The Third Matrix: Humanity's Rite of Passage
The following is an excerpt from The Four Global Truths: Awakening to the Peril and Promise of Our Times. Part of the Evolver Editions series, The Four Global Truths introduces a treatise on planetary transformation that views worldwide ecological suffering through the framework of the Four Noble Truths, which form the basis of all the Buddhist traditions. The book is thus comprised of four chapters: The Reality of Global Suffering, The Roots of Global Suffering, The Relief of Global Suffering, and The Road to Recovery. What follows is taken from Chapter Three.
When viewed through a wide lens, our current global situation can be framed as a kind of initiation process for humanity, similar to that faced by the archetypal hero. In many of the world's myths, the hero is forced to confront some dangerous challenge, endure some difficult ordeal, or complete some seemingly impossible task, after which he usually emerges triumphant and transformed. Often the initiation involves dismemberment and death, followed by a re-membering and rebirth into a more fully integrated form in which the hero realizes his true calling or higher purpose. Typically the hero experiences a diminishment of his own ego-based identity and a connection with the larger collective to which he belongs.
The process of initiation, which appears not only in myths but in shamanic rituals and mystery cults of the ancient Near East, seems to hold symbolic significance for the modern human. Certainly the current global crisis represents the greatest challenge our species has ever faced, with stakes that could hardly be higher. The very structures that support life -- the only known life in the universe -- are being rapidly dismantled, and our daunting challenge is to come together as a human family in order to engage our collective wisdom, compassion, and creativity to preserve as much life as possible. This would seem to require an authentic, heroic humility; a softening of the rigidified ego structure; and a recognition of an intimate interconnectedness and interdependence with everything.
Not coincidentally, a softening of individual ego that allows for a deeper communion with other beings lies at the heart of Buddhist practice. Whether conceived as detachment from ego or an expansion of the self to include the whole world or even the entire Cosmos, the process involves a transformation of one's usual identity as a "skin-encapsulated ego," to borrow a phrase from philosopher Alan Watts. The degree to which one can break free -- if even temporarily -- from this self-imposed limitation is the degree to which inter-subjective communion can occur and compassion can manifest.
From a psychological perspective, one's ability to transcend ego may depend, somewhat paradoxically, on the strength and stability of one's sense of self. A secure foundation must first be established before it can be surmounted. In thinking about this apparent conundrum of spiritual progress, we might consider the egolessness of an infant: as much as we might envy her beautifully open-hearted expressiveness and spontaneity, hers is not a wise, serene, and selfless state to which we should aspire but a naive, volatile, and selfish one out of which we have grown (but may of course revisit on occasion, whether intentionally or not). This conflation of trans-egoic consciousness with pre-egoic consciousness is what Ken Wilber calls the "pre-trans fallacy," a kind of false romanticism that is often extended not only to young children but to prehistoric and traditional cultures.
Humanity's initiation can be regarded as a culmination of the collective individuation process that has unfolded over the course of human history. Having evolved into self-consciousness at the birth of civilization, self-knowledge during the Axial Age, and greater independence and self-security throughout history, Homo sapiens is now being called to greater self-transcendence and selflessness involving a compassionate regard for all forms of life and the Earth as a whole. Again, what our situation asks is not a reversion to some imaginary Eden of yesteryear, but an advance towards what has been dubbed Homo universalis, a new stage of evolution that, in Ken Wilber's terms, both "transcends and includes" all previous stages.
In terms of the death/rebirth process, the world's leading expert would have to be Stanislav Grof, a Czech-born psychologist who has witnessed, facilitated, and undergone thousands of such experiences over the course of his long career. Working initially with LSD and eventually with a special breathing technique (dubbed "holotropic" -- towards wholeness), Grof has plumbed the depths of the human psyche and expanded the map of consciousness well beyond the limits set by his predecessors. While Freud highlighted the importance of early childhood experience and Jung emphasized the collective unconscious and its archetypes, Grof found a vital link between the personal and transpersonal realms in the birth process, which he separates into four stages. Each of these four "basic perinatal matrixes" (BPMs) is characterized by particular archetypes and images that may be experienced during holotropic states, especially if connected with trauma. The idea is that by consciously confronting such normally repressed, unconscious material, a person may achieve greater psychological integration, balance, and wholeness.
