Tracing Reality – The Visionary Quest to Wisdom

Matter is what individual objects are made of in general and these objects are represented in nature, the universe. Nature is the reality we live in, that we are immersed in, the greater womb we are born into and live in. There are hidden, occulted, darkened aspects of reality that we can’t see and don’t want to see. We can rebirth ourselves through the womb of the “black hole” “rabbit hole” universe of hidden-in-the-dark occulted knowledge to uncover our masked potential and infinite value. Knowledge and memory of knowledge from learning, passed down in history, is what allows us to build successively from the foundations of others and keep going on without having to “reinvent the wheel” too much. Tracing Reality – The Visionary Quest to Wisdom does not detail a visionary quest, but is a word play from the etymological contents of this article, as you will see. Tracing reality is the visionary quest to wisdom.


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Nature
from natus “born,” past participle of nasci “to be born,” from PIE *gene– “to give birth, beget” (see genus).

Nasci, Gnasci
derived from the Latin word nascere
derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *genə

nascere -> nasci -> nascor -> gnascor -> genh

Genus -> genh (birth, beget, produce)

Nascent
“arising young, immature,” present participle of nasci “to be born” (Old Latin gnasci; see genus).

Nature, nasci, nascere, gnasci, genus, relate to birth and born.

We also have a similar looking gnoscere, gnosis, cognate, cognition, sci, scire, conscience, consciousness which all relate to knowing or knowledge.

There is a link between gnasci (born) and sci, scire (know) right in the words. Another example, look at nescient and nascent, both are very similar in appearance and meaning. Nescient is immaturity in metaphysics (knowledge), nascent is immaturity in physics (body).

Nescient
from ne “not” + scire “to know”

Know
root “sci-” means “knowledge, present participle of scire “to know,”
from PIE root *gno “to know” (cognates: Old Persian xšnasatiy “he shall know;” Old Church Slavonic znati, Russian znat “to know;” Latin gnoscere; Greek *gno, as in gignoskein; Sanskrit jna- “know”)

Gnosis
from Greek gnosisinvestigation, knowledge,” inquiry

Cognition is conscience, they mean the same thing, know together, know with, or with-knowledge.
from com- “with, together,” + gnoscere “to know”
from com- “with, together,” + scire “to know”
Co-Gnoscere “come to know, to get to know, get acquainted (with),” from PIE *gno-sko-, a suffixed form of root *gno-

Cognate
from Latin cognatus “of common descent,” from com- “together”  + gnatus, past participle of gnasci, older form of nasci “to be born“, also “related by blood”

Cognate, related words indicate a common descent. Cognate, cognition, with-knowledge, know together. Cognates are knowing words together, they are cognates with each other, they know each other.

Cognate, co-gna-te, is not the normal gno– for knowledge. Now this word form relates knowledge, as we relate through birth. Here we see the link between know and born again.

The root *gen-, is used to create gnasci (born), with the form gna + sci (know), so then gno is also from the same root formation. You can find reference online to the roots gen-, genu-, gne-, gno– as being both “to bear, produce, generate” or “to ken, know, recognize“. We come to know through recognition of reality, existence, universe, nature the mother of matter.

 

 Tracing Reality

Learn
from PIE *leis- (1) “track, furrow.”

Track
footprint, mark left by anything,” trace

Trace
follow (a course); draw a line, make an outline of something,” from Latin tractus “track, course,” literally “a drawing out,” from past participle stem of trahere “to pull, draw”

Tract
period or lapse of time,” from Latin tractus “track, course, space, duration,” lit, “a drawing out or pulling,” from stem of trahere “to pull, draw,” from PIE root *tragh– “to draw, drag, move

Drag
from Old Norse draga, or a dialectal variant of Old English dragan “to draw,” both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *dragan “to draw, pull,” from PIE root *dhragh– “to draw, drag on the ground”

Memory
recollection (of someone or something); awareness, consciousness,” Old French memoire, 11c., “mind, memory, remembrance; memorial, record” from memor “mindful, remembering,” from PIE root *(s)mer- (1) “to remember

Learning is acquired through tracking reality, following it, which requires immediate responsiveness in real time, now-ness. That is why animals have eyes, ears, and are mobile. Animals can  interact with reality because they can track reality and themselves in it, move position.

