Spiritual equations
Taking a mathematical approach to the spiritual realm, we seek spiritual equations with which we can express the dynamics of the system we are in. There may be a spiritual calculus which can be used to describe the interactions that is coherent. Just as mathematics described in well-defined symbols large portions of the elements and their interactions in the world around us1, so this spiritual mathematics could challenge much of the flotsam that floats around the central lake, as well as making some of it more accessible to any who are willing to learn the language of such symbols.
This is what I believe forays like the Kabbalah, which I refer to as a spiritual science, are. It is a language, experientially explored, that is more capable of expressing much of the spiritual realm that we encounter and interact with.
We must beware of gaining a false sense of self by believing that any meaningful understanding of this self can be separate from the environment in which it was and is experiencing itself.
Linear designation
Every continuous line has a beginning and an end - assuming no loops, which are a subsection in which the beginning is the same point as the end. To simplify, we look at straight lines first.
There are two ways to designate a straight line:
- by two points, its beginning point & end point;
- by a vector, which has a beginning point - known as the point of origin, an angle from a baseline, and a distance.
The latter expresses the concept of movement in a certain direction indicative of goal & purpose. This movement is essentially linear, and is thus called masculine, or in science, linear momentum. Thus, with power, he continues in a straight line to his goal, ignoring any collateral damage, and not knowing when he has crossed the line, except after the crossing. With discipline, and experience, he can learn to know when to submit and when to advance, and to stop when he has reached his “goal”.
However, that is not the topic of the moment, just note that this now has three aspects, or parts, that can be designated: beginning, middle and end. This partition can be found elsewhere too, as past, present & future, and inside, border & outside. One is also indicative of a three-dimensional space.
This is often reduced further (by the effects of egotism, or narcissism) to a two-dimensional duality of what is inside and what is outside - ignoring the actual reality of the connection between the two. We “awaken to consciousness” already inside the vessel that we call our bodies. Then we begin to garner information through the skin of our vessels regarding the “outside”. This “skin” is essentially defined by our senses. If that outside is exciting, and inviting, and safe, we are likely to respond to it, and open to receive it. If it is not, we are more likely to create a hard shell to protect ourselves from a hostile environment. This produces a binary—us & them—polarised and conflictual way of relating and thinking about the world and ourselves.
In the beginning, on the outside all is unknown, containing the great adventure of life. Is not the Hero’s Journey to venture out into the unknown, and, having overcome all the challenges upon encountering the unknown, return home a hero?
The third, polar fashion is an even more accurate representation of the dynamic of perception. Using sight as the example, our eyes are drawn to look at something. Light travels in a straight line, so what you see is in line with the angle/perspective that you are looking at it from. Thus we have angle and direction (and power). This angle is determined by the choice of the “observer” or participant, through his entanglement.
Line
When we envisage a line, we envisage a form of “linear momentum”, which is a point moving along a specific trajectory (in this case, a straight line). However, to be more accurate, the line is actually a set of points, even though it seems continuous, just as our existence is made up of a set of points, the present moment. This collection we call a line.
Two ways to produce a line:
- As described above
- By moving the background (an old movie trick) for the background gives the context of whatever “story” is occurring in the foreground.
Time
Time is the moving background upon which everything occurs, and in which our lives unfold. We spend much time trying to remain still, for things to remain as they are—even if only for a moment. We practice meditation, to still our minds, so that we can be more prepared for this constant moving background of time in which we exist. Of course, the other option is to try and “move faster than time”, hopefully outrunning one’s destiny. In other words, if I could fore-tell, prophesy, know the future, I could out-smart time. Or if I can avoid my time of “death”—perhaps the prime motivator for prophecy, which has spawned a whole industry whose main thrust is for you to live longer. Thus today we are constantly bombarded by all the ways to extend one’s life and cheat death—by eating supplements, exercising, thinking positive thoughts; from fat-free to oxygen rich and everything inbetween.
However, when it is your time to die, according to the will of the Creator, it will happen, and there is nothing that can save you from that reality.
The truth is that time marches on inexorably—and to stop time would be to stop life! Time is actually necessary for the your life to be experienced. Your narrative unfolds in time… This is how one becomes entangled in the mystery of time which I would call conjugate.
How would you like it to end? Ideally, not in “premature” death, but having achieved your goals, “completed”, so as to say, your life. That you will die is inevitable, but that you may die fulfilled is, for most of us, a laudable goal. The drive to reach the place of fulfilment, of peace, of love, or success, is extremely strong, and entwined with the survival instinct. You become so intimate with you own story, that you “become” the story, losing yourself in it. The drive for immortality now becomes the all-absorbing goal of continuing my story forever (or for as long as possible). Which is absurd—why would you want to continue to live in frustration, in not having achieved much of anything, except to live a long life? There is also the possibility that, although you have not fulfilled your life’s purpose according to your understanding, you might have fulfilled G-d’s purpose for your life.
Now this background upon which your particular life-story unfolds is a background that has a dynamic and a momentum of is its own. You are like a leaf floating on the river, or a feather floating in the air, buffeted by the currents around you. You are born into the background, you will live in it—just like a fish in the sea, unaware of the water that surrounds it— and die in and from it. It is, and you are but just a moment in it.
Thus you can
- Ego: Fight this background. Attempt to bend it to your will.
This is the alpha personality. The big person, who will make his stamp on history. - Submission: Accept this background
This is the one who is disempowered, and submits to his fate. It is also a spiritual position, if taken from a place of humility. - Flow: Merge with it.
