Mind is Mind Boggling Stuff

Mind is Mind Boggling Stuff

Citta (substitute mind or consciousness in English)

  
1. Mind (Citta) in fact, is a factory of formation of mental factors of diverse ideas, opinions, contradictions and conflicts.

2. It is a never ending process.

3. It is a tool for attention and distraction.

4. It has the flux of rising, peaking and falling formations or phenomena.

5. It is an agent of attachment.

6. It has no self or ego but boundless cosmological presence.

7. It is in motion and continuity of concepts but no real or virtual purpose. 

8. Ciita, Cetasikas and Sankhars are its  domains.

9.  It can exist both bound to and outside the matter principle.

10. It is never free but bound by its own compulsions and inconsistencies.

11. That is why I call it a mystery.

12 Try to free it from dogmas, opinions and conventions and try to elevate it to a higher dimension blend with kindness, joy and pleasantness.


Stream of Consciousness is mind boggling?

This piece is a Hypothesis not a Concept to arouse investigation of the mind and its underlying force.

Some of the things proposed are outrageous but one should not throw away the basic tenet of the hypothesis due to inconsistencies.

I do not want to use the word consciousness and specially the subconscious mind with only two layers of mind (essentially matter or brain bound).

I prefer the eminent philosopher James William’s theme, the stream of consciousness as a near enough hypothesis.

The word “Awareness” of itself and its surroundings, irrespective of its proximity (far or near) in space dimension is my invention.

The most outlandish statement to begin with is that the stream of mind (consciousness as stated in modern western terminology) does not necessarily need a brain or matter for its existence.

It can exist without the matter principle.

 

Even though, in Indian and Buddhist cosmology there are many domains of existence of beings, I would like to narrow it to three levels for the purpose of simplification but would dare say, the potential and the sphere of the stream of mind is so limited.

In actual fact, it is very difficult to comprehend.

The three levels for discussion are;

1. Mind without matter principle, essentially an energy form with unlimited extensibility.

2. Mind with matter principle invariably bound to the matter in the form of neural system extending to the level of many “brain forms” (human brain is not supposed to be the ultimate and the highest).

3. The third is the transitional or subtle form, there is neither matter nor no matter but interaction of the stream of mind in many forms.

Why this subdivision?

It is all, to explain, the behavior of the mind of gifted individuals, mediums, those cultivated by meditation, those who posses ability to remember past lives, telepathy, hypnotic transgression and such experiences like tunnel vision in near death syndrome.

The way, we look at the mind and its awareness in modern science, many of the above cannot be explained or disputed by mere conjecture or by preposition or hypothesis.

 

I won’t go into many details but start with few examples.

 

Take the case of amoeba.

It is the simplest of living forms but it has an enormous amount of DNA material for its simple survival. The genetic pool is enormous for its simplicity. It does not have a brain or brain material to think and to do purposeful workout.

But seemingly handicapped, as it may sound, it does all what is necessary for living, reproduction and survival.

There is a purpose for survival and “the purposeful activity is not too different from a higher order animal with a primitive brain”.

The will for existence and purposeful collection of genetic material for future evolution into a higher form of being, yet without a brain.

I call this form of existence, “the brainy mechanism of sustenance” what a single cell accomplishes on its own.

The single cell is the brain for its own existence.

When we take multiples of these cells when organized purposely as brains in different species including aliens that may exist in other worlds, the potential of the brain systems and stream of mind is enormous.

So one should not get surprised for somebody having telepathic ability or to communicate with the dead or subsequent lives or departed dear ones (assuming rebirth as distinct possibility) with paranormal ability.

Simple disputing of paranormal ability is not the way about it.

There were many in our history and often disputed (deliberately by vested interests).

Madam Helena Blavatsky is a case in point.

We have not developed sufficiently sensitive instruments to detect these “energy forms” and EEG is not the “be all and end all instrument of detection”.

My personal view is we need a finely tuned ‘another higher brain’ to monitor these activities.

Not all of us have these abilities inbuilt.

It is the duty of the psychologists and psychiatrists to invest in these areas of training, instead of denial and disputation.

