Friday, August 4, 2017

Essay outside of the NMT (No-Me Teaching) series 20
Some   Ramana Maharshi quotes:
Your duty is to be, & not to be this or that.
All that is required to realize the Self is to be still.
The Self is not now understood to be Truth, the one Reality.
 The Truth of your Self alone is worthy to be scrutinized & known.  Taking it as the target of your attention, you should keenly seek to know it in your spiritual heart. This Knowledge of yourself will be revealed only to the Consciousness which is silent, clear, & free from the activity of the agitated & suffering Mind.
 Whenever you are disturbed by thoughts you need merely withdraw within to the Self This is not concentration or destruction of the Mind but withdrawal into the Self.
 The Mind, turned outwards, results in thoughts & objects. Turned inwards, it becomes itself the Self. To ask the Mind to kill the mind is like making the thief the policeman. He will go with you & pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained.
So you must turn inward & see from where the Mind rises & then it will cease to exist.
 The Mind is only a bundle of thoughts. How can you extinguish it by the thought of doing so, or by a desire ?  Your thoughts & desires are part & parcel of the Mind. The Mind is simply enhanced by new thoughts rising up. Therefore it is foolish to attempt to kill the Mind by means of the Mind. The only way of doing it is to find its source & hold on to it. The Mind will then fade away of its own accord.
  It is with the inward-going Mind that you eliminate the outward-going Mind.
You do not set about saying there is a Mind & I'm going to kill it, but you seek the Source of the Mind. Then you will find that the Mind does not exist at all.
Prior to excerpting the Ramana Maharshi disciple, Master Nome in the text below we continue the series:

Both of the (A–series) sub-categories just mentioned include an objective Present, but Presentism specifically assumes that only Present objects exist. The Growing Block Universe assumes both Present & Past objects exist, but no Future objects yet exist. So to the singular Present of Presentism the Growing Block Universe adds a real Past (which increases as a “growing” block), though neither accepts a reality for the not-yet occurring Future.
So while there is no objective Present in the (B-theory), there is a “friendlier” general attitude toward the Future. The (B-theory) in turn has it‘s own (not exactly contrasting or separate) over-lapping subdivisions of Eternalism  [which confusingly preceded the above (A-theory) “growing” block in being also called the Block Universe but just not “growing”]  & an also closely related 4Dimensionalism. Without putting too fine a point on it, the essentially identical terms (B-theory) terms Eternalism & Block Universe, precede, but then were later confirmed by the 4Dimensionalism of Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity (SR). [McTaggart & Einstein published at similar times, but the former was not yet familiar with the later.]  Einstein’s SR depicts a “static” 4-D Space-Time. Here, the Future, designated relative to a specified Observer, claims the same ontological status as some distant point in Space.
Eternalism (just prior to SR) was a philosophical approach to the ontological nature of Time. Eternalism took the view that all points in Time as equally "real", as opposed to the Presentist idea that only the Present is real. Philosophy’s Eternalism or the equivalent 4Dimensionalism of Relativity Physics means that Time is just another dimension. Future events are "already there", & that there is no objective flow of Time. It was sometimes referred to as the "Block Time" or "Block Universe" theory, due to its description of Space-Time as an unchanging 4-D "block", as opposed to the view of the world as a 3-D Space “modulated” by a “passage” of Time. [But again, this differs from the later-named “Growing Block Universe” of the (A-theory) that is not Presentism.]
Reviewing again that (A-theory) Presentism, we note again that there are only the events & entities in the Present, along with some timeless objects or ideas like numbers & Mathematical sets. These latter additions are also taken to occur & exist in the Present. Furthermore, for Presentism, the so-called events & entities that are wholly Past or wholly Future do not exist at all.
The (A-theory) Presentism contrasts with the (A-theory) Growing Block Universe & also contrast with the (B-theory) Block Universe, more usually called Eternalism, or more clearly called 4Dimensionalism. Cutting across both (A-theory) & (B-theory) we see that Growing Block Universe & Eternalism, respectively are the Metaphysical theories that extends to Future events. Referring back to the early centuries A.D., we saw that Augustine spoke of the Present “knife edge” between Past & Future which itself could not not contain any “extended” period of Time. Injecting that concept into pure Presentism (without a “growing” Block of the Past) would dissolve Time as essentiall un-real, according to the even more ancient doctrine of the “3-Times” described earlier.

