What is „importance“?

[PurpleTree]

It’s a weird thing.

Where does it come from? Partly social conditioning probably.

But it’s odd.

I‘ve often heard people say stuff like „drop importance“ which seems like it would be great if it was possible but almost impossible.

Importance can drop by itself.

[Salariatu]

Self discovery. As much as you know yourself better, you become important at an energetical level. 

In simple words, the more awakened more important, not because someone says it, it how nature works. 

[PurpleTree]

4 minutes ago, Salariatu said:

Self discovery. As much as you know yourself better, you become important at an energetical level. 

In simple words, the more awakened more important, not because someone says it, it how nature works. 

Well maybe you read the thread wrong.

I didn’t ask what is important but what is importance itself.

But it’s not important.

Leo would probably say imprtance is survival.

But it’s still odd how god or consciousness or whatever it’s called finds one thing more important than another. And some things are so important that they become obsessions etc.

[PurpleTree]

Importance seems also closely tied to self and time and control.

[UnbornTao]

Good question. As an exercise, we could, for example, pick a simple object we consider important--even just slightly--such as a water bottle or something similar, and compare it to something that might not even register in one's awareness, like a piece of dog shit on the street. Let's use that contrast to notice the associations that arise for us in relation to each item: Why is one object valuable to me and not the other? Where can "importance" be found?

Edited May 29 by UnbornTao

[Keryo Koffa]

Meaning Identity Love @PurpleTree Desire Awareness Attachment...
 Alchemically Metaphorically Symbolically @UnbornTao Filter Decision Choice...
Potential Self Existence

Edited May 23 by Keryo Koffa

[PurpleTree]

3 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

Good question. You could, for example, look at a small object you value--such as your smartphone--and compare it to something that might not even register in your awareness, like a piece of dog shit. Use that contrast as a way to deepen your reflection. Pay attention to the associations that arise in relation to each item, and so on.

Importance is in a way just a story.

It‘s probably just thoughts/beliefs that make something important.

Which nobody really chooses their thoughts and beliefs.

But it feels very energetic.

[UnbornTao]

@Keryo Koffa Hi there. What do you mean?

[UnbornTao]

12 hours ago, PurpleTree said:

Importance is in a way just a story.

It‘s probably just thoughts/beliefs that make something important.

Which nobody really chooses their thoughts and beliefs.

But it feels very energetic.

Well, we could say that importance exists in your relationship with something; whatever that “something” is comes prior to any form of value, use, or meaning. "What use or import does that have for me?" So perhaps importance is an activity we actively generate--it arises from relating what’s perceived to our needs and self-agenda. Somewhere in that process, “importance” gets created--perhaps. The contrast I presented above offers a good foundation for questioning this. For a fly, dog shit is certainly more "important" than a piece of glass--or whatever material the phone is made of. This might give us a hint as to where to look.

I'd challenge the notion that thoughts come to you or that they aren’t chosen by you. It might turn out that you, in fact, fabricate them. Test it out: you can think about a pink elephant right now, and then switch to a cat, in the same way that you can stop thinking about them.

Hey, keep looking into it and see if you can discover something. I will, too.

Edited May 24 by UnbornTao

[Keryo Koffa]

@UnbornTao Importance can be the recognition of oneness of any in relation included as essential with all in love.

[Xonas Pitfall]

Ultimately, everything is equally important!

Importance over something else is a duality of the fragmented self.

What matters is what helps it survive or expand, LOve!

[UnbornTao]

4 hours ago, Keryo Koffa said:

@UnbornTao Importance can be the recognition of oneness of any in relation included as essential with all in love.

Too flowery. What makes something important? How do value and worth get to exist? 

Edited May 24 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

3 hours ago, Xonas Pitfall said:

Ultimately, everything is equally important!

Importance over something else is a duality of the fragmented self.

What matters is what helps it survive or expand, LOve!

Is it? Again, don't overlook the matter.

[Hojo]

Survival

[UnbornTao]

6 hours ago, Hojo said:

Survival

Might be too broad. What is it specifically? 

[MutedMiles]

13 hours ago, PurpleTree said:

Importance is in a way just a story.

It‘s probably just thoughts/beliefs that make something important.

Which nobody really chooses their thoughts and beliefs.

But it feels very energetic.

Yes! "Importance" is always in a context things like survival, money, desire fulfilling, happiness, fear, beliefs etc. can create the context. In which certain things, outcomes become important.

However once divorced from context, "importance" represents an urgency which isn't rooted in anything and in a way looses it's meaning, unless we try to create a broader context, like "survival" or "love" etc.
 

