Spectrum of Development

Posts

Unitive Experience

We normally refer to eternal life as relating to an infinite state occurring after one’s natural death. However this strictly reflects its merely transcendent aspect. So with respect to the counterbalancing immanent aspect, eternal life equally refers to an infinite state existing before one’s natural birth, though in truth both of these states are totally interdependent as an ever-present reality continually renewed. Thus the pure mystical experience of oneness (which is equally an emptiness devoid of material phenomena), as a direct awareness of this ever present moment, entails the realisation that one has always already eternally existed in God and also destined to eternally exist in God as one’s essential indestructible being. One may wonder if this is this is so, why it so difficult to accept that one has already existed in an eternal now (which again is but the present moment continually renewed). It may help to see finite human existence therefore as the emergen

Mathematical Notions as Primary Archetypes

In previous blog entries I have mentioned the fundamental importance of mathematical notions esp. with respect to number and the operations of addition (and subtraction) and multiplication (and division). These serve as the essential interface as between the (spiritual) world of emptiness and the (material) world of form, thereby in a crucial sense embodying both aspects, though not being capable of direct identification with either aspect separately. An equivalent way of expressing this point is that such mathematical notions represent the original archetypes from which all phenomenal reality is necessarily derived. So I have already referred to the somewhat paradoxical conundrum that whereas neither emptiness nor form can be directly identified with mathematical notions in their separate analytic and holistic aspects yet, what we identify as phenomenal creation (which represents the interpenetration of emptiness and form) simply results from the dynamic interaction of both th

Two Meanings of Bardo

The transition between Band 5 (level 3) and Band 6 (level 1) can be referred to as a bardo which resembles very closely indeed Buddhist notions of the transition as between death and rebirth. Now according to the Tibetan tradition this represents the state of existence as between two lives on Earth. Of course this presupposes the doctrine of reincarnation in its somewhat literal sense, to which I personally would not subscribe. However accepting the traditional accounts, the question arises as to how precisely this transition as between death and rebirth (in a new body) takes place. So on the one hand after death there is the clearest spiritual experience of reality of which one is capable which then gives way to terror arising from one’s previous sinful inclinations. So we have here in starkest form the battle as between the “higher” and “lower” aspects of the self. And the manner in which this is resolved then plays a key role in determining the nature of one’s next

Mathematical Nature of Reality

Yesterday I was dealing with the transitions between levels. In today’s entry I am concentrating specifically on that important transition as between Band 5 and Band 6 or more precisely Band 5 (Level 3) and Band 6 (Level 1). From a spiritual perspective, this is typically viewed as representing the culmination of spiritual emptiness. In other words though phenomena of form - both of a direct and indirect conscious nature - still arise, experience is now so dynamic that they can gain no lasting permanency, being eroded immediately. Put another way one has approached that point where realisation of the purely relative nature of all form has reached its greatest expression. So the absolute nature of spirit (as emptiness) coincides with the purely relative nature of matter (as form). Expressed in yet another equivalent manner, both transcendence (as spirit beyond form) and immanence (as spirit already inherent in form) reach their closest point in the same undivided experie

Transitions in Development

As we have seen there is a rich variety of features that characterises the human development process, most of which have already been dealt with - at least in summary fashion - through previous blog entries. For example I define - as the broadest grouping of stages - 8 Bands (though I have suggested a possible future cyclical refinement of this approach in the previous blog entry). Then each Band consists of 3 Levels with therefore 24 levels in all . Though the nature of interaction involved can vary greatly throughout development each level in turn is defined by 3 Sub-Le vels. Then with respect to each sub-level I define up to 8 Dimensions (or Directions), the number of which depends on the band (and level) of development involved. The notion of 1 dimension is especially important from the conventional rational perspective where opposite polarities of experience are abstracted from each other. 2, 4 and 8 dimensions are then especially important in integral terms

Born Again

I have been taking time out for several months now - as dictated by the nature of present development unfolding - from contributing to any of my various blogs. However as always one of the advantages of this “enforced idleness” is that I have been enabled to look at some developmental matters from a new perspective (once again reflecting personal experience of the various stages of the overall spectrum). And when I was last writing I was especially identifying the (default) nature of Band 5 (Level 3) . In many respects this is the most empty of all levels where the conscious experience of phenomena (of a direct and indirect kind) become so dynamically interactive that they seem to scarcely arise in experience. This equally culminates with a very close balancing of both the transcendent and immanent aspects of spiritual development. Any remaining distinction as between - relatively - “higher” transcendent and “lower” immanent aspects are now dissolved with both emanating