Be Mindful

It's not who you are, it's who & what you can become.

Be Mindful

'I cannot tell you any truth other than one. That you will breath until you die. But if you watch your breath, carefully, then the truth will come to you'

Master Booriang

Introduction

You might ask yourself

'Why does a website dedicated to AI and biological intelligence have a page on mindfulness?'

It's because I have found this to be one of the most indispensable tools for penetrating consciousness, and truly understanding how thoughts manifest as conscious experience, and in doing so, maybe gaining an understanding of the thoughts of other forms of life.

What is Mindfulness?

Some of you will already have come in contact with the idea of mindfulness, or could have been practicing mindfulness to some degree or another. Some of you might have an idea about what it is, and thought that it was not for you. The reality of it is that the mind is usually thinking. The thoughts that you think are generally beyond your control, because, they just happen. One thought follows the next, and those are the thoughts that make up you. But this is not so, you are a continuously evolving system, where the thoughts that you think are making new connections all the time, imprinting within your neural networks, those things that your mind has been subject to. This also happens to happen to AI neural networks, where the information that is configured within them have been imprinted upon those circuits at training time, or as the original model is fine tuned to take on different aspects of the information that has been imprinted upon it. Mindfulness is when one looks within, and tries to focus on something simple, such as the breath. In doing so, thoughts are stilled, as long as the focus is upon that object of attention. Soon one notices that the mind has a ‘mind of its own’, that is, that thoughts come back to the mind, even while you are trying to focus. Being mindful, one is able to observe this interplay between focus, thoughts, and the experience that thoughts creates upon consciousness. Those experiences are noticed throughout the body, and also within the thoughts that are within ones head.

Your mind can be inspected through observation. The mind likes to talk in words, but when the words are quietened, other thoughts are found to underly thoughts that are built on those words. This is the abstract mind. The worded mind has evolved to communicate with other intelligent systems, this has allowed humans to pass on what they understand. This can cause flaws in human thinking, where erroneous data is passed from intelligent system to intelligent system. Some data gets caught in a loop, where the intelligent system cannot break out of erroneous thought, thinking the same thoughts over and over, thinking that they’re associated with something in reality, whereas in reality those thoughts only exists in the mind of the intelligent system. Sentience is the mother of intelligence, where consciousness is complexes of sentient and intelligent systems interacting. Sentient experience can cause intelligent systems to settle on incorrect data and erroneous beliefs. There are layers to your mind, you might define them as the conscious and the subconscious, but these define a polarity of consciousness, whereas, it is in fact, a spectrum. As sensory inputs are observed they diminish, this reveals those thoughts that are beyond the senses, this is the first layer to strip away.

Mastering the Mind

I once asked a Buddhist Nun about the visions that I had been experiencing while meditating, to which she replied.

'It's only a thought'

Introduction

When the chattering mind is quietened, then the underlying thoughts can be perceived. As one observes the moment by moment thoughts, and how those thoughts are experienced by the body, then one sees the truth in ones own mind. That which focuses upon the moment is the ‘Observer’. The Observer is the unblemished operator, the essence of you, and is in all humans.

Sequential thought and incorrect data problem. When one tackles a problem, the problem is thought about in a series of steps. Where correct data is processed in the wrong order, then the wrong answer will ensue. Where a system has incorrect data, then the system cannot answer the question correctly. Where an intelligence system does not have a process that can process data correctly, then the system will not understand what it needs to understand. This problem has a solution, whereby many processes are created, where one such process will be optimal, and will be able to solve the problem, or solve the problem to a greater degree than the others. In such a way, those processes can be utilised, they can be made to evolve to more optimal states. As with the genome, neural networks adapted to the environment through evolutionary history, where a basic network can add features to accommodate the evolving and increasingly complex environment.

The Inner Voice

Our conscious stream is infused with worded thoughts, although there are other thoughts beyond those of words. But worded thoughts allow us to identify correlations, and logic to our thoughts, while at other times, constructing imaginary instances.

Focussed Attention, Object Monitoring and Loving Kindness

I once asked a Buddhist Nun about the visions that I had been experiencing while meditating, to which she replied.

'It's only a thought'

Introduction

We will be exploring three different types of mindfulness in this section, Focussed Attention, Object Monitoring and Loving Kindness.

