OrthoMind

A handbook for perfection

Nemir Adjina
Copyright Nemir Adjina

All rights reserved

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used
when we created them.”

Albert Einstein
Contents

Preface ....................................................................................................................... 5
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 7
The background to OrthoMind ................................................................................... 8
A new Copernican revolution? ................................................................................. 10
Who are we? ............................................................................................................ 12
Beyond the Personality ............................................................................................ 15
Mind, Body and Soul ................................................................................................ 16
The survival reflex and human activity ..................................................................... 17
Paradise now ............................................................................................................ 22
The OrthoMind Method ........................................................................................... 24
Personal Integration .............................................................................................. 26
Investigation ......................................................................................................... 35
Acceptation ........................................................................................................... 44
Realization ............................................................................................................ 44
The Perciever ........................................................................................................... 46
Preface
This book is relevant for anyone who is unsatisfied with daily life.

There is no doubt that technical innovation has brought huge improvements in the
material conditions of living for the vast majority of people living today. It is also
true that despite the corresponding increase in our power to cause harm and
destruction to each other, the general trend is towards peace and cooperation,
humanity is moving forward towards increased material prosperity, longevity and
security. Technological innovation and dematerialization means we consistently do
more with less and despite the many cases of environmental destruction and
pollution, it is by no means a given that we will not eventually achieve conditions of
universal material comfort and security for everyone on the planet in harmony with
the rest of nature and the environment. We have the means to do it, and as an
optimist I choose to believe we shall and will do my best to ensure that we do.

However, my work with people who are without exception recipients of such
material wellbeing, well educated, well housed, well employed, with sufficient
means to meet their material needs, has shown me that materialism, although it
may solve the problems of our physical existence , will not and cannot bring lasting
happiness, and it is happiness which we seek above all else.

Inner loneliness, anxiety, depression, and unhappiness are not resolved by material
wealth and progress. In our efforts to reach the shores of paradise, we strive to
acquire more and more money, power, to achieve more, yet the shore recedes like a
mirage, constantly out of reach.

It has been said by many sages throughout history that this promised land lies
within, not without. It is our perception which is at fault, our incomplete view of
ourselves that leads us to misunderstand our situation and hence to act mistakenly.
In Yoga this is called in Yoga Avidya, non seeing, and it is the cause of our misery and
un happiness. What is it that we are not seeing? It is our very own selves. Looking
ever outwards we forget to look within, and so we miss half the story. Seeing is an
activity of the mind, not the eyes. OrthoMind is a way to look within, to turn the
mind inwards upon itself and perhaps even to what is before mind, and by looking
to know what we are and what we are not.
 “A human being is part of the whole, called by us “universe,” limited in time and
space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated
from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a
prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons close
to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from our prison by widening our circle of
compassion to embrace all humanity and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

Albert Einstein
Introduction
©
OrthoMind (OM) is a method of psychological and emotional development which
enables the practitioner to attain and maintain clarity and emotional equilibrium in
all situations. This clarity and equanimity leads to enhanced confidence, optimism,
resilience and effectiveness CORE

OM training leads to optimism in all situations, a way of viewing and living life that is
ever positive. So called negative situations are viewed as opportunities to growth
and understanding. This is achieved both through an appreciation of the positive
functional role of optimism as a psychological choice and through the understanding
of the actual condition of the personal and transpersonal* identity and their role in
experience and life in general.

The final goal of OM is the discovery of the True Self and the realization that the
fundamental drivers of life, the search for happiness, security and freedom can be
realised through correcting the false self view that leads to alienation, separation,
anxiety and dissatisfaction.

OM is an easy to use, corrective intervention which is substantially based on the

ancient traditional knowledge of the human condition and applied to the modern
world.
The background to OrthoMind
It would be true to say that I lived much of my life in a state of mild depression and
chronic insecurity; the reasons for this probably have to do with my early years and
genetic inheritance. I was child of divorced parents, of vastly different cultures,
themselves children of difficult or remote parents. I chose a professional career that
was not fulfilling, and drifted without aim or purpose, I was unable to see my way or
see myself. Early in my teens I experimented with Meditation, in my twenties I
became involved in Neo Sufism, followed by Yoga. I was basically what is called a
seeker, searching for something, happiness, fulfilment, the Truth.

During my thirties my nightly meditations would often involve experiences of inner

light and expansiveness, frequently joyful, even blissful, yet by day my situation was
getting worse and worse. I sought help from authorities on spiritual matters for
explanations of the light and to resolve my existential sufferings.

Things came to a head when my depression and isolation got so bad that I could not
recognize my own face in the mirror! I sought some professional psychotherapeutic
help and got some relief and understanding of my situation, stopped my
professional career and embarked on a more reckless life teaching massage and
yoga.

However depression and confusion were still my companions, and I struggled to love
or be loved, I was empty and almost resigned to a sad and lonely life. To help my
massage clients I embarked on a 5 year teacher training in Yoga. I learnt the breath
based personalised daily practice that is the heart of yoga, and gradually things
changed.

I also delved into Yoga philosophy as a scientific view of the human being and found
it to be true.

Gradually but certainly my psychological and emotional state improved, a process of

clarifying began which somehow took on a life of its own.

The clouds parted, the veil was lifted.

Classical Yoga is an ancient method for understanding, living in freedom and truth.
As many people today believe Yoga is about postures and exercise, or eastern
mysticism, I have called it OrthoMind and sought a new way to present it.
OrthoMind is the method of mental training that completes our understanding of
who we are. Until our understanding is complete, our feelings, values and actions
will be based on error, and we can expect fear, suffering and anxiety.
A new Copernican revolution?
The theory that the earth revolves around the sun was first put forward by the
Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos in the 3rd century BC, 2400 years ago.
However it was not until Nicolaus Copernicus in the 15th century AD that this truth
was accepted as fact. Common sense experience and daily life are still mostly lived
as if the sun revolves around the earth, our senses would indicate that this is true,
but we know that this is an illusion.

What is being presented here is none other than an ancient truth first described
thousands of years ago in India, a truth not about the physical world but about the
observer of the world and the relationship the observer has with the world.

