Mystic Time: Playing With Time–Figuring a Future From the Past

Life is enjoyed for its moments and is appreciated most in retrospect. When we are in the midst of an event…well, the event occurs. It is only after the event, upon pondering in retrospect, that we conclude and make sense of our experiences to create packages of conclusions that we then store as memory. We go through life collecting these packages of conclusions which we categorize against the background of our personality and preferences; some we love, some we detest, some are just fillers but all are ours. Our memories when taken as a whole gives us the uniqueness from which emanates our varied perspectives that influence the choices and decisions we make. Consequently our choices and decisions lead us on to our unique futures; thus a relationship between our past and the future can be conceived.

If this relationship is accepted even if only as a possibility, it would mean that the effect of a memory or the collective effect of a grouping of memories can be precursors to the future. It would also be conceivable that we could design our future by tinkering with our past; but how do we tinker with the past when it is history–facts inextricably recorded in time and of course memory?

We can easily travel to the past in our mind. There is no barrier to going as far back as we wish; in fact if we have enough accurate facts of an event in the past we could place ourselves in it and imagine quite vividly what we might do in those circumstances (even if the event was beyond our time). Of course this mind-time-travel cannot ever change the facts of the past nor does anyone really consider traveling through time by imagination valid time travel; its just too simplistic. We would rather a time machine be a sophisticated piece of technology that would safely transport us to whatever time we want physically like the ones in the movies. However, while it may lack sophistication working with the record keeper in our brain can yield results as tangible as actually going to the past and manipulating it. I will explain how this is possible but first lets indulge ourselves with the past for a bit.

Have you ever mused over the value of your past? If the value of anything is what it can provide at a time of need then an obvious value of memory can be found in past academic, technical, artistic or professional accomplishments. How we stack up these credentials when we portray ourselves to others can give us a lot of meaning as our identity and as a means of livelihood. An even more basic value of memory is the ability to remember facts, i.e. for an exam, languages and logic functions. The practical benefits of these types of memories are apparent but would you categorize them as memories you cherish? Perhaps if your accomplishments also earned you accolades from family, friends or peers. Accolades, praise, appreciation or receiving gratitude form a different type of memory. (These are memories that we cherish; an important element of these memories are that other people deliver to us these experiences.) The best way to truly appraise ourselves of the value of our past is to record our memories in a format where we can capture an overview, a sort of summary, of our past. For  this record to be of any use we must start by creating categories for our memories. I have just described two types of memories, the latter we can categorize as The Practicals, the previous The Cherished-Involving Others. Lets continue defining and categorizing memories.

We also generate and hold on to more personal experiences that do not necessarily involve other people. Of these I can divide them into two more categories, one involves just us and the other involves nature. Our life is as much about our relationship with ourself as it is about the relationships with others. Thus we find it only natural that we have the urge from time to time to give ourselves accolades, praise, appreciation and gratitude. In contemporary lingo we call these the me-time moments. The memories created when we do kind and helpful service unbeknownst to others or when in solitude we appreciate ourselves for our accomplishments can be categorized in The Cherished–Self. The other large body of non-social memory we store are our cherished experiences of nature; nature in this regard includes the wonders of the great outdoors, sense and sensual delights, sensational moments in our experience of physical forces and geography–like bungee jumping or riding a roller coaster. The memories we create from these experiences are among our most intimate as they reflect the uniqueness of our personality and preferences. You can actually learn a lot about a person or even yourself if you know your affinity for or relationship to nature as it is usually honest and free from pretentiousness. Ones preferred colour, affinity to different animals, to maths, the the outdoors, types of music, tastes, smells, etc. can be the most telling of a person's subliminal nature. These memories we can label as The Cherished-World.

We have covered factual, social, personal and nature based memories which pretty much covers most of life; what is left are memories from events outside the bounds of the tangible world, such as experiences of the occult and spiritual (The Mystical). If I were to look into my memory banks I could take these types of experiences and break them into as many categories as Earth bound experiences, in fact I would add a few more. I have a very lively mystical mind and if I were to go into all that it would make the exercise I am going to share with you later too complicated. Anyway for the most part people have less developed mystical minds; such is our educational emphasis and social pressures that keep us mainly focused on the externals of life leaving The Mystical category of memory with relatively less content. Nevertheless it is important to include these memories in our organization of memories as they tend to be quite potent. If you ever caught a glimpse of what might have been a ghost, an apparition of a deceased ancestor, an angle, demon, etc. simply the possibility of a glimpse alone can sear a strong impression into your memory banks even if it was a dream.

Paranormal beings are not the only things that make up mystical experiences, actually for me I count more memories created from amazingly abstract meditative experiences than anything else. Whether you cognize your brain as a super chemical / drug fabrication plant or that it is a gateway to soulful experiences, it is the organ that produces how we feel about anything–whether it be of this world or otherwise. Exhilarating mystical experiences come from mastery of abstracting thoughts and manipulating the latent energy of consciousness; to the adept mystic they create experiences of blissful communion with Cosmic Consciousness which to the layperson is akin to the exhilaration of the "Eureka!" moment. So you can add those unusually great epiphanic moments that seem to occur for no reason–search for these in your memory banks and they will pop up here and there–and add them along with the other paranormals in this category of The Mystical memories. This category may include religious experiences especially if the moment culminated into intimate spiritual feelings or insights of deep significance. In general religious experiences are usually more social than spiritual and therefore should be categorized with memories involving other persons.

So here you have it, an ensemble of memory categories:

The Prcacticals
The Cherished-Involving Other Persons
The Cherished-Self
The Cherished-World
The Mystical

These should cover most areas of life but to complete this list we must also add a polarity to each of these categories. The Cherised of course indicates that these are memories we consider good for us or pleasing. Basically if you could go back in time with a thing-a-magic time machine and could playback some moments those would be from The Cherished. Then we have as part and parcel of life the opposite of the cherished moments. These, of course, yield experiences we rather not repeat so lets call them The Detested. The Detested however doesn't necessarily mean bad nor does The Cherished necessary mean good. Memories are very personal, how you handle or maintain them in your mind is your business; therefore the moral code you use to delineate good and bad, right and wrong as far as your memories are concerned is totally up to you. Nobody has the right to dictate how you manage your subconscious mind unless you make it amenable to another's suggestions.

The following is the complete list of memory categories:

The Prcacticals - Positive
The Cherished-Involving Other Persons
The Cherished-Self
The Cherished-World
The Mystical - Positive

The Prcacticals - Negative
The Detested-Involving Other Persons
The Detested-Self
The Detested-World
The Mystical - Negative

I alluded earlier to an exercise that I am going to share with you involving these memory categories. Let me get down to it. The exercise is simply making a mind map of these categories and filling them up with appropriate memories (your memories naturally). It is a method of subconscious-mind management and what you labour to produce is a Memory Mind Map. The idea is to sort the memories in the subconscious mind and arrange them into established categories such as the ones above. When you consider doing this exercise you will naturally realize its tediousness which will make you question its purpose. What are its benefits?

