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Re: WHAT ARE THOUGHTS...
Vehkalahti Jussi (jupi@cs.tut.fi) wrote:
: dchakrav@netserv.unmc.edu (Dhruba Chakravarti) writes:
: >Specifically, what you have described as impossible has been proven to be
: >very possible by many. Thoughts, I am told, will not be created by you
: >but will come to you.
: Yes, certainly. You need no brain after you really
: believe that. What do you think the brain is used for?
: -Jupi-
Dear Jupi:
Thank you for your response. As you must know, that the brain is the
imaging and analytical device of transmitted neurochemicals in the body.
What we are talking about here is mind. Thoughts appear in the mind,
and there is no reason to say that they occur in the brain. In yoga, a
person is to clear his/her mind of thoughts, concentrate on Divine, then the
cosmic mind descends into his/her mind. Mind does not appear to be a
faculty of the brain. There is probably some connection between brain and
intelligence.
I should tell you that you are in good company. The famous Nobel prize
winner Francis Crick has written a book called 'the astonishing
hypothesis' a couple of years ago, it appears to me that he might ask
questions like you have. I felt that he did not discriminate between
intelligence and mind, and said that consciousness, is some sort of a brain
function. He is a big time scientist, but I will humbly submit that he is
wrong. Even bacteria travel towards food, despite not having the benefit
of a brain.
About 4-5 years ago, John Cairns published a paper (Nature?) claiming that
bacteria can choose what kind of mutation it needs to make to adjust to
changes in environment. A year later, somebody found that (a paper in
Genetics), glucose in culture medium has a role in that kind of selective
mutation. Whether or not bacteria does this under the influence of
glucose, the fact remains, bacteria can do it. What do you have to say
about that?
In the Scriptures, it is written that a person can not know God by using
his/her intelligence, that is, the intelligence that is dependent on
senses. A different kind of intelligence, that is not dependent on the
information that senses provide is necessary for that. In the Srimad
Bhagavad Gita, God has said that He gives that intelligence, out of grace.
teshhAM satatayuktAnAM bhajatAM pritipurvakaM
dadAmi buddhiyogaM taM yena mAmupayAnti te. 10.10
(Those who are always in union with Me, worshipping Me with delight, I
give them the yogic intelligence, with which they recieve Me.)
sukhaM AtyantikaM yattatbuddhigrahyamatIndriyaM
vetti yatra na chaivAyaM sthitaschalati tattvataH. 6.21
(That intense bliss availed through this trans-sense intelligence is
unwavering yoga...)
He also said that, the person who sits down for yoga and generates his own
thoughts is being untruthful.
karmendriyANi saMyamya ya Aste manasA smaran.h
indriyArthAn.h vimuDAtmA mithyAchAraH sa uchyate. 3.6
(He who has controlled his karma-senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue and
skin), but in mind remembers the sense-pleasures, such a confused person
is called untruthful.)
With best regards,
Dhruba.