It is a strange feature of our modern world that a method of attaining Truth,

through experience and reason, appears as a revolutionary and radical departure
from conventional thought and belief. The pervasive belief about the nature of the
world means that even when Truth is presented in a clear and logical manner, it is
still ignored if it is radically different from accepted norms. The reader is warned
that some parts of this handbook require deep thought and the ability to completely
re-think whatever you believe is true. This may require faculties that have been
dormant for some time. In our search for the truth we rely on direct personal
experience, reason and inference. For reasons which will become clear, OrthoMind
has no recourse to the findings of science, although it is in itself highly scientific.
There is no need to validate its findings by neuro science, quantum physics or any
other specialist system of observation of the physical world. This is because
OrthoMind concerns itself with the investigation into the nature of the Knower
rather than the nature of the Known. For it is without doubt that each of us is a
knower of reality, and that if we wish to live life as complete human beings we must
know who or what we are.

The Truth presented here is timeless and accessible to any human; it does not
depend on belief, specialization or the changing fashions of culture or what other
people say.

It is a truth that has been present at all times and at all times there have been
attempts to convey this truth, using the language and capabilities available.
OrthoMind has the aim of liberating humanity from the spell of ignorance that hides
the ever present truth from our eyes, and by so doing to bring about improvements
in our own lives and in our dealings with each other and with nature.

“For it is the duty of an astronomer to compose the history of the celestial motions
through careful and expert study.”- Nicolaus Copernicus
Who are we?
Any therapeutic method which aims to improve the way people feel and act should
start by analysing and evaluating the basic underlying beliefs we have about who we
are, to see if they are based on a true perception of reality. This is because it is our
beliefs and value systems that condition our understanding of our condition, and
hence the decisions we make in life.

Humans have held many different beliefs about who they are at various times in
history. At present the most common belief is what I call Darwinian proto-
materialism*, which could be defined as follows: The belief that humanity is an
evolved species of ape living in a world which consists of other discreet living beings
and non living matter within an space time continuum.

In this system five fundamental beliefs stand out:

1. Consciousness is a product of the human brain

2. Matter and space are lifeless
3. The world as it appears to the senses is the real world
4. The human being consists of a body and a mind in relationship.
5. The current belief system is true.

These five fundamental beliefs represent the basic world view of most people in the
modern world. An exception would seem to those with religious views entailing
belief in Divine fiat and the eternal soul, yet the overwhelming prevalence of the
proto-materialistic view means that such spiritual or metaphysical views are
relegated to the subjective domain and are not seriously entertained as containing
objective truths.

This view has two glaring limitations:

1. It does not explain how lifeless matter gives rise to conscious experience
2. It completely ignores the role played by consciousness in the development of
its own beliefs.

In this belief structure, a human being is a kind of conscious object in space, subject
to external and internal forces which they seek to control; life is a struggle for
survival in an indifferent, meaningless and sometimes hostile world.
This world view has led to the alienation of humanity from Nature, a disregard for
long term consequences in the pursuit of progress, and the elevation of personal
wealth and power as the prime objectives in life.

It is also the prime cause of fear and anxiety, loneliness, depression and the other
ills of modern life, both physical and psychological. Unlike other animals, the human
is very un prepared to meet its needs on earth, physically weak, without natural
protection, it must work hard to stay alive. However the fact that the human being,
alone in nature, is self conscious, sets it in a class of its own. This difference is
evident from our activity and production. Yet, we use that very consciousness to
make inaccurate or incomplete assumptions about who we are, much like the
elaborate explanations of the solar system that were proposed by those who
believed that the earth was the centre of the universe, consciousness blindly
following what their senses told them was true.

Any true understanding of reality must proceed from direct personal experience
rather than second hand sources. The purpose of OrthoMind is to arrive at correct
understanding based on what each person can know directly about themselves and
the world.

OrthoMind training will lead to the following conclusions:

1. A human being creates the world through a process of imagination.

2. The cause of both Identity and Reality is consciousness
3. The essential nature of the human being is apart from the world, free from its
effects.
4. Only true self understanding can bring lasting satisfaction and fulfilment.

As can be expected the effect of these conclusions is a radical change in our feelings
of freedom, empowerment, responsibility and absolute safety. As the prime cause
of confusion, selfishness, anxiety and unhappiness is ignorance of our true
condition, we can expect vast improvements in our mental wellbeing, quality of life ,
problem solving capacity and leadership skills.

The tools which we use to obtain this understanding are logic and reason, personal
experience and inference, no belief is required, only attention to the true facts of
life.
*Proto materialism is a kind of false materialism because whereas true materialists will accept
that we have no idea what the real world is like, due to the limitations of experience, proto
materialists accept the normal every day appearance of reality as being the truth. This is in fact a
non scientific point of view with no basis in reality, yet most people believe it to be scientific and
rational.
Beyond the Personality
Like actors on a stage, we each of us have a distinct personality. Our personality
dictates how we relate to others, to ourselves and to the world around us. The word
person comes from the latin persona which means a theatrical mask. So our
personality is a mask which we wear. This mask operates rather like a computer
operating system, sorting information and organizing the immense amount of data
that we accumulate in life. It is what we might call an intelligent operating system, it
learns and adapts with experience. Often the persona is formed very early on in our
lives and then remains more or less fixed, giving rise to our character or way of
being in the world. The mask is so important for daily life that it is rarely taken off,
perhaps never. As time goes by we identify with the mask, we identify with our
personality. To improve our performance or condition or in times of suffering or
unhappiness we seek help in adjusting our personality, and there are many methods
available for doing so. However a mask is never the truth, and so we live acting out,
inauthentic lives, and rarely does anyone take off their mask! This condition is the
actual cause of our unhappiness and our seeking for happiness through wealth,
security, drugs, freedom or love. It is also the cause of the fear and anger and hatred
that leads to violence against ourselves and others. To put it short, we are not being
Real, and deep down we know it. OrthoMind is all about removing the mask and
seeing what lies beneath, our true nature.
Mind, Body and Soul
Nearly all cultures prior to our own conceived the human being as having an
immortal soul or essence. Expressed in different terms, this soul was a connection to
spiritual realms. With the onset of the Enlightenment, such ideas became
unfashionable. The rise of scientific materialism and its obvious benefit to humanity
meant that we finally left the superstitious dark ages behind us, in Europe at least. It
is not our intention here to survey all the variations of this belief and the way it has
been used and abused throughout time, but rather to propose it again as a scientific
hypothesis. Like any scientific inquiry, we need a hypothesis, and OrthoMind starts
with the following hypothesis:

The fundamental attribute of humanity is consciousness, which is a metaphysical

condition that is separate from the personal and physical realms. Analysis of the
nature of consciousness will reveal its attributes and consequently the true nature of
humanity.

