This text is not a quick read; it requires continuous reflection on even the basic concepts. Although it will not come naturally, it will be necessary to dwell on various passages in order to understand and absorb them.
You are strongly advised not to ignore parts that you do not fully understand out of impatience or a desire to get to the next part.
If you encounter momentary difficulties in fully assimilating a concept, or even just an example, you are advised to stop reading, set aside some time to reflect on the concept in question, and resume reading after a few hours, or the next day.
Similarly, when reference is made to a passage which has previously been understood but has since been forgotten, the reader is advised to return to that passage. You should not resume reading until the previous concepts have once again been assimilated or remembered.
This text has been written in the simplest manner possible. It avoids unnecessary jargon, instead using basic terminology, and seeks to provide simplifying examples.
We wanted to create a text that is accessible to any reader, of any creed or cultural background. Simple, banal illustrative examples have also been used, to the extent that they may seem coarse or downright crude.
To compensate for the difficulty of some of the materials, the topics themselves have also been addressed in a simple and simplified manner. At times, scientific correlations and corollaries are minimised, if not excluded altogether, at the risk of irritating scholars and experts in the field. Highly-educated people or those from a STEM background may turn their noses up at the simplistic manner in which scientific topics have been treated.
We offer our sincere apologies to those who feel that their sophistication and intelligence has been offended by the text's "simplicity". We invite such people to consider that for every one person who has been offended by the simplicity of this text, there is at least one other person for whom this simplicity has permitted a full comprehension of the subject matter.
The scope of this text is not to convince the reader of its writer's technical and scientific prowess, or even to vie for the approval of the scientific community, although this may not be to the liking of scientific researchers. The scope of this text is to enable as wide an audience as possible to understand the concepts within.
Some readers will find concepts that are new, provocative, and perhaps even contrary to their own culture or religious beliefs.
Other readers will rediscover concepts that they had read about in other scientific, religious, metaphysical, or psychological texts. Nothing here has been invented; rather, beliefs based on superstitions and stories have been demystified. This text does nothing more than assembling a collection of logical links between hidden truths, ancestral cultures, and truths which have always been out in the open.
Although the readers may find in this text concepts that they have already read about elsewhere, they must not let themselves become convinced of the erroneous idea that this is one of many books born from a potpourri of ideas; this text is not a syncretism of New Age, religious, and other miscellaneous beliefs.
Although we sought to reach as wide an audience as possible, this manuscript objectively has a limited target readership. It is intended for readers of average and high intelligence, gifted with an open mind, intellectual modesty, and sensitive intuition; they are objectively critical, free thinkers in search of their own path.
Readers who approach the task of confronting this text with their own beliefs in a conservative manner, besides not grasping the contents of the manuscript, will not even succeed in following its logical steps, and will probably rage against its basic concepts.
Only those who succeed in abandoning their creed, their certainties, their views and their scientific knowledge will be able to shed light on their own Anandayana.
This text is not for those who are well-suited to a sick society. This text is not for those who are only able to find happiness in brief moments of physical intoxication. This text is not for those who unquestioningly believe what they are told. This text is not for those who firmly cling to superstitions, beliefs and rites, dictated by antiquated writings, never stopping to think about what they are doing. This text is not for those who never experiment with or doubt their beliefs. This text is not for those who are unwilling to listen to alternative views. This text is not for those who blindly believe what they are told by television, religion, and science, rejecting knowledge from other sources out of hand. This text is not for those who prostrate themselves in the presence of "superiors", regardless of their field. This book is not for those who, between being and having, choose to have.
The reader who will appreciate this text is a reader who has always felt that something is wrong with the system, and society as a whole; a person who has never felt fully at ease within society. A person who lives well with others, but also does well alone. A person who has always felt a spiritual calling, but has never found a path or a religion that satisfies own spiritual needs. A person who has started to understand the things in life that are important, those that are unnecessary, those that are useless, and those that are harmful. A person who prefers concepts to form. A person who wants to be rather than have. A person who is ready to love oneself, and therefore to love others. A pacifist who feels in harmony with nature.
The Anandayana Project, while making no claim to scientific rigour, is rooted in the traditional scientific approach: any logical theory is potentially valid until it is disproven.
Practising your own Anandayana, you will find the answer to a question as ancient as human civilisation itself: what is the meaning of life?
For thousands of years, great philosophers have studied man and the meaning of life, producing beautiful and brilliant analyses that have become materials for advanced university study. Unfortunately, however, this study has remained an end in itself.
