Recently an engineering student–Akashay, who is fond of physics emailed me a litany of questions to answer to try to quell the confusion that has arisen in his mind that I imagine was caused when he tried to correlate recent discoveries in physics with his religious beliefs. He referred to the possibilities of parallel universes proposed by String theorists and recent discoveries on the formation of stars and galaxies–though he did not mention which discoveries. It seems to him that all these theories and discoveries throws into question the role (not reality) of God. He wonders what God does; if our lives are predestined; if anyone has met God; if so what happened to the proof of such meetings?
He has been waiting for sometime for me to answer his questions, but I was waiting for some time (pun intended) to open up on my side to get into such a fun area of mystical musing. Before you think this is going to be another one sided debate article on the ubiquitous subject of science versus religion or vice-versa, let me assure you that I am an admirer of science, religion and spiritualism. In fact it was my scientific inquisition to want to discover the existence of God for myself that led me to delve into the yogic arts. So to answer Akashay's questions I am going to do what us mystics love to do–look at everything from inspiring mystical overviews.
To discover a mystical answer to this questioning I will use a yogic method of concentration–the samayama. Samayama is the final level of concentration that a yogi has to maintain before the true state of meditation occurs. It is done by dividing a subject of concentration into three related points and then keeping awareness engrossed in the evolution of thoughts, feelings and visualizations of these points of concentration while moving randomly from one point to another; in other words there are three trains of thought progressing simultaneously. The points of concentration can be anything that you imagine is related to the subject. For instance lets say I want to do a samayama on renewable energy; I can divide this subject into any three related points of concentration; this can be the sun, electricity and the welfare of Earth. In a samayama the yogi has to use as much force of intent and will that he can muster to maintain his awareness on the concentration points of the samayama.
To uncover answers for the questions posed by Akashay, I will do a samayama with spirituality, religion and science as the three points of a samayama. I will use the following definitions of these three as the base of my concentration effort with the intention of discovering integration of the three subjects as the goal of the samayama.
Spirituality: Beliefs of faith based on personal mystical or 'otherworldly' experience.
Religion: A set of beliefs (or articles of faith) and culture adopted by groups of people that direct their practices and faith in the supernatural.
Science: A faculty of knowledge that is based on discoveries about the workings of nature that are backed by repeatable results of experimentation or arithmetics.
I began this mystical musing by going through the mill of yogic preparations. First, I do some yoga poses to reset the mind to a soft concentrated poise. The next step in (ashtanga) yoga is to do breath modulation–pranayama to consolidate the concentrative poise. Following pranayama is pratyahara which are subconscious concentration techniques. The particular pratyahara I did for this session involved an esoteric pranayama that locks as much energy as possible in the third-eye (the sixth / ajna chakra) and mutes awareness of and sense inputs from the physical body. With this accomplished I now progress into the super-concentration state of dharana to begin the samayama. I bring into thought and visualizations the three points of samayama and evolve them successively at first and then jumping from one point to another at random. I think about scientists and their inventions, famous scientist from my memory appear; I remember my spiritual experiences of God and how I discovered the mystical realms of experiences, the great sadhus and rishis came to mind; I think about all the religions of the world, of their customs, their founders, their places of worship. All these stream continuously in thought, while in the back of my contemplation I have integration of these three points of samayama as the goal of the revelations I am seeking.
The goal of a samayama is achieved through attaining the true state of meditation–dhyana. This occurs when the samayama reaches a pinnacle in effort where all the faculties of the mind–the intellect, the emotions and visualization capability–becomes so saturated with accrued mind energy (prana) that all its (the mind's) voluntary processes becomes so overwhelmed that they quiet down. Pin drop silence occurs in the mind, the yogis awareness will feel like it is floating in a quiet space filled with energy. He might experience seeing a whitish, yellowish or purplish glow in his mind if his third eye is sensitive enough. If this condition of quietness in the mind is maintained the true state of meditation, dhyana, can occur. Dhyana appears of its own accord; the transition from dharana to dhyana is very smooth. A yogi knows he is in dhyana when he feels relief from the tense mental effort of maintaining a samayama. This natural relaxing of mental effort is one of the signposts to the yogi that he has attained dhyana. Peace descends and the yogi becomes aware that he has entered a new level of consciousness. I liken the experience of this transition from the frenetic intensity of mindfulness in dharana to the intense calm of dhyana to an airplane as it ascends over cloud cover. (Incidentally this my most favorite part of flying. If I get a window seat I wait eagerly for this moment. All of a sudden the airplane breaks free of the cloud cover; you see below the tops of the clouds shimmering in sun-glow and, above and all around, nothing but clear blue space....bliss).
