PREFACE

Though at one level, stress is the running thread of this book, its scope is much wider. The larger focus is to forge acquaintance with one’s self by understanding its constructs of feelings, thoughts, memories, and why one behaves the way one does. It is an exploratory journey in our inner world, where the roots of our aspirations, ambitions, pride, and prejudice lie. We go through myriads of joys and sorrows in the long course of life, but hardly have the patience to pause and ponder over the reasons that make them.

 

Does it matter? Yes, much more than perhaps one realizes.

 

Stress should not be seen as an isolated issue. It betrays the quality of individual self in its ceaseless action of living. We have one and only life—the most precious thing we happen to possess, and it is but natural that we struggle hard to do our utmost to make it a wonderful experience. Stress, in its overt or covert forms, works as a persistent factor that undermines the spontaneity, joy, and beauty of life.

 

In this competitive and complex world, one faces countless factors of stress that are unavoidable and immutable, including illness, accident, or death. There are some other factors that can be altered through efforts, which play a more decisive role in life. These are individual attitude, mental tendencies, and ways one interacts with external world. There is much truth in the saying, “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it.”

 

An objective understanding of these individual factors means that half the battle of tackling stress is won. Hence, the book seeks to help the reader face and understand the workings of inner self and its intricacies without resorting to psychological escape or suppression.

 

Yet an objective understanding is only the first step. It does not resolutely change our mental habits and conditionings that are hardwired in the brain. The negative emotions that fuel stress and anxiety have unyielding force, often not amenable to reason. Similarly, drills of positive thinking and self-hypnotism through beliefs and ideologies accrue only temporary solace and euphoria that wears off sooner than expected.

 

This suggests the need to go beyond the remedies prevalent now and look for fundamentally new avenues for solution. In such effort, this book explores the possibility of using the power of consciousness to rewire the brain and tackle stress and emotional afflictions in a lasting manner. Let me add that this approach does not involve any religious or mystical beliefs. read more

 

CHAPTER 2: MEMORY: THE PRIME MOVER

In the arduous pursuit of daily life, we hardly have the time and energy to pause and look inward to figure out the roots of our actions and why we behave the way we do. If we carefully peer into our mind, the following scenario might emerge. Even though our thoughts, feelings and memories are mediated by external and internal stimuli, they seem to work in an autonomic mode, as if having their own willpower. Like some factory workers, they are seized with the frenzy of their work, jostling and cooperating with each other. The end products of their labor are our aspirations and dreams, our pride and prejudice, our anxieties and worries, which get manifested, rather packaged, in the externalities of our behavior and actions. As devoted workers, they service promptly the demands of our body—our desires for joy and comforts, our urges of hunger, thirst, and love.

 

The modern neurologists also paint a somewhat similar picture of self that is fragmentary and disorienting. They tell us that the brain cells called neurons are the actual workers that manufacture our feelings, emotions, thoughts, and memory. The human brain has billions of neurons that communicate with each other by making synaptic connections. They constantly fire electrochemical signals in synchronized fashion and thus create these mental processes in our brains. In other words, the patterns of neural firings are the actual correlates of our feelings, thoughts, and memory.

 

In the opinion of some neuroscientists, our subjective experience of self is nothing but the constant interplay of vast neural assemblies in the brain. While observing the neurons with electronic scanning gadgets, they were astonished by the hectic pace of their firing actions, which reminded of a noisy fish market bustling with activities.

 

It might shock someone’s aesthetic sense to find description of the brain activities in such metaphoric idiom of the commercial world. ......... . Let that be as it may; but it does make the very significant point that behind the vital world of our thoughts, emotions, and feelings lies the neural infrastructure that is inherently mechanical, material, and driven by electrochemical impulses. read more

 

CHAPTER 3: THOUGHT: THE ERRAND BOY

Memory that we talked about in the previous chapter is a quiet and sneaky operator in the arena of mind in contrast to thought. Memory lies in the subterranean realm of our inner world and has to be evoked and ushered on to the conscious stage for experience, while thought prefers to work in the daylight of conscious mind. Thought represents the tip of the iceberg that is visible, while memory forms the part of its submerged and unknown segment. The significance of thought is, therefore, quite apparent and self-evident, but its absence would be akin to being plunged into a dark vacuum. The empty darkness without the light of thought makes many persons very uncomfortable, and some compare it with a sort of near-death experience.

 

No wonder Descartes said, “I think therefore I am.” Thought is construed as a hard and explicit evidence of our being alive. Though widely prevalent since the days of Descartes, it is a mistaken notion. On the contrary, the fact is that “I don’t think, yet I am.” Not only in the state of coma or dreamless sleep where the thinking faculty is not operating, but in the perfectly healthy state of the awake mind, thought can be absent when one is immersed in profound inner awareness or trancelike experience. Even during the surge of intense feelings of wonder, joy, sorrow, or anger, thought is absent at the initial stage, though the next moment it joins and takes over the stage of the conscious mind.

