[QUOTE=FlexPenguin;34963]I don’t really think civilizations 10,000 years ago were doing laser surgery and somehow all that info keeps getting lost.[/QUOTE]
Ohhhh, I totally missed your point on this quote. Now it makes sense… Yeah I absolutely agree. If there is no evidence of televisions existing 10,000 years ago, they’d be no reason to make the claim that there was.
Brain is an organ and may be, our expectation of ‘intelligence’ from it is misplaced. We just don’t have gross to subtle bodies (Annamaya kosha etc.) but gross to subtle thinking instruments that create awareness. Physical body has brain and its counterpart is manas on the astral plane and buddhi (intelligence) on the causal.
All three instruments work together to give us thinking ability. Our awareness remains locked up in the physical body, because of the brain’s dominence in the thinking process. Spiritual progress softens it and makes manas prominent and we see emotional thinking. Finally, awareness rises to causal when thinking is predominantly intelligent. However, this intelligence is not ‘material smartness’ but more a spiritual insight.
Thus, brain as an organ may have remained unevolved in the last 50K years, but as a team member of the thinking apparatus, it certainly evolves for a spiritually accomplished person. From a material brain that churns “relative” knowledge it evolves into a user of spiritual wisdom able to perceive the absolute. May be the hardware does not change, but the software certainly does.
I would think that human intelligence, is about as relative to a spiritual path as having good looks.
Actually a true yogi will be both intelligent and good looking. But that’s not what I really wanted to say. From the Bhagavad-Gita:
14.5 …the qualities of goodness, passion, and ignorance thus produced by material energy binds the immutable consciousness of the self within the body.
14.6 …among these the mode of goodness (sattva) … conditions one due to attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge.
We should recognize that attachment to knowledge and learning is still just attachment, which one should endeavor to transcend.
[QUOTE=YogiAdam;34839]After a recent thread that led to a discussion about the evolution of the mind, and what role our it plays in our lives, I thought it would be a good idea (unfortunately, I think any idea I have is good), to attempt to address the role of intelligence on the spiritual path.
The human brain has not evolved for over 50,000. The brain is the same today, in every way, as it was over 50,000 years ago. This is clearly due to the role intelligence has since played in our ability to survive. Evolution by natural selection, is survival of that which can reproduce. It’s not about being strong or intelligent, it’s about being able to reproduce. This would suggest that evolution could, and often does, select what we would consider in-competencies. For example, take a large population of humans who use contraceptives to avoid unwanted pregnancies. The more competent portion of the population, are naturally able to make the contraceptives work effectively for them, while the in-competent portion of the population would be less capable of making the contraceptives work for them, and thus, would give birth to offspring carrying the same genetic ‘in-competencies’.
This would also suggest that there would be no reason to believe that we would, in our future, every become a more intelligent species to what we are today. After all, there are plenty of intelligent people not having children, and there are plenty of less intelligent people having children.
This might also suggest why modern humans are prone to adopt primitive, outdated explanations of our universe that were constructed during our species infancy, even though there is significant scientific evidence to suggest contrary and more solid explanations.
I would think that human intelligence, is about as relative to a spiritual path as having good looks. It could be considered irrelevant. I think this view could bring one consolation, as it would suggest that mastery of Yoga is for everyone, and not just for an elite few. I makes Yoga a very universal path.[/QUOTE]
Still not sure what you are trying to ask… but I have some thought about you sporadic questions.
Did you check and the brain had not evolved in 50K years? What data your statement is based on? Just a personal pondering?
I can tell you that in order to reproduce nowadays we need to be very strong, very snicky and intelligent. I do not want stupid male
Speaking of genetic “in-competencies”…… have you seen move IDIOCRACY…. It shows this very well…
It is joke though…
Do not worry. I do not think that mankind degenerates. It just always has very few people who concerned about something else then reproduction and food.
And [B]spiritual path[/B] is just another toll to make the human feel good and suffer less, which is the one of the basic instincts…
[QUOTE=CityMonk;35166]Did you check and the brain had not evolved in 50K years? What data your statement is based on? Just a personal pondering?
I can tell you that in order to reproduce nowadays we need to be very strong, very snicky and intelligent. I do not want stupid male
[/QUOTE]
I did more than check. I’ve studied evolutionary psychology for most of my adult life. If you look into this subject yourself, you’ll find mountains of evidence to support this claim.
I disagree totally that in order to reproduce nowadays, we need to be very strong, and intelligent. A lot of women who have a high criteria for males, don’t even have children. All you need reproduce, is the desire to have sex Which is everyone. Even stupid people. Are you telling me stupid people don’t have sex? Where are you from? Where I’m from, it’s the stupid guys that get laid the most. If you study this subject, I guarantee you will find no evidence to suggest that smart, strong people are having more children than weak, stupid people. How many kids do you have? I bet I know a stupid family who has more.
I would think that human intelligence, is about as relative to a spiritual path as having good looks.
This assumes that yoga is strictly a spiritual path. IMO, yoga is actually intended to have practical applications. If you look at the description of sabija samadhi, the end result is gnostic insight or higher intelligence. If you look at the descriptions of siddhis, the result of samyama practiced with respect to various objects, the result in many cases is knowledge. But this kind of knowledge comes from a source that transcends the thinking mind.
In Samkhya philosophy, the nature of Purusa is described as light. This is interpreted by the commentators as either consciousness or intelligence. I prefer intelligence, because even the lower forms of life have some form of consciousness. If you follow this line of thinking, then the practical application of yoga is about the ability to tap into this transcendental intelligence. This is not limited to seeking to understand God, but that is considered the highest purpose.
[QUOTE=YogiAdam;35178]I did more than check. I’ve studied evolutionary psychology for most of my adult life.[/QUOTE]
So in terms of evolutionary intelligence, do you think that, even though the physical brain of the 50,000 year old baby is exactly the same as a baby born today, the neuro-pathways have evolved enough to take the children through the same learning process? Are those pathways, developed and enhanced over 50,000, passed down through heredity, or only learned from day one?
I believe that intelligence, i.e. advanced use of the brain including emotions, is hereditary and evolved over the millenia, and that the 50,000 year old baby will grow into someone somewhat retarded by our standards despite all efforts to teach. This would be quite different from a baby born 200 years ago where the developed neuro-pathways would be much closer to our time.
Over the weekend I watched a documentary about the various functions of the brain. It stated that the prefrontal cortex is a newer part of the brain. Does anyone know when came into being?
I don’t know anything about that, CkarmaKat. I have heard that modern people may be better at concentration than ancient people were, but how does anyone know what a human brain would have been like 50,000 years ago?