Grof's expanded model of the psyche can be depicted as an hourglass, with the bottom half encompassing the personal, biographical realm and the top half outlining the transpersonal, archetypal realm. Between these lies the narrow canal of death and rebirth, through which passes both the fetus on its way to "personhood" and the disembodied psyche on its way to "transpersonhood." One may also pass through this bottleneck during non-ordinary states or during what Grof calls "spiritual emergencies," both of which involve a dissolution of ego boundaries. Depending on how complete or rapid is this personal death/transpersonal rebirth, it may be experienced as either terrifying or liberating.
As for humanity as a whole, it seems that we are currently in the midst of BPM-3, the birthing process, which involves an intense struggle for survival that is usually experienced as simultaneously pleasant and unpleasant. This matrix (which combines elements of BPM-2 and BPM-4, dominated by feelings of fear and joy, respectively) is commonly associated with images of military and revolutionary battles, boxing matches, treacherous airplane, boat, and car rides, wild parties, and carnivals. In these scenarios, in BPM-3 in general, and in our current global crisis there is a clear and present danger accompanied by a heightened awareness, as well as a hopeful sense that the threat can ultimately be vanquished.
Teaser image by Ivan Walsh, courtesy of Creative Commons license.
Tweet- 11-22-11
- Darrin Drda's blog
- Login or register to post comments
- Printer-friendly version
Comments
the hero's journey
Self and civilization
"Having evolved into self-consciousness at the birth of civilization..."
This is an idea I've been contemplating lately - the correspondence of the self as a mental-emotional psychic structure, arising as what might be considered an "orientation" to consciousness, and the creation of hierarchical systems of social organization (i.e. "civilization") projecting that self outward - and therefore the implications in terms of how we can change the world so that we can "preserve as much life as possible" (which sadly seems to be about the best we can hope for now).
To me, this is why we are hoping for, and working towards, a "new consciousness" (I personally think it's more like a new orientation to consciousness) - because we can't transform the systems unless and until we transform the self projecting them.
So given the general direction of my own thinking, this article was very interesting and I look forward to reading your book. Thanks for sharing this excerpt with us. Best wishes -
From Ego-centrism to Eco-librium
from home to home
Like a tuning fork picking up the same pitch as a nearby sound, the resonance between phenomena is not only implicit but visceral, as in a sensory experience.
Cultivation of evolutionary momentum is not something that happens overnight, in a workshop or two, or after a mindblowing trip or three. It is actually a very long and involved process that requires increasing access to the totality of energy allotted to these human bodies. It is quite easy to dream your paradise into existence, but much more difficult to awaken in a paradise which has always existed. For a certain perspective, an entire life cycle may seem as one breath. For another perspective, an entire universal cycle may seem as one breath. And on, and on.
Thanks for the article... I
homework
These different aspects of the Buddhist community have to do directly with the objectives and practices and even the overall philosophy of the eight-fold path. On one hand, there was a group who considered that only learned people of a certain capacity consolidated in monasteries were able to truly practice the teachings, and they followed the Buddha’s model of seeking nirvana as the highest goal. On the other hand, there was a group that considered everyone should be able to practice, including laymen or “householders", and that also nirvana as an end in itself was pointless and not the message the Buddha was trying to get across. (In fact, Gotama the Buddha himself had prohibited women from joining their group as he considered the prospect untenable in some way. It was his cousin Ananda who finally convinced the Buddha to allow women to join the sangha as bhikkunis, but only after they accepted further vows.)
Today these different branches are known as the “hinayana” and “mahayana”. (These terms were most certainly invented by the mahayanists, as the translation is roughly “lesser vehicle” and “greater vehicle”.) The concept of the bodhisattva was put forth by the mahayanists, and is considered to be the highest goal of the path, whereas the hinayanists considered a bodhisattva type to be inferior to the status of a buddha. A bodhisattva is someone who has the ability to enter nirvana at any time, but chooses to remain engaged with the world as an act of service to all sentient beings - instead of giving up on the world and remaining absorbed in nirvana at all times. This is generally the mahayanists point of view regarding the “true message" of buddhism, in that the Buddha himself took upon the path of transmitting his knowledge to help others, rather than going off to live in a cave by himself.
The concept of dukkha, as in the first noble truth that “life is dukkha” is often translated as “suffering”, however this is an oversimplification that tends to add confusion.
No single English word adequately captures the full depth, range, and subtlety of the crucial Pali term dukkha. Over the years, many translations of the word have been used ("stress," "unsatisfactoriness," "suffering," etc.). Each has its own merits in a given context. There is value in not letting oneself get too comfortable with any one particular translation of the word, since the entire thrust of Buddhist practice is the broadening and deepening of one's understanding of dukkha until its roots are finally exposed and eradicated once and for all. One helpful rule of thumb: as soon as you think you've found the single best translation for the word, think again: for no matter how you describe dukkha, it's always deeper, subtler, and more unsatisfactory than that.