One way of developing this power is through meditation but only a few of us can sustain it to such a higher levels. One should be cautious when one attains meditative states that are transient in nature but with profound spiritual nature (Ayarhuask inhalation is one example) that could either alarm the meditating guy or girl or get morbid attachment to this transient state.

My own conviction is that the practice of meditation has many other benefits apart from achieving goals mentioned above and one should use it for one’s own higher transition rather than using it as a diagnostic tool.

But I won’t condone anyone who is pursuing scientific and diagnostic pathways.

Now let me dish out some outlandish views.

The mind on its own without a material base.

Can it exist on its own?

Where does its energy come from without a biological base?

If the cell can survive without a brain (amoeba) why not a mind without a brain?

In the material world there are so many energy forms including cosmic radiation.

In that spectrum not having an energy form called stream of mind (James William’s own description of the mind as a stream) is unacceptable to an inquiring mind.

If the medical world (I do not divide the mind only two states) could formulate something called subconscious mind for centuries, above hypothesis is an antithesis.

In the eastern cosmology, beings with subtle bodies with spiritually developed minds are tenable.

It is often said people who had attained different level of absorptions through meditation are born in these worlds and live a long life.

It is also said these beings can travel vast distances from their mother planets and visit alternative universes.

In literal terms they are the Devas or Gods.

Extension of that theory is what I am proposing not the alteration of the eastern cosmology.

If that scenario is possible, that mind stream would penetrate atomic, subatomic and quantum levels of uncertainty and comprehend everything the modern science delve in.

So what?

The mind should theoretically (mind’s behavior is attachment to entities or ideas) be able to merge with subtle material and change (shape change described in alien films) its form at will or wish.

I think my hypothesis is going well beyond this world to other dimensions.

Is it 7, 10 or 13 or string theory of mathematics?

The possibility of the stream of mind is incomprehensible and vast.

Binding it to a dogma, idea, religion, culture, politics, race or science is very narrow.

Try to discover your own mind potential but remain within the limits, lest you get virtually mad.

Come to think about it, this world is full of mad guys/girls especially in the political field.

Mind and its Repertoire

Mind is a powerful entity with boundless energy within.

It is very difficult to explain its repertoire.

Below is a few descriptions extracted from Dhamma Pada.

Before that, I will try to describe in Simple English how I describe the “Entity called Mind”.

Mind is Universal Entity in certain forms of life.

We believe it is related to the existence of the brain but if I ask the question myself, “Can I locate or pinpoint it for somebody to scientifically investigate it?”, I run short of methodology to project my mind out.

It seems to be intrinsically bound to every cell in my body not heart or brain.

I do not like the word conscious and unconscious since mind is never at rest even in one’s deep sleep.

It is a living but changing entity and part and parcel of life of beings.

So I prefer the word “Awareness” of itself and its surroundings irrespective of its proximity (far or near) in space dimension.

I can visit moon in a fraction of a second (faster than speed of light) while smoking my cigar and exhaling rounds and rounds of smoke circles.

Like the smoke circles from a cigar appear and disappear, my thought moments can appear and disappear with tremendous rapidity and next moment my mind is in mars or outside the boundaries of the known universe.

That is the beauty of the mind.

Next thing I want to do is to address the “Level of Awareness”.

The base level is Awake State.

A lower level is Dream State.

Third level is “Knocked Out State”, hit on the head by a club or live electricity shock or ECT (Electro Convulsive Therapy) or Medical Drugs with anesthetic properties or psychedelics.

Now the bombshell.

Just as we can have substandard levels of mind to normal awake state, I want to propose that there are seven or more levels of super-standard states of mind (for the purpose of my argument- it may be much more than seven, never less).

For a person of Western upbringing brought up with God Concept, God is another “Spiritual Level”of Awareness much more than our base level.

Now the second bombshell.

There are life forms outside our domain, for the want of a better term I use, Alien Beings have Awareness Levels (going up to seven or more) far more superior to ours.