The main benefit of the Memory Mind Map is that it can help you figure out your life. How? Basically it is similar to putting your house to order and getting everything to where they need to be; you will feel better and it gives you room to think as they say. The Memory Mind Map also provides you the benefit of holding an overview of your past. Once you have made a Memory Mind Map you will immediately feel a sense of accomplishment as you behold your otherwise invisible subconscious mind laid out in front of you; a task that is inconceivable as a purely mental exercise. With the Memory Mind Map in hand you can pull all sorts of data from it. For instance you can simply count how many memories you have on the cherished and positive side compared to the detested and negative ones and see which of them you have more of. You could even weigh them as percentages–what will this tell you? Well the data is yours to interpret and I can assure you that you will discover valuable insights from the life you have lived thus far that hitherto you had not known nor could have known if not for the Memory Mind Map. Following is a hypothetical scenario that illustrates useful revelations that the Memory Mind Map can provide.

Mr. A took a whole month to complete his Memory Mind Map. He worked on it a little bit at a time for about 20 minutes a day. It was a monumental task as he had decided to start with memories from as young as he could remember. He enjoyed his recollections of the pleasant, touching and fun moments…he wished he could go back to some of them; but he also felt pain, regret and anguish when the painful ones surfaced. It was not an easy decision for Mr. A to do the Memory Mind Map. He knew it would be daunting to go back to the harsher experiences of his past and he wondered what he might glean from this exercise. Nevertheless he settled on getting it done with the hope that he would find a sorely needed solution to an unusual problem he was facing. So he steeled himself and assiduously filled up all the categories on his Memory Mind Map. A month had elapsed before he could deck out the 10 photocopy papers that he had used to jot down each category of memory. He wrote each memory as a one line summary like a title and put a time stamp next to each memory.

Mr. A is generally happy with his life, he is in his mid-40s, married with two kids going to elementary school. His job is secure, respectable and it provides for more than just paying his bills. Though he is not a millionaire Mr. A knows many envy the life he has. Yet as of late he feels a faded zest for life; an emptiness has crept into him that he can't quite fill with anything; this feeling of confusion has been lingering for sometime and it is making it psychologically harder for him get out of bed to begin the day. This confusion had turned to a palpable frustration that his wife and children encounter once in a while. He knows the condition is creating suspicion and insecurity in his wife and his work performance is starting to be affected. Mr. A has lots to lose if he continued on this path so he was in desperate need of a diagnosis and solution. A psychiatrist friend of Mr.A's blames his condition on depression and if nothing is done about it, it could become clinical which he says can be handled with prescription drugs. The whole idea of taking drugs to cure his condition makes Mr. A even more depressed.

In a moment of despair one late sleepless night Mr. A fires up his computer and behold!...He comes upon the Memory Mind Map. Mr. A is desperate enough to try anything that doesn't involve drugs or spilling his guts out in a counseling session, Mr. A is a rather timid and personal fellow. He realizes after reading this subconscious management method that the process is going to be tedious and that he is not going to be able to get his answer as immediately as he had hoped nevertheless he sets his mind to get on with it.

A month later he is finally done. With his memory patterns decked out in front of him on his large office table after hours he immediately notices a pattern. It is clear that he has way more memories that he cherishes than ones he detests. Most of these memories involve people: his parents, family, siblings, friends and so forth. He has only a few of such memories with nature and when he recollects an especially memorable camping trip he made as a boy scout he realizes just how much he misses being out in nature especially when he juxtaposes it with the Detest column below The Cherished-World where he notes that the traffic jam and pollution in the city gets to him terribly. He detests the hustle and bustle of the city and the constant need to be on the move. It makes him long for the beautiful open spaces of nature and its peace.

Mr. A has an epiphany, he realizes that for all the successes in his life which has been so driven by others' expectations and the need to please, he has put aside his own innate needs. He is out of harmony with himself and he knows how to put it right again. His passion has been nature and the environment, he detests how as a community we are spoiling the very ground that nurtures us. A great burden of confusion lifts from his mind as Mr. A realizes what he has been missing all this while. The niggling emptiness that he has been feeling for almost a year is getting filled by inspiration of a newly developing vision and passion for life. Mr. A has had it in the back of his mind dabbling into nature photography; now it fills the forefront of his mind with excitement and ideas pouring in from a source that hitherto was nowhere to be found. He also decides that he wants to get in on the environmental effort to help curb chemical pollution, but first he has to discuss his new found ideas with his wife.

Mr. A's wife is not a very outdoorsy person, she is more a people person who enjoys socialite trappings. Part of the reason Mr. A never pursued his outdoor hobby was in deference to his wife. At the time he thought of it as a small matter, an inconsequential price to pay in a compromise of marriage with his sweetheart. Now he realizes innate longings cannot be ignored forever and that it has a way of accumulating disharmony to the point where he can put it off no longer and has to work it out with his wife somehow. Mr. A cannot contain himself with his new found buoyancy. He wonders why he hadn't figured this out himself earlier but more than that he is relieved that the mysterious answer to his depression is not complicated and instead quite elementary. His wife quickly picks up on her husband's new found zest. Mr. A puts it all on the table, his Memory Mind Map and his revelations. His wife in tears of relief confesses that she was worried if he was distant because he was having an affair or some other heart wrenching problem. They share an intimate moment together in a seemingly newfound passion for life.

While Mr. A plans to incorporate nature outings and environmental work into his and his family's lifestyle Mrs. A with the encouragement of Mr. A is inspired to do her own Memory Mind Map. Mrs. A's revelations were more obvious than her husband's though similar. Since she quit her job to be a full-time homemaker she had been missing out on her social life with her friends; a need that she considered ostensible compared to her responsibilities as a mother. Yet while she finds joy in seeing her children grow and learn her personality does pine for the time she used to enjoy her friends and work colleagues. In her Memory Mind Map this need represented itself clearly as she can see how The Cherished - Involving Other Persons used to be prominent with memories until she quit her job, after that The Cherished - Self took up the slack as so much of the work she does as a homemaker to keep her family organized and cared for goes unnoticed. For a few years now she brushed off her social life needs by assuming that these cravings were selfish and at times had even denied herself such simple joys as going out with her friends when invited for a soiree even when she was given the opportunity; these moments appeared as she was working on the Detested-Self column. Learning from her husband's experience she realizes that even if she was committed to a labour of love leading a balanced life is essential to her emotional wellbeing as it was to her husband's.

Mrs. A now knows that her persistent feeling of lethargy is not because of laziness, instead the lack of inspiration caused by her being out of harmony with her personality demands. Equiped with the clarity that her own needs are also as important as fulfilling her responsibilities as a mother and wife; and that they are not selfish but natural to her, she too plans together with Mr. A to strike a better balance of care all around.

