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FRAGMENTATION OF BEING and the Path Beyond the Void by Kent D. Palmer
copyright 2004 All Rights Reserved. Not for Distribution.
If we understand the core difference between Kafir/Druj and Prophetic forms of unity based on inward male and outward female connections, this does not mean that we fully understand the relationships between the two constellations of meaning. Building on this core difference, these two approaches to reality take very different routes. Our next step is to attempt to understand better how these points of departure end up producing very different trajectories in their systems of thought. The Kafir/Druj constellation ends up with the configuration of differentiated planet signifiers allocated to Sun and Moon, which is extremely asymmetrical; whereas the Prophetic constellation finishes with a symmetrical balancing of old and young Yin and Yang.
Our departure point for approaching these issues is the theory of the unconscious developed by Ignacio Matte Blanco. Matte Blanco has re-analyzed the theory of the unconscious first proposed by Freud using Symbolic Logic and Set Theory. He has found a way of presenting the "logic" of the unconscious in a rigorous way. This means that he has found the basic principles by which the unconscious operates and has isolated them from their manifestations in particular phenomena described by Freud. A good review of Matte-Blanco's theory may be found in the introduction to his latest book, Thinking, Feeling, And Being, given by Eric Raquer and David Tucker. Instead of restating this tutorial here, we will introduce the key concepts as needed as we proceed.
Very generally, though Matte Blanco has made a valuable contribution to psychology by introducing the concepts of symmetry and asymmetry into our understanding of consciousness, he has done this by identifying symmetry with the unconscious and asymmetry with consciousness. His great work has been to show that the "logic" of the unconscious is based on the application of symmetry to infinite sets. By this application of symmetry, the major features of the unconscious identified by Freud are produced, namely:
It is generally recognized that the unconscious has both a personal and impersonal component. Jung introduced the concept of the "collective unconscious" to explain the similarities between mythical expressions and dreams. Matte Blanco does not deal with the implications of this theory of the unconscious for myths at all. However, it is clear that the principle of symmetry has an equally profound explanatory value in relation to mythology. In fact, it is exactly this application which will be put forward in this chapter.
One of the most interesting aspects of Matte Blanco's work is his emphasis on the weirdness of the unconscious as defined by Freud. He points to the fact that what Freud has called his most important discovery, of the unconscious, has not been developed to any great extent by Freud's successors and, in fact, they may be accused of rationalizing the unconscious. Freud clearly thought the unconscious was very strange, and attempted to isolate what made it so strange. He also thought that although it was illogical, it was not totally chaotic and had its own "logic." However, until the work of Matte Blanco, no one had attempted a rigorous formulation of the internal "logic" of the unconscious. The fact that there are many deviant logics that may be formulated is a recent recognition. For instance, some have attempted to isolate the logic of quantum mechanics which is seen to lack the "and" operator. As has been mentioned, this quantum logic has been applied to the Vedas by de Nicolas in attempt to understand the ambiguity between the formulations of difference and sameness between Mithra and Varuna1. The fact that the quantum deviant logic may describe physical reality better than normal Aristotelian logic which invokes the principle of excluded middle, makes it possible to take seriously these other "logics."
The fact that all the phenomena isolated by Freud and attributed to the unconscious may be explained with one or two general principles which form another type of deviant logic is of great interest. Here we will attempt to build upon these insights by applying them in a mythological setting rather than to a completely psychological arena as does Matte Blanco. For us, the principle of symmetry forms not just the core of consciousness, but also the core of intersubjectivity. In fact, this is implicit in the formulation of the principle of symmetry itself. According to that principle of symmetry, every relationship is reversible. Thus the relation "I have an arm" can, in the deviant logic of the unconscious, be reversed to state "My arm has me," which is nonsensical from the point of view of normal logic. But from the point of view of Deleuze and Guattari, it is exactly how "desiring machines" devine the human being. The person is a cluster of desiring machines whose own unity is an illusion. Thus, the desiring machines are the real substrate of the person. The reversal of the normal ownership between the subject and his/her body or body parts reveals this level of desiring machines through what Matte Blanco calls "the calculus of infinite sets." In other words, in the logic of infinite sets, all relations are reflexive, and none are non-reflexive. This causes all sorts of differences between individuals to collapse and the bizarre associations of the unconscious mind to become comprehensible. Taking this same principle and applying it to human individuals means that differences between people in a group also collapse. This reveals what Deleuze and Guattari call the "socius" which is the social level of reality opposite desiring machines. Thus, intersubjectivity, at the level of the collective unconscious, becomes a single thing in which all the individuals in the group become interchangeable and ultimately non-distinguishable. Thus, the collective unconscious is merely the outward application of the principle of symmetry as opposed to the exclusive intrapsychic application. Mythology exploits the application of the principle of symmetry. In mythology, a father stands for all fathers, just as a child stands for all children, and a mother stands for all mothers. In mythology, the character within the drama of the myth becomes a variable into which any one may step. Thus, seen from a certain viewpoint, all relations between people are mythic, and myths merely highlight the symmetrical relations between people.
