Self as God

Last week, I took a vow of silence for 36 hours. In the Hindu religion, this is called Mauna.

In a general sense, Christianity and Judaism connect others (the Prophets, etc.) with God while Pagan religions are animistic. However, in many Eastern religions and philosophies, adherents believe that the Self pervades all, and the Self is supreme to even the gods.

Most importantly, to me, is that in such Eastern religions, one’s pursuit of Godliness involves specific activities that one can do in regular life. For example, in Buddhism and Hinduism, there the concept of meditation is a core to their spiritual growth. Meditation improves the conservation of energy, fosters self-control (sattrayana) and non-attachment, and therefore calms the mind. By creating peace within the body and the senses, one hopes to create inner peace within the soul/mind, and eventually outer peace (a la Gandhi) within the world. This alignment of one's soul, mind, body, and then outer world is to me creating heaven on earth. It is a fascinating and life-altering concept to me. It meshes with how I've always believe man should be. Here are the four main examples:

1) Brahmancharya is sexual continence. Gandhi, as you know, practiced this from about age 36 for the rest of his life.

2) Mauna is a vow of silence. Gandhi did not speak on Mondays for most of his adult life. People like Maher Baba (who heavily influenced Pete Townshend of The Who) didn't speak for nearly 45 years, and there are many people who take vows of over 10 years.
There seems to be 7 levels of silence:
a) Conquer jealousy
b) Conquer anger
c) Conquer fear
d) Conquer memory
e) Conquer reason
f) Conquer willpower
g) Conquer ego

3) Anasakyana is fasting. Over the past year, I’ve done two fasts. The first, my first, was 30 hours, and difficult (I broke it at around 2am. My reptile brain stood me up and walked me to the pizza joint). The second went better, at 40 hours, and broken normally.

4) Vanaprastha is seclusion or withdrawal from social interaction.

Applying Differential Calculus in Mankind

Last entry was an explanation of how we can use the general non-mathematical concepts in calculus to learn more about life. This article is about whether humans are losing their alignment with nature.

I've wondered if humans are entering a 'derivative' phase, where we have detached from the core of things and have attached to the false appearance. Here are some examples:

Sex is for procreation, but humans do it for fun and in fact often seek to avoid procreation
Christmas is about celebrating a religious figure, but humans focus on the celebration, and not the figure
Many artificial colors, flavors, and additives are for appearance rather than nutritional improvement
We study in school to get high grades, rather than to learn
Kids wear chains and 'tough' clothes for the appearance of toughness, when there is none
Men hold automatic doors open for women
It's been said that men are more attracted to bleach blondes than actual blondes
High heels, lipstick, eye makeup (whatever that is called…mascara I think) create no advantage to those with long legs, thick lips, or big eyes
Fake breasts…gross
Cut or ‘faded’ jeans, to imply some sort of working class hero image

What’s fascinating about all this is that nature does it, too. Neoteny is nature’s way of delaying an organism’s juvenile characteristics, often well into adulthood. Often this serves the purpose of fooling potential mates. It works, and our beliefs regarding human beauty usually serve to reinforce neoteny.

What’s the point? The point is that cultural and natural factors are conspiring to create posers out of you, and out of those with whom you interact. Try to keep things real.