Depth is Everywhere

October 7, 2022 Cognitive Insights, Mental Depth No Comments

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.

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Subconceptual Drives Conceptual

Nothing falls into mind purely conceptually. That would be magic, and we don’t believe in that. Fortunately, subconceptual processing clarifies many things about what happens in the human mind. Decision making We think we know (consciously) what we want — before and after making (conscious) decisions about the same. We don’t. Let’s take what happens Read the full article…

Many Intelligences

Intelligence can take many forms to such a diverse degree that talking about many intelligences is appropriate. Where does this thinking lead us to? This is not a discussion about whether or not there is ‘plant intelligence.’ More important is the thinking about your intelligence. Are you simply a being that enjoys the ‘phenomenon of Read the full article…

The Case of Whatever

Too many people live in an unfortunate state of inner dissociation ― possibly provoking anxiety and self-defeat. Meanwhile, they try to explain the unexplainable to themselves and others with whatever means available. Inner dissociation: as if anything mental is directly available to conscious control. How many people? In my experience, more than enough. Of course, Read the full article…

Translate »