Here comes interesting documentary about an autistic person.


So what really is happening in autism people, when you consider from advaita perspective? Advaita says everything is Maya, illusion. And only that principle which perceives (and which we end up calling "I", and associate it wrongly with body) is what is there, and when we stop identifying ourselves with limited boundaries (of body or any knowledge), we can perceive a reality beyond all illusions.

"He scans a page in 8-10 seconds; which we take 3 minutes.", says the person who interacts with him in the above. No "serial" processing; just some focus and the guy gets it all. It is not that eyes read it serial, but in faster pace. It is just that the perception is interpreted in very different way; kind of fast image analysis.

So usual focus of researchers is to find the way brain is operating in this person. In a "usual design" of a human being, consciousness perceives only that reality which is presented via brain. It limits itself to brain. Before we want to get something into the brain, variety of filters are put in... making it a highly serial process. Everything needs to be first "connected" to what is already stored. And that storage is highly concepts based.

But consciousness doesn't have to limit to brain, it can perceive any reality; like we can perceive how a computer program is running, and what is actually happening inside a system. Not everyone can perceive that, but only those who went through creating a set of concepts... And what made you understand a concept as a concept? For e.g. a tea cup being distinct from the porcelein material, and having a set of other concepts (like its association with liquid)? Using basic concepts (in advaita they are actually called Tatvas) the whole universe is born. But consciousness is not content, it is the fundamental principle which gives reality to something, that which gives rise to "I" in us. It is the experience of the taste, or the colours perceived by the eyes.

Consciousness, by its very nature, can directly access the abstract reality which holds all concepts and relationships. Or things like sequences of pi. In a normal human being, the expression of consciouness which has all kinds of layers and layers of limitations. For e.g., you introduce a concept called brain in the infinite, and then see the infinite through finite brain. And then it filters through the reality perceived through senses. And then you filter through previous experiences that body has. And then the logical layer within the humans, which starts to reconstruct the nature of reality from scratch. The layers go on and on.

But in Savants, may be because they aren't subject to logic the way we do, can effectively get a glimpse of that reality in a different way. Much less layers. Sometimes scientists get a glimpse of reality cutting through layers. Sometimes, reality makes it through layers. These days, computers give access to deeper reality since they operate without those layers. That is why you are sure that the value of Pi generated by computer is indeed so. You have pathways within the accumulated knowledge which ultimately lead to the pristine reality. So to really know if computer generated value of Pi is indeed so, you verify the algorithm in certain way. Some psychics can perceive the reality - not just what has happened, but what is going to happen. Consciouness just gives access to that ultimate reality in which everything is laid out like a song is laid out on tape.

Expression of Pi, or multiplication of numbers is quite a direct access to reality. The savants are generally are able to do it quickly. But they can't do things which involve deeper and deeper set of concepts. A deeper symbol processing is needed when you come to realize that such-and-such-person is friend of your friend's friend. This process of "making sense" and connections in the existing data is somewhat different sort of activity that savants can't probably do, but most humans are apt at it. Why? because the whole of interface has accustomed to using logic in such a way that you tend to extend the existing reality in meaningful way. (It is different interpretation as to what "meaningful" means to us; but it has something to do with security and well-beingness.) For e.g. doing your office activity to achieve well-defined objectives, to create a new research theory or to act in a movie - these are all senseful activities. When you are not bound by such everyday objectives may be there is opening for different perception of reality. Suppose you accept to become a mad person, you are still consciously acting with sense. If you end up becoming mad (without your choice or logical mind involved in that process), may be different aspect of reality can be experienced.

If one wants that experience in controlled manner, then one probably heads to variety of ashrams in India! But when one understands futility of any experience and sticks the principle itself (which Nisargadatta calls "I am" principle), then consciousness has to abide in itself. What you then have is not any content or logic, but the primordial principle that has creation, maintenance and destruction in itself; beyond five elements or time or space. Well, this is what some of the enlightened say... and there is enough material and evidence that points to that... One simply has to decide to dwell into it; and everything - including logic etc. has to drop. It doesn't have to make you unconfortable in this world though... Consciousness can take care of itself.

