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Document Menu HOW TO READ THIS ELECTRONIC BOOK */Contents,6/Intro,7/Part I,10/ */Part II,45/Part III,48/Part IV,53/ */Part V,61/Part VI,69/Part VII,84/ The text and graphics of this book are hosted by a licensed copy of */Biblio,93/ GRFBOOK, which was automatically loaded when you typed READBOOK at the DOS prompt. 1. Use the PgUp, PgDn, up arrow and down arrow keys to navigate (GRFBOOK accepts mouse commands also: experiment). You can jump to any page by typing the page number (which is displayed in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, and will highlight when user-entered) and pressing <Enter>. Pressing <Enter> a second time will return you to the page from which you had jumped. To quit the book, hit <Esc>. 2. Illustrations are displayed only when the page is properly aligned: If a blank space is displayed where an illustration should obviously be, press "A" to align the page. 3. Pressing "/" at any time will display the table of contents along the menu bar at the bottom of the screen. Use the left and right arrow keys to scroll and highlight the desired menu item, and hit <Enter> to jump there. Hitting <Esc> while the table of contents is showing returns you to the normal menu bar. The following article is condensed from the full-length work, "The Consciousness of Light: On Physics and Metaphysics", which is available on IBM computer diskette from the author at Geoffrey D. Falk Box 67 Landmark, Manitoba, CANADA R0A 0X0 for $8 (in Canadian funds) per copy (please specify 3.5" 1.44M, 3.5" 720K, or 5.25" 360K). The runtime reader included with the electronic edition requires a VGA display and MS-DOS to run. Please allow 4-8 weeks for delivery. ~litecovr~ THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF LIGHT, LITE, v. 4.0 by Geoffrey D. Falk The cover depicts the Hand of God beating the calm oceanic surface of the Cosmic Drum, to produce the basic creational sound of Om in the expanding circular ripples. Copyright (c) 1993-94 Geoffrey David Falk Copyright as an unpublished work (c) 1989-1992 Geoffrey David Falk "The Consciousness of Light, Lite" is distributed as freeware: you are warmly encouraged to make copies of it for further distribution, and to upload it onto electronic bulletin board systems, provided that 1) No fee is charged for such copying and distribution (excepting that shareware distributors may charge a nominal fee for providing complete copies thereof to potential shareware consumers); and 2) It is distributed ONLY in its original, unmodified state. CONTENTS Introduction .................................... 7 Part I The Essence of Creation .................... 10 II On Freedom of Choice ....................... 45 III On Good and Evil ........................... 48 IV On the Nature of Om ........................ 53 V The Drummer, the Drumming, and the Drum .... 61 VI Holograms .................................. 69 VII Conclusions ................................ 84 Bibliography .................................... 93 INTRODUCTION It is well known to all who have undertaken a thorough investigation of the quantitative ideology underlying the practice of meditation as a means toward the attainment of higher states of consciousness, that consciousness is the fundamental reality at the basis of all creation. The fact that the only difference between matter, energy and dualistic consciousness is in their respective rates of vibration has also been much emphasized, as has the association of an infinite frequency of vibration with the highest (omnipresent) state of consciousness--this highest state of conscious union with God being also the source and ground of ALL lower states. Further, given the nature of matter as a low rate of intelligent vibration or consciousness, and given also the validity of "As above, so below," we must find the behavior of consciousness reflected in the behavior of physical matter; the former qualities being ascertainable through meditation-born intuition or mystic insight, while the latter are measurable in the physicists' laboratories. However, the quantitative relations between the behavior of the physical world and the characteristics of its constituent consciousness have rarely been elucidated. What I have attempted to provide in this text is a non- reductionistic model of the behavior of consciousness as the basic stuff of the cosmos, to explain as many aspects as possible of the expanded or mystical states of awareness; as well as a concomitant demonstration that the principles upon which the operation of the physical world is based occur as a necessary consequence of the characteristics of the inner realms of consciousness; characteristics outlined in the sacred books of all true religions and, more recently, gathered in the writings of Huston Smith and Frithjof Schuon. Such a non-reductionistic model will, therefore, not attempt to explain mystical experiences in terms of Pribram's holographic model of the brain; it might, however, embody a higher universal or archetypal structure, of which physical holograms are merely a lower reflection on the plane of matter. As with any symbolic model, however, it is crucial that one remember that the map-model is not the territory of Reality, but is merely a mental representation of that territory: it is the "menu," not the "meal." The consciousness-territory of God can be known only through the direct experience OF consciousness BY consciousness, in the non-dual form of experience- knowledge named intuition, not through any sensory experiences or concepts of the intellect. The presentation of this model is therefore given not in any way merely to satisfy intellectual curiosities. Rather, it is fervently hoped that the readers with the good fortune to recognize that the correspondences between the structure and behavior of the physical universe, and the inner perceptions of the mystics, are not merely coincidental will carry this recognition to its logical conclusion: that deep meditators of all ages have conscious access to a realm in which all knowledge is eternally present, and that the highest responsibility of each one of us is to become a seeker of this all-compassionate Truth. Such meditation itself involves ever-deepening concentration on guru-given visualizations, etc. As such, meditation is distinctly non-logical: there is no process of reasoning involved in the act of meditation (although giving time to meditation is both supremely logical and reasonable). Obviously, then, mere dream analysis, introspection, or superficial contemplation are not, by any meaningful definition, meditation. 1 March, 1994 Geoffrey D. Falk Landmark, Manitoba PART I THE ESSENCE OF CREATION To begin, we note the following well-established points of the perennial philosophy or underlying unity of all true religions: (i) Creation consists (metaphorically, at least) of ripples on the surface of the Absolute, so that we are "individualized waves of consciousness on the Infinite Ocean of God." Water "symbolizes" Universal Substance, and thus, in a certain way, "is" Universal Substance. --F. Schuon (ii) Consciousness is the basic stuff of creation-- i.e., "Consciousness" and "Reality" are merely two different names for the one substance also called "God": consciousness is the "water" of the Infinite Ocean of God, and all phenomena arise as modifications of this one stuff, or ripples on/of the Infinite Ocean. We would further propose that the individualized consciousness of each one of us is simply a finite region of this boundless Ocean; i.e., that the expression "sphere of consciousness" is meant to be taken literally; in which case an "expansion of consciousness" will correspond to an increase in the radius of this sphere. Given the validity of this proposed nature of our individualized finite consciousness as a subset of the Infinite Ocean, any valid explanation of the basic nature and behavior of mind and consciousness (such behavior being essentially the domain of psychology) must include within its scope the root of all physics and philosophy: physics, for all particles are simply waves of a certain rate of vibration of the Ocean of Consciousness; and philosophy, since freedom of choice, the fundamental question of philosophy--for, if we have no choice in the actions we perform, it doesn't "matter" whether God, heaven or hell exists, whether good and evil are distinguishable, etc.--is a function of consciousness, not of anything at a reductionistic atomic or molecular level (e.g., the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle). Thus, the model we are seeking will necessarily bridge the disciplines of psychology, physics, and philosophy; this cannot be avoided, nor should it be: once we acknowledge that consciousness is the basic stuff that has become all mind and matter--this, however, not at all implying a naïve idealism in which "I create reality through my perception of it"--we cannot inexorably compartmentalize psychology, philosophy, and physics as separate from one another. (iii) Reality is infinite, and exists continuously (self-evidently). Thus, in order for consciousness to attain to full union with omnipresent infinite God, a (literal) sphere of consciousness must exist continuously with infinite radius; or, equivalently, vibrate with infinite amplitude/radius and infinite frequency. (iv) God is both immanent and transcendent: He (and so the highest state of consciousness) exists within space and time, AS space and time, in His immanent nature; and, in His transcendent attribute, BEYOND space, time, and all dualities of Nature. That which is beyond time is necessarily beyond cause-effect, so that the transcendent attribute of God, by its very nature, possesses complete freedom of choice. (The problem, then, is to account for the PARTIAL freedom of choice possessed by imagined-mortal humans.) (v) The highest state of consciousness is both the goal and ground of existence; that is, the Absolute is not only the infinite limit of the spectrum of consciousness, it is the nature and source of each level of the spectrum: God is in all things--all the world in truth is God--but all things together do not pantheistically constitute God. What every person and thing is, whether enlightened or not, is still only God, and is pervaded by the undivided omnipresence of God--so that, when God is seen to be in the world, as the world, the world is radically divine--but expresses that infinite omnipresence through itself only in a limited or finite way. It is not that the Absolute comes into existence only at the highest state of reality/consciousness--it existed all along, but could be REALIZED only when consciousness itself evolved to its highest estate. Buddha-nature is both your real and present condition and your future potential or realization. (Most of the phrases in this paragraph have been borrowed from Ken Wilber's "Eye to Eye", and thence from the perennial philosophy.) (vi) "As is the cosmic body of God, so is the human body" (the Upanishads). That is to say, humankind is created "in the image of God": the human body, by "As above, so below," is a microcosmic representation of the cosmos. In the words of the Buddha, "Verily, I tell you, the world is within this six feet high body!" Also, "As above, so below" correspondences generally take the form of metaphors-- e.g., "creation is waves on the Infinite Ocean"--and, as Bateson noted, "metaphor is the language of Nature": creation is built on "As above, so below." As an alternative expression of this principle, consider that archetypes are the first forms to emerge from God in the creation of the cosmos, upon which all subsequent creation is patterned; these archetypes determine the form of every structure on every level of creation, from high to low. The lower structures (including myths) are not themselves the archetypes, but rather reflect a higher universal basis. Thus, the model we are hoping to develop, through it will not attempt to explain mystical experiences in terms of Pribram's holographic model of the brain's mechanism of memory storage, might reasonably embody a higher universal or archetypal structure, of which physical holograms are merely a lower reflection in structure on the plane of matter. The above are absolutely "written in stone" tenets of the perennial philosophy, and are not open to "selective misinterpretation": no view of the universe which fails to include these characteristics on a fundamental level can reasonably claim to be in accord with the direct perceptions of the sages (and so to give a valid, non-reductionistic explanation of the essential nature of higher and highest states of consciousness). Given, then, that "we are individualized waves of consciousness on the Infinite Ocean," and given also the validity of "As above, so below," we may reasonably hope to gain some insight into the basic manners of consciousness through consideration of the behavior of waves on an ocean; i.e., it is natural for us to ask how the rippling motion on the surface of the Infinite Ocean of God is initiated, and to expect to find an answer or analog in terms of the behavior of water waves. In the case of our everyday "below" experience, one way in which waves may be created on a calm lake is through the effect of a strong wind passing over the water. However, lacking immediate control over the wind, an easier way by which we may produce such waves is through throwing a stone into the calm water, thus producing expanding circular wavefronts with their center at the point where the pebble entered the water; such circles are the two-dimensional analog of spheres (of consciousness). Accordingly, "stones thrown by God into the Infinite Ocean" are held to provide the points of impetus from which the ripples or waves, in spheres of consciousness, on the surface of the Ocean of God are introduced. Given the truth that God, and consciousness united with God, is infinite, such rippling consciousness must have the potential to expand to infinity in spherical waves from each such center; however, each such sphere will actually expand to infinity only if it is free of all limitations in thought and body-identification; else its expansion can be only to a finite radius. Further, "tuning in" to higher states of consciousness is said to