Dialetical Determinism

A meditation on a simple Chinese proverb:

The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you've gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of their meaning. Once you've got the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?

(Chuang-Tzu)

This is an interesting proverb to meditate on.  At first I did not see the correlation or analogy he was making.  But I broke it down through dialectical determinism or simply by the understanding of circuit.  

"Once you've got the meaning, you can forget the words."  - So he is saying that the word is a symbol, it is a means to an end.  The word is the hollow shell that you use to arrive at the center, the meaning.  The word is a certain level of abstraction, we seek to experience the actual event, that which created the necessity for the word.  

So now how does this relate to a fish trap and catching fish or any other animal?  Lets find the positive and the negative in this event.  The desire or end goal (synthesis) is sustenance/food/energy.  How do we actually experience this achievement or realization.  We do so through the fish.  the fish trap (like the word in the proverb) is a means to an end.  So the fish trap must be the negative and the fish must be the positive. 

When we have created the circuit, i.e. we have caught a fish or obtained a synthesis, what use is the fish trap?  Yet the fish also dissolves, it returns to the zero dimension where it exists again only as an idea or essence.  The poles have balanced each other out and dissolved, there is harmony and balance in this moment.  

Yet we know down the road there will be another thesis, we will need more food or energy.  And so we will again call on negative pole so that we can induce the positive pole into a circuit. So it happens in the sequence of desire, pattern, configuration/manifestation.


It's interesting also, because you could look at it like this:  we use our ingenuity, the Mind which would be the positive pole to create a trap which becomes the negative, which in turn induces the animal to become the positive pole.  And before the Mind is invoked it would be considered as being in the zero dimension or in a state of balance.  We invoke it on our 'conscious' level which is where it takes the position of the positive pole.   And the cycle goes on from there.  Alpha/Omega/Alpha.  Rest/Action/Rest.  Synthesis/(Thesis-Antithesis)/ Higher Synthesis.  

Everything can seemingly be broken so easily while also being applied to daily life.  We should be teaching our third graders this stuff.

Meditation

This comes from the introduction to the Alice Bailey/Djwhal Khul book "The Externalization of the Hierarchy" which can be found at http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/externalisation/contents.html

Meditation involves the living of a one-pointed life always and every day. This perforce puts an undue strain on the brain cells for it brings quiescent cells into activity and awakens the brain consciousness to the light of the soul. This process of ordered meditation, when carried forward over a period of years and supplemented by meditative living and one-pointed service, will successfully arouse the entire system, and bring the lower man under the influence and control of the spiritual man; it will awaken also the centers of force in the etheric body and stimulate into activity that mysterious stream of energy which sleeps at the base of the spinal column. When this process is carried forward with care and due safeguards, and under direction, and when the process is spread over a long period of time there is little risk of danger, and the awakening will take place normally and under the law of being itself. If, however, the tuning up and awakening is forced, or is brought about by exercises of various kinds before the student is ready and before the bodies are coordinated and developed, then the aspirant is headed towards disaster. Breathing exercises or pranayama training should never be undertaken without expert guidance and only after years of spiritual application, devotion and service; concentration upon the centers in the force body (with a view to their awakening) is ever to be avoided; it will cause over-stimulation and the opening of doors on to the astral plane which the student may have difficulty in closing. I cannot impress too strongly upon aspirants in all occult schools that the yoga for this transition period is the yoga of one-pointed intent, of directed purpose, of a constant practice of the Presence of God, and of ordered regular meditation carried forward systematically and steadily over years of effort.


When this is done with detachment and is paralleled by a life of loving service, the awakening of the centers and the raising of the sleeping fire of kundalini will go forward with safety and sanity and the whole system will be brought to [19] the requisite stage of "aliveness." I cannot too strongly advise students against the following of intensive meditation processes for hours at a time, or against practices which have for their objective the arousing of the fires of the body, the awakening of a particular center and the moving of the serpent fire. The general world stimulation is so great at this time and the average aspirant is so sensitive and finely organized that excessive meditation, a fanatical diet, the curtailing of the hours of sleep or undue interest in and emphasis upon psychic experience will upset the mental balance and often do irretrievable harm.


Let the students in esoteric schools settle down to steady, quiet, unemotional work. Let them refrain from prolonged hours of study and of meditation. Their bodies are as yet incapable of the requisite tension, and they only damage themselves. Let them lead normal busy lives, remembering in the press of daily duties and service who they are essentially and what are their goal and objectives. Let them meditate regularly every morning, beginning with a period of fifteen minutes and never exceeding forty minutes. Let them forget themselves in service, and let them not concentrate their interest upon their own psychic development. Let them train their minds with a normal measure of study and learn to think intelligently, so that their minds can balance their emotions and enable them to interpret correctly that which they contact as their measure of awareness increases and their consciousness expands.

Students need to remember that devotion to the Path or to the Master is not enough. The Great Ones are looking for intelligent cooperators and workers more than They are looking for devotion to Their Personalities, and a student who is walking independently in the light of his own soul is regarded by Them as a more dependable instrument than a devoted fanatic. The light of his soul will reveal to the earnest aspirant the unity underlying all groups, and enable him to eliminate the poison of intolerance which taints and hinders so many; it will cause him to recognize the spiritual fundamentals which guide the steps of humanity; it will force [20] him to overlook the intolerance and the fanaticism and separativeness which characterize the small mind and the beginner upon the Path, and help him so to love them that they will begin to see more truly and enlarge their horizon; it will enable him to estimate truly the esoteric value of service and teach him above all to practice that harmlessness which is the outstanding quality of every son of God. A harmlessness that speaks no word that can damage another person, that thinks no thought which could poison or produce misunderstanding, and which does no action which could hurt the least of his brethren - this is the main virtue which will enable the esoteric student to tread with safety the difficult path of development. Where the emphasis is laid upon service to one's fellowmen and the trend of the life force is outward to the world, then there is freedom from danger and the aspirant can safely meditate and aspire and work. His motive is pure, and he is seeking to decentralize his personality and shift the focus of his attention away from himself to the group. Thus the life of the soul can pour through him, and express itself as love to all beings. He knows himself to be a part of a whole and the life of that whole can flow through him consciously, leading him to a realization of brotherhood and of his oneness in relation to all manifested lives.

Through the Gates of Gold

I have taken excerpts that provided the most insight to me (along with bolded text for extra emphasis) from the little book, "Through the Gates of Gold" by Mabel Collins and posted them below.  The full text can be found here:  http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/gategold/gategold.htm

Excerpt from Chapter 1

VI

Indolence is, in fact, the curse of man. As the Irish peasant and the cosmopolitan gypsy dwell in dirt and poverty out of sheer idleness, so does the man of the world live contented in sensuous pleasures for the same reason. The drinking of fine wines, the tasting of delicate food, the love of bright sights and sounds, of beautiful women and admirable surroundings, — these are no better for the cultivated man, no more satisfactory as a final goal of enjoyment for him, than the coarse amusements and gratifications of the boor are for the man without cultivation. There can be no final point, for life in every form is one vast series of fine gradations; and the man who elects to stand still at the point of culture he has reached, and to avow that he can go no further, is simply making an arbitrary statement for the excuse of his indolence. Of course there is a possibility of declaring that the gypsy is content in his dirt and poverty, and, because he is so,is as great a man as the most highly cultured. But he only is so while he is ignorant; the moment light enters the dim mind the whole man turns towards it.So it is on the higher platform; only the difficulty of penetrating the mind, of admitting the light, is even greater. The Irish peasant loves his whiskey, and while he can have it cares nothing for the great laws of morality and religion which are supposed to govern humanity and induce men to live temperately. The cultivated gourmand cares only for subtle tastes and perfect flavors; but he is as blind as the merest peasant to the fact that there is anything beyond such gratifications. Like the boor he is deluded by a mirage that oppresses his soul;and he fancies, having once obtained a sensuous joy that pleases him, to give himself the utmost satisfaction by endless repetition, till at last he reaches madness. The bouquet of the wine he loves enters his soul and poisons it,leaving him with no thoughts but those of sensuous desire; and he is in the same hopeless state as the man who dies mad with drink. What good has the drunkard obtained by his madness? None; pain has at last swallowed up pleasure utterly,and death steps in to terminate the agony. The man suffers the final penalty for his persistent ignorance of a law of nature as inexorable as that of gravitation, —a law which forbids a man to stand still. Not twice can the same cup of pleasure be tasted; the second time it must contain either a grain of poison or a drop of the elixir of life.

