Some topics to get a glimpse of the Mind/NoMind of a Buddha.

1. Neuroscience of consciously entering sleep
2. Neuroscience of being aware in NREM sleep (first 2 REM cycles)
3. Neuroscience of the Direction of Attention
4. Neuroscience of “the sound of one hand clapping”
5. On Bodies of Consciousness and BioElecetricity/Kundalini or BioEnergy
6. Neuroscience of Phenomenologically consistent description of consciousness states
7. Neuroscience of True Silence
8. Neuroscience of the Perception of Time
9. Neuroscience of being aware in sleep (all REM cycles)
10. The Consciousness Tower or Advaita Theory (A U M .) of Consciousness

I am describing my ideas as a potentiality within every human born on this planet. For example, let us say that a seed fell on a new island with no trees for the first time. It is tough to say that it will become a tree one day just by looking at that seed. But it will then produce flowers and fruits. Birds will come and rest on its branches, eat those fruits, and excrete those seeds in different parts of the island. And those seeds will produce more trees. So, a single seed can potentially fill an entire island.

Similarly, a correct approach to understanding consciousness leads to a restful and peaceful life if rightly understood. We can investigate how the mind works by understanding the thinking process and the nature of thought, the “gap” between thoughts, “inner dreaming” or “covert thinking” as a background process of the mind, which is the prime cause of mind wandering. Especially understanding mind wandering can help transform human consciousness and understand the nature of awareness. Ten Bulls of Zen or states of consciousness described in the Mandukya Upanishad is an excellent way to understand this process. In addition, there are multiple stage-wise processes described in various meditation traditions. My goal is to do an objective science-based description of these phenomenologies into a unified umbrella framework.

When awareness runs deep during the waking state, it continues into the night, and one is attentive even during sleep. Dreams are typically subconscious, deep sleep is typically unconscious. Some exciting phenomena are Lucid Dreams, “Yoga Nidra,” “Jagrat Sushupti” or Lucid Sleep. In recent years, there has been an increased interest in the scientific study of lucid dreams and the MPE or Minimal Phenomenal Experience. Lucid Sleep is the doorway to a “Science of Consciousness that is phenomenologically consistent.” We spend so much time studying Coma, Unresponsive Wakefulness state, and Anesthesia. Also, there is considerable interest in the Altered States of Consciousness, and neuroscientists study the impact of drugs like LSD, Psilocybin, and another group studies meditation. But, I would not describe meditation as an Altered State of Consciousness. True meditation continues 24/7, without effort, and hence a Yogi is meditative.

A good theory of consciousness must therefore explain the phenomenology of “lucid dreamless sleep.” Proper experiments are necessary, as is typically done for Sleep studies. Muscle Atonia, Eye Movements, EEG activity, breath movements, heart rate variability, and the like. I am most interested in how awareness modulates these phenomenological experiences of a consciousness state by describing objective properties of the mind. And, then we may have the true union of Neuroscience with Yoga.

We are using SysML (Systems Modeling Language) for doing Domain-Specific Modeling of Brain Systems, with the ultimate aim of modeling the Mind. What will be the steps?

1. Taking cues on the nature of thought, awareness, and self from my own experiences in silent sitting and meditation. And using them to get insights from meditation literature like Shiv Sutra, Yoga sutras of Patanjali, Buddhist and Zen literature, and many many others.
2. It will take into account multisensory integration, multiple cognitive models but especially focus on the cognitive neuroscience of thought. Important Brain Networks like Resting-State Networks, Default Mode Networks, Attention Networks, Sensory Networks will be considered.
3. The models will describe the thinking process and the role of awareness, and how it can modulate thinking. Broadly speaking, modern Western philosophy is based on thought, whereas meditative literature is based on ‘No Thought’ as the true essence.
4. Ideally, a model of Mind would be developed based on each principle, say one based on Patanjali, another based on Shiv Sutra, Tao te Ching, Heart Sutra, Dzogchen, Tantra, etc. It will be flexible and extensible enough to create different models of Mind following different architecture patterns. However, the underlying frameworks for Sensory Mechanisms, Interoception, Exteroception, and multiple cognitive functions like Language, Speech, movement, will essentially be the same in all circumstances. What will be different are the models of thought and thinking patterns.

This can be a fantastic amalgamation of meditation-based philosophies of the East and materialistic reductive philosophies of the West, with clearly formulated models that will be available open-source, with the possibility to vet architectures and suggest modifications from a diverse audience!

Ides of March, 2020

Barcelona

@We are living in interesting times. Coronavirus… is a reality.

The above post needs substantial editing.

A SysML model development will not be started before 2022. First, a mathematical model for many of the concepts described above needs to be described. Then, the Computational Correlates of Consciousness can be modeling by starting with modeling Sleep and its stages, following a Circadian and Ultradian cycle. A typical Sleep Architecture is shown below(Ref: A narrative review of interventions for improving Sleep and reducing circadian disruption in medical inpatients, Tan, et al, 2019). So, the objective will be to model the phenomenological states, like normal unconscious Sleep, lucid dreaming, and also being aware in NREM sleep like the phenomenology of “Yoga Nidra” and “jagrat-sushupti.”

