Debugging the Mind

CONVERSATIONS WITH ANCIENT ICONOCLASTS

Nobody errs knowingly and willingly –– Socrates (Segvic 2000).

It is amazing how everything in the universe from tiny subatomic particles to huge galaxies and from microscopic organisms to large mammals, seems to know its precise role in the cosmic drama. In stark contrast, my mind is vainly and restlessly worried about its future in the “to be or not to be”—mode, with fear, anxiety, and uncertainty. I have often wondered what it would take to spontaneously live in the present and peacefully enjoy the free ride in choiceless awareness.

What did the great iconoclasts of the ancient past know that I don’t? What made the Buddha (Kornfield 2012) abandon the comforts of a princely life and lead the spartan life of a mendicant for over four decades? How did the gentle Jesus (Stein 1994) face crucifixion with forgiveness and grace without any trace of animosity toward the perpetrators of the heinous act? What prompted Krishna (Fosse 2007) to transfer his hundred-thousand strong army to fight on behalf of the enemy and be an unarmed charioteer in a war that saw the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of warriors? What moved Mahavir (Paniker 2010) to cease harming all life, including insects? What made Muhammad (Armstrong 1992) bear relentless persecution and threat of death from the rulers of Mecca and yet preach peace, emancipate women, free slaves, and practice universal camaraderie? How did Socrates (Church 1887) drink hemlock with fortitude, forbearance, and without fear or sorrow? What made these remarkable men so compassionate even at the doors of death and destruction that make me tremble with fear and anxiety?

It is amply clear that material gains, fame, social status, political power, legacy, or a place in history were of little interest to them. They were not concerned even about their own survival. If anything, they seem to have gone freely and fearlessly in the very opposite direction.

It is possible to dismiss them as deluded, impractical, and unreal (not historical). Or, suggest that they were specially chosen by God. However, even if they were a figment of my imagination, their ingenious insights resonate within me in an inexplicable manner and, like haunting melodies that simultaneously evoke sadness and tears of joy, they elevate my emotions to a different level for no apparent reason, reminding me of the memorable line from Keats: “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter” (Keats 1997).

They knew something precious that has remained elusive and mysterious. I was eager to know what it was. Was it accessible to me? If yes, how do I find it? What makes me desperately cling to the fleeting life that they so readily gave up? What would it take for me to be convinced that whatever they did would also be right and natural for me to do if I were to face a similar predicament in my life? Is it possible to practice their teachings and lead a normal life in society?

Ironically, every religious founder, from Abraham to Zarathustra, rejected all the prevailing religions and their gods and pressed the reset button. I wanted to know what they rejected and what they asserted instead. I could not understand how there could be so many religions with so many gods. All of them cannot simultaneously be right. As I was going through these thoughts on a cool autumn day under a clear blue sky, a miracle occurred. *

I was approaching the end of my habitual reverie in the quiet wooded environs of the house when loud music and revelry broke the eerie silence. I suddenly found myself amidst a lively crowd. I was amazed to realize that the revelers included Abraham, the Buddha, Hillel, Jesus, Kongzi, Krishna, Laozi, Mahavir, Moses, Muhammad, Nanak, Patanjali, Socrates, Vedic Rishis, Zarathustra, and Zhuangzi! They were so unlike the somber folks portrayed in literature.

* I have assumed poetic freedom to let the ancients speak for themselves. I have also done so in some later chapters for more effective communication. I have friendly and frank conversations with them, just like I do with loved ones. No disrespect is intended to anyone. Of course, there was no hallucination or miracle!

Bursting out with laughter at my bewilderment, Zarathustra teased, “If you have the right spirit (no pun intended) life is a celebration!”

Jesus kept the party in stitches, sprinkling in a few juicy jokes that he had borrowed from Osho to add spice to his sermons. Socrates apparently had not given up on corrupting the Athenian youth with the truth. Abraham was trying to make it up with Muhammad for having abandoned Hagar and Ishmael in the Arabian desert. He insisted that oil was fair compensation, but Muhammad was not buying the argument. Zarathustra was laughing at their discomfiture. Hillel was standing on one leg reciting the Torah. Patanjali was practicing yoga, the Hindu sages were chanting the Vedas, Krishna was dancing with Gopikas, Laozi and Zhuangzi were exchanging rib-tickling jokes on Kongzi, and the Buddha was doing zazen amidst all the tumult.

I was ecstatic when they volunteered to elucidate the meaning and purpose of their precepts and teachings. It was beyond my wildest dreams to hear them share their insights on how indiscriminate application of logic led me into a rabbit hole with false perceptions of reality, and how the practice of their precepts and teachings would expose my ignorance and reveal the truth that liberates. At school, I was used to seeing one teacher standing in front of a classroom full of students. Here, I was a single student standing in front of top-notch masters. It was surreal.