The Memory Mind Map though tedious to do is a simple tool, it certainly does not have the sophistication of a time machine, which could make one wonder about its effectiveness. I have found that the simplicity of method of spiritual or mystical practices like the Memory Mind Map is the biggest hurdle for most people to cross before they attempt the practice. However once the practice starts one will discover insights pouring into the mind as the past takes shape outside the mind and the realization that it is impossible to have such an overview of life by trying to do this exercise mentally will dawn. Subsequent revelations can be invaluable enough to give merit and credence to the effectiveness of such simple tools as pen and paper as a time machine.

The Memory Mind Map is a flexible tool that can be modified to fit your needs. You may add or remove categories according to your life and personality. This practice can be done for many reasons such as to figure out a particular situation you are in to see if you can find correlations with consequences from past deeds to find answers to the 'Why is this happening to me now?' question. Perhaps you are at the crossroads of deciding your future–the 'What now?' or 'What next?' musings–where a structured look into the patterns of the past may shed valuable information or you just want to take stock of your past like you have never done before to behold it and be awed.

Organizing one's past into areas of life is a spiritual exercise. It can provide all sorts of insights about the life we are leading, the life that we maybe missing, the likely future we are heading towards, the reason for our current condition(s) and about who we are to ourself. Of course the key ingredients of the Memory Mind Map are memories, where the more you have the better. This is not to say that this practice is only for older people. We begin collecting memories and making conclusions from our experiences from as young as we can remember. Even teenagers who are trying to figure out their life's path, their purpose or their priorities can find the Memory Mind Map enriching as a tool for charting their future. Some of the conclusions one might draw from his or her Memory Mind Map can be profound while others maybe simple, nevertheless the cumulative result of both are insights that provides a platform from which an outcome that is a future can be viewed.

Life Matters

Prelude
Before you invest your time in this article I need to let you know that this article is not so much about its conclusion. It is more about enjoying the kaleidoscope of abstraction that our amazing mind is capable of. It will toggle you across perspectives of space–microcosm to the macrocosm, time–the distant past, present and way into the future; and consciousness–from the mundane to the profound.


Life Matters

How does life on Earth matter? According to science only 5% of our gigantic Universe consists of matter organized as atoms–pardon the pun.

If I believed that my existence is solely the product of the collectively coalescent atoms that make up my body and that death is simply the disorganizing of these atoms, then the purpose of my life is to keep my atoms intact. Interestingly while atoms don't age my body made of nothing but atoms does (let's ignore the few mildly radioactive isotopes like Carbon 14). Science tells us aging is because our atoms are formed as cells which are affected by time and while there are many possible explanations for why the body gets old–irreplaceable cells in the body become damaged, the bodies metabolic factory becomes less efficient with age, lifestyle, environmental toxins, free radicals, genes etc.–by and large a conclusive theory on aging remains a scientific mystery.

If the most basic instinct of life on Earth is driven by matter, more precisely cellular matter, then the purpose of life is straight forward. My goal of life would be first and foremost to keep my cells intact and healthy for as long as possible, the second and equally important goal would be to create progeny. The basic instincts of survival and reproduction are the strongest urges in all biological life. Of these two, survival is the king of urges since reproduction is an evolute of survival. Somehow our genes know that while it has a chance to exist for a long time, it cannot stop the aging process of the cells it is in. Its survival solution against aging is to create a new package and move into it, thus rejuvenating its survivability as its old package disintegrates. This is eternal life for genes and it works very well.

Query Wikipedia "history of life" and a timeline appears that shows that Earth began forming 5 billion years ago. About 1 billion years from its birthing (more precisely 3.6 billion years ago) life started as simple cells–prokaryotes or bacterium. DNA organized into genes have existed almost from the get-go of Earth's history. Since then genes have gone through a colorful and resilient history of evolution. Genes have had lots of fun coming up with a myriad of creatures of amazing shapes and forms, they became masters of the waters and the skies; colonizing the harshest of environments from the deserts to the crushing ocean depths; living through disasters and rejuvenating from cataclysms. Isn't it amazing to think that every single organism on Earth today is a testament to the immortality of its genes. Each of us are products of this resilience. God only knows what creatures the atoms of our DNA have been in, in bygone days before assimilating in us.

Science however doesn't acknowledge God or that an intelligence might be behind the formation of DNA. In the primordial chemical soup that our seas were billions of years ago proteins formed by chance and accidentally organized itself as DNA; and there is the math to prove how likely all this chance occurrences could have happened. An intelligent designer driving DNA is hard if not impossible to proof but when you look at fossil records and muse on all the amazing creatures that have been created through the eons and the diversity of life in the present it is a hard buy to accept mindless or heartless random happenings as a cause. So I look hard for ways to proof that the sum of my existence is not just my dear collection of atoms. What could possibly clue us to an intelligent force behind DNA.....I ask......Lo and Behold! I see space....outer space that is.

No, it is not about aliens planting seeds of life on Earth though when considering plausibilities it is not out of the question. Instead my hypothesis about the intelligence behind life on Earth has to do with our effort to explore outer space. I believe that our push into space has as much (if not more) to do with the survival of our genes as it is with quenching our curiosity for exploring the unknown.

We now know for a fact that the Earth is not going to last forever and though our DNA has lived through climate change, catastrophic space collisions and whatever-else disasters, for now the only place we / our genes can call home is Earth; and the prospect that Earth could be destroyed when our Sun becomes a Red Giant or simply gives out–some billions of years away–and Earth becomes as cold as Uranus must shudder genes with End-of-Days like horror. Keep in mind also that for our genes a billion years is nothing. They have survived billions of years already and a couple billion years more before Earth becomes defunct for life is a relatively short time.

The ability to conceive time spans beyond the present through memory evolved in the animal kingdom a long time ago and in fact in this department certain animals like elephants, chimpanzees and the porpoises have shown amazing capabilities comparable to humans. However what makes us a class of evolution above the rest is our propensity for recording history and our ability to wonder about the future. From the days of cave painting to now we have always endeavoured to leave behind some kind of recorded legacy. Whether it is through art, literature, or heirlooms I would dare say that some of us care more about how people will remember us after our time than the generation we leave behind. The simple habit of maintaining history has worked wonders in humankind's civilizational evolution by allowing us to continue threads of development without having to 'reinvent the wheel'; of one generation learning and improving from its predecessor. Add our insatiable desire to wonder, explore and learn to this equation and we get the indomitable human spirit. From the time seamen dared to challenge the notion of a flat-earth to the brave people who dared to sacrifice their lives to usher in the space age, the human spirit has brought us to the doorstep of a new technological era–that of artificial intelligence.

