Fractals And The Mandala Of The Body: A Note

    "You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop'. 

                                                                                                          - Rumi

Another note to bring up important questions and give a possible concept map to explain it. 

In some schools of Indian philosophy, the ideas of  Brahmandam (Macro-cosmos) and ShudraBrahmandam (Micro-cosmos) are essential to an understanding of the universe. It parallels the Kabbhalistic cosmological ideas of a multi-leveled reality with each level a complete world on its own. One way to visualize it is by using mathematical representations of self-similar structures called fractals.

Fractals (www.sprott.physics.wisc.edu)

Self similar objects do not necessarily have similar gross structures, but rather have a similar structure of organization. One property of self-similar structures is that it needs to be scale-free at all levels. 

                                 Fractals in The Matrix Revolutions Movie


Any Evidence For Self-Similar Organization In The Universe? 

Biological networks ranging from macro-molecular networks to brain connectome networks have been shown to have scale-free property. Networks at a grand social level seem to have the same scale-free property. It is very difficult to study the subtle structure of the macro-cosmos given its scale. 

Is the ground of being the same across all structures and across all levels in the universe?

If that is so, what does it mean to become aware and be the ground of being as some spiritual traditions claim to achieve?



A Note For The Future:

Speculations On Its relation to subtle body anatomy and physiology?


In some spiritual traditions, people are believed to have some subtle entities equivalent to the sun and the moon in their head region. 

What is its relation to the evolution of our body in our solar system?

Alex Grey Painting

Will bodies that evolve in a different solar system with two moons have two subtle moon elements in the body? 


These are some things to ponder about.....Feel free to expand on these notions....

My Ten Clarifications: A Letter To All In A Semi-Religious Tone

02/11/2015

I would like to make some clarifications regarding my attitude towards other religions and religion at large. It is important to make a clear statement as I carry some subtle truths that were historically part of the canon of religious and spiritual truths. I think it may be too early to make any statement on this, but many already feel why I've not made any statement on this one yet. Just like other truths, religious truths too can be understood in many ways. So I tend to use several scientific terms to explain some phenomena that is part of what you could call aspects of the god potential (as described in world's religious texts or super hero potential in recent fiction).

Since transcending all these narrow religious definitions is part of the process of realizing that fundamental ground of being, I've no need to identify myself exclusively to any religion. I would like to stand as the common ground of being, if at all possible, that is behind all religious truths as I sincerely hope this will let people have more open conversations across religious boundaries. Having an open conversation doesn't immediately create a need for conversion and the nature of traditions people follow is better left to themselves. I think coercion or forced conversion to another religion is ethically wrong.

I grew up in the late 20th and early 21st century enjoying the good things of the time and also facing the problems of our time. It would be extremely ridiculous if I'd the same social attitude and used the same tone to convey some ideas . I was not a conventionally religious person during most of my life. Even now most people wouldn't call me traditionally religious. To those who think my language do not resemble any saint's, my language and the way I express is influenced by the time and place I live and have lived. However,beneath the manner of expression, there may be huge similarities in the content.

Forgive my sarcasm and humor in even a serious dialogue that people value so much (may be some pun intended about the valuing part). Given my current situation as a not so free person in society and going through some societal pressure regarding all this almost everyday, it would be mocking all the god potential people have known in all the great religions of the world. So I restrict my serious talk to discussing certain truths and ideas. And the medium of communication is also not the most straight forward one, I would prefer the one that has a direct communication to an individual. Complete awakening and realizing god potential is also not a completed project for me. So even though I've signs all over, I've not realized the full potential. I'm writing this as there is a need for a clear statement even now owing to all the signs and other confusion regarding all this.

As a result of that I do not have good enough knowledge of all the religions. And I also don't talk in Aramaic or Arabic/Urdu or Sanskrit and confuse people who already seem to be perpetually confused. If I gain good enough to complete knowledge of something and want to communicate if people want, I'll use a language that many people can understand. If you have a lot of knowledge in one religion, I need to be talking to you about something else so that you see the commonalities and see the missing elements. There is no point in repeating something you already know a lot about. In this regard, the emphasis is not on me, it is on what you can learn from my experience and knowledge. So leave the petty brawls and enjoy whatever community or label you like and try to get a good understanding/experience of these truths. This is really one domain where there is no competition except may be on the business side which is there even for liquid soap.


