NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 68:
Some Ramana Maharshi quotes:
You are bodiless & Space-less in Deep Sleep, yet in the waking state 8. in Dream appear to be the opposite. Whatever the Dream, the only thing that has value & is worth doing with regard to Dream is to wake up. When you wake up, do you say that the experiences of the Dream were real, although within the Dream everyone there would have tried to convince you of it No. Similarly, when you wake up to the Self these experiences of the World will be unreal, like in a Dream, although others in that state Wl|| try to convince you that they are real. Every plane of Worldly existence has its own illusion, which can be destroyed only by another illusion on the same plane. For example, a man takes a full meal & goes to sleep. He dreams of being hungry in spite of the food he has in his stomach. To satisfy the Dream hunger, he has to take Dream food. A wound in Dream requires Dream treatment. A great king once dreamt that he was ill but was too poor to call a doctor. Although he had fabulous wealth in the Waking state, it was of no use to him in the Dream slate. Similarly, the illusion of ignorance can be destroyed only by the Illusion of the Masters Grace.
By constantly fixing his attention on his Source, the Heart,
the Ego of the wise gets dissolved like a “salt doll”
which has fallen into the Ocean.
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Fine-Tuned Universe 48:
[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]
How to account for the “Fitness if the Environment” ? One possible alternative was Evolution as a Cosmic process, of which Darwinian Natural Selection governing living things would be one major manifestation. So a natural property must have been inherent in the original unorganized matter & energy bringing about an Evolutionary process that in turn shaped the differentiated properties of the elements, making 3 of these [C, H, O] optimally ready for the Origin & flourishing of Life.
In this “Teleology”, in some sense Life was described as a goal of the broader Cosmic process. The process was purely Mechanistic with no part of the popular Vitalisms of the day. Expanding the notion of a “Mechanism” allows it to accomplish purpose-like goals without involving conscious purpose.
If a mechanistic process accomplished goals or valued ends, as a thermostat does, it would prompt a new series of queries as to how this itself came about. As for the Fitness of the Chemical Environment, an explanation of some sort was needed.
Here was an early argument for Fine-Tuning. But the Fine-Tuning metaphor does not reflect how well, on a Cosmic scale, certain properties of the Chemical Environment fitted the requirements of the Life process in general. This degree of Fit is striking enough to warrant an explanation. One alternative explanation was a mechanistic sort that shaped the Chemical properties of an initially unorganized Chaos (~ the Principle of Indifference) so as to make it possible for Life to come into being & flourish.
Fine-Tuning implies a precise standard toward which the Fine-Tuned activity is to be adjusted. A standard of this sort that would permit life to go forward. The focus of the argument was on the multiplicity of ways in which the properties of the Cosmically favored elements [C, H, O] & their compounds conspire together, as it were, to provide a suitable Environment for Life. That Environment in the constitution of Nature is the occasion.
What is regarded as significant is the manifold Fitness for Life of the Cosmic chemical environment in general. One might perhaps describe this as “Fine-Tuning,” in an extended sense of that term. The “Fitness” was the sort of consideration that, more generally, had already prompted arguments of the classical Design sort, although of course with a novel twist & a resolute refusal to follow through to the classical Design conclusion.
The 4 alternative responses to claims of Cosmic Fine-Tuning:
Chance: One might simply dismiss as Chance the Cosmic constraints required for the Universe to be Life bearing. The Parameter in question had to have “some value”, one might say, so why not this one ? It need have no further significance. The Universe, it might be said, is a contingent affair, & Fine-Tuning should be seen in that light. Such a response is impossible to refute, strictly speaking. The challenge to it comes from 2 alternatives that present Fine-Tuning as potentially significant. Scientists on the whole seem uneasy about setting aside the quest for explanation, as the recourse to Chance does.
