When I look, The Universe disappears

That famous astronomer Carl Sagan would begin by telling that the Cosmos is everything that was, everything that is, everything that ever will be.

What is this Universe? Every day each one of us experience an unlimited variety of events, things, people and places. 

At times, we do ask, who really are we? what exactly is the world that we see, perceive, experience, enjoy , love and hate. Natural Philosophers, from the beginning of time have pondered over it. Everything has been investigated, questioned, theorized, explanations attempted, debated till this day. 

There is the infinitesimally small to the infinitely large scale of things in this world. Time and space forms the two dimensions of the infinitely large canvas on which an effervescent world is painted. There seems an infinite past, and an equally infinite future, both seem vague, unsure and misty as we move away from the NOW. 

We somehow come to the conclusion that, what I see and perceive alone exists. But what we perceive is so temporal, so transient. There was a time when none of them existed, there is a time when they exist, and then there is always a time when they no longer exist. 

We investigate the world with our perceptive powers. Perception is our only tool. I look at a thing, a stone maybe, I hold it in my hand, I perceive its weight, its texture, its color, I look deeper, I observe its composition, the patterns, the edges, the cracks, the ridges. 

I now want a closer look, a magnifying glass comes to help. I can see the finer details, I can see engaging patters of a finer degree. It appears as if its been very carefully crafted. the stone's surface is coarser than it appeared. I want to see more. I chisel a piece of the rock into a fine little sheet, now I engage a microscope, there is a whole world in that small piece of the rock. I can even see life, where I thought it was totally inert.

I look deeper, magnifying further, the cracks are really huge, the ridges are real deep, am I looking at a mountain range, or a tiny piece chipped off a stone? hard to tell.  I go deeper, more complex tools, I now take a tiny fraction of the chip, I can hardly see it with my eyes, things become vague, I am not sure what I am really looking at.

For a moment I can’t go any deeper. I realize my most trusted tool for perception, vision has reached its limits, it can no longer discriminate. Light cannot help me see anymore! what’s happening! After all when I see a thing, it’s the light bounced off that thing that I see. In fact I see only the impact of that reflected light in my retina. Actually I see only the impulse the retina sends through the nerves to my brain.

I am now looking at a scale so small, light cannot really help me here! I get innovative, I use tiny particles, smaller than an atom, I shoot them at my tiny object, and capture them behind. Based on what I receive it at the other side, I "guess" what is in my object. I see interesting things, the tiny little object is mostly empty. and at vast distances I see an occasional particle. nothing in between.

I build more powerful, scarily humongous gadgets, to see deeper. the more deeper I look, the more empty the object seems to be. No matter what my object of observation is, the result is the same. I want to know what these tiniest of the tiny little particles are. There is a garden of such particles, scientists give them exotic names, quarks, bosons and what not. Now I forget about the rock totally, I am interested in these particles. I want to "look" at them. I really cannot look at them any more. I can only guess.

My devices can only tell me such and such a particle may exist in a given space. When the particle detector "looks" at "a" particle, its gone! When it doesn't look, then a probability exists! The rock solid world collapses into a probability. It can be seen only as mathematical equations!

Sometimes I think the blind spot is a blessing, it helps me NOT to see, and hence makes the existence a possibility.

Knowing this liberates me from endless conflicts that is the result of me giving reality to this illusion.

Avatar

We all need Avatars. An Avatar is more than an identity. It is the very embodiment of existence. It is the entity that matters, An Avatar is the instrument with which we interact, with which we play, with which we experience. There are an infinite number of possibilities when we choose an avatar. Each time we choose a unique one. The Avatar is not only the external appearance, but the whole package of capabilities, likes and dislikes etc. There is a little bit of me in the game, but is highly influenced by the Avatar.

The Avatar tells the world who I am, or rather who I suppose the world wants to believe I am. sometimes I chose to play the King, I am all powerful, I win all the time, some other times I want to play a super hero, I can fly, save the world, sometimes I want to play a celebrity, I am mobbed by the masses, I am hunted for autographs, sometimes I want to take on the Avatar of a hawker, selling bangles on the road. Each Avatar gives me a unique experience. I enjoy role playing. I want to try all possible roles. It gives me different perspective every time.

