If you take a piece of wood and add a source of heat and oxygen, a chemical reaction will occur producing more heat, a flame and light as byproducts.
Organic material, such as a human, also uses oxygen for a chemical reaction and produces carbon dioxide (which is exhaled) heat and light as byproducts. This inner light being the source of consciousness.
If one tries to use consciousness to find consciousness, it’s a lot like getting into your car to go look for your car.

Consciousness arises from matter in the same way that light arises from combustion.

In fact, it's literally impossible to do, for as soon as I focus on the moment, it has passed. So If I keep reminding myself to live in the moment and fail every time, because moments are passing by, I'll necessarily get stuck in a circle I should not have dug in the first place. — Manuel

The moment does not pass, nor does it arrive, it is always here and always now. To be present, is to be where you are already and since it’s not possible to be elsewhere, we are all living in the present moment. Life is either here now, or not at all.

Whether we fear death or not, it will come anyway! And when we are dead, we will not KNOW that we are dead. However, at the moment of death, we will know we are dying, and that knowledge may create enormous fear, but it won’t last for long! We all know that whatever will be, will be, so why worry about such things which are beyond our control? Go with the flow and let the cards fall were they may!

Zelebg
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Imagine an empty digital photo, say with resolution of 900x900 pixels and 900 colours. It potentially can hold a picture of every planet, star and galaxy that ever was and will ever be, at any arbitrary given time, from every possible angle, every possible altitude. It can hold every photo and movie frame that was ever taken and will be taken, every scene that was ever seen and will be seen, dreamt or imagined by every human or alien that ever was and will ever be. It can also contain every page of every book that existed, exists, and will ever exist... it potentially contains a picture of anything that was and can ever be, a picture of everything that can possibly be, both in reality or imagination, and yet the number of those pictures is not infinite.

Therefore, the universe, along with the number of things, actions, or concepts, is not, and cannot be infinite, not even potentially. Right?

Wrong.
A picture is not the thing itself. A picture of an apple will not satisfy hunger.

When awake, our consciousness processes input from the five senses, sorting out what’s important and needs to be acted upon to ensure our survival. When asleep, we are conscious of random images we call dreams, which often don’t make logical sense, but seem to be influenced by our desires and our fears. Perhaps it’s just the random firing of neurones in the brain to discharge energy and prepare for re-use the next day.

Time is just a measurement and yes, one may measure infinitely in either direction, negative numbers or positive numbers, past or future. Although one million-billion years seems like a lot of time, it will occur going forward and has occurred going back, if one wants to measure that far. However, all that really exists is the timeless present moment which is always here and is the only place where anything may be done, including measuring time.

The biological information to build a human body, is contained in your DNA. How did that information get there? We know it was passed down to you, from your parents, but where did that information come from?

The universe did not have a beginning nor will it end. All that ever happens is the changing of forms. Our birth, life and eventual death on the humans scale, is no different then the Big Bang, expansion and eventual death of our local universe, on a cosmic scale. What we consider to be the entire universe, that was created some 13.7 billion years ago, is just a local event in an infinite universe. Just as billions of humans are born, live and die, billions of Big Bangs have been, and will continue to occur and re-occur throughout an infinite space.

Descartes concluded that because there is thought, something must exist to produce it.

(whatever "really" might mean as pertains to abstract objects — TonesInDeepFreeze

Abstract names for abstract objects, has it’s limits. Paradox, is where abstract meets logic and neither may win! What is REAL in an abstract world is the present moment, because it’s the only thing that is here, right now!

I used to watch the roulette wheel and after 5 or 6 reds in a row, I would bet on black, thinking it was due. However, the past does not exist and so there could be 12, 20 or even 50 reds in a row. Doubling ones bet to cover the previous loss may only go so far, before one runs out of money.

The trouble with definitions like “consciousness”, is that they rely on words and the trouble with words is that they are sounds which point to things which are not sounds. We all know what consciousness “is” because we all experience it (supposedly), but the problem with experience, is that experience is subjective and may not be conveyed to others, outside of the use of abstract language. We may “imagine” how someone feels or thinks, but we may never “know” for sure. Hence the “hard” problem.

So there wasn't a big bang that started an expanding universe? — Down The Rabbit Hole

At the moment of conception, there is a rapid expansion of cells, like a Big Bang, only on a biological scale if you will. Looking at our observable universe, we see what conception looks like on a cosmic scale. Since space is infinite, there may be an infinite number of Big Bangs, but we’ll never observe them from earth because of the enormous distances involved. The light from a universe 100 billion light years away, won’t arrive on earth for another 86 billion years.

The spaceship can keep going, because the universe is expanding faster than the speed of light. The spaceship won't catch up with the expansion of the universe. — Down The Rabbit Hole

The universe is not expanding, objects in the universe are simply moving away from each other and the space within which they are moving, in is infinite.

Existence comes before thought, therefore the correct way of putting it is “I am, therefore, I think I am”

And secondly, why shouldn't time be finite? IS there some logicla contradiction here that prevents it? — Banno

If time were finite, it would have to have a beginning and an ending. Since time is only a measurement taken from now, to as far back or forward as one likes, there is no end to how far back or forward one may go.

If time actually existed, it would take an infinity of time to get to the present moment.

If you're not a dualist, and you believe experiences are real, how are they real? — RogueAI

Depends on what you mean by “real”. Life seems real while we are living it, but before our birth, we did not miss not being alive for an estimated 13.7 billion years (from the Big Bang). And when we die, we won’t know that we are dead, so we won’t miss being alive at that time either.

Since birth, everything we know comes from personal experience based on information gathered by the five senses of sight, sound, taste, touch and smell. We may imagine what something might be like, but will only “know for sure” from personal experience.

Size does not exist outside of the consciousness doing the comparison. In the case of human consciousness, that which is bigger then the body is big and smaller then the body, small. However, if it were possible to have consciousness without a physical body, what would that consciousness use to compare size with? Without limits on how large or small one may go, an entire universe could be found within a grain of sand on the beach or all the know galaxies in the universe could simply be neurones inside the skull of some cosmic beings head.

Emotions have evolved into a complicated thing. I imagine that If one could devolve emotion, to their original state one would find a simple bias - to be one way, and not another. At their simplest, they seem like something reminiscent of a magnetic force, and this seems to be an essential component in the making of biological machine. — Pop

The earth’s core generates an electro magnetic force which passes through everything on the surface of the earth and extends for miles beyond the surface. This electro magnetic force protects the ozone layer from being stripped away by the solar wind, and it’s protective action is visible in the northern lights. Perhaps this electro magnetic force, passing through the grey matter in the skull, results in what we call consciousness, by the stimulation of neurones in the brain?

Physical fields can causally influence matter. So our mind can move our body. — spirit-salamander

Body and mind are not two, they are one. Mind IS body and body IS mind. In the abstract nature of thought, which divides that which is indivisible, the ability to associate sounds, with things which are not sounds, is the powerful asset of language, which give humans a huge advantage over other animals on earth. Ownership, is an illusion, we do not have a body, we ARE a body. We do not have consciousness, we ARE consciousness.

Space is not there? Where do astronauts go, then? — Banno

To planets!
It’s easy to walk through that which is not there, I do it every day!

If two people stand back to back and begin walking away from each other, the space between them is not expanding, all the is happening is the distance between them is increasing. The reason physical matter may move freely through space is because space is that which is not there, that’s why it is called space. Because space is not there, it is infinite and will be found not to be there, wherever one may go in the universe.

Although the hard problem of consciousness has not been resolved, I suspect that without our senses, there would be no consciousness. It is through our senses, that gives consciousness, something to be conscious of.

TaySan, what you are saying may very well be true, for theories may not be proven as true or false. The current theory of the Big Bang makes sense to me, but I don’t feel it goes far enough.

I personally feel that the Big Bang was a local event in an infinite universe. The light from the next closest Big Bang, may not even reach earth for another 10 billion years because there are not limits to how far away something may be in the endless expansion of space.

I exist in the present moment, but that doesn't mean that myself and the present moment are the same. That's a category error. I am a thing. The present moment is not a thing, but a temporal property. I have now-ness, but I am not now. — Bartricks

You make a very good point. This physical body which we all refer to as “me” is here now and yet it was not always here now in this current form. Go back 150 years and not a single person alive today, was here. Go forward 150 years and the billions of people that are here now, will be gone. Although we identify with our bodies, emotions, memories and thoughts, that bubble of identity will be easily popped by this simple act of dying. So are we really our physical bodies, or perhaps there’s something more to it?

The present moment is the one and only thing in the universe which is permanent, because it doesn’t come and go, it is always here and now. Everything else is temporary and flows through the eternal present.

You are a pattern of energy / matter at any given moment ( now ) . It is not a fixed pattern, it evolves over time - something like a tornado, or a whirlpool in a fast flowing stream - a self composed of non self. — Pop

You sum it up very nicely here!

It all goes back to the hard problem of consciousness. If we say that you were you with your first experience at then begs the question as to what makes that first experience. — schopenhauer1

I agree. So far, the hard problem of consciousness has not been solved and perhaps it never will be. I suppose it is similar to getting into your car, to go look for your car.

But how does it follow from this that I always exist? For it seems consistent with me existing now, that I did not exist in the past, and that I will not exist in the future. — Bartricks

All physical forms are temporary, even the Sun was born and will die in so many billions of years. Although we did not always exist in our present form, we must have been here in potential, because we are here now. If we identify with our physical form, then we have not always existed, but if we identify with the present moment, then we have always been here, in the now.

If it is true that energy may not be created or destroyed, but simply changes forms, then all that is here now, must have always been here now, only in different forms.

the trick is to become a knight of faith, which is to live in the present and embrace the past and the future in this lived present. — Constance

I’m reminded of one of John Lennon’s songs “life is what happens to us while we’re busy making other plans”. Also, there is a Buddhist saying “do each thing, as if you do nothing else”.

Presents of mind, is to be where you are. Wherever you are, your five senses will be feeding the brain with information about sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. However, the thinking mind, as John Lennon points out, may be busy making other plans. One may not stop thinking, by thinking about it, as that would be like trying to wipe up blood, with blood. The trick is to watch the thinking and allow it to be there, simply because it “IS” there. To allow things to be, just as they are, is to be in the present moment, or in the NOW. Anyone whom is reading this, is reading it NOW, because there is no “other”time.

“Life” and “now” may not be separated, if you are alive, then it is now!
— Present awareness

This implies that an analysis of what it means to have life reveals the nature of what it is to be now. Explain, pls. — Constance

The past is just a measurement taken from “now” to as far back as one wants to go and the future is a measurement forward. However, life itself, does not exist in the past or future, but only in the “now”.

“Life” and “now” may not be separated, if you are alive, then it is now!

If one can answer the question “what is a real philosopher” then they already are a real philosopher!
Since our “own” reality is the only reality may know for sure, everything else is just philosophy anyway.

What is a word, other then a sound that a human makes and what is a sound other then a vibration in the air? Just as a map is not the territory, a word is not the thing it represents. The meaning of all words are agreed upon in a dictionary and yet meanings differs with each individual’s personal experience.
The sound one makes in one language, may be completely different from the sound in another language, which demonstrates the sound itself is unimportant. The sounds are just pointers to things which are not sounds.

Only human beings have conscious minds. — Ken Edwards

To make the assumption that only humans have conscious minds, seems odd to me. How could one possibly “know” this to be fact? The only consciousness that we may experience is our own, everything else is just conjecture.
Thoughts about what thoughts are, are only thoughts after all. Thinking about thoughts is a lot like getting into your car to go look for your car.

↪Present awareness
Of course, we smile and things often do get worse. It is difficult to know how much is just us seeing patterns, or how much impact our subconscious wishes have upon us, for better or worse. So, you could ask to what extent does it matter whether we embrace a philosophy of pessimism or optimism, or certain psychological attitudes? Does it really matter, in determining experiences and how we interpret our experiences?
23 hours ago — Jack Cummins

If one views the glass as half empty, then one favours the past, when the glass had more to offer.
If one views the glass as half full, then one favours the future, where one may continue to enjoy the contents of the glass.
Regardless of ones attitude however, it does not change the reality of the situation or the contents of the glass. Therefore, a neutral attitude of accepting what IS, rather then being for or against a situation, may be the best way to think about reality.

Smile, things could be worse, so I did, and sure enough, things got worse.

a) I exclude 1 considering physical measurements would not be possible in such circumstances. Why? Because physical measurements need a starting point, which 1 lacks. — Tombob

The starting point of time is the present moment, simply because nothing may be measured sooner then “now”. “Now” is the zero point which gives the concept of time context. Time stretches out in both directions, past and future, for infinity, simply because the present moment is infinite. It’s always the present moment no matter what time it is! Like the end of a tape measure, “now” is the zero point which we use to measure any duration of time. The Big Bang happed so many billions of years ago from “now”.

I am thinking why not maximize the next 10 years and do what I REALLY want to do, instead of merely surviving. — dazed

This is good thinking! Find the job you enjoy doing, even if it pays less. Do not put off living in the moment because the moment is ALL we ever have. To assume you will live for 10 more years is faulty thinking, rather assume that today is the last day of your life and one day you will be right.

Opposites produce each other. In order to have big, we need small to compare it to. In order to have stars and galaxies we need the vacuum of empty space for them to exist in.

Where did we personally reside for the past 13.7 billion years, since the time of the Big Bang, to suddenly find ourselves living on Earth? When the Sun dies, several billions of years into the future, the earth and all life on it will be consumed. Since no one gets out of life alive anyway, it doesn’t really matter how long we are here before we die. In the end, it will be like it was before we arrived and so another 13 billion years may go by without even noticing.