When I was writing my questions I did not have answers to those questions within my own consciousness. Now after receiving your response I still do not have answers to those questions. :-)

Perhaps they were irrelevant questions, or too difficult, or perhaps expressed poorly.

Here.. I’ll have a go at refining my expression of the first question:

1. How can consciousness exist without the brain?

Please notice that this is not a statement, it is a question. I am not negating the possibility of consciousness existing without the brain. I am asking about the nature of that existence.

The question is not seeking an answer of ‘yes’ or ‘no’. It is perhaps better understood as a question that contains the pre-supposition, (or at least the hypothesis): ‘yes, consciousness exists independently of the brain’. From that assertion the question is leading on to an answer in terms of ‘the mechanism is….’, or ‘we can understand the nature of non-reliant consciousness like this….’.

Perhaps then, the question is better expressed as:

“Given that consciousness can exist without the brain, what is the nature or mechanism of that existence?”

In that formulation perhaps the sincerity of the enquiry is perceived. And, perhaps the answer is “no human has yet been able to adequately explain that mechanism…” or “it is certain that that existence cannot be explained in mechanistic terms”.

What do you think? Or, what does Tibetan Buddhism teach here?

Thanks for the Ref, I am reading.

You speak as if science has “proven” that consciousness is nothing more than an emergent property of the brain. This is simply not the case. Clearly the brain plays a role in the process of thoughts etc, but it is many believe, myself included (at this point in time) that there is more to it than this. Many western sciencstics and philosophies do not hold this view, although it is a secular belife that they so. So, I think you will find that the jury is still out on this one.

In fact, there are many scienticst that will admit they do not fully understand what consciousness is. So, perhaps you could look into a little more such as here http://consc.net/consc-papers.html

How can that be? Is it possible? Do you teach that consciousness exists independently of the brain? If so, where is that consciousness? If it is not reliant on the brain, what IS it reliant on?