Technological Reality and Self

These lines to follow are extended reflection of experiences, thoughts and feelings into a technological journey invited by this course. There could be change of character and energy including the known and unknown…more questions to ask than being answered.

I have questioned, I am questioning and I will be question everything because I want to find it myself. It goes beyond gaining more skills, information. It goes beyond making my life easier, entertaining and contemporary, but using this experience to know better the nature of contemporary technological reality and “me”. The beginning point here is creativity, technology and I. Many of these arrivals of thought have been published in the blog “Unbound Touch”.

New realizations, transforming in awareness has been arising further. Observing the inner in relation to the outer, encompassing the initial topic of technology which brought us together. My gratefulness is deep for this experiential journey where mainly two parallel processes where taking place. First learning clearly practical skills, mainly to self-explore some technological tools, (Blogs, PowerPoint Presentation, QDA Software Photoshop, Twitter, Wiki, etc), and the other is the relation of this exploration with the deeper me, as well as it’s relation to global human reality. This witting goes further than Media and the Web, tools, etc but addressing technology as a global entity. (keeping in mind some of the most destructive fields of technology which are nanotechnology, gene engineering and robotics)

Important fact is that sixty-five percent of all the scientific research being done currently is directly or indirectly meant for developing weapons and is supported by the Defense ministries of almost each nation. The estimated number of people killed in wars for the last century is 208 million people.

Technology in general is other powerful humanly developed phenomena that has arrived and taking fast and on some levels aggressively over human consciousness. To ignore the effects of this fast invasion of technology is to allow the danger of distraction. During a medical symposium in dialoging with French surgeon who was asked about the problems of technology and its technical progress in surgery. He replied,

“I am certainly aware of the progress in the medical field. But just ask yourself the following question: Currently, we carry out heart transplants, liver and kidney transplants. But where do those kidneys...that heart and those lungs come from, in fact? They must be healthy organs. Not affected by an illness or the like. Moreover, they must be fresh. In fact there is just one source: traffic accidents. So to carry out more operations, we need more traffic accidents. If we make traffic safer…fewer of those wonderful operations will be carried out.”

It seems that one of the widely imposed beliefs in technology that it makes human more free. Looking back through centuries and how gradually technology has been arriving allowing time to be embraced and naturally absorbed within society. It draws quit a different picture to the tempo of technology during the last several decades.

Also in the past, technology was a mean of achieving a certain aim and it was followed by strict regulations.

The element of excessiveness is the one defining the presence of technology in our days. The philosophy that technology brings us more freedom must be looked very directly. We must go very deep to the bottom of established ideas and installed believes including the reality of technology. Just recently I saw a new documentary material on the history of psychiatry and mental health. The information was shocking and the fact that in the new DSM-VI there will be over 50 more defined new illnesses, many of them related to technological impact …especially the defying of “Excessive Internet Surfing”.

If we visit a coffee shop, we will witness; there will be more people conversing with their laptops and less people having a normal human interaction. People walking around with phones, not noticing each other, mothers in the buss texting ignoring completely their children sitting next to them. It is a family reality where in every room there is a TV, everybody has a phone (being independent and secure???) and of course at least one PC.

There was a statistic that most children spend more time in interaction with technology than human interaction. Do not we see that something is going off? We feel it but we really seem to ignore it!

Does technology makes us freer? And if yes what kind of freedom is that? What is the price we have to pay? We are just beginning to see some of the symptomatic.

Because of its efficiency technology leads to more power but also to more risks. Efficiency is in the center and everything else becomes peripheral. But in a situation when there is more power and greater risks, humankind itself must change, too. People must be sufficiently independent to control that constantly arriving power and perhaps not to use it fully. And their energy will be taken over by trying to avoid the risks of technology. So it becomes necessary for people to change quickly, so they can use and apply technology in a proper way not simply efficiently. In the 1930’s Bergson stated (a French philosopher), “The more power people have the greater the strength of mind they need. But if people think only of one thing, namely power…and they are given control over means of power they will use that power as quickly as possible without even thinking about it.” We arrive here to a very important moment and that is the affect of technology on our mental process. Is the human mind ready to walk harmoniously into that change? Thought is in the foundation of reality creation. Thought created the technological advancement we are experiencing. But obviously the main question was not asked, seriously asked: What will be the price we have to pay? Deepen into; feel it investigated it from all possible perspectives: psychological, environmental, spiritual. Every technological advancement has a price.