The key point which needs to be made concerns the relation of the prophetic and Kufr/Druj models to this fundamental symmetry in the intersubjective arena. The main difference between these two approaches to reality is that the prophetic model maintains symmetry, whereas the Kufr/Druj model introduces asymmetry. In the prophetic model, the entire universe is composed of only opposites. These opposites combine in various ways which demonstrate dynamic interchange. The combinations of opposites are abstracted, using the two ideal opposites of Yin and Yang as variables. Into these opposites any other more concrete opposites may be substituted by identifying the Yin and Yang qualities of the opposites themselves. For instance, we have already seen that the first level heuristic has four elements.
Into this heuristic, we may substitute any pair of opposites in order to see what their relations will be. Take the following pairs for example:
TABLE 34
YANG
YIN
INWARD
OUTWARD
< More Basic
MEANING
SENSORY
< Less Basic
All that is necessary is to recognize which is more basic and which component of each pair has the Yang nature, then these opposites may easily be substituted into the matrix of our heuristic.
These particular opposites are identified as crucial by Sidi Ali al-Jamal in the book The Meaning Of Man. In that book, the dynamics of the opposites, given the prophetic model, are explicated with skill and precision through a myriad of examples. The only books which come close to doing the same is the Tao Te Ching and the I Ching from early China. These are our basic reference points for understanding the use of the Prophetic heuristic models. From that reference point, and with a firm grasp of the doctrine of Tawhid (The Rope of Allah), many other remnants of Prophetic heuristic models fall into place to give the outlines of an entire lost science. The attempt to explicate the structure of that lost science must wait, for here we are attempting to elucidate the difference between the lost science and its opposite. Unless we can make that non-nihilistic distinction, then the structure of the lost science is irrelevant for it will merely be converted into a distorted version of Western science and relegated to the occult.
What should be made clear is that the prophetically based heuristic accepts the principle of symmetry and builds on it to allow the qualitative differentiation of the quadrants created by the application of symmetry. Notice that symmetry reverses all relations. This means that any distinction between members of a class collapse. However, as Matte Blanco himself notes, the differentiation of classes themselves are an asymmetrical operation of consciousness. Thus, for anything to exist at all, there must be some asymmetry. The minimal introduction of asymmetry creates a progressive bisection. First, a distinction is made. Then a second distinction is made and applied to each class created by the first distinction. Then a third distinction is made and applied to each subclass . . . and so on. Each distinction is a pair of opposites. When a set of distinctions are made and their opposites permutated, then we get a heuristic at a particular level of complexity. Within the heuristic, there is total symmetry between subsets. The science of opposites describes the dynamics between these subsets that can be differentiated in relation to their diacritical differences in quality and externally by their quantity.
The prophetic approach to existence preserves symmetry with the minimal introduction of asymmetry. The Druj/Kafr approach to existence increases the level of asymmetry. Ordinary logic displays the nominal level of asymmetry necessary for the Kafir/Druj system. This level of asymmetry revolves around the positing of excluded middle. Where the Prophetic system strives to model the middle way, the Kafir/ Druj system goes out of its way to exclude that possibility. In order to do so, it must increase complexity from a binary system to posit a ternary system. As has been noted, chaos occurs when a third is introduced. The opposite of the Prophetic approach is created by giving "reality" to the relationship and constructing a logical trinity. As Matte Blanco rightly points out, ordinary apprehension of reality is based on triadic relations of something, something else and the relation between them. From the point of view of the Principle of Symmetry, the relation has no reality. This is why relations may be reversed with impunity. When the anchors of the relation are merely qualitative differences, this reversal is of no consequence. However, when the anchors are individual entities as bundles of qualities, such reversal can be troubling. By giving reality to the relation and constructing a triangular conceptual set, normal logic produces the web of interrelationships between things in the world.