In the language of OrthoMind, the conscious essence is called the Self. A human
being consists of a Self, a mind, and a body. Reduction of the human to merely mind
and body leads to suffering and disintegration.
The survival reflex and human
activity
The basic cause of all insecurity, lack of confidence, fear, confusion, and egoism is
the identification of the Self with the mind body complex (mbc). This results in the
perfect and invincible Self “forgetting” its true existence and abdicating identity to
the mbc.

The Self is that part of you that is essential. The Self is whatever is so intimately You
that if it were removed, you would cease to exist. As such the Self is who you are, no
matter whom or what you may think or believe that you are. Your thoughts may
change, but you do not!

The mbc is that gestalt of your thoughts, emotions, experiences that make up your
identity. Every part of the mbc is changing. Within the mbc is an auto-preservation
reflex that is activated whenever there is the perception of a threat. This reflex is
the also cause of all stress, anxiety, insecurity, fear, anger, envy, greed, depression
and indifference.

When a situation is perceived there is a process of understanding regarding the

relationship of the situation to the mbc 1. If the situation is perceived as dangerous
or threatening to the integrity of the mbc then a cascade of reactions is activated to
defend the mbc. This is the so called “Fight or Flight” reflex. To the extent that an
unknown situation is potentially threatening, the unknown tomorrow, then life itself
is perceived as threatening. Thus we live in a constant anxiety and self preservation
mode. The mbc, with its array of thoughts and emotions, impulses and sense
experience is not in itself capable of free and independent decision making. The mbc
is conditioned to ensure survival. If there is little food in our stomach, we feel
hungry and irritable, we think about food and how to get it. During eating we feel
pleasure, the irritability and hunger go away, however in order to avoid hunger we
soon start thinking about the next meal and how to avoid suffering, and so we seek
to ensure we will not be hungry by getting a secure job, or becoming rich. This is
what a lot of human life is, slavery to the stomach and the mbc.

1
A Clinical Guide to the Treatment of the Human Stress Response George S. Everly Jr Jeffrey M. Lating
But the stomach is not what life is about. The stomach is there to allow the mbc to
survive, but if the mbc obeys the stomach it is an absurd situation, there must be
something else to being human.

However, as long as we have fear, we are preoccupied with survival of the mbc and
our true nature escapes us.

How we perceive and act

Perceiving – understanding – feeling – evaluating – acting

To illustrate how aspects of our self can remain unused and unnoticed throughout
life, consider how emotions effect our behaviour. Generally emotions are provoked
by outside stimuli and can be either pleasant or unpleasant. Instinctively we seek to
retain pleasant emotions and avoid unpleasant ones. We express this by our
behaviour.

The column on the left shows what appears to be the mechanism of perception and
reaction: First the threat is perceived, then it arouses an emotion, and then we act
on the basis of emotion. This is almost a mechanical relationship and is that of most
animals. However scientific studies have shown that perception is always mediated
by the cognitive faculty, in other words we always interpret events as being either
threatening or not. This involves choice , we choose to perceive events as
threatening based on many factors , the most essential being our view of ourselves.

The column on the right shows what is actually happening according to science:
Perception is immediately followed by cognition or interpretation, which leads to
emotion, this is followed by an evaluation which then leads to action.

What is important is that both our perception of reality and our manner of dealing
with reality are in fact products of our cognitive faculty or our understanding. This
means that our emotional life and our activity depend on our understanding, and
understanding depends on having factual data.
 Perception Perception
"A dog"
"A fierce
dog!"
Understanding
" A fierce dog!"

Emotion Emotion
Fear! Fear!

Decision
"I'd better act!"

Action
Action
"Run!!"
"Run!!"

The most accessible and immediate source for data is the mbc, we obviously have a
body and a mind. However, believing that that is all we are is the cause of all
problems. If we look at the language we use, then we can get a clue. We say “ I
HAVE a body”, not “ I AM a body”. So, right there we disidentify with being the
body, it is something we have, not something we are.

Similarly we say “I HAVE a clever mind” not “I AM a clever mind”, we separate

ourself from our mind. In the case of people who say “I AM very clever”, it would
seem that indeed self is identified with a certain quality, rather like a person driving
a fast car will say “I AM going fast!”. But there is no guarantee that cleverness will
remain, whereas I AM will endure as long as we are aware. To say “I AM” is to
assert one’s being-ness, it is not qualified in any way and makes no reference to the
mbc. I AM-ness or I-ness is an ontological condition shared by all humans that are
able to think. It is our most basic expression of who we are.

It is also possible to immagine that I-ness exists largely independantly to the mbc, in
the sense that as long as we are conscious then I-ness exists, no matter what the
condition of the body or the emotions or other mental states. This is still a
materialistic view, one can imagine a brain in a container of cerebrospinal fluid
being perfectly conscious of itself, similar to clinical cases of locked in syndrome,
where the patient remains fully conscious in a paralysed body showing no outward
signs of life, the identity of the patient being in no way diminished through the
incapacity to act, speak or express his or herself.
Clear analysis of the facts of experience will show that each of us mysteriously
inhabits our body rather like we inhabit a car when we are driving, and we interact
with our minds in the same way we interact with the car’s onboard computer and
navigation console.

Another analogy might be that of a remote operator piloting a robot on mars, in

whihc case the remote oprator is always apart and free from the conditions of the
robot, but because s/he is so involved in his/her work, s/he becomes identified with
the robot.

Another, perhaps the most accurate analogy, is that of a virtual gamer interacting
with a simulated environment and other gamers. In this situation the whole
experince of gaming takes place in a condition that is dimensionally inferior to the
gamer , being an illusion created by the play of pixls on the screen. This includes the
virtual body that the gamer inhabits. The gamer inhabits a level of reality that is
quite different than the game reality, but die to being absorbed in the game, s/he
becomes totally identified with the virtual character s/he assumes.

In this schema the survival response looks a bit like this:

Body Perception
"A dog"

Mind
Understanding
" A fierce dog!"

Remote
Body Emotion
operator
Fear!

Mind Decision
"I'd better act!"

Body Action
"Run!!"

