Computer Science and Spirituality seem so different at the first glance, but like everything else they are part of the same single truth. It seems to be the weakness of our minds that we tend to perceive subjective interpretation of that single truth as different and diverse absolute truths.
Different, Diverse and yet Absolute - definitely an oxymoron.
Anyways, coming back, so what made me think about computer science in perspective of spirituality - A heart to heart discussion with an elder friend on how to calm our minds !!
Anyone operating computers (or even smart mobile devices these days) is aware of the havoc viruses can cause to the machines. Depending on the severity of the virus attack on computer, the behavior of computer can vary from the expectation, on a large scale. If the attack is mild, a typical software running on the computer may stop behaving as it is expected to behave e.g. typing a specific alphabet on the keyboard may produce a different alphabet on the screen (btw, this was one of the assignments I did in college !!). Whereas if the attack is severe, the computer may refuse to start up or erase the hard disk completely thus making one lose all the stored information (including your favorite songs, games and movies!!). The viruses are also highly prevalent in the network space (i.e. group of computers e.g. internet) - we all have faced scenarios when the website we use on a daily basis is unreachable because of virus attack on the server.
All in all, Computer virus attacks can be devastating, and at times deadly too - imagine a virus which hacks missile attack programs of a nation and fires the missile - though this sounds like a Hollywood flick, I think it is not virtually impossible with creative but malevolent hackers all around.
So what we do? We install "Anti-Virus" programs on our computers.
We allow these anti-virus programs scan our computers either periodically or in real time and catch any virus which are present on the computer. These programs not only identify and catch the viruses, they also quarantine them and at times fix them for good. For these anti-virus programs we collectively pay billions of dollars to companies producing the anti-virus programs (heard of Symantec or Norton?). We invest resources actively (both effort and money) to ensure that our computers are virus-safe. When our computers are attacked by viruses, we tell our friends, we seek expert guidance both online and offline - most importantly we devote our time to free our computers from virus fearing that it may impact us negatively.
But .. what do we do with the viruses which keep attacking our minds day in and out? What do we do when thoughts full of ego, ambition, greed, lust and hatred attack us? In fact nothing - we just let them engulf our mind space, drain our energy and leave us lifeless just like an unusable virus attacked computer.
It surprises me Why we give more importance to a machine in our room than to the most important machine drivers in our body - our minds. Why don't we actively search for the anti-virus programs for our minds like the way we do it for our computers? At times I tend to think that the reason is that our families and society around is more tolerant to mind viruses than they are to computer viruses. They accept ego, ambition, greed as part of one's psyche unless these mind viruses makes one visibly dysfunctional - and we learn this as we grow up thus de-focussing from mind viruses and waiting for them to spread and make us dysfunctional. We consciously forget that though we may not be dysfunctional completely, we are still losing most of our energy and peace of mind because of the spread of these viruses in our mind.
The most important question then: I am aware of the mind viruses occupying my mind, where do I get the anti-virus from?
Well, I tend to think that everyone needs to search and find his/her own anti-viruses but definitely introspection and mindfulness are the keys for that search. By introspection, one can become aware of the viruses running consistently in his/her mind - Surprisingly a lot of us are completely unaware of these viruses inside us and the humongous energy dissipation they are causing. By mindfulness, we can become aware of our actions as we take them thus converting our unconscious reactions to conscious responses, and in the process quarantining or at times purging those viruses from our psyche.
For me reading books by Osho esp. on Zen thoughts, and trying to develop a deeper understanding of those thoughts by discussing them with a couple of friends has been a very effective anti-virus. For one of my friend (whom I have seen almost dysfunctional at times because of Ego and Expectation virus), I have seen proper breathing, walking and Yoga as helpful anti-viruses. Bottom line is one needs to start the inwards self journey to discover the mind anti-viruses.
A couple of more subtle points, I have slowly realized about these viruses:
Happy Anti-Virusing to all.
Different, Diverse and yet Absolute - definitely an oxymoron.
Anyways, coming back, so what made me think about computer science in perspective of spirituality - A heart to heart discussion with an elder friend on how to calm our minds !!
Anyone operating computers (or even smart mobile devices these days) is aware of the havoc viruses can cause to the machines. Depending on the severity of the virus attack on computer, the behavior of computer can vary from the expectation, on a large scale. If the attack is mild, a typical software running on the computer may stop behaving as it is expected to behave e.g. typing a specific alphabet on the keyboard may produce a different alphabet on the screen (btw, this was one of the assignments I did in college !!). Whereas if the attack is severe, the computer may refuse to start up or erase the hard disk completely thus making one lose all the stored information (including your favorite songs, games and movies!!). The viruses are also highly prevalent in the network space (i.e. group of computers e.g. internet) - we all have faced scenarios when the website we use on a daily basis is unreachable because of virus attack on the server.