The other telltale sign that confirms to the yogi that he has ascended in to the plane of dhyana is when he experiences revelations. Revelation is known in yoga as jnana. Jnana is a faculty of the superconscious mind (or the mind of the soul) that generates knowledge on a subject from Cosmic Intelligence. As revelations occur, the yogi is a passive observer enjoying its flashes of pictorial scenes, emotions and intuitive thought. It is as if the yogi is watching a television screen in his mind through which he experiences revelations. Though the details of what the revelations mean are not intellectually clear yet, these flashes of jnana come with a feeling or rightness, or a feeling like the proverb 'hit the nail on the head'. For all the intense effort it took to sustain concentration in samayama, to attain the inspiring state of dhyana and experience revelation is well worth the effort.
Thus the concentrative poise that the yogi labors to produce in a samayama eventually maintains itself of its own accord in dhyana which will reap answers to the yogis subject in question as jnana revelations. After the revelation, dhyana goes through a final stage in the evolution of yogic concentration when the yogi experiences blissful spiritual enlightenment, samadhi. Samadhi is the culmination of all successful yogic concentration effort. After samadhi the yogi's awareness gently descends back to normal consciousness from the lofty heights of superconsciousness, usually somewhat intoxicated by pleasurable spiritual feelings and with memory of the revelations that can then be extrapolated into discourses, articles or other practical applications of the knowledge.
The more adept one is in doing samayama the faster results are attained. Though during the samayama, due to the intensity of concentration the perception of time slows. A five minutes samayama can feel like 25 minutes. It took me about three minutes of doing this samayama looking for integration between spirituality, science and religion before I reached the state of dhyana.
With awareness blissfully poised in dhyana these are the packets of revelations that were the results of my samayama. The first to appear was a large multifaceted diamond like gem that was glistening and rotating slowly. The gem remained in view for a while and as it was slowly fading from the 'mind's eye' a statement, "we are already multidimensional beings" was heard. Then followed another scene where I saw a scientist and a mystic sitting back to back. The revelations concluded with a final scene of a priest worshipping atop a precarious ledge on the summit of a tall cliff. I knew this scene was the conclusion because immediately after that I was transported into a blissful samadhi. I experienced savikalpa samadhi in the ajna chakra (the third-eye). In this variety of samadhi my awareness had expanded into a vast deep bluish inner-space. I felt both the intensity of pin-pointed concentration and expanded consciousness simultaneously. This was an intense spiritual energy state bereft of emotions until the sound of a distant car broke through the samadhi and my awareness along with all that spiritual energy flowed into the body. As the energy traversed into the physical nerves they expanded into blissful feelings. When I finally opened my eyes I was feeling as if my body was floating and everything was silent inside me and outside.
What could these revelations mean? How would you equate them to the original questions posed by Akashay? For now I will leave you with this puzzle. In Part Two of The Ubiquitous Science vs. Religion Conundrum I will uncover these revelations using yet another ancient mystical method–shruti. You can then compare your reasoning with my shruti. Have fun!
Click here to read Part Two
He has been waiting for sometime for me to answer his questions, but I was waiting for some time (pun intended) to open up on my side to get into such a fun area of mystical musing. Before you think this is going to be another one sided debate article on the ubiquitous subject of science versus religion or vice-versa, let me assure you that I am an admirer of science, religion and spiritualism. In fact it was my scientific inquisition to want to discover the existence of God for myself that led me to delve into the yogic arts. So to answer Akashay's questions I am going to do what us mystics love to do–look at everything from inspiring mystical overviews.
To discover a mystical answer to this questioning I will use a yogic method of concentration–the samayama. Samayama is the final level of concentration that a yogi has to maintain before the true state of meditation occurs. It is done by dividing a subject of concentration into three related points and then keeping awareness engrossed in the evolution of thoughts, feelings and visualizations of these points of concentration while moving randomly from one point to another; in other words there are three trains of thought progressing simultaneously. The points of concentration can be anything that you imagine is related to the subject. For instance lets say I want to do a samayama on renewable energy; I can divide this subject into any three related points of concentration; this can be the sun, electricity and the welfare of Earth. In a samayama the yogi has to use as much force of intent and will that he can muster to maintain his awareness on the concentration points of the samayama.
Spirituality: Beliefs of faith based on personal mystical or 'otherworldly' experience.
Religion: A set of beliefs (or articles of faith) and culture adopted by groups of people that direct their practices and faith in the supernatural.
Science: A faculty of knowledge that is based on discoveries about the workings of nature that are backed by repeatable results of experimentation or arithmetics.
I began this mystical musing by going through the mill of yogic preparations. First, I do some yoga poses to reset the mind to a soft concentrated poise. The next step in (ashtanga) yoga is to do breath modulation–pranayama to consolidate the concentrative poise. Following pranayama is pratyahara which are subconscious concentration techniques. The particular pratyahara I did for this session involved an esoteric pranayama that locks as much energy as possible in the third-eye (the sixth / ajna chakra) and mutes awareness of and sense inputs from the physical body. With this accomplished I now progress into the super-concentration state of dharana to begin the samayama. I bring into thought and visualizations the three points of samayama and evolve them successively at first and then jumping from one point to another at random. I think about scientists and their inventions, famous scientist from my memory appear; I remember my spiritual experiences of God and how I discovered the mystical realms of experiences, the great sadhus and rishis came to mind; I think about all the religions of the world, of their customs, their founders, their places of worship. All these stream continuously in thought, while in the back of my contemplation I have integration of these three points of samayama as the goal of the revelations I am seeking.
