Journey to the Abstract

When it comes to REAL knowledge, I can only tell you something you already know within. All knowledge that matters is already known to us within. Sometimes while hearing some teachings, I realize that whatever they say is already known to me somewhere deep and this resonance is what gives it profound meaning.

Identity is a prison. All our vulnerabilities lie in this very definition we create for ourselves.
For example:
A girl may identify with her good looks during teenage years. However the effort required to maintain this identity would progressively increase as she gets older and gets subjected to various external events such as child birth, stress, hormonal shifts etc.

If a girl’s looks were average to below average during formative years, she may adopt a different identity which may be based on goodness, humor, wit, performance in school or work, popularity, social likability, selfless service, power, influence etc. She may increase her attractiveness quotient by being very nice to people, seduce, flirt, smile a lot etc.

Beautiful girls identifying themselves with it would go to great lengths to maintain it. Similarly if a person identifies himself with his health, he too would put a lot of effort in maintaining it.

We generally quickly identify with all the aspects in which we feel we have an inherent advantage. Since each identity definition faces threats we identify with multiple aspects of ourselves. For eg: A person may consider himself a musician, writer, good father, good family man, moralistic, faithful etc.

Certain definitions last much longer than others. For example, if we identity ourselves with principles then it is at a higher level than identifying ourselves with our individual actions. Higher the definition of this identity, more the freedom.

Each identification makes us correspondingly vulnerable in those aspects and there are different levels to these identities. For example: Social validation might be creating most of your motivations. So the motivations you have currently may not have any essence, you may just be doing all those things to satisfy a higher need such as social validation.

If we dis-identify with everything then we would have the most freedom. We can progressively dis-identify, move to higher levels and gain more freedom.

– Cool air (6 – 12 deg C)
– Fresh air
– Humidifier and dust filter for dust/pollen free environment
– Medium strength – Intermittent or Continuous breeze (in a beach, building terrace, traveling in a vehicle next to window)
– Physical comfort with strong and balanced posture (not lying down or slouching)
– Attractive visual setting with emotionally pleasing items and arrangements OR pleasing scenery (like sightseeing, natural beauty or novel environments)
– Comfortable soft fur/feather jacket that fits well
– Clear lungs – steaming + neti pot
– Cold water dip or shower – around 25 deg C or even colder
– Smooth unobtrusive effortless breathing
– Yoga and breathing exercises (eg: Pranayama)
– Meditation on pleasant sensations
– Hearing favorite music through excellent headphones or earphones
– Interesting stimulating social setting – friends/family/significant
– Intellectually stimulating conversation or reading material

Learning, Exploration, Mastery, Teaching, Creating, Intensity, Concentration, Focus, Fulfillment, Satisfaction, Freedom, Accomplishment, Success, Understanding, Integration, Connection, Truth, Beauty, Love, Knowing, Control

My energy levels are somehow much higher when I am engaged in some social activity like group meetings, informal meetings etc vs me staying at home. Today I spend 6 hrs outside the house with no lunch (just cereal inbetween) on a design group meeting where we had to go to the university and a friend’s house for filming a video. Somehow after getting home, it feels so good to put on the music I hear everyday. The same thing used to happen when I used to get back from office and play the same music.
Why does the music sounding so much better and fulfilling after some intensive social activity/environment(work, outings, meetings etc.)?

Learning styles:
Visual – lectures
Auditory – diagramming
Kinesthenic – learn by doing

Thinking styles:
Linear – Mathematics, accounting
Global – Literature, Philosophy

Plan to add on this list.

Food: looks vs taste: Totally different facets of experience

Today while I was eating my favorite, I closely observed how the food looked and then took a morsel in my mouth and felt its taste. On paying close attention, I discovered something strange. The visual part of food and the taste part of it are like 2 different worlds. There are some relationships, like something black indicates its burnt etc. but taste and visual appearance are so different in qualia. As a metaphor, I thought about how some people looked average but yet they can make you feel so good.

Wonderment food: Ancient man from villages or visits today’s city

I was just imagining…what if I was a man from ancient times, say 3000BC, living in a simple village and I visit my current city for the first time.

What are the things I would wonder about?

