The word ‘intelligence’ is normally attributed to the logical capability of mind in general sense. The same word is also used in spiritual sense. In spiritual sense, the word Intelligence is having an entirely different meaning. It may not connect with the general meaning attributed to this word.
Any thing in this existence is having its own intelligence. The ‘thing’ may be at sub atomic level, at atomic level, at molecular level, at living being level, at planet level, at galaxy level or at any other higher unit available. Understanding intelligence in this context may be a tough task. Intelligence may be the ability to maintain integrity of object under question. The intelligence of an atom is to hold its building blocks at its correct position and hence maintain its integrity as an atom – proton, neutron, positron… and such particles at its nucleus and the electrons at their respective orbits. The atom as a unit uses its intelligence to keep the sub atomic particles at their location and letting/making them to do their function, for example, electrons to revolve around the nucleus at specified orbits, at specified directions. It is the intelligence of atom, maintains its integrity.
We know molecules are the combination of two or more atoms. Now molecules have additional intelligence – to keep the constituent atoms together and function with a different quality than that of its constituents. This additional intelligence must be the result of the integration of intelligence of constituent atoms. In other words, the intelligence of molecule is the result of combination of the intelligence of constituent atoms, which may be entirely different from that of the constituents.
What is a living being? How is it different from non-living being? How a living being-gains its intelligence? And what is the intelligence of a living being? Possibly, these might be the basic question we all might had at one or the other point of time in our life, but we might have buried them deep within our mind due to many reasons which may be unique to every one of us. If we choose to be turning inwards at any point of time in our life, for sure, these questions surface again on the peripheral of our mind. We must find an answer – the answer, for sure, depend on our knowledge at that point of time. Our knowledge is limited and hence the answer we get also will have its own limitation. We must be aware of this limitation, when we carry on further with this answer – if not, the turning inward may become turning towards illusions.
A living being is one, which forms itself from its constituting components, grow and sustain it self by consuming energy from outside, create conditions for procreation and finally disintegrate itself. The observable fact in general are that ‘it consumes energy and grows itself’, ‘it procreates’ and ‘it disintegrate itself’, which are seems to be the differentiators of living beings with non-living beings.
A living being is constituted of certain combination of molecules, so that the resultant intelligence is capable of consuming energy, use that energy for growing and procreation, and die out after that particular intelligence disappear. The level of intelligence may be more and more when the living entity goes up and up in the evolution ladder. We, human being are at the top of this evolution ladder (may be with in earth) and hence the top of intelligence. This intelligence may be the capability of being aware of our own intelligence. There are possibilities that the animals just below us in the evolution ladder may be having the capability of being aware of certain part of their own intelligence (just a possibility), but we have the ability to be aware of our complete intelligence. The awareness of our own intelligence may be termed as ‘Knowledge’ in spiritual context.
How this intelligence is built into our system? Our body is constituted by various combinations of cells. These cells are constituted by certain combination of molecules. Hence the cells must be having certain intelligence based on the intelligence of constituting molecules. Finally we get our intelligence from the resultant intelligence of the combination of individual intelligence of all the cells in our body. We never attribute our intelligence to the cells of our body, but we claim the resultant intelligence is ours.
If we move a step further, society is the next level of individual human beings. We, a group of human being together form a society. A society is an entity. Hence, the society must also have intelligence. The intelligence of society is nothing but the result of interaction happen with the intelligence of constituents of that society. That is, the result of integration of intelligence of us constitutes the intelligence of society. Coming back to the definition of intelligence, the society has the ability to maintain integrity of it based on the intelligence of us – we are constituent of society. It is like the intelligence of cells in our body together constitutes our intelligence. When our intelligence is not utilised/exposed/used at individual level, the intelligence of society is also not utilised/exposed/used to the level of possibility of intelligence. When we say the either society is in order or not in order, we ourselves are either in order or not in order. Probably we say we are in order, but others who constitute the society are not in order for a disorderly society. When our body is in chaos, the cells in our body probably perceive it and attribute the chaos to other cells – may be even the cells which are the reason for this chaos may also perceive the chaos as a result of disorder of other cells!