The goal of a samayama is achieved through attaining the true state of meditation–dhyana. This occurs when the samayama reaches a pinnacle in effort where all the faculties of the mind–the intellect, the emotions and visualization capability–becomes so saturated with accrued mind energy (prana) that all its (the mind's) voluntary processes becomes so overwhelmed that they quiet down. Pin drop silence occurs in the mind, the yogis awareness will feel like it is floating in a quiet space filled with energy. He might experience seeing a whitish, yellowish or purplish glow in his mind if his third eye is sensitive enough. If this condition of quietness in the mind is maintained the true state of meditation, dhyana, can occur. Dhyana appears of its own accord; the transition from dharana to dhyana is very smooth. A yogi knows he is in dhyana when he feels relief from the tense mental effort of maintaining a samayama. This natural relaxing of mental effort is one of the signposts to the yogi that he has attained dhyana. Peace descends and the yogi becomes aware that he has entered a new level of consciousness. I liken the experience of this transition from the frenetic intensity of mindfulness in dharana to the intense calm of dhyana to an airplane as it ascends over cloud cover. (Incidentally this my most favorite part of flying. If I get a window seat I wait eagerly for this moment. All of a sudden the airplane breaks free of the cloud cover; you see below the tops of the clouds shimmering in sun-glow and, above and all around, nothing but clear blue space....bliss).
The other telltale sign that confirms to the yogi that he has ascended in to the plane of dhyana is when he experiences revelations. Revelation is known in yoga as jnana. Jnana is a faculty of the superconscious mind (or the mind of the soul) that generates knowledge on a subject from Cosmic Intelligence. As revelations occur, the yogi is a passive observer enjoying its flashes of pictorial scenes, emotions and intuitive thought. It is as if the yogi is watching a television screen in his mind through which he experiences revelations. Though the details of what the revelations mean are not intellectually clear yet, these flashes of jnana come with a feeling or rightness, or a feeling like the proverb 'hit the nail on the head'. For all the intense effort it took to sustain concentration in samayama, to attain the inspiring state of dhyana and experience revelation is well worth the effort.
Thus the concentrative poise that the yogi labors to produce in a samayama eventually maintains itself of its own accord in dhyana which will reap answers to the yogis subject in question as jnana revelations. After the revelation, dhyana goes through a final stage in the evolution of yogic concentration when the yogi experiences blissful spiritual enlightenment, samadhi. Samadhi is the culmination of all successful yogic concentration effort. After samadhi the yogi's awareness gently descends back to normal consciousness from the lofty heights of superconsciousness, usually somewhat intoxicated by pleasurable spiritual feelings and with memory of the revelations that can then be extrapolated into discourses, articles or other practical applications of the knowledge.
The more adept one is in doing samayama the faster results are attained. Though during the samayama, due to the intensity of concentration the perception of time slows. A five minutes samayama can feel like 25 minutes. It took me about three minutes of doing this samayama looking for integration between spirituality, science and religion before I reached the state of dhyana.
With awareness blissfully poised in dhyana these are the packets of revelations that were the results of my samayama. The first to appear was a large multifaceted diamond like gem that was glistening and rotating slowly. The gem remained in view for a while and as it was slowly fading from the 'mind's eye' a statement, "we are already multidimensional beings" was heard. Then followed another scene where I saw a scientist and a mystic sitting back to back. The revelations concluded with a final scene of a priest worshipping atop a precarious ledge on the summit of a tall cliff. I knew this scene was the conclusion because immediately after that I was transported into a blissful samadhi. I experienced savikalpa samadhi in the ajna chakra (the third-eye). In this variety of samadhi my awareness had expanded into a vast deep bluish inner-space. I felt both the intensity of pin-pointed concentration and expanded consciousness simultaneously. This was an intense spiritual energy state bereft of emotions until the sound of a distant car broke through the samadhi and my awareness along with all that spiritual energy flowed into the body. As the energy traversed into the physical nerves they expanded into blissful feelings. When I finally opened my eyes I was feeling as if my body was floating and everything was silent inside me and outside.
What could these revelations mean? How would you equate them to the original questions posed by Akashay? For now I will leave you with this puzzle. In Part Two of The Ubiquitous Science vs. Religion Conundrum I will uncover these revelations using yet another ancient mystical method–shruti. You can then compare your reasoning with my shruti. Have fun!
Click here to read Part Two
Very interesting Swami...i am eagerly waiting for PART 2
ReplyDeleteYes it is coming soon.
Delete"priest worshipping atop a precarious ledge on the summit of a tall cliff" at the height of consciousness with devotion and surrender the objective/truth is achieved
ReplyDelete