Topic started by Star (@ dial0-397.dialin.uic.edu) on Mon Mar 8 00:01:32 EST 2004.
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5.2 PRINCIPLE ROLES

In the terms of modern physics and relativity theory specifically, space and time form a self contained and self consistent medium. Precisely what this medium consists of is not clear. A hundred years ago it was thought of as some type of material, rarefied and certainly different from ordinary matter as we experience it, but matter just the same.

More recent ideas suggest that the continuum is really not material at all but rather more like a network of interconnected events. The interplay of these events gives to the network the sense of material continuity. Some physicists now are even suggesting that consciousness plays some fundamental role in the structure of reality! Even fifty years ago such an idea would have seemed ludicrous. In the science of the nineteenth century it would have been totally unthinkable.

Whatever it may consist of, physics defines this space/time continuum as the four dimensional geometry of the physical universe. The continuum is finite but unbounded, like the surface of a sphere, but with four dimensions. And although defined in physical terms, the continuum includes every type of human experience, including thought. Science, after all, is materialistic and does not admit to anything nonphysical, or if it does, simply says that anything that is not physical is beyond the scope of scientific inquiry. However, the materiality of quantum physics is a strange type of matter, to be sure.

The spatial component of the continuum encompasses three dimensions of extension: which are length, breadth and height. The time component encompasses the fourth dimension of duration, which might be thought of as extension in time.

According to the theory, nothing exists or can exist outside of this space/time continuum. This is because there is simply nothing beyond the finite, unbounded surface of the continuum.

The space/time continuum forms the fabric of physical reality. This can only mean that physical reality is a tangible manifestation of the vibrant activity of the underlying space/time continuum. Furthermore, even though the continuum is defined in physical terms, it encompasses more than what we normally think of as physical. It encompasses all that either does or can exist. This includes your mind, your thinking processes and the many thoughts they produce.

You can not think of anything or imagine anything to be outside of the space/time continuum. Whatever you might think or conceive, the boundary of the space/time continuum expands to include it immediately. Your very process of thinking brings about the expansion. Your process of thinking is part of the space/time continuum.

All that exists is confined to the space/time continuum. From the modern scientific point of view, reality and existence are geometric patterns in the finite but unbounded surface of the space/time continuum. From this description, it is reasonable to suppose, at least for argument's sake, that the space/time continuum represents the physicists' specialized word which corresponds to what I have been here describing as the metastate.

For existence and the metastate are one and the same. The interplay of matter and energy that constitutes the activity of the space/time continuum is one and the same as the conscious activity that is the metastate.

According to modern physics, beyond the space/time continuum nothing does or can exist. There is nowhere and no way for anything to exist beyond the continuum because there is literally no "beyond." Again, we may reasonably suppose, for argument's sake at least, that this concept represents the physicists' way of describing what corresponds to the hyperstate.

I must state here that few physicists, if any, would go so far as to accept the position set forth by the metaphysic of ecstasy regarding the role of consciousness in the overall scheme of things. Yet their explorations of the physical world bear out these assertions consistently. And many scientists are in fact proposing theories of reality that include consciousness in roles that bear striking resemblance to that proposed by the metaphysic of ecstasy.

We need not be very surprised that recent discoveries in physics seem to support the doctrine of consciousness of the metaphysic of ecstasy. For the physical universe is, after all, part of existence, and existence, in the metaphysic of ecstasy, is the thought mode of consciousness.

Unlike orthodox Christianity and all other religions as well, which have always and vehemently opposed the growth of science, knowledge and the free exercise of human intelligence, the metaphysic of ecstasy welcomes them. Of course, the superstition and ignorance of orthodoxy could never withstand the light of intelligence and free inquiry. As their position has become ever more untenable, the Christian churchmen have retreated into ever greater nonsense. They now claim that there is no connection at all between the discoveries of science and their view of reality. They have retreated into blatant and simplistic dualism.