 

In all fairness, however, Descartes’ quote was not made in the absolute sense that in the absence of thought, one is dead. It was meant to highlight our daily experience that thought for us is the synonym of our conscious state, our sense of being alive. Hence, I think therefore I am . Most of the time, our conscious state is overwhelmed with the omnipresence of thought, though in conjunction with feelings and emotions. It is a moment-to-moment reminder of our life in action. Thought is, no doubt, our lifelong companion and friend in need or otherwise. We get annoyed with it, quarrel with it, hate its intrusive tendency or love its sensual contents and enjoy its smooth and caressing touch. In sum, whether we like it or not, thought is always with us even in our dreams. read more

 

CHAPTER 5: CONSCIOUSNESS

What is consciousness? This question has bothered humanity for centuries. Even in modern times, despite the spectacular achievements in science and technology, the answer to that has remained elusive and vague, and might continue to be so in the foreseeable future. One of the hurdles, being faced by scientists and experts, is the fact that they cannot place the phenomenon of consciousness under their microscopes for scientific scrutiny.

 

Nonetheless, many scientists and philosophers have expounded conceptual ideas on the nature of consciousness; and entering into that debate would be like daring to enter a wild forest fraught with dangers. This debate is characterized by a broad divide with many finer shades on both sides. One group of experts believes that consciousness, though enormously complex, is computational and can be explained like any other phenomenon. They have offered different perspectives of consciousness as a cognitive phenomenon or perceptive phenomenon. Many of them follow a step-by-step approach or what is termed in science as a reductionist method.

 

The more well-known expert among them is Dr. Francis Crick, the Noble laureate who unravelled the secrets of DNA. In his book The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul , he has put forward the view that our sense of self, our joys, sorrows, memories, ambitions and free will are nothing but the behavior of vast ensembles of nerve cells. We, as a psychic entity including our consciousness, are just a bundle of neurons. Personally I see much truth in what he has stated. It is time to demystify and bring down from the high pedestal mind and consciousness that are commonly believed to be nonmaterial mysteries.

 

Dr. Crick feels that if we can adequately understand all integrated processes of how one sub-faculty of the brain functions, such as vision, that would make it easy to move ahead and unravel the secrets of the entire brain and consciousness. ........ However, he admits some real problems being faced in grasping the holistic dynamics of not only the more complex issue of consciousness, but even the sectoral functions like vision, smell and other perceptual processes.

 

There are several other experts who feel that consciousness can be understood by explaining how cognitive and behavioral functions are performed by our brain. But, they have not made spectacular headway in resolving the issue. They encounter mysteries of the integrative globality of consciousness as well as the properties of awareness and understanding.

 

In contrast, the experts on the other side of the divide hold the view that consciousness is noncomputational and any physical account of mental processes, sectoral or otherwise, cannot explain the mysteries of consciousness. read more

 

CHAPTER 6: EXPANSION OF INNER AWARENESS

The majestic beauty of great mountains has the awesome power to immobilize our mind by knocking off the swarms of thoughts and anxieties, which ceaselessly haunt us. During my stay of a few years in Geneva and Vienna, I often drove around the enchanting mountains and lakes. It was an escape that I passionately looked forward to, from the verbose but non-communicative world of diplomacy. The scenic beauty of the Alps is captivating from a vantage point in the city of Montreux overlooking Lake Geneva. A drive farther south in the mountains is simply unforgettable. Also in Austria, the Alps and the serene lakes particularly in the southwest of Salzburg are gorgeous and a treasure of cherishable memories.

 

It was, however, my encounter with the Himalayas in Nepal that left me speechless. I drove from Kathmandu on the road winding up the hills to reach a lonely teahouse ahead of Nagarkot, a small village. It is the closest point about fifty kilometers from Kathmandu for watching the sunset in the Himalayas. It was my first trip to the place, though I did visit it several times later during my three-year stay in Nepal. When I reached the place, the sun was about to go down, and the sky was absolutely clear without a speck of cloud. The top of the hill I stood upon was overlooking a misty valley that spread across the cascading foothills. Above the deep, misty valleys rose the mighty Himalayas in a panoramic magnificence of innumerable snowy peaks. Beyond the foot hills, the long chain of mountain peaks filled the entire horizon in a semicircular expanse. The peaks pierced the deep sky with their astounding heights. Some of the snow-clad peaks had started to glisten in orange and light pink with the caressing touch of the soft sun.

 

Though this description is gleaned from the memory, my actual encounter was a unique experience. My mind was totally submerged, and it became one with the immensity of the awesome beauty unfolding beyond the stretch of the misty valleys and the cascading chains of foothills. Soon with the approaching twilight, the dark blue sky, the majestic mountains, the valleys, and I appeared to melt into an infinite oneness. The utter silence of the place immobilized my mind, wiping out even the noise of thought. I could feel the sound of the footsteps of time in the midst of the immense space, which engulfed the identity of everything around.

 

One time or the other, most of us have encountered such overwhelming awareness that wipes out our thoughts and memories for some moments. In the fullness of its primordial sentience, our consciousness immerses in the splendour and charm of the scenic beauty silencing the mind totally. read more

CHAPTER 7: BENEFITS OF AWARENESS MEDITATION

In the next chapter, we will go into the details of how meditation actually works and accrues extraordinary benefits of stress-reduction. However, let me mention at least one aspect that is quite relevant here.

