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More Letters to DaddyClick on the title below
Dissapative Structures
Divine Humor
Colors and the Web
Blending East & West
Reflections
On Desirelessness
Holographic Universe
On Divine Humor
Dear Daddy,
I have been toying with the
idea that the paradoxes are examples of divine humor. The
statement then becomes, "Life is a cosmic joke. Did you
get it?"
I think that the
dissipative structure theory has similarities to the Law of
Sacrifice, which is depicted most intensely in the cross and
resurrection. The idea that we must ultimately give up what we
know as "reality" or some "form" that we
are attached to in order to open ourselves up to the
possibility of "restructuring on a higher level of
consciousness" seems to be at least partially applicable.
The cross and resurrection could be in some ways an enactment
of the theory of dissipative structures. A famous man said,
"God becomes and disbecomes." And then there is one
definition of sacrifice...to make sacred.
I have also been looking at
what is meant by Divine or Cosmic Law. The Eastern philosophies
speak of them often.
"A law is but the
effect of the continued intelligent activity of the Life aspect
as it works in conjunction with matter." (the Tibetan)
"Law rules throughout
the universe, a Law which is not intelligent but
Intelligence."
When we work with cosmic
law, we are in touch with and responding to Divine Mind.
Awareness and cooperation with the laws puts us in line with
and in service of The Plan. It has been said that one does not
break cosmic law, but that we frequently fling ourselves upon
it and must then deal with the consequences.
I really have enjoyed
looking into The Bhagavad-Gita. What a beautiful little book.
In it, Krishna (the Christ figure in the story) has been
explaining to Arjuna what He (God) really is. Arjuna is
inspired, listening intently, trying to comprehend, devoted.
Arjuna finally says, "Yes, I see, I love you Krishna! Show
me your power and glory and majesty face to face. I am
ready!" (Arjuna is a warrior) So Krishna agrees and
reveals His true form, and it scares the dickens out of Arjuna.
He finally begs Krishna to go back to His cloaked more human
form because he can't take the intensity of God revealed. It is
so funny how we so often think that we would like to see God
face to face, and yet if we did it would scare the *#@?! out of
us. It reminds me of standing on the top of a mountain pass and
being so inspired and thrilled and thinking, "This is so
magnificent! I am ready to see God face to face right now in
all His power and glory! I can take it! Reveal Yourself to me!
Bring it on!" And then within moments a storm rolls in and
sends you scurrying down the mountain chanting, "I respect
the power of the mountain!" And you head for a place where
the awesome power and intensity won't be quite so much to
handle. You flee back to a "more manageable
position". If that is not divine humor, I don't know what
is.
Love, Lisa
On The Holographic Universe
Dear Daddy,
Thanks for your response. I
enjoy the interaction. I do not pretend to understand these
theories fully, so inevitably there will be questions that I
cannot answer. But I will do my best. I only listened to a tape
with some introduction to dissipative structures, and the tape
was really about the Holographic Universe theory. However, I do
know that Prikoshein's book (one of them at least) is called
"On Being and Becoming" and he is something of a
modern day mystic. Should be some interesting reading...I will
have to put it on my list and get back to you on that. As far
as the atomic bomb example goes, I feel certain that there must
be a lot of restructuring that takes place during and after the
explosion. After reading "The Tao of Physics" I can
only vaguely imagine some of what the patterns of the
restructuring energy must involve...you remember all the little
interactions of the sub-subatomic particles. Perhaps the new
more complex resulting structure is just out of the realm of
our comprehension or accessibility. It is possible that he
addresses that in the book...I don't know. Of course, then
there would be the study of all the resulting shifts in energy
and environment after an explosion, and I guess that might be
revealing, though it certainly is a horrifying thought. I am
not at all sure. I have a tendency to think that if I do not
understand the analogies it is from a lack of my own ability to
cognize more than an infallibility on the part of the theory
and theorist. However, we realize that any model is just
that... a model. That it will not totally "define" or
"reveal" absolute truth is a given. There will always
be a more comprehensive theory to follow it, and perhaps
disprove it or encompass it. That is evolution of
consciousness, and I suspect we will never reach the apex of
that climb, eh?? Another possibility that I entertain when I'm
not "getting the picture" is that I am being too
microscopic or limited in my approach. For example, yes,
civilizations have broken down and dissolved, yet something
evolved out of them and went on, as you pointed out. Perhaps I
need a more comprehensive/macrocosmic view of the
"structure". Perhaps the structure that I thought I
was considering is really just the perturbation?? It should
have applications "across scale" though. It
fractals...as does everything. However, the idea that energy
moves to a higher, more subtle "pure level" (as you
suggested about the atomic explosion) is one of the premises of
the Holographic Universe theory.
