Koan : noun – a paradoxical anecdote or riddle without a solution, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and provoke enlightenment.
I was about 23 years old, when I happened to meet a spiritual master, in a face-to-face interaction. I had zero wisdom and some bookish (undigested) knowledge. And I was still an atheist at that time – the way I was brought up by my father.
I asked the master “Is God a person independent of us? Or is God a system, in which we are a part?”
The master did not answer my question directly. Instead, he said “When it is itching in our leg, our fingers reach out to scratch it. Likewise, when God is helping us, He is actually helping himself.”
It was like a KOAN. It has stayed with me ever since and has driven me in different directions.
Over the next 30 years…
…in the world of science, I studied more about systems, networks, AI, emergence, complexity, hive minds and collective intelligence.
…in the world of leadership, I studied more about group dynamics, teamwork, organizational culture, social change.
…in the world of social sciences, I studied more about scientists, entrepreneurs, and community leaders, who operate at the boundaries of knowledge – where the known ends and the unknown begins – creating new futures and new realities.
…in the world of spirituality, I attended workshops, retreats, and processes – 10 to 15 days per year and embarked on an inner journey to discover myself and my higher self.
…in the world of arts, I learnt Bharatanatyam (a classical dance form in South India) from Padmashri Dr Narthaki Nataraj a specialist in Nayaki Bhava tradition and devotional repertoire.
While all these quests over three decades happened in different directions, I slowly started seeing a convergence.
My Fingers
Yesterday there was an argument between some of my fingers. You may wonder how my fingers got so much intelligence to argue.
I should accept that I am very proud of my fingers for their extraordinary intelligence. When I cut them (accidentally of course), they do a lot of things independently, like stopping the blood, protecting the wound, and healing it and so on. And when I accidentally put them on fire, they are smart enough to quickly get off almost on their own, without waiting for my instructions.
I am also very dependent on my fingers. If I feel itchy somewhere, I must use them to scratch. If one finger hurts, I use another finger to apply medicine. And as you all know, I cannot eat without my fingers either.
But in-spite of all this intelligence, yesterday, they were arguing about a very silly and absurd topic that made me very sad. They were arguing about whether Ramkumar existed or not and if he existed where to find him.
And I couldn’t interfere in the argument because my fingers do not understand my language directly.
Yes, I do maintain many channels of communication with my fingers, but yesterday they were so mentally disconnected from me that they were not listening to my signals at all.
See the irony. If only they could stop dissecting their universe into smaller and smaller objects, and instead paused for a moment and felt deeply, they would have realized that they are part of me, and I was part of them.
They are searching for me all over the place. They know each and every part of me, but they do not know me.
The Seed of my Book
The seed of my book started in 1992, when I asked a question to a master and got a KOAN like answer. Then I wrote a fable titled “My Fingers” sometime around 1995 and started narrating it to my friends like it was a joke.
I started articulating my thoughts in modern scientific vocabulary in 2004. I was working for a HR Services firm in Chennai, and I was invited by NIPM Pondicherry (a HR Professionals Community) to deliver a talk. The title that I chose and spoke about was “In Search of the Soul in Teams and Organizations”. Around the same time, I had presented a paper at the UGC Seminar organized by the Sociology Department of Madras University titled “Emergence of Collective Intelligence in Teams and Organizations”. The next year, “HR-Era” a magazine of HR Professionals published my article “Synergistic Emergence and its implications on Leadership”.
Once in a while, to select companies where I knew the founders personally, I conducted 2 day workshops titled “Leading from Within”, helping them to harness team synergy for the growth of their organization. I became a big fan of the book “Presence” by Peter Senge (A MIT professor and management guru on Learning Organizations), Otto Charmer et.al. I started advocating Theory U (from “Presence”) as a process for initiating profound change and transformation in teams, organizations, and society.
My interest in Complex Systems and Synergistic Emergence, has kept me curious about the scientific developments and papers that come up, in fields such as sociology of insects (bees, termites, ants), collective intelligence, emergence of consciousness in the human body and the mathematics of emergence in neural networks.
There is now a lively debate going on about the emergent behavior and self-learning capabilities of neural networks running on silicon (AI). We are ourselves a complex network running on a biological hardware of cells and molecules. The neural network in our brain is just one of the many networks in our body. Our consciousness, though undefined, is self-evident to us.
Approaching anything big or small, as a “system” with a network of relationships within it and with higher order systems above it, makes the model scalable. A Particle, an Atom, a Molecule, a Cell, a Human being, a Sports team, an Organization, a Nation, an Ocean, a Planet, each of these systems can be seen as a network of components below them, and also as a component of larger networks above them.
We have created many artificial silos, between physical systems (particles, atoms, chemical molecules), biological systems, (cells, animals, human beings) social systems (individuals, colonies, cities, nations, UN) and technological systems (computer science, software, machine learning, AI). And then we have the field of arts, spirituality, philosophy, and theology living inside their own respective silos.
The objective of me writing this book – in a simple common man’s language with plenty of analogies and examples – is to present a new paradigm and a logically consistent framework that integrates and unifies all the sciences: from physics, chemistry, and biology, to sociology, technology and ecology. And integrate them further, with social impact entrepreneurship, national rejuvenation, climate change activism, spirituality, philosophy and performing arts.
I would like to thank Good Men Project for publishing this article (which eventually became the Chapter 1 of my book) in June 2021. This encouraged me to write this book further, and publish it in Oct 2023.
If the Koan Moment, the Fingers Fable, and the 30-year history of how this book came to be makes you curious, then you should definitely read my book. Amazon provides Instant download on Kindle. If you are someone who likes to hold it in your hand, a paperback can reach you within few days through Amazon, anywhere in the world.
“Everything is Conscious – A Modern Theory of God”, by Ramkumar R S, Notion Press, Oct 2023.
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