My dearest grandfather was teaching that there is only one question I must ask myself in any crossroad: “How my choice is going to affect my spiritual growth and humanity...My child this is the most important question you ask yourself experiencing life.” His words have been coming back much more since the begging of this course.

Technology obligates us to speed up our live where the natural process of listening, absorbing and knowledge transforming into wisdom is no longer really there, especially for the younger generations who have been born in modern techno society. The natural process of human wisdom is not taken seriously. The ability of inner reflections is replaced with reflex/reaction with very surface interpretation of reality…without thinking just reacting. Do not think about it, just reflexes. Reactions become more mechanical, reasoning in the brain is affected, leading to change in behavior. The psychological changes become obvious very soon and most often with no awareness by the individual.

Changes, if noticed they start to become normality. If I say to people that I have closed my Face book account, there will be shocked and not understanding why, but if I have one, I would be perceived as part of this interactive society. This is just a very simple example.

Jacgues Ellul, a French sociologist stated,

“Technology will not tolerate any judgment being passed on it. Or rather: Technologists do not easily tolerate people expressing an ethical or moral judgment on what they do. But the expression of ethical, moral and spiritual judgments is actually the highest freedom of mankind. So I am robbed of my highest freedom. So whatever I say about technology and the technologists themselves is of no importance to them. It won’t defer them from what they are doing. They are now set in their course. They are so conditioned. For a technologist is not free. He is conditioned by his training, by his experiences and by the objective which he must reach. He is not free in the execution of his task. He does what technology demands of him…”

If we also go further and ask the question “How human technologies happen to be born? When human become unhappy with their environment, technological development takes off… something further to understand. The individual becomes more and more psychologically disturbed, which increases mental illness. More and more people are losing their ability to concentrate, to be by themselves affected deeply by the fast tempo of life which we are forced to live…life away from nature. For these mental illnesses we develop medical technology to treat the illness… The difference here is we use technology to adapt living in an unnatural environment. It is like diving! The diver needs a technological equipment to survive in an unnatural to his being.

If we look in the unification of majority of humanity and how we experienced life on a daily base, and the structure of life. It has become so repetitive that we not long need an outside control because we just control each other…the Web. Internet place main role. From this repeation so typical for modern society with individuals who come from work that do not have their heart in, they look for diversion and amusement and what is the most common way…TV and surfing the net.

What sacred modern society has left with? It is lost but there seems a new, powerful and unstoppable God has arrived: technology. Let’s escape our mental intensity…escape from our problems which many created by technology…escaping them throughout technology too. Aggression, violence, negativity is increasing. The human heart is being locked…the intellect is put on a pedestal… People become depressed and discouraged. They simply stop carry about anything around…overactive mind leading to passive social and more then everything human behavior. We just keep on going fast and fast and it seems that the direction does not matter. The whole process of our Doctoral studies is a little sample reflecting the social reality, where we are just on the production line of producing assignments, where does not seem to matter the nature of it…the content, the originality, the execution…most of all, the ability of the student to go deeper and bring newness. That is where the process creates suffering and lack of satisfaction as well as meaning. Presently the situation of mankind has totally changed.