Possibly an aberration in the pattern of evolution of creatures over thousands of millenniums, we humans are among the most unusual of creatures (check out the best list of unusual prehistoric creatures I could find on the web). Physically we are not built for natural survival like other animals and if not for the fact that we possess more brains than them we would not have survived and otherwise thrive as we are today. Four legged predators can easily out run us and in the water any fish can out swim us. We can't climb anything very well and don't fly. Instead evolution invested us with three non-brawn winning characteristics. One is that we can learn and find solutions to problems by making tools no matter the complexity; we are endowed with the most amazing hands of all animals that make us capable tool makers instead of just food grabbers and thirdly our very versatile vocal chords which allows us to create complex and articulate languages. This jump in evolution to endow us with brains instead of brawn is unusual in the evolution of organisms if the goal of our genes is purely survival on Earth because there is no need for brains, brawn has proven sufficient through the test of time.

Nevertheless in the countless number of animals and plants that have appeared on Earth evolution's bet on brains over brawn is proving to be a winning solution for the survival of our genes. Seven billion in population and counting; we are crowding out so many other organisms and consuming so much of life sustaining resources that we have taken on a role of nature to become an effective extinction force for other animals and plants. According to scientists the rate of extinction of species of animals presently is faster than ever discovered–up to one thousand times higher than in fossil records–nothing to be proud about but I can't speak for my genes–survival of the fittest and all that. Perhaps all this extinction is exactly in line with the grand plan of our genes. Perhaps genes do not care anymore for the evolution through variety of biological streams simply because it just takes too much time. After all 5,000 years ago we could only walk, run and were building rudimentary rafts. Within just a few millennium with our astounding technological genius we are flying all over the world at close to the speed of sound; way faster and higher than any bird and drifting around in space, an environment that is impossible for genes to muster up a biological creature. Then again it could be DNA's master plan for survival after Earth.

The United States and the former USSR scrambled to explore space and spent billions of dollar for the technology, which at the time must have seemed questionable. With nations still struggling to recover from World War 2, the quest for getting into space was spurred by oneupmanship between the giant nations. Of course its benefits now, in ease of global communications, navigation meteorology makes it all well worth the effort. But we haven't stopped with shooting up satellites, instead humankind is exploring life in space, colonizing it and looking for life on other planets. A quick check on NASA's website and you will discover that it is currently working on a telescope technology to be able to see exo-Earths; planets of similar size to Earth and distance to its star which is like to our Sun (click here to learn about NASA's Next-G space telescope in the works). To find a planet that might harbour life like ours is a holy grail of space exploration–we've already identified three candidates, check it out–click. We are already ahead of the game with the International Space Station and its precious research on living for extended periods in space but propulsion to travel the light years of distance to reach a planet in a different system is still elusive. One thing we can be sure of is that before our gem of a planet gives out, we will at least be able to continue our civilizations in space platforms like those gigantic ships in Battlestar Galactica–drifting in space looking for a new Earth. Could it be that our genes are spurring our technological genius in its quest for eternal survivability?

If you are thinking that this is an unusual or weird perspective, I agree. The suggestion that DNA or our genes could conceive of possible events way into the future and develop a creature to overcome the challenges posed by these events is hard to swallow, let alone digest. Scheming nanoscopic designers of the future is stuff of science fiction; we are more comfortable thinking of our physical makeup as inert and our consciousness as supreme. Even scientists will feel squeamish of the concept of intelligent atoms with 'plans' as it would be off-kilter to the scientific position of randomness and chance events. It all just sounds too bizarre.

In any case I don't like to think that I live my life as a slave to my genes but have you ever wondered what your relationship is to your genes? We know that we are our genes and the fact remains that after the death of the physical body what is tangibly left of us is the generation to whom we have passed our genes, yet how many of us really believe that we are nothing more than our genes. Sure, we can relate to the colour of our eyes and other physical characteristics, even some personality traits to genetic inheritance but don't you think of yourself as a unique individual, distinct from your parents and free to aspire for a one-of-a-kind life. Who'd think (or want to think) they are pursuing their life for the sake of such inert stuff as a bunch of protein molecules; that's too uninspiring!

If human consciousness / self-awareness and intelligence are a products of our genes then its code has to be found somewhere in the less than two percent difference between our genetic makeup and our closest 'animal' relative the chimpanzees and while the genetic origins of our profound self-awareness remains a scientific mystery, we revel in its existence and enjoy the choices it affords us. We happily adorn ourselves with our ability to mark time and create anniversaries–birthdays, annual remembrances, jubilees–to celebrate or in some cases to mourn and we wonder ceaselessly about possibilities–not just for practical reasons but for fun. Verily humanity can just as well be defined by its imagination, for in this too do we revel. The ability to create fiction and simply enjoy it with care abandon is as much our defining characteristic as is our technological prowess. We will enjoy a good story no matter how outlandish or improbable it may be; it just needs to be interesting or entertaining. Which is why it is very difficult to accept that such complex intelligence, that can traverse the borders of the logical and return to produce art and express love, could arise from something so cut and dry–so seemingly soulless–as strands of protein.

The origins of human consciousness aside nothing is more tangible than our existence from moment to moment. Nothing matters more to us than our individual experience of life, even for the most self-effacing and humble person committed to a selfless life, personal fulfillment is his driving force. It matters to us that we get more out of life than passing on our genes. It also matters to us that our life matters to others or some idea or cause; one could say we dwell more in seeking fulfillment from our abstract concepts of life than basic survival. In fact we are so are passionate about our philosophy, art, religions and politics that have little to do with genetic survival that if these abstractions are products of some chemical function of proteins it is biological evolution gone way overboard. Overboard because some of us can decide to prioritize the abstract above the basics by ignoring the basics completely and voluntarily decide not to bother about genetic survival.

So where do all these abstractions leave us?

The undeniable fact is that we–as individuals arising from consciousness–with every breath we take and every thought we conceive affirm to ourselves that we are self-conscious beings capable of choice and enjoying the nuances of our preferences. That we are the product of our genes has a bearing on the quality or kind of life we may live on Earth but not entirely on the life we choose to live. Whatever that makes us individuals who want to count, to make our presence matter in the time that we have makes us the most unique creature to ever to appear on Earth. We celebrate and lament life–not just survive; we are not passive players in passing time, we play with time itself. We have appeared on Earth, we are unique in ways that only each of us individually can fully appreciate; where one in seven billion is same  as one in one; where our time on Earth matters as much as our life on Earth. Perhaps this is who we are: An evolutionary chance that has become Creation's dearest.

This article was inspired by Nyaya-Vaisheshika methods of reasoning namely pratyaksha (perception) and anumaana (inference).

Mystic Time: Part Five, Having Fun With Time

The previous articles on Mystic Time were quite 'yoga technical' so I thought I would have fun with the topic of time this time around–pardon the pun.

