"Culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group of people from another."
Geert Hofstede
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‘consciousness’ has been in use a good deal longer than sentience or
phenomenal consciousness, and along the way it has acquired a
considerably wider reach, both in everyday speech and in the science of
psychology. The oldest meaning, going back to classical times, has to do
with self-knowledge: we say a person is conscious of a mental state when
they know they have it. A modern meaning in cognitive science has to do
with information processing: we say a state is conscious when its contents
are available to a global workspace in the brain. Neither of these meanings
restricts consciousness to states that have phenomenal quality.
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FUTILE QUEST OF CERTAINTY
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I hear a coyote bark, then another. Where else on Earth does sentience
reside? Do dogs feel pain like mine? Does an earthworm enjoy smells? Are
machines ever going to have conscious feelings? Do they already? How
could we know?
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SRM
Of our five senses, vision is often considered the loftiest, followed by
hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Plato ranked the senses according to how
far their reach goes beyond our bodies. Vision can tell us about the stars,
touch can tell us only about what's in contact with our skin. Vision is
therefore the least sullied by our animal nature.
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light as metaphor for consciousness
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This doesn't mean that, in order for it to have been selected, your
experience must be as accessible to others as it is to you. You don't have to
wear your experience on your sleeve for all to see. But your private
experience must indeed have closely coupled public consequences that can
be ‘seen’ by natural selection. And, if natural selection can see these
consequences, presumably they must be seeable by other kinds of outside
observers—scientists, philosophers, poets?—if only they know what to look
for.
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Mansa Musa, the ruler of the Mali Empire in the 14th century, is believed to be the wealthiest person in history, with a net worth of $400 billion in today's dollarsA
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"Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness. Laugh when you can, apologize when you should, and let go of what you can't change."
-- Author Unknown
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LEOPOLD "Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land."
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BLINDSIGHT-Some people who have lost their vision find a “second sight” taking over their eyes – an uncanny, subconscious sense that sheds light into the hidden depths of the human mind.
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STEPWISE CIVILISN
'I' and 'Mine' are False Ideas
Questioner: I am very much attached to my family and possessions. How can I conquer this attachment?
Maharaj: This attachment is born along with the sense of 'me' and 'mine'. Find the true meaning of these words and you will be free of all bondage. You have a mind which is spread in time. One after another all things happen to you and the memory remains. There is nothing wrong in it. The problem arises only when the memory of past pains and pleasures -- which are essential to all organic life -- remains as a reflex, dominating behaviour. This reflex takes the shape of 'I' and uses the body and the mind for its purposes, which are invariably in search for pleasure or flight from pain. When you recognise the 'I' as it is, a bundle of desires and fears, and the sense of 'mine', as embracing all things and people needed for the purpose of avoiding pain and securing pleasure, you will see that the 'I' and the 'mine' are false ideas, having no foundation in reality. Created by the mind, they rule their creator as long as it takes them to be true; when questioned, they dissolve.
The 'I' and 'mine', having no existence in themselves, need a support which they find in the body.
The body becomes their point of reference. When you talk of 'my' husband and 'my' children, you mean the body's husband and the body's children.
Give up the idea of being the body and face the question: "Who am l?" At once a process will be set in motion which will bring back reality, or, rather, will take the mind to reality. Only, you must not be afraid.
Q: What am I to be afraid of?
M: For reality to be, the ideas of 'me' and 'mine' must go. They will go if you let them. Then your normal natural state reappears, in which you are neither the body nor the mind, neither the 'me’ nor the 'mine', but in a different state of being altogether.
It is pure awareness of being, without being this or that, without any self-identification with anything in particular, or in general.
In that pure light of consciousness there is nothing, not even the idea of nothing.
There is only light.
Q: There are people whom I love. Must I give them up?
M: You only let go your hold on them. The rest is up to them. They may lose interest in you, or may not.
Q: How could they? Are they not my own?
M: They are your body's, not your own.
Or, better, there is none who is not your own.
Q: And what about my possessions?
M: When the 'mine' is no more, where are your possessions?
Q: Please tell me, must I lose all by losing the 'I'?
M: You may or you may not. It will be all the same to you. Your loss will be somebody's gain. You will not mind.
Q: If I do not mind, I shall lose all!
M: Once you have nothing you have no problems.
Q: I am left with the problem of survival.
M: It is the body's problem and it will solve it by eating, drinking and sleeping. There is enough for all, provided all share.
Q: Our society is based on grabbing, not on sharing.
M: By sharing you will change it.
Q: I do not feel like sharing. Anyhow, I am being taxed out of my possessions.
M: This is not the same as voluntary sharing. Society will not change by compulsion. It requires a change of heart. Understand that nothing is your own, that all belongs to all. Then only society will change.
Q: One man's understanding will not take the world far.
M: The world in which you live will be affected deeply. it will be a healthy and happy world, which will radiate and communicate, increase and spread. The power of a true heart is immense.
Q: Please tell us more.
M: Talking is not my hobby. Sometimes I talk, sometimes I do not. My talking, or not talking, is a part of a given situation and does not depend on me. When there is a situation in which I have to talk, I hear myself talking. In some other situation I may not hear myself talking. It is all the same to me. Whether I talk or not, the light and love of being what I am are not affected, nor are they under my control
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Intelligence, so I'd been taught, had to do with the capacity to find
answers to clear-cut physical or mathematical questions, not messy social
ones. Now, however, two considerations were forcing these concepts
together. First, these gorillas—as had been made clear to me from
measuring their skulls—had huge brains, much larger than any of the other
forest animals. Large brains surely mean high intelligence and skill at
problem solving. Second, however, as I could see from observing their
behaviour, their life in the forest presented them with very few problems
that actually needed solving. Food was abundant and easy to harvest and
there was no danger from predators—little to do, in fact (and little done) but
eat, sleep, and play.
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Is it normal to have phosphenes?
This reaction is normal and is known as phosphene phenomenon or photopsia. Phosphenes commonly occur as the result of external stimuli, such as rubbing your eyes, but the phenomenon can also occur spontaneously and some people have even reported seeing phosphenes while trying to fall asleep.
