abhaygupta

The Architecture of Mind


In Gita Chapter VI Arjuna expresses his difficulty to Krsna,

‘The mind is restless, turbulent, obstinate and very strong, O Krsna,
and to subdue it, I think, is more difficult than controlling the wind.’

English language has no equivalent for the mind as described in our scriptures where it is called antahkarana.

Before we embark upon understanding the mind, we may recall the difference between an instrument and a sensor. A thermometer measures temperature; it is an instrument to measure temperature. An intelligent thermometer is a sensor called a thermostat – not only does it measure the temperature, it has some intelligence of its own which triggers some further action. Our five senses are of the nature of instruments while the mind is of the nature of sensor; it has its own limited intelligence.

Antahkarana has three distinct components, manas (mind), buddhi (intellect) and ahamkaar (ego). Each of these components has its peculiar characteristic. These sensors work in an integrated mode with a lot of cross-term synthesis of information.

Manas has two characteristics – raag and dwesha (attachment and aversion). Patanjali describes them as - That which experiences pleasure is raag and that which experiences pain is dwesha [Sukhanushi raga, dukhanushi dwesha]. The cause of our likes and dislikes, our desires and our hatred is the Manas.

Buddhi has a single characteristic – avidya (ignorance).

Ego’s characteristic is Asmita (false identity).

Stand in front of the mirror and look at your image. Now visualize that the image says that it (the image) is the truth of your existence. Will such an argument be correct? Can you, the object whose image the mirror is reflecting, really do anything about such an expression from the mirror? This is asmita at work.

Activity III that you did at the end of the previous blog was a representation of these characteristics of your antahkarana. Let us recall:

The list of things you like to do was an expression of raag,

The list of things things you do not like to do was an expression of dwesha,
Being satisfied with the current level of knowledge is an expression of avidya. Unwillingness to explore into the yet unknown is the result of dynamic interaction of the manas, avidya and ahamkaar.

The list of things you feel convinced about was an expression of ego.

A Glimpse Into The Nature of Mind

It has tremendous speed. Close your eyes and direct your mind to a place thousands of miles away. The mind reaches that place in the shortest frame of time!

It distorts the truth. The mind is forever in a state of movement. Movement is its nature. If the surface is calm the reflection will be nearly true, but when the surface is not still the truth is lost, just like the moon reflected gets distorted in the second slide.

The Confusion about Truth

……………………………… This nature of Truth, of being unchanging and eternal, of being forever present, is the biggest hurdle in realizing it.

The problem is compounded because of the language. The Truth is referred to differently in different spheres of enquiry. In religion it is ‘God’, in philosophy the same is called ‘Truth’, in spirituality it is called ‘Self’. In the field of science it is the yet-unrealized aspiration of Einstein in the form of ‘The Unified Field Theory’ or Stephen Hawkings’ ‘Theory of Everything’; if only these great scientists ever had an opportunity to study Indian scriptures or under the tutelage of Indian Masters they would have beeen dumbfounded and awe-struck; the Upanishads are nothing but their elusive theory. The Mundaka Upanishada deals with this specific question; Shaunaka, a householder in search of the Truth asks Sage Angiras, ‘What is that by knowing which everything is known?’ The sage thereafter expounds on ‘The Theory of Everything’ to the disciple.

A New Approach to Misery

Approaches to a Problem

There can be many ways to tackle a problem. Two diametrically opposite methods can be a Western Approach and an Eastern Approach. The Western Approach is directed at finding answers to an identified problem. The Eastern Approach does not seek to find answers, instead it stares into the problem; the answer appears in its own time. The advantage of the Eastern Approach is that the answer is not limited by the knowledge of the individual. Einstein was limited in his enquiry when he adopted the Constant, the speed of light. In fact the Constant itself became his limitation. Had he persisted beyond this Constant or if he had the privilege of an Indian Master it was quite likely that he may have succeeded with his Unified Field Theory.

