Standard of comparison

A Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity discussion topic

Copyright 2008 by K. Ferlic,   All Rights Reserved

What may not be obvious is that our mind is continually comparing what we experience in the moment to our past experiences and/or some standard of comparison that it has chosen that becomes the basis of our expectations.

Whether we realize it or not, after our mind has had a sufficient number of experiences, it begins to believe it knows the environment it which it finds itself and is experiencing. In, or from, this knowledge, mind begins to compare what it experiences against what it has experienced and judges the new experiences based on a standard of comparison. The standard is whatever mind has chosen to see or define as "normal." Usually we are not consciously aware of the standard of comparison our mind is using and whatever our mind uses will be unique to us. It is when our mind has experiences outside of what is considered "normal," its standard of comparison, that we will perceive ourselves as entering the unknown.

As discussed in the topic, "Creation is not done alone," and "Consciousness awakens consciousness," for the awareness of consciousness to know who and what it is it needs something to which to compare itself. Initially, mind will simply use it past experiences. However, in a very short time, it chooses some standard for comparison for almost anything it can be experience. The concepts of good and bad, better or worse and the like are all based on a comparison to some standard of comparison chosen by mind.

The basic issue we all faces is that we cannot become aware of how we have defined ourselves, what we think and believe, who we are, or the direction in which we are traveling in life motion unless we have a point of reference or some standard of comparison outside ourselves. It is similar to the way we only become aware of our physical motion in comparison to another object by how fast or how slow the other object is moving toward or apart from us.

The same is true for consciousness. We can make no statement about the motion and direction of a consciousness (that is another individual) by observing what they do. We can only make a caparison based on some reference or a standard of comparison. Our choice of reference is arbitrary for there are no absolutes.

Said another way, we cannot judge in any absolute way whether another consciousness is creating a heaven or hell for themselves. Nor can we say we are in heaven or hell unless we have a reference of some type. We can only make such a comparison about ourselves or another against some standard that we are using.

Consciousness defines itself by its experiences and it is completely natural to define ourselves by that which is the most like ourselves. It is only natural that we see another human as "like us" whereas a bird, a tree, or rock as something other than ourselves.

In the Creation Story for the Creativity Perspective, it is said the consciousness within, or behind, Creation, shatter Itself into an infinite spectrum of consciousnesses. The term spectrum is used because to each point of consciousness, some points of consciousness seem to be more alike than others, where as others look totally different and farther away. However, there is no spectrum, only individualized points of consciousness, each a unique aspect of the consciousness within, or behind, Creation.

The problem is how we experience what we do. We perceive things as being alike or dislike something else. We live and die by comparisons. Analogously, it is much like the way we see the frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum or the keys on a piano next to each other are more alike than those farther away. The top most key on the piano sounds very different than the bottom most key whereas any two keys next to each other sound different but yet very much alike - they almost sound the same except one is a little sharper or flatter than the other.

In reality neither key or note is sharper or flatter than the other. It is only our comparison and the standard we use for that comparison that we see it as different. In listening to any two piano keys, whether one key sounds sharper or flatter depends on which key you consider the standard or that which is the "correct" sound.

What needs to be realized is that such a comparison is done by consciousness in any experience it has and it is always a comparison to that reality to that we pick as our standard. The standard most of us choose is based on what we believe is real and/or "true," which by the way, is most like the reality we personally experience or have experienced. Since we have no experience other than what we have experienced, we have no way of comparing what we experience to something we have not experienced. It is only expanding the depth and breath of our experience that we can begin to see how little we really have experienced and how we continually compare to a standard that is very inadequate to deal with the infinite of reality.

The most profound application of this principle is how we have come to define that which is "normal." We are probably familiar with a normal distribution curve of a probability curve. If we are not familiar with the curve or the related terminology, we are at least familiar with its applications in life. We can’t avoid it in the modern western world for we are extremely comparison orientated.

