Rog put forth this vision into the Void:
>Rich:
> >What is consciousness? We must explain it within the MOQ.
>
>Roger:
>Consciousness per William James is one half of the duality that we create
>out
>of Direct Experience. Objective reality is the other half. James explains
>that the most accurate depiction of this duality is not one of division
>though, it is one of addition. We count experience twice, and from one
>angle
>it is subjective consciousness and from the other angle it is objective
>reality.
These quotes are taken from "Advaita Vedanta" by Eliot Deutsch.
"Metaphysically, maya is that mysterious power of Brahman that deludes us
into taking the empirical world as reality. Epistemologically, maya is
ignorance (avidya). It has the power of concealing reality (avarana-sakti)
and also of misrepresenting or distorting reality (viksepa-sakti). Not only
do we fail to perceive Brahman, but we also substitute something else in its
place, viz., the phenomenal world. Maya is thus not merely a negative
designation, a privation of vision; it is positive so far as it produces an
illusion (bhava rupam ajnanam)." -30
"For Advaita Vedanta, then, the phenomenal world is maya, and it is produced
by maya. But it is not on that account merely a figment of one's
imagination..." -31
"For Advaita, the world, from the standpoint of reason or subject/object
consciousness, is neither real nor unreal; the world is an illusion only on
the basis of an experience of the Absolute. The world cannot be an illusion
to one who lacks that experience. Empirical reality, in other words, is
transcended only absolutely. Only from the viewpoint of the infinite does
everything but itself appear as without substance, without independent
reality and value. In short: 'there is no reason to call the world unreal
before the knowledge of the oneness of the Atman has been attained.'"-32
s duality.
There is SO much work to do. If Quality is the same thing as the Tao, and
the state aimed for in Zazen, if Quality is the Dharma, the Buddha, then
don't you see how much needs to be clarified? I have yet to see a
satisfactory exposition of the place of consciousness in the MoQ.
The idea of "transcendence" is a dominating one in the East. Does it apply
in the MoQ?
Just what exactly do you mean by "Experience", which is before your body or
mind each moment? How do you know it's there?
Are social patterns and thoughts the same as consciousness? If not, and
"you" are conscious of the four levels "you" inhabit, are you then different
from that consciousness, that body, that mind? Don't tell me the
intellectual level perceives that I'm falling off a cliff, getting laid,
etc... Yet I certainly "experienced" these things. They were more or less
"conscious", yes?
If "I" am nothing but a "coherence" of patterns of value, how exactly do
they "cohere"? How is communication between levels possible, if they are
"discrete...almost independent"?
Where do emotions fit in?
What is memory? (you have before you rationalize/philosophize), a dog has
it, prior to the "age of the IPOV".
What colour is the dark side of the moon?
(oh wait - it doesn't exist, because I haven't seen it)
You-know-who.
>
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