expand one's consciousness. Thus, an essential characteristic of the behavior of consciousness must be that it expands to a greater radius, the higher the level of reality to which it is "tuned in." Now, in order for God to have become all the frequencies or "colors" of vibration present in creation, He must contain all these frequencies in potential. Given this, the most natural manifestation of God as creation (that is, as a basis for the production of the waves on the surface of the Ocean of His Consciousness) must be that of a "white" consciousness: consciousness containing all possible frequencies of vibration, from zero to infinity, all of equal amplitude. The simplest way in which such an unbiased whiteness may become manifest is in the form of a signal which is infinite in amplitude at a single point in time, having zero amplitude at all other times: such a signal--known as an impulse--implicitly contains all possible frequencies of vibration, all of equal amplitude. The potential for the expansion to infinity, or the manifestation of omnipresence, is exactly the characteristic expected of a primordial expression of God, so that such a rhythmically applied white light would be seen to consist of a succession of such impulses separated in objective time, each having the potential to expand momentarily to infinity in spheres of consciousness were it not limited: all finite radii and waving colored content of spheres of consciousness are derived from limitations placed on this rhythmically omnipresent white light, present in potential in the consciousness of each one of us. ("Light" here is to be taken, not as physically observable photons, but rather as referring to the waves in spheres of consciousness; as in "And God said, Let there be light.") Thus, each of us is potentially omnipresent in consciousness; it is only through our limiting the manifestation of this Light through ourselves that we find ourselves to be finite. The infinity of possible levels to which consciousness may be attuned--each such level being characterized by its own resonant frequency--may be said to form a continuous spectrum of states of consciousness or levels of reality, having resonant or "tuning in" frequencies from zero (at the lowest mineral level) to infinity in God-consciousness: just as the colors of visible light display only a small part or narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum, which stretches (theoretically) from zero to infinite frequency, human waking consciousness expresses only a very small part of the infinite spectrum of consciousness. And, as visible light is bounded below by the infrared, and above by ultraviolet radiation-- where infrared light is lower in frequency than visible light, while ultraviolet is higher in frequency--with many still-higher frequency bands of x-rays, gamma rays, etc., existing above the ultraviolet, human consciousness is bounded below by animal consciousness, while above the human waking state are astral realms of energy, and ideational levels of rarefied thought. Thus, consciousness attuned to, say, the astral worlds (heavens), must be cognizant of higher frequencies of vibration than is consciousness identified with the physical creation; that is, higher states of consciousness involve higher resonant frequencies of consciousness, or the tuning in of one's consciousness-"radio" to receive and interact with higher frequency "stations" or levels of reality: the resonant frequency is effectively a measure of how "close" one is to God, or to perfection in consciousness; we would again characterize God- consciousness (and its associated omnipresence and transcendence) or complete identity with Reality as being attained to when one's resonant frequency of consciousness has become infinite. Any system--and we may consider the human body and/or its governing sphere of consciousness to be a "system"--is said to be a "bandpass-filtering" one if it characteristically "tunes in" to a narrow range of frequencies of vibration (centered around its resonant frequency) while "filtering out" higher and lower frequencies; the related "bandwidth," then, is a measure of how wide the range of frequencies one is "tuned in" to is. Further, sensitivity to the wide range of frequencies over which external stimuli are received and cognized in awareness of the body (in the simultaneous awareness of visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and tactile stimuli) will always involve a large bandwidth of consciousness. Conversely, a narrow bandwidth of consciousness may be cultivated by concentrating deeply on a specific thought, and so transcending the body: when we go deep into concentration, sense-data received by the physical body do not intrude on our conscious thought- processes; they are "filtered out," so that our consciousness takes on a narrower bandwidth. When one's attention is engrossed in sensory experiences, he-she is working primarily through the physical body; in visualizing or willing, or in dreamful sleep, the astral body (composed of life energy and mind; the seat of our mental and emotional processes); and in diving deep in introspection, or in deep dreamless sleep, the causal body (composed of ideas and consciousness). The astral and causal levels of reality, and their corresponding bodies, are composed of higher and subtler frequencies of vibration than the physical, and so involve a higher level of consciousness, or higher resonant frequency, in our being attuned to (i.e., working through) them. Again, there is a rhythmic white light, or potential for the expansion to infinity in omnipresence, present at the basis of the consciousness of each one of us. However, owing to our being tuned in to only finite levels of reality, we "filter" this impulsive potential omnipresence, so that, as long as we remain in the deluded identification with body and mind--thinking ourselves to be limited by these in time and space, when in truth we are (potentially) omnipresent in consciousness--we are creatures of only finite consciousness. When analyzed mathematically, the characteristics of such a "bandpass-filtered impulse" can be very quantitatively expressed. Without going into the actual mathematics of the situation, we may convey these characteristics through the following imagery. First, let us visualize our spheres of consciousness as collapsed spherical balloons. When an impulse of potential omnipresence is "blown into" such a sphere, this balloon inflates very quickly to a large radius, then deflates back to a point in just as short a time; then immediately inflates quickly again to a slightly smaller maximum radius than before, and once again contracts back to a point (taking exactly the same amount of time to inflate and deflate this second time, as was required for the first, even though the second inflation is to a smaller maximum radius). This rhythmic inflation and deflation continues at a constant rate--with each successive inflation being to a smaller maximum radius than the previous; and with the time-varying extent of this expansion defining the changing boundaries of presence of the enclosed metaphysical light or waves of consciousness--until the next impulse is applied, at which time the cycle starts over again. Now, assuming a reasonably narrow bandwidth or inwardly-turned attention, the higher the level or resonant frequency of one's consciousness, the larger the maximum radius of expansion in the first inflation will be, and the less time will be taken for the balloon to inflate and deflate each time. Thus, higher states of consciousness will expand to encompass more space-- they will be, literally, "expanded" states of consciousness--and will also contract to a point more frequently: higher states will "bounce" more times in the interval between successive impulses applied simultaneously to all spheres of consciousness, than will lower states. The "limit" or highest extension of this behavior would then be for such a balloon to expand to an infinite radius, and contract back to a point, all in zero time, and keep repeating this behavior continuously--at an infinite rate. This is exactly what happens to consciousness when its resonant frequency becomes infinite: such perfected consciousness, expressing fully the potential divinity hidden in everything, is continuously omnipresent: it is present continuously in every point of space. We now make the reasonable proposition that it is not only the consciousness of sentient beings that takes the form of spheres, but that the most basic mechanism of creation consists of impulsive "stones" thrown by God into the surface of the Infinite Ocean, producing rippling spheres of consciousness. Accordingly, consider that if we throw several stones into a calm lake, the resulting expanding circular wavefronts will interact with one another. When the crests of one or more waves overlap, they will add to produce an even larger wave, whereas when the crest of one wave and the trough of another meet, they will cancel each other out, producing a region of temporary calm. If we were very skilled, we could cause a number of such crests to meet to yield a localized disturbance or "island," surrounded by a region of calmness; we could, in short, create a "particle," or a differentiation of the continuum of the calm lake. Given enough stones, and sufficient skill, we could bring into being and sustain the existence of many such particles simultaneously. And if we were, say, Supremely Intelligent, we could even cause the movements and interactions of these particles to appear to be governed by (e.g., Newton's) laws; but these laws, being of our own creation, could be circumscribed whenever we so chose. And, all particles would dissolve into serene unity if our will, in the form of stones tossed into the pond, were withdrawn: this creation would have no existence independent of our guiding will. This being the case, we can visualize the particles of the various levels of relative reality as arising from the interaction or addition of many colors or frequencies of ripples of subtle light--the waves oscillating within myriad overlapping globes of consciousness. The degree of filtering of each sphere then reflects how hard the stone generating that sphere is thrown into the water: higher resonant frequencies may be related, in analogy, to higher stone velocities. These interacting wave-colors will produce an Ocean surface of constantly trembling excitation. Observable particles will then arise as regions of space in which the average disturbance of the Ocean surface is non-zero over a time interval long compared with the period between successive impulses applied to all spheres of consciousness. The waves issuing from these sources of vibration in the Ocean surface may thus be said to compose a universal interference pattern of light and shadow (ripples in consciousness, and calm, resulting from the destructive interference or cancellation of these waves; or, non-zero-average particles, and the intervening zero-average "vacuum" state--the state of empty space in the absence of matter), producing matter as a "condensation," or lower rate (and larger amplitude) of vibration than/of consciousness: all matter is consciousness in various stages of evolution or spiritual unfoldment. We would further expect the ripples of light within each produced sphere of consciousness to be related to the level of that consciousness, with higher resonant frequencies allowing higher frequency vibrations of such subtle light to become manifest. And, given the discontinuous nature of the universal impulsive basis, it is apparent that relative creation consists of a vast number of "snapshots," or frames in a cosmic motion picture--each one the collective effect of the waves in all spheres of consciousness, produced by countless stones thrown simultaneously with varying degrees of force into the otherwise calm Ocean--shown in such quick succession that their discontinuity is invisible to the delusion-bound mind; much in the same way that the dark periods between frames of a motion picture are not visible to the human eye due to the image- retaining ability of the retina. There are additional ways of arriving at the idea that creation has its basis in rhythmic impulses. The stimulated human nervous system operates in terms of electrical pulses or "spikes" uniformly separated in time, the frequency of these spikes being dependent on the strength of the applied stimulus; this has been characterized by Itzhak Bentov as a "Morse code of action and rest." The human anatomy is a microcosmic representation of the universe. Thus, if the human body operates in terms of "spikes" or semi-impulses evenly separated in objective time, the cosmos--the body of God--should have a similar structure. Likewise, as we shall see later, the nature of Om--the root of all vibrations--as the "sound of the cosmic drum" or the "whir of the Vibratory Motor," implies that Nature has a rhythmic impulsive basis. Further, the rhythmic series of impulses at the basis of manifestation may be viewed as a Universal Breathing: In the mortal breathing process, the flow of prana (here, a specific subtle life current, or life energy, or life force, flowing in the astral body) in inhalation is held to have a spiritualizing effect on one's consciousness, while the flow of an opposing current in exhalation is identified as producing sensory awareness and restlessness. This alternate expansion and contraction (of one's lungs and one's consciousness) is then followed by a period of rest in which breath is neither inhaled nor exhaled; an interval of temporary breathlessness. The corresponding period of rest in the Universal Breathing is, evidently, the period between successive impulses or Breaths applied to all spheres of consciousness. God--and so mortal consciousness as a reflection of That--has both an immanent aspect in space and time, and a transcendent nature, "beyond" space and time; spaceless and timeless. We may say that we are bound by time and space whenever our consciousness is identified with the immanent aspect; and that, conversely, consciousness identified with the transcendent nature would not (so long as it remains in this identification) be constrained by time or space. Now, there are symbolic (in some cases, explicit) indications