Our modern epistemic toolkit[1] gives us new insights into the nature of consciousness and provides us with more explanatory power when speaking about the transformations in consciousness we call awakening. Research has also recently shown that feeling and perception can detect more subtle phenomena then the mind is able to categorize, linguistically or conceptually. Without categories, we are unable to map these subtle phenomena to objective correspondences, and therefore, cannot theorize about them. This means that when it comes to consciousness, phenomenological practices are more precise than categories, and therefore must be the measures against which our theories are evaluated. In this presentation I review the deep phenomenological practices of awakening and enlightenment that can serve as a guide to improving evaluative discourse on theories about the levels and evolution of consciousness.

[1] Which includes neuroscience, meta-psychology, process philosophy, complexity science, and RQM (relativistic quantum mechanics).

bonnittaroy@mindspring.com