Category Archives: UNIVERSES

Universes are comprised of thoughts, ideas, dreams, illusions, delusions, which may also include stars, space, time, energy and objects. Or not. These are the universes of the author Lawrence R. Spencer, and others for whom he has an affinity.

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ILLUSIONS OF SENTIENCE

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In the philosophy of consciousness, “sentience” can refer to the ability of any entity to have subjective perceptual experiences.  This is distinct from other aspects of the mind and consciousness, such as creativity, intelligence, sapience, self-awareness, and intentionality (the ability to have thoughts that mean something or are “about” something). Sentience is a minimalistic way of defining “consciousness“, which is otherwise commonly used to collectively describe sentience plus other characteristics of the mind.

Eastern religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism recognize non-humans as sentient beings.According to Buddhism, sentient beings made of pure consciousness are possible. In Buddhism, the concept is related to the Bodhisattva, an enlightened being devoted to the liberation of others. The first vow of a Bodhisattva states: “Sentient beings are numberless; I vow to free them.”  Sentience in Buddhism is the state of having senses (sat + ta in Pali, or sat + tva in Sanskrit). In Buddhism, the senses are six in number, the sixth being the subjective experience of the mind. Thus, an animal qualifies as a sentient being.

In Buddhism the skandhas (or aggregates in English) are the five functions or aspects that constitute the human being.  The Buddha teaches that nothing among them is really “I” or “mine”.  Suffering arises when one identifies with or clings to an aggregate. Suffering is extinguished by relinquishing attachments to aggregates.

The five skandhas:

  1. “form” or “matter”  external and internal matter. Externally, is the physical world. Internally, this  includes the material body and the physical sense organs.
  2. “sensation” or “feeling”, sensing an objectas either pleasant or unpleasant or neutral.
  3. “perception”, “conception”, “apperception”, “cognition”, or “discrimination”, registers whether an object is recognized or not (for instance, the sound of a bell or the shape of a tree).
  4. “mental formations”, “impulses”, “volition”, or “compositional factors”, all types of mental habits, thoughts, ideas, opinions, prejudices, compulsions, and decisions triggered by an object.
  5. “consciousness” or “discernment”

The Buddhist literature describes the aggregates as arising in a linear or progressive fashion, from form to feeling, to perception, to mental formations to consciousness.  In the early texts, the scheme of the five aggregates is not meant to be an exhaustive classification of the human being. Rather it describes various aspects of the way an individual manifests.

  1. Understanding suffering: the five aggregates are the “ultimate referent” in the Buddha’s elaboration on suffering in his First Noble Truth: “Since all four truths revolve around suffering, understanding the aggregates is essential for understanding the Four Noble Truths as a whole.”
  2. Clinging causes future suffering: the five aggregates are the substrata for clinging and thus “contribute to the causal origination of future suffering”.
  3. Release from samsara: clinging to the five aggregates must be removed in order to achieve release from samsara, literally meaning “continuous flow”, is the repeating cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth (reincarnation)

— I HAVE EXCERPTED THE TEXT ABOVE FROM VARIOUS ARTICLES AND LINKS FOUND IN WIKIPEDIA.ORG  (LRS)

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HOW TO SPOT A PREDATOR

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PREDATORS

This is how to detect a the most common human predators (i.e. the predators that feed on the lives of human beings).  Just because the predators “LOOK LIKE” human beings,  do not believe their lies and tricks!  They are NOT human beings.  They are a completely different species of creature, similar to vampires.  They have no soul, no conscience,  no ethics, no remorse.  If you encounter one of these creatures there are several actions you can take to avoid being killed and consumed by them:

1) run away  2)  avoid contact with them 3) call a pest exterminator 4) report the menace to animal control 5) move to a country that does not allow them….  ( oh, it’s too late because there are not countries that are free from them any more.)   🙁

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Déjà vu

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Déjà vu, from French, literally “already seen”, is the phenomenon of having the strong sensation that an event or experience currently being experienced had been experienced in the past.

Here are two examples of very young children who “already know” how to play the piano, masterfully! How can an adopted 3 year old, blind girl “already know” how to play the piano, instantly accompany a vocalist without ever having heard the tune before? She also plays the piano and sings.

This 5 year old “just knows” how to play the piano — without any training — like a classical master. How can this possible happen? They remember. It cannot be more obvious. Everyone has lived before, a thousand, thousand times. You and I may not be able to remember how the play the piano because we never played it before. However, there are thousands of examples in history of people being able to “just know” how to do things.

Computer scientists “just know” how to manufacture and program computer circuitry — even though ELECTRICITY wasn’t even “invented” until 150 years ago! How does a planet make the quantum leap from burning wood and candles, riding in horse carts and sailing ships to atomic bombs and global satellite systems in 150 years?! There is no “evolutionary process” involved.

It’s too simple: we have done all of these things before on other planets, in other times, in other galaxies. It’s Déjà vu.