Some day my Avatar is a leaf, Some other day its a dew drop, some other day I am the Sun, some days I simply don’t play. I am myself. I do get attached with some Avatar, I think I really am the Avatar, funny isn’t it. I soon get over it, and move on to my next Avatar. The Field of play is dynamic. It evolves as I play, no one programs or designs the game, it simply evolves. The next moment is created only at the next moment. An illusion of continuity is maintained to make it all interesting.

The game is neither totally randomized, nor deterministic. It gives an illusion of both. It gives an illusion of hope, and despair. If it doesn't I’ll simply quit the game. The game field is highly engrossing, it becomes more and more entertaining and complex as I keep playing. In the beginning when I am a novice, the game is simple, plain and easy. As long as I am satisfied with that, the game remains the same. Then one day I am bored, I think I have mastered it, and nothing more to do, suddenly there is a twist. A bolt from the blue. I am hooked again. I keep playing. over and over. Avatar after Avatar. A complex series of relationships gets built. A community is formed. Logs are maintained, competitions are held.

I almost forget who I am. I am not sure which Avatar I truly am.

It takes me a long long time to figure out that I am not the Avatar, and that I really don't need to play . But If do play, I do need one!

Knowing this liberates me from being a game addict. I start enjoying the games, I stop worrying about my Avatars.

A Theory of Everything

Science is about observation of physical phenomena and provide an logical explanation to it. By Physical phenomena we mean whatever that can be observed. Observation is defined as the ability to sense the presence or absence, and a quantitative measure. These phenomena are entirely available to us through the five senses only. The five senses can be enhanced with apparatus such as microscope, telescope, and more sophisticated devices, but eventually sensed by our five senses.

We observe a multitude of phenomena in the world. from the vastness of outer space and its various objects such as stars and galaxies and black holes etc, which are observed through the eyes, telescopes, radio telescopes and other sensors, to the microscopic and sub atomic realm of particles which are announced by sophisticated devices such as the particle accelerators and particle detectors.

The phenomena that we observe has been steadily increasing over time, and the more we observe the more we discover. The discoveries of new phenomena constantly revises our understanding and results in newer explanations. This has been the history of science. Science has been striving to provide accurate explanation of all such observable phenomenon. There is always enough unexplained phenomena at any given point in time. Such observations results in multiple hypothesis. A hypothesis is an explanation for something but not proved and accepted.

The more sophisticated our ability to observe, the more we observe. This results in newer and newer concepts that needs explanation. science catches up and keeps providing explanations. Science also tries to bring all observable phenomenon into a single unified theory.

The unexplained phenomenon, as well as the elusive unified theory leads to a multitude of hypothesis. 

Can this never ending cycle of discovery and hypothesis and successful explanations ever have an end? Can all phenomenon can be explained and done with once and for all? Science thinks it is possible. Every scientific community thinks it will be eventually possible. It has been the case in all of humanity. When it comes to science, there is no difference in the approaches in the different peoples of the world. East or west, it is always a rational, objective approach. different civilizations have provided different explanations for the as yet unexplained phenomenon, but once it is explained by science the matter is considered settled. some civilizations are poetic and provide very romantic explanations yet scientific, some provide it simply and directly. But the litmus test is that the explanation should be rational, objective and observable.

At any given epoch there will always be phenomenon that is fully explained, some partially explained and some without an explanation. this is not due to any inability or limitation of any kind. It is the design of the universe. If you observe the multitude of phenomenon, it begs a question..'Why?'. Why a million different species ? why so many types of birds, animals, plants? the vastness of things and space exists to provide an almost infinite playground to have a exciting experience that we call life.

