Molecular basis for energy conservation in thoughtlessness stage and meditation

I have written before about thought as an energy form. I wrote about the importance of thoughtlessness stage to conserve the energy, which is dissipated with each and every thought that arises in our mind. Here I will try to explain why we need to conserve the energy to achieve self-realization.

            We have learned from chemistry class about the basic structure of an atom. Atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by negatively charged electrons. In 1913, Niels Bohr suggested that electrons were confined into clearly defined orbits. An electron must absorb specific amounts of energy to move further from the nucleus and vice versa, energy electron emits specific amounts of energy to move nearer to the nucleus. I have illustrated in the diagram below.

Now let us look at our body composition in terms of material and tissues, which are muscle, fat, bone, teeth, brain, nerves, connective tissue, blood, lymph, urine and air in the lungs. However in terms of atomic composition, 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of the six elements which are oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus. In a simple term, we are made up of trillions of atoms. Now let me illustrate how conservation of energy affect the fundamental chemical bond between these atoms in or body.  I have explained in great detail about how energy and thought related to each other in my previous posting (refer to “thought is energy”).  Through thoughtlessness stage, so much of energy could be conserved and it is important to bring us to higher energy state level. Similarly it is proven that meditation increases energy levels via various ways; reducing basal metabolic rate, reducing heart rate, more effective oxygen consumption and by synchronous vibration of molecules in the body. In a simple term, in a meditative state our body goes into hibernation similar like how animals hibernate to conserve energy. 

            In a molecular level, this increase in energy translates into electron migration further or away from the nucleus. In other words, the further the electrons move away from the nucleus, the electrons have a higher energy state.

            Now in gross physical body level, I called the movement of these electrons outwardly, in which tremendous energy conservation is needed as a state of higher energy level and not individual energy. The merging of individual energy with cosmic energy is only possible in this higher energy level. The more the energy is centered towards the nucleus, the lower the chances for the individual energy to merge with that of cosmic energy.

            The person with lower energy level is more self-centered. To move from the centre outwardly towards the cosmic energy, energy conservation is needed. Energy conservation is only possible through meditation and thoughtlessness stage. Similarly, as I have described before, the movement of this energy outwardly from centre to periphery will make us more sensitive towards other form of energies. We could sense other people’s energy or aura. The person with higher energy level could sense more easily the cosmic or divine energy. Self-realization is nothing but a state of highest energy level. To achieve that state, one must bypass the individual energy and move to cosmic or divine energy. In that higher energy state, different plane of manifestation of divine mother could be better understood. Hope all of us are blessed to achieve that state. Aum Sadguru. 

Inner voice

It has been a month since the last time I wrote in the blog. I have been busy somehow rather till I can’t sit down and write. Even if I had the time, the feeling was not right. What I intended to write tends to come from the mind rather than my inner voice. Anything that comes from the mind belongs to the past. Anything that comes from the mind belongs to the reaction of my body with that impression made at that time. Anything that comes from the mind is an individual consciousness. Anything that comes from the mind is not divine but the reflection of self. Anything that comes from the mind is the glorified self-ego.  Anything that comes from the mind is an organized truth. Anything that comes from the mind is cultured truth. Anything that comes from mind is civilized truth. Anything that comes from the mind is hypothetical truth. Anything that comes from the mind is hypocritical truth. Anything that comes from the mind is borrowed truth. Anything that comes from the mind is transitory truth. Anything that comes from the mind is everything but not possibly the truth.

            So, I have to be very careful before I write. If it comes from the mind, it is as worthless as the mind itself. If it comes from the mind, it is as ordinary as the mind itself. It has to come from the deep inner voice. For the deep inner voice to function, the mind must stop functioning. As long as the mind functions, there is no possibility for the inner voice to sprout. As long as the mind functions, the birth of the inner voice is not possible. It is such a paradox. The death of the mind gives rise to the birth of the inner voice. And the tricky part is the death of the mind must be witnessed to let the inner voice to speak. Every night the mind goes to the ‘death mode’ in deep sleep, but why the inner voice is not felt? Obviously it is not possible in deep sleep as the consciousness is there but the ‘I’ is not there to witness the death of the mind and the birth of the inner voice.  Both the mind and the inner voice can’t possibly exist together. In wake state, the mind takes over the inner voice. In deep sleep, the inner voice takes over the mind. The only way to realize the inner voice is to observe the mind. It is only possible to realize the inner voice by bringing the mind to the state of deep sleep without actually sleeping. That is Meditation.

