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From: kovsky@netcom.com (Bob Kovsky)
Subject: Re: What makes up consciousness?
Message-ID: <kovskyD3x7Gw.7JJ@netcom.com>
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References: <departedD3vKy5.M3B@netcom.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 04:07:44 GMT
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In article <departedD3vKy5.M3B@netcom.com>,
just passing through <departed@netcom.com> wrote:

>Some proposed ideas/questions:

...

>4) Have you ever been conscious without being conscious-of something?
>   Is it a necessary property of consciousness to be aware of something,
>   or is it actually meaningful to speak of consciousness by itself?

	Yes, I have been conscious without being conscious-of something. 
It happens during meditation.  I try once or twice a day and make it about
50% of the time.  It is sweet.  [A metaphor:  "consciousness connects self
to experience.  Like a leash connects master to dog.  Sometimes, the leash
slips off the dog.  Then it (the leash) just hangs there..."] My form of
meditation is not buddhist, but some of the clearest verbalizations come
from buddhists.  In Burmese buddhism, the condition of consciousness
without an object is called "bare awareness."  See Nyanaponika Thera <The
Heart of Buddhist Meditation>. 

-- 

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