Being Christians

What makes us Christian?  Very many think of being Christian as an identity that needs to be safeguarded.  It is something that we need to "protect" and "uphold" from all the rest of the peoples.  By being apart we preserve and show ourselves as Christians.  But that's the most unchristian thing to think and do! 

Being a Christian does not mean to be standing apart or worse, above others.  The yeast does not make any impact on the dough if it says to itself, "I'm not going to mingle with that un-yeast!  My identity is something higher than this dough and therefore I need to stand above the dough!"  Such a yeast is as good as absent!  For the yeast to leaven the dough, it needs to be mixed well with the latter.  Spread well, and because it mixes with it, the yeast by its mere presence does what it does best - transform the dough!  In the process the yeast is not too worried about safeguarding its identity.  The presence of the yeast is easily noticed by the everyone once the bread is baked and ready.  Once baked, there is neither yeast, nor dough! 

As Christians, we are called to be the yeast.  Our presence is meaningful and worth the name, only when we, being Christ-like, live for God and others.  If we are to live purely for ourselves, holding the placard of 'Christians' at a distance from others, we surely will survive but deprive ourselves of Christ. Imagine what Christians would be without Christ!  Not too hard to, just imagine what bread would be without yeast!  

Generosity

Fr Sean narrated a story he heard from someone in Bootle sometime ago.  A small boy who loved cars once happened to see a large car roll up on the street he lived.  He ran out to admire it.  He saw a man get off it and excitedly asked, "Is that your car?" "Sure, it is," replied the man.  "It must be very costly!" stated the boy, to which the man replied, "I got it for free!"  The boy could not believe he ears.  "For free?  How come?" asked the boy. "My brother gave it to me," said the man.  The boy longingly looked at the car and said, "I wish..." 

Fr Sean paused at this point and asked us, "What would you have said if you were that little boy?"  At least my mind completed the boy's sentence thus: I wish I had a brother like that!  Fr Sean continued and said, the boy actually said, "I wish, I was that brother!" 

There is more joy in giving than in receiving.  

Encountering God

Zechariah when he entered the temple to offer incense-worship meets the angel Gabriel whose message marks the beginning of a totally different lifestyle not only for Zechariah but also for his whole family.  That morning as he entered the sanctuary, I'm sure he certainly did not expect to see the angel or get a vision.  

Most of us stroll through life totally oblivious of the numerous ways and means through which God calls on us.  We are either too busy after something we have set our minds to or are too lazy to hear and ultimately respond.  God constantly interacts with us in the little and big things of life.  The more we are attuned to this, the richer our life will be, constantly transforming and growing into a better image. Just like Zechariah whose life undergoes a major shift on encountering the angel and God's message, so too is our life bound to change when we become attentive to the encounters we have with God!  

Being good

Being good by virtue of one's merit is one way of being good.  Another way, though not the best, is to ensure that one is better than the others.  That way one 'automatically' becomes good - when in comparison to others.  Another way: in order to appear good, make sure the others around appear bad! 

The Gospel of the day, wherein we read the prayer of the Pharisee and the Publican, we hear of another way of being good:  making our best effort and asking God to help us be good.  The Publican does that and is appreciated.  The Pharisee too is being good but at the cost of making others appear bad! The difference could as well be between appearance and being. 

However, cannot really blame the Pharisee.  He was actually keeping all the laws that he was taught and all the religious practices that he was indoctrinated with.  So in that sense taking pride in doing what is told and from centuries has been practiced and handed down cannot be negated outright.  The downfall however is in putting down the Publican.  Being good oneself does not require a quantitative measurement of the others goodness - unless one only wishes to appear good, among others.  

Mind, Cognition and Consciousness

Bibliography and resource tank for 'Mind and consciousness':

• Interview with Robert Lawrence Kuhn 'What is extended mind' (Aeon)
• Andy Clark and David Chalmers (1998) 'The Extended mind'
• Chalmers, 'The logical possibility of Zombies'
• Chalmers, 'Consciousness and its place in nature'
• Rorty, 'Incorrigibility as the mark of the mental' (self-knowledge, awareness, consciousness)
• Jackson, 'What Mary didn't know'  ... video: https://aeon.co/videos/can-you-know-everything-about-colour-if-you-see-in-black-and-white-a-thought-experiment 
• Crane, 'Intentionality as the mark of the mental' 
• Searle, 'Minds, brains and programs'
• Rorty, 'Mind-body identity, privacy and categories'
• Smart, 'Sensations and brain processes' (materialism)
• Sellars, Empiricism and the philosophy of mind XI-XVI 
• Putnam, 'The nature of mental states' 

