Stan McDaniel
Yogasayings
1. The subjectmatter will now be indicated.
2. ``Meaning'' is the subjectmatter.
3. We will not speak of ``meaning'' directly. We will, instead, discuss a special expression. This expression is the term ``Equilibrium.''
4. ``Equilibrium,'' as used here, refers to a state of being.
5. By ``state of being'' we mean nothing mysterious, but something quite ordinary, for which we have many expressions in common speech. For example: ``being in pain,'' ``being emotionally agitated,'' ``being in good health.'' These states are experienced by persons. Sometimes the having of such states is called ``consciousness'' (in one of that word's many senses).
6. The expressions ``meaning,'' ``experience,'' ``state of being,'' ``person,'' and ``consciousness'' are not defined. Their meaning depends upon the way they work within a certain system of verbal and non-verbal activities. They cannot be understood adequately by anyone who has not learned to participate in that system. It is within that system that we will develop the sense of ``Equilibrium.''
7. Such system-dependent meaning is not unusual, nor is it limited to words alone. Tools and processes, artifacts and procedures, as well as words, can remain opaque to the understanding when separated from the systems to which they belong.
8. Included in such behavior systems, and often quite important to them, we find special states of being, each belonging only to its own system. Sports such as ski-jumping, sky-diving, and skin-diving provide examples; Even the simple experience of reading a book can hardly be understood apart from ``book.'' And when one thinks of the complex behavior-pattern surrounding an apparently simple thing like a book, it is clear that the experience of reading a book is dependent upon much larger processes and activities for its existence.
9. ``Equilibrium,'' then, refers here to a state of being that cannot be experienced separately from participation in an organized system of behavior of a certain sort. There may be, however, more than one way to organize behavior to bring about Equilibrium. But there will always be a certain relationship among these ways that identifies them as a group. Words, for instance, may or may not be involved. In the present case (this text), obviously, words are present. When we say that Equilibrium is only accessible through certain behavior-systems, we state a common requirement for many sorts of experiences. It is the same requirement that any child must meet in order to learn the language of its culture.
10. The limiting case here is language as a whole. It cannot be explained to anyone who has not experienced it. But to experience it, one must first learn it. And to learn it, one must first be capable of learning it.
11. Language itself is essentially undefinable; but it is experienced. And once the experience of language is present, complicated networks of words grow up around and about this experience: One can talk ``about'' language, almost as though it had a definition.
12. Complicated verbal networks, accompanied by non-verbal behavior patterns, grow up around all of the most basic expressions of language, forming apparent definitions of the experiences such terms denote. But these networks do not give definition to the experiences...they take definition from them.
13. The process of coming to understand any new basic expression, together with the specialized network of words and actions connected with it, is an intrusion into one's language that expands it.
14. Above we use ``intrusion'' and ``expand'' in a simple sense, in the way that learning to play a guitar or row a boat both intrudes into one's old pattern of activity and expands one's relationship to the environment. Such expansion is very common. All learning depends upon it. When one knows how to row a boat, she can cross the river on business that was closed to her before. We speak, as always, of easily (empirically) observable things.
15. Equilibrium is not merely a theoretical state of being, but one that has been experienced by a number of persons.
16. There is evidence that the experience we call here Equilibrium releases great amounts of energy. In speaking of ``energy'' here we mean nothing mysterious, but rather something so simple that its very simplicity often causes it to be overlooked. When we say that the experience of Equilibrium releases energy, we mean that a vast and complicated network of both verbal and non-verbal materials, which have a formal organization, has grown up around and about it. This network is connected with behavior patterns that are clear expenditures of energy, such as the construction of buildings and the singing of songs. One may include the energy that has been expended in preparing this text, and the energy you, the reader, are using in reading it, as part of that fund.
