Retracing Spiritual Activity (Part VI)

[Cleric]

I agree with your first point. On the second - what the structure of the brain symbolizes - I don't think there was a major discrepancy. What I reacted to initially is the search for supposedly four separated parts in the brain which would evoke the four convolutions. I don't see how this could be stated other than arbitrarily. Now, that the brain structure reflects the extreme complication of our life of soul, yes, that appears much more sensible to me. It's not that different from what I previously expressed, that it reflects the complication of our flow of becoming, which you logically reconnected to the convolutions. So where is the true discrepancy here? Do you literally see four identifiable sub-sections in the physical brain that can each be mapped to one specific convolution? If you do, then, maybe yes, there is a discrepancy. Then I would be curious to hear which is which.
And even if it feels very arbitrary to me (these supposed four convolutions of the physical brain) I am still taking this opinion as preliminary, since I don't have the higher cognition to go and visit the spiritual reality on demand, fact-check the idea, and come back to the intellect with conceptualized certainties.

Trying to grasp the structure of the brain shouldn't be our most immediate goal in my view. There's something closer to our "I"-activity, which is brain activity.



In other words, before we can have experience of the structure of the brain, we first begin to gain inner sensation for the way our activity flashes in various parts of the innerly experienced volume of our head. I believe you feel less disgusted by the idea of being one with such surges of inner activity

One of the earliest sensations of this head volume (at least in my experience) is the hemispherical polarity. Of course, this is not some mechanical perception but most often the general intuitive orientation we attain when we have bounced around in some philosophical or scientific questions. It's basically an experience of bistability and how when we formulate certain thoughts about reality in one way we lose another aspect and vice versa. When concentration is prolonged, however, we can experience this polarity in its archetypal nature, as a holistic image. For example, we may feel our whole head as something akin to a yin-yang symbol.

But in time we gain even finer sensations of front, back, up, down. This is not to say that we see the activity as in the image above but rather we begin to feel that when we think of something our inner focus is pressed in a certain head direction. Such things can get even more explicit forms. We may notice how sometimes when we think of something we physically tilt our head. I also remind that we can exercise closing the polarity when in meditation instead of supporting the feeling "I'm here (somewhere in the back of the head), the thought image is there (in the front)", we begin to bring the two closer together.

The etheric and physical structure of the brain is somewhat deeper compared to the flashes of brain activity, just like the physical structure of an electronic circuit is something more inert than the flow of current. I don't have much to say about this more physical structure because we can only understand it by correspondingly expanding into the Macrocosm. Things like the twelve cranial nerves, the 31 pairs of nerves along the spine, etc. can only be grasped as images of Cosmic configurations (beings, Ls), which have their fractal reverberation in the imploding World state.

[AshvinP]

I agree with your first point. On the second - what the structure of the brain symbolizes - I don't think there was a major discrepancy. What I reacted to initially is the search for supposedly four separated parts in the brain which would evoke the four convolutions. I don't see how this could be stated other than arbitrarily. Now, that the brain structure reflects the extreme complication of our life of soul, yes, that appears much more sensible to me. It's not that different from what I previously expressed, that it reflects the complication of our flow of becoming, which you logically reconnected to the convolutions. So where is the true discrepancy here? Do you literally see four identifiable sub-sections in the physical brain that can each be mapped to one specific convolution? If you do, then, maybe yes, there is a discrepancy. Then I would be curious to hear which is which.
And even if it feels very arbitrary to me (these supposed four convolutions of the physical brain) I am still taking this opinion as preliminary, since I don't have the higher cognition to go and visit the spiritual reality on demand, fact-check the idea, and come back to the intellect with conceptualized certainties.

This morning, in the moment of awakening, there was a picture of the brain. It was like a square, or rhomboid, with every vertex having one symmetrical feature in common with each of the two adjacent ones. It was very simple. But I couldn't retain the idea. As I tried to pin it down in words it slipped through my fingers.

The forces at work within the brain are asking for your attention : )

I am out of town and don't have much time to respond, but will offer a few brief thoughts.

I wouldnt try to make such a 1:1 mapping at this point, because for me it's more important to avoid rigid conceptual structures and take a fluid and imaginative approach. Perhaps this symbol may also help for intuitive orientation.

The four-fold man is put together in this way. It is the Pythagorean square.

The spinal cord and brain are the organ of the ego.
The warm blood and the heart are the organ of Kama (astral body).
The Solar plexus is the organ of the etheric body.
The actual physical body is the complicated physical apparatus.
Thus has the four-fold being of man been constructed.

In occultism what we have now described is again called a spiral (Wirbel), something that builds from outside inwards and unites with what builds up from within. Physical body, etheric and astral bodies have built up the human being. Then the ego makes itself felt and this builds from within outwards. These are the four constituents of man. Here we find in the outer an imprint of the four-fold man. All further development is of such a nature that the human being, starting from this point of the ego, consciously experiences what previously he went through unconsciously.

Today, in order to realise that this is so, one must in the first place investigate what took place when our ego was being developed. In order to do this we must, as it were, take up our position under a certain organ. This is most aptly expressed in the Buddha legend. It says in the legend that Buddha remained seated under the Bodhi tree until he attained illumination in order to rise to higher stages, to Nirvana. For this Buddha had to place himself under the brain, under the organ of consciousness. That means the paths he had previously traversed unconsciously he had to traverse again consciously. Under the large brain there lies, more towards the back of the head, the small, tree shaped brain (the cerebellum). Under this brain Buddha placed himself. The cerebellum is the Bodhi tree. This shows how what is said in such profound legends is actually taken from human evolution.