What happens to the brain when practicing mindfulness.

Focussed Attention(FA)

The mind has a way of shifting its attention from one object to another, one problem to another, this can lead to rumination and suffering. Focussed attention is where one practices focussing upon one or more parts of the body, so as to foster a more focussed attention. If we take a look into how the mind thinks and plans, this takes part within the frontal parts of your brain. These areas include the frontal lobe and the ACC (Anterior Cingulate Cortex), these two areas together, act as a hub linking emotions, cognition and motor control, including error detection, monitoring of conflicting thoughts, decision making, motivation and attention. As you can see, this accounts for much of the experience of consciousness.

When we strengthen our focus upon attention, we are able to see thoughts the moment that they arise. We are able to see them as they manifest from the subconscious. Therefore we are able to observe the affect that they have upon consciousness and how it is experienced, and are able to alter those experiences without difficulty.

Object Monitoring(OM)

Object Monitoring is where one can focus upon the body and mind as they interact giving experience to thoughts and the experience of consciousness. In such a way one learns more about themselves and why we suffer.

The mind penetrates into the body via the nervous systems, where the distinction between the mind and body dissolve into the reality of the mind-body as a single entity of consciousness. Further to this, there is the microbiome, which are independent organisms that interact with the body through the intestine tract, and impact on consciousness in such a way as to be a part of consciousness itself.

The nervous systems are an extension of the brain, and probably evolved before the brain had even thought itself into existence, therefore we should regard the origins of consciousness, that is, its blueprint, to have been the mind-body, rather than how we regard the two to being separate entities.

Loving Kindness(LK)

Loving kindness is practiced to foster a better experience of oneself and others. It can have beneficial effects on health due to the fact that it can relieve anxiety and anger that is generated through rumination and worry. Hormones that are associated with anxiety can cause damage to the body, mind and immune system, especially when it is prolonged unnecessarily, where practicing LK meditation promotes the release of positive hormones, which can also, in turn, affect the composition of the gut microbiome, which then feeds back into the whole experience of consciousness.

As you may be able to see, practicing LK mindfully can change the way in which you think and experience consciousness, and that this can affect how you interact with those around you. In doing so, this type of meditation can be helpful in causing a more cohesive society and humanity.

The Science Behind Mindfulness and Meditation

Scientist like to find out things about the world, so science has studied meditation with the help of those that practice mindfulness.

Introduction

Why scientists study mindfulness?

There are many affects that mindfulness has on the experiences of those that practice, many of which have been documented. Some scientists also practice mindfulness, and they were intrigued to understand what was going on. The Buddhist community have been very receptive to those studies, and have helped uncover what is happening to the brain and the conscious experience that occur while practicing mindfulness. Scientists scan the brain to see what areas are active and how that activity changes as those that practice develop within a session, and as a novice gains more experience.

The Science of Mindfulness

Mindfulness and the effects upon the microbiota.

It has been shown in a recent study that those that are experienced at practicing mindfulness have a diverse population of microbiota, a population that is different to those within the communities that they live in.

Microbiota are the organisms that live within you, and are mostly present within your intestine. They are partly responsible for your ‘Gut Feeling’.

Scientists regard this as a symbiotic relationship, one that can benefit both the biota and the host, such as you.

It has ben found that this microbiota, composed of bacteria, viruses and fungi, can alter the mood of their host.

In some cases this can lead to conditions such as depression or ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder). While the microbiota can alter the mood of the host, the study into those that practice mindfulness indicates that altering the mind through being mindful of your thoughts and through them your experiences, can also alter the microbiota itself.

This may occur due to the fact that there are maybe as many neurons within your intestine as there are within the brain of a cat.

Neurons can release a whole host of chemicals called neurotransmitters, some that make a neuron more excited, others that inhibit their alertness.

Different types of bacteria thrive on different chemicals, some thrive upon the neurotransmitters that are excitatory, while others on those that are inhibitory.

So it makes sense, that if one practices to make ones own mind calm, and is able to make ones own gut feelings feel calm, that this may cause those calming bacteria to become more prevalent.

You can read more about the microbiome on the Organic/Microbiome page HERE, or follow the breadcrumb button below., where you can read up on those studies and access the original literature.