[Xonas Pitfall]

On 5/24/2025 at 5:20 AM, UnbornTao said:

Is it? Again, don't overlook the matter.

@UnbornTao It must be!

Importance, by definition, carries an inherent duality - for something to be important, it must hold greater value over something else. If one thing is deemed important, its opposite is meaningless, useless, or simply less prioritized.

Meaning, this immediately leads us to the realm of the non-dual: the ego, survival instincts, and our limited, fragmented sense of self. What is considered important is always relative to that fragmented self, typically tied to survival, personal growth, enjoyment, pleasure, leisure, exploration, curiosity, connection, meaning, creativity, etc.

Ultimately, on a higher level, no fragment is truly more important than another, as all pieces collectively complete the whole of God. Yet, in the relative, ego-driven sense, importance is determined by whatever aligns with the desires and values of the “ego” or “collective ego” at a given moment.

[UnbornTao]

13 hours ago, Xonas Pitfall said:

@UnbornTao It must be!

Importance, by definition, carries an inherent duality - for something to be important, it must hold greater value over something else. If one thing is deemed important, its opposite is meaningless, useless, or simply less prioritized.

Meaning, this immediately leads us to the realm of the non-dual: the ego, survival instincts, and our limited, fragmented sense of self. What is considered important is always relative to that fragmented self, typically tied to survival, personal growth, enjoyment, pleasure, leisure, exploration, curiosity, connection, meaning, creativity, etc.

Thanks for the reply. Even though we obviously deem certain things more important than others, I'm not sure we necessarily have to compare or contrast them for them to have value. 

We could assess an object as important at one point, be done with it, and then stop applying value to it. What would an opposite to that thing be in such a case?

Quote

Ultimately, on a higher level, no fragment is truly more important than another, as all pieces collectively complete the whole of God.

It sounds like you are actually considering importance to be something objective, despite some of your claims above. For example, what is the value of an object dependent on?

Quote

importance is determined by whatever aligns with the desires and values of the “ego” or “collective ego” at a given moment.

That may be the case, although it fails to get at the core of what value or importance actually is. Perhaps we could proceed by saying that value is a specific kind of relationship--what that relationship consists of remains to be seen.

Coming up with an exercise or two would help us ground the investigation. 

Edited May 27 by UnbornTao

[Xonas Pitfall]

@UnbornTao Here!

+------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+
|       Non-Dual         |                          Dual                              |
+------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| All parts are equally  | Importance is relative to the perspective of the           |
| important, as they     | fragmented self.                                            |
| complete the wholeness |                                                            |
| or infinity of God.    |                                                            |
+------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| No hierarchy of value -| Some things are seen as more important than others,        |
| all expressions are    | depending on personal or collective ego.                   |
| part of the same whole.|                                                            |
+------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| Sees through the       | Operates within separation, prioritization, and comparison.|
| illusion of separation.|                                                            |
+------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| Importance is intrinsic| Importance is conditional and situational.                |
| and universal.         |                                                            |
+------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+

This is really the essence of it.

The meaning of importance depends entirely on the point of view from which you're using the word.

From a non-dual perspective, importance is universal and evenly distributed across all parts of existence. In this view, every aspect of reality holds equal weight because it contributes to the totality - the infinite wholeness - of God or the Absolute. God, being infinite, must include all things equally. If God were everything except an apple, He would be limited by the absence of that apple. If the totality included A, B, C, D, and E but dismissed Z, then Z becomes a limit on infinity. Therefore, from the non-dual perspective, all things are equally important because all things are necessary to the completeness of the whole.

From a dual perspective, however, importance is entirely relative - it depends on who or what is observing and assigning value. Here are some examples:

• A baby might find a soft toy, their mother’s presence, or milk to be the most important things.
• An adult human may prioritize financial stability, health, relationships, or career advancement.
• A stage Orange individual (in Spiral Dynamics) might emphasize entrepreneurship, scientific achievement, rationality, or personal success.
• An ant might consider pheromone trails, colony signals, and food sources as paramount.
• A collective ego (like a political movement) might value ideology, national borders, or group identity above all else.

So again, in the dualistic view, importance is relative - shaped entirely by the perspective of the observing "fragment/ego", whether it's a single human ego, an animal, a microbe, or a collective consciousness.

If you want to generalize what importance usually points to, it's the drive for survival or expansion of the self. But again, that depends entirely on which version of the "self" we're observing, as said above. Hope that helps! 

[PurpleTree]

Is caring the same as importance?