From: "Rod Hemsell" (rodhemsell@yahoo.com)
To: (rcarlson@olympus.net)
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2005 7:59 PM

The
idea that there is consciousness in matter and that it may or may not
be active in one plane of organization or another (bacteria, animals,
etc.) along with vagueness about "consciousness" and "intelligence",
mind and matter, etc. all stems from a dualistic Cartesian bias. If we
try to understand the idea of chit-sakti, Consciousness-Force and
realize that energy (matter) is consciousness and vice-versa, we can
explain the phenomenon of conscioussness at all its various levels of
organization from quantum fields to one celled organisms, and on up the
ladder.

Sri aurobindo says in LD that we must absolutely get
over the idea that consciousness means what we think of as mental
awareness. The reult of this overcoming is a way of thinking known as
non-dualism. It can explain a lot things that are otherwise either
mysterious or confused.