Insight into the full nature of reality

[Federica]

I was very careful to state my question in "we" terms and was not setting up a "who" accusation calling for prosecution and defense. Let's not go there. In general I perceive a modern achievement biased culture that often carries an incorrect implication that love is somehow earned where more achievement should be more rewarded and separates rather than unites.

About up and down, I agree with your signature quote: "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." -Teilhard de Chardin Some may have this experience to learn or attain awareness; some may do so to help reduce suffering. I was seeing both as part of a both/and systemic or holistic diversity.

Lou (glad that Eugene revived your participation here)

In all honesty, how can you know that the both/and is not something we pull out of ourselves as the expression of a need, rather than a Truth we see in the spiritual worlds? Does this question not deserve a thorough inquiry that puts at work all our available human faculties, and not primarily our perceived, untraced, instinctive yearning for spirituality? Does it not deserve that we make sure we are not abiding in relief, as we abandon ourselves to that assuagement? And that we seek help, to check if we are not by any chance expounding the both/and, legitimizing it more and more in our inner space, until we come to feel the both/and is actually our fundamental human right, appealing to us in all its soothing openness? What if the southing openness is in reality a numbing void? Should we not put our best efforts in researching this question?


Incidentally, this has nothing to do with the problems generated by our contemporary culture of achievement. We are not in any competitive race here, quite the opposite. It's an inner path, that we can walk with the help of others, and in mutual support, not under the burden of their rivalry.

All human beings, no matter how old they are or what their situation, have a part of themselves that remembers how life used to be before they lost control of things. No amount of misunderstanding, mistakes, ridicule, taunts, humiliations or abuse can erase the memories stored in this part of every single human. We could say that there is an inner being in every person who is doing this remembering of the essential or True Human at all times. This inner being is the very kernel and core of our humanness and lives in an inner, timeless world among memories of how it was when someone was running things in our universe besides crazy people. Our inner being lives constantly in this timeless world where there is some peace of mind at all times, even though things in the regular time-driven world often seem to be getting more and more insane.

We all have that part of ourselves, that remembers. So can we not, with calm, trust, and method, search if there is a way to consciously reconnect with the True Human in us, rather than searching for assuagement from the insane world, the crazy people, and the achievement culture in a vague, possibly self-deceiving both/and self-legitimized under the soothing cover of blind surrender? Before we can surrender, we need to clearly, not vaguely, see what we are surrending to.

[Stranger]

Eugene,

Thank you, that's helpful, and no worries, I am not getting it as an argument against Cleric's Deep MAL, at all.

If I'm getting your 2D geometry right: rather than a flat MAL strewn with single bubbles (as in Bernardo’s drawings), your geometry looks like a simplified Deep MAL, simply collapsed onto a plane. This preserves the potential for convergence to center of all possible individual points, or viewpoints, out of an infinity of differentiated individual peripheral positions. So in this sense, it seems to me consistent with Deep MAL. But then when Oneness - or Self - is represented in this geometry by the plane on which the concentric circles exist, there's a question: what does this really, concretely, mean to the singular viewpoints - to us now, for example - to be encompassed within that Self, Oneness, or Plane? Beyond the abstract geometrical statement that we are all, knowingly or unknowingly, included within the plane, what concrete difference does it make to the quality, the twists, and the turns of our progression?


To be clear, I am not arguing that it doesn't make any difference. Rather, I’m connecting to what Cleric said, that it’s a vague, potentailly misleading characterization. As such, it does the job of appeasing any pre-existing yearning for unity, agreement, expansiveness, belonging, love. But knowing that our humble quest has to be, and is, for naked Truth - simply that, whatever it might be - it becomes clear that such Plane of Oneness (if I may name your visualization this way) manifests, by its existing, a superimposed concept stacked on Deep MAL to remedy any pre-existing needs, needs brought possibly unprocessed to the spiritual inquiry, and by its features - as pervasive Plane of Oneness on which we evolve while moving to center - it manifests a vagueness or 'joker' quality, described above by Cleric as “wildcard”, where the ”place of the human being within this differentiated oneness” remains highly ambiguous, and actually undifferentiated. Again: what is the concrete difference the Plane of Oneness makes for us? Such abstract, ‘placeholder’ quality introduced by the Plane of Oneness appears even more clearly when we notice that it forces you to create a narrative to make it fit, to make it sink into the geometry, or to make the geometry fit into it:

My point here is that there's a big risk: to wholeheartedly dive into the inquiry, bringing to it something that has more to do with our pre-existing views and wishes, than with the peeks of Truth that we glance at from the path. To dispel this risky mixture of what we pre-hold in ourselves and what we see as elements of Truth, it would be necessary to be able to overview ourselves as strangers - I find your nickname excellent omen in this sense!
What would be necessary is the ability to objectively grasp from above all our subconscious biases, and preferences, and beliefs, and all the deep reasons why we hold them. But this is simply not immediately possible, as we start off. It's too big of an ask. And that’s why Steiner gifted us PoF. To guide us, as long as we can connect with our available reservoir of humility and trust. PoF's essential function is to safely direct the eagerness, or even fury, of our spiritual quest, as we first approach it along the direction that Steiner is highlighting for us - I'm using present continuous on purpose here. In other words, PoF is here to take our hand and show us, little step by little step, a very safe marked path along which we trust that we are protected from falling prey to our own biases, mistaking them for bricks of Truth, until one day we will be enabled to draw our own path, way down the road.