Imagine a world where there was only one kind of animal, say the humans, and one kind of plant, say the mango tree. and one kind of matter say iron and so on.. will that be an exciting world to live? It is the variety of things, and variety within things that causes experiences of interest. Similarly a completely known universe will fail to provide any excitement. It is the unknown element in everything that sustains interest in life. The moment we know exactly everything, it will become a dull world. So the Universe keeps generating newer and newer things.

Imagine a Cinema hall. The screen is blank to begin with. We go to a movie. we go there for the experience. and it is exciting based on the surprises and the unknown and the newness of what we see. and as time goes by we see hundreds of movies on the very same screen in the cinema hall. If someone begins to think, that they can figure out all the movies that will ever be screened in the hall, it may be an interesting thought, but if he eventually does, then he would have killed cinema. 

Same is the pursuit of the unified theory in Science. While it results in wonderful knowledge that eventually gets utilized for increasing our comforts, a pursuit towards understanding and explaining all phenomenon will always be eluding. 

When we understand that it is not a limitation but a design for entertainment, we experience a joyful existence.

Authenticity of Information

In the pursuit of knowledge, and deeper understanding of life and the world around us, there comes many a times a situation where we need to stop and think about validity of things.

Whether it is a new scientific knowledge, or a philosophical viewpoint, or an explanation about certain events, the information that we get needs authentication. 

Laws of nature as discovered by scientists from time to time, create a stir in the minds of the curious. They are often validated through experiments and observations, and independently verified by many sources. 

Everything is made of Atoms. Speed of Light is constant. Some of angles within a triangle is 180 degrees. Fermat's Last Theorem. Godel's incompleteness Theorem. Theories, Theorems, Conjectures, proofs and disproofs. Often times we are never a direct participant in any of these. It is mostly hearsay. I have personally never seen an atom, whether through my nakes eye, nor through a cloud chamber, nor observed particles in a collider. 

The validity of most of the information seems to be from its use and application. We are able to do several things as a result of using these theories. Hence we conclude these must be true. As long as we have a framework in which we can test and validate information, we are comfortable, and with our faculty of thinking using Logic as its main tool we are able to navigate true and false in this ever changing world.

Then there are those strange situations, where we do not have the luxury of observation and experimentation. Where was I before I was born, what is death, where will I go after I die? We are stuck here.

Many theories exist, many religions have been created for this purpose, many texts, scriptures, philosophies.. but how do we authenticate such information? How do we travel those mysteries, if we get stuck at the very begin at this apparent inability to accept or reject?

This leads us to a very interesting process of finding out, what is Authentication? Does authenticity really exist? A deep questioning will reveal that we simply 'trust', 'believe' or 'accept' every single piece of information. No single piece of information can ever be authenticated to the absolute extent. All information is built one on top of the other, and as we go deeper and deeper, each begins to fall apart from the real of authenticity and move into assumptions, and belief. Be it the Atomic theory , or Gravitational Waves.

The only self evident truth being that 'I exist', all other information can never ever be verified. This startling revelation will allow us to travel thoughts and ideas which otherwise appear not to have the ability to be authenticated and probe this world deeper and ultimately realize the truth.  This liberates us from the need for authentication and also from the clutches of a single reality.

Information vs Knowledge

We undoubtedly live in an information era. All activities revolve around gathering and using information. This is an era of rapid communication, and connectivity driven by information. People around the world are becoming more and more informed. Getting information and understanding it seems to be very natural and at ease. This has been the culmination of a long evolution of intelligence, and ability to use logic to build information structures, one on top of the other.

We have reached a stage where we have an enormous amount of information as well as it being very complex in nature. Advances in science as well as any field of endeavor is presented for laymen and comprehended relatively easily. Analogies and pedagogical tools help us understand complex topics such as relativity and light year.

While our ability to gather and understand information has increased to a great extent, converting information to Knowledge is a different matter altogether. Knowledge is internalized information, where one begins to live life in sync with what one has understood.

For example, the information that 'Everything is made up of atoms' is reasonably understandable. Through logic , and primitive axioms, one can arrive at this information. But this stays as mere information. It stays at a intellectual level, and available for discussions and contemplations. Converting such a fundamental piece of information into Knowledge will liberate one from the miseries of life.

