New Year with a New Realization of Reality? !!! ,

               New Year with a New Realization of Reality? !!! ,

                     [by balayogi- balayogiv@gmail.com]

                         

                               Pochemuchka to Ajati vada

[Don’t miss to read I, Pencil-My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read mentioned in this article with a link and also don’t miss to go through all the other references whenever you find time, you can read the whole article with all the attachments over a period of 15 days but don’t miss any part of it ]

Multiple Punctuations in the title are intentional because New Year day symbolizes the inevitable manifestation of polarity principle or dichotomy of life in all its aspects lived through the dimensions of space and time and how there exists always either perceived or unperceived, acknowledged or unacknowledged, and an important link acting as a vital chord between the polarities and in this case the past and the future which either through a conscious continuation or by coming together of the polarities manifests that life is not confined as a dyad but it is a triad which has elements of both factors of the polarity and something more too, so symbolically three punctuation marks.

In a way Advaitha [Oneness], polarity or dichotomy [Dwaitha/duality] and Triad are all perhaps the manifestations of attributes of the self or what is perceived by the self. This is one of the many reasons for contradictions in every serious search for truth or Reality.

Contradictions are also because of human psyche’s penchant for generalizing variety, oversimplifying the complex, sometimes confusing the motives to be either the means or meaning of the quest, justifying all means, fear of various kinds, predominance of certain types of thinking, passing everything through a prism of some popular or prevailing liking, seeing things with jaundiced vision and prejudiced views, presuming that we need to judge everything and everyone, applying irrelevant metrics to evaluate everything rather than evaluating anything through its inherent merits and so on.

Contradictions are very often camouflaged as dichotomies and dichotomies are the indoctrinated and engraved part of many domains of life as Dudley Lynch puts forth very nicely, “The brain forever has dichotomies on its mind-The ancient Taoists did it with yin/yang. Religious types with good/evil. Philosophers with mind/matter. Particle scientists with wave/particle. Psychologists with nature/nurture. Law officers with good cop/bad cop. On and on and on. You just had to know that it was only a matter of time before “dualism”—or … harrumph! … co-eternal binary opposition—infested neuro discussions like kudzu” and continues “Maybe, as one thoughtful observer has suggested, even as old dualisms get knocked down, “it seems that there is something about the wiring of the brain that leads to new dualisms springing up.” Talk about Whack-a-Mole! That was certainly what the late George Kelly, the father of personal construct psychology, thought. “Our psychological geometry is a geometry of dichotomies[italics mine] rather than the geometry of areas envisioned by the classical logic of concepts, or the geometry of lines envisioned by classical mathematical geometries.” (Double harrumph!) in his blog [1] {do not miss to read the comments about George Kelly in the link as well }

But when we transcend these fallacies, avoid getting struck at the seams or joints and instead effect a transition to transformation we can easily infer and perceive with greater clarity.

As Sherlock Holmes declares, “From a drop of water a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagra without having seen or heard of one or the other. So, all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a link of it.”

An explanation to the weird punctuation marks in the title.

I am neither good at punctuation marks nor a strict adherent of rules of punctuation marks because I am primarily keen on letting the thoughts flow rather than stressing more on clearly conveying to others. Sometimes I use punctuation marks very unconventionally but logically justifiable. This is one such occasion.

Why a question mark?

The terminologies especially Realization and Reality used in the title are very much discussed, too much explained, too deeply probed by many great souls in multiple streams of thoughts from different places and in various ages and they both still remain part of life’s unsolved puzzle eluding a fit all situations categorical explanations which do not require further exploration. Therefore, the question mark is to indicate the unsolved puzzle.

Why an exclamatory mark?

Each explanation from each great soul has enhanced our understanding of reality and enlightened our progress in realization but they surprise us every time. So, the exclamatory marks are used to indicate surprise as Albert Einstein says, “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one”. 

Why a comma?

They will continue to be probed further and many more souls will come up with more and new explanations, as none of the enlightened explanation by great souls have been accepted with axiomatic certitude nor have had the approval of whole of humanity, So, a comma is also used to indicate further possible questions and answers.

Perhaps symbolically we are just having a kiss with the very attractive, enticing and deeply interesting topics Newness, Realization and Reality. As Mistinguett says, “A kiss can be a comma, a question mark, or an exclamation point.”

From vindicating the punctuation marks let us move on to studying the etymology and symbolism of New Year Day announcing the first day of the first month January.

Though etymologically and also as per very logical and climatic conditions -based chronological classifications, the  New  Year must start in March, as is obvious from the number based terminology of the last four months though they happen to be the 9^th,10^th,11^th and 12^th months of the calendar, namely September [ from ‘sept’ for number seven 7] October [ from ‘oct’ for number eight 8] November [ from ‘novem’ for number nine 9] and December [[ from ‘decem’ for number ten 10], so strangely we have the new year starting on January.

However, symbolically it is an excellent name, January , from the Roman God Janus [January {in Latin, Ianuarius} is named after Janus the god of the doorway; the name has its beginnings in Roman Mythology, coming from the Latin word for door {Ianua}  but most importantly usually depicted with having two heads that face in opposite directions. One looks back to the year that we have lived {past}, and the other one looks forward to the New Year {future} ahead.] Janus is the god of doors, gates, doorways, bridges, and passageways, all of which symbolize more importantly the important and vital link or transition leading you from something into something else. Nothing is a barrier, even barriers have a connectivity to indicate a transition to transformation into something more.[2]

There is this eluding third element/principle/link /connectivity that unravels the mystery of and meaning of or effect a link between the contrasting polarities, between many things good and bad, big and small, you and me.

Here I would like to quote Simone Weil, French social philosopher, mystic and activist in her work ‘Gravity and Grace’

“The world is the closed door. It is a barrier. And at the same time it is the way through.
Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but it is also their means of communication. … Every separation is a link.”

When talking about boundaries , barriers etc we cannot avoid these very meaningful messages reiterating the vagueness of boundaries from Ken Wilber in his work ‘ No Boundary: Eastern and Western  Approaches to Personal Growth’ like these two small pieces, “ Even to say ‘reality is no-boundary awareness’ is still to create a distinction between boundaries and no-boundary! So we have to keep in mind the great difficulty involved with dualistic language. That "reality is no-boundary" is true enough, provided we remember that no-boundary awareness is a direct, immediate, and nonverbal awareness, and not a mere philosophical theory. It is for these reasons that the mystic-sages stress that reality lies beyond names and forms, words and thoughts, divisions and boundaries. Beyond all boundaries lies the real world of Suchness, the Void, the Dharmakaya, Tao, Brahman, the Godhead. And in the world of suchness, there is neither good nor bad, saint nor sinner, birth nor death, for in the world of suchness there are no boundaries.”  And  "The ultimate metaphysical secret, if we dare to state it so simply, is that there are no boundaries in the Universe. Boundaries are illusions, products not of Reality, but of the way we map and edit Reality. And while it is fine to map out the territory, it is fatal to confuse the two."

Now back to the terminologies in the title.

What is reality? What must be realized? And is Newness a part of or fits into the scheme of that reality or process of realization? Or could anything new be called a reality? Or newness is merely a particular process of realization?

