Why there is no Tradition of Meditation in the West and how that hurts
Type I discoveries can occur when the focus of attention is enhanced as in deep contemplation. These discoveries amount to connecting the dots in the ocean of existing knowledge, and, as the focus of attention is further enhanced say through meditation or prayer, Type II discoveries can occur. Type II discoveries cannot come about on the basis of existing knowledge, and, therefore, they are termed as “Shruti”, meaning revealed, in Sanskrit. Take care though, once discovered the said discovery must obey all the constraints imposed by reason and logical consistency.
The year is circa 3,000 BCE, and sages in India have already proposed a theory of creation. Says, Shiva, “Adyashakti is incomplete without me, and I am like a corpse without her.” Translation, both consciousness and energy are required for creation and for life.
Shiva is known by many names: Ardhanareshwara (half-male half-female), Paratpara (beyond attributes) and pure consciousness, while Adyashakti means primordial energy.
In 2014, science writer Amanda Gefter offered the following conclusion in her path-breaking book, “Trespassing on Einstein’s Lawn” after interacting with some of the best brains in physics, including Stephen Hawking and John Archibald Wheeler: The Universe came out of nothing, a void. Theoretical physicist and physician, Jim Kowall, added, also in 2014, the nothingness of the void cannot be anything else but undifferentiated consciousness.
The consciousness of the void produced the energy phase of the Big Bang event which then created the universe, some 13.8 billion years ago.
It appears that there is a wrinkle in the estimate of the age of the universe.
All scientific theories are always provisional in that as more and more data are seen to support the theory, our confidence in the theory rises, but even if a single data point were to materialize that is seen to contradict the theory, then, that theory must be abandoned in favor of a new or modified theory - Stephen Hawking’ “In a Brief History of Time”.
The James Webb Space Telescope has just reported discovering a fully developed galaxy just 400 million years after the Big Bang but this should not be possible. Physicists say it takes a lot longer for galaxies to form. Maybe the universe is much older than we think.
In any event, there seems to be no doubt creation requires consciousness and primordial energy. How did ancient Indians know this?
Here, there are two possibilities:
The year is circa, 5,000 BCE, and the planet Earth has extraterrestrial visitors from an advanced civilization who have come here with the express intention of teaching the wherewithal of how to make new discoveries with meditation and to emerge as a better human being in the process.
For some reason, they selected Indians to impart the wisdom.
All knowledge, information, data and facts are said to be present in an invisible field called “Akashic records.” Indians were taught how to download what they needed from the Akashic Records through meditation.
Take for example, the four Vedas and the Upanishads. Investigators even today are busy corroborating the wisdom therein. The choice of Sanskrit as the language of the Vedic literature also offers intriguing possibilities.
Renowned physicists such as Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrodinger, Werner Heisenberg, and Carl Sagan were deeply influenced by the Upanishads.
The alternate hypothesis is that the Indian civilization is much, much older than we had believed, and, so, by 5,000 BCE the Indian civilization was already advanced enough to have figured out that meditation was the pathway to making new discoveries and to emerge as a better human being.
My friend Tony Belak, an attorney and former ombudsman at the University of Louisville (2010–2016), graciously shared his first-hand account of a UFO-sighting in the late summer of 1964 with his three brothers. At the time, they were living in the village of Bunola, population 600, about 20 miles from Pittsburgh in Southwest Pennsylvania, where they lived at the end of town.
While playing basketball at dusk, Tony went to retrieve the ball that had rolled away, and he was stopped in his tracks by the large silver-colored saucer-shaped object which hovered about 100 meters above and about 200–300 meters away over the Monongahela River. It was quiet, and he says he may not have noticed it but for running after the basketball. The UFO rotated in its hovering with visible windows and multi-colored-lights beneath. It was about 50 meters in diameter and held a strong but soundless presence for a minute or two, while the brothers watched silently. Then, taking a 45-degree turn, it shot over the horizon and was gone in an instant.
Tony remembers being impressed with the object’s departure speed. Tony says, he and his brothers have not spoken of this event often, and when they do, it is always factually similar to their recollection.
(Source: https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Pata%C3%B1jali)
In consideration of which hypothesis to prefer, you may find that most modern-day Indians would scoff at the idea meditation can produce discoveries and to think that they would have been on board thousands of years ago would appear to be ludicrous.
