Reflection for August 7th, 2013: The greater must reveal itself to the lesser

If this metaphysical space is to be known,

such knowledge can be attained only by faith and grace,

not by ‘entering’ but by ‘being entered’

-this is so because the greater must reveal itself to the lesser.

Put differently, that which is immanently ‘Spirit’ can only be known receptively,

through its own intellective vision, and not any derivative faculty such as reason,

feeling or sensation. Reason can only discern conceptually,

at best reducing reality to a dualism of subject and object

(as in the case of Descartes) or catagorical postulate

(as in the case of Kant) or dialectic process

(as in the case of Hegel) – its ‘telos’ will tend to be utopian(as in the case of Marx),

fundamentalist( as in the cases of religious, political or secular dogmatism)

or anthropocentrically consencual (as in the case of Rousseau’s social contract);

while sensation or feeling even where elevated to

the level of empirical ‘science,’ can only discern reality as matter or as psyche,

quantitatively, thereby cutting it off from its transcendent

and qualitative roots, leading to an emphasis on hypertrophic subjectivism

(as in the case of Nietzsche), Psychologism(as in the case of Freud),

or reductive positivism(as in the cases of philosophical positivism and of scientism).

That which transcends us cannot be known reductively

but only by that transcendent faculty which is immanent in us-which in

Tradition is termed the ‘Intellect’

or the Self-knowing Spirit. To know is to discern BEING.

We must empty ourselves or our ‘self’ in order to know who we ARE.

We must return to the sacred emptiness of the space that is our

ontological core in order to know that which truly IS.

–M Ali Lakhani (the Distance between us, found in Sacred Web issue 31)

 

Reflection for June 16, 2013: The tree surrounded by four rivers

 

 

 

Soaring upwards
Can be like reaching down

Pushing forward

Can be like pushing back

Going right

Can be like Going left

Within is within

All things begin

And end at the cross roads

–GraalBaum 2013

 

 

This world-mountain was Nizir to the Chaldeans, Olympus to the Greeks, Hara Berezaiti to the Persians of the Avesta, the later Alborz and Elburz; a transfer, as says Mme. Ragozin, of ‘mythical heavenly geography to the earth.’ This mountain—the solar hill of the Egyptians—we shall again refer to in the next two or three chapters. At its apex springs, the heaven tree on which the solar bird is perched. From its roots spring the waters of life—the celestial sea, which, rushing adown the firmament, supplies the ocean which circumscribes the earth or falls directly in rain. At their fountain these springs are guarded by a goddess. In Egypt Nut, the goddess of the oversea, leans from the branches of the heavenly persea and pours forth the celestial water. In the Vedas, Yama, lord of the waters, sits in the highest heaven in the midst of the heavenly ocean under the tree of life, which drops the nectar Soma, and here, on the ‘navel of the waters,’ matter first took form. In the Norse, the central tree Yggdrasil has at its roots the spring of knowledge guarded by the Norns, the northern Fates; two swans the parents of all those of earth, float there. In Chaldea the mighty tree of Eridu, centre of the world, springs by the waters. The Avesta gives a very complete picture—Iran is at the centre of the seven countries of the world; it was the first created, and so beautiful, that were it not that God has implanted in all men a love for their own land, all nations would crowd into this the loveliest land. To the east somewhere, but still at the centre of the world, rises the ‘Lofty Mountain,’ from which all the mountains of the earth have grown, ‘High Haraiti;’ at its

summit is the gathering place of waters, out of which spring the two trees, the heavenly Haoma (Soma), and another tree which bears all the seeds that germinate on earth. This heavenly mountain is called ‘Navel of Waters,’ for the fountain of all waters springs there, guarded by a majestic and beneficent goddess. In Buddhist accounts, the waters issue in four streams like the

Eden from this reservoir, and flow to the cardinal points, each making one complete circuit in its descent. In the Persian Bundahish there are two of these heavenly rivers flowing east and west. To the Hindus the Ganges is such a heavenly stream. ‘The stream of heaven was called by the Greeks Achelous.’ The Nile in Egypt, the Hoang-Ho in China, and the Jordan to the Jews, seem to have been celestial rivers. This mountain of heaven is often figured in Christian art with the four rivers issuing from under the Throne of God.

