In the Beginning Was Consciousness

On May 1, 2003, Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the world's leading experts on Islamic science and spirituality, delivered the 2003-04 Dudleian Lecture. Professor Nasr is University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University and the author of "The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity."
Learn more about Harvard Divinity School: hds.harvard.edu/

[@joachim847]

16:58 - Skips the introductions.

[@johermeah2785]

Mvp

[@bombingraid1330]

...see, there are smart people on youtube.

[@boodai88]

Lecture starts 17:00

[@jacobdillow2375]

Thank you!

[@AliKirmaniAli]

28:00 "Johannes Kepler and Sir Isaac Newton both had a mystical vision of God and the maverick Galileo did not even imagine denying God' Amazing lecture by Prof. Seyyed Hossein Nasr. He has a brilliant command over language and on the most subtle and complex concepts of esoteric sciences.

[@mindfulkayaker7737]

Great!! My profane understanding of this wonderful lecture is that “Either we accept the obvious primacy of consciousness or we all will go to hell together” A time will come in which people will talk of those dark times in which people believed that we were the blind product of a dead Universe. God bless you

[@threestars2164]

What drivel

[@MohamedElouarda-qk6ws]

Great reflexion

[@gustavobueno8579]

Thank you for posting this lecture.

[@jailtheology]

Amazing lecture!

[@fahad56297]

It's amazing how Seyyed Hossein Nasr, more than 20 years ago, said all the things philosophers and many scientists are talking about and taking seriously today regarding consciousness.

[@esmamesihovic5764]

Beautiful, thank you professor.

[@SabreenSyeed]

Brilliant brilliant discourse!!! Loved the part about "fana"!

[@julmabahasuan3818]

💯

[@daimalishar6926]

Blessings 🌹 from Sindh Pakistan

[@MM-kj3vt]

Good explanation in absolutes and relativity. Problem solved in three sentences. He is a true scholar. Flowing wisdom.

[@SpiritualPsychotherapyServices]

