Discovery of the Mind

Nobody, not even the greatest inventors and discoverers ever really “discovered” or “invented” anything, they just became aware of a concept, or a possibility that was there all along. Two plus two was four, even before we learned how to count. The Sun was the Sun long before humans became aware of and started to contemplate the great big yellow object in the sky.

The Earth did not become round, when we “discovered” it was not flat. Gravity existed even before it was discovered, and it prevented group of prehistoric men from falling off the end of the earth on their way from Africa (that was not yet to be named and was not yet to be discovered as the birthplace of the human race) to what was eventually discovered and named as the five continents. The Americas did not need to be discovered by Columbus: the indigenous people (and apparently, the Vikings) already knew that it was here.

We also do not need to re-discover what everyone “knows”: we just need to learn the facts of life, mathematics, science, religion from those, who discovered and “knew” it before us. We do not need to (although some people do) reinvent the wheel, fire, the telephone, the electric bulb. We also do not need to know how exactly do they work, or how does one make one from scratch, in order to use them and take them for granted.

I am old enough to remember the first computers, and when I was in grade 8, I was lucky enough to be one of the few Hungarians at the time, which actually saw one. I earned the right to go there by winning a competition during a math camp. (Yeah, I was a geek, I used to spend my summers contemplating math problems, and I did it because I LIKED math, I am only slightly ashamed to admit that and to my defense, this was before I discovered the opposite sex, and the need to look cool)

I remember The Computer, that took up most of the hangar like building. It was the size of a small house. A team of about fifty people attended to this computer around the clock: it needed to be constantly adjusted, tinkered with, not to mention keeping it from overheating and burning itself into a heap of useless mess. This incredible machine was capable of all kind of miraculous things: it could compute faster than humans, it would solve math problems, and store an incredible amount of data….or at least an amount of data what seemed to be incredible and at a speed that seemed to be miraculous at the time.

A few weeks ago, we have celebrated my grandson’s seventh birthday. The chip in his birthday card that sang a personalized birthday song to him has a faster processor, and bigger memory than that first computer I’ve seen and thought to be an absolute miracle. In fact, an average phone this days said to be more intelligent than the computer that was used to guide and bring back the astronauts to and from the Moon. I am also old enough to remember when Man landed on the moon, and I was lucky enough that my family was one of the first families to own a television set, on which I, and half of the village watched this incredible, and almost unbelievable event.

My grandson did not need to discover the electric stove, the microwave, the television set, or the computer. When he was not even a year old, and could not talk or walk yet, he already knew how to change his favorite Sesame Street DVDs on the DVD player. He knows how to turn on the light, without contemplating electricity. He learned how to operate a joystick before he knew how to tie his own shoes. He learned how to ride a bicycle without having to invent one. He learned how to skate, without discovering how refrigeration works, or exactly what temperature must the water be cooled down to in order to make ice. He learns something new every day, and like all children, he learns at an amazing speed, much faster than adults do.


Yet, he has much learning and discovering to do: he might be expert at playing videogames, but can not read the instructions. He knows two plus two makes four, but he can’t add beyond the number of fingers he has. He knows dogs are dogs and cats are cats, but he does not know, that although they are both mammals, they are different species.

There are also some things he thinks he knows, some things he believes, which are…ahem…not true, at least, not entirely. He believes, Santa Claus put the gifts under the Christmas Three. He believes that there is a correlation between eating carrots and excellent whistling skills. He believes, that our parrot who took off one day and flew off into the wilderness of New Westminster is out there, somewhere, alive, well, “married” a crow, and is a loving daddy to crow babies, who have Mohawks, just like Carlito. He believes that his grandma can turn bad people and bad children into toads. Well, this last thing is partially true: I have an interesting ability to meet Princes, who inevitably turn into Toads.

Individuals “discover”, “invent” or learn about new things every day, by force (you are old enough to know how to get a job) or by choice (I am old enough to learn how to drive a car) mostly by accident, and sometimes after many years of obsessive search for that certain something that needs to be discovered or invented. Their discoveries either cement the truth of common knowledge, and provide further proof the Truth That Everyone Knows is the Truth, or challenge the truth to eventually, when enough people change their mind, to expand the collective mind and morph into a knew Truth. Even the wildest discoveries, the most incredible inventions, after enough people are either convinced themselves or being convinced by others of their Trueness become common knowledge, facts that EVERYONE KNOWS or gadgets that EVERYONE KNOWS HOW TO USE.

