Ever since the advent of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and indeed
even earlier, in Cognitive Neuroscience proper, the concept of state
has emerged into prominence in all domains dealing with human
excellence. However, this concept has been given primary significance
much earlier in nearly all disciplines of knowing in Eastern Wisdom.
Having collected diverse definitions and approaches to state, I am
putting them all here one after the other. Of course, first of all there
is always the attitude in which one begins an inquiry. I avoid all
extreme attitudes as much as possible as that is useful only in
refutation or in justification of something. I have come to the
perception that there are so many deep mysteries to grapple with that
one may safely leave purely academic inquiries to those whose main
concern is that. But what if one errs by taking a more liberal attitude?
That is perfectly alright. When one embarks on new discoveries, care is
certainly helpful but over-caution kills the spirit of adventure. After
one has discovered, there are others who may bring caution and clear
things up. So, here, I am going to bring together various analogies more
in a spirit of adventure.
By the way, I have myself have had as rigorous a training as possible in
mathematics, the sciences as also in the Eastern disciplines and what I
am going to say is naturally more soundly tied up than usual. If I so
intended, I could bring rigorous arguments to bear on this as I have
done in a previous article on "
An Inquiry into Creativity and its Supports" (see my blog,
http://bsr-fifthparadigm.blogspot.com).
But no, this formalistic approach does little to clarify things if one
is seeking to understand and practice rather than argue and convince.
For, Eastern wisdom has more to do with experience than with the casting
of it in intellectual terms. It seeks to transcend mental faculties and
arrive at subtler and deeper faculties not accessible to intellectual
abstraction. If one doubts, this, remember that doubt itself is born of
the same mental faculties. Moreover, the very fact that something in us
urges us to transcend the intellect hints at something beyond itself.
And is it not logically consistent that that something beyond mind ought
to be approached by transcending the usual mental faculties? Therefore,
it is better to suspend judgment for a while as is the right attitude
in all serious inquiries, accumulate sufficient experience to start out
and then come back to question if needed. After all, as in any serious
inquiry, this does takes some time to get acquainted with but certainly
not an inordinate amount. One may as well try questioning the soundness
of a prescribed thesis topic for a Ph. D with only a sketchy idea of
the topic! Or the validity of grammar in a certain language before
learning the language!
I start with one of the earliest concepts of state, as described by the
Shankyas, not the Shankya as categorized by Isvara Krishna who wrote the
Shankya karika but the earlier, broader Shankya as spoken of in the
Gita, for instance and which is also exponded in the Shanti Parva of the
Mahabharata and later, in the Kapilopadesha of the Bhagvata purana.
Let me begin by reminding myself of the standard definition in NLP,
as for instance, given by Anthony Robbins
,
“A state can be defined is the sum of the millions of neurological
processes happening within us, in other words, the sum total of our
experience at any moment in time.”
This
is a description from the hardware point of view for one does not 'see'
neural networks in one's mind. One 'sees' perceps, thoughts, mental
objects....where by 'see' we mean in the broad sense, perceive.
It would almost immediately be clear that in the Gita, the state is
described in terms of the three gunas, sawta, rajas and tamas. However,
it does not refer only to the mental state but indeed to the entire
being. Concerning action, the unresourceful state is one characterized
by a preponderance of tamas-rajas and the resourceful state that having a
preponderance of rajas-sawta.The combination tamas-sawta is also
resourceful but not for action but for contemplation.
State management is the key to leverage and mastery. Anthony Robbins
demonstrates this best by the example of his 'fire-walk'. This is
perfectly corroborated in the Gita by the example of the stithaprajna.
As it says,
“He whose mind is undisturbed in the midst of sorrows and amid pleasures
is free from fear, from whom liking and fear and wrath have passed away
is the sage of settled understanding, Stithaprajna.”
Elaborating on the same, the Bhavartha Dipika or Jnaneshwari of Jnanadeva, goes on to say,
“The mind is not then shaken, even mountains of misery bigger than even
Meru are to crash down on its person, nor does that mind which is
reposing in the Supreme bliss of the essence of the Self, get awakened
in the least, even if cleaved with a weapon or if the body falls into
fire; when the mind is thus merged in the essence of the Self, it does
not even care to look in the direction of the body. It forgets its pains
and pleasures of the body, having secured the unique Self-bliss.”
