The Potentate of Peace

He sits in a cave way up in a mountain; he perceives no other beings of any significance to him; he is alone sitting so deep in the cavern it only catches reducing rays of light; he is by himself in quiet perception of a moment of stasis peacefully persisting.

Change is imperceptible outside him and the movement of moments have become meaningless. He is purposefully poised in a timeless state. Mystics yearn for such prolonged period of solitude; they proclaim that in such quietness are the quintessential quandaries of life quelled.

He has trained to forego eating and drinking for days in the hopes that his extended effort in continuing solitude yields esoteric secrets or perhaps he is just addicted to the extreme quiet – a non-adrenaline junky.

Whatever the motive that makes mankind seek simulations of timelessness across the historical timeline of our civilizations there is more to 'the quiet' than meets the eye.

Sitting in solitude dissecting stillness results but in more stillness, it surges in magnitude and minutia to encompass the entire universe webbing the quiet of micro and macro space.

Concentric expansion of the calm bestows its largesse in the sensation of soar, like an eagle experiencing the quietude of unperturbed expanse, exhilaration touches the tangible, excites the being, inspiration builds on inspiration. The soaring stillness of solitude, inspired by inspiration.

The coursing of breath into the quiet caverns and cavities of the solitary soldier seeking the secrets of solitude invigorates his infinitesimal factories of life while drawing him deep into the darkness of diminutive space. Dissolving in its depth, descending into the infinitude of smallness the soldier stumbles upon the solid state of serenity.

Oscillating on contrived organizing of concentration with his consciousness qui vive on quiet he floats in the soar of solitude at one moment, then conjoins with sail of serenity the other.

Moving in meticulously metered moments between motionless macro and micro spaces the mystic masterfully mixes placid serenity with purposeless inspiration to crescendo into a magnificent moment of absolute all encompassing quiet.

The mystified mystic mesmerized by the mind engulfing quiet melds with it, yet remains in a mysterious state of mono-experience. The cave has collapsed from his consciousness, yea, his consciousness too has collapsed into the colossal calm, yet he remains perfectly poised for what is to come.

For beckoning through the dimensional doorway developed by cumulative beats of big and small quiet, behold! The awesome being of quiet–the Potentate of Peace.

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.

The Role of Earth in the Spiritual Evolution of the Soul–Its Need and Its Preciousness.

Why life on Earth? This is a natural question that arises on pondering the purpose of life; especially when reflecting on life's struggles and tragedies. If God is Almighty and is the Creator of all that is, why create suffering in the first place? A mystic ponders on these questions as the basis for trying to figure God's Plan or Design. The ultimate answer to these questions that mystics have mused on is more of a process than a law. This process is the spiritual evolution of the soul.

There is a special mantra that I learned from my guru about understanding Creation. The mantra is "It is as it is". There is another saying from my guru's guru, the great sage of Lanka, Siva Yogaswami, he said "we know not". Simple words that bring down into essence that in this world we live equally with facts we can understand and that which cannot be figured. They point to the fact that the world that is governed by both absolute certainties and absolute uncertainties.

We live life on Earth with aspirations of enjoying Paradise; with aspirations of enjoyment, not suffering; with aspirations of peace, not antagonism; with aspirations of love, not hate. These utopian aspirations are what life on Earth seems to proffer; but such is life on Earth that day must follow night, excitement is followed by mundaneness, joy is interspersed by sadness, peace is disrupted by confusion. The preciousness of life on Earth lies in these shifting foundations. For it is these occasional experiences of instability that eventually give us the gumption to question the purpose, even the need, of our existence.

The goal of these primal questions is however not so much to find out the reason for the tumult of life on Earth, rather to discover ways to rise above it. That is, to discover a way to reach the aspirations of Paradise that is hardwired into our psyche. That such an ideal state of existence is even possible has been the testimony of countless accomplished mystics of ages past and of contemporary times. The message of the Buddha, of Ramana Maharishi, of Lao Tzu, of Emmerson, of my guru is essentially the same; that Paradise is attainable by uncovering ones spirituality and experiencing the intimate states of spiritual enlightenment.