Excerpt from Chapter 3

I

Virtue (or what seems to each man to be virtue, his own special standard of morality and purity) is held by those who practise it to be a way to heaven. Perhaps it is, to the heaven of the modern sybarite, the ethical voluptuary. It is as easy to become a gourmand in pure living and high thinking as in the pleasures of taste or sight or sound. Gratification is the aim of the virtuous man as well as of the drunkard; even if his life be a miracle of abstinence and self-sacrifice, a moment's thought shows that in pursuing this apparently heroic path he does but pursue pleasure. With him pleasure takes on a lovely form because his gratifications are those of a sweet savor, and it pleases him to give gladness to others rather than to enjoy himself at their expense. But the pure life and high thoughts are no more finalities in themselves than any other mode of enjoyment; and the man who endeavors to find contentment in them must intensify his effort and continually repeat it, — all in vain. He is a green plant indeed, and the leaves are beautiful; but more is wanted than leaves. If he persists in his endeavor blindly, believing that he has reached his goal when he has not even perceived it, then he finds himself in that dreary place where good is done perforce, and the deed of virtue is without the love that should shine through it. It is well for a man to lead a pure life, as it is well for him to have clean hands, — else he becomes repugnant. But virtue as we understand it now can no more have any special relation to the state beyond that to which we are limited than any other part of our constitution. Spirit is not a gas created by matter, and we cannot create our future by forcibly using one material agent and leaving out the rest. Spirit is the great life on which matter rests, as does the rocky world on the free and fluid ether; whenever we can break our limitations we find ourselves on that marvelous shore where Wordsworth once saw the gleam of the gold. When we enter there all the present must disappear alike, — virtue and vice, thought and sense. That a man reaps what he has sown must of course be true also; he has no power to carry virtue, which is of the material life, with him; yet the aroma of his good deeds is a far sweeter sacrifice than the odor of crime and cruelty. Yet it may be, however, that by the practice of virtue he will fetter himself into one groove, one changeless fashion of life in matter, so firmly that it is impossible for the mind to conceive that death is a sufficient power to free him, and cast him upon the broad and glorious ocean, — a sufficient power to undo for him the inexorable and heavy latch of the Golden Gate. And sometimes the man who has sinned so deeply that his whole nature is scarred and blackened by the fierce fire of selfish gratification is at last so utterly burned out and charred that from the very vigor of the passion light leaps forth. It would seem more possible for such a man at least to reach the threshold of the Gates than for the mere ascetic or philosopher. 

But it is little use to reach the threshold of the Gates without the power to pass through. And that is all that the sinner can hope to do by the dissolution of himself which comes from seeing his own soul. At least this appears to be so, inevitably because his condition is negative. The man who lifts the latch of the Golden Gate must do so with his own strong hand, must be absolutely positive. This we can see by analogy. In everything else in life, in every new step or development, it is necessary for a man to exercise his most dominant will in order to obtain it fully. Indeed in many cases, though he has every advantage and though he use his will to some extent, he will fail utterly of obtaining what he desires from lack of the final and unconquerable resolution. No education in the world will make a man an intellectual glory to his age, even if his powers are great; for unless he positively desires to seize the flower of perfection, he will be but a dry scholar, a dealer in words, a proficient in mechanical thought, and a mere wheel of memory. And the man who has this positive quality in him will rise in spite of adverse circumstances, will recognize and seize upon the tide of thought which is his natural food, and will stand as a giant at last in the place he willed to reach. We see this practically every day in all walks of life. Wherefore it does not seem possible that the man who has simply succeeded through the passions in wrecking the dogmatic and narrow part of his nature should pass through those great Gates. But as he is not blinded by prejudice, nor has fastened himself to any treadmill of thought, nor caught the wheel of his soul in any deep rut of life, it would seem that if once the positive will might be born within him, he could at some time not hopelessly far distant lift his hand to the latch. 

Undoubtedly it is the hardest task we have yet seen set us in life, that which we are now talking of, — to free a man of all prejudice, of all crystallized thought or feeling, of all limitations, yet develop within him the positive will. It seems too much of a miracle; for in ordinary life positive will is always associated with crystallized ideas. But many things which have appeared to be too much of a miracle for accomplishment have yet been done, even in the narrow experience of life given to our present humanity. All the past shows us that difficulty is no excuse for dejection, much less for despair; else the world would have been without the many wonders of civilization. Let us consider the thing more seriously, therefore, having once used our minds to the idea that it is not impossible. 

The great initial difficulty is that of fastening the interest on that which is unseen. Yet this is done every day, and we have only to observe how it is done in order to guide our own conduct. Every inventor fastens his interest firmly on the unseen; and it entirely depends on the firmness of that attachment whether he is successful or whether he fails. The poet who looks on to his moment of creation as that for which he lives, sees that which is invisible and hears that which is soundless.

Exercpts from Chapter 4 

III

The first thing which it is necessary for the soul of man to do in order to engage in this great endeavor of discovering true life is the same thing that the child first does in its desire for activity in the body, — he must be able to stand. It is clear that the power of standing, of equilibrium, of concentration, of uprightness, in the soul, is a quality of a marked character. The word that presents itself most readily as descriptive of this quality is "confidence." 

To remain still amid life and its changes, and stand firmly on the chosen spot, is a feat which can only be accomplished by the man who has confidence in himself and in his destiny. Otherwise the hurrying forms of life, the rushing tide of men, the great floods of thought, must inevitably carry him with them, and then he will lose that place of consciousness whence it was possible to start on the great enterprise. For it must be done knowingly, and without pressure from without, — this act of the new-born man. All the great ones of the earth have possessed this confidence, and have stood firmly on that place which was to them the one solid spot in the universe. To each man this place is of necessity different. Each man must find his own earth and his own heaven. 

We have the instinctive desire to relieve pain, but we work in externals in this as in everything else. We simply alleviate it; and if we do more, and drive it from its first chosen stronghold, it reappears in some other place with reinforced vigor. If it is eventually driven off the physical plane by persistent and successful effort, it reappears on the mental or emotional planes where no man can touch it. That this is so is easily seen by those who connect the various planes of sensation, and who observe life with that additional illumination. Men habitually regard these different forms of feeling as actually separate, whereas in fact they are evidently only different sides of one center, — the point of personality. If that which arises in the center, the fount of life, demands some hindered action, and consequently causes pain, the force thus created being driven from one stronghold must find another; it cannot be driven out. And all the blendings of human life which cause emotion and distress exist for its use and purposes as well as for those of pleasure. Both have their home in man; both demand their expression of right. The marvelously delicate mechanism of the human frame is constructed to answer to their lightest touch; the extraordinary intricacies of human relations evolve themselves, as it were, for the satisfaction of these two great opposites of the soul. 

Pain and pleasure stand apart and separate, as do the two sexes; and it is in the merging, the making the two into one, that joy and deep sensation and profound peace are obtained. Where there is neither male nor female, neither pain nor pleasure, there is the god in man dominant, and then is life real. 

To state the matter in this way may savor too much of the dogmatist who utters his assertions uncontradicted from a safe pulpit; but it is dogmatism only as a scientist's record of effort in a new direction is dogmatism. Unless the existence of the Gates of Gold can be proved to be real, and not the mere phantasmagoria of fanciful visionaries, then they are not worth talking about at all. In the nineteenth century hard facts or legitimate arguments alone appeal to men's minds; and so much the better. For unless the life we advance towards is increasingly real and actual, it is worthless, and time is wasted in going after it. Reality is man's greatest need, and he demands to have it at all hazards, at any price. Be it so. No one doubts he is right. Let us then go in search of reality. 

