No Birth, no Death

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Today's Post is again about the video that I mentioned previously. Today I wish to discuss these videos and expand on my understanding of the core subject.

First of all, there are several videos online bearing the same or almost the same title. And they are all about the same subject, albeit with slightly different takes on it. So the viewer may want to do a search and look through several of them to choose the one which looks the most appealing.

The video posted by "Life Lessons" is an on-camera narration by someone called Ben. This is a format that some viewers may prefer.

The video posted by Amira & Aryan Arora is an interview featuring Rupert Spira, a spiritual teacher of non-duality. In another video, Rupert Spira himself answers a question from the audience and goes on to explain the concept. Again, some viewers may find these formats to be easier to follow.

So there are many options for learning about this subject. I hope you find the one that works for you.

Meanwhile, there is another element of confusion that I should point out. The video I shared starts with a quote by John Wheeler, who is mentioned several times in the video. Clearly he is the inspiration behind the video. If you do a search for John Wheeler, you could end up looking at the profile of a theoretical physicist and imagining that he lived a double life. There is another John Wheeler, a spiritual teacher, who has written several books on the subject. Wheeler is a second level (via "Sailor" Bob Adamson) disciple of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, a respected 20th-century Advaita Vedanta master.

All of that is merely secondary information, included here for any who may be interested. The essence of my discussion is captured for posterity in the Page linked below. This Post is transient and will age as time passes.

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Respond, don't React

Reaction and response are descriptions of the action we take when something happens.

• A reaction is compulsive. It is an unthinking knee-jerk action based on habit and conditioning. The consequence of a reaction is often negative.
• A response is well thought through and the action taken is the consequence of consciously deciding what is the best action to be taken at that time. A response obtains a good result most of the time.

The best illustration of the difference between react and respond is when applied to medication. When a person is given medication, what do we mean when we say react or respond?

React to medicine is negative, a bad effect. If the person suffers from some bad effect because of taking the medicine, we say that the person reacted to the medicine.

Respond to medicine is positive, a good effect. If the person is relieved of the illness and becomes better, we say the person responded to the medicine.

The same principle applies to the world at large. The intelligent, thinking person looks at what happened, thinks of the consequences of his actions and then takes the action which will yield the best result. Of course there are times when even the best thought through action can result in a negative effect because of uncontrollable circumstances, but most of the time, the result is positive. The probability of a positive result is higher.

The unthinking person simply reacts based on what he has done before or what has been done to him, giving no thought to what could happen as the result of his action. Of course, there are times when a reaction can obtain a positive result. We say the person got lucky. But most of the time, a knee-jerk reaction gets a negative result. The probability of a positive result is lower.

Sadhguru Says

The Goal of Meditation

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Continuing from my previous post... Having captured my thoughts on identification of the Self and shared them with the group, I wanted to go on to discuss the next stage — communion with the Self. As I developed the paper, I discovered that I was largely writing about my own experience, which was probably not appropriate for the group. So I completed the paper and then proceeded to develop this blog where I could share my personal thoughts with anyone else who was interested. I made mention of this objective in my first blog post. 

My first three posts were about an introductory paper which I had written several months earlier. Then a whole bunch of other things took hold of my attention. Yesterday, I finally got back onto my original track. This is the second part of that thought stream. Let's see if I develop additional commentary on this subject.

Yoga means Union! Yoga does not mean stretching the body into contorted positions! That idea was conceived in the West when they discovered the health benefits of hatha yoga, the physical component of the yogic path. The true purpose of yoga is to help the individual to attain union with their inner self. This union is an introspective process which can be approached along several paths. Hatha Yoga improves the physical balance of the individual in order to facilitate spiritual centering.

My second paper on the Inner Spaces takes a look at meditation as a whole and my personal experience with it.

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Identifying the Self

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A group of us are blessed to have the support of a lady volunteering from a well established Spiritual Growth movement to help us with our own spiritual growth. We try to have a session every month during which we explore different aspects of personal growth.

During our last session, she skillfully took us through an examination of what we meant when we said "I" or "my". The learning was quite profound. Following the session, I captured my personal understanding of what we had covered, which I shared with the group. I then went on to expand my summary into an article aimed for a more general audience.

In my article, I removed personal references and included material which I had gleaned from other sources. I basically identified 4 layers we usually associate with the self and expanded on their roles. This is explained in more detail in the associated Page.

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Nothing in Nature Lives for Itself

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There are several popular memes in the social media attributing to Pope Francis a beautiful poem about the sharing character of nature. Fact checking has verified that those attributions are false. There are suggestions that the words were first uttered by Chanakya (also known as Kautilya), an ancient Indian philosopher and strategist from the 4th century BCE. However, there is no definitive source in his known writings that matches this poem word-for-word.

This is very likely a modern poetic rendering of traditional Indian wisdom, possibly inspired by verses from Sanskrit or Pali scriptures. There has also been a suggestion that it may be from African native wisdom. Whatever the case, it is an important learning for us.

