Memory Holds The Door
Deepak Ranade, Jun 26, 2010, 12.00am IST
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Tags:writer|Deepak RanadeNostalgia|consultant neurosurgeon
Nostalgia is often a pleasurable pain. But pain, nonetheless. Unpleasant memories could create bitterness while pleasant memories tend to fill one with happiness and a desire to relive the experience. Some perceive nostalgia as part of emotional baggage, and question its biological relevance.
From an anthropological standpoint, remembering where the waterholes were in a situation where the supply of water is never constant is a valuable memory input. Similarly, knowledge of the precise location of food sources is important when supply tends to fluctuate. As a recording device, memory provides vital information in trying situations. However, the bank is also filled with a wide-ranging mix of seemingly trivial and redundant data.
The colour of the dress your first date wore on that first day, the tears that coursed down your mother's cheeks after she'd spanked you and the fight you had with your classmate in school over jumping the queue these are all recorded somewhere in our memory bank. In fact, our identity and ego are but an aggregate of all recorded data. Individual identities take shape on the basis of all past events and feelings, experiences and situations that find place in a corner of the brain. Cognitive focus or concentration lends a criticality to this unique and biological data processing system.
Perception, too, plays a crucial role in this recording mechanism. What is assimilated and stored is an outcome of what is perceived. A pragmatic person may therefore not perceive an event in a complex way. If a pragmatic person's friend or colleague encountered him on the street and passed by without a greeting, such a person he would record it as an event, a megabyte of mere oversight. But someone with a more complex perception could interpret this as part of a grand conspiracy. His memory would record it not just as an event megabyte; it would perhaps be a gigabyte of associative emotional data.
Studies have shown that the most vivid autobiographical memories have been of emotional events rather than of any empirical or neutral event. Consciousness is the turntable that keeps rotating while ego is the pin that records grooves on the record. Memories are grooves made by ego on unformatted consciousness. Identity is consciousness formatted by the perceptive ego.
The sense of self as a discrete entity makes all awareness an interaction between self and environment. Interaction is all about duality. But in moments of extreme pleasure or thrill, there is no interaction; there is only a sense of being.
There is an invisible time zone between self and environment. The sense of discreteness disappears momentarily. In those fleeting moments, there is nothing to record. The present has no access to any data. In fact, the present is the moment just prior to the beginning of the process of recording. The dominant temporal lobe is the warehouse of all data. It is an integral part of the limbic system that is phylogenically the oldest in the evolution of the brain. It was linked with emotional responses required for survival and reproduction.
Considering that the limbic system is one of the oldest, all emotional augmenting of mundane events are perhaps vestiges of primitive behaviour, and so is not evolved. In this context, a patient suffering loss of memory may be temporarily or otherwise `liberated' from stored data and its effects, though this is a source of anguish for near and dear ones.
The writer is a consultant neurosurgeon. www.neuroconsciousness.blogspot.com
Friday, June 25, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Divine understanding
DEEPAK M RANADE, TOI Crest, Apr 3, 2010, 01.40pm IST
Article
Tags:Faith|divine|Ego|intellectDivine understanding God was born out of the interface between man's intellect and its limitations, forcing the intellect to surrender to faith, says Deepak M Ranade. But can faith ever be challenged by intellect?
Ego is a sense of doer-ship. Every action is purported with a presumed control of the outcome. If the outcome is on expected lines, it gratifies the ego, and reinforces the sense of doer-ship . If the outcome is unfavourable, the ego gets slighted. The unfavourable outcome questions the scope or influence of the doer. The intellect cannot accept the arbitrary nature of outcomes or events. Failure to predict the outcome of any endeavour exposes the limitation of its control. This limitation is then assigned various nomenclatures such as destiny, luck, and karma. The futility of analytical thought also coerces the ego to seek recourse in an abstraction called God.
God was born out of the interface between man’s intellect and its limitations. History is also testimony to the then incomprehensible phenomena like lightning being interpreted as events orchestrated by celestial powers. The influence of God gradually invaded a wider perimeter of life. God became a convenient instrument of ensuring a code of ethics in the social fabric. The limitation of comprehension continued to remain the substrate of belief in God.
Belief began where intellect ended. So did the abstraction called God. Belief and intellect are strange bedfellows. Belief is necessarily ipso facto. It cannot forge an alliance with any rational thought. Each culture proclaimed its own messiah and advocated its own doctrines not always based on sanction or rationality. Rather, every unique interpretation of this abstraction cleaved society. The abstract caught the imagination of the intellect and forced it to surrender to faith. Faith could never be challenged by intellect.
