I do not know the exact English word for பாவனை.Let me use the word expression to represent the word பாவனை for the purpose of this posting.
Each one of us is expressing ourselves in unique manner. We tend to take this expression as ourselves. In other words we create mental images of ourselves and others based on our/their expression. In this way, we refuse to see the real nature of human being, instead we tend to give all our attention to just the expressions which are based on the images we creates about us, others and environment – which never can be a truth, due to the very nature of the way those images are created within our mind. In other words, we gauge others based on these expressions appearing out of illusion and plan/direct our entire life based solely on these illusions. Of course, we have to have understanding of these expressions to carry on our day-to-day life to certain extent for our materialistic requirements, but the irony is that we make the foundation of our entire life onto these illusionary expressions.
If we look around, the problems of entire humanity (and beyond) are due to the expression of humanity. The expressions of others are the cause of our problems, the expression of ours are the cause of problems to others. The greatest man made disasters are due to the expressions of human beings, imaging themselves as intellectuals, knower of truth, saviour of society, revolutionist, spiritualist, and such limitless ways of expressions. Even writing this blog posting itself is certain way of expression based on certain images.
The real nature of human being is beyond all these expressions. If we want to see a real human being, we must look in to some body, stripping off their expressions. Is it possible for us to look into others stripping-off all their expressions? If we can do that, we know the entire humanity. Until then, our statement that I know my wife/husband/father/mother/son/daughter/friend/enemy/…. is just an illusion. We really don’t know any of them. We just know (very) few expressions of them towards us, which can change at any time either by itself or reaction to our expression towards them.
Our expressions also are reaction to the expressions of others, which can change at any time. Hence there is no way to predict how do we express ourselves at any point of time. In fact we are spending almost all our energy to shape our expressions based on certain images we have about society, culture and others. It is because neither we know ourselves nor know humanity without these expressions. Hence our entire energy is wasted on these expressions to live in a pool of expression, which is the only thing we know about.
What is the way out? How do we come out of the trap of expressions? Of course we have to have expressions to live our social life, but we should be free from those expressions by being aware of the trap of expressions, by being aware of the fact that the entire humanity is hidden behind these expressions, by being aware of the nature of humanity is entirely different from these expressions. Every one in humanity is exactly the same entity after stripping-off expressions from humanity – There is no difference between you and me, with respect to the foundation on which we are built.
The only way out is that we must strip-off our expressions and look into us as an individual. Is it possible for us to do that? Surely possible, but may be difficult, very, very difficult. It is difficult not because it is far away or it is with somebody else or we need the help of some unknown (to us) entity, may be called as God. It is difficult just because we are immersed deep within our expressions– expressions that are built upon our belief, fear, and so on, but not aware of them. If we are aware that our expressions are made up of our belief, fear, greed, lack of knowledge, etc., then we can possibly understand the nothingness of whatever our expressions – may it be the expression of educated, may it be the expression of kindness, may it be the expression of knowledge, may it be the expression of a spiritualist, may it be the expression of rationalist, may it be the expression of revolutionist, …………
The very understanding of nothingness of our expressions brings humbleness within us – the humbleness that is not just an expression, but very nature of humanity. Such an understanding burns away all our belief, fear, greed, hate, etc and we know ourselves with out our expressions. At this level we are aware that all our expressions are meaningless, yet we express ourselves as and when required.
When we know ourselves without our expressions, we will also know the entire humanity. The entire humanity must be just as we are. Only the expressions differentiate each one of us. At this level we are already free from our expressions, and hence must be free from the expressions of others also. The expressions of others will not affect us in any way and so are our own expressions. We express ourselves the way required yet completely free from all the expressions of the entire existence. That may be called as bliss!
PS: May I suggest the (Tamil) readers to have a look on the series of short stories posted on the web site of Tamil writer Mr. Jeyamaohan. This series started on 31-01-2011. For an involved reader, these short stories may revel the dimensions of human nature striped off of expressions (பாவனைகள்). the link for his web site is http://www.jeyamohan.in/
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Intelligence & Ego
The supreme intelligence - ability to be aware of our own intelligence, which is supposed be a gift to human being, has become a curse. In fact, we converted this gift into a curse by means of our ego.
Any thing happen with in us or out of us must have been due to our inherence intelligence. Ego is also an entity with in us and hence it must be due to our own intelligence. In other words, the illusionary entity called ego, takes its position within our mind space due to our inherent intelligence. Hence there must be a purpose for this illusionary entity called ego.