The caveat here is some of these beings are very inquisitive especially the level I (one) and II (two) civilizations that may or may not visit us from time to time for formal investigations.

The question is can we reach them?

I tend to believe that we can.

How?

We can increase our level of awareness with Mind Training.

That Mind Training is Meditation (for want of better term).

It is within our brain  potential.

All this preamble is to find an answer to the question of “Mediums” and “Channels” or the Ancient Wisdom Masters (of Red Indians, of Aborigines and Indian Sages).

Christianity has suppressed these phenomena by their world domination by “Mighty Economic Power” (both UK and USA).

Good example is Madam Helena Blavatsky and the attack on her by the Western authors (Theosophy) of profundity.

The domain of Christianity is in its wane, so it time to address other states of mind including the “Aliens who would visit us” when we are ready.

For the sake of my argument, “Mediums” and “Channels” are altered states of mind of awareness of the bearer.

They are usually females who are amenable to such states of “fantasy”.

They should not be addressed as fakes (large majority are fakes for the purpose of publicity).

I should wind up this with few verses from Dhamma Pada.

I do not like the English words, Ego, I, Soul and Spirituality.

To drop those entities from our minds’ vocabulary one has to attain a certain level of of meditative instances or Jhanas.

Mano Puggamgamaa Dhamma

Mano Setta Manomaya

Manasa che Passannena

Basthi va Karothi va

Tatho Nam Sukka Manchethi

Chayava Anupayini

  

Mind precedes all mental states

Mind is the chief chef,

They are all mind-wrought (fashioned)

If with pure (perfect) mind one speaks or acts happiness follows like never departing shadow of oneself.

  

Durangaman ekamchram

Asariram guhasayam

Ye sittam sangnamesanti

Mokkanthi Marabandhana

Dwelling in the cave

Without form

The Mind wonders far

And moves alone.

Those who subdue this mind

Are liberated from the bond of Mara

(The meaning of Mara here is somewhat equivalent to death in every being but in philosophical terms means much more of the unsatisfactory nature of all living phenomena including mental formations).

I am not a Pali scholar and Pali scholars (neither in English) are hard to come by and my humble attempt is to bring simple English connotation into lifeforms.

Any errors of commission and omission are all mine.

Please note that I do not academically or literally follow every bit of mystic phenomena but want the readers to be open minded.

I have had first hand encounters with similar ability but never tried to stop them or encourage them (kept my comfortable scientific dissociation) or assess them scientifically.

Reincarnation means the same thing as re-embodiment and rebirth. It is the human soul returning to the worlds of many forms again and again, taking up residence each time in a new physical body in order to continue the soul’s progressive/regressive journey of inner evolution/ devolution, advancement/depreciation, development/decay and many ways of unfolding.

Death is not the end and birth is not the beginning.

The soul reincarnates due to three main reasons 

(I avoided using Buddhist context of rebirth (no permanent soul but rolling phenomena or Sanskhars) since many still use this word reincarnation as a permanent soul entity)  

(1) It still has lessons to learn,

(2) It still has “karmic debts” which it needs to work off in order to balance its sheets of Karma,

(3) It has not yet fully realized its own divine nature or its absolute oneness with the higher self (Divine) and has not yet re-become into higher order of consciousness which is truly and really possible with sustained effort (by sustained and right Meditation).

Reincarnation is a Law in Nature.  

It is not true that “only some souls reincarnate” or that “reincarnation is the exception rather than the rule,” as some have claimed.

It is an ongoing cyclic process and necessity for each soul go through relentlessly.

There are three possibilities regarding what happens to us when we die.

View One

There is the view of the atheists and materialists, who say that we are nothing more than a lump of soulless purposeless matter and that we simply cease to be, when the physical body dies.

View Two

Then there is the “one life only” view held by some religions, who maintain that the soul only lives once on Earth and that after the body dies the soul either goes to Heaven for all eternity or burns in Hell for all eternity.

The religions which teach this concept usually insist that they are the only right religion and that only the people belonging to that particular religion will go to Heaven and the rest to Hell.