Sir John Maundeville gives an account of the earthly Paradise quite perfect in its detailed scheme. It is the highest place on earth, nearly reaching to the circle of the moon (as in Dante), and the flood did not reach it. ‘And in the highest place, exactly in the middle, is a well that casts out the four streams’—Ganges, Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates. ‘And men there beyond say that all the sweet waters of the world above and beneath take their beginning from the well of Paradise, and out of that well all water come and go.

 

http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/amm/amm07.htm

 

http://chasinghermes.com/2009/04/24/08-axis-mundi.aspx

 

 

Reflection for January 12, 2011 “The one saving truth”

After extinction I came out, and I

Eternal now am, though not as I.

And who am I, O I, but I

–Ali Shushtari

 

As we travel upon this road of self-knowledge with the help of the means

provided by tradition—means without which such a journey is in fact impossible—we

gain a new perspective concerning every kind of reality with which we had

identified at the beginning of our journey. We come to realize that although we

are male or female, that attribute does not really define us. There is a deeper

reality, one might say an androgynic reality, transcending the male-female

dichotomy so that our identity is not determined simply by our gender. Nor are

we simply our body and the senses although we often identify ourselves with

them. As we travel upon the Sufi path, it also becomes more and more evident

that what we call ” I ” has its existence independent of sense perceptions and

the body as a whole although the soul continues to

have a consciousness of the body while being also aware through spiritual

practice of t h e possibility of leaving it for higher realms.

Likewise, although we have emotions and psychological states with which

we often identify, the spiritual path teaches us that they do not

define and determine our identity in the deepest sense. In fact, often we

say, “I must control my temper,” which demonstrates clearly that

there is more than one psychological agent within human beings. As St. Thomas

said, confirming Sufi teachings, “Duo

sunt in homine” (“There

are two in man”). The part of u s that seeks to control our temper

must be distinct and not determined by the part of o u r soul that is angry and

needs to be controlled. Yes, we do experience emotions, but we need not be

defined by them. In the same manner, we have an imaginative faculty able to

create images, and most of t he time ordinary people live in the lower reaches

of that world of imaginal forms. Again, we are not determined by those forms,

and j o u r n e y i n g upon the spiritual path is especially effective in

transforming our inner imaginal landscape. As for the power of memory, it is

for the most part the repository of images and forms related to earlier

experiences of life. Metaphysically speaking, however, it is also related to

our atemporal relation to our Source of Being and the intelligible world to

which we belonged before our descent here to earth. That is why true knowledge

according to Plato is recollection, and in Sufism the steps of t h e path are

identified with stages of the remembrance of t h e Friend. Most people,

however, consider these everyday remembered experiences as a major part of

their identity. Yet again, the center of our consciousness, our I,  cannot be

identified with our ordinary memory.

We can forget many things and remain the same human being. The spiritual life

may in fact be defined as the practice of techniques that enable us to forget

all that we remember about the world of separation and dispersion and to

remember the most important thing, which this world has caused us to forget,

namely, the one “saving Truth,” which is also our inner reality.

The Garden of Truth: The Vision and Promise of Sufism, Islam’s Mystical Tradition

 

 

The Math of the Word by Tom saunders

The Math of the Word

by

Tom Saunders

What if the Word, as the ”Gospel of John” uses it, could be shown by Mathematics? Would this change your perception of your spiritual self? It might if you understand that the Word, as used by some very early Christians, was used in a way the Orthodox Church never taught. It can be shown. Actually it needs to be explained in two ways.

Ancient Pythagoreans were historically divided into two distinct groups, the ‘Acusmatici,’ or Aphorist, and the ‘Mathematici,’ the scientist. (Early Greek Philosophy, Penguin Classic, pg. 162.) This is a natural duality of the human intellect. The aphorist tends to describe things through literal description, and the scientist uses measurement or mathematics.

