Edward’s Diary Entry 135: Mind components revisited

So one can sit and repeat one “single thought” (expressed in few or so many words) for 48 minutes or so, combined with in-breath, and hold, then out-breath, and hold, and remain quite aware of this for all this time. No other so-called “thinking” interrupts. But that is not all there is in the mind…

One part is kept busy with the “single thought”. Awareness is present and oversees both the single thought and the breathing. But there is another part that wants to join the show. That is imagination, or imaging or picturing. This process is not verbal thinking, or something expressed in words – that section is busy with the words chosen for the “single thought”. This other part is like a series of mental pictures (not visible to the eyes, open or closed): either a review of situations already experienced (going somewhere, doing something, being in a particular situation, etc.) or an invention of possible future situations that may be experienced. These images pop up automatically, and as soon as they are noticed (by Awareness), they are simply put away again, thanks to a renewed concentration on Awareness of breathing, or the continuation of the single thought, or simply of one’s present sitting or standing. For our purposes, this imaging is superfluous, un-called for, unconscious, and so beside the point.

We can call this imaging “fantasising”, as it only corresponds to a projection of pictures into the imagined future, or a series of memories of what might have happened or could have happened in the past, based on memories, or a combination of the two. But whatever the case, the seeing of it does help one to identify the sections of the mental processes: a) Memories and Fantasy; b) Thinking with Words; c) Awareness of experiencing the Thought (which may produce a certain amount of Emotion); and a general Awareness of being present in breath, body and overseeing the mental processes. And behind this, unseen and only inferred, there must be D) a Determination, Decision or Will to perform this activity, without which, one would soon allow one’s wandering thoughts to stop the process as being ridiculous and absurd, using conflictive words to ask oneself “what is the point of doing this practise when I could be relaxing and allowing the mind to go about its normal business of burning up energy in useless thoughts and feelings?” Um, that’s a joke, alright?

Also coming and going are other visible picturings. With eyes closed, there are shapes and colours floating around. And I have also noticed that with eyes open the same or similar shapes and colours may also appear before the eyes when they are held fixed on a single point to assist in maintaining the “single thought”. These are just tricks of the eye, also known as phosphenes, from biophotons, neuroscientists tell us. Why do they come and go at certain times and have their specific shapes, colours and recurring patterns, and then sometimes give way to total blackness and calm? It doesn’t matter; they are also superfluous for our purposes. We are not interested in picture-shows. We are bent on discovering how the mind works, who we really are – the thoughts? the memories? the pictures? the emotions? the Decision? the Awareness? something more?... and how the mind can be better organised to function in tune with Reality or Truth. That is the question, and this is the purpose of this exercise.

Imagine you have never been to a maths class in your life, and you see someone sitting at a desk and chewing on a pencil. As an idle and ignorant observer you would think the purpose of sitting is… chewing, and that maybe some nourishment is being derived from the pencil tip or the eraser. Of course you would be wrong, wouldn’t you? The person chewing on the pencil is really mulling over numbers in his mind, and solving a complex equation.

This is unfortunately what some people think when they see people just sitting or standing and gazing at a wall. There are hundreds of explanations as to what is going on, starting with “he must be nuts” and ending with all sorts of scholarly stories and fantasies. But it is only the student of the mind who knows what is happening, if at all! And perhaps the person who suggested the exercise in the first place.

And quietly, we just take the single thought and proceed with the game of inspecting this mind we have been given.

Edward’s Diary Entry 134: Missed Happiness?

Did you celebrate the UN Day of Happiness on March 20th?  ...Umm, I forgot... But then again, I don’t need the United Nations to remind me to be happy. Do you?

I think the SG sounded good on this theme: “At this time of grave injustices, devastating wars, mass displacement, grinding poverty and other manmade causes of suffering, the International Day of Happiness is a global chance to assert that peace, well-being and joy deserve primacy.” — UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon

And I had it written down on my agenda to comment on, but I was busy with another local festivity at the time! On this blog, we celebrate happiness every day, because true happiness is not burying your head in the sand or watching little Smurfs throwing big rocks around, as in the promotional video. Neither is happiness a warm gun, RIP John Lennon. It could, however, be a warm puppy, as Schultz originally said in 1962. But really, happiness is something we have inside, and just have to uncover. Ban Ki-moon hits the nail on the head when he talked about “manmade causes of suffering…” We make our own suffering, and cause suffering to ourselves and to others. We’re that dumb, really. Although our upbringing and society don’t us help much on that count. But once we increase awareness and learn the trick, it’s easy. Do away with the causes of suffering – mental misalignment, ignorance and non-awareness – and all you have to do is allow happiness to flower. It’s that simple.