If everything is made of atoms,(here by atom we can mean the most fundamental particle, such as a Higgs-Boson) then whatever we see is made of atoms. A blade of grass, a cloud, a waterfall, a sun, dirt, food, our body, each and every organ in our body, and so on.. are all made of the exact same atom.

Atoms are clean, they are pristine. There are no ugly atoms, no dirty atoms, no good atoms, or bad ones. Even the cancer cell contains the very same atoms as  that of life giving oxygen. The irritating neighbor is made of the exact same atom as myself. If one searches the body all one finds is the atom. The individual self is never to be found. The identify claiming to be the self is not to be seen. only billions and billions of the very same atom. Everywhere. All over the Universe, the very same thing.

A deep and sustained contemplation on this fundamental idea becomes profound Knowledge. A world made entirely of atoms, without any idea of good or bad, likes and dislikes cannot be the cause of any kind of trouble. All emotions, thoughts, ideas and stories happen in an illusory layer over and above the atomic realm.That extra step to Knowing something from it being mere information transforms life, and in this case results in Joy.

If everything is made up of atoms and nothing but atoms, then it is indeed easy to 'Imagine'.

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace, you

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world, you

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Thanks John Lennon for such a profound song.

Past or Present

It is amazing how sometimes the most mundane of things can be incredibly interesting. The other day I was watching the Sunrise on the shores of the ancient seaport of Mamallapuram. With the beautiful Shore Temple on my side, I was pondering how we are witnessing the past in the form of this timeless sixth Century wonder. A few moments later the Sun rose above the sea, a beautiful orange ball of fire, making the sea and the waves glow like fire.

As I kept watching the sea, the reflections , the waves, the people swimming and the fishing boats near the horizon, it dawned on me that the picture I was witnessing had multiple samples of time. The sea and the waves and the boat were from the present time. The shining Sun however was from the past. It was about eight and a half minutes old. I was witnessing the past and the present at the same time. An incredibly miraculous thing isn't it?  

A friend further elaborated me that in fact it was not just two, but infinitely many. Light from each of the objects reaches my eye at the same time, after bouncing off from them at different times. so it was an infinitely many continuous  frames from different times. All from the past.

Indeed you can only see the past!! time would have past however small between when it bounced from the object and hit your eye. So we can never really observe anything in the present! So what we seem to see never existed! the reality that we seem to think of is in fact an illusion. 

Parmenides and Zeno used the argument of the impossibility of movement to the same conclusion of the illusory nature of reality.

Realizing that nothing is real, and what we see is not  what you get, we can enjoy this absurdly inexplicable life.

Multiple truths and Higher dimensional space

As we evolve, we begin to seek. We seek to know. We seek to know about the phenomenal world, life, and our place in it. We seek to get answers. We try to explain. There are myriad approaches and a million explanations.

From infinitesimally small to the impossibly large, from the inanimate to the most dynamic, from non-living to highly evolved living beings, there is a vast range in the texture of life. What is totally insignificant to one plane is of utmost important to another.

Then there is something that seems rational, that seems to be beyond inconsistencies, and it tries to explain life, systematically. Sometimes we seem to get answers. sometimes not, and more importantly all questions are not answered. Then comes religion, which in itself comes in a million flavors. It helps us understand, but in a million ways. Here again at times we seem to get an answer.

Then there are philosophers, they seem to give us some glimpse of the truth. again the answers seem to be coming in trickles. Sometimes love and loss and emotions seem to give us an answer. Art seems to give us some clue.

As we observe the various such systems, there are definitely cases where we seem to get into a certain moment of truth. Where we emotionally and intellectually seem to have that moment of enlightenment. But that seems momentary. It has a certain space and time attached to it. It doesn't seem to last and we get back to our clueless state again. 

But this seemingly accidental brush with truth, has an analogy.

