Problems have an inside and outside, Meaning and Puzzle of Life.

 Puzzle:

Milan + Chicago + Venice - Islamabad

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    Xanadu + Vancouver + Irkutsk

OK made that too easy. But one answer is: Lahore + Xi'an + Ipoh + Xalapa


Which is 69 or LXIX in roman numerals. Realising that Roman Numerals are involved is one obvious key to unlocking the puzzle. 

So to solve this requires 2 separate stages.

(1) Put it in context (the outside)
(2) Process the inside.

The context is to realise that the capital letters of the names map onto Roman Numerals (MCLXVI) which is outside the puzzle. And then we plug that into standard arithmetic displayed in the puzzle (addition, subtraction, division).

OK actually arithmetic is outside the puzzle too. We need map those symbols onto procedures we have drummed into us at school. Or we can enter into a calculator. But once inside its just known steps to complete the task.

So in fact all puzzles have an outside context. They need to be hooked into a context. And once done then the inside "computations" are clockwork.

Take 10+26 = _ That is a piece of pure maths. But unless we are number theorists we'll never look at it alone. It may map onto millimetre distances as we measure something. Once we get the answer 36 we then map it back outside to the context and get 36mm which is useful in the context.

The interesting thing about interesting lateral puzzles is they are deliberately designed to require us to search for a context, to find a "sense". Once this is done the vertical reasoning "inside" is straightforward.

I've noticed this. When people say "its too hard" what they really mean is that they have not established the context properly.

Not particularly useful picture cos the pieces have no picture and are only 2 types, but these puzzles are interesting. Each piece usually contains part of a picture. We can easily look "inside" and see that with no difficulty. The inside is fine. The puzzle exists in finding its place within the whole picture and that requires going outside the piece. We have another clue as well which is the piece shape, but that only relates to the immediate neighbour context. I realise writing this how skilful it is to create a jigsaw. Suppose lots of pieces are the same colour like they are sky. If they are also the same shape then we make the jigsaw really easy. On other hand if lots of pieces which are the same shape have different patterns on them then we make the jigsaw really hard. Anyway the solution is when the pattern inside each piece and the shape of each piece both have a meaningful context.

I look at Wittgenstein's language games here. "Meaning" can be seen with something that is identifiable by itself for example marks on a page like this word "stationery." But those marks have no meaning until they get put in context.

Here are two contexts into which that "stationary" word fits. And suddenly in each "outside" context the "inside" magically gains "meaning."

In general the "inside" has no meaning without an "outside." Obviously the inside must still be there, but it has no meaning.

In meditation we are seeking this meaningless inner state. We distract the running around discursive mind that is always searching for context and meaning. We stick it on watching the breath and we train it like a dog to sit there and be calm. Eventually it lays down and stops running and then we see the man and the pile of papers without a meaning. We no longer apply the word "stationary" to them. Its true he is not moving, and its true that the paper is stationary but we drop this "outside" and just see the "inside" for what it "really" is. Now extraordinary things happen when we stop being "outside." When you drop "inside" to what the thing "really" is you enter a completely different world: one that feels like home! In fact once inside we realise why we always feel like something is missing in life: we are always outside.

Problem with these words "inside" and "outside" is they have context themselves. We probably think:

But actually both these must have an "inside" and an "outside" themselves! There is what they are, and there is the context into which they are found. The outside in this case is the blog discussing the very nature of "inside" and "outside", or "being" and "context" itself. I add something there. I called the "inside" the "being." The inside is what is there: the city names in the puzzle at the start. The outside is how we encode them and give them meaning: which is realising that the starting letters are also Roman Numerals and then we have a simple math puzzle. We can call the inside that has not yet found a context the "Being" while the inside in context, and with meaning, now becomes the "being." Possibly slightly unexpected there are many beings, but one one Being. Before context is applied how can things be more than one! To become many they need be slotted into place. When building a wall any brick will do for the builder adding the next brick, but once its in place that brick has a crucial role holding up the bricks above it and linking with the bricks beside. Before "Being" has been put in place its is anything and everything. That is kind of fudging it, it doesn't sound right. The problem here is that when we speak we are trying to get outside, with Being the moment we get outside and find what it is we are outside. To be inside we must resist going outside and just sit with Being in all its meaninglessness, but all its potential.      

