The below article was first published in the 2017 Newsletter edition of the Psychiatric Society of Goa. It is reproduced here in full.
The Upa-yoga demonstration that was part of the CME held by the PSG on 2 nd April, 2017, was a pleasant surprise for two reasons. Firstly, even though I had participated in the same demonstration on an earlier occasion in a different setting, it served as a revision. Additionally, I was reminded about two interesting TED talks that I had seen on YouTube many months ago; one of which was by Sadhguru, the founder of Isha foundation that had conducted the yoga demonstration for us. More specifically, I was reminded about the similarity of what he had said and what another speaker, Jill Bolte Taylor had said in her TED talk. The former is regarded as a “yogi, mystic, and visionary” by his followers and the latter is a neuroanatomist.
Jill Taylor was presented with a fantastic opportunity as a brain scientist; although I'm not sure it was a desirable one. One fine day, she experienced a stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain and got to witness the after-effects of it from a first-person perspective. In the TED talk she recounts her experience of the initial moments after the stroke, and this is where it gets interesting. She states, “... And then I lost my balance, and I'm propped up against the wall. And I look down at my arm and I realize that I can no longer define the boundaries of my body. I can't define where I begin and where I end, because the atoms and the molecules of my arm blended with the atoms and molecules of the wall. And all I could detect was this energy — Energy! And I'm asking myself, What is wrong with me? What is going on? And in that moment, my left hemisphere brain chatter went totally silent. Just like someone took a remote control and pushed the mute button. Total silence. And at first I was shocked to find myself inside of a silent mind. But then I was immediately captivated by the magnificence of the energy around me. And because I could no longer identify the boundaries of my body, I felt enormous and expansive. I felt at one with all the energy that was, and it was beautiful there .”
Interestingly, in his TED talk, Sadhguru talks about a similar experience when he recounts the moment of his 'enlightenment'. He mentions that it occurred unexpectedly when he was meditating just as he had done on numerous occasions earlier , “...Till that moment in my life, I always thought this is me and that’s somebody else and something else. But for the first time, I did not know which is me and which is not me. Suddenly, what was me was just all over the place. The very rock on which I was sitting, the air that I breathe, the very atmosphere around me, I had just exploded into everything. That sounds like utter insanity ... Something was happening within me. I did not know what it was. All I knew was – I’ve hit a goldmine and I didn’t want to lose it... Then I found that it is just the boundaries of sensations that determine what is me and what is not me... I realised that the boundaries of sensation can either be stretched, expanded or even made smaller than what it is right now...”
So both speakers go on to describe a similar experience albeit in different vocabularies. One calls it enlightenment and the other sees it as the silencing of the left brain chatter. But even with that difference, both talks are captivating and I encourage you to spare the time to view them online.
Additionally, there is one more common thread that runs through the discourses of both speakers. Both attest to the fact that anyone can attain this state of mind. Perhaps this is what meditation is all about; silencing of the left hemisphere. There are numerous videos of Sadhguru talking about his followers and others who have experienced this state. And to quote Jill directly from the video, “Oh! I felt euphoria — EUPHORIA. It was beautiful. ... and I have found Nirvana. And if I have found Nirvana and I'm still alive, then everyone who is alive can find Nirvana. And I pictured a world filled with beautiful, peaceful, compassionate, loving people who knew that they could come to this space at any time. And that they could purposely choose to step to the right of their left hemispheres — and find this peace. And then I realized what a tremendous gift this experience could be, what a stroke of insight this could be to how we live our lives.”
Perhaps THIS is the Enlightenment that we all need.
Reference Links:
Jill Taylor was presented with a fantastic opportunity as a brain scientist; although I'm not sure it was a desirable one. One fine day, she experienced a stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain and got to witness the after-effects of it from a first-person perspective. In the TED talk she recounts her experience of the initial moments after the stroke, and this is where it gets interesting. She states, “... And then I lost my balance, and I'm propped up against the wall. And I look down at my arm and I realize that I can no longer define the boundaries of my body. I can't define where I begin and where I end, because the atoms and the molecules of my arm blended with the atoms and molecules of the wall. And all I could detect was this energy — Energy! And I'm asking myself, What is wrong with me? What is going on? And in that moment, my left hemisphere brain chatter went totally silent. Just like someone took a remote control and pushed the mute button. Total silence. And at first I was shocked to find myself inside of a silent mind. But then I was immediately captivated by the magnificence of the energy around me. And because I could no longer identify the boundaries of my body, I felt enormous and expansive. I felt at one with all the energy that was, and it was beautiful there .”
Interestingly, in his TED talk, Sadhguru talks about a similar experience when he recounts the moment of his 'enlightenment'. He mentions that it occurred unexpectedly when he was meditating just as he had done on numerous occasions earlier , “...Till that moment in my life, I always thought this is me and that’s somebody else and something else. But for the first time, I did not know which is me and which is not me. Suddenly, what was me was just all over the place. The very rock on which I was sitting, the air that I breathe, the very atmosphere around me, I had just exploded into everything. That sounds like utter insanity ... Something was happening within me. I did not know what it was. All I knew was – I’ve hit a goldmine and I didn’t want to lose it... Then I found that it is just the boundaries of sensations that determine what is me and what is not me... I realised that the boundaries of sensation can either be stretched, expanded or even made smaller than what it is right now...”
So both speakers go on to describe a similar experience albeit in different vocabularies. One calls it enlightenment and the other sees it as the silencing of the left brain chatter. But even with that difference, both talks are captivating and I encourage you to spare the time to view them online.
Additionally, there is one more common thread that runs through the discourses of both speakers. Both attest to the fact that anyone can attain this state of mind. Perhaps this is what meditation is all about; silencing of the left hemisphere. There are numerous videos of Sadhguru talking about his followers and others who have experienced this state. And to quote Jill directly from the video, “Oh! I felt euphoria — EUPHORIA. It was beautiful. ... and I have found Nirvana. And if I have found Nirvana and I'm still alive, then everyone who is alive can find Nirvana. And I pictured a world filled with beautiful, peaceful, compassionate, loving people who knew that they could come to this space at any time. And that they could purposely choose to step to the right of their left hemispheres — and find this peace. And then I realized what a tremendous gift this experience could be, what a stroke of insight this could be to how we live our lives.”
Perhaps THIS is the Enlightenment that we all need.
Reference Links: