An excellent essay by Amma on the Evolutionary Quirks of the human brain

[Guest guest]

Divine Yoga Family

As a Diwali special i am sending you all a gift of this wonderful essay by Amma on the Evolutionary Quirks of the brainwarm regardsananda

 

 

Evolutionary Quirks,Yama – Niyama and the Brain of Man

 

Many problems facing the average individual are not his own personal problems at all, but rather difficulties common to each and every member of the human race. In the long evolutionary unfolding from the first form of life – the virus – 3.5 billion years ago, through the fishes (375 million years ago), the amphibians (345 million) the reptiles (300 million) right up to the mammals (60 million years) the accumulated conditioned responses of various life forms to environmental challenges have produced organisms which adapted and lived, or failed to adapt, and died. The highest Truth, the greatest success of the reptilian and animal kingdoms, is survival. The “fit” live; the unfit die.

Forty thousand (or 100 thousand) years ago, a great evolutionary event occurred. A mysterious force penetrated the dull, conditioned of stimulus – response, pain – pleasure planes of existence – and Manas – or consciousness – manifested on the earth plane. A new creature – a being with the power to think, to reason beyond its genetic inheritance – rose above animal – reptilian instincts. He / She was called “man” or “human” – a being which possesses “Manas” or consciousness. The force of that powerful evolutionary leap propelled the four – legged animal onto two legs and prompted the growth of a new brain structure – the neo–cortex and the pre-frontal lobes of the brain.

This new creature rose out of the conditioning of millions of years of fish – amphibian – reptilian – mammalian experiences. All these ancient instincts are still present in his brain structure. These old instincts and conditioned responses enable his heart to beat automatically, his breath to move in and out of his lungs, systematically 21,600 times per day. These old sections of his brain enable him to digest his food and eliminate it; to seek out a mate and procreate, to nurture his off spring and defend his family; to play and frolic in sheer exuberance of the life force. These old remnants of a past long gone are still present in the new being’s “old brain” – the brain stem, the limbic system, the reptilian and mammalian complexes. These old structures prompt ancient responses to modern challenges often totally out of proportion to the current situation. The oldest mammalian emotion dear produces – adrenalin surges which stimulate fright – flight – fight responses to life

and death challenges and appropriate physiological responses – the emptying of bowels, bladder, sweaty palms and feet, rapid breath and heart beats. The old sections of the brain also prompted trigger various survival mechanisms – a sense of hierarchy in relationship to other creatures, drive for territorial conquests, thirst for power seeking dominance in the herd; jealousy, rage, the killing instinct, desire to “eat or be eaten” by the other. Blind passions, the animal instincts so vital to survival in the jungle, reign in these old segments of the brain.

But the new being “the man”, the “human” who walked upright on the earth, also now possessed consciousness, a beam of light in the dark world of instinctual reptilian – animal existence. That “light” enabled the “New Being” to remember the past, to learn new lessons above and beyond the walls of conditioned response, to forge new responses to old environmental challenges. “Manas” or consciousness could perceive beauty, could wonder, at this mysterious world, could create tools and shape the own environment this could dominate and exploit lower life forms. Consciousness opened a window to the universe. Man could now look at the sky and see the stars and the great. He could ponder his own fate and wonder at the mysteries of life.

 

 

This new creature’s brain weighed 1.5 kilos. It contained all the evolutionary lessons of nearly 400 million years of unfolding, from the fishes to the mammals in its structure. That brain could be divided into two classifications – the “Old Brain” which contained in function and structure – the impulses and instincts of the reptilian and mammalian creatures - and The New Brain” The Cerebral Cortex, the Pre-Frontal Lobes – which made it possible for consciousness – awareness – thinking – reasoning – analysis – discrimination – to manifest.

