subjective Mystisystms™...
The following excerpt will give you a preview of the Subjective article:
This is a preview of the article What is Consciousness (PDF). In it I briefly
touch on a constellation of thoughts, all of which revolve around approaches
to Consciousness from a mystics view. My intent is to be somewhat provocative:
from examining the nature of both Consciousness and the soul to suggesting
routes to their discovery.
On the one hand Consciousness is said to be Pure and non-dual in that it
is not a subject that needs an object to know that it exists. On the
other hand it is said to be the only Reality in that all else is real
in reference to it. The following story and classic metaphor may help:
The other day, while on retreat, I was sitting at a campfire watching everyone
roast “s’mores.” A
satiated cook, who was poking the fire with her roasting stick, began
to swing its glowing end in the air. She circumscribed red and yellow
circles and lines in the empty space in front of her. Eventually tiring
of her play, she resumed tending to the physics of fire, smoke, and
space.
The lines the satiated cook was scribing in space had no prior existence
of their own. They were birthed by the motion of the fiery tip, and
ceased when the motion stopped. Ultimately the fiery tip was Real because
it was its own source. The lines were unreal because their manifestation
depended upon the existence of the fiery tip. The fiery tip was non-dual;
it did not need an objective field to affirm its existence. The lines
were dual because they needed a cause for their manifestation and a
field to affirm them. Additionally, the lines did not go back into
a prior state. They did not have a prior existence. In truth there
was always only the tip.
What is Consciousness (PDF)
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