Wormholes, space, time and event horizon

Interestellar is a fascinating movie, with great visuals and intriguing concepts and is a good science fiction movie in a while. stories such as these capture the imagination , and expands our experience. It takes us into possibilities beyond the ones that we are accustomed to, and when stories are told very convincingly toeing along the lines of science pretty closely, we loose track of what is possible and what is not.

Can we travel in time?, are there higher dimensions?,what happens when we get to the event horizon of a black hole? wouldn't it be anomalous if we aged slower than others? can we travel vast distances across the Universe through wormholes? These are fascinating questions, that might very well motivate people to eventually realize these. Some in the near future, some  further down. We cannot rule any of them out. 

When Galileo pointed to the planets and said they were worlds like ours, people thought he was insane. A little spark and burn down an entire forest, ideas are more powerful and leads people on journeys that alter life. It is amazing to see how the world evolves, how change is constant.

As an individual living in a certain point in time, some times one may feel, overwhelmed and  very meek. So many new possibilities, and life and time seems running out. Questions haunt people, such as what would the world be in a century from now?, How will my daughter look like when I am gone? what happens to our beautiful loved ones when they say good bye and leave us for good? The more intensely one contemplates, the more emotional one becomes.

Coming back to wormholes, time travel and black holes, while new discoveries are made, they are but an iteration of this fractal Universe. The more closer you look, the more it generates details. It generates as we look, and not independently. No matter how believable this whole world is, its but an illusion. It breaks down physically into an anomaly of wave and particle, energy and matter and, into a vast nothingness of space.

The only reality is the present Now, and the awareness of I. no past, no future, no here and no there. when time and space dissolves into a constant singularity, travel in present becomes impossible, leave alone travelling in time. Parmenides tried to explain this to the world and his pupil Zeno did very well with his paradoxes. Yet the fascination to chase fractals keeps people engaged and entertained.

Knowing this leaves the mind at rest from the anxieties of missing  a future, resulting in a joyful present.

Guru or Painkiller?

While the United States is known as the land of opportunities, India can be called the land of Swamijis. Every now and then a new Godman emerges out of nowhere, every state and city has its own quota of Swamijis of all kinds, helping people from all walks of life connect with the Divine.

God and Godmen become necessities of life when what life offers is not adequate. Life in its splendor can be colorful at times and cruel at others. People want to run towards what they like and run away from what they dislike. Sometimes they are stuck. Godmen help push the wheel forward. They help us connect with the Divine and clear our hurdles to reach our goals.

There are a few reasons why people head to the Swamiji. When they have a problem, or when they are venturing into an unknown, when they need more than what they can get, and mostly when they do not know how to go about a situation, and it appears that logic is functioning against them.  What the Swamiji does is ease the situation and help folks get past their troubles. This he does with a combination of tools, from divine talisman to rituals, to penance, to tactical and strategic advice. 

Rarely one comes across a Swamiji who tells us we are helpless, there is always help at hand. 

If one analyzes the workflow of consulting a Swamiji, one will become aware that it is similar to a painkiller. Pain happens, its part of life, to endure is wisdom. But we need to move on with our busy lives without a rest, and hence a painkiller becomes inevitable. The danger however lies in the fact that the solution is temporary, worse than that, it is no solution at all. Soon we realize the habit forming addictive nature of the process. A relationship is built with the painkiller. The Swamiji becomes part of family, to such extent that he knows more about our problems than ourselves. We stay comfortable with the notion that we have divine help. The cycle of consultations go on and pain gets converted into pleasure momentarily continually.

A rare and true Swamiji however is more than a pain killer. He gets to the root of the problem, and rather than providing a sugar coated pill for the symptom to subside, he provides the bitter medicine and perhaps a lengthy treatment for the cure of the disease. Self Knowledge is the treatment for the disease of suffering, and one who gives that to the seeker is Guru (literally, One who removes darkness). Self knowledge delivers us from all forms of pain and results in an ever joyful life.

So next time you prepare for a Swamiji visit, check if he is a painkiller or a Cure.

Fourth State

There is a mythological story associated with the God Siva which gave him the title Tripurantaka. according to the story, Three indestructible mythical cities were built in the sky by demons and provided a safe haven for them. With this safe shelter to protect them they went about harassing the good folks of the worlds. Siva comes to the rescue of the gods and sages, by destroying the cities with on single arrow, at a particular moment when all three cities come into a linear alignment. It is notable that Siva destroys them in an almost effortless manner with a smile on his face. Also it is mentioned that he did so without taking any help from the gods.