I hope it’s clear that I see myself as a complete beginner in this endeavor. The only experience that allows me to contrast and express the above, is that of my ongoing struggles - as facilitated by Cleric and Ashvin - with my own biases and pre-existing views and wishes. Cleric and Ashvin are making possible for me, and for anyone else listening, the experience of progressively separating, bit by bit, those personal views and wishes we all hold without exception, from the quest, from the path, so that we can find, or recognize, our way ahead in ourselves (living) along the marked path, and still not in our biases, that we constantly try to check in as hand luggage on the journey. I am constantly doing it, Eugene, and it’s a painful but necessary process to see this happening in ourselves. Every post written to you here is highly useful to me as well, helping me see how I am constantly attracted back to my own biases, and through them, to Maya. I constantly need to be nudged away from a part of myself that I try to check in, over and over again.
All this points to the crucial importance of looking at the all-encompassing Plane of Oneness, remaining open to the question: what if this enormous thing I am merged with is too big to be checked in as hand luggage on the path? Could it be that it won’t properly fit into the cabin, but rather obscure the view and spoil the whole journey?
And this is not to discard or disrespect Oneness, but only to open for it to progressively form afresh, as we go forward, out of Truth, rather than out of our initial expectations. In this pursuit, a sort of experiment is coming to mind. Instead of prefiguring Oneness as a majestic gate that we will encounter on our way towards the center, and enter in blissful expansion of consciousness at some point, can we for a moment imagine to attract that gate towards us, all the way to us, and consider Oneness as a given - simply as our monism. Let's provisionally say that the Plane of Oneness is simply our manifested, present sense that reality is unitary. It’s our rejection of naive realism. Let’s take it for our common acknowledgement: "we are in Oneness". Now, from here, when we look ahead, what do we see? How do we proceed? What is the mystery, what are the motives, what do we do next?

Federica, you asked so many questions but I don’ t think I can give you all the answers that you are expecting. It seems you don’t feel comfortable with "we are in Oneness" and feel that “it won’t properly fit into the cabin” at your current state, and that is perfectly fine. As we discussed in many posts here, any premature attempt to “jump” to Oneness can be detrimental and we would only be intoxicating ourselves either with some sort of abstract ideas about “Oneness”, or with some sort of artificial mystical states of bliss-out in a “flat nondual soup” that Cleric rightly criticized. Approaching Oneness has to be done when the soul is ready, when our spiritual organs and faculties are sufficiently developed and the debris of our subconscious ego patterns are sufficiently cleared. The realization of Oneness has to be authentic, it should happen by the help of the Divine grace, we cannot rush it. So, I think you are doing great, just keep practicing Spiritual Science and don’t worry about this “Oneness” stuff, you can just keep it somewhere on the shelf of your mind and you can pull it when a proper time comes and you will feel an aspiration for it. But I need to stop here, it may sound like I’m giving you spiritual advices as if I am some kind of a guru, which I’m certainly not, so please take all I say with a grain of salt.

[Federica]

Federica, you asked so many questions but I don’ t think I can give you all the answers that you are expecting. It seems you don’t feel comfortable with "we are in Oneness" and feel that “it won’t properly fit into the cabin” at your current state, and that is perfectly fine. As we discussed in many posts here, any premature attempt to “jump” to Oneness can be detrimental and we would only be intoxicating ourselves either with some sort of abstract ideas about “Oneness”, or with some sort of artificial mystical states of bliss-out in a “flat nondual soup” that Cleric rightly criticized. Approaching Oneness has to be done when the soul is ready, when our spiritual organs and faculties are sufficiently developed and the debris of our subconscious ego patterns are sufficiently cleared. The realization of Oneness has to be authentic, it should happen by the help of the Divine grace, we cannot rush it. So, I think you are doing great, just keep practicing Spiritual Science and don’t worry about this “Oneness” stuff, you can just keep it somewhere on the shelf of your mind and you can pull it when a proper time comes and you will feel an aspiration towards it. But I need to stop here, it may sound like I’m giving you spiritual advices as if I am some kind of a guru, which I’m certainly not, so please take all I say with a grain of salt.

Eugene,
Based on what you just said, I think the topic of this particular exchange would be much better followed up by Ashvin and/or Cleric, so I am inclined to leave it at that for my part as well.

[AshvinP]

The "holistic view of things" is that there is only one "full nature of reality" that manifests the world of a vast variety of ideas and forms through a variety of aspects and faculties (Thinking, Willing, Feeling, Perceiving, Imagining etc) enacted through spiritual activity of a vast variety of spiritual beings in the universe, yet all of those beings, aspects, ideas and forms are never apart from the "full nature of reality" and essentially never anything else than the "full nature of reality". When we only pay attention to the variety and neglect the unity, we perceive ourselves as a separate self interacting with the world outside our self, we perceive the world as a variety of objects and beings separate from ourselves, and this is the foundation of our dualistic perception of the world catalyzing the development of the ego and a sense of separation and alienation. The only way to overcome such alienation is to raise ourselves to the holistic view and realize the underlying unity of the "full nature of reality" without negating or neglecting the variety. All spiritual traditions of the past, both Western and Eastern, pointed to the attainment of such holistic view, not just as an intellectual understanding, but as an actual spiritual experience and actual state of consciousness. Attaining such holistic state also constitutes a core component of Steiner's SS.

“Lastly, at the fourth stage of knowledge Inspiration also ceases. Of the elements customarily observed in everyday knowledge, the ego alone remains to be considered. The attainment of this stage by the occult student is marked by a definite inner experience. This experience manifests itself in the feeling that he no longer stands outside the things and occurrences that he recognizes, but is himself within them. Images are not the object, but merely its imprint. Also, inspiration does not yield up the object itself, but only tells about it. But what now lives in the soul is in reality the object itself. The ego has streamed forth over all beings; it has merged with them. The actual living of things within the soul is Intuition. When it is said of Intuition that “through it man creeps into all things,” this is literally true. — In ordinary life man has only one “intuition” — namely, of the ego itself, for the ego can in no way be perceived from without; it can only be experienced in the inner life. A simple consideration will make this fact clear. It is a consideration that has not been applied by psychologists with sufficient exactitude. Unimpressive as it may appear to one with full understanding, it is of the most far-reaching significance. It is as follows. A thing in the outer world can be called by all men by the self-same name. A table can be spoken of by all as a “table”; a tulip by all as a “tulip.” Mr. Miller can be addressed by all as “Mr. Miller.” But there is one word that each can apply only to himself. This is the word “I.” No other person can call me “I.” To anyone else I am a “you.” In the same way everyone else is a “you” to me. Only I can say “I” to myself. This is because each man lives, not outside, but within the “I.” In the same way, in intuitive cognition, one lives in all things. The perception of the ego is the prototype of all intuitive cognition. Thus to enter into all things, one must first step outside oneself. One must become “selfless” in order to become blended with the “self,” the “ego” of another being.”

Rudolph Steiner. The Stages of Higher Knowledge

Today I was listening to lecture given by Steiner in 1910 on the paths and goals of the spiritual human. He contrasted the mystical and occult paths to knowledge, and described the former as compressing the "I" in one's own interior and the latter as pouring the I over the external world, at one with the external world. What is experienced is the same thing. Mysticism and occultism go in opposite directions but lead to the same goal.

Anthony,

If I am not mistaken, Steiner is there discussing the contrast between Christian mysticism and occultism, i.e. the modern 'feeling' and 'thinking' paths. Heindel also speaks about it here. The thing to note is that it is much more difficult for one to summon the reverence and devotion necessary to ascend to higher planes of consciousness without first establishing the thinking foundation, than it is to work vertically with our current thinking activity and thereby discover the impulses for reverence and devotion (which is not to say any of it can come without great inner effort).

The spiritual awakening which starts this process of regeneration in the Christian Mystic who purifies himself by prayer and service, comes also of course to those who are seeking God by way of knowledge and service, but it acts in a different way, which is noted by the spiritual investigator. In the Christian Mystic the regenerative spinal Spirit Fire is concentrated principally upon the lunar segment of the spinal cord, which governs the sympathetic nerves under the rulership of Jehovah. Therefore his spiritual growth is accomplished by faith as simple, childlike, and unquestioning as it was in the days of early Atlantis when men were mindless. He therefore draws down the great white Light of Deity reflected through Jehovah, the Holy Spirit, and attains to the whole wisdom of the world without the necessity of laboring for it intellectually. This gradually transmutes his body into THE WHITE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, THE DIAMOND SOUL.

In those, on the other hand, whose minds are strong and insistent on knowing the reason why and the wherefore of every dictum and dogma, the Spinal Fire of regeneration plays upon the segments of the red Mars and the colorless Mercury, endeavoring to infuse desire with reason, to purify the former of the primal passion that it may become chaste as the rose, and thus transmute the body into the RUBY SOUL, THE RED PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, TRIED BY FIRE, PURIFIED, A CREATIVE BUDDING INDIVIDUALITY.

All who are upon the Path, whether the path of occultism or of mysticism, are weaving the "golden wedding garment" by this work from within and from without. In some the gold is exceedingly pale, and in others it is deeply red. But eventually when the process of Transfiguration has been completed, or rather when it is nearing completion, the extremes will blend, and the transfigured bodies will become balanced in color, for the occultist must learn the lesson of deep devotion, and the Christian Mystic must learn how to acquire knowledge by his own efforts without drawing upon the universal source of all wisdom.

