NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 46:
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 from the Ramana Maharshi disciple Master Nome:
The Knowledge of Reality, which is the Realization of the Self & the Realization of the Absolute, is attained by the direct path of true Knowledge. By liberating oneself from the mis-identification with what is not the Self, one knows the Self. When the Real Nature of what has been considered as the non-Self is seen, it invariably proves to be non-existent, for such non-Self was dependent upon mis-identification in order to even ever appear. Blissful & Eternal is the Real Self. One should regard only that which has no beginning or end, is ever existent, is unchanging, is transcendent of all that has Form, of all that changes, & all that is in Time. The Self is also continuous & undivided as Real & one’s own true Being. By this Knowledge, one abides in the Natural State, which is the only True State of the Self. The Self may be said to call unto itself, as the Sought & as the Seeker; as the Guru & as the disciple; as God & as the devotee. The Self seeks itself in meditation. The Self reveals itself as inner experience. The Self knows & abides in itself for blissful Eternity.
Some more of Master Nome’s earliest aphorisms:
Now is not a time. Here is not a location. Here and now is formless, real Being.(2,28)
The past & future have no reality. The fleeting present moment is also an illusion. Timeless Consciousness is conceived as time & all that time measures. (2.57)
When does time begin ? When there was no time. But if there was no time, no then or now, did it begin at all ? (2.60)
There is no cause for illusion; for illusion is unreal, and for an unreal effect there cannot be a real cause. Causality is itself illusory. (3.21)
The entire Universe is in the mind and the mind does not exist. (1.102)
Consider the World to be a dream, and discover the absence of the dreamer.(1.69)
To expect the perception of forms – theWorld, body, senses, and thought – to disappear at its own level to transcend them is like expecting the dream character in one’s dream to see the dream forms – dreamWorld, dream body, dream senses, and dream thoughts – disappear within the dream, before waking.
- When the forms – the World, body, senses, and thought – vanish, the Reality of pure, transcendent Being alone remains. Even when thought of as appearing, the Reality of pure, transcendent Being alone remains. (2.53)
Be free from thought’s definition, from the notion of a second knowing principle, & from the notion of a differentiated mind.
Fine-Tuned Universe 26:
[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]
Details to follow soon later on, but suffice it for the moment to say that Surprisingness in the Bostrom sense depends for one thing on Relative Fine-Tuning or Selection of LP parameter values when the allowed Range is divided by the entire plausible or possible range. Temperatures in the Universe, for instance, vary enough that it is fair to say that Earth is currently Fine-Tuned in LP Temperature as might numerous other Earth-like and possible LP planets. So here with Temperature we have Fine-Tuning but no great Surprisingness in itself. But Surprisingness further relies on compounded probabilities (like the cheating gambler who will 11 consecutive Lotteries). Temperature Fine-Tuning then may play a component role in an immense chain of compounded probabilities that is Surprising enough to “demand an Explanation (Design or Ensemble, since Brute Chance is just the denial of that “demand” for Explanation). Flipping a Heads, H on a Coin-Toss is not Surprising, being 50%, but the compounded probabilities of an Octillion H’s in a row could be found to have the Surprisingness on 1 Chance in a Kazillion (of course an artificial term for an unthinkably large number).
However, if some other Parameter, let us say allowable magnetic field for the sake of discussion, exhibited an LP Range that was ¼ th of its total possible Range [none of this hypothetical really makes sense] then Surprisingness drops put right there on the issue of Relative Range even if the actual or Absolute Range happened to seem very small (plus or minus a few micro-webers or whatever). This hypothetical Parameter could then be dropped from the Fine-Tuning discussion, even as a relatively significant component of compounded probabilities, & so it is for ever so many LP characteristics we might conjure up in our imagination. But then after all the weeding out of the irrelevant, compounded probabilities & Surprisingness of Fine-Tuning for LP Parameters remains remarkable, to say the least.
Bland & Restricted Principles of Indifference:
Bland Indifference can describe the “living in denial” categorized within Psychological Compartmentalization, which in the extreme is the Borderline Psychotic defense against Cognitive Dissidence or disturbing contradictions encountered in Life. As Nick Bostrum used the terms when discussing his Sim-Arg, the Principle of Bland Indifference has another statistical meaning related to the Conclusion of the Subject in Leslie’s Gender Scenario where the Female places her bet with the bigger numbers, regardless of other considerations. If a given century involved 5,000 Females (vs. only 3) in the Project, than Odds are, she lives in that century. This allegiance to the numbers, no matter what, is her Bland Indifference, so to speak.
Generally, by the Bland Indifference Principle we should reason such that if we don’t have any Information that indicates that our own particular experiences are any more or less likely than other human-type experiences, then these experiences should be dismissed from the Reference Class in determining our Credence about a given Probability [a neo-Copernican principle]. furthermore, that Credence generally equals the sheer Probability Numbers, if lacking special detailed information.
[That’s why it looked like the Credence version of the 3 Bearded Men scenarios looked that same as the earlier Probability-based. They were the same. It was a needed repeat but only with the Credence instead of the Probability. Added was the note that New Information could temper the Credence or Belief, thus distinguishing it from Probability. Credence held more promise for fixing the Adam & Eve paradoxes, which scenario compares to some Anthropic Principle issues.]
One common retort would be the Napoleon Case for instance. No matter how many crazy people think they are Napoleon, Napoleon’s own grounds for thinking he is Napoleon are different, & the existence of those crazy people shouldn’t undercut his self-confidence. The Bland Indifference Principle suggests that if 1 Million crazy people have thought they are Napoleon, and if hypothetically Napoleon knows this statistic, then Napoleon himself should only believe he is Napoleon with a Credence of 1 in a Million. But to be less “bland” in one’s “indifference” for Napoleon is to recognize his uniquely special reasons for confidence in his self-identity (memories, peer agreement, etc.) & rely not just on Numbers.
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 have been available on:
jstiga.wordpress.com/
[But from now on, they will be different & still usually daily.]
Nonduality and Science 