There are plenty of retelling of this story, as well as famous sculptures of Shiva as Tripurantaka made and worshiped. Some say this story represents how Siva rescues one from suffering, some talk about the three demons and the cities as Pride, Anger and Delusion.While these maintain and divine and mystical character to the story, the true purport of it is not popular.

This is indeed a deep philosophical tale, associated with the individual and nothing to do with demons and gods. Every single person exists in one of three states at any given time. The three states are,

• Waking
• Sleeping (Dreaming)
• Deep Sleep

When we are awake, we experience the world as it is, it contains the duality of pleasure and pain. Not everything goes our way. During dreams, we exist in an unreal world, experiencing duality at a fantasy level, with certain things that are not possible in our waking state. Upon waking up however, both the pleasure and pain from the dream are falsified. During deep sleep without a dream, we simply sleep, we do not experience anything. Since there is no experience of any kind, we are totally devoid of any suffering or pain, but there will be no pleasure as well. These are the three states of existence.

All three of them are not ideal, since each has either both pleasure and pain,  or none at all. Realizing the truth about the Self as the only reality, and all three states as part of the illusion, and accepting the Waking state as the only state where there can be a conscious experience, one goes about life rejecting the duality offered by it. This Fourth state is the state of Joy.

This realization is the destruction of Tripuram (three cities which is equivalent to the three states). For this to happen it does take a great alignment of sorts, and it does happen without effort or help from the gods.

Why we love our childhood and how to recover it.

Universally we all love our childhood. Without analyzing much, if one ask themselves about the most happiest moments, it will invariably be from their childhood. No matter how old we become, how many experiences we have, the new connections that happen, places we travel, our childhood is always a period of our life to cherish. Take a deep breath and test yourself.

Psychologists even suggest that we look back deeper into our childhood, and pickup a thing or two from the past, in order to beat depression and to bring back a lost meaning in life. Such is the powerful association of happiness and childhood. 

A common explanation for this universal phenomenon is that as a child we have nothing to worry about, everything is taken care of, we do not have bills to pay, or taking care of others. A carefree state of mind results in a happy situation. This reasoning is largely true.

However, we do observe today people who are affluent as well as with folks around them, who need not really have to take care of things on  a day to day basis. We do see people whose needs are either small, or their affordability is high, so that without effort they are all taken care of. We see people who are well into their old age, taken care of by their children. It does happen. Even in these cases the elderly person longs for his or her childhood. The childhood always seems much more happy.

The deeper reason behind this joy of childhood lies in the fact, as a child we feel a Oneness with everything else in this world. A little ant, a house fly, a butterfly, a little toy soldier, our dad and mom, our grand parents, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, cousins and friends, all of them are part of us. Our sense of individuality has not yet matured strong enough to distinguish , differentiate and discriminate our self from the rest of the world. We live in a world where we are the only entity and everything else is a fascinating and fun part of our own self. we enjoy the world much deeper in this state. We live in a matrix of trust, and a nest where there is nobody existing outside of our self to hurt us.

Realizing the truth that we are indeed One with the rest of this Universe, will take us instantly back into the joyful state of Childhood. In a world, created by our own self for uninterrupted entertainment, there is no one else to hurt or harm, all is for our own Joy. Knowing this, not only explains childhood memories but helps us have that very joyful life this very moment, no matter how old we are.

If music be the food of love, Play on

That famous English bard in Twelfth Night extols music as a great companion to Love. There are people who believe of such a relationship between Music and Enlightenment. There is the Bakthi movement with Bajans and singing, and chanting and rendering. There are people who seek to unite with the God through Dance. There are people who think by a control of eating one can get closer to Him. By constant visualization of the Forms of the Divine people believe they can reach their Divine goal.

If one observes in detail, it becomes clear that all of these are based on the senses. They are either indulgence in the senses or an abstinence from them. Senses are closer to the mind (with a lower case 'm'). The mind is the oscillating, happiness craving, vibrant aspect of us. and the mind is closely bound with the senses. 

All these acts of singing, music, dance, drama, and so on are to keep the mind in check. To coax and cajole the mind into dissolving into nothing. The mind is the hindrance to us enjoying our true infinite happy Self. The mind through its vibrant existence creates a world full of variations and makes us oscillate between pleasure and pain. Art, music, chanting of divine passages and other acts makes this mind dissolve in these and hence make us experience our true nature of Bliss. Also one should remember that some of these acts are physical from smoking incense sticks to sticks of insanity, from drinking divine water from holy rivers to distilled waters from wholly owned yards.

