June 2009

One day, King Lavana was sitting on his throne when a juggler entered the court and said to the king, “I shall show you something wonderful!” As he waved a bunch of peacock feathers, there entered into the court a cavalier leading an exquisitely  beautiful horse. The juggler requested the king to ride that horse and roam freely throughout the world.  The king  closed his eyes and sat motionless. Seeing this, everyone in the court became silent; no one dared to disturb the king’s peace. After some time, the king opened his eyes and began to tremble as if in fear. As he was about to fall down, the ministers supported him. Dismayed to see them, the king asked  “Who are you,  and what are you doing to me?”  The worried ministers said to him, “Lord, you are a mighty king of great wisdom and yet this delusion has overpowered you. What has happened to your mind?”

“As soon as I saw this juggler wave his bundle of peacock feathers, I jumped on the horse that stood in front of me and went away on a hunting expedition. The horse took me into an arid desert…I rested under a tree, and while I was resting, the horse ran away. When I awoke, it was dark. Shortly after sunrise I saw a  girl dressed in black carrying a plate of food, she said, “I will give you food only if you will marry me.” “I consented;  survival was the foremost consideration then.  Soon I was a member of her tribe. My wife gave birth to a daughter and three more children closely followed… I spent many years among this tribe, suffering the agonies of a family man with a  wife and children to feed and to protect…Time rolled on and I became old… My heart had shed all compassion… I drifted like a dry leaf in the wind, as if my only mission in life was eating… Afflicted by famine, many people left the country and migrated elsewhere. I too left the country with my wife and children… I was moved by attachment and pity..I decided the best way to end these miseries was to end my life. So I raised a pyre and as I ascended that pyre, I shuddered and found myself in this court, being hailed and greeted by all of you.” As the king said this, the juggler vanished. The ministers said, “Lord, he cannot be a juggler, for he was not interested in money or a reward. Surely, some divine entity wished to demonstrate to you and all of us, the power of cosmic illusion. From all this, it is clear that this world we see is nothing but the play of the mind, and the mind itself is but the play of the omnipotent, infinite Being. The mind is able to fool even men of great wisdom. Otherwise, how could the king, who is well versed in all branches of learning, fall prey to his bewildering delusion?”

This story is from the Yoga Vasistha, one of many such stories in this narration of a dialogue between the sage, Vasistha and Prince Rama, who was an incarnation of God. These  teaching stories reveal that what we think is real is not necessarily so. Its teachings are simple: the world is nothing but Consciousness. This Consciousness becomes the mind when it identifies itself with separate objects which are only vibrations within its own being. From this tendency, the world is born. Sage Vasistha tells Rama that the world  we know only exists in the mind. “In the twinkling of an eye it creates countless worlds and in the twinkling of an eye it destroys them. Even as an able actor plays several roles one after the other, the mind assumes several aspects one after the other. It makes the unreal appear as real and vice versa; and on account of this it seems to enjoy and to suffer. ”

So what does it mean that the world is an illusion when it looks and feels very tangible, particularly when our emotions are in upheaval, seemingly caused  by the relationships we encounter within existence? In my experience, it is my  beliefs about the stories I tell myself about my existence that is not real. My thoughts create a version of reality based on my beliefs.  As I grow and change my beliefs and thoughts, my reality also changes. In the same way, every person’s experience is unique with its own personal nuances based on the sum total of their past experiences and no two people will have the same perspective in any given situation, no matter how similar their beliefs on the subject. We create our own realities, nothing is really, really real. Most of the time we are all under the illusion that we are other than the greatness of who we truly are, feeling separate, unloved, unworthy and powerless. That is what is referred to as illusion. When we have such a world view, then the world is unreal.

Vasistha says: “What is more mysterious, Rama, than that the mind is able to veil the omnipresent, pure, eternal, and infinite Consciousness, making you confuse it with this inert physical body?.. Just as an actor is able to portray different personalities, the mind is able to create the different states of  consciousness, such as the waking and dream states. How mysterious is the mind that is able to make the king,  Lavana feel that he is a primitive tribesman! The mind experiences what the mind itself constructs. The mind is nothing but what has been put together by thought: knowing this, do as you please.”

Prince Rama continues to listen to the moral of this story from the sage, Vasistha: “When the mind is fully awake to its own fancies and is filled with them, it is wakeful dream. The false notions of experiences during sleep, which yet appear to be real, are dreams. In the dream wakeful state, one recalls past experiences as if they are real now. When these are abandoned in favor of total inert dullness, it is sleep.”

