Sunday, May 31, 2009

Thought Engineering

After a long spell of literary dryness , I have finally decided to write , and what motivated me to write this time was the “thought” itself. One of my favorite parts of Rig Veda is the Nasadiya Suktam” translated as the "not the non-existent" which is the 129th hymn of the 10th Mandala of the Rig-Veda and has attracted a large body of literature of commentaries both in Indian theology and in Western philology. The foundation of this Mandala is its emphasis on how the universe was first created which is now an important question for modern day cosmologists, particle physicists and quantum theory specialists. Nasadiya Suktam goes on to attribute creation to what it calls as the “primal germ of mind” or the “thought” , the question being if nothing was there where was the mind.. Lets assume for a second that mind is a hypothetical center for thought creation, the primal germ or the thought which emerged, triggered creation. So our fundamental basis is thought itself. For me mind is a fictional center in human physiology not occupying a defined set of coordinates. We may unlock the power of neurons and various centers in our brain , but still we are left void of the origin of thought. Does that mean thoughts essentially are self existent ? I can safely say that we are all inundated with millions of thoughts every day and every second itself. Dwelling more on Nasadiya Suktam , one of the several creation stanzas in Rig Veda , there is a quintessential assumption that thought is the source of universal creation and thought (the first thought) itself is self created.. This is a strange dichotomy from an existentialist perspective, if creation is from “x” and x is self created. In Sanskrit and in Upanishads we call it as Swayambhu, but again from where ? answer is from Void, vacuum or in metaphysical terms “shunya or zero”.. the essence of creation of thought is thoughtlessness ..

Lets look it in context of existentialist perspective , all our actions arise by a single thought. Somewhere and sometime.. A thought as an energy vehicle is more or less assumed by even neo classical psychologists. All the motivational write ups revolve around constructing effective thought energies which are essence to our well being. But the question is if a thought is self created (if we assume that), why does it so happen and can we engineer our thoughts.

Engineering our thought is basically trying to put our hands on this process of self creation. we can look this from a perspective of self direction, coz if its self created so it can be self directed as well. In a cathode ray experiment we all know that from vacuum electrons arise which can be directed to an electrode, so if thoughts arise from void can we direct their movement. We need to look at this question little deeper. How do we engineer our thoughts ? This can be achieved stage by stage. As a first step we need to cultivate the power of observation, many of us try to control our thoughts which is an anti-nature cycle ,coz if the creation of fundamental thought itself is through the process of self creation , who are we and what power do we have to stop/interfere in the thought creation process. Observation is important because the moment we start observing something we have two demarcations, that which is being observed and the person who is observing. An observer who is observing. Even though this can be in a fraction of a second we split ourselves from being experienced. No doubt our medium vehicle is again a thought to observe but the click is this is the Creation thought. This thought what I call it as a T=0 thought is a creation thought or an observer thought. Being the first thought or an observer thought its free from any toxicity. The creation of universe is a perfect creation by this thought. the first stanza of Isha Upanishad states that OM – Purnamadah Purnamidam Purnat purnamudachyate.
Purnasya Purnamadaya Purnamevavashisyate.” meaning, “That is perfect, this is perfect, from perfect comes out of perfect. If perfect is subtracted from perfect, still perfect is left.”. so essentially again through our T=0 thought we can guide creation which would be perfect. Its through gradual cultivation
of observation of macro and microcosm around one can dwell on this thought. Our sensitivity has considerably depreciated over ages of human growth. Why so ? this because our physical , mental and spiritual endeavors have been so outwardly that our inner faculty development has been the consequent victim. Then again question comes of self direction, aren’t we then interfering in the creationist process, no , this because the moment we bifurcate observer and experiencer we tend to detach our personalized imprint in the thought. Our thoughts many a times (whether selfish or selfless) tend to be anti creationist , so if we align ourselves with the universal or T=0 thought, automatically we endeavor for a universal harmony. Again as a matter of emphasis our well being is attached to universal well being then only we reap true happiness. Just to give an example if we have a hundred million dollars in an isolated island , whats the use. Our world around is a necessary condition to spend and experience that hundred million dollars. So engineering is moving along the path of self direction. And self here is universal. The word "Aham" in Sanskrit is the equivalent world , its an interesting mix that this word is made of .. a is first alphabet and ha is the last alphabet is Sanskrit so Aham spans across first and last.. similarly self here encompasses everything around..

2 comments:

  1. I love to read your such posts where you try to zero down the gap between the science and Indian Mythology. I also feel that observation plays very important role in life. Be it idea generation or as you rightly said, thought engineering.

    Keep posting.

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  2. so if thoughts arise from void can we direct their movement?
    observation is important..agreed
    why my observation is different from your's for a same thing at a same time from same horizon?
    here the answer lies how to engineer thoughts..
    professor already mentioned it's a long process.
    so start thinking about how you can change your observation in a way you want?

    note- first you think what kind of thought process you want, set your observation acc. to it....easy na..
    it will take years...

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