Faith became a cornerstone to make the vagaries of life palatable. It also provided a resting ground for the intellectual juggernaut. Faith surreptitiously clouded rational intellect to a point of self-destruction . It transformed abstraction to aberration. The gaps in our understanding apparently decreased with the advent and progress of science. But scientific progress never eliminated the gaps completely. Rather, it made the conundrum of Creation even more bizarre. The phenomenon of lightning was explained by modern science. But this puzzle was replaced by the dilemma over the nature of light which still remains unexplained. Is light a particle or wave? The deficiency in intellectual comprehension only modified itself, from the macro to the nano.
The unpredictable nature of the subatomic world continues to perplex even the sharpest of intellectuals. Belief, nonetheless, could not restrain the intellect to seek answers. Ironically, the intellect continued seeking answers for what it had earlier relegated to the realm of incomprehensibility. The intellect started seeking answers for what had been its nemesis, namely, God. What symbolised its own failure became a subject of its study. Before attempting to comprehend God, it was vital to first comprehend the Self.
A student of science could study any subject but would be incapable of making the Self a subject of its own study. Experiment can never investigate the Self, which is an experience of awareness. Experience transcended intelligence. A paradigm shift is needed to be able to comprehend the abstraction that we call God. This could be made possible when we move from the ambit of experiment to experience. It will require sublimation of intellectual faculties to a point of heightened awareness, elevating awareness to become all-encompassing and all-inclusive that would end the subject-object dichotomy. The only way to understand God would be to become one.
(The writer is a consultant neuro-surgeon)
DEEPAK M RANADE, TOI Crest, Apr 3, 2010, 01.40pm IST
Article
Tags:Faith|divine|Ego|intellectDivine understanding God was born out of the interface between man's intellect and its limitations, forcing the intellect to surrender to faith, says Deepak M Ranade. But can faith ever be challenged by intellect?
Ego is a sense of doer-ship. Every action is purported with a presumed control of the outcome. If the outcome is on expected lines, it gratifies the ego, and reinforces the sense of doer-ship . If the outcome is unfavourable, the ego gets slighted. The unfavourable outcome questions the scope or influence of the doer. The intellect cannot accept the arbitrary nature of outcomes or events. Failure to predict the outcome of any endeavour exposes the limitation of its control. This limitation is then assigned various nomenclatures such as destiny, luck, and karma. The futility of analytical thought also coerces the ego to seek recourse in an abstraction called God.
God was born out of the interface between man’s intellect and its limitations. History is also testimony to the then incomprehensible phenomena like lightning being interpreted as events orchestrated by celestial powers. The influence of God gradually invaded a wider perimeter of life. God became a convenient instrument of ensuring a code of ethics in the social fabric. The limitation of comprehension continued to remain the substrate of belief in God.
Belief began where intellect ended. So did the abstraction called God. Belief and intellect are strange bedfellows. Belief is necessarily ipso facto. It cannot forge an alliance with any rational thought. Each culture proclaimed its own messiah and advocated its own doctrines not always based on sanction or rationality. Rather, every unique interpretation of this abstraction cleaved society. The abstract caught the imagination of the intellect and forced it to surrender to faith. Faith could never be challenged by intellect.
Faith became a cornerstone to make the vagaries of life palatable. It also provided a resting ground for the intellectual juggernaut. Faith surreptitiously clouded rational intellect to a point of self-destruction . It transformed abstraction to aberration. The gaps in our understanding apparently decreased with the advent and progress of science. But scientific progress never eliminated the gaps completely. Rather, it made the conundrum of Creation even more bizarre. The phenomenon of lightning was explained by modern science. But this puzzle was replaced by the dilemma over the nature of light which still remains unexplained. Is light a particle or wave? The deficiency in intellectual comprehension only modified itself, from the macro to the nano.
The unpredictable nature of the subatomic world continues to perplex even the sharpest of intellectuals. Belief, nonetheless, could not restrain the intellect to seek answers. Ironically, the intellect continued seeking answers for what it had earlier relegated to the realm of incomprehensibility. The intellect started seeking answers for what had been its nemesis, namely, God. What symbolised its own failure became a subject of its study. Before attempting to comprehend God, it was vital to first comprehend the Self.
A student of science could study any subject but would be incapable of making the Self a subject of its own study. Experiment can never investigate the Self, which is an experience of awareness. Experience transcended intelligence. A paradigm shift is needed to be able to comprehend the abstraction that we call God. This could be made possible when we move from the ambit of experiment to experience. It will require sublimation of intellectual faculties to a point of heightened awareness, elevating awareness to become all-encompassing and all-inclusive that would end the subject-object dichotomy. The only way to understand God would be to become one.
(The writer is a consultant neuro-surgeon)
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Latest article in Speaking Tree
An esoteric perspective: I, me, myself, who?
DEEPAK RANADE, 8 January 2010, 12:00am ISTText Size:|Topics:speaking tree
The fundamental constituent of the consciousness construct is ‘am-ness’. It is the inconspicuous motor that powers consciousness.