• I would be surprised by all the mega organizations like food outlets, the standard look of buildings, infrastructural complexity, the common language of rules which people followed, superstructures that enabled coordination – in small villages, everyone may know each other and speak the same language with very basic infrastructure
• automobiles for transport – it was only horses or bullock-carts in the villages
• the kind of music in eating joints – the whole speaker technology would strike wonderment, its ability to re-create a vast array of sounds from just a small magic box and induce great pleasure….the village may just have live instruments
• Foods like ice-creams and the sheer variety and complexity of food available should strike wonderment – villages may have staple food made from only a few ingredients
• Artificial lighting with its reliability, brightness, consistency and longevity would astound – villages may just use daylight, fire and candles.
• The paving of the ground for roads, sidewalks with decorative tiles would be something to marvel at
• Planes in the sky would look like giant birds
• The variety in people’s clothes, its quality and workmanship would induce wonder – villages may just have clothes covering basic parts. In cold regions, they may use coats from animal skins with workmanship just to fit the requirement
• I would feel so alien – since there are huge number of people following the invisible rules and fiercely moving about with purpose but I do not know anybody
• Typing on a computer keyboard would feel so unnatural and the screen technology would amaze. It can create representations of the real world, virtual imagined worlds. In fact it would take some time to get used to the flickering LCD screen and perceive the depth and 3-D perspective movement from the images on the flat screen
• Sitting in front of the computer for 10+ hours a day would look like a very strange and uncomfortable thing to do

There is so much to admire and wonder about even in today’s world. We fail to see these perspectives. If this world can induce so much wonderment if you are coming from the past, imagine what the future would be like? Wouldn’t it be as astounding for a present day man?

Deconditioned and inspired action: Taoism philosophy

I wish I could give up all my obligations, liabilities and responsibilities and stop this compulsive action from external force. I want to be totally at rest and all my actions should be out of inspiration  and not because I am forced by external stuff.

If I could ask for a wish from a God, I would choose one of these:

• The most magical and euphoric experience ever and a strong memory of that so that I would stop craving for it and be satisfied even from just recalling it
• A glimpse of the ultimate truth so that I can reorient my life
• Kill me once and make me come back with memory of this experience throughout the process
• Bring me into the present moment, de-conditioned completely for a good amount of time

The raw material that I possess from the time I was born is simply this dynamic body and a mind that only has certain innate wants, predilections and needs.

In our formative years 0-4yrs, we map this world with our pointers for what we need and desire. This mapping is the generator of core beliefs and conditioning. We even register certain facial features, gestures, behaviors that guide our intuition, love map, choice of partners etc. in later life.

I seriously wonder, all the knowledge I think I have, the personality I possessed has all been acquired from outside. What I am innately born with is just this dynamic body and mind empty of content. The mind at this stage may simply have basic instinctual information and pointers to desires and needs which may be dormant and manifest later.

Infact I can even go further with the reason and argue that, there is another level of cause and effect. What was I before I was born? and why did I get those specific pointers and body? Did I have any choice regarding that? OR was I just a fragment in the endless river of evolution?

What if there were past births that by some causal logic determined my predispositions and pointers?
Then I could go further and question, what was I before the previous births? Are the previous birth’s limited to only the human form and this world? What if  other worlds, planets, other dimensions in the same world? I could have been any living creature imaginable or even beyond (beyond since what we can even imagine is limited to our experience with our 5 senses…there might be infinite senses, worlds, dimensions, realities or even universes) What is my original nature that cannot be broken down further? What is my true essence that has carried over all of this path? What is the essence that is mine and independent of time or space?

From this perspective, is what I know right now real knowledge? All this knowledge is acquired from outside. People’s knowledge has been evolving too and what was knowledge many centuries has been debunked to a large extent. I really question our ways of knowing. Is it in science or religion? I could go further and wonder if a concept is real in the first place? What is it that is beyond concepts?
Is the mind something permanent? What is beyond the mind and body, beyond concepts, beyond space-time, beyond science and religion, beyond everything imaginable?

Its like a plunge into the space of pure unknown, disregarding all selfish concerns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOWMGIpCkM8

One of my favorite advertisements. It beautifully brings out the sense of wonder as these kids try to re-enact the different phenomenon they see around them. Their expressions are so pure, genuine and innocent. I’m finding this pure wonder and innocence getting rarer and rarer as I am getting older. I wish all relationships would be this straightforward. They simply share the same goals and enjoy each others company without any commitment, expectation or other overheads. Its just the the beauty of the moment.