Essentially mysticism springs from the study of nature. The ancient mystics used to be the scientist of their era and it was their initial work that laid the foundation for the advancements of modern science as we are used to today. One of the obsessions of mystics and scientists alike are finding ways to defy the forces of nature. Todays science fiction and the ancient epics are equally filled with characters possessing supernatural powers–such as levitation, the ability to morph, teleport, the ability to stop time–like Lord Hanuman flying around exhibiting super-strength; Superman flying around doing about the same stuff. Defying the natural laws of physics is often romanticized in human imagination.

Of all the forces of physics the force that must have arguably dominated the preoccupation of mystics and scientist from the get-go is anti-gravity, levitation. Ancient epics and superhero stories clue us to this fact since at least one character will have the supernatural ability to fly at will or at least have a vehicle that defies gravity (without wings and / or propellers). Today despite the airplanes and helicopters, anti-gravity through un-mechanized levitation is still a holy-grail for inventors.

While scientists have laboured and produced inventions like the airplane and helicopters you will discover that according to Hindu or Eastern epics, the mystics too seem to have discovered physics defying capabilities. In these stories the 'super-humans' are the mystics and the 'other-worldlys'. They possess magical powers like flying, teleporting, morphing etc. as a result of their mystical attainments. I used to be circumspect in putting confidence in the existence of such capable humans, but my study of the Patanjali Yoga Sutras tell me otherwise.

The Patanjali Yoga Sutras was the most important core scripture during my training as a yogi. My guru's teachings–his methods of and philosophy–were based on the theories revealed in this book; and in my experience of mysticism the theories on the workings of the mind in the Yoga Sutras hold true. My convictions on the effectiveness of the Yoga Sutras is formed by my own success as a yogi in securing spiritual enlightenment. In the third chapter of the Yoga Sutras which is dedicated to Divine Powers, Sage Patanjali writes of amazing capabilities like levitation, invisibility, super-strength, telepathy and morphing which may be achieved through yoga techniques that the sage describes in this chapter.

FYI: There are four chapters in the Yoga Sutras, the first on the goal of yoga–Spiritual Enlightenment, the second–Spiritual Disciplines, the third–Divine Powers and the fourth–Realizations. The emphasis of the Yoga Sutras is to explain and teach the methods of attaining spiritual enlightenment, albeit it is also a no-holds-barred manual on the capabilities of the mystical mind, thus the chapter on Divine Powers.

Verse 38 of the chapter on Divine Powers that goes like this–Through a samayama on nadis and mastery of the retained breath one may levitate, make oneself as light as feather and walk on water, swamps, thorns and so forth–I was intrigued. I had always been fascinated by flight, even now. During my school days I enjoyed learning more about airplanes than cars and bird-watching was a hobby. However when I asked my guru for more insight into this verse he set my curiosity straight. He told me quite curtly that until I had secured Self-Realization all other mystical pursuit was a waste of time.

I have digressed somewhat from Mystic Time, but rest assured we are now entering the doors of having fun with time. So far I have been attempting to share with you the amazing potential locked in the mystical mind which is obviously more than what meets the eye. Though my guru told me to put aside levitation he did however give me permission to work on the element of time. For the conquest of time is directly related to Self-Realization.

Time is one of the basic element of physics. It is a pure evolute like space, mass, gravity, electromagnetism and nuclear energy. Together these elements of physics form the building blocks of nature. However time has a special quality that makes it more amenable to manipulation compared to the other elements of physics. Time has an intrinsic value like space and mass which can be measured and used for measurements, however unlike the other pure evolutes, time also has a perceptive value that can be manipulated through individual perception.

Here is a simple example to illustrate this fact. If you have an empty box to be filled with tennis balls the maximum number of tennis balls you can fill the box with is a fixed and easily calculable number. The obvious way to manipulate this situation (say to add more tennis balls into the box) is to change the size of the box by simply using a bigger box. Alternatively if you knew mystical morphing you could morph the box to whatever size you wanted psychically! Cool! But even if you could mystically morph you will realize that it is still easier to simply get a different box because of the amount of energy and willpower mystical morphing would consume; it would just not be worth the time and effort. Now time too like space, has an empiric value that can be used to calculate and gauge accurately values like distance, speed, force, energy and so forth; but time also has a perceptive value where it can be felt moving faster or slower despite its empiric measure. This means that though the value of one minute always remains the same, what one can do in that one minute can vary person to person even if they are doing the same task. We are used to this variability of capability as efficiency. Looking at efficiency yogically allows us to appreciate it as a Divine Power, for though it seems that efficiency is a natural ability to us, we are nevertheless using a psychic ablility of the mind, namely concentration, to manipulate the fabric of time.

The first three verses of the Divine Power chapter in the Yoga Sutras extol concentration as the key ability for cultivating spiritual experiences which eventually culminate in spiritual enlightenment. The verses go as follows:

1. One-pointedness is concentration of the mind.
2. Uninterrupted concentration evolves into meditation.
3. When meditation evolves into the cessation of mental effort leaving only the object of meditation in consciousness, realization is born.

We usually do not think of concentration as a psychic or a super-human ability since it seems so basic to the mind. However in yoga philosophy concentration is much more complex. Part of the complexness of concentration that yogis become aware of through their experience is its intricate connectedness to time. In their journey towards Self Realization yogis naturally explore the connection between time and concentration since Self Realization is also about the conquest over time. For us together to appreciate the depth of how concentration effects time and subsequently our life allow me to introduce you to some equations I have come up with based on my mystical experiences connecting time and concentration.

At their most basic level this is how concentration and time relate. Concentration of anything causes intensity and intensity makes things happen (creating events). Events animate life and occur in time. Thus concentration creates events in time which equals to animation of life. However time is not necessarily inert in this equation because time can also exert pressure on life to cause concentration to animate life. For instance imagine a person who is feeling lazy and is not interested in doing anything, he is content in his lack of activity, but the passing of time causes him to eventually feel hungry. His hunger forces him to concentrate his effort to break out of his period of inactivity and go find food. Therefore time also has value as a force to instigate concentration.

To sum up my version of 'mystical physics' the following equations relate concentration with time and life as described in the previous paragraph.

These equations are basic–nothing special, certainly nothing psychic–until the complexness of concentration relating to its degrees are factored in. The degrees of concentration brings Divine Power to the relationship of concentration, time and life by the way of the effect of increasing intensity of concentration on the fabric of time.

In yoga philosophy concentration is not a single value because there are degrees of intensity to concentration. In yogic terms there are four degrees of concentration. These four, in increasing intensity are sakshin, pratyahara, dharana and dhyana. As a yogi masters these ever more intense level of concentration one of the first things he becomes aware of is their unusual effect on time. I can best describe this effect as the warping of the fabric of time caused by intense concentration. The warping of time goes beyond the simplicity of better efficiency and it can create what can be justified as psychic or supernatural ability. Thus concentration becomes a Divine Power.

I can illustrate such mystical potential of concentration by incorporating its degrees in the following equations.

