‘Why’ always better than ‘What'

What if I am not born as what I am and belong to a different faith, different socio-economy, in a different family, or even in a different country. Will I hold the same beliefs? Will you hold the same?
I have seen people, close friends, who hold the same level strength in faith in what they believe in. The way I see right and wrong, they too right and wrong with same belief – though what we hold under each category may differ significantly. Nonetheless, the here the point is about the strength of belief. This is just like a soldier defending his country against another soldier who is doing the same.
At this point in my life am super convinced that at a very fundamental level there is no difference whatsoever between all humans, the difference only lies in the thought process; the very thought process which gets conditioned day after day by everything around us – and definitely not to mention the brain washing that goes around in over dose.
As I read somewhere, that as humans, we do not want the truth, we only want to be told, time-to-time that what we believe is the truth; and we will really love to live in this “closed comforted belief” for eternity.
We all have to grow out of all what we grew-in, since childhood.
Relentlessly seek for truth and question – on not what is so, but on why it is so.

Vamsi
28 Mar 2017

3

This craving to give In
increasing with every unfitting min'

Fear at earlier years
anger running thru unseen tears

being responsible choking off the air
to breathe In to anything needed dire

Never ever gave In
Don't know the feelin'

No heart in mind
No mind in heart

Vaccume seeping in
In this fuck sake livin'

--

There was a time when it was too easy to talk, now the thought itself is uneasy

Not sure if it means growing out of simplicities, or losing to specificities

Not sure if it means mind focusing on few, or heart shrinking 'in lieu'

--

Tired being good,
Tired being always there..

Hung on, helplessly,
to that conscientious spear..

Years and years rolled over,
Just on one word - Endure!!

So much life gone by
In just usual wear and tear..

EVERYTHING OF NOTHING

 “What is here is everywhere and what is not here is nowhere” (“Sri Bhagavad-Gita”)

When heard the above phrase, which is over three millennia old, I was immediately impressed by the perfection in construction of the sentence. The sentence felt complete. No contradictions in expression of intention. Given that everything we see, is only made of up atoms in various permutations and combinations, including our own selves and vast complex galaxies – the phrase started making more sense, grossly, over the years.

All the living beings have DNA, the sequence of which decides the attributes a ‘being’ wears or possesses. The DNA actually the source code for any living organism. I only wonder that when even the DNA is a protein and in turn made of atoms – what the source code at the level of atoms is.  Anyways this is the topic of discussion for another time.

Coming back to the phrase – when I was convinced about the first part what is here is everywhere, even more surprise came up with the second part. Many credible science articles taking about the “make-up of atoms” consistently mention that an atom is 99% empty space and that the nucleus and electrons only constitute to 1% of it. Implies that 99% of whatever we see is just empty. If whatever we are, seeing is only 1% what about the unseen 99%.

The wavelength of visible spectrum is only from 390 to 700 Nano meters and which only 0.0035% of entire ‘known’ electromagnetic spectrum. I specifically mentioned ‘known’ as what is unknown as total end to end of this spectrum is still unknown.

Contemplate on that for a minute.

Now at this moment, I really do not know what to say about comments like “I only believe what I see”

One Thought Layer Deep

Many times, it feels the likes, dislikes, interests, and even to the extent of our personalities are just one thought layer deep. Our mind, so externally focused, is always quick to make an impression or opinion on whatever it comes across, of which most of the times a reaction follows defining our actions and in turn our perceived personalities.

Any reaction for something outside stays outside, and not from within. An intellectual person analyses, contemplates outer world through his own thoughts habitually constructed, outwardly. This reminds me of a dialogue from movie “god must be crazy – part 1” where the narrator says in the beginning of the movie, “we create a complex world and spend billions of dollars understanding that complexity.” In general opinion, the more complex the ‘thought constructs’ the more intelligent.

More curious and even crazy is how a same object can create such different thoughts and impressions in different people.  This trait is a deeper characteristic of so-called “being human”,  where we attribute this difference in the thoughts to objects outside and mark them good/bad/right/wrong/lovable/dangerous depending our different one-thought layer deep personalities.

Why are our thoughts so different from one person to another? Why are we the “set of thoughts” we are? Why are we not a different “set of thoughts”? Why are we a “set of thoughts” at a certain age and a different “set of thoughts” at another age?  What is it that makes us? Until few months back, I was fond of this phrase “a collections of thoughts wrapped around in organic tissue.” Thought the fondness is not there much now, but the aptness of the phrase still is the same – as I could not find a much better definition.

If we are a collection of thoughts – how many thoughts constitute a person? More number of thoughts is definitely not proportional to physical size of brain. If so, then where do they hide? Few stimuli can bring back thoughts from decades back. Again, in this case – where were these thoughts for all these decades?

In one of the conversations, I was told that that thoughts are like waves on a sea and their nature is to keep rising and falling – with stimulus or without. It is simply the nature of a thought. Waves originate from the Ocean, but where do thoughts originate? Given the number of thoughts that gush the mind consciously or unconsciously – I could only imagine a place as huge as an ocean as their storage. An invisible ocean of thoughts lying inside every one of us, constituting each one of us, which somehow only the brain could access. Like the rise and fall of waves, thoughts just come and play on the screen of mind, for mind to comprehend/react/act, and then go back to the “nowhere ocean.”

What kind of thoughts are actually thoughts? Is the thought that makes you think about a thought is a thought as well? Perhaps, simply put, it is like seeing your mirror image through another mirror I guess. If we think of constructing a house, buying a car, planning for future, playing chess etc., we know we are thinking and can definitely say these are thoughts.

Some activities we do each day without much of “thought” going in to them – brushing teeth, taking bath, eating on time (though we may consciously think what we have to eat, but the act of eating itself may not need so much ‘thought’) – mostly often mentioned as habits – are they not thoughts? Definitely yes, as the stimulus has to arise from brain itself – but the code for these thoughts are so often transcribed on and on each day that there is no effort at all in playing them. So habituated we get to these thoughts, that most of time mind just acts by reflexes – they are all thoughts nonetheless.

Habits, reflexes, feels and sensory experiences all thoughts so much programmed in the mind that it is tough to tell the difference – also we have different names for each of them, making them more conspicuous. So many thoughts always playing in the mind – some conscious, and many more times sub-conscious make me wonder what would have been the very first thought we had at all in the first place.

Is it possible that there is no thought at all? How would it be? When you sit still, and try not think anything (maybe with yoga or meditation), you are still “aware” of yourself and you know exist and of course you are living. There is vast amount of data on internet to differentiate between awareness of thought and thinking of a thought. Somehow, it is not so convincing to me and they both are present within the brain/mind. Being aware of thought can enable to better process a thought, and even enable the outward reaction related to a thought to be more in ‘control.’ For me both of them different, though subtly, but both are still thoughts nonetheless.

I read somewhere that there is a theory dated back to 17^th century that mentions, “Human mind is like a blank slate at birth without any rules for processing data, and that the data is added and rules for processing it are formed solely by one’s sensory experiences.

Though, I disagree to this theory as well, because of my acquired thoughts through years that fetus can react to external stimuli, and that ‘thoughts’ can start forming in the brain even before birth, somehow get curious with this term “blank slate.” Perhaps, this could be state where there is no thought at all or even that there is no awareness of self.

Somehow all this discussion above makes me lead to one possibility – without a thought, brain does not exist. For brain to exist – it has to think. Moreover, if there is no thought at all, then there is no awareness of existence too and thinking is the very nature of brain/mind.

Is it even possible to “consciously be” in blank slate? ....................