            These are the reasons that prevented me from writing as I realized it is not coming from the deep inner voice. Sometimes, the mind will trick you by pretending to be the inner voice. This is the most dangerous state. Mind can play many wonders in convincing you that you have achieved the goal. It is so convincing that you will be really thinking it is the inner voice. It is so convincing that you will be really thinking this the truth that you have been searching all the while. It is so convincing that you will be really thinking that you have achieved HIM. It is the greatest trap. It is like a web. The more you untangle, the deeper you will be caught. It is the greatest hindrance for spiritual progression. These obstacles must be crossed too. Aum Sadguru.

Time and Space

Today I am going to analyze how the thoughts are formed in our mind and subsequently have impact on the law of Karma. I have described in earlier postings regarding thoughts as an energy form. Thought can be described as any mental activity of being conscious of something. The thoughts that are formed in the brain are either about the past or future. It is not possible for the thoughts to come for the present state. Why is that so? Let us imagine of a thought; “the ring reminds me of my grandmother”. In this case the thinker is thinking in the present moment after his eyes captures the ring but the thoughts brought him to the past in which he needs to recall about his grandmother. In this instance, the thought comes from the past. How about another sentence relating to non-human objects; “the flowers are so beautiful”. In this case the thinker is looking at the bunch of flowers at the present moment and describing his feelings of how beautiful the flowers are. Could we say that the thoughts are in the present moment? Describing a feeling or expression such as ‘beautiful’ in this context comes from the past as the thinker’s brain has stored the memory of the word beautiful and the thinker needs to recall the word to describe the flowers.

            In short, in any mental activities such as interpreting, evaluating, imagining, planning or remembering, it comes from the past. On the other hand, thinking about future still brings past, as the past is the only set of events that has been stored in the thinker’s brain.  It is not possible to think at the present moment. Even if you think of a present moment, as it is happening now, by the time the action potentials take to propagate via neurons it is bound to temporal effect. There are certain time measurements taken for the action potential to propagate via neuron for the electro-chemical signaling to take place. Recently, American neurophysiologist, Benjamin Libet found that the brain begins initiating a voluntary act “about 400msec” before the appearance of the conscious will to act. In other words, apparently conscious decisions to act were preceded by an unconscious build-up of electrical charge within the brain. So, it is scientifically proven that before the actual thought and action is performed, unconscious buildup of electrical activity in neural cells occurs 400msec earlier.  In conclusion, time as a dimension involves apart from the existing space in three dimensions (length, width, height) in the formation of thoughts in the neural cells.

            From a Euclidean space perspective, the universe has 3 dimensions of space and one of time. Scientist proposed two different theories to describe time; tensed theory of time (A-theory of time) and tenseless theory of time (B-theory of time). In the tensed theory of time, time is described as something that flows as the present moves away from the past and towards the future. In tenseless theory of time, time is something, which is static, the past is just as real as the future and our experience of the present is an illusion.

            I believe in this physical plane, we only can agree with the A-theory of time in which events are ordered by way of the non-relational singular predicates “is past”, “is present”, and “is future”.  Although quantum mechanics provides compelling support for B-theory of time, is not possible for us in this physical plane to realize it. However, there is a possibility to realize the B-theory of time in higher energy state when the number of time dimension > 1.  I will elaborate further on this.

            According to ‘Einstein's theories of relativity’, he stated specifically that the tensed theory of time is incorrect. Special relativity states that two observers who are moving relative to each other must both measure the speed of light to be the same. This means that either of the two properties that movement relies upon, space or time, must differ between the observers. The first consequence of this is known as the relativity of simultaneity. This shows that the concept of the present is relative because events, which appear simultaneous in one reference frame, may not do so in another.

Einstein described his theory of general relativity as taking "away from space and time the last remnant of physical objectivity". This is because a number of different coordinate systems can be used to map the universe, all giving the same results. There is no way to know which system is 'correct' and so there is no absolute system, or "prior geometry" to the universe.