Gratitude is a natural state

Our interaction with the world around us is a dynamic one. All forms within this physical realm interact naturally in harmony, guided by the embedded script. This ranges from the minutest of subatomic particles to the most enormous astronomical bodies. The universe is able to operate smoothly and harmoniously in natural give and take relationships.
Humans, distracted by intellect, have lost touch with the embedded guidance and end up developing artificial interactions. When we allow ourselves to feel the guidance, our interactions become more harmonious.

Much of the gratitude we see around us is cultivated from childhood, when children are taught to show gratitude. They are constantly reminded to say thank you when given things. This becomes a cultivated attitude.

It is not wrong but, for our humanity to flower fully, it is not enough. We need to open ourselves to the world and realise the reality of our interdependence with everything around us. We need to recognise how our life is supported by so many processes. We need to learn how to appreciate all that is being done for us and not just take it for granted.

When someone does something for us, the feeling of gratitude needs to flow from within. It cannot be just a layer pasted on the face and uttered in words.

Sadhguru Says

The Message Within

Some time ago, I was offered the privilege of membership in a WhatsApp group of spiritual seekers. The original purpose of the group was to read and understand an important religious scripture and seek to understand the real message concealed within the words. Since I wish for this Blog to remain largely non-denominational, I shall avoid mention of references which could be deemed sensitive.

I have already mentioned elsewhere the intelligence which pervades everywhere and is embedded within each of us as the core of our being. It is this intelligence which guides us from within and this is the intelligence which inspires special people with extraordinary knowledge. This extraordinary knowledge covers the entire spectrum of human endeavour - art, music, literature, science, mathematics, spirituality... whatever else we can think of or which we will discover in the future.

The upanishads call this vast reservoir of knowledge the akashic record, is given other names in other languages. The knowledge available therein is rich with meaning and complexity beyond the comprehension of human minds. What the inspired individuals can capture from that vast repository and then share with the world in human language is necessarily limited by human conceptual and linguistic capacity. Yet the wonderful scriptures that have been handed down to us have revealed layers of meaning embedded within, which unfold as the student gains understanding and is able to peer deeper into the hidden meanings of the words and sentences.

Pleasure or Joy?

Sadhguru's quotes are sometimes quite enigmatic. At other times, they can be quite straightforward. The quote I chose for today is quite simple.

Pleasure is the sensation that comes from stimulating your senses. To experience pleasure, one only needs to stimulate the senses. But sensory stimulation is very superficial. While it can become addictive, it cannot fulfill a deeper longing within.

Joy is generated from within you and can flow outwards to fill your entire being. Joy encompasses the mind and emotions as well and not just the physical body. Joy fulfills like pleasure cannot.

If you do not feel joy, then you are only satisfying your senses. The pleasure obtained from stimulating the senses can be satisfying for a while but after that, the pleasure will start to feel empty. That is what leads pleasure addicts to keep seeking higher doses of stimulation or other avenues of pleasure. It can become a self destructive spiral.

In our life, we want to become joyful.

Sadhguru Says

Why do we fear death?

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Death is the only certainty about life - one day, we must all die. That is certain.

All the scriptures tell us that we can expect love/harmony/peace/bliss on the other side. So passing over should be a good thing.

Unfortunately, some of the scriptures also warn us about judgement and punishment for sins/infractions. The people who are unsure about how they are going to be judged would surely feel some trepidation. Those who are quite certain that they can expect punishment would be worried, no matter how unconcerned they appear to be. Whatever the case, there is uncertainty about what to expect. The burden of death can be heavy.

Added to that is the visible and experiential pleasantness of this material life. No doubt there are some parts of life that can be painful. But there are also parts that are downright enjoyable. For many people, conscious memories tend to hold the pleasant things and forget the unpleasant ones. Thus, we develop an affinity towards living that we can become quite loathe to give up.

On Being a Thought

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My WhatsApp friend, Rina Samad, posted this and I would like to share it with you:

On Being a Thought

Self:               Am I real, or am I just Your thought?

The Divine:     You are the way I experience this moment from within.

Self:               So I don't exist apart from You?

The Divine:     Nothing does. But in you, I forget Myself to remember anew.

Reflection:

If we are thoughts in God's mind, then identity is not fixed, it's fluid, exploratory.
The self is not an illusion, but a temporary pattern of Divine attention.

Quotes from Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

We often see social media memes claiming to be quotes from one or another famous person. Sometimes those are correctly attributed. But often, the claims are false. The famous person purported to have made the statement was never recorded to have done so.

I will be presenting quotes from Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev which, I assure you, are real. They are screenshots from the Sadhguru Mobile App. In addition to presenting the quote, I will also share my understanding of what it means.

We should become masters of our own lives. We know that good and bad things happen. What we don't know is the consequence of what is happening. Sometimes things happen which seem to be bad things, but in retrospect, those often turn out to be good things.

We have to take the bad thing that happen to us as a lesson from which we learn. Those lessons make us better persons.

Sadhguru Says

Traoré's Massive military victory

Having failed to engineer an arrest in his homeland, France and the USA tried to intercept Traoré's flight to Moscow to attend the celebration of the victory against Nazi Germany. Two Russian Su-57s, presumably escorts flying at a surveillance height, zoomed in and forced the French and US fighters to withdraw.