So OK, let’s allow the UN to do its thing and celebrate days to increase awareness, but I did have to laugh at March 20th being one day out of 365 for happiness. What about the other 364? 

Edward’s Diary Entry 133: When the body aches you know you’re alive

One of the benefits of doing physical yoga exercises is that you have a heightened awareness of being alive. Moving around and breathing sometimes actually…hurts…, so you get the big message that you’re really alive. No way you can miss out on that!

Not that I believe yoga is limited to twisting and turning only. But I have been practising it of late due to lack of education – education in the fullest sense, I mean. Because I should have been taught yoga as a child, teenager and youth instead of just going to school, fooling around in a gym or playing with a ball. I would have been healthier and more flexible, and who knows what else? So in my latter years, when touching the toes has become a problem (with long legs it’s always been tough anyway!), I force myself to undergo the sweaty business of adopting 26 postures in a heated room every morning, exerting myself fully, and sinking into total Savasana relax, on and off, off and on.

After various months, the work has just started. As soon as I can balance on one foot, there’s another part to the posture, and I go for that. When I can just touch my knee with my nose, there is a lot more to stretch, and I try to do that as well, concentrating on my breathing. Just after getting the legs firm enough to support me, now it’s the arms and chest that have to be opened up more. The work never stops.

And every day, after a cooling shower, I float around like a leaf in the breeze as I walk home, completely calm and quite contented. But my body soon tells me all about those little aches and pains. I have stretched a little more today, and the spine twist has now opened up my hip sockets a tiny bit further. Bit by bit, a muscle extends, a ligament expands and the bones stay in place a little looser than before. Maybe I am taller now than 6 months ago. Just a little more space between the vertebrae, a little more flexibility from sacrum up to atlas.

These little aches are really just reminders that I am doing a good job. Before I can even think about doing real hatha yoga and benefiting from alignment with the sun and the moon, I have to get this ageing body into an acceptable kind of physical fitness. Things that were impossible that 21st of June last year when I officially began my Bikram Yoga “trial” are now quite feasible. The Balancing Stick is now a reality, almost, whereas it was totally useless trying to do it when I first started.

So I mentally review the aches and pains and accept their reality. I could just pretend to stretch and maintain the status quo. But no, every time I master one thing, I have to go on to the next. And every day the slight aches tell me, you’re alive Edward, so enjoy it. There’s no use searching for pleasure without a little pain, is there? Cats do it, dogs do it, even educated frogs do it. So let's all be natural and stretch...

Holistic or Piecemeal? International Women’s Day

Just a thought for International Women’s Day, which started out in 1909 as a commemorative event in honour of the preceding year’s female garment workers’ strike in New York, promoted by the Socialist Party of America at that time. Only in 1975 did the UN begin celebrating this day on March 8th.

Nowadays, just about every day of the year is being classified as some kind of celebration day, supposedly for heightened awareness. This is the piecemeal approach to raising human consciousness. Are we really going to fix anything by naming a day as something special, something to “think about”, something to “talk about”?

On the IS-AD blog, we’ve already stated that every day of the year is good for celebrating Self-Awareness. Because this is the holistic approach to making a better world. The more Awareness there is in the human mind-stuff, the better the world will be, because that awareness can be directed towards anything at all – women, men, pets, yoga, elimination of nuclear weapons, even happiness (but you don’t have to wait till March 20th to celebrate the UN International Day of Happiness – you can start now and do it every day if you're not already happy!).

So, happy International Women’s Day, but don’t be fooled by today’s pomp and circumstance… Make sure the feminine is well protected tomorrow as well! And every day.

Edward’s Diary Entry 132: An intelligent love song?

Almost… The composer of Nat King Cole’s No. 1 hit for 8 weeks in 1947, “Nature Boy”, was a vegetarian proto-hippie who lived on 3 dollars a day, born George Alexander Aberle, aka George McGrew, re-christening himself eden ahbez, in lower case, because in his opinion only God and Infinity were worthy of capitalisation. Here we have an enchanting kind of song in D minor with descending chromatics and an arrangement that made it a classic, with countless versions having been played and sung. Everything goes pretty well in the lyrics… almost.

