Communing With the Soul of God

This morning we were reading from The Second Coming of Christ/The Resurrection of the Christ Within You. This book was assembled and edited by the Self Realization Fellowship from numerous writings published by Paramahansa Yogananda during his lifetime (1893-1952).

Paramahansa Yogananda

Yogananda taught his followers a modified Kriya yoga technique of "scientific meditation" as the way to open up intuitive vision and access direct knowledge of "God" or, alternately, "Reality." The following quote from his chapter on Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3:1-8) leads into a discussion of what it means to be "born again":

 "All bona fide revealed religions of the world are based on intuitive knowledge. Each has an exoteric or outer particularity, and an esoteric or inner core. The exoteric aspect is the public image, and includes moral precepts and a body of doctrines, dogmas, dissertations, rules, and customs to guide the general populace of its followers. The esoteric aspect includes methods that focus on actual communion of the soul with God. The exoteric aspect is for the many; the esoteric is for the ardent few. It is the esoteric aspect of religion that leads to intuition, the firsthand knowledge of Reality." (Yogananda, p.240, vol. 1)

According to the Simple Explanation, the exoteric, public image of a religious institution is defined by the memes held by or rejected by that institution. The "moral precepts" and "doctrines, dogmas, dissertations, rules, and customs" are the particular memes and meme chords that define membership in that institution. Many religious meme chords are shared by members of diverse religions. Religions generally share, for example, belief in the overarching "God" meme chord, and generally agree on most of the lesser-included memes that make up the God chord, such as memes concerning God's omniscience and omnipotence, and the importance of communing with God in prayer. Then come the memes religions do not share in common--memes of saints and saviors, histories, and other customary beliefs. The memes they do not share set them apart from each other. 

A Simple Explanation of the esoteric aspect referred to by Paramahansa that focuses on "communion of the soul with God" is that such communion is not of the religious meme-sharing variety, but involves its opposite--meme shedding. When one's grip on habitual thought patterns relaxes, their governing UC intuitively aligns itself with the metaversal principles embodied by the Universal UC. During these brief or extended periods of alignment, "firsthand knowledge of Reality" is glimpsed.

"Glimpsing God" through a toroidal skylight at Sagrada Familia Cathedral.

Exoteric knowledge is often defined as knowledge available to anyone, whereas esoteric knowledge is reserved for the innermost circle of devotees. This definition makes it seem as though true knowledge is being withheld by those in power. Yet, if one adopts the Simple Explanation's definition of meme-based vs. intuitive knowledge, then esoteric knowledge of God is truly available to any and every believer. The only limitation is the believer's own willingness to suspend attachment to their personal meme bundle long enough to allow their UC to align with the Universal UC.

When the memes are set aside, i.e. thought is suspended; language suspended; the person's governing UC remains. This fractal unit of consciousness underlies the memes. Unencumbered by meme attachments, the person's governing UC aligns with the Universal UC. This condition is called "bliss" in Buddhist and Yogic teachings. "Be still and know that I am God" is how the Bible says it (Psalm 46:10). Verse 16 of the Tao Te Ching says, "Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity," (J. Star translation).

To "be still" is to suspend attachment. Knowing comes during the still point between the pendulum swings of breath and thought. To "be still" is how we hear God. Be still.

A Simple Explanation of Jellyfish

Box Jellyfish photo and related article posted at SciNewsBlog

The New York Times ran an article last Tuesday (June 7, 2011) on jellyfish entitled, "So Much More Than Plasma and Poison." Here's a quote from that article:

