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Transontology Programs
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Consciousness TheoryConsciousness is the primary issue in human life. Indeed, without consciousness, there are no other issues. Consciousness and its corollaries are fundamental to every thought, word and action. Yet how strange it is that no universally accepted, comprehensive theory of consciousness exists in Western science. The reason for this is clear: until recently, science intentionally restricted its domain to empirical investigations of the manifest objective world, while consciousness is intrinsically subjective and immanent. Consciousness is the primary experiential fact. Without a practical theory of consciousness, science cannot adequately explain the world in which we live. Any observer must be conscious, and therefore the consciousness of the observer is critical to the outcome of any quantum experiment. However, so far Quantum Mechanics still treats the observer’s consciousness as a ‘black box,’ as if consciousness were proscribed from serious scientific inquiry. Here we present and explore an ancient theory of consciousness from Vedanta, a spiritual tradition of vital, living importance to hundreds of millions of adherents and practitioners all over the world, discuss and evaluate its potential value to modern science. Our research reveals an unexpected deep congruence between the Vedic model of consciousness and current trends in pure mathematics and scientific inquiry. Here is a perfect example of how language can differ from reality. Just because it is possible to isolate the word 'consciousness', it does not follow that one can isolate the thing consciousness. In reality, consciousness is inseparable from the living entity on the internal side, he who is conscious of being conscious. On the external side, consciousness is never found separate from senses, form and personal identity. Any attempt to split off consciousness from its structural relationships with the living entity, form (whether material or spiritual is another question) and identity, is a futile endeavor that can never lead to any practical application because it is against the structure of reality. In other words, consciousness is only one member of a higher-order reality: ontologically, the living entity is the root class, and consciousness, ideation and action are the subclasses. Our whole experience is a very large series of instances of these subclasses. We can very easily illustrate this in an ontological class diagram. The living entity himself is ontologically inconceivable to us because we ourselves are living entites, and living entities are the tatastha-shakti of the Supreme. As we have discussed numerous times, the ontological conception of the Supreme and His potencies as seen by the Supreme Himself is closed to the living entities. So we can never be conscious of ourselves as God sees us, just as you can never see your own eyeball. But we are conscious of our own consiousness, the objects of consciousness and the relationships between and among them. So in the ontology of consciousness, the living entities are the superclass or senior order, and the symptoms of the living entity, which are all subjective, are the subclasses composing the living entities' field of experience. That's why Bhakti is the only path that actually leads to self-realization, because it is completely non-dual. In other words, the practices of devotional service are all performed in the context of an exalted transcendental ontological conception. Because this conception is transcendental, it is eternal. Because it is eternal, it does not change. So the practices of Bhakti, such as chanting the Holy Name of the Lord, are both the sadhana (practice) and the object of sadhana (realization). One has to experience this to fully appreciate it. The practices of all other forms of yoga change upon attainment of liberation. The karma-yogi becomes a renunciant; the jnana-yogi becomes an avadhuta. But the Bhakta just keeps on doing bhakti-yoga eternally, in this world and the next, in heaven or hell, in samsara or in Vaikuntha. When the mind is unified and one-pointed, such samadhi opens the door to connection with God. If we can understand that our ontological platform is going to change, then we have not yet attained the Absolute Truth: that which is true at all levels of form regardless of time, person, place, condition or state. Realization of this truth is the real goal of Vedanta and all the Vedic literature. |
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