Imprints and the Origin of Matrices

As mentioned repeatedly before, the Hermetic myth describes the human mind and related forms close to it as a perceptual-cognitive stream that assumes various stable states under the ordering influence of certain tendencies, aspirations, inclinations developed within it, which are called “matrices” (Heb. “middot”, מידות, Skt. “vasana”, वासना). In other words, a matrix is a special stationary state of the stream of mind in which this stream is minimally dissipated, maximally self-identical, and harmonious.

The inner structure, the regularity of a matrix’s manifestation corresponds to its logos — the principle that limits mind in certain ways. That is, although a matrix is not something that exists independently, not some object, but only a “property” of the stream of mind, its capacity for stable manifestation can be realized in a more or less optimal way, i.e., be more or less close to its logos (which thus represents an abstraction, a hypothetical point of perfection).

If, in the stream of mind, a given matrix is realized in full, such a stream of mind acquires significant integrity and stability, and usually retains its basic properties for a long time — for example, through an entire series of rebirths. In this case one can speak of the appearance of a manifested “standard,” “archetypal” being — an “avatar” of some deity, a “living Buddha,” and, in the case of a destructive matrix, even a “demon in the flesh.”

However, in reality no matrix manifests fully in the stream of mind in all its fullness, and instead, partial activity occurs in the partial activity of a whole series of matrices, and this sum of activities manifests as the set of personalities or subpersonalities of a given being. That is, even when the integration of the stream of mind is significant, when there is a clear dominant personality in it (i.e., a system bound by inner logic and cause-and-effect relations), this personality most often is still “woven” from manifestations of an entire range of matrices of varying degrees of constructiveness.

At the same time, as long as the stream of mind is not localized or ordered by the frame of one or another matrix (or a combination of matrices), it is not capable of clear manifestation or goal-directed activity, or, as they say in the East, it does not produce vritti, energetically significant activity.

Thus, matrices are precisely the tendencies that localize the mind, which are formed under the influence of imprints (Heb. hotemot, חותמות, Skt. “samskar,” संस्कार) created in each stream in the course of its manifested existence.

If one considers manifestation to have a beginning, then the “first samskara” is described as the mind’s initial striving to manifest (or, in theistic descriptions, the desire of God to create the world), and the further process of forming matrices is considered in accordance with one or another theogonic system.

If, however, one considers the manifestation of mind (gilgul, samsara) to be beginningless, then each subsequent matrix (vasana) arises as a result of imprints (samskar) created in a previous incarnation.

In other words, each active manifestation or cognitive act, each of the realized cognitive acts, is accompanied by the emergence of a particular imprint (“hotema,” “samskara”), which, in turn, determines the further tendencies of this stream, its inclination to manifest in a particular matrix in one form or another.

Accordingly, each manifested being, each stream of mind relying on a body, has a set of predispositions created in its previous incarnations or manifestations, which at the level of external conditions of its manifestation are expressed as “external karma,” “sod-ha gimol,” and at the level of its own tendencies — as “affinity” for a given matrix, model, and method of structuring and realization.

From a practical point of view, the formation of particular imprints can occur either as a result of contact between mind and a force bearing signs of a matrix (for example, a deity, its manifestations, attributes, and so on), or as a result of the internal logic of development of a given stream of mind, when some of its previous actions “require,” for their continuation, the attraction of certain forces, qualities, or energies.

Accordingly, when they speak of the “karmic connection” of a given being with certain deities, Traditions, Teachings, and so on, they do not necessarily mean that in “past lives” this being, for example, was a priest of that god or a follower of that Tradition; it is quite possible that the accumulated imprints simply facilitate or tend to organize into certain matrices which, perhaps, had not previously been found in this mind.

Thus, it becomes clear that studying the “relief of mind,” its inclinations, gravitations, and dead ends can be useful from two perspectives: on the one hand, discovering active destructive matrices in it and developing strategies for their inactivation, and on the other, identifying evolutionary vasanas, whose activation will open new prospects for development.