Initial Draft – with no neuroscience background

Abstract

Deeper observations into the normal waking state of Consciousness will show that in between 2 manifest thoughts, there is a gap, hereby called ‘no thought.’ A thought is an individual unit and not part of continuous thinking. Hence, a human consciousness devoid of thoughts in the waking state is an aspect of reality.

A commonly held perception by most of mankind is that thoughts are continuous in nature. Creating a scientific study to reject this perception is now possible due to recent advances in neuroscience (using EEG, fMRI, and other methods) and Data Science, ML/AI (Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence using Recurrent Neural Networks to extract features and understand data patterns).

Philosophically speaking, a scientific exploration of ‘no-thought / thoughtlessness was not possible on the fundamental premise that studying Consciousness and awareness is a subjective phenomenon, and it was very difficult to fathom what is going on inside a person’s subjective mind. However, looking into this discontinuity of thought and ‘no thought’ can open up new possibilities in understanding the mind (conscious and subconscious). It opens possibilities to study the subjective aspects of mind, meditation, Consciousness, and awareness objectively.

Themes on thoughtlessness/’no thought’ like Turiya, Satori (Zen), Samadhi (Yoga Sutras of Patanjali), Advaita (non-duality), and Buddhist schools like Dzogchen have references to ‘no thought’ and ‘the unknowable.’ There are multiple schools of meditation/inquiry that point to this ‘state of pure silence’ in both Eastern and Western traditions.

Hence, a tool that can identify whether a person is having thought(s) or not is the principal parameter to test whether a person is in satori or samadhi or equivalent state. This can be of great help in understanding the human mind, brain, and Consciousness. This will also act as a universal and scientific methodology in understanding the nature of reality.

Dimensions of Sustained Awareness

Consciousness is the canvas on which thought(s) get manifested in the brain. In the natural state, Consciousness is devoid of thought(s) or can be said to be in a ‘state of pure silence’ or ‘thoughtlessness.’ It means that the thinking faculty in the brain is a conscious activity of the person that can be activated ‘on need basis. There is no mind wavering, and the person has a complete cessation of non-essential mental activities.

Awareness is the quality of being attentive or noticing both the thought and ‘no thought’ in the Consciousness. The two fundamental dimensions of awareness over a 24 hour period:

1. Fully Awake (Consciousness in its natural state – without thoughts and thinking, fully aware and in the state of thoughtlessness)
2. Normally Awake (Consciousness in its natural state – with thoughts and thinking, limited cognition of ‘no thought,’ varying degrees of awareness)

Inherently, Consciousness is pure and is the same in all humans. However, the levels of awareness vary from person to person. An abstract measure of ‘Awareness Level’ is the cognition to ‘thought’ and ‘no thought’ per minute or per 10 minutes( time window may vary). This can be further elaborated into:

• Awareness of unique thought(s) per minute
• Awareness of unique ‘no thought(s)’ per minute

Thoughts can additionally be parameterized into the duration of each individual thought, complexity parameters like nested levels of each thought (similar to depth of Neural Networks), et al., which will be considerably higher for persons with high IQ.  

Awareness Level is not a measure of IQ (Intelligence Quotient), nor EQ (Emotional Quotient) or the physiological health of a person. It will be correlated more with the relaxation and dynamic levels of brain and mental activities. It is equally possible for a person with a low IQ to have a high ‘Awareness Level,’ as can a person with a high IQ.

Typical Consciousness of a Normally Awake person

There are fundamentally three states of Consciousness in a typical 24 hour period of a person who is “Normally Awake”:

• Waking Consciousness
• Sleeping consciousness
• Dreaming Consciousness
• State transitions across Consciousness states

On thoughts, mind conditioning and developing belief systems

Let’s discuss the thinking process of a normal person, when not tired or dizzy, and in regular working conditions, in the high alertness stage of the circadian rhythm. Only the basics are discussed here.

A weather analogy may be taken, like ‘Clouds in the Sky Index’ where thought and Consciousness represent cloud and sky, respectively. Cloud(s) can be of varying types, and thinking maybe be associated with a cloud that rains, for instance. As there can be a multitude of clouds, similarly, there can be a multitude of thoughts/emotions, and some phenomena may lead to a hurricane, while another cloud can provide shade. Similarly, some thoughts can control the mind of a person that is harmful, whereas there can be other thoughts that provide a person comfort against anxiety. If cognition is not given to an individual thought, it will just float away from the Consciousness (like the threshold of the sigmoid function was never crossed). If cognition is given to a thought, it will get manifested in the brain. Hence, an individual thought can be said to be in a state similar to a quantum superposition; it both exists and does not exist at the same time. If awareness is brought into that thought and the activation threshold is crossed, it will get manifested.

Thought(s) are like thing(s) and also tend to have a ‘sticky factor.’ It can therefore manifest in the person’s Consciousness even without a person being aware of it, similar to mind wandering. When attention is put to these thoughts over and over again, the person gets identified with that thought or, in psychological words, ‘gets conditioned.’ A strong identification with these thought constructs makes the person ‘believe’ in them, and the mind becomes oriented based on the created memories. This belief system (s) cloud a person’s thinking and create a lack of clarity.

