Exercise: Being There

Reference: A Scientific Approach to Meditation

Meditation Exercise:

Being there.

Purpose:

To learn to BE there and not do anything else but BE there.

Pre-requisites:

Complete Exercise: Meditative Posture.

Instructions:

Start in the meditative posture as determined in the previous exercise on posture. Do not move or do anything. Just be there. This exercise is done with eyes closed.

After closing your eyes, simply observe what is there. At first, you may perceive only blackness. But soon you may become aware of light and darkness, various sounds and smells, the temperature in the room, the pull of gravity, the taste in your mouth, and scores of other such perceptions from the body. The mind may present pictures of current or past situations, thoughts, emotions and conclusions. Simply face whatever comes up without flinching or avoiding. 

At the beginning stages of meditation you will run into all kinds of physical and mental reactions. You face them by fully experiencing them without avoiding, resisting, denying or suppressing. A reaction, when confronted patiently, discharges and vanishes. If you feel drowsy, simply experience the whole cycle of the body falling asleep and eventually waking up. Make sure your posture is stable enough so the body does not slump during sleep. When it wakes up, continue as before.

If you find your mind chattering, realize that there is missing information that is suppressed. Do not dive into the mind to find that information. Let the suppressed information come up by itself.  The mental chatter shall subside. As suppression comes off there are naturally going to be realizations. Do not force any realizations. You simply BE there and not do anything else but BE there.

Continue this exercise for at least 20 minute. You may continue for longer if it is going well.

If, all of a sudden, there is a big realization that makes you very happy, you may end the session immediately and enjoy your success.

You may repeat this exercise as often as you wish.

End of Exercise:

When major reactions are discharged, and you find that you can simple BE there without any effort, then this exercise is passed.

NOTE 2: If you find the sitting meditation difficult to do then do the walking meditation exercises for a while, and then come back to this exercise.

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January 20, 2019 – 4:32 PM Categories: Meditation | Post a comment

Settling the Mind

Reference: A Scientific Approach to Meditation

As stated earlier, the first step in meditation is to stop interfering with the mind so that all turmoil may settle down into a quiet state. It is like stop stirring the water to let the mud settle down. This is an interesting step to carry out because it is amazingly difficult to not do anything that interferes with the mind.

When you sit down to meditate you become acutely aware of the turmoil going on in the mind. Some may not acknowledge it but confusion about something is always there. There is nothing to distract you from it unless you flat out deny it. In meditation, you are not supposed to avoid, resist, deny or suppress. You have to face that confusion head on. How do you face it?

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Breathing

To handle any confusion you first need a stable datum. That stable datum used in meditation is breathing.

You start by observing your breathing while also being aware of all the commotion going on in the mind. Breathing should be used as a stabilizing factor rather than a distraction. If attention gets lost during meditation, then you simply bring it back to your breathing and continue to observe the mind without interfering. The idea is to BE there and not do anything else but BE there. Breathing should stay natural during this process.

Breathing acts as a stabilizing point as you face the commotion in the mind.

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Reactions

As you stay aware of the confusion in the mind from the stable point of breathing, the commotion starts to settle down. But this settling down process is full of reactions, such as, tiredness, boredom, drowsiness, etc. How do you handle these reactions?

For example, suppose you start to feel drowsy. If you fight it then you’ll be interfering with the mind and stirring it up. All you can do is let that condition pass and run itself out. The body may fall asleep, but it would eventually wake up. You simply experience the whole cycle of falling asleep and waking up. Once this reaction is out of system, you will feel more alert than when you started the meditation.

To fully perceive drowsiness, you must experience it without resisting.

Some may feel that if you fall asleep you are not meditating. Well, at the first step of meditation you are settling the mind down. The real meditation starts on the second step (see Introduction to Meditation).

Part of settling the mind is running out all reactions. You do this by fully perceiving and experiencing the reactions without avoiding, resisting, denying or suppressing them.

Fully perceive and experience all reactions in meditation without interfering with them.

This is mindfulness in meditation. It applies to all reactions and not just to sleep.

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Mental Chatter

When your mind is chattering away, it is trying to put some information together. It cannot, however, do so because it is missing a part of that information. This information is, most likely, suppressed being painful, and the mind is not stable enough to face it.