To understand how the basic template of the Kafir/Druj system is formed, it is only necessary to understand how symmetry applies to triadic relations. It applies by introducing the concept of duality. Duality figures as a primary feature of Category Theory. Category Theory is a transformation of Mathematical Set Theory that concentrates on relations rather than the elements within the set. Notice that in the triadic form of something, something else and the relation there is one relation and two somethings. Category Theory formulates all the aspects of Set Theory in terms of the relations rather than in terms of the somethings, and is thus more elegant. In category theory relations are represented by arrows, and duality is the reversal of all arrows.
Every set of relations has a dual which can be constructed by reversal of arrows. Thus, every triangle has its opposite triangle. In the proto-Indo-European mythic template, this reversal of triangles appears concretely as the differences between the Sun planets and the Moon planets.
The two triangles are produced by the duality operation of Category Theory so that its structure is easily accounted for by the internal structure of Category Theory. This does not account for the content of the signifiers, but only for their formal relations. Yet, it is important to see that the fundamental difference between the prophetic and Kafir/Druj systems of thought are easily explained on the basis of their relation to the principle of symmetry and by the understanding that the Kafir/Druj system introduces more asymmetry than the prophetic model.
We have already studied how the celestial signifiers were used in both of these systems to represent the difference between key elements. It has also been made clear that the forms of unity (internal male and external female) are different. It remains to be understood how the content of the Kafir/Druj system is generated by partitioning the planets between sun and moon and dropping the stars to the background. The key here is the concept of asymmetry. There is a difference between the type of asymmetry introduced in progressive bisection and the type introduced in triadic relations. Triadic relations open up the possibility of one-way connections between things. This is called a partially ordered set (POSET). A set of one-way relations may be circular. One kind of circular partially ordered relations is displayed by the mathematical category GROUP. Both POSETS and GROUPS are very useful in understanding the dynamics of interaction opposites. In both of these examples, the relationship that violates symmetry remains hypothetical and is merely used as a tool for understanding more clearly the dynamics of the opposites. However, when the "relation" becomes hypostatized and designated as real, then a very different state of affairs occurs. What was merely a hypothetical relation becomes an entity itself, and the link between two somethings is turned into a triangle. This triangle, as we have said, must have its dual. Through the two triangles form an overall system of signifiers which take their meaning (mithal) from the system itself. One triangle represents, in the intersubjective milieu, the male principle, and the other represents the female principle. In the male principle triangle, the place of the king is the point of unity for the whole system. In the institution of Indo-European kingship, there are no checks and balances, and the power of the king overwhelms all other relations. The warriors and priests are merely subfunctions of the king as absolute ruler who holds the system of signifiers together by his overwhelming force. On the other hand, in the female principle triangle, it is the principle of outward feminine unity that holds the system together. We have already noted that the warrior is initiated into the use of the feminine principle outside the system. Thus, within the system, there are two forms of unity operating at cross purposes represented by the two triangles. One is unity based on absolute will to power, while the other is unity based on accommodation.
