Tensegrity and sound/2nd try

[Vaidix]

Hello Brian,

In a message dated 98-01-04 14:36:25 EST, you write:

>I just read a fascinating article in the January, 1998 issue of _Scientific
>American_ entitled �The Architecture of Life.� (The entire text of the
article
>can be found online at http://www.sciam.com/0198issue/0198ingber.html)

Thanks for the information.

>The article contained this passage:

>�Remarkably, tensegrity may even explain how all these phenomena are so
>perfectly coordinated in a living creature. At the Johns Hopkins School of
>Medicine, Donald S. Coffey and Kenneth J. Pienta found that tensegrity
>structures function as coupled harmonic oscillators. DNA, nuclei,
cytoskeletal >filaments, membrane ion channels and entire living cells and
tissues exhibit
>characteristic resonant frequencies of vibration. Very simply, transmission
of
>tension through a tensegrity array provides a means to distribute forces to
>all interconnected elements and, at the same time, to couple, or "tune," the
>whole system mechanically as one.�

>Does this strike any chords--so to speak--with members of this list? Any
>resonances with Indological texts on mantras or other sounds?

The principle of "tensegrity" that the scientist (Donald E. Ingber) was
discussing that stabilizes an organism in terms of tensional and compressional
forces is long known to Vedic seers.   At cosmic level it is called agni, and
at personal level it is called vAc (speech).  agni and speech are equivalent
for all practical purposes.  Speech is not limited to the spoken word.  Any
tension found in the regions of mouth , neck, jaws etc is termed as speech.
Again, agni is not limited to fire; any thermodynamic or other form or energy
qualifies to be agni.

Here is a cryptic on speech:  Speech is the first born of existence.  While
existence has no reason to know or measure its own glory, the subject of
statistics is also included in existence, and as a result, any statistical
probability on the part of existence to realize its own glory makes that part
of itself which realizes this glory devoid of that glory.  That is ego (of the
individual observer), and whatever that ego speaks of is speech.

This speech is multifarious because the glory of existence is many-sided.  But
now one aspect of speech apears as ignorance to another aspect of speech, thus
leading to conflict.  Various Vedic deities such as indra, viSNu, bRhaspati,
rudrA, etc are different forms of speech, and their need based interactions at
diffrent stages of the thought cycle have been recorded in the Vedas and
brAhmaNAs. A majority of these deities (with the exception of a few) are born,
and spend their lives interacting, competing and compromising with each other
(among other things but not limited to .. for somA, the secrections of brain
like tissue recently discovered in the gut) in a way somewhat similar to
"Evolutionary Programming" of modern mathematics/artificial intelligence
theories.  For more information on EP/ai follow links ..
http://krypton.ugr.es/~encore/www/ (Hitch-Hiker's Guide to Evolutionary
Computation) or
http://www.phoaks.com/phoaks2/newsgroups/comp/ai/alife/index.html (People
Helping One Another Know Stuff and look for ai).

Even the sense organs and other parts of the body are born of this need based
birth/interaction of Vedic deities.  Explanations abound in Veda regarding the
scriptural reasons why living beings have two eyes, or why eyes are in the
front, or why ears are on the sides etc.  Even the shape of oral cavity, or
location of jaws and so on have philosophical origination, and the vedic seers
have convinced themselves about it.  I do not have any evidence, but my wild
guess here is that the (sanskrit) alphabet is born some time around when indra
slew viSvarUpA son of tvaStR (son of bRhaspati).  (I am sure my guess in no
more irresponsible than interpreting indra as cloud or electricity).  Such
stories found in Veda are not some epic stories that happened many thousands
of years ago, or imaginations of poets.  They are eternal stories that happen
every moment in the thought process.

The article in Scientific American sounds like science fiction to a casual
reader, but we must realize that each statement in that article is backed by
experiments and equations.  In the same way the Vedic seers have their own
ways of proving these relationships using various subjects like grammar,
meters of Vedic stanzas, various processes of yajJa etc.

For more information about this approach or for updates please visit
http://members.aol.com/vaidix.  The site is meant for exploring Veda as neuro-
fuzzy rulesets that govern the thought process.  This site is moving to
http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/bailey/64.  Please point your URLs to the
new site.

Regards
B. Mallampalli