In this discussion, we have used Hinduism as reference since it has innumerable gods and deities, representing concepts, belief systems, alternate philosophies and scriptures, in physical and metaphysical dimensions, like icons on a computer. Any one of these deities can be chosen to match our current personality, to meditate upon, to love and to worship, as a starting point, to evolve on the path to spiritual super consciousness. This is necessary for transition from a physical world of limited senses and rationality, to one which is unlimited, meta-physical, Universal and multidimensional. This concept has made Hinduism the only harmonious, survivor of the 46 ancient religions.
As we evolve on our path of love and worship of our preferred deity, we develop extraordinary awareness and a macro view of our intentions and perceptions. Ultimately, if we choose to, we will lose the perception of physical dimension in a trance and experience multi-dimensional God, first as a vision and later as the light of universal consciousness, or as a light in near-death experience or as a metaphysical intuition. This experience will be more universal than the concept of god we started with. Here, Science is only a firewall for a focused effort in this spiritual path. As discussed in this presentation, this path requires that we surrender (Thyaga) our selfishness to our unselfishness ( Yoga), through Bhakti-Karmayoga in a group effort, lead by a ‘Universal-mentor-Guru’. If we are heavily restricted by exclusivity of an “intolerant religious system”, then our search for the experience of a Universal, all-inclusive God, will fail.
Slide 1 is an over view of Hindu scriptures as they relate to modern science, multi-dimensional creation and absolute consciousness (Nirguna Brahman or void) or God. The intuitive, wholistic and, repeatable, metaphysical experiences of Rishis or spiritual seekers over several thousands of years, achieved through Thyaga and Yoga shown in blue arrow and discussed in slides 6A, are documented in Vedas, with multiple symbolic concepts or gods. The common experiences in Vedas are rationalized in Upanishads. The Upanishads are further summarized in six philosophical points of view in 'Shed-dharshanas'. The Bhagavad Gita is the practical guide to physical and metaphysical life based on these scriptures. Puranas are poetic and emotional representation of these Hindu literature, which form the foundation of Hindu spiritual culture as it relates to physical and metaphysical aspects of life. The Upavedas are practical application of these wholistic sciences in all aspects of life. Modern science (shown in green arrow) is a relatively recent, evolving, mechanistic, linear point of view of the inanimate physical world, with quantum mechanics and relativity referring to nonlinearity of time-space, metaphysics, consciousness and life.
As shown in slide 1, in saffron, we compare and show similarities between modern science and Hindu scriptures based on Vadic assertion 'As is the macro system, so is the micro system', which refers to pattern duplication in our holographic, multi-layered Universe, discussed more in slide 8 through 10.
<<< Slide 2 >>> RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION . . .
This slide 2, shows a reference list and documentation in booklets, of my 25 years of research in metaphysics, starting with my profession as a robotics engineer, to psychology and further on to science in spirituality. These documents can be downloaded from my website: optimizinglife.org.
My robotics background gave a unique insight to human mind, since computers were created in the image of a human mind. Many of the basic computer hardware and software concepts are duplication of evolution and mutation of brain, body, mind and life that occur in creation. Therefore, I have used basic computer terminology to explain some aspects of consciousness, life and creation. Many of the rare metaphysical experiences discussed here, such as reincarnation and intuition can now be verified on the YouTube.
<<< Slide 3 >>> THE META-PHYSICAL, MACRO PERSPECTIVE . . .
In this slide 3, Fig A, shows the various aspects of Hindu culture namely science, arts, technology, psychology, parapsychology, mysticism etc., based on a common philosophy of physical and metaphysical sciences. Since repeatable experiences are a precursor to pattern recognition, scientific
experiments and mathematical representation in formulae, the repeatable experiences in meta-physics of Hinduism leads the modern science, as it has been proven by quantum mechanics, relativity theory and by various other applied mind-sciences as shown in Fig B, below. This scientific meta- physical perspective is unique to Hinduism. In Fig B, the intuitive meta-physical perspective is shown on the vertical axis. It starts with emotions, leading to love, intuition, super consciousness and finally to divine consciousness. This intuitive Divine consciousness is a macro perspective of creation and therefore, it includes all aspects of Hindu philosophy and culture mentioned earlier. This is also the origin of intuitive pattern recognition as developed in Hindu yoga systems.
All life forms in the universe live in both the physical-material dimension and the emotional-spiritual dimension (Ref: Scientist & Animal Communicator: Anna Breytenbach on youTube). These two are mutually exclusive dimensions in the sense, one cannot explain the other. Our happiness and survival instincts are a part of emotional Y-dimension. This emotional dimension can be developed into an intuitive consciousness to optimize our life.