It is too intangible to comprehend but is the substratum of our ‘being-ness’. Intellect, mind and thoughts are derivatives of this primordial being-ness.
Being-ness is a priori and precludes any acquired knowledge or conditioning. The am-ness drives awareness and animates the Self. The Self, veiled by identity and ego, is oblivious to this am-ness, which is its very source. It merges into the form, giving the form an illusion of control and doer-ship. Am-ness is in all life forms.
Fighting to sustain am-ness is one of the most primeval instincts. But then this fight for survival is by, of and for the form. Not for the am-ness that vitalises the form. To remain in the state of being-ness is meditation. To dwell in the am-ness unadulterated by any form, identity, ego or desire is not easy. Lapsing into illusions created by the mind is inevitable. Illusion is a sensory ‘warp’. Creation is an illusion that is spun as a web by the mind and intellect on the substrate of ‘being’.
It is a film running on the screen of am-ness. Reverting to the state of being-ness requires effort. To know that pure being-ness is the nature of the true Self is knowledge and realisation. The falsely identified self constantly needs to reaffirm itself through gratification by sensory stimulation. Am-ness does not seek any gratification or reaffirmation since it is unidentified being-ness.
Am-ness is the precursor of the mind and intellect. It is pure consciousness. It is unaffected by time and form. Pure consciousness will remain eternally even after the temporary form is extinguished. It is just that it will become impersonalised. Am-ness is also called the soul or atman. Am-ness will remain undifferentiated consciousness until it inhabits a mind-body form, somewhat like the undifferentiated primal cell wherein life begins.
The single celled zygote, the first cell, has the ability to differentiate into any cell of the body. A variety of cells and tissues each functioning autonomically eventually has not even a remote semblance to the original, each still carrying the torch of am-ness that was lit by the initial flame of life.
To identify with am-ness, one has to remove all the veils one has acquired in the course of time – name, identity, beliefs, concepts and “knowledge”. Meditation serves to gradually dissolve all illusion and at the end just leaves a residual am-ness that is the state of Brahmn. All identities, objects and concepts are time-bound and are mere mirages. They are fleeting and temporary.
Am-ness is self-effacing; it is unidentifiable in the form. It is beyond concept. The mind cannot conceive its predecessor. Am-ness is sookshma or intangible. The mind works in the realm of the sthoola , or the tangible. Intelligence and thought tend to abjectly deny the intangible. These derivatives then detach from the stalk of their origin and become autonomous.
This autonomy manifests as ego and identity. These are all pseudo-entities, null and void in the absence of am-ness that is the source as well as object of Creation.
The writer is a consultant neurosurgeon. E-mail: deepakranade@hotmail.com. Blog: www.neuroconsciousness@blogspot.com
DEEPAK RANADE, 8 January 2010, 12:00am ISTText Size:|Topics:speaking tree
The fundamental constituent of the consciousness construct is ‘am-ness’. It is the inconspicuous motor that powers consciousness.
It is too intangible to comprehend but is the substratum of our ‘being-ness’. Intellect, mind and thoughts are derivatives of this primordial being-ness.
Being-ness is a priori and precludes any acquired knowledge or conditioning. The am-ness drives awareness and animates the Self. The Self, veiled by identity and ego, is oblivious to this am-ness, which is its very source. It merges into the form, giving the form an illusion of control and doer-ship. Am-ness is in all life forms.
Fighting to sustain am-ness is one of the most primeval instincts. But then this fight for survival is by, of and for the form. Not for the am-ness that vitalises the form. To remain in the state of being-ness is meditation. To dwell in the am-ness unadulterated by any form, identity, ego or desire is not easy. Lapsing into illusions created by the mind is inevitable. Illusion is a sensory ‘warp’. Creation is an illusion that is spun as a web by the mind and intellect on the substrate of ‘being’.
It is a film running on the screen of am-ness. Reverting to the state of being-ness requires effort. To know that pure being-ness is the nature of the true Self is knowledge and realisation. The falsely identified self constantly needs to reaffirm itself through gratification by sensory stimulation. Am-ness does not seek any gratification or reaffirmation since it is unidentified being-ness.
Am-ness is the precursor of the mind and intellect. It is pure consciousness. It is unaffected by time and form. Pure consciousness will remain eternally even after the temporary form is extinguished. It is just that it will become impersonalised. Am-ness is also called the soul or atman. Am-ness will remain undifferentiated consciousness until it inhabits a mind-body form, somewhat like the undifferentiated primal cell wherein life begins.
The single celled zygote, the first cell, has the ability to differentiate into any cell of the body. A variety of cells and tissues each functioning autonomically eventually has not even a remote semblance to the original, each still carrying the torch of am-ness that was lit by the initial flame of life.
