Let's think : By Dr.King, Swami Satyapriya

[Quick links] [Pause] Buddhism that started as Tera Vada Buddhism, evolved into many more forms over a period of time. Adherents to each form claimed authority from Buddha himself. There was Mahayana, Vajrayana, Zen and so on. One interesting development that revolved around the Mind, which is the topic of interest to us, is the so called Vijnyana Vada that got developed as an offshoot of Mahayana Buddhism sometime around 4th century A.D. They had some interesting views about the Mind.

[Quick links] [Pause] Buddhism that started with its anicca or impermanence theory, gradually developed into many more forms.  First, they said that both the body and the mind appear and disappear in quick succession, both being impermanent. Then some of them came up with the theory that bodies don’t exist at all, and ‘it is all in the mind’ as we discussed in the previous episode.

[Quick links] [Pause] I started this series of talks apparently about mind two months ago.

[Quick links] [Pause] Let me welcome you back to a great new year. As part of the series on Mind, I will now start discussing about Yoga – a way of entering into domains beyond our limited Minds.

[Quick links] [Pause] Homeopathy is one medical discipline which can cure any disease without any harmful side effects. Nor does it need any invasive procedures, not even any painful pricks. Just take some sugar pills and you can cure yourselves.

[Quick links] [Pause] You probably have noticed that our thoughts are often influenced by our past experiences and memories. One Guru of recent times even goes to the extent of dismissing thoughts as just a jumbling of memories and nothing else!

[Quick links] [Pause] We often think that what really makes us different from inanimate things is the ‘free will’ that we are supposed to be having. An inanimate thing like a fan for example, can start, stop, run slowly or very fast, not on its own but only when we switch it on or off, or when we tweak the regulator. That is because the fan is not alive, though it can move. It does not have a will of its own. It just does what we want it to do.

[Quick links] [Pause] For the past several episodes I discussed our current scientific views about our Mind. I took some interesting excerpts from my book “How does the Mind Work?” while explaining the scientific views. In the next few episodes, I am going to pick up some interesting ideas about the Mind from my book “Missing dimensions in our current understanding of the Mind”. My idea is to approach the Mind from both sides – modern science as well as ancient philosophy, pick useful things from both, and finally take you to regions beyond the mind itself! So, stay tuned till the end of this series.

[Quick links] [Pause] Ancient Indians believed that the entire Vedic literature is the recording of visions of various sages when they were in deep states of meditation. They did not compose them. But they merely had the visions that they later recorded. One such record of visions of a sage by name Mandukya, namely the Mandukya Upanishad, is considered to be the essence of all the Vedas by philosophers like Sankara. It is a very short record with only 12 verses. Gaud pada uses this short composition as a basis of his theory that we discussed in the previous episode. What do these 12 verses say?

[Quick links] [Pause] Reasoning is a very powerful tool used by our mind to know that which is not directly apparent to our senses. Can we use logic to know everything – even those that cannot be perceived by our senses?