If You Missed Part 1 and Part 2: Part 2 is under part 3 on this page. Part 2 will make more sense if you read part 1 first. You can find Part 1 in the archive (grey column left of the page) in the 12/08--12/14/2002 archive, under Part 2 which also comes first on that page (so scroll down to part one).
On To: Part 3
The Interview With Boris on The Subject of G-d continued from Part 2: Where Bernard left off by seemingly dismissing the question of reincarnation…"BW: "So is that it--with reincarnation--already?"
Synopsis:
If you read the synopsis before skip down to Part 3 (blog) for some more of Boris' rap on Being and such!
Boris Dov Lanter, an American, New York Jewish guy, is an internationally known celebrity who had been a professional painter living in Kaasdorp (Lit: Cheese Town) Holland. He became famous not because of his paintings but for inventing, or creating, kind of a kitsch spiritually-material 'teaching' called "The Gift". When marketed "The Gift" outsold pet rocks, cabbage dolls, hula-hoops, and all the other previous worldwide fads and marketing phenomenon. Consequently, many spiritually starving, confused individuals look to Boris as a Guru; that is a notion, which Boris ridicules publicly, time and time again. Boris has "taken refuge" in the Buddha and considers himself a Buddhist. He takes his spirituality seriously: however, because he was born Jewish-is still a culinary Jew-and gets a kick out his Jewish brethren; he answers, "I'm Buddhish!' when asked his religion.
Because of his following, the continuing marketing success of "The Gift", and his outlandishly extroverted performances on celebrity interview shows, a major publisher commissioned Bernard Wisser to write his Biography. Wisser is world renowned for his hip biographies, the most famous being, the official biography of Mick Jagger titled "The Unrolling Rolling Stone." Boris and Bernard, who Boris calls Nardo or Nard, have been friends for years and love to diss each other; therefore, Boris agrees to have his good buddy Nardo write his biography; figuring, anyone reading his life story immediately will shed the notion that he Boris, is a Guru and will perhaps find a legitimate teacher or spiritual path.
The two buddies keep up there kibitzing ways constantly teasing each other and pointing out each others foibles, and flaws all during the course of the interviews, while working on the biography, and their 'raps' becomes interwoven into the writing of the biography.
Bernard has been trying to rein Boris in from the beginning; since, Boris has a tendency to meander, and has many tricky ways of seducing Bernard into spending time listening to his rambling anecdotes. Originally, Nardo had allocated two years time to writing the book but now five years has passed and Boris is only 10 years old in the Biography. It has become obvious they will not be able to cover Boris' whole life, so they are thinking about ending the book when Boris attains manhood with his Bar Mitzvah.
In the Following Chapter Bernard (the biographer) decides to break away from the form "I Do Art.." has taken so far, (if you can call it a form) and conduct an interview with Boris on the subject of his spiritual beliefs and his beliefs about God.
The Interview With Boris on The Subject of G-d
I have decided this Part will be conducted like a magazine interview. In case you have Mad Human's Disease and cannot put it together BW stands for me Bernard Wisser, and BDL stand for Boris Dov Lanter--enjoy :
Part 3 (Blog)
BW: So is that it-- with reincarnation--are we through?
BDL: Not quite mamzer (Yiddish: trickster, bastard, cute little tyke) ! I can't say I believe in reincarnation a whole lot, in any true sense of 'believe'; but it does make sense to me. I must say, my belief in it while ironically it’s becoming less important to me. Maybe that means I'm becoming less attached to my own immortality. Of course, in this case, less is a very relative term or I wouldn't be cooperating in having my biography done--would I? And, I’m doing it, even though you and I both know my biography might give me another twenty-five or fifty years—at the most--in the public’s memory, after I’m gone—for good. That is if you Nardo are successful in doing your job as a biographer—I did my job by living my life.
BW: Come on Boris, we don’t have a whole lifetime to work on the biography! Why do you say reincarnation makes sense to you?
BDL: Well, first, every fiber of my being refuses to accept the, materialistic and rationalistic dogma—that simplistic belief—that mind and self-reflective consciousness is a product of the brain. I can easily conceive of an intelligent being, with built in feedback loops, that could perform all of the functions of a human being, without the capability of feeling awe, love, hate, admiration, jealousy, envy, fury, etc. Ants do it, why not highly intelligent beings. I believe the nervous system of an animal is a receiver of mind and consciousness, both of which are extended throughout the interpenetrating, interdependent, and interconnected web of the Whole. The more complex the nervous system and brain the greater is the amount of consciousness and freedom available to mind until you reach the sub-apex of consciousness--on this planet--which is self-reflecting consciousness.
The apex of consciousness is a self-reflecting consciousness, which fully understands and accepts the truth of it's own nature or more specifically, we are talking about the enlightened mind and its consciousness.
Moreover, the brain is not merely a receiver it is also a processor, and within the limits or borders of it's own circuitry it can process an infinite number of permutations of thoughts received by Mind with a capital “M”. Essentially, Consciousness is the emptiness of Mind in which appearances occur and are experienced. Feelings are conditioned reactions which appear in consciousness, by association with biological reactions in the body, to ones own experiences, thoughts, and behavior.