The Yoga Vasistha is a remarkable Hindu Scripture that teaches the path to awakening to the truth of who we are, that we are that absolute Consciousness. It points us to the knowledge that the world is an illusion created by the mind and shows the way to liberation through contemplation and self-inquiry.

In  later posts I will be looking at other scriptures that reveal that nothing is real, that this world is but a play of Consciousness and we are the actors.

In my post,  Aspects Of Consciousness, I related the story of Sarah,  a woman who was  artificially allowed to die for seventeen minutes during brain surgery. Even though her brain showed no signs of activity, she was able to relate bits of conversations that took place during that time. Cases like this provoke the exploration of the nature of reality. What if there is more to our existence than the time-space, linear model that we know to be real? What if we are open to the possibility that there are varieties of existence beyond what the masses refer to as “normal” by consensus?

The Vedic scriptures tell us that this world is an illusion. The Buddhist Heart Sutra tell us that form is emptiness. How can this be true you say? It is very real if your basic needs for food and shelter are not met, and the taxman comes knocking if you do not pay taxes.  In the big picture, physical reality is but one facet of the infinite variety within  Consciousness. In fact,  Quantum Physicists are discovering the possibility of alternate realities,  and String Theory is at the leading edge in this school of thought.

Without getting into the complexity of String Theory,  basically,  physicists have discovered that everything in the universe is connected by strings of energy that vibrate at different frequencies. The theory suggests that there must be a minimum of ten dimensions and the possibility of an infinite number of parallel universes other than the three dimensional reality that we know of. It is suggested that for every choice we make, a number of universes are created for each possible option. And for those possible options, the potential for more choices that create a universe for each possible outcome, so that an infinity of universes can exist from any choice that we make.

The possibility of infinite parallel universes is fascinating. If infinite universes are created when we choose an option in any given decision, then there is no need for regret.  All options are available to us if we are open to experiencing that the reality we choose to call “real” is but one facet of consciousness.

In Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Carl Jung related a story which I think illustrates the possibility of parallel universes. He visited the basilica of San Giovanni in Ravenna, Italy with a friend and there he had an extraordinary experience in the Baptistery of the Orthodox. A mild blue light filled the room,  though there was no account for its source. It amazed him that in place of the windows he remembered from his previous visit, twenty years ago, there were now four great mosaic frescoes of incredible beauty. He was vexed at himself for his poor memory, that he did not remember these beautiful mosaics from his previous visit in 1913. After he left the baptistery, he went in search of photos of the mosaics so that he could purchase some to take home. He could not find any and decided to order them from Zurich later. When he returned home, he asked an acquaintance who was going to Ravenna to buy him some photos of the mosaics. The man could not find any, for he discovered that the mosaics that Jung described did not exist.

Jung consulted with the friend who accompanied him on that visit to the basilica and she could not believe that what she had seen with her own eyes, did not exist. Jung said that it was among the most curious events of his life and may possibly be explained by an incident in the story of Empress Galla Placidia(d. 450). “During a stormy crossing from Byzantium to Ravenna in the worst of winter, she made a vow that if she came through safely, she would build a church and have the perils of the sea represented in it. She kept this vow by building the basilica of San Giovanni in Ravenna and having it adorned with mosaics. In the early Middle Ages, San Giovanni, together with its mosaics, was destroyed by fire; but in the Ambrosiana in Milan is still to be found a sketch representing Galla Placidia in a boat.”

Did Jung and his friend,  on that visit to the basilica in Ravenna enter an alternate reality,  one which no longer existed in “normal” reality but continued on in an alternate universe? If so, how subjective are the varieties of  consciousness if his friend entered the same alternate reality with him that day,  and saw the same mosaics with her own eyes? Is it possible that Sarah entered an alternate reality during her brain surgery and was able to relate the snippets of conversation back to her doctor,  even though in one reality she was “dead’?

This story that Jung told and Sarah’s story, begs the question, what is real? Is the waking state real? Is the dream state real? The ancient scriptures of the East shed light on these questions and I will continue to look at this intriguing subject in my next post.

I am a little distracted from writing my post for this week, you see I unexpectedly became a mother overnight! Here she is,  an almost ten month old canine we renamed Seeta. What a surprise when we met her yesterday,  not only because we weren’t expecting her so soon, but also because she is the splitting image, except less bouncy, to our old friend Scooter who went to Doggy Heaven over a year ago.