But in the metaphysic of ecstasy there is no separation between what is physical and what is nonphysical. To paraphrase an orthodox cliche: "The way the heavens go is the way to go to heaven." Everything is consistent with everything else. All things work towards realization of the fullness of consciousness.

We may think of space and time in their more generalized meanings as extension and duration. As such they not only describe the parameters of the physical universe but they also formulate the parameters of thought.

In a metaphysical sense we could even assert accurately that thought simply is space and time. Conversely, space and time are thought. Thought only exists in terms of here and not here, which refers to spatial extent, and in terms of now and not now, which refers to temporal duration.

Spatial extension and temporal duration define the dynamic activity of consciousness which I have termed "thought." How this may be extended to include the full range of creative thinking need not detain us here. Kabala details this process for those who care to pursue it. Extension and duration merely serve to reduce the thinking process to its fundamental elements.

The metastate is the thoughts of consciousness. The metastate includes both the physical universe and the nonphysical universes of our own minds. The metastate is the thoughts of consciousness as a whole, or in the universal sense. Your particular mind is the thoughts of consciousness limited to the specific, or in the individual sense.

In the Sanskrit literature what we are here calling the metastate in its universal sense is termed maya. Your individual mind and its thoughts are termed samsara. In Sanskrit the terms maya and samsara precisely correspond to the universal and the individual character of thought. The tangible, actual expressions of the thoughts of consciousness in the universal sense are the multitudinous thoughts of our individual minds. These two aspects of thought do not exist separately.

Many in the west have now adopted oriental spiritual doctrines, or New Age teachings derived from them. As a result, some people mistakenly think that maya and samsara simply mean illusion. They think that maya and samsara just mean that this relative and imperfect world of changing forms and thoughts does not really exist.

This, however, is a grave misunderstanding. It is spiritual monism. What maya and samsara really mean is simply that existence, in both its universal and individual characters, is something that is relative and not absolute.

Thought is something that is both empirical and contingent upon the mind and consciousness that expresses it. Hence, thought is relative and contingent rather than absolute. It does not possess ontological being.

Remember that absolute means the possession of ontological being. If something exists in and of itself and depends upon no other thing for its existence, it has ontological being.

In the metaphysic of ecstasy only consciousness possesses ontological being. The thoughts of consciousness, both in their universal character as the metastate and in their individual character as our minds, depend upon consciousness for their existence.

This is what the illusion of maya and samsara is all about. If you think that the relative world exists apart from consciousness, you have accepted the illusion that the relative world exists independently. It does not. But it does exist.

If you think that the relative world does not really exist at all, then you have just accepted another illusion. This is also the illusion that maya and samsara are all about.

The relative world of experience does exist as the expression and the thought of consciousness. It does not exist as something separate and apart from consciousness. Maya and samsara, the metastate and the mind, are just attempts to describe the mysterious, dynamic activity of consciousness. Existence and experiencing are real. They are part of consciousness.

Because thought is the activity of consciousness in the dynamic state, in a sense thought constitutes the "work" of consciousness becoming aware of itself. Since this is so, we may further describe the hyperstate and the metastate as the potential and the dynamic energy states of consciousness.

When the energy that is consciousness becomes dynamic, consciousness actualizes, or formulates itself. This metaphysical process of taking form, or becoming "concreted," is the psychological metastate of our empirical and contingent existence.

The energy of consciousness when dynamic is thought and mind. When the energy of consciousness is potential and still it is the hyperstate of no thought and no mind.

I want you to understand that we can describe consciousness as energy since it is doing something. Consciousness creates thought, and thought forms the "work" that consciousness performs.

Talking about energy rather than psychology helps to remove much of the nebulousness from trying to understand consciousness. This is one significant way that the metaphysic of ecstasy differs from western psychology. The metaphysic of ecstasy studies and understands different states and levels of consciousness in terms of energy. Understood correctly, the metaphysic of ecstasy sounds more like physics than psychology. But you must remember that the subject matter is consciousness and psychology.