However, even the most complex brain is limited in how much of Mind it can receive and process. It's own physiology and karma, limits the frequencies (for want of a better word), which it can pull in. If you require an analogue, take the human eye. It's incapable of seeing x-rays, ultraviolet light, infrared light, gravity, and many other forms of energy that are still to be discovered. The eyes of other species can see one of more of those types of energy; yet; some can’t process color at all.
Karma affects the wiring of the brain by what neural synapses and connections the brain can make or not make; or if not that, perhaps it is, which ones will be allowed to appear in consciousness. In other words maybe Karma creates certain types of neural firewalls that prevent information in certain patterns from entering awareness. Otherwise, if reincarnation does occur why would someone be born with mathematical or artistic ability in one lifetime, and be deprived of it in another. Thus, karma is much like the coloring on the sunglasses I mentioned earlier or maybe like other forms of filters. Therefore, karma conditions our actions and experiences. However I don’t want to reify karma. I conceive of It as merely certain types of conditioned and habituated patterns (perhaps of information) that are stored in parcels of consciousness that can be received by individual brains.
I'll tell you why that notion makes sense to me Boris. You see karma besides being the cause of rebirth is also thought of as being the conditionings of ignorance. Thus, karma exists simultaneously in a state where different degrees of direct awareness are blocked or allowed into awareness. It is then that our will and freedom to choose becomes engaged. Freedom and choice are very important because ultimately free choice may yield liberation from all conditionings, which is a functional definition of enlightenment.
In cyber terms, the human brain must have a back door, or doors. Authentic awareness is always possible and maybe it is always going on subconsciously, but cannot be processed into thought until it reaches levels of self-reflective awareness.
In my own experience, from non-linear Aha moments to peak experiences, I can immediately discern two conditions under which authentic non-conditioned (transcendental) experience occurs.
The first is when--for whatever reason--I have ‘let-go’ of control, and have accepted that I no longer know, what I am doing, what more I can do, or where I am going, in whatever endeavor I am attending to. I guess that's something like surrendering to emptiness (like it or not); more often than not (for me) or guidance appears out of emptiness. Many times it takes the form of an Aha experience; for suddenly I will clearly understand what I am doing or what I am 'suppose' to do, what steps to take next, or at least I get a message to turn the page.
The second condition occurs when I 'empty-out', which may occur either intentionally or non-intentionally on my part. Probably, I have already told you what I mean by 'empty-out' in some earlier discussion Nardo. I seem to recall that I did, but I don't know if you used it or not. I don't know how you keep up with all that stuff Nard, I sure can't.
Anyway, for me 'empty-out' means not hooking onto or I Boris have been those series of thought and feelings forr a period of time—that my mind has connected to them (like fingers hooked onto a coffee cup), I label it something like 'hooked', or 'thought' or 'feeling'. The funny thing is although that disengages me from each thought and feelings I have hooked into, they still keep rising and never stop. However, eventually I arrive at a state where feelings and thoughts seem to be orbiting around me, as they arise in an unhooked manner and simultaneously I experience being empty. It's like letting thoughts and feelings appear, and then let them go in orbit. When that happens, some authentic insight, or understanding may and often does occur. This second condition is like surrender or letting- go of cognition. Maybe that's why it sometimes happens during sleep.
By the way, when I talk about thoughts and feelings going into orbit, I'm obviously not talking about anything substantial. If you are able to watch them pop into existence, without hooking into them, you will see those orbiting thoughts and feelings either dissipate or pop out of existence, as still others make their appearance. However if you hook them they will form an associative chain that will engage your consciousness so thoroughly that everything else in your experiential field is lost to your attention for a period of time:
That attention grabbing aspect of our conscious minds, those cognitions; are closely correlated with our biological program to survive, to be rather than not to be.
Since cognition is a relative process, it's reasonable that letting-go of it brings us into a non relative space even it is just momentary; that's probably added evidence that nirvana (enlightenment, extinction of ignorance and attachment, and liberation from the conditioned cycles of birth, suffering and death) and samsara (eternal cycles of birth suffering and death) are interpenetrating like emptiness and appearance. In samsara, it is that marriage of the cognitive, and biological which demands an executive be in charge to control and to decide how to react to all that impinges on us or how to act to our own reflexes. We call that executive, 'the ego'. And ironically it is the ego which initially takes us to the path which will eventually lead to it's own weakening or destruction.
BW: I'm finding this interesting Boris but I can't see how you are making a case for reincarnation. So far, you have made a great case for conditioning, which I think may be a more reductive explanation than karma. And talk about reduction, I think the example you gave about music or mathematical ability appearing in one lifetime but not another actually weakens the case for both karma and reincarnation, since karma on one level is an explanatory concept for the continuity of personality throughout life times. So, you still have to show me why the belief in reincarnation may be tenable.
How can Boris counter Bernard's objection? Should he counter the objection? To find out check out Part 4 in the next publication. A HINT: Boris says (in Part4) "Spirituality is about freeing yourself."
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