Whole Confluence – Whole Dude

Whole Proposition of Whole Dude at Whole Foods

Whole Dictum: The Confluence of Religion, Philosophy and Science

Whole Foods opened its Store in Ann Arbor on September 16, 1993. Whole Foods, Whole People and Whole Planet inspire Whole Dude to invent Whole Phrases: Whole Linguistics-Whole Language, Whole conversation, Whole Cookie, Whole Huddle, Whole Grind, Whole Love and others. Whole Dude uses the phrase Whole Linguistics to describe three entities; 1. Language User, 2. Language Interpreter and 3. Language Creator. Image Credit: Agenda Publications, Ann Arbor District Library, Issue Dates, September 1993, December 1997 and February 1998

“I am Consciousness, therefore I am” is a proposition to explore the nature of human consciousness, the existence of soul and man’s connection to a Conscious entity described as God.

Whole Dictum: I am Consciousness, Therefore I am. Vitruvian Man by Leonardo Da Vinci (c. 1492). This picture is used as the cover page for Best & Taylor’s Text Book of Human Physiology. Medical Science and Medical Education is knowledge built upon the foundations of understanding and knowing Human Anatomy (Structure) and Human Physiology (Function).

Spirituality Science: My Spiritual Journey – The inquiry about Self, Spirit, and Soul:

***“I am Consciousness, therefore I am” is a proposition to explore the nature of human consciousness, the existence of soul and man’s connection to a Conscious entity described as God.***

I submit that we have to arrive at an understanding of Self, Spirit, and Soul by knowing the structural and functional organization of the being that exists.

The Identity of Multicellular Human Organism:

Whole Dictum: I am Consciousness, Therefore I am. “ManO buddhyaHamkara, chittani na aHam, Na karnam, na jihva, na cha ghrana neytrey, Na cha vyoma, bhuumir na TejO, na vaayuH; Chidananda Rupah, Shivo aHam, Shivo aHam.” Adi Shankaracharya describes that his Identity does not pertain to his mind, intellect, the intellectual pride/ego, mental functions, his organs of sense, the five primordial elements of Nature. His Identity could only be stated as Sat+Chit+Ananda, the Identity of Ultimate Reality. However, the human organism has an Identity described by Human Anatomy and the organism’s functions (Human Physiology) establish and defend this Identity of the Human person in Nature.

Dr. Daniel John Cunningham (1850-1909), Chair of Anatomy, University of Cambridge published this Manual of Practical Anatomy to help medical students dissect human cadavers to learn Human Anatomy. Whether humans know and understand Human Anatomy and Physiology or not, they come into existence with full functional knowledge of every constituent cell in the body. The Human Body has Innate Knowledge of its own Structures and Functions. I acquired this Knowledge from uneducated individuals who gifted their bodies to promote Medical Education.

I learned about human body while dissecting the body in a systematic manner. The Manual of Practical Anatomy which guides us through this entire process was published in England. The author Dr. Daniel John Cunningham prepared the Manual while dissecting cadavers of British or Irish citizens. He had never encountered cadavers of people of Indian origin. At Kurnool Medical College, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India, where I was a student, the Department of Anatomy obtains dead bodies from Government General Hospital Kurnool and most of the deceased are the poor, and often uneducated people of that region. None of the deceased had a chance to know this man called Cunningham and Cunningham had no knowledge about the existence of these people who arrived on our dissection tables. But, as the dissection of the human body proceeded, inch, by inch, we recognized the anatomical parts as described by Cunningham. The manual also lists some anatomical variations and we very often exchanged information between various dissection tables and recognized the variations mentioned. The dissections also involves slicing the organs and studying them, both macroscopically, and microscopically. We did not miss any part of the human body. So what is the Identity of this Human person or Human subject? How does the living Human organism maintains its Identity and Individuality? Apart from the Cultural Traditions of India, several Schools of Religious Thought claim that the Human Individual and its Identity is represented by Human Soul. Where does this soul exist in the human body? What is the location if soul is present in the living person? Does man have a soul?