In the following explanations, do not confuse yourself by forgetting that you, as an intellect, are not one or the other, you are both. So was everyone in the group of Pythagoreans.

The natural separations or dualities of the human mind are very much part of the Word. However, because this is a natural duality, separating these traits from one another, destroys its natural value. This holds true for both the literal and mathematical explanation of the Monad, and Monadology. This is how good and evil are shown to be controlled. Later it will be shown how the Monad, is equal to, and part of the Word, and ‘Jesus Wisdom’ equals the status of the Word. The ancient Christian Gnostics used a method called Gematria to study the mechanics of the Word.

Gematria

Gematria: The study or science and art of number and letter manipulation. This would include geometric forms such as the Tetraktys of the Decad. ”I {Jesus} have turned their (periods of) influence and their quadrangles and their triangles and their figures of eight , since their (periods of) influence remained turned to the left from the beginning, together with their quadrangles and their triangles and their figures of eight.” (”Pistis Sophia,” See also; Tetraktys of the Decad.” See also; ”Marsenes.” ) (Source: “Saunders Gnostic Glossary.”)

What the above statement is about, is the study of the Monad. The Monadology. Everything in the Nag Hammadi Library has an underlying philosophy of the Monad tied to it. Its really unavoidable, as I will show. Jesus in terms of the Sethian Monadology, and the first sentence of the ”Gospel of John,” becomes the Word, and the Monad in Gnostic Christianity. In Orthodox Christianity this knowledge was forbidden and being tied to it meant the penalty of death. This knowledge is still considered heresy.

The intellect of the Aphorist, and Scientist become important in the Christian Gematria, because duality is the basis for much of how both the mathematical and literary descriptions define how the Sethians used the Pythagorean Monadology. The Gnostics who adopted Christianity, or the other way around, left behind literary descriptions of the monad, and some are full Monadological sequences.

These are literary descriptions of the Monad, i.e. Monadology.

“As I said earlier, (said Jesus), among the things that were created the
Monad is first, the dyad follows it, and the triad, up to the tenths. Now the
tenths rule the hundredths; the hundredths rule the thousandths; the thousands
rule the ten thousands. This is the pattern <among the> immortals. First Man is
like this: His monad […]. ( is His God, my insertion.) (From “Eugnostos the
Blessed,” Nag Hammadi Library, Codex III, Robinson, 1990.)

(b.) Again it is this pattern that exists among the immortals: the Monad and the
thought are those things that belong to Immortal Man. The thinkings are for
<the> decads, and the hundreds are the teachings, and the thousands are the
counsels, and the ten thousands are the powers. Now those who come from the
[…] exist with their […] in every aeon […].” (From “Eugnostos the
Blessed,” Nag Hammadi Library, Codex III, Robinson, 1990.)

Students of Chinese Philosophy may recognize the description above, is very much like that given in the explanation of the Tai Chi. In fact they are both the same formula. For those not familiar with this philosophy I have prepared two short video presentations that explain the advanced workings of the Tai Chi, and another for how the Monad works as a parallel to the Tai Chi.

Here are two passages that will confirm to most that the above descriptions from the Nag Hammadi, are in fact describing the same concepts….

(a.) “Wu Chi {The Great Void} creates Tai Chi, Tai Chi is the one Chi. One Chi
generates Yin and Yang, and Yin and Yang can change in infinite ways.” (From
“The History of Chinese Philosophy,” Fung Yu-Lan, Princeton Press, 1953.)

