From Sorrow to Infinite Joy
Happiness and sorrow are the two faces of the same coin. It is our fallacy to desire one while trying to avoid the other. The coin is the material world.
If we derive happiness from the physical things, that are finite in nature, inevitably sorrow follows. Thus to derive permanent and infinite joy (or Ananda in Sanskrit) one must seek it beyond this material world and delve within the Self.
The question arises that isn't seeking within oneself is fooling ourselves by enjoying what does not exists in the real world?
To answer the above question, one needs to define what is real? Is the material world real? Are the relationships real? The answer to both these questions are NO.
The material world and its relationships derived thereof are unreal, or as real as the reality of oneself. Because, the world does not exist without oneself, for we perceive this world with respect to ourselves. And, what is just a perception can not be real.
Thus we have found the answered our first question, of is the world within real? The answer is NO.
Let us go through it again, step by step:
A. The material world does not exist, without the existence the consciousness of oneself. That is, the world is perceived by oneself.
B. What is just a perception cannot be real. Thus the material world is not real.
C Seeking and enjoying one's self consciousness, that is, both the subject and the object of perception are consciousness.
D Again, what is just a perception cannot be real; Thus the world within is also unreal or as real as the material world.
We note that the material world is persistent, yet it is unreal. The world within us is in-persistent and unreal.
What is ours today, may not be so tomorrow. The change in perception changes the meaning and the relationships between the objects and the subject.
What do we mean when we say that, the material world is persistent yet unreal? A marble floor of my house exists only in metric dimension only. One cannot find it in the nano dimensions, where only atoms exist. Neither one could find it in cosmic dimensions measured in light years. Thus by even a change of dimension the reality changes!
The reality of the material world lies only in our perception and even that changes with the relations like a change of dimension of scales. Thus even at the same moment of time, it exists and yet it exists not.
So what is real? The unreality of this world is real. Our perception of this unreality is the reality.
Whenever the right conditions and processes occurs within the infinite cosmic journey of this Universe, consciousness manifests itself and tries to make sense of this all, even when there may be none.
There is no need for the Universe to have a meaning for its existence. It is only our logical mind's necessity to have a meaning associated with one and all, from the grandest of scales to the minutest levels.
Only the concept of consciousness is real, as it never gets destroyed with the destruction of the processes that manifest it, and those that bears it. For example a live human body, has a brain, whose processes result in the mind, that manifests consciousness. It is however, the body that bears it.
The concept of consciousness is infinite, as it has no limits of manifestations. It can be borne simultaneously by as many bodies that the nature may sustain. And, the concept of consciousness is not destroyed, even if all bodies bearing it perish. It will manifest again, given the right conditions. Thus the concept never dies nor was it ever born.
Consciousness needs a mind to manifest. A mind being a functional process of neural dynamics cannot happen without a brain. A brain cannot exists without a body.
Thus, a pure form of consciousness does not and can not exist. By pure consciousness, we mean the manifest of consciousness without a body to bear it.
Consciousness is a beautiful concept, yet it is only a concept. It gives the sense of becoming to the being. It creates an illusion of being and becoming yet it itself is not an illusion.
Thus, when we feel we are experiencing pure consciousness, we mean that the subject enjoying the object are both consciousness. Thus the consciousness while meditating on itself becomes one within itself. Thus the distinction between the subject and the object melts away.
This experience of consciousness melting away within itself delivers an infinite joy.
As the consciousness contemplates upon itself, we call it recursive process in computer science parlance. This non-convergent recursion results in an infinite loop of joy. Thus we experience the joy of infinity even when ourselves are finite in nature. Most things infinite have at least one finite dimension.
Finally we note that we distinguish oneself from the Self (with a capital S). The former being the manifest of the later.
There is a beautiful insight given by a poetry derived from Brihadaryanaka Upanishad mantra 30, Canto 28.
Lead me from the unreal, to the Reality;
Lead me from the darkness, to the Light;
Lead me from the finite, to the Infinity.
(given below is the Unicode formatted Sanskrit text, you need to turn on Unicode support to view them properly)
असतो मा सद्गमय
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय
मृत्योर्मामृतं गमय।
asato ma sadgamaya
tamaso ma jyotirgamaya,
mriityor ma amriitam gamaya |
© Ashish Banerjee, www.Ashish.Banerjee.name, 2005.
