A Curriculum of LOEL, the League of Extraordinary Learners.
We recommend reading this document slowly
- A few sections at a time
- Pause, reflect, take notes, share with others
- Explore some of the
- Then come back for more!
- Freedom
- from attachments based on past upsets.
- Clarity
- to discover what really matters to us.
- Possibilities
- for inventing inspiring futures to live towards.
Training in Valid Reasoning
- for this see the LOEL Curriculum on Rationality
BUT:
Rationality and Deep Rationality work very well together!
- At the Logical Level
- Irrationality can lead to us making mistakes about our understanding of the world and our strategies for meeting our goals.
- At the Deeper Level
- Irrationality can lead us to fundamentally
misunderstand ourselves and our values.
- Beliefs are even more of an issue at this deeper level
- they become connected with our identity and we hide them from ourselves.
- Contradictions to our beliefs strengthen their grip!
- And cause us to avoid looking at them critically!
Deep Rationality consists of distinctions that are
- Of primary importance to all human beings
- Poorly addressed by mainstream culture and education
- Presented in confused forms by most religious and spiritual teachings
- Addressed in sophisticated forms by specialized philosophers
- who use opaque academic language
- Thus: Not very accessible to most human beings!
Our primary experience is Subjective, not Objective
- Our existence in the world has an Immediate Quality
- What It’s Like To Be Us is Immediately Experienced!
- That’s hard to explain!
We learn to interpret much of what we experience as being about
- Objects In The World - Things!
- We learn to Parse Sensory Experience into Objects!
We identify Objects:
- delimited, separate from other Objects
- in a schematic state of
- rarely-changing characteristics
- properties changeable in characteristic ways
It’s easy to make the mistake of
- Interpreting Ourselves as just another Object In The World.
- Our Body and our Mind as (separate) Objects!
- Containing more Objects “inside”
- including our Thoughts and Feelings!
Why is this a mistake?
- We are creating these Interpretations!
- These Interpretations we create are only Models!
- Models are never true, only useful in specific contexts!
Than what are we?
- We are Subjects rather than Objects
- We are the Source of our Interpretations
- We are the Context Witnessing and Interpreting the Content
- We are Human Beings Experiencing
- the Quality of Being in the World within Evolving Time
Thoughts and Feelings have No Natural Persistence!
- No more than images in the eye or sounds in the ear!
- Appearances of persistence are actually reactivations
- Which require active work from the brain/mind!
- If you Stop Giving Attention to any Thought or Feeling
- It will almost immediately disappear!
More details on this in the section on Memes below.
What’s wrong with identifying ourselves as an Object?
An Object is defined by its
- stable characteristics,
- known properties whose values change in limited ways.
Objects don’t have any inherent meaning, purpose or dignity.
Subjects have
- A Quality of Being
- What it’s like to Be Themselves.
- An Authentic Self!
Subjects are always and naturally
- Creating Interpretations!
- Creating and Discovering Meaning!
When we are present to our authentic self, we have the power to
- Notice our values
- Create goals which are congruent with our values
- Authentically discard or change goals
- Discover/Create our life purpose!
When we model a Human Being as an Object
- They become a stereotype
- We interpret them as being limited
- We create an illusion of predictability
- We lose the richness of their full being
When we model ourselves as an Object
- We become a stereotype to ourselves
- We interpret ourselves as being limited
- We expect our future to be consistent with our past
- (We may experience being trapped!)
- We lose the richness of our full being
- We lose the ability to Create New Futures!
Experiencing our immediate quality of Being
- Is fresh, energizing
- Cuts through our objectifications
- Reveals where we’ve become trapped by attachments
Buddhism identifies the source of suffering as Attachment
- to our interpretations
- to our points of view
- to our thoughts and feelings
- to Belief Systems
- to any Content
Attachments turn us into Objects.
