Beyond Advaita

A SHORT ESSAY ON SANKHYA PHILOSOPHY BY VAIBHAV NARULA

2012-01-20T06:52:00.000+05:30

A SHORT ESSAY ON SANKHYA PHILOSOPHY
By Vaibhav Narula

[ For Intro on Shri Vaibhav: please see the Post “Understanding J. Krishnamurti” ]

Sankhya is one of the earliest philosophical schools of thought in India, traditionally attributed to Rishi Kapila. His original work Shastritantra is unfortunately lost. The earliest source of this school we have today is Sankhya Karika of Isvara Krishna with the commentary known as Tattva Kaumudi by a great erudite scholar Vacaspati Mishra . Sankhya Sutras with a commentary known as Vritti by Aniruddha and another commentary known as Sankhya Pravacana Bhashya by Vijnanabhikshu are the other extant texts. Sankhya is one of the atheist philosophies. It differs from other schools mainly in its attribution of “reality” to dual entities – Purusha and Prakriti. It projects the world to be an interplay between the two everlasting Purusha and Prakriti.

PRAKRITI:

Prakriti is said to be the cause for the manifest universe at both physical and psychological levels. It forms the most basic constituent of matter. Matter here includes both our physical and psychological worlds. But prakriti itself has no cause. Prakriti is a state of equilibrium of the three Gunas: Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Prakriti is also a generic term for these three gunas. Sattva denotes lightness or freedom, rajas restlessness and tamas heaviness. These may be found in different proportions in various objects of the world. A substance is classified as satva or rajas or tamas depending on its dominant property. For long philosophers have made an attempt to find the simple elements out of which complex matter is formed, the simple elements being those which cannot be reduced further to any simpler parts. Some like the Naiyaikas end their search with the atoms while the Sankhya ends with “feelings.” Feelings denote the most subtle and simple elements of nature. The Three Gunas are thus not qualities but certain feeling substances.

Prof S.N. Dasgupta says in the History of Indian Philosophy, Vol I, that as per Sankhya, thought and matter are but two modifications of certain subtle substances which are in essence but three types of feeling entities. Matter gives rise to certain sensations which we equate with feelings about certain objects. Feelings later develop into certain knowledge about that particular object. However, if we go deeper than this, we would notice that even when the sensations disappear what is left is just the crude feeling out of which both thoughts and sensations evolve. Without the prior existence of feelings, there would be neither thoughts nor any external stimulus. Both of these can be reduced to mere feelings.

Consequently feelings may be said to have an objective existence. This position does not make Sankhya a type of idealism like the one advocated by Berkeley. Berkley says that objects do not exist apart from our ideas of them. Objects may exist apart from our subjective feelings about corresponding external objects. However for Sankhya psychological notions and the external objects are in essence not different from feelings which have a wider existence than both the subject and the object of knowledge. There are broadly three types of feelings: pleasure, pain and dullness which are the manifestations of the three types of feeling substances called: sattva, rajas and tamas (gunas) respectively. These are regarded as the ultimate substances. Sankhya divides causes into two broad categories: efficient and material. Material cause is that cause which subsists in the effect. The efficient cause is every other type of enabling cause. For example, clay is the material cause of the pot; the potter and his stick are the efficient causes. Sankhya Karika adduces five proofs to establish this theory: 1. What is non-existent cannot be brought into existence 2. Effects comprise material cause 3. All effects are not producible from all causes 4. An efficient cause can produce only that for which it is efficient and 5. The effect has the same essence as the cause.

The cause has the effect existing within it in a potential form awaiting an operation to make it manifest. A non-existent entity neither can be produced nor can any causal operation be brought about on it. For example we do not get curd out of clay or cloth out of milk, because the effect has to be existent in the cause. Every entity has an essence and existence. We say an entity exists when we see that it is capable of being an object of successful activity. When we cognize a tree and go and touch it we realize that our initial cognition of tree was true and the tree actually exists. Such an entity exists in a particular space and time. But the essence of the tree or what the tree actually is, is not an object of successful activity. The essence of an object is what it really is. When we say that the effect exists in a potential form within the cause we mean to say that it has an essence that awaits a causal operation that would confer an existence on it. The cause and the effect share a common essence but a different existence. Clay and the jar are identical because they have identical essences but not an identical existence because they share different spatial and temporal properties. Existence is limited by space and time but essence knows no such limitation. This is however not to say that there is an absolute cleavage between essence and existence, for the distinction is relative to certain aspects of the entity that we wish to address.

EVOLUTION OF PRAKRITI:

All changes as per Sankhya are changes of the qualities only. A substance, say, clay remains the same even when transformed into a jug or any other shape. The clay and the jug are the same but conventionally we make a distinction between them based on their practical utility. A lump of clay does not have the capacity to carry water but a jug has. Thus clay and jug are essentially the same but notionally different. Again when a lump of clay is transformed into a jug we can say that clay has the power or capacity to transform itself into a jug. The substance clay is the power-holder (saktiman) and its sakti or potency is to transform into another object, a jug in this case. The substance clay and the potency are the same thing. Their distinction is merely relative but not actual, for in ordinary experience we never find these two things separately. Similarly the emanations of Prakriti are both substantive entities and forces, two aspects of one and the same thing. In all its modifications Prakriti is the same but still generates relatively new substances, the change being a change in the relative qualities but not in the essence. Thus for Sankhya the material world has five forms: a) as appearance in diverse physical characteristic qualities or attributes b) as things or substances forming the unity of genus and species or whole or unity of parts c) as subtle causes or tanmatras d) as the ultimates or universals of the three gunas, and e) in the teleological aspect as conducive to experience and salvation of souls. The gunas , if thrown off balance, try to regroup themselves in one form then another and so on in order to restore the equilibrium. When the equilibrium is restored, it is called pralaya. An evolute is produced from some of the reals of the first stage. The deficiency of the first stage which had gone forth to form new aggregate as the second stage is made good by refilling from Prakriti. By a succession of refillings, the process of evolution proceeds till we come to a stage when no new substance can evolve. The first evolute of Prakriti is mahat. This is the state in which sattva predominates. It holds within itself the buddhi of all Purushas which were lost in the Prakriti during the pralaya. The very first work of Prakriti is thus manifested by separating out of the old buddhis or minds which hold within themselves specific avidya inherent in them with reference to each Purusha. This state of evolution consisting of all collected buddhis is called buddhitattva. Looked at from this point of view it is the widest and universal existence comprising all creation and it is thus called mahat (the great one). Mahat is then disturbed by three parallel tendencies of a preponderance of sattva, rajas and tamas called ahamkaras. The ego or ahamkara is the specific expression of general consciousness which claims experience as “mine.” The function of ego is therefore called abhimanna (self-assertion). As and when the idea of the subject evolves, simultaneously the notion of an object emerges. In self-consciousness we assert our existence as opposed to the object and hence in thought subject and object are inseparable. Both appear simultaneously. The sattvik ahamkara produces manas or mind which is translucent and gives rise to the specific notion of egohood. From tamasika ahamkara through the help of rajas are generated the tanmatras, the immediately preceding causes of gross elements. These tanmatras are sabda tanmatra (the sound potential), Vayu tanmatra (touch potential), rupa tanmatra (colour potential), rasa tanmatra (taste potential) and gandha tanmatra (smell potential). The sound potential with accretion of rudiment matter from tamasika generates akasha or ether. Through the co-mingling of the atoms, the gross elements are produced.

The evolutes of Prakriti can be classified as avishesha and vishesha. The former are those products of Prakriti that are capable of originating other products like themselves. The Visheshas cannot originate other tattvas though they are not devoid of causality. When tanmatras are produced from ahamkara, the state of being involved in tanmatras is altogether different from the state of being of ahamkara. It is not a mere change of quality but change of existence or state of being (except from the standpoint of Prakriti as pointed out before). The same is not the case with the products of Visheshas. The curd has the same state of being as the milk from which it is produced. We can make the distinction in this way that avishesha categories are the ones which create other types of categories but the causality of Visheshas is limited within the tattvas or the categories. Mahat is the mother of all avisheshas but since it has been produced by Prakriti, it possesses a linga or specification and hence is included under avisheshas. Prakriti on the other hand is completely indeterminate and uncaused. Evolution is Prakriti rendered determinate. Note also that there is no point of origin in time when Prakriti starts evolving. The association of Purusha and Prakriti is beginningless. The order of evolution of Prakriti is logical and not chronological.

PURUSHA:

Purusha is pure consciousness, the self, the ‘metaphysical principle of unity underlying subjective experience’. Vijnanabhikshu provides the following argument to prove the existence of the Purusha: 1. The objects exist for someone other than themselves. 2. The self is not what constitutes the three gunas. 3. The inanimate objects have to be controlled by some conscious principle. These arguments depend on the subject – object dichotomy. However, for this to be true, the self has to be known independently through direct experience. Therefore, the inferential proofs do not establish the self. The inferential arguments can only strengthen the introspective awareness of the self. They also clarify the notion of the self. The self is neither the experiencer nor the enjoyer of objects. The actual experiencer is a product of Purusha and Prakriti resulting from the absence of discrimination on the part of the Purusha between itself and Prakriti. Seeing, hearing etc are attributed to the self but they are not possessed by the Purusha. Just as the King is called a warrior through the agency of his army which he happens to command, the immutable self or Purusha is denoted as the seer, hearer etc. The instruments of senses such as the eye, ear etc. function by virtue of being in the proximity to the Purusha. Experiencer-ship and Agency get attributed to the self but they do not belong to it. The “I” consciousness is a mental state and is different from the pure consciousness which enlivens experience.

But then how does the Purusha which is completely different from Prakriti appear as an empirical subject? Three possible mechanisms are suggested by the commentators. According to Bhoja, Sattva, in the proximity of Purusha, manifests buddhi by which the whole of Prakriti becomes an object of experience for Purusha like iron filings moving in the proximity of a magnet. According to Vacaspati Mishra in addition to the proximity of Purusha with sattva aspect of Prakriti, Buddhi catches a reflection of Purusha by which the mental states of Buddhi become intelligized to being called the experience of a person. Proximity in his opinion means yogyata or a capacity and not a physical contact, by which buddhi and Purusha seem to be united or identified. Because of such a yogyata, though Purusha remains absolutely untouched by the modifications of Prakriti, it experiences the states of Prakriti. Vijnabhikshu explains this phenomenon through a theory of dual reflection. When the states of Buddhi get reflected in Purusha, there is the notion of a person or an empirical subject born in the Purusha. When pure consciousness of Purusha is reflected in the Buddhi, conscious states arise in it. “The notion of the knower as ‘I’, the experiencer, cannot be generated in the buddhi by the reflection of pure consciousness, for mere reflection cannot serve any purpose. Purusha is reflected in Buddhi but the states of Buddhi are also reflected in Purusha on account of which Purusha seems to be an empirical subject, a jiva. It is worth noting that in all these explanations sattva is the predominant medium through which Purusha and Prakriti become connected. Though Sattva is not pure consciousness, it is translucent and resembles Purusha in this aspect. Consequently, discrimination between Buddhi and Purusha is lost easily. Because of this loss, man gets the notion of a self (personality), according to Panchasikha. There are innumerable number of Purusha-s and are considered to be all-pervading because there are no spatial and temporal limitations. Their all-pervading nature is like innumerable number of lamps emitting light simultaneously.

OBJECTIONS TO THE SANKHYA THEORY:

The main objection raised against Sankhya is that a suitable mechanism for Prakriti to serve the purpose of Purusha is unintelligible. Both these entities being unrelated to each other, it is not clear how a harmony exists between the needs of Purusha and the acts of Prakriti. It is also not clear how the equilibrium of Prakriti gets disturbed by Purusha. The only solution to these problems is to admit the existence of Isvara which guides the movements of Prakriti and aids in the liberation of Purusha. Later Sankhya thinkers like Vijnanabhikshu do adopt this solution.

Sankhya successfully eliminates the need of a God from its total metaphysical system. It is the first attempt at the development of a systematic atheism without admission of materialism. First it has to be understood that the teleology of Prakriti is unconscious and it serves the needs of the Purusha because that is its nature. The introduction of Isvara would lead to problems because such a being would act either to serve his own interests or those of other beings out of sympathy. In the former case he cannot be a perfect being and in the latter case he lacks the capacity because Purushas are in no misery before creation. The blind teleology of Prakriti and the theory of Karma allow Sankhya to eliminate the need of any God to supervise nature and souls.

The question about the disturbance of equilibrium of Prakriti is actually meaningless in Sankhya. The state of equilibrium is not a state of motionlessness. It is rather one of high tension, with the intense activity of the Gunas being arrested due to their mutual counteraction. This state of arrest is not permanent nor is it the natural state of Prakriti. Rather it is in the very nature of Prakriti to have movement. It has its periods of movement and rest. Strictly speaking Prakriti does not require any agent to disturb her because she herself is of a moving nature.

The association of Prakriti and Purusha is said to be beginningless. The creation happens spontaneously from the Prakriti under the direction of the Purusha and both are intimately associated with each other, like a lame man sitting on the shoulder of a blind man who is the navigator. The analogy indicates how creation proceeds in spite of the fact that Purusha is devoid of any activity and Prakriti is devoid of intelligence and sentiency.

Another objection raised against Sankhya is about the concept of multiple Purushas. It makes no sense to talk about many Purushas as infinite monads of pure consciousness because the factors differentiating one individual from another are attributable to Prakriti. For Prakriti is not like maya that could act as an adjunct to apparently limit the one spiritual principle and make it appear as a limited individual. So we cannot posit one Purusha who could be made to appear as diverse in many buddhis. Sankhya Karika.18 enumerates three possibilities for the theory of multiplicity of Purusha-s. They are: 1. the individual allotment of birth and death 2. the non-simultaneity of activities and 3. diverse modifications due to the three Gunas. If Purusha were to be a single entity, then if one is born all would have been born and if one dies, all would die. Similarly, if one body is active, all bodies would be simultaneously active and if one body were to be inactive, all bodies would be simultaneously inactive. The variation in the psychological traits of the human beings is attributed to have resulted from the differences in the activity of the three Gunas.

Also one would have to sacrifice the theory of the inherent teleology of Prakriti, for its movements serve the ends of Purusha and not of reflected selves. Consequently the theory of multiplicity of Purushas is consistent with its entire philosophical outlook.

Prof S. Radhakrishnan says in Indian Philosophy (P:321, 19XX ): “The argument that if the Purusha-s were not many but only one, then all individual souls existing in bodies would have to die at the same time, assumes that birth and death apply to eternal Purusha, which is not allowed in Sankhya system…..” This criticism is not valid. Birth and Death do apply to Purusha but birth does not imply a fresh existence for Purusha but a fresh association with a different mind-body complex. If what was meant was that the arguments for multiplicity of Purusha-s only prove the multiplicity of the jiva-s or the empirical subjects, then it may be pointed out that the jiva itself is insentient and different from Purusha, so it cannot be an object of activity for Prakriti. Prakriti cannot produce new mind-body complexes for the jiva, because it is tied to Purusha. It would seem that Sankhya is thoroughly consistent in holding that Purusha-s are many.

LIBERATION IN SANKHYA SYSTEM:

As per Sankhya system, human experience is the result of an error in not discriminating between Purusha and Prakriti. Hence knowledge born out of discrimination between the two will lead to liberation. Strictly speaking bondage and liberation are states of Prakriti and not that of Purusha. Because Purusha seems to be affected with pleasure and pain, bondage and liberation are ascribed to him. Prakriti by its very nature serves the purpose of Purusha. When Purusha desires to experience the manifestations of Prakriti, it gets that but when dispassion is born into Purusha and he wishes for liberation, it is Prakriti again which serves this need of Purusha. How exactly is liberation affected by the aspirant is explained by Yoga school of thought. Most importantly, however, discrimination is born in buddhi and this leads to disjunction of Purusha from Prakriti. Purusha is left alone and undisturbed by any further modifications of Prakriti. Prakriti leaves Purusha for good as a dancing girl recluses herself from dancing after exhibiting herself to the spectators. The show is over and Purusha rests in its own nature. The state of liberation is not of bliss, for bliss is not apart from magnified pleasure. Unlike in Advaita, bliss does not form a part of the nature of pure consciousness. Purusha is isolated from all mutations of Prakriti and shines in its own nature. This is Kaivalya, the emancipation and the natural state of Purusha.

Resources consulted in the preparation of this essay:

1. Sankhya Karika with Vacaspati Mishra’s commentary Tattva Kaumudi (published by Ramakrishna Mission Publications)

2. Sankhya Sutras with commentary of Vijnanabhikshu and Aniruddha translated by Dr Nandalal Sinha

3. History of Indian Philosophy Vol. 1 by Prof S.N. Dasgupta

4. Yoga Philosophy in relation to other systems of Indian Thought by Prof S.N. Dasgupta. (Both the above works of Prof Dasgupta contain excellent explanations of Sankhya and Yoga School and the above article is greatly indebted to both these works.)

5. Positive Sciences of Hindus by B.N. Seal (This work contains a very detailed explanation of evolution of different categories of Prakriti, anyone interested in more details about this topic may refer to this work).

6. Radhakrishnan, S., The Indian Philosophy.

A Book on Yogis and Gurus

2011-12-23T06:38:00.026+05:30

A Book on Yogis and Gurus

Question: There is a book in four volumes describing hundreds of Yogis and Gurus living in one of the states of India. Most of them are married and some have even 11 children. But they left their families in pursuit of greater attainment. I think that they have not fulfilled their obligations to their families and my friend feels that they have failed in their ROLE PLAY as father, brother and husband. This question may seem to be not intellectual, but needs an answer if you know. THANKS

ramesam: Thank you for asking.

Here's my take:

A. About the Book/author:

1. If the author of the book found some to be yogis out of this immense universe, it appears as though he is using a knife and fork in order to fragment and lift a morsel out of the indivisible One Whole Ocean. The knife cannot cut nor can the fork lift a piece of the ocean (water). Or it is like picking up some forms and giving some names to those forms in one huge cloud. It will not bother the cloud or break it into parts. Will naming one part as wave, another as foam, still another as deep water divide the One immense ocean or affect its Oneness?
The knife and fork or labeling the shapes in a cloud are all imaginary filters the author is using. The mind creates these filters to fragment the Infiniteness into bite-sized things for its own survival. Be aware of these filters and do not be carried away by the story they tell.

2. It is like missing the forest for the trees and branding some trees to be more qualified than others!

B. About Role Models:

3. If you or your friend found that some (imaginary) parts in this Immensity did not make the grade, remember that it is you who set some criteria and it is you who is judging the parts based on those criteria. In other words, you and your friend are using filters. The filters are your own making.

4. Setting Role Models is like having traffic rules. Can you impose your traffic rules on some birds in a flock flying in the sky?

5. Is your friend the writer of the script of the drama he is watching to say that one actor has deviated from his script of the role model? How does he know? Or is he watching the drama scripted by somebody else?

C: About the Motive behind your question:

6. Why are you asking this question? Is it not because you feel you are a separate wave sitting somewhere away from the ocean and watching the ocean? Can a single isolated wave (you) be there without the whole ocean? Can a wave exist by itself?

7. And does one wave in the ocean look to learn from or try to imitate another wave? Is there an ideal wave that can be a role model for all the waves in the ocean?

D. In General:

8. The world is one big dream-painting you have projected by yourself. There are different colors in the painting. Can you now, after the painting is done, try to choose one color as more moral than another color? Can red color be a role model for blue?

9. If you are looking for social obligations, societal rules etc., you are looking for assessing and managing relationships, policing mechanisms, judging behaviors for bestowing rewards and punishments. What is the ideal role model relationship between, say, your "back-of-the-neck" to the "calf-muscle-of-the-leg" in your one whole body?

10. To talk of "relationships", there has to be more than one entity to start with. But there is One only, no second (ekameva advitiyam). Further, your right hand will not pick up a hammer and hit your own face. Because it knows it is all One body. You don't have to tell the right hand. It does not harm the face because it does not consider the face to be separate. It does not need a prior teaching and moral code of conduct. So also you will not need a moral code of conduct when you understand the Oneness. So Morality flows out of this understanding. Morality is not an imposition.

11. The so called yogi is as much a flimsy image on the screen as Mr. P or S or ramesam is. Each is a flash. I cannot say one image on the screen of the computer is ideal and the entire screen should be only in the form of that image or color. Well, I can say that, then I have the basic screen only - all one color!

12. If one image on the screen separates itself and says all other images should do as per its dictates, does it not show the arrogance of that image to think itself to be the authority?

Let me express a word of my gratitude to you. Right here you played the role of a Guru by asking this question. Because it triggered an inward look into an issue that gripped my mind for one week and the fresh light of this analysis dissolved the problem! Under these circumstances, how are you any less than a Guru whether named in a book or not?

What "IS" is Consciousness only manifesting in all forms wearing different costumes. The costumes are there a minute and gone the other minute. When we are not in the business of washing, why bother to prepare laundry lists (books) of the costumes? Who to divide and into what the indivisible One Whole?

WISHING ALL OUR READERS

SEASONS GREETINGS AND

BEST WISHES FOR A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR

Mind Conditioning and Oneness Blessing Demystified by JaLee

2011-11-11T07:00:00.002+05:30

Mind Conditioning and Oneness Blessing Demystified

by JaLee

[JaLee had a sudden realization of Peace and Oneness over a decade ago. Not knowing the significance of the blessing she had been thrown into, she went on a spiritual investigation for several years. She summarized her experiential observations in the book “wake up, wake up, Remember Who You Are – A Diary of Spiritual Awakening, Enlightenment, Oneness Recognition, Now Presence & Experiential Non-duality Soufflé~:D” published on 1/11/11 by Rhythm Light Press. She provides therapy services in an acute care hospital and also facilitates a Oneness Blessing circle bimonthly in her North Oak Cliff meditation space. In addition, JaLee periodically works with several other awakening groups and conducts experiential ongoing research for the website: http://www.remember-who-you-are.com/

JaLee resides in Dallas, Texas with her kitty and parrot. I am obliged to her for readily consenting to share the findings of her Oneness travels as a Post at this Blog – ramesam.]

Suddenly realizing the unchanging-peace-that-we-already-are in 2000 left me with more questions than answers about the relative world. I don’t come from any particular lineage or spiritual path, so I’ve been like a kid in a candy shop the past 11 years, researching all things related to spiritual seeking and awakening. I’ve mostly connected with the Non-duality community because its teachings resonate with my internal experiences. I appreciate simple and direct pointing to the unspeakable truth of who we really are.

My criteria for researching spiritual awakening are:

What is the direct experience?
Is there a sense that it is potentially useful?

Purpose of Spiritual Practice and Mind Conditioning:

During my early years of research, I interviewed others on the purpose of books, meditation, prayers, mantras and precepts. Eventually I concluded that no matter how you package it, all useful practices are designed to relax or exhaust the mind therefore thinning the false veil of separation and fear. It’s believing it to be real or true that causes our collective suffering.

Is your mind conditioning so thick that you believe it is who you really are? Try thinning it. Is it moving so fast, it hides you from who you really are? Try slowing it down. Is it so intense, you cannot hear the silence of who you really are? Try quieting it. Is it so closed, it continuously tells you lies that you believe, sabotaging your birthright to inner peace? Try opening it. Is it so thick with stagnant smoke, you feel like you are suffocating in the same repeated suffering patterns? Try allowing flow. Of course don’t forget this one: Be as you are right now.

Somewhere along the path, when we have a shift into peace or moments of peace, it’s not because awareness expands—awareness is unchanging. So what is the peace shift about? It’s an effortless, cellular restructuring of thought quality and patterns becoming so infrequent and mild that each thought is viewed as it happens in full realization that these appearances and disappearances belong to no one at all.

Mind Conditioning Impacts Texture and Quality of Experience:

After my initial cellular shift in 2000, my body and mind were on fire in a slow burning blaze which continues even now, 11 years later. Human mind conditioning seems to be the fuel of this fire and as it slowly burns away, more spaciousness is experienced—the unchanging-peace-spaciousness-we-already-are.

Instantly it’s known that there is no problem happening here—conditioning and spaciousness—all is as it is, perfect as it is. There are just different varieties and textures of experience, yet there is nothing to change or get rid of. So imagine my surprise when I came across this kind of brain Reiki called Oneness Blessing (Deeksha).

Of course being passionate about research and sharing, I wondered, “Could Oneness Blessing be a helpful spiritual tool for seekers?” Perhaps it’s more honest to describe my direct experience.

An American Interpretation of Oneness Blessing:

This universal energy transference was re-named Oneness Blessing in 2007 to help Westerners understand the intention of Deeksha more clearly. “Oneness Blessing” is not describing an act of someone giving someone else enlightenment or the state of oneness—oneness cannot be given or taken away—we are already that. In my experience, the relative energy transmitted in Oneness Blessing appears to serve as a mind whittling tool, allowing the unchanging-peace-oneness-we-already-are, to be more clearly experienced, recognized and realized. This intrinsic oneness realization is the “Blessing”. Other mind whittling tools with similar intentions include breath meditation, self inquiry, deconstruction inquiry, visualization, mantras, yoga or tantric practices.

Oneness Blessing founders Amma and Bhagavan are from the Hindu culture and reside in India. They are also founders of the Oneness University where thousands train each year. My initial experience with Oneness Blessing began in 2006 when a few locals returned from training in India and began providing it in Dallas, Texas. Oneness Blessing has no dogma or belief system and is not a spiritual path rather it serves as an addition to anyone’s current path.

