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Quote by Akshay Kulkarni

“Identification of that which is beyond the senses and unidentifiable by the mind is the essence of a real spiritual seeker.”

Quote by Akshay Kulkarni

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Akshay Kulkarni

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“Having escaped the Dark Ages in which animals were mere stimulus-response machines, we are free to contemplate their mental lives. It is a great leap forward, the one that Griffin fought for. But now that animal cognition is an increasingly popular topic, we are still facing the mindset that animal cognition can be only a poor substitute of what we humans have. It can’t be truly deep and amazing. Toward the end of a long career, many a scholar cannot resist shining a light on human talents by listing all the things we are capable of and animals not. From the human perspective, these conjectures may make a satisfactory read, but for anyone interested, as I am, in the full spectrum of cognitions on our planet, they come across as a colossal waste of time. What a bizarre animal we are that the only question we can ask in relation to our place in nature is “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the smartest of them all?”

“Consider this - what makes me, ME? I was given that name, I went through certain experiences, I grew up in a certain country, certain era, I have a certain sex, certain mode of thinking. Now assume someone else with the EXACT same life experiences, (Not just similar, but exactly the same moment to moment life experiences from literally the same point of view as I experienced them!), genetic configurations and circumstances as me lives life the same way, would they have a different identity? NO! Because they have seen the exact same configuration and pattern of life that I have! Now, let's assume in addition to the exact same life experiences and genetics, the name given to the "other me" was ALSO the same. Well, there is NO DIFFERENCE left at all now. We are the same person. This is basically what is playing out in the world. We all feel different because of our different life experiences, genetics, eras we have lived in and names given to us. But shatter all of that and there is NO difference between the sense of I in me and the sense of I in You. We become like a Gadget in its factory settings; they are all literally the same. BUT, by sheer probability, no two people, at least in our known reality, will ever have identical life experiences, mental attributes, or physical configurations. This creates the illusion of uniqueness and separateness. But if these differences were nullified, the need for an individual “self” to explain subjective experience would vanish. In short, our sense of SEPARATE Identities is effectively an interpretive illusion: it arises only because each of us experiences life through a distinct set of genetic and experiential filters. Remove those filters, and the illusion of a separate self disappears. There’s no deeper mystery to consciousness—. The “hardest problem” isn’t consciousness itself; it’s shedding the preconceived notions that keep us clinging to the idea of a fixed, mysterious “self.” There is NO SELF.”