Inception, Dreams, and the Mind

This past week we continued our study of the working of our mind, and what the wisdom of the Bhagavad-Gita has to say about it, by exploring one of the most fascinating aspects of our mental reality, the dream. We viewed a scene from the recent hit film Inception as an initial way to frame our discussion, and in this scene, we saw how the main character, Cobb, a master of mental espionage, revealed the workings of the dream state to his young and impressionable architect friends, Ariadne. This is a dream state one is aware of being a part of, and one that can be actively controlled and created, like the phenomenon of the lucid dream. As we watched, we saw that Ariadne learned that the power of the mind and the contents of the subconscious that arise in a dream can be both wondrous to control and too overpowering and dangerous to handle.

Dreams reveal to us so many different things within us that make up the contents of what we have taken into our consciousness in this life, and perhaps in previous lives. We discussed how certain dream experiences could be echoes, or actual memories, of previous lives, and how this connection may further our own consideration of the phenomenon of reincarnation. We considered again the ABC News video of a young boy who remembered, through vivid dreams, his previous life as a WWII fighter pilot, and whose parents actually researched and corroborated much of the info he was relating from his dreams as being historically accurate.

The mystery of the dream may never be something that can be fully captured, and to a greater extent this also applies to the mystery of our mind. The Bhagavad-Gita has plenty of thought-compelling wisdom to present, which can challenge our own conceptions of our mental and overall reality, if we have an open mind to it.

The restless mind

"The Restless Mind"
In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna makes our relationship with our mind very clear when he says "For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy." It's tough language, born of the battlefield context of the Gita itself, but when we really think about it, it's so true. How often throughout our day do we find our mind providing us with incredible inspiration, only to soon drag us off on some adventure or daydream which takes us way off-course.

We discussed how the practical power of the Gita helps to bring us off the "mental platform", or identifying too closely with our thoughts and mental impressions, which after all are only potential representations of who we actually are. We did a mindful guided meditation in which we attempted to step back and observe the flow of our thoughts, which we rarely ever do. Our realizations that we discussed showed us that the power of our mind and the health of our mind must be nurtured and respected, especially if we want to know our deeper, spiritual self.

Of course, the power of mantra meditation is an excellent tool to make the mind our friend, and we once again talked about this wonderful practice, and invited everyone to join us on Thursday morning for our weekly meditation, to give our mind, body, and soul a powerful boost.

Near Death Experiences!?!?!

In our first meeting for the Spring Semester (with plenty of fresh snow and ice still on the ground :-)), we returned back to the first essential teaching of the Bhagavad-Gita: that we are more than just this temporary body, and that to go deeper, we must understand that we are the soul within. How do we understand this beyond the theoretical or the seemingly mystical or mythological? The realm of experience is where we can understand spiritual knowledge beyond the doubting and misunderstanding nature of our mind, and we framed our first discussion of the semester around one such extraordinary experience: the near-death experience (NDE).

A lot of us are familiar with this phenomenon, which has come from the outskirts of the paranormal to something that is now being seriously accepted and studied by mainstream science, simply because of the compelling nature of the experience and the millions upon millions of people who have experienced an NDE. Check out this video below that we watched during our discussions, which comes from the Discovery Channel, on one of the most well-documented NDE cases, of Pam Reynolds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu1ErDeQ0Zw

How was Pam able to see, hear, and experience her operation even though her body was clinically dead? Who is that seer? As we explored some potential answers to these questions, we considered that the wisdom of the Gita is clearly trying to tell us that this is our spirit, our soul, our actual self, and that we remain and exist and can perceive beyond our earthly body. The near-death experience is one such practical and serious example of this manifest deeper reality, and its evidence can compel us to understand and contemplate our deeper self and our deeper nature as we go through our daily life.

Living in the Matrix

All the great spiritual traditions of the world have something to say about the nature of reality, and the possibility of illusion. Popular examples such as the film The Matrix have brought to our attention the idea that the world around us may not be what it seems. Indeed, it may not be at all. In last week's discussion we read a series of verses from the Gita which told us two things: that our material realm is a temporary place, and that there is another deeper realm, a spiritual realm, where we exist beyond the miseries of the reality we know know.

Why miserable? After all we don't want our spiritual path to make us gloomy, but we discussed that we all experience a certain sense of uncertainty in our lives, sometimes feeling even in the midst of our happiest times that something undesirable is lurking around the corner. We all want a happiness and security and a sense of self-knowledge that is enduring, and the Gita explains that this is the natural condition of our soul, beyond our temporary bodily state. While many descriptions of the spiritual reality where we can find this real happiness and life seem quite ethereal, we discussed that the teachings of the bhakti tradition laid out in the Gita for us help to access this spiritual reality through the nature of selfless love and relationships. By giving ourselves to others in a mood of compassion and brotherhood/sisterhood, we can begin to experience within ourselves, the spiritual realm the Gita speaks to us about, and we can find the lasting well-being beyond the flickering waves of this material reality.

Taking control

In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna that our senses can draw us, even if we are striving to control some of their negative influences upon us, into situations that we don't want to go into, to say words we don't want to say, and to hurt feelings we don't want to hurt. Sense control is not something we ever think about too often, but our discussion helped us all to find a common bond and understanding, from the wisdom of the Gita, as to why a little restraint and understanding about the sensual forces in our life can help us to find a deeper spiritual understanding. Letting our sensual desires get out-of-control can throw us into a downward spiral that leads to anger, bewilderment, and the kind of illusions that prevent us from finding consistence and contentment in our spiritual lives.