There are various chanting and visualizations often used to initiate the gathering:

Heart Opening: There might be a close circle during kundalini breath yoga exercises, or chanting the Moola Mantra.

Chakra Opening: Almost always included in the gathering, the Chakra Dhyana is a kundalini chakra activation practice through group chanting, and it reminds me of Western sound healing and chakra balancing or centering work.

Oneness Blessing Energy Transference: Oneness Blessing feels tangible, intense and potent. Perhaps this is because it targets the brain, and the intention behind it is oneness realization.

Any spontaneous shift of physical healing is commonly considered a miracle or divine grace, regardless of its title or origin. What is the direct experience? Is there a sense that it is potentially useful?

My Direct Experience of Oneness Blessing:

When I first moved to Dallas, Texas in 2006, unfamiliar Hindu culture immersed in the Oneness Blessing presentation provoked me to keep a discerning eye as I attended group sessions occasionally. I felt a healthy amount of skepticism, initially wondering if this was a cult, so I simply observed and experienced.

Sure I experienced spontaneous joy, bliss, tears, giggles and metaphoric visions during the gatherings, it was fun. But I had “been there, done that” and was not impressed that these types of experiences alone could help others realize inner peace. I listened to participants express their own unique experiences and had some sense of, “Oh, this Oneness Blessing seems useful in creating openness, and permeability in the false veil of separation and fear.”

In July, 2011, I received an Email inviting me to train and become a Oneness Blessing provider. Curiosity overcame me. I felt a deep sense of knowing that this was going to be a beautiful energy to share, even if only shared in silence while sitting in a shopping mall. I was in.

The weekend training course was intense and joyful. Besides the usual kundalini chakra practices, it included positive affirmation chanting, relationship and inner child healing with a Oneness twist and many Oneness Blessings received and given throughout. The founders Amma and Bhagavan were not a focus of the training experience. There was no sense of idolizing or worshipping anything. The general group vibe was a sense of openness, unconditional love, joy and gratitude.

Within days following this Oneness Blessing provider initiation, it became apparent to me that although my mind was instantaneously stilled 11 years ago, the slow burning mind conditioning fire had not yet made it to the body memory layers. One of the first conditioning qualities I noticed has disappeared is my obsessive compulsive thought and behavior tendencies. These were shyness, fear of public speaking, over-excitable yet exhausting giddy or nervous full body skin vibration and intense people-pleaser tendencies.

Then I noticed some physical changes. I could not lie on my back during the training course because of lower back pain I’ve had for many months. When I came back home, I began sleeping on my back without pain. My chronic left foot plantar fasciitis made it painful to walk in the mornings, yet this seems to be significantly diminished. My blood pressure dropped 10 points and my colon is working better now.

I’m not a vegetarian, yet I cook all vegetables for some meals. No one suggested this, it just happened. Also I’ve enjoyed cigarettes and alcohol off and on since my teens, but suddenly both cravings are gone. I did drink a margarita the other night, it was delicious, but its effects were different. It wasn’t bad, it was just sort of neutral yet numbing as if it dulled the present experience. Interesting.

I don’t know why or how these deep patterns shifted and disappeared. Experientially this has given me a sense that Oneness Blessing somehow relaxes or dissolves layers of mind-body conditioning.

Our unending dream right now is a relative experience. As more conditioning naturally burns away, the body feels easier, lighter, more magical and free. Within this remains deep knowing beyond thought or description, the eternal-peace-oneness-we-already-are.

So based on my direct experience, I do sense that Oneness Blessing is a potentially useful mind-body conditioning whittling tool, and may be a beneficial to some spiritual seekers on the path to realizing irreversible inner peace. If you feel repelled by the idea of it, most likely it’s not for you. If you feel drawn to it, then maybe it would be useful. It’s really that simple.

More information on Oneness Blessing can be obtained from: http://www.onenessuniversity.org/

Sage Vasishta's Response to Prajnapti's Questions

2011-10-21T18:16:00.000+05:30

Sage Vasishta's Response to Prajnapti's Questions
[Yogavaasishta is an authoritative Advaitic scripture of about 32,000 verses divided into six chapters. The last chapter is Nirvana. It comes in two parts – Purva (Book I) and Uttara (Book II). King Prajnapti, Ruler of the City Ilavati, raises many doubts about Creation and the world that appears to us. These are the sort of questions any one of us would like to ask. Sage Vasishta gives his answers from Sargas 204 to 210 in Book II of the sixth Chapter Nirvana. Presented here is an Extract (adopted with slight modifications) from a forthcoming Book – Yogavaasishta, Chapter VI: Nirvana - Book II by Shri K.V. Krishna Murthy, English Translation by Dr. Vemuri Ramesam. The Questions were posted on 23 Sept 2011.]

Part II: Sage Vasishta's Response to Prajnapti's Questions:

Vasishta: Oh, King Prajnapti! These are very interesting questions. I may not answer your questions sequentially. However, I shall explain all the points raised by you through a coherent and comprehensive response. Please follow my presentation attentively.

You have an awareness of a thing ‘being’ present and also a thing ‘not being’ present. If you carefully look at it, what you have in both cases is awareness. Awareness is knowledge.

But knowledge has a peculiar quality. It shows the things in the way it conceives them. If it strongly feels that a thing ‘is’ there, it will be there. If it feels strongly it ‘is not’ there, it will not be there. A good example for this is the dreamscape. The knowledge within you felt during the period of dreaming that the dream world existed. Then the dream world attained beingness and showed up. After a while, the knowledge within you felt that it was not there. Immediately it disappears. You call it as waking up.

We can infer from this that ‘is’ and ‘is not’ (a thing being present or not being present) are different forms of knowledge. What really is in both the cases is knowledge or awareness.

Hence if the knowledge within you feels anywhere anytime that it has a body, there will be a body. If it feels otherwise, there will not be a body. When it feels the body is there, the knowledge thinks that it is the body. It superimposes the qualities of the body on knowledge and the qualities of knowledge on the body. This is how bodies are generated and maintained.

Your question was on how bodies could be produced in heaven and hell. You can understand that they are born by the process of superimposition by knowledge.

Here is an important point that you may take note of. When I said knowledge, I do not mean the Supreme Knowledge of Brahman. Pure Knowledge of Brahman is different from the knowledge that makes aware of your body and senses. The quality of ‘knowing’ is a property of the knower. In other words it is his nature. It exists as an imagination.

Let us consider dreams as an example. You think at the time of dreaming that you are witnessing some objects which are separate from you. But the fact is you witness yourself! That is to say that you are “awaring” yourself. This sort of ‘knowing’ is your nature.

During your wakeful state also it works the same way. Certain awareness within you takes the form of your body. You do not have any body beyond this. If you understood this clearly, it will answer the first seven of your questions.

In your next question you raised the issue of atheism. The atheists opine that the body is responsible for awareness. It implies that consciousness emanates from inert substance. This is totally unacceptable. But they come up with a counter question. If a body is produced from Consciousness as we say, they ask why the body lacks the ability to be aware of things after death. My answer is as follows:

You are Consciousness-Self. The dream world originated from you. Therefore, it has also to be conscious like you. Why then the inert things like rocks and stones appear in the dream? The only answer for this question is that you had certain thoughts at the beginning of the dream. You witness some things that are sentient and some things that are insentient in your dream corresponding to those initial thoughts. In other words, you yourself appear as inert substance at some places and as conscious substance at other places in the dreamscape based on your initial thoughts. This is true from your own experience.

Because of the nature of the thought that occurred to Hiranyagarbha at the moment of the beginning of the creation, you find a dead body to be inert. This is a finding that is only apparently so. The fact is the entire world is Consciousness just like the total dreamscape is you yourself. What causes your body is also the same thing. So the argument of the atheist does not stand to reason. We do not, therefore, support it.

You brought up a new issue of substances with form and without form in your ninth question. This question does not have a locus. We have already said that the entire creation was of illusory origin and that there was no solid reason behind creation.

It is in your experience that Consciousness-Self appears as a dream when you are alive. Similarly, after death, Consciousness-Self appears as the higher world. The unavoidable cycle of wakeful and dream states while living and higher worlds after death go on appearing till one obtains perfect Self-Knowledge. The effects of good actions, donations, offerings to the dead etc. are also experienced as a part of this illusory cycle. That is why we declare that scriptures are true only until one is liberated. There is nothing illogical in this proposition. This answers your last question.

The eleventh question of yours concerns the powers of performing miracles by Yogis. These things happen as per the laws embedded in the initial thought pattern of Hiranyagarbha. That is to say that Hiranyagarbha must have wished for the transformation of things as per the curses and boons of Yogis and a few others.

We do not have to search far from the thought process of Hiranyagarbha to find the cause-effect relationships in the world. Even the temporary appearance of this non-existent world and its later disappearance is also a part of Hiranyagarbha’s original thoughts. A poetic way of saying it is: it is creation when Consciousness opens Its eyes; it is dissolution when It closes Its eyes.

King Prajnapti: Maharishi! If the world appears because of Hiranyagarbha’s thoughts, why would it have to go through periods of dissolution? When once he thinks of creating, the creation could as well stay put permanently!

Vasishta: Dear King! You yourself conceived the dream world. But it does not stay permanently. Why? It is so because of the nature of your thought. No purpose is served by looking for the causes of such a thought. Just as it is your nature in the case of your dreams, it is the nature of Hirnayagarbha’s thoughts to make the worlds disappear during deep sleep, dissolution and Nirvana. Because of the same reason, fire is hot, water is cool and so on. This answers your 14^th question too.

At the cost of repetition let me say this. The Ever Existent Pure Consciousness Itself appears as the world. In other words, what truly exists and what apparently exists is the same.

That is the nature of Pure Consciousness. You derive the attributes of creation based on this. This will also bring necessary convergence to the Vedic statements referred by you in your 12^th question.

You had several doubts about the results of performing austerities and meditation in your questions from 15^th to 18^th. Before going into those issues, you need to know a few basics about piety and impiety.

Boons and curses, merit and sin and so on work like mutually opposing forces. The austerities performed by friends and foes also operate on the same principle. If they are of equal strength, they cancel out each other. Otherwise their algebraic sum will be the resultant effect. Sometimes it may so happen that the opposing forces cannot cancel out one another. Then the individual obtains two bodies in order to experience both the effects simultaneously. The two bodies may be externally visible or only one of them visible to outsiders and the other visible only to him.

In a case as described by you where a well-wisher prays for the longevity of an individual’s life and the enemy prays for immediate death, the individual may reap the benefit of his friend’s prayer in his normal body and go through the throes of death in another imaginary body in another imaginary place.

King Prajnapti: My contention is that it is not possible to get even one body with a definite shape from the formless piety and impiety. How can you say that not one but even two bodies can be obtained from such conceptual things?

Vasishta: Why two, depending on the situation, even a thousand bodies may be produced! Are you alone not becoming battalions of armies fighting each other in your dream world? How can you set any limiting condition of numbers on conceptually generated pure imaginary worlds?

King Prajnapti: On one hand you argue that the entire world is an illusion. On the other you argue that the curses and boons, higher worlds etc. are real. This is very unreasonable!

Vasishta: If you admit that the world is a mere fantasy, there is no argument! Not only is this world, the higher world too is an illusion. Actions, results of actions are also an illusion. That is in fact the Ultimate Truth! But your questions are not based on the final Truth. Your questions are all based on the presumption that the world is real. Therefore, I respond to you at the same level as if this world, the higher worlds and so on are real.

Then you counter me saying how can there be so many mutual contradictions within it. My reply is that the world is like a dream. It is pure fantasy. Hence anything may happen within it! What I said is not untenable. You will have no confusion if you see things from a correct perspective.

Your 16^th question was whether there would be a dozen moons in the sky if a dozen people meditate successfully wishing to be moons. Suppose two people look at the moon. Both of them think that they are seeing one and the same moon. The entire world functions with such a belief. This is plainly an unsupported assumption and is not the Truth.

The fact is each person lives in his private world created by his own imagination. He does not live in a world created by others. Each to himself! Though the worlds seem to merge into one another like a hand into a glove, two worlds are never the same. Their skies are different and so also the moons.

So if a dozen people wish to become the moon, each will become a moon in his own imaginary world. One will not appear in the sky of the other. The dozen of them will thus become moons. We discussed some of these things in the Story of Indavas.

Depending on the strength of his thoughts, each man would become the Hiranyagarbha of his world. The Indavas did become like that. You had asked why there should be only one Hiranyagarbha. There is no particular significance whether it is one or many. Each person’s world is his fantasy. It is equivalent to a dream. If you can understand this, you need not rise this question at all.

Your 17^th question regarding the beautiful lady or the next question on the indolent king who wanted to rule the seven islands without leaving his home can also be resolved on the above basis. The lazy man can create the islands in his imagination sitting right in his room. These matters were discussed in detail earlier in the Story of Leela.

My Dear King! I covered with this all your questions. As you may have observed, the underpinning argument for all my replies is that the visible world is just an imagined creation of the only One Thing that exists – Pure Consciousness. This is the final Truth. You can understand all the remaining things based on this fact.

King Prajnapti: Great Sage! I can appreciate very well what you said. However, I still have a doubt. According to you, the embodied entity Hiranyagarbha was born at the beginning of creation because of a thought. But what we normally find in the world is that we need first a body in order that the consciousness in that body can start conceptualizing a world. We do not find a consciousness without a body imagining things. If we apply this observation to the first born Hiranyagarbha, he can begin to imagine the world only after he gets a body. But a body cannot be there unless there is an imagination as you put it. How does your theory resolve this conundrum?

Vasishta: It is not valid to say that Consciousness originates from a body. Consciousness is prior to creation. Body is a thing created. Body is a pure imagined entity. What has come later cannot be the substrate for the first thing. Hence it is incorrect to hold that Consciousness is dependent on the body.

You say that Consciousness is expressed only where there is a body and not otherwise. It is not because Consciousness is absent at other places. It is rather your inability to cognize Consciousness which is everywhere. You classify certain objects of your dream as conscious and certain others as inert though it is entirely your Consciousness. It is because you are unable to recognize Consciousness in all the dream objects. Everything that exists in the dream world or wakeful world, whether inert or conscious, is Consciousness. Brahman is Consciousness. Hence there is no dependency of one over the other as everything is only One Consciousness.

King Prajnapti: Sir, you hold that the body of the wakeful state is a form of Consciousness and so also the body in the dream state. Why do you then teach us that the wakeful state body is similar to the dream state body?

Vasishta: It is just an expression used at the initial stages to make things simple for you to understand. We have to find an illustration to teach you that the body that is seen, though visible, is unreal and it is none other than Brahman in its true substance. Your dream body fits that example. Your dream body is unreal even at the time you are able to see it. From the substrate point of view, it is you yourself. Thus there is a similarity between the wakeful state body and the dream state body.

Just as the dream state body in reality is you yourself, the true form of the wakeful state body is Brahman. The dream body illustrates this point well. That was all the intent; but it is not to say that the dream state body is different from the wakeful state body.

The Truth is that anything seen appears because of imagination. What appears because of imagination cannot be True. Hence there is no wakeful state; there is no dream state; there is no deep sleep state; everything is a form of the Consciousness-Space.

If you know Pure Brahman as Pure Brahman, it is Nirvana. If you do not, it is bondage. This is the final message!

King Prajnapti: Maharishi! My doubts stand cleared by your benevolence!

Prajnapti's Questions on Creation and Appearance of the World

2011-09-23T14:44:00.001+05:30

Prajnapti's Questions on Creation and Appearance of the World

[Yogavaasishta is an authoritative Advaitic scripture of about 32,000 verses divided into six chapters. The last chapter is Nirvana. It comes in two parts – Purva (Book I) and Uttara (Book II). King Prajnapti, Ruler of the City Ilavati, raises many doubts about Creation and the world that appears to us. These are the sort of doubts any one of us would like to ask. Sage Vasishta answers the Questions of the King from Sargas 204 to 210 in Book II of the sixth Chapter Nirvana. Presented here is an Extract (adopted with slight modifications) from a forthcoming Book – Yogavaasishta, Chapter VI: Nirvana - Book II by Shri K.V. Krishna Murthy, English Translation by Dr. Vemuri Ramesam. The Questions are posted here. The reply of Sage Vasishta will be posted next month.]

Part I: Prajnapti's Questions:

King Prajnapti: My Lord! The Holiest of saints! Several doubts have been nagging me for quite some time. Please listen to my questions and bless me with your answers.

1. It is said that the Supreme Brahman, inaccessible to the mind and speech alone was present prior to creation. It is also said that there was nothing else. That being the situation, what was the root cause for triggering the creation? What was the material cause for creation? What were the enabling causes? Was there one or more than one material cause?

2. It is said that there are a multitude of universes. It is also said that there is a huge variety of them. Some are said to be in space, some at the center of rocks, some as liquids, some as gas and some as fire.

What is the reason for such diversity?

3. Who created these universes, the inhabitants in the universes and the sense organs of the inhabitants? Who witnesses these worlds?

4. Vedas speak about both the ritual-oriented action and also Knowledge-oriented pursuit of Brahman. Therefore it is beholden to us to synthesize both approaches and enunciate a principle. As per this principle, the cycles of creation and dissolution will go on indefinitely and there is no stopping that.

Would you agree to that?

If you agree, we have to accept that the root causation for turning the wheel of creation and dissolution is human thinking because of the famous adage that what you experience follows what you think.

Do you accept it?

5. If that is granted, such a thought or knowledge can be either permanent or impermanent. If it is impermanent, what is the cause for its impermanency? We do not have an answer. If we suppose that the knowledge is permanent, we cannot conceive of changes happening within a permanent thing.

How do you reconcile the two concepts?

6. Suppose a man is dead. His body is consigned to flames. He goes to heaven or hell to reap the fruit of his actions. He cannot experience the happiness or sorrow unless he is an embodied creature there. Who will be the parents for the new body in the heaven or hell? Scriptures are silent on this.

How could a body be born without any parentage?

7. We may propose that his sins and merits act as the parents for the new body. If so it would mean that the formless notions of sin and merit are able to engender physical bodies composed of substances. But this is impossible.
What then could cause the bodies with a noticeable form?

8. As a way out of this complication, one can argue that there is really no higher world. This is the atheistic position. But there are problems with this concept also. If we accept that the visible world is real, we may expect a real cause behind it. That cause could be the higher world. But from the viewpoint of that world, our world will be the higher world. Hence one cannot argue against a higher world. It is also contrary to what the Vedas declare.

9. I said a while ago that mere concepts having no form could not produce substances having a form. I am not too sure of it either. Say a King sits in his capital city. The people in a remote village under that kingdom are bound by the dictates of the King and suffer the punishment imposed by his orders. The orders of the King do not have a form. But the punishment meted out to the people is physically felt by their bodies. It would mean that the formless order has generated something having a form.

How do you explain this?

10. The scriptures ordain or prohibit certain things. Some people faithfully follow the stipulations. Some others do not care. How do these things actually work?

11. An accomplished Yogi converts a stone column in no time into a golden pillar.

How can that be done?

12. Vedas contain many mutually contradictory and opposing statements. How do you build a convergence of these diverse declarations?

13. Sages like you say that the Pure Consciousness changed to Hiranyagarbha first at the beginning of the creation. It is said that the rest of the creation was made by him. It means that Hiranyagarbha was born from space. Is it your contention that It has such a power because It is not just space but It is Consciousness-Space?
If It has intrinsically such power, why cannot more Hiranyagarbhas be born out of It?

14. Fire is always hot; water is ever cool and so on within this creation. We notice such inherent order in all substances.
How did such Laws of Nature get embedded in this creation?

15. Elders advise that we should perform austerities and meditation to get relieved of such doubts. They speak of austerities and meditation as a means for the fulfillment of any desire. Suppose a person has a close friend and a sworn enemy. The friend observes austerities desiring a long life for him. The enemy performs the austerities with a wish for his immediate death. Both the friend and enemy are very strong.

How do their austerities take effect?

16. In another example, say, a dozen young men of letters are enthralled by the beauty of the moon. They meditate at the same time with a yearning to become the moon.

If their desire gets fulfilled, do we then see a dozen moons simultaneously in the sky?

17. Here is another more complex problem. I know a very beautiful lady. She practices detachment. She deserted her house when she was young. She commenced performance of austerities with a wish to remain unmarried for life. But a handful eligible youth were captivated by her beauty and fell in love with her. Each of them began austerities and meditation longing to marry and keep her as his wife.

How will their meditation take effect?

18. A smart guy meditated rigorously. His personal God was pleased with the meditation and manifested in front of him. He requested the God to grant him a boon so that he would be the Emperor for the seven islands till the time of Great Dissolution without having to budge out of his house.

How can the God grant a boon like that?

19. People make offerings and donations. They observe the annual death ceremonies. It is said that such acts yield the fruits in the higher world. The rationale behind it is given to be that an “invisible” thing is born here and the same invisible thing bestows the rewards in the higher worlds. The “invisible” thing has no form. This formless substance is supposed to be admixed with an embodied being having a form and show the result in a different place at a different time in different ways. Somehow this does not appeal very much.

How do you justify that expectation?

'DEEP SLEEP KNOWINGLY' - THE KEY TO BRAHMAN

2011-08-19T07:00:00.130+05:30

'DEEP SLEEP KNOWINGLY' - THE KEY TO BRAHMAN

[A young and learned Seeker raised a question on the experience of Deep Sleep and its significance in knowing the natural state. I have given a response based on my understanding. Rupert Spira has been extremely kind and gracious to vet the text for correctness of expression. Please feel free to let me know if any part is not clear.
I have slightly edited the write up on 31 Dec 2011 for greater clarity -- ramesam.]

Question: Deep sleep is considered to be a natural state (swabhAva) -- ATMA SWARUPA which we experience daily. Taittariya Upanishad also says so, can you explain a little more?

ramesam: Thanks for the question. I realize that you already know the answer. But such questions and consequent recapitulations (manana) as a part of mutual discussions between co-seekers are a form of nidhidhyaasana and are very much encouraged by scriptures.
I shall spell out here my understanding in simple words devoid of the dense layers of 'mystique' we come across in the ancient texts.

Every person (whether Realized or not) has an ID (unique name, an identity for functioning in the world). The ID is a sum of the autobiographical memories and the current sensations received through the five senses. The autobiographical memories tell me that I am so and so, my name is such and such, I am a human being, I am a professional, I am trained in a specialty, I aspire for some particular goal etc. The current sensations are interpreted by mental processes to give me a feel of the presence of a body for me 'here' and a world 'out there' for transactions by 'my' body.

The combination of autobiographical memories and the unconscious processing (i.e. processing that goes on without 'my' conscious awareness) of the worldly sensations is usually called 'mind'. By 'processing' I mean to refer to the interpretation that goes behind every sensation to give a meaning to the sensation. Without the mental processing, the sensations will have no meaning. They just remain as some nameless tingling. For example a perception by the eye is seen. The eye does not know what it perceived. A 'color' is ascribed with a name to it (as green/red/blue), a shape is assigned (round, jagged), a fragrance is identified (pleasing or some kind) and finally an identification is done that "I see a flower." Thus the mind is always actively interpreting the sensations from the five senses when we think we are "conscious" and see a world. We often equate our ‘being aware’ to the presence of such an active mind.

Now is there a time when the presence of the mind is missed or in other words is there a time when the mind is absent? What happens when the mind is absent? Who or what remains there when the mind and mental processes are not going on?

A time does exist in the day when we do not feel the worldly sensations. It happens during our dreaming (it can be daydreaming or night dreaming - makes no difference). We are not aware of the normal wakeful world external to us and we are lost in our own imaginary dream world. This is the state of "dreaming." During dreaming, sensations from the body or the external world are not received but the mind is active and the mental processes keep going on.

[If I close my eyes now, all the sights go away and to that extent the mental processes connected with vision are absent. (Of course, it is not totally true because the mind still sees ‘darkness’). Similarly I may shut down my ears, sense of touch etc. Even then, the knowledge that I have purposely shut down my senses is present and a stream of thoughts continue to arise as it happens with deaf, blind etc. people. Therefore, such a shutting down of one or more senses can happen in the wakeful state. But it is not dreaming.]

There is another state that occurs naturally when the sensory organs are not active and also the mental processes do not take place. This is the "deep sleep" state that all of us go through. This state comes on its own without any of our effort. I cannot pre-decide that I will be in 'deep sleep' right now or at a specified place or time. I do not have to spend energy or practice any technique to get into 'deep sleep state.' In this 'deep sleep state', my "mind" (= autobiographical memories + mental processes) is not present. What is there then?

Because the mind is absent, I have no perception of any "object" or a memory of perceiving any object during the deep sleep state. Even the time factor in statements like "I had a deep sleep from so and so time to so and so time" is a later 'thought'. The thought about time duration (how long) concerning 'deep sleep' arises now in the current moment of making that statement in a wakeful state. Actual time lapse is not experienced during deep sleep by me. Hence time and space as well are absent during deep sleep. Though autobiographical memories (of a 'me') and mental processes of giving a name and form to the worldly sensations received by my senses are absent, something is alive and continuing all through because after I get up from sleep I say I am happy, I slept soundly. This statement about happiness and having slept soundly has not come from a memory of the experience we had during the deep sleep state. Who is then making this statement?

