Distillation of Existence

A discussion about thinking must first begin with definitions for perceptions and conceptions, which are indeed the same process but in different contexts. Perceptions intake raw information about the Absolute, but never can perceptions intake all information, so perceptions will always yield simplifications. Conceptions create or observe ideas within the Mind, those ideas being derivatives of the perceptions. There are more phenomena to conceive than to perceive, because every perception has many potential interpretations, and each interpretation stems from a conception. Perceptions receive raw information through senses, then this raw information transforms into ideas, which the Mind may alter to its discretion unlike raw information. Perception and conception are similar processes, so they both belong to the general term "caption".

The object of capture is a phenomenon. Caption in itself requires phenomena, and phenomena must exist for their caption. Captions may draw from the Absolute or from the Mind, so phenomena may exist in the Absolute or in the Mind, and any phenomena existing beyond either of those contexts is inconceivable. Even nonexistence itself is a phenomenon as it is the opposite of existence, yet it is defined in terms of existence; a realm of nonexistence does not occur in the Absolute but may be conceived in the Mind, so the phenomenon of nonexistence must necessarily exist for its conception. Not is there something rather than nothing, but there is something and there is nothing, and that which is neither existent nor nonexistent is beyond the scope of caption.

Aspects in the Mind

All mental objects and processes relate to phenomena. Memory is the storage of phenomena, consciousness is the ability to capture, and rationale is the method of recalling and relating different memories. There are different rationales which present different relationships between phenomena, and a rationale's accuracy is determined only by values. As we are thrown into the universe with consciousness, immediately we begin to memorize, and so too does rationale develop when the relationships between memories are understood. So, he who holds few ideas but knows well their connections is indeed rational, and he who holds many ideas but ignores their connections is great in memory but not in rationale.

Knowledge is the combination of greatness in memory and in rationale, and knowledge is therefore the most abstract of the Mind's aspects and cannot possibly have a definite metric, yet we still understand that there are different knowledges, and even that some knowledges triumph over others. This system of measuring and comparing knowledge comes from personal values.