According to Einstein's theories of relativity, space and time cannot exist independently and so are best thoughts of as a single entity known as spacetime. Since there can be no time without space, there is no such thing as time outside of the universe and therefore nothing to measure the flow of time against. If there is no such thing as the flow of time then all times are equally real and the universe can be thought of as a complete and unchanging 'block' of four dimensional spacetime.

I believe it is only natural for us to think that time flows from the past to the future due to the human brain’s ability to remember only the past.  In this way we understand how the cause and effect works. Our brain cannot store the future at the present moment. Our brain is continuously storing information at any given present moment. However, we perceive time with the brain that has stored only the past. Due to the inherent quality of brain, which is only capable of storing the past, the future unfolds into present and becoming the past. If brain is not the point of reference, the past is just as real as the future and our experience of the present is an illusion.

            Let us analyze the same scenario in different angle. An act of observation involves an observer observing an object (mug). In the process of observation, the thinker or the observer observing and object, which is the mug and the act of observation leaves an imprint on the observer.  As long as the observer is present and performing the act of observation an imprint or impression will be stored in the observer’s brain. This act of observation between the observer and the object is the cause of flow of time. If there is no act of observation, there is no flow of time. The object is there. The observer has nothing to observe because the act of observation is not taking place. So the time becomes static. There is no past, future or present. There is only static time. This is the only way the subject is not subjected to time dimension and it is the only possible way to escape from the spacetime in this universe. The act of observation is what we need to avoid and the only way is ‘thoughtlessness stage’.  

I believe as long as the time dimension is involved in the process of thought generation, we will be subjected to the law of “karma”.  We will be bounded by the physical law, which governs the universe in terms of time and space. We will be subjected to the law of cause and effect. It is not possible to change the 3 dimensional spaces that our physical body resides but it is possible for us to control the thoughts that are related temporally.  

Thought is Energy

In one of the previous article, I have written about thoughtlessness stage. Here I would like to elaborate more on the scientific reason on how this stage would bring on ‘self-realization’.  As we are aware and it is scientifically proven that every thought is a form of energy.  

There are average 100 billion neurons or nerve cells in human brain. Each neuron connected up to 10,000 other neurons passing signals via 1,000 trillion synaptic connections. Information transmission between neurons takes place using a combination of chemicals and electricity, a process known as electro-chemical signaling. Every neuron maintains a voltage gradient across its membrane, due to metabolically driven differences in ions of sodium, potassium, chloride and calcium within the cell. Action potential is generated if the voltage changes significantly and can be measured as a waveform in electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings.

As described the physiological process in generating a thought is a complex process but fundamentally involves electro-chemical signaling. Each thought generated needed a substantial amount of energy. Given a point of time, there are certain numbers of thoughts running in our mind. In terms of energy, there are certain amounts of energy needed in the generation of equivocal number of thoughts. No study has been done to date regarding the number of thoughts generated by human brain in any given seconds. If we search in the net, Wiki answers estimates 70,000 thoughts in a day. That is equivalent of 72 thoughts per minute if we take into account 6-8 hours of sleep. But we still have thoughts in rapid eye movement (REM) or stage 1 sleep. We may have thoughts running even during deep sleep/NREM stage or stage 2-3 but at a lower level which we aren’t sure. 

            In short, there is so much of energy required to generate that many number of thoughts on a daily basis. Although no doubt, we need to use the faculty of thinking to live and function but do we actually realize how many number of thoughts generated without actual significance. In other words, that many thoughts, which are generated consciously and sub-consciously, are of no practical significance. The thoughts are not being translated into actions. The thought come and goes as clouds. The purposeless thoughts that appear during daydreaming have no significant value.  There are many purposeless thoughts that come as a reaction to certain emotions of ours or as a reaction to environmental stimulus or during complex interaction with another human beings. Most of the purposeless thoughts could be avoided consciously by the various methods that I have described in my earlier postings.

So scientifically, there is a possible explanation for conservation of energy through reducing the number of thoughts though absolute state of thoughtlessness is not impossible. By reducing the number of thoughts, so much of energy could be conserved in our brain. But how this energy conservation is going to help in self- realization? To be continued...