But, as the mind runs out the various reactions, as described in the previous section, it settles down and becomes more stable. It feels strong enough to let the painful information emerge out in the open.  This is the past suppression unwinding at last. This is nearing the end of the first stage of meditation.

As the mind unwinds and lets the past suppressed painful information through, the mental chatter also subsides.

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Summary

Meditation is the subject of confronting the painful contents of one’s mind and facing all confusions. Many good pointers on this subject may be found in the writings of Hubbard.

Hubbard based his philosophy of Scientology on Buddhism. He says 1.

Amazing reactions occur when conscious effort is made to do this. Dullness, perception trouble, fogginess, sleep and even pains, emotions and convulsions can occur when one knowingly sets out to BE THERE AND COMFORTABLY PERCEIVE with the various parts of a subject.

These reactions discharge and vanish as one perseveres (continues) and at last, sometimes soon, sometimes after a long while, one can be there and perceive the component.

A reaction, when confronted patiently, discharges and vanishes.

Hubbard goes on to warn in the same bulletin 1:

People have mental tricks they use to get around actual confronting—to be disinterested, to realize it’s not important, to be sort of half dead, etc.—but these discharge (run out) as well eventually and at last they can just be there and comfortably perceive.

We see this in people, who are running away from life, instead of living it. The same mindset shows up in meditation.

The solution is to practice mindfulness both in meditation and in life.

It is just letting the mud settle down. You may practice mindfulness even between the meditation sessions.

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1HCO Bulletin of 2 June 1971, Issue I, CONFRONTING

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January 20, 2019 – 8:42 AM Categories: Meditation | Post a comment

Exercise: Meditative Posture

Reference: A Scientific Approach to Meditation

Meditation Exercise:

Meditative Posture

Purpose:

To determine the optimum meditative posture.

Pre-requisite:

Complete Section I–Study.

Instructions:

Find a quiet location, where you may sit undisturbed for some time. Check out both the lotus posture, and the posture of sitting in a chair. Use cushions as necessary to stabilize the posture.

Continue in each posture for at least 5 minutes. Set an alarm to indicate the end of that period. Observe the body without interfering with the posture. You may become aware of physical reaction of discomfort as the body settles down. Differentiate such reactions from discomfort caused by the posture. Adjust your posture as necessary.

Observe the following points:
(1) This posture comes naturally to you.
(2) You can be comfortable in this posture for a long time.
(3) Your mind can remain alert in this posture.
(4) This posture keeps the body erect even without attention.

Decide upon the posture most practical for you. Maintain that posture for at least twenty minutes. Keep your attention extroverted on the meditative posture. Simply follow the basics of meditation.

You may repeat this exercise as many times as you wish until you are fully satisfied with your meditative posture.

End of Exercise:

When you can BE there comfortably without being distracted by the meditative posture, this exercise is passed.

NOTE: If you find the sitting meditation difficult to do then do the walking meditation exercises. You may then come back to this exercise.

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January 19, 2019 – 12:56 PM Categories: Meditation | Post a comment

Preface: Physics Book (old)

See UNIVERSE: Basic Definitions

It has been a while since any major contribution has been made to physical sciences in terms of fundamental theoretical research. It has not been easy to examine physical phenomena at the atomic levels. There are more mathematical explanations than real explanations in modern scientific investigations.

Newton used mathematics to “describe” the void, which could not be realistically described. Maxwell used mathematics to “describe” aether, which was postulated by the wave theory of light. Einstein used mathematics to “describe” space and time in an effort to explain gravity. The increasing use of mathematics in quantum mechanics and particle physics has only resulted in further losing touch with reality.

Although Newtonian mechanics, Maxwell’s Electromagnetic theory, Einstein’s theory of Relativity, and now Quantum mechanics and Particle physics predict remarkably verifiable results in selected areas, they are not integrated enough to predict verifiable results for all physical phenomena.

The very fact that the fundamental theories of physics cannot be reconciled indicates that there are basic assumptions underlying physics that are inconsistent with reality.

The subject of physics started out considering material substance moving in a complete void. It stumbled over the question: “How do material objects influence each other across the void?” Any influence requires contact. The void does not allow any contact.