It is the same with the modern conception of buddhism not believing in a “soul” or continuance of being, which is also incorrect. The teaching of “not-self” that was highlighted by buddhism points to the lack of permanence in the mind-stream, in that there is no solid “self” behind phenomena, but rather a fluid and ever-changing flow of energy. This is tied into the concept of dukkha as being the resulting problematic phenomena from an inaccurate apprehension of basic reality itself. The desire to fixate a solid “self” in the face of such an essential instability is at the core of the activity of dukkha. This is what leads to the path which resolves such inaccuracy of perception, which culminates in the release of that burden, termed “nirvana”, which is translated as “blowing out”, as in a candle.
Nirvana is the release of personal passion, the flame of selfish desire being snuffed. However, the question of all other desire remains. This is where the aspect of the bodhisattva comes in, which could be summed up in the words of another religion as “thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. As the personal will to fixate “self” is released, the impersonal will to liberate all others from this may be able to arise. It is important to note that all kinds of altruism and activism and volunteer work and so forth does not automatically equate to the actions of a liberated being, as plenty of people use such things to define their identity, and as yet another tool in the attempt to fixate “self”. People who have not fully released their own personal desires and yet who choose to liberate the world will often end up in a precarious situation due to their own distortion of the impersonal, and can in fact cause the opposite of what they originally set out to do - as in, adding more oppression instead of liberation.
This is all leaving aside the further development of vajrayana, which is the more esoteric aspect of mahayana practice. In ancient times it corresponded to the “secret” practices of energy work and the incorporation of other subtle aspects of non-ordinary reality such as magic and shamanism and so forth. Vajrayana is where tantra meets buddhism. Our modern western-world conception of vajrayana is largely shaped by a teacher known as Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Anyone who is familiar with his bio and the history of his organization and their work may be able to understand why these practices were considered “secret” in ancient times. It is akin to the same reason you don’t give a loaded gun to a small child - there is great danger if it is not handled properly, and such capability is not inborn (although the preference is).
Response to Bill
I feel that a great deal of
I feel that a great deal of "false romanticism" is coming from the other direction in that it seems people with a more "Buddhist-centric" view tend to not credit, nor even notice, the true sophistication of the framework underlying indigenous cultures and instead regard their balanced way of living a "deeper and more intimate connection with the Earth" as being something that happened by default as a consequence of circumstances. In other words, the admirable aspects of indigenous cultures are regarded as springing only from way of life rather than from an underlying framework of "way of being".
It's not a matter of hoping to go back to a way of life in a falsely romantic way, it's a question of bringing forth the way of being that produced the way of life. The real false romanticism seems to be in presuming that the way of life was not grounded in a sophisticated (and yet not overly elaborate) way of being, one that I think ought to be seriously considered as we propose a framework for the future.
One of the most prevalent "falsely romantic" ideas about indigenous cultures is that the sophisticated way of being was centered upon the use of entheogens rather than a deep understanding of both the "self" and its problematic aspects and means and methods of dealing with it, individually and culturally. There seems to be a general attitude that the absence of elaborate scheme equates to the absence of skillful means, and that is decidedly not the case. (I apologize for seeming to argue with a point you're not making; I'm just sayin' ... in general)
I'm just attempting to add a bit to what I think Bill is getting at - perhaps a bit of frustration with the attitudes of some of those whose premises and proposals are grounded in the Buddhist framework (and not you in particular as I realize we're not getting the full picture of your work here).
Did the dog eat it?
There seems to be a general attitude that the absence of elaborate scheme equates to the absence of skillful means
Where is this "general attitude" of buddhism that indigenous peoples have no skillful means? It is a very odd proposal. Can you provide an example of why you are saying this?
I do not see how buddhism has anything to do with lack of respect for indigenous peoples, or their way of life or being. Tibetan buddhism especially (vajrayana) incorporates the bon teachings, which are shamanistic practices of native tibetans that are many thousands of years old. Even dzogchen is intimately derived from this.
It would seem that the absurdity of your premise and the hair-splitting nature of your elucidation indicates a willingness to "fill in the blanks" in the effort to pin down what is "wrong".
Perhaps you wish to clarify your position? You mention an "elaborate scheme", as if it is apart from a "natural goodness" or perfect way of being which requires nothing, where any formalized practices regarding evolutionary cultivation are unneccesary. Am I misunderstanding your point here?
