Blissful seconds in bungee jumping

Apr 9, 2010, 12.00am IST
DEEPAK RANADE.


The present is continuously being distorted by memories of the past or by projections into the future.


The pristine present moment is continuously adulterated by this distortion. The mind is therefore never still. The thoughts keep flowing relentlessly, almost involuntarily. And thoughts are entirely within the domain of past events or apprehensions of the future.


When a person jumps off the ledge in bungee jumping, the thrill he experiences is largely due to his confining his awareness to the here and now. He does not deliberate about the past or future. Those few seconds belong to the present. That is probably what makes adventure sport so exciting, risks notwithstanding.

The ‘here and now’ all the while gets modified into the ‘then and there’ depending on the programme that is used. This programme is the amalgamation of memories, temperament, and conditioning. The output generated after processing the present by this programme is then categorised as happiness, sadness and the entire gamut of emotions. The present intrinsically has no characteristic. It is devoid of any emotional shade. It is just awareness. Pure being-ness. The mind transforms unbiased cognition to biased perception. All emotions are purely within the ambit of perception. There is nothing absolute about them. The constant struggle that ensues in the mind is the duel between the individual’s perception of what is and how it ought to be.

The natural succession to this line of thinking is whether one can really manipulate the outer world and ensure what ought to be. A very honest answer would be a categorical `no’.


The present moment is wasted in castigating the past and strategising the future. Knowing, deep down, of not having the wherewithal to effect our will, we would realise how insane is our obsession with power to control. It is a common experience that anticipation of happiness is probably more joyful than the actual event and anticipation of pain is more painful than the point of suffering. In both the cases it is the present moment that is pregnant with perception of an event that has yet to happen. And in both cases the perception is in hyperbole. That is why the when the actual event takes place, both the pain and the happiness are lesser than projected.


Meditation is training the mind to be in the here and now. Chanting, and rhythmic breathing are means to this end. Focusing on a particular deity or mantras serve a similar purpose, to overcome the urge to let the mind wander.


The present moment is devoid of any sense of ego. The ego is an apparition that subsists only on the past. The pure present moment when disrobed of the past or future is just a sense of am-ness. This am-ness has no name, no past and no aspirations, rather like what the bungee jumper experiences. Or those moments when one is so absorbed in what one is doing that one loses the sense of identity. Like listening to soulful music or for that matter when a surgeon is operating. We all probably experience these quasi- meditative states off and on but we might not be aware of it. That point of impersonal consciousness is nothing short of meditation. And losing one’s identity, even if for a few moments, is pleasurable. Because at that moment all perceived emotions also vanish as they are of the sense of identity. The realised soul resides in that state voluntarily.

(The writer is a Neurosurgeon.)
Email: deepakranade@ hotmail.com.