A diverse group of thousands of species of gooey, saclike invertebrates found throughout the world, the jellyfish are preposterously ancient, dating back 600 million to 700 million years or longer. That’s roughly twice as old as the earliest bony fish and insects, three times the age of the first dinosaurs.
“Jellyfish are the most ancient multiorgan animal on earth,” said David J. Albert, a jellyfish expert at the Roscoe Bay Marine Biological Laboratory in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The New York Times article goes on to cite several recent studies of jellyfish that disprove old assumptions. Contrary to earlier belief, jellyfish are not brainless, thoughtless lumps of protoplasm. Box jellyfish, for example, have eyes very much like human eyes, mounted on gyroscopic stalks that allow them to stare upward and out of the water for active shoreline navigation. Another study of jellyfish concludes that, although their neurons are distributed diffusely and not concentrated into a brain, jellyfish do nevertheless perform complex behaviors well beyond simple reflex. Please take a look at the nine-picture slideshow that accompanies the New York Times article by clicking on this NYT link, The Complexity of Jellyfish. Believe me, it's worth the look!

Here's what comes to my mind when I look at these photos of jellyfish--swimming toroids!

Here; watch the following short youtube video of bioluminescent jellyfish and see swimming, glowing toroids for yourself. It's quite beautiful.

Now here's the absurdly Simple Explanation of what we are seeing:

Jellyfish are the purest expression of the manifested toroidal pattern at the multi-organed animal level.

It's as if the first pattern that our ancient governing units of consciousness attempted was the pattern most familiar to them: the toroid.

The toroidal pattern seems to have been a very good choice; jellyfish have survived for at least 600 million years and passed unscathed through five global waves of mass extinction. Jellyfish were populating the planet well before vegetation evolved on land! According to the NYT article, jellyfish are twice as old as bony fish and insects, and three times older than the earliest dinosaurs. With that much jellyfish time, chances are good that there have been an enormous number of jellyfish UCs.

There is even one type of jellyfish, turritopsis nutricula, that appears to be immortal. Through a process called transdifferentiation, this creature is able to cycle from polyp to adult to aged and back to polyp again in an unending cycle of regeneration.

Turritopsis nutricula, the immortal jellyfish

Simple Explanation's diagram of memes and karma encycling an individual's UC.

Since reading about jellyfish and seeing these pictures of them, I've been doing a little jellyfish qigong in the morning that you may like to try:

Standing comfortably, arms relaxed at sides, chin down, eyes closed. Breathing in slowly, imagining myself a jellyfish breathing in ocean water and bouying up, floating effortlessly in the sea. Feeling light, swaying in the currents.  Then exhale the air, exhale the ocean water, coasting along in the current of sea, relaxing. Resting lightly, the legs and arms, the tentacles,hanging loose.  Repeat.

Peace. 

Process Note: My Typical Day

Last year one of the guests at the inn suggested I write Process Notes in order to put a more human face (mine) on my blog. It's her thought that people will be more inclined to read the blog regularly if they feel connected to the writer. What do you think, readers? Will you comment below to tell me if you appreciate these personalized articles?

Why can't I turn out more of the philosophy articles? It's simply a matter of time. Here's my typical day.

Misty

3:00  AM.  The cat begins biting my arm to wake me up. I resist her until 3:15, at which time I give in and get out of bed. The two dogs also wake up and join us, and the four of us go downstairs. I feed the cats and dogs, and open the pet doors so they can go out.

3:30 AM. Computer is turned on. I look for inn reservations first, then open up the blogspot and check the overnight stats. Four people online right now. I look at where they are, what articles they are reading, and I back trace a couple of referring URLs to see how they came to my site. I read the articles they are reading and imagine their reactions.
4:00 AM. The dogs and I go back upstairs. My husband, Gary, is up and brushing his teeth. I give the dogs a couple of beef bones to keep them occupied while I do my bathroom necessities. I grind some half-regular/half-decaf coffee beans and put a pot on to brew.
4:15 AM. Gary and I do a Yoga/Chi Kung stretching routine together.
4:40 AM. We all go downstairs to the meditation room. Gary, the dogs, and I sit on the couch. Gary and I read outloud to each other from a variety of spiritual and philosophy books, while we drink a cup of coffee. This morning we read Chapter 5, Galatians (Bible, New Testament); a couple of pages of Richard Feynman's The Meaning of It All (philosophy of science); a couple of pages of Aldous Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy; and two translations of Verse 4, Tao Te Ching (Mitchell and Star).
5:15 AM. Meditation, followed by the Lord's Prayer.
5:45 AM. We go upstairs and get dressed for work.
6:00 AM. I listen to NPR while I make our breakfast blender drink and lay out the vitamins. We drink breakfast and listen to the radio.
6:30 AM. Gary walks the dogs and then drives to his job. I walk across the yard to the inn to begin breakfast preparations.

