In the name of God, I am at your service to present the fifth article; I have considered the title of this article to be "The Conscious Mind and the Unconscious Mind".

Text of the Article

The Conscious Mind and the Unconscious Mind: In encountering objects and engaging in concrete and abstract mental activities, humans experience emotional receptions or subjects and discover concepts. Upon returning from the abstract space of the mind, in order to preserve the acquired concepts, they revert to the Shaped Space of time and space of the object and attribute those concepts to the object. The repetition of this experience leads to the creation of a Shaped Space or Object-oriented mental space. Therefore, the Object-oriented mental space serves as a bridge between form and concept; and the element of awareness or knowledge in humans is limited to describing the narrative-like descriptions of relationships in the form of creating symbols and signs.

By developing a descriptive mind, humans can analytically examine the relationships between forms and concepts. In this state, by entering the abstract space of their mind, they engage in the creation of new results and concepts. This time, upon returning from the abstract space of the mind, they will express a parable description of the concepts and the relationships between them. Thus, it can be said that humans possess a conscious mind that is descriptive and analytical in nature, while always having the potential to enter the abstract space due to the presence of the unconscious mind.

Explanation of the Article

In the beginning, we brought an outcome from the previous article as a conclusion, which is the discussion about concrete and abstract mental activities, especially the emphasis on the matter of emotional and subjective reception that we receive and the concepts that are discovered.

But the emphasis of this article is on the matter of returning from the abstract space of the mind and the concern of preserving the concepts that have been acquired. I received a feeling, became subject to a theme, and understood concepts; how do I preserve these? I cannot remain in the abstract space; so I must return to the same domain of form, the domain of time and space of the object; the same place where I can observe and reconstruct the form and space of the object once again. Thus, I attribute the concepts I have obtained to the object. Suppose I saw a flower and perceived beauty. When I return to the domain of time and space, I see the flower again and say to the flower: "You are beautiful." With this method, I preserve the concept I have acquired, and every time I see the flower, I am reminded of beauty.

In this way, by repeating this experience—meaning the connection between that abstract space where concepts are acquired and the return to the space of time and space—human can build a mental space for themselves that reminds them of what concepts they have acquired. We called this space "Shaped Space" or "Object-oriented". How is the element of awareness or knowledge in the description we have made? It seems that if a human wants to refer to this mind and speak about it, they present a narrative-like description. They might also use symbols and signs to better explain those concepts. A narrative-like description means expressing what they saw in the Shaped Space, in that temporal and spatial event that occurred, and what they obtained in the mental space, now they must narrate it in a shaped format.

Let us go further and encounter a human who wants to develop the descriptive mind. In the previous section, the narratives that were presented had propositions in the form of "if this, then that"; whereas a human whose mind is developed is looking for the "how" and "why", mechanisms and whatness; meaning they want to analyze the relationships between forms and concepts. In this state, they can return to the abstract space of their own mind once again and engage in creating new results and concepts. So this time, if they want to speak about their findings, their description will be parable-like (parabolic); meaning they will begin from the whatness, mechanisms, and cause-and-cause-and-effect investigations and try to express the relationships between forms and concepts in a descriptive and explanatory way.

So humans possess a conscious mind that is shaped, but they act in two ways: either what they consider knowledge is in a descriptive way, which is the simplest example of expressing knowledge, or they can perform analysis, in which case their conscious mind is still shaped, but it is a more developed version. In contrast, where is the unconscious mind? The place where the abstract space exists; in that space we experience revelation and inspiration. Meaning the very thing that occurred in the beginning: when I saw that flower, the effect it had on me and the feeling I experienced, that very feeling of beauty, was inspired to me in that abstract space; I did not perform any special action and only felt it. Therefore, I named this space the space of the unconscious mind; I have no news of the events that occur there, and I am only influenced by them.

It is not bad for comparison to consider a earth and sky; the earth as the shaped mind and the sky which is above it as the shapeless mind. Just as the sky, during rainfall, can revive the earth which seemed dead, had no special shape, and had no plants growing on it. When rain falls, you see that same earth, due to the falling of rain, which is a metaphor for receiving revelation, experiences life, colors, and different shapes; meaning it had the potential to receive those raindrops and then produce various shapes upon itself. Therefore, a human can have an ascent and descent: when I enter my unconscious mind, in the abstract space, it is as if I am referring to the heavens and moving upward with an invisible ladder; there I experience feeling and reception, but I must return and traverse the steps downward to stand upon the earth.

But what is my achievement? It is the feelings and concepts I have acquired. Now when I return upon the earth, meaning what we call the shaped mind, I can leave behind some effects. I will present another example: in the Song of the Reed of Master Rumi, he refers to the reed, which is a direct reference to the fact that the reed can create a connection between the space of the unconscious mind and the conscious mind, and even places the reed in a state of complaint; a complaint that is attentive to human stopping in the Shaped Space, and wakes them up and makes them alert that: "O human, you can enter the space of the unconscious mind, to those abstract spaces, and have new feelings and perceptions."

Summary

In this discussion, the human mind moves between two domains, shaped and abstract; from the Shaped Space it reaches new concepts and receptions, and then returns to the Shaped Space to preserve and apply them. This back-and-forth movement provides the ground for the formation of cognition, the development of the mind, and the generation of new concepts. Therefore, by ascending to the abstract space and descending again to the Shaped Space, human can transform their receptions into lasting works and cognitions.

Footnote: Our definitions of the conscious and unconscious minds differ from those proposed by Sigmund Freud.