If we were born into such an open awareness

English translation: It can be interpreted as capacity to hold our experiences in mind without judgment, simply noticing

11:05 Jul 24, 2023

English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Social Sciences - Other

English term or phrase: If we were born into such an open awareness

Dear colleagues,
I’m not sure about the meaning of the first part of this sentence: “If we were born into such an open awareness, we could embrace the curiosity of identity that opens us up to a more verb-like unfolding of events – we could let go of expectation and embrace uncertainty” in the passage below taken from a book on intraconnection. (it’s toward the end of the passage)
My doubt is the following: “if we were” has to be intended as a conjunctive or as simple past?
Initially, I thought it was a conjunctive, but some lines after this passage, the author says: “We can nurture our fundamental capacity for open awareness”. So it seems we already have this capacity... therefore “if we were born” might be intended as "since we were born into such an open awareness, then we could embrace..."? Or maybe I can keep it general saying : “thanks to such an open awarenesss, we could...”
Thank you so much for your patience!

*****
(THIS IS THE FIRST PASSAGE WITH “IF WE WERE”

If these states of being connected, curious, and kind are natural ways to be happy and healthy, why aren’t we integrative merely as a natural state of being alive? If integration is the natural emergent way we optimize self-organization, why wouldn’t linking differentiated parts, in the complex systems that are our relationships and our embodied brain, just naturally happen? What gets in the way? One reason is the push for certainty. In modern culture, even before our earliest school days when we write our name on a piece of paper to identify “who we are,” we are rewarded for the top-down certainty of our narrative self’s capacity to construct a noun-like identity.
What would happen if that narrative self was instead more fluid than a clearly defined, constructed noun-like entity, more like an open, flowing sensory experience of the bottom-up? *** If we were born into such an open awareness, *** we could embrace the curiosity of identity that opens us up to a more verb-like unfolding of events – we could let go of expectation and embrace uncertainty.

(THIS IS THE SECOND PASSAGE, A FEW LINES AFTER THE FIRST ONE – THE SENTENCE IS AT THE END)

Our challenge, as we try to make sense of our world and try to use words to communicate with one another – in childhood and beyond – can be seen as follows: How do we keep a “beginner’s mind” like that of toddlerhood, one that is free from expectations, an open state of awareness not constrained by that “flimsy fantasy of certainty” that keeps us from the fullness of being?
We can keep a childlike, innate curiosity, kindness, and connection alive as we develop past the early years of life – and as adults we can recapture it. *** We can nurture our fundamental capacity for open awareness; ***

haribert KudoZ activity Questions: 289 (none open) (1 without valid answers) (1 closed without grading) Answers: 524
Local time: 20:49

Selected answer:It can be interpreted as capacity to hold our experiences in mind without judgment, simply noticing

Explanation:
Clinical scientists discovered meditation in the 1970s, and it’s now one of the most thoroughly researched of all psychotherapy methods. Over the past 15 years, research has focused primarily on mindfulness, or awareness of present experience, with acceptance.

Mindfulness is considered an underlying factor in effective psychotherapy and emotional healing in general. When therapy goes well, patients (or clients) develop an accepting attitude toward whatever they’re experiencing in the therapy room—fear, anger, sadness, joy, relief, boredom, love—and this benevolent attitude gets transferred to daily life. A special bonus of mindfulness is that it can be practiced at home in the form of meditation.

I would suggest you to read the book The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion: Freeing Yourself from Destructive Thoughts and Emotions, Christopher K. Germer

This book discusses the importance of open awareness in cultivating self-compassion. The authors write that open awareness is the capacity to hold our experiences in mind without judgment, simply noticing them as they are. They suggest that we were born with this capacity, but that it can be obscured by our experiences in the world.

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Note added at 19 mins (2023-07-24 11:25:14 GMT)
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https://www.guilford.com/excerpts/germer2_introduction_ch1.p...

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Note added at 58 mins (2023-07-24 12:04:18 GMT)
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As a hypothetical, or conjunctive, if statement.

The author is imagining a world where we are born with a natural capacity for open awareness. This would allow us to embrace the curiosity of identity and let go of expectation and embrace uncertainty. The author's use of the phrase we can nurture our fundamental capacity for open awareness suggests that they are using the if statement in the second way, as a statement of fact. However, the context of the passage also supports the interpretation of the if statement as a hypothetical. The author is discussing the challenges of maintaining an open awareness in a world that rewards certainty. They are imagining a world where we are born with a natural capacity for open awareness, and they are suggesting that this would make it easier to overcome these challenges.

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Note added at 1 hr (2023-07-24 12:36:31 GMT)
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The author does say that we can recapture open awareness. This suggests that we are born with this capacity, but that it can be lost along the way. The author is suggesting that we can regain this capacity through practice and intention.

The phrase if we were born into is a hypothetical statement, but it is also a reminder that open awareness is a natural state of being. We may have lost this capacity, but it is still within us.

The phrase if we had maintained/kept this capacity is also a valid way to express this idea. It suggests that we had the capacity for open awareness at one point, but that we lost it through our actions or experiences.
However, I think the phrase if we were born into is more poetic and evocative. It suggests that open awareness is a fundamental part of who we are, and that we can regain it by reconnecting with our true nature.