Albion Inn's garden and back porch

6:30--7:00 AM. I open curtains, turn on lights, put on classical music, set the table, brew and set out coffee.

7:00--9:00 AM. Making breakfast. Notice toroidal flow in sliced apples and kiwis. 

The sliced apple demonstrates toroidal flow.

 9:00 AM. Serve breakfast.



Breakfast table at the Albion Inn

9:00--10:30 AM. Chat with guests during the meal. We talk about the plays they saw the night before, where they ate dinner, how their children are doing, what the weather will be like today.

We talk about the Word of the Day, which happens to be "factotum." Then we discuss the Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything for as long as the guests appear interested. I show them my new t-shirt and we talk about what the UC looks like to them.

10:30 AM. Clean kitchen. Load dishwasher.

11:00 AM. Give hugs to departing guests. Wave goodbye from door. Finish tidying up dining room and kitchen. Sweep floors. Put towels and sheets in washer.

11:30 AM. Go back to the owner's quarters across the garden. Change out of my chef's clothes into blue jeans and t-shirt.
11:40 AM. Take dogs to the woods for a walk. Commune with nature. Commune with the Universal UC. Hug trees, wet hands in icy brook. Say hello to other dog-walkers.

Franny and Zoey

12:30 PM. Stop at market on the way home to buy food for next day's breakfast.

1:15 PM. Move towels and sheets into dryer. Eat leftover breakfast food for my lunch. Watch TV. Bake cookies for guests.
2:00 PM. Sit at computer. Check emails. Take care of reservations and bookkeeping duties. Check in on blog.
2:30 PM. Go over to inn and set out cookies and apples on sideboard. Go back home to sit at computer until paged.

Cookies and snacks on the Albion Inn sideboard

3:00 PM. Check-in arriving guests. Unload dishwasher. Prepare pie crust for tomorrow's quiche. Grate cheese. Set out butter for tomorrow's scones.

4:00 PM. Fold sheets and towels. Iron sheets and pillowcases. Take linens back over to inn. Chat with guests about garden.
5:00 PM. Go back to owner's quarters. Clean up. Feed cats and dogs. Make salad for dinner.
5:30 PM. Gary home from work. We have a refreshing drink. We eat dinner and watch TV.
6:45 PM. I cannot keep my eyes open. I fall asleep on the couch. Gary plays a videogame (Tiger Woods Golf, wii).
7:30 PM. Wake up; bring in the cats; lock the pet door for the night. We go upstairs to bed.
8:00 PM. Lights out.

That's the daily routine. This is our life. Not enough time to write many substantive articles. This easy article has taken two hours to write and insert the pictures and the hypertextual jumps. A substantive article takes me about four hours to complete. So far, I've only been able to write on days when there are no breakfast guests, because I am at my best in the morning. So it's either write or cook. We've had a busy early spring, and I've been in the kitchen more than usual. Perhaps when I retire I can write full time...

This morning we laughed about using Twitter to spread the Simple Explanation memes rather than the blog. As if I could tweet the Simple Explanations that continually flow through my head... "pelicans find their young not through eyesight but through vibratory signatures..." ... "a tree's karma is visible for all to see..." ... "the Universal UC is the autophagosome of the metaverse..." and so on. Would anyone enjoy receiving such esoteric tweets? Let me know if you would...

Zoey, Cyd, and Franny

A Simple Explanation of The Perennial Philosophy

A philosopher friend of mine recently commented on the Simple Explanation, "Excellent retelling of the Perennial Philosophy!"