IV

One definite lesson learned by all acute sufferers will be of the greatest service to us in this consideration. In intense pain a point is reached where it is indistinguishable from its opposite, pleasure. This is indeed so, but few have the heroism or the strength to suffer to such a far point. It is as difficult to reach it by the other road. Only a chosen few have the gigantic capacity for pleasure which will enable them to travel to its other side. Most have but enough strength to enjoy and to become the slave of the enjoyment. Yet man has undoubtedly within himself the heroism needed for the great journey; else how is it that martyrs have smiled amid the torture? How is it that the profound sinner who lives for pleasure can at last feel stir within himself the divine afflatus? 

In both these cases the possibility has arisen of finding the way; but too often that possibility is killed by the overbalance of the startled nature. The martyr has acquired a passion for pain and lives in the idea of heroic suffering; the sinner becomes blinded by the thought of virtue and worships it as an end, an object, a thing divine in itself; whereas it can only be divine as it is part of that infinite whole which includes vice as well as virtue. How is it possible to divide the infinite, — that which is one? It is as reasonable to lend divinity to any object as to take a cup of water from the sea and declare that in that is contained the ocean. You cannot separate the ocean; the salt water is part of the great sea and must be so; but nevertheless you do not hold the sea in your hand. Men so longingly desire personal power that they are ready to put infinity into a cup, the divine idea into a formula, in order that they may fancy themselves in possession of it. These only are those who cannot rise and approach the Gates of Gold, for the great breath of life confuses them; they are struck with horror to find how great it is. The idol-worshipper keeps an image of his idol in his heart and burns a candle always before it. It is his own, and he is pleased at that thought, even if he bow in reverence before it. In how many virtuous and religious men does not this same state exist? In the recesses of the soul the lamp is burning before a household god, — a thing possessed by its worshipper and subject to him. Men cling with desperate tenacity to these dogmas, these moral laws, these principles and modes of faith which are their household gods, their personal idols. Bid them burn the unceasing flame in reverence only to the infinite, and they turn from you. Whatever their manner of scorning your protest may be, within themselves it leaves a sense of aching void. For the noble soul of the man, that potential king which is within us all, knows full well that this household idol may be cast down and destroyed at any moment, — that it is without finality in itself, without any real and absolute life. And he has been content in his possession, forgetting that anything possessed can only by the immutable laws of life be held temporarily. He has forgotten that the infinite is his only friend; he has forgotten that in its glory is his only home, — that it alone can be his god. There he feels as if he is homeless; but that amid the sacrifices he offers to his own especial idol there is for him a brief resting-place; and for this he clings passionately to it. 

Few have the courage even slowly to face the great desolateness which lies outside themselves, and must lie there so long as they cling to the person which they represent, the "I" which is to them the center of the world, the cause of all life. In their longing for a God they find the reason for the existence of one; in their desire for a sense-body and a world to enjoy in, lies to them the cause of the universe. These beliefs may be hidden very deep beneath the surface, and be indeed scarcely accessible; but in the fact that they are there is the reason why the man holds himself upright. To himself he is himself the infinite and the God; he holds the ocean in a cup. In this delusion he nurtures the egoism which makes life pleasure and makes pain pleasant. In this profound egoism is the very cause and source of the existence of pleasure and of pain. For unless man vacillated between these two, and ceaselessly reminded himself by sensation that he exists, he would forget it. And in this fact lies the whole answer to the question, "Why does man create pain for his own discomfort?" 

The strange and mysterious fact remains unexplained as yet, that man in so deluding himself is merely interpreting Nature backwards and putting into the words of death the meaning of life. For that man does indeed hold within him the infinite, and that the ocean is really in the cup, is an incontestable truth; but it is only so because the cup is absolutely non-existent. It is merely an experience of the infinite, having no permanence, liable to be shattered at any instant. It is in the claiming of reality and permanence for the four walls of his personality, that man makes the vast blunder which plunges him into a prolonged series of unfortunate incidents, and intensifies continually the existence of his favorite forms of sensation. Pleasure and pain become to him more real than the great ocean of which he is a part and where his home is; he perpetually knocks himself painfully against these walls where he feels, and his tiny self oscillates within his chosen prison.

Excerpts from Chapter 5

I

STRENGTH to step forward is the primary need of him who has chosen his path. Where is this to be found? Looking round, it is not hard to see where other men find their strength. Its source is profound conviction. Through this great moral power is brought to birth in the natural life of the man that which enables him, however frail he may be, to go on and conquer. Conquer what? Not continents, not worlds, but himself. Through that supreme victory is obtained the entrance to the whole, where all that might be conquered and obtained by effort becomes at once not his, but himself. 

To put on armor and go forth to war, taking the chances of death in the hurry of the fight, is an easy thing; to stand still amid the jangle of the world, to preserve stillness within the turmoil of the body, to hold silence amid the thousand cries of the senses and desires, and then, stripped of all armor and without hurry or excitement take the deadly serpent of self and kill it, is no easy thing. Yet that is what has to be done; and it can only be done in the moment of equilibrium when the enemy is disconcerted by the silence. 

But there is needed for this supreme moment a strength such as no hero of the battlefield needs. A great soldier must be filled with the profound convictions of the justness of his cause and the rightness of his method. The man who wars against himself and wins the battle can do it only when he knows that in that war he is doing the one thing which is worth doing, and when he knows that in doing it he is winning heaven and hell as his servitors. Yes, he stands on both. He needs no heaven where pleasure comes as a long-promised reward; he fears no hell where pain waits to punish him for his sins. For he has conquered once for all that shifting serpent in himself which turns from side to side in its constant desire of contact, in its perpetual search after pleasure and pain. Never again (the victory once really won) can he tremble or grow exultant at any thought of that which the future holds. Those burning sensations which seemed to him to be the only proofs of his existence are his no longer. How, then, can he know that he lives? He knows it only by argument. And in time he does not care to argue about it. For him there is then peace; and he will find in that peace the power he has coveted. Then he will know what is that faith which can remove mountains.

II

Religion holds a man back from the path, prevents his stepping forward, for various very plain reasons. First, it makes the vital mistake of distinguishing between good and evil. Nature knows no such distinction; and the moral and social laws set us by our religions are as temporary, as much a thing of our own special mode and form of existence, as are the moral and social laws of the ants or the bees. We pass out of that state in which these things appear to be final, and we forget them forever. This is easily shown, because a man of broad habits of thought and of intelligence must modify his code of life when he dwells among another people. These people among whom he is an alien have their own deep-rooted religions and hereditary convictions, against which he cannot offend. Unless his is an abjectly narrow and unthinking mind, he sees that their form of law and order is as good as his own. What then can he do but reconcile his conduct gradually to their rules? And then if he dwells among them many years the sharp edge of difference is worn away, and he forgets at last where their faith ends and his commences. Yet is it for his own people to say he has done wrong, if he has injured no man and remained just?

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We each stand quite alone, a solitary unit, a pygmy in the world. What good fortune can we expect? The great life of the world rushes by, and we are in danger each instant that it will overwhelm us or even utterly destroy us. There is no defence to be offered to it; no opposition army can be set up, because in this life every man fights his own battle against every other man, and no two can be united under the same banner. There is only one way of escape from this terrible danger which we battle against every hour. Turn round, and instead of standing against the forces, join them; become one with Nature, and go easily upon her path. Do not resist or resent the circumstances of life any more than the plants resent the rain and the wind. Then suddenly, to your own amazement, you find you have time and strength to spare, to use in the great battle which it is inevitable every man must fight, — that in himself, that which leads to his own conquest.  
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Life among objects of sense must forever be an outer shape to the sublime soul, — it can only become powerful life, the life of accomplishment, when it is animated by the crowned and indifferent god that sits in the sanctuary. 