This tradition has been there since existence of time, and it takes new forms as time turns its wheels. New things to feed and indulge the senses with a hope of transcending the physical world. But by feeding the senses more and more, they are reinforcing their existence. The momentary bliss is mistaken for a future permanent offering. Little do the people realize that this momentary experience exists only as long as the indulgence exists. Indulgence in the senses in itself is a fine experience, but hoping them to take us to a higher existence is the fallacy.

All of these acts coaxes, cajoles and quietens the mind similar to a pain killer providing immediate but momentary relief. After a while, once the effect wears away, all the miseries of the world come gushing towards us.

Enlightenment, Mukti, Moksha, Awakening are things that have nothing to do with the mind! and are to do with the other aspect of our self, the Intellect. The logical and analytic faculty is however busy dealing with its intuitive counterpart the mind. Through music and singing and other similar acts if the mind can be dissolved, there is a chance for the intellect to contemplate on reality and get the knowledge. But the mind is too powerful and the effort has to be sustained, leaving little room for the intellect to realize the Truth. Even though all the music and dance and chanting appear divine, it is counterproductive in the process of reaching the Ultimate. It is Knowledge through the sustained listening and contemplating under an Enlightened Master that would result in enlightenment.

Until then one can enjoy the music for its own sake. After Enlightenment though, one can indulge in all the senses resulting in a joyful life

Kensho . Satori . Samadhi

As one progresses in the spiritual quest, one gets introduced to various ideas and concepts. In general the drive for spirituality arises from a desire to get into a certain state where the experiences are the way that one wants them to be. Typically the desire is a world without suffering, and one that is full of joy. In religious terms one may call that Heaven. A holiday resort promises us to give such an experience though momentarily. We escape from the irritants of life and taste a bit of tranquility. This tranquility, or Euphoria or other such enjoyable moments makes us crave for more of it. But the experiences that we get are always a combination of things. Never are they the way we want them to be.

Scriptures tell us that Samadhi is such a state where one lives in total joy devoid of suffering. A more common easily reachable state that we all experience is a deep sound sleep devoid of dreams. We always enjoy deep sleep, even though we would not be aware of it while we are sleeping. But after we come out of that deep sleep, the mind feels rested well and refreshed. The purposefulness of such a deep sleep is not the sleep itself, but the fact that it appears to help us in our waking state. We relish the fact that we had a nice sleep,  but we can only think about it while we are awake.

The wakeful state is the only state that we have access to. All other states do not exist in the Now. Samadhi is also similar to deep sleep, a state of silence. There are different kinds of samadhi. Nirvikalpa, Savikalpa, Sahaja etc.. and this state of silence is graded depending on if one is aware of the world while in this state, or to what extent one is aware etc. All experiences that take one away from the waking state, cannot be experienced. Its a contradiction. An experience that can not be experienced! what can that be? It cannot be anything. 

A craving of the mind for some deep mystical experiences, has resulted in a notion of some physical experience being associated with Samadhi.

Samadhi is a concept or an idea, that promises a state of joy. Understanding the truth about who you are and what the world is, is Knowledge. This Knowledge removes all suffering and results in Joy. Staying in this Knowledge as one goes about in life is Samadhi.

What is Attachment?

Neuroscientists now believe that attachment is such a primal need that there are networks of neurons in the brain dedicated to it, and the process of forming lasting bonds is powered in part by the hormone oxytocin.

We are attached with so many things. Places, People, Ideas, Events, Music, Experiences to name a few. As long as we are having access to these we do not generally acknowledge its presence or the experience, but as soon as we are not able to access it, the mind begins to do all kinds of things. We miss these things, we crave to get back the access, we become desperate at times, and a continued denial of access results in frustration, anger and all the negative emotions that leads to an unstable mind.

Most often people get overwhelmed by Nostalgia. The Good Old times torment everyone from time to time. Loosing the thing that we are attached to hurt us very badly. Is there a way out of this? or are we doomed to suffer the loss? A little investigation of the process of attachment helps.

Attachment is essentially attaching or adding something to our Self. When we buy a new mobile phone, we are essentially adding it to the notion of our self. It essentially has become a part of us. This is attachment. when the mobile phone falls down , we feel hurt because we feel its a part of us and hence the injury is translated as one's own injury. The more something hangs around with us, the more tightly bound it becomes. The more attached it gets. The more integrated it becomes with our Self. This explains the hurt and suffering one experiences upon the loss of the things that we are attached with.

