The hallmark of these wisdom teachers was their use of pithy sayings, puzzles, and parables rather than prophetic pronouncements or divine decree. They spoke to people in the language that people spoke, the language of story rather than law.
.. Jesus was not a priest. He had nothing to do with the temple hierarchy in Jerusalem, and he kept a respectful distance from most ritual observances. Nor was he a prophet in the usual sense of the term: a messenger sent to the people of Israel to warn them of impending political catastrophe in an attempt to redirect their hearts to God.
Jesus was not that interested in the political fate of Israel, nor would he accept the role of Messiah continuously being thrust upon him.
.. His message was not one of repentance (at least in the usual way we understand it; more on that later this week) and return to the covenant.
.. the transformation of human consciousness.
Can you solve the chess problem which holds key to human consciousness?
The chess problem – originally drawn by Sir Roger – has been devised to defeat an artificially intelligent (AI) computer but be solvable for humans. The Penrose Institute scientists are inviting readers to workout how white can win, or force a stalemate and then share their reasoning.
The team then hopes to scan the brains of people with the quickest times, or interesting Eureka moments, to see if the genesis of human ‘insight’ or ‘intuition’ can be spotted in mind.
.. “We are interested in seeing how the Eureka moments happen in people’s brains. For me it is an actual flash of light but it will be different for others.
.. “This chess position is designed to show the difference between artificial intelligence (AI) and human intelligence (HI) and the nature of human understanding.
“A human looking at it for a short while will ‘see’ what white must, and more particularly, must not do, and use very little energy to decide this.
“But, for a computer, the puzzle requires an enormous number of calculations, far too many for even today’s supercomputers.”
The Ice Cream Problem
It’s worth remembering that for Aristotle the soul is material rather than spiritual, and thus akin to what we mean today by consciousness.
.. Essentially, though, despite their many nuances, all of them are making the same claim: that what the body does constitutes, causes, or is the basis of the mind.
.. So if the notion of action depends on consciousness, you can hardly use it to account for consciousness.
Practice: Examen of Consciousness
Rather than focusing on what went right or wrong, how you failed or succeeded throughout the day, this exercise encourages you to reflect on moments when you were aware of God—when you were present to Love—and those times when you were forgetful or distracted.