Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Embracing Duality - II

Read "Embracing Duality - I"

After many iterations (from here to here), I landed in what I called "Rational Empiricism". What was important to me in a religion was that it was rational (makes sense) and experiential (tangible). You shouldn't have to follow a religion because you don't have a choice but to believe in a person or thing (although you could), you should follow a religion because you experience and internalize its truth every moment. Of course, I belong to the path of Jnana yoga (path of knowledge/reason), it is very hard for me to empathize with a Bhakti Yogi (path of faith). Another criteria I debated was meaningful vs pleasurable life. I concluded that pleasure within boundaries of meaning was ideal. The reason this is critical is that, if a person were to just pursue pleasure, he/she could cause a lot of damage to self or others. What we really want is a balanced and harmonious life. As a side note: Once in a while you are going to commit a sinful act (all for pleasure and devoid of meaning), but it is the pursuit of the ideal that makes life challenging, interesting and human. The ideal is the north star to turn to when you are lost. Humans are not machines in that machines perform a preprogrammed actions over and over again. If we were, it would be easy to stay the course. Because we aren't we have to internalize the fact that we will falter and we need to get back up on our feet and keep going. This is where man-made tools can help us stay the course.

Rational Empiricism is grounded in a model of Universe/Existence. It defines Universe to be "an interconnection of infinite, unique things". This definition should be experiential and reasonable to every human at some level. Once I defined Universe, I started inferring from its attributes. From "interconnectedness", I inferred that Science is important, we should keep at learning more about the Universe and we should try to understand the nature and interconnectedness of things and be very wary of the repercussions of our manipulation of nature. From "infiniteness", I inferred that every human is an infinitesimal part of the Universe in the vast spectrum of space and time, but to lead a happy life that infinitesimality should be overlooked and that could happen only by close relationships (family and/or friends). From "uniqueness", I inferred that every part of this Existence has a role to play; small/large, good/bad is a subjective judgment. Nevertheless, it has a role to play by virtue of its existence. Consequently, every human has the opportunity to contribute and give back in the form of his/her career at work.

In addition to the three ideas laid out in the paragraph above, there is one other key principle that I realized assists in having a meaningful and pleasurable life. It has to do with health. Ones physical and mental health is a prerequisite for leading a meaningful life within context of Rational Empiricism. As the old saying goes, when health is lost, everything is lost.

So in the end, my pathless path led to this clarity:
Gut-feelings:
1. Assumption #1: It is easier to practice religion if you understand it and feel it your bones.
2. Assumption #2: Pleasure within boundaries of Meaning is better than pleasure without meaning.
3. Assumption #3: A religion grounded in Universe/Existence (Duality) is well-grounded.
What is meaningful? :
4. Rational Empiricism #0: Take care of Body (Survival of the fittest in the Universe)
5. Rational Empiricism #1: Take care of the Planet (Interconnectedness of Universe)
6. Rational Empiricism #2: Take care of the Home (Infiniteness of Universe)
7. Rational Empiricism #3: Take care of Work (Uniqueness of every object in Universe)
Gut-feelings:
8. Be Holistic: Try to make holistic decisions after considering all the four objectives (4 to 7 above).
9. Be Resilient: In case you fail in executing your decision, learn from it and move on.

I recently found this comic strip that aptly describes what I felt after defining Rational Empiricism.
"To invent your own life's meaning is not easy... but it's still allowed."

Personally, I have reached a major milestone after traveling the 'pathless path' and now have a great degree of clarity going about life. They say "Change is the only constant". I will rephrase it this way: "Change is the only constant, except Religion'. If Religion also changes or is on shaky ground, whats the point? I think Rational Empiricism will be the constant that I can always turn to, to guide me at crossroads of life. It will give me great pleasure and satisfaction if it helps you as well.