Sakshin: Sakshin is the most basic level of concentration (in my writings I use conscious concentration as a synonym of sakshin), it is our general experience of concentration; of focusing the mind and available resources to accomplish tasks. At this level of concentration we can already feel the effect of the changing perception of time with increasing intensity of concentration. That is, the more intense concentration is, the slower the passing of time is perceived. Thus more can be accomplished within a space of time. However the concentration degree of sakshin is not enough to warp the the fabric of time.

Pratyahara: This is the next level of increased intensity of concentration after sakshin. There is no english equivalent to pratyahara (and the other remaining levels of yogic concentration). Pratyahara is concentrating awareness within the subconscious mind and it is the first stage of concentration where the mind is turned onto itself. I use subconscious concentration to refer to pratyahara. It is in pratyahara that the warping of time can be perceived (symbolized by the warped arrow below 't'), for pratyahara opens the yogi to the potential of manipulating her future. Using esoteric yogic techniques of pratyahara the deep subconscious (the sub of the subconscious) is made available to the yogi. The sub of the subconscious stores karmic seeds which germinate as events in our life. An adept yogi can learn techniques of inserting a 'seed event' in the sub of the subconscious for it to manifest in life in the future. Thus pratyahara gives the mystic the power to create future happenings psychically. Pratyahara is therefore the level of concentration where its pyschic ability as a Divine Power (from its ability to manipulate the fabric of time) becomes a possibility. The contemporary of this latent possibility of the mind is the Law of Attraction, however most modern proponents of the Law of Attraction fail to realize that to make it work requires that its practicer master pratyahara. The next intensification of concentration, dharana, subsequently intensifies the psychic ability of concentration further.

Dharana: This is the most intense level of concentration that our awareness can attain through conscious effort. It is super-concentration. Dharana warps the fabric of time even more than pratyahara. While pratyahara warps the perception of time and allows for the creation of events to occur in the future, dharana warps the perception of time to the point that the events designed in pratyahara becomes tangible in our experience of life. Dharana can create seeming magic by organizing and focusing the resources of our mind in harmony with the greater forces of the cosmos to bring the potentials created in pratyahara into experiential fruition. Basically it makes things happen usually quicker (or to happen at all) than anticipated by, in a sense, physically warping the fabric of life itself, thus the warping vector below life in the equation. Dharana's effect on time can tangibly touch our experience of life.

Dhyana: The level of concentration of awareness and other faculties of the mind is at its most intense in dhyana. It is so intense that it is experienced as an involuntary process of the mind. A yogi is able to deliberately, with all his or her effort, attain up to dharana; after that dhyana occurs as a natural evolution of sustained dharana and is maintained by an automatic process of the mind instead of the conscious mental effort of the yogi. Thus at the point of dhyana the yogi experiences relaxation of mental effort and enjoys the state of super-super-concentration and the experiences it entails–which can be described as 'other-worldly'. In dhyana the degree of concentration reaches its pinnacle. At this level the fabric of time becomes so warped that time is perceived in a dimension beyond the ordinary–in a purely spiritual dimension that is irrelevant to the scales we are used to, thus the experience of life too goes beyond the ordinary and becomes 'other-worldly'; this is indicated by the opposite warp in the fabric of life in the equation relating to dhyana.

Dhyana is the prize of yogis and mystics seeking spiritual enlightenment. It is the doorway to new dimensions of experience that transforms the experiencers perception of life to one that is unshackled by materialism and its urgencies. When mystics become masters in attaining the heights concentration in dhyana they come upon their final conquest in the mastery of concentration–they seek the source of consciousness itself which by extension leads them to the source of time–they yearn for timelessness! Timelessness is the prize of prizes for mystics. It is an achievement that earns the adept mystic a well-done pat on his or her back from the master.

Experiencing the condition where time equals zero seems to be impossible, however in the rarefied reaches of consciousness that is opened to the mystic through dhyana he learns to play with time and ultimately meld with its source.

Mystic Time: Part Four, Connections between Time, Concentration and Enlightenment

Correlating Time, Concentration and Deeper Possibilities of Human Experience.

The goal of yogic practices, if they are followed to their culmination, is to lead the yogi to experience God Consciousness. God consciousness can be defined in so many ways. It is not one experience but many possible experiences that yogis can have within themselves that bring about upwellings of bliss, great joy, universal compassion and so much more. The experience of God Consciousness is often summed collectively into words like God Realization, Enlightenment, Universal Consciousness, Divine Consciousness and such. In Sage Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, it is called samadhi. Samadhi is so unique a word to describe such an amazing dimension of human experience that it is now part of the English language. The word samadhi however, hides within it two very distinct (even opposite) forms of samadhi. One is called samadhi-with-seed (savikalpa samadhi) and the other is samadhi-without-seed (nirvikalpa samadhi). 'Seed' here refers to consciousness. Extrapolation of these words will bring the definitions as follows:

Savikalpa Samadhi: Oneness with the Divine in Consciousness

Nirvikalpa Samadhi: Oneness with the Divine beyond (or devoid of) Consciousness

Savikalpa samadhis are all the varied experiences that were mentioned earlier such as bliss, great joy, expanded consciousness and so forth. Nirvikalpa samadhi however, has nothing to do with experiences that can either be perceived or experienced emotionally. Many yogis will describe this experience by simply saying that it is nothing. More sophisticated yogis like my guru describe it as "transcending time, form and space". I like to use "It is as it is" and the yogic aphorism "not this, not that" (neti-neti).

[search on google for 'samadhi images', there are lots of very inspiring images; all relating to savikalpa samadhi, but none that even remotely hint at nirvikalpa samadhi]

Picture from esoterics.in

It is easy to understand why yogis may be drawn to the savikalpa samadhis since they are emotionally gratifying experiences. On the other hand one may wonder why nirvikalpa samadhi which seems so inert even 'scary' an experience (oblivion can also describe this samadhi) is such a prize for ardent yogis. Yes, adept yoga masters will insist that a yogi can only be fully enlightened after achieving nirvikalpa samadhi. Some yoga gurus are so strict that they will even disallow their disciples from experiencing savikalpa samadhi until they have experienced nirvikalpa samadhi. These gurus are concerned that their disciples may become too complacent by languishing in blissful states of God Consciousness that they give up the tougher goal of nirvikalpa samadhi. Can you imagine languishing in such blissful states? Who can blame anyone since they create heaven on earth for the experiencer. My guru fortunately was more encouraging by constantly reminding his disciples that enlightenment was not complete until nirvikalpa samadhi, which he called the Self (the capital S distinguishing Self as nirvikalpa samadhi whereas 'self' refers to ones personality, individuality or ego). He will always be asking his monks,"Did you find the Self yet? Did you look in the closet or under the carpet?" he would joke. It was his way of insisting that the goal of the Self be at the forefront of ones priorities.