Space as we know is three dimensional. But it need not be absolute. If we were a single dimensional creature, living in a single dimensional world, we would live on a line. we move back and forth, and that's about it. But if the world were two dimensional, then we as single dimensional creatures would experience anomalies, such as some one disappearing in front of us and appearing behind us. This is a simple possibility in two dimensions. with a line traversing from the front and goes behind me.

The same can be extended to two dimensions, and also to the third dimension.Each dimension offers a certain view which is standard, and experiences an anomaly when the next higher dimension intersects. Also it becomes obvious that a higher order truth introduced into a lower order reality is bound to appear as an anomaly!

Just as these anomalies point to the existence of higher dimensions in space, the accidental glimpse of truth and moments of enlightenment points to the existence of a higher order truth. Seeking and reaching that results in a Joyful life.

Tasting your own Blood

The world is a place of entertainment,  experience and enjoyment. Myriad things form part of the place we call earth. Shopping malls, fast cars, Theater, Sports Arena, Sky scrapers, Cruise ships, ski resorts, Temples, Hospitals, Hospices and so many many other things. News keeps us entertained, new ideas keep us excited. Gadgets bring you delight. In this seemingly never ending sequence of events, there seems to be many sources for happiness.

A tiny little tale from the ancient lore, talks about a dog chewing on a dry bone, and as it keeps chewing, its gums begin to bleed, mistaking the blood to be coming from the bone, the dog chews even more enthusiastically, and tasting its own blood and feeling happy.

The happiness we derive out of objects and events and people and places, are compared to the happiness derived from the bone. The world in itself is like the dry bone and cannot provide happiness, it is the inherent happiness in our own self that gets expressed by engaging with the world. The wise understand this fallacy and give little importance to the events of the world.

There are two parts to this story, the first lets us know that the world is not the source of happiness, and hence we can care less about it and be blissful ourselves. This tells us that a fancy car, or a luxurious house is not essential for us to be happy. Though they provide us with comforts we need not crave for it mistaking for the source of happiness. 

The second part tells us that though the bone is not the source for the blood, and similarly the world is not the source for happiness, the bone does enable the dog to taste its own blood. Similarly the world enables us to reflect our own happiness on it and express itself. Similar to the Sun unable to see itself, can only see its very own light by being reflected by objects outside, the world and its events provides us with materials to reflect our own happiness.

Knowing this, and putting the world in its right place, liberates us from the cravings of specific events and possession of objects, titles and stuff and enables us lead a joyful life.

Perfect imperfection

We all are perfectionists at various levels. We need certain things in a certain way. We want people to obey traffic rules, our kids to listen to us, our neighbors to be friendly, a plastic free world, and our politicians to be corruption-free, well that desire we have overcome. Point is we have our set of things to be in a way we want them to be, and certain other things we learn to live with.

Our experiences are only interpretations of events. Events themselves lack the power to create an experience, its our faculty of interpretation that enables us to experience things. As we get to understand this, we learn to see the happenings of life, in a different manner. Be it day to day events, or life altering things. As we become more refined in this, and we begin taking things on our stride, life gets into a monotonic rhythm. 

Then out of the blue something happens that makes you go mad beyond your wildest dreams. Now how did that happen? In spite of our composure, and our complete understanding of the meaninglessness of life, and the fallacy of taking anything hard, some events do get us! This is the greatest feature of life! It keeps bringing up surprises, and makes you feel alive. You think you have got it all, and then this happens!

A totally desire less state will liberate us from the negativity of such situations, contemplating on the nature of reality, and beauty and depth of this creation, helps us stay at the right distance from life.

The world is an illusion, and the frameworks of likes and dislikes create endless structures for living. Realizing this, and staying in this knowledge, helps us get back on our feet after feeling the blow that life just gave. If you think about it, this life is indeed perfectly imperfect!

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.

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 ...

Why Quantum Mechanics has nothing to do with God

I find it amusing these days to see discussions among scholars of science and spirituality mostly ending with the scientists mocking at the unscientific use of science by the spiritualists to prove the existence of God. To quote Michael Shermer .. 'You say Quantum mechanics is weird and spooky, the world of the spirit is weird and spooky and so quantum mechanics is Spiritual' .. or something to that end. I think Shermer here has a point.

