[MD] Patterns, Suffering, Buddhism and the MOQ.

[118]

Hi David,
Well put.  To designate everything as patterns is the same as claiming that everything is made up of equations.  Certainly on can put reality under this spell, but it is a reductionist approach.  For the equations only represent our propensity towards patterning.  While such presentation is useful to a point, it is insufficient and somewhat misleading.  If one can look beyond patterns, there is more to this.  Any progressive metaphysics attempts to look beyond, and does not stop at the representation.

Sent laboriously from an iPhone,
Mark

On Jan 30, 2012, at 7:07 PM, David Harding <davidjharding at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi All,
> 
> What's a pattern? 
> 
> This is a pattern..
> 
> x o x o x o x o
> 
> Is this a pattern..
> 
> x
> 
> ?
> 
> On this, the MOQ says that everything is a pattern, so according to the MOQ, x must be a pattern. But how is one single thing a pattern? There's nothing to compare it to!  Is comparison not a vital part of a pattern?
> 
> The answer to this riddle, I think, lies in the first pattern.  The vital aspect of this first pattern that immediately has us recognise it as such is that, not only is there more than one thing in it for us to make comparisons, but, more importantly, it repeats.  Our minds work by detecting patterns - the only way that we say we understand something is by recognising that there is a certain pattern, or rather, a certain harmony to something. Harmonies, like, patterns, we can imagine, repeating over and over again.  We imagine that they last forever...
> 
> Therefore, the reason why x is a pattern is because we can imagine seeing x again. It has a certain harmony to it that can be repeated.   This is true of everything. Everything has its own quality, its own harmony, and everything we can think of, we can imagine continuing, like all patterns, ad infinitum.  
> 
> The problem with this of course, is that things never continue, ad infinitum.   According to Buddhism, we suffer inadvertently because of this innate human ability to see things as if they follow a pattern which lasts forever.  At first thought, it might seem as though the solution to the problem here is simple..  
> 
> 'Simply acknowledge that things change! Then you won't suffer..' 
> 
> But this couldn't be further from the truth. Acknowledging the fact that things change doesn't in any way alter the fact that our minds naturally see things as patterns, which don't change.  That's how our minds work. And it's not something which can be changed by mere willpower alone.
> 
> As Steve Hagen writes:
> 
> "We think we have to deal with our problems in a way that exterminates them, that distorts or denies their reality. But in doing so, we try to make Reality into something other than what it is. We try to rearrange and manipulate the world so that dogs never bite, accident will never happen, and the people we care about will never die. Even on the surface, the futility of such efforts should be obvious."
> 
> The real way to avoid suffering is to live *through* it.  To *fully* accept static patterns existence. To wake up to the present moment and the static demands we face.  To accept that suffering through these patterns is a fundamental part of all existence. That is, to be fully present and 'wake up' to our static demands.
> 
> Or to put it yet another way, the real difference between someone who is enlightened and someone who is not, is not that the person who is enlightened doesn't ever experience any pain and suffering from seeing things in this very human way. It's that they fully acknowledge that this suffering, this pain, is fleeting and that it is a result of this ultimately deluded, but very natural way of seeing the world.
> 
> -David.
> 
> 
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