NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 53:

Prior to excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we continue the series: Fine-Tuned Universe , the premise that a small change in several of the dimensionless fundamental physical constants would make the Universe incapable of Life.

Fine-Tuned Universe 33:

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

“Who Designed God?” Objection

Perhaps the most common objection that atheists raise to the argument from design is that postulating the existence of God does not solve the problem of design, but merely transfers it up one level to the question, “Who or what designed God?”  The eighteenth-century philosopher David Hume hinted at this objection:

For aught we can know a priori, matter may contain the source or spring of order originally within itself, as well as mind does; and there is no more difficulty conceiving that the several elements, from an internal unknown cause, may fall into the most exquisite arrangement, than to conceive that their ideas, in the great universal mind, from a like unknown cause, fall into that arrangement.

A host of atheist philosophers and thinkers, such as J. L. Mackie, Graham Oppy, J. J. C. Smart, Richard Dawkins, & Colin McGinn have also repeated this objection.  For example, J. J. C. Smart claims that:

If we postulate God in addition to the created universe we increase the complexity of our hypothesis.  We have all the complexity of the universe itself, and we have in addition the at least equal complexity of God.  (The designer of an artifact must be at least as complex as the designed artifact.)

As an objection to the Fine-Tuning argument, it is flawed on several grounds.  To begin, this objection would arise only if either the Theistic hypothesis were constructed solely to explain the Fine-Tuning, without any independent motivation for believing it, or one considered these other motivations as data & then justified the Theistic hypothesis by claiming that it is the best explanation of all the data.  However, it is not that Theism is the best explanation of all the data, but only that given the Fine-Tuning evidence, an amazing LPU Life Permitting Universe strongly confirms Theism.

We are not to treating the other motivations for Theism like data, which we then combine with the Fine-Tuning evidence to infer to the best explanation. Many theists have claimed that for most people at least, belief in God is grounded in a fundamental intuition regarding the existence of God, an intuition relevantly similar to moral intuitions.  If this is right, then we are not treating the existence of God like a scientific hypothesis that needs to be justified by some form of inference to the best explanation.  That is like trying to justify moral belief by reference to the findings of the Natural Sciences.  Theism is a basic & distinctive mode of human thought & activity.  Thus, in analogy to ethical intuitions, faith should be considered a mode of knowing, not just a mere leap of belief under insufficient evidence.

The religious mode of knowing or justification involved in faith, therefore, should not be treated as providing data for an inference to the best explanation, but rather analogous to ethical intuitions, or even intuitions regarding virtues.  Everything else being equal, simpler theories are more likely to be true or empirically adequate than complex theories. Clearly, one cannot ground our belief in these virtues in an inference to the best explanation, since all such inferences presuppose the virtues. Our knowledge of God is based on religious experience.  It is relevantly analogous to our knowledge of the material world, which they claim is not justified by appeal to an inference to the best explanation.

If we do not treat these other motivations for Theism as part of a body of data for which we employ the strategy of inference to the best explanation, then the “who designed God” objection largely evaporates.  The existence of God is not a hypothesis that is being offered as the best explanation of the structure of the Universe, & hence it is not relevant whether or not God is an explanatorily better (e.g., simpler), ultimate explanation than the Universe itself. Nonetheless, via the restricted version of the likelihood principle, the various features of the Universe can be seen as providing confirming evidence for the existence of God.  One advantage of this way of viewing the situation is that it largely reconciles the views of those who stress a need for faith in coming to believe in God & those who stress reason.  They each play a complementary role.

Consider the following analogy. Suppose that in the year 2050, extraterrestrials visit earth, & we find that they share the same fundamental ethical beliefs as we do – e.g., that it is wrong to torture others for no compelling ethical reason.  Further, suppose that we were able to show that it is very unlikely that such an agreement would occur under ethical anti-realism – for example, because we have good reason to believe both that unguided naturalistic evolution would not produce these beliefs & that ethical anti-realism is not compatible with viable, alternative explanations of human beings based on Design (such as Theism). Finally, suppose we could show that it is not unlikely for this agreement to occur under ethical realism.  The discovery that these aliens shared the same ethical beliefs as we do would therefore confirm ethical Realism, even though we would not believe ethical Realism because it provided the best explanation of some set of phenomena.  In fact it would decisively tip the balance in favor of ethical Realism.  The evidence of Fine-Tuning does the same for Theism.

Some more selected verses from the Ramana Maharshi disciple Master Nome:

All the efforts involving mis-identification within the Mind & all the superimposition of experience upon the Self produce only Illusion & not anything real.  The Illusion is that of limitation by Form; the Illusion of being a Body, or at a location; the Illusion of perishability; the Illusion of the belief that something destructive of Bliss can exist; the Illusion of differentiation or division into parts, & of connection with actions & their results. The Self is actually all–pervading & space-like, imperishable. The Self is the eternal Bliss itself, Siva, un-differentiated & un-divided, partless, actionless, & free of all  karma.

The infinite Self is only one, & nothing other than the Self can belong to the Self.  Therefore the Mind cannot belong to the Self. The Self is ever unattached & cannot belong to anything else.  Therefore the Self is unaffected by anything done by the Mind.  When attachment is present, even as the notion of possession, the possessor, as it were is possessed by the possession.  Since the Self is unattached to all, including the Mind, the Self is possessed by none & is not affected by any.  If one becomes detached from all things & to one’s own thoughts in the Mind, he finds that what he has reached was the real Self all along.  Since there cannot exist a Mind that is something other than the Self which is Infinite & Non-Dual, the Mind cannot have, in Reality, any activity or its results.

Freedom from the Mind is freedom from the fear of loss of Happiness & from the fear of ceasing to exist. This Freedom from desires & the grief of concomitant with desires.  Thus, one who knows the Self, free from the Mind, is truly happy. & is solely That which is the same in all beings.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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/

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 52:

Prior to excerpting the other Ramana Maharshi disciple in the text below we continue the series: Fine-Tuned Universe , the premise that a small change in several of the dimensionless fundamental physical constants would make the Universe incapable of Life.

Fine-Tuned Universe 32:

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

D_t(φ)/V(φ) << 1 & D_x(φ)/ V(φ) << 1, where V(φ) represents the potential energy of the Inflaton field, & D_t(φ), D_x(φ) represent its Time & Space partial derivatives.

To intuitively see why Paul Davies’s is correct about Fine-Tuning odds, consider an analogy of a very large scrabble-board.  If we were to shake the scrabble board at random, we would be much more likely to get an ordered, meaningful arrangement of letters in one small region, with the arrangement on the rest of the board essentially chaotic, than for all the letters on the entire board to form meaningful patterns.  Or, as another analogy, consider a hundred coins lined up in a row, which are then shaken at random.  Define a local island of order to be any consecutive sequence of five coins which all are on the same side – that is, either all heads or all tails.  It is much more likely for the sequence of a hundred coin tosses to contain one or more subsequences of five consecutive heads or tails than for it to be all heads or all tails.  Indeed, it is likely that such a sequence of coins will have at least one such island of five consecutive heads or tails; the probability of the coins coming up all heads or all tails, however, is around one in 10³⁰, or one in a thousand, billion, billion, billion.

The same argument applies to the mass-energy configurations of our visible universe, with the argument being grounded in probability calculations based on the standard probability measure of statistical mechanics over phase space.  These calculations show that among all possible configurations, it is enormously more likely (by a factor of around 1 in 10^x, where x = 10¹²³) for local islands of low entropy to form than the whole visible universe to be in a low-entropy state. Indeed, if we consider the set of all configurations of mass-energy that would result in an observer – e.g., an organized structure with the same relevant order as our brain – the subset of such configurations that are dominated by BB [(Ludwig) Boltzmann Brain] observers would be far, far larger than those configurations that are dominated by non-BB observers.

Boltzmann proposed that the state of our observed low-entropy Universe (which includes our existence) is a random fluctuation in a higher-entropy Universe. Even in a near-equilibrium state, there will be stochastic fluctuations in state of the system. The most common fluctuations will be relatively small, resulting in only small amounts of organization, while larger fluctuations and their resulting greater levels of organization will be comparatively more rare. Large fluctuations would be almost inconceivably rare, but inevitably occur if a universe lasts infinitely long. Even if the universe does not have an infinitely long past, modern cosmological theories of the Big Bang do suppose that the latter occurred via stochastic fluctuations in a larger meta-universe; the paradox is retained by incorporating our brief-but-finite past into the random fluctuation.

Furthermore, there is a “selection bias”: we observe our very unlikely universe because those unlikely conditions are necessary for us to be here. This is an expression of the Anthropic Principle.

If our current level of organization, having many self-aware entities, is a result of a random fluctuation, it is much less likely than a level of organization which only creates stand-alone self-aware entities. The number of self-aware brains that spontaneously and randomly form out of the chaos, complete with memories of a life like ours, should vastly outnumber the brains evolved from an inconceivably rare local fluctuation the size of the observable Universe.

“The idea that the thermodynamic arrow of time arose from a gigantic fluctuation leads to an amusing form of solipsism. From the standpoint of entropy, I, sitting at my keyboard typing these lines, am a pretty big fluctuation. A tree that I remember seeing is also a big fluctuation. It would be a smaller fluctuation, entropy-wise (recalling that entropy is extensive), not to have the tree, but to change my brain slightly and create the memory of that tree. Therefore, in terms of likely or unlikely fluctuations (and that’s what entropy measures) it would be far more likely that the tree doesn’t exist. You, reading this, should similarly doubt the existence of the writer.”  – Lawrence S. Schulman

The Boltzmann brain paradox is that any observers (self-aware brains with memories like we have, which includes our brains) are therefore far more likely to be Boltzmann brains than evolved brains. This suggest a problem either with current cosmological theories or the anthropic principle.

One class of solutions to the question makes use of differing approaches to the measure problem in cosmology: in infinite multiverse theories, the ratio of normal observers to Boltzmann-brain observers depends on how infinite limits are taken. Measures might be chosen to avoid appreciable fractions of Boltzmann brains.

A major question for a chaotic inflationary Multi-Verse model is whether it can circumvent the BB problem that plagues the random fluctuation model. If not, such a model will encounter the same disconfirmation as RF, thus giving us strong reasons to reject it. The inflationary model can avoid the BB problem, and this is its key advantage.

“Inflation is best thought of as the “dominant channel” from random chaos into a big bang-like state. The exponentially large volume of the Big Bang-like regions produced via inflation appear to completely swamp any other regions that might have fluctuated into a Big Bang-like state via some other route.  So, if you went looking around in the universe looking for a region like the one we see, it would be exponentially more likely to have arrived at that state via inflation, than some other way, and is thus strongly predicted to have the whole package of inflationary predictions.”  –  Andreas Albrecht

The idea here is that inflation takes small, low entropy regions and expands them into enormously large regions with enough order so that they will be dominated by non-BB observers (if they have observers).  The assumption is that the regions that undergo inflation are so small that they are much more likely to occur than regions that generate observers by random fluctuations; further, because of inflation, these initial small regions become so large that they dominate over those regions that produce observers by means of random fluctuations. Albrecht admits, however, that his argument that inflation would be the dominant channel “rests on very heuristic arguments” and that “the program of putting this sort of argument on firmer foundations is in its infancy”.

Several articles have been written in recent years arguing that inflation will generate universes in which BBs enormously dominate among observers in the far future. These arguments, however, present a problem only if one adopts a block universe view, according to which future events have the same ontological status as present and past events.  Although advocates of inflation typically assume such a view, they need not. If one adopts a metaphysical view in which the future is not yet real, these arguments will not themselves show that inflation leads to a present dominance of BB universes. Further,  the same dominance of BBs occurs for long-lived single universes; further, the evidence at present strongly suggests that our universe will continue existing for an enormously long time, if not forever, if there is no supernatural intervention.   In any case, I shall next present a powerful reason for thinking that Albrecht’s argument is flawed and that without assuming highly special initial conditions, inflationary cosmology leads to a dominance of BBs for any period of time in which observers exist.

Some more selected verses from the Ramana Maharshi disciple Master Nome:

The Mind & its modifications, in the form of thoughts, modes, & states, are limited.  The Self, unlike any of the Minds, is not of limited knowledge, for Supreme Knowledge is the Self’s true nature.  That  Supreme Knowledge is unmodified Consciousness itself, which is the Self itself.  The Self has no Ignorance, just as light has no darkness.  The Self is also without change, without impurity, ever beyond conception, forever beyond the Senses, & never of a material nature.

The Self is, by analogy, said by the Wise, to be like sunlight, while the Mind is like a crystal. And the various Experiences are like the colors seen in the crystal. The significance of this analogy is that all objects are seen in the Mind only by the light of the Self.  Objects of knowledge, sensed or mental, appear only in the Waking & Dream states. When these Waking & Dream states are not present, no such sensed or mental objects are experienced. Yet the Knower (the Self) is always the Knower, never ceasing, unlike all that is unreal. For the Knower is formless Consciousness. Duality appears only in those Waking & Dream states & is thus likewise unreal. For what is Real must be Real always. By relinquishing the superimposition of the known on the Knower, one then abides as the Non-Dual Knower, unceasing Consciousness, always.

Prior to the discrimination of the Self & the non-Self, one may think that the Absolute does not exist. One may doubt that the Self alone exists. After such discriminating Self-Inquiry, what was thought of as an Individual self is known to be only Brahman. There is no Individual self, or Mind, which would have done such thinking. Upon such Self-Inquiry, the experiential Knowledge is that only the Self. Brahman is, & the Individual & Mind are only Brahman & nothing else.

For the Self, which is of the nature of pure Consciousness, the connection to any objective experience, mental or sensed, is a product of delusion.  The “I” is truly free of all attributes, & is not associated with any quality or entity, & is ever non–objective.  The Ignorance that imagines otherwise is purposeless.  That Ignorance merely creates Bondage among the ever-free, Suffering in the midst of Bliss. This is like drowning in a mirage whose “waters” serve no purpose. If the delusive attempts, to connect the Self with what is not the Self, are given up, the Mind rests in Brahman, the Absolute Self, “as if free from Bondage”, say the Sages.  In Reality, that Self was never bound.  The Self is ever Unborn & ever free of Duality.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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/

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 51:

Prior to excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we continue the series: Fine-Tuned Universe , the premise that a small change in several of the dimensionless fundamental physical constants would make the Universe incapable of Life.

Fine-Tuned Universe 31:

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

So, how does Inflation explain the special initial conditions of the Big Bang, which is the primary aim of the theory?  According to Albrecht, it explains the initial conditions by a two-stage process, via the “chaotic inflation” models. First, as Andreas Albrecht explains, “One typically imagines some sort of chaotic primordial state, where the Inflaton field is more or less randomly tossed about, until by sheer chance it winds up in a very rare fluctuation that produces a potential-dominated state. ..”   Potential-dominated states are those in which the potential energy of the Inflaton field is enormous compared to the rate of change of the Inflaton field with respect to time and space.  That is, in order for inflation to occur, the Inflaton field must be both spatially and temporally almost uniform relative to the total energy density of the field .[1] Although macroscopic uniformity of matter is typically a state of very high entropy (such as perfume spread throughout a room), it is generally accepted that in the case of the gravitational field and the Inflaton field, greater uniformity entails lower entropy. This is said to explain why the universe becomes more and more inhomogeneous as it expands (with matter clustering into galaxies and stars forming), and yet at the same time its entropy increases.  Entropy increases because the gravitational field becomes less uniform.  Since the gravitational field would play a significant role in the space-time of the early universe, a near uniform Inflaton field would correspond to extremely low entropy.

Now a general requirement for inflation is that the Inflaton field be nearly uniform, in the potential-dominated sense defined above, over some very small patch. Although these states will be extremely rare, given a large enough initial Inflaton field, or enough time, they are likely eventually to occur in some small patch of space simply as a result of thermal fluctuations.  Once they occur, inflation sets in, enormously expanding the patch.  Eventually, because of the postulated nature of the Inflaton field, in one or more regions of this expanded space, the field decays, resulting in re-heating that produces a bubble universe with ordinary matter.  So, in effect, because Inflation can only occur in highly uniform states of the Inflaton field, any Universe produced from an inflated region will have initially low entropy.

Accordingly, Albrecht proposes that inflation explains the low entropy of our universe by a two-stage process:

(i) a low entropy patch occurs as a result of a statistical fluctuation, and then

(ii) that patch inflates into our Universe.  As John Barrow and Frank Tipler pointed out decades ago, however, if the right special initial conditions must be stumbled upon by a statistical fluctuation, why not simply hypothesize a very large, or infinite, material field that undergoes a random fluctuation that produces a universe relevantly like ours? Why invoke the additional mechanism of inflation?

The answer requires looking at the standard objection to “random fluctuation models.” The objection is that universes being produced by such a fluctuation (without inflation) would almost certainly lead to small islands of observers surrounded by chaos, not one with a low degree of entropy throughout.  Even more ominously, a random observer most likely would be a so-called “Boltzmann Brain.” A Boltzmann Brain (BB) is a small region of mass-energy with the same structure as our brains (including the same sort of apparent memory and sensory experiences), but with the surrounding regions of space and time in a chaotic, high-entropy state. Although the experiences of such brains would be highly ordered for a brief time, they would not in any way correspond to reality, and any sort of inductive reasoning would fail.

The BB concept was originally articulated as part of an objection raised against the proposed anthropic-selection-effect explanation of the low initial entropy offered by Ludwig Boltzmann, one of the principal founders of statistical mechanics. Boltzmann attempted to explain the relatively low entropy of the universe by claiming that it was the result a fluctuation from the normal “chaotic,” equilibrium state, and that a fluctuation with a high degree of order was necessary for the existence of observers.   As theoretical physicist Paul Davies and many others have pointed out in responding to Boltzmann’s anthropic explanation, a fluctuation “the size of the solar system would be sufficient to ensure the existence of life on Earth, and such a fluctuation is far more probable than one of cosmic proportions”.  Indeed, fluctuations of even smaller dimensions – ones in which matter has the same organization as the brain with all its apparent memories and sense experiences but in which the surrounding space-time was chaos – would be even more likely. Consequently, insofar as a random fluctuation world contained observers, any randomly selected observer would almost certainly be a BB.

Some more selected verses from the Ramana Maharshi disciple Master Nome:

All the objects of knowledge change. All that are described as “mine” & Ego, also cannot illumine themselves, nor can they illumine each other.  The Self is different from all that are described as “mine” & Ego. The Self is the unchanging, illuminating Consciousness.  This Consciousness is truly one’s only Identity.  Therefore, there can never truly be Bondage.

One Non-Dual Self alone is.  The one Non-Dual Self is the undivided Consciousness. This is the only Knower in all.  There are not different kinds of Knowers, such as higher & lower knowers. The Minds of all are pervaded by the one Consciousness within, which is the Self.  This is the “I” of all.  So there is no one else who knows, or who does not know.  The “I” is truly the Absolute, Brahman, all-knowing & all-pervading.

This “I” pervades & illumines the Mind. An the Mind pervades & illumines all things ever experienced.  Thus this “I” is the illuminator & pervader of all. This Self is the Witness of all objects of the Mind. These mental objects are subtle thoughts & also all the objects conceived as external as well. This includes being the Witness of all other Minds conceived as existing within the Mind.  Thus the Self is the Witness of all.

The Mind cannot conceive the Self, yet the Mind has no existence apart from the Self. The Self can neither be accepted, nor rejected by any of the Minds. That which cannot be accepted or rejected by the Mind is Brahman. That is truly the “I”.  Brahman & the Self are One.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 50:

Prior to excerpting the other Ramana Maharshi disciple in the text below we continue the series: Fine-Tuned Universe , the premise that a small change in several of the dimensionless fundamental physical constants would make the Universe incapable of Life.

Fine-Tuned Universe 30:

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

In addition to the four factors listed above, the fundamental physical laws underlying a multiverse generator — whether of the inflationary type or some other — must be just right in order for it to produce life-permitting universes, instead of merely dead universes. Specifically, these fundamental laws must be such as to allow the conversion of the mass-energy into material forms that allow for the sort of stable complexity needed for complex intelligent life.  For example, as elaborated in section 2.2, without the principle of quantization, all electrons would be sucked into the atomic nuclei, and, hence, atoms would be impossible; without the Pauli-exclusion principle, electrons would occupy the lowest atomic orbit, and, hence, complex and varied atoms would be impossible; without a universally attractive force  between all masses, such as gravity, matter would not be able to form sufficiently large material bodies (such as planets) for life to develop or for long-lived stable energy sources such as stars to exist.

Although some of the laws of physics can vary from Universe to Universe in superstring-M theory, these fundamental laws and principles underlie superstring-M theory and therefore cannot be explained as a Multi-Verse Selection Effect. Further, since the variation among universes would consist of variation of the masses and types of particles, and the form of the forces between them, complex structures would almost certainly be atom‑like and stable energy sources would almost certainly require aggregates of matter.  Thus, the above fundamental laws seem necessary for there to be life in any of the many universes generated in this scenario, not merely in a universe with our specific types of particles and forces.

In sum, even if an inflationary/superstring multiverse generator exists, it must have just the right combination of laws and fields for the production of life-permitting universes: if one of the components were missing or different, such as Einstein’s equation or the Pauli-exclusion principle, it is unlikely that any life-permitting universes could be produced.  Consequently, at most this highly speculative scenario would explain the fine-tuning of the constants of physics, but at the cost of postulating additional fine-tuning of the laws of nature.

Inflationary cosmology runs into a major problem in explaining the low entropy of the universe. This is a critical problem, since unless it can do this, arguably much, if not all, of the motivation for inflationary cosmology vanishes. Further, this problem will cast severe doubt on the ability of an inflationary multiverse to explain the fine-tuning.   The problem is that, applied to the universe as a whole, the second law of thermodynamics demands that the entropy of the universe always increase. Indeed, even if one has doubts about the applicability of the second law to the universe as a whole, inflation invokes a thermalization process, and thermalization is known to be a paradigmatic entropy-increasing process.  As Cambridge University physicist Roger Penrose states,

Indeed, it is fundamentally misconceived to explain why the universe is special in any particular respect by appealing to a thermalization process.  For, if the thermalization is actually doing anything (such as making temperatures in different regions more equal than they were before), then it represents a definite increasing of entropy.  Thus, the universe would have had to be more special before the thermalization than after.  This only serves to increase whatever difficulty we might have had previously in trying to come to terms with the initial extraordinarily special nature of the universe. . . . invoking arguments from thermalization, to address this particular problem [of the specialness of the universe], is worse than useless !

Based on this sort of argument, it is now widely accepted that the pre-inflationary patch of space-time that inflated to form our universe must have had lower entropy than the universe right after inflation. For example, Andreas Albrecht, a defender of inflationary cosmology, admits that inflationary cosmology must hypothesize a special initial low entropy state:  “For inflation, the inflaton field is the out-of-equilibrium degree of freedom that drives other subsystems.  The inflaton starts in a fairly homogeneous potential-dominated state which is certainly not a high-entropy state for that field . . . ” . Elsewhere, he says the pre-inflation patch must have been in a “very special state”.

Some more selected verses from the Ramana Maharshi disciple Master Nome:

When the conceptions of “me” & “mine” are attributed to the Self, such are manifestations of Ignorance.  They are superimpositions upon the Self, which is only One, with neither Individuality nor any experience or thing possessed by and Individual. The “individual self” is thought to be the Seer, Hearer, Thinker, Knower, & such. In Reality, it is Brahman, the imperishable, indivisible, Non-Dual Self.  The “individual self” or “I” is not different from the Real Self, which is Brahman.

Meditation on the Self is declared to be without Time, Space, direction, or Causation, since the Self is without these things. The Self itself is to be realized as timeless, & the Realization itself, being of the same nature, is bodiless & without regard to place. The Self itself is, without Causation, being Uncreated & Unborn. And the Realization, being of the same nature, need not wait for circumstance & is not an attempt to produce the Self anew. The Realization is a realizing of what the Self truly is.  Le the Mind thus turn within, immersing itself in Self-Inquiry, absorbing itself in Knowledge, thereby losing its own form as it searches inwardly for its source. In this lies great Bliss & Immortality.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 49:

This time, after excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we continue to preface a return to the series: Fine-Tuned Universe series, we examine, not the Future or Past of the Universe, but back again to Fine-Tuning as such.

Some more  from the Ramana Maharshi disciple Master Nome:

Just as the Mind becomes the Object, the Instrument or means of Knowing, the Actor, the Action, & the results in a Dream, so is this also the case in the Waking state. The Real Self is different from the Mind & all those things that the Mind becomes (object, instrument of knowing, actor, action, results). The Self is without interior & exterior, such as the Mind & the World.  The Self is homogenous Consciousness.  Know the Self by ceasing the attribution of anything exterior or interior to the Self.  Remembrance & forgetfulness, including remembrance & forgetfulness of the Self, these processes are also, only of the Mind.  Both of these processes are products of Ignorance & do not touch the Self. Cease to regard the Self as a known or unknown object.  If the Supreme Self is regarded as an object of knowledge, such is a superimposition of Imagination or Ignorance.  True Knowledge prevails when such Ignorance, or superimposition, is negated. This is like the case with the rope & the illusion of the snake.

4 prerequisites (sadhana chatushtaya) for Self-Realization:

1. viveka – Discrimination between temporary (unreal) & permanent (Reality)
2. vairagya – Detachment, indifference to enjoyment of pleasures
4. mumukshuta  – Desire for Liberation
3. shatsampatti – Devout 6 Qualities
(i)    sama –  control of thoughts (ii)   dama –  control of senses                 (iii)  uparati – control of obligations & activities                                                  (iv)  titiksha –  control of passions, fortitude, endurance
(v)   samadhana –  control of mind for spiritual study & reflection
(iv)  sraddha –  control of trust & faith in Guru & the Teaching

Fine-Tuned Universe 29:

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

One major possible theistic response to the Multi-Verse generator scenario, whether of the inflationary variety or some other type, is that the laws of the Multi-Verse generator must be just right – fine-tuned – in order to produce life-sustaining universes.   To give an analogy, even a mundane item like a bread machine, which only produces loaves of bread instead of universes, must have the right structure, programs, and the right ingredients (flour, water, yeast, and gluten) to produce decent loaves of bread.  If this is right, then invoking some sort of multiverse generator as an explanation of the fine-tuning re-instates the fine-tuning up one level, to the laws governing the Multi-Verse generator. So, at most, it could explain the fine-tuning of the constants and initial conditions. (Even the latter will be problematic, however, as we shall see in the next two sections.)

As a test case, consider the inflationary type Multi-Verse generator. In order for it to explain the fine-tuning of the constants, it must hypothesize one or more “mechanisms” or laws that will do the following five things: (i) cause the expansion of a small region of space into a very large region; (ii) generate the very large amount of mass-energy needed for that region to contain matter instead of merely empty space; (iii) convert the mass-energy of inflated space to the sort of mass-energy we find in our universe; and (iv) cause sufficient variations among the constants of physics to explain their Fine-Tuning.

Glossing over the details, in inflationary models, the first two conditions are met via two factors.  The first factor is the postulated Inflaton field that gives the vacuum (that is, empty space), a positive energy density.  The second factor is the peculiar nature of Einstein’s equation of general relativity, which dictates that space expand at an enormous rate in the presence of a large near-homogenous positive energy density.  Finally, because the inflaton field gives a constant positive energy density to empty space, as space expands the total vacuum energy within the space in question will increase enormously.  This in turn generates the needed energy for the formation of matter in the universe.  The vacuum acts as a reservoir of unlimited energy, which can supply as much as is required to inflate a given region to any required size at constant energy density.

So, to achieve (i) – (ii), we effectively have a sort of “conspiracy” between at least two different factors: the inflaton field that gives empty space a positive energy density, and Einstein’s equation.  Without either factor, there would neither be regions of space that inflate nor would those regions have the mass-energy necessary for a universe to exist.  If, for example, the universe obeyed Newton’s theory of gravity instead of Einstein’s, the vacuum energy of the inflaton field would at best simply create a gravitational attraction causing Space to contract, not to expand.

The conversion of the energy of the Inflaton field to the normal mass-energy of our universe (condition (iii) above) is achieved by Einstein’s equivalence of mass and energy, E = mc², along with the assumption that there is a coupling between the inflaton field and the matter fields.  Finally, the variation in the constants (and to some extent the laws) of nature is typically claimed to be achieved by combining inflationary cosmology with superstring-M theory, which purportedly allows for an enormous number (e.g., 10⁵⁰⁰) of possible combinations of values for the constants of physics. The important point here is that the laws underlying the inflationary scenario must be just right in order to cause these variations in the constants of physics from one universe to another. If the underlying laws are those given by superstring-M theory, arguably there is enough variation; this is not the case, however, for the typical grand unified theories that have been recently studied, which allow for only a very limited number of variations of the parameters of physics, about a dozen or so in the case of the simplest model. There is no reason to expect a generic field to have an enormous number of stable local minima of energy, which would be required if there is to be a large number of variations in the constants of Physics among Universes in Inflationary Cosmology.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 48:

This time, after excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we continue to preface a return to the series: Fine-Tuned Universe series, we examine, not the Future or Past of the Universe, but back again to Fine-Tuning as such.

Some more  from the Ramana Maharshi disciple Master Nome:

Being alone knows itself, the “I”-less “I” realized as “I,” forever undefined, the only Existence, the only Knowledge, the only Knower. Thus is Brahman, Absolute Reality, always present, unmarred Perfection, the unformed Void, attributeless Being, ever itself just as it is. The only Identity, the only Reality, Being alone knows itself .

Without any other is Absolute Being, formless & Non-Dual, the only Existence. Two that are Formless cannot be. Undivided, homogeneous, alone is Being. nothing outside it & no outside; nothing within it; alone is Being, pure Existence. Nothing comes before eternal Being; nothing comes after eternal Being. Without any other is Absolute Being, pure Existence.

The Truth of Being is solely Reality. Not from illusory things falsely experienced does the sense of Reality in every experience derive, but only from the Self, the only Source, the Real. Real Being depends not on anything else to be. Uncaused itself, the Absolute Self doesn’t cause anything else. Infinite, there is nothing beyond produced by it. Mistake not perception or conception for Existence itself. Reality is solely the Truth of Being.

Some more  from another great Sage:

Since every “thought” appears to arise in & merge into Consciousness, no such “thought” exists beforehand  & afterward. Consciousness is mistaken for the “thought” during the thinking, but is all that remains beforehand  & afterward [the unreality of Time aside for the purpose of discussion].  The subsequent creation of an entirely new thought, as though experienced some time earlier, is thereupon mistaken as “continuation” of the same thought.

Fine-Tuned Universe 28:

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

Given acknowledgement of that hypothetical 2 or 3 or 4-edged sword, more of course can be said about the Coincidences themselves. At the same time, numerous technical details (including Physics, Mathematical & Philosophical details) are omitted in our brief reviews to stay with our Scope & Audience, not by assuming as accomplished, or eventual, the needed fixes of Normalizations, Infinities, & other paradoxical nuisance that beleaguer Fundamental Theories. We therefore do not accept Coarse-Tuning Arguments CTA opposing Fine-Tuning Arguments FTA, like the CTA’s of Paul Davies, etc., They are based on the Arithmetic of “infinite” ranges conceivable for a given Parameter. But like the several responses to Fine-Tuning, the kinds of Physics Parameters in focus for Anthropic Principles fall into a few broad categories as well:

 Observer-Selection effect not part of Multi-Verse:

 Observer-relative life-permitting (LP) fact that we, or I, observe a life-permitting universe instead of a non-life-permitting universe; ) what I call the indexical LP fact that this universe is life-permitting – or has some life-permitting feature F, where “this” is an indexical that picks out the universe we inhabit; and  what I call the existential LP fact that a life-permitting universe exists.

