Transition from Matter to Spirit

In one of my articles, I talked about the struggle for life of matter.

https://strasam.org/analiz-ve-raporlar/analiz/maddenin-yasam-mucadelesi-1178

In that article, I talked more about the stages of transition from matter to life, the distinct differences between a collection of matter that we call non-living and a collection of matter that we call living.

But there is another aspect of life, the living being is aware of certain things, material or immaterial, that is, sometimes it is aware of concrete things and sometimes it is aware of abstract concepts.

Let's examine this other aspect of being alive, which is awareness.

First let's take a look at the perception of the existence of matter in our minds, that is, our senses.

Yes, we can somehow perceive that matter exists.

We have various sense organs for this.

Through these senses, matter informs us of its existence. We notice its shape, its color, its movement if it is moving, its glow if it is shining, its dimming if it is dampening, and many other physical states with our eyes.

But our eyes are not enough for everything, we also need our other senses.

If something has a sound, we feel it with our ears, if it tastes, we feel it with our tongue, if it smells, we feel it with our nose.

Is that all? No, we can also feel it by touching it with every part of our body, especially its temperature and some features of its shape.

For example, if we drink very hot tea, our mouth burns, so we can feel these and similar effects not only with our hands, but at every point where our nervous system is distributed in our body.

Some people have what they call a sixth sense, a sixth sense where they can feel the presence of something, even though we can't feel anything with our other senses. This is partly because such people have a strong intuition.

We call it a sixth sense, not so much for what's happening now, but for sensing things that might happen in the future, for intuiting things in advance. For example, this feeling is much stronger in women. It must be their nature.

Let's talk about abstract issues.

Well, isn't there something that we can't touch or see, something that is not connected to anything material, something that we call intangible rather than tangible?

Of course there are. These are mostly characterized as emotions.

For example, love, happiness, hope, jealousy, fear...

These and many similar emotions have no material counterpart.

These certain emotions, which are constructed in our minds, sometimes cause us to have physical reactions. When we feel such emotions, our body immediately produces some physical or chemical reactions.

With love, who knows what kind of hormones are activated in our body, a smile immediately comes to our face, for example, happiness is completely different, I think they called it endorphins.

Fear causes very different chemical and physical reactions. I think adrenaline and noradrenaline are the hormones released.

Apart from these physical and chemical reactions, there is no material equivalent to describe abstract concepts, that is, emotions. Emotions are abstract concepts formed in our minds.

Isn't that interesting? Matter first transitions from inanimate to animate, then becomes aware of its environment through the senses, and then develops some kind of abstract concepts, that is, emotions, in our inner world. Moreover, it secretes chemical hormones in response to these abstract concepts.

I wonder if there are also abstract concepts in our minds that do not cause any reaction?

The concept of existence or non-existence, for example. Is this such a concept?

How do we know whether something exists or not?

If we don't feel its existence through our senses, it doesn't exist; on the contrary, if we feel its existence, it exists!

Is that enough? Can't something exist even if we don't see it or hear it?

It is a famous poem by Ahmet Tecer Kutsi;

There is a village, far away

That village is our village.

Even if we don't travel

That village is our village.

In 1927 Ahmet Tecer Kutsi wrote this poem. It is on everyone's lips, but most do not know who wrote the poem. There are a few more stanzas, I didn't want to write them all here.

Yes, sometimes something can exist even though we cannot perceive its existence with our senses. At this point we move to another dimension.

With our intellect we can actually understand whether something exists or not. Even if we cannot hear it directly with our sense organs, our intellect is sufficient for the existence or non-existence of something.

I think, therefore I exist!

"Cogito, ergo sum!", that's Latin.

René Descartes wrote it in his "Discours DE LA MÉTHODE Pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences" published in 1637. He wrote the work in French.

I don't speak French, but the French version of the work is as follows:

"Je pense, donc je suis!"

Yes, by using our intellect, by thinking, we can conclude whether something exists or not, even if we don't see it, even if we don't feel it, just by thinking. Sometimes we also use our intuition, we make decisions by intuiting, but mostly with our reason, logic, thinking!

Isn't that where philosophy started from? Thinking! Famous philosophers are actually thinkers.

Throughout history, philosophers have been thinking. For example, Thales, Confucius, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Avicenna, Averroes, Montaigne, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Engels, Russell, Popper and many others...

Some of them came to absurd conclusions by thinking, but there are some of them who came up with really important concepts.

Others have not only thought, but have demonstrated their conclusions with various methods.

We call such people scientists. Scientists are actually thinkers at the same time. But we call scientists those who do not just stay in thought, who research and discover something besides thought, who produce something for the benefit of humanity.

But is it only scientists who produce things?

What about writers, artists, painters, sculptors, musicians... Yes, they all produce something. They are all very valuable people.

I guess producing something is not limited to these. Some of them made a living by producing something simple, a farmer for example, a shepherd, a laborer for example. 

What about those who don't have such a direct job? Do housewives do less work at home, for example?

If I start counting our professions, they would not fit here.

So actually we all do something in our lives. We all have a contribution to this short life.

Even if we don't do anything, at least we are alive, that's something.

In fact, I think this is the most important thing, that is, to live. But living well, thinking, in peace, producing!

If you're already alive, you're thinking even if you don't want to, you're doing something even if you don't want to, so you're producing something.

Not only us, every living being has a contribution to life.

We call this thought system the soul. Life is only possible with the soul.

"He has a nice car.

It has a chauffeur, it's private.

When he steps on the gas, he goes.

Unfortunately, he has no soul."

Greetings to dear Mustafa Sandal, by the way!

So this journey, the transformation of matter into spirit, is not such a simple thing, it is spirit, or in Turkish, breath.

As long as we breathe, if we want to feel that we exist, let's not hold back from doing something useful with the help of our minds.

Most importantly, let's think, when we make a decision, let's take that decision by thinking, let's weigh it well.

Love and respect to everyone from Moscow