This “New Being” is literally “half animal – half man”, a creature struggling towards the light, but chained to the past by the fetters of old primordial instincts and drives. This conflict between the “devil” and the “God” within is the saga of all evolutionary struggles. In Hindu parlance, it is the eternal conflict between the demons – Asuras – Rakshashas – those who “hate the light” and the Devas, the Suras, the Daityas, the “lovers of light.” The Asuras wallow in the darkness of animal – reptilian desires, passions and instincts. The Suras revel in the light of consciousness and all the refinement which it assures – the arts, moral and ethical living, nobility of conduct, dignity of bearing, ideals, self-sacrifice, magnanimity. This struggle – mirrored in all great world religions, all great art, all the great human myths, is the struggle of every human to rise out of his primordial past and dwell in his true God Like Nature.

This inherent human problem the “beast’s attempt to become the beauty” – is part of the Great Universal Scheme to unfold the individual soul – the Jiva leading it to its ultimate destination – Union with the Universal – the Paramatma. This is the great dramatic saga of the transformation of the “personality” into the Universality.

This evolutionary saga of each Jiva is systematically analyzed in the Garuda Purana, said to be authored by the Sage Veda Vyasa who reported that the teachings were taught to Ramaharshana, who in turn taught Kashyapa, who taught it to Garuda. This Purana stales that the long evolutionary journey of the Jiva (individual soul) to union with Paramatma (Universal Soul) takes 84 lakhs (10 laks = 1 million) incarnations. That is, each Jiva must experience 8,400,000 different physical forms before it achieves its final evolutionary state, Moksha, freedom from flesh, Samadhi, Kaivalya, Yoga or Union of the Jiva with Paramatma.

Twenty-one lakhs “births” must take place in each of four categories.

1. The Jiva must be born 2,100,000 times in forms born of seeds (plants) Udbhija.2. The Jiva must be born 2,100,000 times in forms born of sweat Svedaja.3. The Jiva must be born 2,100,000 times in forms born from eggs Andaja (birds, reptiles, fish)4. The Jiva must be born 2,100,000 times in forms born of womb (mammals) Jarayuja

All these life experiences in different forms produce more and more elaborate “brain structures”, as the brain accumulates forms and functions, becoming more subtle, more complex, more sophisticated with each succeeding incarnation, until finally, the structure is capable of manifesting consciousness (Manas) in the human being.

But, when the Jiva reaches the level of “mankind”, the human manifestation, the Jiva must face several hurdles, several inherent problems, several obstacles. This is a kind of “evolutionary lag.” In which Consciousness must faces obstacles in its upwards flow. The great Maharishi Patanjali in his YOGA SUTRA has very succinctly dealt with these “evolutionary problems.” He has called these “hurdles” as “Kleshas”, “hindrances” or “obstacles” on the spiritual path. Patanjali has listed them as five in number.

 

According to Maharishi Patanjali. The Pancha Kleshas are:1. Avidya – ignorance inability to perceive the real nature of things; subversion in blindness of animal instincts and passions; 2. Asmita – egoism, false identification with the perishable body, the sense of “I – ness,” “Me-ness” and “Mine – ness;” 3. Raga – attraction (pleasure) 4. Dwesha locked in animal pleasure – pain response – repulsive (pain) and 5. Abinivesha (clinging to life; the instinct for self preservation, the survival instinct).

How brilliantly the ancient sage 2,500 years ago analyzed the essential human conundrum, the quintessence of the human enigma, the essential “Knot” of the human condition – a creature torn between its bestial urges, and the calls of its Divine Nature. These “Kleshas” are sometimes translated as “Knots of the heart”. Patanjali considered them as the root cause of all human conflict, problems and difficulties.

