Freedom from Unity
Whatever the final goal of the development of the mind is called — enlightenment, liberation, full realization — it includes the search for and identification with the “higher” level of being/mind — the Monad, Brahman, God, Dharmadhatu.
In any case, an indispensable stage of this development is a clear understanding, indeed not merely an understanding but a — a vision or experience — of the unity of all that is, both manifested and unmanifested, within this supreme reality.
This experience is usually a very powerful, inspiring transformative force, propelling the mind beyond its limited horizons.
Nevertheless, the feeling of unconditional unity, interpenetration and interconnectedness of all things that a developing consciousness experiences may be the manifestation of three different levels of awareness. The Magus first encounters this sensation as early as the stage of Practitioner. This degree, governed by the Sephira Netzach and the planetary principle of Venus, foreshadows the Unity underlying multiplicity. The subsequent insights into oneness are reflections of Binah and, ultimately, Keter.
In practice, it is experienced as the breath of the Great Mother of Worlds — Binah. And this sensation, striking in its depth and all-encompassing nature, is often taken as the ultimate reality.
It is in Binah that many mystics and advocates of nonduality drew their inspiration.
And in this, of course, lies a certain danger — a developmental block. By renouncing duality, the Magus can easily become a slave to monism. Instead of integrating the Binahic, what occurs in this case is the absolutizing of one of its poles and negating the other, and the unity that is then perceived as the “ultimate” reality is in fact merely a denial of multiplicity. In practice we can observe such a “fall into unity” fairly often, and it proves to be a significant impediment to development.
By asserting Unity, such a consciousness rejects diversity, failing to see that the higher One, the true integrality (Keter), is not required to be singular, and can manifest as both integrality and differentiation.
In general, the notion of freedom is so important on the Way of the Magus that it can confidently be called the beginning and the end of that Way. However, this freedom must be complete, including freedom from freedom, freedom from existence and freedom from non-existence.
Even without actually reaching levels of mind that lie above the Abyss, the Magus can and must perceive not only this higher reality of the Tree of Life but also the Ineffable beyond its limits. And then it becomes obvious to him that above the sphere of Binah’s Unity there still lies the sphere of Individuality, Chokmah, the Great Father, and it is this Great Father who beholds himself in the Mirror of the Great Mother. Casting off, layer by layer, the distorted layers of his mind, ascending ever higher (or, which is the same, deeper and deeper) into himself, the Magus approaches that limit beyond which all restraints fall away, every constraint and every conditioning are destroyed. And he understands that the two Faces — the Transcendent and the Immanent, Mind and Being — are manifestations of that which is equally free from duality and from monism, from unity and from multiplicity, from existence and from non-existence.
However, at the level of Manifested Being, as the saying goes, “God has no eyes other than those of people,” and that which is above every reality manifests at this relative, phenomenal level as a grand dance, a symphony of the cosmos, in which unity and multiplicity interpenetrate and complement one another.
How can consciousness move in the Great Void without having ‘limitations’? How can it form a direction, from what will it ‘push off’, how to express this ‘co’ knowledge? A ball in one (and not only in one) toy bounces off ‘limitations’, obtaining the necessary vector, the necessary direction. The ‘limitation’ here sets the ‘direction’. And the ‘direction’, again, can lead to freedom from directions and limitations.)
I once read this article, but I do not know what I took from it. And now I wonder what attracted me to it again. I think, I think… Perhaps it is that I always see keter, pleroma as an endpoint, and therefore as a point… and my demons insisted that there is no end, there is just a continuous wheel. It’s a complex article because I have nothing to push off from in this direction. So what hooked me… hm.
The first thing that came to mind is the holography of the arcana, i.e., each of the major arcana contains these 22 arcana within itself. And in a sense, this confuses the cards (if viewed not vectorially from 0 – The Fool to 22 the World), although it explains how an arcana can become multiplicity, and multiplicity can become one arcana (one Great Secret). But while the vector of The Fool exists, it moves through the 22 arcana. “Keter resides in Malkut, – this aphorism says, – and Malkut – in Keter, but in another way.” Here one can ponder on the level of ideas (here someone has already advised me to change the idea, discarding bins))). Keter is a shuffled deck of arcana face down)) we take it out, turn it over, and there is the fool)), and then the magician, the high priestess… and then the last card turns over and is put back in the deck and again Keter. An unsuccessful example; it’s hard to define where Malkut is – as if it is the deck. Oh, more precisely one arcana from the deck… more precisely the first arcana)) Alright, it’s better to base it on the tree. “…In the unity of Keter, countless separate objects of Malkut reside as potential possibilities within undivided unity, and in the diversity of Malkut, the higher unity of Keter resides as the ‘object’ encompassing all other objects…” And all this is formed into a deck of cards… oh, into an Idea. So how to exit the tree, from the Idea? After all, someone draws cards in the invisible space, someone holds the deck, someone can hold both the deck and fill the invisible space with something else.
