Monday, January 12, 2015

Cinematographic nature of our consciousness

Nature of consciousness was explained by Thích Nhất Hạnh as follows:

Buddhism: 
"Consciousness is made of mental formations which manifest and succeed each other, and give the impression that is a current (a river: always flowing and always changing) that there is an entity called alaya or mentation or mind consciousness."

Neuroscientist: 
"Consciousness is not a thing, but is a process."

David Hume (Scottish philosopher in 18th century):
"Consciousness is a beam of light or a collection of different perceptions which succeed each other with an inconceivable speed. They are in a flock or perpetual movement."

William James (American philosopher and psychologist):
"Consciousness is a current of thought."

Henri Bergson (French philosopher):
"Consciousness has a cinematographic nature."
(cinematographic mechanism of the mind: When you look at a film you have the impression that a real story is happening. But if you hold up the strip of film and examine it, you see that there are only individual pictures succeeding each other and giving the impression that there is an entity, or continuum.)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Robin Williams Playing With Koko Photo by Stop Animal Abuse