In the Shanti Parva, Bhishma expounds on one of the means to state stability leading to the knowledge of the Supreme Brahman.
"Cleansed of all sins, endued with energy, abstemious in diet, with
senses under complete control, one should after having subdued both
desire and wrath, seek to attain to Brahman. Firmly uniting the senses
and the mind (having drawn them away from all external objects) with
gaze fixed inwards, one should, in the still hours of evening or in
those before dawn, place one's mind upon the knowledge. if even one of
the five senses of a human being be kept unrestrained, all his wisdom
may be seen to escape through it like water through an unstopped hole at
the bottom of a leathern bag. The mind in the first instance should be
sought to be restrained by the Yogin after the manner of a fisherman
seeking at the outset to render that one among the fist powerless from
which there is the greatest danger to his nets. Having first subdued the
mind, the Yogin should then proceed to subdue his ears, then his eyes,
then his tongue, and his nose. having restrained these, he should fix
them on the mind. Then withdrawing the mind from all purposes, he should
fix it on the knowledge. Indeed, having restrained the five senses, the
Yati should fix them on the mind. When these the mind for their sixth
become concentrated in the knowledge, and thus concentrated remain
steady and untroubled, then Brahman becomes perceptible like a smokeless
fire of blazing flames or the Sun of effulgent radiance. Indeed, one
then beholds in oneself one's soul like lightning fire in the skies.
Everything then appears in it and it appears in everything in
consequence of its infinitude. Those high souled one's that are
possessed of wisdom, that are endued with fortitude, that are possessed
of high knowledge, and that are engaged in the good of all creatures,
succeed in beholding it. Engaged in the observance of austere vows, the
Yogin who conducts himself thus for six months, seated by himself on an
isolated spot, succeeds in attaining to an equality with the
Indestructible."
The Katha Upanishad has two remarkable verses that highlight the power of state in leading to the Supreme enlightnment.
"When the five senses cease and are at rest and the mind rests with them
and the higher mind ceases from its workings, that is the highest
state, say seers."
"The state unperturbed when the senses are imprisoned by the mind, of
this they say 'it is Yoga.' Then man becomes very vigilant, for Yoga is
the birth of things and their ending."
This echos of course, the Gita itself,
"When all the mental consciousness is perfectly controlled and liberated
from desire and remains still in the Self, then it is said, "He is in
Yoga."
"Motionless like the light of a lamp in a windless place is the
controlled consciousness, (free from its restless action, shut in from
its outward motion) of the Yogin who practices union with the Self.
"That in which the mind becomes silent and still by the practice of
Yoga; that in which the Self is seen within the Self by the Self and the
soul is satisfied.
"That in which the soul knows its own true and exceeding bliss, which is
perceived by the intelligence and is beyond the senses, wherein
established, it can no longer fall away from the spiritual truth of its
being.
"That is the greatest of all gains and the treasure beside which all
lose their value, wherein established he is not disturbed by the
fieriest assault of mental grief."
"It is the putting away of the contact with pain, the divorce of the
mind's marriage with grief. The firm winning of this inalienable
spiritual bliss is Yoga; it is the divine union. This Yoga is to be
resolutely practiced without yielding to any discouragement by
difficulty or failure."
"Abandoning without any exception or residue all the desires born of the
desire-will and holding the senses by the mind so that they shall not
run to all sides, one should slowly cease from mental action by a
buddhi held in the grasp of fixity and having fixed the mind in the
higher self one should not think of anything at all."
"Whenever the restless and unquiet mind goes forth, it should be controlled and brought into subjection in the Self."
"When the mind is thoroughly quieted, then there comes upon the Yogin
the highest, stainless, passionless bliss of the soul that has become
the Brahman."
“Thus freed from stain of passion and putting himself constantly into
Yoga, the Yogin easily and happily enjoys the touch of the Brahman which
is an exceeding bliss.”
That's for now. In the next posts we visit the approach of the Buddha's,
the Advita Vedanta approach, Krishnamurti's approach and also that of
Kashmir Saivism expounded by Abhinavagupta and then the Natha Yogic
tradition....
