What is out there?

The usual view of the world is that it is just there. But then we discover things and we realise that there are new things to find. This realisation makes us aware that we didn't know everything before. So as discoveries mount up the question starts to arise "can we know everything?", or "are discoveries and endless thing?" which is a similar question to "how big is the Universe?"

Discovery exists in every field of knowledge. Land discovery and exploration is a good model that fits all. We can always be sure that what we have discovered is definite, like the land on which we stand: that much is certain. But as discoveries mount up our understanding of what we have changes. we find a sea around the land and realise we live on an island, and then as discussed recently, we discover a boundary around even the sea which appears to be roughly a sphere and we realise we live on a planet. All the while where we stand does not change but out knowledge and ideas change and the context of what we have changes. Discovery is as much about discovering new lands as changing the context of what we have. Many films exploit this like for example "The Matrix" where even the certain reality of our senses has its context changed to a computer simulation by discoveries revealed by following Neo. Context, or interpretation, of what we have is what the thoughts do, they are a very powerful sense that we have. In meditation we learn to ignore it for a while and return to just what we have: our tendency can be to spend to much time in "interpreting" the world and allowing "context" to colour what is real. This leads ultimately to mental illness where our thoughts become so dominant that we can no longer just live with what is there, can no longer see the land on which we stand, and instead have our minds obsessed with thoughts like is the world round or flat, will we fall off one day, is there something solid beneath my feet and a million thoughts many of which lead to insecurity, ungroundedness, anxiety and fear. All that said, the mind sense, when controlled, is a formidable way to experience the world one that literally gives a new dimension to what we sense.

All this related to the question "what is out there?" by framing where that question applies. It does not apply to the world we commonly experience--that is just there--it is a question about the mind itself and its ability to provide interpretation and context. It is a question not about the land on which we stand--which is just there right now--but on what the ultimate context is: land, island, globe, planet, solar system, galaxy, galactic cluster, universe, multi-verse, multi-multi-verse... atom in the toe of a giant... computer simulation... thought in Gods mind... Where ultimately and I? The answer lies not in discoveries but in the mind itself.

So we have 2 possibilities. Either the discoveries accumulate to a final point where there is nothing left to discover and our minds are the same as reality. Or, there is no final point and discovery is an endless thing.

I hope the preceding analysis forced a big enough wedge between what is real and beneath our feet, and what we think about that and the context in which it lies. They are different things. There is no reason to believe that every discovery of new land changes what we have: all men stand on the same small square of land no matter how much they know, or how much the own. This is reality. What we know and what we own are simply contexts provided by our brain. It should be quite obvious that discoveries need not ever end.

The SRH in this blog points much more precisely to why there is no end to discovery. Supposing we did discover everything, wouldn't the fact that we have discovered everything be a new thing to discover. We cannot put such a limit around discovery; such a limit would simply provide a boundary over which to explore. Anything boundary that the mind can fashion to try and end discovery simply becomes a new target of exploration.

Suppose physicists created a Grand Unified Theory to explain the basic physics of the universe. This is a boundary. The next exploration and question is why is it like that? Answers might be that we are just one of infinite multiverses and it is random, so we are just the one that ends up being like this. But then we have a whole branch of physics to do with the rules governing the creation of multiverses that is beyond anything we have ever dreamed of within this universe. Like Cantor discovered in mathematics, even something as simple as numbers has unbounded infinite complexity: you simply cannot put a boundary around it, because as soon as you create a boundary around numbers you can start counting those boundaries. There are an infinite number of infinities... etc until you head explodes.

It is not certain, but everything points to there being no final absolute context with which to explain what we have. Yes I live on an island, on a globe, in a solar system... but is that within a single universe of a multiverse or in a computer simulation of something stranger... there is no final answer. And, at the end of the day it is all just thoughts... albeit fascinating and illuminating thoughts.

So what of God. Many take God to be the unlimited expanse beyond the known. This is absolute correct as long as God remains unbounded within the mind. As soon as we give God a name, give Him qualities and dare start to Own him, or think we know Him then He is no longer God and just represents our own Ego. To fight in the name of God like so many have tried to do in the Past is a direct contradiction of our very knowledge of God. He is infinite and beyond description. How can we be anything but subservient to such a conception. we can certainly never presuppose to know God, or think we have special favour with Him. For all these people who would rise up in the name of God, sadly their fate is as much Satan as those who would knowingly honour Satan... at least Evil people have the one virtue that they are honest, unlike the virtuous who hold themselves up towards God in pure vanity.

There being no final answer is the best answer there can be. It reminds us that our thoughts are just there inside our heads, a very limited sense like our eyes and our smell. It is Mankind's ego and arrogance that makes us think our thoughts are more powerful than they are. Thoughts are limited and the discover of that is essential to the humility we need to live well and happily in this world.