(b.) ” Tao produced oneness. Oneness produced duality, Duality evolved into the
ten thousand things. The ten thousand things support the yin, and embrace the
yang. It is the blending of the breaths (of yin and yang) that their harmony
depends.” ( from “Lau Tzu,” or the “Tao Te Ching” sixth c. B.C. ).Ibid, Fung
Yu-Lan)

I have prepared two video presentations that will give the reader an advanced insight into the above passages. The first is how the Asians preserved Ba Gua Science as far as how it is applied. The next is an explanation of how Ba Gua Science, works like the Monadology, and some about how it is used.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsBDhQZtjEo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1DN0_PEJAE

The Mathematical explanation of the Monad, does not involve what is pre-Monadic. Its a mathematical formula that shows what is contained within the space of the Monad itself. However, the nature of the Mathematical monad, does tend to show a very important aspect of duality. The use of the term Tai Chi, and Monad, include the aspects and the meaning of the terms Yin and Yang, and dyad, or duad. By the mathematical gematra, these both mean virtually a double aspect of the same thing. Dyad does not mean two things separated from the Monad, but it does show the aspect of one becoming two things, if you don’t lose the perspective of being both an Aphorist and Scientist.

The algebraic equation that shows how a Word is formed in the equation, is based upon the aspect of the Monad being composed of unit forms (axioms), and modification axioms. In other words the algebraic formula shows the Monad as having the aspect of the ability to mutate. This is what the literal descriptions say. The following videos explain the mathematical Monadic theory much better than I can…Watch them as a balanced Aphorist and Scientist and you’ll see the gematra of the Catsters show you the Word, right before your eyes.

Mathematical Monad……(Presentation study by The Catsters)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBQnysX7oLI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si6_oG7ZdK4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fohXBj2UEI&NR=1

{Natural transformations, See also Klein Jars}

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZSUwqWjHCU&NR=1

See also, on Pythagorean Math…..

http://library.thinkquest.org/22584/emh2000.htm

Right before your eyes if you gaze at the illustrations and the way the base forms grow, it confirms the literary, and mathematical concepts alined with the Aphorists, and Mathematicians.

A Note on Leibnitz

The term Monadology comes into the modern lexicons of our language through the work of Gottfried Leibnitz. However, the term Monad, and its connected concepts is far older. It is not known to me at this time when the mathematical study of the Monad existed. It would be my best guess that the Pythagoreans knew it and kept it an occult study, as they did the literalist study of the Monad.

Leibnitz’ work shows that a person is his own Monad. This is consistent with what I am showing, and I suspect Leibnitz, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjiman Franklin, knew a lot more than they revealed about Leibnitz’ work. The Preamble to the U. S. Constitution is a Monadic sequence. Follow the below formula, and you can see for yourself… Once you know how to recognize them, they stand out, like those in the Nag Hammadi Library. (This may well be part of how Pythagoreans kept the secrets hidden. If you know the formula, you know what to look for. If you don’t, you don’t see the formula. This means the list that is a Monadic sequence, jumps out. A list that is just a list, is just a list.

The Church was still so powerful at the time of Leibnitz, he stood on the brink of being killed by the Church. In my opinion all he or even Jefferson, and Franklin had to do was reveal they were investigating the Monad mentioned in the works of Ireaneus, and they would have been killed. I trust with this essay I divulge what they could not.

The Christian Monad

The Sethian use of the Monad, as with the Tai Chi, begins before the Monad, with a void, or emptiness. In the Sethian Christian texts, this emptiness is called Silence. From Silence comes the One, or the Monad, which is Jesus Wisdom, i.e. the Word. The obvious purpose of the ”Secret Sayings of the Living Jesus,” otherwise known as the ”Gospel of Thomas,” would be to provide the literal source of this virtual set of the Word. I say set because the Monadic equation shows ((abc) (ex)) <~> (abcex) {a word}. This virtually means the monad, and monoid equal the Monad, and dyad. One equals one, the monad equals the Word. Actually the formula shows, the Monad equals, (Word) <~> ( 114 ‘type’ (sayings) as a set which is the ”Gospel of Thomas.”)

Note: { I am using the tilda (<~>) to show what is a straight line in the formulas of the videos, this is due to the keyboard functions of my computer. The tilda between the arrows equals a straight line.}

The concept of emptiness or the ‘great void,’ is described by Aristotle, who reveals emptiness from the Pythagorean perspective. One of the rare clues about Pythagorean concepts starting with emptiness, is quoted by Aristotle, in “Physics.” (213b22-27) “Early Greek Philosophy,” pg. 171.

