Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Parmenides and Anaxagoras

''Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.'' Plutarch

  • Beyond your Perception lies the rest of your Mind.
  • You may think that beyond what you can see or hear lies the rest of the physical world but that is not true.  You only directly experience consciousness.  You never directly perceive the physical universe.  Therefore at the limits of your perception lies the ''Beyond'' of your Mind.  This is what is ''outside the cave.''  Thinking that you look through your eyes at the world, or that the mentally constructed objects you experience are actually the objects themselves is the equivalent of the Fall.  It is why ''Malkuth'' is pendulant to the rest of the Tree of Life.
 ''Appearances are a glimpse of the unseen.'' Anaxagoras
  • Assuming the physical universe exists you are a point of consciousness within your larger Mind which is ''in'' (potentially) the physical universe.  Your consciousness is ''in'' your subconscious and unconscious Mind which is (potentially) within a physical universe.  Any discussion of the physical universe falls under the general heading of ''doxa'' or opinion for it is never directly experienced.
  • You do not move.  There is, in fact, no movement within consciousness.  The perceived content of your psychic cell shifts according to (potentially) physical signals but you do not.  You always remain in the centre of your psychic cell at the centre of your conscious experience of your consciousness.

"Nor is it divisible, since it all alike is. Nor is there any more of it here than there, to hinder it from holding together, nor any less of it, but it is all a plenum, full of what-is. Therefore, it is all continuous, for what-is touches what-is.'' On Nature, Parmenides

  • The undifferentiated universal substrate of consciousness is Mind.  The objects you experience are mental objects.  There is no separation, no size, no movement.  Everything around you is composed of your mind.

 "The decision on these matters depends on this: either it is or it is not. But it has been decided, as is necessary, to let go the one as unthinkable and unnameable (for it is no true path), but to allow the other, so that it is, and is true. How could what-is be in the future? How could it come-to-be? For if it came-to-be, it is not, nor is it if at some time it is going to be. Thus, coming-to-be is extinguished and perishing unheard of.'' On Nature, Parmenides

  • Consciousness is Immortal. The objects percieved around you are constructed of Inner Light.  You never directly experience physical light.

4 comments:

  1. > You do not move. There is, in fact, no movement within consciousness.

    Meditating on SY1:5 trying to experience the infinite depths of Up, Down, Good, Evil, Forward, Back, Left, and Right gives the impression of movement within consciousness. What is your experience of this?

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  2. The purpose of this meditation is to help you get to the point at infinity. You are actually always at the point of infinity you just don't realise it because of the ''fall'' or the delusional state of thinking that you are looking at a physical universe rather than a mental universe. (the you is general, not personal, I have a great deal of respect for what you are doing in your own work).

    Kaplan says that in the ''spiritual plane'' there is no movement. The ''spiritual plane'' refers to the dimensional axis of good (blessing, advantage) and evil (liability, disadvavtage). This dimension is the 5th dimension of the ''observer''. The observer is your sphere of consciousness, the sphere of consciousness itself does not move. There is nowhere for it to move to. Our perceivable conscious experience of ourself is contained within our greater consciousness which is possibly in a physical universe (but this is impossible to verify).

    The sensation of movement is different to the reality of movement. In the meditation we stretch these sensations to their limit and get to the truth which is that we are at the point of infinity. No size. No difference. No movement. Just undifferentiated mental light.

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    1. I agree that the meditation on SY1:5 is aimed at making a person aware that they at the point of infinity and that the sensation of movement is different to the reality of movement. (I too greatly admire your work).

      But how do you reconcile this with the idea that Rabbi Kaplan writes about "distance" in the spiritual realms being a relative concept based on how similar or dissimilar two things are?

      If I meditate on the "depths" in SY1:5 I'm not moving but may perceive movement. However, if I focus on attributes that may be associated with a direction such as chesed or gevurah... would I be moving closer to them in a relative sense?

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  3. Are you saying that meditating on the Depth of Evil will cause you to become more evil relative to others? Yes if relatively means in an illusory sense. How far North can you go? How cold can one become? How far up can one go?

    I understood that these depths become absurd the more you meditate on them, thus the deeper the depth of the meditation the more likely one is to attain to the point at infinity. I don't know about you but I've done a lot of work in this area and am constantly reminding myself that I do not experience the physical world directly and thus constantly affirming the point at infinity.

    Going into the depths seems, to me, to unify them and therefore the end result is the end of movement. The Lord is Good and Evil, Up and Down, North and South, etc - unifying all directions in the point at infinity, i.e. your consciousness.

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