Nerve Endings Firing Away

My previous post generated many diverse reactions and it was interesting to delve into everyone’s psyche. Reader Maya emailed me an interested take on the philosophy of why things happen the way they happen. Although her theory is not new, I liked the use of different perspectives in arriving at a single theory without making allusions to a particular religion, which often is the bane of philosophical thought. I am posting her text with some editorial changes below. I too am not in complete agreement with her views but will expand upon them after hearing from some of you.

“It is said that the basic building block for everything in this universe was Energy. Philosophically speaking, the first form of energy for any action by an organism is The Thought. From various external stimuli , say air currents that we interpret that as sound in our ear drum. Colors that we “see” are in fact electromagnetic radiations, from other similar thought processes that we read, experience, see, and deduce. We converge on a set of similar stimuli to cook up a thought. This may occur somewhere in the neurons in form of an electric current. As this travels across the various synapse-neuron-synapse circuits it attains maximum energy and this becomes Conviction. Conviction subsequently leads to action.

Deduction One – Thought begets Conviction which in turn leads to a concrete Action.

From my personal experience, any response I have received form my environment is in fact a RESPONSE to my reaction/action. This, I hope argument enough to dispel the Fatalistic theory. But at the same time, let me also note here that my actions of my forefathers is also taken as a response from my side. For example, if my grandfather chose to be bandit then there is a very good chance that I face hostility in my environment as a result of a hostile stimuli he might have sent out.

Deduction Two – Anything that happens to an adult INDIVIDUAL is ENTIRELY THAT INDIVIDUAL’S responsibility as they are just a consequence of some stimuli that was sent out by the individual in question.

The second deduction also allows us to logically conclude that everyone is in fact able to manipulate the set of events in store for him/her by controlling the stimuli that he/she sends out. There is of course, no control on the stimuli that had already been sent by the set of ancestors — probably this can be termed as fate. This thought was in fact the reason why we are here. The one-celled organism “thought” of longevity has reproduced further. The mammal thought of survival and achieved the skills thru a time period.

Deduction Three -We are what we want to be.

And from deduction three, I guess it is kind of easy to see

Deduction Four – We can be anything we want to be.

I decide I want to break the leash (check Yogustus’s comment for my previous post) my ancestors have presented me. I really need to fight but then I can do it if I really need it that bad. I decide if there is heaven after death, if I believe in it strong enough that my energy will find a place akin to that, as Christianity purports. Or as the theory of reincarnation may suppose, I live like a dog, my energy negatively catalyzed and so it might take a dogs form after I die (no animals were harmed in this assumption).

Finally all said and done, what is this all about? The role of the earthworm: churn out new soil. The role of flora: purify the air, food for the higher organisms. Our role: churn out new intelligence from the old, act as effective transmitters of energy. Probably nature wants us to propagate life, nurture it, take it to other planets in case the earth is destructed. It is important that we do not separate ourselves form the ecosystem. We complement each other, every single organism counts according to Jainism’s theology and we are incomplete without them.

But on the other hand, is this is all an illusion we have created? I recently read on a Zen website — suppose a tree falls and there is nobody to hear it, will there be a sound? The answer is No. Like wise every single stimuli we take in is interpreted according to our ability. This world and all its woes and joys are our own creation. That is Maya.”