The Desensitized Mind

The industrialized Human Mind disconnected from Nature has been essentially lobotomized of much of its sensitivity, unable to perceive the subtle processes of Life, whether within the body in which it is housed, or its extension into society, or its pervasiveness in Nature from whence it originates.

This is a direct consequence of treating the Mind as a programmable machine, dumbed down into an insentient automaton incapable of true Creativity, the essential ingredient of Life.

Such a Mind becomes insensitive to human relations, and to our relationship with Nature, and consequently we have breakdowns in society as well as in our natural environment.

And most  egregious of all, we become insensitive to what lies within, which eventually leads to the most difficult of breakdowns, that of the self. Not a good idea.

Awareness of the nature of Thought can resolve this situation.

On Thought

Thought is a faculty that has developed tremendous significance ever since human biological evolution resulted in our enlarged brain size.

Thought is best framed in the context of psychological Time.

Thought is:

• created as a consequence of Thinking in the present, 

• gets stored as a memory, of assumptions & conclusions, in our past, and

• projects itself an imagined future.

The etymology of the word Thought is unclear but there is an associated root in the Sanskrit word तत् "Thath", meaning That.

When we point something out as a separate object, “that” object is now a mental concept stored in the Mind as Thought.

The Sanskrit word तत्  “Thath” in the Vedic literature, is a part of the most profound teachings which exhort us to not separate That from whom we actually are. 

We are in fact That which we perceive as separate from us, or in other words,

तत्वमसि 

Thath Thvam Asi

"That You Are" - enjoins the Veda

Everything we perceive is a reflection of who we Think we are, so, obviously, the more we clear the Mind clearer too is our perception of the world around us, and our perception of our own self.

The Mind

The Mind is a nebulous thing, hard to pin down, but we can look at it from the perspective of Thought.

A simplified definition of the Mind, for now, is that it is a collection of Thoughts.

As we get deeper into Yoga structures of the Mind we will see there is a lot more we can embellish around how Thoughts are structured, but this is the core of it.

Understanding the Mind is thus equivalent to observing the essential nature of Thought.

Observing Thought though, is challenging, because it is usually in motion, like ripples, or even waves, on the surface of the ocean that continually rise, merge, and collapse, with hardly any structure that we can grasp.

Material Impact

Thought drives the state of the human body, and the human body in turn feeds into Thought, in one continuous cycle and as such there is no sharp line dividing Mind and the body.

For example, Thought results in the generation of certain chemical changes in the body, so a happy Thought creates endorphins,

• which could cause us to think more happy Thoughts, or

• carry out some bodily actions to reinforce the happy Thought.

Thus it is seen that Thought is the basis for the entire world we experience:

• Our mental state of feelings & emotions, 

• the state of the physical body as a living bio-chemical factory, and 

• its outward expression in speech & motion.

Consequently this has a material impact on the world around us, and eventually feeds back through our sensory organs and back again into the brain as new Thoughts stored in memory,

Movement of Thought

The movement of Thought is fundamentally due to these two characteristics:

• Reflexivity, and

• Connectedness

Reflexivity

When some situation is being presented to us, and we recognize it as being similar to one from the past, then Thought from these past memories kicks in almost instantaneously, just like a knee-jerk reflex. 

Re-cognizing means that we are ‘again cognizing’, because there is some memory of a similar past situation and this past memory helps us to understand the new situation with less effort.

That is, at first a situation is presented in the im-mediate moment, i.e. not mediated by Thought, then very soon after it gets reflexively mediated by a Thought from the past.

This reflexivity is useful when, for example, we see a red traffic light while driving and we need to stop in a hurry, there is no time or even the necessity to explore what is the existential implication of a red traffic light!

But at other times this mediation by past Thought clouds our perception, such as situations that stir up emotions within us and impact our inner psychological state, thus preventing us from perceiving clearly. 

Connectedness

Many Thoughts are also connected to one another because of logically shared aspects, so when there is one reflexive Thought then related Thoughts kick in, and thus is triggered a Thought stream, demonstrating this is no mere static memory bank, but one that is in near-perpetual motion.