The obtaining of this condition is so supremely desirable because from the moment it is entered there is no more trouble, no more anxiety, no more doubt or hesitation. As a great artist paints his picture fearlessly and never committing any error which causes him regret, so the man who has formed his inner self deals with his life. 

But that is when the condition is entered. That which we who look towards the mountains hunger to know is the mode of entrance and the way to the Gate. The Gate is that Gate of Gold barred by a heavy bar of iron. The way to the threshold of it turns a man giddy and sick. It seems no path, it seems to end perpetually, its way lies along hideous precipices, it loses itself in deep waters. 

Once crossed and the way found it appears wonderful that the difficulty should have looked so great. For the path where it disappears does but turn abruptly, its line upon the precipice edge is wide enough for the feet, and across the deep waters that look so treacherous there is always a ford and a ferry. So it happens in all profound experiences of human nature. When the first grief tears the heart asunder it seems that the path has ended and a blank darkness taken the place of the sky. And yet by groping the soul passes on, and that difficult and seemingly hopeless turn in the road is passed. 

So with many another form of human torture. Sometimes throughout a long period or a whole lifetime the path of existence is perpetually checked by what seem like insurmountable obstacles. Grief, pain, suffering, the loss of all that is beloved or valued, rise up before the terrified soul and check it at every turn. Who places those obstacles there? The reason shrinks at the childish dramatic picture which the religionists place before it, — God permitting the Devil to torment His creatures for their ultimate good! When will that ultimate good be attained? The idea involved in this picture supposes an end, a goal. There is none. We can any one of us safely assent to that; for as far as human observation, reason, thought, intellect, or instinct can reach towards grasping the mystery of life, all data obtained show that the path is endless and that eternity cannot be blinked and converted by the idling soul into a million years. 

EPILOGUE

SECRETED and hidden in the heart of the world and in the heart of man is the light which can illumine all life, the future and the past. Shall we not search for it? Surely some must do so. And then perhaps those will add what is needed to this poor fragment of thought.

From The Path, March, 1887 (Commentary)

Spirit is the great life on which matter rests, as does the rocky world on the free and fluid ether; whenever we can break our limitations we find ourselves on that marvelous shore where Wordsworth once saw the gleam of the gold." Virtue, being of the material life, man has not the power to carry it with him, "yet the aroma of his good deeds is a far sweeter sacrifice than the odor of crime and cruelty." 

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The author here wishes to show that there is sweetness and light in occultism, and not merely a wide dry level of dreadful Karma, such as some Theosophists are prone to dwell on. And this sweetness and light may be reached when we discover the iron bar and raising it shall permit the heart to be free. This iron bar is what the Hindus call "the knot of the heart"! In their scriptures they talk of unloosing this knot, and say that when that is accomplished freedom is near. But what is the iron bar and the knot? is the question we must answer. It is the astringent power of self — of egotism — of the idea of separateness. This idea has many strongholds. It holds its most secret court and deepest counsels near the far removed depths and center of the heart. But it manifests itself first, in that place which is nearest to our ignorant perceptions, where we see it first after beginning the search. When we assault and conquer it there it disappears. It has only retreated to the next row of outworks where for a time it appears not to our sight, and we imagine it killed, while it is laughing at our imaginary conquests and security. Soon again we find it and conquer again, only to have it again retreat. So we must follow it up if we wish to grasp it at last in its final stand just near the "kernel of the heart." There it has become "an iron bar that holds down the heart," and there only can the fight be really won. That disciple is fortunate who is able to sink past all the pretended outer citadels and seize at once this personal devil who holds the bar of iron, and there wage the battle. If won there, it is easy to return to the outermost places and take them by capitulation. This is very difficult, for many reasons. It is not a mere juggle of words to speak of this trial. It is a living tangible thing that can be met by any real student. The great difficulty of rushing at once to the center lies in the unimaginable terrors which assault the soul on its short journey there. This being so it is better to begin the battle on the outside in just the way pointed out in this book and Light on the Path, by testing experience and learning from it.

The Eye of the Hurricane

I'm sitting here in the midst of a hurricane/tropical storm and I'm watching the trees sway and the winds gust.  I think about the paradoxical nature of the tree and it's structure.  It must be firmly rooted in the ground yet as the winds pick up it must not fight against the wind but to move with it and at a certain point it must shift back to the other side and subsequently find a it's point of balance.  This process repeats throughout the storm.  It must have an elasticity while also maintaining firm roots in the soil. 


So when the deluge descends upon us and we are shifted to the periphery and we become aware of our imbalance we musn't fight against what nature has brought upon us.  We must move with it and at a certain point the power will shift us back to the other side just before we are to break like the tree.  If we can experience both sides and see them objectively as nature working out it's own course then we can then move closer to the center and achieve a period of balance.  It is at the peripheral points where we become conscious of our imbalance that we choose to die.  It seems that often when we fight against the nature of the cycle then nature causes our death.  Nature must take over and find that balance point if we are not willing to work with it.  In this sense we are thrown out of the natural cycle and forced to come back and start again at the same point.  Yet if we work with the natural cycle then we can control our own death, let go and let it happen on its own.  So when the hurricane or deluge comes into manifestation we can see this as a period where transcendence is possible.  If we work with it then we can die within the frame of nature as opposed to being ejected.  This seems to be the only way possible to move to the next octave.  One needs the friction that the deluge provides to work himself back to the exalted state of oneness.  Without a "body" or a substance to work in, there would be no job to be done.  When functioning outside of the 'material plane' without a psyche and configuration all would be a finer degree of light.  One would be in balance so what would there be to work toward?

Vitvan has a lesson on the deva line of evolution.  The devas would relate to the angels in contemporary culture.  Their lowest 'plane' of incarnation would the etheric world.  They are seemingly still in the Father's house.  They live in a realm of beauty and harmony.  But because of this he says that for every 1000 years of evolution in the 'material' world it takes 10,000 years in the etheric world.  So there is a balance in that.  You can come in to 'material' world and feel the acute pain and suffering that this level of existence provides or you can stay in the etheric world and enjoy the harmonic frequencies.  It seems to be proportional, all is perfect and in its own place.

And so I will conclude this post with a selection of text from "The Gnostic Foundations of the United States Government" by Vitvan:

"There is a cliche going around that ideas without words become sterile.  The spoken or written word configurates the idea.  But the word becomes sterile without works, without action, without doing.  Notice the three primaries:  the idea, the articulation of the idea, the configurating.  There are those that just live to mentalize about doing this or that, and there are others that act so fast they look as if they never mentalize before taking action.  But we must strike a harmonic balance between those three.  Create an idea, articulate or express it in words, then carry it out.  If you don't intend to carry an idea out, let it die.  Don't verbalize about it."

Okay, final summation.  Walter Russell gives us three words, RHYTHMIC BALANCED INTERCHANGE.  Nature shows us how it works and we have the ability to mirror it.  We don't have to be afraid of the hurricane.  See it for what it is and work our way into the eye.  We can only do this through functionally working our way into it.  It seems best to observe it first and gain the road map but at some point we must get in the game.

Identification

 This section of text comes from a book I linked to not too long ago called "Transpersonal Psychology: Transforming the Mind" (Chapter 2, pages 21-23):

"The insecurity stemming from the common cultural belief that the universe is hostile,
that we are flawed and fragile, makes identification, as an apparent shield against
change, seem tempting. But reality keeps changing - by identifying with things we
set ourselves up for eventual loss. The body gets ill, ages, eventually dies. The car
breaks down. Possessions wear out, or may get stolen. Memories fade. Many of the
things and roles you identified with were not your choices anyway - you were
cajoled and conditioned to identify with many roles, ideas, people, causes and values
that may have had no interest or were counter to your essential personality, your true
self-determinism. Identification is too automatic, too subconscious. Gurdjieff
expressed it as the fact that any one of your many identities can sign a cheque; all the
rest of you is obligated to pay, whether you/they like it or not. The person who has to
fulfil a promise may not be the same person who made the promise.
But the main cost of identification is that a conditioned system of automatically
available identities can hide you from the fact that you don't know your real identity,
the essence behind these surface manifestations. Are you really your name? Your
roles? Your feelings? Your intellectual mind? Your body? You are far more than
anything you identify with.