View Three

The third possibility is that of an ongoing process of reincarnation. 25-30% of people in the West today say that they believe in reincarnation and it has been a standard belief in much of the East for thousands of years, having its origin in Hinduism, which is the world’s oldest religion.

It is also a central feature of Buddhism and other Indic religions.

If one does not fall to any of the above three, he or she could become open other dimensions and say I do not know what is going on.

 

Mind boggling question

Mind is

Fluid

Frequently

Flying

To reach

A distant goal

Flitting

And Fleeing

Why not call

It a mystery?

Which it is

Instead of the

Ill conceived

Ill understood

All abiding

All encompassing

Term called consciousness

Which truly

Is a misnomer par excellence

Buddhist Meditation

Buddhist Meditation

Let me state what it is not, first.

It is not a commercial enterprise.

It is not an institution of its own.

It is goal oriented mental exercise.

The goal is to gain freedom from conditional existence of body and mind duality.

The goal is not nothingness but unconditional existence of mental accompaniments without any base or attachment to a material base.

Since it lacks base, it is described as the true freedom without bondage or attachment.

Mind is a powerful source of energy, it cannot dissipate into thin air after death of one existence to another.

There is a continuum by attachment to another base of existence of numerous types of beings in this world and many other worlds.

It is not unique only to man and it exists in lower animal kingdom, too.

There are levels of mind in higher spheres, too.

For lack of better term they are described as celestial (Deva) beings.

Aliens are not Devas but a different kind of humanoids with different level of mental capacities. 
 

While Devas almost never associate with humans, aliens of humanoid kinds try to make contact with similar types.

This universal mental existence cannot be described as the consciousness and unconsciousness.

The English word consciousness has no meaning in Dhamma context.

It is only for personal endowment and empowerment one practices meditation.

It is not at all an easy task.

There are over nine (9) levels of ascendancy of beings.

This transcendence can be upward or downward.

Usually it is downwards to the base.

 

That is how the nature of mind works.

One needs to practice it over a long period of time, not in one or two sessions.

One needs a proper teacher with at least of 10 years of experience (with all the ups and downs the master has gone through).

There are only a few of them currently available.

Years of practice does not stay put, if one breaks it for other means (like trying to teach others at the expense of one’s own consolidation).

Some ill conceived teachers try to impose that this state of mind can be achieved “now and there” is asking for too much from a novice.

Simply said, asking for trouble.

As a preparation for meditation one has to go through the four abodes.

The Metta, Karuna, Mudhita and Upekka are the basic prerequisites.

It is good to try with a master with at least 10 years of practice (with ups and downs of the masters own realm) experience.

Do not take it light.

It is hard but with perseverance many levels can be achieved including good relaxing techniques.

Best starting point is Metta Meditation.

Then gradually work with other techniques.

Vissudhi Magga has as many as 1000 methods.

Pick the method that suits you and graduate into more esoteric methods.

10 to 20 minutes is a good start.

I am not a teacher of Meditation by nature.

The attempt here was to highlight its nature.

My earlier writings can be best ignored, now.

The purpose of the earlier writings was to prepare one for the ordeal.

Do not take it light, lest one gets into untold troubles which one has to live through oneself.

Meditation and its Outcome

Meditation and its Outcome

This is an attempt to bring some clarity to Meditation in General and to give a brief preview of the Buddhist Attitude to “Full Awareness of Mind and Body Duality” as a conundrum (confusing or difficult problem or question to solve).

From the very outset, I was never keen on meditation but kept a distant academic interest for posterity.

Why?

When I was working in Colombo as a skilled person on Quality Training in General and in Hospital (non existent 30 years ago and currently, too) Administration in particular, I met six guys/girls with some form of mental derangement, as a third party referral level of option by some of my friends in Colombo.

Psychology (I had an aversion to it from my student days) was not my interest and I referred them to a psychiatrist whom I knew from my early days without a formal referral note (I did not want to label them with a psychological tab).

He send them back to me without a formal diagnosis or label stating he could not figure out the problems in them by his way of doing things.

The general impression given to me by the psychiatrist was to ignore the derangement (No Drugs prescribed, probably expecting them to disappear on their own accord) and see the outcome.

