I ask because I've been interested in getting involved for years, finally seem to be heading that way and so far, I haven't seen anyone say anything that bad about it.

I guess I'm wary for a few reasons:

1. There seems to be a significant focus on the founding gurus Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. They are long deceased but the daily prayer services, for example, include calls to them and that just seems a little odd. If they were alive and the same thing was being done (which I understand it was at one point), it would definitely ring some alarms.
2. It does seem to have a lot of monastics, which could be normal but also can point to a high control group.
3. I believe in something resembling the theology of what gets called "neo-Hindu" or "generally Dharmic" religion - but it's well known similar groups can gravitate to cultism. ISKCON or even Self-Realization Fellowship seem to have a fair amount of bad press online. But so far I haven't seen anything comparably bad on Vedanta Society?

. All the Vedantists agree on three points. They believe in God, in the Vedas as revealed, and in cycles.

2. The belief about cycles is as follows: All matter throughout the universe is the outcome of one primal matter called Âkâsha; and all force, whether gravitation, attraction or repulsion, or life, is the outcome of one primal force called Prâna. Prâna acting on Âkâsha is creating or projecting the universe.

3. At the beginning of a cycle, Âkâsha is motionless, unmanifested. Then Prâna begins to act, more and more, creating grosser and grosser forms out of Âkâsha — plants, animals, men, stars, and so on.

4. Now there is something beyond Âkâsha and Prâna. Both can be resolved into a third thing called Mahat — the Cosmic Mind. This Cosmic Mind does not create Âkâsha and Prâna, but changes itself into them.

5. According to the Sânkhya philosophy, the reactive state of the mind called Buddhi or intellect is the outcome, the change, or a certain manifestation of the Mahat or Cosmic Mind.

Read more - http://bit.ly/36YuUj2

Language of the podcast: Sanskrit & English with Sanskrit parts explained in detail

Length: 84 minutes.

Link to Mantra 2: Mandukya Upnishad | Mantra 2 of 12 Mantras and 227 karikas - Soundcloud

Listen to this life enriching podcast, even if you are an atheist, you will enjoy it. But before listening to Mantra 2, Listen to Mantra 1 if you haven't already.

Mantra 1 and the beginning of Mandukya Upnishad

Subscribe to r/upnishad because I will be posting things related to Upnishad regularly. You are welcome to contribute.

Hello!

Where would one go to find Vedantic communities in Northern India? More specifically around Rishikesh or Varanasi.

How strong is the relationship between Hinduism-Advaita Vedanta-Yoga?

Can one consider them as One philosophy (religion) seeing how they are all inspired by the Vedic scriptures?

Thanks in advance Ohm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx7O2zDqi6I&t=3s

I recently checked out my local Vedanta Society. It was interesting but after having been to Hindu temples before, the VS seemed like "Hindu Church" to me.

We sang a Western hymn in English. Listened to the Swami talk about "inner silence". The majority of the people there were Indian, but there were several other Westerners like myself there.

How does the VS fit into Hinduism? Is this considered Hinduism by Hindus or is it "New Age"? I would like to learn how to serve Lord Ganapati but not being raised in Hinduism, the people at Hindu temples didn't seem too friendly or accommodating.

This seemed like a nice comfortable mix of Hinduism and Western practices, but is it considered real Hinduism? Thank you!

I'm working on a research project about the Vedanta Society in the U.S. and have attended a few services there. I was wondering if there was anything comparable in India or if it was still basically just the traditional guru-disciple relationship and nothing more. Thanks.

I found these while reading the Gospel of Holy Mother today. It is hard to cite this text well, unfortunately because it has many dated entries from multiple people - these are in April 1912 Swami Arupananda’s account. Note that some nuances here are specifically Vedanta Society/Ramakrishna Order doctrine - but I think the general message resounds with much of Hinduism. I thought you may enjoy them because we seem to get this question everyday and I think the message is a very wholesome response to the concerns people have.

