This may be a very common question for any one started looking inwardly. I have absolutely no knowledge to answer this question. However, like to put forward my views. It may or may not have any real meaning.
It may be a meaningless question, yet we have to have some convincing answers for this question to carry on our life. If we come up with a negative answer, the questioners may convince themselves to end their life also. There were instances of mass suicides on the name of spirituality or other reasons referred as cult suicides. Refer this link for some info about cult suicides - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_suicide. This might be due to the negative answer they could drive for similar questions. That could be the reason for so many belief systems across the world, including the religions – to derive any significance to the life. Belief is the easy way to find an illusionary significance for our life – Then we are going into the realm of irrationality. We may create our God and make the goal of our life as seeing the God. We may create the concept of Atman and make the goal of life as understanding the Atman. We may create the rituals and make the goal of our life as performing these rituals. We may create the concept of heaven and set our goal as reaching heaven.
What is living? Not the living of human being alone – Living for everything in the existence including animate and inanimate objects. We may define living thing as a group of material, with harmonious interaction with each other so that an energy field is created with in that group. Any material body have to have this energy field to keep its shape and property. This energy field may have fundamental relation with the existence itself. The whole existence may be one living thing, which may be referred as GOD. Each galaxy in the universe may be a set of living thing within the first one. Each star system may be living things with in the galaxies. Each planet may be living thing within the star system. Each stone, tree, animal, human are living things within the planet earth. The bacteria and other microorganisms may be another set of living things within us and other animate living beings on earth. The molecules and atoms may be living thing in the micro level. And subatomic particles may be living things at still lower level.
If we can consider this definition, our life has the same significance of existence itself! And an animal, stone, and atoms have the same significance for their existence as that of ours. Hence, when the existence destroys itself, it will destroy us also. Since there is no specific significance for our life, we may decide to end our life; there is no significance for that act also. Our body and energy will still be a part of this existence only. In the solar system, earth provides the proper condition for animate living things to evolve. We are aware that there are billions of star systems within this universe like solar system. Hence it may be possible in some other star systems to have condition for evolution of animate living things. Then what is the significance of our life? There may not be any significance for our life with respect to the whole existence other then the significance of existence itself.
If we look it from another angle, in the whole of infinite (with respect to our perception) existence, we are the only being with the power of thought and power of perception beyond sensual perceptions. We are the only being, using the power of thought and perception can understand and wonder the vastness of existence. We are the only being, with the power of thought and perception can live in never ending joy. Is it not a significance of our life? Why do we suffer in such a significant life? Why do we need to end such a significant life? If we are not living such a joyous life due to the ignorance of ourselves, does it erode such a significance attached with human life? Every moments of our life should be a celebration, for having such a significant life.
Now, we are a group of material on which the energy field operates. At this level, the significance of our life may be to establish the fundamental relation between the energy field which is our life and the existence itself, with the power of our thoughts, perceptions, and intelligence. In the existence, each and every particle is in support of existence itself. Hence the significance of our living also may lies on supporting this existence.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Perceptions
Sensual perception is the common factor for all living beings. It differs between the living beings only with respect to the number of senses. Human being is the only living species who have more than sensual perception, which is widely referred as sixth sense.
It may not be an easy task to capture the real meaning of perception beyond sensual perception in words. The description may lead us to some sort of imagination. There are multiple dimensions of perceptions beyond sensual perceptions. We human beings are capable of perceiving all the possible dimensions of perceptions. Yet we are unable to go beyond or can go just at a micro level beyond the sensual perception due to the way we are living our life. On the other side, we started losing the sensual perception also to a great extent due to the way of our living.
The term ‘way of our living’ indicates here about our attention to things happening with in us and around us. Due to this varied attention, the perceptual threshold is altered very frequently for various sensual perceptions, which leads to insensitivity to the senses, which is same as loss of perception. Are we incapable of being attentive to everything happening with in us and around us? Surely not! Our mind is inattentive to happenings due to its preoccupation with things which are created by the mind itself and caught between the things created by it. As the mind becomes the slave of its own creations, the thoughts, it appears to be very active but in an imaginary zone which has no reality. Due to the whirling movement of our mind within the things created by it, it has no space available for allowing even the sensual perceptions. When we are not able to perceive the senses itself, there is no question of the dimensions of perception beyond senses. When we are not able to completely perceive at least the sensual perceptions with zero or near zero perceptual threshold, we are actually not living. We just exist!