The Knowledge of Field and The Field of Activity: The concept of Kshetra and Kshetrajna:

Whole Dictum: I am Consciousness, Therefore I am. Purusha or Man is the Knower of activities of his human body or Kshetra. Yoking is about pairing, something that binds, unites, or connects or joins together to perform physical tasks that impose a heavy burden if performed without pairing. Man performs a myriad of his living functions drawing matter and energy from his external environment. This conditioned, dependent human existence is made possible for man is paired with an Everlasting Principle which provides the Knowledge to perform the vital function called Cellular Respiration

The term soul has to be carefully defined if I have to find it by exploring the human body. In the Indian tradition, the human body is described as Kshetra or Field. The individual who knows and enjoys this body, kshetra, or field is often described as Purusha. The knowledge of the body is called Kshetra Jnana and the Knower is called Kshetrajna. The person called Purusha could explore his body called ‘kshetra’ and acquire knowledge called ‘Kshetra Jnana’. So, I explore my body to find out if I have a soul and as to where it exists. I can explore my body while I am alive. If I am dead, only a different living person may get the opportunity to explore my dead body, but he may not be able to discover the soul which may have already departed from the body. If soul exists in the cadaver, Cunningham would not have missed it, and we the diligent students dissecting human cadavers would not have missed it. By definition, soul does not exist in dead bodies. It has something to do with life and the characteristics of a living person or organism. With the intellectual insight I gained by studying Human Anatomy, I can explore my living body without placing it on a dissection table.

The Functional Unity of Multicellular Human Organism:

Adaptive Subordination of Red Blood cells to the requirements of the whole Human Organism. The mature RBCs have no nuclei and they cannot divide. They are exclusively adapted to transport Oxygen and serve the Human Organism. During the life span of Human Organism, the RBCs live for short periods of time and are constantly replaced by new RBCs.

Humans are multicellular organisms. Who or what is the Subject who lives because of the functions of the trillions of cells? Multicellularity found in complex organisms like humans is accompanied by definite capabilities of cells for differentiation. The design of cells has been modified to serve specialized functions of tissues and organs. To achieve proper numerical balance between functionally related cell groups, the death of many cells is necessary for others to reach maturity. This programmed cell death plays an important role during embryological growth and development of human fetus. Waves of genetically driven cell deaths are critical to the proper modeling of organs, and organ systems. Such programmed cell death events are essential if the organism as a whole is to develop its normal final form by which its Identity as an Individual is established. The constituent cells of the organism do not display functional individuality while living as individuals. The cell in a complex organism is not truly an independently functioning unit. The cell exists and functions to achieve Unity of the Organism as a Whole. The one very important part of the environment of a cell is other cells. The Consciousness, the Awareness of individual cells in multicellular organism functions to achieve the Functional Unity of the Whole Organism. Consciousness brings Functional Unity by providing the abilities of recognition, association, and cooperation between all the cells of the multicellular organism. Multicellular organisms are characterized by the ‘Adaptive Subordination’ of the constituent cells to the requirements of the organism as a Whole. For example, mature Red Blood Cells or RBCs have no nuclei and they cannot divide or replicate. They are exclusively adapted to transport Oxygen and serve the whole human organism. The RBCs have short lives as individual cells. The human organism has a life span of its own. During the life time of a human person, RBCs live for short periods of time and are constantly replaced by new RBCs. Thus it may be stated that the purpose of Consciousness at cellular level is to foster Functional Unity of the multicellular organism and establish it as an Individual. If the term ‘Soul’ represents the Identity of this Individual, the Soul is a Functional Attribute of Consciousness at cellular level.

The Biological aspects of Human Soul:

Reticular Formation is shown as a single ‘red’ bar in this figure. It consists of numerous Brain Stem nuclei. It is a network of nerve pathways and nuclei throughout the Brain Stem. A single neuron in this network may have synapses/connections with as many as 25,000 other neurons/nerve cells.

Capacity for consciousness is an upper Brain-Stem Function and the Content of consciousness is a Function of the Cerebral Cortex. The Reticular Formation which is located in the central Brain Stem helps to coordinate and integrate actions of different parts of the Central Nervous System such as regulation of muscle and reflex activity;central transmission and composition of sensory impulses; respiration; cardiovascular responses; behavioral arousal; and sleep.

