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"...consciousness is a useful problem-solving tool..." - Indeed, that's the crux. Everything we do, everything, solves a problem of some kind. Consciousness and Awareness are sophisticated problem-solving aspects of being, They tackle the problem of problem-solving.
We start off all about survival, dealing with threats in the immediate as needs and pressures dictate. There's not much thinking ahead, which works, kind of, works for the aggregate, but sucks for the individual. If we look at animals, theirs is not a particularly happy life on a personal level. We idealise their existences but only through a denial and disregard of the realities. They live with constant stress. Stress of predators, stress of the hunt, stress to mate, and the worst, stress of hierarchy and dominance, the stress to be superior and the stress of being inferior. A system in which no-one, not even the top-dog really has it altogether good. A system inherently governed by systemic bullying. Bah, what kind of system is that?
With conscious Awareness we come to realise this, We make physical bullying illegal, but replace it with status, which is the same psychologically. Problems of survival. But, a relatively minor problem. With awareness and consciousness, especially the Awareness of time and the ability to extrapolate, remember, and observe pattern, we come to the Awareness of the inevitability of life realise we have a bigger problem to deal with. Not only death is a major problem, but old age. Life, as it's structured is a screw-up, headed in the wrong direction. It's set up poorly.
Thus we come to realise survival is not enough as a problem-solving focus, we need more, we need to *Evolve.* Deliberately. We also come to realise individual efforts are not enough, the problem is too large. Cooperation works, look at pack hunters, but still limited as cooperation can be forced and does not necessarily bring out the best of each individual. For that we need Collaboration, Free-Sharing and combining, interrelated leveraging and leap-frogging, stimulus, inspiration, encouragement, Appreciation etc, all of which are conducive to enhancing motivation, a critical ingredient. Because at root, energy seeks to preserve itself, thus we default to doing as little as possible. But we know we also need to attend the bigger problems of survival, such as Deliberate-Evolution. Problem is, if we can't see a realistic path for solution, we're not motivated as it seems to be a waste of energy. We know on our own this isn't feasible, thus we're reliant on Collaboration and mutual energy-inspiration.
The more we engage in the process of Willful-Evolution, even if we're not aware it's what we're doing, (like reading in general) the more we become Aware the world doesn't work the way we think it does. Too much just doesn't add up. Too much is Anomalous, too much is undeniably incongruous, which, when extended, means everything is wrong. The Life-Detective in us, says, yes, everything seems to point to the accused being innocent, except, well, there's this one little thing I cannot reconcile, just the one... And since our Detective is Impeccable they pursue the reconciliation of that one discordant and unfittable fact, and soon the entire world and facade of innocence collapses and we come to see the truth. At least this works in the smaller mysteries. We of course need to apply this mechanism-of-resolution to the Greater Mystery which is the same as the problem of ultimate survival.
We have many many such facts or perceptions or conclusions which absolutely do not fit, your brain scan, RD Laing's psychonauts and evolutionary explorers and all manner of the odd and unusual which does not "belong" in our appearance of stability. We are clueless except for knowing we have clues. What to do with them we know not. But, all we can do is persist in the pursuit of *Understanding,* and with it comes those tools we need to further the solution to the Grand Mystery; Awareness and Discernment, along with the Tools of Change, such as Patience, Largess-of-Spirit, Forbearance, Extrapolation, and many more, as well as the mechanisms of Implementation, Impeccability and Sobriety.
The more we Understand, the more we realise we don't Understand, a peculiar conundrum which forces a different paradigm-of-being onto us, and we realise, if not consciously, but we come to know intuitively or semi-consciously what perhaps the subconscious deeper-self has always known, that we are the Universe seeking to be Aware of itself.
Thus the point and purpose of our existence is Awareness itself. That's the Meaning-of-Life, but one which we avoid recognising as it doesn't bring us any immediate and direct gratification, since we have not yet surmounted the challenge of gratification itself. Our pleasure mechanisms are still rooted in the superiority and hierarchy paradigm. Here it is we most need to evolve, otherwise the collaboration we so desperately need is an impossibility. Without the Joys of Sharing, the Joys of Largess-of-Spirit, and the joys of Collaboration itself, we are going nowhere but back to the mindless merry-go-round of the survival jerk-off.
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I don't remember reading that one specifically but The Politics of Experience and The Bird of Paradise was a book which was on my special shelf of special books, less than two dozen authors out of thousands. But lol, over time that shelf has dwindled and I don't even remember all on it anymore, and those I do, now are not a necessity to keep either. My shelf has been replaced.



So often I see half thinking taken as belief or even certainty. It's massively corruptive to the overall system of knowing, a compromise and falsity which rearrange all other knowings to support it. Amazing the consequences and even more amazing that many allow this internally, all to avoid that "dreaded" effort to think, especially all the way through. Strange how we can be, for no good reason it seems, other than ego distortions.
And then there are TakeAways like yours where it's what has come up in us from the interaction. During and after. What's been stimulated in us, elicited from us, and otherwise prompted and brought to the surface. What we were made to think about, feel, reminded of, or connected to in some way. These are all great as inevitably there's a More there, or some interest and value. It's so cool.
What's fascinating also are the connections, or lack of them. Either way, such TakeAways are always interesting and even though we can't see the connection directly, we know it's there somewhere, a part of the charm of such TakeAways. The deeper magic is that such non-linear or Leap-TakeAways not only stimulate similar leaps, but by default cue a different dynamic to interaction, discussion or conversation. We could thus have an ongoing conversation, which to an observer may appear unconnected, but is not, as our connection is the stimulus of such TakeAways from what comes up in us. What a marvellous mechanism! As inevitably these TakeAways connect us to what we would not otherwise likely have Shared just on our own. This Type of TakeAway thus connects us to our own More, which is always most excellent.
There are other TakeAways, such as repeat-backs, confirmations, extensions etc. In the overall, when we respond, and respond without preset conceptions of how to respond, we free ourselves to respond in ways not always common, and that changes our dynamic, and is a mos marvellous mechanism for connecting us to that magical More. When we're enabled to Respond however and with whatever comes up in us, then the interaction is always connected to what's Pertinent and Relevant to us personally, And that's always great in such interactions because are responses are connected, no matter how apparently tenuous, doesn't matter, That connection and the responses is all we need. :) :D