If we represent these two triangles as superimposed, we notice that the point of mediation shifts as we mover from the moon triangle to the sun triangle. These superimposed triangles form an octahedral structure, and stacked octrahedrons form a triple helix in which the mediation continues to shift around the points of the star. We would expect each triangular cross-section of the helix to alternate moon and sun triangles. Each transition represents a different type of initiation. The transition between Saturn and Venus represents the sexual initiation of the king into the powers of the feminine principle. The transition between Mercury twin #1 and Mars represents the initiation into the dynamic clinging that comes with the taming of horses. The transition from Mercury twin #2 and Jupiter represents the initiation into magic. The king combines all three of these initiations, and they form the basis for his absolute power. The unity of the three strands of initiation is the octahedral lattice itself. The significance of each of the signifiers derives from the description of the octahedral lattice. First the twins represent the two somethings which must be differentiated in order for a relationship to be said to exist. That relationship is seen as an outward female unity of accommodation between the two entities. The twins are seen either as twin husbands, twin sons or brothers depending on the type of relationship created (matriarchal or patriarchal). However, for the primordial relationship itself, it does not matter. The relationship is seen as the origin of the relata; or the accommodation between already existent relata; or the principle of exchange between relata. The primordial relationship, when it becomes hypostatized as a separate entity outside the relata, sets up the basic triangular structure by which the octahedral lattice is built. This triangular structure can be build either triangular or octahedral lattices. Both are characterized with triple intertwining braids. In fact, these two type of braids can be combined into a single structure which is tetrahedral on the inside (27 tetrahedrons) and octahedral on the outside (6 octahedrons).
This structure as a whole is represented by the total power of the king which encompasses all three strands. The king is simultaneously the whole and a single braid. The whole has three parts. It has the outward strands represented by the octahedral helix that is Mars. It also has the inward strands represented by the tetrahedral helix that is Jupiter. Indra is the outward structure, and Mithra is the inward structure. Varuna, or Saturn, is the combination of both types of structure into an overarching whole. Thus, the move from the moon triangle to the sun triangle is the move from the atomic structure of relationship entities to a global whole which encompasses all relationships. In occult terminology, this is sometimes called the cosmic atom. The atom is a structure impervious to symmetry which infolds and unfolds but maintains its form based on using asymmetries against each other to build a tensegridity type structure based on the materials provided in Set Theory with Poset and Group category elements. The atom has been described many ways in occult literature. Gerion describes it as the true form of the cross. It has also taken the form of the tree of life in the Khabala. In the tree of life, the tetrahedron core and the octrahedron outer sheaf are combined into a single form with ten nodes and twenty-two relations. Whatever form the atom takes, it is essentially described by the star of David form of the Indo-European mythic center. It is a play of irreversible relations which hold each other apart and create a space or gap in creation that is a bubble holding out against the onslaught of symmetry. Yet this deformation cannot stand against the overwhelming of symmetry. The flaw is, in fact, an illusion and cannot stand.
The prophetic model is, instead, in harmony with the principle of symmetry. It introduces the minimal broken symmetry necessary for the progressive bisection. With this small amount of asymmetry, it produces a model of the dynamic of opposites in creation. Posets and Groups may be used to understand these dynamics, but at no time is a defect in the symmetry created by reifying relations into a third thing and using the asymmetrical relations against each other to create a non-symmetrical structure within the symmetry. This flaw created by the Kufr/Druj system is the basis for all formal-structural systems. The occult focuses on the initial flaw itself and its paradoxical structuring of relationships. Philosophy looks at the same thing and sees the structure of the philosophical categories. The physicist sees the fundamental structures of physics. The general systems theorist sees the formal-structural system. The mathematician sees the basic mathematical structures like Platonic solids. The logician sees the axioms of logical systems. Each observer sees this fundamental flaw in a different way and uses them to his own purposes. From the prophetic perspective, this flaw is an illusion which obscures the true nature of the one reality. It is not that the laws of the unconscious are illogical. It is that logic itself is unnatural. By imposing the structure of logic on the world -- which is the structure of the flaw -- the world is distorted. It is as if the slightly broken symmetry had been used as a towhold to pry open an ever greater play space -- the clearing of Being.
Understanding how this flaw opens up is very important. We might call it the primal emergent event. It is the first "new" thing. Without the flaw, there is only the dynamics of interacting opposites. Bodies are not important prior to the flaw. Bodies are merely locuses of opposites. But after the flaw opens up, bodies become individuals as bundles of attributes. The emphasis shifts from what is embodied, i.e. the attributes to the bearer of the attributes. When the flaw opens up, bodies become opaque and gain their solidity. The difference between essential and accidental attributes first occurs with the opening up of the flaw. Prior to that, everybody is merely the locus of constantly shifting attributes. It is not necessary to identify the stable center with the body because it is the moving attributes that are the center of attention. The moving attributes display the dynamism of the opposites. All eyes are fixed on that dynamic, not on the bodies which are the temporary bearers of those dynamic opposites. When the flaw opens up, the point of interest shifts to the bearer which is the opaque kernel of shifting attributes. The flaw locates the body as bearer by geometrizing it. The geometry of the Greeks was an essential study of bodies in space as geometrical objects. These geometrical objects, like the Platonic solids, are excellent examples of how mutual relations of asymmetry are used against each other to define the solid body as a pure form. It takes a lot of conceptual labor to identify the body which is then associated with an essence associated with noematic nucleus of bundled essential attributes.