For example, an image of some animal could remind us of fear, which in turn could bring up other fear-inducing Thoughts from the past that have affected us psychologically.

Or we could project some future scenario based on some incident that just happened, like we see a beautiful person and start planning how to make a deeper connection, and this brings up other similar situations in the Mind.

This return to a particular past or projecting about the future is literally endless in potential, as no Thought really stands alone, logically connected as they all are in a semantic network of meaningful constructs.

Mind in Auto-pilot

This reflexive & connected movement of Thought is efficient & rapid, and very useful as a utility to navigate a material world where things need to get done.

But in the psychological realm such chain reactions result in situations where the powerful workhorse of our Mind spins as though in auto-pilot, enslaved to its dynamic storehouse of Thoughts, which reactions happen even more intensely in stressful situations where we have not had the restraint to pause for a moment to reflect.

Domains of Thought

It is therefore useful to separate out the two domains in which Thought is used:

• As a material  utility

• As a psychological tool

Thought as a material Utility

When we go through systematic training to acquire utilitarian facts or skills, then mechanical repetition to reinforce reflexivity is a useful utility to have at our fingertips.

For example:

• When faced with a red traffic light the assumption is to not hit the brakes too hard if there is a car too close behind but if a human walks in front then to do so regardless of what's behind you.

• When we perceive excessive heat in an object we jerk our hand away because we have a Thought based on past experience of the potential negative consequences of fire.

Note that each time we understand the assumptions behind the Thought it reinforces the correct set of conditions when the reflex ought to fire.

In an increasingly AI-driven world where machines are performing utilitarian tasks the value of mechanical repetition  as a human skill will decrease over time, although it will always be essential for us to retain reflexive Thought as a utility.

However when it comes to psychology it is best to view Thought in a different way.

Thought as a psychological Tool

Intent and Purpose are two types of psychological Thought.

Intent

Intent, with a root sound related to the Sanskrit anthar which means internal, indicates a Thought with subtle origin. 

We can say that Intent arises from the heart (a word which stems from Sanskrit हृद hrud), because the heart is a deeply internal region from where subtle Intent arises.

Purpose

Purpose is a word related to posing, and indicates a Thought that projects externally.

We can say that Purpose arises from our computer-like brain, an overt projection of will and passion, that operates on sheer logic and subtleties be damned.

From another perspective we can also say that Intent is "left brain" and Purpose is "right brain".

When both Intent and Purpose work fully together the manifestation is harmony.

For example, we can use Intent to create a healthy life being open to sensible guidance, and we can use Purpose to ensure that we get to Yoga class on time using an alarm clock.

In the world of AI, we will have our personal Life simulator projecting what could be our potential future, by understanding our Intent & tracking our Purpose, and with the use of AI-driven Augmented Reality hardware it could actually help us to psychologically evolve our mental states to manifest our desired reality.

Psychological traps

Thought as a utility is the basis by which we live in material reality so there is a tendency for it be overused in every aspect of human endeavor, such as in the psychological domain which is our investigation here.

There are two ways in which both Intentional & Purposeful Thought could lock us in a mental prison:

• Entanglement of Intent 

• Fragmentation by Purpose 

Entanglement of Intent

Intent is a subtle Thought form and sees its manifestation in fuzzier outcomes, hopefully tangible, but not precisely defined other than realizing some aspect of an integrated holistic vision.

With fuzzy thinking, our Thought streams could eventually get entangled in each other, and the result is subtle paranoia.

“If I didn’t know I was paranoid, I would probably get suspicious.” - a T-shirt quote.

For example, when two people, in unavoidably close proximity, have Intents that are not clearly brought to the surface then their Thoughts could eventually become so entangled that there arises “suspicion” of who or what is the actual root cause of any conflict.

In the Psychic Beings section, drawing upon our penchant for Yoga stories, we refer to this phenomenon as a Rākshasa psychic virus.