The Weak Anthropic Principle states that the universe we inhabit must have a life-permitting structure, appears to be enough to make the observer-relative LP fact unsurprising.  With regard to the indexical LP fact, some philosophers claim that we cannot make a purely indexical reference to our universe but can only refer to our universe via an implicit description.  Thus, for instance, one could claim that “this universe” is reducible to  “the universe we inhabit,” where the “we” is in turn reducible to some other description such as “conscious observers with characteristics X,” where X refers to some set of purely qualitative properties.  If this analysis is correct, then the claim that “this universe is life-permitting” would be a tautology, and hence have an epistemic probability of one.

Everything that exists Mathematically exists Physically.                             Max Tegmark

Special-ness consists of our being able to glimpse a simple, unified explanation of the occurrence.  John Leslie

Collins defeats the murky logic of the Multi-Verse by:  exploiting the non-deducibility loophole for the indexical Life-Permitting fact.

Inflationary-Superstring Multi-Verse Explained & Criticized

By far the most commonly advocated version of the restricted Multi-Verse hypothesis is the “multiverse-generator” version that claims that our universe was generated by some physical process that produces an enormous number of universes with different initial conditions, values for the constants of nature, and even lower-level laws.  Many scenarios have been proposed – such as the oscillating big bang model and Lee Smolin’s claim that many universes are generated via black holes. Among these, the one based on inflationary cosmology conjoined with superstring theory is by far the most widely discussed and advocated, since this is the only one that goes beyond mere speculation.  According to inflationary cosmology, our universe started from an exceedingly small region of space that underwent enormous expansion due to a hypothesized inflaton field which both caused the expansion and imparted a constant, very large energy density to space as it expanded.  The expansion caused the temperature of space to decrease, causing one or more so-called “bubble universes” to form.  As each bubble universe is formed, the energy of the inflaton field is converted into a burst of “normal” mass‑energy thereby giving rise to a standard big-bang expansion of the kind we see in our universe.

In chaotic inflation models – widely considered the most plausible – space expands so rapidly that it becomes a never-ending source of bubble universes.  Thus, an enormous number of universes naturally arise from this scenario.  In order to get the parameters of physics to vary from universe to universe, however, there must be a further physical mechanism/law to cause the variation. Currently, many argue that this mechanism/law is given by superstring theory or its proposed successor, M-theory, which are widely considered the only currently feasible candidates for a truly fundamental physical theory. It should be stressed, however, that both inflationary cosmology and superstring-M-theory are highly speculative.  For example, Michio Kaku states in his recent textbook on superstring theory, “Not a shred of experimental evidence has been found to confirm . . . superstrings” (1999, p. 17). The same remains true today.  The major attraction of superstring-M-theory is its mathematical elegance and the fact that many physicists think that it is the only game in town that offers significant hope of providing a truly unified physical theory of gravitation with Quantum Mechanics.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 47:

This time, after excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we continue to preface a return to the series: Fine-Tuned Universe series, we examine, not the Future or Past of the Universe, but back again to Fine-Tuning as such.

Some more  from the Ramana Maharshi disciple Master Nome:

The Self is just Being, pure Existence. It is not being this or that. It is just Being, pure Existence. Self-Realization is just Being. It is not being this or that. It is just Being.

Being, pure Existence knows no alternative. The Self is just Being, pure Existence.

Being, pure Existence never changes its nature. That which truly is never ceases to be.

That which ceases never actually is. That which truly exists never changes. That which changes never truly exists. That which is changeless is without destruction. The indestructible is only that which is without creation. The unborn is the undying. The unchanging is alone Being, pure Existence. Being never changes its nature.

The Self ever is just as it is. There is no time when Being, pure Existence is altered.

There is no time when you are not the Self. Primordial Being eternally is, is what you are even now. Immutable Being is Peace itself. For there is no time when Being is altered.

Just as it is, the Self ever is.

Fine-Tuned Universe 27:

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

The whole gamut of Credence “re-consideration” arguments included in Nick Bostrom’s monographs can be readily turned around to support Solipsism, Design, & even “re-consideration” of one’s true Non-Dual Identity. Furthermore, within the Sim-Arg   & Anthropic Principles themselves, numerous thought-provoking surprises can tend to awaken the Mind from its diurnal sleep-walk called the Waking State

In any case, Robin Collins speaks similarly in terms of a Restricted Principle of Indifference which has the same egalitarian democracy of Numbers, all in an acceptable range being deemed equally probable. But if we have other Information (like Napoleon has) to prefer certain Numbers or ranges, we can modify our position. Whether it be arguments by Bostrom or Collins, the net result of this or these principle(s) is to display due diligence against Special Pleading, & instead to favor Objectivity & conservative limits. When still making the Argument within these bounds, the Conclusion is all the more convincing. Various other good points are made by Collins (& of course other authors as well), just one other for now, being his refutation of blanket Agnosticism applied to Anthropic Principle issues.

Collins reminds the reader that Agnosticism can be claimed when one has “no idea” regarding the Probabilities, & not just obvious ignorance of the precise, specific value of a given Probability [or because the claim is convenient]. Both Collins & Bostrom, & others speak in terms of Credence & less-than (<)  &  greater-than (>) inequalities where landslide quantities allow reliable estimation of over-whelming likelihood or un–likelihood. The general range of Probabilities has to be well known as quite vast in these cases. There remains no comfort-zone of Agnosticism here. One must pick a side: Design, Ensemble, or Brute Chance. [And to clarify the obvious for the unfamiliar reader: Ensembles of Kazillions of Universes are “necessary” for the logical [vs. illogical Brute Chance] Scientific Realist. One can only believe super-incredible Coincidence is “coincidence” with a whole lot of Tries available.]

Cosmic Coincidences in Constants of Nature:

For one thing, thoughtless Faith in some Future Technology or Theory is one of the pat responses for Global–Warming–deniers  & those uninspired to lift a finger or spend a governmental dollar toward alleviating & solving human Population crises, disease, social & economic inequality, and so on. “Let them eat cake, let Science fix it” [while at the same time cutting government sponsoring of Science, hoping Corporate greed will magically find & adhere to the wisest decisions].

Another important issue in this regard is that of “future progress in Scientific understanding” is a also 2-edged sword in other ways. As usually invoked by the Brute Chance camp, there is an optimistic Futuristic hope–guess that somehow all the incredible coincidences of Universe Fine-Tuning will be later explained away by “future progress in Scientific understanding”, Future Science will find how all the Parameters just had to have the values they have, in agreement with Future Theory. Thereby, coincidence, Suprisingness, Fine-Tuning, &  Anthropic Principles go down the drain. This (vain) hope constitutes a large part of  Scientific Realism (better called scientific metaphysics because it avows mystical belief in theories in themselves).

They are eager search for the GUT  [Grand Unified Theory]  &  TOE [Theory Of Everything] which are to unify Physics & determine all Parameters to be just as they are from 1^st Principles. But, on the other hand, “future progress in Scientific understanding” describes some unification that is already traceable from Thales to  Aristotle to Ptolemy to Galileo to Newton to Maxwell to Einstein to Quantum Theory to QED to Quantum Gravity to QCD to String Theory to GUT to TOE (leaving out many sub-steps along the way). All that March of Science History proceeds in a direction that could also be interpreted as refining the Universe’s or RWOT Objective reflection of Subjective Non-Duality.

Taking that latter leap & turning back within allows all the “inspiration” sought in Design Anthropic Principles to be upgraded from UQD [Un-Qualified Duality] to QND  [Un-Qualified Non-Duality] & fulfilled if the TOE should be a real TOE (like our half-joking amateur version). To merely conjoin Quantum Gravity with a GUT may not enlighten anyone.

The funding comes through because the last investigation of fundamental structure of the Universe – Nuclear Physics, provided the reigning super-weapon. If research in Bio-Chem, Genetics, Nano-tech, AI, VR, IT, Robotics, Mind-control, Propaganda–Spin, Physics, or Chemistry can deliver more super-weapons then the funding falls under National Security. [We see this evil intent in Jacob’s Ladder & the Aliens sequence up through the Prometheus movie.]

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

Duplicates have been available on:

jstiga.wordpress.com/

[But from now on, they will be different & still usually daily.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 46:

This time, after excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we continue to preface a return to the series: Fine-Tuned Universe series, we examine, not the Future or Past of the Universe, but back again to Fine-Tuning as such.

Some more  from the Ramana Maharshi disciple Master Nome:

The Knowledge of Reality, which is the Realization of the Self & the Realization of the Absolute, is attained by the direct path of true Knowledge. By liberating oneself from the mis-identification with what is not the Self, one knows the Self. When the Real Nature of what has been considered as the non-Self is seen, it invariably proves to be non-existent, for such non-Self was dependent upon mis-identification in order to even ever appear.  Blissful & Eternal is the Real Self. One should regard only that which has no beginning or end, is ever existent, is unchanging, is transcendent of all that has Form, of all that changes, & all that is in Time. The Self is also continuous & undivided as Real & one’s own true Being. By this Knowledge, one abides in the Natural State, which is the only True State of the Self. The Self may be said to call unto itself, as the Sought & as the Seeker; as the Guru & as the disciple; as God & as the devotee. The Self seeks itself in meditation. The Self reveals itself as inner experience. The Self knows & abides in itself for blissful Eternity.

Some more of Master Nome’s earliest aphorisms:

Now is not a time. Here is not a location. Here and now is formless, real Being.(2,28)

The past & future have no reality. The fleeting present moment is also an illusion. Timeless Consciousness is conceived as time & all that time measures. (2.57)

When does time begin ?  When there was no time.  But if there was no time, no then or now, did it begin at all ?  (2.60)

There is no cause for illusion; for illusion is unreal, and for an unreal effect there cannot be a real cause. Causality is itself illusory. (3.21)

The entire Universe is in the mind and the mind does not exist. (1.102)

Consider the World to be a dream, and discover the absence of the dreamer.(1.69)

To expect the perception of forms – theWorld, body, senses, and thought – to disappear at its own level to transcend them is like expecting the dream character in one’s dream to see the dream forms – dreamWorld, dream body, dream senses, and dream thoughts – disappear within the dream, before waking.

1. When the forms – the World, body, senses, and thought – vanish, the Reality of pure, transcendent Being alone remains. Even when thought of as appearing, the Reality of pure, transcendent Being alone remains. (2.53)

Be free from thought’s definition, from the notion of a second knowing principle, & from the notion of a differentiated mind.

Fine-Tuned Universe 26:

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

Details to follow soon later on, but suffice it for the moment to say that Surprisingness in the Bostrom sense depends for one thing on Relative Fine-Tuning or Selection of LP parameter values when the allowed Range is divided by the entire plausible or possible range. Temperatures in the Universe, for instance, vary enough that it is fair to say that Earth is currently Fine-Tuned in LP Temperature as might numerous other Earth-like and possible LP planets. So here with Temperature we have Fine-Tuning but no great Surprisingness in itself. But Surprisingness further relies on compounded probabilities (like the cheating gambler who will 11 consecutive Lotteries). Temperature Fine-Tuning then may play a component role in an immense chain of compounded probabilities that is Surprising enough to “demand an Explanation (Design or Ensemble, since Brute Chance is just the denial of that “demand” for Explanation). Flipping a Heads, H on a Coin-Toss is not Surprising, being 50%, but the compounded probabilities of an Octillion H’s in a row could be found to have the Surprisingness on 1 Chance in a Kazillion (of course an artificial term for an unthinkably large number).

However, if some other Parameter, let us say allowable magnetic field for the sake of discussion, exhibited an LP Range that was ¼ ^th of its total possible Range [none of this hypothetical really makes sense] then Surprisingness drops put right there on the issue of Relative Range even if the actual or Absolute Range happened to seem very small (plus or minus a few micro-webers or whatever). This hypothetical Parameter could then be dropped from the Fine-Tuning discussion, even as a relatively significant component of compounded probabilities, & so it is for ever so many LP characteristics we might conjure up in our imagination. But then after all the weeding out of the irrelevant, compounded probabilities & Surprisingness of Fine-Tuning for LP Parameters remains remarkable, to say the least.

Bland & Restricted Principles of Indifference:

Bland Indifference can describe the “living in denial” categorized within Psychological Compartmentalization, which in the extreme is the Borderline Psychotic defense against Cognitive Dissidence or disturbing contradictions encountered in Life. As Nick Bostrum used the terms when discussing his Sim-Arg, the Principle of Bland Indifference has another statistical meaning related to the Conclusion of the Subject in Leslie’s Gender Scenario where the Female places her bet with the bigger numbers, regardless of other considerations. If a given century involved 5,000 Females (vs. only 3) in the Project, than Odds are, she lives in that century. This allegiance to the numbers, no matter what, is her Bland Indifference, so to speak.

Generally, by the Bland Indifference Principle we should reason such that if we don’t have any Information that indicates that our own particular experiences are any more or less likely than other human-type experiences, then these experiences should be dismissed from the Reference Class in determining our Credence about a given Probability [a neo-Copernican principle].  furthermore, that Credence generally equals the sheer Probability Numbers, if lacking special detailed information.

[That’s why it looked like the Credence version of the 3 Bearded Men scenarios looked that same as the earlier Probability-based. They were the same. It was a needed repeat but only with the Credence instead of the Probability. Added was the note that New Information could temper the Credence or Belief, thus distinguishing it from Probability. Credence held more promise for fixing the Adam & Eve paradoxes, which scenario compares to some Anthropic Principle  issues.]

One common retort would be the Napoleon Case for instance. No matter how many crazy people think they are Napoleon, Napoleon’s own grounds for thinking he is Napoleon are different, & the existence of those crazy people shouldn’t undercut his self-confidence. The Bland Indifference Principle suggests that if 1 Million crazy people have thought they are Napoleon, and if hypothetically Napoleon knows this statistic, then Napoleon himself should only believe he is Napoleon with a Credence of 1 in a Million. But to be less “bland” in one’s “indifference” for Napoleon is to recognize his uniquely special reasons for confidence in his self-identity (memories, peer agreement, etc.) & rely not just on Numbers.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

Duplicates have been available on:

jstiga.wordpress.com/

[But from now on, they will be different & still usually daily.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 45:

This time, after excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we continue to preface a return to the series: Fine-Tuned Universe series, we examine, not the Future or Past of the Universe, but back again to Fine-Tuning as such.

Some more selected verses from the Ramana Maharshi disciple Master Nome:

In Self-Realization, all notions about the Absolute & the Self are relinquished. Notions about the Absolute are such as that it is separate from oneself, or objective, & that it is always-present. Notions about the Self are such as that it is endowed with Form, minuteness, that it is changeful, material, embodied, defined by thought, in Time, or endowed with Individuality. For Knowledge, the superimposition of the jiva–hood (concept of individuality) is removed from Atman (the Self) & Isvara–hood (idea of the Lord God) is removed from Brahman (the Absolute). Upon removal of such superimposition, r Ignorance, one realizes the Identity, as declared in the Upanishad, Tat tvam asi (Thou art That). If the Self remains undefined, it is only Brahman, & That alone. Therefore, one should know the Self.

Some of Master Nome’s earliest aphorisms about the unreality of a World:

There has never been a single objective thing. (1.3)

The World is unreal.  (1.16)

All that is objective is illusion. Illusion is that which is not. (1.34)

All things change. that which is not a thing is immutable. (1.63)

There is no World (any objective thing), & there is no one to experience or know it. (1.94)

It is you who say that anything is real. the object does not declare its own reality. to known the Reality, know yourself. (2.54)

Any object of experience has no more existence separate from the Self than printed letters from a page of paper, or waves from water. (3.24)

It is better to say the World in you than you are in the World. (3.42)

An unreal body performs unreal actions in an unreal World. (3.50)

Do not be afraid to let go of a World that does not really exist. (3.57)

Know the World to be unreal and yourself as not a character in it, & the dream is over. (2.93)

Regard all manifestation as an hallucination or as a daydream lasting but a moment. (3.30)

Regard all thought as an empty echo and the World as a dream. (3.67)

Ego, manifestation, form and ignorance: these are like an optical illusion, a mirage, a dream without substance, the life-history of a fictional character. (3.96)

The conception of space requires misidentification with the body.  The conception of time requires misidentification with thought.     The Self is neither the body nor thought. It is spaceless and timeless. (1.37 )

As space is endless, clear, formless, embracing all, bound by none, all-pervading, ungraspable, & has no within or without, so it is with the Self. (1.61)

The World, time, space, life, death, objective things, the mind, ignorance, bondage, & an experiencer of these are just concepts. Concepts are unreal. Absolute Being alone is. (2.55)

Fine-Tuned Universe series 25:

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

Nick Bostrom further extends this LP (Life Permitting issue by multiplying our single data-point by an (even larger) finite number of other earthlike planets in the Universe with intelligent life. To consider 1^st a weakly informative scenario, he conceives of widespread telepathic ability (which some actually attribute to plants*[1] on a cosmic level). Putting out the “call” we hear back, just as SETI might by more conventional radio waves: “yes intelligent life has evolved here.” The quality of that new information would improve if we could count the Number of planets so responding, or ever able to respond. But once more we are only hearing from the “winners” and not from perfectly earthlike planets in vast numbers who may be without Intelligent Life.

On the other hand again, if all telepathic or radio respondents specifically affirm somehow that that their planets are actually earthlike, & none of a larger sample replied affirming other planet-types, then more again is learned. With increasing numbers involved in the latter versions, we could begin to Probabilistically rule out intelligent life evolving on non-earthlike planets.

LP Epistemically Illuminated Regions:

When the Philosopher examines Anthropic Principles he may specify some conceptual boundaries, or at least some terminology not always included in a Physicist’s discussion. For one thing, the Philosopher seeks to determine in each case an Epistemically illuminated region within the possible or conceivable range of some parameter value. For instance, to take a simple example, Temperature. How hot, or how cold must it be. to rule out the possibility of Life as we known it (which does admit some extremes) & in what narrower range Intelligent Life (being of necessarily greater complexity however it is configured)? In fact, an Intelligent Life–Permitting range is usually the only one of immediate interest (evolution of simpler forms could hold promise for the Future, should conditions, like Temperature, also change over Time so as to enter the narrower Intelligent Life–Permitting range). But since the former, more immediate & narrow case of Intelligent Life–Permitting is a big enough conundrum to bite off & chew for now, Intelligent Life–Permitting is actually the default sense in which Life–Permitting or LP is generally meant.

Then, an Epistemically illuminated region in terms of LP further specifies the limits of our knowledge & imagination, especially if we admit Silicon-based, Boron-based, Nitrogen-based, & other conceivable but not necessarily feasible modes of Life, along with Carbon-based variations now familiar. Strong arguments tend to rule out all but Carbon-based or C-based Life reaching the complexity of LP as in Intelligent Life–Permitting. But these are all issues in setting the confines of an Epistemically illuminated region within the range of a given Parameter. One practical detail concerns LP Physical Constants that we are already aware of. For familiar C-based Intelligent Life, just what do we observe as some finite local region around actual value of Constant that is observed? Do we see a finite region of possible variance, & finite regions of actual & tolerable variance already observed? For instance, if we see as LP the Celsius Temperatures between – 50 to + 50 hypothetically, we might also imagine a wider  possible range of say – 55 to + 60. All numbers being purely hypothetical values, those were chosen for simplicity.

Robin Collins, (theistic) Philosopher, divides Anthropic Principles into 3 broad categories &and rules on their viability after considerable philosophical & scientific argument, these being:

(1)  Intelligent Design Argument, be it Theistic, some more abstract Deist principle of Nature, etc., or attributable to aliens, Future time-travelers, or VR – and such Design (for short & to distinguish from less rigorous religious-political uses of the same term) That Argument is defensible on its own terms (one cannot simply unilaterally declare a Physicalist Universe & dismiss dissent – although that is the norm rather than the exception throughout Philosophy & Science).

(2)  Ensemble Argument, of a kazillion universes (as isolated regions of 1 Infinite or virtually so) Universe, or as a Multi-Verse. Universes “bubbling off” an M-brane & other exotic bootstrapping appear in some models. Cosmogenesis deriving Quantum Fluctuations, Quantum Many-Worlds, or a serial sequence of alternating Big-Bangs & Crunches echoing across essentially beginningless & endless Time. Any such Ensemble Argument is defensible, however fantastic, because any Long Odds will come home to roost eventually if you bet endlessly. Our 13.7 Billion year Universe may be old enough to support Cosmic & Biological Evolution, or not. But the number of bets taken in any of these Ensemble Arguments render Cosmic & Biological Evolution trivial by comparison, to say the least. If a Cray Super-Computer should attempt to electronically “write”, in conventional decimal form, the number of Eons needed to count the Kazillion–Universes in such an Ensemble, the poor machine could not even scratch out a beginning in a Universe-life-so-far of 13.7 Billion years for instance. The numbers of Universes discussed are so fantastic that it may well be hubris to take this projection in stride. And yet the same decry any admission of Deity, Consciousness, or even Mind as so far, far more fantastic as to be rejected out of hand. But so again is it throughout Philosophy & Science, with the typical “proof” being: just look at how dumb  &  inconsistent are the Fundamentalist Christians. Is that a complete Argument ?

             (3)  Brute Chance Argument, being the off-handed dismissal of both Design  & Ensemble Arguments as needless hypotheses. Something had to happen, & the way things came out is the way things came out, period, Long Odds be damned. These adherents just have to include some great customers for the convenience-store Lottery ticket sales. Robin Collins for one, goes at length to rule Brute Chance or Brute Fact as he calls it. He later argues at length against Ensembles, an arduous effort we will only touch base with here. If his narrowing the field of 3 categories to the 1 category of Design should hold water, then one last rhetorical questions remains. What’s more fantastic, aliens, Deist-Theist-Consciousness based Design alternatives, Time-travelers, or Future VR Sim  programmers?

Secret Life of Plants  –  from earlier studies, speculations, and claims over recent centuries by Jagdish Chandra Bose, George Washington Carver, and Corentin Louis Kervran, a skeptical retired detective, Grover Cleveland Backster (Cleve Baxter as it is sometimes misspelled) had turned amateur “botanist” when applying his Polygraph equipment to Plants in a small Lab he ran in the suspicious locale of Times Square (ala Nikolai Tesla, the “mad scientist” before him) and like Tesla (not associated with plants but only with Times Square), Jagdish Chandra Bose, George Washington Carver, and Corentin Louis Kervran, Baxter was “buried” in cynical criticism and laughter. Soviet Scientists did considerably more of this same research, and Japanese research institutes did much more. All of the foregoing named (except Tesla) claimed unassailable evidence that Plants, at some distance, telepathically responded to Human emotions and even thoughts, in their own electrical  “emotional” responses, as if responding to the tome (the “vibes”) of those Human emotions and thoughts without necessarily dissecting detailed meaning. Most recent “advances” in this area have Archeologists , ascribing to a few diverse ancient cultures the use of certain Plants to telepathically communicate with “other star systems” and perhaps “other galaxies.” All of this is left without comment for the reader’s perusal if interested, with the disclaimer of any other judgment or opinion here. We have bigger fish to fry here and try (sometimes unsuccessfully) out of controversial, incredible topics without direct relevance. Picking other battles and moving on we will try to side-step ESP. Parapsychology. UFO’s, Conspiracy theories, and politics in general. The taint of the Plant story likely deprived (along with the same racism that greeted Carver) Jagdish Chandra Bose from a Nobel Prize for his other eminent work. Let’s go one further and dare ourselves to just look at Soviet and US Parapsychology research supporting very unpopular hypotheses that Human thoughts and emotions can, at a distance, affect Petri-dish Cells, Ice crystals, and Minerals. (???)

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 44:

This time, after excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we continue to preface a return to the series: Fine-Tuned Universe series, we examine, not the Future, but now the Past of the Universe.

Some more selected verses from the Ramana Maharshi disciple Master Nome:

There is no delusion or modification in eternally, changeless Self.  Possibilities of delusion or modification, have been already been negated by Inquiry, or reduced to an infinite regression. But the Self alone is Infinite, & Causality is not real. One cannot actually recall when this root of Ego, the root of Maya, began, was created or was born. Though there is knowledge of perpetual Existence, which is of the Self alone. For never was there a time when you were not, & never will there be a time when you will cease to be. Thus, the Self is ever the Unborn – neither coming from another state or thing, nor giving birth to any state or thing – & the Ego is unborn since the Ego never comes to be. This may also be regarded as the final significance of the Maharshi’s Inquiry as to “Whence am I ?” graciously given to show the method of tracing inwardly from where the identity of “I” derives, as well as “Who am I ?”

How can there be the Ego’s effect (delusion), as the supposed cause itself has never come to be ? The Ego is an assumption. But who assumes this assumption ? No one. Who knows the Knowledge of the Self ? The Ego “I” cannot know the Self, since the Self alone is capable of knowing. The “I” is inert & the “known” is a mere notion, a vacuous imagining, & an assumption that is non-existent. There is no Ego to be ignorant, or to be bound. There is no Ego to attempt to know the Self, or to return to the Self, or to unite with the Self. The Self is what you are, & it is innately Ego-less.

Fine-Tuned Universe 44:

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

At 1^st blush, Anthropic thinking can begin with an inference derived from our own presence, establishing 100% Probability of intelligent life [I] on this planet earth [E]. With the single data-point of our own Presence, we might speculate about the Probability [I] of intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe [U] of earthlike planets. Thus, loosely speaking, & loosely symbolizing, we might doodle to ourselves:

[I]–[E]   ==>  [I]–[U]

[Earth’s intelligent life on  SUGGESTS  intelligence elsewhere]

Granted that the Number of earthlike planets is quite large, the Probability about which we speculated, [I]–[U] depends of course on the fraction of earthlike planets that will have evolved intelligent life, a fraction we have no way to meaningfully estimate. So if we qualify the loose symbology above into 2 alternative forms, one with the conclusion of High-Probability of [I] elsewhere, hi–[I]–[U]; & the other with the conclusion of Low-Probability of [I] elsewhere, lo–[I]–[U]:

(a)       [I]–[E]   ==>  hi–[I]–[U]

(b)       [I]–[E]   ==>  lo–[I]–[U]

Since each Speculation, both (a) & (b) is on the face of it as likely as the other, the single data-point of our Presence does not allow us to choose between the 2 Speculations. On the other hand, we might have effectively “zeroed-down” that “lo”– to vanishingly small, which is to effectively to cast a Contra-Positive of the original generic Hypothesis:

n– [I]–[U]   ==>  n–[I]–[E]

But that Conclusion is contradicted by the simple fact of our being here so such a Contra-Positive could NOT hold True. Converting this back to the original again, which must be equivalent, suggests that:

[I]–[E]   ==>  [I]–[U]

is similarly False. But our statements concern Truths rather than Falsehoods, & loosely at that, & yet even this reasoning is suggestive of the disconnect between our single data-point & any Universal conclusion. [Contra-Positives can be less intuitive, like double-negatives, but they can clarify some vague issues. Our Presence suggesting Life elsewhere “sounds” reasonable. But if we check the Contra-Positive we see that no failure to find Life elsewhere will ever convince US that We do not exist. Therefore, we best be cautious about using our Presence to imply Life elsewhere any further than that it “could happen.” Further examination then must focus on whether necessary conditions in the Universe are hard to come by, & how hard,]

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 43:

This time, after excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we continue to preface a return to the series: Fine-Tuned Universe series, we examine, not the Future, but now the Past of the Universe.

Some more selected verses from the Ramana Maharshi disciple Master Nome:

The Existence of the Self is Absolute & immutable. If the Ego were ever the Existence, as part of it or sharing in the Absolute Existence in any way whatsoever, Existence would be changeful & transitory, & would cease to exist. Being is always Ego-less & Existence has no Ego whatsoever. Where is the Ego ? The Ego is not in the World, which is unreal. The Ego is not in the Body, which is unreal & not the Self. The Ego is not in the Senses, which are unreal & not the Self. The Ego is not in Thought, which is unreal & not the Self. The Ego is not in Thought, which is unreal & not the Self. The Ego is not in the flawless, unmodified, perfect Self. The Ego is never actually experienced by itself & is not actually experienced in any of those factors like the World, Body, Senses, Thought, or Self. The Ego dwells nowhere. The Ego is not a thing in itself & does not reside anywhere. The Ego is not inherent in anything. The remaining possibility is that the Ego’s supposed existence is an effect produced by something else. The Ego is not produced by the World, the Body, the Senses, the Prana (vital energy), of the Mind. Those produce phenomena, sensations; physical subtle, & mental experiences; & thoughts. The World, the Body, the Senses, the Prana, & the Mind appear after the Ego is differentiated. And so they cannot produce the Ego since an Effect does not produce a Cause. The Ego is not produced by the Self, which is the Absolute. The Absolute Self does not produce or create at all, but ever just is. That the Ego is said to rise from the “origin”, of “substrate”, of the Self is expedient teaching intended to guide those desirous of Liberation to the Origin, the one Substrate, in order to realize its Ego-less nature. Such instruction should not be interpreted as the Ego “really” being born, or the Self actually giving birth to the Ego. The Ego cannot be self-produced, for to imagine so would be to suppose its pre-existence, which is absurd. That would lead to the consequent question as to what caused the “pre-existent” Ego. This, in turn, would lead either to the delusion regarding the effects causing the “cause”

Past of the Universe 1:

The GU Grand Unification Epoch is taken to have occurred just after the impenetrable, undefined. &  unknowable 1^st interval of 10^–43  sec, the “Planck” Epoch.  During the Planck Epoch, a virtually infinitely hot & dense proto=Universe “cools” to a mere 10³² or Hundred Nonillion degrees,

During the GU Grand Unification Epoch, it remains too hot for the 4 fundamental Forces [Gravity, Strong & Weak Nuclear, Electro-Magnetic] to be distinguished [hence “unified”]. The Temperature does drop to a “chilly” 10²²  Ten Sextillion degrees, prior to re-heating [by thermalized negative Gravity & the Inflaton Field decaying into Particles].

Temperature cools back down after the Chaotic Expansion [60 orders of magnitude to a “grain of sand”], from 10^–36  or 10^–35 sec out to 10^–32 sec . That cooling induced “phase transitions [like steam condensing] which breaks the symmetry of the GUT Grand Unified Theory or the Grand Unified Super-Force, breaking out Gravity from of the Unified 4 Forces.

Further cooling from Non–Chaotic Expansion Epoch [to 4 inches across or 10⁹⁰  (x) the primeval Planck Volume]  cooling has dropped the Temperature to 10²⁸ or Ten Octillion degrees.

During the succeeding Electro–Weak Epoch from 10^–32  to 10^–12 sec, the Unified Gauge Forces split off Strong Nuclear Force, by which Gluon Bosons bind larger Baryons like Protons & Neutrons.

Resembling later Dark Energy, this early negative Gravity produces the limited smoothness of Space, leading to galaxies neither too small, nor too big. There did remain a slight fluctuation in the Density Distribution of Matter, without which Galaxies, Stars, & Planets would never have coalesced.

The successive non-Chaotic, Chaotic, non-Chaotic Inflations cooled out hot & dense relic early particles like Magnetic Monopoles, Gravitinos, Axions, & other “hedgehogs”, cosmic Strings, & Brane Domain walls. The Electro-Weak Force [later to separate as Weak & Electro-Magnetic Forces] also breaks out during this Electro-Weak Epoch, ending at 10^–12 sec.

Baryo-genesis [making Protons & Neutrons etc. ] has begun at the 1^st femto-second, 10^–15 sec, with the official Quark Epoch starting at that 10^–12 sec. Combinations of 3 quark Leptons make up Protons & Neutrons, etc. The Hadron Epoch per se starts at a micro-second, 10^–6 sec when all Quarks were forever trapped within Hadrons [Protons & Neutrons].

Hadrons are made up of specific combinations of Red, Green, & Blue Quarks, either Up or Down. The virtually empty Hadron has each of the 3 Quarks making up about ¹/₃  of the Mass, & Hadrons of course make up all but a small fraction of a % of all Atoms & thus all Atomic Matter.