But we do not need to know everything in order to know everything we know. We do not need to know, for example, how build, or program a computer in order to use it. We do not need to know the laws of aerodynamics, we do not need to build an airplane from scratch and we do not need to learn how to fly an airplane, in order to fly. We do not need to know the molecular structure of sugar, we do not need to know cellular biology in order to know, eating too much of the substance might result in cellulite. Much happens to us this way or another, whether we know it or not.

Certain truths need to change, certain discoveries or inventions to be made, before new ones can develop. We needed to “discover” fire, before the steam engine could have been invented. We needed to “discover” electricity, before the light bulb could have been invented. We needed to “discover” that the earth was revolving around the earth, before we could have contemplated flying and landing on the moon. Humans could have not phantom such thing as the internet before the discovery of radio and television. It is safe, but somewhat disturbing to attest, that there are still much that is “out there”, that we can not even phantom, begin to conceptualize until some or all of what we KNOW will be discovered to be rubbish.

The truth, even though is out there, unchanging and unaffected, does not become known until not only it is “invented” or “discovered”, but is believed to be true. Our beliefs change with each new theory being proved, our beliefs change into knowledge with each new belief cemented, but the Truth…the Truth does not change, no matter what we think, believe, or believe we know.

The human mind, individually and collectively appears to be designed and programmed to for learning and discovering, for theoretician, questioning, proving and disproving theories, and ultimately to achieve a theory that can not be disproved: a theory that is not a theory, but an All En compassing, Universal, Ultimate Truth.

The problem is, that much what we theorize and prove to be true eventually, with new discoveries proves to be wrong and we, humans, either collectively or individually, HATE to be proven wrong. We will ridicule and if we can, down right kill anything and anybody who is trying to prove us wrong. It took the Catholic Church 359 years to “rehabilitate” Galileo, who made the discovery that the Earth was revolving around the Sun, not the other way around, as every good Catholic knew it to be true. Galileo was condemned by the Inquisition, and surely, spent those three hundred and some years in hell for this blasphemy until the Pope himself declared him to be Right, not Wrong, and he could finally go to retire in Heaven.

We do not like to change our mind, because knowing “the truth” and “doing the right things” makes us feel safe, that is, free from pain, suffering, sickness, imminent death, and eternal damnation in hell after death. You can’t keep on with evolution and survival of our species, if we do not figure out how to stay alive individually and en mass. Being safe from all those evil things, we can focus on energies on the more enjoyable and pleasurable aspects of the Evolution business: that is, we can eat, drink, be marry, marry, and reproduce via this wonderful process that we invented, and like to call “sex”. However, we must be careful because too much pleasure leads to danger. We need to KNOW our limits, we need to know what to eat and drink, how much, how often, we need to know what to avoid like the plague (we need to learn how to avoid the plague!), we need to know with whom, (or what) we can have sex with, how often, how frequently, and in what positions. In order to HAVE someone to reproduce with, we need to know how to attract our partners, how to alter our appearance, how to act, how to stand out enough to be noticed, but not enough to be ostracized, we have to be adventurous, but we need to be safe. We need to know how to attract, catch, and keep the perfect lover. We need to know what gadgets and appliances we need to survive, and we need to know a lot in order to get a job where we can make enough money so we can maintain our pleasurable and pain free life. We need to know about global warming and what to do if there is an earthquake. We need to identify evil doers, we need to prevent terrorism, we need to bomb the hell out of those evil doers and we need to find Osama Bin Laden.
We need to know how to become richer, more beautiful, bigger, smaller, more endowed, less needy. We need to know how to drive while simultaneously learning a new language, listening to classical music, feeding formula to the baby in the back seat, and tweeting our friends to update our status.

