Evolution of consciousness cannot follow a straight line, but rather rises in an ever-ascending and ever-expanding spiral of perspective, awareness and integration...
Have you ever had that experience where, for whatever reason, your attention is drawn towards something, and then, in the next few days, it's all you see, or hear, or pick up on?
Recently, I got in this little trip about spirals, and within this past week, there's been more than enough spiral forms, thoughts, musings and emergences. I began when I was discussing my view of the 'evolution of consciousness'.
I think we learn, cyclically... when we think of cycles, we usually think of the circle or the sine curve (like the biorhythm). But, those are pretty two dimensional, and I look for the third dimension that isn't immediately apparent.
To, me, that's the 'upward' or 'ascending' nature. Hopefully, we're using our experiences, our failures and our successes to learn and grow - to incorporate information so we don't make the same bad choices, or so that we improve ourselves.
Therefore, I have the belief that we are 'ever-ascending and ever-expanding' - in our consciousness, our growth of understanding, and in our process with our own shadows, triggers and core wounds. We remain in the same 'orbit' but continue to rise and expand.
If we are mindful, if we can take the observers mind, then we can look downward, into our past and our cycles and our patterns, and see more clearly what leads to them, where they go, and how we follow them. Each time, it should be easier to see the patterns emerge before we are in their force. Should be...
Recently, I got in this little trip about spirals, and within this past week, there's been more than enough spiral forms, thoughts, musings and emergences. I began when I was discussing my view of the 'evolution of consciousness'.
I think we learn, cyclically... when we think of cycles, we usually think of the circle or the sine curve (like the biorhythm). But, those are pretty two dimensional, and I look for the third dimension that isn't immediately apparent.
To, me, that's the 'upward' or 'ascending' nature. Hopefully, we're using our experiences, our failures and our successes to learn and grow - to incorporate information so we don't make the same bad choices, or so that we improve ourselves.
Therefore, I have the belief that we are 'ever-ascending and ever-expanding' - in our consciousness, our growth of understanding, and in our process with our own shadows, triggers and core wounds. We remain in the same 'orbit' but continue to rise and expand.
If we are mindful, if we can take the observers mind, then we can look downward, into our past and our cycles and our patterns, and see more clearly what leads to them, where they go, and how we follow them. Each time, it should be easier to see the patterns emerge before we are in their force. Should be...
We are not going in circles, we are going upwards.
The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.
Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
The esoteric tradition speaks of a spiral of incarnation. This is why we find the spiral in the philosophical thought from Leonardo Da Vinci to Teilhard de Chardin. In trying to reconcile the ancient cyclical view of time and the current vision of linear time, Teilhard had a very pertinent vision.
He believed that the humanity was evolving along a spiral shape: along the centuries, we always go through the same areas of life, but on the following loop. The same causes producing the same effects, people without memory resume endlessly the same discoveries, the same mistakes, the same records.
However, identity is never complete. One color, one shade, one flavor is enough to change the picture, every age has its colors, flavors and scents. History repeats itself, but not quite the same. It follows the senses of time...
He believed that the humanity was evolving along a spiral shape: along the centuries, we always go through the same areas of life, but on the following loop. The same causes producing the same effects, people without memory resume endlessly the same discoveries, the same mistakes, the same records.
However, identity is never complete. One color, one shade, one flavor is enough to change the picture, every age has its colors, flavors and scents. History repeats itself, but not quite the same. It follows the senses of time...
Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral with rhythms of progress and retrogression, of evolution and dissolution.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
It's a debate, but some Hindu scholars believe we are smack dab in the midst of what’s called the Kali Yuga - the fourth, final and darkest stage of a grand cycle of humanity. This age is marked by vice, greed, violence and superstition.
The Kali Yuga is the most intense, nonspiritual period when mankind is most divorced from his or her higher self, where deceit, duplicity and dishonesty run rampant, and our innate and inherent wisdom and virtue is nearly diminished. Soon, all will be dwindling to zilch until Shiva cracks his third eye and it all starts over again.
Or, until we hit the edge of the spiral, the Omega point, and start again from the Alpha point... cyclical in its entirety.
The Kali Yuga is the most intense, nonspiritual period when mankind is most divorced from his or her higher self, where deceit, duplicity and dishonesty run rampant, and our innate and inherent wisdom and virtue is nearly diminished. Soon, all will be dwindling to zilch until Shiva cracks his third eye and it all starts over again.
Or, until we hit the edge of the spiral, the Omega point, and start again from the Alpha point... cyclical in its entirety.
"In the ascending spiral of evolution each new generation absorbs the experiences of the previous level and expands upon them…This "consciousness expansion" has reached a velocity of evolutionary acceleration at which several transformations occur within the life-span of a single generation.
Because of mankind’s inevitable symbiosis with the mind-manifesting hallucinogens of the ecology on the one hand, and his organic partnership with machines on the other, an increasing number of the inhabitants of this planet live virtually in another world."
Gene Youngblood, theorist of media arts and politics
"In terms of the esoteric sciences, we might say that a human being, like every other unit of life, is a vortex of force, a point of the divine life vibrating in matter at a specific pitch and frequency.
Desire for sensation causes the consciousness to reach outwards from the center to the periphery of the vortex and build its identity around the outer senses where the frictional fires of life are experienced. Through the rotation of successive incarnations, these frictional fires stimulate, sensitive and refine the indwelling life.
To begin with, only the grossest of impacts register on the incarnated aspect of the soul, but over countless incarnations, the consciousness awakens to finer vibrations and sensations, relinquishing its desire for that which is coarser. The ladder of evolution is climbed in this way, consciousness interacting with environment - experiencing and assimilating, reaching a state of satiety and then detaching itself in search of something newer and higher, all the time shifting identity, from one rate of vibration to another. In this way the faculty of mind is developed and the spiraling ladder of consciousness is steadily ascended - a ladder that stretches from the very depths of matter to the very heights of spirit."
Laurence Newey
So, that's what I'm thinking about, those are the patterns I'm seeing, and in looking back, I hope to see where I've risen and expanded. I also hope to push the perspective forward by understanding and anticipating the cycles as they repeat - like the Sutras say:
Heyam Dukhamanagatam (PYS 2:16) - avoid future suffering; those aspects which can be understood in the future in order to prevent suffering that may arise should be understood and respected.
Give thanks and praise!!
Desire for sensation causes the consciousness to reach outwards from the center to the periphery of the vortex and build its identity around the outer senses where the frictional fires of life are experienced. Through the rotation of successive incarnations, these frictional fires stimulate, sensitive and refine the indwelling life.
To begin with, only the grossest of impacts register on the incarnated aspect of the soul, but over countless incarnations, the consciousness awakens to finer vibrations and sensations, relinquishing its desire for that which is coarser. The ladder of evolution is climbed in this way, consciousness interacting with environment - experiencing and assimilating, reaching a state of satiety and then detaching itself in search of something newer and higher, all the time shifting identity, from one rate of vibration to another. In this way the faculty of mind is developed and the spiraling ladder of consciousness is steadily ascended - a ladder that stretches from the very depths of matter to the very heights of spirit."
Laurence Newey
So, that's what I'm thinking about, those are the patterns I'm seeing, and in looking back, I hope to see where I've risen and expanded. I also hope to push the perspective forward by understanding and anticipating the cycles as they repeat - like the Sutras say:
Heyam Dukhamanagatam (PYS 2:16) - avoid future suffering; those aspects which can be understood in the future in order to prevent suffering that may arise should be understood and respected.
Give thanks and praise!!
