Equanimity In the Context of Duty and Compassion

"He who is the same to friend and foe, in honor and dishonor, in heat and cold, in pleasure and pain, in censure and praise, free from attachment, silent, content with anything, steady-minded, full of devotion to Me, is dear to Me." 
                                                                                                                        - Lord Krishna 


Upeksha/Equanimity is an important aspect that is emphasized in almost all spiritual traditions, but its importance in our everyday lives is seldom discussed. Equanimity is a state of mind characterized by non-attachment, non-discrimination and even-mindedness. Non-attachment to what and who depends largely on the context. 

Attachment is a very complex cohesive feature in our lives that it could be to anything in the universe. Attachment could to objects, could be to sensory pleasure, could be to some people, could be to a way of life, it could even be to an abstract principle or to our pursuits and goals. The idea of non-discrimination generally refers to non-discrimination against people and sometimes events. Both these ideas can't be separated from the context and are inter-woven into our individual and social lives.

http://what-buddha-said.net/Pics/equanimity.blue.balance.jpgion

A Brief Note On Dharma/Ethics: 

Dharma is the principle that which upholds. As reality is multi-layered and has many levels, it has different meanings in different levels. In short, it refers to the principles of organization of systems at several levels. At the level of atoms and molecules, it is the principles of nature people have found out through science. This also operates at the level of human societies and individuals. Here it is expressed as principles that uphold societies and helps in the development and flourishing of people. 

The range of behavior and phenomena for lower level systems such as atoms or molecules is very limited, hence their behavior as understood by some physical principles seem to be less variable. As highly complex sentient beings with the potential of autonomy and agency, our behaviors are highly variable. Our systems of organizations are highly variable and flexible to accommodate this huge range of experience and action possible for humans.

In human societies, dharma is expressed as ethical principles that uphold societies. So one of the aims of a dharmic life is to live according to these principles that hold higher systems of organization together. As it is evident there are many ways of living in this world, some healthier and others less so. At any point of time, we live in a world with people who are highly heterogeneous with regards to the age, dispositions, acquired habits, values, knowledge, skills and other resources. In such a scenario, it seems like there is no one right way of living.

An ethical life is not necessarily devoid of pleasures, ambition and prosperity. In fact it is defined by where we place our values when it comes into conflict with something else. What if my pursuit of some worthy goal comes into conflict with another person's freedom, life or well being?


The Different Goals of Life And Equanimity: 

In addition to all those differences people have different goals and intentions in that their actions are motivated by a desire to achieve some end. People broadly classify these ends in to four categories: pleasure, wealth/fame, justice/ethics and spiritual realization/knowledge. None of these ends by itself is unethical or leads to conflict with other ends. Ethical dilemmas arise when these ends come into conflict. 

Whether we make the choices regarding our actions with full awareness or mindlessly is a separate issue altogether. Attachment to some pleasure, wealth or fame strays us from doing what is right in many ways. When we deviate from these principles of organization, the state of well being in a system declines to various extents. Equanimity in our pursuit of pleasure and ambition may help us make the right choices that doesn't affect the health of the system in a negative way. 

The aim of spiritual practice across many traditions is to transcend the duality inherent in reality and realize the non-dual state of being. It is exemplified by the act of Christ when he wishes for the well being of people who torture and crucify him. Such a degree of equanimity in the context of compassion demands a greater realization of the oneness of self at the deepest level.


Reality, Rationality And The Idea of Duty and Compassion: 

The idea of duty assumes rational beings coming together to lead life in a society performing roles they choose to do in return of something they agree upon. There are roles people choose to perform and roles that are acquired at birth owing to our inter-dependent nature.

It is quite obvious that only when we perform the duties we have chosen to perform to the best of our abilities, the system functions well. Otherwise the system breaks down to different degrees. The choice involved in selecting our roles and relinquishing it seems to be an important feature of defining duty as it is applicable only for sentient, rational beings with a certain degree of autonomy. The question regarding the extent of freedom in these choices is a separate issue. 

Weber defined three different kinds of rationality: purposive-rationality (as in scientific and technological knowledge), formal rationality (math and logic) and practical rationality (as in moral behavior and communication). While the first two inform each other to a great extent, the integration of purposive and formal rationality to practical rationality and moral reasoning seem to depend largely on the ethical system and the underlying metaphysics assumed or believed to be true.