Most individuals in the modern society are giving their freedom and independence in exchange for materialistic having, facilities, comforts as well as security, etc., for technological “goods”. There is no enough realization that we are manipulated in our choice. We are being transformed internally by marketing, advertisement, propaganda by media and so on. Fundamental question to ask is mankind prepared to realize that we are dependant big time on technology already? Realizing, tearing apart all of the pieces not making sense so we to create sense out of it. To realize means to preserve our freedom. Realization takes us to liberation of anything repressing the purity of our spiritual identity. Realization is the process of expansion of consciousness. Most human energy, time, money is directed outward towards improvement in technology. That means that our brains are becoming more and more technologically minded. The individual does not seem to direct energy inwardly investigating, finding out who is he, why he behaves the way he does, what is this all about, to see something greater than technology. There is dangerous disproportion. That also means that the material, physical is gaining more power parallel to that human suffering is increasing. What would happen that all these investments are directed to something beyond that? Our brains have become as containers struggling to absorb more and more information…no time for reasoning. The concept of success is measured by the ability to replicate, repeat what was brought to us as an idea…knowledge. As much I am able to repeat the information I will pass my tests and become “Successful”. To give a thought to every part of our being to find out…is there anything ultimate…Technology is inventing our consciousness, shaping it. Human beings must develop a certain level of consciousness which is alive, pure and spiritually present. Only that consciousness could be free of using technology in direction to distraction, but give that quality of consciousness which is eternal. As Krishnamurti in 1982 in a public talk stated, “…man cannot live on technology alone and its products, one has to go into something that is immeasurable.”

“Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.
These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.
And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.
And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.”

By Kahlil Gibran from On Freedom

Men and Technology by Judy Krishnamurti

...As I am writing my final project I just arrived to seeing a talk given by Krishnamurti in 1982...

Viewer you are invited to join me (click on the link bellow to view it)

http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/krishnamurti-teachings/view-video/man-and-technology-part-1-of-1.php

Video Link Look: (link bellow,place the error on the black space to click on the link!)

http://www.therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5979

Something Interesting...The internet...

This is a video clip published at "The Real News" the first independent news network.

Technology, Freedom of Speech, Internet...and...

Recent expression

...From Aggression to Elegance...

This writing moves from reality on a global level to invisability, questions perceptions, science technological essence and searching in understanding of myself. It consists of Synthesis of Eastern and Western thought...

...Take a deep breath...

Paramahansa Yogananda(1999), widely recognized as one of the prominent spiritual teachers of our time wrote in his book “A world of transition”:

Change yourself and you have done your part in changing the world.

Every individual must change his own life if he wants to live in

a peaceful world. The world cannot become peaceful unless

and until you yourself begin to work towards peace (p.202).

We live in reality of total contradictions and contrasts, reality of degradation in the majority of human kind, of violence and aggression. The crisis in which we are in it is not economic, social, cultural, racial, national, and ecological in nature, it is a crisis of consciousness. It is a reality where parallel to super development of technology and science; seventy two percent of the world lives in poverty, thirty-four thousand children die out of hunger and treatable diseases every single day. We have more and more mentally, emotionally and physically sick people, who try to pull through every day life. Meaningless conflicts and wars, total separation, isolation and lost of self. How numb we have become to accept the live images on the television screens of people being killed for patriotic and safety reasons. To what level of denial have we sunk to that we think this is normal and this is how life should be. Why did and do we accept it? Why have we forgotten about the power of the spirit and human intelligence which has endless capacity to create and transform reality? Where our imagination has taken us or left us…or…

In the western part of the world we experience the result of super materialistic development and we as healers face daily the human suffering, missing the presence of spiritual breath and fulfilled silence. The eastern part of the world is lost in old traditions and practices of spirituality looking toward the west for more practical and simple way of experiencing life, trying to rediscover the incredible amount of wisdom from over six thousand years ago. There is definite imbalance and lack of harmony in every piece of the Earth. We institutionalized life, establishing organizations, associations, foundations, stereotypic theories, dogmas, methods, techniques, creating reality in which we have enslaved the human spirit, living an outward life. If our thoughts, emotions and actions are the trinity throughout which we create our reality, what is lacking so to create a better world of peace and harmony? How the art and its endless capacity can be mobilized to assist the elevation of the human consciousness? How can we breathe in light toward transformation? How can we open these energies within us? Are we too much in our minds ignoring the energies of the heart? Are we aware of our own imagination and the possibilities to recreate our lives? How we use this invisible but always present energy?

James Engell (1981) wrote, “Imagination for Schelling is an immaterial and even mysterious energy” (p.305). It is always there in its multi-dimensional presence. It seems that moves from the known to the unknown, from complication to simplicity. In some moments this mysterious energy becomes visibly materialized and probably most often its highest creations never become present. Other times it comes spontaneously unexpected and others structurally invited. Sometimes imagination is escorted with emotional experiences, others is emotionally free.

