Monday, November 26, 2012

The Rubaiyat


With the forest burnt by the hand of man,
Rains are of money and not water’s clan;
I asked for rum and got pills in spirit,
From doctor to doctor hither I ran.

Haiku



Rains refuse to cry
Look within for energy;
Soil of life force.

Haiku



A flower calls out
Sweet surrender, my heart melts;
Becomes butterfly.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

A Brain without Spirit


It has been possible to broadly study the anatomy of the brain. The way the chemicals influence the personality demystifies the dark matter of human anatomy which is the study of the brain. Despite leaps in the scientific approach to the study of the brain there is a fundamental aspect which holds the most important organ in darkness. It is the existence of mind. There are diverse definitions of the mind. One is that it is a stored warehouse of emotions and thoughts that could not be expressed over time. Another definition points out that the mind is tantamount to consciousness without which the brain would be rendered numb. There are dualistic theories and materialistic theories of the mind. The dualists liken the mind to the spirit while the materialists hold the hypothesis that the mind can be reduced to organic terms, which supports 'Medical Science'. If the mind were to be a spirit then the phenomenon of memory defies it. If the mind were to be a spirit then why is it that some people lose memory when they are alive? It has been testified as one grows older that memory becomes weak in many cases because the brain maybe decaying. This contradicts the dualistic theory.


Let us take the materialistic view where the mind is supposed to be reducible to matter. If the mind is nothing but a physical component then what triggers the flow of chemicals? Why is there something called ‘personality’? Why are there individual differences in the consequence called ‘personality’? There are answers to these questions. Chemicals, personality and differences are explained by the materialist in that they are consequences of a complex process of conditioning. This conditioning is the result of responses to stimuli from the environment. They start off as instinctive responses in infants and are later expressed with sophistication which is the result of the norms that are observed. As emotions get more and more channelized and as there are many responses possible a person reacts in a predictable manner which is the result of self-programming.


The fact that personality is a complex mechanism is because it has taken years to construct it in the first place. We do not have the means to factor in the number of variables that go into the formation of personality. But it is not the result of involuntary calculation. It is more to do with manipulation which the determinists hold to be predictable due to predispositions which have nothing to do with the existing life time. In this manner they account for the existence of a spirit which is beyond the brain. But this to me is not convincing as the spirit cannot be conscious without a brain on one hand and it cannot have any personality to carry forward to a brain because memory itself is prone to destruction in the same lifetime. There are enough reasons to account for personality in one life time. Just because it is complex does not mean that there is a spirit beyond the brain. At the same time we cannot jump to the conclusion that there is no spirit at all. Why is that? The spirit itself can be the consequence of the way a human being finds himself forced to manoeuvre his way through the events of the world. The spirit can be that very personality which is the result of a defense mechanism. It is deeper than ‘ego’ and more subversive than matter but it does not precede matter.  It could be in other words the last stage of the evolution of matter. It could be a creative product of the limitations of matter. 


A brain can still function without the existence of the spirit but the spirit cannot exist without the brain. The spirit can be thought to be an abstract reaction to the experience of existence. It is the seat of personality as the latter can be observed while the former can only be inferred. Whether this inference is valid or not cannot be determined by the existing instruments of Science as neither memory nor abstract experience can be observed by them. But what can be inferred is that there is a creative response at some point where instinctive reaction is curbed and diverted. Scientists are still grappling with the phenomena of creativity and do not have access to the variables in question. Or maybe they are just limited by what they know. There is some unlearning required without which the education that we undergo itself can be an enemy to progress.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

When the Clock Stops Ticking


It has been observed that animals like human beings read time and consider it a valuable resource. Time is determined by the changes that happen to us and to our surroundings. Although this is an imprecise definition it must be known that without observable changes to us and the environment, ‘time’ would not have any meaning whatsoever. ‘Time’ in other words thrives on change for its survival to the extent that without understanding ‘change’ we cannot fully comprehend or measure it. If we were to represent ‘time’ we have to spot out the changes that take place along the frames of life. But why do we actually give so much importance to time? Is it to measure ‘change’ or is it because it adds meaning to our lives? Time exists independent of whether we make use of it or not. Change cannot be denied by inaction. To deny would itself involve some change. Therefore time to a greater or lesser extent is undeniable.

Although we are gripped by time we use it as a tool to measure our progress. It has been documented in history that time was measured through nature, and living beings would prepare for a rainy day in a systematic manner as do the ants and birds. It is, as must be quickly noted that just because we have not overcome ‘time’, we cannot be said to have cause to believe that it is ‘all pervasive’. But if we take it that we have clearly not conquered its movement we can at least ensure that it does not cause us a great amount of anxiety to get through with life. The fear of temporariness as caused by time makes us experience a reduced amount of ‘pleasure’. If we listen to music we are scared that the time will pass off quickly thus preventing us from fully relishing the melodies. To the grave extent that it makes us sit on the edge we cannot believe that we have managed time.

The phrase ‘Time Management’ is in my view a misnomer if we do not know what to do when there is not enough time.   We cannot manage time without having a grip of it. We cannot mange it without ever planning in advance. Time as an agent of change does not convey the real essence of the relationship which exists between a human being and nature. As our approach to it is truncated we draw a circle and do not move out of that circle. We are not only able to read time but fit in it and accept it as the ultimate reality that governs us. We have no idea of what it is like when time stops as we have never experienced timelessness. We would need to resort to time to measure it which is self-defeating. In a ‘flow’ experience where we enjoy what we do, we are unaware of the passage of time. In meditation we may experience the impotence of time where we to some extent lose consciousness of it. Only when the mind is not gripped by time can we truly say that we are not harassed by its movement in one direction. This may also explain why we tend to have reduced peripheral vision when we are as anxious to come to grips with the pace of time as we are when the clock stops ticking.   
   

Friday, July 13, 2012

The Minute and the Cosmic

In the grass grows the temptation
Lying by the fire on the other side
Creeping slowly upon the edges of twigs
I find myself floating in heaven
A gentle breeze helps me along
I no longer cling to vacant feelings
Moments blown away by the breeze
Like colorful candles with fading light
I move slowly it appears to me
In another world I could care less about
Then you come along with hopeful cherries
I could try one despite hesitation
Find myself unable to get up
Deprived of the joy of levitation
I relish having lost the world below
It's floors above where I am
Take me along the free runway
The pain of having to stop the world
Seems like a dead illusion to my mind.

Monday, July 9, 2012

The Path Never Taken


The question of choice comes into play only when there is what we may call ‘Will’. To say the least it is invariably taken for granted because to an extent that no one can deny it, freewill exists. We can discuss in length about the role of determinism to subjugate freewill but even this in objective reality at least is an exercise of freewill. Instead of pursuing a circular argument let us open our eyes to the process of ‘becoming’ and ‘doing’. As ‘becoming’ and ‘doing’ are possible only with existence and traceable only to the actions of the doer, the one who does is held accountable for them. But if freewill is itself subject to a form of determinism called predetermined ‘tendency’ then it is negated and the individual cannot be held accountable. As a consequence there is no actor as action assumes significance only when it is recognized as being done by somebody. Choice is possible only when its precursor is singled out as being done by somebody who before chose to do it when he could have done something else. 

However, it is equally important to recognize that actions are not isolated within a framework of limits and as such have their cause traceable to someone outside the ‘doer’. This leads to the question of ‘constructed paths’. It does not follow that individual freewill alone exists.  This does not mean that determinism existed prior to the individual for it could also imply that determinism is the result of ‘one action’. For example; in Chess one move can decide the result of the game. This means that determinism follows freewill in such a context. If we for one moment shift our attention from the one who chooses to the one chosen we may be able to throw more light on the subject in the end. 

But this will not be possible till we understand the path that is less taken or the choice that was never made. In the path less taken the individual makes a decision to not follow the herd instinct. He chooses to take a path less ‘tried out’. He may at some point go through feelings of regret that influence his ability to link the action to himself, ‘the doer’. Choices can be made only when they are available. He could only make a limited set of choices. This mistake is a perspective born out of feelings of regret. If more choices are available it is difficult to predict what the outcome will be. If one chooses to pursue trading as a career option then he could have chosen this either as an initiative or as a reaction.    If he feels happy about his decision because it has given him the much needed stability from the perspective of his career then he has no motivation to associate the decision to opt for trading with some force outside him. This is simply because the decision took off favourably. If the same individual chooses to pursue ‘Visual Communication’ because it sounds unconventional then he may be mistaken as he cannot choose it just because it sounds unconventional. He must have some aptitude for it to make some sense. 

Let us suppose that his actual talent lies in an interdisciplinary subject in the humanities and not in visual communication. But such an interdisciplinary option does not exist. He then feels forced to pursue ‘Visual Communication’ because he has to opt for some unconventional career. He restricts his choices but largely the choices that he can make have to be within the framework. He will not know the fruits of his choice till he pursues it with full rigour. The path less taken has benefits as long as it is an informed choice. If it is made just to be different then the path less taken may not yield favourable results. If on the other hand you have some talent in an unconventional subject then one of the biggest benefits that you could get is a unique identity. The choices that you make first will take you to a framework where there will also always be a limited set of choices only. If you want to break free from all frameworks you need to construct your own path which may well be a path that was never taken. This is psychologically a path of no return.