There are various questions that researcher will ask. For example, how does consciousness remember what it has experienced, if it is not using brain? It must store it somewhere! What is it that allows us to put a boundary for perception, when there is no boundary in physical reality? If my eyes are seeing a computer and a program running in it, obviously physical aspects are immaterial. It is the model/image that we (apparently) build in our brain that is important... And our consciouness is moving within that storage in brain. Then again, how are we able to put a boundary? How are we able to only focus on some things of that storage? For that matter, how are we able to shift our attention from forest, to the individual trees, and leaves and cells of the tree? This boundary formation is continous thing ... that is the most mysterious process that exists there. Advaita says that there is no boundary at all i.e. everything (and not just what is in brain) is available to consciousness as pure knowledge, and the boundary, and the space, and the time, and the interpretation, and the very sense of this world, everything comes in at once. That is the moment of creation. Creation is not in space or time, but creation means creation of space and time. Every moment is creation. The thought and other aspects then join those moments into continuous whole, but there is no whole. Autism people can switch randomly between the abstract reality and give us the flash of what it is like to live... But alas, they don't have control over that process... May be some yogi's have.

If you have this lifetime, what else is important, other than to get to the mystery of whole existence!

Sloka or medicine in coded format?

I think...: Religion or Science - a nice interpretation of Ganesh Stotra to mean that it is actually a coded suggestion for curing diabetes.

The shloka is a medical tip in coded format. Uma means sweet in Sanskrit. Sutam means urine. Shoka means suffering, vinaasha means removes. So the author is saying that the juices of kapitha and jambu fruits cures diabetes. How cool.

Pending a trip to some places in Himalayas, I was wondering how should one really prepare for that. I don't do exercise. At best, one may enjoy nature and end up doing walking etc. Or end up playing some games. New borns and kids don't have to do exercises. Enlightned men don't do exercises...

Basically the point is, if you are a "design", then all the control processes can be perfectly healthy and running without special efforts. It is like, if you have a computer, it will not require exercise to deliver right results.

But then, with the real prospect of having to tone my heavy body and to be ready to go to long trekkings, I thought I have to break the rule. And when finding the experiences of other people, I found this. Walking with A Living Mystic

About halfway up, I could feel the air become thinner and despite being reasonably athletic, my legs had turned to rubber. There were at least four hours of steady climbing left. “I don’t think I can make it,” my mind murmured. Then I remembered the mantra Sadhguru told us about. “Shee-va, Sham-bho, Shee-va, Sham-bho…,” I began chanting quietly to myself. I plodded on with slow, baby steps, ceaselessly chanting. I was committed not to stop even if it meant arriving in the middle of the night.



Within an hour, something amazing began to happen. Although my body was now so tired I couldn’t even feel my legs anymore, somehow I was gaining speed. “SHEE-va, Sham-BHO,” I began to chant louder and a roaring laugh came up from my belly. “SHEE-va, Sham-BHO!” I yelled playfully toward a sherpa who was passing me on his way down. “Shee-VA!” he replied with a huge knowing grin. As the rooftops of Kedarnath village came into site, the buoyancy of my legs lifted me even more. To my surprise, they began to carry me like I was on wheels. For the last thirty minutes of the trek I was actually running—running and laughing with silly, uncontainable, giddy, childlike glee. All of this, in spite of me because my mind still couldn’t believe I’d made it at all.

So that's it. I knew that I can depend on something. There are indeed interesting processes inside of us, which will get "called" when right conditions occur. If you felt that "exercising is way to keep yourself in tone", then that would be the way. But the real techies and geeks should indeed experiment with these aspects of life.

Design of Mind: Analytical "I" mind vs. Feeling mind


First of all, by "Design of mind" what I mean is to find out how things came about: What are the first principles? How do we do what we do? What is the underlying model? Indian philosophy embodies certain elements of theme. For e.g., the concept of individuality doesn't exist; there is only universal awareness which is beyond time and space - and its expression has got locked into a false "I sense". There are many topics in this theme, and I am putting my intuitions into these words on the topic of analytic mind and feeling mind.

We should be able to compare the "design" from three angles: How the mind comes to know what is out there (i.e. perception), Our immediate response to that information, and the long-term response - for e.g., our outlook or the way of being.

What is analytic mind? It builds its world model based on the sensory and other types of perceptions (for e.g. reading a scientific article), is able to use logic to subscribe to various concepts, and to derive new concepts/conclusions. The logic is very important factor: Every concept has independent existence in such a mind; but can be explained using more basic concepts. Ultimately the basis for all concepts have to come from observations in external world. Response to the short term situation is quite mechanical, driven by standard reasonings. Such a mind is usually devoid of emotions because emotions can't be clearly explained by science - except as a humane need as general good. On a long-term basis, such a mind develops an approach of believing other similar minded community (like scientists), and overall world model is very mechanical.

