Our Antenna-brain & the Source-Mind

Continued from I Don't Know Where My Mind's At...

[For the time being we're going to assume and explore the potentials of the possibility of our minds not being housed within our brains. We are also going to assume that the human brain functions mostly like a radio or an antenna, tuning into a frequency that is our (external) mind.]

Firstly, if the mind is external, like a guitar string vibrating down the corridor of time (an expression that might be more accurate that I originally thought), our Antenna-brains are tuning into its vibrations but not the original "guitar-string" itself; not the originating Source-Mind, but its waves.

This distinction is important. The vibrations, or waves or frequency would have to permeate everything, everywhere (near omnipresent) for ourselves and our minds to function (which they normally do). However, the Source-Mind itself does not need to permeate everything everywhere.

I think I had inadvertently described it very well: "A guitar string vibrating down the corridor of time".

It would indeed be a corridor of sorts in the sense that it would be bound by 'walls', or barriers.

Something that divides and separates it from us - or more specifically - our reality. A different reality or dimension. (I'd like to call it 'branes' (as in membranes) but it'll cause far too much confusion between 'branes' and 'brains').  Possibly Planes of Existence. 

The details matter little at this point. What matters is when the waves of vibrations coming off the Source-Mind come into 'contact' with these 'walls' the effect might be similar to ripples in a pond.



(Now remember, we're dealing with a time-space continuum. These 'ripples' would permeate the entire continuum which could produce a frequency that would inundate everything, everywhere).

There could be some interesting properties; particularly how our minds perceive and function in time.

On a timeline, to move forwards or (hypothetically) backwards is to move, or travel, forward or backwards in time. It's never been clear what a lateral move would be.


Could these vibrations actually be lateral movements in time?

If we look at these vibrations from the Source-Mind as ripples in a pond, and the brain as an antenna sensitive to their frequencies, then it would be possible to be aware of both future and past events.

The Source that the Antenna-brain of "yesterday" tunes into is from the future.
The Source that the Antenna-brain of "now" tunes into is current
The Source that the Antenna-brain of "tomorrow" tunes into is from the past.

On the assumption the external mind is true, it poses some interesting questions:

Could this explain premonitions, prophecies, deja-vu, synchronicity and similar phenomenon?
Could it explain (real) psychics and psychic-like abilities?
Could an echo, a vibration from a source-mind exist and be perceivable as a ghost?

Do we each have an Source-Mind or could there be only one Source-Mind with various and numerous Antenna-brains' expressions/interpretations?




(To be continued on "The Source-Mind: g0d's Atheistic Nature")

I Don't Know Where My Mind's At

Most modern science/medicine tend to see the human brain as a sort of wet computer (possibly a super-computer). Many features of the brain remain a mystery, or at least as of yet unsolved. One such aspect is that of consciousness, sentience, or the mind. "Where" is the mind housed in the brain? What physical aspects of the brain control the mind? Does the brain produce a mind?



However, there is another theory growing in popularity out there.
Although certain aspects of the brain do indeed function like a computer, the brain itself does not house the mind. In this aspect, the brain is less like a computer and more like a radio, or possibly an antenna. It "tunes in" to the frequency that is the mind.

The implications are far reaching. This theory would necessitate that our minds are somewhere 'out there'; or at least outside our bodies. It also means that the mind may function like (or actually be) a wave.

We could run wild with this theory.
Could a different brain tune in to the frequency of another mind? Could this be telepathy? Could it explain those moments of deja vu?

Could the mind be like a vibrating guitar string through time, our brain tuning into the frequency of its vibration? If so, wouldn't what we perceive as our self (our mind, our ego) actually only be an echo of the true mind?

Or is it possible that there is only one true mind and all of our billions of brains tune in and produce various interpretations of it? We're all different reflections of the same original source; and wouldn't that make us all - somehow - interconnected?

What happens when our bodies (our brains) die, especially if the mind is not housed there?

What are we truly?
Our physical bodies/brains, or the external mind?
Are we only an expression of this mind we're tuning into?



...to be continued on "Our Antenna-brain and the Source-Mind"...

In Justice

When injustice is committed, a sense of justice must be appeased.

"Peace is not merely the absence of war, but the presence of justice". Albert Einstein

Firstly, let's be clear here that I am not speaking of legal justice, or a justice system itself. I am speaking of injustice on a personal level. How we cope and struggle with it ourselves.

But what is this "justice"? Is it discipline or punishment, or both? Is it retribution or revenge? Exactly what brings an individual who's suffered injustice solace?