What is the purpose of being aware of our intelligence? Probably, we may be able to keep our integrity only when we use our intelligence to its maximum possibility. Only in such case, we may be considered as human being. An atom is an atom as long as it keeps its integrity by associating all its components with its intelligence. A molecule is called as molecule when it keeps it integrity with all its constituents for which uses all its intelligence. A cell is called as cell as long as it keeps its integrity with all its constituting molecules/atoms. So are we!
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
The origin of Ego
Ego, the entity created by mind, takes its position with in mind space. Ego must have been planted within our mind, even before our birth, may be at the time of formation of our brain. Hence it must have been transmitted from our parents. In other words, it must have been started its transmission from the first human being, who started to think and created ego. That is, an illusionary entity embedded into the human metabolism and continuing for thousands of years.
Now the question may be, is it possible for an illusionary entity being carried over from generation to generation for thousands of generations? One may draw innumerable answers for this question based on the (bonded) knowledge one is having. If one have sufficient freedom from ones own knowledge, one will surely consider all such answers drawn for this question are possibilities, but entirely rely on observable facts. Even the observable facts differ from person to person based on sensitivity and composition of brain/mind of the individual. This is one of the very basic facts to understand for those who are approaching spirituality in the route of knowledge.
No two persons perceive the same object/subject in the same way. What ever perceived is expressed by words. Due to the limitations of language and words, two may express the perception of same object/subject in similar manner. But this is due to the limitation of language and hence the limitation of expression. In other words, the expression is not the expressed or the experienced.
Coming back to the question of ego, an illusionary entity can not be carried from generation to generation. If so, it is not illusion. It must be real. But it is very obvious that ego is nothing but all our so called qualities like dependency, attachment, anger, envy, pride, knowledge and all such psychological entities and for sure non of them are real. When the constituent of content is not real, the content must not be also real. Hence the possibility is that, the ego might not have been transmitted from generation to generation, but the seed for ego is transmitted from generation to generation.
What is this seed of ego? The survival instinct must be the seed. Survival instinct is there with each child as soon as it is born. Or, the survival instinct is transmitted from generation to generation, for all living beings. The ‘I’ sense is required for our survival. Not only for us, for any living being. The ‘I’ sense is required for any living being to get its food, to protect from enemies, to procreate and such essential functions of life. Another way of expressing it is that the brain already has the composition to create ego, for survival purpose. Later, in addition to survival purpose, the ego keep on expanding due to some factors, which we may have to understand to arrest further expansion of ego and dissolving the ego other than the component which is required for physical survival. If we dissolve the ego completely, the life may end there!
We human, have a more advanced social structure compared to that of animals which live in group. This social structure gives more protection for us physically and to be within that social structure, we need to have certain possessions. To live this life within this social structure, we have to be consciousness of this social structure and the activities required from us to fit into that social structure. This consciousness is put together by thoughts. With out thoughts, there is no consciousness and hence we can not live a social life. Hence thoughts have an unavoidable role in our life.
This looks like a contradictory statement. All along it is said that thought creates and secure ego and thought is the root cause of all our sufferings. Now it becomes different! This is because thought has two planes or dimensions in which it is functioning. One is in the physical plane and the other is in the psychological plane. For sure, thoughts have to function in the physical plane to live our life. The thoughts in psychological plane create all our suffering as well as pleasure. It is the psychological domain of thoughts which should be renounced to renounce suffering.
How to distinguish between these two types of thoughts? It may not be possible to express in black and white. The individual, based on his own perception and awareness, probably with a bit of guidance if available, has to find out oneself. No other alternative. Knowledge (yet with sufficient freedom from knowledge) is the tool for that!
Now the question may be, is it possible for an illusionary entity being carried over from generation to generation for thousands of generations? One may draw innumerable answers for this question based on the (bonded) knowledge one is having. If one have sufficient freedom from ones own knowledge, one will surely consider all such answers drawn for this question are possibilities, but entirely rely on observable facts. Even the observable facts differ from person to person based on sensitivity and composition of brain/mind of the individual. This is one of the very basic facts to understand for those who are approaching spirituality in the route of knowledge.
No two persons perceive the same object/subject in the same way. What ever perceived is expressed by words. Due to the limitations of language and words, two may express the perception of same object/subject in similar manner. But this is due to the limitation of language and hence the limitation of expression. In other words, the expression is not the expressed or the experienced.
