NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 45:
This time, after excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we continue to preface a return to the series: Fine-Tuned Universe series, we examine, not the Future or Past of the Universe, but back again to Fine-Tuning as such.
Some more selected verses from the Ramana Maharshi disciple Master Nome:
In Self-Realization, all notions about the Absolute & the Self are relinquished. Notions about the Absolute are such as that it is separate from oneself, or objective, & that it is always-present. Notions about the Self are such as that it is endowed with Form, minuteness, that it is changeful, material, embodied, defined by thought, in Time, or endowed with Individuality. For Knowledge, the superimposition of the jiva–hood (concept of individuality) is removed from Atman (the Self) & Isvara–hood (idea of the Lord God) is removed from Brahman (the Absolute). Upon removal of such superimposition, r Ignorance, one realizes the Identity, as declared in the Upanishad, Tat tvam asi (Thou art That). If the Self remains undefined, it is only Brahman, & That alone. Therefore, one should know the Self.
Some of Master Nome’s earliest aphorisms about the unreality of a World:
There has never been a single objective thing. (1.3)
The World is unreal. (1.16)
All that is objective is illusion. Illusion is that which is not. (1.34)
All things change. that which is not a thing is immutable. (1.63)
There is no World (any objective thing), & there is no one to experience or know it. (1.94)
It is you who say that anything is real. the object does not declare its own reality. to known the Reality, know yourself. (2.54)
Any object of experience has no more existence separate from the Self than printed letters from a page of paper, or waves from water. (3.24)
It is better to say the World in you than you are in the World. (3.42)
An unreal body performs unreal actions in an unreal World. (3.50)
Do not be afraid to let go of a World that does not really exist. (3.57)
Know the World to be unreal and yourself as not a character in it, & the dream is over. (2.93)
Regard all manifestation as an hallucination or as a daydream lasting but a moment. (3.30)
Regard all thought as an empty echo and the World as a dream. (3.67)
Ego, manifestation, form and ignorance: these are like an optical illusion, a mirage, a dream without substance, the life-history of a fictional character. (3.96)
The conception of space requires misidentification with the body. The conception of time requires misidentification with thought. The Self is neither the body nor thought. It is spaceless and timeless. (1.37 )
As space is endless, clear, formless, embracing all, bound by none, all-pervading, ungraspable, & has no within or without, so it is with the Self. (1.61)
The World, time, space, life, death, objective things, the mind, ignorance, bondage, & an experiencer of these are just concepts. Concepts are unreal. Absolute Being alone is. (2.55)
Fine-Tuned Universe series 25:
[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]
Nick Bostrom further extends this LP (Life Permitting issue by multiplying our single data-point by an (even larger) finite number of other earthlike planets in the Universe with intelligent life. To consider 1st a weakly informative scenario, he conceives of widespread telepathic ability (which some actually attribute to plants*[1] on a cosmic level). Putting out the “call” we hear back, just as SETI might by more conventional radio waves: “yes intelligent life has evolved here.” The quality of that new information would improve if we could count the Number of planets so responding, or ever able to respond. But once more we are only hearing from the “winners” and not from perfectly earthlike planets in vast numbers who may be without Intelligent Life.
On the other hand again, if all telepathic or radio respondents specifically affirm somehow that that their planets are actually earthlike, & none of a larger sample replied affirming other planet-types, then more again is learned. With increasing numbers involved in the latter versions, we could begin to Probabilistically rule out intelligent life evolving on non-earthlike planets.
LP Epistemically Illuminated Regions:
When the Philosopher examines Anthropic Principles he may specify some conceptual boundaries, or at least some terminology not always included in a Physicist’s discussion. For one thing, the Philosopher seeks to determine in each case an Epistemically illuminated region within the possible or conceivable range of some parameter value. For instance, to take a simple example, Temperature. How hot, or how cold must it be. to rule out the possibility of Life as we known it (which does admit some extremes) & in what narrower range Intelligent Life (being of necessarily greater complexity however it is configured)? In fact, an Intelligent Life–Permitting range is usually the only one of immediate interest (evolution of simpler forms could hold promise for the Future, should conditions, like Temperature, also change over Time so as to enter the narrower Intelligent Life–Permitting range). But since the former, more immediate & narrow case of Intelligent Life–Permitting is a big enough conundrum to bite off & chew for now, Intelligent Life–Permitting is actually the default sense in which Life–Permitting or LP is generally meant.
Then, an Epistemically illuminated region in terms of LP further specifies the limits of our knowledge & imagination, especially if we admit Silicon-based, Boron-based, Nitrogen-based, & other conceivable but not necessarily feasible modes of Life, along with Carbon-based variations now familiar. Strong arguments tend to rule out all but Carbon-based or C-based Life reaching the complexity of LP as in Intelligent Life–Permitting. But these are all issues in setting the confines of an Epistemically illuminated region within the range of a given Parameter. One practical detail concerns LP Physical Constants that we are already aware of. For familiar C-based Intelligent Life, just what do we observe as some finite local region around actual value of Constant that is observed? Do we see a finite region of possible variance, & finite regions of actual & tolerable variance already observed? For instance, if we see as LP the Celsius Temperatures between – 50 to + 50 hypothetically, we might also imagine a wider possible range of say – 55 to + 60. All numbers being purely hypothetical values, those were chosen for simplicity.