“One lady from Poland had come to India to study Vedanta. She had heard in Calcutta about the Mother, and had come to meet her. She spoke to the Mother for some time. 'Referring to the Bahai sect, she said that its teachings were similar to the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna - they too preached the harmony of all religions. From her talk it appeared that the lady herself belonged to the Bahai sect.

After she had left, I asked the Mother, "How did you find her?"

Mother: Very nice.

Disciple: These people have come from very far. Now the news has spread like wild fire! Where is Poland, and where indeed is the Udbodhan Office! Mother, you are not even aware of it!

Mother: The Master had said once in a divine mood, "In course of time, I will be worshipped in every home. Innumerable indeed will be my devotees!" Nivedita once said, "Mother, we too are Hindus. As a result of our Karma, we were born in another country. But we too will become Hindus in true spirit!" This is their (of Nivedita and others) last birth.”

“Mother: This is your last birth. Nivedita said, "Mother, we too are Hindus. But due to our Karma, we were born Christians." This birth is the last one for them too.

The Mother often said this birth being the last one about many people. So I decided to ask her about it that day.

Disciple: Mother, what is the meaning of the 'last birth'?'

The Master spoke about the last birth of many people. You too often say it.

Mother: The last birth means that the person has not to come again and again (i.e. he does not have to take repeated births). This life marks an end of all that.

…

Disciple: Does the last birth imply the attainment of Nirvana?

Mother: Of course, it does. In some cases, it is possible, that the mind will become absolutely bereft of all desires just before death.”

Welcome friend :)

Now that I have caught your attention, and we all know that the disease of today's man is a chronic lack of attention, I want to serve you some mental food. Since most people today do not pay attention to read more than a few lines, I will try to write this as briefly and concisely as possible, although I know I will not succeed in doing so. But it doesn't matter, let reading this text be a test, an exercise in attention and concentration.

I'll be honest right away. I chose this title just to appeal to you because I noticed that non-duality philosophy is very popular and appealing to everyone and I noticed that it has become like some new religion. If you say something against it, you will immediately be marked as an amateur on the spiritual path. Since I have always been a rebel and a heretic, so even now I have to raise my voice against generally accepted norms, that is, try to explain the philosophy of non-duality from my limited understanding.

I believe that the philosophy of non-duality is true, but simplified truth. This is why it is so popular today, because of the general state and mind of the average man, a man who can read only a few sentences, the truth must be simplified so that man can chew it. I think that's good too, I just wanted to shed light on some more aspects of this doctrine.

There have been mystics in all cultures and at all times who have understood and experienced the truth of non-dualism. Their experiences are quite similar; the terminology with which they tried to express their knowledge is slightly different, which is quite understandable. The problem can only arise because this experience is difficult to convey accurately to those who are not conversant with it. Thus, we have cases where many mystics were killed and considered heretics because they knew and made public this understanding. For example, Islamic traditionalists killed Mr. Mansur Al-Hallaj who is best known for his saying: I am the Truth (Ana'l-Ḥaqq), which many saw as a claim to divinity, while others interpreted it as an instance of annihilation of the ego, allowing God to speak through him (also some of his statements are: If you do not recognize God, at least recognize His sign, I am the creative truth because through the truth, I am eternal truth. There is nothing wrapped in my turban but God, there is nothing in my cloak but God). He also wrote: *I saw my Lord with the eye of the heart. I asked,

Understanding the Ashwamedha Yajna

This is probably a relevant topic to discuss as polemicists of the Hindu tradition have begun taking one of the controversial aspects of the Ashwamedha sacrifice as a tool to denigrate and disparage the Hindu tradition. But what is the traditional narrative regarding the Aswamedha yajna and what relevance does it have in contemporary Hindu society? Let us investigate .

The historical and theological context

The earlier corpus of Vedic literature(the Samhitas,brahmanas) dealing with ritual sacrifice falls into the category of karmakanda (which places greater emphasis on the mode of action as a means to salvation), while the later texts such as the Aranyakas and Upanishads constitute the jnanakanda (which emphasises esoteric understanding).

Vedic society, during the age in which karmakanda was prominent, centred around a ritual known as Yajna.