To bring Intent clearly to the surface, it needs to be paired with a driving Purpose, like say a flowering creeper which is guided properly to form a shady bower instead of growing wildly allowing nests of pests to flourish within its darkened crevices.  

Fragmentation by Purpose

Purpose is an overt Thought form and sees its manifestation in material outcomes, definitely tangible.

Purposeful Thought is useful in analytical thinking to reduce complex concepts into achievable or manageable chunks, such as, to:

• take apart the world of matter so we can continue expanding human presence into the material Universe, or 

• dissect a psychological situation so we can better understand and work it out in detail - as we are doing here.

Typically this is initiated with a particular framework in Mind, which by definition is limited to the scope of the particular problem so that it is easy to analyze, which has a consequent by-product that whatever falls outside of the framework is fragmented away.

That is, fragmentation occurs when there is no attention paid to integration of our Thought streams into a holistic vision.

In the Psychic Beings section, drawing upon our penchant for Yoga stories, we refer to this phenomenon as an Asura psychic virus.

When our frameworks are designed for whatever Purpose maximizes reductionist outcomes without regard to the Whole, then our world is subject to Fragmentation, and the result is subtle schizophrenia.

“If I didn’t know I was schizo, I would probably go to pieces” - another T-shirt quote.

Reductionist thinking became the norm in Western models thanks to Descartes with his famous dictum “I Think therefore I Am”, and thus the rise of rationalism in the West, and eventually the Industrial revolution itself of which we are experiencing its consequences in more ways than one.

Reductionism is a machine-like model where we break the objective into manageable chunks that can be compartmentalized so as to optimize our Purpose very efficiently.

But when reductionism  loses its connection to the Whole, fragmentation ensues, and the consequent incoherence, leads to potentially disastrous side-effects. 

For example: 

• Workers have had their lives fragmented across work, family, health, friends, etc. stemming from the need to optimize productivity by treating these as disconnected areas of Life,

  • but this leads to increased stress as the whole Being of who we are does not show up in any of our areas of activity.

• Earth has been fragmented into nation-states with hard lines and walls dividing populations,

  • whereas viewing these man-made divisions as "dotted lines," as semi-porous borders, could lead to a more compassionate approach to accommodate migrations in the event of disasters.

• Populations have been fragmented across caste lines to serve colonizing powers and exploited by power-hungry politicians, 

  • whereas viewing local tribal societies as the bedrock of social capital could have minimized the requirement for impersonal & inefficient centralized government, as tribal societies are well known for taking care of each other in well-knit socioeconomic webs.

• Science has become fragmented across its various disciplines, for example in the health sciences where medical patients have to navigate a sea of specialists in multi-specialty hospitals,

  • whereas a traditionally holistic approach can provide integrated care with the entire patient, body & mind, as the focus.

• Technology developers downstream to the Sciences are notoriously unable to consider the full picture before unleashing shiny new inventions into the world, such as:

  • the diffusion of nuclear energy into rogue hands, or 

  • social networks that seek to forcefully divide the world on ideology instead of providing a inclusive platform to resolve differences.

• Yoga too, ironically, has been fragmented into different types of Yoga, some of them even becoming marketing brands, so that the original integral unity of its model has been obscured and consequently its power has not reached the masses, let alone blooming into its fullest potential as we seek here.

To avoid fragmented outcomes, Purpose must be subtly guided with an inner Intent that brings in a certain flexibility to organically integrate the hard vision of Purpose into a holistic outcome.

Hard to Stop

Although with clear Thinking we may be able to uncover the downstream impact of certain Thoughts, the above examples clearly show how the stream of Thought could get entangled in conflicting Intent or run away from its Purpose.

We are unable to control the evolution of Thought because there is an underlying psychological conditioning that drives the Mind, and thus Thought streams take on a life of their own, like a perpetual-motion machine.

When Intent & Purpose are clearly understood by AI, its simulations will show us potential pitfalls when we have such psychological conditioning which could take our future into undesirable territories.