When the animal rises up onto two legs and the skull expands forwards, when the pre-frontal lobes develop and consciousness is able to find a suitable instrument in the human brain through which to manifest, an entirely new element – enters into the evolutionally scheme of things. The New Creature can utilize this consciousness to accelerate its own evolution into a higher form of being. It is no longer a prisoner of past conditioning. It now has the potentiality for freedom. It can now make aware choices in its responses to environmental stimulus and challenges. It is no longer a Pasu (an animal or literally, one who is board by a Pasa, a noose – the noose being the nervous system and brain totally conditioned by stimulus – response actions based on pleasure and pain). It is then that “Yoga” or “the Unitive Impulse” may be embraced and one may literally “lift oneself by one’s own boot straps” or in the words of Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, “Lift the self by the

self.”

The “New Creature” may now evolve itself consciously by cutting as under, the “Knots of the Heart” the Kleshas, enumerated by Patanjali.

Avidya or Ignorance may be destroyed by conscious seeking for higher and higher levels of truth. One must free oneself of blind animal passions, and consciously strive towards nobility of living Asmita or Ego must be transcended by realizing that “the sense of I-ness is an illusion”, that in Reality, there is only Oneness. The personality fades away. Universality develops. The lure of pleasure must be seen for the false mistress that it is and the horror of pain must also be seen as an imposter, unworthy of fear. Finally, one must “root out” the animal desire to “survive at al costs” by realizing that one is “not the body” but in actuality, is part of the eternal, undying whole.

How marvelously Patanjali has analyzed the root problems of the human condition.

Interestingly enough, a modern psychologist – philosopher, Ken Keyes in his book ROAD MAP TO LIFE LONG HAPPINESS has come to similar conclusions using different terms and taking another route.

Ken Keyes writes that in the long course of evolution, the “Old Brain” and the “New” developed over vastly different periods of time Quirk. He argues that there is an essential “lack of communication” between the “old” (reptilian) (mammalian) brain and the “new” (conscious, neo-cortex) parts of the brain. This is due to the fact that the “old brain” developed over the course of 375 to 60 million years and hence is “powerful”, well-set in its ways, in its habitual responses to environmental survival challenges. Whereas, the “new” brain the human consciousness is only 40 to 100 thousand years old, and hence “the new boy on the block”. This lack of communication has produced what Ken Keyes calls the “Five Quirks” which cause most of the problems one face in life.

He describes these quirks us follows.

1. The “Objects Quirk” – the animal brain sees objects only in a very vague, hazy general sense and not in a specific sense. Thus, it confuses different people and things. It sees everything generally as friend or foe, provider of food or as a sexual possibility. It does not need to see any object with specific characteristics. Objects – creatures are important only as means to safety basic needs.

2. The Time Quirk – He says the “old brain” has no time sense. It does not perceive past or future. It lives only in the present moment. It “eats or is eaten.” There is no sense of tomorrow or yesterday. Everything is immediate, now, urgent.

3. Unsafe Stranger Quirk – The old brain views all strangers with suspicion. The “unknown stranger” is a possible threat to survival or a competitor for resources. Any creature “different” from oneself and one’s species is potential threat.

4. Unchanging Entity Quirk – To the “old brain” incapable of perceiving subtleties, everything remains the same – a tree is always a tree. It does not perceive the various changes, which all things pass through. It sees all things as “unchanging”. The subtleties of change are not necessary for survival.

5. Adaptable Memory Quirk – The animal does not need memory. The only memory necessary is what enables it to survive. Hence, what it remembers can be “adjusted” to whatever best helps it to survive.

What Keyes is trying to point out, is that the way in which animals and reptiles perceive the world is a much dimmer, less precise, less clear, survival oriented perception than that which is available to the conscious mind. The “Old Brain” is fuelled by emotional responses. The basic motivating emotions is fear. The other important drives – sex, survival instinct, head mentality, dominance, power struggling, nurturing and being nurtured are all tied to the organisms basic need to survive at all costs.

For example, the “Object Quirk” manifests in man when a person in the past was abused by a red-haired woman and hence, in future, always has a dislike for red-haired women. The “old brain” cannot see the possibility that all red-haired women will not abuse it.