• Philosophical problem of consciousness (consciousness - scientific and philosophical answers)
• Why science can't explain consciousness (scientific perspective)
• Consciousness is real (phenomenal C vs Access C; dualism and illusionism;  a different way of speaking about 'illusionism';  argument to show C as an efficacious biological reality)
• Neither person nor cadaver (who decides when a person is dead?  Issues with 'brain-death', how the controversial theory of brain-death was approved, dilemmas with regard to the 'point' of death...) 
• How to make the study of consciousness scientifically tractable (redefining 'subjectivity') 
• Our reality and why Consciousness is important (discusses objective consciousness)
• Science and the turf war of consciousness (Book review of Galileo's Error: Foundations for a new science of consciousness... where in the author is proposing panpsychism as a solution for the whole debate about consciousness, especially the body-mind problem since Galileo's days)
• Consciousness: how can we solve the greatest mystery in science? (Contemporary - 2019 - theories of consciousness;  the Templeton competition, initiated to arrive at a definitive understanding of consciousness;  a set of rival theories - IIT, GNWT, Mechanistic, magicalist, Higher order theories, Predictive coding theories, Attention schema theory, Illusionism, Quantum theories...;  good summary of contemporary names and theories working in the field of consciousness)
• The transition to minimal consciousness (article defending the proposal that animals too have consciousness.  Consciousness requires 'unlimited associative learning' - "refers to an animal's ability to ascribe motivational value to a compound stimulus or action pattern and to use it as the basis for future learning" (p. 5).  This is found in  invertebrates. 
• Semi-unlimited associative learning (Critique of the article: gap between unlimited and limited associative learning.) 
• The evolution of the sensitive soul (Book that states learning is the driving force behind the evolution of basic consciousness)
•  Inflate and explode (Critique of eliminativism and illusionism)
• Why your brain is not a computer (newspaper article: arguments and reasons from the field of psychology and neuroscience to show that the brain/mind cannot be considered or is not reducible to a computer; how the metaphor of 'the brain as a computer' has been eroded and is no longer valid)
• We are the world (Aeon) The object identity theory which holds that the consciousness is not in the brain or the mind, but outside us.  It is in our experience of the world, through the body.  So consciousness is not in the brain within us, nor in the world outside, but in our experience of the world, as a bodily being.  We are the experience.  It is the world relative to our experience that moves us. 
• Frames of Consciousness (Aeon) Latest technological advances and ethical questions related to study of brain, especially deciding when is a patient conscious or not?

Clingfilm

I think I have a solution for preventing the "illegal" inflow of any and every species into this country - or for that matter any country: Clingfilm.  Yes, clingfilm.  Wrapping the whole country with clingfilm would certainly ensure that no one from outside the country, no non-native, whether human or insect, would gain entry.  I thought of bubble wrap, but I think clingfilm is better! 

We have this country right now dealing with the death of 39 Chinese immigrants and Inns (invasive non-native species).  So not only are human beings entering the country, even wasps, plants and insects too!  How dare they!  Back in India we have the NRC being brought into action to "weed out" illegal immigrants!  In South Africa, so far there was animosity against the white population who stayed on after the apartheid.  But now there is hatred against coloured fellow Africans too! (The Times, 25 October 2019).  Trump is praising his 'wall' built to keep away Mexicans and God-knows-who.  Not sure what is happening in China, because it already has a sort of clingfilm in place (at least on media).  Britain, a country which prides itself in being one of the world's leading brains, is entertaining the world - and itself - with this Brexit drama!  If leaving the EU was the most sensible things to do, come 3 years have come and gone and the country no better than when the result of the referendum was announced? 

I also understand that no country would like to be treated as a doormat, letting everyone walk-in and demand a better life.  That's the other extreme.  So is the fanatic fear of the non-native!  Letting in only those who can afford to pay or those who will benefit the local economy or toe the line of the ruling party is a very narrow and highly selfish access. 

So the most practical solution: clingfilm.  Security assured! Only problem is the same as with a fortress wall: Just like it prevents those outside from coming in, it also makes those within prisoners!  

Amidst enthusiastic children

The interaction with Year 6 students of a local primary Catholic school to which I was invited along with a Priest, to share with them our vocation as priest and religious, was a very interesting experience.  These are just 10 or 11 year olds, grappling with huge words like commitment, consecration, ordination, vows, belief and most importantly seeking reasons and trying to explain these ideas to others.  These are concepts and values we discuss in our novitiate and novices fail to make head or tail of these things.  Here are 11-year olds, doing their best not just to make sense of them for themselves, but be able to explain it all to others!  That's a bold move. 

Loved every bit of it.  As we returned home, the other priest said, "Now I know why you love to teach!  You really were explaining to those kids, and not teaching philosophy!" Felt good being amidst young vibrant and enthusiastic children, quizzed about matters that take a lifetime to understand! 

Being human

A dog does not know itself as a 'dog'.  At the most, it knows the name that it is called by.  But the fact that the dog does not know its real self but only a designated name, does not affect the way a dog behaves.  It still is primarily a dog. 

Wonder if the same can be said of us human beings.  The whole process of naming a child and it growing up with additional identity markers in a way distances one from one's basic human nature and take on the 'added' identities as the primary characteristics of being human.  It is like the dog beginning to act as 'Ceasar' rather than as a dog - just because he is named Ceasar. 

Human beings are perhaps the creatures that have the best capacity to reflect on oneself and our own basic nature.  In such a situation, the added identities we acquire as we live our life in a family, in a society, in a particular culture, ... need basically to build on the basic human nature.  And in case the acquisition of an identity goes at a tangent with our basic humanness, then one has to make serious choice for what is basic rather than what is to be acquired.  Human life cannot be put at stake for a name tag, or a caste label or a bad word or scolding uttered by someone else.  

Spider plant in a wine glass

My Spidey plant!  Planted a small twig in the end of May this year, when I returned from Farnborough after my retreat.  Have been taking care of it in my room all these days.  But will put it out in the dining room or hallway someday. Not sure though, how the others will feel about having things in cracked glasses!  I for sure don't, and neither does the plant!

Perseverance +

Persistence.

So often exalted as a virtue can also turn to be a death-trap.  Once we get into the rhythm and become so steadfast in something, there is a great danger to forget or sideline why did we chose to become persistent with something in the first instance. 

Perseverance is indeed a great virtue, demanding great discipline and patience.  Nonetheless, needs to be coupled with love (or atleast the noble motivation that prompted us to walk down this path of perseverance).