Further thoughts:
2) The primacy of 'awareness' and 'consciousness' seems crucial, and by these words we refer again to something 'extraordinary' and uncommon. But there arises a secondary question or problem and that is of 'energy', of 'motion', and by this refer not only to energy or motion but to specific qualities of either. The question seems to hinge on that of How will energy be directed? To what and toward what?
2a) Two obvious modes of energy movement may be posited. It seems to be an Either/Or: One employs energy and movement either consciously and as a result of intelligent direction in its purest sense, or unconsciously, semi-consciously, which points to instinctual forces, or sentimental/emotional force, or desire, or perhaps 'unconscious' force which points toward all that we understand of so-called unconscious powers and could even refer to so-called 'demonic' power. And with this problematic reference we would refer again to the words of Oppenheimer and the recognition that man's penetrations onto natural secrets places him in the position of a sort of Mephistopheles. But it seems prudent to at least mention that it is possible for intelligence to align itself with darkly willful and 'unconscious' desire and that out of this there comes into the world very strange human creations.
2c) We would suggest that if a 'superior' pole of rulership directs, and such direction is understood as 'conscious' in the best senses, that energy and motion will likely be directed toward the 'inner' than toward the outer. By 'inner' we refer to 'inner world', 'inner work', 'inner enrichment', to what is interior and intangible as compared with the so-called 'outer-world'. It seems cogent to stress that, generally speaking, it is only a 'higher' sort of consciousness that feels drawn to the 'inner world' as a or as the platform for 'inner development'. Prayer life, imaginal life, the world of intellectual creation, literary life, the honing of the soul's relationship with perceived divinity, with 'God' (Self, Atman) and even those higher questions dealing on 'fate', 'destiny', 'right and wrong' are part-and-parcel of a higher order of intelligent activity which seems to originate in an inner area of man.
Yet under the influence or rule of an unconscious force or pole we question if energy would continue to be focussed 'inwardly' (as we are calling it) nor 'responsibly' and 'intelligently', and we understand that in such a case energy and motion would tend toward external objects, toward external attainments, and 'out into the world' of multiplicity. Since we are speaking about 'energy' and its use and also 'motion' and its sort and quality, these considerations are relevant.
If very 'darkly' afflicted (intelligent aligned with outright malevolence), we understand that consciousness could be 'possessed' by what can be described as 'delirium and madness'. We most certainly suggest that, to speak generally, and in our Modern Age, man's consciousness is caught up in streams of conflicting energy and is pulled in various directions, sometimes simultaneously. We also understand that 'an average man' does not have the conceptual tools to understand his position within vast currents and his power of resistance and defense are limited. There is an on-going and somewhat 'classic' battle between what could be referred to as two opposed 'poles', each vying for ascendency in a man's 'soul'.
3) Causation. This is a very interesting question and issue. Consider the following. Everything (nearly) in the world as we understand it and the world in which we have our being, the 'world of becoming', that is of constant flow and flux and movement, or constant formation and advance, has been set in motion by an infinite causal chain. Every and all aspects of Nature (natural movement, trajectory) is thoroughly 'unfree' and in the grip of causation. And insofar as we are biological beings within this causal stream we are, in this sense, thoroughly unfree: caused. Previous causes give shape to everything that occurs in the natural world and therefor of a great many things that occur in the human world, if one understands the 'human world' to be ensconced within the 'natural world'. This means: determinism, unfreedom, slavery.
3a) We said that
nearly everything is caused and part of a determined causal chain. But we understand that there is an exception, or what might be called a 'human exception' or which someone once called 'the cubic centimeter of chance' (Castaneda). So, in this 'theology' we are forced (heh heh) to understand that
only in the higher dimensions of a higher sort of man (which must all be carefully explained to avoid confusion and misunderstanding), and coming from within, that is to say from a higher metaphysical and inner dimension within (a) man, might there arise within the determined causal stream the possibility of making a choice that 1) originates outside of the determined causal stream and 2) can function as a
seed or a movement or an impetus that might operate against the determined causal stream. With this notion we return, in a circle, to our first axiom: that of consciousness and awareness. We state: these are absolute and thorough mysteries. Our presence and our capability within this plane of matter hinges directly on how consciousness is understood, honed and used. This is
the central point,
the primary area of intelligent focus. We understand that the essence of spiritual and religious life is bound up with these kinds of questions and problems.
We understand that only in a higher sort of mind, in sophisticated and developed consciousness, could there arise an impulse or an idea or a motivation that is distinct from pure determined causation that describes Nature. It is possible therefor that an idea born in this consciousness could act int he world as-against pure determinism, and that on this possibility everything hinges.
3b) Intellect. Intellection. We suggest that these terms must be rethought and re-pondered---restored in fact---to a very high place. Intellect, spirituality, intellectual life, literacy, higher dimensions of sentiment, intuition and all such similar terms and references point toward 'essences' that are hard-won and easily lost. Intellect especially must be understood as a quintessence within man's possibility. Linked to the intellect is (the notion of) 'spirit', 'pure idea', 'pure awareness', 'high consciousness'. Intellect, intellection and 'intellectualism' are quite possibly the only area where man's higher possibility has its origin, and if something can be called 'sacred' it may indeed be this. In any case, this intellect must be understood as being extremely important, worthy of development and also protection. And we suggest that there are vast potencies operating against it.
We assert that 'intellect' is also tied to any notion one can hold of 'higher metaphysical worlds', to the
supra-mundane and the
supra-human. At its best intellect represents and expresses groups of ideas that function against determinism (though we fully understand that in considering ourselves we must consider ourselves as 'admixtures' and as 'contaminated' vessels). And if we are to consider 'freedom' as a 'real thing' (for there can be no freedom within determined natural systems), and if we are to desire it, we have to consider at the most ultimate point where it might exist, in what form it might take, and to what aspects of a man it is most connected.
From all this we may suggest that a 'free thought' from out of man's awareness arises not from out of Nature but from something else altogether.
If this is so, a 'theology' would focus on that possibility. We suggest that here the
supra-human link, the connecting-point between the 'world of becoming' (nature) and the world of 'being' (the supra-mundane, the metaphysical) is what is being referred to, and indeed it is 'the most important thing'. So it is wise to linger over these points, and it is wise too to consider and to understand how in so many different ways all the above-mentioned ideas are interwoven with our own 'traditions'.
The Chinese have an ideogram: the
Hexagram 61 Inner Truth, Sincerity composed of the trigram Wind, above, and the trigram Lake, below. The invisible shows itself at the interaction-point between two 'realities'. What is invisible shown itself through its effect within the visible (wind on the surface of the lake). It also describes a 'superior influence' that inspires relationship or 'concordance' within the heart of man. Also, it says that to influence 'pigs and fishes' is especially fraught:
- "Pigs and fishes are the least intelligent of all animals and therefore the most difficult to influence. The force of inner truth must grow great indeed before its influence can extend to such creatures."
To influence any being, there has to exist in that being a 'spark' so to speak. One thing resonates with another. A 'call' goes forth and there comes a 'response'.
- "The character of fu ('truth') is actually the picture of a bird's foot over a fledgling. It suggests the idea of brooding. An egg is hollow. The light-giving power must work to quicken it from outside, but there must be a germ of life within, if life is to be awakened. Far-reaching speculations can be linked with these ideas."
3c) What
augments and what
diminishes 'the manifestation of the divine' as we have alluded here? This is also a crucial question. To begin to probe this question is to begin to probe within a strange and mysterious territory.
