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commented on Nov. 24, 2013
This transformative concept comes from Neuroscience, the Institute of Noetic sciences (IONS) and a tradition that involves ancient wisdom.
Tracing this ancient wisdom to its origins is difficult because scholars differ as to its precise age. Some say it goes back to the dawn of civilization, others say 8000 years ago and still others say 6000 years ago.
Some say it began in North Central Asia others say it has always existed in India. One source contends that it draws from ancient forms of both Buddhism and Hinduism.
Within a broad sense and for the sake of brevity; it has gone through several phases such as the Vedic Hymns, the Vedic period, Epic period, Sutra period and the Scholastic period.
The current version of this ancient wisdom is Advaita Vedanta. The easiest way to explain Advaita Vedanta is through a short story copied from an Advaita Vedanta site.
THE PLANET ADVAITA
Imagine if you will that you awaken one morning in another world. As you rub your eyes to get accustomed to the bright sunshine, you see that it is in many respects a world not unlike this one. All around you there are creatures that, to your eyes, look identical to the human beings with whom you are used to sharing the world. You observe them going about their daily activities, living their lives, engaging in conversation with others, making the myriad choices and decisions that life inherently demands. The picture looks reassuringly familiar and normal.
But in this world, you soon discover that things are not necessarily as they seem. For these are not human beings. No, these are "body/mind organisms" which, unlike their human counterparts, do not have the ability to choose between options or to make decisions. In fact, these organisms do not have anything even resembling what we would call free will. The scripts of their entire lives were written in stone long before they were born, leaving them only to go mechanically through the motions of acting out their programming. These seemingly human creatures, it would appear, are not unlike machines.
While to all appearances they seem to behave like ordinary freethinking individuals, busily engaged in daily activities, strangely, when asked, they maintain that they are not doing anything at all. In fact, in this peculiar world, they say that there are "no doers." Furthermore, no one in this world is ever held accountable for anything. Even when one of these beings appears to harm another, there is no remorse felt and no blame attributed. If you were to ask one of these body/mind organisms about it, the response would be that there was no one who had done anything. Ethics is an unknown concept here. The laws of nature do not seem to apply in this brave new world. Or maybe they have been rewritten here, since the beings do seem to observe some strange laws. You wonder where on Earth you could be. But you are not on Earth. You have landed on Planet Advaita. (THE END)
Neuroscience stands at the plateau of scientific authority along with quantum physics and it proclaims that there is no “me” or “I”. It proclaims that the self does not exist and free will does not exist.
The cornerstone of IONS science proclaims is that consciousness is not confined within individual brains. All the research it does involving telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis etc. is to provide evidence that consciousness is not confined within individual brains.
As members of IONS, most of us should be aware that the universe is a one single interconnected field of energy. Humans are not separate from this field of energy; we exist within it and it exists within us. And yet, most humans experience a “self” that is separate from or exists independent of the universe.
I have been exploring the illusion of self or the experience of no-self, for several months and have been oscillating between two states or awareness or consciousness.
In the state I’ll refer to as the ego state, there is the presence of ego and judgment. In this state, it is common to find fault with situations, events and find fault with the behavior of others. There are degrees of discontentment in performing certain mundane tasks that are required in maintaining a household such as paying bills or mowing the lawn.
In the other state of no-self there is no ego or judgment. Mundane tasks are simply performed without any degree of discontentment and there is a pleasant piece of mind experienced, along with a sense of freedom or liberation.
A few months ago, the ego state dominated my experience and it would last for several days or weeks. Since thinking about writing this topic, I’ve been exploring the no-self state more and the dominance of the ego state is lessening. The no-self state has been occurring with greater frequency and duration. As I proof read this topic, I realize that the ego state has lost its position of dominance.
We have been conditioned since about age three to believe in and therefore experience a self. We have been conditioned to believe in a person that does not exist.
The no-self state involves existing within the domain of experience; not the domain of belief where judgment is consciously or unconsciously persistent.
A self is not required to either experience or observe. Observation and experience continues to occur in the no-self state. Repeating, a self is not required to either experience or observe.
Are you willing to consider the possibility that the human species is in the early stages of a metamorphosis into an entity that abandons the illusion of a self?
Originally this topic was much longer as it continued to promote the no-self experience and encourage the abandonment of the illusion of a separate self.
Only a few minutes ago the decision was made to end this topic now and refer you to links devoted to the experience of no-self. The first two links are talks lasting about twenty minutes.
The following link is the website from which the first two links were taken. Many hours could be spent exploring this website. Once you have fully grasped the message and experience the no-self state, the site has served its purpose. You can return to it and explore it further when you feel the urge.