To identify with am-ness, one has to remove all the veils one has acquired in the course of time – name, identity, beliefs, concepts and “knowledge”. Meditation serves to gradually dissolve all illusion and at the end just leaves a residual am-ness that is the state of Brahmn. All identities, objects and concepts are time-bound and are mere mirages. They are fleeting and temporary.
Am-ness is self-effacing; it is unidentifiable in the form. It is beyond concept. The mind cannot conceive its predecessor. Am-ness is sookshma or intangible. The mind works in the realm of the sthoola , or the tangible. Intelligence and thought tend to abjectly deny the intangible. These derivatives then detach from the stalk of their origin and become autonomous.
This autonomy manifests as ego and identity. These are all pseudo-entities, null and void in the absence of am-ness that is the source as well as object of Creation.
The writer is a consultant neurosurgeon. E-mail: deepakranade@hotmail.com. Blog: www.neuroconsciousness@blogspot.com
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
To adapt and innovate is to survive and evolve
DEEPAK RANADE29 December 2009, 12:00am ISTText Size:|Topics:speaking tree
spirituality
destiny
Belief
Belief in prefixed programmes or destiny provides us with back-end logic to arbitrarily occurring events. It absolves us of our contribution to To adapt and inovate is to survive and evolve
(Getty Images)
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failure or with having to deal with ‘effort to outcome’ incongruence.
Our evolution as humans has transported us from the jungles to the moon. It bears testimony to the human ability to analyse, strategise, adapt and progress. A belief in the preordained would be a discredit to evolution. It would discount phenomenal human endeavour which has always shone through the darkest clouds of despondence.
Has free will given us the power of adaptation? Adaptation is a dynamic process that delves into the deepest recesses of creativity. Overcoming adversity is what stimulates growth and development.
Failure lures the weak mind to succumb to fatalism and so one finds it convenient to give in to passive submission. Free will, if exercised, can empower. It provides us with the freedom to spread our wings; to endeavour to soar in the vast skies of achievement. To experience, to grow, to create. The indomitability of the human spirit has nurtured evolution and helped us overcome our limitations.
Facing situations squarely requires a realistic appraisal of the problem and assessing the entire spectrum of available options diligently. Assigning cosmic design or any form of inevitability to events would be defeatist. Evolution of the human brain has provided us with the power of intelligence and discrimination.
We can prevail over our hormones, instincts and beliefs. Free will is also a double-edged weapon that can breed fear and doubt. The flower never needed anyone to predict its ability to blossom. The hatchling is oblivious to any speculation of its taking flight.
The deterministic nature of a system does not make it predictable. This is what the chaos theory propounds. The `butterfly effect’ -- a very small variation in the initial starting conditions having a tremendous impact on the final outcome – makes any predictive pattern far less reliable. The butterfly effect makes a triviality such as which side one got off the bed cascade incomprehensibly to events far beyond the scope of any predictive system.
All predictive models are based on statistical analysis, and at best can quantify the probability of an event occurring. The quantum theory also predicts that any conceivable outcome, even of walking through a wall, has a probability of occurring. Till that event actually happens, the wave function of every conceivable event abounds. In the medical profession, too, statistics are at best deterministic. They give a general trend and are ineffective from a predictive standpoint in an individual case.
The desire to know and enforce specific outcomes stems from the ego. It assumes the ability to control the environment. Free will gives the freedom to alter and manipulate inputs. It does not empower us with any control over the outcomes. Having no knowledge of or control over the outcome is a pre-condition to expression of free will.
A prefixed scheme or destiny would render free will meaningless. All actions would be mere formality that has to precede the inevitable and foregone outcome. An act becomes meaningless only in retrospect once the outcome is known. Prospectively all action is meaningful.
Certainty shackles and stifles spontaneity. Uncertainty truly liberates. A limitless potential to unfold in limitless ways. It conceives the improbable. Achievements are preceded by dreams which thrive only in the realm of improbability and uncertainty.
The inability to control or predict outcomes makes free will thrive. Unpredictability emphasises the importance of action. It underlines the beauty of the journey rather than obsession about the destination.
The writer is a consultant neurosurgeon. Email: deepakranade@hotmail.com.
Blog: www.neuroconsciousness.blogspot.com
DEEPAK RANADE29 December 2009, 12:00am ISTText Size:|Topics:speaking tree
spirituality
destiny
Belief
Belief in prefixed programmes or destiny provides us with back-end logic to arbitrarily occurring events. It absolves us of our contribution to To adapt and inovate is to survive and evolve
(Getty Images)
Twitter Facebook Share
Email Print Save Comment
failure or with having to deal with ‘effort to outcome’ incongruence.
Our evolution as humans has transported us from the jungles to the moon. It bears testimony to the human ability to analyse, strategise, adapt and progress. A belief in the preordained would be a discredit to evolution. It would discount phenomenal human endeavour which has always shone through the darkest clouds of despondence.