Our life is to live this wonderful life. When we are not in the field of perception, we are just wasting a possibility available to us – the possibility of living. What are the perceptions beyond our five sensual perceptions? We know that there are unlimited number of activities happening with in our body. The flow of blood, the contraction and expansion of muscles, the functioning of our internal organs are some of those functions. Are we able to perceive any of these happenings within our body? For example when we are attentive we can perceive to some extent the functioning of heart – the heart beat. I think this perception itself is something beyond our sensual perception. When we are in relaxed mood, are we able to perceive certain perceptions in the relaxed part of our body? When we have such perception, our relaxation actually gets multiplies. If we allow our mind to have enough free space, it is capable of perceiving such perceptions of our body and when we have that perceptions, the body and mind will be in a really relaxed mood. Please note that this perception is not due to imagination. If it is due to imagination, it is not perception – it is hallucination.
Why should we have perception? Perceiving is living. Perceiving is not in the past or not in the future. Perceiving is from moment to moment. It is living. If we do not perceive from moment to moment, we are not living – we are just existing.
All our problems are due to lack of perception. For example, when we eat a tasty food, we fail to perceive the taste from moment to moment. Due to the preoccupation of our mind with its own creations, we tend to recognize the taste only after the moment the taste bud senses the taste. We recognize it by comparison which is in the field of thoughts and not in the field of perception. Due to this, we tend to feel it again but repeatedly fail to perceive the taste as it is sensed by our senses. We compare the senses and after that we decide whether it is tasty or not tasty. Due to this failure in recognizing the taste as it is sensed, we rarely satisfied with the food and tend to over eat. If we really perceive the taste as the taste bud sense the taste, we will not over eat due to the desire of enjoying taste. We stop eating when required to stop, but will have a complete satisfaction of eating due to our complete perception of taste.
Another major problem for every one of us in our lives is the problem in relationships. This is the problem which constitutes the major part of all our problems. This problem is due to lack of perception. We never perceive or attempt to perceive others and other life forms. We just make images of others and other life forms and take this image as our perception at best. Then we act on these images, which never be the real action required based on perception. Due to this lack of perception or action based on image, a gap is developed between our actions and others and other life forms, which in turn create all the problems in relationships. Then how to perceive others and other life forms? It may not be possible to capture in words with our current level of perception. Unless we are capable of perceiving completely our senses and the happenings within us, any attempt to understand or explain the other dimensions of perception will enter into the domain of imagination. The discussion here is just to understand that we are capable of perceiving multiple dimensions of perceptions and the first step towards it is to perceive our senses completely and the happenings within our body and mind.
If we start perceiving these basic perceptions, nobody else is required for us to explain the other dimensions of perceptions. Our brain is capable of perceiving all those dimensions, if we allow the mind to have and expand the space within it which is created by the basic perceptions.
It may not be an easy task to capture the real meaning of perception beyond sensual perception in words. The description may lead us to some sort of imagination. There are multiple dimensions of perceptions beyond sensual perceptions. We human beings are capable of perceiving all the possible dimensions of perceptions. Yet we are unable to go beyond or can go just at a micro level beyond the sensual perception due to the way we are living our life. On the other side, we started losing the sensual perception also to a great extent due to the way of our living.
The term ‘way of our living’ indicates here about our attention to things happening with in us and around us. Due to this varied attention, the perceptual threshold is altered very frequently for various sensual perceptions, which leads to insensitivity to the senses, which is same as loss of perception. Are we incapable of being attentive to everything happening with in us and around us? Surely not! Our mind is inattentive to happenings due to its preoccupation with things which are created by the mind itself and caught between the things created by it. As the mind becomes the slave of its own creations, the thoughts, it appears to be very active but in an imaginary zone which has no reality. Due to the whirling movement of our mind within the things created by it, it has no space available for allowing even the sensual perceptions. When we are not able to perceive the senses itself, there is no question of the dimensions of perception beyond senses. When we are not able to completely perceive at least the sensual perceptions with zero or near zero perceptual threshold, we are actually not living. We just exist!