A person in an identity state usually does not know that it does not represent the
whole of himself - that is the horror of consensus trance. The usual range of identity
states that we function in, ordinarily called personality, was called ‘false personality’
by Gurdjieff because the identity states were forced on us in the process of
enculturation rather than by self-determined choice. The overall pattern we call
consciousness is largely consensus trance, directly analogous to post-hypnotic
suggestion in ordinary hypnosis: when the suggested/conditioned stimulus appears,
the linked behaviour, the conditioned response, the particular ‘I’ (or sub-personality)
appears.

But we are not a blank state on which culture can write as it pleases with no
consequences to us. We also have a unique genetic and spiritual endowment, which
will begin to manifest more as we grow, so we might dislike athletics and like
walking in the woods, for example, or find Shakespeare boring but enjoy writing
letters, or find physics pointless but be fascinated with maths, or search for deeper
truth despite being ridiculed by others who believe what they’re told.

Consensus trance induction does have some powerful techniques, however. Just as
we record the Parent's do’s and don’ts and our Child responses, childhood is
inevitably a process of shaping the behaviour and consciousness of the child to be
‘normal’, to fit social norms. And that inevitably involved certain aspects of your
essential personality being invalidated, neglected, denied and punished until their
external manifestations were suppressed. As an adult you would act docilely and
subserviently, and try to feel that way inside. You would tell yourself that you are a
good person, a normal person. Others would tell you, you are normal, and would
accept you as a friend, reinforcing and validating your behaviour. But inside,
something, a part of your essence, has been squashed - you may also have a vague
feeling that something isn’t right, that even though you should be happy, you don’t
feel very happy. Some of your animation, your essential energy, has been lost to the
maintenance of consensus trance. Or you may know that lots of things make you
angry but you worry - ‘Am I normal? I’m not supposed to feel like this’.

This sort of trance induction compares startlingly with conventional hypnosis. In an
ordinary induction, it is time limited, only an hour or two. In real life your parents
and your culture begin shaping your development from the moment of birth; it
involves years of repeated inductions and reinforcement of the effects of previous
inductions. Furthermore it’s intended to last for a lifetime - there is no cultural
therapist to give you the suggestion to wake up. Not until now at any rate.

In a conventional session, the subject does not expect to be bullied, threatened or
harmed in any way by the therapist, it is a voluntary relationship between consenting
adults. In the cultural situation, the power relationship between Parent and Child puts
a strong forced quality on a natural consent to learn. Parents can use physical threats
as needed, and actualise them with slaps, spankings, revocations of privileges or
confiscation of toys. Since the easiest way to act in a culturally approved way is to
feel that way inside, the fear of punishment helps structure internal mental and
emotional processes in culturally approved ways. The parents may use conditional
love and affection to manipulate, as a threat or to validate conformity. As the child
establishes social relationships with other adults and children (who also act as agents
of the culture) he learns more about how he must act to be accepted. As these
approved habits of acting become established and rewarded, they further structure
the habitual patterns of mental functioning. Fear of rejection is a powerful motivator,
because you have an inherent social instinct, a desire to belong, to be normal.
Nobody likes being thought bad, but we are invalidated in so many ways that a
general sense of unworthiness and guilt can easily be built up.

Another factor which gives this process great power, is that the mental state of a
young child leaves him very open to suggestion. In our ordinary state there is an
enormous amount of automatic association of previous knowledge to incoming
stimuli, but the child does not have much other information to come instantly to
mind, so the suggestions operate in a disassociated state, isolated from other mental
processes - a hypnotically suggestible state.

The lack of language (which increases our ability to associate information) further
contributes to the disassociated quality of the child’s mind. When we try, as adults
(predominantly verbal thinkers), to understand our enculturation and conditioning, it
is difficult to recall because much of it is not stored in verbal form.

Additionally, children have a deep trust in their parents on whom they are totally
dependent. The parent is unconscious of the cultural trance he himself is in and
simply sees himself as acting ‘naturally’. The mental, emotional and physical habits
of a lifetime are laid down while we are especially susceptible as children. They have
that compulsive quality that conditioning has; it is automatic. They may include
suggestions that block later change, that even block later hypnosis on that subject, for
example the resistance hypnotic subjects have to immoral suggestions."

When we are 'unconscious' of our motivations, we function within the framework of the race psyche.  We are moved along essentially automatically by the expectations of society.  We must become positive to our environment and become 'conscious' of those motivations.  We must not repress those natural urges that might go against what the race expects of us and considers morally acceptable.  Growing up in this Aristotelian culture where our parents taught us right vs. wrong, i.e. a two-valued system that does not fit the structure or reality, we have something to overcome (at least most of us do).  Erich Fromm tells us that we live in a culture based around having as opposed to being.  Our parents, mostly 'unconsciously' instilled this fear of failure and losing our possessions, the acceptance of the group, our status and so on.  It takes hard work and suffering to re-imprint how we view and react to the world.  Are we able to create our world or are we content reacting to stimuli and simply fitting into the mold?  Can we create a world where character comes first even though our peers may not value this quality in ourselves?  Two streams converging against each other.  The struggle for independence from the race seeking to be an individual but fearing being cut off.  What we have become being a mirror of those formative experiences we had when we could barely walk.  And now to create a change, a re-orientation having to backtrack along the way and effectively alter those experiences or at least our emotional reactions to them.  We must release that stored tension of the painful experiences in our lives if we are to unlock the creative energy necessary to move into higher states of consciousness.  Walking the path is going against the tide, ice-skating uphill, swimming against the currents.  And so we must forget the pain produced from the friction that is manifested from these two streams converging.  As they say, its not about the end result but its about the journey.  When one can experience those moments of seeming pain instead as moments of bliss, thou hath already attained what thou seek.

Korzybski on 'Cause and Effect'

The following quotes (mixed with some commentary in red) come from pages 216-218 (Chapter XV) of Science and Sanity by Alfred Korzybski (I have also highlighted information I personally wanted to put emphasis on and bracketed commentary within the text).  It is not in the order it was written:

"The clearing up of the problems of 'cause' and 'effect' is of serious importance, because powerful semantic reactions are connected with it.  To begin with, we must differentiate between the terms 'cause' and 'effect', which, linked together, imply a two-term relation nowhere to be found in this world, and thus represent a language and a two-valued 'logic' of a structure not similar to the structure of the world, and the general (infinite)-valued notion of causality.  This last notion is the psycho-logical foundation of all explanations leading toward infinite valued determinism, and is an exclusive test for structure; and so of extreme semantic importance."

This is the first time I have been conscious of the fact that cause and effect belong to the dual-throng vocabulary.  Without cause there can be no effect and thus is not similar to the structure of the world as Korzybski says.  Obviously concessions must be made when we are still identified with objectivity or our consciousness has not risen to the 'higher' dimensions.  I know personally, I based a lot of my studies on what I learned about cause and effect, so I believe it is essential to gaining better understanding.  But it seems that we should be aware that we are using Aristotelian language even when we speak of cause and effect. 

"The old absolute and objectified semantic attitude toward 'cause-effect' was and often is a serious hindrance in observing impartially the sequence of events (order) and relations.  Preconceived notions and old semantic reactions played havoc, for it is well known that we usually find what we want to find.  If we approach a problem with definite unconcious 'emotional'  wants, and cannot satisfy these semantic reactions, we become bewildered, down-hearted, and perhaps utter some such non-sense as the 'finite mind', or the like.  Under such semantic pressure, our power of observation and analysis is reduced by a kind of 'emotional stupor'.  Such an occurrence is harmful in science and in life.  'Human knowledge' depends on human ingenuity, power of observation, power of abstraction, etc.  It is an activity of the human nervous system inside of our skin and can never be the events themselves."