R.S
Bill has a fan club!
From Ego-centrism to Eco-librium?
Darrin, Not having read your book, I can only respond to the excerpt above, and I have to agree with Bill Kilner that all the psycho-social theories you refer to (including the Buddhist path from suffering to awakening) are human artifices created from the Axial, linear, self-reflective mind. You say, to support the "pre-trans fallacy" notion, that "no human culture has ever been perfect" - but that very notion of perfection is a modern, linear, evolutionary concept. A non-individuated, non self-reflective human culture that survived for 200 millennia in relative harmony with its environment may not be considered perfect by our standards - but it was, by the evidence of its longevity, perfectly adapted to this world.
Is it not arrogant of us moderns (civilized ones) to suggest that the enduring past be judged by our dystopian standards? While I appreciate your references to death and dis-memberment as an essential element of the passage (too many today believe it will be all light and joy), I can't help but chuckle at your post title which I've reproduced above. For it seems that much of the New Age movement has made the shift from "ego-centrism" to a drug-like anti-anxiety state of "eco-librium", allowing us to ignore that all that we know - including all the clever categories and stages and matrices you mention - will have to be relinquished as part of the coming cultural dissolution and rebirth (if, even, we make it through the ordeal).
Suffer the Bliss
I think that the world is suffering in the sense that it is "inertial" in it's default backdrop in relation to consciousness. Similar to how in quantum physics there is the infinite wave of potential, and the finite particle manifestation dichotomy ... a phenomenonn that seems to be forever in flux in relation to the conscious observer ones self.
As soon as one focuses on the detail one looses the overall peripheral perspective ... like the faster one drives in a car the more narrow {less peripheral} conscious visual focus one has ... while when sittiing perrfectly still one has almost 360 degree awareness capacity.
Also in similar vain, the quieter ones mind the further down the stream one can hear the trickling of the brook. That these are inherent laws we are all subject to, and that the more one tries, individually or collectively to increase and expand the karma, the less inherent dharma can be realized.
So naturally, of course, the simpler jungle-small village cultrures have less "maya" {illusion} as compared to cities, kingdoms, dynasties etc.
Hence the hermits, monks, and forest sage, type acetics /reninciates etc, seem to always have the more all-nclusive dharmic philosophical realizations as opposed to the more "eat drink and be merry, short lived "life of the senses" karmas found in the more sophisticated city life.
The more the gratification the more chance for argumentation and / or war ... hence the whole "duality as opposed to oneness" philosophies ... that these are not just ideological, but intrinsic laws of interaction.
We are all subject to this principle to varying degrees. Yet there can be monks in the monastery who constantly think about life on the outside to the point of disturbing their chance for more meditative prowess, just as there can be some in the very midst of the city who do not so easily loose their center {their mind} to the fantasies and whims of an indulgent mega-metrapolis. {yin within yang within yin}
In the 1960's, when the hippies first started to awaken, one of the most basic intial trends of such conscious expansion was to live more simply, back to land {"can you dig it brother" .. or is all just concrete and plastic} As the mind expands the life naturally simplifies.
The Hare Krsna's have the motto .. "Simple living - High thinking" as opposed to complex living - low mindedness. One can know the underlying nature {Tao} of all things while sitting in a cave ... or one can be in the most sophiticated scientific laboratory and be nescient of even the most basic sense of compassion.
The Buddhists certainly did not invent simple insightful living. No real philosophy outside of the most basic above mentioned "law of Tao" that pretty much exists as unspoken, unteachable, everywhere within everyone, as there is nothing individual, or collective, not subject to such interactive principle.
The Mythical Story of the two Trees in Eden ... same principle .. the more we try to tell ourselves who and what we are by eating the fruits of duality "tree of knowlege" ... {information-age humanism as a relative epitome} ... the less our actual, integrative life experience in the conscious moment. {tree of life}
Again, in the more Ancient Yoga traditions of "pre-hindhu" India, they have this phrase "acintya-bheddha-abheddha-tattva" ... "inconceivable, simultaneous, oneness and difference" ... or "unity in diversity" with a deeper, more expansive conjecture.
In other words according to these "Ayur-Vedic" life sciences there is "constitutional variety" forever found all throughout human society {all beings} in the sense that each school yard will have the same basic varieties of character varigatedness all throughout time.