The "i" which we normally assume we are, is the symbol or shorthand for our ID - the summation of our autobiographical memories and body sensations. So this "i" which is not the true "I" usurps the property of the ever-existing Awareness and makes a claim for the "happiness" of the deep sleep. So the little “i” says : “i had a good sleep.” In fact the true "I" and 'happiness' are not two different things. It is one and the same. But the "i" thinks it is different from "I" and feels it has experienced 'happiness' imagining itself to be a separate entity different from happiness. “i” could as well have said that “i” experienced "I" (“I” is another name for Happiness). But it cannot because “i” (a thought) cannot exist when “I” (= Happiness) is present! In other words, there is Happiness when “i” is absent. Another name for “i” is ego. ("I" is called Brahman and "i" is chidabhaasa in the Vednata lingo). "i" gets generated the moment a thought of a "me" being separate arises.

Expressing it differently, mind is absent in deep sleep. Therefore, there is no world (because a world arises only when a thought arises and thoughts are what the mind is made up of). As mind is absent, the small “i” (which is also a thought) is also absent and whatever is there in deep sleep is merely nameless natural state. In other words, a distinct experiencer, the act of experiencing and a separate object to be experienced do not exist. That is to say that there are no multiple things and whatever is present is I which is the same thing as Happiness, the atmaswarupa.

The so called Direct Path approach asks you to understand this clearly about deep sleep where only Experiencing (or Consciousness = Happiness) exists without any objects or the small "i" and asks you to make an effort to stay in that position as Consciousness. So the key is “deep sleep knowingly.” Atmananda Krishna Menon says that this Direct Path approach is adopted from Aitareya Upanishad.

Is deep sleep then the be all and end all?:

Mandukya Karika of Gaudapada and traditional advaitins follow a different logic. They consider 'deep sleep' as one of the transitory states and an unbroken abidance in Consciousness (Brahman) is beyond the deep sleep state.

They point out that deep sleep is also time dependent and hence it is also a state like the dream and wakeful states. Moreover, they maintain that we continue to non-apprehend Brahman in the deep sleep state. In the wakeful and dream states we not only non-apprehend Brahman (i.e. do not realize what It Truly Is) but also mis-apprehend (i.e. understand It to be something other than what It really is). Hence, only the component of taking Brahman to be something other than what It is truly stops during deep sleep but our inability to know the Truth (non-apprehension) continues. The traditional advaita says that mind is not annihilated in deep sleep but remains dormant and it rises again when we wake up. Some others say that mind sees ‘darkness’ (= ignorance) in deep sleep and therefore, a perceiver continues to exist with ‘ignorance’ being the separate 'object' that is perceived. Instead of various ‘objects’ veiling the truth as it happens during wakeful state, it is ‘ignorance’ that veils the Truth during deep sleep. We may appreciate that there is no fundamental difference in these expressions and they say the same thing from different viewpoints about "veiling" the Truth.

Traditional Advaita says that the three states of awake, dream and deep sleep occur as passing phases over an ever existent unchanging background of Consciousness (Reality = Truth) and is called as Turiya. Advaita urges the seeker to understand this Turiya and meld into It his imaginary "ego." To abide in Turiya unceasingly is Liberation. If 'A' represents the wakeful state, 'U' represents dream state and 'M' represents deep sleep, the half tone following 'M' and the silence stand for the everlasting Turiya as depicted in Mandukya Upanishad.

Greg Goode explains well these differences in a recent interview.

I am quoting Greg below:

Atmananda Krishna Menon regarded deep sleep as a ‘key to the ultimate’ and said that if a student is ready and able to seriously contemplate and investigate deep sleep, then this alone is enough without the need of having to experience or to spend years cultivating Nirvikalpa Samadhi.

Traditional Advaita Vedanta (of which the Tripura Rahasya is an expression) treats deep sleep as a very subtle covering, but a covering nonetheless. The direct path treats deep sleep as your nature - witnessing awareness with no objects.
These approaches differ, but there are reasons relating to the assumptions in the two sets of teachings.
Tripura Rahasya seeks to posit the mind as the site of awakening - traditional Advaita Vedanta speaks of the "akhanda akara vritti," which is said to be the mental modification that causes awakening. Awakening is definitely said to happen in the mind, being a modification of the mind. So the mind must be active for this to happen.
The direct path is different - awakening is spoken of inspirationally and rhetorically - but it is not seen as a true biographical event, especially one that requires explanation. An awakening event, like any event, would be a phenomenal event. But as such it is a mere appearance in awareness, so it can't be a real, functioning portal through which you transcend phenomenality. From the beginning there was no such need.

Rupert Spira (who also follows direct path approach) explained thus:

We can look at deep sleep from two points of view: 1) from the perspective of the waking state, that is, ‘on waking up,’ and 2) from the point of view of the experience itself.

From the perspective of the waking state, deep sleep appears as a vague memory of a blank nothingness, which apparently lasts for an undetermined period of time. This memory, like all memories, comes in the form of a thought, which, like all thoughts, irrespective of whether they are about the past, present or future, take place ‘now.’

The ‘deep sleep,’ to which the ‘memorising-thought’ refers, is utterly non-existent at the time of the occurrence of the memorising thought. In other words, the only evidence, in the waking state, for the existence of an experience called ‘deep sleep’ comes in the form of a thought.

Thought first imagines deep sleep and, in order to conceive of it in its own language of apparent objectivity, it superimposes onto it the qualities of blankness and duration.

From the point of view of experience itself, which is the only valid point of view, what is known as deep sleep, is simply the presence of Consciousness without the appearance of mind (taking mind here to include all thinking, imagining, sensing and perceiving).

But from the point of view of experience, which means from the point of view of Consciousness, there is no experience of a dark, blank nothingness. Rather, there is only the ‘experience’ of itself, which means only the presence or being of itself. This is neither deep, dark, blank or asleep. It is dimensionless, present, luminous, alive and awake.

The three states of awake, dream and deep sleep could be likened to a film, a document and a screen-saver appearing on a computer screen. The differences are not for the screen, they are for the mind.

Consciousness ‘never’ ceases to be this ‘wide-awakeness.’ The term ‘deep sleep’ is a misinterpretation of the reality of experience from the ignorant point of view of thought, that is, from the point of view that ignores the reality of experience.

The ‘dream’ and ‘waking’ states are two other interpretations or names that the mind gives to the reality of Consciousness, when it (Consciousness or experience) is imagined through the limiting and distorting lens of thought.

When we watch television we say that we are seeing a ‘film,’ the ‘news’ or a ‘documentary.’ Each of these labels is only a different name for the same screen, just as the waking, dreaming and deep sleep states are different names that thought gives to the reality of Consciousness.

For the screen there is always only itself, just as for Consciousness there is only 'knowingbeing' itself.

It takes something outside the screen, one who imagines they are not the screen, to see the ‘film,’ the ‘news’ and the ‘documentary,’ just as it takes an imaginary entity who has seemingly separated itself from the seamless totality of experience to apparently see something other than Consciousness.

A Model for Nirvana: (adopted from an article written by me in 2004 at indology.net)

Body is the ensemble of all the organs and limbs.

Mind is the ensemble of all our thoughts, feelings, ideas, images, emotions, qualia etc.

[Let us assume mind – body duality in building this model, though neuroscientifically it is not correct because mind is considered to be none other than what the brain does. Still this assumption of mind and body to be different entities does not invalidate the point to be made here by this model. Please see the figure below.]

There are two entities viz. mind and body. They can be either in alert or active state or in inert or restful state. The two entities and the two states can give rise to only four outcomes by combination.

The four outcomes are:

I – Wakeful State when both mind and body are preset and active: 13 - 40 Hz Beta and Gamma waves of the brain in EEG, gives raise to what we call conscious state, interpreting the neural firings in conjunction with sensory inputs to give a meaning to our perception.

II – Dream State when the body is at rest and mind is active: Dreams happens mostly in REM sleep, Brain as active as in wakeful state, but does not have the benefit of sensory inputs. Memory reorganization takes place.

III – Deep Sleep when both mind and body are at rest: 0.3 – 3 Hz, Delta waves of the brain in EEG, Neural firing occurs in a few disconnected islands, synaptic inactivity is reduced, and also reduction in free radical generation. Hence a feeling of rest comes. Toxic material disposed.

IV – What is this possible fourth outcome when body is present and active but mind is not active or totally at rest?

Does this fourth position also occur as easily as the other three without any special effort on our part? In this outcome, when the mind and thoughts are absent, a sense of a distinct “individuating me-thought” will be absent and hence no ego will be there. How does the body then function and what primes its activity? What is it that is present and guiding the body in its activity when the mind is not there?

Fig: The Four Outcomes

MIND ALERT + BODY ALERT (I)	MIND ACTIVE + BODY AT REST (II)
MIND AT REST + BODY AT REST (III)	MIND AT REST + BODY ACTIVE (IV)

Sensory Deprivation Tank And Induced Samadhi by John LeKay

2011-07-22T07:00:00.018+05:30

Sensory Deprivation Tank And Induced Samadhi

By John LeKay

[John LeKay is a professional artist and an accomplished Non-dualist. He arrived at the realization of Oneness following several methods of meditation and yogic practices like 40 days rigorous starvation and contemplation in Desensitization Chamber. He, however, discovered on realization that the induced Samadhi, the effect of these practices, was not very different from deep sleep state and the meditation he did was not what one would really call the effortless Non-dual meditation. Non-dual understanding, he says, is a transformation of the mind from its habitual thinking of being a separate entity. An inexpressible ‘Life’ lives by itself once such an understanding dawns. John lives in New York with his family and hopes to publish a book soon spelling out the diverse experiments he carried out and his findings. He also edits a well-structured online Journal reflecting various facets of Non-dualism. He can be reached at info@nondualitymagazine.org
I am grateful to John for contributing this Post on the techniques of desensitization of the senses and induced Samadhi and their usefulness to a seeker – ramesam.]

Sensory Deprivation Tank And Induced Samadhi

By John LeKay

Thank you for visiting. Because there was scope to misunderstand the content of the article, open access to the article has been denied from Nov 2011. Interested readers may please contact the author at his e-mail address given above -- ramesam Nov 12, 2011.

LIFE AFTER NIRVANA -- I

2011-06-17T18:51:00.001+05:30

LIFE AFTER NIRVANA -- I
(Excerpts from Yogavaasishta, Chapter VI: Nirvana - Book II)

[Maybe out of curiosity or to make sure that we correctly understood Advaita or perhaps to calibrate ourselves, we would like to know how a liberated man functions in the world. Passionate discussions are often held at many philosophical fora citing diverse authorities regarding the mind of a liberated man and how he could function within the phantasmagorical world albeit abiding in Brahman. Yogavaasishta is an ancient authoritative Advaitic scripture of about 32,000 verses divided into six chapters. The last chapter is Nirvana. It comes in two parts – Purva and Uttara. The philosophic teaching by Sage Vasishta till the end of the Purva part was primarily addressed to a seeker striving for Enlightenment. The most qualified and mature student Rama attains Self-realization by the end of the Purva part. But the author, Sage Valmiki, doesn’t end the text at that point. He continues the discourse of Sage Vasishta into a voluminous Uttara part where Rama’s questions are treated in a new light – befitting a Self-realized student. The second part of the Chapter Nirvana is thus a gold mine of information about the life after Self-realization.
Presented here are Excerpts from a forthcoming Book – Yogavaasishta, Chapter VI: Nirvana - Book II by Shri K.V. Krishna Murthy, English Translation by Dr. Vemuri Ramesam to be published by Datta Peetham, Mysore, India – ramesam]

LIFE AFTER NIRVANA -- I
(Excerpts from Yogavaasishta, Chapter VI: Nirvana - Book II)

1. Functioning in the World without a “me”:

Rama: Revered Teacher! Your instruction is to forego ego. You say that the ideas of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ should be given up. If we get rid of the me-mine concepts, the body and senses together with life itself may collapse having lost their relevance. In effect it is the death of the seeker. Liberation has a meaning only if the man is alive. Has the individual to be dead in order to attain liberation?

Vasishta: Rama! You seem to say that the body will be lost if mentation ends. What exactly is mentation? The idea that “I am the body” over this lump of the skin, bones and flesh is by itself a mentation. To abide in infinite Consciousness forsaking such contracted perspective is the abandonment of mentation. The notion that all the appearances including the body are real is an imagination. Considering everything that is perceived as a form of the Supreme Consciousness is abandonment of mentation. Another way to express the same is that cognition of objects is conceptualization and non-cognition is giving up of the conceptualization.

Rama: Well then Sir, who causes the body to come about and what sustains it?

Vasishta: That is called Praarabdha (Current Sufferage). It is the effect of past actions. It brings about the body. It sustains it. When once the Current Sufferage is expended away, the body will collapse irrespective of the fact whether you gave up on mentation or not. As long as the Current Sufferage lasts, nothing happens to the body even if you relinquish mentation. Also remember that mentation can be given up only by a living individual. A dead man cannot do it. As a matter of fact mind becomes placid when once you abandon conceptualization. The life span of such a Yogi will increase but will not diminish. Hence Rama, do give up all mentation without any reservation. Let no new innate tendencies (sanskaras) settle in you. Go ahead and perform fearlessly all actions that come upon you because of the effects of past actions. I say this with all my force. I said this in the past too.

Concisely expressed, conceptualization is bondage. Conceptualization implies imagination. Getting rid of imagination is liberation.

Rama: How does one do it?

Vasishta: No specific action needs to be carried out for this. Nor is there any ‘thing’ to be eschewed. Just be as you are. Consider what all you do as inaction. Inaction means non-doership, an absence of agency for action. Perform only the most essential and obligatory works as inaction. Acting thus, abide forever peacefully and happily in pristine Supreme Consciousness. (Sarga 1).

2. Knower of Truth and Expert on Truth:

Rama: Sir! Who is a Knower of Truth and who is an Expert on Truth? Please explain the benefits that accrue from attaining the Knowledge of Truth.

Vasishta: A man may study spiritual scriptures for gainful employment just as another may learn several of the worldly trades like sculpture etc. As he is undoubtedly scholarly, he may be able to explicate and analyze well what is Truth but hardly ever would try to practice what he knows. Such a person is an Expert on Truth. He has a good grip on the Knowledge of Truth. His behavior and attitude do not, however, show any effect of his knowing the Truth. Just like the experts in other fields, he will be concerned with his name and income. Let me tell you, the only true knowledge is the Knowledge of Truth. All other subjects of study are imaginary accretions (unreal mirror reflections of Truth).

Rama: Do you mean to suggest that only a perfect Knower of Truth is truly knowledgeable and the rest of the seekers are lowly Experts on Truth?

Vasishta: Seekers are mere experts of Truth but they are not lowly. What I talked was about the pretentious and scholarly lot who never even aspire for liberation. It is such people who are morons. They are the inferior ones who really qualify to be called as the Experts of Truth. There is another type of Experts of Truth. They are the ones who implement what was learnt from the scriptures. They struggle sometimes achieving success and sometimes facing failure. They are the pious Experts of Truth. The term “Expert of Truth” connotes a different meaning in their case. It indicates their condition of being attached to Truth. They will not remain as ignorant persons, though they may not be true Knowers of Truth either, because of their bondage to Truth. Such people are not afflicted by temptation for enjoyment. Hence, a seeker should be first a pious Expert of Truth. (Sarga 21)

3. The Happiness of Liberation and The Happiness of Object Experience:

Rama: Why should we call the happiness from Liberation as self-luminous? Why can’t it be an experiential thing like the happiness from objects?

Vasishta: If a thing is to be experienced, I-consciousness has to exist prior to the experience. But liberation is obtained only after the eradication of I-consciousness. In view of the absence of I-consciousness, the experiencer, it cannot be like experiencing an object.

Rama: Will a liberated man be able to experience the world or not? If he sees the world, there is no difference between an ordinary person and the liberated individual. If he is unable to sense the world, he will be equivalent to an insentient stone. In that case, we have to admit that all stones have been liberated. Will you comment on this please?

Vasishta: A liberated individual does see the world. But he does not differentiate it (look at it to be different from himself) as does an ordinary person. The world appears to him as Brahman. Hence both the shortcomings that you mention do not hold.

Rama: If the world appears to him as Brahman, how can it be untrue then?

Vasishta: I never said that the Consciousness from which the liberated individual witnesses the world to be unreal. I said that the name and form superimposed on it were untrue. I also said that the first and foremost superimposition was I-consciousness. That, in fact, is nescience (ignorance). ( Sarga 29.)

4. Even desire is Brahman:

Rama: If everything is Brahman, even desire is Brahman. Why should then one abjure wanting?

Vasishta: It is true that desire too is Brahman. But the moment you have this awareness, no desires generate in you! After all, Brahman does not arise or set! A sure sign of Self-Realization is a noticeable reduction in desires.

Please consider, who experiences the illusory world? Only a ‘person’ who is himself non-existent is deluded and feels he sees a world! The uncanny and weird thing in the illusion of the world is that there is no real one who truly experiences the phantasm of the world. In other words, the miasma takes place without any one being really existing there. It is obvious from this that the world is non-existent in Truth.

Everything is Brahman in one view. Upending the logic, we say nothing exists. Thus even desire is Brahman in one sense. There is also another view. It says, ‘Non-origination of desires is much better in order to attain the Bliss of Self.’ But what is desire? Self-Consciousness flowing outwards through the sensory spheres is desire. That is the mind. And that is the world. Countering the outward flow is desirelessness which is nothing but liberation! (Sarga 37)

A person in whom desires are annihilated is like a lamp that is extinguished. The ideas of ‘me or mine’ do not arise in him at all. (Sarga 38)

5. Can A Jivanmukta Teach:

Vasishta: You may now wonder how I am able to teach you if there is no I-consciousness in me because an individual with a sense of ‘me and mine’ cannot be a Self-realized man.

The assembled audience here imagines that I am delivering a sermon. That’s their view. But I am least concerned by their perception. From my stance, no-thing is happening here. There’s no Vasishta-body around. This body you see in front of you is a superimposition (illusory visualization by you) on the Supreme Brahman. The speech you hear too is like that. The entire world that has come about owing to nescience slowly disintegrates as you progress on the Path of Knowledge. Neither you will be there nor me at the end. Nor will this business of ongoing discourses. Only the Self-effulgence of the Supreme Brahman would be the remnant permeating everywhere. ( Sarga 39).

The strange thing here is that one who is himself Brahman does not notice any world. A person within the world cannot notice Brahman. A Jivanmukta sees both. But as the Jivanmukta progresses further on the Path, he leaves out duality completely and merges in the ineffable Brahman. ( Sarga 40).

6. The Ego of a Liberated Man:

Vasishta: The natural state of every individual is to have the Knowledge that he is Brahman. Forgetfulness of that natural state is ignorance which is not his intrinsic characteristic. People who are ignorant are swooshed into the drama of the three worlds. The mad drama ceases when they are brought back to their natural state. (Sarga 41).

Rama: How can the ego take hold of a liberated man?

Vasishta: A gross body cannot be sustained in the absence of an ego whether it is a liberated individual or an ignorant person. No super structure can stand without a support. The point to be noted, however, is that the I-consciousness troubles an ignorant person but is harmless to a liberated individual. For a liberated man like me, the experiential feeling is the same when I let go the ego in deep meditation or when I accept it in the wakeful state for transacting in the empirical world. This is a distinguishing feature of the liberated individual. (Sarga 57).

7. Why does the World Continue Even After the First Man got Liberated?

Rama: Revered Sir, if everything is Consciousness, we have to admit that the Supreme Brahman who is Consciousness appears as the individual in the world. That individual gets liberated on the realization of Truth. The first individual created was Hiranyagarbha. When he got liberated after realization of the Truth, all the individuals conceived by him should also be liberated simultaneously along with him. No ignorant people would have remained behind. Then there is no scope for further creation to take place. But we still witness creation. How does this happen?

Vasishta: Rama, say you had a dream when you were asleep. As soon as you wake up, the entire dream world of yours is liberated. But there are certain remnant tendencies in your mind. Hence you get another dream the following night when you sleep. Neither the previous night’s dream nor the new dream is real from your viewpoint. Nevertheless, the ongoing dream is real for the dream character ‘you’ in the later dream. In the same way, the world exists in a latent form as a ‘tendency’ inside Pure Consciousness.

For a person of this world, the world is real. A liberated individual says that the world is unreal; but the person of the world does not believe him. Say there are two friends who observe the full moon in the sky. They find it to be of about 20 cm diameter. One of the friends, say, has the yogic power to fly in space. He flies to the lunar body, examines up close and returns to the earth. He tells his friend that the moon is not just 20 cm in diameter but is in fact a much much larger sphere. Still, the impression in the mind of his friend that the moon is of 20 cm dia will not get erased. The friend who traveled in space and returned to earth too still sees the moon to be only of 20 cm dia but will not agree that the moon is really so small. The difference between a person in bondage and a liberated individual is about the same. Thus, Rama, Hiranyagarbha may have attained liberation; but creation seemingly continues to go on for the person in bondage. (Sarga 61).

[To be continued ….]

Gamma Wave Synchrony and Consciousness By Junius

2011-05-20T07:00:00.027+05:30

GAMMA WAVE SYNCHRONY AND CONSCIOUSNESS

By Junius

[Junius authored a science fiction book 'Persephone Wakes' under the name Jack Junius with theories of consciousness as its theme. He is presently working on another fiction book (a sort of Dan Brown of the Cotswolds) with altered states of consciousness and religion as its theme. He maintains a Website/Blog on Consciousness and Fundamental Physics at: www.quantum-mind.co.uk

I am very grateful to him for the concise write up on Gamma Synchrony explaining the intricacies in a lucid manner.

I have also added at the end the Abstract from the Paper by A. Lutz et al (2004) (including the explanation by David Dobbs (2005)), a few comments from the work of Z. Josipovic (2010) and the work of E.C. Leuthardt (with regard to Gamma band and anesthesia) -- ramesam]

GAMMA WAVE SYNCHRONY AND CONSCIOUSNESS

By Junius

This write up on Gamma Synchrony is based on the research by Lucia Melloni and Wolf Singer at the Max Planck Institute published in 2010. For further reading see, 'New Horizons in the Neuroscience of Consciousness'. The authors discuss studies that show that conscious perceptions produce different types of brain activity from unconscious percepts. In particular, consciousness is demonstrated to produce long-range synchronisation of gamma oscillations in widely separated neural assemblies. The approx. 30-90 Hz oscillation of neuronal spiking, known as the gamma wave can become synchronised across large areas of the brain. The authors suggest that the synchronisation of widely distributed neuronal activity meets some of the requirements for explaining how conscious experience arises in the brain.

Gamma Waves in EEG (from Wikimedia)

The brain comprises specialised although connected processing areas, and for these to become unified, it has to overcome the problem of representation in different modalities, such as hearing, seeing etc. In this research, it is proposed that the processing of spatially separated neuronal assemblies is bound together by means of the gamma synchrony.

Neurons are known to be synchronised into coherent assemblies, and these assemblies are suggested to signal the presence of particular features to other neural assemblies. This process is suggested to give rise to a distributed representation of the external environment. Neuronal assemblies form and dissolve rapidly, which could account for the easy shifting of consciousness from one focus to another.

Synchronisation also allows better control of interaction between neurons. Thus excitatory inputs are seen to be effective at a particular point of the oscillation cycle, but are ignored at other times. This means that groups of neurons that oscillate in synchrony will be able to signal to one another, and that groups that are out of synchrony will be ignored. This mechanism can function within neural assemblies, but also between spatially separated assemblies. The frequency and phase of oscillation can alter to influence signaling.

Studies suggest that local processing is unconscious, whereas large scale activity such as reciprocal signaling between separate neural assemblies is a correlate of consciousness. This is argued to be a 'small worlds' system, where there is co-existence between local and long-range networks. In the brain, it is suggested that the local networks are between neurons only a few hundred micrometers apart within layers of the cortex, while the long-range networks run mainly through the white matter, and thus link spatially separated areas of the cortex. It is these latter that can establish the global coordination that is correlated to consciousness.

The authors propose that masking experiments are a good way of studying consciousness, because this allows the same stimuli to be either unconscious or conscious. In a study undertaken by the authors, words could be perceived consciously in some trials but unconsciously in others (Melloni et al, 2007). Local gamma synchronisation was similar in both cases, but with consciously perceived words there was a burst of long-distance gamma synchrony between the occipital, parietal and frontal cortices. Also subsequent to this burst, there was activity that could have indicated a transfer of information to working memory, while an increase in frontal cortex theta wave activity may have indicated material being held in working memory. Words processed at the unconscious level could lead to an increase in the power of the gamma frequency range, but only conscious stimuli produced increases in long-distance gamma synchronisation, plus possibly theta activity looks to be a requirement for consciousness.

Even the authors admit that the gamma synchronisation is just a correlate, and does not explain how consciousness actually arises. However, it does look like providing an explanation of how conscious perceptions are unified. The redness of fruit in one assembly is synchronised or entrained with the greenness of leaves in another assembly, and the blueness of sky in still another, plus the humming of bees and song of birds in the more distant but still synchronized assemblies of the auditory cortex.

One aspect which is touched on, but not enlarged on in the mainstream literature is that there is a zero or near zero time lag in the synchronisation of spatially separated neural assemblies, which bears the signature of quantum entanglement. Between 2007 and 2010, studies of photosynthetic organism demonstrated the existence of possibly functional quantum coherence and entanglement in biological systems even at room temperature, partly refuting the claims of the much-hyped (Tegmark 2000) paper.