Unlike Hindu science which has formulated creation from both metaphysical and physical dimensions with procedures to attain optimum life in both aspects of life on earth, the modern science has focused exclusively on the physical-material science, to formulate a new language of truth in science. The downside of this focus has been a lopsided perspective of life on earth, which has created both personal and ecological harm in our organic earth. It has therefore become necessary for all Hindus to bring attention to the spiritual dimension of life on earth as it has been practiced in the past several millennia. In the last few centuries, this unique Hindu-Universal perspective has been over shadowed by the modern science because of disruption in Hindu spiritual culture in India, as a result of violent foreign invasions and colonialism. Therefore, it has now become necessary to use the truth established in physical science procedures to rebuild confidence in Hindu metaphysical dimension through pattern recognition in experiences, logic and experimental procedures, as stated in Hindu scriptures. This is the focus of this presentation.
The following discussion is based on analysis of pattern duplication between layers of consciousness in creation, which are similar to pattern duplication within our physical layer of creation (Ex: Genes). Patterns in the physical dimension are used to explain patterns in experiences in the meta- physical dimensions. These dimensions in creation correspond to our own states of consciousness as discussed in this presentation. This is explained in Hindu scriptures as “As is the micro system so is the macro system”. This is similar to a holographic definition of reality. This implies that the patterns are similar but the details differ.
<<< Slide 4 >>> MAPPING ‘GOD’, THE CONSCIOUSNESS . . .
In this slide 4, Fig A, we relate to still consciousness or Nirguna-Brahman as a static field of consciousness, which appears as void in a deep-sleep state. This is a field that covers the entire multi-dimensional creation. It exists everywhere, equally, with no center of radiation. The Static field of consciousness is shown as inanimate God. This is the “Self” or the “God” in all of creation. It is the cause of creation as dynamic consciousness, thoughts, energy, matter and life-energy. As dynamic consciousness, it has a center and a scope of radiation whether it is a thought or energy radiation. This is the reason for paranormal miracles or clairvoyance in “Siddha-Purushas” with highly evolved consciousness. The different aspects of inanimate creation combine to form animate life, shown here as skewed probability distribution of insects in Fig B. As shown, the bugs migrate away from a hotspot. This love of life is the first emotion in life as survival instinct. This is the sustainer of all life in creation. As this instinct evolved, it developed from survival instinct to selfish love and further on to unselfish love. Unselfish love is the starting point on the path to “Being God” in the meta-physical super consciousness, as explained in the following slides. The evolutionary stages of all life are: 1) Tamo-guna: body- instinct dominant evolution shown in green 2) Rajo-Guna: body-identity or
selfish-ego dependent evolution shown in Red and 3) Sattva-Guna: unselfishness based evolution to higher consciousness shown in Blue. All life forms in creation are a combination of these three Gunas or qualities, in various proportions. This is evolution in life, as consciousness responds to environmental forces and the inner emotional residues of previous lives in our soul or subconscious, as Karma.
<<< Slide 5 >>> EVOLUTION OF DYNAMIC CONSCIOUSNESS . . .
In this Slide 5, we explain the evolution of life from instinct to selfish love and further on to unselfish love and divinity. The evolution from instinct to selfishness is obvious from the comparative study of life-forms and through Darwin’s theories. This part of evolution is a natural environment-dependent phenomenon. Whereas, selfishness is an extension of instincts in most life forms, it has been developed in to a Rakshasa-guna or enjoyment of cruelty as an expression of extreme ego in humans, as both religious and colonial history has shown. This trend will continue in this modern world of limited resources and overpopulation, unless it is moderated by unselfishness or Sattva-Guna. Evolution of our subconscious beyond Sattva-Guna into super consciousness and divine qualities requires disciplined self-effort. This is shown with some examples on the graph: 1) Naturally harmonious humans, 2) Dedicated athletes, 3) Some animals, 4) Psychics 5) Siddhas: Super humans by self effort, 6) Devas: Harmonious Spirits, 7) OM: perception of God and finally 8) “God - the still consciousness” (the mathematical limit of absolute consciousness), which can be experienced as absolute love or Sat-Chit-Ananda (Eternal Awareness of Bliss) in “OM”. This is discussed in more detail in the next slide 6.
In a study by a Japanese university, the purpose of life in creation has been determined to be, to transport the genetic material of an organism over a period of its life-time. There is no other observable purpose beyond this, for all life forms. Only recently in Human time-scale, in India, the concept of higher consciousness was developed into a higher purpose in life, with experiments and procedures to experience this ‘Divine’ super-consciousness that transcends time-space or dynamic consciousness, as awareness. These are documented in Vedas and summarized in the Upanishads.
<<< Slide 6 >>> META-PHYSICAL PERCEPTION OF TIME & LIFE . . .
This Slide 6, is an important graphic representation of human consciousness from the perspective of emotions and rationality, which are orthogonal or mutually exclusive or unexplainable, from rational deductive point of view. However, this dimension can be experienced and explained by inductive logic and intuitive pattern recognition. Some of these can also be explained, partially by quantum mechanics (non-local communication, non-causality) and relativity. In this slide the vertical dimension is a nonlinear time scale of emotion, intuition and super consciousness that all life forms live in, most of the time, searching for the emotion of happiness and comfort. However, this aspect of emotional dimension has been mostly ignored by modern science until recently, since emotions cannot be quantified and rationalized as other sense perceptions. In this Slide 6, an attempt has been made to explain both physical (Apara) and meta-physical (Para/Adhyatama) experiences in life, as follows: 1) In the X-axis the physical dimension is represented by a linear time scale with blue arrows representing presence of mind, clarity of perception and thought. Red arrow is the noise created by ego-soul-mind and the green arrow is noise created body-brain instincts. These noise patterns, created by body instincts and selfish emotions, are supported by nature, and they prevent us from accessing the intuitive, super-conscious aspect of our emotional dimension. As we refine our presence of mind through meditation, love and objectivity, we reduce our body-brain (HW) and ego-soul (SW) noise resulting in clarity of thought, self-confidence, sensitivity and awareness. This awareness further develops into local, environmental and universal awareness, and later into super-conscious intuition. This is represented by a nonlinear time scale in semi- trance and trance states. As we move up the scale of intuition we access 1) the Spirit world of un-embodied souls (Ghosts), 2) The yogic world of siddhas with intuitive perception of past and future, and of body-soul trans-migration and creation of energy and matter by will-power, etc. 3) The perception of bliss of consciousness as OM 4) Irreversible absolute consciousness (Being-God). It is important to note the compression of time-space to stillness of time as event horizon, absolute love and absolute consciousness. This is close to the state of still consciousness we access, during deep-sleep in non-awareness and as bliss
or light of consciousness with awareness. This is also the origin of creation. This time scale is mentioned in Hindu scriptures, which state that our genetically limited sense perception creates an illusion of reality. This is also qualified by Einstein’s theory of relativity, as shown in this Slide 6. Transcending relative consciousness to access super consciousness, as we live a stable, happy life, is the Dharmic path of Karma-yoga and also the renunciate path of Dyana-yoga. Whereas results are the primary focus for materialism; in the spiritual path, unselfishness and the presence of mind are also the primary focus in life.
<<<Slide 6A>>> MEDITATION: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE SUBCONSCIOUSNESS
This Slide 6A, is a rational perspective on the process of meditation to access our inner strength, peace, happiness, creativity and super-consciousness, that exists in our deeper subconscious discussed in Slide 5. If and when our faith falters due to disappointments in life and our meditation is disturbed, rationality discussed in here is meant to support our faith and meditation and it is not intended to replace them.
The three Gunas that exist in the whole universe (shown in three colors), also exist in our conscious and the subconscious mind, preventing us from accessing deeper, super-consciousness. The path to super-consciousness is through 'absolute presence'. Therefore, we need to meditate/focus on ‘the time-space-less, 'absolute-present’ by ignoring our external and internal world of thoughts and emotions objectively and by not reacting to them. This implies ignoring our subconscious emotions of Karma, and the 'hard to ignore' body- brain-mind instincts, which are genetic programs by evolution.
Through dedicated, rigorous practice of ignoring these thought and emotional noise 'patterns' during meditation (THYAGA) and by focusing on the presence of mind or on experience of love in the heart (YOGA), we can harmonize and resonate with nature, thus enabling our intuitive communication with nature (Ref Slides: 9D&11C) through deeper consciousness. This intuition is a clear indication of our progress on the path to super consciousness (Ref: Pathanjali yoga sutras and also animal communicator, Anna Breytenbach on youTube).
