I see it more like a computer, there is hard- and the software and a programmer - but who is the programmer?
This is a topic refered to in Jyana Yoga, the intellectual yoga which has one of the main questions - WHO AM I? WHO or WHAT IS THINKING THIS? etc.
I certainly agree with sven that the self (the conscious "I" that controls and makes constant decisions) ceases to be at death--and this makes it very unhappy. I think aspects of our current civilisation promote and seek to expand the "I" (the selfish ego?), and I don't think this is a healthy road as this "I", of all things, is the one that is doomed to die.
It thinks of itself as a homunculus, but it isn't that, it is a rapidly connecting something something bicyle cycle home home... Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
How can something that has ceased to be, be unhappy? Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides
It's PNing of the highest order... You can't be me, I'm taken
Through complexity it comes to see connections in a past-present-future tense system (Fran's left brain model), and so it realises that it will, necessarily cease to exist: die. After death, it won't be there to worry, of course. The dead are calm. Those left behind are the bereaved. But as it lives, this selfish-ego is at times overwhelmed with the idea of not existing anymore at some time in the future. The more society promotes this selfish-ego, the more this unhappiness is spread about.
(Connections here to the potential extinction of humans--the horror!) Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
However, conscious life may actually have no end as we are not there to be aware of the end of awareness in the first place...
Like going to sleep but without the dream--or the waking up? Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
However, conscious life may actually have no end as we are not there to be aware of the end of awareness in the first place... Like going to sleep but without the dream--or the waking up?
Like going to sleep but without the dream--or the waking up?
I don't think consciousness ends at death, but I think "self" consciousness ends at death...
The question then is: what is this consciousness that isn't the self, and who cares about it? Which I would take as a comment by the self about its own extinction. Yet there is a long historical cataloge of humans experiencing states which are, it seems, real but impossible to vocalise in prose.
And From vegetativeness I died and became animal.
I died from animality and became man.
Then why fear disappearance through death?
Next time I shall die
Bringing forth wings and feathers like angels;
After that, soaring higher than angels -
What you cannot imagine,
I shall be that.
The brain has always been interpreted by the prevailing technology of the day, whether a telephone exchange earlier or a computer today. (or indeed the 'magic' that was the 'technology', before technology)
Look at anything that grows (including the brain) - it certainly unfolds in a predictable manner, but is there a little man guiding it? Look at a flock of birds whirling round and ask who is the leader? There is none, just as there is no little man.
I'm not against the use of the word soul to describe a particular conjoining of neurons, or any of the other words like chakras. But they are only inadequate words to describe complexity.
And of course one can change this complexity in the brain by manipulating your neural networks - by meditating, studying, experience, exercises etc etc.
Perhaps the most extreme example of this is the Skene monks of the Russian Orthodox church. They choose this incredible discipline in order to completely cleanse their minds of everything before. They live alone, far away from the monastery. for many years. They have a shelter and a well. That is all. They 'chain themsleves' to the forest to survive. It is the simplest life of all and filled with constant prayer - and I am mean constant.
At the end of this process - which is slowly disconnecting old neural connections (literally), and reconnecting simplicity - the monk is incredibly pure. These are often the monks (so I've been told) that go out into the world to minister to prostitutes, criminals and murderers. They are so pure that they are untouched by anything they see. You can't be me, I'm taken
Part of my work is translating complex ideas into visuals, and I find that rewarding because you cannot create the visual without understanding the concept. It motivates you to do the work of understanding, instead of being lazy. You can't be me, I'm taken
Now, now, you don't take Intelligent Design seriously, do you? Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides
