An Idea

[Drifter]

also MJA looking for 'company' or 'brotherhood' can lead you down the wrong path.
To Know That Truth as it is within you, you are never alone. From the merely humanistic side it the realization that what expresses as you, That Creative Energy, also expresses as the all and everyone else as well, so you are in the best company there is.

Like-minded people attract like-minded people.

Dear Drifter,

You seem quite knowledgable in the history and philosophies of world religions.
Tell me if you will what religion teaches the unity or oneness, the equality of not only mankind, or mankind and God or Gods, but rather the equality of all things.
Surely Christianity is not a religion of equity, with God and devil, heaven and hell etc.
And an Islamic faith that teaches their religion or God is superior to anothers.
Or Toaism that teaches the humanity of man but not everything.
And Hinduism that has such diversity of duality and non-duality.
Buddhism?
I have been searching for sometime to find the simple truth of equality in human history, in a religion, in science and find it difficult to find anywhere.
Perhaps you know of some of peoples that understand the truth that would help me with my feeling of sometimes being so alone.
I'm not looking for the truth anymore, but rather for the company of truth.

Thanks,

=
MJA

[Drifter]

Dear MJA

Come What May.

Though it is not a Religion, per se . . .

"THEOSOPHIA"

"Split the atom and LO!, BEHOLD THE SUN!" -RUMI

Dear Drifter,

You seem quite knowledgable in the history and philosophies of world religions.
Tell me if you will what religion teaches the unity or oneness, the equality of not only mankind, or mankind and God or Gods, but rather the equality of all things.
Surely Christianity is not a religion of equity, with God and devil, heaven and hell etc.
And an Islamic faith that teaches their religion or God is superior to anothers.
Or Toaism that teaches the humanity of man but not everything.
And Hinduism that has such diversity of duality and non-duality.
Buddhism?
I have been searching for sometime to find the simple truth of equality in human history, in a religion, in science and find it difficult to find anywhere.
Perhaps you know of some of peoples that understand the truth that would help me with my feeling of sometimes being so alone.
I'm not looking for the truth anymore, but rather for the company of truth.

Thanks,

=
MJA

[Drifter]

BUDDHI YOGA AND SVADHARMA - I

_

__Whosoever knoweth me to be the mighty Ruler of the universe and without birth or beginning, he among men, undeluded, shall be liberated from all his sins. Subtle perception, spiritual knowledge, right judgement, patience, truth, self-mastery; pleasure and pain, prosperity and adversity; birth and death, danger and security, fear and equanimity, satisfaction, restraint of body and mind, alms-giving, inoffensiveness, zeal and glory and ignominy, all these the various dispositions of creatures come from me. So in former days the seven great Sages and the four Manus who are of my nature were born of my mind, and from them sprang this world. He who knoweth perfectly this permanence and mystic faculty of mine becometh without doubt possessed of unshaken faith. I am the origin of all; all things proceed from me; believing me to be thus, the wise gifted with spiritual wisdom worship me; their very hearts and minds are in me; enlightening one another and constantly speaking of me, they are full of enjoyment and satisfaction. To them thus always devoted to me, who worship me with love, I give that mental devotion (Buddhi Yoga) by which they come to me. For them do I out of my compassion, standing within their hearts, destroy the darkness which springs from ignorance by the brilliant lamp of spiritual discernment.

Bhagavad Gita, X

__Lord Krishna represents the universality and versatility of boundless joy (ananda) and the unconditional love at the core of cosmic and human evolution. Wherever thought has struggled to be free, wherever the human heart has opened itself to the invisible Spiritual Sun, and wherever even a drop of wisdom has been awakened through suffering and pain, courage and persistence, there you will find the immortal Spirit, the sovereign power of the omnipresent Purusha. All the Rishis and Mahatmas reside within the universal form (brahmanda) of Vishnu-Narayana-Krishna. In saluting them, one experiences a sense of the timeless, a transcendence that reaches beyond all limits, frontiers and boundaries of manifestation. One may greet the Supreme in the midnight sun, in the dawn of Venus, at midday or in the gathering dusk – the time of memory or the time of reverie. And one must always reach out towards that Divine Darkness which is prior to all worlds and beyond all forms. Myriads upon myriads of worlds of billions of beings arise from that Divine Darkness and reside in the unmanifest light of the invisible form of Vishnu-Narayana.

__That light neither rises nor sets, neither waxes nor wanes. It is the same light which, in the words of the Gospel according to John, irradiates every soul that comes into this world. It is the light to be found in the sound of the AUM, uttered, however imperfectly, by every baby at birth. It is the light that descends upon every human being at the moment of death, when he or she stands ready to cast off the external garments of this world and return to the inmost vesture, the karana sharira, and come closer to the Atman. It is also the light-vibration of the ever-present Brahma Vach that pulsates throughout the cosmos, maintained in motion by mighty men of meditation, Dhyanis, Rishis, Mahatmas, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. All human beings can return, again and again, to sit at the feet of Lord Krishna and so learn how to brighten their lives and awaken compassion in their hearts.

__Every pilgrim soul who seeks to increase skill in action for the sake of increasing his or her capacity to add even a little to the sum of human good can benefit from the Teachings of Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. Taken as a whole, the Gita is a treatise on yoga, the kingly science of the individual soul's union with the universal Self. That union is, ontologically, ever existent. But because of the maya of manifestation and the descent of consciousness through vestures which seem to create a world of many selves and many forms, the human mind becomes alienated from the true inmost Self in which Ishvara resides. It becomes confined within time and space, within past, present and future, and it must struggle to overcome these illusions. Thus the whole of the Gita is a summons and challenge to engage in that righteous warfare which every human soul must undertake. In the eighteenth chapter of the Gita, Lord Krishna declares that if one will not voluntarily choose to engage in this righteous war, karmic necessity will compel one to do so. The wise are those who cooperate with cosmic necessity, with their own divine destiny, with their own sacrosanct duty or svadharma. The wisest are those who choose as firmly and as early as possible, making an irreversible and unconditional commitment, in the gracious manner and generous spirit of Lord Krishna. Without doubt or hesitation, they choose His path, His teaching and His prescribed mode of skill in action.

__In the second chapter of the Gita, Krishna begins by affirming to Arjuna the eternal existence of one indivisible, inconsumable, inexhaustible Source of all life, light and energy. Having dispelled the danger that Arjuna would abandon through fear the righteous battle and his svadharma, Krishna presents before Arjuna the talismanic teaching of Buddhi Yoga:

__Yet the performance of works is by far inferior to mental devotion (Buddhi Yoga), O despiser of wealth. Seek an asylum, then, in this mental devotion, which is knowledge; for the miserable and unhappy are those whose impulse to action is found in its reward. But he who by means of yoga is mentally devoted dismisses alike successful and unsuccessful results, being beyond them; yoga is skill in the performance of actions: therefore do thou aspire to this devotion. For those who are thus united to knowledge and devoted, who have renounced all reward for their actions, meet no rebirth in this life, and go to that eternal blissful abode which is free from all disease and untouched by troubles.

Bhagavad Gita, II

__Buddhi Yoga requires a fixity and steadfastness in intuitive intelligent determination which is superior to Karma Yoga, the yoga of works, as a means of gaining enlightenment. It involves an eye capable of recognizing essentials, which, once awakened, will give a decisiveness without wavering or wandering. Through this resolute intellect, one's actions may become shadowless – nischaya. Even though one may be obscured, as a member of the human family participating in the world's pain, ignorance and turbulence, nonetheless one inwardly preserves the dignity of the power of choice. It is, therefore, possible to touch within oneself that level of absolute resolve which ensures that something essential will never be abandoned, or diluted or doubted, never weakened by careless speech nor lost in the chaos of compulsive acts, but always protected from discursive and dissecting Manasic reasoning. Every human being enjoys such moments of assurance. Otherwise it would not be possible to survive. Even fools and knaves have a few moments of sushupti at night inspiring them to awaken in the morning to greet another day. Were it not for this abiding sense of assurance about one's minimum dignity within the core of one's being, one could not go on.

contd.

