Metaphysics2
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[edit] Soul
The soul, in several philosophical movements and many religious traditions, is the core essence of a being. In some traditions it is considered immortal; in others it is considered to be mortal. In most religions, and some philosophical movements, a soul is strongly connected with notions of the afterlife, but opinions vary wildly even within a given religion as to what happens to the soul after death. Many within these religions and philosophies believe the soul is immaterial, while others feel it may indeed be material.
Philosophical Views
The Ancient Greek word for 'alive' is the same as 'ensouled'. So the earliest philosophical view might be taken to be that the soul is what makes living things alive...
Religious Views
(see: http://www.free-definition.com/Soul.html)
Science and the soul
The concept of soul and the idea of a soul entity are not recognized in mainstream science or medicine. Popular presentation of the dominant scientific worldview of the soul uses the "computer paradigm", where the brain is compared to the hardware and the mind (mental processes that have been long subsumed under the concept of soul) to the software. When the brain/hardware is gone, there is no place left for functioning mind/software. Others, like famous French neurologist Jean Pierre Changeaux deny the appropriateness of the computer paradigm and propose an analogy with the anharmonic oscillator from physics. Needless to say, both notions have dismissed to concept of soul as a self-sustaining entity. Some have tried to measure the soul, for example by attempting to measure the weight of a person just before and just after death in hopes of determining the weight of a soul. The results of these experiments are equivocal, especially due to conflicting reports on the findings."
adapted from http://www.free-definition.com/Soul.html
[edit] Consciousness
Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one's environment. In common parlance, consciousness denotes being awake and responsive to one's environment; this contrasts with being asleep or being in a coma.
Consciousness is notoriously difficult to define or locate. Many cultures and religious traditions place the seat of consciousness in a soul separate from the body. Conversely, many scientists and philosophers consider consciousness to be intimately linked to the neural functioning of the brain.
An understanding of necessary preconditions for consciousness in the human brain may allow us to address important ethical questions. For instance, to what extent are non-human animals conscious? At what point in fetal development does consciousness begin? Can machines ever achieve conscious states? These issues are of great interest to those concerned with the ethical treatment of other beings, be they animals, fetuses, or in the future, machines.
The Description and Location of Consciousness
Although it is the conventional wisdom that consciousness cannot be defined, philosophers have been describing it for centuries. Rene Descartes wrote 'Meditations' in the seventeenth century, and this contains extensive descriptions of what it is to be conscious. Descartes described consciousness as things laid out in space and time that are viewed from a point. Each thing appears as a result of some quality such as colour, smell etc. (philosophers call these qualities 'qualia'). Other philosophers such as Nicholas Malebranche, John Locke, David Hume and Immanuel Kant also agreed with much of this description although some avoid mentioning the viewing point. The extension of things in time was considered in more detail by Kant and James. Kant wrote that "only on the presupposition of time can we represent to ourselves a number of things as existing at one and the same time (simultaneously) or at different times (successively)". William James stressed the extension of experience in time and said that time is "the short duration of which we are immediately and incessantly sensible". These philosophers also go on to describe dreams, thoughts, emotions etc.
Philosophers have provided a description of consciousness that is like our own experience. When we look around a room or have a dream, things are laid out in space and time and viewed as if from a point. However, when philosophers and scientists consider the location of the contents of consciousness there are fierce
disagreements. Some philosophers and scientists do not hold that every mental event has a direct physical event (weak or no 'Supervenience'). As an example, Descartes proposed that the contents of consciousness are images in the brain and the viewing point is some special, non-physical place without extension (the Res Cogitans). This idea is known as 'Cartesian Dualism'. Another example is found in the work of Thomas Reid who thought the contents of consciousness are the world itself which becomes conscious experience in some way through a chain of cause and effect. The precise physical substrate of conscious experience in the world, such as photons, photochemicals, quantum fields etc. is not specified. This idea of a chain of cause and effect or chain of relations causing conscious experience to supervene on the world is found in post-modernism and some forms of behaviourism. There are few examples of scientists and philosophers who adhere to the idea that mental events are directly physical events in the brain. Those who do propose this usually argue that we only think that the descriptions of consciousness occur (eg: Daniel Dennett) although some proponents of Quantum mind, space-time theories of consciousness and Electromagnetic theories of consciousness suggest a direct correspondence between brain activity and experience.
The concept of supervenience is closely related to the idea of emergentism. It is sometimes held that consciousness will emerge from the complexity of brain processing (see for instance the Multiple Drafts Model of consciousness). The general label 'emergence' allows a new physical phenomenon to be implied by physicalist theorists without specifying the exact nature of the phenomenon. This leaves an explanatory gap.
Spiritual Approaches
Buddhism
In Buddhism, consciousness-only (Sanskrit vijñapti-m�?trat�?, vijñapti-m�?tra, citta-m�?tra; Chinese 唯識, pinyin wei shi) is a theory according to which all existence is nothing but consciousness, and therefore there is nothing that lies outside of the mind. This means that conscious-experience is nothing but false discriminations, imaginations; a provisional antidote; thus, the notion of consciousness-only is an indictment of the problems the activities of consciousness engender.
Integral Approach To Consciousness
Ken Wilber has attempted to develop an integral approach to consciousness that unifies truths from science, philosophy, and spirituality. Because of this, he is sometimes referred to as the "Einstein of consciousness".