I was unfamiliar with the expression "Perennial Philosophy," so I looked it up on Wikipedia. Here's their essential definition:

Perennial philosophy is the philosophical concept which states that each of the world’s religious traditions share a single truth. Perennial philosophy asserts that there is a single divine foundation of all religious knowledge, referred to as the universal truth. Each world religion, independent of its cultural or historical context, is simply a different interpretation of this knowledge...

Yes, my friend was right. The Simple Explanation is all about identifying the universal truth embedded underneath ages of confusing memetic overlays.

And what is the basic truth that all traditions share when you strip away their superfluous memes?

• There is a Divine Reality underpinning everything; without This, no thing and no one would exist. 
• Ground, Sat, Undiffentiated Unity, Brahman, Godhead, Pure Light of the Void, Pure Consciousness, Metaverse

• This Divine Reality may be directly perceived under certain conditions.
• through prayer, meditation, near-death experiences, mystic revelation, psychedelic drugs, religious ecstasy, inspired ritual, super-rational intuition
• Humans possess a dual nature: the little, egoic "me" of day-to-day living, and a true Self that reflects the Divine Reality.
• egoic "me" is selfish, competitive, single-minded, short-sighted, meme-bound
• transcending ego, Self reaches out to others with love, help, and information for the betterment of all
• People long to reunite with that divine Reality from whence they came.
• salvation, enlightenment, Self-realization, Buddhahood
• Unification is only possible through denial of the earthly self and identification with divine Reality.
• focus on the here and now; drop unwanted memes

          ****************************************

The late Aldous Huxley wrote an excellent book on the topic in 1944 called The Perennial Philosophy. I've only read the first three chapters so far, but they are already marked up with happy scribbles. What a smart man Huxley was! Everything he is saying fits in perfectly with the Simple Explanation, so if you would like a fuller explanation of the Perennial Philosophy, I'd recommend Huxley's book.

The Fractal Roots of Consciousness



As explained in the articles, "My Self, the Governor of Whoville" and "A Simple Fractal Model of the Conscious Universe," my Self's Unit of Consciousness (UC) is sitting atop a veritable fractal galaxy of hierarchically arranged Units of Consciousness, all working together to instantiate my body. While I may believe I am the only conscious soul inhabiting this body of mine, my physical body is actually home to all of these aggregated UCs, each with their own job to perform, each living their own lives and laying down their own karmic record. Within the confines of my skin, countless UCs of varying levels of complexity work together to keep my body alive and fully functional. At each descending level of complexity, from my governing Self UC down through the organ systems, organs, cells, molecules, atoms, and quanta, my body's UCs deal with increasingly simpler tasks even as the matter associated with them becomes smaller and more numerous. The simplest and most numerous level of materially instantiated consciousness is associated with the quantum foam that forms at the finest fractal edge between matter and energy.

As the roots of a plant send out finer and finer tendrils at each level of fractal branching, our hierarchically arranged aggregate UCs nest closer and closer to the Original Source Code--the Universal UC--at their simplest and most numerous levels. Whereas the concerns of the world often obscure my Self UC, the UC of a single sub-atomic particle or wave (anu), having a fairly limited view of creation and few choices regarding activity, is the least distracted by Ego and most attuned with its originating Source. At the deepest physical level of instantiation, the countless quanta that form the building blocks of our bodies are associated with countless undeluded UCs, all tapping their roots directly into the organizational source of our Universe ("Universal UC," "God," "Sat," "Original Source Code").

As I visualize the roots of Whoville, I visualize roots penetrating from my skin inward, finer and finer, to the depths of my material being. Within my body, all of my aggregated UCs drill fractally "backward" toward the zero-point field at our shared core. Whereas my Self UC may appear a long way off from God, especially if I conceive of God outside the Very Large, if I instead turn inward and "fall back," I am as near to God as the center point of Whoville's UCs. This is a new way to interpret the practices of "centering" and "grounding." When ancient teachings speak of God residing in the hearts of man, this Simple Explanation suggests the heart may be interpreted as the shared zero-point field at the shared center of our fractal Units of Consciousness.

