Physical – or perceptual – obesity is all around me. Its causes are clear, and I know it results in a number of painful personal, mental, emotional, and social conditions. Conceptual obesity is its analogue. Like perceptual obesity, it results in an unhealthy inner environment. But unlike perceptual obesity, it is openly encouraged.
Growing up, I was bombarded with the message that I should never stop learning. But while I intensely enjoyed intellectual stimulation, I was skeptical of learning for the sake of learning. I went along for much of my earlier life, but there came a point when I actively resented being force-fed information about people I would never know and knowledge I would never use.
I started avoiding books, especially by philosophers and spiritualists. Not only to avoid the shock and distress of finding that my ideas had already been expressed, but to preserve something I could not yet articulate. I somehow sensed that with every new fact, face, opinion, or topic I ingested, I was losing an already-tenuous grasp on something important.
This was not a popular idea, and I did not share it with anyone. But I did find one like-minded spirit in my father. Growing up he had a tendency to call everything “garbage”. He would listen for a moment, then say “ahh bullshit”, “horse’s ass”, or more simply, “garbage”. Everything was garbage to him.
It must have been frustrating to a young child trying to relate. But, as I got older and began to contemplate my own existence, I found myself responding the same way.
Popular wisdom would have me believe that I was simply modeling my father’s grumpy behavior. But rarely have I found such answers meaningful, so I dug deeper. I suspect that what my father and I knew, but could not express beyond mild expletives, was the same thing: most of the information we produce, consume, and share is the intellectual and emotional equivalent of junk food.
But why? As a descentist, I seek the fulfillment of my essential desire for peace above all else. That means I would no longer awaken every morning into this life I have manifested. How does the production and consumption of various types of information impact my path toward fulfilling my original desire?
It reinforces the notion that there is something beyond what is. It disempowers me by introducing things, people, and ideas that I cannot and will never know. It draws me away from the first place, into the maelstrom of the second place; out into the manifestation and away from the center I pursue. It manipulates me toward my middle desires, and away from my essential desire.
The more I know about this manifested world, the less I know about my true self. And the less I know about my true self, the less I am able to see my original desire to return. Seeking out and consuming information I do not need only further confuses and disorients, leading to painful awakenings. I must control the information I consume in the same way as I control the food I consume.
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