Communication via vibration not language

I have been living in Australia for almost 7 months now. Before I left, one of my senior colleagues advised me to learn about Western mannerism. She said it’s important for me to wish ‘good morning’ and say ‘thank you’. It’s not that I do not wish to say that proper words but being born in a family whom English is not the first language makes it harder. Once I landed here, I was exposed to more mannerism, namely; ‘how’s going mate, sorry, excuse me, no worries and the repetition of wishing good day depends on the time of the day.  In many occasions, my supervisor has said good and excellent to me till I was confused whether my work is really good or is it part of the mannerism.

            I feel one should say something if only she/he really meant it rather than utter the word or phrases mechanically. So much so, the utterance of the words has become a routine and part of the conversation. In an extreme way, it has become like a spinal reflex. The so-called learned words/phrases that comes out automatically from one’s mouth even bypasses cerebral cortex. In medical term spinal reflex is designated term for one’s action that does not need the brain but can be processed at spine level. In a simplistic way, you no need to use your brain to tell that words/phrases, as you are so accustomed to it. Practical analog is running away from a chasing dog. We don’t think to run or not when we encounter a dog but we will just run when a dog starts to chase us.

            I feel the utterance of these words/phrases has no meaning whatsoever. It has become a very artificial way of living. Living with pre-meditated, designated words/phrases without actually conveying the message sincerely is meaningless.  A lot of times we don’t mean what we say. The verbal faculty and the thought process functions in an asynchronous way. The mind is thinking about something but the mouth is uttering something else.

            Whether we like it or not, language has became the only way of communication. We have forgotten other methods of communications or maybe we are not observant enough. Language is needed to communicate but it is not the only way to communicate. A mother can feel the love of a baby without any language.  Couples in love can feel each other’s love without using language. They can sit and stare at each for hours without the need of language.  In prayers, we can feel God without the need of language. We can communicate with God without language.

            It is a very complex process in processing and understanding language. The thought forms as what to say in the mind, the language centre forms the word, sends the signal to mouth and words are uttered. The understanding of uttered words needs the ear as a receiver, to capture the waveform and finally the signal interpreted in language centre.

            Another form of communication that has not given equal attention deliberately or ignorantly would be the sense of aura or vibration. Each one of us has a unique aura or body vibration. The vibration will change according to the mood, emotion and other physiological changes of the body. Microscopically, all the molecules are constantly vibrating. The molecules are not motionless. We have learned about this in our chemistry class. Now imagine, the number of molecules in our whole body that are more than thousands of trillions in number. Imagine the thousands of trillions of molecules constantly vibrating and the force or net energy it may produce. But why we are not tuned to sense this vibration or energy. We have not developed a special sense to detect this vibration/aura or energy. From my personal experience, I have written before in of the article regarding the electromagnetic field. I would like to emphasis here that the aura/ vibration energy that I am taking about has a scientific explanation as I have elaborated above. It is not the imagination of the writer. I have been experience it day and night 24 hours a day. Being a doctor and a practicing neurologist myself, I am not sure why this part of ancient science is of no interest in western medicine. This aura/ vibration energy can be used to cure others through the power of touch. Similar like telepathy that uses the power of prayers through mind. Most eastern scriptures have described the same energy that I have been talking about, ‘prana’ in vedantic philosophy (Hinduism), ‘Qi’ in traditional Chinese culture, ‘lung’ in Tibetan Buddhism and ‘mana’ in Hawaiian culture.

            This energy is the life force or the energy flow in our body. Any disharmony in this form of energy is the cause of the diseases. The writer has personally felt different level of energy in patients with various forms of diseases. I have been experiencing daily with my patients various energy forms which different form of intensity. Those patients with severe, chronic diseases and psychiatric conditions have a very strong ‘negative energy’ as their aura and on the other hand, milder diseases has minimal ‘negative energy’.  The readers are advised to refer to my previous posting on ‘electromagnetic field’. It is my personal opinion that most often medical practitioners (including me) are treating the end of spectrum of diseases. Not much effort is being done on prevention. The disharmony of the energy field has been re-accumulated for so many numbers of years and by the time the disease is manifested, most often it is too late or the treatment is not effective. If each and every individual could realize the energy flow in the body, there is a possibility of harmonization, hence prevention of many dreadful diseases by God willing. Aum sadguru. 