We need to increase our productivity and decrease our stress level. We need to boost our immunity and lower our cholesterol. We need to exercise more and watch TV less, but we need to know what happened on the latest episode of Real Life. We need to send a virtual hug to our virtual friend who we virtually never talk in Real Life any more. We need to send a virtual kiss to our virtual new lover, and we need to have a talk with our friend with benefits about whether they are ready or not to take our relationship to the new level. We need to know the rules, we need to know how to break the rules, we need to think positively, we need to know how to stop negative thinking, we need to know how to communicate, relate, correlate, coagulate, conjugate, copulate.

And, if we are successfully avoid AIDS, SARS, ADD, ADHD, Alzerheimers Disease, High Colesterol, Cellulite, Erectile Difficulties, Weak Bladder, Bird Flu, Mad Cow Disease if we survive Global Warming, Global Economic Crisis and Global Wars, then there is still the War on Drugs, War on Terrorism, War of The Wars to win. There is 2012, the End of the World As We Know It to contemplate, and there is the Jackpot of Lotto Max to win. And at the end….oh, terrors of all terrors, oh fear of all fears we are successful, if we do not fail, if we do the right things all the time, if we are in the right place at the right time all the time, at the end, we will grow old, develop wrinkles, and we will die.

That is, if someone does not discover the way to change all of this. That is, if someone does not discover a way to eliminate suffering from our life. That is, if someone does not create a way to achieve world and inner peace. That is if someone does not discover a place where there is no war, no sickness, there is no depression, there is only peace, contentment, joy, and Love. Someone should discover such a place, before it is too late. Someone should invent ways to get there, before it is too late.

Guess what: such a place is already discovered, and the ways to get there already invented. In fact, like all other discoveries and inventions, it never needed to be discovered or invented at all. It has been there all along, accessible to anyone, any time, yet it is out of this world, in another dimension. It is in another State of Mind.

Yes, it is all in my head. It is also in yours. It is in the Collective mind of Humans, in the Mind of the Universe, right next to Universal Consciousness.

This secret place, Nirvana, Heaven, Nothingness and Everythingness is in your mind, the way to go there is through your mind and the key to open up infinite power, possibilities and resources is in your mind.

Are you ready to go there? All you have to do is to Change Your Mind.

I Think, Therefore My Mind Exists

To honor Descartes, the sixteenth century French mathematician, scientist and philosopher, who coined the famous statement “I think, therefore I am” (Cogito ergo sum), the Mind-Body question (that is, whether mind and body are separate entities and if one can exist without the other) has been named after him as the “Cartesian Dilemma”.

Descartes was the first to contest, that the mind is a non physical substance. Consciousness, and self awareness, he argued exists separately from intelligence, which he believed was a faculty of the brain. In his view, a person does not ‘exist’ without self awareness and conscience: our thinking process, our mind creates the self and simultaneously an awareness of this self.

Our mind is more than a computing machine, a “ghost in the machine” that keeps the body running, and our existence existing. Our Self, that is the Entity known as “I”, is much more than the sum of our thoughts, yet it is constantly being created and re-created by our thoughts, emotions and feelings.

To demonstrate what our mind is or is not, I like to use the somewhat cliché computer-human analogue. Like the computer, we have a physical body (although according to ancient knowledge and modern quantum physicians, even the “realness” of objects is questionable, and all living and nonliving entities are nothing but a manifestation incredibly high frequency vibrations of light). Even though the computer already has a fully operational operating system programmed on its hard drive, and our body has a similar program contained in the DNA, neither the computer nor or body is “alive” and operational, before the electricity, or the Life Force is turned on. If there is no Power, there is no Life and there is no Internet. (wow…life without internet, contemplate THAT!)

The computer’s keyboard, mouse, touch screen, camera and other gadgets serve as “sensory system”, a way to gather input from the environment to process. The stimuli or “input” is transmitted through a mind bogglingly complex nervous system in a code that is much similar to a computer program: electronic impulses and chemical changes that signal the presence of changes in the environment inside or outside: changes in temperature, smell, touch, and so on.

These sensory inputs are decoded and interpreted by the brain, via further electronic currents and chemical changes into “meaning” by our perception. For example, there are a number of dots on your computer screen, (based on the resolution, there can be a LOT of dots), some of them lit, others aren’t, and these dots are formed into patterns of color and shape. These “dots” don’t really exist, they are just changes in light and vibration. Certain cells in the eye that are designed (by WHOM?!!!) to do exactly that, sense these changes, transmit them to the brain as electrical impulses where by employing further electrical and chemical changes, they are decoded, and perceived to be “letters”.