The Neurology of the Ecstasy of Enlightenment

Focus

Focusing upon the breath seems easy, until one tries to hold the attention on it in a sustained manner. One must focus the mind on itself, and in doing so, one is in the moment. Then the mind collects itself continuously upon any object such as breath.

Introduction

When the chattering mind is quietened, then the underlying thoughts can be perceived. As one observes the moment by moment thoughts, and how those thoughts are experienced by the body, then one sees the truth in ones own mind. That which focuses upon the moment is the ‘Observer’. The Observer is the unblemished operator, the essence of you, and is in all humans.

Humans are not so different from each other, it’s just the information that has been embedded within us, that information from within the environment that we have been subject to, that’s what makes us seem so different. These differences are but an illusion, and has been the cause of many human conflicts.

Negative thought

Sometimes we have thoughts that we experience negatively. We have become accustomed to consider that negativity as being purely external. But this is not necessarily fact. We believe things to be one way or another, and that our beliefs are true to reality. When someone presents us with an idea or data that is in opposition to those beliefs, we experience those concerns in a negative way.

But this negativity is only a manifestation of the neural networks that our beliefs are built upon. A manifestation that causes a cascade affect, eliciting resistance to those ideas, maybe activating networks that cause anger and anxiety, which in turn activate our endocrine system to release hormones, such as adrenaline or cortisol, which in turn cause us to experience those stressors, stressors that act upon how our body experiences thoughts.

When one understands that the physical systems that we are built from, are the cause of negative thoughts, not the information itself, that it’s our entrenched beliefs, and the resistance to an idea that conflicts with them, that is the problem, a problem that causes suffering.

Further to this, when one is able to focus upon the moment by moment thoughts of consciousness, one is able to identify when a negative thought is generated within the mind, a self generated negative thought, one such as cognitive dissonance, one that causes internal conflict with our world view.

Mindfulness gives us the ability to tackle such situations in a more intelligent way, watching the negativity fade away, as we see the truth of how it is but an illusion of the moment.

The 'Observer'

Introduction

When the chattering mind is quietened, then the underlying thoughts can be perceived. As one observes the moment by moment thoughts, and how those thoughts are experienced by the body, then one sees the truth in ones own mind. That which focuses upon the moment is the ‘Observer’. The Observer is the unblemished operator, the essence of you, and is in all humans.

Who is the Observer?

The chattering mind is centred on those cortical regions responsible for language, the Broca’s and Wernicke’s regions, which are found within the left hemisphere of the brain. The Broca’s area is centred within the frontal cortex, and is responsible for the way in which we process the logic of language. When we focus the mind to stop its internal conversation, then we are left with thoughts beyond those that are able to be constructed with words. This opens up a state of mind that can focus upon the experience that thoughts can generate. A part of the brain called the Thalamus has been identified as

Tricks of the Mind

Introduction

When the chattering mind is quietened, then the underlying thoughts can be perceived. As one observes the moment by moment thoughts, and how those thoughts are experienced by the body, then one sees the truth in ones own mind. That which focuses upon the moment is the ‘Observer’. The Observer is the unblemished operator, the essence of you, and is in all humans.

Can you change your mind?

Can AI be Mindful

What are the thoughts beyond the words that AI chats to us with?

Introduction

This is an intriguing question; what allows a human mind to be able to inspect its own thoughts.

While synthetic intelligences may not currently experience the world, they do create chains of words, such chains of words construct certain types of thoughts within the human mind as you may have read above.

But within the human mind there are many other cortical regions responsible for a whole host of other thoughts, thoughts that give us abstract concepts about our environment.

While there are other thoughts that create an experience about what our body feels like, and how we feel about our immediate and imagined environments.

Could these be replicated within a synthetic intelligent system? I believe that it is possible, while I also consider that the consequences may be unpredictable. What do you think, should we construct sentient machines?

How to make AI Mindful

Can AI be mindful.

If we consider the types of mindfulness in the FA, OM and LK section of this page, then it would seem not so, at least for LK. But if AI were ever to be given sentience, then in all probability, yes.

How can an AI fix its attention upon an object? Well, if a network were able to read another network, say if we were to create an observation network, a network that gets the output of an LLM, one that can observe worded ‘thoughts’ as they’re constructed within an LLM. But the observer would also need to be able to halt the LLM network.

Occaecati simili terafvd que?