Identity, individuality

Aupmanyav said:
... but at the level of truth, you are nothing more than a collection of molecules.
Click to expand...
But that's not a scientific fact, that's a scientific premise, and in scientific (and Advaita) discourse it has its adherents and its adversaries.

You have nailed your flag to that particular mast, but you offer no compelling reason (nor could you, nor should I ask you to) why others should necessarily agree.
 
From a vert weak position vis-a-vis Advaita, I took this off a search engine:
"Advaita teaches that our true identity (Atman) is not this limited persona, but pure, universal consciousness (Brahman) ... "

From the somewhat stronger Catholic position, I would say 'yes' to that statement, along the lines of the ability of individual consciousness that becomes so open and transparent to universal consciousness that, to use a well-worn analogy, the 'uncreated light' of the universal shines in and through the countenance of the individual, without the loss of individuality as something that transcends but undergirds the perceived persona.

I find a great metaphysical insight in the Rastarfari "I and I" – the scholar E. E. Cashmore said: "I and I is an expression to totalise the concept of oneness... When he's addressing a brethren as himself, he says "I am I" — as being the oneness of two persons. So God is within all of us and we're one people in fact... "I and I" means that God is in all humanity. The bond of Ras Tafari is the bond of God, of human." (Cashmore, Rastaman: The Rastafarian Movement in England, 1st ed., 1979, London: George Allen & Unwin. p.67 – language rendered gender neutral by myself).
 
Thomas said:
But that's not a scientific fact, that's a scientific premise, and in scientific (and Advaita) discourse it has its adherents and its adversaries.

You have nailed your flag to that particular mast, but you offer no compelling reason (nor could you, nor should I ask you to) why others should necessarily agree.
Click to expand...
That is a scientific fact. If we are more than molecules, then I would like to hear your evidence.
Adversaries do not matter. Not everyone would have the same belief. I accept that.
 
Thomas said:
From a vert weak position vis-a-vis Advaita, I took this off a search engine:
"Advaita teaches that our true identity (Atman) is not this limited persona, but pure, universal consciousness (Brahman) ... "

So God is within all of us and we're one people in fact... "I and I" means that God is in all humanity.
Click to expand...
That is an incorrect definition if you ask me. There is no universal consciousness.
By having God, the oneness is lost.
 
Aupmanyav said:
We live in a world which has two aspects, 1. perceived and 2. true.
At the perceived level you are an individual but at the level of truth, you are nothing more than a collection of molecules.
In Advaita philosophy of Hinduism, the first aspect is known as 'pragmatic truth' (Vyavaharika Satya) and the second aspect is known as 'absolute truth' (Paramarthika Satya). Both are true at their respective levels.
Click to expand...
I disagree with these claims.

1. Perception doesn't matter to the fact of selves. Perception in experience without bias is a looking glass into the nature and evidence of selves.

2. This idea that we are a collection of molecules is mere appearance. There are non physical realities like character qualities such as honesty, and mental realities such as ideas and understandings, knowledge and ways of knowing. These things have a dimension of existence.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top