So what is it that makes the experience of the Self so prized? It has to do, among other aspects, with overcoming fear. A yoga guru who has achieved the Self will know that the blissful states of Divine Consciousness are byproducts of enlightenment, not its goal. The real goal for those ardent yogis seeking enlightenment is overcoming suffering. From this perspective the 'blisses' of savikalpa samadhi, just do not cut it. Savikalpa samadhi can provide temporary respite from suffering, akin to an injured soldier given morphine on the battlefield. However the source of suffering still exists and one will still have to bear it after coming out of the heights of blissful Cosmic Consciousness. This brings us to the next obvious question, which is–what is the source of suffering?

The yogic answer to this is–the ability to perceive and experience. A simple answer can be–I feel therefore I suffer by feeling pain! Yes, it is very negative. Yet it is the exploration for a solution to this conundrum of living that ultimately revealed the prize of yoga, which is the ability to transcend consciousness / perception itself. This is what the realization of the Self confers, the ability to slip out of consciousness entirely and return to it as its master. After realizing the Self, the yogi will begin to develop a perception of the Self within his or her consciousness, a process possible only after Self-Realization. This perception will be like a lighthouse to the yogi allowing him or her to explore and enjoy consciousness without getting mired in it or attached to it. As yogis say, being in the world, but not of it; or to live in the world as detached as a drop of water on a lotus leaf.

Thus the pursuit of the Self is the pursuit of mastery over consciousness (and perception) and by extension of such mastery the yogi can overcome suffering. How then is concentration and time related to this ultimate form of spiritual enlightenment? Concentration is the vehicle that moves awareness from consciousness to the Self. However this concentration is not a simple matter of maintaining focus in the mind, rather it involves very intense levels of rarified concentration and has more to do with resisting temptation; but not the kind of material temptations that you might be thinking of. At these levels of concentration the temptation is not to allow the concentrative effort to get dissipated by enjoying the expanded consciousness of blissful savikalpa samadhi. If this happens the yogi will have to start from scratch to rebuild the momentum of his concentration to attempt to realize the Self again.

It takes a lot of willpower to traverse the blissful states of higher consciousness until the Self is reached. Often in training under a yoga guru, it is when a disciple is getting close to realizing the Self that the guru will be the most uncompromising and stern. "When you see the Divine Light do not linger in it but go to it's center and then go-in-and-in. When you see a form of God or feel something, keep going-in-and-in until the Self is reached. You will have all the time in the world to enjoy Satchitananda after you've realized the Self". 'Going-in-and-in' was my guru's words for urging his yogis to maintain concentration. Thus the pinnacle of concentrative effort leads to the Self and ultimate spiritual enlightenment.

The connection between time (or rather the lack of it!) and enlightenment is more incidental but no less important. Going beyond consciousness in direct relation also means going beyond time since time is an attribute of consciousness. In the mystical traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism, the pursuit of the Self, nirvikalpa samadhi is poetically symbolized as the conquest over time. In both these traditions time is deified in the form of Mahakala. You will notice that the portrayal of Mahakala is as a fierce, even scary being.

These portrayals of Mahakala or 'Great Time' mean to depict the transitoriness of the world. Because all of Creation is subject to time which is subject to the cycle of creation, preservation and destruction; impermanence is always lingering in the background of life. Thus Mahakala represents impermanence. The usually scary thought of impermanence is an impetus that Hindu and Buddhist traditions use to urge their followers to pursue enlightenment as a sanctuary from Mahakala. This sanctuary, which can be found in nirvikalpa samadhi, is a place that is beyond time, therefore a place where Mahakala cannot follow. From this place dawns on one who has achieved it the ultimate form of peace, which is contentment born of the freedom from fear. Gurus of these mystical traditions will insist that the best use of time is the pursuit of Self-Realization; the achievement of which frees the soul from the shackles of time, leading to freedom from the fear of loss and, by extension leads to freedom from suffering.

It takes sometime for a yogi to recognize that he or she has realized the Self. It is not an immediate 'eureka' type of experience. It can be likened to waking from sleep. We are usually not aware that we are sleeping as we sleep. It is only when we awaken that we become aware that we had slept from the feeling of restfulness or if we find ourselves laying on a bed. It is uncommon that we wake from sleep and become immediately aware that we had just slept. Like this the yogi will only know that he or she has achieved the Self after observing certain tell-tale changes in the way he or she perceives the world. One of these tell-tale changes is the losing of the fear-of-loss. As the feelings of fear and insecurity begin to erode from the yogis consciousness the passing of time will become less and less relevant, along with the age of the body, fear of death, fear of losing things and people; and the fear of pain and suffering. As the yogi continues his effort to maintain nirvikalpa samadhi as a consistent experience, the consciousness of timelessness begins to infiltrate his subconscious. Timelessness will eventually beam as part of the yogi's personality, at which point the yogi will have completed his conquest over time and suffering; and is able to feel the sense of immortality, not of the body, but of his innate identification of unity with the Self  that lies beyond consciousness.

Mystic Time : Part Three, Optimizing The Waiting Chore

In Part Two we explored simple yoga methods to overcome fear when faced with situations that trigger the adrenaline hyped up fight-or-flight reaction. The techniques of shifting the point of focus using affirmations and relaxation using breathing are meant to limit if not eliminate any element of fear that may interfere with the positive effects of adrenaline on the mind or body in such situations. They can also counter effects of anxiety such as "butterflies in the stomach" or mind-blocking nervousness while anticipating an event. Anxiety and nervousness are the products of the slowed perspective of time caused by adrenaline as the body and mind become hyper-concentrated on the task ahead. While these are for imminent fight-or-flight situations ( Click Here to Read Mystic Time Part Two), adrenaline is also the drug of choice that the body produces when we are excited about an event yet to happen and that may still be distant in time.

The waiting game in these situations can be agonizing at times and almost always frustrating. Usually the event is some form of entertainment. The event itself usually does not require much in terms of our performance, we just have to attend and enjoy– like going to watch a much awaited for movie, a much anticipated party, meeting or vacation and such. Even if the event is hours or days away, the excitement that adrenaline causes is the source of "tunnel concentration". Tunnel concentration, like tunnel vision is when we are acutely focused on only one particular subject that nothing else matters. Tunnel concentration can make us become so focused on one subject that all other matters, no matter how important can easily be ignored. As soon as tunnel-concentration starts time will be perceived moving slower (Part One of Mystic Time reveals a connection between the perception of time and concentration) and the waiting game starts.

The wait which is always too long is exasperated by concentration which slows the perception of time further. The main problem apart from the fretting caused by the wait is the inability to do anything else but wait. This renders one so debilitatingly helpless to whatever else that needs to be done. The waiting becomes an unproductive use of time. Even if you tried to make the time productive it might not prove worthwhile because you will have to tussle with the tunnel concentration.