What does the word "psychology" mean anyway? It simply means study of the mind. The metaphysic of ecstasy equates mind and thoughts. Thoughts are the products of the energetic activity of consciousness. Thus, it should be no surprise that we talk about consciousness as energy.

The hyperstate as such, remaining a condition ulterior to existence, represents the potential of consciousness. While the metastate in a sense forms the "stage" within which the drama of consciousness is enacted, the hyperstate forms the "theatre," the field or ground of potential upon which all conscious possibility ultimately rests.

The "drama" of consciousness itself, which we could define as the coming to the awareness of itself by consciousness, forms the realm of true being. This realm of true being encompasses both metastate and hyperstate. For the drama occurs on the stage within the theatre.

We can describe the state of self awareness as the immanent idea. This is the infinite and eternal pattern of all thoughts which are expressed and manifested in the multitudinous phenomena of the metastate.

The immanence, or eternal pattern, is ecstasy. Ecstasy manifests the full realization of the potential of consciousness, which is the energy of the hyperstate, as it is actualized within the dynamic and kinetic energy of the metastate. Ecstasy has been variously called satchitananda and nirvana in the east, and the kingdom in the Christian west.

The changing metastatic thought of consciousness is a creative act of love and joy wherein consciousness recognizes and embraces itself. The finite and temporal expression of the love and joy of consciousness is our personal human experience of life.

From the conscious energy of ecstasy arises the fundamental polarity underlying all of existence and manifesting in all dynamic states of consciousness. I shall refer to this underlying polarity as ideation and form. They are the process of thought (ideation) and the thought itself (form).

You need to understand a subtle distinction here. The process of thinking and the thoughts it produces are not the same thing. Yet they are not different either. Thinking is a process while thoughts are forms, the products of the process. At the same time, however, the process of thinking can not occur without the thoughts that formulate the specific results that the process produces.

You can not think without making a thought. Try it! The very process of thinking is the production of thought and idea. When you think, you make thoughts. Yet, there is a distinction between what you are doing and what results from your doing. Ordinarily, this distinction is easy to make.

For instance, if you sit down to type a letter you engage in activity where the doing is easily separated from the results. Typing produces the letter. But in the activity of thinking the distinction can not be so readily made. Yet it is there, none the less.

In the performance of a play, the actions of the various actors make the play. If no one is out on the stage, no play can happen. You might have the most wonderful script and talented playwright, but until actors perform you do not have a play. The play remains only possible until the actors make it reality on the stage.

No single actor makes the play. Even all the actors together do not make the play. They remain distinct from the play. Their interaction on the stage makes the play. If they do not perform, the play can not occur. The actors and the play are not the same, but they are not different.

Thinking and its thoughts are like the actors and the play. There is no thinking without thoughts. Thinking and thoughts are not the same thing, but they are not different either. We could characterize thinking as the dynamic activity of consciousness and thoughts as the momentary forms that express that dynamic activity.

Ideation and form exist in dynamic tension with each other, like the positive and negative poles of a battery. When the positive and the negative poles of a battery connect, electricity flows and the potential energy of the battery becomes kinetic energy. This kinetic energy may then be utilized. To start your car, for instance.

This is the manner in which all potential energy becomes actualized, including the potential energy of consciousness. For any type of energy potential to actualize a polarity must be established. For as long as the polarity is maintained potential energy can be actualized. If for any reason the polarity is lost, then the dynamic activity ceases. The energy returns to its potential state.

In the Sanskrit literature, Siva and Shakti personify this polarity of the energy that is consciousness in activity. Siva represents ideation, which is consciousness in motion, the process of thought. Shakti represents form, which is the kinetic energy of consciousness in action and the many specific forms that the process of thought produces.

In an abstract sense, ideation is the individualized expression of ecstasy. Ideation embraces the primal thought, the thought that contains all others. This thought is the type, or pattern of thought itself. By this I mean that ideation represents the unexpressed, and hence the unlimited, capacity for thought in whose mould are cast all specific, and hence limited, thoughts. This thought Plato assigned to his realm of archetypal ideas, failing to realize that it is mere abstraction and possesses no reality outside of the specific thoughts that concretize it.