Ego is the growth driver for technical advancement in any culture and it is also the driver for destruction in any culture. If we are enjoying the comfort and luxury of today, the prime driver is ego – individual ego as well as group/social ego. Here the term ‘we’ may indicate less than 50% of human population in this world, who are comfortable enough to get at least their food every day. And ego is the prime driver for remaining population of world still struggling for their basic necessities. It may not have much relevance that on whose ego is this prime driver. For the mass killings and wars across the world, ego was the prime driver and will be. Of course there are exceptions. There were (must have been) people in the past, who transcended ego and worked for humanity in particular and existence in general. And there will be such people. But they are exceptions and may we call them as human beings!
We have to have the ‘I’ sense to the extent required for our survival. With out that ‘I’ sense, we can never get our food. When the survival for an instant is met, probably due to the struggle for survival at that instant, the ‘I’ sense with the help of our intelligence seek security for survival in next instant. All the comfort we are enjoying our life today is the result of this continuous seeking of security with our intelligence, which involves ego also.
The problem also arises with this seeking. We used our intelligence to seek security and find (physical) security in our life. But we failed to transcend the habit of animals which take away the food the other animal had collected for it. On our seeking of our security, like in the case of survival, we try to grab the material earned for the security of fellow human being. In other words, on one side we used our intelligence to gain materialistic security for future which is a human feature; on the other side we are using intelligence to grab the security of others, which is still the animal behaviour. To make it more precious, on one side we evolved from animal to human being to gain security for materialistic life, on the other side still we use the animal instinct towards grabbing the secured of fellow human being. That is, the particular field of intelligence which is supposed to be used for survival we are using the same field of intelligence for security, which is a contradiction. That is, in a place where we are supposed to be with human intelligence, we are superimposing the animal intelligence which is becoming source of contradiction and hence the result of all destructions in humanity.
As indicated in earlier posting, we can be called as humans only when we use our intelligence to the fullest extent. But unfortunately, at certain part of life we are using our human intelligence and certain other part of life we use animal intelligence which still exist with in us, and probably required for survival at certain level. This indicates we are not yet completely evolved as human being. In the sense, we are not using our intelligence gifted to us to understand and use animal instincts only when it is required to use and be aware of our human intelligence at all times. We are in between animals and human being, but having the complete potential of human being, in the sense we use human and animal intelligence with out being aware of any of these intelligence even though we are capable of being aware of our own intelligence. Due to the unawareness of our intelligence, there is always a contradiction between the human and animal part of us and this conflict fuel our ego. Now this ego becomes the centre point of all our sufferings. In short, the basic ‘I’ sense required for our survival becomes our ego due to the conflicts between our human and animal intelligence, and become source of our suffering.
If we still allow the earth to live for few more thousands of years with all our contradictions and conflicts, there may be a possibility where we completely evolve as human being. At that point of evolution, the then human beings may have sufficient capability and capable of being aware of their own intelligence so that they may know where to use the human intelligence and where to use the animal intelligence. There may be no conflicts within human beings and hence may be no psychological suffering!
Any thing happen with in us or out of us must have been due to our inherence intelligence. Ego is also an entity with in us and hence it must be due to our own intelligence. In other words, the illusionary entity called ego, takes its position within our mind space due to our inherent intelligence. Hence there must be a purpose for this illusionary entity called ego.
Ego is the growth driver for technical advancement in any culture and it is also the driver for destruction in any culture. If we are enjoying the comfort and luxury of today, the prime driver is ego – individual ego as well as group/social ego. Here the term ‘we’ may indicate less than 50% of human population in this world, who are comfortable enough to get at least their food every day. And ego is the prime driver for remaining population of world still struggling for their basic necessities. It may not have much relevance that on whose ego is this prime driver. For the mass killings and wars across the world, ego was the prime driver and will be. Of course there are exceptions. There were (must have been) people in the past, who transcended ego and worked for humanity in particular and existence in general. And there will be such people. But they are exceptions and may we call them as human beings!
We have to have the ‘I’ sense to the extent required for our survival. With out that ‘I’ sense, we can never get our food. When the survival for an instant is met, probably due to the struggle for survival at that instant, the ‘I’ sense with the help of our intelligence seek security for survival in next instant. All the comfort we are enjoying our life today is the result of this continuous seeking of security with our intelligence, which involves ego also.
The problem also arises with this seeking. We used our intelligence to seek security and find (physical) security in our life. But we failed to transcend the habit of animals which take away the food the other animal had collected for it. On our seeking of our security, like in the case of survival, we try to grab the material earned for the security of fellow human being. In other words, on one side we used our intelligence to gain materialistic security for future which is a human feature; on the other side we are using intelligence to grab the security of others, which is still the animal behaviour. To make it more precious, on one side we evolved from animal to human being to gain security for materialistic life, on the other side still we use the animal instinct towards grabbing the secured of fellow human being. That is, the particular field of intelligence which is supposed to be used for survival we are using the same field of intelligence for security, which is a contradiction. That is, in a place where we are supposed to be with human intelligence, we are superimposing the animal intelligence which is becoming source of contradiction and hence the result of all destructions in humanity.