Essentially, the objects of attachment has become part of an extended Self. Similar to the hand of a person, it has become an integral part. The degree of attachment simply relates to how much  easily replaceable the object is. If its a throwaway pen, then the degree of attachment is less. If it is a special edition artifact of some sort, then its more tightly bound, since a loss of it cannot be revoked. Also, the things we don't have a liking never get attached to us, since we never consider them as part of ourselves.

A little contemplation will confirm this behavior in all cases of our attachment with anything. Even ideas and thoughts can become attachments. So, the problem seems to be this wrong identification of these objects as part of our own self. Instead of making the impossible attempt of staying steady upon loss, if one were to understand and correct this mistaken identity, a loss can be handled better.

A deeper investigation reveals that even the body, the mind, the thoughts and ideas are not the Self. The Self is not connected with any of these. This mere thought is known as Detachment! Detachment does not mean renouncing anything physically. A steady knowledge of this absolute truth enables one to see everything as part of the illusion, and not assume false identity with them. This clarity and steadiness of the Truth liberates one from the suffering of loss of any kind and enables Joyful life.

Minding it!

The Mind which is the conscious, experiencing, faculty present in us is made up of four components, namely the logical Intellect and the intuitive mind, similar to the Left and the Right brain, and the Memory which is a container of things and events of the past, and fourthly the intriguing aspect of the ego.

The mind with a lower case 'm', is the wavering, oscillating, trembling, worrying, suffering, anxious, euphoric tendency of the Mind. It is the one that jumps up into the sky upon something that rejoices it, and it is the same mind that gets you down in the doldrums when things do not go the right way. In a way it is the real experience-r. one can say it is the very experience. Experiences are interpreted through emotions, otherwise every event is a mere information bundle.

The ego aspect of our Mind is the false thought or identity of our self with this Mind and Body complex. The notion of I as the individual is ego. This aspect of the Mind is the root of all our experiences.

Most of the time the ego identifies our Self with this trembling mind aspect of the Mind. One can observe that when the mind trembles we tremble, as the mind rejoices we rejoice. A long sequence of events and the framework called life has several elements that evoke several emotions in the mind. With the aid of the reservoir of Memory the mind finds itself in several situations, and takes us in the journey of its emotions, each time convincing us that it is our own emotion.

In this equation of,  M = ego + mind + Memory + Intellect, our only hope is the Intellect. Intellect is the one that can control the mind, a controlled mind lets go of the ego, and will relieve us from the memory. The Intellect has the ability to discriminate, has the ability to analyse, has the ability to see. The primary tool to control the mind is Meditation. Meditation is the process of stopping the tremble of the mind, and the vibrations of thought that the mind is. A silent mind eventually is dissolved, and the intellect gains enough strength to understand that the ego and the memory, as well as the mind are unreal. Eventually it figures out the intellect is unreal as well, and hence in conclusion an unreal Mind!

With the realization of the falsehood of the Mind which is the experience-r, all experiences are negated. Both the good and bad, the likes and dislikes negated, and with nothing to experience, and knowing that all these apparent experiences are a mere play in an unreal mind, takes one to the real Self. This real Self which is essentially experience-less-ness  is also known as Bliss. 

Remember it all began with Meditation.

Sunday Night Blues

I have heard of the Monday Morning Blues, but have never really experienced one. But I have always had this depressive state of mind during the late Sunday afternoons and evenings. As the bright Sunday moves into the noon and past noon, a sense of sadness, an indescribable feeling of discomfort sets in. I have consciously felt it and wondered if it was some sort of a disorder. 

I recently came to know that its a well known phenomenon among 9 to 5 workers, and it seems it is due to the fact that one begins to feel that the weekend is getting to a close, and the anxiety of the week ahead sets in. They call it the Sunday Night Blues!

There are plenty of articles on the subject ranging from 6 signs of Sunday Night Blues, to 11 ways to beat it. Keeping busy and planning some fun stuff during the week are some common methods to deal with it. I found a solution to it, by actually beginning my week on Sunday evening. kind of cheating the system, but it worked, at the cost of a reduced weekend. I would start reading mail and get going on some work later on the Sunday and that took care of this.