Proto materialism says that the images and information transmitted from Mars by
the robot are true and that the operator is in fact the robot , not remote in any way.
True materialism admits it has no idea what Mars is really like, only what the robot
is able to sense and transmit, and has no idea how it is the Robot decides what to
do, what it is doing there and how the onboard computer got built. Basically
Materialism is convinced that everything is a product of matter, even consciousness,
although it hasn’t figured out how yet. However, the Robot-operator (RobOp)
complex is able to investigate itself and come to understanding. If this scenario is
true, and we are convinced it is, then you will appreciate that the Remote Operator
is always safe. Howver if the Remote operator forgets his/her true nature, due to
habitual exposure, then s/he can come to believe that s/he is actually the robot, and
that s/he is is living and acting on Mars, an inhospitable and dangerous
environment!

This is our situation today, the only difference is that the planet the robot is
exploring and perhaps destroying is Earth.
Paradise now
Many traditions and religions adhere to the concept of an original state for
humanity that was perfect and eternal. Somehow we have lost that original purity,
and the result is suffering. Mystical traditions in particular seek to recover that
original state during normal life. OrthoMind is in a sense a mystical science, in that it
seeks through practice, reason and inference and the experience of inner realities,
to reveal that original pristine condition as an ever present reality, the point from
which we engage in living. Along with fredom and security, almost everyone is
seeking perfection in one form or another. Whether we are at work, or at home or
at play, perfection is the aim. Even if we have a lackadaisical attitude to our
condition, it is because in some manner such an attitude confers a certain ease or
peace which is a corallory of perfection. However almost without exception we view
perfection as something to be attained, not an already present condition.

Paradise is our original condition, it is there at our origin. Being at the origin it is the
point of departure for all other conditions, the foundation upon which we build our
lives. Yet just as the foundations of a house are buried in the earth, the foundations
of our psyche are buried from view, unless we make a conscious effort to access it.
The word Paradise derives from the ancient Iranian paridayda which means walled
enclosure. We can speculate that the term may have been metaphorical and
reffered to a condition of timeless harmony that is somehow walled off from
everyday awareness. It is certainly true that the Walled Garden is a common enough
metaphor for essential Truth in Sufism, one of the worlds great esoteric traditions.

Our paradisiacal condition is our actual Self and it is somehow mixed up with our
terrestrial existance yet “walled off” by a state of amnesia or absorbtion which
prevents it from being seen. OrthoMind training is to breach the wall separating our
true paradisical state from our apparent terrestrial state and so complete our
understanding of who we are. This allows for the flowering of our perfection in the
world and the establishment of peace, freedom and security as the living basis of
our lives.

Once upon a time, a clever little robot arrived on a strange land. The robot was
equipped with a camera and all sorts of lenses and instruments. The task of the
robot was to photograph and record the strange land. It set about its task, taking
pictures of everything it could see, plants, animals, rocks, clouds and so on. When it
had exhausted all possibilities with one lens, it changed it, this time taking pictures
with a microscopic lens, then a macroscopic lens, telescopic, endoscopic, exoscopic,
until it had exhausted all its lenses. After that it started recording all the sounds,
then all the tastes, all the textures , and so on, until it had exhausted the possibilities
afforded it by the instruments with which it was equipped. Satisfied that it had
recorded all phenomena in the land, it sent the data back as a big book called “All
that exists in a strange land”.

What was missing from the book?

The OrthoMind Method
OrthoMind is a combination of four different approaches to human development
and truth which have come down to us from the Ancient Wisdom Traditions. Each of
the approaches is a valid means to improve your life, and may be taken on its own.
However the totality of the four approaches allow for a Gestalt which is greater than
and different to the sum of the parts. This difference of the Gestalt is due to the
Transpersonal* nature of the end product, which brings with it a new way of being.

The first part of Orthomind involves the establishment of personal harmony and
integration. This is achieved by a short daily practical exercise that involves
breathing, concentration and movement together. Personal integration in itself is
greatly rewarding and we can expect benefits in all aspects of our lives. However,
like most exercise programs, the effects last only as long as we practice, and it does
not substantially change our understanding of who we are. To change our self
understanding it is necessary that we examine ourselves very carefully. This is the
second part of OrthoMind, the scientific examination of what it is to be alive. This is
to attempt to respond to the ancient oracle’s instruction to “Know thyself”.

Once we have achived personal intergration and a certain degree of objective self
understanding

The benefits of OrthoMind training are an increase in:

 clarity of mind
 power of concentration
 self confidence
 energy
 emotional regulation
 self direction
 inner harmony and ease
 natural authority
 optimism and enthusiasm
 Joy in life

and a decrease in:

 anxiety and fear

  distraction
 mental confusion
 intolerance for others
 pessimism and cynicism
 dependence on others
 reasons to complain
 feeling a victim

In effect the OrthoMind method leads to complete integration, however it is a

transformation of understanding and not of condition, when we see our true nature
we understand our integration.

The four approaches are Integration, Investigation, Acceptation and Realization.

*Transpersonal refers to that which is beyond the limits and conditions of the mind
body complex.
Personal Integration
Personal Integration means to bring into harmony the most important aspects of
who we are: Mind, Body, Breath, Emotions. It involves a short daily practice of
breath centred dynamic meditation. The focusing on the breath clears the mind, the
breath itself moves the body and regulates the emotions. With practice mind,
breath, body and emotions act together as a seamless whole. Personal integration
has four parts:

1. Breath or functional integration

2. Mental or psychological integration
3. Body or kinetic integration
4. Behaviour or Social integration

Breath and functional Integration

Breath is our first and last activity, it is also our vital connection to life. Yet it is
overlooked and ignored by the vast majority of people. Our breath is intimately
connected to our nervous system and our inner organs, including the heart, liver,
stomach and intestine, as such it is a powerful therapeutic tool.

Step 1: Breathe in slowly, hold for a moment, breath out slowly, hold for a moment,
and so on. Keep your attention fixed on the breath, let your mind sink into your
breath. Let your breath carry your mind with it. Choose a breathing rhythm that is
comfortable and that you can maintain easily yet is also slower and deeper than
your habitual breath. Do this exercise for a few minutes a day, whenever you feel
like it. Practice until you are able to focus on your breath without difficulty.

