What is Consciousness?

Some food for thought for those not faint of heart and since consciousness does seem to be at the heart of non-duality...

What is Consciousness? | Episode 1302 | Closer To Truth

What is consciousness? Consciousness is what we know best and explain least. It is the inner subjective experience of what it feels like to see red or smell garlic or hear Beethoven. Consciousness is baffling. Featuring interviews with Simon Blackburn, Susan Greenfield, Christof Koch, Bruce Hood, and Roy Baumeister.

https://youtu.be/s47EuhlgH4U

This lecture dovetails nicely with the Closer to Truth video.

Swami Sarvapriyananda at IITK: The Eternal Witness (based on Panchadashi)

https://youtu.be/pWDCStZUo28

[Rah nam]

What is consciousness?


The prime essence of all that is.

Originally Posted by Rah nam

What is consciousness?


The prime essence of all that is.

As Peter Russell posits in "The Primacy of Consciousness".

https://youtu.be/-d4ugppcRUE?list=PL...XfywQvhBzzdrQA

"The prime essence of all that is."

Perhaps, probably, but perhaps it depends on what one means by "is".

I do think however, that one could say "That is consciousness" in regards to anything that one is aware of and be correct in that statement. Where that "thing" came from prior to ones awareness of it, and whether it "is" when one is not aware of it, is the more nuanced question.

Originally Posted by ketzer

"The prime essence of all that is."

Perhaps, probably, but perhaps it depends on what one means by "is".

I do think however, that one could say "That is consciousness" in regards to anything that one is aware of and be correct in that statement. Where that "thing" came from prior to ones awareness of it, and whether it "is" when one is not aware of it, is the more nuanced question.

Well, if all is One and One is Consciousness then it's all a play of Consciousness being conscious of Itself. So the One subject is always observing Its many manifestations and Its many manifestations always being observed by the One subject through Its many manifestation.

There, I've solved collapse of the wave function. LOL!

[HITESH SHAH]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

Some food for thought for those not faint of heart and since consciousness does seem to be at the heart of non-duality...

What is Consciousness? | Episode 1302 | Closer To Truth

What is consciousness? Consciousness is what we know best and explain least. It is the inner subjective experience of what it feels like to see red or smell garlic or hear Beethoven. Consciousness is baffling. Featuring interviews with Simon Blackburn, Susan Greenfield, Christof Koch, Bruce Hood, and Roy Baumeister.

https://youtu.be/s47EuhlgH4U

It's the power that illuminates/empowers/moves our bodies and without which it is just a corpse to be buried or cremated.

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

Well, if all is One and One is Consciousness then it's all a play of Consciousness being conscious of Itself. So the One subject is always observing Its many manifestations and Its many manifestations always being observed by the One subject through Its many manifestation.

There, I've solved collapse of the wave function. LOL!

Well, I didn't know there was a problem, but I am glad you solved it.
Now, the problem I always have with oneness is I must always split into twoness to observe my oneness, but as soon as I do, my oneness is twoness. Dough!
To heck with the whole thing, I might just as well split into the myriad forms.
I can try to keep in mind that they are really all me-ness, and there are infinitely many to manifest. But are they all now one in manifestation, or only one before the wave collapses into me in my twoness?
Or to put it another way, if consciousness is conscious of both the object and the subject, is it still one? IDK.
And if not, can consciousness as one ever be aware, unless it becomes two or more?

Originally Posted by ketzer

Well, I didn't know there was a problem, but I am glad you solved it.
Now, the problem I always have with oneness is I must always split into twoness to observe my oneness, but as soon as I do, my oneness is twoness. Dough!
To heck with the whole thing, I might just as well split into the myriad forms.
I can try to keep in mind that they are really all me-ness, and there are infinitely many to manifest. But are they all now one in manifestation, or only one before the wave collapses into me in my twoness?
Or to put it another way, if consciousness is conscious of both the object and the subject, is it still one? IDK.
And if not, can consciousness as one ever be aware, unless it becomes two or more?

Sounds like a bit of tail-chasing, doesn't it? LOL!

That last bit about can the One ever be aware without the multiplicity...

Advaita posits during deep sleep Consciousness doesn't cease. The mind is in a state of deep sleep and is not processing external stimulus nor is it dreaming, however the One consciousness is still there and it is aware. So for It it's not an absence of experience but an experience of absence.

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

Advaita posits during deep sleep Consciousness doesn't cease. The mind is in a state of deep sleep and is not processing external stimulus nor is it dreaming, however the One consciousness is still there and it is aware. So for It it's not an absence of experience but an experience of absence.

Okay, so this is my personal take and it's an intuitive one. So Brahman is Existence, Consciousness, Bliss. Sounds like a good deal forever in bliss, but it seems to me after a time, say a googolduplex years even Existence, Consciousness, Bliss has to get old!

By the way, I see that bliss as just a steady and unchanging state of content being. An experience of absence because anything to experience is absent. The face cannot see itself without the mirror.

Hence the multiplicity and an associated multiplicity of experiences and from all the unique points of view of the multiplicity. Sounds like a fun game.