If the ultimate level of my being is defined in the individuated and differentiated body in perpetual competition with other beings, the way moral principles are laid out may be completely different from the moral principles derived from any other metaphysical system.

The nature of reality described in most eastern philosophical schools and implied in almost all spiritual traditions is the existence of one cosmic soul/subject experiencing and becoming aware of the world through its several manifestations. Almost all non-dual schools agree that the ground of our being is the eternal light of non-dual being where there is no subject-object bifurcation. Some theistic schools argue that this eternal light of being has the nature of subject or another level of cosmically interwoven being that has the nature of a subject. Buddhist schools argue that this cosmic subject comes into existence only on interaction with an object, hence its atheistic nature.

To claim our initial standing as rational beings and autonomous agents coming together to form a system, we need to integrate all aspects of reality in to our moral actions to the extent possible. If our view of reality is partial and our actions are based on that partial view, we may have to face the consequences of our ignorance of other aspects of reality. Knowing this truth and living according to this truth demands equanimity to a great extent.

Such equanimity is exemplified in the persona of the great heroes of the past and present. I suppose the lives of mythological heroes and spiritual teachers still remain a fertile ground for exploring these aspects and drawing lessons from them.


Equanimity In The Context Of Duty: 

The great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata are full of incidents where almost all characters have to wade through different kinds of moral dilemmas. The way self-realized beings led their lives and dealt with these moral dilemmas is represented in world mythologies. Myths have an eternal component of our psyche imprinted on it, that we can draw a lot from it to inform our condition and our lives. 

The conflict of duties that arises in social life is beautifully captured in certain incidents and situations in Ramayana. To honor his father's kingly words, he renounces kingship to his brother and agrees to leave the kingdom. This act of renunciation goes against the wishes of people who want him to be the king.  He argues with them and tells them that his brother is as capable as he is to rule the kingdom and his act of renunciation to honor his father's promise is not going to hurt the welfare of people in any way. This conflict drives him to take the conventionally harder choice to leave his kingdom.

After the trio go to forest, several incidents happen after which Sita is abducted. This initiates the great war with Raavan. It is a war fought to get his love back and also restore the honor of his kingdom as he is also a kingdom's prince in exile. Considering all the damage this war can bring to both sides, he sends several messengers at every stage of the battle to talk peace with Raavan until the end. But at every stage, those efforts don't work and the war is fought. 

 After the war is won and the kingdom restored to Raavan's brother, they return to their kingdom after the exile years. Any contemporary person would agree that winning a war and returning the kingdom to the enemy's own brother, especially at a time when there were no international laws to regulate their actions takes non-attachment and staying true to the original intentions of the war. After they return to their own kingdom, he is anointed the king and things go well for sometime. After a while rumors spread about Sita's fidelity and moral behavior. According to the story in Valmiki's Ramayana, the intentions for renouncing Sita and separating from her is to maintain the integrity of his kingship and the honor of his dynasty, as they recognized the destructive nature of such scandals. Such a radical separation do seem odd now, even though political careers at the highest level are affected by such scandals even in the twenty-first century. Sita's equanimity in the face of these conflicts is nothing less than that of any other non-dual sage and deserves a whole section focusing just on that. 

Rama Renouncing His Kingdom

 http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/

Equanimity in the context of duty also has the meaning of doing our duty regardless of who the effects of our actions are directed towards or against. In Gita, Krishna takes the role of a statesman and prods Arjuna to do his duty as a prince fighting for a just cause. He points to Arjuna the idea of equanimity in the context of duty. He advises him the nature of relations and how our sense of justice needs to transcend that. He gives Arjuna an experience of the real nature of universe, where stars die and the whole universe is dissolved in to Brahman. He shows him that in the light of ultimate reality, everything in the universe is impermanent. It is important to remember Krishna is advising to a Prince to fight other kings and statesmen who are unjust and cunning after several attempts at peaceful negotiation. 

