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Here’s an SBQ-style recap of Wenge Huang’s paper “A New Self‑Model: Rapid Alternation of ‘Awareness’ and ‘Awareness of Awareness’”:

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🧠 SBQ – The Emergence of the Self: How Does It Arise?

“How does the sense of a unified self emerge from momentary awareness?”

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🔍 Key Insight: The Illusion of a Continuous Self

Huang proposes a novel explanation: our sense of self is not a unified, ever-present entity. Instead, it arises from a rapid alternation between two mental states:

1. “Awareness” – being conscious of something (a thought, feeling, perception)

2. “Awareness of awareness” – a subsequent, separate moment where we become conscious that we were aware

This alternation happens so quickly—like a fast-spinning torch—that it appears as a seamless, continuous self. In reality, there's no persistent subject, just this rapid back-and-forth flow (philarchive.org).

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☸️ Grounded in Buddhist Insight

• Draws on Theravāda vipassanā meditation, where contemplation of the five aggregates (form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, consciousness) reveals they are streams of fleeting awareness (philarchive.org).

• Each aggregate triggers a moment of awareness, immediately followed by awareness of that awareness—no overlap, just sequence.

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🔁 Explaining the “Non‑Self” (Anattā)

• Because there's no unified mind experiencing everything simultaneously, the idea of a central, enduring self is an illusion—an artifact of rapid alternation .

• Like the spinning torch, it seems whole, but it's just flashes.

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🧬 Implications for Neuroscience, Free Will, Ethics

• Huang suggests neuroscientific testing could detect this alternation pattern in brain activity, offering empirical support (philarchive.org).

• Raises questions about free will and moral responsibility: if there's no stable self, how do we understand agency and ethics?

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🗝 SBQ Summary

• Question: How does a sense of self arise from momentary experiences?

• Answer: Through the rapid alternation between being aware and noticing that awareness.

• Implication: This alternation creates the illusion of a continuous self, without a real enduring subject.

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🎓 Would you like this turned into:

• A graphic diagram of the alternating awareness model?

• A Neuroscience & Ethics discussion outline?

• A powerpoint slide for teaching or a printable handout?

Let me know!