“The Pythagoreans too said that empty exists, and it enters the heavens from the limitless breath, as though the heavens actually inhale the empty which distinguishes natural things, and is sort of separation and distention of contiguous things. {Limit} They hold that this appears first among numbers for the empty separates their natures.”

Actually there is a lot more to take in after you grasp emptiness. The Gnostics took the study of emptiness to a level called Kenosis….

Kenosis: A Greek term meaning emptiness, or to make empty. As in Philippians 2:7, “Jesus made himself nothing…” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenosis In Christian theology, Kenosis is the concept of the ‘self-emptying’ of one’s own will and becoming entirely receptive to God and his perfect will. It is used both as an explanation of the incarnation, and an indication of the nature of God’s activity and condescension.

The use of kenosis is actually broader than the definition above might suggest. If you have viewed the videos so far you have an idea of what comes next with the ‘numbers,’ and what can be made of the nature of those numbers. From duality, comes the Ba Gua, or Monadic sequence.

Both the Chinese and Pythagoreans, learned to apply sciences extending outside the realm of the (One) Monad, and learned to form sets, which are governed by the natural laws of ‘limit,’ and form. This means that the limits of form, correspond with other aspects of the natural forces of perhaps the Word, Wisdom, or language itself. This is why things like evil as a form have seven ‘types,’ (See lies in the video). Sets form out of natural cycles and influences, i.e. patterns.

In the Gnostic schema, dualities, are referred to as Powers, Archons, Aeons, Autogenes, Monogenes, etc., all pretty much exactly show the same powers. All are the cause and effects of duality, in the schema, or ‘stages’ which mutate out of the Monadic form. At this point the most likely mathematical correspondence with the way the sequences mutate is by aligning the Monadic sequence with the binomial aspects of the Tai Chi. Ba Gua, are in fact, trigrams which represent a binomial system. The mathematical aspects of this fact are beyond the scope of this essay.

Form, Separation, and Limit

Pre-Christians used different ways including using Seth to show how the separation of good and evil forces worked. Dualities like good and evil, extending out of emptiness, are represented by actions. What the Monadic sequence does is teach the Gnostic how to encounter adversity with skills applied to the kenosis process, with the tools he develops from learning the sequences of good and evil. This is exactly how the martial artist learns to confront adversity, you develop skills.

This requires knowledge and study of how the Monadic or Ba Gua Sequence takes shape. The skills needed for the arena or form of the fight, requires you understand the physical forms and limits, as well as the all the literal ones. Through a natural process of human form, and natural duality the experienced fighter sees the opponents actions and corresponds to the natural grid, of wisdom which determines offense, defense, boxing moves, or grappling moves. Every arena has different dualities, and hence different limits of types in a set, this is the basis for separation.

The Gnostic learns the dualities of good actions and evil ones, based upon how he needs to keep his faith, with his own actions. These are learned skills. Part of this is learning are the forms, the number of types, in sets like good, and evil, and learning how to control the skills you need to apply in the ‘void.’ This is the point of learning to use the Monadology in your psyche.

There seems to be a natural separation in the ”Gospel of Thomas.” It is obvious, as to the first real duality you can make in the text, if you use the process of separation to examine the sayings. The type of saying that is obviously a special part of the text are the parables. Apply all the knowledge of the text to the problems, i.e. forms of the Parables, using what you glean from the entire text and, you have merged your own mind with Jesus. According to the way the Monadology is applied, this makes sense as how you apply it to the Thomas text.

Then you apply this knowledge to yourself, and the form of you as your own parable.

This makes the Mathematical formula for you bonding with the Word, ( (y) (o) (u) ) <~> (Word/Monad), which would equal the mathematical equivalent of achieving Christian Gnosis. This has lots of happy connotations if you know the Gnostic texts.