He points to Arjuna that his reasons for not fighting just because his enemies are his relatives doesn't make sense when viewed in the light of ultimate reality. He might not have advised the same thing to two lay people fighting over some property, as it is the duty of the state to deal with that. It is possible that it was advise given to Arjuna in a specific context to fight his battle to take back his kingdom to bring well being and justice to people. I suppose it is because injustice perpetrated by kings and statesmen have more effect on people than lay people. 



Equanimity In The Context Of Compassion:

The historical Buddha took the perspective of a physician to heal the suffering of people. He wanted to find methods to end the suffering of individuals. He found that one of the great ways to do that would be to transcend duality inherent in temporal existence and realizing certain fundamental truths about our existential condition. One way of understanding Siddhartha's decision to renounce his kingship against the duty imposed on him by the society as an affirmation of the role of choice in determining our duty. Renouncing his kingship and kingdom could even be considered a greater duty not just to his own people but to everyone and all beings. Buddha emphasized equanimity in the context of compassion. In this context, equanimity means showing compassionate behavior towards all beings regardless of whether they do us good or harm. 

Buddha Teaching His Disciples (image adapted from the web)

Christ

Christ's teachings has the same emphasis on equanimity in the context of compassion which was exemplified in his attitude during crucifixion. Equanimity in the context of justice and compassion is also seen in Prophet Mohammed's teachings. The same equanimity is emphasized in all traditions. This verse by Rumi who himself was a connoisseur of several spiritual traditions says it all. 

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense.” -Rumi

One interpretation of this that God can be found in the realm of non-dual being where there is no separate self nor abstract thought to describe it. Such an extent of equanimity seem to  require a deep realization of the non-dual nature of being.

Equanimity In The Context of Duty and Compassion: 

Having made this difference between equanimity in these two contexts, it is not always easy to delineate distinct aspects of it. Equanimity in the context of duty may even be out of compassion towards people who are suffering. When Krishna advises Arjun to fight the war, it is hard to say it is not out of compassion towards the people who are suffering because of the wrong actions of some tyrants. Such a contradiction arises in society due to the dual nature of this level of reality. An understanding of the non-dual reality of our being helps to a great extent in dealing with these conflicts in a right way. 

One of the symbols for justice is a blind-folded maiden holding a balance. This symbolizes the impartial mind of a person who is administering justice with equanimity. This equanimity shines forth in both the contexts of duty and compassion. It is this equanimity that affirms the value of an individual, and the integrity and justness of a system. 




















Note: Some of the verses in Gita take the tone of Brahman speaking through the voice of Lord Krishna because he is that. For example, dear to me in the quote may mean that who transcend all these dualities only can see Brahman. Such verses may not refer to the Krishna as a human living in the world of duality. 



  

Angry Rants For Week 3 Of October,2014

• Looks like some people need the sovereign masters of pain and fear....May be they don't respond to anything else in this world... Didn't grow enough to appreciate other things in the world i guess... Even giving that to them needs patience it seems...Was wondering why every myth in TN ends with the burning down of the city (like Kannaki's story and all)...The same characters in the myth are so polite and reason with others when they go to other places..I guess it has to do with the completely deluded, megalomanical nature of people who rise to power there...Honestly, hollywood has made it extremely difficult for me to create fear of any sort in people who are perpetually confused between cinema and reality..Now I need to grow bigger than anything they have shown until now on screen to create a modicum of fear...(word is in the air that popcorn may be used as totems in cinema halls to distinguish it from the real world)..good suggestion heh...may even help me in some way...

Everything Burns

• Looks like Indian criminals have an inherent misunderstanding of their place on earth..Their threats to create huge riots and burn down places and property creates an urge in me to show them who is the master in burning down worlds... 

• A desire for instant gratification is common now, but a desire for instant destruction doesn't seem to be good for anyone. You know it is not being respectful of all the time and energy that this universe has taken to get to this moment...I kindly request you all to be patient in your quest for destruction..It will happen in its own pace...

     

• You know Kannaki's myth may not be relevant to us now...If we take it literally, we gotta be seeing millions of people burning cities all over the world every day seeking justice...Not at all a sustainable way of asking for justice in this corrupt, sick world..Especially with increasing oil prices, burning down even a rotten old building takes a lot of money let alone burning rotting cities and countries (mind it no casualties and no explosives of any sort)...The irony is that you need to be so corrupt to earn the money required to buy fuel to burn a city if you want to ask for justice....But the intentions and pain in Kannaki's myth is still there right...

