Brainwave Coherence - Intro, Free meditation technique, Evolution

At the most basic, almost immediately post-etymological, level, dharma is the principle or law that governs the Cosmos. Derived from the Sanskrit root, dhri, which means ‘to sustain,’ it is dharma that sustains the cosmic order of the universe. Dharma is also conduct in conformity with this law.

The essential nature or function of a thing can also be described as its dharma.

Finally, and this is the meaning that has the most impact on individual life, it is the predestined point at which our life starts and the path it will follow. In Hinduism it is individual obligation with respect to caste, social custom, civil law and sacred law. In a practical sense, dharma is said to relate to one’s personal obligations, calling and duties and, for a Hindu, it reflects the person’s age, caste, class, occupation, and gender.

The concept of dharma as duty or propriety derives from an idea found in India’s ancient legal and religious texts that there is a divinely instituted natural order of things (called ‘rta’ in Sanskrit.) A society based on justice, social harmony and human happiness requires that human beings discern and live in a manner appropriate to maintain the natural order. According to the various Indian religions, beings that live in accordance with dharma proceed more quickly towards liberation and Enlightenment.

Although these descriptions of the nature of dharma might define it in abstract terms they say little about its function and role in the world. There are, however, clues. The fact that dharma is responsible for ‘caste,’ ‘calling’ and ‘occupation’ tells us much about its function in the world as a powerful influence on each of our lives. Indeed, extrapolation of those responsibilities leads to only one conclusion -- that it is dharma that decides where we are born and what sort of life we lead.

Whilst the factors upon which dharma makes this decision must inevitably be speculative, I would suggest that it is our level of evolution that is reflected in our nativity. We are born into a time and a place in which we can continue our slow progress towards the fulfilment of all life -- total evolution, Enlightenment. One of the most influential factors in the development of this hypothesis is the association of dharma with ‘caste.’

For Western visitors to the Indian sub-continent, the caste system usually evokes considerable disgust, as it does among free-thinking Indians. For millennia the caste system has been responsible for division, derision and class discrimination in India. Traditionally there are four castes: Brahmins are scholars, teachers, healers and priests, Kshatriyas include kings, warriors, law enforcers and administrators, Vaishyas are agriculturists, cattle raisers, traders and bankers and the Shudras are artists, artisans, craftsmen and service providers. Those born outside these four castes, those without a caste, fall into an unofficial but generally recognized sub-caste known as the Untouchables. The Untouchables have been used, abused and mistreated by those in the higher castes for as long as anyone can remember. Living on the streets or in the meanest slums, Untouchables are beggars, porters, sewage workers, street cleaners, the starving and the destitute, the lowest echelon of a society that redefines poverty in terms that are almost too extreme to deal with.

The caste system as we can see it today and in the more extreme forms that have existed in the past is not, however, as it was originally conceived. Indeed, nothing could be further from the original concept. Like many concepts pertaining to the nature of Cosmic Law and life on earth, the caste system has suffered from the corruptive ravages of time. Originally conceived in the age of the Vedic Rishis, generally regarded as ‘the Golden Age’ of Indian society, the caste system had a clearly defined but totally non-hierarchical function. The caste system provided a natural conduit through which dharma could operate as it channelled emergent souls into their appropriate evolutionary class.

Although the caste system may have worked in Vedic society, where higher consciousness was the order of the day, there was little chance of it retaining its purity outside such an elevated social millieu. The downfall of the caste system is, of course, in its implicit hierarchical nature. It is human nature to transform such a system into one that reflects class and status. A higher caste implies a higher level of evolution which inevitably suggests that those in lower castes are inferior beings.

In order for the caste system to work it needs to be viewed from an entirely different perspective. Understanding that we are all beings travelling the same evolutionary path, that some are old souls and some are younger, that where we are on the path is irrelevant to our status in the world and in the Cosmic picture, that whatever our status in life we are all in the privileged position of being on the only plane on which evolution can happen -- it is perspectives like these that render the caste system into a natural medium for dharma to play itself out.

While, on one level, the hypothesis that dharma is the process of assessing and pinning down our level of evolution might work, there is a major glitch. The identification of dharma as the evolutionary assessment factor implies a process involving decision-making based on thought. Dharma, however, is a Cosmic Law and thinking does not come into the matter. Laws are written and precise and operate according to rules, formulae and systems. Laws do not think about what they are doing, they just do it. And so it must be with dharma.

How, therefore, does dharma ‘decide’? I wish I could tell you because not knowing creates a massive rent in the fabric of my hypothesis. There must, however, be some way. According to a Western corruption of the Hindu philosophy of Samkhya, the Akashic Record is a ‘written’ storehouse of all knowledge both universal and individual. The Samktya asserts that all knowledge is recorded in the atoms of ‘akasha,’ the air or aether.

Modern research into the Akashic Record began in the first decade of the 20th century when C.W. Leadbeater, a prominent and early member of the Theosophical Society -- established by, amongst others, mystic, medium and space cadet, Madam Blavatsky -- claimed to have inspected them at the Theosophical Society headquarters at Adyar in Tamil Nadu, India during the summer of 1910. A self-proclaimed clairvoyant, presumably Leadbeater’s reading was on the astral plane as libraries seem to keep few copies of the Akashic Record on their shelves. He recorded the results in his book ‘Man: How, Whence, and Whither?’ (1913,) co-authored with Annie Besant, later to become President of the Theosophical Society. The book also records the history of Atlantis and other civilizations and the future society of Earth in the 28th century.