As for constructing something that could communicate qualia, in principle anything that is physical can be built, but the prospects for something like the above in the near term looks daunting. The photosynthetic studies suggest working at the level of coherent electrons within the interior of neurons, bearing in mind that a neuron is said to be more complex than London. The difficulties of the relatively more straight forward requirements for quantum computing are not encouraging in this respect.

The gamma synchrony is just a correlate and does not explain how consciousness arises. It does, however, seem plausible that the physical basis of consciousness is in some way related to this process. At the same time, indefinite pursuit of correlates of consciousness will not by itself yield a theory of consciousness, as correlation is not the same as identity. One of the benefits, if the gamma synchrony was seen to resolve the binding or unity of consciousness problem, would be to allow efforts to be concentrated on qualia or subjectivity which looks like the real hard problem. One has to be wary of a tendency to get bogged down in areas that are not the essential problem in consciousness studies.

*****

2. From: A Lutz et al (2004), “Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice”, PNAS, 101(46), 16369–16373.

Abstract

Practitioners understand “meditation,” or mental training, to be a process of familiarization with one's own mental life leading to long-lasting changes in cognition and emotion. Little is known about this process and its impact on the brain. Here we find that long-term Buddhist practitioners self-induce sustained electroencephalographic high-amplitude gamma-band oscillations and phase-synchrony during meditation. These electroencephalogram patterns differ from those of controls, in particular over lateral frontoparietal electrodes. In addition, the ratio of gamma-band activity (25-42 Hz) to slow oscillatory activity (4-13 Hz) is initially higher in the resting baseline before meditation for the practitioners than the controls over medial frontoparietal electrodes. This difference increases sharply during meditation over most of the scalp electrodes and remains higher than the initial baseline in the postmeditation baseline. These data suggest that mental training involves temporal integrative mechanisms and may induce short-term and long-term neural changes.

3. From: Zen Gamma By David Dobbs, Sci Amer, March 24, 2005.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found that during meditation, Zen Buddhist monks show an extraordinary synchronization of brain waves known as gamma synchrony--a pattern increasingly associated with robust brain function and the synthesis of activity that we call the mind.

Brain waves are produced by the extremely low voltages involved in transmitting messages among neurons. Most conscious activity produces beta waves at 13 to 30 hertz, or cycles per second. More intense gamma waves (30 to 60 or even 90 Hz) generally mark complex operations such as memory storage and sharp concentration.

The Wisconsin study took electroencephalograms (EEGs) of 10 longtime Buddhist practitioners and of a control group of eight college students who had been lightly trained in meditation. While meditating, the monks produced gamma waves that were extremely high in amplitude and had long-range gamma synchrony--the waves from disparate brain regions were in near lockstep, like numerous jump ropes turning precisely together. The synchrony was sustained for remarkably long periods, too. The students' gamma waves were nowhere near as strong or tuned.

Such results connote more than spiritual harmony; they reflect the coordination of otherwise scattered groups of neurons. Gamma synchrony increases as a person concentrates or prepares to move. And lack of synchrony indicates discordant mental activity such as schizophrenia. Finally, a growing body of theory proposes that gamma synchrony helps to bind the brain's many sensory and cognitive operations into the miracle of consciousness.

That hypothesis certainly agrees with the monks' gamma readings, seemingly confirming that Zen meditation produces not relaxation but an intense though serene attention. Trained musicians also show superior gamma synchrony while listening to music--another form of calm but intense focus.

4. From Josipovic, Z., “Duality and nonduality in meditation research”, Consciousness and Cognition (2010), doi:10.1016/j.concog.2010.03.016.

Travis and Shear suggest that the differences between meditation styles should be evident as fairly simple distinctions in EEG signatures. There is elegance and parsimoniousness to this idea, but the reality may be more complicated. The EEG signatures of meditation tend to be fairly complex across all bands and differ, as well, with the degree of the subject’s proficiency (Cahn & Polich, 2006). Changes in the gamma band, which the authors use as one of the indicators of focused attention style, have been found in other styles of editation as well (Cahn, Delorme, & Polich, 2010). It is also questionable whether compassion meditation (Lutz, Greischar, Rawlings, Ricard, & Davidson, 2004) which produced some of the largest changes in the gamma band found in meditation to date, belongs to the focused attention style, as the authors suggest. The non-referentiality of compassion makes it more akin to meditations in the nondual or ‘automatic self-transcending’ category. Most importantly, certain aspects of synchrony in the gamma range await further clarification due to artifacts from scalp muscles and eye movement (Yuval-Greenberg, Tomer, Keren, Nelken, & Deouell, 2008).

5. From ScienceDaily, Feb. 9, 2011: Gamma Band under Anesthesia:

(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110208093258.htm)

Dr. E. C. Leuthardt and his colleagues have used the grids to watch consciousness fade under surgical anesthesia and return when the anesthesia wears off. They found each frequency gave different information on how different circuits changed with the loss of consciousness.

Their results also showed a series of changes that occurred in a specific order during loss of consciousness and then repeated in reverse order as consciousness returned. Activity in a frequency region known as the gamma band, which is thought to be a manifestation of neurons sending messages to other nearby neurons, dropped and returned as patients lost and regained consciousness.

6. From "Neuroskeptic" of 4 July 2011:
(http://neuroskeptic.blogspot.com/2011/07/gamma-waves-brains-clock-or-neural.html )
If you believe some recent claims, gamma waves are the answer to all the mysteries of life and the universe. They're said to underlie the symptoms of schizophrenia andautism, and they've been invoked to answer deep questions such as the binding problem and maybe conciousness itself. You can even buy a Nintendo game that promises to boost them.
A new paper from Burns et al casts doubt on all of these grand claims. Gamma-based theories of brain function all assume that gamma waves act a bit like a clock, with a consistent rhythm of about 40 Hz. Activity of about 40 Hz is indeed observed in brain recordings but is that just because the brain is randomly generating all kinds of signals, and only the 40 Hz ones "get through"?

The Art of Seeking by Javier

2011-04-22T08:32:00.001+05:30

The Art of Seeking
By Javier
[Javier was born in Spain and now lives in Holland. A decade and half ago when he was in his late teens, he was leaden with a sense of heavy confusion – a confusion that had driven him to find a way to attain eternal happiness. Now in his thirties, he finds from his quest that 'enlightenment' seems to be an ongoing process by ‘no-one.’ Over time he realized more glimpses of this Truth while the subtle layers of the I/ego/doer are dying day by day.

I am grateful to Javier who has been kind to share at this Blog the process of his own ‘search’. The Reality Check he offers reads like true Meditation. Javier will be happy to receive any comments or questions and is available at: O_zean@hotmail.com -- ramesam]

The Art of Seeking
by Javier

“Time is ticking. Fast, hurry, seek what you are trying to find!”

That is what I said to myself when my seeking hit the roof. I had to do something in order to achieve enlightenment.

It all started when I was 18 years. I started doing meditation after listening to a new age program on the Dutch radio station. I am 33 now and I did not know anything about enlightenment or spirituality or whatever you want to name it. So there I was, meditating for 5 minutes each day. Thoughts were all over the place, scattered as if they came from a bombshell. I read about Buddhism online and I did not understand anything about what they said.

I didn't know anything about God/Brahman/Life itself. I was never a believer in the catholic God and thought going to church was kind of ignorance.

Going to heaven after I die? Was it my fault that I was born?
So I turned on the TV one night and Osho (an Indian mystic) said the following words 'you are not the doer, you are a watcher'. This trying to figure out who the doer was started right there that night.

So time flew but enlightenment and Self realization did not make any sense. When I was 27 or so, I typed the question on Google “who am I?” I came to an advaita site of Ramana Maharshi. It sounded good to me. As I went to YouTube, I found other advaita/non-duality teachers talk about it. When I listened to Tony Parsons saying 'everything just happens for no one', something clicked. Surely, hearing, smelling and feeling were happening on their own accord. If ever enlightenment was that easy! I couldn't believe it. I thought I had it. I thought that it happened to someone.
Darkness, separation and no Brahman/Source/Life to be found anywhere!

Help! I saw myself as a separate doer, doing stuff in life, not knowing that that very thought of being a doer also was just perfectly happening on its own accord. SO I believed in this whole seeking mind game and all of its diverse thoughts. One day the mind started to talk in the 'you' form. So I wondered. Are there two separate selves?

But very recently things started to change. I had glimpses. They went away as fast as they came. I should be happy knowing that I was enlightened. I had it in my hands! I finally arrived.

Reality check!

Who is it that becomes enlightened?

Who is it that wants to get rid of the doer?

Who is it that seeks?

Isn't it so that all of these divine things are also happening perfectly?

So yes, writing this post is happening on by itself. And there is something still 'knowing' that it happens that doesn't require effort and pain. It is there.

This/Life itself is a knowing which knows:

- itching sensation on my left leg

- deep inhalation
- sounds
- tapping
- legs crossed on the ground

-coldness on the nose

- a thought saying ' if there is no one, who or better say what knows that this very thought is happening'

- smile
- humming of the PC
- moistening of lips
- blinking
- another thought saying why I wasn't aware of the blinking before
- laughter
- another thought saying that there is a noticing/ knowing that knows that I wasn't aware if there is an I!
So all of these things seem to happen and the ‘you’ cannot figure out this doership. You cannot surrender either or let go. It happens or not. In my case seeking was an obsession, like a day-job. The pre-thought 'I am going to wiggle my toe whenever I want' was my seeking experiment for 2 years but step by step in the story of Javier (if there is a step by step), there was an understanding that subtle actions were happening too, including concentration, sending imaginary signals to the toe, closing the eyes and forcing it to move the toe. Hilarious really but just OK. So there seems to be a process here NOW of dismantling subtle layers of belief and subtle thoughts of identification. So self inquiry into the doership can be the way. Or more correctly, there is no way ... there is only 'waying' by no one.

Life is living you. You are not having a Life. Of course, don't say this to an apparent anyone who believes they are separate. 'You' might end up in a separate isolation room!

It couldn't have happened in another way. So trust what you know or don't know. It is one big paradox!

Journey from 'Nowhere' to 'Now-Here' by Victoria Rose

2011-03-18T02:05:00.007+05:30

Journey from 'Nowhere' to 'Now-Here'
By Victoria Rose

[Intense yearning to know one’s own Self (mumukshatva), as Sankara says in Vivekachudaamani, comes only through 'Grace’ – perhaps a euphemism to indicate that it cannot be explained in terms of the cause-effect relationships, a domain in which mind functions. Mumukshatva begins with the questions: ‘Who am I’ and ‘What is this world around?’ as almost all the Indian sages tell us.

Ancient lore speaks of Ashtaavakra who was said to have resolved these questions when he was still in his mother’s womb. Right here we have the story of Victoria Rose who grappled with these questions as a toddler! Language, she found out, was needed only later on as a secondary adjunct for expression of this burning desire to understand her own Self.

Victoria hails from a strictly orthodox Catholic home in the Midwest. A born Musician, she is trained in Psychology and has a Masters in Social work. She lives now with her family in Wyoming, Michigan. Her Non-dual “Journey” from nowhere to Now Here is quite enthralling with a graphic description of the undulating terrain one passes through during the intense seeking, only to find at the end that there is in fact no displacement at all in the whole travel! Her story of the ‘search’ to return ‘home’ forms a real-life case-study narrated in her inimitable and unpretentious manner and is quite instructive and illustrative of the 'process' involved on the ‘path.’ It answers a myriad doubts that usually arise in our minds as our own seeking goes on.

Victoria is available on Facebook with a huge network of friends. I feel I am blessed for her ready consent to share her captivating story at this Blog – ramesam]

Journey from 'Nowhere' to 'Now-Here'

By Victoria Rose

Enlightenment; self-realization; awakened; fully realized; and other labels -- call it what you will -- all of these are concepts of the mind. One can only recognize one’s true nature as presence-awareness, but only right here, right now. There is no ‘future time’ that enlightenment will happen. I used to believe this and desired nothing else but to be ‘fully realized’, as I became familiar with such terms through spiritual readings. And just like many others with similar beliefs, I thought that this is how it would happen, as I waited for such a time to occur. It was always, “when I become fully awake, then there will be no more suffering, no more problems, because ‘I’ will be free from all of that for good!” Sound familiar?

Realizations, however, did happen often throughout my life that permanently transformed how I saw everything, yet, I was still waiting for some really powerful, dramatic experience, one that would define my ‘initiation’ as being ‘fully awakened’. After all, this seemed to be how it happened for well known gurus and spiritual teachers who were acknowledged to have “realized the Self“. Among some of the greatest influences in my life, nonduality seemed to be the highest teachings. It resonated with my own direct experiences revealing my true nature. However, before I go further, I should start from the beginning, from where the ‘most essential question’ occurred, as Nisargadatta Maharaj had once put it, which became the underlying driving force to know the Self.

Unaware of any journey or path, self-inquiry began at a very young age. Memories go as far back as infancy, where there was a presence, as I observed everything and everyone around me. Born the 13^th of 15 children, there was a lot to observe and absorb. One day, while sitting in a wooden high-chair at approximately 1-1½ years old, without the development of language, questions arose within. In order to express the essence of the questions, language is necessary. Suddenly, I wondered, “how did I get here? where is ‘here’? what was my existence before ‘this’? … and, who are all these ‘people‘?” I didn’t know where “I” began, and I wondered, how was it that I could suddenly just “be here”? When the questions arose, they happened all at once, in an instant, unlike linear thinking. The essence of the questions never left, but as I settled into the process of mental conditioning throughout childhood, adolescence, continuing into adulthood, they remained as a subtle part of my consciousness in the background.

The Happenings:

In my late twenties began a more conscious effort to understand what later had a label, ‘glimpses of the infinite’. Since childhood, spontaneously and out of nowhere, I would suddenly be in a state of Oneness that is difficult to describe. It didn’t matter what was going on or whether anything special was happening that might affect my mood one way or another. In fact, these ‘happenings’ seemed to occur during the most ordinary moments. One instance, as a young child, I was swinging on a swing at the school playground by myself with no one around, when all of a sudden I was in the most blissful and joyous state, completely immersed in love! Such ecstasy! It was so immense, so much bigger than myself, and “I” melted into Oneness. These occurrences happened often throughout my life, and the essence was always the same, with the exception that somewhere in my thirties, it transformed into more of a profound deep peace that never left. These ‘happenings’ were difficult to describe as a child, not having any words to call it, yet, I tried to share it with siblings, then close friends, but no one knew what I was talking about. I thought it was normal and that everyone experienced the same. It was the most natural and familiar essence, and it felt like ‘Home’, and somehow I knew that, “I can come here whenever I want . . . life is so short, so I can get through it!” That was the ‘thought’ that accompanied the moment it happened that day on the playground. I knew this place, this space without words.

It seems funny that I would think about my life as “getting through it” -- that doesn’t sound very normal for a child to think like that. However, I already knew suffering and pain, even as a child, and was very contemplative spending much of my time by myself, despite the surroundings of my siblings, most of whom were older than me. Yet, I felt older somehow, observing being talked down to, as one would to a young child. I understood that this is how adults saw children, and so I went along, knowing that they meant well, and thought, “they have no idea what I know, and when I grow up, I will never treat a child like they don’t know anything.” I felt a natural compassion for my family.

Growing up in a very strict, religious environment, life centered around religion and going to church, where sermons were preached of a “God” who was vengeful, who punished his servants, throwing them into the depths of hell. Whether at home or at church, these beliefs tormented me, and I grew up with this fear, terrified of meeting “God” and going to hell, living with chronic anxiety the first 27 years of my life. However, despite all the anxiety, fear, and false beliefs, the ‘happenings’ would continue to occur, leaving me with much hope that what I was taught to believe couldn’t possibly be true. Still, out of survival instincts, I conformed to the teachings of the church, rather focusing on sainthood, and at a very young age started reading books about the saints and anything that had to do with spirituality as opposed to religion. That was the closest I got to learning about ‘realizing the Self’, which came later in my early thirties when, “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle, was first published. Money was scarce, and as a mother of two, I was busy balancing my schedule between being a wife and mother, going to graduate school full-time, and doing an internship at a hospital neonatal unit as a medical social worker. So I had my share of daily problems, life situations, pain and suffering, while watching the endless suffering of others, which came with the job. I had no one to guide me or to explain the ‘happenings’ which were direct experiences of my true nature. But, as they were the most natural and familiar essence when they occurred, I did not see them as anything out of the ordinary, because they had been happening since I could remember, all the way back to infancy! And not that I needed affirmations to confirm what I knew through direct experience, I simply lacked any ‘labels’ to explain what to call them. The Mind wants to label everything and to understand everything, yet, I learned that no matter what explanations or labels you give it, the Mind will only be ‘satisfied’ for a short time, and then, it wants more, discarding the initial explanations, and on and on it goes! There is no satisfying the Mind.

Eckhart Tolle’s teachings were exactly what I had been looking for! His words were simple, yet profound, and strongly resonated with my direct experiences and realizations. For the first time, all of the ‘happenings’ of oneness and bliss had a label: ‘glimpses of the infinite’. Not that it mattered, because those familiar feelings of ‘Home’, of total love and uninterrupted peace were nothing other than my natural state -- not this ‘life’ filled with problems and situations that felt like a prison… but I wasn’t free… the ‘glimpses’ didn’t last long enough, and suddenly, the mind would take over again. I went through dark periods which one could equate with ‘the dark night of the soul’. These would last on and off, as I went from moments of deep peace and clarity, interrupted yet again by the mind.

The mind chatter got louder and louder, and I couldn’t stop or control it. Eckhart’s teachings point to our true nature as presence, awareness. One of the things he taught as a means to presence was to watch one’s thoughts as they arose, and know that our thoughts are not who we are, but by catching the thoughts as they arise and watching them, in that Moment, one is aware, present! So, I started to apply this to my day-to-day life, and every so often, I’d look back to check any progress, only to find that the mind had become quieter and the constant mind chatter that once dominated and controlled me had finally subsided. Then a time came when I no longer had to catch the thoughts; rather, "I" became the Witness, the Observer of the thoughts and emotions. It was like watching an “empty show” filled with fictitious characters, which “I” had nothing to do with. And there were times when I watched the ‘personality’ of this form react to certain situations, yet there was no driving force behind the reaction or emotion. How funny! And quickly, emotions would just dissipate almost as fast as they arose!

As mentioned early on, nonduality teachings seemed to be of the highest nature. My first introduction to nonduality teachings was Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. How perfect! His words were so powerful, and as I read them, they resonated deep within my being at the core level with one potent pointer after another, each one like refreshing water pouring down upon me, hitting hard, cracking open more and more realizations, happening faster and more intensely. I could see that what Eckhart taught was the same essence of Nisargadatta’s teachings -- they just used different pointers. Other nonduality teachers whose pointers rang loud and clear and resonated deeply with my own direct experiences, were ‘Sailor’ Bob Adamson and Stephen Wolinsky (both direct students of Nisargadatta Maharaj), Ramana Maharshi, Ramesh Balsekar, Papaji, Robert Adams, Tony Parsons, and John Wheeler, among others.

One particular moment that stands out as a ‘turning point’ happened in my late thirties when my body became sick with a serious kidney infection. It had gotten out of control that I ended up in the hospital emergency room, then sent home with antibiotics. Meanwhile, the pain was so out of control by the time I was able to get the antibiotics that when I took the first dose, my body became incredibly nauseous, as I fought with every ounce of strength from throwing them up. The pain was so intense and there was no comfortable position I could get into. Not able to escape the pain, I laid there very still. And there in silence with what seemed to be the most unbearable pain, somehow the pain catapulted me into a state of Presence. It was so incredible! So much bigger than me! It was the most profound deep peace that had happened yet, and there were no needs! Nothing! “I” was perfect in that Moment. The pain of the body remained, but had fallen into the background, no longer an issue. This perfect state of peace and presence with no words or labels remained. Suddenly, the phone rang, and about an hour had passed in what was ‘no time’ in perfect presence. When I looked at the caller ID, seeing it was a close ‘spiritual’ friend, I answered it. Still remaining in this perfect state of presence and peace, I tried to explain what had happened. But in doing so, the mind slowly returned, along with the pain. However, it marked a profound reference point, in which I understood clearly that ‘I’ was not the pain, an important experience that would prepare me for what was to come a few short years later.

Life continued on with its normal, every day problems and situations, but each moment of clarity made its mark, and as an Observer of the play of consciousness, no matter what thoughts or emotions arose, I was able to quickly become centered again with peace continually present. But my greatest challenges were still yet to come, as this body continued to deteriorate physically. By the time I was in my early forties, jobs had become more scarce and the body couldn’t keep up with the production demands at work. Finally, the body came to a full STOP. I could no longer do my job, and was diagnosed with a litany of severe and debilitating diseases, disorders, and syndromes which made it challenging to do simple things like personal care, preparing simple meals, light housework, even picking up a glass of water was painful. I lived with chronic pain 24/7, and was declared officially ‘disabled‘. The pain made it challenging to remain constantly present, and for a while, I got caught up in the ‘stories’ of how things got so out of control because of “this and this”… but as long as I identified with the mind from which the stories arose, I suffered. At first I felt anger that I was too young for this to ‘happen’, but that didn‘t last, and sadness took its place, as I grieved over the loss of my ‘identity’ with the body and all its physical capabilities, over which I had no control, along with fear of not being able to take care of myself without some kind of help. As my condition worsened, the fear of dying would occur each night just before bedtime. I remained silent, not wanting to give energy to the fear, and when morning would come, the fear went with it. This continued on for several weeks. My dreams were very vivid, and then one night, I had a dream of my own death. My parents and siblings were in it. In the dream, somehow it was known that I would die the next day, and there was also a baby, whose death was also to happen the same day as mine. My family was beginning to eat supper, and my mother said that the baby could not have any food since it would die the following day, along with me. That made me very sad. I picked up the baby, holding it up before me and started crying very hard! I was more saddened by its death than my own. Then, it came for me to die, and when I died, I woke up from the dream. I couldn’t shake it off right away. I was too afraid to move or get up. And, as the day went on, I could still feel the essence of the dream. However, the feeling wore off by the following day, and several days later, it dawned on me that the ‘baby’ in the dream was ‘me’! Only in the dream, the baby was not an infant, but about the age I was when the questions first arose about my existence and how I got ‘here’. It was evident that I was witnessing my own death, both as the ‘baby’ from when the questions of my identity first arose, and as the ‘adult’ -- it represented the death of identification with this form. Since that dream, fears of death have no longer been an issue.

Another most profound realization occurred around the same time that I had the dream. While sitting at my computer, just gazing into nowhere, all at once it was clear that there was no ‘person’, no ‘individual’ in this form called, ‘Victoria’ . . . it was all consciousness -- everything was consciousness, and ‘I’ wasn’t even the consciousness. None of it had anything to do with ‘me‘. In that Moment of Clarity, the ‘I’ fell away, as did all concepts. It was most freeing! To no longer be burdened with any ‘identity’… nor did I ‘attain’ anything, rather, all that was false just fell away. As ‘I’ was never separate from my true nature, how could there be anything to attain?

This realization did not just ‘happen’ and then fade away. What was realized in that Moment continues to be in the ever-present now. The next day while driving in my car, everything was different. I saw everything as consciousness without labels. There were no problems, no fears or anxiety about anything -- just profound peace. I hadn’t seen it quite this way before, but it was obvious and ordinary and extraordinary all at once. This was the most powerful realization yet, as it changed how I saw everything from that Moment on.

Then, a few weeks later, the mind crept in once again. How could this be, I wondered? What doubts could there be after letting go of the identity with the body? Was there something that I still identified with causing some doubts? As I sat in stillness and silence, it became evident that somehow I was still ‘waiting’ for some “grand awakening” experience that would define my own ‘realization of the Self’. And since I had no teacher that I could call or ask questions in order to clear these doubts, no self-realized being that I could talk to (that I personally ‘knew’) that I could call and get a definite, “you’re good to go!” ‘PASS’ that would make it ‘official’ that I had finally ‘made it’, once more I found myself caught up in the Mind.

Somehow, everything just fell into place. I came across a book by John Wheeler. I had never heard of him before, so I was hesitant. I read that he had searched for 25 years, and then one day he met ‘Sailor’ Bob, and that, “He just laid it all out on the table. I never heard it so clearly from anybody.” [John Wheeler, ‘You Were Never Born‘] Already familiar with the pointers of ‘Sailor’ Bob, I could see how John could easily become ‘CLEAR’, as he put it. John said that after that meeting with Bob, that was it! There were no more doubts, no more questions. Very impressed by this, I started reading John‘s book, and within the first several pages, the clarity became so obvious, that at once, everything was CLEAR! I mean, everything that pointed to my true nature as presence-awareness that I had directly experienced so many times! It was all there, and it had been there all the time! All of my questions and doubts disappeared upon reading the first few pages of John’s book. It wasn’t anything new. Somehow, it was just the way that John‘s words were so clear (to me), that this time the mind was finally silent! It had nothing more to say! I emailed John, thanking him for doing for me what ‘Sailor’ Bob had done for him. Not knowing whether he would get my email or not, as I didn’t know if he received hundreds of emails daily, and/or if he read them himself, or had others read them for him. I just didn’t know. But, the very next day, John responded to me:

“Thanks for sending along the detailed e-mail. I appreciated reading about your experiences and insights. This all sounds very direct and to the point. It is great that you see that the notion that "someday something will happen in a future time" is only a presently arising concept in the ever-fresh "presence-awareness" being pointed to. With this insight, you see that what you are seeking for is already what you are, already present and already attained. This, of course, undercuts all of our previously held assumptions -- the main one being that we exist apart from the one reality or true essence. Anyway, I am happy to hear that these basic points are clear for you!” ~ John Wheeler

And so the doubts were put to rest once and for all. It’s funny how the mind can be so persistent, creating so much doubt and chaos! Even in the presence of my true nature (how many times?), it crept in again and again, just when I thought that was it!

