior came from cultural assumptions of which I was unaware. I was sure
the assumptions I eventually found [lurking], were "other people's
assumptions; not mine." But it turned out that they were even more
"mine" than those I thought of as "mine" [since they were
my 'prime' movers].
~ pat
* defense
inhibits the mind; dumps certain thoughts into the "yours" category.
. . . actually, they are neither mine nor yours, are they?
p.s. bohm quotes
on process below:
***
Hiding that
thought is the source, is the process where the show of consciousness contains
a tendency to conceal the fact that it is a show and even to conceal, that such
concealment is taking place. In this general process of concealment, the role
of thought in bringing it about, is what is most hidden.
***
But the show is
full of false content, not only about the world in general, but also about
itself. This is very close to the source of the overall process of creating
illusion.
***
We pay a lot of
attention to the content of thought but not the process.
***
Noticing the
internal process of thought, how a word trips a reflex [a thought], and how
that triggers a feeling, especially a feeling of danger, is a part of the
listening we do in dialogue.
***
To go on to new
meanings that are not arbitrarily limited by memory requires a potentially
infinite degree of inwardness and subtlety in our mental processes. These
processes have access to an unlimited depth in the implicate order.
***
It's being aware
of the process of thought itself. This requires being aware of the connection
between the intention or the impulse to think and the result, and treating the
result as a reflection of the impulse to think.
***
Try to
verbalize, to make explicit, the implicit assumptions, and see how they affect
the process.
***
You've got to
see the contradiction there and express it, not for the purpose of doing
anything about it (another implicit thought might be "I can avoid this
contradiction"). Rather, be aware of the thought and all of its effects,
all through the body. And the only way to do this is to make it explicit. This
is the way to begin to loosen up the mind. The word is being used not for
analysis or for its content, but to make the process visible. Not that you
believe or disbelieve the word.
***
The meaning of
the word is not at stake. It's not of any basic importance, it's what the word
is doing that's interesting in this context. The word is part of a non-verbal
process. Fundamentally, the actual activity of the word is non-verbal. It's a
real activity based on all sorts of nervous processes, sounds, etc. As for the
meaning, we want to see what the meaning does, not so much what the meaning is.
***
I regard the
essence of the notion of process as given by the statement: not only is
everything changing, but all IS flux.
***
That is to say,
what is, is the process of becoming itself, while all objects, events,
conditions, structures etc., are forms that can be abstracted from this
process.
***
You feel that
your basic assumptions are a part of you. You are not paying attention to the
thought process.
***
Direct all comments and EMAIL
to Don: