Martin Heidegger’s philosophy is deep and complex, and yet he makes statements that are simple and Zen-like. Zen is accepting things as they are and not fighting the flow. This includes the Zen approach to death, which is Life and Death are one. It is a continuum. There is no dividing line between them. As in the world of form, there is actually no dividing line between anything, there only seems to be to our perceptions. Everything interacts as part of a cosmic dance of chemicals, atoms, and non-physical elements. All is one underneath it all.
Heidegger made this statement:

"If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life - and only then will I be free to become myself.”

He is saying that our fear of death and our craving to “make something” out of our lives puts us on a hamster wheel of tasks and to-do lists that never end but don’t lead to peace, joy, or understanding of our true selves. Instead of being in denial about our own physical death, if we face that it is inevitable, we won’t scramble around living life on the surface. It’s like the Kamikaze fighter who crashed his plane but didn’t die. He expected to. die And when he survived he felt renewed, as if he saw life and all its glory for the first time.

Heidegger also said, “Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.” He is saying that we are more than the physical bodies, which, like snowflakes are all individual but form the totality of the snowfield. Or like raindrops falling into the ocean. The individuality disappears, once we cross over into death.
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This is Zen-like because of the emphasis, that after all, All is One. We realize that the deepest level of our life, what in Zen is called the "true self," is always here-and-now. This true self, even though here-and-now, is always changing. When we are born we enter the world of change and when we die we enter the world of change. It is always the same yet always changing. If we don’t realize this, we live deluded lives. That is why Heidegger said, “Transcendence constitutes selfhood.”

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If you are talking about the patriarchal Old Man in the Sky, who watches every move you make and punishes and rewards accordingly, then, no Eckhart Tolle does not believe in God. This is a primitive God, created in the image of a vindictive, capricious, and unjust man by men who were trying to put a face on the forces of nature. This is a God that has been constructed through fear and the desire to find safety in exchange for rituals and obedience.

Eckart Tolle does not believe in a God that created us from the “dust of the ground,” the way a potter forms a clay pot. Rather, we have emerged from the Creative Forces of the Universe. We are the natural outcropping of many physical and spiritual interactions and were not put here by some man-like God who then tasks us with proving that we are worthy of being alive.
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Furthermore, Tolle does not believe in the hellish aftermath of life that is imposed by a punitive God who has watched us floundering around as we attempt to keep His commandments. Tolle doesn’t even come from “belief” for belief means we really don’t know but would like to think it is true. Like a child believes in Santa Claus. Rather, Eckhart Tolle comes from a sense of knowing. This knowing is based on his own experiences and not on some fairy tale made up by our forefathers a long, long time ago.

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When there is a Soul connection between beings, whether human or animal, that bond is eternal. When Tyson left the planet, he went from the physical plane to the non-physical plane. Just because he is no longer in the body does not mean that he is not with you always.

It doesn’t matter where you move, for in the non-physical, there is no time or space. He is connected to you through your inner heart. This is not your physical heart. This is the place where you feel love deeply.

It is very difficult to be without the physical presence of someone we love to be around. Someone who cares about us and whose well-being is our concern. Now you can still talk to Tyson. Look for a sign from him that he is still here for you. He will bring you consolation, just as he did when he was with you. All the qualities that Tyson represented for you are all still alive. Nothing can kill them.
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None of our bodies last forever, but our Souls, who we are as eternal beings, have no birth and no death. That is the meaning of eternity: It always has been and always will be. So talk with Tyson and ask him to send you a message. Keep your connection with him and he will be with you always.

Consciousness shares some aspects of quantum phenomena in that in cannot be seen or studied directly, using scientific instruments. It can only be postulated.
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If we try to examine an sub-atomic particle (or wave) with a scanning electron microscope, we will alter the atomic structure as we shine light onto it. In other words, the viewer interacts with what it being viewed. This is true for consciousness as well. It cannot be seen and if it is, it is uniquely colored by the perceptions and interpretations of the experiencer.

We cannot locate the place in the brain where consciousness occurs. But we all know when we are conscious and aware. Some say there are only three states of consciousness: Deep sleep, dreaming or REM sleep, and waking awareness. In that sense, we are talking about physical consciousness. The brain kicks into gear during waking consciousness and we join the world of activity. One day we can no longer manage waking consciousness and we die.

But does our consciousness die with us? No. Too many people who have had near-death or even death experiences and have returned, tell us that they are still aware, they are just floating unseen above their bodies. That kind of consciousness is our eternal Soul. It can never die, even if the body fades away.

All we can do is go by our own experience and by what others have sworn to. If you can feel the cosmic consciousness that endures beyond the decay of the body, you have encountered your Soul. And like the invisible particles and waves that make up the atoms in our very convincing physical reality, we cannot see or measure this level of consciousness.

Everyone, no matter what their physical state, is a valuable Soul and is capable of expressing love and intelligence. This is because, as Tielhard de Chardin said, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
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This means that no matter what your physical state: Paralyzed, old and decrepit, young and green, sick or well, the body is not who you are. You are a soul who happens to be inhabiting a body this time around.

Nobody has it easy in the body for any length of time. Even babies bang their heads and fall down when they learn to walk. If we determined who should live or who should die based on their physical perfection or lack of suffering, not many humans would be left to exterminate. And who would make this decision? Just because someone is suffering for the moment doesn’t mean it won’t get better for them even in an hour.

No matter what condition our bodies are in, they are the homes of our Souls and important to our Soul’s journey. Paralyzed people like the scientist Steven Hawking, the artist and author Christie Brown, and actor Christopher Reeve continued to shine their light in the world and provide inspiration for others.

Yes. Philosophy, when taken down to its Greek roots, means “love of wisdom.” Love and appreciation are closely tied to each other. But philosophy is more than just love of wise thoughts and wisdom. It is the analysis of answers to the basic questions of life:

• Who are we?
• Why are we here?
• What is the purpose of life?
• What is good and evil?
• Why is there something rather than nothing?
• Is our universe real?
• Do we have free will?
• Does God exist?
• Is there life after death?
• Can you really experience anything objectively?
• What is the best moral system?

These are just a few of the questions philosophers have been asking since people first began to think and record their musings. They are also questions that cannot be answered easily. Religions of the world have claimed they have the right answers. But philosophers always hold an open mind that their answers are only possibilities. They will continue. loving to ask these questions because the answers provide the wisdom by which we can live happy and fulfilled lives.

I wouldn’t say it is the best philosophy of all time, but it certainly is a great and practical philosophy. So many philosophies are abstract and difficult for people to grasp or be interested in. But stoicism gives us tools for dealing with the ups and downs of everyday life in way that is easy to understand.

The basic ideas behind stoicism are:

• Virtue, the highest good, is based on knowledge
  
  
• The wise live in harmony with the Divine Reason that governs nature and don’t try to change things that are beyond their power to affect.
  
  
• The wise are indifferent to the ups and downs of life and don’t get bent out of shape over pleasure or pain.
  
  

Marcus Aurelius was a noted stoic philosopher more than 2,000 years ago. Here are some of his statements:

• “Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” He is saying that happiness does not rely on external things. Happiness is an inside job.
  
  
• “You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” He means, don’t try to control or change things that you have no control over. Instead, change your thinking about it to be at peace.
  
  
• “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” This is extremely helpful for people who are easily hurt by the comments and opinions of others. He is saying, don’t take anything personally. It’s their opinion and is not based on anything true, just what is going on in their conditioned minds.
  
  
• “When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” He is a pioneer in positive thinking here. If you must think, focus your thoughts on the good in your life.
  
  
• “Death smiles at us all, but all a man can do is smile back.” So many people fear death and know they cannot control it when it is their time to go. He is saying, if you can’t control it, go with it. Don’t fight it and live your life in peace while you have it.
  
  
• “He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.” All the laws of the universe also operate within us, as we are part of it. So if you are in a uproar, you are out of sync with the universe, where harmony prevails.
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These ideas are all easy to put to use in our lives. We cannot argue with them. Fighting and struggling with life, digging our heels in and kicking and screaming does not change anything for the better. Accept what you have, be grateful, and create the life of peace and happiness for yourself.

Consciousness is a spiritual thing that cannot be measured or even seen. But yet it does have a material basis when it is tied to the body.

If we stopped eating and especially if we stopped drinking, our bodies would run out of energy and manifest life-threatening symptoms. We die and our consciousness leaves the body. Those who have clinically died and then returned to life tell of their out-of-body experiences, in which they saw their body lying lifeless while their consciousness hovered over it nearby.
They returned to life and became once again the individual personalities that came with their unique bodies, memories, and experiences. But they are never the same, for they are aware of this amazing quality of consciousness. It is tied to the body for a while and then it diffuses into the Universal Consciousness.

A person in a coma is not deemed to be conscious, though reports have shown that they respond to prayer. I have heard of comatose people who were ready to cross over to the Other Side and were held back by prayers from loved ones. The neuroscientist, Holley Alexander wrote an excellent book called Proof of Heaven about his own near death experience and coma. This is what he has to say:
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"For me, it's become clear that the best way to look at it is to turn it around and realize that consciousness exists in a much richer form, free and independent of the brain, which has everything to do with the eternity of our souls and the fact that our awareness, our consciousness, our soul, our spirit, does not depend on the existence of the brain in the physical universe. In fact, it's freed up to a much richer knowing when we're outside."

Fear and a heightened sense of awareness, or consciousness, are very different from each other. Being afraid always has a sense of what could happen in the future. We think about all the bad things that could happen, the pain we will suffer, the loss and upset, and we have an extreme terror of death. Even if we feel afraid for a second, that second contains within it all the projections of future misery or our demise.

A heightened sense of awareness is all about the present moment. In heightened awareness the mind is not imagining all kinds of evils befalling us. It is at rest because it is conscious of so much more than the need to get the next task done so we can eat and keep our bodies alive. While in heightened awareness, we can still perform tasks, yet at the center of the activity is peace.
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Heightened awareness takes us beyond and above our minds and attunes us to the harmony of the Universe. Fear is not a part of this kind of consciousness. Faith, trust, and humility become dominant as we see the unfolding magnificence of the Universe. We may be aware of fear as part of the emotional spectrum, but it does not take over.

Yes, within the context of Tononi’s definition of consciousness. He describes consciousness as a measure of information. It depends on the brain.

According to Tononi, the brain consists of billions of neurons. But these billions of neurons when added together are equal to more than the sum it their parts. That is consciousness to him.

It’s kind of like bread or wine. Bread is so much more than just flour, yeast, and water. Wine is so much more than just squished grapes. And so our brain, though consisting of parts, has something else that is more than just the individual parts. Something that is above and beyond.

He calls this Phi. And to him, Phi represents the degree to which any being remains conscious. This applies to animals as well as humans.

Yet, to me, this is just one form of consciousness. And it could be used as a measure for people in a coma or people on the way to crossing over into death. This is consciousness tied into the physical form of a being. It goes away after the cells die.
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Tononi does not address Cosmic Consciousness, which is not tied into the organic brain cells and is not dependent on physical forms. Cosmic Consciousness cannot be measured. And this has always been the problem in the great divide between Science and Spirituality. How can you prove what is unseen in a laboratory? Cosmic Consciousness does not depend on the senses, so how can scientists, who rely on their senses, prove that it exists?