Further, Wilber has been involved in several deep and lengthy conversations with Andrew Cohen regarding the ultimate nature of consciousness. Cohen has been working since 1986 toward a single goal: the transformation of human consciousness on a global scale...
adapted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness
[edit] Thought
Thought is the principal attribute of mind. Descartes' definition of thought is fairly wide. It includes all mental operations, such as imagining, sensing, reasoning, believing, hoping, doubting, wishing, willing, and etc. There is some dispute over the criteria of thought. Many philosophers feel that Descartes believed that consciousness was the mark of thought. Others hold that Descartes defined thought as anything representational. Still, others hold that Descartes believed that thought was determined by the combination of these two criteria.
http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/principles/terms/term_23.html
Thoughtforms
"Nonphysical entities which exist in either the mental or astral plane. Each entity is created from the thought. Every thought is said to generate in the mental body, which assume a floating form and colors depending on the nature and intensity of the thought. These thought-forms are usually seen by clairvoyants; and may be intuitively sensed by others."
"Man is constructing thought-forms all the time, and is following unconsciously the same method as his Ego pursues in building his bodies, as the Logos follows in building his system, and as a planetary Logos uses in constructing His scheme.
A man speaks, and a very diversified mantram is the result. The energy thus generated swings into activity a multitude of little lives which proceed to build a form for his thought; they pursue analogous stages to those just outlined. At this time, man sets up these mantric vibrations unconsciously, and in ignorance of the laws of sound and of their effect. The occult work that he is carrying on is thus unknown to him. Later he will speak less, know more, and construct more accurate forms, which will produce powerful effects on physical levels."
"Much that is to be seen now of a distressing nature in the world can be directly traced to the wrong manipulation of mental matter by man."
The selfishness, the sordid motives, the prompt response to evil impulses for which the human race has been distinguished, has brought about a condition of affairs unparalleled in the system. A gigantic thought-form hovers over the entire human family, built by men everywhere during the ages, energised by the insane desires and evil inclinations of all that is worst in man's nature, and kept alive by the promptings of his lower desires. This thought-form has to be broken up and dissipated by man himself."
http://en.mimi.hu/esoteric/thoughtforms.html
"A thought form is the etheric picture, pattern or form created on the mental plane by the active mind -somewhat like an etching- that dissolves easily unless energized by the emotional nature. Real thought is the life principle of any thought-form. When this real thought or vital principle is withdrawn, the thought-form exists for a while as a corpse in the mental sea until it disintegrates. All physical forms originally were thought-forms."
Definition from The New Dictionary of Spiritual Thought by Carol E. Parrish-Harra,
Ph.D.
http://home.thirdage.com/Spirituality/rainbowbridge1/Loveandselfloveweb.htm
[edit] Meditation
Meditation usually refers to a state of extreme relaxation and concentration, in which the body is generally at rest and the mind quieted of surface thoughts. Several major religions include ritual meditation; however, meditation itself need not be a religious or spiritual activity. Most of the more popular systems of meditation are of Eastern origin.
Another form of meditation is more closely akin to prayer and worship, wherein the practitioner turns spiritual thoughts over in the mind and engages the brain in higher thinking processes. The goal in this case is the receipt of spiritual insights and new understanding.
Strategies Common To Many Forms
Meditation generally involves discounting wandering thoughts and fantasies, and calming and focusing the mind. Meditation does not necessarily require effort and can be experienced as "just happening". Physical postures include sitting cross-legged, standing, lying down, and walking (sometimes along designated floor patterns). Quietness is often desirable, and some people use repetitive activities such as deep breathing, humming or chanting to help induce a meditative state.
Meditation can be done with the eyes closed (as long as one does not fall asleep), or with the eyes open: focusing the eyes on a certain point of an object or image, and keeping the eyes constantly looking at that point.
From the point of view of psychology, meditation can induce — or is itself — an altered state of consciousness...
Mindful awareness traditions
Vipassana and anapanasati are parts of the broader notion of mindful awareness, which is part of the Noble Eightfold Path, which is held to lead to Enlightenment, and expounded upon in the Satipatthana sutta. While in anapanasati meditation the attention is focused on the breath, in vipassana the mind is instead trained to be acutely aware of not only breathing, but all things that one comes to experience.
The concept of vipassana works in believing that the meditator's mind will eventually take note of every physical and mental experience "real-time" or as it happens, the goal being that it will gradually reveal to the practitioner how one's mind unknowingly attaches itself to things that are impermanent in nature. Thus, when such things cease to exist, one experiences the suffering from its loss. This in turn can gradually free one's mind from the attachment to the impermanent that is the root of suffering. In other words, in vipassana (insight, or seeing things as they are) meditation, the mind is trained to notice each perception or thought that passes without "stopping" on any one. This is a characteristic form of meditation in Buddhism.
However, in at least some forms of vipassana, one does not attend to whatever perceptions arise, but purposely moves one's attention over their body part by part, checking for perceptions, being aware and equanimous with them, and moving on. This form of meditation has some resemblance with "choiceless awareness" — the kind of meditation that J. Krishnamurti addressed...
Specific traditions
- Sikhism encourages the divine meditation on God's name, through simran.
- Hinduism's two major meditative traditions evolved with the schools of Yoga and Vedanta, two of the six limbs of Hindu philosophy.
- Theravada Buddhist practice involves both samadhi and vipassana, as well as the developing of "loving kindness" (metta).
- Mahayana Buddhism practice involves various forms of dhyana (Chan or Zen), visualizations, invocation and chanting.
- There are religious meditations associated with Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
- Taoism has a long history of meditative studies.
- Many martial arts schools teach forms of meditation, especially based on Buddhist or Taoist models.
for more on this article:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation
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