The Trinity

The trinity, is after the duality. The Aphorists both Chinese and early Christian, again share aspects of how this mutation happens. The trinity in the Tai Chi system can be characterized by what is known as the ‘Taoist Trinity,’ which states…”Man’s Mind, is the same as heaven and earth.” This means in most aspects that the Mind, as an empty space, is like the Great Void, ( Wu Chi ) of Chinese philosophy. Being like heaven means the dualities of the Mind, and the collective on earth, work the same way in the kenosis process. In other words what comes into the voids of heaven and the human mind are much the same things.

In the Christian Gnostic texts the concept of trinity is literalized in different places, and in a few different ways, in some of those places. This is because the Monad is an occult study, and this idea is lots older than when the early Christians made Jesus the Monad. As the Monad and part of a trinity, the Monad, becomes the primary influence in the dualities shown in the form of the trinity.

Gnostics to my knowledge called the primary evil influence, a demon(s), like the Seven Forms of Wrath, in the “Gospel of Mary,” but did not refer to them as Monads. There is an evil Trinity in the Gnostic texts, its darkness, desire, and ignorance. There is also the ‘Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” but the Gnostic version follows a broader alignment according the the way trinity is used in the various Gnostic texts.

In the Trinity, Jesus is the Monad, as the control factor over all duality.

This extends the mathematical formula to (Word) <~> (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Darkness, Desire, and Ignorance.) There is no separation of good and evil, until the Gnostic becomes a controlling factor.

The Tetrad and Higher Forms

The Gnostic or Sacred Tetrad is preserved in the Works of both Basilides, and Valentinus. Its Word, Man, Life, and Church, (Truth). These terms have specific meanings in the ‘Gnostic lexicon.’ In the higher forms, referring to those with larger numbers of types in the Monadic sets, remain as associate axioms all influenced by the cause and effects of how the duality through the form is handled.

In the higher forms starting with the Word as the Monad in the sequence, the Gnostics added the term Knowledge, Gnosis, or free will, to the end of the sequence. This designates the Gnostic as the controller over the set. In other words duality like good and evil become controlled by the Gnostic, designated by the last member of the set of types in the associate side of the Monadic axiom.

This may be seen as adding another factor into the designated equation, one that can make a designated choice of producing one side of dualistic expression. This equation could be shown a couple of different ways to explain how the control of the set goes from its natural form, to one manipulated in part by the Gnostic.

One way would be to express the Word and Gnostic is one factor together. This would reflect the Gnostic and Word, as bonded as one…

( (Word) (The Gnostic)) <~> ( abcd {good} abcd {evil})

However, at this level, where the Gnostic takes control over the duality the mathematics would best serve to show plus or minus the factors of good and evil. After all this is the choice for the Christian Gnostic, and how the Monadic sequences start to become a viable heuristic device.

The Pentad

At the level of the pentad, another equation can be shown that demonstrates the power the Gnostic has to take control over what happens in the cause and effect within the types of a given set. Control would be shown something like this…

(Word) = (The Gnostic) <~> ( (abcde {good}) +/- abcde {evil} )) = (The Gnostic plus good or evil, contingent upon the chosen action. Sometimes Gnostics do evil deeds for very good reasons, although my best guess is this would be rare.

At this point the Aphoristic explanations of the Monadology show the Pentad as a circle. This of course represents the way the Monadology is used in the ‘arenas’ of human action, as shown in the video. This is where the Gnostic learns to gain control of these environments.

The sequence at the level of the Pentad, and higher in the Gnostic teachings include the designation of the Gnostic as a controlling factor. The sequence therefore looks like this….

(Word), (dyad or influence of duality), (c.), (d), (e), etc. depending upon the size of the set, and the last unit being the Gnostic, (Knowledge). So the Seven Forms of Wrath in the “Gospel of Mary,” as an evil form looks like a simple list. This is the passage from which the Seven Forms are introduced…

“When the soul had overcome the third power, it went upwards and saw the fourth power, which took seven forms.