in many of the world's scriptures that the ideal point is the "meeting ground between the manifest and the unmanifest"--i.e., between immanent and transcendent God; the latter, by definition, being beyond time. The passage of one's sphere of consciousness through the individualized ideal point (of zero radius) at its center may thus be assumed to grant contact with, or merging in, transcendent God beyond time and space. Conversely, consciousness will be identified with the immanent, and time-bound, aspect of God whenever the radius of its sphere is non-zero. One corroboration of this view of the ideal point as being the "door" between transcendent God and immanent creation can be found in the Kabbalistic lore, where the symbol of the first Sephiroth, representing Spirit--the unmanifested, transcendent aspect of God--in its first step toward manifestation, is a point. Compare also A. K. Coomaraswamy: Moment without duration, point without extension--these are the...Strait Way leading out of time into eternity, from death to immortality. Consider also the following persuasive associations, from Huston Smith's "Forgotten Truth": The mathematical point is in everything. Kabbalists call it the Inward or Holy Palace; in Islam it is the Divine Station that combines contrasts and antinomies. In China it is the Chung Yung, the Invariable Middle, the Taoist Void that unites the spokes and makes of them a wheel. Likewise, in the symbolism of the cross, the horizontal and vertical lines meet at a point. Interestingly, in Roman mythology the two-faced god Janus is the patron of beginnings and endings, as well as the guardian of portals (i.e., gateways). Is this not reasonable, that the conditional beginnings and endings present everywhere within "two-faced" duality should be associated, both in mythology and in universal structure, with guardianship of, or the preventing of the passage through, a door between transcendent God and multifarious creation, the latter rooted always in polarities? For, as well shall see, it is only the varying-degreed inability of polarity- swayed consciousness to pass through the gateway between creation and transcendent Spirit that keeps it bound to beginnings and endings. Let us but transport ourselves in spirit outside this world of dimensions and localizations, and there will no longer be need to seek the abode of the Tao --Chuang Tzu The ideal point, of zero radius and no dimension, is the gateway out of the "world of dimensions": in passing through it, we have found the abode of the transcendent Tao. And, again according to Chuang Tzu, the viewpoint of the Simple Man, for whom contraries no longer exist, is one at which this and that, yes and no, appear still in a state of non-distinction. This point is the Pivot [which Guénon and Smith associate with the ideal mathematical point] of the Law; it is the motionless center of a circumference on the rim of which all contingencies, distinctions and individualities revolve. From it only Infinity is to be seen, which is neither this nor that, nor yes nor no. To see all in the yet undifferentiated primordial unity, or from such a distance that all melts into one, this is true intelligence. And, as Ware recounts in "The Sayings of Chuang Chou", The sage Jan-hsiang achieved perfection by attaining the center of the ring. Along with all things, he was free from endings, beginnings, moments, or time. In short, all opposites unify and dissolve in the ideal mathematical point. The problem, then, is this: how do we go about fitting our consciousness into such a point, and so attaining to identification with transcendent God, beyond all dualities of time, space, form, and causality? And how to do this "more" in higher states of consciousness...which are also EXPANDED states. How can EXPANDING our sphere/circle of consciousness result in it being more identified with the ideal point? The higher one's state of consciousness, the greater will be the maximum radius to which its sphere will expand in response to each rhythmic impulse of potential omnipresence applied to it, and the more frequently this sphere will exhibit its momentary contractions to a point. The contraction of consciousness to a point is again equivalent to the temporary merging of consciousness in transcendent God, or Spirit. And, because the nature of Spirit is infinite, transcendent Bliss--in accord with Shankara's positive characterization of It as Sat- Chit-Ananda, or (beginningless and endless, so transcendent) Existence-Consciousness-Bliss--we will experience Bliss in proportion to the degree to which we realize our eternal identity with Spirit; that is, in proportion to the frequency with which our individual spheres of consciousness contract to a point and so go beyond duality. (That is to say, statements such as William Blake's "all joy is of the body" do not accurately express the nature or means to attainment of Bliss: transcendent Bliss-Joy is necessarily and by definition independent of the physical body; it is a function of consciousness, can be felt only in consciousness, and can be expanded only by expanding one's consciousness; where such expanded consciousness includes the little physical body within its volume, but can, in theory and in highest practice, encompass infinity in its larger sweep.) Since an increase in this rate will come concomitant with a greater maximum radius of expansion of one's sphere of consciousness, or greater degree of identification with the omnipresence of God within creation, the expansion of one's consciousness will be inherently Bliss-increasing. And, the state of infinite resonant frequency, "bouncing" at an infinite rate in its continuous omnipresence, is identified always with the "point without extension," and so possesses the transcendent Bliss of Spirit without limitation. We may summarize the model developed thus far by returning to the motion picture analogy. Movies are, of course, produced through the effect of a continuously shining bulb of white light, whose light is made "rhythmic" by placing a shutter between it and the film each time the film is advanced to its next frame: white light is applied, at uniformly separated instants in time, to successive frames of a filtering film. Each small area of the frame in question then bandpass-filters the white light applied to it, according to that area's color or resonant frequency, allowing only a limited range of the frequencies present in the underlying white light to become manifest through it. The potential impulse- movements of the Infinite Ocean in the basic mechanism of manifestation may thus be regarded as analogous to the rhythmic, shuttered, white light projector beam, containing all possible frequencies of vibration; frequency limitations--both individual (avidya) and universal (maya)--placed on this light are the film which filters the white light, resulting in the appearance of colors and forms; the interval of rest following each Universal Breath is the "dark period" in between movie frames or the initiation of "universal snapshots"; and the Ocean surface is the cinema screen, capable of reflecting within itself all possible colors or rates of conscious intelligent vibration. In accepting the validity of the motion picture- like impulsive basis of creation, we have resolved a "controversy" present among certain Tibetan Buddhists: According to the Masters, there are no objects "in movements," it is the movement which constitutes the objects which appear to us: they are nothing but movement. This movement is a continued and infinitely rapid succession of flashes of energy....All phenomena of whatever kind and whatever aspect they may assume, are constituted by a rapid succession of instantaneous events. One [theory] states that the course of this movement (which creates phenomena) is continuous...the other declares that the movement is intermittent and advances by separate flashes of energy which follow each other at such small intervals that these intervals are almost non-existent --Alexandra David-Neel and Lama Yongden, "The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects" In truth, this flow of energy is both intermittent and continuous: intermittent, for arising from separate universal impulsive flashes; and continuous, in that the wave-disturbances produced by these filtered flashes do not vanish immediately after being created, but rather decrease slowly in amplitude in the "almost non-existent" interval in between impulses. The universe is not merely a collection of moving objects, created once at the beginning of time by God or a big bang and then left to interact according to laws of physics; rather, it is motion itself--indeed, motion of God-Reality Himself--continuously sustained by the will of God in the white light impulses of the Cosmic Projector. (Whenever we refer to the "Cosmic Projector" in the pages following, it pertains to the rhythmic, "shuttered," impulsive creational Light, as distinguished from its parent continuously shining Bulb. The Bulb is the state of continuous omnipresence, while the Cosmic Projector--which is derived from the Bulb through its being "shuttered"-- is the state of rhythmic potential omnipresence.) One of Itzhak Bentov's primary suggestions, in his "Stalking the Wild Pendulum", is that whenever any oscillating system--e.g., a pendulum--reaches a point of maximum displacement, and so reverses its direction of motion, this momentary turnaround is accompanied by the consciousness underlying the oscillator expanding rapidly into space. The motion picture model of continual creation includes this: any oscillating object can change its direction of motion only at the beginning of a new frame in the cosmic motion picture --at the occurrence of a spike in the stimulated cosmic nervous system. And the projection of this new frame does provide the "impulse" for all spheres of consciousness to expand into space. This correspondence should not be surprising: Bentov, too, considered that our consciousness is of a bandpass- filtering nature, and is "driven" by a rhythmic series of impulses (though he did not extend this idea to a basis for the production of the waves on the surface of the Infinite Ocean). Further, his allowance that the highest state of consciousness, of infinite resonant frequency, is also omnipresent, carries with it the implication that the spikes driving the expansion of such a balloon of consciousness must themselves be infinite in amplitude: in order for such a spherical balloon to be inflated to infinite radius in omnipresence, the signal driving it must likewise be infinite. However, he did not treat the bandpass- filtering nature of consciousness mathematically, and so did not note the "bouncing" of consciousness that must result whenever an impulse is bandpass-filtered by a system having a bandwidth less than double its resonant frequency, nor did he connect this with the idea that the ideal point at the center of each sphere of consciousness is its doorway between immanent creation and the transcendent state of God, so that a higher frequency of bouncing, or greater expansion of consciousness, grants an increased transcendence of time and direct conscious knowledge of transcendent Bliss-Truth. (Also, consequent to this lack of quantitative consideration of the nature of the bandpass-filtered impulse, Bentov's preliminary model does not allow for the possibility of continuous omnipresence, but rather views the rhythmic omnipresence of the Cosmic Projector as its highest state.) Likewise, he did not make the association of impulses with true whiteness, or the equal presence of all possible rates of vibration. However, notwithstanding these significant additions, if you accept Bentov's ideas (which are essentially not at all reductionistic, although several of his "motivating arguments," if taken only at face value, could be carpingly criticized as such), you cannot deny the filtered impulsive or motion picture-like character of creation. Finite vibratory creation in its entirety is said to take the form of a luminous blue sphere; this sphere of vibratory creation is surrounded by vibrationless, motionless, infinite space. The sky, too, from the earth's point of view, forms a blue sphere; so that creation may be validly characterized as a "cosmic motion picture show in the sky": as consisting of filtered rhythmic white light, the resulting pictures being projected within a blue cosmic sphere, or sky; all perceivable forms are then "frozen" sky, or condensed vibrations of consciousness in the opal sphere. Further, if the ocean were to rise and cover all earth, it too would form a blue sphere; so that each of our spheres of consciousness may be viewed as a "bubble," or small sphere, in the "vast blue ocean of sky." The idea that the entirety of creation is spherical is not mere philosophical conjecture, based in an assumption of universal symmetry: the cosmos is finite; so that when one's consciousness is expanded to infinity, enclosing all of vibratory creation and more, its shape can be directly known. Further, one way in which seeing things from a great distance causes all things to melt into one (as in a previous quote from Chuang Tzu), is that the finite blue sphere of creation, when seen from the farthest reaches of infinity, would shrink in relation, to a point or dot: anything finite is infinitesimal in comparison with the Infinite. Consider, now, Bentov's injunctive portrait of his own experiences in higher states of consciousness: Suppose you can expand your consciousness to encompass our sun. Once this is accomplished, keep inflating yourself until you contain many stars. Keep inflating yourself until you are encompassing our entire galaxy....To do this properly, you have to feel your body as the void, and the stars as pinpoints on your body. You can zero in on any star in your body and feel it, observe it, and love it. Or the avowal of Lama Govinda (in "Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism") that to the enlightened man...whose consciousness embraces the universe, to him the universe becomes his "body." Self-evidently, the actual experience of "stars as pinpoints on your body" can arise only from the literal expansion of one's self-identity, not from any sensory experience; that is to say, from the expansion