[Drifter]

BUDDHI YOGA AND SVADHARMA - I
_

__This sense of one's distinct place in the total scheme of things is what Spinoza called the conatus, the urge or will to sustain rational and spiritual self-preservation. This is not merely an intellectual notion, but a biological fact. When a person begins to approach death, the anahata vibration in the spiritual heart ceases to sound in the linga sharira. The Sage or Seer can recognize this cessation of sound and a subtle alteration in the rate of breathing several months before the time of physical death. Throughout this period, the human being is engaged in a protracted review of the whole of his or her life, a review which is too often chaotic and confused, a jumble of recent memories and childhood events. Only at the time of separation from the physical body is the soul enabled to view in an orderly and rapid manner the entire film of an entire life. In the final preparation for this there is an ebbing of the connection between the sound vibration in the spiritual heart and the karana sharira and the vibration in the linga sharira, and therefore also in the sthula sharira. Once this ebbing begins, the person has begun to withdraw or die.

__The sense of resolve and human dignity is so weak in human beings today that vast numbers, in the phrase of T.S. Eliot, are only "living and partly living". They have become so disgusted with the world, so confused about the events of our times and the precipitous decline of humane values throughout the globe, that they are hardly incarnated. They are mostly asleep or sleep-walking, drowsy or passive, or they mechanically go about their duties. They maintain none of that minimal wakefulness that is found in many a humble villager who, through desperation and poverty, maintains intact the light in the eyes, the light of Manas and human self-awareness. Paradoxically, one can sometimes sense the ray and radiance of pure consciousness in the most desperate and despised of human beings, whilst others have, alas, been educated beyond their capacity to make use of their knowledge. Between the head and the heart there is a terrible chasm, or even a battle. Many tend to be lost and therefore they live and partly live. It is as if the will to live, the conatus, has weakened; nothing remains but an automatism of habit and the power of cohesion in the skandhas. This is the pitiable condition referred to by Lord Krishna when he speaks of those who are wedded to the fruits of action. The plight of those who have conditioned themselves only to act for the sake of results is an indictment of modern education in Kali Yuga. The Iron Age arms too many people to live only in terms of what is perceptible, measurable and tangible. Having reduced all to the terms of a utilitarian consciousness, they come to view their fellow human beings in a crude Lockean fashion: "Every human being is a threat to you, unless you can join interests with him." If a person is neither a threat nor an accomplice in some selfish interest, he is a stranger. Today vast numbers of human beings live in cities of strangers. They live alone amidst humanity, unloved, with no sense of warmth. Such is the tragic condition of 'modern man'.

__Over five thousand years ago Lord Krishna anticipated this condition of varnashankar, the confusion of castes. Although it will increase and proceed throughout the entirety of Kali Yuga, it will also provide an opportunity for those who engage consciously and voluntarily in a discipline of intuitive determination, Buddhi Yoga. Human beings who are yoked to Buddhi are lifelong exemplars of Buddhi Yoga. Preferably before the age of seven, and in rare cases even before the age of three, they have permanently married themselves to the Light of the Logos within the secret spiritual heart. Having so early betrothed themselves and permanently married themselves to the Lord within, they go through the obligations of life with ease, without much expectation, but with a certain lightness and skillfulness in the performance of duty. They do what is needed for their parents and grandparents. They do not despise those who claim to be their rivals or enemies. They do not become too attached to their own siblings, and see themselves as essentially no different from the other children they encounter from poorer families, from humbler circumstances, or even from rich and unhappy families. All of them they recognize as a part of one sacred family.

__Between the ages of seven and fourteen, having already secretly betrothed themselves to this inner core of the Ishvara within, they become quite ready to engage in the duties of the grihastha ashrama. At the same time, they have cultivated that skill in self-education which will last all through the grihastha ashrama and take them into the third ashrama. Even if they cannot retreat into the solitude of forests, mountains or caves, but remain in the midst of society, they will be like wanderers or parivrajakas, preparing themselves for the fourth ashrama. They will always be one step ahead of the stages of life. By the age of twenty-one they will have sharpened their powers of reason and by the age of twenty-eight they will have developed sufficient Buddhic insight to be able to synthesize and select. So they are able to let go of what is irrelevant and inessential. They can follow the teaching of Buddha: "O Bhikshu, lighten the boat if you will cross to the other shore." While others who are less wise are engaged in amassing and accumulating, they learn to lighten their claims upon the world and their demands upon others. By lightening their expectations from institutions, their hopes and fantasies in relation either to the opposite sex or in relation to children or parents, they become capable of looking with eyes of wonder each day for what is unexpected. They begin to perceive the unwritten poetry of human life and the silent drama of human existence. Thus they become witnesses to the divine dialectic ceaselessly at work.