To experience god as the unlimited multi-dimensional super-consciousness, we need to transcend the limited physical dimension of senses and associated brain-mind-body-Karma system, with the unlimited emotional path of Bhaktiyoga. In Bhaktiyoga, we transcend the limited physical dimension by surrendering our selfishness to our unselfishness ('Ego' to 'Self'). This opens us to unlimited, multi-dimensional super-consciousness through Universal love.
When Bhaktiyoga is a practiced as devotion and prayer to a creator-God or a Guru there is a need to assume perfection in God or Guru to eliminate incessant, irresolvable, doubts and thought patterns (Ref: Slide 12A), during prayers and meditation. This assumption is necessary, even though there is only transition in dynamic consciousness or creation, and therefore, no state of static perfection. In Bhaktiyoga, we appeal to an 'all powerful and perfect creator' to sustain our devotion, during prayer, meditation and mantra chanting. In India such devotion follows faith and surrender to an idealized God or Guru, who represents the 'Self' or Universal love. The intent of the seeker is to experience God (or merging in God) by purifying our conscious and the subconscious mind, with divine love. This process also stabilizes our life with a positive, peaceful and loving disposition. This is the result of a faith and surrender based devotional mantra chanting to the divine. Since Hindus are seeker of the divine experience or Moksha, this mantra is termed 'Moksha mantra' in this discussion, to distinguish from 'Dharma mantra', which is used to stabilize the conscious mind through positive self reinforcement or auto suggestion as discussed here. These are further discussed in Slides 12&13.
The faith based 'Moksha mantra' purifies our subconscious with love, which then purifies conscious mind thus integrating our mind to provide a successful, happy, stable life of devotion. If this faith in our idealized God or Guru falters or is lost, due to some unexpected disappointments in life, prayers and meditation may be compromised or even stopped thus ending the spiritual quest. In this situation, if the process of meditation and integration of mind is supported by reason, then, rationality can help us regain and sustain our faith in the process of prayer and meditation to attain divine consciousness.
As shown in Slide 6A, thyaga is a process of ignoring our mind except for the Mantra during meditation. Yoga is a process of experiencing the feeling of unselfish love in the heart and ignoring all other emotions. This process clears our subconscious to create a complete presence of mind to access super- conscious intuition. The Presence of mind created during meditation is sustained during the rest of the day through an objective, responsive way of life instead of a reactive way of life, with courage to let-go irrelevant past and future fears, desires and thoughts. This is the Dharmic path of a Raja-Rishi, who attains super-consciousness by accepting social responsibility of Dharma- Karmayoga, instead of the renunciate path of Sanyasa of a Brahma-Rishi, who renounces social responsibilities to focus on attaining the Divine.
If you are a rationalist and do not believe in faith, you start with reprogramming the conscious and the subconscious mind with a Dharma- mantra as discussed in Slide 12-C&D. This rational process of chanting positive thoughts creates a positive, stable life style and it leads us to the art of stabilizing our emotions by meditating on love in the heart as Bhaktiyoga and later, it becomes a life style as Dharma-Karmayoga. Dharma-Karmayoga is the path to God or absolute consciousness. This is possible since absolute presence of mind, absolute love, absolute consciousness and God, are all one and the same experience of a trance state close to still consciousness shown in the graph as ‘OM'. Slide 6A can help us improve our presence of mind during routine work or during walking-meditation (Ref: Slide 12C) in 3 stages: 1) Reprogramming our 'cache' memory in the conscious mind with positive thought patterns by chanting "Dharma mantra". 2) Reinforcing and energizing subconscious motivation by chanting the 'Karma mantra': "Hardwork-Courage- Love-Presence". 3) Creating presence of my mind at the 'heart-chakra' by chanting the word "presence" or a faith based 'Moksha-mantra', to access still consciousness 'OM' (Ref: 11D). This meditation process is shown graphically, as spirals in Slide 6A. These symbolic steps can be very effective in meditation. The graph of 6A depicts a rational structure for meditation that can be used during meditation as a tool or 'Yantra' to help focus on the mantra and the purpose of meditation. This Yantra gives an alternate visual macro view of meditation to sustain the micro focus on the mantra chanting.
We need science/rationality to stabilize the rational left brain-mind and we need art/love/spirituality to stabilize emotional right brain-mind, to access super-consciousness. The Dharma-mantra acts as a firewall for random thoughts during the day and enables us to meditate on the experience of love in our heart with presence of mind. This experience, when absolute, is the same as the experience of still consciousness, absolute unselfish love, ‘God’ and bliss. Since Dharma-mantra reprograms the conscious mind, the meanings of words are important. For those who have intuitive faith/devotion/love for a God, Guru or a scripture, a faith based mantra (termed ‘Moksha mantra’ in this discussion) can be used instead of the word 'presence' as a mantra, as it has been practiced in India for millennia. In the Moksha mantra, the reverence and love we have for the source of the mantra is of importance.
