Tag: consciousness

‘Understanding Pranayama : The 4th Anga’ by Sri M

Sri M – “Looking at the word Pranayama – Prana means life energy, energy that moves in our system. It includes oxygen, which is also energy and various other energies like digestive energy. It is also prana that helps us excrete. There are many pranas in our system like prana, apana, udana and samana. When you say Prana-yama, yama means rules. Therefore pranayama means rules and regulations regarding prana which does not necessarily means swasa….” This online session took place on 27th May 2020 in Madanapalle.

To know more about Sri M and his programs, please log on to : www.satsang-foundation.org About Sri M Born in India, Sri M is a spiritual guide, social reformer, educator and writer. He first met his Master at the age of nine under the jackfruit tree, in the compound of his house in Thiruvananthapuram in the Indian coastal state of Kerala.

The full account of his astonishing and amazing experiences are published in his memoir from 2011 titled “Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master – A Yogi’s Autobiography“, which became an instant bestseller. He has written a sequel to his autobiography, titled “Sri M – The journey continues”. He has written two more books – Shunya, his first novel and his latest one being – ‘On Meditation’, a book which answers questions on meditation.

Sri M has traveled the world fulfilling his life’s mission to teach and guide people as instructed by his Master, Maheswarnath Babaji. Over the years, Sri M’s mission as a spiritual guide, social reformer and educator have given rise to many initiatives including: – high-quality, multi-lingual education, free to rural children – Satsang Rural School – an unique and innovative approach to education. – Co-educational, residential school committed to providing in-depth exploration of knowledge. – Affordable, preventive and curative holistic health care

In 2015, Sri M went on a 16-month journey, Walk of Hope, from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, spanning 5000 miles across 11 states of India, to bring attention to humanity’s need for peace, harmony and tolerance.

Sri M says: “Go to the core. Theories are of no use.” His message seeks to transcend the outer-shell of all religions, by exploring their mystical essence and thus nurture the innate goodness in every human being.

To know more about Sri M and his programs, please log on to : www.satsang-foundation.org

The Mathematics of Consciousness: Donald Hoffman

Donald Hoffman describes his mathematical theory that ties in with consciousness touching into neuroscience, computer science, perception, and how we construct reality. Donald David Hoffman (born December 29, 1955) is an American cognitive psychologist and popular science author. He is a professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, with joint appointments in the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, and the School of Computer Science. Science and Nonduality is a community inspired by timeless wisdom, informed by cutting-edge science, and grounded in direct experience. We come together in an open-hearted exploration while celebrating our humanity.

Nick Bostrom: Superintelligence & the Simulation Hypothesis

Nick Bostrom is a Swedish-born philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, and the reversal test. In 2011, he founded the Oxford Martin Program on the Impacts of Future Technology, and is the founding director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University. In 2009 and 2015, he was included in Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers list.

Bostrom is the author of over 200 publications, and has written two books and co-edited two others. The two books he has authored are Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy (2002) and Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014). Superintelligence was a New York Times bestseller, was recommended by Elon Musk and Bill Gates among others, and helped to popularize the term “superintelligence”.

Bostrom believes that superintelligence, which he defines as “any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest,” is a potential outcome of advances in artificial intelligence. He views the rise of superintelligence as potentially highly dangerous to humans, but nonetheless rejects the idea that humans are powerless to stop its negative effects.

In his book Superintelligence, Professor Bostrom asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life.

The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. If machine brains surpassed human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become extremely powerful – possibly beyond our control. As the fate of the gorillas now depends more on humans than on the species itself, so would the fate of humankind depend on the actions of the machine superintelligence.

But we have one advantage: we get to make the first move. Will it be possible to construct a seed Artificial Intelligence, to engineer initial conditions so as to make an intelligence explosion survivable? How could one achieve a controlled detonation?

Brian Keating & Garrett Lisi on E8 & String Theory – Theory of Every0ne Live 5.24.22

Tonight we look at a discussion between Brian Keating, professor of physics at UCSD and creator of the “Into the Impossible” podcast, and Garrett Lisi, theoretical physicist and founder of the Pacific Science institute. Garrett Lisi is known for his attempt to unify physics using the beautiful geometric structure of E8.

Waking Life (2001)

Dreams. What are they? An escape from reality or reality itself? Waking Life follows the dream(s) of one man and his attempt to find and discern the absolute difference between waking life and the dreamworld. While trying to figure out a way to wake up, he runs into many people on his way; some of which offer one sentence asides on life, others delving deeply into existential questions and life’s mysteries. We become the main character. It becomes our dream and our questions being asked and answered. Can we control our dreams? What are they telling us about life? About death? About ourselves and where we come from and where we are going? The film does not answer all these for us. Instead, it inspires us to ask the questions and find the answers ourselves.

Imagination as the ground of reality, with Patrick Harpur

In this wide-ranging interview, one of our favorite scholars, Patrick Harpur, discusses the fundamental role of the imagination in human history, the human mind, and reality at large. He also discusses the daimons, those elusive, contradictory figures who inhabit minds and the world, but who appear only to those with the eyes to see. Harpur’s extensive, extraordinary, life-transforming body of work is one of the most criminally underrated in modern scholarship.

This video has human-created English subtitles, so don’t forget to click on the ‘CC’ button below the video to enable them.

Books by Patrick Harpur:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=patrick+harpur&i=stripbooks-intl-ship&crid=189YQ79HZX76L&sprefix=patrick+harpur%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C352&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

Iain McGilchrist: The Coincidence of Opposites

Ralston College presents a lecture by Dr Iain McGilchrist followed by a discussion with Dr Stephen Blackwood and questions from the audience. In his lecture Dr McGilchrist deals with certain themes that are treated at greater length in his recent book The Matter With Things. He focuses especially upon the coincidence of opposites (coincidentia oppositorum), which he explores (providing an extraordinary range of illustrative examples) in such a way as to make manifest both its universality and its particular relevance to our present historical moment.

Thich Nhat Hanh – Oprah Winfrey | Full Length Interview

This is the full-length version of a truly insightful, deep and powerful Interview. Oprah Winfrey talks to Thich Nhat Hanh about becoming a monk, meeting Martin Luther King Jr; The powers of mindfulness, insight, concentration and compassion, how to transform warring parties and how to deeply transform relationships.