From content to insight

O ye doers of Vipassana (insight) meditation out there, i’ve got good news for ya. A solid guide on intricacies of practice, is now available online. And like all good things in life, its free ! Here it is: “Mastering the core teachings of the Buddha. An unusually hardcore Dharma book“.

I hope y’all benefit from the tremendous amount of practical advice contained within. As a beginner, i found parts one and two to be very useful, but part three titled “mastery” shifted gears and went way over my head. You might likewise find some material appropriate for your level of practice, and some not. Just a headsup.

The horrendous space kablooie !

Now i know why i instinctively wander once in a while into popular science section of my local library. Because, a good popular science book is like a mind relaxation pill . In pure science, there is an element of certainty, orderliness and objectivity. Either something is proven or its not. Although, the brain needs to work a bit to understand the science, its not in a state of making decisions and judgments. I find that to be quite relaxing ! On the other hand, when iam dealing with topics like economics and environmental philosophy, there is a lot of speculation and subjective value calls to be made. There are a lot of normative questions to be handled .. how things should be, what is right or wrong, etc. In recent times, i had been dealing mostly with issues which require subjective opinion. Reading solid science has been a good antidote and a breath of fresh air. Perhaps, another strong reason i liked reading ‘Big Bang‘ by Simon Singh, is that the immensity and beauty of the universe has so floored me, that all our day-to-day “issues” seemed insignificant, and hence the high .

Anyway, the book ofcourse is all about the horrendous space kablooi. It was fun reading about the progression of science leading upto the eventual proving (well .. the most accepted theory currently) of Big Bang. In the beginning, ofcourse, there was the Earth at the center of the universe, and everything doing pradakshina around us. Then we realized we aren’t so special after all and its we who do the pradakshina. Maybe Sun is special ? Tough luck, there too. Suryanarayana is just another star among billions in the galaxy. We tried to comfort ourselves that the milky way, then, has surely gotta be special and the only galaxy in the universe. Oops. Those pesky nebulae turned out be full fledged galaxies in themselves ! Atleast, we hoped, there must be some stability in the universe ! Those galaxies must surely be floating around in space, forever. Then ofcourse, Hubble spoils our comfy view of the universe and says galaxies are moving away from us at thousands of kilometers a second ! The universe is expanding with every second ! And if its been expanding, the previous second or yesterday or last year, it must have been smaller than now. And if we run the clock backward enough, Bang ! Simon Singh walks us through this whole journey from flat-earth to big-bang, explaining all the science and peppering with anecdotes and behind-the-scenes events. Great job. Hats off, Simon !

Reading about the universe, as always, has been humbling too. There are so many places where our normal three-dimensional space / independent-time notion simply cannot get around some of the ideas. For example, the fact that the universe is still expanding at tremendous rate. Expanding into what ? Its not that galaxies are shooting out into existing space. How can space itself be created / stretched ? Can someone please explain this to me ! I can’t get my mind around it. Maybe it can be comprehended only as mathematical equations.

As if all this science is not exciting enough, it got me thinking about some stuff not discussed in the book per se, but kind of related — what about the elephant in the living room we have been conveniently taking for granted ? The nature of observer ! The person trying to understand the universe. The consciousness. We have been conveniently separating the two and studying the world in an observer independent fashion. I think the standard assumption is that this consciousness thingy is a secondary principle in the universe. That is, its derived from primary matter by some accidental combination of molecules. The big question — is consciousness really a secondary principle ? Or, is consciousness a “non-reductive primary” in the universe like space, time, matter. How cool would that be, if consciousness is somehow a permanent feature of the universe, instead of a random emergent property ! For which a yogi might say, “Permanent feature ?! Friend, you got it all backwards. Consciousness is the only primary feature in the universe. Everything else .. matter, time and space is secondary derivative”. But i digress .

A tale of two books ..

