Hi! Welcome!
I want to ask you about
the process of learning
and whether or not you consider
yourself to be a scientist.
How do you learn?
Do you learn with your
mind by memorizing things?
How about with your body?
Do you need to have a kinetic
experience to embody the learning?
And finally, what emotions do
you bring to your learning?
Ambition perhaps?
Perseverance?
Excitement?
In my experience, each of us learns
through the domains of language,
body and emotion.
All three are necessary to fully
learn and comprehend new material.
I want you to consider that
the way you actually learn
is scientific and I'll
explain this shortly.
The Scientific Method is
what the Oxford dictionary
describes as having started
around the 17th century.
It began with with Johannes
Kepler and Galileo Galilei.
The Scientific Method is a set of
techniques where we seek to find answers
to phenomena through empirical
and measurable evidence.
One thing I want you
to keep in mind—
and again just to let you
know this is a perspective—
is that the Scientific
Method is about
phenomena that are easily impressed
upon our physical senses.
So, for example,
things we can see,
things we can touch
and hear and feel
and all sorts of
sensory impressions.
The Scientific Methodology uses certain
techniques to investigate phenomena.
And it's based upon Western thinking,
Western frameworks and Western philosophy.
The Scientific Method is
about empirical evidence,
is about measurable evidence
to test hypotheses.
Now, as I alluded to before,
these systems are fantastic for working
with sensory type of phenomena.
But what if you
have an experience,
a very deep, visceral
experience of phenomena that is
outside of the
normal instruments
of measurable science?
Well, what do you do?
Well, this is where the toolkit of the
Scientific Method comes into play.
Using the toolkits of systematic
observation and measurement
we create experiments
to test our hypotheses.
We then refine, modify and potentially
generate new understanding
based on our observation
and integration.
This is where an intelligent
mind comes into play.
And this is why we started
this course and section
with the invocation from
the Taittirīya Upaniṣad.
Intelligence is a key
foundation of observation
because without intelligence
you cannot observe.
Here is my invitation
to you to keep in mind
as we continue further
into this course.
The invitation is to take a look
at how you can make best
use of that intelligence
that you have available
to you right now.
Use this intelligence
consciously
to direct it into observation.
Through this conscious
observation
make things real for you
by simply noticing
sensations in your body,
thoughts in your head
and emotions that
come up for you.
There is no right or wrong.
The invitation is
to simply notice.
Make these learnings a deep,
integral part of you.
Because if you don't
experience it,
if you don't embody
that learning,
it's just up there in your head as a
collection of facts and opinions.
Basically, it's just memories
of stuff you've collected.
Unless you have deeply
experienced it,
unless you have embodied
it in your physical body,
in your physical form,
it's very easy to shift and
manipulate that stored information.
Someone else who has better mental
acuity, experience and capacity
may be able to rearrange your stored
information without your permission.
This can be done through debate,
argument or other means.
Again, this is where
intelligence comes in to play
because the intelligent observer
will understand the processes
required for learning.
That intelligent
observer that you are
understands that
embodiment of observation,
of hypotheses, of the
Scientific Method
and can consciously choose
to adjust those hypotheses.
So the invitation here
with this learning
is to get in touch with that intelligence
that looks out from your eyes.
And that intelligence is key
to the rest of the steps.
In this course, we're
studying the Vedic Sciences
and there's a whole other
philosophy and mindset
that is required to learn and
understand the Vedic Sciences.
The scientists of
the Western world,
Galileo and Kepler as examples,
were brought up on
the Western mindset.
They come in with a
particular structure,
a particular architecture
of their world-view.
That is the philosophy and understanding
they were brought up with
and that is the philosophy and
understanding that is real to them.
Basically, they've
embodied that;
it's in their physical,
intellectual and emotional makeup.
That is the framework they use
when they approach learning and
understanding new phenomena.
The invitation in this video is to take
all of those lessons that you learnt,
understood and embodied
and to take a look at the
framework that exists around it.
Now, use that intelligence
behind all those lessons,
all that learning and apply it,
potentially to phenomena that are
outside of the normal sensory range.
How does your existing framework help
you with understanding new phenomena?
How does it limit you?
Use your intelligence and use
that faculty of discrimination,
the faculty to discern
which is true for you.
What will you choose to embody?
What will you direct
your mind toward?
And again, this is that
faculty of intelligence,
this is that faculty that the invocation
helped to bring out in this conversation.
I hope this has been
helpful to you.
Take care and I'll see
you in the next video.