17. The organized network of meanings that is so related to Equilibrium is here identified as religious language.
18. We will call this the broad sense of the expression ``religious language.'' It is the network of words essentially related in an organized way, through behavior, with the experience of Equilibrium. It should be quite clear why nothing more detailed than this can be said here: The network, the experience, and their relation must be learned all together, as a whole. This text, being a verbal device, can constitute only a part of that whole. How much more so is any section of the text! [7,9]
19. A narrower sense of the expression ``religious language'' will be developed later.
20. Some expressions that are an important part of the network of words we are speaking of, and which represent theoretical states of being sometimes confused with Equilibrium, are Those listed below. We do not indicate that all these terms ``mean the same thing.'' They are grouped together because they often serve similar functions, as will be explained in what follows.
21. That states of being such as these are possible is commonly understood as a premise of mysticism, although the ability to reach a state of grace or enter the Kingdom of Heaven has its place also in non-mystical religious traditions.
22. The chief unifying characteristic of such terms in religious language is that they represent one pole of an all-embracing duad, the other pole of which is associated with such terms as:
23. The significance of calling these theoretical states of being ``poles'' is very great. It means they are part of a polar system, and are therefore linked in a special way. Just as the two ends of a rod are nothing without the rod, these poles are nothing without the system of which they are a part. Yet just as there is no rod without ends, there is no religious system in the absence of these poles. We therefore call them the structural axis of religious language.
24. The dynamic axis of religious language is the process by which a person is said to move from one pole of the structural axis to the other.
25. Various terms are associated with the dynamic axis, of which the following are but a few examples:
26. Using the metaphor of a ``path'' and understanding that movement along the path represents the dynamic axis of religious language, we may state one of the fundamental organizational characteristics of the system:
Energy moves along the path in both directions.
27. The path is defined by downward, as well as upward, movement. This idea may be expressed in terms of a cyclical or ``vibratory'' diagram (Figure One).
28. It is very important to understand how the diagram in Figure One is used. It is not used to picture some mystical ``reality.'' It is a partly complete device for showing the characteristic relationships holding among certain elements of religious language. The left-hand arrow represents the path of energy moving from the lower to the upper pole. The right-hand arrow represents energy moving from the upper pole to the lower pole. Since these two movements differ by 180 degrees, they also mark ``poles'' that define the dynamic axis of religious language: the tension in Figure 1 between SALVATION and DAMNATION.
29. Sometimes the same diagram, with the general meanings supplied, is referred to as the cycle of INVOLUTION and EVOLUTION. The upward arrow indicates evolution and the downward arrow indicates involution. The latter is usually associated with ``loss of consciousness,'' and the former with ``gain of consciousness.''
30. In sections 26 and 28, the term ``energy'' is used. What is meant by ``energy'' in this case?
31. The answer to the question in section 30, if discovered on one's own before further reading, has greater impact.
32. It is better not to ask what ``energy'' means here, but to ask instead: ``under what observable conditions are we to understand that energy is moving along this cycle, and in a given direction?''
33. The answer to this formulation of the question is contained in the nature of the ``poles'' -- that is, in the structural axis.
34. These poles represent a set of theoretically alternate states. The dynamic axis represents the process of changing from one state to the other. The character, or essence, of the force involved in this process is therefore a function of the nature of the alternate states. [23]
35. Religious language understands the process that defines the dynamic axis to be a process of change in consciousness. Sometimes the idea of ``change in consciousness'' is thought to be puzzling. This idea is easily illustrated by mentioning (again) simple observables: the difference between hypnosis, sleep, and the waking state; between animals and humans; between the infant and the adult. The religious usage indicated here may or may not include these, but it is more extensive than these. This is more strongly stated in converse: As it appears in religious language, change in the quality of consciousness is defined by movement along the dynamic axis. [14]
36. A suggestive way of expressing the thought of section 35 is:
Only events that are instrumental in changes
in the quality of consciousness have moral
import.
This is because the expression ``moral'' in religious language is organized around the structural axis.
37. A typical example of all this is the story of Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. The transition represented in this story by the eating of the apple is a change in the capacity to know, not merely a change in the quantity of things known. Otherwise, the Serpent might just as well have told Eve about the nature of good and evil. The operation of the faculty of intuitive insight, which is precisely a change in the quality of consciousness, is often represented symbolically as the result of eating a fruit or a seed, or even part of an animal. This sort of change, indeed, reminds us of something we have previously touched upon.