From the study of electricity and magnetism arose the idea of invisible force fields that could transmit force. This idea of field has changed considerably from Faraday’s lines of force to the abstract mathematical objects of quantum physics. But the interaction between matter and void has yet to be described realistically without using the prop of mathematical symbolism.

This book is written on the premise that physics is taking certain concepts for granted, which needs to be examined more closely.

The subject of physics started out with the consideration that there is matter existing in a void. Therefore, the first two concepts that need to be examined more closely are matter and void.

The Part I of this book traces the discoveries in the subject of physical sciences. Part II then looks at this subject for assumptions.

[NOTE: This is a work in progress.]

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January 17, 2019 – 10:38 PM Categories: Physics Book | Post a comment

Einstein 1920 (XV) General Results

Reference: Einstein’s 1920 Book

Section XV (Part 1)
General Results of the Theory

Please see Section XV at the link above.

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ith the velocity of light always takes the place of instantaneous action at a distance or of action at a distance with an infinite velocity of transmission.

Summary

The origins of the special theory of relativity lie in electrodynamics and optics. In its turn, the special theory of relativity has considerably simplified the theoretical structure of electrodynamics and optics.

Classical mechanics required to be modified, mainly in regards to rapid motions, before it could come into line with the demands of the special theory of relativity.

The special theory of relativity points to the equivalence of matter and energy by conserving them together. In other words, it looks at energy as a form of substance.

The conclusion that matter and energy are equivalent is an important one. [NOTE: This prediction of energy converting into inertial mass, and vice versa, was prophetic. It led to the development of atomic bomb and nuclear reactor.]

According to the theory of relativity, action at a distance with the velocity of light always takes the place of instantaneous action at a distance or of action at a distance with an infinite velocity of transmission.

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Comments

Electrodynamics and optics basically introduced the idea of lines of force replacing the idea of empty space. These lines of force form the basis of light in the special theory of relativity. According to Faraday, these lines of force flow in space as light, and they become concentrated in atoms to form mass. This provides the basis for the equivalence of energy and matter. This also provides a bridge between classical mechanics, electrodynamics and optics.

The degree of concentration of the lines of force may be called the “consistency of substance.” Light has very low consistency but very high velocity. On the other hand, matter has very high consistency but very low velocity. Thus, consistency seems to have an inverse relationship to motion. It is the change in consistency that manifests as the change in the velocity of a material body. However, this change denotes the mass that is being converted into energy (and vice versa), which is so small that it is imperceptible. The magnitude of this change in consistency may be assessed from the third term in the mathematical series above. It is of the order of 10-8, which is obtained by substituting v by  the velocity of the earth. 

The Lorentz transformation uses the extrapolation of consistency between light and matter to determine the relativity of motion of material bodies. This extrapolation works in the range of matter only. It takes into account the imperceptible change in consistency that contributes to motion of material bodies. This is how the special theory of relativity modifies classical mechanics. 

The lines of force provide substantiality to space in the form of a “fabric.” The word “space” then defines the extents of this fabric. The word “time” then defines the durability of this fabric at any location in space. Both space and time shall vary in their characteristics as the “fabric” varies in its consistency. 

A totally rigid coordinate system represents a “fabric” of space that is rigid like matter. Any body attached to this coordinate system shall exhibit infinite inertia and a state of no motion. As the coordinate system becomes less rigid, the body attached to it shall display a decrease in inertia and an increase in motion. The amount of motion gained shall depend on the reduction in inertia.

The law of addition of velocities applies when the reduction in inertia is infinitesimal and can be ignored. When the change in inertia cannot be ignored the Lorentz transformation replaces the Galilean transformation. However, when the change in inertia becomes large even the Lorentz transformation becomes inapplicable because it is also an approximation. 

The electromagnetic spectrum may be now expanded into a spectrum of substance. This spectrum shall extend from energy of lowest frequency to matter of highest density. It will show decreasing motion with increasing consistency.

This means that the orbits of planets in the solar system purely are the result of a balance among their inherent consistencies or motion. We see this balance as gravity. It defines gravity as being more than merely a force.

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January 6, 2019 – 8:38 PM Categories: Einstein | Post a comment