Abby Eagle's Journal

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Does there need to be any 'I' to run the human organism? (2008-12-28)

There is a Zen meditation where one asks oneself the question, "Who am I?" The mind comes up with all sorts of explanations and understandings. I just felt like writing down these notes:

"Who am I?"

The human organism is a complex machine run by coding in the DNA. It is much like a robot that is programmed to fulfill needs, wants and desires. So the human learns to feed itself. Once this need is fulfilled it moves onto a higher need. It has programs structured at different levels of abstractions: spirituality, identity, attitudes, values, beliefs, capabilities and behaviours (Dilts)... plus heaps of other programming.

The human has programs that gives it the ability to 'think' - that is review past memories encoded as pictures, sounds, feelings, smells and tastes (VAKOG); and create an infinite number of scenarios to help it achieve its needs, wants and desires. It is programmed to test out its hypothesis in real world situations and then from the feedback it updates the information database. If the result is negative then it 'feels bad' and if the result is positive then it 'feels good'. So we have a simple 'away-from' and 'towards' mechanism. When you find something that feels good the human brain is wired to do it again.

However with all of the complexity of the human organism there does not have to be any 'I' that makes the decisions. The sense of 'I' is really no more than the senses of the body switched on. The human organism senses its environment and it senses itself but there does not have to be any 'I' or 'Self' in charge. It makes decisions based upon past performances and understandings, and upon the potentiality for new experiences and understandings that are hard wired into the neurology.

When you read Osho's descriptions of the seven subtle bodies it becomes clear that each of the subtle bodies has a 'given' and a 'potential'. For example the second subtle body has the negative emotions as the given and compassion as the potential. When you read descriptions of the brain given by neuroscientists you can see that the human is hardwired with the potential to achieve much more than the average person does. For example we use only 5% of our brain. We repeat 95% of our thoughts, etc. There is a big difference between the activity in the brain of a meditator, enlightened person and the average person.So my understanding right now is that the robot human being does not need an 'I' to run the show. The 'I' is just an illusion created out of the sense organs. The mind having the ability to be self reflective can play with all sorts of ideas about who it is but they are just ideas. Stop the mind and the thinking process and there is just sensing. But who is the 'one' who is aware of the sensing experience? There is no-one aware of the sensing. There is just sensing, just awareness, just experiencing but no 'I', 'Self' or Entity.The sense of 'I' is just an illusion. The world is real but the sense of Self is an illusion.

As we move through the world and test out what this amazing human organism can do we come into conflict with other humans doing the same thing. We are programmed to experience conflict as a negative experience and harmony as a positive experience. With time we slowly discover higher 'circuitry' in the brain that allows us to experience peace and happiness. It is our destiny.

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