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The physical organism can be said to be individual. You are not the physical organism.
Originally posted by AfterInfinity
The physical organism that is typing this post is my sole medium of connecting with, experiencing, and learning from, this world. I feel everything it feels, remember most of what it had done and said, and my survival depends upon its continued functionality. For all intensive purposes, I am this vessel. I don't think it's possible to be this body more than I am right now - and will be for the rest of my life. No one knows more about this body than I do. No one has a deeper connection with this body than I do. I own all the exclusive rights to this body. Just as I have defined the purpose of this body through how I use it, this body has defined much of how I think and act.
Considering all the ways and all the time I've been bound to this vessel, I think it's safe to say I am the vessel. Without me, this vessel is nothing. I define it. I define everything about this vessel. I am the vessel, and the vessel is me. Without this vessel, you have none of me.edit on 20-5-2013 by AfterInfinity because: (no reason given)
Your purpose in having a body is to realize that you are not the body.
Your purpose in having a body is to realize that you are not the body.
Originally posted by LesMisanthrope
reply to post by HarryTZ
Your purpose in having a body is to realize that you are not the body.
A body is a corpse, a non-functioning organism. No one is a body until they are dead. Niether does one "have" a body. A functioning human organism is a prerequisite to all of its abstractions—body, consciousness, ego, mind, soul, psyche, awareness—without it, there would be none of these concepts. To say one is not this organism, while at the same time being this organism, is one of the most contradictory ideas I've ever come across, and represents the gravest mistake of the idealist mindset.
And yes, there is one universe of which we are a part of. We are not the universe itself. This is evidenced by the fact that we aren't.
Originally posted by LesMisanthrope
So I feel it is a little dishonest to demonize a virtual abstraction of oneself and chalk-up all our arrogance, greed, vanity and other egotisms, to a few bodily urges, when the entire drive, urge or instinct of the organism as one whole phenomena is the only thing operating in this fashion.
Consciousness is not part of the body. The body is part of consciousness. You (consciousness) are not this organism, you have this organism.
Paradoxically, the more someone detaches from ego, the more they take responsibility for all egoistic tendencies, thoughts, and actions. This is because the need to protect the ego diminishes proportionally to the degree of detachment.
It would help if you shared with me your beliefs on the mechanisms of consciousness, and its significance in the universe. Just so I can have a base for this conversation.