If we derive happiness from the physical things, that are finite in nature, inevitably sorrow follows. Thus to derive permanent and infinite joy (or Ananda in Sanskrit) one must seek it beyond this material world and delve within the Self.
The question arises that isn't seeking within oneself is fooling ourselves by enjoying what does not exists in the real world?
To answer the above question, one needs to define what is real? Is the material world real? Are the relationships real? The answer to both these questions are NO.
The material world and its relationships derived thereof are unreal, or as real as the reality of oneself. Because, the world does not exist without oneself, for we perceive this world with respect to ourselves. And, what is just a perception can not be real.
Thus we have found the answered our first question, of is the world within real? The answer is NO.
Let us go through it again, step by step:
A. The material world does not exist, without the existence the consciousness of oneself. That is, the world is perceived by oneself.
B. What is just a perception cannot be real. Thus the material world is not real.
C Seeking and enjoying one's self consciousness, that is, both the subject and the object of perception are consciousness.
D Again, what is just a perception cannot be real; Thus the world within is also unreal or as real as the material world.
We note that the material world is persistent, yet it is unreal. The world within us is in-persistent and unreal.
What is ours today, may not be so tomorrow. The change in perception changes the meaning and the relationships between the objects and the subject.
What do we mean when we say that, the material world is persistent yet unreal? A marble floor of my house exists only in metric dimension only. One cannot find it in the nano dimensions, where only atoms exist. Neither one could find it in cosmic dimensions measured in light years. Thus by even a change of dimension the reality changes!
The reality of the material world lies only in our perception and even that changes with the relations like a change of dimension of scales. Thus even at the same moment of time, it exists and yet it exists not.
So what is real? The unreality of this world is real. Our perception of this unreality is the reality.
Whenever the right conditions and processes occurs within the infinite cosmic journey of this Universe, consciousness manifests itself and tries to make sense of this all, even when there may be none.
There is no need for the Universe to have a meaning for its existence. It is only our logical mind's necessity to have a meaning associated with one and all, from the grandest of scales to the minutest levels.
Only the concept of consciousness is real, as it never gets destroyed with the destruction of the processes that manifest it, and those that bears it. For example a live human body, has a brain, whose processes result in the mind, that manifests consciousness. It is however, the body that bears it.
The concept of consciousness is infinite, as it has no limits of manifestations. It can be borne simultaneously by as many bodies that the nature may sustain. And, the concept of consciousness is not destroyed, even if all bodies bearing it perish. It will manifest again, given the right conditions. Thus the concept never dies nor was it ever born.
Consciousness needs a mind to manifest. A mind being a functional process of neural dynamics cannot happen without a brain. A brain cannot exists without a body.
Thus, a pure form of consciousness does not and can not exist. By pure consciousness, we mean the manifest of consciousness without a body to bear it.
Consciousness is a beautiful concept, yet it is only a concept. It gives the sense of becoming to the being. It creates an illusion of being and becoming yet it itself is not an illusion.
Thus, when we feel we are experiencing pure consciousness, we mean that the subject enjoying the object are both consciousness. Thus the consciousness while meditating on itself becomes one within itself. Thus the distinction between the subject and the object melts away.
This experience of consciousness melting away within itself delivers an infinite joy.
As the consciousness contemplates upon itself, we call it recursive process in computer science parlance. This non-convergent recursion results in an infinite loop of joy. Thus we experience the joy of infinity even when ourselves are finite in nature. Most things infinite have at least one finite dimension.
Finally we note that we distinguish oneself from the Self (with a capital S). The former being the manifest of the later.
There is a beautiful insight given by a poetry derived from Brihadaryanaka Upanishad mantra 30, Canto 28.
Lead me from the unreal, to the Reality;
Lead me from the darkness, to the Light;
Lead me from the finite, to the Infinity.
(given below is the Unicode formatted Sanskrit text, you need to turn on Unicode support to view them properly)
असतो मा सद्गमय
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय
मृत्योर्मामृतं गमय।
asato ma sadgamaya
tamaso ma jyotirgamaya,
mriityor ma amriitam gamaya |
© Ashish Banerjee, www.Ashish.Banerjee.name, 2005.
posted by Unknown at 12:39 AM
