There are four types of enlightenment

April 1, 2021 Off

চার প্রকারের বোধোদয় [enlightenment]। (original English version below)
১। আপনি প্রমাণের ভিত্তিতে তথ্য এবং সত্য খুঁজছেন। আপনার প্রাথমিক অনুভূতি আপনাকে বলে যে আমরা যা দেখছি তার পিছনে একটি কারণগত প্রয়োজন থাকতে পারে যা ঐতিহ্যগতভাবে ধর্ম বা ধর্মতত্ত্বের অধীনে ছিল। কিন্তু যখন আপনি ধর্মের নামে ভোগান্তি, প্রতারণা, অবিচার দেখেন তখন নিজেই সবকিছু পরীক্ষা করতে চান। যখন আপনি সত্যিই নিশ্চিত হন যে সেখানে কোন স্রষ্টা নেই, এবং আপনি যে জগতে বাস করছেন তা কেবল উদ্দেশ্যহীন কারণ আপনি মনে করেন যে আপনি সবকিছু খতিয়ে দেখেছেন এবং পরীক্ষা করেছেন এবং নিশ্চিত যে আপনি একটি স্রষ্টাহীন জগতে বসবাস করছেন [হার্ড নাস্তিক] - উদাহরণ: "মহাবিশ্ব যত বোধগম্য বলে মনে হয়, এটিকে ততো অর্থহীনও মনে হয় " - পদার্থবিজ্ঞানে নোবেল বিজয়ী - স্টিভেন ওয়েইনবার্গ। [ধর্মনিরপেক্ষ/নাস্তিক বোধোদয়] = কোন স্রষ্টা আসলে নেই!
২। যখন আপনি মনে করেন যে একজন স্রষ্টা আছেন কিন্তু তিনি সম্পূর্ণরূপে অদৃশ্য এবং অজানা। তিনি এই পৃথিবীর কর্মকাণ্ডে হস্তক্ষেপ করেন না এবং আমরা মানুষেরা এর একটি অংশ মাত্র। হার্ড রক বটম [অগ্নিস্টিকস /ডাইষ্ট এনলাইটেনমেন্ট]। = স্রষ্টা থাকতে পারেন, কিন্তু তাকে জানার উপায় নেই।
৩। যখন আপনি মনে করেন যে একজন স্রষ্টা আছে এবং সেই স্রষ্টা বুদ্ধি এবং আবেগ সহ একজন ব্যক্তির মতো একটি বাস্তব সত্তা কিন্তু তিনি একটি ভিন্ন জগতে বসবাস করেন যা আমরা স্বর্গ নামে চিনি । মানুষ শুধুই তার আনন্দের এবং এবাদতের জন্য সৃষ্টি। সুতরাং আমাদের কাজ হল তাঁর নির্দেশ এবং আদেশ অনুসরণ করা কারণ আমরা বিশ্বাস করি যে এই ধরনের একজন স্রষ্টা আসল এবং আমরা কেবল তার সৃষ্টি [ধর্মীয় বোধোদয় বা প্রফ্রেথহুড]। = একজন স্রষ্টা আছেন এবং এখানে তিনি আমাকে আপনার জন্য যা বলেছেন তা হল এখানে লেখা।
4. যখন আপনি মনে করেন যে একজন স্রষ্টা আছেন এবং স্রষ্টা এই পৃথিবীতেও বিরাজমান কিন্তু স্পষ্ট দৃষ্টিতে লুকানো যা মৃত্যুর করনে বাধাগ্রস্ত হয়। তবে পুনরাবৃত্তিমূলক চক্রের মাধ্যমে মৃত্যু এবং পুনরুত্থান এবং আপনি এই পদক্ষেপ (মৃত্যু) এর অর্থ এবং উদ্দেশ্য বুঝতে পারেন এবং একই স্রষ্টা খুঁজে পান যিনি আগে লুকিয়ে ছিলেন, এখন স্পষ্টভাবে দৃশ্যমান। আপনি নিশ্চিত হয়ে উঠবেন এবং আর বিভ্রান্তি বা উদ্বেগ থাকবে না। [নন-ডিনোমিনোশনাল মিস্টিক এনলাইটেনমেন্ট]। = এই স্রষ্টা ছাড়া অন্য কোন স্রষ্টা নেই!
পাদটীকা:
দয়া করে মনে রাখবেন, বিরল পরিস্থিতিতে, একজন ব্যক্তিকে একই সাথে একাধিক বিভাগের মধ্যে পাওয়া যেতে পারে।
There are four types of enlightenment.
1. You are looking for truth and fact-based evidence. Your initial gut feeling tells you that there might be a causal necessity behind everything we are seeing that was traditionally regarding under the domain of religion or theology. But when you see sufferings, deceptions, injustice in the name of religion and wanted to examine everything by yourself. In this exploration, when you are really sure that there's no God out there, and the world you are living in is simply directionless and purposeless [no teleology] because you think you have seen and examined everything and you are living in a Godless world [Hard Atheist] - Example: "The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless" -Nobel laureate in Physics - Steven Weinberg. [Secular/Atheist Enlightenment]. = There is No God!
2. When you think that there is a God but he is completely transcendent and unknowable. He doesn't interfere with the world we are living in, and we human beings are just part of it. There is Hard Rock Bottom [Agnostics /Deist [similar to Buddhist] Enlightenment]. = God might Exist, but he is not knowable.
3. When you think there is a God and that God is a real entity like a person with intelligence and emotions but he lives in a different world traditionally known as heaven. Human beings are just his creation for pleasure. So our job is to follow his instruction and command because of our confidence that such a God is real and we are just his creation [Religious Enlightenment or Prophethoods]. = There is a God and here is what he has told me for you to do.
4. When you think there is a God and the God resides also in this world but the hidden in plain sight which is obstructed by the interruption of Death. However, by repetitive cycle Death and Resurrection, you came to understand the meaning and the purpose of this step (Death) and find the same GOD who was previously hidden, now clearly visible in plain sight. You become sure and no more confusion or anxiety. [Non-Denominational Mystic Enlightenment]. = There is No God, but God!
Footnote:
1. This essay is not intended to hurt anyone's feelings but centered around the core idea of "Enlightenment". It is not about if any of those categories are better than others or not. And also not about the utility and benefit of any of the 4 types of "Enlightenment".
2. Please note, in rare circumstances, one single person can be simultaneously described by multiple categories.
3. There is a difference between specific and generalization. We do not know what Time actually is but we can understand there is an overall flow of things. Even though we do not understand even a simple proton, but we are using it all the time. Just because we do not understand the first nanosecond of Bigbang, it would not prevent us to generalize that we exist today and we did not exist at some point in time, so must have come from somewhere, presumably Bigbang. This is system-level understanding, rather than specific-level understanding. The literature around Enlightenment is never around specifics, but a rather system-level generalization. Some people actually don't believe there is any such thing called Enlightenment, but I give the name "Secular/Atheist Enlightenment" anyway just for the sake of discussion.