J. Krishnamurti says, ‘In the light of silence all problems are dissolved.’

One should notice Krishnamurti’s choice of word – he says that problems are ‘dissolved’; he does not say problems are ‘solved’. By adopting the Western Approach one may find an answer, but this answer will be inadequate. You may have an answer but ironically the problem remains; worst, the problem mutates into a new problem.

The Western Approach identifies a symptom; it then tackles the symptom. The misery has to first manifest, say as boredom, and the West will tell you 300-ways to overcome boredom - with TV, fast-foods, false-foods, window-shopping etc. The quick-fix solution will invariably result in side/after-effects in the form of some addiction, obesity and more boredom. Treatment of boredom will mutate the initial problem; it may manifest ten years later as obesity, and the cycle of treating the new symptoms, finding answer to the new problem, will commence all over again. In the process of such evolution one life-span as a human being will go wasted!

The Eastern Approach addresses itself to the cause rather than the symptom. It targets the cause; the currently-manifest symptoms disappear on there own in due course. It aims at destroying the seed with undesirable potentiality, with no possibility of any future scars like the side/after-effects.

If we look at the cause of misery, the misery will dissolve. The misery or any of its mutated variants will never be encountered in life.

Some of us are aware of our miseries while others are not. There is a deadly virus inside us; in some of us the incubation period is over and we are suffering in the physical world. In others, either the incubation period is not yet over, or the manifestations are within our acceptance levels. Call this virus any name. Taking a cue from the latest bird flu virus (H5N1) I call this virus E1-G5-O2. Don’t attach any great significance to the name. It has no connection to whatever may come to your mind; if you do, you’ll probably miss the point.

What is important is that the sooner we immunize ourselves against this virus better it will be for us. If ignored, it has a tendency to mutate, and then it becomes unmanageable.
The Cause of Misery

The cause of all misery, yours and mine and for the entire mankind inhabiting this planet, is the mind.

We have to understand the mind and know its nature.

The Root Cause of Misery

While the seed of misery is the mind, the root of misery lies deeper than the mind itself. The real problem is in the nature of the mind.

The reality is that instead of us using the mind, the mind is using us! Due to our being unaware of the ways of the mind, it has taken over and has become the auto-pilot for us. So long the auto-mind is operating i.e. mind operating within its own nature (prakriti apne mein hi barat rahi hai) the misery will continue to exist.

A little example may help to clarify how vicious can be the working of the mind in an auto-mode.

The highest experience of fulfillment possible for a person is the Mother’s love. It is so beautiful and complete. It satisfies both, the Mother and the child. In fact it sustains the world; without love in the heart of a woman no child would have been born; which girl would willingly bear the intense labour pains associated with child-birth if not for the intense love in her heart? A mother is actually the principle of love, a reflection of divinity itself.

God’s love is identical to a mother’s love except for its sphere of influence. God’s love encompasses everyone and everything while a mother’s love is restricted to her own children. This is the only difference. Going by the purity and universality of a Mother’s love we may conclude that every mother is God-personified for her child. A mother is actually the principle of unconscious love; she herself is not aware of its existence, and she continues to operate under its influence. If a human being has experienced Mother’s love he has had a glimpse of divinity. The reality is that most people have not experienced the Mother’s love; most have just taken it for granted.

Now, watch the transformation of this so-called principle of love under the influence of the virus E1-G5-O2. Look at the condition of the same woman in the role of a mother-in-law!

What happened? Here was a lady who was God-personified, but she becomes so awfully transformed in her new role as a mother-in-law!!

In the above case the love of the mother got hijacked by the working of the mind because she is unconscious of it. Her love for her child is part of Nature. This love can flow towards her own child only; the neighbours’ child is excluded from her sphere. This is mind in an auto-mode, of Nature operating within itself. If the same love can be experienced consciously it is capable of transcending a Mother-in-Law to the level of Mother Teresa whose love knew no boundaries.

When we are unconscious, and choose to remain so, we are the victims of such unconscious transformations.

The mind has its nature. When we are operating within the framework of its inherent nature we are miserable. If we can be conscious of its methods there is hope, that over a period of time, our miseries will cease. The E1-G5-O2 virus would have been destroyed.