Our life is to live this wonderful life. When we are not in the field of perception, we are just wasting a possibility available to us – the possibility of living. What are the perceptions beyond our five sensual perceptions? We know that there are unlimited number of activities happening with in our body. The flow of blood, the contraction and expansion of muscles, the functioning of our internal organs are some of those functions. Are we able to perceive any of these happenings within our body? For example when we are attentive we can perceive to some extent the functioning of heart – the heart beat. I think this perception itself is something beyond our sensual perception. When we are in relaxed mood, are we able to perceive certain perceptions in the relaxed part of our body? When we have such perception, our relaxation actually gets multiplies. If we allow our mind to have enough free space, it is capable of perceiving such perceptions of our body and when we have that perceptions, the body and mind will be in a really relaxed mood. Please note that this perception is not due to imagination. If it is due to imagination, it is not perception – it is hallucination.
Why should we have perception? Perceiving is living. Perceiving is not in the past or not in the future. Perceiving is from moment to moment. It is living. If we do not perceive from moment to moment, we are not living – we are just existing.
All our problems are due to lack of perception. For example, when we eat a tasty food, we fail to perceive the taste from moment to moment. Due to the preoccupation of our mind with its own creations, we tend to recognize the taste only after the moment the taste bud senses the taste. We recognize it by comparison which is in the field of thoughts and not in the field of perception. Due to this, we tend to feel it again but repeatedly fail to perceive the taste as it is sensed by our senses. We compare the senses and after that we decide whether it is tasty or not tasty. Due to this failure in recognizing the taste as it is sensed, we rarely satisfied with the food and tend to over eat. If we really perceive the taste as the taste bud sense the taste, we will not over eat due to the desire of enjoying taste. We stop eating when required to stop, but will have a complete satisfaction of eating due to our complete perception of taste.
Another major problem for every one of us in our lives is the problem in relationships. This is the problem which constitutes the major part of all our problems. This problem is due to lack of perception. We never perceive or attempt to perceive others and other life forms. We just make images of others and other life forms and take this image as our perception at best. Then we act on these images, which never be the real action required based on perception. Due to this lack of perception or action based on image, a gap is developed between our actions and others and other life forms, which in turn create all the problems in relationships. Then how to perceive others and other life forms? It may not be possible to capture in words with our current level of perception. Unless we are capable of perceiving completely our senses and the happenings within us, any attempt to understand or explain the other dimensions of perception will enter into the domain of imagination. The discussion here is just to understand that we are capable of perceiving multiple dimensions of perceptions and the first step towards it is to perceive our senses completely and the happenings within our body and mind.
If we start perceiving these basic perceptions, nobody else is required for us to explain the other dimensions of perceptions. Our brain is capable of perceiving all those dimensions, if we allow the mind to have and expand the space within it which is created by the basic perceptions.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Our Relation with Nature
I think there is a fundamental conflict in this heading itself! We ourselves are also nature or a part of nature. The heading suggests that we are different from nature and hence establishing a relationship between us and nature. But the way we are living now, we separated ourselves from nature and started believing as separate entities and hence distanced ourselves from nature. As a consequence of this, we started destroying the nature with out knowing that we are destroying ourselves.
Since we are already distanced ourselves from nature, we need to establish the relation with it again. Otherwise the nature will be completely destroyed by us with out our knowledge. On the other hand, we will be completely destroyed by ourselves as we ourselves are nature or part of nature.
We are just a group of material which stays together in harmony and hence have an energy filed within it. This energy field, then sustain the harmony and hence the togetherness of this group of material. If this statement is valid, death may be considered as the weakness of this energy which is no more sufficient to keep this heap of material together in harmony. In this complex structure evolved from nature, there is a control center called brain and the processing of this brain is expressed as mind. The energy field with the brain might have given the intelligence to us. We must have got this intelligence to support the evolution process of nature. Unfortunately, instead of freeing ourselves using this intelligence from the struggle of evolution process, we are bonded with the struggle of evolution process and hence not allowing the required space for the intelligence to function.