If we take Reality to be the ultimate purpose/meaning /truth of life and therefore universally appealing and applicable, then, we need to find out what is this Reality?

Reality cannot be categorically defined through or confined to either the host of Gods and Concepts of metaphysics or the guests of God particle of physics. It cannot be accepted as some philosophical or religious definitions etc

Then is Reality in reality what we practice?

Or is Reality what is prescribed by our religion/culture/nation/society/education/family etc?

Or should all questions on reality proceed from certain unverifiable assumptions to be made upfront, particularly the monotheistic concept (a God as the Creator)?

Or is Reality what is perceived by us?

Or is Reality making us aware of the real uselessness of living in the past [or the limited uses of referring to the past as ready reckoner to experience and execute easily certain things in some aspects of life] and the frailty of fantasized future [or perhaps the inevitable planning and projections to perform in certain aspects/activities of life] and therefore really pay attention only to the present moment?

Or is Reality the many verbal concepts as defined by many philosophers/religionists/ spiritual leaders etc?

Or is Reality what is established by scientific hypothesis/theories or proven experiments until proven otherwise or proven to be totally wrong and replaced by other new findings?

Or is reality as per another popular view which states that the true underlying reality to everything is consciousness itself? We are a part of that consciousness, whether we recognize it or not. This is what all of the world religions have tried to teach throughout the ages. But because religion is an artifact of man, it has failed miserably. [3] [3a]

Or can we conveniently shut further debates on reality or about what is reality? by concluding as Louise Nevelson says, “What we call reality is an agreement that people have arrived at to make life more livable.” Or consign a less important role to the question or debate on reality? as Royal Floyd Mengot (Klaus), “I only touch base with reality on an as-needed basis!”  Or is reality a mere concept? as Robin William stated, “Reality -- what a concept!” Or is reality only a state of mind or is it only fantasy gone stale?

Or is Reality merely construed as a bunch of facts? as Ayn Rand seems to view it when she says "We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality." Even as facts Reality has immense value as John Adams says, “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

Aren’t all these various views/facets of Reality sound like quick sands with varying degrees of hardness/hollowness beneath rather than solid rocks?

If these are the few options that rational minds can come up with, imagine the many things, much narrower , being worshipped or prayed for or obsessively sought after and followed presuming them to be Reality? These may include many things from superstitions to traditions to rituals to reverentially praying and worshiping.

All that we see in the phenomenal world, the multiple creatures, diverse actions etc can be subjected to and/or explained based on our perception, experience, cognition etc. How good, great or valid our perceptions, experiences, knowledge etc are highly debatable and relative. Consequently our explanations and evaluation based perceptions, thoughts etc are also highly debatable and relative. Most of our interpretations of or explanations for highly debatable philosophical concepts like what is reality? What is Divinity? And so on, are mostly ‘merely explanatory artifacts invented just for appeasing a curious mind – the explanations have no inherent real value’.

It is in many cases the fallibility or the limitations of the tools of evaluation like our perceptions, experiences, knowledge, thoughts all emanating from our mind that gave birth to most religions, and then religions capitalized on this very well to propagate and sustain themselves in the process. All these Perception and Reality disconnect and birth of religions are very well explained in this wonderful blog link [4]

In short what is Reality is not a rock solid settled matter with universal appeal and applicability/application.

So what could be construed as Reality?

In the following part of the write up we are going on an adventure involving too many questions, which may probably throw up too many concepts and in the garb of adventure and liberal inquiry may even end up confusing but out of confusion and chaos will emerge better understanding or at least awareness of more avenues and options to perceive reality. [5]-{more than an hour long excellent speech on reality and science and hundred plus slides ppt on science and spirituality}

Mostly Reality has been spoken of as some unknown or unknowable but vital mystery/secret which operates life. It is this presumptive connotation of the word reality that has made continuous debates and discussions.

Even if we consider Reality to be just matter or as physical phenomena do we know or have we understood all qualities, states, attributes of all matter?

We all would be surprised and puzzled if we read this very interesting book in science which is fortunately available free on internet ‘The Machinery of the Universe

Mechanical Conceptions of Physical Phenomena’ by  Amos Emerson Dolbear

Or on a lighter vein is Reality the jigsaw puzzle involving these things:Nothing, Everything, Anything, Something. Then as Jarod Kintz  says, “ Nothing, Everything, Anything, Something: If you have nothing, then you have everything, because you have the freedom to do anything, without the fear of losing something.” 

We must not hesitate to analyze anything and everything in depth from as many angles as possible but also ultimately find out the points of or areas or domains of synthesis/synergy leading to harmony and unity with all variety and/or differences in tact. This is will be the automatic progression of life experience and life itself. Let us not conclude it as such as that would defeat the very purpose of this essay but there is nothing wrong if we actively endeavor to develop such a scenario as experimenters of science or explorers of philosophy. This was briefly defined by D.J.Mercier, the Archbishop of Malines as a natural process of philosophical inquiry, “Sound Philosophy sets out from analysis and terminates in synthesis”

This could be one of the probable outcomes as a manifestation of well organized and well understood wisdom of life as Immanuel Kant says, “Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.” And this could probably why a great scientist like Albert Einstein  goes on to say , “Human beings, vegetables, or comic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible player”.

Let us keep all our vague definitions, interpretations and concepts of Reality as it is and proceed to Realization.

Coming to analysis of what is realization?

Have we or do we know what is realization? Or for that matter even experience?

Is realization predominantly influenced by physical factors/conditions/conditionings etc?

Or is realization predominantly influenced by psychological factors/conditions/conditionings etc?

Or is realization predominantly influenced by any other external factors/conditions/conditionings etc?

Or some supernatural or supramental factors/conditions influence our realization?

“Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man.” - Albert Einstein

Do we know ourselves first as who we are? The several centuries old and most philosophical question of Who Am I? [6] {wonderful documentary explaining philosophically WHO AM I ?more than an hour long } There is a difference between what we are capable of understanding of the physical world and what we know in our hearts to be the truth. Our science deals with the natural...the physical...the corporeal....the material....the rational and the empirical-- and nothing more! But that is not who and what we really are.[7]

Here we would do well to remember what Eric  Micha’el Leventhal says, “You are here on earth to unearth who on earth you are.” 

Leave alone realization do we actually and authentically experience anything at all?  [from the etymology of the word ‘authentic’ meaning ‘author’-as we are not authors of even our experiences] As Oscar Wilde says, “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation”.

“Life is the only real counselor; wisdom unfiltered through personal
experience does not become a part of the moral tissue.”
-- Edith Wharton

Now from this vague introduction of the title let us go on a vaguer journey as we wander in wonder and try to explore the vast adventure called reality, more specifically New Realization of Reality and in the process try to learn and to understand what these things are.

If not the unanswered doubts, at least the search to know what reality is must continue as it is an eternal quest sometimes meaningful and sometimes pointless but continue they must and they do.

Should we search for and try to experience or realize what we know already? “The door to God is the insecurity of not knowing anything. Bear the grace of that uncertainty and all wisdom will be yours”, Adyashanthi.  Will Durant the great scholar says, “Inquiry is fatal to certainty”.