Yet, this physicalization of the flaw as opaque body occurred well after the flaw was first opened up by the Indo-European mythic structure. The physicalization occurred when the flaw was projected outward. Prior to that, the flaw was an internal archetypal structure. There, the male and female principles were used against each other in the form of the Sun and Moon triangles as a means of prying open an arena of free play where the dynamic of the opposites could be frozen into a particular static configuration. Relations of dominance and submission were used against each other to open up this free space. In the Moon triangle, the male principle as multiple husbands or children is dominated by the female principle. The male as initiate leaves, and learns dynamic clinging, aphrodisiacs and magic; then returns as the omnipotent king. As king, the male principle becomes dominant. The male principle differentiates into warrior and priest. The warrior maintains the outer boundary while the priest maintains the inward boundary of society. The society is a free space maintained by countervailing tensions between male and female principles and between the differentiated male roles. All women in the Indo-European society have the same role -- external unity -- while the roles of men are differentiated causing "internal separation" between men. This is the root of the class struggle. Men have different classes in Indo-European society which is opposed to the single class of woman -- that of exchange commodity.
The primal Indo-European social group structure embodies the essential structure of the flaw -- counterbalancing asymmetric relations which hold each other at bay by a coordinate set of opposing but counter-balancing stresses. Once the flaw is opened up, then the dynamics of bodies replaces the dynamics of opposites as the center of attention. Bodies, of course, have Being. The Indo-Europeans had to develop the concept of Being to have a way to describe the nature of the opened up flaw. In the flaw, real/unreal, true/untrue, and identity/difference become problematic for the first time. These distinctions become crucial for sorting out what was within the flaw and what was outside. Slowly, these distinctions merged into a single central verbal structure which described the nature of the flaw. Later, this verbal structure was conceptualized and given complete unity. However, even after the creation of conceptual unity, the fundamental dichotomy between hollowness and wholeness remained the central problematic. Was the flaw whole or hollow? This only becomes significant in relation to the flaw. Prior to the flaw, bodies were not the center of attention. Opposites cannot be whole or hollow. Opposites are fleeting qualities constantly alternating on bodies.
It is when our attention shifts to the body that we begin to wonder whether it is whole or hollow. We identify the body/flaw first as the nexus of afluxions, i.e. as an ephemeron. Next, the body is seen as an essence, a bundle of essential attributes or as an eventity, a spacetime interval. As either, we have, for the first time, isolated the body in the flux. The next step is to see the body in relation to the flux and especially to the major reorderings of the gestalt patterns of the flux. A continuing pattern in the flux around a body is identified as an epoch, and the new entities that come into existence when a flux pattern changes is called a novum. Notice that the original creation of the flaw as a "new thing" precipitates multiplication of novelty. The body contains bodies and is contained by other bodies and thus is a holon. Yet, the body is also unique despite its link to a kindness via it's essence. Thus, the body is also an integra. Ultimately, the body is a reflection of the whole that contains it, and so we glimpse its holoidal or holographic nature as a part containing a picture of the whole.
All these views of the body as flaw are valid. But they only apply to the flaw. When the flaw vanishes, they are no longer valid views. We certainly don't need Being any more to describe the nature of the flaw itself because it vanishes completely. Thus, the distortion within symmetric reality is truly an epiphenomenon which, like a flaw in glass, merely distorts our perception of reality. When the distortion is taken out, then our view of reality snaps back into place. Reality is symmetric, and it organizes the play of opposites. The opaque bodies that these opposites play across are not crucial. Rather, it is the dynamic of opposites that are projected across the bodies that is crucial. That dynamic of opposites points back, ever renewed, toward the single source of all causation without distortion.