Heindel, Max. Ancient and Modern Initiation by Max Heindel illustrated (pp. 84-85). Kindle Edition.

When people refer to "mysticism" here, generally we are referring to pre-Christian mystical traditions which are unsuited for the modern ego-conscious constitution. One of the symptoms of the same underlying problem of abstract metaphysical/mystical thinking is that it can hardly be imagined how the Christ events actually inaugurated a transformation in our very body-soul-spirit constitution. Under the conditioning of bottom-up materialist evolutionary theory, we find such things to be quite absurd. In other words, we find it very difficult to take idealism and spiritism seriously, rather than a series of planar concepts which have little to do with the scientifically precise structure of the Earth and its evolution. It is only by entering into the living movement of our thinking, before it extinguishes its life into our planar concepts, that we can invert back to the proper relation and then we will think to ourselves, "man, I had only been dreaming of how the world 'works' all along!" We will notice how many major dream-like inconsistencies were present in our previous thinking experience of the world.

Lou, for ex., mentioned that we should also balance our drive for individual self-consciousness with a sacrifice 'downwards', like the great Initiates. But what is missing here is the spiritual pole of our existence between death-rebirth. That is when we do, in fact, consciously choose to make such sacrifices and place our soul-spirit back into corporeal existence. During this period, we do in fact experience the 'Oneness' with all beings which mystics are seeking. Likewise we experience it during the period of sleep-waking, which are nested precipitations of the death-rebirth periods. But the pole of corporeal existence carries a different task for current humans in the Cosmic evolutionary Idea - otherwise why would it exist? Through our ego-consciousness, we are capable of sacrificing upwards during waking-sleeping, birth-death. This is imaged across all ancient religions in burnt offerings, incense, prayers, etc. We are capable of unfolding latent willing-feeling-thinking capacities and virtues which will contribute to the real evolutionary work which takes place during the spiritual pole of existence. That is the Christian mystic-occult path.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." -Philipians 4:13

[Cleric K]

I’ll try to continue the geometric metaphors in hope to elucidate things from another angle. Actually this is not a new angle, it’s the same old aliasing metaphor but let’s revisit it once more nevertheless.



Another fun example:



Or this:



(to see the hidden picture either move few meters away from the screen or squeeze your eyes tight)

One goal of the metaphor is to protect us from something which is especially hindering in the Flat MAL conception. We imagine that we are the One Consciousness but enclosed by a membrane. But at the same time we imagine that whatever it is in this personal sphere is already of the exact same composition as that of the whole MAL. This effectively makes us feel as a top observer of reality, who simply happens to have a temporarily limited span of perception.

The aliasing metaphor hints us at something else. It is true that we are of the same essence as the Being of the Cosmos but within the sampling points. The holistic intuition of the collection of these aliased sampled points is something different from the primordial ‘wave’. Herein is contained the whole mystery and beauty of creation and evolution. Even though the Cosmic potential contains the whole infinity of points as a holistic Divine Intuition, it is still the case that the partial intuition corresponding to a collection of aliased points, is in itself a unique experience. It is true that our aliased state of consciousness is completely transparent from a higher perspective (which contains the aliased points) but still, the possibility to awaken within an aliased perspective and gradually harmonize our being with the full spectrum, presents an unique temporal evolutionary experience where the Divine can be integrated in infinite possible ways.

Few things to note:

It is relatively easy to imagine aliasing for our perceptions. After all, even our visual field is an example of aliasing – we don’t see microscopic details, they are blurred into more uniform colors. But the difficulty is that in the sense of the metaphor we have to conceive that our intuitive comprehension of what we are as a spiritual being, what our consciousness feels like, is in itself aliased intuition. So it’s not only about increasing the resolution of our present perceptions and peek between atoms – it is our intuitive sense of being that should transform. This is why the bubble view of the Flat MAL presents such a hindrance – it simply freezes our intuitive sense of being. Then we expect that if anything else is to happen it should come by only through rearrangement and refinement of our perceptions.

Another thing (related to the first) is that in reality there are levels of aliasing. It is not a simple two tier system of fragmentary phenomena and the undivided container. This misconception is what kindles the ‘pure awareness’ ideas. The video with the spinning disc above can be used as a metaphor for this also. Notice how at different speeds of rotation, different rings seem to stop. As simple as this analogy is, it precisely addresses the kind of trap we can fall for. Meditation that seeks the dissolving of our spiritual activity and any other phenomena, practically is akin to a tuning process through which we adjust the frequency of rotation of the disc until a certain band feels completely motionless. All other bands are excluded from consciousness. Thus what is called the ‘ground of reality’ is really only a very specific aliasing effect, giving the intuition of being outside of space and time.