Despite being “shy” and a “little sad of eye”, our hero is “very wise”, and makes for a magic encounter in which one could “speak of many things”. There’s enchantment and mystery, and it builds up to the clincher at the end. But here’s the problem. The premise that “the greatest thing” in life “is just to love…” sounds OK, if you don’t take it too sexually. Love is, of course, a noble sentiment, but do we really know how to love others, or do we just interpret it as finding a good lover (for a while), or having a nice fling? Why is the greatest thing in life “just to love”? Are we capable of doing that?

There was a boy A very strange enchanted boy They say he wandered very far, very far Over land and sea A little shy and sad of eye But very wise was he And then one day A magic day he passed my way And while we spoke of many things Fools and kings This he said to me The greatest thing you'll ever learn Is just to love and be loved in return (x2)

Then the song goes sour at the end, because although is it great to learn to “love”, the writer also wants to “be loved in return”. So I was going to classify the song as being just another cool untruth, and bordering on the schmaltzy, until I investigated it and found out the following…

The LA engineer who was given the final tapes and possessions of the songwriter at his death, said that ahbez had originally written and stated, "To be loved in return, is too much of a deal, and there's no deal in love.” But it didn’t fit the final melody and was re-written in its classic form. It seems that ahbez was pretty smart. He recognised that “being loved in return” is not necessary, and it’s not always going to happen. If you’re cool, you just concentrate on loving, and let others do their thing. And discovering that was a relief to me, thereby saving the song as worthy of praise after all. 

Edward’s Diary Entry 131: What, More "Feelings?"

Let’s take any well-known song and analyse it. All you need is a catchy tune, a nice arrangement, and some schmaltzy lyrics and you’ve got a hit song. “Feelings” was originally written as “Pour toi” by Louis Gasté in 1956 and then adapted to English and made popular by Albert Morris in 1974, peaking at #6 on the pop charts and #2 on the Adult Contemporary charts in America. Just about every singer who was anybody did a version to this song – all except Julie Andrews, who is stated as saying it was too difficult for her to sing because it had no meaning behind it!

Dame Julie has a point there. We can see that there is lots of confusion in this singer’s head and heart. The whole song is about “Feelings”, although they are classed as “nothing more than” feelings. That’s quite a confusing start – if they’re so important, why belittle them that way? Or does he mean he's is only feelings (no thought!). The singer is trying to forget these “feelings of love”. He’s crying about losing a girl. He has felt these feelings “all his life”, which is also quite silly, as he was once a baby, a boy and a youth, and didn’t have these feelings at that time. So “all his life” means since he was aware of his hormones reaching out to this girl he supposedly loves. Now he wishes he’d never met her, but at the same time, there is nothing like her, and he wants her in his arms again, in his heart again, in his life again. Sounds like he's in quite a mess!

Feelings, nothing more than feelings, Trying to forget my feelings of love. Tears drops rolling down on my face, Trying to forget my feelings of love. Feelings, for all my life I'll feel it. I wish I've never met you, girl; You'll never come again. Feelings, wo-o-o feelings, Wo-o-o, feel you again in my arms. Feelings, feelings like I've never lost you And feelings like I'll never have you Again in my heart. Feelings, for all my life I'll feel it. I wish I've never met you, girl; You'll never come again. Feelings, feelings like I've never lost you And feelings like I've never have You again in my life. Feelings, wo-o-o feelings

Despite an official time of 3:46 and various verses, there is “nothing more than” this short summary in the lyrics of this song. It’s just a repetition of the same. So what we have here is a prime example of “Me, me, me… oh woe is me!” Feeling sorry for oneself, feeling bad, sad, wishing something hadn’t happened and then wishing something might happen again. There is no thought, or mention, of the actual “girl”. Why did she leave him? What happened? It’s pretty obvious – he was probably only thinking about himself, and she got fed up with it. Maybe she wanted more attention and didn’t get it. Or wanted more fun and entertainment than what this melancholic, introspective, confused character was capable of giving her! So it’s no wonder she left!

And instead of getting back into his "present moment", searching his own soul, and finding out why his relationship ended, and how he can be happier in the future, he just sits down and mopes, writes a confused mess of “feeling” words, and continues to cry about his bad luck. What a muddle! And the wonder of it all is that such a mess, set to a nice arrangement, could connect to so many people in the world and become such a big hit. Quite appropriately, the B-side of this hit song was actually entitled “This World Today is A Mess!” Curious, isn't it?

