Perfection the Perfect Way |
From the very beginning, I have held the view that any scientific law is and cannot be isolated. That is, such a thing as exception does not exist. If it does, then it is not a law. Continuing
staunchly believing this principle, I am most sure that each one is a
philosopher in his or her own way. Each one has his or her own philosophy and
lives according to it, even though on many occasions or most occasions, not
being aware of it. One
startling fact which has large-scale implications is that what a person is
born with, or more correctly should be born with is a mind that is crystal
clear, on which truth should be reflected without any aberration. This is
pitiably not so. Our mind is polluted, if I may say so, with our instincts,
images of life, states of mind, and what we generally call will power.
Actually, the will power is the only element from which others are derived. The
process of pollution begins at will power, which goes on and pollutes the
state of mind, image of life, and so on. The ultimate result of this
contagious pollution is that the will power, which is the instrument of
pollution finds itself helpless before the colossal waste and dirt, that it
has no choice, but to obey the dictates of that, which it has produced. It is
helpless and the dirt is so much more powerful than itself that a person is
born with it (instincts). Our will powers have produced such a huge pile of
dirt that they themselves have hidden somewhere under it. It may be
noteworthy to notice the fact that will power is one and the same in all
beings. It acts differently just because of its pollution with what is termed
as instinct in lower animals, and the various parts of the mind, in the
higher ones, including man. It
is so pitiable to see that people tend to and do always identify themselves
with the new mess that they have created, and spend their entire lives
fervently believing that they in fact are what they are not. They believe
that they are the polluted will power, state of mind, image of life and
instinct, while in reality, they are in fact the unpolluted will powers,
which is one and the same in all. To
understand this clearly we need to compare the will power with the soul,
which the ancient scriptures say. What they must have meant by the self
(which is supposed to be the soul of souls) I cannot picture at all. They
have been insisting that the soul is the same in all, which is what I believe
too, and they also guide us to reach that soul through meditation, which I
agree partially. Partially because according to the sages, meditation should
unite the sole with the self, which I disagree with and secondly because
according to me, meditation includes what I call self analysis and thus, self
discovery. It
would be a naive thing to say that our minds should be crystal clear all the
time and that never should we let our behaviour be influenced by the
pollution, because firstly, variety is essential. If all men and women make
their minds devoid of this pollution, all would be the same, no individual.
Secondly, it is, as far as I can see, impossible for us to erase the mind off
its content permanently because, this pollution is the result of millions of
years of evolution, which becomes more and more strong each generation. So,
what we can be are philosophers for each one. The ultimate goal of
philosophy, after all is to reach for the truth. But
as seen today, I do not say that people are not capable of reaching the truth
themselves, so that the need philosophers, but that they find themselves
insignificant in front of the huge filth massed up in generations. The
added problem with us Indians is the surroundings that are highly retarding
for a any attempt to reach the truth. We should now begin to undo the process
of evolution and go the right way, by the use of the will power. Now
coming on to the factors behind the piling of these huge pollutants. (later
on, I shall go on to explain how this messy pollution can be replaced by a
crystal clear additive, with slight variation of course, in order for
individuality to remain intact.) Here
I would like to bring in the concept of short-term and long-term solutions.
Starting from the will power and ending in the image of life, I would not
like to attack instinct. When
man was posed with a situation, the first thing his mind did was to
understand it, via instinct. (here we assume that he has no image of life,
state of mind.) this led to his properly disposing off the situation by
reasonable behaviour or action. So far, so good. But his instincts are the
accumulation of the understanding of those situations that is ansestors have
been through. As circumstances change, (and this change is a never-ending
process. The nature of change is not as simple as it used to be) his instinct
became more and more incapable of understanding the new circumstances. As we
all know, an improperly understood circumstances grows into an emotion
instead of a thought. This emotions led to the evolution of the part of the
mind called the state of mind. This weakened his will power which now acted
according to the more powerful state of mind rather than instinct as it used
to. This state of mind, caused the person to feel a particular emotion, not
experience it. (note that feeling an emotion and experiencing them are too
very very different phenomena). This was because his will power is not
accustomed to emotions, or maybe also because his instinct is helpless in
aiding the will power to understand the situation. Thus, the will power finds
itself deserted and tries desperately to defuse the emotion which is
rendering the mind unstable. Since some of the changes were omnipresent, and
defusing them each time would not be feasible, the mind introduced a newer
and more efficient way of tackling the problem. It gave an offshoot from the
state of mind, which I call the image of life. This image of life now
understood the changing circumstances better than both the instinct and the state
of mind (better than the instinct because the instinct does not have the
necessary understanding of the new circumstances, and better than the state
of mind because it does not create instability in the mind). We also call the
image of life, the relatively permanent state of mind (and instinct still
more permanent, inheritable image of life). The formulation of the image of
life is the mind's way of accepting changes, as the changes become part of
the individual's personality. Thus,
we see that just by the small folly of our will power not being able to
understand emotions, it eventually massed up the entire mess called image of
life, instinct. And the furthermore regrettable aspect of this collection is
that it is determined purely by the circumstances, nothing by his own will.