By the way, this analogy can go much deeper because such discs, although not in a literal spatial sense, really exist. It’s not without a reason that the ancients called them chakras, which means wheels. This also directly hints us at the fact that in our age we’re deeply in Maya if we imagine the soul organs simply as shiny orbs along the spine. This is once again a manifestation of the top observer fallacy, where we imagine that our consciousness contains within its volume the soul organs as some energy orbs. There’re still perfectly good reasons to trace some of the characteristics of the organs to particular parts of the physical body, but as we loosen our focus from the body, it feels rather that we’re placed within overlapping spheres, each one introducing a different quality of aliasing.


(check out the droplets flowing in reverse towards the end)

So as a very crude analogy, in deeper meditation, when we loosen from the sense organs, our soul organs are experienced as different qualities of our whole conscious volume. If we picture these volumes as spheres with specific patterns of holes on their surfaces, then different combinations of their rotations strobe the light of intuition in specific ways.

This is a very mechanistic analogy. In reality we’re dealing with real soul and spiritual phenomena. Our interests, opinions, desires, ideas, sympathies, antipathies, all exist as completely real configurations of the organs of our soul (astral) body. And these organs are not inside our consciousness as spatial orbs that we can contain but rather as the invisible carrier waves of consciousness which format the aliased flow of our inner life through their relations, conjunctions, oppositions and so on. We are conscious of the soul organs only as far as we grasp in intuition the rhythmic processes within which our inner life unfolds.



Hopefully these analogies help us see how easily we can be misled in these domains, unless we build a firm foundation of thinking that is ready to sacrifice anything standing in the way of Truth. Actually, it is interesting to mention why the ancient methods of meditation are so difficult for modern man. It’s simply because they are unnatural for the contemporary soul organism. Leading ourselves into the mystical state is possible but it requires great effort and patience, much like balancing a pencil on its tip. The mystic indeed brings intuitively his soul organs in a very specific configuration, such that their ‘stroboscopic’ effect produces a complete serenity, void, whatever you would call it. But the fact that it is difficult doesn’t mean that it has practical value for the evolving human being of today. Juggling chainsaws while keeping balance on a tightrope between two skyscrapers is very hard. We can spend decades of practice to master it. But what’s practical value, except making us feel that we have accomplished something and getting some applause from the spectators? Similarly, what modern man tries to achieve today with the ancient methods (they had completely different effect on the ancient yogi) is very hard but serves only to create a following of people with similar exotic interests. On the other hand, the modern method of spiritual development is not technically difficult. It is hard but in a different respect. Concentrating our spiritual activity on a single meditative image is not that difficult. The reason is that we don’t have to extinguish the momentum of our spiritual activity in the way we have to if we want to dissolve our cognition. Our spiritual activity is like a massive train, having great kinetic energy. Placing a wall before that train simply crushes it like styrofoam. So we need to be wise as the railway operator who switches the tracks – the kinetic energy is preserved, only the direction is changed. So it is in modern meditation – we don’t need to extinguish our thinking force but only focus it as a laser. This is easy. The harder part is that there are many other railway operators in our soul body – interest, desires, fears, hopes – who compete to pull the lever of the railway switch. These are the elemental forces of our soul body, which take part in the rotations of the wheels. The result for man of the modern age is a heavily aliased inner world, a stroboscopic chaos (is there any surprise that such kind of sensations are also sought in sensory entertainment?) And the difficulty is once again not so much technical rather than because of our inner resistance. We need to meet these soul forces in full consciousness, we have to face the full reality of our being, our character, passions, fears, vices – which many have hoped are an illusion that will simply fall off like a flake of skin as soon as we deidentify with them. This is the difficult part. That our being is far more real than anything we have perceived through the senses, and the intellect doesn't want to admit that there can be something more real than itself within its own territory.

Through the concentration of our spiritual activity it is like we seek the configuration of rotations which go in phase and regularly match their ‘holes’ such that the light of intuition can pass. This however doesn’t lead us into the state of serenity of false stroboscopic stillness. In fact we do find holistic harmony in the higher stages but this doesn’t result from apparent emptiness, but from the musical attunement of the gradient. One sphere is the bass, another is the tenor, the alto, the soprano. They have different qualities, different frequencies of rotation but together can be united into a holistic symphony.