Tracks are footprints, marks left by anything really. You can’t track a plant in this sense of a movement mark, because plants don’t leave tracks, they are not mobile, plants aren’t part of the world of interactivity whereby tracking of marks left behind can been applied to find them. You trace the tracks, and find the source it leads to.

Furrow is a trench, i.e. a “track” like a train-track that leads water away. To track something leads somewhere. Tracking reality leads us to understand and navigate it better. Animals do this, we humans can do it much better, but right now we are doing it poorly. Plants do not track reality, nor do they leave tracks in reality to follow, apart from the standard tracks everything that exists leaves for us to follow to a substantive source meaning, but rocks and anything inanimate have this as well. Tracks are made with movement, dragging something along to leave a trace, it draws into a surface leaving a mark. It also draws you towards something, when you track the moving thing, or anything in reality you try to understand. Tracking is drawing and pulling something near to you to grasp it in your hands, either physically, or perceptively and further grasp it in the mind.

Memory is storing what we track and trace in reality to learn about and form as knowledge. Without knowledge of the past, there is no progression. Knowledge and learning are handed down through time, through the reproduction of life that is able to pass on the past into the future and grow from that knowledge of what has already come before. Memory is the first phase to storing knowledge. After memory comes communication, in a verbal form. Then communication in written form. Communication allowed memory to transcend the limitation of being restricted to a unit of consciousness for a particular duration of time without extension of that knowledge into a written form. The written form is far more effective than the oral form for the succession of knowledge. The oral form is harder to build upon and share widely. The only place to hold the knowledge is in consciousness. Extending knowledge from the inner realm to the outer realm in codified symbol allows others to obtain the information beyond our single death. Nonhuman animals have recall and recollection of knowledge, but it is of their simple lives. Squirrels, for example, will be able to recall the location of where their nuts are stored.

 

Visionary Quest to Wisdom

History is a learning or knowing through inquiry, question (ask or seek + into). From seeking into things, we become wise, a form of accurate judgment. For, how can anyone judge if they do not seek into, look into, things. To seek is track down, inquire, pursue, look for. History is to seek to know something about reality and then see it as it is, with clear vision an accurate perception and conception can be formed. If we think of memory and time, history is the larger memory of the collective, not simply the individual memory.

History
from Greek historia “a learning or knowing by inquiry; an account of one’s inquiries, history, record, narrative,” from historein “inquire,” from histor “wise man, judge,” from PIE *wid-tor-, from root *weid– “to know,” literally “to see
Related to Greek idein “to see,” and to eidenai “to know.”

Inquire
from Latin in- “into” (see in- (2)) + quaerere “ask, seek (query)

Seek
secan “inquire, search for; pursue; long for, wish for, desire; look for, expect from,”
from PIE *sag-yo-, from root *sag– “to track down, seek out” (cognates: Latin sagire “to perceive quickly or keenly,” sagus “presaging, predicting,” Old Irish saigim “seek”)
from Proto-Indo-European *sehg (to seek out)

See
seon “to see, look, behold; observe, perceive, understand; experience, visit, inspect”  from PIE root *sekw- (2) “to see,” which is probably identical with *sekw- (1) “to follow” [track, trace]
from Proto-Indo-European *sekw (to see, notice)

To see and to know is to divide. Without division, all is one, and you see nothing and know nothing. This is where the dualistic conceptual framework can help to bring clarity to our vision of reality. Divided can mean not joined, separate, and can be more negative as opposite and conflicting. To see the bigger picture clearly, you need to look at the parts more closely. The oneness is more understood through the diverse manifestations of existence. We see, perceive, conceive and know the universals through the particulars.

Vision
from the productive PIE root *weid– “to see,” metaphorically “to know” (cognates: Sanskrit veda “I know;” Greek oida, Doric woida “I know,” idein “to see;”).