One can detect a note of urgency, almost, in many of the discussions of the original Fine-Tuning claim in the late 1970s and early 1980s: leaving the initial tight Cosmic setting of the Energy Density simply as a given was obviously a troubling prospect. Just as troubling, perhaps, to some was the leap to an Infinity of Universes. And even more troubling to others was undoubtedly the rapidly growing interest of the broader community in the dramatic reappearance of indications of Design in Natural Science at the Cosmic level. In their view, an alternative response had to be found.
A 5th alternative: Intelligent Observers able to Fine-Tune Cosmic constants on their own account
Consequence of an advance in theory: This reaction defined a 2nd way to deal with the Fine-Tuning challenge: work toward a theoretical advance that would eliminate, or at least significantly reduce, the need for Fine Tuning of the initial Energy Density. In the interim, simply assume that such an advance will someday be made. At the level of Cosmic beginnings, Scientific theory is more than ordinarily fragile – & quite evidently incomplete in the absence of a unifying successor to Relativity theory & Quantum Theory.
There is reason to think that a re-evaluation of Fine-Tuning claims in general may well lie somewhere down the road. This is obviously less likely in the case of Consciousness Fine-Tuning than in the simpler case of the tuning of an apparently contingent parameter such as Energy Density.
Some more selected verses from the Ramana Maharshi disciple Master Nome:
Though the Body is not the Self, the Self is not the Performer of Action, & Action is unrelated to Self-Knowledge. Action can in no way bring about the Liberation that this Self-Knowledge alone yields. The holy Sage who knows this will always be manifesting the Good, the True, & the Beautiful. With love for all Beings, knowing all to be himself, endowed with equanimity & imperturbable Peace, with no self-interest, he is ever engaged in the highest good, whether he appears active or still. His honesty derives from Truth itself, his love derives from the indivisible nature of Being, his Peace derives from the immovable Absolute, & his kindness & care derive from the perfect Fullness.
How would it be possible, for one who knows about Liberation & the Non-Dual Teaching of Identity with the Absolute Self, to engage in conduct that would be other than the good, the true, the beautiful, love, equanimity, peace, dis-interest, the highest good, honesty, kindness, & care.
Nonetheless, it is never possible to determine the state of a Realization Sage from the outer appearances of the Body with which he has no identity whatsoever. The Sage has gone beyond the Illusions of Life & Death, never to return to that which never really was. The Sage is serene in & as the Absolute, & abides as the Eternal.
Whatever is done, he is not the Do-er of anything. Whatever is said by the Sage, the Sage remains Silent. Whatever is thought, he remains unmodified. For he has known himself, & he himself is what he knows.
You are That. Realize the Truth of this by Self-Inquiry. Supreme Knowledge, Consciousness, is Brahman. Attain Liberation by Knowledge & realize that true Knowledge is the Eternal, Supreme Consciousness itself. This Self is Brahman. Inquire “Who am I ?” & realize pure Being as the 1-without-a-2nd. I am Brhaman. Abide in the Natural State of the Real Self, in the state of Identity with no other “I”.
Abide as That, which, when known, leaves no other thing to be known. Abide as That, the Happiness of which leaves nothing to be desired. Abide as That, which, when realized, leaves no other Reality but itself. Abide as That, which is the Self, which alone exists eternally, for it is That which alone is.
Calculus for Yogis, part 11:
Reprise of the Electrical RLC Circuit Analogy:
We can abuse some simple electrical circuit terminology to sketch again the Analogy for the Indian Samkhya Philosophy scheme Nature’s qualities or gunas. Most Dualities turn out to be similar (+ / –, male / female, yang / yin, etc.). The same is true for Triads (thesis, synthesis, antithesis; etc.) such as the Samkhya gunas: tamas, sattva, rajas, simply translated for our purposes here as dull inertia, harmonious clarity, & restless rage. Practical applications of this terminology for spiritual practice are not profound but sometimes useful. To note just a couple of examples, we can first mention that Illusion or maya deviates from the clarity of sattva by splitting into dull tamasic “veiling” avarana & projecting rajasic superimposition vikshepa. First the Truth is hidden, then the False is projected & superimposed.