The Law of Karma

It has been almost a month now since I wrote in my blog. I had a severe toothache due to impacted wisdom tooth, which needed an extraction 1 month ago. I experienced the worse pain in my life till literally I ‘forgot’ about anything else. I encountered many sleepless night, thanks to the dentist who pull out 3cm of bone together with my wisdom tooth. 

            Somehow or rather, I experienced the law of karma or ‘cause and effect’ within short duration. Let me elaborate. On 15^th Jan 2013, my wife and children left Australia to Malaysia.  I have to find a new place (room) to stay as I had few unpleasant encounters with the tenant whom I was sharing the flat. I could not agree with the final settlement of the bond with her in which on the final day of my stay there a heated arguments resulted. Finally, they gave in after exchange of few harsh words between us.  The second incident occurred 2 weeks later. I yelled at the customer service staff of one of the telecommunication company, as we were overcharged regarding the broadband usage for more than 2 months. During that 2 months duration, my family was staying with me in Australia and my wife verbally informed that particular service provider regarding the cancellation of the broadband before she left Malaysia. In both occasion, I exchanged harsh words, embarrassed the other person with the unpleasant words. As a consequence of it, I suffered for almost 1 week with severe toothache and 10 days after removal of the impacted wisdom tooth.

            Similar ‘cause and effect’ events have been taken place in my life many times before. I don’t have to wait for the ‘final judgment’ day, as I will reap the fruit of my ‘action’ the moment it is sowed.  The law of ‘karma’ really works for me instantly. Even the negative thought we sow minus the actual action will results in negative effect. This is so true for me. Even though I have not done any actual harm but the thought itself will cause a chain reaction of bad effect.

            In a simplistic way, we have grown up to divide all actions in life into two, good vs. bad. From childhood, my parents’ will categorized every action of mine into above. Don’t do this, its bad. Do this, its good. The so-called bad and good has deeply imprinted in my brain cells. Every action of others, and mine I will judge as bad or good. Sometimes, I will justify into very bad, bad, good and very good. Still it falls in either category except the severity varies. The dichotomization of every action into these two categories has resulted me to look at things in a very divided, narrow way. In medical terms, there is a word called ‘tunnel vision’ which means loss of peripheral vision and retention of central vision. The sufferer would only see the centre of the image rather than the actual picture. In the similar manner, I had ‘tunnel vision’ for so many years by dichotomizing every action of others and mine into good and bad.

            Recently I’ve realized, every action are just action. The good and bad action only comes when we attached value to it. The good and bad action only comes when we attached judgment to it. The good and bad action only comes when we attached our past memory into it. The good and bad action only comes when we attached our mind into it. Leave the value, judgment and the past, only action remains. Bad and good disappears with the value and judgment.

            Now this is bad news for the good-doers. This is bad news for the orthodox preachers. This is bad news for the priest. Their whole life has been wasted doing good actions. Now when I say, there are no bad and good deeds, there are only action, everybody will be upset. They want to be praised when good deeds were done. They want to be praised when bad actions are avoided. When the ‘ego’ can’t be strengthened by the praises, it hurts. The ‘ego’ will get hurt tremendously.

            I went for many pilgrimage trips to India before with my parents. My mother always has the habit to donate money to the beggars queuing up outside each and every temple we visited. There were many occasions, she was not happy with my attitude of not donating money to them. I told her, I will only donate the day my ‘ego’ is not strengthen with my actions. I will only donate, the day I feel donating is just an action. I will only donate if by donating, I don’t have a single thought that I have done good. I will only donate if by donating, I don’t have the ‘nice’ feeling that I have done something good. If the intention of the act of donating is doing a favor to the beggar, I won’t donate. If the intention of the act of donating is accumulating good karma’s, I won’t donate. It is easier to donate than getting rid of the ‘good-feeling’ after we have donated. We can go on donating in whole life and accumulating more and more ‘good-feeling’ that by itself will be a burden. The only way to be free from this cycle of good and bad is to break the cycle of cause and effect. See all actions as just actions. Stop giving values to the actions. Stop judging actions. Stop attaching the fickle mind to each and every action. Aum sadguru.