We recognize the letters, and provided we know how to read, provided we understand the language they are written in, we form words, sentences, paragraphs and make meaning of the dots on the screen. These words then might evoke emotions, memories, feelings that create further chemical and electrical changes that are interpreted using a code that is written in certain chemical and electrical changes and activate a “program” that is written in a code of electrical and chemical changes that will be transmitted to different parts of the body via electrical and chemical changes that will be interpreted by cells using chemical changes and electrical currents and activate actions or reactions that will result in electrical and chemical changes that the brain will sense through chemical and electrical changes……and so it goes. I am already brain dead from contemplating this.

Lets try an exercise. Consider this pattern of dots first, then close your eyes, and contemplate what the dots “mean”. Pay attention to your thoughts, to your Mind minding the dots…go ahead, start contemplating now.

LEMON


Your sensory system detected a certain pattern of light and transmitted this pattern to your brain, where it was deciphered to mean a yellow fruit, with sour taste. Not only did you read the word LEMON, but you created an “image” or construct of the fruit as you know it in your mind. It has also created associations, some strictly biological, recall of the taste, texture, smell of the lemon, and the all so famous Pavlovian reflex of increased saliva just at the thought of lemon. There might have been other associations, depending on whether you like or dislike lemon. You might have thought of having some tea with lemon, or a nice, cold bottle of Corona, with a wedge of lemon in it. This might have brought up memories of that perfect vacation in Mexico last year, the sight of beach, the weather, the sun, the breeze, the awfully cute bartender with the great body, the night the bartender was off duty….But perhaps you HATE lemon, because when you were a child, and were sick, you were always made to drink chamomile tea with lemon, and you associate being sick with the taste of lemon. Or perhaps, you resent the memory of being forced to drink the god awful concoction and you resent that you were made eat broccoli too, and you had an overbearing, controlling mother, she is a real bitch, she won’t stop controlling you now either, even though you are a grown up woman, and she is JUST like your husband, who is also a control freak, and you HATE being controlled, but what are the alternatives, really, go back to Plenty of Fish and internet dating?!

STOP your associations NOW Come back to the article, will you?!

See, what a seemingly innocent pattern of lights on and off will do?! None of this would have been possible without your Mind. Your mind is the part of you that thinks, associates, makes meaning of things, evaluates your actions, recalls your past, worries into the future, evokes further emotions and feelings, and it does it by…yes, you’re right. Interpreting and creating programs written in a code of chemical changes and electrical currents. Your mind is a creation of itself. It creates reality, YOUR reality, and it is the Universal interpreter, facilitator, mediator, actor and reactor between YOU and your reality. It is in your Mind that “out there” and “in here” meet and co exist. It is the place where the past, present and future coincide. Your mind is the product of your imagination and your imagination is the product of your mind.

The meaning of life is to make meaning out of your life. Contemplate that. You created your mind, and you are continuously creating your mind. Your mind created you and is continuously creating you. Therefore, if you want to change your reality, your mind, your self, your life, your job, your circumstances, your experience, you must start by changing your mind. Your mind however, even though it constantly changes, HATES change and resist with all its might. Why? Because it equates change with non existence.

Your Mind, paraphrases Descartes: I think this way, therefore I am. I am what I think I am.


Your mind is right, and your mind is wrong: You are this way, because you think this way. You are what or whom you are, because you think that is what or whom you are.

Change your thoughts, your emotions, change your mind, and you can change not only the way you are, but your entire reality, your life experience.

Who are you, really? Pay attention, be mindful of your mind, and you will find meaning to the question. Who or what way would you rather be? Pay attention, be mindful of your mind, and it will deliver not only the answer but the solution.

Mindful living, mindfulness is that simple and that complex: to change your life, all you need to do is to change your mind. To change your mind, you have to change the way you think. To change the way you think, you must be simultaneously aware of your thoughts and be able to be completely thoughtless. Without mindfulness, you are a slave to the thoughts, processes, associations, beliefs and limitations of your mind. Master your thoughts, to master your emotions and you will become Master of Your Mind.

Mind you later!