Is it punishment? Knowing that the individual who inflicted the injustice is themself made to suffer?
Is it discipline? Knowing the individual who inflicted the injustice has been taught the errors of their ways and has reformed?


Do these things truly bring us peace, or only hold up a mirror to our souls?

Is the desire for punishment indicative of the hatred in our hearts; a longing for revenge?
Could the goal of discipline be a sign of altruistic love and compassion?


Do we really want that choice within our hands? I think the nature of justice (disciplinary or punitive) can lie within the guilty party, if we allow it to, freeing ourselves of that burden. Not in the sense of abandoning our responsibilities, but questioning the guilty party's motives and intentions. Is it my place to question if there are demons to battle if they aren't mine? And if there are no demons to battle, my questioning creates my own.

Ultimately, the question is whether the individual who inflicts injustice is capable of escaping their own state of confusion (delusion) and begin to learn.

If not, then they remain in a state of delusion ('they're not guilty') and thus suffer ('punishment') - possibly feeling injustice has inflicted upon them.

If they can find a way out of their denial or delusion, then they have the potential for growth and have hopes to learn ('discipline').

In this scenario it is in the perpetrator's hands as to whether justice serves punishment or discipline, not the victim's. In this way we can be free of the burden of their guilt and their conflict.

Our Own Worst Critics

I can clearly remember the day! No, the moment.
It must have been decades ago. I was sitting in my friends' backyard having a beer on a beautiful summer afternoon. Their backdoor exited into a block concrete "patio". Patio's not really what it was. It was big enough to have a BBQ, but that's it. It had painted black metal railings and concrete steps that led down to their grassy backyard - where I was sitting. Two garden homes shared this concrete stepped exit.

As I sat and sipped my beer I watched their neighbour's young son playing and climbing on the patio/steps. He wore only a diaper.

He hung his legs over the concrete edge, in an attempt to climb off the ledge rather than use the steps, but his legs weren't long enough to reach the ground.

Totally disconnected from the scene - and apparently indifferent - I simply watched. I knew what was coming. The weight of the boy's legs would drag him over the edge, he would painfully scrape his soft belly on the rough concrete edge, and he would cry.

I sat - detached - and watched my prediction play out like a premonition.

I didn't intervene. I simply observed. There was a great sense of calm in me... which was peculiar.

I remember that moment so well because it was that incident that convinced me, all those years ago, that I lacked compassion.

But the part that never made sense to me was my profound sense of calm and being at peace.

It has only been very recently, in this past year, when I 'reconnected' to this memory. I recognized the person in the memory, where I don't think I have ever recognized that person before.
Maybe because I've only recently been introduced to this person through my practice of meditation.

The Watcher.

That aspect of me that is simply aware. That part of me that watches. In meditation he (it?) is that which observers the thoughts. He is always calm and serene.

Although I could never have recognized him all those years ago, I believe that is who he was. On that day, I had a lucid (traditionally non-meditative) moment.

~

This is important because that same moment was when I had judged and condemned myself as lacking compassion. It had shaped my perspective of myself every since.

It's odd how a condemnation like this can steal your permission to grow, isn't it?

I'm not convinced that I lack compassion. Sure, I can work on my compassion more, and I have my moments when I can be insensitive and self-serving... but we all have these dark moments.

Had The Watcher not been 'dominant' and 'in control', I've no doubt I would have lunged forward and caught the child.

I suppose the lesson here is that we must be compassionate and forgiving to ourselves at times.

This may seem like an unimportant or petty story, but its ramifications to me are significant.

I believe compassion and solace are intrinsically entangled through dharma. (The Dharma Entanglement)... and if I allow myself to believe I am devoid and hopeless in one of these 'traits'... only serves as a barrier and an obstacle.

Jung-Joong-Dong of Jungshin Sooyang; "Silence in Stillness, Stillness in Motion": A Study and Practice into Mindfulness

Introduction

“[T]he more disciplined and cultivated the mind is, the more disciplined and cultivated will be the student's use of Taekwon-do.

“A clear pond becomes muddy if agitated and then returns to its original state when allowed to settle undisturbed.

“We can attain peace of mind through meditation, by emptying our minds of all petty thoughts and returning to the natural state of man... an active moment to reflect on our past mistakes in silence and in the privacy of our thoughts... to continue our self-improvement towards becoming better men and women. This active thought process in silence is called “Jung-Joong-Dong”.”