Of course, living in our go-go-gadget world means that this is easier said than done. This past week, we discussed the importance of the wisdom of sense control that the Gita teaches us, and how we can take a step back, through the vision of ourselves as spirit soul, and see the forces that are working upon us. Practices like mantra meditation can help us to steady our mind and deepen our perspective so that we can push back and remain strong against the urges of our tongues, bellies, etc that throw us off and make us feel miserable, despite whatever temporary pleasure might be there.

Coaches, guides, and, gurus

In last week's Bhagavad Gita-In Your Life discussion, we explored the idea of having a spiritual mentor, teacher, guide, or guru. So many of us have begun to question the fabric of our reality, to look for something deeper, perhaps even to live with a spiritual consciousness, as a soul, as the Gita suggests. We discussed that having a teacher and guide is certainly not something out of the ordinary for us. Our lives are full of people of wisdom and knowledge who guide us in our academic, social, athletic, and just-plain-common-sense realms of reality. We couldn't do without them, for they have walked the path we are trying to walk, and they can show us the way to move forward, and to avoid the pitfalls and potholes that may be in the road ahead. So it's not a stretch to say we need some similar guidance in our spiritual life.
Of course there are many doubts and questions of trust and qualification, but if we are sincere and really seeking the kind of person/people who can give us real, lasting, personal, and intimate guidance to traverse the spiritual road, we will find them, but we must be patient, and we must be willing to serve, and we must be inquisitive as well. These are all facets of the teacher/student relationship Krishna is describing to Arjuna, and which they are showing to us through the dialogue and wisdom of the Gita.

The Middle Path

This week we really began to see that the wisdom of the Gita can have a real practical effect on our everyday consciousness. Consider this: everyday we have some kind of success, and some kind of failure. That's not news to any of us, but we considered something perhaps new and fresh; a different kind of reaction to the waves and oscillations of our daily experiences. The Gita teaches us to abandon all attachment to success and failure, and to remain equipoised. We discusses how this seemingly complex instruction from Krishna is something we can perhaps easily grasp. We don't want to dive into our failures of course, but we also don't want to dive too far into our successes. There is no doubt success and failure will come, and there's no doubt we'll have some definite feelings to these experiences, but the wisdom of the Gita helps us to find a deeper perspective on it all. To begin to live as a spiritual person, we have to learn to see the deeper side of things, and keeping an equal mentality, knowing that our successes and failures aren't permanent, is a wonderful initial way to begin to see yourself as something more than just a temporary body and mind.

Ultimately, dwelling too much on success and failure creates a selfish mentality, which prevents us from finding the selfless mentality that leads to a real spiritual sense of who we are. Actually, by working towards the spiritual platform, we find real success, and transcend mundane failure, by beginning to work on the deeper, eternal platform.

Soul Searching

In our third week, we considered together the first main teaching Krishna gives to the inquisitive and seeking Arjuna: that we are not this body, but the soul within. We explored together how this paradigm of personal spiritual identification, including the concepts of karma and reincarnation, fits with the paradigms we grew up with. Do we only get one shot at life or is it a constant stream of opportunity and experience? What is the meaning and the goal of our existence if we are to define ourselves as an eternal spirit, rather than just a temporary body in a temporary world? To shed some empirical light on our intriguing conversation, we discussed the work of Dr. Ian Stevenson, whose research on the remembrance of past lives by young children around the world offers many thought-provoking questions as to the potential reality of reincarnation, and we also watched an ABC News report about a young boy who remembers his past life as a doomed World War II pilot, with corroborating and startling evidence proving many of his statements. Lots of food for thought about our deeper identity and how this can shift our perspective to understand the presence of spirit within us and around us

Down at the Crossroads

In the second week of Bhagavad-Gita In Your Life here at Columbia, we dove right into the existential situation of the great warrior Arjuna, as he found himself at a tremendous crossroads in his life, wondering whether to engage in a great battle against many of his most beloved family and friends. We understood that the key to diving into the timeless and priceless wisdom of the Gita is to see ourselves in Arjuna's shoes, so our discussion this week revolved around a careful look at Arjuna's emotions, at the confusion, sadness, and frustration that we also share in the crossroads and dilemmas of our own everyday lives, big and small. The tumult we feel can be a grand opportunity for us to take a step back and ask the questions that need to be asked, and we talked about the example Arjuna is setting for us, seeking guidance from his dear friend Krishna, and how he is not content to just put a band-aid on the problem, but to find a deeper, spiritual solution.

Bhagavad Gita: In your life

This past Friday we kicked off another year of wisdom for the body, mind, and soul with our Intro session for Bhagavad Gita-In Your Life. We set a template for our discussions this year with the clear idea that not only can the Gita be relevant to our contemporary lives, but it can also take us to a deeper and happier everyday level, where real spiritual wisdom can enter into our thoughts and actions and help us to become the person we want to be.

Curious newcomers and returning friends were welcomed and introduced to the setting of the Gita, and the great personalities, Arjuna and Krishna, at the heart of the discussion. Arjuna is the greatest warrior of his time drawn into an unimaginable situation, having to fight his dearest teachers and family members in a massive civil war. Krishna, as his chariot driver, dear friend, and incarnation of the Divine, has the duty of convincing the naturally reluctant Arjuna to fight.

What does this all mean? Isn't this another example of religious violence gone wrong, gone beyond morals and reason? We explored some of these tricky topics, and asked students to consider that the story of the Gita will reveal something much deeper beyond its challenging surface, setting the stage for next week when we will dive deeper into the crossroads Arjuna finds himself at, and the crossroads we often find ourselves at.