Desire, Attachment, Suffering, and Ignorance — Formal Ontology

Formal definitions for four left-hand constructs. The right-hand ratio is immutable; only the carried parameters (radius and angle) are passed to the left, and no numerator substitution ever occurs.

Preliminaries (Primitives)

The core law is:

We work with the following objects:

• Actual (unseen on the left; no control).
• Expectation with real component (prediction) and imaginary component (ideal).
• Carried parameters: and .
• Witness readout: .

Sampling (What Is Actually Seen)

On the left, nothing ever sees Actual; only a sample of it is observed. Let the effective setpoint be selected by a binary gate:

Invariant: the witness channel remains and does not depend on the gate.

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Definitions

Desire

Type. Pre-sample target specification (pattern), not a control action and not an outcome.

• Timing: exists prior to and independent of .
• Object: a predicate or scoring rule on observations, optionally with priority ; write if needed.
• Invariance: does not modify or .
• Gate independence: may be present with either .
• Relation to hope/fear: hope/fear are pre-sample evaluation commitments that may be parameterized by but are distinct from Desire.
• Persistence: episode-level Desire ends at observation; trait-level Desire may persist across episodes.

Attachment

Type. Control state that determines which setpoint is used for sampling.

• Definition: .
• Invariance: does not alter ; only chooses .
• Independence from Desire: Desire can influence the likelihood of but is not identical to it.
• Modality: soft attachment = low dwell; hard attachment = persistent, high dwell.

Suffering

Type. Post-sample persistence in conflict with the observed .

• Necessaries: after arrives, all of the following are required:
  1. Mismatch: .
  2. Insistence: continued attempts to force alignment with (re-aim/re-tighten/re-interpret/replay).
  3. Duration: persistence beyond the instant of observation (distinct from ).
• Invariance: no change to ; later Expectation drift is ordinary learning.
• Sufficiency: Mismatch ∧ Insistence ∧ Duration ⇒ Suffering.
• Cessation (all required): full cessation occurs only when, over a settling interval,
  1. Release Attachment: manual insistence ceases (effectively or ), and
  2. Relax Episode-Desire: the active is let go or reframed so mismatch no longer drives insistence, and
  3. Episode Turnover: attention advances without carrying forward the prior insistence.

Ignorance

Type. Epistemic/attentional condition about the carried parameters and the gate.

• Definition: failure to represent that a sampling setpoint can equal the carried from the right-hand ratio (), and/or failure to track which setpoint () is active via .
• Invariance: does not alter ; it concerns the agent’s internal model.
• Relation to Attachment: can co-occur with yet is distinct; one can be attached while fully aware, or ignorant even with .
• Effect: increases dwell in narrow sampling and raises persistence of Suffering by obscuring the pathways required for cessation.
• Resolution: reduced by accurately representing the architecture: recognize carried , know , and monitor .

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Edge Checks

• Desire present, , match → no Suffering.
• Desire present, , mismatch → Suffering only if Insistence and Duration occur; cessation requires all three conditions above.
• Attachment without Desire → narrowed sampling, but Suffering not implied absent mismatch + insistence + duration.
• Ignorance alone → not Suffering, but increases risk by hiding the steps needed for cessation.

Minimal Glossary

• Actual (): outcome on the right; unseen on the left.
• Expectation (): complex denominator with prediction and ideal.
• Radius (): carried scalar .
• Angle (): carried phase .
• Witness (): lawful felt readout .
• Gate (): selects .
• Desire: pre-sample target specification ; invariant to .
• Attachment: control state selecting ; does not alter the ratio.
• Suffering: post-sample mismatch + insistence + duration.
• Ignorance: failure to represent carried and/or to track the active setpoint via .