If we know already why must we search for it at all? “Why search anymore? The whole universe has come together to make your existence possible. There is nothing that is not you. The kingdom of God, the Pure land, nirvana, happiness and liberation are all you”, Thich Nhat Hanh.

On the contrary how can we search for something that we do not know anything about, just because someone says that you must search for it, try to experience it, try to realize it etc? So we embark on a journey full of doubts, vagueness, fuzziness etc.

“The search ends with the realization that there is no such thing as enlightenment. By searching, you want to be free from the Self, but whatever you are doing to free yourself from the Self is the Self”, U.G.Krishnamurthy.

Search for Reality need not proceed from any presumptive goal then it ceases to be search, it is merely an attempt to achieve a goal. The very adventure is the uncertainty and vagueness. But at the same time because of this inevitable contradiction, on may wonder, then, why any search at all? Of course, there are motivations and that is at least attempting to try to dispel our lingering doubts and longing to know the permanent and look out for possibilities to seek security for at least our temporal life.

Therefore, we are not necessarily seeking any enlightenment, or any vision of either any God or any favors from any God. Who knows serendipity has secrets up her sleeve that she may startle us with sweet surprises. The famous Sufi saying,” I searched for God and found only myself. I searched for myself and found only God”.

Or as ‘Sailor’ Bob Adamson says, “The reflection is not in the mirror but of the mirror”.

So, nothing is needed to prevent us from the journey of searches but the vehicles used are

a] Coming up with more and/or new questions [if one may use the correct single word for this, it is in Russian: Pochemuchka Someone who asks a lot of questions, probably too many questions]. As James Baldwin says. “The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one's key to the experience of others.”

And as John Ciardi says, “ A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the
hope of greening the landscape of idea”.

b] More or Newer answers to old questions [perhaps including Gadrii Nombor Shulen Jongu (in Tibetan language) meaning Giving an answer that is unrelated to the question.]

“And no philosophy, sadly, has all the answers. No matter how assured we may be about certain aspects of our belief, there are always painful inconsistencies, exceptions, and contradictions. This is true in religion as it is in politics, and is self-evident to all except fanatics and the naïve”-Steve Allen, comedian, from an essay in the book-- "The Courage of Conviction", edited by Philip Berman

More answers emerge when we keep our curiosity is intact as William Lyon Phelps says, “One of our secrets of life is to keep our intellectual curiosity acute.” Honest appraisal of human status requires as a great scientist -- Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) says, “The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of in illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land”.

c] More or newer doubts popping up due to the constant curiosity etc as William Lyon Phelps  puts it, “One of our secrets of life is to keep our intellectual curiosity acute”. “Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.”-Thomas H. Huxley

All these not necessarily following any particular sequence but at random because we don’t have either a map and therefore no GPRS and all the routes around seem to have everything:- beauty, blessings, bumps, boisterousness, barricades, beasts, boons etc with lots of twists and turns with only constant factor being change.

All these probably chosen as preferable options going by observations like this one by H.P. Lovecraft, in  The Call of Cthulhu  “The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should
voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto
harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge
will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position
therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the
deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”

As Sascha Vongehr  mentions in ‘Science As Rationalization And Ultimate Religion

By’  “Every adaptive system has what can be called a perception apparatus and information processing structures and so forth. Science is part of the perception/thinking of social systems. All perception has its “blind spot”. Perception is ignorant of everything except for a tiny slice that it evolved to select and focus attention on. Thinking is there to interpret in a certain evolved way. Humans, being parts as well as environment of social systems, cannot grasp the perceived world of social systems, let alone map out their blind spots. Scientists are especially suspect when it comes to judging the blind spots of science.” [7a]

“I presume it is the same with many people who sincerely seek intrinsically valuable answers to many aspects of life, nothing kicks off without doubts, questions, arguments, contradictions, confusing contemplations etc. Invariably when we doubt, we enter into real search and enquiry. When in doubt, of course, nowadays we resort to google which throws up lots of material good, bad, ugly, authentic and unauthenticated etc. When we seek answers and solutions to many of our intellectually and emotionally incomprehensible and unjustifiable happenings and events surprisingly we somehow get lots of answers from multiple sources. Only thing is we must frankly ask all sorts of questions and fearlessly put forth our doubts. Fear masquerading as hesitation can and does play havoc in many things”.[ 7b]

However, when our soul seeks sincerely some clarifications for certain things about which we all suffer from varying degrees of knowledge, or to be more precise, ignorance intellectually, psychologically etc as they seem to operate beyond the ken of all normal modes of perception, then serendipity submerges us somehow from totally unexpected, unheard of, unrelated and hitherto unknown sources as if hammering one more nail into our coffin of doubts.”[7c]

In brief we are going to proceed without any basic premise because as

Hugh Akston says, “A basic premise is an absolute that permits no co-operation with its antithesis and tolerates no tolerance.”

In a way we are going to move about like a long river sometimes silent and serene, sometimes turbulent and flooding, sometimes roaring and ravaging, taking unexpected turns and twists.

Let us be clear at the outset that we are not a spoil sport. Nor are we delving into some idealistic philosophizing.

But however all these elements and aspects namely constant questioning, facing new answers, never hesitating to spell our doubts etc offer us, if not more clarity and complete understanding , at least more options and alternatives. One of the important advice I remember in Life is, ‘We must not feel at the end of our life that we were ignorant about Alternatives.’

I would like the search also to be more exploratory, not dogmatic, open-minded, deeply passionate, and perceptive to the appeals of rationalization, but, in due course, also acknowledge without prejudice and becoming sensitive to the deeper stirrings and movements that are beyond and beneath rationalization.

This write up must not be misconstrued as a  criticism of  anything that anyone does but it is to enhance human understanding to lead a humane life in tune with nature and a reasonable concern for the environment and other species from a layman’s understanding of unfolding of events.

In fact life is a wholesome splendor but our focus and scope of viewing it is limited. [8]

“The world of learning is so broad, and the human soul is so limited in
power! We reach forth and strain every nerve, but we seize only a bit of
the curtain that hides the infinite from us”.
-- Maria Mitchell

We human beings are programmed to limit the splendor of life by defining it chronologically. Having programmed it thus, we engage in various types of calendared celebrations of animated circus of chronology, each undoubtedly, imbued with its own meaning, identity based cohesion-enhancing importance and merriment.

New Year is one such occasion of happy celebration.

We have all celebrated over the years many New Year days in different ways at different places in different moods.

But after almost many years of celebration it strikes to us, probably a clear symptom of old age than wisdom, what is new there to celebrate on New Year Day if there is no new realization? Or some realization of what reality is?

Can Reality, at least socially speaking, be defined by whatever is perceived by the individual[s]? At least that’s what it seems going by the manifestation on the one hand of  unchanged, unforgotten and unforgiving attitudes, reactions etc of historical hostilities between nations, groups, sects etc and on the other hand very firm, fixed and fanatical faith on the selective scriptures, socially approved and sponsored  trends etc.

Both these extreme attitudes are fundamentally more of a mere reenactment of well anchored and appreciated behavior patterns or atavistic tendencies. They are due to these abovementioned reasons rather seem than the result of any enlightenment experienced through unprejudiced attitudes and unpolluted by past perceptions of the world.