 

While scanning the brain at the time of deep meditation, it was observed in several independent studies that the frontal lobe and parietal lobe were deactivated in terms of reduced levels of blood flow. The frontal lobe is the seat of our reasoning power, thoughts, ability of anticipating future, and planning. It also generates some of the secondary emotions peculiar to humans such as guilt, pride, sympathy, wonder, and compassion. On the other hand, the parietal lobe processes the sensory data from the external world and orients us to our surroundings. It is also responsible for our sense of time and space. Under stress, the frontal and parietal lobes operate in frantic pace or fight-or-flight mode.

 

During meditation, the activities of the frontal lobe and the parietal lobe are practically stopped and the sensory signals from them, which cause anxieties and stress, are not transmitted to other parts of the brain, including those responsible for primary emotions of fear, sadness, anger, and aggressiveness. The deactivation of the parietal lobe detaches the meditators from the sense of time and space or the external world and induces a feeling of timelessness and oneness without any boundaries. The deactivation of frontal lobe results in dissipating worries and anxieties as well as the “me-ness” with its psychological baggage, which is bothersome and nagging. All these factors prevent stress and bring about deep tranquillity of mind.

 

This explains why meditation accrues the antistress benefits. A curious question, however, arises: What is the difference between psychological suppression of painful feelings and such reduction of the sensory inputs from those areas of the brain? read more

 

CHAPTER 8: REWIRING THE BRAIN

The advent of consciousness in evolution bestowed upon the human species the power of conscious behavior and more intelligent action, which meant a large measure of freedom from reflexive and predetermined behavior. It meant a good deal of liberty from the biorobotics that governed life in the earlier phase of our evolution. Unfortunately, there is no room for complacency because there are some factors that might threaten our innate liberty of consciousness.

 

One factor is the restrictive nature of thought per se that operates in a narrow periphery. The second is the fact that we are increasingly submitting ourselves to habitual and fossilized patterns of mental activities and thus surrendering the precious freedom of enlightened and conscious action. We are under the belief that thought is our free and conscious action—an expression of our intelligent Choice. That is true, but not entirely! Unfortunately, our thoughts and emotions have become more habitual and have acquired a greater degree of reflex and autonomic patterns than we realize. It means that the limited periphery of our conscious thought and intelligent willpower is further curtailed.

 

Our minds are fettered with numerous conditionings that are caused by individual actions, hereditary factors, and the external world, including social and cultural influences. Of course, certain reflexive tendencies are evolved to cope with the circumstances of individual life, while others are passed on genetically as the self-protective adaptations in the course of evolution. One cannot find fault with such self-protective reflexive behavior. For instance, the impulsive fears of reptiles and insects are still useful, though these were prewired in the early evolutionary phase when reptiles ruled the planet.

 

Many of our social and cultural rituals and beliefs also fall into this category of outdated relics of past, which include our superstitions, hierarchical behavior, aggressive postures, the tendency of domination over others and violence. The feelings of tribalism, racial hatred, and even patriotism are also evolutionary baggage of old herd instincts. Of course, patriotism and nationalism have practical values of governance and social order. Our prejudices and social divisions that cause violent conflicts are nothing but slavery to habitual ideas and emotions.

 

How do we change and create the human society that is more enlightened, liberal, and not divided? ........... read more

 

CHAPTER 9: A SECOND BRAIN AND ANXIETIES

At one time or another, all of us have experienced butterflies in the stomach while approaching a challenging task like an interview for employment, or when one’s name is announced for the stage as the next speaker. Such fl uttering sensations of nervousness or sinking feelings of fear are also felt in the stomach when one has to face something ominous. Has it ever surprised us that though our brain is in the head, such feelings are felt in our stomach?

 

Such immaterial action of the stomach is not limited to sinking or fl uttering feelings. It occasionally performs another task of the brain, namely, the intuitive action. We use expressions like “a gut feeling or gut reaction” to indicate an instinctive feeling or action. Such expression is not a cliché, but it describes the actual action performed by the gut. One wonders how the gut possesses the abilities, which normally belong to the dynamic entity of the brain.

 

Scientists reveal to us an astonishing fact that every human being has two brains: one in the head and other in the gut. Dr. Michael D. Gershon , a professor of anatomy and cell biology at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, wrote a book in 1998 entitled The Enteric Nervous System: A Second Brain. This book attracted worldwide attention and praise. Not only Gershon, but a few other scientists have observed that the fluttering sensations, sinking fears, and the intuitive actions are caused by the second brain. These findings have opened a host of new avenues for research in the vast subject of gastrointestinal problems as well as the emotive interdependence of the two brains.

 

Scientists theorize that at the dawn of our evolution when we were very tiny creatures stuck to the rocks waiting for food to pass by, we had only this tiny brain. As life evolved with larger biosystems, animals needed a more complex brain for survival. Consequently, a brain inside the skull along with the central nervous system was evolved. However, the ancient brain was preserved as an independent circuit, which is referred to as the enteric nervous system (ENS). .... read more