The rites in the karmakandha are followed to produce specific temporal rewards which are materialistic in nature. Since they are temporary rewards, they represent a lower mode of worship than the jnanakanda. This mode of ritual is done via appeasement or propitiation of limited beings known devas and is not to be equated with the Bhakti directed towards the Eternal Brahman as found in the jnanakanda. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:-

3.8.10. “He, O Gārgī, who in this world, without knowing this Immutable Being, offers oblations in the fire, performs sacrifices and undergoes austerities even for many thousand years, finds all such acts but perishable; he, O Gārgī, who departs from this world without knowing this Immutable, is miserable. But he, O Gārgī, who departs from this world after knowing this Immutable, is a knower of Brahman.”

There are three types of ritual practices which are described in the Vedas:- the Nitya karmas (necessary rites), the Naimitika karmas (the occasional rites) and the Kamya karmas (desire oriented rites).

1. The Nitya karmas are to be followed on a daily basis to produce the necessary results required for expiating sin. According to Vedanta, the Nitya karmas are to be performed without desiring the outcome of the ritual-such a process is known as karma yoga. These rites are also known as nishkamya karmas as they are done without any objective in mind. The non performance of the Nitya karmas invites sin on the individual. ex:- Agnihotra.

2. The Naimitika karmas are occasional rites -examples include the Upanayana for the initiation of Vedic educ

Hi there,

After 100 hours my Dark Keeper has finished his journey in Enderal. Upon my time spent with this game, numerous quests, dialogues and enviroments have resonated deeply within me. I enjoyed very much the setting's originality, it's very well executed mixture of motifs, myths and stories came together to make one of the best cRPG experiences I ever had. To be frank, there were times where my enthusiasm fired up as if I was playing a fully fledged TES game (if not more).

I heard many rumours before playing Enderal about the way this game critizes and puts into focus "religion" as a concept. But from my point of view, I felt quite an opposite: criticism isn't bad, and it largely leads to some better understandings of what a phenomena is or isn't - either via negation, either via countersignals. While gloomy at times, I think Enderal is one of the best attempts at discussing, representing and challenging religious topics in any games ever, period. It may be bleak and pessimistic, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have juice. Quite the contrary.

Outside of my Dark Keeper activities such as bashing inn doors, tomb raiding and soul-eating, I am an (IRL) academic researcher in Religious History, studying from a philological standpoint various texts and traditions. My specialization is on Coptic (Late Egyptian) sources, thus I am fairly aquianted with Gnosticism, Early Christianity and many strange cults that floated around the year 0.

From this point of view I have composed some scans about various moments and aspects of Enderal and of it's story/setting, so that people interested in "lore-picking" can reflect on the vast body of real-life historical references Enderal makes. As with TES, I believe that the analogy between complex fantasy lore and real-life lore enriches both sides of the story, increasing appreciation and inner learnings.

Reading notes:

A. Please do not take what is here as more than a personal, if somewhat "educated" speculation. The authors and developers of Enderal may have had motifs/intentions other that those reflected here; At times, they may have intentionally referenced some real-life concepts, otherwise not. I am not here to imply, just to reflect upon.

B. It goes without saying that all that is below is FULL OF SPOILERS. In this quest to valorize Enderal, we are going to spoil it a lot, (similar to how [Tealor tried to save the world by assuring it's almost destruction](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/

I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.

Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.

Hi, it is my first post. I have seen many people talking about magic and what not on this subreddit, and I personally, don't believe in it.

I am an Atheist and identify myself with Hindutva movement. So, basically I want a civic debate in this thread, in support of god and against the existence of him.

Hello fellow cult followers,

First let's praise our healthy leader Dr. K for his glorious ascension. In all seriousness thank you for your contributions and effort. The positive affect you have on people must is everlasting and worth everything you're doing.

Meanwhile, I am recognizing a few problems with recent videos and the mechanisms explaining brain chemistry, psychological thought loops, and most importantly the social understanding of all of this. For one, im not saying any of the information is "wrong" as it isn't my goal to point out details. Second of all, these are problems I see everywhere not just in HealthyGamer Content. Lastly, this is for educational purposes.

