Free flowing Religion and Philosophy (original) (raw)
The Problem of Qualia: Perspectives on the Buddhist Theories of Experience
Qualia are the modes of experiencing the external objects or internal states from "the first person perspective". In the contemporary philosophical theories of consciousness the concept of qualia remains a problem for any cognitive methods reducing human experience to a set of different brain functions. Qualia are the last fortress of subjectivity eschewing purely "objective" scientific approach. The present paper draws some parallels between qualia and the concept of "dharmas" (ultimate units of experience) of the Buddhist Abhidharma schools. It shows that the problem of qualia formulated in the West makes sense only in those Abhidharma theories that distinguish between the first and the third person perspectives. The arguments of the Buddhist epistemologists Dignāga and Dharmakīrti are examined in order to explain the appropriation of experience as “mine” with no reference to a metaphysical Subject (ātman). Their concept of preverbal, preconceptual self-awareness (svasaṃvedana) is proposed as a possible solution of the problem, how to give an account of “what is it like” to cognize, to think, to desire, to will, etc. Key words: qualia, dharmas, perception, consciousness, experience, phenomenal consciousness, access consciousness, self-awareness, Buddhist epistemology, phenomenology, first person perspective, third person perspective.
Special Issue – Beyond the Circle of Life [SGJ 8(1)]
Special Issue – Beyond the Circle of Life – Scientific GOD Journal (SGJ), 2017
It seems certain to me that I will die and stay dead. By “I”, I mean me, Greg Nixon, this person, this self-identity. I am so intertwined with the chiasmus of lives, bodies, ecosystems, symbolic intersubjectivity, and life on this particular planet that I cannot imagine this identity continuing alone without them. However, one may survive one’s life by believing in universal awareness, perfection, and the peace that passes all understanding. Perhaps, we bring this back with us to the Source from which we began, changing it, enriching it. Once we have lived – if we don’t choose the eternal silence of oblivion by life denial, vanity, indifference, or simple weariness – the Source learns and we awaken within it. Awareness, consciousness, is universal – it comes with the territory – so it may be that you will be one of the few prepared to become unexpectedly enlightened after the loss of body and self. You may discover your own apotheosis – something you always were, but, after a lifetime of primate experience, now much more. Since you are of the Source and since you have changed from life experience and yet retained the dream of ultimate awakening, you will have brought those chaotic emotions and memories back to the Source with you (though no longer yours). Your life & memories will have mattered. Those who awaken beyond the death of self will have changed Reality. Unfortunately, or perhaps not, mainly because of the weariness, stress, and frustration of life, I would wager the vast majority of individuals who die succumb gratefully to loss of self, that is, peaceful oblivion, and perhaps the dreams that come after shuffling off the mortal coil are made of swirling clouds of memories, as Hamlet surmised. However, they may not even be your memories alone. The Big Sleep beckons, and one must rest. Cosmic consciousness continues, but for the sleepers, it won’t matter. Keywords: Consciousness, Source, life, death, circle of life, awakening, experience, memory.
Is Liang Shuming Ultimately a Confucian or Buddhist?
In twentieth century China, the concept of religion occupied an important position in the intellectual debate. Imported from the West through Japan at the end of the nineteenth century, it stirred up many discussions, and the main intellectual currents developed a discourse on it, either for embracing its value, or, more often, for rejecting it. The New Culture Movement and Chinese Marxism saw it as anti-rational and anti-scientific. Contemporary Neo-Confucianism had a much more nuanced understanding, claiming that while the concept as such could not be directly applied to Confucianism, the derivative concept of religiosity could still be used to describe the spiritual dimensions of Confucianism. But LIANG Shuming梁漱溟 (1893-1988) is probably one of those who have developed the deepest and most original understanding of religion. While Liang never attempted to develop a complete philosophy of religion as such, he has written extensively about it, analyzing it from the perspectives of social sciences (psychology, sociology, politics), and most important for our topic, as a product of the mind. His thought is mainly inspired by Buddhism and Confucianism, and secondarily by Christianity. Most of the studies which have appeared in Mainland China have analyzed Liang’s thought from the standpoint of Confucianism, concentrating on selected writings. They consider Liang’s core and mature thought to be Confucian and usually reject his earlier Buddhist writings, before his shift to Confucianism, as works of youth. Those same studies, problematically, disregard Liang’s own claim, at the end of his life in the nineteen-eighties, of being a Buddhist. At large, the identity of Liang as a Buddhist has not yet been taken seriously by the academic world. In fact, understanding the notion of religion in Liang’s thinking is the key to knowing his true identity. Religion for Liang functions on three different levels. At the most basic level, it works as a religious organization enabling society to develop, filling the social need for efficient cooperation. For him, Christianity represents this level at its best. On a second level, exemplified by Confucianism, religion provides consolation to the individual faced with existential questions, as well as fostering a spiritual harmony within the individual and within the group. Finally, in its highest meaning, religion addresses the transcendental quest through a radical renunciation to the world. This transcendence is best expressed by Buddhism. Those three functions of religion – social, psychological and transcendental – represent cultural models found in three different parts of the world --- the West, China and India. Moreover, they also correspond to three different stages in the development of humanity facing specific problems. Christianity first helps to solve the question of collective survival by organizing society under one God and one Church. Then, Confucianism finds the spiritual balance between the individual and the group, allowing the individual greater freedom. Finally, Buddhism helps to solve the ultimate questions of the meaning of life, by asserting a radical transcendence. We should make it clear at first that these three religions, Christianity, Confucianism, Buddhism, serve mostly as illustrations of three different stages or types and should not be narrowly understood as concrete historical religions.