The essays have focused a lot on the overlap between the conceptual space and the higher spaces. This is again related to the brain - it is through the brain that we perceive-cognize the sensory world and we know the latter must be an aliased perception of the soul and spiritual worlds. This is the pinhole of cognition through which we must pass by stabilizing the oscillations of activity and perception.

A lot of focus is placed in esoteric training to liberate cognition from the brain but that is only half the story. The other half is to spirtualize its functioning through our retracing efforts, to draw out its latent potential in connection with the rest of the organism, particularly the heart. Just as the sensory world we perceive through its functioning, the brain is an image of the contextual spheres of intents, the crown of the creative process which becomes the vehicle for the ego to bridge the worlds. It is exactly what allows us to permeate the contextual spheres with conceptual understanding and to test the results of spiritual research even if we ourselves have not developed clairvoyance proper.

PS - I didnt see Cleric had posted a response already. But I think they should complementary.

[Federica]

Trying to grasp the structure of the brain shouldn't be our most immediate goal in my view. There's something closer to our "I"-activity, which is brain activity.



In other words, before we can have experience of the structure of the brain, we first begin to gain inner sensation for the way our activity flashes in various parts of the innerly experienced volume of our head. I believe you feel less disgusted by the idea of being one with such surges of inner activity

One of the earliest sensations of this head volume (at least in my experience) is the hemispherical polarity. Of course, this is not some mechanical perception but most often the general intuitive orientation we attain when we have bounced around in some philosophical or scientific questions. It's basically an experience of bistability and how when we formulate certain thoughts about reality in one way we lose another aspect and vice versa. When concentration is prolonged, however, we can experience this polarity in its archetypal nature, as a holistic image. For example, we may feel our whole head as something akin to a yin-yang symbol.

But in time we gain even finer sensations of front, back, up, down. This is not to say that we see the activity as in the image above but rather we begin to feel that when we think of something our inner focus is pressed in a certain head direction. Such things can get even more explicit forms. We may notice how sometimes when we think of something we physically tilt our head. I also remind that we can exercise closing the polarity when in meditation instead of supporting the feeling "I'm here (somewhere in the back of the head), the thought image is there (in the front)", we begin to bring the two closer together.

The etheric and physical structure of the brain is somewhat deeper compared to the flashes of brain activity, just like the physical structure of an electronic circuit is something more inert than the flow of current. I don't have much to say about this more physical structure because we can only understand it by correspondingly expanding into the Macrocosm. Things like the twelve cranial nerves, the 31 pairs of nerves along the spine, etc. can only be grasped as images of Cosmic configurations (beings, Ls), which have their fractal reverberation in the imploding World state.

Thanks! It never dawned on me that such differentiations are possible. I will pay attention.

[Federica]

The forces at work within the brain are asking for your attention : )

I am out of town and don't have much time to respond, but will offer a few brief thoughts.

I wouldnt try to make such a 1:1 mapping at this point, because for me it's more important to avoid rigid conceptual structures and take a fluid and imaginative approach. Perhaps this symbol may also help for intuitive orientation.

The four-fold man is put together in this way. It is the Pythagorean square.

The spinal cord and brain are the organ of the ego.
The warm blood and the heart are the organ of Kama (astral body).
The Solar plexus is the organ of the etheric body.
The actual physical body is the complicated physical apparatus.
Thus has the four-fold being of man been constructed.

In occultism what we have now described is again called a spiral (Wirbel), something that builds from outside inwards and unites with what builds up from within. Physical body, etheric and astral bodies have built up the human being. Then the ego makes itself felt and this builds from within outwards. These are the four constituents of man. Here we find in the outer an imprint of the four-fold man. All further development is of such a nature that the human being, starting from this point of the ego, consciously experiences what previously he went through unconsciously.

Today, in order to realise that this is so, one must in the first place investigate what took place when our ego was being developed. In order to do this we must, as it were, take up our position under a certain organ. This is most aptly expressed in the Buddha legend. It says in the legend that Buddha remained seated under the Bodhi tree until he attained illumination in order to rise to higher stages, to Nirvana. For this Buddha had to place himself under the brain, under the organ of consciousness. That means the paths he had previously traversed unconsciously he had to traverse again consciously. Under the large brain there lies, more towards the back of the head, the small, tree shaped brain (the cerebellum). Under this brain Buddha placed himself. The cerebellum is the Bodhi tree. This shows how what is said in such profound legends is actually taken from human evolution.

The essays have focused a lot on the overlap between the conceptual space and the higher spaces. This is again related to the brain - it is through the brain that we perceive-cognize the sensory world and we know the latter must be an aliased perception of the soul and spiritual worlds. This is the pinhole of cognition through which we must pass by stabilizing the oscillations of activity and perception.

A lot of focus is placed in esoteric training to liberate cognition from the brain but that is only half the story. The other half is to spirtualize its functioning through our retracing efforts, to draw out its latent potential in connection with the rest of the organism, particularly the heart. Just as the sensory world we perceive through its functioning, the brain is an image of the contextual spheres of intents, the crown of the creative process which becomes the vehicle for the ego to bridge the worlds. It is exactly what allows us to permeate the contextual spheres with conceptual understanding and to test the results of spiritual research even if we ourselves have not developed clairvoyance proper.

PS - I didnt see Cleric had posted a response already. But I think they should complementary.

Thanks! Yeah I believe my brain image was influenced by a video I'd watched that contained some geometry, in other words it was more or less like a dream. Surely good for me to have in mind, as you illustrate, the function of the brain, as well as its activity, as in Cleric's last post.