Kenopanishad
The ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, the speech of speech, and the life energy behind life energy. Being free [knowing this], the wise, on departing this field of experience, become immortal.
Interpretation
The Sanskrit word for what we are translating as a field of experience is loka, more commonly translated as a world. What the teacher is indicating here is that when a person leaves this world at the time of death, if they know what is being indicated by the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, etc., they move beyond the cycles of births and deaths. But this is spirituality, not health, right? This is religion, not health, right?
No. Here's why.
Religion begins with belief and faith and often stays there. Spirituality is but a middle ground between the belief of religion and the experimentation of science. But what is being spoken and indicated here is a matter that can be tested in your very own experience. Call it science, call it spirituality, call it direct experience, call it practical experimentation, call it whatever you wish, but the experience here cannot be sustained by belief nor faith alone. It requires daring experimentation to sustain flight from the mind to the mind of the mind.
The rational, scientific nature of the venture before the student is important when we apply it to the field of health. If, in fact, we want health at a systemic level, we have to understand the facts. The facts include that the mind of the mind and the ear of the ear are recognizable within us. The facts include that when this is recognized, our identity beyond that of an individual personality and body is also recognized. The facts include that when this happens, we will recognize causes of disease that are far beyond the purview of current medical science, including causes that were prior to our birth that are beyond the understanding of genetics. These are not to be believed. These are not to be taken on faith. They are to be taken as hypotheses, and the student is to design and perform their own experiment.
Today, we already know that lifestyle is a major cause for disease, accounting for perhaps 50% or more of all disease. But what causes the lifestyle choices we make? We may say it's a combination of the environment we are in and our temperament. But again, what causes these? Why are we in the situations we are in? Certainly we could keep tracing the cause back to our childhood, even to the circumstances into which we were born, but then logic would compel us to ask the next question: Why was I born into that situation? Here, medical science goes mute, because it has physicalized the human being into a mechanical structure that just happened to come together with the right combination of chemical elements to create the human in the uterus.
But where did our human tendencies come from? Are they random? Are they totally the result of our parents' genetics? No. There is more to the picture than the medical textbooks say, as suggested by the word departing, as in departing the standard world of knowledge and perception. This all-encompassing understanding of health is what the teacher is indicating.
Still, the student may wonder: Field of experience? What a strange description! Why such flowery language?
What is a world after all? Is it not a series of perceptions? Is it not sights, sounds, tastes, textures, and scents mixed together with memories, thoughts, feelings, relationships, sensations, and a sense of identity? Beyond this, what are the ingredients of any world? We are not taking any of the meaning, significance, or reality away from the world. We are merely inquiring into its ingredients. When we see these ingredients clearly, it makes perfect sense to conclude that what we are experiencing right now is a field of activity, or field of experience. This field we call Earth. In the dream state, we enter another field of experience. In the sleep state, we enter yet another field of (non)experience. Therefore, the teacher precisely describes the world that is left behind as simply a field of experience or field of activity that the individual leaves behind. It is therefore implied here that the field that is left behind is also a standard of knowledge. Leaving behind the knowledge of only the limited individuality, which is associated with limited understanding of health and disease, grasp the knowledge of full identity, of the self within and without, indicated as that which the wise know.
Tomorrow, we examine the notion of immortality and its relationship with health.
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