  

'Thoughtlessness State'

In the past few articles, I have emphasized on thoughtlessness state. It is easy to say it rather then doing it. Constant practice required in achieving and staying on that state.  Various methods have been passed on from generation to generation with the ultimate goal to be in that state.

            I found it easier to be in the state with holding on a single thought. Whenever a thought arises, concentrate on that particular thought and hold on to it. Don’t let other thoughts to come following that initial thought. If we observe closely, each thought will be followed by another thought and the train of thought will start with a never-ending process until we sleep. Even in sleep, sometimes it will manifest as dream in the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep stage. The stage of sleep in which we are able to recall our dreams. So we are all aware that the train of thoughts never stops. If we observe closely during a conversation with friends or relatives, the topic will shift from one to another till at the end of the conversation, it will be a completely irrelevant topic from the beginning. The same goes with our thought process. The moment we woke up, the thought process will start with no whatsoever reasoning or correlation between each thoughts. It will continuously arise and dies off. The moment it dies, it will be given birth to another one. Sometimes one thought gives birth to many thoughts. Other times many thought will run concurrently at any one time. The whole process is a continuum.

            Holding on to a single thought is not an easy task. Initially, it is not even possible to identify a single thought. It is impossible to dissect a single thought from many thoughts. There will be so many thoughts running at the same time and it is not possible to hold on to a single thought. The ability to even observe the thought process without identifying with it, by itself a great achievement. We will call it the first step. The first step is important before we can go to the next stage. The first step is important to realise that thoughts are just thoughts. The problems with us are, we get identified with our thoughts. We have too many ‘I’. We will perfectly agree with one opinion and after a while we will change our opinion. We have too many opinions. We have too many questions. It is perfectly normal for us to change opinion according to the ‘I’ that we have adopted. It is perfectly normal for us to keep on changing our opinion and we are proud of it. We call it ‘evolution’. The constant change of opinion as a result of constant change of thoughts defines our so called ‘I’. It is also perfectly normal for us to day-dream, the identification with one’s thoughts without much attention to surroundings. Many of us day-dream at any one point sometimes on daily basis. We justify the act of day-dreaming by giving a name for it, deep thinking.

The state of thoughtlessness is unimaginable for the beginners. For a very simple reason, we have grown up thinking and we are thought to think. Our parents ask us to think. Our teachers ask us to think. Our professors ask us to think. The whole humanity is asking us to think. And now suddenly, when we are asked to stop thinking and just ‘let go’, it becomes a burden. Actually, it should be the other way around. The act of thinking should be a burden rather than stop thinking. Our natural state during birth was in a thoughtlessness state. Somehow along the way, during our childhood we learned how to think and forget about our natural state. So the whole process of the exercise now is just to rewind ourselves to go back to the state where we belong. We are going to unwind ourselves. We are going to put a reverse gear to go back where we came from.

OK, I will stop digressing and come back to the methods of how to do it. As I mentioned earlier, we need to hold on to that single thought. Initially, many thoughts will pass together. Later on, once you manage to identify a single thought, many more thoughts will come following that single thought. Never mind, hold on to that single thought. Let few other thoughts pass following that. After constant practice, it is achievable for a short time. Slowly the number of thoughts following the initial thought will reduce. I realized holding on to the breath is a good method to suspend temporarily the thought process. If holding on to the single thought is impossible, just inhale a long breath and hold on to the breath. Hold on the breath till the body allows. Hold on to the breath till we can feel our own heart beat. Momentary control of thoughts is achievable by regulating the breathing process. Alternatively, inhale via the left nostril and exhale via the right nostril. Alternating nostril breathing helps to calm down the whole mental process. Both process of concentrating on a single thought that arises and breathing technique should be done concurrently. Another method is observe how the air filling up the lungs during the inhalation process and how it exits slowly during the exhalation. It might take months and years to master the technique of controlling the thought process and breathing, but it is achievable with the blessing of Guru/Masters.

Over time, with constant practice, the duration of thoughtlessness state will prevail compared to the normal state in which we are pre-occupied with thoughts. In that thoughtlessness state, a state of clarity will come. A paradigm shift will happen in our life. Things will never look the same again. In that thoughtlessness state, a tremendous energy will arise. The state of thoughtlessness will gives birth to the state where we came from and we belong. Aum Sadguru.