In the process of evolution, till the time we were not having the function of thoughts and such a limitless memory (thoughts evolve out of what is there in the memory), the only functions we were doing were survival and procreation – to sustain evolution. There were no ego and hence no struggle to sustain ego. And hence there is no separation of us from nature. Once we got the thinking power, with the power of thought we were able to protect ourselves from other animals and then from the cycles of nature itself – Still we were without any ego and hence been with nature.
At certain point, due to the difference in capabilities and strengths, the concept of ownership might have been developed. This must have been the starting point of psychological entities like possession, attachment, desire and so on. With these psychological entities, the ego is already formed with in humans. Once the ego is there, then the question of sustaining it arises and we are at what we are now!
The above discussion might be a story. But if we observe ourselves closely enough, we can see the possibility of above story might had been the reality.
If we closely observe the nature of earth, everything exist here is in support of something else. Any living thing in this earth consumes something else and gives out another thing, which is required to sustain some other part of earth. That is, nothing in this nature is going waste. Nature has everything to sustain all available life forms in this earth. If there is anything excess in this nature, even any life forms including human species, by its own nature, bring in control of that excess item. If we observe closely enough, we can clearly perceive this from the historical events and the events happening now. On the other hand, everything in this nature is closely related with each other – with anything else in the nature.
Are we really aware of this fact? If so, we will not consume anything more than required from nature, which will bring in an imbalance in the nature itself. If we are really aware, we will not be doing anything which destroys the condition required for other living beings. If we are really aware, we will never waste any natural resources.
The fact is that, we do not have such awareness! We are over consuming. Not really consuming, but wasting! And the real fact is that we are killing ourselves and destroying conditions required for the future generations to survive due to this lack of perception.
Since we are already distanced ourselves from nature, we need to establish the relation with it again. Otherwise the nature will be completely destroyed by us with out our knowledge. On the other hand, we will be completely destroyed by ourselves as we ourselves are nature or part of nature.
We are just a group of material which stays together in harmony and hence have an energy filed within it. This energy field, then sustain the harmony and hence the togetherness of this group of material. If this statement is valid, death may be considered as the weakness of this energy which is no more sufficient to keep this heap of material together in harmony. In this complex structure evolved from nature, there is a control center called brain and the processing of this brain is expressed as mind. The energy field with the brain might have given the intelligence to us. We must have got this intelligence to support the evolution process of nature. Unfortunately, instead of freeing ourselves using this intelligence from the struggle of evolution process, we are bonded with the struggle of evolution process and hence not allowing the required space for the intelligence to function.
In the process of evolution, till the time we were not having the function of thoughts and such a limitless memory (thoughts evolve out of what is there in the memory), the only functions we were doing were survival and procreation – to sustain evolution. There were no ego and hence no struggle to sustain ego. And hence there is no separation of us from nature. Once we got the thinking power, with the power of thought we were able to protect ourselves from other animals and then from the cycles of nature itself – Still we were without any ego and hence been with nature.
At certain point, due to the difference in capabilities and strengths, the concept of ownership might have been developed. This must have been the starting point of psychological entities like possession, attachment, desire and so on. With these psychological entities, the ego is already formed with in humans. Once the ego is there, then the question of sustaining it arises and we are at what we are now!
The above discussion might be a story. But if we observe ourselves closely enough, we can see the possibility of above story might had been the reality.
If we closely observe the nature of earth, everything exist here is in support of something else. Any living thing in this earth consumes something else and gives out another thing, which is required to sustain some other part of earth. That is, nothing in this nature is going waste. Nature has everything to sustain all available life forms in this earth. If there is anything excess in this nature, even any life forms including human species, by its own nature, bring in control of that excess item. If we observe closely enough, we can clearly perceive this from the historical events and the events happening now. On the other hand, everything in this nature is closely related with each other – with anything else in the nature.
Are we really aware of this fact? If so, we will not consume anything more than required from nature, which will bring in an imbalance in the nature itself. If we are really aware, we will not be doing anything which destroys the condition required for other living beings. If we are really aware, we will never waste any natural resources.
The fact is that, we do not have such awareness! We are over consuming. Not really consuming, but wasting! And the real fact is that we are killing ourselves and destroying conditions required for the future generations to survive due to this lack of perception.
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