The Expectation Reality Mismatch and the Effect

In earlier post, I discussed our layers of existence. A little more addition on the workings of mind, thought & action, specifically on the "Action" & causes of it

1. There is no Action without a preceding thought

2. There is no thought without preceding stimuli (Environment, retrieved experience or even output of intellect)

3. The existence part of the ego retrieves and creates survival thoughts

4. The positional part of the ego (the stand of how the world should be), creates thoughts about how the world should be

5. The difference between "Positions" & "Reality induced Thoughts" create discomfort in mind scape. Example, say thought retrieved by Stimuli ( #2), lets call it reality induced thoughts, and the Ego generated wish of "How the world should be" (#3, #4) according to construction of human being, are different, ego creates discomfort in mind scape that takes the shape of emotions.

6. Stronger the difference between positions and reality, stronger is the discomfort or emotions

7. This discomfort is the seed of ALL Actions and Utterances of human beings at ALL time.

8. #7 is a radical statement and I have realized that my whole life has been nothing but a slavery of continuous attempt of my ego to get the world to the order it deems appropriate.

- Explorer

Sensation and Thought

During recent meditation somehow I stumbled into observing the sensation on and around the head. I was trying to find out how the senses affect the head at a physiological level i.e. does the input from the senses cause any activity in the head which can be felt at the level of senses.  Since I had closed the eyes the most active sense at that moment was hearing. I came up with some interesting observations.  First of all I didn’t notice uniform activity around the head. I didn’t notice much activity on my right side though the sound source was closer to the right ear. I observed sensation on front, top, left  and back side.  The area adjoining the back to top and left side seemed more active. The most interesting observation was the activity towards the back of the head and it seemed it was in response to prior activity in the other part of head.  The outcome of this activity on the back seemed to be resulting in psychological thought. Interestingly observing this sensation would cause the resulting thought to dilute or die in the middle or not happen at all. Later continuing this process would cause very little thought and only sensation. This was startling since this would seem to be a definite way to silence the mind.
I continued with my observation for few days and came up with the theory that these sensations can be divided in two parts: Sensation on the back of the head and sensation everywhere else. It seems the sensation everywhere else act as an input to the back of the head. The resulting response (thought) from the back causes the sensation on the back or head (Now I don’t know which one occurs first the thought or sensation).  So it occurred to me that mind is nothing but a complex request response mechanism. There are multiple stimulant and it has a way of coming up with the response.  Now knowing the myriad inputs and power of senses it would seem impossible to stop our senses and hence our mind. Now senses are meant to serve important roles in our life. But for the mind it would seem difficult to understand that it does not need to generate response for every sensory input that it gets. May be this is the reason for continuous stream of thoughts.

I kept observing this phenomenon for few days and these observations lead me to realize that there is a very important part of our body which acts as a link to our head. That is back side of the neck. All the input and output to our mind from the bottom part of our body would have to travel through our neck and it seems this part plays very important part in this. I would feel some discomfort in this part whenever I have any thoughts. Just adjusting this so that the discomfort is gone or observing this would reduce or completely eliminate the thought. I tried this in my meditation and observed that my mind would be alive with no thoughts if I don’t have any discomfort in this area.  This seemed like a sure shot way of reaching silence in meditation or anytime else.  It’s not just this part but the back, shoulders, hands and everything else plays a very important part in the way the sensation is perceived in this part. And somehow if this part is relaxed it seemed the mind was lot quieter. It would seem this part is an important link in transmitting the sensory input to the mind.

My observations explained the response of the input from the bottom part of our body but what about the upper part? It would seem if I could find one or several places which were similar it could explain the way to quite the mind completely.  I am not sure if there is only one point in the head. But it seems easier to observe the sensation on the head. Normally there are only a few areas.  In one or two places, I could feel very subtle pain. Observing those areas seemed to help a lot in reaching a quiet mind. I have to continue investigation the top part for more concrete observations.

There are two important conclusions I drew from these:
1.    We are nothing but puppets of our senses. It’s like a computer, given an input it comes up with the output. The input is coming all the time and so does the output.
2.    There is some entity in the system which has the ability to see all this play.  It seems it is not thought, it’s a silent observer. It can see this play going on.  Somehow this observer is very concrete in the meditation.

