A Point of Reference

In an earlier blog, I stated that even if we overlook Existential Questions, we still need to synthesize a Point of Reference for living in Duality with some Peace of Mind. Here is one PoR.

Humans experience subject-object dichotomy in waking state. This is not experienced in deep-sleep state. We are primarily concerned with the experience of duality in the waking state. Our observation of Existence is; objects with some attributes interacting with other objects it is connected to and based on the interaction there are changes in the involved objects. (By object, I mean, anything we objectify; example: an atom, a neuron, a star, a dog, a person, an emotion, a thought, a country.) From one moment to the next, Existence changes; this I refer to as Flow of Existence.

Without using any kind of knowledge (like scientific knowledge), there is no way to say one object in Existence is more superior or inferior to another object. Hence, with just our experience of duality and our ability to reason, we can claim that, all objects in existence are equal, by virtue of their existence. However our ability to objectify and formulate what we objectify has led to Science. We know couple of things about Science, a) we know science works; we are able to cure diseases and send man to moon and b) we know more today than we did yesterday. And because Science works, that implies that the Flow of Existence is algorithmic i.e. there is a set of rules. The more rules Science discovers/tweaks, the more we can predict the Flow. Although the Flow is algorithmic, there is room for newness. When object A interacts with object B, a completely new object X that never existed in Existence before may be produced. That is the creative nature in Existence which is witnessed in new babies, new art, new music, new ideas to solve problems etc. Humans too, are objects in this Flow. Strangely, we are Aware of our self and other objects. Our awareness/mindfulness of our self, our choices, our thoughts, our decision process and our ability to execute the decision in action has given rise to the concept and confusion about free-will. If we look closely at mindfulness of our self, we can realize that it is not a willed condition i.e. we are not mindful before we actually become mindful of our self. Once we become mindful, we recognize it. When and what we become mindful of, is also an exhibition of the creative nature of the Existence. In light of all of this, we can say that every moment is causally-driven, the cause being the entirety of Existence.


CONCLUSIONS:

Point of Reference for a Dualistic Human World:

Religion: Philosophy
God: Existence
Ethic: Equality
Pursuit: Science
Mantra: There are causes for everything that happened. You may not know all the causes. This wisdom will give you the inner-peace to accept the past. There will be causes for everything that will happen. You may not know all the causes. This ignorance will give you the freedom to cause a desired future.

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Hear - Reflect - Contemplate

REVELATION
(Rupert Spira in his book Transparency of Things)
Omnipresence: Consciousness is all there is.
Omniscience: Consciousness is self-aware.
Omnipotence: Consciousness has total freedom.

REFLECTION
Something that is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent could be considered God, even an atheist would agree with that definition. The entirety of existence can be considered to be omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent; as Existence encompasses Everything! So, is consciousness = existence = god?

CONTEMPLATION
1. DUALITY: There is subject-object dichotomy
2. FUNDAMENTAL CLAIM: In the context of duality, every 'thing' in existence is equally significant by virtue of its existence. All superiorities and inferiorities are subjective/contextual.
3. FUNDAMENTAL OBSERVATION: Every 'thing' has some attributes and every 'thing' interacts with things it is connected to - can be visualized as a ripple effect. (Or butterfly/domino effect).
4. EXISTENTIAL QUESTION: What caused the ripple?
5. LIFE: Flow of Existence is algorithmic; proof is science.
6. DILEMMA: Our mindfulness causes confusion within us, creating an illusion of free-will. Realizing that mindfulness is not a willed condition dissolves that confusion.

From this argument, for humans in duality; the logical religion is Philosophy, the logical ethic is Equality, the logical pursuit is Science and the logical mantra for the present moment is Causality.


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Variables and Control

There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years.

One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. "Such bad luck," they said sympathetically. "Maybe," the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. "How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed. "Maybe," replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. "Maybe," answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. "Maybe," said the farmer.

Taken from: http://www.katinkahesselink.net/tibet/zen.html (Sept 26, 2009)
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Living In Duality

Abandon the search for Absolute, Synthesize a Point-of-Reference

Although we experience duality, we are unable to satisfactorily understand the truths about duality. Our deepest craving is to know the unsublatable truths about origin, nature, purpose etc of duality. Neither Religion nor Philosophy or Science has provided us with unambiguous and irreplaceable answers.

Concept	Religion	Philosophy	Science
Existence	Existence was created by God.	The ground of existence is the transcendental, timeless, ultimate reality.	Big-bang is a popular origin theory. The ground of existence is some fundamental particle.
Self	You are not God.	The self immediately evident to you is non-different from the ultimate reality.	The self is a product of brain’s processes.
Path to Truth/God	Live a life of faith following scripture to approach God in after-life.	Cultivate mental poise that is conducive for realization of the truth.	Look forward to better theories to explain reality.

All the three approaches; religion, philosophy and science agree on the presence of Existence but differ on its origin and nature. All the three agree on a self but differ on its nature. All the three agree that it is a process to obtain the truth and not immediately available to anyone at any time. So, our answer to questions about duality is: we don’t have unsublatable truths to understand duality at the moment.

If we look closely at the proposed paths towards truth, one way is to live a life of faith by following a religion. Another way is to live with noble ideals of an ascetic/monk which is required for mental poise as rationalized by the Philosophy. Yet another way is to pursue a career in fundamental physics or neuroscience to better understand the fundamental particle or the brain respectively. Some folks of faith may indeed pursue the above paths in search of absolute truths (rather than as a profession to make a living). But for most people, it is not very convincing just because of the lack of communicable proofs.

