[Drifter]

White Bird cont'd.

Enlightenment – It is ever an act of Grace

As the lower cannot command the Higher, the individual ego is not lord over the Universal SELF. Hence, from the individual standpoint, the Realization is spontaneous and thus is often called an act of Grace. The SELF, which it must be remembered is Identical with Divinity, does not stand within the causal sequence. Consequently, strictly considered, Realization of the SELF is never an effect of causes set up by the individual man acting in space and time. The later through his efforts prepares the candle, as it were, but the Flame is lighted through a spontaneous act of Spirit.

Enlightenment – Dr. Wolff’s first Premonitory Recognition

I can distinguish three distinct Recognitions that produced lasting effects. As I look back I can discern a progressive quality in the three which, it seems, should be noted.
In the past, two important [premonitory] Recognitions have come to me. First, nearly fourteen years ago, in a setting which it is not necessary to delineate, I suddenly recognized “I am Atman.” This effected immediate changes of outlook that persisted.

About fourteen years ago an old college friend called upon Sherifa and me and the time was devoted to the discussion of Theosophical subjects. (My friend was an earnest student of the Theosophia.) At one stage in the conversation he outlined the various steps of a very old discriminative technique in which it is shown, progressively, that the Self is not the body nor the various other principles of man, but that it can be only that final principle – i.e., the Atman or pure subjectivity. I was familiar with the method, was already convinced of the soundness of the logic and had previously employed it myself. But in this case I suddenly seemed to Realize, with certainty, that, in fact, ‘I am Identical with the Atman.’ There was a sense of a new Light which made clear much of what had been obscure, but this was not a light seen in the form of a subtle sensuous perception. The effect upon the relative consciousness persisted. There was a definite enrichment, but I was not aware of the Current of Joy.

The most significant consequence, within the individual consciousness, was a certain change in the base of thought. As an example, it may be noted that, whereas prior to that date I had read the “Bhagavadgita” because it was one of the important Theospophic books, I did not like it, and it seemed to inculcate a veritable repression of the life-interest I then cared for; on the other hand, immediately after the Recognition of my Identity with the Atman. I found myself spontaneously thinking, as my own thought, many of the ideas contained in the “Gita.” I Realized them as obviously true, and instead of their carrying a repressive value, they were a source of / Light and expansion. I have never forgotten this Recognition and never felt disposed to question the fact I then saw so clearly. In the intellectual sense that Recognition was, and is, persistent. But other aspects of the personal nature were not included or were sufficiently included. So, in the intervening years I have often felt and acted contrary to that Recognition.

Enlightenment – Dr. Wolff’s second Premonitory Recognition - Nirvana

Second, less than one year ago, while engaged in the public work mentioned [earlier], and while deeply interested in a book giving a report of a living Indian Sage, I also suddenly recognized that Nirvana is not a field, or space, or world which one entered and that contained one as space might contain an external object, but rather that “I am identical with Nirvana, and always have been and always will be so.” This Recognition likewise had its persistent effects upon the personal consciousness.
The second occasion occurred somewhat less than a year ago. I had been readinhg with deep interest a book by Paul Brunton in which, among other experiences, he told of his contact with a certain Sage in Southern India [Sri Ramana Maharshi?]. I felt a sympathetic rapport with this Sage and repeatedly read His words with profound attention. Once, while thus engaged, it suddenly dawned on me that Nirvana is not a field or place where man enters and is enclosed, as in a space which envelops bodies, but I Recognized that “I am Nirvana.” In other words, the Real Self is not other than Nirvana, never has been other, and never will be other. All that the individual man achieves is Recognition of this eternal fact. With this Transition in consciousness Joy was realized. Even at that time I sensed It as a current, though in modified form as compared with the more recent Recognition. I once spent a whole day immersed within It; and, for a period, within certain limits, I could invoke It.

Nirvana is pure creativeness and, consequently, cannot be captured within fixed definition. On the other hand, genuine objects of consciousness can be defined, since they are forms. Nirvana is inconceivable but It is ceaselessly Conceiving. Herein is a partial explanation of the Nirvanic Bliss that can fall within the understanding of the more common consciousness. Creative activity, even on the lower levels, such as begetting, does awaken a degree of bliss, though of progressively inferior and grosser quality as we approach the physiological. Usually such minor blisses last but for a moment, or, at best, for brief periods with subsequent depression and exhaustion. Conceive of the intensity of the bliss raised beyond all relative imagination, and far beyond the power of any physiological organism to endure, and then regard it as not lasting merely for a moment or a brief period, but extending with unbroken continuity indefinitely; then something of the Bliss-aspect of Nirvana may be apprehended. Is it so surprising that many become 'God-intoxicated' and fail to go to the winning of real Mastery?

At the time, I was engaged in lecturing and class-work concerned with metaphysical subjects. A greater Light came into this work. While previously I had employed a considerable degree of formal organization in lecturing and classwork, I then began to relax the formal aspect so that it stood more in the background as something automatic in its action. I dared to leave a larger room for spontaneity on the platform, and found by repeated experimenting that I could trust the spontaneity, provided I could secure a certain attitude in the audience. Lacking that attitude, I could rebound to the more formal preparation. Since then I have continued to be able to operate between these two modes. I found that a conceptual coordination, produced while one stood or sat before an audience, released, concomitantly, a current-like quality that had, among other features, the effect of holding the audience in a kind of stillness which I would describe as possessed of depth. The attention of the individual member of the audience was held even though he did not understand the ideas developed, as was often found to be the case in subsequent conversations. A simple repetition of the same conceptual coordination did not have the same power in the same degree. I thus found a definite correlation between the Current and creativeness. From the relative standpoint the Current requires a progressive disintegration and reintegration of forms. Once a form becomes relatively fixed, the Current subsides. And yet, in a very curious way, this disintegration and reintegration leaves a certain subtle master-form unaltered, The result is essential consistency between all formal integrations produced in the Current, provided the individual understands the art of language, that consistency still remains, though in a deeper sense which is not so easily recognized.

[Drifter]

White Bird cont'd.

Enlightenment – After the second premonitory Recognition

Returning to the record, … the second Recognition had produced a change that was persistent, yet, at the same time, certain aspects of my relative nature, principally below the intellectual, were not taken up. There were outer desires that still had strength, although they had become perceptibly weakened. After the period of lectures and class-work there was a sort of partial ‘clouding of the sky.’ At the time I could not invoke the Current, though the force of Knowledge remained unbroken, as far as attained. Subsequently, lectures and class-work were continued in the Middle West. For the first three weeks of this work in Chicago I had what, for me, was a most unusual experience. I felt the consciousness of the city as an almost unsupportable weight which enveloped my mind with a sort of lethargy so that I could not really think. Prior to this experience nothing had ever been able to suffocate the power of thought that I could not, fairly readily, will my way to thought-action. I was on the platform nearly every day throughout this period, although during the greater part of the twenty-four hours of each day my consciousness was so gripped with heaviness that I desired to sleep all the time. I spoke, as it were, with the momentum of past thought, but it seems my state was not realized, at least not generally by others. After three weeks I broke through with a deep sense of elation and victory. Once again, I found myself moving in a stream of genuine thought and, finally, gave a lecture on the “Crest Jewel” of Shankara which represented the highest point I had attained on the platform up to that time. In subsequent work in the smaller cities I had no further experience of the obscuration.

Enlightenment – Dr. Wolff’s reinterpretation of substantiality

It is, perhaps, pertinent to note in passing that a few days previously [i.e., previous to 7 August 1936], as a result of thought stimulated by my readings, I had developed an interpretation of the nature of ponderable matter that seemed to me to clear away certain logical difficulties which always have seemed to persist in the efforts to reconcile Transcendent Being with the physical universe. The idea is that ponderable matter – meaning by that term all things sensed whether gross or subtle – is, in fact, a relative absence of substance, a sort of partial vacuum. … Habitually we regard the material filling of sensation as being substantial. To offset this, we may have been theoretically convinced that so-called empty space is not only filled but actually more substantial than the portions of it occupied by ponderable matter. This idea is not new to metaphysics, and much in the literature of modern physics is not incompatible with it. But I have found that ideas received from outer sources, even though in convincing form, lack the power over consciousness possessed by an original idea. The effect of this idea with me was a far more effective acceptance of substantial reality where the senses reported emptiness, and a greater capacity to realize unreality – or merely dependent and derivative reality – in the material given through the senses. (PTS, 2-3. Emphasis is the author’s.)

Enlightenment – Dr. Wolff’s first Fundamental Recognition of 7 August 1936

By the time the work was drawing to a close, I had a feeling as of being emptied, and the desire grew strong to return to the West and live for a time under conditions where I could have complete solitude. This condition was met in July [1936] on one of the tributaries of the AmericanRiver near Michigan Bluff. Two purposes conjoined at this time. It was desirable that some cross-cut work should b3 done on a gold-prospect for further sampling and, in addition, I found a curious value in underground activity in association with inward penetration toward depth. So, during the latter half of July, I had some days of solitude combined with underground physical work, plus meditative readings in the “System of the Vedanta,” as noted previously. Much clarification was achieved in my consciousness during this period, but two facts, one a correlating idea and the other an experience, stand out above the rest. The experience was a spontaneous development in the Current, but this time in a form that was more sensuously evident than on any prior occasion. Here, for the first time, I submitted It to analysis, in so far as It was reflected in the organism. ….