 "Four our purpose, the most fundamental semantic application of what has been said above is in the vast field embraced by the old structural notions of 'cause' and 'effect'.  These terms are of great antiquity, of a distinctly pre-scientific one-, two-valued semantic epoch.  They originated in the rough experience of our race, and are firmly rooted in the habits of 'thought' and the structure of our old two-valued 'logic' and language, and because of that are even now unduly baffling.  These terms, in the two-valued sense, were and are the structural assumptions of our 'private' and 'official' 'philosophies' [This sounds like what Vitvan refers to as one's 'private world'].  The unenlightened use of these terms has done much to prevent the formulation of a science of man and to build up vicious anti-scientific metaphysics of various sorts involving pathological semantic reactions.  With the new quantum mechanics [1933], a better understanding of these notions, based on the infinite-valued semantics of probability, becomes a paramount issue for all science.  In daily life, the indiscriminate use of two-valued 'cause' and 'effect' leads structurally to a great deal of absolutism, dogmatism, and other harmful semantic disturbances, which I call confusion of orders of abstraction.

We usually follow the 'philosophers' and ascribe-or, rather feel, as conscious ascribing would not stand criticism-some mysterious structural continuity, some mysterious overlapping of 'cause' and effect'.  We 'feel', and try to 'think', about 'cause and effect' as contiguous in 'time'.  But 'contiguous in time' involves the impossible 'infinitesimal' of some unit of 'time'. But, since we have seen that there is no such thing, we must accept that the interval between 'cause' and 'effect' is finite.  This structural fact changes the whole situation.  If the interval between 'cause' and 'effect' is finite, then always something might happen between, no matter how small the interval may be.  The 'same cause' would not produce the 'same effect'.  The expected result would not follow.  This means only that in this world, to be sure of some expected effect, requires that there must be nothing in the environment which can interfere with the process of passing from the conditions labeled 'cause' to the conditions labeled 'effect.  In this world, with the structure which it has, we can never suppose that a 'cause', as we know it, is alone sufficient to produce the supposed 'effect'.  When we consider the ever-changing environment, the number of possibilities increases enormously.  If it were possible to take into account the whole of the environment, the probability that some event would be repeated, in all details, thus exhibiting the assumed two-valued relations of 'cause' and 'effect', which we took for granted in the old days, would practically be nil.  The principle of non-elementalism, as we see, requires an infinite-valued semantics of probability."

Vitvan in his teachings has provided the perfect example to get Korzybski's point across.  When we stand at a certain point on a circle we can look back and we can look forward.  Just as we do in our day to day lives, we find ourselves in one moment and can "view" moments from the past and "look" toward moments in the future that we hope will happen.  Or we work in this moment to create a moment in the future.

Now what happens when one steps off of that circle?  What is the past and what is the future?  Where is the cause and where is the effect?  It just is. One cannot distinguish any event from another.  And so Vitvan says where one sees clearly or finds his dharma, he comes in line with Will, there is no free-will. Look at the cycle which we call birth/death.  In our current state, we say that when we are conceived by our objective mother that we are "born" and when we exit this world, we "die".  We don't know what happens when we die as long as we see only this half.  Now imagine you have full awareness of the complete cycle.  Now which one is birth and which one is death?  They are interchanging one into the other.  You cannot out-rightly say that one is birth and one is death.  A lot of spiritualists will say that to die is to enter the "material" world and to be born is to leave the 'material body'.  That takes a negative connotation, yet all is purposeful.  That was a little parenthetical, but I think one can say that when one is outside of a sphere or WHOLLY 'within' it that there is no past/future, good/bad, that each point must be given the same value or weight.

Korzybski used his model which he called the Structural Differential (see right).  This model details the orders of abstractions, and also accounts for frequencies or factors that we do not register.  The event is represented by E at the top and you can see the strands labeled B2.  These represent those frequencies we do not register as we abstract.  So we crystallize the event into an object, but along the way we must account for the factors not known to us 'consciously'.  When we use the subject-predicate language structure we put stress on the nervous system because we are not representing the configuration (thing) as it is in life facts.  So when you say something like, "my mom ruined my life", you are leaving out many factors and completely go against the structure of the world, i.e. the value you give is what reacts upon you.  Instead you could say, "Because my mom indulged in alcohol and neglected me, I BELIEVE she has impacted my life negatively."  By saying that something seems to be or that you personally believe something, you are leaving extensions, acknowledging that you could be wrong or that there could be other factors that you are not currently aware.  When we leave those extensions, we do not have those emotional outbursts because we did not get what we expected as Korzybski notes in one of the paragraphs above.  We left the door open, acknowledging that a situation could turn out 'negative' or 'positive' but we have the ability to react unemotionally towards it and deal with it objectively.  If we remain open minded then we can expand the awareness of the situation.  If we become dogmatic and identify labels as the object, we cannot grow. If I can parenthetically say, I think we shy so much away from pain that we often cannot experience true love and fulfillment.  I think there is a semantic blockage that we have developed toward pain and I want to go into this more in the future for sure.

So we if we are open minded, we can look at many factors.  Instead of simply giving in because something happened in our past, we can find the quality within us and alter the quality, not holding on, identifying with an event that happened a long time ago.  A seemingly negative experience might get us to look within and change certain qualities that eventuated and when we are able to alter those qualities, we gain strength, confidence, etc.  Without those events we would float through life and never lose anything but never gain anything more than they brought with them, and some do.  And some will look at certain patterns that run in their families, identify them as hereditary, i.e. an 'effect' abstracted from a so called 'cause' (family disease or disorder) and so they believe they are helpless.  Instead of looking at the semantic pattern that has been passed down, the physiological organism is all that is observed.  "My doctor told me I have high cholesterol, it runs in my family, I'll get on medicine."  So as has been said again and again, it's not the events that affect you, but the value you give to them.  It's easier to look at the world as chaotic, then we don't have to take responsibility.  "When I do good, nothing comes of it anyway" one might say.  The problem usually is that one is conditioned to objectivity.  What he wants are 'things'.  Most of the time people are willing to go deep within, we only want to change the outside, make outside of the pretty and proper.  But when we go inside and are willing to fight, great outcomes can happen.

We often hear about those who are stricken with cancer who do not undergo the standard treatments like chemotherapy yet their cancer "miraculously" disappears.  What happens?  Between the 'cause' and the 'effect' that person changed the state of their consciousness that initially created the cancer.  If one changes the environment that cultivated the cancer through changing their consciousness then the cancer can no longer thrive in the environment.  And that is the same concept as raising one's forces to the "higher levels".  One's "house" might have been a great nesting spot for imps, devils, elementals, etc. but when that one rose his respective forces on up above the root and solar centers to the heart center and above, the elemental could not stand the light radiating out from those centers and scurries away like a cockroach.

So there is always the interval between the so called 'cause' and the 'effect'.  Otherwise there would be no order and we would all be automatons.  We left the Father's House for a reason, we are on the circle in our current state of consciousness.  But when when we step off the circle, stop giving value, stop letting environmental factors lead us astray from our path, then we re-enter the Father's House.  When the Logos becomes flesh then that interval would seemingly be gone  or at least we could see both the ebb and flow.  Whatever the Will desired to create would be done.  Thy Will be done, not mine.

Science and Sanity

This comes from page 176 of Science and Sanity:

"It seems evident that the extroverted and introverted tendencies have some connection with extensional and intensional types of reaction; but, of course, they are not identical.  They influence the individual in the selection of a profession, and in the preference for some special trend of activity.  Thus, mathematicians, generally, have an inclination toward extension, 'philosophers' toward intension.  Now it is interesting to note that mathematicians have a record of continuous constructive progress, and at each epoch have produced the highest kind of language known.  Also, the most important achievements in the fields which traditionally belonged to 'philosophers' have actually been produced by mathematicians.  The 'philosophers', in the main, have a record of failure.