I have also had a related problem of getting into a depressive mode at several situations when some fun activity came to an end. Be it a movie, or more often on the way back after a long drive, or while returning from a vacation. I wouldn't be able to put a finger on the exact pulse of the reason, but a definite state of sadness would kick in. perhaps there are some remedies to it too. 

Most often planning, keeping busy and a feeling of staying ahead takes care of these.

While this and depression in general have remedies of various kinds, including exercises and the effect of Endorphin, it also makes one wonder why all this in the first place?

Depression is the opposite of elation or Euphoria. The fact is Euphoria cannot be experienced except with an experience of the lack of it! One may never get elated and feel the full pleasure of it unless one gets depressed! Though appearing a little contradictory one can in fact reduce it to be a Tautology!

Simply knowing this liberates one from depression, and it is a mere choice where one can simply be and let the depression pass by, or try and fix it with whatever technique that works. 

Two In One

Our Mind as we conceive of the embodiment of our subtle being, where our thoughts, ideas, emotions and experience appear to happen, has two components.

One can verify this to be true by their own experiences. Intuitively we would feel the separation of these two. There are actions of decision, a clear sequence of logical reason, a weighing of pros and cons, analysis, categorizing, classifying etc. which is based on clarity. This aspect of our mind is termed the Intellect. The other aspect of our mind is the desires, oscillations, confusions, impulse, emotions, flutter etc. This is termed the mind with a lower case 'm'.

Mind = Intellect + mind

Most of us have the mind to be our master and the Intellect to be its slave. It is said that the mind is a container of never ending desires. Immediately after a desire is fulfilled, the next one sprouts. If the mind is the master, it drives the intellect to execute in order to fulfill its desires. Also depending on the various emotions it undergoes, the mind with a stranglehold on the intellect, gets things accomplished according to its needs. The mind as a master will make the intellect of a Diabetic justify its craving for chocolate, and the intellect will obey and get the sweet to the person. A Jealous mind will with the help of intellect will make the person do things that counter act the situation. An angry mind will with the help of the intellect justify its violent actions. The very same mind will get into a state of resentment making the intellect helpless.

We do not in general distinguish the two aspects of our Mind, and hence we are unaware as to the methods of management of the happenings of our life.

On the contrary, if we could make the intellect our friend and master, the actions that we perform will stay within the faculty of reason, and logic. The fluttering mind will slowly feel this, and the very same fluttering, oscillating aspects can become the source of creativity and freshness of events under the control of the intellect.

The process of empowering the intellect and making it the master is the result of obtaining the Knowledge of the Self. Upon knowing the Truth, the intellect becomes our friend and realizes is stature. Then its a process of managing the mind to lead a life of Joy.

Infinite Mind

Infinity is an interesting idea. It generally creates a sense of vastness, an unfathomable distance. Some thing far far away. Whether we are looking at it from a numerical perspective or intuitively, it seems daunting to think about it. A sense of overwhelming takes over us. The physical and material world is limited and finite. However large and vast it may be, it is still finite. It is bound by the physical faculties of observation.

The mind however is not material. Hence it is not bound by the physical constraints and hence is infinite. When we say that, it might appear as though the mind is vast and huge and might appear counter intuitive to accept that. The reason is, infinity is not something "out there". Its a mere idea. It is a concept. For example we can simplify the idea as "Whatever there is, there is one more". We can experiment with lots of interesting things.

For example, the mind's needs are infinite. Its true for everyone. no matter how little or how much more one has, the mind seems to need "one more". Similarly the mind can keep on learning. Irrespective of how little or how much more one knows, one can always know or learn about "one more" thing. 

Infinity is possible only in the subtle realm. The material realm is finite and bound. The body is limited but the mind is unlimited. Music, Arts, Literature, Philosophy, Religion, ideas and thoughts belong to this infinite subtle realm. They allow us to travel boundlessly and experience freedom. 

Once we realize that infinity is in itself is a mere idea, that there can always be one more thing, the mind's infinite needs can be let go. No matter how much it travels, and how much it experiences, it will seek for that "one more" thing :). This travel of the mind is cyclic like a circle, and a circle though apparently endless and provides infinite travel is indeed finite. Realizing this liberates one from the bindings of the mind's endless needs.

Space and Time, Zeno's Paradoxes and Permanaides' Way of the Truth

The ancient Greek philosopher Permanides of Elea, said to have lived around fifth BC, is credited with impacting the thoughts of Plato who in turn influenced the whole of Western Philosophy.

In his work On Nature, the first part called the Way of the Truth deals with the changeless and timeless nature of the world. His student Zeno created three paradoxes that supported these ideas.