Step 2: You can now start to alter the breath in important ways to increase the
power of the practice. First, create a gentle constriction in your throat so that you
can feel the air entering and exiting, and you can also hear your breath. Second,
think of your body as having 2 energy centres, one in the heart, and the other just
below the navel towards the spine. As you breathe in, try to expand the heart centre
in all directions, opening the chest. Hold the abdominal muscles stable so that the
abdomen does not protrude outwards as you breathe in. As you breathe out, bring
your attention to the lower centre and try to flatten or contract your abdomen
towards that point, in effect squeezing your inner organs. The effect of this kind of
breathing is to open the chest and create a feeling of freedom and flexibility around
the heart, and to create a state of stability in the lower abdomen. Freedom and
stability, expansion and contraction, heaven and earth. The heart and the abdomen
influence our mental states to a great extent and breathing in this manner clears our
mind in ways we are not immediately aware of. Of course there are many secondary
benefits in our day to day life as we increase our freedom and our security. This type
of breathing can be used at any time during the day, on the bus, whilst walking, at
work etc.

Mind and psychological integration

The ability to direct the mind on an object and maintain that direction is essential if
we are to achieve mastery in our lives. This power of attention is the key to
perceiving a situation correctly and to make correct judgements about ourselves
and reality.
The breathing exercises described above are also exercises in attention, and can be
taken as an example of mental focusing.
However, for functional integration (nervous system, and vital organs) it is
important that the breath is long and deep. Yet if we wish to develop our powers of
concentration and focusing, then we have to gradually refine the breath, making it
ever more subtle and harder to perceive. Thus meditating on the breath is a
psychological exercise which uses the breath, and not a vital exercise that uses the
mind.
We can however choose to meditate on any object, preferably a stable object of
simple nature. Meditating with the eyes closed is preferable due to the great
amount of information and hence distraction that is supplied by the eyes.

Step 1: Sit quietly in a quiet place. Close your eyes and turn your attention to your
breath. Make sure your breathing is even and relaxed, in such a way that you can
concentrate on it. Focus your mind on your breath. If and when your mind wanders,
gently bring it back to the breath.
Step 2: Gradually decrease the intensity of your breath, until it becomes almost
undetectable. In this way your train your mind to remain stable on ever more subtle
and minimal objects, refining your power of concentration.
Step 3: Pay attention to the moments between breaths. Try to be aware of your own
awareness.

Body and Kinetic integration

After you have developed the ability to concentrate on your breath in a stable and
sustained manner, you can begin kinetic integration. This means that the union of
mind and breath that you have achieved is extended to include the movements of
your body. This means allowing the breath to move the body.
Generally speaking breathing in involves a process of expansion and upwards
motion, breathing out involves contraction and downwards movement. This
expansion and contraction can be extended to our body, first to the hands, then the
arms, then the spine and so on. The effect of this is to harmonize mind, breath and
body into a functional unity, this is very important as it brings efficiency and clarity,
and liberates energy for other uses.

Step 1: With a long and even and mindful breath, practice opening and closing the
hands as an expression of the breath. Repeat for 6 breaths

Step 2: In the same way allow the consciously controlled breath to raise and lower
the arms. The movement of the arms should be relaxed and harmonized with the.
Imagine that the arms are being literally inflated and deflated. Repeat for 6 breaths

Behaviour and social integration

Here we introduce the daily practice which will be your entry into mastery and
perfection. These exercises have the purpose of structural, functional and
psychological integration, as well as presenting modes of being in the world that
lead to Social Integration and Transpersonal Integration (Realization).

All the postures are coordinated with a special way of breathing that is in itself
highly therapeutic and acts as the motor for all movement. Each posture is to be
repeated for 5 or 6 breaths. Breathing should be even and continuous even during
the transitions. Mental focus on the breath is essential.

Each of the postures contains an external and an internal significance. The external
significance relates to our self expression and manner, physical posture, social
interactions, how we present ourselves to society and the world. The internal
significance relates to our inner condition, how we feel psychologically and
emotionally, as such the posture can also function as metaphors for our inner states.
The Ruler or Sovereign
This is your basic mode of being in the world, your Standing. It represents your
innate essential dignity and bearing as a human being. When you are standing, you
are not doing anything, you just ARE. Standing is your basic starting point for all
other activities.

Standing is your default posture whenever you remember yourself. Standing is of

course both a physical and an emotional or psychological posture. It reflects natural
dignity and authority, relaxation and Presence.

Figure 1: Royalty - Dignity, Self worth

The Commander or Authority

By commanding your arms to rise and fall with the breath, you establish your
authority over your body, which is a part of the physical world. As it where you
command the world to rise and fall. This important gesture should follow naturally
from your Dignity and should be almost effortless. It is a manifestation of your Royal
command. This simple gesture is only possible because you choose it to be so.
Authority implies responsibility. There is here a great mystery, the effect of mind
over matter. Somehow you are able to cause your arms to move, using your will.
With just the power of your mind, you can alter the physical world, and you do it
naturally, you do not even need to learn how. What is more, how you do it is
completely mysterious!

The Servant or supplicant

Having established your standing and your command, you must know show your
humility before the immensity of life and as a servant of Truth. This is the ancient
posture of bowing before greatness. This is very necessary to keep your ego in check
and give you the capacity to learn and grow. To bow is to acknowledge the limits of
your power and your humility to accept change.
The Diplomat or Tactician
Life is full of changes, and the wise person remains flexible in all aspects. This
powerful posture involves asymmetry and flexibility. It also allows for new ways of
looking and unpredictable behaviour. By engaging in agility we avoid becoming rigid
and stuck in our ways.
The Warrior or Doer
In some ways this is the culmination of all the others. This posture reflects our
decisiveness but is an asymmetrical posture involving stability and agility and
command and bowing down. This posture shows our ability to get things done in a
decisive manner.
The Lover
This heart centred posture is our intimate embrace of our selves and reality. The
arms and hands are brought to the heart area in a gesture of union and connection.
It is our nurturing nature which is our love, compassion and forgiveness for
ourselves and for others.
The daily enactment of this sequence of postures will lead to Personal integration*.
This is the harmonious coordination of physical, emotional, functional ,mental and
social fields of being. When Personal integration is achieved there is an increase in
efficiency with a corresponding apparent increase in available energy.

Each of the postures activates certain qualities which we can draw on in life. For
example, if we have to stand in line, we can stand in our posture of nobility,
conserving energy and maintaining our dignity, time is never wasted. If we have to
take decisive action then the qualities are present through the Warrior pose we
enacted in the morning. In this way the gradual re-enforcement of positive inner
values and action becomes habitual.

*I am indebted to A G Mohan and his book Yoga for personal integration for
this explanation of yoga.