Despite great messages from Dr. K, I see many reddit responses pointing out contradictions within HealthyGamer. Even though most people are content with their interpretations of the videos, there will be some confused and stuck by the contradictions given. For example people with a high moral conviction towards murder may think all murder is evil until they have to think of broader murderous acts like War, where the opinion can change based on tribal affiliation. These contradictions can be divisive and be outright damaging.

Solution: avoid using Dogma like "Good and Bad" in all speech. How: Use systems mechanics to explain such behavior like Positive and Negative feedback. Ex: "School shootings has had a positive feedback in our society due to ___________ (online drift, extremism, worsening economic subjectivity, etc). School shootings are at a loss by losing children, not only losing the future of our country but losing a role model who could've helped them." This keeps it educational, eye opening, still emotionally charged but without conviction.

Also, I've seen "The Sovereign Individual" thrown around a lot in Dr. K's talks. This is prevalent in most videos in the format of "No one is responsible for you except you", "You have to put in the work", "You are responsible for your actions now, not in the past", etc. These statements are misleading if not damaging. Taking a look at both Western and Eastern Philosophy, the "You" is indistinguishable to the Whole. In Adveita Vedanta, Atma is in everything, it just isn't reflected in everything. Post Modern philosphers would say that the You is comprised of the structures currently present around us like language, social structure like government, and family structures. This doesn't mean this Dogma is right or wrong, there are pr

>It’s a pain too deep for many of us to fathom, and yet it seems all too often lately we are hearing from parents of young men who vanish with no explanation.
>
>Boston 25 News

On March 29, 2017, 23-year-old Michael Kelleher went missing from a Celtics game at TD Garden.

Two weeks after Michael's body was found in the Charles River, two 26-year-old men from affluent towns in Middlesex County disappeared within 10 days of each other.

Both of their bodies were later found in the Boston water.

Ram

https://preview.redd.it/lswj4qdktvb81.png?width=786&format=png&auto=webp&s=2df66924b26210e7fdb3917a0fe10ca363cddaf2

On May 11 at 7:15pm, Brown graduate Sriram 'Ram' Jayakumar left his home in Lexington and told his parents he would be back in one hour.

Around 20-30 minutes later, witnesses saw Ram park his car at the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society (a place of worship) at 58 Deerfield Street in Boston. His car was later found parked at the corner of Bay State Road and Silber Way, which is a one-minute walk from the Silber Way Overpass footbridge leading to the Charles River esplanade.

This area of the esplanade is across the river from the Boston University DeWolfe Boathouse, where the bodies of John Daverio (2003) and Jon Dailey (2012) were found under mysterious circumstances.

https://preview.redd.it/r3c3jjpshvb81.png?width=1988&format=png&auto=webp&s=b8d65edf049a83fe623110daea8577e8cd2fa8be

Ram didn't return home that night, and his parents reported him missing the following day. A week-long missing persons search yielded no leads.

On May 19, esplanade walkers reported seeing a "mostly skeleton" body floating in the river banks near the Miriam and Sidney Stoneman Playground.

Boston Police, Massachusetts State Police, Lexington police, and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office all declined to identify the body.

However, anonymous sources and family members confirmed it to be Ram's body.

The only article published on Ram's drowning came from [India New England News](https://indianewengland.com/2017/05/breaking-news-body-26-year-old-indian-am