It never ceases to amaze me, how  the power of intention and surrender works in manifesting what you want from the universe. My husband and I decided a week ago that it was now time to find a dog. There were a few restrictions  because of our circumstances. Given that our town does not have an SPCA and the few needful animals are fostered in the homes of volunteers, we have been looking on-line for dogs  far away  from us.  We were wanting to adopt a homeless dog and although we weren’t keen on the idea, it being a six hour trip  and two ferries later each way, we thought we would wait until our next trip to the city to check out the SPCA there.

Like humans, I believe that dogs have karmic connections with the people they end up living with. I decided that the dog destined for us would find us if we let the universe know that we are ready. We called the SPCA contact in town and asked her to look out for a dog that might be a good fit. She told us that there was a dog that was fostered that day,  but she  knew nothing about her except that she was a LabX named Shadow. That same morning, the DVDs on pack-leadership training arrived, so we were able to learn about how to choose a dog before we went to meet Shadow.

It turned out that Shadow was the perfect match for us and she reminds us of our old dear friend in so many ways. She already knows her new name although we brought her home just last night and we are already comfortable with each other.

I am so grateful for how easeful it was to find our new companion and for the joy she has already brought. Her coming so soon, her likeness to the personality of our old friend, is a spiritual reminder of the power of asking for what you want with clarity. The  universe is always ready to provide for all our needs.

Image Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

In my previous post The Fabric Of Consciousness, I featured excerpts from Dr Allan Hamilton’s book, The Scalpel And The Soul: Encounters with Surgery, the Supernatural, and the Healing Power Of Hope. There is a story in the book that sparked my contemplation on the nature of reality and conscious awareness. As Dr Hamilton tells the story, one questions what we have learned from science and our culture, in regard to the human body and our awareness. Could the mind have an existence independent of human physiology, beyond the borders of the central nervous system?

Sarah, a young woman underwent  challenging surgery for an aneurysm in her brain, and essentially her heart function was artificially disengaged for a period of about seventeen minutes to safely operate.  Her heart was stopped and there were no brain waves. In other words she was dead for those seventeen minutes. No machine was used to replace the function of her planned cardiac arrest. There was no blood flow in any blood vessel in her body. Because the body was gradually cooled, the brain did not die as it  needs less oxygen for the cells to survive at lower temperatures.

The surgery was a success, her heart responded well as its functioning was gradually reintroduced. Several hours later, the surgeon and his team of residents paid her a visit in the recovery room. The patient inquired about how the surgery went. The surgeon assured her that it all went perfectly well. Then Sarah remarked that she remembered hearing someone say something which now made her wonder if everything went well. The team of doctors were dumbfounded. She was able to describe what the nurses looked like, where a machine was located that was brought in after she was unconscious and relate bits of trivial conversation that took place during the surgery.

How was it possible  for Sarah to form new memories when there was no sign of any electrical brain activity? And if her new memories,  formed during the period of no brain function were stored somewhere outside of her physiology, how was she able to access the data intact, after the brain began to function again? These were the questions that perplexed,  not only her team of doctors but doctors from everywhere when they heard of her case. “One theory held that her brain—and the conscious mind it produced—went somewhere else, beyond its own physical and physiological confines. Out into the cosmos. The notion that conscious awareness—something generated by and of each brain—could have a life (so to speak) independent from the brain itself is a baffling idea.”

The spiritual teachings of the great mystics, tell us that Consciousness defines the body. The physical body does not contain consciousness but is embraced within the one conscious awareness, the Self which manifests through each one of us. We are only separate in our physical bodies but we are that one consciousness that embodies  a rock, a tree, an ant, or a chair. In the Yoga Vasistha, the sage Vasistha said, “The one infinite absolute existence or cosmic consciousness alone is. Knowing this, be free of the ego-sense and rejoice in the self. There is no mind, no ignorance, no individual soul: these are all concepts that arose in the Creator. As long as one considers the body as the “I” and as long as the self is related to what is seen, as long as there is hope in objects with the feeling “this is mine”, so long will there be delusion concerning mind…..In these substances like rocks, consciousness remains immobile, having abandoned the thinking faculty but not having been able to reach the state of no-mind, It is like the state of deep sleep, far away from the state of liberation…Liberation or the realization of the infinite is not existence as an immobile creature! Liberation is attained when one arrives at the state of supreme peace after intelligent inquiry into the nature of the self and after this has brought about an inner awakening. Total freedom is the attainment of pure being after all mental conditioning is transcended consciously and after a thorough investigation.”