What is the meaning of life? Discounting extensive philosophical discussion, this is a question that not all ordinary people have stopped to reflect upon.
Some people may claim that they are always so busy and in such a rush that they have no time to reflect on the reason for our existence in this world; living in this way, without knowing one's reason for being, seems paradoxical.
Some people may claim that the meaning of life is to build a family and/or to reach a certain social position, obtaining status symbols such as the various consumer goods offered by society: property, vehicles, and luxury products. Those who assert this viewpoint do not realise that the surrogate for happiness that they feel each time they reach or achieve one of these goals is fleeting, immediately being replaced by a new frustration over a new consumer good. This system of consumer goods makes us like cats, chasing our own tails.
None of these people stop to consider that the desire for such stimuli does not arise from one's own thoughts or desires, but rather has been very shrewdly planted in their minds by society.
The obfuscation created by society, religion, and occasionally even science, has made it so that those philosophical theses have remained nothing but words without any real-world application.
Even though the meaning of life remains an enigma for many, everyone would agree that the optimal condition for living is a state of serenity.
Although some religions alert their followers to the false happiness generated by the system of consumer goods imposed by society, their followers attribute little importance to the matter.
If modern societies can be accused of distracting individuals by creating status symbols and dangerous role models, incentivising ambition and nurturing people's egos, religions play an even more important role in clouding the minds of individuals: basing themselves on ancient superstitions, they create behavioural models which discourage the individual from exploring the concept of life. They cast every present moment, for the entirety of the believer's life, towards the false hope of a post-mortem future in an undetermined place. The obvious and desired result is that followers constantly project their present into the future: choices, ways of life, attitudes, personal and social relations, sacrifices and deprivations of all sorts are made, and must be made, throughout their entire existences, with the goal of gaining a place in paradise or a worthy reincarnation. An individual raised in this environment, constantly projecting into the future, finds it difficult to conceive of the fundamental concept of serenity: the "Here&Now".
Maybe you yourself are not religious, but by living in a religious society, one's lifestyle is to an extent moulded by the religion or religions of the place in which one grows up.
Some people are aware that what human beings seek is simply happiness, but even among these people, few truly seek to understand how to obtain happiness. We are born, raised, educated, and living in a society which provides us with completely misguided models of happiness, which is fed by powerful people in society. These models are based on career, money, sexuality, a religious creed, or family, without any form of inner search to understand what the source of happiness is.
The term Anandayana has roots in Sanskrit: Ananda, which can be translated as "happiness" and Yana, meaning "journey", "way", "path". Thus, Anandayana: the path to happiness.
"Happiness" was originally defined as the positive state of mind of those who consider all of their desires to be satisfied. However, the term "happiness" is often considered to refer mindset of brief and ephemeral grace, something which is destined to soon end, although this is not intrinsic within the meaning of the word. The reason for this is likely that when one thinks of the word "happiness", it is associated with material, as opposed to spiritual desires; and indeed, happiness deriving from the satisfaction of a material desire (such as the purchase of a new car or mobile phone) is fleeting. On the other hand, happiness which derives from the satisfaction of a spiritual desire is long-lasting... those who are unaware of what is meant by the satisfaction of spiritual desire, do not worry; this will become clear by the end of this manuscript.
The term "serenity" is generally associated with an emotional state of tranquillity and calm, both deep and apparent, enduring through time. In this text, the term Anandayana will be used also to refer to the path for serenity.
This is not one of the many texts which purport to provide the recipe for reaching lasting serenity in a few steps. There neither exists a recipe nor secret for serenity.
Siddhartha Gautama, better known as (the first) Buddha, said:
- There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path -
We will see that contained between the lines of this quote is the concept of the "Here&Now", in which there is no such thing as a path "to" serenity, but rather a path "of" serenity.
In summary, the term "Anandayana" denotes the "path of spiritual happiness and serenity", although for simplicity's sake only the meanings of path of happiness or path of serenity will be referred to going forward, depending on the subject at hand.
The path, or journey, of happiness is a personal one. Nobody can provide an ad hoc recipe that works for everyone; one person's effective journey will not necessarily work for someone else.
"Consciousness" and "awareness" are two terms which are sometimes expressed as synonyms, and at other times defined in stark contrast to one another. Even students of Psychology and Philosophy cannot always agree with their colleagues on the precise definitions of "consciousness" and "awareness".
