This is a wonderful discussion on the intersection of science and mysticism. It is little over an hour long. The following are some brief notes from this talk.
We know the world only the way it’s projected in the firmament of our minds. In yoga there are 16 dimensions of mind that are combined into 4 sections.
(1) Buddhi (Intellect)… logical realm of what is happening in our minds… explores by dissection… but you never grasp the intrinsic nature of life by dissection…
(2) Ahankara (Identity)… Your intellect is always a slave of your identity… nationality can be an identity… Your intellect is always protecting this identity and working around this identity… if intellect is the knife then identity is the hand that hoilds that knife…
(3) Manas… an entire body… a huge silo of memory… every cell in the body carries enormous memory to a point of origin of life on this planet and beyond… intellect runs on this memory… memory flows through the identity…
(4) Chitta (pure intelligence, unsullied by memory)… if you look at everything without any preconceived notions you’ll realize the source of creation… Yoga says, “If you touch this dimension of inteligence, the Divine becomes your slave.” If you touch this intelligence everything that you wish to know is yours…
These aspects of the mind are not entirely located in the head, it is right across the system.
Science has done incredible things… there is no question about that… But at the same time, the limitation of science is–we are trying to touch a dimension which is beyond physical nature, with a physical stick…
In the yogic way of seeing things, we just see life as a dance of time and energy… When somebody passes away, we simply say, “His time is over.”… The art of putting this time and energy together so that both of them dance together well, is a successful life… Time is not a factor by itself, time is a consequence of cyclical movements in the physical reality… physicality is essentially cyclical… The moment you are identified with physical nature, time is a big factor… Once you distance yourself from your physiological process, time is not a factor.
David Eagleman: What is the ‘you’ that can be separated from the physical?
Either your body and mind, you can conduct it consciously or it has become compulsive. That’s all that is happening. Whether you call it physical ailment or mental ailment, all that’s happened is… your fundamental faculties of existence on this planet is your body and your mind… you have simply lost charge of them… If your body and your brain took instructions from you would you create depression, would you create illness?… you would create the highest level of pleasantness for you, isn’t it?… (NOTE: ‘I’ or ‘you’ seems to be the harmonizing factor that establishes proper order)…
The ‘I’ could be identifying with a part of the body, such as the brain, or with the whole body. The ‘I’ could be identifying with a part of the mind, such as, memory or a certain personality, or with the functions of the mind… Everybody is a piece of life… the kind of personality, ideas, likes and dislike that we have acquired is the result of a social process that has happened to us… the fundamental principle is whatever you have gathered may be yours but it is not you…
Human intellect and human intelligence has broken out of a certain bond, which was there for every other creature, that they could function like an automated machine through certain instinctual process. What has happened with a human being with the process of evolution is that he has broken out of that instinctual process and there is an intelligence that has to function consciously. But functioning consciously means that every moment of life is an exploration… There is possibility of exploring dimensions, which are not yet within you. So if this has to happen, the most important thing is to be able to sit here not identified with anything… Just to be the way creation intended you to be… simply to be able to view your life just as a piece of life. If one does this, then you will see perception will explode in ways that they have not imagined possible…
Identity is required for survival process, to manage day-to-day situations, but it is not an exploratory process, because the intention of science is to know. Technology is a fallout. Unfortunately, in this world, nobody would fund science if it did not spin technology, because human intelligence wants to know. It need not be useful…
The basis of science and mysticism is to continuously sustain that sense of wanting to know… Science is trying to achieve everything through physical means… But physical is like the peel of the fruit, the peel is useful only as a protective layer to the fruit… so the body is very important… Tomorrow morning when that something inside is gone, nobody is interested in this body anymore… the peel is meaningless without the fruit… Science has produced comfort and convenience, but will it lead to well-being? It seems we’re in much more comfort but we are not in much more joyful states within ourselves…
The complexity of what is happening is beyond the physical mechanics… the physical brain is the most fantastic gadget on the planet… but there is an intelligence within us, which can create a brain… Everything that you call as physical creation has substance of some kind (earth)… and all of it is in movement (air)… all of it subscribes to some temperature (fire)… and in everything there is cohesiveness (water)… and all of it is held together by something like aether (akash). If you have grasp of these five things then everything becomes accessible.
The most fundamental aspect of yoga is the cleansing of the elements so that you can feel them separately in your own system… if you take charge of these elements then you take charge of life… every subatomic particle is in communication with rest of the cosmos… you just have to become alive or receptive to it… the life making design is the same in an amoeba or in you…
Science has moved from an explorative process to an exploitive process—how to use an atom, bacteria, elephant, whale, even a human being. This is where it is going… you may get to know how to use everything but still life will not get any better.
When you speak any language it must make logical sense. Logic is the product of our intellect. Without it we cannot speak. We cannot talk about what is beyond logic. There is subjective reality and there is objective reality. Subjective reality is not just thoughts and emotions. These five senses are tuned for our survival. If survival is what we are seeking, sense organs are fine. But once you are looking at life as an exploration, and you want to know life, five senses are no good. They are not sufficient faculties to know.
But knowing everything by intellect, we will know surface of everything but never the real source of everything. The only doorway to our experience is this human mechanism. You don’t know the world any other way. You only know the way its is happening within you. By interfering with a physical process, the whole perception could change. The world has not changed but perception has changed. That dimension of life is only useful for survival. It doesn’t matter how well you survive, still it is not good enough. Survival is not going to fulfill a human being because that’s not the direction in which life wants to go. There is another aspect to the human being besides these five senses. Everything concerned with our survival is in-built. This is millions of years of memory. Anything beyond survival, if we have to have in our lives, a certain striving is needed. Striving for inward perception is something, unfortunately, that’s been banished in modern societies because we are on a thrill of technology. As technology becomes better and better, human beings will become more and more frustrated. It will only entertain us intellectually big time but that is limited. Technology is simply an enhancement of what we can do. We have not created one machine or gadget to do something that we ourselves cannot do in a rudimentary way. You are only enhancing your five senses.
All the rabbis, sages, imams etc. of all different traditions have one thing in common—they all believe something that they don’t know. The main reason why every human being is not a natural seeker is they have not realized the immensity of “I do not know.” Only then knowing becomes a possibility and a reality. Everything that you do not know, if you just believe, you’ve destroyed the possibility of knowing altogether. But belief is something that builds confidence into a human being, but confidence without clarity is very disastrous.
Essentially, believing something means you are not sincere enough to admit that you do not know. We all have to come to this much—“What I know I know, what I do not know, I do not know.” This is a fantastic way to be. An “I do not know” person cannot fight with anybody, that’s the biggest thing.
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