Pathways Through to Space, Franklin Merrell Wolff

[Felix Schrodinger]

Originally Posted by Drifter

Gravitational Lensing - Wheeler's "Participatory Universe"




http://cheatingtheferryman.blogspot.com/2008/01/gravitational-lensing-wheelers.html

Hi Drifter

Very pretty but you don't need to have two large bodies for gravitational lensing. One is enough and you have to show the apparent extension of the photon paths back to the virtual objects. Without this the diagram is pointless.

The blog is a house of cards. Objective Collapse Theory shows how to remove a card and Copenhagen collapses!

Felix

[N0B0DY]

Just a suggestion, but I think a paragraph or two and a link would suffice, Drifter. Not that I don't appreciate the info.

With regards to the lens, Felix, perhaps those two galaxies are the result of lensing as well! I think the infamous RascalPuff here at this forum might suggest that, as Newton noted, light travels in straight lines and all bodies expand to meet the two depicted light trails according to the mass of the body in question - the more mass, the more gravity, the greater the expansion, the greater the "curving" effect.

Link to RP's site: http://forums.delphiforums.com/EinsteinGroupie

Again, the above is how I interpret his work, and is not necessarily endorsed by him.

[Drifter]

You gentlemen know volumes more about this stuff than I do.
Is this any help? A hubble photograph?
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/fe...grav_lens.html

ps
Sorry for the lengthy [Great White Bird] posts Nobody, I had it as a word document and not as a link.
I don't recall if I typed it from the book or saved it from a link, and I was somewhat hesitant for that very reason.
I felt it pertenent to prior posts. Lesson leared I guess.
I'll try to keep my posts more pithy in the future and provide links when available.

[N0B0DY]

There was nothing wrong with the last photo, Drifter. It went perfectly well with the provided link explaining the two-slit experiment...self-explanatory.

No problem about the lengthy posts either, just thought it might be easier on both you and the readers if they were shortened. It's alot to digest in one shot.

Excellent postings btw.

[Drifter]

Hi Michael,
Can you expand on the dark flame thought (theory) a little for me?
You've hooked my curiosity.
Thanks in advance

Originally Posted by mkirkpatrick

Thanks Drifter,I am that flame that unto you resides in total darkness,its light is dimmed
by the image of things that appear,and are as not!The flame that I AM is a cold dark flame that resides within the heart of ALL? (Quote,me,circa,5 mins ago!)


regards michael.

[mkirkpatrick]

Originally Posted by Drifter

Hi Michael,
Can you expand on the dark flame thought (theory) a little for me?
You've hooked my curiosity.
Thanks in advance

Thanks for the inquiry drifter,briefly,within the teachings of the ageless wisdom,the Absolute,God,is said to be,"the one about whom naught can be said"and unto us is
like a darkened flame,of which we can know no-thing about?This flame is the very fire of life ITSELF! From which the illusary "us" spring from,at the absolute depth of our be-ing
I am that flame,which burns with an icy cold light,which has within it the appearance of
"frost" which sparkles before the rising sun? It is brilliant white,with a blue unknown to
mortal eyes,and a hint of gold that suggest warmth from within!

Thats short and sweet and to the point I feel,Nobody should approve!


regards michael.

[N0B0DY]

Fully approved by the fans, Michael, like poetry in stillness.

One thought for the day if I may. Like when I asked about how slow is slow, how white is the white you mention above? Is it possible for there to be such a color as absolute whitest, and if not could black be considered white if there are an infinite number of shades of gray of which black and white are two of them?

[N0B0DY]

I think these guys and gals are mind readers. Something you might find interesting:

"In his sign theory of perception as expressed in his early career (1848–186, Helmholtz argues that the mind makes a series of mental adjustments, “unconscious inferences,” to construct a coherent picture of its experiences. Helmholtz argues that spatial position, often used as a criterion to individuate objects, is an interpretation of our sensations, and not their immediate result. Again, stereoscopic vision shows that what may appear, to us, as a single image is in fact two images resolved into one. Perspective can distort size, as when one puts a finger in front of the moon. Helmholtz believes that we learn how to interpret spatial concepts through experience, which means that he has what he calls an empirical theory of spatial perception. This theory coexists, in Helmholtz's epistemology, with his above commitment to the sign theory, according to which spatial properties are only properties of representations. Helmholtz's invention of the ophthalmoscope in 1850–1851 contributed to his understanding of the physiology of perception (Schett 1999; for images of the original Helmholtz ophthalmoscope see De Schweinitz and Randall 1899, 172ff). Philosophically, Helmholtz's epistemology commits him to the view that representations arise in a physical process, but are merely signs and not copies of their objects."

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/he...elSigTheNatDeb