• Politics 101: The popular way of corrupt politics is to create obstacle for every action you do behind the back and go to others and complain about it to make drama..In the end nothing ever gets done right...If some good comes it has to come through them otherwise no body cares about you....
  Nope if you want water, you don't go to water board, there is someone in the middle who has to be your savior to get water for you and get praise and votes...Otherwise no water.. Now who stopped water supply to be your savior? Well it is not just water bhai saab..It is everything...

•  Yeah, the world is overflowing with this kind..but you guys still opt for it.. and now I've to pay for it even though I'm in the US two big oceans away..Even their long hands are sick i guess...Now, everybody thinks I'm talking about Modi and I can see angry words coming my way...Even though he looks likes this one man army and I'm being told he has everything under his control, there may be some who have power in their own fiefdom...Can't even talk about them these days...No wonder India shifts between complete control over administration and complete freedom over his ministers...

Rants For Week 2 Of October,2014

My rants organized just for you because you are so special. I learnt all of us are special from several ads I grew up watching and now I know that for sure....

• It is very difficult for new groups to come to power due to several reasons...One is the huge network of well established parties who have won the loyalties of several important people in the government and general public and have consolidated their power over several years. That too in big countries with millions of people, the best way in order to bring change is through people demanding a change in the value systems of party people than vice versa...Largely groups have much smaller numbers than people...The most disruptive would be to take them out through other means... There is also this problem of new groups being infiltrated with affiliates of old groups to subvert new ones from the inside...

• In addition, media works by the power of association. You basically associate a word good or bad and repeat several thousand times over an hour to capture the attention...People at the max have 1 hour every day to listen to all kinds of news and keep track of things...If you can make that 1 hour all about these associations, that's what is going to last in their minds until someone changes that or their own actions change it...

• Do we need to place electrodes in the brain for thought control/directing your thoughts to think about something? Nope, there are simpler alternatives...When we are mostly dealing with sensory information, it is possible to bombard any person with auditory and visual stimuli in a clever way to keep redirecting your thoughts to whatever anyone like.....What if you are not able to turn off the stimuli? It is possible to give the stimuli in a very restrained and directed manner that elects response...It is so easy to keep someone distracted. ..This is sort of changing the topic during our conversations with advanced technology...It is possible to change the topic so many times some provoking, some sweet, some reminding you of something pleasant and all... 

• It is true that we don't have to read complicated philosophy to know whatever we see in media is not true and whatever we see in our dreams are also not true (Yeh bhi sach nahi and woh bi sach nahi) So what is real? Is it just a matter of convention? Following this arbitrary status of our definition of reality, there are some "good" applications.One way of treating dictators like Hitler in the future would be to create appearances in his mind that he is actually growing his empire and invading territories, while he is actually sitting in his prison cell. That way he will be happy and it will be harmless to the world. It requires a combination people skilled in creating appearances of events, advanced mind tech and computers. Media people and some public personalities seem to fulfill the human requirement. As always there seem to be some problems in the real world, most of the times those exceedingly willful dictators possess these tech and have access to such people to put imprison and create appearances of things and events happening...

• Nope,I'm not shooting the messenger, they are the ones who seem to be shooting anyone, anywhere and for anything...Obviously, I'm not saying everyone in the media is only lying and spreading rumors...Just like we assess the truthfulness of any individual and believe in any person's words, it becomes important to assess the truthfulness of any media report...Yeah..The situation is more complicated with meta rumors and fabrications about truthfulness itself...Obviously the cleverness of a lie makes it much more difficult with bits of truth interspersed with lies making it much more difficult...no wonder people turn cynical about the whole enterprise and feel isolated and apathetic. .

  

• The thing about power in society is that people holding it have always had the ability to crush other's lives and dreams with the wink of their eyes or with just a phone call...Why they would want to do that is another question? With the growth of legal and regulatory structures, people tried to establish some tools to deal with abuses of power and create situations where they don't have to be afraid...