The Ten Clarifications: 

1) I'm not against people following any religion. Religion is a human activity centered around some god figures and their teachings. Do not confuse the people following any religion with their administrators and do not confuse the administrators with the sages. Sometimes it is useful to make distinction between the sages and the gods and at other times not so helpful.

2) It is impossible for anyone to displace the gods or great heroes who lived hundreds and thousands of years back. So by definition nobody can kill the people who are already dead. When people talk about god, they usually mean the formless being of god who cannot be slain at any point of time. So stop panicking that your Jesus, Rama, Buddha or Allah will be displaced into oblivion just because another guy shows similar signs. I've a lot of respect for all their teachings and people who know deep stuff won't be able to separate the common spirit of these gods from any sage for that matter. Yes, I don't have that much respect for the criminal hypocrites who do a lot of nonsense in the name of religion.

3) This is something most people have felt historically and have created huge problems for people and for the great people themselves. Jews were afraid that new guy will replace the old gods and crucified him. But he came back and taught what he had to and left. All these religions have survived new world changing events for thousands of years and have actually thrived until now. They survived and grew not by killing all the competitors, but mostly because of people who followed it diligently allowing for it to evolve with changing times.

3) Don't confuse Jesus.inc, Rama.org, Buddha.inc or Allah.org with the actual teachings of the gods. These are partially political, business, and religious organizations that have their own agendas. Even one of these is a heady thing to manage. It is this triple bang bang bang nature of these organizations that make them super powerful than most of the mere mortals in this world.

4) I don't intend to start any new religion.  I believe we have enough number of religions for people to fight among each other.People also don't have to panic that by some cosmic miracle they will have to integrate with people of other religions.It is not possible to integrate people, at best they can only live together in a family/community with some understanding. None of the gods started any religion for that matter.They either taught something or led the people of the world..

5) It is a great opportunity to understand the truths behind your own religious ideas if you have one and subtle truths if you don't have one. If your particular tradition emphasized some truths and left out other some other truths, it is an opportunity to add these truths to your traditional understanding. Nobody is going to force anyone to change the books written thousands of years back. To give a specific example, if people in India had only recorded Rama's story as God's story, they wouldn't have known the Shiva-Shakti aspect of reality. Different traditions and religions have partial truths not because their gods had partial awakening, but because each emphasized some aspect of a truth and might have lost or neglected others. This could be a valuable insight to monotheistic religions that worship only one form of god. All religions can be considered monotheistic when we talk about god at the ultimate level. But the difference in our distinction of monotheism and polytheism has to do with specific forms of the god.

6) I'm surprised at the lack of humility and an attitude of curiosity among people who actually want to experience, understand and realize the nature of this very complex magical phenomena and being. Whenever a phenomena is so complex to explain, we have this tendency to put a label like magic , god or some scientific label to tag it with. People still don't understand the human kidney completely. There is so much more to learn at deeper levels. We have not come close enough to define all the possibilities inherent to this phenomena. It is just deceivingly easily accessible but very rare to actually to get access to.

7) Many people confuse external, observed rituals as being the only aspect of religion. May be Jesus didn't have to chant all the Sanskrit mantras to realize his god potential. But the times have changed people are covered with loud lies all the time. Silence doesn't seem to work when other people can talk from inside your body with electronic bugs, worms and implants. I believe under such sick conditions and times of organ hacking, we all need to shout all the mantras of the world at the top our lungs all the time to remain sane let alone realize subtle truths.

8) I once thought religion is easy subject. Actually it is one of the hardest if we do a serious study. It deals with complex phenomena that has enchanted some of the most serious thinkers of the past and present.Einstein's goal was to understand the mind of God, by which he meant the principles governing the universe. Historically, our understanding of it has been simple and straight forward in some sense and extremely complicated in other ways. All these diversity in understanding the same phenomena points to the fact that all this can be understood at several levels of complexity. Sometimes we don't even need to understand it, but only experience it.

9) It is one of the good news for all of humanity that we don't have to be a genius to achieve awakening to the fundamental ground of being or experience god. Imagine if only Einstein level geniuses can experience god, 99.99% of humanity and all other living organisms would have no clue as to what these people are talking about.

