Sentient vs Non-sentient

[Bruins8000]

What is the true difference between sentient and non-sentient things? Obviously we’d agree a human or a leopard seem sentient…a rock or a couch do not. Beyond that- why does the Infinite develop individuals to begin with? Why create apparent duality?

[Yimpa]

Some people are nondual. For example, our good friend @BlessedLion is both a human and a lion!

[Princess Arabia]

There's no creation of duality but only in the mind. It's a seeming occurrence that's not really happening only appears to be. The infinite did not develop individuals. The individual created itself, but only apparently because there are no real individuals. All there is is Infinity which can appear as bodies. The individual is energetic by nature and arises out of a false sense of separation within the seeming duality; and when it collapses, it's revealed to never have been - also known as death.

Duality and Non-duality are constructs. Neither is actually the case. All there is is the Absolute appearing as dual and non-dual.....but only as concepts.

Edited June 23 by Princess Arabia

[UnbornTao]

3 hours ago, Bruins8000 said:

What is the true difference between sentient and non-sentient things? Obviously we’d agree a human or a leopard seem sentient…a rock or a couch do not.

Good and tricky subject to contemplate for oneself. What's sentience?

[Bruins8000]

1 hour ago, UnbornTao said:

Good and tricky subject to contemplate for oneself. What's sentience?

I honestly don’t know…it seems like one of those things that doesn’t have a boundary I.E where sentience starts and ends. I suppose myself and most people would say sentience corresponds to perception and an apparent “life”

[Bruins8000]

2 hours ago, Princess Arabia said:

There's no creation of duality but only in the mind. It's a seeming occurrence that's not really happening only appears to be. The infinite did not develop individuals. The individual created itself, but only apparently because there are no real individuals. All there is is Infinity which can appear as bodies. The individual is energetic by nature and arises out of a false sense of separation within the seeming duality; and when it collapses, it's revealed to never have been - also known as death.

Duality and Non-duality are constructs. Neither is actually the case. All there is is the Absolute appearing as dual and non-dual.....but only as concepts.

I get all that and I enjoy your posts…I’ve been a lurker on this forum for a long time and post once in a great while.
 

Why would it appear that way though?

[Princess Arabia]

2 hours ago, Bruins8000 said:

I get all that and I enjoy your posts…I’ve been a lurker on this forum for a long time and post once in a great while.
 

Why would it appear that way though?

For no reason. It doesn't have a reason to appear as it does. That's the freedom. If it had a reason, it wouldn't be infinite and unlimited. Limitation spawns from it. It is life; and life is spontaneous. Free as a bird. It dances to its own music. It is impartial and is free to be as it is. 

Reason and purpose is a human construct to make sense of what is happening. Without reason and purpose there will be no one with a life. There would be no direction, no path, no journey, no beliefs, no causation, no language, no anything, just what appears, which is what is. 

The reason you ask why it appears that way is the mind trying to make sense of it. The mind only knows past and future and doesn't exist in the present. Thoughts appear and disappear out of thin air. They are of no significance only what the individual makes of them. I am also here trying to make sense of why you asked the question "why would it appear that way". There is actually no reason for the question to appear; but to the mind, and to be able to maintain its continuity, it tries to find a reason that makes sense and that is how thoughts maintain itself, life gets constructed, the world is formed and the individual gets created. But that is all illusory because there is no outside world. Thoughts make up your world. When you sleep there are no thoughts and the world disappears. Infinity at its finest. Nothing, emptiness. You are that. INFINITY. NOTHING. That's why one can feel empty inside because there's nothing actually there.

Edited June 24 by Princess Arabia

[UnbornTao]

5 hours ago, Bruins8000 said:

I honestly don’t know…it seems like one of those things that doesn’t have a boundary I.E where sentience starts and ends. I suppose myself and most people would say sentience corresponds to perception and an apparent “life”

Hey, no need for an answer, just contemplate it. 

Edited June 24 by UnbornTao

[Bruins8000]

I’d like to get others thoughts here: What exactly is sentience?

