Laws Of Memory: Part 01 : Theory, Hypothesis And Imagination

Tarun Pradhaan

# Laws of Memory: Part 01
## Theory, Hypothesis and Imagination
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Welcome to Pure Experiences.

"Laws of Memory" is a new series on this channel where we are going to explore the workings of the memory: what is memory, how it operates, how to study it, and how to use this knowledge for our spiritual progress.

We are going to cover this topic in many parts. It is not planned. It is all spontaneous, but I have main points written, and it is good to start with basics, because many of you are very new in the field of spirituality, philosophy, and occult, and also science, the broader science.

## Working Definitions and Philosophy

So, we'll start with very basic definitions. These definitions are working definitions. They are not absolute truth. So, obviously, you'll find a lot of variety of all these definitions. We are going to construct our own system. This must be kept in mind. Do not let the old mix with what is presented here. This is done deliberately to pull your attention out of the old and to give you fresh eyes to see. Ultimately, the words are not so useful. They are simply pointers. You need to see beyond the words, experience it.

So, everything that I'll say is nothing but theory, hypothesis, and imagination. It should not be considered true. Theories and hypothesis are simply human imaginations, concepts, ideas. That's all it is.

When we construct a system of knowledge out of our imagination, it is called philosophy, which literally means "love of knowledge." So, we do this not because we are going to know something, but because we love knowledge. Not because it is useful or practical, but because it is entertaining. Sometimes it is useful, not always.

So, philosophy is the study of what is. "What is" can also be called "being"that which is, whatever exists. We study it, we imagine about it.

## Ontology and Epistemology

There are two major fields of philosophy. First is ontology, and second is epistemology. So, these are standard definitions now. Ontology means the structure of what is. What can we find in this whole existence, in this being? How does it look like? What does it do? How it works? What are the categories? What are the laws?

So, on the topic of "Laws of Memory," we are going to find out how this existence operates.

And epistemology is a method to find out about what is, a method to know all these things. How can we know anything? That is studied under epistemology, or you can say "knowledge of knowledge." So, we are going to do that.

## The Method of Epistemology: Starting with Assumption

How are we going to study what is? We'll assume something. That can sound silly. "Why don't you simply tell me the truth?" anybody can ask. "Why do we need to assume something?" So, that is a big question in epistemology. Can we find the truth? And if yes, how can we find the truth? And the problem is we don't know initially. That is the beginning of epistemology: "I don't know, and I need to find out." So, we start by assuming what is true, then we go ahead and find the evidence of our assumptions. That will be your standard theory and hypothesis.

So, remember it starts with assumptions, which is nothing but imagination. There is no other way to know.

Many people will be surprised by this. Some people who claim to know a lot will be shocked by this: completely random talk. But yes, I'm not claiming to know anything in advance, so we'll start with imagination only, and we'll check what happens. Do we find any evidence? Can we find any truth? So, it's kind of a play, play of imagination. That's all philosophy is.

## The Path of Knowledge: Direct Experience and Logic

So, it is a very broad field, but for the purpose of this topic, "Laws of Memory," we are going to stick to a branch of philosophy which is called science, or the old names are tantra or occult. Roughly, you can say it is the greater science of what is.

I'm not going to go too much into ontology and basis of that, and epistemology and basis of that. They are bigger topics.

So, this kind of study comes under path of knowledge, and we are going to take up a branch of this path of knowledge which goes straight into what we are interested in, that is the laws of memory. We are going to bypass most of the philosophy, go directly into application.

So, path of knowledge gives us some readymade ways to know, and there are many, but the generally accepted and agreed means of knowledge are direct experience and logic. Direct experience means our own observation. Whatever I can observe is my direct experience. Whatever I can perceive, whatever I can get from all these senses, whatever I'm experiencing right now, that is the direct experience, direct observation. And logic is an ability of the mind, ability of human beings, you can say, which is based on direct experience to infer what is. You can call it inference also.