Contrary to the general understanding of mysticism that mystics are people who disassociate themselves from general populace, mysticism actually encourages involvement in the world and experiencing life on Earth as one chooses. It does not put any constraints to the a persons freedom as to how they choose to live their life, in fact mysticism cherishes any and all experience that the world offers. Established mystical schools such as the evolutes of ashtanga yoga and Buddhism encourage their followers to pursue their worldly dreams, though preferring them to pursue their goals through path of noble values and righteousness as The Way, because it is known that experiences of life gradually nurtures the urge to uncover spiritual reality for oneself, thus achieving transcendence over the roller-coaster ride of life on Earth.

According to the philosophy of Eastern mystical schools our soul is on Earth on an extended spiritual journey. This spiritual journey is spurred on by the unsettling experiences of duality on Earth. Just like how challenges spur development and growth, whereas ease of living cultivates complacency, life on Earth challenges the soul to seek greater heights of spirituality because its unstableness breeds the desire for the equilibrium of Paradise. This desire for equilibrium ultimately leads the seeker to the glorious experiences of spiritual enlightenment.

Thus the great purpose of life on Earth according to the conclusion of mystics is to bring an individual to this very point of questioning–Why life on Earth? Herein lies the preciousness of life on Earth.

The Ubiquitous Science vs. Religion Conundrum Part Two

A friend asked me a common question on Hinduism. Hema is a scientist educated in the science of education. She asked me why Ganesha has an elephant head. What drew my interest most with this question is that all the elements for the answer I was prepared to give involved the revelations (jnana) that I had received from the samayama on spirituality, science and religion. This answer would be the shruti that I promised to evolve when I concluded Part One of this article. (If you are wondering what are shruti, samayama and jnana, please click here to read Part One of this Mystical Musing which explains them).

Here are three revelations of the samayama on spirituality, science and religion. (Click here to read part one to flow with the continuity)

Revelation 1: The first to appear was a large multifaceted glistening diamond like gem that was rotating slowly. The gem remained in view for a while and as it slowly faded from the 'mind's eye' a statement, "we are already multidimensional beings" was heard.
Revelation 2: Then followed another scene where I saw a scientist and a mystic sitting back to back. Revelation 3: The revelations concluded with a final scene of a priest worshipping atop a precarious ledge on the summit of a tall cliff.

Ganesha is one of the most popular Hindu deity. He is the God (more like an Archangel) with an elephant head. There is a very colorful and violent story / myth of how he ended up with the elephant head. If you do not know this story just Google 'how Ganesha got his elephant head'. For this article suffice to know that this story is as scientifically implausible as a story can be! Yet here is a scientist, who loves Ganesha and is looking for an answer that given her training I would imagine, since she knows the story, must have relegated (the story) to fiction. It intrigued me that I could answer this question quite uniquely using the revelations of the recent samayama. I also mused that the original person who emailed me the questions that sparked the samayama, Akashay, is a scientist, and here I am faced with another scientist whose question represented the similar science versus religion debate.

I knew this answer session was going to be long winded, so I started with the short answer. "Q: Why does Ganesha have an elephant head? A: Because that was his choice. He probably had the power choose how he wanted to look and simply choose to have an elephant face. Why he choose that is whatever answer that makes the most sense to you if you believe in Lord Ganesha. Now allow me to give a clearer understanding of this answer."

After this I told everyone in the group about Akashay's questions, the samayama and the revelations from it. Then I began to evolve the jnana revelations into a shruti which was about how science, religion and spirituality integrate. I followed the order of the revelations, remembering the first revelation of the multi-faceted diamond and the words 'we are already multidimensional' while tuning my mind to the feeling of rightness that followed the revelation. Thus I said we are all already multi-dimensional beings. Daily we put on the hats of many dimensions to function. These are simple and practical functions; unless we think more seriously about them they are simply part of our personality. This 'multi-dimensionalism' is about how we act differently with different groups of people. When we are at home with our family we behave differently then when we are at work. When we are with our friends we function on different set of parameters then when we are with our family or at work. When we interact with babies or toddlers, does anyone realize how childish we become from our usual grownup norms. We do baby speak, play with them as if we are babies and forgive babies for all sorts of misdemeanors because they are innocent. Indeed we function / behave / act differently according to situations and surroundings; most of the time making only slight variations in the way we project ourselves to others but at times these variations can be quite radical. From a mystical perspective each of these different projections of personality represents different dimensions of ourself. We pick and choose to project different images of ourself according to whom or what we are around (which is why Facebook included privacy settings to incorporate our yearning for multi-dimensionalism!). What is amazing is that our brains can keep tabs of all of this to make it seem so seamless as we shift from one dimension to another.

