Are we awareness or consciousness as separate from our bodies ?

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   Harishprasadposted 11 years ago

   Are we awareness or consciousness as separate from our bodies ?
   
   There is this vast difference between us humans and animals that they are perhaps not aware of their past, present or future plight in the sense that we perceive in our minds. Sometimes, it comes to my mind that is this awareness or consciousness not our real selves ?  We are oblivious of it and concentrate on all aspects relating to body only. We rarely give attention to it and the way it works. As a result, we come under the spell of what all our body experiences. All religious thought is also directed to this abstract thing called self or spirit. Is this spirit or self caged in our bodies?

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   mintinfoposted 11 years ago

   No, It is this awareness that has confused us into thinking that we are more important than we actually are. Animals have awareness too. Recently I saw a video of a dog that approached a busy crosswalk and stopped until the cars stopped to let cross the road. I don't believe that it is trained to do that, it is aware of the danger. Also, there are some birds that carry shell fish over rocks and drop them knowing that the rocks will break the shells so they can eat the fish inside. There are countless other examples of awareness in animals. We are simply being selfish in believing that we are a special entity trapped in a human body.
   
   All brains can generate thought, some more complex thoughts than others of course. If you do not gain knowledge your awareness field never grows. There will be a point when Life itself will become aware. Right now it is reluctant because it sees what knowledge in the absence of wisdom can produce. Nuclear self destruction. We remain awareness without wisdom because we do not understand what we are.

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      Harishprasadposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Mintinfo, this is the answer I anticipated but it is very remarkable that this is the first one and very appropriate and contains everything that appeals to my concsience. Having such a wisdom is very rare, friend. I salute you and many thanks to you

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      mintinfoposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you Harishprasad. My observation of life forces me to think outside the box.

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   Tusitala Tomposted 11 years ago

   I do not agree with a couple of the statements put by Mininfo.  Do brains generate thought?   Mininfo says they do.  I'm not so sure.  I prefer the idea that brains carry and transpose thoughts into learned actions and thoughts.  The brain being somewhat like a very complex and senstive 'switchboard' and that the thinking goes THROUGH the brain rather than is created by it.   The thinking lays down the wiring or paths, so to speak.   However, this is only my opinion and is no more valid than Mintinfo.   
   
   It is my opinion that awareness is just that.  Being aware is sensing all that is 'out there' through the five physical senses plus all the internal senses as well - without interpretation as to what they are or putting any labels or evaluation or judgement on what one is aware of.   Take a look at, say, a door knob.  We immediately identify it as a door nob because of our learning, our conditioning.   This is not true awareness.   
   
   The part of us that never changes is our sense of "I."  We might not put a label on it but it is the same "I" at two years of age as it is a twenty-two or one-hundred-and-two.   Consciousness operating as awareness is found in every livng thing, even plants such as trees. 
   
   Mintinfo also says, "If you do not gain knowledge your awareness fails to grow."    I dispute this.   I think a tiny newborn baby's awareness is growing as their eye-sight improves, but knowing that the baby's rattle will make a funny noise is not awareness, it is knowledge learned.
   
   Your question is the spirit caged in the body?  I'd say no.  But it is anchored there whilst we are alive and inhabiting it.   But we are not contained by our skin.  Our physical senses - which are tiny slits of windows on an illimitably wide universe convince us that we are.   But we can and often do move our consciousness outside of our physical parameters when we sleep.    Astral travel might not be commonly recognized but many claim to have experienced it.
   
   And, of course, in deep meditation when a moment of real samahdi occurs and the meditator identifies with the whole world and more, they experience themselves as this Whole not as prisoners in a body.

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      Harishprasadposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Tusitala Tom,you have pointed out two extraordinary experiences, one is astral travel and the other is identification of self as whole in deep meditation. Indian thought revolves around these two. You want to say that everything is whole and not many

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      mintinfoposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for your observations Tusitala Tom. There is observation and consensus, what I fear is when consensus is corrupted by ideology. That is the true enemy of awareness.
      
      I meditate and exp travelling sensations but is not conclusively convinced

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   lone77starposted 10 years ago

   The true self (spirit) is typically catatonic in most people. In fact, this is why Homo sapiens was created -- to create a temporary "blackboard" on which we could have continuity of consciousness. Those who reject their own spiritual nature are wasting this precious opportunity to reawaken. This is why it says in the Christian Bible that only denying the Holy Spirit is an unforgivable sin. Forgiving sin is an act of healing spirit. If you say you have no spirit, then it cannot be repaired. Simple.
   
   Ego is the barrier.
   
   If you entirely give up ego's separateness and lack of love and unconditional generosity, then you allow the awakening of the true, spiritual self. That's when miracles happen.

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      Harishprasadposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      You are right that our spirit,soul or self ,whatever we call it , is  asleep. We have to awaken it. You agree the separateness of the self from the body. lone77star, I really relish your answers that originate from a repository of wisdom and insight.

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