Teachers appear in many forms and many forms appear as teachers. Yet, there is nothing that we need to learn. We are not separate from THAT which we already are, which is presence-awareness. If you seek it, you will not find it, because you ARE it! Words can only point to it. And whatever pointers assist one in recognizing one’s true nature can be considered useful, provided one does not mistake the ‘pointer’ for THAT being pointed to.
So, if any of this resonates with anyone, please be relieved to know that the only thing standing between you and who you are is really NO-THING! Because the mind is part of the appearances and disappearances that arise and fall within Awareness. The mind is finite and will never understand THAT which is infinite, which is what you ARE. So, whatever torments you, keeping you in suffering, know that it is only the mind -- the finite mind, which cannot really come between you and your true nature. You are perfect as you are, right here, right now. There is nothing for you to do, nothing to seek, and nothing to be attained. Nor is there any ‘future time’ or ‘someday when…’ that all will be ‘realized’. You can only know your true nature as simple, ordinary presence-awareness, but only right here, right now.
For An Interview with Victoria By Non-Duality Magazine: Click here

THE STORY BY VINCENT FLAMMINI

2011-02-18T07:48:00.003+05:30

THE STORY

By Vincent Flammini

[“Whenever doubt or worry or urgency or straining or efforting or hopelessness or certainty or ease or, well, anything arises, do nothing. Rest. … No matter what thoughts or books or self-improvement programs tell you, You are already fine the way you are. You are already what you are looking for – but only right now.”

Can any pointer be more direct and simpler than this?!

Non-dual teachings come in many flavors. Some are like stones, impenetrable. Some are like semi-precious stones, vaguely there but not clear. Yet others are real precious, transparent gems. Vincent Flammini’s words are like diamonds. The above quote is an example. Like diamonds his pointers too come with their characteristic 5 C’s -- Clear; Cool; Cute; Concise and Clutter-free. The brevity of his expression and reticence in communication earned him even the sobriquet of “Lazy.” He was very patient, kind and affectionate in clarifying many of my doubts soon after his own “search” ended. On my persistent request, he shared the story of how his “seeking” ended about three years ago in perhaps one of his longest of writings. It was published in Consecration, Vol: V, No.: 3, p: 24, July-Aug 2008. It gives me a great pleasure to reproduce it here. A few more pointers adopted from his Blog are at the end of this essay -- ramesam]

THE STORY

By Vincent Falmmini

[There is always a great deal of interest about the ‘event’, when realization ‘occurred’. There are many stories about it from many teachers, many of them very dramatic. My intuition is that the first moment of realization – the form and tone of it – depends largely on the conditioned personality. So, in reading this, I would everyone to see it just as another thought story arising now, that is likely not at all relevant in your life – Love, Vince.]

I had searched for years. I tried every kind of meditation imaginable, as well as a variety of other spiritual practices. At first, I was searching for enlightenment. I imagined that this meant I would no longer experience pain or suffering and that I would be happy forever and even after. After years of sitting zazen (the fundamental meditation of Zen Buddhism), the allure of enlightenment faded and I abandoned hope. During this same period of time (years!), I lived with a great deal of anxiety; on a few occasions, it was debilitating. It typically came in the form of an overwhelming fear of doom or death and I often lived assuming that I would die before the end of the day. It was a time of significant suffering for me. The search changed for me as a result of this fear and anxiety. I tried to find ways to rid myself of it. I tried everything and absolutely nothing worked. Somehow, I stumbled across David Godman’s book about Ramana Maharshi. The story of his premonition of his own death when he was sixteen resonated with me. I read more about Ramana which led to Catherine Ingram, Ppapji, and a number of other nondual teachers.

I read and listened to tapes and tried to ‘will’ myself into seeing/experiencing whatever it was they saw and experienced. Nothing worked. I looked further, finding more teachers, more tapes to listen to and more books to read. Frustration began to build. I felt desperate. I felt hopeless. Sailor Bob Adamson’s writings helped tremendously, and he suggested I speak with John Wheeler. John spent a good deal of time on the phone with me, doing what he could to point out the obvious. I also spoke with John Greven, Stepehen Wingate, Joan Tollifson, Gilbert Schultz, and Annette Nibley. All of them helped and were very generous with their time and attention, and sometimes, it seemed the ‘nickel had dropped’. However, each time, the habitual thoughts would reassert themselves and clarity would (seemingly) disappear. This back and forth searching and suffering went on for many years.

Just Stop Looking!:

Finally, feeling increasingly desperate, hopeless, anxious, and frantic, I called Annette Nibley again. She suggested this approach may not be the right one for me. Something in me clenched. I was suddenly sitting at the top of a 100 foot pole. I couldn’t stay where I was and I couldn’t go anywhere else. I had tried so many paths and so many teachers. I told her that returning to them felt like someone pouring sand in my mouth. I had no choice. She began describing her experience of realization to me and, as she did, something inside of me broke open. I began describing the very same thing to her – in the moment, the current experiencing of life. Annette asked me a few questions, testing my understanding, and then said, “You are done. It is over. You can stop looking. This is it. This is realization. This is enlightenment.”

Upon hearing that, it seemed that a tremendous, infinite, timeless, space opened. A separate sense of ‘Vince’ disappeared. My thoughts cleared. There was a knowing that ‘I’ was the space. No separation. I felt a great sense of love and connection to everything – animate and inanimate. I also was stunned by how completely obvious it is. It was not and never had been hidden. This clear seeing is always happening. It has never been and will never be otherwise. I was IT – and so was every other seemingly separate form. There was a sense of dissolving into this great – yet ordinary – ‘Iseness’. It was at once incredible and absolutely nothing special. The experiencing of the realization (realizing what had always been the case) might sound extraordinary or mystical – but it was not. It is just that from our typical point of view, it sounds unusual. However, in the experiencing of it, it seemed obvious and ordinary – of course this is it! How could I ever have seen it in any other way?!

If you take anything from this, I hope you see that the individual ‘Vince’ is absolutely nothing special. You already are what you are seeking. That which is reading these words is IT! You have never been otherwise! I swear to you there is nothing to worry about, nothing to struggle with – you are already fine the way you are. There has never been anything wrong. We all live in and are a vast sea of love. Just rest. Leave your thinking alone. Don’t attempt to manipulate or manage your experience. Simply rest in this simple seeing that is reading these words, hearing the refrigerator or car horns, smelling dinner cooking - the formless Knowingness of all these forms is what you are. You are the Awareness, and the Awareness is everything.

[Vincent Flammini is 50 years old, lives in Springfield, Illinois, USA with his family. He leads a normal life with all the usual problems of living. He is happy to talk about any non dual / advaita related questions or questions about psychological suffering. Just e-mail him (vflam2@gmail.com). Vince has a blog at http://www.tryresting.blogspot.com/]

Some More Pointers:

“SEEING and SEEN arise together.
Has there ever been SEEING without AWARENESS of the SEEN?
Has there ever been HEARING without AWARENESS of the HEARD?
Has there ever been THINKING without AWARENESS of the THOUGHT?”

“Nothing needs to change in the circumstances or particulars of our lives to rest as peace. In fact, the more we attempt to manipulate and alter the particulars of our lives in order to experience peace, the further we will (seem to) move from what we want. What to do? Nothing. Relax. Give up.”

“We only know what we are doing after-the-fact. The 'decision' to do whatever it is we're doing is 'made', that is, comes to us fully-formed. Then, we say 'I decided.' Thought is always after-the-fact. What we think of as our 'life' is only known in retrospect. Now is completely unknown.”

“Isness is you-ing you. What a relief! There is nothing to do but rest as we are.”

“Anytime we complain about anything - our coffee, the heat, the car, the kids - it is US creating our suffering in that moment. It is this believed THOUGHT/IDEA of "I" - and all of the requirements it has of life attached to it - that creates psychological pain. Take the blame. EXPERIENCE the discomfort in the body without attempting to THINK your way out of it. Remember, it was thinking that created it. Don't try to think your way out of anything - especially thinking! Be quiet.”

“Allow whatever is happening right now. Right now! Really. Don't make this an intellectual exercise or, if you are, allow that. If there is agreement or disagreement, passion or neutrality, peace or war, anger or calm, happiness or sadness - allow it all. If there is great desire or no desire at all, allow.”

VISISHTADVAITA VEDANTA (QUALIFIED MONISM)

2011-01-21T07:57:00.002+05:30

VISISHTADVAITA VEDANTA (QUALIFIED MONISM)

By Vaibhav Narula

[For Intro on Shri Vaibhav: please see the Post “Understanding J. Krishnamurti”]

Many eminent philosophers differed from Sri Sankara in his advocacy of Non-Duality to be the essence of the Upanishadic teachings. In the 11^th Century A.D. Sri Ramanuja through his work, Sri Bhashya, a commentary on Vedanta Sutras, popularized a trend of thought called VisishtAdvaita or Qualified Monism. According to him, one need not abandon the reality of the world and still be able to conceive of an Absolute Monistic God. This God is an object of devotion unlike the Non-dual Brahman which defies human thought. One of his most eminent successors was Vedanta Desika who further systematized Sri Ramanuja’s thoughts in a logical and concrete fashion. His magnum opus Tattva Mukta Kalapa (TMK) is still referenced by Visistadvaitic scholars as the standard in case of any dispute.

This short note here is based primarily on Sri Ramanuja’s Sri Bhashya (SB), Vedartha Sangraha and Vedanta Desika’s Tattva Mukta Kalapa.

“The three key principles of VishishtAdvaita are:

Tattva: The knowledge of the 3 real entities namely, jIvA (the sentient); Jagat (the insentient) and Ishvara (Vishnu-Narayana or Parabrahman)
Hita: The means of realization i.e. through Bhakti (devotion) and Prapatti (self-surrender)
PurushArtha: The goal to be attained i.e. moksha or liberation from bondage.” (Wikipedia)

Aprithaksiddhi:

The central concept of VisishtAdvaita Philosophy is that Brahman alone is organically related to the soul (chit) and matter (achit) and is the ultimate reality. Chit and Achit are absolutely different and yet inseparable from Brahman. Though these two entities draw their very existence from Brahman. Brahman is independent of themm just as the soul is independent from the body but remains the inner controller of both chit and achit. This relationship of inseparability is called Aprithaksiddhi.

Empirically we find that a substance and an attribute though different yet are related to each other inseparably. Take for example a blue jar. The jar is different from the colour blue but both are referred to in the judgment, “This is a blue jar”. Perception reveals them to be identical but yet they cannot be identical, for jar is certainly different from the blue colour and not all jars are blue nor is blue-ness found only in case of a jar. Thus we perceive a blue jar as two entities tied together. Both their inseparability and difference is perceived. But it is wrong to conceive the relation between the substance and the attribute as simultaneously identical and different from each other. For both are contradictory properties and hence cannot qualify the same locus. Nor could it be said that both are identical for they are perceived as having a relation with each other and to have a relation implies a difference as two entities. “Aprithaksiddhi” is just a name to denote the fact of two things being found to be so related that they are inseparable and different.

A substance is defined as that which is the substratum for changes or modifications. The modifications do not affect the substratum for they are adventitious. An attribute is that which is subject to modifications. Accordingly there is a difference between a defining characteristic and an attribute. The former is the very essence of the thing. A substance shall suffer a complete change if the modification is of its very essence. But such is not the case with an attribute. For example cowness is the very essence of a cow. Since it is also the basis of differentiating a cow from other animals like a goat or a buffalo, it can also be said that the difference is the very nature of an entity since that difference is defined as that which leads to the empirical usage of the words, ‘this is different from that’ (TMK 5.13). A cow cannot but cease to be a cow if it ceases to have cow-ness. But cow-ness is not something over and above the fact of being a cow i.e. a cow having such properties like a dewlap etc.

However a jar which has a blue colour can have a change of colour without ceasing to be a jar. In a similar fashion, chit and achit are attributes of Brahman. The classic example that is given to explain the dependence of chit and achit on Brahman is through the body-soul example. The body is defined by Sri Ramanuja as that substance which a sentient self can completely control and support for its own purposes. The body is entirely dependent on the self (SB 2.1.9). Thus when it is said that the whole universe as chit and achit constitute the body of Brahman, the term ‘body’ is used in a very technical sense to denote their absolute dependence on Brahman. Their existence is by Brahman and for Brahman. They exist for the sake of Brahman and apart from that they have no meaning. By their very nature they are dependent or subordinate entities. Brahman is their very soul and pervades them and controls them. However, chit and achit are organically related to Brahman. There is identity between the two but not absolute identity but a rather qualified identity, which is the reason this school of thought is known as Qualified Monism or VisishtAdvaita Brahman. This is the solution offered by Sri Ramanuja to the problem of relating the ‘One’ ultimate reality to the world of multiplicity.

CHIT AND ACHIT:

The self is of the very nature of knowledge and also has knowledge as its attribute. It is infinite in number, the knowing subject, the agent of action, the enjoyer of the fruits of its karma and is eternal. Knowledge as the very nature of the soul is known as svarupajnana and as the attribute of the soul is dharmabhutajnana. The self is a monad whose very nature is knowledge. Knowledge, however, is not only an attribute but also a substance. Knowledge suffers modifications as we see ‘knowledge states’ arising in reference to different objects. It also suffers from contraction and expansion. In the state of pralaya (dissolution) or deep sleep we see that knowledge contracts and in awake state we see its expansion. However the soul is conceived of being omniscient. The expansion of its knowledge is obstructed by avidya or ignorance in the form of karma which restricts the expansion aspect of knowledge and causes contraction, the result of which are the different knowledge states experienced in the everyday world.

At this point it may be recalled that a substance was defined as that which was the locus for modifications. The modification of knowledge takes place only in relation to dharmabhutajnana and not substantive knowledge or svarupajnana. If it is asked as to how can the knower be the same when the corresponding knowledge is manifold or in other words how can there be one knower of ‘many’ knowledges without that knower suffering modifications, it may be said that the conditions of knowledge affect the knower’s attributive knowledge or dharmabhutajnana and not its very nature or svarupajnana. Knowledge is defined in SB 1.1.1 as that which by its intrinsic nature reveals as another to its subject. The self is by its very nature is a knower analogous to Brahman and apprehends an object revealed to it by its attributive knowledge. The relation between the soul and knowledge is explained by the example of the flame of a lamp and its luminosity. They are distinct but not physically separable. Like the self, knowledge too is eternal though it suffers from modification. However, the two facts are not conceived as contradictory because of the substance-attribute theory accepted by this school.

Now, both the soul and knowledge being substances, how can it be logically conceived that a substance can be qualified by another substance? It is possible just as the luminosity is an attribute of a flame though both are substances. The manner in which a substance is defined in this system precludes any logical difficulty in conceiving a substance to act as a substance and yet be an attribute of another substance. As the soul is conceived of being a moral agent, a question may arise as to how can a man be an independent agent of action and yet dependent on Brahman? Does he have free will or not? The solution offered by VisishtAdvaita Vedanta is that Brahman is the cause of the actions of the jiva in as much without Him there can be no possibility to perform any action, good or bad. A person acts in accordance with his dispositions which are determined by his past actions or karma. Thus he is the agent of his action and reaps its fruits too. But Brahman is just the witness who has out of his free will bestowed on the soul the independence to act as he may like. Brahman guides him to the performance of scripturally approved actions in order to free himself from the bond of karma, and also by incarnating Himself in the midst of human beings. But He does not show partiality towards anyone and all are free to choose Him or reject Him. Brahman is thus like oxygen, freely available and necessary for the performance of daily activities. However, He is not responsible for the particular choices that people make.

Achit is insentient matter. Prakriti is the totality of insentient universe. It is the material cause in respect of inanimate nature. It is in a state of equilibrium with the three gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas. When this equilibrium is disturbed by the will of the Lord, it begins to evolve into inanimate universe. Time is considered here to be a separate category. Time is a substance which appears limited through various limiting adjuncts into moments etc. It is the material cause in respect to its modifications which are nothing but temporal divisions. Another category is called Nityavibhuti which is a category of immateriality. Suddhasattva or just sattva is described as a Nityavibhuti untainted by rajas and tamas. It is the substance through which the spiritual bodies of Isvara and liberated jivas are composed and also the various spiritual realms are its products. All these are eternally dependent on Brahman.

BRAHMAN:

Brahman is the one ultimate reality known only through the means of the scriptures. However the scriptures describe Brahman sometimes as qualified by attributes and at other times as attributeless. The Advaitins give more importance to the nirguna (attributeless) texts than the saguna (with attributes) and hence resort to a secondary meaning of the latter. However all the words of scriptures should be given equal importance and should be interpreted in their primary meaning. Accordingly the texts which call Brahman nirguna intend to convey that Brahman does not possess any inauspicious qualities and is free from the bondage of matter, space and time. Brahman is all-pervasive and infinite. Truth, consciousness, bliss, purity etc. are the essential qualities of Brahman. Other attributes like knowledge, strength, lordship, virility, splendor, etc. are predicated on Brahman. Some secondary characteristics like love, omnipotence, omniscience, friendly disposition, compassion etc. are also attributes of Brahman.

As mentioned earlier, Brahman has chit and achit for his body and is regarded as the cause of the world. There are three types of causes: the efficient cause, the material cause and the co-operant cause. The first is the agent for producing modifications akin to a potter, the second is the locus of modifications like clay and the last is that which aids in producing the effect like a potter’s wheel. Since the Sruti text says that Brahman is one, without a second, Brahman is conceived to be all the three types of causes in relation to the world. Since the world is produced due to the will of Brahman, he is justifiably called the efficient cause. But a problem arises when we consider him to be the material cause as well. The problem is how does Brahman become the many without transforming Himself? Brahman is in the causal state when its body consists of the individual selves and physical nature in a subtle condition undistinguishable through differentiation of name and form. Brahman having the individual selves and nature as its body in the gross manifested condition distinguished through differentiations of names and forms is the state of effect. The assumed aspect of manifestation and grossness are described as creation. Chandogya Upanishad 6.2.2 raised the question: "By what logic can existence verily come out of non-existence?" There is no logical possibility. "Existence alone is the reality" says 6.1.4. However, a simple answer is provided as follows: No one has seen a unicorn being produced. There is no entity that can be called the son of a barren woman. That which is non-existent cannot be produced. Hence the world pre-existed in Brahman as chit and achit in a dormant state and existed as an effect when they were in an active state. Terms like cause and effect are relative to each other. They are nothing but different modes of conceiving one underlying substance. One single substance acts as the cause and the effect depending on the relative conditions. In relation to a pot the lump of clay is the cause and the pot is nothing but the lump of clay acquiring a name and form. A cause is the prior condition of a substance without differentiations of name and form and the effect is the posterior condition of the same substance when it has acquired names and form. A boy grows into a youth, a youth attains manhood and then comes old age. These different states affect the body but the soul is not subject to modification. The material causality of Brahman is to be understood in this way. Brahman being the soul of all creation is unaffected by the changes in the conditions of the body. It is chit and achit alone that are subject to modification. Brahman is the substratum of that modification and hence is spoken of as the material cause. So to be the material cause is to be the substratum of modification and in similar manner is Brahman conceived to be the material cause of the world.

SADHANA AND MUKTI:

The jiva is subject to the bondage of a beginningless series of karma. Having compassion on him, Brahman creates the world so that the jiva can free himself from the bondage of matter. The means of his liberation are laid down in the scriptures. Broadly speaking there are two ways towards release. They are bhakti or devotion and prapatti or surrender. The former is reached through Karma and Jnana Yoga. Karma Yoga is the performance of duties as laid down in the sacred texts and renouncing the result of the action is devotion to Isvara. This leads to purification of mind. With such a mind one can meditate on the difference between oneself and prakriti and consider oneself as existing for the sake of the Lord. This is the stage of Jnana Yoga. These steps help in generating Bhakti which is defined as a continuous stream of remembrance of the Lord. When this kind of meditation or upasana culminates in the direct vision of the Lord, it leads to mukti. However this is a cumbersome and long way to mukti. There is a shorter route through surrender or prapatti. It is defined as being in conformity with the will of Isvara. These are the only two ways to liberation of the jiva. But what is the nature of release? The answer is that release is not just cessation of suffering but also a positive state of experiencing bliss. On release, the jiva attains equality with Brahman in matters of bliss. This is known as sayujya. The jiva can do everything except creation, sustenance and dissolution of the world which are the functions of Brahman alone. There is no loss of personality of the jiva and his body is composed of Suddhasattva. Thus the jiva, when he considers himself as independent source of action and knowledge, is subject to bondage and when he realizes his status as eternally dependent on Isvara, he is freed from bondage. This is the ultimate goal of the jiva.

YOGA-BASED AND KNOWLEDGE-BASED SPIRITUAL PATHS

2010-12-24T07:00:00.123+05:30

COMPARISON OF THE “STAGES” IN

YOGA-BASED AND KNOWLEDGE-BASED

SPRITUAL PATHS

(Yoga Bhumikas and Jnana Bhumikas)

[Adopted from the Book "Yogataaraavali of Adi Sankarachrya" with Commentary by Shri Kuppa Venkata Krishna Murthy, English Translation: Dr. Vemuri Ramesam, I-SERVE, Hyderabad, India, 2007, pp: 96.]

Spiritual aspirants advance along the Yoga or Knowledge paths in a progressive sequence of steps called “Stages.” Ancient seers acknowledged that the true path to liberation was through Knowledge-based approach. A detailed description of the stages in the Knowledge-based practices is available in Varaha Upanishad, Annapurna Upanishad, Yogavaasishta and many other scriptures.

However, Revered Sankara endorsed a synthesis of both Yoga-based and Knowledge-based approaches in Yogataaraavali. He did not talk of seven stages of Knowledge-based path as was given in Yogavaasishta and other works. Though he began with an enumeration of Knowledge-based practices under the title Royal Path (Raja Yoga), he included only four stages of Knowledge-based approach viz. Uplifting the Mind (Manonmani), Unaffectedness (Unmani), Null Mind (Amanaska) and Deep Sleep with Awareness (Yoga Nidra) in his discussion. It is, therefore, instructive to compare and contrast the classification of the stages of the Knowledge-based Path with that of Yogataaraavali and other works.

Sage Vasishta described seven stages in the Knowledge-based Path in the third chapter, Creation in Yogavaasishta. The seven stages are:

I. Desire for Enlightenment (Subhechcha).

II. Inquiry into Truth (Vichaarana).

III. Tenuous Mind (Tanumanasa).

IV. Realization (Satvaapatti).

V. Non-attachment (Asamsakti).

VI. Non-perception of Objects (Padaartha abhaavana).

VII. Ineffability (Turyaga).

I. The first stage of Desire for Enlightenment (Subhechcha) involves intense desire for detachment, longing for the company of noble persons etc.

II. The second stage of Inquiry into Truth (Vicharana) stands for an investigation of the meaning of scriptural statements after achieving detachment and other related qualities.

III. The third stage of Tenuous Mind (Tanumaanasa) is a reduction in desire to getting involved in worldly affairs as an upshot of the first two stages.

Stages I to III are usually grouped together in Vedantic lingo as Listening and Reflection (Shravana - Manana).

Brihadaranya Upanishad was the first to introduce the concepts of Listening, Reflecting and Uninterrupted Contemplation (Nidhidhyaasa).

i. Listening does not imply mere auditioning of lectures given by a Guru. It refers to a mental endeavor of eliminating the apparent (abhasa) contradictions in the Upanishadic declarations and to determine with convincing reasoning that all the statements together (uniformly) affirm non-dual Brahman.

ii. Reflection is to dwell constantly on an unbroken stream of thought-waves that “I am the non-dual Brahman.”

The twin acts of listening and reflection improve clarity in thinking and consequently result in a better appreciation of the meaning of the Upanishadic statements. That in turn helps in comprehending unambiguously the essence of Brahman which is after all the final objective. However, one’s intellect does not get unwaveringly established in truth by this process. That is to say that the essence of truth does not manifest (in one’s mind) like an uninterrupted continuous stream. Negative thoughts keep emerging and become impediments in having a persistent thought on Brahman because of the erstwhile habits of the mind. Nidhidhyasa (Uninterrupted contemplation) helps to block the impediments.

Thus nidhidhyasa is an umbrella term for the remaining four stages of the Seven-stage Knowledge-based path.

IV. Satvapatti is the fourth stage of Knowledge-based path. Satvapatti means to realize the essence of Brahman. We have already said that such thoughts come from a constant practice of sravana and manana.

The practitioner who reaches this stage is called “Knower of Brahman (Brahmavit).” In spite of reaching this level and achieving an understanding that “I am Brahman”, the seeker needs to be on a constant vigil to retain that thought without break. Otherwise there is a danger that the feeling of identification with Brahman will be destroyed by the overwhelming effects of the impressions from past births. The 20th verse in Yogataaraavali makes a reference to this state.