Psychological Conditioning

When Intent or Purpose is "pure", that is free of all externally imposed conditioning, then such Intent manifesting from the "heart", aligns well with the clear Purpose of the "mind", and indeed our desired future manifests and that too without any stress or other forms of collateral damage.

However, it is usually not the case that such Thought forms arise from pristine ground, and this is what is meant by mental conditioning.

Conditionals

Any "If-Then-Else" is called a Conditional, and is central to how all computers mechanically execute their logical programs as utilities.

When this is how our own Minds have been setup to operate, beyond utilitarian tasks, then psychological conditioning ensues.

Conditioning of Intent

When we "feel" something about an interaction with the world, then, although subjective, these feeling values could help us in making rapid, “intuitive”, decisions to fulfill our Intent.

For example, when we assign a feeling value to a:

• book (“If it is fictional, then I like it”), then it becomes easier to scan book store shelves to hone in on which books could be appropriate, or

• house (“If it is cold, then I don’t like such buildings”), then it becomes easier to real estate search for appropriate homes.

Because of the subjective nature of “feeling”, it is challenging to examine the assumptions behind our assignment of value, so each time we base new decisions on previous assignments of value to similar situations, and this assignment of value thus deepens the groove of our conditioning. 

A good word for the feelings that result from such Intentional Thoughts would be felts, but this is a word not in common use.

Unexamined Intentions could have unintended consequences.

For example, if when we are not feeling happy in the house we chose to live in, but the real reason behind our choice was actually not the temperature but some other emotional reason that coincided with a cold building, then

• A Thought could arise that we need to move houses so we start scanning beach-side real estate listings, which thought of escaping our unhappiness generates endorphins.

• Endorphins, which, as an internally generated morphine are addictive, and thus eventually their desired effects wear down.

• So we feel sad and this causes us to want to generate even more endorphins.

• Soon this becomes an addictive spiral, and we may while away endless hours doing nothing but looking at real estate listings in sunny places.

Thus, Intentional Thought with unexamined assumptions could have unintended consequences in terms of a constant underlying sense of dissatisfaction, and thus too is a Rākshasa born.

Conditioning of Purpose

When the value assigned based on feeling is felt deeply, such Thought evokes strong emotions and becomes a driving Purpose. Notice that e-motion could very well be energy-in-motion!

For example,  Humans have to reach Mars, the rivers have to be cleaned, the CO2 and CH4 levels in the atmosphere have to be reduced, the coral reefs have to be restored - are all strong Purposes.

When pursuing such areas of endeavor our Purpose is non-negotiable, and any situation that reminds us of our Purpose creates a much deeper mental groove. 

Thought based on Purpose works fine as long as its core assumptions helps us to live an integrated Life, else fragmentation inevitably ensues.

For example, fragmentation is evident when:

• children are programmed to swear loyalty to the flag then in their youth they are willing to die for their particular country, 

  • which creates a mental concept in the whole of society that further creates a groove in individual Minds to stir emotions that further reinforce the whole vicious cycle, 

  • without understanding who actually could be benefiting from a country’s wars, such as arms merchants, and 

  • any counter-evidence is negated by the conditioned reflexivity of Thought. 

• even scientists fall prey to this, refusing to acknowledge significant evidence that is contrary to their purpose of not having their long cherished views being invalidated, for example: 

  • The Newtonian mechanical model ruled the world for centuries, and thus it took decades of presented evidence to accept the probabilistic model of quantum physics.

  • Witness also in consciousness studies the extreme reluctance by those myopically following the man-is-a-machine model to accept many studies demonstrating obvious empirical observations in psychic phenomena.

Purpose-driven Thought without a view to integration is the more pernicious kind of conditioning, because we are forcing Thought to create an ever more fragmented and dystopian world view, and thus too is an Asura born.

Identification to Thought

Identity

Since Thought is of such enormous significance in our life, somewhere along the line Humans associated the entire Thought process with their core Identity.

These psychological conditionings result in a deep distortion of our Identity.