So, we all live in a world shaped by not even our experiences as we experience it but based on how we are programmed to experience it. The variations in experiences are merely the result of differences in programming, and not realities.

So, most of the time really valuable and worthy wisdom eludes us, why? What to do to get that sort of a solid wisdom? Do we need to make any changes to our learning process? Or is that really available in scripture?

Probably a child like curiosity driven, but high sensitivity based unbiased and passion filled experience is one of the better forms of learning that can deliver such a wisdom which need not bother about any social or cultural or academic approval.

Therefore, hypothetically for a tribe, untouched by modern science, reality would be, the sun as some bright ball being thrown over a flat stationary earth by some enemy forces to spoil the darkness. We may disagree, but their reality is precious to them. With all of our knowledge acquired and accumulated till date we cannot be sure that all our concepts of the universe are unquestionable.

Are we ready for a new understanding when old explanations have gone past their expiry date and are no longer looked upon as a standard of measurement or source of reference or guide in all streams of life as a whole or in many streams of life in particular?

There is an undeclared feeling  everywhere, that humanity requires or needs some yard sticks and /or reference manuals as value systems to emulate and experience life, leave alone getting evaluated, they would use arguments like the following to justify their stand as Baruch Spinoza says, “If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.” 

If that is so, then what are those value systems? Who or what are going to determine those value systems? Who or what are going to authenticate them?

Are we willing to accept Reality from a new perspective with changing belief systems, new life styles and new religious movements etc? [9]

Do we need to validate everything concerned with life based on certain situations/circumstance? [10]

As we cannot deal with everything even in our limited experience both in terms of micro details and macro perception, how can we claim to do it for the whole of humanity? [11]

The scope of our view, purview, perception, concern etc are determined by various factors and aspects like our unbiased observations [if at all that is possible], frames of reference, tools of perception, [12]  focus of attention, fathom of intentions, intensity of involvement and interest, sensibility and sensitivity of our selections, clarity and conviction of our choices [13] etc

Or most of these the result of predominance of left hemisphere of the brain based thinking and reasoning as IAIN Mcgilchrist a London based psychiatrist says “The left hemisphere sees only a very simple version of reality, is black and white in its view, tends to arrogant certainty, a view that it ‘knows it all already’ and doesn’t have to listen to anything new, and is in denial about its own short-comings. And it has a tendency to paranoia if it feels its position is being threatened…” [14].

In addition to these, the human mind is a pendulum set in motion and swinging between the influences of pleasure of the familiar, comfortable, and already used to operating modes on one side and pressure of the well accepted and appreciated methods etc on the other side and this swinging pendulum in constant motion along with a huge curtain of many other things together block our view of seeing anything new.

We are programmed by habit and constant preconditioning to create defenses against and make fences around us towards anything new [it could be good, better, best or bad I desist from using the usual good, bad and ugly as it has more negatives] that crops up in us or around us. It is a sort of protectionism that goes to envelop in some specific identity or label and further firm up our prejudices and prevent us from experiencing the new. Gradually this identity creates such strong concrete walls that enforce us to experience life only in terms of what is approved of that identity.

Almost all of us are gullible to this attribute of experiencing life through any existing or well established or socially well accepted or religiously sanctioned or personally enjoyable and pleasing identity/identities, which reflect in our actions and attitudes. We are thus led by the expected experiences which must fit into this readymade or readily accepted patterns, I am not saying either they are good or bad, but we are thus prevented from experiencing life as it is happening at this moment.

So, in real terms there is nothing new when we deal with life based on predetermined and past experiences. Or attempt to do things to get a result for a future goal. Thus, in a way we are slaves of our past or to our future. None of our behavior patterns, perceptions, attitudes or attributes are new or authentic as they are guided by prefixed identities.

In fact, in a way, most of the individual problems and group pogroms are the result of identity crisis. This [identity adoration/affiliation] is a very important part of study of personal psychology and socio-psychology which gets neglected or does not get the prominence it deserves because the predominant factors that create these identities and factories that produce these predators are the patrons and promoters of religious and political ideologies. Now recently, technological advancement has also jumped into this band wagon [of course at least this offers tangible comforts and benefits].

These identity creating factories are afraid of free and open minded persons as these open minded persons may start questioning some aspects or the very identity itself.

There is nothing wrong with identities per se nor are they avoidable. For example if someone  is born physically beautiful, mentally brilliant, in a  highly respected family in a particular nation following certain language, religion, culture, tradition etc with some type of specific behavior then that person would be identified with all those things. What can that person do about any of those identities which he is born with, born into, groomed up with along with social inculcation, indoctrination, insistence or voluntary inclination or interest etc?

There is nothing wrong even in human mind getting into judgmental mode based on these identities which is one of the natural consequences of identity affiliation and which is what is happening all over.

There is nothing wrong even in the human mind making comparisons, analysis, criticisms etc based on these identities which are again natural consequences of affiliation to inevitable identities. [14a] 

The problem crops up when these identities create narrow walls of prisons of the mind and thereby creating incompatibilities and intolerances in the functioning of many vital tools of life and not letting life to move on smoothly in its tracks.

In brief our thoughts, ideas, actions, feelings, interactions, attitudes etc are to a very great extent influenced by how we relate to changing situations /circumstances /scenarios/events/environment/new relations etc while clinging on to our identities.

Even within specific identities there are varying degrees and intensities of manifestation.

It would be pertinent to mention what ― Idries Shah the great Sufi writer says in Reflections

“You have not forgotten to remember;
  You have remembered to forget.
  But people can forget to forget. That is just as important as remembering to remember - and generally more practical.” 

As a consequence of this [doing everything while clinging on to our identities]our understanding of life itself is to a very great extent depends on how well we understand our relations/relationships to these changed situations /circumstances/scenarios /events/environment/new relations etc.

Any identity is /all identities are a stumbling block to any realization or unbiased relating/relationship as well. As James Braha writes, in the wonderful book ‘LIVING REALITY-My Extraordinary Summer with “Sailor” Bob Adamson’,

 “You can only know your self by being yourself without any attempt at self-definition and self-description. Once you have understood that you are nothing perceivable or conceivable, that whatever appears in the field of consciousness cannot be your self, you will apply yourself to the eradication of all self identification, as the only way that can take you to a deeper realization of your self. You literally progress by rejection—a veritable rocket. To know that you are neither in the body nor in the mind, though aware of both, is already self-knowledge.”

The real nakedness devoid of any cover of identity, probably this could be one of the connotations of the word ‘Nirvana’, may enable us and equip us to face reality unbiased and without any pre conditioning. Some great souls have even opined that we can even pose real questions only from this state as Terence Mckenna says, “You are not naked when you take off your clothes. You still wear your religious assumptions, your prejudices, your fears, your illusions, your delusions. When you shed the cultural operating system, then, essentially you stand naked before the inspection of your own psyche…and it’s from that position, a position outside the cultural operating system, that we can begin to ask real questions about what does it mean to be human, what kind of circumstance are we caught in, and what kind of structures, if any, can we put in place to assuage the plan and accentuate the glory and the wonder that lurks, waiting for us, in this very narrow slice of time between the birth canal and the yawning grave. In other words we have to return to first premises."
-

Life is never fulfilled with unfulfilled relationships within the family, with others in the society, with the environment, with the many sciences, subjects, systems that we come across which are useful to us, used by us or we are used by them and so on. So, the quality of life is the manifestation of the quality of the inter play of these various relationships.