So "inside" and "outside" are much more profound that just the words being used here.

In meditation we can start to discover what "inside" really means. And it is nothing like what we think it is. Problem with thinking it, is that we do that by applying context, which means we are going outside to find out what is inside. This is why I reckon Heideggar ends up with this paradox that "Being is hidden in the process of revealing beings." In order for the discursive mind to investigate "inside" it runs outside to get a "establishing shot." In the sit-com Friends many scenes are filmed on this set.  

But it is standard film etiquette to have an establishing or location shot first so we know "where we are." So we get this shot first before going on to the actual scene.

Its quite natural without an establishing shot to wonder where we are. And in fact whenever we are faced with some "thing" we quickly run "outside" to get a location shot, which in thinking is called the "meaning."

This is no small thing. We spend our whole lives looking for a meaning! We are trying to get "outside" our lives to look in and see "where we are" and "what the bigger picture is" and "how do I fit in to the bigger picture." This entire struggle is actually avoiding "Being" itself. And we can get very anxious and confused when we can't get outside and get our head around things. We start to run (in our heads) trying to find out what is going on, trying to get the establishing shot. That part of the film is not there, it never got films, we haven't missed anything: there is no establishing shot to life. We live in the set, that is all there is! Physicists will spend forever trying to get the Establishing Shot. It is currently Big Band, but that is currently being challenged by JWST and even if it is Big Bang we wonder what the Establishing shot to that is: where did the Big Bang come from? 

As Heideggar notes by the time we have a "thing" the "Being" is obscured. That is by the time we have run outside to see what it is, we are outside and no longer inside!

There must be a story here. A person wakes up in a wonderful hotel room. It has everything they need. It is paradise. But they are troubled cos they have forgotten and don't know where they are. They call up a friend and say this is such a wonderful place, I can't describe how amazing this is, you should come and join me. And the friend says, "well were are you?" And the guy says, I have no idea , I woke up in here (born) and its amazing but I have no idea where "here" is. So his friend says, well go outside and see what street you are on. But, protests the guy I have no key, how will I get back in. And the friend on the phone says, we'll at least you'll know what you are trying to get in to. So the guy in the flat leaves and gets the address which is "Paul" (his name) but then can't get back in.

This is the essence of the problem of mind and life. And perhaps its even what Genesis is about. The snake tricks us into knowledge of good and evil, but in so doing we are no longer in Paradise.

The importance of Meditation really cannot be stressed enough. By forgetting the name of the place we want to go we will end up there. The name of the place is Paradise, but we can only get there by forgetting that. Another story possible there!

Note all the pictures in this blog come in pairs. With meditation and actual Being there is not two or many, there is only One.

Much is spoken in spirituality about The One. To many it is also called God. Not so in Buddhism which removes all tricks really stops us trying to get a location shot. Islam is good in that it bans images and statues so we can't get a picture of God either. Hinduism does it the other way. Give the viewer a million views of God so that they cannot fix on any one. Mahayana Buddhism also does this with the countless Buddhas in all directions. We are all Buddha they say. Buddha was not just a man call Siddhartha Shakyamuni. You can't get "outside" Buddha. Buddha is just the "inside." And when there is not "outside" or "location shot" then all scenes, inner worlds, people, lives blend into One. Paul is actually no different from Joanna. Those words are just the "outside."

So returning to the top. The puzzle of Life can in fact only be solved by stopping trying to solve it. If we ever found a meaning to life, we would actually only have achieved getting outside and losing it. What we "have" that appears to have no meaning is what we truly have. Because to give it meaning will mean getting outside and losing it. If we stop running from the apparently meaningless and just sit with it and go into it then we are entering Life itself. We don't need to know we are sitting in "Central Perk" to have a good time, we don't need to know who we are to have a good life. We don't need answers to the big questions, we don't need Meaning. It doesn't have to make sense. Instead we need to go into it and see what is really there, engage with it, and sit with it. When the names and "beings" drop away then the Being will reveal itself.