Form shapes ideation. Form shapes the space/time substance of ideation. This is mind as it formulates all specific thoughts in the space/time fabric of reality. Form fashions the energy of thought, which is the metastate. The specific thoughts of the metastate are all the phenomena of existence.

The forceful and dynamic tension between ideation and form gives rise to every single phenomenon of the metastate. Consciousness seeks to create the perfect expression of its potential. But no single expression can possibly contain the fullness of consciousness. Yet in attempting to create the perfect expression consciousness creates a myriad of finite, temporal, knowing and active expressions of itself.

Consciousness seeks to contain itself in its expressions. But it can not be so contained. So by default, consciousness creates a multiplicity of finite forms to express its own infinity. It creates a temporal flow to express its eternity. It creates knowledge to express its omniscience. It creates activity to express its omnipotence. Each individual form represents a fleeting manifestation of consciousness arising out of the potential of the hyperstate into the actuality of the metastate, and then subsiding again into the hyperstate.

The rising and subsiding of forms from the potential of the hyperstate into the actuality of the metastate and back again is called, in the Sanskrit literature, the "dance of Siva." It is the perpetual, creative play of consciousness becoming aware of itself and loving itself. This is the lila of existence, the drama of consciousness.

In the prologue to the fourth Gospel, the author of the Apocalypse makes it clear that what I am here calling ideation and form are coeval. In the Gospel for ideation he uses the term logos and for form the term arche. "In the beginning (arche) was the word (logos)..." We can translate this as, "In the thought is the process of thought."

He also makes it perfectly clear that form becomes, by the energy inherent in the process of thought, the principle of life itself, which irradiates as energy. He describes it specifically as "light." "Through him (referring to logos) all things came into being (referring to arche)..." Further, "in him (logos) was life (arche), and the life was the light of men." In other words, "Through the process of thought all thoughts come to be; in the process of thought is thought, and thought is the energy of life."

The "light," of course, should not be taken to mean physical light only, which is merely its most obvious manifestation. It is the one energy from which differentiate all of the energies of existence. This energy is the creativity of consciousness.

The creativity of consciousness is simply its activity. In its universal aspect this creative energy of the thought process and the multitude of thoughts it produces is called in the New Testament pneuma. In the Sanskrit it is termed prakriti shakti. In both contexts it refers to the metastate.

Thanks to relativity theory and its confirmation by the researches of nuclear physicists, we can confirm that "matter" and "energy" are just two different aspects of the same underlying "stuff." Matter and energy are completely interchangeable with one another according to the formula E=mc2 where E represents energy and m represents matter.

Further, through quantum theory we have come to a growing understanding of the subatomic world that has revealed the intrinsically dynamic nature of what was formerly thought to be lifeless matter. Physicists have discovered that the constituents of atoms, the subatomic particles, are more like dynamic patterns than the isolated entities they were once thought to be. They form integral parts of a totally indivisible network of energy interactions.

These interactions consist of the ceaseless flow of energy. The flow manifests itself as the exchange of "particles." The subatomic world presents itself as the dynamic play by which particles are created and destroyed unceasingly. The subatomic world yields a kaleidoscope of energy patterns, changing without end.

The particle interactions build up what appear to our senses as stable structures. These in turn form our material world. These structures are not static but instead oscillate in rhythmic activity. All matter engages in perpetual motion. The continual cosmic dance of energy that modern physicists observe is testimony to the ancient wisdom of the metaphysic of ecstasy.

After twenty-five hundred years or more, the mind/matter and spirit/body dualism of western thought, first proposed by Parmenides can be laid to rest forever. Mind and matter, spirit and body are now recognized as merely different aspects of the same stuff. /pre>Quantum theory does not identify the underlying "stuff" of reality but simply refers to it as "quantumstuff." Physicists devote their time to observing and describing the various particle interactions that arise from the underlying quantumstuff. They do not hazard more than speculation as to its real nature.

