---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <seerdope@...> wrote :
Gunna answer these to see if I'm "Advaita sharp" today. Is awareness dependent upon a (human or otherwise) nervous system? No. Awareness is the "water cannot wet it" thingy that isn't a thingy. The qualities of a nervous system that are grouped into the label "consciousness," determine how much "there" there "is" of which to be aware.....better nervous systems have more bandwidth and can "project" much more sophisticated world views. Some nervous systems have not yet been detected -- such as in rocks, but we have it on good authority that rocks will cry out in protest if Jesus' gang isn't allowed to teach on Saturdays. Is awareness the same for all who possess awareness? A "bad" question. Consciousness cannot make awareness an object, but human consciousness erroneously asserts this none-the-less, and this assertion is a brain-processing EXPERIENCE that is arbitrarily labeled "I am," or Being. The contents of consciousness do not indicate awareness any more than the contents of a computer, as it processes, can be said to indicate that awareness is actual -- "actual" would mean that it can be instrumentally acquired by some material-based tool -- a brain for instance. Do some have more awareness even if the awareness is the "same" for all? Awareness is not consciousness. Consciousness is necessarily different for every entity that has ever manifested. There are no clones. Every point of view is momentary -- a mere snapshot of the processing in media res. "Snapshot" is not a good metaphor, though, in that all "experiencing" is closer to hallucination and projection than it is to "having actual input that justifies the differentiation into which the mind deconstructs reality." Does awareness change? Evolve? Devolve? Fluctuate? No, awareness is not a thing. All things have boundaries that are arbitrary. Awareness has no properties -- including the property "has no properties." (Thank you, Godel.) Only objects of consciousness can change. DIdi awareness exist before the mergence of homsapiens? (100,000 years or so ago) No. Awareness cannot be said to have a quality such as "exists" or "doesn't exist." Awareness is beyond being and non-being. When the species "human" was able to transcend is unknown -- but probably not unknowable. Backwards looking DNA studies could zero in on this -- maybe. If so, how far back? I would guess that the recent findings of scratches on a sea shell indicate that some form of "ape" 500,000 years ago did the artwork. To me, artwork indicates strongly that the consciousness of that entity could be subtle enough to sustain transcendence, but I'm a romantic in this regard. Do plants have awareness of the degree and magnitude (posited) that humans do? No. Awareness is not consciousness -- which is a "processing" by a "nervous system." Consciousness in plants etc. is easily demonstrated. And recent studies indicate all kinds of new ways plants are conscious of their environments. Amazing stuff, actually. Jesus got angry at a fig tree, so it might be that plants are as differing in "personality" as humans are. Chew on that, eh? Do rocks? To review: if Jesus' gang couldn't preach, it would have been such a catastrophe that the stones on the ground would be spurred to such a frenzy as to acquire in that intense moment the ability to somehow make sounds of agony -- if not actual human language. It is one of the most astounding statements in the Bible. It would be interesting to put some really mean people next to, say, the LHC and yell at it to see if the scatterings differ somehow. Crazy thought, eh? My view: Earth is alive down to the quarks, baby! Could artificial intelligence "machines" ever become aware? No. Awareness cannot be created -- NOR prevented. It's not "something material" or even "actual by human mind standards." However, I believe that someday there will be (quantum processing level or even string level) an A.I. machine of such subtlety that it perfectly "mimics" human nervous system "dynamics" that the consciousness of machine or human would then be indistinguishable. Present-day A.I. is a joke. The true A.I. machines would talk about God just as we do. Can awareness morph into other things? The Advaita axiom is that somehow -- by magic it would seem -- awareness (the Supreme, in religious terms) has Being as a spontaneously emergent phenomenon. Being (pure consciousness not yet projecting) then trips over itself while skating on a mirror or something and everything gets fucked up. Did awareness exist before the earth was formed? No, because "exist" is a quality of Being. Only after Being spontaneously emerged could there then be IMAGINED(projected)-by-Being a nervous system which would have the subtlety to "recognize" (emphasis on 're") that awareness was beyond all systems used to conceptualize. Did awareness exist before the the Big Bang / formation of the universe? No, see above. Does gravitation affect awareness like it does space and light? No, see above. Does awareness travel at some speed? No, see above. Is awareness interconnected between (allegedly) aware individuals? No, but Being-expressed-by-a-nervous-system may be said to be a dream process, and in that sense, as in a dream, all of existence could be understood as "from one source." In a dream, every "thing" is made of the same stuff -- the hawt chick in the chair is made of the same stuff as the chair. Dream boundaries are the same as waking boundaries, but that's very hard to prove. See me later after class. If awareness once did not exist, what was the process of awareness coming into existence? Awareness is beyond existence and non-existence -- which are qualities that can be found in Being and then expressed in various ways by various nervous systems -- rocks to humans to star. Does awareness abide by the known laws of nature? No, but it appears that all the dynamics of Being are subject to "certain absolutes." The science on this is incomplete. Does awareness have an end? No, see above. If awareness is suggested to exist forever / eternally, can you suggest a falsifiable experiment for this hypothesis? No. Awareness is beyond time -- which is a processing dynamic of a nervous system. If awareness has not and does not exist forever, why is is more substantial than any transient phenomenon? It's about identity. Whenever a nervous system looks at its insides, it finds it cannot "grab itself." The transcending-esque EXPERIENCE of "I am" is not so much an act of consciousness, but rather it is better said that to be consciousness not-yet-acting....the difference is profound. The ego looks at "I am" via recall and says, "That was ME!" -- (emphasis on 'was') which has all the clout of pointing a finger blindly and saying, "That's everything." Bottom line: nothing captures identity like silence. Any phenomenon will be boring in an instant, and the ego flits to another identity. (At least five times per second by my measurements!) The ego (an artifact) is simply a projection whore. But while residing with the "I am" experience, the ego is no longer a dynamic of the nervous system, yes, it's gone!, and the mind's habit of attaching itself to the ego NOW SERVES to drive the mind to attach to something, and in the end, finding no objects or ego, it LEAPS ONTO AWARENESS. That's enlightenment. Can awareness be aware of itself? No, awareness is not an object of any possibly-imagined nervous system. Brahma sought Himself for 3,000 of His years -- gave up. Even God's nervous system can't conceptualize awareness. Brahma had a nervous system that could imagine the detailed expression of every quality of Being however -- He was not a wuss, ya know? If so, then what are the "mechanics"? The mechanics are the complete and fullest expression of all of Being's qualities -- spread out over time and space to make for a leisurely stroll -- rather than that way-too-quick omniscience trick. If all boundaries were ignored, then, the now enlightened nervous system would not be able to "talk about" any differences between "awareness" and "Being." Does awareness being aware of itself imply movement, fluctuation, energy transfers, change? No. Awareness is not consciousness. Yes, when a nervous system transcends to its least state of quiescence this implies that the nervous system moved-change-fluctuated to get into that status of Being or "I am." During the PROCESS of "I am," identification with anything-material ceases SUDDENLY, and the "I am" experience can no longer attract identity. Enlightenment!
