Depth is Everywhere
Everywhere and nowhere. Depth is a characteristic of human mental processing.
See: What is ‘Depth’?.
Depth is how the brain works by default ― nothing special.
See, for instance, The Poetic Brain.
At the same time, we see a stark lack of depth in so many places and situations. The world is sleepwalking from crisis to crisis by lack of depth. The least one can say about this is that it’s weird.
Not culture-bound
The being and the not-being present of depth where it matters most is not bound to any culture. Looking at it from very far, it seems to be a problem of the human species.
Therefore, it’s essential to see it as such and to try to amend something about it from that angle. Anything less will only be temporary at best. I described this as three waves of attention. It can, indeed, be seen as an issue of how attention evolved from the start of life on Earth and also how it gets realized in each individual’s life.
Depth is everywhere.
Thus: you, right now. How are you reading this text? Are you jumping over the pieces, or do you let yourself be touched profoundly?
One needs to slow down in order to move in another direction. Metaphorically speaking, one needs to slow down horizontally in order to start moving vertically ― the direction of depth.
This move is always possible.
How-to?
Meditation, of course. But for those who don’t like the word or the idea, it can be put as ‘blanking the mind.’
I posted three exercises about this, called – sorry – three short meditations. You may as well look at them as something else. I think these can be done at any time. With some expertise, they can even be done while proceeding horizontally in some slow-down mode. That is also the way I am writing this text right now.
Slowing down is the same as Opening yourself.
Opening-with-capital means: towards yourself as a total person, conceptually and subconceptually. By nature, you have the brain to do so. In principle, you can do so at any moment.
IF you adequately do this, you may perceive that it also Opens you to the outside: situations, other people, the comprehension of what on Earth I am now writing about ― and you are reading it.
I write invitations to your Opening.
Have you noticed?
Depth is here. I don’t bring it to you since it’s your depth and can only ever be so. Depth never comes from the outside.
Depth is everywhere if you find it inside yourself.
Related Posts
Openness to Complexity in the Age of A.I.
We are entering the Age of A.I., and nothing will ever be the same. Complexity is growing everywhere — in business, in global governance, in our own inner lives. Treating it as complicatedness (no complexity involved) is a recipe for collapse. The only real solution is Openness (mainly to our own complexity). With it, business, Read the full article…
To Not Know — Almost
Everyone is familiar with the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. This is just one example of almost knowing. One moment, you know it, and then you don’t, or vice versa. This highlights the fascinating interplay between conscious and non-conscious processes in the brain, illustrating the complexity of our mental landscape. These instances together illustrate a continuum from fully Read the full article…
Words don’t Matter
Words are things. If not imbued with life, they are like water that flows to the sea on an eternally lifeless planet. Concepts matter. Emotions matter. Depth matters. Beauty matters. Culture matters. People matter. Life matters. Words don’t matter. They’re just letters, one after the other. All the above matters within words ― not the Read the full article…