In the light of the metaphysic of ecstasy, you and I may hazard a guess that the nature of the underlying "quantumstuff" is pneuma. Matter and energy are manifestations of the creativity of consciousness. In fact, as I suggested earlier, many physicists already suspect that consciousness and quantumstuff are intimately connected. Some have even made the leap of identifying them as the same phenomenon.

As individualized within each and every human being the creative energy of consciousness is termed in the New Testament parakletos. In Sanskrit it is called the kundalini shakti. The creativity of consciousness as it is individualized within the personality I call the energy body.

What I hope may become apparent to thoughtful and intuitive readers is the resolution of ecstasy, ideation and form into the orthodox Christian trinity of the "Father, Son and Holy Spirit." Orthodoxy, of course, has ascribed this trinity of terms to the nature of the absolute deity. But in so doing, the churchmen totally and thoroughly misunderstand the true significance of the trinity. It refers not to any hypothetical deity.

Of the true nature of the absolute properly understood as the hyperstate we can not speak, as I have pointed out before. The holy trinity of ecstasy, ideation and form, which the orthodox superstitiously attribute to the nature of their anthropomorphic and hypothetical "God," is of the nature of existence. This trinity describes the nature of the metastate, and of man, the energy body, which is its personalized expression.

In the strictly technical sense of intellectually defining and thence describing the nature of an absolute deity, there is really no such thing as theology. What passes as theology amongst the orthodox represents at best psychology. At its worst it is mere superstitious speculation.

By saying this I do not mean to denigrate that which is best and worthy of study in the so-called field of theology. I wish rather to put it into its true perspective as a study of the profound nature of consciousness and the human being, whose psychology is more unfathomable and sacred than western science and religion yet imagine.

Metaphysics studies consciousness and its manifestation, which is the psychic world of human life. All life and all existence is part of this grand drama. Superstition and worship of deities have no place here. They belong to an earlier and immature age and are best left there.

True theology, if we can use such a word, is the personal experience of the fullness of consciousness. This is gnosis and it can be transmitted by no other means than the experience itself. To come to this gnosis is to come to the realization of ecstasy.

The pure consciousness of the hyperstate is termed in the Sanskrit literature purusha. In the Apocalypse it is termed "God," who is referred to also as the "Almighty." Thus, in reality the Christian God, the Almighty, does not refer to deity.

No theological connotations are implied here. Pure consciousness represents the underlying field of potential energy of which every dynamic expression, including the human personality constitutes the living manifestation.

In individuals who experience a glimpse into what lies beyond their ordinary state of conscious awareness there is often developed a feeling of reverence and awe. This feeling is the source of all truly religious sentiment. But I hope it is clear from what I have said so far that there exists nothing whatever that could be called "supernatural" in the conventional meaning and connotation of the word.

In the metaphysic of ecstasy there is no suggestion of a deity somewhere beyond human life and existence to whom worship and adoration are due. Everything manifest and that which is not manifest are aspects of consciousness. All is consciousness. The only "beyond" refers to expanding our awareness of consciousness and deepening our realization of self.

The theological deity of orthodox religion is but a childish fantasy. The God of the Apocalypse is not to be misconstrued as the anthropomorphic deity of the orthodox. According to the metaphysic of ecstasy, it is the epitome of ignorance to imagine that any god oversees his/her creation and vents divine wrath upon it because of violations of divine laws.

The conception of some almighty god venting divine wrath upon sinning humanity is silly. That some deity rewards good behaviour and punishes bad is merely childish. That there is some supernatural entity that human beings must worship and adore, placate and appease is utter nonsense. Even if there were such a deity, what sort of deity would it be that demanded such behaviour and meted out such punishment? Certainly, the human origin of such a concept of god is clearly evident.

Such ideas and other similar concepts represent the apocalyptic "image of the beast." Worshipping gods and placating wrathful deities are really just the ways that we avoid accepting full responsibility for our lives. Such notions are childish substitutes for mom and dad telling us what to do and taking care of us if we please them. They are incompatible with human maturity.

