I think of the brain as an enormous network of neurons with the ability to store memories, ability to acquire skills and function in the word. As we learn a new skill, new networks of neurons are built. By network, I mean a collection of interconnected neurons analogous to an electrical network. Imagine pieces of wire randomly strewn about a work table. Imagine there are batteries and light bulbs lying about too. Now if some one connects the light bulb to batteries with the wires correctly, it glows. The process of making the connections is analogous to some one learning a new skill. The new circuit on the table just acquired the ability to make a light bulb glow.
Observe your self for a minute. How does any thought arise in you? Suppose you just happened to hear a person’s name. The sound waves stimulate you eardrums, are translated into neuro-chemical signals and are transported to your brain. The signal stimulates neurons in your brain in a pattern when the sound of the person’s name falls on the ear drums. eg. the sound of ‘x’ may correspond to neuron A’s nth branch sending a chemical molecule to neighboring neuron B’s mth branch. This stimulation in turn stimulates your brain to retrieve memories about the person, similar to how a computer autofills words you are likely to type. It now builds a model of the named person with the information that is available. It fills in information that is not in memory with approximations. This might cause a train of thoughts about the person. When you think of a person, there must be an agent (another circuit of neurons) in the brain asking what might that person be doing or where that person might be and so on. This agent in the brain causes other parts of the brain to fill in information based on information that is stored in memory. Brain takes a guess, for example of where that person might be. That invokes thoughts about the place guessed. Now the brain fits the model of the person in to the model of the place where that person might be. Thus arises imaginations in the brain. Memories are recalled information while imaginations are construction of a new permutation of objects retrieved from memory. It is very likely that the mechanism of memory and imagination have several common processes, like playing out a scenario in the mind. Memory is the case where the scenario is filled in with remembered information, while imagination is the case where scenario is filled in with approximations of entities that fit well with the rest of the scenario.
All experiences can be reduced to a sum of feelings. Here is a thought experiment to visualize the process of logical thinking. Logical thinking is playing out a scenario in the mind, similar to imagination. Imagination with information used being objectively checked for fit with the rest of scenario. Understanding, liking, disliking, pleasure, discomfort, sound, sight, touch, morality etc. ultimately produce a feeling. All external stimuli reach the brain as signals and these signals are passed through various networks in the brain. If a stimulus excites the networks that produce pleasure, then you experience pleasure. If the stimulus also excites neurons responsible for the feeling of guilt, now you get the feeing of guilty-pleasure. Suppose you receive stimuli that excites the neurons for pleasure. And then what happens. What is the final step when the neurological networks responsible for feeling of “I" inside one's head registers the feeling corresponding to the stimuli? That remains a big mystery. Perhaps matter has unknown properties by which it produces feeling. Ability to feel the world around more accurately may produce more awareness. This ability to feel can be learnt. In fact, we learn, by observing and when the brains model of the that what is newly learnt fits without contradiction into the model of the world, then we get a pleasurable feeling. That is the point at which we have understood the object of our learning. A lot of mindfulness meditation is a practice of observing our own feelings without judgment. Through this practice, one practices observing the world more accurately. This practice would make one very good at absorbing new concepts, connecting concepts by noticing commonalities. When one takes a piece of information and absorbs it really well, then the model fits very well into the model of that person’s world. When it is well connected, it implies a multitude of links between the new idea and the model of the world. When some becomes adept at absorbing information and connecting it really well with their model of the world, we might call that person wise because that person’s brain will sprout a lot of connections between the neurons that represent a concept and neuron that represent other things in the brain. When connections are large, there is a higher likely hood of connection between representations of concepts. It is not an accident that deep thought is associated with wisdom. And it can all be developed by the practice of observing oneself - sensations, emotions, memories, imaginations ….. I think through the practice of observing one’s self, we can train to be wiser, calmer, and more rational to live well. This is my case for mindful living and meditation.