No doubt these changes did lead to evolution, and in a definite direction
too, but it is not better than that which we would have massed, had be done
it in spite of the circumstances, according to the will of the will powers, or
according to our will. Coming
back to our old topic, this mased pollution has so much dwarfed the will
power itself, which produced them with its folly is, that not only do we
interpret situations and changes in situations according to its dictates, and
it to too, according to its will, thus in effect strengthening it, but we
also go to the extent of not confusing ourselves with the filth, but firmly
believing that we in fact are the filth gathered by ourselves over
generations. What can be more tragic, than the fact that we never realise
that hidden among the so degrading stench are our poor will powers, which
though we find them incapable of fighting the filth, are in fact much more
capable of doing things greater than just the taking over of the controls of
the mind. A
new possibility that strikes me now is that nature (I hate to use that word,
as in my philosophy so far it has not appeared, and I do not like saying
about things that I am not sure of) has been careless in handling evolution,
because just in order to get rid of the instability and the suffering of the
individual, it has entangled the mind so much that it is itself not capable
of observing it neutrally. Just for the search of a solution, which brought
immediate relief, it resorted to short-sighted and short term solutions that
led to this mess. Had
the will power experienced the emotions resulting from the changes and not
just felt, man would have been something else, something better. The
more sadder part of this fact is that even today people do not realise
themselves, the will and realise the effects of the mess. And the longer man
is going to be ignorant of himself and what he's doing to himself, the more
the mess is going to pile up, adding such unfathomable pollutants that it might
horrify a hardened mind to think of them. And if the human mind finds itself
incapable of coping with the complicated informational filth (which is less
likely) it would break down. It
is now that man must clear just enough filth to see his will power and arrest
the derangement which we view as evolution. Now
comes the most crucial step. That of how an individual can arrest the
derangement. But
before going into how one should go about retarding derangement, I would want
to distinguish between what our minds are and what they in fact should be. I
would like to compare the will power with a canvas and the other parts of the
mind with colours. Had there been no colours, the will power would have been
flawless, perfect, pure. But, this will power does not have the capacity to
understand any situation by itself. In other words, while it can most
undoubtedly experience circumstances with the utmost ease and precision, it
does not understand them. In still other words, the situation is in the form
of a coded message for our will powers, and the images of life and states of
mind and instincts act as decoders for it. When the parts of the mind
excluding the will power are not involved in analysing the situation, no
thought is produced. There is a circumstance, and there is a behaviour, no
thought, no emotion. Such being the case, we do not take notice of the
circumstance, as no thoughts or emotions are produced. This time, the
circumstances have no effect on the mind, and a behaviour has no effect
either. The mind is not aware of these happenings. These are called, in
scientific terminology, reflexes. Such an experience is also seen when we are
completely absorbed in doing something, that is concentrating. Here thoughts
produced are immediately noticed and behaviour effected. There is no
stagnation, thus no production of emotions. One
noteworthy fact that has come up here and which corresponds with my earlier
observations is that we notice a thought only when it has set itself up on
the path of becoming an emotion. The further it has reached, the more it
makes its presence felt. Also when we have a high emotion in our minds, time
runs slow. In other words, time is relative to the state of mind. No wonder
minutes would seem like hours while waiting (this observation is not entirely
correct). We
have seen that the role of the instinct and image of life is to help the mind
in understanding the situation. So, an ideal image of life would be that one
which least distorts the actual perception. Or, the image of life should not
deceive the mind by giving its own version of the circumstance. [In
order for the normal individual to understand that even in little and petty
situations, the truth is indeed distorted to a large extent, it is somewhat
difficult, because here he confuses with the actuality himself. What he
should do in order to know whether his thoughts are an understanding of the
truth, or the distorted version of it, is that he should develop the capacity
to observe the circumstance and the thought relative to each other. How
different they are and why. This way he would clearly observe the distortion
his mind has produced]. Thus,
the ideal image of life is impartial. Let me stress on the aspect of
realistic impartiality. This realistic impartiality comes into play when the
situation is perceived in relation to the social and moral standards of those
times. But since the situation cannot be perceived in relation to the
society, this transaction should, must and does take place in the mind, in
the image of life part of the mind. This proves that for the mind,