So, there are many kinds of logic, but we are going to use very simple logic which is based on direct experience, which is based on rules derived out of consistency of experience. This is important. We are going to apply the logic on our imagination, but we are going to verify it using direct experience.

So, it sounds very difficult right now, but it is very easy. And in my opinion, there is no other way to know. At least, I don't know any other way to know anything about what is.

## The Three Levels of Truth

And the path of knowledge also gives us a definition of truth: what will be called true, what will be called false. So, we have a working definition of truth: that whatever does not change too much will be called truth. And there will be categories of truth, from totally false to totally unchanging, immutable truth, absolute truth, and everything in between. You can have as many as you want, the categories of truth.

So, we generally have three kinds of truths. First is not true, obviously. It changes right in front of our eyes. You cannot believe it. It's not reliable. It does not give us any knowledge. The second is relative truth, or practical truth, where things change: sometimes something is this way, sometimes the same thing is that way. But sometimes it is useful, and we call it true. And the third is absolute truth, which will never change.

## The Unknowable Absolute and the Semistable Middle

The problem is, we'll not know any of these truths. We'll not know anything about our direct experience, and our logic will fail to find any truth. And this is a problem. There is absolute truth, but it cannot be known. So, what is that? Why we cannot actually know anything? Why everything is unknowable? Everything means that which is, the being or the existence. Whatever is present is ultimately unknowable. It is not because of our method of theory, hypothesis, and imagination, and it is not because we have chosen the wrong kind of means of knowledge, or our logic or our intelligence is faulty. No, these are not the reasons. It is because there is nothing to know.

This can be the fine print in any book of epistemology. Sometimes it is the final conclusion: that we play the game of knowing without actually knowing anything, just like I said. It is imagination. We are trying to study what is, but we end up trying to study our own imagination. That's why we don't know anything.

So, should we give up? This is the whole journey of philosophy? It ends as soon as it starts without giving you anything? No, because it is imagination, we can imagine a narrow area of what is, and try to apply our method of knowingscientific methodof theory, hypothesis, imagination, logical inference, observation, direct experience, etc. That can be applied in a narrow area, a very thin slice of what is.

Ultimately, it's all unknowable. Ultimately, we find that nothing was known. So, we stick to the middle truth, which is not absolute, because it will not be known, and which is not absolutely false, which we definitely know is not true. So, there is a middle ground where things are not so dicey, where whatever we observe stays like that for a while. We call it semistable. It changes. It becomes something else ultimately, but not before we get to study it. That's what we want. We study it before it dissolves into nothingness of what is and becomes unknowable. While we are looking at it, while we are studying it, it is still unknowable. So, our truth is always relative truth. You cannot have the absolute truth.

## Approaching the Laws of Memory

So, why did I start like this? A very, very depressing view of the topic. Why don't I simply tell you the laws of memory? Because that is not the intention to tell you the laws of memory. Probably everybody knows them already. The intention is to play and to teach that you can find your own laws of memory. You can find your own ontology. You can study what is, yourself. That is the main point. And we are taking laws of memory as an example demonstration of how to do that.

So, those who want to know, "What is this? Here is a list of laws of memory," and I want to tell you that this is completely arbitrary. You can have as many laws as you want. Depends on your direct experience. So, I am taking 20 of these. Now, that number 20 is very suspicious. How can there be only 20 laws of what is? So yes, it is suspicious because I made it up. There are some very good books which provide different kinds of laws. Some systems will tell you there are six laws. Some will tell you seven. Some are going to tell you 50, 60. Here, we are going to focus on 20 which, according to me, are most important. So probably you can reduce them further. So, 20 is a good number, but yes, there can be more, there can be less. Or you can sometimes join the two laws into onethey are two aspects of one law. Sometimes you can separate it to understand it better.

