When we say “undoing the self,” what is meant is not a physical or material undoing, nor a mystical revelation of heretofore unglimpsed or uncharted realities, but rather that we are simply less wrong about what it means to be a self than before. That’s all. It is a bit like when a child whoContinue reading “Undoing the Self in Love”
Author Archives: Sean
Letting Go of Winning in Favor of Bread
Josef Mitterer makes an interesting point here. Discussing the longstanding tension between constructivists and realists, and how the two groups view science, he notes the following. Whether scientists see themselves as Realists or rather as Constructivists depends above all on which philosophy (of science) is in fashion. There is no indication that realist-oriented scientists areContinue reading “Letting Go of Winning in Favor of Bread”
Service, Sustainability and . . . Bags
I talk often about service. What happens when we realize there is no God and that others aren’t here for us to compete with but to share with? Not to take from but to give to? What happens we no longer perceive our selves as separate from the collective? Well, love, broadly speaking. And serviceContinue reading “Service, Sustainability and . . . Bags”
Letting Up The Stranglehold On “Our” Reality
It is helpful to see that the apparently unified world we perceive – and in which we do all our living and loving – conforms to the observer that we are. It does not include what we cannot perceive or cognize; what we perceive and cognize is constrained by the organism we are. These constraintsContinue reading “Letting Up The Stranglehold On “Our” Reality”
Consciousness: Evidence and Experts
One of things that’s hard about these questions of consciousness is that we are ostensibly very close to the evidence. We are conscious. We are having the experience of consciousness. Why should we listen to anybody else? What could they tell us that we don’t already know by virtue of our very experience? If I amContinue reading “Consciousness: Evidence and Experts”
On Apes, Bees, Consciousness and Prayer
Why work through a study of consciousness – reading James, Sperry, Edelman, Parfit, Chalmers et al. – when you can just say “it’s God.” Or “Theta.” Or “everything is just an appearance in infinite consciousness.” Faced with a choice between a time and energy-consuming curriculum (it takes years to finish Consciousness 101, especially if you haveContinue reading “On Apes, Bees, Consciousness and Prayer”