Got him! Meaning of 'Consciousness is One'

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REPLY TO SRI GREG GOODE:

>This construct of Benjamin's is the core of his perplexity. In fact, it

>is not Benjamin's experience that there is any separate locus

>of >consciousness. That is, he doesn't experience Venkat

>experiencing anything.

>He doesn't experience himself experiencing anything. There is

>just >experience, consciousness.

 

It is my direct experience that I am a separate locus of

consciousness, distinct from other loci of consciousness called,

e.g., Greg, Venkat. However, within my consciousness, I cannot

distinguish between subject and object, as I have discussed.

 

I certainly do not experience Venkat's consciousness, but I am sure

that he does. But within his consciousness, there is no real

difference between subject and object, even if he thinks there is.

That is, within his consciousness, which I assume to be similar to

mine in a broad sense, the words 'subject' and 'object' point to the

same awareness.

 

Really, this collapse of subject and object is the same as the

statement 'There is just experience, consciousness'. So we agree.

 

On the other hand, the statement 'He doesn't experience himself

experiencing anything' is the same kind of linguistic confusion as

'subject' and 'object'. By counting words, there seem to be a number

of distinct entities: 'He', 'experience', 'himself', ... All these

refer to the same immediate awareness of Benjamin. Any distinction

between Benjamin and his experience was never made by Benjamin, and

if it was made by anyone else, it was due to the confusion of words,

where different words seemed to refer to different things.

>Yes, consciousness is not owned by anyone or trapped inside a body

>or mind. >The body and mind are appearances in consciousness -

>which is no one's.

 

'Body' and 'mind' are perceptions, thoughts and feelings within

consciousness, as I have always maintained. Furthermore, even the

word 'within' is misleading, since consciousness is not like a box

containing items called perceptions, thoughts and feelings. The

perceptions, thoughts and feelings are identical to the consciousness

itself and represent different 'modes' of consciousness. So in this

sense, I agree that 'body and mind are appearances in consciousness'.

 

However, I still clearly see a distinction between the particular

stream of consciousness that we might label 'Ben' or 'X' and another

stream of consciousness that we might label 'Greg' or 'Y'. The

experiences of one of them are not experiences of the other. I have

no use for the word 'owner', but I still wish to maintain the evident

distinction between two streams of consciousness.

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Discussion of Shankara's Advaita Vedanta Philosophy of nonseparablity of Atman

and Brahman.

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