🐟 06. CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS: Consciousness means “that which knows” or “the state of being aware”, from the Latin prefix “con” (with), the stem “scire” (to know) and the suffix “osus” (characterized by). There is BOTH a localized knowing and a Universal Awareness, as explicated in the following paragraphs. Higher species of animal life have sufficient cognitive ability to KNOW themselves and their environment, at least to a measurable degree. Just where consciousness objectively begins in the animal kingdom is a matter of contention but, judging purely by ethological means, it probably starts with vertebrates (at least the higher-order birds and fishes). Those metazoans which are evolutionarily lower than vertebrates do not possess much, if any, semblance of intellect, necessary for true knowledge, but operate purely by reflexive instincts. For instance, an insect or amphibian does not consciously decide to seek food but does so according to its base instincts, directed by its idiosyncratic genetic code. Even when a cockroach flees from danger, it is not experiencing the same kind of thoughts or feelings a human or other mammal would experience. The brain is merely a conduit or TRANSDUCER of Universal Consciousness (i.e. Brahman), explaining why the more intelligent the animal, the more it can understand its own existence (or at least be aware of more of its environment - just see how amazingly-complex dolphin and whale behaviour can be, compared with other aquatic species), and the reason why it is asserted that a truly enlightened human must possess a far higher level of intelligence than the average person. The processing unit of a supercomputer must be far larger, more complex and more powerful than the processor in a pocket calculator. Therefore, it seems logical to conclude that the scale of discrete (localized) consciousness is dependent on the animal's brain capacity. See Chapter 17 to understand the distinction between enlightenment and mere awakening. Three STATES of awareness are experienced by humans and possibly all other species of mammals: the waking state (“jāgrata”, in Sanskrit), dreaming (“svapna”, in Sanskrit), and deep-sleep (“suṣupti”, in Sanskrit). Beyond these three temporal states is the fourth “state” (“turīya” or “caturīya”, in Sanskrit). That is the unconditioned, eternal “state”, which underlies the other three. The waking state is the LEAST real (that is to say the least permanent, or to put it another way, the farthest from the Necessary Ground of Existence, as explained towards the end of this chapter). The dream state is closer to our eternal nature, whilst dreamless deep-sleep is much more analogous to The Universal Self (“brahman”), as it is imbued with peace. Rather than being an absence of awareness, deep-sleep is an awareness of absence (that is, the absence of phenomenal, sensual experiences). So, in actual fact, the fourth state is not a state, but the Unconditioned Ground of Being, or to put it simply, YOU, the real self/Self, or Existence-Awareness-Peace (“sacchidānanda”, in Sanskrit). Perhaps the main purpose of dreams is so that we can understand that the waking-state is practically indistinguishable to the dream-state, and thereby come to see the ILLUSION of this ephemeral world. Both our waking-state experiences and our dream-state experiences occur solely within the mental faculties (refer to Chapter 04 for an elucidation of this phenomenon). If somebody in one of your dreams were to ask your dream-state character if the dream was real, you (playing the part of that character) would most likely say, “yes, of course this is real!” Similarly, if someone were to ask your waking-state character if this world is real, you would almost undoubtedly respond in kind. An apt analogy for Universal Consciousness is the manner in which electricity powers a variety of appliances and gadgets, according to the use and COMPLEXITY of the said device. Electricity powers a washing machine in a very simple manner, to drive a large spindle for laundering clothes. However, the very same electrical power may be used to operate a computer to manifest an astonishing range of outputs, such as playing audiovisual tracks, communication tasks, and performing extremely advanced mathematical computations, depending on the computer's software and hardware. The more advanced/complex the device, the more complex its manifestation of the same electricity. Using the aforementioned computer analogy: the brain is COMPARATIVELY equivalent to the computer hardware, deoxyribonucleic acid akin to the operating system working in conjunction with the memory, the intellect is equivalent to the processing unit, individuated consciousness is analogous to the software programme, whilst Universal Awareness is likened to the electricity which enlivens the entire computer system. A person who is comatosed has lost any semblance of local consciousness, yet is being kept alive by the presence of Universal Consciousness. The fact that many persons report out-of-body experiences, where consciousness departs from the gross body, may be evidence for the above. So, then, following-on from the assertion made in the third paragraph, one could complain: “That's not fair - why can only a genius be enlightened?” (as defined in Chapter 17). The answer is: first of all, as stated above, every species of animal has its own level of intelligence on a wide-ranging scale. Therefore, a pig or a dog could (if possible) ask: “That's unfair - why can only a human being be enlightened?” Secondly, it is INDEED a fact that life is unfair, because there is no “tit for tat” law of action and reaction, even if many supposedly-great religious preceptors have stated so. They said so because they were preaching to wicked miscreants who refused to quit their evil ways, and needed to be chastized in a forceful manner. It is not possible to speak gentle words to a rabid dog to prevent it from biting you. There is evidence of Consciousness being a universal field, in SAVANT SYNDROME, a condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrate certain abilities far in excess of the norm, such as superhuman rapid mathematical calculation, mind-reading, blind-seeing, or astounding musical aptitude. Such behaviour suggests that there is a universal field (possibly in holographic form) from which one can access information. Even simple artistic inspiration could be attributed to this phenomenon. The great British singer-songwriter, Sir James Paul McCartney, one day woke with the complete tune of the song, “Yesterday”, in his mind, after hearing it in a dream. American composer, Paul Simon, had a similar experience when the chorus of his sublime masterpiece, “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, simply popped into his head. Cont...

[@RabbiTruthSeeker]

Simply amazing !!! Wow !!!

[@Siniverisyys]

Unus mundus. Re: Q&A 1:15:40. Fanaa, ego death, ego annihilation. I think Jung describes Fanaa in really practical way, the conciliation of the conscious ego with the unconscious self (Ātman). The transcendent function. Nothing necessarily dies.