And when we want to define a feeling mind, we have an interesting problem: We are already trying to apply analytical principles to understand feelings! The very point is that feeling is that aspect of mind which is not covered by analytic approach. If analysts dub all the perception and responses through the only approach they know, then they will miss the main points. That is why, the feeling-type people always respond "You will never understand!".

So is there likelihood that there is indeed something in the feelings? My intuitive understanding is: Yes! Here it goes, as per the model of reality under Indian philosophy.

Reality is continuous; it has no boundary. However, "I" is a boundary, but the underlying awareness doesn't have that boundary; just like the physical world has artificial boundaries based on sensory perceptions. There is more orders of empty space within an atom than between the physical world. So when we say "A" perceives "B", we are really saying that we are bringing some aspects of B into "A"'s analytical mind. In essence, it is a small subset of reality which is copied into "A"'s mind. Much like the computer CPUs use registers for processing.

So obviously, this very process is limited, and in essence, you are playing with the boundary. Now if you ask "Is it possible to let go of that boundary?" then you are again analytical, and by definition, analytical approach requires a boundary. For that matter, even in simple act of sensory perception (say, through eyes), there is first an almost unbound perception - a lot of data. The interpretation then happens first at level of physical bounds (i.e. retina etc.) and then mental bounds (in terms of concepts). So by the time you see a "window" and not a "bunch of iron rods and a glass", a lot of boundary-creation has happened. And all this not possibly involving brain. What you want to perceive arises from somewhere else, and brain simply tunes to that perception and creates right images and other responses.

Because mind is not just about analyzing; it is about being aware and responding to the reality around, there must be processes which directly perceive the reality in other ways. Feelings arise from these angles: It is when you are aware of something, but not with the corresponding logic or analytical data that can support the final thing. For that matter, by its very nature, feelings create only hazy pictures of abstract concepts. For example, you may have a feeling that a some close friend is going to come and meet you; but you can never really know it in words. More importantly, it surpasses time and space - because time and space are themselves subject to flow of the ultimate reality. It is particularly powerful when you are going to have a strong association with a particular person or place. For example, if you are going to own a particular building, you may get that feeling of attraction much much earlier - as you pass by that building.

When we respond to situations, the best response is that which takes into account the overall reality. For example, a friend may ask you some money, and you may respond without considering the overall context of why he is asking for that money. If you directly/indirectly try to get that information, you are using analytical approach. If instead, if you indeed tune yourself to be less of "I" and more a part of totality, the feelings will automatically arise, and you will do the right thing. (It is like your hand will never hit your face, because both are under the same "owner".) There is no "how" there, because the moment you try to analyze, well, you have lost it. You are creating a boundary. This type of response will indeed create a great friend for you.

So, feeling is that aspect in which totality just responds (and you go into a different state of mind). "I" is that aspect of mind which acts out of a boundary, and responds with logic and analysis. With totality, there is only action. But the fruit of action - which is the experience, requires "I", and associated with it, the whole world which magically appears with that "I".

A very interesting story - about people find the right callings and indeed absorb so many things from nature ...
Atlanta Bellydance: Asha!.

"After 2 years, I established strong fundamentals in the various healing practices, and began layering them together in my own unique understanding. For example, I added my meditation visualizations into the Belly Dance isolation movements, while breathing in the Pranayama style of the Yogic tradition - and observing my movements effects on the environment from the perspective of Moshe Feldenkrais' movement techniques. Consequently, my depth of understanding was amplified, resulting in an expedient learning of new dance moves, thus discovering a new simplicity and saving time and energy."

The beauty of this life is that it reflects itself. Like this post. Perceptions & Reflections: Life..... duh.. whats that?.

And perhaps what is more intriguing is that the those parts of life that lose themselves in mechanicalness, and then those other parts which reflect and come out of that mechanicalness, are really out of one whole. Poor human being, associating with limited knowledge that passes by, suffers silently in ignorance.

-Vinod

Nisargadatta : I Am That: "You observe the heart feeling, the mind thinking, the body acting; the very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive."

-Vinod