circumstances are inert, immobile and dead. It is the image of life which
explains what things mean. [The
difference between image of life and instinct is that instinct consists of
our mentality and image of life of our opinion about things, which have a
valid reason. Those thoughts that are produced without any valid reason in us
or a reason we are not of their of and which even though we may try to find
out, and fail, are produced by the instinct. Whereas, those thoughts that
have a reason (and that being of our previous experience) are produced
jointly by the instinct and the image of life. Now, if the individual has not
had previously experienced such a situation, an emotion results. In other
words, the state of mind is the first part of the mind that circumstances
affect, via will power. The
ideal state of mind would be that which would carry the thought and process
it completely, so that the individual completely experiences the thought and
emotion when it is being translated, and experiences the emotion completely
on being completely translated. Now
would come the difference between feeling an emotion and experiencing the
same. Feeling it is viewing it only as it appears. Experiencing it is taking
a holistic view of the emotion, understanding the past, enjoying the present
and knowing the future. And the end result of an emotion will never be
disappointing, if it is analysed in the correct way. Emotions are the colours
of life and even a dirty colour has its own place and its job to do. If one
is not aware of such an emotion (that is different emotions) it can be said
that he is less likely to accept it level-headedly when posed with a
situation that does inevitably produce such an emotion, and also he would
have died without experiencing life as a whole. Therefore, it is advisable to
expose oneself to a variety of situations and then choose which one is best,
or a if none is fit, to propose what should be. Concentration
is perhaps the opposite of experiencing an emotion. Firstly, because there is
no emotion, secondly, because experiencing an emotion is holistic viewing and
concentration is individualistic viewing, thirdly because concentration needs
energy for a short period of time but large amounts and experiencing needs
energy for a long period of time, but in lower amounts. Yet, the similarity
is that both produce pleasure]. We
have thus, described the ideal instinct, image of life and state of mind. The
another aspect of an ideal state of mind is that when not involved in any
physiological activity, the state of mind should merge itself with the image
of life and form one unit. The
ideal will power would be that which plays the role of a father to the other
parts of the mind. And just as a father is not a father unless he has
children, so also the will power is will power only if the other parts of the
mind are there. The will power should be in a constant endeavour to
open-eyedly monitor his mind right from his instincts to the state of mind,
and not to mention itself. It should be able to take a holistic view of all
the parts of the mind. This is possible only when these parts manifest
themselves, in the form of behaviour. The will power should be able to trace
every emotion to its thought and every thought to its circumstance
effortlessly. It should be so well aware of its image of life, instinct and
state of mind, that just the imagination of a situation should be able to
produce an idea of what emotions and behaviour would be produced (Here Comes
The Concept Of Confidence). The will power should not only endeavour to know
the mind precisely, but also to realise that it knows. This realisation would
help it make impartial decisions, and see prejudices. These have to be
eliminated. Not just this, the will power should endeavour to sensitively
search the state of mind and make requisite changes if needed. Since
the will power is the only controllable part of the mind, through which the
entire mind, and hence subsequently the body (I mean The Body) can be
controlled, it needs to be ever alert, and also to realise when it is acting
according to the dictates of the state of mind or the image of life or the
instinct. In
other words, the will power should act as a semi-permeable membrane, allowing
both good and bad things into the mind, but later, on experiencing the stuff,
select the bad ones out. Thereby, letting the individual experience life at
large, and yet not have any bad effect of it. (the state of mind is such an
instrument that helps us in experiencing life, though the desire to
experience starts off as will power and reaches the instinct). Since it is
temporary, one can experiment as and how one wishes to. As long as it is
under the control of the will power. Once it loses exercise it starts its
journey to words permanency, or, the image of life. So one must endeavour to
experiment, only under conditions where the will power has conscious control.
When consciously controlling the state of mind, the will power can now wander
about it and express the same in beautiful ways, which are commonly called
Art, mastery over which comes with practice and thinking alone. One can
experience the state of mind or emotions by taking a holistic view of it.
That is, looking at it or thinking about it with the origin in view, present
effect in mind and the plausible future in sight. Be this way one experiences
that. One may also experience it by looking at it as related to the more
permanent image of life. This
way, if the will power is perfect, so will the entire mind, the individual in
particular, the society in general, and the world at large. Sumeet
Saxena |