In this text, "awareness" is meant as the capacity, to a greater or lesser extent, to cognitively perceive and react to conditions or events, not necessarily implying their comprehension. Indeed, while an increase in "consciousness" generally requires an increase in knowledge, an increase in "awareness" can take place in response to an experience which has not been understood.
With the term "individual awareness", we are referring to the "awareness" of an individual.
"Individual awareness" can be seen as a mental activity of the present (and the recent past), generated by an individual's "consciousness" with the aid of observed events (or conditions), memories, and knowledge... in other words, an instrument of "consciousness".
For ease of function, the mind and its activities divide themselves into three categories: "conscious", "unconscious", and "subconscious". By "consciousness", we mean to refer to the act of being conscious of the cognitive activities of sensation, formulated thought, intuition, reason, will, and memory, i.e., "conscious" acts of the mind.
More cognitively elevated mental activities which are not "conscious", such as spontaneous thoughts, emotions, and instincts, are defined as "unconscious".
Less cognitively elevated mental activities are defined as "subconscious"; this category includes activities which regulate and synchronise physical activities.
At this point, we must draw a sharp distinction between "Individual Consciousness" and "consciousness".
Within this text, the term "Individual Consciousness" is not intended to be taken simply as the definition of "consciousness" as it has been defined above, applied to the individual.
Rather, with the term "Individual Consciousness", we aim to expand the concept of "consciousness"; that is, to be conscious of one's cognitive activities, and even to be conscious of the existence of one's spiritual part, in the broader sense of the term.
Thus, if we understand the difference between "Individual Consciousness" and "consciousness", it is easy to deduce that the "consciousness" of an individual is a skill that can be partially developed by the individual themselves. On the other hand, an individual's "Individual Consciousness" presents greater potential for development: the difference lies precisely in the fact that being conscious of one's own spiritual part is an implication which can profoundly change an individual.
Later in the text, we will introduce the terms Mens and Spirit and understand how these spiritual components make up a part of every human being. In doing so, we will understand that most of what constitutes the "conscious" is part of the manifestation of Mens, while the majority of what constitutes the "unconscious" is part of the manifestation of Spirit.
Therefore, the "Individual Consciousness" of a living being is an amalgamation of that being's manifestations of Mens and Spirit. We will see that Mens and Spirit are entities possessing more dimensions than we realise, and that they therefore perceive events and conditions which the individual does not perceive; consequently, they possess a more extensive, if not heightened, awareness.
Following a spiritual path is difficult, no matter what stage one is at.
Aside from the fact that guidelines on creating a spiritual path are lacking and confusing, for millennia society and organised religion have done all they could to divert individuals from a genuine spiritual path, instilling superstitions and false myths and creating collectives which limit "individual awareness" and hinder the development of "Individual Consciousness". The reason for all of this is that a society containing a high number of people with a developed "Individual Consciousness" is not a society that can be controlled.
Anandayana intends to propose guidelines which assist the individual in finding their own spiritual path, or rather their own path of serenity.
The term "guideline" is purposely used, as a complete behavioural guide for all living beings cannot exist. Each individual is a unique work of perfection. No one recipe for serenity can work for two individuals, let alone many - even less so when those people are spread over different generations.
Before proposing "guidelines", it is necessary to make sure that the reader possesses the basic level of understanding which permits one to interpret these guidelines, and to therefore find one's own path of serenity.
In Part I - The Gnoseology of Serenity we will introduce, albeit in highly simplified form, the structure of the universe insofar as it concerns humans and their spiritual components. The present part of the text can be considered a complete preparation for the rest of this manuscript; understanding and absorbing this chapter is essential for lighting the way on what will be your own path of serenity. In fact, an ill-informed individual can only possess confused ideas; for such a person, any form of spiritual research amounts to wandering in the dark. Furthermore, any hypothetical spirituality that is found would be in the same vein as modern religious practices: a set of superstitions.
Recall that the broad definition of "consciousness" (see the first definitions given in the paragraph Terminology for Getting Started ⇒) includes the acquisition of knowledge; if one's knowledge is erroneous, growth in Individual Consciousness cannot correctly take place.
It would not make sense to continue to Part II - Our Environment without completely understanding and absorbing Part I.
In this way, elements of the "guidelines", although not specifically dictated, will take shape to build one's own Anandayana, in the form of the insights into our surroundings and how to better interact with them.
The reader is invited to read with a receptive, flexible, and open mind.