>There is a general perception in India that the biggest threat to India’s national security comes from our two hostile neighbours i.e. Pakistan and China. But the truth is that the most serious threat to India’s security comes from the vast network of activist NGOs, human rights organizations and India’s pseudo-secular lobby which are all now collectively known as civil society groups. These civil society groups, supported, funded and controlled by some western intelligence and church agencies, pose a very grave threat to the very survival of India as a sovereign nation. Many of these organizations which were first established in India as charity organizations, later changed their colour and started showing their fangs by supporting various militant and secessionist movements in the country. The NGO and human rights activism got a big boost in the early 1970s with the patronage it received from Sonia Gandhi who came to India in 1968 as the Italian ‘bahu’ of India’s former prime minister Indira Gandhi. The origin of many militant people’s movements like Narmada Bachao Andolan and Kastakari Sanghatana which were started in the mid-1970s and the take over of the Maoist movement by the pro-US NGO lobby can be traced to this NGO-Sonia nexus. With Rajiv Gandhi becoming the Prime Minister of India in 1984, there was a substantial increase in the NGO lobby’s political influence in the country with the successful induction of many of its nominees into key positions of power in the administration under different ministries.

Four crucial legislations

>In 1992, two very important legislations i.e. 73d and 74th amendments to the Constitution were passed by the Parliament, with the avowed objective of strengthening the institutions of Panchayat Raj and urban bodies through decentralization of power, allegedly meant to allow the people at the lowest level to take part in the decision making process. Some NGO activists had played a very key, but behind-the- scene role, in getting these two amendment bills passed in the Parliament. It was under the pressure of these activists and also with the support of the top leadership of the Congress party, the Constitution (73d and 74th ) Amendment Bills, were finally passed by the Parliament in December, 1992. The two Acts came into force on April 24, 1993, giving necessary constitutional sanction to the Panchayat Raj Institutions and Urban Local Bodies in India. Creation of Area Sabha or Mohalla Sabha under the Ward Commit

Do your worst!

I'm surprised it hasn't decade.

Salam. I'd like to know what is it in Islam that you are a part of it, in other words, what if (assuming you are not a convert) you were not born in a muslim family, would you still choose to be a muslim? I asked this question to myself last year and honestly I am having a hard time finding answers to it.

The problem, therefore, is twofold.

First problem: It seems everything that islam offers could be found outside islam as well (considering there is no afterlife), and even if in better forms. Think of the basic roles that religions fulfill - spirituality, laws, ethics and morals, religious literature, role model and inspiration, self help, real life problems.

As in islam- sufi spirituality and meditation, I find, is just a tiny fraction compared of the vast ocean of eastern religious literature (i.e. buddhism, advaita vedanta, yoga) in terms of their content and applicability in our modern life.

Apart from some minor issues, liberal democracies and secular humanism also I'd say triumphs the traditional interpretation of sharia both in terms of their humaneness, non-discriminatory attitude, warmth, love and peace for the fellow individuals, and is perfect to fit in with the progressive and sustainable future that we envision.

Think of the central texts, if one reads with an open mind, The bhagvad geeta has a lot to offer in terms of the challenges and struggles that individuals go through and provides excellent advices on how to handle them. On the other hand, I try hard but cannot really connect with the quran, all I feel is extreme fear and anxiety for the afterlife and not much constructive to enrich my life in this world. The hadith literature sadly does not feel very intellectually satisfying or inspirational either, with a collection of folktales, extremely detailed commands and prohibitions, contradictions, rampant misogyny; and only a handful one that appeal to our conscience and sense of morality.

For role models, I really feel myself more connected to buddha and his timeless teachings, and I find extreme similarities in our personalities. On the other hand, prophet muhammad seems extremely complex; and I would say he is the epitome of a traditional alpha male in a tribalistic society and many of the things he did/said are strictly limited to the relevant time-place-context and therefore reducing their significance in our day to day lives. Compare that with buddha, whose teachings are incredibly compatible to the recent developments i

“One who knows God becomes equivalent to God”