The reason for this difference, which is too remarkable to be a mere coincidence, may be found by application of the term 'order' in our analysis.  The extensional method is the only method which is in accordance with the structure of our nervous system as established by survival.  Reversed intensional methods disorganize this normal mode of activity of the nervous system, and so lead toward nervous and 'mental' illnesses."

So I want to stop there.  If you read my earlier post I was talking about some Youtube videos I was watching and how these guys seemed to abstract way out into grounds where there seemed to be no point and no referents established for many of the words.  I will not post the link, as I do not want to knock them, they are trying to find their way just like anyone else and who is to say is right for another.  It is only observation for learning purposes, it is not meant to look down upon.  I'm sure you can find many representations if you go searching.  But these particular videos I was watching happened to be created by philosophy students.  And it was interesting how they were reading books about initiation and seemed to have all the pertinent information at their disposal but they didn't condense any of it, there was no seeming synthesis into a functional philosophy or "way of life", no purpose.

So what did they lack?  They lacked order, no road map.  Many are seeking enlightenment or expanded awareness but at some point all of this information (it is not knowledge) becomes a nemesis.  We become bogged down by the sheer volume.  We cannot synthesize it and make it functional, well because we mistake the mental squirrel caging for realization.  But the mathematician or scientist he has the structure and so with this I think he many times mistakenly find his way into the 'higher levels'.  As Korzybski says, for one to be well adjusted he should be an extroverted-introvert or introverted-extrovert.  So the philosopher starts out as intensional, but to make his information functional he must become extensional.  This is just like saying that we first must involve before we evolve.  Nature has a periodicity to it, there are no exceptions that I can see.  Or we can say that balance must always be achieved.

And so I will continue with more the text because I just think it is brilliant stuff:

"As explained before, the structure of our nervous system was established with 'senses' first, and 'mind' next.  In neurological terms, the nervous impulses should be received first in the lower centres and pass on through the sub-cortical layers to the cortex, be influenced there and be transformed in the cortex by the effect of past experiences.  In this transformed state they should then proceed to different destinations, as predetermined by the structure established by survival values.  We know, and let us remember this, that the reversed order in semantic manifestation-namely, the projection into 'senses' of memory traces or doctrinal impulses-is against the survival structure, and hallucinations, delusions, illusions, and confusion of orders of abstractions are to be considered pathological.  In a 'normal' human nervous system with survival value, the nervous impulses should not be lost in the sub-cortical layers.  In such a case, the activity of our human nervous system would correspond to the activity of the less-developed nervous systems of animals which have no cortex at all.  It must be remembered, also, that the sub-cortical layers which have a cortex, as in man, are quite different from corresponding layers of those animals which have never developed a cortex.  It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that survival values are sharply characterized by adequacy, and that animals without cortex have nervous systems adequate for their needs under their special conditions; otherwise, they would not have survived.  This applies, also, to those animals who have a cortex.  Their activities for survival depend on this cortex; and when the cortex is removed, their activities become inadequate.  Their sub-cortical layers alone are not adequate to insure survival.  For survival, such animals must use not only their lower centres and their sub-cortical layers, but also their cortices."

So I will stop there and comment.  So what Dr. Korzybski is inferring is that we humans are not using our cortex as it was meant to function and thus we on the majority are functioning like animals.  This has been cultivated in the race psyche and so this is now "normal", normal in the sense that it is average.  A new standard has been set.  But in reality it is not "normal", we are not functioning up to the level of our capabilities.  Our nervous reactions mirror those of animals.  If we continue to not function correctly then we will begin to not survive.  And so when I think of survival, I do not think in objective terms as in, "I'll lose my body."  The average person is having his fun and drinking and being merry and does not have time to stop and analyze the situation.  He can easily stop and say that there is nothing after I'm dead without further inquiry and be done with it and go on functioning like the animals.  Personally, I think about the qualities I am building into my psyche.  What qualities or aptitudes can I take out with me and bring back with me.  And then we must remember that the world is not going to slow down or lower itself to level we decide to function on.  It is non-survival.

What happens to those species in the past who lost the ability to survive?  Well, they aren't around anymore.  Vitvan in his book "The Deva Line of Evolution" talks about the period when the sea creatures began to evolve and leave the water and develop lungs.  There was quite the struggle and many could not adjust to the new conditions.  He says that those 'individual spirits' were shifted to the deva line of development, meaning that they no longer incarnated into a 'material' configuration (body).  The lowest level of their development was the etheric world.  They weren't extinguished, but in terms of development, being able to incarnate into these levels is a great boon to the individual.  It can take 10,000 years to accomplish in the deva world what it takes 1000 years to accomplish on the configurational level, Vitvan says.  That is just a practical example as to the struggle for survival and how nature does not give any slack.  So this might sound like fear mongering (I hope not), but hopefully to one on the fence it might give them the motivation to seek to read Science and Sanity (among other books) and change the patterns that have been bestowed upon us due to our integration within this race psyche. 

It isn't easy and in fact its probably the hardest process one could undertake, but what does anyone have to lose except maybe some pride and an ego and maybe some friends?  Sure sounds like a lot to gain though.  And as I've said previously, it seems as though the separation is occurring, there is societal dichotomy taking shape, so this seems to be the time to make the push forward and make sure one stays on the positive, creative side.

If you want to continue reading this section, you can pick it up on page 177.

Thanks for reading.

Edit:  The more I thought about this subject, the more I felt like I missed the mark.  I guess the point is that the autonomous field is the Ultimate Cause and that cause/effect is the play within that field.  There is validity in tracing the causes of certain effects, but we also must account for unknown factors that we are unable to register.  And once one removes himself from the rolling wheel, cause cannot be seen as happening before effect and vice versa, as the nature of reality is a spiral and not linear.

Manifestation

And this one comes from the last lesson in "Practices in Individual Development" -

"It is the state in which the Power-to-be-conscious is conscious that sets up the impulse in the substance that we call the wave and frequency.  When the Power-to-be-conscious is conscious of Light, then the waves and frequencies of Light become the objective representation or the manifest representation of the state.  That is so immediate in Light's Regions, so immediate, that the state on the part of the Power-to-be-conscious and the wave-frequencies and its manifestation becomes a simultaneous process in Light's Regions.  When we reach even the edge of Light's Regions, to become conscious of an idea (not mental concept), to become conscious of a state that is qualified (that means idea), qualified, instantaneously it is manifest.  The state, the idea, the waves-frequency-the manifestation is faster than light.


As the substance becomes gross, that is, the interstices between the units of energy or the units of light become wider and wider, i.e., grosser, coarser, it is less instantaneous.  There is a lag between the state and the manifest evidence or manifestation of the state.  When we come to living matter we have to dwell with an idea, that is, we dwell with the quality of feeling, the quality of desire or thought.  We have to entertain it over what we call time before it begins to configurate and manifest in living matter.  So the higher, the finer the substance, the higher the state, the more instantaneous it is, until it is simultaneous with the state."

A Treatise on Faith

Ending quote from the booklet "A Treatise on Faith" containing rich teachings from Vitvan:

"Whatever the immediate trials and seeming failures of your life may be, keep forever in your mind the happy consciousness that the trials, temptations, hardships, sorrows and disappointments through which your pathway leads are but the recurrences of evanescent and fleeting shadows of your past, appearing again for corrective purposes, and of themselves have no substance you need to fear.  Meet them serenely and without flinching and, one by one, learn the lesson that each has come to teach, then they will vanish as the mist and the fog vanish before the dispelling power of God's beneficent sunlight.

Build you a temple in your consciousness upon the rock of faith, and by your works make your life a monument of beauty, whether the world knows and enjoys it or knows it not.  This, in effect, represents the eternal as well as the universal significance of faith."

