The conditioned ‘SELF’ and its current reality
The Self we all are aware of and feel. Dubbed as awareness, consciousness, I, me, it needs no further clarification on its existence. Over the centuries it’s been interpreted in protean ways. It is probably the single-most subject that man has consistently conjectured on. Man has been preoccupied with what happens to the ‘self ’ we feel, at death. What happens to the ‘me’ we have protected so valiantly? Does it continue to exist in some form or is it simply ‘caput’ as far as we are concerned?
It’s about time that a chronological study was made of the protean interpretations of ‘the self ’.
Is it an unchanging ‘Godhead’ as some religions would have it? Can we by a hard-nosed scientific approach cast the centuries of speculative thoughts of such eminent philosophers as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Descartes, Locke, Kant, Hume, William James, Wittgenstein and many others, into oblivion? None of their conclusions are evidence-based, but mere speculative interpretations and carry with them the incoherence inherent in subjective data. Are we by this materialistic approach, missing a ‘Spiritual dimension’ as theistic religions allege? Does such a dimension exist in reality? We must work with evidence-based facts.
However, it is now conjectured with validation available, that as the ‘being’ is evolved, a ‘security- -neuronal network’ in the brain too is evolved for survival in the harsh environment in which the ‘being’ is placed. The ground realities we have to accept are that with evolutionary bio-dynamics as the underlying factor, we are no more than an evolved animal. In-built into our nervous system (i.e. including the brain) are the necessary reflexes to survive, be it in the animal eco-system of yesteryear or in the more culturally sophisticated society as of now. Neuroplasticity has been shown to transform the brain, and neuronal networks (at a tissue level) to allow the being to meet the many vicissitudes, life on the planet Earth entails. The life experience of each individual is unique to him, as also will be the network modification in the brain. When it grows from childhood to adult life, responding to the circumstances he/ she has been challenged with, ‘the self is born and grows’ in this milieu. The ego-I or the narrative-me is ensconced in the being.
Current objective data emanating from fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) Scans of individual brains reveal a ‘Default Mode Network (DMN)’ as representing the ‘me’, ruminating on the past or worrying about what the future might hold. This is the socalled ‘Self ’ that you have evolved by neuroplasticity for survival. It carries with it the emotional you, its clinging nature, and all the survival and procreative instincts that are inbuilt into your psyche or are, in fact, your psyche. This Self is the Mind. Thoughts and the sense feeds are simply objects of the mind. Consciousness, being aware however is not yet decided by neuroscience to be a product of the brain, though much evidence exists that it is generated by the brain stem and its neuronal reticulum.
Remaining in the ‘now’ by mindful meditation (Vipassana), the brain activates its Fronto-Parietal Network (also called the Central Executive NetworkCEN), and sustained activity in the ‘now’-CEN(Vipassana), attenuates the DMN i.e. the ‘Self ’, the ‘me’. According to Buddhist Philosophy, the attempts to secure the survival of the self is what the ‘Being’ commits Kamma for. The Kamma which links into the reality of the ever-present natural law of Conditionality (Paticca Sammupada) results in perpetuation in Sansara.
For further expansion of this ‘information’, read the 150-page book The Buddhist Philosophy and Neuroscience, presently being sold at Sarasavi Bookshops, Vijitha Yapa Bookshops and the Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy.
Priced at Rs. 800, the book is published for the Migara Ratnatunga Trust. The finances accrued from the sale of this book will be used to fund needy Medical students of the University of Peradeniya.