CrossRef:
http://this-is-what-you-ve-been-looking-for.blogspot.com/2014/02/where-are-you-in-cycle.html








Surrender !

July 23, 2020 Off

Surrender Levels

Level 1
Premature Surrender - Unexamined
Vs
Level 2
Surrender - Incompletely Examined
Vs
Level 3
Surrender - Examination interrupted by Fear or felling of inadequate time and opportunity
Vs
Level 4
Surrender - Opportunistic, and Intermittent. Multiple Surrender when the time is right or difficult.
Vs
Level 5
Surrender - Cost-Effective - Intentional Delayed Surrender
vs
Level 6
Surrender until the last resource/breath has been used (Example, Jacob's way, i.e never surrender)
Vs
Level 7
Surrender at the cost of utilizing or using the last breath.

Trisduction, Orthotrisduction and Orthoretrotrisduction [OR -Trisduction]

April 20, 2019 Off

Trisduction: Union of Tree Paths.

Each Path or Line is a Statement on a Matter of Fact [Analytic or Empirical]

Each Path is Absolutely Independent of  Each other [Perhaps only one common ground is possible] and hence oriented orthogonally [at right angle] to each other.

There can be only only 3 such duction in the world that we are sure to exist in Reality.

Formulate 3 such statements and them meditate [perhaps will take years] to see can you find the precious union point.

This is the method of  Trisduction.

More to come...

The Paradox of Fear and Wisdom

April 2, 2015 Category : , , , , Off

Fear makes you blind.
Fear makes you impulsive.
Fear prevents you from thinking logically (or thinking straight).

Off course fear is also protecting you from potential dangers such as of a lion or snake. But those fears are not uniques to human but rather almost universal in animal kingdom. The unique thing for the human is the reason and if you consider yourself wiser than other animals, you have to give credit to your reasoning power over your fears. Or worse, the same fear, if unfounded, will makes you a pathologic case of phobic disorders, instead of solving your problems. You suffer even more by the fear of the fears (phobophobia)! Fear is the exact antithesis of wisdom but paradoxically fear of god was also prescribed by the original authorities as the real wisdom.

How can that be?

Whenever you see a paradox in a sentence, it usually means the sentence is either censored off the critical part or the sentence is not complete. The paradox no longer exist if you know the bigger picture or context, in other words if you see the full sentence (instead of paradoxic fragments). How can there be a situation, where fear is both antithesis* and yet the path** towards wisdom? What are the missing parts of the sentence? Can you see it?

The mother of all fears is DEATH and your inability to control it. Fear of death make you enjoy the life as much as you can (even at the cost of other people's suffering) because life is short and YOLO. Fear of death makes you to conserve time and become efficient. Fear of death makes you to look for shortcuts and loopholes to bypass the obstacles, instead of dealing with issues sincerely. Fear of death makes you insecure and you seek security by marriage (either for partner's support or for a baby as future generation because you know you will not live or be healthy forever), friendship, or property. Fear (biggest fear of all is death) is driving your life, whether you acknowledge it or not. Unless you recognize this, fear will dominate your life, and you will be far away from wisdom.