• I'm not sure If I can blame members of the British Empire for treating poor Indians like slaves in pre-independence colonial India...I can imagine them commenting to themselves after looking at those Indians: "Look at those arrogant Indians with their withering, hungry bodies and desperate life style, completely deluded to think they can stand against the most powerful empire on earth. Don't know what makes them follow an equally famished, half-naked man walking around with a stick who claims he can lead these half-dead bodies to freedom". They did stand against the most powerful empire and won their freedom. The problem is this sort of mentality is not specific to the British. Now I see Indians and others with power and money, making similar comments about unfortunate withering souls and treating them as slaves.... Will history repeat itself? Will someone rise to crush the deluded, deceptive empire some people are building for themselves...Only time can answer such questions...

• Before you condemn North Korea for its lack of openness to the outside world, it is important to ask ourselves whether the spirit of North Korea lives in towns and cities with in the so called free countries. One defining feature of North Korea is that it is sort of a black box to the outside world from which not much information comes out or reaches the people from outside. I believe there are several places that are sort of colored boxes. Some places are dark grey, pink, red, blue, saffron, brown, black and many other colors. When people live in monochromatic boxes, it is at least important for them to realize they may have only partial information filtered through one or a combination of these colors...

   

• 
  

Some Questions On Consciousness

• Is consciousness different from mind? Mind here is defined as thoughts (visual,auditory and other thoughts) and consciousness is the entity that is aware. One way to approach this problem would be to look at the phenomenon of relativity in the biological perception of time. If mind becomes aware of of itself, then it is reasonable to expect it needs to be instantaneous. If the entity that is becoming aware is something else than the mind, it is possible to have such a phenomena. 

• If consciousness is distinct from mind, does it have just one aspect or many? is there one entity that can become aware of a range of phenomena or do we need a whole spectrum of consciousness to become different ranges of phenomena? One system of thought ,Tantra approaches this question with a spectrum of consciousness. There is earth element in consciousness that becomes aware of coarse level phenomena, water element that becomes aware of fluid level, and so on up to the mind level, subtle mind and clear light mind itself. 

    

      More questions to ponder on consciousness....

• Do all beings have the whole spectrum and become aware of the whole range of phenomena..Do rocks have the whole spectrum? Or do they just lack the information transduction and integration machinery? 

• What are the different aspects of consciousness? Do we have similar aspects to what we see in living beings? At a material level, there is the information component in nucleic acids, energy component that comes as part of the cell to cite a few...Do we have similar aspects in consciousness? 

Myth In The Dark Knight Trilogy

"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance." 
                                                                                                                                   - Aristotle                         



Bruce Wayne's character in the The Dark Knight (TDK) trilogy follows a growth pattern that parallels the development of the psyche and its transformation in several of the world's heroes myth. The myth in TDK trilogy is steeped in the idea of renunciation, overcoming several kinds of fear and transcending self-interest to identify with a larger cause for the good. These are recurring themes in several of popular heroes myths from across the world.  


          

Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and Batman in TDK

During his childhood years, he falls in to a well filled with bats,while playing with his friend, and acquires a deep fear of them. His father's helping hand gets him out this predicament and it etches a strong memory of his parents being there for him during his early childhood. When they go to a theatre, his fear of bats brings the family out. There both his parents are killed by a petty criminal and Bruce is consumed by this guilt though out his early life. Over the years it develops in to a deep hatred for that criminal and he seeks revenge. When he fails in an attempt to kill that guy and confesses about that to his friend Rachel, she guides him to an understanding of what justice is about.

She points to him that justice is more than personal revenge and he has no clue about what he is dealing with. This prods him to renounce all his wealth and live as a petty criminal to understand the minds of criminals. This leads him to the league of shadows where he faces another test of his commitment to his ideals. When he is asked to murder a petty criminal as a punishment, he refuses to do that and instead fights with the whole group and escapes from there.


When he returns to Gotham, he finds that things have become worse and decides to fight crime from outside the system. He commits himself to this as the system that is supposed to fight crime itself has become corrupt. This sort of vigilantism in art seems to be a repeating theme in several of today's movies. It may be some sort of response to the prevalent corruption seen in several systems of governance across the world.

