Mental Renovation

Reflections of development, influence & environment.


“In the beginning of heaven and earth there were no symbols. Symbols came out of the womb of matter”


Lao-tzu 

The mental illumination that remained hidden for a long time behind artificial masks slowly emerges, yet requires an array of “retraining”, some abundance of time, a sense of direction and depth of material, notably when not directed or nurtured by a teacher or mentor.

This requires development through experimentation, the location of appropriate validated enlightenment as well as enhancing mental thoughts, direction and velocity.

Emotional World – Wonder Expression

Once begun, the journey initially has no horizon, the path just leads forward. Only after ingestion of external mentalities might one accumulate sufficiently to allow a pause and reflection that gives rise to better direction and enhanced preferences for the next phase. Often, entailing a return to previous materials that, with more awareness and better mental grasp, now has deeper relevance and enlightenment.

It begins with a book of visual symbolism, an in depth analysis of the individual aspects and meanings and relationships among and within the symbols. 

Following mental bread crumbs, further insights develop as I move to the philosophy of visual symbolism and the use by civilizations, their relationships and especially their differences to other symbolic forms.

This comparison of visual versus mathematical, scientific and other structures enveloping symbolism provides distinctions of how each discipline has advanced the others and the requirement of newly developed symbols to appropriately  advance each discipline’s boundaries.

Initially much of the advancement is through the use of metaphors and analogies until newer language forms are developed sufficiently that they become accepted and understood. Often other symbols are devised that are not language specific to allow additional concurrence and awareness.

As rudimentary knowledge evolves, the awareness of art, in my case, gives rise to extensive investigations.

The parallel literacy aspiration comprises of an ever enlarging body of educational materials that continue to expand expressions of life.

Building a digital library that gathers, by associated recommendations, and often, convoluted web findings, accumulates ample detailed  materials, so vast that it’s not mentally digestible, and requires the use of a computerized system to collect, store, manage, interpret and link this data. Applying such a system that, over time, and with ensuing reflections, the aspects of art begin to dwell in the mind and associate with other parallel paths of knowledge and the symbolism of visual art.

This study of art and symbolism gives rises slowly to a separate but aligned path of study and reflection: Our Mental World.

Now, and over time, the thoughts of how we experience our subjective world, how we ingest this world, our ability to maintain and associate this information into knowledgeable realms, our associative and metaphoric conclusions develop and mature. With scientific developments rapidly evolving to permit better insights to various and often subtle enlightenment, new and altered philosophies emerge. How psychological and philosophical arguments involving the brain and mental states are being advanced is intriguing. So much more!

“We know what we are but not what we may be.”

Ophelia in Hamlet

At what point does one pause to resolve, digest, associate, and grasp interpretational intentions of all that has matured until now? To  point the path and horizon in more refined directions.

This requires a point in time to pause and instill so many thoughts and reflections as well as gathering together in a more comprehensive arrangement all the “knowledge management system” has to offer. This often seems, and well might be, a monumental task!

My guess is that pondering this, one reserves time to merge thoughts of the various paths into a better coherence.

Again, an increase in the library store and more web content and linkages to manage with computerization which has, over time, created a vast trove of potential embodied within.

The use of symbolism across its many dimensions allows one to understand, appreciate and use analogy and metaphors to merge and massage new ideas into fragments of being. Setting a “reminder” to pause on occasion for reflection, one plunges back into the educational schemes. Hopefully, with accumulated progressive understanding and insights.

A Witch Doctor on stage during a Zydeco performance
Zydeco Witch Doctor – Symbolic Worlds

Over time, the periods of pause and reflection allows one to mentally parse the accumulation of developing articulations, often with a “spark” from a recent insight during study.

I find active moments of reverie, imagining thousands of scenarios from mental states and semiconscious dreams, stir and coalesce thoughts and musings with nascent and subtle directions. Often lying awake and eventually rising to consider a book of study, a relevant passage becomes the “spark” on resuming a dream meditation, developing further thoughts. Constructing metaphors to construct analogies and advanced fusions of newer awareness.

“The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination.”


Carl Rogers

Life seems sublime…..

Check back soon for my Emotional Contours Blog.

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Yours,

Dusty