When a religious preacher bases his argument by intimidating of, or by invoking death / eternal hell, and consequently, if the listener formulates his worldview based only on the fear of death as a model of achieving "true wisdom", they fail to see the other half of it (where fear is antithesis of wisdom) and missing the full picture. They are missing the equally crucial other half (not to fear in pursuit of the Truth). On the contrary, if you based your theology purely based on reason (before you achieved wisdom), it will take you no where and you will be thrown into a full blown existential/nihilistic crisis from you might never recover!

Half of anything cannot be the whole and fear (or death) based theology is bound to be lame and blind, unless you simultaneously see the reason NOT to be fearful in pursuit of the Truth. Only then, these two will complement each other to make the fragmented part into One complete worldview and the paradox will disappear between reason (based on wisdom) vs. faith (based on fear).

Mind Without a Body is Dangerously Delusional

March 16, 2015 Category : , , , , Off

Without a body, a mind, (if it is a mind at all) and hypothetically if such “body independent mind” exist, by our realm's definition, is blind, directionless, “smoky” and very prone to be delusional. These hypothetical “minds” include but not limited to, which a man can imagine are the following: mind of the 1) the dreams, 2) deeply unconscious, 3) “out of the body experience” induced by meditations, psychoactive drugs, brain pathologies (epilepsy, strokes etc.) or extreme stress, such as near death experiences 4) collective unconscious (of Jung), or the repressed mind (of Freud), 5) third eye ( of new age), 6) the “heart’s mind” 7) spirit’s mind as envisioned by occultist/alchemist 8) divine mind or soul’s mind of religions, 9) kundalini or tantric mind (of Shiva), 10) mind of Ein Sof. To illustrate the concept you can imagine the following: How many times you had a dream (out of all the dreams that ever had) of which you are completely satisfied with its nature, content, as well as its interpretation and you had a full dose of certainty or “highs” that you can get by doing the same thing in real life? Dreams are vague, inconsistent, self-contradictory, and distorted in terms of natural laws. You cannot have a concrete interpretations out of your dreams to confirm or disconfirm anything. You have only smoky, vague ideas while you are dreaming, but once you are awake, only then you can have a better and concrete ideas about those dreams and their meanings, if there are any. You often need a “professional” dream (pseudo)interpreter to give you a concocted interpretation, which are often a sort of fairy tales that typically incorporates repressed sexuality or fear theories as prescribed by their masters. The bottom line is the fact that your dreams are still tied to your brain, which is still a material, although not fully functional. Now imagine, what will your dream look like, if it is not tied to with any material objects at all, whatsoever. It will be so meaningless (if not horrible) and chaotic that we cannot even imagine it (fortunately). The function of the body and the brain is to eliminate all those delusions and vague dreamlike imageries, except the one, which is a consistent, reliable, reproducible and accurate i.e. a true representation of the reality while you are awake. Your body and brain is a device to pave the way for making the reason to emerge to eradicate the delusions. Only that reason has any hope to offer you any certainty or knowledge and hence peace (or in religious terms, salvation).

Although the source of our knowledge classically categorized as “The Four Ways”, it does not mean that there is only 4 ways of knowledge. But for the purpose of this essay, I will stick with the classicist and that will suffice for now. 1). Sensory perceptions (empiricist), 2). Reason or intellect (rationalist), 3). Intuitive understanding (Idealist) and 4) Revelations (Prophets). Although the original masters never saw any reason to separate the ways you can have a knowledge, but now the existence of those distinct groups only suggests that they failed to see that all four are interconnected and different gradations, originated from the same source, stating from most concrete (the sensory perception) to most abstract (revelation). The first reaction to this statement is the utter denial from the rationalist (because they do not have the equipments to see the connection between reason and sensory perceptions*, see footnote below), from the empiricist (who cannot see the connection between observation or sensory perception and intuition), from the idealist (who cannot see the interdependence of matter and the ideas) and from a theologian (who cannot see the connection between reason, or sensory perception with revelation). Finally, the existentialist or absurdities will deny everything altogether, without giving any clues. But just like a heroin addicted person is in denial that they have an addiction problem, which is obvious to those who are not addicted, I understand the cause of such denial ( i.e. not using the tools correctly that they already have) and will proceed anyway. 

