The Cave of Maya — or Matrix
By: Food Of The Gods
Tags: Spirituality, Mysticism, Philosophy, Reality, Meditation

Mental Images — or Shadows

What is thinking?

Thinking is essentially the creating of abstract symbols in one’s mind to represent parts of reality, the practical purpose of which is to aid one’s survival—for example, thinking frees one from having to test the edibility of foods through eating them (by being able to pin down and convey forward the information of the potential toxicity of certain berries or mushrooms), thus risking being poisoned; effectively raising the probability of survival.

So, it seems that a central point of thinking is the conveying of information. This is also the purpose of language, and note that languages are all collections of abstract symbols—it could be said that expressed language is the solidified form of thinking. Or, rather, thinking is the coming up with information and language is expressing it to others in an effort of conveying ideas.

Let me give you another example.

When you look at a tree, you have in your mind a mental image that corresponds with the concept of a tree. This gives you the ability to call it a tree and to differentiate between different kinds of trees; oaks, pine trees, spruce trees and so on. So essentially, when you view a tree, you’re viewing it through the mental veil of conceptual thinking or language. The word tree doesn’t really have anything to do with trees—it’s not onomatopoetic (meaning the pronunciation doesn’t have anything to do with the sound created by that which the word refers to); we (in the English language) just merely collectively agree to assign to the word tree the mental image of the tall green things—which are, in reality, essentially condensed forms of energy vibrating in a certain harmonious frequency. The word tree itself is not a tree; it’s a symbol one can use to point to a part in the real world that is in the form of a tree.

When you’re looking at the picture of the forest above, you’re similarly in reality not looking at a forest but a bunch of pixels on the screen of the device you’re viewing this on, lit up in a certain order so that it creates a visual representation of a forest—which corresponds to the mental framework in your mind that contains prior experiences of seeing a similar environment in reality. Here again, the picture in this article is not a real forest but a representation of one—we could say that the image here is a physical manifestation of the abstract, conceptual image in one’s mind; and although it has a material form, it’s not a real forest.

Now, having expressed the practical utility of the mind, we can delve deeper into what maya is about.

The mind has a tendency to be easily preoccupied with itself. This preoccupation manifests itself as habitual thinking—in other words, constantly engaging oneself with mental stories about reality, particularly in a reactive manner. As I’ve explained, the mind makes symbols (abstract representations) of reality, and the act of thinking is a kind of going through these symbols and putting them together; crafting stories about them. You can examine this tendency by just sitting still and observing the train of your thought: it does not stop very easily, and you very quickly will find yourself reacting to the thoughts that arise. And as you keep observing this tendency in a nonjudgmental awareness, you begin to realize that all of that mental chatter is indeed a kind of a flowing storytelling.

To be deceived by the mind preoccupied with itself to think that its mental representations of reality are the same thing as the living reality; or in the words of Alan Watts, “to mistake the menu for the meal,” is to be under the illusion of maya.

Sounds familiar?

Remember how in the cave, the people spend their days by naming and telling each other stories about the shadows in the wall of the cave. They aren’t in direct contact with the living reality which is happening outside of the cave, only with its projections that resemble the forms of it but aren’t the reality itself.

The cave is maya.

Also, it can be noted here that Matrix (the movie where the guy, Neo, gets to choose whether he’ll eat the red pill or the blue pill; to break free from the artificial simulation and enter into the real world or remain in the world of illusions) is essentially the modern expression of the problems portrayed in Plato’s allegory — and curiously, its title shares the same ma- root as does maya (as was hinted at earlier). But it doesn’t give any kind of instruction to one who would happen to end up in such a situation in actual life—such an instance is just labeled psychosis or just madness in general if it were to happen to someone in the modern westernized world. The spiritual traditions originating from India, however, provide people with ways to ground themselves in the real world if they happen to see through the illusion of maya; or, escape the matrix. Interestingly, escaping the matrix means, word-for-word, leaving the womb—to enter into the real world.