The God of the Apocalypse simply symbolizes consciousness itself. It further symbolizes that underlying unity of the forever concealed, the all-encompassing and all-penetrating hyperstate.

The hyperstate remains concealed only because it is not accessible to comprehension by thought. It remains all-encompassing because it contains within its potential all possibility. It becomes all-penetrating because it is the fertile field upon which and within which every single phenomenon of existence occurs.

Please recall that in the process of the metastate consciousness comes to an awareness of itself. This self consciousness is termed in Sanskrit literature atman. In the Apocalypse self consciousness is termed "Christos," who is also the "lord" and "father." In an earlier age self awareness made its appearance as "mother," as well.

Self consciousness is fully and simultaneously aware of the unseen hyperstatic field of potential and its dynamic metastatic expression. This is the self conscious supreme identity, the ecstasy from which proceed all phenomena, even though it remains nonphenomenal itself.

In a sense, self consciousness contemplates in serene joy and calm stillness the simultaneous enactment of every moment of its metastatic drama on the mental/psychic stage of space/time. All the while it remains totally aware of its fullness. A totally absorbed art lover might contemplate the Mona Lisa while still remaining aware of himself. So, too, the supreme identity contemplates in detached absorption the pleroma of consciousness which is itself.

Self consciousness, Christos, is the first logos or logos endiathetos, the immanent idea, or ecstasy, which corresponds to the ecstatic union of Siva and Shakti: consciousness and its activity. From the division of this ecstatic union into two cosmic lovers seeking one another arises the fundamental polarity of existence.

The fundamental polarity manifests the process of thought producing the phenomena of the metastate. This is the "dance of Siva," the continuous act of cosmic creation known as lila, the drama of consciousness.

The fundamental polarity expresses itself as male and female and the desire that each experiences for the other. This desire is the metastatic expression of ecstasy. It represents the symbolic dance of creative energy wherein ideation and form seek to re-establish the equilibrium of the hyperstate. This is, in the cosmic and metaphysical sense, an impossibility. Once the process of individualization is set into motion, return to the hyperstate is out of the question. Instead, ideation and form balance the dynamic established between them by their separation. The dynamic remains.

In the individual sense, however, it is very possible to extinguish an individual consciousness and submerge into the hyperstate. Many so-called "spiritual" teachings, particulary in the orient, advocate just this annihilation. To many teachings, the highest goal is the extinction of individuality and self consciousness. The metaphysic of ecstasy recognises that a far greater possibility exists: the realization of the fullness of consciousness within the individual. For this realization to occur, individuality must be maintained and cultivated.

This process of balancing the creative dynamic of consciousness takes place on two distinct levels. The first level is that within each personality as a human individuality. The second level is that between two personalities. At each level, both ideation and form manifest themselves symbolically and actually.

The first level gives access to the second. For only in establishing a balanced and harmonic integration within the living personality can the individuality of consciousness attain to the second level of experience. It is only through the second level of experience that consciousness comes to the full realization of ecstasy as the dynamic activity within itself.

In practical terms, this means that the polarity of human sexuality must be maintained and not allowed to subside into a state of androgenous equilibrium. In the metaphysic of ecstasy, human sexuality becomes the only path to the supreme identity. For this realization can come about in no other way than the encounter of two fully sexual human beings, male and female.

Ecstasy can be realized only in the dynamic relationship of fully conscious individuals, man and woman loving each other fully. The supreme identity can be realized only in the union of woman and man, each living in a state of self realization of their own inner fullness!

The instruction book methods of tantra serve to illustrate how to maintain and enhance the sexual polarity necessary for realization of ecstasy. But apart from knowing these various techniques, one's attitude is even more important. All of the techniques in the world are nothing without the right attitude. The appropriate attitude may be described as follows.

You may think of human sexuality as plumbing, or you may think of it as architecture.

If you think of human sexuality in terms of animal instincts, chemistry and psychological needs that went largely unfulfilled during infancy and childhood, then your attitude may be described as plumbing. You may be a marvellous plumber and know how to do all kinds of wonderful things in bed. But you will never become an architect.