A second example that suffices for the moment would contrast the sattvic Clarity of Mind, ideal for spiritual practice with the opposite poles represented by the other 2 gunas. Dull inertia or tamas might even find a bit of an antidote in the restless energy of rajas, but transcending both is even better.
A simple RLC series circuit Analogy can model this interplay of the gunas. The tamasic inertial quality can be modeled by capacitance C, such that the accumulation of substance, Charge is the “electrical pressure”, voltage, V multiplied by this tamasic inertial parameter C, capacitance, or: q = C V. The same would hold for accumulated fluid as “capacity” times the “pressure” in a hydrodynamic or similar circuit. [Granted we are holding several parameters constant here to force the analogy & going against the grain of many electrical analogies where readily measurable Voltage is tallied instead of Charge or Current.
The sattvic analog quality would not be resistance, R, but rather its reciprocal, the conductance, G. such that the “flow” of Charge or Current, I, is proportional to that same “electrical pressure”, voltage, V multiplied by the sattvic parameter G, conductance, or: dq/dt = I = G V. Again, the same would hold for fluid flow as “conductance” times the “pressure” in a hydrodynamic or similar circuit. We choose conductance G over the historically prior inverse concept of resistance R because the latter “negatively” impairs the “flow'” while greater conductance enhances the flow.
In a electrical Phasor diagram (a specific application of a Real-axis / Imaginary axis Argand diagram) the tamasic C capacitance contribution is “imaginary” in the mathematical sense of being orthogonal to the “real axis that charts the sattvic G conductance contribution.
In that same diagram, the rajasic influence is equally “imaginary” but is diametrically opposed to the tamasic contribution, so that the opposing effects tend to cancel each other out to some degree. Here, as with resistance R, we choose, instead of inductance L, it reciprocal, or rather the more “dynamic” reciprocal of ω L, the inductive reactance, which paired properly with the “imaginary” number i is the inductive admittance of reciprocal of inductive impedance. This can also be related to the “imaginary” part of the total admittance, namely the inductive part of the susceptance.
In any case, the rajasic analog quality would not be inductance, L, but something like the inductive admittance A, such that the “rate of change of flow” (~ acceleration of flow) dI/dt, is proportional to that same “electrical pressure”, voltage, V multiplied by the rajasic parameter A, admittance or: d2q/dt2 = dI/dt ~ A V. Again, the something similar would hold for accelerated fluid flow if we introduced turbulence, likewise a rajasic concept.
Confusing terminology aside, our Electrical Analogy for the 3 gunas gives us:
1) Conductance allowing “real part” free flow related to sattva, harmonious clarity.
2) Tamas opposed by rajas, akin to “imaginary” influences of Capacitance & Susceptance.
3) Tamasic Capacitance representing inertia.
4) Rajasic Susceptance corresponding to “jittery” oscillating interference, wasted motion & energy such that “the faster you try, the slower you go.”
This Electrical Analogy for the gunas does little to model the “veiling” versus “projecting” aspects of maya & some other guna applications. But for discriminating Inquiry into self-defeating qualities of Mind, like Inertia & Restlessness, the Electrical Analogy has some merit.
The above themes & 1600 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through:
http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/
or with Caps-sensitive:
Duplicates (but with graphics) have been available on:
http://www.blogger.com as “Being-as-Consciousness, Non-Duality – new & final version” with link:
http://being-as-consciousness.blogspot.com/
[But from now on, they will be different & still usually daily.]
“There is no Creation, no Destruction, no Bondage, no longing to be freed from Bondage, no striving for Liberation, nor anyone who has attained Liberation. Know that this to be Ultimate Truth.” – the “no creation” school of Gaudapada, Shankara, Ramana, Nome – Ajata Vada
for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see: www.ajatavada.com/
Nonduality and Science 