Around the same time another arch space cadet, Edgar Cayce, a renowned psychic, clairvoyant, visionary and healer, also encountered the Akashic Record. In a channelled conversation with his spirit guide, Ra (no doubt a member of the Boomdeay family,) he was told of the Akashic Record.

Much as we might associate the Akashic Record with something that is written, if it exists it is clearly something other than reading matter.

Having gained little from consideration of the Akashic Record, we are still mired in the enigma of the decisive factor that places us somewhere in the world. Clearly, however, there is some process involved. The fact that dharma is implicitly associated with the doctrine of Samsara, the cycle of birth and rebirth, suggests that something happens between incarnations. But what it is and how it happens I cannot say. Although, in my deepest meditations, I have tried to penetrate this mystery I have not succeeded. Maybe this is an area of Cosmic functioning that we are simply not supposed to explore or understand.

As a person who needs answers, I find this blank spot in my knowledge of Cosmic Law somewhat galling. However, in my book, if you can’t find an answer it leaves the field open for some creative thinking. Or, as some people call it, making it up as you go along.

In case you have not noticed, this website is almost entirely built around the concept of evolution. Almost everything I write relates to evolution. And it is evolution that is the foundation of my belief system. Not only is evolution at the centre of my personal philosophy but it also permeates all of my rationalizations. I happen to believe that evolution is at the very heart of and among the things most cherished by the Cosmos. Evolution is why we are here and evolving is what we are supposed to be doing. I see evolution as progress towards a specific state, the ultimate state of perfection -- Enlightenment. Evolution, it seems to me, is the key to just about everything, including coming to an understanding of Cosmic Law.

Evolution -- as a state, as a process and as concept -- provides a very viable basis for extrapolation into a wider picture of how the Cosmos operates and what life on earth means. And it is the doctrine of samsara that brings it all into focus. As a concept, evolution is not sustainable without bringing the Law of Reincarnation into the picture. Our life on this earth is short, merely a drop in the ocean of time, and what we can experience and learn in that short period is necessarily limited. Although insulating each lifetime as a unique, one-off experience might work for some, sheer logic demands that it cannot be the case if evolution is, as suggested, at the heart of the Cosmic Will.

It is the concept evolution that imbues reincarnation with meaning. And, for its part, reincarnation reciprocates by supplying many of the factors that complete the ‘why we are here’ equation. Among these factors the one that is relevant here relates to evolution as a state.

The anomolies we see in status, class, wealth, intelligence, skills, talents, in social milieu and other areas of the individual life all start with birth. It is where we are born that decides who and what we are. If we look around us we can see that everyone is a unique entity. Some people are saintly and wise and some people are not much more than barely articulate animals with opposable thumbs. Between those two extremes there are literally innumerable levels of individual functioning.

I would suggest that these ‘levels of individual functioning’ are directly analogous to and can be identified as levels of evolution.

So, dear reader, brains scrambled yet? If, like me, you are having trouble getting your head around what I am saying here, let me bring it all on home for you.

What I am suggesting is that the circumstances of our births reflect our evolutionary status.

But all that does is bring us back to the enigma of the decision.

The best I can do to explain how the decision is made is to draw on a graphic metaphor that does it for me.

It is not often that I deal in traditional spiritual terminology but inevitably there must come a time when there is no other recourse. So let’s talk a bit about the soul. We all understand that the soul is something some way removed from our identity on earth. When we die something goes on but it is without personality, identity or memory. What exactly it is I cannot say but nor can anyone. It is just ‘something.’ Personally, given that the pinnacle of my belief system is the state of Enlightenment, I conceptualize souls as balls of light. Some balls are bright and some balls less so. And the level of brightness reflects the evolutionary state of each soul.

How our evolutionary state translates itself into the circumstances of our nativity is a subject of eternal conjecture. The only elucidation of this mystery comes to us through the Vedic culture via the original function of the caste system. According to the Vedas, the most highly evolved beings are born into the Brahmin caste of priests and holy men. Those born into the lower castes are on the evolutionary path but have not yet achieved the evolved qualities to elevate them to a higher caste. Those born without a caste have not yet realized that there is an evolutionary path. Simple, huh?

It seems extremely logical to me that those who are on the evolutionary path should be born into circumstances that, one way or another, are conducive to their continued evolutionary progress. Indeed, my own, extremely subjective, observations suggest as much. The influence of the circumstances of one’s nativity may be subtle but, in my experience, their history and development can sometimes be tracked. However, as previously stated, once nativity is established dharma is out of the picture and it is karma that takes over.

A good example of this is my own case. Although I was born into circumstances that looked extremely inauspicious if evolution was to happen, it was in my early life that I developed the qualities of character that made me able to respond to the pressures of karma at a later stage in my life when it pushed me in the direction of spirituality. Karma being the ineffable force that it is, I cannot say whether or not I would have turned out to be a different person to the spiritual being I now am if the circumstances of my birth had been different.

Although it is tempting to view life as predestined, fated or written, lives are artworks in a constant state of creation. Life is lived spontaneously as an interplay between karma and free will. Without that free will our lives would not be our own; it is free will that makes us capable of creating our own lives. In the final analysis it is we who decide where our lives go and how we live them. We do so, however, in the arms of karma. It is dharma that supplies the palette and creates the backdrop upon which each of us paints our own life. The contents of our picture is, however, dictated by our karma.

If you have found this discussion difficult to follow and hard to understand, it is hardly surprising. I wrote the thing and even I find the whole subject mind-boggling. I hope, however, that elucidation will follow when we get to examine the nature, mechanisms, processes and function of karma.