Even in parenting after donating a sperm and leasing a womb and initially taking care of the physical well being of the Child it is all about weaving meaningful and mutually respectable relationships psychologically all the while factoring in many socio-cultural changes and the generational differences.                                             

Can we ever succeed in overcoming the difficulties and fulfill all our relationships?

Probably if we sincerely, seriously and sanely try to understand them through two important primary factors, namely completely listening and curiously learning followed by involvement and responsibility and all these done with total intensity and intense totality. Very often the greatest mistakes in our relationships, overall perceptions and evaluations occur because we read three fourths, listen half, understand quarter, think zero and are indifferent to the impact of our actions, reactions, thoughts and words on humanity and the environment.[14 b]

The vital factor/essence of any relationship is the connectivity /link and the best way to be aware of it, savor it and sensibly understand this vitality is to be detached to the ultimate results, as Bhagawath Geetha says and again to quote Simone Weil,

 “ Attachment is the greatest fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached”.

Because the fact is life is neither a mere predesigned product with preprogrammed operations nor is it merely any of the existing proclaimed and sanctified order nor is it the result of any mere catastrophic accident.

 ‘Neither our Brain nor our Character is Cast in Stone’ [15]                                              

Do our perceptions and/or thoughts, feelings, knowledge etc influence our experience or our experiences influence our perceptions and/or thoughts, feelings, knowledge etc?

Do we create our identity and getting confined by it?

Or whether some identity actually influences and/or creates us?

Or can we tweak some parts of the brain surgically and create a complete leap away from affinity to identities so that individual perceptions, actions, attitudes and social behavior etc all can be freer and at least devoid of problems caused by contradictions and ideological constraints?  [After all physiologically even DNA is tweaked to produce unimaginable results][16]                                                                                      

Ultimately one thing is clear that there are neither any absolutes to something as temporal as individual life nor any eternally valid or universally applicable models to emulate as the only way or only option to our mortal life. There are no eternal explanations to everything in any single source. Nor is there any omnipotent panacea for everything. The vague randomness that unfolds as we live life is the very beauty of life and probably the most important sign of human evolution and growth of civilization. No single person is an expert on everything.

All relationships effect a transformation, a transition from a present status influencing and impacting ourselves, others, our environment and our very relationship which causes this and so on. This transformation happens due to many of the factors mentioned above in the normal process in a gradual way or sometimes by suddenly overcoming the constraints of time and space, and due to different affinities to various other identities. This happens when there is unqualified complete love as Jeff Brown points out "You don’t measure love in time. You measure love in transformation. Sometimes the longest connections yield very little growth, while the briefest of encounters change everything. The heart doesn't wear a watch- it’s timeless. It doesn’t care how long you know someone. It doesn’t care if you had a 40 year anniversary if there is no juice in the connection. What the heart cares about is resonance. Resonance that opens it, resonance that enlivens it, resonance that calls it home. And when it finds it, the transformation begins…"

Does reality really require an observer? Not necessarily.

Does reality change because of the observer? Not necessarily.

Has reality any inherent existence irrespective of the presence of the observer?                

If it rains heavily in a very remote place uninhabited by any human being, still there would be all effects of a heavy rain irrespective of whether anyone was there to observe it or record it or measure it.[17]

Or as the great Neale Donald Walsch says, “The definition of everything depends on how you look at it. Nothing is as it seems, and the moment you change your perspective you see that. Therefore, there is no such thing as Reality; there is only the reality you create by the way you are looking at something. You are creating your reality through the use of perspective”.   

                                                                                                     

So, very meaningful reality exists of its own within the realm of our observation or sometimes unnoticed, unknown and unnamed, beyond and/or beside the realm of our observation, our measuring it, our labeling etc.  

Various gifted souls and scholars have tried to perceive it through various methods, expressed their understanding through different subjects, through different frames of reference in varying degrees of intensities, each one grasping the splendor of different facets of the same diamond called the totality of life. What their understanding unraveled is very educative and enlightening and highly motivating for us to explore further and deeper the meanings of life.                

Some architects and artist have worked through initially various geometrical and mathematical formulas to understand the visible structural beauties and unravel the mysteries like the ancient sculptures of Indian temples, the Pyramids of Egypt, the  Fibonacci Series and Spiral, the Golden and Angle Ratios, The Delauney Triangulation, Voronoi  Tessellations etc , in other words they were some of the discoveries of the marvelous and meaningful structures existing in nature which the minds of mathematicians succeed so for in unraveling and this was brought out excellently in the short film ‘Nature By Numbers’ by the Spanish film maker Cristobal Vila and a peek into inside the world of fractal geometry through the television documentary by Sir Arthur C.Clarke ‘ Mandelbrot Set (M-Set).Fractals: The Colors of Infinity’  wherein he talks about the ‘Mandala of Hinduism’ could be depicting this fractal geometry etc.

We did not make many things it was evolution which made them or they evolved and we recognized their existence sometimes soon and sometimes late. [17a]

We do not know where ideas come from? [17b] How ideas meet and meet they must?[17c] What are the unintended consequences of many of our actions and thoughts? [17d]as very often human history is the result of collective learning and collective behavior[17e]. How certain factors or aspects of life styles have created certain drastic changes [17f] or even in very precise and rational scientific subjects wherein we have fathomed great depths and covered vast expanse we have been humbled to accept that human life itself [including the whole environment] forms  not even one percent [1%] of what is there to be known about the universe and of which what we know for sure is only some percent of this less than1%. And this is all the more reason for us to keep observing everything more keenly and ask more questions and work towards finding answers to those questions.

Incidentally a person whose name started with the word new set in motion unraveling the mysteries of the world which were till then mere speculation. He did that through some important factors like observation, questioning why what he observed was as it was, then creating ways and means to get an answer for that why?

All great learning and discoveries go through this process. So never hesitate to question and never stop till you find the most convincing answer to that question.

You guessed it right he was Sir Issac Newton.[17g]

As Dogen says, “A flowers falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.” 

The mere acknowledgment of this fact, leave alone understanding of it, must enable us and encourage us to foray beyond and/or besides our comfortable corridors of comprehension; beyond and/or besides our familiar and fashionable faiths; beyond and/or besides our anchored or atavistic attitudes. [18]                                                       

All these continuous debates about what is reality happens because as Raymond Aron says, “Reality is always more conservative than ideology”.                                             

So, let us start understanding each other anew, love each other anew, live together anew, leaving behind  all our past mistakes, histories, histrionics, hitches, hiccups etc and help one another as global citizens sharing the resources of this wonderful planet as brothers and sisters.

Sometimes we can make a new resolve to reverse the trend using the same materials, same logic, and same vocabulary that we have been using till now [18a]

                                       

Can we as global citizens share the resources of this wonderful planet as brothers and sisters?                                                                                                                       

Probably as per Farber's Third Law
We're all going down the same road in different directions.                                        

This mere awareness and willingness must lead us to understand the underlying Oneness of All as suggested, reminded and referred to very often by many great souls, saints, philosophers, scientists, leaders, writers etc through their life and works.

