There is no World Outside Consciousness
Summary
TLDRThe transcript explores the idea that our sensory experiences, such as seeing, touching, smelling, and hearing, are not encounters with external objects, but rather modulations of consciousness. It emphasizes that what we perceive as objects, like a flower, are conceptualizations by the mind. Instead of experiencing external reality, we only experience sensory perceptions. The discussion touches on the intersubjective agreement—shared experiences of the world—and suggests that this agreement points to shared consciousness, not a shared external reality. The conversation also references Shakespeare, highlighting how external beauty distracts us from the deeper reality of awareness.
Takeaways
- 🌸 The experience of seeing, smelling, and touching a flower is a modulation of consciousness, not an encounter with an external object.
- 👀 We infer the presence of an external flower, but all we can be certain of is the experience of seeing itself.
- 🧠 Our minds conceptualize sensory experiences into objects, but this is not the ultimate reality; it's just an interpretation.
- 🔍 The world perceived through the senses is not external; it exists as sense perceptions themselves.
- 🌍 There has never been proof of a world existing independently of the senses; only the experience of sensory perception is real.
- 🤔 The notion of a single external object perceived through different senses is a mental construct.
- 🔗 Different sensory experiences (seeing, hearing, touching, etc.) arise from a single source—awareness.
- 💭 The mind projects the idea of a single object, but this is an illusion created by thought. What truly exists is awareness.
- 🌱 Inter-subjective agreement () on the perceived world is actually evidence of a shared consciousness, not a shared external reality.
- 🎭 Shakespeare's line 'Beauty brags but is not she' reflects the idea that external objects distract attention away from awareness, when true beauty lies in the awareness itself.
Q & A
What does the speaker mean by 'the experience of seeing, touching, and smelling the flower'?
-The speaker suggests that seeing, touching, and smelling the flower are not experiences of an external object but are modulations of consciousness. The flower, as we perceive it, is an inference of the mind, and we never directly encounter an external flower.
Why does the speaker claim the object (the flower) is an 'inference'?
-The speaker claims the flower is an inference because we only directly experience seeing, smelling, or touching. The external object (flower) is never directly found in our experience. What we perceive as 'the flower' is a mental concept formed based on these sensory inputs.
How does the speaker explain the role of the mind in conceptualizing sensory experiences?
-The speaker explains that the mind takes the separate experiences of seeing, touching, and smelling and conceptualizes them into a single object, such as a flower. This process is how the mind interprets sensory inputs into coherent objects.
What does the speaker mean by 'our only knowledge of the world is the five sense perceptions'?
-The speaker means that our experience of the world is limited to what we perceive through the five senses—sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. We never actually encounter a world independent of these perceptions.
Why does the speaker say we can't find a world that exists 'in its own right'?
-The speaker argues that we cannot find a world that exists independently because everything we know of the world comes through our perceptions. There is no direct evidence of a world outside of these sensory experiences.
What is meant by the 'shared world is evidence of shared Consciousness'?
-The speaker suggests that the fact we all experience the same world indicates a shared field of consciousness, not a shared external world. It is the underlying awareness that makes it seem like we are experiencing the same reality.
How does the speaker critique materialists' belief in an 'outside world'?
-The speaker critiques materialists by explaining that their belief in an external world, based on shared sensory experiences, is incorrect. Instead, these shared experiences point to a shared consciousness, not an independent, external world.
What does 'Beauty brags but is not she' mean in this context?
-In this context, 'Beauty brags but is not she' refers to how objects seem to draw attention away from our true nature (consciousness) by appearing beautiful. The speaker argues that it is not the object's surface beauty that is truly attractive, but the underlying awareness within perception.
Why does the speaker emphasize the 'presence of awareness' in perception?
-The speaker emphasizes that the true source of attraction in our experiences, such as the beauty of an object, is not the object itself but the presence of awareness that is always shining through our perceptions.
How does the speaker connect this understanding to Shakespeare's line about beauty?
-The speaker connects this understanding by explaining that Shakespeare's line 'Beauty brags but is not she' reflects the idea that what seems outwardly attractive in the world is not the true source of beauty. Instead, it is the presence of awareness within us that makes things appear beautiful.
Outlines
🌸 Perception as Modulations of Consciousness
In this paragraph, the speaker explores the idea that when we perceive a flower—by seeing, smelling, or touching it—the experience is not of encountering an external object. Instead, these sensations are modulations of consciousness itself. The flower exists as an inference, and what we truly know is only the act of perceiving, not the flower as an independent entity. All sensory experiences (sight, smell, touch, taste, etc.) are described as arising within consciousness. The belief that the world exists independently of perception is challenged, and the idea that thought conceptualizes sensory experiences into tangible objects is presented. The paragraph also touches upon how awareness is the common source of all sensory experiences.
🧠 Shared Consciousness, Not an External World
This paragraph discusses the 'inter-subjective agreement,' which is the idea that people believe in an external world because we all seem to perceive the same things. Materialists use this agreement as evidence of an objective world outside of consciousness. However, the speaker argues that this shared experience actually points to a shared consciousness, not an external world. Since all individual minds arise from the same field of infinite awareness, the world appears the same to everyone. Shakespeare's quote, 'Beauty brags but is not she,' is used to illustrate how external objects draw our attention away from consciousness toward superficial aspects of beauty. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing that true attraction lies not in the object itself, but in the presence of awareness that underlies our perceptions.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Consciousness
💡Senses (Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste, Hearing)
💡External World
💡Inter-subjective Agreement
💡Awareness
💡Mind vs. Consciousness
💡Perception
💡Projection
💡Materialism
💡Beauty
Highlights
Perception of the flower as an external entity is actually modulations of consciousness, not something separate from us.