Material objects are a recorder or depository of information. Similarly, your body is a recorder of information that actually happens within it and outside it, not just possible information in “phase-space” field. Body contains what is true out of all delusional ideas that can exist in bodiless mind (see the list above). Body is the witness of Truth. Without the body, mind has a tendency to be delusional, just like the water tends to be shapeless without a grail. Body gives the mind a shape (platonic forms or ideals). And the body and the information it contains are reliable, reproducible, and accurate, but extracting the information is not necessarily easy. The birth of reason (the ability to see the truth out all many scenarios given) is tied to body. Without a body, no reason exists in this world. Without the reason, there is no way to be sure of anything. Without certainty, there is no peace and no happiness in anybody’s mind. How can you see that the reason that you already see existent is tied to your body? This is subtle and often difficult to see unless you have developed a keen perception. How can you see the way by which reason emerges from the body? When you start to observe yourself while you are doing something such as trials and errors. What you call a “cultivated reason” is actually a derivative of your own observation of the outcomes of trials and errors, but those trials and errors are not a formal experiments or experiences hence would have been easily gone unnoticed and forgotten, unless you are not really observant. Your observation power grows when you did something, but that did not work as you wanted to be and now thinking what exactly went wrong. You try it next time more sincerely and more carefully and this time, your are more observant of yourself and started to notice the relations between your actions and your reasoning power. This way, throughout the history, it has been suggested that only a virtuous life can make you happy because with all those actions, your are learning the fact that your body's action is the source of your reason and that opens the door to the next level that has far bigger and grand consequence than you had ever imagined. If you continue your journey and learn from your body, you will see that your body is the source of ALL KNOWLEDGE including revelation, although it comes much later, if ever, and unfortunately, most people, cannot even see the necessary and sufficient connection between sensory perception and reason, including the "elites" such as Hume, Kant etc. Once you started to see those connections learnt from your VIRTUOUS acts, you start to appreciate why your body is your only assets and why you have decided to give up all of your powers for the sake to have a body in order to avoid the inherent tendency of bodiless mind's confused delusions and/or uncertainty and to enjoy the certainty offered by carnality.

Footnotes:
*Reason is a form of semantic memory that is transformed from the episodic memories (failure to see the connections is due to amnesia or blindness or ignorance of that transformative linkage) . The episodic memory is in turn transformed sensory perceptions with innumerable repetition from the sensory organs. You will not and cannot accept this because your mind is not calm and perceptive enough to see the subtle link. But if you focus and sharpen your mind (with discipline), you will begin to see it, only when your mind is free from contaminations. What is a contamination? That which is not real or genuine or original. Where does those contamination come from? From your choice of not doing the right things (failure to hold fast on the smaller truths) and not abstaining from harmful things. In simple words, you have to be "bible good" in order to get rid of those contaminants. Only then you can see the clear linkage and more deeper truths afterwards.

Problems of the Western Zen/Buddhism and the Vedanta

January 21, 2015 Category : , , , , Off

The Zen/Buddhism or Vedanta are nothing new. It is the age old wisdom teachings of the Sages of India, partially preserved by the monks and sannyas. But why now and why in America? The answer is fairly simple. In this era of Utilitarian and Pragmatic/Political Realism (Realpolitik), it must have some beneficial purpose for the establishment of the western civilization, particularly in America. What is that beneficial purpose for which they are being systematically promoted by the Schools, Universities, Popular TV or Media Celebrity, New Age movement or even by the philosophers and politicians? The Tyrannical Owners [Financial/Corporate/Political Masterminds] of the westerners are using it or promoting it as a "false consolation" to tame the intellectuals down that would have been the movers and shakers [not to mention, a true and just revolutionary], who could alleviate the suffering of the sheep imposed by those corporate "Owners". In order to divert the natural tendency to auto-correct the accumulated errors in popular judgments and to tame down any possibilities of significant resistance against the authority, they are distributing repackaged "Eastern Wisdom" to the mass. Their intention is not to educate you but to quell your justified anger, to dilute your personal opinion, to vanquish any opposition to resistance against authority who are perpetually milking and fleecing you out, but in return, not respecting you or taking care of you as they have promised. This is exactly why they are now promoting those repacked eastern "wisdom". The irony is, knowledge/wisdom is power and nobody in authority is generous enough to distribute power (i.e wisdom) freely because Wisdom brings True Freedom and true freedom brings righteous actions which in turn is a threat to the authority. Can you see it, how you have been duped again? 

