How do I explain this?

Question

When you think, now really think about an object, it’s meaning changes for that time period of which you are thinking hard. For example, a tree. A tree is a living organism. We all know what a tree is, but what really IS it? It is a name for an object that often grows to be very tall....

Does anyone get my flow here? It is like when you are berrated with an idea or word, like repeating tree to yourself thirty hundred times, then you lose its meaning!

Does anyone have a better explaination for this phenonmenon?

Yes, it does have something to do with language and the meaning behind words rather than the word itself

Answer 1

I think the universe is just a big blur. We as humans give meaning to it. Does a tree exist? Maybe only in our minds. A tree is a concept, an idea that we have in our heads. It is a useful concept because there are many things in our environment that closely match this description, this idea. But, no matter what definition you give to a tree, no matter how seemingly complete or precise your description, I can find an object that you couldn't really say if it's a tree or not. Or I could ask 10 different people and get 5 for tree and 5 for not tree. Because tree is a word. A label. Every person that looks at the object in question gets a little bit different stimmulous, has different experiences of trees depending on their how their lives went, and therefore have a little bit different concept of what a tree is. We have a vision, an experience with our senses, we hear a sound(the word tree), and we associate the sound with our experience. That's all a word is. A sound associated with an experience. It has no meaning outside of our own heads.
We as humans have an ability to see patterns in things. Patterns that are meaningful to us but may not be to another creature or outside of ourselves. Maybe some other animal doesn't see 'tree' but sees a rough surface to grab onto, and after traveling on the rough surface for a while you get to these soft flat things which are good to eat, but never sees the whole thing together as a tree. This may be because the concept of tree is simply not useful to this creature because it can't see. Does a tree exist to this creature? Yes but not as a tree. It exists as a rough surface and flat, soft things at the end.

Answer 2

It's simply the point of reference of your thoughts. for example i can show you a painting and ask you wheter you like it or not? Are the proportion of the figures correct? are the colors flat? each time i will get a different responf because each time you are looking at something different about the painting. The same thing about everything else, when you repeat "tree" a hundred times you are no longer thinkin about a physcal object and physical properties.But merely in a word and the sounds that form that word, this is why the word tree becomes meaningless, because you are trying to make sense of it but after so many repetitions of the word you foucus on the word it self and the sounds that make it.

Answer 3

A concept is a mental construct, used by consciousness to predict the universe. Somewhere in the brain there is a definition that goes "tree: plant that grows a trunk and branches, at least six feet tall," or something similar (and of course, far more complex). Notice this definition, properly obtained and applied, applies to the tree whether the tree grows or not, or even dies. Notice that this definition changes with time, as you grow in experience, while all the time it refers to the same objects.

Answer 4

Thinking, which we do through language, creates (or distorts) reality. As long as we're thinking, we are unable to see the essence of any thing. The only way to apprehend a thing's true essence is to perceive it directly through consciousness minus the internal dialog (thinking).

The reason this is difficult for most people to accept is the mistaken notion that thinking and consciousness are the same thing and that one can't exist without the other. It is possible to completely cease thinking yet be fully conscious (see the experiments involving Swami Rama).

Answer 5

Thinking is its own object and comportment to objects other than itself in nature can quickly lead to degradation unless referenced, "this tree" (not "a tree"). The requisite in ontological inquiry is participation with phenomena. Time enough for the encounter; never enough time to "grasp at" meanings. Explaining presupposes the experience. I find the gist of your question to be retardative.

Answer 6

All i decide on for Christmas is my 2 front teeth ( I had an accident years in the past and the front have porcelin caps which would be replaced in approximately 2 months while i will have stored sufficient funds to change them!)

Answer 7

Tree is a living being Wood has no life.
All are manifestation of God , a single source.

Answer 8

yeah,i do this alot,its just thinking really hard and to hard.And it seems as if your trying to get the meaning of "tree" not just the thing that grows....but yet you try to see what exactly the "thing that grows is"
Its a phenomenon with language...i think.

Answer 9

pre-enlightenment. An earnest and prolonged attempt at truth may trigger it.

Answer 10

I like to call it "thinking too hard".