Has free will given us the power of adaptation? Adaptation is a dynamic process that delves into the deepest recesses of creativity. Overcoming adversity is what stimulates growth and development.
Failure lures the weak mind to succumb to fatalism and so one finds it convenient to give in to passive submission. Free will, if exercised, can empower. It provides us with the freedom to spread our wings; to endeavour to soar in the vast skies of achievement. To experience, to grow, to create. The indomitability of the human spirit has nurtured evolution and helped us overcome our limitations.
Facing situations squarely requires a realistic appraisal of the problem and assessing the entire spectrum of available options diligently. Assigning cosmic design or any form of inevitability to events would be defeatist. Evolution of the human brain has provided us with the power of intelligence and discrimination.
We can prevail over our hormones, instincts and beliefs. Free will is also a double-edged weapon that can breed fear and doubt. The flower never needed anyone to predict its ability to blossom. The hatchling is oblivious to any speculation of its taking flight.
The deterministic nature of a system does not make it predictable. This is what the chaos theory propounds. The `butterfly effect’ -- a very small variation in the initial starting conditions having a tremendous impact on the final outcome – makes any predictive pattern far less reliable. The butterfly effect makes a triviality such as which side one got off the bed cascade incomprehensibly to events far beyond the scope of any predictive system.
All predictive models are based on statistical analysis, and at best can quantify the probability of an event occurring. The quantum theory also predicts that any conceivable outcome, even of walking through a wall, has a probability of occurring. Till that event actually happens, the wave function of every conceivable event abounds. In the medical profession, too, statistics are at best deterministic. They give a general trend and are ineffective from a predictive standpoint in an individual case.
The desire to know and enforce specific outcomes stems from the ego. It assumes the ability to control the environment. Free will gives the freedom to alter and manipulate inputs. It does not empower us with any control over the outcomes. Having no knowledge of or control over the outcome is a pre-condition to expression of free will.
A prefixed scheme or destiny would render free will meaningless. All actions would be mere formality that has to precede the inevitable and foregone outcome. An act becomes meaningless only in retrospect once the outcome is known. Prospectively all action is meaningful.
Certainty shackles and stifles spontaneity. Uncertainty truly liberates. A limitless potential to unfold in limitless ways. It conceives the improbable. Achievements are preceded by dreams which thrive only in the realm of improbability and uncertainty.
The inability to control or predict outcomes makes free will thrive. Unpredictability emphasises the importance of action. It underlines the beauty of the journey rather than obsession about the destination.
The writer is a consultant neurosurgeon. Email: deepakranade@hotmail.com.
Blog: www.neuroconsciousness.blogspot.com
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Publication: Times Of India Delhi; Date: Nov 9, 2009; Section: Editorial; Page: 16
THE SPEAKING TREE
Liberation Is Freedom From The Finite
Deepak M Ranade
Form is a wave perceived by the ocean of consciousness in an attempt to understand its own formlessness. This duality is imagined and the sense of am-ness crystallises as a discrete entity that thrives on other forms or cognising entities to assert its own form. It seeks cognisance from other forms to recognise its own transient form. What is eternal is the formlessness that is the precursor of form.
Form is obsessed with tangibility. The sense organs are mere instruments to reinforce this belief in form as the true self. The form continues to believe it is a discrete independent entity. It has total conviction in these deceptive sensory modalities of perception.
Relativity is based on the fact that perception changes as the observer’s state changes. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle also underlines the shortcomings of our sensory perceptive modalities, where the senses cannot determine the precise position and velocity of a particle simultaneously.
Sensory modalities can never fathom formlessness. Formlessness transcends the senses. When form has to decipher the formless it must first abandon the conviction of its own form. The brain has various centres which serve as destinations for perceptive inputs. It therefore has a strong discriminatory ability to separate the subject from the object. This discrimination is mediated via the sense organs and is the most powerful tool for effecting duality. Comprehension is totally a derivative of the sense organs.
There are many ‘silent areas’ in the brain whose exact function is not known. These areas could be mediating supra-sensory cognition, cognition that is not based on a subject-object dichotomy, cognition that uses itself to recognise itself. Awareness of the true self is beyond the mediation of conventional sensory modalities and the dichotomy of knower and knowledge. There is nothing like ignorance because ignorance also is a manifestation of awareness. Awareness itself manifests as knowledge or ignorance.
Consciousness exists as both personalised and impersonalised states. Impersonalised consciousness is supra-sensory. It just exists and does not need a cognitive entity as a medium to be aware of itself. It does not have any time space definitions because these are for the finite. The Infinite Unmanifest has the privilege of manifesting as the finite. But the finite has severe limitations in perceiving the Infinite. Its identity as a finite entity is based on amnesia of its infiniteness.
Creation is the dream of consciousness. There is no logic to this dream. Realisation is when consciousness awakes from its own dream. Till consciousness is in a dream state, illusion persists. The brain is a programme for effecting the dream of consciousness. Myriad forms of creation exist merely as functions of this cognitive programme.