My journey started unintentionally over two years ago. It started with meaning a broke college student turning towards an ascetic lifestyle trying to find happiness and contentment from within and not material bs. Through this process, I learned to make my own foods. Even making my own bread/pasta/other things/etc. I soon realized how I was royally being screwed financially by the market system we use. I then worked out how much it would cost me to build a rural offgrid hermit type of settlement. The realization of how little it would cost for me to live on my own led me into a psychosis. I nearly went 'insane' at the time, I had realized I had been indoctrinated into being a wage slave for society, and that the 'matrix' was indeed very real. 'I' had not attained god realization, but was well on the way towards it. At this point I had been in and out of psyche wards due to manic episodes after being diagnosed Bipolar 1. After this I suppose I was convinced to undergo electrocompulsive therapy while being medicated. Six months of my memory was fried away. Despite all of this, I still found myself relearning all which was lost and came to the same conclusion for a second time. The only reason I had any idea of the first realization after my second one was due to looking through screenshots on my phone from the past. Freedom is but an illusion to a vast majority on this planet. After this realization, I wanted to understand why I was here, and what the point of all this was. I wanted the Truth. I ended up dropping out of college and spending nearly every waking hour for the past 5 months on the spiritual journey(no work, savings), Jnana Yoga,  reading and listing to lectures for what is more than likely well over a thousand hours.

“God became man that man might become God” - Athanasius

“Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. Neo: What truth? Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.”

“Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream

For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.

I said "hey look, an escaPEA"

No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!

Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂

It really does, I swear!

https://www.indiafacts.org.in/fcra-foreign-contribution-regulation-act-2010/

Important points worth noting from this IndiaFacts post.

Old instances of judicial activism by foreign funded NGOs

• Litigation against Himachal anti conversion law funded by Action AID,Christian AID,Oxfam (UK), Misereor, Open Doors (US), BILD (US), Viva (UK), Barnabas Fund (US), Equip-India (US), Evangelical Fellowship of Asia (Japan), Stiftung-CSI (Switzerland), CIA linked Ford Foundation
• PIL demanding FCRA enforcement be done by non govt body-funded by CIA-linked Ford Foundation,Google,Omidyar,HIVOS, ARPAN (US)
• Litigation demanding Ban on Jalikattu & Kambala
• Litigation against road widening & setting up of DRDO, ISRO, BARC, IISc institutes in Charleke, near Chitradurga, Karnataka. Funded by Action AID.
• Litigation against field trial of genetically modified crops- funded by Oxfam, Heinrich Boll (Germany), Ford Foundation (US), IDRC- International Research Development Centre (Canada)
• PIL demanding "skilled visitors to oversee conditions in prisons". Funded by missionary orgs Dan Church Aid, Misereor, CIA-linked Ford Foundation, HIVOS
• People’s Watch, a Madurai-based NGO, has filed a law suit demanding that a Prison Visitor’s Board be established to set up a committee of specialized visitors to counsel prisoners. It is registered as Centre For Promotion Of Social Concerns, FCRA Reg no -TN/075940138.A quick glance at their FCRA filings show that their donors include Misereor – A german Catholic Charity, Common Global Ministries, Ohio, USA – a Methodist Church, United church foundation UCF, US, Enfants du Monde, a Swiss Charity. Further, this particular NGO is led by Henri Tiphagne, first Indian to receive the Amnesty International Human Rights Award in 2016.It is also common knowledge that aggressive conversion and proselytisation is carried out in prisons. Thus, this, in effect, means that foreign donors are explicitly demanding the right to proselytize in Indian prisons.
• Foreign funded orgs & individuals advocating & enacting the highly discriminatory RTE Act leading to explosion of minority schools has already been covered.
• PIL

_____________________________________________

Our govt Childline services are actually operated by FCRA funded NGOs.

The childline service – 1098 – for children to call in case of an emerge

Open individualism states that all conscious beings share one common ground of experience, separated by their differing perspectives. But what counts as a conscious being? From our own experience, we consider human beings to possess conscious experience, of course. Most people will posit that chimpanzees, dolphins, and elephants also possess an internal, first person experience. But what about simpler animals like flatworms, clams, tardigrades, or sponges? It seems harder to say for sure, and it is difficult to imagine a hard line set of criteria that would let us define exactly which species of animals are conscious and which are not. It may be easier to suppose that rather than a fixed threshold of neural complexity that determines the presence or absence of consciousness, there is instead a continuum of sorts, so animals with more neural complexity experience a greater richness and more advanced form of consciousness, while simpler animals still possess consciousness in a more rudimentary form. In Open-Individualism, we may suppose that all of these forms of experience are manifestations of one consciousness.

