Am "I" a Preset

During my meditation this morning, I had a revelation that felt both unsettling and liberating. It was the simple, profound observation of a thought as it arose. Then another. And another. But this time, I didn't just observe the thought; I observed the pattern. I realized these aren't random, original creations. They are presets. 

 My mind, it seems, is a collection of well-worn circuits, neural pathways forged by repetition, experience, and habit. They are so distinct that they form a unique signature—the unmistakable pattern of "Me." This signature is why those who know me well can often predict my reactions. I am, in a sense, a predictable machine. 

 And that’s precisely the point. This predictability isn't a flaw; it's a feature of evolutionary brilliant energy conservation. My brain, much like a computer's CPU, optimizes for efficiency. By running on preset circuits, it avoids the immense energy expenditure of generating a truly novel response to every single stimulus. It makes me a "good machine"—stable, reliable, and capable of functioning in the world. 

 This is where the insight gets deeper. What happens if this machine becomes unpredictable? If the presets are bypassed or malfunction without a new, stable system to take over? In the world of artificial intelligence, we’d call this a bug or a crash. In a human, it could manifest as a mental malady, a state of confusion that an observer might label as madness. 

This brought me to a powerful connection: the ancient concept of Kundalini awakening. The profound spiritual transformation it describes is essentially a radical rewiring of these presets. The reason traditional paths insist this journey must be undertaken with guidance is critical. An unguided awakening could be like overclocking your CPU without a cooling system—you might gain incredible processing power, but without the stability to handle it, the system risks potential crash or breakdown. You might transcend the old presets but lack the integrated awareness to understand your new actions, leaving you lost in a sea of your own potential. 

So, if I am a preset, am I doomed to be a robot, forever running the same programs? 

 Absolutely not. The same meditation that revealed my mechanistic nature also revealed the way out. It brought to mind the work of neuroscientists who talk about brain networks like the Task-Positive Network (TPN) for focused action and the Default Mode Network (DMN) for our self-referential, wandering mind.

 These Neural circuits are like the Keys, and 'Self Awareness' is the editor. 

 By sitting in silence and observing the "hum" of my internal AI—the constant buzz of preset thoughts—there is this realization that "I am not those thoughts. I am the one listening to them". This conscious awareness creates a space, a gap between stimulus and response. In that gap lies our freedom. A freedom to Act and not React.

 A programmer with excellent coding skills can fine tune a software for efficiency. An electronics expert can find issues and rewire circuits. So also as a programmer of my life and my neural circuits, if I can identify a reactive preset—a circuit of anger, jealousy, or fear. I can then not only bypass those neural circuits, but can consciously choose a different response too. Through this repeated, mindful practice, I can harness the power of neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections. Slowly, manually, I can rewrite the presets.

With regular practice , "I" can become less of a passive program running its code and more of the conscious programmer. I can transcend from being a predictable simple preset to a dependable program!