But each Quark in size can be contrasted to a single Atom. The number of Atoms in my thumb is about the number of tennis balls I could crammed into a hollow, carved-out Earth, 20,000 km around. As tiny as each Atom must then be, a Quark compared to an Atom would have that Atom be an empty Solar System, 200 Billion km around just counting out to Pluto.  This represents the extremely empty Hadron. As to how empty the Quark [made of Strings ?] itself could be described we cannot say.

At about 10–4 sec the Universe was continuing to expand more slowly, as it does today, except that this slower Expansion appears to be accelerating indefinitely at this point in time. Addition of Space which comprises the Inflation & “slower” Expansion prior to & then after Inflation. This is not the same as the velocity of motion within that Space. And yet that “slower” expansion continued “faster” than the Speed of Light. So that in a sense, much of the Universe will ever be receding beyond our possible knowledge. Meanwhile, by the Age of 1 sec, Temperature had cooled down a Quadrillion times to a “frosty” 10¹³ degrees [Ten-Trillion].

From a hundredth of a Second to a full Second, Matter–Energy was an Ionized Plasma where Matter & Radiation were inseparable. But Radiation was so dense (a Hundred Billion kg/cm3) that no Light was visible, since each Photon interacted immediately. The formation of Matter from Energy is made possible by Photons materializing into Baryons & Anti-Baryons with their subsequent annihilations transforming them into pure Energy. Because of these Photon & Matter collisions & annihilations, Matter was unable to remain viable for more than a few nanoseconds before a bombardment of Electrons would scatter these Photons.

Known as the “Epoch of Last Scattering”, the Temperature had now dropped to that mere 10¹³ degrees, [Ten-Trillion]. Strong Nuclear, Weak Nuclear, & Electro-Magnetic interactions now able to exert their Forces.  Odd Neutrons begin to decay to Protons, Electrons, & Neutrinos on a massive scale. This freed up additional Protons & also free Electrons that could combine with other particles.

After one second, the Universe had cooled further by a factor of a Thousand to 10¹⁰ degrees K [Ten-Billion]. Photons no longer had the energy to disrupt the creation of matter or transform energy into matter. Nucleo-synthesis became possible. The Universe diameter now approached a Quintillion meters 10¹⁸ m or a Quadrillion km. Before that 1^st second, Neutrinos had cooled down and were not interacting with other particles, even though they had played a role in Proton-Neutron conversions that did occur later, and still do occur today in extreme nuclear fusion reactions. Neutrinos also play important roles in higher element synthesis aspects of Super-novae. The prior Proton-Neutron mass-conversions had occurred by hot-Weak-force processes that simple “froze out” at that torpid 10¹⁰ degrees K [Ten-Billion].

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

Essay outside of the NMT (No-Me Teaching) series 6:

Vedanta’s analogy for 3 daily States of Mind.

We find another powerful Analogy, which we can call the “Coin”, at the beginning or the Mandukya Upanishad.  A gross physical analog with which to look at the waking and sleep states this Vedanta text employs an analogy of a particular coin to illustrate states of Reality and their relationship.

The actual coin, or actually the series of coins had somewhat of a bullseye design. For a more clear explanation, we us U.S. coins for example. If the smallest coin where a dime, for instance, then the very special quarter in this series would have a dime “imbedded” in its center.  It is as if the dime were retained & another fifteen cents worth of silver were placed around it.

The half-dollar of the series incorporates the quarter with the dime imbedded.

Finally, another fifty cents worth of silver is placed around the compound half-dollar & the last in the series would be a large silver dollar piece containing the compound silver half-dollar itself.

Some such coin had existed in India, fashioned in this “bullseye” concentric manner, whatever the actual denominations might have been.  The point of Analogy was to equate the entire composite silver dollar with the Reality of Consciousness.

The composite coins were chosen to illustrate how a larger category remains as the Background for the included region superimposed on it.  The dollar coin of Consciousness remains in the middle where the half dollar has been superimposed.  The Consciousness dollar Substrate still remains the ultimate Background even in the middle of the half-dollar where, in turn, the quarter is superimposed on the half-dollar which remains as its intermediate background.

Finally, in the same manner, the superimposed dime has the quarter for its immediate Background, with the half-dollar as the Background behind both of those.  Consciousness again is the ultimate silver dollar Background.

This composite is specifically a very hierarchical & inclusive one. Within that silver-dollar Consciousness-Reality, the half-dollar piece represents the state of primal Ego Ignorance, as yet bereft of any thought & yet still permeated by Consciousness which is its all-Background,support, & substance.

This half-dollar piece represents the  Deep Sleep State & also any moment of simple Ego superimposed upon pure Consciousness.

The quarter, in turn, represents any imaginary thought process within the half-dollar of Individuality, Ego, or Mind.

So the half-dollar is Ego, & at the same time the Deep Dreamless Sleep State, & the quarter is Mind.

There is a specific State involved there too in that the quarter also represents the Dream State & all other flights of Imagination, Day-dreaming, mental Conceptualizing, & Thought in general.

So Thought is within &nd is permeated by Ego-Mind, which in turn is contained within & permeated by Consciousness.  The Ego is more fundamental than Thought, a kind of pre-Thought.

Consciousness that remains as the Background of Ego & the Deep Sleep State.  Meanwhile, this Ego & the Deep Sleep State are the Background of all Thought.  One Non-Dual Consciousness is very much the whole story.

All along,. Ego is a momentary insubstantial disturbance in Consciousness.  Like a whirlpool or eddy current in the Ocean, it never stands as a separate thing & appears or disappears in a moment.  Not being other than “Water” at any point, like a transient Current such a thing as Ego is more a matter of definition than substance.

Not even a Thought in itself, the Ego is like the Origin point on a graph where Cartesian coordinate axes meet.  Here this meeting Point is not counted as a Point in itself.  Nevertheless,each Thought or Coordinate Point has that Reference Origin in its very definition.

A pre-Thought, like Ego is at the beginning, middle,or end of any given Thought, each a “structure” which is not yet a Thought in itself.  We might thus see the Ego as part of the middle of each Thought, as the Reference for the defining of the thought content.

Like a Quark which is more fundamental than a nucleon, an elusive sub-component, the Ego eludes direct definition. However Thought is imagined then, Consciousness lights up the Ego & any thought.

Consciousness thus remains the Background like the silver dollar in the Coin Analogy. The Ego, in turn, is Background for Thought, just like the half-dollar is the Background for the quarter.

What we call Deep Sleep just happens to be an extended period of thoughtless no-Mind.  We actually experience a smaller version of this thoughtless no-Mind between each thought.  Occasionally,  other instances of  thoughtless no-Mind appears when we are knocked unconscious, under anaesthesia, in certain periods of trance, & so on.

Ego is also seem in the fact that we come out of Deep Sleep & so on with the same Personality intact.  I even recall the pleasant quality of Deep Sleep as some thing enjoyed by me as Consciousness. ‘

Since Ego is part of every Thought, so is Deep Sleep the same Background evident as the temporal “space” between Thoughts.

Dream itself is but Thought.  All the sights, sounds, touch, smell & taste; all the objects, people, places, & times are all made of evanescent Thought that vanishes, in total, at the moment we awake.

When we do awake, we add in those vivid Thoughts we know as Perceptions.  We consider these Perceptions to be “direct experience”, which is really a joke for we do not remain steady in the so-called “direct experience” of immediate Perception.

We often consider & think of things other than our immediate surroundings. We spend far more time Day-dreaming about the Future, or some other Fantasy.

Our biased memories of the Past are effectively Dreams as well.  In fact, all conceptual Thought is like the Dream State interspersed within the Waking State Perception.

If we set Perception aside to typify the Waking State, then all other Thought is essentially the Dream State Background shining through. Gaps between Thoughts.

Again the Deep Sleep State is behind that, & Consciousness is the ultimate Background behind it all.

Consciousness, on turn, illumines all Thought.  Then again the Waking State is just one particularly vivid & more-consistent Dream state.

Perception too appears in the Dream, at its own level.  So there is really not much of a distinction.  What is so special about the Waking State, which is the dime in the center, is that it is the most derivative .  It is a Waking State of perceived Objects, performed Actions & accrued karma, Birth & Death.

The real special quality of the Waking State lies in the conscious quality that allows the pursuit of Self-Knowledge in the Waking State by intentional Self-inquiry.

The “Coin” scheme situates the Waking State as but one Dream among many..  Perception is placed among other Thoughts & Concepts.  By the same token,  we set that same Waking State aside for this special reason of. the pursuit of Self-Knowledge in the Waking State by intentional Self-inquiry.  At the same time, Concept & Imagination, & the entire Dream State is situated within the Ego-Mind, while Egoity is only an insignificant disturbance within Consciousness.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 41:

Prior to excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we skirt around the Fine-Tuned Universe series to add further questions about the Universe.

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

Future of an expanding Universe part IV:

Timeline:

Assuming that Dark energy continues to make the Universe expand at an accelerating rate, at some 2 Trillion yrs. from now, all galaxies outside the Local Supercluster will be red-shifted to such an extent that even gamma rays they emit will have wavelengths longer than the size of the observable universe of the time. Therefore, these galaxies will no longer be detectable in any way.

By 100 Trillion yrs. from now, on a new Degenerate Era star formation will end, leaving all stellar objects in the form of degenerate remnants. This period, known as the Degenerate Era, will last until the degenerate remnants finally decay.

Star formation ceases:

It is estimated that in 100 Trillion yrs. or less, star formation will end, whereby the least massive stars take the longest to exhaust their Hydrogen fuel. Thus, the longest living stars in the universe are low-mass Red Dwarfs, with a mass of about 8 % Solar masses.  They have a lifetime of order 10 trillion) yrs., the length of time over which star formation takes place.

Once star formation ends & the least massive Red Dwarfs exhaust their fuel, Nuclear Fusion will cease. The low-mass Red Dwarfs will cool & become White Dwarfs. The only objects remaining with more than planetary mass will be Brown Dwarfs, with mass less than 8 % solar masses, & degenerate remnants. White Dwarfs are produced by stars with initial masses between about 0.08 & 8 solar masses.  Neutron Stars & Black Holes, are produced by stars with initial masses over 8 solar masses. Most of the mass of this collection, approximately 90%, will be in the form of White Dwarfs.

In the absence of any energy source, all of these formerly luminous bodies will cool & become faint. The Universe will become extremely dark after the last star burns out. Even so, there can still be occasional light in the Universe. One of the ways the Universe can be illuminated is if 2 Carbon-Oxygen White Dwarfs with a combined mass of more than the Chandrasekhar limit of about 1.4 solar masses happen to merge.

The resulting object will then undergo runaway thermonuclear fusion, producing a Type Ia supernova & dispelling the darkness of the Degenerate Era for a few weeks. If the combined mass is not above the Chandrasekhar limit, but is larger than the minimum mass to fuse Carbon (about 0.9 solar masses), a Carbon star could be produced, with a lifetime of around 1 Million yrs.

If 2 Helium White Dwarfs with a combined mass of at least 0.3 solar masses collide, a Helium star may be produced, with a lifetime of a few 100 Million yrs.

Finally, if Brown Dwarfs collide with each other, a Red Dwarf star may be produced which can survive for 10 Trillion years.

Some more selected verses from the Ramana Maharshi disciple Master Nome:

This Self is referred to by the Maharshi, Ribhu, & other sages as “I–I”. That true “I–I” is the “I” in the statement “I am the Absolute.” In the Realization of the significance of the Mahavakya (great aphorism) of the Upanishad: “I am Brahman.” Adi Shankara explains, the entire notion of “I” is removed, just like the idea “a man is here”, conceived when mis-perceiving a tree stump in the darkness, is completely removed upon illumination being brought. Brahman alone is, & Brahman alone is, & Brahman alone knows Brahman. When the “I” is removed, all of “mine” is also removed since that is completely dependent upon the delusion of “I”.  The Ego is the root cause of delusion, illusion, bondage, & suffering. The Ego is the root of the Mind, the root of even the very idea of an existent Mind, & the root of all else. It is the 1st Illusion to be imagined & the last to disappear. The Ego is the cause, substance, & experiencer of all Illusion. Without the Ego, Illusion is impossible.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 40:

Prior to excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we skirt around the Fine-Tuned Universe series to add further questions about the Universe.

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

Future of an expanding Universe part III:

Summary:

The 1^st, the Primordial Era, is the time in the past just after the Big Bang when stars had not yet formed. The 2^nd, the Stelliferous Era, includes the Present Day & all of the stars & galaxies we see. It is the time during which stars form from collapsing clouds of gas.

In the subsequent Degenerate Era, the stars will have burnt out, leaving all stellar-mass objects as stellar remnants, White Dwarfs, Neutron stars, & Black Holes.

In the Black Hole Era, White dwarfs, Neutron stars, & other smaller astronomical objects have been destroyed by Proton decay, leaving only Black Holes.

Finally, in the Dark Era, even Black Holes have disappeared, leaving only a dilute gas of Photons & Leptons [electrons. etc.]. The Future History assumes the continued expansion of the Universe. If the Universe begins to recontract, subsequent events in the timeline may not occur because the Big Crunch,

That Big Crunch would be the recontraction of the Universe into a hot, dense state similar to that at the Big Bang, will supervene.

Timeline  part 1:

Primordial Era  [0 – 1 Million yrs.]

Stelliferous Era [from 1 Million yrs. to 100 Trillion yrs. post Big Bang]

The observable Universe is currently 13.8 Billion yrs. old, within the Stelliferous Era. About 155 Million yrs. after the Big Bang, the first star formed.  Since then, stars have formed by the collapse of small, dense core regions in large, cold molecular clouds of Hydrogen gas. At first, this produces a proto-star, which is hot & bright because of energy generated by Gravitational contraction. After the proto-star contracts for a while, its center will become hot enough to fuse Hydrogen & a star begins.

Stars whose mass is very low will eventually exhaust all their fusible Hydrogen & then become Helium White Dwarfs.  Stars of low to medium mass will expel some of their mass as a planetary Nebula & eventually become White Dwarfs.

More massive stars will explode in a core-collapse Supernova, leaving behind Neutron stars or Black holes. In any case, although some of the star’s matter may be returned to the interstellar medium. That degenerate remnant will be left behind with mass that is not returned to the interstellar medium. Therefore, the supply of gas available for star formation is steadily being exhausted.

The Milky Way Galaxy & the Andromeda Galaxy will merge into one 3 Billion years from now,  17 Billion yrs. after the Big Bang, or in ~ 25% of the Universe’s present age.

The Andromeda Galaxy is not about 2.5 Million Light-yrs. away from our Milky Way Galaxy,  They are moving towards each other at approximately 120 kilometers per second. Approximately three Billion years from now, or 17 billion yrs. after the Big Bang, the Milky Way & the Andromeda Galaxy will collide with one another & merge into one large galaxy.

The galaxies in the Local Group, the cluster of galaxies which includes the Milky Way & the Andromeda Galaxy, are gravitationally bound to each other. It is expected that between 100 Billion & 1 Trillion yrs. from now, their orbits will decay and the entire Local Group will merge into one large galaxy.

Some more selected verses from the Ramana Maharshi disciple Master Nome:

The Mind does not bind the Self. The Mind does not define or limit the Self. The Mind does not divide the Self, & does not alter the Self. The Self is not bound by the Mind, because the Mind has no independent existence. The Self is not bound because there is nothing other than the Self, & so there is no Mind at all. The “Mind” is nowhere but in the Self, yet in the Self there is no Mind. The Self is not in the Mind, but the Self alone pervades the Mind to an extent that distinctions of pervader & pervaded do not exist.

Though thought exists only as the self, the Self has never become a thought & has never given rise to a thought. Thought is entirely unreal & does not exist at all. The Self alone exists & is 1–without–a–2nd. The Mind exists nowhere but in the Self, yet there is truly no Mind in the Self. The True Nature of the Mind is only the Self. There is truly not Mind at all & the Self alone exists.

Self-Realization is the Ego-less state. Freedom from the Ego is the quintessence of Liberation. That Freedom is Abidance in the Self as the Self. The falsely assumed, individualized “I” is completely removed by Self-Knowledge, & the 1 true “I” of the “I” alone remains.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 39:

Prior to review of Idealist Philosophy, in the text below we skirt around the Fine-Tuned Universe series to add further questions about the Universe.

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

(Supposed) Future of an expanding Universe part II:

Planets fall or are flung from orbits by a close encounter with another star on some 10¹⁵  (Quadrillion) yrs.  Over time, the orbits of planets will decay due to Gravitational Radiation.  Otherwise, planets will be ejected from their local systems by Gravitational Perturbations caused by encounters with another stellar remnant.

Stellar remnants ultimately escape galaxies or fall into Black Holes by some 10¹⁹ to 10²⁰ yrs.  Over time, objects in a Galaxy exchange Kinetic Energy in a process of Dynamical Relaxation, making their velocity distribution approach the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.  Dynamical Relaxation can proceed either by close encounters of 2 stars or by less violent but more frequent distant encounters.  In the case of a close encounter, 2 Brown Dwarfs or stellar remnants will pass close to each other. When this happens, the trajectories of the objects involved in the close encounter change slightly. After a large number of such encounters, lighter objects tend to gain Kinetic Energy while the heavier objects lose Kinetic Energy.  Because of srch Dynamical Relaxation, some objects will gain enough energy to reach Galactic escape velocity & depart the Galaxy.  They leave behind a smaller, denser Galaxy. Since encounters are more frequent in the denser Galaxy, the process then accelerates. The end result is that most objects are ejected from the Galaxy, leaving a small fraction (a few %) which fall into the central supermassive Black Hole.

After some 10³⁴ yrs, the later evolution of the &verse depends on the existence and rate of Proton Decay.   If the Proton is unstable, it has a ¹/₂  -life of at least 10³⁴ yrs.  If any of the Grand Unified Theories  (GUT’s) are correct, then there are theoretical reasons to believe that the half-life of the Proton is under 10⁴¹ yrs.

Neutrons bound into nuclei  are also expected to decay with a ¹/₂  -life comparable to the Proton’s.  In the event that the proton does not decay at all, stellar-mass objects would still disappear, but more slowly.

If the Proton half-life is approximately 10³⁷ yrs, shorter or longer Proton half-lives will accelerate or decelerate the process. This means that after 10³⁷ yrs, one-half of all Baryonic matter will have been converted into gamma ray Photons & Leptons through Proton decay.

Some review of Idealist Philosophy:

From Plato’s “ideals”, misapplication of the title for the philosophical school Idealism is sometimes begun there. Actually Idealism became began earlier with the Eleatic philosophers: Parmenides, Zeno, & Melissus.  Later on, the Neo-platonists went well beyond Plato, again into Idealism, as with Plotinus, Porphyry, and so. Later, small contributions are made by Boethius & even René Descartes. But George Berkeley was the 1^st true Idealist, seeing the World as Mind, (though he left “behind” a physical World made by God as a handy reference).  The Eleatic philosophers & greatest Neo-platonists philosophers were actually beyond Idealism, being Enlightened Sages, embracing more Subjective Non-Duality.

Several German idealists like Fichte, Kant, & Hegel preceded a British school of Idealism culminating in Thomas Green, Bernard Bosanquet, John McTaggart & Francis Bradley. Twentieth-century philosophy in America begins with Idealism.  At the turn of the 20^th century, it was rising with Brand Blanshard & with Josiah Royce at Harvard.

Idealists were remarkable. They had never heard of Protons or Electrons, hardly even of Freud.  Since they had come into Philosophy, not from Science, but from the Humanities, their scientific insight was lacking. Nor was their Logic very subtle. But whatever their technical deficiencies, these Idealists were wise men, learned men.

They knew how to state a case. They were perceptive, humane, & versatile. Philosophy for these Idealists was not an avocation or a specialty, but a way of life & the “breath” of life.  It was a passionate pursuit of reasonableness in action & feeling as well as in thought.

The Idealism of the turn of the century was a fusion of two streams of thought.  One of these, Subjective Idealism, took its rise in the ingenious mind of Bishop Berkeley & flowed down through David Hume & John Stuart Mill.  The other, Objective Idealism, is as old as Plato & comes down through the Germany of Hegel, & the English Green & Bradley, to Josiah Royce in Harvard Yard.  The first of these idealisms stands for the thesis, “All that is real is experience.”  The second stands for the thesis, “All that is real is rational.”  To see what American “Absolute Idealism” meant, we must see the meaning of both these theses. [to be continued]

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 37:

Prior to excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we skirt around the Fine-Tuned Universe series to add further questions about the Universe.

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

(Supposed) Future of an expanding Universe part I:

If the expansion of the Universe continues forever, the Universe will cool as it expands, eventually becoming too cold to sustain Life . For this reason, this future scenario is popularly called the Big Freeze.

Dark Energy can be represented by the Cosmological Constant Λ, a constant Energy Density filling Space homogeneously, or represented by scalar fields, such as Quintessence or Moduli, dynamic quantities whose Energy Density can vary in Time & Space.  Dark Energy accelerates the expansion of the Universe, so that the space between clusters of galaxies will grow at an increasing rate.

Red-shift will stretch ancient, incoming photons (even gamma rays) to undetectably long wavelengths & low energies.  Stars are expected to form normally for 10¹² to 10¹⁴ years (1-100 Trillion years).  But eventually the supply of gas needed for star formation will be exhausted. And as existing stars run out of fuel & cease to shine, the Universe will slowly & inexorably grow darker, one star at a time.

According to theories that predict Proton decay, the stellar remnants left behind will disappear, leaving behind only black holes, which themselves eventually disappear as they emit Hawking radiation. Ultimately, if the Universe reaches a state in which the temperature approaches a uniform value, no further work will be possible, resulting in a final Heat Death of the Universe.

Infinite expansion does not determine the spatial curvature of the Universe. It can be open (with negative spatial curvature), flat, or closed (positive spatial curvature). If it is closed, sufficient Dark Energy must be present to counteract the Gravitational attraction of matter & other forces tending to contract the Universe.  Open & flat Universes will expand forever even in the absence of Dark Energy.

Observations of the CMB, Cosmic Micro-wave Background radiation by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe suggested that the Universe is spatially flat & has a significant amount of Dark Energy.  In this case, the Universe should continue to expand at an accelerating rate. The acceleration of the Universe’s expansion has also been confirmed by observations of distant Supernovae.  If, as in the Concordance Model of Physical Cosmology (Lambda-cold Dark Matter or ΛCDM), the Dark Energy is in the form of a Cosmological Constant, the expansion will eventually become exponential, with the size of the Universe doubling at a constant rate.

If the theory of Inflation is true, the Universe went through an Episode dominated by a different form of Dark Energy in the first moments of the Big Bang; but Inflation ended, indicating an equation of state much more complicated than those for Dark Energy.  It is possible that the Dark Energy equation of state could change again resulting in an event that would have consequences which are extremely difficult to predict.

Some more from Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome:

Thoughts move in modes. Innumerable thoughts & modes are contained in states of Mind. All are included in 3 states of Mind: Waking, Dream, & Deep Dreamless Sleep. In the 1st 2 states (Waking & Dream), thought itself projects itself into itself & the content of thought changes according to those states. The Waking state is equivalent to the Dream state. In both states, the same kind of multiplicity manifests. In both states, subject & object appear.

The same kinds of mental function appear in both states. In both states, there is the same tendency to identify as a particular character with a particular Body exists. Cause & Effect are present in both states. Both states are characterized by non– perception of Reality & the mis–perception of Reality, which delusions are equivalent to not seeing a rope & imagining to be a snake. These 2 states, Waking & Dream are mutually exclusive (contradictory). Everything experienced in a given state changes within that state itself, or else changes with the transition from 1 state to the other. Only Existence-Consciousness remains the same, unaffected by the changes in such experiences & any change of state. So what is present in the Waking state tends to be absent in the Dream state, & what is present in the Dream state tends to be absent in the Waking state.

What appears within a state is only that state of Mind itself. The Dream state of Mind appears as only & all that is experienced in that Dream state. So too is it with the Waking state. Each state of Mind itself composes all that appears with the state. In the Deep Dreamless Sleep state, there is an absence Waking & Dream thoughts & their content. There is therefore no World, no Body, no Senses, no Ideas, no Memories, & no “person” existing in the Deep Dreamless Sleep. Yet Existence-Consciousness still is, & that Existence-Consciousness is the Self. The Self continues, even in the absence of thoughts in Deep Dreamless Sleep. The Self is then unaffected by the absence of all else, just as it is when all else appears in the other 2 states (Waking & Dream).

Deep Dreamless Sleep is characterized by the presence of Cause but with the absence of the Effect. Therefore it may be said that the “unmanifest seeds” of, or potential for, Ignorance is present but not the Effects of such Ignorance. In the Deep Dreamless Sleep there is only the non–perception of Reality, while the projection or hallucination of Multiplicity & Form are absent. The Self, Existence- Consciousness, is free from both Cause & Effect. In Self-Knowledge, neither the Veiling avarana of Reality not the Projected vikshepa Illusion of Multiplicity, neither the non– perception of Real Being nor the mis–perception of Existence persists. The Self is itself & knows itself as it is.

From Existence-Consciousness comes Deep Dreamless Sleep. From Deep Dreamless Sleep comes Dream. From Dream comes the Waking state. Each succeeding state occurs with the preceding state. All occurs within Existence-Consciousness. & that is what one truly is. So it is better to say that the states, & the Worlds that appear in them, are more within one’s Self than that one is in those states of Mind (Waking, Dream, Deep Dreamless Sleep). Being beyond the 3 states, the Self is called “the 4th” (turiya), yet the Slf is only One & its own self always (turiyatita or even beyond the 4th). The 3 states of Mind are only seen as 3 only so long as Consciousness is not known as it is. As Dream is to Deep Dreamless Sleep, emerging from within it, “forming” yet not really so, for both

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 35:

Prior to excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we continue the series: Fine-Tuned Universe 26, the premise that a small change in several of the dimensionless fundamental physical constants would make the Universe incapable of Life.

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

Fine-Tuned Universe 26:

Irreducible Complexities:

Michael Behe & others argued for the presence in the living cell of various “irreducible complexities” that would require the agency of Intelligence to bring them about.  But they left open “the simplest possible design scenario,” This would posit “a single cell – formed billions of years ago – that already contained all information to produce descendent organisms” via Evolution.  They suppose that “irreducibly complex” systems that manifested themselves long afterward, such as that which produces complex blood-clotting, might have had their designs already present in potency in that first cell but not yet “turned on”.  The force of this suggestion depends on what “turning on” amounts to.

The original ID, Intelligent Design argument would require it to involve a “special” action on the Designer’s part, which would seriously dilute the notion of pre-established “potential”.  On the other hand, if such special “turn on” action is not required, the “complexities” hardly qualify as “irreducible.”

On the Cosmic scale, the Irreducible Complexity theorists postulated an enormous Inflation of the infant Universe during the 1^st fraction of a second.  This lasted no longer than 10⁻³⁵ seconds.  But that, in a brief moment, this Multiplied the diameter of the Universe by a mind-boggling factor of perhaps 10⁵⁰ – 10⁹⁰.

Problems thereby solved included the “Flatness Problem,” the tight constraint on the initial Energy Density that had given rise to the Fine-Tuning issue in the first place. It was shown that the Inflationary Expansion would be so great that it would force the density of the infant Universe to the critical value, no matter what the initial density might have been.

The need for Fine-Tuning of the Density Parameter would in this way be eliminated, or at least reduced, & the Principle of Indifference would once more reign for the pre-Inflation state, which could have any of the possible values of the Energy Density.

Besides handling anomalies, Inflation had 2 other major features in its favor. It could explain the Isotropy of the CMB Cosmic Microwave Radiation, for which Collins and & Hawking had attempted to develop an Anthropic explanation. More significantly, as later developments would show, it could make use of Quantum Theory to provide an answer to a long-standing puzzle.  Where were the great in-homogeneities needed for galactic formation to come from if the background radiation was isotropic ?

Inflation would have the effect of magnifying Quantum fluctuations to such an extent that they could furnish the necessary “galactic seeds”.  That would depend on finding that the radiation was not in fact perfectly isotropic, as it had originally seemed to be. But very tiny departures from isotropy were found by means of extraordinarily precise satellite observations. Furthermore, the pattern of these departures across the width of the sky is claimed to offer strong support to the Inflation hypothesis.

Other support has come, for example, from the distribution of diffuse inter-galactic gas in the very early Universe. It has to be said, however, that as yet no adequate theory has been formulated that can explain why the Inflation occurred. The hypothesis does not yet have as strong a mandate, therefore, as does the Big Bang theory to which it is an addendum. But as matters stand, it would be fair to say that the warrant for the original claim of Fine-Tuning for the initial Cosmic conditions had been substantially weakened. The Universe may have had a “chaotic” starting point after all.

Alas, for the Atheists, Inflation has since been defeated by later satellite observations, so Theistic Anthropic & Irreducible Complexity theses still stand.

Some more selected verses from the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome disciple:

The Wise free themselves from the Mind, from Thought, realizing that all Duality, which is all experience other than the Self, is a creation of the Mind. Such “creation” is due to thoughts & is composed of thoughts. Abidance, free from thought, requires one to abide free from dualistic notions regarding the Mind itself. The unmoving Self does not “travel” through the Mind, & thought does not “drag” the ever-still, transcendent Self about. The Self is silent & untouched, endowed with the supreme, solitary power of Reality. The Self does not contend with thought, as if thought were an enemy with its own power. Self-Inquiry entails freedom from the pursuit of delusive thoughts that, in the form of vasanas (or tendencies) form Samsara. Self-Knowledge is not merely a blank Mind in which thought activity is temporarily stilled. For Self-Realization, one should know the Self’s freedom thought & the true nature of the Mind. Inquiring: “for whom is this thought, for whom is this Mind ?” one should seek the Knowledge of the Self, beyond all mental modes & states. Inquiring: “Who am I ?” one should know true Being, interior to any thought, more formless than any thoughts, transcendent of all thought, more formless than any thought, transcendent of all thought, & ever free from all thought. After carefully reading the written instruction-order left with 1 empty bottle he smiles to see they have upped their order and he replaces the 1 empty with 2 full bottles. You get the sense that payment would be a small issue if there was any payment.

[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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 33:

Prior to excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we continue the series: Fine-Tuned Universe 24, the premise that a small change in several of the dimensionless fundamental physical constants would make the Universe incapable of Life.

Fine-Tuned Universe 24:

God behind, & Probability in Fine-Tuning:

The Fine-Tuning argument concludes that, given the evidence of the Fine-Tuning of the cosmos, the existence of a Life-Permitting Universe (LPU) significantly confirms Theism over the Naturalistic Single-Universe Hypothesis (NSU).  Such confirmation is highly significant.

The challenge raised by the two most widely advocated versions of the Multi-Verse hypothesis – the unrestricted Multi-Verse hypothesis advocated by Lewis and Tegmark, according to which all possible Universes exist, and the restricted Multi-Verse hypothesis arising out of inflationary cosmology.  I argued that neither of these is able adequately to explain away the fine-tuning or undercut the fine-tuning argument.

Finally, one might wonder whether there are other viable alternative explanations of LPU to that offered by Theism, NSU, or the Multi-Verse.  One such possibility is various non-theistic Design hypotheses – either non-theistic supernatural beings or aliens in some Meta-Universe who can create bubble Universes. The postulated designer, D, could not be a merely “generic” designer but must be hypothesized to have some motivation to create a Life-Permitting Universe. Unless these hypotheses were advocated prior to the Fine-Tuning evidence, or we had independent motivations for them, they would not pass the non-ad-hoc-ness test of the restricted version of the Likelihood Principle.

Furthermore, from the perspective of probabilistic tension, these alternative design hypotheses typically would generate a corresponding probabilistic tension between the claim that the postulated Being had a motive to create a Life-Permitting world instead of some other type of world and the Beings’ other attributes, something that does not arise for classical theism. Finally, for some of these postulated Beings, one could claim that even if LPU confirms their existence, we lack sufficient independent reasons to believe in their existence, whereas under Theism we have such reasons; or one could claim that they simply transfer the problem of design up one level.