V. It is advised in the above verse that intentions should be totally hacked. It means that identification with body, senses and ego that existed so far should be completely eliminated. The ego will then dissolve and a state of null-mind will be obtained. Desire for worldly objects will vanish in that state. A longing for the Potent-Looker (Drik) gets strengthened. The 15^th verse in Yogataaraavali explains what is meant by Potent-Looker.

With the mind focused on Potent-Looker, the feeling, “I am Brahman,” steadily increases. Hence this stage is named as “Non-attachment (Asamsakti).” This is the fifth stage of the Knowledge-based Path. The seeker who reaches this stage is christened as ‘Better Knower of Brahman’ (Brahmavidvara). The state of such a yogi is described in Yogataaraavali in the following manner.

A seeker may achieve the meditative state of feeling “I am Brahman” through constant contemplation on Brahman. But sometimes impressions of objective world (i.e. impressions from past births related to worldly objects) gain strength and overtake that feeling. As a result the seeker loses that meditative state. He will not, however, be tempted by the worldly objects because of the fact that he is already established in detachment. Hence he regains his former state of meditation through contemplation helped by the strength of his disinterest.

VI. There could be many ways through which an emaciation of longing for worldly objects takes place. For example, a reduced attraction for worldly objects may apparently result from a hopeful expectation of obtaining an immense treasure called "liberation" as a reward. Such a decrease in desire linked to rewards does not serve any purpose. What is important is to develop the knowledge that all visible objects are unreal. In the light of such knowledge and with the strength of constant contemplation on Brahman, desire for visible objects would gradually diminish. Eventually worldly objects will not even be visible to the seeker as the process progresses. It does not mean that he would grow sightless. What it means is that even if objects are around and his senses cognize them, his mind will not care for them.

With decreasing attraction for visible objects, mind gets increasingly focused on Potent-Looker. Slowly a state will come where only the Potent-Looker manifests. In other words, a non-dual experiential feeling that “I am Brahman” will unswervingly get established. It results in a very intense meditative state. It is called the stage of Non-perception of Objects (Padartha abhaavana). This is the sixth stage of Knowledge-based Path. The seeker in this state is termed “Master Knower of Brahman (Brahmavid vareeyan).”

The fifth and the sixth stages differ only in the degree of stability though the type of meditative state is same in both the stages. The meditative state gets easily jolted by the impressions of his own past births in the fifth stage. The meditative state in the sixth stage, in contrast, is not affected by one’s own past impressions. Still it is susceptible to be affected by unexpected disasters in the environment or by persons who are determined to disturb the seeker. No sooner, however, the sixth stage seeker will be able to come back to his meditative state of identity with Brahman without difficulty.

A good example to illustrate the condition of the seeker in the sixth stage is the state of a child in sound sleep. If the child is woken up by the mother, he may partially open his eyes and respond in some broken dialog and immediately go back to sleep. The seeker in the sixth stage acts similarly. Interruption in meditation of a seeker in the sixth stage is, therefore, usually compared to a flash of lightning. The disturbance comes and goes like a flash. A Master Knower of Brahman will fall back into his meditation the very next moment if his meditation is disturbed by others. This stage is described in Yogataaraavali as Uninert sleep or Deep Sleep with Awareness (Ajadya nidra).

VII. When the sixth stage is firmly established, it gets transformed automatically to the next and final stage, i.e. the seventh stage of the Knowledge-based Path. Contemplation, Knowledge, Detachment, Association with noble persons, etc. lead finally to this “Ineffable (Turyaga) stage.” The seeker who attains this stage is called Excellent Knower of Brahman (Brahmvid Varishta).

It follows from the analysis presented above that there is no difference between the stages narrated in Yogataaraavali and other scriptures like Yogavaasishta. If any difference exists, it is merely in semantics but not in substance.

The classification into various stages described above helps an aspirant to grade himself/herself on the path of liberation. An outsider cannot judge the stage a seeker is in. A seeker has to make an assessment by one's own self. Table :1 can facilitate such a self-assessment. Table 2 gives the name by which a seeker is known at each stage. An ardent seeker should recognize the stage (s)he is in by making an unprejudiced and balanced appraisal of the state of his mind. He should then strive to make every effort to get firmly established in that stage. The next stage will then come about by itself automatically. With the grace of the Supreme (s)he will then experience the infinite beatitude of Brahman unceasingly!

Table 1: Comparison of the stages in Yoga and Knowledge
based Approaches:

Stage No.	Stage in the Knowledge-based Path	Stage as per Ashtaanga Yoga (of Patanjali)	Stage as per Yogataaraavali	Promi-nent Characterist-ics in Brief

I.	Desire for Enlightenment (Subhechcha)	Sustained Practice (Abhyasa)	Steadfast Pranic Exercises (Hatha Yoga)	The beginning stage of practice
II.	Inquiry into Truth (Vicharana)	Detachment (Vairagya)	Listening (Shravana)	Taking shelter under a Guru
III.	Tenuous Mind (Tanumanasa)	Savikalpa Samadhi	Reflection (Manana)	Beginning of Control over Mind
IV.	Realization (Satvapatti)	Nirvikalpa Samadhi	Uninterrupted Contemplation (Nidhidhyasa)	Get acquainted with the experiential essence of Self
V.	Non-attachment (Asamsakti)	Sananda Samadhi	Unaffectedness (Unmani)	Expansion of the mind to the Supreme Brahman
VI.	Non-perception of Objects (Padardhaabvana)	Sasmita Samadhi	Null Mind (Amanaska)	Stability in Meditation
VII.	Ineffability (Turyaga)	Asam-prjnata Samadhi	Deep Sleep with Awareness (Yoga nidra)	To stay in Brahman

Table 2: Name of the Seeker at each stage:

Stage I Seeker (Sadhak)

Stage II Seeker (Sadhak)

Stage III Seeker (Sadhak)

Stage IV Knower of Brahman (Brahmavit)

Stage V Better Knower of Brahman (Brahmavid Vara)

Stage VI Master Knower of Brahman (Brahmavid Vareeyan)

Stage VII Excellent Knower of Brahman (Brahmvid Varishta)

WISHING ALL OUR READERS
SEASONS GREETINGS AND
BEST WISHES FOR A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR

UNDERSTANDING J.KRISHNAMURTI

2010-11-19T08:27:00.033+05:30

UNDERSTANDING J.KRISHNAMURTI

By Vaibhav Narula

[Shri Vaibhav Narula (all of 22 years) is one of our very young and very brilliant Members. He has a rare depth of understanding and equally rare felicity of expressing what he understands about JK’s teaching (if it can be called so). The ancient Indian Non-dualism comes naturally to him as a relaxation while he pursues his Post-Grad studies in Management. I am grateful to him for his contribution as the Post for November, 2010 at our Blog – ramesam]

There are varying perceptions on J. Krishnamurti by different people. Some believe that he was an advaitin while some others insist that he was a Buddhist. There are also other ways people try to categorize him. But are these the correct way to see Krishnamurti? Probably not. The reason is that such an attempt puts Krishnamurti in a place where he does not want to be. It leads to a wrong understanding of his standpoint.

Krishnamurti is not a philosopher. Say, for instance, someone asks him about the cause of suffering. Contrary to any explanation that a philosopher may offer, Krishnamurti would insist that you first inquire into the motivation behind your asking the question. He does not provide readymade answers but reflects on the question itself. Or Take another example. If someone asks him what is consciousness his reply would be what we can understand to be contents of consciousness, different states of mind. This is neither advaitic nor materialistic but simply a psychological analysis. Thus I feel that Krishnamurti does not make an attempt to solve intellectual questions but tries to look what is behind them and make the other person aware of that. Thus he said, 'Don't make a problem of anything'.

I do not mean to say that Krishnamurti was a psychologist proper or specialized in the study of psychology, but by using a psychology spectrum, one can clear many faulty interpretations of Krishnamurti that are prevalent about him today. It helps to clear him of the metaphysical theories that we have imposed on him and which he never endorses. This is reflected in a conversation he had with Walpola Rahula on having an insight into truth. The learned Buddhist scholar asked him whether he believed that truth pre-existed for us to be receptive to it and also because it could not be something that was brought into existence. This is a purely a metaphysical question and can lead someone to infer other related metaphysical theories out of it. But Krishnamurti’s reply is significant. He said that the word ‘Truth’ has no meaning till one does not ‘realize’ it for oneself. Closely analyzed, this is a psychological answer to a metaphysical question. Krishnamurti meant here that till the mind imposes its own patterns on what the truth is or what truth can be, such speculation shall be purely fruitless, for the mind has to be completely empty to receive the truth, so to say.

When he talks about the sort of 'ultimate' experience, he almost sounds like an advaitin or a buddhist to many. For example: (Paraphrasing his words from his Talks)

-- Only action remains, no actor (subject) and a thing being acted upon (object). That is the true meditation when meditator is merged with what is meditated upon and only meditation remains - a 24/7 affair.

-- Action germinates with the first thought taking place and time emerges with the thought process. Thought is time - this is psychological time which gives rise to 'hope.' Time by watch cannot be denied, in fact necessary, otherwise all the scientific and technological progress is not possible.

-- A man with the final understanding hurts no one and is hurt by none. He is totally fearless. That brings a true order. That is the true religious mind.

The problem is when we typecast him into a specific category, we ignore the 'fact' that he teaches not a philosophy (nothing derogatory intended) but the psychology behind the philosophy. I am not saying he is in contradiction with the advaitic teachings though at many times he seems to be so, but to take the other plank that he is an advaitin in spirit is something not warranted by his attitude. Like take the instance of the true meditation where no meditator is left. The self here for Krishnamurti is the totality of all ideas, memories etc.etc. In meditation where all the contents of consciousness are perceived, a perception of the mind but not by the mind, not one fragment of the mind observing the other fragment, but the totality of it being an object of passive awareness or ‘choiceless awareness’, as he calls it. From this, it is easy to see that the remnant is only a sort of pure knowledge and not the knower. But does the known dissolve too? Does Krishnamurti ever indicate that in such an experience, the world, the effect of maya dissolves into the pure self? Does he ever indicate that the unreal world is sublated? I am afraid not. One may posit that such a framework is required for making sense of Krishnamurti. I would say it is not so because he works against such a framework.

One may have read the distinction he makes between knowledge and learning. Learning for him does not have a starting point in an experience or a conclusion, for that does not lead to correct inquiry. Learning for him is total vulnerability of mind. Only an 'energetic' mind not holding on to any conclusions, symbols or experiences can learn. Acquisition of knowledge is not what he is interested in, for that is mechanical like the function of a computer - it acquires but it can't learn. That is the reason I insist that there should be a suspension of judgment in regarding Krishnamurti either as an advaitin or a non-advaitin, buddhist or non-buddhist. The basic theme of Krishnamurti’s ‘teachings’ is that in seeing the false as the false there is the cessation of it and that is the ending of sorrow.

The awareness that Krishnamurti talks about is an awareness of the false. The error, he says, is in taking the self to be an independent something from the mind. Insight in the 'ways of the self’ brings about an effect that liberates the mind from its conditioning by which it binds itself to itself. Mind, according to Krishnamurti yearns for continuity. It is something similar to what Dr Eric Berne calls stimulus or sensation hunger. The world is in a flux but the mind superimposes a pattern of permanency on these sensations. It accumulates and stores experiences to affect its continuity. This whole system requires a centre to work with and the self or the ego is that centre, built by the mind and for the mind. It is through the self that the mind seeks to affect its continuity, fulfill its hunger for sensation. Even the urge to end sensation is another ‘sensation’, a trick played by the mind.

Through memory the mind tries to relive sensations which are a part of its obsession for continuity. The experiences stored in a section of the mind, now become impressions. Out of these impressions mind forms images (I am making only a notional distinction here, the passive elements being impressions and the active ones being images). On the basis of these images, man interacts with the outside world. They become interpreters of human experiences. But since these images which are born out of memory and are thus static cannot be honest interpreters of human experiences which are always changing and essentially in a state of flux. Our experiences are in this way always fresh but our response to them is limited and conditioned by the past. These images come midway between us and the world. To eliminate them is to be vulnerable to our experiences. Obviously eliminating here does not mean that memory should end completely. If so one would never be able to find his way home. Rather it means the ending of psychological memory which stores our predetermined responses to the world. To be without them is to live with freshness unknown to our limited mind.

But how do we get rid of this sort of limited and conditioned mind? The answer is by seeing that the mind is conditioned. It is to be passively aware of the complete functioning of the mind, not any particular part of the mind but mind in its entirety, the totality of consciousness. Such awareness is not born out of any practice because the desire to possess such awareness would lead to continuity of the mind in the garb of another ego state. This is the true “insight.”

Taking the example of “listening”, Krishnamurti explains how total attention is involved in “insight.” If instead of just letting the sensation of ‘listening to’ be, if one identifies oneself with the object of sensation through a thought, ‘self’ engenders itself and will be the cause of all subsequent suffering. The following conversation is quite illustrative of what it implies.

Krishanmurti: “How do you listen? Are you listening as a person who has read a great deal about that and this, and so comparing? Are you listening to the idea, to the words, and the implication of those words, or are you listening without any sense of verbal comprehension, which you have gone through quickly, and you say, Yes, I see the absolute truth of that?

“If so, then it is finished. It is like seeing something tremendously dangerous, it is over, you do not touch it. I wonder if you see that.

“So when one listens, am I listening to identify myself with that fact about which he is talking, or is there no identification at all, and therefore I am capable of listening with a totally different ear? Am I hearing just with my ears, or am I hearing with total attention? Or is my mind wandering off and saying, “Oh, my goodness, this is rather boring, and what is he/she talking about?” – and so I am off. But can I attend so completely that there is only the act of listening and nothing else, no identification, no saying, “Yes, that’s a good idea, that’s a bad idea, that’s true, that’s false,” which are all processes of identification? Can I listen without any of those movements? When I do so listen, then what? The truth that thought is the essence of the self, and the self creates all this misery is finished. So can we listen so completely that there is the absence of the self? Can I see, observe something without the self – that sky, a beautiful sky – and all the rest of that? So the ending of thought, which is the ending, or cutting the very root, of the self – a bad simile, but take it – when there is such active, non-identifying attention, then does the self exist? So active listening implies listening to the senses… You can’t stop the senses, then you would be paralyzed. But the moment I say, ‘That’s a marvelous thing, I must have more of that,’ the whole identification begins.”

One may scream ‘how is it possible?’ But then the question again presupposes the activity of the mind to continue and the question proceeds from a laxity in inquiring about our motivation and being unaware of the hidden desire to hold on to some experience. There is no “how” in this but whether -- whether the mind can free itself from such a vicious process that leads to sorrow?

Inquiry into such a question is essential to Krishnamurti’s method of no method. This is the Paradox in Krishnamurti. Again it would be beneficial to resist the urge to speculate about the metaphysics of such an ‘awareness’, for there is no such discussion that Krishnamurti indulges in, not because of a lack of interest but because he thinks that such a mindset is an impediment to a critical inquiry into the fundamental questions of life. However, at the end of the day the result is a 'transformation of mind' (not a transformation brought about by the mind or brought about by something outside the mind) that lives from 'moment to moment'.

INFECTIONS OF THE MIND – PREVENTION AND CURE

2010-10-22T08:46:00.000+05:30

INFECTIONS OF THE MIND – PREVENTION AND CURE

By DR. VEMURI RAMESAM, published in Acharya J.C. Bose and Ancient Indian Scientific Thought, I-SERVE, Hyderabad, Dec 2008, pp: 76-89.

ABSTRACT: Artificial life-forms were created with less than 400 genes in the laboratory demonstrating that a small number of genes were adequate to support the basic functions of life. Man has about 30,000 genes which is the general order of genes in higher life-forms. These extra genes carry the information required for the survival of the species under ever changing evolutionary pressures. Unlike in the lower organisms, man has a very low ratio of the number of genes expressed in the brain to the number of neuronal connections, leaving a large scope for epigenetic influences to play a significant role in deciding the behavioral response of humans. Ever since man invented group living and cultural practices, the rate of change in the inheritable traits quickened. As genes are relatively slow as replicators, ‘memes’ proved to be faster for replicating the cultural information. However, it appears as though the replication and transmission of information by memes is not under the control of man and memes seem to have developed their own survival tactics of spreading like virus. The pristine and pure mind of man got contaminated over time with enormous memetic information flows, creating a fictitious center of ‘self’ around which the world gets woven as a memeplex. Ancient Indian scriptures long ago recognized the dangers of the illusory influences on the pristine human mind and described them as ‘maya’. The veiling power and projecting power of ‘maya’ is comparable to the viral-like spread of ‘memes’. The story of Sage Gadhi in Yogavaasishta illustrates the havoc that memes could play on human beings and the importance of transcending the memetic influences. As exhorted by our scriptures, we have to disinfect our brains from memes so that the beatitude of ‘what is’ would reveal itself to us.

Excerpts:

INFECTIONS TO THE BODY AND MIND:
We easily become febrile and debilitated with infection when we are exposed to contaminated food or environment. We are more cautious with respect to any infections that may possibly affect heart or brain as they could turn out to be more dangerous to life. But most of us seldom pay heed to the dangers of infections to the mind. Mind being intangible and diaphanous, any talk regarding infection to it rightly demands an explanation.

The English word mind lumps up a number of processes that go on in the brain. Though there is as yet no well accepted definition of mind in Neuroscience, mind is generally taken to be what the brain does – the sum total of the various electrochemical actions that go on in the brain resulting in the subjective sense of experience, termed ‘qualia.’

All our experiences, activities, learned behaviors etc. constantly leave their impressions in the mind. Vedanta very much emphasizes the fact that mind is the storehouse of all our impressions. The impressions so formed could be within our conscious awareness or unknown to us. However, Vedanta does not distinguish the consciously accumulating impressions from those that get unconsciously stored. The stored impressions ultimately go to govern our future attitudes and responses to various situations faced by us in our life. These concepts are very much in line with modern Neuroscientific findings. Brain is considered to be highly plastic both in terms of regeneration of neurons and synaptic connections that get modified with every new experience. “Nerve cells constantly create new contact points to their neighbouring cells. This is how the basic structure of our brain develops. In adults, new contact makes learning and memory possible. However, not all contact between cells is useful - most of it is dismantled again very quickly.” Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology, Germany, have now described the technique with which nerve cells evaluate the quality of a contact using calcium ion signal (Lohmann and Bonhoeffer, 2008).

Many decisions may originate in the same brain regions that receive stimuli relevant to the decision and control the body’s response to it in a relevant manner” without any of our conscious effort. Thus our brain absorbs and responds to several environmental factors by itself without us being consciously aware! Therefore, either from Vedanta viewpoint or from Neuroscientific viewpoint, it is imperative that we should observe scrupulous care to what sort of information our brain is being exposed to and which information is being stored in our brain because this information as impressions would influence our future behavior and response to environmental stimuli.

MIND AS SURVIVAL TOOL – REIFICATION AND DEIFICATION:
Some of the classic shortcuts in mind’s repertoire that we find inconvenient in the present day world are: Endowment Effect; Contaminated Belief systems; Familiarity Effect; Focusing Illusion; Confirmation bias; Motivated reasoning in addition to its nature of filling gaps in information to facilitate quick decision making. Present day neuroscientists and psychologists are studying these attributes of our mind and are trying to evolve systems that could compensate for these short-comings so that we could arrive at unbiased truth in scientific research work.

Vedanta particularly laid considerable attention to another of our mind’s trait which may be called ‘Objectification.’ Mind cannot grasp any observation made by the senses unless it positions itself aloof as a distinct observer separate entity from what is observed. This basic lacuna of the mind gives an impression that mind has a separate and individual existence of its own. Vedanta tenaciously made an effort to point out this limitation and strived to transcend it. Religion, however, welcomed and took advantage of another weakness of the mind which is complementary to the quality of individuation. While the tendency to ‘objectify’ can be called as “Reification”, the latter can be termed as “Deification.”

Reification and Deification can be viewed as the fallouts of the universal survival mechanism of ‘fight or flight’ that all living creatures have acquired from the very beginning of evolution of life on earth.
In the face of a threat or danger, mind has to assess whether the creature can fight it out or should run away from the situation. This assessment does require the perceived thing to be viewed as an object in order to measure the organism’s own ability in controlling the threat.

It is equally true whether the stimulus is external or internal to the body (like feelings, emotions etc.). If the creature is unable to withstand to a threat, the obvious thing to do is to take flight and save its skin. If the creature is so weak-kneed or has developed cold-feet even to run, the best thing for its own safety is to play possum. A more modern and clever way of doing it is to ‘surrender’. Man being so fragile and weak in facing the natural hazards or wild creatures, he began to deify them. So to ‘reify or deify’ is the mantra that our mind has learnt as the modified form of the natural mechanism of ‘fight or flight’ syndrome in the game of survival.

Genes, along with shaping our bodies and coloring our hair, constantly alter our brains by responding to experience (Dobbs, 2007). Man outdoes the animals perhaps in the relative freedom he enjoys in the control of his neuronal connections. Our advantage lies in the very low ratio of genes to the number of neuronal connections. About 70 percent of the human genes are expressed in the brain. As a rough estimate, Linden (2007) says that against 9,000 genes expressed in 302 neurons of the round worm, humans have about 16,000 genes expressed in 100 billion neurons. Even if the human genes are more efficient (i.e. produce more controlling proteins), it is far too small a number to oversee all the neurons and every one of the 5,000 connections each neuron has on an average. This inadequacy of genetic control leaves a large scope for epigenetic (environmental) influences to govern the neural connections. Scanning the human genome, researchers found more than 700 genetic variants that evolution may have favored during the past 10,000 years. As per the findings of Blekhman and others ( 2006), “A lot of the recent changes [could be due to] the advent of agriculture, shifts in diet, new habitats, climatic conditions etc.”

AN INFECTED MIND AND ITS REDEMPTION – THE STORY OF SAGE GADHI:
Our mind often forgets things that we need to remember. Strangely it may also show to us experiences which were never gone through previously by us. This is because somebody else’s experience infects our mind and we begin to believe that it was our own experience. The word ‘meme’ is only about 30 years old in biology. But our sages recognized the havoc memes could play thousands of years ago. Maharshi Vasishta tells in Yogavaasishta the delightful story of how Sage Gadhi was confused and befuddled when his mind was infected by other’s experiences .

Lord Vishnu explained to Gadhi: “You happened to notice a hut put up by a hunter in a hamlet. It made a lasting impression on you. The impression was so strong that that hut of long lost time appeared right before you now. Staring at the hut, you claimed ownership to it. Thoughts and experiences of Katanja invaded your mind. They became your own experiences. You became Katanja. “You thought that your experience in the pond was a fantasy and personal to you. You believed your later experiences to be real. In fact your hallucination, the visit of a sage, your investigations in Keeradesa and the whole gamut of your experiences were one continuous illusion, also witnessed by many others. That’s why the villagers you interrogated could substantiate your experience. You distinguish reality from dream experience based on two criteria. You think that spacetime configuration in a dream do not correspond to actual space-time in reality. You also feel that what you experience in your dream is unique to yourself and others that appear in your dream cannot have the same experience. Both criteria are not infallible.

“Great Sage! Know the entire world to be no more than a panorama of illusory magic. Purify your mind first to understand this.”

Large groups of memes that are copied and passed on together are called co-adapted meme complexes or Memeplex. “Memeplexes are more evolutionarily successful. These memeplexes may also play a part in the acceptance of new memes which, if they fit with a memeplex, can “piggyback” on that success.” Dr. Blackmore asserts that “all ‘our’ ideas are recombinations and adaptations of other people’s; that all creativity comes from the evolutionary algorithm and not from the magic of human consciousness; and that our inner conscious selves may be memeplexes created by and for the memes.” She argued that, by a process of “memetic drive”, memes changed the environment in which human genes were selected and so drove genes to produce ever larger brains that were better at imitating the currently successful memes. In this way our brains became selective imitation devices, adapted to copying some kinds of memes more easily than others and consequently human beings are no more than Meme Machines!

With ever labile neuronal connections that we have, it is, therefore, very important that we guard ourselves from such environmental factors that can have a deleterious effect on our mind.

CONCLUSIONS:
We are very careful and conscious about the infections to our body and its organs. However, we are not generally aware of the infections that can afflict our mind. Gaudapada tells us that a pristine and pure mind is the inexpressible, ineffable and infinite ‘All’ that ‘is’ in this creation but we falsely witness it as the world owing to infections (blemishes) we carry in our mind. Brain with its highly labile neuronal connections gives raise to ‘mind’ and it is these changing connections that decide what we perceive and what meaning we give to what is perceived.

Genes are the replicators that carry information pertaining to the structure of our body. Though genes do influence the initial characteristic s of the brain, human beings have a great advantage to alter through epigenetic changes the way the synapses and neuronal connectivity takes place in the brain. This results in altered behavioral patterns. These are imitated and passed on by others. Thus does new information about fortuitous learned technique or skill gets propagated in the society. The replicator for these learned skills, concepts, culture etc. is called a ‘meme’. ‘Memes’ spread like virus. The human mind unknowingly becomes a virtual carrier for the memes – a meme machine. Consequently, a non-existing memeplex gets mapped into our brains affecting our world vision. We begin to own experiences of others as our own and develop a distorted worldview. The distorted worldview we build is ‘maya’ (illusion) as described by ancient Indian scriptures. The story of Sage Gadhi, narrated in ‘The Calm Down’, the fourth chapter of Yogavaasishta, beautifully illustrates the predicament of getting infected by memes and also shows the way to rid oneself of the infection to be able to enjoy the creation in all its beatitude.

