1.
Before entering into the discussion of our subject we will quickly examine a few terms relating to consciousness. There are several words
often used more or less indiscriminately to express what we mean when we say we know anything; and as knowing is known only to a knower, words
relating to knowing are not definable
ultimately other than by appeal to
the knowingness in a knower.
2.
We may say we know a thing, we are aware of it, we are conscious of it, we feel
it, we sense it, etc.
3.
Awareness, consciousness, feeling, sensation; all these
words refer to that whereby we know what we know. It is significant and
important that we cannot indicate what we mean by one of these words
without appealing to that in us which corresponds with
their significance, that is, to that in us which knows that it knows. From this fact may be
shown the ultimate infiniteness of sentience.
4.
All
these words refer to that in and by which we know.
If we persist in asking what we mean by this we can reply only, "We know what
we mean. Consciousness is its own evidence. Self-evidence is the
means whereby sentience knows itself."
5.
Because it is not proved by other than itself to itself, we say that consciousness
of consciousness is immediate. ÔImmediateÕ
means, Ônot mediatedÕ; Ônot using anything other than itself to know
itselfÕ.
6.
Nothing proves consciousness or sentience to exist other
than itself. But the existence of objects in consciousness is proved only by
consciousness. Without consciousness or sentience, even if objects
existed, there would be no actual proof of their existence.
7.
Although the words ÔconsciousnessÕ, ÔawarenessÕ,
etc., all refer to that in and by which we know things, we may distinguish
some difference in their usage.
8.
The word expressing what is most basic in the knowing
process is ÔsenseÕ, a word derived from the Latin ÔsentireÕ, Ôto feelÕ.
9.
We know what we mean when we say we feel. Feeling is
basic in the sense that of ways of knowing it is general rather than special,
universal rather than particular, undefined rather than defined. A feeling is
less clearly outlined than an idea, although a feeling of pain may be
sharply localized. We may say that feeling is our state when we know the field of
our experience: feeling is field awareness. To feel is to know a
field-state.
10.
A field in electronic theory is defined as a zone of
influence of a force. Psychologically, we may say a field is a
zone of feeling, or a place in which we feel some process, or sense
something, without defining
precisely what form it has. In principle a field is ultimately infinite. The
field of sentience is limitless.
11.
The
Latin-derived word we may use for feeling is ÔsentienceÕ. It has a less
particularized use than ÔconsciousnessÕ, and
therefore may be used to express that faculty in us whereby we know by feeling. By ÔsentienceÕ we shall mean that which knows
by feeling without sharply defined formal content, but which is the ground of
the possibility of formally defined consciousness.
12.
The word ÔconsciousnessÕ has a more specific significance. It is from the same
root as ÔscienceÕ. The ÔsciÕ in the word is
seen in the Latin ÔscindereÕ, Ôto splitÕ, Ôto separateÕ. Consciousness knows things as separate from each other. Consciousness defines analytically what sentience experiences wholly
and non-analytically. (One of the
most efficient ways of developing consciousness is by verbalization, for
words help towards analysis of the content
of consciousness).
13.
The word ÔawarenessÕ is derived from the Old English ÔwaerÕ - ÔcautiousÕ. It is cognate with the Latin ÔvereriÕ, Ôto observe anxiouslyÕ. To be
wary is to be on guard in feeling, to be watchful.
14.
Rather amusingly, the other word ÔwareÕ, meaning ÔgoodsÕ, or ÔmerchandiseÕ, is connected with the Old Norse ÔvaraÕ, meaning ÔskinÕ, or ÔfleeceÕ. No doubt
in former times it was occasionally necessary to beware of the
ware-sellers in the marketplace to avoid
being ÔfleecedÕ.
15.
Awareness then, we might say, carries with it a sense of
being on guard. Consciousness or sentience qualified by caution.
16.
All
these words may be used interchangeably, with
occasional preference for one or the other according to the requirements of the context. All refer to that in and by which we know what we know
and that we know.
17.
The objects in the field of sentience are limited or
finite. The field itself is not. Every thing, every definable
idea, every temporary feeling-state or emotion, may be considered as a
finite datum within a sentient field itself infinite.
18.
The field must be said to be infinite, because every limited
object in it may be represented by a circle, and every circle, no matter how
large, may have another circle drawn round it, and so on to infinity. The
environment of a thing is always larger than a thing, and is in principle ultimately infinite.
19.
The infinite sentient field must be conceived to be the
source of all beings, for the fact of being is a fact only to consciousness,
and however abstract thought
may try to eliminate consciousness from being, it experiences no being other
than in and of consciousness.
20.
When we consider the ultimate source of all things, we are forced to conceive
it as such a source, which has given rise to
beings of our own order, that is,
conscious beings.
21.
There is a peculiar fact about sentience, or awareness, or consciousness. If
we exclude it from the ultimate source of
being, if we do not posit it as a
property of that source present from the very beginning of creation or
evolution, we cannot find a point later at
which we may logically introduce it. Sentience
denied at the source of being cannot be later introduced into the stream flowing from it.
22.
Attempts have been made by materialists to exclude consciousness from the
source of being, and then to try to explain
its presence in ourselves by saying
that it has arisen by the aggregation of non-conscious material particles into complex patterns, like those we know in our nervous
system and brain-structures.
23.
Of this we assert, that whilst the complex brain-cell
aggregate we possess may be patterned in such a way as to provide our
consciousness with a
machine complicated enough to serve as a vehicle for the expression of the complex processes of consciousness, if the brain is considered to be merely an aggregate of non-conscious material particles it cannot of itself give rise to consciousness. If each material particle is non-conscious or insentient, then the mere placing together of a large number of such particles, however arranged, cannot give rise to consciousness.
If a material particle is a not-knower, then
a million-million like it cannot add up to a knower. No number of zeros ever adds up to more
than zero, no matter how we arrange them.
24.
The
ultimate source and origin of our being is sentient and conscious. A stream
cannot rise higher than its highest
point. The consciousness of man cannot
rise higher than its own ultimate source, and in the generality has not yet reached so high.
25.
The greatest intellects in the world all bow their heads before
the infinite potential of their origin. Only the ignorant lack humility.
26.
To become conscious of our source is to become conscious of
the source of all being and all consciousness. It is to become consciousness itself, and reflexively self-consciously so.
27.
To confine our consciousness to the consideration of the finite objects
of our five special sense organs is
unnecessarily to limit its scope. The sentient
field is itself infinite. To concentrate consciousness fully upon a particular object within that field is to deprive oneself of the knowledge
of what lies beyond that particular.
28.
To rescue oneself from the self-imposed ignorance of
the particularizing consciousness, one has only to remove the stress placed by
consciousness upon that particular, and replace it in its source.
29.
The particularizing tendency of the lower mind is a product of the
over-specializing activity of the five special sense organs, an over-activity
initially imposed on them by the external
stimulus situation. This is presented
in the Eden myth by the Serpent, which acted on the woman Eve (the feeling and the substance side of man), and so
drew into the external world his sense organs, capturing his mind in materiality.
30.
It does not need a great deal of thought to see that full
concentration on a given finite thing deprives us of data beyond it. The
mind which merely sees separate particular things, and not their world
context, is a mind deprived of universal concepts, which could confer order
upon his sense data. All contents of consciousness are functions of
power. To confine oneself to particular sense concepts is to deprive oneself of
the energy contained
in concepts of universal validity.
31.
The particularizing man, tied to separate, serially-experienced finites, functions at a low level of
consciousness. He is tied to the data provided by his five special sense
organs. He reacts to stimuli like an animal rather than a rational being. Free will
is to him a term with no other significance than stimulus-reaction, or
taxism-response.
32.
The generalizing man has begun to free himself from particularized reactions. He
has begun to see the Law, which governs the
world.
33.
The
universal thinker carries the work further. His
intellect has lifted him to the level where universally true concepts
confer upon him power to order the particular and the general.
34.
The
absolute man is the man who sees beyond the
universe as a formed thing, into the laws of motion, which bring it into
being. He recognizes the relation between
these laws and the laws of his own
consciousness. He see all things as produced by motion, and motion as produced by the Absolute, and the Absolute as infinite, eternal, sentient power. And he knows his own consciousness as that Absolute Sentient Power operating through the vehicle of his body. He knows what is
meant when it is said, the Universal works through the particular, the Absolute through the relative. He centers himself in the Absolute even as he operates
through the relative.
35.
He does not conceive himself as separate from the Absolute.
He says, "I and my Father are one."
36.
The absolute man, the man of the Absolute, is the reflexively self-conscious
man who has turned his consciousness away
from the particulars of the world, in
order to become one with the principle of
their being. For him, freed from the fixated identification with a
particular finite body, there is no Ôoutside;. All beings are
within his consciousness.
In leaving all things to return to his true self
he has discovered all things with himself in the Absolute from which he
derived. In losing his life he has found it.
37.
The
particularizing man is the prodigal son who drove
forth from his father's house, and has not yet reached the point of realizing that he is eating husks with the swine.
38.
The man who begins to generalize is the prodigal son at
the point of his first stirring of awareness that he has sinned.
39.