The Time Quirk manifests itself in human behaviour when one experiences unhappiness, one feels one is “always unhappy”. Or, causes one to perceive that another person is “always angry” even though the person may only be angry at that moment.

The “unsafe stranger quirk” is evidenced in the suspicion that people feel when a foreigner enters their circle, or someone at a different religion. There is an instinctual fear, even though that person may be perfectly harmless.

The “Unchanging Entity quirk” manifests when people cannot see that those around them are constantly changing, that they are not what they were yesterday. A thief may have reformed himself, but others may always perceive him as “a thief”. The Adjustable Memory Quirk occurs when people deliberately “re-arrange” their memories to support or justify their emotions or desires. For example, a couple who wish to divorce may “adjust their memories’ to “remember” only the “bad times” or the “bad characteristics” of their partners.

 

These concepts may be elaborated. At present it is enough to simply point out that often in human relationships and in other situations, the old animal and reptilian perceptions and reactions cloud the “human” or conscious perception. The “old brain” reacts out of conditioning. It is heavily “loaded” with emotions which are part of the mammalian complex, and hence, “unconscious”. The “new brain” has the power “to act” after considering the reality of the present situation, and using discrimination, rationality, deliberation to choose consciously its actions in any given circumstances.

This power of “choice” is concomitant to “consciousness”. The animal – reptile is not “free” to choose – it is bound by the noose (Pasa) of its conditioned stimulus – response mechanism. If it is threatened, it will flee or fight. These are the only options open to it.

This power to reflect, to see the situation in the present moment freed of all past conditioning, and then to consciously chosen the appropriate response is the essence of Yama – Niyama, the Moral and Ethical System on which Ashtanga Yoga is based. Maharishi Patanjali rightly puts Yama and Niyama as the first of eight steps on the ladder of conscious evolution according to Ashtanga Yoga. Without perfection in this aspect of human life, he says, conscious evolution is not possible. He codifies Yama into five basic principles: Ahimsa – nonviolence; Asteya – non-stealing; Satya – Truthfulness; Brahmacharya – control of sexual urge. Aparigraha – non greed. One can summarise the five Yamas in a succinct manner “Yama’ means “restraint”, restraint of the animal – reptilian – “Old Brain instincts” at all levels, both gross and subtle.

Niyama, the second stage of Ashtanga Yoga is Soucha, cleanliness; Santhosha – Contentment; Tapsya – austerities, discipline; Swadhyaya – Self–study Ishwara Pranidhana – Submission to the Cosmic Will. Niyama may be succinctly summarized as practices, which cultivate the Higher Nature, the humane nature, the divine nature.

Yama, thus, is restraint of the instincts and impulses rising from the “Old Brain”. Niyama is reinforcing through various practices and observances the higher consciousness, the light, the divine characteristics which will hasten one’s evolution into more advanced states of being.

The Yama and Niyama are necessary principles to be studied, reflected upon and adhered to as part of the evolutionary development of the human brain. The restraints and observance purify and refine the brain structure, making it a fit instrument, capable of “tuning into” Cosmic Consciousness. Eventually this “purified brain” well refine itself sufficiently to merge the individuality (Jiva) with the Universality (Paramatma) – then the goal of Yoga (Union) will be achieved.

 

The long evolutionary meandering through the flesh of 8,400,000 incarnations can thus be shortened. One may rise out of the blind bestial passions in the darkness of ignorance to the radiant Divine Consciousness of a truly enlightened being.

The long journey is shortened, and the goal, so long distant, becomes a living reality.

The dewdrop slips into the shining sea!

At long last and forever –!

At Home!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani

Chairman : Yoganjali Natyalayam and ICYER

25,2nd Cross,Iyyanar Nagar, Pondicherry-605 013

Tel: 0413 - 2622902 / 0413 -2241561

Website: www.icyer.com

www.geocities.com/yognat2001/i_am_here