Posted by Tiggy on June 01, 2000 at 13:25:52:
In Reply to: Re: Consciousness is..... posted by Hal on June 01, 2000 at 09:48:52:
> > Having to decide what or how to be. Unlike other animals, man has to very much decide what and how to be. This is because s/he comes into the world much less finished than other animals do and therefore has a lengthy period of childhood development. So the biological process of 'becoming man' occurs at a time when the infant human is in interaction with the environment, ensuring that man is very much in a dialectical role vis a vis nature and culture. This results in a lack of specialization in terms of instincutal drives, unlike other animals. Thus it is an open world ready to be fashioned by man's activity. Hence the freedom which man possesses for self-definition, in contrast to other species. Hence consciousness.
> Tiggy,
> Do people really decide what and how to be? We can decide how to act, and we can choose how to define ourselves, but I wouldn't say that changes or defines who we truly are. Doesn't the Being part come from God, not from man?
> The Enneagram has shown me how often people don't make choices like this anyway, but think and act out of their fears. We tend to latch onto a definition of ourselves and believe that this is who we are, and defines our being. But it is a very limited perspective; it is a lie about who we are that allows us to get through the day in a universe that can be terrifying in its vastness, emptiness, and uncertainty.
> I've been very reluctant to define what I think consciousness is because I can't be certain until I have realized all of it (i.e. attained enlightenment.) But my concept of it is that it is what lies beneath these facades, images, and definitions we place upon ourselves. It is the part of us that knows who and what we truly are. It is the part beyond type.
> - Hal -