Conference : Exploring
Consciousness, Bath, 24 June 2004.
Ultimately everything is pointless, and without
purpose or plan. Why, then, are we conscious? I suggest that it is
because human intelligence and language have evolved by the blind
creative processes of evolution and, along the way,have given us the
illusion that each of us is a non-physical being inhabiting a physical
body, and having consciousness and free will.
This dualist view of self has been common
throughout human history and is prevalent today. But it is almost
certainly false. As Buddhists have long been aware, and scientists are
increasingly demonstrating, there is no persistent, separate self
inside us. The brain does not have, or need, an inner controller. Even
more disconcerting is that we may be wrong in thinking of
consciousness as like a stream of experiences, passing through the
mind. I shall describe a few of the major experiments which suggest
that consciousness and free will may be grand illusions.
How can we find out the truth of these claims?
There are two methods: scientific exploration, and personal practice.
Both are hard, but I suggest that neither can thrive without the
other. I shall end by considering how it is possible to have a
spiritual life in the pointless cosmos.
