Comment by Samiran Roy on May 6, 2010 at 12:51am

Sarah, If everyone feels universal oneness, we will become H*** 'net' piens as you said :)

Comment by Turil Cronburg on May 6, 2010 at 1:13am

Enlightenment is not a specific thing. It's a word that people use to describe many, many, many things!

I often think of the sort of major enlightenment that Buddhist types talk about as the different levels of development, seen from within the very specific frame of reference of the traditions of meditation and inner awareness of experience, and eventually the ability to use that inner awareness to more consciously change some of the normally unconscious actions of the brain/body. I'm not convinced that they are totally unaffected by their environment, as they probably do still have many of their unconscious functions going, but they do have their conscious awareness, and sometimes control, focused very directly inward (or sometimes nowhere/everywhere), and thus have the appearance of not being affected by their immediate external environment. (And fMRI scans might, if they haven't already, show us what these expert meditators are doing in their brains, and that might turn out to be something like what Taylor experienced, or it might be something different...) Regardless, learning how to consciously become more aware of the internal self states, and to use that awareness to be able to intentionally control the internal self, and to be able to explore a very diverse range of brain/mind states, is definitely something beneficial! And, from what Buddhism, and Western science, and personal experience have all indicated to me is that this kind of exploration of life naturally begin to arise in all reasonably self-aware beings. And I've noticed that the interest in exploring and honing these skills of internal states continue as long as the individual is generally getting their basic needs met. In other words, enlightenment isn't something we can give anyone, but we can give them the building blocks of a generally healthy body and mind, and they will usually find enlightenment (in some way), on their own.

As for duality, I say that it's just one way of looking at everything. It seems to me that you can choose to categorize reality in any number of ways that you want, from one, to two, to three, and all the way up to infinity. So the universe, as far as I can tell, is both dual and nondual, depending on how many levels of complexity you feel like dealing with at the time. :-)

Comment by Samiran Roy on May 6, 2010 at 12:38pm

Thanks Turil,

"Enlightenment (in other words self-realization) is the culmination of all we know as spirituality. There is nothing beyond having reached the stage of Enlightenment that is left to be achieved by a human being."

There are several steps to it, but it is ultimately achieved when you completely shut off your left brain, which is focusing on the past and future.

The process is to finely tune your concentration, so nothing else exists except the NOW.
This is why Buddhist monks can achieve this Superconsciousness, or Samadhi as Swami Vivekananda calls it at will.

Like a blood vessel exploded in Taylor's left brain, what if we can create an implant which shuts the left brain down at your will, and people are forced into Superconsciousness?

This was my idea for the evocation.

Comment by Turil Cronburg on May 6, 2010 at 1:01pm

That's one concept of enlightenment that is useful. Though I wonder what the difference between this state of enlightenment and the state of being in the now that the most primitive animals and human babies have might be.

Also, have you ever checked out the Big Mind process by Gempo Roshi? It's designed to allow people to go through the stages of Zen enlightnment very fast. I've done a little bit of it, and it really works well for moving you into different states of awareness naturally and easily.

Comment by PJE on May 6, 2010 at 1:14pm

Thank you Samiran for sending through the egde.org link which I still have to explore and also this amazing TED talk by Jill Bolte Taylor. I am very interested in different ways of thinking. So often in the past what seemed different was ignored or considered madness or damaged when in fact what is different must be recognised and appreciated.
Best wishes
PJE

Comment by Michele Baron on May 6, 2010 at 5:37pm

they are interesting Samiran. I love this idea: A group of business people with a product called Clean Kool have suggested using a carbon dioxide solution shot from guns to freeze parts of the slick, which could then be scooped up and refined. Supporters of the idea include consultant Lee Helms, a former director of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency who now is in private business.

"We're fixing to do a demonstration of our product for a couple of mayors down at the beach. The state is going to look at our product, too," said Terry Hester, a representative of Clean Kool. "We've got a product we know will work."

Members of the Clean Kool team, like other business representatives, have gone to a command center set up by BP PLC, which is responsible for the cleanup, and the Coast Guard in Mobile to pitch their products.
http://my.att.net/s/editorial.dll?pnum=1&bfromind=7406&eeid...
I hope they also try it at the leak origins, in combination with a succession of submersibles (anchor and then move when full) to capture/isolate oil, floating and "storing" these on the surface until crisis is mitigated.

Comment by Shtanto on May 6, 2010 at 9:13pm

Comment by Samiran Roy on May 7, 2010 at 2:03pm

@Turil, thanks for the link(Yet to check it out),
Have you seen

(I have a very rough understanding of the brain, so i'll try to explain it the best I can)

Primitive beings are more like machines, having only a the brainstem that is responsible for the control of reflex, involuntary actions such as respiration, blood circulation and digestion, which are essential for the preservation of life.

Man has neo-cortex and some other sub-cortical structures in his brain, so he can literally 'Watch himself think', which allows him to focus on internal meditative states, which would be essential for Subconsciousness. Of course, I may be wrong on this.

Thanks Michele, PJE and Shtanto

Oceans are headed towards disaster:


Also See
http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/a-new-kind-of-man

Comment by Samiran Roy on May 7, 2010 at 2:13pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_reflexes

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