[MD] the subjective

[Platt Holden]

Hi Ham,

Been awhile since I asked about your philosophy. I know you've missed my 
questions. :-)

Can Essence be known (realized) without a sensible agent?

What motivated Essence to create us agents of itself?

Thanks, Ham. As always, best regards.
Platt

> 
> Hi Marsha --
> 
> > You wrote that "consciousness is not found in neurons
> >  or gray cells".  I agree.  But I cannot find consciousness
> > anywhere.  I've seen it flow in meditation, but it wasn't
> > any kind of entity.
> 
> You won't find consciousness because it is not an 'existent'.  It cannot
> be 
> localized, quantified, or directly observed.  By all objective standards,
> it 
> does not exist.  Yet, conscious awareness is the essential You.  Without
> it 
> there would be no Marsha, and that would be tragic for all of us.
> 
> The subjective self transcends existence, even as it actively
> participates
> in it.  Which is why we can't dismiss it from our reality perspective.  I
> suspect you introduced this topic because Prisig puts very little emphasis
> on the individual self.  His worldview is a collective hierarchy of levels
> and patterns whose morality and existence are independent of the
> individual. 
> As you know, I consider this a travesty of philosophical understanding.
> 
> Human beings are a unique combination of psychic awareness and organic 
> matter.  Each of us is a 'being-aware' -- a microcosmic representation of
> the Sensibility/Otherness dichotomy that defines existence.  The source of
> this dichtomy is absolute and undifferentiated.  But because our 
> neuro-sensory perception is finite, we are cognizant of reality as a 
> continuous series of events in time and space which we intellectualize as
> cause-and-effect.  The sensibility that starts this whole
> process is our affinity for Essence, which I call Value.
> 
> Because we are organic beings, this value-sensibility is converted by the
> brain into the things and events of experienced reality.  So, in a real 
> sense, the universe is your value objectivized.  Or, to phrase it more 
> poetically, you are your universe.  You bring value into being through 
> experience. And it is by your free choice of values that your world is 
> either a joyous and inspiring place, or a dreadful and burdensome
> existence.
> 
> The existentialists here say the subjective self emerges out of being and
> is 
> insignificant.  They won't consider my view that being is a valuistic 
> construct of the self which is primary to existence.  Pirsig's MoQ kind of
> straddles the fence by positing subjects and objects as patterns of
> quality, 
> without telling us where quality comes from or how it can be realized in
> the 
> absence of a sensible agent.  Perhaps his theory was influenced by the 
> 'selflessness' of Zen Buddhism.  (You would know better that I.)  I can
> only 
> say that a philosophy which doesn't acknowledge a purpose for human 
> existence is deficient.
> 
> Long live the subjective!
> 
> Warmest regards,
> Ham
> 
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