Prime Path 72:
Side Path 01
Survival Is Experiential
I need to make a side point concerning the idea that I've just sprung on you, that is, the "the purpose of survival."
As you have seen, I have broken "survival" down into various components. These components are represented by words. So, "playing it safe" is a component of survival. "Avoiding condemnation" is a component of survival. "Acquisition" is a component of survival. You get it.
I need to clarify that this business about breaking survival down into components represents a conceptual view of the phenomenon of survival. In other words, these components are a representation of the phenomenon, which is distinct from the phenomenon itself. Of course, any word-based description is conceptual in nature, but the key thing to get here is that the actual experience of the purpose of survival shows up in a different mode of being than the conceptual representation that I have set forth here.
A map makes for a good analogy. The words that I set forth on the previous page bear a similar relationship to the purpose of survival as a map of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts bears to the actual territory.
The key difference between our word-based description of survival and the way that survival actually shows up in experiential practice is that experiential survival is not a bunch of things, or a list of things, or a group of things. The purpose of survival as it shows up in your experience is one thing.
Said another way, in the real world, survival shows up before words.
So, survival, as it shows up for you, is one undistinguished thing, by which I mean that it does not show up distinguished by different components or factors. But survival is a distinguishable thing, in that we can apply concept to survival so we can better understand it and work with it, just as you'd use a map to better understand and work with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The distinction that I am making here might sound academic (that is, useless), but it's anything but. The way that we tend to unconsciously "collapse" concept and experience robs us of empowerment. So, in order to counter this collapse, and restore empowerment, the distinction between experience and concept is one of the points to which I will frequently return over the course of SkyVillage.
So, you'll run across the "concept vs. experience" idea again before we're through. Big time! Count on it!
But that's enough for now.
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