From Within The Skull

To think, it's quite an adventure. It's sensing with absolute fusion behind the filter we use to interact with the external world. The words and labels are one with electrochemical sensations, leaving you with the unspeakable truths of your mental field. 

Thinking is fun, contemplating is an art, though with its mysterious nature, it can leave you at the mercy of insanity. That's when discipline comes in handy, for without it, you could easily get lost in your own little bubble perpetually. If you can manage to become aware of the thoughts and separate yourself as the observer, or the creator of them, you can actually use thoughts and memories to your advantage. You can essentially coordinate them, meditate on them, consolidate them. 

You can master yourself from the inside out.

If you can manage to gain a self awareness of your thoughts and the thinker who generates them, you're at the mercy of fewer than prior. You can eventually learn to control yourself in social situations, to a subtle degree, or merely be more observant of others and what they portray externally if you so chose. Of the utmost importance is that you can experience life with less anxiety of the unknown, and can know yourself better than anyone who previously claimed such an achievement.

But it could also beg the question, 'who is the thinker behind those thoughts?' The obvious response would be 'me' or 'you', but what is that exactly? Who is that exactly? The entity that creates, the perspective and experiencer that holds itself at the center of its own being. Does that epicenter of being, separated from others, warrant significance beyond its closed circle?

For all of us, as far as we know, are all at the mercy of what that perspective considers relevant. Free will, you could call it, but that only muddies the waters further as far as understanding it is concerned. Is the true, unspeakable nature of our perspective and reality itself beyond what our biological and logical aspects of existence can comprehend?

There are certainly aspects of life beyond our limitations, though we have two hemispheres to our brain for a reason. Logical and emotional, a duality of utmost curiosity. They help us experience the unspeakable, especially when used in unison without giving into extremes. They offer a window, or tools rather, to experience life with a sense of self.

How curious.

Thoughts, generated by logic and emotion, from experience and recollection, they have illusionary meaning in raw aspects.  We, the interpreters, mold and shape them into things of meaning and significance. We are the ones, the only ones, both as individuals and as a collective, who tend to think with a sense of awareness most other creatures we know of are limited from. Do we create by nature? Are we the pinnacle of thought generators for the grand scheme and ourselves as buds?

It makes you think about it at the very least. You could say evolution is to blame, but to what end? Is every life and generation of individuals, yourself included, more significant than we give ourselves credit for? 

That's up to you. I don't believe there is any wrong answer in that regard. Either way, however you spin it, it is a fact of life. Whether or not these thoughts and memories hold and ground in shaping things beyond ourselves has its perks for us as a species. On an evolutionary basis, we remember things of significance for our immediate and long term survival. From hunting and gathering to living in this world of ours beyond the essentials, we think of things that don't merely benefit the individual, but the species itself. 

But is that all it is? Overthinking and needless complexity that means what we make of it and nothing more? Well, maybe earlier in history that was true. But evolution is more than just a game of reproduction and securing long term survival. Let me rephrase that, for as far as we currently know, that is indeed all there is to it scientifically. We carry our genes and they use us to pass on to our children so they keep going once we are gone. Whether there is significance beyond that is, undoubtedly, up to us. We could be lying to ourselves and offering false senses of security, since we don't know with clarity what happens when death finds us. 

Giving into extremes is dangerous, as I meant to say earlier. Regardless of what death truly is beyond what we currently know in this day and age, we still have time to engross ourselves in thoughts on the matter. These thoughts can solve mysteries. These thoughts have unlimited complexity, which seems to be the pattern of infinity as we strive forward as a species. Who we are is what we think about, or rather, we become what we think about.

We can control who we are by controlling what we think about, which isn't as trivial as you'd imagine it to be. It is hard work for some more than others, sure, but training the mind is its own form of evolution that can be passed down in a multitude of ways, from oral tradition to genetic coding. Our thoughts shape our reality, and our reality, in turn, shapes to our preferences. 

We could even say that thinking about thoughts and getting lost down that rabbit hole is ideal sometimes, but I'm not trying to say that it is ideal all the time. Rather, knowing we can get lost in worlds of our own making isn't something to throw away, but with a disciplined mind, one can bring those thoughts and feelings out for all to see, for better or worse.

With how technology and society molds us, it is no more than an extension of the mind, an external representation of who we are on the inside as both a collective and as individuals. Evolution is branching out beyond our genes, and into the external world like a sprout breaching the soil. Technology is nature in essence, there is no difference fundamentally between man and machine. They are but one part of the whole. 

To what end? How do we shape our minds with discipline and not give into extremes that easily damage the balance? Well, as we think, we shape our reality. It doesn't happen overnight, and it certainly takes failure to see how wrong we can be. It is the quickest, easiest way to offer ourselves the proper perspectives so we may ascend above the physical, but not enough to uproot us from the ground. We need balance, as many, many wisemen and women have told us. It is a truth that demands us not to scoff but to heed in mind, and thus, accept as part of any reality we create for ourselves.

To the end, which may never come if optimism holds any weight, is to evolve as the universe itself with unlimited, infinite complexity. We think, we experience, and therefore, we live. The end of our lives as far as we know it will end, but if we strive forward with the thoughts and innovations of such, the collective is assured to be everlasting. Extend beyond yourself from within. These thoughts made into words are from but one of billions of perspectives, and are as relevant as you make them. I'm as significant as I make myself, as I think and transcribe, and so long as these words exist beyond the mind, I am immortal. 

I'd like to think that the universe is myself, that you and I are one in the same despite the illusionary differences. Those differences are what make us who we are based on countless factors, but down to our core and the essence we are made of, well, we are indeed human. That much is true. Or at least, that is what we have created ourselves to be thanks to no one else but us. 

We are creators, special and worthy of recognition and reflection. So long as we live, and grow, and evolve, we are an immortal species and consciousness. It extends beyond our bubbles, to which shape each and every single human or equally conscious being that has yet to develop. Life implies suffering, and with that truth at our disposal, our ladder won't be built in vain. 

Think and contemplate. Enrapture yourself within your thoughts from time to time, but don't over-do it. Know thyself, and know the mysteries of the universe that you undoubtedly are. There is no one way to do it. Learn from insanity if you must, but know that everything is temporary. Nothing obligates you to be lost forever, even if you must seek help in order to break free. No shame in that. Only lessons.