What we can learn from Indian Philosophy

We refer to the world as such and to reality as something which is given. And we as part of this universal thing trying to navigate in this given world. We refer to ourselves as Subjects and take this concept as fundamental for our world-perception. Not so the Indian Philosophy. And they more quantum-science become mainstream, they more important it is to overcome some traditional western views.

The Body and Mind-Myth

The most important difference between western and eastern traditional philosophy is the viewpoint on mind and body. We, especially in the modern western world, think that we have a body, and in this body, there is: The Mind. This thinking. Is the mind located in the brain? Is the brain the mind? Or something extra? We do ask these questions.

Well, this is what we can learn from the Indian Philosophy of Yoga: For the Indian Philosophy the mind (or the mental) and all its phenomena (like emotion, moods, the cognitive etc.) are appearances of the prakrti, the nature, just as the body is.[1] For Indian Philosophy, there is no ontological difference between the mental life and the nature at all, and as a consequence, the backbone of classical European philosophy-namely the distinction between mind and body- is not possible to assume.

This means, the mind is not something extra. Nothing special. More so, all what we say is NOT mind, like emotions, feelings; moods are also mental phenomena for the Indian traditional thought. All this mental is nature. Matter, if you will.

Otherwise, it would not make sense, if you think about it. Nothing is explainable, if you make a distinction between mind and body. Because you are a body, you are mental. There is nothing mental without a body. No. As especially neuroscience is pointing at the connection between body and mental states, there is no reason to hold on to a philosophical concept which states otherwise.

Indian Philosophy: The Myth of Reality

The second assumption important to make and that goes hand in hand with the latter, is the concept of the dynamicity of reality.

For the Indian Philosophy, the same as for Friedrich Nietzsche, there is no such thing as reality which can be taken for granted. Reality for them is understood in a process-like manner: It is not something presupposed, as something to what we can refer to as the objective world. There is no such thing. As Nietzsche shows, we cannot describe reality itself, for we would only describe attributes which we subsume under this concept. Reality is rather best described as a happening- not as a static term like “Sein”. It is a coming-into-being. Every moment is a happening.

That means, we live in an illusion. In an illusion where things just appear to be real. Of course, this is not without consequences. When you jump out of a building, there it goes. The consequences would be really real.

Why is this concept of reality illusionary?

The answer is simple: Because it is just temporal. Everything which appears in time is an illusion. Reality is an Illusion: Maya. Well, in the Indian Philosophy there are different approaches on that as well: For the Vedānta for ex. this world we live in is not real at all, whereas the Philosophy of Yoga is stating that this world is real, but illusionary, because of its temporality.

There is no Subject

If you followed me to this point, you are really brave – but now, it gets really scary: You think, of course you do: you are an individual, a subject, which stands alone for itself. But likewise it just seems that there is a reality, it just seems like there is something like an individual you. You think that this YOU with all its mental phenomena is distinguished from this outside world. But it just seems to be so.

As Mircea Eliade is stating, when we think of us as self, as spirit, true-self or whatever, we are just confusing two realities which have nothing in common. There is something like a spirit and a true self, but this has nothing to do with you. You are just as illusionary as this world is: You are temporal.

Liberation in the Indian Philosophy

The good news: You can free yourself from these illusionary concepts. But to do so, you have to overcome this concept of YOU. This would be the main goal of practicing Yoga, according to Patañjali, the first Indian Philosopher of Yoga. This soteriological goal (also called mokṣa) is only possible due to the destruction of the personality. This is not to be confused with this spiritual concept of the destruction of the Ego, because it is more than that: This liberation means to overcome the human state of consciousness, and is in itself not explainable.

The Time-Concept

As the world (and you as a subject) is just illusionary, because of its temporality- time as such is an illusion as well. There is no such thing – the only thing that is, is the present moment- as eternal. There is no nature in a static sense. As stated, there is only the dynamicity of coming-into-being.

The Conscious Now

“What is striking about consciousness for Schrödinger, and here he echoes Husserl and Heidegger as much as Nietzsche, is its extraordinary temporality: ‘consciousness is always now. There is really no before and after for mind. And it is never multiple, not even when it is you, not even when you dialogue with yourself.’”[2]

When we reflect on consciousness, we can see this paradoxical situation of temporality more clearly: Consciousness is always now. This would be the juxtaposition of quantum science. Temporality is not possible to assume therefore: Eternity and temporality become one in a sense- and consciousness is situated exactly on the juxtaposition.

Well, now it is on you to connect the dots to quantum science, but it should be easy at this point.

As always, so much more needs to be said on this topic, but I leave you with this to work it through on your own.

Love, Leni

Mystical Experience: Philosophical Meditations