Matter or form owes its existence to this programme of deception. This programme also has software that ensures total belief in the illusion that it creates. Any attempt to understand the self – as just a manifestation of the formless – is futile in the dream state. The entity that endeavours to do so is also part of that dream. Therefore, liberation is not of a person but from the person. Liberation is deliverance from the finite and its futile attempts to comprehend the infinite. It is when the infinite wakes up from the dream of being finite – cognition that can recognise itself as absolute and not resort to duality to assert itself.
The writer is a consultant neurosurgeon. E-mail: deepakranade@hotmail.com
THE SPEAKING TREE
Liberation Is Freedom From The Finite
Deepak M Ranade
Form is a wave perceived by the ocean of consciousness in an attempt to understand its own formlessness. This duality is imagined and the sense of am-ness crystallises as a discrete entity that thrives on other forms or cognising entities to assert its own form. It seeks cognisance from other forms to recognise its own transient form. What is eternal is the formlessness that is the precursor of form.
Form is obsessed with tangibility. The sense organs are mere instruments to reinforce this belief in form as the true self. The form continues to believe it is a discrete independent entity. It has total conviction in these deceptive sensory modalities of perception.
Relativity is based on the fact that perception changes as the observer’s state changes. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle also underlines the shortcomings of our sensory perceptive modalities, where the senses cannot determine the precise position and velocity of a particle simultaneously.
Sensory modalities can never fathom formlessness. Formlessness transcends the senses. When form has to decipher the formless it must first abandon the conviction of its own form. The brain has various centres which serve as destinations for perceptive inputs. It therefore has a strong discriminatory ability to separate the subject from the object. This discrimination is mediated via the sense organs and is the most powerful tool for effecting duality. Comprehension is totally a derivative of the sense organs.
There are many ‘silent areas’ in the brain whose exact function is not known. These areas could be mediating supra-sensory cognition, cognition that is not based on a subject-object dichotomy, cognition that uses itself to recognise itself. Awareness of the true self is beyond the mediation of conventional sensory modalities and the dichotomy of knower and knowledge. There is nothing like ignorance because ignorance also is a manifestation of awareness. Awareness itself manifests as knowledge or ignorance.
Consciousness exists as both personalised and impersonalised states. Impersonalised consciousness is supra-sensory. It just exists and does not need a cognitive entity as a medium to be aware of itself. It does not have any time space definitions because these are for the finite. The Infinite Unmanifest has the privilege of manifesting as the finite. But the finite has severe limitations in perceiving the Infinite. Its identity as a finite entity is based on amnesia of its infiniteness.
Creation is the dream of consciousness. There is no logic to this dream. Realisation is when consciousness awakes from its own dream. Till consciousness is in a dream state, illusion persists. The brain is a programme for effecting the dream of consciousness. Myriad forms of creation exist merely as functions of this cognitive programme.
Matter or form owes its existence to this programme of deception. This programme also has software that ensures total belief in the illusion that it creates. Any attempt to understand the self – as just a manifestation of the formless – is futile in the dream state. The entity that endeavours to do so is also part of that dream. Therefore, liberation is not of a person but from the person. Liberation is deliverance from the finite and its futile attempts to comprehend the infinite. It is when the infinite wakes up from the dream of being finite – cognition that can recognise itself as absolute and not resort to duality to assert itself.
The writer is a consultant neurosurgeon. E-mail: deepakranade@hotmail.com
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Dont look too far for solutions
Don't Look Too Far For Solutions
Deepak Ranade16 October 2009, 12:01am IST
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Change is the inevitability of life. Our interpretation of change determines our attitude and approach to life. What is apparently beneficial is
accepted without any fuss. When it comes to accepting the inconvenient and the unpleasant, there begins conflict and resentment. However, the seemingly hopeless situations that are very painful to deal with are also instruments of change. ''What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly,'' wrote Richard Bach.
Every seemingly hopeless situation is pregnant with the potential to effect improvement. It's just that one usually looks at the problem in a way that's too upfront. That creates a myopic perspective in dealing with the problem.
Like Godel's theorem, which states that no part of a system can comprehend the system as long as it is an integral part of the system. As we distance ourselves from the problem, and have a bird's-eye perspective, we can begin to see the issue in another light. Anticipation of the problem always tends to magnify the event and imagine it to be much more frightful. Anticipation should prepare, not scare.
A rigid approach that expects things to happen in a specific way only makes matters worse. The ability to adapt is what can make things better. Rigidity limits available options. It severely handicaps creativity, which is considered the mother of solutions. Serendipity happens only because the mind is open and willing to look at the same thing differently.
An alternative viewpoint is critical to make the most of any given situation. The severest of problems have more often than not brought out the best from many individuals. Isn't it also said: "Necessity is the mother of invention"?
The process of strategising while solving a problem throws up many facets of ourselves that we never knew existed. Adversity has been a blessing often enough and ought to be respected rather than feared. Complications arise most often because we take things personally and too seriously. Surrender only destroys self-esteem. Fighting enhances it. The difference between the two is just a matter of attitude.
Helplessness is a state of the mind. Most successful businessmen and corporate executives are paid for their ability to keep cool in the most trying of circumstances. They probably begin where others stop trying. Fixing the blame is not what absolves one of failure. Fixing the problem is the only redemption.
Anger, fear, resentment and frustration only muddle neural networks. They are mere manifestations of the fight, flight or fright response. What is actually needed is a right, bright and trite response. This response can only be attained with a calm and controlled thought process. Knee-jerk responses are just reflexes without any form of cerebration. They are most often fruitless. A deliberate, conscious effort needs to be inculcated to programme a conditioned response.
A positive approach is a big help, as it tends to activate the right brain, the one that has great intuitive abilities. The most appropriate response to any problem would be whole-brained. That is with both the right and left hemispheres giving their inputs. The dominant half ^ the left brain in right-handed persons and right brain in left-handed persons ^ enables analysis, logic and assessment. It tends to be a fragmentary approach. The right has a more intuitive, subtle and holistic approach. A combined two-pronged approach is much more likely to bring out the best in adversity ^ and make it easier for the butterfly in you to take wing.
Deepak Ranade16 October 2009, 12:01am IST
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Change is the inevitability of life. Our interpretation of change determines our attitude and approach to life. What is apparently beneficial is
accepted without any fuss. When it comes to accepting the inconvenient and the unpleasant, there begins conflict and resentment. However, the seemingly hopeless situations that are very painful to deal with are also instruments of change. ''What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly,'' wrote Richard Bach.
Every seemingly hopeless situation is pregnant with the potential to effect improvement. It's just that one usually looks at the problem in a way that's too upfront. That creates a myopic perspective in dealing with the problem.
Like Godel's theorem, which states that no part of a system can comprehend the system as long as it is an integral part of the system. As we distance ourselves from the problem, and have a bird's-eye perspective, we can begin to see the issue in another light. Anticipation of the problem always tends to magnify the event and imagine it to be much more frightful. Anticipation should prepare, not scare.
A rigid approach that expects things to happen in a specific way only makes matters worse. The ability to adapt is what can make things better. Rigidity limits available options. It severely handicaps creativity, which is considered the mother of solutions. Serendipity happens only because the mind is open and willing to look at the same thing differently.
An alternative viewpoint is critical to make the most of any given situation. The severest of problems have more often than not brought out the best from many individuals. Isn't it also said: "Necessity is the mother of invention"?
The process of strategising while solving a problem throws up many facets of ourselves that we never knew existed. Adversity has been a blessing often enough and ought to be respected rather than feared. Complications arise most often because we take things personally and too seriously. Surrender only destroys self-esteem. Fighting enhances it. The difference between the two is just a matter of attitude.
Helplessness is a state of the mind. Most successful businessmen and corporate executives are paid for their ability to keep cool in the most trying of circumstances. They probably begin where others stop trying. Fixing the blame is not what absolves one of failure. Fixing the problem is the only redemption.
Anger, fear, resentment and frustration only muddle neural networks. They are mere manifestations of the fight, flight or fright response. What is actually needed is a right, bright and trite response. This response can only be attained with a calm and controlled thought process. Knee-jerk responses are just reflexes without any form of cerebration. They are most often fruitless. A deliberate, conscious effort needs to be inculcated to programme a conditioned response.
A positive approach is a big help, as it tends to activate the right brain, the one that has great intuitive abilities. The most appropriate response to any problem would be whole-brained. That is with both the right and left hemispheres giving their inputs. The dominant half ^ the left brain in right-handed persons and right brain in left-handed persons ^ enables analysis, logic and assessment. It tends to be a fragmentary approach. The right has a more intuitive, subtle and holistic approach. A combined two-pronged approach is much more likely to bring out the best in adversity ^ and make it easier for the butterfly in you to take wing.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
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In moving images we see what is not
DEEPAK RANADE5 August 2009, 12:00am IST
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What is vision? We are able to see objects and other externalities because of our visual perceptive apparatus that has the attribute called as
In moving images we see what is not
In moving images we see what is not (Getty Images)
persistence of vision.
A motion picture is made up of a series of still pictures. When each of these still picture is followed by another in less than a sixth of a second, the brain interprets the sequence as a continuum. And so we see the sequence of images as a motion picture without realizing that what we think we see is just an illusion., a perception.
The continuum is implied. The continuum is enabled by a programme of the neurological apparatus. And we are actually deceived by "virtual reality." Each individual and his constituents are all the while in a state of change. Even the skeletal system that we believe to be hard and which forms the infrastructure of the body is constantly being remodeled. Absorption and reformation of the bones are a continuous process. So, when we all are constantly being reformed as it were, the perception of our own continuity is a mere hallucination.
Change is the only certainty. We all are constantly changing and so is the environment. So any perceived continuity or seeming constancy is just an illusion of our perception. If we wake up to the fact that every aspect of existence is in a constant flux, then the question that automatically arises is "What is unchangeable, permanent and eternal?"
The constancy is in the perceiver; it is in the act of observing. All creation is comprised of three distinct entities: The perceiver, the perceived and the act of perception All are manifestations of the same universal consciousness. Saint Dyaneshwara refers to this trilogy as 'triputi'. The perceived is all the while in a state of flux and change. So the perceiver is the only constant in this apparent variable equation of creation. What is perceived all the while is changing.
Quantum Physics expounds that if the observer does not observe an event, then it never happened. Out of the infinite possibilities, when the observer observes an event, then, all the other waves of possible events are squashed. Till the observer observes, all events are in a state of being possible. All perception is centred on awareness. To any observer, the universe exists only till the observer exists. Once the observer ceases to exist, then from his perspective, the universe also ceases to exist.
When ancient scriptures comment on the illusory nature of all creation, they are alluding to is the impermanence and deception created by sensory perception. The continuum of existentialism is only a mirage. We are not the same entity at two discrete points in time. We as well as the environment is continuously changing and any continuity is just an illusion of the perceptive apparatus. In deep sleep, there is a period of non-perception of the outer world. On waking, this world reappears and the show goes on. Despite non-perception of the external world there does remain a certain am-ness, that is aware and says that I slept well. That awareness is the witness and the unchangeable and permanent entity, the immortal Atman.
In death, that personalized awareness again becomes impersonal awareness. In the state of realisation, the trilogy of perceived, perceiver and the act of perception, merges into unity, into the Paramatman.
The writer is a neurosurgeon.
Email: deepakranade@hotmail.com.
Advanced Search
In moving images we see what is not
DEEPAK RANADE5 August 2009, 12:00am IST
Print Email Discuss Bookmark/Share Save Comment Text Size: |
What is vision? We are able to see objects and other externalities because of our visual perceptive apparatus that has the attribute called as
In moving images we see what is not
In moving images we see what is not (Getty Images)
persistence of vision.
A motion picture is made up of a series of still pictures. When each of these still picture is followed by another in less than a sixth of a second, the brain interprets the sequence as a continuum. And so we see the sequence of images as a motion picture without realizing that what we think we see is just an illusion., a perception.
The continuum is implied. The continuum is enabled by a programme of the neurological apparatus. And we are actually deceived by "virtual reality." Each individual and his constituents are all the while in a state of change. Even the skeletal system that we believe to be hard and which forms the infrastructure of the body is constantly being remodeled. Absorption and reformation of the bones are a continuous process. So, when we all are constantly being reformed as it were, the perception of our own continuity is a mere hallucination.
Change is the only certainty. We all are constantly changing and so is the environment. So any perceived continuity or seeming constancy is just an illusion of our perception. If we wake up to the fact that every aspect of existence is in a constant flux, then the question that automatically arises is "What is unchangeable, permanent and eternal?"
The constancy is in the perceiver; it is in the act of observing. All creation is comprised of three distinct entities: The perceiver, the perceived and the act of perception All are manifestations of the same universal consciousness. Saint Dyaneshwara refers to this trilogy as 'triputi'. The perceived is all the while in a state of flux and change. So the perceiver is the only constant in this apparent variable equation of creation. What is perceived all the while is changing.
Quantum Physics expounds that if the observer does not observe an event, then it never happened. Out of the infinite possibilities, when the observer observes an event, then, all the other waves of possible events are squashed. Till the observer observes, all events are in a state of being possible. All perception is centred on awareness. To any observer, the universe exists only till the observer exists. Once the observer ceases to exist, then from his perspective, the universe also ceases to exist.
When ancient scriptures comment on the illusory nature of all creation, they are alluding to is the impermanence and deception created by sensory perception. The continuum of existentialism is only a mirage. We are not the same entity at two discrete points in time. We as well as the environment is continuously changing and any continuity is just an illusion of the perceptive apparatus. In deep sleep, there is a period of non-perception of the outer world. On waking, this world reappears and the show goes on. Despite non-perception of the external world there does remain a certain am-ness, that is aware and says that I slept well. That awareness is the witness and the unchangeable and permanent entity, the immortal Atman.
In death, that personalized awareness again becomes impersonal awareness. In the state of realisation, the trilogy of perceived, perceiver and the act of perception, merges into unity, into the Paramatman.
The writer is a neurosurgeon.
Email: deepakranade@hotmail.com.
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