[@EahabIbrahim]

Jung inverts reality when he equates Atman with something "unconscious"

[@TUFAII]

25:05 “ consciousness is the most primary reality with which we judge other reality”

[@rebeccaanne8546]

longest intro ever?

[@judithsmith9582]

Speaker starts at 16:50

[@hasan.radawi]

17:36 actually

[@DJK-cq2uy]

If not the longest..it's competitive for the title

[@melanges123]

Yes .unluckly

[@brianswelding]

17:00 Lecture actually starts. When the first speaker said he was here to introduce the introducer...

[@arifrahman7666]

Glad to hear other people that keep thinking and asking the same question. What Is atom or sub-atomic particle, what Is it Made of? We are indeed just word of GOD.

[@lizgichora6472]

Thank you Dr Nasr for the lecture on living consciously, being aware, and alert to the present. The future depends on all of our collective consciousness as God is absolute and therefore gives us the ability to be in the know ( knowledge ) participating in his essence. Very interesting lecture.

[@petrustella]

But first and foremost in or through the alignement of our psychic consciousness with the Spirit within us.

[@threestars2164]

There is no evidence of any species with a collective consciousness except in scifi or fantasy.

[@johnstewart7025]

Your comment reminded me that the best things come to us without work. It seems the best we can do is to express gratitude for gifts. This self denial makes life worth living.

[@parvinpeerwani7873]

Excellent discourse on Consciousness. Professor Nasr has clarified many things

[@DJK-cq2uy]

Insights practically applied. Useful n easily understood

[@cpadman5800]

"In the beginning, was consciousness" I thought I was watching a lecture on Advaita Vedanta but the speaker was a Muslim. very soon I realized that he is a Sufi. There are many similarities between Advaita Vedanta and Sufism. Sufis claim that the highest spiritual experience is Fana. An aspirant who experiences fana experiences unity with Allah. In the 'samadhi" state of Hinduism, you experience unity with Brahman. However other Muslim scholars would say that the similarity is only apparent because no one can actually unite with Allah since He is a person. In Advaita Vedanta, only your consciousness ( brahman or atman) exist and nothing else. In the beginning, there was only Brahman ( universal consciousness). Brahman is not a person, brahman is universal consciousness.

[@lukaradojevic7195]

If only one consciousness exists,where does this seperarate identity of self comes from?is Brahman playing some sort masochistic trick on him/itself,or?

[@cpadman5800]

@@lukaradojevic7195 According to Hindu philosophy only consciousness ( Brahman) exists. In Buddhism, nothing exists ( sunyata). The Hindu scripture Yoga Vashista says: "The world is nothing but a mere vibration of consciousness in space. It seems to exist even as a goblin seems to exist in the eyes of the ignorant. All this is but Maya: for here there is no contradiction between the infinite consciousness and the apparent existence of the universe. It is like the marvelous dream of a person who is awake.

[@RhythmJunkie]

@@lukaradojevic7195 GOD is experiencing itself within itself, and through us as Individuated Consciousness … the dreamer dreaming the dreamers ♾ Merging into GOD is Infinite Bliss, Ecstasy, Perfection , it is the experience of Everything all at once into Infinity ♾

[@zsurma]

Small correction: god is explicitly not a person in Islam. Love the comparison between these two interpretations though

[@dionakgamer7769]

@@lukaradojevic7195 the separate identity comes from the ignorance. The maya is a veil that arises from ignorance which makes everything separate. Take Analogy of a clay and a pot for example, there are different shapes and sizes of pots but the material that is made up of is clay and clay only. You are thinking all those pots are different but they are the same. Before making the pot, it was clay and after it’s broken it will go back to being clay and while it was a pot it was clay also. So like wise, we think ourselves as pot(with different identities) but this is not the ultimate truth. Likewise before making the pot, when it’s a pot and when it became clay after being broken, the whole time it was clay, like wise we are brahman, the ultimate reality and everything else material or this world is the projection of that reality

[@cwilkinsonwck]

This is a great talk

[@jamesfinley7416]

I am so moved by the depth and beauty and truth in this reflection that echoes with my years I in my years with Thomas Merton in the monastery

[@petrustella]

That should have been a wonderful experience...