I explore my body called Kshetra. The Kshetra Jnana, or Knowledge of my body is as follows:
My soul is represented by an anatomical structure described as Reticular Formation in the Brain Stem. Just like my body is composed of trillions of individual cells which collectively represent and establish my physical identity in this world, my soul derives its existence and identity from trillions of these individual units or cells that comprise my body. My soul is actually a composite of trillions of units of consciousness of trillions of individual cells that comprise my human body. The Functional Unity in relation to Consciousness is achieved in the Reticular Formation, the site where Consciousness of the Whole human organism is composed and only relevant information is relayed to the Cerebral hemispheres to arouse cortical awareness. It is just like a picture or a photo which represents trillions of spots of varying degrees of light intensity or brightness. The term soul has to be defined as the manifestation of “Consciousness”. If there is no “Consciousness”, there is no soul. The existence of soul is witnessed by the presence of “Consciousness”. This biological characteristic described as “Consciousness” exists in every single living cell. If a living organism is made up of one single cell, it has a soul as manifested by its “Consciousness”. For the human person, when identified as an Individual, the anatomical location of his Soul is the Reticular Formation of the Brain Stem which receives input from the rest of the body and shapes the information and sends it to Thalamus and to Cortical Areas of the Brain which provide the awareness, the functional knowledge with which the human organism exists as a living entity. Man enjoys an existence characterized by Peace, Harmony, and Tranquility, as the Soul, or the Life Principle operates the vital functions of the complex organism without relaying all the information to the cortical areas avoiding information overload. Thereby, Man is protected from a huge information overload that is not compatible with mental peace and equilibrium.

“I am Consciousness, Therefore I am” :

***DESCARTES, RENE (b. March 31, 1596, d. February 11, 1650 ), French Mathematician and Father of Modern Philosophy.***

Could we extend scientific methodology of investigation into every field of inquiry? Could we find Truth, and Reality as an external experience? Is it possible to visualize Truth and Reality in the realm of Intuition and Conscience? Jean Jacques Rousseau, the French philosopher suggests that man has to find his way to his pure nature, and this through feelings. Man’s duty is to look for his most deep interior feelings and follow them. Rene Descartes advances a philosophy based on certitude. He seeks to devise a method of inquiry for reaching the Truth. He proposes a method for guaranteeing Knowledge. He argues that in order to provide a secure foundation for Knowledge it is necessary to discover “clear and distinct ideas” that could not be doubted and could serve as a basis for deriving further truths. He finds such an idea in the proposition “I think, therefore I am” (“cogito, ergosum”). Descartes stresses a world of metaphysical truths that could be discovered by pure reason. He subjects his beliefs to a series of skeptical hypotheses. He invokes skepticism as a means of reaching certainty. As per his conclusion, “I think, therefore I am” is beyond skeptical doubt.

Cartesian Philosophy – The Value of Systematic Doubt:

Human body is composed of cells and each of these cells is a conscious entity. Consciousness is a biological, cellular function which brings about Functional Unity of the Whole Organism. Cellular consciousness provides the abilities of recognition, association, and cooperation between cells. Cells are characterized by Adaptive Subordination to meet the requirements of the organism as a whole. Rene Descartes proposition to divide human body into two parts; a thinking part, and a mechanical part is incorrect.

I truly admire Descartes for adopting a strategy of withholding his belief from anything that is not entirely certain and indubitable. Skepticism is an attitude that rejects claims to certainty. Its basic philosophical contention is that the possibility of knowledge is limited by the limitations of the mind itself or by the inaccessibility of the object. Descartes is known as the Father of the Mind-Body Problem. He claims that human beings are composites of two kinds of substances, mind and body. A mind is a conscious or thinking being, that is, it understands, wills, senses, and imagines. A body is a being extended in length, width, and breadth. He thinks that minds are indivisible, whereas bodies are infinitely divisible. The “I” of the “I think, therefore I am” is the mind that he claims could exist without being extended, so that it can in principle survive the death of the body. Descartes argues that colors, sounds, tastes, heat, cold, and pain are merely sensations existing in mind/thought and that there is nothing in bodies that resembles the sensation. He thinks that all complex functioning of living organisms including human bodies could be explained solely by mechanistic physics. He even denies that consciousness could be attributed to animals in order to explain their behavior. Descartes influences the whole course of philosophical enquiry. Using the same Cartesian Philosophy, I find the proposition of Descartes to be invalid and incorrect based upon my understanding of human body, mind, and consciousness. The proposition which I use is, “I am Consciousness, therefore I am”. This clear, and distinct idea, which is beyond doubt helps me to discover man’s awareness of God or what I describe as the “God Connection”. This “Connection” is the foundation for man’s existence in the natural world.