As indicated in earlier posting, we can be called as humans only when we use our intelligence to the fullest extent. But unfortunately, at certain part of life we are using our human intelligence and certain other part of life we use animal intelligence which still exist with in us, and probably required for survival at certain level. This indicates we are not yet completely evolved as human being. In the sense, we are not using our intelligence gifted to us to understand and use animal instincts only when it is required to use and be aware of our human intelligence at all times. We are in between animals and human being, but having the complete potential of human being, in the sense we use human and animal intelligence with out being aware of any of these intelligence even though we are capable of being aware of our own intelligence. Due to the unawareness of our intelligence, there is always a contradiction between the human and animal part of us and this conflict fuel our ego. Now this ego becomes the centre point of all our sufferings. In short, the basic ‘I’ sense required for our survival becomes our ego due to the conflicts between our human and animal intelligence, and become source of our suffering.
If we still allow the earth to live for few more thousands of years with all our contradictions and conflicts, there may be a possibility where we completely evolve as human being. At that point of evolution, the then human beings may have sufficient capability and capable of being aware of their own intelligence so that they may know where to use the human intelligence and where to use the animal intelligence. There may be no conflicts within human beings and hence may be no psychological suffering!
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Intelligence
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!
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 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.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Meditation & Rituals
Rituals are integral part of any culture; for that, culture is a result of human tendency to evolve. Rituals may still existing in their original form since their inception or transformed into a new form as the culture moves on or the essence of the ritual might have washed away by the flow of culture and just a representation is left behind. What is ritual? What could be the expected outcome of rituals? If we are performing any rituals, we should be asking these questions – if at all we claim ourselves as educated or knowledgeable! Unfortunately, seldom we enquire about such abstract and subtle things. Even if enquired, we create our own answers based on what we think and heard from others, and then start believing that answer; any belief is a blind belief.
The below description could be a description of rituals and its intention. Like the out come of any other enquiry, it is a deduction. It may or may not be having any relevance to truth. As long as we are clear about this, the trueness or falseness of this deduction does not matter, we will reach the real intention of rituals. But if we just believe or reject this deduction or any other description we are also rejecting the truth. This could be a complex statement!
For human being, the mind is a gift (also a curse!). Any one person, any where in the world, belongs to any culture and try to understand oneself, mind is the only vehicle available for such investigation and mind is the only additional instrument than other animals in this earth. Hence if one intend to reach or learn the extreme possibility of evolution it should be through the vehicle of mind only. This investigation has created so many religions in this world. All the religions in this world must have started from at least one such investigating mind. In other words mind must be the happening point of every thing for human being and mind is the space where all our living takes place and this living is expressed thru’ our actions.
Once we understand a little bit of our mind and it’s functioning with respect to living, looks like, the mind is capable of digging towards the ultimate knowledge, may be inch by inch or atom by atom. Hence invoking the mind towards this knowledge must be the first step towards understanding life and living. How to invoke the mind towards this understanding, which has evolved slowly to this state since the creation of world (if there was a creation) and have unlimited blocks with in it during this evolutionary journey? Rituals may be a mechanism of invoking our mind for higher knowledge. Mind can get in to higher knowledge only when meditation happens upon it. In other words rituals must be for invoking meditation.
Our mind is made up of symbols and images. These symbols and images together constitute our language and communication. For example, when we see a tree the mind records that information as an image based on the qualities the mind perceives about the tree and a word or symbol to represent that tree - the qualities perceived by the mind cannot be the complete qualities of a tree, but a few outer and perceivable qualities. Now, if we see a tree the mind associates it with the word and if we hear or see the word “tree” the mind associate it with the image we have about the tree. In other words, the symbols always invoke the image with in mind. Symbols can associate only with the images not the real – this is one of a subtle philosophical concept at higher plane.
Our sense organs are the instruments to get these images and symbols into mind. But the capabilities of our senses are very limited. We are also limiting ourselves within the reach of these sense organs in our way of living even though we have another instrument called mind. Of course, we are using our mind for entangling with these symbols and images, not for gain freedom from these symbols and images in our way of living. We know how we are joyful when we get freedom from being a salve with in social set up. If we can properly associate the word freedom to the image of freedom, we can understand the limitless joy one can have when we gain freedom from symbols and images also.
When meditation happens, the mind will be capable of perceiving nothingness which is beyond the capability of sense organs. Perceiving nothingness may be some thing like the state of perception where neither the symbols nor the images are involved. Probably one may not be able to explain such a perception directly as it does not contained within any symbols or images. Yet, there is a need to communicate it to others so that the mind of others also can be invoked for such a capability. When the perception excludes the images which are always far away from real and the symbols representing the images, such a perception must be a pure perception – the perception of nothingness.