of one's consciousness to encompass the region in question, one then being identified with the volume of space thus encompassed--a space inherently "filled with consciousness" as the water of the Infinite Ocean, even before the boundary of one's own consciousness has expanded to embrace it. In being identified with the volume of one's sphere of consciousness, one is directly aware, in mystical oneness, of all activities occurring within this sphere: whether your consciousness encloses towns, galaxies, universes or beyond, everything occurring within your conscious sphere is known immediately to you, because you are IT. That is to say, since all vibrations, and so all consciousness, are simply movements of/within the Ocean of God, all that is needed to know the basic activities of the universe directly, through conscious oneness rather than through the interactions of sense-organs, is to transfer our identification from body and mind, to the space encompassed by our expanded consciousness. If we then reasonably define spiritual intuition as "direct conscious knowledge-in-oneness of reality-truth," both identification with one's volume of consciousness and the creational waves encompassed therein, and the point-contractions of consciousness in identification with transcendent Spirit, will qualify as such intuition. A master who, having spread his-her consciousness through all Nature, is thus directly aware of the true basis of all creation, rightly sees no difference between the essential elements of all phenomena: all are built of a multiplicity of metaphysical light rays, or vibrations of life energy; so that, to him-her, all creation is simply a mass of light and shadow of God. The simultaneous oneness with all of the wave-activities occurring within one's sphere of consciousness will further yield a panoramic "spherical sight," perceptive simultaneously in all directions: in identification with one's sphere of consciousness, one is able to "see" below, ahead, above, and behind one's normal line of physical sight. And, since "Consciousness" and "God" are again merely two different names for the One Reality, as soon as one realizes identity with the volume of one's sphere of consciousness, void of the subject/object division, this is experience of God. It is further interesting to note that Lama Govinda considered ego-consciousness to be "a phenomenon of resistance--an obstruction of the stream of being, comparable to the arising of heat and light as phenomena of resistance of the electric circuit" (in his "The Psychological Attitude of Early Buddhist Philosophy"). This is noteworthy, in that the bandwidth of a simple bandpass-filtering electric circuit is directly proportional to the resistance of that system; so that a system having zero resistance would also have a bandwidth of zero. That is to say, surface- or ego-consciousness arises from the "resistance" or non-zero bandwidth of this system; so that deep (narrow-bandwidth) concentration, or becoming "inwardly absorbed," will naturally tend to dissolve the ego. (The mathematics of the situation is the same, whether we are considering electric circuits, springs, or the bandpass-filtering nature of consciousness.) Indeed, the sages often define ego as "soul in the state of (causal, astral, and especially physical) body-identification," or outwardly-turned attention (in concentration on the physical); the sensations accompanying such body-consciousness evoking memories of past experiences, and these giving rise to a further chain of memories, thus distracting one's attention from the object of concentration in meditation. These resurrected thoughts are unwanted "ripples on the lake of one's mind," obscuring or distorting the reflection of the moonéd face of God therein; so that "disconnecting" the mind from the senses will calm this distortion, and work to dissolve the ego. In any case, it is undeniable that our visual perceptions and visualizations are inherently two- dimensional--the brain's superposition of the images from the left and right eyes, though producing a limited kind of depth in vision, does not allow us to see inside a solid object, for example--so that the experience of one's consciousness being spread through space, and so being one with all the wave-activities within its sphere, is of a different order (that is, literally, a higher dimension) than is sensory experience and ego. And we would again associate such voluminous identification with only a narrow bandwidth, or inwardly-turned attention: this NON- SENSORY experience cannot be had while one's attention is focused on the body. (Bentov has proposed that in low states of consciousness, while our "observer"-- which he equated not only with a single sphere of consciousness, but with the causal and astral bodies; which are, nevertheless, in last analysis composed of myriad spheres of consciousness--expands in voluminous identification in response to the series of impulsive spikes driving it, this experience is registered only on the subconscious level, i.e., no knowledge of this outing is communicated to the mind and brain. Whatever the best explanation may be for the fact that this voluminous identification is realized only in high states of consciousness and interiorized attention, there can be no question that it is possible for us to expand our region of conscious identification beyond the body to the solar system, galaxy, and beyond, and that this experience obtains only when "the two eyes have become one": it is a function of the single eye of intuition--which photographs all vibrations, including those of other "observers," in a penetrating "flash" of contact, transcending linear thinking--not of any sensory experiences of the two physical eyes.) Subjective time dilates in higher states of consciousness--e.g., in the dream state, which is an altered state of consciousness in which the dreamer is working primarily through his-her astral body: we have much more subjective time for each moment of objective time in the dream-state than in our ordinary waking state of consciousness. That is, to the dreamer, dreams seem to last longer than they actually do as measured by a physical clock: a large number of dream- events can take place in a relatively short period of objective time. We may propose that, although there is only one objective "universal snapshot" per Universal Breath, each successive inflation-deflation of consciousness will allow for the experience of one subjective "snapshot"; that is, one element or fragment of thought or visualization--one frame in the "subjective motion picture." In this case, the increase in frequency of point-contractions as the level of consciousness is raised will result in a proportional dilation of subjective time in higher states of consciousness: "We may describe a person's level of consciousness by the ratio of his subjective time to his objective time." Omnipresent consciousness expands to infinity, and then contracts back to a point, all in zero time; thus, such perfected consciousness is both expanding and contracting, simultaneously. This is rightly paradoxical--nothing in our ordinary experience or logic can both expand AND contract at the same time-- and is a noteworthy indication that our model is "hitting things more on less on the head," in that any attempt to describe the highest state of consciousness, which is one with Reality, must be in paradoxical terms; e.g., God-Bliss is both changeless and ever new. Mathematics, being the most precise language, rightly accords with this. The derivation of dualities from a higher, neutral, integrated state, and the transcendence of duality in the highest state of consciousness, are mirrored in the behavior of physical light, the expression of (the highest state of) consciousness on the physical plane: Any particle and its associated anti-particle (an anti-particle has the same mass as its particle counterpart, but the opposite sign of electric charge; the anti-particle of the electron, for example, is the positron) can be created from light of sufficiently high frequency, by a natural process known as pair production. Light may therefore be rightly said to contain both matter and anti-matter in potential. An integrated state is one in which the two apparently opposite members of a duality (e.g., matter and anti- matter) are seen to be merely different aspects of the same source (e.g., light). Matter and anti-matter are therefore differentiated states of the integrated state of physical light, so that light is seen to contain matter and anti-matter in integrated potential. The form-in-potential of matter and anti- matter is thus different from their form-in-actuality: photons, being pure energy, do not consist of distinct particles of matter and of anti-matter, travelling together. Conversely, when dualistic states (of matter and anti-matter, for example) recombine (in pair annihilation), returning to their integrated state, the result is not nothing, but rather a release of the energy which had become both of the dualistic pair: two photons are produced, which then move away from the point of annihilation at the velocity of light. The simultaneous, spatially coincident annihilation of many particle/anti-particle pairs would produce a burst of photons moving outward in all directions from the point of annihilation, or an expanding sphere of light. If the matter/anti-matter pairs are of all possible energies, the expanding sphere will contain all possible frequencies, and so be white light. The coinstantaneous realization of the underlying integrated unity behind all apparent dualities will similarly result in the perception of consciousness expanding as a sphere of white Light; as we have already seen in the context of the impulse response model of the universe. Further, according to special relativity, an observer identified with an expanding sphere of (physical) light--that is, one moving in all directions at the velocity of light--would have an infinite amount of subjective time for each moment of objective time--objective time would "stop"--while all space would be measured as having contracted to a single point (i.e., in which all dualities are resolved). Because of this relationship between level of consciousness and relative velocity--that travel at the velocity of light reflects the characteristics of the highest state of consciousness--this highest state, of infinite resonant frequency, may be referred to as the Consciousness of Light. PART II ON FREEDOM OF CHOICE The orthodox philosophical argument against the existence of free choice runs as follows: Mental and physical processes are all either deterministic or indeterministic, or some combination of the two. Every mental choice or event that is deterministic has, by definition, a cause or series of causes, and is therefore not free of past influences. Further, any mental event that is indeterministic is, by definition, purely random, and so cannot be considered as a conscious "choice." Therefore, free choice cannot exist. The logic of this argument is valid; its conclusion can be circumvented only if we can find some flaw with the premises. We thus ask: Is it true that all mental processes are either deterministic or indeterministic? Or is there a third alternative? Both determinism and indeterminism relate only to circumstances in which there are temporal distinctions of "before" and "after." However, BEYOND time there can be no divisions of before or after, past or future, so no past causes. Thus, consciousness that is beyond time is neither deterministic nor indeterministic: it is truly free. That is, we can have free choice if and only if it is possible for our consciousness to go beyond time--to go beyond both cause-effect and indeterminism--in some way. Because transcendent Spirit is entirely free of cause-effect constraints, the impulse response contractions of consciousness to a point, which allow for conscious identification with Its timeless nature, must confer the ability to make choices unconditioned by past causes. However, in all non-perfect states of consciousness, one's mergings of consciousness in timeless Spirit occur at a non-infinite frequency, and so cannot be considered as complete identification with It. Consequently, a single, isolated point- contraction does not grant one perfect transcendent intuitional knowledge of Spirit or unlimited free choice. The higher one's state of consciousness, the higher the frequency of these point-contractions of consciousness will be, hence the greater the degree of transcendent Spirit-identification and free choice. And, indeed, how else but in a finite frequency of point-contractions can we account for the fact that mortal consciousness has only PARTIAL freedom of choice--i.e., is only PARTLY beyond time? PART III ON GOOD AND EVIL An expansion of one's sphere of consciousness results in an increasing degree of conscious identification with both immanent and transcendent God, and so a greater realization of Bliss. If we acknowledge that the purpose of existence is exactly this evolution of consciousness from initial finitude and ego- identification to final emancipation through the dissolution of self in the omnipresence of God, we must then regard good as being related to an expansion of consciousness. Further, since the contraction of one's sphere of consciousness reduces the degree of one's conscious identity with God and so goes contrary to the highest hope of every heart or purpose of creation, such a contraction must be regarded as evil. We must next ask: If consciousness is rightly cognized as expanding by an observer in one state of consciousness, will it be seen to be expanding by observers in all states of consciousness? For, if this is the case, then good and evil are absolutely distinguishable. It is easy to see that only a reversal in the flow of time could result in an expansion being observed as a contraction: If we were to take a motion picture of a balloon expanding, and then play this film through the projector backward--effectively reversing the direction of the flow of time--we would see the balloon contracting. But the Universal Breathing does not reverse itself. Also, the entropy or amount of disorder in the universe is constantly increasing on an overall scale; this is the traditional scientific