RESEARCH ON NON-DUALISM, "self" AND CONSCIOUSNESS

2010-09-17T07:35:00.017+05:30

Recent Research Papers on Non-Dualism, "self" and Consciousness

Here are either the summaries (as provided by the Authors) or extracts taken from six interesting published research papers on the topics of Non-Dualism, I-consciousness and Consciousness:

[Comments of Dr. C. Legendy, Dept. of Psychology, Columbia University and author of "Circuits in the Brain", 2009, (http://www.amazon.com/Circuits-Brain-Processing-Primary-Visual/dp/0387888489) and Peter F. Dziuban on this Blog Post are given at the end.]

1. “The Spiritual Brain: Selective Cortical Lesions Modulate Human Self-Transcendence”, by Cosimo Urgesi, Salvatore M. Aglioti, Miran Skrap, and Franco Fabbro, Neuron 65, 309–319, February 11, 2010.

Authors’ SUMMARY:

“The predisposition of human beings toward spiritual feeling, thinking, and behaviors is measured by a supposedly stable personality trait called self-transcendence. Although a few neuroimaging studies suggest that neural activation of a large fronto-parieto-temporal network may underpin a variety of spiritual experiences, information on the causative link between such a network and spirituality is lacking. Combining pre- and post-neurosurgery personality assessment with advanced brain-lesion mapping techniques, we found that selective damage to left and right inferior posterior parietal regions induced a specific increase of self-transcendence. Therefore, modifications of neural activity in temporoparietal areas may induce unusually fast modulations of a stable personality trait related to transcendental self-referential awareness. These results hint at the active, crucial role of left and right parietal systems in determining self-transcendence and cast new light on the neurobiological bases of altered spiritual and religious attitudes and behaviors in neurological and mental disorders.”

2. “Understanding Consciousness -- A Collaborative Attempt to Elucidate Contemporary Theories”, by A. Pereira Jr., J. C.W. Edwards, D. Lehmann, C. Nunn, A. Trehub and M.Velmans, Jour of Consciousness Studies, 17, No. 5–6, 2010, pp. 213–19.

Excerpts:

Nature Network Groups hosted an invited workshop on ‘Theories of Consciousness’ during the second semester of 2009. There were presentations by each of 15 authors active in the field, followed by debate with other presenters and invitees.

It should be said straight away that there was little general agreement in the workshop about what constituted the main problems, or how to address them. Explaining consciousness is particularly difficult, it soon became evident, because it involves so many different conceptual and scientific domains. For example, consciousness has both ‘subjective’ (first-person) and ‘objective’ (third-person) aspects. Relating the two aspects poses problems for scientific methodology.

At the quantum level of description, a well known hypothesis states that consciousness is based on coherent states generated in microtubules (Hameroff, 1998). Recently, a new proposal about brain mechanisms supporting conscious processes — the neuro-astroglial calcium wave — has appeared (Pereira and Furlan, 2009; Nunn, 2010).

An intensely debated issue was the identity of the conscious subject. Who is the entity that experiences conscious, cognitive and emotional contents? Is it correct to relate this entity with the psychological ‘Self’? Attempts to answer these intriguing questions include single-cell consciousness, the idea that each neuron is a conscious entity (Edwards, 2005). A possibility implicitly assumed by many neuroscientists is that the Self is a brain network function. For Trehub (2007; 2009) the ‘Core Self’, corresponding to the origin of retinoid space, is an unchanging neuronal entity that anchors an ever-changing ‘Self Model’ (Metzinger, 2003). In cognitive sciences, the default position is that the conscious subject is the living individual (Pereira/Ricke, 2009). Finally, a recent proposal is that the conscious entity is like a traveling ‘pilot’ embodied in the activity of dendritic networks (Hameroff, 2010).

3. “Me, Myself and I”, By U. Herwig, Scientific American Mind, Jul-Aug 2010, p: 59-63.

Excerpts:

Although people change throughout their lives, most hold a steady view of who they are. How does the brain maintain a sense of self?

Mrs. K. is depressed, and Mr. M. is manic—but they both hold highly distorted views of themselves. It is more than just sage advice to “know thyself,” as Heraclitus advocated in the fifth century B.C. A realistic self-image is a hallmark of a healthy mind.

Relationships, careers and happiness suffer when reality doesn’t match who we think we are.

Neuroscientists have long searched for the origins of self in the brain. “I” remains hard to pin down. For one thing, it is the product of a distributed array of brain structures. More confounding, the “I” is a moving target: many factors—from a person’s upbringing to major life events— continually shape the self. This shifting sense of self does not only derive from the narratives we construct to make sense of our lives. It is also biological: experiences generate new brain cells and neural pathways. Subjectively, we perceive the “I” as an unchanging framework—a steady reference point for ordering our thoughts, emotions and experiences.

4. “Can science explain the soul?” By Dr. Hameroff and Dr. D. Chopra, SF Gate, 09 Aug 2010

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-in/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/08/09/deepak_chopra_science_soul_080910.DTL

Excerpts:

Now some scientists are willing to venture into the once forbidden territory of the soul, attempting to extract a theory that will allow for its existence. Redefined by the new field of quantum biology, the soul could be the link that connects individuals to the universe, a dynamic connection that could explain how consciousness came about, and why the cosmos itself seems to mirror our own intelligence and creativity.

In 1989, Sir Roger Penrose, the famed British physicist, mathematician and cosmologist proposed that consciousness involved a specific form of quantum computation in the brain. The Penrose notion of superpositions as Planck scale separations is very much like the multiple worlds hypothesis. Except rather than branching off new universes, Penrose concluded such separations are unstable, and will undergo quantum state reduction due to an objective threshold inherent in Planck scale geometry (hence objective reduction, 'OR'). Moreover he proposed that the choices of such OR self-collapses are not random, but influenced by what he termed Platonic information embedded in Planck scale geometry. Such information includes mathematical truth, as well as aesthetic and ethical values. Further, each such event, he concluded, is a moment of conscious awareness. Thus Penrose connected consciousness to the most basic level of the universe.

In the early 1990s Stuart Hameroff, medical doctor, anesthesiologist and microtubule researcher, suggested to Penrose that tubulin components might be his qubits, and microtubules his quantum computer. The two teamed up, with Hameroff showing how synaptic inputs could 'orchestrate' Penrose objective reductions in neuronal microtubules, hence 'orchestrated objective reduction' (Orch OR). They calculated the number of superpositioned tubulins required to reach OR threshold coinciding with physiological brain events such as gamma synchrony EEG, concluding that microtubules in hundreds of thousands of neurons would be required for 40 or more conscious moments, or frames per second. Gamma synchrony (30 to 90 cycles per second, hertz, or Hz) is the best measure of conscious awareness. Interestingly, ancient Buddhist texts also reported 40 or more conscious moments, or frames per second.

Penrose and Hameroff asserted that 'qualia', the components of conscious experience, are fundamental and irreducible components of reality, like electron spin, charge and mass — all derived from the omnipresent matrix of fundamental spacetime geometry at the Planck scale.

Recently two clinical studies used processed EEG brain monitors at the time of death in terminally ill or severely brain-damaged patients from whom support was withdrawn, allowing the patients to die peacefully. In both sets of patients, measurable EEG brain activity dwindled as blood pressure dropped and, eventually the heart stopped beating. But then, in each patient, there was an abrupt burst of brain activity lasting about a minute or more which correlated with gamma synchrony EEG, the most reliable marker of conscious awareness. Then, just as abruptly, the activity ceased.

5. TSC TUCSON TABLOID, APRIL 13–17, 2010, TUCSON, ARIZONA, JCS Reporter: B. Faw, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 17, No. 5–6, 2010, pp. 189–212.

Excerpts:

Zoran Josipovic gave a fascinating concurrent talk on the ‘Influence of Non-dual Awareness on Anti-Correlated Networks in the Brain’. The extrinisic-oriented Thalamo-Cortical Switch and the intrinsic-oriented Default Mode Network (DMN) are called anti-correlation networks because they tend to be negatively correlated with each other, with switching back and forth between them. Josipovic is trying to discover whether such anti-correlation relationship is an inherent property of brain organization or whether it is subject to cognitive control and learning. If the latter, then the brains of long-term practitioners of focused attention ‘mindfulness’meditation should have strong anti-correlated external/internal brain networks, while practitioners of ‘non-dual awareness’ (open presence) mediation — with cessation of habitual fragmenting of the field of experience into inside vs. outside, self-directed vs. other-related processes — should show less anti-correlation. Josipovic has found such decreased anti-correlation in non-dual meditators and increased anti-correlation among the focused attention meditators. The non-duality brain is not merely suppressing self-related processing; both self-related and other-related processing are active. This shows a trait effect for open-presence meditation and neural mechanisms for holistic experience.

Jeffery Martin followed with a rather ironic talk on ‘empirically testing purported claims of enlightenment using standard psychological methods and instruments’. For the past few years he has traveled around and given standard tests and surveys to people claiming some types of non-symbolic states. After the batch of tests he interviews folks for 3–5 hours, matching their language to their purported transformation. He has a 300+ database of non-duality awakenings’, with two fifths of them in the US — with 40% of those in California (‘very surprising!’). The ‘purported claim’ refers to people who claim states with ‘no self’ but use ‘I did’ statements as much as anyone; no one at work notices the difference; and they show the same bodily conditions, anxiety, and racial and gender bias. They claim reduction in thought, but it is not true. They claim lack of agency with no doer, that things pass through with no ‘I’ to catch them, and that their eyes lock onto an attractive person but there is no follow through.

6. A Holoinformational Model of Consciousness, Francisco Di Biase, Albert Schweitzer University, Switzerland; World Information Distributed University, Belgium; Quantum Biosystems 2009, 3, 207-220 207.

(Dr. F. Di Biase is a Neurosurgeon)

Author’s ABSTRACT:

The author proposes a quantum-informational holographic model of brain-consciousness-universe interactions based in the holonomic neural networks of Karl Pribram, in the holographic quantum theory developed by David Bohm, and in the non-locality property of the quantum field described by Hiroomi Umezawa. I consider this model an extension of the interactive dualism of Sir John Eccles, of an interconnection between brain and spirit by means of quantum microsites named dendrons and psychons. I propose a dynamic concept of consciousness seen as a holoinformational flux interconnecting the holonomic informational quantum brain dynamics, with the quantum informational holographic nature of the universe. This self-organizing flux is generated by the holographic mode of treatment of neuronal information and can be optimized through practices of deep meditation, prayer, and others states of higher consciousness that underlie the coherence of cerebral waves. In brain mapping studies performed during the occurrence of these harmonic states we can see the spectral array of brain waves highly synchronized and perfectly ordered like a unique harmonic wave, as if all frequencies of all neurons from all cerebral centers played the same symphony. This highly coherent brain state generates the non-local holographic informational cortical field of consciousness that interconnect the human brain and the holographic cosmos. The comprehension of this holonomic quantum informational nature of brain-consciousness-universe interconnectedness allows us to solve the old mind-matter cartesian hard problem, unifying science, philosophy, and spiritual traditions in a more transdisciplinary, holistic, integrated paradigm. In this new arrangement cosmovision, consciousness and transpersonal phenomena becomes part of Science and of the very holoinformational nature of the Holographic Conscious Multiverse.

http://www.quantumbiosystems.org/admin/files/QBS3%20207-220.pdf

COMMENTS:

1. Dr. C. Legendy, Columbia University (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/research-bios/LegendyC/researcher.html) :

"One old argument for the existence of a soul, whose roots in Western thought go back least to Descartes, can be re-phrased in modern terms by making an observation regarding the nature of connectivity between neurons. The neurons in our brain are not connected in a tree structure, as would be expected if a single neuron played a commanding role; instead, large pools of neurons appear to be at the same decision-making level. Since the whole network acts together in a purposeful way, there seems to be a need for an independent outside agent to play the role of central commander.

I recently wrote a book (Circuits in the Brain, Springer, 2009) where I touch on the subject. Although my book does not comment on the existence or non-existence of a soul, it does outline a way to solve the problem of centralized command without postulating an outside agent. The discussion is contained in the section I entitled "Firing games: goal-directed behavior without a leader."

As it happens, it is enough to assume that the network of neurons is capable of a limited number of "operating modes" and that in the different modes separate sets of rules are followed by the neurons. The modes and the rules, once implemented, can accomplish a feat which may at first glance appear impossible: coordinated goal-directed action in which many neurons participate and in which no neuron plays the role of a leader.

What makes it possible is that all the interacting cells and localities share the same preprogrammed mode definitions. The shared rules are what lend the overall activity the appearance of coordination.

The challenge is to invent a method whereby all localities involved in a task, in their own private ways, recognize the global situation as requiring the same mode and make certain that the processing is not disrupted by momentary differences among individual cells during the intervals of transition between modes. The over-all network design must be robust enough to be free of "race conditions," situations well known in the theory of switching circuits where the overall outcome of a transition is sensitive to the order in which different places reach their transition thresholds.

I refer to the leaderless multi-mode actions designed along such lines under the heading of "firing games," to suggest the similarity to some team sports where a team can smoothly fight its way to winning a game without anybody issuing any orders. (A large portion of my book is devoted to detailed description of certain specific "firing games" involved in the processing of visual images.)

With greetings,

Charles, Sep 19, 2010"

2. Peter F. Dziuban:

"I was interviewed by Jeffery Martin earlier this year...We did the "in person" interview first, then I took a lot of multiple choice psychological tests online a couple of weeks later. I mentioned to Jeffery that the questions needed to be re-worked... all the choices for answers implied that I considered myself a separate self, a body. There were no options to answer from the standpoint of Awareness.
Peter, 22 Sep 2010"

3. Ramesam:

A poorly written and edited article by Carina Storrs on the research work of Zoran Josipovic was posted on 13 Aug 2009 at: http://www.scienceline.org/2009/08/storrs-neuroscience-meditation-fmri-brain/

I commented at the above web site on 14 Aug 2009 that the definition given to Oneness in Advaita as unification of internal and external brain circuits was incorrect. Later in private e-mails to Zoran, it seemed to me that he relied more on meditation oriented non-dual (valid in Buddhist/Visishtadvaita) works rather than pure Advaita.
September 23, 2010 11:02 AM

4. Also please see the latest research of Prof. O. Blanke: (Comment added on 18 Feb 2011).

"That feeling of being in, and owning, your own body is a fundamental human experience. But where does it originate and how does it come to be? By combining techniques from cognitive science with those of Virtual Reality (VR) and brain imaging, Dr. O. Blanke and his team are narrowing in on the first experimental, data-driven approach to understanding self-consciousness.. Blanke says. 'Our research approaches the self first of all as the way the body is represented in the brain and how this affects the conscious mind. And this concept of the bodily self most likely came before more developed notions of 'I' in the evolutionary development of man'."
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-real-avatar-virtual-reality-brain.html

5. Ramesam: (Comment added on 19 May 2011).

Vegetative and minimally conscious states: "A person in a vegetative state will open their eyes spontaneously and make reflexive movements, but has no cognitive function and likely does not feel pain. Recovery is possible, but the chances of improvement are greatly diminished after a year. Someone in a minimally conscious state, by contrast, has intentional, non-reflexive but inconsistent responses to stimuli. They might
speak a few words or track their image in a mirror, and they feel pain. In minimally conscious and healthy people the frontal cortex would then send a message back to the temporal cortex. The reason for this is uncertain; it may be to let the temporal cortex know what to expect in the future. But for people in a vegetative state, the communication was one-way: signals passed from the temporal to frontal area, but not back."
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110512/full/news.2011.287.html?WT.ec_id=NEWS-201\ 10517

6. Ramesam: Signal for Consciousness: Comment Added on 06 Dec 2011:

"Recent research supports the idea that consciousness is a conversation rather than a revelation, with no single brain structure leading the dialogue..Different regions (of the brain) must exchange information before consciousness can arise."
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-conversation-in-the-brain&WT.mc_id=SA_DD_20111205

Also please see: Consciousness in Coma in this Blog

ANNETTE NIBLEY, THE SELF-EFFACING NON-DUALIST

2010-08-20T07:57:00.002+05:30

ANNETTE NIBLEY, THE SELF-EFFACING NON-DUALIST

[How many of us really seriously care for our dreams? Remember too that almost all of us go through at least 4-5 dreams every night when we go to bed. We look at our wakeful world as the reality and consider a dream to be just that – ephemeral, irrelevant to and unconcerned with our daily life. What happens if you can clearly see that your wakeful world is nothing but an extension of the dream? Will you be any more interested in the awake world or what goes on in it?

Annette Nibley (http://www.whatneverchanges.com/) is an example for one who lost all interest in the waking-dream of life. She gives no weight to the idle chatter and machinations of the mind – what we call our life. Nevertheless, she is ready to help with True advice if one approaches her. She does not talk to what you think what ‘you’ are, but to that unknown or unknowable ‘inner you.’ She can be brusque and ask you to ‘shut up’ if the dialog goes vain, but next minute she can speak to your ‘heart’ holding your hand and guiding you to ask the real question.

Annette started out as a Christian like most Americans, but became a run-of-the mill New Age seeker in about 1980. It was Nisargadatta Maharaj’s "I AM THAT" that really stopped her quest of nearly 25 years. Seeing John Wheeler validated her understanding and Stephen answered a lot of her subsequent questions over the years. She started a website of her own in 2005 to help fellow seekers. Her writings and advice are always simple, clear, to the point, eruditely expressed and compassionate.

When I requested Annette for a write up for the Blog, she politely stated that she had nothing to write about. When I suggested that she could give a message on Advaita, she said that there could not be a teaching without a ‘question.’ When I asked her to share some details of her own life story, she was extremely reluctant saying that “she was not the point here.” She added: “The person is only the carrier, and its life is just another life.” Here are a few examples of her short crisp write ups gleaned from different sources -- ramesam]

1. The End (2008):

I am no longer burdened with the concerns of the world that you are. I have no connection to that world. I see sights and hear sounds, and all kinds of stuff goes on, but I'm not emotionally attached to any of it. I walk around in your world, but it doesn't touch me.

I still see a framework within which things operate - objects, bodies, actions, relationships - but what happens within that framework is unimportant to me. I have no interest in what happens.

I just live. I get up, do a day's worth of stuff, and then it's time to go to bed. And the next day I do that again.

And what I notice is: there is freedom itself, just being free. There is joy itself, just being joyous. There is life itself, just living. That's all. Not "me" being those things - those things being themselves. Nothing, being nothing. So how did this happen to me? How did I lose interest in the world? How did I step out of this picture? How do I see only joy, only freedom?

Well, I stopped believing in the unreal. When I got a good look at the intricate fabrication called "me" that I had been taught to build and reinforce for many decades, and found it to be a fabrication, all of the emotional attachment to events and objects and people was rendered irrelevant.

Now, if you think this emotional attachment is what makes us "human," and you like that whole human experience of action and reaction, desire and satisfaction of desire, read no further. The rest of this essay will not interest you.

If, on the other hand, you find "humanness" to be the equivalent of insanity, and seek the eternal peace and love that is promised by every holy man and woman that ever walked the Earth, then maybe you will be interested in what follows.

If what you want is out of this game completely - out of the insanity, off the wheel of human suffering - then direct your attention to one thing only, and that is: Is this - the separate me that seems to be real - real? Am I real?

I don't know what led me to this inquiry inward, to the question of the veracity of the sense of "me." Many things. Reading "I AM THAT" and meeting John Wheeler really began turning my thinking around, but it was just a bunch of coincidences that led me to those things. So who knows? But I do know that the focus was turned inward, to the question of "I" - not a psychological inquiry into what made me tick, or what my obstacles to "awakening" were, but to the question of whether there actually exists an "I" at all.

Up to that point, my search had been a normal one. The first twenty- five years of it were focused outwards, on what could be gotten, by me, for me, to end my pain. I was looking in the wrong place. Looking outward only brings more of the same insanity. Something finally led me to discover the final question: Am I real?

If it is found that "I" am not real, then all of the concerns I have been wanting to be free of apply to no one! This is a radical, drastic ending; it is not a palliative for the old mindset. This is done in private, not in public. This is done alone, not in a group, not even with a guru. This is really a solo flight.

I never did desire enlightenment. I never wanted some kind of blissful state. I had enough "bliss" from all the bad habits I had cultivated to get me through the day. I didn't need another diversion. What I did need was to end the pain of feeling alienated from my own source. It was this pain of feeling cut off that led me on this journey. Millions - billions! - of people never face, feel, or even notice that pain, and are never called to make this drastic move. But when you feel it, it's got to be dealt with. There's no option. Eventually, the pain will be eradicated at the root. So what is the most noticeable thing about this, in my experience? No thought. There is registering of sensory information, and there is registering of some passing mental activity, but all of it is immediately let go of. Nothing lingers from one moment to the next. Nothing niggles at me, nothing needs to be planned or remembered. My mind is at peace.

This is what I always wanted. I just wanted my mind to be at peace. I wanted to quit wanting. I wanted to quit feeling like more was needed. I wanted to stop. I wanted my mind to stop.

Is this what enlightenment is? I don't know. I know that I'm not looking for anything anymore. I know that my day is filled with ease and flow, and I see softness in the hearts of all people, no matter what they project. I have no concerns and no worries. So whether this is enlightenment or not is of no interest to me.

And in the three years that I've been writing about this experience, the sense of a solid, individual person has been lessening. Now, after three years, there is no more sense of a separate person at all. Learning I was a separate "me" took time; the unlearning of it also took time.

I still function completely normally. You wouldn't know the difference. My closest friends probably notice that I'm not fearful anymore, and I don't try to control things. They probably notice that I rarely go anywhere, that I find pleasure in the simple things, and that my life has become very peaceful. Some of my habits have changed. But my life appears pretty much the same, from the outside.

What now? Can I tell you how to find out that you are not real? At this moment, nothing like that is arising, but perhaps it will. I don't think it's possible to tell another person how to begin or conduct this inquiry. Yours is unique, it is intimate. It is your business. What you need will come to you when you need it.

If I offer a pointer, it assumes that you are "ready" to hear it like I was when I met John Wheeler. Otherwise, you'll just continue the way you are going, and you'll distort my words into something that fits your existing mental view. But just in case you really are done with looking to your mind for solutions, this would be a solid pointer:

Ask, Am I real? Look for no other information. Ask no other questions. Find out if you are real - that's all. If you are not real, then the boundary between you and the source of all life is not really there, is it? If the boundary between you and the source of all life is not really there, then you would notice yourself as the source of all life, wouldn't you?

2. You Don't Need a Suitcase (2009):

I had many misconceptions at one time about what "this" looked like - this freedom, or whatever - and it always looked like something I could imagine or create from the experiences I already had, extrapolating from what I already knew. But this can't be imagined. This is a total surprise.
I always expected more life goodies, like peace, happiness, ease, a fulfilling relationship, perfect health, respect from my peers, and also, I expected that everywhere I laid my eyes there should be some feeling of total bliss - shock and awe every moment for the joyous bounty that is in front of me, if only I could see it without my own limiting selfish mind standing in the way of me and the truth. I would see every cell of life animated before my eyes, because I would not be distracted by petty stuff. How frustrating that I could not see this psychedelic world I surely lived in!

But this was all selfish imaginings. I wanted more for me, spectacle for me, drama for me, peace for me, adoration for me, love in every moment, for me. And this turns out not to have anything to do with me. And the surprising thing is, it's joyous! It's love, it's life, it's freedom, all unfolding naturally in my path - but none of these things is for me. They are there, they have always been there, when I'm not conjuring up a problem; life, love, and joy are there, but they don't need me. And interestingly, the "me" was made entirely of those problems I'd been thinking of. Without calling up a problem, there is no "me," and all that remains is impersonal life, impersonal love, whatever you want to call it. Nothing that "I" want, because if I can imagine it, it's just part of the prison.

So any idea you have of what this is - it is not. It can't be. This can't be something conjured out of your existing memories, which is all you have as a self. So if you go to any idea of what you must have in order to feel like you "have" it, that can't be it. It can't be thought of, it can't be imagined out of what you know. So you can stop trying to second-guess this. This arises only in what is not known. All that is known or imagined, or can possibly be known or imagined, is part of the prison.

All that remains is living, with no problems. Is it really as simple as that? Yes, it is. But is that my living, with no problems? No, it's not mine. When no problems are conjured up to think about, no "me-ness" arises; which tends to reinforce the idea that this livingness is impersonal; and that tends to reinforce the idea that there is nothing to lose, because nothing in the general "livingness" can ever be lost. So the validation starts building on itself, and the problems are conjured up less and less, until they are seen to never have existed at all. So, where was the "me"? Where was it, ever? Did it ever exist?

The point I've been trying to make is: don't be under the misconception that you can set a goal of "having this" and work towards it, by reading, watching videos, going to seminars, or meditating about it. That is just stuff your mind already knows and wants. Prison.

Subtract, and don't add. Don't add another goal, don't add another seminar. Drop one of your suitcases today, and drop another tomorrow, and don't pick anymore up, and see what happens. Drop the suitcase of opinions. Drop the suitcase of "I know I'm right." Drop the suitcase of "It has to be this way or I'll die." Drop the suitcase of "I have to do something to be free." Don't pick up another one.

If you accidentally stumble across a place where you don't know anything at all - your mind is blank and can't find a single thing that means anything - stick around for a while. Feel around, get to know the place. It doesn't mean you've failed, it means you're beginning to let go of your death grip on your suitcases.

