Theos-Talk Archives (April 1998 Message tt00442)

April 21 1998

CIRCLE Vs SPIRAL

Linearity or sphericity are ways of conveying meaning. Physical
bodies cannot escape linearity, although they live in a volume.
Nor can they escape time.

As to "meaning." If we can define what we are at the core of our
"BEING" we would probably find out that the unlimited and
times=less universe is our habitat -- we are the mysterious
CIRCLE, whose center is everywhere and center nowhere.

Speaking however as an embodied mind, and using the tools of
perception I am presently endowed with, I seek to extend them -
hypothetically - no doubt, to other regions.

I may choose dreams, sleep, trance, NDE, and the idea of
Reincarnation -- I know perfectly well that this personality an
its mind and work "vanishes" except as "memory" when this body
"dies." But what happens to all the impressions I have left on
the area around me ? Or the people that I have met and discussed
things with ?

Theosophy speaks of the great UNITY, it also speaks of the fact
that Nature is totally interactive. Hence Karma. It speaks to
the idea that we are spiritual beings who incarnate (as HIGHER
SELF, perhaps) into bodies of temporary flesh, so that the
"life-atoms" as well as the developing mind-intelligence that we
are, and the myriads of intelligences, which are themselves
struggling to improve their individual intelligence, may have a
basis for sanity and progress. It is a brotherhood where beings
of many degrees come together for their joint progress and
living.

This sounds like self-sacrifice. It also sounds like coercion or
slavery in some ways. It also sounds as though the agglomeration
of life-atoms received a gift from a superior intelligence that
comes and dwells among them, for their benefit.

So many points of view.

But what we are also discussing, I think, is the idea that
activity is followed by a rest period, Sleep follows a day's
work. Death follows life, a Pralaya follows a Manvantara, and so
on -- is this linearity only ? I think not, because if the
whole is involved, you get motion of a kind which includes
rotation, linearity, expansion, contraction, and stability. What
shall we learn from this ? Chaos ? Or is it Cosmos ?

I would say there appear to be rules and laws of universal
progress and behavior which cause the periodical rolling out of
the Universes, and then their withdrawal. So we have Life and
death, Sleeping and Waking.

And do not our own minds do the same ?

I am as puzzled as you are, perhaps, but I do feel sure that
there are rules and regulations which operate for all. And if
so, then, starting arbitrarily at any one point we can think back
to some node of place or time where a "cause" made for the
'beginning' we may be looking for . The "present" is evident,
and the "future" may be surmised to be a combination of all
factors. Is this not linearity ?

But we know that no straight line exists in the Universe and so
one may speculate about a return -- and yet, time has elapsed,
motion continues for the whole, so how would it be possible for
an exact return of any chosen UNIT to a specified location. How
would one go about specifying a location anyhow ? In what terms
?

To our too physical minds the wheels within wheels idea leads us
bewildered and confused. WE know we ARE, and we know WE HAVE
BEEN ( we remember it well !) and we hope for us there will be a
FUTURE -- but this does not solve our problem really.

 Best wishes. Dallas

>From: "Jerry Schueler" <gschueler@netgsi.com>
>Date: Tuesday, April 21, 1998 1:50 PM
>Subject: Re:The "Eternal Present: and KARMA

>>
>>CIRCLE or SPIRAL ?
>>
>>As an analogy, try putting a disc instead of a propeller onto
>>your outboard motor when you need to go boating. Only the
spiral
>>created by the propeller will drive the boat forward in both
time
>>and space. ...
>>
>> Dallas.
>>
>
>Yes, but the spiral/propeller cannot get you out of space time,
only
>through it.
>
>The idea of a circle rather than a spiral is not an original
invention
>of mine. Virtually all mystics for centuries have said that
spiritual
>enlightenment is like discovering your "original face" or that
you,
>the wandering pilgrim, never really left at all or that you
return to
>the same pint from which you started (ie to the ONE), etc.
>
>The notion of a spiral, as far as I know (please correct me if I
am
>wrong) is a Theosophical invention based on the idea of eternal
>progress--which is to say, it answers the question of why are we
>doing all this reincarnating anyway? The philosophical problem
>with it is that spirals are basically linear in that that have
to start
>and end somewhere, while a circle is endless and beginningless.
>
>Jerry S.
>
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