David Bohm is the theorist
on this one, but he says that he is not really proposing
anything new...that it has all been said by the ancient wisdom
of the mystics and the sages (sounds like Tao of Physics
again). He just interprets it into the modern day language and
format of physics. He was a renowned physicist and protegee of
Einstien. He was killed several years ago in a car accident. I
have enjoyed some tapes of dialogues between him and other
scientists and some with Kristnamurti. (Kristnamurti is another
one who talks about the "space between
thoughts"...how do we do that indeed!) He and Kristnamurti
are both big believers in dialogue as a great avenue of
understanding. They say that the formulation and enunciation
and reception of the thoughtforms for exchange helps to clarify
and modify one's system of thought...isn't that the Socratic
method of teaching? (I guess that's what we are doing here,
eh?)
The basic idea that I have
gotten so far from this theory is that each part is a
reflection of the Whole, and that the whole may be found within
each part. Sounds like we are back to the
microcosmic/macrocosmic relationship, doesn't it? He says that
the universe is like a hologram. So, in order to understand
what that means, we need to have some idea of the components
and structure of a hologram. I have read several explanations,
and I do not pretend to understand this fully, but here is
something of the idea.
One guy uses the analogy of
a pizza pan full of water. You drop three pebbles into the
water and you have the ability to freeze the water instantly so
that the pattern of the ripples is frozen into the ice. The
interaction of the ripple patterns creates information that can
be reconstructed...there is a uniform behavior that gives you
information about how the pebbles were dropped into the pan.
Then you can take the ice out of the pan and break it into a
bunch of pieces and each piece will contain enough information
about the total picture to reconstruct it.
To construct a hologram you
need two beams of light. (lasers) One beam will bounce off the
object that you want as a hologram, and the other beam will
shine directly onto the special photographic plate or film. The
interference patterns of those two light sources will interact
on the plate. They swirl around and do not look like anything
in particular if you are looking at the plate. If, however, you
shine a laser beam through the plate of film, the object will
be reproduced in the 3-dimensional form of a hologram. And
further more, if you tear the plate apart and shine the beam of
light through any of the pieces, the whole object can be
reproduced. So, in essence, it is all vibrations, and the
"reading" of those vibrations by the light source.
And each part contains the patterns for the whole picture.
So you have these "two
levels of reality" in the universe. You have the object
being portrayed... things that we see, what the materialists
consider to be the only reality, or matter. This Bohm calls the
explicate order. And you have the "patterns on the
photographic film", or those patterns that appear
nonsensical or are not readily visible but which contain the
pictures. This underlying level of reality is a deeper order of
existence, says Bohm... a vast, more primary level that gives
birth to all the objects and appearances in the physical world
just like the film gives birth to the hologram. This he calls
the implicate order (or the order that is hidden). There is a
constant enfolding/unfolding process going on between these two
levels. Under the reality that we see and experience daily,
there is a deeper reality that generates it.
On the quantum physics
level (which was Bohm's field of work), do you remember the
controversy about the particle/wave paradox? (sometimes it has
the properties of a particle, and sometimes the properties of a
wave...or you are looking at a particle, and then it disappears
and starts acting like a wave, and then reappears again as a
particle) Bohm says that the particle does not disappear but is
just enfolded back into the deeper order from which it sprang,
and then is unfolded again in the constant dance. He calls this
enfolding/unfolding process holomovement.
Einstein said that space
and time are not separate, but part of the space-time
continuum. Bohm says that everything is part of a continuum.
Ultimately even the implicate/explicate orders blend into one
another and into one unbroken, enormous "thing"
extending into the countless varieties of existence. Even the
implicate order in all it's vastness is not the end of things,
but there are other orders beyond it...infinite stages of
further, more subtle development. We have "relatively
independent subtotalities" which are the result of eddies
and whirlpools of the inner reality.
Since every piece holds the
whole picture, if we know how to access it, the entire cosmos
lies within every cell. Life and intelligence are present in
not only matter, but in space, time, energy, the fabric of the
universe, and the holomovement. Every region of space is
"awash" with different kinds of fields composed of
waves of varying lengths. Each wave has some energy. Space is
filled with light and electromagnetic waves that criss-cross
and interfere with each other. All particles are waves, so all
objects and everything else is composed of interference
patterns.
Our brains mathematically
reconstruct reality by interpreting frequencies that are
ultimately projections from the deeper order of existence that
is beyond both time and space. The brain is a hologram enfolded
in a holographic universe. Or, it could be expressed with the
analogy that the brain is like the laser beam that shines
through the film to interpret the patterns. As it turns out,
you can preserve the interference patterns of more than one
hologram on the same film by using various different angles of
projection of the laser beams. Therefore, depending on the
direction and frequency of the beam that you send through the
film, a different hologram will appear. So consciousness
literally becomes the co-creator of the reality portrayed
depending upon its "angle of perception". That is
totally in line with relativity theory.