(Meta-Philosophy) Meta-Cognition and Critique of Doing Philosophizing
ABSTRACT So far in my books and articles I have dealt with the following (I hope I do not commit self-plagiarism by referring to my previous work and ideas expressed therein! Lol): My own discussions or ‘philosophizing’ follow right at the end after the numerous and very lengthy quotes from philosophers. The nature of the subject-matter of philosophy, the methodology, methods, techniques and tools of doing philosophy or philosophizing, the nature of the different steps or stages of the process/es of theorizing, the fact that doing philosophy are some of the stages of theorizing, the fact that philosophers lack meta-cognition and/or meta-reflection of these things. If they had awareness of what and how they are doing philosophy they might not become involved in quibbling over concepts and the differentiations of these concepts. It is as if philosophers are blind to what they are doing and have been doing for thousands of years, with the result that they continue repeating the same thing – arguing with words over the use of words and in the process creating more and more –isms. They are seemingly unable to escape from such –isms and their implications. Instead of getting or going anywhere they way they conceive (of) problems and express their questions they end up with conceiving of notions that cannot be solved or dissolved. They enclose themselves in an insular world or bubble of their own making, compared to sciences investigating humans and the different features and systems of the human body who find irrelevant the problems that philosophers have with things such as the brain, cognition, mind, consciousness, perception, thinking, etc. Sciences deal with these things on many levels and multi-dimensional while philosophers try to restrict them to a single level in one dimension by their words and the way they use those words. Consequently they lose sight of their objects and are unable to question them or express questions about them in a meaningful manner. In my articles and books on the subject-matter I dealt with the traditional branches of philosophy and that with the differentiation of other disciplines and discourses the discourse of philosophy lost subject-matter. I mentioned newer areas of ‘philosophy’, such as X-Phi, Philosophy’s interdisciplinary involvement in for example cognitive sciences, that there exists a philosophy of every discipline possible (eg philosophy of science, art, music, sport, social sciences, etc), that discourses such as Logic, Critical Thinking, Argumentation and argument maps, Reasoning, etc are relevant to and employed by many if not all disciplines and many discourses and are not uniquely subject-matter of the discourse of philosophy and does not have to form part of or be taught as subject-matter of philosophy. I identified and discussed the methodology, methods, techniques and tools of doing philosophy and some underlying or implicit transcendentals such as pre-suppositions, suppositions and assumptions. I explore the nature of the different features, aspects, characteristics, steps and stages of the processes of theorizing. I showed that doing philosophy or philosophizing employ and/or consist of some of these features, steps and stages of theorizing. As I involuntary have (am), seemingly endless (a stream of consciousness like) philosophically- (question or problem and insight) related ‘intuitions’, it is difficult, painful and frustrating to me for that to be interrupted by social interaction, talking to people, phones, executing all sorts of mundane activities, etc. To understand or cope with this ‘mental state’ is one of the reasons why I need to explore meta-cognition or thinking about thinking, especially one’s own thinking and related ‘activities’.
Previously in (Vimal, 2010a), we argued that: (i) it is necessary to link experience and function aspect of consciousness with the related structure or neural correlate(s) of consciousness (NCC); and (ii) nonconscious experiences are equivalent to relevant proto-experiences at various levels because both are precursors of conscious subjective experiences aspect of consciousness. Here, in terms of dual-aspect dual-mode PE-SE (proto-experience/subjective experience) framework , we argue as follows: (I) Non-experiential consciousness is a part of functional aspect of consciousness and consciousness is more fundamental than experience because experiences and functions are two aspects of consciousness. I (II) Therefore, one could argue for the continuum of consciousness, experience, and function. (III) The origin of individual consciousness could be a ‗universal background of awareness' that is equivalent to virtual reservoir (where potential SEs are stored in superposed form, and a specific SE is selected via matching process) in the PE-SE framework. The interaction between zombies is relational but it would not lead to an individual consciousness in each zombie. 1 The origin of intersubjective consciousness is the interaction between individual consciousnesses, i.e., interaction between ‗I', ‗you', and ‗she/he/it', i.e., interactions between minds/brains and their environments. (IV) A specific SE is selected during matching process and conscious experience constructs the perception or SE of external objects. (V) The dual-aspect dual-mode PE-SE framework is consistent with classical doubleaspectism in the sense of inseparability of mental and physical aspect, whereas it is consistent with double-perspectivism in the sense that the mental aspect is known via first person perspective and the physical aspect is known via third person perspective. (VI) Our conventional reality is subject inclusive or mind dependent reality (MDR), whereas the subject exclusive or mind independent reality (MIR) remains always unknown even in so called samadhi state of mind that claims to have direct perception (or consciousness as such), which may or may not be close to MIR. 2 (VII) The hard problems are Types 1-3
Education in the 21st century: Happiness and altruism
2018
Discussing happiness, which has been at the forefront of human endeavour since time immemorial, is often deemed laughable and absurd or, at least, non-important. However, since it actually determines the quality of every single moment of our lives, it might be worthy of investigation. Here I present the view of happiness not as a certain feeling to be attained and maintained but as a skill that can be precisely defined and practiced. Specifically, I attempt to show the ways in which our existing notions about happiness are misguided and provide an answer as to what happiness really is and how it can be achieved. Through this investigation, we discover that happiness does not depend on particular circumstances, whether inner or outer, but on the quality of our relationship to circumstances in general. We also discover that the reason we have an unhealthy relationship to circumstances is ignorance of our mind’s true nature and potential, which generates a plethora of attachments and aversions which lead us to endless suffering. In order to end this ignorance, an expanded type of education and investigation are needed, specifically, the type which take into account the inner, mental dimension of life. It is, then, only through dedicated mind training that happiness can be attained. One example of such mind training is given in the form of Buddhist philosophy and spiritual practice, according to which happiness is only achievable through the diligent application of wisdom and compassion in our concrete, everyday life.