The daily practice of these 6 postures, in the correct manner and with the correct
attitude, will gradually bring harmony, clarity and integration. This in itself is of great
value, as we see that our suffering is reduced, confidence and tolerance increased
and our efficiency and performance in all endeavours is improved.

Meditation
Meditation in its various forms has always been an essential aspect of arriving at the
truth. It is important to first achieve personal integration before starting meditation,
as only when we are integrated do we have the opportunity to relax and be still
without distractions. There are different methods of meditation arising out different
traditions. Here I propose four methods which I have found useful.

The Mindful breath meditation

This meditation involves sitting comfortably and observing the rising and
falling of the breath. It is similar to the breathing in the 6 Immortals, but the effort is
more on observation rather than control and coordination. Simply observe your
breathing, when the mind wanders, bring it gently back to the breath. This
meditation creates a steady and relaxed mind.

The conscious breath meditation

 With this meditation we focus our attention on the breath to the exclusion of
other things. To do this it can be helpful to make the breath a little noisy, like the
sound of the sea on the shore. It may be also useful to extend the in and out breath
a little. In this way instead of being aware of the breath, we try to become one with
it. This meditation creates a focused and directed mind.

Self awareness meditation

Sitting comfortably with the eyes closed. Tune in your attention to whatever
your eyes are seeing, usually the inner part of the eyelid, a dull reddish brown colour
or darkness. This is seeing with the eyes closed. In this condition try to be aware of
the point from which you are observing. Someone is looking into that dark space, try
to feel the nature of that someone. Try to be aware of that which is looking. One
way to do this is to bring your mental focus ever closer to the point from which it is
originating.

Silent meditation

This is simply the practice of sitting in stillness and silence. There is no

attempt to observe or be aware, only to be still. All activity requires effort, so the
meditator minimizes activity of thought and body. This is done not by force or effort
but by just sitting and waiting in inner silence. There is neither awareness or
concentration or visualization of any kind.

Investigation
OrthoMind investigation is to inquire into the nature of who we are and what is life.
It is carried out through a series of exercises designed to reveal existing false beliefs
and replace them with truth.

OrthoMind aims to replace belief with knowledge. The following exercises are
designed to introduce you to some basic facts of life. Using your own sense
experience, reason and inference, we hope to guide you to a revolution in your self
understanding. We start by examining the nature of everyday experience:
Experiencing the Outer World

As we have mentioned earlier, the current paradigm view of reality is what I call
Darwinian proto-materialism, the human has evolved through chance mutation and
natural selection into a uniquely intelligent and conscious monkey, consisting of a
mind and a body, and inhabiting an indifferent and meaningless space-time
continuum. This is more or less what we are taught to believe at school, and it is also
what our senses and daily experience confirm. However any really good theory
should be able to withstand the test of scrutiny and reason, is it true?

A Rose is a Rose.
Most of us instinctively believe in the truth of what our senses inform us of the
world beyond our body. Let us examine closely at what happens when we look at
say, a rose.

Light is reflected off the petals of the rose, scattering in all directions. Some of it, a
very small percentage of that reflected light, enters your eyes through the small
aperture called the pupil. Light enters your eyes and activates nerves in your retina,
which then send an electrical impulse along the optic nerve to the vision centre in
your brain, at which point you “see” the rose, its shape and its red colour.

Now, we know from the physicists and biologists that it is not red light that is carried
along your optic nerve, the light from the rose does not go further than your eye.
There is no red light inside your brain, no electromagnetic waves travelling though
tubes. It is all electrochemical impulses, like signals in a copper wire. But until that
electrochemical impulse arrives at the vision centre of your brain, you do not see
the rose at all. The vision of the rose is somehow created by your brain as a
response of the signal arriving from the nerve.

So, my question to you is, where does that red colour come from and what is it
made of?

What is light?
We have seen that the only explanation of the redness of the rose, or its enchanting
smell, is that it is somehow imagined by the brain as a result of being stimulated by
electro chemical signals, it is in other words a stimulated imagination.

But lets us take a step further, let us go to the window and look at the sun. You turn
your face to the sun, if it is too bright, please close your eyes. All is light, your mind
is full of bright sunlight.
However, just as it is true for the rose, it is true for the sun. Your mind is full of light,
yet if I look into your ears it is pitch black. Your mind is full of light yet there is no
light in your brain!

Much as it might appear to be that the sun is out there shining, the whole
experience that you are having is in fact imaginal, rather like sitting in a dark room
and watching a film of the sun outside.

Like it or not, accept it or not, the facts as evidenced by experience mean we must
accept that all the light we have ever seen, and all the other experiences we have
had of life, are nothing other than the stimulations of the imaginative faculty of the
brain by the nerve signals in the body. Moreover we have no way of knowing if our
imagined experience bears any resemblance to the “real” world which we
experience.

As a matter of fact, the sun is completely dark, there is no such thing as “light”, only
electromagnetic radiation, a kind of energy. “Light” is created by the brain and the
eye when they come into contact with that energy, always was and always will be.

This strange scenario is actually what modern science and true materialism amount
to. It is just like living life through a screen or interface, that interface is your mind.
Of course we all live our lives as if the world we see on the screen is the same as the
world out there, and it does correspond convincingly.

But, we need to go further....

The illusion of having a body

We have shown that our experience of the “world out there” is in fact an internal
mental projection, which may or may not resemble “reality”. This in itself should be
enough to give one pause for thought about the assumptions that govern our lives
and that we take for granted.

But, we must go further in our scientific investigation of the nature of reality and
experience. We must apply the same scrutiny to our experience of our own bodies,
the context for the experience of “in here “and “out there”, and crucially me and
you.

Remember the red rose? Well now look at your pink finger nails, is it not true that
the only reason you know you have finger nails is because of the sense information
(sight, touch, feeling) that is mediated to your brain by your nervous system?
Our relationship to our finger nails is also a creation of our imagination.

Can we extend this understanding to our skin? Skin contains many nerves, it is itself
an organ of sense perception, and it is intimately part of what we call ourselves and
forms the boundary between the inner and outer realities.

We are aware of our skin because we see it, feel it. Yet however intimately it is
connected to our sense of self, all our understanding, and its very qualities and
properties are a result of our imaginative capacity in the brain acting on nerve
impulses.

The brain is just a big flower

So far we have talked about the brain creating images and experience out of nerve
impulses. Creating an inner world on the basis of information from an unknowable
outer world. This is the basic understanding of materialism which is the dominant
understanding of science, although not what most people would recognize as their
everyday experience. This view has led to what is called the hard problem of
philosophy, how consciousness or the inner world arises out of the interactions of
neurons in the brain.