Science is the appropriate body of knowledge to use when the fundamentals of a system are well understood, and when they are not, but measurements are available so data can be procured, data-driven methodologies such as six sigma are appropriate. When system fundamentals are not well understood and measurements are not available, then, these two methods of inquiry cease to be useful. Then, enhancement in the focus of attention, as with meditation, remains the only viable pathway to solve problems and to make new discoveries. Take care though, discoveries that come about this way must nonetheless meet all the constraints imposed by reason and logical consistency.
One of the sages who shed light on world civilization was Veda Vyasa, who composed the Bhagvad Geeta. This article will show that his wisdom can be comfortably characterized as a Type II discovery, and that it is extremely valuable to humanity. Much of his wisdom has been corroborated as you will see.
According to Sri Krishna, human beings are endowed with three components of the mindset: S, R, and T.
The S component includes honesty, truthfulness, equanimity and steadfastness.
The R component encompasses attachment, bravery, ego, ambition, greed, and a desire to live.
The T component includes lying, cheating, causing injury in words or deed, and sleep.
The S, R, and T components lead to a scale of internal excellence where maximum S is at the top, maximum T at the bottom, and all other combinations of the three somewhere in between these two extremes.
As the S component of a society rises the society rises, but the S component cannot rise indefinitely, and, when it reaches its peak, the T component takes over and the society begins to decline. The T component cannot rise indefinitely either, and, when it reaches its peak, the S component becomes dominate and the society begins to rise again. The transformations of the mindset lead to repeated rise and decline of societies as depicted in Figure 2.
Figure 3 depicts the rise-and-decline of a select group of nations.
The greatest of the great nations of the past eventually declined, be it Egypt, China, or India, and Greece or Rome. Furthermore, nations in decline for thousands of years in the past, like China and India, are once again rising.
However, we wanted additional corroboration. At my request, graduate students Bharat Sanghvi and Sandeep Dronawat searched all 23 volumes of the 1993 Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica in the nineties and jotted down the names of individuals born in specific cultures and listed in the reputed reference. The evidence they uncovered was startling.
Figure 4 depicts a graph of rise and decline of Greece.
Not long ago, I taught a two-week graduate course in six sigma to the MBA students of the University of Kentucky in Athens, Greece over twelve years. The land that gave birth to the likes of Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Archimedes, Homer, and scores of other luminaries is today counted as the weakest link in the European Union. The four hundred or so MBA students that I must have trained are in concurrence with the ideas of rise and decline of their great nation.
The data for the United States are shown in Figure 6. One cannot be sure if the decline of the United States has already begun until decades later but signs are ominous. We the people have a choice: To remain on the sidelines helplessly witnessing the decline of this great nation take place right in front of our eyes or to intervene and postpone the decline by decades. I trust the readers’ choice is to intervene.
The only way to postpone the decline if, in fact, it has begun is to enhance the societal level of internal excellence, and it is not an intellectual exercise. The required positive changes have to come about from within and the process is meditation, but there is no tradition of meditation in the United States. If we can unravel why, perhaps we could make a difference.
So, why isn’t there a tradition of meditation in the United States, and how does it hurt?
Scientific discoveries in the West, beginning with Great Britain and Northern Europe, and then in the United States, are primarily responsible for human progress since the renaissance period. Unfortunately, there is little awareness in the West that all these discoveries have come about when the enquiring minds enhanced their focus of attention, albeit, unknowingly.
One striking example is Albert Einstein. The year 1905 is taken to be Einstein’s miracle year. That year he published four breakthrough papers, one of which on photoelectric effect, fetched him the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Smoking a pipe, staring out of the huge glass window of his second-floor apartment in Berne, Switzerland, and deeply engrossed in his famous thought experiments, Einstein must have enhanced his focus of attention unintentionally to such an extent that discoveries came to him.
No wonder there is widespread belief in the West that products of reason such as sciences, laws, policies and the like are entirely sufficient to solve problems and to make discoveries.
The philosophy of 18th century renowned German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, doesn’t help. Says he, “All knowledge begins with the (five) senses and the rational mind, proceeds then to the understanding and ends in reason. There is nothing higher than reason.”
Swami Vivekananda offers a contrasting hypothesis, “Indian thought dares to seek and successfully find something higher than reason. The reference, “How Discoveries Come About and How They Can Be Accentuated”, listed under Further Reading contains several examples that are illustrative of something “higher than reason.”
Meditation is the tool with which to access that something higher than reason.