10) The sure way to destroy your own religion's integrity and create aversion towards it in the minds of people is by indulging in acts of criminal destruction in the name of your religion. Again, you can't destroy the formless god by definition and very difficult to kill the ones in form. Honestly, somebody got to be deluded to think they can save Jesus Christ from getting destroyed. What they imply is they can't tolerate reduction in profit returns for Jesus.inc, Rama.inc or other business enterprises.

What they are essentially saying is their god is better than the other one in a neighboring country or a neighborhood because they as the better people are following it. It is as if the gods get grading based on the grading of the people who follow it. Most people like static images, words and idols of god.It gives them some sense of security and knowledge of something they haven't experienced yet. These forms of knowledge do not talk back and challenge them overtly. It may happen in a very subtle manner. It is good to remember a huge part of  most of these gods' lives was all about suffering. May be they experienced this suffering in a different way and responded to the challenges in a radically different way. That is where we need to focus on and not on some prejudiced egotistical banter on who is the larger one, which sadly reveals our child like understanding of the whole thing about their teachings.

Jupiter Ascending: A Down To Earth Insterstellar Power Struggle

                 
" It is not what you do. It is who you are."  is a rarely said thing in this world. What we do certainly has many meanings. It could imply the moral nature of your actions, the grandeur in the experience or the professional roles people perform.

Taken in the sense of any action, it sort of posits a kind of privilege to some people regardless of their roles. It could mean that no matter what they do, they have certain privileges. Oops, wait! That sounds like the unspoken truth to me about this world. No matter what people in power do, they do expect to have royal privileges.

The idea that what you are is much more than anything you can ever imagine has been the subject of most of religious philosophy. What you do and what you get to do is contingent on several conditions in the world that can be manipulated to keep you from ever realizing your own nature and potential like it happens for the leading lady Jupiter in the movie.

Jupiter grows up in Chicago thinking that the work she does and the money she gets defines who she is. She thinks of herself as a nothing and hates her life for that. Suddenly things take a multi-dimensional turn and she finds out despite her own perception of herself, she is actually the re-incarnation of the ruler of the universe. A universe with several countless planets inhabited by people with much advanced technology and powers. The movie follows the journey of Jupiter from Chicago to other worlds completely different from the one she is used to and how she comes to terms with her other identity in those worlds.    

Jupiter Ascending

Several premises in the plot reminds me of the great Indian myths. With references to the notion of universal monarch and reincarnation in world's religious ideas, it also has several realms of existence with beings from all these realms visiting earth and doing their own stuff. In this movie, we see aliens with super powers living happily on earth with most people not even noticing them. These aliens seem to live for thousands of years like in those old myths. Here the other worlds are all in the same material plane of existence, where teleportation and interstellar travel are common for people from advanced civilizations.

The context is similar to situations in Mahabharata, where there is constant struggle for rights over property between cousins and siblings. And the story of Krishna/Moses where their powerful royal family members anxious over losing their ruler ship, attempt to kill these monarchs when they haven't even realized who they are.

Beneath its grand canvas of inter-stellar travel and grand worlds, it is a deeply political movie. It raises the familiar questions about the hierarchical power structures in the universe, where the bottom rung is exploited and crushed under the feet of the higher hierarchy. The premise that earth is just an under-developed outpost of the universe and is being used as a mere farm for growing what the powerful and rich from other worlds need for raking in profit and be young and beautiful sounds similar to the situation closer back home. I believe we are used to the situation where huge corporations use people from under-developed nations as experimental specimens for their own profits. It also paints a familiar situation where most people don't have any information about such things happening in the world.

This sets the premise for a romantic tale, where the protagonists romantic escapades happen in the midst of great action sequences mostly in air. With extraordinary visuals and their unique canvas of grandeur, it is a much more down to earth tale from the Wachowskis despite its premise of space travel.

                                       

A Very Honest Conversation With A Very Pretty Gang Of Bartenders

Me: You are very pretty.

Baby 1:  Are you hitting on me?

Me: No, I just declared a truth to the world of four people....

Baby 2: Boohoo....What are you doing?

