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Writer's pictureDr. Sanjeev Chopra

The Riddle of Experience versus Memory


In his Ted Talk on ‘The Riddle of Experience versus Memory,’ Daniel Kahneman makes a pertinent point: We don ’t choose between experiences; we chose between ‘ memories of experiences ’. And indeed ‘ our future choices are not about experiences, but anticipated memories ’ because the experiencing self is different from the remembering self. This brings us to the concept of identity - which is what we decide to give ourselves. Kandpal suggests that ‘there is nothing to fear in letting go of one ’ s identity in order to allow the emergence of a newer, more complex form of being ’. This brings us to the analogy of the painter and the painting, and how a painter transforms his landscape and/or his muse in her own unique, unparalleled way. As Picasso famously said ‘ some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into a sun ’. Both Shankar in the East and Kant in the West have postulated that the visible world –phenomenon - can be understood only in the conceptual categories of space and time. But these are arbitrary constructs which help us to understand what goes on around us in the physical world. However, in and by themselves, there is no such thing as space and time. And time is relative, for as Einstein said: ‘Time does not exist – we invented it. Time is what the clock says. The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubborn persistent illusion ’. As the physicist Carlo Rovelii says: ‘From my point of view, and that of physics, nothing permains (permanently remains) through time. Molecules come together, and then will disband at some point’. When we look at the world in terms of the sum total of objects – we assume that they will not change with the flow of time. But if we look at ourselves, we change slightly every day, nay every moment, just as every flower and butterfly and even the majestic mountain. But why do we live (and love), and have expectations? Especially in the light of the most famous aphorism of the Bhagavad Gita (2:47) Your duty is to work, not to reap the fruits of work. Do not seek the rewards of what you do, but neither be fond of laziness? In this context, work is the only possible worship, and the path of action (Karmayog) and renunciation (Sanyasayog) go hand in hand. And the Bhaktiyog is not really different, for here again the entire action is devoted in the spirit of surrender. As such, the journey is not just the means to an end, but an end in itself – the raison d’ etre, or what the Japanese call ikigai, which manifests itself uniquely in each one of us - for we are all ‘ waves in the same ocean ’. However this rhythm was broken by the nine to five schedule of the Industrial revolution, best described by Charlie Chaplin ‘ machine men with machine minds and machine hearts ’ , converting the idling grazers, farmers and milkmaids and carefree children and adolescents into ‘ productive members ’ of a society wedded to material progress. The modern and the postmodern world want every individual to have a purpose derived from the ‘ external’ world - wealth, fame, pleasure and power – whereas the option of finding happiness within is often ignored. For as Lama Gendup Rinpoche puts it so succinctly, ‘Happiness cannot be found/through great effort and will power /but is already present /in open relaxation and letting go ’ We have often looked at love and power in terms of a ‘binary ’ , but as Dr Martin Luther King said ‘ power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love ’. But King ’ s idealism and hope is challenged by Foucault who finds that power produces its own reality, its own domain of objects and its own rituals of truth. Foucault holds prisons and mental hospitals as sites of ensuring compliance to what a society holds as ‘ normative ’. Foucault was drawing from Nietzsche ’ s ‘ will to power ’ , a clear advance over Schopenhauer ’ s ‘ will to live ’ , because the will to live (or survive) is common to all sentient beings. In the last chapter Spirituality and the Heart, Kandpal suggests that ‘ spirituality is more a matter of the heart, than of the mind.It is not something that comes to us known, it is the unknown that we understand through experience ’. He discusses six key concepts – attachment, surrender, transcendence, meditation, the realm of light and the speech of the heart. Attachment does not make sense in a world that is always in flux. ‘Seasons come and go, prices rise and fall, and (in time) even civilizations grow and crumble ’. It is therefore necessary to ‘ surrender ’ and give up all illusions of control. But the only honest thing we can surrender to is the moment, the experience we find ourselves in. As Mooji says ‘ it takes tremendous strength to surrender life to the Supreme – to the Cosmic unfolding ’. Surrender can lead to transcendence – which Carl Jung describes as the ‘ union of the conscious and unconscious contents ’. The unconscious is a large repository of contents that will somehow always remain unconscious and yet has significant salience in our lives. But with the help of this transcendent function, we can observe these contents in relation to our conscious contents, which will (perhaps) give us an insight into who we are! Contrary to common misconception, mediation is not about stilling the mind – but about connecting with the whole being, including the Divine, which is not distinct from us. In the Vipassana tradition, it is about observing one ’ s own breath, and every other physical and mental attributes that register on our mind, thereby implying that our thoughts are a part of us, but crucially, not us. With regard to the realm of light, Kandpal tells us that our light and life are not where we search for them – both are in us – in this magical moment, and the awareness of this moment. Deny this moment, and we enter the world of ignorance. He also believes that when the heart speaks, the mind has no option but to listen. As Mahatma Gandhi says ‘it is better in prayer to have a heart without words, than words without a heart’. Rumi tells us that ‘the only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart’. In his concluding remarks, Kandpal wonders if it is possible to realize that just as we are perceiving the world in our own unique way, so is everyone else. The world is viewed differently by tetrachromats, dichromats and monochromats. And finally, can reality be both objective and subjective? Yes, provided we understand that in the final essence, they are not different, and in our practical day to day experience, we always experience reality as a whole, not as fragments. It is this which brings a depth and understanding to life – for it is not only trees that make a forest, but the soil, water, birds, clouds, insects and all the different kinds of organisms and phenomena that surround it. Our lives are a wholesome conglomeration of the subjective and the objective, and once we realize that, we can only be grateful that ‘ we get to live ’.

 

 

 


 

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