Anatomy

Being critical is one of the qualities of the consciousness. I believe consciousness is born out of experience, education, cultural and traditional forming. People are raised in an environment made of rules, that is tradition, culture, and norms. As they grow up, experiences from education, trainings and daily interactions with others will shape the way they think, the way they opinionate, the way they judge. Information provided by the media are also experiences that will determine their consciousness. Once in a while they challenge and questions their routines, their norms, and the system that controls their daily life – sometimes self-engaged in an intellectual argument. So when does the consciousness begin to question and oppose, instead of conforming? How does this nature or choice come about?

I’d like to argue this question from a vantage point of an old story. I’d like to start with the story of a young prince Siddhartha Gautama full of joy and spirit with his life behind closed walls. Behind this wall, all is sterile, pristine, and as we the readers are aware, was purposely structured to appear constant, painless, and immortal, as all the negative were relieved from Gautama’s view. As he grows the walls that confine him becomes a too familiar space, and he asks a request from his father to look beyond the boundaries of the wall. This is a symbolic act of being curious, an act of the subjective mind, and a quality of the consciousness. Here we see Siddhartha committing a conscious critic of his norm. The walled space becomes a too familiar situation – an upbeat, overly positive drama that the mind cannot accept as the only existing condition. We remember being confined in a crib, surrounded by such walls. Our mind cannot accept this and because we have no verbal skills to express our conscious assessment, we try to climb out. This is a phenomenon of the conscious.

As the story goes, the King grants his son’s wish, provided that the world outside is cleansed of all diseases and sensations of death. As Siddhartha is charioted out into the utopian kingdom, he notices an alien creature much like him but withered and decayed. He asks what the creature was and his most loyal subject answered that it was a man fading away from this life by age. Along his trip, Siddhartha would encounter two more images of the tragedies of man: sickness and death. Because of these images, Siddhartha opposes the norm and denounces his Eden. Later through many trials and temptations, Siddhartha became the Buddha or the enlightened one. Siddharta’s discovery are new exepriences that not just enrich his knowledge but further drives his consciousness to ask. And the accumulation of his discoveries, allow his liberated consciousness to pursue the critical path.

The visions of Siddhartha are experiences or sensations contrast to the situated environment purposely created to control his daily life. We recall the wall, the confine that challenges our consciousness’ will to absorb knowledge. It is perhaps nature’s program, the Homo sapiens’ instinct, a skill derived from past exercises that our ancestors imprinted in our genes. Or perhaps it is the way our brain was structured to deal with the nature of our surroundings, the way it perceives and absorbs information reciprocates it to provoke inquisition. I posit that the consciousness is an independent entity trapped in a physical form, it has will, and pronounce choice. Let’s assume that this is the first trigger of our curiosity to question. The second trigger, if indeed that consciousness is liberated, is the variety of situations and experiences, different or comparable to the norm we are used to. These conditions further provoke the conscious to question. When faced with an alien concept or experience, consciousness will raise a desire to know more information about the experience, therefore igniting question, or critique.

For example, when we are informed of a new fact, much different than what we were educated or raised to believe, we at least wonder what it is that is different. That act alone is a critical act of the conscious. Until more information surfaces, our conscious becomes more curious and critical. Opposition happens when the norm is challenged by the new experience and the conscious decides to embrace the new experience instead of the norm. The norm or routine is no longer valid as the main value or experience for the consciousness to adhere.

Siddhartha opposes his utopian society because it no longer makes sense to him: There must be “something” outside the wall. His consciousness demands it. The repetitive routine of his sterile life provokes his consciousness to ask: Is there more, is there anything else? Furthermore, people are raised by traditions brought upon cultural behaviors. At a certain age, one is exposed to experiences that are different than their traditions. Those experiences offer a new logic, a new rational that challenges one’s norm, perhaps because it is “attractive,” because it feels more “right” in a sense when compared to the comfort of our past experiences.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 25th, 2006 at 5:40 am and is filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.