Divide
from dis- “apart” (see dis-) + -videre “to separate,” from PIE root *weidh– “to separate”
Science, scire, sci, to know, has the same meaning, from PIE root *skei- “to cut, to split

Perception
“perceive, notice, see; recognize, understand,” from per “thoroughly” (see per) + capere “to grasp, take”. [previous post on hold, on have and behave]

Conception
“take (seed) into the womb, become pregnant,”  “to take in and hold;”
from com- + capere “to take,” from PIE *kap- “to grasp”

Inception
early 15c., “beginning, starting,” “a beginning, undertaking,” noun of action from past participle stem of incipere “begin, take in hand,” from in- “in, on” + capere “take, seize” (capable). [take hold in]

Sage
“wise,” from Old French sage “wise, knowledgeable, learned; shrewd, skillful”
from Gallo-Roman *sabius, from Vulgar Latin *sapius, from Latin sapere “have a taste, have good taste, be wise,” from PIE root *sap– “to taste”

Sap
“liquid in a plant,” from PIE root *sab– “juice, fluid” (cognates: Sanskrit sabar- “sap, milk, nectar,” Latin sapere “to taste,” Irish sug, Russian soku “sap,” Lithuanian sakas “tree-gum”)

Sapient
“wise, “sapere ” to taste, have taste, be wise,” from PIE root *sep- (1) “to taste, perceive”
sapiō (“discern, be capable of discerning”).

Wise
learned, sagacious, cunning; sane; prudent, discreet; experienced; having the power of discerning and judging rightly,” from Proto-Germanic *wissaz (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Frisian wis, Old Norse viss, Dutch wijs, German weise “wise”), from past participle adjective *wittos of PIE root *weid– “to see,” hence “to know” (vision), sense evolution from “to see” to “way of proceeding,” compare cognate Greek eidosform, shape, kind,” also “course of action.”

Wisdom is Right-Action, the Way and Path. Wise has also been used to apply in the sense of “way, fashion, custom, habit, manner; condition, state, circumstance,”, as in likewise, clockwise. Eidos, form, likeness, is the image, that which we are reflecting through our actions (image of Good or evil). We can become our True Self in Right-Action and reflect that image into reality from our subjective, parallel, multiverse reality. We see and know it first in our consciousness internally, and then manifest it externally in speech or action.

More on wisdom, right-action, i.e. morality.

eidos “form,” to know something is to know its substantial form, its essence, its definition.
eidos (form, idea) “species”  (form, likeness, appearance, resemblance; a view; form )
idea, vision, in the mind, images in the mind, consciousness, etc, all related

eidó: be aware, behold, consider, perceive

eídomai, “to see
From Proto-Indo-European *weyd
Cognate with Latin videō

oîda to know
From Proto-Indo-European *wóyd
Sanskrit(veda)

-oid [i.e. oida]
a suffix meaning “resembling,” “like,” word-forming element meaning “like, like that of, thing like a”

-sis [i.e. gnosis]
action, process, state, condition
denoting action, process, state, condition, from Greek -sis , which is identical in meaning with Latin -entia, English -ing

-ness [i.e. consciousness]
action, quality, or state

There are two aspects to conscience as it relates consciousness more specifically to morality: syneidesis and synteresis. Syneidesis – the capacity to apply general principles of moral judgment to particular cases — distinguished from synderesis. From Greek syneidēsis, literally, consciousness, awareness, from syneidenai to have knowledge of something, be aware of something.

syneidesis
conscience as passing judgement on past acts (as opposed to synteresis).
conscicooe, from syn with, together, and eidenai to know

synteresis
conscience as a guide to future action (as opposed to syneidesis).
from syn with, and tereein to watch over
Chambers Dictionary

Note, conscience for morality in the past is knowledge, eidenai, while conscience about the future actions is more about watching over for what will come. The knowledge comes from the past.

“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”
– George Orwell

We usually only think conscience has to do with morality. Previously, I showed how conscience and conscious are the same. Here, we see that consciousness isn’t simply to know, it is the context of how we view conscience, morality. Higher order consciousness is about making moral judgments. In the etymology for conscience it is stated the word is “probably a loan-translation of Greek syneidesis, literally “with-knowledge.”” This was referring simply to conscience/conscious-ness, the “action, quality, or state” of being conscious. But it seems to be inclusively about morality as well, as we see in other descriptions. Wiki even has a page about synteresis: “Synderesis, in scholastic moral philosophy, is the natural capacity or disposition (habitus) of the practical reason to apprehend intuitively the universal first principles of human action.” It sounds similar to Natural Moral Law.


Related:
Kind, Kin, Genus and Care
Axioms, Existence, Consciousness and Identity
Characters and Our Character