Wishful thinking is the attribution of reality to what one wishes to be true. This is the biggest mistake that an individual does in its head. Our thoughts are representations, pictures of reality and we subjectively produced it. We only have a vague, petty image of the world. Think about whole reality out of us, even if we perceived it correctly, how are we going to remember and process; let alone perceiving billions of causes and correlations altogether. The image is certainly flawed and you can not build a reasoning on it. Even if you got the best version of reality in your head, it’ll be like maps.
Two men were arguing about a flag flapping in the wind. “It’s the wind that is really moving,” stated the first one. “No, it is the flag that is moving,” contended the second. A Zen master, who happened to be walking by, overheard the debate and interrupted them. “Neither the flag nor the wind is moving,” he said, “It is MIND that moves.”
Maps are representations of the external world. They help you navigate the real world, just like thoughts. You don’t create a map of your liking. That would be wishful thinking. You don’t individually create a map anyway. It’s a product of humanity and reality was a product of nature, you need to appeal to the external factors. Moreover, maps are collective and cumulative; in other words its for us and it’s been built over time. Ironically we don’t use the true version of the map every time. The most popular world map for example, we can build a better version, yet we don’t. We choose to use the inaccurate world map because it gives more detail about developed economies. More accurate maps would be showing deserts and oceans mostly. It’s not enough to be true, practicality is more important.
A senior monk and a junior monk were traveling together. At one point, they came to a river with a strong current. As the monks were preparing to cross the river, they saw a very young and beautiful woman also attempting to cross. The young woman asked if they could help her cross to the other side.
The two monks glanced at one another because they had taken vows not to touch a woman.
Then, without a word, the older monk picked up the woman, carried her across the river, placed her gently on the other side, and carried on his journey.
The younger monk couldn’t believe what had just happened. After rejoining his companion, he was speechless, and an hour passed without a word between them.
Two more hours passed, then three. Finally, the younger monk could not contain himself any longer and blurted out: “As monks, we are not permitted a woman, how could you then carry that woman on your shoulders?”
The older monk looked at him and replied: “Brother, I set her down on the other side of the river, why are you still carrying her?”
A story about how we live in our minds.
Humans are advance-guards of animals, they’re the farthest and most independent of all. The distance and the independence have pros and cons. One of the pros is you can create your own path, you can fell whatever life is, however it can turn out to be a con due to being alone and being forced to make your way out. The symptoms of being free and far out are reflected in our defense mechanisms.
Human perception is a lot more diverse and sophisticated than other animals. An animal has a leeway of perceiving with little differences; humans have to build a perception. The freedom of building, the space that we have is both advantageous and disadvantageous. It seems that we’re condemned to be free, but if you go far out from the society, you’ll be called delusional. We haven’t embraced your version of life, acknowledge our common establishment and you may go on.
You’re always right on your own terms, although you’re not right in everyone’s terms. Yet, it’s a limited success and you’re now delusional for loaded ears. If you tell your theoretical creations explicitly you may also be called crazy. As an advance guard at the frontier of humanity, you should wait for others; you can lead at most. Most importantly, through factual evidence, not your wishful directions to nowhere.