[@BAFREMAUXSOORMALLY]

In the Beginning Was THE BIG BANG???

[@petrustella]

Very good speech, and clarifiyng many issues, specially at the end, answering about Carl G Jung and his fear of the spirit and of God...

[@Jahtrue]

St. John 1:1 KJV

[@PabloFlores-hs4wu]

When will they replace these hypemen with live music? Image Ney, Setar and Daf setting the stage for this speaker

[@KipIngram]

This is a profoundly good presentation.

[@dr.majidborumand6117]

Excellent presentation for a decadent content!

[@ArabDude123]

How did consciousness come about?

[@SabreenSyeed]

Arab Dude The Supreme Consciousness created it. It was the great "amanah" the Quran speaks about

[@jasonaus3551]

Nothing original in the Qur'an that cannot be found elsewhere and better put. But put in its historical period, it was likely very profound

[@MrHarris]

KangaRude Media You’re assuming you understand the Qur’an fully. You don’t.

[@ali09gaming58]

@@SabreenSyeed So the Supreme Consciousness is God ?

[@thephilosophermma8449]

By the brain

[@briansanchez6065]

We are all a bunch of aliens on this planet until we as humans together conceive of a equal society

[@anthonykenny1320]

Interesting that he do an mention the Hebrew Torah in his brief speech nopsis of world religions Could that be because he is a Muslim

[@raultarufi2817]

Mysticism for the masses

[@umsol]

Some of us are taking seriously the works of Henri Bergson and Raymond Ruyer (just to mention these two), and, therefore, some of us are not feeling "homeless" or "alienated". We're too few maybe, but who knows what Harvard will do next... Thanks for your concern anyway!

[@mindfulkayaker7737]

Take best answer to the question of why God created the world is the one of Advaita Vedanta “ God did not created the world because the Universe is an appearance in God’s Absolute Consciousness“

[@ucoknyaduren3324]

My Bro, but the question is NOT "Why DID NOT...?". The question IS "Why DID...?". You absolutely cannot give answer to "Why did" question by using "did not" statement. That's so weird.

[@KipIngram]

48:00 - I can only wish solving the problems caused by corporations was a simple as replacing the CEO. I think it's much worse than that; I don't think the bad effects of corporations are actually *caused* by "people." Not in a tangible way. I think there's something about the very corporate structure that results in inevitable problems. Each individual person in a corporation has a very small role, and it's straightforward enough for them to see a way to "perform well" in that role. It's the amalgamation of all of those things - the process itself - that leads to the damaging outcomes. There is no sense of "holism" in a corporation; it's a machine, and each cog performs its purpose. No one cog can be identified as the source of the damage. Sometimes I think the structure itself, as a form of business, should be outlawed. I certainly see that it has profit-oriented advantages - that's why its so pervasive. But I think the damage that results far outweighs any so-called benefits.

[@gordanadrmic752]

Bussines structure as machine - as in Kubrick's movie "The Cube"

[@MohamedElouarda-qk6ws]

​​@@gordanadrmic752this movie is now reality...

[@MrMago11]

In the beninging

[@mattmatt4916]

Jesus Walked on the Sea of Commerce without any intuition to the Inter circles of power from what I get out the biblical narrative.

[@MoiLiberty]

Through Jonathan Pageau, Dr. Seyyed talk seems obvious to me. Even Aleksandr Dugin would agree with much of what Dr. Seyyed explains.