The universal thinker is the prodigal son who recognizes
once more that he stands in his father's house.
40.
The absolute man is the prodigal son sitting with his Father
rejoicing in their re-union.
41.
The reflexively self-conscious man knows these things, and
more. He knows that reflexive self-consciousness is the beginning and the end of the journey into
time and particularity. He knows it is the
end because, after having lost it and entered into the time process, man
is driven by the Absolute to regain it. The
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the end, are the same.
42.
In
between the beginning and the end stretches the
time process, the realm of Saturn-Chronos. Within this process, in this realm, fallen man who has not yet returned must receive the education which will bring him, the man who in leaving his source
left himself, hack to himself again in the supreme all-power-conferring act of
reflexive self-consciousness and
self-realization.
43.
Once returned, man with his catalytic creative consciousness,
will gaze forth upon those of his brothers who have not yet returned,
and by the power of his sentience and reflexive self-consciousness
will be able to create in them the awareness of their position, which
will place them at the point at which he once stood, the point of decision to
return.
44.
In what follows, the words ÔconsciousnessÕ, ÔawarenessÕ,
and ÔsentienceÕ, will be used more or less interchangeably, although their
different significances
may conveniently be borne in mind wherever a
context justifies it.
E.H.
REFLEXIVE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS
45.
The opening of the twentieth century forced into man's
consciousness a serious problem. It is the problem of the attainment of
adequate powers of reaction and stimulus-assimilation in an increasingly
complex life situation, with a continuously accelerating development pace
which threatens
man's very existence.
46.
Reflexive self-consciousness, which for convenience we
abbreviate to ÔresecÕ, is a state of transcendent self-awareness which confers upon the beings who attain it certain powers of
adequate response and capacity of stimulus assimilation. These powers man must either attain, or perish from the earth as unfit for the next necessary step
in the evolution of consciousness.
47.
First we must state the basic rule for the attainment of resec. It is: The observer is not the observed. What does this mean? Shakespeare says, "The eye sees not itself
but by reflexion." When we look into a mirror to see ourself, we see not ourself but a reflection of
our face. A simple fact, yet of
tremendous significance.
48.
The eye, of course, does not see of itself. Behind the eye is the ocular brain center and the observing self.
Consciousness of an object arises only if these three are brought into relation and directed to an
object.
49.
We can see another's eyes. It is possible that a man might
have his nose removed and by violent squinting see his own eyes. But
through each eye would
be seen not itself but the other eye. The eye which sees does not directly see itself.
50.
Let us apply this physical fact to the problem of the Observer
and the Observed.
51.
If
we look inside ourself in an attempt to see what
we mean by the self, we discover, if we pursue our attempt to the end, that the self is not see-able in any objective sense. The Self is consciousness
itself; awareness;
sentience. It is that in which objects may appear, but it is not
itself an object.
52.
Consciousness is not an object, not a formed thing; it is
that in which objects, things, forms and ideas appear. What follows from this
is so deeply significant, so tremendously important for the attainment
of freedom, that we must spare a little time to make clear its more
important implications.
53.
Somehow consciousness is, yet is not so in any objective
sense. We know this to be so because we are immediately aware of our
consciousness as soon as we turn to it. We say immediately aware because our awareness of our
awareness is not mediated by anything other
than itself.
54.
When
we are aware of some object through
one of our senses, our awareness is mediated through the sense organ.
When we are aware of our awareness, this
awareness is not mediated, and we therefore say it is immediate.
55.
Whenever we use a sense organ to become aware of an
object, the sense organ in some degree conditions what we know. When we are aware of our awareness, our awareness is immediate and therefore unconditioned.
56.
To be unconditioned is to be free. Awareness of awareness
is therefore free. Consciousness of consciousness is consciousness
conscious of itself. This is the key to resec and free self-determination.
57.
Although we say that the Observer is not the Observed, we
do not posit a dualism of two different substances, for the Observed
is merely a motion-pattern in and of the Observer. The ultimate
substance is sentient power. Its motions generated by its power constitute the
objective content of its sentience, which brings us to our second
important rule for the gaining of resec.
58.
Our second important rule is this: An Observer
knows only the modifications
of the Observer.
Let us examine this.
59.
When we are deprived of stimuli, whether external or
internal to our organism, the content of our consciousness is reduced. We can
see that if we were totally deprived of all objective stimuli, consciousness would have no objective content whatever. Such a state of consciousness deprived of all objective content,
we call un-consciousness. Unconsciousness is not what people ordinarily
suppose it to be. It is simply consciousness with no objective content; that is, objectless sentience.
60.
The Observer is consciousness serving some object. But
the object served is simply a form of motion within consciousness. There are no
objects of
consciousness other than within consciousness
as modifications of it. Without modifications in consciousness there are
no objects within it, and there is no
objective consciousness.
61.
All objects of consciousness; all the things of the world; all
ideas and mental states, are simply forms of motion in consciousness.
62.
It is quite futile for a conscious being to posit an existence
beyond consciousness. The Ôexistence beyond consciousnessÕ is merely a
concept in consciousness.
Dr. Johnson's kicking a brick to refute Berkeley is just another evidence of
Johnson's obtuseness, and unfitness to deal with the problem.
63.
The Greek philosopher Anaximander saw the source of
the world in the everlasting motion (aidos kinesis) of that which is limitless or boundless (apeiron). This idea is a true one. Each great philosopher
has been a doorway for a part of Truth.
64.
When we examine Anaximander's ÔapeironÕ (the
boundless source of the world) we see from
his choice of name for it that he correctly conceived its motion to he a motion of pure translation, that is
a non-circumscribed motion, a motion
which did not close itself off. A motion which closes
itself must, of course, be bounded or
finite.
65.
When
we consider possible kinds of motions we see at once that we may consider them
basically as of two kinds, motions
which close upon themselves,
and motions which do not close upon themselves.
66.
Motions which close upon themselves we may call cyclic,
circumscribing or rotatory motions. Such motions
are symbolized by the serpent with its tail in its mouth.
67.
Motions which do not close upon
themselves we may call translating motions. Translation means
"moving from one place to another." A translating motion is one
which moves through space from place
to place, without closing itself. It is symbolized by a serpent running
freely in wave form.
68.
There is a certain relation between motions of rotation and
motions of translation. Both are motions, and motion is a concept we have built from our experience of the change of place of
sense objects. We shall deal with this
elsewhere.
69.
We
know today that material bodies are simply modes
of motion. We know that whatever finitely exists must be composed of the motion form we call rotation; for unless the motion is of the type of rotation
it cannot circumscribe a boundary in space and
thus mark out that space as the place of its being. A non-rotating motion does not locate itself in space and thus
cannot bring into being anything characterized
by a boundary or formal limit; that is,
it cannot bring into being any finite object whatever.
70.
If we think very carefully about what it means to exist, what it means to be a
being, we will discover that the idea of being is the idea of a circumscribed
zone of action.
71.
What
is not circumscribed is not a being properly so-called. Thus the infinite power source of all being is not
properly called a being, though all beings
subsist in it and of it as motion-modalities of it.
72.
Every actual being, every being actually, is a being constituted by a form of action circumscribing
and confining itself in a certain place. When action or motion is confined to a definite place it must be considered to be
circumscribed. A
circumscribing act is a rotating motion.
73.
Without rotation of motion, without a motion circumscribing itself, there
would be no being, no existence, no world of
stars, suns, planets, plants, animals
and men; no thing whatever. Motion of rotation circumscribes, creates and keeps
in being all things that exist.
74.
What can we say about non-rotating motion, motion of translation? First we
must say that it does not as such bring
into being any finite thing or object whatever. Finite beings are
constituted (consist of) motions of
rotation. A motion of pure translation
brings no finite whatever into existence. It is an infinite motion, like the everlasting motion of Anaximander's ÔapeironÕ.
75.
If we conceive the motion of pure translation we do not
conceive a finite - we conceive an infinite motion. This infinite motion
is like the theologian's
concept of the eternal motion of God's will,
or the absolute motion of certain of the philosophers.
76.
If we consider a being constituted only of rotating
motion with no translation whatever, we are really conceiving a being which
can only be an intellectual abstraction, for certain reasons we shall see
later. But if such a being could exist, constituted only of the motion of
rotation with no translation whatever, such a being would be static and of
itself incapable of relation with other beings.
77.
We must here break the inertia of ordinary thought and
say that ÔstaticÕ means merely standing in one place, but that what is
ÔstandingÕ is simply a system of rotating motion. All standing and static beings are
kept in being by motion of rotation, or recurrent cyclic impulses.
78.
If we were to conceive all beings to be static in this way we see that each being
would be isolated from the rest. No special grouping together would occur, and thus no complex beings would arise. Nothing of the process we call involution or evolution would occur. The dynamic world of complex beings and relations we know would not exist.
79.
But
if we conceive motions of translation to be added
to those of rotation we see that such motions would confer on beings the possibility of dynamic relations, coming together and separating, integrating
and disintegrating, which as beings constituted by mere rotation they could not have.
80.
Motions
of pure translational type do not as such bring to be any existential beings
whatever. They simply pass through space,
leaving no trace or evidence of their
passing.