That was not the way, I was used to addressing a current or recurrent problem.
I decided to dig a little.

The common denominator was they had all gone into practice of Meditation in their free time in retirement.

My prescription then was, if you are above 65 do not try New Special Skills, like meditation but practice good living and take prescribed medicine for blood pressure, diabetes and the like.

I have lowered this age of “No Meditation without supervision” to 55.

In my case, I did not practice meditation at all but I practiced a method of my own to facilitate (“focus this moment” coming from management background of “Quality Control”) my pending work.

One at a time but fully focused.

Now I call this the “Moment Meditation”.

This did good in my research work without a reliable supervisor.

In all, Meditation was an antithesis to my own, normal intellectual activity (especially dealing with science and research).

My observation of these six guys and girls were;

1. They were perfectly normal in their own fields.

2. They were friends of my friends and I had an obligation to help.

3. They had ailments like diabetes, hypertension but never psychological.

4. They had happy families except one or two.

5. They were trustworthy and had ample free time.

6. All of them had at least one new medical problem (pain, headaches, increase in frequency of daily habits, obesity, binge eating and drinking) which they never had before trying meditation practice.

In other words, mental derangement was a new phenomenon.

7. They were drawn into this practice not by compulsion but by trends at that time (mind you 30 years ago).

8. They were simply experimenting and not trying to correct their defiles or acquire new merits.

In a nutshell, they were very simple guys with common sense, in day to day life but not in Mind Control (better term is Purification of Mind of impurities as they were).

My prescription was to tell them, give up the new habits, which is a very simple prescription in geriatric age (simple rearrangement of your bedroom or work table leads to disorientation in old age) and those guys/girls recovered in no time.

Why I am writing this now.

I found a few books published (even before I was born) by an erudite monk for his fellow monks.

The books enumerate five or more warnings.

1. One can go mad.

2. One can get new diseases.

3. Some diseases may disappear.

4.The diseases that had gone into hibernation might resurface.

5. One may try, to become an egocentric and compulsive teacher, etc.

The biggest vulnerability is to become a teacher and try to convert others to his or her fold.

These things are happening in this country and around the world.
Why I do not know.

Beware!

If you an old guy please do not try uncharted territories or make others to follow you.

You are in hot water by your own misguided trips.

There are lot of Messiahs in the Youtube.

They are stage crafted to mislead and misguide.

Unfortunately, I think even Dr. Steven Greer probably falls into this undesirable (probably well meant but stage managed for other reasons) radar and there are many more coached by misinformation campaigners with sinister motives.

There are many forms including,
mind control, telepathy, remote viewing and subservience to propaganda in general.

Coming back to duality of mind and materiality in Buddhist context, meditation is for taming the mind and elevating it into a level of Dhamma Perspective of no soul, unsatisfactory nature of Bava (being) solely due to impermanence of the egoistic belief.

One should have this perspective, even before sitting on a meditation session of ones own, lest one would get engrossed in elevated moods in trance states that invariably become a major hindrance to peace and purity of mind.

Not only that one would use these states of mind, in magic craft and self elevated illusion of grandiosity.

The objective of other religions is either subservience to a almighty gods or spirits or alien contacts of some kind.

In Buddhist perspective, the sole objective is to shed these illusions and the grandiosity of self or soul that should lead to "self" preservation, in search for the nature or the behavior of mind / material duality.

One cannot exist without the other.

 

1. "Sila" or the Discipline.

2. "Samadhi" or Sustained Effort
3. "Pagna" or Wisdom are the prerequisites.


The understanding of the three things of Dhamma is a prerequisite for attaining the goal.

No soul concept, (No binding self), impermanence and unsatisfactory nature of life of beings are the three things one should contemplate before attempting meditation.
 
Or else it is a waste of one’s time and energy.
May even be madness!

Be mindful of the goal!

It is not a gift but an achievement unsurpassed.

In Abhidhamma an attempt is made to unravel the conditionality (Patichcha-Samuppadha) of existence of beings in Sansara.