intelligence is
the ability to make accurate predictions about the
world. you can think of the mind as a *model* of the
outside world. but of
course it's never a perfect model. the self is the model,
and the not-self
is the aspects of the world not captured by the model.
we're perpetually
afraid to relax the self, to allow the model to capture
more aspects of the
world. there's a moment of "little dying" when
we do this. the self never
wants to let go of the idea that *it is the whole world*,
or in other words,
it is already a perfect description of the world.
fundamentally, it has to
be this way, because the self is a homeostatic system
that maintains its
integrity because it constantly enforces its own pattern
against the chaos
of the outside world. but fortunately, the world forces
little bits of the
self to relax, so the self can grow and become a more
honest and faithful
model of the world (it might be fair to call this the
universal principle of
"love").
that's why taking care of yourself emotionally makes you
smarter.
