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RE: The Ten Stages of the Mahayana Bodhisattva Path
I have not checked out the answer to that question myself. Some say that self is in the frontal cerebral cortex, however, others say that the limbic system contains our deepest instincts and emotions. Some even say that the celiac plexus in the gut has some consciousness. What would be your answer to that question?
What is always subject to change is not a lasting self...all those systems, the cells and gut bacteria are constantly dying and being replaced, I have found no self in the flux of phenomena
The cells and bacteria die and get replaced (as you said), however, the blueprint in the DNA (of cells and bacteria) remains unchanged.
There is no self in dna, it’s just sugar, phosphate,and a nitrogenous base....hahaha, DNA is like a blue print for a house, now you are spinning the argument . Are you the house you live in or the car you drive?
Definitely not. I am just trying to arrive to a conclusion. This might be one of those things that remain unknown or difficult to understand.
The only way to find out is to locate the self and I haven't found it...the reason I said you are spinning the argument is you started out with larger parts of the body or the whole and then we worked our way through the body system, to cells and gut bacteria and on to the DNA...I felt as if my head was spinning...haha
So maybe the self is just turtles all the way down :p So where do you think the mind and consciousness are located?
I have 2 theories. In one they are the product of the electrical activity of the nervous system. In humans this electrical activity became so complex that the brain became self aware. In my other theory, the brain is like "hardware". The mind/consciousness is the "software". This software could have been "downloaded" into us at the time of birth. These "software" exists in a different realm which we could access in an altered state of consciousness. Have you heard about the Egyptian "ba"?