Rituals must be devised for stimulating the mind to have such a perception. Rituals may be the external symbols which represent more subtle things happen within our life or within existence. By perceiving the symbol in action by the senses, the mind must be stimulated to perceive the unperceivable by sense organs. Unless one gets such a mental stimulation by performing a ritual, the ritual does not have any meaning. One must perform the ritual only with the understanding that the rituals are to be transcended. Once capable of reaching meditativeness, the rituals must be abandoned. If not it becomes a trap. Being in this trap neither we get the mental stimulation expected out of performing rituals.
Every mind cannot be stimulated by rituals. The minds with certain composition can only be stimulated by rituals. For such minds which cannot be stimulated by rituals, there is no meaning for rituals. Such minds must avoid performing any rituals if have the desire to perceive nothingness or meditation to happen within that mind.
The below description could be a description of rituals and its intention. Like the out come of any other enquiry, it is a deduction. It may or may not be having any relevance to truth. As long as we are clear about this, the trueness or falseness of this deduction does not matter, we will reach the real intention of rituals. But if we just believe or reject this deduction or any other description we are also rejecting the truth. This could be a complex statement!
For human being, the mind is a gift (also a curse!). Any one person, any where in the world, belongs to any culture and try to understand oneself, mind is the only vehicle available for such investigation and mind is the only additional instrument than other animals in this earth. Hence if one intend to reach or learn the extreme possibility of evolution it should be through the vehicle of mind only. This investigation has created so many religions in this world. All the religions in this world must have started from at least one such investigating mind. In other words mind must be the happening point of every thing for human being and mind is the space where all our living takes place and this living is expressed thru’ our actions.
Once we understand a little bit of our mind and it’s functioning with respect to living, looks like, the mind is capable of digging towards the ultimate knowledge, may be inch by inch or atom by atom. Hence invoking the mind towards this knowledge must be the first step towards understanding life and living. How to invoke the mind towards this understanding, which has evolved slowly to this state since the creation of world (if there was a creation) and have unlimited blocks with in it during this evolutionary journey? Rituals may be a mechanism of invoking our mind for higher knowledge. Mind can get in to higher knowledge only when meditation happens upon it. In other words rituals must be for invoking meditation.
Our mind is made up of symbols and images. These symbols and images together constitute our language and communication. For example, when we see a tree the mind records that information as an image based on the qualities the mind perceives about the tree and a word or symbol to represent that tree - the qualities perceived by the mind cannot be the complete qualities of a tree, but a few outer and perceivable qualities. Now, if we see a tree the mind associates it with the word and if we hear or see the word “tree” the mind associate it with the image we have about the tree. In other words, the symbols always invoke the image with in mind. Symbols can associate only with the images not the real – this is one of a subtle philosophical concept at higher plane.
Our sense organs are the instruments to get these images and symbols into mind. But the capabilities of our senses are very limited. We are also limiting ourselves within the reach of these sense organs in our way of living even though we have another instrument called mind. Of course, we are using our mind for entangling with these symbols and images, not for gain freedom from these symbols and images in our way of living. We know how we are joyful when we get freedom from being a salve with in social set up. If we can properly associate the word freedom to the image of freedom, we can understand the limitless joy one can have when we gain freedom from symbols and images also.
When meditation happens, the mind will be capable of perceiving nothingness which is beyond the capability of sense organs. Perceiving nothingness may be some thing like the state of perception where neither the symbols nor the images are involved. Probably one may not be able to explain such a perception directly as it does not contained within any symbols or images. Yet, there is a need to communicate it to others so that the mind of others also can be invoked for such a capability. When the perception excludes the images which are always far away from real and the symbols representing the images, such a perception must be a pure perception – the perception of nothingness.
Rituals must be devised for stimulating the mind to have such a perception. Rituals may be the external symbols which represent more subtle things happen within our life or within existence. By perceiving the symbol in action by the senses, the mind must be stimulated to perceive the unperceivable by sense organs. Unless one gets such a mental stimulation by performing a ritual, the ritual does not have any meaning. One must perform the ritual only with the understanding that the rituals are to be transcended. Once capable of reaching meditativeness, the rituals must be abandoned. If not it becomes a trap. Being in this trap neither we get the mental stimulation expected out of performing rituals.
Every mind cannot be stimulated by rituals. The minds with certain composition can only be stimulated by rituals. For such minds which cannot be stimulated by rituals, there is no meaning for rituals. Such minds must avoid performing any rituals if have the desire to perceive nothingness or meditation to happen within that mind.
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