Me:  Really. You too are very pretty... I've never seen such a happy gang of pretty women...

Baby 1: Really...What about the women from your country?

Me: Some of them have really hot and sexy physical features, but some thing is missing big time... Fear, Jealousy, the competitive instinct to beat you in life takes over all their beauty...Most of them lack any freedom...May be they look happy in other circumstances and not just obvious to my biased eyes...

Baby 2: Wow.. That sounds complex, but true...

Me: I don't know about you women too... But something in your faces tells me there is some joy and some sort of genuine good emotions ...

Baby 3:  Wow, that is a compliment then...

Me: Yeah, You don't get to see a happy bunch of free pretty women having a good time, with out the guys at the next fuming angrily at them or another gang of girls burning in jealousy...

Baby 1:  Why are you over analyzing these poor women from your country?

Me: I too thought so initially..But no there is some truth to what I said just now...By the way, don't go to India...

Baby 2: Why?

Me: To the petty Indian minds, your pretty faces warrant an acid attack...

Baby 3: What? That is a freaky thing...

Me: Yeah, it happens all the time...That is the way it is...

Baby 2: That is scary...

Me: Yeah..Honestly, why do you let people from Third world shit holes of earth in to your beautiful country? It makes me happy to just look at all of you having a good time...Only being ruined by people from those cursed places bringing their dirty battles here and ruining your time...

Baby 3: Why do you talk like a sad, frustrated puppy? ..Did any Woman from your country throw bananas at you?

Me: Huh! Not really...It is just that to my eyes the contrast is so obvious...Can't blames those people either...They have been under the rule of criminals for decades with their own corrupt system..And they also had a great cultural paralysis...Sometimes you just feel sad for the pitiful lot there....How great life could be for them if they come out of their sick system and their sick mental attitudes?

Baby 2: All these assaults and sexual harassment happen here too.... Some women here get too freaky that they will put a bullet in your head right there if you comment badly on their dress. Professional jealousy and jealousy among high school girls or women is common to all the places in the world..

Me:  Agreed. I'm not talking about the weird or the criminal population. I'm not saying it doesn't happen any where. I just felt this difference among the everyday regular folks here...

Baby 1: Do you have a girl friend? Are you interested in dating anyone here? Looking for a permanent residency or what?

Me: Not actually.. I don't feel much for personal relationships now and I'm not desperate for any permanent residency anywhere in the world...

I've been fighting several sick groups for several years in a very stupid way..Most of the times I didn't even remember I was in a fight...I'm in a position of disadvantage now and looking forward to fight them in an effective way...All I want to do is fight really hard and get my freedom to live..

Baby 2: Why don't you call the cops and register a case? You are not a gangster, are you?

Me: The system is corrupt to the core. Cops work for these guys and the lawyers, judges too... Asking them for help is voluntarily getting in to a trap and is a sure to fail strategy...

Baby 3: Sounds like a crappy country and a situation...

Me: Yeah, sick situation for me too.This is the age of criminals and rowdies there... I've no choice, but to fight..These guys I'm talking about have enormous power and resources in the society..They don't back down and won't stop until one of us is dead. They are the powerful ones now and they seem to be having a gala time...I want to fight at any risk to my life... I can't imagine living such a sick human life like a slave to some criminal gang....

Baby 4: I thought you are in grad school..Sounds nearly impossible for me.. I just feel sad for you and your situation now...

Baby 2: I'm so scared..Why did you tell us such personal stuff? Will we be in danger?

Me: That is the strange thing now..Many people know this is happening in my life..They want me to suck up to those powerful people and so won't talk about this to me...I can't imagine in my dream that I am even capable of doing such a thing... It is my nature so to speak and have to live and die according to that... So no worries about your safety...

Baby 3: Wait a second...Are you mad to tell us you are under attack by some criminals and you seem to be walking around fine having a chat and eating chocolate cake? Are you really under attack or imagining all this stuff.. I hope you don't mind me suggesting to you something...You know I'm actually a Psych major working part time here to fund my Masters..I've read and met a lot of anxious and paranoiac people .You need to visit a shrink and find some help...

Me: I'm actually seeing one you know.,..He seems to be a sold out guy under pressure from higher authorities...

