By Deepak Ranade
The human brain, particularly the neocortex, is anthropologically the latest upgrade. The frontal lobes have blessed mankind with the faculty of abstraction.
To perceive the intangible. It has also blessed us with the power of restraint and the benediction of discretion.
Restraint is one of the most powerful tools when coupled with discretion. It is a self-discipline that largely reins in the more primitive fight-or-flight response.
This response was primarily a protective mechanism that addressed more physically demanding situations in prehistoric times.
The fight-flight-fright response has progressively worked more to the detriment of humans as they evolved.
Today, dealing with challenges, problems, and trying circumstances is a daily reality, and the more primitive responses each time have transformed physiology into pathology –lifestyle ailments afflicting even the youth and the demographically productive age groups.
The ability to remain equanimous in the most adverse circumstances is largely untapped. The power of restraint, to not give in to primal impulses, and minimise vacillations of the unbridled mind, is need of the hour.
Transcendental practices such as meditation provide deeper insights into realising one’s true nature. They go a long way towards minimising the misconception of ‘doership’ and, by extension, the ego.
Studies on the effects of ‘Yognidra’ on the Default Mode Network have revealed significant alterations in its activity. The Default Mode Network is the neural network that is active only in the brain’s resting state.
The DMN is associated with introspection, self-referential thought, memory, future imagining, and social cognition. The medial prefrontal cortex is tasked with generating and introspecting the sense of ‘self’. It is active when the mind is at rest and typically deactivates when the brain is engaged in demanding, externally oriented tasks.
This network is the hallmark of the human brain that conjures up varying perceptions of the self. Self-referential awareness, a consciousness that’s conscious of being conscious. An awareness that doesn’t require mediation by intelligence.
An awareness with the wondrous ability to disrobe itself of its misconceptions.
Relaxation, introspective techniques effect a gradual functional evolution by restraining the instinctive responses to developing a farsuperior cognitive state, the state of beingadispassionate observer.
Spiritual terminology such as ‘Sthitaprajna’ may seem high-sounding, but it implies a shift from being a participant in this game of life to becoming a mere witness.
Overcoming the identification of the ‘self’ from a limited ‘mind-body’ entity to that limitless sense of just Being. The paradox of using the capability of self-restraint and introspection to realise one’s true nature, being that of unrestrained, boundless Bliss.
The growing impact of Artificial Intelligence, which is predominantly computational, can never be Self-cognitive.
Self-cognition is a unique human attribute. The earlier and faster we exercise this discretion to realise our true nature, the better it is for our future. Mankind standsat a crossroads, facing a life-changing choice.
Either to use our higher faculties and intelligence to indulge our false sense of self, ego, or to deploy it to investigate our true nature. The choice to use this evolutionary upgrade will determine our destiny, extermination or salvation.
The writer is pursuing PhD in the role of DMN in genesis of consciousness and sense of self
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
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