LORD KRISHNA IN THE HINDU SCRIPTURE OF BHAGAVAD GITA, Chapter 10, The Opulence of the Absolute, verse 22 claimed that “…in living beings I am Consciousness.” Similarly, in Chapter 7, verses 9 and 10, Lord Krishna claims that “I am the life of all that Lives”, “I am the Original seed of all existences.”

Whole Dude – Whole Confluence

Aristotle – The Father of Highest Science, First Philosophy, and Theology:

**Whole Dude – Whole Confluence: ARISTOTLE- born 384 BC and died 322 BC. His Metaphysics brings about the convergence of Philosophy, Religion, and Science.**

It gives me a great pleasure to dedicate this blog post to the memory of Aristotle. He surveyed the whole field of human knowledge as it was known in his day. He was at the Athenian Academy of Plato for 20 years. In 335 BC, he opened the Lyceum in Athens, a Center for speculation and research in every department of human inquiry. He became an authority for all philosophers, especially in Logic and in Natural Sciences. Logic, the theory of formal truth and validity originated in reflections on the practice of Dialectic introduced by Plato. For scientific knowledge, we need to know the governing principles of a subject and deduction from these principles provides not only the knowledge that something is true, but also the reason as to why it is true. Aristotle is recognized as the Father of Science and he defined Science as a deductive system based on evident axioms.

Aristotle’s Metaphysics – First Philosophy, Highest Science, and Theology:

Whole Dude – Whole Confluence: What a great Scene in the history of Man? If Plato and Aristotle come together, Reason and Faith also come together. The Scene at the Athenian Academy of Plato depicts the confluence of Religion, Philosophy, and Science.

Aristotle’s Metaphysics, and Plato’s Dialectic describe a method or inquiry that deals with the nature and relation of things – What each is, how it differs from others, what common qualities all have, to what kind each belongs, and in what rank each stands in its kind and whether its being is real-being, and how many beings there are, and how many non-beings to be distinguished from beings.

Metaphysics is concerned with the primary axioms, the universal principles applicable to all existence, and the transcendental properties of being. Aristotle claimed, “There is a Science which investigates being as being and the attributes which belong to being in virtue of its own nature.”

The First Philosophy described by Aristotle speculates about being and its subject matter includes all existing things as existing, and involves not only the question how anything which exists, exists (i.e., the properties of being), but also the question whether certain things, whose existence can be questioned, do in fact exist. In the words of Francis Bacon we can make a distinction between Physics and Metaphysics. Bacon stated that Physics inquires into efficient and material causes; Metaphysics inquires into formal and final causes. For Aristotle, Science means the demonstration of universal and necessary conclusions from self-evident principles. The modern conception of Science is that it represents knowledge founded upon experiment and extended observation. For example, Issac Newton in his book ‘OPTICS’ proposed to explain the properties of Light by using reason and experiments.

Man’s Essence – ‘Know thyself’:

**Whole Dude – Whole Confluence: Know thyself.**

The tradition of knowing oneself is the oldest established tradition in the history of man and it is a longer tradition than any other science. “Know thyself” describes a study in which the Knower and the Known are One; the object of the Science is the Nature of the Scientist. In the Indian tradition, “PURUSHA” is the Man or the Knower, and his body or “KSHETRA” is the object of Inquiry, and the Knowledge that is discovered is known as “Kshetra Jnana.”

Whole Dude – Whole Confluence: What is Man’s Essence? This tradition of Knowing Oneself is a longer tradition than any other Science. Socrates tells his friends gathered in the prison cell where he is to drink the hemlock, “True phlosophers are ever seeking to release the SOUL and are always occupied in the practice of dying.”

Aristotle – Natural Science and The Science of Soul:

**Whole Dude – Whole Confluence: What is Soul? Can Science investiagte or inquire about the existence of Soul? Does this organism known as Amoeba proteus has a Soul? What is its animating Principle?**

Soul is the vital principle which moves and animates all life. Aristotle describes corporeal substances are composite of two principles; form and matter. What is called matter is potentiality, what is called form is actuality. In the above image of Amoeba proteus, its matter is constituted by its protoplasm, the living substance, and its actuality is recognized by the scientist when he observes its form. The existence of Amoeba proteus is known to man as it is made of two principles, the form, and the matter. The Natural Sciences are concerned with natural objects that are characterized by the fact that they are subject to change. Change is therefore the basic phenomenon. Matter and Forms are the Material and the Formal Cause respectively, of what comes to be.