Everything in life has many facets and multiple inter connections. Unfortunately our focus is restricted, our priorities project only certain facets or interlinks or interconnectedness at certain times and thus reduce the scope of our view as well.   When these facets and interconnections are positive they reveal an amazing splendor, manifest multiple marvels and mysteries and the many meanings of life.                 Similarly when they are negative they lead us to the dirty depths of filthy feelings. For example as Bertrand Russell, the famous philosopher and Nobel Laureate says about the detrimental quality of 'envy': " The ordinary beggar in the street envies the more successful beggar, the more successful beggar envied the King of England, the King of England envied Napoleon, Napoleon envied the Czar of Russia, the Czar envied Alexander the Great, Alexander the Great envied Hercules who never existed!"           Or to make it more plainly understandable we are all [human beings and all that exists] are inter related, inter connected, inter dependent, inter active etc irrespective of whether consciously perceived or verbally acknowledged.             There is definitely inherent Grand Oneness with Great Variety among all, including all the insects, animals, plants, big mountains, far off stars etc              This fact of inherent Grand Oneness with Great Variety among all must be realized as an inherent, undeniable fact. [19] { TALK ON GENETIC EXPLANATION OF ONENESS 30MINUTES} Not as a mere verbal statement; Not as a mere sermon with any scientific or spiritual sanction; Not as one more new psychological approach or revolution; Not as another political ideology etc because all these have expiry dates and varying values not only in terms of time but also in terms of situations or circumstances, trends, taboos etc .              "The spirit of Advaita is not to keep away from anything, but to keep in tune with everything." - - Swami Chinmayananda.  So this fact of inherent Grand Oneness with Great Variety among all must be engraved as an attribute in our spirits and manifest in our attitudes and approaches socially. That is real wisdom making great knowledge a part of our being as our attribute, as Orison S. Marden says, “Wisdom is knowledge which has become a part of one's being.”

We are what we do frequently and we become what we do frequently. I desist from using the word ‘always’ because our life, individual life itself is mortal and temporal.

Probably the Grand Oneness with Great Variety  could be the only Newness that we can pledge to follow and influence others too to create an impact which could slowly but surely lead to real civilized living, co operative habitation etc that humanity has been longing for.

As this positive humane attribute manifesting the Grand Oneness with Great Variety and an attitude based on that attribute could be another new wished for reality and may be really be the best celebration of New Year with a New Realization of Reality? !!! ,

Attribute [inherent quality] and attitude are more important than the state of a person or matter.

Wine, water and coffee are all liquids in state but what matters really is their attribute which differentiates them. Therefore, any evolutionary and civilizational growth strategy or program must get embedded as an attribute of life and manifest in our attitude. So the Newness as an attribute manifesting the Grand Oneness with Great Variety can make it really a Happy New Year

This attribute and attitude would be contributing to peace by transcending first all subjective jurisdictional constraints; second by doing away with the sickening endeavors towards peaceful co-existence through ironically enforcing  homogenization without respecting the great variety [ implemented as a national or economic policy, as religious edict, as political ideology etc] [20][21] and third by breaking the shackles of identity orientation [either consciously developed or innocently imbibed] and help also live life vividly in the present moment as Marjory Stoneman Douglas, B. 1890 American Conservationist says, “ Life should be lived so vividly and so intensely that thoughts of another life, or of a longer life, are not necessary.”

And most importantly we must live that in the present moment and along the way help others in every small way we can and create moments of happiness in all possible ways we can. This will rebound in positive vibrations all over in the interrelatedness and inter connectedness that forms a major part of life.

Very recently Biologist Rupert Sheldrake, Neurologist Vilaynur Ramachandran and Physicist Dean Radin spoke of compelling evidence for psychic phenomena, which imply that our minds are also more interconnected to one another than previously imagined.
http://fractalenlightenment.com/15040/spirituality/psychic-phenomena-why-scientists-deny-it

 “Men spend their lives in anticipations, in determining to be vastly happy at some period when they have time. But the present time has one advantage over every other - it is our own. Past opportunities are gone, future have not come. We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer the tasting of them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.”-- C. C. Colton

What I have written above is just old wine in new fangled bottles.

“I share the belief of many of my contemporaries that the spiritual crisis
pervading all spheres of Western industrial society can be remedied only
by a change in our world view. We shall have to shift from the materialistic, dualistic belief that people and their environment are separate, toward a new consciousness of an all-encompassing reality, which embraces the experiencing ego, a reality in which people feel their oneness with animate nature and all of creation”.-- Dr. Albert Hoffman

It is more or less the same idea that we can perceive reflected in the great work

THE CELESTINE VISION. Copyright © 1997 by James Redfield in the chapter titled ‘LIVING THE NEW REALITY’ “Here, then, we can see the larger picture being offered by the new science. Now when we linger outside in our yards or stroll through a park admiring the landscape on a bright sunny day, we must see a new world. No longer can we think of the universe we live in as expanding outward in all directions to infinity. We know that the universe is physically unending but curved in a way that makes it limited and finite. We live inside a bubble of space/time, and like the hyperspace physicist, we intuit other dimensions. And when we look around at the forms within this universe, we can no longer see solid matter but energy stuff. Everything, including ourselves, is nothing more than a field of energy, of light, all interacting and influencing each other. Actually, most of these descriptions of the new reality have already been confirmed by our own experience. We all have moments, for instance, when we can perceive that others have picked up on our thoughts, or times when we know what others feel or are about to say. Similarly, we have times when we know something is about to happen or potentially could happen, and these precognitions are often followed by hunches telling us where we should go or what we should do to be in exactly the right place at the right time. Most significant, we know that our attitude and intention about others is extremely important. As we shall see later, when we think positively, uplifting ourselves and others in the process, incredible events begin to unfold. Our challenge is to put all of this into daily practice, to integrate it into how we live our lives every day. We live in an intelligent, responsive, energy dynamic universe, in which other people’s expectations and assumptions radiate outward to influence us. The next step, therefore, in our journey toward living the new spiritual awareness is to see the human world of energy and expectation and drama for what it is, and to learn to negotiate this world in a more effective way.”

I would therefore, wish, all of you, to read these wonderful materials [mentioned below which are not affiliated to any particular religion/nation/group] and hence devoid of any bias but which are highly scientific, extremely pleasant, extraordinarily brilliant, deeply philosophical, scientifically spiritual and they all bring out the truth of Oneness in various ways for us to be consciously aware of and understand.

These along with the excellent references mentioned in the article are really educative and enlightening to the avid learners and accomplished scholars alike. Please do not miss to read the speeches mentioned in references as well as the following works.

I am not canvassing for these great souls but I enjoyed and learned enormously from them and hence would like to share those pleasures.

I can say with conviction that the selection indicated below has not been easy at all. Intellectual perceptions tended to become barriers but I have enjoyed and accept happily and humbly, as even the great Poet Shakespeare once said “I have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people”.