Baby 2: Wow that itself sounds paranoiac to me...You know what you have had too many drinks today..

Me: I just had the usual hard cider that counts up to my weekly count of 1-3 hard ciders... That is what babies in primary school drink when they want to get drunk...

Baby 1: That is true..I don't know what to say.. Just take care.. and let us know if you need any help...

Baby 2: Yeah.. that is so sad.. take care...

Baby 3: Yeah, See u around. Take my advice and see a shrink.. Everything is going to be fine....

Me: Thanks for chatting with me.... I really appreciate that... See you around...And thanks for your advice...


Disclaimer: This conservation could have happened, but might not have happened. Anyways, calling those pretty women 'babies' was not meant to dehumanize those respectful ladies into babies, and not to comment on their intellectual growth or treat them as dolls... It is just a fond way of calling these pretty women...

A Brief Note On Consciousness Debate

There are two schools of consciousness at the opposing ends of  the spectrum of ideas that can explain consciousness.

1) One is the materialist version where consciousness is considered to be an illusion and that the foundational reality of our experience is dependent completely on the functioning of the brain.

2) The other schools of consciousness at the other end of the spectrum are the monists schools that claim that our perceived reality itself is of illusory nature and consciousness is the only reality and is  something as fundamental as space-time in the universe




 

One way to argue about this among several others is to define what is real and then find out which school comes closer to define this.

The embodied sensory experience only perceives the existence of body and the mind. It doesn't perceive the existence of any special entity called consciousness that appears when the person is alive and disappears when the person is unconscious or dead. In such a scenario, it seems reasonable to think that consciousness is an illusion and our only reality is based in this material brain and the mind that is believed to emerge from it. The light some people claim to see in altered states of consciousness can be explained away as hallucinatory/perceived lights produced from some altered function of the brain and perceived by the mind.

There are some phenomena that can challenge this argument in this specific format. For example, if the body-mind completely disappears from this physical realm and reappears, it is reasonable to think that there is something else besides the body-mind that is bringing forth this specific form into existence. And if a form can exist just as light for a while and reappear as the same form with the same material constituents, we can conclude that the something that exists when the form disappears has to be the real thing and this body-mind is somehow a projection of that something. At other times, it is reasonable to conclude that this body-mind is real,but it is an illusory reality like a dream. Monist schools claim that these two phenomena exist in this physical world and that this dis-embodied or partially altered-bodied state can be experienced.

This raises the question how something that is illusory be given any status of reality? When the knowledge of the real thing and the fact that this perceived reality has an illusory nature  is integrated into our definition of reality, we can confidently say that to the perceiving thing, everything is real. There are moments when the perceiving thing is aware of the real thing and many moments when that is aware of the changing world that has an illusory nature. But all appears real.

A common analogy is that of a magic show. Yes, the experience of magic show is real. The tricks are real and the rules that allow the tricks are real. But it is also an illusion. Only when we know that it is an illusion and that there is something else that is real and allows the magic to be experienced gives the status of reality to this realm of existence. Yes, that is the real thing and I'm in a magic show watching some grand magic.

It is to say we have access to different levels of reality and only when we take into account other levels of reality does any one level appear illusory. Only when we have access to waking state, do we know that in the dream state nothing much happens in the world of waking state. When we wake up from the dream we realize it is just a dream, where the mind plays out an illusion of experience during sleep. Just like that, only when we are awake to the deepest state of reality, can we recognize the dream like nature of our experience in our waking and dream state.

Another cause for confusion is that all these levels are not experienced by all. It is akin to the question do all humans walk? Not necessarily, babies have to go through a developmental process to walk and people need all the necessary structures to walk, some lose it to unfortunate events and some lose function of those structures to old age. Likewise, it is reasonable to say that all people are born with the potential to experience all the levels of reality, but most spend a lot of time in some level and define their reality there exclusively.

Is observing such extraordinary phenomena the only way to argue about this? No, there are many other ways to argue about this and arrive at a similar conclusion. For the materialist schools, scientific experimentation of very subtle phenomena could provide directions and for the monist schools,the arguments are mostly based on a combination of inter-subjective validation of personal experience and methods from analytical philosophy. However, hard evidence for such subtle level phenomena comes mostly from such kind of extraordinary phenomena.