The experience of seeing the flower is not about the flower as an object, but rather just seeing itself.
The inference of the flower as an object is made by the mind, but the only certainty is the experience of seeing, smelling, or touching.
No one has ever found a world that exists independently of sense perceptions; the world is only known through seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling.
Our minds conceptualize sensory experiences into objects, but the experiences themselves are not inherently of anything.
There is an intuitive belief in a singular object behind sensory experiences, but it is rooted in the shared experience of awareness.
Awareness is the common source of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling, not the external world.
The mind projects a single object onto the world, but this projection is incorrect; the source of the experience is awareness.
Materialists interpret inter-subjective agreement (the fact we all perceive the same world) as evidence of an outside world, but it's actually evidence of shared consciousness.
Inter-subjective agreement indicates shared consciousness, not the shared reality of the external world.
Shakespeare's quote 'Beauty brags but is not she' refers to the false allure of external objects that distract attention from consciousness.
Beauty, in the context of external objects, is merely a superficial surface attracting attention away from awareness.
The true attraction of beauty is not in the external object itself, but in the awareness present in our perception.
The perception of beauty is a reminder of the presence of awareness, not the physical object’s allure.
Shakespeare intuitively recognized that beauty is not external, but an experience rooted in consciousness.
Transcripts
well you mentioned flowers what okay so
when we see a
flower
um and let's say go up to the flower
smell it touch it rather than seeing the
flower then as an external
entity that we're
encountering um would it
be in accordance
with this understanding
[Music]
to see the experience of sight smell
touch as modulations of
Consciousness rather than something
external that we're coming in contact
with yes uhhuh yes that's right take
take the experience of
seeing touching in and smelling the
flower right takes seeing to begin with
mhm are we
sure that there is a
flower outside the experience of seeing
yeah we say we are seeing the
flower but in fact the
flower is an inference
right all we can know for sure is I am
experiencing seeing or there is seeing
yeah the the object
seen is never
found in other words it's not seeing the
flower it is just seeing
yeah and when we go up and smell the
flower we think I am
smelling the
flower but it is in fact just the
experience of smelling right it's not
the smelling we never find the of the
flower and the same with tasting and
touching so when we say we see hear
touch taste and smell the world and the
only our only knowledge of the world is
the five sense perceptions yeah we've
never nobody has ever actually found a
world that exist s in its own right
independent of the experience of seeing
hearing touching tasting and smelling
right so we can't even
say there is seeing hearing touching
tasting and smelling of the world we can
only legitimately say there is seeing
hearing touching tasting and smelling
yeah it's not of anything
yeah and it's our concept it's our
mind our mind not consciousness but our
mind um that our relative mind so to
speak that um
conceptualizes yes those five or those
sensory experiences into a thing yes
yeah
yes yes
the however the the
intuition that there is one
thing out there called a flower
that we are seeing hearing touching
tasting and smelling is not completely
ignorant it's based on the
intuition that Although seeing hearing
touching tasting and smelling are five
different
experiences what is truly being
experienced is
One MH that is a correct
intuition which is
awareness exactly
thought in response to this intuition
thought posits the single object that is
seen heard touched taste and smelled
it's just the interpretation that
thought gives the experience is
incorrect it is true that seeing hearing
touching tasting and smelling do have a
single common source it is awareness but
because the object knowing mind can't
see that awareness
IT projects the single object onto into
the world and says the object exists out
there yeah um you know this is taught in
Buddhism and I've never come to
understand that before this um even get
getting a vague yes glimpse of that but
this makes so much sense yes yeah thank
you so so it's very interesting Ken
because
this
intuition that each of us has that there
is a
single object a single something that is
seen heard touch taste and
smelled and that we all share this
intuition and
materialists use this as apparent
evidence
for an outside
world it's called the inter subjective
agreement the agreement between
different subjects and they believe that
the world is evidence the fact that we
all experience the same world is
evidence that there is a world outside
Consciousness in fact it's the opposite
the world the shared world is evidence
of shared
Consciousness it is because each of our
minds is precipitated from the same
field of infinite awareness that the
world appears to be the same to each of
us so the inter subjective agreement in
fact
indicates the shared reality of
Consciousness not the shared reality of
the outside world
and and and to just finish the quotation
when Shakespeare said uh Beauty brags
but is not she uh he meant that seeing
the world as things out there yes and in
any case uh seeing some for some
superficial
Beauty uh is not really it exactly the
way he uses the word beauty in this
context is beauty brags but is not she
it is the
the shiny surface of the object that
seems to attract our attention away from
Consciousness yeah towards the outside
object the object in this sense is
bragging it is saying come to me Le it
is saying to the attention leave your
home in awareness and come to me the
object Beauty brags but it is not really
she it is not really her that is
attractive it's not the shiny surface of
the object it is the presence of
awareness which is shining in our
perceptions that is truly
attractive how do you think he knew
that that's a good
[Laughter]
question yeah
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