Direction of Attention – ‘Outward’

Directed attention is typically perceived in the manner of signal to noise ratio or creating an integrated arrow with narrow focus, concentration. A very important tool for deep thinking, mathematics, logic, detailed conversations, retrieving past memory, et al.

However, increasing awareness is getting tuned with a widening of vision, being aware of things happening around, defocussing. It is the opposite of concentration. However, being capable of concentration helps in defocussing effectively.

Direction of Attention – ‘Inward’

Inquiry and meditation can aid as a tool in directing one’s attention inward. Typical examples of meditation being: (1) observing the gap between 2 breaths or (2) witnessing one’s thoughts, among many others. Let us discuss the process of looking inwards or meditation:

• A person who has no experience of meditation may find it difficult to notice the multitude of thoughts going on in mind. The person may not be aware of thoughts at all or very minimally aware.
• As a person starts to observe one’s own thoughts, it may initially feel chaotic as, for the first time, the person sees many thoughts going on in mind. 
• A person witnesses the thought(s) going on in mind. The attention gets diverted, and again the person brings attention to the present moment, like passing clouds in the sky, without getting identified with them. Here, the witness is the subject, and the thought(s) are the object. A stage comes where the subject and the object merge into one, and only the witnessing remains, as there is no separate subject(witness) and the object(thought). There is only witnessing left, the state of meditation. The state of witnessing can be described as ‘no thought’ or thoughtlessness. This witnessing of ‘no thought’ is a discontinuity from the past as the Consciousness was continuously occupied by stream(s) of continuous thoughts. There was no noticing of separation between individual thoughts.
• It becomes possible to observe a gap between two manifested thoughts. Hence, there is stillness (‘no thought’), occurrence of a thought, and the noticing of the thought. The cycle continues. 

Relationship with each of the above four broad classes can be studied via EEG Brain Waves. The classifications can help in the identification of broad categories and then act as providing feedback to the mind.  

Transition from Normally Awake to Awake Dimension

Initial Discontinuity

As awareness within a normally awake person deepens, for the first time, a person is able to observe a gap or ‘no thought’ between two thoughts manifesting in the Consciousness. This brings a discontinuity with the past and is a distinct event. The train of thoughts is no longer continuous and can be seen independently of each other. Typically referred to as Satori in Zen literature or ‘Sampragyat Samadhi’ in Yoga sutras of Patanjali. 

The person is increasingly aware but remains in the Normal dimension of awareness. Hence, sincerity is required to stabilize and increase the duration of ‘no thought’ and reside in it naturally.

‘Sitting silently, doing nothing. The spring comes, and the grass grows.’

– Zen Haiku from Basho

Real Discontinuity

The gap between 2 thoughts increases considerably. Eventually, this may bring about a real discontinuity that is accompanied by a cessation of mental activities, i.e., no involuntary thinking or residing naturally in ‘no thought.’ The state of pure silence or thoughtlessness, both within and without, when the object and the subject are not separate, state of non-duality. Typically referred to as ‘Asampragyat Samadhi’ in Yoga Sutras of Patanjali or Enlightenment/Awakening in Zen and Buddhist traditions. There further principles on Nirbeej Samadhi. 

A person who is fully aware will be able to open and shut his mind, just as a person with normal Consciousness can open or shut his eyelid.

Scientific study of thought

It is highly essential to come up with a scientific model to clearly demonstrate ’no thought’ between two thoughts as a fact of nature. This will significantly increase the understanding of the phenomena of Consciousness and Awareness and lead to a clearer understanding of thought, both within the conscious and subconscious mind. Typical questions:

What is a ‘thought’? What is the lifecycle of a thought? How to identify an individual thought? How to calibrate the gap between two thoughts and record it?

Data model to study thought

Using the latest neuroscience and neurological tools like fMRI, EEG can help in identifying patterns of thought by studying the brain, brain waves, behavior, and its relationship with thinking and thought. Research on mind wandering is very helpful.

• Brain waves shall be captured in both Sleeping and Waking states. Deep sleep, when a person is unconscious but without thoughts, can be studied to draw relevant correlations.
• Recurrent Neural Networks, especially LSTM (Long Short Term Memory) and GRU (Gated Recurrent Units) using TensorFlow or similar tools can be created to study these EEG Brain Waves time series data and identify additional patterns, features, and classifications to create a ‘curated data model.’
• A sound understanding of behavioral and cognitive neuroscience will help to understand the role of meditation better.

Further Notes

A distinction needs to be made between the brain activities with regards to sensory inputs, like sight, sound, touch, smell, temperature, etc., and physiological states like hunger, anger, fear, etc. Physiological activities, though requiring the brain to function, do not need the involvement of thoughts like breathing.

Humanoid Robots using ML/AI and other advanced technologies can do a lot of activities similar to a human. These entities can have a perceived pseudo consciousness, as preceptor senses and cognitive faculties will be functioning. The role of Consciousness and self-awareness should be examined in the premise of ‘life.’

May 2018

New York City, USA