But the real issue of the current essay is not to show why the repackaged Zen/Buddhism or Vedanta are becoming popular but to discuss the real difficulty in understanding of this so called "modern" Zen/Buddhism or Vedanta. Long before Gautama or even Veda, in India, there were some itinerant, peripatetic ascetic monks and sages who were the de facto religious and political guardians of their tribes or the regions, based on their merits, wisdom and actions. Much later when those indigenous people were introduced with the Veda from the incoming Aryans, it created a profound upheaval amongst the people. In those periods of geopoliticoreligious turmoil the indigenous local Indian were divided into two main groups: 1. The Astika School, Based on the Veda or Brahmins as the Authority, 2. The Charvaka/Sramana or Individualistic (later, mistakenly identified with Nastika School). The Veda based Brahmin priesthood became the orthodox School, later modified, reinterpreted and repackaged as Vedanta. The Sramana School later disappeared and repackaged to become the new School of Jainism and Buddhism. These events are in almost perfect parallel with the events where thousand years of wisdom from Egypt, Sumerian, Babylonian, Phoenician/Canaanite, Greek, Celtic/Druidic, Roman/Stoic were consolidated/encapsulated/encrypted into either 1) Judaism [Equivalent to Brahmin/Veda based Hinduism where Brahmin are the "Chosen People" just like the Jews) or 2) Christianity (Equivalent to Mahayana Buddhism where Buddha is equated with God just like Christ]. But what those schools are saying is noting "new" but rather represents the efforts trying to preserve the rudimentary fragments of Wisdom but unfortunately in Indirect/Encrypted forms. So do not treat the Bible or Veda or Teaching or Buddha or Jesus as the First source of Wisdom. Rather, they represents the later, fragmentary, rudimentary glimpse of Ageless Wisdom but in an indirect/encrypted form. Whatever you see in Veda, or Gautama's teaching, or in Bible, it NOT their own. It comes from an impersonal, ageless Wisdom tradition common to all people around the world. If you take the later, rudimentary, fragmentary, partially degenerated/corrupted and yet encrypted/indirect teaching to be the ultimate, concrete, direct, uncorrupted, pure sources of wisdom or salvation, then you are just fooling yourself and it will take you towards an infinite regress of meaninglessness. You have to appreciate the natural history and origin of those schools of ideas in order to understand the beauty and the truth behind it, even from those fragmentary teachings. You have to inquire and earn it and the good news is, it was never lost completely and it is always available in the environment and everywhere you seek. You just have to recognize it, take it, hold onto it and live it. The Teacher/Guru/Rabi/Priest/Brahmin/Buddha might be helpful but not necessary. Only you and your environment are both simultaneously necessary and sufficient! But it takes time, discipline, and hard work but unfortunately, there is no shortcuts, like having a blind and categorical "Faith" and then home that you are saved. The "Faith" is for those weaklings who cannot find the Truth for themselves despite their honest and sincere efforts so it is okay for them to have faith. But you have to try it first before resorting yourself to the faith. Only then the "faith" is also a good thing because, at least you are in the vicinity of the House of Truth. 

Now let's go back to the real issues or difficulties of modern or western Zen/ Buddhism or Vedanta. Everyone wants to win the crown jewel bypassing any works needed as preparation. Everyone is interested in the fruit but nobody is willing to plant the seed and nurture the tree. They do not even want to go to the shopping malls anymore to buy the fruit. They just order it online and want the fruit to be shipped to their door at the mailing address. If you want the fruit, you can get some version of the fruit by hook or crook but, will you be satisfied perpetually just by one bite? Of course not! You need to cultivate it from the scratch. But again it takes time, effort, dedication, and occasional asceticism. But they think "I have paid in cash or from my credit card, and why this has to be that difficult? I have paid my dues and I want the fruit". Let me assure you, it will not work in that way. But unfortunately this is the way Zen/Buddhism or Vedanta is being practiced in western world. And for the same reason, everyone jumps to grab the fruit at the very beginning of their journey. So they are looking to conquer the Nirvana and Non-Dual Vedic Self as easily as possible, as quickly as possible and as cheap as possible. And this is the problem. There is no shortcuts, but the Western Zen/Buddhist or Vedanta guru are ready to sell the shortcuts of their damaged goods to you. 

The original Buddha had no intention to explain, teach or propagate any doctrine and only began to speak at the request from close and advanced students in the inner circle for their particular and specific questions. When the students wanted to know about the nature about the Nirvana or Enlightenment, he did not answer. Instead he talked in parables to indicate that, before asking those big questions, there are many other immediate questions you need to find the answer. The Big questions should come as the last possible question and the only way you can know those things if you yourself become enlightened. So focus on more immediate issues like: What is happening, what you and the people in general are doing, what are the things bothering you and what are the root causes of those immediate problems or issues, or in other words, the Four Noble Truths. Again, those response came only on request from most advanced or well prepared students, not preemptively. Unfortunately, the western "buddhas" are trying to preach preemptively, for the mass with "generalized" sermons. This is exactly the opposite of the original teaching. No wonder why even the high priests of Tibetan monks are arguing each other to understand how to interpret the Buddha's "emptiness". This in itself, conclusively proves that they themselves do not understand what it is or why it is. Almost everyone thinks, his interpretation of the emptiness is the truth, the rest of them are just illusory. Then he wants to integrate his interpretation into this problem ridden world but they have no idea what, why and how the "problem ridden world" came to be! In other words, the so called buddhas have a solution for a problem that they themselves do not know the "pathogenesis". How foolish is that! By the same token, if you have any predefined or indoctrinated idea of Nirvana based on your ego, greed or covetousness, then it cannot be, by definition, Nirvana. When you try to become empty, by the instructions and the method [the method itself is a "thing" and by definition, cannot be empty] of a teacher/guru and eventually pretend to become somehow "empty", you will be utterly lost about what that emptiness actually means. You will become totally agnostic about the whole thing and your entire efforts will get wasted. It is not about emptying and staying emptied but finding the reason behind it or the true will, hidden behind that emptiness what will animate you with joy and fill you with actions that are aligned perfectly with the nature and the worlds. So, do not want to know or inquire about the Nirvana prematurely. It will only bring more confusion, if you are not well prepared. 