Towards the end, even though he confesses his love for Rachel he still keeps distance owing to his commitment to the fight and the inherent dangers involved with that. In this part, the personal journey of the character involves overcoming some fears acquired during his early childhood and realizing that the idea of justice is more than just personal revenge. It is also about committing to a path, in this case fighting for justice. This is how the Batman Trilogy begins.

 

Christian Bale as Batman in Batman Begins

 
In the second part, he encounters two opposing scenario. On the one side, he sees the growth of Harvey Dent who is willing to fight crime from with in the system and offers a face of hope to people. And on the other side, he encounters an agent of chaos in the joker, who just wants to see the world burn for its own sake.

The unstoppable growth of Joker and his destruction strains the city badly that people want Batman to give in as several people are killed for his surrender to Joker. With Alfred's help he decides to be patient and give in to the demands of the situation rather than to give in to the demands of a criminal.

Heath Ledger as Joker in The Dark Knight

 

There is a dialogue in the movie where Dent tells reporters that the night is darkest before the dawn and it is important not to lose hope. This statement sort of hints to the idea of cyclical growth of yin and yang forces in the society as described in the Taoist philosophy. Bruce giving in to the demands of the situation parallels the Taoist wisdom of doing the right action at the right time.

At one point in the movie, a conflicting scenario arises where he has to choose between his love Rachel and Harvey Dent to save one of them. At this moment, he looks beyond his own love and saves Harvey Dent as he believes in the greater good he can bring to people and sustain their hope. This is in one way honoring Rachel who taught him to look beyond his own self interest and saving the man she loves. This is a complicated moral decision for which he pays a huge cost in the later part of the story.

At the end, even Harvey Dent falls victim to the devious plans of Joker and turns against his previous friends. At a point, when Bruce has to fight Dent to save Gordon's son, he accidentally gets killed. Bruce takes the blame for this murder and goes in to hiding at the end of this part.


In the third part of trilogy, Bruce stays alone avoiding much contact with the society and sort of grieves for Rachel over several years. Gordon is also consumed by his guilt for hiding the real events surrounding Dent's death and placing the blame on Batman.

Things soon take a turn for the worse when strong destructive forces start building up strength beneath the surface. The stakes are higher in this part with the destructive forces led by Bane acquiring even a nuclear weapon at one point in the movie.

Tom Hardy as Bane with Batman

Bruce's financial assets are taken away from him and then his friend Alfred too leaves him not being able to see him suffer. When he is psychologically bruised, he is led into a trap by Cat Woman when Bane breaks his back in a fist fight. His identity is compromised and later all his weapons, gadgetry and property are taken away from him. His friends are later captured and made to work to weaponize the nuclear reactor. He is then put in a deep cave prison with several others.

The events here represent one of the components of many a hero's myth. It is overcoming the fear of death and at the same time using the fear of losing loved ones and the people you care about and transforming it into a force. It requires a deep acceptance of  our own limitations to develop a calm required to overcome such a grave situation.

The sequence when Bruce fails to jump across a deep gap in the wall repeatedly portrays this situation very well. His prison mate tells him to take the leap with out a rope that will keep his fear of death and its consequences alive in him. Only after realizing that he is able to make the jump to get out the cave and rescue others.

Later when everything in the city is under the control of Bane's men, he gathers force and helps them in their fight against Bane's men. In the end by saving the city and himself, he honors his friend Alfred's wishes.

The movie ends with the idea that the same heroic spirit is present in all of us awaiting expression in its varied forms. The way the recurring themes in heroes myth are portrayed in this trilogy makes it a classic in recent fiction in several ways.

A Short Note On Confusing Statements Related To Science

Some often repeated statements in science circles and general public may be confusing if we take those statements at its face value. So decided to come up with a little note on my list.

"There is deep science behind this phenomena."

A better way to say that would be "There is truth to this phenomena for which we have a scientific theory to explain." It even fits with in a frame work. One of the reasons behind after a scientific framework becomes well established in explaining several phenomena, the framework takes precedence over phenomena. If some phenomena doesn't fit in to the framework, it may even be rejected.


"There is a natural explanation to this phenomena."

If everything is part of nature, all phenomena will be natural phenomena. Science with its current methods may be able to explain it or may not be able explain at this point of time. How we explain phenomena in nature depends i guess.