81.
Motions of pure translation are like those attributed to
the Absolute, the Infinite Motion presupposed by the existence of the
finite things of the world around us.
82.
Why
does a finite being imply infinite motion? Because
a finite being is a motion of rotation circumscribing
itself in space, and beyond every circumscribed
zone there is always an infinity of space in which further motions occur.
83.
To
illustrate this we draw a circle to represent a zone of rotating motion. No matter how big we make this circle we can always conceive that we might
have made it larger. There is always infinite space
for us to move in beyond our circle. The larger we make our circle the more its curvature approaches the straight line. The straight line,
like the free running serpent, is a symbol of translating motion. It is a line of infinite curvature, that
is, a line of no finite curvature.
84.
When we draw a circle, we observe that its line rotates
and circumscribes a zone in space. We say that it simultaneously includes and
excludes. It includes, or closes in, a finite zone called a place. It excludes,
or closes out, an infinity of space beyond. A fact we
shall find most important when we come to consider the problem of
identification.
85.
The closed-in zone is a place of finite actuality, or an
actual being, an existential entity, a reference center for consciousness, an
object on which the will may act.
86.
The excluded infinite is the space of the translating
motion. Pure translating motion travels infinitely, that is, to no
finite end or limit. Travelling to no finite limit, not returning upon itself,
pure translating motion does not constitute or bring into existence any finite beings: yet all
finite or rotating circumscribing motions,
which constitute the world of
things, exist within and in virtue of
the infinite motion of the Absolute, which constitutes the infinite field determining the relational
possibilities of things.
87.
The
Absolute is an infinite sentient power, an eternal
continuum of motion. Because it is sentient
it feels its own motion. Its motion is the content of its sentiency. It is from this fact that is derived the principle that says that a being knows only the modifications of its own substance; or consciousness is aware only of its own
modalities.
88.
The sentience and motion of the Absolute are not factually
separable from each other. It is merely a process of abstractionist
thought to consider them so. Sentience and motion are both properties
of the Absolute and must be held together in thought with the Absolute.
If we conceptually remove either one of them, the universe as we know it must also be
removed. If motion is removed there is no action, no bringing to be of
actual things. If sentience is removed there is nothing to know the world. Power is the name given to motion as cause, or to motion as
imparting itself to other motion. The
word ÔcauseÕ is from a Latin word meaning Ôto strikeÕ.
89.
The Absolute is infinite sentient motion itself. Absolutely
there is nothing other than this infinite absolute motion. What then do we mean
when we talk of motion imparting itself to motion?
90.
This is the same question as, "What is the relation between
the circumscribing motions of rotation-complexes and between these and the motion of
translation?"
91.
To
avoid falling into dualism, which would posit two ultimately different kinds of
motion, one of rotation and one of
translation, we may draw an image
from the behavior of water.
92.
If we watch any large body of water, say the sea, we observe
that the motions which traverse it have a certain character we call
undulatory or waveform.
93.
The peculiar thing about the waveform motion of the sea is
that we know as a physical fact that it is really an illusion. We know that
the apparent travelling of a wave over the surface of the sea is really the
product of a cyclic motion of the water molecules. Each molecule of water
rises and falls about a center, but is confined in its motions within a very small
zone of action. Each molecule's motion up and down, and its slight
lateral displacements, are so related to
the motions of adjacent
molecules that the resultant effect of their motions
on an observer is the creation of an apparent
waveform travelling across the sea's surface.
If we watch a piece of floating wood we see that the motion of the water in that place is more or less a rise and fall without much lateral shift.
94.
We see here that the physically factual motion of the
molecules of sea water is cyclic or rotatory, and that such cyclic
motions, timed in a certain way, give rise to the appearance of a
motion of translation.
95.
We must be on guard at this point not to jump to the
conclusion that the physically factual rotatory molecular motion of the
water is ÔrealÕ, and the appearance of the translating wave-form
is ÔunrealÕ. For
although the translating wave-form motion of
the sea may be considered as a mere appearance
arising from the rotatory motion of the water molecules, yet rotation
itself may be viewed as a special kind of motion of translation, that is, translation about a point. Actually, all motions pre-suppose translation.
96.
Let us examine the concept of motion. The concept
arises from the observed change of position of bodies in space. In one moment
we observe a body against a certain background. In the next moment we see it
again against another background. We explain this phenomenon by saying
that either the thing or the background or ourselves as observers have moved.
97.
Our idea of motion arises from the observed change in
the relations between a thing, a background, and an observation point; or
between bodies in space; or between contents of consciousness. If
we abandon the use of particular observation points or finite bodies,
no finite motions are observed as such, and another order of
experience arises. What this is, is experienced in the resec
state.
98.
In order to measure a motion, we must have certain
finite reference points. Such points existentially are what we call
bodies. A body is simply
a finite zone or place in which certain characteristic motion functions
tend to give rise in consciousness to a
relatively stable reference point.
99.
Whether we consider a motion as rotating or translating, if we wish to
measure it we must posit some fixed
reference points from which to take our measurements. Such reference points must, at the existential level, be
finite bodies; that is, they must be
constituted by circumscribing motions, for an existential body owes its existence to rotatory motion.
100.
The concepts of translating and rotatory motions are
both dependent on the observation of changes of relative position of reference
points in consciousness, points constituting a background, points considered against a
background, and points from which
observations are made.
101.
The
concept of a motion of translation may now he
stated as based upon the change of place of a body without reference to any fixed reference point such that the change of place could be considered as having occurred round that point and having returned to its point of original
observation.
102.
Motions
of translation and rotation now differ only according to whether they are
considered as relative to some reference
points assumed by an observer, and
the motion defined in relation to this point
as either cyclic or not.
103.
Cyclic or rotatory circumscribing motions constitute
finite things. Non-cyclic motions travel infinitely through space. Both ÔcyclicÕ and Ônon-cyclicÕ motion
are functions of the Absolute.
104.
Both ÔcyclicÕ and Ônon-cyclicÕ motions, when measured, are so by reference to some
relation between a background, a body the
change of place of which is
determined, and an observer's viewpoint.
105.
We
can easily see the meaning of the bodies constituting the background and the
body whose change of place is to be
measured and the body we intend to
use as an observation point. They are all points of reference within the field of consciousness,
within sentience, within the observer, the
self.
106.
What
is the observing self?
107.
An observing self is
simply consciousness focused on some reference point, sentience centered on
an object. Prior to the act of focusing, sentience must be said to be infinite. Sentience is a property of the Infinite Eternal Absolute.
108.
No philosopher has yet succeeded in defining ÔconsciousnessÕ or ÔawarenessÕ or Ôsentience.Õ
Why is this so? Because to define is to
indicate limits, and ÔsentienceÕ as
such has no limits. ÔSentienceÕ is not a finite
object. It is that in which finite objects are presented and known.
109.
Let us look at the words ÔobserverÕ and ÔobservedÕ.
An ÔobserverÕ is a watcher; the ÔobservedÕ is what is watched. In order for an
observation to occur there must be a ÔwatcherÕ and a Ôwatched.Õ The ÔwatchedÕ the ÔobservedÕ, is a
finite thing constituted of rotatory motion.
The ÔwatcherÕ, the Ôobserver,Õ is not
a finite thing, though he may use a finite thing to observe or watch through. The observer is not a thing, but that which watches the thing.
110.
No one has at any time seen as an object the consciousness
which sees the object. In psychological terms
we would say consciousness as such never appears to itself as an object. Yet in the
reset act consciousness is aware of itself; but not as a finite, not as an
object.
111.
The observer is the subject who sees. The observed
is the object which is seen. The subject is the awareness; the consciousness; the sentience. The
object is a finited zone of formal motion within the subject, which stands as the subject's reference point in an act of cognition.
112.
Sentience as such is infinite, being a property of the
Absolute. The apparently limited observer, the consciousness in a living body, identified with that
body, is limited only by its own act of identification. Identification for all practical purposes confines consciousness to the zone of identification.
113.
Ordinarily we do not take notice of the identification
process which ties our consciousness to our body.
We simply fall into
identification. The process of falling into identification is so subtle, so intimately
mixed with desire that we hardly ever stop to consider the nature of it.
114.
The fulfillment of desire, the experience of pleasure,
the avoidance of pain; these tend to throw a stress on the pleasure-pain
aspects of identification and divert us from consideration of its more
mechanical aspects.
115.
The arising of pleasure from the experience of an object
tends to lead consciousness to focus on that object. This tendency is so
marked in general that it tends to assume almost the force of a law; sufficiently
so in fact to have led many philosophers to formulate a hedonistic view of
the universe, that is, a view which states life's aim as the pursuit of pleasure and
the avoidance of pain.
116.
This tendency of consciousness to focus on an object the presence of which
tends to he accompanied by pleasure or pain,
is the greatest misleader of the
generality of the race of man.
117.
Not that pleasure or pain as such is bad; but the identification of consciousness
with the objects it accompanies leads to
slavery of consciousness and the reduction of man to a pleasure-pain mechanism. As such a mechanism he is entirely at the mercy of those beings who
know the principles governing such
mechanisms. Standing as evidence of
this is the great interest of businessmen and their advisers, and political
power-pursuers, in motivational
research.