The ultra logic of symmetry that Matte Blanco associated with the unconscious is the logic of disconnection by which the opposites are held apart in their myriad cris-crossing projected onto the world. The key is to look for the disjunction between each pair of opposites. That disjunction is the symmetry point, and all the symmetry points taken together are an indicator pointing toward the origin of all the opposites in the single source. When the flaw is dissipated, then what appears as dark and murky, i.e. the unconscious, becomes the source of light and clarity. It is really the substance of the flaw that is distorting and causes shadows which are genuinely illusory. We might think of the flaw as the cave of Plato. When we exit the flaw, we see the crystalline world of reality undistorted. The principle of symmetry is the key to moving from the cave into the sunlight. By it, we can catch a glimpse of the undistorted world. This is because in our "unconscious" we still live in that world every day. We approach it when we see the flaw as interpenetration. Yet, when the flaws exits, it is not necessary to see bodies continuing the whole. We instead see the whole directly as the constantly changing configuration of symmetry points indicating ever again the single source. In interpenetration, the emphasis is still on bodies. The flaw is still there even though it has become translucent. We claim that bodies are empty. Emptiness is an antidote to the opacity of bodies which we have projected on them.
Now we return to the concept of symmetry in order to explore, in more detail, the role it plays. The interesting thing about symmetry is that it is a form of change with changelessness. This is what Plato's master Sophist desires. Symmetry is somewhat like the sphere or torus in that they provide infinite paths on a closed finite surface. Thus, the sphere and torus, and other such surfaces, give a curious combination of finitude and infinity in the same figure. Similarly, symmetry provides a curious combination of change with changelessness. When a symmetrical figure is rotated so as to coincide with its original outline in space, a change has occurred, but it results in no change. Symmetrical operations are therefore invisible, unless you catch them in the act. They are changes that result in no change. It is only when some kind of asymmetry is added that the motions can be detected by their altered results. Many times there is just a little asymmetry added, and this is called a broken symmetry. The addition of the asymmetry that results in progressive bisection is just such a broken symmetry. It is not a purely asymmetrical operation, but instead leaves a slight difference in outcome from the results of a purely symmetrical operation. It is just enough to be able to tell the bifurcated states from each other.
As Matte Blanco points out, symmetry does not allow the concepts of space or time to be articulated. Both space and time are asymmetrical. The asymmetry of time is well know and seems only to be violated on a sub-atomic level from a certain theoretical viewpoint. Otherwise, we cannot go back into the past or leap ahead into the future, and time seems to flow in only one direction on the macro scale. From the point of view of symmetry, all times are equal; just as all places are interchangeable. We see symmetry in the relation of the intime realm to the realm of endlesstime. As human beings, we only know the intime realm through our experience. But since all things in the intime realm have opposites, we hypothesize an opposite to it as a whole. This opposite is called the realm of endless time. There is a symmetry between the intime and endlesstime realms. Intime is the arena of process and flux. We hypothesize that in the opposite arena, things would last forever -- there would be no birth or death. This is pure continuity. The out of time would be the opposite of both intime and endlesstime. It is pure discontinuity where there is no cycle of birth and death, nor any endless continuity. Intime and endlesstime share the concept of continuity, either finite or infinite. The out of time is yet again the opposite of both. As the opposite of both, it functions as the separator of pure difference between finitude and infinitude. Thus, the out of time is the ultimate symmetry point between the intime and endlesstime realms. The out of time symmetry is identified with the single source. All the opposites dance around this symmetry point as well as the mirror of the myriad of opposite called endlesstime.
These three modes of experience -- intime, endlesstime, and out of time -- are, in fact, three ways of experiencing the same reality. It is important not to lose track of this fact. In some ways, endlesstime and out of time modes are opposites in that they express either pure continuity or pure discontinuity. But looked at from another direction, it is intime and endlesstime which are opposites, with the out of time forming an interface between these two.