38. This was the idea of the change, in the sense of an expansion, in one's language by the intrusion of a new basic expression, that is, by the recognition of a new pattern of meanings. We indicated then that this involved a change in behavior, at least potentially. [13,14]
39. Ludwig Wittgenstein called such a transition ``the dawning of an aspect.'' Franklin J. Shaw speaks of it as the ``transitional experience'' that brings about ``an enlarged orientation'' through ``higher-order constructions.''
40. We can suggest here the possibility of a continuum, graded from momentary flashes of intuition to a more permanent set of qualitative changes involving wide-reaching behavior change. If we were to call increase in aesthetic sensitivity a change in the quality of consciousness, we might be able to observe many phases of this continuum at once among members of a class in music appreciation, for example.
41. In general, ``consciousness'' as used here is intended to cover a wider area than ``noticing'' or ``awareness.'' A change in consciousness is not merely a change in awareness, or ``noticing something else. '' It is rather noticing something new.
42. When a person recognizes a pattern of meanings that is new in this sense, she does two things: First, she brings her behavior toward the events or objects involved in that pattern under the potential control of her conscious will. Second, she relates the events or objects involved in the pattern to a ``center'' that is sometimes called the ``ego.'' [37.38]
43. For this reason both ``freedom of will'' and a sense of selfhood, or separateness, are associated with The Fall. As the dawning of the knowledge of good and evil, The Fall is a case of recognition, a change in the quality of consciousness. But the ability to become aware of -- and select among -- possible alternate perspectives entails awareness of the finitude of any one of them. Nietszche linked liberation and loneliness, and Descartes attributed error to wrong use of will. The apple is both a blessing and a curse, and the pain it brings nourishes the root of Joy.
44. Responsibility toward one's self is the trait that has been suggested by section 42. This can be painful, since a real change in consciousness entails a real change in behavior; and behavior, as habit, has a physical ``anchor.''
45. Such a trait is called by the biologist C.H. Waddington the ``authority bearing'' and ``authority accepting'' mental function. He proposes that this function, as the internalizing of authority, is a logically necessary condition for the evolution of a socio-genetic system in which behavior is transmitted socially as well as genetically. This he takes to be an evolutionary advance, and links with The Fall. [29]
46. This association of authority with The Fall can be misleading if based upon a Freudian notion of the ``superego'' (dominant father). It is comparable, however, to our later discussion of sacrifice, self-correction, and The Word. [136]
47. Self-responsibility as a trait marking the human stage of evolution is the underlying idea in these lines from a Tibetan text:
Having obtained the difficult to obtain, free, and endowed human body, it would be a cause of regret to fritter life away.
48. It can be illuminating at this point to associate the dynamic element here, as a matter of action, with the expressions ``repentance'' and ``blasphemy.''
49. Repentance is letting in the flow of Truth: Movement upward.
50. Blasphemy is shutting out the flow of Truth: Movement downward.
51. Between the two lies ``choice.''
52. The choice between repentance and blasphemy defines the dynamic axis of religious language.
53. Such choice involves a change in the quality of consciousness as an act of will.
54. We understand that it is the energy of will that moves along the arrows of figure 1. This is how the expression ``will'' is organized with respect to the diagram. [30]
55. What many people refer to as ``will'' is not so at all. Will involves change in the quality of consciousness; a multitude of actions leave things as they are. [36,37]
56. Practice in the exercise of will, letting in the flow of truth, abandoning narrower perspectives -- practice in repentance -- is known as meditation, prayer, ``silence.'' Gurdjieff calls it ``self-remembering.''
57. All such actions affect the ego, the center of consciousness. This accords with much religious and psychoanalytic thought. In Jungian psychology, the relation between ego and the larger ``Self'' determines the quality of consciousness. In Upanishadic thought, Atman reaches out to Brahman. [36] ,[42,44]
58. Changes in the qualitative relationships of the ego have acquired the simple colloquial title of ``Changes.'' This expression conveys the best sense of the character of the action that defines the dynamic axis.