118.
There are degrees of pleasure and pain. These depend on
the stimulus-assimilation capacity of the observer's body or his reference
center of identification.
119.
Where the observer's body (note, we do not say, ÒThe observer
himselfÕ,Ó; that is, Ôconsciousness itselfÕ) is presented
with a stimulus which it can easily assimilate, a degree of pleasure is
experienced by the identified consciousness. Where the stimulus energy comes in
too fast or at too great intensity for it to be assimilated, a degree of
pain is experienced.
120.
Whether a stimulus causes pleasure or pain to the
identified consciousness depends on the body's capacity to assimilate the
stimulus. Everything in the experience of pleasure and pain depends upon the identification of
consciousness with a body.
121.
Bodies are limited zones of cyclic motion. As limited, circumscribed zones
their energy absorption capacity is
also limited.
122.
Stimuli entering bodies are constituted of quantities of motion. Motion
considered as operating or working
within a closed system is called energy.
Finite bodies can assimilate only finite amounts of energy presented at a certain rate and intensity, and in a certain pattern.
123.
Bodies are motion systems characterized in specific
ways. If stimuli of the right type are presented at the right rate, that
is, put in over a certain
length of time, a body may assimilate their motion.
If the incoming stimulus motion is in any way wrongly presented, either in
formal type, rate or intensity, the
body may fail to assimilate it. Such failure
implies the disturbance of the body's equilibrium or its possible destruction.
124.
At times of disturbance or destruction of a body, consciousness
identified with it suffers as if it were itself disturbed or destroyed.
125.
How are we to escape the disturbing or destructive effects of excessive stimulus
motions on bodies? The answer is short: by
non-identification.
126.
Not
matter how badly stimulus motion may affect
a body; if consciousness is not identified with it, it is not affected by it. Identification, and nothing else, is the cause of consciousness suffering pleasure or pain. We say ÔsufferingÕ
because to suffer is to be in passive
relation to something, to allow something to act upon us.
127.
What
is identification? It is simply emotional charge on a consciousness content. If we view a thing with no
emotional charge whatever, if we remove from
ourselves all feeling orientation in relation
to an object, we are not identified with it.
128.
What happens if we remove the emotional charge on a
content of consciousness? the object becomes for us just a shape, a
form with no value. Values belong not to
objects themselves, but to the will. Values are will-stresses.
129.
Value
is the stress placed by act of will upon an object
or consciousness-content. Even the division of values into
intrinsic (inherent physical properties) and
extrinsic (sentimental) is itself an act of will. A folksong about the
Boll Weevil witnesses this, and receives
hearty support from the micro-organisms which
attack the Firth of Forth Bridge.
130.
Because value rests in will, value can be created or destroyed
by act of will. To value is to stress by will. To de-value is to remove such stress.
131.
The God Shiva willed to fold up the universe of things into
his third eye. The other gods willed otherwise. They created for him to
disturb his concentration
a beautiful woman named Maya, which means cosmic illusion, or the affirmation
of substantial activity. They succeeded; for the universe manifestly
exists and Shiva wanders blindly through the world to the end of its
cycle.
132.
Yet yogis think highly of Shiva, because at least he knew that value rests in the
will, and that the being who can center himself in
himself, center consciousness in
consciousness, instead of in its objects,
can absorb the whole of creation into his center, and thus break the dependence of consciousness on its object and regain original freedom.
133.
We are not to be afraid that the non-identified consciousness will have no
content. The content of consciousness is a
function of the eternal motion of the
Absolute, independent of the identification tendencies
of particular beings.
134.
The consciousness which is released
from identification with particular
objects
is not deprived of them. When consciousness
no longer identifies itself with
objects, they still persist as functions of the absolute motion, but they are seen simply as forms within consciousness, having no power to determine the direction in which new stresses may
appear. New stresses ordinarily depend
on the previous stress-patterns in
the objects with which consciousness has identified. At the resec level consciousness is a catalyst able to initiate
action without itself being in any way determined by it.
135.
Consciousness
is therefore not to be released from identification with objects in order to annihilate
all objects and stand in nothingness. That would be to inhibit the power of
consciousness to act as a catalytic formative agent or creative intelligence.
136.
Consciousness is to be released from object identification
in order to be able to return to itself. It is to be released from
identification with particulars in order to be able to grasp the universal, which
confers order upon them. Then it is to release itself from identification with the
universal in order to return to its own
absoluteness, which contains all
things in its own pure motion. "Seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all else will be added unto you."
137.
Heaven consists in the equilibration of power, the
equilibration of all motion. Identification with particular objects destroys
this equilibration.
138.
The disequilibrated man cannot act freely; for he is
inclined to follow one course rather than another, and this inclination is bondage. To incline is
to take the first step to the fall into identification and slavery.
139.
The bound man is a slave to that which binds him. It matters little what binds
him if he is bound, whether he is hound by
iron chains in a dungeon, or by
ambition and the lust for wealth and power in the world, or by what he
mis-calls ÔloveÕ for a woman in a
dream setting, or by concepts of service to impossible nationalist or
political causes. Bondage is bondage,
whatsoever form it takes.
140.
Inclination
is a tendency to fall into action. The cause
of inclination is the emotional resultant of experience and the emotional charge on the experience-records in the body. Every
experience is recorded by the experiencing
organism.
141.
When an experience-record is re-stimulated, it replays not
only the form of the original experience, but also (until it is discharged by the release of consciousness from emotional identification with it) the whole emotional content of the experience.
142.
This emotional content is the agent
which orientates the individualized or formally-identified consciousness
towards or away from the situation correspondent with that in the
experience record.
143.
Within an individual organism the orientation of the
psyche (or body-identified sentience) affects the distribution of its
constituent motions, which we may consider as a field of forces, in such a way
that its resistance pattern to incoming stimuli and to their outgoing results
is altered, and thereby its mode of action and behavior.
144.
For animals with nervous systems this means the
alteration of their pattern of synaptic resistances, which determines the
inner destination of an afferent nerve impulse, and the outer direction of the
efferent nerve impulse, and its consequent behavior resultant in the body.
145.
The inclination-determined actions of the body must be considered for all
practical purposes as mechanical. The man
who acts only from inclination
must be considered to be unfree
146.
We often hear a person say, as if it were evidence of
his free will, "I can do what I want." But the man who
does what he wants and yet cannot determine
his wants, must be said to be a slave to want. An act of free will is not an act of want.
Want implies deprivation, lack of
something. Free will is a pure
positive, lacking nothing. Free will is pure creativity and can bring to be the forms it wills to project. ÔWantÕ is determined by experience records and their emotional content. Free will is determined by nothing other than itself, and can create its own objects. This is the way the
Absolute has brought the world into
being, not out of want, or lack, but
out of the fullness of its own free will.
147.
Unless a man is able to break identification with the
emotionally charged experience-records in himself, his actions will be conditioned
by those records. Psychoanalytical procedures aim to uncover such records and remove from them their emotional charges by leading the patient to Ôsee throughÕ the situations represented in the records.
148.
Unfortunately there is no guarantee that a given psychoanalytical procedure, even
if the procedure is a correct one, will be
properly applied in a given confrontation of two psyches in the
analyst-patient relation.
149.
Further,
although psychoanalytical procedures may
have helped some patients in some degrees to re-orientate themselves and adjust to ordinary everyday life and
its demands, more than such orientation
is required for a man to gain full control of his response tendencies and
attain resec.
150.
The gaining by psychoanalysis of some degree of
adjustment to socially necessary relational needs does not of
itself confer metaphysical insight into the real nature of consciousness and its objects, or
spirit and material beings. Only in properly directed conscious processes involving exercise of will and intellect and feeling is the needed metaphysical illumination gained. For this, in most
cases, help and indication of the right direction in which effort is to be made are needed.
151.
We say, "In most cases," because it is true
that in exceptional cases, from whatever causes, some beings are able to carry themselves
towards resec.
152.
Such, of course, are geniuses; but, if we were to uncover the roots of genius in
the long continuous line of protoplasmic
evolution, we would find operating
even there what the theologian would correctly
call ÔgraceÕ, that is, a capacity in an individual which that
individual, considered as a finite being, has
not itself created. We here say with
the rabbis, Òhe fruits such men eat are plucked from trees planted by men they never knew.Ó
153.
Inclination-determined
actions are actions determined by
emotionally charged experience records.
Such actions must be considered to be in principle not superior to the conditioned-reflex behavior of Pavlov's dogs. If action of this order
were the only kind possible for man,
we would have to abandon as
meaningless the use of all terms referring to the concept of free will. Man would be merely a machine and the evolution of consciousness an illusion. Fortunately this is not so.
154.
It
is true that the object-identified man acts as if he were a machine. It is not true that this mode of action is
the only one possible for him.
155.
How are we to escape from the determination of inclination and thus rescue
ourselves from the mechanical response level
of action? How are we to extricate
ourselves from the machine?
156.
Shortly, we may say that each one of us must become a deus ex machina, a god outside the machine of the body.
