Chandogya Upanishad: “Mind, the means of knowledge and experience, evolves out of Food.”
1. Earth Principle.
It is virtually impossible to determine if the mind comes under the consciousness principle or the material principle. Is mind over matter or matter over mind? Buddhism and material science understandably drew the conclusion that mind, which is the material principle evolving out of the elements, is the consciousness principle. Materialists and Buddhists do not start with the non-dual consciousness principle and come up with the reflection teaching…an individual is original unborn pure existence shining as consciousness + a material reflector (a mind) + a reflection of the original consciousness…as Advaitins do. Instead, they reason from the material principle without understanding that the sattva principle (the reflector) evolved from the fire element in food. The energy sheath (autonomic nervous system aka pranamaya kosa) is also the material principle. Taking it to be the life-giving principle is an honest mistake because when it packs up and leaves the body once the karma for a particular incarnation has worked itself out, the body seems to die. They don’t realize that the body is dead when we are alive. Life deserts vegetables and meat when they are consumed and become part of our body-mind-sense complex. We experience the body as sentient and insentient at the same time. For instance, my fingers are a combination of sentient flesh and insentient fingernails.
So, like material scientists, Buddhists can’t determine which is borrowing life from which. Furthermore, because the body is no longer sentient when the prana, the material principle, leaves and the body dies, it is logical to assume that the material principle is the living principle. From the standpoint of a Self ignorant person, it is counterintuitive to assume that the Self gives life. These people think that food gives life to the self, but God gives and takes away life. I, existence shining as consciousness, have nothing to do with it. Vedanta is difficult for both dull and smart people because it is counterintuitive from the everyday sense-organ level of existence. Lest you imagine that intuition is a solution, Advaitins point out that it is untrustworthy and unreliable, unlike knowledge. Knowledge is good at all times, in every place and in any circumstance. Do these facts pique your curiosity? Believers need not continue.
Inquirer: Tell me more.
That chemistry is destiny is a relatively new idea, but emotions and thoughts are produced by chemistry, the material principle. Examples abound. The absence of salt or potassium or magnesium, for instance, may cause the mind to run off-topic and start babbling, for instance. Hormone replacement therapy is a relatively new idea, but it helps control emotions during menopause. Therefore, the momentum from past actions (prarabdha) not only affects the body, it affects the mind too. To enjoy Self knowledge, we require the support of our conditioning (prarabdha) because both body and mind should be in reasonably good condition or retention and assimilation of Self knowledge will be compromised. If you don’t know what you are and/or can’t retain the knowledge if you do, you can expect to suffer attachment in one or more of its myriad forms. At whatever level you exist, attachment is never desirable. Here’s more.
The Belly is a Pot Suitable for Churning.
Curd is obtained by churning milk. The subtlest, most valuable ingredient hidden in the curd is butter, which can be further refined into ghee. You cannot see butter in the curd, but processing brings it out. The taste of the curd is lost during the process and a subtler “richer” taste appears when butter is consumed. When you further clarify butter into ghee, you may be so hooked on butter, at first you can’t experience the hyped-up taste of ghee. But if you persevere you will be rewarded! Ghee is absolutely heavenly because it is butter without impurities.
Similarly, the connection between food and your state of mind…your karma…is hidden behind a wall of nescience. Meditation for materialists is inner churning, exploring the interface between mind and matter with the idea of (1) determining which principle is dependent and which principle is independent and, (2) generating the kind of karma the meditator desires, not what his or her conditioning determines. Uncurated karma is always a combination of good and bad with reference to your desires and fears, but if media reports of the state of mind of the general population is an indication, karma is bad i.e it consists of mostly undesirable external and internal events. Unfortunately, both materialist materialists and spiritual materialists don’t appreciate the fact that both body and mind are matter, neither of which is independent. If they are mutually dependent, neither is real.
Non-dual (advaita) meditation is separating the immortal living principle, the Self, from the mortal principle, and identifying with the living principle. If you were never born, you will never die, which negates all the usual worries related to death.
2. Water Principle
What applies to the earth principle applies to the water principle because the cause of the earth element is the water principle, which is also matter. One of the most obvious examples of the misunderstanding that water is sentient can be found in the common phrase “the water of life.” A complete book is dedicated to “the secret life of water.” When you think about it rationally, you realize that both spiritual and material materialists attribute life to an inert insentient principle. No blame. There is a seeming connection which most people take as a real connection.
But let’s let the materialists do their hydration therapy, because what is seeming is not obvious. Materialism produces a gross extroverted consumer-oriented mentality indifferent to the subtleties of life. Whether they drink before, during or after eating, it is true that water nourishes the autonomic nervous system (pranamayakosa). Without it we can’t do anything. For your information, God has no autonomic nervous system because It lives without breathing, so It needs no vegetables, meat or water. Rather than ask our materialist brothers and sisters to accept the idea that water doesn’t give life, the Upanishad asks them to do an experiment.
The Experiment
We have a finite 16 units of mental energy i.e. memory, according to the Chandogya. You are invited to fast for 16 days taking only water, which keeps you alive. After 16 days with or without water all bets are off. In any case, every day, owing to the water, you will be alive, and you will have the pleasure of discovering the sad fact that you are more stupid on day 2, than you were on day 1. If you’re less sensitive, it might take a few more days to realize that if you keep the fast up, you will definitely be a zombie by the 16th day. This experiment will generate the conclusion that your memory depends on dead matter. Dualists need the earth and water principles, not to mention the three preceding material principles (space, air and fire), to survive. Because non-dualists aren’t materialists we can eliminate all five material principles and thrive, not merely survive.
A Good Suggestion
A firefly has only enough light to illuminate itself, not enough to read a book or set a field of dry grass on fire. If you don’t use your memory, you lose it. Or, if you fast your way to zombiehood, you don’t need memory to exist either. But with reference to yourself, BE LIKE A FIREFLY. Keep your head down and hide your light under a bushel.