The only one of these alternatives is the Axiarchic hypothesis, versions of which have been advanced in the last thirty years by John Leslie  & by Hugh Rice and others, wherein goodness or ethical “required-ness” has a direct power to bring about concrete reality.  Whatever the merits of this hypothesis, it is likely to entail Theism.  Since God is the greatest possible Being, it is supremely good that God exist.  Therefore, it is unclear that the axiarchic hypothesis actually conflicts with theism.  In any case, we have solid philosophical grounds for claiming that given the Fine-Tuning evidence, the existence of a Life-Permitting Universe provides significant support for Theism over its non-axiarchic contenders.

If Atheism is correct, if the Universe and its laws are all that is or ever has been, how can it be said that the Universe, with all of its Fine-Tuned features, is in any relevant sense probable or improbable ?  There are no antecedent conditions that could determine such a probability.  Hence, if the Universe is the ultimate brute fact, it is neither likely nor unlikely, probable nor improbable; it simply is.

Further, even if the Universe were somehow improbable, it is hard to see on the hypothesis of Atheism how we could ever know this.  If we were in the position to witness the birth of many worlds –  some designed, some undesigned – then we might be in a position to say of any particular World that it had such-and-such a probability of existing undesigned.  But we simply are not in such a position.  We have absolutely no empirical basis for assigning probabilities to ultimate facts .

In conjunction with the likelihood principle, probability is extensively used in scientific confirmation.  Consider, for example, the arguments typically offered in favor of the thesis of common ancestry, continental drift theory, and the atomic hypothesis.  The thesis of common ancestry is commonly supported by claiming that a variety of features of the world–such as the structure of the tree of life – would not be improbable if this thesis is true, but would be very improbable under other contending, non-evolutionary hypotheses, such as special creation. Consider, for instance, the following quotation from evolutionary biologist and geneticist Edward Dodson, in which he summarizes the case for evolution, understood as the thesis of common ancestry:

All pieces of evidence concur in suggesting evolution with varying degrees of cogency, but most can be explained on other bases, albeit with some damage to the law of parsimony. The strongest evidence for evolution is the concurrence of so many independent probabilities. That such different disciplines as biochemistry and comparative anatomy, genetics and biogeography should all point toward the same conclusion is very difficult to attribute to coincidence.

Similar lines of reasoning are given for accepting continental drift theory. For example, the similarity between the animal and plant life on Africa and South America millions of years ago was considered to provide significant support for continental drift theory.  Why? Because it was judged very unlikely that this similarity would exist if continental drift theory were false, but not if it were true.

Finally, consider the use of epistemic probability in the confirmation of atomic theory. According to Wesley Salmon, what finally convinced virtually all physical scientists by 1912 of the atomic hypothesis was the agreement of at least thirteen independent determinations of Avogadro’s number based on the assumption that atomic theory was correct.  For example, one method of determining Avogadro’s number is through observations of Brownian motion, that is, the random motion of very small particles suspended in a liquid, a motion that was postulated to be caused by the unequal, random impact of the molecules in the liquid.  From this motion and the kinetic theory of heat, one can calculate what the mass of each molecule must be in order to account for the observed motion, and then using that value one can obtain Avogadro’s number.

The scientists reasoned that if atomic theory were false, then such an agreement between thirteen different determinations of Avogadro’s number would be exceedingly epistemically improbable – in Salmon’s words, an “utterly astonishing coincidence” .  Indeed, if scientists had not judged the agreement to be exceedingly improbable if atomic theory were false, it is difficult to see why they would take it to count as strong evidence in its favor.  On the other hand, the scientists reasoned, if atomic theory were true, such an agreement would be expected.  Thus, by implicitly using the likelihood principle, they reasoned that these independent determinations of Avogadro’s number strongly confirmed atomic theory.

It should be noted that one could not avoid this sort of reasoning simply by rejecting Scientific Realism, since even though anti-realists reject the truth or approximate truth of certain types of well-confirmed hypotheses, they still accept them as being reliable bases for future explanations and predictions – that is, in Bas van Fraassen’s terminology, they accept them as being “empirically adequate.”  Consequently, instead of interpreting the confirming evidence as evidence for a hypothesis’ truth, they accept it as evidence for the hypothesis’ empirical adequacy.  This means that insofar as realists need to appeal to epistemic probabilities to support the approximate truth of a theory, anti-realists will need to appeal to those same probabilities in support of a theory’s empirical adequacy – e.g., anti-realists would need to claim that it is highly improbable for the determinations of Avogadro’s number to agree if atomic theory were not empirically adequate.

Since some of the probabilities in the aforementioned examples involve singular, non-repeatable states of affairs, they are not based on statistical probabilities, nor arguably other non-epistemic probabilities. This is especially evident for the probabilities involved in the confirmation of atomic theory since some of them involve claims about probabilities conditioned on the underlying structure and laws of the universe being different – e.g. atoms not existing. Hence, they are not based on actual physical propensities, relative frequencies, or theoretical models of the universe’s operation. They therefore cannot be grounded in theoretical, statistical, or physical probabilities. Similar things can be said about many other related types of confirmation in science, such as the confirmation of quantum electrodynamics (QED) by its extraordinarily precise prediction of the gyromagnetic moment of the electron, which we shall discuss later in this chapter. Such cases, I contend, establish the widespread use of purely epistemic probabilities

in scientific confirmation that are neither grounded in other types of probability nor in experience – e.g., the probabilities invoked in the confirmation of atomic theory clearly are not grounded in experience, since nothing like such an agreement had ever occurred before.

The probabilities in the above examples do not seem to be statistical probabilities; nor can they in any obvious way be justified by appealing to statistical probabilities.  This is especially evident in the case for the epistemic probability involved in the confirmation of atomic theory since it involves claims about likelihoods if the underlying structure and laws of the universe were different – e.g., if atoms did not exist.  Hence, these claims cannot be grounded in theoretical, statistical, or physical probabilities.  Similar things can be said about many other similar types of confirmation in science, such as the confirmation of quantum electrodynamics by its extraordinarily precise prediction of the gyromagnetic moment of the electron, which we shall discuss below.  Such cases, I contend, establish the widespread use of purely epistemic probabilities in scientific confirmation that are neither grounded in statistical probabilities nor experience – e.g., the probabilities invoked in atomic theory clearly are not grounded in experience, since nothing like such an agreement had ever occurred before.

Some more selected verses from the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome disciple:

The view of the World is a mirror image of the view of oneself since the identity of oneself determines the definition of the World. The Seer himself appears as the Seen, the “I” as “this”. For the purpose of knowing Reality without veils, one should Inquire to know oneself, giving up the objective outlook, as well as the Ego to whom it belongs. Those who are detached from the World & the Senses, who are not identified with the Body, who also perceive the transient nature of all the World, & who yearn for the direct experience of Knowledge of Reality as it is, those should so Inquire. The Wise view the World as transitory, as inert, & as a passing Dream. Such a one never expects the World to provide him with what is his Happiness, Identity, & Reality. To transcend the World is to remain blissful, at Peace always, & free in the Knowledge of unreality of the World & in the Knowledge of the Self’s freedom from that Illusion. This is the perception of Reality, free from the forms of Illusion. This is Abidance in wordless Being, true perception, transcendence of the World, & limitless freedom unaffected by anything of the World. The direct experience of indivisible Existence, & true experience is beyond debate or doubt for those who Inquire to know the Self, which is the sole existent Reality.

By the term “World” is meant all that is perceived, all objects, all activities, all events, the forms of living beings, anything in Space & Time, & anything seen, heard, touched, or sensed in any manner. Transcendence of the World is Liberation from Bondage & Suffering in relation to all of that. Abandonment of the objective outlook constituting the World yields the perception of Reality as it is. Such cannot be anything of the World, but only by Knowledge of the Self, the Reality that is. Where could one go in the World that would be beyond the World ? Yet one’s real Being is ever beyond, & Knowledge reveals the nature of one’s real Being. The Self is changeless & permanent. The World is changeful & impermanent. Each object has a creation, a changeful duration & a destruction. This is true for all objects & for the World as a whole without exception. The Self is permanent with no creation or destruction. The perception of the World depends on the changeful Senses. A change in the Senses brings a change in the object & the World perceived. The Self does not change as the Senses do, for it is unchanging Being & the unchanging Witness of all the changing Senses. A change of mode, or state of Mind yields a corresponding change in the Senses & the perceived World. The Self is not changed, being unchanging Existence & Consciousness, & also the Witness of the Mind as well as the Senses. The Self is One, partless & indivisible. The World is composed of innumerable parts & divisions. The Self has no Form & is purely formless Being. The World is composed of Forms without which there is no World. There is no formless World.

To experience a World is to conceive that World. The World is not actually a Perception, but rather a Conception. To conceive or experience a World, one must first consider oneself as some kind of Body, or as in a Body, or consider the Body as existent & the Body as being somewhere. None of that is true, for such is only imagined in the Mind.

For such Illusions of the World, one must also regard the Sensations, not as Sensations or modes of the Mind, but as literally “physical”. Such Sensation is endowed with the Duality of inner & outer, with the apparent object portion of the Sensation considered as separate from knowing aspect. [So there is not only “hearing” but also real “sounds”, not only “seeing” but also real “light”, not only “touching” but also real “matter”].

Since the Body is not oneself, & the Self is not in a Body, the World is not arrayed “around” oneself. The “around” part is imagined in the Mind, & is not really all “around”.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 31:

Prior to excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we continue the series: Fine-Tuned Universe 22, the premise that a small change in several of the dimensionless fundamental physical constants would make the Universe incapable of Life.

Fine-Tuned Universe 22:

Multi-Verse Ensemble:

Most of what can be said about a Multi-Verse could similarly be applied to another kind of Ensemble, be it a serial, temporal Sequence of Bib-Bangs alternating with Big-Crunches, Quantum Mechanical Many-Worlds, baby-universes bubbling of M–branes, Lee Smolin-esque universe-born-at-every-Black-Hole-singularity, Chaotic Inflationary universe-islands within one Big-Bang Universe, and so on. Standing in for all those (with suitable verbal modifications understood) the Multi-Verse of any kind immediately presents a shocking number for enumeration, requiring as heck of lot of stuff. J ust because so many Physics parameters could be varied independently, the number of all possible combinations is staggering.

“Universes that drift like Bubble in the Foam upon the River of Time” Arthur C. Clarke

But only such an unprovable, purely speculative boondoggle rescues Physicalism out of the jaws of encroaching Design as the only other explanation for the extremely improbably Fine-Tuning of this Universe. Such there must be if this Universe was to support Intelligent Life, counting as part of this Universe, the many particulars of Astronomy, Geology, Geochemistry, and so on going into the make-up of planet Earth. Either it is a “set-up” or the “luck of the draw” from out of very many straws indeed.

If we could know that our own Universe was only one of an indefinite number with varying properties we could perhaps invoke a solution analogous to the principle of Natural Selection; that only in certain universes, which happen to include ours, are the conditions suitable for the existence of Life, and unless that condition is fulfilled there will be no Observers to note the fact.                                                    biologist Carl Pantin, early 20^th century Multi-Verse speuclation

The hard-core Many-Worlds advocates split off new universes with every collapsed Wavefunction, with ever Observation by every Observer. These and others take the less extreme but still mind–boggling jump to Ground-Hog Day – like closely-parallel universes so that in the Ensemble or possible histories or whatever, “everything that could ever happen does happen somewhere, sometime.” Ockham’s Parsimony of restraint (explain with as few moving parts as possible) is way out the window here. Philosopher used to wonder at the efficiency of rare, or with-us solitary Intelligent Life in such a vast Universe. But how about the efficiency of a kazillion Universes?

But although the Constants of nature are Numbers, they are not just Numbers and they are not only Numbers. They are the barcodes of ultimate Reality, the pin numbers that will unlock the secrets of the Universe.                                                                               John Barrows

It is one thing, to offer an Analogy, to imagine the futuristic Computing Power that could fabricate a Matrix–level VR Simulation (as ever here, discarding from the movie all body-vats, subterranean wars, A I – Architect self-programming program, Kung-Fu, the One, and so on). But to imagine that “VR – Life-supporting” Simulation to be the result of random keystrokes, for a thousand monkeys or whatever, well that affords some insight in the improbability of our Universe and the enumeration of any Multi-Verse that could include ours as just an accident of Random Chance. Needless to say though, here an in all application of Math to the Universe (as in just all of Physics), a distinction must be maintained between an abstract Mathematical structure with predictable rules and some “physical reality” we cannot define or even experience except as a construct of the Senses. Applying any highly selected Mathematical stricture to the Universe is special pleading and the Multi-Verse heads the list.

Some more selected verses from the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome disciple:

The Senses are part of the Body. The Body is perceived only by the Senses & has no reality apart from them. Each of the 3 illusions depends on the other (~ bootstrapping Dependent Origination). Such (mutually inter-dependent) Illusion is like the painting of a wall that is painted on the wall depicted when the wall itself has not yet been built. [Contained in that comment is also a “barbershop mirrors” type of self-referencing paradox. Like the old Morton Salt label girl carrying Morton Salt on which a small version of herself was carry Morton Salt, & so on, my hometown had a town-entering Billboard that depicted the town & Billboard, which again depicted the town, & so on.] The Self, however, is bodiless & not a part of the Body or associated with a location in relation to a Body. The Senses are otherwise, so how can the Senses be considered to be the Self ?

The Senses depend on the Self. But the Self exists as it is, innately nondependent on the Senses. This is the highest state of Detachment from the Senses. As pure Being, one is always detached from the Senses & thus, detached from the whole World. The Self is not the Senses & is not experienced by the Senses. The Senses are capable of perceiving Sense objects only, & the Self is not a material object. The sensory experience is only that of Sensation & not a separate Sense & a separate object. The Self is not a Sensation or a product of Sensations. So, how can the Senses be considered to be the Self ? The Self is the “eye of the eye” unseen by the Eye. The Self, which is formless Existence-Consciousness, cannot be sensed & does not have Senses. The Self is not a sensing entity, conceived as the nexus of all the Sensations. Instead, the Self is unalloyed Consciousness. The Self is all–seeing but “eyeless”. In Truth, the Senses do not exist. The Senses are only a figment of the Mind, which is in the infinite Consciousness. Upon the substrate of the Self, which is Existence-Consciousness, the Senses appear, being only the thought of those Senses. Nor do the Sense-objects separately exist. The Senseobjects appear only to & in the Senses. The Senses vanish, leaving the substrate unaffected & all alone. The substrate is Reality, which is unchanging. There is no actual creation of the Senses in that Consciousness.

Just as the Mind becomes the Object, the Instrument or means of Knowing, the Actor, the Action, & the results in a Dream, so is this also the case in the Waking state. The Real Self is different from the Mind & all those things that the Mind becomes (object, instrument of knowing, actor, action, results). The Self is without interior & exterior, such as the Mind & the World.  The Self is homogenous Consciousness.  Know the Self by ceasing the attribution of anything exterior or interior to the Self.  Remembrance & forgetfulness, including remembrance & forgetfulness of the Self, these processes are also, only of the Mind.  Both of these processes are products of Ignorance & do not touch the Self. Cease to regard the Self as a known or unknown object.  If the Supreme Self is regarded as an object of knowledge, such is a superimposition of Imagination or Ignorance.  True Knowledge prevails when such Ignorance, or superimposition, is negated. This is like the case with the rope & the illusion of the snake.

When the conceptions of “me” & “mine” are attributed to the Self, such are manifestations of Ignorance.  They are superimpositions upon the Self, which is only One, with neither Individuality nor any experience or thing possessed by and Individual. The “individual self” is thought to be the Seer, Hearer, Thinker, Knower, & such. In Reality, it is Brahman, the imperishable, indivisible, Non-Dual Self.  The “individual self” or “I” is not different from the Real Self, which is Brahman.

Meditation on the Self is declared to be without Time, Space, direction, or Causation, since the Self is without these things. The Self itself is to be realized as timeless, & the Realization itself, being of the same nature, is bodiless & without regard to place. The Self itself is, without Causation, being Uncreated & Unborn. And the Realization, being of the same nature, need not wait for circumstance & is not an attempt to produce the Self anew. The Realization is a realizing of what the Self truly is.  Le the Mind thus turn within, immersing itself in Self-Inquiry, absorbing itself in Knowledge, thereby losing its own form as it searches inwardly for its source. In this lies great Bliss & Immortality.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 29:

Prior to excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we continue the series: Fine-Tuned Universe 21, the premise that a small change in several of the dimensionless fundamental physical constants would make the Universe incapable of Life.

The 3 GUT [Grand Unified Theory: Strong & Weak Nuclear – Electro–Magnetic] forces are indistinguishable until a Trillionth second old Universe at a now chilly Quadrillion degrees back when Magnetic Monopoles of a Quadrillion Proton masses were knotted lines in Space.

Fine-Tuned Universe 21:

 Cosmological Constant:

Lambda, capital L, lowercase  l  is a symbol appearing in Einstein’s modified Field Equation used in his formulation of General Relativity:

R_mn   –  ½ R g_mn  +  L g_mn    =   8p G/c⁴  T_mn

He rescinded this “fudge factor” as his self-styled “greatest mistake”; but later it was widely embraced as a Cosmological Constant, especially when described in terms of  Omega, capital W_L, a ratio of the Energy Density “due to the Cosmological Constant” to the Critical Mass Density of the Universe and the corresponding influence of Gravity. Martin Rees in his Just Six Numbers, similarly called this  l   =   W_L  while he reserved “plain” Omega, capital W or lowercase  w  as a measure of the “amount of Matter in the Universe” determining the relative importance of Gravity and the Universe’s Expansion Energy. Specifically the Rees  W,  w   =   the Universe’s actual Mass Density to the Critical Mass Density which matches the Cosmological Constant Energy Density. So in Rees terms the High, Medium, and Low curves depicted above describe Open curved-out Expansion, critical Flat Expansion, and curved-in Collapse and these are linked to W_L  >  1,  @  0.3,  <  1.  Slight differences and similarities confuse these related used of Lambda  & Omega but Universe Expansion is the concern I each case.

• N = ratio of the strengths of gravity to that of electromagnetism;
• Epsilon (ε) = strength of the force binding nucleons into nuclei;
• Omega (ω) = relative importance of gravity and expansion energy in the Universe;
• Lambda (λ) = cosmological constant;
• Q = ratio of the gravitational energy required to pull a large galaxy apart to the energy equivalent of its mass;
• D = number of spatial dimensions in spacetime.

Fine-Tuning Itself:

 Some of the small tolerances “allowed” (for Intelligent Life) have already been mentioned for  a , a_s , a_G  and so on. For Rees’ ratio N  =  10^–36

(for 2 Protons), stated as 10^–40 (Electron-Proton) by others, the “tolerance” is  some 1 part in Millions.

The vacuum energy  is beyond our scope, but a brief baby-step from elementary Quantum Theory may help for starters. Quantum Energy states ranging from high to low exhibit the gnarly character that any lowest state is quite precisely determined (in terms of frequency if talking about momentum, in terms of time if talking about energy, simply because the bottom is at the extreme low end, without so much wiggle room there. This precise level must therefore store highly uncertain Energy occupation across all quantum states, even in empty Space. The resulting fuzzy residuum of undetermined Energy, quite thinly disperse in Space and thus not to be harnessed, does however add up to a huge amount incrementally across the myriad portions of Space. This empty Space or Vacuum Energy, first described by Dirac as Zero-Point Energy dwarfs the rest on the Universe Rest-Mass = mc² because the Universe is not empty.

Similarly critical are the Omega Expansion ratios (defined variously). In fact the Electron charge must match the opposing Proton charge to at least 1 part in a Sextillion. Many of the Fine-Tuned tolerances are of a similar sort, very long odds if Random. Some of the Fine-Tuning resembles not so much constraint to some narrow window as much as extreme removal to an extreme end, very high or low. Theoretical determination of the Cosmological Constant has been famously off the mark by a factor of 10¹²⁰. The huge 10¹⁰⁰ too large theoretical repulsive negative-pressure of the Vacuum Energy*[1] must be offset by counter-balancing attractive contributions to the Cosmological Constant, whether included with the speculative Quintessence field or otherwise.

In any case these are Large Numbers coming in again. Similarly, the distant-Future collapse of Matter in the Universe (not the Lambda-Omega collapse of Space-Time itself) in giant Black Holes segues to irradiative evaporation of those Black Holes over the course of 10¹⁰⁰ years.

 Rees’ Q number determines ripples in the smoothness of the Universe, which at 10^–5  compares to the ripple of a tsunami as high as a football field is long, coursing around the Earth’s oceans, but seen from Space as infinitesimal on the scale of the planet, the un-smoothness ripple being only a  ¹/₁₀₀₀% of the Earth’s size, by analogy, or smoother than a cue-ball. But if Q were down to a 10^th of its value, Galaxies would never coalesce. If Q were larger, the Universe would be so “cluttered” Galaxies as to prevent us from estimating any value of Q at all.

Some more selected verses from the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome disciple:

The unknown Knower of all that is known, the Supreme Knowledge itself, Consciousness remains undivided by the triad of Knower, Knowing, & Known. Consciousness can never be a known or unknown object. Consciousness is the Witness of all, the only Knower. Consciousness, the Knower, is never defined by the Known. Consciousness, the Witness of every state, of all thought, is not defined by thought, nor contained in any state. The Witness is never known. Consciousness is ever non-objective. Consciousness is formless – with nothing objective within or without. Unknown, Consciousness alone is known. Not a process of knowing, Consciousness alone is knowing. Not a knower, Consciousness alone is the Knower, the unknown Knower of all that is known.

The removal of superimposition is accomplished by Self-Inquiry. This is the intention of the negation of the Upanishads, “neti, neti”, “not this”. Such indicates the negation of one’s attributes, identity, or definition, of what is not truly the Self, not the essential Existence, or pure Consciousness. The removal of superimposition is the revelation of the Truth.  The Truth, or the Reality, is not newly created, nor did the superimposition diminish it in any way, just as the snake did not chase the rope away. But to see the rope, the Imagination of the snake must cease. Similarly, to know the Truth of the Self, Ignorance must cease.

True Knowledge is not experienced unless the prior ignorant conception is negated, just as the snake notion is destroyed to see the rope.  The Self, of the nature of pure Consciousness, is self-existent & can never be negated. Egoism has its origin in Delusion & has for its object that which is only imagined. Its definitions are only thoughts. The discernment of “Not this, not this” negates the very existence of Egoism along with its origin, its effects, & its imagined object.

All qualities, gross (physical) or subtle (mental), ought to be negated from the Self, from one’s Identity. If one is to know the Self as it is, whatever be the qualities attributed to the Self, be they physical or mental, they are to be regarded as mere ornaments. These should not be regarded as the Identity of the one who “wears” those “ornaments” (qualities).

If one rejects all that is objective from one’s Identity, one comes to the conclusion that the Self is the Knower, free from all that is perceived & conceived. In the same manner as one relinquishes misidentification with the Body, & all that is objective, so should one sever the mis-identification with the supposed subject, which is the Ego.

The Self’s existence is independent of all & is different from all that is objective. The objectified “I” is the Ego. The superimposed objective portion of the “I” – consciousness should be abandoned, for it is not actually the Self.  Negation of what is objective means also negation of the Ego.  What remains is that which is implied in the aphorism: Aham Brahmasmi – “I am Brahman”. Only Brahman can be itself, 1– without – a – 2^nd.  That is the only true “I”.

Brahman is unborn, immortal, imperishable, ageless, & all-comprehensive.  The same Absolute Brahman appears, according to one’s understanding, as God, who is said to be the Lord who dispassionately dispenses the results of karma, or as the Witness, which is Consciousness in relation to all else, or the attributeless, eternal “I”, of the nature of the indivisible, non-dual, Being-Consciousness & which alone is 1– without – a – 2^nd.

The Self has neither rise  nor set, is neither in darkness nor illumined, but is always the spiritual Light, with nothing material or mental in its nature at all. The distinction between the Self & oneself is due only to superimposition, which is like imagining different openings in a castle wall, for instance, to be different spaces, rather than perceiving the castle space itself. The Self is non-dual, 1– without – a – 2^nd.  It is neither distinct nor in relation to anything else.  For non-dual Existence means there is no other. There is, thus, no difference or non-difference, no oneness or manyness, & no separate knower or doer or experiencer.  The Self has nothing to accept or reject. And there is nothing, or no one else to accept or reject the Self. There is no one else to think the Self is, or that the Self is not. Such is the Truth regarding the Self.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

Duplicates (but with graphics) have been available on:

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 23:

Prior to excerpting the other Ramana Maharshi disciple in the text below we continue the series: Fine-Tuned Universe 16, the premise that a small change in several of the dimensionless fundamental physical constants would make the Universe incapable of Life.

Fine-Tuned Universe 16:

 [In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

Dimensionless Constants:

To Fred Hoyle’s C¹²  &  O¹⁶ nucleo-synthesis scenario, Barrows and is once co-author Frank Tipler and others went on to point out the existence of Intelligent Life allowed only narrow ranges for fundamental Force strengths, masses of various elementary particles, and the like. Beginning in alphabetical order (Greek alphabet), we consider further the Electro-Magnetic force coupling constant, the Fine-Structure constant  a  approximately equal to ¹/₁₃₇  –  a strong determinant of Atomic  & Molecular structure, and therefore Biochemistry and Life. Next in that same (Greek) alphabetical order comes the likewise Dimensionless Constant  b  =  M_e/ M_p which is the ratio of Electron to Proton masses, approximately =  ¹/₁₈₃₆ . This latter b  increased a bit prevents Electrons occupancy of well-defined quantized positions so necessary for the subtle Biochemistry of DNA for instance. On the Cosmic scale, if the Denominator in  b  should increase ten-fold resulting in a value near 0.005  =  ½ % which happens to approximate  a² then Star would not form. With  a  this same ratio  b  coordinates to allow the nuclear fusion that fuels Stars and leads to heavier elements. But  a  itself is constrained to far narrower bounds. The  a  =  ¹/₁₃₇   value or about (7 thousandths) necessarily lies between  ¹/₁₈₀   &  ¹/₈₅  or ( 6 – 12 thousandths) if Protons are not to decay long before Stars could form. Fine-Tuned  as the Constants are now, no Proton has ever been seen to decay, they may be eternal. Likewise, another Dimensionless Constant describing the Strong nuclear force,  a_s  ~  1

For the prior range of   b   &   a (to the left) ordered Organic and Biochemical structures could not exist. Further on (to the right) there could not even be any Stars. A similar overlapping net-narrow range (~ compounded conditional probabilities) is seen after we plot the Strong nuclear coupling force constant  a_s  vs. interconnecting values of  a  as depicted below.

Once again we restrict the plot to allowed values and find: slightly diverging values include  “regions” of comparative values where “diprotons” (a He² with no neutrons) would have formed instead of the important intermediate Deuterium (a Hydrogen with one neutron) and subsequent fast-burn of Stars and absence of Carbon and other vital Atoms. These graphical devices allow a visual sense of how 2 partially-dependent / partially-independent variable couples can be focused down to a minute overlapping range (~ compounded conditional probabilities) as seen for some of the fundamental Constants. When a dozen or more coordinate like this together the pin-point Fine-Tuning stands out as an extremely incredible coincidence. More examples will be offered.

Curiously John A. Wheeler (who promoted Einstein’s unpublished equation not only of E = mc² but also Gravity-Mass with Space-Time) proposed a PAP participatory anthropic principle, a super–strong SAP that calls upon Observer-dependent Quantum Theory (Copenhagen II Convention) to make Observers necessary for collapsing the Wave Functions of the Universe into physical existence. Barrows and most others dismissed this PAP out of hand (though it is an insightful attempt to physicalize QND), often erroneously by claiming that Scientific Instruments qualified as Observers in Quantum Theory. But that blurring of the definitions is directly countered by the Schrodinger’s Cat gedanken experiment and John von Neumann’s Chain of Measurement. In that finer detail, the Instrument is but another Object and its information is actualized only when a conscious Observer reads that Instrument.

Some more selected verses from the other Ramana Maharshi disciple:

Your thoughts arise on a moment-to-moment basis because of your vasanas, but it is a mistake to think that you can do nothing about them. You can be interested in them, or you can ignore them. If you show interest in them, they will persist and you will get caught up in them. If you ignore them and keep your attention on the Source, they will not develop. And when they don’t develop, they disappear.

In Who Am I ? Bhagavan compared this process to laying siege to a fort. If you cutoff, one by one, the heads of the thoughts as they come out of the fort of the Mind, sooner or later there will be none left. The way to do this is by Self-Inquiry. As each thought rises, you ask yourself, “To whom does this thought appear ?”

If you are vigilant in doing this, the forest of thoughts will lessen and lessen until there are none left. When the thoughts have gone, Mind will sink into its Source and experience that Source.

Little conversations may be going on. A crowd of people may be congregating around. None of this is your business, but there is always a possibility that you will get interested in some or all of these activities and forget the reason why you are out on the street yourself. Don’t get excited by anything you see and hear. Just walk steadily towards your destination. Your vasanas are all the sides how’s in your head that can drag your attention away from your main business, which is being aware of the Self. If you have no interest in them, you will walk straight to your goal. If something temporarily distracts your attention, bring yourself back by asking yourself, “Who is interested in all this ? Who is getting interested in this distraction ?” This will deflate the distracting desire and it will bring you back to an awareness of your true purpose. Remember, nothing that happens in the Mind is “you”, and none of it is your business. You don’t have to worry about thoughts that rise up inside you. It is enough that you remember that the thoughts are not you.

Whatever kind of thought arises, have the same reaction: ‘Not me; not my business.’ It can be a good thought or a bad thought. Treat them all the same way. To whom are these thoughts arising ? To you. That means that you are not the thought. You are the Self. Remain as the Self, and don’t latch onto anything that is not the Self

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 21:

Prior to excerpting the other Ramana Maharshi disciple in the text below we continue the series: Fine-Tuned Universe 14, the premise that a small change in several of the dimensionless fundamental physical constants would make the Universe incapable of Life.

Fine-Tuned Universe 14:

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

Fundamental Constants:

Some  common abbreviations for Constants of Physics are the grist for the Anthropic mill:

G  =    a_G   =  Gravitational  coupling  =  6.6738  ×  10⁻¹¹  m³/ kg s²

c  =  vacuum light-speed  =   2.998  ×  10⁸  m /s

h  =  Planck’s Action constant  =  6.626   ×  10⁻³⁴  J s

which including spherical geometry becomes:

h  =    h/2p    =   reduced Planck’s constant   =  1.0546  ×  10⁻³⁴   J s

e_o  =  vacuum permittivity  =  8.854  ×  10⁻¹²  F/m

k_B  =  Boltzmann’s constant  =  1.38   ×  10⁻²³ J / K

k_e  =  Coulomb constant   =   1/4pe_o   =   8.98755  ×  10⁹  kg m³/s²C²

a   =  Fine-Structure E-M force coupling  =  k_e e² / h c   =   ¹ /_137.0356

a_s  =  Strong nuclear force coupling constant     @   1

μ   =   Proton-Electron mass ratio   =    m_p  / m_e    =   1,836

The latter 3 are the best known of the important dimensionless constants with great claim to fundamental validity. A distant second group might be the elsewhere mentioned Planck units, such as:

t_p  =  Planck Time   =   Ö h G / c⁵    =   5.391  × 10⁻⁴⁴  s

L_p =  Planck Length   =   c t_p  =   1.616  × 10⁻³⁵  m

T_p  =  Planck Temperature   =   h /(k_B t_p)  =   1.417   ×   10³²  K

M_p  =  Planck Mass  =   h /(c³ t_p)  =   2.176 5  ×  10⁻⁸   kg

A_p  =  Planck Area     =    L_p²    =        2.612   ×  10⁻⁷⁰   m²

V_p   =  Planck Volume    =    L_p³        =     4.224   ×  10⁻¹⁰⁵  m³

D_p  =   Planck Density   =   M_p / V_p     =   5.155   ×   10⁹⁶  kg / m³

p_p    =  Planck Momentum  =  M_p c      =    6.525    kg m / s

E_p    =  Planck Energy  =  M_p c²           =    1.956   ×  10⁹   J

F_p    =  Planck Force     =    E_p  /  L_p     =     1.21   ×  10⁴⁴   N

Taking up a few parameters as an initial example, Barrows mentions that with the Fine-Structure Electro-Magnetic force coupling constant larger, Atoms could not exist. If this value of  a, the reciprocal or 137 should be that of 136 or 138, the change in Atoms would not allow DNA replication or proper Protein folding.