Sorry, couldn’t come up with a better title . This is just a not-so-brief note on two books i read in the last few weeks:

(1) ‘Ayurveda and the mind’ by David Frawley : There is a very interesting philosophical difference between how Ayurveda views health matters, and how western medicine views health matters. I feel that Ayurvedic science is “holistic” and “qualitative”, whereas, western medicine is “reductionist” and “quantitative”. Let me explain what i mean. In western medicine we find great reductive analysis .. down to the elements. It is highly “data” oriented. The emphasis is on precision and measurement. Blood pressure, heart rate, precise anatomy of body parts, chemical compositions, molecular structures, ion balances etc etc. The body is studied fully as a complex bio-electro-chemical machine. In Ayurveda however, things are much more qualitative and abstract (and it is understandable why .. because material science was not advanced in those days, people had to rely on observation, intuition and synthesis). The Ayurveda vocabulary will sound abstract to a modern science trained person. There is talk of “panchabhutas” (five basic elements .. ether, air, fire, water, earth) and “dosha” that a person has a natural inclination towards — vata, pitta, kapha or some combination of these. The “dosha” (“biological humor” as Frawley calls it) to which you belong, is determined by looking at various characteristics from body weight to skin texture to sleeping habits to pulse movement to quality of nails to your psychological profile. Once your characteristic is determined, keeping in good health becomes a matter of adopting a life style which “balances out” that particular “dosha”. Adopting foods, exercise types, climatic conditions, cleansing therapies, and even massage oils which suit your body type. For example, my natural characteristic is of “vata” type, and so i need to adopt a life style which takes care of that. I was surprised to find that many of my likes and dislikes simply reflected those of vata types. For example, i love tropical, humid weather, and hate cold, dry weather. Voila ! Tropical humid weather is exactly prescribed in Ayurveda to “calm” the vata ! Now i know why i’ve instinctively chosen to live in a beach town with humid weather. Another interesting point — vata people have too much “air”/”ether” element dominating in them (among panchabhutas). To calm the vata, we need “water”/”earth” element to ground us. Is this another reason why just sitting at a beach calms me ? Even my psychological profile (overactive mind, quickly changing interests etc) reflected those of vata type. The ideal exercise mentioned for vata types, is calming exercises such as Yoga and Tai chi. On the other side of the spectrum, a person in whom “water”/”earth” element is dominating (kapha type), the ideal balancing weather is given to be airy mountain region, and ideal exercise mentioned is activating aerobic exercises such as jogging. It is really fascinating to look at one’s health from panchabhuta point of view and see how balancing the elements improves ones wellbeing.

Anyway, coming back to the point, even though Ayurveda looks a little abstract when looked at from purely reductionist point of view, i feel it has a good contribution to make as a complementary to western medicine. Ayurveda takes a long term and more broader view of health including life style and mental health, and focuses more on prevention. Western medicine, i feel, is great for quick fix targeted solutions. So, when you have a broken bone or blocked artery, better run to a western doctor . But if time is on your side and would like to explore alternative health systems, i would recommend Ayurveda.

(2) ‘The Evolution of higher consciousness’ by Gopi Krishna : This book’s content falls under the general category of ‘yoga philosophy’, but the discussion is fairly advanced and esoteric. It is well known that Yoga philosophy is about the evolution of human consciousness .. but the main thrust of Gopi Krishna’s work is that this evolutionary process is accompanied by physiological / biological changes, predominantly in cerebro-spinal system. He suggests that the evolutionary energy is present in a dormant state in all human beings, and whose awakening marks an important phase in the evolutionary process. Gopi Krishna also suggests that sacred Hindu symbols (Lord Vishnu sleeping on serpent Ananta sesha, or the Dance of Lord Nataraja etc) are representative of this evolutionary process, and discusses the meaning behind the symbols in great detail. All in all, a very potent book, but should not be taken up as an introductory work.

Science of human possibilities

(Image source)

Over the last month or so, I have been fortunate to devote some time to read this wonderful work: “Universal Message of Bhagavad Gita” by late Swami Ranganathananda, of Ramakrishna mission. It is a huge three volume work, actually a compilation of lectures delivered by swamiji on this subject at the mission (ofcourse, with necessary edition for readability). Because these are originally lectures, the tone of the work has a personal touch to it, which i liked very much. The swamiji focused on the practical aspects of the Gita, with an outlook on the modern world situation, rather than esoteric aspects that i have seen in some other works. Another notable aspect of this work is the breadth of sources from which swamiji draws insight — from modern physicists, biologists, neurologists, poets, to philosophers, from across the world.