Coming back to the question of ego, an illusionary entity can not be carried from generation to generation. If so, it is not illusion. It must be real. But it is very obvious that ego is nothing but all our so called qualities like dependency, attachment, anger, envy, pride, knowledge and all such psychological entities and for sure non of them are real. When the constituent of content is not real, the content must not be also real. Hence the possibility is that, the ego might not have been transmitted from generation to generation, but the seed for ego is transmitted from generation to generation.
What is this seed of ego? The survival instinct must be the seed. Survival instinct is there with each child as soon as it is born. Or, the survival instinct is transmitted from generation to generation, for all living beings. The ‘I’ sense is required for our survival. Not only for us, for any living being. The ‘I’ sense is required for any living being to get its food, to protect from enemies, to procreate and such essential functions of life. Another way of expressing it is that the brain already has the composition to create ego, for survival purpose. Later, in addition to survival purpose, the ego keep on expanding due to some factors, which we may have to understand to arrest further expansion of ego and dissolving the ego other than the component which is required for physical survival. If we dissolve the ego completely, the life may end there!
We human, have a more advanced social structure compared to that of animals which live in group. This social structure gives more protection for us physically and to be within that social structure, we need to have certain possessions. To live this life within this social structure, we have to be consciousness of this social structure and the activities required from us to fit into that social structure. This consciousness is put together by thoughts. With out thoughts, there is no consciousness and hence we can not live a social life. Hence thoughts have an unavoidable role in our life.
This looks like a contradictory statement. All along it is said that thought creates and secure ego and thought is the root cause of all our sufferings. Now it becomes different! This is because thought has two planes or dimensions in which it is functioning. One is in the physical plane and the other is in the psychological plane. For sure, thoughts have to function in the physical plane to live our life. The thoughts in psychological plane create all our suffering as well as pleasure. It is the psychological domain of thoughts which should be renounced to renounce suffering.
How to distinguish between these two types of thoughts? It may not be possible to express in black and white. The individual, based on his own perception and awareness, probably with a bit of guidance if available, has to find out oneself. No other alternative. Knowledge (yet with sufficient freedom from knowledge) is the tool for that!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Ego & Living
Ego is the cause of all our psychological suffering. Ego is an illusionary entity and so is our suffering. This means, we ourselves are illusionary entities living an illusionary life. In other words, we are real but create an illusionary entity called ego and following/living a life of that illusionary entity and calling it as our life. In this following, we forget or fail to recognise our real self and hence the real life.
So, what looks like a real life? Can we imagine a life where we don’t have any thoughts centred on the “I” or “Me” or “My”. One possibility is that we may see total psychological emptiness with out ego. This emptiness may be so vast that the real time events keep on flowing into this emptiness, still it remains as emptiness without ego. In other words if we can comprehend this emptiness, the reality keeps unwind itself within our mind space or with in that vast emptiness. Another possibility is that we see our mind with out ego as completely filled and active. This fullness does not need any thing from outside. It is self encompassing and remains as active as sun, glowing till the last drop of fuel remains. Both of these possibilities may be just our imagination or primitive expressions of a life without ego depend on how we perceive our own mind. And such an expression could be any thing else.
A real life is one where there is no mismatch or conflict between the way we are living and the way we want to live – the thoughts. In other words, a real life is when we perceive life as it is with out the influence of thoughts. When there is a conflict between the two, we are not actually living, but our life is dragged by the forces which are beyond our control and hence there is a constant conflict. In this conflict, we never recognise living, but recognise the conflict and our fight to overcome this conflict. We may be having very few moments of recognising living, but that is overshadowed by our thoughts about conflicts.
We can live our life only when the conflict between real and what we want to be are minimal. When this conflict is minimal, thoughts in our mind also are proportionally minimal. When thoughts are minimal, the boosting-up of ego is also minimal. When the activity of ego is minimal, there shall not be any additional wants to be. In other words, the wrapping over ego starts unwind itself as the conflict between real and what we want to be are minimised. When we start moving away from our life of illusion to real life, the ego also becomes thinner and thinner. Knowledge (yet free from knowledge) is essential to free the illusions in our life. More specifically, for logical minds and materialistic minds, knowledge is the tool. In our social structure almost all the individuals are with logical or materialistic mind. There may be a very few exceptions. Hence in general, knowledge is a key factor to free oneself from illusionary life. Knowledge should be used as the toll at least to the extent one transcends the logical or materialistic component of mind. With out transcending this component of mind (if exists), there is no way of tasting real life.