• Achilles and the Tortoise divides space into infinite points and says it is impossible for Achilles to catch up with the Tortoise ever so infinitesimally.
• The Dichotomy paradox says it is impossible to move because you can keep on dividing the remaining distance by two and you can never complete the first part.
• Arrow Paradox says it is impossible for anything to move, since any object such as an arrow at any instance during its apparent movement is static.

These paradoxes points to the strange nature of the reality. Contrary to our intuitive experiences, these ideas point us to the true nature. While we  now have accepted a reality that can only be explained through probabilities and mathematics, this somehow seems to be delegated to the infinitesimally small world of particles.

While these ideas talk about the impossibility of motion , or change, we can relate it to the impossibility of action. Our actions can be classified into voluntary/conscious and involuntary. 

A muscle twitch, or scratching our skin, closing our eyelids at a dust particle are done without much conscious involvement. one can say it just happens.

On the other hand we act at times with intention, planning and fully conscious. while it appears we do act, one must take a step backward and look at the intention. If we look at how our thought of intention occurred to us, we can easily see that the though simply happened. we really do not have control over thoughts occurring to us. but we easily accept that the action that follows is ours. So it is clear that all actions which we falsely claim ownership are simply happening. 

Permanides followed in his second part The Way of the Opinion, how our senses leads us to falsely believe in a world that appears to be changing, and where there is space and time and there is movement.

A contemplation on who I am, by eliminating all the things that are not me, such as my possessions, name, body etc.. including the thoughts that I seem to get, I realize that I am not connected with this world. Eliminating this false notion of reality, I abide as my Silent , Inactive Joyful Self.

Matrix of time and space

To talk about anything, we need a context, or a frame of reference. Where you are is always relative to some other place, When is it, is relative to some other period in time. Tomorrow is relative to Today. Far is relative to Near.

The World we experience is a projection on a  beautiful fabric made up of crisscrossing threads of time and space. These magical threads form the framework, the matrix, or the canvas on which are laid all the events of the drama of life.

While space is a perceptual dimension, time provides the temporal aspect. At any point in time, one seems to have access to a series of events in space, stacked one over the other in time slices of the past. We refer to this as memory. 

One can access the childhood slice. days of school. or any other event in the past. there is a distinct boundary as to when these events occurred.And each time these are accessed they always appear in that exact order,and always the same events at same points in time. If we recollect the first time ever of going to school, we always recollect the same school irrespective of how many times or when we recollect. Also the order in which events have occurred seems to always be the same. This apparent persistence or permanence of the past gives credential to a reality of the past. A random recollection will appear a lot less real. The brain as a device that seems to capture the temporal stories is a fabrication for further authenticity. If all the pieces of information are in fact stored in the brain, who is it that accesses it?

Similarly one encounters space. It seems to be really fixed. we know where we are. We do know where other places are. The distances between places seem to be absolute. Both objectively as well as subjectively the spatial relationship of things and places don't seem to change. This continuity or persistence gives credibility to the reality of space and things in it. The distances between our home and the stores, distances between our city and others are absolutely fixed.They measure the same exact length.

A deeper examination of time shows that, only the moment or the Present is actually experience able. Past is only accessed through thoughts from memory. Similarly the place we are at now is the only place we can experience.Even the next room is only accessible in our thought. When we do move to the next room, then we may be experiencing it at that Present moment, and the experience of the previous room becomes a thought in the past.

Similarly a deeper study of materials show how immaterial they really are. From a physical as well as temporal point of view matter as we experience it is not as real as well think.

A clear understanding of how such a Matter without reality is placed in the matrix of Time and Space which are as much a fiction themselves, is a striking revelation that results in the true Knowledge of Who we are. If Time, Space and Matter are not real, then the one asking about it, talking about it and having an apparent experience is the only real Self. Knowing that I am that only Self is Knowledge.

Obtaining and staying in this Knowledge, one is able to experience life as a mere play of light and sound in the apparent matrix of Time and Space.

Enlightenment Is ..

Enlightenment is knowing that I do not exist in the Universe that is perceived.

There is this Universe. an infinite variety of shapes, forms, names, colors, movement, ideas, comings, goings, interactions, collections, relations, interpretations, values, valuations, directions, orientations, information, communications, creations and what not.

There are certain very interesting and entertaining entities called people. they seem to have a mind of their own. they also seem to have their own individual existence. There are lots of people. there seems to have been lots of people, and more people seem to be on the way.