Some of these explain the grand Oneness and interconnectedness with very simple and interesting analogies like this most famous story by a Nobel laureate which is often quoted but analyzed I, Pencil-My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read in his site

http://www.ccs.in/ccsindia/lacs/18i_pencil.pdf  for a better analysis of the same you may refer to this link as well [22]

Or through write ups, which are highly educative and also very elaborate, extensive, and enlightening involving scientific, mathematical, philosophical, psychological, sociological studies etc like the big book of Guy Murchie ‘The Seven Mysteries of Life’. It is a treasury of evolutionary biology, evolutionary sociology, evolutionary psychology etc which analysis and interprets the grandeur of life from a grand prospective. 

Or through enlightened question and answers through the works of Neale Donald Walsch initially through his first trio ‘Conversations With God’ followed by his other works.

All the works of J.Krishnamurthy.

These books can really entertain you, engage your thoughts and enlighten you. After all as Edward P. Morgan  says, “A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face... It is one of the few havens remaining where a man's mind can get both provocation and privacy.” [23]

And probably when we finish with analyzing everything and making all attempts at realization we may be unwittingly going through the process leading us to Ajati vada [24]

Sometimes once in a while there  are some souls who leap beyond, live aside [like ascetics], leave behind after a very rational process of realization [ like great philosophers] or through a spiritual enlightenment [like great saints] all these fallacies or mayas of life manifesting in differing degrees in the form of various islands of identities of ideology; but then, the  majority of human beings who lead a normal rational life with all the enjoyments of ordinary living with all its pressures are great human beings who leave the stamp of the species  and their role and importance can never be underestimated or undervalued, for, it is they who create lots of things which is what makes human species a notch above the other species as Jacob Bronowski says,  “Every animal leaves traces of what it was; man alone leaves traces of what he created” and not only this human beings are much more wise as William Gladstone observes, “To comprehend a man's life, it is necessary to know not merely what he does but also what he purposely leaves undone. There is a limit to the work that can be got out of a human body or a human brain, and he is a wise man who wastes no energy on pursuits for which he is not fitted; and he is still wiser who, among the things that he can do well, chooses and resolutely follows the best.”

This is inevitable as Maria Mitchell says, “The world of learning is so broad, and the human soul is so limited in power! We reach forth and strain every nerve, but we seize only a bit of the curtain that hides the infinite from us.”

"By contemplating the relationship between the objects in our lives and the forces that created them, we can arrive at the 'thing itself' and know its inherent identity." ~ Dennis William Hauck [here the word inherent identity must be taken as meaning ‘attribute of’]

So, unless there is real Newness injected as an inherent part of or aspect of our attribute and attitude manifesting in all our experiences, perceptions etc extricating ourselves from all our inherited or innate or acquired identities which block any unbiased experience, assigning any big significance to any chronologically acclaimed and celebrated event loses any real importance.

Here are two small quotes which establish well the uselessness of chronological classification / evaluation much less celebration without time being infused with meaning. As - H. L. Mencken says, “The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom” and as Benjamin Franklin declared, “Many people die at twenty-five and aren’t buried until they’re seventy-five.”  

Besides Realization of any Newness in Reality is very tough because by nature we are more creatures of repetition.

“Life, as it is mostly lived, rightly or wrongly, is in fact caught in the vicious circle of repetition, as I understood from the philosophy of the great J.Krishnamurthy, with probably some exceptional and extraordinary deviations, variations and enlightened emancipations away from the vicious circle of repetitions. You may wonder what I mean by vicious circle of repetition, simply explained it is like this, we act or react in life , either physically, emotionally, psychologically, intellectually, philosophically, socially etc based on our existing storage of experience, knowledge, thoughts, memory etc irrespective of whatever situation we are in. Then, based on our action or reaction we gain new or more or similar or same knowledge or experience and again this newly gained experience or knowledge is added to our storage of thoughts as additional memory or as a confirmation of our existing thought or knowledge base. So all our perceptions are confined to or caged within or conforming to this vicious circle of action/reaction based on our knowledge, thoughts, memory, and experience and so on.

To encounter better and enhance the concrete aspects of our life, namely our body and mind, we need to follow healthy practices physically especially taking appropriate cues from nature and for both the body and mind sharpen our awareness; use multiple scales of observation; adopt  suitable, sober, and sensible frames of reference; refine, redefine, refresh our thinking; prepare it to proceed from and towards multiple aspects and angles so that nothing gets omitted from our thought process; properly define , label and categorize everything for suitable identification and reference for life enhancement; in all the above matters allow variety to flourish; understand the oneness of everything; accept everything without getting attached to anything; never resorting to hastily defy or deny the importance of anything  or anyone; while following scrupulously all these things be open and eagerly await the abstract aspect of life to play its part in a mystic marriage with the concrete aspects of life to make life a wonderful splendid spectrum because  the soul or spirit is free of the influence of repetition. That’s why real and great philosophies and spiritual experiences, totally creative artistic works etc emanate from and are part of something that is beyond the body and mind and are not easily understood by most human beings and very often not that easily well communicable either. This is one of the signs of enlightenment.”[25]

Life will therefore mostly subject us to such acid tests and when we emerge through it we come out with more wisdom “Acid test of wisdom is evaluation life through living;” [26] and  real love “Love  is a spontaneous affinity generating from many inner connections dear to the heart awaiting to be synergized” [27]

[1] http://www.braintechnologies.com/blog/2010/02/history%E2%80%99s-longest-running-whack-a-mole-game-%E2%80%9Cdualism%E2%80%9D-continues-as-usual-friends-of-the-right-brain-are-kicking-left-brain-posteriors-and-taking-names/

The brain forever has dichotomies on its mind
The ancient Taoists did it with yin/yang. Religious types with good/evil. Philosophers with mind/matter. Particle scientists with wave/particle. Psychologists with nature/nurture. Law officers with good cop/bad cop. On and on and on. You just had to know that it was only a matter of time before “dualism”—or … harrumph! … co-eternal binary opposition—infested neuro discussions like kudzu.

Maybe, as one thoughtful observer has suggested, even as old dualisms get knocked down, “it seems that there is something about the wiring of the brain that leads to new dualisms springing up.” Talk about Whack-a-Mole!

That was certainly what the late George Kelly, the father of personal construct psychology, thought. “Our psychological geometry is a geometry of dichotomies[italics mine] rather than the geometry of areas envisioned by the classical logic of concepts, or the geometry of lines envisioned by classical mathematical geometries.” (Double harrumph!)

2] Brief reflection on a fence- by Miroslav Holub
[ translated from Czech to English by Ewald Osers]

A fence

begins nowhere
ends nowhere

and

separates the place where it is
from the place where it isn’t.

unfortunately, however,
every fence is relatively permeable, some for

small

others for large things so that
the fence actually
does not separate but indicates
that something should be separated.
And the trespassers will be prosecuted.

In this sense 
the fence can
perfectly well be replaced with an angry word,

or sometimes even

a kind word, but that as a rule
does not occur to anyone.

In this sense therefore
a truly perfect fence
is one
that separates nothing from nothing,
a place where there is nothing, from 
a place where there’s also nothing.

That is the absolute fence, similar to the poet’s word.