Quiet ones, popular ones aggressive ones, funny ones, somber ones, ... "naturally and inherently" inclined towards labor, crafts, intellectual and administrative pursuits every society large and small, sophisticated or simplistic has some sense of this ... which can be repressed and or hyped out of context by all kinds psycho-sociological "ploys of propaganda" .. but inherently such is there.
The origins of the so called "caste" system had a more profound philosophy behind it, originally termed {Sanskrit} "Varnasrama-dharma" ... varnas are the more organic physical inclinations - writer, farmer, laborer, scientis, politician ... and asrama was the more subtle inclinations, karma, jnana, hatha, buddhi, bhakti - variouis yogas, or internal procilities to yoke or connect with "spirit" - "truth" etc.
So if a one is of more interactive, passionate inclination karma and bhakti yoga might be more appropriate, where as if one was more dry and detached by nature, jnana and buddhi yogas might be more appropriate.
There being no inherent nature that is without an appropriate path or yoga to acheive oneness with others. Every religious tradition still has the same variety of renunciates, priestcraft adminstrative, intellectuals, lay farmers and labors ... working buddhas, contemplative buddhas, lovemaking buddhas, emperor buddhas ... hence the much older "Buddhi yoga" which means basically that any nature of being is here for an intrinsic purpose and has a unique part to play at "every level"
This was never based on birth alone according to the ancient texts, but was "qualitative" ... if a farmers son showed natural inclination for intellectual pursuits such was detected early on and catered to ... visa versa also apllies
The whole bloodline phenomenon is a total illusion, whether the caste / class system perversions found everywhere, or the inter-breeeding / eugenic fanatatical nesceience in relation to "population management" ... the same principle apllying to to sciences of select genetic breeding etc ... all having the same problem at the root.
Long ago they knew better and instead of a democratic free for all - "anyone can be anything" ... or ther caste/class by inertia or birth .. both ends of this dual perspective ... well they just saw the natural inherent tendecies and selectively educated through apprentiship {guru to disciple} only those areas of compatible intrigue.
Another Sanskrit term "Caitanya" means immortal character, like how even tbough a person born with physical compromise {genes / chromozones etc} like having Down Syndrome ... but that they still have a very sweet disposition - personality-caitanya etc. , often even more so than those around them ... that like trying to remove certain traits by genetic engeneering, some even offer the opportunitry to abort such problematic distortions not realizing that they come also with blessings.
So caitanya trumps all else ... bloodlines, opulence etc .. in a qualitative society that is. Renunciates of highest order can still learn valuable life lessons from the most simple worker, and so there is never a linear path of evolutionary princpled progression outside of each of us, in our given point of reference in relation to "all others" seeing the revelation only ever possible amidst the variety of dispositions themselves ... having to always be there, as opposed to philosophically negated.
Socrates used to hang out a fair amount with a local blacksmith, whom he liked because of his "sweat of brow" demeanor" .... quite different from his own, yet complentary in it's difference.
One never actually "sees" a mandala or thanka painting without witnessing so many dimensional levels of cosmic interaction. As many versions of possibilities as one can imagine.
Yet there is not one human being who does not have the ability to use that mandala to transcened the judgement of any particular dimensional area within as but the possibility for each and every being to occupy if they themselves eat of that pious or impiou karmic fruit.
In other words every culture, society, generation etc, will have their own mandala .... all of us acting forever in an interactive "cycle of life" with all others ... and that the getting out of it is no more than the getting deeper into it .. like ying within yang within ying ... oneness and difference infinetly interacting in all dimensional variations simultaneously ... the more "conscious version" of the multiple universe / parallel universe speculations of the modern day physicist.
"Wonder is what Mystery would do if it was conscious" ...
"Wandering is for every other possibility"
Pippalayana Muni
"Pre-trans fallacy" fallacy
things i dont like = bad... things i do like = good...
I would have to agree, considering his past association and outright proselytization of Bubba Free John, aka Adi Da. Wilber was already well underway with his own systems of work at this time, and his total lack of intuition on that matter does tend to speak volumes on its own, even taking into consideration his later recanting.
This is not to mention his current association with Andrew Cohen, another figure who is clearly quite comfortable with residing in the "intermediate zone".
Until a person understands why they want to bring about a particular sensation, idea, or feeling, there will be no stopping the machinations to achieve it. It will manufacture any mask to accomplish its goal, with no end to its hypocrisy. The honesty of open awareness is an unavoidable problem from the perspective of such complex machinery, because the presence of resting simplicity is a complete invalidation of the machinery's existence.
Clarifications
An evolutionary paradigm
have you seen the subtitle of this website?