__Such souls are fortunate, for they have chosen to become yoked to Buddhi. Having established true continuity of consciousness in youth, by the age of thirty-five they have already started withdrawing. At the moment of death, whether it come early or late, they are able to engage in a conscious process of withdrawal, maintaining intact the potency of the AUM. In life they have not merely learnt to meditate upon the AUM, but also to enact it. They have learnt the art of will-prayer and gained the ability to act in any and every situation for the good of others, without expectation of reward. They have learnt to cast their actions, like offerings, into the ocean of universal sacrifice in the spirit of the AUM. Thus they are able to experience the AUM, whether in the silence that precedes the dawn or in the noisy rush and din of cities. Even in the cacophony and cries of human pain they hear the AUM. It cries out to them in all of Nature's voices. So they maintain continually an awareness of the AUM, and well before the moment of death they are able to receive the help that will enable them to follow a life of svadharma and Buddhi Yoga in their future incarnations.

_

Hermes, January 1985
Raghavan Iyer

[Drifter]

http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/theos/th-jal.htm

Dear MJA

Come What May.

Though it is not a Religion, per se . . .

"THEOSOPHIA"

"Split the atom and LO!, BEHOLD THE SUN!" -RUMI

[Profpat]

Hi Everyone;

Back to the central theme of this thread.

I appologize for being unable to post the 4th dimensional Venn Diagram that I mentioned, I'll have to work on that.

In the meantime if anyone has any comments regarding the I Ching trigrams and how it relates to my Idea, I'd love to hear from you.
They are listed on page 25 of this thread, posts # 242-245.

Any other question or comments regarding my Idea would be welcomed as well.

Best to all,

Pat

[Drifter]

My Apologies Professor.

I smile and whisper silently to my Self, "There You go again, just being me."

Hi Everyone;

Back to the central theme of this thread.

I appologize for being unable to post the 4th dimensional Venn Diagram that I mentioned, I'll have to work on that.

In the meantime if anyone has any comments regarding the I Ching trigrams and how it relates to my Idea, I'd love to hear from you.
They are listed on page 25 of this thread, posts # 242-245.

Any other question or comments regarding my Idea would be welcomed as well.

Best to all,

Pat

[Bob Campbell]

Yes I remember you, Bob, you're one of my favorite writers.

I've had a few experiences myself, but liken the void to the non-existent means of transcending all phenomena and phenomenal experiences, similar to the quantum jumps you propose in your book that require no transitional spacetime.

Have you transcended the void, and can you expound upon what exactly is directly experienced?

Hi Nobody,

Good to hear from you. Your above statement about the Void is quite accurate and consistent with a new methodology to the sciences that is complementary to traditional approaches, as introduced on my website. As I have mentioned before we need the whole picture before we can assemble the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. This can only be a methodology that provides direct intuitive insight into the structural dynamics of the whole cosmic order embracing all possible varieties of experience. So it can not itself be linguistic in nature, since it delineates the roots of meaning underlying language. Accurate language can emerge by the System of delineating the cosmic order finding direct confirmation in phenomenal experience of some kind. This is also needed to ensure the precise accuracy of tracing the cosmic order itself as well as the interpretation. It is clear from the empirical evidence and from the natural and fossil record that there is a very accurate fit to the extent that I have taken the System.

The essentials of this methodology were explicitly demonstrated by the supreme intelligence of the universe in a long series of experiences transcending the Void over many years. I have no idea as to why me in particular, except that I was a key figure on the defensive end of a politically hostile company takeover 40 years ago in Canada. I was digging very deeply into the roots of organization structure for several years and also have a strong science background. I was demanding answers, and I got more than I bargained for. It has taken a lifetime to meaningfully assimilate them. The first and most complex of these experiences that were explicitly orchestrated by God and transcending the Void is described in the website article "A Cosmic Insight."