You may think that it is too drastic labeling all these subtle shifts in personality as dimensions. However the definition of dimension according to my computer's dictionary–the one that is not related to measuring length or time–is as follows: "an aspect or feature of a situation, problem or thing." Thus dimensions can be as simple as points of view. This is how a mystic views his or her own mind. There are so many dimensions that are available within it, that our mind is our personalized world. The very fact that we can say something while thinking of something out of context and be feeling something unrelated altogether is just a hint of the measure of multi-dimensionalism humans are capable of. Yogis take multi-dimensionalism to the next level by developing extra sensory perception to enable them to explore subtle spiritual realms of existence.

Thus mystics too have come to the conclusion that humans are multidimensional no different than the scientific String Theory notion of multi-dimensionalism. It is just the way we mystics see it in application in life that is different. In fact what some scientists conjure about the multidimensional human is way more far out than that of the mystics. It takes a leap of faith to even imagine that there can be duplicates of us living simultaneously in parallel universes. Wow! makes for great science fiction, but in the reality we are used to we still do not have proof of such possibilities despite all the calculations that point that such a scenario can be.

I am following the natural sequence of revelations that appeared in dhyana and so far I have evolved the meaning of the first one which is the key to answering both Akashay's and Hema's questions. In different scenarios or different circumstances we use different sets of rules to get through life. Each of these sets of rules can be represented by rich traditions, culture and philsosophy; they can even be rules we develop personally based on conclusions from life experiences. Our amazing mind is capable of managing and processing these different dimensions, at times even simultaneously. Going through the simplicities, complexities, certainties and uncertainties of life is made possilbe through multi-dimensionalism. Remember that this is the key is to understanding how spirituality, science and religion integrate.

Now lets go to the second revelation. In this revelation the scene is of a mystic (I saw a long bearded, robed rishi) and a scientist (someone with a lab coat) sitting back to back peering into space. How does this connect to multi-dimensionalism? Here again I just have to tune the feeling of rightness that follows this revelation and it stimulates the flow of understanding. The foundation of both a scientist and a mystic is the same. It is curiosity about and inquiry into nature. What makes them unique is their base in questioning. A mystic starts with 'why life'; a scientist, 'how life'. By these questions we can deduce that a mystic is looking for reasons for life. A scientist on the other hand is looking for the rules of life (in this context 'life' and 'nature' are interchangeable). If we take these observations a step deeper we will discover that a mystic looks at the uncertainties of life and seeks reasons; whereas a scientist looks at the certainties of life and seeks answers. They are both looking at life through divergent dimensions and seeking answers on same or similar subjects under different motivations. The results of both these streams of inquiry is that the work of mystics can evolve into religions and philosophies about life and living, while the work of scientists can evolve into technological inventions.

By following the line of reasoning of mystics leads us to conclude that the main purpose of all the myriad of religions on Earth is to help us cope with the uncertainties in life, hence the third revelation; the priest worshipping precariously on a precipice. The priest is looking into an abyss in front and below him. He is praying to give himself the confidence through faith or hope to go through whatever he needs to cross over this proverbial abyss. By the way, I use proverbial abyss in case you reason–he doesn't need to look into the abyss. All he has to do is to step back! As easy as it is to reason this way, the truth is, we have to face and cross the abyss of uncertainty at times with no possibility of stepping back.

Ultimately this is what all religion are–the institutionalizing of hope. Just ask why the need for religion? You could reason that it seems that religion is the cause for much human to human violence on Earth. Religionists may justify by saying the violence has nothing to do with religion, the problem lies with its followers; but really what is religion without its followers? We can reasonably say, lets do away with religion, lets just live with science and logic. With all the scientific evidence that can easily debunk so much of the myths or stories that are the backbone of most major and minor religions, science can easily claim reasonable ascendency. Yet today majority of us would rather believe in religion than not. Why?

It is that religion begins where logic ends.

