A hard thing
2024: A Year of Compilation and Articulation 📚
One of my goals for 2024 is to distill some of the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads into a format accessible to and consumable by people worldwide. These ancient texts, along with Systems Thinking, offer tools for living, learning, and acting in harmony with oneself and the world.
All of them are telling us, in the words of Tony Robbins: 'Our state influences our story, which has an influence on our strategy,' which, in turn, influences our state ad infinitum. Or as the Systems Dynamists like to say, structures (mental models and artefacts) shape behaviours.
Structured Commitment: The 75 Hard Challenge 📆
I started the 75 Hard challenge on January 1, 2024, and have since been dedicating 4-5 hours daily to reading from and listening to lectures on the Gita and Upanishads.
At 5am each morning, I open a random page from the Gita or Upanishads to reflect upon and then listen to related lectures, spending my afternoons applying those perspectives/ frameworks to real-life scenarios and analysing them. My evenings are reserved for deep contemplation while walking along the trails of Patapsco Valley in Maryland.
As a part of my hard thing each day starting today, 1st Feb I am going to start documenting and sharing some of what I've been learning so that I am forced to articulate the dots I've been collecting and connecting over the years.
A Framework for Living in Present Awareness 🌿
My days currently follow a structured framework as followed by seekers engaged in Vedantic practices.
Mornings (Sravana) - Knowledge and Comprehension: Reading or listening to the teachings of Vedanta, gaining theoretical understanding, and exploring interconnectedness.
Afternoons (Manana)- Application and Analysis: Deeply pondering over teachings, applying them to real-life scenarios, and establishing universal truths.
Evenings (Nididhyasana) - Synthesis and Evaluation: Reflecting on the day, achieving direct experiential realization of the Self, transcending intellectual comprehension.
Exploring the Nexus of Quantum Physics and Vedanta 🌌📖
Earlier today, while listening to a lecture on Advaita Vedanta, I heard of Carlo Rovelli’s "Helgoland" and how he was inspired by and speaks of Nagarjuna’s Middle Way.
A central theme of this book is that physical reality exists in the relations, and only in the relations. In the book Rovelli says, “If the world is better described in terms of relations, if nothing has intrinsic properties except in relation to other things, perhaps in this physics we can better find elements able to combine to be the basis of consciousness.” (p. 164). "In such a world the rigid distinction between a mental world and a physical one fades. It is possible to think of both mental and physical phenomena as natural phenomena: both products of interactions between parts of the physical world.” (p. 165)
"The discovery of quantum theory, I believe, is the discovery that the properties of any entity are nothing other than the way in which that entity influences others.” (p. 77) “Quantum theory invites us to see the physical world as a net of relations. Objects are its nodes
Speaking of the book Rovelli said, “I am not a philosopher; I am a physicist: a simple mechanic. And this simple mechanic, who deals with quanta, is taught by Nagarjuna that it is possible to think of the manifestation of objects without having to ask what the object is in itself, independent from its manifestations."
While looking into this I went into a rabbit hole which lead me to explore the fascination of physicists like Schrödinger, Heisenberg, and Bohr with the Upanishads and Vedas.
Schopenhauer's reverence for the Upanishads, Schrödinger's philosophical essays, Heisenberg's assertion that "Quantum theory will not look ridiculous to people who have read Vedanta," and Bohr's journeys into the Upanishads all unveiled the intriguing connections between science and ancient wisdom.
My own journey with the Upanishads began in 2019 with A. Parthasarthy's translation of the Gita. Its 700 verses, penned 5000 years ago, spoke to me profoundly, especially given I had for years witnessed talented individuals burning out at work due to dysregulated emotions and sunk cost fallacies.
Given I'd been researching on leverage points and systems thinking since 2016 the draw towards the concepts and perspectives offered here was quick and deep. I started at Chapter 3 - the Yoga of Action and somehow meandered back to Chapter 2 and the essence of Sthita Pragnya rather recently after I spent some time contemplating on what compassion or neutral present awareness truly means.
The Gita, Upanishads, Vedanta, and Systems Thinking, in my understanding, converge into a singular truth — the world is not as it seems; it is as we are.
Or as Heisenberg, the German physicist and Nobel Laureate who was one the founders of quantum mechanics, once said - “What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our methods of questioning.” As seen through our own ladders of inference.
Quotes I am pondering over over again 📖
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (1.3.28)
ॐ असतो मा सद्गमय ।तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय । मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय ।
Asato Maa Sad-Gamaya | Tamaso Maa Jyotir-Gamaya | Mrtyor-Maa Amrtam Gamaya |
Show me the path form my perceived reality (from my data/ my conditioned perceptions) towards objective facts (neutral awareness)
From the Darkness (of Ignorance, of conditioning and biases), lead me towards the light (an awareness of what is)
From ego states (cycles of life and death), lead me towards humility and eternal truths (immortality)
2. Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 16, Verse 16)
अनेकचित्तविभ्रान्ता मोहजालसमावृता: | प्रसक्ता: कामभोगेषु पतन्ति नरकेऽशुचौ || 16||
aneka-chitta-vibhrāntā moha-jāla-samāvṛitāḥ prasaktāḥ kāma-bhogeṣhu patanti narake ’śhuchau
Possessed and led astray, enveloped in a mesh of delusion, and addicted to the gratification of sensuous pleasures, they descend to the murkiest hell.
The law of life is that we are not punished for our actions, we are punished by them. Similarly we are not rewarded for our actions, we are rewarded by them. A vicious action causes mental agony, similarly generative actions lead to bliss and peace.
I hope this nudges you to take a pause and reflect deeply. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.