Key practices of Deep Rationality are
- Noticing constraints in the Quality of our Being
- Identifying attachments
- Letting go of those attachments
- Engaging with our new freedom of being
- Rediscovering our Authentic Self
Shared Belief Systems can be difficult to distinguish
- They seem to just be “how reality is”
- (This is how superstitions operate!)
- Diversity in our community can be very helpful!
- Exposing ourselves to the new can be very helpful!
Deep Rationality is grounded in Being.
- Being exists only in the moment.
- Being is at the root of our life.
Much of our time we have our attention on the content of our life
- We easily lose awareness of How We’re Being.
- Of the quality of being who we are in this moment.
- We forget who we are
- We unintentionally undermine the quality of our life
- We may feel like somethings off, something important is missing
Deep Rationality tools are designed to allow us to periodically
- Free our attention somewhat from
- what we’re doing
- our thoughts
- our feeling
- Create some distance between
- the processes going on in our body and our mind
- allowing us to notice what it’s like
- to be present to those processes
- to be present to ourselves
- Notice any attachments coloring the quality of who we’re being
Deep Rationality is an access to
- Clarity
- Authenticity
- Integrity of Being
Cultures largely consist of
- vast overlapping and nested collections of memes!
We are social animals with language
- We have co-evolved with memes!
We human beings have slowly evolved
- to enhance our receptiveness to being colonized by networks of memes!
The Networks of Memes rapidly evolve
- to enhance their ability to colonize us!
Memes are the smallest units of meaning
- which can be transmitted from one person to another
- typically by human language, but also by
- music, art, behavior, etc.
Most memes make little impression on us
- most are not retained very long, if at all!
Some memes profoundly change the entire direction of our life!
Memes replicate by being transmitted.
- Errors in transmission cause variations.
- Memes live in our limited memory resources
- Which are controlled by our attention!
- Memes compete for
- Holding your attention
- Staying in your Working Memory
- Getting stored in your Long-Term Memory
- With triggers for reactivation
The resources are limited
- Fitter memes displace less fit memes!
- Does this start to sound familiar?
Memes
- replicators
- with mutate
and are therefore
- subject to Natural Selection
- much like genes are.
This was first explained by the evolutionary biologist
- Richard Dawkins and
in a chapter of his enlightening little book
Genetic Evolution and Memetic Evolution have different time scales
- Significant Genetic evolution takes millions of years
- Significant Memetic evolution can occur in weeks or months!
Yet the two are tightly coupled!
- The human mind emerges in part from a partnership
- The human brain containing a vast network of memes
- The mind containing the memes currently reactivated.
- Yes, there’s more, e.g. Consciousness
- which no one understands very well!
- but it has a lot to do with attention
- which gives activated memes temporary persistence
An aside:
Many otherwise rational people who hold Progressive Beliefs - as distinct from Progressive Values - consider Richard Dawkins and especially his book The Selfish Gene to be Anathema. This is a great example of how belief systems can undermine our integrity and values. Many rational thinkers with good values and important ideas have been subject to Cancel Culture by people who claim to be progressive. People who entangle their beliefs with their personal and social identities become enemies of their own needs and values!
Back to memes:
Memes do not act on their own!
- Any more than words in a sentence are acting on their own.
Memes form coalitions - memetic support networks
- in order to more efficiently acquire your brain’s (and mind’s) resources
- again like genes which do something analogous
How do memes convince your brain/mind to
- Store them in long-term memory
- Reactivate them on appropriate triggers
- Persist them for awhile in your Active Memory?
Memes attach themselves to your
- Fundamental Human Feelings And Needs
- See the section on NVC in the Resources!
Mindfulness Meditation is very useful to observing the memes and meme coalitions which have colonized us and how they effect us.
Your body (including your mind) is your vehicle in this life.
- It has a particular design with
- needs, drives, emotions
- sexual and gender orientations
- cognitive quirks and limitations
- intelligence, biases and much more!
What relationship with your body and your mind will support your
- Power, Freedom and Authenticity?
What Practices and Resources will allow you to actualize these Possibilities?