Topics Include: 1) Moment of silence in tribute to Thich Nhat Hahn. 2) Understanding in simple terms the relationship between conventional and absolute reality and its relationship to the concepts of self and non-self. 3) Understanding what differentiates humans from animals as a sense of self consciousness derived from our larger brain size and capacity to think discursively as a result of evolution. 4) If animals don’t have a sense of self consciousness, then what do they have? Animals operate out a sense of pure conscious awareness based on instinct and learning, in human terms; a state of flow. 5) How human beings embody both levels of awareness, our base consciousness and our discursive thought process, or absolute reality and conventional reality. How our discursive thought process creates the illusion of self. 6) Understanding how karma operates at the conventional level and not the absolute level. Finding the balance between the two in our lives. Finding the middle way. 7) Learning to appreciate the two aspects of our consciousness.
January 22, 2022
40 min.