Models of the world.

Although I haven't talked about models of the world separately, this is a topic I would frequently visit. Hence, I thought about writing about it in a separate article. I will give you an overview first, uses and relevance to mindfulness in sequential order.

Overview of models of the world

Models of the world are, our mental imagery of how the universe function. Basically your model differs from mine. A child's model differs from an adult. A man's one differs from a women. Not only that, your yesterday model of the world differs from today, as more knowlege and experience have accumilated. You may think, why learn about models of the world, if they keep changing.

Before answering that question, I will show you few other models of the world. A world can be modeled as a mathematical function. A financial model of the world will depend on the debt equity currency and growth. A biological model of the world is about biosphere. Then there are philosophical models of the world, Atheism theism deterministic and free will. As you can see each model of the world is good at answering specific questions. But when we try to answer a question from a different domain, it would be impossible or fundamentally fail. This is why a holistic approach to these models of the world is necessary.

A model tree

A holistic model of the world

But is there a holistic model of the world? Is there a model of the world which can answer any question about anything? If your so called model of the world is unable to answer these questions, I invite to look more, read more and learn more about other models of the world. Until you find a uniform model. If you cannot and when you cannot find these answers turn into yourself. And that is the mindfulness experiment.

How models are created with pattern recognition

Let's look at a simple example. If you look at alphabet, you will see 26 letters. When we were kids we were introduced to phonics which were associated with them. And our brains magically started to recognise patters. As an example once we learn "t r e e" is tree, we could figure out "b e e" is a bee. Over time even complex abstract concepts. So fundemental to building a model of the world is our ability to do pattern recognition. In the chaotic world. Previously I wrote why mathematics is pattern recognition. But when we look carefully, we can see every model of the world is created from this same process of pattern recognition. We have done this for ages, since civilization started to flourish, we call it knowledge.

But fundermentally these are just patterns we see.

Patterned carpet

Mindfulness model of the world

It's raining outside my window. The mountain breeze is cold. This observation I made just now may look like reality for you when i write abiut it. But the rain, window, breeze and cold are just some patterns which I observed in the past. As the current experience closely resembles the pattern in my memory I tell that it is. But it's not the same rain, same window and same breeze. Just a new cross section in an eternal universal function.

I'm not sure about you, but for me understanding this gives me a profound insight. Although I struggle through my life and understand this for myself, I see countless others came to same conclusions about life after their observations. I can name a couple, just to give some validity to this article.

You cannot step into the same river twice - Heraclitus

All compounded things are to vanish. - last words of Lord Buddha