[@slowboymetaphysician3899]

This guy doesn’t realize that the radical apophatacism of his platonism/perennialism is what leads directly to deism and then atheism. The distinction between God’s essence and energies in Orthodox Christianity solves this.

[@threestars2164]

What did rabbi yeshua know of such things (if anything)?

[@SajadSaeedi]

sounds like replacing an unclear term with a concept that is still not clearly known to scientists. In the beninign there was conciousness. Again, all that you're unsture of is with some belief system. I consider this treachery to religions and sciences.

[@dougerhard2128]

Islam, Christianity Judaism, etc., are all dualistic religions. They exist under the presumption that there exists a "self," and that there exists a separate "God." And each religion makes the attempt to reconcile these two entities, at best, or at least to show what the correct relationship between these two things should be. The truth is that the "self" is merely a collection of thoughts, memories, opinions, beliefs, etc., conceived, maintained and defended within the human mind. The truth is that "God" is merely another image, with attributes, conceived, maintained and defended within the human mind. Now, if you think about it, two images both conceived, maintained and defended within the very same human mind should be very easy to reconcile. But what we have, in reality, is religious people driving themselves (and by extension, humanity) insane, with this eternal conflict. This is because they are attempting to reconcile an imagined infinite entity with an imagined finite entity. This cannot be done. If, rather, we seek out the most grounded, basic attribute of being human, which is consciousness itself, and call it primary, all else falls very simply and parsimoniously from there. If you read Bernardo Kastrup's work, you will find this philosophy laid out clearly and in detail. His book "Brief Peeks Beyond" is a good place to start. If you choose to search for this philosophy amongst the ancients, I recommend either Plotinus (from the West) or Advaita Vedanta (Upanishads) (from the East). Also certain sections of all religions speak of this reality. Meister Eckhart for Christianity, Sufism for Islam, and the Kabbalah for Judaism. These people tend to be called "mystics," and they have had experiences which align them with this philosophy. If you'd like to see how this philosophy keeps emerging from all different cultures over history, read Aldous Huxley's "The Perennial Philosophy." If you'd like to see how this all looks from the enlightened, personal perspective, I'd suggest "The Book" by Alan Watts. Peace.

[@OracleofDelphiTarot]

A lot of intellectual nonsense and no real knowledge of spirituality or belief systems. God is an experience of divinity outside one's self. Catholicism and Islam are not of the same as Christianity. Far from it. They both break the commandments given by God, therefore break the covenant with God and cannot be considered under the law God gave. These religions worship all different entities. Islam began by worshipping Baal, Allah is Baal in Islam and they mistakenly believe they worship the same Christian God. Catholics worship the Virgin Mary. Only Christianity and Judaism are related. I have studied theology since I could read from Hermeticism, to Hinduism and all in between. You are wrong to generalize as you do and it is quite offensive. If the beliefs were so similar, there would be no need for so many.

[@petezar3409]

New Age mumbo jumbo

[@MrHarris]

M G You clearly never studied Islam, Nasr has dedicated almost his whole life to doing so and he understands it much better than you. You’re a hypocrite as you do the exact thing you accuse the original commenter of (though I disagree with him nonetheless)

[@combatantezoteric2965]

Gtfo with this Jungian spiritist propaganda. If the Self is an amalgam of hundreds of years old conceptions and memories, then how the hell do you explain that to even reach the true nature of the Self a yogi has to completly wipe his memory? You got it all completly wrong, but I see that you actually ( at least ) read some traditionalist books.

[@combatantezoteric2965]

Ah, I see. You read Alan Watts... That guy was not a traditionalist and not even an orientalist. He just got all his informations and conceptions from naturalist historians and philosophers. He didn't even read the Bhagavad Gita, and mabye not even the Quran!

[@ravisekharreddy9783]

Consciousness =mc2 =E=Brahman = ishq in a state of Hal ....Mansur Hallaj of 10th century Anal haq....Jalaluddin of Rome..Rumi...Sample Tabrej HkM chisti +5....fana A plethora of names Zen masters Milarepa St Catherine St Bernard Ekhart Louis Rice Christian Mysticism..