Let them all drop. You don't need a suitcase where you're going.

3. Hereness (2009):

This clear space of “hereness”, is it present? You don’t need to ask this, because you know it to be true. It is the one thing you have no doubt about.

Of course, you have plenty of doubts: you doubt whether this non-duality stuff is true, you doubt that you understand what is being pointed to. You have doubts about the possibility of ever ending your seeking. Those things can really agitate the mind sometimes. But not this. This is not even a question. It is simply so obvious and so present that it never occurred to you to doubt it, to not doubt it, or to question it.

This clear space of “hereness” is so obvious that it never even occurred to you to acknowledge it.

4. The New Compassionate Shift (2010):

Yes, there has been a shift in my writing. I was taking a very hard non-dual line in my writing, even calling out Great Freedom for being dualistic, but I found it finally not to resonate completely with me – particularly, with my experience as a human being, which cannot be swept under the carpet, as strict non-duality tries to do.

It’s not that anything I said in my prior response was wrong; it’s that it’s not helpful. And the point here is to be helpful. I realize it was helpful to a degree, to really pinpoint that misidentification with the “small I” and be aware of the misidentification as the cause of all suffering. But when the experience of the life is still unsatisfying, as it unfolds over time, then something else needs to be done. There need not be any dissatisfaction. In fact, we are entitled to deep, abiding love and peace as our moment-to-moment experience, and this is indeed something we learn to deepen more and more over apparent time. So I now agree with you that it is a gradual process, though I may have argued with you about that before.

Non-duality applies to there being no time, no space – nothing but THIS, which is unchanging, undivided, presently eternal. So you can see, then, that THIS does not touch this apparent world of moving parts. Though THIS is what you really are, it does not intersect with the world of apparent objects. So it does not intersect with the experience of a human being, which arises due to false concepts.

So you have this “false” experience of being human, and yet here it is. And you have non-duality, which does not acknowledge the existence of anything false, and does not acknowledge time. So basically, if one insists on a strict non-dual stance, he removes the tool by which he can affect the suffering that is falsely there. That hamstrings us, basically. Even though your human experience is falsely there, it’s still there! And it needs to be addressed.

So what you have been practicing with Great Freedom is good, since it helps you to stay in the “pray without ceasing” injunction of St. Paul, because this “without ceasing” is really the key. The key to what? The key to having your human experience align more and more, over time, with THIS, with God – with the qualities that are unknowable, and yet are what the reality of the human being is, when the conceptual shell of its falsehood is worn away. What are we, anyway? We are nothing but THIS, God, One Power, One Law. So nothing in reality changes; you are always just this ONE. But your experience changes. As you say, it’s a gradual process.

So I am recommending now, when people are dissatisfied, that they seek out other writings and teachings. I don’t think that throwing more non-duality at the problem fixes it, because the fact that one has “an experience” means that the concepts of non-duality are unable to touch you as you are right here in the false, apparent world, and uproot that experience. Non-duality does not uproot or improve anything.

There is no growth or process possible in non-duality. Non-duality is a true assessment of the way things are, but it does not make a bridge from the Absolute to the experience of selfhood, time, and learning. That bridge is to be found elsewhere, in whatever way works for you. The important thing is to be faithful about it and devote yourself to it, and in this way, the abiding peace of God is found within, and it grows as you become more and more attracted to this inner goodness, and less attracted to the phantoms of the outer world.

I am finding a lot of solid, reliable teachings which make this bridge without throwing away the truth of non-duality – which address the need for a process, in the experience, of replacing the consciousness of the individual with the one Christ consciousness – the consciousness which is aligned perfectly with God. Many of the Christian mystics and healers have this message right, and I found that when I went looking for it, there was much support for such a bridge.

Finding this bridge is a personal matter. Whatever you’re led to do – let God lead you. Great Freedom is good, but for me it kind of lacks the juice. The juice is important, but it’s different for everybody. I went back into some traditional Christian stuff, for inspiration, and for that experience the music and rituals evoke of being in the holy presence of God. I’m reading some Catholic and Orthodox saints, the Bible, and Paramahansa Yogananda’s commentaries on Jesus and the Bhagavad Gita. I’ve also found that Joel Goldsmith (The Infinite Way) speaks to me; I had a health issue I wanted to deal with, and Goldsmith addresses healing. I use Stephen Wingate’s site as a guide often – he spends a lot of time checking things out, and always has interesting leads that are reliable. Mostly what I rely on, however, is quiet, solitary contemplation. Lots of it.

Remembering that you are not a separate, individual person – but that you are in actuality THIS – pray without ceasing, with no thought in mind of personal gain, but just for the sake of THIS itself. What else is there?

Non-Dualist Jerry Katz, The Man With A Mission

2010-07-23T07:28:00.002+05:30

Non-Dualist Jerry Katz, The Man With A Mission

[Jerry Katz, author and broadcaster, is an unassuming, simple and clear minded person with a Yogi-like attitude. Understanding of “I am” happened to him when he was still a boy. He was self-driven in the realization of the final Truth that he is none other than what Awareness is. But he wears his laurels loosely as if they do not belong to him. He takes all shades of Advaita in his stride with a remarkable ability to see “That” in an apparently meaningless poem to highly informed application of Quantum Physics to Vedanta via Direct path or so called Neoadvaita or a whole variety of methods and approaches. He is an active promoter of bringing about a convergence in Science and Advaita. His writings and reviews sparkle with crystal clarity and subtle observation. He abhors artificial grading and discriminatory rating. (Link: http://nonduality.org/about/ ) Jerry‘s mission is simple; but the task is overwhelming: Take Advaita to the ‘streets.’ However, he is cut to the job with unswerving devotion to the cause.
John of Non-duality Magazine (NDM) recently interviewed Jerry on a wide range of topics. The full Interview is available at: http://www.nondualitymagazine.org/nonduality_magazine.2.interview.jerrykatz.htm
John has been kind to let me present here a few excerpts from the interview -- ramesam]

JERRY KATZ
Interview with Non-duality Magazine

Excerpts:

NDM: Can you please tell me about your awakening, how and when this happened?

Jerry Katz: In anyone's spiritual biography you can identify turning points, moments when truth is stumbled into. Those moments could take the form of a sudden awakening, or a question, or a realization of some kind. You stumble into those moments. You can't plan for them to happen and, you know, stop off for a sandwich on the way to experiencing the stumbling. There's nothing linear about stumbling into truth. If it was linear you would see the stumbling block and walk around or over it and never stumble. It is said in the Kaballah that the stumbling block is in your hand. It's not separate from you. You stumble upon yourself.

For most people there is more than one stumbling. I call them initiations. I had several initiations into my true nature as "I Am." They occurred between the ages of 7 and 10. I knew they were important and meaningful but I never knew how to live life with them. So I forgot about them until around age 25, when I revisited them. What got me to revisit them was dissatisfaction with life and the sense that there was something more meaningful I needed to find out about. It was clear that I needed to investigate my early initiations into "I Am."

I spend a couple of years writing about my early experiences, feeling them, investigating them from different angles, and wanting to be stabilized as this "I Am." After about two years, in 1977, that stabilization happened and was marked with the spontaneous utterance, "There is only one day." Everything was seen as one day, or perhaps you could say one moment; in today's language you could say I was living in the now. However, in my words it was as though there was only one day.

The one day feeling lasted for about ten years and then it gave way to an immediacy of awareness as the "I Am" itself apparently dissolved.

Another way of talking about this progression is to say that I started out aware of awareness, then there was the sense that I was awareness, which was aware of me, and finally there is only awareness.

So that's a story of awakening. There is still everyday life, problems, limitations in expression and ability; or is there?

**

NDM: Then when you finally realized that you are "only awareness". At this point what kind of a vasana load did you have?

Jerry Katz: There's no realizing that you are only awareness, even though to talk about it one might say, "I am only awareness," or "There is only awareness." It is enough -- it is too much -- to say there is only awareness. To say anything beyond a variation of, "There is only awareness," "There is only this," further diminishes the statement or confession of what is.

Having said that, there was and still are habits and negative psychological states. They are not so extreme. Most importantly it is realized that are not me. Still, one must live responsibly in the world. To exercise a bad habit and to dismiss it by declaring, "Well, yeah, it's bad but it's not me," is an abuse and neglect of discipline.

I am sure that having experienced the "I Am" conditioned me early on toward a life of simplicity. Even though it was not until the age of 25 that I began to investigate my sense of "I Am," prior to that the initiation into "I Am" exerted an influence upon my life. That's what initiation is all about: it is a deep penetration of truth at a cellular level. Compare initiation to a so-called aha experience. The latter is more superficial and activates an energy which tends to burn itself out quickly or which gets channeled toward seeking and self-improvement rather than resting in knowing. However, aha moments are useful in living effectively; it's important to have realizations about the nuts and bolts of day to day living.

**

NDM: What are your thoughts on neo advaita. Saying that there is No morality. No right or wrong. No meaning? Please See interview with Suzanne Foxton. www.nondualitymagazine.org/nonduality_magazine.1.suzannefoxton.htm

Jerry Katz: I like the neo-advaita movement. It doesn't replace traditional advaita or anything else. It is another offering, that's all. Neo-advaita is nothing new. It simply focuses on the portion of advaita that confesses the reality of what is. Neo-advaita is a partial teaching, but for a given individual it could be a whole teaching, depending on what one is ready to receive.

Suzanne said, "There is no right or wrong." That's true. That's the pure confession of neo-advaita. The Avadhuta Gita makes such statements over and over again: "How can I speak of good and evil? I am free from disease -- my form has been extinguished."

The Avadhuta Gita and a few other texts are more "neo" than neo-advaita. Neo-advaita writings or discussions probably always have contained within them some instruction, some suggestion of what to do in order to realize what the neo-advaitin confesses. The Avadhuta Gita has no such instruction. The Avadhuta Gita doesn't tell you to investigate anything. It doesn't tell you to follow the I Am, as Nisargadatta has urged. It doesn't tell you to Full Stop, as 'Sailor' Bob Adamson advises. It doesn't suggest you inquire into who you are, what you're doing, why you're here, what the truth is, or anything at all. It just confesses. Period.

Neo-advaita is not as extreme as some very old writings. Neo-advaita is an evolution, a morphing of those writings and at the same time a morphing of traditional advaita. The morphing, the evolution continues, and watching that evolution is the delight of being involved in the world of nonduality.

NDM: Yes, but Avadhuta Gita is also reading material meant for the use of advanced students.

Jerry Katz: It is appropriate for today's mainstream nondual spirituality audience, I feel. Even James Swartz, a current and strong proponent of the stepwise teaching of traditional Advaita Vedanta, includes Avadhuta Gita style of confessions in his book How to Attain Enlightenment. For example, he says, "I am neither a person nor a non-person ... I am not male, female, or neuter ... I have never lived or died ... I am pure knowing, even though there is nothing to know." The entire book explains details about life, practice, experience, and those confessions occur at the end of the book in a section called Beyond Enlightenment. With the proper preparation, such as delivered by Swartz in his book, or with a strong intuition of truth, these confessions and the Avadhuta Gita itself become understandable. I wrote a series of verses based on the Avadhuta Gita, called The Wild Song of Standing Free, which is available online here: http://members.upnaway.com/~bindu/windsong/stafreeindex.htm.
I wrote that in 1997, before I went on the Internet, and it served to prepare me for the adventure of introducing nonduality to a mainstream audience and to deal with all the people I would be encountering.

NDM: The Ashtavakra Gita is also from the absolute level.

Jerry Katz: Yes, The Ashtavakra Gita is more popular than the Avadhuta Gita, too.

**

NDM: Yes, ok. When you said earlier. "Such a questioning is an inquiry. If you inquire from time to time, "Is this the relative level?" "Is this the absolute level?" at what level do you find yourself upon making these inquiries?

Would not that depend on the level you are at. For example, how could a non realized person even know the difference with out "knowing" the absolute level? If you are not the absolute, all you know is the relative? You can understand it to a degree, but cannot "know" it. The knowing only comes with realization.

Jerry Katz: The inquiry is sufficient if a person has had only an intuition of the absolute. However, I don't recommend doing inquiry just for the heck of it. Behind all efforts there must be the hunger to know who you are. Inquiry is a powerful tool. One must find an inquiry that truly draws their attention.
**

NDM: What are your thoughts on Sri Aurobindos intermediate zone? Do you think this could be an explanation for Adi Da and Osho? Please see here. www.kheper.net/topics/gurus/IMZ_guru.html

Jerry Katz: You'll see in my work on nonduality that I have never been into rating gurus. I like some and don't like some, but I don't rate. One of the qualities of my work has been to create a list of gurus/teachers/realizers/confessors which included just about anyone who spoke with some real knowing of the realized state. I don't see that some people are more enlightened than others. It doesn't interest me too much -- except in a gossipy way.

Seekers and students need to connect with their own inner knowing, their own inner hunger for truth, and to allow the inner force to be one's teacher and guide. That, in fact, is the Guru. One may then be led to this or that teacher. If so, from a practical point of view one should learn as much as possible about a prospective teacher.

NDM: When you say" There's no realizing that you are only awareness, even though to talk about it one might say, "I am only awareness," or "There is only awareness." It is enough -- it is too much -- to say there is only awareness. To say anything beyond a variation of, "There is only awareness," "There is only this,", further diminishes the statement or confession of what is."

So what is it that "knows" that it is awareness? What is this knower that knows this and how does this knower get to know this?

Jerry Katz: There is no knower and no knowing of it. There is only it. As far as getting to know this, it is said that Direct Path teachings can facilitate that. These days Greg Goode might have the best handle on the "There is only awareness" realization.

NDM: It obviously isn't "seen" as neo advaita people say because a seer cannot see itself no more than an eye can see its own pupil?

Jerry Katz: Yes, it isn't seen. It is. To say "It is," is, again, too much, which is why silence is a teaching.
**
NDM: What do you teach by the way. Do you have a method of teaching. Do you do satsangs or anything like that?

Jerry Katz: I don't teach or give satsang. My work is to bring nonduality to mass consciousness in a variety of ways: Through websites, email forums, a blog, twitter, radio appearances, conference development, public speaking, organizing local gatherings, interviews, publishing e-books, individual correspondences, encouraging and supporting various people in the field of nonduality, writing book reviews. Of course a lot of teachers do those activities, and more, too. If I did teach there wouldn't be any method. I would look at what each person requires and offer direction and guidance that is right for that person.

NDM: How long have you been doing this work of bringing non duality awareness to mass consciousness? Can you please elaborate a little more on your work and the impact this has had?

Jerry Katz: I first went onto the Internet in November, 1997. My intent was to bring nonduality "to the streets," to the spirituality mainstream. At the time, nonduality was a topic and a word largely reserved for discussion within ashrams, the circles of certain teachers, and university departments of philosophy and religious studies, and as well as part of the lesser known teachings of the world's religions.

The best known nonduality teaching is Zen, which belongs to Buddhist tradition. I wanted to introduce nonduality as a broader Zen. To do that, I introduced the word "nonduality" itself and colored it according to a vision. Just as the word "Zen" has a certain magic and power to it, it is my opinion that the word "nonduality" has its own significant meaning or "color." I have tried to keep nonduality wide open and all-embracing.

Many people are involved in bringing nonduality to the mainstream. I have provided online spaces for people to gather and talk about nonduality in whatever way they wished and have welcomed and encouraged a number of people. Over the years the broad teaching of nonduality and the word "nonduality" itself have entered the spirituality mainstream and even the general mainstream.
Lives are impacted in different ways. There's a peaceful, holistic, harmonious, Yogic side to nonduality which benefits a person's life. It is more about coherence and oneness. Then there is the jarring and harsh side of nonduality -- the bottom line nonduality -- in which our ego strategies are seen through or split wide open. Knowing who you are requires a cutting away of who you think you are. Practically no one is exempt from that harshness since layers of ego strategy are constantly re-constituting. For living life effectively, I highly recommend the holistic, Yogic type of path. Seeing who your really are, which is the atmosphere in which this effective life is lived (and which it actually is) requires that one question the effective life even while living it. It's tricky business and only those who have no other choice will engage in it.

Ardhanareeswar – The Bilateral Human Brain

2010-06-25T07:02:00.007+05:30

Ardhanareeswar – The Bilateral Human Brain

The half-man half-woman Ardhanareeswar represents the union of Shiva and Shakti, the basic tenets of creation, the unchanging Consciousness and Drive that gives motility. The cosmic dance of Ardhanareeswar symbolizes the beginningless cycle of origination and dissolution of the world. Traditionally the feminine Shakti is shown to be the left half of the body and the right half is Shiva.

A story in Shiv Purana says that Brahma, the Creator, was not happy with the way the development of human beings was going on. So he prayed to Shiva. Shiva released his Shakti part and instructed her to be born as the daughter of Daksha, thus creating an active role for her in the world. The classical Indian picturization of Ardhanareeswar stops with the body and does not tell anything of the brain in the head.

We are now well aware that our brain consists of two distinct units (left and right hemispheres) interconnected by a bundle of 300 million axonal fibers. The right brain controls the left half of the body (including the left part of the face) and the left brain controls the right half of the body.

Characteristically the right hemisphere oversees a set of qualities which are typically associated with feminine traits and the left hemisphere oversees the masculine traits. The ancient Indians depicted correctly the left half of the human body to show Shakti (female quality) and the right half as Shiva (male)! This does clearly indicate their awareness of the human anatomy.

The work distribution between the left and right brains is broadly as given below:

Left Brain Functions:

1. Language Skills; 2. Numerical counting; 3. Reason/Logic; 4. Analytical and Scientific Skills and 5. Control of the right side of the body.

The left brain works like a serial processor, one task at a time in a sequential manner and is reductionist in approach, classifying things into clear yes/no boxes. It is truthful to the details. It is uncomfortable with uncertainty looks and for logical closure of issues.

Right Brain Functions:

1. Insight; 2. 3-D Visualisation; 3. Art/Music; 4. Imagination; and 5 Control of the left side of the body.

The right hemisphere specializes in reacting to emergencies, organizing items spatially, recognizing faces and processing emotions. It works more like a parallel processor, taking in many aspects at one time and giving a comprehensive holistic picture. It can live with esoteric and fuzzy ideas.

"The great pleasure and feeling in my right brain is more than my left brain can find the words to tell you", said the Nobel Laureate, Dr. Roger Sperry.

The divergent response in the way the right and left brains function is famously illustrated in the twitch in the smile of Bill Clinton when he was grilled on the Lewinsky affair. When he tried to cover up the truth in answering a question, the right side of the face (governed by the left brain) had half a smile on the lips (delivering calculated words) whereas the left side was twitching with uncontrolled gestures!

Left Brain and Right Brain Personalities:

All of us use both the brain hemispheres all the time. Still, we tend to be dominated by the characteristics of one or the other hemispheres.

In case the connectivity of the two hemispheres is ruptured (either because of an accident or surgically disconnected for pathological reasons), the behavioral response of the individual looks as though he is being instructed by two independent control centers in the brain. Scientists have been able to learn much about the way brain functions from these split brain studies.

Prof. R. Wiseman, Neuropsychologist and Magician, suggests easy and entertaining ways to discover whether you are left-brained or right-brained. One way is to clasp your hands casually and see whether right or left thumb is positioned on the top (see the picture). If the left thumb comes on top, you are right brained and artistic, adventurous and accommodative. If the right thumb is on the top, you are analytical, fluent with words and conservative.

You would hardly get a prize to guess which way Dr. Albert Einstein, the greatest of all Scientists, would clasp his hands!

Where is “self”?

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, Neuroscientist and anatomist, describes in a fascinating detail how a blood vessel exploded in her left brain hemisphere in late 1996 and as a result how the left part of her brain completely deteriorated in its ability to process information. “On the morning of the hemorrhage I could not walk, talk, read, write or recall any of my life,” she said. With her right brain only functioning she felt, “I am an energy being connected to the energy all around me through the consciousness of my right hemisphere. We are energy beings connected to one another through the consciousness of our right hemispheres as one human family. And in this moment we are perfect. We are whole. And we are beautiful.”

The experience of Dr. Taylor gives the impression that our little self, the “me” (which gives me the feel of a 'separate' person) is located in the left part of the brain. That is not true. Subsequent research by others showed that the “self” could be on the right side. But actually it now looks that there is no identifiable “I”-spot in the brain representing a 'me'. The “self” is perhaps a gateway of a set of neuronal networks that act as a node at that point of time for “me” related information depending on which set of neuronal networks are called to action at that specific time.

The Advaitic teaching on the origination of “I”-consciousness matches well with the above neurological model. Brain constantly goes on sensing the environment. As long as just the sensations happen no harm is done. For example, “When you look at a glass in front of you on the desk, it sets off a lot of reactions in your brain. Part of your brain categorizes it: "That's a glass!" Another part of the brain thinks about the glass's shape and size, its exact location, and what you would have to do with your hand and arm if you were going to reach out and grab it. All that activity goes on even if you just look at the glass.”

But if a claim of “me or mine” is made on what is sensed (the sensed object need not be a physical thing; it can be a thought in mind, a bodily sensation, or a thing perceived out there), “I”-consciousness pops up. The particular neural network node cognizing and identifying the object with a ‘name and form’ will be then the “I” at that particular moment. Depending on the ‘object’ sensed, the neural network node may be shifting in the brain.

Evolutionary Origins of the Right and Left Brain:

There is an evolutionary reason for the origin of two brain hemispheres. I shall present here a few extracts from the paper of Prof. P.F. MacNeilage, Prof. L.J. Rogers and Prof. G. Vallortigara published in Scientific American in July 2009.

Peter F. MacNeilage is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. He authored the Book The Origin of Speech published by Oxford University Press in 2008. Lesley J. Rogers is an emeritus professor of neuroscience and animal behavior at the University of New England in Australia. Giorgio Vallortigara is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences and in the department of cognitive sciences at the University of Trento in Italy.

Excerpts:

The division of labor by the two cerebral hemispheres—once thought to be uniquely human—predates us by half a billion years. Speech, right-handedness, facial recognition and the processing of spatial relations can be traced to brain asymmetries in early vertebrates.

The specialization of each hemisphere in the human brain was already present in its basic form when vertebrates emerged about 500 million years ago. The more recent specializations of the brain hemispheres, including those of humans, evolved from the original ones by the Darwinian process of descent with modification.

The left hemisphere of the vertebrate brain was originally specialized for the control of well-established patterns of behavior under ordinary and familiar circumstances. In contrast, the right hemisphere, the primary seat of emotional arousal, was at first specialized for detecting and responding to unexpected stimuli in the environment.

The left hemisphere became the seat of self-motivated behavior, sometimes called top-down control. (We stress that self-motivated behavior need not be innate; in fact, it is often learned.) The right hemisphere became the seat of environmentally motivated behavior, or bottom-up control. The processing that directs more specialized behaviors—language, tool-making, spatial interrelations, facial recognition, and the like—evolved from those two basic controls.

Sheep can recognize the faces of other sheep (and of people) from memory and that the right hemisphere is preferentially involved. Similar behavior is also observed in monkeys.

In humans neuroscientists have recently recognized that the right hemisphere specializes in face recognition. Prosopagnosia, a neurological disorder that impairs that ability, is more often a result of damage to the right hemisphere than to the left.

Memories stored by the right hemisphere tend to be organized and recalled as overall patterns rather than as a series of single items. In contrast, the left hemisphere tends to focus on local aspects of its environment.

The uneven proportion of left- and right-type individuals in many populations thus indicates that the imbalance must be so valuable that it persists despite the increased vulnerability to predators. Rogers and Vallortigara have suggested that, among social animals, the advantage of conformity may lie in knowing what to expect from others of one’s own species.

What are the relative roles of the left and right hemispheres in having self-awareness, consciousness, empathy or the capacity to have flashes of insight? Little is known about those issues. But the findings we have detailed suggest that these functions—like the other human phenomena discussed here—will be best understood in terms of the descent with modification of pre-human capabilities.

MacNeilage has proposed that the making of syllabic utterances is an evolutionary modification of routine chewing behavior, which first evolved in mammals 200 million years ago.

[Please see the comments for some interesting latest scientific research results.]

Added on 25 Oct 2011:
Video of about 11 minutes:
"How have our two hemispheres evolved to relate -- and how did their relationship create our consciousness, our culture, and our ability to understand our own brains?"
http://www.ted.com/talks/iain_mcgilchrist_the_divided_brain.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2011-10-25&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

Added on 22 Dec 2011:
About left-brain/right-brain differences:
"The scientists found that signals coming from the left hippocampus led to a strengthening of long-term electrical connections between neurons. This strengthening of connections is a widely accepted model of learning and memory in the brain. It is thought to be associated with how we lay down new memories.In contrast, there were no such changes with signals coming from the right hippocampus.There was a striking difference. It suggests that the left and right hippocampus in the mouse have distinct functions in learning and memory processes."
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-left.html

Added on 09 Jan 2012:
How does our brain know what is a face:

"On the left side of the brain, the fusiform gyrus — an area long associated with face recognition — carefully calculates how "facelike" an image is. The right fusiform gyrus then appears to use that information to make a quick, categorical decision of whether the object is, indeed, a face.

This distribution of labor is one of the first known examples of the left and right sides of the brain taking on different roles in high-level visual-processing tasks, although hemispheric differences have been seen in other brain functions, most notably language and spatial perception."

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/miot-mhd010912.php