In contrast to Zen Buddhism, who are trying to make you empty and powerless, the western Vedanta is trying to do exactly the opposite. It makes you more egotistic (already extremely prevalent is western world), selfish and devoid of any sense of morality. You might be a criminal and doing all types of felony but “it’s okay dude” and whatever you do, it is right, because you are who you are, i.e. "I am". In fact, this "I am" is the most used and unfortunately misused buzzword for New Age/Vedantic movement that is going on in western world. The question about "I am" -ness should not be the active goal because it is a dead end, especially, if you ask it prematurely. You cannot solve it in ordinary logical, scientific or philosophical ways because people already tried it and instead of making things easier for you, they have created a stumbling block such as Godel's Logical Paradox, Kant's "Things in itself" and Scientific "Objective, empirical verification and falsification" respectively. If you really want to solve it, this question should come as the very last possible question and hopefully by that time you are already enlightened and will not even bother to ask it! Additionally and yes unfortunately, there are two commonly known "I am", one is from the Prince of Darkness, the same side of the river and the other is from the Prince of the Light, the other side of the river. They both do not know the true "I AM" The Most High, The Highest, and hence both of them are still trying to be it or know it or catch it or worse, hunt it. The Real "I AM" is humble enough and hence not interested in saying "I AM", but those who are using this term preemptively, are obviously egotistic and a citizen of the either side of the river (but not the "Living Water" of the river itself). The Real "I AM, The Most High" is Silent, and those who possess it are also silent and hence not available in the market places. There are many social, material, cultural, moral and ethical questions that should come before that big question. But if you are concern primarily with it, it will lead you astray and you will be lost in never ending maze. Do not ask the Last and Big question first and to the teacher in the marketplace, for heaven's sake, do not attempt to teach your students the most advanced concept in the very start. You yourself should know it first, before you can teach it to anyone. If you knew, you will not teach it to begin with! Try not to make the pigs to sing. It will not work eventually. It is your responsibility to guard against any Impurity that can occur in the hand of the Unclean! The only way to keep it Pure is not to touch or talk about it at all. Instead, just Do it, Be it, Live it. If you are really wise, then chose your Student wisely too [be a Teacher only when the Student is fully ready]. Or else, it will create just another egotistic selfish, megalomaniac, tyrannical and hence more damaging Prince, either of the Dark [The Devil/Angra Mainyu/Satan] or the Light [The Christ/Lucifer], and the Havoc for the rest of the sheep.

The Story of Mystery, Myths, Mandala, and Mathematics

December 31, 2014 Category : , , , , , , , Off

The word mystery itself derived from Greek "Mysterion", meaning secret knowledge where lips and eyes are closed from the non-initiated. Only the initiated can see the truth, which is hidden from the outsiders. Nothing is sinister about the mystery. The mystery does not mean nonsense, pseudoscientific new age cultic doctrine. It is a simple yet profound truth that the outsider cannot see and hence hidden from them, and hence called a secret or mystery. But it is a truth, nonetheless, for those who are rightfully initiated by self-discipline. For example, in case of a miraculous/(?virgin!) birth of a child, its is a mystery for us to ponder who was the real biological father but for the mother of that child it is not a mystery. She knows who is the real father but her lips are closed, hence it is a mystery for the outsiders. Similarly, the word myth derived from Greek "Mythos", simply means a thought or story delivered by the word of mouth. Myth does not automatically mean something false. It simply means a story, but the real rationale behind the story is not immediately visible. Let's analyze a simple, modern myth that says "Diabetics should not eat sugar". Doctors and educated people would immediately label this statement as a myth, because they will say, even the diabetics need some sugar or carbohydrate in their diet, with or without insulin. The diabetics actually need to take a modest amount of carbohydrate in their diet. The lay people will accept the expert's opinion when they declare "Diabetics should not eat sugar" is simply a myth and hence false. But did you realize what truth you just missed, if you label that statement as just another myth? When people originally discover the disease diabetes mellitus, they came to realize that the diabetics cannot handle the sugars in their diet and excessive sugar is definitely bad for diabetics. In order to alarm the people the danger of diabetes and prevent harm, they overstated the truth as "Diabetics should not eat sugar". They knew that any food you eat, even the vegetables or meat has carbohydrate in them in modest amount, so apparent sugar-free food would be just fine for the diabetics, based on their long observation of diabetic people. Additionally, if you warn the danger of sugar for diabetics lightly, people will take it lightly. So the effective way to communicate the truth of the relation of the diabetes and the sugar for the lay people can be expressed simply by overstating it, in the pithy format of "Diabetics should not eat sugar". This is the real truth behind this myth. But you have to deconstruct the myth and analyze the hermeneutics to see the truth and why the wise people in the past have created the "myth" in first place. This is how myths are always developed around a tiny nidus of truth, but often overstated or embellished. Over time, people's fantasy and cultural garbage that deposits on top of that nidus have become so large that now it is hard to find the underlying core truth that drove the original mythogenesis. In fact, some of the underlying wisdom is so important to communicate and to disseminate that the authors resorted to add even false stories, allegories and fantasy to embellish the message, palatable for the time and culture where it was started. They just want to express the core idea, even at the cost of being obviously fantastic. 

