Entry tags:
Foxes and philosophy and the nature of reality
Dream last night:
I was on the shores of a small lake in the midst of a wood, in the dark. Across from me there was a small wooded island, with a gap in the trees and light shining forth. There were people from an earlier, forgotten part of the dream standing around on the shore I was on. One of them was a man I'd been in a fight with earlier.
The light from the island got a little brighter, and then there was a bridge to it. I walked across, dressed in the outfit of a Shinto miko (shrine maiden). I was also carrying a shide wand*. Halfway over the bridge, I stopped and beckoned the man I'd been fighting with earlier. He approached, and I whacked him with the shide wand, then went on without looking back and entered the doorway between the trees on the island.
It was the lair of foxes, and I was met by one, who escorted me through the byways inside. It was close-roofed, with a low ceiling, but ornate, with statues and gold and colorful elements and decorations about it, wherever I looked.** I expressed my amazement to my guide, because I knew this was illusion, but I was wondering how complex the illusion had to be to produce all of this, but then realized that because of the nature of attention, the illusion didn't have to be that complicated - it just had to know where you were looking and sharpen the detail there, because you'd never notice that the stuff not right where you were looking was fuzzy and less detailed.
I told this to my guide, who said "Oho!" and took me to an elder fox, and told him what I said. We then had a long discussion about the nature of illusion and the brain, and how the brain develops a picture of the world around us from the data it brings in through the senses, how how this means that our reality is just a construct, and how we have to take action based on what we think reality is, rather than what is is. We, our waking, conscious selves, don't directly know the world except through the mediation of the brain (as mind is what is produced through the activity of the brain).
At some point in the dream, I was also back with my guide, still discussing illusion and appearances. I forgot exactly what I said, but he said "Well, then, close your eyes." I did so, and then he touched my forehead with his finger. I opened my eyes, and he was still standing before me, but now in human guise.
And that's about where it ended. Because Sora jumped on me, demanding that I fill his not-empty bowl before he STARVED, I MEAN IT, STARVED. And thus the world of illusion and the mind must give way to a cat's demands.
There is probably something profound in that.
* Often used in anime for exorcising people by whacking them with it.
** Note to![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rachelmanija: a lot like the ceremonial area of the temple we stayed at in Koya-san.
I was on the shores of a small lake in the midst of a wood, in the dark. Across from me there was a small wooded island, with a gap in the trees and light shining forth. There were people from an earlier, forgotten part of the dream standing around on the shore I was on. One of them was a man I'd been in a fight with earlier.
The light from the island got a little brighter, and then there was a bridge to it. I walked across, dressed in the outfit of a Shinto miko (shrine maiden). I was also carrying a shide wand*. Halfway over the bridge, I stopped and beckoned the man I'd been fighting with earlier. He approached, and I whacked him with the shide wand, then went on without looking back and entered the doorway between the trees on the island.
It was the lair of foxes, and I was met by one, who escorted me through the byways inside. It was close-roofed, with a low ceiling, but ornate, with statues and gold and colorful elements and decorations about it, wherever I looked.** I expressed my amazement to my guide, because I knew this was illusion, but I was wondering how complex the illusion had to be to produce all of this, but then realized that because of the nature of attention, the illusion didn't have to be that complicated - it just had to know where you were looking and sharpen the detail there, because you'd never notice that the stuff not right where you were looking was fuzzy and less detailed.
I told this to my guide, who said "Oho!" and took me to an elder fox, and told him what I said. We then had a long discussion about the nature of illusion and the brain, and how the brain develops a picture of the world around us from the data it brings in through the senses, how how this means that our reality is just a construct, and how we have to take action based on what we think reality is, rather than what is is. We, our waking, conscious selves, don't directly know the world except through the mediation of the brain (as mind is what is produced through the activity of the brain).
At some point in the dream, I was also back with my guide, still discussing illusion and appearances. I forgot exactly what I said, but he said "Well, then, close your eyes." I did so, and then he touched my forehead with his finger. I opened my eyes, and he was still standing before me, but now in human guise.
And that's about where it ended. Because Sora jumped on me, demanding that I fill his not-empty bowl before he STARVED, I MEAN IT, STARVED. And thus the world of illusion and the mind must give way to a cat's demands.
There is probably something profound in that.
* Often used in anime for exorcising people by whacking them with it.
** Note to
rachelmanija: a lot like the ceremonial area of the temple we stayed at in Koya-san.
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