The Enigma of i-Consciousness

Unfolding Consciousness: Exploring the Living Universe and Intelligent Powers in Nature and Humans, 2022

This chapter examines the fundamental metaphysical question of selfhood from the standpoint of the Perennial Philosophy. Contrasting modern scientific materialism with esoteric philosophy and classical religious thought, it explores the distinction between the personality (ego) and the deeper, essential Self. The chapter forms part of a wider work which seeks to reconcile the insights of mysticism, science, and philosophy into a unified vision of consciousness and being. The Proem opened with that most difficult of all, yet most important injunction that humanity must address: ‘Know Thyself’—the aphorism inscribed in the pronaos of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. In personal terms this equates to ‘Who Am I?’ or in more dispassionate terms, ‘What Am I?’ It is important first to undertake a preliminary exercise in order to avoid accepting from books statements that are contrary to, or are not corroborated by, experience. The pursuit of Truth, or the enquiry into the nature of reality, does not demand that we automatically reject what we do not know in experience, but that we distinguish clearly between concepts and information received on the one hand and experienced facts on the other. Before resorting to books, lectures, and other external sources, it might be profitable to give some thought to our personal experience of ourselves by asking ‘What Am I?’ or ‘Who Am I?’ In everyday experience we can recognize a distinction between subject and object, between the use of a tool and the tool that is used, between the writer and the pen, the pianist and the piano. With such introspection, is it also possible to distinguish the thought producer from the thought produced? That which can be produced, manipulated, and controlled cannot be exactly the same as the entity that produces, manipulates, and controls; the former must be other than—albeit related to—the latter. Thus, I know from personal experience that I am not just the body that I use. After all, I can make my body perform acts that it detests or likes doing. Who, or what, is the entity, the ‘I’, that is so acting on my body? Similarly, I know that by an act of will, I can change my emotional states, say managing and redirecting my anger, dispelling depression or calming my anxiety. Significantly, I also know that, despite the difficulties that I may have in my personal life, I can, as a deliberate act of will, select my thoughts and to some extent control them to create an optimistic outlook, rather than succumb to bleak pessimism. I also know that, more frequently than I would like to admit, I choose to do the wrong thing or speak hurtful words, even though I know in advance about the troubles that will ensue in the wake of such foolishness. At infrequent times, I can sense a sort of blurring of my subject–object awareness, in the sense that what I do, and the act of doing, seem to be fused—popularly known as being ‘in the flow’, or living ‘in the present moment’. This brief introspection shows me that I am not the same as my body, or my emotions, and certainly not my thoughts. My instruments of expression physically, emotionally, and intellectually are at a lower level and therefore not the same as the ‘I’ who uses them.

Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 2019

Who am I? What is the self? What is consciousness? Peter Ralston explores these questions and other related questions, but he recognized that he cannot provide answers to these questions because the real answers can only come from a person's personal experiences. This book deserves reviewing after 9 years in which many journals no longer conduct reviews. It is wonderful that Imagination, Cognition, and Personality allows book reviews; no matter the publication date. This book is a classic and deserves belated recognition. This book does not attempt to provide answers but expands upon these questions and provides a contemplative avenue for readers to experience their own answers. A person's conceptual-self or self-concept likely includes misconceptions inherent in the teachings of our cultural institutions of family, schools, and religion, teachings of beliefs and concepts that have not been validated through personal experience thus they limit our reality. The true-self is that part of the self that has found the answers to "who am I?" or "what is the self ?" through personal experiences. With this clear distinction between our self-concept of the beliefs that have not been validated through experience and the experienced true self, Chapters 6 through 20 examine in considerable detail how we have learned these selfconcepts. These self-concepts though often false are deeply defended layer upon layer in a snowballing manner in order to protect our self-concept or self-image. This protection of the self is a lifelong pursuit based on the drive to survive. When you are asked who you are, you most likely offer a list of these learned concepts that you have come to believe even though you have not personally experienced their truth so do not know of their truth. "Not Knowing" in the book's title arises in several different domains. Any honest learning experience begins from the state of not knowing the answer. In our journey toward the truth, when we are told by our cultural institutions Imagination, Cognition and

Unfolding Consciousness: Exploring the Living Universe and Intelligent Powers in Nature and Humans , 2022