If you think that sex is just sex, meaning by this that it is just a recreational alternative to bowling or knitting, you have the plumbing attitude. If think that sex is here just to make babies, you have the plumbing attitude.

You are right! You are correct! Your attitude determines your level of experience. As long as you have the attitude of plumbing, your level of experience will remain plumbing.

Your attitude is in the way of the truth. You have the wrong attitude. To expand your level of experience you must become an architect. You must see human sexuality and human love as inextricably interconnected in a dynamic creative matrix. You must see that this matrix is the very creative energy of consciousness in dynamic expression. If you can begin to make this change in your attitude, then you are on your way to becoming an architect. You are maturing.

The plumber is a technician. He knows his tools and how to use them to keep the plumbing running. On the other hand, the architect thinks like an artist. She uses her tools to create art, not just keep the pipes flowing. The art of being human is what consciousness is all about.

No wonder the intermediate level of the Apocalypse with its doctrine of solitary self conquest sought to subvert this wonderful teaching. For it states in no uncertain terms that personal development can have ultimate meaning and utility only in the context of a male/female love relationship.

Understood in reference to human individuality and the personality, in the Sanskrit literature ideation is termed buddhi and form prakriti. In the Apocalypse these two are termed respectively Iesous (Jesus) and the parakletos. Parakletos/pneuma, the creativity of consciousness in its individual and personal mode, I call the energy body. As I shall discuss the energy body in detail later, we may pass over it for now.

As the "beloved son,"81 Jesus symbolizes ideation in its unlimited aspect. He represents the unformed thought that contains all specific thoughts. He typifies the unspoken "word," in its integrity.

As a unique, and hence specific, individuality self consciousness enters into the drama of existence and life as participant on and within the stage of the energy body. To do so it must abandon its integrity and identity as the unspoken word in order that the word may be spoken. In the process of thought, the unlimited thought must become limited in order to express a specific thought in the matrix, or continuum, of space and time.

Jesus also symbolizes the subtle activities of the mind in general as distinct from its explicit functions. These explicit functions are termed collectively in the Sanskrit manas. This mental distinction is clearly characterized in the Apocalypse by the opposition of the lamb to the beast and its allies: the red dragon and false prophet.

At the beginning of the Apocalypse we learn that the lamb was slain by the beast. This refers to the loss of integrity when self consciousness became individualized. This simply means that the subtle faculties of the mind, specifically insight and intellect, became dormant, while only the elemental, the autonomous and the instinctual functions of the mind remained operative.

This does not refer to any cosmic tragedy but simply to the beginning of the process of becoming personally self conscious. When consciousness becomes individualized it must become limited from the very action of rendering itself specific.

In the initial phases of this long process the evolving individuality does not distinguish itself from the thoughts that it continually creates for the benefit of its own perception and experience. It identifies with them instead. This means that the evolving consciousness does not distinguish itself from the mental world it continually creates around itself.

In this condition, we may go so far as to say that self consciousness itself, understood as the awareness of being an observer and participant distinct from specific experience, is completely missing. In the metaphysic of ecstasy this lack of awareness of self defines the unconscious state. Thus, in the metaphysic of ecstasy unconscious does not mean unaware, as it does in western psychology, but rather unaware of self.

The condition of unconsciousness reflects a degree of self awareness, or rather the lack of such awareness. Thus, according to the metaphysic of ecstasy the mass of humanity at this stage of its general evolution exists in a state of mostly unconscious or semi conscious sleep. Indeed, the whole point of tantric and ecstatic self realization is to wake up out of the sleep and trance states that nearly all of us spend our entire lives in.

You may find it helpful to compare the dream state each of us enters every night. In the dream you forget that it is you who is creating and experiencing the dream. You simply become the dream. It becomes your world and your reality.