Muhammad

At the very outset, all of them, and Muhammad in particular, emphatically rejected god(s), image worship, supercilious rituals, and superstitions. With twinkling eyes, Muhammad said that he asked his disciples to recite, “La Ilaha Il’ Allah” (There is no God, only Allah), five times a day to make it abundantly clear that there is no God, only Allah.

I asked, “If there is no God, who is Allah?”

“Allah is Allah,” he said cryptically, which sounded more like, Allah is a law.

I persisted, “Why did you deny God instead of simply asserting the existence of Allah?”

“God is a fictitious invention of fearful primitive people. Allah is not a fiction. Allah is real. Realization of Allah would make you playful, merciful, compassionate, and creative. In stark contrast, the fictitious image of God, along with his alter-ego Satan make you fearful, weak, ignorant, jealous, avaricious, superstitious, and servile.”

“Is that why you rejected image worship?”

“Yes, of course. By definition, images are unreal. A photograph is only an image and not the real object. Even the image of God that you worship is in your head. When you worship, one part of your brain is worshiping an image in another part of your own brain. In other words, worship of any kind, with or without idols, is self-worshiping and narcissistic.”

“Allah needs no worship,” Muhammad continued. “Allah cannot be placated with platitudes and flattery. Allah treats everyone alike. It is a healthy attitude to be thankful (shukriya) for the generosity and compassion of Allah. However, mere intellectual speculation is useless if you are not aware of Allah. Logic and reason would only lead to relative truths but cannot reveal the absolute truth. You must focus efforts on directly knowing Allah. Do that and be free of fear and anxiety. You will fall in love with Allah and surrender, as peace descends on you. Life becomes blissful. I called it Islam.”

“If not God, what is Allah,” I stubbornly insisted.

Muhammad patiently answered, “Allah is the inviolable, immutable, and unmanifest law or eternal principle that governs the cosmos. All dynamic changes in the universe happen according to Allah but Allah remains invariant. A cat would not jump off a roof, as it is instinctively aware of the impact of gravitation. Allah governs the trajectory of your mind too, but unlike a cat, which depends on its innate intelligence, you are blinded by clever logic and stumble without knowing what is true and what is false and suffer the consequences. You would recognize the nature of Allah when you come out of this stupor and intuitively perceive reality as it is.”

“Do prayers help?”

“Prayers are meant to keep the mind still and open the doors to your heart. Prayers are a way of expressing your gratitude and recognition of the compassionate and merciful Allah that nurtures abundant life in deep oceans, high mountains, and even in the arid Arabian desert,” Muhammad responded. “It is like expressing your love for your mother who gave birth to you, took care of you, and has always wished you the very best in life. Allah is no different. Allah has given birth to you and will do everything that is good for you. When you realize this truth, you will lose fear and anxiety, be grateful for whatever Allah offers, and live in peace.”

Abraham

I asked Abraham why he rejected all gods before Yhwh.
Abraham began, “I rejected gods of all prevailing religions when I realized that there is only one invariant and inviolable supreme principle from the beginning of time that is the same for all people. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. If you understand it, you would understand everything.”

I could not make head or tail of what it meant, and I said so.

Abraham nodded and asked, “Yes, but what do you make of this statement anyway?”

“I could say with absolute certainty that I came first. I came even before the beginning and well before God,” I responded. And after a brief pause added, “in the word, ‘In’.”

However, looking at the stern expression on his face, I quickly corrected my attitude and answered with due deference. “I presume that it relates to the beginning of creation, but I encounter three fundamental problems with this observation. The word ‘beginning’ begs the questions: What was there before the beginning? How did it begin? Who created it? They quickly turn into an infinite regression. I presume that the word ‘word’ must mean something special. Apparently, the word used in Hebrew was ‘davar,’ which was translated into ‘logos’ or principle in Greek, and eventually into ‘word’ in English. Finally, I have absolutely no clue what the word God really means. All I could conjecture is that the Beginning of creation, Word, and God are somehow inseparably connected to each other, like the three sides of the same coin.”

“Quite so,” responded Abraham, looking pleased, much to my profound relief, I might add. “I especially like the way you refer to it as three sides of the same coin. Most people ignore the lateral side (thickness) that binds and maintains the integrity of the coin, which is exactly the role of the principle or the laws of nature. Look at these words afresh from your current scientific perspective and resist the temptation to replace the unknown with myths. Let the unknown remain unknown until it is known. Be honest. Be patient. Be courageous. Let truth reveal itself.

“Creation is a mystery. Neither its beginning nor the end is known in either space or time. Whether there was a beginning or not is a moot point. Scientists believe that it started with the Big Bang. Obviously, you wouldn’t be here without a beginning. What you could state with certainty is that dynamic interactions of matter and energy seem to be playing out on an empty platform or what one might call a zero substratum that extends to infinity in space and time. The cosmic drama is governed by an invariant and inviolable davar. The manifest creation, the invariant, invisible and inviolable davar, and emptiness (zero) are the three facets of the universe.

