What is consciousness?

Answer 1

To understand consciousness, firstly it must be understood that you are the soul, not the material body and the symptom of the soul is consciousness or awareness, just as there is individual consciousness emanating from each soul, there is also a supreme, all pervading consciousness, or God. Both are individual and both contain personality, which is the topmost feature of both.

The material body is simply a biological machine, a very complex machine but it is also an impersonal, external, inferior energy composed of molecules and atomic particles.The material body is never the same twice, it is constantly changing, in a state of constant flux and perpetual motion.

Within the material body is a subtle or astral body composed of mind, intelligence and ego.Consciousness, which is a symptom of the soul or self, manifests through the subtle mind and intelligence, similarly to a programme manifesting through a television set, the television set is not the primary cause of the programme, just as the mind is not the primary cause of consciousness.

Beneath the subtle body is the eternal, original spiritual body that is eternal, self aware and blissful. The symptom of the real self, which has individual identity is, as previously stated,consciousness itself, consciousness is not material, therefore it is beyond the boundaries of experimental empirical science and the mundane materially minded mental speculators and some philosophers.

So, once consciousness and the soul or self has been understood, then in the human form of life, a choice must be made as to whether each individual chooses to perform material or worldly activities, therefore creating a certain type of mentality, which at the time of death will leave the old material body and by nature's direction be awarded with another material form, perfectly suited to the mentality that has been created, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, goodness, passion and ignorance.

However, if the individual is a wise and enlightened person, then that person will seek to purify the subtle body and remove any material contamination of the mind and intelligence, by spiritual activities, when the subtle body is cleansed, then just like a pure pool of water, the individual can perceive their real identity as an eternal spiritual being, this is pure consciousness, they can rationally perceive spiritual reality, the source of that reality and the effects of inferior energy in its various forms within any individual who is conditioned by material desires and activities, which is a polluted state of consciousness and leads to further material encagement within the prisonhouse of material existence.


To discuss further:-Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari ([e-mail])

Answer 2

Oh, I can't wait for the answers to this one.

The fundies won't touch it, or they'll say it's "spirit" or something similarly vacuous.

The atheists (why are all the atheists on here seemingly reductionistic materialists?) will say it's an epiphenomenon of brain function, without even realizing the depths of self-contradiction and willful disregard of empirical data such an answer involves.

But the reality is, this is the toughest philosophical question you can ask, and there simply is no cogent answer which accounts for all the data.

The best I have seen is David Ray Griffin's panexperientialism, which essentially says that consciousness is the interiority of all phenomena -- present to a vanishingly small degree in all "material" events, and progressively deepened as those events increase in complexity and their ability to incorporate other events in their structure of being.

Answer 3

Consciousness is the label applied to our subjective state of being self-aware. Internally, we know what we are doing, what we are thinking, and we even seem to know why. Understanding the nature of consciousness is one of the goals of the philosophy of mind. A common problem with consciousness is the disagreement over whether it can be explained simply as a product of our physical, material brains or whether some other, non-material cause must exist.

Answer 4

Awareness my dear. Unlike babes and young kids, they have no concept of themselves in space unlike adults.
Unless u mean the Christ Consciousness which is seeing God in all things.

Answer 5

Consciousness is the emergent behavior of the nervous system when exposed to external stimuli.

Answer 6

Everything that is, was and ever will be. The breath of life, the re-birth in death and knowledge of the universe, that we are but a speck of dust within.

Answer 7

It's your mind, the part of you that is thinking about things right now, and the part of you that feels, and imagines, wills, and desires. No more or less than that.

Answer 8

Consciouness is that "je-ne-sais-quoi", that indefinable quality that allowed you the ability to ask this question.

Answer 9

It's that annoying time between naps!!! :) (j/k)

Answer 10

I think, therefore, I am.