“The imagination is not matter, and it is not “received” by any senses, but it alone explains how we face change, connect the past, present and future, and direct our actions” (p.52). During a creative flow, even though every creative process I have experienced never repeats itself, the flow of imaginative energy manifests uniquely and it depends strongly to the state of mind, reflecting physically on the brain function. According to Engell (1981), “The imagination orchestrates the crescendo and harmony of feeling and thought” (p.53).

Using Mind Mirror EEG, Anna Wise (1997) measured and trained brainwaves. In “The High Performance Mind,” Wise stated that brainwaves play an important part in non‑verbal communication. She studied electrical impulses produced by the brain, stating that the four kinds of brainwaves; alpha, beta, theta, and delta communicate information along the conscious, subconscious and unconscious mind. She described:

While theta brainwaves are associated with creativity, other brain rhythms are needed to bring this creativity into your consciousness mind. A combination of additional frequencies is needed to access the profound potential of theta brainwaves. Delta waves make up the unconscious mind, they are radar that seeks out and receives information on an instinctive level. High deltas are mostly intuitive, but all of them work together to create a wide range of mental, emotional and spiritual states. (Compare with music sometimes the combination is melodious, smooth and flowing.) Our goal is to create a full, powerful and harmonious symphony of brainwaves (p.93).

As Wise (1997) concluded:

To enhance creativity, the artist has two choices: meditate before creating, as in alone meditation, or encourage the awakened mind brain waves pattern with the eyes open while in the act of creating.

Pattern of creativity is on the way to form awakening mind patterns (p.107).

A Buddhist perspective supports this, “When the thought becomes a routine, it creates a pattern and loses its energy flow. The mind has certain independency than the body but the body is interdependent of the mind. There are different levels of the mind, which defines different energy levels.” (The Dalai Lama, 1995, p.129) This quite a significant direction of thought and realization can give some further perspective on why it is so difficult the energy flow to be shifted from more surfaces to deeper level of consciousness. The reality, which we create, has very repetitive nature, where control and power is easier to impose. On that surface level is where the mind operates within intellectual framework of perceptions, transferred and adapted information. On that level the imagination energy has its limited expression, function and ability to create. Engell (1981) summarized:

Schelling, like Coleridge, gives imagination at least two functions in the human mind. We receive elementary stimuli from the outside world, such as noise, light, color, hardness, stench, and sweetness. This is the original sensory perception, according Schelling and he calls this stage of mind the first potential of power. But these stimuli are then grouped, ordered and arranged into objects, and these groupings have a connection with the world of forms and ideas…. We compare the passive perceptions in ourselves with our active ordering of them. The two, active and passive, interplay in an unending dialectic (p.307).

Very common observation is that most human beings circulate within that level, the level of no originality. It is usually a repetition on pre-existing matter, ideas, etc. To study clients’ creative imagination, becomes essential to have objective perception from where life has been self created and experienced and the momentum ability to shift towards expansion and actual change. Is the imagination flow is blocked within its passive function or is it capable to travel further beyond the ego and intelligence? “Throughout the act and product of its own creativity, the ego or intelligence actually sees itself becoming objective and real. Imagination frees man from the closed circle of self-reflection and subjectivity” (James Engell, 1991, p.318). It does create a definite new form, the work of art, which expresses the mind relationships to its own perceptions and to the external world, but can go above and beyond this manifestation. The work of art becomes external and objective. The mind has created something, through transferring its vibrations to the physical body, which releases itself from never ending series of perceptions and self-perceptions. The work of art becomes apart of the world, a part of nature, yet created by a free act of the mind. The unity or the absence of it within the art piece becomes a reflection of state of being. It represents the unity of mental and emotional energies being materialized. My mind shifts in the direction of duality of imagination. The mystery of how this energy can move from elegance to aggression and what is the drive, which directs this move. Is this related in any way to the mind-heart connection? In the time of observation of a piece of art we can know what the source of energy that dominated the work is. Did it come from the heart or did it come from the mind? It is deep intuitive knowing that is based on complex emotional experience…we feel the soul of the matter. Beauty and aesthetics are important but not absolutely, the heart of the artwork to be experienced.