With Gravity’s  coupling constant G larger, among other things, stars would burn their fuel too quickly. Weaker Strong nuclear force coupling constant  a_s  would prevent Biochemistry, among other ways, for lack of Carbon. So much is common sense when you think about it. Ancient Greeks and others saw the curved shape of the horizon on the Mediterranean Sea and saw immediately that the Earth was a large sphere 2 millennia prior to Columbus. Edgar Allen Poe understood that the dark night sky meant that the Universe must be expanding decades before Physicists worked it out. Other wise there would be a star between every other pair and the night sky would show broadly continuous light. Some Asian Sages, many millennia ago questioned: Who / What am I who knows the Mind like an Object? I can be no other than Non-Dual Consciousness. Some get it, others only later on.

Some more selected verses from the other Maharshi disciple:

If you remain as the Self, no vasanas and no karma will touch or affect you. If you remain in the Mind, thoughts of one sort or another will bother you all the time. If the thoughts “I should meditate” or “I should realize” arise, ask yourself, “To whom are these thoughts arising ?”

Why do you need to think about your Body and your Mind so much ? If you are the Light, there is no Darkness. If you are the Self, there is no thought, no Body, and no Mind to give you any trouble. Any number of thoughts may come. Let them. But remember all the time, “I am the Self.”

You are not the vasanas, you are not the thoughts, you are the Self. Keep that awareness and don’t worry too much about what is going on in your Mind, and what it means.

Don’t allow any mis-identifications to settle on you. Don’t think, “I am sitting here.” Don’t think, “I am doing, I am acting, I am sitting.” You are the Self, not the Body. Even your vasanas are the Self. All is your Self. There are no distinctions, no differences in the Self. Nothing is separate from the Self. You cannot find a single atom, a single thought that is apart from the Self. All is the Self. All these doubts that are troubling you arise simply because you are enmeshed in the “I am the Body” thought and all the confusing consequences that it brings. It is more productive to keep the awareness “I am the Self” than to be analyzing the usefulness of effort. Sadhana, effort and practice, and any ideas you may have about them, are concepts that can only arise when you believe that you are not the Self, and when you believe that you have to do something to reach the Self.

Even the sequence, “To whom has this thought come ? To me,” is based on ignorance of the Truth. Why ? Because it is verbalizing a state of Ignorance; it is perpetuating an erroneous assumption that there is a person who is having troublesome thoughts. You are the Self, not some make-believe person who is having thoughts. If you remain in the Self, as the Self, no harm can come to you. In that State, whatever comes to you will not be a problem. There is no Duality when you remain as the Self; no thoughts about what you should or should not do, and no thoughts about what can be done or what can’t be done. The main thing is not to go out of the Self. When you have switched on the light, darkness cannot come, not even if you desire it.

When this thought, “l am not meditating,” or “I am not in the Self,” arises, just ignore it and go back to the Self. When thoughts such as these arise, look at them and think, “Not me, not my business,” and go back to the Self. Don’t waste energy on thinking or evaluating how well or how badly you are doing in our meditation. Whatever thoughts come, ignore them. You have to ignore anything that is connected to the Body-Mind idea, anything that is based on the notion that you are the Mind or the Body. If you can do this, the rising thought will not disturb or distract you. In a split second, it will run away. All thoughts are distractions. including the thought “I am meditating.”

If you are the Self, darkness will not overcome you. Whatever thoughts arise in that State won’t affect you. If you are the Self, no destiny will affect you. If you tear your shirt, does that mean that you are also torn ?  No. Something has happened to something that is not you. Similarly, the Body and the Mind will experience pleasure, happiness, misery, and so on, all according to the karma that has been brought into this life. But the Self has no attachment, no detachment, no happiness, no unhappiness and no karma.

The Body is not the Self; the Mind is not the Self. The real “I” is the Self, and nothing ever happens to or affects the Self. Thoughts will come as long as the potential for them is inside you. Good thoughts, bad thoughts, they will all keep coming. There is nothing you can do about this flow, but at the same time, this flow of thoughts need not be a problem. Be the Self, be the Peace that is your Real Nature, and it will not matter what comes up.

Walk, eat, drink, sleep, meditate, but never think that you are the one who is doing these things. The thought that you are doing something is the thought that is poisoning your life. Because once you think that you are doing something, you will start to think that you need to be doing something else to put yourself in a better situation. You don’t have to do anything to experience the nectar of the Self. All you need to do is drop the idea that you are doing anything at all. You need to change your vision, your perspective.

When you live in the Mind and see a World outside you that is separate and apart from you, you will make plans, you will worry, you will have doubts. These doubts keep coming up in you because you are not dwelling in the Source, the Substratum. In that place there is Oneness, a Oneness in which all distinctions, all separation is absent. If you abide as the Self, you will see the World as the Self. In fact, there will be no World at all. No World, no Maya, no Mind, no distinctions of any kind.

It is like the state of seeing only wood in the carved elephant, only threads in the dyed cloth. In that state of being and knowing the Self, ideas of right and wrong, things to do and things to avoid doing, will vanish. You will know that they were just mental concepts. In that state you will know that Mind is the Self, Bondage is the Self, everything is the Self. With that vision, nothing will bind you; nothing will cause you misery. The Self may appear as the manifest World, as different separate objects, but the underlying Reality, the only real substance is the Self in which they are all appearing and disappearing. Things and people may appear in this Substratum, and you may use them or interact with them, but your Peace will never be disturbed.

When you abide as the Self, there is no one left to choose and decide. Life goes on automatically. You will pick up the things that are needed, and not pick up the things that are not needed. What you pick up and what you don’t pick up will not be a consequence of what you like or dislike. These preferences will not be there any more. This perspective will be yours when you give up or cease to believe the idea “I am different from the World’. Giving up this thought is a great sadhana in itself. Abandoning this false idea will be enough to give you Peace. When the thought is there, the World seems to be full of good people and bad people, all busily engaged in doing what appear to you to be good things and bad things. When the thought is absent, you know them all to be your own Self. In that state you won’t like them, dislike them or judge them, or be aware of them as being other than your own Self. This absence of likes, dislikes and judgments will leave you in your original natural state of

Peace. Teeth and tongue are both parts of you, and they both function in harmony, without fighting or struggling. When there is the knowledge that Mind and Self are one, there will be no fights, no struggles, and no attempts to judge or attain. To have this Harmony, place the Mind in the Self and keep it there. This is the real meditation. _ However, until you reach this State in which there are no distinctions and preferences, you should use a little Discrimination with regard to who and what you associate with.

Avoid bad company and bad thoughts, and try to keep the conviction that nothing is separate from you. During sleep you have no likes and dislikes. Jnanis and babies manage this while they are awake. Baby mind is good; jnani mind is good; “I am the Body” Mind is very, very bad.

The “I am the Body” thought is just as poisonous as a cobra. “All is my Self. All is the nectar of my own Self.” These are the great affirmations that counter the “I am the Body” thought. Holding on to one of these sayings is the equal of millions of punyas. If we continuously meditate on the Truth of these statements, if we hold on to the Truth that they are pointing towards, countless punyas will accrue to us.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 19:

Prior to excerpting the other Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we continue the series: Fine-Tuned Universe 12, the premise that a small change in several of the dimensionless fundamental physical constants would make the Universe incapable of Life.

Fine-Tuned Universe 12:

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

Astronomical Anthropism:

Just like Universe age, so is Universe size a pertinent parameter since a micro-Universe only as large as our Milky Way Galaxy with its thinly spread bundle of 100 Billion stars would only be a month-old baby universe with not near enough Time to evolve Carbon, never mind Intelligent Life. Nor would the intensely high Temperature of such a young Universe be hospitable, for more than radiative warming matter, the tremendous later cooling accompanied what Thermodynamics calls adiabatic expansion.

Too young, and the Universe has too few radioactive atoms, too old and they have decayed. Yet our Earth’s depends on radioactive heat to melt magma, creating spouts and volcanoes where Life could start, sliding continental tectonic plates, and various other geophysical and geological phenomena so much a part the history of Life on Earth. The same timing and resulting radioactive heat keeps the liquid outer core of molten iron in the motion that creates the Earth’s magnetic field (deflecting Life destructive and atmosphere stripping ions from the Sun; Mars lacking same, lost its atmosphere). Similar protection from comets and asteroids is afforded by the Atmosphere (check out the Moon’s craters) that early Life oxygenated, thanks again to volcanic spewing of Oxygen and Hydrogen (for which we can also thank for Oceans and fresh water). Life threatening (ask the dinosaurs) comets and asteroids (but an Armageddon-movie asteroid only every Billion years, though a Civilization-killer every 10 millennia, mass starvation from small-nuke-like impact every millennium on average) are even more so deflected by another Anthropic parameter in itself, the god of heaven, Jupiter (plane that is) whose gravitational well (far more than its cross-section) shield Earth from these impacts. \

There are many other Astrophysical Anthropic coincidences, but to name just one for now, consider the single large satellite Moon (almost a double planet pair). The Moon’s Gravity not only provides possibly necessary Tide Pools for Evolution, but more arcanely moderates Climate Change (until the Industril Revolution fossil fuel burn–off, that is). There are necessarily Resonances between the Earth-axis Precession rates and Gravitational tweaking we feel from other masses in the Solar System. Normally this common-enough situation for Earth-like planets would produce chaotic evolution of the Tilt of the planet’s Rotation Axis with respect to the orbital plane of the planets, (This is the orbital plane we see here except for Pluto which correspondingly was demoted to more like a comet). But erratic Tilt changes would result in Temperature and Ocean level swings (like the one we fear we have anthropogenically initiated at this point). Our GHG’s  & Global Warming aside, we have been Anthropically spared oscillating Climate chaos by the dampening effect of the unusually large Moon’s Gravity (for Earth’s size that is, since comparable moons of Jupiter and Saturn are small relative to those great planet sizes).

While poets may have wondered at Life within a vast, cold, dark Universe, Life actually could only evolve in a vast, cold, dark Universe. John Barrows in his Constants of Nature compares the best lab-vacuum (a Trillion atoms per cubic meter) to that of Space if across the 10 Billion cubic light-year Universe, we spread out the Galaxies evenly, then spread the Stars, then the Planets, and then the Atoms. There would only be a single Atom per cubic meter (as compared to a lab-vac Trillion). Now there are a Quintillion cubic meters in a cubic light-year and there would only be a single 100-billion Star Galaxy per 10 Million cubic light-years. Considering on the other end of the scale, the incredible emptiness of Atoms, and even of Nucleons (relative to quark “size”), the World is very empty indeed (never mind General Relativity and Quantum Theory that rob such sparse Matter of all the rest of its apparent “substantial-ness”).

And yet the Holderness Number from Neuro-anatomy suggests a physical interconnection possibility which is said to “count” the number of possible “thoughts” (in a Physicalist brain anatomy). This dwarfing Cosmological Numbers becomes:

10^{70,000,000,000,000}   (or a 1 with 70 Trillion zeroes after it)

Even outside Physicalist boundaries, Mind by any description reveals a “vastness” of its own. Then again QND sees Mind as the faintest reflection of pure Consciousness, whereas UQND admits if neither Mind nor Universe but leaves all the vastness in Consciousness itself. Through various degrees from Objectivity to Subjectivity, the Universe is cast as a projected Analog of Consciousness.

Some more selected verses from the other Maharshi disciple:

You should trust the Guru because his interest is in showing you the Truth. He may occasionally say things that are not true, but he will say them only because he knows his words will push you in the right direction.

I once heard a story that illustrates this. A rich man used to meditate once in a while. He had a Guru, an enlightened man, who used to tell him, “You are not the Mind or the Body. You are the Self. Always abide as the Self.” The man would listen attentively, but neither his meditation nor his Guru’s words had much of an effect on him. One day he approached his teacher and said, “You have been telling me for years that I am not the Mind and the Body, and that I am the Self. I believe it and I meditate on this, but I don’t see any changes in myself. This must be a very difficult technique because I don’t seem to be making any progress with it.”

The Guru said, “Let me look at your palm. I may be able to see something that is more suitable for you.” After examining the disciple’s palm, the Guru’s face dropped. “This is very bad. You should have put in more effort earlier in your life. I can see that you only have about one week to live. There’s not much that can help you now.”

The disciple was shocked. He went home thinking, “All my wealth and businesses are useless to me now. I put too much time into them, and not enough into my spiritual practice. There’s nothing I can do now, but I can at least spend my last few days meditating.” He went home and told his wife, “My life is coming to an end. My Guru has warned me that this is my final week. I am going to spend my last few days meditating alone. Please tell my friends and relatives that I don’t want to be disturbed.” After a few days his Guru came to see how he was getting on.

“How’s the meditation going ?” he asked. “Your wife tells me that you have done nothing else for days.” “Gurudev, there is no one left to meditate. I have found the Peace you have been talking about all these years.”

The Guru knew that this man would never focus full-time on realizing the Self because he was too caught up with his family and his business affairs. By making him think that his Death was imminent, he made him concentrate on what was real and important. And it worked. This is not just a story; it is a tactic that will work for anyone. If you can withdraw energy from your worldly attachments and instead focus full-time on the Self, you will soon get results. If you are having trouble with your enthusiasm for sadhana, just tell yourself, “I may be dead in 7 days.” Let go of all the things that you pretend are important in your daily life and instead focus on the Self for 24 hours a day.  Do it and see what happens.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 17:

Prior to excerpting the other Ramana Maharshi disciple in the text below we continue the series: Fine-Tuned Universe 9, the premise that a small change in several of the dimensionless fundamental physical constants would make the Universe incapable of Life.

Fine-Tuned Universe 9:

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

The Multi-Verse scenario was suggested by some Cosmologists as a way to avoid the conclusion that the Universe was specially designed for Life by a Grand Designer. Others saw it as a way to avoid having to say anything more about the problem of Fine Tuning at all. We see that once conscious Observers are allowed to intervene in the Universe, rather than being merely lumped into the category of “observers” who do nothing, that we end up with a scenario in which the gods reappear in unlimited numbers, in the guise of the simulators who have power of Life & Death [as in The Matrix movie] over the simulated beings that they bring “create”.

The simulators determine the Laws, and can change the Laws, that govern their Worlds. They can engineer Anthropic Fine-Tunings. They can pull the plug on the simulation [very Biblical] at any moment, intervene [very Biblical] or distance [like Deism] themselves from their simulation; watch as the simulated creatures argue about whether there is a God who controls of intervenes; work miracles or impose their ethical principles upon the simulated reality.

All the time they can avoid having even a twinge of conscience about hurting anyone because their toy reality isn’t real, is it ?  [While true in Non-Duality, highly ethical behavior in the Dream World is a necessity for Liberation.]  They can even watch their simulated realities grow to a level of sophistication that allows them to simulate higher-order realities of their own.

Faced with these perplexities do we have any chance of winnowing fake realities from true ?  What we might expect to see if we made scientific observations from within a simulated reality ?  Firstly, the simulators will have been tempted to avoid the complexity of using a consistent set of Laws of Nature in their Worlds when they can simply patch in “realistic” effects. When the Disney company makes a film that features the reflection of light from the surface of a lake, it does not use the laws of Quantum Electro-Dynamics & Optics to compute the light scattering. That would require a stupendous amount of computing power & detail. Instead, the simulation of the light scattering is replaced by plausible rules of thumb that are much briefer than the real thing but give a realistic looking result – as long as no one looks too closely [like well done “lollipop” trees in a crayon drawing, or rudimentary faces behind all the windshields in a cartoon of the highway – but Non-Duality suggests just this thing, only with a high degree of fidelity that could include Electro-Dynamics and so on].

There would be an economic and practical imperative for simulated realities to stay that way if they were purely for entertainment. But such limitations to the complexity of the simulation’s programming would presumably cause occasional tell-tale problems — and perhaps they would even be visible from within. [Actually, however, many inexplicable things are reported – these could be some of those inconsistencies.]

Even if the simulators were scrupulous about simulating the laws of Nature, there would be limits to what they could do. Assuming the simulators, or at least the early generations of them, have a very advanced knowledge of the laws of Nature, it’s likely they would still have incomplete knowledge of them (some philosophers of science would argue this must always be the case). They may know a lot about the physics and programming needed to simulate a universe but there will be gaps or, worse still, errors in their knowledge of the laws of Nature. They would of course be subtle and far from obvious, otherwise our “advanced” civilization wouldn’t be advanced. These lacunae do not prevent simulations being created and running smoothly for long periods of time. But gradually the little flaws will begin to build up.

Eventually, their effects would snowball & these realities would cease to compute. The only escape is if their creators intervene to patch up the problems one by one as they arise. This is a solution that will be very familiar to the owner of any home computer who receives regular updates in order to protect it against new forms of invasion or repair gaps that its original creators had not foreseen. The creators of a simulation could offer this type of temporary protection, updating the working laws of Nature to include extra things they had learnt since the simulation was initiated.

In this kind of situation, logical contradictions will inevitably arise and the Laws in the simulations will appear to break down now and again. The inhabitants of the simulation – especially the simulated scientists – will occasionally be puzzled by the experimental results they obtain. The simulated Astronomers might, for instance, make observations that show that their so-called constants of Nature are very slowly changing.

It’s likely there could even be sudden glitches in the Laws that govern these simulated realities. This is because the simulators would most likely use a technique that has been found effective in all other simulations of complex systems: the use of error-correcting codes to put things back on track.

Take our genetic code, for example. If it were left to its own devices we would not last very long. Errors would accumulate and death and mutation would quickly follow. We are protected from this by the existence of a mechanism for error correction that identifies and corrects mistakes in genetic coding. Many of our complex computer systems possess the same type of internal “spell-checker” to guard against error accumulation.

If the simulators used error-correcting computer codes to guard against the fallibility of their simulations as a whole (as well as simulating them on a smaller scale in our genetic code) then every so often a correction would take place to the state or the laws governing the simulation. Mysterious sudden changes would occur that would appear to contravene the very laws of Nature that the simulated scientists were in the habit of observing and predicting.

We might also expect that simulated realities would possess a similar level of maximum computational complexity across the board. The simulated creatures should have a similar complexity to the most complex simulated non-living structures – something that Stephen Wolfram (for quite different reasons, nothing to do with simulated realities) has coined the Principle of Computational Equivalence.

So we conclude that if we live in a simulated reality we should expect occasional sudden glitches, small drifts in the supposed constants and Laws of Nature over time,& a dawning realization that the flaws of Nature are as important as the Laws of Nature for our understanding of true reality.  [Similar to missing the point about the Multi-Verse that these anti-simulation arguments miss, there are other practical error points in the speculation.  For instance, if there are bad simulations, there can still be some good ones.  If ours seemed like a good one, as it does, no surprise. This doesn’t mitigate against any number of bad simulations which, by the way, can always just be deleted until the simulator gains by experience.  And again, inconsistencies abound in various reports about our World. These things, that art are not explained, are ignored in the hope that explanation will come about somehow, sometime. Our World fits in, over the inconsistency argument, which does not really distinguish the simulation from our current World very well at all.]

Some more selected verses from the other Maharshi disciple:

You should trust the Guru because his interest is in showing you the Truth. He may occasionally say things that are not true, but he will say them only because he knows his words will push you in the right direction.

I once heard a story that illustrates this. A rich man used to meditate once in a while. He had a Guru, an enlightened man, who used to tell him, “You are not the Mind or the Body. You are the Self. Always abide as the Self.” The man would listen attentively, but neither his meditation nor his Guru’s words had much of an effect on him. One day he approached his teacher and said, “You have been telling me for years that I am not the Mind and the Body, and that I am the Self. I believe it and I meditate on this, but I don’t see any changes in myself. This must be a very difficult technique because I don’t seem to be making any progress with it.”

The Guru said, “Let me look at your palm. I may be able to see something that is more suitable for you.” After examining the disciple’s palm, the Guru’s face dropped. “This is very bad. You should have put in more effort earlier in your life. I can see that you only have about one week to live. There’s not much that can help you now.”

The disciple was shocked. He went home thinking, “All my wealth and businesses are useless to me now. I put too much time into them, and not enough into my spiritual practice. There’s nothing I can do now, but I can at least spend my last few days meditating.” He went home and told his wife, “My life is coming to an end. My Guru has warned me that this is my final week. I am going to spend my last few days meditating alone. Please tell my friends and relatives that I don’t want to be disturbed.” After a few days his Guru came to see how he was getting on.

“How’s the meditation going ?” he asked. “Your wife tells me that you have done nothing else for days.” “Gurudev, there is no one left to meditate. I have found the Peace you have been talking about all these years.”

The Guru knew that this man would never focus full-time on realizing the Self because he was too caught up with his family and his business affairs. By making him think that his Death was imminent, he made him concentrate on what was real and important. And it worked. This is not just a story; it is a tactic that will work for anyone. If you can withdraw energy from your worldly attachments and instead focus full-time on the Self, you will soon get results. If you are having trouble with your enthusiasm for sadhana, just tell yourself, “I may be dead in 7 days.” Let go of all the things that you pretend are important in your daily life and instead focus on the Self for 24 hours a day. Do it and see what happens.

You should only work enough to maintain the body. Try to avoid unnecessary activities. Less work is good. Devote yourself to your sadhana all the time. You dissipate your desire for the Self by undertaking all kinds of useless activities that waste your time and lead to attachments. You think that your life is endless and that you can put off meditation till a later date. With this kind of attitude, you will die filled with regrets, not filled with Peace. Always be aware of the Self while you work. While you are doing that work keep your thoughts a hundred per cent on the Self. You are what you think you are. You become what you think. If you think of the Self all the time, that is what you will become. If you live and die with thoughts of work and family, you will I be reborn in a place with more work and more family business l to worry about.

If you spend your life with worldly thoughts, these will be the thoughts that fill your Mind at the moment of your death. But if you life is devoted to sadhana, to attaining an inner Peace, then, at the moment of your death, this will be the State that you die in.

Your thoughts arise on a moment-to-moment basis because of your vasanas, but it is a mistake to think that you can do nothing about them. You can be interested in them, or you can ignore them. If you show interest in them, they will persist and you will get caught up in them. If you ignore them and keep your attention on the Source, they will not develop. And when they don’t develop, they disappear.

In Who Am I ? Bhagavan compared this process to laying siege to a fort. If you cutoff, one by one, the heads of the thoughts as they come out of the fort of the Mind, sooner or later there will be none left. The way to do this is by Self-Inquiry. As each thought rises, you ask yourself, “To whom does this thought appear ?”

If you are vigilant in doing this, the forest of thoughts will lessen and lessen until there are none left. When the thoughts have gone, Mind will sink into its Source and experience that Source.

Little conversations may be going on. A crowd of people may be congregating around. None of this is your business, but there is always a possibility that you will get interested in some or all of these activities and forget the reason why you are out on the street yourself. Don’t get excited by anything you see and hear. Just walk steadily towards your destination. Your vasanas are all the sides how’s in your head that can drag your attention away from your main business, which is being aware of the Self. If you have no interest in them, you will walk straight to your goal. If something temporarily distracts your attention, bring yourself back by asking yourself, “Who is interested in all this ? Who is getting interested in this distraction ?” This will deflate the distracting desire and it will bring you back to an awareness of your true purpose. Remember, nothing that happens in the Mind is “you”, and none of it is your business. You don’t have to worry about thoughts that rise up inside you. It is enough that you remember that the thoughts are not you.

Whatever kind of thought arises, have the same reaction: ‘Not me; not my business.’ It can be a good thought or a bad thought. Treat them all the same way. To whom are these thoughts arising ? To you. That means that you are not the thought. You are the Self. Remain as the Self, and don’t latch onto anything that is not the Self.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 15:

Prior to excerpting the other Ramana Maharshi disciple in the text below we continue the series: Fine-Tuned Universe 8, the premise that a small change in several of the dimensionless fundamental physical constants would make the Universe incapable of Life.

Fine-Tuned Universe 8:

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

Going beyond the Weak Anthropic Principles (WAP) to the Strong Anthropic Principles (SAP) we hear: “The Universe MUST have those properties which allow Life to develop within it at some stage in its history”. For 1 some 3 SAP versionsm one affirms that:  There exists at least 1 possible Universe “designed” with the goal of generating and sustaining Observers”, a version favored by Hoyle.

Barrow & Tipler favored 2 other. One, with more religious implications, is Wheeler’s “Participatory Anthropic Principle” (PAP) whereby “observers are necessary to bring the Universe into existence.”

Another is Hugh Everett’s Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI), essentially the 1^st Multi-Verse after Parmenides & other older writers, which says: “an Ensemble, Quantum Mechanically generated, of many other different Universes is necessary for the plausible existence of our Universe. Each Quantum choice or alternative creates a new Universe for each possibility. [Feynman offered a comparable version in terms of Time, “histories”, without requiring a Multi-Verse.] Everett launched his most fantastic Multi-Verse model to “undo” the Empiricism of Schrödinger & the Copenhagen Convention.

 In 1925, Schrödinger had constructed a Mathematical description of electrons as waves around the atomic nucleus, rather than as the discrete particles of the Bohr atom. The following year, Bohr used Schrödinger’s Wave Equation to construct (by squaring the Complex Amplitude) a Max Born Probability Wave equation expressing the probable position of a particle. The Probability Wave Equation gives a neat description of the light and dark bands in the Double Slit experiment using a beam of photons. Before it was observed, the particle was literally “nowhere”. Bohr’s Ernpiricist Principle stated that: “what cannot be measured, even in principle, cannot be said to exist.” [Multi-Verses clearly fail.]  This compares with Aristotle’s Empiricist Principle that there is nothing in the Intellect which was not first in Sensation.  Opponents to such a view prefer a more comfortable “distance” between Ontology [being] & Epistemology [knowledge] in Objective reality, whereas Non-Duality equates the 2 in Non-Objective Reality.

John von Neumann [inventor of Game Theory, the Computer, etc.] in his formalism of Quantum Mechanics applied Backward Epistemology: since we know Quantum Mechanics or Quantum Theory, and we know that the theory is highly confirmed, the World must conform to the Theory. Some criticize this as dogmatic metaphysics but Non-Duality might consider it an objective reflection of Non-Objective Reality.

Either an “observer” is needed to collapse the Wave Function in order, to actualize reality (PAP) or else, wave-collapse being unnecessary for actualization, the wave generates many realities (Everett). Reconciling the Discrete Quantum Mechanics with the Continuuim of Relativity, the greatest quandary in Theoretical Physics, remains to cast some doubt about interpreting Quantum Mechanics.

Some more selected verses from the other Maharshi disciple:

All these external appearances that you see in front of you are Maya. They have no fundamental abiding reality. To find the Self, to find what is True and Real, you have to look inside yourself. You have to find the Source, the place where all these mental projections arise. You are looking for satisfaction in the outside World because you think that all these objects you see in front of you are real. They are not. The Reality is the Substratum in which they all appear.

An elephant is made out of wood. If we see it as wood, it is wood. But if we get caught up in the name and form, we will see only an elephant and forget that its underlying nature is wood. All is your own Self. This form is different; that form is different. This is more powerful; this is worse. These are all judgments you make when you see separate objects instead of having the true vision that all is an undifferentiated oneness. There may be different varieties of light bulbs, but the current that activates and sustains them is the same. You must learn to become one with this activating current, the unmanifest Self, and not get caught up in all the names and forms that appear in it.

A verse from one of the Siddhas: “Because of your Ego you are going to the forest to look for spiritual light. You are looking for this darshan of light. These things are the illusion of the Mind. They depend on the states of the Mind and the functioning of the Mind. That which you are searching for is within yourself.”

Bhagavan wrote in Ulladu Narpadu, verse 11: “Knowing all else without knowing oneself, the Knower of objects known, is nothing but Ignorance. How instead can it be Knowledge ?”

All the information the Mind accumulates and all the experiences it collects are Ignorance, false knowledge. Real Knowledge cannot be found in the Mind or in any external location. The Mind sees through colored glasses, and what it sees is tinted and tainted by that color. If your Mind is in a spoiled and disturbed condition, the entire World will appear to be in a spoiled and disturbed condition.

If your Mind is crystal clear, everything will appear to you to be clear and peaceful. Your most important objective must be realizing the Self. If you have not done this, you will spend your time in Ignorance and Illusion. You, your Mind, this World — they are all Maya. Don’t become a slave to this Maya. Instead, realize the Self and let Maya become your servant.

Another verse from the Siddhas: “Many people have struggled years together to realize the Self. Millions and millions of people have struggled, looking for the light outside themselves. If these millions and millions of people have died without understanding the Self that is within them, it is because they didn’t understand the real Path.”

You must find someone who has followed the right Path, someone who has discovered this Inner Truth for himself, and who stabilized himself there. Such a one will give you good advice. He will not send you out on unproductive adventures in the outside World. Following the advice of someone who has not reached this state is simply a case of the blind leading the blind. Neither knows the right path and both will eventually fall into a big hole. You may find a fruit that is very bitter and decide to improve its flavor. But when you come home, the fruit will not be any less bitter than the day you started. You can carry your Mind to every comer of the country, but when you return your Mind will be in the same state as the day you started. Mind is not improved by long journeys to far-flung places. Instead, make an internal pilgrimage. Take the Mind back to its Source and plunge it into the peace-giving waters of the Self. If you once make this pilgrimage, you will never need to go looking for Happiness or Peace in any other place.

The Ribhu Gita advises us to remember at all times, “I am the Self; all is the Self.” The entire Universe is “I”. If you can keep this permanently in your Mind, millions and millions of punyas will come to you. There were many books that Bhagavan liked, but Ribhu Gita was definitely one of the best. He once said that Ribhu Gita is a book for one’s last life. I advise doing japa to the Self, either by repeatedly thinking about it or by repeating affirmations such as “I am the Self”. This affirmation is the greatest mantra of all. If you can do it continuously, without interruption, you will get results very quickly. There is no greater japa, no greater sadhana than this. The one who is seeking is also that which is sought. The seeker and the sought are both Self. lf you are not able to find this Self within yourself, you will not find it anywhere else. Searching on the outside and visiting holy places will not help you. Many people are visiting swamis, temples and holy places. Doing these things will not yield any good fruit.

For real and lasting results you have to look inside yourself and discover the Self within. You can do that anywhere. Keep up the meditation, “I am the Self” ‘I am the Self ’, and be completely surrendered to that Self that is within you.

All I will say is that wherever you in Life, don’t forget yourself. If you are still having some doubts as to whether this has been decided or not, don’t indulge in them. Do what you have to do and remember the Self at all times.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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.]

‘

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 13:

Prior to excerpting the other Ramana Maharshi disciple in the text below we continue the series: Fine-Tuned Universe 6, the premise that a small change in several of the dimensionless fundamental physical constants would make the Universe incapable of Life.

100 Billion

[for a while, the following will preface all these blogs – so please skip over if seen before]

In order to hint at how serious this Blog is, let the author unequivocally state that the Knowledge here imparted, none of it original, none to be credited to the author, that Knowledge is THE MOST VALUABLE treasure that exists. If hypothetically offered 100 Billion dollars to forgo this Knowledge, that offer or any other would be disregarded in the blink of an eye.  Even with all the good that might be accomplished with $100B, this Knowledge is beyond the World & comes from beyond the Mind. This is no hyperbole.