Separation/Cycle Completion

I really want to try and break down the end of cycles and the separation that occurs.  As has been stated before, it seems as though we are entering the process of shifting from one cycle to the next.  Vitvan confirms this saying that the Aristotelian cycle is coming to a close and that the Atomic Age is being ushered in.  I can't believe in the whole 2012 thing, this is a long drawn out process, it is not an overnight occurrence.  Yes, a new cycle may be coming in a higher frequencies are being experienced in the whole environment, but one must have the capabilities built in to register the higher frequencies.  It seems to have nothing to do with sidereal time, it functions in harmonic time.  Meaning we don't calculate based on a certain year, our years are arbitrarily created units of measurement, they have nothing to do with how the cycles are actually functioning.  People are trying to measure the Mayan calendar using our Gregorian calendar.  There are multiple calendars out there, and as people note all the time, there is an elite group at the top who run the show, do you think they are just going to flat out give you the esoteric doctrines out in plain view?  You have to dig for it, that is why it is esoteric.  One on the path seeks to get positive to the environment so he does puts less emphasis on his surroundings and more into what he can control.  The Mayan calendar stuff just becomes another tool for control.  When cataclysms begin to ramp up, the truthers can easily sublimate these events by saying, "well the Mayan prophecies are being fulfilled."  And so population decreases occur and no one bats an eyelash because it is 'divine prophecy'.  Who knows what will happen.  Do you believe in gods?  More power to you if it helps you through the day.

So say the shift occurs in 500 years as Vitvan estimates, this is the blink of an eye in the context of the individualization process from unicellular organism to individualized man.  We don't worry about the time though and how long it will take because we are going through a natural process and will step aside and let it unfold as it will.  Thy Will be done.  Vitvan had something interesting to say in a lecture I was listening to the other day titled "Understanding the Psychic Nature."  He asks, 'were you conscious of the process from unicellular organism up to element, to plant, animal and on to separating from the animal field'?  Were you conscious of coming into this world being birthed from your mother's womb?  I don't think so.  So in that case the natural order process brought you forth from those stages to this point.  Can you imagine that struggle?  Through all of that you arrived to being conscious of your self in this moment?  This is quite profound.  And so after all that you are going to say, "thank you Power, I'll take over from here."  Ha.  Do you see how ridiculous that is?

Anyways back to the main point I want to make.  So after all of this development, we are coming to a shift.  After so much (relative) time of individualization for every one of us, we find that there are large gaps between humanity.  And not just indigenous man vs. average American/European vs. elite world leader.  When you walk down the streets, function in general society, the gaps between each of us can be separated by hundreds of thousands of years (many incarnations of development) it seems (although this seemingly can be made up quickly).  You have people wholly focused in objective sense who live completely in their private worlds (personalities), wholly identified with the 'body', know nothing of, give no value to the psychic nature.  'I am body' and that is it.  You have those who function a small amount in the psychic nature and it goes on up the scale to the ascended masters.  Vitvan says there are 3 classes of people, 1)those wholly conditioned in objective identity, 2)those who have found the path and are in the process of becoming, 3)those who have individualized and are a Being.  Hopefully you can get an idea of what I'm trying to get across, the breadth of the gaps in all of our respective consciousness.  How many people do you know that you could walk up to on the street and try to explain this type of stuff to?  I don't know anyone, and I don't know squat about squat, but us remember also that mentalizing about teachings is not true development.  One could be completely individualized and know nothing about any esoteric teachings.  The frequencies that a disciple, someone who is beginning to awaken to a more expanse world is aware are minuscule compared to the infinite frequencies that make up the whole reality. But then think about someone who only is aware to sense functions, and compare them, the gap that would be between the disciple and someone who is completely asleep.  It seems profound to me.  One doesn't go straight from objective identity to Being, the seed does not instantly become a flower.  By and by through experience one begins to get tired of chasing chimerical dead ends and progressively comes nearer to the path.

So when you have a majority that is completely oblivious to the truth, to the purpose of the palingenetic cycle (the process of incarnating) and classes of those who are in different states of awakening, the majority becomes a nemesis to those who are awakening.  They are a great source of friction or point of reference in being able to push those who try and individualize further on the path, but eventually they become a nemesis and quite detrimental.  Just as one's personality is a vehicle that helps him wade through the mud and reach the path, but once he finds the path, the personality becomes his biggest enemy.  So in nature there must be a separation so that the individuals functioning in the lower centers do not drag those who are evolving down.  As we know there is a natural order process at work and that natural order process does not slow down for the stragglers, it does not step down to the level of those who cannot make the grade, there must be a benchmark.  Just as one should not lower himself to give sympathy/pity to those who wallow in the senses, shift back and forth and suffer.  Ayn Rand would call this self suicide and is detrimental to one's self and the whole.  At some point it must cast those out and let them repeat that cycle because they could not make the grade.  Look at how our schools are set up, they mirror the natural order process.  Look at how our 'body' works, we take in elements, energy, food and build up the body as we desire and that energy that is not usable is cast out.  So if there are those who no longer serve the purpose of the natural order process, who cannot keep up with the life wave, then they must be left behind and start again in more favorable conditions.

And so I personally love to make the correlation between the natural order process on an individual level and how Walter Russell has described the process of the creation of our solar system.  He says that when the sun becomes an individualized center, it casts out all of the lower vibrating frequencies/entities.  The planets are those lower vibrating beings.  And they house lower level individualizing beings that resonate with the frequency of the planet's overall field.  Just like we function in our respective race psyche, be it America, Russia, Africa, etc.  And we can abstract further down into the states with in those countries, down on to the cities, and so on.  So to be the sun it had to cast out the lower frequencies because it could not become the sun while housing those lower vibrating forces.  I've seen the planets correlated with the chakras.  The chakras are an extension of the inherent Power than animates us, they are the power separated and function at lower frequencies.  The planets are an extension of the sun, and they all vibrate at a lower rate consummate to their point of development.

Now lets segue into Vitvan's teaching of the birth of the Christos.  On the journey toward Mind level we have the baptism by water.  This is where we begin to function in frequency as opposed to objective identity.  John the Baptist is a representation of this process and he says, 'lay the way, for there is one greater that shall come after me'.  After the baptism of water comes the baptism of fire.  At this point the Christos power comes in and says, 'I come not to bring peace but to bring a sword' and 'an axe must be laid at the root of every tree not planted by my Father (those lower level entities/frequencies that are not natural to the cosmic process).  Meaning that to ascend to the higher level, become the sun or rise to the Mind level (the birth of the Christos), the lower frequencies must be cast out.   When one becomes pure again then he has completed the cycle, ascended to the next highest level of the spiral, the relatively higher sphere.

So you have many people who will believe that this predicted occurrence coming in 2012 will evolve their consciousness.  That because the earth's frequencies will be evolved (in theory) that they too will experience these frequencies.  Well it seems apparent now that this is not true to the natural order process, though the earth's frequencies may be raised and thus there will be more opportunity for us to tune into those frequencies.  We must first individualize, work for our salvation, experience the baptism of water before we can die to self or experience the re-birth into the higher spheres.  We must first 'come out from among them and be ye therefore separate'.  And then all of our lower qualities must be expurgated.  This is quite the process that Vitvan describes, it is not all peace and love, but it is going to be a battle, a fight to the death..the death of the personality.  One cannot bring the personality along into the higher spheres.  So I personally hear a bunch of the new age gurus who obviously still function in the personality who believe that because they are mentally awake to a shift in cycles that they have ascended.  And they reify words like divine and God, soul, etc. and generally have no clue what they are talking about.  And they suffer and think that this is part of their ascension.  Because they suffer that they are 'chosen'.  I guess the only hope is that the desire to know will lead them towards the natural order process that is going on.  That simply mentalizing about consciousness expansion is not the actual function that brings about the expansion.  And I do not condemn, I try only to observe and see the errors that I have made along with them and try to learn from them.

And so we either cooperate with the process and we move on or we work against and the reflection that is created, the imbalance will force us to shift and seek the middle path, to find the balance that is the natural order process, to FUNCTION IN THE POWER, AS THE POWER, not an extension of the power as the personality is.  Enter into that power, go inside, not the 'body' but the consciousness that the body is in, that the psyche is in, the autonomous field.