According to this view, the brain is the locus of mind, brain somehow creates
consciousness as a result of its complexity, mind is an epiphenomenon of matter.

This view reinforces the dualistic view of a material world and an imagined one,
mind and body. Yet a closer look is needed.

Modern anatomy, of which neuro-anatomy is a part, arose out of the dissection of

cadavers, inert non living nature, much like the study of botany, the study of plants
and flowers.

We have seen that the existence of flowers is a mysterious product of the

imagination. Is there any reason to believe that the existence of neurons is any
different?
The reason we know what the brain and neurons look like is that we have formed
images of them in our mind, in the same way we form images of the rose. The brain
and all it qualities are no more nor less real than the rose.

The brain is merely the most complex “flower” that we have encountered, yet all we
know about it is a product of our imagination, of our consciousness.

So even your brain is part of your mind.

There is only one conclusion open to us, that nature, body and brain, are all part of a
vast play of consciousness.

We must drop the idea of an unknown reality “out there” which is experienced by
our nervous system, as even our nervous system is part of that same reality. So
there is no in here or out here, all is mind.

There is no other logical explanation.

The inner world

The inner world consists of our thoughts, imaginations, feelings and emotions.
Typically we take for granted that we are that very mix of mental activities that
constitute our personality or identity. Yet a clear inspection reveals that it is far from
being the case.

Thought
Thought is the manipulation of language in our minds. When we think, it is almost as
if we are writing in the space of our minds, we think using language, words,
sentences, even paragraphs.

The most basic and essential thought we can have is the assertion of our own
existence, in English this would be the thought “I AM”. This “I AM” thought is the
simplest meaningful sentence, which contains within in it a subject “I” and an
adjective “AM”. As such it is complete and able to express a complexity that is life,
much more than say just “I” alone, which without the adjective loses its identity and
meaning, and just becomes an empty letter.

From I AM we build the whole edifice of our thought structure and self identity,
adding more and more as time passes.

Yet, although it is true that I am, true that each of us have identity and being, it is
quite a mistake to assume that the sentence “I AM” has any real correlation to who
we are, any more than the word “Tree” is in fact a tree.

Please think the words I AM in your mind.

Now pay attention to the space between I and AM, what is there? What is above,
below, either side, in front of and behind I AM?

Is it possible that that space is also you?

Is it not also true that that space is the same whether you think I AM or any other
thought in any other language?

So which is more enduring, more essential, to your existence?

Emotion
Emotions are mysterious, they are both physical and mental. Emotions have their
reality in our lives rather like the weather, storms, winds, heat and cold. Emotions
seem to come from beyond us and can take control of us if we are not attentive.

Essentially emotions are mechanisms to ensure our survival, energetic (e-motion)

messages from the bodymind that we have to act in a certain manner. Most people
struggle to control their emotions, and are greatly influenced by them, in particular
the so-called negative emotions such as fear, anger, envy and sadness. This makes
sense, if a wild dog is coming to bite us, we need to act on our fear without thinking,
instinctively.

It is very difficult to analyse emotions as a phenomenon, but we can observe the

context in which they appear and deduce some understanding of them.

Fear. Fear is an obvious survival emotion, it is an instinct that causes us to avoid

dangerous situations. Whenever we feel threatened, there will be fear. Its long term
effects are emotions are confusion, anxiety, depression
Anger. Anger is a direct result of fear, it is a charging of the muscles and an
accumulation of energy that will be necessary if we have to fight or flee from
danger. Its long term effects are envy, blaming, intolerance

Greed: Our greed is basically also a result of our fear. We fear the future and so we
seek to acquire more and more power or wealth to ensure our future comfort and
survival. Over time this greed becomes culturally ingrained and habitual, causing us
to continue to accumulate beyond our personal needs. Its long term effects are
superiority, aggression, pride, indifference.

The more at risk we perceive ourselves to be, the more we shall be prone to these
negative emotions.

In nature these emotions are activated during momentary situations of danger or

survival. A crisis is upon us, and we either attain safety by feeling or fighting or we
are defeated. In either case the situation is resolved quickly. It is rare that an animal
or a person living naturally will be constantly in fear, constantly angry or constantly
greedy. Such chronic emotional conditions are a product of our civilization and
mental sophistication.

What is essential to realize is that emotions are borne out of perception and
understanding. How we perceive ourselves is essential to the kind of emotional
activity we will experience. They have their basis in our understanding of our
situation, and have no other reason for existing that to ensure our survival.

Please consider a recent example of when you felt Fear, Anger and Greed.

Imagination

We have seen that the world is a figment of our imagination, we literally imagine
reality. But who or what is doing the imagining?

If I ask you to imagine the green apple, you do so, perhaps relying on your memory
of having seen a green apple. But if I ask you to imagine a blue apple, you can also
do so, even though you have never seen a blue apple in real life. You are quite able
to change the colour of the apple in your mind at will, just as if you where painting it
on a canvas.

My question is, who is it that is painting, be it the apple or the sunset or any other
thing? What is the nature of the creative imagination and how is it achieved?
This is important because it goes to the heart of what it is to be alive.

Other sources
The ancient teachings tell us to study authoritative sources for clues as to the nature
of reality.

As we have seen, the findings of modern science show a reality very different from
how it appears to most people. Here are a few examples which are worth
considering:

What is matter?

According to some estimates* Solid matter is 99.999999% empty space. What holds
the solid stuff together and makes it feel solid is electro-magnetic or electro-
chemical force, like the force between two magnets, or like gravity. These forces are
very mysterious, and seem to be connected to consciousness in some way.

Consider these quotes by experts

“Reality is merely an illusion, although a very persistent one” - Albert Einstein

“As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the
study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much:
There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force
which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar
system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a
conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.” - Max Planck,
founder of quantum mechanics, Nobel prize winner.

“Some days, you might feel like a pretty substantial person. Maybe you have a lot of
friends, or an important job, or a really big car. But it might humble you to know
that all of those things – your friends, your office, your really big car, you yourself,
and even everything in this incredible, vast Universe – are almost entirely,
99.9999999 percent empty space. Nuclei are around 100,000 times smaller than the
atoms they’re housed in. If the nucleus were the size of a peanut, the atom would
be about the size of a baseball stadium. If we lost all the dead space inside our
atoms, we would each be able to fit into a particle of dust, and the entire human
species would fit into the volume of a sugar cube.” - Ali Sundermier
What is life?

