Clarification of terms:
- conceptual thought is the lens of cognition whose contents are concepts.
- concepts are abstract constructs that we *assume* are natural derivatives of the constituents of reality.
- narrative faculty is the higher order mode of understanding that emerges from conceptual thought whereby conceptual thought is ordered into formulas of meaning (the chattering mind, thinking to oneself, internalized speaking, etc.)
- logic the seemingly self-evident formulas of relationships between concepts
- energetics the pre-verbal, pre-conceptual, lowest level cognitive abstraction , level of experience. non-local somatics, felt “energy” before any interpretation of it
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Eventually, following the mechanics of logic leads to the logical limits. logical “lines” of reasoning are much more like self-perpetuating circles.
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although energy is pre-verbal and narrative, and narratives are creative abstractions, that is not to say that anything goes. Energy moves and interacts from which a a level of meaning emerges closer to the conceptually abstract but intuitively understood level… which is why symbolic language is the kind of conceptual language most conducive to interacting with what is true. interestingly, although narrative conventional thought is degrees of abstraction away from direct experience, to the conceptual self the closer one gets to cognizing the level of direct experience, the more abstract the meaning seems. in a way, we use cognitive and hermeneutic abstractions in order to make the meaning appear less abstract -which is to say, to have more cognitively tangible resonance with our familiar dimensions of meaning-making ie. our networks of associations.
what is the implications of this system for mans search for meaning?
although meaning is not inherent to life on the level that we generally tend to interact and identify with life and meaning, one can align their conceptual faculties -if careful not to suffocate with too gross a grasp- with their energetic truth which is in harmony with collective truth. but this requires a proficiency with energy in order for the dynamic and subtle energetic truth to be channeled skillfully in the desired realm of meaning.
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to despair due to a lack of truth is usually a symptom of attachment to a form or dimension of truth without adequate sensitivity to the feeling of truth behind (in a literal somatic sense) ones (identified) self.
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the self is a conceptual construct in which we nest our sense of identity and thereby our perceptual center of gravity. conceptual experience then shapes and molds itself according to the architecture of the terrain formed by that center of identity and the associated forces identified on that level of being.
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our culturally and biologically informed default is for our narrative faculties to minimize unwanted sensations and maximize wanted ones- so it takes a great deal of unlearning to dis-identify with this way of navigating the energetic and recalibrate our narrative faculties to be in alignment with our energy (rather than trying to force vice-versa).