The next word that we need to focus is Mandala. The Mandala is a symbol representing an abstract, profound concept that cannot be expressed in words. The word mandala comes from Sanskrit, which means a geometric construct involving a circle that typically includes one or more squares and triangles to represent the universe in context of macro- and microcosm relations. In the deeper level, it is a way to express an ineffable idea with the help of geometric patterns. Symbols are ubiquitous from ancient to modern time. Even the mathematics, equations, and physics are all full of symbols. There is nothing occult or sinister about the mandala. It is simply a tool to express the idea beyond the words. People will often dismiss a Mandala immediately as a "Woo" or "pseudoscience" but they have no problem in accepting a similar symbolic expression like E = mc^2  as a concrete science. The only difference among them is your level of understanding. Just because, you cannot understand something does not mean that you need to reject them as untrue or utterly bogus. When you really see the meaning behind those Mandala/symbols or the equations, you will perceive the idea what they represent. The next comes the word mathematics, which is derived from Greek "Mathematos", from root *mendh- which means "that which is learnt". So mathematics is a tool for learning, not the knowledge itself. It is a tool to help you think clearly, which will lead you towards learning. So the mathematics is a faithful "tool" or "slave" to do the job of "learning", but not the Master. If you make the "slave" into the Master, everything will go awry. The Numbers and Symbols in mathematics are the Mandala for the Science. So, do not treat the mathematics unduly as the master. Instead, mathematics is just like the tools of a Master Carpenter or a Master Mason, NOT vice versa. A symbol can be a number, an alphabet, a geometric shape, an inanimate object, a living creature or statute of it. Thus, focus on the meaning behind those symbols, not the symbol/mandala per se.

Next comes the concept behind the word itself. The most evolve form of the symbols are the Alphabets/Letters, Phoneme, Morphemes, the Words and the Language, either oral, written or conceptual. Words that carry an abstract idea is the most primordial of all concept that we can imagine. This is why the concept behind the Word has been also been known variously as the "Buddhi/Nous", "Poimandres", "Logos", "Rta/Asa", "Ma'at", "Tao", "Aql/Kalima" etc. But over time, the corrupted minds of the people failed to see the original meaning and hence they started to add additional corruption. If you do an archaeology on any words, even the nouns will show some beautiful meanings. In those times, it was never just a noun or name as we used to think in modern days of nominalism. Originally, every noun represented an idea or a story, composed of subjects, objects, adjective and verbs. The Ancients did not treat a noun as meaningless nominal words as it is today. Actually, at that time there were no nouns or grammars to make the separation of inseparable meanings. We separated those and now blame the ancients for their meaningless "Babel". On the contrary, names or nouns are the most virulent agent in modern English language against understanding. Originally, the ancient people under different kings used different words to convey same meaning or even same deity, but in modern worlds, things gets more confusing. Today, even if you try to change a word instead of another to preserve the original meanings, people will start to protest vehemently, so the "public relation" agents nowadays do not change the words. They just change the meaning, keeping the words the same. This pollutes the original meaning of the words, even further and people even do not know, what are they missing and hence more tamed! And the last and most vicious attack on the words comes from the general public who either by the virtue or vice, start to corrupt the words so much that the original meaning is almost entirely lost. Even if somebody had deciphered the meaning of some words in the past, people will eventually start to call it by a mere name or noun in their own preference, thinking that "what difference does it make". They thought they are just playing an innocent act of naming and calling things according to your own will and preference. Most rampant of those examples are the abbreviations, those are treated as a simple noun like, AIDS for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Or "Yolo" for "You Only Live Once". The outsider will not understand the what the words AIDS or Yolo actually means. Unwittingly, day by day, we are just adding additional layers on words that creates extra burden against understanding the original meaning of those words. We are not aware of how much havoc we are setting up for the posterity. Unless you are very careful, you will not see the fact that almost all nouns, especially before the advent of modern language, were concepts from either adjectives, adverbs, verbs, an event or occurrence. Only a few can see the original, but hidden meanings behind the mystery of Words. For example, the name "Isis" represents the empty throne from where you come to know the real and secret Names of all things. The name "Baal Shem" means the Master of Names. Knowing the real Name of anything [i.e. the concept behind the name] is the Mastery of that Name itself! But the names can be also a trap if you are not extremely careful. If you accept nouns as meaningless names, then you will be lost in the labyrinth of language like the story of the tower of the Babel. Additionally, names can also create the opportunity of playing the "semantic game" by any other people. On the other hand, the same Name/Word can liberate you from ignorance. You are in the driver's seat!