When our organs rotate in chaotic manner, the stroboscopic light jumps all over the place. We’re here thinking about one thing, then there pulled by that problem, then another place dragged by some fear. Calling these phenomena ‘the illusion of the ego’ and trying to dream them away, simply encloses us in search for the stationary stroboscopic effect. Only by deepening our spiritual life it becomes possible to gain consciousness of the way our soul forces interfere to produce our aliased experience. The transformation of our elemental soul organism liberates new degrees of spiritual freedom, which form a future higher unity of intuition, called Spirit-Self (Manas in Eastern terminology). Just like the mode of consciousness characteristic to our “I” is one that lives in perceptions and integrates them through thinking intuition, so the Imaginative stage of consciousness is the default mode of cognition for the Spirit-Self. In our “I” we think mental pictures within our organism, while the Spirit-Self will think soul forces. This is for example how an Angelic being (which is at a stage similar to that of the Spirit-Self) today works upon the souls of human beings and tries to reverse some of the damage that we do to ourselves on daily basis. While the soul organs for us are like a stroboscopic labyrinth, within which our thinking, feeling and willing are helplessly thrown around, a being at the level of the Spirit-Self can Imaginatively think its whole soul organization, just like we can think mental pictures. These mental pictures are still powerful – this is what makes spiritual development possible – but they have to be exercised with great diligence and devotion, until our more inert (from the perspective of the thinking “I”) soul body follows in suit. This is also why the images for our concentration must be prepared with the appropriate feeling and ideal content. They have to be a symbol for us, which anchors the soul forces and virtues that we want to develop.

There are two more major levels of nested aliasing within which our “I”-experience manifests. Those of the life (etheric) body and the physical body. We need even greater purification and organization of our being if we are to be spiritually active in the forces of the life spectrum. The forces of our spirit that we integrate in this process constitute the future Spirit-Life (Buddhi) and the Inspirative stage of consciousness.

Similarly, through an even greater perfection of our whole being, our spirit reaches the forces of the physical body. This is connected with the level of being that we’ll develop only at the last eon of the Solar evolution, called Spirit-Man (Atma) and the corresponding Intuitive stage of consciousness.

All these things fit so beautifully when seen in the evolutionary stream of humanity. Instead of the completely abstract putting up with contradictions ‘and/or/both’, we see how clearly evolutionary impulses work one into the other. The Buddha impulse was a powerful force that differentiated the soul from its Earthly aliased image (see the panda above). The achievement of the great Buddha was the point at which the still dimly experienced “I” could lift itself from the aliased picture of the Earthly personality by feeling the deeper ground of being (from which the panda is aliased). But what practitioners do today is not what Buddha did. For him it was the final frontier that the human soul could reach while incarnated at that time but today, by ignoring what followed, one no longer reaches enlightenment but apparent stroboscopic stillness.

The impulse of Love that came after the impulse of Buddha leads even further in evolution because now we not only detach the aliased panda but also find the forces within the higher world (in which Buddha still could not be self-consciously active) which manifest through the "I". The “I” within Buddha could gain intuition of itself only by differentiating itself from the panda. If he were to move spiritually in that state, he would feel in the panda again. But today this is different because the spirit can now be active across the gradient of worlds. Now we can be self-conscious in aspects of our higher spiritual being and follow them as they crystalize as aliased thoughts. The ego is no longer an illusion to be pushed away but our direct responsibility. It is the holistic intuition of our higher being that we have grasped so far within the aliased fragments.

What does this have to do with Love? It has to do with the fact that we have to allow something higher than us to flow through us and lead us into the world. This is the critical point today. I was very happy to read Federica’s metaphor with the luggage and the cabin because this is precisely the point where our true sense of ‘scale’ should develop. We can surely form a mental picture for our intuition of the holistic potential of the Absolute from which our present “I”-experience is aliased. But we should be clear that the holistic intuition of our “I”-experience, which unites our thoughts, feelings and actions into a coherent whole is not identical to the higher self. The “I” precipitates from the higher self, it is of the same essence. We can say that there’s zero distance between our sampled points of intuition and the Divine Intuition. Yet our island of intuition does not contain the full reality of the Divine. Of course, here even Flat MAL-ers would agree but they would agree in a different sense. They would say that of course MAL is partitioned in the plane but within the personal circle one is the top observer of reality, there’s nothing higher than us in our own soul circle. What we describe here, however, is that there’s a whole deeper Cosmos, of which our sense of holistic self is only an aliased intuition.

I know that even such explanations would fail to reach the point for many but there’s one thing that can serve as a self-test. It is the question of prayer. In Flat MAL prayer makes sense only as relating to more powerful circles in our periphery. It makes no sense to pray to a higher being within our own circle. Here’s actually one of the most common objections of those who hastily embrace the idea that there’s One consciousness and we are only a peripherally bounded perspective of it. Then one asks: “Praying? To whom? I’m a realized being now, I am a perspective of the One Self. It would be like praying to myself. That’s silly!”