We will be able to understand the existence of ego only when we are educated in real sense, only when we are learned. Learning is understanding life. Education is the process of understanding life. The academic education is far away from true learning, academic education seems to be just take care of our earnings. To understand ego, one must learn the life very deeply. It is very easy to read the learning of others, understand it as a concept and consider this conceptual understanding as our learning. It is not learning - it is just copying or conceptualising. Possibly we can consider the learning of others to speed-up our own learning. But copying or reflecting the learning of others can never become our own learning. In fact such conceptualisation drags us away from reality.
When we are really learned, we will be able to understand the functioning of mind – the boon for human being which has become a curse to major part of human population. We understand that living is a function of mind. Physical body is just existence, but living is a function of mind. The living can be either real or illusionary. When the ego disappears, the living approaches real living. In either case, unless we are learned, we can not distinguish between a real and illusionary life. If there is a question arises, we never consider our life as an illusionary one. In fact, we do not know it. But it could very well be a starting point for enquiry.
If we are really learned, the learning process itself reveals the existence of ego with in our mind space. Living is also with in same mind space. When ego is dominant with in mind space, it takes away the space for living and when we are actually living, ego disappears from mind. Hence the path for spirituality now seems to be open ended. That is by means of knowledge eliminate ego, living remains in mind space, or live actually by some means, ego disappears from mind space and living remains in mind space. And possibly approaching spirituality from both the ends may be easier to achieve!
So, what looks like a real life? Can we imagine a life where we don’t have any thoughts centred on the “I” or “Me” or “My”. One possibility is that we may see total psychological emptiness with out ego. This emptiness may be so vast that the real time events keep on flowing into this emptiness, still it remains as emptiness without ego. In other words if we can comprehend this emptiness, the reality keeps unwind itself within our mind space or with in that vast emptiness. Another possibility is that we see our mind with out ego as completely filled and active. This fullness does not need any thing from outside. It is self encompassing and remains as active as sun, glowing till the last drop of fuel remains. Both of these possibilities may be just our imagination or primitive expressions of a life without ego depend on how we perceive our own mind. And such an expression could be any thing else.
A real life is one where there is no mismatch or conflict between the way we are living and the way we want to live – the thoughts. In other words, a real life is when we perceive life as it is with out the influence of thoughts. When there is a conflict between the two, we are not actually living, but our life is dragged by the forces which are beyond our control and hence there is a constant conflict. In this conflict, we never recognise living, but recognise the conflict and our fight to overcome this conflict. We may be having very few moments of recognising living, but that is overshadowed by our thoughts about conflicts.
We can live our life only when the conflict between real and what we want to be are minimal. When this conflict is minimal, thoughts in our mind also are proportionally minimal. When thoughts are minimal, the boosting-up of ego is also minimal. When the activity of ego is minimal, there shall not be any additional wants to be. In other words, the wrapping over ego starts unwind itself as the conflict between real and what we want to be are minimised. When we start moving away from our life of illusion to real life, the ego also becomes thinner and thinner. Knowledge (yet free from knowledge) is essential to free the illusions in our life. More specifically, for logical minds and materialistic minds, knowledge is the tool. In our social structure almost all the individuals are with logical or materialistic mind. There may be a very few exceptions. Hence in general, knowledge is a key factor to free oneself from illusionary life. Knowledge should be used as the toll at least to the extent one transcends the logical or materialistic component of mind. With out transcending this component of mind (if exists), there is no way of tasting real life.
We will be able to understand the existence of ego only when we are educated in real sense, only when we are learned. Learning is understanding life. Education is the process of understanding life. The academic education is far away from true learning, academic education seems to be just take care of our earnings. To understand ego, one must learn the life very deeply. It is very easy to read the learning of others, understand it as a concept and consider this conceptual understanding as our learning. It is not learning - it is just copying or conceptualising. Possibly we can consider the learning of others to speed-up our own learning. But copying or reflecting the learning of others can never become our own learning. In fact such conceptualisation drags us away from reality.