Even if we suppose that all animals are conscious in one way or another, we are then left to consider other forms of life. Conventional wisdom tells us that plants and fungi don’t possess phenomenal experience of any kind, but is this really true? Recent research in mycelial networks, and the ways plants appear to remember information and communicate with one another seems to suggest that plants might in fact, possess some form of consciousness.

This raises the question, naturally, of what that supposed consciousness might be like. Thomas Nagel famously posed the question of “What Is It Like To Be A Bat?” and concluded that even if we assume that bats have consciousness, it is beyond human capabilities of conception to imagine what the experience of being a bat is really like. If we suppose that there is “something that it is like” to be a tree, the question of “What it is like to be a tree” must be an even greater puzzle than trying to imagine what being a bat is like.

Even so, a growing perspective in philosophy of mind called “panpsychism” posits that some form of conscious experience is present not just in animal life, but in plants, fungi, bacteria, and even in inorganic matter. Most panpsychists do not imagine that rocks, for example, possess a unified consciousness, but perhaps every single electron, proton, and the other fundamenta

They’re on standbi

Pilot on me!!

Nothing, he was gladiator.

A brief walkthrough of Indian political history, focusing on the actually important things rather than just the stuff there are more tertiary sources on/that historians care more about.

Table of Contents

1. Prologue: the thousand-year recession
2. Early Iron Age (1200 BC – 750 BC)
3. Middle Iron Age (750 BC – 493 BC)
4. Late Iron Age (492 BC – 323 BC)
5. Classical Age: First Golden Age (322 BC – 269 BC)
6. Classical Age: Civil War period (268 BC – 181 BC)
7. Classical Age: Invasions period (180 BC – 249 AD)
8. Classical Age: Second Golden Age (250 – 543)
9. Classical Age: Intermediary period (544 – 749)
10. Classical Age: Third Golden Age (750 – 1194)
11. Dark Ages: Muslim period (1195 – 1669)
12. Dark Ages: Reconquest period (1670 – 1756)

Prologue: the thousand-year recession

The political system of Bronze Age India was probably a plutocracy.

https://preview.redd.it/41jg05m5tlv71.png?width=584&format=png&auto=webp&s=a93ff76ffbcb4b05bb2a7d676c794e3ba6e82793

In its peak, the Indus Valley civilization was the source of various technological innovations particularly in the fields of agriculture, water management, infrastructure and measurement. As the Indus Valley script remains undeciphered and very little of its writing remains, it is harder to comment on its academic achievements, most of these are first known from Mesopotamia (Egypt is a somewhat overrated Bronze Age civilization – it showed very little urbanization and was also a late adopter of the wheel; it just has an impressive archaeological record because of its palace economy).

In 1900 BC, a global depression struck. Indian cities crumbled; Near Eastern cities turned into stagnant palace economies; almost no inventions date to this period.

And then in 1200 BC, civilization collapsed.

It was the most mysterious event: Cities throughout the world burned and perished, literacy vanished, disease and local violence became widespread – civilization, from Greece to Gujarat, just collapsed.

Many historians posit pseudo-explanations for the Late Bronze Age collapse, like climate change, or “General Systems Collapse”, but none of these “explanations” are really good as scientific theories. Folks of the time were as confused by the event as we are – a letter from the Syrian king Ammurapi to the king of Cyprus reads:

>My father, behold, the enemy's ships came (here); my cities(?) were burned, and they did evil things in my country. Does not my father know that all my troops

Dad jokes are supposed to be jokes you can tell a kid and they will understand it and find it funny.

This sub is mostly just NSFW puns now.

If it needs a NSFW tag it's not a dad joke. There should just be a NSFW puns subreddit for that.

Edit* I'm not replying any longer and turning off notifications but to all those that say "no one cares", there sure are a lot of you arguing about it. Maybe I'm wrong but you people don't need to be rude about it. If you really don't care, don't comment.