Last night I picked up Hans Jonas’ “The Gnostic religion” and located a whole chapter on Mani’s religion, which I perused a bit. However, before I get engrossed in this study for my next talk, I want to make one more observation relating to my Maya presentation and study.
Religions provide frameworks for people’s daily experience, which has been a point I made earlier, but there is an addition dimension to this. That is the process of becoming conscious of one’s world. This I have put into words with the saying: “To be, of becoming conscious, conscious.”
In other words, as humans we did not arrive with a full blown consciousness the way that we have that today. This consciousness was acquired over time in a process of trial, error and success, as it still is today.
This I have put into words with the saying: 'To be, of becoming conscious, conscious.'
Taking this as my point of departure, I ask myself whether we can we trace, in the traditions that humankind has accumulated, points of consciousness growth or steps of ‘progress’ as it were?
I have spotted two that have become four. The first is what I call the stage of ‘analogy thinking’, followed by the more difficult ‘logical thinking’, then the ‘analytical thinking’ and finally the ‘cause and effect’ thinking. At first I just discerned the ‘analogy’ and ‘cause and effect’ type thinking, but have added logical and analytical as transitional ones, making four.
But, I also hold that there must be an ‘observational thinking’ stage that precedes the analogy stage, because you cannot compare things if you have made no observations. For example you must observe and remember that there are cold and warm times that repeat - seasons. Then you must notice that the leaves fall from certain trees and then grow again. These two separate observations must then be combined by means of analogy thinking - the making of associations - to start to notice that there is a cyclical process.
By organising and structuring the experiences and observations a certain theory about its origins. This, with the composing of an explanatory narrative formulation result in a structured mythology. Taking all these steps together I label is the ‘process of consciousness making’.
That process orders loose events such that they can now be predicted and therefore don’t have to be remembered separately. This in turn makes room for other events to be remembered, to be structured in turn. This is how I think humans over time acquired consciousness and learned to use it to find food, shelter and ‘live better’!
Now, returning to the Maya, we have a structure that formed in the Mesoamericas without outside influences prior to 1500AD and we therefore are presented with material and opportunity to possibly trace such a process of consciousness making in this special case.
Since the deciphering of the hieroglyphs is still ongoing, we only have a partial picture at this time. But, some aspects of this coming to conscious awareness may already be discernable at present.
This is how I think humans over time acquired consciousness and learned to use it to find food, shelter and ‘live better’!
That brings me to the point I wanted to make about the Maya and my recent study of that culture. The process that stands out for me as a possible starting point for such a study, is the Maya divination calendar by means of which they order many of their daily activities.
The cycles of sun, moon, Venus and Pleiades are used to structure the influences of identified deities, whose combined effect is revealed in this calendar. The deities are the forces of cause, but the effects vary and depend on what the calendar through the interpretation by the Day keeper foretells.
This way the eventualities of the daily lives are placed in a structured framework, even though things did not always work out as expected, but this we know about in our own lives as well.
<9:55am and 10:13am>
The four stages of development in thinking are plausible, but unproven. Such proof can come today from brain research which is very much a work in progress, but a fruitful one. It is known now that association making is one of the fundamental processes in the brain, but can we identify others?
Could we identify the process of selection as in when using ‘logical’ type reasoning of the Aristotle kind? The other aspect we can look for is age in the brain, not just of its parts, but of the processes such as the different types of conclusion making. What does a formed theory look like in the brain when it is used in a decision making process? Questions galore!
The reason I feel that this is of importance, is that the brain for humans is what makes us different, but not always used to laudable effect. What comes to mind here is our urge for violence. How can we regulate it better? The energy of those emotions has much potential, but how do we use it?
I think we need to understand our own human nature better, if we want to continue to develop or evolve as a species. However, I do not see that as destiny and we may very well ‘blow it’ as Michelle fore warned her husband Barrack early on in his campaigns. Humans could certainly blow ‘it‘, our own evolution and existence that is.
It is our human responsibility of consciousness to use it to understand our own nature. This is my reason for the above discourse and after thoughts about my study of the Maya.
<10:33am and 11:10am~
