Statue of Liberty
There are two ways to create a sculpture. One is like how Michelangelo did, with a piece of white marble. He chipped out all the unnecessary parts of it to bring out the "David" into life. The other way of making a sculpture is how the "Statue of Liberty". Which I am going to focus on this article. Modeled by the similarly great French Artist, Federic Auguste Bartholdi. This monumental memorial statue in the Liberty Island NY is a symbol, a gift by people of France to the United States of America. The metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel, while 91000kg of copper was used to build the statue by Bartholdi, over few years. This is a great example of building out of a "Lump of clay" for that matter "A lump of copper".
Why A Lump of clay is a potential?
Have you seen kids play with a lump of clay? As a kid I loved this too. We used to walk in the field looking for best clay material to make a little sculpture on our own, as a school project, or just for our own amusement. Nowadays, we just buy some clay from the market. Kids, playing with the lump of clay, first make it into a snake. Then squash it and turn it into a teapot. After a while they make it into two lumps and build a chicken and an egg. This is a never-ending game. As lump of clay is just a potential with endless possibilities. A potential which can turn into anything you want, a dream. Isn't it something beautiful? Just like an empty canvass, or a collection of building blocks, a kilo of bronze for Fredric Bartholdi.
It is a good idea to summaries the characteristics of a lump of clay at this point. Before we move into deeper subjects of philosophy of mind.
Characteristics of a lump of clay.
A lump of clay can be molded into anything at any time.
You can divide same lump of clay and make two things at the same time. And it would appear two lumps of clay.
If you want to build another you have to squash the first sculpture and sculpt again into a new object.
A lump of clay harbors a potential, a dream or some imagination, when it is not a shape it is just a thing. (or a lump)
I am the creator of my own reality - Philosophy of a Lump of clay.
Now consider the above quote. Whoever who said the above must have seen and known, even critically thought about how a lump of clay works. And I am sure of this!
Imagine your "mind" is a lump of clay. Initially it did not have any shape. It was just a "thing" floating in the universe. Then it started to shape into "Something" or "Someone". Just a potential at the beginning. First the lump was divided into two. One lump was made into the "Self" and the other lump was molded into the "World". Over time lump of "World" was molded into different things that we observe. If you see a bird, this lump is molded into a bird. Next it would destroy this image of the bird and will be molded into a tree instead. A river, a sound, a thought anything which comes to your mind, is basically a lump of clay. A mountain, a rabbit, an ambition, a dream. This part of the lump of clay is called "The observed". And it changes according to the information we receive.
The other lump was also changed, over time into a "self" a "teenager", an "Adult" or an "Old man or a women". According to the age, according to the image. We can call this the "observer". And this is also a lump of clay which is crushed and shaped into a new one moment to moment.
This is an important concept if you can understand. How important you would ask, and I would say it is so important that Krishnamoorthi it took all his life. And countless philosophers of the past it took years of their lives to understand this philosophy, a lump of clay just provides us free of charge. Some call it oneness. Some call it duality of the nature. Some call it subjective reality. Whatever the name given it fascinates me the remarkable insight it provides about life.
If you asked me, how do you know, I would say "Well, I did not know, until I started writing this article". I just wanted to understand a lump of clay. Now I see the lump of clay I observe, or more correctly the thoughts about the lump of clay are part of myself. The part which I call the world or the universe. Part Krishnamoorthi says observed. All I am doing so called living is just molding this lump of clay and the other part, which is called the observer, manipulating them into different shapes. It makes me a humble being, a silent observer of life in mindfulness. And I see nothing more and nothing less to this. "Observer is the observed" or in other words "It is the same lump of clay"
"It seems I am the creator of my own reality and myself", would be a better statement. I think you may find more details in my article, why Descartes is wrong.
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