basis for the argument that time cannot be reversed. Therefore, good and evil, as the raising and lowering of the level of consciousness, are absolutely distinguishable. Whatever conception of God one accepts, and whether or not one rightly recognizes the validity of visions and other higher-state-of-consciousness experiences-- the existence of which logically implies a highest (infinite) state of consciousness--it must be acknowledged that doing good makes one more Godlike, or brings one closer to God over a period of time, while the performance of evil takes one further away from God--this is so by any reasonable definition of good and of evil. And "going closer to" as time passes is again absolutely distinguishable from "going away from" if we can ascertain the direction of the flow of time--which we can. Thus, in any God- or perfection- based view of the universe, good and evil are absolutely distinguishable. Having made this clear, there is nevertheless a sense in which good and evil are yet "relative"; in that, for example, a person generally living on the physical plane might find his or her consciousness slightly raised and calmed by watching a reasonably wholesome television program, or in listening to relatively harmonious secular music; whereas someone accustomed to meditating deeply would probably find concentration on the same activity to be restlessness- producing and a distraction from the attempt to fill one's mind with thoughts of God and guru. But, even given this "partially relative" nature of good--where what PRODUCES good or the expansion of consciousness for one person may not do so for another more highly developed--concentration on Infinity, or on the form of one who has realized cosmic consciousness (e.g., a true guru), will always act to raise one's consciousness, regardless of what level of consciousness one may already have attained to; so that in this latter case the ABILITY TO PRODUCE good is still absolute, i.e., true for all states of consciousness. (Such a genuine master, experiencing constant and infinite Bliss, and being already one with all creation, would NEVER engage in sexual relations with his or her disciples; this should be so obvious.) Consider also that, colloquially, we say first that "happiness and pleasure are good," and therefore "that which produces happiness for self and others is good." Even in this merely egoic point of view, however, circumstances which produce happiness for one individual might produce sorrow for another in the same situation; that is, we implicitly distinguish between actual happiness, and the alleged ability of external circumstances to PRODUCE happiness: we could all agree on what happiness is, and that it is absolutely distinguishable from sorrow, but we would never all agree on what PRODUCES happiness, since this is purely subjective, being dependent on the satisfaction of personal desires. Likewise, we must again distinguish between the actual raising of the level of consciousness (which we call "good"), and the ability to produce this expansion, or ability to PRODUCE good. Thus, although we could all agree on what "good" is (because time does not flow backwards: the Universal Breathing never reverses itself), we cannot all agree on what PRODUCES good: whatever level one may have attained to on the "cosmic totem pole," concentration on higher levels will produce good for oneself, while concentration on lower levels will produce evil or the lowering of the level of one's consciousness. This being the case, the ability of actions and external circumstances to produce good for oneself is relative to one's state of consciousness; however, the only way in which ACTUAL good and evil are "relative" is that they are both finite and part of maya, or cosmic relativity. We may reasonably broaden our definitions of good and evil to include, as good, not only actions which expand the consciousness of their performers, but also those which serve to maintain a high moral state, above that of the "average" person; so that an ascent into this state would, for most persons, constitute an expansion of their sphere of compassion (with a corresponding broadening of evil as actions serving to maintain a very low moral state, below that of the average person; so that a descent into this state would, for most persons, constitute a contraction of their sphere of consciousness). This matches more closely our colloquial definitions of good and evil, in that a "good" person, for whom unselfishness is the norm rather than the exception, may not have his-her consciousness greatly expanded, but simply maintained at its current level, in acting in the willing service of others; while a very evil person, for whom selfishness was the way of life, might behave very badly, and yet not have his-her consciousness contracted, but simply maintained at its present low level. PART IV ON THE NATURE OF OM Om is Brahman. Om is the whole world (Taittiriya Upanishad, eighth anuvaka). Yoga considers the cosmic sound of Om--mimicable, but not actually utterable, by the human voice--as the basic vibration from which all other oscillations are derived; implying that this sound must proceed from a state containing all possible frequencies from zero to infinity: in order for such a cosmic sound to serve as the basis of every possible vibration, it must, at some point in its generation, be derived from a state containing all these possible rates of vibration. More specifically, Om is the sound of the ripples of all light on the surface of the Infinite Ocean, arising from limitations placed on the primordial impulses of the white light Cosmic Projector; the sound of "the vibrations of light that constitute the sole reality of creation." Om has also been spoken of as the "vibration of the Cosmic Motor" and as the "sound of the cosmic drum." Drumming, in its simplest form, consists of a series of impulsive strikes of a drumstick against the surface of a drum, these hits being uniformly separated in time; the loudest or hardest example of such drumming would consist of a series of infinite-amplitude impulses, as in the Universal Breathing. Gasoline-run motors produce similar sounds, but in such quick succession that they blend into one another to produce a continuous drone. Owing to the filtered-impulsive nature of creation, the motions of all rippled light on the Ocean surface will be greatest just after the initial all-pervasive, energetic throb of each Universal Breath applied to all spheres of consciousness, with this amplitude of motion decreasing afterwards until the next Breath. The rhythmic vibrations of motors and drums have the same general characteristics. And these motions, or constituents of the sound of Om, are present in all regions of vibratory space. Thus, we can have conscious union with Om simply by becoming the vibrations (of the physical and subtler matter) in the space encompassed by our sphere of consciousness: all matter is vibrating with the sound of Om. That is, all identification with the volume of one's sphere of consciousness and the activities encompassed therein, is union with (a region of) Om. The hearing of this sound--not only in the body but in all surrounding space--is thus based in intuition. Om is not merely a word or name--although it is the Word and Name of God--but is again rather the sound produced by the ripples of light at the basis of creation, audible to one's inner consciousness: an "intuitively audible illumination." Being related to the ripples on the surface of the Infinite Ocean, Om is also referred to as the "noise of many waters" (Ezekiel 43:1-2). AUM is the philosophically preferred spelling of this Name; however, the proper pronunciation is "Ommm," not "Aauuummm." Were the Supreme Intelligence guiding these vibrations to wish to impart directly revealed or intuitively heard "words of wisdom"--clothed even in human language--to the inner consciousness of one in such attunement (as is said to be the origin of the Vedas), It would have simply to alter, or modulate, these subtle vibrations accordingly to produce the required intuitively audible phonetic variations; cleaving many words from the One Word of God. According to yoga, the Bible uses "Amen" and "Word of God" as synonymous with the Hindu/yogic use of "Om." Taking these synonymously, then, we note the following Biblical verses: The heavens and the earth...by the [word of God] are kept in store (2 Peter 3:7). Which is to say: creation is continuously sustained by the Word of God, or Om. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made which was made (John 1:1-3). Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God (Hebrews 11:3). The basic creational production of the sound of Om again involves rhythmic impulses driving the expansion of spheres of consciousness, where the maximum radius of expansion of each of these oscillating spheres decreases monotonically from each rhythmic inflation and deflation to the next, in response to the given impulse. The pitch or rate of oscillation is (for narrow bandwidths) almost equal to twice the resonant frequency, while larger bandwidths cause a greater rate of attenuation of the radii of expansion in successive inflations. This monotonic decrease in amplitude may be compared to the effect, in human speech, of a mouth, initially fully open, but then closing as time passes--"modulating" the vocal vibrations being passed through it. In chanting Om audibly, then--which is generally done ONCE per BREATH--we observe that the first step is for one's vocal cords to produce a sound of a certain pitch or rate of oscillation; then, in modulating this sound, one's mouth is initially open and circular, in producing the vowel "o" sound, and closes (i.e., the circle contracts slowly to a point) to vocalize the "mmm" aspect. Understandably, then, the human voice is considered, in India, to be the finest musical instrument: of all means of musical expression, singing most closely emulates and so expresses the basic structure of creation. Further, human speech is made possible through the effect of air being exhaled from the lungs, and as such is intrinsically associated with the breathing process. Thus, since the human body, being made "in the image of God," is again a microcosmic representation of the body of God in the cosmos, we should verily expect, or at least not be at all surprised, that the process of Divine speech, in the production of the sound of Om, should be inherently associated with a cosmic Breathing process: that the Cosmic Word of Om should be produced by a rhythmic Divine or Universal Breath, being forced through many "mouths of God" or spheres of consciousness in the spatial fabric of the universe, which must rhythmically expand and contract to a point, in vocalizing the vowel "o" and "mmm" aspects of the Word of God; the word by which "the heavens and the earth...are kept in store" (i.e., the WIND which churns waves on the surface of the Infinite Ocean arises, as in the best painted imagery of Michelangelo, from the exhaled BREATH of God). That is to say, if we accept the ideas that the human body is a microcosmic representation of the universe, and that Om or the Word of God is the means through which "all things are made," we are logically bound to acknowledge that the way in which "Om" is chanted by the human voice must reflect in some fundamental way the most basic mechanism of creation. And, since this sound is the basis of ALL vibrations on the Ocean of Light, it must have the potential to "speak" in all possible frequencies of oscillation; so that we may say that the Breath from which this Word is derived implicitly contains all such possible frequencies of vibration, from zero to infinity. Further with the impulsive nature of the "beating of the Cosmic Drum": The stones being thrown by God to break the surface of the Infinite Ocean and so produce rippling spheres of consciousness, may alternatively be thought of as the tips of Cosmic Drumsticks, beaten by the Divine Drummer against the ethereal skin stretched across the blue Cosmic Hemisphere, to mark the basic rhythm of creation. (When a drum is first hit, the disturbance travels as expanding circles of waves across its face.) Thus, beaten drums--consisting, of course, of membranes stretched across cylinders or hemispheres-- mimic the basic rhythmic structure of creation; hence their reasonable inclusion in musical-ritual dance. Since all vibrations on the Ocean of Light dance to the fundamental rhythm of Om (in that the ripples of all light are greatest in amplitude just after the application of a universal impulse, with decaying amplitude until the next Breath) we see that the Divine Drumming of the Universal Breathing is the rhythm by which the Dance of Shiva--the continuous creation, preservation, and destruction of matter at the basis of manifestation--is performed. Significantly, artwork depicting Shiva in this cosmic dance--as H. Zimmer notes in "Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization"--shows him holding a drum "for the beating of the rhythm. This [drum] connotes Sound, the vehicle of speech, the conveyer of revelation...and divine truth." Similarly, in "The Tibetan Book of the Dead", the "Lord of Dance"--i.e., the "lord of all that moves and is moved"--is regarded as the agency of creative sound and the sacred word, and is characterized by the qualities of air, wind, and breath. The fact that all manifestation is produced from a rhythmic impulsive (drum-beaten) basis demands that the Om sound arising from this drumming be present everywhere within the sphere of creation, while the varying resonant frequencies of consciousness with which this basis is filtered--i.e., the varying intensities with which the Cosmic Drum is beaten by its myriad drumsticks, or stones thrown to break the surface of the Infinite Ocean--allow for non-homogeneity in the production of matter: the Om sound can be present everywhere within creation's sphere, and be the basis of all matter, without this presence giving rise to creation being "the same everywhere." Every revealed Divine Name when ritually pronounced, is mysteriously identified with the Divinity. It is in the Divine Name that there takes place the mysterious meeting of the created and the Uncreate, the contingent and the Absolute, the finite and the Infinite. The Divine Name is thus a manifestation of the Supreme Principle, or to speak still more plainly, it is the Supreme Principle manifesting Itself. --F. Schuon Om!