An elaboration on The Dichotomy of Control + The serenity and god-like power in accepting what you cannot control
Posted: January 10th, 2023, 2:51 pm
This is a discussion forum topic for the November 2022 Philosophy Book of the Month, In It Together: The Beautiful Struggle Uniting Us All.
Those who read the book know that a key premise in its logic is respecting The Dichotomy of Control, meaning paying attention to the difference between what is in your control (i.e. your choices in your unique present), and what is not in your control (i.e. what are unchangeable aspects of eternal reality) the epitomizing example of which is what's in your past.
To elaborate on what is not in your control, this seems to include almost everything, with at most a very very very tiny sliver of exceptions cut out for you in your teeny tiny unique spatiotemporal present (meaning your little tiny here-and-now in the vast seemingly infinite reaches of 4D spacetime). From your reference frame in your relative point-like place in 4D spacetime, what you don't control and cannot change includes (1) anything and everything that has already happened (i.e. what many would call "the past"), (2) almost everything in your present since even a split-second after it happens it is already written into your relativistic past and thus eternal reality (even before the soundwaves reach your ears or lightwaves reach your eyes), and (3) everything that is fated to happen in the future no matter what you do or choose from your present point forward, which includes almost all of the future. For an example of this 'fated' future, let's assume as is typically the case that you have no way at all of even slightly affecting what lottery numbers are drawn in a given multi-million or multi-billion jackpot drawing happening tomorrow. And let's assume for whatever reason you already bought one ticket but cannot possibly buy any more tickets. Then, whether or not you win the lottery tomorrow is, from your perspective in your unique present, already a matter of fate, meaning it is already as unchangeable by you as the distant past is. As a single human being, when you accept how little influence you actually have over what's happening on the planet in the short-term, let alone in the vast universe as a whole, you realize how much of the future, especially the near-future, is already fated for you from your little tiny relative spot and reference frame in 4D spacetime.
Of course, when you deeply explore and meditate on what I have referred to above as your little tiny here-and-now (i.e. your unique present), and by extension explore or mediate on presence itself, you find that there is mystical depth to that presence itself that is at least interlinked with if not identical to consciousness itself. It's analogous to there being a 5th dimension that transcends the 4 dimensions of 4D spacetime, such that even a teeny tiny little circle in 4D spacetime is thereby extended in this proverbial 5th dimension into a cylinder of great if not infinite depth, length, and area. That is what presence/consciousness is like, the way a single teeny tiny little 4D blob (i.e. your human brain over a few milliseconds) in vast 4D spacetime can in a way correspond to something of great seemingly infinite depth (i.e. the real you, meaning consciousness or presence itself).
In other words, there's a whole universe inside your human skull, and in that universe you have god-like power to say the least.
Please do reply with your comments and questions.
---
The book is available for purchase from all major book retailers in both ebook and hardcover format.
Those who read the book know that a key premise in its logic is respecting The Dichotomy of Control, meaning paying attention to the difference between what is in your control (i.e. your choices in your unique present), and what is not in your control (i.e. what are unchangeable aspects of eternal reality) the epitomizing example of which is what's in your past.
To elaborate on what is not in your control, this seems to include almost everything, with at most a very very very tiny sliver of exceptions cut out for you in your teeny tiny unique spatiotemporal present (meaning your little tiny here-and-now in the vast seemingly infinite reaches of 4D spacetime). From your reference frame in your relative point-like place in 4D spacetime, what you don't control and cannot change includes (1) anything and everything that has already happened (i.e. what many would call "the past"), (2) almost everything in your present since even a split-second after it happens it is already written into your relativistic past and thus eternal reality (even before the soundwaves reach your ears or lightwaves reach your eyes), and (3) everything that is fated to happen in the future no matter what you do or choose from your present point forward, which includes almost all of the future. For an example of this 'fated' future, let's assume as is typically the case that you have no way at all of even slightly affecting what lottery numbers are drawn in a given multi-million or multi-billion jackpot drawing happening tomorrow. And let's assume for whatever reason you already bought one ticket but cannot possibly buy any more tickets. Then, whether or not you win the lottery tomorrow is, from your perspective in your unique present, already a matter of fate, meaning it is already as unchangeable by you as the distant past is. As a single human being, when you accept how little influence you actually have over what's happening on the planet in the short-term, let alone in the vast universe as a whole, you realize how much of the future, especially the near-future, is already fated for you from your little tiny relative spot and reference frame in 4D spacetime.
Of course, when you deeply explore and meditate on what I have referred to above as your little tiny here-and-now (i.e. your unique present), and by extension explore or mediate on presence itself, you find that there is mystical depth to that presence itself that is at least interlinked with if not identical to consciousness itself. It's analogous to there being a 5th dimension that transcends the 4 dimensions of 4D spacetime, such that even a teeny tiny little circle in 4D spacetime is thereby extended in this proverbial 5th dimension into a cylinder of great if not infinite depth, length, and area. That is what presence/consciousness is like, the way a single teeny tiny little 4D blob (i.e. your human brain over a few milliseconds) in vast 4D spacetime can in a way correspond to something of great seemingly infinite depth (i.e. the real you, meaning consciousness or presence itself).
In other words, there's a whole universe inside your human skull, and in that universe you have god-like power to say the least.
Please do reply with your comments and questions.
---
The book is available for purchase from all major book retailers in both ebook and hardcover format.