157.
To become a god, if we understand the concept correctly,
is not impossible. "Is it not written," says Jesus,
"Ye are gods?" And, "Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect." A god is simply a being able from within itself, from its own free
will, to determine its own actions
towards its good. How are we to
become such? The God of gods is the
Absolute Infinite Sentient Power, which determines its own action
towards its own good absolutely.
158.
First we must accept that a being able freely to
determine its actions from within itself, is a being not
determined by inclinations arising from emotionally charged
experience-records within itself.
159.
A free act, an act of free will, is an act not determined or
conditioned by any emotionally charged experience-records whatever. A free act is an act
springing immediately from consciousness not object-identified.
160.
This kind of act is extremely difficult for the object-identified person to
conceive. Such a person will say,
"How is it possible to act without being determined by some object? How can I act without regard to the benefit to be derived from my
action? And if I move with regard to such benefit, am I not moving by inclination?"
161.
Such a person has not yet grasped the meaning of freedom,
of freewill, and of the ultimate mystery of grace. The profoundly significant
words "His worship is perfect freedom," have not yet revealed their secret
to him.
162.
A
free-willed act is an act absolutely unconditioned. It is an act initiated by pure consciousness aware of itself, by the pure awareness of consciousness of its own inscrutable creativity. All original acts spring from this
source.
163.
How are we to reach the level where such an act is possible? By breaking free
from factors which condition consciousness,
by releasing ourselves from
object-identification, by conquering inclination ("Blessed is
he who overcomes."), by lifting consciousness
above the level at which conditioned reflexes
are brought into existence and operate, or by entering with consciousness into zones of experience-records
and discharging their emotional
content.
164.
"Great is he who conquers a city. Greater still is he who
conquers himself."
165.
Identification arises from emotionally charged experience.
Whenever the experience of an object (or situation or event) gives rise
to emotion, whether pleasure or pain, and the observer allows himself to focus on this emotion,
a tendency arises to react to the object by
moving towards or away from it, and
to record it as a reference for future orientation.
166.
If,
therefore, we do not break object-identification,
(and by object-identification in its widest
sense we mean identification with any finite content of consciousness whatever) we tend to respond mechanically to
situations in a manner determined by the emotionally charged records of our
previous experiences, even when they have perhaps merely one element in common
with the present extant situation.
167.
To break object-identification we must do four things. First we must see that
the object-identified state is a false one,
a state which falsely represents consciousness, the subject, as identical with its
content, the object. Next we must make clear to ourselves that by allowing ourselves to act by inclination, we reduce our action level to that of Pavlov's dogs, the mechanical reflex level.
Thirdly we must see that such
mechanically determined responses are
incompatible with freedom and human
dignity. Finally we must withdraw our will from the experience records and from the pleasure-pain aspects of
the content of consciousness, and turn it back upon itself.
168.
This
withdrawal of the will from the objects of consciousness
in itself, the turning back to itself, from
the object, of consciousness and will, is the act of resec. So important is this for human evolution and the attainment of freedom and the power to produce an adequate response in every conceivable situation, that if its full import were grasped, the whole effort of humanity would be directed towards its attainment.
169.
Let us look more closely at the idea of consciousness
turning back on itself. The Greeks, of course, had a word for it - the word ÔepistropheÕ, a word surviving as a term in
rhetoric for the repetition of the same word at the end of several sentences;
as if we were to repeat the word ÔconsciousnessÕ at the end of every act
of perception in order
to return consciousness from the object to itself.
170.
In the act of reflexive self-consciousness there is a
re-statement of the fact that consciousness is consciousness, not only at the
end of an act, but in each moment of consciousness. There is a continuous
return or reflexive movement, a bending or turning back upon itself of
consciousness during action,
such that at no moment does consciousness fall
into identification with its objects to the point of losing awareness of
its own free essence. Not losing its
self-awareness in object-identification, consciousness remains self-immersed in
its own free essence.
171.
Let us examine the nature of the self.
172.
Ordinarily when a person says, "My self,Ó he is not at all
clear to what he refers. He tends to think he means by ÔselfÕ a being, formed
in a certain way, and possessing more or less well-defined and recognizable
physical and mental characteristics and behavior patterns.
173.
But these characteristics and behavior patterns are not
consciousness, not sentience. They are some of the contents of
consciousness, some of its
objects.
174.
The sense of individual separate
self-existence, and the ego-sense, arise by
identification with form. Body, which stands as the center of such identification, is known by its
form and mass inertic resistance, a form of
motion.
175.
For such identification originally to occur the form must,
in being experienced, have been accompanied by some emotional change.
This
emotional
content of the experience leads consciousness, prior to its gaining the resec state, into identification
with it in the attempt to re-experience it if pleasurable, or to note it for
future avoidance, if painful. Once identification of consciousness
with a given body or motion complex as center of emotional change has occurred, identification
tends by inertia to continue and maintain itself.
176.
Let us look at the behavior of consciousness in the case of
a man experiencing a sudden great pain to the point of loss of
consciousness. Is the loss a loss of consciousness of the body or to the body? Mechanistic
thinkers might say that loss of consciousness is a loss by the body or
brain of its consciousness arising mechanically by over-stimulation of the nervous system
or brain.
177.
We say rather, the over-stimulation of the body makes it
unprofitable for a pleasure-orientate consciousness to remain in a state
of identification with the body. This explanation covers more facts than the
mechanistic one, including the behavior of martyrs at the stake, for although
their body over-stimulated, yet because they are not pleasure orientated
they do not lose consciousness, but continue to praise the principle of free consciousness which they worship as God.
178.
If we think carefully about the nature of the self, we
realize that by ÔselfÕ we do not necessarily mean a physical or
other body. Grenfell of Labrador's story of the man who lost both legs
and arms yet could still say he was he, most aptly provides an illustration
of the non-identity of the self and the body.
179.
Today, with the surgeon's art so beautifully developed, we are not surprised
to hear that a man has had some organ of his
body removed and replaced with a plastic one.
180.
We can easily conceive an operation or series of operations
in which a man's organs are one by one removed and replaced by artificial ones.
At each stage of the
operation-series, the patient would express
his satisfaction with the change of organ. Finally, like the axe fitted with a new blade and a new handle, nothing
would remain of the original body.
Yet the same consciousness would still be operative through it. The self
of man is not the body of man.
181.
What, then, is the Self? Here we use a capital letter to
show that the Self to which we refer is not the object-body self that careless thinkers think they refer to when they use the word Ôself'. The real
Self is not a finite body. It is pure free-will consciousness. The implications of this in every field, physical,
psychological and spiritual are tremendous.
182.
The careful thinker penetrating into his being to discover
to what he refers when he uses the words, "I myself,Ó knows that
the Self is a free-will consciousness, the ground and possibility and actuality of
all being, yet itself transcendent of being. (The word ÔbeingÕ may properly
be used only of what is circumscribed, and consciousness as such is not
circumscribed, and therefore not properly called a being.)
183.
Consciousness and will are not two factually separable
entities. They are two aspects or properties of the Absolute.
Consciousness is that aspect of the Absolute in which objects appear. Will is that
aspect of the Absolute which initiates change within consciousness or
its objects.
184.
From modern psychological theories the word ÔconsciousnessÕ
has derived a rather restricted meaning. There it is opposed to
sub-consciousness or to un-consciousness. We may remove some of these
associations by using a less common word, the word ÔsentienceÕ. This word implies feeling sensitivity and sense. It is from the Latin
ÔsentireÕ, Ôto
feelÕ, Ôto knowÕ.
185.
We
will use the word ÔsentienceÕ to signify that kind
of awareness to which we do not ordinarily attribute verbal formulations. Sentience is feeling awareness considered apart from any verbalization
process. We may use the word ÔconsciousnessÕ when awareness is more closely linked to verbal forms.
The more clearly anything is verbally expressed,
the more conscious it tends to become. Consciousness analyses and
synthesizes its content.
186.
What modern psychology tends to say about the sub-conscious
and un-conscious we will formulate differently. We will say that sub-consciousness and un-consciousness are levels of the Self in which verbalization
is either minimal or non-existent for the individual.
187.
There is no absolutely non-sentient level of being. The
Absolute source of all beings, the ultimate reality, is itself eternal and
infinite sentient motion. Whatever it produces or creates, it does so within
and of itself as its functions. Nothing, therefore, exists but in and of the infinite eternal sentient motion, which considered as cause is called
power.
188.
The sub-conscious and the un-conscious are therefore not
to be thought of as non-sentient, but only as not closely linked to
verbal forms, not levels of
analysis and synthesis of the contents of the field of sentience.
189.
Verbalization of experience helps to sharpen and clarify and organize the
content of consciousness.
190.
Prior to adequate verbalization or logical definition the
field of sentient motion must be conceived of as in a state of chaotic flux; yet this flux at its own level, viewed as absolute motion,
must contain the forms of the
infinite wisdom.
191.
In
John's Gospel we read, "In the beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
192.
The Greek word here used for ÔwordÕ is ÔLogosÕ. ÔLogosÕ means, not just word, but
rational word, the ratio of cosmic order.