[3] http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/11/consciousness-is-everything.html]

[3a] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2503370/Quantum-physics-proves-IS-afterlife-claims-scientist.html

[4] [http://beyond-advaita.blogspot.in/2009/05/amelioration-of-affliction-and-advaita.html

[5] A must listen beautiful lecture covering very interesting anecdotes and a wide bandwidth of his knowledge which was passed on to me because someone read two very simple stuffs I wrote. 

This one IIT Kanpur organized a Lecture Series on Science and Vedanta by Swami Atmapriyananda what erudition 

Swami Atmapriyananda received his Ph.D. from the University of Madras, India, in Theoretical Physics for his work in particle theory. He has a number of research publications in reputed international journals.
45 minutes of very informative and interesting lecture 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jx-m9r68r0&feature=c4-overview&list=UUwxGr_R4cbgn7cDBxWPbHfQ

and also the presentation

SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY
http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/balayogiv-1483709-science-spirituality/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/101198033/Science-and-Spirituality

[6] What an excellent documentary on such an abstract topic explained with crystal clear lucidity through appropriate visuals and adequate scripts which will make even small children understand the source and completeness of life. Watch the full 40 minutes without any prejudice. 

-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-c93ql8Tag&feature=share

It was sheer serendipity that I stumbled upon this when I was hunting for some reference material for some article. Lord Halifax was correct when he said," The struggling for knowledge hath a pleasure in it like wrestling with a fine woman" http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/01/i-reality.html

[7] http://beyond-advaita.blogspot.in/2009/07/three-new-good-books-i-plan-to-read.html

[7a] http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/01/science-as-rationalization-and-ultimate.html

7b] http://idiomsidiomsalltheway.blogspot.in/2012/03/20frightened-easily-timid-afraid-of.html

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/balayogiv-1492189-fear-two-hinge/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/99383226/Fear-the-Two-Way-Hinge

[7c] http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2011/04/to-me-as-i-presume-it-is-to-many-who.html

[8] [http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2011/12/whole.html

[9] http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2009/08/new-religious-movements-nrms.html

[10] MORALITY

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/balayogiv-1483224-morality-contextual/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/101199648/Morality-is-Just-Contextual

[11] http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/11/micro-details-and-macro-view.html

[12] http://contentwriteups.blogspot.com/2010/02/real-perception.html

[13] http://contentwriteups.blogspot.com/2010/12/choice.html

[14] A London psychiatrist, IAIN

McGilchrist wrote the recently published The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. As he says in his interview with  Jessa Crispin in bookslut blog http://www.bookslut.com/features/2010_02_015677.php

““The left hemisphere sees only a very simple version of reality, is black and white in its view, tends to arrogant certainty, a view that it ‘knows it all already’ and doesn’t have to listen to anything new, and is in denial about its own short-comings. And it has a tendency to paranoia if it feels its position is being threatened….

“I do find it very hard to be optimistic at present, because, as I say in the book, the left hemisphere’s view pretends to have it all sown up, and people are taken in by that, especially when it appears to come from the mouth of ‘science’ (usually biologists—the discoveries of physicists forced them long ago to abandon the Victorian mechanistic model, but the life sciences are slow in catching up). Not that the current arts scene is much better—post-modernism is no challenge to the left hemisphere’s view, but, as I suggest, an expression of it.”

14a] http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/10/why-all-of-us-have-tendency-to-compare.html

14b] http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/11/relationships.html

[15] [http://beyond-advaita.blogspot.in/2009/08/neither-our-brain-nor-our-character-are.html]

[16] http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/11/gummy-bears-pharmaceutical-drugs-and.html

[17]Both Einstein and Ramana Maharshi made almost identical statements that "everything is predetermined". Nobel Laureates Eugene Wigner and Francis Crick (co-discoverer of DNA) made similar statements. The ground-breaking experimental work of Libet and many contemporary cognitive neuroscientists support these statements.

This is the first part of a presentation at the Science and Non-Duality Conference in San Rafael, CA in October 2009. The second part is covered in the video "Intelligence Choice is Impossible"; the third and last part is covered in "You Are Not In Control".

There is a new video "Predestination, free will, control and the illusion of time" which explains much on these concepts.

Additional information is @ blog:happinessbeyondthought.blogspot.com website: happiness-beyond-thought.com book: Happiness Beyond Thought: A Practical Guide to Awakening. Downloadable @ http://preview.tinyurl.com/bslfll8 youTube: Gary Weber Nonduality FB

Interview @ Towards A Science of Consciousness conf @http://youtu.be/bEOujFKnHwc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqLDWyk1uLQ

17a] http://www.openculture.com/2011/02/evolution_made_us_all.html

17b] WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM by Steven Johnson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU

17c] Ideas have sex

http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_ridley_when_ideas_have_sex.html

17d] Edward Tenner: Unintended consequences

 http://www.ted.com/talks/edward_tenner_unintended_consequences.html

17e] http://www.ted.com/talks/david_christian_big_history.html

 and  Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Statistics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo

17f] Killer aps

http://www.ted.com/talks/niall_ferguson_the_6_killer_apps_of_prosperity.html

17g] Listen to this wonderful lecture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NbBjNiw4tk&feature=share [this lecture explains the fact that we, I mean the whole of our human kingdom including the whole of environment is just 0.03 per cent of the universe. So there is a lot of new things to find out]

[18]

" George Bernard Shaw is reported to have said

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world.
The unreasonable man adapts the world to himself.

All progress depends upon the unreasonable man

18a] http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=42E2fAWM6rA

[19] Do not miss to listen to the full youtube on Scientific explanation of this Oneness



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df355ZqgQLA

[20] http://contentwriteups.blogspot.com/2009/10/peace-and-non-violence-harmony-and.html

[21] http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2010/11/west-needs-to-change-its-obsession-to.html

[22] http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPnclCover.html

[23] UN’s WORLD BOOK and COPYRIGHT DAY 23^rd April 2013-Why?

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/04/books.html

http://www.scribd.com/doc/135313461/World-Book-and-Copyright-Day-April-23

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4667429606447&set=a.1465556521621.2062584.1314766080&type=1&relevant_count=1

[24] “Ajathi Vada is based out and out on incisive logic and unbiased Self-inquiry (i.e. you have to examine your own mind and belief systems in order to arrive at the final answer). Ajati vada is spelt out in his Karika on Mandukya Upanishad. The subtle and the Ultimate kernel of all Upanishadic teachings is this Ajativada only. This is the final message of Sage Vasishta in the 32,000 sloka strong Yogavaasishta also. Ramana Maharshi, Nisargasdatta Maharaj, J Krishanmurti, Atmananda Krishna Menon, Jillellamudi Amma, Mata Amritananda Mayi, a host of other teachers of Non-duality speak of Ajativada only.

Ajati vada means "Nothing is ever born!!!" by sri Ramesam the author of http://beyond-advaita.blogspot.in/

25] http://idiomsidiomsalltheway.blogspot.in/2012/04/23again-and-again-repeatedly.html

26] http://idiomsidiomsalltheway.blogspot.in/2012/03/14ultimate-proofacid-test.html

27] http://idiomsidiomsalltheway.blogspot.in/2012/03/19preference-esp-strong-for.html