Transformation: Overcoming Our Genes

All traits of life are inherited from our evolutionary predecessors through an unbroken chain of genetic continuity going back to first primitive single cell life forms that began inhabiting planet earth some three and a half billion years ago. For almost three billion years, life was totally unconscious or autonomic. There was no conscious trace of memory. The mind of life then was totally unconscious consisting of nothing but genetic sequencing deciding upon the details of the infinite variety of proteins to produce for running runnig its behaviour.

Then, unconscious life activity started to leave some conscious trail adding a subconscious capability to the mind of life. Life still did not know what was going to happen, but came to know of it only after it had happened. Conscious memory of what happened made the mind capable of reacting based upon experiential memory of past life events.

There was no capability of proactive decision making which began evolving with the advent of mammals around 200 million years ago. Mammals were the first to develop the cerebral cortex, the neural tool used for proactive life. Humans, the most evolved form of mammalian life, have the most evolved form of cerebral cortex. Humans evolved only around 200 thousand years ago.

While the cerebral cortex of other mammals is smooth with a small surface area, those of humans has multiple sulci folding its large surface area to fit into a human skull. Human cerebral cortex is also known as neocortex because of the newness of its evolution. 

The figure above is a depiction of gene sequencing. It represents an infinite amount of information on the specific protein mix from an infinite number of possibilities for the life of a unique individual. It evolves with the evolution of life on the planet. Evolutionary changes in gene sequencing represent inheritance from the genes of the predecessors going back to the first ever primitive life that lived on the planet 3.5 billion years ago.

Gene sequencing being information may be considered as genetic memory or the genetic mind because the mind is nothing more than a processor of memory. Because gene sequence is hereditary, genetic memory is also transmissible downstream in the evolution of life.

The chronology of human evolution is also a chronology of genetic inheritance of life traits. These life traits characterize the three capabilities of mind of a living being:

1.      Most compelling unconscious faculty dating back some 3.5 billion years. It comprises the bulk of our gene sequencing. Its work comprises running the automation of physiological functions on which depends on the very basic existence. The stimulus life behaviour in the domain of our unconscious mind is automated without any conscious awareness on the part of the individual. We are unaware of the stimuli which makes our hearts pulse, our lungs inhale and exhale, and our blood run in our veins. But we are aware of the resulting life activities: survival, sustenance and procreation. Taking the underlying details for granted, we leave them alone.

The mind of primitive single cell life and little creatures is limited to this unconscious faculty alone. Some evolution leads to the addition of a partly conscious capability.

2.     Next in compulsion is emotional life which results from the fundamental life activities of survival, sustenance and procreation. These activities generate physical sensations which are pleasant, unpleasant or painful, or neutral— neither pleasant nor unpleasant. Emotional life may be defined as a pair of opposing compulsions, the compulsion of repeating the pleasant and that of avoiding the unpleasant or painful. Stimuli related with these compulsions sneak up on us without awareness and the response leaves an experiential memory reinforcing these compulsions.

The way an individual and its society deal with the two opposing compulsions defines the person with an identity. This identity is called herd identity in animals and ego identity in humans. The protection and promotion of this identity becomes another compulsion.

The partly conscious faculty of the mind that deals with these three compulsions is termed subconscious because the related stimuli overpower us unaware while the response adds a memory trail to the storehouse of experiential memory on one hand and  an epigenetic effect on our phenotype on the other.

The mind of non-mammalian life forms is limited to the unconscious and partly conscious compulsions only. The evolution of mammals started adding a third conscious faculty to the mind of living beings. Humans, being the last to evolve, have the most evolved form of conscious faculty.

3.     Conscious faculty of mind enables a living being to pre-consider, plan, and decide a course of action to achieve a desire which may or may not be related with (1), the unconscious compulsions of survival or (2), the subconscious emotional and identity related compulsions. In addition, it may enable a living being to execute the plan in a disciplined manner to achieve the desired purpose.

Desire in all animal life and the generality of humans is related with the stated compulsions which are insatiable, narrowly selfish and impatient demanding immediate satisfaction. The generality of living beings cannot wait for the execution of plans. Only rare human beings have the patience to wait for the execution of the plans in a disciplined manner to achieve the desired purpose. And amongst them, only rare evolved beings have desires that transcend self-oriented compulsions.