Fine-Tuned Universe 6:

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

The Fine-Tuned measure of the continued, exponentially increasing Expansion (self-stretching property) of the Universe, at a faster and faster rate, allows to see less and less of the Universe as time goes on. This knowledge of the Universe will decrease with Time. Intelligent beings will lose the capacity to draw adequate Energy for Work from the Heat flow of the Universe. Inevitably, heat flow will be so tiny that all metabolic reactions will cease.  “Consciousness is eventually lost.” [Assuming Consciousness were physical, which can never be explained that way.]

Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan argued that the Intelligent Design of such a vast Cosmos for such an infinitesimal creature seems wasteful.  But sufficient Age (& thus expanding size) are requisite for long Evolution. The Universe is the necessary size and age. Neither too or too little Expansion, an enormous but so far limited Universe is itself,  carefully “machined” for Billions of years, Anthropic Fine-Tuning.

Some skeptics have attempted to trivialize the anthropic principle with the assertion that humans simply would not be here to observe the universe unless the extremely unlikely did somehow happen to take place. British philosopher Richard Swinburne responded to this notion with a simple illustration.25 He points out that the survivor of a firing squad execution would not attribute his or her survival to a lucky accident. Rather, the survivor would conclude that either the rifles were loaded with blanks or that each of the executioners missed on purpose. The measured fine-tuning of the universe tells us that Someone purposed for humans to exist for a certain period of time.

The other argument claims that there is nothing remarkable about the Fine-Tuning of the Universe if an virtual infinitude of Universes exist, each with a different set of characteristics. In this case, Chance might as plausible that at least one would manifest the characteristics necessary for human Life.

This resembles a gambler finding hundred thousand coin “randomly” landing “Heads”.  He thereupon  rationalizes that 2100,000 such coins exist (though he cannot see them, like a Multi-Verse), each Coin having been flipped 100,000 times by 2100,000 coin flippers. Statistically, one of these coins could come up heads 100,000 times. But the gambler has no evidence for the existence of the other coins, coin flippers, or distinct results. With a sample size of one, the only rational conclusion to draw is that someone “fixed” the coins to all land on Heads. In the case of the Universe, no evidence can be found for the existence of other Universes. Relativity dictates that the Space-Time envelope of a Universe that contains observers can never overlap that of any other Universe or Universes. Thus, the sample size for human observers is one and the conclusion that “Someone” purposed, or “fixed”, the universe for human existence remains compelling.

Like a lucky coin toss, we can choose examine the Universe, the “coins” more closely. Research will likely even yield an increase in the number of Fine-Tuned characteristics and the degree of Fine-Tuning. Such would amount to an Anthropic Principle test.

Some more selected verses from the other Maharshi disciple:

What happens in the Deep Dreamless Sleep state is the same as when you are awake.

Thinking that you are not mature is not the kind of judgment to make about yourself. If you hold onto this kind of thought, this will be a hindrance to your realization, because the Truth is already within you.  Maturity and immaturity belong to the Mind. You are not the Mind; you are already the Self.

You see a big lamp before you. Your own lamp is unlit. So you bring your lamp to the lamp which is already burning. And when you go away from that lamp, you have your own lamp, your own light. Wherever you go from that point on, the light is with you. The state of jnana is the same for all. Anyone who realizes the Self is in the same state of peace, which is beyond the mind. Though the experience of the Self is the same in all cases, it is true that some jnanis end up helping a lot of people, whereas others, who are equally enlightened, may help fewer people. Some jnanis do not teach at all. They live ordinary lives and are rarely, if ever, recognized for what they really are. Water can be in a well or it can be in a lake. It is the same water, but one source can quench more thirsts than the other. A small lamp can light up a room, whereas a big one can light up a whole street. Bhagavan Ramana was one of those big, blazing lights that could light up a huge area. He guided and brought light to many people.

Only a few people have the capacity to guide a large number of people towards the Truth. Realizing the Truth is one thing, but guiding others towards it is something else. All jnanis are not capable when it comes to guiding others.

This kind of questioning will not help you to realise the Self. Questions such as these will disappear if you have a strong desire for realization. Your Mind will then not be occupied with such thoughts.

I would advise you to question yourself, “Who is asking the question ?  And who is getting the answer ? ”  If you have this attitude towards your doubts and your questions, your quest for their source will lead you back to the Self. In that place there are no questions and no answers. There is only Peace.

We often say, “I slept happily” [Deep Dreamless Sleep] but if someone asks you to explain in words the Happiness you felt in that state, what can you say ? You can experience it, but you can’t really explain it. This is how the Self is. You can experience it, you can become it, but you cannot explain this state through words.

It was my experience that through continuous sadhana I gradually relaxed into the Self.  It was a gradual process. It is not something new that suddenly comes. It is eternally there, but it is covered by so much. It has to be rediscovered.  If he says “I don’t know myself” or if he claims “I have not known myself” – both are statements to laugh at. Because you are That. You can be That, but there is nothing to say about it. If somebody says, “I am a jnani. I am an Enlightened person,” then who is claiming that ?

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:  

 www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX/

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/

Duplicates  have been available on:

[But from now on, they will be different & still usually daily.]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 11:

Prior to excerpting the other Ramana Maharshi disciple in the text below we continue the series: Fine-Tuned Universe 4, the premise that a small change in several of the dimensionless fundamental physical constants would make the Universe incapable of Life.

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

Fine-Tuned Universe 4:

We previously noted that formation of Hydrogen nuclei during the Big Bang, along with the Carbon and Oxygen atoms initially fused at the center of stars that exploded as supernovae; these Fine-Tuned “coincidences” allowed for solar systems and planets capable of supporting Carbon-based Life dependent on Water and Oxygen.

There has to be a critical rate of expansion if our Universe , avoiding all manner of “recollapse” so that even now, ten Billion years later, it is still expanding at nearly the critical rate.  If the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred Quadrillion, the Universe would have recollapsed before it ever reached its present size.

The current age of the Universe must be old enough to allow for the formation of galaxies, stars and planets, and stars that fused Carbon and Oxygen. Quark masses were similarly Fine-Tuned as was the Electromagnetic Fine Structure Constant to allow for the formation of Neutrons, Protons and larger atomic nuclei. Variations in the Light Quark masses of more that 2-3 % would not support The formation of life-essential Carbon and Oxygen,  Big Bang Nucleosynthesis sets tight limits on the variations of the Light Quark mass.

Some more selected verses from the other Maharshi disciple:

Tayumanuvar, Tamil saint:

“My Guru merely told me that I am Consciousness. Having heard this, I held onto Consciousness. What he told me was just 1 sentence, but I cannot describe the Bliss that I attained from holding onto that 1 simple sentence. Through that 1 sentence I attained a Peace and a Happiness that can never be explained in words.”

It doesn’t happen by itself you have to go on making an effort until the point where you become totally effortless. Up till that moment your effort is needed. The Mind only gets dissolved in the Self by constant practice. At that moment the “I am the Body” idea disappears, just as darkness disappears when the Sun rises.

We have to walk on the Path ourselves to realize the Truth. If you want to go to somewhere, having someone tell you where it is and how to get there will not magically transport you to that place. You have to go to the airport and get on the plane yourself. You have to carry out the instructions the Guru has given you.

Grace shows us the way home by guiding us in the right direction, but we still have to do the work ourselves.

This “I am” Consciousness, is present within all of us. It is not something special that devotees of one particular Guru have. It is our nature, and as such it is common to all. But only a few souls are mature enough or ripe enough to be aware of it. Though it is present within all of us, Grace puts us in touch with it and gives us a taste of what it is like. And once that taste is there, the thirst to realize the Self follows.

If Inquiry into the Self is not taking place, thoughts will be on the Body and the Mind. And while those thoughts are habitually there, there will be an underlying identification: “I am the Body. I am the Mind.”  This identification is something that happened at a particular point in time. It is not something that has always been there. And what comes in time also goes eventually, for nothing that exists in time is permanent. The Self, on the other hand, has always been there. It existed before the ideas about the Body and the

Mind arose, and it will be there when they finally vanish.

The Self always remains as it is: as Peace, without Birth, without Death. Through the intensity of your Inquiry you can claim that state as your own. Inquire into the nature of the Mind by asking, with 1-pointed determination, “Who am I ?”  Mind is illusory and non-existent, just as the snake that appears on the rope is illusory and non-existent. Dispel the Illusion of the Mind by intense Inquiry and merge in the Peace of the Self. That is what you are, always.

“Have you realized the Self ?” is sometimes a strange question to answer. It is like having somebody ask you if you have become a human being. You are always a human being. You didn’t have to do anything to accomplish it. You are self-evidently a human being, so much so, it is strange to field questions about it. If it is not self-evident then find out who you are. How does one find out who one is ? You will find out by constantly doing Self-Inquiry. Ask yourself, “Am I the Body ?  Am I the Mind ?”  When Self-Inquiry is deepened, you understand who you are.

If one is mature, one can realize the Self in this moment. If one is not mature one has to take up sadhana to make oneself receptive to the Truth.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com\

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality\

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX 

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 10:

Prior to presenting a Consciousness-Meditation offered by some Ramana Maharshi disciples, we share some thoughts.

Notes from a (contemporary) Spiritual Diary

How can I be certain that my inner true self is spiritual, perfectly happy, complete, & even divine? For one assurance, there is the consistent, unchanging testimony of the Wise throughout all the millennia, in disparate cultures & nations.

Closer to home, for just one more of many examples or instances of assurance, there is my own growing interest in deeper Reality, & my own expanding ability to see & comprehend the subtle inner Truth.

Only the Real in me is attracted to the Real. Only the Real in me intuits & catches a glimmer of profundity.  Only the Real is capable of understanding Non-Dual Teaching in the many “secret” places in which it can readily be found.

Seek sincerely, reject ego-massaging half-truth, & be amazed at how fast & how deeply one can comprehend, can attain certainty. One can know with certainty, the inner, wordless answer to “Who am I ?”

How could it be otherwise ? Self-deception may have continued for eons & could continue for eons more. But the façade of Illusion, Maya, can crumble in the snap of a finger. Let the sleeper awaken! Be at Peace in Joy, Freedom, & Happiness.

Our inner core, our Being, is actually the unflinching, steady, Knowledge that “I exist.” That Knowledge shines, not within some individual “consciousness”, in & as non-multiple, universal, Non-Dual Consciousness.

Illusory self-focusing down as if an “island” of personal ego-self-consciousness in some oceanic Universe, a RWOT real-world-out-there ­– that Dream seems to crumple my innate Vastness into a tiny bubble of personal identity.

Appearing in the Waking State (other than the various dream-worlds) seems to recur over a short life-time of a century, or less, the outer RWOT seems to hold out hope of avoiding pain & promise of enjoyment – sensual, emotional, & mental. For fleeting moments, that World seems to deliver, but then it all slips away, just like youth & ultimately good health & life itself.

Relationships solidify life’s stability in family, friendship, & greater society. But one eventually takes wrong turns & misfortune ever threatens while “all good things must pass.”

Why ? Well of course “all things must pass,” good or bad, just like in nightly Dreams with similar trajectories. Those dramas may turn over rapidly until morning when they all vanish. Deep Dreamless Sleep is, however, uniformly filled with Peace (without details to remember). For that same Peace in the Waking State, we seek steady livelihood, steady relationships, & various acquisitions.

The Waking State body dies soon enough, even if there are fortunate outer circumstances, for a time, or perhaps even throughout most of that lifetime. But for most of humanity, even that is not the case & for many – far worse – dramatically so, or like those proverbial men who “lead lives of quiet desperation.”

Regardless, Love & Happiness, Peace & Freedom are only ever experienced “within”, in faint glimmers, short-lived flashes, or as God, Guru, one’s true Self, as Reality.

Consciousness-Meditation

“Shut your eyes. Let go of the idea of your own or control Consciousness. Let the infinite Consciousness be what it is without your trying to control it.  Relax & observe Consciousness. Let go of everything & observe Consciousness. Relax completely & observe Consciousness. With as little effort as possible & with a gentle, kind, easy, relaxed approach, observe Consciousness. You just continue with Consciousness watching Consciousness. There are objects to see Consciousness is empty. There is no thing to observe in Consciousness.  Just continue for the entire practice session watching your Consciousness. Only Consciousness watching Consciousness & nothing else.

[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:  

www.jpstiga.com\

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality\

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX\ 

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 9:

Prior to presenting a Consciousness-Meditation offered by some Ramana Maharshi disciples, we share some thoughts.

Notes from a (contemporary) Spiritual Diary

How can I be certain that my inner true self is spiritual, perfectly happy, complete, & even divine? For one assurance, there is the consistent, unchanging testimony of the Wise throughout all the millennia, in disparate cultures & nations.

Closer to home, for just one more of many examples or instances of assurance, there is my own growing interest in deeper Reality, & my own expanding ability to see & comprehend the subtle inner Truth.

Only the Real in me is attracted to the Real. Only the Real in me intuits & catches a glimmer of profundity.  Only the Real is capable of understanding Non-Dual Teaching in the many “secret” places in which it can readily be found.

Seek sincerely, reject ego-massaging half-truth, & be amazed at how fast & how deeply one can comprehend, can attain certainty. One can know with certainty, the inner, wordless answer to “Who am I ?”

How could it be otherwise ? Self-deception may have continued for eons & could continue for eons more. But the façade of Illusion, Maya, can crumble in the snap of a finger. Let the sleeper awaken! Be at Peace in Joy, Freedom, & Happiness.

Our inner core, our Being, is actually the unflinching, steady, Knowledge that “I exist.” That Knowledge shines, not within some individual “consciousness”, in & as non-multiple, universal, Non-Dual Consciousness.

Illusory self-focusing down as if an “island” of personal ego-self-consciousness in some oceanic Universe, a RWOT real-world-out-there ­– that Dream seems to crumple my innate Vastness into a tiny bubble of personal identity.

Appearing in the Waking State (other than the various dream-worlds) seems to recur over a short life-time of a century, or less, the outer RWOT seems to hold out hope of avoiding pain & promise of enjoyment – sensual, emotional, & mental. For fleeting moments, that World seems to deliver, but then it all slips away, just like youth & ultimately good health & life itself.

Relationships solidify life’s stability in family, friendship, & greater society. But one eventually takes wrong turns & misfortune ever threatens while “all good things must pass.”

Why ? Well of course “all things must pass,” good or bad, just like in nightly Dreams with similar trajectories. Those dramas may turn over rapidly until morning when they all vanish. Deep Dreamless Sleep is, however, uniformly filled with Peace (without details to remember). For that same Peace in the Waking State, we seek steady livelihood, steady relationships, & various acquisitions.

The Waking State body dies soon enough, even if there are fortunate outer circumstances, for a time, or perhaps even throughout most of that lifetime. But for most of humanity, even that is not the case & for many – far worse – dramatically so, or like those proverbial men who “lead lives of quiet desperation.”

Regardless, Love & Happiness, Peace & Freedom are only ever experienced “within”, in faint glimmers, short-lived flashes, or as God, Guru, one’s true Self, as Reality.

Consciousness-Meditation

“Shut your eyes. Let go of the idea of your own or control Consciousness. Let the infinite Consciousness be what it is without your trying to control it.  Relax & observe Consciousness. Let go of everything & observe Consciousness. Relax completely & observe Consciousness. With as little effort as possible & with a gentle, kind, easy, relaxed approach, observe Consciousness. You just continue with Consciousness watching Consciousness. There are objects to see Consciousness is empty. There is no thing to observe in Consciousness.  Just continue for the entire practice session watching your Consciousness. Only Consciousness watching Consciousness & nothing else.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com\

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality\

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX 

 ]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 8

100 Billion

[for a while, preface with the following– skip over if seen before]

In order to hint at how serious this Blog is, let the author unequivocally state that the Knowledge here imparted, none of it original, none to be credited to the author, that Knowledge is THE MOST VALUABLE treasure that exists. If hypothetically offered 100 Billion dollars to forgo this Knowledge, that offer or any other would be disregarded in the blink of an eye.  Even with all the good that might be accomplished with $100B, this Knowledge is beyond the World & comes from beyond the Mind. This is no hyperbole.

Prior to excerpting another Ramana Maharshi disciple in the text below we continue the series: Fine-Tuned Universe 4, the so-called Fine-Tuned Universe similarly termed the Anthropic Principle.  Bracketed immediately below is a disclaimer and a reminder that will be repeated from time to time to recall to mind the purpose for delving into such a discussion that purpose would be to see that:

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

Fine-Tuned Universe 2:

The previously introduced “Fine-Tuned Universe” refers to the premise that a small change in several of the dimensionless fundamental physical constants would make the Universe (progressively more) radically different & specifically incapable of supporting Life, advanced Life, & presumably intelligent Life [if consciousness could ever be “scientifically” explained ].

John Gribbin & Martin Rees in their 1989 Cosmic Coincidences asked: “The conditions in our Universe really do seem to be uniquely suitable for Life forms like ourselves, and perhaps even for any form of Organic complexity. But the question remains – is the Universe tailor-made for man ?”

The previously mentioned Paul Davies noted that the Strong Nuclear Force “coupling constant” were only 2% stronger, then diprotons H-H²⁺ would fuse prior to Deuterium and Helium, & there would be no stars, no Life.  Hydrogen, 75% of the Universe’s nuclei would be consumed in few minutes after Big Bang.

While the Standard Model of Particle Physics requires 25 freely adjustable parameters with an additional parameter for Gravitation, the Cosmological Constant, the aboce quoted Martin Rees first described Fine-Tunong with 6 dimensionless physical constants (ratios where the units canceled).

1)  “N” –  strength of Electromagnetism to the strength of Gravity for protons, 10³⁶.  If significantly smaller, only small short-lived Universe would result.

2)  “ε”   –  measure of nuclear efficiency of fusion from Hydrogen to Helium, in part determined by strength of Strong Nuclear Force.  At 0.007, it could not tolerate a +/– 0.001 deviation without preventing existence of all Hydrogen or no Hydrogen respectively.

3)  “Ω” = “Omega”  – the “Density Parameter”: the relative importance of Gravity & the Expansion Energy in the Universe, the ratio of the Mass Density of the Universe to the “Critical Density” for galaxy-collapse.  At approximately = 1, a larger value with Gravity a little too strong compared to Dark Energy & initial Metric Expansion would have the Universe collapse before Life could evolve.  If Gravity were too weak, there would be no stars & thus no Life.

4)  “λ” = “Lambda”  – the Cosmological Constant,  the ratio of the density of Dark energy to the same Critical Energy Density of the Universe.  This even far, far closer to 1, namely, a natural dimensionless value of Planck units of 10⁻¹²². This means, unpredictable Unity within 122 decimal places. With no effect on structures smaller than  Billion light-years across, a slightest deviation would allow no stars.

5)  “Q” –  the Gravitational Energy required to pull a large galaxy apart compared to the energy equivalent of its mass, ~ 10⁻⁵. If too small, no stars form; if too large, too violent a Universe for stars to survive

6)  “D1” –  spatial dimensions in Space-Time, 3, whereas theoretically possible 2 or 3 could not support Life, advanced Life, & presumably intelligent Life.

These being  handful, many others combine to predict the long, long odds.

Some more selected verses from the other Maharshi disciple [other than Master Nome]:

Since you forget your real Self, the only way is to go back to your real Self. If you keep the light on all the time, darkness cannot enter your room. Even if you open the door and invite it to come in, it cannot enter. Darkness is just an absence of light. In the same way, mind is just a self- inflicted area of darkness in which the light of the Self has been deliberately shut out. You live in the darkness by insisting on believing ideas that have no validity, and you live in the light of the Self when you have given up all ideas, both good and bad. Believing that I am a Body and a particular person is a bad habit that has become very strong because you have reinforced and strengthened it over many lifetimes. This will go if you meditate on your real Self. The habit will melt away, like ice becoming water.

Forgetfulness of the Self happens because of Non-Inquiry. So I say, “Remove the forgetfulness through Inquiry”.  Forgetfulness or non-forgetfulness is not a part of your destiny. It is something you can choose from moment to moment.  You have the freedom either to identify with the Body and its activities, and in doing so forget the Self, or you can identify with the Self and have the understanding that the Body is performing its predestined activities, animated and sustained by the power of the Self.  If you have a lamp and you forget to put oil in it, the light goes out. It was your forgetfulness and your lack of vigilance that caused the light to go out. Your thoughts were elsewhere. They were not on tending the lamp. In every moment you only have one real choice: to be aware of the Self or to identify with the Body and the Mind. If you choose the latter course, don’t blame God or God’s will, or predestination. God did not make you forget the Self. You yourself are making that choice every second of your life.

The Self is always present. Nothing obstructs your awareness of it except your self-inflicted ignorance. Our efforts, our sadhana [spiritual practice, meditation Self-Inquiry], are directed towards removing this Ignorance. If this Ignorance is removed, the real Self is revealed. This revelation is not part of Destiny [harma]. Only the outer bodily activities are destined.

The Guru [Bhagavan] is always present, inside you and in front of you. If you don’t cover the vision of the Guru with your Ego, that will be enough. The Ego is the “I am the Body” idea. Remove this idea and you shine as the Self. That is the only thing you need to do in this life. The various events of your life — all the things that are going to happen to you — they are all destined. If you don’t want them to happen, they will still occur, even if you try to avoid them. And if you want things that are not in your destiny, they won’t come to you. There is no point worrying about the outer events of your life.

The desire for Enlightenment is necessary because without it you will never take the necessary steps to realize the Self. A desire to walk to a particular place is necessary before you take any steps. If that desire is not present, you will never take the first step. When you realize the Self, that desire will go. If the intensity to know yourself is strong enough, the intensity of your yearning will take you to the Self. Your most important objective must be realizing the Self. If you have not done this, you will spend your time in Ignorance & Illusion.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com\

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality\

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX 

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 7:

100 Billion

[for a while, preface with the following– skip over if seen before]

In order to hint at how serious this Blog is, let the author unequivocally state that the Knowledge here imparted, none of it original, none to be credited to the author, that Knowledge is THE MOST VALUABLE treasure that exists. If hypothetically offered 100 Billion dollars to forgo this Knowledge, that offer or any other would be disregarded in the blink of an eye.  Even with all the good that might be accomplished with $100B, this Knowledge is beyond the World & comes from beyond the Mind. This is no hyperbole.

Prior to excerpting another Ramana Maharshi disciple in the text below we institute a new series here concerning the so-called Fine-Tuned Universe similarly termed the Anthropic Principle.  Bracketed immediately below is a disclaimer and a reminder that will be repeated from time to time to recall to mind the purpose for delving into such a discussion that purpose would be to see that:

[In the unreal reflection called the “Universe”, a product of an unreal Mind, even there, Infinite Intelligence is evident and inspiring.]

Fine-Tuned Universe 1:

In 1913, a chemist, Lawrence Joseph Henderson in his The Fitness of the Environment, noted the “importance of Water and the Environment with respect to living things”, pointing out that “Life depends entirely on the very specific Environmental conditions on Earth, especially with regard to the prevalence and properties of Water.”

Besides multifold coincidence of close tolerances with regard to Water and other necessities such as the composition of the Atmosphere, all are affected by Planetary temperature, the protective Magnetic Field, duration of the Seasons, and so on.

The significance of the observation was lost for half a century until in 1961, physicist, Robert H. Dicke again declared that: certain forces in Physics: Gravity  Electromagnetism, … were perfectly fine-tuned in order for Life to exist anywhere in the Universe.

The issue was again essentially buried for another score of years until Fred Hoyle in his 1984 Intelligent Universe stated that: “the chance of obtaining even a single functioning protein by chance combination of amino acids to a star system full of blind men solving Rubik’s Cube simultaneously.”

Biochemistry has since argued, with some plausibility, that even complex molecules of life can be logically deduced from causative chains of interaction starting which far similar initial components.  So the issue of a fine-tuned Universe shifted to more primal issues such as the prevalence of Carbon itself and likewise the Oxygen required in our Atmosphere, and for the proliferation of Water.

In the so-called “Triple-Alpha Process” the so-called “”Hoyle state”, the 3rd-lowest energy state of the Carbon-12 nucleus, namely 7.656 MeV above ground fits fortunately within a rough  7.3 – 7.9 MeV range, to allow sufficient abundance of Carbon.

A refined range of  7.596 – 7.716 MeV has been claimed, along with a Fine-Tuning of the Nuclear Strong Force to a precision of less than 0.5%, both for Carbon & similar ranges hold for Oxygen.

Likewise, the Electromagnetic Force must be Fine-Tuned to a precision of less than 4% to prevent loss of both Carbon & Oxygen.  Many dozens of other factors also come into play and must hold simultaneously and essentially independently. This all leads to a net probability estimate indicating the unlikelihood of advanced Life, never mind intelligent Life anywhere in the Universe, without incredible Fine tuning of physical parameters that could theoretically have been different.

A few salient points will be raised when this series is taken up again. But for the moment, we end with a quick look at just how improbable the Fine-Tuning of the Universe actually seems to be.

Considering the number of atoms, molecules, protons, electrons, positrons, mesons, strings, all kinds of sub-nuclear particles that few of us know anything about – the countless number of those in the knowable Universe.  This number is said to be generously estimated s less than a number that starts with one and has 80 zeros following it.

Now if we have 86 zeros, that’s 1 Million of such Universes, 89 being Billion, 92 zeros being a Trillion, and so on. Can you imagine how vast the number were talking about ?

When we go further up to 100 zeros that’s called a Googol, that which the Google search engine was named after, with a little bit of different spelling.  Now extend that Googol to a number with again 109 zeros. That’s 1 billion of that much, and go all way to 200 zeros, beyond all imaginations 300 zeros to 400 zeros to 500 zeros.

The chance of the Universe being as fine-tuned so as to allow Life of any kind, never mind Intelligent life seems to be 1 in again the number is a 1 followed by 500 zeros.  Some have even extended this to 1000 zeros.

Now this actually caused some Physicists who were Agnostic or Atheistic to turn back to the Theism of their childhood. Most stood their ground, fixed in the predominant philosophy of Scientists, namely that of Atheism.

If there is no God. the only way to explain these long, long odds is to have a Multi-Verse with that many Universes, countable with 1 with 100 zeros. 500 zeros. 1000 zeros. all unknowable. all unprovable. all having no impact on us. and all being totally irrelevant – a pure figment of Imagination.

Their only support is that either the Multi-Verse exists, to make this unlikely Fine-Tuned chance somewhat probable, or there’s an Divine Intelligence to Universe. Since Divine Intelligence is totally unacceptable to these “wise and intelligent” people, then there must be a Multi-Verse of such preposterous proportions.

This is the sad state of Philosophy and Science at the present time. And so to both inspire ourselves with the Fine-Tuning of the Universe, and to have a chuckle at the expense of those who “lead us intellectually”, we will take up a few of these points in other episodes of this particular series of the Fine-tuned Universe.

Physicist Paul Davies in his book on the topic summarizes that: “There is now broad agreement among physicists and cosmologists that the Universe is in several respects ‘fine-tuned’ for life” … “the conclusion is not so much that the Universe is fine-tuned for life; rather it is fine-tuned for the building blocks and environments that life requires.”

Some selections adapted from the Maharshi disciple, Master Nome:

Knowledge is as formless as is Existence itself is Formless Being- Consciousness. Knowledge of this is realized by deep Self-Inquiry as to what we really are. The Knowledge is as formless as Existence is. There is then, in truth, no form to the Self-Inquiry – yet its direction is inward, and non-objective. It is of the very same nature as the Space-like Being-Consciousness that you are trying to realize. Because it is of the same nature, by Self-Inquiry, one’s whole sense of Identity is absorbed so that we abide in That, as That [Being-Consciousness] itself. Whatever is a form of so-called “knowledge” is not the Self, and is not True Knowledge. Thought-transcendent Knowledge, however, is True Knowledge. What is thought-transcendent is also, obviously. Sense-transcendent.

With Self-Inquiry, find within yourself the interior, formless, non- thought Knowledge of your own Existence. Whatever is conceived should he considered as “not this” – neti. Whatever is conceived is not a definition for the Self. The unconceived, the unformed, is utterly Non-Dual. It is only One, the singular Knowledge of One Existence – so Non-Dual in nature that the Knowledge and the Existence cannot he separated, even to the least degree. So. Inquire, within yourself, in meditation, “Who am I ?” Do not engage yourself, do not entangle yourself, with anything conceived – treating all such conceptions as insubstantial Imagination. “Who am I ?”  Go to the very root of conception. and beyond it – “Who am I ?”

Beyond conception. in the essence of your Being. lies the vast, formless. space-like Knowledge. Inquire. and realize it for yourself.

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:  

www.jpstiga.com\

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality\

or with Caps-sensitive:

http://sdrv.ms.YPOgkX 

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 5:

100 Billion

[for a while, preface with the following– skip over if seen before]

In order to hint at how serious this Blog is, let the author unequivocally state that the Knowledge here imparted, none of it original, none to be credited to the author, that Knowledge is THE MOST VALUABLE treasure that exists. If hypothetically offered 100 Billion dollars to forgo this Knowledge, that offer or any other would be disregarded in the blink of an eye.  Even with all the good that might be accomplished with $100B, this Knowledge is beyond the World & comes from beyond the Mind. This is no hyperbole.

Because we associate Consciousness with Existence & we are conscious of all the thoughts and perceptions that make up our life in Waking and in Dream, we consider Deep Dreamless Sleep to be a state of unConsciousness. But we should examine the so-called non-consciousness of Deep Dreamless Sleep. The Consciousness that knows thoughts and perceptions is our Mind, which rises and is active in Waking and Dream, but which subsides in Deep Dreamless Sleep. But this rising and subsiding Consciousness is not our real Consciousness. We are conscious not only of the two states of Waking and Dream, in which our Mind rises to experience thoughts and Perceptions, but also of a 3rd state, Deep Dreamless Sleep, in which our Mind has subsided in a State without thoughts and Perceptions.

This fact that we are conscious of Deep Dreamless Sleep as a State distinct from Waking and Dream shows that we are the Consciousness that underlies the rising and subsiding of the transient Consciousness that we call “Mind”. The Consciousness that enables us to affirm confidently, “I did exist in Deep Dreamless Sleep, but I was unconscious of anything”, is not our “rising Consciousness” but our True Existence Consciousness.

This Existence Consciousness, which exists in all our 3 states, is our Real Consciousness, and is what is truly denoted when we say “I exist”. Our Mind, the “rising Consciousness” that appears in Waking and Dream and disappears in Deep Dreamless Sleep, is only a spurious form of Consciousness, which on rising mistakes itself to be both our basic Consciousness “I exist” and this material Body

Some more selected verses from the Maharshi disciple:

Reach your inner core when the Guru reveals to you the Peace that is your real nature. When the Guru tells you that you are the Self, there is a power and an authority in those words that can make them become your own Reality. If you are pure and ready, no practice will be required. One word from a jnani and his state will become yours too.

Everything we see in this Waking State-is a dream. These dreams are our thoughts made manifest. Bad thoughts make bad dreams and good thoughts make good dreams, and if you have no thoughts, you don’t dream at all. But even if you do dream, you must understand that your dream is also the Self. You don’t have to suppress thoughts or be absolutely thoughtless to abide as the Self. If you know that even your Waking and Sleeping dreams are the Self, then the thoughts and the dreams they produce can go on. They will not be a problem for you any more. Just be the Self at all times. In this state you will know that everything that appears to you is just a dream.

The Waking State, which you take to be real, is just an unfolding dream that has appeared to you and manifested in front of you on account of some hidden desire or fear. Your vasanas sprout and expand miraculously, creating a whole Waking-Dream World for you. See it as a dream. Recognize that it is just an expansion of your thoughts. Don’t lose sight of the Self, the substratum on which this vast, believable dream is projected. If you hold onto the knowledge “I am the Self” you will know that the dreams are also the Self, and you won‘t get entangled-in them.