Jungshin Sooyang ('Moral Culture'), General Choi (founder of Traditional Taekwon-do), 1999

This is the launching point for me; Jung-Joong-Dong of Jungshin Sooyang.

Where many would continue on the challenging path onto 2^nd Dan Black Belt (and upwards!) I have veered off on a tangent to pursue a very different avenue.

This is the natural progression from the finale of my Black Belt Thesis of Jan. 2012.

The Tattooed Buddha

What if pain and suffering aren't the same thing?
Is it possible to feel pain without suffering?
The Buddha taught that they were different.






Suffering is not the same as pain, although it is not always easy to distinguish between the two.
What further complicates the issue is our use of vocabulary. When we speak of this suffering we are speaking of it as the noun, not the verb.
We can always say that we suffer (verb) through our pain.

Pain is an unpleasant sensation.
Suffering is a mental and emotional response. 

Pain is an inescapable part of life. It is inevitable.
Suffering is optional. 

It's fine to say this, but what does this look like practically?

I think sometimes people with tattoos may have unknowingly tapped into this buddha-nature (innately knowing the difference between pain and suffering).

Yes, most tattooed people would say that they suffered through the hour(s) of getting the tattoo(s) (but let's remember, we aren't talking about "suffering" as a verb). Most tattooed people will tell you that it hurt and was a painful experience (and it is), but I doubt they would say that they suffered.

I think there's a lesson to learn here.
Maybe - just maybe - tattooed people have inadvertently stumbled across a deep aspect of our buddha-nature; a natural human condition that most have forgotten.

We will inevitably face and experience pain in life, but suffering is a choice.

The Illusion of Meditation

I think too often we are 'sold' on the fantasied, romanticized imagery of meditation,  and I think this might be harmful.

My favourite are the pictures and especially landscapes associated with meditation. (Try googling meditation landscapes).

I know I can't sit on a beautiful sunny ocean shore and have any hope in hell to meditate. The sheer beauty of the surroundings are a brutal distraction. (But then again, I could be wrong. Maybe we're supposed to get to a point where we can 'tune-out' the surrounding beauty.... naah).

I think the Venerable Henepola Gunaratana agrees:

"We have certain images of meditation. Meditation is something done in quiet caves by tranquil people who move slowly. Those are training conditions. They are set up to foster concentration and to learn the sill of mindfulness. Once you have learned that skill, however, you can dispense with the training restrictions, and you should. You don't need to move at a snail's pace to be mindful. You don't even need to be calm. You can be mindful while solving problems in intensive calculus. You can be mindful in the middle of a football scrimmage. You can even be mindful in the midst of a raging fury"

Mindfulness in Plain English, pg. 93

My first (chance) encounter with mindfulness (before I even had a name for it) was during my Black Belt Examination. It was quite profound. But wouldn't have described myself or my actions as anything remotely close to quiet, tranquil or slow moving.

I wonder sometimes whether there's an unproductive industry out there that - really - only sells the idea of meditation. All the imagery and trappings; but little to no substance.
I think this might be the illusion of meditation.
I also think we should be careful of this; to be mindful of it.

...Now...

We don't normally live in the present. We spend most of our time caught up in memories of the past or leaping ahead to the future full of worries and plans.

Many people (erroneously) believe that the present moment - the Now - is only the tiniest sliver separating the past from the future; that our Today, our Now, is a tiny hairline separating Yesterday from Tomorrow. (and by implication, that the past and future are near infinitely large whereas the now is minuscule to the point of non-existence.

This is an illusion.
The truth of the matter is that there is no future and there is no past, but only a eternally endless Now. This Perpetual Now is all that is real and all that exists. The past and the future don't really exist in any concrete way - they're abstracts. We are always chasing the future and remembering (or forgetting) the past.

Breathing is a present-time process. It only occurs in the here and now. The breath has none of that 'other-timeness' (past, future, yesterday, tomorrow). When we truly observe the breath, we are automatically placed in the present. we are pulled out of the kaleidoscope of mental images and into the naked experience of the here-and-now. Breathing is a living slice of reality.

So, is this Perpetual Now perceivable?  Is it infinitely huge in scale, or is it infinitely small and fleeting?

When you breath in and before you exhale, there is the briefest pause. When you exhale there is another brief pause before you inhale again. This means that there are two brief pauses - one at the end of inhaling, the other at the end of exhaling. These two pauses occur in such a brief moment you may not be aware of their existence. (Well, now you are. You're welcome!) But if you can be mindful; if you can notice them, you can also be mindful and notice this Perpetual Now.

