the underlying basis of our use of mind is oneupmanship. That's it.
What is called "spiritual", particularly under the guise of dogmatic religion, (across the spectrum) to me, can be seen as rather elaborate, and actually brilliant, diversion from the nature of intellect itself, which is about abstraction of reality.
Even the word "concrete" or describing something more "concretely" is an abstraction, in this case. All along, the intellect as a tool, (this works, that doesn't) has become a mode of being and a way of life, to the point where pointing that out to intellectuals or those who are religious is not only ludicrous, it can be damning and unsafe.
What we may be dealing with are underlying, conceptual structures that create, support, shape and mold the experience of a self, (or ego, as a superficial, internalized social structure) and we are living out the results of reality as a contrived manipulation, though letting-on to that understanding can be a modern equivalent of blasphemy.
Even the methods and nomenclature of science, (especially the physical sciences) has transcended the tight, binary compartmentalization of Aristotelian logic and moved towards a more Cartesian-style of comprehension and communication. The same can be had for non-dual approaches from the "spiritual" or philosophical side, e.g., gnosticism, Dzogchen, etc.
I am not, in any way, anti-intellectual, nor am I a theist or an atheist. In my current understanding they all fit into the same compartment of the mind dealing with reality in a subject/object, largely manipulative approach based on survival and thriving based on a basic template of cultural fabrications.
My point is that the nature of self itself and its true relationship to everything else is a matter of careful investigation into our conditioning and our capacity to easily substitute, (and even inhabit) worlds of worlds for what actually is. We may only ever be able to experience reality that way, but when it comes down to insight, suffering and our common plight as a species, self-serving interests can be found from academia to theology and finding the common ground and seeing into its nature could reveal something bright and clear for our future as a species.
Thanks!
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