Selected response from:

Sakshi Garg
India
Local time: 00:19

Grading comment

Thank you so much, Sakshi, for your help! Many many thanks to all other colleagues
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED

4 +1

It can be interpreted as capacity to hold our experiences in mind without judgment, simply noticing

Sakshi Garg

4 +1

in the unlikely event that we were born into...

Yvonne Gallagher

Summary of reference entries provided

@ haribert

Zea_Mays

Discussion entries: 5

Answers

17 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

if we were born into such an open awareness

It can be interpreted as capacity to hold our experiences in mind without judgment, simply noticing

Sakshi Garg
India
Local time: 00:19
Native speaker of:

English,

French
PRO pts in category: 4

Grading comment

Thank you so much, Sakshi, for your help! Many many thanks to all other colleagues

Notes to answerer

Asker: Dear Sakshi, thank you for your contribution! Actually, my doubt derives from the use of "if we were born into": is it to be intended as a conjunctive, an hypothetical sentence (as if we were not born with this capacity.... but then the author seems to say the opposite, referring to children...)

Asker: Thank you, Sakshi, for your explanation. But the author also says "we can recapture it"... as if we are born with this capacity, but we lose it along the way, so to say... Maybe, instead of "if we were born into", they might have said, "if we had maintained/kept this capacity". Thank you for your huge patience!

2 days 1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

if we were born into such an open awareness in the unlikely event that we were born into...

Explanation:
"If we were born.." in grammatical terms is a simple 2nd conditional construction with Present Subjunctive and relates to something improbable

Q. Were we born with this capacity? Or not? A. probably not.
Q.Is it likely we were born with it? A. Unlikely

In this case, it COULD be that the author is saying:
In the unlikely event that we WERE BORN with this more fluid version of a narrative self, with open awareness/beginners' mind and subsequently lost it in childhood, we can recapture it later by nurturing "our fundamental capacity for open awareness;"

Yes, he seems to think that some people manage to keep that "childlike, innate curiosity, kindness, and connection alive" through childhood and beyond.

It's well known that toddlers already have a notion of self by the age of 2, that has been steadily developing since their birth. Many (Most) lose their sense of connection to the natural world as they grow older and become aware of expectations, of parents, family, teachers and society)

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Note added at 2 days 1 hr (2023-07-26 12:34:37 GMT)
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So it may seem the author is contradicting himself but I think not.

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Note added at 2 days 5 hrs (2023-07-26 17:02:27 GMT)
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no, it is not simple past with IF in front of it
And no, he actually says even before our earliest school days [...] when we we are rewarded for the top-down certainty of our narrative self’s capacity to construct a noun-like identity." From the time we are born there is a push on to make us self aware, so "Open awareness" is not something that is sought after at all.
Yes, he says "We can keep a childlike, innate curiosity, kindness, and connection alive as we develop past the early years of life" but that is not the same as the open awareness or lack of self awareness we are born with

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Note added at 2 days 5 hrs (2023-07-26 17:03:58 GMT)
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I really don't understand why you are ignoring the IF?

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Note added at 4 days (2023-07-28 14:49:54 GMT)
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Haribert, I see why you want to ignore the "IF" and maybe it's a typo. This author definitely needs a better editor. In grammatical terms IF makes it a 2nd conditional= improbably/unlikely. Past Simple has also been acceptable for at least 30 years now "if I was you..." etc.
Yes, it would make it more simple to say:
We were (all) born with open awareness and [...] IF we (were to) lose it in childhood, we can (could) always recapture it.
Is that what you think he wants to say?
As I said earlier, it is widely accpted that self awareness only begins around the age of 18 months but, rightly or wrongly, it's something to be desired (rather than keeping or recapturing a childlike quality)

Yvonne Gallagher
Ireland
Local time: 19:49
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 129

Notes to answerer

Asker: Thank you, Yvonne, for your contribution. I still have a doubt about the interpretation as a conditional construction... because "we were born" could also be simple past... if it were "If I were born" - there would be no doubt.... but with "we", maybe... it is open to a "double" interpretation, isn'it? He actually says that as chidren we do have "an open state of awareness"...

Asker: Dear Yvonne, here the author refers specifically to "an open state of awareness": How do we keep a “beginner’s mind” like that of toddlerhood, one that is free from expectations, *** an open state of awareness *** not constrained by that “flimsy fantasy of certainty” that keeps us from the fullness of being? I'm not ignoring the "if", but it has happened in some other parts of the book, that the author has expressed some concepts in not so clear way... and this does seem to be a contradiction with what comes just a few lines after this passage...

Asker: Dear Yvonne, thank you for your contribution! Yes, that's what I think the author wanted to say... at least it does seem so, according to other parts of the text!

Reference comments

15 days

Reference: @ haribert

Reference information:
Il problema io lo vedo piuttosto in quell' "into".
Da come è costruita la frase a me sembra ovvio che l'autore voglia dire: "Se fossimo nati...".
MA poi segue INTO, quindi "Se fossimo nati DENTRO una tale...", quando ha più senso "Se fossimo nati CON una tale...".

Zea_Mays
Italy
Works in field
Native speaker of:

German,

Italian

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If we were born into such an open awareness

English translation: It can be interpreted as capacity to hold our experiences in mind without judgment, simply noticing

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If we were born into such an open awareness

English translation: It can be interpreted as capacity to hold our experiences in mind without judgment, simply noticing

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