Consciousness: The Final Frontier | Dada Gunamuktananda |
TEDxNoosa 2014
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The yogic concept of space - 2 spaces:
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Our inner space: what we experience within ourselves
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and outer space: everything outside ourselves
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Perspective: If the whole universe were the size of planet Earth, then planet Earth would be 1/1-billionth of the size of a pinhead. (Which is roughly the size of an atom)
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Modern science expects us to believe that our vast and complex universe appeared out of nothing without any intention behind it
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“Modern science is based on the principal, ‘Give us one free miracle and we’ll explain the rest.’ And the one free miracle is the appearance of all the matter and energy of the universe, and all the laws that govern it, from nothing in a single instant.” - British biochemist Rupert Sheldrake
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Modern science is just now coming around to the conclusions held by yogi science for millennia
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Both the substance and the intention of the universe come from a deeper reality than the material one we normally perceive with our minds and senses, and that reality is consciousness
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Consciousness: An all-pervading, blissful awareness inherent in everybody and everything
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Just as your own consciousness is the essence of your own mind, cosmic consciousness is the essence of the entire universe
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It exists within everything, and everything exists within it
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What if this possibility of consciousness as a higher reality were every bit as real as any of our current constructs of reality?
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Could give us some very real advantages in understanding our world and where we fit into it
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Compared to serious disadvantages of a materialist world view
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An arbitrary, mechanistic, unfeeling universe gives us every reason to feel alienated, lonely and depressed
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Why try to validate a worldview that makes us sad and fearful of the future?
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"You are never alone or helpless. The force that guides the stars guides you too.” - Shrii Shrii Anandamurti
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Try to validate a worldview which gives us fulfillment and hope
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The benefits of a conscious worldview are immense, and no less valid that our constructs of material reality
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The essence of the universe as consciousness is just as valid as the essence of the universe as matter; the only difference is that one can be seen and one can’t.
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Consciousness can only be experienced internally. We must find it within ourselves.
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We need to look for what we’re looking for in the right place, even if it’s hard
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If you lost your keys in your house, even if it’s dark in there, that’s where you need to look; not outside.
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It’s easy to look outside, not so easy to look within
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Consciousness lies within and so we must look for it there
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But not intellectually
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Consciousness is not something we can comprehend with the mind
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A lightbulb is capable of shedding light on the room around it, but not on the power which illuminates it.
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In the same way, we’re capable of comprehending the world around us, but not the consciousness which animates us. It’s beyond the normal functioning of the mind, beyond words, beyond thought-itself.
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The core of our being is not something that can be spoken about or thought of.
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Material science can never get to the heart of what it really means to be human
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We can only validate the essence of our existence through the deepest internal experience of awareness within us
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SCIENTISTS WHO HAVE ACKNOWLEDGED THE LIKELIHOOD OF CONSCIOUSNESS AS A HIGHER REALITY:
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Max Plank, the pioneer of quantum theory
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"I regard matter as derivative from consciousness… Everything that we regard as existing postulates consciousness."
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James Jeans, physicist
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"The stream of knowledge is heading towards a non-mechanical reality; the universe begins to look more like a great thought than a great machine."
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Einstein. Einstein.
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"The most beautiful and profound emotion that we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is at the root of all true science. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, is my idea of God.”
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Einstein.
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Dr. Eben Alexander, neurosurgeon, Harvard affiliation
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Believed the brain creates its own consciousness, until he contracted a rare brain infection which put him in a coma, during which he experienced a heightened state of awareness — while he was clinically brain dead.
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Wrote the memoir: Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife
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MEDITATION is systematic and scientific method of validating consciousness personally.
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Meditation is “intuitional science"
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Consciousness is substantiated by purely first-hand, internal experience
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Though meditation people often have many experiences that ultimately lead to the realization of One Consciousness.
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Dada guides a group meditation which you can enjoy in this video beginning at 14:08