According to Chogyam Trungpa (1996) the establisher of “Dharma art” “that main point of dharma art is discovering elegance and that is the question of state of mind, according to the Buddhist tradition” (p.5). Further the philosophy of dharma art defines the purpose of art is “a work of art to bring out the goodness and dignity of a situation. (Trungpa Choguam, 1996, p.8). Overcoming aggression is a main intention of dharma art. According to Buddhist Vajryana tradition, if your mind is preoccupied with aggression, you cannot function properly. On the other hand, if your mind is preoccupied with passion, there are possibilities. In a state of aggressive mental energy we do not want reality to experience in the fullest sense of all. Instead, we seem to always try to bring in substitute reality. Another layer of seeking brings me into the realm of imagination in relation of developing awareness of self and overcoming the boundaries of the ego-self experience. It is a new place of integrity and wholeness, where creative imagination unities the momentum and continuum of experience. From the individual to the collective…from the collective to the individual…A moving within…inward…outward, where the spirit is truthfully rediscovered, materializing itself in pieces. The secret of the best art is internal process: it shapes and generates form from within; it unifies all parts. It is not the imposition of a form on a heterogeneous mass or the external manipulation of surface effect. In other words: “creative imagination is the secret of art” (James Engell, 1981, p.319).

If we begin to theorize about the existence of the world, its solidity, its eternity, or whatever, we are blocking out a very large chunk of our experience. We are trying to prove too much and trying to build a foundation too much. …The question of perception becomes very important, because perceptions can’t be packed down into a solid basis. They are shifty, and they continuously float in and out of our life” (p. 57-p.58).

These lines are a moving reflection of new, old, re-discovered thought and

feeling in process of ever lasting dance…a dance… a perfect dance in its own imperfection…

Imagination & Technology: Where in the concept of Being, Doing and Having?

I do not now why but I am having thoughts about how technology influences imagination, a source of creativity a swell as the concept of being, having and doing. I am asking the question does the technological experience keeps us into doing, having or allows us to be?

Entering the experience of “Poetics of Imagining” by Richard Kearnney brought thought and feeling in the realm of being, having and doing. It began with the expressed statement:

…Whenever this imaginative function is lacking, human consciousness loses its

freedom and falls victim to surrounding circumstances. No longer able to envision

alternative modes of experience transcending our present state of affairs, we

despair- we fall back into unfreedom. Imagination’s power to suspend the natural

attitude in favor of the phenomenological attitude of free variation is…(p.23)

“…I know that nothing belongs to me

But the thought which unimpeded

From my soul will flow.

And every favorable moment

Which loving Fate

From the depth lets me enjoy…”

This letter represented by Mephistopheles in Goethe’s Faust (Faust as a dramatic description of the conflict between being and having) expresses the quality of being with the utmost simplicity.

Being in the present moment and turning back I see an active dance of ideas, influences, concepts, belief systems, philosophies that came and stayed… and some of them left quietly the space of my own truth. A Daoism’s wisdom says, “Human kind tends to think that spiritual growth comes thru gaining knowledge, but the real spiritual enlightenment starts with getting rid of the unnecessary one”.

A poem, an image, a word, a movement, a sensation have become in a certain moment, time and space an essential piece of philosophy. Some exist consciously or subconsciously, waiting to be provoked and than materialized. The intensity is colorful and it is often impossible to stop the moment of happening and say: “this is what defines me”. I came to the realization after long struggling in practicing attachment and detachment in interaction with the physical reality, that no matter what I achieve on my pathway I can never express the fullness of the self. The grandiose nature of our spiritual identity is endlessly expressible…its perfect in its own unperfection.

Most of all experiencing life in awareness not intellectualizing it has been a deep intention of mine. I find continuously moving forwards simplicity, totally wanting to live fully, with no doubts and when is time to go, I can leave dancing within the light. Every moment I enter the duality of what it is, shifting from seeing absolute meaning to feeling the absolute meaninglessness. Beinsa Duno (1927), a spiritual master of the beginning of 20^th century stated: “The most difficult art of all is to create your own life. This is when you become a master.”