Our genetic sequence is the source of our compulsions, what is the source of the desires that transcend genetic compulsions? Can we somehow cultivate these desires in the generality of human beings?

The source of desires that transcend genetic compulsions is matter which not only comprises our genes but the entire body of the cells that comprise life. Matter may look static on the outside, but it is buzzing with information on the inside. Just like the mind of a living cell, the building block of life, is inside the nucleus of every cell, the mind of the matter is inside the nucleus of every atom, the building block of matter. 

The mind of the cell is in its genetic sequence interpreted as information on the specific protein mix from an infinite number of possibilities for the life of a unique individual. If we look at what comprises genetic sequence, we find that it is one of the infinite possible stable sequential arrangements of particles of different matter that drives the various cells comprising the body of a living being to produce the specific protein mix needed for the life of the organism.

Similarly, the mind of an atom lies in the unique arrangement of its subatomic particles, one of many possibilities, caused by gravitational, electromagnetic and nuclear interactions. This arrangement underlies how the atom will behave. The mind of matter in general is in the specific arrangements of different atoms that comprises it. This arrangement underlies how matter in general will behave.

Matter being the first to evolve from the infinite potential to which modern science refers as energy and ancient spiritual wisdom as spirit, has had a direct experience of non-differentiation that existed in the beginning of all differentiation of the potential as matter and life. The conscious faculty of the mind of the rarest of the rare human beings that develop desires unconnected with genetic compulsions somehow unveils this non-differentiated potential comprising the mind of material atoms comprising our genes, cells and bodies.

The unveiling of non-differentiation at our core of existence is expressed by the overarching desire to love and see the other inclusively as one sees and loves oneself.

Life is mortal while this potential of which it is an expression is eternal. Our mortality underlies genetic compulsions of survival which in turn lead to emotional and identity compulsions.

How can we unleash the desire to love all existence for the generality of human beings? The answer to this question is an emphatic yes.

It is easy to find the answer if we understand how the genetic compulsions have a stranglehold on our conscious faculty. Its modus operandi consists of incessant bombardment of the working memory of our conscious faculty with billions of years of totally or partly unconscious collection of information bits stored in the sequencing of our genes. This bombardment is expressed as rapid and random fluctuations of the mind or incessant distractions of the mind. The result is that the mind cannot pay attention to anything, not even to our own narrow selfishness, let alone our personal or common good, or the quality of life we end up leading.

We will look for the answer in the structure of human physiology. The immediacy of the unconscious and subconscious genetic compulsions and the incessant bombardment of the working memory of our conscious mind equips our body with a perpetually pushed gas pedal (sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system) to increase the speed of body and the mind for instant satisfaction of their demands.

Human body is also equipped with a brake pedal (parasympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system) which our conscious faculty can choose to push to escape their perpetual insatiability. The problem is unconscious automation while the answer is keeping the working memory of the conscious mind occupied with effort.

If we see what the conscious faculty of our mind has to do to overcome the problem of wholly or partly unconscious genetic compulsions, we find that the effort is not quite Herculean. Humans of any age, however young, can learn to do them.

 The effort required may comprise of one, two or all three of the following practices:

1.      Conscious regulation of the movements of the body,

2.     Conscious regulation of the breath which interfaces the body and the mind, and

3.     Conscious regulation of the mental traffic to focus attention on a mental object or a device far removed from the genetic compulsions.

The first two components may be enough for transforming our states of health, happiness, wholeness, executive function, prosperity, friendliness and harmony.  The addition of the last one further optimizes common good with expertise and holistic knowledge creation in a state of one pointed focus in the absence of mental fluctuations.

 

To summarize, all we need to transform ourselves is knowing of the self and a will to use knowledge it. We are a body and a mind intimately interfacing with each other. Genes are said to contain the blueprint of them both. They physically are present in every one of the 37.2 trillion cells that comprise us.  Life in general is run by its genetic compulsions with the exception of human beings who are equipped with a conscious faculty with the ability of freeing them from their slavery. In that freedom, however brief, lies our transformation in various ways.

The neurophysiological tool of the conscious faculty is our prefrontal cortex (PFC), see figure below. Ordinarily, it is hijacked by the genes leading to a life of incessant mental fluctuations underlying the high speed of life.

If the PFC discovers its vulnerability, it can make an effort to access the inbuilt experiential memory of non-differentiation directly experienced by the atoms comprising the genes.