As it has been said many times before, here we need a little deeper conception of what prayer is and not the caricatures of praying to some entity in hope for better health, car and wife. The prayer we’re talking about is the most intimate experience we can have (But when you pray, go into your inner room,  …). It is the realization that the very ‘geometry’ of our intuitive sense of being lives on the waves of cascade of higher beings, whose perspective is progressively aliased until it reaches our state. One higher being can hold into its consciousness our whole incarnation as a picture, another being grasps the whole evolution of humanity, another grasps the evolution of the whole Solar organism. These beings work in musical harmony, each perfecting the details of the Cosmic organism at their level. Only our “I”, like the prodigal son, has decided to steal the life it has received and use it for satisfaction of the most varied desires, which pull and tear the “I” away from its evolutionary path. To pray in the true sense is to open our hearth and let the Love flow. To accept in humility that our “I”-existence is only aliased modulation over the spiritual activity of the deeper levels of being, which are quite independent and live in the realization of quite definite creative ideas, which support our whole reality. It is with these beings that we need to harmonize. Our prayer is not for them to take control and move our “I” to the side, but for the streams of Inspiration, Love and Wisdom to flow through us, such that we can do in freedom and understanding what can only be done at our level of existence. And of course all this takes into account our own evolution towards the higher levels of being. Or rather, the “I” has to organize and sacrifice everything that prevents the higher being from awakening to self-consciousness within the “I”. We need to Love the higher beings but we also need to Love the World, because the perfected World is our higher being.

[Lou Gold]

I was very careful to state my question in "we" terms and was not setting up a "who" accusation calling for prosecution and defense. Let's not go there. In general I perceive a modern achievement biased culture that often carries an incorrect implication that love is somehow earned where more achievement should be more rewarded and separates rather than unites.

About up and down, I agree with your signature quote: "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." -Teilhard de Chardin Some may have this experience to learn or attain awareness; some may do so to help reduce suffering. I was seeing both as part of a both/and systemic or holistic diversity.

Lou (glad that Eugene revived your participation here)

In all honesty, how can you know that the both/and is not something we pull out of ourselves as the expression of a need, rather than a Truth we see in the spiritual worlds? Does this question not deserve a thorough inquiry that puts at work all our available human faculties, and not primarily our perceived, untraced, instinctive yearning for spirituality? Does it not deserve that we make sure we are not abiding in relief, as we abandon ourselves to that assuagement? And that we seek help, to check if we are not by any chance expounding the both/and, legitimizing it more and more in our inner space, until we come to feel the both/and is actually our fundamental human right, appealing to us in all its soothing openness? What if the southing openness is in reality a numbing void? Should we not put our best efforts in researching this question?


Incidentally, this has nothing to do with the problems generated by our contemporary culture of achievement. We are not in any competitive race here, quite the opposite. It's an inner path, that we can walk with the help of others, and in mutual support, not under the burden of their rivalry.

All human beings, no matter how old they are or what their situation, have a part of themselves that remembers how life used to be before they lost control of things. No amount of misunderstanding, mistakes, ridicule, taunts, humiliations or abuse can erase the memories stored in this part of every single human. We could say that there is an inner being in every person who is doing this remembering of the essential or True Human at all times. This inner being is the very kernel and core of our humanness and lives in an inner, timeless world among memories of how it was when someone was running things in our universe besides crazy people. Our inner being lives constantly in this timeless world where there is some peace of mind at all times, even though things in the regular time-driven world often seem to be getting more and more insane.

We all have that part of ourselves, that remembers. So can we not, with calm, trust, and method, search if there is a way to consciously reconnect with the True Human in us, rather than searching for assuagement from the insane world, the crazy people, and the achievement culture in a vague, possibly self-deceiving both/and self-legitimized under the soothing cover of blind surrender? Before we can surrender, we need to clearly, not vaguely, see what we are surrending to.

Lou (glad that Eugene revived your participation here)

Thanks, always a pleasure. I just took a break of relief and liberation as a result of realizing that there was no need for or usefulness in my efforts to convincingly tell my story. To each his own.

In all honesty, how can you know that the both/and is not something we pull out of ourselves as the expression of a need, rather than a Truth we see in the spiritual worlds? Does this question not deserve a thorough inquiry that puts at work all our available human faculties, and not primarily our perceived, untraced, instinctive yearning for spirituality? Does it not deserve that we make sure we are not abiding in relief, as we abandon ourselves to that assuagement? And that we seek help, to check if we are not by any chance expounding the both/and, legitimizing it more and more in our inner space, until we come to feel the both/and is actually our fundamental human right, appealing to us in all its soothing openness? What if the southing openness is in reality a numbing void? Should we not put our best efforts in researching this question?

Oh Federica, in good spirit I ask simply, "In all honesty, how can you know that the either/or 'best effort' is not as well a rationalization of a bias?" Philosophers surely have not resolved the duality versus non-duality problem. Perhaps, similar to Anthony's metaphor, it's like entering a circle at different points heading in different directions and meeting or passing each other along the way? I dunno but it surely seems that diversity and variety offer the most options for an infinite living god, which is why I'll settle for both/and. Yes, we should put our best efforts in researching this question but according to which model and in what contexts? Scientists and philosophers argue over this reasonably while poets say, "there is something deeper than reason." I'm not seeking to put down "spiritual science," which is clearly the best "spiritual science" way amidst a grand diversity in a great mysteriousness worthy, for sure, of everyone's best efforts and productions. Yes, I do love Blake's notion that Eternity is in love with the productions of time.