Songs like these are just not fair to us poor humans. Why do we have to listen to stupidities like this, however nicely arranged? We are brought up not to control our thoughts, and not to control our emotions, so it's easy for the music industry to prey on the human heart. There is neither intelligence nor depth in the lyrics of songs like these. No teaching or human betterment is happening. A sad song reflects our confusion in the world, because someone did something supposedly unkind to us. But I maintain our characters are weak enough without all this help from confusing songs, lyrics and intentions. And it's no good just weeping first and then, after the sad songs and the bad feelings, stting down to an inane sit-com or comedy show to cheer up again. That's a vicious circle, and won't do us any good. 

Dewlling on pain is even more stupid than creating the pain in the first place.

Edward’s Diary Entry 130: The "Spiritual" Ladder of the Chhandogya Upanishad

Just so we get an idea of the level we are on, and the so-called “spiritual world”, we can use this home-made summary of the Chhandogya Upanishad I have drawn up, where in Chapter 3 the great sage Narada (who “knew everything”) approached the master Sanatkumara for spiritual instructions and solace, and realised that all his knowledge was insufficient. 

This is according to a rare book explaining the original Sanskrit texts written by Swami Krishnananda and only published in 1984 by The Divine Life Society, Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India, website: www.swami-krishnananda.org. Some of the terms here are more exact than in the Robert Hume translation, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads, Oxford University Press, 1921, pages 177-274.

In the list below, which describes reality level by level – a towering achievement, and a suggestion as a step-by-step meditation for the seeker Naranda – we can see that mind is only on the third level, and is still quite “physical” in nature, so anything this Mind can grasp does not have much to do with any kind of “spiritual” or higher world. Look:

1.     Name, nama, nomenclature, words, an idea of something in the mind, correct descriptive knowledge. Every “name” has a form, rupa, i.e., a reality, but we do not posses that reality, we only have “name”.

2.     Speech, that which causes the expression of name is greater than name, language, or the use of names.

3.     Mind, which controls the expression of language, is higher than Speech.

4.     Will, sankalpa, is higher than mind, because it is the creative will operating as the directive intelligence behind the mind.

5.     Memory, (called here chitta) or retention in the mind of whatever we have seen or heard or thought.

6.     Concentration, contemplation, dhyana, is the faculty which is superior to memory, i.e., fixity of mind, capacity to concentrate the mind.

7.     Understanding, vijnana, is superior even to the action of concentration, for without understanding, we may concentrate on absurd things.

8.     Strength, bala, power, is superior to understanding; if there is no strength behind it, there is no understanding.

9.     Food, anna, is what gives strength, and as such is superior to strength (anything that feeds the other is called food, so by “food” we mean contributory to the sustenance of something else, which can be anything, even some psychological substance...) Today ecology teaches us that everything is dependent upon something else for its sustenance, so anything can be food for anything else (who or what feeds on you?)

10.  Water is higher than food; because liquid is superior to solid, water to earth. Water is prior to earth.

11.  Heat or Fire, is higher still, as it commands water, and is prior to water.

12.  Space, akasa, ether, is higher than fire.

13.  Self-consciousness or I-hood, smara, is superior to space. This is recognised as the power of consciousness which is recognised as self-existence. All our activity in life, whatever be the nature of that activity, is an offshoot of consciousness of our own existence. Minus that, the whole world, as described above, is naught.

14.  Hope, asa. The existence of “smara”, above, is dependent upon an urge that is present prior to it. This urge is Hope, or Aspiration.

15.  Life, prana, is greater than the aspiration for self-transcendence, as it is the inscrutable principle of life. But we cannot understand what Life is.

16.  Truth, esa (sat), is greater than Life.

17.  Thought of Truth, (satya) is greater still.

18.  Understanding, or desiring to understand through thought (mati) is greater still. Mati is the consciousness of the tendency towards Reality.

19.  Faith, sraddha, faith in the existence of Reality, a tendency of movement of one's being towards Reality, an irrepressible feeling in us that Reality is.

20.  Steadfastness, nishtha. When one has steadfastness in Reality, then this superior faith also comes.

21.  Activity, self-control, kriti, self-control, a withdrawal of consciousness from every kind of external perception, for better attunement with the nature of Reality in contemplation.

22.  Happiness. sukham. Nothing can be done unless it is propelled by happiness, the object of every kind of aspiration, activity, desire or enterprise. “You will find, prior to everything conceivable, there is the presence of happiness. Everyone, irrespective of the character of one's individuality, tries to be, to act and to conduct oneself in different ways, because of this happiness. happiness is the propelling force behind everything in creation. Happiness is not anywhere and yet it is everywhere; it is in a completeness of Being that you can find happiness.”

