Consciousness 3: Who am "I"? (Psychological and Eastern philosophical perspectives) (v1.0)
I
have written quite a bit about physics and the universe and to some extent on
creation. In science there is a clear separation between the observer and the
observed (in this instance the universe). I have talked about the observed, but
not at all about the observer. We perceive the universe through our senses and
distinct from our senses is an “I”. Who is this “I”?
I understand within psychology,
there are many concepts that deal with the notion of self as in self-concept,
self-image, self-esteem, self-control, self-regulation, and more recently ideas
involving mindfulness. If you would just like to see what psychology has to say
on self, below are three references.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/archive?search=self§ion=1&_wrapper_format=html&page=0
A summary of various notions of self in western and eastern philosophy is summarized below.
https://centerprode.com/conferences/5IeCSHSS/coas.e-conf.05.17197d.pdf
The notions “consciousness”, “self-consciousness”, “personal identity” (personality) and “self” overlap to a particular extent, but there exist specific differences. The views in Western and Eastern philosophy are very different. In the West, there exists a multitude of definitions of the “self”, whereas in the East the view is different. The most well-known conceptions of the self are represented by the views of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism. The Hindu Philosophy views below are not harmonized with views from the western philosophy, neurology, psychology, or evolution.
To get some idea of Eastern Philosophy, Swami Sarvapriyananda gave a two-part series on this subject at my alma mater (Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur - IITK: an engineering university) which is very interesting. It is based on Mandukya Upanishad. There are about 108 Upanishads which is very ancient text, of which 11 are part of Vedanta. The Vedanta is considered to be at the pinnacle of Hindu thought and philosophy. The Mandukya Upanishad is part of Vedanta and is the shortest of them all (only 12 stanzas) and is considered the most difficult. The most profound is the 7th stanza. The core essence is that experience is subjective. When you are in an awake state you experience the waking world. When you are in a dreaming state you experience the dream world. When you are in a completely asleep state (dreamless) you experience nothing at all. None of these are the real you. There is a 4th state that is Turiya and is illuminating all the other three. The mind is ever changing in what it is experiencing. Consciousness is unchanging and illuminating all the others but apart and untouched by all of them. In the case of dreamless sleep, the illumination is there but there is nothing to illuminate. Another example is the reality is not the bangle, necklace, or ring. It is the gold. All the others were different forms of the gold. Nothing beats viewing the talks firsthand. I hope you find it useful. You can view Swami Sarvapriyananda's talk at IITK here.
Part 1: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eGKFTUuJppU
Part 2: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F0dugc4TrlE
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