We live equally with certainties and uncertainties in life. As much as we like to get rid of uncertainties and guarantee as much certainty as possible, it is ultimately impossible to get rid of uncertainty entirely. Even as technology advances rapidly on par with strides in scientific discoveries, it cannot guarantee absolute certainty in all affairs of life at all points of time; nothing can. Even science can only absolutely guarantee that all of life is subject to change. Things change; change is followed by a period of uncertainty; and even once we regain hold of cetainty, the shadow of uncertainty remains in the background. Science can conclude that uncertainty is as much a force of nature as the other tangible and measurable forces; and in fact it does through the Uncertainty Principle. Thus we have to recognize that uncertainty is one of the forces that animate life. Unfortunately uncertainty inspires fear and if we have to accept fear and simply live with it without a solution, life could be pointless and dark. Thus the advent of religion.

Religion appears as a solution to the fear that overshadows life. The most important aspect of religion to all of us is to inspire and maintain hope especially during the times when uncertainty looms into reality. This is the most scientifically tangible effect of religion–the feeling of hope and confidence–even when all probable scientific predictions point to hopelessness. This value of religion cannot be usurped by science simply saying that there is no proof of God. There may be no experiment that a scientist can do with any repeatable result that can proof the existence of God, but the existence of God for the faithful is based on their personal (totally subjective) experience of God or their dedication to their creed. It is the effect of faith in upholding hope that can be observed scientifically. It is this power of hope that is the un-discountable value of religion. The ability to inspire hope especially during times of hopelessness is of immense value to living. This is why we do not simply throw religion out the window in favour logic or science, because it is as valuable to us as science is.

Both religion and science are meant for us to cope with different aspects / dimensions of living. In fact both these dimensions are opposites. Thus if you bring science into religion or vice-versa you will simply end up with an inconclusive conundrum. Both however can co-exist through our ability to handle the varied aspects of life by being multidimensional. Thus a scientist can without conflict be deeply religious if he understands that science and religion are different tools meant for different purposes. Herein lies the integration of spirituality, science and religion. Multidimensional living allows us to accept science for what it is and religion for what it is. All those rich illogical myths and stories of religions were never meant to be proven true or untrue; instead they are repositories of spirituality, ethics, culture and most importantly as means of inspiring hope and courage. This is why we dare not throw religion out the window. Otherwise what can science offer us in those uncertain times of darkness; a cold set of probabilities, perhaps hope of discovery that is probably years in the future when you need help now or a scientific explanation of what got you where you are when what you need is a way out.

Try as we may, humanity will never do away with the supernatural, the ultra-natural and its propensity to exaggerate wonder. Just imagine what would happen if we did do away with religion and its nonsensical myths. Like the Taliban who blew the the Buddha statues of Bamiyan, we decide as a race of logical beings, to get rid of all relic, representation and repositories of religion, religiousness and spirituality. I imagine to cure our urge to hope during hopelessness or make possible what seems impossible we will start praying to 'action heroes' like Spiderman or Batman or Superman or Wonder Woman or whomever the new scientific myth spinners conjure.

Of course then again you can expect those 'action heroes' debunkers to come along and continue the question–why in the world are you praying to something that is not really there?! Answer–Well, because science does not have ALL the answers.

Epilogue 

So to the question'why does Ganesha have an elephant head', the answer is as elementary as whatever reason that suits you. However it makes best sense to you, that will be your answer. If you choose to believe in Ganesha and his existence has an effect in your life, then really the reason why is anyone's guess. Ultimately the answer is not very important to anyone else but however you justify the truth of Ganesha to yourself. This is religion and by extension spirituality. They are both subjective art and science for all of life that is influenced by subjectivity. I for instance believe in the reality of God, the angles, heaven and hell because of my personal experience of such matters. They are real to me and therefore their existence matters to me. Why they exist does not matter to me, protecting the belief in them does not matter to me, proving their existence to others does not matter to me even more. But mostly I enjoy having them in my life.

In the end of the day our devotion to a supernatural path does not preclude us from enjoying the benefits of scientific discoveries, unless we choose so. To be an effective scientist likewise does not require the scientist to abstain from religion or spirituality to do his or her work, unless they choose so. To Akashay who instigated this mystical musing, thank you. To Hema who got this revelation going, thank you. I enjoyed the whole exercise immensely and I hope you the readers, did too.

Click Here to Read Part One