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Seeing successfully for health and happiness by Global Good News staff writer Every moment, hundreds of impressions come into the senses and are incorporated into one’s life experience. Maharishi Ayur Veda brings to light that the way we perceive directly influences our happiness and health. Students of Maharishi Vedic Science, the science of consciousness, learn the profound connection between consciousness, perception, and the human physiology. In his book, 'Human Physiology—Expression of Veda and the Vedic Literature', Maharaja Nader Raam, First Sovereign Ruler of the Global Country of World Peace, contrasts the process of normal perception with enlightened perception—perception in higher states of consciousness. Perceiving the wholeness of the flower First let’s look at the simple perception of a flower. In the example of seeing a flower, Maharaja Nader Ram describes the process. At first, the light reflected from the flower reaches the retina, leading to the stimulation or inhibition of different receptor cells. There is no sense of flower at this time, just point values of impulses, channelled through different stations until, they reach the part of the brain known as the thalamus. From the thalamus the information is sent to the cerebral cortex, which rebuilds the impulses into a holistic concept so that they are collectively perceived as a flower. This perception of the flower is a holistic appreciation that is more than the collection of the parts, or specific impulses that came into the retina. This process applies to any sensory perception. For example, if one goes to a shopping mall, one’s senses may be bombarded with hundreds of impulses coming from all the merchandise and people. These impulses are channelled through the thalamus to the cerebral cortex so that one makes sense out of the input. The lamp at the door From the above description, it is clear that the thalamus has a key role in every perception. Maharaja Nader Ram describes the thalamus as the connecting point between the outer and inner perception, between the specific impulses and the holistic concept of the flower, created by the cerebral cortex. The thalamus channels all the point values of the sensory impulses from the flower to the cerebral cortex, where, the flower is appreciated as a flower, for all its beauty and tender associations. For this reason the thalamus is referred to as the 'lamp at the door.' It is the light of the intellect, which balances the point values of perception with the holistic interpretation of what one perceives. For clear perception, one must see the details of the flower and one must also interpret those impressions correctly as a flower. The thalamus is the light—the lamp at the door—that connects these two. If one places a lamp at the doorway between the inner room of the house and the outside porch, this light illuminates both inner and outer rooms. In terms of consciousness, the lamp at the door is the light of wakeful awareness, which sees both the inner Self and outer relative perceptions. The thalamus brings balance between outer sensory input and inner wholeness. Maharaja Nader Ram identifies the thalamus with the quality of intelligence known as Nyaya in the Vedic Literature: the distinguishing and deciding qualities of consciousness and functions of the brain. These functions are related to the intellect, which filters the huge amount of input from the senses and distinguishes the way one interprets any experience. Perceiving the object in terms of bliss If one thinks of all the input reaching the senses every moment, it becomes clear that some intelligence is selectively interpreting the information and deciding how to interpret any moment of experience. This explains why any two people can come away from the same event with completely different interpretations of what happened. The quality and details of any perception depend on how awake the observer is. In addition, each perception can evoke different emotional responses, depending on past association or present mood of the mind. Thus, knowledge of the object differs according to different states of the observers. When the intellect is functioning in a balanced way, one maintains awareness of inner bliss consciousness, while perceiving any object or event. In the case of the flower, if the intellect is not balanced then the perception of the flower overshadows the experience of the Self. Part one of this article clarified the importance of balanced perception, where inner bliss consciousness is maintained, in order to insure perfect health. In Maharishi Ayur Veda, the loss of awareness of the Self is known as 'the mistake of the intellect.' The mistake of the intellect, or loss of awareness of the Self to the outer world of diverse perceptions and experiences, is considered a root cause of all disease. It is only when one always has awareness of one’s inner eternal bliss consciousness, that every perception becomes a wave of bliss. Blissful perception nourishes the mind, emotions and promotes a healthy physiology. Through the practice of Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme, alternated with regular activity, one becomes habituated to living inner unbounded bliss consciousness along with the boundaries of daily life. This process of establishing the Self as an all-time reality is the process of developing higher states of consciousness, of gaining enlightenment. In the state of enlightenment, the light of the lamp at the door is fully lit. Bliss permeates all perceptions and experience, and one enjoys good health. Copyright © 2007 Global Good News(sm) Service
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