--This imperishable sound is the whole of this visible universe....What has become, what is becoming, what will become--verily, all of this is the sound Om. --Mandukya Upanishad PART V THE DRUMMER, THE DRUMMING, AND THE DRUM Just as the white light of a movie projector contains all pictures in potential, but does not produce any until it has been filtered by the film, the primordial impulses themselves do not produce a sound; it is only when they are limited that they give rise to waves of finitude on the surface of the Infinite Ocean, or an intuitively audible whirring of the Vibratory Motor as the sound of Om. Thus, we again associate Om with the ripples produced on the surface of the manifest Ocean by the filtered impulses of the Cosmic Drumming, rather than with the impulses themselves: union with the sound of Om consists of feeling oneself as this sound of all waves of light, in every unit of space within the finite spherical cosmos, for it is present everywhere within the vibratory sphere. Consider also that impulsive Om could be characterized not only as arising from the beating of a Cosmic Drum, but also from the rhythmic clapping of Divine Hands. The impulses underlying the sound of Om arise wholistically as white light from a single Cosmic Projector; or, alternatively, from the clapping of One Hand. That is, Om is the sound of one hand clapping. Sounds heard by the outer ear are produced by "two things striking together," whereas the sound of Brahman is "the sound which comes without the striking of any two things together." This sound is Om. --Zimmer, "Philosophies of India" "These things saith the Amen [Om], the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God....Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:14, 20). Spirit stands on the "other side" of the point-door between Itself and creation, "knocking" through the impulses underlying the Om sound: knocking, as with drumming, etc., consists of a series of impulsive sounds, rhythmically separated in time. If we will but make the effort to open this door (e.g., the point at the center of one's sphere of consciousness), It will come into us within creation, carrying us on waves of expanding love to infinity, and we will go through this door to be (with) Spirit beyond time and space. Further note the association of this knocking with a voice: this would be an unnatural alliance--normally, we do not knock with our voices, but rather with our closed hands or knuckles--were this knocking not to be inherently associated with a mouth and a Word (and with Breath). We must, however, be careful to distinguish between the state that DOES this knocking, the knocking itself, and the sound PRODUCED by this knocking; that is, between the Drummer, the Drumming, and the sound of the Drum: Om is not the knocking, but the sound PRODUCED by the knocking. Now, this knocking or Cosmic Drumming, although it is (potentially) rhythmically omnipresent, cannot be the highest state of consciousness, in that Reality exists continuously, whereas this state would "sample" it only at separated instants in time: full identification with Reality can come only from being continuously identified with its infinite nature. Finally, then, the Drummer, or state of continuous omnipresence, wherein one's consciousness oscillates (i.e., inflates and deflates) with infinite amplitude and infinite frequency. Such consciousness "samples" creation continuously, or takes an infinitely rapid series of consciously penetrating snapshots of the activities occurring within the infinite volume of space, and so is directly aware of the activities of all frequencies of vibration in creation: it IS all these activities. Further, this state effectively consists of a continuous series of impulses, and so may be said to contain the discrete series of rhythmic impulses within itself; i.e., the discrete series is a subset of the continuous series. Note this, then: that, unlike the state of the Cosmic Drumming, in which consciousness would mirror the input impulse-- and so expand instantaneously to infinity, thereafter being continuously present only in the specific point at its center--the currently considered state is continuously present at all points in space and time and thus, we may say, has its center simultaneously at all points in space. This is St. Bonaventure's "sphere, whose center is everywhere and whose circumference nowhere"--fully identified with ALL of the Ocean at all points in space and time, it IS the Infinite Ocean, in both its transcendent and immanent aspects. Zen admits the existence of a circle that has no circumference nor center and, therefore, has an infinite number of centers...a center everywhere. The universe is a circle without a circumference, and every one of us is the center of the universe. --D. T. Suzuki, "Studies in Zen" (Note again that this is fully compatible with accepted laws of mathematics, and is in no way illogical.) Consciousness in this highest state is both moving with infinite velocity, and present everywhere continuously in a state of complete rest; it has become all vibrations (as the rhythmic Cosmic Projector--the white light from which all finite states of consciousness and rippling vibrations are derived), and IS all vibrations (as the continuously- existing Ocean, present in every wave of Om), so that this cosmic consciousness is not a state separate from all other states, but is rather the source and suchness, the evolutionary goal and present ground, of all waves and states of consciousness. Since every point of the Ocean is again a point of transcendent consciousness (and thus a point of Bliss, in which case the idea of the "omnipresent Bliss" of God is meant to be taken very literally: from Bliss we came, in Bliss we live, in Bliss we melt), and since the waves of creation are simply these points IN MOTION-- "it is the movement which constitutes the objects which appear to us: they are nothing but movement"-- the essential nature of God is not modified by His involvement in the continuous process of creation: points (of transcendent God) in motion are still only points. Thus, immanent and transcendent God are in essence one: all of the Absolute is equally at every point (so that, for example, every point of the Infinite Ocean is again a "point without extension, moment without duration," or state of transcendence of time and space) but some points are closer to the Absolute than others (since, as soon as consciousness begins rippling in a bounded sphere, the point at its center becomes its unique gateway--restricted to a finite frequency of passage--to transcendent God). Stated in Kabbalistic terms: The first Sephiroth is sometimes called the "primitive point" or simply the "point": "When the Unknown of Unknowns wished to manifest Himself, he first produced one point...." Sometimes they call it [the first Sephiroth] "white head" because in it are blended all colors, that is to say, all ideas, all definite aspects. --A. Franck, "The Kabbalah" That is, the first Sephiroth or Crown/Kether/Ayn/"I Am," is distinguished/derived from the unmanifested Absolute or "confused totality, without form or name, the mysterious unknown that preceded all things" (the "Ayn Sof"--Spirit), through the appearance of this (archetypal) point. And each of our souls, at its basis, is exactly such an "individualized point of joyous Spirit": Know the embodied soul to be a part of the hundredth part of the point of a hair divided a hundred times; and yet it is infinite. --Svetasvatara Upanishad Infinite, for being united with unmanifested Spirit which has become all manifestation. Thus, while every soul is a point of joyous Spirit, not every point of space is an individualized soul. Now, your consciousness is not something you possess, as for example your soul HAS a body but is not confined to the body, but is rather what you ARE: its existence is what gives rise to your intuitive feeling that "I exist": given Shankara's characterization of Spirit or transcendent God as (beginningless and endless, so again transcendent) Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, any direct experience in point-contractions of transcendent Bliss must entail also Consciousness and Existence; that is, a CONSCIOUS awareness of one's own EXISTENCE, or intuitive knowledge that "I exist." That is to say, the feeling that "I exist"--or "I Am," as a spark of joyous Spirit--is based in intuition, not in the existential (body-mind) level of awareness, nor in the ability to reason (as in "I think, therefore I am"). Further, consequent to the "sampling" nature of consciousness, and the associated oneness with the volume of one's sphere of consciousness in mystical experience (that is, in some high states, at least, of mystical experience; obviously, not all mystical experience takes this directly-perceiving voluminous form), the mystic can directly experience, from "inside" in conscious oneness or intuition, any level of reality, including the level probed by the physicist, but the physicist can at best observe, from "outside," through the senses and intelligence, the lower reflections of consciousness in the behavior of matter. An individual could very well be both a great physicist AND a God-realized master; there is no need or benefit to minimize the latter in order to excel in the former. Thus, the three natural facets of Divine Consciousness--all derivable from a single common state--are: the projected pictures or sound of Om produced as waves on the surface of the Infinite Ocean by the filtered impulses of the Cosmic Projector; the impulses themselves; and the state of continuous full union with infinite Reality, or the white-light-Bulb, which effectively consists of a continuous series of impulses, and so may be said to contain the discrete or "shuttered" series of rhythmic impulses within itself. Alternatively, these three may be considered, in reverse order from that just given, as the state in which all possible rhythms are contained in potential, and in which one's union with the immanent- transcendent Divine Drummer is realized; the specific Rhythm beaten by the Divine Drummer against the ethereal membrane stretched across the blue Cosmic Hemisphere; and the sound of Om produced as this Cosmic Drum vibrates after being struck. PART VI HOLOGRAMS Holograms are a means of visual information storage, similar in some ways to photographs. The two means of storage differ in that every piece of a hologram film contains information about the entire three- dimensional scene being holographed--and can be made to project a light-formed "duplicate" of its objects in three dimensions when illuminated with a proper source of light, usually a laser--while photography "collapses" this information irretrievably into a two- dimensional planar view of the objects, so that a slide transparency can project only a two-dimensional view of its contained scene. The means by which holograms are made may be easily described. The light emitted by a laser is said to be "coherent"; that is, its light waves are all in step with one another, giving rise to what are called plane waves. (The waves produced when a pebble is dropped into a pond are circular/spherical, while plane or straight waves could be produced by rhythmically raising and lowering a long stick in the water.) Such wavefronts have the desirable property that, since they are all "going in the same direction," they do not spread out much as they travel farther from their source (in contrast to circular waves, for example). If ever such a plane wave tries to "squeeze through" an aperture of width much smaller than the waves' wavelength, a source of circular or spherical waves, having the same wavelength as the incident waves, is effectively produced. (Imagine a barrier with a small vertical slit placed in a shallow tank of water: any plane waves incident on the barrier that pass through the slit will emerge on the other side as circular waves.) Now, any physical object is made visible through its ability to reflect visible light. And any ray of light, when allowed to reflect off of an object, is effectively converted by this reflection into a point source of spherical light waves (as if it were squeezing through a very small aperture), which then spread outward from the object; the spherical waves having their center at the point where the particular ray met the object, with their intensity being determined by the color and reflectivity of the object at that point. If and when some of these light waves impinge on an eye, the sensation of sight of that part of the object is produced: when you "see" any object, you are not experiencing the object itself, but are rather cognizing a sphere-of-(physical)-light representation of it; the information from these expanding spheres of light being carried from the sense organs to your brain by means of impulsive spikes of electricity, which are then decoded to produce the idea of the object within your own mind. That is, visual perception is based in spheres of light and impulsive spikes: any sensory experience is at best a "second generation" impression of reality, and can never yield knowledge of reality-in-itself (even if this "impression-in-itself" could be experienced without a distinction between subject and mental object). And holograms are made by allowing these reflected spherical waves to interact with "reference" waves from the same light source which have not interacted with the object, and recording the interaction on a piece of film, which plays the part of an "eye." Because the waves, after having been reflected by the object, travel as expanding spherical wavefronts, they diverge rapidly as they leave the object, and so spread out to interfere with the reference beam across the whole surface of the photographic plate (or film). This whole-surface- interaction will occur for every sphere of light reflected from the scene, so that every area of the holographic plate will contain information about the entire object/scene. Now, if we illuminate the developed plate with a reproduced reference beam of coherent light, as these plane waves pass through the