Arvind -- Classes 3 and 4
Amidst the constant change is there anything that is constant. From your infancy to now, many things have changed. The physical structure of your body, opinions, thoughts and so on. But yet we use the word "I" to indicate a constancy through all this change. Is it a meaningful word in any non trivial context. It's a pretty deep question – is there any thing constant at all in you. And this is one avenue to answering the question "who am I?"
First, here is one way of answering what is constant.
Imagine that we assemble a computer and aside from the hardware we embed it with some learning software. This learning software keeps making changes to its axioms and its view of all true and false statements. In addition this computer knows how to make hardware to modify itself. And can also replicate itself. So while the shape of this machine and its view of truth and falsity is constantly changing, is there anything that is constant. In this example yes, the learning program which is a set of clear coded instructions.
It seems to me that the parallels between life and the example above are not far off. Simple survival rules embedded within basic bio chemical building blocks have over time molded us. Our bodies and minds are simply state of the art hardware additions made to a core set of simple hard ware and an enormously powerful but simple bio chemical software that can replicate itself. By analogy we say can say what constant – the dna that carry all instructions for survival including our necessity to discern truth and falsity (is it a tiger or is it a leaf) in order to survive.
The second approach, put forth by the` class is this. Yes there is something unchanging. This is the real you. The real you can be understood by first observing yourself – for you are not anything that you observe. Peel away layers of yourself until you understand what you are. The real you is no different from the real me.
The over simplified pseudo scientific model that I put forward and the mystic model put forth by the school have one thing in common. They both reduce each of us to one thing – dna in my model and something un-nameable in the mystic model. Further the one thing is common to all of us in both models – the starting instructions in my model (our common ancestor according to Darwin) and the unnameable unity of the mystic model. However, the mystic model alludes to something more. It refers to consciousness at a very deep level and I suppose that is the synonym for the word "I". When we say "I" we probably mean what ever it is that provides "consciousness". This is not a problem reduction by any means because I cannot begin to tell you anything about consciousness. Notice again, the key statement about you are not what you observe to be applies to consciousness in the sense that the consciousness that is constant through our life time is not what we observe.
States of consciousness
Although consciousness itself is a tricky beast that we cannot easily trap and study, some things statements can be made about related properties. The class posits the following levels of consciousness. Note, these are basically measurements of something that we cannot define and the measurement is not the measured.
· Restfull sleep (or as I say post jetlag sleep)
· Dream Sleep (Sleep on other days.)
· Waking Sleep (how I or most likely you spend most of your life.)
· Fully awake (When I play tennis. Despo, heres why you need to play something. This state of existence is far better than waking sleep.)
· Higher Consciousness (Not gotten here yet.)
The idea behind the teachings of meditation and another exercize (pick any one of 5 senses and spend a minute on it) is to help revert back to fully awake and sometimes if your are really lucky move to the higher consciousness state (I am wondering if that's what LSD does for you. Spiders on LSD are known to weave better webs than without LSD. In that case screw philosophy and become a junkie!!)
The power of observation and isolation
One of the ideas that has become crystallized (I was a practicing fellow earlier but now I am so much more aware of its power) is the enormous potential of observation in problem solving. In many cases, merely dissecting the problem to its centre and observing it is the solution. I do not mean observation leads to a solution - rather I mean that observation is the solution. The problem vanishes on observation – I suppose in this context I understand the statement you are not what you observe yourself to be. For example, in my previous post I discussed how I overcame the uneasiness I had earlier felt about accusations of the course being offered by a cult.
The trick though is that it requires great honesty to be a good observer. It is a process of letting go – all my prejudices, all my vanity, all my so called achievements (Despo, since you still are hung up about achieving something, this is specially relevant), and every thing else that I cling onto. It is not hard but needs devotion. Screw determination. And especially screw discipline.
First, here is one way of answering what is constant.
Imagine that we assemble a computer and aside from the hardware we embed it with some learning software. This learning software keeps making changes to its axioms and its view of all true and false statements. In addition this computer knows how to make hardware to modify itself. And can also replicate itself. So while the shape of this machine and its view of truth and falsity is constantly changing, is there anything that is constant. In this example yes, the learning program which is a set of clear coded instructions.
It seems to me that the parallels between life and the example above are not far off. Simple survival rules embedded within basic bio chemical building blocks have over time molded us. Our bodies and minds are simply state of the art hardware additions made to a core set of simple hard ware and an enormously powerful but simple bio chemical software that can replicate itself. By analogy we say can say what constant – the dna that carry all instructions for survival including our necessity to discern truth and falsity (is it a tiger or is it a leaf) in order to survive.
The second approach, put forth by the` class is this. Yes there is something unchanging. This is the real you. The real you can be understood by first observing yourself – for you are not anything that you observe. Peel away layers of yourself until you understand what you are. The real you is no different from the real me.
The over simplified pseudo scientific model that I put forward and the mystic model put forth by the school have one thing in common. They both reduce each of us to one thing – dna in my model and something un-nameable in the mystic model. Further the one thing is common to all of us in both models – the starting instructions in my model (our common ancestor according to Darwin) and the unnameable unity of the mystic model. However, the mystic model alludes to something more. It refers to consciousness at a very deep level and I suppose that is the synonym for the word "I". When we say "I" we probably mean what ever it is that provides "consciousness". This is not a problem reduction by any means because I cannot begin to tell you anything about consciousness. Notice again, the key statement about you are not what you observe to be applies to consciousness in the sense that the consciousness that is constant through our life time is not what we observe.
States of consciousness
Although consciousness itself is a tricky beast that we cannot easily trap and study, some things statements can be made about related properties. The class posits the following levels of consciousness. Note, these are basically measurements of something that we cannot define and the measurement is not the measured.
· Restfull sleep (or as I say post jetlag sleep)
· Dream Sleep (Sleep on other days.)
· Waking Sleep (how I or most likely you spend most of your life.)
· Fully awake (When I play tennis. Despo, heres why you need to play something. This state of existence is far better than waking sleep.)
· Higher Consciousness (Not gotten here yet.)
The idea behind the teachings of meditation and another exercize (pick any one of 5 senses and spend a minute on it) is to help revert back to fully awake and sometimes if your are really lucky move to the higher consciousness state (I am wondering if that's what LSD does for you. Spiders on LSD are known to weave better webs than without LSD. In that case screw philosophy and become a junkie!!)
The power of observation and isolation
One of the ideas that has become crystallized (I was a practicing fellow earlier but now I am so much more aware of its power) is the enormous potential of observation in problem solving. In many cases, merely dissecting the problem to its centre and observing it is the solution. I do not mean observation leads to a solution - rather I mean that observation is the solution. The problem vanishes on observation – I suppose in this context I understand the statement you are not what you observe yourself to be. For example, in my previous post I discussed how I overcame the uneasiness I had earlier felt about accusations of the course being offered by a cult.
The trick though is that it requires great honesty to be a good observer. It is a process of letting go – all my prejudices, all my vanity, all my so called achievements (Despo, since you still are hung up about achieving something, this is specially relevant), and every thing else that I cling onto. It is not hard but needs devotion. Screw determination. And especially screw discipline.
posted by VK at 9:33 AM
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