193.
The Logos of St. John's Gospel is the formal rationalizing motion of the
eternal infinite sentient power of the Absolute.
194.
Creation is formulation. Formulation is clarification.
Clarification is illumination. The Logos is, "The Light that lights
every man that comes into the world." Which means that every man's consciousness
contains the principle of logic.
195.
Let us return to the idea of ÔEpistropheÕ.
It means a turning back, a return to oneself. It implies a departure from oneself to an
object, and the return of oneself to
oneself. It implies the gaining or regaining of a lost knowledge of oneself, the regaining of self-determination.
196.
The Self referred to is not a body. It is sentient power itself. The Self in the act
of reflexion returns to itself.
Consciousness, which is not a body, but a knower of the body, returns from the
body to itself and thus rescues itself from identification with its objects.
197.
The Fall of Adam, the Fall in myths generally, refers to the fall into
identification with the object world of
finite things under the influence of natural stimuli, symbolized by the serpent, which, significantly, acts first through the female side of man's nature, that is, the feeling and body-identified side.
198.
This fall into identification was the beginning of death, for
identification with the finite is the death of one's free will and
consciousness by its involvement in the phantasy of separativity, which is disintegration or mortality.
199.
The fall into identification with the object world places man
under the law governing that world. Only the resec man can truthfully say with Paul, "We
are of the law but not under the law." We are of the law insofar as we use
finite reference points. We are not under
the law insofar as we remain free from identification with such points.
200.
The resec man reverses the Fall.
He releases himself from object-identification. He turns back from the
object to the real Self. He sloughs from himself the pall which
fell on him at the Fall and returns to his naked consciousness, beyond all finiting conditions and body processes.
201.
But when he returns to himself the world and its content
still remains. The only change, the most miraculously freeing change, is that he is no longer identified with any particular part of it. He has sought the equilibration of power
which is called heaven. He has found it, and with it all things have been added unto him.
202.
The resec man sees the same world he saw before, the
same world other men see. But he sees it not in the same way. He knows what Blake meant when he said, "The fool sees not the same
tree the wise man sees." He sees the myriad-branched tree Yggdrasil,
but not as other men see it. For he does not
fall into identification with any particular branch of it. He sees this
tree in the nervous system of the body he
uses as a reference centre, as he sees it in the driving radiating
forces of macro-cosmos.
203.
The resec man sees the world wholly, without falling into
identification with any particular part of it. He is not identified with it,
not inclined towards it, not enslaved by it. He can use it, as the Taoist uses
an empty vessel to put things in. He can create within it the catalytic creativity of his awareness, his sentience, his
consciousness.
204.
The
identified man, on the other hand, in the act of
identification goes under the law which governs the object with which he identifies.
205.
If consciousness identifies with a material body, it goes
under the law governing material bodies. So with whatever else it identifies.
If consciousness identifies with serial ideational processes, it goes under the
formal and logical laws governing those
processes. If consciousness identifies
with emotional states, it goes under the law governing emotional states. Whatever finite things or processes it identifies with,
consciousness goes under the law
governing those finites.
206.
Only consciousness identified with itself, reflexive self-consciousness is
free from the law of mechanical
action-reaction processes governing all finites.
207.
The word ÔreflexionÕ, meaning Ôa
binding backÕ, or Ôreturn to SelfÕ, is used anatomically and physiologically of
a nervous impulse in a reflex arc. Psychologically and philosophically
it refers to the mental process of returning to oneself in meditation or
contemplation.
208.
The word ÔflexÕ, from Latin ÔflexumÕ, from ÔflectareÕ
– Ôto bendÕ, is related to the word ÔfalcemÕ,
or ÔfalxÕ – Ôa sickleÕ. The falcon, so-called from its sickle-shaped beak, was sacred to the resec
priest-kings of the ancient
world. The falcon, the hawk, the eagle are symbols of the high-flying consciousness which returns to itself as the
falcon flies into the eye of the
sun, that Ômedicinable eyeÕ which
brings order to the planets and establishes a hierarchy of powers on earth.
209.
The act of self-reflexion, the motion of pure sentience
turning back on itself, releases consciousness from identification with
its objects and finite
processes and events, and restores it to its original
freedom.
210.
ÔEpistrepheinÕ, the self-relation of the
reflexive self-consciousness, is the form
of the highest order of being, and sees beyond being into the free spirit of the Absolute.
211.
The material image of this return was
seen by the ancients in the orbits and
revolutions of the planets. Reflexive self-consciousness
returns to its original as the planets return
upon their orbits. This is the ground
of the Eternal Recurrence, which fascinated
Nietzsche as it had spellbound the imagination of the ancients.
212.
But resec does not return, to use a figure of speech, in
the same plane with the planets. Its cycle is at right angles to the
material plane. It descends into identification with matter in order to experience the finiting processes
of that level, and then returns to itself in
pure transcendental sentience,
awareness and consciousness.
213.
The motion of the Absolute produces within itself the modulations which its sentience experiences as
phenomena. Sentient power creates an objective world within itself. It may identify itself with its objectifying motion-complexes, and thus become inertically carried by the necessary mechanical mode of action of their being. In which
case we say it is, ÒUnder the
law." Or it can retain its self-awareness whilst it is creating,
and thus retain its freedom and creative initiative, in which case we say it is, "Of the law, but not under the
law."
214.
This
retention of freedom and creative initiative is
the mark of the resec man, the man who is able to bend back his
consciousness upon itself, release himself
from object-identification, and thus retain his freedom, even in the middle of the most intense creative activity.
215.
Nothing truly exists in its fullness
which is not turned back upon itself. A material body does not exist unless
its constituting forces continually turn back upon themselves
and thus avoid dissipation in space. Consciousness does not truly exist in its fullness until it turns back upon
itself in the reflexive act of
self-recognition. The consciousness which identifies
with its object and becomes fixated
upon it, is as if it did not exist for itself. We see this in its extreme form in certain mental disorders in which the patient is so identified with emotionally charged experience-records that he cannot release himself from the identification,
and is there determined by his
experience-records. Such a person may be held in a fixated state as long
as the emotional charge on the records is
not removed.
216.
A
material body, a finite thing, is constituted of motions of sentient power, which, insofar as the body continues to exist, rotate within the zone marked
by that body.
217.
Insofar
as the motions constituting a body are totally closed in upon themselves, the
sentience aspect of those motions is held in
a state of identification with
that body. This state of the total identification
of sentience with a closed system of motions
is referred to in various ways. The ancients, who knew the value of resec, called the state of total
identification with a closed system ÔHellÕ. The same state is called ÔDeathÕ, for in it one is dead to the larger possibilities of sentient
power. To be Ôdead in one's sinsÕ simply means to he so identified with
the object of one's consciousness that one
is unaware of the infinity of other possible objects or the meaning of freedom.
218.
Insofar as the motions constituting a material body cannot
break out from themselves, the body cannot leave itself. Not being able
to leave itself, it cannot return to itself. Thus a body cannot as such become
reflexively self-conscious. Return to self-consciousness is possible only
for a non-body, for consciousness itself, for sentient power. The fact of
reflexive self-consciousness proves the non-materiality of the reflexive
Self.
219.
Reflexive self-consciousness is the highest possible
form of awareness. This we may prove by showing that consciousness of an
object without consciousness of the Self ,
which knows the object, is
valueless. There is no value for the self in object-awareness without self-awareness. Object
awareness without self-awareness is identification to the point of loss
of self, and is equivalent to being the object with which one is
identified, a catatonic state of
object-fixation, which reduces the self functionally to the level of a not-self.
220.
All purely mental disorders arise from identification
with particular emotionally charged contents of consciousness. The full
return of consciousness to itself in the act of reflexion is the return of
health to that consciousness.
221.
Disintegration can happen only to compounds. It can therefore happen to any
motion-complex, to material or physical
bodies, to ideas, to body or idea-orientated
feelings and emotions.
222.
Disintegration cannot happen to sentience as such, for
sentience is not itself a compound. It is a pure continuum, an aspect of the
Absolute, the field in which objects are
presented.
223.
A pure continuum has no parts and therefore cannot fall
apart, cannot disintegrate. The consciousness, which identifies
with the continuum of sentience, thus escapes disintegration and death. Thus the
release of consciousness from object identification and its return to
itself, is the rising of consciousness above the level at which death or disintegration
operate. This is the gaining of immortality.
224.
Objective existence is the product of the motion of the
absolute sentient continuum of power. By its modes of motion the continuum
produces the forms
of actuality we know as the world. Motions of
translation intersect, and at their points of intersection produce rotations, which constitute the primary
points, which aggregate together to produce
so-called material bodies.
225.
Although the motion of the continuum is necessarily
itself continuous, yet it produces within itself by its own translation
rotational motions, which give rise to the phenomenal world of apparently
separate bodies. Bodies, as motion-complexes of the continuum, cannot
actually he separate from each other in any ultimate sense. Every body, as a function of the continuum, is influenced by the motions of the
continuum and thus of all other bodies. No
bodies are completely isolated or insulated from other bodies. All
bodies reciprocally interact within the
continuum, which is the plastic power
substance of their being.
