Full Circle

PROBLEM:
You have existential questions that keep coming back to you and bother you and you yearn for clarity to settle this dilemma once and for all so you can lead a life anchored in sound rationale. But, you know you are 'finite' in more ways than one and you realize you only have partial and imperfect knowledge about ‘stuff’, as a result philosophies/religious thoughts seem too narrow for your logic and you have a difficulty in blind acceptance of such ideologies. You wonder, is there a natural, organic, human philosophy that you can come up with that satisfies your brain so you can get on with life?

OBSERVATION:
You come to terms with the fact that Absolute Knowledge is Utopia. The chances of enlightenment or a mystical halo around your head are pretty slim to none. You want to figure out a solution right here and now, with what you know.

FRAMEWORK:
This is the best ‘philosophy’ my brain can come up with:
Equality: Every thing in Existence is equal by virtue of its existence. There is a reason for every thing's existence. Be fair and respectful, to every thing.
Creativity: Every moment is a new creation. Creativity is a domino effect of everything in existence interacting with everything else. Anything creative as long as it does not decry the principle of Equality should be welcomed and celebrated in this world. Be adventurous and explore out of the box.
Causality: Causality is making mathematical sense of the world around you. You have a causal model, if you can predict future. Make good and humane use of causal models and keep making the models better.



SOLUTION:
Dismiss existential questions; spending energy on them may not be worth your while. Instead respect animate (people, flora and fauna) and inanimate things (water bodies, natural resources).
If you are a creative person; be creative and entertain people with your art, humor, literature and music.
If you are scientifically inclined; do fundamental research, engineer, invent drugs and technologies.
If you a genius (creative+scientifically inclined), you know what to do, just do it.

[It is still a challenge to know ways and means to treat non-humans with respect, think about ways to do that. (Examples may be: Treatment of animals before they become meat, not littering in the woods, not putting chemical waste in water bodies etc).]

IMPLICATION:
If you can be mindful and remember to live a life using the principles above, then you will pass Earth leaving a positive effect on beings and things around you. Some might say, you lived a meaningful life. Simple, but effective; that you were kind to things around you, contributed to the society and had jolly good time doing it.

MANTRA:
Respect everything, Contribute every day, Have fun along the way.

SUMMARY:
Does this philosophy solve the dilemma of existential questions in your head? If it did, it is a successful philosophy. Remind yourself of the mantra as and when needed and continue leading a positive life. If the dilemma comes back to you in a few months and the mantra doesn't help, this philosophy is not for you, search for your own mantra.

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Attitude - Focus and Progress

Philosophy:
Flow of Existence.
Knowledge and Ignorance about the Flow.
Intuition and Mathematical models are Knowledge.
Prediction is the yardstick of knowledge.
Causal nature of the Flow is apparent from Knowledge and Prediction or vice versa.

Implication:
Understand, if not, Accept the past.
Desire a future.
Act in the present.

Guide (a conscious, personal decision):
Civic focus: Fairness, Service, Science, Work
Personal focus: Sleep, Health, Relationships
Entertainment focus: Arts, Sport, Nature

Attitude:
Make progress

(Incidentally, a study from Harvard today reported that a focused mind is a happy mind.
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/645790.html)

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A Point of Reference

In an earlier blog, I stated that even if we overlook Existential Questions, we still need to synthesize a Point of Reference for living in Duality with some Peace of Mind. Here is one PoR.

Humans experience subject-object dichotomy in waking state. This is not experienced in deep-sleep state. We are primarily concerned with the experience of duality in the waking state. Our observation of Existence is; objects with some attributes interacting with other objects it is connected to and based on the interaction there are changes in the involved objects. (By object, I mean, anything we objectify; example: an atom, a neuron, a star, a dog, a person, an emotion, a thought, a country.) From one moment to the next, Existence changes; this I refer to as Flow of Existence.

Without using any kind of knowledge (like scientific knowledge), there is no way to say one object in Existence is more superior or inferior to another object. Hence, with just our experience of duality and our ability to reason, we can claim that, all objects in existence are equal, by virtue of their existence. However our ability to objectify and formulate what we objectify has led to Science. We know couple of things about Science, a) we know science works; we are able to cure diseases and send man to moon and b) we know more today than we did yesterday. And because Science works, that implies that the Flow of Existence is algorithmic i.e. there is a set of rules. The more rules Science discovers/tweaks, the more we can predict the Flow. Although the Flow is algorithmic, there is room for newness. When object A interacts with object B, a completely new object X that never existed in Existence before may be produced. That is the creative nature in Existence which is witnessed in new babies, new art, new music, new ideas to solve problems etc. Humans too, are objects in this Flow. Strangely, we are Aware of our self and other objects. Our awareness/mindfulness of our self, our choices, our thoughts, our decision process and our ability to execute the decision in action has given rise to the concept and confusion about free-will. If we look closely at mindfulness of our self, we can realize that it is not a willed condition i.e. we are not mindful before we actually become mindful of our self. Once we become mindful, we recognize it. When and what we become mindful of, is also an exhibition of the creative nature of the Existence. In light of all of this, we can say that every moment is causally-driven, the cause being the entirety of Existence.


CONCLUSIONS:

Point of Reference for a Dualistic Human World:

Religion: Philosophy
God: Existence
Ethic: Equality
Pursuit: Science
Mantra: There are causes for everything that happened. You may not know all the causes. This wisdom will give you the inner-peace to accept the past. There will be causes for everything that will happen. You may not know all the causes. This ignorance will give you the freedom to cause a desired future.

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Hear - Reflect - Contemplate

REVELATION
(Rupert Spira in his book Transparency of Things)
Omnipresence: Consciousness is all there is.
Omniscience: Consciousness is self-aware.
Omnipotence: Consciousness has total freedom.

REFLECTION
Something that is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent could be considered God, even an atheist would agree with that definition. The entirety of existence can be considered to be omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent; as Existence encompasses Everything! So, is consciousness = existence = god?

CONTEMPLATION
1. DUALITY: There is subject-object dichotomy
2. FUNDAMENTAL CLAIM: In the context of duality, every 'thing' in existence is equally significant by virtue of its existence. All superiorities and inferiorities are subjective/contextual.
3. FUNDAMENTAL OBSERVATION: Every 'thing' has some attributes and every 'thing' interacts with things it is connected to - can be visualized as a ripple effect. (Or butterfly/domino effect).
4. EXISTENTIAL QUESTION: What caused the ripple?
5. LIFE: Flow of Existence is algorithmic; proof is science.
6. DILEMMA: Our mindfulness causes confusion within us, creating an illusion of free-will. Realizing that mindfulness is not a willed condition dissolves that confusion.

From this argument, for humans in duality; the logical religion is Philosophy, the logical ethic is Equality, the logical pursuit is Science and the logical mantra for the present moment is Causality.


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