Saturday, November 09, 2013

Embracing Duality - I

I started this blog as a self-exploration, like a journal. I was hoping this will help me to put down my thoughts. I hoped this will take me towards clarity to lead a life with confidence and a degree of certainty. I felt like I was traveling a 'pathless path'. I read a lot along the way and a lot of people influenced me. I feel like what I have done here is just piece together different ideas (mine and others) into a framework that makes sense to me, that puts my mind in peace, something that gives me an anchor, something unchangeable to organize my life around. I hope that this helps others as well. I hope the next generation of humans will have an alternative to traditional religion in the form of 'rational empiricism'. I hope this catches on and few generations later humanity will live in harmony; that we will be a healthier and kinder race, maintain a cleaner planet, enjoy company of family and friends and do great things with our curiosity and inventiveness in such a way that it doesn't jeopardize our health, home or planet.

Reviewing older posts, I can summarize that the fundamental problem seemed to be "imperfect knowledge". We just don't know everything. As a result, we act in a confused way, without clarity. Because of my Hindu heritage, I explored the four paths; 'jnana yoga', 'karma yoga', 'bhakti yoga' and 'raja yoga'. None of them appealed to me other than 'jnana yoga'. I have to agree that I didn't really pursue any other yoga for any amount of time. I had a proclivity towards 'jnana yoga' because I guess I have a rational and intellectual bent of mind. Here I have to mention Jiddu Krishnamurthy's early influence on me (around age 16). He was the one who gave me the courage to look outside 'idol-worshipping, ritualistic Hinduism' I was used to growing up.

The book that influenced me a lot was called "jnana yoga" by Ramakrishna Puligandla which I picked up when I was in Grad school (when I was 23). He makes the case for "non-duality" to be the reality of Existence and "duality" to be an illusion or manifestations of non-duality and "raja yoga" asanas and meditative practices as a way to experience non-duality. I was intrigued. But I didn't quite see how that could help as I still need to live and survive in this world and cannot be in a meditative state all the time. What I needed was a pill to endure duality, I thought. Non-duality may be sweet but I have to live in Duality.

A few years later, I encountered books of Ramesh Balsekar (around age 26). His message was drastically different. He didn't prescribe anything. He just said you cannot find out where this Universe began etc and that humans and everything else are pre-programmed (causality) and there was no free-will. You can live as if you have 'free will', but there is really no such thing as you are just a bundle of your past thoughts and experiences and you will react and act in the future based on your past and your present physiological state.

Anyway, my hope that non-duality will cure all confusion slowly died. I realized one day (unclear how) that irrespective of whether I have attained "realization and clarity", time passes on and I have bills to pay and obligations to fulfill and a life to live. I felt a bit dumb chasing this elusive "non-duality"  magic pill and didn't want to be in this search all my life and regret missing out on life. I really wanted a remedy right away. I wanted something like a rock, something unchanging and something I can count on that I can use to navigate through life.

That is when it dawned on me that I should just create my own religion (around age 31), a framework that will help me. If humans invented other religions, I can invent one myself. I just need to convince myself (I am a hard critic of religions) that whatever religion I invented works for me. If it doesn't work for me, its useless and probably wont' work for others as well.

How to invent a new religion?
To be continued in the next post.

Saturday, November 02, 2013

Inventions

For a happy and meaningful life, I have so far argued the following based on a broad set of ideas called "Rational Empiricism":
1. Happiness should be obtained within boundaries of meaning.
2. Meaning is derived by taking care of ones' body, home, work, and planet.

Although the above components are indispensable to a meaningful and happy life, there is another component that couldn't quite be derived in the context of Rational Empiricism. It comprises of "man-made inventions". For example consider, money and retirement planning. There is no equivalent in the Universe (may be hibernation of certain animals could be considered as an analogy for 'retirement' of humans). The concept of money and finance is a human invention and if we don't equip ourselves with skills of finance and investing we get left behind in case of emergency or in old age when the source of income stops. There are many man-made inventions like language, math, music, cooking, swimming etc. One cannot be expected to master all the man-made inventions and tools but it it may be essential to know and have some skills under your belt to lead a smooth life.