The Universe in general though appears unimaginably large, it seems to focus around the entities called people. the ideas, actions, and communications of people seem to define the world.

Of all the people in the world, there seem to be a particular person , whose mind I seem to have access to. I can see his thoughts, I can see his emotions, I can see his view of the world. Of course I am certain that I am not this person, just that I seem to have some access to his mind. In spite of knowing and apparently interacting with this world to a good extent, I am not part of it.

Sometime ago I realized that I do not exist in this Universe. But I do exist. So this Universe of variations, is apparent, similar to the Universe in a dream. Though I seem to experience the dream, I am not inside the dream. so my experience is also only apparent.

The world of experiences, and the experience it seems to offer , all of it being disconnected and apparent, it is indeed strange that I  get concerned about things. But ... concerns and anxieties, rejoicing and fun, all are part of the World where I do not exist.

Realizing that I alone exist, which can neither act, not experience and disconnected by this world which is nothing but a drama of light and sound, the I stays in its own state of bliss.

An Elaborate Hoax

The things we see, the things we feel, the thoughts we have, the time we perceive, the space we travel, the people we meet, the events that we encounter, the poetry we read, the music we listen to, the science we enjoy, the long journey of life that we experience, the books we read.. hard to believe its all one big hoax.

Its fascinating , its mind boggling, its thrilling, its exciting , its incredible and fantastic. This idea that all of our experience is a detailed fabrication appearing to be experienced and reported by our mind is beyond wildest of imaginations. The memories, the detailed recollections of early days, the joy of childhood , the vivid memories of uncles, aunts, grand fathers and grand mothers, cousins and friends, school and home and all the fun and not so fun times, are impossible to be dismissed as unreal.

The unsure beginnings, the progress, the falterings, the love, the sighs of reliefs, the angers, the shame, the embarrassments, the pride, the inquisitiveness, the pursuits, silence ... all of these are so intense and so real, they are the experiences, they are the very definition of life.. can all this be unreal?

The sequence we call life that we have lived so far, is organized, and orderly, its always the same no matter how many times we recollect. Same people, same events, so very real. So many years and so many moments, can they all be myth?

The history as we know, the birth of rational thought with Descartes, the wonderment of Kepler, the insatiable Leonardo, Newton's debacle in the stock market, the discoveries, the invention, the progression of thought, Peano's Axioms, Fermat's Last theorem..Vivaldi's Four seasons, Sankara's writings, Parmenides, Zeno, Russel, Einstein.. all unreal?

This long string of events, both personal and impersonal whole, can happen only in the passage of time. A sequence can happen only in time. One after the other, after the other, followed by another.. An investigation of time reveals, that time does not exist. The possibility of an yesterday and a tomorrow, a past and a future, even at the momentary infinitesimal level, does not exist. All that is, is a mere Now. and a mere Here. In this singularity of Now and Here, the past is one complex sequence of recollections from a non existent memory by an unreal Mind!

This revelation makes One rest in amusement at this incredibly elaborate hoax called life.

Arithmetic of the Infiinte

The pursuit of knowledge of various things, primarily beginning at the phenomenon of the perceptible world, eventually leads to the sublime. 

The observable and the measurable lead us to the theories that are perceived only through their manifestation. For instance, the Newton's First law can never be perceived as a thing, except as an idea in the mind or as a string of symbols on apiece of paper. However we can perceive its manifestation by observing real world phenomenon such as a satellite in orbit, or a near perfect snooker table. All laws of Science are of similar nature. H2O is a sequence of symbols. For someone who know the elements and the manner in which they combine to create different substances, this could imply a certain substance.But this can be perceived only by touching and feeling water. Water=H2O is a mere mental activity.

Such generalizations simplify our world and help us perceive and understand reality deeper. 

A progression of such cycles of observations,measurements ,theorizing, validations takes us into a more and more compact representation of the observable phenomena. One can embrace billions and billions of liters of water in the whole of the Universe by the simple three symbol string H2O. All the Gold in the world by 'Au'. Well that's a stretch! The point is, by studying and abstracting the observable phenomena, the mind creates a manageable and simplified repository of the Universe.

In other general pursuits of life, one encounters a variety of experiences, some seem to make you happy, such as possessions, recognition, companionship and so on. All of these have the property of 'diminishing returns'. they seem to loose the edge of making you happy as you keep enjoying them. This is true even to Knowledge. While knowledge of things, a superior abstraction and generalization, seem to boost the ego and make it feel superior and hence happy, even that looses its ability to make one happy perpetually. This is so merely because such is its property. One can verify from observation that it is true about every phenomenon we experience.