Aristotle distinguishes four kinds of Causes. For example, a Building or a Thing comes into being because of the Builder, or the Creator known as Efficient Cause. Formal Cause describes the Structure by virtue of which it is the Building or the Thing. Material Cause describes the matter such as stones or wood that has received the Structure. The end or purpose for which the structure, the Building or the Thing exists is known as the Final Cause. A building or a house provides a place of safety for the man who lives there. The purpose or the end of a life form is to sustain its state of living.

Aristotle calls the forms of living things as “Souls”. “The soul is in some sense the principle of animal life.” As per Aristotle, “the study of the Soul falls within the Science of Nature.” The Greek inquiry into the soul extends beyond man, to all living things. So, it is relevant to investigate or inquire about the Soul that describes the Form known to us as Amoeba proteus.

Aristotle’s Treatise – “On the Soul”: The establishment of Spirituality Science: The Confluence of Inspired Knowledge, Speculative Knowledge, and Inferential Knowledge:

Whole Dude – Whole Confluence: Lord Rama and Spirituality Science. The Lord provides inspired knowledge, philosophy provides the speculative knowledge and Medical Science and other Natural Sciences provide the inferential knowledge to explore and investigate the connection between man and his Creator.

For Aristotle, the Soul rather than Man is the object of Science. He described three kinds of Souls: 1. Vegetative (plants), 2. Sensitive (animals), and 3. Rational (human beings). He believed that the Soul is merely a set of defining features. He did not regard the Body and the Soul as two separate things that mysteriously combine to form an organism.

If Soul is defined as the Immortal part of Man as distinguished from his Body, that kind of definition would suggest that Man is composed of two kinds of substances; a corporeal substance, and a non-corporeal substance. In my discussion on this subject, I tend to agree with Aristotle and suggest that Man is composed of one kind of substance and Man may not be divided into Body and Soul. However, I would like to discuss the issue of Man’s Essence, his Identity and Individuality in relation to Soul after this review of Aristotle’s ideas about material and immaterial substances. Aristotle tells us that to understand Substance, it would be necessary to consider immaterial substantial forms, like Soul and God. Only then can Man understand what it is to be a Substance, and what it is to Exist. He further described two parts of Man’s Soul; the intellectual virtue corresponds to the rational part of the Soul, and the moral virtues such as justice, courage, and generosity belong to the irrational part of the Soul which is subject to reason and has reasonable desires and feelings.

I divide Man into two categories and have described Man as the Self and the Knowing-Self.The first category describes Man as a Physical, Mental, and Social being, and the second category describes Man as a Moral, and Spiritual being. The study of Metaphysics eventually becomes the study of immaterial substance, immortality, and God.

Spirituality Science – The Convergence of Religion, Philosophy, and Science:

Whole Dude – Whole Confluence: The Bhagavad Gita is the source of Inspired Knowledge, my internal reflection is the source of Speculative Knowledge, and the Medical Science and Natural Science is the source of Inferential Knowledge to establish Spirituality Science as a method of Inquiry to investigate man’s relationship, partnership, association, and connection with his Creator.

Aristotle tried to define and establish a branch of Science which contributes Wisdom to deal with the first causes and the principles of all things. “There are other theoretical sciences, such as Physics and Mathematics which investigate causes or deal with principles, but they do not reach to the highest causes or first principles, nor do they take all things in their most universal aspect as the object of their inquiry. Physics deals with material things in motion; and the Mathematician investigates abstractions.” He claimed that Mathematics could be certain without telling us anything about Reality. He states that, “If there is something which is eternal and immovable and separated from matter, clearly the knowledge of it belongs to a theoretical science, not however to Physics nor to Mathematics, but to a science prior to both.” He gives two names to the highest of theoretical sciences. He denominated it both from the position it occupies in relation to all other disciplines and in terms of the kind of substance which it alone investigates. A substance which is formed by Nature will be explored by Natural Science. If there is an immovable, immutable, immaterial, or eternal substance, the Science of that substance is the highest Science and it deserves to be called “Theology” as well as “First Philosophy”.

**Whole Dude – Whole Confluence**. **The integration of Science, Philosophy, and Religion.**

I propose to study and investigate the immaterial substance or principle and name the Science of that Substance/Principle as “Spirituality Science”. If Divine is present everywhere at the same time, the Divine is present in both material and immaterial substances.