A great Power of the Self can you in the right place at the right time; it makes you say the right things to the people you meet. This Power takes you over so completely, you no longer have any ability to decide or discriminate. The Ego that thinks, “I must do this” or “I should not do that” is no longer there. The Self simply animates you and makes you do all the things that need to be done. If you are not in this state, then use your discrimination wisely.

So, while you still have an Ego, and the power of discrimination that goes with it, use it to find in the presence of an enlightened being. If you spend time in the proximity of a jnani, his Peace will sink into you to such an extent that you will find yourself in a state of Peace. If, instead, you choose to spend all your time with people whose minds are always full of bad thoughts, their mental energy and vibrations will start to seep into you. I tell you regularly, “You are the Self. Everything is the Self.” Advaita may be the ultimate experience, but it is not something that a Mind that still sees distinctions can practice.

Inquire ‘Who am I?’ or ‘What is my real nature?’ The nature of the Self is nothing but Peace. If you are not aware of that Peace, it means that you are identifying with something that is not the Self. As long as you hear, taste and smell things, you identify with the Body. When the perceptions and the perceiver of them vanish, you become aware of the Peace.

[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  www.jpstiga.com ]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 4:

100 Billion

[for a while, preface with the following– skip over if seen before]

In order to hint at how serious this Blog is, let the author unequivocally state that the Knowledge here imparted, none of it original, none to be credited to the author, that Knowledge is THE MOST VALUABLE treasure that exists. If hypothetically offered 100 Billion dollars to forgo this Knowledge, that offer or any other would be disregarded in the blink of an eye.  Even with all the good that might be accomplished with $100B, this Knowledge is beyond the World & comes from beyond the Mind. This is no hyperbole.

Knowing that our Mind possesses a great power of self-deception, we should suspect that the Body we take to be “I” and the World we take to be real in our Waking State is in fact be nothing more than mental projection, just like the Body and World that we experience in Dream. We may be able to point out differences between Waking and Dream, but we can note that those differences are superficial,

If we compare the World drama we see in Waking or Dream to a drama we see on a cinema screen, we may say that the drama seen in Waking is a better quality and more impressive production than that seen in Dream, but both thoughts, productions of our Mind which sees them.

In both states our Mind rises, attaching itself to a Body by taking it to be “I”, and through the Senses of that Body it sees a World bound within the limits of Time and Space, and filled with people and other objects.

When we analyze our experience in our 3 states of Waking, Dream and Deep Dreamless Sleep, we see that we confuse our Consciousness “I” to be different things at different times. In Waking we mistake our present Body to be “I”, in Dream we mistake some other imaginary Body to be “I”, and in Deep Dreamless Sleep we mistake non-consciousness to be “I”.

What we were in fact unconscious of in Deep Dreamless Sleep was our Mind, our Body and the World, but not our own Existence. Our experience in Deep Dreamless Sleep was

not that we ceased to exist, but only that we ceased to be aware of all the thoughts and perceptions that we are accustomed to experiencing in the Waking and Dream states. When we say, “I was unaware of anything”, we say that “I” was in Deep Dreamless Sleep, that we existed and knew that we existed at that time.

Some more selected verses from the Maharshi disciple:

Ignorance is Ignorance of the Self, and to remove it Self-Awareness is required. When you come to an Awareness of the Self, Ignorance vanishes. If you don’t lose contact with the Self, Ignorance can never arise. If there is darkness, you remove it by bringing Light. Darkness is not something real and substantial that you have to dig out and throw away. It is just an absence of Light, nothing more. When Light is let into a dark room, the darkness is suddenly no longer there. It did not vanish gradually or go away piece by piece; it simply ceased to exist when the room became filled with Light. This is just an analogy because the Self is not like other lights. It is not an object that you either see or don’t see. It is there all the time, shining as your own Reality. If you refuse to acknowledge its Existence, if you refuse to believe that it is there, you put yourself in an imaginary darkness. It is not a real darkness. It is just your own willful refusal to acknowledge that you are Light itself. This self-inflicted Ignorance is the darkness that has to be banished by the light of Self-awareness. We have repeatedly to turn to the light of the Self within until we become one with it.

Bhagavan [Sri Ramana Maharshi] spoke about turning inwards to face the Self. That is all that is needed. If we look outwards, we become entangled with objects and we lose awareness of the Self shining within us. But when, by repeated practice, we gain the strength to keep our focus on the Self within, we become one with it and the Darkness of Self-Ignorance vanishes. Then, even though we continue to live in this false and unreal body, we abide in an Ocean of Bliss that never fades or diminishes. This is not going to happen in a moment because lifetimes of wrong and ignorant thinking have made it impossible for most of us to focus intently and regularly on the Self within. If you leave your house and start walking away from it, and if you continue this habit over many lives, you will probably be a long, long way from home when you finally decide that you have had enough and that you want to go back to where you started from. Don’t be discouraged by the length of the journey, and don’t slacken in your efforts to get home. Turn l80° to face the Source, of your outward journey, and keep moving back to where you started.

Ignore the pain, the discomfort, and the frustration of seeming not to get anywhere. Keep moving back to your Source, and don’t let anything distract you on the way. Be like the river on its journey back to the sea. It doesn’t stop, take diversions, or decide to flow uphill for a while. It doesn’t become distracted. It just moves slowly and steadily back to the place its water originated from. And when the river dissolves in the Ocean, river is no more. Only Ocean remains.

 Jiva [the individual self] came from Siva [the Absolute] and has to go back to Siva again. If there is a big charcoal fire, and one burning ember jumps out, the fire in the ember will soon go out. To reignite it, you have to put it back into the fire, back into its burning source. There is no happiness in separation. The Jiva has no Happiness, contentment or Peace so long as it remains a separate being. The separate being comes from the Self. It has to go back there and end there. Only then will there be Eternal Peace.

The energy of the Mind comes from the Self. In the Waking State the Mind functions as a separate entity. In the Deep Dreamless Sleep it goes back to the Source. Again and again it comes out and goes back. It does this because it doesn’t know the Truth of what it really is. It is Self and Self alone, but its Ignorance of this fact makes it miserable. It is this feeling of separateness that gives rise to desires, suffering and unhappiness. Keep the Mind in the Self. If you can do this, you can live in Peace both while you are awake and also while you are asleep. In Deep Sleep all differences are dropped. If you keep the Mind in the Self during the Waking State, there will also be no differences, no distinctions. You will see everything as your own Self.

Bhagavan [Sri Ramana Maharshi]

“If the Mind be that eye, then subtle forms are seen; thus the seeing eye and the objects seen are of the same nature; that is.  If the eye be itself a form, it sees nothing but forms. But neither the physical eye or the Mind has any power of vision of its own. The real Eye is the Self.  Being formless, being the pure and infinite Consciousness, the Reality, it does not see forms.”

The Self shines all the time. If you can’t see it because your mind has obscured it or fragmented it, you have to control your vision. You have to stop observing with the eye of the mind, because that eye can only see what the mind projects in front of it. If you want to see with the eye of the Self, switch the projector you that all is one and indivisible.

[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  www.jpstiga.com ]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 3

Our Existence and our Consciousness of Existence are the same – both are expressed by the single phrase “I exist”. This Existence-Consciousness, “I exist”, is our fundamental experience – the essential Non-Dual Self-Consciousness. All that we know about the World depends on what we think about our self.  But our knowledge about this “I” is confused. We all believe “I am the Body”. Thus we identify our Consciousness “I exist” with a particular Body. This identification is the result of a confused and unclear knowledge of the true nature of Consciousness. Our Consciousness “I exist” is not something material, whereas our Body is material.

hat which thus mistakes this Body to be “I” is our Mind. Our Mind comes into existence only by imagining itself to be a Body. In Deep Dreamless Sleep we are unaware of either our Mind or our Body. As soon as we wake up, our Mind rises feeling ‘I am this Body, I am so-and-so’, and only after thus identifying itself as a particular Body does it perceive the external World through the five senses of that Body.

Exactly the same thing happens in Dream – our Mind identifies itself as a particular Body and through the 5 senses of that Dream-Body it perceives a seemingly real and external “World”. When we wake up from a Dream, we understand that the Body we mistook to be “I” and the “World” we mistook to be real and external were both in fact only figments of our Imagination.

Thus from our experience in Dream we all know that our Mind has a wonderful power of Imagination by which it is able to create a Body, to mistake that imaginary Body to be “I”, and through that Body to project a World which, at the time we perceive it, appears to be every bit as real and external to us as the World that we now perceive in this Waking State.

Repeatedly offered direct advice regarding liberating meditation that began with focusing on, questioning, examining, even challenging this Ego “I”, this individual self.

Some more selections from a great Ramana Maharshi desciple:

Though the body is needed for sadhana, one should not identify with it. We should make good use of it, and look after it well, but we should not pay too much attention it.

There are so many thoughts in the Mind. Thought after thought after thought, they never stop. But there is one thought that is continuous, though it is mostly subconscious: “I am the Body.”’ This is the string on which all other thoughts are threaded. Once we identify ourselves with the Body by thinking this thought, Maya follows. It also follows that if we cease to identify ourselves with the body, Maya will not affect us any more. Maya is fundamentally non-existent. Bhagavan [Sri Ramana Maharshi] said that Maya literally means “that which is not”. It is unreal because everything that Maya produces is an outgrowth of a wrong idea. It is a consequence of taking something to be True that is not really True. How can something that is not real produce something that is real ?  Something that does not exist cannot be the cause of suffering or of anything else.

Maya may appear to be real, to have a real existence, but this is a false appearance. The truth is: it is not real; it has no existence at all. To get rid of this “I am the body” feeling and of the Maya that is produced by it ?  It goes when there is equanimity of outlook that leaves one unaffected by extreme opposites such as happiness and unhappiness, pleasure and pain. Then the idea “I am the body” is no longer present, and Maya is transcended.

By itself, this Body is inert and lifeless. Without the Mind, the Body cannot function. And how does the Mind function ?  Through the 5 Senses that the Body provides.

If we want to go beyond the Body, beyond the Mind, we have to understand and fully accept that all the information the Senses provide is not real. Like the mirage that produces an illusory oasis in the desert, the Senses create the impression that there is a real World [RWOT] in front of us that is being perceived by the Mind. The apparent reality of the World is an Illusion. It is merely a misperception. When the Mind perceives a snake where in Reality there is only a rope, this is clearly a case of the Senses projecting an imaginary image onto a Real Substratum. This, on a large scale, is how the unreal appearance of the World is projected by the Mind and the Senses onto the underlying Reality of the Self. Once this happens, we see the Superimposition, the unreal names and forms we have created, and we forget about the Substratum, the reality that underlies them. Many examples are given –  if‘ you see a carved wooden elephant, for example, at some point you forget that it is only wood. You see the form of the carving, and your mind gives that form the name “elephant”. While your mind is registering this name and this form, you are no longer registering the object as a block of wood. It is the same when you see jewelry made out of gold. You see a shape, call it a ring or a necklace. and you temporally forget what it is made of.

Self-Inquiry is the process by which attention is put on the Substratum instead of on the names and forms that are habitually imposed on it. Self is the Substratum out of which all things appear to manifest, and the jnani is the one who is continually aware of the Real Substratum. He is never deluded into believing that the names and forms that are perceived by the senses have any real existence. Whatever we see is unreal. It has no more reality than the objects we perceive in our dreams. We think we live in a real, materially substantial World, and that our Minds and Bodies are real entities that move around in it. When the Self is seen and known, all these ideas fade away and one is left with the knowledge: Self alone exists.

Self-Inquiry must be done continuously. It doesn’t work if you regard it as a part-time activity. You may be doing something that doesn’t hold your interest or attention, so you think, “I will do some Self-Inquiry instead”. This is never going to work. You may go 2 steps forward when you practice, but you go 5 steps backward when you stop your practice and go back to your worldly affairs. You must have a lifelong commitment to establish yourself in the Self. Your determination to succeed must be strong and firm, and it should manifest as continuous, not part-time effort. For many lifetimes you have been immersed in Ignorance. You are habituated to it. All your deeply rooted beliefs, all your patterns of behavior reinforce ignorance and strengthen the hold it has over you. This Ignorance is so strong, so deeply enmeshed in all your psychological structures, it takes a massive effort over a long period of time to break free from it. The habits and beliefs that sustain it have to be challenged again and again.

[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  www.jpstiga.com ]

NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 2

A friend of a deep sleeper shakes the sleeper’s shoulder, awakens him rapidly, & asks quickly:

          Do you exist ?

The former sleeper responds right away or later relates immediate response in his Mind:

          Yes, certainly I exist ! I just know that’s true, spontaneously & undoubtedly.

The Wise questioner counters with an observation & a 2^nd confirming question:

          Oh I see, you “know” you exist like that.

The freshly awakened asks once for clarification & then listens for a while.

            Granted what you say, what is the significance ?

That “inner place” in which you felt that certainty of your Existence, & also that certainty of your knowing so, your Consciousness, is actually the same “place”. Moreover that “place” is not a place, having size or shape, & has no location in Space, or in Time for that matter. The very same “place” where you are certain of your Consciousness is actually your Consciousness itself. As also the very same “place” where you are certain of your Existence, it truly is your Existence, it is what you are, your Self.

And not only your Self, but the same is my Self, & the Self of everyone & all that exist, have ever existed, or will ever exist. That singular Existence or Being is the literal Truth proclaimed by all Enlightened Masters. No culture, gender, creed, or period of history has unique claim to this recognition, this Knowledge known as the Perennial Philosophym as Advaita Vedanta.

Further observations include the fact that very same not-a-place “place”, or Brahman, or the Self is also experienced routinely [“in part, clouded, obscured“] as the Source of Happiness, Love, Bliss, Joy, Peace, Satisfaction, Freedom & the like. These are all one with Consciousness & Being, Happiness in full is often experienced the complete “reference value” we all intuit, perfect Happiness, the goal, whether we currently believe it to be attained or not. That Source of Happiness is the same “place” where true Happiness (not mere pleasure or triumph) is actually felt, routinely. Even the sense of its lack could be said to be felt there along with all negative emotions that seem so [negative] by coloration with conceptual self-delusion.

Much can & has been said & written about all the ramification & also restoring true Self-Identity through the meditation of inward Self-Inquiry. Any sincere seeker can find all that, especially now with the Internet to get started with. Given some sifting through apparently conflicting alternatives (& some are conflicting) & perhaps a few false turns, the one who truly desires Freedom (Liberation from ignorance) will have it, but almost always with guidance of a Guru.

You & I & all are that same Self, though we may seem to be “caught” in a Waking Dream world of Time & Space (at night, other dream words supervene, while in deep sleep, none at all). While seeming so “caught”, we best pursue Self-Inquiry, with authentic texts that support that & qualified live guidance [a Guru]when possible. Other wise we progressively shine in our World (even if obscurely), fulfill responsibilities, relationships, work, etc. in Peace. Any help offered to what can appear as a stricken World & inevitable death in that World, comes from the inner basis, & less-so, the practical basis just described. This quest of Enlightenment, Liberation, is the most satisfying & significant venture possible.

Again, the review of some of the illusory yet seemingly practical obstacles to be overcome in spiritual practice:

Ajnana – ignorance

Avarana / Avriti – veiling

Avidya – “blindness”

Bheda – differentiation

Khandha – separatiom

Maya –  illusion

Moha – delusion

Rajas-guna – restless fantasy projection and craving

Samskaras – persistent tendencies

Tamas-guna – dull attenuation of discriminative intensity

Upadhis – modificatioms

Vasanas – deep-seated tendencies

Vikalpas – unquestioned assumptions (Sankalpa’s), doubts

Vikshepa – projection

Vivarta – superimpose

Vrittis – restless patterns of thought

 Selected verses from Shankara’s the Vivekachudamani, the “Crest-Jewel of Discrimination”:

65. As a treasure hidden underground requires (for its extraction) competent instruction, excavation, the removal of stones and other such things lying above it and (finally) grasping, but never comes out by being (merely) called out by name, so the transparent Truth of the self, which is hidden by Maya and its effects, is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, followed by reflection, meditation and so forth, but not through perverted arguments.

82. If indeed thou hast a craving for Liberation, shun sense-objects from a good distance as thou wouldst do poison, and always cultivate carefully the nectar-like virtues of contentment, compassion, forgiveness, straight-forwardness, calmness and self-control.

112. Lust, anger, avarice, arrogance, spite, egoism, envy, jealousy, etc., — these are the dire attributes of Rajas, from which the worldly tendency of man is produced. Therefore Rajas is a cause of bondage.

116. Ignorance, lassitude, dullness, sleep, inadvertence, stupidity, etc., are attributes of Tamas. One tied to these does not comprehend anything, but remains like one asleep or like a stock or stone.

119. The traits of pure Sattva are cheerfulness, the realisation of one’s own Self, supreme peace, contentment, bliss, and steady devotion to the Atman, by which the aspirant enjoys bliss everlasting.

125. There is some Absolute Entity, the eternal substratum of the consciousness of egoism, the witness of the three states, and distinct from the five sheaths or coverings:

126. Which knows everything that happens in the waking state, in dream and in profound sleep; which is aware of the presence or absence of the mind and its functions; and which is the background of the notion of egoism. – This is That.

185. This knowledge sheath, which seems to be followed by a reflection of the power of the Chit, is a modification of the Prakriti, is endowed with the function of knowledge, and always wholly identifies itself with the body, organs, etc.

188. It always mistakes the duties, functions and attributes of the orders of life which belong to the body, as its own. The knowledge sheath is exceedingly effulgent, owing to its close proximity to the Supreme Self, which identifying Itself with it suffers transmigration through delusion. It is therefore a superimposition on the Self.

191. Owing to Its connection with the super-impositions, the Supreme Self, even thou naturally perfect (transcending Nature) and eternally unchanging, assumes the qualities of the superimpositions and appears to act just as they do – like the changeless fire assuming the modifications of the iron which it turns red-hot.

198-199. Avidya or Nescience and its effects are likewise considered as beginningless. But with the rise of Vidya or realisation, the entire effects of Avidya, even though beginningless, are destroyed together with their root – like dreams on waking up from sleep. It is clear that the phenomenal universe, even though without beginning, is not eternal – like previous non-existence.

202. The cessation of that superimposition takes place through perfect knowledge, and by no other means. Perfect knowledge, according to the Shrutis, consists in the realisation of the identity of the individual soul and Brahman.

206. This knowledge sheath (Vijnanamaya Kosha) that we have been speaking of, cannot be the Supreme Self for the following reasons – because it is subject to change, is insentient, is a limited thing, an object of the senses, and is not constantly present: An unreal thing cannot indeed be taken for the real Atman.

207. The blissful sheath (Anandamaya Kosha) is that modification of Nescience which manifests itself catching a reflection of the Atman which is Bliss Absolute; whose attributes are pleasure and the rest; and which appears in view when some object agreeable to oneself presents itself. It makes itself spontaneously felt by the fortunate during the fruition of their virtuous deeds; from which every corporeal being derives great joy without the least effort.

208. The blissful sheath has its fullest play during profound sleep, while in the dreaming and wakeful states it has only a partial manifestation, occasioned by the sight of agreeable objects and so forth.

209. Nor is the blissful sheath the Supreme Self, because it is endowed with the changeful attributes, is a modification of the Prakriti, is the effect of past good deeds, and imbedded in the other sheaths which are modifications.

217. That which clearly manifests Itself in the states of wakefulness, dream and profound sleep; which is inwardly perceived in the mind in various forms as an unbroken series of egoistic impressions; which witnesses the egoism, the Buddhi, etc., which are of diverse forms and modifications; and which makes Itself felt as the Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute; know thou this Atman, thy own Self, within thy heart.

230. Similarly, the whole universe, being the effect of the real Brahman, is in reality nothing but Brahman. Its essence is That, and it does not exist apart from It. He who says it does is still under delusion – he babbles like one asleep.

259. That which is free from differentiation; whose essence is never non-existent; which is unmoved like the ocean without waves; the ever-free; of indivisible Form – that Brahman art thou, meditate on this in thy mind.

267. Even after the Truth has been realized, there remains that strong, beginningless, obstinate impression that one is the agent and experiencer, which is the cause of one’s transmigration. It has to be carefully removed by living in a state of constant identification with the Supreme Self. Sages call that Liberation which is the attenuation of Vasanas (impressions) here and now.

291. That in which there is this reflection of the universe, as of a city in a mirror – that Brahman art thou; knowing this thou wilt attain the consummation of thy life.

296. Therefore give up the identification with this lump of flesh, the gross body, as well as with the ego or the subtle body, which are both imagined by the Buddhi. Realising thy own Self, which is Knowledge Absolute and not to be denied in the past, present or future, attain to Peace.

302. The treasure of the Bliss of Brahman is coiled round by the mighty and dreadful serpent of egoism, and guarded for its own use by means of its three fierce hoods consisting of the three Gunas. Only the wise man, destroying it by severing its three hoods with the great sword of realization in accordance with the teachings of the Shrutis, can enjoy this treasure which confers bliss.

315-316. Look upon everything, under all circumstances, always, everywhere and in all respects, as Brahman and Brahman alone. Through the strengthening of the longing to be one with Brahman, those three are annihilated.

320. One should pass one’s time watchfully, if there be any residue of Prarabdha work left.

325. If the mind ever so slightly strays from the Ideal and becomes outgoing, then it goes down and down, just as a play-ball inadvertently dropped on the staircase bounds down from one step to another.

333. Give up dwelling on the unreal, which causes bondage, and should always fix his thoughts on the Atman as “I myself am This”. For the steadfastness in Brahman through the realisation of one’s identity with It gives rise to bliss and thoroughly removes the misery born of nescience, which one experiences (in the ignorant state).

335. When the external world is shut out, the mind is cheerful, and cheerfulness of the mind brings on the vision of the Paramatman. When It is perfectly realised, the chain of birth and death is broken. Hence the shutting out of the external world is the stepping-stone to Liberation.

344. It is extremely difficult to conquer the projecting power unless the veiling power is perfectly rooted out. And that covering over the Atman naturally vanishes when the subject is perfectly distinguished from the objects, like milk from water. But the victory is undoubtedly (complete and) free from obstacles when there is no oscillation of the mind due to the unreal sense-objects.

349-350. Like iron manifesting as sparks through contact with fire, the Buddhi manifests itself as knower and known through the inherence of Brahman. As these two (knower and known), the effects of the Buddhi, are observed to be unreal in the case of delusion, dream and fancy, similarly, the modifications of the Prakriti, from egoism down to the body and all sense-objects are also unreal. Their unreality is verily due to their being subject to change every moment. But the Atman never changes.

351. The Supreme Self is ever of the nature of eternal, indivisible knowledge, one without a second, the Witness of the Buddhi and the rest, distinct from the gross and subtle, the implied meaning of the term and idea “I”, the embodiment of inward, eternal bliss.

352. The wise man, discriminating thus the real and the unreal, ascertaining the Truth through his illuminative insight, and realizing his own Self which is Knowledge Absolute, gets rid of the obstructions and directly attains Peace.

360. The truth of the Paramatman is extremely subtle, and cannot be reached by the gross outgoing tendency of the mind. It is only accessible to noble souls with perfectly pure minds, by means of Samadhi brought on by an extraordinary fineness of the mental state.

361. As gold purified by thorough heating on the fire gives up its impurities and attains to its own luster, so the mind, through meditation, gives up its impurities of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, and attains to the reality of Brahman.

363. By this Samadhi are destroyed all desires which are like knots, all work is at an end, and inside and out there takes place everywhere and always the spontaneous manifestation of one’s real nature.

393. The Supreme Brahman is, like the sky, pure, absolute, infinite, motionless and changeless, devoid of interior or exterior, the One Existence, without a second, and is one’s own Self. Is there any other object of knowledge ?

407. This apparent universe has its root in the mind, and never persists after the mind is annihilated. Therefore dissolve the mind by concentrating it on the Supreme Self, which is thy inmost Essence.

408. The wise man realizes in his heart, through Samadhi, the Infinite Brahman, which is something of the nature of eternal Knowledge and absolute Bliss, which has no exemplar, which transcends all limitations, is ever free and without activity, and which is like the limitless sky, indivisible and absolute.

409. The wise man realizes in his heart, through Samadhi, the Infinite Brahman, which is devoid of the ideas of cause and effect, which is the Reality beyond all imaginations, homogeneous, matchless, beyond the range of proofs, established by the pronouncements of the Vedas, and ever familiar to us as the sense of the ego.

410. That which resembles the placid ocean and is without a name, in which there are neither merits nor demerits, and which is eternal, pacified and One.

413. After the body has once been cast off to a distance like a corpse, the sage never more attaches himself to it, though it is visible as an appearance, like the shadow of a man, owing to the experience of the effects of past deeds.

419. The result of dispassion is knowledge, that of Knowledge is withdrawal from sense-pleasures, which leads to the experience of the Bliss of the Self, whence follows Peace.

424. When the sense-objects excite no more desire, then is the culmination of dispassion. The extreme perfection of knowledge is the absence of any impulsion of the egoistic idea. And the limit of self-withdrawal is reached when the mind-functions that have been merged, appear no more.

425. Freed from all sense of reality of the external sense-objects on account of his always remaining merged in Brahman; only seeming to enjoy such sense-objects as are offered by others, like one sleepy, or like a child; beholding this world as one seen in dreams, and having cognition of it at chance moments – rare indeed is such a man, the enjoyer of the fruits of endless merit, and he alone is blessed and esteemed on earth.

453. Prarabdha work is certainly very strong for the man of realization, and is spent only by the actual experience of its fruit; while the actions previously accumulated and those yet to come are destroyed by the fire of perfect knowledge. But none of the three at all affects those who, realizing their identity with Brahman, are always living absorbed in that idea. They are verily the transcendent Brahman.

454. For the sage who lives in his own Self as Brahman, the One without a second, devoid of identification with the limiting adjuncts, the question of the existence of Prarabdha work is meaningless, like the question of a man who has awakened from sleep having any connection with the objects seen in the dream-state.

456. He has no desire to substantiate the unreal objects, nor is he seen to maintain that dream-world. If he still clings to those unreal objects, he is emphatically declared to be not yet free from sleep.

462-463. “If the effects of ignorance are destroyed with their root by knowledge, then how does the body live?” – it is to convince those fools who entertain a doubt like this, that the Shrutis, from a relative standpoint, hypothesize Prarabdha work, but not for proving the reality of the body etc., of the man of realization.

472. Thou, too, discriminate this Supreme Truth, the real nature of the Self, which is Bliss undiluted, and shaking off thy delusion created by thy own mind, be free and illumined, and attain the consummation of thy life.

473.  Visualize the Truth of the Self with the eye of clear realization. If the meaning of the (Scriptural) words heard from the Guru is perfectly and indubitably discerned, then it can lead to no more doubt.

474. In the realization of the Atman, the Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, through the breaking of one’s connection with the bondage of Avidya or ignorance, the Scriptures, reasoning and the words of the Guru are the proofs, while one’s own experience earned by concentrating the mind is another proof.

475. Bondage, liberation, satisfaction, anxiety, recovery from illness, hunger and other such things are known only to the man concerned, and knowledge of these to others is a mere inference.

476. The Gurus as well as the Shrutis instruct the disciple, standing aloof; while the man of realization crosses (Avidya) through Illumination alone, backed by the grace of God.

477. Himself knowing his indivisible Self through his own realization and thus becoming perfect, a man should stand face to face with the Atman, with his mind free from dualistic ideas.

478. Jiva and the whole universe are nothing but Brahman, and that liberation means abiding in Brahman, the indivisible Entity.

479. Realizing, at a blessed moment, the Supreme Truth through the above instructions of the Guru, the authority of the Scriptures and his own reasoning, with his senses quieted and the mind concentrated, (the disciple) became immovable in form and perfectly established in the Atman.

481. My mind has vanished, and all its activities have melted, by realizing the identity of the Self and Brahman.

520. The universe is an unbroken series of perceptions of Brahman; hence it is in all respects nothing but Brahman. See this with the eye of illumination and a serene mind, under all circumstances. Is one who has eyes ever found to see all around anything else but forms? Similarly, what is there except Brahman to engage the intellect of a man of realization ?

531. The consciousness, “I am …”, is independent of circumstances; similar is the case with the realization of the knower of Brahman that he is Brahman.

574. There is neither death nor birth, neither a bound nor a struggling soul, neither a seeker after Liberation nor a liberated one – this is the ultimate truth.

[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  www.jpstiga.com ]

“Plain Words” – 3

[The “guest” instructor this time is the great Maharshi disciple Annamalai Swami:]

Continuous attentiveness will only come with long practice. If you are truly watchful, each thought will dissolve at the moment that it appears. But to reach this level of  disassociation you must have no attachments at all. If you have the slightest interest in  any particular thought, it will evade your attentiveness, connect with other thoughts, and  take over your mind for a few seconds. This will happen more easily if you are accustomed to  reacting emotionally to a particular thought.  This “little self” will only give way to the real Self if you meditate constantly.

You cannot wish it away with a few stray thoughts. Try to remember the analogy of the rope which  looks like a snake in the twilight. If you see the rope as a snake, the real nature of the  rope is hidden from you. If you only see the rope, the snake is not there.

When you have that clear and correct perception that the snake never at any time existed, the question of how to kill the snake disappears. Apply this analogy to the “little self” that you are worrying about. If you can understand that this “little self” never at any time had any existence outside your imagination, you will not be concerned about ways and means of getting rid of it.  Don’t make the mistake of imagining that there is some goal to be reached or attained.

If you think like this you will start looking for methods to practice and people to help you.

This just perpetuates the problem you are trying to end. Instead, cultivate the strong  awareness, “I am the Self. I am That. I am Brahman [impersonal Absolute Reality]. I am  everything”. You don’t need any methods to get rid of the wrong ideas you have about  yourself. All you have to do is stop believing them. The best way to do this is to replace  them with ideas which more accurately reflect the real sate of affairs. If you think and  meditate “I am the Self”, it will do you a lot of more good than thinking, “I am the “little  self”. How can I get rid of this “little self” ?   If you desire to gain a proper understanding of your real nature is intense enough, help

will automatically come. If you want to generate an awareness of your real nature you will be immeasurably helped by having contact with a jnani [realized being]. The power and Grace which a jnani radiates quiet the mind and automatically eliminate the wrong ideas you have about yourself. You can make progress by having satang [association] of a realized Guru and by constant spiritual practice. The Guru cannot do everything for you.

If you want to give up the limiting habits of many lifetimes, you must practice constantly.  Most people take the appearance of the snake in the rope to be reality.  Acting on their misperceptions they think up many different ways of killing the snake. They can never

succeed in getting rid of the snake until they give up the idea that there is a snake there  at all. People who want to kill or control the mind have the same problem: they imagine that there is a mind which needs to be controlled and take drastic steps to beat it into

submission. If, instead, they generated the understanding that there is no such thing as the mind, all there problems would come to an end. You must generate the conviction, “I am the all-pervasive consciousness in which all bodies and minds in the world are appearing and disappearing.

I am that consciousness which remains unchanged and unaffected by these appearances and disappearances”. Stabilize yourself in that conviction. That is all you need

to do.  Bhagavan [Ramana Maharshi] once told a story about a man who wanted to bury his own shadow in a deep pit. He dug the pit and stood in such a position that his shadow was on the bottom of it. The man then tried to bury it by covering it with earth. Each time he threw some soil in the hole the shadow appeared on top of it. Of course, he never succeeded in burying the shadow. Many people behave like this when they meditate. They take the mind to be real, try to fight it and kill it, and always fail. These fights against the mind are all mental activities which strengthen the mind instead of weakening it.