But here's the kicker. You are to notice them and exist within them.
Not remember them
...nor anticipate them.

The Spiritual Sojourn of the Lay-monks

There would seem to be some sort of mass exodus from religious institutions going on. 

The decline is most prevalent in Europe, less so in Canada, and only beginning in America. 

It seems to be a sort of scale with those who identify with non-religion running parallel.

Europe - Canada - America.

High   -   Medium  -   Low.

And when we consider the rate of decay within the United States of America the direction of this would seem obvious. Formal organized religion is dying.

In Europe its churches are becoming more akin to museums.

In America they're being abandoned.

Many tote this as the success and rise of atheism, agnosticism, and secular humanism.

It almost reminds me of the spiritual equivalent of an Urban Wasteland.

Some would celebrate this as the death of God and spirit and the advent of a new age of scientism. But I think the 'religion' of scientism is dying as well. 

With the decline of official organized religious institutions some might even believe we are seeing the death of religion and spirituality itself.

...maybe...

I'm not so sure though. 

The death of official organized religion as an institution has little or nothing to do with spirituality.

Maybe when organized religion finally gives up the ghost, our innate Spirituality can be free to blossom without the inhibitions of the disease of Religiosity. 

No, not "New Age" hocus-pocus. No more Plastic Shamans, exploiting us for our money, their ego and power. I think we may be seeing the death of the business of religion.

I believe there are many spiritual sojourners out there. Urban lay-monks that are only beginning to navigate this spiritual urban wasteland left behind by Organized Religion.

They are not leaders of potential new religions.
They're non-centralized. Free. Reflective. Compassionate.
Conditional Grace is no grace at all.
There is no price-tag attached.
There are no conditions to be met.
Come as your are or fuck off.

Maybe - just maybe - we should begin keeping an eye open for them.

A Map of Humanity

From Lydia's blog, On The Other Hand, comes Suggestion Saturday: September 7, 2013, The World Religions Tree.
Although the more I thought about it, the more comfortable I am with naming it A Map of Humanity.

The above picture is a link. To appreciate The World Religions Tree fully it really needs to be explored in all its minute detail. I've never seen anything quite like it before. My daughter tells me it reminds her more of a brain than a tree.

Although I would have like to see the growth of Atheism and Scientism included, I suppose by strictest definitions they are not proper religions.

After spending the weekend exploring this wondrous map of human-kind's over 6,000 year spiritual and theological journey, you begin to ponder which 'direction' to look at it from. At least I do.

Although I am sure some will attempt to hold the fundamentalist's position, it seems barely worth addressing; that one, and only one of these near-countless fibers is the truth. When I look at this map of humanity, I can not seriously even consider this option. It becomes an unsustainable joke.

But should we focus on the tree's trunk? Do we find a purer form of understanding the divine or truth the simpler we go? Or do we discover an older, less refined, more primitive, folklore, superstition based belief more in magic than science? Travel far enough and at some point we will find ourselves among cavemen.

Or do we look in the opposite direction?
When we look at the tangled fibrous edge of our most modern and current times, what are we seeing? Are we seeing mankind's splintering and division of their ulterior agendas and personal and private goals? Have we become lost in the analysis of the details?
Or are we seeing our collective evolution of over six thousand years, thousands of cultures - many totally isolated from one another - and billions and billions of people? Are we seeing humanity's collective refined perception of the truth?

Like any true "-ology", it becomes based upon previous individuals' work and understanding. It is a progressive system of learning.

I think we stumble across a conundrum.
I believe the answer is right before our eyes, yet hidden in plain sight.

Firstly we need to acknowledge that there is corruption and that there are individuals that are only out for their own good and their own personal agendas present within any and all branches. If we cannot get past this point there's no need to look any further; we've come to the end of the rope. We need to assume (even if only hypothetically) to be able to weed out and keep only the legitimate ("don't throw out the baby with the bathwater").

The problem we face is that we - each and every one of us - can only ever be a single individual. And as a single individual we can only see the world from the perspective of the single fibrous strand our culture, our background, and our beliefs come from. (and that includes atheists as well).

The richness of this map of humanity is lost on the individual.

It is only when we attain the willingness and ability to step outside our culture, our background, our belief-system, our truth - outside of our fibrous strand - that we can even begin to appreciate the absolute majestic and grand scale of our collective human insights.

Ultimately the question is, are we suffering from division and splintering, or are we progressively refining how we perceive the truth?

Personally, I tend to learn towards the latter.