What is an Idea Space?
Introduction
The goal of the idea space is to provide a physical model for the mind, so you can view all your thoughts, emotions, sensations, and perceptions as objectively as you would view objects in spacetime. Thereby, reducing suffering by limiting attachment to any one thought, emotions, sensation, or perception.
At a high level, an idea space is a mathematical model used to describe the mind in a manner congruent with modern physics. At its core, an idea space is the trivial solution to Einstein’s field equation (see previous blog).
Everyone has their own idea space which is unique to them, uncountable, and has zero measure. The elements of your idea space are your own thoughts, emotions, sensations, perceptions, and emptiness.
Thoughts consists of words, pictures, memories, daydreams, songs, etc. Emotions involve feelings of pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, and everything in between. Sensations include the classic five: touch, sight, sound, taste, and smell. Perception is one’s ability to recognize something. For instance, a pen is a pen. A computer is a computer. Together with the empty set, ∅, or nothing, these elements make up your idea space.
Where is your Idea Space Located?
Everyone lives at the center of their own observable universe. Your observable universe, everything you are seeing right now, is a giant sphere centered on you. Everything you currently see is in the past as it takes time for light to go from point A to point B, even at 186,000 miles per hour. Simply put, the farther back you look, the farther back in time you’re looking.
So, whether you’re looking at a butterfly 10 meters away or a star 10 light years away, you’re always looking in the past.
At the center of your own observable universe lies your idea space of uncountable depth and zero measure.
To locate your idea space, we can do a simple exercise performed in the next section.
Zero Measure
As explored in another blog, zero measure means your idea space looks like nothing to the outside world.
To test the fact your idea space has zero measure and to locate your idea space, simply hold something in your hand, like your phone or computer. Clearly, others can see and measure it. Now, close your eyes and create a mental image of what you’re holding. Can anyone else see the mental image in your mind? No… Now, is there nothing there? No… Clearly, there is something there. Something only you can see: your idea space.
Uncountable
Uncountable represents a depth to infinity larger than the infinity we use to count. For instance, spacetime is uncountable because for every measurement you make, even an infinite amount, I can always make a measurement you did not make. This argument is called Cantor’s Diagonal Argument, and will be explored in more detail in a later blog.
Overall, your idea space is uncountable, because you cannot count all your thoughts, emotions, sensations, and perceptions. As soon as you count an idea, another one appears. In other words, your idea space is impermanent: it is in a constant state of flux.
To test the impermance of your idea space, simply sit for two minutes and try to count all your ideas. Do not let yourself be fooled. Some ideas are very soft whispers, like “Hey — it’s quiet in here.” Others come from behind and say, “There haven’t been many thoughts yet, have there?” Can you count all your ideas? No…
Uncountability shows that attaching to any one thought, emotion, sensation, or perception is a fool’s errand. It’s like trying to hold water in your fist. As Heraclitus said,
“No man steps into the same river twice, for it is not the same river, and he is not the same man.”
Your Idea Space and Meditation
Since everything you see is in the past, your idea space is the only present moment. As an Ancient said,
“In the seeing, there is only the seen. In the hearing, there is only the heard. In the sensing, there is only the sensed. In the thinking, there is only the thought.”
There is nothing else in this present moment, other than your idea space. Thus, your idea space becomes your object of meditation.
You are not your thoughts, emotions, sensations, and perceptions. No one knows where thoughts come from and where they go once noticed. They simply seem to appear and disappear from the abyss.
So, do not attach yourself to all your thoughts. Instead, simply notice the arrival, the passing, and both the arrival and passing of them from an objective view point, devoid of “I”. This is all meditation really is.
TL;DR
The goal of the idea space is to give you the freedom to look at your thoughts as objectively as you would view objects in spacetime. Thus, reducing suffering.
Everyone has their own idea space located at center of their own observable universe. Your idea space is unique to you, uncountable, and has zero measure. In other words, it is an impermanent object hidden from the outside world. Since everything you’re seeing is in the past, your idea space becomes the only present moment.