But the “Father of Psychology” William James argued that conscious experience is naturally extended in Time, in that there is "the short duration of which we are immediately & incessantly sensible". With his own earlier form of Presentism, James further concurred that: "everything Past is unreal, everything Future is unreal, everything imagined, absent, or mental is unreal. Ultimately real is only the Present moment of physical “efficiency” which we would now call “efficacy”. The latter refers to the ability to participate on as a “cause” in Causation, Cause & Effect.

Calculus for Yogis, part 3

Previously we noted that the Derivative of a Variable raised to a higher order  n  where the Coefficient was say 5 would get a Coefficient of 5 n  & have the Variable brought down to n–1, as in 6 down to 5, & so on.

Thus the Derivative of   5 x6 ,   =  6  x 5  x6–1  =  30 x5

This Power Rule, makes taking the Derivative of a Polynomial simple.

When several terms with Variables of various Powers are added together [possibly to include minus signs], we can take Derivative of the resulting "polynomial", term by term, separately. We can just add the Derivatives of the individual terms so that the Derivative,

 d y / d  of   y  =   5 x6    6  x3   +  10 x    +  4   becomes: 
         d y / d x   =   30 x5    18 x2   +  10    

This additive simplicity, & that of the "Power-Rule" sketched out above, encourage us to stick with Polynomials in this elementary discussion.  Some other kinds of functions can be represented as "series", which resemble Polynomials with an infinite number of terms.  By taking the Derivative, or "differentiating" each term, we can explore the elementary Calculus of some other functions as well, such as the Exponential function & some Trigonometric functions.

Many of us know that  π  is a very special number. It's called a Transcendental number because it has a specific value, but the decimal representation goes on forever, with no final repetition of patterns in the numerals. So we can never really represent the entire decimal of  π.  But we know that it is "there somehow", a definite  π that is the ratio of the Circumference of a circle to its Diameter. Now the Diameters is twice the Radius & the Radius is more useful in many discussions.  So it's often said that instead of the Circumference being  π times of Diameter, we say it's 2 π times the Radius.

Like  π  then, there are other special Transcendental numbers, a couple of which we will be mentioning.  The 1st of these other numbers is named for a mathematician named Euler whose name began with  e  & so it is called  e.  And  e  is also conveniently the 1st letter of the word "Exponent", so when we raise  e  to an Exponent, we actually call it the Exponential function  as  in   ex  which is also designated Exp (x).  Convenient for our Analogies, "e" can also remind us of "Ego". 

As we indicate below, the Exponential function  Exp (x)  =   ex ,  stands, as it were, "outside" of Time in that both the Future projection (Derivative) & the Past memory (Integral), in the simplest case, come back as ex  itself, identical without change.  This compares with taking close-ups of graph of  ex

First, we do well to consider the "diagonal" line:   y  =  x ,  set to one square page such that the line spans the diagonal, from the lower left corner to the upper right corner.  If we were to take a close-up of the line graph at any portion, & the blow that portion to fill another square page, the result will look the same, be the same as the original square page.  Much the same be demonstrated for any other straight line, but such is not the same for almost all curves.  But it is strikingly the case for ex

We can again set  ex  or even  et  [t  for time] similarly to one square page so that the "Past" tail arises from the lower left corner & approaches the upper right corner at the "Future" rising wall.  For consistency of observation, if we "stand" in mid curve & look back on e or even  et  , toward the "Past", it always looks rather flat, like not much increase has occurred so far.  If we look forward toward the "Future" rising wall it appears sheer & steep.  "Past", it always looks rather flat, like not much increase has occurred so far. 

If we were to take a close-up of  ex  at any portion, & the blow that portion to fill another square page, the result will look the same, just like the straight line. This supports the earlier intuition & observation that the Exponential function stands "outside" of Time in that both the Future Derivative & the Past Integral come back as ex  itself.  

The above themes & 1600 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through:



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Duplicates have been available on:
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[But from now on, they will be different & still usually daily.]

"There is no Creation, no Destruction, no Bondage, no longing to be freed from Bondage, no striving for Liberation, nor anyone who has attained Liberation. Know that this to be Ultimate Truth."    the "no creation" school of Gaudapada, Shankara, Ramana, Nome  Ajata Vada

for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see:  www.ajatavada.com/

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