So this does not mean that
if I am looking at a tree, it is not really there. The tree is
there on multidimensional levels. It just means that I am
seeing a "cross-section" of the tree depending on the
level of consciousness that I am tuned into. If the brain is a
decoder of sorts, then it can be tuned to different states or
frequencies of consciousness, and I will see different levels
of "tree reality" depending upon which one I'm on.
Therefore, mind contributes to the phenomenon of reality
itself, not just to the knowledge of it. We can study the
effects of the levels of consciousness and experiment with them
thereby becoming more aware and "conscious"
multidimensionally. Prayer and meditation are examples of
avenues of that.
Consciousness itself is an
example of undivided, flowing movement. The ebb and flow of it
is not precisely definable, but it can be seen as a deeper,
more fundamental reality out of which our thoughts and ideas
unfold. Thoughts and ideas are like ripples, eddies and
whirlpools...some will reoccur or persist in a more or less
stable way while others vanish as fast as they appear. Some
vortexes of thought can be extremely stable and even resistant
to change. If someone challenges these thought patterns we may
react like addicts and throw up all kinds of barriers of
resistance, thereby blocking our potential for access to and
interaction with the flowing whole.
I think the idea of
"looking at the space between thoughts" is contained
here. It has something to do with getting in touch with a level
of reality that is beyond thought and the decoding process, and
yet which encompasses it at the same time. It is beyond time
and space and interpretation. It is the level of Oneness and
Union with the Whole. It is beyond even the deciphering of what
that means, and moves to the actual realization and experience
of it. Either the Buddhists or the yoga sutras (I don't
remember which...maybe both) talk about getting in touch with
the detached observer...that perspective which is beyond the
"emersion" in that which is being observed. It is a
more comprehensive, objective perspective. We are one with the
Source of it all and therefore have access if we will just tune
in to the right frequency is one way of looking at it. Another
way would be to go beyond the attempt of tuning at all...to
that which is beyond tuning. The experience of it is completely
discernible, as nebulous as it may sound, and one KNOWS when he
has been touched by IT, even if that touch seems ever so brief.
Krishnamurti says that as soon as we realize we are
experiencing it we have a tendency to lose the awareness
because we start thinking about how to hold on to it. As far as
what one is looking for...I would have to say it is the purest,
most reachable awareness of the presence of God, beyond the
limitations of our thought-models of Him/It.
The implications are
infinite here. I guess you can see why it took me so long to
write this letter. There is much more, but that's enough for
now.
Love Lisa
(July 5,1994)
On Desirelessness
Dear Daddy,
I had been intending to
organize my thoughts on desirelessness, so I thought I would do
it in a letter to you. I think that the problem that we
westerners have with this idea is that we have a tendency to
equate it with apathy. As I understand it, that is not at all
what it is supposed to mean. All of the books that I have
studied on the Yoga Sutras (which are Hindu-oriented as you
said) have been filled with pages and pages of aspirations
toward goodness and perfection "as your father in heaven
is perfect". They are filled with resolution and steps
toward getting in touch with yourself as spirit, getting in
line with God's plan, understanding your part, getting over
obstacles that keep you from being who you mean to be, and
getting on with the thoughts and actions that put you in
rapport and communion with God and His work. Sounds far from
apathetic to me! Yet desirelessness seem to be integral to the
process and therefore worth looking into and trying to grasp
what is meant by it.
It seems to have to do with
balance and stillness. A "Be still and know that I am
God" kind of thing. There is a metaphor about how the
"emotional body" is like a body of water. When it is
still it is very clear and all that is "above" it can
be reflected with great clarity and beauty on its surface. But
when it is agitated by a movement of some kind, the surface
becomes clouded and the reflection is distorted and less
comprehensible. Desire seems to be something like the wind that
blows across the water and disrupts its ability to reflect with
purity and clarity. The "picture from above" is lost
in the ripples, and the surface of the water takes on the
characteristics of the waves themselves instead of the
reflection.
This seems to be a good
analogy when we think of our thoughts and feelings as waves of
energy. What if all of life and perception is really vibration
or energy of one kind or another. "In the beginning was
the Word...and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life, and that life was the light of
men."--both sound and light are vibration or a form of
energy, and Einstein proved that matter and energy are the same
in different form. Obviously we affect and even control the
energy that is available to us through our thoughts and
feelings, and our perception of reality and our health are
literally molded or "shrouded" or "colored"
by them. I think the idea of desirelessness has to do with the
idea that if the "currents" of the thoughts and
emotions were still, then the "reflection of God"
that we are meant to be would be clearer, purer, and more
"present with us."