Did you ever consider that the 'evolutionary paradigm' might be the current version of age old delusion? Is rational thought the gold standard by which all other thought/cultures are to be judged? While I certainly don't advocate a return to any mythic golden age (as if it where even possible); I think believing in and viewing reality from the neo-Darwinian lens of modernity (AKA egoic-rational consciousness)
I am wondering why "evolutionary" is pushing your buttons. Do you not agree that single celled life led to fish which led to reptiles which led to mammals which led to humans? Is it not the purview of all lifeforms to continue evolving, if the possibility is there?
Also I dont undersand how rationality is the evil culprit of all our woes. I would say hot-headed emotionalism has quite a hand in it as well. Or did you mean something else by rational thought?
It really seems to be a case of "i dont know what i do want, but i do know what i dont want". It is all too easy to slap a label like "neo-darwinism" on something - but it really doesnt solve any problems or help to explain your perspective in plain english.
Evolution ... or Revolutuion
Many theories of so-called linear "evolution" have not ever really been advanced beyond the "theoretical" stage. To date there has not been even one confirmed find {archeology} of any "transitional" species which physically verifies these theories.
Same with cultural advancement. Modern man as a general phenomenon has the same basic variety school yard character traits among children as there ever was.
To think that the use of technology is "proof" of our ever advancing momentum and not actually a crutch for our falling away from higher and higher instinctual abilities .. well all one has to do is look around and one can easily see such "fall from grace" becoming more and more evident all throughout global humanity.
That revolutionary {revolve} cycles are all there has ever been {as opposed to all deterrministic and reductionistic linear evolutionary premises} .. like seasons don't just get hotter or colder ad infinitum but cycle .. or the colors of the rainbow manifest simultaneously and not in any top to bottom fashion .. humankind "forever" only has but the same self-manifested proclivities that we advance or fall in relationship to.
As if peace and love are evolutionary epitomies rather than inherencies that are realized time and time again all throughout human exiistence. So many even on so-called progressive thinking sites like this one seem to maintain the basic party line that we "came from" hunter gathers and then evolved into farming etc... as if not all of these tendencies are inherent and manifest time and time, again over smaller and larger cyclic periods.
Not that there isn't cycles of adaptation, like living closer or further away from the equator, one has lighter or darker skin. That there is not many speicies of humans, just like birds or plants that have greater or lesser brain sizes.
In the Ancient Vedic and Puranic Sastras {historical texts} of "pre-hindhu" India they knew of 400.000 possible variations on the human species potential.
That humans knew of the atom, the mathematical zero, and the distance of the sun from the earth way back when but it became lost due to cosmic seasonal change {just like all the leaves fall off the trees in Winter but again returnn in the Spring} .. no one from this older time frame ever thought the earth was flat or the sun revolved around the earth as the "dark-age" pre-Europeans" did, even though living 1000's of years earlier.
One just has to have the more expanded frame of referrence, like thinking time and space are linear and do not cycle around like Eienstein later showed those progressing out of Dark-Age nescience and Quantum mechanics has taken even further.
The old hippie musical group the Grateful Dead have a bass player {Phil Lesh} who had more formal Jazz and Classical musical training than others in the band.
Jerry Garcia, the band leader - guitar player once said in an interview that when listening to the bands recordings they couldn't seem to follow Phils bass lines until they sped the tape up to double speed .. at which point it became obvious of the structured patterning to the bass lines ... from linear chaos to cyclic purpose took some expanded viewpoint to obtain the appropriate context.
Yet for Phil, such was not required. So in a similar vain, not every culture needed the whole mech-tech world of modern science to verify inherent reality as many of the modern mentality seem to.
That as our quantum views progress more and more we are also coming more and more able to see these greater and more subtle cosmic cycles of both gross and subtle interactions.
Just like virtually everyone who was brought up during the "earth was flat" conceptual season had a hard time making the transition initially, many who fell for the Darwinian perspective may find the greatest dificulty in the more quantum perspectives.
As such "stuck in the muck" inertia is and has always been found throughout virtually all levels of these last few centuries of moderrn science ... at every single level one tends to think "eureka" .. until "oh shit" .. new evidence.
Every single special, on Egypt I have ever seen has different evidential view points that fuel the ever speculating human mind .. the cells, the other species, the planets stars and galaxies .. the genes, the DNA ... there may not be one theoretical premise in any of these fields that holds true from more quantum perspectives in the decades/centuries to come.