It may sound fantastic but I can only emphasize that it is not possible to overstate the intensity or scope of such an experience. It is far beyond the wildest imagination. In subsequent experiences He manifested in a variety of ways and the experiential communication was always relevant, never capricious. I was not a religious person and still do not subscribe to any specific religious doctrine to the exclusion of any other or to the exclusion of science. Many decent ordinary folk find a kind of silent communion with God through meditation or prayer. And some scientists seek in a spirit of reverence for truth and not just to further their private ambitions.

From some of the things that you have said I sensed that you have had some experiences and I appreciate how difficult it can be to meaningfully assimilate them.

Very best wishes,
Bob

www.cosmic-mindreach.com

[Bob Campbell]

"Yin and Yang then, are relative terms, not absolutes. Nothing is Yang in and of itself, it can only be seen as Yang in contrast with some other state, which is Yin."

Hi Pat and Nobody,

It is interesting that Yang and Yin are seen as active and passive principles of the creative process and all creation, represented by light and darkness. Neither can be known to the exclusion of the other. They can only be known through the interaction between them via an active interface between the inside and outside of things. They are not opposites but are mutually complementary. Opposites are mutually exclusive and derive from degenerate variants of how they work at higher levels of complexity.

The interaction of active energy processes across interfaces between a common universal active inside and a common universal passive outside is fundamental to the structural dynamics of the whole cosmic order. This is the way it has been demonstrated experientially to me. This derives from the fundamental Rift in Universal Wholeness that proliferates as subsumed levels of nested discrete Systems of order within itself that successively elaborate on the nature of Universal Wholeness and the rift that generates and sustains the whole creative process in balance. This is a very dynamic thing to explore and the transformations involved have a host of interacting relationships essential to the whole. Also the higher levels or Systems of elaboration on the primary yang and yin soon proliferate beyond the reach of human intelligence to ever decipher in a meaningful way. Nor is this necessary, since these higher Systems are transcended and subsumed by the lower Systems.

It is difficult for a human being to fully appreciate all of this at a single grasp. The trigrams and hexagrams of the I-Ching were originally used as tools of divination. By intuitively focusing on this method of representing the interactions of Yang and Yin, the insight of the oracle into specific problems was facilitated, in much the same way as meditating on a Mandala. But this was a dynamic and flexible process of divination by a specific human intelligence, not a fixed science in the public domain. Given the origins of the book of changes and how it was used, often in conjunction with the practice of casting fifty yarrow sticks, it is difficult to see how this can be translated into a pragmatic science, or even a fixed general interpretation of the human condition.

This isn’t intended to negate the value of the I-Ching as an intuitive aid. Indeed the practice of Chinese medicine and acupuncture can give quite remarkable results by the right practitioner. Here in Thailand they still cast sticks and read their fortunes in both Buddhist and Chinese temples, (often to try and win a lottery) and the Chinese Vegetarian Festival of the Nine Emperor Gods is quite an extraordinary phenomenon.

Best regards,
Bob

www.cosmic-mindreach.com

[N0B0DY]

You have put together quite a synthesis of eastern and western thinking, and like your mention of mutual inclusion, science and religion can walk hand-in-hand in the appropriate fashion. My interpretation of religion is here "religare" - to join again - as based on the ancient yogic systems of union, instead of being concerned with worshiping the gods. Scientifically, the absolute union can be equated with newtonian spacetime, comparative to the wuji state; the illusory relative functioning of the taiji can be equated with einsteinian spacetime; and the "mastery of maya" equated with the ultimate mastery of taiji functioning - the tao.

The sole purpose for my being here is to better express the correlation of the above with consciousness. Whereby the wuji is representative of absolute unconsciousness; the taiji of infinite subconsciousness; and the tao of the new consciousness arising from the transcendence of the taiji and the negation of the ego.

My method of madness can be likened to those pieces of the puzzle you mentioned, but popping up here and there instead of trying too hard to find the answers to everything. Like remembering something when you've given up trying to remember it. Similarly, meditative practices which attempt to generalize and crystallize the form of what is individualistic, I disavow because they can be expensive both financially and mentally. As you no doubt know there are certain experiences that allow us to realize how the universe overcomes its ill effects. For this reason, though I respect others' beliefs, I steer clear of divination as well because it has a tendency to often lead folks down a path of insanity or worse.