What’s In Name
By Phil on Jan. 16, 2009.
Suggested by: Prof Ilchi Lee
Let’s do a little experiment: what is in front of you? Whatever it is, can you see that object without recalling its name? It won’t be easy. Whatever we see, we always call forth its name first. In the human consciousness, anything that has a form has a name. Perhaps we cannot see something unless it has a name. When you think you are seeing an object, therefore, what you are doing is reading its name. We see and understand objects through this window of the name. In other words, we live trapped inside a cage of information called the name, but we are so accustomed to it we don’t see the bars.
This is similar to the way our brains function. In neurological terms, knowledge is a particular pattern of connections between neurons in the brain, and learning is a change or addition to that pattern of connections. For example, new knowledge will create a new neuronal connection. Strong preconceptions and ideas are represented by a long-lasting and strong pattern of neuronal connections, a hard-wired connection, so to speak. Memory is information contained within the neuronal matrix, which, when stimulated by energy, gets released into conscious awareness. A loss of memory implies that the connections that had formed the particular pattern representing specific knowledge are broken or dissolved.
This is the intimate relationship between hardware and software that even the most sophisticated computers do not have; it only exists in the brain. Therefore, it’s not enough for you to will yourself to be free from the prison of names, for your brain (more specifically, the neocortex) is wired with this “name system.” We could represent the informational prison as an inflexible matrix of neuronal connections.
Category: Ilchi Lee