As we have seen, we cannot rely on our senses to have an accurate understanding

of the world. If we go to the internet we will find scientific definitions of Life such as
:

“Life is the aspect of existence that processes, acts, reacts, evaluates, and evolves
through growth (reproduction and metabolism). The crucial difference between life
and non-life (or non-living things) is that life uses energy for physical and conscious
development.” https://philosophynow.org/issues/101/What_Is_Life

OR

Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

However all scientific explanations are based on explaining what life is as it is

observed by the scientist, they do not say anything about the nature of the observer
itself, a fundamental part of the process.

This is a fundamental limitation in current scientific understanding, with the possible

exception of quantum physics.

It is in fact not difficult to define life: Life is Knowing. It is only consciousness that is
indispensable for life, for it is only consciousness that is indispensable for an
observer of life. There are only two facts we can be absolutely sure of: 1) That we
are alive, 2) That we are alive because we Know it.

A third fundamental fact follows from the first two: Our knowing and our aliveness
are the one and the same: To Know is to Be!
Acceptation
Acceptation is a condition of the heart. It is an inner posture of peaceful relaxation
and acceptance of whatever occurs. It does not mean fatalism or passivity, but an
understanding of reality in each given moment, seeing things as they are, and then
acting appropriately. It is similar to faith and optimism, the belief that whatever
happens contains a lesson and that nothing is either completely good or completely
bad. Acceptance is similar to the Buddhist concept of upekkhá or equanimity and
involves calmness, self control, presence of mind and optimism. Acceptance is a skill
that arises naturally from Integration and Investigation, as a product of strength and
wisdom. It can also be understood as the ability to concentrate on the quality of our
action, without being influenced or distracted about its outcome. Apart from its
advantages in day to day activity, Acceptance is important to open the heart to
accept Realization which is the final part of OrthoMind.

Step 1: Practice the acceptance of reality just as it is. We never know how things will
turn out, or whether an experience is good or bad for us in the long run. Even if your
situation appears difficult, try to practice a neutral inner acceptance of what is
occurring.

Step 2: Consider how your body grows and changes all by itself, consider how so
much of your body is automatic, happening just by itself. Consider how trees grow,
and the sun shines. It seems there is an implicit order and intelligence operating
throughout the universe, perhaps everything is occurring according to a universal
principle, if so, we would be wise to accept everything internally even as we try to
improve our situation.

Step 3: If you examine how you are able to move your body, you will come to a
point of mystery: How you will your body to move. This unknowable power is part of
you but you cannot understand it or deconstruct it, it is completely mysterious.
Accepting that even how we move is a mystery, allows us to accept that we do not
know and cannot know, it is beyond us.

Realization
Realization can also be called Royalization. It is a dawning of awareness of our true
identity as Royal Sovereigns over our own lives. More than anything else it is a
Knowing, a direct perception of truth which is personal and direct. Sovereignty is
bestowed from the transpersonal realm, a gift that is given.
Sovereignty is the certain knowledge of something that is innate and can never be
taken or acquired. Each of us are born Kings, born Queens, along the way we forget
our true nature, investing authority in others. Yet this sovereignty is always there,
the cause of all identity and knowing. However this sovereignty is not of our own
doing, it is given to us as life is given to us, it entails responsibilities and duties, and
humility to the giver of the gift, however we may conceive of it.
The Perciever
OrthoMind derives its view of humanity from the ancient spiritual traditions.

Broadly speaking, each human was concieved a consisting of two seperate aspects,
one spiritual and the other material. The material aspect is all that changes and
includes the material world and the world of our thoughts and emotions, it is in
constant state of flux or change, we shall call it Nature. The spiritual aspect has the
role of being aware of Nature, of seeing and knowing. It does not change and
remains unaffected, we shall call it the Perciever.

The The ever

unchanging changing Life
Perciever Nature

The 3 qualities The 3 qualities

of the Perceiver of Nature
Being Inertia
Knowing Activity
Willing Clarity

The presence of Inertia and Activity in the mind reduce its Clarity. The role of
Orthomind is to increase the Clarity of mind so that it becomes aware of the Self.
When the Mind is dominated by either Inertia or Activity it is unable to perceive and
so unable to conceive of the presence of the Self.

The true Self is beyond change, immutable and invincible, it does not have the same
qualities as Nature and is not subject to the laws of nature. Each human being is a
combination of True Self and Nature, but in our most intimate essence we are True
Self. When we understand this we have no fear and the self limiting and self
centered and self preserving behaviour cease. When our energy is no longer tied up
in self prservation, then it is used for creativity and problem solving and the good of
the whole.

True Self
Perciever

Event horizon
Mind
I-ness

Thought
"I AM"

Senses
"I FEEL"

Experience
"IT"

Activity
"I DO"
The True Self remains beyond knowledge in the usual sense. Knowledge itself is a
product of mind and contains all our concepts and beliefs and understandings,
experiences. However if we trace knowledge back to its most simple assertion which
is “I AM”, we find that there is something which precedes it, and also observes it.
This observer, existing beyond our normal real of understanding, is none the less
perceptable by default. In the silence and peace of meditation, the presence of the
observer becomes clear, as a light that shine upon mind and illuminates all things.

Action

1. Morning: Practice the 6 Immortals

2. Daytime: Get into the habit of observing your feelings and breathing
3. Evening: Sit quietly as awareness only
4.

Love

1. Get close to your breath

2. Develop gratitude for life
3. Develop an appreciation of life as awesome mystery
4. Contact your heart as a living creature and friend

Knowledge

1. What is light really? Investigate the physiology and phenomenology of light

and try to explain it to your self

2. How do you move? Try to discover how you move your body. How is it that
non physical mind can cause the physical body to move?
3. Who are you? Is there something that is essential about you? What is you?

4. Where are you? Where exactly is the point where you are? Try to pinpoint it!

5. When are you? Are you in time, or is time in you? When is Now?

6. What is thought? You think all the time, but what is thought?
7. How do you think?

8. Can you observe your thoughts? With what eye and what light do you see
them?

9. If you are not thought, what are you?

10. If you are not emotion, what are you?

11. If you are not sensation, what are you?

12. What makes you unhappy?

13. What makes you worried?

14. What makes you happy?