59. Such changes define the Teleology of the Soul.
60. These changes can be accumulative: As the stream of individual acts takes on pattern, consistency, and resonance, the ego ``moves.'' The overall pervasive quality of life changes. And the changes have a direction. They aim for one sort of thing and away from another. With attention and guidance, one can observe these qualitative teleological changes and experience a sense of their direction. [40]
61. Refusal to observe these qualitative differences and patterns; denial that there exists any direction in which the soul can move; repudiation of the possibility that any such energy exists -- this is blasphemy. Blasphemy ignores qualitative differences in life; all direction is understood in quantitative terms only. Changes in mere quantity of experience are mistakenly perceived as qualitative. Thus experience is impoverished.
62. The direction of change defines the nature of the poles of the structural axis. Note that we do not define the poles independently of the dynamic. [34]
63. That which so changes has been traditionally understood as something in an intermediate state.
64. In the Chinese scripture, the I Ching, it is represented as ``Man'' in the threefold division EARTH -``MAN''- HEAVEN (Figure Two). (In this division "Man" is placed in quotes because here it does not refer narrowly to gender, but to the condition of human embodiment, male and female alike.)
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Figure 2. "Man" as the Intermediate Term |
65. Sometimes it is named as the midpoint in the series
66. All three are phases of a wider ``consciousness'' understood as broadly as ``life'' might be. But the middle phase is itself called ``conscious.'' This forms a narrower sense of the term, derived from the predominance of the ego-center in this phase. It is a good idea to remember this ambiguity of the expression ``consciousness.'' Section 64 associates the narrower, intermediate sense with ``Man'' (in its sense as "humankind.")
67. The idea of a defining condition of humankind, in which humanity is understood to be at an intermediate point in the ``drama of salvation,'' is a recurrent religious theme. The defining condition is always a certain ability to know and to value, a sort of cognitive teleological impetus, logically presupposed by the notion of self-responsibility, and covered in a very general way by the expression ``moral.'' [36], [47]
68. Moral evaluation is cognitive, in that it is referred to a goal (teleological), and non-cognitive, in that it is felt in terms of misery, suffering, exaltation. [43]
69. This peculiar moral sensibility of humanity is commonly represented by the heart. High spiritual feelings are associated with the heart, as well as the ``black-heartedness'' of the fiend.
70. In Zen Buddhism we find the concept of Hsin (``shin''), which can be translated either ``mind'' or ``heart.'' Alan Watts says of this:
Hsin means the totality of our psychic functioning,
and more specifically, the center of that functioning,
which is associated with the central point of the upper
body."
71. Such a ``center of psychic functioning,'' associated with moral sensibility and the heart, relates to the ``center of consciousness,'' associated with acts of will, in the way in which moral quality is related to freedom in our language.
72. An expression of this general theme is to be found in the ``three of swords'' card of the Kabalistic Tarot. This card, which depicts a red heart pierced by three swords against a stormy background, represents the conscious advent of the sacred desire to know the body of God.
73. It is also a common religious device to distinguish three levels within persons, again with the heart as the center: BODY, HEART, MIND. The heart is at the balance-point between the cognitive faculty (head) and the pleasure-pain faculty (thighs) (Figure 3).
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Figure 3. "Heart" as Intermediate |
74. The heart, as the center, is also dynamic. It is associated with compassion, and is generally the symbol of the human being as one who desires God. The desire for God has as its complementary notion the desire for Satan. Knowledge of the one involves knowledge of the other. [43]
75. Empoedocles conceives of ``Love'' and ``Hate'' as opposing forces that move to and fro between unity and diversity (Figure Four).
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Figure 4. Desire as the Dynamic |
76. It is a premise of yoga that intense desire for union with God is a condition for advancement. There must be a ``great love'' for the aim. A Rosicrucian text tells of a youth who asks his master what he must do to become wise, and is answered by being held under water until he is nearly drowned; When he recovers from this experience, his teacher points out that in order to become wise he must desire wisdom with the same intensity with which, moments before, he desired air to breathe.
