Neuroscience: Thou art That

What needs do mythology and religion serve in today's world and in ancient times? Here we discuss the relationship between mythology, religion and science from mythological, religious and philosophical viewpoints.

Moderators: Clemsy, Martin_Weyers, Cindy B.

jim baird
Associate
Posts: 45
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2006 1:37 pm

Post by jim baird »

Og said:

"The mind is the brain."

With all due respect for empiricism and science, I have to say i can't follow this.

If you have really been affected by writings like Campbell's, if you have actually tried to experience the "location" of "I", you might be able to conclude, as I have, that the mind is a mystery. Like the point in geometry, it has no characteristics other than location, which is information not available to those of us bound up in the prison of time and phenomenality.

Alwin
Associate
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:34 pm
Location: Asheville
Contact:

Post by Alwin »

It has been a while since I read much about holographic theories of the universe and transpersonal psychology, but I remember a description of the brain as both a reciever and filter. The brain was described as acting like a television in that it recieves a signal and assembles it into the images which you see. Perhaps we all recieve the same signals and filter them differently, and perhaps through some techniques we can change the reception or even the channel we are seeing. Maybe what is our free will is our ability to choose what signals, which are recieved, that we will watch and react to.
I can't say that I can really dismiss the idea that there is no external world; I don't see any difference between this and a dream world. That just as in a Jungian interpretation of dreams, all the aspects of your waking world are aspects of yourself. That all the things I am exposed to are representative of things which I must recognize and integrate into a being which exists in a state of harmony. I'm thinking out loud right now, but I would be interested in hearing what theories of consciousness people have and what the current scientific theories on the origin of the conscious mind are.
I remember hearing a quote from Einstein that was something along the lines of- the idea of I is an optical illusion of consciousness.

nandu
Associate
Posts: 3395
Joined: Fri May 31, 2002 12:45 am
Location: Kerala, the green country
Contact:

Post by nandu »

Hello Alwin,

This is a good resource:

http://www.iep.utm.edu/c/consciou.htm

Nandu.
Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu

Alwin
Associate
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:34 pm
Location: Asheville
Contact:

Post by Alwin »

Nandu,
Thanks for directing me to that site. I am working my way through it. I read a lot about consciousness while I was in college, but it has been about ten years now. I am going to process it for a little while longer before I write again.

Og
Associate
Posts: 318
Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:00 am
Location: Austin, TX

interbeing

Post by Og »

I found a buddhist concept central to the philosophy illustrated in a way that I hadn't really grasped it before.

The notion is that all objects are made up entirely of things that are not that object. A flower, for example, is made up of entirely non-flower things.. Water, dirt, carbon, nitrogen, etc.. the rain comes from the clouds.. the clouds from the heating of the earth.. that from the sun...

NOTHING has any intrinsic identity. This is the essence of self is myth, free will as myth, and tat tvam asi. It's called interbeing or dependent origination.
Tich Nhat Han wrote:In the Psalms, it says, "Be still and know that I am God." "Be Still" means to become peaceful and concentrated. The Buddhist term is samatha (stopping, calming, concentrating). "Know" means to acquire wisdom, insight or understanding. The Buddhist term is vipasyana (insight, or looking deeply). "Looking deeply" means observing something or someone with so much concentration that the distinction between observer and observed disappears. The result is insight into the true nature of the object. The result is insight into the true nature of the object. When we look into the heart of a flower, we see clouds, sunshine, minerals, time, the earth, and everything else in the cosmos in it. Without clouds, there could be no rain, and there would be no flower. Without time, the flower could not bloom. In fact, the flower is made entirely of non-flower elements; it has no independent, individual existence. It "inter-is" with everything else in the universe. Interbeing is a new term, but I believe it will be in the dictionary soon because it is such an important word. When we see the nature of interbeing, barriers between ourselves and others are dissolved and peace, love, and understanding are possible. Whenever there is understanding, compassion is born.

Just as a flower is made only of non-flower elements, Buddhism is made only of non-Buddhist elements, including Christian ones, and Christianity is made of non-Christian elements, including Buddhist ones. We have different roots, traditions and ways of seeing, but we share the common qualities of love, understanding, and acceptance. For our dialog to be open, we need to open our hearts, set aside our prejudices, listen deeply, and represent truthfully what we know and understand. To do this, we need a certain amount of faith. In Buddhism, faith means confidence in our and others' abilities to wake up to our deepest capacity of loving and understanding. In Christianity, faith means trust in God, the One who represents love, understanding, dignity, and truth. When we are still, looking deeply, and touching the source of our wisdom, we touch the living Buddha and the living Christ in ourselves and in each person we meet.

In this small book, I shall try to share some of my experiences of insights into two of the world's beautiful flowers, Buddhism and Christianity, so that we as a society can begin to dissolve our wrong perceptions, transcend our wrong views, and see one another in fresh, new ways. If we can enter the twenty-first century with this spirit of mutual understanding and acceptance, our children and their children will surely benefit.

Locked