The Construct We Forget Is a Construct
El constructo que olvidamos que es un constructo
A reflection on how the self-image is built on top of something more primary, and how we lose touch with the awareness that preceded it.
The Construct We Forget Is a Construct
A reflection on how the self-image is built on top of something more primary, and how we lose touch with the awareness that preceded it.
If you do just a bit of checking with yourself, you would know that you existed before you were able to build this thought construct. We know this. Babies develop a sense of self only after birth; we are not born with this image construct of "what I am."
I say this only for you to realize that there is something we are before this construct, something more foundational, more real, more primary.
Forgetting it is a construct
What happens is that we build this construct, then we forget it is a construct, and it becomes more real than what was there before. And what was there before? Awareness. Consciousness. The experience of a body. Then we build this self-image and we forget about consciousness altogether. We attribute consciousness to that image. Then it is "I," this conceptual person, who supposedly has consciousness, when in fact it is consciousness that is experiencing the construct.
A thing is a unit of thought
A "thing" is a unit of thought. That is reification. And the more we see this, the more we enter a place that is between a rock and a hard place. On one side, we are pulled into this construct, which, especially if you are in a group like this, you are quite aware of. It is uncomfortable, and you are trying to transcend it. On the other side, there is a path that can bring quite a lot of discomfort, because it has to do with the end of what I think I am.