Is Our Perception Of The Present Entirely Influenced By Memory?

[puff_not_snuff]

I have no idea what it is like to see a tree without all of my understanding of what a tree is. In our culture we think of a blankness, absence, a blank canvas, the untarnished sheet of paper, the whiteness of space awaiting the mark. Whereas anthropology tells us that more remote totally at one with nature cultrures like the tribes of remote Brazil or Africa see black as awaiting the mark. What is it like to see a tree without knowing it’s a plant, future lumber, a home for so many creatures, shade, colors with names, and attributes, alive, was once a seed, growing, ever changing with the seasons. I can only see it through what I am, what I know. I can’t possibly see it as an owl would, or a fish, or someone from the remotest regions on the planets, or an Inuit, or a caterpillar. I am a filter of my mind and all that has had happened to it, what I’ve learned, what I know and don’t know.

Good layman's explanation. But, some won't give a hoot about what you wrote.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Good layman's explanation. But, some won't give a hoot about what you wrote.

Sometimes it’s more about quantity than quality, ha ha.

 

[shanez]

No future, no future, no future for you.

There is only ZUUL?

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

Food for thought:

The only true knowledge is that of experience. The rest is told or taught and taken as true. We build off of these lessons and prior experience.

Know where you are going, but remember where you came from or you are destined to repeat mistakes (possibly resulting in theatrical insanity of doing the same thing while expecting a different result).

Remove just one card from the deck and the entire house of cards falls as well.

While perception may be reality, perception may also be misconstrued or not well grounded. For example, if the world seems out to get you, it could be true ... or maybe the common denominator is that you are the problem.

 

[LotusEater]

No future, no future, no future for you.

John Lydon?

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

LOL, so like faux Seinfeld meets Hans and Franz Kafka?

That's a show!

 

[trouttimes]

Wow! You guys make my brain hurt. I’m going back to watching cartoons.

 

[romaso]

Manōpubbangamā Dhammā

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I've given this ten seconds of thought and decided I don't give a shit. Why waste my valuable brain energy on something that has zero affect on my life.

 

[sablebrush52]

Manōpubbangamā Dhammā

What he said. Whatever that was...

 

[jpmcwjr]

We'll pump you up, girly man!

~ Franz und Hans

 

[romaso]

What he said. Whatever that was...

Manōpubbangamā Dhammā (Pali) = Mind precedes all mental states (English)

It's the first line of the Dhammapada, both the first & second verse. The second verse is:

Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow.

The Dhammapada: The Buddha's Path of Wisdom (accesstoinsight.org)

 

[puff_not_snuff]

I've given this ten seconds of thought and decided I don't give a shit. Why waste my valuable brain energy on something that has zero affect on my life.

Why is your energy valuable?

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

The only true knowledge is that of experience.

The only true knowledge comes from a higher source.
But one has to have the humility to ask for it.

 

[makhorkasmoker]

I keep pondering the question. I think it's the word "entirely" that keeps hanging me up. If it means memory is the ONLY thing shaping our perception of the present, then I say, No. Our perception of the present seems to be shaped by all sorts of things. If it means that memory is one of many things shaping our perception, then I'd say yeah. But it is only one of many things.

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

I keep pondering the question. I think it's the word "entirely" that keeps hanging me up. If it means memory is the ONLY thing shaping our perception of the present, then I say, No. Our perception of the present seems to be shaped by all sorts of things. If it means that memory is one of many things shaping our perception, then I'd say yeah. But it is only one of many things.

These many things shaping our perception.
Is not memory involved when we access them ?

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

I keep pondering the question. I think it's the word "entirely" that keeps hanging me up. If it means memory is the ONLY thing shaping our perception of the present, then I say, No. Our perception of the present seems to be shaped by all sorts of things. If it means that memory is one of many things shaping our perception, then I'd say yeah. But it is only one of many things.

I agree because what we see is certainy shaped by our memory, but there are other ways of viewing the same thing for which we have no memory. This is why mindfulness and imagination can be so useful.

That said, I am sorry for the thread drift. I was more responding to whom ever dismissed mindfulness because the concept of mindfulness can come from your memory of what you think you have already experienced rather than thinking of it in a new way.

 

[makhorkasmoker]

These many things shaping our perception.
Is not memory involved when we access them ?

Oh, yeah, I'm not saying memory isn't involved. It just seems to me other things are involved. Lots of things.

Take Hopes for the future. Well, memory helps to create these hopes. There's not denying that. But these hopes are in our mind, and they are no longer just memories. They are something that has been created: hopes for the future. And these hopes do seem to shape the way we perceive the present moment.

And then there are things that probably affect our perception that have little or nothing to do with memory--genetics, say.

 

[puff_not_snuff]

Oh, yeah, I'm not saying memory isn't involved. It just seems to me other things are involved. Lots of things.

Take Hopes for the future. Well, memory helps to create these hopes. There's not denying that. But these hopes are in our mind, and they are no longer just memories. They are something that has been created: hopes for the future. And these hopes do seem to shape the way we perceive the present moment.

And then there are things that probably affect our perception that have little or nothing to do with memory--genetics, say.

What is hope?

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

Oh, yeah, I'm not saying memory isn't involved. It just seems to me other things are involved. Lots of things.

Take Hopes for the future. Well, memory helps to create these hopes. There's not denying that. But these hopes are in our mind, and they are no longer just memories. They are something that has been created: hopes for the future. And these hopes do seem to shape the way we perceive the present moment.

And then there are things that probably affect our perception that have little or nothing to do with memory--genetics, say.

To be sure, we create hopes for the future based on memories of things that have gone either well or badly in the past.

Are genetics not memory ? That is to say, molecular memory