One way to approach the comprehension of this situation is to permutate the binary endlesstime subcomponents (Well and Tree) with the binary intime components (spacetime and timespace). This gives four abodes in which there exist interfaces between intime and endlesstime realms. Spacetime is defined as the three spatial dimensions minus time. It is the four dimensional block of all events seen in terms of relativistic frames of reference. Timespace, on the other hand, is defined in terms of past, present, future and no-where. It is the four dimensional block of all events seen in terms of causality depicted by Minkowaski as intersecting light cones. We know that the four dimensional block is one thing which may either be sent, in terms of causal connections between events or in terms of relativistic transformations, between inertial frames of reference.
Likewise, the well and the tree are two opposite aspects of endless time. The well reveals the sources, or prototypes of things, in the endlesstime realm. Individual intime eventities appear as different kinds because of their unfolding from endlesstime sources. This unfolding from the pearl of homogeneous unity before endlesstime through a hierarchy of sources within the endlesstime realm produces the diversity of kinds within the intime realm. On the other hand, there is another view of the worlds of intime realm in terms of the coherence of the pluriverse. Not only is every eventity coherent itself, i.e. has an essence, but the pluriverse and each of its gestalts has an inner coherence called the proto-gestalt. This inner coherence is the intime manifestation of the tree from endlesstime which is the gathering of bodies toward the after-endlesstime unity signified by the coral stone.
The kinds and implicate orders look different to us from the vantage points of spacetime and timespace. From the point of view of timespace, we are interested in causality. The timespace view of the kinds gives rise to the novum in which kinds emerge. The timespace view of the unfolding implicate order gives rise to the epoch in which intime gestalts change catastrophically from time to time. The spacetime view of kinds stresses their displacement in the pluriverse, while the spacetime view of implicate order focuses instead on spooky action at a distance, such as the Bell theorem where things that have been together continue to act on each other after being separated. The displacement of kinds in space does not rule out there being a similar spooky action at a distance based on origin from the same source form. Rupert Sheldrake has posited just such a "morphic resonance." Actions at a distance act across space time to tie things in the pluriverse together. So the separation of spacetime is countered by a gathering by the influence of the well and the tree from endlesstime acting on intime kinds and implicate order. From the viewpoint of timespace, the pluriverse is a myriad of partially overlapping light cones separated into strands by regions of nowhere in which chains of causality cannot penetrate. We think of causality in terms of actions and reactions among kinds of things. Yet we do not usually think of how kinds originally arise to interact. They may be seen as arising from the nowhere as a novum which then proliferates as separate instances of a kind. When kinds pass into extinction, they return to the nowhere. The kind exhibits interaction with other kinds in timespace. The results of interaction depend on the so-called primary attributes of the kind. The causal chains of timespace may be seen as a unifying web which is broken by the arising and disappearance of kinds from nowhere. These webs of causal interactions between different kinds has an implicate order which is the proto-gestalt underlying the current epoch's gestalt patterning. The proto-gestalt causes segmentation of the multi-kind web of interactions into gestalt epochs.
These abodes are the possible interfaces between the aspects of intime and endlesstime. These abodes exist even after the flaw collapses. They define together the pure symmetry point of the out of time realm.
We note that the novum and epoch which was the halfway house between ephemeron and holoid within the flaw survives here. The other levels of harmony have apparently vanished. This is because the problematic of wholeness and hollowness does not exist outside the flaw. Another shift of focus which is of some interest is from the importance of entities to the importance of kinds. This is attributed to the devaluation of bodies and a shift to focusing on opposites. Entries manifest dialectical opposition, whereas kinds manifest a non-dialectical opposition. Only entities can be seen in conflict, but not kinds. Kinds are, in some sense, isolated from each other. Separate species do not produce offspring. Any hierarchical relations posited between species is purely hypothetical. Instead, different kinds form interdependent ecosystems. Kinds exhibit mutual support despite the completion between individuals of different kinds.
