I don’t understand how the following formulation can be confused - unless there is a deliberate effort to confuse and misunderstand.
Body + Brain + interacting with exterior and interior reality = Mind.
Damned straight there.
Without a deeper understanding of one’s own body, and where it came from, and the various forces that drive its emotions, most of life can’t make sense.
I don’t see how that inner-city kid can come to understand and get a handle on his demons, without appreciating the interaction of the kaleidoscope of emotions within oneself. Especially the little secret of how some of our worst impulses are tied together with some of our best emotions/impulses. Realizing that on a visceral level, hands one a means of facing, recognizing and moderating those counterproductive impulses and enhancing our productive behaviors, that in turn produces positive results that can lead for further productive interactions.
Focus on living today as best one can, and tomorrow has a way of taking care of itself. At least I’ve found it so in my own life time.
As for dealing with today’s insane world, where the cards are increasingly stacked against regular people, and that odds are the future holds nothing but more difficulty, fear, heartbreak, and catastrophes small and big - the need for a firm foundation to carry us through is more important than ever.
There is God, seems to be very popular again. Believe as hard as one can, and heaven will be there for us after our living heck-on-Earth is over. But that envelopes us in a bubble of disconnect from the real world, and forces one into one’s imagination and an existence of endless dog-chasing-tail.
I found my salvation in embracing Earth’s reality, understanding some of the countless amazing intricacies that came together over the past four and half billion years to create me, and this amazing Earth - that humanity is heck-bent on destroying just as fast as we can - those evolutionary intricacies were recapitulated during my gestation, and went into the body I inhabit, being aware of that empowers the mind with useful information.
Such as appreciating the partnership between your body-brain and mind - especially the part where one appreciates one’s own body has agendas and knowledge beyond our mind’s ability to touch - and that being more receptive to the way your body communicates with your mind, makes a real world difference in one’s behavior,
state of mind, and health.
I could go on for pages on how that makes a real world difference, but you won’t even get the formulation straight, because you seem too busy pulling out your hair over how all this irritates you. Which I don’t understand, since it’s fascinating, with way the heck more to learn about and discuss, with knowledge we can utilize in our day to day world.
What does the sub-atomic mathematical realm offer a living breathing human trying to deal with a challenging life? Beyond idealistic notions, there’s nothing to point to. Or?
So why get pissed off if someone wants to dig into the substance?
You even admitted that in focusing on the tiny, we achieve a point of diminishing returns. I suggest with the biological advances of the past couple decades, we’re well past that point of diminishing returns.
We are the problem, and without some serious uncomfortable reexamination, inner growth is impossible.
It’s time to redirect attention to what’s going on inside of us.
(Okay, only in a pretend world. In this world we inhabit, our free fall will simply continue, because, as a pal of mine pointed out to me a couple days ago, serious thinking is too much of a bother - comfort level is all most want. Accept and give up.)
Then you’ve never actually paid attention to what I’ve written regarding Sapolsky! Because his work places a sharpie underline, supporting my outlook and conception of the body/brain interacting with physical reality (interior and exterior) producing our mind.