I should have mentioned in the post that I was heavily influenced by your posts on meditation about staying still in and moving through mindspace. I think I’ll probably wait till you post the meditation post and then try to build off that with mine, so we have a unified terminology and conceptspace to build off of. I’ll think about combining identityspace and thoughtspace and see if it worked: I’d originally started with mindspace but ended up feeling it was a category that was asking to be split further. Also, all of the social psychology literature is about identity and selfhood, and I wanted to work that knowledge into the post. The concept of mindspace seemed to stretch its applicability. It is very possible that I should talk about a unified mindspace where appropriate and break it down into parts where appropriate. I think I will do so.
Although it is good to be aware of the unifying structure of cached thoughts and cached selves (and how they lead to one another and interact, with potential feedback loops) I think it is important to keep them separate, because I tend to think of cached selves as potentially significantly more dangerous, and also potentially significantly more helpful, if used as a positive attractor. (Perhaps it would be useful to explicitly mention and build off of the potential for positive attractors, e.g. pressures in mindspace that you can use to your advantage, like a social support group.)
I just realized I’m kind of talking past you, though. If vipassana is powerful enough to cut through cached selves and cached thoughts in one fell swoop, then of course you are right that it may not be necessary to treat them as separate problems. I sure hope so!
Also, I’m really looking forward to your meditation post!
I should have mentioned in the post that I was heavily influenced by your posts on meditation about staying still in and moving through mindspace. I think I’ll probably wait till you post the meditation post and then try to build off that with mine, so we have a unified terminology and conceptspace to build off of. I’ll think about combining identityspace and thoughtspace and see if it worked: I’d originally started with mindspace but ended up feeling it was a category that was asking to be split further. Also, all of the social psychology literature is about identity and selfhood, and I wanted to work that knowledge into the post. The concept of mindspace seemed to stretch its applicability. It is very possible that I should talk about a unified mindspace where appropriate and break it down into parts where appropriate. I think I will do so.
Although it is good to be aware of the unifying structure of cached thoughts and cached selves (and how they lead to one another and interact, with potential feedback loops) I think it is important to keep them separate, because I tend to think of cached selves as potentially significantly more dangerous, and also potentially significantly more helpful, if used as a positive attractor. (Perhaps it would be useful to explicitly mention and build off of the potential for positive attractors, e.g. pressures in mindspace that you can use to your advantage, like a social support group.)
I just realized I’m kind of talking past you, though. If vipassana is powerful enough to cut through cached selves and cached thoughts in one fell swoop, then of course you are right that it may not be necessary to treat them as separate problems. I sure hope so!
Also, I’m really looking forward to your meditation post!