I certainly won’t try to summarize the message of Gita here, but there is one phrase that swamiji used, that i think represents the message of Gita, and more broadly the Indian advaita philosophy. “The science of human possibilities”. What a beautiful expression ! Human possibilities. Where do we go from here ? Nature has evolved the thinking instrument, the human brain, which is marvelous as it is, with its achievements in arts, sciences etc. On the other hand, if we look around the world today, we certainly seem to be having difficulty solving critical issues collectively. Is this the best we can do ? To put it plainly, Gita answers this question by saying that a better state of consciousness is indeed possible, and that involves having a more universal outlook on things rather than a narrow perspective most of us have today. For detailed answer, one needs to study the Gita . (Interestingly, swamiji borrows this phrase “science of human possibilities” from evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley, with whom swamiji apparently had a series of exchanges, the transcripts of which are present in the book “Message of the Upanishads”. I haven’t read this book through.)

One might wonder why this is prefixed “science”. Isn’t this all religious mumbo jumbo, not open to “scientific” verification ? Well, according to sages of the past, this is perfect science too, but for the verification of which one has to deploy ones life / body / mind as the laboratory. Everyone has to work for themselves. That got me thinking, why do we so readily believe the claims of regular physical sciences ? After all, how many of us have worked out the math of E=M*C-squared ? How about space-time curvature ? Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle ? We perhaps tend to believe because we see the applications of some of these principles in our daily lives. “aah.. we have nuclear power plants.. so E=M*C-squared must be right”. But alas, the results and applications of the science of human possibilities are too subjective perhaps. Even if there are demonstrable “proofs”, not many yogi’s are forthcoming, for reasons only they know of.

Another wonderful concept that is explained with great clarity, is the discussion around “Pravritti” and “Nivritti”. Swamiji quoted Adi Shankaracharya who brought up these two concepts in his commentary of Gita.

“The dharma or philosophy taught in the vedas is of two-fold nature, characterized by pravritti, outward action, and nivritti, inward contemplation, meant for the even stability of the world, which are meant to ensure the true abhyudaya, socio-economic welfare, and nihsreyasa, spiritual freedom, of all beings”. (Adi shankaracharya).

Expanding on this quote, swamiji writes:

“Both action and meditation are needed for human well-being; if only one or the other is there, there will be no health, individual or social. See the wonderful insight, the comprehensive wisdom of the ancient Indian sages! Through pravritti you establish a welfare society through the improvement of your economy and the political system. Through nivritti you achieve, what we call today, a value-oriented life that comes from humanity’s inner spiritual dimension. Otherwise, plenty of wealth, power and everything else you may have through pravritti, but with only pravritti and no nivritti, society will be alright in the short run, but in the long run, it will be in trouble. The whole of modern western civilization today is in trouble because there is no emphasis on nivritti, there is emphasis only on pravritti — work, work and work; earn more and more money, but remain inwardly poorer and poorer, until one becomes a nervous wreck. Many people are suffering thus in the modern world. I often quote the German philosopher Schopenhauer from his book, ‘The world as Will and Idea’; mind you, he told this about 130 years ago and what he said then is absolutely true today. He said: ‘When men achieve security and welfare, now that they have solved all other problems, they become a problem to themselves.’ How literally true is this for men and women in this modern age! ….” (Swami Ranganathananda)

I can’t but agree that modern world has lost all sense of proportion and balance, between pravritti and nivritti, with excessive emphasis on economic growth and technological progress at all costs. And, most of the so called “religious life” today, Iam afraid, is a barter system of seeking personal favors. There is very little introspection involved, which i think makes for true nivritti.

The Gita itself perfectly embodies this balance, as it (a spiritual message) has been delivered amidst a scene of intense activity — a battlefield !