If you wish to exercise your choice to reduce misery, learn about the nature of mind to transcend it. Go beyond the nature of mind and you will never be miserable because you would have discovered bliss - Ananda.


Note:
Till the next posting on this site on 18 Jul 2006 try out the following activities.

Time required : Two minutes

I. Close your eyes and let your mind fly to the furthest place you
have visited.

[You will realize the tremendous speed of mind. The light from the Sun
takes eight minutes to reach us but our mind can reach the Sun in an
instant.]


II. Close your eyes and direct your mind to the big toe of your right
foot.

[You will find that this practice is more difficult and time consuming
than the previous one. The reason is that the untrained mind is not
adept at inward journey ]

Time required : Fifteen minutes

III. Make out a small list of, maybe five to seven items each of:-

(a) things you like to do,
(b) things you do not like to do,
(c) things you feel convinced about yourself,
(d) and a fourth list of what are those things that you fear.


Are you getting impatient?

[Watch your impatience with patience. See if you can watch it?

Tamaso Maa Jyotir Gamaya

(From darkness lead me towards light)

******************************************************

Osho asked, ‘Don’t ask how to dispel darkness; instead ask why it is there in the first place.’

Don’t ask how to come out of misery; instead ask why it is there in the first place.’


**************************

The fact that you have gone through the first four postings on this blog is indicative of your commitment to the cause of reducing the world-misery. You need to persist, not because someone is telling you to do it, but because it is your commitment to yourself. Just have a little patience with yourself.

Some people may find the choice of term ‘misery’ inappropriate; ‘Being unhappy’ could be more relevant for them instead. The important point to understand is that we are not attempting to be semantically correct; instead we are trying to be TRUE to ourselves - our own feel about ourselves. Choose whatever term you find convenient; BUT be TRUTHFUL to your own feel. If there have been occasions when you felt that you have been short-changed in life, or not given due credit at work or have been complaining about the weather you have been miserable. The seed of misery exists and it can sprout at the first opportunity; only an external stimulus is required and you will be miserable.

There is no hurry to move on to the next agenda in our discussion.

In fact the hurry itself is the barrier to experiencing joy, our hurry is the cause of misery. We are moving too fast in our lives. The computers are working faster day by day. If the machine takes 15 seconds to open a program we call it slow! We are miserable in our impatience !!!


We need a pause, a teharava, a stillness, to understand the nature of flow and the flow of Nature. It is time to recollect where we started our journey from.

Our start point was a commitment to reduce the misery in this world.


Blog I

The way to reduce misery in the world is rather simple.

Let us withdraw our own personal contribution towards the world misery!

Stop being miserable even for a moment!
It implies - let joy prevail in your heart.

But you will not be convinced so easily. You have become too much of an intellectual being; your intellect needs to be satisfied concurrently.

Blog II

A Platform Of Higher Understanding

Let us take some time to discuss what exactly is implied by a ‘platform of higher understanding’.

If your line of sight was restricted to seven kilometers the earth will be flat (appear to be), but when it goes beyond, as at sea, and there is another ship approaching, a higher truth is revealed to the observer knowing geometry, - that earth has a curvature. It is only when you move away from earth itself, into the space, do you realize that the earth is a sphere. Today you will readily agree to the statement that the earth is flat, curved and spherical, all three at the same time; it is a question related to the perception of the observer. It is not a function of the earth!

Even the enlightened clergy of the Church took 1500 years to accept that earth was round and not flat! If you take a few hundred years to realize that you are miserable it is OK; it is really difficult to let go of our beliefs. Others’ beliefs we can drop in an instant!

There are many things in the higher realms about which we have no knowledge. We have in fact become prisoners of our knowledge. The knowledge imparted in the schools and colleges has become our limitation. The truth is that we have grown up with bits and pieces of information but have never taken the time to look at the bigger picture. It is the bigger picture that enables us as thinking, feeling human beings, to evaluate the truth, its relative and absolute aspects. We are so conditioned that we cannot immediately comprehend that time is linear, non-linear, curved and circular, all at the same time. We are more at ease with a linear time, past-present-future or yesterday-today-tomorrow.

