In this post, I apply a systems-engineering lens to the human experience, comparing our cultural conditioning to an operating system and our evolutionary instincts to a computer’s BIOS. I explore how specific meditative states act as a way of bypassing the biological BIOS, temporarily suspending the deep-seated directives of sex, space, and self.
Control Systems: The Nervous System and Beyond
The control system is the core of any organism’s ability to coordinate sensory input and motor output. In animals, this is embodied by the nervous system, ranging from simple nerve nets in jellyfish to the highly evolved brains of mammals. In machines, the control system can take the form of a simple microcontroller or a complex computer running algorithms that process sensor data and control actuators.
Operating Systems and Learning: Programs Loaded After Birth
Beyond basic hardware, both organisms and machines rely on “software” to function effectively.
For machines, this means operating systems and programs loaded into memory—code that dictates how the machine interacts with its environment and performs tasks.
For living organisms, this corresponds to learning and cultural transmission. Lion cubs, for example, learn hunting techniques from their mothers, while humans acquire language, social norms, and specialized skills through education and experience. These learned behaviors and cultural “programs” are not present at birth; they are “installed” as the organism interacts with its environment.
The BIOS: Innate Instructions for Survival
At the most fundamental level, all living organisms are born with innate instructions that govern survival and reproduction. This is analogous to the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) in computers, which is pre-installed and essential for basic operation before any other software is loaded.
In biological terms, these instructions are encoded in DNA and expressed as instincts and reflexes—automatic responses that allow an organism to feed, avoid danger, and reproduce, even without prior experience. The BIOS in machines serves a similar function, providing foundational routines necessary for initialization and basic hardware interaction.
Fusion in the Three Dantians: Bypassing My BIOS
When I experienced the yin–yang fusion in the Dantians, my perception of certain fundamental concepts—concepts I had always taken for granted—changed dramatically.
In the Lower Dantian (LDT), the duality of male–female “uncollapsed,” merging into a single entity for which the concept of sex was irrelevant.
In the Middle Dantian (MDT), the uncollapsed dualities related to spatial perception—far and near, in and out. Space, as I had always understood it, lost its meaning.
In the Upper Dantian (UDT), the duality of me–other dissolved. The sense of an isolated “I” facing an external “Other” gave way to a profound feeling of oneness.
Like any human being, I received my “operating system” and initial programs as soon as I could process language—from religious conditioning to mathematics—constantly updated by daily experience to dictate behavior, with thoughts as the interface.
When meditation enabled me to be conscious without thoughts, it felt as though my post-birth operating system and programming had been removed. Yet the BIOS—the deepest layer of survival code—remained.
A Hypothesis: Consciousness and Its Core Directives
I began to entertain a hypothesis: suppose we are all fragments of a shared consciousness that, for some reason, embodies itself in living organisms—descending from a realm where consciousness is collective, timeless, and unbound by fragile physical form. This is, of course, speculative, but it provided a useful framework for thinking about what followed. What would be the basic instructions for survival in such a case?
The first directive would likely be the distinction between “you” and “other.” This would be essential if you were a mouse facing a cat, or a human facing a tiger.
Next, there would be an understanding of three-dimensional space—concepts like near and far, in and out—crucial for navigating the world, finding food or mates, and avoiding predators.
Finally, there must be an instruction tied to reproduction: the concept of sex, ensuring continuation of the species.
With these simple directives, any organism—using its particular hardware of sensors and actuators—would have reasonable chances of survival and reproduction.
Under this hypothesis, being conscious without thoughts was like bypassing my operating system, while the fusion of yin and yang in the three Dantians felt akin to temporarily bypassing these three BIOS directives.
But one fundamental instruction still remains. To survive, the most basic directive appears to be: “You are.”
The Final Duality: Being vs. Nonbeing
So basic is this directive that, even after witnessing the fusion of the opposites—male and female, in and out, me and other—the dualities inherent in “I am” remain stubbornly intact: being vs. not being, Self vs. nothingness.
How could there be a reality where being and nonbeing are one and the same?
Perhaps this touches on the nature of Time vs. Eternity—and after all, even Einstein called time an illusion.
Yet how could there be a reality not experienced by “my Self,” the interface that has functioned so well since birth? At this moment, that remains inconceivable to me.
The final duality of Being versus Non-being remains the last encrypted line of code. Yet, having succeeded in bypassing the biological BIOS at other levels, I remain hopeful that even this fundamental instruction can eventually be integrated into a more luminous reality.
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