If you want to get rid of the mind, all you have to do is understand that it is “not me”. Cultivate the awareness “I am the immanent consciousness”. When that understanding becomes firm, the non-existent mind will not trouble you.  Every time you go to sleep you have the experience of being without a mind. You cannot deny

that you exist while you are asleep and you cannot deny that your mind is not functioning while you are in dreamless sleep. This daily experience should convince you that it is possible to continue your existence without a mind. Of course, you do not have the full experience of consciousness while you are asleep, but if you think about what happens during his state you should come to understand that your existence, the continuity of your Being, is in no way dependent on your mind or your identification with it.

When the mind reappears every morning you instantly jump to the conclusion “This is the real me”. If you reflect on this proposition for some time you will see how absurd it is. If what you really are only exists when the mind is present, you have to accept that you didn’t exist while you were asleep. No one will accept such an absurd conclusion. If you analyze your alternating states you will discover that it is your direct experience that you exist whether you are awake or asleep. You will also discover that the mind only becomes active while you are waking or dreaming. From these simple daily experiences it should be easy to understand that the mind \is something that comes and goes. Your existence is not wiped out each time the mind ceases to function.

I am not telling you some philosophical theory; I am telling you something that you can validate by direct experience in any twenty-four hour period of your life.  Take these facts, which you can discover by directly experiencing them, and investigate them  a little more. When the mind appears every morning don’t jump to the usual conclusion,

“This is me; these thoughts are mine.” Instead, watch these thoughts come and go without  identifying with them in any way. If you can resist the impulse to claim each and every

thought as your own, you will come to a startling conclusion: you will discover that you are the consciousness in which the thoughts appear and disappear. You are allowed to run free.

Like the snake which appears in the rope, you will discover that the mind is only an illusion which appears through ignorance or misperception.  You want some experience which will convince you that what I am saying is true. You can have that experience if you give up your life-long habit of inventing an “I” which claims all thoughts as “mine”. Be conscious of yourself as consciousness alone, watch all the thoughts come and go. Come to the conclusion, by direct experience, that you are really consciousness itself, not its ephemeral contents.  Clouds come and go in the sky but the appearance and disappearance of the clouds doesn’t affect the sky. Your real nature is like the sky, like space. Just remain like the sky and let thought-clouds come and go. If you cultivate this attitude of indifference towards the mind, gradually you will cease to identify yourself with it.  Whenever obstacles come on the path, think of them as “not me”. Cultivate the attitude that the real you is beyond the reach of all troubles and obstacles. There are no obstacles for  the Self. If you can remember that you always are the Self, obstacles will be of no importance.  Only when one starts to do meditation that one becomes aware of the different ways that the mind causes us trouble. This is very true. But one should not worry about any of the obstacles or fear them. One should merely regard them as being not me. They can only cause you trouble while you think that they are your problems.

The obstructing vasanas [remembered thught tendencies] may look like a large mountain which obstructs your progress. Don’t be intimidated by the size. It is not a mountain of rock, it  is a mountain of camphor. If you light one corner of it with the flame of discriminative attention, it will all burn to nothing.  Stand back from the mountain of problems, refuse to acknowledge that they are yours, and they will dissolve and disappear before your eyes.  Don’t be deluded by your thoughts and vasanas. They are always trying to trick you into believing that you are a real person, that the world is real, and that all your problems are real. Don’t fight them; just ignore them. Don’t accept delivery of all the wrong ideas that keep coming to you. Establish yourself in the conviction that you are the Self and that nothing can stick to you or affect you. Once you have that conviction you will find that you automatically ignore the habits of the mind. When the rejection of mental activities becomes continuous and automatic, you will begin to have the experience of the Self.

If you see two strangers quarrelling in the distance you do not give much attention to them because you know that the dispute is none of your business. Treat the contents of your mind in the same way. Instead of filling your mind with thoughts and then organizing fights between them, pay no attention to the mind at all. Rest quietly in the feeling of “I am”, which is consciousness, and cultivate the attitude that all thoughts, all perceptions are “not me”. When you have learned to regard your mind as a distant stranger, you will not pay any attention to all the obstacles it keeps inventing for you.

Mental problems feed on the attention that you give them. The more you worry about them, the stronger they become. If you ignore them, they lose their power and finally vanish.  When maya [Illusion] is totally inactive, that is, when the identity with the body and the mind has  been dropped, there is an awareness of consciousness, of Being. When one is established in that state there is no body, no mind and no world. These three things are just ideas which are brought into an apparent existence when maya is present and active.  When maya is active, the sole effective way to dissolve it is the path shown by Bhagavan.

One must do Self-enquiry and discriminate between what is real and what is unreal. It is the power of maya which makes us believe in the reality of things which have no reality outside our imagination. If you ask, “What are these imaginary things?” the answer is, “Everything that is not the formless Self”. The Self alone is real; everything else is a figment of our imagination.  It is not helpful to enquire why there is maya and how it operates. If you are in a boat which is leaking, you don’t waste time asking whether the hole was made by an Italian, a Frenchman or an Indian. You just plug the leak. Don’t worry about where maya comes from.

Put all your energy into escaping from its effect. If you try to investigate the origin of maya with your mind you are doomed to fail because any answer you come up with will be a maya answer. If you want to understand how maya operates and originates you should establish yourself in the Self, the one place where you can be free of it, and then watch how it takes you over each time you fail to keep your attention there.

[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  www.jpstiga.com ]

“Plain Words” – 2

Getting back to the issue of counting, comparison can be loosely made to the old movie the “The Matrix“.  One particular aspect of the movie is the high level of programming required to run the VR, Virtual Reality that allows such realistic interaction between the many Avatars, the program tokens representing the point of view of each person sharing in the experience of that Virtual Reality.  When person no.1 does x, person no.2 must be ready to react in a manner consistent with the chosen interaction x.  With many Avatars interacting with many others. all making a number of choices every second or so, the programming has to be very robust to cover all the possibilities.

The ancient sage, Sri Shankara offered as a simple analogy a large earthen vessel with a lamp inside.  Many holes were fashioned through the walls of the vessel so that the light would shine out in many places.  These many holes were to be analogous to the many points of view in Consciousness that seem to be the many Individuals. Yet only one Light, one Consciousness, illumines all. So too, the many computer Avatars in the movie VR are only newly constructed points of view within one master computer program that projects the highly interactive Virtual Reality.  In that Virtual Reality, the many Avatars are not really many Individuals. Nor is the particular computer Avatar, that one identifies as oneself, an Individual either.

So, are there actually many Avatars, are there actually many Individuals in the Waking state, or is there only one Consciousness ?  Furthermore, whether in a supposedly computer program within a movie or, or within the Waking State Dream, the number of enlightened, however few, and the unenlightened, however many, all total to Zero in terms of individuals, and to One in terms of Consciousness.  Computer Avatars and apparent Individuals are fleeting and insubstantial, ever-changing, impermanent, and truly unreal throughout the whole time or lifetime of their appearance.  What is program code ?  What is a Thought–constructed Waking Dream ?  All these are insubstantial, ever changing, appearances without substance.  Consciousness, also Existence – Bliss, is the only changeless, enduring, and truly substantial Reality.

To find and merge in the one self, God, is the sole purpose and meaning of apparent Life.  In the Eternity of the forever Un–born with no beginning in Time, and forever enduring in an Infinite future, each momentary, indefinable, insubstantial thought amounts to nothing.  All these nothings put together seem to constitute the periodic episodes of the Waking Dream life.  And yet the same Self is also aware of the succession of Dreams in sleep and the no–thought Peace of Deep Dreamless Sleep.  Spiritual practice then, to repeat, is to discover and merge in the true Self, God, the sole Non-Dual Reality.  Of the several traditions helpful in this endeavor, Ajata Vata Advaita Vedanta, No–Birth Non-Duality is the tradition represented here, a tradition old and vast in resources, perhaps the widest path to Liberation.

[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  www.jpstiga.com ]

“Plain Words”

[Lapses in health have delayed blogging for some time.  Finally, with speech-to-text the authors own words become available.  Quotation again should be possible soon.]

One feels that one is a Person characterized by a particular Body experiencing some part of the World in the course of Time.  So to does a Dream character feel himself to be a person characterized by a particular Dream-Body experiencing some part of the Dream World in the course of Dream Time. The 2 impressions are not different in kind, but perhaps only in degree of vividness, seemingly consistent continuation, duration, and so on.  In fact both are the product of Thought projecting a Dream World, projecting a Waking World, and a person in each case experiencing that World. Thought is itself is an insubstantial ripple in the vast Infinite Ocean of Consciousness. That Consciousness which could be called God, or the Self when one has the deep feeling “I exist” – that “I” is the Self; and that Existence is also the Self, is God, is Supreme Consciousness.  To awaken from the Waking Dream into unlimited subjective Consciousness is called Enlightenment, Liberation, and is also known by a number of other terms.

As we continue with “Plain Words”, the course out of the illusion of living in the Waking World as a Person will be charted.  Such is not new information, but has been known for thousands of years by a relatively few enlightened Sages.  However the numbers game between the small number of enlightened Sages and a large number of unenlightened persons is an unreal one, because there are no such persons. And numbers themselves, arithmetic itself, mathematics itself is a thought construct, not fundamental Reality.  So the numbers, the probabilities should not be considered overwhelming because they too are unreal. Among one of the first things to note is the objectivity of the Dream and the objectivity of the Waking State experience.  The Self, God, is purely subjective Consciousness and is the only not known by another.  Not known by another, the Self cannot be described, cannot be conceived of, for all of that is downstream in the objective direction of Mind.

To find the subjective sense of “I” and existence, to deeply experience “I exist” as Consciousness, is to begin the path of Awakening, is to proceed toward Enlightenment in order to enjoy Liberation.

Besides being Consciousness itself and Existence itself, God is said to be Happiness itself.  Happiness, the motivation of all effort, is all the motivation one needs to commence, complete, and enjoy the results of the path to Enlightenment.  The subjective Self–Inquiry as it has been called, centering around the sense of “I”, “Who am I ?”, “Where does this sense of “I” arise from ?”, and “I exist” – this is the path.  That turning inward to subjective sense of “I exist”, to answer the question “Who am I ?”, “What am I ?”. “Where does the sense of “I” arise from ? – this is to move entirely in the subjective direction, away from all the other that is objective, this is to practice.  The practice begins in periods of meditation and spills over into being the background of all other thought and all activity; and finally becomes the entire experience.

Beginning with the next addition of “Plain Words” we draw from ancient & modern Wisdom is hallowed words & words anew.  But inner experience – not words – constitutes the Path.

[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  www.jpstiga.com ]

Shankara’s “Srih Advaitanubhutih” or “Non-Dual Perception”

(translated by Rmamoorthy & Nome, [with square bracket comments added])

The intent of this text is repetitive analogies that aid transcendence of the strikingly convincing appearance of Multiplicity in the World. Apparent objects are actually only perceptions of such “objects”. Perceptions are actually only thoughts. Thoughts are actually only illusory “waves” (vritti s) in Consciousness, the single Non-Dual Consciousness. The self-luminous & unmistakable Reality of your own Existence is the Self, the only Real,

[33] Even though only 1, the light of the Sun seems to be broken into many when filtered through a grid of netting, Likewise, even though only the 1, the all-pervasive Self appears as if many.

[34] Just as holes & such “deficiencies” in the net do not truly diminish or affect the light of the Sun, so likewise the deficiencies of appearing “many” do not affect the all-pervasive Self.

[35] When holes in a net are destroyed, the passing sunlight is indeed not destroyed. Likewise, when persons, places, & things cease to exist, the all-pervasive Self is not destroyed.

[36] As the Knowing Principle illuminating the Body, Senses, Life Force, the imagining Mind, the discriminating Intellect, Ignorance, & others mental functions, likewise, the Self illumines the Ego, the one who erroneously lays claim to these. Truly the “I” is not the Body, the which I objectively “seen” by the Self, nor the apparently “seeing” Senses, nor the nor the multiple Life functions. I am not the shifting Mind.

[37] The Self is not the changing Intellect, nor insentient ignorance, the Body, Senses, & so on, because they are at best temporary constructions.

[to be continued]

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  www.jpstiga.com ]

Shankara’s “Srih Advaitanubhutih” or “Non-Dual Perception”

(translated by Rmamoorthy & Nome, [with square bracket comments added])

The intent of this text is repetitive analogies that aid transcendence of the strikingly convincing appearance of Multiplicity in the World. Apparent objects are actually only perceptions of such “objects”. Perceptions are actually only thoughts. Thoughts are actually only illusory “waves” (vritti s) in Consciousness, the single Non-Dual Consciousness. The self-luminous & unmistakable Reality of your own Existence is the Self, the only Real,

[23] Just as by the shining of the Sun, mirrors & water surfaces seem as if shining, so likewise the Scriptures are as if “shining” by the shining of the Self.

[24] Just as flour & such, being mixed with sugar become sweet, being connected with the Self, Scriptures become uplifting like the Self.

[27] Just as in different containers there exists only the 1 same Space,

so likewise in different Bodies, there exists only the 1 same Self.

[28] Just as in different containers Space itself does not indeed move,

so also in all various Bodies, the Self does not move.

[29] Just as, when containers are destroyed, the Space inside is not destroyed, so likewise when Bodies are destroyed, the Self is not destroyed.

[to be continued]

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  www.jpstiga.com ]

Sri Shankara’s “Srih Advaitanubhutih” or “Non-Dual Perception”

(translated by Rmamoorthy & Nome, [with square bracket comments added])

The intent of this text is repetitive analogies that aid transcendence of the strikingly convincing appearance of Multiplicity in the World. Apparent objects are actually only perceptions of such “objects”. Perceptions are actually only thoughts. Thoughts are actually only illusory “waves” (vritti s) in Consciousness, the single Non-Dual Consciousness. The self-luminous & unmistakable Reality of your own Existence is the Self, the only Real,

[15] Just as, by the destruction of the bubble there is not, at any time, destruction of the water, so likewise by the destruction of the apparent manifest Universe, there is not indeed destruction of the Self.

[16] Purity & such pertaining to the shed skin of a snake do not pertain to the snake [snakes shed their skin periodically so the new skin layer underneath compensates for wear & tear & growth]. Likewise, purity & such related to the gross Body & such do not pertain to this [Non-Dual] Self.

[17] Just as the snake does not consider the shed skin that is discarded as being itself, so always the enlightened Sage does not consider the physical Body & the Mind that he/she renounces as being the Self.

[18] Just as by the destruction of the shed skin. there is indeed no destruction of the snake, so, likewise by the destruction of the physical Body & the Mind. there will be no destruction of the Self.

[20] Just as iron, wood, & other substances, when 1^st being put into fire, appear like fire, so too the gross Body & the Mind, both being united with one’s own Self, appear as if the Self.

[to be continued]

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  www.jpstiga.com ]

Shankara’s “Srih Advaitanubhutih” or “Non-Dual Perception”

(translated by Rmamoorthy & Nome, [with square bracket comments added])

The intent of this text is repetitive analogies that aid transcendence of the strikingly convincing appearance of Multiplicity in the World. Apparent objects are actually only perceptions of such “objects”. Perceptions are actually only thoughts. Thoughts are actually only illusory “waves” (vritti s) in Consciousness, the single Non-Dual Consciousness. The self-luminous & unmistakable Reality of your own Existence is the Self, the only Real,

[7] Just as Space, though only1, appears as if 2 [as when inside & outside a container like an earthen pot for instance ], being conditioned [by the illusory Mind], so likewise, this Self, though only 1 & complete, being so conditioned [as if all this apparent Universe], appears as if 2 [or some 10⁸⁰ particles in the apparently knowable Universe].

[8] Consciousness, which is the cause [of Mind & the illusory Universe it projects] seems so conditioned, but stays as the Consciousness, which is also the effect imagined, & is not altered as the Space of a pot, a cloud, or the clay making up the pot. [Consciousness like Space] is not different anywhere.

[9] Just as Space with limitation [as when enclosed in pots & other containers or objects] removed is only 1, likewise, this Self, with limitation [Mind-created Delusion] removed, is only1 ever.

[10] Just as, with or from Space there is not another “space”, so too because of oneness of the Self, there is no other “self” that could originate from the [single Non-Dual] Self.

[11] Just as water can appear as a cloud instead of the form of liquid water, likewise indeed, the Self, by association with Delusion, appears in the form of the Universe.

[12] Water sometimes appears as a cloud. Upon the cloud’s destruction as rain, there is indeed no destruction of the water.

[13] Likewise, this Self indeed appears, by association with Delusion (Illusion), as the manifest Universe. By the apparent destruction of the apparent manifest Universe, there is not indeed destruction of one’s own Self at any time [as with death of the illusory Body, Deep Dreamless Sleep, the “end of Time”, Enlightenment, whatever, …].

[14] Just as a bubble, arising in water, appears as if separate from water, so likewise this manifest Universe & it’s Multiplicity appears as if separate from the Self.

[to be continued]

[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  www.jpstiga.com ]

Sri Shankara’s “Srih Advaitanubhutih” or “Non-Dual Perception”

(translated by Rmamoorthy & Nome, [with square bracket comments added])

The intent of this text is repetitive analogies that aid transcendence of the strikingly convincing appearance of Multiplicity in the World. Apparent objects are actually only perceptions of such “objects”. Perceptions are actually only thoughts. Thoughts are actually only illusory “waves” (vritti s) in Consciousness, the single Non-Dual Consciousness. The self-luminous & unmistakable Reality of your own Existence is the Self, the only Real,

[2]  Just as, due to a defect in the eye [diplopia due to drunkenness, poison, disease, etc.], the Moon, even though 1, appears as if 2, likewise, due to Illusion [being fooled] (Delusion [fooling oneself]), the Self [Non-Dual Reality], even though 1, falsely appears as if 2 [or immensely multiple as the Universe].

[3]  Just as, for those devoid of a defect in the eye [diplopia, etc.], the Moon is only 1, likewise, for those devoid of the defect of delusion, the Self, indeed, is ever 1.

[4]  Being 2 appears due to a defect in the eye, in the case of the Moon. So, by its own delusion, does the World (the Universe). just as being 2 is false in the case of the Moon, so, likewise, Duality is false in the case of the Self.

[5]  An effect of the Self, [such as Mind-created ] “Space”, will not arise without the Self [being the Consciousness in which Minds appear to function]. “Completeness” [strikingly apparent, detailed, & vast] of this effect being accomplished, how much more [amazing] is this so for the completeness of the Self !

[6]  Just as Space, being the illusory reflection. is only 1 & not, indeed, 2-fold, so, this Self, being the Cause, is only 1 for those who really know.

[to be continued]

[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  www.jpstiga.com ]

NMT – “No-Me Teaching” Self Knowledge part 1:

[selections based on Master Nome’s Self Knowledge]

The one, Absolute, Non-Dual Self alone exists Eternally.

The Self neither begins nor ends, neither expands nor reduces, has no phase or condition, & is ever just as it is. The Self alone is present always.

Knowledge of the Self is based upon the seeker having a firm conviction in the Identity, or Non-Duality, of That & thou as expressed in the Upanishadic Mahavakya: “Thou art That.” This reveals the Identity of Self & the Absolute (Brahman).  Seeking Realization of the Absolute, Brahman, seek to realize the Self  as it truly is [not the apparent, personal individual “self” based on the Body]. The Realization of the Self is our only true, natural state. Any other state is Illusion (the Perceptions that fool us into feeling limited to the apparent, personal individual “self” based on the Body) & the product of Delusion (fooling ourselves into identifying with the apparent, personal individual “Mind” based on the Body).  The ultimate nature of Illusion is non-existence (that is, it does not really exist).

[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  www.jpstiga.com ]

Ramana Maharshi Vedanta Analogies, & Ashtavakra part 2

[for a while, the following will preface all these blogs – so please skip over if seen before]

100 Billion

In order to hint at how serious this Blog is, let the author unequivocally state that the Knowledge here imparted, none of it original, none to be credited to the author, that Knowledge is THE MOST VALUABLE treasure that exists. If hypothetically offered 100 Billion dollars to forgo this Knowledge, that offer or any other would be disregarded in the blink of an eye.  Even with all the good that might be accomplished with $100B, this Knowledge is beyond the World & comes from beyond the Mind. This is no hyperbole.

[reprise of the prior Maharshi analogy in his own words]

Consciousness is the Screen on which all the pictures come & go. The Screen is real, the pictures are mere shadows on it.  Because by long  habit we have been regarding the 3 states as real as if the Real that we call the state of mere Consciousness.

[a similar “Panchadasi” analogy quoted by Sri Ramana   Maharshi]

A light that is kept on the stage of a theatre. When a drama is being played, the light is there, which illuminates, without any distinction, all the actors, whether they be kings or servants or dancers, & also all the audience. That light will be there before the drama begins, during the performance & also after the performance is over. Similarly, the Light within, that is, the Self, gives light to the Ego [ahamkara], the Intellect [buddhi], the Memory [chitta]. & the Mind [manas] without itself being subject to processes of growth & decay.

[Maharshi comments about Consciousness as the “Witness” & the “3 states”  of Mind]

Actually, the idea of the Self being the Witness is only in the Mind; it is not the Absolute Truth of the Self.  Witnessing is relative to objects witnessed.  Both the Witness & his object are mental creations.  There is only 1 state, that of Consciousness or Consciousness of Existence.

Although during Deep Dreamless Sleep & other states [“unconsciousness” of various kinds] there is no feeling of the Ego, that Self remains attributeless, & continues to shine of itself.

The 3 states of Waking, Dream & Deep Dreamless Sleep cannot be real. They simply come & go.  The Real will always exist. The True “I” or Existence that alone persists in all the 3 states is Real. The other 3 are not real & so it is not possible to say they have such & such a degree of Reality.  We may roughly put it like this. Existence or Consciousness is the only Reality.  Consciousness plus waking, we call Waking. Consciousness plus sleep, we call Deep Dreamless Sleep. Consciousness plus dream, we call Dream.

There is no difference between Dream & the Waking State except that the Dream is short & the Waking long.  Both are the result of the Mind.  Because the waking state is long, we imagine that it is our real state.

[Ashtavakra selectioms]

15.1 – The pure-hearted man fulfils the supreme purpose of Life through the instructions of his Guru, even though they be casually imparted.

15.4 – You are not the body. You do not have a Body.  You are neither the Do-er nor the Enjoy-er [includes sufferer].  You are Consciousness only – the timeless Witness & ever free, so live happily.

15.5 – Attachment & aversion are attributes of the Mind. You are not the Mind & the Mind does not belong to you. Free from scheming & doubting, know yourself to be Consciousness itself, changeless, undivided, free.

15.6 – Knowing that the Self is the Self of all beings, & that all beings “abide” in the Self, be free of Ego – personal identity & the sense of “mine”.

15.7 – You are That Consciousness in which the Universes rise like waves in the Sea.

15.11 – In the infinite Ocean of the Self, universes rise & fall like waves.

15.14 – Whatever you perceive is your Self & you alone. How can bracelets, armlets, & anklets be other than the gold they are made of ?

15.15 – Renounce all sense of distinction, such as: “I am this one,” & “I am not that one.”

15.16 – Your Ignorance alone creates the Universe. In Reality you are the One that alone exists.  There is nothing other than yourself.

15.17 – One who knows for certain that the Universe is Illusion, one becomes desireless, Pure Consciousness itself, & finds Peace as if nothing else existed.

15.19 – Do not disturb your Mind with acquiring or releasing anything. Abide at peace the bliss of the Self.

16.5 – When the Mind is free of opposites like: “This I have done” & “This remains to be done,” one becomes indifferent to merit, wealth, pleasure, & also Liberation.

16.6 – One who is averse to Sense objects avoids them. One who desires them becomes attached. But he who neither rejects nor desires is neither unattached nor attached.

16.7 – Desire & Aversion, Attachment & Non-attachment – all derive from an absence of discrimination. 

16.9 – One who is attached to the World thinks renouncing it will relieve his suffering.  One who is attached to nothing is free & does not feel miserable even in the World.

16.10 – He who retains the feeling of “I-ness” even in regard to Liberation, is neither enlightened nor a true seeker.  He suffers his own misery.

17.2 – The knower of Truth is never troubled in this World nor inwardly in any way, for he knows the Self fills the whole Universe.

17.4  – Rare is the one with not attachment to things he has enjoyed, nor hankering after things he has not enjoyed,

17.5 – Those who desire pleasure & those who desire Liberation are both common in the World. Rare though is the great soul who desires neither enjoyment nor Liberation.

17.6 – Only the enlightened has no attachment to what is admirable, prosperous, pleasure, Life or Death.

17.7 – The man of Knowledge neither cares for the Universe nor desires its dissolution.  He lives happily on whatever comes his way.

17.8 – Knowing the Self, with Mind empty & at Peace, the Sage lives happily while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, or eating.

17.9 – There is no attachment or non-attachment for one in whom the Ocean of the World has dried up. His gaze is withdrawn inward, his actions are without motive, his Senses seek nothing.

17.12 – Whether seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, taking, speaking, or walking, the great soul is beyond action & non-action, & truly free.

17.13 – The liberated soul is free from desires & attachments to objects everywhere.  He does not blame or praise, give or take, rejoice or become disappointed, ever free.

17.14 – Whether he meets a women full of love, or death approaching him, the great soul remains undisturbed, centered in his own Self Nature.  He is truly free.

17.15 – The Sage of equal vision sees no difference between happiness & suffering, man & woman, adversity & success.  Everything is seen to be the same.

17.16 – Having transcended his role as an individual person, the liberated Sage has neither aggression nor compulsion to show compassion, neither arrogance nor humility, anxiety nor wonder.  His Worldly life is exhausted.

17.17 – The liberated man has neither aversion toward nor craving for Sense objects, With his Mind ever detached, he is unconcerned with what is attained & what remains un-attained.

17.19 – Desires extinguished, free of thoughts of “I” & “mine,” & “This I am”, knowing for certain that there is no objective thing that exists, for the knower of Truth, though he appears to act, he in truth performs no actions.

[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  www.jpstiga.com ]

Ramana Maharshi Vedanta Analogies, & Ashtavakra

[for a while, the following will preface all these blogs – so please skip over if seen before]

100 Billion

In order to hint at how serious this Blog is, let the author unequivocally state that the Knowledge here imparted, none of it original, none to be credited to the author, that Knowledge is THE MOST VALUABLE treasure that exists. If hypothetically offered 100 Billion dollars to forgo this Knowledge, that offer or any other would be disregarded in the blink of an eye.  Even with all the good that might be accomplished with $100B, this Knowledge is beyond the World & comes from beyond the Mind. This is no hyperbole.

[some Ramana Maharshi quotes]

Since you are Consciousness there is no need to attain or cultivate it. All that you have to do is to give up being aware of [misidentified with attached to … ] other things, that is of the not-Self. If one gives up being aware of them then pure Consciousness alone remains, & that is the Self.

Your present knowledge is due to the ego & is only relative. Relative knowledge & memory requires an object & subject.

The state of Self-Realization is not attaining something new or reaching some goal which is far away, but simply being that which you always are & which you always have been. All that is needed is that you give up your Realization of the not-true as true,  …  regarding as Real that which is not real.

That stage transcends the Seer [subject] & the Seen [object]. There is no Seer [subject] there to see anything. The Seer [subject] who is seeing all this now ceases to exist & the Self alone remains.

Realization is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything. If one has realized, one is that which alone is & which alone has always been. One cannot describe that state. One can only be that.

If the idea “I am the Body” is accepted, the selves are multiple. The state in which this idea vanishes is the Self since in that state there are no other objects. It is for this reason that the Self is regarded as one only.

The Body itself does not exist in the natural outlook of the real Self, but only in the extroverted outlook of the Mind which is deluded by the power of Illusion [Maya, avidya, ajnana],

[a Ramana Maharshi analogy]

The 3 states [Waking, Dream, Deep Dreamless Sleep ] come & go, but you are always there. It is like a cinema. The Screen [~ Consciousness ] is always there but several types of pictures appear on the Screen & then disappear. Nothing sticks to the Screen, it remains a screen. Similarly, you remain your own Self in all the 3 states. If you know that, the 3 states will not trouble you, just as the pictures which appear on the Screen do not stick to it. On the Screen, you sometimes see a huge ocean with endless waves; that disappears. Another time, you see fire spreading all around; that too disappears. The Screen is there on both occasions. Did the Screen get wet with the water or did it get burned by the fire ?  Nothing affected the Screen. In the same way, the things that happen during the Wakeful, Dream & Sleep states do not affect you at all; you remain your own Self.  All these 3 states come & go. The Self is not bothered; it has only 1 state.

[more Ashtavakra Gita selections]

7.3 – In the shoreless Ocean of myself, a World is imagined. I am peaceful & formless.  In this alone I “abide”.

7.4 – The Self is not in objects, nor are objects in the pure & infinite Self.  The Self is Free of attachment & desire, ever tranquil, in this Truth alone I abide.

7.5 – Truly I am Pure Consciousness & the World is like a passing magic show. In my Self there are neither thoughts of acceptance or rejection.

8.1 – When the Mind desires or grieves over anything, accepts or rejects anything, feels joy or anger, is pleased or displeased by anything – such is Bondage.

8.2 – When the Mind does not desires or grieves over anything, accepts or rejects anything, feels joy or anger, is pleased or displeased by anything – such is Liberation.

8.3 – If the Mind is attached to the experience of any Sense Perception, this is Bondage.  When the Mind is not attached to the experience of any Sense Perception, this is Liberation.

8.4 – When “I” appears, there is Bondage.  When there is no “I”, there is Liberation.  Knowing this to be the Truth, neither accept or reject anything.

9.8 – Renounce desire through deep detachment.  Renounce the objects of the World, & renunciation of desire will follow.  Now you may live as you like.

10.1 – Give up desire, the main enemy, along with gain, itself full of loss, & all earnest efforts that give rise to the other two. Practice indifference to everything.

10.2 – Look upon friends, lands, wealth, houses, wives, gifts, … & all apparent good fortune as a magic show or dream lasting some 3 or 5 days.

10.3 – Know that where desires prevail, there is the World’s Samasara.  Establish yourself in firm non-attachment, & be free of desire & be happy.

10.4 – Desire constitutes the only Bondage.  To be free of desire is Liberation.  Cultivate non-attachment to Worldly objects & joyfully realize the Self.

10.5 – You are One, pure Consciousness.  The World is inert & unreal.  Even Ignorance is unreal.  So what is left to desire or know ?

10.6 – Possessions, children, wives, bodies, pleasures – these have been lost to you, life after life.  However attached as you have been, still they are now lost forever.

10.8 – For how many lifetimes have you done hard & painful labor with body, Mind, & speech ?  Why not bring all that to an end ?

11.3 – One who knows for certain that adversity & success come & go according to Karma controls his Senses & has neither likes nor dis-likes.

11.4 – Knowing for certain that birth & death, happiness & suffering, come & go in accord with Karma, one sees that it is not possible to accomplish desires.  He favors “non-action”, so that even when engaged in actions, he remains unattached.

11.5 – Anxiety produces misery & nothing else.  Dropping all desires, he is free, happy, serene, desireless, & at peace everywhere.

11.6 – Realizing: “I am not the Body, nor is the Body my possession – I am Consciousness itself”, one attains the Absolute & no longer thinks of things done or left undone.

11.7 – “Truly all is my own Self.” This conviction brings freedom from desire & imagination, One who knows this is no longer concerned with what he has done, what he has not done.

12.2 – Having relinquished attachment to objects of Sense Perception, & not expecting Perception of the Self to be possible, my Mind remains free from agitation & distraction, I remain at peace.

12.8 – He who has achieved this has achieved the goal of Life.  He who is of such nature is has done what has to be done.

13.6 – Losing nothing by either sleep nor effort, abandoning all thoughts of winning or losing, I live as I please.

14.2 – When desire has been eliminated, of what use to me are wealth, friends, learning, scriptures, & philosophy, or those Senses that rob us ?

14.4 – The inner condition of one whose doubts have ended, who acts outwardly like one still ignorant – his actions can be understood only by like souls.

[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  www.jpstiga.com ]