“The universe is governed by davar. It has no physical attributes, but its presence is indubitable. Thunder and lightning, the earth, the oceans, the sun, the moon, and the planets, and all the rest are governed by davar. And so are you. It is unmanifest, immutable, and inviolable, which is consistent with your definition of a scientific law.”

“If it is a law of nature, why did you not simply call it a law, explain its characteristics, and be done with it, which could have saved all the confusion and turmoil?” I asked.

“I did not call it a law for two main reasons,” Abraham responded. “Firstly, scientific laws were unknown during my time. Nature was a mystery, a tabula rasa. Secondly, people were aware of only the laws of the kings. I made sure that they did not mistake davar for the laws imposed by capricious rulers and priests based on moral, sin, reward, and punishment. I wanted people to know that davar was inviolable and no amount of sacrifices and image worship could change or mitigate the consequences of actions carried out in ignorance.

“I realized that the law that governs our life could be divided into two types. The first type consists of a law (or a set of laws) that governs the objective world of physical matter. The laws of physics, such as the law of gravitation, belong to the first group. It was unknown to us, but we knew what would happen if we jumped off a cliff. The second category governs the subjective or psychological world of emotions, which was our focus. What we discovered was not a common law that could be enforced in a court. It was also not an objective law of the physical world.”

Abraham continued with his exposition, “Yhwh is not a supernatural God of the primitive people. It is emptiness on which the cosmic drama unfolds in accordance with davar. Yhwh is empty. It is the shunyata or emptiness of the Buddha. As emptiness cannot be described by images, I discouraged image worship. Since the law is invisible, I introduced the practice of precepts to become aware of the nature of the law and refrain from acting blindly.

“A sadistic God is not seeking eye-for-an-eye or tooth-for-a-tooth, but you are likely to trip and fall when you act blindly with false perceptions of reality. Davar cannot be violated as it has zero tolerance for errors. You could worship God and offer a sacrificial goat at the altar, but the result would still be the same if you jump off a cliff. Your body is healthy only within a narrow band such as homeostasis—I did not know the word then, but I knew the need for proper food habits. Deviation from it would lead to pain, suffering, and possibly death. Davar cannot be placated. Hence, I encouraged followers to become aware of davar and live in accordance with it. I also asked them to remain silent and become directly aware of the true nature of Yhwh.”

Abraham said, “Yhwh is unmanifest. I forbade image worship because images are like the shadows or reflections in a mirror. People cling to their self-image (ego) as if life depends on it. It is as absurd as a dog chasing its own tail. You don’t have to cling to your ego, it clings to you, just like a shadow. Your vain attempts to decorate it cause energy dissipation and suffering.”

On hearing the word suffering, Buddha came out of his meditation to make it clear for the egghead. “There is no god but no-god; it is shunyata or nothing-ness There is no self but no-self; it is anatta. There is no mind but no-mind; it is nirvana. Emptiness and form are complementary; one cannot exist without the other. There is no-thing and that is everything you need to know.”

He went back to zazen.

Others encouraged me to ask questions and seek clarifications. I started with an innocuous question about the universe that has always intrigued me, “What is beyond everything, beyond galaxies, black holes, space, and time?”

Abraham, whose name led all the rest, answered.

Everything and Nothing

“Beyond everything there is Nothing,”
Abraham asserted succinctly.
“Creation is everything plus Nothing,
A void that extends to infinity.
Governed by an Eternal Principle
Everything is dynamic and temporal
As it changes continuously
Always seeking balance and symmetry.

But Nothing is Eternal and Invariant!
Lacking everything and yet complete,
Nothing is naturally balanced and free.”
My head was swirling like an eddy
As Reality appeared topsy-turvy
He asked me not to worry,
And comfortingly added,
There is Nothing in your head!

I certainly felt light knowing that there was nothing in my head. A Zen master might have asked me to get rid of nothing too.

Playing with words such as everything and nothing, emptiness and form, etc. meant little to a diehard skeptic like me, who prides in logical, rational, and critical thinking. What was the relevance of their esoteric observations? Were they trying to impress me with bombastic but empty mumbo-jumbo? I was interested in practical insights like Seven Effective Steps to Nirvana. So, I became pragmatic.

I sought the meaning of life, beginning from an ignorant childhood, gathering knowledge and skills to deal with the vagaries of life, trying to become rich, famous, and powerful, growing old, and finally ending up dead. For eons, every generation has been following the same routine. “What is the purpose of all these meaningless and seemingly endless activities?” I asked.

Laozi

“What would you consider purposeful or meaningful?” countered Laozi (Mitchell 2006) with a gentle smile, and asked, “Whether they are purposeful or pointless would depend on your frame of reference. In the absence of a uniformly valid and invariant frame of reference for your values, all answers turn out to be tautological. Questions on the meaning and purpose of life arise only when you are unhappy, when the mind clings to illusions, mistaking appearance for real.