So maybe the key to understanding ourselves is through our senses, through the various sensations in our body and mind.  Buddha said this long time ago, maybe I am discovering the truth in it.

Beyond Matter & Energy Driven Existence

Whole human experience, consciousness is about either matter or energy (inter convertible e=mc2).

Not only our experiences & sense, all the instruments, that detect existence, as well depend on existence or change in energy to even recognize the presence of material and not material world.

If there was an existence that was independent of matter-energy dimensions, humans and all of our scientific apparatus would be unable to detect or experience that reality.

If there were to be a dimension of existence that transcends this life time & space, that would belong to such a dimension and it would require a leap in human discovery to detect that dimension of existence.

No evidence of it so far. Dark matter & dark energy science may lead us some day to answers & a bridge between two parallel existences of universe.

- Explorer

In search of balanced coexistence with Nature

After a bit of meditation about our relationship with the existence around, it soon starts to amaze us as to how every organism on this planet, apart from human beings, have found a balance with surrounding environment. Every organism only consumes from the nature exactly what is required to survive. Even the organisms who hibernate during winters only store enough to go through the hibernation.

Accumulation beyond what is absolutely required for co-existence with nature is absolutely a no in all plant & animal life around us. Every organism also contributes to well being of existence by performing important functions of cleaning & rejuvenating natural resources as one's limited existence allows.

This reality is in stark contrast to the great imbalance human race has created with nature. From this perspective, when I meditate on the reason for this imbalance, it is not very difficult to see.

There was a clear point in history of civilization when we laid the foundation for this imbalance.

The moment was when humans acquired ability to accumulate beyond what they required. Initially as a safety net to go through the hard times and increasingly the accumulation started becoming the reason and only goal of a majority of human existence.

Over the years, the human value systems got deformed and accumulation for the sake of accumulation became the goal. A very hollow human society followed.

If we stop for a moment and ask why we want to accumulate wealth? bigger cars? assets for the sake of accumulation? Why do we indulge in mindless consumption that our existence does not require for either survival or growth of human race, at the expense of nature.

On further contemplation, over-consumption or resources from nature beyond what we require to survive, be safe & grow as a human race collectively is not just inappropriate but plain disastrous to existence on this planet as the imbalance goes out of what nature could bear without precipitating a untimely demise of life on this planet.

What would it take to create a peaceful & just coexistence with nature? First and foremost, humanity needs to shed the value we associate with accumulation beyond what we need, and that requires a leap of ego shedding.

Can we create a self sustaining social and economic models that gives back to nature as soon the accumulation crosses what is required for survival and growth?

On a more basic level, can we drive a smaller car that is more eco-friendly if not walk on foot or paddle a bicycle? Can we move away from mindless accumulation of personal wealth for no other purpose then accumulation itself?

Even in personal context, I find these questions discomforting as they contradict my acquired values, beliefs & attitudes and it shatters the basic foundation of greatness that my ego wants to perpetuate.

Balance, find we must, if we need to harmonize our deepest existence with reality & achieve peaceful coexistence with the infinite creation.

In hope of starting small battles against entrenched ego positions and in hope of finding a peaceful coexistence with the world around.

-Explorer

Practical Journey into Layers of Existence

My limited understanding of our conscious existence so far (Sources - Own questioning about reality & existence supported by several exploratory texts of reality, psychology, science & religion).

Only facts that passed the negative test of hallucination are explained below and experience can be recreated using controlled experiments described along with a particular layer of existence.

1. Environment - around us that we perceive by our senses

How to experience - Accessible to most humans with well functioning sense organs easily. Visual sense being very dominant, other non visual environment is best experienced with closed eyes

2. Our own body - the envelop of life & instrument of action

How to experience - Close your eyes and imagine focusing on each part toe to head

3. Our senses & signals received as light, sound, touch, smell & taste

How to experience - Close your eyes and focus on one sense organ at a time & relish the experience

4. Our mind - that captures these signals received by senses and retrieves associated experience that has been previously stored in our memory

How to experience - Close your eyes & focus on any sound that you receive , you would find an imagery flashing in to your inner self. If you have associated emotions that were stored along with that sound, they would also be retrieved and played back.