This long-winded discussion finally explains why there is no tradition of meditation in the West. A bigger tragedy is that the very culture which provided ample evidence of something higher than reason and how to find it, is itself looking at the West’s progress since the renaissance period and surmising that products of reason are entirely sufficient to solve problems and to make discoveries.
It is hoped that the ideas and concepts in the article might be useful in catalyzing discussions and eventually introducing meditation in schools and colleges, corporations, and government offices.
Meditation need not be religion-specific, and a rising level of internal excellence delivers a myriad of benefits: health & wellness, exemplary performance, creativity and innovativeness, interpersonal relationships and less discord and violence.
Beginning in 1893, a number of renowned yogis have been visiting the United States to bring about these changes. They include Swami Vivekananda, Yogananda Paramahansa, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, H. H. Guru Mahan, Baba Shivananda Ji, Sri M and others.
Of particular importance to societies is the idea that a small fraction of the population in meditation, sqrt of 0.1 %, can make the wider world more peaceful. Renowned physicist, Dr. John Hagelin and Dr. Tony Nader, MD, PhD (Harvard) have conducted scientific investigations demonstrating this the so called “The Maharishi Effect. See the referenced video clip featuring Dr. Nader’s lecture of the Maharishi Effect, 10000 for World Peace.
On November 3, 2023, Dr. Nader published a full-page open letter in the Wall Street Journal addressed to the President of the United States and all World Leaders, urging them to adopt the Maharishi technology to make the world more peaceful. Under the auspices of their proposal, 10,000 meditators would meditate an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening and that should make the world much more peaceful.
Not much is likely to happen, though, until the root causes of why there isn’t a tradition of meditation in the West are clearly understood.
IN CONCLUSION
The explanation for why there is no tradition of meditation in America and the West is presented. Scientific backup on why it should be included is also presented. The criticality of doing so across all segments of societies has been explained. It is not too late to accomplish all this, but the time to do so is short.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The editorial assistance of Tony Belak, Mediation Consultant and a former Ombudsman, University of Louisville, is gratefully acknowledged. Interactions with Dr. James P. Kowall and Sanjeev Aroskar over the years are gratefully acknowledged. My friend, Dr. Mahendra Patel, MD, was kind enough to bring the WSJ letter to my attention.
FURTHER READING
1. Amanda Gefter, Trespassing on Einstein’s Lawn, Bantam Books, 2014.
2. James P. Kowall, The Physicist’s Dilemma: Ultimate Reality — The Non-physical Nature of Consciousness, Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research, 5, 4, May 2014.
3. Pradeep B. Deshpande in Conversation with Jyoti Kachroo of Parikh Worldwide Media, Sanatan Dharma, One World, One Family, (https://youtu.be/YbPTZoTMZL0?si=_JJdF4d6VqkYMnim), October 8, 2023.
4. Pradeep B. Deshpande, Sanatan Dharma, Casteism and Hinduism, News India Times, September 21, 2023 (https://www.newsindiatimes.com/sanatan-dharma-casteism-and-hinduism/).
5. Pradeep B. Deshpande and James P. Kowall, Sanatan Dharma: One World, One Family, News India Times, September 14, 2023 (https://www.newsindiatimes.com/sanatan-dharma-one-world-one-family/).
6. Pradeep B. Deshpande, Transforming Higher Education, Higher Education Digest, September 7, 2023 (https://www.highereducationdigest.com/transforming-higher-education/).
7. Pradeep B. Deshpande, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: A Six Sigma Perspective, The South Asia Times, July 15–21 2023 (https://thesouthasiantimes.info/equity-diversity-and-inclusion-a-six-sigma-perspective/?swcfpc=1).
8. Magazine: (https://thesouthasiantimes.info/july-15-21-2023-vol-16-issue-12/).
9. Pradeep B. Deshpande, Sanjeev A. Aroskar, Gautam Gupta, Mahendra Sunkara and James P. Kowall, How Discoveries Come About and How They Can Be Accentuated, News India Times, May 3, 2023 (https://newsindiatimes.com/commentary-how-discoveries-come-about-and-how-they-can-be-accentuated/).
10. Deshpande, Pradeep B., Decoding the Wisdom of Swami Vivekananda, News India Times, April 5, 2023. (https://newsindiatimes.com/decoding-the-wisdom-of-swami-vivekananda/).
11. Sam McDowel , Meditation and perfecting the mind: How Patrick Mahomes handles the Super Bowl stage, The Kansas City Star, February 12, 2023 ((https://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/sam-mcdowell/article272408998.html).