The similarity between dreaming and what we call the normal waking state is very similar. In fact, a school of tantra called "Dream Yoga" exploits that very similarity in its methods. By cultivating the ability to dream lucidly, self realization in the waking state is enhanced. If you do not know, lucid dreaming describes the experience of first realizing that you are dreaming and second thereby controlling the course of the dream self consciously.

Ultimately, with the awakening of its subtle faculties, the evolving individuality begins to distinguish itself as separate from the world of experience. It attains the insight that it is more than the experiences that it endures or enjoys. In this first veiled level of realization individuality begins to distinguish itself from its many perceptions and experiences as a perceiving and experiencing entity. It gains the ability to reflect upon itself and recognize itself as a reflective experiencer.

The discrimination between the flow of experience and that which experiences it gives rise to a sense of personal identity and continuity through the constant flux of experiential events. This sense of personal continuity and identity are ego and character respectively. With them individuality begins to build up a personality.

This first veiled realization is brought about by the quickening of the agency of intuitive insight. This is called in the Apocalypse the "first-born from the dead."82

Intuitive insight and integrity are really identical and they are often equated in Sanskrit literature as buddhi. In the Apocalypse they are usually designated separately as the symbols Jesus and the lamb, although the symbol of the lamb is in some cases used interchangeably.

For the sake of completeness, I must note here that in common usage the usual meanings of buddhi, intellect and discrimination, are connoted as specific faculties of the rational operations of the mind. They are used almost interchangeably in the west with the term "thinking." But buddhi does not refer to any limited rational faculty. The rational powers of the mind are, in fact, simply the limited expressions of buddhi.

This fact is sometimes overlooked even in the orient, where one might suppose they ought to know better. Although buddhi does operate as discrimination, in the sense of selecting an appropriate response or course of action to some incoming impression, I think that it is less confusing to translate the word as insight. This is closer to its Sanskrit meaning than the words intellect and discrimination.

The personality and its multiple permutations from one incarnation to another is termed in Sanskrit jiva. In the Apocalypse, the personality is symbolized by its alleged "author," Ioannes (John), who is none other than the "prodigal son." He symbolizes the word as it is spoken. He is now about to transform his metastatic sleepwalk into personal integrity.

For with his full awakening to the realization of himself John, the personality, becomes Jesus the Christ, the integrated personal expression of consciousness. In Sanskrit this self realization is termed moksha and the individual so illuminated jivamukta.

In a technical sense, integrity is never really lost at all. It remains as the "second logos" or the logos prophorikos, the veiled inner essence and identity of the incarnating human personality.

As the personality evolves through ever increasing degrees of awareness of itself, it begins to realize that it has never really left that inner integrity at all. It has only veiled the presence of that integrity behind the phenomena of existence.

Herein lies the significance of the title Apokalypsis, which states quite plainly that the text treats of an unveiling or uncovering. The title and subtitle are: "The Unveiling of John. The unveiling of Jesus the Christ."

Both the incarnating personality and its inner integrity are to be unveiled. The first of its obscuring ignorance, the second of its unseen presence. This is self realization of what is and always is, not the mere revelation of things to come or something to be attained.

As the incarnating being, that is the many personalities and their varied experiences through which the individuality steadily evolves, John symbolizes the "third logos" or the logos phaneros, the manifested or the spoken word. The personality is that congeries of experiences from which are distilled the qualities and the energies required to awaken into full personal expression the realization of self consciousness.

These then are the principle roles of the grand apocalyptic drama. God symbolizes consciousness and more specifically the pure consciousness of the hyperstate. Christos typifies the self in full command of its many psychic powers. Jesus denotes the individuality and its integrity. And finally, John represents the evolving personality.


These appear in the "spirit," or parakletos/pneuma, the energy body, that cosmic stage of human being upon which and within which is enacted the drama of consciousness. In reality these five roles are played by one actor alone. That solitary actor is the individual man or woman awakening in self realization to the fullness of his/her own consciousness

Each human being thus scripts and choreographs and stars. Each life is a unique and never to be repeated performance in the eternal cosmic and personal drama of existence/life.

The many and the one are the same yet different! You and I! We!

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