In this blog, I present a logical solution to only those people (including myself) who cannot commit themselves to the paths proposed by religion, philosophy or science. It’s based on the fact that life continues even without figuring out the so-called absolute truths. In light of that fact, it seems to me that the sensible thing to do would be to continue living life in duality and forget about the quest for truth. If the question arises in mind, be aware of it and ignore it. Move on and do the usual stuff. Ignore existential questions, indulge in duality is the mantra. However, can this be done?

Without the unsublatable truth there is no real point of reference for life in duality. Nothing is right/wrong, good/bad, better/worse unless there is a point of reference. Without a point of reference, living in duality is miserable as there is no way to form ethics and rules for decision-making when faced with choices etc. Metaphorically speaking, we need a map when we are lost.

A point-of-reference is an over-arching set of ideas that would explain in a very broad stroke all the happenings in duality. This set of ideas is knowledge we create by reflection on experiences in duality and are not equivalent to the intangible, absolute truths. Such a point-of-reference is our map; it should explain all the happenings of duality in a satisfactory way for us to lead a life in duality with a certain peace of mind. So, a point of reference has to be synthesized by us if we are to relinquish the quest for absolute truth.

Non-Dual Living in Duality

Duality litmus test: Awareness of the 'notion' of individuality.

As soon as you are aware of yourself, that is, as soon as you are aware of the Individuality thought / the 'I'-thought / ego, the notion of 'you' different from a 'world' arises; two things, 'you' and a 'world' i.e. duality. For non-duality, the 'I'-thought should not arise. When individuality disappears, the situation is non-dual.

Note the distinctions made here among the following:
a) awareness, by itself,
b) awareness of 'I'-thought and
c) awareness of thoughts and things other than 'I'-thought.

Only when there is awareness of the 'I'-thought (case 'b'), there is duality.

Non-dual experience litmus test: Disappearance of the 'notion' of individuality.

1) Dreamless sleep: When in deep, dreamless sleep, neither the sense of 'self' nor the 'world' is present. Awareness is by itself (case 'a'). Non-dual experience.
2) Flow: 'You' lose yourself when doing something that you like or have a passion. For varying amounts of time while watching a movie, hearing good music, reading a book, talking to your sweetheart, exercising, doing your job if you like what you are doing etc, you are aware of other things of interest but not your ego (case 'c'). Non-dual experience.

Side Note: What is the evolutionary reason for the thought of 'individuality' / 'ego'? Is it present in all animals? What purpose does it serve in functioning of a biological organism? Can't that same functioning be accomplished without the sense of 'individuality'?

The following was added to this blog post a few years later (18Feb2012) after the initial post; :

Maybe there won't be a difference between machines and humans if not for our experience of duality. Machines only have non-dual experiences; they are either shut down (deep sleep) or operating on a given instruction with full attention (flow). Humans on the other hand, in addition to non-dual experiences also have dual experiences which is both a blessing and a problem. It is a blessing because it gives us choice; the freedom to choose unlike a machine which is completely pre-programmed. It is a problem because, most humans don't know on what basis to choose, as there is clearly no absolute, objective, black and white answer to our questions. That is why we have created religions to set ourselves some boundaries, to give a distinction of right choice from wrong. I have outlined my take on god and religion here.
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The Situation

This post is a summary of earlier posts:

1. Observation: There are multiple "worlds", for example, the world of ants, the world of dogs, the world of aliens from another galaxy, the world of humans etc. The causal world of humans is just one of a kind. The following points, briefly, suggest a theory to explain this situation.

2. Theory - Part 1: Each world is an appearance that is a function of the physical and psychological composition of the individual/species and not the "ultimate" reality out there. However, the appearances are grounded in that transcendental, ultimate reality. Humans too are grounded in that ultimate reality.

3. Theory - Part 2: The ultimate subject / seer / the mind's eye immediately known to oneself, that which observes the thoughts including the 'I'-thought, is non-different from the transcendental ultimate reality.

4. Some philosophical/religious references: God revealed himself as "I am that I am" in Christian Bible. Prophet Muhammad said, "He who knows his self knows his Lord". In Hindu Upanishads, its written, "The self is the transcendental reality".

Reality Check

As the Observer is the common ground of all multifarious experience, the experience itself is purely only a function of the mental and physical faculties and not of the disinterested Observer. So, we can say our experience of a causal world is intimately tied to the mental and physical composition of the body. From this viewpoint, causality is not an objective view of reality.

Nevertheless, as a human, the world we experience is a causal world. Causality is on the side of reason and adaptable science and not on the side of absolutes and ideologies. From the point of view that causality is an experiential truth, we have to accept that the present moment is perfect. Denying that is denying causality. Denying that is denying science, reason and first-hand experience. There could be no alternative to the present moment (present moment is an effect of earlier causes). When times are bad, instead of complaining about the present moment, we just need move on and do what needs to be done.

Having said all this, we should again emphasize that our experience of causal world is only a product of our body and mind and not ultimate reality. Although we can figure out the cause for birth/sustenance/death of a star for example, the primordial cause of entire existence will always remain a mystery because of the question; what is the cause for the first cause? leading to infinite regress. Similarly, the purpose of this existence will also always remain a mystery as parts (ideas, concepts, theories etc) cannot be used to describe the purpose of the whole ('existence' that includes these ideas, concepts and theories). So, the situation is: the cause of every 'observable' thing (like a star, a tree or a thought) can be found but the cause and purpose of the entire existence itself will remain a mystery.

The preceding paragraph gives the reasons why any metaphysical or mystical ideas to understand or realize ultimate reality (not subjective reality) should be seriously looked at and reflected upon.

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