Now we have to unite the article, the comments to this article, and the comments to the article “Choice of Reality”. First, one needs to implement the vector – to reach unity – to a pure idea (orleg?), which contains a potential multitude – to expand oneself, to realize small streams. Partly I can imagine unity in multiplicity. The earth, as a point, which contains all objects,… the body, which feels its cells. But trying to present this as something global in consciousness (as described in the article), I hit a dead end. No, this is not the end… this is a transition, this is annihilation, an abyss. I cannot represent it. And however powerful my psychocosmos may be – it has its limits. In short – I raise my hands. However, if I start seeing everyone as glowing balls, does that mean my physical form will disappear? From my perspective – yes, from the perspective of those around me – no (some will see me in the body, some as a wave)))) And I thought that with the change in vision, the physical form changes for others as well)) “…And those who see do not perceive the physical world are still in the physical world))…” “After the sun sets, when everything sinks into complete darkness – surrounding objects, trees, bushes, cars, houses, walls, interior items, and even one’s own hands will dissolve into solid black, what will remain then?..”
Of course, this is somewhat off-topic, but it is easier for me when I write down, when someone can see what I do not. When I meditated on the 13th arcana, such an image came to me (sorry for my simple language description) “The 13th arcana turned out to be quite positive. No hint of death. Wonderful green fields, a river, a marvelous paradise landscape, and a snow-white horse of gigantic size, on which you feel joy and lightness, so much so that it takes your breath away. And where are the corpses, cemeteries, skeletons, gloom, and decay – my consciousness asked feverishly, and remembering that I did not look down at my feet, I assumed that it was there. And then the hellish curiosity kicked in, which can even fetch the dead. Here it wasn’t just about contemplation, but something on the edge of sleep and waking with a request to “look down at your feet” to get to the right place, and through some absurdity with a strange reality, a paradise for cubists, where I managed to fall along with the plane (yes, shoot my psyche), and the figure in black with scissors (which wanted to operate on my heart) for some reason I perceived as Urd, looking astonished as to what she was doing here, not from this opera at all, yet I still managed to get to where I needed. However, a letdown awaited me here – the reality was drawn, though multi-layered (like in scenes – the sun is separate, bushes are separate, but flat). Still, I calmed down because I was on the horse and high. And in front of me sat a skeleton in a cloak and with a crown. This did not suit me… How so! For the first time I was alone sitting…(no, I didn’t get rid of it). I understand that I need to somehow get into the image, but I have no idea how. And this rider turns around and shows me its snake-like tongue. I also did the same thing. In any case, I didn’t even know I had tendencies toward necrophilia… And here I am going alone. Though naked, I decided it was necessary. And everything seems great, I achieved what I wanted, but I had to ask the beaten philosophical question at that moment, “Who am I?” And the logic was simply stunning “my skeleton is not my skeleton, it was recently in front of me, if the skeleton is not mine, then the skin is not mine either, and in general, I am not me…” The sensations from this are stunning – decomposition. In the end, I am simply thrown out, and with my attention, I find myself staring at my face, from which skin falls off and grows back, and the culmination was that the heads became two, one alive, the other dead (if the second one had a jaw, it would have fallen off). And only at that moment came the realization “look down”. Oh yes, finally I saw the long-awaited nothing. A black abyss, smooth like a path, over which a horse was gently stepping. Here I sit and think, how did I get here…” After this arcana I shifted to the Fool arcana and in reality “look down at your feet” meant being in the moment now. I won’t describe the experience fully, but the climax was when I went into the woods to take pictures of trees, I walked, looking to find something to photograph, and then I lowered my eyes. And on my sneaker sits a little beauty – a butterfly)) I was delighted, like a child)) experiencing this moment. It is needless to say that I dedicated my amateur photo session to what is beneath our feet… flowers, pebbles, feathers) …but this black abyss… Can one move not through it, but along it?
…In general, for some time now, there has been a persistent feeling that the ‘faces’, the facial side, of Tarot cards – do not exist, the deck is empty, not painted, by definition. The ‘person’ that ‘paints’ it, gives it color, weight, and meaning is the questioner, that is, the person laying out those cards – the Personality. It’s the same as the focus of attention: what the gaze rests upon is what exists for you at that moment. Again: the gaze – and the reflection.
Hello Master! What do you think is the nature of curiosity? On one hand, it’s a driver of development, but on the other, it’s also a test of luck. The outcome is not always predictable, and pioneers always take more risks.
Hello. There is a difference between curiosity and inquisitiveness. Inquisitiveness is the desire to know oneself and the world, that is – to move along the path of logical development of consciousness. Curiosity, on the other hand, is more related to idleness: it’s the random focusing of attention on things that are actually neither interesting nor important, just ‘presented.’ Thus, instead of knowledge, a disjointed set of impressions and information accumulates, which lacks both direction and impulse for development.