For example, if we go in for a blood test, or any test that measures a human characteristic, the results are compared to an average that is determined as "normal" such that 50 percent of the population lies above the average and 50 percent below. The closer we lie to the average, the more normal we appear or at least the more normal we are considered. The more we lie to the extremes the more we lie outside the norm. Although it may be normal for us it is not necessarily normal relative to the population. The more our normal lie towards the extremes, the more we will be seen as different or abnormal. However, there are an infinite number of human characteristics that can be observed and used to compare as to how alike two individuals are or are not. As a human, it is very difficult to say who is normal. It all depends on the standard of comparison that we are using and for what characteristic.

What we consider to be "conscious" is human based and is actually a very narrow band of characteristics that looks and acts like you and me. If we think about it, if a male and female did not have to come together to mate and produce offspring, we would probably consider each a completely different species of consciousness. Although the male and female anatomy and physiology are very similar, they are quite different. The same is true for consciousness in general.

We easily associate with and identify with, that which has characteristics similar to our own. That which is different is hard with which to identify. That which is not at all like us and does not communicates in the way we do, we do not consider conscious. Our definition of consciousness is only how we have come to think about ourselves, what we perceive about ourselves, and what we believe about reality and are all based on our comparisons to what we experience. We have built a mental structure, a vessel in which we contain ourselves, of how we think about the world and we see ourselves as separate yet living within the world we have created.

We need to understand there is no place better or worse than what we are experiencing in the moment. Anything that we think is better or worse, more pleasurable or less pleasurable is simply our comparison to some standard that we hold and is really an illusion. There is no place "to go" internally or externally. All is present here and now.

We think there is a place in the past, such as a time before man sinned, where there is no pain and suffering. However, there was, or rather there is, such a state. But to be in it, we need to be totally asleep and unaware, without feeling, without sensation. It is only the result of our awakening and the conscious awareness of "I am" that we distinguishes between pain and pleasure and has the choice of one over the other.

Similarly there is no place such as some heaven or afterlife to see the wholeness of being and the oneness of this infinite spectrum of Consciousness. That realization is fully possible here and now and if we don’t find it now, we will not find it in the expectation of a future unless we consciously create it. Heaven, as any other state of being, is a creation like any other creation.

We don’t see wholeness now because of the comparisons we make to what we are personally experiencing. Leaving the physical body will do nothing to help us to see the oneness of reality if we cannot experience it here and now. Our problem is that we take and experience life personally as opposed to a detached witness, fully engaged as a creator but detached from what is happening.

The oneness and wholeness of being is here and now, only we have not learned to focus ourselves to see it. It is like listening to a symphony. We can hear the whole symphony and the complete integrated whole or we can focus on a particular instrument or part of the melody taking the symphony apart such that we disregard the other parts and everything lies in pieces and fragments. The reason we usually do not experience the complete wholeness of Creation is that we too have shattered and fragmented ourselves much like the consciousness within, and behind, Creation. In doing so, we focus on the parts of ourselves rather than the whole of our being and the wholeness of the world we experience. We focus on the parts rather than the whole because whenever we focus on the whole we must shatter our conception as to who we think we are.

The goal of life is to forget or become totally detached so as to experience each experience new and fresh and not to be biased by the past. In this regard there are natural processes that help us to forget such as going to sleep. There are a variety of choices we have relative to living in the moment.

For example, one is that we can totally forget to be in the moment as it is and live in comparison to the past what expectations of the future. Or, we can go to sleep and become unaware so that we don’t realize we remember and see everything new. Or, we can become totally aware and awake to see the complete picture and but surrender to the flow of energy that is creating that picture. Or, we can live at any level of awareness that is comfortable but become a detached witness to whatever occurs surrendering to the flow.

In any case, it doesn’t really matter what way we choose to live as long as we don’t compare what we experienced to the experience of others or experiences we ourselves have had. Any comparison will cause confusion and cause us to live for our ego and what we think is happening and be within the veil of illusion and veil of separation.

Related topics
Creation is not done alone
Consciousness awakens consciousness

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