Thread: about consciousness (WILDers, read this)

bah, another epic post from me, what a joy



Do you know what consciousness is? No you don't

Bah when I say you don't, then it's because you don't. Well, it is simplier than you think



Let's take our start with an example of uncosciousness: a dog. A dog walks, plays, barks, does his will and all. But a dog is not conscious.. why??

A dog thinks. Yes, almost every living animal thinks, no matter how primitive their thinking is. But what is the difference between thinking and thinking consciously? What is it to be conscious?

The word is self-explanatory. Being conscious is being aware that you are thinking. Let's draw this into a scheme:

A dog:
Action <- Thought

A human:
Action <- Thought <-Thought


So that is it. Being conscious is not only thinking, but thinking about thinking. When you think about what you are thinking, you realise what you are thinking, and so you become conscious of it.

Consciousness is the ability to think not only of the action, but of your own thinking. For this, humans are the only ones who can "think to themselves", or in other words reasoning.

Consciousness is deeply connected to inteligence. The human ability to be conscious came up because we got smart enough to "think double".

To make it simple, thinking is being drunk. Being conscious is knowing that you are drunk.


Why do we lose consicousness while asleep?

That is simple: when we sleep, our brain reduces activity. With less "work" going on the brain, we cannot "think double"; so we don't think about our own thoughts anymore. That makes us unconscious.


Having that in mind, it is somehow easier to stay conscious while WILDing. It is simple: don't lose track of your thoughts. Always "watch" them, so that you stay conscious of them.


A curiosity

We already saw the scheme of consciousness. I'll put it here again:

Unconscious:
Action <- Thought
Unconscious, because we don't think about thinking. We are not aware that we are thinking. We just think, and that's it.

Consciousness:
Action <- Thought <-Thought
Conscious, because we know what we are thinking. We are lucid of ourselves: our own actions have a reason.
Something interesting about consciousness is that opinions, and judgement happen in this level of consciousness. For instance, th thought that killing is bad is conscious. Someone unconscious cannot think that killing is bad (at least not by himself)

Double-consciousness (or enlightenment if you prefer it):
Action <- Thought <-Thought <- Thought
As I stated above, our judgement and interpretation happen in the conscious level. Well, the double-consciousness (sometimes called enlightenment by monks) is knowing that you judge, and knowing that every thought of yours is subjective. In this level of consciousness, there is no more judging. For sure, people practising this get smarter, since "tripple-thinking" involves more inteligence.


Guess that's all. Hope you liked my views.