When we are really learned, we will be able to understand the functioning of mind – the boon for human being which has become a curse to major part of human population. We understand that living is a function of mind. Physical body is just existence, but living is a function of mind. The living can be either real or illusionary. When the ego disappears, the living approaches real living. In either case, unless we are learned, we can not distinguish between a real and illusionary life. If there is a question arises, we never consider our life as an illusionary one. In fact, we do not know it. But it could very well be a starting point for enquiry.
If we are really learned, the learning process itself reveals the existence of ego with in our mind space. Living is also with in same mind space. When ego is dominant with in mind space, it takes away the space for living and when we are actually living, ego disappears from mind. Hence the path for spirituality now seems to be open ended. That is by means of knowledge eliminate ego, living remains in mind space, or live actually by some means, ego disappears from mind space and living remains in mind space. And possibly approaching spirituality from both the ends may be easier to achieve!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Meditation & Ego
Where there is meditation ego is not and where there is ego meditation is not. Any religion or spiritual path must be leading the follower to egoless state, if that religion or path is practiced in its real sense. Whatever form of religions we are witnessing today might be the outcome of following images created by these religions rather than practicing the religions. (Probably, the term ‘religion’ needs to be understood in right context)
Meditation is possible when the mind reaches a standstill state– Standstill with respect to thoughts. This is the point where the mind is extremely sensitive to any thing and every thing. With this sensitivity, the mind can recognise all noises sensed by ear, all light sensed by eyes, all smells sensed by nose, all sensation of our skin and even the sensation of all nerves in our body, but react to none of them. Only when the mind is free from thoughts and being aware of such a thoughtless state, at least for a short duration, it can understand the possibility of such a sensitive mind. Meditativness is having such sensitivity and awareness. Any religion, if we look into the core concept, must be aimed for helping human beings to progress towards such a state of mind where the sensitivity of mind is at its peak and hence the awareness. Any philosophy must be for transcending the fluctuations of mind by understanding existence by means of logic.
Ego is the originator of thoughts. Whenever there is a domination of “I” or “Me” or “My” within mind space, the ego is active and the activities of mind are centred at this ego. At this point, the mind loses sensitivity towards any of its activities other than that support the ego. It is clearly evident from simple observation of people around us. As the people are more self cantered, they least recognise the problems of others, they least recognise the discomfort caused by them to others, they least recognise any thing about even themselves which are not supporting the existence of their ego. On the contrary, they are highly sensitive about any thing which supports the growth of their ego. They are very sensitive in reading between lines and words, if the lines and words are affecting their ego in any way. In other words such people have lost their sensitivity about any thing else other than their own illusionary ego, or they have lost sensitivity towards any thing real in this vast world. Almost every one of us is in such a state (possible with very, very few exceptions). We are sensitive to only the images. We lost sensitivity towards real. Meditation happens only when we have at least some sensitivity towards real, which is possible only when we understand our current sensitiveness is only towards images or illusions, which is nothing but insensitivity.
One will be able to forgo ego only when one is aware of this entity called ‘ego’. In this regard, the current state of materialistic evolution can be considered as an evolution towards recognising ego. Until a couple of generations ago, at least in our social set up, social mind played important role than individual mind. That is the social ego is dominant than individual ego. This must be mainly due to the need for dependency for physical survival. Now with the establishment of governments and, law and order, we no more have such dependency with others for physical survival. Hence the social structure is undergoing a revamping, incorporating this independency. That is, slowly the individual ego is overtaking social ego. This is more evident with population in cities where the social dependence is very minimal and where the social dependencies can be replaced by economical or financial dependency. Even though there are some social egos are active with respect to religion, caste, language, region, country, etc. they can be easily overridden by individual ego due to least dependency with such entities for our survival. Any body over emphasis on these entities are still deeply depending on these entities for their survival at the psychological level, and politicians exploit these psychological dependencies for their physical dependency.
The next step in evolution of human being may be recognising this ego within oneself. Probably, it will happen slowly over many generations after we become and tiered of being extremely selfish due to our ego, if we still not destroyed this earth out of our selfishness!