Our Identity is typically formed by observing the reactions (or measured responses) of those around us, and our own reactions (or measured responses) within, and from this dynamic interplay we get a sense of who we are psychologically.

Our psychological Identity is thus the accumulation of the Thoughts that we associate with who we are and can either provide clarity of perception or obfuscate our reality, depending on the level of conditioning we carry.

Hard to Change

Our constructed Identity is so dearly held that it is hard to change

The whole of human existence stems from the deeply held notions of personal Identity fed by the inappropriate use of Thought, thus anything related to Identity is extremely hard to change, and even when we see its destructive outcomes we refuse to trace these to their origins and resolve them.

A Thoughtful Crisis

We are Thought obsessed with how we relate to others, the body, and everything that has been produced by Thought in the material domain. 

The System of Thought has so possessed our current society that Thought is routinely applied in a fragmented manner, and we think being so possessed is perfectly normal.

The fragmentation and misalignment by Thought directly reflects in how we perceive our own Self.

When we have a deeply conditioned Identity applying any kind of logical thinking, no matter how seemingly sound, could still backfire as the Mind could start off with deep prejudice.

For example, a person of a particular color might be considered to not have a “soul”, and 

• being close to an animal

• they therefore need to be civilized, and 

• best to do this early in their lives, so 

• take away their children to brainwash them - 

• which was a wide-spread practice in colonial times, world over.

All perfectly logical, but predicated on a deeply faulty assumption.

When Thought gets tied up so deeply with Identity it results in the most demeaning of situations, because the observer’s perspective becomes so "subjective" that people around become objectified, and relationships become transactional and thus meaningless.

Note that demeaning literally means we are stripping away the meaning in these situations, which is counter to the whole Intent/Purpose of Life itself!

It is no wonder then, that we are mentally agitated and feel out of control in stressful social situations. 

Much of our personal consciousness, though, is buried deeply, and we are thus not fully aware of the impact of society on our Mind, and vice-versa.

System of Thought

Now that we have looked deeply at all aspects of Thought we can step back and look at the overall Mind.

We initially observed that one obvious characterization of the Mind is a collection of Thoughts. 

The word collection signifies a repository like a memory bank, but this is no ordinary memory bank but one that acts as a very active mental machine.

Thus a deeper way to characterize Mind is that it is a System of Thought, where the Movement of conditioned Thought reinforces the interlinked parts to keep the whole mechanical System in place.

Thus the Mind is resistant to change.

Our exposition on the nature of the System of Thought is similar to that of Karma, and how well-formed Intent can become derailed without the guidance of Dharma or Purpose can cause conflict when not integrated in Yoga.

Thus too has Homo Sapiens created a rigid, mechanical world order, and our psychological  conditioning of Thought prevents us from reaching our full potential, and often even becomes destructive.

The growth of material wealth due to Thought, and tying of Identity to Thought, has given undue importance to the power of Thought and has made the whole system of Thought almost unbreakable.

Breaking the System

By this time we are surely yearning to throw away our self-imposed shackles with the Thought of how to break out of such a System.

But the paradox is that if we think about breaking this System with another Thought, as though from the outside, then that Thought too becomes a part of the System, with all its attendant issues. 

For example, this “breaking-loose Thought”

• could come from a space of emotional pain, which 

• brings a whole host of related Thoughts into the picture, 

• some of which could trigger a defensive reflex to prevent change 

• because we may not have the energy to deal with change. 

So the Mind then creates some imagined counter Thought  of emotional pleasure whose effects, like that of any addictive drug, wear off and leaves us even more depleted and worse off than before.

Thus we are stuck  in a never ending pleasure-pain cycle, which perpetuates further conflict between what-is and what-wants-to-be but may-never-be properly sustained!

If it seems like Thought is an addiction, it is indeed so.

If it seems like we are possessed by the non-stop movement of Thought, we are.

To repeat a previous Thought, so to speak, Thought streams have taken on a life of their own, not under our conscious control.