Comment below: **
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: **snip** > I would try to teach people that there's a distinction > between the contents of consciousness and consciousness > itself--the "container" of those contents--and then to > understand why the nature of consciousness itself is > what is known in consciousness theory and research as > "the hard problem." > > It seems to me this is a seminal insight that many > people miss. When I got it under my belt, it changed > my entire outlook and opened up all kinds of new > vistas. I think the absence of this insight is very > limiting if one has any impulse toward self-development > and any concern for the problem of suffering in the > world. > > The insight itself is neutral; it doesn't carry any > particular imperatives, it just expands the range of > choices of action and demonstrates why some choices > are likely to be less productive than others. > > Perhaps the corollary insight that reinforces the > insight of the one about consciousness is that you > can't solve the problem on the level of the problem > (yes, that's a MMY slogan, but it was a concept also > expressed by Einstein, so it isn't peculiar to TM). > **end** Judy, this is really a huge and powerful understanding, I agree. It wasn't until a few years ago, when I first read Nisargadatta, that it finally dawned on me about what I'd been hearing from Maharishi for all those years. Before that I 'understood' it but something happened and the bulb lit up. But just the idea that 'you' are different from your thoughts and emotions is powerfully liberating; and just a small step away from the quest of figuring out who or what it is that is always present, no matter what the thought or changing condition.
