The Discontent of Human Being

The Burden of Memory, Conditioning, Thought and The Inevitable Cycle.

Are you aware that you are conditioned?

Conditioning is a reaction or response that becomes registered in memory. That response is attached to a certain experience and an emotion. Memory is where this data is stored (past memory).
Our conditioning is built from those past experiences shaped by the consequences of our actions and is also influenced by surroundings, cultural factors, and societal education.
It is more of a behavioral or emotional reflex ingrained over time. Think of it as a “way of reacting” that your mind and body develop based on repeated patterns.

Experience is always influenced by past memory the stored data of previous experiences, tagged with thought and registered responses (conditioning).

When faced with a new experience, the past (memory and conditioning) interprets the present (now). The present then becomes an updated memory for the future. Each time we perceive something through our five senses, the immediate process of relation and comparison to past memory begins, mapping the current perception to previous ones in order to make sense of the experience.

Sensation (5 senses) → Perception (processing/interpretation) → Relation/Appraisal (connection to memory and conditioning) → Reaction (emotional response) → Action (expression of the response) → Registration (stored as memory).

Thought acts as the interpreter, labeler, and messenger between memory and perception. It can project, analyze, and imagine using cues from memory to trigger emotion. Thought creates a label for each experience along with an interpretation of its emotional value. This emotional value is recalled and reinterpreted by thought every time a similar experience arises.

We always respond in patterns ingrained in past memory. The response may be conscious or unconscious, but it is ultimately derived from memory and conditioning.
For example: a swift reflex to imminent danger arises from memory and conditioned reactions as a means of protection and survival. This occurs before thought can even be triggered this is unconscious conditioning at work.
On the other hand, seeing a tree and immediately labeling it “tree” is the work of thought interpreting the present through past memory.

This conscious and unconscious interpretation of experience through the lens of accumulated memory and conditioning is continuous throughout our lives.

We are never free of this cycle. It operates with or without conscious effort. This mechanism is how we make sense of the world. Without it, we would be unable to interpret dangers, respond reflexively to harm, or retain knowledge and the ability to think.
But with this cycle, we can almost never experience anything as it truly is without the intervention of past memory, conditioning, and thought. Our responses are always rooted in the past.

So if we are inevitably bound by the past in order to perceive the present what is freedom?


Is the need for survival a trade-off for bondage to the past?


Can one live without the intervention of memory?

Watch yourself, for the sake of understanding what you are.


Watch the agony of everyday life, how you struggle and live within constant mechanisms.


Watch the suffering you endure each moment.


Watch how you are never outside your accumulation and knowledge.


Watch without wanting to change, without wanting to judge, without wanting to comment, without wanting to escape.


Watch without wanting.


Watch to see yourself.


Watch to see the discontent of a human being.

The watching of the self,

The true perception of the self will set forth a transformtion, that will transform you.