{The First}

The main page which introduces {the first}.

Someone familiar with Buddhism or Plotinus, etc. will recognize the idea that the ground does not have characteristics. I don't claim to be the first person on the planet with these ideas. What I'm trying to do here, though, is express these ideas in the ordinary present-day language with which I thought them before I learned words in Sanskrit or ancient Greek.

This paper describes the stages a mind must develop through until it can perceive, in the most abstract sense, that its perceptions activate in the moment. This may seem obvious, but the paper describes how this perception is often rejected by the mind. In the terminology of the paper, "Can Theorist perceive this activation in the moment? No, Theorist rejects this perception. Why? Because this perception makes predictions which, if tested, would refute the experience of existing continuously over time. Without this experience, Theorist's mind assumes that it would stop perceiving (i.e., that Theorist would die)."

This paper doesn't mention {the first}, so what is the connection? The paper describes how at each stage of development "the mind stabilizes on an order of perception where the component perceived appears to be the most fundamental possible." In other words, the mind assumes that {the first} must have the characteristics of the perceptions it is having. But {the first} ("the most fundamental possible") cannot have any characteristics, and a mind must develop to the stage of order 4 perceptions to be able to explore without requiring the mind to have the characteristics of any particular perception.