[Federica]

Oh Federica, in good spirit I ask simply, "In all honesty, how can you know that the either/or 'best effort' is not as well a rationalization of a bias?" Philosophers surely have not resolved the duality versus non-duality problem. Perhaps, similar to Anthony's metaphor, it's like entering a circle at different points heading in different directions and meeting or passing each other along the way? I dunno but it surely seems that diversity and variety offer the most options for an infinite living god, which is why I'll settle for both/and. Yes, we should put our best efforts in researching this question but according to which model and in what contexts? Scientists and philosophers argue over this reasonably while poets say, "there is something deeper than reason." I'm not seeking to put down "spiritual science," which is clearly the best "spiritual science" way amidst a grand diversity in a great mysteriousness worthy, for sure, of everyone's best efforts and productions. Yes, I do love Blake's notion that Eternity is in love with the productions of time.

Lou, to your question "How can you know" I answer: I give myself the chance to get to know, by putting my best efforts in the inquiry, without settling for what "it surely seems" and without delegating to "philosophers'' - whatever attributes you would associate to this label - the responsibility to resolve the question for my part either. It's a personal responsibility, that is renounced the moment one takes the stance to ask "which models" should be used to explore the issue. Unsurprisingly, the wrong questions are brought about in this way.

[Lou Gold]

Oh Federica, in good spirit I ask simply, "In all honesty, how can you know that the either/or 'best effort' is not as well a rationalization of a bias?" Philosophers surely have not resolved the duality versus non-duality problem. Perhaps, similar to Anthony's metaphor, it's like entering a circle at different points heading in different directions and meeting or passing each other along the way? I dunno but it surely seems that diversity and variety offer the most options for an infinite living god, which is why I'll settle for both/and. Yes, we should put our best efforts in researching this question but according to which model and in what contexts? Scientists and philosophers argue over this reasonably while poets say, "there is something deeper than reason." I'm not seeking to put down "spiritual science," which is clearly the best "spiritual science" way amidst a grand diversity in a great mysteriousness worthy, for sure, of everyone's best efforts and productions. Yes, I do love Blake's notion that Eternity is in love with the productions of time.

Lou, to your question "How can you know" I answer: I give myself the chance to get to know, by putting my best efforts in the inquiry, without settling for what "it surely seems" and without delegating to "philosophers'' - whatever attributes you would associate to this label - the responsibility to resolve the question for my part either. It's a personal responsibility, that is renounced the moment one takes the stance to ask "which models" should be used to explore the issue. Unsurprisingly, the wrong questions are brought about in this way.

OK, surely you are not calling for everyone to get to know and put their best efforts on all paths. What I like about my perspective is the way it helps me appreciate other ways. It gives me first person experiences that parallel the conclusions of other way, bringing forth a sense of recognition or opening up something more as in another step on my own path. Not a competition or judgement but a valued expansion of appreciation of diversity.

[Federica]

(...)
In reality we’re dealing with real soul and spiritual phenomena. Our interests, opinions, desires, ideas, sympathies, antipathies, all exist as completely real configurations of the organs of our soul (astral) body. And these organs are not inside our consciousness as spatial orbs that we can contain but rather as the invisible carrier waves of consciousness which format the aliased flow of our inner life through their relations, conjunctions, oppositions and so on. We are conscious of the soul organs only as far as we grasp in intuition the rhythmic processes within which our inner life unfolds.
(...)

I would like to lay at the footer of this post a garland of gratitude, for the wealth of insights that never fail to draw and activate entirely new patterns to guide understanding and tuning efforts, no matter how acquainted one might be with any of the experiences.

Within quotes, the passage that is catalizing my interest the most at this moment. That real configurations of the soul organ-waves realize each of our moods, opinions, ideas, and that the lawfulness attains such levels of accuracy and harmonical complexity is a deeply pacifying, and also encouraging thing to hear and try to approach in knowing.

Thank you Cleric!

[Federica]

(...)
In reality we’re dealing with real soul and spiritual phenomena. Our interests, opinions, desires, ideas, sympathies, antipathies, all exist as completely real configurations of the organs of our soul (astral) body. And these organs are not inside our consciousness as spatial orbs that we can contain but rather as the invisible carrier waves of consciousness which format the aliased flow of our inner life through their relations, conjunctions, oppositions and so on. We are conscious of the soul organs only as far as we grasp in intuition the rhythmic processes within which our inner life unfolds.
(...)

I would like to lay at the footer of this post a garland of gratitude, for the wealth of insights that never fail to draw and activate entirely new patterns to guide understanding and tuning efforts, no matter how acquainted one might be with any of the experiences.

Within quotes, the passage that is catalizing my interest the most at this moment. That real configurations of the soul organ-waves realize each of our moods, opinions, ideas, and that the lawfulness attains such levels of accuracy and harmonical complexity is a deeply pacifying, and also encouraging thing to hear and try to approach in knowing.

Thank you Cleric!

Yes, there's another thing. Stealing. I want to not be stealing this life.