One must be selfish, if one wants to be free from ego. The desire to be free from ego may be the king of all desires. Any desire is out of selfishness. Even the desire of helping others is due to selfishness as one finds self-satisfaction out of this helping. Same is the case with desire to be free from ego! Also need courage to pursue this selfishness. If one is away from selfishness, this desire and longing might dries up and hence the ego is still there. But that cannot happen. As long as the component of ego is present, the component of selfishness is also there. Only with awareness of this ego and selfishness, one will be able to transcend ego/selfishness. Once the ego is dissolved, there is no self and hence no selfishness. In other words, the selfishness disappears along with ego but have to be selfish to dissolve ego and be aware of this selfishness! Meditation, when it really happens, takes away ego and selfishness. At this level, whatever one does, the component of selfishness may not exist there.
Meditation is possible when the mind reaches a standstill state– Standstill with respect to thoughts. This is the point where the mind is extremely sensitive to any thing and every thing. With this sensitivity, the mind can recognise all noises sensed by ear, all light sensed by eyes, all smells sensed by nose, all sensation of our skin and even the sensation of all nerves in our body, but react to none of them. Only when the mind is free from thoughts and being aware of such a thoughtless state, at least for a short duration, it can understand the possibility of such a sensitive mind. Meditativness is having such sensitivity and awareness. Any religion, if we look into the core concept, must be aimed for helping human beings to progress towards such a state of mind where the sensitivity of mind is at its peak and hence the awareness. Any philosophy must be for transcending the fluctuations of mind by understanding existence by means of logic.
Ego is the originator of thoughts. Whenever there is a domination of “I” or “Me” or “My” within mind space, the ego is active and the activities of mind are centred at this ego. At this point, the mind loses sensitivity towards any of its activities other than that support the ego. It is clearly evident from simple observation of people around us. As the people are more self cantered, they least recognise the problems of others, they least recognise the discomfort caused by them to others, they least recognise any thing about even themselves which are not supporting the existence of their ego. On the contrary, they are highly sensitive about any thing which supports the growth of their ego. They are very sensitive in reading between lines and words, if the lines and words are affecting their ego in any way. In other words such people have lost their sensitivity about any thing else other than their own illusionary ego, or they have lost sensitivity towards any thing real in this vast world. Almost every one of us is in such a state (possible with very, very few exceptions). We are sensitive to only the images. We lost sensitivity towards real. Meditation happens only when we have at least some sensitivity towards real, which is possible only when we understand our current sensitiveness is only towards images or illusions, which is nothing but insensitivity.
One will be able to forgo ego only when one is aware of this entity called ‘ego’. In this regard, the current state of materialistic evolution can be considered as an evolution towards recognising ego. Until a couple of generations ago, at least in our social set up, social mind played important role than individual mind. That is the social ego is dominant than individual ego. This must be mainly due to the need for dependency for physical survival. Now with the establishment of governments and, law and order, we no more have such dependency with others for physical survival. Hence the social structure is undergoing a revamping, incorporating this independency. That is, slowly the individual ego is overtaking social ego. This is more evident with population in cities where the social dependence is very minimal and where the social dependencies can be replaced by economical or financial dependency. Even though there are some social egos are active with respect to religion, caste, language, region, country, etc. they can be easily overridden by individual ego due to least dependency with such entities for our survival. Any body over emphasis on these entities are still deeply depending on these entities for their survival at the psychological level, and politicians exploit these psychological dependencies for their physical dependency.
The next step in evolution of human being may be recognising this ego within oneself. Probably, it will happen slowly over many generations after we become and tiered of being extremely selfish due to our ego, if we still not destroyed this earth out of our selfishness!
One must be selfish, if one wants to be free from ego. The desire to be free from ego may be the king of all desires. Any desire is out of selfishness. Even the desire of helping others is due to selfishness as one finds self-satisfaction out of this helping. Same is the case with desire to be free from ego! Also need courage to pursue this selfishness. If one is away from selfishness, this desire and longing might dries up and hence the ego is still there. But that cannot happen. As long as the component of ego is present, the component of selfishness is also there. Only with awareness of this ego and selfishness, one will be able to transcend ego/selfishness. Once the ego is dissolved, there is no self and hence no selfishness. In other words, the selfishness disappears along with ego but have to be selfish to dissolve ego and be aware of this selfishness! Meditation, when it really happens, takes away ego and selfishness. At this level, whatever one does, the component of selfishness may not exist there.
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