Exploring Consciousness: Non-Duality to Non-Locality- Preface by His Holiness Dalai Lama

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

I am pleased to provide a preface to this compilation of the proceedings of a conference organised by the India Foundation in association with the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bengaluru, Karnataka, on the theme of consciousness. I understand that more than twenty eminent scientists and philosophers from several countries presented papers that are gathered in this book, 'Exploring Consciousness'.

Drawing on ancient Indian findings, the tradition to which I belong defines consciousness as clear and knowing. Clear here refers to the ability of mental states to reveal or reflect. Knowing, on the other hand, refers to the faculty of the mind to perceive or apprehend what appears.

Many modern scientists assume that consciousness is a physical process that arises through the structure and dynamics of the brain. I have on several occasions proposed that mere thought might effect a change in the chemical processes of the brain. The general scientific response had been that since all mental states have a physical basis, it is not possible for thought or mental states to change the brain; however, the discovery of neuroplasticity has changed this.

I believe that it is possible for contemporary heirs to ancient Indian tradition, particularly followers of the Nalanda tradition, and modern science to engage in collaborative research in the understanding of consciousness. For the time being, they can leave aside the philosophical question of whether consciousness is ultimately physical or not. Such collaborative study will contribute not only to greater human understanding of consciousness, but also to a better understanding of the functioning of the human mind and its relation to happiness and suffering.

I am encouraged to see that the conference was an opportunity to bring together the knowledge of ancient India and modern understandings of consciousness, an exploration all the more crucial bearing in mind the vital role our consciousness plays in determining the course of humanity.

the contents of the book reflect the presentations and T discussions held at the first International Conference on Exploring Consciousness, the Man-Machine Debate, From Non Duality to Non Locality held on 22-24 September, 2022 at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurological Sciences (NIMHANS), at Bangalore, India, at the initiative of the India Foundation, with support from the Ministry of AYUSH, the Indian Council of Philosophical Research and the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce & Industry.

Consciousness is primary for all the experiences in life. The endeavour to understand the origin and nature of consciousness is becoming a mature science. The latter is showing its immense potential application across human endeavours, ranging from fundamental research to clinical applications, ethnics, business, technology and marketing at large for individual and collective well-being. Thus, exchanging and debating information and ideas in this vast domain is of major importance to the scientific community and to society.

The purpose of this exercise is to bring together some of the most eminent researchers and inventors in the area of physics, biology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, cybernetics, quantum computing and allied fields as well as scholars and spiritual teachers of the main Indic spiritual and psychological disciplines and doctrines. This book aims to build bridges and work towards a consensus between scientists, technologists, sociologists, spiritual and philosophical scholars from Indian/Asian and Western traditions.

Everything that led to or understood diversely as spirit, mind, soul, and consciousness, the latter being perhaps the most recent of the designations used in all the world's languages, was till fairly recently confined to the provinces of religion, whether mystical or dogmatic and philosophy, in all its schools. However, in the last century, it was gradually claimed by science once it began to apply its research method to the investigation of a field that had long been regarded as lying beyond the pale of objective experimental knowledge. Prior attempts, going back to antiquity, to detect and map the 'mind stuff in brain matter and to relate it to the electrical force and other natural phenomena had been only marginally successful at best. The essence of what manifests as awareness, cognition, intelligence, and other related experiential features of living creatures has remained elusive.

A great divide still sets apart those who profess that consciousness is some sort of biochemical or biophysical product of brain structures and neurological processes a bit like honey is the product of a beehive or oxygen the output of photosynthesis in plants from their colleagues who see the physical world as arising out of a prior or at least transcendent noetic reality. The latter investigators find support in the fact that, so far, mechanistic theories about the emergence of biological intelligence out of living cells through some biochemical reaction remain unconfirmed by experimentation. On the other hand, several scientific interpretations of quantum physical phenomena, often inspired by ancient metaphysical and philosophical concepts, provide plausible and convincing explanations of the nature and features of what many like to define as an intelligent cosmos, whether they choose to call themselves as pan-psychists like some of the neo-platonic philosophers or prefer to say that the ultimate reality is an undefinable 'zero-point field' whose first emanation is consciousness, of which Time and Space are only interfaces (Donald Hoffman).