Serving as the foundational prelude to Unfolding Consciousness, this proem outlines the purpose, scope, and philosophical justification for the work as a whole. Dr Edi Bilimoria articulates the urgent need for a synthesis between science, spirituality, and the Perennial Philosophy in response to the fragmentation of modern thought. The chapter explores why a unified, consciousness-centred worldview is essential for humanity’s evolution, while establishing the epistemological framework upon which the subsequent volumes are built. It invites the reader to engage with both intellectual rigour and intuitive insight, laying the groundwork for a multidimensional enquiry into the nature of reality and the self. Since the dawn of time, the exhortation by sages of all ages and cultures to know ourselves, and thereby to know humanity and the world of which we are a part, is, of course, a perennial entreaty. It would be presumptuous indeed to profess to have found the ultimate dictum. However, we may claim in this work to have advanced a few small footsteps towards this supreme, but never-ending quest of Self-enquiry. But what is meant by the disarmingly simple injunction, ‘Know Thyself ’? Does it refer merely to our body, which obviously assumes that we are just our body and nothing else? Or does the totality of our being comprise our physical body as well as subtle bodies on higher levels than the physical—giving us form and expression at those levels—all subsumed under the guidance of an overarching master principle? This master principle, we aver, is none other than Consciousness. In this work then, we deal with the unfolding of Consciousness—the primary principle of all existence—and its expression through various bodies, subtle and material, on all planes of being from the divine and spiritual to the material and physical. Our scope of enquiry and terms of reference will embrace the universal, ageless wisdom and the corroboration of some of its tenets by modern science. It is important to understand what is meant by the universal, ageless wisdom. This wisdom is known under a variety of terms, all conveying the essential meaning of eternal truth. This corpus of wisdom addresses the oneness of all life, and the intrinsic divinity of all that exists—it is the root of all religions, sciences, and philosophies that have burgeoned like magnificent fruits from the branches emanating from the central trunk of the Tree of Wisdom. As the term implies, it is the unbounded wisdom of all ages and all times; it can be discerned in the doctrines of the East and the West, from antiquity to the present. Amongst the many appellations given to this universal wisdom through the ages we cite: philosophia perennis, the phrase coined by the German philosopher, mathematician, historian, and inventor Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz FRS (1646–1716), then adopted as the Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), the novelist and philosopher nominated nine times for the Nobel Prize in Literature;2 the religio perennis by the Swiss philosopher and metaphysicist, Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998); the Ancient Wisdom (‘ancient’ in the sense of being eternal, or ageless, not obsolete); the Eternal Wisdom; theosophia, or theosophy; the Mystery Teachings; Gupta-Vidyā, the Sanskrit term meaning Divine Wisdom; and prisca sapientia, the Latin term for sacred wisdom used by one of the Royal Society’s most illustrious presidents, Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1726, Julian calendar), in reference to this accumulated store of ancient wisdom. Rudiments of the ageless wisdom (another common term) may be found scattered among the folklore of aboriginals and so-called primitive peoples in every region of the globe; moreover, it informs the core teaching of the world religions and consti- tutes the matrix of the laws of science as we shall see.

In our everyday activities, the self is ever-present in the back of our minds. We remember what we did the moment before and we think about what we want to do next; we feel happy and energetic, or bored and tired; we have a sense of our goals when we act; we think about what we would like to eat for dinner and we know what our favorite TV show is. In our interactions with others, we think about how they see us, whether they like us or are impressed by us. We have certain emotions related to this keen awareness of ourselves: we feel embarrassed, remorseful, ashamed, proud, or confident because of things we have done or did not do. We see ourselves as continuous in time: what happened to us in the past affects who we are and what we believe now; we make plans for the future because we believe that the future self will be us and will be affected by our current plan and behavior. Even though we do not have an internal mirror to see ourselves, our every thought seems to revolve around the sense of a self. But what is the self? How is our sense of the self established in the first place?

2024

In the spring of 2022, Shepherd-Walwyn (Publishers) Ltd from London published a monumental work by the author Edi Bilimoria with the title UNFOLDING CONSCIOUSNESS and the subtitle Exploring the Living Universe and Intelligent Powers in Nature and Humans. The extensive trilogy (with the addition of the fourth volume) has as many as 1,213 pages and represents the author's life's work, which he prepared over twenty years.