Do animals and plants have consciousness? Are electrons alive?
Thich Nhat Hanh in dialogue with University of Virginia Astrophysicist Dr. Trinh Xuan Thuan.
What is your opinion?
Transcript English (auto-generated)
0:00
even if you claim that an electron has
0:03
consciousness which which I don’t think
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there’s ever in a scientific evidence
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force institute wiser yes I think that
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degrees of consciousness i would say
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that our doctrines and consciousness
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it’s not the same as a man consciousness
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me and once you’ve seen an electron
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you’ve seen them all you know they
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change your way yeah you they change
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your way with a massive electric charge
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and the spin you know we wonder about
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what is the origin of the universe you
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know where are we going where whether
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the life adesso I don’t know and you
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know what happened after our death but I
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don’t think a dog cap ass himself that
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question you see so there’s a dunker
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don’t go of course I don’t speak cat but
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not gonna run but I don’t think I don’t
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think that you know cat would ask him to
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have this question of course i don’t see
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our cats are producing a bit better wind
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symphony or painting you know ammonia I
1:00
think that’s different degrees
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consciousness and we cannot put all this
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all of these things in nature sings in
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Yoruba on the same level gaysauce so
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again then I would ask you what is your
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opinion of that would you say that still
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that electron is the same as a human
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being the question reflects mine of
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discrimination very clear
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you know that we ready when you look
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into ourselves as a human being we see
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that the human being is made only or
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non-human elements we have the mineral
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element in us we have the element of
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vegetable in us and we have the element
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animal in us not only we have human
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ancestors but we also have any more
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ancestors and vegetable ancestors and
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also mineral and justice and our
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ancestors and do not belong to the past
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they belong to the present they are
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fully present in us without them you
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cannot see the way we see you cannot
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think the way we think we cannot leave
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the way we live and the elephant also is
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also in us so when I produce a thought
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every ancestors in me including the
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mineral ancestor anymore the visual and
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justice collaborate with me in order to
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produce that thought it’s like when you
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see you look at the tree that is not the
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job of only in your eyes as you know
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very well without the brain without the
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blood without the cells in your body
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with our order scene is would be an
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impossible thing for eyes so when this I
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see the whole body is participating in
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the act of see so when we produce a
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thought when we reason when we create
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music when we do mathematics not only if
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a number of neurons are doing so but
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whole body the whole and the whole
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lineage of ancestors in us participating
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in producing that thought so looking
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like that you see that you are not you
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are made of non new element and the non
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you element continue to be in you and if
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you remove the non you element out there
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is no more you left so we have the
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complex of superiority as a human being
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we think that we have that kind of
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intelligence that kind of consciousness
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that other living beings do not have but
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I’m not very proud of the kind of mind
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that you are using a lil Eli the mind of
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discrimination that mind of
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discrimination caught by many notions
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the foundation of all kind of suffering
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they discriminate against this and depth
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and that created complexes of
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superiority inferiority equality and so
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on this plant has intelligence this
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plane has knowledge this plan has a will
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to live is then this this plant knows
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how to fabricate flower and fruit how to
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continue to light that the best way
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plane and it seems to me that that this
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band is great and less suffering than
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the human beings I am NOT very proud of
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my mind of discrimination therefore I am
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free from the complex of superiority of
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a human being I know that I can do
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better and that is why
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when you produce a thought mother earth
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is producing the top together with you
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don’t say that you are long producing
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that thought mother earth is in you and
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she is at the at the earth foundation
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and she is form using that thought with
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you at the same time so this top is not
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your property this thought that is just
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produced is a property is a creation of
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the whole earth and not only the earth
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the Sun also because without the Sun the
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earth can not be herself and she isn’t
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able to create you to bring you into
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existence so that is the mine of
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non-discrimination as far as you use the
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mind of discrimination to judge and to
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organize you continue to create
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suffering that is why it’s so important
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to learn how to remove notions that are
7:00
at the foundation of separation and
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discrimination
#KissedByElectrons 
i found that talk, along with the whole
science of the Buddha retreat
stimulating!
i was fortunate to be there.
thanks for
sharing 🙂