Every single human that ever lived is subject to such selective conditioning ... and I would postulate even further that outside of deeper, more intuitive subjective revelations, whether through meditational prowess or other Entheogenic realizations, that no objective relativity of "proofs" will ever actually trump such "intuitions" by virtue of definition.
The intuition always being superior to the relativistic and deterministic "verifications" .. like Albert Eiensteins "riding a light beam" in his own naked or virgin mind's eye will forever be of more intrinsic value than the actual E=mc2 formula.
So some Indigenous person millenia ago may have "seen" in their minds eye things not able to be verified by present technologies, and/or even conceived by present psycho-socio mind sets.
Similar to some of the recent discussions of how Entheogenic visionary states {like LSD} effected people like Steve Jobs and othen "high thinkers" ... that reality itself does not evolve but merely revolves ... and that such high states of revelation are eternal and absolute ... as the mind expands the linear becomes cyclic right before the eyes .. and such has "always been so"
We are not "getting there" due to our inertial progress alone any more than we are getting the seasons to change based on the strength of our own motivations.
Just like each generation tends to think that "they are it" modern humanism is but another verrsion forever lost unto their inherent sense of purpose until they mature to include both the past and the future into the "ever-awakening" of the present.
"Wonder is what Mystery would do if it was conscious" ...
"Wandering is for every other possibility"
Pippalayana Muni
"Wonder is what Mystery would do if it was conscious" ... "Wandering is for every other possibility" Pippalayana Muni
I'm a Heretic
Lets talk about righteousness then
Just look at the way you presume your righteousness "Do you not agree that single celled life led to fish which led to reptiles which led to mammals which led to humans?" Kinda sounds like "Do you not agree that Jesus was the one true son of the almighty God?
I was asking if you agreed with that train of thought. And yet you feel persecuted as a heretic? That is quite interesting. Do you enjoy provoking an emotional response from yourself with your questioning?
The evolutionary paradigm/neo Darwinism are currently fashionable ways of thinking about the origins of humanity - modern mythology really (and that doesn't mean that it doesn't have some truth to it). We really don't have a fucking clue as to our origins, hence the constant need for myth and it is the myths that truly evolve.
Well, what is your thought about the fossil records, biological science and so forth? Have you given up on that? I am asking you right now what you think. Can you provide an honest answer or will you hide behind the spectre of "presumption" yet again? I would really like to find out.
(r)evolution
Spiraling Fossils
Spirals ... yes ... but spirals can also cycle and repeat and even revert their direction from the more multi-dimensional "quantum" perspective ... "spiraling out of control ... or spiraling in to a apex point of epitome ... or back and forth into a "zero point field state" of interactive dynamic.
For anyone desiring to gain a strickly scientfic alternative study of the actual history and / or 100 year evolution of "Darwinan Archeology" ... to really gain an overall context on how these theories have been advanced in direct relation to archeological digs ... in a step-by-step breakdown of each "find-to-theory" transitional interpolation, see the 800 page scholarly work "Forbidden Archeology"
This book, originally written for scholars {100% evidential - no hypothetical specultion} has turned the heads of many in these actual fields of study .. going quite a bit more into the conceptual details behind the actual technologies used as well as into the whole psychology behind the associative theories.
Most will never quite view this field of study the same after reading.
"Interpretation" beings ones greatest friend ... or greatest enemy ... depending only on the actual quality of this conceptual art and science itself ... subjective revelation as opposed to objective relativity.
"Wonder is what Mystery would do if it was conscious" ...
"Wandering is for every other possibility"
Pippalayana Muni
zero point field state
Zero Point Field State
The "Zero Point Field State" is the underlying "field of all potential" that exists before, after and during all interactive manifestaion.
The term "zero point" is used because just like the mathematical zero is both before "1" {both positive 1 and negative 1} and also after every "9" - 99 {100} - 999{1000} ... zero does not mean "nothing" but the "potential for everything" ... individual and/or collective ... more potential after each and every "possibility of measurement" as well as simultaneously previous to any/all probable cause and/or interactive effect.
"Field" because such is all-pervasive {omnipresent} within and without all things{transcendent to and/or including all time and space interaction} .. and "state" because as it includes all possibile manifestation ... "too much of everything to be anything" ... {similar to how white light is the source of all color while simultaneously having no manifest presence in the rainbow for example} .. no relative proof able to contain such an "absolute state"
... well such can be only be known by conscious interaction having no individual identity or dimension outside of being the unifying source of all dimensional interaction and/or manifestation.