12. Pradeep B. Deshpande, Racial Harmony: the role of religion and spirituality is essential, Dialog & Alliance, Universal Peace Federation, 2021 (Feature article).
13. Pradeep B. Deshpande, Decoding the Significance of Indian American Heritage, India Currents Magazine, April 19 2021 (https://indiacurrents.com/decoding-the-significance-of-indian-american-heritage/).
14. Kasanoff, Bruce, November 26, 2020, How to Measure end Strengthen your Intuition, (https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucekasanoff/2020/11/26/how--to-measure-and-strengthen-your-intuition/?sh=54c3c73a7a73).
15. Aha Dharana Intuition Enhancement Program Video Clip, https://youtu.be/lJQ48QMJNx0, 2020.
16. Le Nguyen, K. D., et al., Loving Kindness Meditation Slows Aging in Novices: Evidence from a 12-week randomized controlled trial, Psychoneuroendocrinology, 108, 2019.
17. Deshpande, Pradeep B., The Secret of Exemplary Performance, 2019 (https://www.aacsb.edu/insights/articles/2019/08/the-secret-of-exemplary-performance).
18. Pradeep B. Deshpande and James P. Kowall, The Nature of Ultimate Reality and How It Can Transform the World: Evidence from Modern Physics; Wisdom of YODA, amazon, 2015.
19. Pradeep B. Deshpande, Scientific Framework for World Transformation, Dialog & Alliance, Universal Peace Federation, 2019.
20. Deshpande, Pradeep B., Steve Jobs — Yogananda Paramahansa Link Unraveled, Siliconeer, June 9, 2018 (https://siliconeer.com/current/steve-jobs-yogananda-paramahansa-link-unraveled/).
21. Pradeep B. Deshpande and James P. Kowall, Decipherment of the Scientific Wisdom of the Bhagvad Geeta through Six Sigma, Journal of Consciousness Exploration and Research, 8, 10, 2017 (https://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/711).
22. Pradeep B. Deshpande and Tony Belak, America at Crossroads, mediate.com, November 28, 2016 (https://mediate.com/america-at-a-crossroads/).
23. Sean Gregory, How the Chicago Cubs Made World Series History, (https://time.com/4555453/cubs-win-world-series-how-chicago-broke-the-curse/), November 3, 2016.
24. Marchant, Jo, Can Meditation Really Slow Aging? Mosaic, July 10, 2014.
25. Alyssa Roenigk, Lotus Pose on Two, ESPN Magazine, April 21, 2013.
26. Bardach, A. L., What Did J.D. Salinger, Leo Tolstoy, and Sarah Bernhardt Have in Common?, March 30, 2012.
27. Gustav Niebuhr, Honoring Sensational Swami of 1893, July 11, 1998.
28. EQ Radio, Emotions Measurement (http://eqradio.csail.mit.edu/).
29. Bio-Well Emotions Measurement, https://youtu.be/sVPUfnpdEFs
30. David W. Orme-Johnson, International Peace Project in the Middle East — The Effects of Maharishi Technology of the United Field, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 32, 1988 pp776–812.
31. Hagelin, John, S., et al., Effects of Group Practice of Transcendental Meditation Program on Preventing Violent Crime in Washington, DC. Results of the National Demonstration Project, June-July 1993, Social Indicators Research47, 2, 1999. Pp.153–201.
32. Nader, Tony, 10,000 for World Peace, October 2023 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPaS_8TqBX4).
33. Pradeep B. Deshpande, Light on the Mystery of UFOs, Medium, October 26, 2023 (https://pradeepbdeshpande.medium.com/light-on-the-mystery-of-ufos-c3b6d59eeed0).
34. Björn Vickhoff, et al., Music structure determines heart rate variability of singers, Front. Psychol., 09 July 2013 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00334.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pradeep B. Deshpande is Professor Emeritus in and former Chairman of the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Louisville. He is also president of Six Sigma and Advanced Controls based in Louisville, Kentucky. He is an author of eight books and over one hundred fifty articles in reputed journals that include Proc. Royal Society–UK, Chemical Eng. Progress, Ind. Eng. Chem. Proc. Des Dev, Chem. Eng. Science, among several others He has developed a scientific framework for internal excellence toward a better and more peaceful world. He is a recipient of several international awards and is a Fellow and Life Member of ISA. pradeep@sixsigmaquality.com.