hologram film they will be diffracted by the recorded interference patterns on the film into myriad spherical waves, which will continue on through the film and interfere with one another, effectively reversing or undoing the procedure through which the hologram was encoded: the illuminated holographic film reproduces the same pattern of centers and intensities of expanding light- spheres as was generated by the original object, producing a three-dimensional light-formed image of the object, suspended in space. Thus, holograms reduce to the interaction or interference of point-source spheres of light, with plane light waves of the same frequency. But plane waves are simply special cases of spherical waves: any plane wave may be regarded as arising from a spherical wave of infinite radius (and so having zero curvature). That is, holograms are formed through the interaction of finite spheres of light with infinite spheres of light! It looks suspiciously, then, as if creation is structured as a cosmic hologram, where the infinite beam of perfected consciousness contains all frequencies, and so can serve as a reference for all possible vibrations in finite spheres of consciousness. (Bentov's view of consciousness as being "driven" by the impulsive swinging of a Cosmic Pendulum similarly recognizes the holographic nature of interacting rippling "observers" or spheres of information--the non-material "us"--but does not consider its validity on a basic creational [i.e., wave-production] level. Our success in explaining the characteristics of the Om sound, however, indicates strongly that this further application is valid.) For light everywhere meets with light, since everything contains all things in itself and sees all things in another, so that all things are everywhere and all is all. --Mystic saying Each person, each object in the world, is not merely itself, but involves every other person and object and, in fact, on one level IS every other person and object. --Buddhist Avatamska Sutra "Involves every other person and object," in that any localized island-object is produced only through the interaction of many overlapping spheres of subtle rippling light, so that the existence of any such particle is not an autonomous one, but is influenced by, and correlated with, the state of even distant centers of consciousness. Thus, the "current" state of any particle depends, not only on itself and its near neighbors, but is weakly correlated with the status of even arbitrarily distant events and centers of consciousness in the universe; so that these islands are not "ordinary (autonomously existing) objects." The existence of such stable and relatively autonomous structures is obviously in no way permanent, but rather has been formed in the whole flowing movement of the Ocean, and will shortly dissolve back into that movement. Further, we would regard physically observable particles--electrons, etc.--as consisting, not of single isolated islands, but rather of many, many such closely-spaced islands, or scintillating specks of astral life energy. Such an aggregate would obviously oscillate back and forth at a much slower rate than its constituent islands, each of which would be free to perform its own little "dance" within the larger, more macroscopic and sluggish dance of the electron in its aggregate movement; in which way the nature of physical matter as a lower rate of vibration of energy and consciousness becomes evident. That is, matter is condensed (astral) energy. If we then consider any relatively continuously-existing island-particle, we note that the fastest rate at which it could oscillate back and forth (in the manner of a pendulum, for example) would be for it to be at one of its positions of maximum displacement from equilibrium during a given Universal Breath, and then at its other point of turnaround during the following Breath. The rate of the Universal Breathing thus fixes a highest possible frequency at which any matter can vibrate; and so determines a highest frequency which could possibly be detected using instruments or senses, themselves composed of such matter. Thought, energy and matter are all ultimately illusory--they are all transitory, rising-falling waves on the Ocean of cosmic consciousness, having no permanent or autonomous existence--but are not equally illusory, in the sense that the fine ripples of thought are a higher state, closer to the basic reality of the Ocean, than is physical reality. However, the difference between these three encompassing levels is one of degree, not of kind; this must be so, if the lower levels of reality are to condense out of the higher: yoga, for example, is very explicit on the fact that the only difference between matter, energy and consciousness is in their respective rates of vibration. It is important to realize that the reason why every small area of a hologram plate contains all the information present in the entire hologram (so that holograms have the property of "total distributedness") is because every ray of light reflected from the scene spreads out (as an expanding sphere) to cover the whole surface of the film. Such holograms naturally involve a kind of reflection of the macrocosm in the microcosm, in that every piece of the hologram contains all the information present in the entire hologram (so that all of its enfolded objects interpenetrate). There is nothing "magical," however, about this property of total distributedness, or complete interpenetration: if the reflected spheres did not all completely cover the surface of the film, parts of the developed film would be deficient in information about the scene: all of the film would contain some of the scene, and some of the film might contain all of the scene, but not all of the film would contain all of the scene. Thus, in the hologram- like structure of creation, the finite rippling spheres of consciousness overlap; but not everywhere, completely (i.e., just because finite sphere A interpenetrates, or overlaps, with B, and B interpenetrates with C, does not mean that A interpenetrates with C). It would therefore be rather hasty of us to view this hologram-like basis as indicating, by analogy, that every elemental area of space contains ALL the information about the entire cosmos (except in the sense that the immanent Ocean of God-Intelligence, from which all waves issue, is equally present everywhere). We must then take care to be clear about what we mean by statements such as "all things interpenetrate": macroscopic objects do not interpenetrate at their own macroscopic level; what we recognize as physical objects (or their "elementary" particles of electrons, etc.) do not themselves interweave, in that the very existence of anything material is an aggregate island-level phenomenon; and it is only on the level of basic rippling consciousness that real interpenetration or interweaving of the basis of things-in-actuality occurs. The macroscopic level is, of course, not something separate from the most basic level of the production of ripples on the Ocean of Consciousness: it grows out of this level of interpenetration, which can be experienced only in mystical voluminous consciousness (i.e., on its own level), never sensorially. That is to say, the reason why we cannot, even in principle, sensorially experience the interpenetrating web of waves of light that is the basis of all phenomena, is that our senses themselves are a molecular or aggregate island-level construct. Also, while we may say with a good degree of certainty that "the quantum state of any electron depends on the current state of every other electron in the universe" (and is more influenced by its near neighbors than by distant relatives), this makes such phenomena INTERDEPENDENT, not interpenetrating: the truth of such a statement does not indicate that every electron INTERPENETRATES every other electron (at that macroscopic level), and should not be read as such. Similarly, we cannot experience formlessness merely by experiencing all dualistic forms as interpenetrating: just because seemingly distinct "objects" A and B interpenetrate (on the level of their basis in rippling consciousness), and so have a different form than we are used to--a form more wholistic and interdependent: change one sphere of consciousness, or one thread in the web, and everything in its vicinity is slightly affected--does not make them formless. The formlessness of cosmic consciousness is further not the opposite of form, but is rather the basis from which form in Nature is drawn. Maya may be rightly pictured as a "veil," in that the most basic level of wave-production on the surface of the Infinite Ocean, arising from the many "stones" thrown simultaneously with varying degrees of force to break this surface, consists of myriad circular/ spherical waves, overlapping and interweaving with one another; so that the interaction of these criss- crossing circular wave-crests and troughs may be likened to the interweaving of threads to form the fabric of a veil between God and His creation; i.e., the most basic level of vibratory creation IS this web of interpenetrating wave-threads, arising from maya- limitations or "measures" placed upon the underlying rhythmic and infinite Cosmic Drumming: maya--the "measurer"--is that structural principle which extracts finite measures and forms from the formless Infinite of cosmic consciousness; it is not merely human conceptualizations of sensory experiences. Nature cannot exist without maya: this measurer is not merely an "imperfection" in Nature, it is the very fabric and structure of all finite phenomena. If this delusory force were removed from creation, the waves on the Ocean would all be tranquilled, and vibratory Nature would cease to exist: it, as its Biblical counterpart in the devil, is "from the beginning," or structurally inherent in the realm of finite vibratory creation. Again, whenever a plane wave tries to "squeeze through" an aperture of width much smaller than its wavelength, a source of spherical waves, having the same wavelength as the incident waves, is effectively produced. Similarly, in the universal structure, finite spheres of consciousness are produced in the Infinite Ocean wherever the infinite undivided ("planar") omnipresence of God tries to squeeze into creation through its apertures or pores of space; the finite spheres having the same rhythmic frequency of recurrence as does the incident planar signal of the Universal Breathing. (With regard to this picturesque "squeezing in from outside," however, recognize that each impulse of the Cosmic Projector is merely a potential movement of the Ocean; it is not something separate from those waters. Further, in order for plane waves to be converted into perfectly spherical waves, the apertures through which they squeeze would have to be ideal points--cf. at the centers of the resulting spheres of consciousness.) Since our visual perception of any object is based in the cumulative effect of many closely-spaced spheres of light, of differing colors (frequencies) and intensities, it is very metaphysically satisfying to propose that the ultimate nature of all objects has a similar basis, in consisting of closely-spaced spheres of light- consciousness, of many colors or rates of vibration; which is, of course, what the impulse response or motion picture model of creation is about. Similarly, in the Shi'ite creation myth of Moghira, the universe is said to arise as sweat (finite beads/spheres of water) from the Creator: Infinity manifests as spherical finitude through discrete openings or pores. And, "the sphere is the most perfect form." Physical holograms, in being derived from the interaction of finite spheres of light with infinite spheres of light (i.e., plane waves), again reflect the basic universal structure. The hologram-like archetypal structure proposed here, however, is not merely pantheistic (where pantheism recognizes only the immanent aspect of God, or considers Brahman to be only the "sum of all created things," ignoring the fact that the Ocean exists with or without the waves), in that it includes inherent reference to the transcendent nature of God. God is not one thing among many, nor is He the sum-total of all things; rather, God is one without a second, is the source and suchness of every created thing, and yet exists also beyond all things. It is therefore of great importance that we keep in mind that just because a certain (archetypal) structure is repeated or reflected on many different levels of creation does not license us to attempt to derive the higher levels from the lower; we can at best find some of the behaviors of consciousness reflected in the behavior of matter, but never validly derive the characteristics of consciousness from those of matter. (That is to say, since matter reflects the behavior of consciousness, we must find some aspects of the behavior of consciousness reflected in any theory that is at all successful in describing the phenomena of the physical level of reality--the more comprehensive and true the theory, the more clearly its predictions will mirror the manners of consciousness.) Nevertheless, in the structural sense already discussed, we may rightly say that creation IS a universal time-varying hologram, or holomovement--the latter term having been coined by David Bohm in connection with his concepts of implicate and explicate order. In Bohm's holomovement, a particle "moving" from A to B is not the same particle at B as it was at A: each intermediate position of the particle as it moves from A to B--that is, each discrete re-creation (or projected "frame") of the particle in the "holomovie"--is actually a "different" particle than it was in its previous position; i.e., in the holomovement, matter has no continuous existence independent of whatever may be "projecting" this time-varying hologram. This obviously compares favorably with the discontinuous nature of matter implied by a universal filtered rhythmic impulsive basis, where all matter is being constantly re-created, or kept in store, by the Word of God. Additionally, the deterministic formulation of quantum mechanics (developed in large part by Bohm) has very similar ideas to those of the impulse response model of creation, regarding the nature of particles and of the "vacuum