By Link Daniel
Original Publication Date: January 21, 2021
Throughout history we have explored the outer world and achieved great material progress in many different respects. Indeed in the realm of matter, we have made discoveries and inventions that have improved our lives considerably. Most individuals have access to tools and technologies that generations of previous eras could not buy with any amount of money. The smart phone that we hold in our hands today gives us access to more information than what presidents had access to just a few decades ago.
The world was not always as interconnected and networked as it is today. There was a time when explorers still sailed around the world looking to discover new land. Today we have satellites swirling around the globe mapping out every square of land on this planet. For a long time in history most people did not have access to the most basic things that we take for granted in our world today. If we look at the big picture, we have certainly come a long way. Now we long to start civilizations on other planets in order to preserve the light of consciousness.
Leading humanity into space, Elon Musk is making life multi-planetary by establishing a self-sustaining city on Mars. Early in his life, he came to the conclusion that if we can expand the scope and scale of consciousness, we are better equipped to ask the questions about the answer, which is the universe. If we become a seafaring civilization, we are able to dramatically expand consciousness and life as we know it.
The quest to manifest outward has been astounding and it will continue to trend towards material abundance. There are still millions of people in poverty who are not part of the global economy. There are still many problems to be solved and inventions to be made to improve upon the human experience. Despite wars and turmoil, the train of progress has continued its march forward. In that way so much progress is still ahead of us and we stand at the beginning of game-changing inventions that will propel us to new heights.
In order to appreciate and preserve where we are, we must make strategic choices and create a sustainable future for everyone. We must move forward in a way that respects and preserves nature. We must think about future generations. What has propelled us forward for centuries to this date may no longer be sufficient to create the future that we need to build. We cannot sacrifice nature in order to achieve more growth. We need to create sustainable modes of harnessing the earth’s resources and unleash the human spirit.
Our mode of outward manifestation has served us in many ways, yet it is not the only frontier that is possible to explore. In order to preserve the light of consciousness, starting a civilization on another planet is a noble cause. However, some questions we may only answer if we start to look inward. The answer to our problems is as much outside as it is inside of us. The world as much as we expand it outwards will never be enough. While it is certainly useful to go to other planets in order to guard against existential risk on this planet, we must start to see that there is another frontier waiting to be explored. It waits inside of us.
If we look at the mind, we must acknowledge that we have not made that much progress. We still know very little about the brain, let alone about the mind. As a society we have mental health problems that remain unacknowledged in the shadows of our economy. We do not spend enough resources searching for solutions to the mind virus that is rapidly growing in our world and from which hundreds of millions of people are suffering.
We understand this on an individual level. We live in a world where we have more stuff, but we are still not happy. We long for more yet more material things never fill that gap. The more we have, the more we realize that more never solves some of our problems. No matter where we go, we take our problems with us. No matter how much we accumulate in terms of resources of any kind it will never be enough. Until we realize that we must look inward, it is unlikely that we find the answers to some of our deepest questions.
We are standing at a time in history where the exploration of the mind and the journey inwards is yet to begin. Even if only few people are paying attention to this invisible frontier, there is a deeper understanding behind the nature of reality. Throughout centuries, Tibetan Buddhists through the use of meditation and dream yoga have rigorously explored the nature of the mind.
The West in its search of material progress has not focused on this quest. If we look at the world’s problems, many of them are of the mind and no matter how much we focus on matter, we will not solve them. We must shift our mental models to see ourselves and the world differently.
In some regard our technology exacerbates our problems and does not encourage us to look inward. It shortens our attention span, when we need tools to increase our attention skills. Unfortunately technology can also keep us away from the present. Despite being connected to each other through many different channels, we are still disconnected in many regards.
Above all, we are unable to break free from the infinite loops that run our lives. Every day we wake up and superimpose onto the world our perceptions that taint and misguide our lives. The longer we allow these infinite loops to run our waking reality, the harder it is to gain awareness and break out of them. In our unawareness, we have built these loops and without meditation or lucid dreaming it is difficult to become aware of our mental patterns.
As far as our understanding of reality is concerned, we accept reality as we perceive it to be, not as it is. The filters through which we perceive reality are so ingrained in our mental models of the world that it is difficult to see through them. These loops come to define us, rob us of energy and disable our ability to be present. They are so subtle that we do not notice them and we remain ignorant allowing them to run our reality. Infinite loops put us into the modes of the past or the future, neither of which is the present where reality occurs. This type of unawareness shackles us and leaves us impaired to see through the true nature of reality.
Since the very foundation of science has been laid we have assumed that matter derives consciousness. But what if it is the other way around? If matter is merely a derivative of consciousness, there is more to reality than we realize today.
Building toward a revolution in the mind sciences, we need to create tools that will allow us to probe into the nature of reality reliably and truthfully. Meditation and lucid dreaming are already great tools that nature has given us. And we can model any tools that we build from what nature has provided. We must be open and curious to keep searching for the answers while the journey inwards is only about to begin. The manifestation of the outward world on its basis of matter as the foundation of consciousness is not necessarily coming to an end. However, as we continue to explore the mind, we pay more attention to an emerging, alternative reality. In some way it has always been there. We just did not pay attention to see it and regard it as important.
If we have better tools to explore the nature of reality, then we can empower individuals to help themselves. They can then break free from those infinite loops and discover a new reality. They can change the patterns that govern their lives and build a new world for themselves and others. As they experience reality with a new sense of self they could integrate those insights to gain more awareness and attain a higher level of consciousness in a lasting way. They could stop the suffering that they have created themselves. They could realize that they are in control of their own destiny. As they remove these mental afflictions that they suffer from which often creates other problems resulting in the suffering for others, they could liberate and heal themselves.
It is good to look outward exploring the universe and create more material progress. We must also start to look inward and realize the alternative reality that awaits. To meaningfully answer the questions of consciousness, we need tools that can reliably probe into the nature of reality.
Full paper originally hosted at: https://network.fund/network.pdf
Proof of publication on Arweave: https://app.ardrive.io/#/file/23d9e668-d48d-4a38-bce8-30b064001668/view
Alternative PDF of full whitepaper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VgjS5VBagiwwvDOZZezC4sVYwJ0G2brP/view
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