The first form is darkness, the second desire, the third ignorance, the fourth is the excitement of death, the fifth is the kingdom of the flesh, the sixth is the foolish wisdom of flesh, the seventh is the wrathful wisdom. These are the seven powers of wrath.” (Chapter 8., “Gospel of Mary“)

Here the evil power (form) can be shown as, (darkness, desire, ignorance, excitement of death, kingdom of the flesh, foolish wisdom of the flesh, and wrathful wisdom.) The reader will note the last member of this set, uses the term wisdom, and this denotes the use of ‘evil knowledge.’ This would be congruent with the Christian Gnostic form.

When Mary in the Gospel says she is overcoming the demons, the formula in the Monadology looks like this…

(Word), (darkness, which is the duality factor in this set), (desire), (ignorance), (excitement of death), (kingdom of the flesh), (foolish wisdom of the flesh), and ( The ‘Knowledge’ to control the wrathful wisdom under the influence of darkness).

Conclusion

The Aphorist, and Mathematician in regard to the understanding and demonstration of the Word, (Monad) can be shown to coincide in showing the use of the term, and defining ‘Word’ in Christian theology.

The Pythagoreans adopted the Chinese method of study which includes Ba Gua Science. They converted it at some time in early history to include their rendering of form, separation, and limit. The Sethians both pre Christian and Christian adopted this theory, and made the teachings of Jesus the Monad. Monad = Word.

Hi,

Many times I cross-post essays to religious groups that I belong to. So is the case with the essay “The Math of the Word.” There is one important difference about this essay that I would like to explain.

This particular concept of putting the Word, into mathematical terms, qualifies the Gnostic learning in a way never before realized in modern times.

I knew the Pythagoreans had a mathematical companion to the literal or aphorist side to the explanation of the Monadology. My problem regarding math is, I’m very weak and almost inept at doing any kind of math. I never thought I could make the mathematical argument but the “Catsters” did it for me. This is in spite of the fact they don’t know who I am yet. They don’t know I’ve connected their work to mine, and are certainly unaware of the Gnostic connection. I’m sure they will be surprised.

If this material is a little overwhelming, I understand. The algebra in the Catsters’ videos is complex at first but not impossible to get even if you don’t know anything about algebra. I’ve been told that the literalist descriptions are not easy either. The saving grace is, when you can show the math, the real arguments over speculation can be put to rest. One = One, is a hard argument to beat.

It is like proving there is a Bigfoot. You show up with a real Bigfoot, in front of reliable sources then you have the right evidence. My work just put Gnostic science on that same level. The ancient Monadology is a large heavy beast the Orthodox Church has never been able to explain. I have no doubt that modern Bible scholars will be slow to respond. They always are. Again, One = One, is a hard argument to beat.

It might actually be easier to show up with a Bigfoot, than a Monad.

Whatever happens in the Bible scholar community is no longer much concern to me. I intend to put the Monad to use, and I’m not waiting on anyone else to do it. What the Nag Hammadi texts say can be made clear, and without major speculation.

A camel is a horse built by a committee that didn’t know what a horse looked like. This has been what the Gnostic scholarship has been like, without an adequate explanation of the underlying philosophies. This has hampered qualifying real Gnostic Science. No more.

Tom Saunders

 

reflection for January 30, 2008: Polarity

 

 

 

Polarity….

left is right, right is left.

The key to polarity is to realize that opposites are the same thing. A Kaplan explains this well early on in his version of the safer yetzirah.

Opposites if stretched out forever…will bend in upon themselves and meet.

However beyond opposites is the 3rd…

The sperm and the egg form a zygote
a chemical wedding…marriage of opposites to create a 3rd

Thus a child is of the mother and the father, both and yet neither.
Thus Christ is of the father and the world (the mother), both, and yet neither
The line (father) and the circle (mother) when joined form the serpent (child), which is the circle and the line, yet neither.

the end is in the beginning, kether is in malkuth, kether is closer to malkuth than it is to chockmah.
When united, there is no kether or malkuth………there just is

“Tarry a little; there is something else. This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood; The words expressly are ‘a pound of flesh:’ Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh; But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed one drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate unto the state of Venice.

Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh. Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more but just a pound of flesh: if thou cut’st more or less than a just pound, be it but so much as makes it light or heavy in the substance, or the division of the twentieth part of one poor scruple, nay, if the scale do turn but in the estimation of a hair, thou diest and all thy goods are confiscate.”

–the merchant of venice, the bard

So we see, nothing exists in isolation. Blood is inseparable from flesh. Good is inseparable from evil.

“Light and Darkness, life and death, right and left, are brothers of one another. They are inseparable. Because of this neither are the good good, nor evil evil, nor is life life, nor death death. For this reason each one will dissolve into its earliest origin. But those who are exalted above the world are indissoluble, eternal.”

–gospel of Philip

good is not good, evil is not evil. Christ is not the father or the mother.

This is dualism…..

OM…

He who has known that all beings have become one with his own self, and he who has seen the oneness of existence, what sorrow and what delusion can overwhelm him?

He has occupied all. He is radiant, without body (incorporeal), without injury, without muscles, pure, untouched by evil. He is the seer, thinker, all pervading, self-existent, has distributed various objects, through endless years, each according to it’s inherent nature.

–Isa Upanishad

of course concepts are concepts. Concepts by their very nature are inherently wrong. The Tao that can be spoken of is not the Tao. But concepts “help”, the greatest thing you can say is however, to remain silent.

 

the acorn

a small acorn falls from a great height
It lands below on the ground
The rain rains down upon it
fed by the leaf litter and other nutrients of the soil
the acorn begins to grow
over time the acorn grows into a tree
many years pass the tree is tall and old
the tree stands old and dying
slowly it rots and decays
it falls down to the ground slowly
it becomes one with the earth and leaf litter
nearby
a small acorn falls from a great height
It lands below on the ground
The rain rains down upon it……..

Metempsychosis

“What is the good (of erecting a tomb)? The body is dirt and rubbish when once the soul has left it!” – from Mandaeans of Iraq & Iran, pg 184

 “Awake, brethren, chosen ones, on this day of spiritual salvation, the 14th of the month of Mihr, when Jesus, the Son of God, entered into parinirvana.”. – Parthian Manichaean fragment M104 from Turfan

Greek Term	Aramaic Term	Jewish Term
Soma/Sarx (Physical Body)	Pagra (Physical Body)	Guf (Physical Body)
Hyle/Soma (Instinctual Soul)	Napsha (Instinctual Soul)	Nephesh (Instinctual Soul)
Psyche (Emotional Soul)	Ruha (Emotional Soul)	Ruach (Emotional Soul)
Pneuma (Spiritual Soul)	Nishimta (Spiritual Soul)	Neshamah (Spiritual Soul)

The Fate Of The Body & Soul At Death According To Gnostic Sources

 

reflection for august 7, 2007: the treasure

 God is not external to anyone,
but is present with all things,
though they are ignorant that he is so.

–Plotinus

……………………

And if it is true that we acquired our knowledge
before our birth, and lost it at the moment of our
birth, but afterward, by the exercise of our senses
upon sensible objects, recover the knowledge
we had once before, I suppose that what we call
learning will be the recovery of our own knowledge…

–Plato

……………………………………………….
Man has a soul and…
there is a buried treasure in the field

–cg jung

……………………………………
This morning when I was saying Prime under the
pine trees in front of the hermitage, I saw a wounded
deer limping along in the field, one leg incapacitated.
I was terribly sad at this and began weeping bitterly.
And something extraordinary happened.  I will never
forget standing there weeping and looking at the deer
standing still looking at me questioningly for a long time,
a minute or so.  The deer bounded off without any sign of trouble.

–Thomas Merton

……………………………………………..

Jesus said: The kingdom is like a man who had in his
field a hidden treasure, of which he knew nothing.
And [after] he died he left it to his son. The son also
did not know; he took the field and sold it.
The man who bought it came and as he was ploughing
found the treasure. He began to lend money at
interest to whomever he wished.

–gospel of thomas (109)