Quantum mechanics for instance is such a very hard subject to grasp from an intuitive manner, perhaps there are just a handful of scientists who really really understand it, and if anything its abstract and perhaps no intuitive interpretation is possible. It is a theory that is fit onto scientific observations. Much like by observing the ratio of circumference to the diameter our ancient scientists figured out that it always seem to be the same. 

An observation, or a series of observations are made, a theory is created. The theory is tested meticulously, objectively, over and over again. the theory is corrected as needed, more observations, more corrections, more new theories .. this is the broad outline of science. chipping away carefully one at a time. This simple yet completely objective study of phenomenon has taken us through various stages of evolution , we have incrementally been knowing more, controlling more, creating more,improving more. Every century has a quantum leap if you will, putting to unimaginable obscurity what the mighty of the past might have to call in terms of knowledge and comforts compared to that of a common man today.

Science has been, is and will ever be the greatest tool of man to investigate, improve and innovate. As a layman it is best to stop there. Just because I have read about the double slit experiment a dozen times in various books and magazines doesn't qualify me as a quantum physicist. Even a PhD in the subject doesn't warrant a complete understanding of it.

Now, to really stop being embarrassed by scientists particularly physicists, spiritualists who truly know what they are talking about, should use the simplest of reasoning to reach to the spirit. There is nothing New-Age about the spirit. The spirit is timeless,but science has its time. there was old archaic science, medieval science, modern science, futuristic science and so on. that is because we keep learning about a constantly changing world. The spirit is timeless.

While using contemporary language and situations are useful to set a context, to claim that modern scientific knowledge implies the spirit is childish. scientists are very sharp people. mathematics and logic are their tongue. If there were to be a connect between the two, then both must speak the same language, and with complete understanding of their respective subjects. the scientist is a seeker. he questions the understanding of man, wants to arrive at an explanation. only thing is he is very clear that his subjects are those that can be objectively observable. they must be observed,measured, detected using an unbiased instrument of sorts and the observation must be repeatable with predictable results. 

Every single such thing that the scientist is interested in, be it a subatomic particle, or sub-sub particle, or a burst of energy, or the force of gravity, or the waves on the beach, the depths of the oceans, the vast distances in space, thoughts in a person, what ever that maybe, has observable attributes. something that an instrument can detect. a single feeble blip is good, but there ought to be one. Even the dark matter for that matter is observable due to its influences, just like Neptune's influences resulted in its discovery. every single thing is owing its existence due to the fact that it can be observed. that in turn owes it to at least one single attribute.

An attribute is anything that can describe something. a length, a weight, a color, a shape, a temperature, a speed, a location.. it can be anything that can be observable. Not necessarily through the eyes, but by any instrument of any kind. If you look around and think about it, every thing that you ever know about will have an attribute..perhaps more than one most of the time. 

Can you think of anything that you know of that has no attributes?

Contd ...

I am the ONE but its not me the person.

The greatest mystery of life is life itself. the place we live, the events that we encounter, the people we meet, the thoughts we have, the feelings that we experience ... everything is a mystery. 

We have our good days, we have our bad days. The Yin and the Yang, the dormant and the dynamic.. its an exciting world.. endless in size. People are the most interesting of its ingredients. 

There are countless number of things in this world. from sub atomic particles, to atoms, to minerals, to liquids, to more things like food, plants, eyes, hair, paper, ink, paintings, light.. and so on. The most interesting of them all is the people. They offer the maximum bang for the buck. The reason must be because unlike all other things we encounter, people seem to have a mind of their own. They behave in such a believable manner that one might even think they are aware! That precious thing called awareness is reserved for the One. and the One can only be One! Yet people we see appear to be aware. they appear to think. they appear to feel. they appear to have a consciousness! Isn't that incredible! well.. that is the reason they are the most interesting of all. They possess the greatest ability to make you focus on the world, and effectively get lost in it!