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1957 inaugurated the Spiritual Regeneration Movement, establishing the art of Transcendental meditation. In 1963 he finishes the book “Science of Being and Art of Living” where he unfolds the wisdom of the Veda and Vedic Literature taught to Maharishi by Guru Dev. I was 17 year old, when I came across with his teachings of truth in which I found a piece of mine. He expresses that “All levels of peace and happiness, creativity, intelligence, and power are nothing but levels of being. One extreme of being is absolute, and the other is the grossest state of relative existence.”(p.67) The main goal is achieving the level of “pure being ”, defined as being in the stage “peace of mind” as formulated by Dalai Lama. (1999)

When a human enters the space of the creative process intentionally or intuitively, he moves from one stage of being towards another, a more pure one, form one stage of imagination to another. A dimension of inner freedom is achieved where the mind and heart communicate in stillness. In this moment we are opening the door towards liberation (detachment).

“The freedom of the mind is freedom from the bondage of experience. On this point the whole philosophy of bondage and liberation of life turns.” Dalai Lama (2001)

The concept of being I believe is essential in understanding my (our) nature and the endless possibilities of creativity and it’s imaginative power. According to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1959) the way to contact the being is thru transcendental meditation. It is my belief that another way is the creative process. Practicing and experiencing both, I observe increase of energy, clarity of mind and emotional harmony. It is fascinating that the deeper I go, the process became more silent on the level of pure being. In creative arts therapy sessions the most powerful ones have ended in fulfilled silence.

According Maharishi (1959) creativity lies in the nature of absolute Being, creation is its play, and evolution is its expansion in its Beingness. During our human experience the conscious mind reaches levels of more pure consciousness, where different levels of creation in different forms keep on evolving.

Erich Fromm (1976), not to exclude the philosophical presence, treats the concept of being from more anthropological and psychological points of view. He understood the alternatives having or being to be “two fundamental modes of existence, or two different kinds of orientation toward self and the world, two different types of character structure whose respective dominance determines the totality of how a person thinks, feels and acts.” (To Have or to be? p.24)

Between 1974 and 1976, while working on the book “To Have or to be?” Erich Fromm wrote far more manuscript and chapters than actually he used in the book, which was published in 1976. Some of these chapters are later published in the book “The Art of Being”. They deal entirely with “steps towards being” that the individual can take in order to learn “the art of being”.

It is tremendously interesting that during the same year 1976 World Government of the Age of Enlightment, a non-political, non-religious, global organization was established with sovereignty in the domain of consciousness, authority in the invincible power of Natural Law, and activity in purifying world consciousness, with the participation of the people of over 120 countries.

Erich Fromm defines the mode of being and having from different aspects: security-insecurity, knowledge and knowing, solidarity-antagonism, activity-passivity, joy-pleasure, sin forgiveness, here, now past, future, etc. I deeply respect the multi-dimensional views on the concept discussed and the depth of interaction of Eastern and Western thought in his writings. According Fromm “having refers to things and things are fixed and describable. Being refers to experience, and human experience is in principle not describable”. (p. 98)

A very important moment is that “being implies change”, “being is becoming”. The perspective of knowledge and knowing in relation to being fascinated me. “Knowing in the mode of being, means to “see” reality in its nakedness. It does not mean to be in possession of the truth; it means to penetrate the surface and to strive critically and actively in order to approach truth ever more closely”. (p. 135)

Master Eckhart (2006) reflects it further: “Knowledge is no particular though but rather it peels off and is disinterested and runs naked to God, until touches him and grasps him.” (p.172) What a powerful beauty of truth.

These are fragmented reflections within me brought thru two extraordinary souls: Erich Fromm and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who made their deep marks in the elevation of the human consciousness and overcoming suffering on the pathway of Love and Happiness (when the East meets the West). The dance must go on…

“Walk and touch peace every moment.

Walk and touch happiness every moment.

Each step brings a fresh breeze.

Each step makes a flower bloom.

Kiss the Earth with your feet.

Bring the Earth your love and happiness.

The Earth ill safe

When we feel safe in ourselves.

From call me by true names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh

Just be…just be… in your endless spirit…