Order and the Movement of the Past- Part 10.

So we have introduced the word ‘resistance’ to our discussion. And, for reference, let us equate the movement of resistance with the movement of the past, with continuity itself. In other words, the past reacting with the present moment, in some way, indicates a resistance to the present moment. The past is a counter force to the movement of the present moment, it alters, changes, resists. And fundamentally, we would have to say that this resistance to the present moment is a resistance to not knowing what is happening.

Not knowing the outcome, risk, purpose, orientation, cause, reason, meaning, not knowing in its totality, gross and subtle. But where does this need to know come from? In a purely reflexive interaction there would be no need to know, only reflexes. However, as you may remember, these reflexes of ours are conditioned. They are conditioned but not dead, meaning a conditioned reflex arising in the moment at hand effects the memory of this moment, which when compressed in the storehouse of accumulation, alters the conditioning that will arise the next moment it is called forth. The conditioned is part of a continual, conditioning process. So I think one can see how the movement of the past, of conditioning and continuity, can refine itself through time, possibly for the purpose of becoming more precise and efficient reflexes, but need no outside agent to do so.

Self: a Mindset, the Psychological Outcome of the Movement of the Past.

But one may ask, more precise and efficient for what purpose? Are not these reflexes of the past serving the physical body/brain? Are they not reflexes created through the desire to survive, the need for the physical body to continue? Can the most basic of these reflexes not be found to be serving the needs of the body to eat, sleep, and procreate? And the ever increasing need to secure these needs into the future? So somewhere in the last two or three sentences we created a self, did we not? It all started with introducing purpose to the reflexive moment of the past. The recognition of purpose seems to be a basic building block in self-centered consciousness. And as we’ve said, recognition is simply the measuring of fragments of knowledge against one another, or comparing one fragment of information with another. Through comparison one arrives at purpose, where purpose is a purely future-based form of knowledge. That future may not be very far off, but it is still a clear departure from the purely past-based reflexes.

The Introduction of a Future is the Introduction of a Self.

In other words, as the capacity of the body for memory is still small, purely reflexive interactions with the present moment take place instinctively, automatically. But as the capacity of memory increases one continues to have purely reflexive interactions but also exhibits the ability to remember said reactions within the context the reactions took place. And it is through the ability to compare reflexes within their remembered context that creates purpose. And with purpose you have the seed of individuality. Purpose also feeds the evolution of continuity, for now you have continuity with purpose, which creates a directive, or a direction something in particular continues to follow through time. And putting purpose, directive, continuity, and language together creates, in time, an incredible sense of being, a self-informed form in consciousness. Though forever but consequences of the accumulating movement of mind, mechanical in nature, purpose, directive, continuity and language create an intoxicating form that completely hides this reflexive process from view.

The Self, Far Beyond an Instrument of Measurement.

How does this infusion whose very being depends upon the accumulating movement hide this movement from view? For one, the self harnesses the ability to direct attention, for it has harnessed the authority of need. The need of the self supersedes all other need and so there is a distorting of thought, feeling, and perception in order to serve the needs of the self. And, therefore, the illusion of self becomes part of the conditioning process, enters the compression stream of memory and knowledge, that reflexively interacts, with purpose, directive, and a need for continuity, in the present moment. And once this interaction is compressed in memory, moving through, and as, the accumulating movement of mind, the very movement which spawned its birth in the first place, the self becomes an objective reality, seemingly independent of the movement of mind. Which, of course, brings us back to order and the past’s demand to establish order in its own image. For the order the past must establish and maintain, is not only an order rooted in all things known, but an order for, and with, an independent self at the center.