Having failed the abduction attempt, the sore losers triggered a massive insurgency attack on Burkina Faso. Traoré had anticipated that and had planned a brilliant response. The insurgents were lured into a trap and decimated. The local forces had accomplished what the French had failed to do in six months, primarily because the insurgency was being supported by France.

On his glorious return from Moscow, Traoré was escorted by seven Russian fighters. Nobody tried to mess with them.

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Breaking news - A G7 leader breaks from the rest

In a dramatic break from the pack, the Italian PM Georgia Meloni spoke out in support of Captain Ibrahim Traoré and rebuked the French for their unethical treatment of their former colonies. Calling him "an astonishing leader", she praised the Captain for leading his people "on the path of independence, sovereignty, and dignity".

The other breaking news from Burkina Faso was the shameful attempt to destabilise the nation by feeding misinformation about US troops landing there in preparation for a full scale invasion. The objective would have been to stir fear and panic among the people there. But they were in such an exuberant mood that the story only galvanised their patriotic fervour and support of the leader.

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30th April 2025 - A Day of Glory

On the 30th of April, all of Burkina Faso and Africans in many of the other countries gathered in a massive show of support for Captain Ibrahim Traoré. They even gathered in Paris and New York City to tell the leaders of those cities to stop attacking their Captain and hero.

This was in the wake of several failed attempts to discredit Captain Ibrahim Traoré and even arrest him on trumped up charges. But the deceit of those who bore false witness was revealed and some of them even owned up to their guilt.

Nevertheless, there were some countries where police were deployed to stop the peaceful gatherings. By so doing, they have decided to show that they support the continued exploitation of Africa by the ex colonial powers. In the current exuberant mood of reform sweeping through Africa, their days are surely numbered.

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Enemies at the Border

From the moment Captain Ibrahim Traoré showed any sign of wanting to become really independent, he has been under attack. Vijaya records these threats based on the reports he is getting from the ground. The opening paragraphs  of his next chapter read as follows:

Four countries stand out as the greatest threat to Burkina Faso and the Sahel Confederation, which includes Mali and Niger. Not to mention the rest of Africa.  

These four nations are: 

• France, their former colonial masters; 
• USA; 
• Nigeria, a despotic, corrupt puppet nation of the West; and 
• Ivory Coast, another puppet of the French. 

Captain Ibrahim Traoré under attack

The ex colonial  powers of Africa are unhappy because their grand plan to continue the exploitation of African mineral resources is being unravelled. Vijaya's contacts in Africa are feeding him insider information about what is really happening on the ground, which the mainstream media refuse to publish.

If you have been following the story of how Burkina Faso successfully got rid of the insurgency and has been successfully developing the nation, you can see how that is frustrating the objectives of France and the rest of the Western Axis. When efforts to destabilise the nation failed, they tried to get Traoré killed. Then they set out to arrest him. Keep following this Blog to learn more.

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Vijaya Ratnam - Passionate about Sahel

I encountered an interesting person in a WhatsApp group who is passionate about many things, and especially passionate about the Sahel states of Africa. He has contacts there who keep him informed about what is going. Such news never reaches the mainstream media or, even if it does reach them, is ignored because it does not fit their narrative.

The European colonizers of Africa, even after they were forced to leave, continued to control the rights to natural resources and interfered in the politics. Those who tried to break free from their influence were treated harshly. Burkina Faso is one nation that has successfully held off the challenges posed by the ex Colonizers. Vijaya tells us their story.

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Conclusion

As it turns out, I had to split the article into three parts. Even then, I ran the risk of each segment being too wordy for a blog. But then, my blog would be of interest only to people who enjoy exploring esoteric subjects. And I'm guessing that they wont be put off by the length of an article.

I have provided a link at the bottom of each segment so that the interested reader can proceed immediately to the subsequent part. I plan to adopt that style for my subsequent posts as well, so you don't really have to wait for my blog updates. In fact, you can explore my Musings Page and get to all of my posted articles in one go.

The Story Continues

When I first wrote the article, it was not intended for a blog. Having posted it here, I realised that it was rather long for a blog read. So I have split it into 3 parts. Today, I'll share the first bit from the 2nd part.

Those who read the first part to the end would have seen the link to the second part so you don't have to wait for my blog post. Read at your own pace.

The second part begins like this:

Additional to cellular intelligence, we have another layer of intelligence based in our brains that governs the entire organism. That intelligence has been observed and classified by science. For our convenience, we can consider a 3-layer structure of the mind: 

Welcome to my Blog

I am Singam. I started this blog to share my thoughts with the world. Mostly, I'll be sharing articles that I've written at various times. Occasionally, I may choose to comment about current events. I'll just go with the flow.

My first Post is my postulate about the universe, life and purpose. I'm sharing the first three paragraphs here. If you find it to be interesting, follow the link to read the rest of it.

There is an intelligence/consciousness that exists outside of our time frame so the question of origin is not relevant – origin only applies with respect to our time frame. That intelligence permeates everything because it is singular - there is nothing else. For our grasp of the idea, we can think of that singularity as some form of energy that our science has not yet learned to detect or measure. To avoid mixing up concepts, let's call it GENERGY.