Matter of Mind-Only
An in depth analysis of the idea that reality is the nature of consciousness and the fact that what was considered to be ‘classical’ matter, the stuff assumed to exist independently of the mind by Descartes, in fact is an illusion. The chapter begins with a consideration of the irrefutability of the idealist view of the nature of reality presented by the sixteenth century English philosopher Bishop Berkley. Modern materialist arguments presented by philosophers such as Dan Dennett are clearly shown, both by quantum physics and philosophy, to be fallacious.
The modern Western prejudice for a materialist viewpoint is considered with regard to the modern academic discipline of consciousness studies. A survey of the logical incoherence of modern western academic approaches to consciousness, some of them proposed by recent best selling authors : Dennett, Dawkins, Hofstadter, Ramachandran, Chalmers, Churchland, Greenfield etc. is carried out This chapter demonstrates the lack of tenability of the materialist perspective – the idea that consciousness ‘emerges’ from non-conscious ‘matter’. The chapter employs, primarily, the Mind-Only demonstration of the impossibility of this notion. Logical demonstrations that consciousness is the ultimate constituent of reality are employed. These involve the logical requirement that two ultimate entities that are inherently opposite and antithetical, such as matter and consciousness, cannot be connected. These reasonings are employed together with the clear evidence of quantum physics.
The chapter presents the idea, presented first by the quantum physicist Nick Herbert, that consciousness, a direct experience, can be considered to be the subjective manifestation of the wave function. The experience of the material world is the illusion generated necessarily by the creation of the illusion of the subjective-objective division within experience. The relationship between this view and Bishop Berkley’s Idealism is explored and the vindication of a thoroughgoing idealism by quantum physics is demonstrated; Plank’s assertion that ‘This Mind is the Matrix of all matter’ is shown to be unavoidable.
The views of Roger Penrose, Stuart Hameroff, the Dalai Lama, Paul Davies are examined in this connection. The crucial viewpoint of Henry Stapp and the Yogacara analysis of the functioning of consciousness at the ground quantum level are investigated in greater detail. This leads to the viewpoint that the illusion of reality arises from the basis of an extraordinary resonant interaction taking place at the quantum level. Schrödinger’s view of the primacy of resonance at the quantum level is important in this context.
The materialist Paul Churchland’s suggestion that precise introspection should directly reveal hidden ‘brain processes’ is turned back on him by
showing that this introspective discipline already exists. It is Buddhist meditation – the exploration of the nature of consciousness through precise introspective insight techniques. Meditation is considered from the point of view of an inward direct exploration of consciousness, and therefore reality. Buddhist meditation is shown to fulfil Nick Herbert’s proposed program for a science of the investigation of consciousness at the quantum level.
The final phase of this chapter presents a rigorous demonstration that the Mind-Only (Chittamatra) metaphysical analysis of the structure of the process of reality in terms of the three natures – imputational nature, other powered nature and thoroughly established - nature corresponds precisely to the perceptual-metaphysical structure of reality implied by quantum physics.
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