Please feel free to add more to this list...

Super Heroes In Recent Fiction And Past Myths

                              
                          
                          Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.
                                                                                                 - Joseph Campbell


Dreams have driven us to imagine possibilities we seldom see and experience in our every day lives. Dreams are thought to be the windows in to the deepest yearnings of our soul and the same dreams when actualized have brought forth a world with greater possibilities and greater depth. Psychoanalysts of the Jungian school and comparative mythologists like Joseph Campbell argue that myths are the collective dreams of people and may also be of other beings manifest in the universe. Some of these myths, both the ancient and recent ones have always been popular as these express our collective yearning to break out from our existential limitations and validate the limits of human potential.

It is interesting to note that most of the super human potentials we see in the super-heroes in popular fiction were also present in heroes of the ancient myths. The major difference in the current mythical narrative being that the myths are filtered through our popular scientific framework. Science and Technology does allow us to break free from some limitations and hence has had an enormous influence in the expression of mythical ideas in our more recent popular fiction.It is interesting to explore the parallels in superhuman abilities in ancient myths and super-heroes in current fiction and look at the various interpretations people have held over time.

Superman, Spider man and Batman

Religious and Popular Myths:

Myths fall in to different categories. Some myths fall under the folk category and others have this global nature to it. All the heroic deeds are generally considered an expression of some great quality of the universal in mankind. While most of the ancient myths were of religious nature and the current ones more rooted in the modern scientific framework, the boundaries do seem to merge in popular imagination. One of the reasons could be the greater appeal of super powers these heroes are shown to hold and their similarities to the powers the mythical heroes of the past were believed to posses. Despite our tendency to separate myths in to such distinctions as the science based myths and the religious ones, they do seem to merge given the source of all great deeds is the mind. However, the frame work in which we understand the basis of these myths and potentials is still different owing to our gaps in knowledge.


The Framework: 

The broad framework in which super-human potential was expressed in the ancient world was that of spirituality. Spirituality is all about our individual consciousness becoming one with the cosmic consciousness or the most basic substrate of the universe. Even though several different spiritual traditions talk about it in various mildly different ways, they all say similar things at the level of ultimate reality. Below is the list of some of the super powers of ancient super heroes that were common all around the world and elucidated well in some of the yogic texts

This realization of oneness was achieved by several people in the past through various means. Some achieve it through involving in arduous physical and mental effort similar to our athletes and scholars of various disciplines. In addition to all this, it involves great practice in several virtues. Some of the ancient super-heroes were considered enlightened souls reborn to guide the world through its ordeals.

Neo Becoming one with the source in The Matrix Revolutions

In contrast to that paradigm, most of the current super heroes in popular fiction acquire or develop super human potentials through freak accidents (Spiderman and most of his villains, Hulk and Captain America through active experiments that turned awry). These stories do shadow our Darwinian view of evolution through random processes. Some of them use advanced technological gadgetry to develop several super human abilities (Batman, Iron Man, and others). Superman is from another planet satiating our hunger for the possibility of inter-stellar travel and alien life.

One possible exception is Neo in The Matrix Trilogy, as the creators have expressed several ancient philosophical and mythological themes in a futuristic context. It is one of those movies where a whole new fictional world was created to parallel our existential condition as believed by the some of the classical philosophical schools. The Matrix Trilogy can be interpreted at several levels and has been analysed by many to a great extent to reveal its philosophical themes The matrix world represents the world of illusion and control in which people remain ignorant of their real existential condition. Morpheus wakes up Neo from the world of deceiving, illusory appearances to a world of much humble conditions always fighting against control and illusion.

 Seraph: A being made of light in The Matrix movies 

To create peace between the warring worlds, Neo has to reach the source and also battle with one of the characters (Smith) set loose with a strong destructive instinct (thanatos). Smith's portrayal, to some extent, expresses the aggressive expression of power to change everything in the world to a mere reflection of oneself. Towards his journey to the source, even though he becomes physically blind, he begins to see people and machines as beings of light. After his battle with Smith, he becomes one with the source and is able to redeem the matrix from its eventual destruction.

