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It's Like, All Vibrations...Man (Scientific American Blog)
ktc2
R'lyeh New
This is a very interesting article from Scientific American which seems to have implications for many of The Buddha's stories and his philosophy in general.
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Comments
It is an interesting article but the main implication seems to be around the size of a resonating conscious entity, which might have some implications in what happens to an enlightened being after awakening.
Perhaps you’d like to talk further about what implications you’d like to discuss?
I have always felt the stories of past lives as what we consider to be "inanimate objects" were at best allegorical. However, if this theory is correct all things have some level of consciousness.
Specifically, I recall the Buddha saying he was once a cliff face of rock in a past life. I always assumed this was intended as parable in the same manner Jesus used parables.
Well, yes and no... As farv as I am personally concerned, it's ok to take such tales as allegorical, or metaphorical.
It's possible that some of what we read today (in any religion, come to that) was added at another time, to uphold and support the notion of spiritual 'superiority'. In other words, The Buddha (Christ, Mohammed) had to appear as being super-normal, extraordinary and a cut above.
However, what matters and what counts is what we can absorb, weigh up, evaluate and consider sound, for ourselves.
The Buddha recommended - in the Kalama Sutta - that we take nobody's word for anything, (not even his) until we have tested it for ourselves.
Ehi Passiko! 'Come and see (test the waters) for yourself'.
If it stands up to total and thorough scrutiny and examination, and you cannot in all good faith find fault or question - then live by it.
If there is a modicum of confusion, question or doubt - leave it aside, and let others choose as they will. You follow your path....
I don't remember any canonical stories of the Buddha as inanimate objects. Nevertheless, I do find the article interesting. I've long thought that consciousness was a fundamental property of matter, and this would go a long way towards explaining how. Also, it makes me wonder if the universe itself could be the most complex structure and form of consciousness in existence, so that from the smallest particles of reality to the totality of all existence, consciousness pervades all.
As for an arahant's consciousness, it is that consciousness which doesn't land or grow, but is truly freed from the constructs of structure, or unmanifest as the Buddha would say. Maybe it has a different vibrational frequency, or is the cessation of vibration altogether. Something interesting to ponder, I suppose.
I learned something new from the article. That objects vibrating at differing rates can synchronize their vibrations when in proximity. I think that opens doors for possible explanations of psychic phenomena, to the extent that they truly happen.
I think one of the most interesting consequences of the panpsychic world view is that, if true, it opens up the possibility of conscious machines. Whereas if consciousness is generated by brain matter then the likelihood of conscious machines is much less likely.
Never heard her say that. Next we will be hearing that Jesus is God and Tao is a sound unheard that we can dance to ...
We are discordant creatures trying to harmonise. You may note, music changes our pattern/mood. Those inclined may take up new age sound baths, entrainment, chanting with Tara etc ... Rock on ...
This reminds me of the suttas that deal with the Four Elements in the Samyutta Nikaya and the Six Elements in the Majjhimanikaya, and how everything that exists is nothing but a perpetually changing and interblending process of these.
The Four Material Elements, being the vehicles for Inertia (solid or earth element), Cohesion (fluid or water element), Radiation (heating or fire element) and Vibration (vibrating or air element).
Then the fifth element, consciousness, which differentiates sentient beings from inanimate objects, and the space element, which refers both to interstices in the physical matter, but also to the space where physical phenomena interacts and interrelates.
I find this phenomenon of psyching-up pretty relevant to the Buddhist notion of interconnection or interrelatedness.
We may appear as separate entities but this is just a cursory convention, because at a deeper level, we are interconnected and affect each other.
Apparently, yes, consciousness is generated within the confines of the brain.
There are several interesting articles on the subject but this one seemed to me as one of the most serious:
https://www.sciencealert.com/harvard-scientists-think-they-ve-pinpointed-the-neural-source-of-consciousness
I understand what you mean but I don't feel the need to tick all the boxes you've mentioned to live by something.
I believe in rebirth based on faith which, at this point in time, I can neither prove nor disprove.
But, as far as I'm concerned, the Buddha (the PERFECTLY self enlightened one) taught it so that's enough for me.
Hmm whilst we are on the subject of consciousness...
I don't mind if I do....
A theory on Consciousness...
There is only consciousness......(Everything else is just make believe
)
The six consciousnesses
Eye consciousness
Ear consciousness
Nose consciousness
Tongue consciousness
Body/Touch consciousness
Mind consciousness
When I see I'm seeing consciousness at work ... All that is seen, heard, smelt, tasted, felt and thought about ( mind) could be consciousness itself...just sneaking a peek...
Hmm and when I sleep & dream, mind consciousness is at work... ( when I sleep and not dream...I'm unconscious)
Our sense doors could be nothing more than tools designed by consciousness as a means to explore its many forms of self in more detail as these forms (many "I"s ) interact with one another......Whirling around in home made consciousness soup....
Who 's for seconds
There is no doer...only doing....
But it's those damn clinging aggregates (thus have I heard) that throw the spanner in the works...
...so to speak
We could be just bundles of vibrating energy flux held together by karmic glue and would be wonderful if this were true.... ...
To those who have not heard of the Buddha claiming to be a cliff face of rock I cannot quote you a sutra. I'm a newbie, a wordling just learning. However, it is in the book Old Path White Clouds by Thich Nhat Hanh.
You know how our Abhidharma elders loved to make up lists, @Shoshin
Where Abhidharma sees a catalogue of elements and a bundle of loosely tied aggregates, Mahayana sees nondualism or interdependence.
Beyond a process of ever-intermingling elements and aggregates, we are, rather, flowing occurrences in a moment of consciousness.