Our ignorance, our unconsciousness, about the higher aspects does not imply that things do not exist and operate at higher levels of existence. We do not identify with these dimensions immediately because we have never been exposed to those dimensions; and when exposed to the larger picture, we let it pass because we cannot relate to its immediate utility for us. It is not being suggested or implied that our current knowledge is wrong. No. It may be inadequate, but it is not wrong. What is implied is a willingness to explore beyond our current understanding. We need to step onto a platform of higher understanding because things happen differently there.

Things exist in different dimensions simultaneously. You exist as a gross body with a particular face. You also simultaneously exist at a deeper level, at the level of the mind with its assortment of thoughts; deeper yet, you exist as a field of the heart – your emotions.

There is nothing wrong with our current truths. We only need a willingness to explore the validity of the hypothesis of a higher truth.

On the Nature of Truth

Are the Truth referred to by the spiritualist and of the common man different?

Yes, they are. A spiritualist will acknowledge your truth to be true but you cannot acknowledge his truth to be true.

Your truth is a Relative Truth, which is defined by your experiences of life thus far. Your knowledge-base determines your truth. You proclaim, ‘It is daytime’. This is a truth, a partial truth and not an absolute truth; it maybe daytime in your part of the world but in another part of the world it may be night. Your truth is ‘absolute’, for you and for the people residing in your part of the world! You can however acknowledge the existence of a higher truth, that there are parts of this world in darkness at ‘this time’ when you have the understanding about the nature of the universe.

Since your truth is not Absolute, it finds itself in conflict with the relative truths of others. And this conflict causes misery. The employee is miserable about the behaviour of his boss while the boss is simultaneously miserable with his thoughts about his employee. If either of them can comprehend the Truth, that it is Nature operating within itself, the conflict and resultant misery will cease. A mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflicts will disappear altogether with this simple realization. If your knowledge base can accommodate the highest truth, misery ceases on its own, because your true Nature of being blissful is realized.

Misery cannot co-exist with bliss just like darkness cannot with light.

About Absolute Truth

For convenience of discussion we will refer to Relative Truth as ‘truth’ and absolute Truth as ‘Truth’.

Truth is that which is universally true, it remains true beyond space and time. That is not Truth which is valid for one specie but is invalid for another. A Mother’s Love is a Truth that holds across all species of the biologically defined animal kingdom, humans included. It is true for a mother residing in India as much as it is true for a US resident. It does not change with time; the love of a Mother for her child forever persists. This should give you a glimpse about the Truth referred to by the saints and seers of all religions.

As we saw that it is in the nature of truth to be beyond space and time. That which is beyond space and time can also be called unchanging and eternal. Such is the nature of Truth.

The Hurdle in Realizing Truth

This nature of Truth, of being unchanging and eternal, of being forever present, is the biggest hurdle in realizing it. We miss out that which is forever present! We tend to miss out on the green grass outside our house because it is perennially green and grows in great abundance. We are more likely to notice a new bloom rather than the perennially green grass. We notice the nine planets but we miss out the space against which they stand!!

We are conditioned to notice that which is changing. In fact we are so programmed that we are forever seeking change; we seek a new place, a new site, a new dress.

Our consciousness takes in that which is changing. It is forever seeking change while the nature of Truth is that it is unchanging, it is perennial. We miss the Truth altogether, caught up in our nature that is forever seeking change.

Let us acknowledge that not only are we much short of the Truth, we are looking in the wrong direction!

Blog III

The opposite of joy is not misery but it is the absence of joy that is misery.
If we are presently not in the baby-like state which we were born into, we are miserable.

We have to regain our pure child-like state, child-like masti.

Note:
Till the next posting on this site on 14 Jul 2006 try out a little experiment on yourself.

Try holding back your response to anything said to you, the immediate reaction that occurs instinctively in all of us. Don’t say it till you have become aware of what you are going to say.

You may find that it tough. Let me tell you, it is tough.


Asato maa sadgamaya (Let me move from untruth (Asat) towards truth (Sat).

Om Tat Sat (Om, That is Truth)