Inward

Think with the slides, reflect, and feel the phenomenon taking place within yourself.

Let’s begin with what we ‘know’.... 1. ‘my’ Sense Organs 2. ‘my’ Memories 3. ‘my’ Thoughts 4. ‘my’ Actions See, the blue arrows are the paths showing directions in which ‘signal movement’ takes place. My Memory

I/me/myself

I Think

My Senses

I Act

feedback

My memories consist of the sum total of the following: 1. Basic genetic memory essential for survival of the body. 2. Knowledge I obtained from society (including from my parents and the advice of my friends.) 3. My own experiences. 4. My professional skills. 5. And so on... We are continuously referencing old knowledge and creating new knowledge all the time knowingly or unknowingly. Let us call it the ‘Knowledge Database’ henceforth for convenience.

OUTside space There is definitely a perception of ‘Outside’ of me and ‘Inside’ of me. Even my heartbeat that I can listen to tells me that that my heart is an organ, something that is out of the boundary of my mind.

My Knowledge Database

I/me/myself

INside space

I Think

My Senses

I Act

If you are still with me, one may ask: Isn’t the boundary created by my senses ? Then there has to be a working part of me which takes input from the senses and differentiates between signals based on my knowledge. ‘Within my skin’ is me and ‘Outside my skin’ is NOT me. A camera that takes pictures, captures it as a complete flat image. I’m talking about the ‘face detection’ software in me. The ‘differentiator/comparer’ software. This is a necessary part of my mind that is necessary for the survival of the body. Otherwise, I may end up drinking molten iron. I don’t know, it looks kind of palatable to me *brighter orange juice probably*

So, let’s rearrange the mind aspects like this:

HIYA !

Knowledge Database

‘My’ Senses

‘My’ Thoughts

‘My’ actions

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Comparer I?

‘Perceived’ IN space

‘Perceived’ OUT space

The ‘Comparer’ is a functional part responsible for the feeling of “I” being distinct from “You” and “Other things”. On a small scale, it’s cool. It takes sensory input signals from the senses, refers the database, differentiates and ‘tags the photo’ accordingly so that we know what is what. Simple. By consciously tweaking it, it helps me feel like I’m one with the car that I am driving. By extending the boundaries of perception I am able to use tools as an extension of myself. I think, this little bit of extra control over the comparer has made the human species a dominating life form. The scientific method may also be a manifestation of the comparer: we break down, we dissect, differentiate and record the smaller workings. Then we use the knowledge obtained to our benefit by recombining, experimenting, prototyping thus leading to Technology. Therefore, the comparer is Pro-survival.

As much as it is responsible for your survival, it is also creating a divide between all of us based on ‘ideas’ and ‘belief systems’ in which we have been brought up. People with same ideas tend to form social groups. This is ok as long as you are happy within the groups. On a large scale today, Political and Religious ‘abstract boundaries’ may be observed as an abomination of ancient, geographically successful, and efficient HR management ideas.

War and the resulting chaos is a result of fanatically perceiving one system as better over the others. Always comparing, differentiating, dividing... The feeling of ‘I’ also makes ‘me’ want more for myself. ‘I’ want things better in life than the ‘Others’. ‘I’ feel angry at people who’s ideas do not resonate with mine or the ideas of my social group.

What do I do about it then ? The awareness of this comparer within myself becomes extremely important. The awareness of the origin, the very origin of my thoughts should be questioned. Because ‘my thoughts’ were never really mine. Most of them were just unconscious reactions to external stimuli referenced to a database. Defensive reactions. I create the reality in which I live by differentiation. Let’s do something interesting. Let’s theoretically turn-OFF the Comparer...

Spooky and exciting things happen instantaneously:

All of SPACE which is a differentiation of occupied, unoccupied, directions, near, far... Fills up and gets occupied by my consciousness. The difference of what ‘is’ against what ‘was’ and what it ‘should be’ ceases. TIME stops for me. I see all of eternity at an instant. The barrier of ‘in’ and ‘out’ disappears for me. The entire Universe appears as a single unit. I become the Universe and the Universe becomes me. There is no longer ‘I’, there is no longer anything else. There is only the infinite, eternal, Oneness. What is left after this ‘Ego death’ is pure unbiased awareness.

‘I’ dissolves into this awareness.

This beautiful state may be the ‘Samadhi’ state mentioned in yogic lore. The realization and culmination of the realized one’s teachings. Trying different methods to tell us that we are one with the everything else. Various paths have been described all through history to experience oneness. Theoretically, we see that the comparer is fuelled by the necessity to react by generating thought and possible action as a consequence.. True Meditation practices aim to tire the mind/create a weariness through intense concentration or through repetition of a sound, leading to ‘no thought’. When there is no need for thought, the Comparer stops. The comparing, differentiating and judging ceases. Oneness is experienced. Yoga is achieved. As a result of which true compassion is felt. This compassion is not ego fuelling, to feel good about oneself. It is just pure unbiased goodness. Ego death achieved by the use of psychedelics also cause a state of ‘Psychedelic Satori’. A feeling of oneness. This while compromising one’s health through addiction. You have been warned.

Let’s come out of the exciting spookiness.

Into the ‘real’ world as one may say. The only intention of this slideshow was to make you aware of the differentiating taking place in you. We created the differences. My knowledge creates my reality. Nature intended it for our survival. Without differentiating, there is no joy of meeting. ‘There can be no lovemaking if there is no differentiating’ as UG said. But we must be responsible and aware of the extent to which we differentiate. We must realize that Nature is not separate from you. It is you. If perceived properly, the sum total of the energy cycles, life cycles, etc. is just one unit operating. Currently, I experience myself as a little part of a very large mechanism. The struggle of life is when we try to find our place. The comparer keeps telling us that we are someplace else. It is just doing its job. We only need to be aware of it. We should realize that we are already there. No matter how hard I try, I can never be free of Nature. Because I am It. I can only consciously and blissfully dissolve in It.

One may go deeper as to ask thus: What remains when ‘I’ dissolves ? ‘I’ do not ‘know’. It is just a state of pure ‘being’.

A ‘field’, where everything possible just is ...

Beyond our ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’ doesn’t make sense any more.

Thank you for your time