Be aware, what is retrieved is not reality, it is merely the retrieval of stored image along side that stimulus. For example, if we close our eyes and hear same sound played via an audio system, we would experience same imagery and emotions.

5. Our intellect - Its a machine that finds an answer given a question. The answers are purely based on stored experiences & knowledge acquired in once life time. Knowledge stored is mainly data acquired, procedures learned to analyze that data. Intellect also uses stored procedures to extrapolate & fill the gaps if we do not have acquired stored knowledge in the area of asked question.

How close the answer is to the reality depends on the depth of acquired and stored knowledge in that area. Better the stored resource, better the answer is close to reality. To a question, an individual's intellect can give an answer that is very close to reality & to the other, the same individual's intellect, can give an answer that is miles away from reality depending on the domain of the question.

How to experience - Close your eyes and ask a question, you would experience the answer coming by. Try to ask different types of question, some thing that has definitive answers - example - what is 2+2?, something that is exploratory - How to cut a mango into two pieces? and something bordering on areas where we do not have any stored memories - How does halogen taste?

6. Our Ego - Ego is the one who takes position about what do we want reality to look like and gives value judgement about what is good & bad solely based on the earlier (positions). Predominantly has two layers as I have experienced - the furious guardian of physical existence, collection of acquired attitudes, values and beliefs.

Ego, keeps our intellect busy all the time in finding ways to get the world to behave in line with its positions (what it considers good/right), and keeps the body busy in pursuit of these perceived benevolent acts.

Ego also blocks the other side of the reality that is contradictory to the positions taken.

How to experience - Ask questions to yourself about things that question your survival, question the validity of fundamental beliefs that you hold. Now, experience the discomfort that you feel, that is the discomfort of ego. Now also experience the command of the ego given to your intellect to find reasons why your own questions are useless & why the contrary that is in line with your beliefs is true.

7. Our thoughts - thoughts are mainly the experience reflection screen that results from pursuits of layers of Mind, Intellect & Ego (4, 5, 6 above). For example, when mind retrieves an experience it becomes thought, when intellect provides an answer or a plan it becomes a though or when ego questions the intellect for answers or plans to perpetuate its existence or designs the process & the results become the thoughts. The thoughts lead to actions & no action takes place without a preceding thought.

How to experience - Just close your eyes and experience the imagery & experiences generated by interesting play of above 7 layers of our existence & you have reached the thought layer.

8. The unknown - Some call it soul, some the higher self, others the god within. Einstein calls it baseless speculation. I Only have experienced the glimpses of it during last stages of meditation but do not have vocabulary to describe it yet.

How to experience - Not sure if I am qualified to even explain the experiment, but the following is how it works repeatedly for me.

Close your eyes and gradually become aware of the all the 7 layers or our physical existence. Keep the life and existence flow as it does, do not concentrate on any thing, do not block any thing, do not pursue any thought. Just let the reality of your inner & outer world flow as it finds fit.

You may experience a state of strange peaceful coexistence with the world & a very illuminated experience, bordering on hallucination, may give close to 10X effect of pre-orgasm excitement. Beyond this I lack vocabulary to explain this layer or which dimension of reality does it reflect at this point.

Happy exploration!

- Explorer

What is reality?

What is reality, truth, unknown or mysterious? There are many words to express that which is not known, clear or understood. The quest has been there from the time immortal. Humans from all ages and all walks have tried to find it through science, arts, spirituality, religion etc.  But it seems despite all the advancement we know very little about the world or universe. This brings very important question : How much do we know about ourselves? Answer seems to be very little. We have made some advances in understanding how our body works but we know very little about the way our mind works. The world for all of us is the picture painted by our mind. So it seems the key to the unknown is through knowing the workings of our own mind, of ourselves. The process of investigation is mediation. When one starts to investigate oneself things become very interesting.  Who is investigating? Who is being investigated? Duality becomes very obvious from the beginning. Am I two or one? It is this process which reveals some truth about ourselves and maybe about the world. It is these moments of not doing anything, somehow bring some sense of harmony in our lives. This blog is an attempt to understand, reveal, investigate and share the quest of knowing the unknown.