TED Community » Minh Do

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  A comment on Conversation: Do you have a suggestion for TED? Something we could do better?

  Apr 30 2011: Definitely would like to get notifications on replies to my replies.

• A reply on Conversation: What would the next Homo Sapiens look like? What kinds of characteristics would they have?

  Apr 1 2011: Do you think that the technology that we create affects our own neuronal evolution and thus promotes a gradual biological mutation that will come to predominate human society? I guess I'm wondering if certain people will be more likely to survive than others based on the increasingly human-created environments we have been constructing for the past few millenia.

• A reply on Conversation: What would the next Homo Sapiens look like? What kinds of characteristics would they have?

  Apr 1 2011: What is the "water bear"?

• A reply on Conversation: What would the next Homo Sapiens look like? What kinds of characteristics would they have?

  Apr 1 2011: Christophe,
  
  - By cyborgs, do you mean bionic arms and such? Or do you mean the development of silicon neurons that could replace our own organic neurons? Or do you mean something as benign as stem cells?
  - Genetics and eugenics...As in engineering a new race of beings as seen in Gattaca?
  - AI - That's a funny idea, if silicon developed as advanced consciousness as ourselves, I guess we'd have to give them the torch, especially if our species is unable to survive a global catastrophe (knock on wood).

• A reply on Conversation: What would the next Homo Sapiens look like? What kinds of characteristics would they have?

  Apr 1 2011: Anna, I share your sentiments there. :-)

• A reply on Conversation: What would the next Homo Sapiens look like? What kinds of characteristics would they have?

  Apr 1 2011: Point taken about biology, but you don't think that our brains still have some evolving to do?
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: What does science has to say about enlightenment or the consciousness of an enlightened individual ?

  Mar 28 2011: Birdia, I know what you mean. It seems people don't like to stick with hard facts and argue through the validity of statements. Nevertheless, one of the things I did like was Kathy K's statement that thoughts are not generated by the brain but pass through the brain. Not sure how true this is, but it is certainly provocative. But then we would have to come up with a more agreeable definition of "thought".

• A comment on Conversation: What is the nature of consciousness? Is consciousness merely a by-product of the physical brain?

  Mar 26 2011: Looks like this thread will be dying soon...Any chance we can resurrect it?

• A reply on Conversation: What does science has to say about enlightenment or the consciousness of an enlightened individual ?

  Mar 25 2011: Anytime! This is certainly one of my favorite topics. And i do hope that neuroscience will take greater interest in the topic. Theres a book titled Zen and the Brain but i have yet to open it up. Now if only the mind as byproduct discussion was less cluttered we could get into some meat. Hehe. Although i have been loving some statements people have been making. Your take?
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: What does science has to say about enlightenment or the consciousness of an enlightened individual ?

  Mar 25 2011: Hi Birdia, Wow. That's a broad stroke of different schools of thought and practices that I'm not sure I could answer comprehensively. But I will try my best here...
  
  From what I have studied in Zen (Ch'an) Buddhism, they are all linked. Chinese Zen takes its roots through Indian Buddhism (Bodhidharma) and Japanese and Korean takes their roots from Chinese. In Zen, they consider the unbroken lineage of Masters as paramount. A sidenote on that though, if you check out one of my favorite books, Swampland Flowers which features talks, letters and responses from Master Ta-Hui. In the introduction they make reference to a rather famous quotation in Ch'an, that "half a man is better than no man", which means that sometimes a Master cannot find a successor that is equal in his level of realization but is enough to pass on the torch to the next generation. Having said that, there's also famous stories (specifically in Ta-Hui's case) wherein the student's realization surpasses the Masters and the Master has full acknowledgment of that (Ta-Hui's Master actually used to come down from the pulpit and sit and listen to his own student's lectures). You can make of that what you will...
  
  My knowledge of Hinduism (philosophy and especially practice) is very limited so I'll refrain from making comparisons there, but will say that I think that the thesis that "all religions point to the same realization" may be a bit hasty, especially given the above.
  
  If we want to look at orthodox Mahayana schools (and also evidenced in root Theravadin texts) there are certainly different levels of realization. At the root of the Mahayana awakening is compassion and the vows to stay in this world until all suffering is over (arguably never). In non-Mahayana, one only seeks to leave samsara and end suffering for oneself. The types of mental practice are certainly different and arguably lead to different mental experiences.