Being Conscious

In a blog article posted in 2018, titled, System Administrator of the Mind, I wrote about how the mind is like a Unix operating system, with thoughts as processes running in memory. Meditation is the equivalent of typing "ps -ef", to list the processes running and if necessary, kill off unnecessary ones that are hogging resources.

People who have no introspective capability, are always operating in application mode. The main application that runs in our bio-computer is one called "Self" or "I". Any decision-making that our brains are concerned with are all at the application-level, of which the chief concern is the perpetuation and survival of the Self, which is a conceptual abstraction of the body and mind.

As a living biological system, we are concerned with the survival of the human body (the hardware) and mind (the software). The identity we have are our genes and whatever information that we have captured and integrated into our minds. Just like an AI model, our Natural Intelligence model has evolved through a lifetime of learning. I suspect, our knowledge-store is not simply limited to the neuronal structure of the brain but also in the body, in the form of bio-chemical processes, protein structure, the timing and sequence of genetic expression and also the microbiome. 

The Self is needless to say, "selfish". Every action that we do, is geared towards the preservation of our self-identity, which is nothing more than information. Theoretically, in the future, we can completely capture this information model which you call "I" and run it on a more a more durable computer. Like it or not, in a way, we are all simulations. 

If the Self is nothing but a stream of information, then is there no such thing as a "soul", which many religions belief is the underlying reality of our existence? Yes and no.  You see, the word "soul" is another abstraction. Just like "information stream" or "stream of consciousness" or even "consciousness". The moment we label anything, we are giving it a conceptual reality. As the Gospel of John so cryptically expressed, "In the beginning was the Word". When the Word is expressed, it immediately exists in a kind of Platonic realm--an abstract class, which can be implemented and instantiated in different substrate.

Maybe there is an ultimate reality which is the "Brahman", the substrate from which all concepts find instantiation. But the moment we say it, Brahman is conceptualised--there's a Subject-Object relationship, a Knower and the Known, a Seer and the Seen. 

So we have this primordial concept of a Self-the Atman, that is observing creation itself. That is the simplest and lowest level of conception--the 1-and-0 binary system that gives birth to the multiplicity of the universe.  The simplest thing that we can conceive of in our minds is a "Oneness" or a "Nothingness" or god-forbid,  "God". 

You know you are conscious. That in a way is the only thing that you "know". It is this conscious knowing that matters. When you meditate, you are simply experiencing consciousness as it is, without getting tangled up in all the different conceptual layers. We relinquish every possible category error, by recognising everything as they are. All thoughts, in the end are concepts--the multiplicity, resulting from the subject-object duality. 

Will you be conscious forever? Does this consciousness survive the material death of your body? Well, you'll find out when the time comes. If you are really conscious, you would not have anything to worry about.