When we desire something,
there is movement, and a sense that everything that we need is
not already present.( And then there is the idea that all of
what we think are our "needs" are really distortions
of our need for God anyway.) Whether what we desire is
"good" or "bad", it still sets up a
distortion and the "surface of the water takes on the
characteristics of the waves instead of the
reflection."
This is certainly not to
say that we shouldn't think or feel, but I think maybe it has
to do with the idea that if we are receptive enough that
higher, more perceptive thoughts and feelings will have an
opportunity to filter down into our lives from God that
otherwise would go unnoticed if we were caught up in our desire
currents. And then the water will be able to reflect and catch
the glimmer of those. The still, small voice (also referred to
as the Voice of the Silence) is all to often lost in the clamor
of our desires, and all the games we play to fulfill them.
This is so disgustingly
clear and illustrated by my Christmas holidays. The
"things" that I desired were not bad. I wanted happy
family time with the boys, help and companionship from Jim, and
some sort of a religious experience for them and for me. But
the more I wanted it, the more they rebelled and resisted or
were oblivious. I let the currents of those unfulfilled desires
make me depressed and disillusioned and keep me from really
perceiving anything of value for days. As soon as I let go of
it and got on with life I was fine, but I wasted much of my
holiday in the process. I hope that I can remember to be more
"desireless" this year.
I think it has to do with
balance, and peace with where we are. We realize that we are
not perfect, yet we trust God and with all the comings and
goings and cycles and evolutions. We do the next thing in faith
and with whatever insight we have. None of this is alien to you
or your beliefs. I have heard you say it all before, but
perhaps the semantics just got in the way. It seems perhaps to
mean the same things. It also smells of the same fragrance as
dethroning oneself to let God and God's "currents"
take over one's life, and that surely has a familiar ring.
Anyway, I have been reading
"The Fire Within" to see how I might be able to
relate and find some commonalties that reach beyond the
semantics of it. Amazingly enough, they were there... but
that's a different letter. Love to you both, and to Grandmama.
Love, Lisa
(January 22, 1994)
Reflections
Dear Daddy,
More wandering on the back
nine. There were lots of dragonflies out there today. They were
a million beautiful iridescent colors of blue, green and
purple. In animal totem medicine they speak of magic and
elementals, fairies and that level where we create our own
reality. I watched them over a little water hole, darting and
gossamer.
The egrets were out in
flocks, too, flying silently up the pass over the pond. The
light from the low, early morning sun catches their white wings
and speaks of peace and purity and angel wings, and colors them
ever so slightly with a peachy caste. And the red-winged
blackbird flies by with a flash of red and a beautiful song.
I have also been reading
MINDFULLNESS: THE PATH TO THE DEATHLESS. I wrote the Buddhist
group in Dallas and they sent it to me. I am enjoying it. Dane
turned me on to it. It seems to have some valuable hints for
"the space between thoughts", as well as soothing the
inner conflict we all seem to feel at least occasionally. (I am
feeling it repeatedly and strongly with my 6th period class!)
I had been recently struck
by a sentence in a commentary on THE BHAGAVAD GITA..."I am
certain that by devotion to God I shall attain Nirvana through
the illumination granted by His grace." Grace is a gift,
and yet we will never receive it unless we are looking for
it...preparing the ground in some way. It is somewhat like
looking for the "ether" (the energy bodies) around
birds and trees. Unless you learn to "shift your
eyes" you will never see it. And unless you desire to see
it, and believe it to be a part of your "reality",
even the possibility is absent, and you don't even know that
you are missing it. (or care, perhaps) But it is a lot to miss!
In a tape that I was listening to today, Ravi Ravindra
(professor of religion and physics at a university in Canada)
was speaking about the power of "the name" of
God...the "I AM" that occurs in the burning bush and
that Jesus refers to. He proposed the idea that within that
name resides the intersection of time and timelessness, and
that to move toward understanding the true meaning of that name
was the path to union. He proposes the idea that this is what
Jesus was referring to when he said, "I am the way."
translated as "I AM is the way." An interesting
hypotheses, and worthy of some thought.
I think that the
illumination of grace is an effect of that power and therefore
could be thought of as an experience of that same intersection.
I think that also that intersection is the "thing that we
are looking for in the space between thoughts", and also
the key to understanding "nonbeing" or "beyond
being" that is referred to in Nirvana. Some food for
thought. I am so much enjoying my study of the Gita. More
later. I love you.
Love, Lisa
(Sept. 19, 1994)