* Law of emptiness
* Law of necessity
* Law of unknowability
* Law of deniability
* Law of perception-creation
* Law of probability
* Law of codependence 
* Law of relativity
* Law of interconnectedness
* Law of resonance
* Law of impermanence
* Law of cycles
* Law of balance
* Law of polarity
* Law of action
* Law of repetition
* Law of self-similarity
* Law of 99%
* Law of evolution
* Law of assembly

So, this is the executive summary of laws of memory. Those who already know these laws, they need not waste their time. And I gave you the names so that you don't have to wait till the end to find out what is this all about.

## Foundational Concepts: Existence, Experience, and the Experiencer

We'll proceed to more definitions. Before you can study the laws of memory, you need to know some basics, basic words.

Existence: we already defined itthat which is. We are going to study it. It is the whole thing. We are very ambitious. We don't want to study just one or two things. We are greedy. We want the knowledge of everything. So, we are going to call this everything as existence.

And just like I told you, there is nothing here. It is all imagination. So, the truth is, which nobody accepts, that it is empty. It is zero. Empty does not mean that there is nothing. Empty means that there is nothing which any human being can understand. No amount of knowledge is possible. So that word, "empty" or "zero," is pointing to this.

And just like I told you, it is not an inability. It is not that our intellects are faulty or our methods are faulty. It is not like this. That which is, is fundamentally like this. It is fundamentally empty. So, these words are pointing to that.

Existence is zero-dimensional. It has no height, width, or length. It is spaceless. It has no beginning. It has no end. It is timeless. It has no cause, and it produces no effects. It is causeless, acausal. It is just presence. That which is, is present right now. That's all. That's why we need imagination to say anything at all about the existence, and it is all imaginary.

So, immediately, our imagination divides that which is into two. You can do it right now. There is something which is appearing, and there is something which is witnessing this appearance. So, that which is appearing will be called experience, and that which is witnessing thisit is appearing in front of it or on itthat will be called the experiencer.

So, apparently, the existence has an ability to witness itself, and when it witnesses itself, the existence appears to itself as an experience, as an appearance. That's all there is. There is nothing else.

This can be known with absolute certainty. It does not even look like imagination, but it is imagination. You can check it with direct experience, and the logic comes out to be perfect. Yes, there is something. It is known, it is seen, it is observed. That is also true. However, it is not like this. Still, since we are avoiding that kind of area where nothing is said, nothing is known, and we are avoiding the other extreme where anything goesno, we don't want thatwe are in the middle. So, we call it, "Yes, it is certain." This is our definition of absolute certainty: you can be certain there is existence. It can be imagined to be having two aspects: the experience and the experiencer. Otherwise, there is nothing to know there, no laws, etc., etc.

## The "Essence of Knowledge" Program

So, these words, they must be familiar to those who have finished the "Essence of Knowledge" program, which is an introduction to the path of knowledge. Probably you already know what I'm saying. Those who don't know and they want to know more about this thingexistence, experiencer, and experience, and how to know anything, what is true, what is notthey can avail this program, Essence of Knowledge. It is completely free, and it is completely online. It is available on my website, gyanmarg.guru. You will find the links everywhere in every video and every description of all the videos on this channel. So, that is a major project.

Once you finish this program, Essence of Knowledge, then everything becomes crystal clear, and this will become your second nature to talk like this, or you will be able to understand what I'm saying without any struggle. There won't be any confusion about meanings of the words or why I say something. It won't be like a riddle. It won't be like encrypted mumbo jumbo. So, that program is very helpful.

So, we are going to bypass the whole thing, the path of knowledge, here. This much introduction is okay, and we'll jump to the science part, which is pure theory, imagination, hypothesis. Of course, it is supported by evidence. How will you get the evidence? Look, simply look, and use your intelligence, logical ability. It is very simple.

So, these were the very basics, basic of the basic. And I'm going to introduce more words, more concepts in the next part of this series.

Thank you for listening to Pure Experiences.

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This article is a formatted transcript of a video in the series of videos on my YouTube channel **Pure Experiences**.
Laws of Memory Video Series:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWKBCXU2oaNU

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Laws Of Memory: Part 01 : Theory, Hypothesis And Imagination

Tarun Pradhaan