Robin Collins, (theistic) Philosopher, divides Anthropic Principles into 3 broad categories &and rules on their viability after considerable philosophical & scientific argument, these being:
(1) Intelligent Design Argument, be it Theistic, some more abstract Deist principle of Nature, etc., or attributable to aliens, Future time-travelers, or VR – and such Design (for short & to distinguish from less rigorous religious-political uses of the same term) That Argument is defensible on its own terms (one cannot simply unilaterally declare a Physicalist Universe & dismiss dissent – although that is the norm rather than the exception throughout Philosophy & Science).
(2) Ensemble Argument, of a kazillion universes (as isolated regions of 1 Infinite or virtually so) Universe, or as a Multi-Verse. Universes “bubbling off” an M-brane & other exotic bootstrapping appear in some models. Cosmogenesis deriving Quantum Fluctuations, Quantum Many-Worlds, or a serial sequence of alternating Big-Bangs & Crunches echoing across essentially beginningless & endless Time. Any such Ensemble Argument is defensible, however fantastic, because any Long Odds will come home to roost eventually if you bet endlessly. Our 13.7 Billion year Universe may be old enough to support Cosmic & Biological Evolution, or not. But the number of bets taken in any of these Ensemble Arguments render Cosmic & Biological Evolution trivial by comparison, to say the least. If a Cray Super-Computer should attempt to electronically “write”, in conventional decimal form, the number of Eons needed to count the Kazillion–Universes in such an Ensemble, the poor machine could not even scratch out a beginning in a Universe-life-so-far of 13.7 Billion years for instance. The numbers of Universes discussed are so fantastic that it may well be hubris to take this projection in stride. And yet the same decry any admission of Deity, Consciousness, or even Mind as so far, far more fantastic as to be rejected out of hand. But so again is it throughout Philosophy & Science, with the typical “proof” being: just look at how dumb & inconsistent are the Fundamentalist Christians. Is that a complete Argument ?
(3) Brute Chance Argument, being the off-handed dismissal of both Design & Ensemble Arguments as needless hypotheses. Something had to happen, & the way things came out is the way things came out, period, Long Odds be damned. These adherents just have to include some great customers for the convenience-store Lottery ticket sales. Robin Collins for one, goes at length to rule Brute Chance or Brute Fact as he calls it. He later argues at length against Ensembles, an arduous effort we will only touch base with here. If his narrowing the field of 3 categories to the 1 category of Design should hold water, then one last rhetorical questions remains. What’s more fantastic, aliens, Deist-Theist-Consciousness based Design alternatives, Time-travelers, or Future VR Sim programmers?
Secret Life of Plants – from earlier studies, speculations, and claims over recent centuries by Jagdish Chandra Bose, George Washington Carver, and Corentin Louis Kervran, a skeptical retired detective, Grover Cleveland Backster (Cleve Baxter as it is sometimes misspelled) had turned amateur “botanist” when applying his Polygraph equipment to Plants in a small Lab he ran in the suspicious locale of Times Square (ala Nikolai Tesla, the “mad scientist” before him) and like Tesla (not associated with plants but only with Times Square), Jagdish Chandra Bose, George Washington Carver, and Corentin Louis Kervran, Baxter was “buried” in cynical criticism and laughter. Soviet Scientists did considerably more of this same research, and Japanese research institutes did much more. All of the foregoing named (except Tesla) claimed unassailable evidence that Plants, at some distance, telepathically responded to Human emotions and even thoughts, in their own electrical “emotional” responses, as if responding to the tome (the “vibes”) of those Human emotions and thoughts without necessarily dissecting detailed meaning. Most recent “advances” in this area have Archeologists , ascribing to a few diverse ancient cultures the use of certain Plants to telepathically communicate with “other star systems” and perhaps “other galaxies.” All of this is left without comment for the reader’s perusal if interested, with the disclaimer of any other judgment or opinion here. We have bigger fish to fry here and try (sometimes unsuccessfully) out of controversial, incredible topics without direct relevance. Picking other battles and moving on we will try to side-step ESP. Parapsychology. UFO’s, Conspiracy theories, and politics in general. The taint of the Plant story likely deprived (along with the same racism that greeted Carver) Jagdish Chandra Bose from a Nobel Prize for his other eminent work. Let’s go one further and dare ourselves to just look at Soviet and US Parapsychology research supporting very unpopular hypotheses that Human thoughts and emotions can, at a distance, affect Petri-dish Cells, Ice crystals, and Minerals. (???)
The above themes & 1600 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through:
http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/
or with Caps-sensitive:
Duplicates (but with graphics) have been available on:
http://www.blogger.com as “Being-as-Consciousness, Non-Duality – new & final version” with link:
http://being-as-consciousness.blogspot.com/
[But from now on, they will be different & still usually daily.]
Nonduality and Science 