Having discussed the preliminary concepts behind Mystery, Myths, Mandala, Mathematics and the Words, now you can see the fact that, just like myths or mandalas, the higher mathematics and equations are the placeholder or symbols to communicate a concept that does not have a physical representation. A concept that is inexpressible by words can be still expressed with the symbols of mathematics. For example, let's consider the imaginary number i. What a monster it is! We know there cannot be a complex/imaginary plane out there in space-time, but we have no problem in accepting it as if a "real" thing. We consider i as real as an apple or a cow that we can do arithmetics with. But if someone introduces a myth to express the inexpressible in ordinary language, people will automatically and instantly reject it as if they are devoid of any intrinsic scientific value. They forgot, i is a kind of myth just like Zeus. Myths start with some assumptions that cannot be proven. For example, Zeus is the immortal and this assumption you have to accept in toto. Similarly, you have to take the dogma of science and mathematical axioms without questions. The mathematical axioms, like the i, are very narrow, hence, typically their flaws are hidden from unsuspecting eyes, hence more believable, but the Zeus myth, which is broader and blatant but qualitatively they are still assumptions, nonetheless. Myths try to tell you the idea behind the story. Mathematics is also telling you a story behind the equations and numbers. As mythic stories cannot be proven by another story, similarly mathematics cannot prove by mathematics itself. As long as you cannot prove the mathematics, it is still a story, albeit a much sophisticated story, but a story nonetheless. Just as science and equations are trying to improve human conditions, myths were also designed to improve the human conditions because all of the myths have a teaching for the betterment of the individual and the society of that time. In the similar lines of reasoning, myths or the symbol i both are trying to do the same things. They are trying to deal with the paradox, just like we are trying to deal with the paradoxical nature of reality with science. Unfortunately, we think myths are just a bunch of bulls, but equations are the cosmic truths written in stones. Actually, myths are full of the Bulls (Ptah/Osiris, Shiva/Nandi, Rishabha, Vishnu/Prithu/Govinda, Gautama [The Best Ox]/ Buddha, Marduk, Tammuz, El/Elohim/Baal/Yahweh) but those "Bulls" actually mean something far more powerful than any equations that scientists have ever come across. There is no way you can show that the equations are better than myths in expressing the concepts that does not have a physical representation. Both the "Bulls" or Bull slaying has some important meanings. Just because Theseus (Minotaur), Mithras (Tauroctony), or Gilgamesh (Gugalanna) killed the Bull or Moses broke the Golden Calf idol does not automatically mean that the Bull is the Demon. Actually, it means something far deeper. If you train your mind, you will see what those almost ritualistic bull slaying really means.

Finally, let's consider the case of Numbers, the "Sacred Cow" of science and mathematics. Originally, the numbers were introduced as a symbol of certain abstract concepts and their relation to one another. You will see soon that the whole business of numbers are cram filled with mythical relationships between other numbers. For example, every number theorist will appreciate that the number one is the beginning of all numbers and 1 is inside all other numbers. 1 is like the abstract concept of a point in geometry. Dimensionless, non-space consuming, indivisible entity. But, how 1 comes into the existence out of nothing is not explained at all! You have to blindly and obediently accept the creation myth of 1. If you accept this myth, there comes another paradox out of that mythology of 1. If 1 is really dimensionless, non-space consuming, indivisible entity as described, then how can you accept anything less than 1, like 1/2 or 1/4 or 0. But they have made you swallow that unreasonable myth that you never argued against. The next case about number 2 also needs another supernatural/preternatural mythological explanation. How the number 2 came out of 1 as a next number? Nobody explained that miracle to me in my schools or universities. Because they cannot explain how 2 popped out, they proposed that when 1 and another 1 get united it becomes 2. Now where does the other 1 found another identical 1 for the purpose of becoming 2? Did it come from the heaven? How mythic is that?! Now you can appreciate that when you do any math you already swallowed some gigantic creation myth (even worse than Sumerian or Biblical creation myth) but you are going to deny it because you already bought into the myths that created the science. If the First spirit principle is the Purusha of Hinduism, Buddha of Buddhism, Ptah of Egyptian religion, Phanes of the Greek/Orphic tradition, Adam Kadmon of the Jewish Kabbalah, Elohim of Mormonism, and Adam of Abrahamic Monotheism, then in the similar way, the Spirit child of the Religion of Scientism is the Number. If you believe in Purusha etc, you will be considered as just a superstitious dumb, but if you accept the Numbers, you are just smart! How ironic it is! Please, do not give your bull of mathematical equations to people as being superior than the myths of the real "Bull". However, I am not saying that number, mathematics and science in general are not powerful and useful, but I am saying they are not infallible and not particularly superior in expressing "the ineffable" that the words, symbols and myths.  Consequently, instead, one should try to find what is the secret mystery hidden behind in the deepest recess of those words and mythic stories, expressed in symbols, mandala and mathematical numbers.

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