2006-01-12
Is there nothing when we are unconscious?
In my quest to find out more about Eastern religions and offshoots of these, I have joined a few online groups. Some of the group members take their faiths/philosophies, call them what you will, very seriously and argue long and hard for their particular take on these. The forum threads can get very convoluted with 'deep thoughts' and I have to admit that I have a sneaking suspicion that some group members skim dangerously close to disappearing up their own backsides with their 'philosophies'.
Nevertheless, I do find many of the discussions fascinating.
Here is an answer to a discussion on 'consciousnesses' by one group member who makes valued arguments. It got me thinking:
How does it feel to be conscious? how does it feel to be unconscious? We must come to the point that we sense the difference that we come to the realization of consciousness by the realization of unconsciousness. In unconsciousness there is no content, not a thing, not even time, no notion of self, and yet, when we come out of it, we have a sense of having been unconscious. Inquiring there, at that infinitesimal edge reveals the infinitude beyond, which is both and neither, and unaccountably is no thing but this very This. "You" are everything: the body, the ego, the pain, the bliss, the evil, the good, life, death, being, and nothing. You are it, the truth and the false, no thing can be excluded from, simply This.
~ Pete at: AvaitaToZen
Here is my take on the above concepts:
So, according to this definition, we learn about many things by discovering what they are not.
This appears to work with the 'conscious versus unconscious' definitions. After all, we could argue that we have to be conscious in order to understand that when we were not 'there' we were unconscious.
Or is it that simple?
For example, we may understand 'being sad' as feeling that we cannot possibly be happy at this moment.
But I don't think we necessarily define 'sadness' in this way. After all, if we are not happy, or feeling that we can possibly be happy right now, we may just be lethargic, tired, or angry, or many other things – but not necessarily 'sad' at all.
And yet we tend to assume that the opposite of 'happy' is 'sad'. Or, to be even more precise, 'unhappy'.
But that isn’t necessarily the case, as we have seen.
So where does that leave defining 'unconscious' in terms of not being conscious?
Perhaps we should use other methods of definition? For example, what exactly do we feel when we are conscious?
Well, unless we have problems with our nervous system, we can feel our bodies for a start; we can open and shut our eyes; we can hear; we can touch things; we can smell. And we feel pain, and hurt and anger and sorrow, and a myriad of other things.
So, in this sense, we feel.
So yes, if we are not conscious, we cannot feel, or 'sense'. So it could be argued that we may not exist at all when we are unconscious, and that would fit in with everything being a part of us – that we, as individuals, make our 'reality', and that without us, it simply would not be here.
Okay, we could argue that when we are unconscious we are here, because others can see us and can tell us so when we wake up, but one could counter that this is their reality, not ours.
So the logic of this argument does stand up.
If we see 'unconscious' and 'conscious' as a dichotomy.
But, if as I have show above, there is no definite relation between the two terms, what then? What about being 'partly conscious' for example, as when we are drifting off to sleep or waking up? Where does one draw the line between 'reality' and 'nothingness'? At delta level? In the centre of delta level, but not on its outskirts (as these would drift between theta level on the one side and brain dead on the other)? (see: brainwavefunction )
So, straight away, we have no absolute dichotomy, but degrees which, of course, fits nicely in with the Yin Yang symbol, which shows opposites flowing into one another with no definite break between them.
So, on these terms, can we really have nothingness?
Just a thought ........
meyamind at 8:17 p.m.