Here is an example of a tunnel concentration situation. Nathan is going to his college alumni party that he had been eagerly waiting for. He is excited about catching up with his old college mates and wants to make a great impression. Two days before the party while still in a more normal  level of excitement he decides exactly what to wear and when to leave. Moving forward to hours before leaving for the party he begins to feel the adrenaline rush of excitement. At this point all he can think about is what it's going to be like at the party. He rehearses conversations he is going to have and how he would introduce himself and so forth. All other priorities or chores that he had set out to do before the party becomes inconsequential. When he tries to do any of the chores, like something from work the tunnel concentration on the party renders the effort pointless. So instead of fidgeting around he tries to get some rest, but with adrenaline flowing in the system even resting is a struggle. The mind is just too active and the wait is starting to get to Nathan. He keeps looking at the clock hoping miraculously that it is almost time to go, but time seems agonizingly slow. With all this waiting, the excitement becomes exasperating. So to use the time Nathan decides he should tryout the suit he is going to wear for the party. He had decided what he was going to wear earlier. He puts the suit on, everything seems fine but....the tie! Something seems off with the tie. He goes to his wardrobe gets out all his ties and puts on one after the other and simply cannot find a suitable one. Here again is another symptom of tunnel concentration. Tunnel concentration is not a good state of mind to be in to make decisions. It is a great state of mind to be in when executing a plan of action but the worst time for revisiting decisions or to do planning. Because Nathan's mind is hyper-concentrated every tie he puts on seems to be flawed. He can always find the proverbial black spot every tie he puts on. Nevertheless time passes albeit unproductively, until it is time to leave for the party. So Nathan does his final prep, and when it comes to what tie he is going to wear he goes with original decision. At last Nathan is at his eagerly anticipated alumni party and has a gala time. Next day in a moment of retrospect while playing catch up with his chores he wonders why he couldn't have got all those chores done instead of wasting the time needlessly. It doesn't makes sense in retrospect, but considering the incapacitating tunnel concentration effects of adrenaline in certain situations, the wasting away of time was only natural.

In yoga philosophy tunnel concentration is called a vritti. Vritti, literally translated from Sanskrit is whirlpool. These whirlpools in the mind can suck and contain all the resources of the mind and body toward a single point of focus. In many situations this function of the mind of creating vrittis as a natural effect of adrenaline is very helpful. A student writing an exam will find a vritti very helpful because her mind will be very focused and all the faculties of the mind–memory, intellect, creativity–will be primed and ready to serve efficiently. Likewise an athlete waiting at the starting line will be in a vritti which will eek out every nuance of required resources from the body and mind and keep it tweaked for optimal performance. However in the "waiting chore" vrittis are never useful, except perhaps for a short period just before an event.

What is the antidote to the mind-narrowing tunnel concentration or vritti? Yoga provides a number of techniques to cure vrittis. Yes, there are different types of vrittis caused by different faculties of the mind.  For the "waiting chore" the most effective and efficient cure is provided by a particular series of hatha yoga exercises. This series has three poses, and mystically these yoga poses work with the second chakra (spiritual centers) within the spine. The second chakra is the svadishtana chakra. This chakra controls moods, emotions and some intellectual function. All vrittis are generated out of some kind of emotional energy in the mind. These yoga poses, namely janu sirshasana and paschimottanasana, effect the second chakra directly and balances all the energies within this chakra. While these yoga poses are are done tunnel concentration will unravel and dissipate naturally; and the subconscious mind will go through what I call a 'master reset'. After the master reset one will gain a quiet composure and the energies of the mind can be ready to be directed into whatever needs to be done. Below is a youtube video from on my hatha yoga tutorial that explains and will guide you on how to perform these yoga poses.

Let's go back to Nathan's scenario before he left for the party to learn where and when he should have done these yoga exercises to prevent getting stuck in a vritti. He has got a few hours to go and had earlier planned to get some chores done. He wants to get the chores done and rest before going to the party but realizes that the excitement he is feeling in anticipating the party is starting to cause tunnel concentration. Upon this realization he takes five minutes and does the three yoga poses. One of the amazing things about practicing hatha yoga is that despite Nathan being a novice yogi and is unable do the poses very well, in fact he has to use a small towel because he cannot touch his toes with his fingers in the foward backbend, the unravelling of the tunnel concentration still occurs. While he bends forward he visualizes bright yellow colour and takes slow, relaxed, deep breaths and exhales equally slowly. He holds each pose stationary to the level he can bend comfortably and does six cycles of breath before moving to the next pose. When he finishes all three poses he feels relieved from tunnel concentration and has all his mind faculties back at his disposal to do as he pleases. Whenever he finds tunnel concentration creeping in, he does another round of the yoga poses and he quells the vritti again. Thus the optimizing of the waiting chore.

Mystic Time : Part Two, Managing the Fight or Flight Situation - Countering Fear

In any fight or flight situation, the adrenaline pumping into our bloodstream can cause all sorts of physical and emotional reactions. One these is that time seems to slow down. As we get ever closer to an anticipated event, the passing of every minute seems to get longer. If we are positively excited about what is about to happen this is good, we will be roaring to go like a racing car waiting for the lights to turn green. However if we are fearful, the fear can be both dangerous and counter productive. In such cases how does one manage the fight or flight situation to his or her advantage? In yoga two techniques come in handy. One is relaxation, the other is moving concentration to an alternate point of focus. (Click Here to Read Mystic Time: Part One)

Let us look at the first situation where we need to relax. Such situations are when we are either anxious and/or fearful of upcoming proceedings and their outcome. The waiting or anticipation is exasperating. Some examples of these kind of situations are being stricken by stage-fright, panic-attacks because of phobias, facing an examination, waiting to give a presentation or even for soldiers or policeman waiting for an imminent battle.

In these situations relaxation techniques especially breathing comes in very handy. It may be counter productive to eliminate the reason for the anxiety entirely, but fear does no good. If one is simply anxious and can transform this feeling to a calm concentrated poise, this is optimal management of the situation. Anxiety can be turned to positive excitement or calm poise by visualizing or affirming a positive outcome of the event or situation. The fear can be eliminated using simple breathing and visualization technique such as the one below.

Take a deep breath and fill up your lungs with as much air as you can possibly hold. Then hold the breath in for about two seconds. After the two seconds, begin breathing out as slow as you possibly can through your nostrils only while visualizing bright blue colour of clear sky. Try to make the exhalation last between fifteen to twenty seconds. You can also affirm to yourself of the positive outcome you are anticipating as you are doing this. If it suits you better the visualization of sky blue can be replaced with a prayer. Do this either for 6 or 9 cycles of breath and you will feel the fear dissipate without loss of concentration or other positive heightened effects of the senses that adrenaline causes. You would be in a state of poise as that of a zen master. You will still feel the slowed perception of time, but it will be to your advantage as positive energies flood the body and mind during the wait. (Click Here to Read Mystic Time Part One)