All things of "relativity" {special relativity} can only be postulated in relation to an underlying and unifying "field state" of absolute zero ... containing all frequency and vibrational capacity without have a measureable frequency or vibration of it's own ... as all possible conceptual principle also exits there in pure potential form.
Like theorizing if the mind could ever know of it's own source as it can only really know of other things in relation to this source. Like the postulation "can fish know of water" as that is "all there is" for them .. no "knowing of water" separate from "being in water" ... too all-pervasive {again omnipresence}.
Einstein though about this some, initiating much of the original curiosity along these lines, but this actual term was only used for such a potential description a bit later.
As much a purely conceptual possibility as the actual unifying state of all interactive probablilty .. known only by it's absence .. like only knowing of consciousness relative to the things one is conscious of ... purely by subjective revelation ... as opposed to any formula for relativity .. {hence the phenomenon of conscious synchronicity etc}
"Wonder is what Mystery would do if it was conscious" ...
"Wandering is for every other possibility"
Pippalayana Muni
another excerpt of data
There is a giant reservoir of energy that every quantum physicist is well aware of, the Zero Point Field. Quantum mechanics has demonstrated that there is no such thing as a vacuum, or nothingness. What we tend to think of as a sheer void (if all of space were emptied of matter and energy and you examined even the space between the stars) is, in subatomic terms, a hive of activity.
No particle ever stays completely at rest but is constantly in motion due to a ground state field of energy constantly interacting with all subatomic matter. It means that the basic substructure of the universe is a sea of quantum fields that cannot be eliminated by any known laws of physics. What we believe to be our stable, static universe is in fact a seething maelstrom of subatomic particles fleetingly popping in and out of existence.
We cannot know both the energy and the lifetime of a particle; so a subatomic event occurring within a tiny time frame involves an uncertain amount of energy. All elementary particles interact with each other by exchanging energy through other quantum particles, which are believed to appear out of nowhere, combining and annihilating each other in less than an instant (10-23 seconds), causing random fluctuations of energy without any apparent cause. The fleeting particles generated during this brief moment are known as ‘virtual particles.' They differ from real particles because they only exist during that exchange.
When added across the universe, this subatomic exchange gives rise to enormous energy—more than is contained in all the matter in the entire world. The Zero Point Field was called ‘zero' because fluctuations in the field are still detectable in temperatures of absolute zero, the lowest possible energy state, where all matter has been removed and nothing is supposedly left to make any motion. Zero-point energy was the energy present in the emptiest state of space at the lowest possible energy, out of which no more energy could be removed—the closest that motion of subatomic matter ever gets to zero. But because of the uncertainty principle there will always be some residual jiggling due to virtual particle exchange. It had always been largely discounted because it is ever-present. In physics equations, most physicists would subtract troublesome zero-point energy away – a process called ‘renormalization.' Because zero-point energy was ever-present, the theory went, it didn't change anything. Because it didn't change anything, it didn't count.
To the quantum physicist, it is an annoyance, to be subtracted away and discounted. To the religious or the mystic, it is science proving the miraculous. What quantum calculations show is that we and our universe live and breathe in what amounts to a sea of motion—a quantum sea of light. What quantum physicists have found is that the energy in the Zero Point Field keeps acting on particles so that they never come to rest but always keep moving, even in conditions at a temperature of absolute zero.
Evolution and the zero point field
confusion of tongues
What does the status of closed or open have to do with infinity and endlessness? You cannot divide infinity or the eternal into a status of "closed" or "open" because such polarities are not applicable. The failure of the conceptual mind to grasp the non-conceptual is a pain you will have to learn to live with. You can paint it with whatever brush you wish, but mystery will always be present. You can name drop as much as you want, and invent a billion labels along the way. Yet the unknowable will remain just that, unknowable.
When it comes to mystery, you must be able to get over the need to be "right" or "correct". You are not "correct" in your analysis of it. When it comes to the non-conceptual, you never will be. Nobody is.
I agree
i consider your viewpoint oversimplistic in its linearity
People may not want to accept the fact that experiential ability actually exists, but I can assure you it does. If you dont even know how to drive a car, you wont be making a cross-country road trip in one. Do the work, and all the rest will fall in line by its virtue. Dont just sit there turning the wheel around, beeping the horn, making vroom vroom noises and dreaming you are Mario Andretti. Its childish. I doubt you want to hear that, but at some point someone has to speak up so the kids dont bump it into neutral and roll into high-speed traffic because they are too busy fantasizing about formula-one racing.
Buddhist Truths