Desire of our mind - The absolute certainty

I do think we mostly think to obtain the sense of certainty that may come with the answers. And I think we do think to obtain absolute certainty, ultimately, aware or not. In other words, I think our logical mind has the basic desire, inclination, to seek absolute certainty.

The absolute certainty that our logical mind seeks is characterized by the lack of any limitation, condition, dependency. It means we have the desire for something unlimited, unconditional, independent, permanent, free of any doubt.

Truth, God, Objectivity, Reality, etc are the words that represent a from of absolute certainty some of us may seek, judging from how people talk about these.

For example, when someone says “God exists”, the person is likely to imagine absolute/unlimited/infinite/permanent nature about the “God” and its “existing”.
Similarly, when someone talks about “truth” (especially in the case of “Ultimate Truth”), it often comes with the notion of absolute/unlimited/infinite/permanent nature.

The innate desire of our mind seems to be very deep rooted, but I think it is even strengthened by our upbringing.

When we are small, we learn by connecting symbols/words to objects/phenomenon as if they are absolutely right connection, we learn by imitation as if it’s absolutely right way to do, and so on.
Even though we may start questioning at early age, the most of them are done with the presumption of absoluteness in both question and answer.
Also, adults around the kid may prefer to keep things simple, by giving definite answer with presumed absoluteness.

Thus most of us are conditioned to think without much awareness of conditional/limited/relative/impermanent nature of thought. The effect of this conditioning, combined with the desire for the absolute, can be observed in many of our thoughts.

For example, when we think about “existence of universe”, we are usually implying “permanent existence” and not temporary nor limited one, “absolute and complete existence” and not “partial” one, “existence” without dependency nor conditions.
And this type of presumption is almost omnipresent in our thought pattern, other than well defined logical or scientific thought.

The presumption of (often subconscious) absoluteness is one of the cause for our mental/logical confusion, misunderstanding, and things that may appear as paradox.

We can see this in ILP and everywhere. A question like “What is the greatest XXX?” is assuming that we can decide/evaluate allover greatness, and it comes from the presumption of absolute and unconditional nature attached on the subject matter. Also, logic (reasoning) without reference, condition, or dependency is omnipresent in human expression, indicating the presumption of unconditional logic (reasoning).

The basic problem and contradiction inherent in the presumption of absoluteness is treating relative and conditional matters as if they are absolute and unconditional. This causes the near total lack of awareness about the dependencies and conditions, making the thought or expression illogical and absurd.

All our thought, notion, concept, is ABOUT something. So, it is conditional and dependent on the matter and its nature.
In addition to this, all our affirmative thought, notion or concept is inherently dependent upon “things other than the subject matter”, “things not matching subject criteria”, “the rest”.

For example, when we talk about cats, they are contrasted against everything else, everything doesn’t satisfy the required/presumed cat-ness.
If we imagine cat-ness to be all inclusive one, thus making everything a cat, it’s meaningless to call it “cat”, since we can’t distinguish cats out of all others and it’s simply a thing.

Presuming absoluteness of the subject matter makes the thought/expression absurd and meaningless because it is the same as thinking/saying “The absolute is absolute” type of f tautology. It resolve the possibility of distinction, making the thought/expression resolved in the blurred vague wholeness without any specification nor distinct property.

Although there is nothing absolutely wrong with the thought and expression about non-specific and thus unidentifiable matter without any understandable distinction, it’s often pretty illogical and practically meaningless. And this type of thought and expression can be confusing to oneself and not very effective in communication, either.

When we realize that the desire for the absolute certainty (along with other factors) is causing many problem in our thinking, some people may see this desire as something “bad” and even try to eliminate it. However, the desire is the motor of our logical mind and it’s not inherently wrong nor bad. Also, I don’t think we can really circumnavigate or eliminate it because it seems to be so deep rooted.

Rather than trying to deny or fight against the desire, I think it can be more beneficial to be honest about it and seek the absolute certainty with one’s fullest awareness. We like or not, we are projected by the desire to seek the absolute. But we can be honest with it and go along with it in place of pulled and dragged behind the manifestation of the desire.

In order to be honest with the desire, we need to know what we really seek as the absolute certainty. What is the nature of the absolute we would like to see?
As far as I could see, it’s unconditional and unlimited in any way. It’s not confined by any perimeter, be it the time, space, logic, anything.
Although some of us may have problem understanding the consequence of this type of nature, I think it’s easy to understand anything that has conditions or limitations isn’t what we seek from the desire for the absolute certainty.
It means we can easily eliminate things that has limitations and conditions from the list of potential candidates and concentrate our effort on the rest.

In other words, it is important to well distinguish that isn’t absolute and not to mistake something with conditions or limitations as the absolute.

If we perform the verification of conditions and limitation upon notions and concepts we use, we will effectively eliminate the presumption of the absoluteness and confusion and problems associate with it. So, it does help us to narrow the scope of our seeking at the same time reducing the confusion and misunderstanding. In addition to these, by examining conditions and limitation of the notions and concepts, we will understand their relativity, dependency, applicability, etc, a lot better. It means we would make less mistake of taking something limited/conditional as unlimited/unconditional on top of having better understandings of limited/conditional matters and their relations/dependencies/etc. Other than that, since we know what we want, we wouldn’t loose time nor energy with false/fake absolutes that offer less than absolute certainty and the merchants who are eager to sell these to us. :slight_smile:

Having said that, there might be one potential problem. If one is more or less logically mature and well aware of the nature of our logical mind (or the focus of awareness), it would be obvious that we would never ever affirmatively obtain the absolute. I mean, if we could obtain something, it signify that it could have been identified and taken into the perimeter near us and this would contradict with the nature of the absolute. In other words, seeking the absolute is fruitless venture from logical stand point when it’s done affirmatively. And understanding this, some of us may abandon to seek the absolute (along with the absolute certainty).

However, stopping to seek the absolute certainty doesn’t mean that the desire is gone, and it will manifest throughout our thoughts and actions unless it’s totally satisfied or totally dismissed, broken, dissolved. So, I’d recommend continuing even if we knew it’s hopeless because the process of seeking, distinguishing non-absolute by examining conditions and limitations, is beneficial to the clarity and flexibility of our mind. And even though we may fail, we would have done what we desired and this alone can provide the sense of satisfaction and certain peace of mind, resulting is less frustration/suffering.

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