#nenets

Inspired by the Nenets, a nomadic people of the Siberian Arctic. Where stillness is white, life is spent among reindeer, and the serene strength of those who inhabit the ice.

Which is Better To Suffer Consciously Or Unconsciously?

Gurdjieff's entire teaching rests on the idea that most humans live in a state of waking sleep. We are machines, reacting to stimuli based on our programming, buffeted by every external impression and internal whim. We think we are choosing, but we are merely responding. In that state, we suffer unconsciously.

This means that you are a passive victim of your suffering. Pain happens to you. You are caught in cycles of worry, resentment, frustration, or craving without ever realizing you are in a cycle. You believe the suffering is caused by the external event (the rude student, the unfair policy, the bad weather) and you have no choice but to feel it. You are identified with the suffering. You are your anger, your anxiety, your boredom. There is no separation between "you" and the emotional state. It consumes you entirely. You add to your suffering. Because you are unconscious, you react to your initial pain with a second layer of mental suffering. You not only feel angry, but you also dwell on the anger, justify it, rehearse the grievance, and imagine future scenarios where you will be angry again. The initial stimulus is long gone, but the internally generated suffering continues.

To suffer consciously, then, is the opposite of this state. It does not mean you have become immune to pain or loss. It means you are awake within the experience. If you suffer consciously, the relationship to the pain changes entirely. You see the suffering as an object, not as your identity. If a difficult memory arises, or a physical ache appears, you do not become "the one who is in pain." You observe, "Ah, there is a feeling of sorrow present." There is a space between the awareness and the sensation. The suffering does not disappear, but it no longer defines you. You stop adding the second arrow. In the Buddhist metaphor, life shoots one arrow (the initial painful event). The unconscious person then shoots themselves with a second, third, and fourth arrow of rumination, blame, and self-pity. To suffer consciously is to feel the first arrow perhaps quite acutely but to drop the bow. You refuse to add the layer of mental commentary and resistance that makes pain into lasting suffering. You see the machinery in motion. When you feel the pull toward solitude, and perhaps a pang of loneliness or a fear of irrelevance arises, you do not panic or try to suppress it. You watch the machinery of your own mind generate those fears. You see the old programming trying to pull you back into the familiar chaos of the social world. You suffer the discomfort of that pull, but you suffer it knowingly, which means you are not controlled by it.

Which is Better? It is better to suffer consciously.

The reason is simple, unconscious suffering is pointless. Conscious suffering has the potential to transform you. Unconscious suffering is just pain plus waste. You endure it, but you learn nothing from it, and you are likely to repeat the conditions that caused it because you never understood them.

Conscious suffering is the friction that polishes a stone. When you suffer consciously, you are present for the sensation. You study it. You see how your mind reacts to it. Over time, this presence burns away your mechanicalness. You become less of a machine and more of a real "I."

SW = Samojedischer Wörtschatz, while the number after SW indicates the page number 1. SW81 *lɒkəjm kochen, aufkochen (inch.) cook, bring to boil, (en. lahumaro erwärmt werden, laxod, вскипеть, neT. aor.sg.3 laxoma (es fing an zu kochen) began to cook, der. laxombasy кипеть, vgl.auch. ? loxorcy быстро течь, neW. rozumsy anfangen zu kochen (begin to cook), mt. logomʒista кипит вода der. *lɒkəjmtɒ kochen (tr.) (en. laxodasˈ вскипятить to boil, neT. laxomdasy, neF. imp.sg.2.obj. roxomtāt, mt. logomdam" варю I boil, loomdat" растопляю I melt

2. SW123 *pi (durch Kochen) reifen boil while cooking (ng. fîʔem aor.sg.1, neT. pyisy, neF. pisy, km. prs.sg.1 philjæm), SW124 *piræ kochen (tr.), braten aor.sg.1.obj. firijeama, neT. pyiryesy, neF. pirryisy, sk. pirɯqo, km. pCɯrɪljɛm to bake < UEW735 *peje itr./tr., gives additional meanings for Sam. like gar (done/ cooked) sein/ warden

3. SW118 *pæt(3)- in den Topf legen (ng. aor.sg.1obj. fadiˈema, neT. pyadasy, neF. pĕataɕ, sk. potqo, km. pCɒljam cook/ boil, kb. prs.sg.1. padlam" I boil), furthermore if we look at individual entries directly from dictionaries of Samoyedic languages: Selkup 431 pōt- ins Wasser setzen, in den Kessel legen, das Netz auslegen (put in water, put in the kettle, cast a net, I assume for fishing) (Alatalo, 2004, p.66)

Nenets "ПЯДАСЬ гл., I, II спр., I кл., 1 гр. 1) опустить, положить, высыпать в воду; 2) поставить (сети): ПУ Мань поhгами пядадм’ – я поставил сеть; ПУ Хабарта’ хабахад сэдавы пи”мямда hани’ пядада – Снова расставил штаны, сшитые из шкуры лося; Я Поhгана” тюку яхадандо’ нялкапа”на” сава, тайкуй халяда таняна поhг” хэвувна пядабана” сава hэванзер’ hа (Л. Лапцуй) – Сети с этого места нам лучше снять, вон около тех сетей, где есть рыба, расставить хорошо бы; 3) заварить (о чае): ПУ Сайм’ пядась – Заварить чай." (ПЯДАСЬ gl., 1st, 2nd spr., 1st cl., 1st gr. 1) to lower, to put, to pour into water; 2) to set (nets): ПУ Мань похгами пядам’ – I set the net; ПУ Хабарта’ хабахад сэдавы пи”мямда гани’ пядада – I set up the pants made of moose skin again; Я Похгана” тюку яхадандо’ нялкапа”на” сава, такийкуй халяда таняна похг” хэвувна пядана” сава hэванзер’ ha (L. Laptsuy) – It would be better for us to remove the nets from this place, it would be good to set them up near those nets where there are fish; 3) to brew (about tea): ПУ Саим’ пядася – To brew tea.) (Burkovka & Koshkareva, 2010, p.148)

the Samoyedic root *pät3 put in pot was borrowed from Turkic, Proto-Turkic *pïdă > Common Turkic *pïd-kaʎă > hïdïːʃ (Ünal, 2023, p.222) (I am simply using the form of the word recorded in the source)

References

Alatalo, J. (2004). Sölkupisches Wörterbuch aus Aufzeichnungen von Kai Donner, U. T. Sirelius und Jarmo Alatalo. Lexica Societatis Fenno-Ugricae XXX. ISBN 952-5150-76-3

SW = Janhunen, J. (1977) Samojedischer Wortschatz – gemeinsamojedische etymologien, Castrenianumin toimitteita 17, Helsinki.TMN

Ünal, O. (2023). Nova Turco-Samoiedica. Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, 68:217-235. https://doi.org/10.33339/fuf.120933

Peace is not the absence of disturbance, but the extinction of illusion.

It is true that the more you understand the more you at peace with the world but not “peace” in the sentimental or mystical sense. It’s not blissful calm, but a structural quietude.

In Spinoza’s logic, to understand is to see necessity. The more you comprehend how things must be, how every event follows from causes, and how your own actions are links in the same chain the less room remains for resentment, blame, or fear. You stop fighting with reality because you see that reality never could have been otherwise. This doesn’t make you passive; it simply ends the futile internal war against what is.

"i'm dragging a dead deer up a hill"

A Nenets woman in Russia hugs her grandson. The family is preparing to follow their herd of reindeer, seen in the background, even farther into the Siberian Arctic.

Nenet baby in cradle :3

From the guardian article about the Nenets: