Sunday, July 18, 2010

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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