[@threestars2164]

There is no need to mystify a natural phenomenon, very bizarre suggestion imo. Consciousness arises as an emergent property of complex neural processes, when all life forms with these on this planet (or elsewhere in the universe) die out there will be no more consciousness.

[@waltershumer4211]

It's a pretty sticky question, and there are some truly intelligent men speaking about the subject, not like Deepak Chopra with his nonsense..... But men like Iain McGilchrist a psychiatrist, writer, and former Oxford literary scholar. And Sir Roger Penrose an English mathematician and physicist who has won awards for his work and his name to the father of quantum gravity,whom posits that consciousness is based on quantum vibrations in tubulin/microtubules inside brain neurons.

[@sibin3732]

I bought this guy book, the garden of truth, but when l saw the map depicting islamic world, it really insulted me as an indonesian moslem. Indonesia is the most democratic moslem majority country in the world and he did not include it in the map. Shame on you, professor.

[@JustinHerchel]

sigid bintoro don't worry bruh

[@syedhasanahmed3514]

Indonesia ----> 'Democratic'

[@CynfarLP]

As if "democratic" was a good trait

[@niji_no_saki]

You wanna throw away a box of pearls and call them shame because they're not exactly the shade you want. Wow...

[@keneblana]

Prof doesn't believe in evolution, was the lady shah's swami...I watched with an eyebrow cocked. "I think therefore God is"??? Switched off.

[@threestars2164]

Evolution is true

[@anthonykenny1320]

I had to stop listening when he said that “Islam is also a revealed religion” since it proves his intellectual objectivity is seriously flawed and on that foundation everything else he will say is unreliable to say the least

[@dougerhard2128]

Not all of Hinduism is panpsychist. In fact, he quoted the Rig Veda, the oldest of the Hindu scriptures. The Upanishads are the last word in Hindu philosophy (besides the commentaries), and Shankara (in 800CE) took all comers in debate of Advaita, which is derived from the Upanishads.. True Advaita is not panpsychist at all. But one can set up and knock down as many straw men as one wishes................

[@Proud_Pagan]

Do you think that Hinduism talks about finiteness ? There is no first book, no last book and of course no single book in Hinduism . The very foundation of Hinduism is based on zero and infinity and cyclic concept of time . If you will think in linear terms you will never get to feel Hinduism .

[@BlackPill-pu4vi]

The Srimad Bhagavatam is superior for explaining consciousness and the divine forces involved.

[@templarseries]

Consciousness isn't before things, it's a brain function status, like a light switch, On and off don't exist without the switch.

[@ravisekharreddy9783]

CHOICELESS CHOICELESS AWARENESS OF JIDDU KRISHNA MOORTHY..JK AHAM BRAHMASMI OF ADVAITA. OF SANKARA SWAMY.VIVEKANANDA RAMANA MAHARSHI

[@jeremybear573]

Harvard would never allow these speakers on campus in 2023. What a reflection of the lack of critical thought and debate in today's education system....

[@ArtistMgmtATL]

Haha! He is a University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University. He's core faculty. 😂

[@jeremybear573]

@@ArtistMgmtATL Even worst

[@dr.majidborumand6117]

These mumbo jumbos with pretense of spirituality doesn’t solve the problems humanity is facing today. Nasr’s nostalgia for fairies and angels are indicative of a decadent mind not someone who cares about mankind as evident by his political life history. An opportunist servant of an autocratic monarch that never speaks truth to power. Rather appeases everyone in power be it religious or secular. Don’t take my words for it. Read his biography and study his life. Decadent!!

[@fentasyboi]

Vry poorly prepared talks.....

[@icarusflies9670]

Says those who don't understand shit from this talk

[@jemussi7842]

Dry, humourless, tedious and an exercise in restating the blindingly obvious.