QuestFor a healthy mind capable of self-realization

• What is self-realization?
• What is self-actualization? Is there a relationship between self-actualization and self-realization?
• What are the characteristics of a Self-actualized person?
• Maslow described that the self-actualizing person is mentally healthy, fully-functioning and forward growing. Is there a relationship between a healthy mind and self-actualization?
•  What is the neuroscience of a healthy brain? Does a constant supply of neurotransmitters and fully functioning right and left hemispheres ensure brain health?
• How to achieve a healthy mind capable of self-actualization and ultimately lead to self-realization?
• What is the complete mind body care system for a robust and fully-functioning brain?
• What are the nutritional requirements of a healthy brain?
• How does the physical exercise maintains a healthy mind and a body?
• What are the spiritual and psychological Factors involved in the realization of a healthy mind?
• Positive thinking for a healthy mind
• Living a moral life
• Living in a moment
• How can we enter into the realm of Now?
• Meditation; a portal into the timeless treasure of Now
•  different types of meditations:
• Breathing Exercise
• Mindfulness
• Transcendental meditation (TM)
• Visualization meditation
• Islamic meditation
• Dhikr (Remembrance)
• Muraqba (Contemplation of scripture)
• Taffakur (Contemplation of Nature)

                            

What is self-realization?

Who am I?

What is my rightful place in the universe? 

What is the purpose of my insignificant presence in this vast Universe?

 

       These questions have occupied human mind since the origin of his presence on planet Earth. Quest for the true identity, his rightful place in the Universe and the genuine purpose of existence has set the human mind on a journey to self-realization. Intellectuals from the revolutionary Axil age to the modern-day 21st Century intelligentsia have been trying to find the answers of the unknowable quest.

       Search for the self-realization or an “authentic self” began with the evolution of human mind.  Axil age is considered the prime era to embark on  this great journey of self-searching. Axil age, a period from 800 to 200 BC, was a time of revolutionary thinkers from all over the world, particularly  Greece, India, Persia, China and Occident. 

Nosce te ipsum (Know thyself)

       This aphorism was uttered by Greeks of Axil age, about twenty-five hundred years ago and was written on the forecourt of Apollo at Delphi (a town in the south Central part of Greece).

 Greek philosopher Plato claimed,

 ”The essence of knowledge is self-knowledge,”

   About the same time in the farthest corner of India, a spiritual sage Siddhatta Gotama set on a spiritual journey to seek enlightenment. He pointed to the inherent possibility of attaining awakening and explained that

 “Reality is an undivided whole; awakening is the realization to this whole".

     Gotama  believed that he had woken up to a truth that was engraved in the deepest structure of our existence. By discovering this truth, he had become enlightened and awakened one.

      In the Gospel of Judas Jesus proclaimed "salvation through knowledge, the self-knowledge of divine light within". In the Gospel of Judas, the word gnosis is used twice (50, 54).  “The knowledge claimed by these people (Gnostics) is not worldly knowledge but mystical knowledge, knowledge of God and self and the relationship between God and self".

               About a thousand years later, in the vastness of Meccan desert, a merchant named Mohammad (PBUH) became blessed with the divine revelation and was chosen to spread the message to the humanity. He once again drew our attention to the self-knowledge and nearness to the creator. In one of the tradition prophet Mohammad (PBUH) explained,

“Man Arafa  nafsahu arafa rabbahu”

(Whosoever knows himself knows his lord).

   Sufism, an inner mystical dimension of Islam, places great emphasis on the word Ma’rifa (gnosis) which means cognition. In this context, Ma'rifa means self-knowledge that leads to the knowing the ultimate reality.

Sufism difines self-realization,

“Self-realization means to know one’s true being, to know the purpose of one’s life, and to know how to accomplish that purpose” 

   Sheikh-al-Akbar, Ibn-al Arabi, in his prolific work "Fosus al hekam", discusses the important concept of Insan-e Kamil or a perfect human being.

“A perfect human being is a person who has pure consciousness and has achieved his/her true identity”.

            Guru Nanak (1469-1539),  Spiritual thinker and the founder of the Sikh religion, expressed his thoughts on self-realization,

"Those  who realize their self get immersed into the Lord Himself".

       Search for the true-self is ingrained in our essence and will continue to grow with the evolution of the human mind. Though it originated in the primitive brain but has continued to cultivate and breed in the thoughts and beliefs of the modern scientific man.