state": in it, the quantum vacuum state--the state of empty space in the absence of matter--is viewed as a randomly fluctuating background, of average level of fluctuation zero, with physically observable particles then corresponding to regions of space where the level of fluctuation is non-zero over a period of time long in comparison with the temporal resolution of physical measuring apparatus. All such "objects" or particles are abstractions of relatively invariant forms of waves on the Ocean of Light--they are, as the Tibetan Buddhists note, patterns of movement, as opposed to autonomously existing "things" or "ordinary objects" in motion, interacting with one another. Thus, any "forces" seeming to act between such abstracted-from-the- flowing-oceanic-movement particles, are likewise only abstractions "projected" from the Oceanic Intelligence of immanent God (as we have earlier noted in the case of the "Newtonian laws" governing ripple-produced islands). It is not just that everything is changing, or in flux: all IS change, all IS flux; as Bohm noted, the process of becoming is WHAT IS (in terms of the waving, finite levels of reality: these exist only as change or motion in the Ocean of the manifest Absolute; which itself exists with or without the vibratory process of becoming). PART VII CONCLUSIONS The consonance of universal behavior with the inner perceptions of the mystics is not merely coincidental. The inescapable conclusion of their harmony is this: deep meditation opens the door to a level of consciousness inclusive of but transcending all finite states; to the infinite Bliss and Wisdom of God. Act on this right conclusion! Begin meditating, with the goal of one day knowing with absolute certainty all that your heart and mind have ever longed to know. Unlike the often purely speculative philosophies of the West, yoga and its related Eastern systems of thought are not only amenable to proof but further DEMAND the personal meditative experience of Truth as the inner, undeniable demonstration of their eternal validity. Theories regarding the nature of the physical world are testable through physical experiments; the "theories" of consciousness expounded by the mystics of all ages are also verifiable, but not through external experiments. Rather, the nature and behavior of consciousness can be known only through the performance of the appropriate experiments in the expansion of consciousness; through concentration used to know God, which is meditation. Meditation has sometimes been reasonably spoken of as "scientific." This, however, is not meant to imply that a knowledge of higher mathematics is required in its practice! Rather, what is meant is that, just as physical experiments performed with careful attention to the requisite techniques of experimentation will always produce the same results, independent of the preconceived beliefs of the experimenter, so also the meditative experiments in the expansion of consciousness, when performed with due attention and devotion, will produce the same results regardless of one's system of beliefs. The methods of meditation are thus universal and useable by everyone toward the realization of Reality. To suggest that they are specifically adapted to the East, and that we in the West must evolve our own methods of systematic spiritual unfoldment based more on the principles of physical science than on Eastern mysticism, shows a grave misunderstanding of the principles upon which such techniques are based. Duality can be transcended only through the raising to infinity of one's level of consciousness; through one- pointed, singular concentration on God, and the concomitant expansion of one's sphere of conscious sympathies and awareness to include and so transcend all space. Other than demonstrating the physical manifestation of subtler mystic-expounded verities, and thus providing a very strong hint that the Masters have indeed spoken truth, physical science of itself is useless as a means of spiritual unfoldment. Lacking the precise language of mathematics, it would be very difficult to objectively and forcefully demonstrate that creation can be both a "cosmic motion picture," and arise from the "beating of a Cosmic Drum"--to the casual eye, what similarities exist between motion pictures and drumming?--and, further, that this structure or body of God could have anything to do with the lower reflected human nervous system; as well as with knocking, with breath, with mouths and words, and with true whiteness. However, given a simple application of the quantitative language of mathematics, the equivalence of these various structural descriptions becomes obvious. Conversely, were any meditator, being formally unfamiliar with the mathematical equivalence of these diverse structures, to characterize creation, on the basis of his-her meditative perceptions, as both a "cosmic motion picture" and as arising from/as the "sound of a cosmic drum," this characterization could not but be based in valid direct conscious perception of the basic creational structure. The mathematical self- consistency of such meditative perceptions must further dismiss as utterly untenable any suggestion that meditation is merely a form of self-hypnosis; that its revelations are merely "what you want them to be." The respective views of India in yoga, and of the Far East in Taoism, concerning liberation or moksha may be summarized as: "All is illusion: let it go"; and "All is in order: let it come." These are not contradictory viewpoints; they cannot be, if both are based in Ultimate Enlightenment: there are many paths, but can be only One Goal. The cosmic motion picture is simply that--a movie. Even the highest pleasure, worst suffering and grossest imbalances are only plays of shadow and light: the eternal timeless Self which peeks through the pores of space as both uninvolved witness and actor in the drama of creation is forever blissful, forever untarnished by duality's boundaries. Therefore, do not be deceived into thinking that the transitory God's-will-sustained and ultimately decaying/dissolving light-forms of the motion picture are capable of producing eternal happiness in you: it is illusion; a dance of shadow and light; let it go. And yet this shadow and light is all formed of the omnipresently blissful Ocean of God-Consciousness; what then could be amiss? All is in order; let it come. It's an illusion, but it's an ordered illusion: God's in His heaven, and all's well in light on earth. All's well that ends well: this cosmic motion picture has a divinely Happy ending for each one of us. Knowing this, why should we lament so, when its plot turns to take away our temporary possessions and acquaintances? Why should we not be joyous NOW, appreciating the movie, while striving to bring into effect a plot that is fair for all, without becoming caught up in it? In attempting to demonstrate, among other things, the underlying common ground of all true religions, the author has made reference herein to scientific- religious principles expounded in a number of different sources. However, whenever an approach such as this is taken, great care must be exercised that it does not degenerate, or be perceived as degenerating, into the borrowing of what one sees as the best characteristics of each path to form a "new" approach to God--the creation of one's own hybrid spiritual path. While all true masters offer valid means to the attainment of God-realization, the ego-induced admixture of these approaches cannot but dilute their effect; at the very least it demonstrates an acute lack of loyalty and faith in one's master. The guru knows best; only a very foolish disciple would presume to "improve" upon the instructions and techniques of one who knows God. Thus, although the author recognizes the validity of all true paths to God, his heart's allegiance and loyalty rest solely with the path of Paramahansa Yogananda, as expressed through Self-Realization Fellowship: none but Yogananda--who often characterized creation as a "cosmic motion picture," and as arising from/as the "sound of the cosmic drum"; recall how these characterizations are mathematically equivalent--and the SRF line of gurus have permission to shape this life and consciousness. And there is virtue in loyalty also. Neither intellectual cleverness and erudition nor the awareness of hitherto unnoticed correspondences between science and mysticism nor the intellectual derivation of physical laws and universal models from metaphysical principles are any indication of the transcendence of duality on the part of an individual. The proof that one is a master and has therefore transcended duality is evidenced only by the ability to enter at will the breathless God-conscious state, and by the higher experience of continuous God- ecstasy, whether or not the body is motionless and breathless. Every genuine guru is also a master--one who has expanded his-her awareness into infinite cosmic consciousness. Not every master, however, receives the inner command to act as a guru: the terms "master" and "guru" are not synonymous (although the former is a "prerequisite" for the latter). Self-realization is the direct experience, in body, mind, and soul, of one's eternal conscious union with the omnipresence of God both within and beyond creation. This union is the state of consciousness known by all the Great Ones, and WITHOUT EXCEPTION the message they have brought to unenlightened humanity is that, through intelligent self-effort and guru-guided meditation, this Goal of Goals can and must be realized by each one of us. But we must meditate! What is needed, then, are the guru and the efficient techniques of meditation. Toward this, the sincere seeker is offered heartfelt encouragement to read Paramahansa Yogananda's "Autobiography of a Yogi". This beloved masterpiece of metaphysical literature--the greatest and most wisdom-perfumed book I have ever been privileged to read--is available from Self-Realization Fellowship (3880 San Rafael Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90065-3299), the organization founded by Sri Yogananda in 1920 to act as the means of dissemination of the ancient scientific meditative technique of Kriya Yoga; a technique which may be received after the devotee has completed approximately the first year of the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons. ("Sri" is an East Indian title of respect.) All Kriya Yogis, of which I am one, pledge their spiritual loyalty to Sri Yogananda: No Kriya Yoga disciple of his can ever assume the status of "guru," regardless of his-her degree of spiritual advancement. It is a vital point of metaphysics that the eternal guru-disciple bond is established, and the guru's inner guidance thus secured, only when the disciple receives spiritual initiation either from the guru himself or through the guru's chosen agency. Sri Yogananda specifically founded and designated SRF for this purpose. Any other individual or organization claiming to represent Yogananda's teachings or purporting to offer Kriya initiation should therefore be avoided. (Self-Realization Fellowship annually publishes a list of persons authorized by the President of SRF to give Kriya Yoga initiation for the coming year, in the summer issue of "Self-Realization Magazine". Anyone whose name does not appear on this list is not authorized or qualified to give Kriya initiation: mere "attunement to the guru" on the part of the initiator--or having once been authorized in past years, but having had this privilege withdrawn by SRF owing to lack of loyalty, etc., on the part of the initiator--does not establish the guru-disciple bond; this bond is established only when Kriya is given by someone annually re-authorized by the President of SRF to do so.) The pilgrimage of spirit is an ever-new journey into Perfect Love, Wisdom and Truth. It accepts no excuses born of imagined mortality; it demands a continuously reaffirmed dedication of heart, mind and soul, not just in meditation but in one's every thought and activity. But for those who would labor unceasingly only to please Our Love, the harvest truly is plentiful; even the first fragrant wisps of peace born in meditation will convince of this. In Her Perfection and nowhere else is found the sole nectar to quench the every noble desire of the heart. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." BIBLIOGRAPHY BENTOV, I., "Stalking the Wild Pendulum". Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1988. (Originally published in 1976). BENTOV, I., with M., "A Cosmic Book". Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1988. BOHM, D., "Wholeness and the Implicate Order". London: Ark Paperbacks, 1980. DAVID-NEEL, A. & YONGDEN, L., "The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects". San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1967. FRANCK, A., "The Kabbalah". New York: Bell Publishing Co, 1940. FUNG, Y., "A Short History of Chinese Philosophy". New York: Macmillan, 1948. GOVINDA, L., "Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism". New York: Samuel Weiser, 1974. GOVINDA, L., "Psycho-cosmic Symbolism of the Buddhist Stupa". Emeryville, CA: Dharma Publishing, 1976. GOVINDA, L., "The Psychological Attitude of Early Buddhist Philosophy". London: Rider & Company, 1961. SCHUON, F., "Dimensions of Islam". London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1970. SCHUON, F., "The Transcendent Unity of Religions". New York: Harper & Row, 1975. SMITH, H., "Forgotten Truth: The Primordial Tradition". New York: Harper & Row, 1976. SUZUKI, D. T., "Studies in Zen". New York: Dell Publishing Co, 1955. WARE, J., "The Sayings of Chuang Chou". Toronto: New American Library of Canada Ltd, 1963. YOGANANDA, P., "Autobiography of a Yogi". Twelfth edition. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1981. (Originally published in 1946). YOGANANDA, P., "Man's Eternal Quest". Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1982. YOGANANDA, P., "Beholding the One in All". Cassette recording. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1985. (Recorded in 1949). ZIMMER, H., "Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization". New York: Harper and Brothers, 1946. ZIMMER, H., "Philosophies of India". Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951.