All in all, Computer virus attacks can be devastating, and at times deadly too - imagine a virus which hacks missile attack programs of a nation and fires the missile - though this sounds like a Hollywood flick, I think it is not virtually impossible with creative but malevolent hackers all around.
So what we do? We install "Anti-Virus" programs on our computers.
We allow these anti-virus programs scan our computers either periodically or in real time and catch any virus which are present on the computer. These programs not only identify and catch the viruses, they also quarantine them and at times fix them for good. For these anti-virus programs we collectively pay billions of dollars to companies producing the anti-virus programs (heard of Symantec or Norton?). We invest resources actively (both effort and money) to ensure that our computers are virus-safe. When our computers are attacked by viruses, we tell our friends, we seek expert guidance both online and offline - most importantly we devote our time to free our computers from virus fearing that it may impact us negatively.
But .. what do we do with the viruses which keep attacking our minds day in and out? What do we do when thoughts full of ego, ambition, greed, lust and hatred attack us? In fact nothing - we just let them engulf our mind space, drain our energy and leave us lifeless just like an unusable virus attacked computer.
It surprises me Why we give more importance to a machine in our room than to the most important machine drivers in our body - our minds. Why don't we actively search for the anti-virus programs for our minds like the way we do it for our computers? At times I tend to think that the reason is that our families and society around is more tolerant to mind viruses than they are to computer viruses. They accept ego, ambition, greed as part of one's psyche unless these mind viruses makes one visibly dysfunctional - and we learn this as we grow up thus de-focussing from mind viruses and waiting for them to spread and make us dysfunctional. We consciously forget that though we may not be dysfunctional completely, we are still losing most of our energy and peace of mind because of the spread of these viruses in our mind.
The most important question then: I am aware of the mind viruses occupying my mind, where do I get the anti-virus from?
Well, I tend to think that everyone needs to search and find his/her own anti-viruses but definitely introspection and mindfulness are the keys for that search. By introspection, one can become aware of the viruses running consistently in his/her mind - Surprisingly a lot of us are completely unaware of these viruses inside us and the humongous energy dissipation they are causing. By mindfulness, we can become aware of our actions as we take them thus converting our unconscious reactions to conscious responses, and in the process quarantining or at times purging those viruses from our psyche.
For me reading books by Osho esp. on Zen thoughts, and trying to develop a deeper understanding of those thoughts by discussing them with a couple of friends has been a very effective anti-virus. For one of my friend (whom I have seen almost dysfunctional at times because of Ego and Expectation virus), I have seen proper breathing, walking and Yoga as helpful anti-viruses. Bottom line is one needs to start the inwards self journey to discover the mind anti-viruses.
A couple of more subtle points, I have slowly realized about these viruses:
- Religion - The pirated anti-virus: At times the anti-virus one installs on computer can be pirated and can unexpectedly harm the computer unknowingly. Religion is one such pirated anti-virus. I am infact just short of calling religion a virus, because the intention behind religion was to purge these viruses. But the sophisticated hackers around (lets call them the priest-ackers) corrupted the religion and now use it to spread the mind viruses. Literally, I have seen very few religious people around, whose religious beliefs are not acting as an ego or desire booster for them!! (remember those: "I did not eat meat during the entire 9 days of Navaratra" or "If I pray n times a day, I'll definitely go to heaven"). If one is following a religion, s/he needs to work doubly hard to introspect that religion is not fueling the mind viruses in him/her and is true to the anti-virus properties it is expected to be.
- Dormant viruses: Just like in computers, there are viruses which lie dormant in mind, all of a sudden wake up, attack the psyche maliciously, do irreparable damage, and then go to sleep again, as if nothing ever happened. Sudden Anger is one such dangerous virus. In these cases one needs to recognize that though infrequently and irregularly, one is suffering from a virus attack and then, go deep in his/her mind to repair the virus or delete the file (memory) triggering the virus attack
- Continuous virus creation and defense: The world around is continuously trying hard to create and inject new viruses in our minds - again this is the reality of the world and cant be changed until one becomes a recluse and avoids all form of other-human experiences and communications. The external factors may be hard to change - at times I have decided not to interact with certain individuals because of severity of Negativity and Comparison virus they keep attacking my mind with - this has worked to some extent. But the real defense is what we do with computers - we do not stop using internet, instead we strengthen our anti-virus and scan our computers daily if not at real time. Same holds true of mind anti-viruses as well. A regular dose of one's favorite anti-virus (be it meditation, yoga, reading or something else) can prepare him/her for the most virulent mind attacks. An even better approach can be real time defense or Mindfulness i.e. as the masters have said "Walking in Zen and Talking in Zen"