23.  The Infinite, bhuma.  Happiness is plenum, happiness is completeness, fullness, happiness is the totality, happiness is in the Absolute," declares the great master Sanatkumara. The term 'Bhuma' used in this Upanishad is a novel word of its own kind which cannot be easily translated.

24.  The Absolute, Brahman, the misused term "God". 

So it is only as from the 13th level that this tower becomes quite disconnected from the so-called “physical” and begins to be “spiritual”. Because we can entertain a notion of sorts regarding the first 12: Even the fragmented ego can conceive of “will” (although fleetingly), “memory”, “concentration”, “understanding”, “strength”, and then things become quite literal as regards “food”, “water”, “fire”, and even “space” – when we look up into the sky and just see “blue”! As from 13, “I-hood or Consciousness of Self”, we cannot comprehend this in our logical minds, although there is a reflection of this in the petty ego. From 13 on, things become quite nebulous and spirited and etheric.

We don’t have to accept or believe this at all. It is just an example of how high the “spiritual” ladder can go. And this is why on this Self-Awareness blog we talk a lot about simple things that are easy to understand, such as the workings of the mind, and how to exercise a little more attention, notice things a little better, and feel an incipient kind of “happiness” when the mind becomes just a little bit calmer and easier to manage due to right thinking and right perspective.

I was asked the other day, “Do you believe in… what Kant described as… (whatever)?” And I answered, “Belief? Forget Kant. Go back to the early Europeans, Plato and Socrates, if you want. They knew. Belief or “doxa” is inferior to knowledge or “episteme”. Belief separates us as humans from one another. Intelligent ignorance is higher than belief." 

Ignorance, intelligently applied, connects us more, because by confessing ignorance, we can sit down to talk and do something about it. Never be afraid of not knowing. It is extremely healthy!

Edward’s Diary Entry 129: Am I Spiritual?

Someone said the other day in passing that I, Edward Wells, was more of a “spiritual type” as compared to that someone who was more “earthly”. It was said in Spanish, so it was more espiritual versus terrenal, not to be confused with “alien” as opposed to “terrestrial”! Although I’m a bit of an alien as well, I suppose.

Well, on this blog the word “spiritual” is infrequently used, and perhaps only figuratively or poetically at that (well, only about 35 times so far!). But there are at least two things to say about this.

1) We are all spiritual in the sense that we have to be more than just body, mind with its thoughts and feelings, and awareness, and that what really makes us “tick” must be a “spirit” if you want to use that term, whatever it means.

2) I cannot really accept the appellative of “spiritual” when most of the time I am talking about body and mind only, with a small amount of self-awareness thrown in for good measure. Learning and talking about body and mind is on the earthly level, at best the terrestrial psychological level, including a degree of self-awareness, and only beyond that – and for the moment far beyond that – lies the realm of the spiritual.

I might accept the adjective “spiritual” if we trace it back etymologically to “spirit” in the sense of “a breathing (respiration, of the wind, inspiration, hence “life”)”. I do certain breathing exercises and practise bringing self-awareness into breath, along with sensing exercises involving breath and the body. But that’s about it.

You see, in today’s world, anything goes by the name of “spiritual” if the subject isn’t just gossip, news, politics, religion or mankind’s and society’s constant troubles. As long as you throw in a few words about souls, spirits, beliefs, chakras, consciousness, meditation, third eyes, masters of wisdom or gurus, even nama and rupa, you’re supposed to be “spiritual”, even if you’re only repeating, parrot-like, someone else’s opinion or what you’ve read in a book.

So no, Edward knows a little too much to be “spiritual” in that sense, as words are not realities, are they? And “spiritual” in the sense of being capable of consciously living on another and higher dimension, if any – that’s not true about me…yet. I’m very down-to-earth in a way. And when you’re digging in the earth, a spade is always a spade. And words are just words, unfortunately. The only thing that could be called a little close to reality is that I do have a feeling that there must be a life force or spirit or prana or soul or higher body or Absolute or vital link with the cosmos, or some other term if you like, because the reasoning intellect cannot only satisfy itself with the inputs of the five senses and accept human interpretations of impressions as the basis of All There Is. And until such a time as one forges such connections within one’s own self, it’s going to be pretty hard to talk about what the “spiritual” world really is.

That’s why I am always reviewing the way the body and the mind, especially the mind, seem to function, because the first step is to clear up what is going on down here, before we start trying to describe what might be happening up there (or inside) in the so-called “spiritual world”.

So let’s just take it step by step and maybe we can stay on the right track… Stick with me, ye spirits!