Life on this planet is influenced by many factors. Human beings are primarily driven by their habitual neurology but they remain unaware of how they are captured by it. A release from that neurology can move us a great deal towards living vibrantly.
Releasing oneself from the conventional neurology is not easy. However, it is possible. It helps us dissolve the common psychological negatives such as fear, anger, regret, attachment, resentment, self-pity etc. One can discover the factors that give us a push in the direction of a radical departure from the habitual road in which the vast majority of people is in a mad rush. In-depth living becomes possible.
It is well known that people’s life on this planet is primarily driven by the demand for ego satisfaction and ego security. This permeates the field of religion too, unfortunately. The other factor to be considered here is that human responses and reactions come from the conditioned mind. This matter of conditioning is a very deep one and human beings generally remain unaware of this. It is deep because three major factors affect it – genetic conditioning, cultural conditioning and past-life conditioning. As a result, people get into complications and suffer mentally even when their survival needs are well met. Reflective people begin to enquire into the basis of this suffering.
Imagine we are on a broad road in which thousands of people are pushing each other and hurrying along. We get pushed and we push others. There is a great momentum that keeps people arrested in this mindless rush. That is how the habitual neurology in an individual is molded and people remain a slave to it from teenage onward. It is possible to release oneself from this deplorable situation and that would be like taking off from the broad road mentioned above. It is a radical departure from the conventional functioning of the mind. We no longer get pushed by the crowd and we stop pushing others too.
The Release
Before there can be a release from a captured situation, there should be an awareness of what is going on. Let us look at the legendary hero Tarzan. In many episodes, he gets imprisoned by horrid tribal people or savages. In most of them, if not all, Tarzan releases himself - primarily by his careful observation of the physical and functional factors that keep him arrested. Thereafter, his sagacity comes in and helps him free himself. The moral of this scenario is that the major factor in the release is a matter of awareness – an in-depth understanding of the situation one is in.
In the same way, what can help people make a radical departure from the captured situation of group psychology and habitual neurology is one of simple self-awareness – because the causal factors are all from one’s own mental conditioning. Again, as in the case of Tarzan, it is a matter of careful observation, awareness and perception.
Once we release ourselves and move into the branching off road, it becomes possible to lead a wholesome life because we would no longer be driven by the herd mentality. The freedom from that slavery leads to inner peace and one can understand the purity of aloneness. Abundant feeling flows towards all living beings naturally and without effort.
What can help?
The primary releasing factor is the awareness of our being captured by the conventional thought process in the form of fear, anger, regret, attachment, resentment, jealousy, and such ‘I’ associated neurosis. The more we observe ourselves being caught by that process, the more we discover what it means to be free. The following items can act as catalysts in the process of deepening self-awareness.
1. Being neither a believer nor a non-believer: Freedom from attachment to beliefs or their opposites - this can help us be explorers and, hence, put us on a journey of discovery.
2. Shattering readings: Going through books depicting the talks of some Masters can produce shattering readings. This is because such talks tend to demolish the psychological wall that we build around us in our ignorance sustained by the noisy mind. The shattering feeling is particularly evident when we read J. Krishnamurti’s presentation. Such Masters strike away all the moorings we hold on to as a result of misguided mental stance. Those moorings provide a false sense of security. Total surrender can take place only when all that the ego relies on is dissolved.
3. Messages from Near Death Experience (NDE): People who visit the afterlife for a brief period bring great messages that can help us free ourselves from the habitual neurology. It is clear from their messages that if we do not release ourselves from the slavery of group psychology, we would only waste our life and feel sorry for it towards the end. Once we get on to the branch road, we can appreciate the value of life beyond the ego demands. The NDE people, except those who still remain in the clutches of religious conditioning, are already on the branch road and so they can help others get on to it.
No religious or meditative system, method, formula or technique can ever help us depart from the main road, because they all inevitably feed the ego. Each one has to apply oneself to discover what can take us away from the habitual neurology. Once we see the value and the beauty of the release, the freedom from the main road would be accelerated. Inner conflicts begin to cease. One gets the energy to move into higher dimensions of consciousness, even as one fulfills the mundane responsibilities. Many NDE people live that way.
One of the things that take place after we get on to the side road is the shedding of the addiction to the social media. The newspaper and the TV news channels can be horrendous mental polluters. However, with the awareness of how harmful they can be, it is possible to have a marginal and innocuous association with them.
Buddha said, “Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.”
Those who pay attention to the above metaphor of the departure from the main road discover several aids in daily life to free them from the conventional rut. Similar topics are covered in the book “In Quest of the Deeper Self” details of which are given in the website http://spirituality.yolasite.com
Gopalakrishnan T. Chandrasekaran was born in Madras (now Chennai), India. He received his doctoral degree in Coastal Engineering from the North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA in 1978; served on the research and teaching faculty of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, the North Carolina State University and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait.
Aside from his professional involvements, he was interested in the philosophic issues of life for the last forty years or so. This led him to the messages of Ramana Maharishi, Lao Tzu, J Krishnamurthy, UG Krishnamurthy, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Eckhart Tolle, Marcus Aurelius and similar Masters. His book entitled “In Quest of the Deeper Self” is the outcome of his reflections on those and his wish to share the outcome with others.
Gopalakrishnan is a member of the International Association for Near Death Studies, Durham, NC, USA. He lives in Kodaikanal, a hill town in the southern part of India, with his wife Banumathy. Blog: http://nde-thedeeperself.blogspot.com