Well since it is simply not true that they can have a mind of their own with consciousness and awareness, it must appreciated that such a thing called humans exist. the most brilliant idea indeed.. this idea of people!

In the apparent journey towards understanding this complex world, a person inquires, introspects and then after realizing the truth. transforms to the true self, its the mother of all journeys, the greatest adventure of all times, the most daring, the most slippery, and astonishing travel. In the travel, the destination is the most fascinating. The journey takes the person to the true beginning, where everything started.

The truth is amazing, the person realizes that the only One in the Universe is the person itself! Well.. not really. When I understand the ultimate reality to be the simple fact that 'I am the One', the tendency is to falsely conclude that I as the person is the One. It is the 'I-I' that is the One and not me as a person. This is the most tricky endgame move that keeps me from truly getting it.

I as the person can never be the One. Its completely on the contrary. Only when I get rid of even the slightest trace of consciousness from the I as the person, can I see the One. Once this distinction is clear, the final piece of the puzzle is set in its place, and the destination is reached.

How Unreal is this Illusion?

The ultimate truth about the reality is that the world as we perceive is an Illusion and that I am the only reality.

While conceptually , and at times for convenience, this explanation might be appealing, there are questions that make us think deeply about this explanation.

We see the world full of people, all independently living, thinking, interacting, progressing etc. Similarly there are so many other living and non living things, all in action, all in their own trajectory of life. We can easily see that we all do have a say in the happenings of the world. There is apparent ability to change the course of things. One can control another person etc.

Also more interestingly we see several people trying to understand the truth and getting enlightened. If the idea of enlightenment is to simply realize the truth that I am the only reality, how is it possible for several people to get enlightened? Absurd indeed. It is said in the Vedantic tradition one needs to surrender to a living Guru and help getting enlightened, and also that the Guru must himself be an enlightened one! If I am the only reality then the Guru must be part of the illusion. And if I am the Guru then the student must be part of the illusion.

All these seemingly difficult issues can be addressed if we consider three approaches to the illusory nature of the world.

(1) Many people exist: . All that we perceive through our senses, including our minds forms part of the relative reality. Within the relative reality, everything is real. My Ego is a real entity having its independent existence. so does all other people. This gives room to the existence and functioning of God. Here we can see people doing various things, and some trying to learn the truth. Some of them get enlightened. And we can see some becoming teachers, some other continuing their lives post enlightenment. All as real , as far as the relative reality is concerned. Much like one accepts everything within a dream to be real, as long as one does not wake up. After enlightenment, one continues to experience the world, and the relative reality, with a knowledge of the absolute reality. Similar to being aware that one is dreaming from within the dream itself. The ultimate truth, the enlightenment does not make the unreal world disappear, much like the knowledge of the mirage does not remove the mirage. The mirage continues to be perceived, and the individual entities within the mirage such as the reflection of a mountain, trees, water etc, will continue to exist and project individuals as though they are real. But the knowledge that it is a mirage will eliminate all sufferings that arise due to the events of the mirage.

(2) Only I Exist: The world is nothing but the Lokha. Lokha is all that is perceived or experienced. It includes everything , such as people, living and non living , etc. All events and happenings are simply experienced only by me. As long as I do not experience them they do not happen, or exist. people trying to learn the truth, Teachers who have learnt the truth, My won Guru, are all part of the illusion and they do not exist in reality. I exist as the individual and once I get the ultimate knowledge I am enlightened, and all other 'enlightenments' are simply part of the illusion. Probably they exist just to let me know about such as thing as enlightenment.

(3) Nothing exists and Nothing happens: The world is an illusion. and I, as an individual is part of the illusion. So such an I does not exist. Since I as an individual does not even exist, then so does all others and things. This means then there is nobody out there to actually learn and get enlightened. Nor anyone who is to teach anyone else. the whole world is an illusion, not existing in reality, and no events whatsoever happened or happens. The enlightenment that I get itself is illusory. All that exists is the only absolute reality that is I.

Taking either of these three viewpoints clarifies the doubts regarding the anomalies about a extremely realistic looking illusion.