In the arithmetic of happiness, if we were to quantify the things that seem to provide us happiness, this quantification will be a number that diminishes over time, and will all individually tend to zero as time progresses.

Limit         H(t) → 0

(t → ∞)

In all these pursuits of life , there is a pursuit of the one who pursues. The investigation and ultimately understanding  who you are. Understanding the true identity of your self, and realizing its separateness from the world of phenomena has a value of ∞ . If we add this to our other possessions, then we have,

Hnew(t) = H(t) + ∞.

Limit         Hnew(t) → ∞

(t → ∞)

This modified equation clarifies the uselessness of the variation is values possible due to various functions of H individuals may have. Thus enabling one to pursue the Infinite, reach it and hence live Joyfully.

Letting Go vs Giving Up

We have all been here more often than we would like to be. There comes a point in life when we need to separate. It could be a thing, a person, a role, or any of the things that have been part of our life for a while, and has been of an apparent source of happiness.

The thing that has been providing happiness to us is the last thing we want to part with. That is because the only thing that we all seek is happiness. When the thing stops being a source of happiness, or is not providing the amount of happiness you were used to, then the thing becomes less of a concern. Letting go is not much of an issue. One may miss the moments of happiness that the thing provided in the past, but since the present is no longer the same, we are in a way Ok to let go of it.

Then there are things, that have provided happiness in the past, and seem to have the potential to give you happiness, but that don't seem to. Here there is a struggle. You try to somehow make this thing give you happiness. You do several things, you wait, you hope. Once there comes a point where its no longer giving you happiness, you let go. Since for a while the mind is used to it not giving you happiness , it doesn't bother you much. One may think of this either as letting go, or giving up. 

Giving up produces a negative image of the situation. Its like you stopped trying.  You keep trying to fix something, or get to some point, and then you stopped it. But if we allow the mind to run its course, it will eventually stop trying and also be comfortable at it. But sometimes a little regret lingers around.

If one thinks about it, it will become clear that Letting Go and Giving Up are essentially the same thing. While the former lends a more graceful transition. The real difference is one strengthens the Ego, while the other weakens it. Letting Go gracefully strengthens the ego, it makes the ego look bigger in spite of the loss. while giving up weakens it. so it is generally easy to assume the position of Letting Go, rather than Giving Up.

Fact of the matter is, separation happens, not because you Let Go, or you Gave Up. It is part of the Change we call life. Change is the secret of this Life. Separation and loss are a mere part of it providing you yet another experience.

Once this is known, and we realize that we neither Let Go of anything, nor do we Give up, but separation 'happens' as part of this long chain of events called life, we begin to enjoy life.

Why Quantum Mechanics has nothing to do with God - Part II

A thing without attributes. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Have you ever pondered about such a thing? Can we really think about such a thing?

When we actually start thinking on these lines, we realize that any 'thing' is eventually defined and described only through its attributes. A pen has a length, a width, a shape, a form, a color, several parts, each with its own set of attributes. A word has attributes, sequence of letters, a pronunciation, a meaning and so on. A thought has attributes, the subject, the meaning, the emotional content etc. Everything we can think of is only thinkable because of its attributes! A person, a place, an event, everything.

So, if we want to talk about something without attributes, how do we even begin? We can probably begin with something that has very little attributes, something like say a point. A point has no length, breadth, depth, height, weight, color. It almost has no attributes. We in fact defined the point that way.  In spite of it not having these attributes, it does have some. Its co-ordinates. The coordinates are its attributes, and they define/describe the point. so we can say the point is in such an such a place.

When a seemingly abstract thing like a point cannot escape from having attributes, what else could that be with out attributes? Now we slowly begin to see the improbability of talking about such a thing. There can be no thing in this Universe that has no attributes. every single thing in this Universe has an attribute, simply because only by an attribute we recognize a thing! Kind of cyclic, but that is the truth. Its like saying 1 equals 1. Its true only because we defined it to be so.

So, if there can be no such thing in the Universe without attributes, could such a thing exist? Where could that exist? Rather than going in search of 'other' Universes,we need to seek an answer, because every such other Universe is essentially the same with respect to attributes, without attributes nothing can be defined. Where are we to find such a thing?  If we do find it, can there be many of them?

contd ...