If meditation and mantra chanting are based on fear of God or on material reward or on religious exclusivity, it is a blind faith and it will fail as a path to experience 'God'. If faith is based on intuitive, unselfish love of ‘God’, it can be due to past life experience of God as unconditional love. Such people of faith are born with a ‘Satvic’ or unselfish disposition similar to ‘avatars’ and the path of Bhakti-Karmayoga is ‘natural’ or intuitive for them, similar to the intuitively chosen path of Dhyanayoga by the renunciate Sanyasi-s.
<<< Slide 6B >>> BHAKTI-KARMA YOGA THE ESSENCE OF SPIRITUALITY.
The Yantra or the Object of meditation used in 6A is inverted for Bhakti-Karmayoga as shown in 6B. To a faith based Bhaktiyogi or a Devotee, God is personified as an external Object higher in status and superior in all aspects of creation. Therefore he is above all of creation as shown in Fig 6B. For a Jnanayogi god is a field of still consciousness in all of universe, achievable by meditating on the field of absolute, still consciousness (OM), as Dhyanayoga, by ignoring all thoughts and emotions, as discussed in Slide 6A and Slide 13.
The inverted Yantra in 6B is the same as in 6A except for, the object of meditation becomes an object for ritualistic devotional worship also. This rationalized Yantra 6B, helps us stabilize faith aspect in Bhaktiyoga which is based on relative love and emotions. Bhakti-Karmayoga is based on Devotion to personal Devatas/Gods or Gurus, practiced through community gatherings, festivals, rituals, Satsang, Bhajans, Poojas, Ishtadevatas, Vigrahas, Yantras, mantras, etc. These multiple paths and the associated scriptures may sometimes cause doubts, contradictions or even lack of faith. However, all these different paths and associated scriptures, rituals and procedures are meant to help us be tolerant in life and focus our personal, harmonious spiritual path in this dualistic, sometimes contradictory world we live in. Bhakti- Karmayoga is ideal for Dharma-Karmayogis who works in a diverse social environment. This is exemplified by religions originated in Hinduism. Whereas Moksha is the default state for adaptive Dharma, which is based on unselfish effort (Thyaga) and unselfish love (Yoga), the renunciate path of Sanyasa deals with absolute, still consciousness beyond the multi-layered consciousness, including the physical dimension, as shown in Figs 8-D & 9-D. This necessitates renunciation of social responsibilities and meditation in isolation on absolute consciousness as Dhyanayoga. But the Dharmic path of a Karmayogi leads to the same goal of Moksha by prioritizing the choices in life on the unselfish path of Dharma and Karmayoga as discussed in the four stages of life in Fig. 16-C.
It is believed in Hindu spiritual culture that Gods or Devatas, when worshiped with devotion and love, for a long periods of time by a large
population, will create states of common consciousness in the 'spiritual world', as 'Lokas', shown in Fig 9-D, which have a desired, positive influence on our life.
<<< Slide 7 >>> BRAIN AS AN INTERFACE TO UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS . . .
This Slide 7, is a discussion of human brain as an interface to universal consciousness. Here computer analogy is used, since computers were created in the image of human brain (HW) and thought process (SW). The evolution of brain in all life forms depends on intentions, thoughts and their environment. This is similar to frequently repeated software functions being replaced by firmware and later by hardware in computers. This is no coincidence, we could only design computers in the image of our own brain-mind, and there is no other choice! This slide 7, shows the evolution of brain stem in three stages
and, the left and the right hemispheres based on demands put on the original brain stem by the evolving animal species. Further, the split in the cerebral cortex in to left and right hemispheres indicates Nature’s way of dealing with, rational, selfish, body-dependent ego of the talking (Broca’s area) left brain and the orthogonal (Ref: slide 6), unselfish, artistic, emotional, harmonious right brain that can go beyond rationality to higher layers of consciousness through love, intuition and Bhakti-yoga (please watch on YouTube: Neuro-scientist, Jill Bolte Taylor and also: Pineal gland and Limbic system on: Intuition, consciousness, love, emotions and DMT - the spirit molecule). In short, the path to higher consciousness is to silence the talking, selfish (body-centered), left brain and enhance the unselfish awareness in the right brain and unselfish love in