"I have investigated the old lady"

This morning I was reading an article concerning cognition and the formation of cognitive bias. The article was subject to the normal disregard of Awareness as the precursor to consciousness, and in the process of describing how consciousness is subject to error the phrase "intuitive belief" was used.

"Intuitive belief" The phrase is the very essence of oxymoron. Intuition is the direct product of Awareness: fluid, active, ever in flux, and that is its value. Belief is the spawn of consciousness: formal, confined, ridged. And though belief has a proper place in civil affairs, intuition and belief are as different as liquid water is from ice, and I think what they are attempting to describe could be better termed as "passive belief".

 

It seems to me that all the difficulty in this consciousness probing goes back to a materialistic explanation of existence: does matter precede Awareness, or does Awareness precede matter. 

Of course your garden variety materialist will scoff at the mere suggestion that matter might be an epiphenomenon of Awareness. But the reason solid things appear solid is because of the interaction of unexplained fields in the fabric of unexplained nothingness. If we look for light as a wave (field) we find it as a wave. If we look for it as matter we discover it as a point object. The electron exists as a field, and it is atomic nuclei attracting complimentary electronic balance which leads to the formation of molecules. And it is the sophistication of molecules that leads to the formation of an awareness capable of consciousness. And when they boil it all down looking for prime movers is seems to be wiggles of nothingness.

Consciousness is a magic wand for good or for ill, and beliefs are the bricks with which cultural edifices are constructed.  Zen is a technology of being that points out the primacy of Awareness over consciousness. Zen is a technology designed awaken this little droplet of Awareness to the marvelous fact of its existence. The success of Zen is when a living creature discovers its true identity.

"I have investigated the old lady".  (Chao-chou. died 834)