Spacetime has a direct interface with endlesstime externally at the big bang and internally at blackholes. Across these interfaces, the rules of physics no longer apply. Timespace has the same external interface with endlesstime, but internally its interface is the nowhere which separates causal chains in non-overlapping lightcones. Kinds appear from nowhere, and upon extinction, return to the nowhere when all their scattered instances disappear. The scattered instances interact with other kinds of instances and form webs of causality which have their own gestalt patterning. These gestalts periodically undergo catastrophic changes, revealing the intrinsic order of the proto-gestalt beneath the current face of the gestalt. One face of these gestalt changes is the production of emergent levels such as life and consciousness. The fact that one emergent levels builds on the last, even though a profound repatterning has occurred, shows us that a proto-gestalt lies beyond the changing gestalt faces, giving them an inner coherence. Scattered instances of kinds may exhibit morphic resonance, but it is sure from physical experiments that spooky action at a distance is a real phenomenon. Both of these actions at a distance serve to give a coherence across spacetime, making patterning possible. Different kinds, once interacting in close proximity, continue to effect each other, and things of the same kind, although scattered, still exhibit morphic resonance with each other. The difference of kinds arising form nowhere, and the difference of gestalt patterns arising from turns of the proto-gestalt, are balanced by the gathering powers of spooky action at a distance of morphic resonance and Bell's theorem.
At the center of these four abodes is the out of time point of pure symmetry. The four abodes introduce a minimal amount of asymmetry which allows the abodes to be distinguished. However, the abodes are merely different interfaces between in-time and endlesstime and do not introduce a flaw in our perception, thought or action with respect to the pluriverse. We may follow Loy in thinking about life outside the flaw in terms of non-duality. The abodes are merely ways of looking at the non-dual universal nexus or self. Our kind -- human beings -- experience the pluriverse acting within it on beings of other kinds. As such, we live in these abodes. It is interesting to look at the model of Loy which sees non-dual action, perception, and thought arising from the sense of the self. These non-dual aspects of human being interact to produce craving, intention and object.
Now compare this to the life-field theory of D. Tiemersma in "Body Schema and Body Image."2
Both see a three-fold structure unfolding from an undifferentiated center. We immediately suspect that this is the unfolding of the flaw from the point of pure symmetry. The fact that the flaw unfolds from an undifferentiated state can easily be accepted. Both Loy and Tiemersma see two basic stages. Loy calls the first stage the non-dual triangle, whereas Tiemersma looks at it in relation to the lived body. The second stage Loy calls dualistic; whereas Tiemersma calls this the objectifying of the lived body. If we want to understand the unfolding of the flaw, these genetic theories are of great interest. But if instead, we are concerned with seeing existence without the distortion of the flaw, then we must attempt to understand the self or the lived body in terms of the four abodes circling around the point of pure symmetry. The question becomes, how do we translate the abodes into our lived experience. To understand this, we must look at our own experience of the interface of the intime and endlesstime realms.
Instead of positing a threefold structure arising from the undifferentiated, we will trace back the four abodes to major and minor Yin and Yang. That celestial structure of lights addresses the central issues of the four abodes. The first issue is that of the differentiation of sources. Is there one source or many? The one source is the Sun (Major Yang) while the myriad sources are the Stars (Minor Yang). The second issue is whether sources are seen directly as kinds, or indirectly as entities. The indirect vision of entities is expressed in terms of the Yin aspect of things. Are these one entity as represented by the Moon (Major Yin) or many entities interacting as represented by the Planets (Minor Yin). The fourfold Yin and Yang heuristic represents the core of the four abodes. Man has no self when he remains unflawed or returns to the uncarved block. He is a creature of the abodes -- a kind among kinds -- which is special in that he sees the interface between intime and endlesstime as summarized by the fourfold Ying and Yang heuristic. As man moves through the abodes, he sees opposites and experiences the alteration between seeing one source or many and the alteration between seeing kinds or entities, and finally the alteration between seeing all entities as one and seeing the many. Man is the abodes seeing the alteration of the fourfold as he looks at the dynamics of opposites -- this is the alternative to the arising of the threefold structure of the flaw that results in chaos and tarnishes the clarity of existence.
At the level of the fourfold exists the lived body which is non-dual. At the level of the abodes exists duality and the objective body. In the abodes, the difference between human and other kinds becomes a crucial issue. At the level of the fourfold, this issue has not arisen yet. At the level of the fourfold, the issue is the unfolding of the kinds from entities and their separation or gatheredness. Even these issues collapse if one enters the realm of out of time pure symmetry which could be the home of the soul (Arabic = Ruh).
1See MEDITATIONS THROUGH THE RG VEDA
2(see page 340)
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