[Keryo Koffa]

@Bruins8000 Certain experiences spike vitality and raise your awareness. There are many names for this life force: kundalini, prahna, qi/chi, akash. There are spiritual traditions all across the world exploring it and psychedelics with their immediate transition make it most noticeable.

You can see it in yourself and nature. Trees grow inside out, at first the cells are soft and flexible, but as the stem grows, the outer layer solidifies, it loses its mobility and serves as protection, the life forces ceases in this part, but it continues inside, water and nutrients circulate between the roots and leaves, the leaves absorb light and transform this energy, the structure is dynamic, constantly changing and materializing. Your own body rejuvenates itself, the skin cells of the outer layer fall away just like snakes shed their skin. As we age, this life force retracts, until what is left is solidified material that reenters the cycle of life.

For me, life is the gestalt around which form materializes, and animating energy of nature. Sentience is the dynamic experience of this energy through forms, some more than others, some vividly responsive, others more static. Though even a rock will make a sound if you hit it, sentience to me is a spectrum of the ability to experience and respond. Beyond that, you should contemplate and experience yourself. There is much you can learn from Sadhguru if you seek to know more.

Edited June 24 by Keryo Koffa

[A Fellow Lighter]

Sentience is an illusion.

[UnbornTao]

6 hours ago, A Fellow Lighter said:

Sentience is an illusion.

It might be. But notice this assessment doesn’t specify what it is, other than making a generic claim that might not reflect actual experience.

Our current experience of sentience doesn’t seem illusory, except perhaps as a conceptual overlay that hinders investigation.

I'm inviting contemplation without presuming to know what it is. It's a complex, advanced topic.

How does sentience arise, and what is it composed of? 

[Javfly33]

On 23/06/2024 at 10:00 PM, Bruins8000 said:

What is the true difference between sentient and non-sentient things? Obviously we’d agree a human or a leopard seem sentient…a rock or a couch do not. Beyond that- why does the Infinite develop individuals to begin with? Why create apparent duality?

The questions you ask can only be found within. 

What you are asking very deep questions, "why does the Infinite develop individuals to begin with". This kind of questions are very profound and are at the core of the creation. Nobody is going to be able to tell you through a forum.

You need to download this information into your system with pure consciousness. 

[A Fellow Lighter]

2 hours ago, UnbornTao said:

But notice this assessment doesn’t specify what it is, other than making a generic claim that might not reflect actual experience.

It's not an assessment, friend. It's a recognition. Sentience is an illusion. 

2 hours ago, UnbornTao said:

Our current experience of sentience doesn’t seem illusory, except perhaps as a conceptual overlay that hinders investigation.

No illusion seems like an illusion. If it did then it would simply be called an appearance as opposed to an illusion. Also, it is possible to investigate an illusion without ever realising that it's an illusion. Our scientists do that all the time. The illusion doesn't even need to be a conceptual overlay because it is already an experiential one.

2 hours ago, UnbornTao said:

I'm inviting contemplation without presuming to know what it is. It's a complex, advanced topic.

How does sentience arise, and what is it composed of? 

Then I, for one, accept this invitation. 

Sentience refers to the capacity to have subjective experiences and sensations, essentially the ability to perceive and feel things. 

"How does sentience arise?" There's no plausible explanation for it, at least in the scientific sense. It's the same question as how does dead matter give rise to consciousness, isn't it? And the answer to that is, nobody knows. "What is it composed of?" Still, nobody knows? 

So many unknowns for something that is right there, blunt and in the open. But its composition forever elusive. And its origin, totally allusive. And yet it appears to be as real as anything else that is apparant to observation: objects and the environment.

Now, you can still say it's an assumption to call it an illusion if you want. But if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then I'm recognising a duck as a duck.

[UnbornTao]

@A Fellow Lighter 

Contemplate it and have insight into it, if you want.

[Yimpa]

1 hour ago, A Fellow Lighter said:

Now, you can still say it's an assumption to call it an illusion if you want. But if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then I'm recognising a duck as a duck.

It is an assumption that all ducks quack.