This is the one who has engaged in a spiritual quest to find harmony and balance in their lives and with those around them.
Flow
This is the ideal. It is to live as a servant to G-d—or a higher purpose, like to be a better person, to be in service to someone or some worthy, spiritual cause—and to act according to His Will. That sounds so Biblical, doesn’t it? Let’s translate that into the modern vernacular. There are certain fundamental laws and principles of Nature and the Universe that if we don’t obey, or take into account, we will find ourselves in trouble. Try to ignore the law of gravity, etc. Just as there are these physical constraints that form our physical universe, there are similarly laws and constraints regarding the spiritual universe.
What we don’t take into account are those areas that we are unable to measure or unable to perceive or are not even aware of that still continue to affect the system and our lives. This is the question that the Zen koan asks: “What sound does the tree make in the forest when it falls, if there is no-one to hear it?” Put more simply, even though it is unknown, it still can have a huge effect on the outcome. Although we cannot truly ever know this Unknown, we can enter into conscious relating to its presence and its effect.
Think of it from the perspective of a child. As an adult, you know things that the child does not. You are aware of influences and effects and outcomes that the child is not. Hopefully he will in time, but that is not guaranteed.
So it is with us and our Father. This is the scenario we are dealing with at present.
Let us keep the focus on the individual as it is easier to comprehend—and perhaps more useful. Encountering this background through a patchwork collection of interactions, I create my tapestry—which I call my story. This story becomes who I am in the world. This is what I do. This is my name. This is my profession. I am a doctor, worker, employee, president… We differentiate and separate ourselves by our narratives. Do you agree with my version (thesis), or not (antithesis)? If not, can we still be friends (synthesis), even though this makes you a potential threat/challenge to who/what I am and to our relationship as friend/partner.
If I seek conflict, or reject your version, we remain stuck in this perpetual conflict of thesis vs. antithesis. For synthesis is a choice, and often requires an effort of will!
Similar is my relationship with this background. I can submit, which is the synthesis, and, even if not the easiest, the most beneficial in the long term. Alternatively, I can try and fight it. If I lose, I pay the price for rejecting it. If I win, I am successful—but estranged from it, and ultimately from a part of our relationship. Both require that I surround myself with a bastion of others who will benefit from my/our success, or will support me in my constant fight for the reality I (we) have created. Both require us to create and maintain our version of the what is really happening in this background. Inevitably, we build a “system”, a society, in which we can hold onto this narrative, which has in some way benefited me and my supporters. The end result is that you believe so completely in this narrative that you relate to it as if the narrative (and not the actual event) is real. It then becomes an absolute, made of real things that cannot be changed, as my reality, the foundation of my being, relies more and more on this synthetic absolute. It has, in a sense, gained an independent existence. It can even begin to carry its own agenda—fed by my own subtext, of course. Esoterically, it is referred to as an entity.
Wisdom Mantra
This is the Wisdom Mantra:
G-d grant me the Wisdom to change the things I can, to accept the things I cannot, and to know the difference.
This is why it has been called an “ego trip”, as your ego needs to identify (and be nourished) by its own story. The more completely you accept it, the more you begin to fully live it—and thus perpetuate it, so that it does become “real”. Real laws, real prison, real weapons, real killing.
The success of your life’s venture will always depend on how accurate its depiction of reality is.
As mentioned, the most balanced and productive relationship with this background within , which we exist would be to synthesise with it, to “dance” together with it like a surfer riding a wave to the shore. This is called “Being in the Flow”. It is attuning yourself to the current of time you are in. As we often say: “It is not the right time” or “It is time for you to…”, etc. As the I’Ching says: “When the time is right, a word can move mountains, and when the time is not right, an army will not be able to move a boulder.”
Beginning
What do we have? We have the background. We have the point—which we called the “beginning”—that exists somewhere inside this background. This is the only point of reference we have, which we also refer to as “the point of origin”. This is a “static” point, in relation to whatever direction your line is formed. If the line is continuous and coherent—that is, it can be tracked or measured—then we can always find the beginning… But, that point is not real anymore. It happened, and it could take years for you to realise that. And the only place you can realise it from is your present point of awareness—which is the moment you are currently aware of—which constantly changes! The only solution to this conundrum is to enter a state of formlessness and merge, becoming One with this constantly flowing background, like a fish in the water. So that you can dance with the currents of time, holding your self, not your position or your place in the story.
Memories
Like when reading a book, you remember your place so that you can return to that story and continue where you left off. But once you continue, you no longer need the bookmark. To remember every bookmark along the way, returning constantly to this one or that one, would be foolish, seldom allowing you to continue with the story.
These bookmarks, we call memories.
Are these memories that you hold on to even real anymore? Do they not also merge and meld in the flow of time, till what really happened is vague. Even the feelings associated with that event will morph, and become more basic—as in good/bad, pain/pleasure, etc.
For we must remember that history is seldom a true rendering of events and how they unfolded, always being only the stories by the victors and occasionally of the survivors.
Footnotes
Mathematics, based on Greek philosophy, needs two criterion to be able to apply its functionality to the real world. The first is to create a closed environment - that is, one that is not influenced by outside criteria. A necessary requirement that can never be fully realised, as we have no way of knowing about unknown and/or unmeasurable effects. The second is that it must be “static”, at least for the purpose of measurement. ↩︎