The Manifold

Last night I dreamt a phrase. It repeated itself over and over in my dreams and I woke up with it imprinted in my mind. I repeated it, "You need to change the manifold."

I don't know what a manifold is, but I've heard the word before, related to a car engine. Still, I have no idea what an engine manifold looks like, or what it does, and why it would need to be changed. I've had my brakes changed, and even my muffler. One time the catalytic convertor was stolen from under my car. But I have no idea what a manifold is.   

According to Google an engine manifold is related to the car's exhaust system, typically a series of  pipes that feed into one, or vice versa, one pipe that feeds into a series of others. The term manifold comes from the combination of two Old English words that mean "many" and "repeated". In the sense of intake and output pipes of an engine, a manifold can either separate or combine the products of chemical interactions produced by the engine. An intake manifold evenly distributes the combustion mixture (air and fuel) to optimize the efficiency and performance of the engine. An output manifold feeds the exhaust system, separating the liquid residue from the fumes. So why is my subconscious dream-mind thinking that I have to change my manifold? My car engine seems to be working quite well, which in fact was something I had on my mind during our recent 30 hours of driving to and from Cape Breton. I was thinking about the long drive, dreading the possibility of being stranded on the highway somewhere in the middle of sparsely inhabited New Brunswick (not that there's anything wrong with beautiful New Brunswick.) Fortunately, the manifold (and all the other engine parts of my car) worked smoothly. 

But maybe the manifold of my subconscious had something else in mind, other than engine related. 

Further research reveals there's another kind of manifold. A mathematical concept used in geometry, physics and topology. It refers to the depiction of 2D and 3D space. I'm no mathematician - something my subconscious mind knows just as well as my conscious one. The simplest explanation of a manifold that I can grasp (from Mathematics for Dummies of course) is that it's "a curved space that is locally flat." The example of the Earth is given, where the curvature of the planet can be illustrated as a series of points - that's the 'curved space' part - but when you get close to it, zooming in like the part we're standing on, it appears flat. Planes, surfaces and shapes are described as manifolds, which can be further described in mathematical terms as well. That's about all I am capable of telling you about that. The gist of a topological manifold seems to be that what it describes is a question of perspective. The nature of a manifold at the 'local' (small) level, is different from the larger fuller picture of the shape.

So what does any of this have to do with the manifold of my dream? Add to the above, in my mental universe, that I've recently discovered and started exploring the ideas of the Indian sage Ramana Maharshi about non-duality and the practice of self-inquiry. Further add that I've been reading Plato's Apology ("a life unexamined is not worth living") and Phaedrus ("things are not always what they seem.") And layer on top of that, thoughts about the "I" of the mind, and it's relationship to the model of the outside world that we build internally in order to conceptualize the narrative of our existence: The so-called 'theatre of the mind' that is the stage of our consciousness projected onto the external world in order that we may function (and survive) within it. As the saying goes, "We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are." I'm thinking about how to better experience the world as it is - to "Let It Be" as the Beatles sang. 

So maybe that's what my mind had in mind when it told me I needed to "change the manifold." The manifold was not only mechanical and mathematical, but also spiritual and philosophical. It's the manifold of existence, the shape of life in which we operates on both a day to day (local) level and a universal level. It's a manifold of consciousness that, like a machine of pistons and valves, has sensory inputs and perceptual outputs. A manifold that results in greater presence of mind, and produces a sense of gratitude and appreciation that opens us to each other and the experience of being; the I am-ness of existence.