A Simple Explanation of Meditation

Scientific research has proven that the brains of regular meditators function differently than those of non-meditators. For one thing, more information travels through the meditator's corpus callosum, uniting left and right hemispheres.
For another thing, meditators recover more quickly from emotional upsets and startle reactions.
For more information on this topic, you can watch 17 minutes of a good documentary provided through Canadian Television:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3LtQH4Etjo

What is it about meditation that causes these effects?

The general process of meditation involves sitting quietly and stilling the mind through concentration. Various schools of meditation encourage concentration through a variety of techniques--attention to breathing, uttering a repeated mantra such as "Lord" or the word "om," focusing on the "third eye" between the eyebrows, or upon love and heartfelt connection beyond oneself. Any method that quiets the mind's chatter will do. Interior silence must be achieved. The goal is relaxation, a sense of perfect peace, a feeling of bliss, or union with God. 

Quieting the mind's chatter during meditation achieves two things.  First, it allows you to temporarily lay aside your meme bundle and briefly unite with your governing Unit of Consciousness Self; secondly, interior stillness provides the empty space needed to go beyond the boundary of your personal Unit of Consciousness (UC) to perceive the reassuring sheltering presence of the universal unit of consciousness. Spiritually oriented meditation techniques refer to this transcendence of personal identity as recognizing the essential Oneness of All, or as approaching the Throne of God. 

Here's what I think happens to the nesting toroids during meditation:

This first drawing represents our nested universal space. (Please click here to review this concept if you need to.) 

The red center represents the material universe; the white arrows represent proto-energy radiating into our universe; the beige is our governing UC; the yellow is the universal unit of consciousness, known as God.

During ordinary consciousness, our Self is engaged in the material-based world. According to Yoga philosophy and energy healers, an observable red current of life-giving energy (prana) runs upward from the base of the spine. Since our toroidal model indicates that matter and energy are generated from the center zero-point of the conscious universal field, our human bodies must occupy our personal UCs thusly:

This illustration represents the human chakra field drawing universal proto-energy (ananda) through chakra one at the base of the spine.

During ordinary, matter-bound consciousness, human awareness is  entirely trapped within the mind's perceptions of the material universe. These matter-bound perceptions include both processed sensory stimuli(touch, taste, hearing, smell, sight) and thought ideations in the form of meme chords and karma. In this state, the Self's governing UC can only occasionally influence the "mud-up" mind.  You could say that in the ordinary state, the matter-bound mortal is "out of phase" with his or her Self UC.

During meditation, the source from which the body draws energy shifts from chakra one at the base of the spine to chakra four--the heart. Yoga philosophy characterizes the heart as the door between the material and spiritual. When the mind is perfectly still, the heart swells with love and with joy. We propose that during meditation, the human goes "in phase" with pure consciousness, uninfluenced by perceptions of and opinions about the material world. This phase shift brings the mud-up mind into full contact with not only its own  governing UC but, with practice and patience, the individualized UC resonates entirely in phase with the universal UC.

At that stage of advanced meditation, when one's personal identity unit of consciousness becomes one with the universal unit of consciousness, the seventh chakra at the crown of the skull channels unimpeded information and coherence directly through the "top" or aligned metaversal funnel. At the same time, the personal toroidal space is entirely in phase with the universal UC and "pressed" directly against the coherence boundary, stimulating an unparalleled sense of love ("Divine Love"). Also, universal proto-energy pours through the "spiritualized heart" at the core of the meditator, bringing an unrivaled sense of bliss to the meditator.

One technique meditators employ to achieve this advanced state of love, bliss, and awareness is to balance their ascending (chakra one) prana with their descending (chakra seven) spiritual energy (mud up, spirit down) so that they meet at the (chakra four) heart center. Perhaps this model's simple explanation may help with that endeavor.