77. In the Rig-Veda this precept takes the following form: ``Thereafter rose desire in the beginning: desire, the primal seed and germ of spirit.''
78. And therefore is Eve also named ``Desire.'' [37], [67]
79. If we combine the cyclical polarity of figures 1 and 4 with the three-layered concept of figures 2 and 3, we obtain an interesting hybrid, shown in figure 5. This arrangement emphasizes the vibratory, ``push-pull'' nature of the central (intermediate) level.
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Figure 5. Union of Levels and Dynamic |
80. Figure 5 gives an organization of terms within the context of a polar energy-system divided into three levels. It does not yield synonymity of terms, merely organization of terms.
81. It should be clear that while the organization of the terms depends upon the logical character of the system, the meaning of the terms depends upon the content of the system...that is, upon the nature of the energy in the system.
82. This energy has been associated with ``Man.'' [64]
83. When ``Man'' is known, the meaning of the terms becomes known. [81]
84. When ``Man'' is not known, the organization of the terms is separated from their meaning, and reinterpreted in terms of quantitative, rather than qualitative, cultural phenomena. [61]
85. When the entire nature of the teleological system is hidden, the meaning given to the terms is derived from localized, personal teleologies belonging to the limited ego-center or persona, at the level of the primary cultural life predominant. [57]
86. How is it possible to hide the nature of the system? -- When behavior that can produce consistent experience of the central energy of the system is inhibited by social means.
87. To do this, society must restrict perspectives, and especially prohibit practices that encourage free choice of viewpoint, change, experiment, and spontaneous intuition. [41]
88. In other words, society must inhibit the processes of self-evaluation. [67]
89. In the resulting absence of coherent relationship to changes in the quality of consciousness, the child can neither experience the flow of truth, nor conceptualize it. Then an entirely false use of religious terms arises, when parents teach them to their children in what are really morally empty circumstances. In this way people become confused; they think they understand these terms, but they do not. And nothing arises to show them they do not. [9], [13], [81]
90. The difference between these two levels of understanding is that between the esoteric and the exoteric.
91. We are, therefore, speaking esoterically: that is, the meaning of the terms we use is drawn from the nature of such things as self-responsibility, repentance, prayer, Love, Will, desire for God, and so on, when they are experienced as part of a certain system -- the Teleology of the Soul.
92. Essential Atheism rejects absolutely the validity of the polar model as an interpretation of experience. It denies that there can be any polarization, or qualitative movement, of consciousness -- any depth.
93. Essential Atheism shuts out the flow of truth; thereby it blasphemes. It denies that life has a ``vertical'' dimension; thereby it blasphemes. It ignores spiritual pressures, so that its idea of ``progress'' is material rather than spiritual. As a result, the ego is isolated from the larger self and made incomprehensible. Then ``freedom'' means only ``chance'' and spontaneity is shunned as chaos. This results from ignorance of the heart. [79]
94. When Truth whispers, one's heart must listen. When Truth demands, one's heart must speak. Essential Atheism refuses to listen, so it cannot speak.
95. To learn the language, one must listen; and to listen, one must learn the language. [10], [17]
96. But there is one area of activity that in its ideal form cannot refuse to foster freedom of perspective, and which has a built-in requirement for vertical progress. This area is defined as Science.
97. Science in its best form depends upon systematized means for maintaining conscious flexibility of perspective through self-correction. Science seeks to know itself in order to improve itself. In recent times it has under pressure of this requirement discovered that to know itself, it must know the nature of the investigator. But the investigator is the person. To know itself, Science must know the person. It is to be expected, then, that scientific language and religious language would eventually converge. [45], [83]
98. Science, to be Science, must engage the quality as well as the quantity of experience...without this, it is not complete.
99. Science, therefore, in its essence, cannot blaspheme.
100. The Listeners and the Scientists are One.
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