A reflection on Mind, Brain and... the Jnani.

[Guest guest]

Namaste Mouna-ji,

I am in agreement with your application of advaita to the

neuroscientific area. After all awareness of the intricacies of

perceptual awareness and the complexities of brain structure are

available to us now which are empirically founded. Therefore it is sound

practice to ask how the assumptions of advaita in these areas hold up

against modern knowledge. Conversely we can question the assumptions of

psychology in relation to consciousness and personal identity. What may

be appropriate and adequate for empirical investigation may not be

metaphysically adequate. One area where psychology is true as far as it

goes is the psycho-somatic nature of the person or the idea that an

immaterial conscious mind is yoked to a material conscious body. In this

view of the person/jiva the mind is conscious. For advaita, as you of

course know, the mind is consciousness because everything is

consciousness. The conception of a body and its conscious mind or

speaking of the brain and its relation to the mind is not a metaphysical

truth in advaita. The jiva/person/individual is transfused by

Consciousness which is its Being. Thereafter the complexities of the

structure of the jiva or its brain and sensory apparatus allow the world

to manifest with its characteristic patterns which are different for

bats, moles and humans. Obviously these patterns are related to the

evolutionary history of the organism.

 

The importance of being human lies in the fact that the complexities of

the brain of the jiva and the speed of its processing of information is

such that we can achieve near simultaneity of awareness of events in

real time. The very slight time lag between the two i.e. events and our

consciousness of them, brings us to an awareness of the being value of

the event. It exists and cannot be reduced to our awareness of it. This

was a matter for philosophical speculation long before we were able to

establish it empirically. The question for Advaita then becomes if I may

put it in a slightly unusual form, is: what is the nature of the object

that it can exist independently of our awareness of it and be an element

of our awareness or within our consciousness when we are aware of it,

without at the same time being reduced to just an element within our

consciousness.

 

Our standard naïve psychology while useful at its level becomes

‘ignorance’ at the metaphysical level for advaita. The strong current of

awareness of realized masters works against that normal bifurcation of

body and mind. It is said that their aura extends to the horizon so

being near their physical forms is being ‘inside’ them so to speak.

 

Best Wishes,

Michael.