Notion of Growth

Author(s): Hermann Kuhn
Publisher: Crosswind Publishing Germany

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Hermann Kuhn
The first two components of reality look familiar: Our universe contains bodies and things that can be perceived by our senses. These bodies and things are either endowed with consciousness or not. The Jains call the essence of consciousness jiva and define it as 'That what is alive in a living being'. All other elements that do not possess consciousness are called ajiva (literally non-living).
- The individual impulse of life (jiva) is consciousness.
It is easy to describe consciousness, even if there seems to exist a bewildering number of concepts for it. Consciousness is the foundation that must be present before the experience of things, relationships and emotions. All thoughts, all states like joy, pain etc. need a center, a subject, a carrier to whom they belong and who experiences them. In short: A feeling necessarily needs a being that feels. Insights and emotions cannot exist in nothingness, nor can intention or thinking arise from nothing. 8
7 The term 'element' shall emphasize that these constitute original
forms of reality that cannot be divided into even more basic parts. 8 The current idea that life was generated by the mixing of material
substances in the surf of the oceans is barely one-hundred years old. Though entirely unproven, this grotesque hypothesis is surprisingly widely believed in.
It basically supposes that chaotically whirling matter would generate a living organism that in an inexplicable manner 'emanates' consciousness like the liver secretes bile. Consciousness is then thought to be an ether-like, subtle matter that radiates out from the brain and illuminates a certain scene. What the hypothesis does not take into consideration is that there is still the need of a spectator, of someone who really observes the scene 'illuminated' by the hypothetical ether-like substance.
Yet this pseudo-material idea fails to explain even simple phenomena like memory, intuition and emotions. It totally ignores intuitive insights into abilities and knowledge that could not possibly have been acquired or trained during the present life (examples are