226.
In
the infinite continuum of sentient power, the Godhead
of the theologians, all beings, ÒLive, move and have their being." The reality of
beings is constituted by the functions of this continuum. To identify with this continuum as pure sentience is
to return to the Supreme Self. The
return of absolute sentience to itself is the return of God to God. The return of the relative awareness of man to the infinite sentience is the return of man to God.
227.
The consciousness in man is the sentience of the continuum in
the zone marked by the constituent motions of man's being. This
sentience is, "The light that lights every man that comes into the world," and is man's life force; pure sentient power; consciousness and initiative; God in man; the root of
what dignity man may possess, and the
guarantee of his ultimate return to
the Self of selves.
228.
Resec confers upon man the power to be himself; the power to fulfill the imperative, "Become what thou
art!" the power to see Time as a function of Eternity, and to act in
Time from the essence and form of Eternity.
229.
How are we to gain and retain reflexive self-consciousness?
It can be gained only in an act of will in which the will of the self
returns to itself.
230.
Ordinarily when one looks at an external object or at its
internal correspondent in the mind, one tends, if there is an emotional
charge upon it, to fall into
identification with it.
231.
To a certain degree, identification with an object must
occur if one is to become aware of its special character and significance.
The psyche must assume the form of the object in the act of perceiving
it. Precisely because of this fact is it necessary to free oneself again from
the object in the resec act. For if one does not return from the object to the
self one remains locked in the object and falls under the law governing
the object.
232.
For illustration of this we may look at a man identified
with a given functional concept. A soldier is a man identified with such a concept.
233.
This
concept includes subsidiary concepts, such as obedience
to superiors, freedom from ethical considerations when acting under orders ("Yours not to reason why. Yours but to do and die"), and
so on.
234.
Thus when a man is identified with the soldier concept he
goes under the law governing beings identified with that concept. He therefore
responds to orders from those conceptualized as his superiors, and performs actions,
which as a human being not identified with
the soldier concept, he would be
ethically unable to do.
235.
So likewise with men identified with concepts in other fields
of action; the priest, the king, the politician,
the business man, and so on. Some concepts have universal application; some
have their function only in special fields of action, national,
social, institutional, or individual.
236.
A concept is an idea or general notion arising from a
group of percepts possessing some common factor. A percept may be defined as
a simple act of perception, the presentation of a stimulus, a single
act of a sense organ, its correspondent brain center, and the psyche conjoined
with it. A concept is a group of
perceptual elements held together
by some similar form.
237.
Just as a percept may possess an emotional charge which
inclines the psyche to conjoin with it or not (for a percept is a definite
amount of characterized
energy having a degree of assimilability for
a given organism), so a concept may possess an emotional charge which similarly tends to orientate the psyche towards or away from it.
238.
Concepts, then, as complex formed energy-packets
possessing emotional charges, tend to condition the behavior of the being
identified with
them.
239.
It becomes clear that if we are to retain our freedom, we
must gain the power to release ourselves from identification with conceptual forms. This
power is what we exercise in the act of reflexive self-consciousness, the
return of the Self to the Self.
240.
To gain resec a certain exercise must be practiced, in
principle continuously, in early practice probably intermittently. The exercise
itself is simple. But that is not to say that it is, for man in his usual
orientation, easy. The battle to overcome the inertia of man's established
direction, his general ego-centered attitude, will not be easily fought. Nor
should it be. The prize is too high to he gained easily.
241.
Here is the exercise. When one is looking at something,
or considering an idea or experience, a feeling or emotion, or performing any action, one must say to oneself, "It
is the Self which is consciousness itself which is looking at this thing (or considering
this idea, etc.). This Self I am. I return to
the Self."
242.
On
saying, "It is the Self which is consciousness itself,Ó one must make oneself aware
that the Self is consciousness
itself, awareness, sentience.
243.
When saying, "Looking at this
thing," one must make
oneself aware of a directional flow of attention
from the consciousness to the thing.
244.
On saying, "This
Self I am. I return to the Self,Ó one must focus oneself again on the
consciousness and again become aware of a directional flow of attention,
but now from the thing back to the consciousness-self.
245.
This back-flow of consciousness to the Self is what we mean
by reflexive self-consciousness. It is the key to man's freedom.
246.
To practice resec is to change the whole quality of one's
perception and conception of the world. It is to rescue oneself from
identification with the object-world
and thus from slavery to the law governing
that world. We cannot get lost in things and events of the world or in ideas or emotional states if we are resec. And when we are not lost we have found
ourselves, and the Self of all selves.
247.
The ÔSelf of all SelvesÕ is the Godhead of the theologians; the
light and life of all selves; the Savior of the world from the world. It is
the Para-Brahman of the Hindus; the Absolute of the philosophers;
the center of every enlightened being.
248.
Without resec one is identified with the content of
consciousness, with the things of the world, with ideas of the
mind, with the emotional states of the psyche. One is like a man in a dream
swayed and submerged in a sea of emotions and half-formed images of the
world of phantasy.
249.
When we identify with something, some idea, or some
psychic state, our consciousness, which is the individuated expression of
the sentient continuum of the Absolute, assumes the form of that thing, or idea, or
state. Assuming the form of a thing, the consciousness becomes subject for the
period of the assumption to the law governing that thing.
250.
To break free from the law which
governs the object, one must break identification of consciousness
with the object and return to the Self which sees it.
251.
One may identify with the object, with the subject, or
with both simultaneously. When one identifies only with the object one
goes under the law governing the object, one apparently becomes the object,
acts and reacts like the object. One is enslaved by the object.
252.
When one identifies with the subject only, the object
disappears and only the subject remains. The Self is there with no otherness,
sentience is there, yet as if it were only a potential.
253.
When one identifies simultaneously with both subject and object, both the Self
and its objects exist. Consciousness and its objects appear then as two poles of the Absolute.
254.
But before one can consciously hold oneself in this
polarized state of the Absolute, one must return from
the object to oneself, from oneself to the Self.
255.
There
is a cyclic process of involution and evolution of sentience. Prior to creation, the Infinite Eternal Absolute Sentient Motion or Power is as if it were a mere potentiality (yet only from the point of view of a finite mind trying to perceive
it). For itself it is a pure self-actuating motion, "Without shadow of
turning," pure translation of spirit, infinite and eternal.
256.
But this pure motion, Self-aware Absolute Sentient Power, by its own
essentiality produces within itself (as the
motion of the sea produces waves and
intersections of the waves' vortices) the motion modes which constitute the forms we use as reference points for consciousness and which we
call bodies.
257.
Sentience, in the place of any given motion mode, tends to fall into
identification with it. This is the process of involution of consciousness into
the world of finite bodies.
258.
A finite body is a motion-complex of the Absolute,
sufficiently integrated and compacted to present an appearance to
consciousness of contoured
substantiality. Actually it is a modality of the
infinite motion of the Absolute.
259.
Once consciousness has fallen at any given locus into
identification with the motion-complex or body in that locus, it has fallen
under the law governing
such a motion-complex. It is now conditioned by the motion characteristic of that complex, and reacts to other motions (which now act as stimuli) in a manner determined by its characteristic form. It can now assimilate other motions
only insofar as that motion-complex can do
so.
260.
Consciousness is then bound to that motion-complex and
is affected as we see it in the things around us. In the mineral world it
evidences itself only
in offering resistance to imposed forces. In the vegetable world it expresses
itself in growth processes. In the animal world it expresses itself in instinct and desire-impelled action. In man
it expresses itself in rational thought. In the fully developed human being it
expresses itself in resec.
261.
From the moment of its first fall into object identification, consciousness
experiences, because the object is finited
or limited, a sense of loss of power.
This sense of power-loss is the negative aspect of the awareness of the original level from which consciousness fell, presented together with its actual level. In its positive aspect it is the
seed of dissatisfaction, called
ÔdivineÕ dissatisfaction because it impels beings to strive to transcend
their actual finite being-level and return to
their own proper level in the
Absolute.
262.
The divine dissatisfaction is that which drives us from the
lower levels of being, abstracts our consciousness from object identification, conducts the
evolutionary process of our consciousness, and leads us to resec, the
completion of the involution-evolution cycle of our being.
263.
Consciousness, which is sentient power, of itself free, binds itself in the involutionary process
to forms of motion within and of itself. The sense of loss of
power, the frustration of the will which arises in the finite objectified
state, generates in its negative phase
depression and melancholy. In its positive phase it generates the urge to
escape the limitations of the body with which identification has taken place. This urge to escape expresses itself
in the evolutionary process by the acquisition of ever more complex action capacities, by means of which consciousness seeks to control its
content.
264.
From the Absolute through the relative back to the Absolute;
from the subject through the object back to the subject; from consciousness to its content and back again. This is the involutionary revolutionary
cycle of the Self of the Absolute, and of
man.
265.