This whole concept in The Matrix Trilogy pays homage to several classical philosophies in an innovative manner set in a futuristic setting. Since the underlying metaphysics portrayed in this work of fiction is the same as those believed by the ancient schools, several super powers seen in the myths of the past were also shown in the Matrix movies.


The Super Powers: 

To quote an article in Wikipedia that summarizes the 8 primary skills (siddhis) of super heroes of the past as described in yogic texts:

• Aṇimā: Shrinking one's body even to the size of an atom
• Mahima: Expanding one's body to an infinitely large size
• Garima: Becoming infinitely heavy
• Laghima: Becoming almost weightless
• Prāpti: Having unrestricted access to all places
• Prākāmya: Realizing whatever one desires
• Iṣṭva: Possessing absolute lordship
• Vaśtva: The power to subjugate all 

   Secondary Siddhis achieved by yoga as described by Lord Krishna in Srimad Bhagavatham

• anūrmi-mattvam: Being undisturbed by hunger, thirst, and other bodily appetites
• dūra-śravaṇa: Hearing things far away
• dūra-darśanam: Seeing things far away
• manaḥ-javah: Moving the body wherever thought goes (teleportation/astral projection)
• kāma-rūpam: Assuming any form desired
• para-kāya praveśanam: Entering the bodies of others
• sva-chanda mṛtyuh: Dying when one desires
• devānām saha krīḍā anudarśanam: Witnessing and participating in the pastimes of the gods
• yathā sańkalpa saḿsiddhiḥ: Perfect accomplishment of one's determination
• ājñā apratihatā gatiḥ: Orders or commands being unimpeded 

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhi#Eight_primary_siddhis

Flight to humans has always represented freedom. Almost all the superheroes (as portrayed in fiction) have flying powers one way or the other. Superman, Iron man, Spider man and Batman somehow have flying powers. Even the giant hulk can leap high and far. Hulk is shown to have the capacity grow in to a giant whenever he gets angry. One of the most popular characters in ancient world mythology who does that and carries a mountain on his shoulders is Hanuman. He too like Hulk changes size, but according to his will, and leaps across the ocean to Lanka. All the Buddhas are believed to have such flying abilities. Jesus of Nazareth could perform miracles, fly and resurrect the dead according to the events described in the texts.

Hanuman with a mountain in his hand

Krishna lifting a mountain to give shelter

Christ Walking on Water Painting by Kenneth Wyatt

The Avengers Group

Clairvoyance, Teleportation and entering in to another's body has been portrayed in The Matrix Trilogy in addition to other abilities. Neo also resurrects Trinity just like Trinity does to Neo once. In the ancient myths, several events are portrayed where the super-heroes are shown to bring back people from the dead.

Neo Entering Agent Smith in The Matrix

The Scientific and Philosophical Heroes:

Hulk, Spider man and Iron man are all portrayed as scientists turned super heroes. Batman is portrayed as a tech savvy genius who applies advanced tech to overcome his adversaries. Superman is shown to philosophize about his moral actions just like all others. Almost all the mythical heroes of the past were also intelligent and knowledgeable. Some of them were giants in what is now referred to as inner science, while some didn't mention it explicitly and pointed the source of their powers to god or other powers in the universe. The Buddha, Christ, Prophet Mohammed and several other sages were all great teachers and healers. Most of our super heroes in current popular fiction seem to pay homage to this intellectual tradition.

The Celestial Buddha

The Possibilities: 

In our times, most of our super powers come from the use of technology and advancements in science. Given the slow pace of transformation that happens in the physical realm, we rely on technology for drastic improvements and changes in our physical and mental potential. But the stories in the ancient myths point to some other source for these super human potential in individual humans. The metaphysical basis of those myths present a possibility for achieving those powers much like our modern physics. Our understanding of spirit/consciousness through the lens of modern science is nascent, to say the least, to pass judgement on the possibility of these phenomena. Even though there is much anecdotal evidence about several sages possessing these powers, they remain hidden for good reasons. Much remains to be seen about the possibility of these potentials in humans and other beings on earth. The fact that super human potential portrayed in recent fiction mimics those in ancient myths may point to a deeper source. It may suggest to us that our collective dreams are always there, sometimes hidden deep under the sub-conscious, awaiting full expression in all its magnificence.



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Note: All the images were collected from different sources in the web.