The Supreme Self, the original sentient power of the Absolute,
consciousness itself, is freed from its
objects in the moment it reflexes on itself. Being free from its object,
it is free from the law governing those
objects. Being free from the law, all things are possible to it. Here
one says, "I can do all things through Christ," through the Logos God who has completed the cycle of involution-evolution, who was crucified in matter by identification, who rose from the dead state of the object-identified, who ascended again in the reflexive act of his own consciousness to his
source in the Father of all beings,
where he, "Sits at the right hand
of power."
266.
When the Self reflects on itself only and identifies
with nothing else, it is free from everything but itself. No laws of
finite things bind it or constrain it to respond to their being. It is itself only,
self-determined, free.
267.
To gain the capacity to reflex on oneself
at will is to release oneself from bondage to the laws which govern
the things of this world. All real freedom stands in this capacity.
Without resec, freedom is an illusion, and action is merely re-action to stimuli from the
world of things, the world of partials, the un-whole world of separativity and illusory processes.
268.
Either
one is a slave or not. Either one is able to give orders to oneself or not. Not
to be able to give orders to oneself and to be able to
obey them, is to be at the mercy of others.
Happy and fortunate is he who,
being unable to give himself orders, and to obey them, is given the
orders of truth and shown how to obey them
by one who is merciful. As was
Jesus; and Buddha; and Mahavira; and
the Jina; and Lao Tse; and Zarathustra; and Socrates; and others, who have shown the way back to the origin of all
beings.
269.
In his relation with other beings in the time process,
either a man will rule himself or be ruled by others. Self-rule or other rule.
There is no alternative, no escape in this matter from the necessity
of choice.
270.
Is it better to rule oneself, or to be ruled by others? To be
ruled by others may be good, if those who rule know how to and
have the true welfare of the ruled at heart.
271.
Jesus talked of, ÒGood shepherds,Ó and ÒBad shepherds.Ó How many sheep have
the discrimination to know which
shepherds are keeping sheep for the
sake of sheep, which for the sake of their wool and which for the sake
of their flesh?
272.
There are shepherds who keep sheep for their wool, and
the wool is money to buy more sheep for more wool for more money for more sheep for more wool, to
infinity.
273.
Unless we can guarantee the good faith and true intent and
capability of the shepherds, we had better learn to shepherd ourselves.
Self-government is the only really safe government. And
self-government is to be secured only by resec.
274.
Resec
and resec only can save us from the intents and purposes of other beings.
275.
Every
man who in history has been truly called great has had reflexive
self-consciousness. Resec alone has
conferred or ever will confer true greatness on the great.
276.
The truly great man is he who can break through the walls
of mass-inertia which bind the world into ever-identical
recurring patterns of action.
277.
The time-play of finite things which
binds the identified man and blinds
him to the true light of his own ultimate self must be seen for what it is. Then man may
break its tyranny and return to his free Self.
278.
Samson,
when he saw this truth with the eye of his
soul, which the enemy had not put out at Gaza, pulled down the temple, the temple which symbolizes the time-play
which identification has built, and thus returned at last to himself and to his
God, the Self of selves from which he will
not again go forth to lose himself and find himself bound at the mill with slaves.
279.
Mythos tells in parables to the heart what Logos presents in
logic to the intellect, and the senses give partially and serially to the lower mind.
280.
The resec man sees Mythos, Logos and sense data as the
three corners of a triangle having its being in the ultimate reality
of the infinite eternal sentient motion of the Absolute. To gain resec is to gain the mastery of this
triangle and establish one's being in
eternity, from which one will, "Go no more out."
281.
The object-identified man is subject to the law of
serial-presentation in the Time-process. His action is re-action to a
stimulus; and always he is in danger of reacting inadequately, from lack of sufficient data; or too late, from lack of readiness;
or too grossly, from the mass-inertia
of the body with which he is
identified.
282.
The resec man sees simultaneously the events
which the
object-identified man sees serially. The resec man stands at the causal level
of being. Because he sees wholly and not partially, his response is adequate. Because he sees
simultaneously whatever is applicable
to a given situation, his response is immediate. Solomon might have
said, "With all your getting, get
reflexive self –consciousness."
283.
The ultimate reality of the Absolute is infinite eternal
sentient motion. This motion, although itself pure infinite translation,
produces by the mode of its self-relation, the rotatory circumscribing motions which constitute
the finite things of the world, the objects
of perception, the ideas of the mind,
the flux of the emotions.
284.
Because
sentience is infinite it is extended throughout
all space. Whatever motions occur in space
are experienced by sentience as the content of
its consciousness. Wherever a given motion complex
of a rotatory nature is sufficiently integrated
and intense to serve as a relatively permanent
reference point, sentience interprets this
motion-complex as a body or substantial thing.
285.
Wherever
the motion-constituents of a given body are
such as to give rise to the experience of some degree of pleasure, there is a tendency for sentience to identify itself with that body and
strive to keep it in being.
286.
Wherever the motion-complexes of a given body are such
as to give rise to pain or unpleasant emotions, sentience at that point
strives to inhibit those motions. But in the place of such inhibited motions fear
is experienced lest they should break free from the inhibiting forces
imposed upon them. Fear is the trembling arising from the conflict of the
inhibiting forces and the inhibited motion-complexes, causing pain and unpleasant emotions. The unpleasantness of this fear leads sentience to
try to break identification with the
zones in which it is experienced. Such
zones are walled in or encapsulated and constitute the contents of
the so-called sub-conscious.
287.
The totality of such zones of painful and unpleasant
motion-complexes constitutes for the sentience trapped in it, Hell. The
totality of the motion-complexes, which give rise to the experience
of pleasure, is interpreted by the sentience identified
with it as Heaven
288.
The Heaven of the Absolute, however, is the equilibration of all the motions
of infinity.
289.
The Hermetic doctrine says, "As above, so below, as
within, so without." With the difference that Infinity has infinite
assimilation-capacity and response-ability, and the finite has only finite capacity and ability. Hence the necessity of gaining
release from identification with the
finite and returning to the Self in
the Infinite.
290.
At the level of the sentience in object-identified man
the motion-complex serving as his body or center of reference has certain
reaction and assimilation capacities of a finite order.
291.
If the motion-complex constituting his reference center
or body receives stimuli resulting in pleasure, the sentience identified
with that motion-complex, and which he refers to as his own consciousness,
tends to identify with such pleasure and the stimuli producing it.
292.
If the motion-complex receives stimuli resulting in pain or
unpleasant emotion, his consciousness tends to try to reject or inhibit such stimuli and resultants.
293.
Thus
the sentience identified with any given motion-complex
as a center of reference, whether in
man or in any other being, from the particular to the universal, tends to act in similar ways in
similar situations, and thus to involve itself in recurrent behaviour
patterns - the Law of the Persistence
of Error.
294.
The body-identified sentience in a man, therefore, as a
being of finite reaction and assimilation, tends to try to reject or inhibit
stimuli productive of pain or unpleasant emotion, and to identify with and preserve
in being those stimuli resulting in pleasure.
295.
So
a man has his individual Hell and Heaven within himself. Hell is constituted by
motions of inhibited stimuli and their pain
and unpleasant emotion resultants; Heaven by the motions of stimuli and their resultants which are experienced as pleasure.
296.
As long as the "Hell" motions in a man are inhibited
and vibrate within him, he lives with a background of fear that they might break out and invade
consciousness. In fear of this possibility he strives to keep his consciousness
away from them, and place it in those
motion-complexes which give rise to pleasure.
297.
But man as a finite system has only finite energies and
capacities. He tends like all finite systems to lose energy to his surroundings. When his
energies drop below a certain level he has not sufficient to continue the inhibiting process which
has kept his ÔHellÕ motions in subjection. At such times they tend to break out of bondage and invade
his consciousness. Here is the point
of his greatest need for the power to break association with the content
of consciousness. But it is also the time when
he is least able to do it.
298.
It is not a good thing to allow oneself
to fall into bondage. It is a worse thing if, having fallen into it, no attempt is made in the days of
one's strength to get out of it. It is the
worst thing if, having fallen into bondage, and having made no attempt in the days
of one's strength to get out, one finds oneself grown old and too weak to try.
Then one stands in danger of taking one's private Hell with one into the next
world.
299.
Reflexive
self-consciousness confers freedom from object-identification, both with the
pains of private hells, and with the illusory
pleasures of temporary heavens.
300.
The real heaven, the heaven of the Absolute and the resec man, consists in the
equilibration of all powers and all motions.
In this heaven there is no fear that
an inhibited hell will break forth again, for all things have been assimilated, and man has returned to the true Self in freedom and power.
301.
To
become reflexively self-conscious is to become freed from the tyranny of
material reactivity. It is to rise above the level of conditioned reflexes,
above the level of emotional blockages in repressed complexes. It is to become liberated from the mechanics of serial ideation processes. It is to become truly oneself and at one
in intent and essence with the Self of all
selves.
302.
And in becoming oneself, and one in intent and essence with
the Self of all selves, one does not pass into a characterless misunderstood
Nirvana of non-individuated bliss. One becomes what one eternally is, a unique center
in and of the absolute sentient power. In the words of Jesus, "Every man goes into
his own place, and his works follow him."
303.
His
cycle of experience completed, the prodigal son
who drove forth from his Father's house has returned, and sits with his Father at the right hand of power.
END